Indholdsfortegnelse for November 2013 i Car and Driver

Sic your dogs on us at: editors@caranddriver.com or join the discussion at: backfires.caranddriver.com POPULARITY BREEDS CONTEMPT Did someone mess up and stick your cover on an issue of Popular Mechanics? TOM BERNDTLAGUNA NIGUEL, CALIFORNIA A BORING TALE From time to time, car magazines have been chastised for watering down their criticism of the vehicles they write about in order to avoid offending advertisers. Car and Driver had largely escaped such complaints … until now. In the August issue, you describe the machine being used to bury a Seattle freeway as "the largest and most exciting boring machine on Earth" ["Drill, Baby, Drill!"]. Come on, C/D, there is no way a machine can be "exciting" and "boring." Clearly, you're trying to avoid offending manufacturers of giant earth-moving equipment that…

FAUX 'FUSER A functional diffuser requires a flat underbody and a low ride height, attributes not often found on mainstream cars. The diffuser you get on, say, a Kia Forte Koup is just for looks. The same principleS that loft a 618-ton Airbus into the sky also keep a Formula 1 race car glued to the track. Downforce is lift inverted, the net result of the pressure differential between the air flowing over and under a front splitter, a front or rear wing, or an entire car body. In a modern Formula 1 car, the diffuser can contribute more than 1000 pounds of downforce. The problem is that this extra stick also raises aerodynamic drag, so engineers have to balance their need for cornering grip and stability against their car's…

OVER THE DECADES, a few Porsches have pumped me blind with endorphins, including my own 1974 911S Targa that I comprehensively blew up in Sylvania, Ohio. But none more electrified me than the three King Kong 935s raced by the John Paul father-son team in the early '80s. They were the outlandish and outlaw-ish creations of the "old pirate," as Paul Sr. was known for his black-bearded scowl and for the 100 tons of marijuana he smuggled into the U.S. in his yachts and shrimp boats. The Pauls' first famous 935 was the JLP-2, which began life as a Kremer K3 customer car in 1979. Paul Sr. painted it baby blue and yellow, though it might better have sported a skull-and-crossbones motif. "We really modified that car," recalls Paul Jr.,…

P.J. O'ROURKE ON FEAR, SEDUCTION, AND THE 911 Yes, 33 years ago in the pages of this magazine, I called the 911 an "ass-engined Nazi slot car." I apologize. Not that the 911's powerplant doesn't loom behind its transaxle. And not that the 911's progenitor, Ferry Porsche, wasn't a utility infielder on the wrong team during the last World War. And not that a mistaken lift of a 911's throttle won't result in Aurora Plastics model-racetrack ess-bend behavior, except in 1:1 scale taking out the whole back wall of the hobby shop. Besides, to be precise, I was referring to a 930 Turbo, with love-handle fenders and looking like it had backed into a cocktail waitress and driven off with her serving tray. But I'm sorry. I'd never driven a…

WHAT PRICE GLORY? Base prices of the least expensive Porsche 911 for any given year, with inflation-adjusted values above them. Lesson: 911s aren't cheap. 1965 – U.S. customers get their first taste of the 911 in February 1965. 1973 – The final year of the "long-nose" 911. 1978 – The SC model arrives. 1984 – The 3.2-liter Carrera hits the U.S. with a small price increase. 1999 – The water-cooled era begins. 1993 – The lightweight RS reduces mass and cost. 1990 – This price hike is due to the old 911's complete replacement by the more advanced 964. 1995 – The redesigned 993 arrives. 1987 – The dollar's value falls relative to the German mark. Porsche begins to steadily raise prices. AN AMERICAN TALE Sales figures for the 911…

For helping Porsche win the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1977, veteran Porsche jockey Hurley Haywood received a brand-new '77 930 Turbo as a gift from the factory. "It was over the top on the road—a 935 race car for the street." Many other early Turbo owners also found it "over the top." Lacking Haywood's talent, they would end up spinning it into the weeds, flipping it onto its roof, or both. So we asked Haywood how to handle the early Turbos. Step One: Corner Entry Nothing changes. Keep the normal line, turn-in point, and corner-entry speed. Step Two: Preventive Maintenance Instead of waiting to clip the apex to get back on the throttle, the Turbo demands that you do so before the apex. So Haywood says: "Get on…

The Bilster Berg Drive Resort is a private club track in central Germany that squiggles over hill and dale at the top of a small mountain where there once was a British Army ammo dump. It's not a track-map sticker you really want for your car, as the circuit is shaped almost exactly like the large intestine. And people in our group kept calling it "Blister Berg," the mountain of blisters. The Germans just stared as they ladled out the lunch of roasted pig knuckles. The famous Porsche wheelman Walter Rörhl consulted on the design, which is a tossed salad of hidden apexes just past blind crests leading to off-camber death-drops. It's a great, if scary, place to drive the new Porsche 911 Turbo because it proves how shockingly well…

THE LONE DOMESTIC PREMIUM BRAND WITH a pulse is growing ever stronger and more confident as it slowly rises from its 30-year snooze. The second-generation Cadillac CTS-V and the new ATS were the first payments on debts from promises long made and routinely broken. Now we've driven the reborn CTS and believe the General is indeed serious about returning Cadillac to the pointy end of the luxury market. How do we know? Well, the 420-hp twin-turbo CTS Vsport we drove on GM's own handling track and that streaked to 60 mph in 4.4 seconds simply felt fantastic, with a muscular engine integrated into a neutral chassis that's been pulled as tight as piano wire. And, driving impressions and test figures aside, the CTS makes strides in cracking one of GM's…

Before we sat down in the new 11th-generation Toyota Corolla, we took what we pray was our last drive in a 2013 gen-10. An S trim equipped with a cartoon decklid wing and a four-speed automatic, it looked, felt, and behaved like it did when introduced here in 2008 as a 2009 model. At the time, Korean compacts were ugly, Detroit compacts were laughable, and even mighty Volkswagen was off chasing Rabbits. Small wonder the Corolla juggernaut outsold them all. Its reputation has made Corolla the bestselling model in history (40 million and counting). For those who don't like to think much about cars, bulletproof reliability often trumps uncomfortable seats, a jouncy ride, a lackluster drivetrain, and mediocre design. So much so that through mid-2013, Corolla still ranks third in…

A sports car you can drive to the Sierra Club annual meeting—even if it's four states away. After the Fisker Karma and the Tesla Model S, we ought to be accustomed to eco cars with the power to seduce. But the BMW i8 still stuns—and not just because of the abstract-impressionist camouflage it was wearing when we drove it. This i8, along with the boxlike i3, is a huge bet on electrified cars for a company that has succeeded in seducing customers with a combination of gutsy performance, silky engines, and understated style. The i8 is a plug-in hybrid. It has a 129-hp electric motor powering the front wheels through a two-speed automatic transmission. A 228-hp turbocharged 1.5-liter three-cylinder engine, coupled to a six-speed automatic and mounted transversely behind the…

EDDIE ALTERMAN THIS MONTH we pay tribute to the second-longest-running sports car of all time, the Porsche 911, with a downright reckless number of editorial pages devoted to this German icon, including a comparison test with the longest-running sports car of all time, the Chevrolet Corvette. Our 33-page exegesis kicks off with a fantastic P.J. O'Rourke piece about the almost marital ups and downs of life with, as he so famously put it, the "ass-engined Nazi slot car." What his story and those that follow it try to answer is the persistent question of "Why?" Why has this automotive deviant, with its engine in the wrong place and a design that tended to lay fallow for whole decades, maintained such a stubborn grip on our imaginations? Why have we always…

ROUND ONE THE EPIC SPAT 50 YEARS AGO BETWEEN ENZO FERRARI AND HENRY FORD II RESULTED IN FOUR STRAIGHT FORD GT40 LE MANS VICTORIES AND EIGHT TRIPS TO THE INDY 500 WINNER'S CIRCLE FOR FORD RACING ENGINES. NOW THAT THE FERRARI AND FORD FAMILY TREES HAVE SPROUTED FRESH ENZO AND HENRY BUDS, THIS CLASSIC RIVALRY COULD, THEORETICALLY, RESUME. THESE DESCENDANTS HAVE THE NAMES, THE HERITAGE, AND THE HORSEPOWER TO MAKE THAT HAPPEN. HENRY FORD III (known as "Sonny")…

In the years before I met him at the University of Michigan in 1989, my friend Mike was probably the only professional Jewish foreign-car mechanic on Long Island. He was undoubtedly the school's only engineering grad student who could rewire a Fiat 128 blindfolded. We met in the car club, which wasn't a typical car club in that it wasn't a bunch of dudes standing around an open hood staring at an empty engine bay. It was a club in the business school for type-A sharpies who wanted to work in the auto industry (and for hangers-on like me earning useless liberal arts degrees). These people might have taken their blue-chip sheepskins to Wall Street or into the energy sector or one of the many thriving consumer-products companies that recruit…

1965–1968 SHORT BUT SWEET In the early 1960s, the Porsche 356 is seen as yesterday's car, obviously the product of another era. Its successor needs to be thoroughly modern without deviating from the small, lightweight, rear-engine ethos that built Porsche's reputation. Fifty years later, it's clear that Porsche hit the mark. Porsche showed the landmark Type 901 at the 1963 Frankfurt show, yet the production 911 didn't roll off the Zuffenhausen assembly line until 1964. Ford had just introduced the Mustang. By comparison the 911 looked like the product of NASA's Apollo program. A pristine early 911 can be a six-figure collectible today. As such, many enthusiasts have never had the opportunity to slide behind the thin, wooden wheel of a short-wheelbase 911 or discover just how contemporary is its…

THE TURBOCHARGED 911 GETS ITS OWN SECTION HERE BECAUSE IT IS AN EXCEEDINGLY ABNORMAL VERSION OF AN ALREADY ABNORMAL CAR. BORN SCARY AND FAST, IT ONLY GOT FASTER. A SUPERCAR ITS WHOLE LIFE, THE TURBO WON COUNTLESS RACES AND MADE THE RUF "YELLOWBIRD" AND THE 959 POSSIBLE. IT MAY HAVE BEGUN AS A 911 VARIANT, BUT PORSCHE'S TURBO HAS EVOLVED INTO A BONA FIDE ICON. TRAIL OF THE TAIL 1976 TURBO CARRERA (930) Porsche straps a turbocharger to the 911's venerable 3.0-liter flat-six and lobs a 234-hp flared and winged monster right into the disco era. The words "turbo lag" enter the lexicon as the Turbo takes its sweet time delivering its boosted power. Off boost, the Turbo is hobbled by a 6.5:1 compression ratio, which makes the power delivery…

Frayed around the edges, its bright-yellow paintwork chipped and crazed and covered in insect corpses, the Porsche is parked among modified 911s from all eras. To many, it would appear to be just another 911 worked over by one of any number of tuners and tinkerers you'll find all over Germany. But we'd argue that this is the iconic tuned 911. Even at first glance, it looks as exotic as any supercar that came before or after it. And the strangest bit about this story is that this tiny, narrow-hipped 911 isn't actually a Porsche at all. This is the Ruf CTR, one of just 29 made, but you may know it simply as the "Yellowbird." For those who think Sesame Street when they hear the name, here's a brief…

CHEVROLET CORVETTE STINGRAY PRICE > $68,375 POWER > 460 hp TORQUE > 465 lb-ft WEIGHT > 3460 lb C/D OBSERVED MPG > 14 PORSCHE 911 CARRERA S PRICE > $148,245 POWER > 400 hp TORQUE > 325 lb-ft WEIGHT > 3297 lb C/D OBSERVED MPG > 15 Real longevity is rare in the automotive industry. Only a handful of models have made it to the half-century mark, but the milestone the Porsche 911 celebrates this year is one the Corvette passed a decade ago. Both have survived rampant model proliferation that has crowded their markets, plus rumors of massive, personality-altering redesigns, as well as the suffocating and ever-changing regulation inherent in one of the most scrutinized consumer-goods industries in the world. But here are the 2014 models, two old masters…

AUTOMATION LLEY Here is the exact transcript of a conversation we had outside a rest stop off Highway 401 near London, Ontario, with a man standing next to a white bunny: "Sir, is that your bunny?" "Yes." "May I pet your bunny?" "Please." It was the most strangely polite (or politely strange) exchange we experienced on what was turning out to be a strangely polite day. For the record, the bunny, a fluffy little number, had no interest in being petted and hid behind a concrete planter when we came close. His owner apologized for the snub. We were taking a break from our long highway cruise from Toronto to Detroit in the new Mercedes-Benz S550. Mercedes CEO Dieter Zetsche told us just the night before that the new S-class…

It's hard to do anything but love the basic goodness of the Ford Mustang. Its brutally simple recipe ensures not only lots of old-fashioned fun behind the wheel, but also an enormous aftermarket that can, for a price, one-up the factory's effort with greater style and performance. But with today's stock Mustangs being so well sorted, adding to the formula doesn't necessarily improve the outcome. Roush Performance in Plymouth Township, Michigan, founded by racing icon Jack Roush, currently of NASCAR's Roush Fenway Racing, has been tuning fast Fords since 1995. Roush has the engineering talent to develop a seemingly formidable street package, such as promised by this $65,980 Stage 3 Mustang based on the 10Best-winning GT model. Here is the most extreme turnkey pony car Roush offers through select Ford…

Psst! Hey, you. Over there in accounting. Yeah, you, in the short-sleeve shirt and tie. There's a rumor that corporate is going to upgrade the company cars for all the junior execs. If it's true, put me down for a 2014 Chevrolet Impala LT. Wait! Before you laugh me out of your office, I mean cubicle, um, area, hear me out. The 2014 Impala is a far cry from that generic, fleet-filling lame duck from the 2013 model year. It's new in almost every respect, including powertrain, sheetmetal, and interior appointments. Chevy has pinched and pulled the formerly androgynous exterior into a chiseled physique. Squint hard enough and you can make out a familial resemblance to the latest Camaro. Inside, the dash features an adventurous bi-level treatment accented with contrast…

AXIS OF ALLIES Nissan and Renault hooked up in 1999; Mercedes made it a threesome in 2010. In Europe, Mercedes sells Renault's Kangoo commercial van as the Citan, and a Renault 1.5-liter turbo-diesel beats the fuel economy of Mercedes' diesel in the A- and B-class. IN PERSON, THE Q30 DOESN'T ACTUALLY LOOK LIKE A GM DUSTBUSTER MINIVAN STYLED BY H.R. GIGER. It looks like INFINITI'S slow years will soon be over. With a flotilla of new products on the way and a comprehensive new naming strategy, Nissan's luxury brand is trying to establish itself as a top-tier luxury player. Last year the brand poached Johan de Nysschen, the man who coached Audi out of also-ran status in the U.S., with the hope that he could repeat that performance with Infiniti.…

CHARGE IT Electric cars face daunting roadblocks on the entrance ramp to mainstream acceptance, including matching or beating a conventional car's performance, stretching the driving range between recharging stops, cutting the time required for a recharge from several hours to a few minutes, and, most notably, lowering sticker shock to somewhere below electrocution. While Mini Es, Mitsubishi i-MiEVs, Nissan Leafs, and Smart electrics have wrestled with these issues, they all bow down to the Tesla Model S, the thinking driver's electric car. Consumer Reports called it the best car it has ever reviewed. We called it the car to buy when you're buying electric. These accolades for Tesla have piqued the interest of both investors and General Motors. To buttress its reputation as the breakthrough electric-car maker, Tesla is implementing…

50 years of the 911 YOU'RE READING A MAGAZINE THAT DOESN'T DEVOTE MUCH ENERGY TO ANNIVERSARIES. WE'RE MORE INTENT ON LOOKING FORWARD TO WHAT'S NEW AND WHAT'S NEXT; WE'RE IN DRIVE, NOT REVERSE. BUT EVEN WE HAVE TO STOP, PAUSE THE BREATHLESS DOWNLOAD STREAM OF THE NEW, AND CELEBRATE THE 50TH YEAR OF A MACHINE THAT PROVES THAT SOME CARS ARE MORE THAN JUST MACHINES. PORSCHE'S 911 WAS ODD THE DAY IT WAS BORN, AND ITS STRANGE FORMULA GROWS EVER MORE EXCEPTIONAL IN A WORLD OF INCREASING HOMOGENEITY. ON THE NEXT 32 PAGES, WE'LL TOUR THE 911'S EVOLUTION FROM ITS DRIVER'S SEAT, GOING BACK TO THE ROOTS OF ONE OF OUR FAVORITE CARS OF ALL TIME. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, 911. The Name Game A 911 is a 911, except when Porsche…

Just two years in, the new Porsche 911 lineup doesn't lack for variants, and yet the GT3 still seems more exceptional than all the others, a naturally aspirated hothead stripped of the frivolous and prepped for track duty. It's also the 911 most willing to slay a few sacred cows. It only comes as an automatic, for one thing, and you'd better get used to hearing that: Porsche hints that all 911s will eventually be PDK only. Also, the GT3's engine isn't quite as fabulously special as it once was. The GT3 has shared core engine components with the 911 GT3 RSR racer since its creation in 1999, making it the rare machine that can honestly be described as a race car for the road. But the 2014 GT3 doesn't…

Following its domination of the Can-Am racing series in 1972 and '73, Porsche decided to share its turbocharging technology with devout customers. A year after its 1974 Paris auto-show debut, the first Turbo arrived here as a 1976 model. At a time when the most powerful Corvette had 210 horsepower, a Mustang II "King Cobra" boasted 139 ponies, and recovery from the first energy crisis had barely begun, Porsche's 2825-pound Messerschmitt attacked the supercar class with 234 horsepower. It was such a departure from 911 blueprints that Porsche assigned the Turbo a fresh type number: 930. A front spoiler, swollen and flared fenders, and a fluke that would shame Shamu added visual menace. Wheels, tires, brakes, and suspension parts got upgraded. Porsche swapped the 911's magnesium-cased five-speed transaxle for a…

In this age of LaFerraris, Porsche 918s, and Bugatti Veyrons, it's hard to appreciate what a special car the 959 was in 1987, when such exotica was vanishingly rare. Not only did the 959 promise to be the fastest-ever roadgoing Porsche, it was also a test bed for advanced technology, including a racing-derived engine with sequential turbochargers, a programmable four-wheel-drive system, and an adjustable suspension that was as comfortable on cobblestone roads as it was at nearly 200 mph, and I got to test it. I collected the car at Porsche's engineering center in Weissach, Germany, from Manfred Bantle, the 959 project leader. He explained how I should launch the 959: 1) Switch the four-wheel-drive system into the locked-differentials mode; 2) select the very low first gear, marked G for…

C/D: Is there a Porsche model the museum is looking for but hasn't been able to find? AS: Of course, there are some cars missing from our collection. But we are close with private people who own these cars and know their whereabouts. The problem is to get them and to have enough money to buy them. The Type 64 [the "first" Porsche designed in 1938] is kind of a rumor and a mystic thing. We don't have a real Type 64; we only have the body shell displayed. Of course, this is a car we are seeking. But we know the three Type 64s that were produced were destroyed during the war. C/D: What about the cars out there whose whereabouts are known, but you haven't yet acquired? AS:…

TOYOTA COROLLA / ROUSH STAGE 3 FORD MUSTANG / JAGUAR XFR-S / 2015 BMW I8 / CHEVROLET IMPALA LT Infiniti's starter car, its G sedan, has been a scrappy back-road stalwart and a convincing BMW 3-series alternative since the third-gen model adopted rear-drive in 2003. But as the company attempts to reinvent itself by moving its base of operations to Hong Kong, writing sponsorship checks with many zeros to Formula 1, and curiously renaming its model range, its core sports sedan has also evolved. Where once romped a lively four-door now goes a rolling flea circus of driver-reduction technology that tries but ultimately fails to simulate all that was good about its predecessor. Unlike the latest F30 BMW, which grew substantially over the E90 3-series it replaced, the new Q50…

Whether or not you know the name Jeffry Life, you know his face—or, more accurately, his body. Dr. Life is the balding 74-year-old with the chiseled torso in those hormone-replacement ads that look as if an old head has been Photoshopped onto a young body. Like Life, Jaguar has recently rediscovered a more youthful self, and the XFR-S appears, too, to be a digital forgery. Jag management sees a strong performance subbrand as a key competency for modern luxury automakers, and it is focusing on establishing R as a full-fledged competitor to AMG, M, V, and Quattro. Just as that Schwarzeneggerian physique really is Life's, the XFR-S is no faux mash-up of a Jaguar and a Mitsubishi Evo. The Brits want R to get noticed. The car's wing is real…

C/D: One of your most memorable drives was in Trans-Am at Riverside in 1970. You bounced your Mustang off the corners because it wouldn't turn. PJ: That was the last race of the year. Someone knocked me in the side and I went down behind Turn Nine and came back on, and the car was vibrating and didn't turn very well. So I was hitting the berms to make it turn, and came back and finally won the race. It was an exciting one. I had to give it all I had, and all it had. It was one of my better drives. C/D: Was owning a race team as rewarding as driving? Well, not really. However, it was a little safer. C/D: Until a transmission bearing failed with three…