Indholdsfortegnelse for Feb-15 i Car and Driver

Sic your dogs on us at: editors@caranddriver.com or join the discussion at: backfires.caranddriver.com PONY BOYS When I got the latest C/D, I took it out of the mailbox and saw the cover. Huh, I thought. Another issue of Mustang and Mustang Driver. It really is too bad because I like your articles on other non-muscle cars. I am sure there are other millennials out there who like to read your magazine and aren't big fans of muscle cars! MR. KILMER WINTERVILLE, NORTH CAROLINA HORSE SENSE Kudos to Daniel Pund for reviewing the Ford Mustang EcoBoost fairly ["The Refined Equine," November 2014]. It's common for journalists to harsh on a GT for not being a track-ready Boss or harsh on a base model for not being a GT. It…

Whether you're aware OF IT OR NOT, you learned the basic rules of track lapping in kindergarten: Get in line, stay in line, and follow the line. And no hitting others. Mastering the concept, however, requires a physicist's understanding of how dramatically a slight misstep can adversely affect your lap times. Here's a primer on how to find and keep the correct racing line, as demonstrated by the Chevrolet Camaro Z/28 on Virginia International Raceway. 1 HIT THE MARKS Rather than tracing the shortest path around a track, the optimal line is the largest-radius arc through a corner, raising the speed possible at the limit of cornering grip and reducing the power consumed by tire scrub. Failure to properly execute the three main elements of a corner—the turn-in, apex, and…

Last month, I was driving our long-term Kia K900 on I-90 past Little Bighorn Battlefield in Montana. The adaptive cruise control was engaged at 75 mph. My feet were perhaps six inches from the pedals, and I held the steering wheel with one hand. There was no traffic in front, none behind, none in the opposite lanes. That's when the car, wholly unbidden, braked violently. Loose items in the cockpit rocketed forward, and the seatbelts cinched to chest-flattening pressure. My wife cried out, and I was so thunderstruck that I couldn't think how to react. I recall saying, "What?" a couple of times, which did surprisingly little to mitigate the crisis. Then I decided to pound the brakes—bleeding more speed, maybe to as little as 20 mph—which disengaged the cruise…

RUTHLESS. FAST. CRAZY. THESE ADJECTIVES ARE APPARENTLY ON THE MINDS OF AMERICAN SEDAN SELLERS THESE DAYS. WE'VE GROWN TO EXPECT THIS KIND OF STUFF FROM THE EUROPEANS, BUT HERE WE HAVE THREE HOMEGROWN FOUR-DOORS THAT SET FIRE TO THE DSM-5 MANUAL OF MENTAL DISORDERS. CLOTHED IN BUSINESS ATTIRE, WITH ROOM FOR AT LEAST THREE OTHER DEVIANTS, THESE SUPERSEDANS HAVE POWER OBSESSIONS, CLENCHED-TEETH CHASSIS, AND VISIONS OF 200-MPH GRANDEUR. THERE'S NO WAY THIS CAN LAST. OR CAN IT? PREVIEW 2016 CADILLAC CTS-V CORPORATE RAIDER BMW'S M DIVISION IS FLOUNDERING. CADILLAC'S CTS IS SHARPER THAN EVER. COULD THE 600-PLUS-HP CTS-V BE THE CAR THAT MAKES PEOPLE FORGET THE M5? A 600-hp Nürburgring-eating CTS-V isn't a natural descendant of the house of Cadillac. The king of cush and the caesar of geezers was…

"Don't forget your nut belt; you're gonna to need it." Wait … what? Oh, right. I hurriedly fish around the seat bottom for what was previously known to me as an anti-submarine belt, latch it, and cinch it as tight as my arm muscles will allow. I am holding up the show. This is the last event of the season for the world's loudest and roughest off-road buggies, the aptly named rock-bouncer racers. And my driver, one Peter Ruttan, who casually made the comment through his helmet, is ready for his timed run up a steep hill made up mostly of jagged, irregular, three-foot-tall saw teeth of almost translucent novaculite stone. I'm strapped into a bright-red cage that looks like a cross between a bicycle helmet and the skeleton of…

THIS MONTH CITROËN C4 CACTUS / APR AUDI RS7 STAGE 1 / TOYOTA CAMRY XSE V-6 / CHEVROLET SS MANUAL What's been stopping you from buying the Smart Fortwo, America? The lurch-prone gearbox? The woeful steering? The fact that you have to sit so close to your passenger that you can smell the clam sauce on their breath? Though we can understand Smart's decision to concentrate on highlighting what's been made better about the new Fortwo, we can't really report any substantive changes to the fundamental proposition—a city slug designed for party-clown transport. Which, we'd suggest, might have been keeping more Americans from Smart ownership than any of the previous car's widely acknowledged niggles. The new Fortwo is just as strange as before, with the shape of a pustulating zit…

Toyota has pledged to make its vehicles more engaging, with the bestselling Camry the latest to be called in for an overhaul. While the result is indeed a better Camry for 2015, the car proves that altering the essence of this refrigerator on radials is no simple task. The Camry's latest freshening is substantial. All the bodywork is new save the roof, and the curves flow more organically than before. Most models carry a simple five-bar chrome grille, but a gaping, black-mesh snout distinguishes the sportier SE and new-for-2015 XSE trims. It's a cyborg catfish, but one you can take home to meet the parents. Additional spot welds add rigidity to the structure, while thicker carpet padding and door inserts help tamp down road noise in the cabin. All variants…

*CAR PORN ARGUING OVER WHAT CONSTITUTES AN SUV AS OPPOSED TO A TALL HATCHBACK IS A RELIABLE WAY TO GET PEOPLE IN OUR OFFICE TO STOP TALKING TO ONE ANOTHER. DATA ANALYSIS FIRM IHS AUTOMOTIVE TAKES A COMMON-SENSE APPROACH: IF IT LOOKS LIKE AN SUV (OR LIKE IT'S TRYING TO LOOK LIKE ONE), CALL IT ONE. The auto industry IS IN the midst of its most radical overhaul since the 1970s, downsizing and economizing to meet increasingly stringent global regulations. So far, though, nobody has successfully passed legislation that controls what people want, and there's one area of the market where regulation and customer demand are pulling carmakers in opposite directions: the sport-utility vehicle. That SUVs are popular is nothing new. The original Ford Explorer opened the floodgates in 1990,…

The idea of POWERED personal mobility that you can pick up and carry is nothing new. Back in 1982, we tested the 92-pound Honda MotoCompo scooter [August 1982], which folded and packed in the trunk of a car. Now comes RocketSkates from Los Angeles–based Acton Inc., which recently raised 10 times its $50,000 goal on the crowd-sourced funding site Kickstarter.com. It seems that people want RocketSkates. The name sounds like something ACME Corporation would deliver to Wile E. Coyote, but there's no actual rocket involved. Each skate has two in-wheel motors, arranged on the sides as on a Segway. Each motor is rated at 50 watts, for a grand total of 0.3 horsepower. You strap the RocketSkates over your shoes, and that's when the relearning to walk starts. You don't…

The annual car show at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California, is fun not so much for the sheetmetal on display as for the opportunity to stroll through the school's classrooms to see what's on the minds of the students who will eventually staff the automaker design studios of the future. Last year Chrysler sponsored an exhibit, and one whole room was dedicated to projects imagining some might-be Mopars. One display, by Reza Kashanipour, depicted a Dodge "Grand Estate," a sort of Dodge Viper shooting brake that, were it realized, would cause mass swooning. At least, among journalists. Sadly, the industry doesn't take many risks like that anymore, especially on wagons, but it's nice to dream. I thought of those drawings a week later as I landed…

TOYOTA TUNDRA PLATINUM 4X4 CREWMAX PRICE: $49,820 • POWER: 381 hp • TORQUE: 401 lb-ft • WEIGHT: 5894 lb • C/D OBSERVED MPG: 14 RAM 1500 LARAMIE LONGHORN LIMITED 4X4 CREW CAB PRICE: $57,810 • POWER: 395 hp • TORQUE: 410 lb-ft • WEIGHT: 5964 lb • C/D OBSERVED MPG: 15 CHEVROLET SILVERADO 1500 HIGH COUNTRY 6.2L 4WD CREW CAB PRICE: $56,485 • POWER: 420 hp • TORQUE: 460 lb-ft • WEIGHT: 5658 lb • C/D OBSERVED MPG: 16 FORD F-150 PLATINUM 3.5L ECOBOOST 4WD SUPERCREW PRICE: $61,520 • POWER: 365 hp • TORQUE: 420 lb-ft • WEIGHT: 5577 lb • C/D OBSERVED MPG: 16 As any dime-store undergrad psych major can tell you, it's a tough climb to the top of the hierarchy of needs pyramid, the point at…

FORD'S HOT-ROD FOCUS GETS SENTENCED TO 40K HARD MILES. WHEN THE TIRES GET WORN AND THE WARRANTY RUNS OUT, THAT'S WHERE WE COME IN. C/D IS YOUR SOURCE FOR THE 40,000-MILE EVALUATION. Hand a 16-year-old the keys to a new Ford Focus ST and odds are the kid will be relegated to the bus by the time he's 17. This, the hottest Focus, will turn any driver, especially one with little to no self-control, into a juvenile neighborhood terror. Of course, it's the ST's best attributes that bring out the worst driver behavior, which makes it our kind of car. We weren't too surprised when the ST punched its way onto our 2013 10Best list after a comparo win against the sixth-generation Volkswagen GTI. It's got the goods: a potent…

If, as amateur philosophers assure us, there is but a fine line between genius and insanity, then it follows that there's an even subtler distinction between eccentricity and strangeness. Or endearing oddball quirkiness and schizoid, moon-howling madness. It's a divide on which we find the Citroën C4 Cactus almost perfectly straddled. Yes, that Citroën, as in French and never gonna come here. However, after seeing the somewhat zaftig concept at the 2013 Frankfurt auto show, we were prepared to swim the Atlantic to have a go in it. Citroën is, of course, the company that made that original tin snail, the 2CV, plus the utterly gorgeous DS and SM, two models so ahead of their time that lazy sci-fi directors still occasionally cast them as cars of the future. Yet…

We'd barely left the parking spot before the Chevrolet SS had us saying, "That's the stuff." Push in the clutch, lift off the throttle for your first shift, and the 415-hp LS3 V-8 crackles through the tailpipes on the overrun. Yes, we said clutch. The lack of a manual and the car's limited availability were our top complaints about the 2014 SS. Production volume is still low, but the Tremec six-speed manual (a no-cost option) further tailors this large, rear-drive sedan to the driver of serious intent. And choosing the manual avoids the gas-guzzler tax. While the stick comes with a 3.70:1 final drive versus the automatic's 3.27:1 ratio, its 1-4 skip-shift function during light acceleration adds 1 mpg to the EPA city-mileage rating. Other goodies: Last year's well-tuned suspension…

Unless they're nosing into one, most drivers don't think much about guardrails. But a claimed increase in the number of accidents in which guardrails have impaled cars has recently vaulted the roadside protectors into the news. Fingers are pointed at Trinity Industries, a Dallas, Texas, company that supplies guardrails and other roadside safety installations. The company altered the design of a part it sells nationwide. But, according to one study, the new part is four times as likely as its predecessor to be involved in a fatal accident. Several states across the U.S. have banned further installation of Trinity's device. The part in question is an end terminal. When you picture a guardrail, you prob ably picture a W-beam. These wavy barriers are the most common type of guardrail, resembling…

A decade or SO AGO, a team of German university scientists settled on 500 cubic centimeters as the ideal per-cylinder displacement for internal-combustion engines. A 500-cc cylinder with a stroke length larger than its bore diameter, these forgotten pioneers concluded, benefits the combustion process by minimizing the engine's internal surface-to-volume ratio as the piston nears top dead center. Seeking to optimize power and fuel efficiency while reducing emissions, the three local powerhouses—BMW Group, Mercedes-Benz, and Volks wagen Group—promptly joined the 500 club with boosted, direct-injected, long-stroke engines. Fiat Chrysler, Jaguar Land Rover, and Volvo are also applying for membership. Additional brands will surely follow, in part because 500-cc displacement intervals align nicely with existing global taxation statutes. While hybrids and electrics will assist the move to better mileage with lower…

If you win the lottery and ask me for car-buying advice, I'll send you to the nearest Ferrari dealership to buy a 458 Speciale. Which you won't be able to buy, because they'll want to haze you a little bit first, make you wax a Bertone X1/9 before putting a deposit on a Ferrari. And even then, your first Ferrari will probably be a used pea-green 612 Scaglietti with purple brake calipers, a V-12–powered house jacket. But once you've run the gantlet, answered the riddles, and met the Wizard, you might be allowed to join the cul—I mean, the club. I admit that I'm absolutely chugging Ferrari's Kool-Aid, especially when it comes to the mid-engined V-8 models. I have a theory that the shriek of a flat-crank Ferrari V-8 rewires…

Koenigsegg One:1 EVERYTHING IS GOING FINE UNTIL WE REACH 150 MPH. AND THEN, VERY SUDDENLY, IT'S NOT. Just sitting in the passenger seat of the Koenigsegg One:1 (we explain the silly name later) as it attacks a wet runway is, in terms of spiked adrenaline, somewhere between a solo sky dive and being chased by a bull while running in red pants. But as the man from the factory demonstrates, even in the sodden conditions we've found waiting for us in Sweden, the world's fastest car can still be easily controlled. Or so it seemed. It's been raining all day, and the One:1 is struggling to put its monstrous power onto the slick surface of the former airbase that serves as Koenigsegg's test track. The engine is bellowing and the…

PRESENTED BY CHEVROLET NEW FINDS Digital connectivity is becoming a more important part of the modern driving experience, with apps now available to augment traditional in-car information. And the 2015 Chevrolet Malibu is leading the charge, integrating this new universe into the car itself. Using GM's available OnStar-based 4G LTE* data connection, drivers can run as many as seven devices at a time. But no playing World of Goo on the 405. *Requires compatible device, active OnStar service, and data plan. See onstar.com for system details and limitations. KILLER APPS Your In-Car Digital Download Guide. by Alexander Stoklosa AUTOMAKERS AND TECH giants are striving to better integrate mobile devices into cars, hoping to increase safety by reducing distraction. The now-ubiquitous center screen is key, allowing direct app integration or in-car…

Tuner cars, those science projects engineered to make already-fast cars truly berserk, are often more trouble than they're worth. But what if you could make a two-ton-plus sports sedan run a sub-11 quarter-mile with nothing more than a computer upgrade? Wouldn't that be worthwhile? That's the pitch of Opelika, Alabama–based APR with its Stage 1 Audi RS7. Not that the Audi needs much help from this longtime Volkswagen tuner. The stock RS7, with its eight-speed automatic and Quattro system, reaches 60 mph in 3.4 seconds and blitzes the quarter-mile in 11.6 seconds at 123 mph. However, fitted to the RS7 seen here ($129,374 as tested), APR's Stage 1 tune boosts the output of the stock twin-turbo 4.0-liter V-8 from 560 horsepower and 516 pound-feet of torque to a claimed 674…

Jason Vines, 55, was a public-relations institution while at Chrysler, Ford, and Nissan. His book, What Did Jesus Drive? recalls his adventures in crisis management. C/D: How did you get into PR? J/V: As a mistake. I was a human-resources guy working at Chrysler and got into marketing, and I was supposed to become the marketing head at Eagle. And the Friday before the Monday my new assignment was to begin, [Jeep/Eagle division head] Joe Cappy said, "Hey, can you do PR instead of marketing?" And I said: "I don't care. What's the difference?" I was 26. I had never even seen a press release. C/D: How did you come up with those stunts at the Detroit auto show? You know, driving through a glass wall and a downtown cattle…