MotorTrend September 2003

Sports cars rule Summer is sports-car domain. While our magazine tests today’s hottest machines and looks down the road at those coming soon, our digital crew joins in the Corvette’s 50th anniversary. Online, you can read about our road trip, as we drive to Bowling Green, Kentucky, with the national enthusiast caravan and participate in the birthday bash. Also this month, we’ll feature a wallpaper gallery of the Mosier MT900S and Saleen S7.…

Show us what’cha got The Theme In this “Fast & Furious” age, the 2003 California International Auto Show/Motor Trend International Design Contest theme is to create the tuner cars of the year 2020. “Tuning” is nothing new, whatever the era. Car owners love to personalize their ride—whether it’s a ’32 Ford, ’55 Chevy, early Mustang or Camaro, a cafe racer of the ’70s and ’80s, or today’s popular Civic, Focus, and WRX. The Challenge Tune the car of your dreams by first selecting a model (past or present, in production or discontinued), then incorporating modern performance themes to create a year-2020 version of the vehicle. Will aggressive body kits, touring wings, and large exhausts endure? What’ll be the next generation’s neon lights and carbon-fiber trim? Will alternative fuel and hybrid…

Bigger and stronger This month, Truck Trend road tests the biggest and strongest pickups. GMC and International are both coming to market with their own heavy-duty pickup trucks, in some cases, able to tow 20,000 pounds. In our Diesel Special Section, the big motors get a head-to-head comparo as we pit the new Ford Super Duty 6.0-liter Power Stroke against General Motors’ Silverado Heavy Duty 6.6-liter Duramax. We take a closer look at two new pickups getting a lot of attention: Ford’s ’04 F-150 and Nissan’s first-ever full-size Titan. You’ll get these stories and a complete look at the qualifiers for Truck Trend’s 2nd Annual Design Contest in this issue. Check a newsstand near you or call 800/274-1971 to start your subscription today. Make Truck Trend your pickup and SUV…

3-D sheetmetal In celebration of the Ford Mustang’s 40th anniversary, Mustang Monthly and Muscle Mustang & Fast Fords team with Motor Trend Auto Shows, Inc. to highlight the most influential Mustangs of the past 40 years. Look for the display at a Motor Trend International Auto Show near you. There are two new auto shows: the San Jose International Auto Show (San Jose, California) and the Iowa-Illinois Regional Auto Show (Davenport, Iowa). California InternationalAuto ShowAnaheim, CaliforniaOctober 29-November 2,2003 Tampa Bay InternationalAuto ShowTampa, FloridaNovember 13-16, 2003 Central Florida InternationalAuto ShowOrlando, FloridaNovember 26-30, 2003 Motor Trend InternationalAuto ShowLas Vegas, NevadaNovember 28-30, 2003 Arizona InternationalAuto ShowPhoenix, ArizonaNovember 27-30, 2003 For more information on any of our exciting auto shows, visit www.motortrendautoshows.com…

Hit the highways Gone are the days of outdated, burger-smeared Atlases without enough detail to show you where you truly need to go. Thanks to the Internet, custom maps are just a few clicks away. Motor Trend has teamed with Trip King to offer a featurerich trip planner that goes beyond traditional maps. This dedicated site will get you from point A to B in an efficient manner, but the real benefit is discovering what can be done between those points. The Road Trip Planner allows you to identify restaurants, gas stations, lodging, and recreation along the way. As stops are added into the travel itinerary, the site will adjust your route and time schedule accordingly. Go to motortrend.com for a free tripplanning test drive.…

It’s a Speed Thing I don’t know what it is about an Armco barrier, tilted up in the air and blurring by at a sick rate. But I can’t resist. “Speeding” (June) gave me a great sense of what it’s like to aim a seriously fast car around the high banks. Michael WinthropPortland, Oregon Justin Bell is certainly a Lucky Genes award winner (I’ve followed the career of his charming dad, Derek) and seems articulate and smart, just like his father. He was a good choice for your “Speeding” exercise in Arizona and made a bunch of really sexy cars even more interesting to contemplate. William FrostLondon, England A question about your methods: Why did some cars have their governors deactivated (i.e., the CL55 AMG) and others did not? Being…