Indholdsfortegnelse for April 1979 i MotorTrend

Highway 395, a thin ribbon that connects the Eastern Sierra resort areas with the Southern California megalopolis, is. an extremely busy artery. The road itself is not treacherous, but it does subject its travelers to widely varied driving conditions. I mention this route because it just happens. to be my personal proving ground. In an effort to acquaint myself with as many automobiles as possible, I frequently choose one from our lot and set out to cover the 307-mile (one way) stretch to the mountains. The road, although, familiar, tells me a lot about the vehicle I'm driving. First of all, it subjects me to a five-hour drive on the way up and another five on the way back Ten hours is quite long enough to determine if you like…

THE 1980 LINCOLNS Tape recordings from our Dearborn informant disclose that the 1980 Mark V and Continental will be smaller and lighter than their predecessors by 18 inches and 900-1000 pounds. Wheelbase for both will shrink from 127 to 117 because these cars will be built on the Panther platform (the same "chassis" used for "the Ford LTD). Interior room for the Conny will remain just as large as it has been in previous years, and the Mark will be enlarged accordingly. The LTD platform and similar suspension components assure that the new Lincolns will ride and handle as well as the '79 LTD. Engine choice will be limited to the 5.0- and 5.8-liter V-8. Both cars will contain a host of technical innovations, including fuel injection … end of…

There are more import car combinations to choose from in 1979 than ever, and because of this breadth of choice, you are looking at the largest and most comprehensive Import Car Buyer's Guide in Motor Trend history. The impact of federal safety, emissions and fuel economy mandates has reached across the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and has had a great influence on the size, shape and price of dozens of imported automobiles. For many exporters, the changes are just ALFA ROMEO SPORT SEMN: The biggest news here after last year's facelift and interior dress-up, is the automatic transmission-the first automatic Alfa in 23 years of export to the U.S. All models will get woodgrain interior trim along with all-gray dash trim to lessen reflection, and integrated speaker housings in the…

In our February issue, we gave you the opportunity to try your luck on a chance to win a brand spanking new Buick Riviera S, the 1979 Motor Trend Car of the Year. It was our way of celebrating the 30th anniversary of the Car of the Year award and of thanking you for supporting it. Your response was overwhelming. Of course, there could be only one winner, so for those of you who may have waited in vain for a shiny set of car keys to appear in the mail, here's another shot at winning an exciting automobile. Though our Import Car of the Year is a relatively new award, it has come to rival the established Car of the Year award in prestige and importance. This year, the…

It's been a winter of discontent for American auto racing. The CARTUSAC struggle embroiled a veritable alphabet soup of associations. SCCA was drawn in, as well as FIA and ACCUS. Even NASCAR and IMSA, though seemingly outside the conflict, made their presence felt in the shadows. The contretemps have made racing look about as organized and stable as Iranian politics-an impression that unfortunately overlooks the soundness of operations like NASCAR and numerous other tighly run but less well known groups around the country. One such association has spent the last year-not altogether uneventfully-preparing for the fourth annual Long Beach Grand Prix. Make that the Lubri Lon Grand Prix, since the race has acquired a sponsor (a Houston-based manufacturer of a Teflon-fortified lubricant). On April 8 (with festivities beginning a week…

THIRD-WORLD HUSTLER British designer William Towns is proving to be a most versatile man at the drawing board. With the design of the $85,000 Aston Martin Lagonda under his belt, Towns took aim at the other end of the price scale and created the Hustler, a futuristic body kit to mount on Austin Mini running gear. Towns describes Hustler as "a cheeky newcomer that puts fun into third-world fundamentals." With the Mini running gear, the vehicle is very economical to operate and has been designed to keep repair costs low. Front and rear bumpers and side panels are identical, and all panels can be easily fabricated in steel or fiberglass. Cost of the kit is about $4000, not including the Mini chassis, which Towns claims can be acquired in England…

To say Americans are in love with 4-wheel drive would be an understatement. To describe their affection as infatuation would be much closer to the truth. America has embraced this rapidly expanding segment of "go anywhere" vehicles with a measure of enthusiasm seldom seen on such a grand scale. Four-wheel-drives are everywhere. We see celebrities racing them on television, housewives cruising to the shopping center with them, and sportsmen carving their own trails through the wilderness in them. On or off the road, they are the most capable vehicles around. Four-wheel drive will get you through the snow, out of the mud, over the sand or into the forest so deep in a single afternoon that it would take you a week to walk out. The rugged, unstoppable character of…

The smartest way to buy anything is to comparison-shop, so we’ve assembled as much size, price, and power information as possible on all of the 1979 imported cars on these pages to enable quick and clear comparisons in any category. For simplicity’s sake, we have excluded all references to California’s special requirement. Horsepower figures are all federal, and there will be some combinations not available for sale in California for one reason or another. In all cases, prices are POE suggested retail for base models with base equipment, again for simple comparison purposes. Information not available or not published is shown in a handful of categories as N.A.…

Farrah posters are adult toys. So are discotheques, recreational drugs, alcohol and, according to some people, the Osmonds. But trucks? In Merrill, Oregon; Walla Walla, Washington, and Winnemucca, Nevada, assorted citizens took one look at Dodge's Little Red Truck and swooned in ecstasy. In Susanville, California; Portland, Oregon, and Reno, Nevada, a similarly random sample gazed on the shellacked wood trim around the truck's box, stood back to get the full panorama of the truck's forward tilt, stepped farther back to take in the KW stacks and rushed to the nearest druggist for stomach relaxants. One man's toy is obviously another man's bottle of ipecac. Cars and recently their variants, trucks and vans, have been America's everyman toys for three quarters of a century. (Interestingly, everyman in Europe has had…

JEEPSTER II UNVEILED Hot on the heels of a rumored 1980 4-wheel-drive AMC Concord comes the latest from the sketchpad of AMC styling VP Dick Teague. Called the Jeepster II, the fiberglass and aluminum 2-seater would have space for a 4-cylinder engine, either gasoline or diesel, and would have a rear cargo compartment that could be used for two additional pop-in seats. The sketch shows a folding flat windshield along with a built-in rollover bar structure and wheel flares that could be removed to accommodate larger tires on all four corners for rough-roading it. HOLD THAT TIGER! Never let it be said that kit cars can't be versatile. Probably the most versatile yet, if everything they claim is true, is the Tiger, a fiberglass roadster kit car that will also…

Tokyo is no place to test a car, particularly for an American driver. To say that Japanese drivers are aggressive would be a gross understatement. A New York cab driver would need assertiveness training to keep up. And an equally hazardous aspect for a Yank is to be suddenly slid over to the right to drive a mirror image of what he is used to. This is what we faced when we went to Japan to test drive the new Prelude, Honda’s transverse CVCC-engine front-drive all-independent-suspension 2+2 coupe. Quite a descriptive mouthful right there, not to mention the host of standard appointments and accessories. For the Japanese market there will be four models, designated XT, XR, E and the top-of-the-line XE. All have the same 91.3-inch wheelbase and basic body…

With its sloping nose, chopped-off tail, 4-cylinder engine and front-wheel drive, Plymouth’s new Horizon TC3 has all the ingredients of a European machine, but the flavor has an American accent. The TC3 gives new meaning to the term “sport coupe” in America. It is the first of a new generation spawned by government regulations that favor economy and handling over cubic inches. Attesting to its unique character is the amount of attention the TC3 commands on the road. It turns heads every step of the way. Whether people stare out of admiration or amusement isn’t quite clear, but they do look… long and hard. And that in itself is an accomplishment during this phase of automotive evolution in which so many new vehicles look alike. The futuristic angular design of…

At a quick first glance the profile says Cadillac. If one is not a good judge of comparative size, this 2-door with the thin roof line, chopped rear window, sloping deck and special black and silver paint can easily be mistaken for the higher-priced spread. Unlike its corporate big brother, the Monte Carlo has the conventional front engine and rear drive, but a list of available options can turn it into a posh luxury car with a more modest price tag. Modest price is used comparatively, as this model was loaded with extra-cost options that boosted the base price of $4994.84 to $9277.88. In base form with the 20lcid V-6 engine, 3-speed manual transmission and no power steering or brakes, this is a very dull product despite its sporty profile.…

It is midnight and I am strapped into a speeding Saab Sonnett driven by Danny Sullivan who is trying to kill us both. We are slithering at high speed around Hallett Motor Racing Circuit, which is covered with six inches of snow trimmed with ice patches. It is dark. It is snowing. It is New Year’s Eve and we are not alone. Running an auto race in the dark on New Year’s Eve over a snow-covered Oklahoma road course would seem strange to anyone but Anatoly Arutunoff, arch loony of the road racing world, owner of the Hallett track, and the creator of this madness, which he has named The First and Second Annual Showroom Stock Champagne Suck. Arutunoff has lured me and Sullivan and six other competitors to his…