Indholdsfortegnelse for September 1982 i MotorTrend

LOOK! IT’S DER KINDERBENZ! The long-awaited baby Mercedes W-201 was caught recently by our intrepid spy photographer near the Daimler Benz proving ground in Stuttgart. The smallest modern Merc is about as long as an Audi 4000. Unlike the Audi, the baby Benz, which will be called the 190, uses the rear wheels to drive the car. The 190 is fitted with independent suspension and power-assisted disc brakes at all four corners. Initially the M-B 190 will be offered with a 2.0-liter 4-cylinder OHC as the only powerplant. After the 190’s introduction at the end of this month, a diesel engine and a super-economy 1.6-liter version of the 2.0 engine will be added. NO BX! IT’S THE NEW CITROËN You’re looking at the first allnew all-Citroen in over eight years.…

Here’s the beauty of the bunch. The Cordia’s uncluttered lines and slippery profile not only look good but produce a drag coefficient better than that of its fast-running Starion stablemate: 0.34. This 2-door hatchback coupe goes up against sporty economy cars such as the Nissan 200SX, Toyota Celica, Honda Prelude, Volkswagen Scirocco, and Dodge/Plymouth 024/TC3. Cordia pricing will likely start around $8000. In overall size and weight as well as in engine output, it falls at the approximate center of this group, so its performance is as you’d expect: competitive if not dazzling. Powering the Cordia is an engine Mitsubishi has not shown here before, a 1795cc SOHC four. It mounts transversely and drives the front wheels. This is teamed with a 5-speed manual gearbox in the base Cordia, and…

Audi has managed to prosper during some rather bleak times for the rest of autodom. One of the biggest reasons for its success is a talent for getting maximum utilization out of a limited number of platforms. And one of the best examples of Audi’s platform approach has been the 5000 series. The popularity of the 5000 sedan has been expanded considerably since the model line debuted in the mid-’70s. First, a fast and flashy gas Turbo and then a dignified Diesel were added as running mates. Along the way, the once optional “S” package ac-coutrements became part of the 5000’s standard equipment roster. Now a veteran player, the sedan is slated for a heavy revamping in 1984. But as a final step in the journey of this generation of…

One of the things you can depend on with the inauguration of a new street racing circuit is that the drivers will stalk out onto the track the first day, scowl, and announce that “there ees no place for make zee passing.” But of course when the green flag drops it is quite common for the loudest detractors to find the most creative ways of sorting out the traffic. In this sense, the first Detroit Grand Prix was exactly like its U.S. predecessors at Long Beach and Las Vegas. The F1 observer corps spent the pre-race countdown shaking their heads in dour expectation of a ho-hum high-speed parade, then exulted over an action-packed show that included wheel-to-wheel, nose-to-tail, and come-from-behind in generous portions. About the only difference between this and…

Anyone who has ever felt the mechanokinetic lust of driving an A.C. Cobra at speed owes a debt to Sidney Allard. It was the most famous of his creations—the J2X—that set the stage for Carroll Shelby’s aluminum snakes, as well as the flood of musclecars that followed, providing two generations of legend-hungry enthusiasts with machinery that fit the role. One would think that the time for such cars is past, but the availability of not one but several A.C. Cobra replicas puts the torch to that idea. And now the Cobra’s spiritual progenitor has been resurrected from automotive Valhalla—as a Canadian! They call it the J2X2, and the principals in this resurrection stress that this is not a replicar. It is the resumed production, after 30 years, of the Allard…

For the longest time, police cars have been the motoring equivalent of the tough kid we all went to grammar school with—let’s call him Eugene “Spike” Walden. Spike was the 5-ft.-10 sixth grader who could lick anyone in the school, including the teachers. If he was your friend, everything was cool. If he wasn’t, your nickname was probably “Bruise.” Not too long ago cop cars were the Spike Waldens of autodom, the baddest machines on the road. Dan Matthews’ Coronet with its D500 Copmotor always got Broderick Crawford to the cutoff before the bad guys. And when you were cruisin’ along at “five-over,” it was always some monster-cube Mopar police interceptor that pulled you over. Just like Spike Walden, cop cars were to be respected and feared. Chrysler has dominated…

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DESIGNING IN 3-D Significant changes in the automobile industry are affecting traditional concepts of design education. At the Art Center College of Design (Pasadena, California), instruction is anticipating professional needs still to be recognized by the industry. With vehicles becoming smaller, designers are finding traditional sketch and rendering techniques misleading, frustrating, and even counter-productive. Observes instructor/designer Harry Bradley, “It is difficult to convincingly sketch small vehicles with correct proportions and scale. Designers have a tendency to stylize their proposals and to incorrectly communicate the image or feel of the vehicle. It is necessary to sketch small vehicle proposals three-dimensionally so that their true proportion can be experienced in a realistic way.” Bradley contends that the design process in the American automobile industry often isolates the designer from the three-dimensional statement…

With the Tredia sedan, Mitsubishi aims to get a piece of the Stanza/Accord market. The car’s styling is sufficiently clean and conservative (though the grille slits tacked on below the Cpillars raised some small sighs here), and its performance and equipment are on target. Assuming competitive pricing (probably about $8000 as a base), the Tredia should find a home in this class. Mechanically, the Tredia is a carbon copy of the 2-door Cordia. The transverse 1.8 four and the available transmissions—5-speed, 4 + 4-speed, 3-speed ELC automatic—are all identical in the two cars. So are the independent suspension, disc/drum brakes, rack-and-pinion steering—everything, in fact, that attaches to the floorpan save the interior furnishings and external sheet metal. The Tredia is also offered in base, L, and LS configurations, with trim…

The Renault Alliance is a car of many parts—some parts from there, more from here. The first Renault to be built in the United States is both an automotive beginning and an end, as well as the truest “World Car” built to date. The story goes back to the summer of 1978, when AMC was looking for a European auto maker to assist the firm in the engineering and construction of prototypes of future models. The Southfield, Michigan-based company did little to conceal the fact that talks were progressing with PSA, the Peugeot/Citroen/Talbot group. At the same time that the Regie Nationale des Usines Renault had its corporate eye on the U.S. as a virtually untapped market. Bernard Hanon, president of the Regie, then general manager of Renault, believed the…

Henry James hung a cloak of innocence on us, the Americans. He saw, 80 years before the time we are concerned with here, that, despite energy and intelligence, despite a kind of native goodness, we weren’t clever enough, cunning enough, to compete with the Europeans. James knew. Whether or not James was right is not so important. What is important is that we believed him, especially in the East where some part of society did its best to do what was smart—and smart was European. Perhaps that’s why sports car racing, as we know it, started in New York, and didn’t come west for some years. Perhaps, too, some desire to be as close as possible to its roots kept the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) sequestered in Connecticut…

Even from the cockpit, it’s voluptuous, with that great rounded hood thrusting ‘way out there. Erotic? You bet it is. And beautiful. Now how many cars can you say that about, that they look good even from the driver’s seat? Of course, Jaguar XK-Es look wonderful from any angle. Even after all these years—two decades—this is still one of the three or four most spectacular shapes ever put on wheels. And it commands respect; lot-jocks handle it with awe and heads swivel around everywhere. Those folks are all marveling at something more than just a cherry old Jaguar. This is one of a running series of E-types brought back to life by Kentish House Motors (RR #3, 19370 Enterprise Way, Surrey, B.C., Canada, V3S 4N9). Naturally, the restoration is more…

Acceleration performance is a relative thing, and in any given month, with between a dozen and two dozen cars lining the stalls and walls of the MT garage, only one or two at most will be true exciters, especially when compared to the rest of the hardware. A 91 ISC Porsche, for instance, when driven hard after just stepping out of a Toyota Tercel, feels fantastic with its 14-sec quarter-mile performance. In contrast, stepping out of the Porsche and climbing onto a Suzuki GS-1100E is a real shocker, because the GS is another 3 secs quicker in that same quarter mile; its acceleration seems outside the realm of reason. Actually, it doesn’t accelerate as much as it seems to transform itself from here to there. Even in high gear, the…

The language of car stereo can be a confusing one. Its roots stem from professional acoustics, the high fidelity industry, and the music industry. Alongside conventional terminology is an industry-generated perversion of language from these and other technical arenas. This glossary is intended to be your personal Rosetta Stone, relating the car stereo world to reality. The glossary is divided into five major sections for your convenience. The terms within each section are arranged alphabetically. In addition, there are some “In Depth” looks at key systems, subsystems, and concepts within car stereo. We hope this two-part series will help give you the advantage next time you encounter the world of car stereo. SECTION 1 MUSIC SOURCES Car stereo music sources include radios, tape players, and their associated paraphernalia, such as…

DODGE 600ES EUROSEDAN When the new Chrysler Ecars, larger sedan versions of the K-car with extra side windows and slanted roofs, hit the market in a month or so, the excitement leader will be the Dodge 600 in its ES version. The 4-door sedan has a typical Dodge horizontal soft grille, and typical Dodge front fender vents adapted to a crisp new body shell. The ES has a stiffer, stickier suspension system with hefty stabilizer bars and premium tires, with a. much-improved 2.2-liter Chrysler four and a 2.6-liter Mitsubishi Silent Shaft engine as optional, with 5-speed manual as well as automatic transaxles. The 600ES will have standard bucket seats, blackout exterior trim, aluminum wheels, electronic voice warning system, dual power mirrors, and electronic decklid release among other items as standard…

In case anyone out there still worries about the fate of the performance car, listen up. Everything’s okay. Really. At this moment, Supras and Z28s are selling faster than manufacturers can give away more pedestrian offerings, and Mustang sales have been revived not by rebates but by a big, honking motor. Now take a look at the brilliant red-orange runner on this page. A new company appears under its own banner for the first time in this country, and what does it decide to showcase? What does it use to launch its reputation? Some mass-appeal transporto-car intended to sell in reams to Ma and Pa Consumer? No way, Yankee Populist. Mitsubishi Motor Sales of America has pinned its fortunes to a star, one it calls Starion, which makes the fraternity…

The Starion’s body is unarguably striking and apparently efficient—a chisel-like nose, retracting headlights, and steeply raked windshield help yield a claimed Cd of 0.35. But it wears more add-on flash than we prefer. Just as with Toyota’s Supra introduced about this time last year, we like the overall shape but think the stylists put too many vents here and wrinkles there. Specifically, we don’t believe the hood needs three fake air intakes; the cockpit vents behind the doors break the body’s horizontal flow; and using a set-back chin spoiler instead of coordinating body lines above and below the bumper makes the nose look too high. Aesthetics are clearly a matter of personal taste, and we’ll concede the possibility that Mitsubishi (and Toyota and Nissan) knows its market better than we…

If you want to know the truth, I’ve always been a little suspicious of race drivers who walk around on the balls of their feet. I’m more your basic beer and fried chicken kind of racing fan, where the guys wear T-shirts they won in the horseshoe tournament at their construction company picnic, and run cars with fenders that look like they had a run-in with an Israeli tank. Guys like Jimmy Bryan and Junior Johnson are my kind of race drivers. Bryan smoked big, cheap cigars and drove Offy-powered champ cars sideways around dirt tracks; Junior raised coon dogs, hauled liquor, ate too many Moon Pies, and drove big, bent-fender stock cars sideways around dirt tracks. No subtlety here—we’re talking good old American apple pie violence. Because of my…

It’s certainly not all beer and skittles out there, you know, and probably still wouldn’t be even if I knew what skittles were. What I did know, then, was that I was simultaneously flunking out of engineering school and falling farther in debt daily. It was certainly becoming obvious that, while perhaps my mother hadn’t raised me to be an engineer (too early for calculators, too late for decitrig slide rules), she certainly hadn’t raised me to perish on a diet of White Castles and coffee. So the direction was clear: Get a part time job that would both allow me to retain the illusion of staying in school, and broaden my menu. It doesn’t matter now whether it was one of those spurious classifieds (“…big money…easy hours…no experience…“) or…

Sumptuous, yes. Seductive, jawohl, as few others. Civilized as Dom Perignon. Sure and silent as an assassin’s knife. But at this office the first question asked concerning a turbocar—any turbocar—is invariably, “whaddaya spose that rig will do?” So let us dispense with blood-red sunsets and secret valleys flashing past in the misty dawn to get right down to standing starts. What’ll this tricked-up supercruiser do? Well, it’ll just run heads-up with any XJ-S Jaguar in town, is all. Just dust Porsche 928s. Just frazzle Ferrari 308s. In fact, this car will show a tidy set of heels to anything in its class, and is even in the ballpark with somewhat smaller quickies like the everlasting Porsche 911SC and Datsun 280ZX Turbo. Heady company indeed for a leather-lined luxo coupe that…

There was a time, not too long ago, when Cadillacs were easily identifiable by their gangsteresque whitewalls and an amount of chrome trim, the weight of which approximated that of an entire Vega. These were the ginormous land yachts that have long appealed to that segment of the car buying public called “the traditional luxury car owner.’’ Caddy’s sales department brain trust woke up about four years ago and realized the traditional buyers were disappearing at a rate greater than new buyers were “stepping up” to Cadillacs. Truth be known, the traditional Caddy buyer was succumbing to old age, and the young affluent was looking at BMWs, Peugeots. and Volvos as alternate luxury cars. Cadillac, General Motors’ self-proclaimed “standard of the world,” needed to respond to this wholesale defection of…

Indy ’82: Too Close For Comfort The Indianapolis 500 has been the scene of many epic battles throughout its 66year history. Since the 1979 split between the Championship Auto Racing Teams and the United States Auto Club, many of the most highly publicized confrontations have taken place in lawyers’chambers rather than trackside. This year, it was a different matter. Legal fisticuffs were mercifully absent, and wheel-to-wheel action ran at an all-time high. The man of the hour turned out to be Gordon Johncock. In posting a record-setting. 16-sec victory over Rick Mears, the 46-year-old Michigan native notched his second Indy 500 win, and clearly the greatest triumph of his 18-year Indy-car career. Along the way, he also managed to extract a measure of poetic justice for team owner U.E. “Pat”…