Indholdsfortegnelse for August 1986 i MotorTrend

New Rover 800 Code-named Rover XX, the Austin Rover prototype shown here sports an angular and conservative look, even with its low hood/high trunk aerodynamic styling. Two engine designs are being fitted in the 800, including a twin-cam 4-valve version and a 2.5-liter Honda-derived 4-cam 24-valve V6. There will also be two different versions of each engine—2.0-liters with throttle-body single-point fuel injection and full Lucas-designed multi-point injection with two different states of tune for the V-6. Depending on the success of this model, Rover may consider a convertible or hatchback later on down the line. Unser Sets 4wd Speed Record A specially prepared Audi 5000CS Turbo Quattro was driven by Bobby Linser to a one-lap closed-course speed record for 4-wheel-drive vehicles at Alabama International Motor Speedway. Linser consistently averaged over…

You remember. Every campus had one, perhaps several. Girls so beautiful you knew they were unobtainable. Slim, sexy, and perfect. Ladies of your dreams, and about as likely to say yes to a date as finding a million dollars attached to your physics homework. For years, automotive manufacturers have been building concept cars in much the same manner—lustful shapes, packed with fantasy and excitement; dream machines oozing with temptation, yet built merely as come-ons, with no intention of ever being obtainable. The Europeans have long led the battle of the “never to be builts,” flaunting their design and engineering superiority over the rest of the world, not to mention the added prestige given their existing product lines. Well, times have changed, on both fronts. Computer nerds are dating the unobtainables,…

In spite of all our exhortations about fun-to-drive factors, the thrills of running canyon roads, high-profiling at the CC, 0-60s and lateral g’s, the reason most people buy a car is because they need it to fulfill a particular function. That need is, perhaps, defined by the 2.3 children who suddenly appeared around the homestead, or the mother-in-law who suddenly appeared in the spare bedroom, or the co-workers who suddenly appeared for lunch dates now that you’re district sales manager. Whatever the reason, Ol’ Betsy is no longer sufficient for your needs. Your list of requirements for the new sled includes four doors, a high level of interior comfort, an exterior with some measure of lifestyle statement (let’s not forget the ego-feed every new car should engender), and enough horsepower…

I had a dream. Scene: The late Mesozoic Era. A split-level cave with a two-dinosaur cavern attached. I grab my firemaking tools, wave goodbye to the clan, and jump on my trusty commutersaur for the trip to the office (cooking pit). The leisurely amble of the beast beneath has me thinking of that new sporty sauropod my next-cave neighbor had just captured. Even though he works way over by the mammoth traps, he always beats me home in the evening. It really ticks me that he’s well into his second roasted grub of happy hour before I’m even halfway to the cave. And, if ever I have to stop to pick up a title sinew or obsidian for one of the clan’s females, I miss out on the grubs altogether…

Surveys are interesting devices. They arrive at respondent’s homes on good days, bad days, at times of fair weather and foul. Responses to even the most scientifically selected questions can be affected by as seemingly innocent an influence as what the guy next door thinks. A car owner survey, though, is a special creature all its own. People usually love or hate their cars, and conventional wisdom is that people experiencing problems are more likely to write about them. Volvo owners, our latest survey demonstrates, are just as likely to write good things about their cars. A good 63.5% of our Volvo respondents think their car is an excellent performer, with 92.5% reporting fun-to-drive capabilities in the “good” or “excellent” categories. This is all the more remarkable in that our…

Q Shopping for a new sedan, I find the Volvo 760 and Mercedes 300E have exceptional interior room, while several of the front-wheel-drive cars I looked at are comparatively cramped. I thought the big advantage of fwd was packaging. What gives? Wes Andersen Los Angeles, Calif. A At one time, fwd had the twin advantages of packaging and crosswind stability. In very small cars, fwd has become a given for those reasons. Compare a Golf and a Beetle, for example. But as the tooling and techniques to build fwd cars has improved, the cost has dropped below that of most equivalent front-engine rear-drives. Further, those fwd cars that don’t take full advantage of the flat-floor potential inherent in the design are usually able to sacrifice room for reasons of styling…

There we were, my 14-year-old son Tom and I, on our way for a long weekend. Work forced the lady of the manor to fly up later that evening, so we gassed up in L.A. and took off for Gold Rush country and my folks’ house, some 450 miles away. If you were northbound on California Highway 99 that day, you may have noticed us. The Audi 5000CS Turbo Quattro, lipstick red. Pretty damn terrific piece of machinery, that Audi. Smooth as the bottom side of a duck, fast as a jet, competent as Leonard Bernstein with a baton. We buckled in—seatbelts may not yet be a universal law of the land, but they are a law in this household—and set sail. That big Audi’s gorgeous aerodynamic shape whistled through…

Detroit—Ford put its metal-benders on overtime with the creation of the three ’87 vehicles shown here. This Thunderbird Turbo Coupe is the only version of the rumored “SVO T-Bird” we’ll see. All-new front and rear ends are made more attractive with better aero. Under the hood is a 2.3-liter SVO motor making about 200 hp; an automatic “active” suspension features Tokico shocks. The new Mustang GT gets its first all-new interior re-do since 1979. Outside, new front and rear treatments are connected by side skirts. The Bronco, as well as F-series pickups, gets a mild aero upgrade to include flush headlamps and all-new interior. Consumer Information: Who Cares? Do new-car buyers pay any attention to NHTSA information on crashworthiness, repairablity, braking, bumper, protection, or tire treadwear? Not much, according to…

“The Origin and Evolution of the VW Beetle,” by Terry Shuler, with Griffith Borgeson and Jerry Sloniger. Published by Automobile Quarterly, Marque Reference Series, 221 Nassau St., Princeton, N.J., 08540. 176 pg., 8 x 9½ in., 68 color photos, numerous B&W photos, $24.95. With all the books that have been written about the VW Beetle over the years, chances are any new book on the subject would be little more than a regurgitation of earlier material. That thought neglects the fact that the Beetle, in addition to being the most produced car ever, is also the most inspiring ever in terms of the amount of time, energy, money, and love Beetle enthusiasts are willing to expend on its behalf. Even now, seven years after the last new Beetle was sold…

We know who buys sports cars, and, we think, why. Sports cars—Corvettes, 944s, RX-7s, and so forth—are bought by people who, first, have the necessary cash or leasing plan, and second, tend to be trying an awful lot to look like Tom Selleck or the Camel cigarette guy. It would appear, from random observation of driving styles, they have bought rather more for image enhancement on the boulevard and rather less for the purpose of actually getting out there and terrorizing some asphalt. We think, sort of, that describes a fair percentage of the sports car market. But who buys sporty cars? Specifically, little sporty cars? Here, we’re talking about things like the Honda Prelude, VW Scirocco, Nissan Pulsar NX, and the subject of this road test, the Ford Escort…

Few sports cars would be as tough an act to follow as the Mazda RX-7. And few roads carve trails as tough to follow as those scaling Colorado’s Rockies. Combine the two and you’ve got a mighty challenge. Introducing the 1986 Mazda RX-7 GXL. An all-new challenger to follow up the toughest act going and to carve those Rockies down to size. The 1986 RX-7 GXL represents a brand-new idea in sports cars. Only two ingredients remain from the original RX-7 concept: The legendary rotary engine, and an equally legendary spirit of exhilaration in sports car driving. Everything else is new. Everything. The sleekly aerodynamic, wind tunnel tuned exterior boasts a Cd of only 0.31, with the style of flared fenders that cover, only barely, the muscle of low-profile, ultra-performance,…

We should get one thing clear right off: By any purely objective reasoning, the Panther Kallista is a pretty dismal excuse for a car. The average adult will have difficulty getting into it, much less driving it. In overall performance, it’s nothing to write home to mother about, and for its price, you can buy two Honda CRXs and get change back from your dollars. But before you turn the page, first look at the Kallista not as a car, but as a toy. Does the long hood send your heart racing? Do the sweeping fenders bring a ripple to the short hairs of your neck? Does the rumble of an overhead cam engine put an extra beat in your pulse rate? Can you picture yourself behind the wheel, a…

This piece could swing either way. It could go on at great length about all the mechanical blunders (the lack of a proper drop-center frame, the six-plus turn lock-to-lock steering, the overweight engine, the small brakes, the lousy little GM-patent window-sealing strips that didn’t open or close or seal), and Studebaker’s inability to see farther into the future than lunchtime tomorrow (long-range planning consisted of deciding on what exact form the meat and potatoes would take—usually meatloaf). Or it could rhapsodize about the Raymond Loewy-designed body (properly Raymond Loewy and Assoc. In this case, Associates are Messrs. Bourke and Koto, who are responsible for most of what must be near the top of The List of the Best Looking Production Cars Ever. In case you were wondering, I keep The…

Chrysler Brings the Future to Canada If you’re planning a trip to the world’s fair, “Expo ’86,” be sure to stop at the California Pavilion and check out the Mojave, the newest design from Chrysler Pacifica. The model was conceived at Chrysler’s advance design studio in Carlsbad, California, and represents automotive innovation the 31st state is known for. Also featured in the Chrysler exhibit is EDGE—Ergonomic Digitally Generated Environment. This state-of-the-art computer display will show the public what car interiors will be like in the 1990s. EDGE will show the driver holographic displays of fluid levels and an electro-luminescent display screen that changes from a satellite navigational map to an animated owner’s manual. According to Tom Tremont, manager of Chrysler Pacifica, the Mojave is being considered as the replacement for…

You’ve probably heard about the old shell game, automotive style. Take a car, any car, change the sheetmetal here and there, then tell the great unwashed populace that it’s a Brand-New Car. So what if the shiny shell conceals the same mechanical underpinnings from the previous (and now obsolete) model? Volkswagen, a company that made its reputation marching to the toot of a different fifer, has always refused to be party to the shell game. Witness the fabled Beetle, which roamed through the better part of three decades flaunting its sameness. Witness the Rabbit/Golf, which went through a complete makeover in the 1985 model year, while retaining a sibling resemblance bordering on incest. Finally, witness the Scirocco, which underwent a total redo in 1982 without losing any family resemblance and…

There are certain automobiles that to own and drive demand a shift in attitude, an alternate approach, a dissolving of normal limits. A commitment is required; new rules are established; the casual is scorned in favor of the determined. All this comes together when driving gloves—figurative or otherwise—are donned; when the hidden and graceful three-pedal softshoe is danced, and when the center of your back is the fulcrum around which a taut and powerful machine is pushed through the barriers of atmosphere and adhesion. It’s a relationship between driver and car that can never be fully explained to those inexperienced with its seductive attraction. And it’s a sensation fully exploited by the world’s auto makers, who unblushingly charge impressive amounts of money for the kind of car that not only…

This is the city, Los Angeles, California. I was working the day watch out of… oops, wrong TV show, wrong decade, wrong haircut. Hey, don’t jump to a mistaken impression. That cat Joe Friday was cool in his time-flattop, houndstooth check sport coat, Ford sedan-but these are the 1980s. Things have changed. For one thing, the economy’s better. The crooks are making lots more money now. In the ’50s, the bad guys were quite content with Plymouths, Chevys, and the odd Nash or DeSoto, so the big Vickie with the cop package was okee-do-key; but now, no self-respecting hoodlum would be caught dead in anything less than a Mercedes, Porsche, or Ferrari. Lincolns and Caddies, staple bad-guy cars of the past, are for the underlings, the bagmen, and the knee-breakers.…

The Camel GT series has enjoyed phenomenal success since IMSA revamped the program in 1983 and mustered out the existing silhouette series cars in favor of a new generation of purpose-built Prototype racers. While the full-size GTPs have rightfully commandeered the lion’s share of the headlines, their smaller brothers, formally designated Camel Lights, have also come a long way toward making their presence felt in the Prototype fields. Although initially required to race heads-up against the larger (1750-2080 lb) and more powerful GTPs during 1984, IMSA established the Camel Lights as a separate championship category last season. Originally, the Lights were designated to carry a minimum weight of 700 kg (1543 lb). That changed a bit for 1986 when IMSA recalibrated the weight/displacement formula as part of an overall rules…