Indholdsfortegnelse for December 1988 i MotorTrend

Wheelstand at Mickey D’s It seemed like a good idea at the time. Jim had a Henry body in good condition sitting in his. backyard, and there was a ’57 Olds station wagon with a complete driveline available from a neighbor for only $50. The body was junk, but we didn’t care—we wanted the big engine, the Hydramatic transmission, and the big, bulletproof rearend. After we removed the driveline, we could still sell the body to the junkyard for $25, so this project would be cheap. The plan was to transplant the Olds driveline into the lightweight Henry and build a car for just one purpose: pop an honest-to-goodness wheelie in front of our friends at the local drive-in. This was to be a straight-up wheelstand with none of those…

PORSCHE’S 175-MPH 911 This Porsche, codenamed 965, is destined to replace the 162-mph Turbo model at the top of the 911 range. In concept and in styling, the new car clearly resembles the German company’s 200-mph 959 supercar, although it’s a little less radical and will be a run-of-the-line production model. Slimmer than the bulbous 959, with tighter arches over new aluminum wheels, the 965 nonetheless shares essentially the same shape, with a curvaceous deformable plastic front end, two ducts running the width of the prominent chin bib, more intakes tucked into the leading edges of the rear wheel arches, a 911-style cockpit bubble, and a harmoniously integrated low-slung wing at the tail. The latter, unlike the recently unveiled Carrera 4’s, is not an automatically retractable device. Naturally, the 965…

EMISSIONS WARRANTY: WHO PAYS? Did you know that if your late-model car (under five years old or less than 50,000 miles) can’t pass a local emissions check because of a defective turbocharger, carburetor, or fuel-injection pump, you can stick the manufacturer with the fix? Neither did Ford, which was wide-eyed with surprise recently to find in its mailbox a “Notice of Violation” from the EPA for 23 incidents of improperly denying five-year/50,000-mile warranty claims on non-emissions control components that caused vehicles to fail emissions tests. At $10,000 per violation, Ford is looking at a potential penalty of $230,000. And this is just the tip of the iceberg as the EPA takes a “closer look” at how manufacturers honor emissions warranty claims. What it boils down to is an interpretation of…

There’s no business like SHO business No one has to tell you how much we at Motor Trend like the Ford Taurus. We liked it enough to name it our 1986 Car of the Year; we liked it enough to add one to our long-term test fleet; and we liked it enough to name it Top Family Sedan Buy in our Top 10 issue. Frankly, the Taurus has always offered a lot to like—ahead-of-the-pack styling, fine people-packaging, clever ergonomics, and a more than palatable pricetag. Ford’s obviously been doing a lot of things right lately. If there was one thing we didn’t like about the Taurus, though, it was its relative lack of horsepower. The addition of the 3.8-liter V-6 for ’88 helped a bit on that score, but the…

About the time Amos Johnson came through the esses in the Mazda 323, tires chirping with each direction change, I realized I was in over my head. Here I was, behind the wheel of a one-of-a-kind Mercedes race car during an all-out practice session, and all I can see is the Armco on the outside of Sears Point. It didn’t help that on my second lap I’d gotten seriously sideways in Turn 7, when I discovered that cold tires go away as quickly and quietly as a mugger in the night. And as fast as I was going, I’m sure I was nothing more than a mobile chicane for the ProFormance series-leading Acura Integras and Mazda 323s. Still, I just figured to keen my head down. I’ve been behind the…

There’s a wonderful book, with an even more wonderful title, that you must buy in pairs because you’ll always be encountering people who have not read it, and you’ll feel either a generous sense of obligation or perhaps a need to display your superiority by introducing them to it. Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, by Charles Mackay, LL.D., was first published in London in 1841. It’s about peoplemobs of people—whose greed so overwhelmed them that they began to believe there was no end to the rise in price of whatever had become their high road to great wealth without working, and what became of them when the bubble burst, as it always does. What, you yawn, does this have to do with vintage automobiles? I’m not sure.…

For years, the reports of Riverside International Raceway’s demise had proven premature. Yet when the tough, mean, dirty, hot, dusty, windy, nasty, miserable ol’ place in the California desert was finally declared terminal, it seemed like every sanctioning body in the western hemisphere decided to put on the “last race.” But the really and truly final road-race meeting, the last ever on Riverside’s road course, was for vintage cars on the weekend of July 16-17. The last race of that weekend was a two-hour enduro for a mixed bag of old sedans and sports racing cars. The weekend, organized by Vintage Racing, or V.R., as it’s called, seems in retrospect as good a way as any to close out the track. In a kind of ashes-to-ashes, dust-to-dust way (and there…

ZR1 upmanship In one fell swoop, GM produces a car that will truly “kick some ass” on the open highway. The Chevrolet Corvette ZR1 is the greatest assertion from an American automotive company in this decade, a car capable of besting just about every car on this planet (959 and F4O excepted, of course). What’s so interesting about the ZR1 is the fact that the European automotive press (including the hard-to-please British press) has taken great notice of this car, if only because it will easily keep up with a Testarossa or Countach. I can’t wait to see their expressions when a ZR1 effortlessly passes a Jaguar XJ-S V-12 or a Porsche 928S 4. I personally think if Chevrolet ever sells a black ZR1, it will be the perfect car…

GM COUPE TO RIVAL JAPANESE Thought to be under consideration for the European and U.S. markets, General Motors is planning a handsome new sport coupe to rival the best from Germany and Japan. Based on the platform of the new Opel Vectra, this car has been born out of the necessity to replace the Opel Manta, a good value-for-money performance car in its time but now sorrowfully aged. The new Manta aims to combine the playful zest of the Honda CRX with the roomier interior of the Toyota Celica. At the bottom of its range, the Manta would logically employ the 156-hp 2-liter 16-valve DOHC 4-cylinder motor that makes the 132-mph Opel Kadett GSi/Vauxhall Astra GTE the hottest of Europe’s beloved hatchbacks. There’s also speculation, as yet unconfirmed, that the…

When the end of the world comes, I want to be sitting in the pilot’s couch of a Porsche 911 Turbo with the new 5-speed gearbox. I want to be pointing toward clear air and launching from the redline into the exploding face of eternity, Def Leppard and the blown howl of a Porsche six both maxed out to stun for the last time. Not a bad memory to carry away into forever. And if I’m defiantly not wearing my seatbelt that final time, well, find me in limbo for that ticket, pal. The differences between the Porsche 911 Turbo, newly equipped for 1989 with a 5-gear manual shifter (up from four), and the Lotus Esprit Turbo (Feb. ’88) are as great as they are small. Both cars are as…

In the never-ending decisional tug o’ wars engineers face in arriving at production-ready suspension settings, the most difficult is the eternal tradeoff between ride and handling. For decades, the two were considered as far apart as a Siberian work camp and a Hawaiian beach. Usually, to best suit most customers, the tradeoff is made in favor of settings that are less than ideal for the hard-core enthusiast driver. But there’ll always be a small but vocal minority that likes the feel of a car that handles more crisply, more sharply, that leans less, and whose ride motions are more controlled. The Alfa Romeo Milano, being one of the most exotic cars that carries four doors, appeals to a wide range of people, from the high-prestige sedan buyer to the guy…

It seems too good to be true—a vehicle right at home at the country club or out in the wilds. But that’s Bronco, the Number One selling full-size utility vehicle in America.2 It’s stylish, luxurious and tough. Bronco’s ride tells you it is at home on the highway and can tow whatever you want to hitch up (up to 7800 pounds, when properly equipped). Inside, there’s plenty of space for cargo (81.6 cubic feet with the rear seats folded down). For off-road, Bronco offers the convenience of Touch-Drive and an automatic locking hub option that goes with automatic overdrive transmissions. And, it has the ponies to go just about anywhere with a high-torque 4.9-liter inline six or a pair of V8s to choose from. Couple that power to your choice…

If you tune in to this magazine every month, you know that in our April issue we named the Honda CRX our 1988 Import Car of the Year. The choice of the CRX wasn’t exactly an upset victory for Honda. After all, the newest CRX had been praised to the skies not just by Motor Trend, but also by nearly every other automotive scribe in the country who’s able to depress the keys of a word processor. In announcing the award, we called the CRX “the most exhilarating ride you’ll find this side of a formula racer.” We particularly praised its thoroughly revamped double-wishbone suspension, and we weren’t exactly turned off by its low price (under $12,000 for our tester), either. To make a short story shorter, we loved practically…

’91 SATURN SNAGGED GM and Saturn division sources confirm the car shown here is a mildly disguised subcompact Saturn sedan. The exterior detail is quite close to how the production car will debut, reliable sources confirm, in the fall of 1990. In striking contrast to the cobbled-together mule GM rolled out when Saturn first went into orbit, this sedan is apparently longer and wider. Additionally, the small front and rear overhang indicates Saturn technicians went for maximum ride qualities by utilizing a longer wheelbase. Plastic, injection-molded bumpers are integrated into the front and rear ends, promoting a modern, unitized exterior look. The headlamps remain exposed in this development Car, but are recessed into the nose in Buick Skyhawk fashion. Photo analysis indicates driving lights in the opening inboard of the…

Forget everything you know about Mitsubishi’s Galant. It no longer applies. For 1989, Mitsubishi has a car called the Galant, sure enough, but the name is about the only thing the new car has in common with its like-sounding relatives. The Galant has been a hard car to pin down in recent years, what with substantial changes every season. The ’88 Galant was a 3042-lb sedan pulled along by a 3-liter V-6. Before that, the car was hauled down the road by a 2350cc four. Now we’re looking at an entirely new car in 1989, a 2800-lb sedan powered by a comparatively small 16-valve four in the top-of-the-line GS model. Obviously Mitsubishi has rethought the car entirely, to the point where only the name has remained the same. We’re happy…

As the sun creeps over the horizon, the morning warmup session ends. It’s time to put on the ol’ race face. The signal light snaps red and the countdown begins. Blip the throttle and slip into 1st gear. One final glance at the gauges, then…Green! With the gas pedal mashed hard into the floorboard, the needle sweeps smartly across the face of the rev counter as the speed builds, the engine delivering a rush of power with an ever-rising note of urgency. A quick tug on the shift lever, and the process begins again. Mirror check. A flash of black and white jumps into view, the ominous spectre causing an immediate separation of right foot from accelerator and a coincident king-sized jolt of adrenaline. The impromptu Grand Prix comes to…

Mitsubishi’s Diamond Star offspring is the Eclipse. It’s a ’90 model that will, like the Plymouth Laser, be available in January 1989. If rumblings from Mitsubishi pan out, the top-of-the-line Eclipse should carry a sticker price in the neighborhood of $14,000. Among the lower-line versions, the Plymouth and Mitsubishi have few differences, but at the high-end, Mitsubishi’s GS Turbo has unique blackout roof and support pillars, along with a rear spoiler and different airdam and rocker panels. The car’s clean new lines mesh beautifully with Mitsubishi’s radical program of styling progress that’s sweeping the company’s entire line. And if our experience with the car is any indication, the general public is just crazy about the way the Eclipse looks. I t’s probably the best-looking car to wear a Plymouth badge…

If John Rambo has a personal luxury vehicle, Commander, this baby is it. This cartoon Lamborghini may have escaped your attention on display in the Chrysler exhibit during last year’s auto show season. We think Chrysler Motors bought Lamborghini just so Lee Iacocca could have a vehicle that really, truly, undisputedly is not like anything else ever built. Rambo’s Lambo isn’t based on anything ever built here. Or in the country, for that matter. Hell, on the planet. The LM002 is its tag (Chrysler’s John McCandless pronounces it “La-Moo 2”). The “double-oh-two” suffix doesn’t have anything to do with James Bond, nor could it, because there’s absolutely nothing subtle whatsoever about John Rambo’s Lambo. It was originally designed back in the mid-’70s to be the ultimate exotic off-roader, first seeing…