Innehållsförteckning för February 2013 från Car and Driver

Take Two Tablets Not sure if you were paying attention to the television this past holiday season, but if you were, you probably saw them: ads for tablet devices. Large tablets, small tablets, medium-size tablets. Three new screens from Amazon, two from Apple, and one from Microsoft, all being stroked and plied by children and bright-eyed teens of diverse ethnicities over a backdrop of bold color blocks and soft sans-serif type. The future is here, and a toddler is going to show you how to use it. Indeed, the tablet is becoming so enmeshed in modern life that some pundits are saying it is going to replace the desktop. Nice that someone's not bloviating about the death of print for a change, but of the conventional computer. I digress. Regular…

MY FIRST CAR DEAR LEADER KIM JONG-UN, as told to Bruce McCall My grampa, Kim Il-sung, gave me a clean, one-owner, never-raced Iso Rivolta for my sixth birthday, but the mechanic in charge of showing me how to drive it had to be shot by the Household Police for using the wrong bathroom, so it sat unused until a team could be sent to Italy to kidnap another Iso Rivolta mechanic. That was my first car, but it didn't count because of Edict No. 3476—what we of the Leading Cadre of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea call a "mulligan." My second first car was a Panhard Dyna confiscated from the French Embassy in 1957, but the tank was almost dry and it ran out of gas. When we got…

HERE IN C/D'S HOME STATE OF MICHIGAN, dead deer on the roadside are a common sight. Residents of less-savage states might be shocked by just how frequently some of their countrymen crash into deer. Since 2007, State Farm has compiled a record of the collisions between its customers and deer, and it has used that data to estimate the likelihood of drivers around the country being involved in such an incident. To wit: THE FIVE MOST DANGEROUS states account for 34 percent of all deer-vehicle collisions. The five least dangerous, just 0.4 percent. YOU'RE MOST LIKELY to hit a deer in the fall. On any given day in November, a collision with a deer is three times more likely than on any day from February through August. WHEN WE…

Never turn your back on October. Work on the annual Winners and Losers round-up in the January 10Best issue begins for me on January 1 of the year before with the daily chronicle of vanity, greed, and stupidity otherwise known as the morning newspaper. It ends in late October, when copy changes can no longer be inserted without sparking a union movement in our art department. Thus, due to our magazine's two-month lead time, Winners can never account for a full year's obituaries and events. Which would only matter if we billed it as such. And actually cared. However, I personally live in dread of big news items, such as these two, happening while our January issue is still just ink being squirted from buckets. SUZUKI'S SURRENDER: Foolishly, as it…

LL4 JAGUAR XKR-S • 3:02.1 It's sobering to think that a car is trying to kill you. But lapping the XKR-S, Grim Reaper black and bristling with aero blades, was nothing less than a death match. Rubber and grass and mud flew. Here is one Brit that lives by Mr. Churchill's wartime credo: I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, and sweat. What? A Jaguar? You wouldn't experience this on a fast run down to Saint-Tropez, but a track pushes a car to extremes and, like war, sometimes unleashes inner demons. The XKR-S has a lot of horsepower—550 in fact—and a lot of braking power. Plus, it shifts smartly and offers an evenly balanced suspension tune that holds the body flat and makes it pivot with lift-throttle steering…

CHEVROLET CORVETTE ZR1 PRICE > $125,920 POWER > 638 hp TORQUE > 604 lb-ft WEIGHT > 3353 lb C/D OBSERVED MPG > 16 SRT VIPER GTS PRICE > $140,990 POWER > 640 hp TORQUE > 600 lb-ft WEIGHT > 3356 lb C/D OBSERVED MPG > 17 If you believe in parallel universes, here's a meeting that never takes place in pretty much all of them except this one. Back in 2008, Chrysler was a financial boat anchor bumping along the bottom and looking to spin off the Viper's nuts, bolts, and name for quick cash. Just imagine the underfunded, underdeveloped, barn-built horror that the poor slobs of some other universe must endure because there, Chrysler found some rich guys who wanted to take a shot at the car business. In…

THIS MONTH Hyundai Santa Fe Sport // Buick Verano Turbo // Mercedes-Benz GL63 AMG // Toyota Avalon // Mini John Cooper Works GP As master illusionists Siegfried & Roy demonstrated night after night—well, most nights anyway—the spectacle of a pair of sequin-studded Germans ordering around uncaged and hopefully housebroken lions and tigers can be riveting. Not nearly as gamey, but accomplished with equally Teutonic flourish, is the job Porsche has done taming its once- wild and still-exotic rear-engined flagship. Whereas existential consequences once awaited those drivers of early 911s too unwise or foolish enough to try lift-throttle maneuvers mid-corner, today's 911 is certainly more forgiving than an uncaged Bengal tiger. With the Carrera 4 and Carrera 4S, Porsche rolls out the first four-wheel-drive versions of its new, seventh-generation 911. Porsche…

In 1995, Toyota wrote a love poem to the AARP called Avalon. A stretched Camry, the Avalon replicated the touchstones of the classic American sedan, including a spacious rear seat, a column shifter, and a front bench. Even the name made it sound like a dreamland for folks in their golden years, where Hugh Downs is always on TV and people get back rubs from Jessica Tandy. Soft, comfortable, and spacious, the Avalon chased the Big Three right into the carports of Restful Acres, where big sedans rule. Toyota is now maintaining that the redesigned 2013 Avalon is a car for the liver-spotless. A bit of history: Toyota made that same claim in 2005 after slipping a larger, 3.5-liter V-6 into the Avalon. We welcomed the extra power, but that…

Sic your dogs on us at: editors@CARandDRIVER.com or join the discussion at: backfires.caranddriver.com WHY THE LONG FACE? The ultimate expression of Ford's new global design language? That Hyundai Genesis coupe–looking thing on page 18 ["Revolution of the Species," November 2012] is not a Mustang. Period. ROB CURTIS GARNERVILLE, NEW YORK Nice-looking Hyundai Genesis on the cover. Why does it have a Mustang emblem on the grille? If this is what Ford wants to go with, at least get rid of the rice-rocket fog-light enclosures and move the fog lights into the grille. That's where Ol' Shel would have wanted them. JJ WEST VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA No, Ford, no! Bad dog; no biscuit. Please, no. God, no. Aaarrrrggghh! Say it isn't so. Please, no. No. No.…

Depending on which metropolis you call home, parking is anything from a major annoyance to a genuine source of hardship and strife. That is, unless you're one of the lucky one-percenters who has so much money that other people's problems aren't really your problems. While most urban dwellers fret about finding an open parking space [see bottom of page], even one far from their front doors, the rich are loath to leave their megadollar supercars in a garage or entrust them to a valet (whom they'll have to tip, the cheapskates). Where there is need, there is someone to meet demand, and now some urban elite can simply ride in elevators—along with their cars—up to their apartments. The "Sky Porch" parking units in SINGAPORE'S HAMILTON SCOTTS APARTMENTS feature separate elevators…

So-called "by-wire" controls, which replace a mechanical connection between driver and automobile with an electronic signal, have become commonplace. Electronic throttles are now ubiquitous, braking is increasingly dependent on electronic circuits, and even window switches have become computer controlled. Steering systems haven't gone completely by-wire for good reason: It's a little scary to imagine front wheels that may or may not respond to the driver's inputs, depending on a computer's whim. But Nissan's upcoming steer-by-wire (SBW) system includes a fail-safe clutch in its column. In normal driving situations, this clutch is disengaged, but if one of the three control modules detects a fault, the clutch snaps shut and the steering acts as a conventional, electrically assisted rack-and-pinion system. The clutch also engages when the engine shuts off, so if one…

ONCE AGAIN WE ASSEMBLE THE NEWEST, HOTTEST VEHICLES ON THE MARKET AND SUBJECT THEM TO A REFERENCE LAP ON THE FEARSOME VIRGINIA INTERNATIONAL RACEWAY. CALL IT THE AMERICAN VERSION OF THEIR NÜRBURGRING TIMES. CALL IT THE ALL-TIME, WORLD'S BEST DAY ON THE JOB. OR JUST CALL IT LIGHTNING LAP. The asphalt amoeba down at the bottom of Old Dominion, known as Virginia International Raceway (VIR), differs from the famed Nürburgring in Germany in several important respects. First, VIR is not bankrupt. Second, at 4.1 miles long, the configuration of VIR that we use for our annual Lightning Lap speed-a-palooza is considerably shorter than the Nordschleife, which is 12.9 miles around and has something like 18 trillion turns. Also, at the 'Ring you can't get Mountain Dew from a vending machine.…

SECTOR 2 START TO COMPLY WITH AMERICAN LE MANS SERIES REQUIREMENTS, VIR ADDED CANDY-CANE FIA-STYLE CURBING IN SEVERAL CORNERS. EXPLOITING THE EXTRA-WIDE TRACK SURFACE HERE IS HAMPERED BY SECTOR 2'S COMBINATION OF QUICK GRADE CHANGES AND LARGE-RADIUS CORNERS THAT CHALLENGE THE 458'S SUSPENSION. CLIMBING ESSES EXCESSIVE CONTACT WITH CURBING UPSETS EVERY CAR, INCLUDING THE 458, INCREASING SECTOR-2 SPLIT TIMES. A LIGHT NIBBLE OF EACH CURB WITH THE OUTSIDE EDGES OF THE TIRES YIELDS THE QUICKEST PASS. THE LAST SECTOR-2 CORNER IS CRITICAL TO A GOOD LAP. EXITING TOO WIDE BOTCHES THE ENTRY TO THE NEXT BEND, A TERRIFYING 90-MPH LEFT. BEST RESULTS COME FROM SACRIFICING A LITTLE SPEED IN THE ESSES TO ACHIEVE MAXIMUM VELOCITY IN THE NEXT TURN.…

out of separate shops on the west coast arises a vision of automotive originality. "The chief enemy of creativity is good sense." —Pablo Picasso It shouldn't exist, but here it is, in a small shop, behind a green, wooden roll-up door, in an old, nondescript, unmarked building on a side street in perpetually funky Santa Cruz, California. It's a never-run, air-cooled, 520-hp 12.7-liter V-12 aircraft engine, the last of which was assembled in 1945. Called the Ranger V-770, it's an angry-looking, supercharged monster with huge, aluminum-finned steel barrels sticking out of a two-piece aluminum crankcase. Wires snake from the distributors, sending juice to the 24 spark plugs. It's an archaic escapee from World War II, when piston engines still ruled the air. Now it's just sitting on a…

+ Interior feels like a big-budget production; refined, smooth, and spacious. - Quick only in its ability to go from $25,000 to more than $30,000. The five-passenger Hyundai Sonata wagon—er, Santa Fe—is Hyundai's ticket to the bountiful buffet of the crossover market that represents much of America's current car spending. And like its many, many competitors, the Sonata-based Santa Fe can be moved upscale PDQ from its $25,275 base price. Just by checking one box for the Technology package ($2700) that includes an eight-inch navigation screen, a sunroof, and a heated steering wheel, you are also loaded down with an additional $3900 in required options. Go ahead, splurge! You can identify the cheapskates because they don't have an electroluminescent gauge cluster, heated rear seats, or premium doorsill plates on their…

"But why?" According to Mini designer Anders Warming, that is the question the company's management in Munich asks repeatedly to challenge new ideas. And it's one we have after driving the 2013 Mini John Cooper Works GP. The $39,950 GP is a limited edition, an "instant collectible" as future auction barkers might say, that splits the difference between the standard John Cooper Works hardtop and a Mini Challenge race car. Intended to be a track-day special, it goes on sale in March with production capped at 2000 units worldwide, 500 of which are coming here. Owners of the first-generation 2006 GP model will have first dibs on the new one, and every buyer can expect to be offered some sort of special perk for their profligate purchase. Delivery at the…

P. 13 Leasing Q&A Luxurious family car or sporty luxury car? P. 14 Park Place Don't have $3 million? Park some other place. P. 15 Most Wanted Bring 'em back alive. No reward for capture. P. 16 Oh, Deer! A rundown of where we run down deer. P. 17 SBW Seeks OK Taking the next step in electric power steering. ELECTRIC CARS HAVEN'T YET CAUGHT ON THE WAY THEY WERE SUPPOSED TO. WILL THEY EVER? Last October, Audi announced that it was canning its R8 e-tron electric supercar, in development for three years, before a single vehicle came to market. While the R8 e-tron certainly wasn't going to sell in huge volumes, its cancellation is just the latest setback in…

IT'S STRANGE AND SAD that a time of such rapid automotive innovation should produce a vehicle fleet ever more homogenous and bland. But compounding regulation drives up development costs, and humanity is falling out of love with the automobile. The people who design and engineer our preferred mode of transport are left serving a diverse number of masters, few of whom properly appreciate cars as machines of soul and romance. What follows is a rundown of the enemies of cars as we know and love them. —JOHN PEARLEY HUFFMAN Clarence Ditlow Executive director of the Center for Auto Safety since 1975, Ditlow will never see a car he deems "safe enough." Formed by Ralph Nader, the CAS has been at the forefront in pushing for vehicle recalls—some justified, others not—since…

Chris Economaki: 1920–2012. Chris Economaki had a reedy, squeaky voice—"a rabbit with laryngitis," is how stock-car writer Tex Swiston once described it—that should have obviated any TV career. Fact is, Chris might more profitably have been a barker at Coney Island—he was, at heart, a racetrack promoter. Mind you, it could have been precisely that awful trebly honk, which so deftly pierced the cacophony of open exhausts, that ultimately rewarded Chris with 35 happy years on TV and 66 years reporting for his beloved National Speed Sport News. America had Cronkite. We had Economaki. I met Chris in 1975, while churning out race reports for Canadian Auto Racing Weekly (which we often spelled "Weakly"). Swiston and I were driving a green AMC Pacer en route to the Dover NASCAR race…

SHUTTER SPEED WHEN OUR VIDEO GNOMES WANTED ON-TRACK ACTION AT VIR, WE PONDERED WHAT CAMERA CAR COULD KEEP UP WITH THE OVER-AMPED POWERHOUSES AND STILL BE EASY TO KEEP OFF THE TIRE WALLS. BEHOLD THE WORLD'S COOLEST MOBILE SHOOTING PLATFORM: A NISSAN GT-R WITH A TAIL COVERED IN CAMERA-MOUNTING SCAFFOLDING. OKAY, SO THE FORD GT40 CAMERA CAR USED FOR LE MANS IS COOLER. BUT WE GOT TO DRIVE THIS ONE. SEE ALL THE FOOTAGE AT: WWW.YOUTUBE.COM/CARANDDRIVER. LL3 AUDI S6 • 3:09.8 Here is cruel proof of what a track can do to an otherwise estimable sports sedan. Fresh out of the box, the new S6 bested the Mercedes-Benz E63 AMG and the BMW M5 in a comparison test. Then we sent this example, as white as coconut meat and freshly…

In a hyper-macho and ultra-industrious world where cars didn't exist, what would individuals of subpar testosterone levels and only moderate abilities drive? Even if trucks were our only choice, we imagine the relative merits of cars—smoother ride, ease of maneuverability, efficiency—would hold a natural draw for some. These folks would want trucks as light and economical, as "carlike" as possible. They'd be looking for El Caminos. Or Honda Ridgelines. For 2013, the Ram 1500 has been updated to make it more attractive to such people. Shedding pounds and gaining miles per gallon led Ram's agenda, so high-strength steel pares about 30 pounds from the truck's chassis, while an aluminum hood trims 26 pounds from the nose. According to Ram, the new base powertrain combo tested here saves 76 pounds compared…

Our barely broken-in long-term Volvo S60 T6 acquired an illness that our local dealer couldn't diagnose, let alone fix. It came on with a warning light reporting blockage of the windshield wipers' rain sensors. As our driver slowed to investigate, the entire cluster went Vegas and the engine shut down. Following a nervous traffic-clotting pause and a full reboot, our S60 fired back up with its check-engine lamp glowing. The car was diagnosed as having a faulty steering-pump module due to moisture that was causing a CAN disruption. (CAN stands for Controller Area Network, the party line linking all of the car's computer modules.) Following the warranty replacement of its power-steering fluid, pump, and electronic control module, our Volvo resumed its long-term test. Five weeks later, the gremlin returned. After…

+ If you have to drive a seven-passenger vehicle, it might as well sound like this. - Why do we have to push a button to get the steering we want? The introduction of the 550-hp GL63 AMG last summer sparked a debate in our business about whether this vehicle is proof that AMG has lost its mind. We say no, no, 550 times no. Remember that AMG's first race car was an S-class nicknamed the Red Sow. The firm is first and foremost a powerhouse: It transforms Mercedes vehicles into stealth sleds bristling with improper levels of horsepower. To make this comparatively demure GL into an AMG, Mercedes drops in its talented twin-turbocharged 5.5-liter V-8, upgrades the transmission and all-wheel-drive system, and fits a sportier adjustable suspension. The AMG…

Designer of the Shelby Daytona Cobra coupe, Brock, 76, helped style the 1963 Corvette Sting Ray, built championship hang gliders, watched Alejandro de Tomaso abuse his workers, and feuded bitterly with Carroll Shelby. C/D: You attended Art Center? PB: I walked in the back door, sat in on some classes, and was blown away. They said, "This is professionals teaching professionals—you'll have to show us your portfolio." I didn't know what that was. So I sat in my car for 90 minutes and drew little sketches of cars, walked back in and said, "Is this what you need?" C/D: Did your family support that? PB: Mom wanted me to be an architect. C/D: You helped style the C2 Corvette? PB: At GM, we called the [precursor] car the "Stingray racer."…