Innehållsförteckning för March 2013 från Car and Driver

Sic your dogs on us at: editors@caranddriver.com or join the discussion at: backfires.caranddriver.com EYE OF THE BEHOLDER Wow, I don't think I've ever seen a more phallic car than the new SRT Viper. The Ambiguously Gay Duo called; it wants its car back. MICHAEL LAWRENCE WASHINGTON, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA More Viper letters, page 12. FAST TIMES Glancing at the graphs in "The Ascent of 'Man!' " article [December 2012], I noticed that on the Top Speed graph, you indicate that the Lamborghini Diablo was the first road car to reach 200 mph. I recall hearing that the Ferrari F40 was the first car to hit 200. After a quick web search, I found that the F40 was first produced in 1987 while the Diablo was not available for…

AUTOMAKERS ARE BUSY DREAMING UP NEW-CAR TECH. HERE ARE THE PATENTS TO PROVE IT. TURBOCHARGER, 1905 DUAL-CLUTCH TRANSMISSION, 1935 AIRBAG, 1952 GASOLINE DIRECT INJECTION, 1953 CARBON FIBER, 1964 NAVIGATION SYSTEM, 1981 VARIABLE VALVE TIMING, 1981 While most of EUROPE was illiterate and still recovering from the Black Death in the late 15th century, Leonardo da Vinci was brainstorming helicopters and scuba gear on his sketch pad. Though automotive suppliers do a lot of today's in-car innovating, da Vinci's spirit lives on in car companies, where in-house engineers dream up the next generation of technologies and apply for patents to protect the most promising breakthroughs. We've sifted through the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's (USPTO) records for a look at what might be the automotive future—or might turn out to be…

TRAFFIC JAMMING HOW YOU'RE BROADCASTING TRAFFIC REPORTS WITHOUT EVEN KNOWING IT. ACCIDENT CELLULAR NETWORK PROBE COMMERCIAL/VEHICLE GPS PROBE CONSTRUCTION DRIVER-GENERATED REPORT EVENT DATA ROADSIDE SENSOR OUTPUT As navigation systems transition from showing us where to go to telling us what traffic looks like along the way, better real-time information can be a big selling point. Traffic-info providers synthesize information from a number of disparate sources, but traffic choppers are expensive relics of the Ron Burgundy era and sensors embedded in roadways are fragile and often unreliable. The key to perfecting real-time traffic information may soon (if not already) be you. Nearly all cell phones sold today are equipped with Bluetooth. Several years ago, researchers at the University of Maryland hatched a plan to replace expensive roadside radar installations and other…

We are now intimate with the 2014 Corvette Stingray. Yep, Stingray. The historic moniker is not being reserved, as we previously proposed, for a later de-powered model, but goes on the base car. And now we know far more than its name. We've gazed upon its inner organs, examined its bones, and touched its skin. It all looks extremely promising, and makes the dramatic departure from the C6 that we projected in our January cover story. Prior to its reveal earlier this year at Detroit's North American International Auto Show, Chevrolet raised the veil slightly higher, providing limited access to a full-scale exterior model, a mock-up of the interior, the aluminum space frame, and many other components. More important, Car and Driver was granted eight hours with the engineers, designers,…

TRACKING TURBOCHARGED BABY ELEPHANTS IN THEIR NATURAL HABITAT. BMW X3 xDRIVE28i PRICE > $52,345 POWER > 240 hp TORQUE > 260 lb-ft WEIGHT > 4194 lb C/D OBSERVED MPG > 23 AUDI Q5 2.0T PRICE > $45,120 POWER > 211 hp TORQUE > 258 lb-ft WEIGHT > 4170 lb C/D OBSERVED MPG > 24 LAND ROVER RANGE ROVER EVOQUE PRICE > $56,795 POWER > 240 hp TORQUE > 250 lb-ft WEIGHT > 4012 lb C/D OBSERVED MPG > 22 You do not see Maine lobsters dragging themselves dumbly across the Sahara. This, we suspect, is because lobsters secrete urine from their heads and so they might become mired in the sand they just turned into mud. Also, a lobster in the desert is just too pathetic a thing to consider.…

Audi went all-in on aluminum with the first-generation A8 that arrived here for 1997. It must have had a crystal ball: Now that all automakers are looking to meet aggressive CAFE targets through, among other things, the shedding of pounds, Audi's bet on aluminum seems prescient. This head start with the most abundant metal in the earth's crust means the third-generation A8 is a paragon of mass management, lightweight manufacturing, and big-car fuel efficiency. But it also represents the best the brand has to offer in terms of executive-class luxury, performance, and technology. After it posted a narrow victory over the BMW 750iL and the Jaguar XJL Supercharged in a May 2011 comparison test, we decided to put the 2012 A8L through a long-term test, albeit without the $12,500 Executive…

+ Looks good and goes fast, rare and exclusive. - Often doesn't feel fast; about $40K more than the factory job. Alpina founder Burkard Bovensiepen developed a twin Weber kit to energize the drowsy BMW 1500 sedan in 1962, half a century ago. But the Bavarian tuner with the Weber carb and a crankshaft in its crest has been partnering with BMW in the United States for only about 10 years. The first American Alpina was a version of the Z8 roadster with an automatic transmission, not what we'd call a great start. Then came a series of B7s based on BMW's 7-series, first with the old Bangle-butt E65 in 2007, then the current, sleeker F01 in 2010. Even with base prices of $128,495 for the rear-drive,…

Under Tata, Jaguar is getting the attention it was denied during its stint as furniture in Ford's living room. In the auto industry, attentiveness is fairly easily quantified, and Tata's doting rings in at $2 billion. We're told that's the amount the Indian industrial conglomerate has earmarked for Jaguar R&D for each of the next five years. For the XF, Tata's investments have already spawned niche vehicles such as the gorgeously utilitarian Sportbrake, an XF wagon for European markets, and the 550-hp XFR-S, of which only 100 are coming to the U.S. next year, making it as rare as a reliable British car. Jag also checked critical mainstream-consumer boxes by adding an all-wheel-drive XF [see sidebar] and bolstering the number of engines on the XF's options sheet. Where previously there…

THIS MONTH'S ISSUE IS AWASH IN VEHICLES powered by turbocharged 2.0-liter four-cylinder engines. We have three such crossovers in the comparison test beginning on page 52; a Chevy Malibu with an engine of that configuration; and even a Jaguar XF with a 2.0-liter turbo under its hood. As Jeff Sabatini points out in his review of the Malibu on page 96, the "turbocharged" honorific no longer fires the adrenal glands the way it did in the age of Porsche 930s and Saab 900 Turbos. Nowadays, forced induction is how carmakers get an extra two cylinders' worth of power out of a downsized engine without failing their EPA tests. But why the 2.0-liter size, specifically? It turns out that this displacement represents a sort of sweet spot for global engine design.…

Cancer survivor Joe Bacal drove the entire 38 hours and 22 minutes to a Stock Full class victory in the 2012 Baja 1000, relying on these from sponsor Hammer Nutrition: IN-CAR REFUELING 20 ENERGY GEL PACKETS 25 ANTI-FATIGUE CAPSULES 80 oz. POWDERED ENERGY DRINK 190 NUTRIENT TABLETS REDUNDANT JACK MEN STAND AT THE READY TO SWOOP IN IF SOMETHING GOES AWRY. In Formula 1, fuel delivery used to dictate the length of pit stops. But since the FÉdÉration Internationale de l'Automobile banned in-race refueling in 2010, the cars now carry enough fuel for the duration of the race, meaning time in the pits is determined by how quickly a 14-plus-man crew can swap four wheels and tires. Today, sub-three-second stops are routine, and the astonishing choreography required to remain competitive…

Last month, I drove our website's long-term Kia Sportage SX AWD from Darby, Montana, to editorial world headquarters in Ann Arbor, Michigan. There I swapped it for our long-term Mazda CX-5, which I immediately drove back to Darby—a round trip of almost 4000 miles. In five days. The urgency derived from blizzards predicted to descend the following week. Trust me, you don't know terror until the Wyoming Highway Patrol closes Interstate 90 at the snowbound Buffalo exit, where all cars and trucks are diverted into town. At which point, your choice of accommodations dwindles to (a) an L.L.Bean sleeping bag on the left side of the Kia's cargo bay, or (b) an L.L.Bean sleeping bag on the right side of the Mazda's cargo bay. I know, because it was in…

The most important tool for a Porsche test engineer driving in the Canadian winter is a wooden billy club, similar to those used by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police to tame the country's occasional criminal. Porsche's mounted engineers use these clubs against the Yukon Territory's abundant snow, which accumulates in the new Cayman's aluminum wheels. On the Alaska Highway headed toward Dawson Creek, British Columbia, snow packed in the Cayman's wheels' wide, brake-cooling openings made the car's steering wheel dance whenever we pushed past 60 mph. Eventually, a vibration like that can ruin even the stoutest suspension, so we brought the car to a stop every half-hour to jab ice out of the wheels using our policeman's friend. Then we continued our journey as if we were driving on the…

EVEN AS A SCIENCE EXPERIMENT, FORD'S C-MAX PLUG-IN IS A QUALIFIED SUCCESS. Boldness is science fiction's most important plot device. Heroes fearlessly warp into voids in machines that can travel light-years without refueling, gallantly confronting new challenges and achieving ones once unimaginable (until somebody in Hollywood imagines it). There's never any hesitation when you have total confidence in the technology. And the movie-franchise potential. But that's Star Trek, and those guys don't make the lease payments on their own starships. This is the 2013 Ford C-Max Energi plug-in hybrid people-mover, an urban shuttlecraft that asks you to be bold with your family's transportation needs and to do so entirely at your own considerable expense. The $33,745 Energi joins an exclusive list of pioneering hatchback plug-in hybrids, including the $32,795 Toyota…

BUICK ENCORE / BMW aLPINA b7 / Cadillac ats / Chevrolet malibu LTZ 2.0t / jaguar xf 2.0t Both eminently lovable and deeply flawed, the last Quattroporte behaved like an Italian sports car tormented by its four-door body. Ferrari's bastard child with its Maserati subsidiary, it was a thrilling and capable machine destined never to wear the black-equine seal because it was born with the defect every pur-sang sports-car showroom shuns: quattro porte. A personality crisis on wheels, at least it had a personality in a segment full of luxury sedans often short on it. However, Maserati is changing. Ambitious plans are afoot to grow the trident brand from a small-batch carmaker into a full-line luxury-car manufacturer. In the next three years, Maserati will add to its GranTurismo and GranCabrio…

+ Quite possibly the most well-rounded chassis on the market. -Oh, CUE, how you mock us; an engine not up to Cadillac's standards. Is it heresy that the starter version of Cadillac's excellent 3-series fighter is powered by the Chevy Malibu's 2.5-liter inline-four? Or is a high-volume schlepper a necessary and reasonable condition of Caddy making an ATS-V for us enthusiasts? Depends on whom you ask. What's clear is that the ATS is priced to move: At $33,990, the 2.5 is $1805 cheaper than the one-level-up 2.0-liter turbo ATS, and it undercuts competitive rear-drive base models, including the BMW 328i and the Mercedes-Benz C250, by at least $2400. Surprisingly, the 2.5's 202 horsepower isn't a drag under most circumstances. The ATS merges onto the freeway with all…

If you live in Southern California or south Florida, Jaguar's two best markets, an all-wheel-drive Jag is as useless as a chocolate teapot. But if you live in the Northeast, another hot zone for luxury nameplates, almost all of which make good money on AWD, it's a different matter. Jaguar needs this all-weather option, and the price-leading XF and the flagship XJ get it for an extra $3000 and $3500, respectively. It comes in both cars, teamed exclusively with the new supercharged and direct-injected 3.0-liter V-6 that pulls 340 horsepower. Neither the steel-bodied XF nor the aluminum XJ was originally designed for this electronic wet-clutch front-drive system, which echoes BMW's xDrive. A short propshaft angles slightly left from the transfer case behind the eight-speed automatic to an open differential on…

LEXUS IS CHRONOLOGY JUNE 2000 The 2001 IS300, essentially the Toyota Altezza, goes on sale in the U.S. AUGUST 2001 The SportCross wagon debuts FEBRUARY 2008 The 416-hp IS F comes online JUNE 2009 The IS C hardtop cabrios arrive SPINDLE GRILLE GETS DEEPER, SPINDLIER. REVEAL OF THE MONTH What's Akio Toyoda TO DO? He's the head of what is currently the world's largest automaker. Factories stamp his almost-name on millions of cars each year. And yet he's not all that crazy about most of them. Imagine the frustration. Messing with one of the most successful corporate recipes in any industry seems like a bad idea. Still, part-time racer Toyoda wants to make his company's cars sportier, and he's slowly getting his way. First…

PART 2 INTRODUCING THE REST OF YOUR GREATEST ENEMIES. Personal transportation is at the vanguard of freedom. Cars aren't just practical tools, but manifestations of liberty, which, for lack of a better definition, is the ability to go wherever we want, whenever we want, in air-conditioned comfort, and while listening to Perry Como (if we feel like it). Last month, we listed five enemies of automotive culture. Here, we complete our rundown of C/D's Most Wanted with profiles of five more opponents. HAPPY 25TH! When non-federalized cars cross the quarter-century mark, you can legally import them to the United States. Consider the BMW Z1: Long before BMW began mixing and matching segments, the Z1 stood as a pillar of German weirdness. The roadster offers features unique in the automotive spectrum,…

The Ambassador Bridge linking Detroit with Windsor, Ontario, is a hoary junkyard dog of old infrastructure. Built by private investors hoping to reap fortunes from its tolls, its 7500 feet of strung cable, suspended concrete, and latticework-steel stanchions opened to traffic on November 15, 1929, just three weeks after the Black Thursday stock-market crash launched the Great Depression. A year later, the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel opened just four miles away with cheaper tolls. Within two years, what was then the world's longest suspension bridge was in default on its bonds. Painted kettle black, the Ambassador looked for decades like the bridge to Mordor. In the more optimistic 1950s, a brighter aluminum-colored paint was tested on one section, but soot from Detroit's billowing smokestacks quickly rendered the change pointless, so black it…

British Invader JAGUAR F-TYPE Jaguar finally returns to the crumpet-catching business this summer after a 39-year nod off. The F-type debuts as an aluminum-bodied two-seat roadster with a folding softtop and three available engines—340-hp and 380-hp supercharged V-6s, and a 495-hp V-8—all sitting in front of an eight-speed automatic. Base and S trims will offer associated comfort and sporting equipment, with prices predicted to start around $70,000. In the pipeline: a coupe and a proper manual transmission, plus a dozen (at least) special models and anniversary editions. Envelope Pusher BMW i8 Okay, so it's not exactly the rebirth of the M1. The i8 will have two more seats and three fewer cylinders than BMW's first M car. Oh, it's also a plug-in hybrid. This carbon-fiber-intensive 2+2 pairs a 220-hp turbocharged…

LONG BEFORE THE LEADERS OF GENERAL MOTORS, FORD, AND CHRYSLER were summoned to testify before a congressional committee in late 2008, evidence of the decline of the American carmakers was manifest. That "the Detroit Three" had replaced "the Big Three" in colloquial reference reflected a begrudging acceptance that a generation had passed since this ruling troika had set the industry's agenda. Yet an almost British belief in "keeping calm and carrying on" was pervasive around Motown. Those who grew up in the industry were accustomed to riding out economic downturns with stopgap measures, confident that they were just one hit product—one minivan or Taurus—away from returning the champagne to executive dining-room menus. But then the one-two punch of exploding health-care costs and rising fuel prices hit hard, and the global…

It turns out that someone was paying attention to Obama's 2008 CHANGE campaign motto: the Buick folks. Witnessing the demise of Hummer, Pontiac, and Saturn after GM's bankruptcy, Buick's bosses realized that their heads missed the chopping block by microns. Thanks to China's appetite for its cars, the brand made the Chapter 11 reorganization cut. But the message—change or die—wasn't lost. Enter the 2013 Encore, the biggest change of stripes Buick has ever seen. This baby ute is powered by a turbocharged 1.4-liter four-cylinder, the smallest engine in Buick history. To find a wheelbase shorter than the Encore's 100.6 inches, set the WABAC machine for 1975 when parakeet-sized Buick Skyhawks flew. As its name suggests, this is a follow-up to the Enclave, albeit one that is smaller than BMW's X1…

Let us now officially place "turbocharged" alongside "humdinger," "nifty," and "bodacious" in the pile of words that once denoted cool but, today, is just stuff old people say. Yes, enthusiasts, welcome to the modern reality of ubiquitous forced induction, where even the Chevy Malibu is offered with a turbo. In fact, it's the same basic 2.0-liter turbo fitted to the Cadillac ATS, the Buick Verano, and the Buick Regal. In addition to a 62-hp bump over the base 2.5-liter engine, to 259, turbo Malibus receive specific shock and steering tuning along with front and rear brake rotors that are almost an inch larger than brakes fitted to less potent Malibus. But these spec changes were made more to retain the placid ride and easy-to-drive nature found in lesser Malibu models…

Inventor of the transdermal patch, owner of two resorts, former track owner, Panoz, 78, recently sold his American Le Mans Series and is now a DeltaWing devotee. C/D: You attended military school. Good or bad experience? DP: It helped. First, as a cadet, I met my wife, which meant free Sunday dinners. Second, it taught me I'd better make my bed, stand at attention, be on time. If I failed, I had to walk around the flagpole. Those are life's lessons. You pay for what you do. C/D: You invented the patch yet still smoke Silk Cuts? DP: True. And, boy, are they hard to find. I used a patch right up until Mario [Andretti] crashed our car at Le Mans and his radio went dead. A guy was smoking…