Innehållsförteckning för August 2013 från Car and Driver

Sic your dogs on us at: editors@caranddriver.com or join the discussion at: backfires.caranddriver.com UPTON GIRL Regarding your May cover line "Forget Kate Upton!" I don't think so. To borrow a punch line from an old joke, "I've been in a Corvette!" MARK BARILLARO POUGHKEEPSIE, NEW YORK CORVETTE RAGGING What gives with the phoney computer-generated Vette pics in the May 2013 issue ["Star Spangled Banger"]? The interior shots look legit, but the exterior ones, including the one on the cover, look pretty artificial to me. For example, on page 41, how is it possible to have a rearward shadow cast by the side mirror on the passenger door and a forward shadow cast by the car on the ground? Two suns perhaps, or just some bright photo editing?…

In the war ON DRUGS, the daily grind of law enforcement is enough to make even Sisyphus feel fortunate; at least the guy knew what his boulder would look like each morning. Cops who work to intercept traffickers, however, see ever-evolving methods of deceit in the transport of contraband. It's no wonder, then, that the Ohio State Highway Patrol (OSHP) backed legislation last year making it a felony in the state to build or use a secret compartment in a vehicle. Known as "traps," "hides," or "clavos," hidden compartments that exploit voids in a vehicle's structure are certainly not a new phenomenon in drug running. But Republican state Senator Jim Hughes, the man behind the Ohio law, says the increasing sophistication of these devices and the escalation of their use…

The psychology of seeing faces in inanimate objects is an endemic brain quirk with a five-syllable Latin name: pareidolia. Though it has many faults, the human brain is a Bugatti Veyron when it comes to pareidolia, which is why the Veyron looks like a fat guy about to be hit by a bus. If, as Cicero says, the face is a picture of the mind with the eyes as its interpreter, a car's headlights are the most important aspects of its styling, the double-pane Pellas into its soul. Hey, I don't make the rules. We are conditioned by instinct and literature to place great significance on the eyes. E.E. Cummings called them "big love-crumbs," while the billboard eyes of Doctor T.J. Eckleburg in Fitzgerald's Gatsby represent nothing less than the…

Tall oaks from little acorns grow, and so it is with the CLA45 AMG. Sprouted from the modest A-class, a fuel-sipping VW Golf–fighter for Europe, the CLA45 is Mercedes' attempt to build the most forceful and fastest compact sedan on earth. That's like trying to get Paul Simon to bite the heads off bats. Mercedes claims the CLA45 AMG has the world's most powerful turbocharged four-cylinder in production, at 355 horsepower. This hand-built direct-injected 2.0-liter puts out 332 pound-feet of torque, pounding it to the ground through a seven-speed dual-clutch automatic and a 4MATIC all-wheel-drive system. "We did the Nordschleife in 8:10," boasts AMG's head of development, Tobias Moers. It's a lofty boast; that's not far off what a V-8–powered BMW M3 can do. The swoopy CLA45 might not look…

NO. 12 How much are you really driving anymore? In most new vehicles, the driver is just a biological cog in a matrix of computerized control that reads and filters human input and then interprets it into vehicular action. Stability control, drive-by-wire throttle, and—on some hot cars—launch control are already common computer functions, like electronically controlled automatic transmissions and anti-lock brakes. Advanced technologies, such as by-wire steering and braking, have also made their production-car debuts. Even some inexpensive cars brim with sensors to help you park (or just do it for you) and to tell you when another car is in your blind spot. Radar-equipped cruise control senses other vehicles and automatically brakes or accelerates as needed. But those are just appetizers for the silicon banquet that is coming. Every…

COBB FORD FOCUS ST / AUDI S3 / AUDI RS6 AVANT / NISSAN JUKE NISMO / CHEVROLET SPARK Blockbuster sequels are all about one-upmanship—more explosions mean more popcorn sales. Luxury-car makers generally follow Hollywood's lead, with horsepower standing in for special effects. So when Acura introduced a redesigned but less powerful MDX, we were puzzled. Then it said the three-row SUV would, for the first time, be available in a dumbed-down, front-wheel-drive model. The whole thing sounded like The Expendables 3 rewritten as a Katherine Heigl romantic comedy. Acura didn't have a front-drive MDX at our preview, but a few hours behind the wheel of the four-wheel-drive 2014 MDX convinced us that we needn't have worried. The old MDX had 300 horsepower that bellowed, "Prepare for glory!" like so many…

NON-U.S. AUDI NUMBER TWO In recession-racked Europe, power and wealth are best enjoyed in private. Excessive flaunting is considered poor taste, especially during bad times, as Marie Antoinette found out too late. The luxury-car segment, including high-performance sports cars, has actually been declining there for years. But that doesn't mean Europe's wealthy are exercising any real asceticism. They just like their power and luxury wrapped in a politically correct shell. A station wagon, for instance. Because American buyers generally regard wagons as disease-ridden symbols of communism, we won't get the fabulous 560-hp Audi RS6 Avant. We will get its slinkier cousin, the equally overpowered RS7, however, so those wishing to tote their guns at high speed will not go wanting. The RS6 Avant's styling ensures that the car-illiterate among Europe's…

C/D: Against the advice of your professors at Oxford Polytechnic [now Oxford Brookes University], you built a race car for your final college project. AR: I wanted to do a self-designed Formula Ford. They said no. I did it anyway. Didn't get high marks. But I raced it at Silverstone in '73 and won. Then mechanic and mentor Bill Stone suggested I found [what would become] Reynard Motorsport. I was 22. C/D: Those first cars were for you? AR: Well, I'd build one for myself, one for another driver, and one for sale. But by '78, I did win my first F2000 race and later won the European F2000 championship. I was designing, marketing, racing, and manufacturing. It burned me out. So I retired from driving in '79. Never drove…

Without launching into a Ben Stein–like dissertation on economics, we find it important to note that President Obama's March announcement of the proposed Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) is hugely important to the car industry and to car enthusiasts. The Partnership's aims include abolishing tariffs on imported cars, as well as finally aligning U.S. and European automotive safety and environmental standards. If adopted, the agreement could result in increased manufacturing here by European brands and American dealers stocking a broader product lineup. It may even bring back brands that have been exiled from these shores for decades. CHEAPER CARS, DIRT-CHEAPER TRUCKS The standard tariff for importing cars to the U.S. is 2.5 percent of their value. For pickup trucks and commercial vans, the tariff is a whopping 25 percent…

According to statistics from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), only 5 percent of American adult men are taller than six feet two. Shaquille O'Neal towers seven feet one inch, wears size-23 shoes, and had listed his weight at 325 pounds during his playing days. That's a lot of retired NBA center to shove behind the wheel of a Buick LaCrosse for a pair of commercials. Don Shreves, GM's global total vehicle integration engineer, explains just how far outside the usual scope Shaq lies. "Our minimum goal is to accommodate 90 percent of the population. In the U.S., that [starts with] a female who is approximately four-foot-ten. She's smaller than all but 5 percent of the female population." From there, he says, the typical focus ends with a 95th-percentile male—which…

YOU HAVE TO KEEP REMINDING YOURSELF while dusting switchbacks in the Austrian Alps with the new Porsche Cayman S that this is not your dream car. This is not the 911 Carrera, the car in the posters that once wallpapered your bedroom. If the 911 has always been your best friend, your trusty go-to, your touchstone and ne plus ultra in a world flooded with automotive mediocrity, then, well, you're just going to have to let that go. The Cayman is all grown up now, and your attention is about to be whipsawed. The 911, er, what? Who? Tacking into a steep valley toward the empty ski village of Warth, 4905 feet up the slopes of Western Austria, where the landscape looks as meticulously manicured as a model-train set's, the…

IN THE AUTOMOTIVE REALM, THINGS WERE PRETTY STABLE THERE FOR ABOUT, OH, 100 YEARS OR SO. BY NOW IT SHOULD BE CLEAR THAT THIS CENTURY WILL BE DIFFERENT. EVERYTHING'S IN FLUX, FROM POWERTRAIN TECHNOLOGY TO THE ENTIRE NATURE OF DRIVING. THIS IS THE RIGHT MOMENT TO TAKE STOCK OF ALL THAT CHANGE, AS THIS SPECIAL SECTION SETS OUT TO DO. PRESENTING THE CAR AND DRIVER TECH 50, OUR LIST OF THE CARS, PEOPLE, AND IDEAS THAT WILL FUNDAMENTALLY ALTER YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH THE ROAD.…

ON AC, DC, AND WHY ELECTROLYTES AREN'T JUST SOMETHING YOU GET IN A BOTTLE OF GATORADE. No. 17 ALTERNATING CURRENT A flow of electrons that periodically reverses direction. No. 18 AMPERAGE An electric current's strength measured in amperes (amps). No. 19 BATTERY A device that produces electricity from a chemical reaction. Some batteries can convert electricity back into chemical energy and are thus rechargeable. No. 20 CAPACITOR Two conductors separated by an insulator and used to store electrical energy. No. 21 CURRENT A flow of electrons in a wire or between two points having a difference in potential (such as inside a battery). No. 22 DIRECT CURRENT A flow of electrons in one direction, from negative to positive. No. 23 ELECTRIC MACHINE An energy-conversion device that can operate as a…

Fans of the original 'roided-out Honda Civics that launched the tuner craze and made Vin Diesel's career may have aged, but Ford's new turbocharged Focus ST proves there's still some energy left in the traditional sport-compact scene and the aftermarket that feeds off it. Cobb Tuning of Austin, Texas, is no stranger to small, turbocharged hot rods, with ample experience tweaking fast Mitsubishis, Nissans, and Subarus. Ford's little head case was a natural for Cobb's brand of brain surgery, and the black example you see here shows what's possible when about 10 grand—more than half of which buys some expensive wheels and tires—is heaped on top of the ST's $27,775 base price. Not that the 10Best-winning Focus ST needs much help. It only recently surrendered its short-lived comparison-test crown to…

Cynicism comes easy these days. When every car seems intent on maximizing mainstream appeal, and even the man in charge of Porsche's GT3 preaches the superiority of automatic transmissions, our little corner of the world is a breeding ground for negativity. That's what makes the regular Nissan Juke so invigorating. There is no logical reason for it to look the way it does, so clearly drawn without conventional aesthetic considerations in mind. And its 1.6-liter turbo-four is an overachiever, imbuing this rolling non sequitur with the verve to match its shape. There's not a cynical bolt or negative bead of adhesive in the Juke's batrachian body. And so the Juke NISMO unsettles us because it seems on the surface to be the dispassionate application of a promising brand name (NISsan…

After a 2001 EARTHQUAKE damaged a double-deck section of State Route 99 running through Seattle, city planners decided to just bury it. Rather than rebuild the so-called Alaska Viaduct, they are replacing a two-mile stretch with a tunnel. So how do you dig a nearly-60-foot-diameter tunnel under downtown Seattle? With the world's largest tunnel-boring machine (TBM). "Bertha," as Seattle has named the machine, is currently being assembled in a pit at the head of its path and starts chewing through buried flannel shirts and Starbucks cups this summer. CUTTERHEAD With teeth optimized for digging the softer soil found under Seattle, Bertha's cutterhead grinds through the earth, collecting displaced dirt and rock in the excavation chamber directly behind her head. Conditioners are added to the soil in the chamber to create…

Worried that Kim Jong-un might momentarily launch irradiated kimchi into your salad crisper? Let it go. We have scarier things to fear. Namely, the exhaust sounds of the 1.6-liter V-6 turbos that the FIA has mandated for the 2014 Formula 1 season. As that "aural cliff" looms, fans are popping Pepcid while texting end-of-days proclamations in which F1 has scant months to live before Fox News announces that Bernie Ecclestone and Jean Todt both have vestigial horns and twin bastard sons who are plumbers named Darrell. The upcoming single-turbo V-6s are said by FIA president Todt "to be more relevant," by which he means more relevant to road-car manufacturers with checkbooks as thick as the Yellow Pages. On the other hand, it is comforting to imagine longtime V-6 proponents Toyota…

LAND ROVER RANGE ROVER SUPERCHARGED Regal ride, panoramic view, 4.7 seconds to 60 mph. Expensive, 17-mpg observed, reliability issues. Still stands at the summit of SUV status symbols. BY SEPTEMBER 1805, the Lewis and Clark expedition, en route to the Pacific, had exited their canoes and strolled into Montana's verdant Bitterroot Valley, a 100-mile-long corridor extending from the Idaho border to present-day Missoula. Back then, the Shoshone Indians called the valley the "Waters of the Red Osier Dogwood." Or something like that. Course, that was before they led the curious white men to a pink-flowered plant with an edible root. From Meriwether Lewis's diary (you may forgive his spelling): "[It] appeared to be fibrous; the parts were brittle, hard of the size of a small quill, cilindric and as white…

Now and again, Porsche's creative volcano erupts like a meth lab on Krakatoa, and with equally compelling results. In 1974, spurts of molten lava jelled into the original 930 Turbo, followed a decade or so later by the 959 supercar. These two variations on the 911 theme helped keep Porsche's rear-engine layout alive to celebrate its 50th birthday. The Carrera GT, which shot out of Mount Zuffenhausen in 2004, adapted a racing-intended V-10 to the road and put it in new composite-construction technology to hurl Porsche into deep supercar space. That was then. The 918 Spyder is now. The 918's mix of internal combustion and high-voltage electricity is powerful enough to disrupt global-weather patterns. Hot laps at the wheel of a 918 prototype, the 25th built so far, at Porsche's…

PRICE $42,285 $40,570 COMBINED POWER 188 HP 196 HP (EST) WEIGHT 3986 LB 3783 LB C/D OBSERVED MPGe 41 42 FORD FUSION ENERGI TITANIUM 2014 HONDA ACCORD PLUG-IN HYBRID No. 42 If you are dubious about electrified cars entering the American fleet, consider the two subjects of this comparison test. Both of these models were newly redesigned for 2013, and, as of this writing, the Honda Accord is the bestselling nameplate in the country. The Ford Fusion is the third-best seller. But their respective companies are not putting their feet up on their desks. Both are introducing plug-in hybrid versions of their crowd-pleasers—the first such powertrains to be added to cars normally equipped with conventional engines. The Ford Fusion Energi was quicker out of the gate, hitting the market a…

NON-U.S. AUDI NUMBER ONE The Audi S3 is a European playboy that never had its passport stamped in America. For two generations it shared its platform with the VW Golf as essentially an über-GTI for the autobahn, being better equipped, more stylish, and more powerful than most hot hatches. The new, third-generation European-market S3 hatchback indicates what Audi has in store for us next year. Instead of the S3 hatchback seen here, though, we will get the S3 sedan that was previewed, along with the regular A3 sedan, prior to the New York auto show this past March. Four-wheel drive will be standard on every S3, and power will come from a 296-hp, turbocharged 2.0-liter four-cylinder that will likely be rated at 300 horsepower in the U.S. In the S3,…

The '80s are back in style, or so says my wife after bringing home a teal-and-turquoise striped duvet cover from IKEA. It looks enough like an Ocean Pacific polo I wore in high school that I'm willing to believe her, but the five-door Chevy Spark puts the same sentiment in terms more understandable to car guys. This modern interpretation of the classic econobox accurately captures the sluggish performance of small cars from the hair-band era. Remember double-digit zero-to-60 times and having to downshift a gear (or two) to maintain speed up a slight grade? With a 1249-cc four-cylinder comes a very quiet riot. Making just 84 horsepower, the Spark hits 60 mph in 11.2 seconds and runs the quarter in 18.3 at all of 75 mph. That's just a bit…