Innehållsförteckning för Mar-14 från Car and Driver

Sic your dogs on us at: editors@caranddriver.com or join the discussion at: backfires.caranddriver.com RIDE THAT PONY As the proud owner of a supercharged '96 Mustang GT and someone who has inappropriate feelings for the 2010–13 Mustang, I viewed your "leak" ["Gentlemen, Place Your Orders!" December 2013] with alarm. I sure hope the rendering has it wrong—as shown, that new front end is a fail. JIM COLTON COUPEVILLE, WASHINGTON The illustration on the cover of the December issue would be a coupe version of a Fusion if you took the pony off the car's grille. SAL VASSALLO GENEVA, ILLINOIS …and that's why I picked up my new 2014 GT a month ago today. PAUL CREECH WEST HARTFORD, CONNECTICUT Oh, I hope your rendering is in error. Look at the…

In January, Coloradans could finally, in the words of their Democratic governor, John Hickenlooper, "break out the Cheetos and Goldfish." Fourteen months after voters approved a referendum legalizing marijuana, the first pot stores opened their doors. The rules mostly mirror those for alcohol: Shops need licenses, buyers need to be 21, and the state needs its cut by way of taxes. But not every aspect of legalization is so straightforward. Stoned drivers are a serious safety concern, but there's no clear-cut way to gauge the risk as there is with drunk drivers. Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the main psychoactive ingredient in pot, works differently than booze. Research has shown that the amount of THC in the bloodstream is not a consistent indicator of cognitive or psychomotor impairment. Users' bodies are prone to…

Generally, I hate museums. The conceit of cramming some facet of human or natural wonder into a building to be gawped at by shuffling herds, who won't absorb much about the subject beyond whatever cursory blurb is written in dull mini-print (which they will scrupulously avoid reading so as to arrive more expeditiously at the gift shop and pretzel stand), is anathema to wonder itself. The world is not inert; it lives and moves and waits to be discovered. But museums stop it and stuff it for permanently embalmed display. They sprout from the concrete like weeds in any city claiming civic pride and enough rich donors to get the dirt moved. Art museums, science museums, car museums, and kids museums; museums for the police and fire departments; museums for…

Even the cruelest parking valets are unlikely to rev a car's engine to redline and dump its clutch. But that's just what a Subaru engineer suggested we do when we asked him how to get the best acceleration times out of the 2015 WRX. In human terms, this sort of launch is equivalent to jumping out of a moving car and hoping to suddenly start running like Usain Bolt. "Rev the engine high enough to get wheelspin when the clutch engages, and shift out of first around 5200 rpm," advised the engineer. With the four-wheel-drive traction of the WRX in mind, we wondered aloud, "You sure the clutch and gearbox will survive that launch?" "Oh, yes," he grinned. And so, here's how we hit 60 mph in 4.8 seconds: We…

58% of the roughly 5 million collector cars in the U.S. are owned by baby boomers. A demographic shift looms: Some 76 million baby boomers will soon reach retirement age, crushing the health-care system and the social safety net with their massive numbers. But we have a greater concern: Who's going to buy all their cars? "I think that boomers are taking a more practical approach to baggage. We want to lighten our loads sooner," says Charlie Kuhn, a 52-year-old collector from the Chicago area. "Guys not much older than me are selling because their kids aren't interested. I'm already thinking about downsizing." The best estimates we have at the Hagerty Group, which sells classic-car insurance, peg the number of collector cars in the U.S. at roughly 5…

Most residents of Japan identify themselves as Buddhist. After a private briefing on the Acura RLX Sport Hybrid SH-AWD's new powertrain by chief engineer Hitoshi Aoki and hybrid system engineer Yasuo Kitami, we feel thoroughly enlightened. Makes sense. Honda's simple, effective, but slow-selling Integrated Motor Assist (IMA) system is all but dead. The Accord hybrid's new "no transmission" setup is complicated, and the Acura RLX Sport hybrid's system—consisting of three electric motor/generators, a 3.5-liter V-6, and a seven-speed dual-clutch automatic—is complex enough to induce catatonia. Let us now attempt to enlighten you. The big luxury sedan has four powered wheels, with the rears driven by a pair of electric motors. Known as the Twin Motor Unit, it is very similar to the TMU that will power the front axle of…

"I don't know what I was thinking or why I was thinking it when I did it," Bruce Meyers exhales while standing next to his Manx Kick-Out S.S. "But here it is. And here I am." What it is, is a dune buggy—a swoopy lump of fiberglass atop an old VW Beetle's chopped-down floorpan that is the most iconic shape ever crafted in California. Elvis drove one in Live a Little, Love a Little. Steve McQueen used one to seduce Faye Dunaway in The Thomas Crown Affair. It was Speed Buggy on the Saturday morning cartoon block. It is sunshine and SoCal rendered in composites. A vapor trail of bikinis and beach volleyball games follows behind it. The Meyers Manx should be powered by Coppertone. And it's a shape—constantly copied,…

Every year, Kia's design team in Irvine, California, puts together a number of concept proposals leading up to auto-show season. Without fail, the proposals include a sports car. And without fail, Kia brass passes over the sports car, instructing the team instead to design a harbinger of an approved production car. But this year, sitting on the Kia stand at the Detroit auto show was the GT4 Stinger sports-car concept, its stacked headlights aimed, metaphorically speaking, at the landmark Scion FR-S and Subaru BRZ sports cars. CHASSIS Kia hasn't approved production of the GT4 Stinger or anything like it, and what platform might underpin a production version is still unknown. Logic would seem to dictate that the Kia will ride on a version of the Hyundai Genesis Coupe's rear-drive architecture,…

Combustion engineers mounting a last stand against electric propulsion harbor bizarre fantasies. The gasoline guys dream of the diesel's potent torque curves and exemplary thermal efficiency. Diesel devotees yearn for cheaper fuel and relief from expensive injection systems and complex emissions controls. But what if both camps collaborated on one super engine combining the best of both technologies? You'd get what Hyundai and Delphi call Gasoline Direct-Injection Compression Ignition (GDCI): a gas engine needing no spark plugs. Engineers have been studying this alternative for more than a decade. GM and Honda both demonstrated cars powered by homogeneous-charge compression-ignition engines running on gasoline. More recently, Hyundai and Delphi advanced the cause by switching to stratified charge (a rich mixture in part of the cylinder) in a 180-hp 1.8-liter four-cylinder using auto…

There are many things that may shock you about Australia. For a start, it's true that we all look like Hugh Jackman. Except for the women, who look like Miranda Kerr or Nicole Kidman. Except for the ones who look like Hugh Jackman. It's also true that our nation began life as a giant, shark-encircled, snake-infested jail founded by our mutual friends, the English, back in 1788, because they'd run out of room to keep criminals. And they quite liked the idea of crocodiles eating them. Theoretically, this has imbued our entire population with a roguish nature and a healthy disrespect for law and order. In the 1800s, we had cowboys of our own, although we called them bushrangers. One of the most famous of these, Ned Kelly, built himself…

A. CHEVROLET SPARK EV PRICE > $27,820 POWER > 141 hp TORQUE > 400 lb-ft WEIGHT > 2940 lb C/D OBSERVED MPGe > 94 C. FORD FOCUS ELECTRIC PRICE > $36,990 POWER > 143 hp TORQUE > 184 lb-ft WEIGHT > 3632 lb C/D OBSERVED MPGe > 89 E. NISSAN LEAF SL PRICE > $36,910 POWER > 107 hp TORQUE > 187 lb-ft WEIGHT > 3353 lb C/D OBSERVED MPGe > 93 B. FIAT 500e PRICE > $33,095 POWER > 111 hp TORQUE > 147 lb-ft WEIGHT > 2949 lb C/D OBSERVED MPGe > 89 D. HONDA FIT EV PRICE > $37,415 POWER > 123 hp TORQUE > 189 lb-ft WEIGHT > 3230 lb C/D OBSERVED MPGe > 98 F. SMART FORTWO CABRIO PRICE > $30,040 POWER > 74 hp…

We'd petitioned Ford for a long-term Mustang ever since the 2010 model made its debut. This fifth-generation Mustang felt like a reborn car, even if its solid axle is to automotive componentry what the polyester leisure suit is to modern menswear. The Mustang fully exploited its mix of new and old tech to win multiple comparison tests, knocking off higher-powered offerings from Dodge and Chevy in the process. Not insignificantly, it also collected three consecutive 10Best trophies (2011–13). The 2010 model floored us with its athleticism, especially when endowed with the optional Track package. We asked very nicely for a Boss 302 long-term tester, the best-handling model that is now discontinued. Protracted negotiations instead produced this 2013 "Deep Impact Blue" GT with the $2495 Track package, which includes Pirelli P…

Sometime during the seven model years of the previous-generation Silverado, we lost track of how many different engines Chevrolet offered. Actually, we just quit counting when we ran out of fingers. There were V-8s in four different displacements, one of which, the 5.3-liter, came in both iron- and aluminum-block versions, and with and without FlexFuel E85 capability. GM would rather strike from the annals of history its "two-mode" hybrid pickup, which proved to have only one mode: salesproof. And what ever happened to the plug-in conversion that Bob Lutz was hawking at the 2012 Detroit auto show? Lest we forget, there was also a V-6, a choice that was, in fact, forgotten by retail customers. Chevrolet says it accounted for only 5 percent of sales, and most of those went…

C/D: How's it going? JF: Right now in this economy it's tough for everybody; NASCAR, IndyCar, and drag racing. I've got some great partners. Auto Club has moved out five years with us; Mac Tools moved out five. So I've still got strength. Traxxas, I've got another four years with them. My daughter Courtney drives their Funny Car. We've got all the way to the end of 2014. I've really got a lot of respect for Castrol and Ford, who are going to pull out at the end of our contract in 2014. They could have waited until next year to tell me, and they didn't. That gave me a year and a half to take a run at it. And boy, I've taken the charge on it.…

Everybody knows that PEOPLE IN THE NORTHERN STATES buy way more four-wheel-drive vehicles than do the people in the South. But by how much? And is it even true? We wondered, as is our wont, if it is indeed the case that Northerners buy more driven wheels than Southerners. We wanted to see the facts, so we contacted the number crunchers at IHS Automotive, an industry data clearinghouse that provided us with a state-by-state breakdown of front-, rear-, and four-wheel-drive sales over the last year, as well as the take rate for each drivetrain layout in every vehicle class for the same period. The truth may not totally surprise you. Help Yourself If a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it, then nobody will…

Now that I live at the end of a 1.75-mile gravel driveway cut rudely into the side of a mountain, I've gladly installed winter tires—don't even think of calling them "snow tires"—on five different SUVs in the last 13 months. Four sets were attached to C/D's long-termers, and one set of Toyo Observe GSi-5s now adorns my wife's Toyota RAV4. The Toyos look like the raised hackles on a hyena. I once got up from dinner just to go out and stare at them. But to own that rubber, I had to throw myself on the mercy of Les Schwab's salesmen in Hamilton, Montana. I donned my macho Carhartt vest and said, "I want the 3PMSF rating and big fatso tread blocks made from library paste." That's all I knew…

2015 CORVETTE Z06 WHAT CAR ARE WE DESCRIBING? It's a wedge-shaped, two-seat Chevrolet with a rear transaxle, a front-mounted pushrod 6.2-liter V-8 with an Eaton TVS supercharger nestled in its valley, and some carbon-fiber body pieces. It makes more than 600 horsepower, wears shocks filled with magnetorheological fluid, and is offered with carbon-ceramic brakes nearly as large as those fitted to the Bugatti Veyron 16.4. If you guessed the dearly departed Corvette ZR1, you are correct. If, however, you guessed the 2015 Corvette Z06, you are also correct. If you guessed anything else, you're reading the wrong magazine. Because of the upcoming Z06's striking similarities to the ZR1, we've taken to thinking of the new car as the "ZR06." Yes, the rip-roaring, high-revving, naturally aspirated, 505-hp 7.0-liter LS7 of the…

The Porsche 918 Spyder doesn't do subtle. In typical hybrids, engineers take great care to make the transition from electrical to gas-fired operation as smooth and imperceptible as possible. But typical hybrids don't have flat-crank V-8s or go to the Nürburgring to break the seven-minute barrier. When the 918's 608-hp V-8 fires up, it opens with a deafening bark from behind your ears. With the car humming along in electric mode, the driver has to push past a detent in the pedal travel to light off the engine, so he knows it's coming. But it's like the first time you squeeze the trigger on a handgun; you twitch in anticipation. There's even a show for people outside the car, as shimmers of heat suddenly swell out of the gaping, high-mounted…

ACURA RLX SPORT HYBRID / CHEVROLET SILVERADO V-6 / MERCEDES-BENZ C63 507 / MEYERS MANX KICK-OUT S.S. You may have noticed that we've spilled a bit of ink on the new Corvette already. Yes, the C7 appeared on five of our covers in 2013 and two of three this year. Yet, in all our witty musings, we've failed to mention just how badly GM needs this new Vette to turn the numbers around. Because since the global financial meltdown, Corvette sales have been off. When auto sales collapsed in 2009, GM slashed Corvette production from more than 35,000 units in 2008 to less than half that number. The skid continued for the duration of the C6, with fewer than 14,000 units built per model year, despite the introduction of specials…

It's hard to fully enjoy something when you know it's almost over. Production of the current Mercedes-Benz C63 AMG is drawing to a close, with the sedan gone by midyear, though the coupe will be around into 2015. With the end looming, every drive of this C63 coupe felt bittersweet. And what we'll miss most is AMG's big, naturally aspirated 6.2-liter V-8, which has already been supplanted in most of the AMG lineup by a twin-turbocharged 5.5-liter V-8. What the 6.2 gives up in torque to the force-fed 5.5, it makes up for with its sound and its willingness to rev. It responds instantly, celebrates every combustion explosion through its brash exhaust, and makes us feel as if we're getting the most out of every drop of premium, even as…