Innehållsförteckning för May 2017 från Car and Driver

McLAREN MARCHES TO A SPEEDY TECHNO DRUMBEAT. It’s been only six years since the company’s supercar-making Automotive division launched its first product, the MP4-12C. McLaren gave that car what was essentially a heavy facelift—and a far less clunky name—just three years later, rechristening it the 650S. Now the mostly new 720S is here, based around a substantially advanced version of the 650S’s carbon-fiber tub and a turned-up-to-11 twin-turbocharged V-8 mounted amidships. McLaren, a brand we don’t associate with hyperbole, claims on-track performance will make that of the 650S feel almost leisurely. Certainly looks that way. CHASSIS McLaren has stuck with commendable adhesion to the plan it announced when it launched its road-car division back in 2010. That is, to use the same core architecture to create a family of models…

TO A MOTORHEAD, the words “continuously variable transmission” and “engine downsizing” are about as exciting as the running of the bull terriers. But with its V-Charge supercharger, Torotrak, a British automotive technology company, is hoping to change our attitude toward both concepts. In a compact 13-pound package, V-Charge combines a belt-driven centrifugal supercharger, a planetary gearset, and a teeny-tiny toroidal CVT serving as a transmission for the supercharger itself. With its CVT’s 10.0:1 ratio spread, V-Charge can, for example, change its impeller speed from 1000 rpm to 10,000 rpm in 0.4 second, delivering what it claims is a faster torque response than a conventional clutched supercharger. This is possible anywhere in the rev range, even at the low rpm most cars turn while puttering through a city. Unlike conventional superchargers…

Soviet soldiers were always hungry,” says Larry Kelley, a retired Marine Corps colonel who during the Cold War swapped the excitement of piloting Douglas A-4 Skyhawks for the even greater thrills of gathering military intelligence behind the Iron Curtain. Apparently, rather than issue maps, the Red Army used “route directors,” or troops who would be dropped at junctions to act as human signposts, showing a convoy which way to go. “They’d be left for hours, sometimes even forgotten,” Kelley explains. “We’d give them cigarettes or sandwiches. If there was nobody around, they’d often talk to us, tell us where they were from, even when a column was coming back.” Yet despite operating inside enemy territory, and often having to evade capture, Kelley served while wearing a uniform and insists he…

[+] Drives as modern as it looks, improved fuel economy and performance. [–] Ho-hum engines, we’ll kind of miss the ol’ lug. THE TRUTH ABOUT THE NEW Land Rover Discovery, the fifth in a line of trucks that dates back to 1989, is not revealed on the rocky ledges of southern Utah, nor on the near-whiteout of the road just outside Zion National Park, nor in the blush waves of the Coral Pink Sand Dunes, nor even on the few twisty bits of road we traversed in the new family-oriented Rover. Though the vehicle acquits itself admirably in all of these circumstances. The essential truth of this five- or seven-seat SUV comes instead from Massimo Frascella, the Discovery’s exterior designer, over after-dinner drinks and cigars at a posh resort/bunker in…

[+]Wind in the hair, portal axles under foot, twinturbo V-12 power. Exclusivity on Adderall. [-]Diminishing the world’s supply of portal axles, turbocharged V-12s, and locking differentials for celebrity taxis feels wrong. DON’T BLAME THE CHINESE FOR THIS ONE, because they prefer to sign business contracts in the curtained rear compartments of stretched limousines. No, this neo-NATO army ram absurdly repurposed as a recherché pleasure barge is a love letter to show business and the even more decadent show-off business. It’s for rap stars and Russian oligarchs and Middle East princes with a falcon on each arm who want to see and be seen for exactly as long as the security team holds the perimeter. The off-one’s-trolley Mercedes-Maybach G650 Landaulet (the label denotes a folding roof over the rear seat) is…

Lap after lap, Scott Maxwell gnaws deeper into the curbing. By drawing a straighter line through a shallow chicane on the road course that lies in the shadow of Las Vegas Motor Speedway, the Canadian pro driver with class wins at Sebring, Daytona, and Le Mans is searching for—and finding—more speed. What started as a nibble is now a chomp as he rides to the top of the red-and-white candy cane on his fourth lap. The 2017 Ford GT he’s piloting, the car in which I’m riding shotgun, swallows it whole. The GT skates over the pavement, clearing it by just 2.8 inches in its ground-sucking track mode, when the Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tires are sunk into the wheelwells and the GT looks as if it has all…

[+]Improved Quattro capability, as quick as the A4 sedan, brilliant transmission. [-]Coughup- the-dough sticker, A4-on-Xanax handling. 2017 AUDI A4 ALLROAD VEHICLE TYPE: frontengine, all-wheel-drive, 5-passenger, 4-door hatchback PRICE AS TESTED: $52,625 BASE PRICE: $44,950 ENGINE TYPE: turbocharged and intercooled DOHC 16-valve inline-4, iron block and aluminum head, direct fuel injection DISPLACEMENT: 121 cu in, 1984 cc POWER: 252 hp @ 6000 rpm TORQUE: 273 lb-ft @ 1600 rpm TRANSMISSION: 7-speed dual-clutch automatic with manual shifting mode DIMENSIONS WHEELBASE: 110.9 in LENGTH: 187.0 in WIDTH: 72.5 in HEIGHT: 58.8 in PASSENGER VOLUME: 94 cu ft CARGO VOLUME: 24 cu ft CURB WEIGHT: 3817 lb C/D TEST RESULTS ZERO TO 60 MPH: 5.2 sec ZERO TO 100 MPH: 13.8 sec ZERO TO 120 MPH: 22.5 sec ROLLING START, 5–60 MPH: 6.1 sec…

[+]All-season performance, spacious interior, retro styling. [-]A little on the portly side, no V-8, no manual transmission. 2017 DODGE CHALLENGER GT AWD VEHICLE TYPE: frontengine, all-wheel-drive, 5-passenger, 2-door coupe PRICE AS TESTED: $39,465 BASE PRICE: $34,490 ENGINE TYPE: DOHC 24-valve V-6, aluminum block and heads, port fuel injection DISPLACEMENT: 220 cu in, 3605 cc POWER: 305 hp @ 6350 rpm TORQUE: 268 lb-ft @ 4800 rpm TRANSMISSION: 8-speed automatic with manual shifting mode DIMENSIONS WHEELBASE: 116.2 in LENGTH: 197.9 in WIDTH: 75.7 in HEIGHT: 57.5 in PASSENGER VOLUME: 94 cu ft TRUNK VOLUME: 16 cu ft CURB WEIGHT: 4103 lb C/D TEST RESULTS ZERO TO 60 MPH: 6.3 sec ZERO TO 100 MPH: 16.3 sec ZERO TO 130 MPH: 35.4 sec ROLLING START, 5–60 MPH: 6.7 sec 1/4-MILE: 14.8 sec…

[+]Gorgeous interior, seamless hybrid system, quick and capable. [-]Unpredictable brake response, ergonomic quirks, occasional Millennium Falcon sounds. 2018 PORSCHE PANAMERA 4 E-HYBRID VEHICLE TYPE: front-engine, frontmotor, all-wheel-drive, 4-passenger, 4-door hatchback BASE PRICE: $100,650–$105,150 POWERTRAIN: twinturbocharged and intercooled DOHC 24-valve 2.9-liter V-6, 330 hp, 331 lb-ft; permanent-magnet synchronous AC electric motor, 136 hp, 295 lb-ft; combined system, 462 hp, 516 lb-ft BATTERY: liquid-cooled lithium-ion, 14.1 kWh TRANSMISSION: 8-speed dual-clutch automatic with manual shifting mode DIMENSIONS WHEELBASE: 116.1–122.0 in LENGTH: 198.8–204.7 in WIDTH: 76.3 in HEIGHT: 56.0–56.2 in PASSENGER VOLUME: 96–102 cu ft CARGO VOLUME: 14 cu ft CURB WEIGHT: 5100–5300 lb PERFORMANCE (C/D EST) ZERO TO 60 MPH: 4.2–4.3 sec ZERO TO 100 MPH: 11.0–11.2 sec 1/4-MILE: 12.9–13.1 sec TOP SPEED: 172 mph FUEL ECONOMY EPA COMBINED: 52 MPGe/27 mpg (battery…

TREVOR MILTON WANTS to do Elon Musk one better in the field of zero-emission transportation. With his Nikola EV semi-tractors, he hopes to disrupt the market for the largest commercial trucks on our roads, just as Tesla did for luxury sedans. His business model even borrows the inventor Tesla’s first name But Milton, who made his fortune developing heavy-duty natural-gas powertrains, is embracing hydrogen for his Class 8 longhaul trucks. “People are taking a lot of intermediate steps, and I think that’s the wrong way to do it,” he said of the slow crawl toward a hydrogen infrastructure. He plans to develop a network of refueling stations along the nation’s major shipping corridors concurrently with the introduction of his trucks. Milton’s Nikola One is the supercar of sleeper cabs. Four…

port-utilities have been eating into the premium-mid-size-sedan market share for years, but even though these sedans are outsold by their SUV counterparts two to one, the upscale three-box isn’t dead just yet. It still accounts for nearly 190,000 annual sales in the U.S. and the players are almost too numerous to compare. Almost. So, before the four-door sedan goes the way of the sedan chair, we thought we’d investigate the proliferation of turbocharged and supercharged six-cylinders in the premium-mid-size-sedan segment. Much sportier than an SUV, these cars ideally blend luxury vibes and sporting driving dynamics into a perfect daily driver. Winning this test comes down to how well a car balances each side of that ledger. Eight candidates met our initial criteria, though we decided that Lincoln’s new Continental is…

Hyundai doesn’t just want to be Toyota, it wants to break Toyota, in part by relentlessly copying the Big T’s jiujitsu. Toyota created the mass-market hybrid, and it’s pretty much had the corner on it, as others chipped futilely at Fortress Prius with unworthy competitors, including the failed Honda Insight, or shied away from hybrids altogether. Yet, even as soft fuel prices have partially deflated the eco-car business over the past year, Hyundai sees opportunity, both in newfangled ride-sharing fleets where the break-even point on a hybrid is easily reached, and in up-and-coming millennials. They will represent 40 percent of new-car buyers by 2020. And as long as these young’uns stay the course with their values as they age (just like the baby boomers, cough), including a preference for urban…

[+]M for massive mountains of torque, monstrous traction, and monumental presence. [-]M for muted steering feel but not for M7. 2017 BMW M760i xDRIVE VEHICLE TYPE: frontengine, all-wheel-drive, 4- or 5-passenger, 4-door sedan BASE PRICE: $156,495 ENGINE TYPE: twinturbocharged and intercooled DOHC 48-valve V-12, aluminum block and heads, direct fuel injection DISPLACEMENT: 402 cu in, 6592 cc POWER: 601 hp @ 5500 rpm TORQUE: 590 lb-ft @ 1550 rpm TRANSMISSION: 8-speed automatic with manual shifting mode DIMENSIONS WHEELBASE: 126.4 in LENGTH: 206.2 in WIDTH: 74.9 in HEIGHT: 58.2 in PASSENGER VOLUME: 115 cu ft TRUNK VOLUME: 18 cu ft CURB WEIGHT: 5250 lb PERFORMANCE (C/D EST) ZERO TO 60 MPH: 3.5 sec ZERO TO 100 MPH: 7.9 sec 1/4-MILE: 11.8 sec TOP SPEED: 155–190 mph FUEL ECONOMY EPA COMBINED/CITY/ HWY:…

[+]Turbo 12’s torque shades the Hellcat’s, effortless speed, serious brakes. [-]Cost shades presidential vacations, tri-tone cabin is one tone beyond tasteful, cheesy wing. 2017/2018 BENTLEY CONTINENTAL SUPERSPORTS VEHICLE TYPE: frontengine, all-wheel-drive, 4-passenger, 2-door coupe or convertible BASE PRICE: $299,000–$328,000 (est) ENGINE TYPE: twinturbocharged and intercooled DOHC 48-valve W-12, aluminum block and heads, port fuel injection DISPLACEMENT: 366 cu in, 5998 cc POWER: 700 hp @ 5900 rpm TORQUE: 750 lb-ft @ 2050 rpm TRANSMISSION: 8-speed automatic with manual shifting mode DIMENSIONS WHEELBASE: 108.1 in LENGTH: 189.7 in WIDTH: 76.5–76.7 in HEIGHT: 54.7–54.8 in PASSENGER VOLUME: 86–89 cu ft TRUNK VOLUME: 9–13 cu ft CURB WEIGHT: 5050–5400 lb PERFORMANCE (C/D EST) ZERO TO 60 MPH: 3.4–3.7 sec ZERO TO 100 MPH: 7.3–7.7 sec 1/4-MILE: 11.6–12.0 sec TOP SPEED: 205–209 mph FUEL…

[+]Engaging powertrain and chassis, a marked improvement of the Sentra. [-]The styling of 2017 wrapped around a 1980s GM interior, it’s not a VW GTI. 2017 NISSAN SENTRA NISMO VEHICLE TYPE: frontengine, front-wheeldrive, 5-passenger, 4-door sedan PRICE AS TESTED: $27,570 BASE PRICE: $25,855 ENGINE TYPE: turbocharged and intercooled DOHC 16-valve inline-4, aluminum block and head, direct fuel injection DISPLACEMENT: 99 cu in, 1618 cc POWER: 188 hp @ 5600 rpm TORQUE: 177 lb-ft @ 1600 rpm TRANSMISSION: 6-speed manual DIMENSIONS WHEELBASE: 106.3 in LENGTH: 183.6 in WIDTH: 69.3 in HEIGHT: 58.9 in PASSENGER VOLUME: 96 cu ft TRUNK VOLUME: 15 cu ft CURB WEIGHT: 3043 lb C/D TEST RESULTS ZERO TO 60 MPH: 7.0 sec ZERO TO 100 MPH: 17.5 sec ZERO TO 120 MPH: 29.1 sec ROLLING START, 5–60…