Innehållsförteckning för February 2018 från Car and Driver

BLACKOUT Normally my day brightens upon receipt of my latest C/D. This month, I am faced with a depressing black cover [November 2017]. Okay, I get it. Autonomous cars will be the hammer to shatter our automotive souls. Still, you are neither Jay-Z nor Metallica. Let’s get back to utilizing cover-page imagery of colorful, enticing vehicles that move our still-intact souls. Please go easy on the “Enter Sandman” jokes. —Greg Sandman La Grange, IL I read the November cover and threw the issue in the trash. —Tom Stone South Pasadena, CA INTO THE DEEP BLUE Wow! Great issue. First time I’ve ever used a highlighter and jotted down margin notes in an automotive magazine. Thought-provoking. Please do more special editions like November’s. —John B. Farmer Richmond, VA I had never…

While the French do a healthy business in shrugs and even, when equipped, mustache twirls, they are for the most part an undemonstrative people. Yet the Ford GT’s abrupt transition to its Track mode—the car dropping two inches as hydraulic actuators compress its supplemental coil springs, the rear wing rising with an equal suddenness—is impressive enough to coax a collective sigh of appreciation from the group of Le Mans corner workers and other informed spectators watching as the car readies itself to head onto the famous circuit. Although we’ve brought the new GT back to the site of its most celebrated racing win, the 2016 class victory taken in its first entry to the 24-hour race, this is not an exploration of what the car is capable of on a…

Compact SUVs aren’t typically known for their comeliness. They are practical, functional, and safe choices, beasts of (light) burden and not objects of beauty. Or, maybe we should say, they weren’t objects of beauty. Because what Mazda did with its CX-5 last year was to create, finally, an achingly attractive compact SUV. There’s still a basic two-box silhouette delineating the CX-5’s proportions, of course, but it’s sculpted into something with all the inherent motion and elegance of a Brancusi. SUVs stopped being tough when they started being the choice of soccer moms seeking to avoid minivan stigma. Still, many manufacturers seem to think pseudorugged styling is the answer in this segment. Mazda has instead penned a shape that integrates delicate form and attractive contours into a body style sought by…

Technology that’s not usable is wasted. And there’s a glut of waste in modern vehicles. Audi bucks the trend by backing its tech with intuitive controls before packing it into the Q7. The rich cabin in Audi’s three-row crossover blends bleeding-edge amenities with stark, modern styling and quality that can be felt. This, plus smart packaging and athletic road manners, secures the Q7 a win. Audi Q7 VEHICLE TYPE: front-engine, all-wheel-drive, 7-passenger, 4-door hatchback BASE PRICE: $50,875–$57,375 ENGINES: turbocharged and intercooled DOHC 16-valve 2.0-liter inline-4, 252 hp, 273 lb-ft; supercharged and intercooled DOHC 24-valve 3.0-liter V-6, 333 hp, 325 lb-ft TRANSMISSION: 8-speed automatic with manual shifting mode CURB WEIGHT: 4776–5080 lb C/D Test Results ZERO TO 60 MPH: 5.5–7.0 sec 1/4-MILE: 14.2–15.4 sec TOP SPEED: 128 mph (governor limited) BRAKING,…

It looks a little like a minivan. Let’s just get that out of the way. But most of your time with a vehicle is spent inside it, and there, the Honda Ridgeline is a car when you want it, a truck when you need it. Its unibody construction pays gigantic dividends in interior volume, and the four-wheel independent suspension nets the one minivan trait people do want in a truck: ride comfort. And its cabin is far comfier than any other pickup’s on the market. That alone is enough to nab the win for the Ridgeline, but then Honda goes and piles on all these other clever features, too: Honda Ridgeline VEHICLE TYPE: front-engine, frontor all-wheel-drive, 5-passenger, 4-door pickup BASE PRICE: $30,605–$36,045 ENGINE: SOHC 24-valve 3.5-liter V-6, 280 hp, 262…

THE TERM “WIDOWMAKER” has been applied to lethally dangerous objects and activities since the 19th century, but in Germany, this compound noun is most commonly associated with the Lockheed F-104 Starfighter. That was the overpowered and frequently unstable Cold War fighter jet that, in the German air and naval services, killed no fewer than 110 of its pilots. From there, the nickname made the leap to the original Porsche 911 Turbo, an almost-as-twitchy on-the-limit companion, and has been applied to pretty much every other turbocharged rear-drive 911 iteration since. As the latest and most powerful of these, the GT2 RS should be the widow-makingest—and the most terrifying. The very thought of a 700-hp rear-wheel-drive and turbocharged Porsche 911 spikes our adrenaline; the 996-generation GT2, even before its power bump, managed…

THE ARRIVAL OF the 2016 GT350 made the Mustang GT the middle child of the family overnight. We praised, doted on, and rewarded the GT350, giving it two 10Best awards. But we will admit that its exotic-sounding 8250-rpm 5.2-liter V-8 made us a little neglectful of the rest of the brood. Here we are, in a Mustang GT review, and we still can’t shut up about its big brother. Middle children hate this. For 2018, Ford makes some changes to the GT that earn it more of our attention. Clearly we are gaga for high-revving V-8s, so we love that the GT’s conventional cross-plane V-8 now revs to 7400 rpm, 400 more than before and a mere 850 short of the GT350’s. Direct injection joins port injection, and the compression…

“IF IT FEELS GOOD, DO IT” is usually terrible advice. But making money feels good, and Jaguar intends to do more of it. Jag must have been feeling pretty dang fine after it introduced its first crossover, the F-Pace, in 2016. Immediately upon release, the F-Pace was the brand’s best seller; not even two years after launch, it routinely posts monthly sales figures one and a half to two times better than anything else in the lineup. So Jaguar has already whipped up another (smaller) two-row crossover based on the same underpinnings as Land Rover’s Range Rover Evoque. Europe will have options for both diesel and front-drive, but all E-Paces sold in the U.S. will be gas-powered all-wheel-drivers, at least for now. For this first encounter, we drove only one…

NAMING A NEW CAR after a famous driver takes a certain amount of corporate confidence. Naming one after Ayrton Senna, the man many consider to be the greatest racer of all time, takes Robert Mueller levels of chutzpah. The McLaren Senna will have to be brilliant to justify its moniker, and it almost certainly will be. As the latest of McLaren’s range-topping Ultimate Series cars, the Senna promises to outpunch the P1 without the weight and complication of hybrid assistance. CHASSIS McLaren boss Mike Flewitt previously has said he sees the company as being in a weight race with rivals rather than a power battle; the Senna is a carbon-fiber testament to the brand’s obsession with shaving mass. McLaren quotes a dry weight of just 2641 pounds, 434 lighter than…

The GT’s currency is speed, traded on the exchanges of ACO, WEC, and IMSA. Based on the asking price, its brokers, the 1000 hand-picked applicants, should have the means to make a track day happen. Whether they choose Virginia International Raceway’s 4.1-mile thrill ride is up to them. For us, it is the obvious choice. We’ve been lapping cars there for over a decade; we brought the GT to VIR now because we couldn’t secure one to run in 2017’s Lightning Lap 11, and we wanted to make this car part of the official record. The GT at VIR is, in one word, fastest. As in, fastest-lap-we’ve-ever-recorded fastest. Take the GT anywhere else and you’d miss out on 163.6 mph down the front straight (second- highest all-time speed); barreling into…

Squint hard—and we mean really, really hard—and you can almost see in the silhouette of the Macan those indomitable 953s and 959s with which Porsche won Paris– Dakar rallies in the 1980s. The Macan is no conventional compact crossover. It’s everything Porsche knows about all-wheel-drive systems, turbocharging, and chassis development stuffed into something people who own small dogs drive to hot yoga. This thing deserves better than that. It deserves to be blasting roostertails across a rippling Saharan dune, its seven-speed dual-clutch transmission always in the right gear, the all-wheel-drive unit perfectly apportioning torque up, down, and across the vehicle. Or crawling through some prehistoric bog in Scotland with its optional air springs lifted to Paris–Dakar heights. The excellence of the range, spanning from the amply endowed 340-hp Macan S…

Whereas we divide other SUVs into regular and luxury 10Best classes, we throw all the big ones into the same pool. Vehicles this big are all expensive. Case in point: this year’s competition. The Mercedes-Benz GLS450 was pitted against a $78,420 Chevrolet, an $81,765 Ford, and a $78,390 GMC. In this group, the $84,160 GLS450 is the only one that doesn’t feel like it’s been priced by the pound. The Ford and GM trucks look as if they’d be as capacious as a hot-air balloon— the actual balloon, not the basket— but don’t offer appreciably more passenger space than a minivan. In contrast, the Benz boasts more space than it looks like it should—critically, the GLS’s rear-most seat offers 41 percent more legroom than a Chevy Tahoe’s. Long rear doors…

Traditionally, trucks aren’t a place where manufacturers innovate. In America, pickups have been a balance-sheet certainty for years. A place for power, durability, and securing your manhood. But comfort, ease of use, and, wait, what’s that? Luxury? Not until the 21st century. Heated and cooled front seats are now de rigueur in pickups. In the Ford F-150, massaging front seats are an actual thing. Sound like a weak-kneed excuse for a pickup truck? Possibly you’ve forgotten about the desert-tormenting Raptor [see right]. Plus, you’d likely feel differently on the third day of a crosscounty road trip. And with the SuperCrew cab, the F-150’s rear seat space is positively enormous, beating the nearest competitor in legroom by 1.3 inches. That’s space that turns into an equally practical and massive enclosed cargo…

RULE NUMBER ONE IN DESIGNING a new Jeep Wrangler is: Don’t screw it up. The second rule in designing a new Jeep Wrangler is: Always follow rule number one. Rule number three in designing a new Jeep Wrangler is: Don’t screw it up by putting rectangular headlights on it. Because, while the open-top off-roader isn’t the franchise anymore (it’s typically not Jeep’s best-selling model), it is the spiritual center of the brand. It’s the icon that lends credibility to the company in the same way that the 911 does to Porsche, even as the German company sells half as many sports cars as it does SUV-type things. Jeep can sustain any number of failures, from the bovine Commander to the pitiful original Compass (known around these parts as the Swampass),…

According to GT development boss Andreas Preuninger, the GT2 RS’s suspension—which uses ball joints in place of bushings—is much closer to that of one of Porsche Motorsport’s racing variants than it is to a conventional roadgoing 911’s. Ride height, camber, caster, and toe are all individually adjustable for those looking to tweak their setups, but the front and rear carbon-fiber anti-roll bars and end links included in the Weissach package are the star technological feature. Though performance is claimed to be identical to metal parts, these elements shave 12 pounds off the curb weight. And the anti-roll bars’ rates can be increased or decreased through three different mounting points for the end links. The racer’s edge, available at your local 911 configurator.…

IT TOOK PORSCHE 53 YEARS to sell a million 911s. In the 15 years since the Cayenne’s 2002 debut, Porsche has sold 770,000 of the utes, and the millionth will probably be built in about three years. As much as we love the sports cars from Stuttgart, Porsche in the 21st century is the house that Cayenne built. It’s clear that Porsche didn’t want to mess with success, so the new Cayenne looks a lot like the old one. Flared and rounded fenders, gaping air intakes, Panamera-like headlights, a bulging hood, and the shape of the greenhouse are all clear Cayenne traits that have carried through to the 2019 model. It’s fractionally lower than before, but this is not a redefinition of the Cayenne. Porsche certainly could have changed it…

TECHNOLOGY IS FORECAST to so thoroughly transform the automotive landscape that not even the idea of ownership is expected to survive the next generation or two unchanged. The latest twist: the car subscription program. With this model, rather than making payments on a single car, you pay a monthly fee to have access to a pool of vehicles. If your needs change, so can your car. Taxes, insurance, and maintenance are generally included. Cadillac and Porsche were the first carmakers to launch such programs [see “The OEM Approach”], and others have announced their intent to follow suit. Then there’s Mobiliti, a third-party subscriber service affiliated with no particular brand. Instead, Mobiliti is partnering with dealerships that will list vehicles from their inventories. Monthly fees will vary but will be based…

IN THE UNRELENTING PURSUIT of a more efficient internal-combustion engine, automakers are hoping that their dealer will help wean them off the very drug they’re hooked on. If the oil industry raised the octane rating of regular gasoline, engineers could increase compression ratios, improving fuel efficiency and cutting CO2 emissions. It’s an idea that’s gained the support of Honda executives as well as the United States Council for Automotive Research, a technology alliance among Fiat Chrysler, Ford, and General Motors. But few have been as vocal as Dan Nicholson, GM’s vice president of global propulsion systems, in arguing for what’s certain to be more expensive gas. Nicholson says a well-to-wheel analysis of CO2 emissions suggests the optimum societal benefit comes from a fuel with a 95 or 96 research octane…

In this cuckoo-crazy, mixed-up world, nothing is certain and the set order is up for renegotiation. For decades, the four-door sedan was the sensible choice, the vehicle that sober, serious grown-up types bought to show just how sober and serious they really were. But crossovers have toppled the establishment, and now four-doors are struggling to retain relevance. So squash the roofs, pack in the tech, add a practical hatch for the camping equipment, and voilà—the sedan is king again. Only now they’re four-door coupes. Got it? The quasi-coupes under examination today are Audi’s A5 Sportback and BMW’s 430i xDrive Gran Coupe, with the Kia Stinger here to do its own renegotiating of the set order. The Audi and BMW lead with, and are enabled by, their heritage. They’re tweaked expressions…

Let’s face it: The junior-luxe-crossover class is mostly a collection of oddballs and misfits. It includes the maxi-Mini, the Countryman; the cramped and funky Infiniti QX30 and Mercedes-Benz GLA; and the Predator-mawed Lexus NX300. Only the second-generation BMW X1 gets the class right, setting down a blueprint other carmakers would be wise to follow. This pleasantly handsome subcompact SUV offers engaging driving dynamics, a crisp-shifting eight-speed automatic, and one of the best turbocharged 2.0-liter inline-fours on the market. The X1 also maximizes interior space, critical in this smallest of crossover classes. Riding on the same UKL2 platform as its less successfully realized cousin, the Countryman, the BMW feels a full size up on the ’man. The two ride on the samelength wheelbase, but the X1 is longer and taller. This…

Mazda engineers started CX-9 development with a hunch: Family crossovers would benefit from low-end torque more than top-end power. To test their hypothesis, they calibrated, geared, and ballasted a diesel CX-5 to simulate the torque curve, transmission, and weight of the new threerow crossover they had planned. Then they drove to a local Southern California school. While matching the speed and acceleration of the luxury utes ferrying kids home, the ersatz CX-9 rarely revved past 3000 rpm. Theory validated. In a segment rife with wheezy naturally aspirated V-6 engines, the Mazda CX-9’s turbocharged inline-four punches out 310 pound-feet of torque at 2000 rpm. This 2.5-liter is perfectly matched to the ebb and flow of suburban surface streets and the pack-mule existence of a family utility vehicle. To keep low-end responses…

Overshadowed by an endless parade of new SUVs, the trusty minivan remains the most versatile, comfortable, and efficient family hauler in the game. And Chrysler, progenitor of the class, again builds the best one. The Pacifica is easier to convert from carpool configuration to max-cargo duty than any other one-boxer. It’s more comfortable and easier to operate, too, thanks to great front seats, an excellent infotainment system, and intuitive ergonomics. It looks a little more upscale than its competitors, and if you fancy clipping every corner apex between the baseball diamond and the gymnastics barn, well, the Pacifica’s well-tuned chassis won’t protest. Here are a few notable features that help vault the Pacifica onto the 10Best list: Chrysler Pacifica VEHICLE TYPE: front-engine, front-wheeldrive, 7- or 8-passenger, 4-door van BASE PRICE:…

Objectively, the outgoing BMW M5 cornered with absolute proficiency. The driver’s intention traveled from the steering wheel down the column through the pinion gear to the steering rack and tie rods, manifested as a lateral force at the tires, and ultimately resulted in a predictable arc. Human steered, car turned. Just like any other vehicle. It was that last part that was the problem: “Just like any other vehicle.” The fifth-generation M5 lacked that special something in the way it steered and cornered. It failed to convey the nuance—the subtle loading and slackening of the steering wheel, the early premonition of the tires’ grip waning, a clear read of the road surface—that once made M cars so exceptional. The last M5 didn’t carve corners so much as beat them into…

AUDI STILL HASN’T SAID WHETHER ITS 2019 A8—the first car to offer Level 3 automation, which permits the driver to take his hands off the wheel and eyes off the road in certain conditions— will actually be allowed to drive itself when it goes on sale in the United States this fall. But even if it won’t, the new A8 poses a genuine threat to BMW, Cadillac, Lexus, and Mercedes-Benz. It is taller, longer, and more isolated from the road yet better controlled than the A8 it replaces. It is a cruise missile for the wealthy, flattening mountains and straightening freeways with a conspicuous lack of effort. And even absent Traffic Jam Pilot, Audi’s name for its headline Level 3 feature, the new A8 is quite likely the most technologically…

TO CELEBRATE THE MILLIONTH 911 PRODUCED, Porsche built a one-off Carrera S inspired by the first 911 owned by Ferry Porsche. Mr. Porsche himself took delivery of the third 911 off the line in late 1964; 53 years later, the millionth example was presented to us for a drive. Both the third and the millionth 911 wear Irish Green paint, a nonmetallic color that was purportedly Ferry’s favorite (the family loved those hunting hues). The color is still available through Porsche’s Exclusive program, but it’ll cost you $6960. Brand fetishists will obsess over the bits that the factory won’t mass reproduce: the vintage Porsche crests, the cloth houndstooth (Pepita in Porsche-speak) seat inserts, the proprietary 1,000,000th badges, the gold-colored accents, and the green ink on the gauge faces that emulates…

ITS CABIN IS A PLACE FOR MEDITATION and reflection, a capsule into which the turmoil of life is sequestered. The soothing babble of torque and tranquillity, the oil-suspended-in-water sensation transmitted by the car’s placid ride: These are the elements that give Lexus’s new LS500 its serenity. It’s also a 4952- pound sensory-suppression vessel that accelerates to 60 mph in 5.1 seconds while respecting cosmic constants. And it wears a spindle nose that combines mesmerizing mathematical modeling with the scene in any Oliver Stone movie where a character consumes peyote. This is the fifth-generation Lexus LS and the first without a V-8 engine. The regular-flavor LS500 sampled here is powered by a new twin-turbocharged, direct-injected 3.4-liter V-6 rated at 416 horsepower. There’s an LS500h that combines a naturally aspirated 295-hp 3.5-liter…