Innehållsförteckning för December 2020 från Car and Driver

While the James Bond of Ian Fleming’s novels started out driving Bentleys, the cinematic version of Britain’s most famous spy has been an Aston Martin man since Sean Connery drove a DB5 in 1964’s Goldfinger. Sure, Bond has had other automotive dalliances since then, including the subaquatic Lotus Esprit in The Spy Who Loved Me and that unfortunate BMW period, which started with a four-cylinder Z3. But in No Time to Die—now due in movie theaters in April—007 honors his silver-screen roots with a chase in a 1963 DB5. This posed two problems for producers. A pristine DB5 is now worth seven figures, and equally significant, Aston’s early-1960s grand tourers don’t have the athleticism to pull off stunts for a modern Bond movie. The solution was both simple and hugely…

Sylvia Wilkinson and I are comparing notes about taking notes, and I’m taking notes. I’ve been meaning to talk to her about her writing process for years, ever since I read her book The Stainless Steel Carrot, which is about the Brock Racing Enterprises Datsun team’s chase for the Trans-Am Championship in the early ’70s. For Carrot, Wilkinson spent almost two years with BRE, following team founder Peter Brock and driver John Morton and a series of engine builders and guest drivers from workshop to racetrack, taking notes the whole time. “I always tried to be as unobnoxious about it as possible,” she says. “It wasn’t that hard in the pits. You could duck around the building. But later, at dinner, in a bar? They probably thought I had a…

There are no gentlemanly duels in the truck wars. From torque outputs to tow ratings, the evolution of the pickup plays out in slugfests of one-upmanship. That has made the Ford F-150 Raptor’s decade-long reign as the undisputed champ of high-performance production off-road trucks an impressive feat. While tamer Chevys, Jeeps, and Toyotas have deepened the factory off-road pool over the years, Ram’s new 1500-based TRX is the first contender with a real shot at unseating the Raptor from the lofty throne it created. One look under the hood of the TRX—which Ram internally calls “T. rex”—reveals the seriousness of this bout: From Fiat Chrysler’s Hellcat line, this supercharged V-8 makes 702 horsepower and, at 6.2 liters, simply dwarfs the Raptor’s 450-hp twin-turbo 3.5-liter V-6. To deflate Ford’s EcoBoost further,…

While we ran into a convenience store to get some water, the staff of a nearby marijuana dispensary came outside to gawk at our ride: the new Cadillac Escalade. From the longing in their eyes, we’re guessing they either loved it or they were high. Perhaps both. Early Escalades were lightly warmed-over GMCs but proved to be a badge-engineering success. A few cosmetic differences, a wreath and crest, leather-trimmed seats, Zebrano wood on the instrument panel, a standard big V-8, and a high price made Cadillac’s SUV a status symbol. The profit margins had GM execs swan-diving into pools of gold. Later iterations added more exclusive-to-Cadillac goods, but the Escalade formula remains largely the same today. The new model continues to share its underpinnings with the Chevy Tahoe and Suburban…

Toyota will be pumping out 6000 special-edition Corolla Apexes, which are really only special when you compare them with the hundreds of thousands of regular old Corollas Toyota sells each year. But the 120 Apex models that it plans to make with a manual transmission will be rare by nearly any measure. The stick-shift car is apparently so rare that Toyota didn’t have one to send us. Instead, our test car arrived with the CVT automatic. The Apex treatment on the Corolla is similar in scope to TRD versions of the Camry and Avalon. Like those models, Toyota leaves the engine alone—in this case, it’s a 169-hp 2.0-liter four—and concentrates on handling and looks. The retuned suspension lowers the ride height by 0.6 inch, the 18-inch wheels with the no-cost…

The Ferrari Roma’s start button isn’t a button. It’s an iPad-like touch-sensitive switch at the bottom of the steering wheel. And it’s but one of many functions crammed onto the helm. Even after spending 30 hours with the car, we were still uncovering new ones. Ferrari isn’t relying on its heritage here. This is only the second V-8-powered front-engine GT coupe in the brand’s history—the first being the 2018 GTC4Lusso T, which was the refreshed FF with four fewer cylinders. No, with the Roma, Ferrari focused on making a 21st-century grand-touring car with an almost all-digital interface and without a goofy retractable roof. Sure, the hardtop convertible Portofino is still around, and there’s a lot of Portofino in the Roma, but the Roma is some 200 pounds lighter and 20…

Aston Martin laid out a buffet of James Bond cars for us to drive at Britain’s Silverstone Circuit in February. The original DB5 feels like it’s trying to crawl out of a moat. The Timothy Dalton–era V8 Vantage isn’t much better. But the No Time to Die stunt cars? Those are brilliant. Not road legal but brilliant. In fact, those carbon-fiber movie props may be the best Astons ever made. Start up the straightpiped inline-six and the cockpit becomes a staccato-voiced, sensory-overload orgasmatron. The steering is light, precise, and delightful. The floor-hinged pedal set is balletic in its precision, and the six-speed manual transmission shifts as if it were making surgical incisions. Built around a steel spaceframe with the same 98.0-inch wheelbase as the original, the whole thing weighs only about…

Ever hear of left-digit bias? It’s the reason ShamWows cost $19.95 instead of $20 and why people say they’re 39 instead of 40. We focus on that first digit and assign it undeserved importance because our cavedweller brains are easily tricked. This is why the 2021 Audi RS6 Avant’s certifiably ballistic 60-mph time of 3.1 seconds seems, in a bizarre way, mundane. If that time were two-tenths of a second quicker, we’d be petitioning for National RS6 Day, a time to celebrate and reflect on the RS6’s righteous and scarcely believable acceleration. Instead, we’re like, “Yeah, about what we expected.” Can you really even feel the difference between a 2.9-second and 3.1-second run? Sure, to the same extent you notice that five-cent difference in the pretax price of ShamWows and…

Price As Tested ……………………… $66,475 Base …………………………………………………………. $60,175 Vehicle Type: front-engine, all-wheel-drive, 7-passenger, 4-door wagon Options: Advanced Plus package, $5900; Adriatic Blue paint, $400 Audio System: satellite radio, USB and Bluetooth-audio inputs, Android Auto and Apple CarPlay interfaces, 21 speakers Engine twin-turbocharged and intercooled V-6, aluminum block and heads Bore x Stroke ……. 3.62 x 3.43 in, 92.0 x 87.0 mm Displacement …………………………. 212 in3, 3470 cm3 Compression Ratio …………………………………….. 11.0:1 Fuel Delivery: port and direct injection Turbochargers: BorgWarner Maximum Boost Pressure ……………………. 13.1 psi Valve Gear: double overhead cams, 4 valves per cylinder, variable in-take- and exhaust-valve timing Redline/Fuel Cutoff ……………….. 6250/6250 rpm Power ……………………………………. 375 hp @ 5800 rpm Torque …………………………………. 391 lb-ft @ 1300 rpm Drivetrain Transmission: 8-speed automatic Final-Drive Ratio ………………………………………. 3.91:1 All-Wheel-Drive System: full time…

Cadillac is aiming to improve its navigation system by augmenting reality. The 14.2-inch instrument cluster display can be filled with a view of the road from the forward-facing camera. When the navigation system is active, giant blue arrows are overlaid on the video feed as if placed there by a traffic crew to direct the driver toward upcoming turns. It’s somewhat amazing that Cadillac—the company that puts a stop to moderate-g lateral acceleration—allows the Escalade to do this while the vehicle is in motion. More than one editor commented on the distraction. The arrows do point you in the right direction, but the function is limited. For example, the indication for the necessary highway lane isn’t overlaid on the road; it’s shown in a simple pictogram of the lane configuration,…

Children don’t sketch SUVs in study hall and car designers don’t spend years in school so that they can one day become studio bosses and draw a grille and headlights on a potatoshaped crossover. The designers we know dream of penning performance cars, and while the Kia K5 isn’t exactly that, it sure looks like one. “Longer, lower, wider” sounds like a Chevy ad from the ’50s, but those adjectives belong to Kia’s mid-size sedan, too. Compared with the Optima it replaces, the K5 measures two inches longer, one inch wider, and nearly an inch lower. The proportions and design yield a striking car that belies its front-drive layout and $24,255 starting price. While I drove a $27,955 GT-Line in California, the Michigan crew strapped the test gear to a…

We all fantasize about our lottery garages and the liveries we’ll own when we hit it big. Let me recommend setting aside $15,000 of your fantasy winnings for a trip north of the Arctic Circle that will leave you exhausted and exhilarated and make you a far better driver. Before the coronavirus hobbled the globe, I flew to Levi, Finland, with Porsche to experience its Ice Force Pro driving school. For three days, I glimpsed the northern lights, witnessed the beauty of Finland’s long winter dawns and twilights, and left the program feeling like I could star in the next Fast & Furious film, provided it’s set on a glacier. My goal at any event where other journalists are present has always been to have fun and not to do…

Price As Tested …………………….. $119,840 Base ……………………………………………………….. $110,045 Vehicle Type: front-engine, all-wheel-drive, 5-passenger, 4-door wagon Options: Executive package, $2500; Black Optic package, $2450; Driver Assistance package, $2250; Sport exhaust, $1000; Tango Red Metallic paint, $595; Carbon Twill interior trim, $500; red brake calipers, $500 Audio System: satellite radio; USB, SD-card, and Bluetooth-audio inputs; Android Auto and Apple CarPlay interfaces; 14 speakers Engine twin-turbocharged and intercooled V-8, aluminum block and heads Bore x Stroke …… 3.39 x 3.39 in, 86.0 x 86.0 mm Displacement ………………………… 244 in3, 3996 cm3 Compression Ratio ……………………………………… 10.1:1 Fuel Delivery: direct injection Turbochargers: KKK Maximum Boost Pressure …………………… 21.6 psi Valve Gear: double overhead cams, 4 valves per cylinder, variable in-take- and exhaust-valve timing and variable intake-valve lift, cylinder deactivation Redline/Fuel Cutoff ……………….. 6750/6800 rpm Power…

The wind picked up. A dark funnel cloud loomed behind the flickering image of Jack Nicholson’s face in The Shining before tearing through the screen and doing unconscionable damage to some lovely ’70s pickup trucks. I flinched in my vegan-fabric seat and then flinched again as the Polestar 2’s taillights inexplicably flashed. That had already earned me a visit from two of my neighbors at the Roadium Drive-In asking me to please turn the lights off. I would have if I had known how. I felt extremely guilty about ruining Twister for them. At least I wasn’t alone in disturbing the peace. Throughout the night, there were many headlight sweeps and key fob beeps. It’s a problem, according to general manager Paul Hengehold. He’s been at the Roadium for five…

Traditionalists will say the new 4-series maintains only a passing resemblance to a BMW, like an unlicensed rendering in a video game. Much of the blame for that goes to the attentionsnaring vertically oriented grille [see “Breathe Right”]. But what’s most disappointing about this Bimmer is that it’s not as good to drive as we’d expect a sporty BMW coupe to be. The 4’s redesign catches it up to the current G20-generation 3-series. Although the two cars share a 112.2-inch wheelbase, the coupe is an inch or two longer, wider, and lower and has a wider rear track. That growth brings a larger rear seat that’s tolerable for average-size adults. In profile, the 4 looks almost like a scaled-down 8-series but without the Ford Mustang resemblance. The update adds to…

Porsche’s 911 proves it’s possible to have your engine in the wrong place and still compete with mid-engine sports cars. AMG does the same thing with the GT, but the car’s front-engine layout isn’t nearly as unconventional as the 911’s rear-engine pendulum. With a V-8 tucked behind the front axle line, the GT is far less offensive to Newton’s laws. While most AMG GTs cost less than $200,000 and compete with a mix of front-, rear-, and mid-engine cars, the new top-of-the-range $400,000 Black Series is vying for buyers in a class where a jewel-cased engine between the driver and the rear wheels is the norm. If you can look beyond its price and the competition, the Black Series is deeply compelling. It uses a flat-plane-crank version of AMG’s twinturbo…