Innehållsförteckning för June 2021 från Car and Driver

PART 1: THE OPEN ROAD 1. Drive across the country. Slowly. It may not feel this way when you hop on a plane in Los Angeles at midnight and are enjoying brunch in Manhattan the next morning, but we live in a big country. Driving across it is the opposite of convenient, and at some point in Nebraska, you will definitely start to think you should have flown. But a road trip offers many possibilities that aren’t available in 16C. For one, you can pull into a campground late at night and wake up to views of mountains you didn’t know were there. Or maybe make a three-hour detour to pick up a snack from Federal Donuts in Philadelphia. And when you’re behind the wheel, you can sing at the…

NATURALLY ASPIRATED IS THE NEW AIR-COOLED. Just as the efficiency and proliferation of water cooling squeezed out air-cooled engines, the popularity of turbochargers is bringing an end to naturally aspirated engines. Like the final air-cooled flat-sixes, Porsche’s latest naturally aspirated flat-six, with its distinctive sound and feel, seems marked for extinction. To showcase this special engine, Porsche is putting it exclusively in the new-generation 911 GT3, which costs about $18K more than the last. That’s a big number to rationalize to your accountant, so here’s what you say: The latest GT3 is a winged distillation of what makes a sports car great to drive. Taken as a whole, it offers a 180-proof experience, an intoxicating, thrilling adrenaline-jag reminder of what a driver-focused car powered by a sizzling engine can do…

Price As Tested (C/D est) ........ $38,000 Vehicle Type: front-engine, front-wheel-drive, 5-passenger, 4-door hatchback Infotainment: 10.0-inch touchscreen; wireless Android Auto and Apple CarPlay; satellite radio (3 months included); 4 USB-C (2 for power only) and Bluetooth inputs; Wi-Fi hotspot (1 month included); Harman/Kardon audio, 9 speakers Engine turbocharged and intercooled inline-4, iron block and aluminum head Bore x Stroke ...... 3.25 x 3.65 in, 82.5 x 92.8 mm Displacement ................................. 121 in3, 1984 cm3 Compression Ratio ............................................. 9.6:1 Fuel Delivery: direct injection Turbocharger: Garrett MGT1754 Maximum Boost Pressure ........................ 26.1 psi Valve Gear: double overhead cams, 4 valves per cylinder, variable intake- and exhaust-valve timing and variable intake-valve lift Redline/Fuel Cutoff ................... 6600/6600 rpm Power ............................................ 241 hp @ 6500 rpm Torque ....................................... 273 lb-ft @ 1600 rpm Drivetrain Transmission:…

“This isn’t working,” said my wife, Dana, as the Airstream filling our rearview mirror waved like a flag in the absurd winds that often blow across this stretch of desert interstate. “Small movements. Don’t fight it,” I replied as if I knew what to do. But the massive pendulum hitched to the GMC Sierra 1500 had already found a swinging rhythm. “Shit,” my reliably imperturbable, confident life mate exhaled while fruitlessly sawing at the steering wheel. “Oh shit” There’s a pandemic. Go Google it. Whole dang year long and still going. And like everyone else’s, my family’s lives feel stalled. Cabin fever, boredom, irritability, and generalized anxiety seep from the unchanging walls that confine us every second, every hour, every day. The sheer frustration of immobility drove us to do…

The wagon is alive, well, and kicking its way into the future with Porsche’s Taycan 4 Cross Turismo. There’s some implication of crossover-ness and light off-road credibility: the Cross in the name, a 1.2-inch increase in ride height over the Taycan sedan, a Gravel mode for the stabilitycontrol system, the contrasting body cladding. But during a drive that never saw the tires touch dirt, we discovered that this electric four-door wagon has a 911’s appetite for winding roads. In the $92,250 4 Cross Turismo, an 83.7-kWh battery pack powers front and rear motors that are good for a combined 469 horsepower when launch control is activated or 375 horsepower in normal use. As in all Taycans, a two-speed automatic transmission on the rear axle enables brisk off-the-line acceleration and more…

The shrinking minivan segment is more proof that only the strong survive. The Toyota Sienna is now a 30-plusmpg hybrid, the Honda Odyssey drives better than most crossovers, and the Chrysler Pacifica comes in a plug-in-hybrid version with freakin’ throw pillows in its top trim. Plus, both the Chrysler and the Toyota offer all-wheel drive. Sporting a new name and logo, the Kia Carnival enters the fray with a fresh, modern design that makes it the best-looking van of the bunch. While Kia designers did their best to make the Carnival look like an SUV, there’s no hiding the high roof and low floor of a van. The Kia’s square profile pays dividends inside, with a class-leading 167 cubic feet of passenger space and 40 cubic feet for cargo behind…

Price As Tested (C/D est)…. $200,270 Base (C/D est) ............................................ $163,450 Vehicle Type: rear-engine, rear-wheel-drive, 2-passenger, 2-door coupe Options: Porsche Ceramic Composite Brakes, $9210; leather interior with blue stitching, $6230; Full Bucket seats, $5900; Shark Blue paint, $4220; front-axle lift, $3670; Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 R tires, $3200 (C/D est); satin-black wheels with blue lip, $1950; LED headlights, $1630; ambient lighting, $580; extended-range fuel tank, $230 Infotainment: 10.9-inch touchscreen, Android Auto and wireless Apple CarPlay, satellite radio (3 months included), 2 USB-C and Bluetooth inputs, Wi-Fi hotspot (1 month included), 8 speakers Engine flat-6, aluminum block and heads Bore x Stroke ....... 4.02 x 3.21 in, 102.0 x 81.5 mm Displacement ............................. 244 in3, 3996 cm3 Compression Ratio ........................................... 13.3:1 Fuel Delivery: direct injection Valve Gear: double overhead cams,…

British adventures are rarely spontaneous. This is a society that likes to prepare, with the intrepid among them bringing packages of sandwiches and insulated flasks of hot, milky tea—plus Arctic-spec clothing—when tackling the limited wilderness available on their densely populated small island. That careful approach to the outdoors carries into the off-roading scene in the U.K., which lacks dunes and deserts that can be attacked at high speeds. With a tradition of vehicles like early Land Rovers that needed two-speed transfer cases to multiply the meager torque of their weedy engines, the Brits arrived at a gentle form of all-terrain driving prioritizing slow, steady progress rather than the adrenalized excitement of screaming engines and roostertails of dirt. The result is a tranquil experience. We found that feeling on an excursion…

Surprises from Mercedes-Benz are rare. Every new E-class is an evolution of the last, familiar and connected to its forebears. That calculated incremental change has allowed the E to become the archetype of mid-size luxury sedans. Genesis, on the other hand, is so new to the luxury game that this is only the third time we’ve put one of its cars in a comparison test. Although the G80 mid-size sedan is now in its third generation if you count its Hyundai-badged predecessors, the 2021 model was developed to be a Genesis in a ground-up reset. The result is a vehicle that takes a credible step into a segment that Benz helped create. To see whether the new Genesis sedan is ready for the bigs, we pitted a 2021 G80 with…

Beyond the lack of 90 years of wear, the Bentley Blower Continuation is a facsimile of the original. A mere dozen will be made, each costing $2.5 million and pulling off the unique trick of offering both a new-car smell and a prewar driving experience. Based on the Blower that raced at Le Mans in 1930, the Continuation features a perfect copy of the original’s 16-valve 4.4-liter inline-four complete with twin-spark ignition, aluminum pistons, and a magnesium crankcase. With 240 horsepower in race trim, the Blower was one of the most powerful cars at the time and could hit 125 mph. Mastering the double-clutched gearchanges and rev-matched downshifts demanded of the non-synchronized transmission takes practice—the throttle is between the clutch and brake—but the rest of the experience feels, if not…

Car manufacturers know you’re stressed and bored. To calm and amuse you, some offer spa-like audio tracks and peaceful animations across their ever-larger screens, and at least one provides games, karaoke, and fart sounds. If repeatedly making it seem like your passenger just ripped one gets old—I suppose it’s possible—try entertaining yourself with the suggestions in the in-car navigation. Many modern nav systems have a list of points of interest (POI). I always assumed it was just restaurants, hotels, gas stations, and maybe major tourist stops that everyone already knows such as Disney World or the Everglades gator show, but internet connectivity means that infotainment systems can offer a broader, constantly updated list of nearby attractions. Recent exploration of the POI list in a couple of cars surprised me with…

GOOD CARS MAKE YOU SMILE. THE GREAT ONES MAKE YOU LAUGH. A bout of the giggles overcame us as the 2022 Volkswagen Golf GTI carved its way through Little Tujunga Canyon Road. Built in the 1930s, Little Tujunga and the adjoining Sand Canyon Road encompass 17 miles of coiled asphalt over the San Gabriel Mountains on the western edge of the Angeles National Forest. The tight, twisting two-lane climbs gradually to 2750 feet and connects Lake View Terrace on the south end with an In-N-Out Burger in Santa Clarita. Less popular than the famous Angeles Crest and Angeles Forest Highways to the east, Little Tujunga has switchbacks and low-speed corners that favor nimbleness as well as steep drop-offs that test a driver’s trust in the vehicle and commit-ment to speed.…

Somewhere near the Lake Murray Dam in South Carolina, I squint out the windshield and try to decipher a road sign on the other side of the intersection. Traffic rolls past on Highway 6, and it occurs to me: I’m squinting because the sun is in my face. It’s morning. The sun rises in the east, and therefore if I want to go north toward the dam, I’ll take a left. About a minute later, I’m at the dam, one of the checkpoints on a fiendish scavenger hunt. You wouldn’t think a dam—or anything else, for that matter—would be hard to find, but I’m hewing to a single rule that, not so long ago, applied to everyone: I can’t use GPS. I’m rediscovering my sense of direction in a 1987…

A decade ago, it would’ve been hard to imagine a little bit of digital currency mined by computers ever amounting to anything. But if you’d had the foresight to buy some in 2011, back when one bitcoin cost a dollar, you might be in the market for a new Flying Spur today. Starting at $199,725 (less than a $4 bitcoin buy in April 2011), the V-8-powered Spur makes 542 horsepower, well short of what you get with the optional 626-hp twin-turbo W-12. You won’t miss that extra power, though. On the back of a high-rpm launch-control start made possible by its eight-speed dual-clutch automatic, the Flying Spur V8 catapults to 60 mph in 3.5 seconds, matching the 12-cylinder sedan’s time. The quarter comes up in 12.0 seconds at 115 mph.…

Hyundai’s confidence in its styling department is on display in the new Tucson compact crossover. In a segment dominated by play-it-safe, forgettable shapes, the Tucson’s bulging fenders, hard creases, and faceted grille with integrated daytime running lights are going to get noticed. Love it or hate it, the Tucson isn’t boring. The design work is even stronger inside, where a mélange of Honda, Lexus, and Audi cues play well together. Two 10.3-inch screens stand out as stars of the top trim level: The one in front of the driver displays the gauges, and the touchscreen to the right controls the info-tainment system, which features Apple CarPlay and Android Auto phone mirroring. Interior space bests that of the Honda CR-V, a juggernaut in this segment. Larger than before and riding on…