Innehållsförteckning för November 2021 från Car and Driver

The Hot Wheels Legends Tour is a build contest in which professional and amateur fabricators put forward their rides in hopes of having them minimized to one day be sent hurtling off tabletops to the delight of small children (and no small number of adults). Riley Stair’s alcohol-burning, wide-body, tube-frame 1970 Firebird is the third winner since the competition began in 2018. It took him 18 months to build the ’Bird. The Hot Wheels team had half that time to re-create it in one-64th scale. Here’s how they do it. 1. Mattel’s small-car toy empire includes more than 2500 people who work around the world, but it all starts in the design department in El Segundo, California, with sketches and renderings based on photographs and notes about the full-size car.…

IMAGINE IF THE LOUVRE HANDED OVER THE MONA LISA FOR A DAY. YOUR OWN PRIVATE MASTERPIECE. TAKE IT HOME, HOLD IT UP TO YOUR NOSE FOR A CLOSE LOOK, HANG IT ON YOUR WALL. WANT TO RUN YOUR FINGERS OVER THE BRUSHSTROKES? GO AHEAD, NO ONE IS LOOKING. For an auto enthusiast, seeing a $4.0 million Pagani Huayra Roadster BC in the wild is akin to laying eyes on the Mona Lisa. Getting handed the Huayra-shaped key and testing one is like tucking La Gioconda under your arm and making for the exit. A 3051-pound tribute to the carbon-fiber medium, the Roadster is as much a sculpture as it is a car. It’s the latest in the Huayra Roadster line, which dates to 2017. Only 40 of the targa-top-style BCs…

Stand around our cluttered, oil-soaked office garage and the conversation will eventually turn to tales of BMW’s E90 M3. Sold from 2008 to 2012, the M car’s legend continues to grow because subsequent M3s couldn’t quite re-create the E90’s magic blend of size, power, handling, and feel. In a turn of events unthinkable 20 years ago, Cadillac took up the mantle with the ATS-V and now the CT4-V Blackwing. The smaller of the two Blackwings, the CT4-V drives, handles, and performs as if Caddy ignored modern benchmarks and went after the E90. The electrically assisted steering builds effort and feeds information in a way that rivals the best modern sports cars. Turn the nose in and hold it to the 1.01-g limit. Using that grip is easy, as the car…

What’s the difference? It’s the question buyers face when sifting through a car’s various models. For a car like the Porsche 911, spending more money yields an obvious improvement in handling, appearance, and engine character. But when it comes to the $87,030 Porsche Taycan Performance Battery Plus (PBP) and the $186,350 Taycan Turbo S, the only real distinction is acceleration. Stomping the accelerator leads to two very different experiences in these EVs. The 469-hp Taycan PBP hits 60 mph in 4.7 seconds, while the 750-hp Turbo S nearly halves that time with 2.4 seconds of neck strain. (The absolute lowest-rung Taycan has 402 horses, a smaller battery, and an $81,250 price.) But when you’re not using the Turbo S’s extra power, that car rides, looks, and acts just like a…

What’s blasting from your car speakers, and more important, how does it sound? For sound-system engineers at the audio-equipment manufacturer Bose, a playlist is more than tracks that slap. To test stereos, they need songs representing a variety of sounds and recording techniques to make sure new systems can re-create a song with the depth of the original recording. To have a common reference point, Bose engineers all over the globe share a master playlist. “Every system engineer knows these tracks inside and out,” says Mark Armitage, head of the acoustical-engineering team at the company’s Michigan field office. “It makes for a universal language we can use when testing and tuning.” Armitage says the 54-track Bose playlist is updated periodically, and engineers can use it alongside a smattering of their…

Dennis Groom, a stay-at-home dad from Dexter, Michigan, thought he could go about looking for a new car the same way he had in the past: Shop around, take a couple of test drives, pick his favorite, and negotiate the lowest price. Then he actually went to a few dealerships. “Even if you see cars on the lots, they’re not really there,” Groom says. Dealers are parking cars they can’t sell, vehicles shipped from the factory without critical microchips, to make it look like there’s inventory. Realizing those cars were just for show “was a kick in the pants,” Groom says. “We weren’t going to be able to go to a dealership and get what we wanted.” He couldn’t even find anyone willing to let him take a test drive.…

A mere look at the i4 M50 doesn’t hint at its significance. There’s little to distinguish it from the like-sized 4-series Gran Coupe four-door it’s based on. But this is BMW’s first EV to wear the storied M badge, even if it’s an M50 moniker and not a full-blown M. It earns the M badge, too, as its power and range are a massive leap beyond BMW’s previous i-subbrand offerings. The i4 uses the same 255-hp front and 308-hp rear motors as the iX, but with a higher peak output of 536 horsepower and 586 pound-feet of torque, thanks to a battery that is smaller in capacity but stronger in output. That’s more power than the current M3 and M4 Competition models. Smacking the go pedal brings hard and instant…

If it seems as though every other week brings a new Porsche, that’s because it very nearly does. Fresh off introductions of the Taycan Sport Turismo, the 911 GT3, and the Cayenne Turbo GT, the German brand has rolled out a refreshed 2022 Macan. A restyled exterior brings the Macan’s look in line with the Cayenne, and the cabin now features Porsche’s latest 10.9-inch infotainment system with Apple CarPlay standard. The old herringbone-like array of buttons straddling the shifter is gone, replaced by capacitive buttons on the center console. But the bigger news is the shake-up at the top of the lineup. The Turbo is effectively replaced by the GTS. Not to worry; the GTS is a Turbo in everything but name as it gets the defunct Turbo’s 434-hp turbo…

Volkswagen’s Tiguan proves that the brand wants to keep building compact SUVs that are more than just practical. Like the very sensible and bestselling Toyota RAV4, a Tiguan will get you and all your stuff to a fun destination. What makes the Tiguan different is that the driving experience will make the journey better. Changes to the Tiguan for 2022 include a handsome face that features newly standard LED lighting elements and sportier styling on R-Line models. For the less attentive, a suite of driver-assistance features is now available on more trim levels. Although the Tiguan’s spacious interior is dotted with small revisions and a third row remains available, the looks and feel are still a bit bland. A digital gauge display is now standard, and a new touch-sensitive climate-control…

Alex Taylor started drag racing at 16. Now 24, she grew up around cars at her parents’ hot-rod shop in Booneville, Arkansas, and still uses it as a home base for her automotive YouTube channel, Riding with Alex Taylor. While the shop specializes in fast drag cars with a classic look—like her dad’s ’55 Chevy gasser and her 1968 Camaro—the Taylors are happy to take on the task of making any car quicker. They got a chance to test their skills on a modern canvas when Dodge invited Taylor to participate in a Challenger build-off competition. Dodge provided competitors with a bone-stock Challenger or Charger Hellcat to modify as they pleased. The winner would be last builder standing after a street-style drag matchup. The rules: stock-appearing body, stock engine block,…

SEPTEMBER 6, 2021, WAS THE LAST DAY FOR WICKED TWISTER. THE ROLLER COASTER, AN ANCHOR ATTRACTION AT OHIO’S CEDAR POINT AMUSEMENT PARK, OPENED IN 2002 WITH AN UNUSUAL PREMISE: INSTEAD OF SENDING RIDERS AROUND A LOOP, IT WOULD USE LINEAR INDUCTION MOTORS TO LAUNCH THEM OUT OF A STATION—ZERO TO 72 MPH IN 2.5 SECONDS—AND UP A 215-FOOT-TALL VERTICAL, SPIRAL TRACK. The 32-seat train then plummets back down through the station, where the motors goose the ride in the other direction, sending it backward up an identical tower on the other side. The track looks like a pair of giant deformed yellow goal posts and not like the wooden coaster on the previous pages. Wicked Twister’s warnings include lines like “Guests must have a minimum of three functioning extremities.” That’s…

SERVICE Dealer Visits •Scheduled …………………………. 4 •Unscheduled ……………………… 3 Days Out of Service ………………. 2 Unscheduled Oil Additions ………………………. 2.3 qt Damage and Destruction ……………………. $3121 LIFE EXPECTANCIES Tires … 30,000 miles Brake Pads •Front ….. more than 100,000 miles •Rear …… more than 100,000 miles WHAT BITS AND PIECES COST Headlamp ……………. $1931 Engine Air Filter …….. $80 Oil Filter ……………….. $30 Wheel, F/R .. $1588/$1639 Tire, F/R ……… $364/$377 Wiper Blades …………. $82 Front Brake Pads …. $506 SERVICE TIMELINE November 14, 2019 1562 miles Long-term test begins. Swapped to Michelin Pilot Alpin 5 winter tires. $1506 (without installation) April 15, 2020 10,626 miles Swapped back to summer tires. $0 April 17, 2020 10,741 miles Plugged nail hole in right-rear tire. $11 May 5, 2020 11,192 miles Changed…

Given the market’s tunnel vision for SUVs, we were too cynical to believe the Subaru BRZ and its nearly identical Toyota twin, the 86—small, low-power, rear-drive coupes with limited appeal—would live long enough to see a second generation. What we didn’t account for is the power of youth. Subaru and Toyota greenlighted the redesign of these sports cars because the BRZ and 86 drew in more young buyers than anything else in their portfolios. Car companies love a young demographic nearly as much as outright sales. Playful and juvenile, the first-gen BRZ had a few rough edges. Most of the complaints fell on the peaky engine, which didn’t deliver power smoothly. To address that issue, Subaru upped the displacement of its flat-four from 2.0 liters to 2.4. Unlike the 2.0,…

The fact that Toyota is calling its latest crossover-looking thing the Corolla Cross tells us exactly what the automaker is trying to do here. The new entry aims for the eponymous Toyota compact’s combination of reliability, practicality, and efficiency. And given the current craze for anything with an SUV shape, it’s only logical for Toyota to add this raised version. In Toyota’s seven-SUV lineup, the Corolla Cross carves out a niche between the funky C-HR and the bestselling RAV4, a gap the automaker reckons to be worth about 100,000 sales per year. To find buyers, Toyota has given the Corolla Cross things the C-HR lacks: an inoffensive design, decent cargo space, and optional all-wheel drive. A pug-dog face and a few creases in the body sides attempt to liven up…