Innehållsförteckning för September 2023 från Car and Driver

OCTOBER 17-20, 2023 NY AND CT From sweeping roads lined with orange-hued deciduous trees to thrilling hot laps at one of the most iconic race tracks in the United States, there’s no better time to visit the North East than the autumnal months. Here’s how we are going to spend a few unforgettable days in some of our favorite cars. DRIVE. LIME ROCK PARK Lime Rock Park is a short, but challenging stretch of tarmac and on Hudson Quattrocento, you’ll take your car on the track for hot laps and autocross—plus, ride along with editors and special guests in Performance Car of the Year favorites. PERKINS MEMORIAL DRIVE Snaked atop Bear Mountain State Park, from here you’ll take in resplendent, 360-degree views of the Catskill Mountains to the north and…

So thoroughly has the car colonized our consciousness that even New York City’s Museum of Modern Art mounted a 2021–22 show, Automania, devoted to cars in art. Here we curate our own show with a handful of our favorite contemporary car creatives to discover what drives their artistic output. CHRIS LABROOY: Labrooy’s work (top) revels in mind- and metal-bending. The Scottish artist’s computer-rendered automotive subjects twist, turn, and morph, wrapping around each other and cascading into different dimensions. This confoundment reflects his experience as an industrial designer who is familiar with vehicular complexity. “Cars are completely insane as a category of objects,” Labrooy says. “You’ve got all the materials science and all the engineering and coding—a confluence of so many different skill sets and craft.” His work exposes this entanglement…

We’re on record as being huge fans of the Honda Civic Type R. The Type R helped put the Civic on our 10Best list. It also topped the Toyota GR Corolla and Volkswagen Golf R in our “Hatchbacks That Go GRRR” comparison test [April 2023], and by no small margin. And who could forget its standout performance at the most recent Lightning Lap, wherein it became the event’s fastest front-driver and the first of that species to break the three-minute mark? As quick and rewarding as the Type R is on circuit and canyon road alike, it’s not perfect. The Acura Integra Type S, on the other hand, just might be. It retains all the performance goodness of the Type R but neatly rounds off many of the Honda’s daily-driving…

IT’S NO SECRET that new vehicles, especially pickups and SUVs, are suffering from ballooning prices, enlarged footprints, and swelling equipment lists. But the humble mid-size sedan soldiers on, much the same as it ever was. You probably hardly even notice these four-doors anymore. But they’re still here, serving as trusty steeds for commuters, parents, teenagers, and—perhaps most of all—the ride-share drivers and DoorDashers of America. With a new Honda Accord having hit the scene for 2023, it was time to pit our perennial favorite against its current cohort. Everyone likes to talk about the demise of passenger cars, but even though the family-sedan segment dwindled significantly several years ago, there’s still a healthy set of mainstays that have stuck around. For this test, we targeted a price point in the…

ARRIVAL: APRIL 2023 MILES: 5448 OBSERVED MPGe: 58 If the annoyance of digging through multiple menus to find the odometer every time we charge our Red Canyon R1T (so we can diligently track efficiency) is the most frustrating part of R1T life, then the truck’s stay will be uneventful. We spec’d a four-motor model with the medium-size 128.9-kWh battery, mostly because that’s what was available (a two-motor version has since been added). This spec is similar to the Rivian we road-tested in the February/March 2022 issue, only it’s missing the off-road protection package. That saves roughly 120 pounds by our measure, but the R1T is hardly light. At 7054 pounds, it’s our third-heaviest 40,000-mile test car on record, behind two heavy-duty diesel pickups. And it’s just our third electric long-termer.…

Station wagons are a premium sell in the U.S. Most people want an SUV, so that’s what’s on dealer lots. It’s far more difficult for wagon shoppers. Wagon lovers must resist deals and the ease of buying the available SUVs and find, or even order, a wagon. For the few and the proud, it’s worth the hassle. And, in the case of the RS6 Avant, really worth the hassle because it outsells the A6 Allroad despite being nearly one-third pricier. They’re a hardcore bunch, those RS6 Avant customers. Audi discovered that RS6 owners found their wagon a little too quiet, a little too soft, and a little too refined. So Audi is giving them what they want and christening the result the RS6 Avant Performance. Out goes some sound insulation…

Highs: Sharper styling, big new touchscreen, solid electric range. Lows: No all-wheel drive, steep pricing, rivals are quicker. As plug-ins proliferate, we’re going to continue to see more SUVs like the Ford Escape PHEV. Launched in 2020, the Escape PHEV competes in a growing segment that includes the plug-in versions of the Hyundai Tucson, Kia Sportage, Mitsubishi Outlander, and Toyota RAV4. For 2023, the Escape receives a makeover, but it lacks the performance, richer interior, and all-wheel drive offered by rivals. Ford previously offered the plug-in powertrain across several trims. Now the PHEV is a stand-alone model, and it’s pricey. The Escape PHEV’s $41,995 base price is higher than that of every competitor except the RAV4, and our test car’s $1595 panoramic sunroof and $4530 Premium package helped push the…

Whatever long word the Germans have for “no replacement for displacement” once applied to AMG’s vehicles. Remember the 6.8-liter in the “Red Pig” Mercedes-Benz 300SEL and the Hammer’s 6.0-liter V-8s in the ’80s? But now, well into the 21st century, electric motors and turbos are replacing displacement. Take the 2024 Mercedes-AMG S63 E Performance. It adopts an advanced hybrid system to complement the 603-hp twin-turbo 4.0-liter V-8. The S63’s hybrid powertrain focuses “less on electric range and more on best-in-class performance,” with AMG presenting the combined output of 791 horsepower as evidence. AMG developed the S63 E Performance’s 10.5-kWh battery pack in conjunction with High Performance Powertrains of Brixworth, England. It powers a rear-mounted 188-hp electric motor that teams with a two-speed transmission and an electronically controlled limited-slip rear differential.…

There’s usually a trade-off between the cost of the machinery a manufacturer employs to make a part and the cost of producing the part itself. Companies can invest millions in expensive machinery to scale quickly and lower production costs, or they can save capital by investing in less pricey, but more time- and labor-intensive, tooling that makes it harder to produce parts en masse and at low cost. Czinger Vehicles believes 3-D printing offers an alternative to this causal relationship. The nascent California-based automaker is putting its money where its mouth is by employing this production method on its 21C hypercar. To 3-D print a Czinger involves a process called powder-bed fusion with selective laser melting. You start with a surface that’s covered with powdered metal, then hit it with…

Blue Ridge Mercedes, near Atlanta, specializes in AMG-modified Mercedes-Benzes from the time when the tuner operated independently. Proprietor Jonathan Hodgman, 45, got his start repairing Benzes after sorting out a broken-down, 400,000-plus-mile 1978 280E offered to him on the condition that if he could fix it, he could keep it. In the early 2000s, Hodgman replaced that 280E with a 1980s 560SEL. And not long after that, he rediscovered the early cars tuned by AMG. Autobahn legends like the body-kitclad W124 E-class Hammer and the 6.0-liter W126 S-class caught his interest. Over time, these cars earned a reputation for being finicky to keep running, difficult to repair, and challenging to source parts for, which kept their prices relatively low, but that only drew Hodgman in. He started buying old AMG…

ARRIVAL: MARCH 2023 MILES: 11,471 OBSERVED MPG: 16 The recently redesigned Toyota Tundra arrives as the first high-voltage hybrid pickup to embark on our 40,000-mile test, and we’re eager to see how the Limited CrewMax model, $63,193 as tested, handles dirty jobs during its long-term stay. The third-generation Tundra was long overdue, as the previous gen debuted in 2007. After so many years with the old Tundra, the new one appears extra, well, new. A new body-on-frame platform called TNGA-F trades rear leaf springs for a more sophisticated (and comfortable) coil-spring configuration or, in the case of our test example, load-leveling air springs. “It’s not the best-riding truck, but it’s not terrible,” said senior testing editor David Beard. Inside is a modern design, richer materials, and a huge 14.0-inch touchscreen. With its…

Audi Sport has a history of adding Performance (used to be Plus) suffixes to S and RS models that needed just a little bit more. Here are the ones with a 6 in their name. 1997 S6 PLUS AVANT 322-HP 4.2-LITER V-8 The first road car that Quattro GmbH (now Audi Sport) made. The S6 Plus came with a V-8 that gave it a 13 percent power bump over the regular S6’s optional eight. 2004 RS6 PLUS AVANT 473-HP TWIN-TURBO 4.2-LITER V-8 We got the non-Plus sedan for 2003 only. The Plus model upped power and sold exclusively in wagon form. Only 999 left the factory. 2008–11 RS6 AVANT 571-HP TWIN-TURBO 5.0-LITER V-10 It never got the Plus or Performance treatment, but the C6 earns mention because of its unique…

Ford’s F-series Super Duty has become the Porsche 911 of heavy-duty pickups. Each offers no fewer than 18 models, has at least three engine options with four different peak-power levels, sends torque to either the rear or all four wheels, and is arguably the best at serving its overall mission. Ford’s new fifth-gen big rig is largely just an evolution, as the chassis and many driveline components go mostly unchanged. Inside, the truck enters the tech-filled ’20s. The XL gets an 8.0-inch touchscreen, with a 12.0-inch unit optional on the XLT and standard beyond that. There’s a 5G data connection for when it’s time to tether to the office. An available head-up display is another Super Duty first, as is a digital instrument cluster. The Blue Oval’s optional 2.0-kW Pro…

You can have the 2023 Toyota Crown any way you want, so long as it’s a hybrid. There is, however, a choice of hybrid powertrains that take aim at slightly different buyers. Crown customers interested in fuel economy will want the 236-hp hybrid system (available on XLE and Limited trims), which couples three electric motors with a naturally aspirated 184-hp 2.5-liter four and returns an EPA combined 41 mpg. In the other corner is the top-of-the-line Platinum trim, which will appeal to drivers interested in more power. Its Hybrid Max setup combines a 264-hp turbocharged 2.4-liter inline-four with two electric motors for 340 horsepower and 400 pound-feet of torque. Despite the power differences and a few tangible changes—adaptive dampers, marginally thicker anti-roll bars, optional two-tone paint—our Limited and Platinum test…

Cryogenics might require a roomful of scientists in lab coats, but squeeze a $2.1 million Bentley Batur down the narrow lanes of Spain’s Canary Islands, and you’ll freeze every tourist and highway worker stiff. A Batur, designed to look like a resting predator, is a sight worth savoring. The two prototypes we drove through Tenerife for an afternoon are the start of a production run that ends after 18 are built. The Batur honors the end of Bentley’s W-12 engine, and its design previews what the brand’s forthcoming electric vehicles will look like. The Batur’s limited run makes other multimillion-dollar machines—such as the 99 Pagani Utopias, the 130 Lotus Evijas, and the 300-unit Koenigsegg Gemera—look almost commonplace. And the Batur will be especially rare in the United States, where it’s…

With an interest in robotics and cars, Lukas Czinger joined his father, Kevin, at the family business Divergent Technologies. In 2019, the pair started Czinger Vehicles. We sat down with the younger Czinger, now 29, to hear more about how the 1250-hp 21C went from demonstration concept to seven-figure hypercar. C/D: How did Divergent lead to Czinger Vehicles? CZINGER: Divergent was really a tools company, an environmental company. All throughout that time we had a concept car called the Blade… a demonstration of what this technology could look like in car form. Within a few months of that, we basically said, “Divergent is working out. The tools are working. We’ve always wanted to build a car. We think it’s going to help Divergent. We think it can be a big…

C/D: What’s the most challenging repair you’ve done? HODGMAN: One 500E comes to mind. It came to us from out of state after three other shops couldn’t fix it. When it turned into corners, the rear would step out. After considerable poking and prodding, we found that the rear subframe was shifting around. Repairs had been tack-welded in about four places, and the rest was held together with seam sealer, panel bond, and gravity. That was chassis repair beyond anything we’ve seen before or since. C/D: What’s the most common problem you see? HODGMAN: Everything is common now. If I had to pick one, it’s the fuel system in cars with CIS or CIS-E fuel injection. Ethanol has destroyed them all. C/D: Tell us about a specialty tool you use.…

Kira Cameron looked concerned. “You don’t know your blood type?” “I don’t do a lot of bleeding,” I mumbled. To be clear, I wasn’t bleeding. I was just checking in at Cameron Advanced Mobility (CAM) for a three-day wilderness training experience in the ruddy rock canyons near Arches National Park in Utah. I’d remembered my hiking boots, headlamp, and work gloves—okay, flowered gardening gloves, but they have leather palms—so I was feeling fairly confident about training with a team whose usual students were military special forces preparing to offroad in war zones. Until the blood question. “I’m an EMT. It’ll be fine,” said CAM founder and lead instructor Ken Cameron. Kira signed me in and waved me toward the hotel bar, where several broad and bearded men were comparing stories…

WAS ANY CAR MORE AHEAD OF ITS TIME THAN THE LAMBORGHINI LM002? In its day, the LM002 was a freak, an epic miscalculation by a brand that really couldn’t afford a dud. Now it looks like clairvoyance: the original exotic luxury SUV, two or three decades too early. Today almost every sports-car company builds a six-figure overpowered utility vehicle, and even the LM002’s odd-for-its-day form—four-door, short-bed pickup truck—is the default body style for America’s most popular mode of transportation. The LM002 didn’t just predict the Bentley Bentayga and the Ferrari Purosangue; it was a harbinger of the fleet of 400-plus-horsepower crew-cab pickups that are now considered practical family transportation across the land. It should have been an instant hit, the LM002. To try to find out why it wasn’t, we…

“Reset your trip odometers when you get to the steer standing near the trail,” came the call over the radio. You might think that using a potentially mobile animal as a waypoint would be unwise, but the longhorn was in its element. It stood stock-still and stared balefully as the line of 2023 Chevrolet Colorado ZR2 pickups respectfully filed past. Once the coast was clear, we dialed our ZR2 into Baja mode, put the hammer down, and sent stones and dirt flying. Plumes of dust erupted from the truck’s haunches as we careened along the rocky, silty two-track trails that make up Best in the Desert’s Vegas-to-Reno off-road racecourse. The previous-gen Colorado ZR2 would not have fared nearly as well on this terrain, particularly at this pace. Sure, it also…

Highs: Excellent fuel economy, good controls, quiet on the highway. Lows: Bigger outside than inside, just-average dynamics, premium pricing. America’s birthrate might be falling, but that hasn’t affected sales of three-row mid-size SUVs. The family-friendly segment accounted for 1.4 million sales last year, and Mazda wants a bigger piece of the action than the CX-9 provided. The CX-90 is certainly bigger than the CX-9. At 200.8 inches, it’s 1.4 inches longer than its predecessor and longer than the Ford Explorer, Honda Pilot, or Hyundai Palisade. Its 122.8-inch wheelbase is the longest in the segment, in part because of the shift from a transverse engine to a more premium longitudinal layout. At up to 144 cubic feet, cabin volume slightly betters the CX-9 but is roughly 10 to 15 cubes smaller…

Highs: 203 horsepower for 1661 pounds, has a manual, surfeit of ’tude. Lows: Priced like a car, helmet hair, rainy days. Ask anyone who’s missing a few teeth or sporting some gnarly scars, and they’ll tell ya—life’s a lot more fun when you don’t take it too seriously. For proof, look to the three-wheeled Polaris Slingshot SLR. A few miles spent behind the visor of the Slingshot will have you blasting Inner Circle, ripping around traffic, and considering purchasing some sweet Oakley shades. The $35,286 SLR we tested is the middle trim level, presumably between dude and brah. It comes with the strongest powertrain and a wider (11.0-inch) rear wheel. Behind its grumpy plastic fascia sits Polaris’s own Prostar 203-hp 2.0-liter inline-four engine. The 1661-pound SLR has nearly as much…

After nearly 30 years of using a two-motor arrangement that combines with an engine through a planetary gearset that functions as a CVT, Toyota is expanding its hybrid tool kit. The new Hybrid Max powertrain features an electric motor sandwiched between a turbocharged engine (either a four-cylinder, as in the Crown, or a V-6, in large trucks) and a traditional automatic transmission. Although the old-style hybrid setup returns better fuel economy, Toyota claims the Hybrid Max delivers a 20 percent mileage boost over a nonhybrid with similar performance.…

Echoing the design of the long-running 99 that preceded it, the updated and modernized Saab 900 was the car that brought the fringe Swedish brand into its closest proximity to the mainstream, which honestly wasn’t that close. When we drove a Saab in 1977, we said, “When you get all done cracking Saab jokes, you’ll find the one thing that is even more fun is driving Saabs.” From launch the 900 was available with a turbo, and the boosted models are far more desirable, particularly when mated with the five-speed manual transmission (a three-speed Borg-Warner automatic was optional). Rare notchback four-door sedans lack the cargo capacity and standout shape of the two- and four-door hatches. A somewhat flexy convertible arrived for 1986. Cars from 1990 and later received modern safety…