Innehållsförteckning för Oct-15 från Car and Driver

★ BRIDGES OF AFFALTERBACH HALF STOCK — Mercedes is bridging its regular models and full-blown AMGs with a line of “AMG Sport” vehicles. Full AMGs will now be branded Mercedes-AMG, while AMG Sports will follow the style set by the Mercedes-Benz C450 AMG Sport. PLATFORM The Mercedes-Benz C63 AMG has long been a favorite of ours. With a body only slightly larger than a Honda Civic and a massive 6.2-liter V-8 cranking out supercar power, how could it not be? Apparently others felt the same way. Globally, Mercedes managed to sell 40,000 copies of the previous-generation C63 coupe. Sans AMG treatment, though, the C coupe was less impressive. Neither its shape nor its dynamics raised the pulse; it came across more as a two-door sedan than a serious performer. For…

We have only fond memories of the original Chevy Volt, that slab-sided toccata and fugue of Yankee ingenuity from 2011. It looked like something Jimmy Carter acolytes created after locking themselves in a bunker with a Commodore PET computer, the Tupperware collection for 1981, and a laserdisc of the movie Tron. But the Volt worked, delivering both electric-vehicle stealth and internalcombustion freedom. It may have missed the energy crises for which it was perfectly suited, but its timing was still propitious. The 77,000 or so units that Chevy sold, the majority in California, thoroughly expunged the mark of Cain borne by General Motors ever since it was accused of killing the electric car. The Volt II proves that GM’s novel idea for an enviro-hybrid has cleared the tower of experimentation…

HARDWARE MATTERS, but nowadays it’s the software that makes the difference. That’s true for the smartphones that tech websites tear down to reveal $40 worth of parts, and it’s also increasingly true for cars, even the ones that can’t drive themselves around racetracks. The new Audi R8 is perhaps the greatest example of tuning through ones and zeros. There’s no question that the hardware here is superb. The Audi is the Lamborghini Huracán’s twin sister, and mechanically the two cars are as closely related as any two of GM’s old J-bodies. We’ll let you decide which is the Cavalier and which is the Cimarron. Meanwhile, the two cars share the same engine, transaxle, and part-carbon-composite floor and bulkhead. The chassis hardpoints, steering system, and electronic architecture are also common. Meaning…

THIS MONTH Ever since the Boxster launched 19 years ago, wags have derided Porsche for not fitting its mid-engined car with a 911-grade powerplant, suggesting that the company is afraid to one-up the 52-year-old centerpiece of its lineup. Even Zuffenhausen’s most starry-eyed apologists have lamented the policy time and again. And it’s worth noting that while the House of Ferry uses the 550 Spyder to tout the Boxster/Cayman’s heritage, the James Dean Deathwagen and its successors—718 RSK, 718 RS 60, 718 W-RS, and so on—were high-performance racing machines representing supreme Porsche performance. The rear-engined 356 was the car for the sporting masses. In contrast, the Boxster has spent its career cast in a supporting role, relegated to the same ignominious fate as the 914. Sure, you could buy the 914,…

Sic your dogs on us at: editors@caranddriver.com or join the discussion at: backfires.caranddriver.com TIME STAMP The stopwatch on the July cover is awesome! Who thought of that? That person deserves a raise. NEIL LOCKWOOD HUNTERSVILLE, NORTH CAROLINA Imagine my horror when I saw a stopwatch on the cover of your latest issue. Perhaps you should change the title of your magazine to Chronograph and Timekeeper. What next, a Ford F-150 Raptor on the cover? MIKE MEYERS GRAND RAPIDS, MICHIGAN Imagine my horror when I paid to see The Love Guru, Meyers—Ed. DIAMONDS ARE A READER’S BEST FRIEND I just finished the 60th Anniversary issue [July 2015] and really enjoyed it. Please publish another 60th Anniversary edition next year, and each year thereafter. DAVID KETTLEHAKE LEBANON, OHIO Glorious! I loved every page…

PICKUP TRUCKS HAVE long been the kings of configuration—long or short bed? two doors or four?—but now there’s a new challenger for multiple-choice supremacy: the van. Ford’s big Transit [see “(Cargo) Vannin’,” page 082] comes in three roof heights, two wheelbases, three overall lengths, and with a choice of three engines. All told, once a buyer has decided to get a Transit, he or she still has to choose from 33 distinct mechanical configurations—almost as many as Honda has in its entire vehicle lineup. And that’s not even counting comparatively minor differences, such as the number of seats and how many and what type (hinged or sliding) of doors it has. And though both pickups and vans are offered in a seemingly endless array of configurations and lengths, only one…

TWO 20-SOMETHINGS WALKED into a car dealership . . . No, that really happened—this isn’t a setup for a joke. More than a quarter of the 16 million new-car purchases in the United States last year were made by that tech-savvy, marketing-averse group known as millennials, according to market-research firm J.D. Power. And virtually all those buyers ended up signing the paperwork and accepting the keys at an honestto-goodness new-car dealership. How could that be, in an age of painless online shopping, when you can buy everything from shoes to home mortgages via keystrokes, no trial fittings or handshakes required? Why can’t you read the review of a new model on Car and Driver’s website, click the “Buy It Now” button at the end of the article, and walk out…

“You all don’t look like vanners,” oozed the man wearing the patch-covered white lab coat and long gray beard, “you look more like . . . golfers.” This would prove to be the most succinct and truthful thing we would hear in two days of communing with the custom-van aficionados at the 43rd annual Van Nationals in a deeply muddy field, just outside of Altamont, Illinois. And it was uttered less than an hour after our arrival. We were not fooling anyone. We would later assuage ourselves by tallying only six rounds of golf between three of us. See? We’re no damn . . . golfers! But we surely were not vanners, either. None of our group wears a gray ponytail, and, trust us, we have totally unscientific anecdotal evidence…

MOTORCYCLISTS SIGNAL THEIR TWO-WHEEL approval by dropping left hands while passing. But when you’re riding a Honda Grom powered by a 125-cc engine and the rider of a 1340-cc Suzuki Hayabusa making around 190 horsepower gives you the low sign, it’s hard not to laugh. That’s like a Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat’s driver soliciting kinship with a guy in a Smart Fortwo. Its name is derived from “grommet,” a slang term for a young surfer. But the Grom is an old soul—part pit bike, part sport bike, and all fun. The only thing novice about it is how easy it is for new riders to approach. It’s no scooter, though. It’s a legitimate motorcycle with a four-speed gearbox, and it requires a motorcycle endorsement on the rider’s driver’s license. If…

Months before our annual pilgrimage to Virginia International Raceway (VIR), every participating editor experiences some variation of the following nightmare: We can’t bring our lap times down; P Zeros and Super Sports won’t grip. Then storm clouds appear from nowhere and a steady rain begins to fall, leaving a layer of water on the track indicating that we’re done, total failure, no lap times to bring back home. Instead of this story, we publish 12 pages of men’s hair-product ads and right before we awaken with a silent scream, our pants vanish and our fourth-grade teacher appears, slapping a torque wrench against her open palm. Alas, it’s just a dream, but our three waking days at VIR are only slightly less stressful. As yet, though, nobody has lost any pants.…

HORSE SHOE Both the Z06 and the 650S initiate braking at about the same mark, where the McLaren is traveling 9.3 mph faster. After turn-in, the Z06 makes up some of the time lost on the front straight with its greater grip. It doesn’t look like a lot, but all the area between the blue and red lateral-acceleration traces amounts to about half a second in the Z06’s favor. Getting to full throttle about 50 feet earlier— and staying on it—keeps the McLaren in the fight. The difference in the brake-pedal amplitude isn’t an indication that the Z06 was soft on braking, just that its pedal had less travel. The waviness in the McLaren’s steering is an indication that the driver was hunting for front-axle grip, meaning the car was…

RAM PROMASTER 1500 ECODIESEL + It’s the least expensive one. - Poor steering, shoddy build quality, shame-inducing appearance, no handling, crude ride, criminally awful transmission . . . do we need to continue? = The SadnessMaster. MERCEDES-BENZ SPRINTER 2500 BLUETEC + Weirdly great steering, excellent fit and finish, stable at speed. - Rough rider, can’t push it past 83 mph. = An excellent truck, bested by a more excellent truck. FORD TRANSIT 150 POWER STROKE + Good seating position, strong engine, good brakes, oddly cool styling. - Cargo-area windows hamper the ability to get this van a’ rockin’. = A fully capable truck that drives more like a big car. We didn’t drive three full-size modern vans 430 miles just to gain admittance to the 43rd annual Van Nationals. We…

To make a Viper go faster, Dodge feels it has to make it slower. Wait . . . what? The Viper ACR is the fastest Viper around a racetrack—at least, that’s Dodge’s claim—but a 177-mph top speed technically makes it the slowest Viper sold. With the exception of a finned differential housing, the ACR’s drivetrain is identical to the rest of the Viper lineup’s. An 8.4-liter V-10 that looks to be about the size of a steamer trunk snores out 645 horsepower and 600 pound-feet of torque. What makes the Viper ACR faster around a racetrack— downforce—is also what reduces its straight-line speed. Aerodynamic downforce from a wing or properly shaped exterior panels presses a vehicle into closer contact with the ground. In a car on a tight track, this…