Innehållsförteckning för August 2009 från MotorTrend

Angel Makes Devil Blue It’s the baddest Corvette ever, a 638-horsespower menace that just finished stomping all over the finest supercars the world has to offer. Is there anything out there that can beat the Blue Devil–aka Chevrolet Corvette ZR1? There is, but only if it has 32,000 pounds of afterburner-fed thrust. After you’re done reading this month’s amazing Blue Devil versus Blue Angel cover story, head over to motortrend.com for our awesome videos detailing editor at large Arthur St. Antoine’s amazing day with the ZR1 and the Navy’s elite Blue Angels flying squadron. Catch all the high-flying action here: www.youtube.com/motortrend or here: www.motortrend.com/multimedia/videos/features MOTOR TREND…

TO MAKE the LF-A supercar’s 500-horsepower, 5.0-liter V-10 financially feasible, Lexus had planned to drop the engine into its next-generation GS sport sedan, launching in the 2011 model year. The Lexus GS F would use the same V-10, slowed down slightly only because of its weight, of course. Think of the LF-A/GS F relationship as just like the Chevrolet Corvette ZR-1 to the Cadillac CTS-v. When Toyota put the Lexus supercar on hold earlier this year, the GS F went back in the closet as well. Now the GS F joins the LF-A on Lexus’ future product roster. Unless Toyota accelerates development so as to tie the two cars closer together, the Lexus GS F should go on sale about a year after the garden-variety next-gen GS, in late 2011…

FOR THOSE of us enthusiasts who reached driving age during the first oil crises, the 2010s are looking a lot like the 1970s. The V-8 as affordable, mainstream performance already is dead. That’s okay, given the increase of direct injection and turbocharging. The choice of drive wheels is another story. Oil embargoes and foreign-car proliferation in the 1970s led the Detroit Three to switch most mainstream models to front drive in the 1980s. By the early 2000s, GM, especially, began switching back to rear drive where appropriate—with large, luxury, and performance cars. Now the financial crisis, bankruptcies, and the 2016 CAFE has put the kibosh on that. Or has it? Here’s how RWD will survive the decade: ■ MERCEDES-BENZ: Turbocharging, diesels, and hybrids are the key. The E250 Bluetec’s 2.2-liter,…

MITSUBISHI upped the ante against Subaru’s WRX STI with its FQ-330, a 329-horsepower/322 pound-foot (Euro-spec) Evolution X that does a claimed 0 to 62 mph in 4.4 seconds; then it trumped itself with the FQ-400, a 403-horsepower/387 pound-foot version with low-friction bearings, a strengthened thrust bearing, high-flow fuel injectors, a revised intercooler and remapped ECU. It sprints from 0 to 62 mph in just 3.8 seconds. The FQ-330 lists for the equivalent of $56,771 and the FQ-400 is $79,600. Unfortunately, you have to write the check for pounds Sterling; the FQs are U.K.-only models.…

THE AVIATORS who fly in the Blue Angels team occupy the top of the pyramid. Of the roughly 2300 active pilots in the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps, roughly 50 feel cocky enough to apply to the Blue Angels each year. Two, maybe three, make it. Because Blue Angels flight demonstrations are so demanding and hazardous, new pilots are selected by the current team members and no one else. Trust means everything when you’ll be flying with wingtips just two feet apart. The minimum requirements for application: 1250 hours of tactical-jet flight time plus carrier qualification. Each pilot flies for two years—except the narrator (like Lt. Ben Walborn), who serves one year in Blue Angel 7 and then joins the six-pilot demo team for two years. The squadron isn’t looking…

AS DIFFERENT as they may seem, there’s one thing the BMW 3 Series, Audi A4, Lincoln MKZ, Mercedes-Benz C-Class, Volvo S60, Acura TL, Infiniti G37, Cadillac CTS, and all their competitors have in common: None of them is offered with a gas/electric hybrid powertrain. The debate continues as to whether hybrids are a viable long-(or even short-) term solution to the cost/efficiency/emissions conundrum. A lot depends on the cost of entry, the price of fuel, and one’s desire to minimize his carbon footprint. No matter, consumer desire for hybrids has never been stronger. The Obama administration’s mandate for earlier and more aggressive CAFE standards will push the hybrid demand curve harder. Lexus has made its call and is first in the compact-lux-sedan pool with the new-for-2010 HS 250h. It resembles…

FERRARI is one of the few automakers on planet earth to have any news worth celebrating these days, but indeed the prancing horse posted a 54-million-euro profit for the first quarter of 2009, its new entry-level California has a two-year waiting list, and the scuderia won its 16th Formula 1 constructor’s championship in 2008. To celebrate, Ferrari’s flashing the world with a topless version of the 430 Scuderia dubbed 16M and festooned with badges to remind the generations to come of Scuderia Ferrari’s auspicious racing record. Of course, in Italy, the number after 16 is unlucky, and so far the 2009 F1 season has been less auspicious, but for now let’s bust out the prosecco and toast better days. Functionally, the 16M is a Scuderiafied F430 Spider. It gets the…

MARCELLO Mastroianni has been reincarnated. Maserati’s GranTurismo S Automatic has the suave good looks and smooth, effortless acting abilities of Fellini’s alter ego in “8½” and “La Dolce Vita.” The new car tosses out the GranTurismo S’ six-speed Duo-Select manual for a six-speed paddle-shifted ZF. It dismisses the S’s passive damping suspension for the base GranTurismo’s Skyhook suspension with its adjustable aluminum dampers. Hit the “sport” button, and the suspension stiffens while an exhaust flap opens to turn up the volume on the lovely, throaty-brappy Italian V-8 soundtrack. Nino Rota would approve. A 49/51 weight distribution evens out the manual’s 47/53. This is essentially the 4.2-liter GranTurismo automatic with a 4.7-liter V-8 upgrade. Identify the three models from the color of the cam covers: Maserati Blue for the GranTurismo’s 405-horse,…

IN 2003, I attended the Electric Vehicle Symposium in Long Beach, California, and at the conclusion of a presentation by a major advanced-tech battery manufacturer, a questioner asked about the prospects of lithium-ion batteries for automobiles. The presenter was stony-faced for a few seconds. And then responded with a cocked head: “What do you mean by lithium batteries in cars?” Nickel-metal-hydride was then considered the cutting-edge in battery tech, and the questioner’s lithium-ion query was greeted with absolute puzzlement. Fast forward six years: There, tucked in the corner of Mercedes-Benz’ new S400 Hybrid’s engine bay, is a 32-cell lithium-ion battery about the size of a shoebox. Because of too many YouTube clips of laptops aflame, the chemistry’s initial foray into the real-world is getting the kid-glove treatment, the most important…

WHEN THE Scion xB subcompact made its debut in 2004 (along with Toyota’s Scion brand itself), America got its first real taste of undiluted Japanese eccentricity. A barely altered version of the domestic-market Toyota bB, sold in Japan since 1999, the xB stood out on American roads like a Bent? box in a Texas steakhouse. Tiny, austere, and so unabashedly square it was actually cute, the xB won a loyal following among young (and old) drivers who admired its purity of purpose and uniquely unstylish style. Toyota sold more than 47,000 xBs in 2004; by 2006, that figure jumped to more than 61,000 annually. Yet like everything American, or Americanized, the xB wasn’t destined to remain tiny. The second-gen model, unveiled for 2008, grew by 12 inches in length and…

CADILLAC’S 2010 CTS Sport Wagon goes on sale at the end of August, a couple of months later than intended because the CTS assembly plant was involved in General Motors’ plant closures as part of its reorganization plan. Now GM’s latest luxury car needs to be marketed and advertised while GM slogs through an “orderly” Chapter 11 reorganization. It retains the CTS sedan’s wheelbase and overall length. With the rear seat folded, cargo capacity expands to 54 cubic feet, and the load floor’s upper panel folds several ways to manage cargo. Accessory luggage rack attachments will be available for bikes, car-top carriers, and other uses. The multiport fuel-injected 3.6-liter V-6 departs the CTS line for 2010, replaced by a standard 3.0-liter gas direct-injection V-6, rated 270 horsepower. That’s 5 horsepower…

FRANKLIN DELANO Roosevelt drove a Ford. You’ve seen the photograph of him behind the “banjo” steering wheel of his 1936 Ford Phaeton V-8, wearing a hat, teeth clenched around a cigarette holder, the car’s added hand controls out of sight. Our patrician 32nd president could’ve bought anything—say, a V-16 Cadillac from the top of General Motors’ six brands. FDR’s four-door ragtop cost $737.50 during the Great Depression, making it the topline Ford, $23 less than the cheapest Pontiac 6 convertible. With Lincoln the Ford Motor Company’s only indulgence and badge-engineered Mercurys a couple years away, Henry Ford figured the full Ford division lineup had a car everyone from the working man to the upper-middle classes could need. From the coming B-segment Fiesta to the 2010 Taurus, Ford is returning to…

“FLYING WING” grilles now lead off the modern Lincoln lineup, save for the MKX. (That facelift is about a year away.) The latest model to receive this retro treatment is the MKT, a six- or seven-passenger crossover utility vehicle Lincoln calls its new flagship. The wing-free Navigator sport/utility costs a bit more, but it’s relegated to a future of very low volume, high-profit model. One thing the MKT doesn’t need behind its 1941 Continental-like grille is an eight-cylinder engine. Turbocharging, direct injection, and the high compression that goes with it replace two cylinders in Ford Motor Company’s coming line of EcoBoost engines. The first of this new family, a 3.5-liter twin-turbocharged V-6, is just the ticket to making a big, post-SUV prairie schooner like the MKT quick and efficient. Base…

IT’S HARD to imagine what prompted Ferrari to develop a “handling package” for its flagship GT, the 599 GTB Fiorano, as we can’t recall ever hearing, reading, or publishing any complaints about the original chassis setup. Maybe a Lotus cut Mr. Montezemolo off in traffic during his commute to the office. Whatever the impetus, the resulting Handling GranTurismo Evoluzione setup is impressive. Chassis upgrades include stiffer springs (by 17/15 percent front/rear) that lower the car 10 mm, a stiffer rear anti-roll bar (25 mm from 23.5), a firmer and quicker-responding calibration of the magnetorheological shocks, a half-degree front-camber increase, and new compound and construction of the identically sized Pirelli PZero tires, which mount to three-piece composite wheels with forged centers. The front wheels are a half-inch wider to improve the…

THOUGH WE DIDN'T RALLY between tracks in a stripped-out race car loaded with tires and tools, we did have to transport two writers, a photographer, a video producer, and all the gear it takes to post photos, videos, and blogs immediately after each event (see it all at www.motortrend.com/onelap). So we contacted our friends at Chrysler, who graciously loaned us a glossy black Town & Country minivan equipped with Swivel ’n’ Go seating (includes a second row of rotating captains' chairs and a stowable table) and the exclusive Uconnect system. What is this? Essentially a wireless Internet system that provides rolling Web access for everyone in the vehicle. We had our doubts that the system would work; surely we’d encounter connectivity issues with our Macs and PCs, and coverage would…

YOU’LL recognize the IS C retractable hardtop coupe as a member of Lexus’ IS family, yet every body panel (save the hood) is new. The chassis architecture remains the same, and overall length is increased 2.2 inches over the sedan. The top goes up and down quicker than any other in this category. There’s not a brace or strut visible inside, and the effect is most coupelike. The audio system’s volume amps up when the top goes down, and the HVAC system knows to deliver more air. Rear seat room is so-so, but if the front passengers share their seat travel, it’s possible to pack a pair of adults in back for moderate jaunts. Powertrain offerings are the same as in IS sedans. The IS 250C runs Lexus’ 2.5-liter V-6,…

EIGHT MONTHS and nearly 18,000 miles in, the Jetta TDI continues to deliver impressive, hybridlike fuel economy. We’ve averaged 35.1 mpg, thus far, and many editors have seen well above that. “I’m getting around 38 mpg in daily rush-hour commuting, and looking through the logbook, I’m astounded to see 500-mile jaunts on $35 worth of diesel,” writes associate Web editor Rory Jurnecka. Truck Trend Web producer Melissa Spiering managed to go 576 miles between fill-ups. “I would buy the Jetta TDI based alone on the miles I put on it this past weekend,” she notes. “I was amazed at how it sipped fuel on the highway.” While our editors can’t complain about the mileage, they continue to throw criticism on the DSG transmission. “I’m starting to dislike the DSG,” notes…

MAYBE THEY should’ve called it the Genesis Crossover. The Hyundai Veracruz was one of the first salvos in the Korean automaker’s recent new-product assault on the U.S. market, which has been followed by the intros of the much-hyped Genesis Sedan and Coupe. The Veracruz has been generally well received since its launch in March 2007 and scored an impressive comparison test victory against the 2008 Lexus RX 350 in July of that year. But despite the positive vibes, only 11,004 Veracruz sport/utes moved off Hyundai dealership lots in 2008 (in case you’re wondering, Toyota sold more than 84,000 RXs over the same period). Yes, we know, 2008 was a bad year to be selling SUVs, but… Is it too late to change the name? So while it hasn’t exactly been…

MOTOR TREND’S editors have never rolled a car during skidpad evaluation, but the late Len Frank, editor at large, and Tony Assenza, feature editor, tried their hardest with this Citroën 2CV. The Deux Chevaux (in reference to the two taxable horsepower the car produced) was to France what the original VW was to Germany, the Mini to Britain, and the Fiat 500 to Italy: basic transportation, with the emphasis on basic. Nearly all of the 2CV’s glass was flat, the earliest models boasted seats wrapped in wicker, and the car’s 0-to-60 time is best measured with a sundial. How is it, then, that the 2CV and the others, all of which were intended as mere tools for the masses, are recognized as landmark designs and cultural icons? No matter: From…

LEXUS’ 500-horsepower LF-A supercar will be announced as a production machine at the Tokyo show on October 21, though as a coupe only; the planned roadster version seen at the 2008 Detroit show hasn’t been revived. The LF-A’s production level will be far lower than that of the Nissan GT-R, with a pricetag doubling or perhaps tripling the GT-R’s window sticker. Toyota put the car on hold (“Trend,” March 2009) in the midst of the global economic/auto industry crisis. So why the green light now? First, the LF-A was originally conceived as a celebration of Toyota’s Formula 1 team, whose relative success this season may have helped revive the supercar. More important, though, its chief sponsor inside Toyota Motor Company is the new president, who took his position in late…

WHY ARE all these people smiling? President Obama—backed by environmental advocates, California Air Resources Board officials, governors Arnold Schwarzenegger (R-California) and Jennifer Granholm (D-Michigan) and 10 auto executives—announced a 35.5-mpg Corporate Average Fuel Economy standard for 2016. Expect an average of 39 mpg for cars and 30 mpg for trucks when the Environmental Protection Agency develops the standard. Its goal is to cut greenhouse gasses 30 percent by 2016, four years earlier than the CAFE hike Congress approved in 2007. Obama said the standard would cost consumers an average of $1300 per vehicle. Foreign and domestic automakers have lobbied hard against CAFE increases since the National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration first set standards in 1975. Why are they giving in so easily now? After all, only two automakers depend…

LONG BEFORE “Gran Turismo” defined a videogame juggernaut, the Italian term signified a car capable of fast, comfortable long-distance travel and enjoyable athletic ability. With the new 2010 BMW 5 Series Gran Turismo, BMW looks to reclaim the phrase from Sony and carve out another market niche. The signature feature of this 5 Series sits under its rear window. A short, sedanlike lid covers a standard trunk that can separate from the rest of the cabin by a moveable partition. Surrounding the lid is a liftgate containing the rear window and an upper section of bodywork. It opens in two ways: the entire lid and rear glass, hatchback-style, or just the lower metal, as in a normal trunk. Releases for both openings are on the rear, in the cabin, and…

DAIMLER AG, the guys who used to own Chrysler, have bought a 10-percent stake in Elon Musk’s Tesla Motors for a “double-digit”-million-dollar sum. Tesla will supply lithiumion battery packs for electric smarts in a pilot program beginning before the end of the year. Daimler plans series production of a Tesla battery-pack electric-smart by 2012. Smart will test its first 100 Tesla-battery pack fortwos in London by the end of 2009, Research & Mercedes-Benz about to combine the best of the old and the new school,” Weber said in a press conference with Elon Musk at the Mercedes museum in Stuttgart. Daimler gets a seat on Tesla’s board from the deal. While Daimler’s investment in Musk’s automaker adds working capital to Tesla’s coffers as it for its Model S, “Tesla does…

letter of the month critical mass The more I read about these exotic sports cars, the more I just want to keep my Miata. Sure, it won’t do 0-to-60 mph in. seconds, but it also doesn’t weigh more than a small SUV. You can’t tell me that Ferrari, Maserati, and Alfa Romeo can’t design a lightweight car when they have six figures to work with. Mazda and Lotus seem to be able to (and for a lot less coin, I might add). Of course, neither of those has a sweet sounding V-8 under the hood, but since they don’t have to cart around two tons’ worth of automobile, they don’t have to. It seems exotic sports cars have become more about pampering the rich than they are about pure, unadulterated…

FOR ONCE,. even 638 horsepower might not be enough. As I slot the ZR1’s six-speed shifter into first and tilt my gaze toward the flag girl, for reassurance I give the throttle a quick stab with my heel. The supercharged V-8 responds with a shock wave that momentarily warps my vision and clouts my stomach like a 7.2 on the Richter scale. Maybe I have a chance. The finish line lies one mile in the distance, somewhere beyond the heat waves; after reaching it, I’ll be at very high speed and won’t have a lot of tarmac left to stop. Concentrate, Arthur. Above the background throb of the engine I can hear myself breathing into my helmet, the sound muffled by my Nomex balaclava. A bead of sweat slaloms down…

THE 1986 TAURUS was so radical that Ford kept the car it was meant to replace, the prosaic, rear-drive LTD II, in production until the new family sedan caught on with buyers. Taurus snagged Motor Trend’s 1986 Car of the Year award and set a standard for clean, modern sedans on the large end of the burgeoning midsize market. Toyota and Honda had good reason to envy the Taurus, which within a couple of years found itself competing with the hideaway-headlamp Accord for the title, best-selling car in America. From the early 1990s, Japanese midsize cars got larger with every generation and were harder to distinguish from each other. Toyota’s redesigned 1992 Camry entered the race, and by ’93 the Japanese maker had to supplement U.S. production with boatloads of…

INCREASING concerns for fuel economy and low CO2 emissions steered Lincoln clear of the Yamaha V-8 available in the MKS’s platform sibling, the Volvo S80. Instead, the top-of-the-range MKS comes with the same 355-horse twin-turbo 3.5-liter V-6, coupled with AWD to avoid torque steer, as in the new MKT. With less weight than the crossover bears and the same 1500-5250-rpm peak torque band, the MKS EcoBoost easily lives up to its promise, accelerating with alacrity from a dead stop. Both new Lincolns are plush and extremely quiet. With that kind of smoothness, accelerating to, say, 120 mph is like taking a walk in the park. Lincoln says the EcoBoost’s power equals a 4.6-liter V-8’s—200 cc larger than the Volvo-Yamaha engine. The MKS does this with minimal chassis upgrades, which include…

FIRST you scan the options list: touchscreen navigation, premium leather trim, rear parking sensors, iPod adapter, Bluetooth hands-free phone connectivity, backup camera, Alpine audio system, power-folding mirrors. Next you check the badge on the nose. Then you’re sure you’re looking at the wrong car. Except you aren’t. The arrival of the new mid-engine Evora, due on our shores in January, may mark the first time in nearly two decades that the words “Lotus” and “shoehorn” haven’t been used in the same sentence. Following the demise of the much-unloved Excel in 1992, Lotus Cars stopped building 2+2s to concentrate instead on a unleashing a steady volley of tiny, minimalfrills two-seaters—Elises and Exiges and assorted variations thereof. Each has offered a driving experience akin to grabbing hold of a live high-voltage wire.…

JASON STATHAM AND PIERCE BROSNAN, playing their silver-screen action selves, battled the baddies in a BMW 7 Series (“The Transporter,” “Tomorrow Never Dies”). For his sequel, Statham switched to an Audi A8L, a car he also drove in “Transporter 3.” As for the third premium German giant, the Mercedes-Benz S-Class, versions of the maker’s flagship sedan have appeared in everything from “The Sopranos” to “Ocean’s Eleven,” “Ronin,” “Enemy of the State”—in fact, just about any action flick or TV show involving piles of cash or a “Mr. Big.” So, yes, you know they’re all good—action pros don’t play around with second-rate tools. But of the current-gen versions, which of the three ranks as our favorite getaway? It’s a closely matched trio. The Audi A8L 4.2 quattro, the Mercedes-Benz S550, and…

EVERYTHING about the all new Nissan NISMO 370Z is better: interior, exterior, and especially the performance. Horsepower and torque have been bumped up a bit. The NISMO gets 18 more horsepower than the 370 sport, along with 400 more revs, while the torque is up by six pound-feet. But the real story is how different this car feels from its predecessor, the NISMO 350Z. The crisp turn in is still there, but now you get good rotation as well. Going into a corner, the front end bites hard just as the rear starts to come around letting you get through and out of the turn even better. This new feel gives you amazing confidence, really letting you push the car hard. All this is possible due to the new suspension…