Innehållsförteckning för December 2019 från MotorTrend

Hard to believe this is our 12th edition of Best Driver’s Car. Some may recall the original concept, Best Handling Car, and all of the sensors, stickers, and other gear we attached to the season’s hottest sports cars, all in the name of determining what makes great-handling cars so great. Over time, we moved to a more human-centered approach, looking beyond yaw angle and step steer to the full driving experience, from canyon roads to track modes and the transitions in between. BDC tests both human and machine, as it marks the beginning of our most grueling, test-heavy part of the year. This year, the bulk of BDC spanned eight straight days, 8,000 total miles driven, 80 tires scorched, and 40-degree temperature swings endured. To maximize time for photo, video,…

Carbon fiber seems relatively good for the environment—it makes cars and planes so much lighter that they get way better gas mileage, right? True, but this simple analysis forgives the fact that cured carbon-fiber structures are extremely energy-intensive to produce. That’s why BMW sourced the carbon fiber for its i3 and i8 cars from Moses Lake, Washington, where hydroelectric energy drastically lowers the footprint of its carbon. Now researchers at the Technical University of Munich have discovered a process that turns that notion on its head—CO2-negative carbon fiber. That’s right, producing polyacrylonitrile feedstock from algae and curing it using parabolic-reflected solar energy produces fibers that match the properties of hydrocarbon-derived fibers while leaving the atmosphere with less CO2 in it than if the carbon fiber had never been produced. TUM’s…

THE JUDGES: ED LOH Editor-in-Chief MARK RECHTIN Executive Editor ANGUS MACKENZIE International Bureau Chief CHRIS WALTON Road Test Editor RANDY POBST Champion Racing Driver JETHRO BOVINGDON Head 2 Head Host JONNY LIEBERMAN Head 2 Head Host SCOTT EVANS Features Editor CHRISTIAN SEABAUGH Features Editor THE FIELD ASTON MARTIN DBS SUPERLEGGERA • BENTLEY CONTINENTAL GT V8 BMW M2 COMPETITION • BMW M850I XDRIVE COUPE DODGE CHALLENGER SRT HELLCAT REDEYE FORD MUSTANG SHELBY GT350 • JAGUAR XE SV PROJECT 8 LAMBORGHINI URUS • MCLAREN SENNA • MERCEDES-AMG GT 63 S 4MATIC+ PORSCHE 911 CARRERA S • TOYOTA GR SUPRA Each year’s Best Driver’s Car field takes a different form. Last year, the story revolved around the three supercars that obliterated the existing WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca lap record for a street-legal vehicle.…

We still pinch ourselves that the fine folks at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca allow us full run of one of the planet’s greatest racetracks, nestled in one of the most beautiful stretches of coastline in the world. Imagine winning that lottery, every summer. If there’s one part of our Best Driver’s Car track days that I’ve seen change over the years, it’s the level of manufacturer support. Back in 2011, the only OEM who sent a support team was Ferrari. This year, the only manufacturer who didn’t was Toyota (besides, there was a tech from BMW there, so the Supra was covered). In short, car manufacturers are taking this event seriously. What do these techs do? Put simply, they make sure the cars are in optimum condition when it’s time…

California State Route 198. When we discovered that beautiful ribbon of road during the first Best Driver’s Car competition in 2011, we knew the combination of fast sweepers and slow hairpins, on- and off-camber turns, chattery pavement and big midcorner bumps, all clustered on a traditional hill climb and staged in triple-digit heat, would be the ultimate test of a performance car’s mettle. Conversely, Route 198 is exceptional at revealing a car’s flaws. Undersized brakes, inadequate transmission calibration, and unfinished suspension tuning have all been exposed here. Route 198 is exceptional at revealing flaws. Undersized brakes, inadequate transmission calibrations, and unfinished suspension tuning have all been exposed here. In the Supra’s case, it was the latter. Driven to the limit, the Supra’s rear suspension couldn’t cope with 198’s rough asphalt,…

Welcome to the first MotorTrend Best Driver’s Car Grand Prix: six of the best road cars racing wheel to wheel on WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca. Why? Well, we got to thinking that although the data taken from our hot laps with Randy Pobst is fascinating, multiple laps with other cars in close proximity might yield very different results. Sometimes Randy emerges from a contender sweating. It’s taken every ounce of his skill to extract the optimum time. Think of the McLaren 720S last year. Could that pace be replicated with the added pressure of other cars sharing track space and also right on the limit? Maybe the strain would start to show on the cars, too. Sure, those impressive-looking brakes might endure an out lap, hot lap, in lap cycle,…

McLaren is on a roll these days. Of the 18,000 vehicles it has produced since 2011, a huge portion of that total—4,863, to be exact—were sold in 2018, and the 2019 models are nearly sold out. Not bad for a company that sells only sports cars. But to stay viable and to attract even more new buyers, the portfolio must expand beyond this niche. So what to do when you’re a small-volume manufacturer looking to make the most out of what you already have? Up until now, McLaren has been “sports cars for serious drivers,” chief engineer Adam Thomson says. But as part of its Track25 business plan, the company is looking at expanding. In addition to the Sport, Super, and Ultimate Series ranges, McLaren adds a fourth category: Grand…

We owe Chris Bangle an apology. The avant-garde BMW designer was roundly castigated when his provocative reworks of the 5 Series and 7 Series sedans hit the streets in the early 2000s. The undercut bodysides, contorted surfacing, and edgy detailing offended the auto industry’s chattering classes. Yet even the so-called “Bangle butt,” the squared-off trunklid with unusual cutlines that improved straight-line stability in crosswinds and delivered an easily accessible load space, was relatively spared the opprobrium heaped on the first generation of the iDrive telematics interface. It wasn’t a Bangle invention. But the philosophy behind it—reducing the proliferation of buttons in the cockpit while increasing access to vehicle functionality—aligned with his iconoclastic take on automotive design. iDrive used a chunky, twist-and-press, haptic-feedback rotary controller that tilted through four axes to…

There are facts, and then there are Hollywood films inspired by facts. Ford v Ferrari, releasing on November 15, is an example of the latter. But don’t be dissuaded. Viewed through a documentarian’s lens, there’s a great deal missing or wrong with the movie, directed by James Mangold and based on a true story. For instance, Carroll Shelby was a head taller than Matt Damon. Having met Carroll twice, I never bought Damon as Shelby. It should’ve been Vince Vaughn. He’s a more appropriate 6-foot-5, does a great Southern drawl, and even has curly brown hair. Moreover, there wasn’t a single blonde female pictured on Shelby’s arm, a glaring inaccuracy by all accounts. Also, Denny Hulme, Ken Miles’ co-driver at the 1966 24 Hours of Le Mans, was barely on…

Jaguar Land Rover looks like it’s zigging as its rivals zag. The platform developed for the Jaguar I-Pace will be a one-hit wonder, according to sources in Coventry. Next-gen Jaguar Land Rover EVs, including the XJ, will be built on the company’s new Modular Longitudinal Architecture, which is designed to accommodate mild hybrid and plug-in hybrid powertrains in addition to a BEV powertrain. In industry-speak, MLA is called a convergence platform, and although it offers benefits in cost and manufacturing flexibility, it also means future electric Jaguars and Land Rovers might not have the packaging efficiency or range as rivals built on skateboard platforms. Design compromises also mean a convergence platform is likely to be heavier. JLR’s move comes as VW Group and Daimler are working on bespoke BEV platforms.…

Nick Rogers has been there, done that. He started his career more than 35 years ago as an electrical engineering apprentice with British Leyland, then switched to body engineering after a medical examination revealed he was colorblind. Rogers has since weathered the British automaker’s stormy decline and troubled rebirth, working with Honda on joint venture projects and for owners BMW and Ford before India’s Tata Motors took over in 2008. He was vehicle line director for the current Range Rover and Range Rover Sport before being appointed global vehicle architecture director for Land Rover in 2013. Since 2015 he’s been responsible for product engineering of all Jaguar Land Rover vehicles. As a lifelong Land Rover fan—Rogers learned to drive in a Land Rover on the family farm and owns two…

This year’s field: 6,938 horsepower and a couple Woodrow Wilsons shy of $3 million in sheetmetal and carbon fiber. I eased the gassed-up BMW M850i into the MotorTrend parking lot just before 7:30 a.m. We weren’t leaving until 8, but with the exception of deadlines, I have a real issue with being late. Parked sideways across three spots in the back lot sat the $982,816 purple and orange McLaren Senna. I nosed the M850i up to the odd-looking beastie, taking up an additional three spots, and sat for a moment to contemplate the diversity of the 2019 Best Driver’s Car field. A Toyota, a Bentley, a Lamborghini SUV, a Mustang (albeit a Shelby), a pocket rocket BMW, and a great big personal luxury coupe of a BMW. Plus, you know,…

1 Porsche 911 Carrera S The new Carrera has quick reflexes from a front end with great grip, yet the rear still follows dutifully—a tough combination. The connection between man and machine is very close here. The reworked turbocharger flat-six adds delicious midrange torque, launching the car from corner to corner. There’s just enough entry oversteer to say “911”—lively and controllable. Best-in-industry brakes and gearbox attributes remain. A winner, even on street tires. 2 McLaren Senna The utter thrill of brain-compressing speed overrules the wild-child handling to deliver a real and aggressive track car experience with genuine downforce pressing the McLaren into the road at high speeds. Unlike any other street car I’ve tried, the Senna is a g addict’s dream come true. Not well balanced, not enough initial brake…

“Because we can” is the reason we gave for doing World’s Greatest Drag Race the first time, eight years ago. Now it’s more like, “Because we’d be crazy not to.” We love it, you love it, and apparently so do the fine airmen of the 30th Space Wing, headquartered at Vandenberg Air Force Base; this is the third year in a row they’ve agreed to host our madness. This explains how we ended up with our 12 Best Driver’s Cars lined up and revving on the clean, grooved concrete of America’s fourth-longest runway. But here’s the thing: You already know who wins—you blew right past it. Thumb back to all the test numbers in the spec panels on page 44. There, in each competitor’s acceleration line, is the elapsed time…

There’s an urban legend that human beings only use 10 percent of their brain’s capacity. Imagine the sheer potential that awaits if we were to harness the power of that other 90 percent. But the reality is that over the course of a normal day, the majority of us do tap into the full 100 percent of our gray matter. Just … not all at once. The 2020 Ferrari F8 Tributo, on the other hand, has absolutely no problem accomplishing this feat. Here is a supercar designed to enable its drivers to operate at the fullest extent of their ability—and then some. Do those percentages add up? It’s all in how you do the math. Building on the brilliant 488 GTB (the 2017 MotorTrend Best Driver’s Car, by the way),…

With supercars, EVs, and visions of the future, this year’s Frankfurt Motor Show had something for everyone. We’ve selected the six most interesting production cars and concepts to drool over. Ferrari 812 GTS and F8 Spider Ferrari is going topless in a big way, with two new convertibles just announced, one of which was completely unexpected. The 812 Superfast now adds a sibling, the 812 GTS, the first production V-12 Ferrari convertible in 50 years (the last being the 365 GTS/4 Daytona, not counting a few one-offs). Fitting the folding metal top required quite a bit of restyling out back and added 165 pounds, but hey, it has 789 hp. If an 812 is just too much money, Ferrari also rolled out the F8 Spider with “only” 710 hp from…

Content wants to be free, so goes the saying of the internet world. Except that good content like MotorTrend ’s Best Driver’s Car costs a small fortune to produce. Sure, we could pile in a few cars, drive around for a day, then kick back and write a couple snarky blogs. But if you want something that actually adds value to the lives of your subscribers … well, that takes cubic dollars. So as you read through this magazine (which you or your dentist paid for), you are going to see several teasers to videos that only reside on MotorTrendOnDemand.com. And as MTOD is a subscription service, you’ll need to pay the equivalent of a caramel macchiato for a month’s access to binge-watch an endless stream of thrilling Best Driver’s…

New World Order While reading through the well-written article comparing the Alfa Romeo Giulia to the BMW 330i in the August issue, written by Miguel Cortina, I noted a line that said, “But for the brand that created the Ultimate Driving Machine slogan …” Wanted to mention, as it’s possible Miguel isn’t familiar with this, especially if he’s a younger guy, that Pontiac first created that slogan for the 1967 GTO and used it in its TV advertising as well as in its factory brochures. I have one of the ’67 Pontiac full-range brochures, and it has the phrase in the GTO section. It appears Pontiac never bothered to copyright the phrase, so BMW was free to use it without restriction later. From what I’ve read, Bob Lutz is credited…

The second day of Best Driver’s Car began right on schedule. All nine judges and (more important) 12 cars arrived on time, as did three members of the California Highway Patrol. Good part is, the officers were on our side, as we had a slithery 4-mile hill climb of State Route 198 permitted for video and photographic purposes, and as such we would have their assistance in intermittently closing the road. Hey, man, safety first. Well, OK, maybe not exactly safety, but we wanted to eliminate the possibility of an innocent party being involved if something went wrong. Self-inflicted injury? It’s a dirty job filled with risks, but 12 of the best new performance, sports, and supercars ain’t gonna drive themselves. Yet. Due to some inside baseball mishegas, instead of…

The wizards of Weissach have done it again. The 2020 Porsche 911 Carrera S is MotorTrend ’s 2019 Best Driver’s Car. It’s the fifth Porsche to win the award since 2007 and the fourth 911—the Cayman S drove off with the trophy back in 2009. The 911 may seem immortal, eternal even, but it’s always been a work in progress. Generations of engineers have spent their careers buried in the bowels of Porsche’s R&D headquarters, polishing, honing, refining, reimagining the car that for more than half a century has been the marque’s lodestar. This year’s victory proves the point: The 992-series 911 looks familiar, feels familiar, sounds familiar. But there isn’t a part or component that hasn’t been touched, tweaked, or totally renewed. And made better. “The Porsche blitzes the…

This far, no farther. Chevrolet’s Corvette engineering team has been clear: They had taken the front-engine, rear-drive sports car platform as far as possible. The only way forward was to move the engine backward. After pulling the pin and blowing up 65 years of history and heritage, the mid-engine C8 Corvette made its debut to incredible promises. And after decades reporting rumors and false starts, we can finally confirm: Chevrolet keeps its promises. You’ll forgive any skepticism. Chevrolet told us moving the engine back a few feet, adding 35 horsepower (give or take), and employing a dual-clutch transmission would make the 495-hp C8 Corvette Z51 quicker to 60 mph than the 755-hp C7 Corvette ZR1, despite the C8’s considerably worse power-to-weight ratio. Plus, they said, it would come within a…

ARRIVAL: Genesis G70 3.3T EPA CITY/HWY/COMB Fuel Econ: 17/26/21 mpg “Nimble, darty, quick. Great seats. Kickin’ stereo. The G70 could be the perfect tool for an L.A. commute.”Mark Rechtin Base price $44,745 As tested $46,495 Ineed to get one thing out of the way first: I didn’t vote for the Genesis G70 to be MotorTrend Car of the Year. I was part of the underground movement trying to award it to the Honda Insight hybrid. But our effort was Sparta defending Thermopylae: valiant but doomed. And in the end, I can honestly say I’m fine with the Genesis having won. It deserved the honor of being the first South Korean vehicle to win an OTY award, and it won fair and square. But this also means that my yearlong loan…