Innehållsförteckning för February 1984 från MotorTrend

IS IT THE NEW COLT OR JUST A MIRAGE II? Mitsubishi released the successor to its popular Mirage series just prior to the Tokyo Motor Show. As with the original Mirage (sold in the U.S. as the Dodge/Plymouth Colt), this new-generation model is offered in both 2-and 4-door hatchback styles as well as a notchback 4-door sedan. Sold in over 32 versions in Japan, the newest little Mitsu is available with 1.3-and 1.5-liter normally aspirated gas-fueled engines. A 1.8-liter OHC diesel four and a potent 1.6-liter 120-hp turbo powerplant are also offered. While all-new, the Mirage still incorporates many of the previous car’s more distinctive design features. Most noteworthy among these is the one-piece stamped, wrap-over upper door sash that has been seen on recent Ford models. The sharply wedge-shaped…

Here’s the one we waited 16 years for, and so far our experiences with the ‘84 Corvette have convinced us that the Chevy engineers spent very little of that time playing gin or standing around the water cooler. But then, when your design goal is lateral acceleration in excess of 0.9 g and race-car handling, 16 years may not seem like quite enough. Although the 350-cu-in. V-8 engine is essentially the same small block Chevy eight we’ve been seeing since 1955, throttle body cross-fire injection notwithstanding, horsepower is certainly adequate, torque plentiful, and response good. Elsewhere, techno flourishes abound. The suspension sports fiberglass springs, and there are forged aluminum pieces at all four corners. Suspension on our test car included the boy racer Z-51 option, replete with quicker steering, harder…

The house that Henry built is bristling with fancy new goods these days, but few of them mean more to the company’s immediate future than this car. Introduced as a replacement for the Fairmont, the Tempo is targeted for big volume in the small family sedan market. The car is about as different from its predecessor as it can be, showing strong influence from Ford’s increasingly dominant European contingent in its exterior design (compared to the brick-like look of the Fairmont). Front-drive mechanicals replace the Fairmont’s front engine/rear drive layout, and there’s a new 2.3-liter powerplant sitting athwartships under the slope of the aero hood. Although this shouldn’t be confused with the Mustang’s 2.3 turbo, the new pushrod four does benefit from Ford’s sophisticated Electronic Engine Control (EEC-IV) hardware and…

Besides being the first mid-engined car to emerge from Detroit (a proposed mid-engined Corvette design eventually gave way to the Corvette displayed on these pages, a victim of the bean-counters), the Pontiac Fiero may represent the next generation of fit and finish precision for the domestic industry. The Fiero’s enduraflex (read plastic) body panels bolt to the separate space frame chassis, and since all the fastening holes—frame and panel—are drilled simultaneously, tolerances of 0.5 mm are suddenly the new norm. Besides its technical ingenuity, the car also embodies some brilliant cost engineering, which helped it reach production against long odds. Pontiac engineers spent as much time rummaging around in parts bins as they did at their drawing boards, eventually adapting T-car (Chevette) front suspension (6,6 in. more track, bottom-mounted shocks)…

Toyo Kogyo, better known as Mazda in this country, doesn’t have a whole bunch of cards in its corporate hand. It’s a small company, selling around 150,000 units a year, duking it out with giants, both domestic and imports. As a result, it doesn’t have all that big a margin for error. One mistake and it could end up as dead here as Fiat. That nearly happened in the late ‘60s, when the rotary was branded as a gas hog with a taste for self-destruction. Normally, this small and vulnerable circumstance would lead a company to be as conservative as a Swiss banker and deal in products designed to appeal to the lowest common denominator or worse. Other Japanese car makers, we won’t mention names, have fallen victim to this…

In “The Right Stuff,” the assorted heroes constantly refer to “exploring—or expanding—the envelope.” Zooming around in the sky, this envelope is portrayed as the sound barrier, the ionosphere, the re-entry, or any number of abstruse limits. Certainly one clear message of all the celluloid drama is that in order to find the limits—you must occasionally exceed them. BFGoodrich markets one of the best high-performance street tires (Comp T/A) in the world today, and this tire is a direct result of constantly exceeding the limits. Competing on street tires (against other competitors who are using race tires) is an exercise in frustration—but a definite learning experience. The corporate philosophy has always been to race on what they sell, and they do not sell race tires. BFG has been involved in expanding…

We never really built cars like the Invicta, nor did the Germans or French. We never understood them. Not that we didn’t have luxury cars. While the Duesenberg was really only for swarthy Balkan princes and maharajahs, the “Three Ps’’—Pierce, Peerless, and Packard—were welcomed in those fine, tight, close circles that we also associate with the hyphenated Rolls, Hisso, and Isotta. But luxury is not just down-filled, tapestry-clad seats and three tons of bulk spread over a 150-in. wheelbase to make sure that Lord and Lady Plushbottom are undisturbed by the world outside. Luxury speaks of riotous living, the truly frivolous, the unmentionable in pursuit of the inedible. The British understand—or under-stood-it. We of the Puritan-Protestant mentality, naive believers that each man, Everyman, will someday be rich, haven’t a clue.…

Consider this: Subaru was the first Japanese front-wheel-drive car sold in the U.S. It was also the first Japanese 4-wheel-drive car. And it is still the only Japanese car that combines all of those buzzy techno gee-whizzes usually associated only with the Germans—all-independent suspension, torsion bars, rack-and-pinion steering, opposed engine, turbocharging, automatic transmission with lockup converter—a riveted, spot-welded cornucopia spilling perceived good things into the market. Further, Subaru has been quick to bring unique models in to plug perceived holes in that same market. The early cars had styling that might have been a touch iconoclastic (or bizarre), but they were cheap, durable, utilitarian machines that drew a grudging enthusiasm from those who tired of their Saab 96s. Then, a few years ago, Subaru blossomed forth with a brand-new body…

VOLVO FEATHERWEIGHT This radical research vehicle from Volvo explores several new technologies at once, but reduction of overall weight is its key thrust, as indicated by its name; LCP stands for Light Component Project. The car’s chassis structure is aluminum and all external body panels are plastic. Total weight is under 1500 lb, some 15% lighter than Honda’s much smaller CRX, and half the weight of Volvo’s present sedans. For efficiency in packaging, the car’s third and fourth passengers are turned around to face rearward. The low, sloping roofline this allows contributes to an aerodynamic drag figure quoted at under 0.30. Power comes from a small magnesium-block turbodiesel that drives the front wheels; continuously variable transmission is under consideration. Fuel economy in excess of 50 mpg is only part of…

With the addition of two new turbo GT cars to its list of offerings—the Dodge Daytona Turbo Z and Chrysler Laser—Chrysler suddenly looms as America’s turbo center (with all due respect to Buick). The Daytona and Laser represent the excitement Chryco has lacked during the winters of its struggle for survival, as well as yet another successful adaptation of the basic K-car front-drive platform. In this iteration, the suspension tuning gives Chrysler a defensible candidate for the title of top front-drive performance car in America. The engine is Chrysler’s familiar—and amazingly adaptable—2.2-liter four, turbocharged with multi-point injection and sophisticated electronic engine controls that incorporate a fail-soft technology to accommodate a “limp home” mode should something go awry with the electronics. Other electro-tech touches available include an onboard navigational computer (absent…

The Continental, and more specifically, the LSC version, has got to be Ford’s most daring move of the decade. In concept and execution, Continental has been redefined into something other than a luxury boat and has entered territory previously held by German sturmwagens. Like the Tempo/Topaz twins made by its sister divisions, the Continental benefits from the European school of styling that seems to have taken root at Ford. Not only does it look better than the Mark VI, but its drag coefficient has improved from 0.48 to 0.38. Although it doesn’t have an independent rearend, the Conti does have an ingenious air suspension system (EAS for Electronic Air Suspension) that does a creditable job of improving the car’s handling without sacrificing too much in ride quality. The EAS uses…

Under a lowering sky I headed south through the Green Mountains of Vermont. It was early fall and a few degrees too warm for the snow that would soon have this part of the country thick with skiers. Every so often the gray clouds would shed a drizzle and dot the windshield of the Audi 4000S Quattro I was driving to Washington, D.C., 600 miles away. Audi had picked this rugged corner of New England to introduce its new car to the press. It was a good choice of terrain. To get there and get out, you must leave the flowing concrete of the interstates and venture onto the Blue Highways. That’s what writer William Least Heat Moon calls the back roads of America—the ones drawn in blue on the…

A little bit of automotive Americana died on October 29, 1983. Orange County International Raceway locked its gates for the last time, an event that marked the end of an era. Los Angeles, birthplace of organized acceleration meets, home of the National Hot Rod Association, and traditional bastion of performance crazies, suddenly found itself without the services of a regularly functioning local dragstrip for the first time in-33 years. Once, the greater L.A. area was liberally sprinkled with asphalt shrines where those afflicted with straight-line fever could come to worship each weekend. Santa Ana, Saugus, San Fernando, Irwindale, San Gabriel, Lions, Fontana, and a gaggle of slightly less prominent operations all flourished during the halcyon days. But little by little, the picture changed. The unprecedented rise in the value of…

So what have we here? Old versus new? Yesterday squaring off against tomorrow? The way it’s supposed to be versus the way we were? That’s certainly the party line in most confrontations of this kind, and there’s no denying that these two do look different, particularly when displayed side by side. The latest incarnation of the Z still snaps heads wherever we go. You’d think it was blond and sported statistics like 36-24-35 rather than 0-60 in 8 sec. But before deciding what a car is, it’s helpful to know why it is. We turned to Nissan’s introductory material on the all-new 300ZX for some clues: “Much more than a simple reskin, the third-generation ‘Z-car’ is new virtually from the ground up, with a brand-new pair of engines, revised suspension,…

For millions of movie-going James Bond fans, the gunship Aston Martin (complete with smoke screens, rear firing cannons, and deployable oil slick) of earlier films has been replaced by a Lotus Esprit. First seen in “The Spy Who Loved Me” (Esprit) as a full-functioning submersible, and later in “For Your Eyes Only” (Esprit Turbo), the Lotus captures the flavor of the modern James Bond character: aloof, understated, highly competent, high-tech, and always up to the task. This is a vehicle aimed squarely at the enthusiast who wants the ultimate in high-performance driving—with a minimum of compromises. Creature comforts get some consideration. Safety does, too. But make no mistake—this surface-to-surface missile is for getting from point A to point B in the shortest possible time. It’s hardly a secret that other…

Few people consider 13 to be a lucky number. But you couldn’t prove it by Al Unser Sr. The 44-year-old veteran collected his first Indy Car title back in 1970. During the ensuing years, Unser has been responsible for many of the brightest moments in the sport. He’s managed three Indy 500 wins, become the only man to bag the Triple 500 Crown, and moved into 2nd place behind A.J. Foyt on the all-time win list. Despite his best efforts, it still took Big Al 13 seasons to regain his championship form. While his performance indicated that the old guard is still a solid match for the new breed of Indy Car pilots, Unser found himself being pressed relentlessly to the last race of 1983 by a sensational rookie, Teo…

GM’S HEAVENLY BODY General Motors, in an unusual pre-Christmas sneak preview hosted by top executives, took the wraps off its top-secret Project Saturn, a program to build a low-cost high-mileage domestic subcompact in the late ‘80s, using Japanese-style manufacturing techniques to overcome Japan’s $15002000 per car cost advantage. Billed as “America’s answer to the Japanese challenge,’’ Smith and company unveiled a clay model of a rather conventional 4-door sedan, smaller on the outside than the J-body Cavalier, about 600 lb lighter, but with room for five passengers. Also part of the Saturn family, according to Smith, are a sporty 2 + 2 fast-back and a small van/wagon (similar in concept to Chrysler’s T115). Saturn’s propulsion system will include a new fuel-injected 4-cylinder (displacing less than 1.5 liters), coupled with either…

As the first product of Special Vehicle Operations, the Mustang A has shown what can be done with a major injection of new technology and imported handling philosophy. The result is, to understate things, resoundingly successful. Michael Kranefuss, no stranger to European GT and sports cars, set a design goal of giving the car as much of the feel of those vehicles as was possible within the constraints of the chassis and the budget. The turbo, intercooled 2.3-liter four-banger (175 hp) yields sparkling acceleration and its light weight (compared to a V-8) combined with suspension mods eliminate the front-heavy understeering behavior so noticeable on the V-8 equipped cars. In addition to the turbo, the little motor benefits from the addition of multi-point fuel injection. This improves performance and reduces fuel…

Chrysler thinks that what you’re looking at here is the family wagon/commutemobile of tomorrow, and it’s hard to argue with that premise. The Plymouth Voyager (and the Caravan, Dodge division’s identical offering) combines big interior volume (129 cu ft) with car-like wheelbase, length, and width. Although the overhead doesn’t quite fall into this category, it’s still well short of a full-size van—about a foot—and will fit into a garage. Voyager and Caravan can be ordered in a variety of trim and/or function levels, ranging from bare bones utility to 7-passenger deluxe. The 7-passenger people-mover can be converted to cargo hauler in a matter of minutes, by removing the quick-release rear seats. Our Car of the Year tester was set up for five passengers, omitting the rear seat option. We ordered…

As repulsive as the idea may seem, we know there are vast multitudes out there who view the automobile in much the same way as they might think of airplanes, trains, or even (ugh) buses. The only distinction between mass-transit devices and automobiles, to persons of this peculiar mindset, is the onerous responsibility of driving. To those of us who recognize the automobile as one of the critical distinctions (along with painless dentistry, penicillin, and TV) between this culture and anything that’s gone before, the auto-as-appliance ethic is, of course, as alien as rutabagas for breakfast. What do we care about the Consumer Reports index of performance when it contains nothing concerning Fun To Drive? What do we care about cars that generate approval from the kinds of people who…

Dear Friends, I know this trip is taking a bit longer than we orginally planned, but it’s a very long flight over; it’s all new to me, a bit confusing, and I do want to get it right. Besides, I’m being treated very well—having a wonderful time—so understand if I extend it just one more, last time, I promise. I doubt that most of our readers have heard of Sigma Corporation. I certainly hadn’t. It was founded about seven years ago on the bones of Chrysler South Africa, which had been very successful selling Valiants and the Hillman Avenger (we knew it about a dozen years back as the Plymouth Cricket). The South Africans, like the Australians (and probably for the same reasons), really liked American cars. Both S.A. and…

As in the past several seasons, the 1983 World Driving Championship stayed up for grabs until the final event of the year. When the players assembled for the decisive 15th round at Kyalami, South Africa, three drivers from an equal number of teams remained in the title picture. But it was 1981 F1 king Nelson Piquet, the No. 1 shoe on Bernie Ecclestone’s Brabham Team, who ultimately prevailed. Few who had watched his dogged comeback from a mid-season slump harbored any doubts that the 32-year-old Brazilian would come away victorious over his chief adversaries: Alain Prost of Regie Renault and Rene Arnoux of Team Ferrari. Piquet’s quest for his second WDC began on a high note. He took Gordon Murray’s graceful BT-52 BMW Turbo to victory the first time it…