Innehållsförteckning för April 1984 från MotorTrend

SNAPPED ON THE SLY: SAAB’S NEW SUPER SEDAN Our desert rat has done it again. This time, MTs Master of the Mojave was fortunate enough to catch a squad of Saab engineers performing cooling and towing tests on the Swedish company’s new upper-class sedan. The prototype, mildly disguised with the sail-panel quarter window covered, Lancia Delta taillamps, and a EuroFord Granada-grille, still shows the hand of Trollhattan’s design team. Compared to previous Saab models, the new 4-door looks almost normal. Perhaps world automotive design is moving toward the Saab norm. While the sheet metal of the next Saab is all new, the mechanical innards are taken directly from the current 900 series. Underhood lies the company’s familiar 2.0-liter slant four. The 16-valve twin-cam version of the slant four, first displayed…

These two pals are camping out in the woods, see, when a savage grizzly comes at them. One of them immediately takes off running. “Hey, what’re you doing? You can’t outrun a bear,” calls his friend. “I don’t have to,” comes the reply. “I only have to outrun you.” Don Hackworth, Buick’s new general manager, had good reason to tell this old hunter’s joke at the press introduction of the division’s 1985 Electra series. Buick is going after 3rd place in Detroit’s Divisional Sales Derby, closing in on the battle that sister division Oldsmobile is having with Ford for 2nd. As good members of the General Motors family, Buick brass would just as soon see Olds win that fight, making Ford the division to pass up for 3rd. But they…

When the decision was made back in 1978 to downsize General Motors’ C-body cars (Olds Ninety-Eight, Buick Electra, Cadillac DeVille and Fleetwood), General Motors’ design staff knew it would be a tough job. That’s because the traditional C-car buyer is one of the most conservative in the American automotive marketplace. The average guy who shells out cash for one of these cars is buying tradition. He is also buying bulk. So the prospect of a new ‘‘full-size’’ sedan DeVille over two feet shorter than the current model dictated that GM design staff proceed with what could best be described as styling caution. As Charles M. Jordan, General Motors’ design staffs director of design, explains, ‘‘Designing sporty cars is much easier than a mainstream sedan, since the sporty nature of the…

American auto makers have tried to build European-style sedans for years. Up until recently, they did it by putting Mercedes-look grilles on their cars and driving gloves on the guys in their ads. Finally, they’ve started doing it the right way: by engineering a higher level of road competence into their offerings. Properly done—and the subjects of this test demonstrate what “properly” means—this can turn some utilitarian pieces of transportation into reasonable competition for the cars from Over There. The basic General Motors A-car was never intended to wage autobahn war with the likes of Audi’s 5000 and BMW’s 528; when first unveiled, it was the corporation’s bread-and-butter mid-size sedan of the immediate future, to be channeled in large volumes through Chevy, Pontiac, Buick, and Olds dealerships. There was almost…

In an effort to expand our test program to include the one area of new product evaluation a new car magazine ordinarily can’t address—reliability—we plan to bring you regular updates on the progress of our steadily growing longterm test fleet. Our objective will be to provide an accurate picture of what each of these cars was like to live with over the course of its stay here—we expect these stays to vary from as little as a few thousand miles to as long as two years—and what it costs to run them. The cost accounting will reflect maintenance and mechanical repairs, as well as the fuel bill. We trust you will find these reports instructive.—Ed. Last year, when Mazda replaced its aging rear-wheel drive 626 with a new-from-the-ground-up model, we…

It has taken so much time getting to this point that we are going to have to go over the entire Quattro-san saga just to remind ourselves about the fate of all those many missing hours. The inspiration for the project was the dazzling introduction of the Audi Quattro, followed by its virtual takeover of the world pro-rally scene. Rumors immediately began scorching up forestry roads and screeching over slippery Alpine passes, telling us that everyone from Abarth to Zaporozhets was about to enter the ranks of all-wheel-drive. Rod Millen challenged the mighty John Buffum Quattro with his home-grown RX-7, a 4-wheel-drive Capri appeared, VW showed us a twin-engined 4wd Jetta, Porsche had its 4wd 911 at Frankfurt. Not to mention Paris-Dakar. And Audi’s 4000S Quattro was among the leading…

A first glance, Oldsmobile’s version of the C-car, the new Ninety-Eight, may look virtually identical to Buick’s Electra. At second, third, and fourth glances, it still does. Oldsmobile is not at fault, of course. This is just another example of General Motors choosing to not draw clear distinctions between various divisions’ offerings. One distinction, admittedly, is the absence of anything to compare with the T-Type, and we have to think that works to Olds’ detriment. If nothing else, it makes the Oldsmobile line appear more conservative and less interesting, which isn’t quite fair. But then again, what do we know? Staid old Oldsmobile has just been ripping up, that’s all, and sold an all-time record million-plus cars last year. Lots of more “exciting” makes would give anything to be that…

“Thunderbolt and Lightfoot” was a film about a close relationship between two fellows. One was older, cynical, impassive, hardened in his ways, a definite loner. The other was young, brash, exuberant, a little rough around the edges, but ingratiating. The film ending was tragic, but the two inharmonious characters were strongly portrayed and they were remembered long after the screen was dark. The GTI Rabbit and Colt Turbo are just such characters. After spending a couple of weeks with them, changing back and forth from car to car, damning their shortcomings and marveling at their strengths—we do not have a favorite. We love them both—the Rabbit for its seasoned impassive strengths and understated potential, the Colt for its buoyant personality and the way it begs to be driven with wild…

What do you do when the gas gauge reads zero? Fuel efficiency—as a general public concern—assumes an importance in direct proportion to the perceived intensity of the latest Middle East crisis. During the first real panic in 1973, people were buying bicycles, disconnecting half their sparkplug wires, carpooling, or—the ultimate horror—walking to work. Some 10 years later, only the EPA is concerned with fuel efficiency, and the world car makers are selling every big car they can make despite a Middle Eastern political situation about as stable as a junkie at a convention of nares. We all know that squashed dinosaurs are a limited resource on our planet. Engineers around the world are doing their collective best to design and build the most fuel-efficient cars/engines/tires/roads that current technology will allow.…

The last time you saw this vehicle was in the July ’83 issue when we did a 5000mile report. In that report, a number of problems cropped up which we’ll recap here. At 2558 miles, the turn signal stalk broke off at the base. This, we later learned, was not a unique occurrence; another 760 we drove on the East Coast suffered the same failure. It might have had something to do with a batch of brittle plastic from the supplier or perhaps an automotive neurotic reflex brought on by the 760 suddenly finding itself in a country whose language and driving habits it doesn’t fully understand. Among the less dramatic problems was a noisy window in the driver’s door, a rattly exhaust system that took two trips to the…

History fails to record whether or not Andre Dubonnet cherished an automotive fantasy during his childhood. If so, he certainly overfulfilled those dreams when he grew up. Talk about getting even with your schoolmates, teachers, and parents. Andre got even with just about the whole world when he had this monster put together. For the chassis and powertrain, he approached Ste. Francaise Hispano-Suiza, Boise-Colombes, Seine, the automobile factory then producing the world’s most advanced and prestigious motorcars. For the coachwork, he was virtually forced to retain the ethereal skills of Nieuport-Astra, the aircraft manufacturer responsible not only for the single-seat World War One cloth-and-wire fighter-plane, but also for some quite successful world-speed record aircraft (coincidentally powered by Hispano-Suiza) and an all-wood fighter, similarly powered, for the French air force. Then—it…

FORD’S CITROEN LOOKALIKE SOUIRE The aero look will strike the well-established Ford Country Squire station waqon sometime during the autumn of 1985. Currently scheduled to replace the mid-sized Ford LTD wagon, the new frontdrive family hauler is essentially a Taurus-body wagon. While the yet unnamed Taurus sedans will be offered with either a fuel-injected 2.5-liter version of the HSC L-4 used in the Tempo or an optional 3.0-liter port-injected 60° V-6, the 4-door wagons are expected to use the V-6 exclusively. —Jim Hall BUENO BANZAI As expected, Ford has announced it’s heading south of the border for production of some small cars in the future—reportedly a successor to the Mercury Lynx, based on the next-generation Mazda GLC. The few Ford insiders who’ve seen renderings of the ’88-model Lynx describe it…

The new Nissan 300ZX has turned out to be something of a source of controversy around these offices. While we’re pretty much of one mind regarding the merits of the lusty new 3.0-liter V-6, the roomy cockpit, and the long list of standard equipment goodies, response to the new Z-car’s styling has hardly been uniformly enthusiastic. And when the conversation turns to the all-new same-as-before chassis, things can get downright hostile. Actually, the chassis and attendant rancor figure as part of a bigger debate: Is this, or isn’t this, a genuine Sports/GT car? Which is like trying to decide, once and for all, if the Venus de Milo is really beautiful: The answer is, “Certainly, if it just wasn’t for that little problem with the arms.” Well, if they’d just…

We kept hearing that the Cadillac C-car—call it Fleetwood, call it DeVille—was going to be different from the other C-cars. And we heard right. So different, in fact, that Cadillac was at pains to separate the official long-lead introduction of the new front-drive Fleetwood and DeVille from the unveiling of the Buick Electra and Oldsmobile Ninety-Eight. Physically, by putting a couple thousand miles between the Buick/Olds intro in California and the Caddy show in Palm Beach, Florida. Temporally, by doing it two weeks later. And psychologically, by staging it as an adjunct to a Cadillac-sponsored polo match. Cadillac chose this backdrop to showcase the new cars to the dealers, and decided it wouldn’t be a bad idea to let the motoring press in on this element of the corporate positioning…

If Alfa Romeo is looking for some new corporate advertising, it might think of reviving the old Timex ads. Like those wrist watches John Cameron Swayze strapped on outboard motors and surfboards a few years back, Alfa takes a licking and keeps on ticking. Or more precisely, it keeps on trying. Battered at home by a work force that goes on strike as often as it goes on coffee breaks, and battered in the U.S. by the recent recession and some dismal sales figures, Alfa is fighting back. During the next two years, it will bring in two new, made-for-the-U.S. sport sedans to do battle with BMW. And we are being promised a less expensive version of the venerable Spider roadster to fill the void left by the departure of…

A few years ago, there was a very popular bumper sticker that read “Don’t laugh, your daughter might be in here.” Its meaning was not ambiguous. It was even more, shall we say, alarming, especially to fathers of teen-aged daughters, when that sticker was glued onto the back of a van. Certainly there was no mistaking the purpose and intent of all that black-tinted glass, carpeting, full-tilt stereo, bar, and mandatory convertible sofa/bed. The party-wagon syndrome was only one symptom of this country’s emotional involvement with vans. For every lecherous teen-ager in a full-boogie Dodge there are maybe a hundred of your average middle-class family guys, the backbone and strength of this nation, who simply outgrew the family sedan, and then the family station wagon, and had to move into…

One of the biggest surprises of 1983 was the introduction of the Thunderbird Turbo Coupe last spring. Finally, after years of building living rooms on wheels and labeling them Thunderbird, Ford went out and served up Motor Trend’s kind of T-Bird. Immediately after our first experience with the Turbobird we decided to grab one for long-term evaluation. We picked up a silver Turbo Coupe with 382.9 miles on the odometer late last summer in Dearborn, Michigan. The plan was to ferry the car back to Los Angeles with a slight diversion to Nelson Ledges, Ohio. In spite of temperatures in the high-80s to low-90s, and a good deal of errand running in the Paris of Southeastern Michigan, the ‘Bird consumed 41.9 gal of unleaded during the first 876 miles of…

While the H6 Hispano-Suiza was introduced in 1919 as a 37.2-hp 6-cylinder chassis; and while the designation stuck, the Boulogne model was actually a 45-hp (see text) engine by virtue of a 10mm enlargement of the bores to 1 10 mm, the stroke remaining at 140 mm. There were only 15 of these short-wheelbase 8-liter cars built, and this one appears to be the first of them, since the Moteur No is 320001. The open hole in the boattail is a rumble seat, and the pockets in the right rear fender are steps up to it. It is hard to imagine anyone of a station lofty enough to be acquainted with Andre Dubonnet ever being willing to ride in there. The lower hole in the end of the tail is…

IROC Rolls Again The late great International Race of Champions is set to make a comeback this year. The four-race series will pit a dozen of the world’s finest drivers in an equal number of identical Chevy Camaros. IROC VIII opens on June 16 at Michigan International Speedway, followed by an appearance in Cleveland on July 7, a July 28 date at Talladega, and a return to MIS on August 11. All races are scheduled to run in conjunction with existing NASCAR or CART events. The new IROC Camaros are being constructed around a conventional Banjo Matthews NASCAR-style tube chassis. Power for the stock-appearing Z28s is being supplied courtesy of 5.7-liter Chevy V-8 engines tuned to produce just over 450 hp. Team Penske V.P. and General Manager Jay Signori has…