Innehållsförteckning för November 1985 från MotorTrend

Chrysler-Maserati—A Coupe for the Club Lee lacocca might cringe if he heard us say it, but in the much-publicized Chrysler-Maserati convertible coupe due in 1988, the pentastar people have found one more way to slice and dice the much doneover K-car. With an Italian wedgie shape, high-luxe interior, and a designer name to go on the flanks, the convertible coupe is quite an appealing concoction, but there's little doubt that under the briqhtwork will beat the heart of a K-car, albeit a remarkably transformed K-car. Best guess is the Italian charmer will be powered by an intercooled turbo version of Chrysler's 2.2-liter four-banger (the 2.5-liter might make the cut if development is concluded in time), backed by Chrysler's 5-speed manual transaxle. Front suspension will use MacPherson struts much like a…

Espace—The Final Frontier The mini-van segment has been one of the hottest success stories in the auto business of late. Chrysler showed the way with its Cara-van/Voyager and Chevy and Ford have recently jumped on the bandwagon with the Astro and Aerostar, respectively. Just where does this leave American Motors, whose partner Renault, markets perhaps the highest tech mini-van around—the Espace—in Europe? Well, for the time being, it leaves them high and dry, but AMC President Jose Dedeur-waerder assures us that the Espace will land in the American market—someday. Matra was originally contracted by Renault to build the fiberglass-bodied Espace, but that agreement didn't seem to suit the giant French auto maker, so a new builder is being sought. That means the vehicles are not available in sufficient numbers to…

We bring you good news from the great Northwest. The long wait for the new RX-7 is over, and the '86 model is indeed new from its flash-to-pass headlight ports all the way back to the dual exhaust pipes. New enough that all the journalists at the Mazda press preview decided it should have been renamed RX-8. At the very least. Essentially, the only carryover hardware from 1985 is found under the hood. Look anywhere else and the car bristles with innovative thinking and execution. The complexities of the rear suspension alone will have technofreaks drooling over their computers long into the night- and drool they will, for the DTSS (Dynamic Tracking Suspension System) is quite possibly the ultimate passive suspension. Passive, contrasted to active, since this Mazda suspension reacts…

Giovanni Agnelli 1866-1945 Villa Perosa, Italy Agnelli was a 33-year-old former cavalry officer when he established FIAT, Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino in 1899. The firm's first car was a rather unsophisticated 3.5-hp rear-engined 4-seater with no reverse, but within a few years significantly improved cars put Fiat on the map as one of Europe's leading auto makers. Agnelli steered the company through the chaos of WWI, and saw his cars win triumph after triumph in Grand Prix racing in the early 1920s. WWII brought even more challenges, but Agnelli continued to guide his company with a firm hand. Today Fiat's top executive is his grandson, Gianni. Sir Herbert Austin 1866-1941 Great Missenden, Buckinghamshire, England After working as a mechanical engineer for the Wolseley Sheep Shearing Company in Australia, Austin returned…

The Packard automobiles of the '30s supplied a standard by which all the elegant carriagesof the Classic Period might be judged. Not to say that there were no other excursions into tasteful excess and noble transport; only to say that no other manufacturer built so many chassis with the consistent quality of Packard, so that by decade's end-above the field littered with carcasses of expired automobile companies—Packard stood proud and triumphant, having built more of its Senior line during that glorious period than all the other exalted marques combined. The brothers Packard, J.W. and W.D., bought a Winton in 1898 and saw a way to make it better. Their first creation appeared a year later. It had one horizontal cylinder, central chain drive, wire wheels, and—quite advanced for the time—a…

Take a Honda Civic floorpan. Widen the track and soften the spring dynamics. Then add gas-charged shocks, 14-in. alloy wheels, and 60-series radials. Stamp out a slope-nose, notchback, 2-door aerobody; then drop in a 120-hp double over-head cam 4-valve 1.6-liter engine. The result is the Honda Integra. This hot little 4-seat package has already made a big splash in the Japanese home market and should prove equally popular in the U.S. at its '86 debut. The Integra is the point car in Honda's U.S. marketing diversification plans. These call for formation of a wholly separate Acura division, which will include the Integra and the yet-to-be-seen upmarket HX luxo sedan, which will be followed, in 1987, by a 2-seat mid-engined sport coupe. With the addition of the Integra and HX and…

CART/PPG lndy Car The struggle among CART's chargers further intensified as two more drivers collected PPG Cup victories, bringing the total number of race winners this year to six in 10 starts. The Provimi Veal 200 at Elkhart Lake saw Canadian Jacques Villenueve capitalize on the late-race crash of leader Al Unser Jr. to capture his first Indy Car win on a rain-slicked track. Alan Jones, who returned to the world of the high-powered single-seaters as a substitute for the injured Mario Andretti, wheeled the Beatrice Newman-Haas Lola T-900 to a respectable 3rd, behind Mario's son, Michael. At Pocono, Rick Mears came back to establish a new qualifying mark and go on to win his first Indy Car race since breaking both of his feet in a crash last year…

The Wizards of Weissach I've been reading Motor Trend for almost 10 years, and I've seen MT out-do itself, but never like the September issue. Being a dedicated Porschephile, a wide smirk ran across my face. Great 959 article! Great cutaway drawing! Great pictures! John Stern Lodi, Calif. Veil comrades, ve have finally zeen decadence in its final form. What say we all hop down to our corner Porsche dealer and lay down 130 grand and some odd change for our very own Starship 911. And then next week we'll be the first on our block to own the ugliest car ever graced with the Porsche name. We're not just talking ugly duckling here, we're talking state-of-the-art vulgarity. This computerized behemoth ought to be buried in some deep dark closet,…

Someday soon, no doubt, mechanics will have at their disposal interactive laser discs covering repair procedures, with integral diagnostic programs written in some omniscient artificial intelligence language. For now, we have video tapes. If how-to videos are to succeed, they must do so in the face of heavy competition from the thousands of workshop manuals that cover nearly every conceivable aspect of automobiles. Manuals are cheaper, more informative, handier to use while actually working on the car, and require no special equipment. On the other hand, videos are accessible even to those whose reading skills are only up to the weakest level, and they are more dynamic than a book. The smattering of how-to videos that are available represent an interesting view of the automotive spectrum. Three are targeted at…

Making it to the top is generally much easier than staying at the top once you've made it. Unless you're Honda, which seems to have little competition with anyone but itself when it comes to building the best compact sport sedan in the under-$10,000 base price range. Conventional wisdom dictates that the only way to outdo the 4-door Accord is for Honda to, once again, outdo itself with a totally redesigned variation on the original theme, first introduced in 1979. Not only has Honda done precisely that for 1986, it has redefined its model spectrum by offering a base vehicle that seriously thinks it's the top of the line, and a top-of-the-line vehicle that is arguably one of the finest all-around automobiles in the world. The third-generation ('86) Accord is…

In an orderly world of sincere teachers, reliable authorities, and absolute facts, it is indeed distressing to discover that an item of widely accepted history upon which one has depended for decades has suddenly been cast into question. I refer, of course, to the identity of the first automobile and its creator. It all started innocently enough. I was reviewing a book—"Motor Museums of Europe"—for this very journal (Vol. 36, No. 7, July '84), when I came upon an entry… but let me quote from the review itself: “The second part of the book is an alphabetical guide to the marques, from Abadal (Spain) 1912-14 to Zust: Brixia-Zust (France) 1905-17. But he suspiciously fails to include a car to which he him-self makes reference on page 4, in the listing…

One does not often think of Australia and Edwardian touring cars as particularly symbiotic. Here is a modest exception. In April 1972, Mr. Dick Philippi, of Downey, California, while on a visit to Sydney, Australia, was suddenly confronted with the rare opportunity to indulge a long-time fantasy and he seized it. He claims it was the good dinner (one wonders where he found that in Australia), the robust wine (aha!), and the rainy night that all conspired to seduce him into a foolish investment that became a priceless treasure. If you are stunned by the exquisite simplicity, the elegant understatement, the sweeping grace of this old High Chassis Colonial Touring Car, think about this: The coachwork was created by Waring Brothers (wait for it!) of Melbourne! That it has been…

It was about damned time. There it clearly was in the 1939 World's Fair, right there in the GM pavilion—the world of the future. It had nothing to do with the dark, the negative, the Great Depression, that bright, shining world. It was hygienic stainless steel and flashing chrome, and glass and light, gleaming, sending out rays like the search-lights on the 20th Century Fox logo. And if for some reason the fair at Flushing Meadows was out of reach, there was always Flash Gordon giving us the same good stuff, flowing from Alex Raymond's pen with technical fidelity. It was so easy to believe. All we had to do was survive a few more wearings of the dreary, baggy clothes, a couple years of dim, dull, gritty surroundings, and…

What do exhibitionist monster trucks Bigfoot, Bearfoot, King Kong, et al. have in common with some of the latest sports car technology? Absolutely nothing—except for their ability to simultaneously steer all four wheels. The monster trucks' 4-wheel steering capability was originally an unintentional byproduct from using 5-ton Rockwell military axles with articulated steering mechanisms as a platform for their ongoing “My tires are bigger than your tires'' show-truck wars. Long used on heavy-weight agricultural and military vehicles, articulated steering was designed for improved maneuverability at low speed, drastically upgrading a big-wheeler's turning radius. Although a tractor's agility at planting corn or sliding sideways into the barn has little to do with sports car technology, the concept of 4-wheel steering has intrigued passenger car design engineers for years. Recently, this intrigue…

At Large Maryland Says 55 If you happen to be cruising comfortably down Maryland's highways and find yourself attracting a lot of attention from that sporty little import in the next lane or that tractor-trailer behind you, don't be alarmed. Sure, it could be that new tie you just bought, but chances are it's the Maryland State Police traveling incognito. This is just one of their latest efforts to enforce the 55-mph speed limit. Sgt. Bill Tower, a police spokesman, says abuses have become so great that “some of our troopers are even being passed as they drive marked patrol cars.'' Another method already in effect is “rolling roadblocks”—marked cruisers traveling abreast in all lanes of traffic to prevent motorists from creeping up the speedometer and passing. —Susan M. Brooks…

It's a matchup as natural as a Celtics-Lakers championship series, or a McEnroe Connors fifth-set tie-breaker: Porsche 944 Turbo versus Chevrolet Corvette. This is the latest installment in a 30-year rivalry that exists between America's two favorite sports car marques. Stepping up for a head-to-head battle on the track, in the streets, and at the showroom, Porsche versus Vette is the type of classic confrontation that gets people involved and enthused, reawakens emotional allegiances, and gives us a legitimate excuse for spending track time with two of our favorite cars. Although neither of the cars is all new for 1986, there is good reason to pit one against the other at this point in their respective evolutions. Porsche has figured it's time to introduce its long-delayed turbocharged/intercooled motor in the…

Honda calls its new Accord suspension a “classic double wish-bone.” Actually, it's a suspension that acts like a double wishbone. The front setup is a dead ringer for the Prelude's front underpinnings with a wide-base lower arm and a wide span between upper and lower arms for good load dispersion. The upper arm is angled for increased wheel caster compensation with increased wheel movement, ensuring close to optimum camber angle as roll angles increase during hard cornering. With the new design, kingpin inclination is greatly reduced, resulting in a reduction in torque steer and steering kickback. (Torque steer is an amplified pulling force in the direction the wheels are being steered while power is being applied. For example, as a front-wheel-drive car is steered to the right while accelerating, there…

Is there a contemporary line of automobiles that comes closer to epitomizing the ideals of sophisticated engineering, flawless construction, and satisfying performance than that of Mercedes-Benz? (The guy who just said “King Midget” should have his mouth washed out with kerosene.) Frankly, we can't think of one. Of course, we might be a bit prejudiced having just returned from Europe where we had a chance to sample a cross-section of M-B's radically altered 1986 model line. Without exception they are excellent cars, and in the European driving environment (read no speed limits) they turn the motoring experience into the next best thing to Haagen-Daz. The 1986 model year represents the most sweeping change in the Mercedes-Benz line since its postwar reintroduction to the United States. The line will again consist…

They do make them as they used to, Mister; and it is an awful shame. It is a shame that all the engines that might have been never were, a shame that the engines that might well be probably will not, a crying rotten shame that the conventions of piston and conrod and crankshaft and cylinder block were established as long ago as 1780 by one James Pickard, a button-maker of Birmingham, England, and have been hallowed by craven convenience and cupidity ever since. So we have had plenty of micro-evolution, the sort of thing whereby a certain moth turned black a century ago for camouflage in London streets; but we have had no macro-evolution, no moths transmuted into birds. Our engines are merely modifications of what they have always…

Exquisite. If one word must be used to describe the Type 35 Bugatti, that word must be “exquisite.” Ettore Bugatti, who caused the whole thing to happen, was equal parts inventive genius, martinet, artist, eccentric. He was an Italian who moved west to Germany, then west again to what had been Germany-Alsace, where he founded a virtual barony. His earliest automotive days are murky—thick with legend and managed history. He was a child of the 20th century (b. 1881), but was a character straight from the early 19th—or was it the 17th? Bugatti raised his own pur sang horses and dogs, distilled his own liqueurs, designed and rode his own bicycles around his little country. He designed his own clothing at a time when correctness meant conformity. No one ever…

Ford of Europe has taken a bold step to capture a big chunk of the ever-expanding 4-wheel drive performance-car market with the introduction of the Sierra XR4x4. The revolution was begun, of course, by Audi, which now has all-wheel drive available in each of its Europe-an models. And the popularity of the Quattro system is so high Dr. Wolf-gang Habbel, Audi's chairman, predicts that within four to five years 30% of all European cars will have four driven wheels. Not everyone would agree with that assessment but Ford isn't one of them, and Ford isn't alone. Nearly all of Europe's manufacturers have launched or are testing 4x4 sedans with the emphasis on safety and Jeep-like go-anywhere versatility. One man who thinks this enthusiasm for 4-wheel drive is long overdue is…

Mazda has long reigned as the dominant power in IMSA's Camel GTU category. During the past five seasons, the legendary RX-7 brigade has accounted for five consecutive driver's and manufacturer's titles. Thanks primarily to the efforts of Jack Baldwin and the Malibu Grand Prix race team, both of those streaks will most probably be extended for at least one more year. But a new GTU challenger has come into its own this season, the Pontiac Fiero. Champion of this mid-engined newcomer has been Joe Huffaker. From his modest but highly efficient race shop in Petaluma, California, Huffaker presently prepares both his “house” car driven by Bob Earl as well as the privately owned “team” entry of Terry Visger, which first appeared at Portland in July. A lack of adequate sponsorship…