Innehållsförteckning för March 1998 från MotorTrend

Here are the first official pictures of BMW’s new 3 Series sedan, which will debut at the Geneva Salon this month and reach U.S. showrooms in the fall. Replacing an eight-year-old model, it brings BMW’s best-seller up to date by drawing heavily on the styling and technology of the acclaimed new 5 Series. The fourth-generation 3 Series retains the conservatively elegant lines that have become BMWs hallmark, but is brave in its details. As with the 5 Series, the wide central section of the hood curves down to bumper level and incorporates a wider, less-square kidney grille; the deep front valance, protrusive side skirts, rib, and more pronounced wheel arches all contribute to a sportier look. The lamps dare to be different, as well, the rears cutting into the trunk…

www.motortrend.Com Full-Throttle Multimedia Multimedia pervades every sector of Motor Trend Online, from downloadable desktop delights to action-packed video clips. Begin by registering; completing a survey entitles you to a free MT screen saver. Then zero in on the Multimedia section and tour auto show coverage, view the photo gallery, and grab some desktop wallpaper. The software section is brimming with fully playable demos of the latest driving games, offering everything from dirt-flinging SODA Off-Road Racing to the extraordinarily detailed XCar. The exciting QuickTime clips from the video library have been integrated into our comprehensive ’98 buyer’s guide. Search for a new vehicle and you’ll find additional photos and video to support most entries, along with the ability to compare performance and specs among key competitors. Discuss current and future vehicles…

The inexorable pull of Death Valley is a little hard to explain. After all, much of the Los Angeles metropolitan area is surrounded by desert so empty you’d be hard pressed to find two lizards to rub together. Death Valley proper, located about 200 miles northeast of Los Angeles, is more scenic and a lot more fun if you’re driving a really fast car. History is all over the place in the SoCal desert, where a century ago crusty frontiersmen struck gold and silver, got rich, went broke, dried up, and blew away. Farther in the boonies, just this side of the Nevada border, Death Valley’s claim to fame is borax—hardly the most romantic of elements. This must have given early marketing men fits: “Come for the Borax, Stay for…

Torque, torque, torque…oh my God that torque! Merely breathe in the direction of the throttle pedal, and this sexy sedan surges forward like it was just rearended by a runaway freight train with a ton of nitro in the caboose. From zero to its governored top speed of 156 mph, the pull of this supercharged V-8 is as strong as any vintage Corvette 427, yet feels as smooth and refined as a warm cup of Her Majesty’s afternoon tea. If there’s a production four-door that can rip 0-60 mph faster than the Jaguar XJR’s 5.2 seconds, we haven’t seen it. No one you meet will expect this amount of savage power to be living quietly inside a stately British sedan. For the past 20 years, Jags have been delicate, finicky…

NORTHSTAR VS. THE WORLD In today’s world, a luxury car without a potent powerplant is instantly relegated to the feeble lane. The Cadillac’s 4.6-liter/300-horsepower DOHC Northstar V-8 is refined this year for quieter operation and reduction of the dreaded torque steer, but it has lost some of the “wolf-in-sheep’s-clothing” attitude of the last generation STS, and that makes it less fun. With gobs of ready torque off idle, the Caddy is still a prime mover away from the stoplight, and roars willingly to its 6500-rpm redline, but catch it in third gear at about 70 mph (just past the downshift zone into second) and there’s little reserve left for passing. A five-speed automatic (like the others have) would work wonders for the otherwise impressive Northstar powerplant. —C.V.T. DYNAMIC DUEL One…

Reinventing an icon is never easy. That task becomes particularly daunting when the vehicle in question carries the historical cachet of VW’s venerable Beetle, the fun runabout that stole the heart of a generation and became one of the top-selling cars of all time. Now VW has dug deep into its nostalgia bag and come up with the New Beetle to see if lightning can strike twice. Due to join Volkswagen’s U.S. lineup this spring, the New Beetle (yes, that’s its name) has traveled an intriguing and somewhat circuitous development path en route to production status. Its basic shape remains true to the original, but, as one would expect after more than 20 years, old and new share precious little else. Unlike its conceptual progenitor, this modern iteration eschews the…

Never say never. In a surprise about-face in its philosophy about sport/utilities, Cadillac will offer its own full-size sport/ute based on the popular Chevrolet Tahoe/GMC Yukon. Unfortunately, the “standard of the world” is way late to the iuxo/truck party. Cadillac dealers and marketers have watched open-mouthed and empty-handed as Lincoln, Lexus, Infiniti, and Mercedes-Benz have launched highly profitable and successful vehicles into the luxo/ute fray. According to Cadillac data, this high-lighter passenger sedans with attendant serious injuries to car passengers. The weight difference between a compact sedan and a compact sport/ute is roughly 1500 pounds. More specifically, the weight difference between a full-size Yukon and a Toyota Corolla is a striking 3343 pounds. So even a simple understanding of physics makes the consequences of crashes between these vehicles rather obvious.…

As spiffy as your engine looks when it’s spic and span on the outside, being clean inside is much more critical to its health and performance. We’ve recently had the opportunity to try two types of engine cleaning services, both of which complement the other in keeping your engine clean where it really counts. The MotorVac CarbonClean Service is designed to thoroughly cleanse the fuel system and combustion chambers of dirt, gum, varnish, and soft carbon deposits. These elements conspire to reduce the efficiency of an engine, compromising its power, fuel mileage, and emissions, often so slowly that the driver doesn’t notice it until the condition causes serious driveability problems. The CarbonClean treatment, in fact, has been shown in an independent test to cut hydrocarbons by an average of 16.8…

LONG-LASTING MILESTONE If any Top Fuel driver is going to beat Cory McClenathan’s awesome 321.77-mph trap speed record, he’d better hurry. Almost coincidental with McClenathan’s record came an NHRA press release announcing that the group plans to slow its fastest classes. Though specific changes had yet to be determined by the start of the ’98, expect Top Fuel trap speeds to drop into the low 300s when the new rules are in place. RECORD RACER A record for motorcycles wouldn’t normally earn a mention in Motor Trend, but Jim Feuling’s streamliner is such an androgynous beast that we’ll make an exception. Things with three wheels are deemed motorcycles, but a fourth wheel makes them automobiles. Last fall, in three-wheel (two front/one rear) trim, Feuling recorded the fastest-ever speed for a…

When we gathered a diverse crop of contenders for the ’97 Motor Trend Truck of the Year award, we found the field ripe with fresh pickups, sport/utilities, and full-size vans, each approaching the market with its own distinct offerings. In the face of truly formidable competition, the all-new Ford F-150 stood out as the most significant truck, making a giant, evolutionary leap forward in mainstream pickup design, bolstering its work abilities with people-friendly attributes that result in a highly desirable truck for the money. An unbeatable combination of smooth, efficient powertrains, strong towing abilities, commendable ride compliance and handling, and marvelous cabin packaging earned the F-150 the honored distinction of Motor Trend’s ’97 Truck of the Year. With three examples on hand for the big photo shoot and Motor Trend…

203 MPH VIPER BLOWS ’EM AWAY The 602-horsepower Hennessey Venom 600 GTS blew me completely away (Dec. ’97). After reading about it, I wondered what people saw in cars like the Ferrari F50 and Lamborghini Diablo. Both cost over $100,000 more, yet the Venom can challenge both in every aspect of true performance. If the Venom were equipped with better tires than stock, like the production ones will be, I can see this vehicle challenging and defeating everything but the megabuck McLaren Fl. Patrick Russell WarnkeTrophy Club, Texasvia Motor Trend Online Your article on the Hennessey Venom 600 GTS was without a doubt the best article I’ve ever read. That car is a beast on wheels! Only one car company could have thought of such a ferocious car, and only…

DODGE PLANS AFFORDABLE HYBRID Outside of a secret X-plane base in the desert, there is no personal transport technology more sophisticated than the diesel-electric/hybrid vehicles. This high-techiness makes them marvelously fuel efficient and low emitting. But these minor marvels have a major flaw: Their powertrains cost too much. Fortunately, cost is exactly the hurdle Chrysler Corporation hopes to hop with its new hybrid, the Dodge ESX2, which debuted in the flesh at the Detroit Motor Show. Essentially, Chrysler expects to compensate for its more complicated powertrain by using a less costly body structure and suspension. According to company engineers, the 2250-pound, plastic-bodied, aluminum-framed ESX2 should get close to 70 mpg. It does this by pairing a trick 1.5-liter turbodiesel engine with the batteries and power electronics from an electric vehicle.…

In an era where producing new-from-the-ground-up electric vehicles is a risky financial endeavor—just ask GM about its EV1—engineering a new model to accept both internal combustion and electric powertrains makes sense. In the past, this approach engendered compromise. Recent history has shown that internal combustion (IC) vehicles upfitted to electric fell short of expectations, particularly when handled by conversion companies. The vehicles’ suspensions weren’t designed for the weight and bulk of heavy battery packs, and battery placement often intruded into passenger or cargo areas. Performance, too, was sacrificed. But the concept of designing a new model from the beginning to use both IC and electric propulsion has changed this. Vehicle platforms are being engineered to integrate batteries rather than simply carry them as an afterthought. Front-to-rear weight ratio, suspension tuning,…

More than 50 years before the import nameplate invasion that introduced European and Japanese luxury marques into our vernacular, the Cadillac moniker signified the standard of luxury. Today, in the face of seemingly insurmountable competition, General Motors’ prestige division offers its most technologically advanced product ever to wage a global assault. Dominating the American sport/luxury market over the last five years, the previous Seville offered exhilarating performance, grand accommodations, and a stately appearance. For the new ’98 Seville, Cadillac not only raised the bar, but boldly challenged the greatest sport sedans in the world to meet its level of technical sophistication. As we began this comparison, each editor drew one of the five sets of keys out of a hat. Ironically, being the token Gen-X staff member most removed from…

That’s the phrase that lodged itself in my frontal lobe as 17-inch rubber gobbled up desert asphalt with an increasingly ravenous appetite and a lightsaber-like speedometer needle swung eagerly into territory usually reserved for German autobahns, high-speed racetracks, or laser-straight 20-mile stretches of empty backcountry blacktop. Yet even as the sagebrush outside the windows morphed into a uniform brown blur, from inside the GS 400’s cocoonesque cabin, the business of luxury went on as normal. The engine’s potent thrust was a muted swell of power, the chassis’ undaunted control communicated a heartening thumbs-up to everything it encountered, and an exquisite quiet belied the outside drama. At first blush, one might think “This is a Lexus?” After all, the marque had etched its name into the ranks of the luxury elite…

The friendly local milkman was part of the fabric of American life in the 1950’s. You could depend on him for the freshest milk, butter and eggs. You always knew when the milkman arrived because you would hear the familiar clinking of glass bottles being stored in the back porch milk box or on the front steps. If you were the lucky one who put the milk in the refrigerator, you could stick your finger in the delicious sweet cream at the top! Now, you have the opportunity to own an authentic die-cast metal replica of a classic piece of Americana…the 1950 Borden’s Milk Truck. Expertly crafted. To replicate this nostalgic Borden’s truck to perfection, the Danbury Mint has crafted this superb model in large 1:24 scale using more than…

Memories are a fleeting thing, as we learned researching this article. Someone born after 1970 might miss the historical significance of the New Beetle entirely, never knowing the era in which the so-ugly-it’s-cute VeeDub infested America’s cities from Hartford to Haight-Ashbury, and became regarded as the four-wheeled definition of counter-culture. Ban-the-bomb rallies, flower-power love-ins, and purple-hazed Jimi Hendrix concerts were the destinations of thousands of used and abused Beetles during the late ’60s, most of them hand-me-down vehicles from other family members who’d moved into mainstream suburbia and the requisite phony-wood-sided station wagon. Today’s youths don’t know the sight of tiny Beetles swimming amongst the vast sea of huge American chrome barges that were the norm 30 years ago, and how they looked so cute and helpless as they buzzed…

Why shelve your driving fun during cold weather when the winter months now offer you a great chance to hone your off-road skills while pampering yourself in the middle of Vermont’s beautiful Green Mountains? Say what? The new Land Rover Driving School, held at the Equinox resort in Manchester Village and sponsored by the British sport/utility maker, is a year-round program that teaches students of all levels about the finer points of off-road adventure. The school is open to anyone (although Land Rover owners get a 10-percent discount) and uses both a dedicated training course plus miles of challenging trails and logging roads in the surrounding mountains. For those not wanting to thrash their own vehicle, Land Rover Discoverys are available to drive. Programs come in various packages, ranging from…

I mashed the Corvette’s throttle in a blatant attempt to overcook the rear tires on the tight, uphill, left-hand bend at Grattan Raceway in Belding, Michigan. This would’ve normally provoked a broad, sideways slide with a full opposite-lock steering correction. Dramatic-looking, but neither stable nor particularly fast. But instead of swinging out the rear end as I maniacally floored the gas, the car braked smoothly, pivoted slightly, and held a crisply arcing line as I gently countersteered. Talk about the unfair advantage. From far off under the hood, I could hear and feel the rapidly cycling hydraulic valves. And though I may have appeared the hero, I knew the Corvette’s new “Active Handling” system actually had just saved me from embarrassment, or something far worse. The point is that Active…

Sport/utility vehicles used to be all blood and guts, canvas and steel. Now they’re wood, leather, CD players, and cell phones. Five years ago, the luxury SUV market was essentially a class of one: the oh-so-British Range Rover. Now, the field is packed with entries, and GMC brings yet another midsizer to the party. Dubbed Envoy, it’s based on the same platform that spawns the Chevrolet Blazer, Oldsmobile Bravada, and its GMC sibling, the Jimmy. But GMC is working hard to position the Envoy upmarket and distinguish it from its brethren by stuffing in every luxury feature its 107.0-inch wheelbase and 183.8-inch overall length will hold. Highlights include a cushy leather-wrapped interior, genuine Zebrano wood trim, a Bose sound system with six-pack CD changer, and power everything else. The only…

’97 CHEVROLET MALIBU LS This award-winning import-fighter has continued to impress the staff with its solid platform, admirable packaging, and value equation. One of the most appreciated elements of the car has become its outstanding transmission; the four-speed automatic extracts maximum performance by providing crisp, precise shifts. Although the 3.1-liter/155-horsepower OHV V-6 becomes rough at high rpm in contrast to several competitors’ OHC engines, the pushrod six is much stronger than rival powerplants in the same price category. Long trips have increased MTs average fuel economy from 21.1 mpg at our last report to 23.8 mpg. A bald spot in the carpeting has appeared where the sedan’s most frequent driver rests his lead foot while cruising, and it has not responded to Minoxidil treatments, yet. The otherwise well-conceived interior with…

Olds’ marketing calls it “a unique expression of the everyday car.” We’d call the compact Alero a complete surprise in terms of its mechanical sophistication and aggressive yet elegant styling. In fact, Oldsmobile’s newest offering appears to be light-years away from the generic looks and just-the-basics hardware we’ve come to expect from the General’s small cars. To brush it off merely as a restyled replacement for the Achieva would be incorrect and unfair. To be built in Lansing, Michigan, the front-drive, five-passenger Alero will share its highly rigid steel unibody, front- and rear-suspension cradles, and all-independent suspension layout with the new Pontiac Grand Am. An angular, Honda Prelude-inspired coupe version and a bold Intrigue-looking sedan compete against models like the Chrysler Sebring, Nissan Altima, and Honda Accord. To even the…

Sailing down the test track, the ’97 BMW 528i gathered force as it smashed sideways into a cement pole at 20 mph. The door crushed into the driver’s seat almost midway across the steering wheel, and the sunroof exploded upward. The crash test dummy’s head, smeared with blue paint for the test, smashed like a pumpkin into the pole leaving behind a telltale circle of blue. Sustaining a Head Injury Criterion of 4720 (HIC scores of 1000 signal serious injury), the dummy was thoroughly dead. The test was conducted at the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety’s (IIHS) Vehicle Research Center in Ruckersville, Virginia, and it was graphic proof of the startling effects of a relatively low-speed side-impact crash even when an occupant is surrounded by high-priced metal. But it was…

You can keep your electronically managed, never-shift-when-you-want-them-to, often downright boring automatic transmissions. Even the fancy-dancy ones, with their five forward speeds, driver-adaptable shift programming, and cutesy little up-and downshift buttons on the steering wheel. Keep it all. Because none of them is as fun to work as the BMW 540i’s honest-to-gears six-speed manual transmission. You know, the one with a clutch pedal instead of all that electro-hydraulic B.S. And say what they will, none of the other goons on this road trip will deny it. BMW clearly understands that rowing one’s own gears is a key element to driving fun. No other car in this class, or in this test, even offers you the opportunity. But the slick six-on-the-floor is but one element of the 540i’s intoxicating appeal. Don’t believe…

It’s as if Death Valley’s highway engineers hastily laid down a long, narrow, snaking strip of asphalt and then got the hell out of the place to avoid combusting under the sweltering sun. Drive these crazy roads with an unrestrained throttle foot, and you plunge and swerve over rises and washes, pinned to the side of your seat one moment, then freefall into a dip the next—with your personal effects floating in midair like a Mir cosmonaut. Battered like this, most cars are perpetually off-balance and out of sync with the road. The Mercedes-Benz E430 Sport isn’t “most cars.” Like some sort of futuristic Bullet Train that lays down the tracks ahead as it goes, the M-B Sport feels serenely composed—as if it’s firmly screwed down, regardless of the gyrations…

In a flurry of new-model launches over the last couple years, pure driving pleasure has been sharply redefined. Consider the new Corvette, Mercedes-Benz SLK, BMW Z3, or Porsche Boxster. All have been bold enough to challenge the already fine qualities of fast, stylish, open-top sports cars, and all have taken the standards even higher—for the fortunate few who can afford them. Now the joys of technologically advanced sports cars are to be brought within a broader financial reach. Mazda has given the MX-5 Miata its first major makeover in eight years; Toyota is assessing public reaction to the retro-style, mid-engine MR-S, which could succeed the departed MR2, and Suzuki is likely to put into production its petite C2 roadster (although with a more orthodox powerplant than the concept car’s 1.6-liter…

As the ever-expanding sport/utility market is drawn and quartered into microniches, Honda and Mitsubishi launch an aggressive attack with sporty compact trucks emphasizing pure, unadulterated escapism. These mid-$20s sport/utes vie for customers against the popular Nissan Pathfinder and Toyota 4Runner in one of the most hotly contested, firmly established segments where creating product mystique is essential to drawing buyers into the showroom. Although both underdog vehicles bear import nameplates, the Honda Passport is built at the Isuzu manufacturing plant in Lafayette, Indiana, alongside the Rodeo (as was the previous generation). The chrome “H” on the grille may fool some customers, but for those in the know, there is no mistaking the Passport as anything but a rebadged Isuzu. And that’s not necessarily a bad thing since Isuzu boasts a long…

Big, comfortable, stylish, affordable sedans are as strong an American tradition as major league baseball and special prosecutors. When the current-generation Pontiac Bonneville debuted in ’92, that list of traditional values was enlarged to include European-flavored ride and handling, supportive seats, and stout acceleration. The Chrysler Concorde, after a radical multi-billion-dollar makeover for ’98, boasts those attributes and raises the ante with some of the sexiest sheetmetal on earth: Make your own judgment, but it’s easy to argue that the Concorde is one of the most attractive four-doors in production. Which of these is the best current reinterpretation of America’s traditional values? To answer that question, we assembled a comparison between the naturally aspirated Bonneville SE and the uplevel Concorde LXi—-both priced as tested at about $26,000. We interrupt this…

HOT FIREHAWK FLIES AGAIN Despite rumors to the contrary, SLP Engineering’s Firehawk amplification of the Pontiac Firebird is available for ’98. And, perhaps most surprising, it’s cheaper than last year’s car, more visually distinctive, and available as either a Formula Firehawk or, for the first time, a Trans Am Firehawk. Weighing 11 pounds less than the pop-up headlamps they replace, the Firehawk’s fixed composite headlights are set in a carbon fiber housing and produce a unique look for the car. Those lamps sit just below an all-new composite hood with functional scoops feeding a forced-air induction system. The hood also features integrated heat extractors to reduce underhood temperatures. An all-new cat-back exhaust system with dual stainless-steel tips and Quaker State synthetic oil in the 5.7-liter LS1 V-8 completes the package…

Okay, so your vehicle’s engine compartment doesn’t quite look like the spit-and-polished engines we photograph for our road tests. That’s normal. Still, it needn’t look like the return of the Exxon Valdez, either. Even an owner who’s fanatical about his car’s finish can neglect the under-hood area to the point where the engine block is coated with oil, the crusty remains of various liquids sit in discolored hollows, and the entire underhood area looks like it’s been texture-coated with a layer of grime. Let’s face it, if you need a hand cleaner nearby just to open your hood, maybe it’s time for some overdue attention. Besides the warm, fuzzy feeling you’ll get from having a clean engine compartment, there are also several good functional reasons to devote some time here.…

Ford was the official vehicle (translation: sponsor) of the recent Specialty Equipment Market Association show at the Las Vegas Convention Center, and they did it with trucks in a big way. Besides the introduction of the Super Duty lineup we previewed here last month, there were more than 100 factory and aftermarket tweaked F-150s, Expeditions, Rangers, and even Lincoln Navigators on display. Ford took the opportunity to show off a couple of radical concept trucks based on the new-for-’98 Ranger, and also presented its annual Ford Truck Design Awards for the most innovatively conceived and modified tuner F-150s. Here’s a look at the best of the Blue Oval truck action from the show floor, and we’ve already been told: “If you thought this was big, wait until next year.” BAJA…