Innehållsförteckning för May 2001 från MotorTrend

◼ The ’02 Mercedes-Benz CLK55 AMG cabriolet hits showrooms this summer, with a 342-hp V-8 said to be capable of launching it to 60 mph in just 5.9 sec. Its soft-top is lined with three layers of insulation and is capable of folding out of sight in 25 sec. ◼ It’s been a decade since Mazda sprayed the Miata roadster with British Racing Green paint. Priced at $25,715. only 3000 Miata Special Edition models will be produced, with a Nardi wood steering wheel and shifter knob, a chrome-plated fuel door, and special-edition badging, interior, and carpeting. ◼ Mazda placed its compact Premacy minivan (sold in Europe and Japan) on its stand at the Chicago Auto Show to gauge consumer reaction. Based on the Protege, the versatile Premacy’s seats flip and…

Mitsubishi’s Mirage has had a tough time winning buyers, playing against class leaders like the Honda Civic and Toyota Corolla. The current car is showing its age, and its most powerful engine delivers just 111 horses. All that changes with the introduction this August of the new-from-the-tires-up ’02, which also assumes the platform’s global name plate: Lancer. The entry-level Mitsu’s square-rigged four-door-only design looks more substantial than its predecessor. The Lancer rides on a 4-in.-longer wheelbase; overall length is up 3 in. It’s substantially roomier, front and back, and the interior is made of better materials. The Lancer will be sold in three editions: base ES, the higher-lux-flavored LS, and the sporty OZ Rally. The last enjoys a more aggressive fascia, aluminum-look interior trim, and OZ alloy wheels, but ironically…

Aston Martin won the hearts of Geneva Auto Show-goers by unveiling the production version of its much-anticipated Vanquish. This V-12-powered exotic GT is a stylistic and technological tour de force. Among its most innovative engineering aspects is its all-new monocoque chassis, featuring a composite central tunnel surrounded by stressed aluminum panels for light weight and extreme structural rigidity. The 60° aluminum DOHC V-12, previously introduced in the DB7, has been thoroughly upgraded for Vanquish duty. It now cranks out a supercar-worthy 460 hp at 6500 rpm and an equally stout 400 Ib-ft at 5000 revs. The only transmission f offering is a six-speed electro-hydraulically controlled manual/automatic with paddle shifters, much like the Ferrari 360 Modena FTs system. But it's the Ian Callum-designed all-alloy coachwork that really impresses; this is simply…

quattro Considering that an Audi sedan actually won an SCCA Trans-Am championship a few decades back, and further considering that this is the same company that brought us the hairy-chested, World Rally Championship-winning quattro coupe, Audi's execution of a luxury/sport sedan as good as the A6 2.7T quattro doesn't surprise us. Its design is as fresh as when it appeared in '98, the cabin is just as smartly detailed and finely finished, and its chassis dynamics remain an exceptional combination of sport and refinement. day, the availability of a biturbo V-6/six-speed variant really spices up the package, as compared to the standard A6. We were wowed when the 2.7Ts 250-hp five-valve/cylinder twin-turbo V-6 delivered this closer-to-full-size sedan 0-60 mph in 5.9 sec—quickest of the pack. Part of the reason is…

It's no coincidence that Saab named its high-performance coupe, sedan, and convertible after the Saab JA37 Viggen jet-fighter aircraft. Any four-cylinder-equipped vehicle producing 230 hp and 258 Ib-ft of torque is likely to be designed for rapid takeoffs and highspeed maneuvering. Our 93 Viggen four-door hatch proved to be, borrowing Saab's phrase, “one of the world's most entertaining front-wheel-drive automobiles.” Entertaining in good ways—and in some unexpected ways, as well. Now in its third year, the Viggen performance lineup is a joint development of Saab's Special Vehicle Operations team and England-based Tom Walkinshaw Racing Group. Saab transforms just 1000 standard 93 series vehicles annually into this stylish, potent performer with engine, suspension, body, and interior modifications. A larger turbocharger, plus a slightly increased stroke, higher compression ratio, and a revised…

CADILLAC ESCALADE VS. LINCOLN NAVIGATOR The more things change, the more they stay the same, right? Well, almost. To say there's been, and continues to be, a Lincoln versus Cadillac luxo rivalry is obvious. But who would've imagined it'd ever come to this? Not even Motor Trend dreamed we'd be comparing truck-based luxury vehicles when we documented this natural comparison several times during the '70s (see Editor-in-Chief C. Van Tune's “Historical Perspective”). Of course, this feud goes back even farther than a mere three decades, but lately the term “luxury vehicle” has begun to manifest itself in different products, namely trucks and SUVs. When Lincoln launched the Navigator in '98 (a variation of the '97 Ford Expedition; itself derived from the F-Series pickup), people laughed—until they saw the sales numbers…

Ford's Special Vehicle Team is the quintessential American factory tuner, known for tweaking handbuilt V-8s to within inches of their lives. If you've got a predilection for high-strung four-bangers powering point-and-shoot front-drive hot hatches, you probably think of SVT cars and trucks as old-fashioned hot rods. Ford's upcoming 170-hp '02 SVT Focus, due in showrooms this fall, will change your mind. SVT Chief Engineer John Coletti and his team know their hot Focus hatchback's market: import intenders who will cross-shop the VW GTI, Acura Integra, and Honda Civic Si. SVT's main goal with this model, according to lead engineer Greg Pete, is to deliver “European feel.” That means razor-sharp reflexes more than brute force, though in typical SVT fashion, the Focus receives a balanced round of powertrain, suspension, and appearance…

Crumple zones, airbags, side-impact barriers, and seatbelts have drastically improved the chances of a driver not only surviving a major accident, but walking away unharmed. But the best accident is the one that never happens. Enthusiasts like to consider themselves more than crash-test dummies along for the ride. Those who take driving seriously recognize the safety value of an agile vehicle-one that turns sharper, sticks to the road better, and stops shorter. This is one reason MT performs more than 300 instrumented performance evaluations each year. Unfortunately, the concept of active vehicle safety has not been actively promoted in the U.S., where driving is too often considered an inalienable right and not a privilege. The active safety equation has two components. First is the technical specification and performance of the…

Liberty Auto Shows Baltimore Show Was a Sight to See! If you live in the Northeast and you didn't make it to the first Motor Trend International Auto Show in Baltimore, you missed out! The 350,000 square foot show featured the east coast premier of the '02 Ford Thunderbird, Lexus SC 430, Jeep Liberty, Isuzu Axiom, and many more models! Many thanks to our subscribers that attended, including all those who traveled from out of state. Mark your calendar for next year, February 6-10, 2002! Celebrity appearances at the show included (top to bottom): Baltimore Ravens superstar running back, Jamal Lewis, who signed autographs for thousands of fans on Saturday NASCAR Winston Cup Drivers Tony Stewart and Sterling Marlin greeted fans and signed autographs at the show on Sunday, Outstanding…

Dodge Flitewing Yes, the notion of an 800-hp Viper is pretty “out there.” But does it reflect “interests and achievements in Space-Age technology,” as did Dodge's claims for its Flitewing concept car? No way! This was the '60s, and the Space Race was in full swing. The Flitewing's standout feature was its flip-up windows, in place of conventional roll-down glass. When the door was opened, a window-roof canopy automatically cantilevered upward, and vice versa, inside, the speedometer was made up of 13 individual “elliptical windows, [replacing] the conventional hodgepodge of dials,” so said Dodge. Back then, most Chrysler dream machines were built with engines and drivetrains—actual runners, not the push-mobile mockups many manufacturers displayed in their booths. Today, little has changed. The Flitewing, unveiled in New York's Central Park on…

One way to keep a sport coupe fresh is to combine its design with something extremely popular—that of a sport/utility vehicle. Last year we saw the Pontiac Piranha concept, while this year we’ve already seen the Chevrolet Borrego and the Mitsubishi RPM 7000 from the Detroit Auto Show. At Chicago, Toyota entered the fray with its RSC (Rugged Sport Coupe). Toyota’s CALTY design studio penned the RSC with love-it-or-hate-it lines: The look can be described as either ruggedly handsome or controversial as an Aztek. Based on the all-wheel-drive RAV4 platform, for now, the RSC might remind young Americans who play WRC driver on their Sony Playstations that Toyota is a leader in world rally. The RSC also features a techy, minimalist interior with a rear seat that folds down and…

Now that Hyundai is a full-line 200.000-unit/year automaker in North America, it's time for a sports car. Who wouldn't welcome a cut-rate Miata/MR2-Spyder to the market? Well, the HCD6 is a start, and Hyundai emphasizes that it's just a concept. You may see elements of the two-seat roadster in the next Tiburon sport coupe, due in '02. HCD6 (the sixth concept from the automaker's California design studio) features a 2.7L twin-cam V-6 tuned to 215 hp, according to the press kit. Strangely, the lead engineer told journalists at the Chicago Auto Show, where the car debuted, “'We're not talking horsepower right now,” despite what the press kit says. As tor the styling, the neatest exterior detail is the way the rear fender scoops use the wheels to duct air into…

The secret lair. Where wimpy 450-hp Vipers become 800-hp terrors! Dateline: Houston, Texas Piloting an 800-hp street car to more than 200 mph inside a single mile is like climbing Everest: Any fool with giant brass ones, loads of money, the best equipment—and a lot of luck—might get there. But getting back alive from this stratospheric performance zone is another thing. That takes well-conceived vehicle aerodynamics, massive braking capability, a sharp driver's well-honed sense of impending vehicular instability—and more luck. Going 200-plus mph is only half the story; we're more interested in living to tell the tale. Viper-tuner John Hennessey visits the unforgiving 200-mph speed gods regularly. For almost a decade, he's been offering Viper owners pricey tuneups that enable them to experience similar double-century interludes. The 38-year-old Texas transplant…

THE PORTION OF HIGHWAY 46 THAT CONNECTS HIGHWAYS 101 AND 1—CALIFORNIA'S STORIED PACIFIC COAST HIGHWAY—IS ONLY 20 miles long. But it's an awesome 20 miles: fast sweepers that overlook verdant valleys, vineyards, and the Pacific. You gain elevation quickly as you head east from 46's starting point, just south of the hamlet-like resort community of Cambria, and reach Paso Robles and the 101 all too quickly. Luckily, a dozen more curvaceous and less-populated roads spider off 46, through the area's fields and farms, most offering a different combination of switchbacks, esses, off-cambers, and road surfaces. Sports car roads, these are. What's your made-to-order dream ride: Z06? Cool. Z8? Cooler. 360 Spider? Coolest! Then reality strikes: You have a significant other, dependent offspring, clients to shuttle, the root-canal-like pleasure of a…

If you ask me, until the all-new M3 is available with four doors, the small performance sedan to own is BMW's 330i. With a larger-displacement inline-six and beefier brakes than the previous 328i's, plus the availability of all-wheel drive, the newest member of the 3 Series lineup represents another notch in BMW's ever-increasing scope of performance machinery. At first glance, the 330i doesn't look any different from last year's 328i, so you'll have to come close to spy the new Titanium finish of the head- and foglight surrounds as well as on the bumper screen and slats (all were previously body color). Inside, there's a new design for the four-spoke steering wheel and aluminum rings around the gauges a la M3, but that's about it. Performance buyers will be glad…

Volvo has given us a sleeper in Scandinavian clothing. While the base S60 offers a 2.4L naturally aspirated (168 hp) and a low-pressure turbo (197 hp) version, those who want more sport should check the T5 box on the order blank. Slip behind the steering wheel, nail the throttle, and the 2.3L straight-five-cylinder engine wakes up its high-pressure intercooled turbo and morphs the new-platform-for-’01 S60 T5 into a candidate for radar-gun troubles. From the plush leather seats, the instruments are legible, and the center stack controls are easy to use. The steering wheel could be raised a touch to give the long-legged a break, but there’s no shortage of interior room. The back seat will swallow three with no problem, and the voluminous trunk inhales enough for a week on…

KINGS OF THE HILL From 70 to '72, MTs Iuxo-car shootout elicited emotional reactions from our readers—"love mine/hate yours” responses from people who'd worked hard to trade up from their Caprices and LTDs into the ultimate expression of personal success at the time: leather-lined machines called Cadillac Eldorado and Lincoln Mark III (or IV). In chrome letters, Cadillac boasted it had the largest displacement production engine on earth, a 500-cu-in. (“8.2 litre” read the polished grille badge) V-8 putting out a muscular 400 hp (SAE gross) and 550 Ib-ft of torque when it debuted in 70. Lincoln countered with FoMoCo's own behemoth: A 460-cube V-8 producing 365 hp and 500 Ib-ft of twist. Being neither svelte (at over 18 ft long) nor lightweight (pushing 5000 lb), these cars were strong…

You're approaching a boulevard intersection at 45 mph. A truck in the opposing left-turn lane decides to shoot the gap and lunges into your path. You brake, but there's no way to avoid the truck. The result can range from a trip to the paint shop—or a trip to the morgue. When you bought your car, did you look at or understand its government crash ratings? The moment might arrive when they matter. The federal government's National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) uses a five-star system to rate the crashworthiness of all passenger vehicles sold in the United States. The non-government Insurance Institute for Highway Safety/Highway Loss Data Institute (IIHS/HLDI) also maintains a testing program of its own, though its rating systems and processes are different from NHTSA's. What do…

WHAT'S HOT •Well-matched parts • great wheel/tire package • stellar brakes • budget friendly WHAT'S NOT • Could use more power • prototype clutch needs more fine tuning SPO Motorsports' latest tuner creation is an excellent example of how aftermarket development vehicles should be built: It looks good, the tires don't rub, you can drive it every day without worries, it won't destroy your wallet, and it actually performs much better than stock. This combo may sound simple, but all too often, tuner cars don't meet many (or any) of these parameters. Besides, it's something different: a Subie—how cool is that? The impetus behind the SPO Subaru Legacy GT wasn't to be a dragrace hero, but rather to build it into a stable, attractive Euro-style sedan that hustles tight canyon…

future forecast What exemplifies “classic Lincoln’’? Classic-car nuts might think ’41 Continental or ’55 Mark IL But for tie majority of baby boomers; Lincoln’s salad days peaked during the JFK/LBJ era with-the-Continental four-suicide-door convertible. And Lincoln’s new lead designer, Gerry McGovern, has confirmed that Ford Motor Co.’s American luxury division will call on those roots as inspiration for future a models and design. We’ll see it soon in a facelifted LS sedan, and in concept cars like this LS-based, four-five-place convertible. This likely highlight of the ’02 Detroit Auto Show takes lad vantage of the show-car trend for rear doors that open only when the fronts are open—for safety, of course. Like that landmark ’61 Continental, the LS show car has minimal chrome on the side—just an. accent that runs…

It took them long enough. Mercury finally put a production date on the rowdy Marauder. Motivated by a 300-hp 32-valve DOHC V-8, this fast-lane five-passenger transport arrives next summer as an '03 model. Based on the staid-to-the-bone Grand Marquis, the new Merc boasts a brassy Mustang Cobra-like exhaust note, a high-stall torque converter in its four-speed automatic, and racing-style instrumentation, including a 140-mph speedo, a 7000-rpm tach, temperature and oil pressure gauges, and a voltmeter. It rolls on a performance (firm) suspension with 18-in. tires mounted on chrome alloy wheels. Shocks, springs, and stabilizer bars all are unique, say project managers Steve Babcock and Bill Dear. Reports from the '99 SEMA show, where we first saw the Marauder, said that the beast would pack the longer stroke 5.4L SOHC V-8.…

Ford's 170-hp SVT Focus and Nissan's 180-hp Sentra SE-R won't go unchallenged by' the car that made a cult of the sport-compact market. The '02 Honda Civic Si bows at the New York Auto Show and then, by the end of the year, at your local dealer, about 12 months after the new bigger, softer Civic debuted sans Si. While the '99-2000 Si coupe was U.S.-made, the '02 Si is a British-built three-door hatchback. As of press time, Honda reportedly is trying to decide between two engines. One is the Euro-market Civic Type-R's 2.0L/200-hp DOHC four, the same engine going into the '02 Acura RSX Type-S. Since RSX—to be sold as a Honda elsewhere—belongs to the premium division here, the Si would get a detuned version of the engine to…

Problems: The current Q45 is showing its age and falls short of the class leaders in many aspects. Despite an interior and exterior freshening in '99, we've rated it just average in past reviews. Questions: Is the fresh-from-the-ground-up '02 Q45 a better machine? And can it outdo one of the current luxo kings, Lexus LS 430, at the luxury shuffle? Answers: Most definitely. And maybe. For starters, the new Q is fitted with more technology than most any vehicle roaming the road today. Its available equipment list reads like a what's what of cutting-edge automotive trickery. The most visible indicators are aggressively large seven-lens high-intensity-discharge headlights, which Infiniti says are 1.7 times brighter than normal non-HID lamps. They're supposedly the brightest ever installed on a passenger car. Structurally, the '02…

WHAT ABOUT THE DIRT “They're not made for serious off-roading,” you say? I say, “So what?” The Cadillac's fully electronic, constantly adjusting monotube shocks turn choppy, broken roads into an almost unnaturally smooth affair at just about any speed. However, in first gear, the Stabilitrak system (a combination of ABS, stability sensors, and traction control) automatically defaults into “Limited Stability” mode—a big help when pulling a big boat up a slippery launch or when you find yourself facing a washed-out road. Yet, there are certain uncomfortable moments when you don't want the computer shutting down power. The new Cadillac transfer case (also used in the GMC C3 pickup and Yukon Denali XL) sends traction from front to rear driveshafts, then back, in fractions of a second. However, without a low-range…

While crash-safety ratings aren't everything, they do evidence a considerable amount of testing effort, as conducted by two different impartial sources, and provide at least some basis for comparison. We've highlighted the National Highway Traffic Safety Association and Insurance Institute for Highway Safety/Highway Loss Data Institute data for 30 different vehicles in the chart below. The ratings shown cover currently available models and platforms only. In some cases, a particular vehicle has only been tested by one organization; others have been evaluated by both. We've not included any data from NHTSA's relatively new Rollover Resistance Ratings, since test results have been released on only a few dozen vehicles as of this writing. Both organizations are constantly conducting additional tests; for an up-to-date list of all recent tests and their results,…

2000 Lexus IS 300 So far, everyone on staff loves this ride—it draws looks and positive commentary wherever we go, There's lots to praise: Silken, revvy inline-six, well-mated five-speed automatic, pinned-down chassis, aggressive rolling stock, and an athletic over-the-road feel, all of which qualify the IS 300 as a genuine sport sedan, not a sporty sedanlike wannabe. It's interesting that the IS looks a lot like the new Mercedes C-Class on paper, yet Lexus' target buyer is about 10 years younger than that of its German rival. The 300's styling bears that notion out. The steering-wheel mounted shift buttons draw mixed reviews. Some like the notion of having the controls on the wheel and being able to accomplish up- or downshifts with either hand. Others prefer a crisp fore/aft floor-mounted…

KEY: • = comparison, T = turbocharged, S = supercharged, D = diesel, M = manual, A = automatic, SA = semi-automatic, 4wd = part-time 4-wheel drive, awd = full-time all-wheel drive Jaguar XKR Silverstone Luxury appointments, cat-like looks, and 370 supercharged horsepower make this one mean kitty with sharp claws. Mazda Miata Looking for a cheap way out of a midlife crisis? The revised for '01 Miata offers sports-car drop-top thrills for a little over S21K. KEY: • = comparison, T = turbocharged, S = supercharged, D = diesel, M = manual, A = automatic, SA = semi-automatic, 4wd = part-time 4-wheel drive, awd = full-time all-wheel drive Mazda Miata Looking for a cheap way out of a midlife crisis? The revised for '01 Miata offers sports-car drop-top thrills…