Innehållsförteckning för September 2001 från MotorTrend

sketch pad Unlike Toyota, which edged its way into the full-size truck market via two generations beginning with the less-than-successful T100, Nissan is aiming for box-office hits from day one. First up is a full-size pickup due in late 2003 as an ’04 model. It won’t be available with a standard two-door cab, but will come in King Cab (hidden rear suicide doors) and Crew Cab (four full doors) models only. The only carryover from the decidedly strange ’01 alpha-T concept truck will be overall size and the general shape of the greenhouse. In mid-2004, a sport/utility vehicle or two will debut. One will be a Nissan, based on the truck; the other, also based on the pickup, will wear an Infiniti badge and be positioned against the Nissan…

A smooth ride, supreme quiet, and tastefully executed, if conservative, exterior design. That’s what the Lexus ES 300 has traditionally been about. Around in its current configuration since ’97, it was due for a redesign, though it remained a strong seller. Lexus’ challenge, then, was to increase the car’s lux quotient and crank up its style factor, while not straying too far from the 1 formula that made it so popular in the entry-level luxury market to begin with. Well, the ’02 ES 300 is still about setting comfort and quietness standards. In fact, based on our road and test-track evaluation, this updated version has moved them even higher. And the bold exterior packs visual pop that clearly says Lexus is now willing to take some design risks it’s carefully…

It’s easy to attack the two best-selling Japanese midsize sedans as being bland when you’re a struggling competitor with a new model: Order your designers to draw a bit outside the familiar three-box lines of the favorites, and you can claim your four-door has ’tude others lack. Nissan is the latest to announce a breakaway from the boring sedan mold. For ’02, the allnew Altima moves up from the so-called lower-middle sedan-size category and into the same size/price class as the huge-selling Toyota Camry and Honda Accord (it’s actually a bit bigger in most dimensions). Better yet, it has a V-6 option for the first time, a powerful new 3.5L/240-hp powerplant based on Nissan’s exceptional VQ engine family. Let’s start with the fun part: the kick-ass acceleration of the new…

When Michael Andretti announced he would race in this year’s Indianapolis 500, it rekindled a longstanding competition between two of America’s greatest racing families. It began when a pair of rookies, Mario Andretti and Al Unser, each qualified for their first 500 in 1965; it looked to have ended when the Championship Auto Racing Teams/Indy Racing League chasm effectively kept each of their sons, Michael Andretti and Al Unser Jr., from competing in the race beginning in 1996. But as “Little Al” became an IRL regular last year and Michael joined a CART team willing to allow him to run the 500 again, the stage was set for another round of “Andretti versus Unser.” How many times, over the last three-and-a-half decades, has the Memorial Day classic been billed this…

CUTTHROAT COMPETITION IN THE hotly contested near-luxury sedan category pushed Acura to go beyond the nice-yet-for-gettable ’95-’98 TL to create a dynamic replacement that’s shaken the establishment. The second four-door to carry the TL moniker was unleashed for ’99 with bolder styling, improved performance and feature content, and aggressive pricing. The previous five-cylinder 2.5 TL variant was dropped and won’t be missed. Now manufactured Stateside at the Marysville, Ohio, plant, the 3.2 TL is built on a new, global, front-drive platform that enables it to boast improvements over its predecessor in nearly every quantifiable and subjective way. With such promise, we had to arrange a year-long evaluation to see if the TL could live up to its potential. Model-line simplicity made it a cinch to order one up; the purchase…

1888 HONDA CIVIC Not Your Average Commuter Car When Honda introduced the Civic in 73, it quickly established a foothold for the Japanese automaker in the U.S. automotive arena. Since then, the Civic's been our market's best-selling subcompact, and! Americans have consumed I seven generations' worth. It's always offered a combination of quality, reliability, and good driving feel that people certainly haven't tired of. Available in hatchback, sedan, and coupe body styles, the '96-2000-model Civic is conservatively styled, yet friendly—love those big headlights. It makes the perfect starting point for expressionistic kids or adults who don't want to be noticed. Its double-wishbone suspension front and rear has earned the Civic a rep as a sure-footed econobox. And with a plethora i of tuner parts available, turning a Civic into a…

LOOKS DRIVES TESTS FIRST LOOK 2D02 EMW 7 Series Are You ready for the world’s best sedan? While spy shots have abounded for months, BMW has finally pulled the wraps off its all-new ’02 7 Series sedan. Munich’s flagship, which goes on sale in Europe in November and in the U.S. next January, features dozens of innovations and upgrades over the existing 740i—an already spectacular car. Even though the 4.4L V-8 that will power the new 745i has the same displacement as the current model, BMW says it’s almost entirely new. Pumping out over 330 hp and 330 lb-ft of torque, this DOHC powerplant features intake manifold tubes that continuously adjust in length to optimize torque. Backing this high-tech powerplant is what BMW claims to be…

2004 CHEVROLET CAMARO Is there a future for the Bow Tie division’s Mean Street musdecar?/by Jeff Bartlett, Jack Keebler, and Todd Lassa An American performance icon is about to die. GM loyalists and musclecar aficionados are nervously watching their calendars, crossing off the days until the final curtain comes down in ’02 for the current Chevrolet Camaro and Pontiac Firebird. Enthusiasts within GM have their dream concoctions for the fifth-generation cars and have begun actively bench-racing them against the all-new ’04 Ford Mustang. They hope there’ll be a firebreathing product to once again engage in the decades-old street and strip rivalry. The General’s been mum about the future. Truth is, GM doesn’t have a production plan for one of its most storied brands. But there is encouraging, non-official activity within…

What happens when marketing drives product development? In Mazda’s case, it means the company decided to allow its Southern California design team to put together a new, youth-oriented North America-only version of its compact Protégé. Called MP3, the car’s name, of course, refers to Internet downloaded music files that, when stored on a CD-R format compact disk, can be played in the MP3’s Kenwood Excelon Z919 audio system—an industry first. Cool tunes, but what about the car? Like its outsourced stereo equipment, the MP3 utilizes several well-respected aftermarket manufacturers to improve its dynamic performance. Today’s compact-car hot rodders will recognize the MP3’s upgrades from Takechi Project Company and hardware such as Racing Hart wheels, Racing Beat exhaust, Tokico dampers, and a Nardi steering wheel. Compared to the standard Protégé, the…

When Donnie Beechler took the checkered flag at this year’s Indianapolis 500, scored in 25th place as the last running finisher, his Aurora V-8-equipped Dallara simultaneously became the last Oldsmobile-powered machine to race at the Brickyard. Sad. When Helio Castroneves won the race, his Aurora V-8-equipped Dallara became the fifth Oldsmobile-powered machine in a row to do so. Not so sad. A short record—but a sweet one. In fact, Oldsmobile’s participation in this year’s 500 represented a series of firsts and lasts. For example, 2001 was the last time an Olds will pace the race; GM’s rocket division k has done so 10 times before, beginning in 1949. One first this year was that the pace car wasn’t a pace car at all—the ’02 Bravada is, at least, a pact…

2001 Motar Trend International Design Contest Judgment Day If you’re not one of the over 1500 people who’ve already registered for the 2001 Motor Trend International Design Contest, your time is running out! Be judged by automotive industry professionals and Motor Trend editors at the California International Auto Show in Anaheim, California. Prizes, national media coverage, and most important, design recognition await the winner of this year’s contest. Motor Trend and the California International Auto Show invite you take a trip back in time to build the car of today. Resurrect your favorite vehicle of the past, such as a Duesenberg, Studebaker, even the Edsel, and redesign it for the ’02 model year. Your entry must include a detailed synopsis of how the vehicle design was conceptualized along with its…

briefs MORE CYLINDERS FOR THE STANDARD OF THE WORLD?—Cadillac is experimenting with a V-12 engine that would be an option in its next-generation Seville STS for ’04 or perhaps in a new flagship based on the Imaj show car. The V-12 employs Cadillac’s revived cylinder shutoff technology, in this case cutting off an entire bank of cylinders during low-rev cruising. The engine would be based on the upcoming 4.2L North star V-8. We expect a displacement of between 6.0 and 6.5L. AMG, M, S, TRD, MUGEN, WHATEVER—We can’t wait until General Motors picks a name for its hot Cadillac series, so we can stop referring to the cars as “AMG-style.” But Cadillac has a number of issues to resolve before it can go official on a name. One question is…

▪ CADILLAC ESCALADE ▪ CHEVROLET AVALANCHE ▪ CHEVROLET SILVERADO HD ▪ FORD EXPLORER ▪ GMC ENVOY ▪ JEEP LIBERTY ▪ NISSAN FRONTIER ▪ TOYOTA SEQUOIA But Van failed to mention one salient point: That this was, in fact, intended to be a 48-hour nonstop off-road death march. He'd later describe it as (once it was too late to turn back) “the ultimate test of man and machine: sleep deprivation, food deprivation, shade, shower, and shave deprivation.” Not exactly appealing brochure copy. We'd end up at Furnace Creek Inn, all right, but not before Van had lived out his sadistic fantasies on us for 48 continuous non-stop-torturing hours. (There's obviously a little DeSade DNA in the Tune family bloodline.) Okay, so this 48 Hours in Hell test wasn't without an upside:…

WHAT ACCELERATES LIKE A ’60s American musclecar, corners like a sports car, and packs the feature content you’d expect to find only in pure luxury transport? Any one of a dozen of today’s best sport sedans. In spite of the plethora of S’UVs that surround you, there’s a lot to be said for the conventional four-door car as transportation. When carmakers build in the kind of performance, chassis dynamics, comfort, and technology found in a good sport sedan, you have to ask if it isn’t really the best interpretation of “sport/utility vehicle.” Because with room for five and good-size trunks, they offer reasonable utility. And judging by 0-60 and slalom times, they certainly are sporty. There are many ways to slice up this ultra-competitive market segment. For this comparo, we…

WHAT’S HOT: • Hefty 155-hp boost • great wheel/tire/ brake combo • excellent daily-driver manners WHAT’S NOT: • Hefty pricetag • exhaust a bit loud for some *$500 floormats!? If you’re looking for a powerful SUV, it’s hard to top Cadillac’s all-new Escalade—especially with its beefy 6.0L V-8 that cranks a stout 345 hp. But for those sport/utility fans who just can’t get enough power, consider Special Vehicle Concept’s SVC Escalade. As if nearly 350 hp weren’t enough, SVC bolts on a smog-legal Magnacharger Roots-type supercharger that delivers 4.5psi boost, while fitting nicely underhood. A specially calibrated computer calculates proper spark and fuel requirements under boost conditions, while custom exhaust headers and a high-flow dual-muffler system free up the exhaust. All said, the combo teams to deliver a whopping 500…

Have you ever thought about what might fall on your vehicle? Not the obvious, like tree limbs or space station parts. We’re talking about tiny, abrasives, such as tree sap and sunlight, that can prematurely age the large investment in your driveway. Car covers have progressed far beyond the bulky, heavy, ill-fitting tents that retained water better than a sponge. Today’s high-tech car-cover fabrics protect while being lightweight and durable. They effectively stop harmful UV rays and breathe to allow moisture to evaporate. Fabric weights vary with one’s budget and need for protection. Retailers will price a lightweight cover intended for entry-level protection in the $50 range-fine for in-garage use. Top quality custom-fitted covers start at $200. Car cover styles also vary greatly, from units that cover only the top…

2000 Toyota Tundra In spite of constant abuse, our 2000 Truck of the Year winner has asked for nothing more than gas and a single quart of oil. The engine, indeed the entire powertrain and driveline, draw huge praise; our only gripe is a minor clunk when accelerating away from a signal after a fairly aggressive stop, perhaps just the trans, transfer case, U-joints, and diffs resetting themselves for the change in direction. In spite of its billing, the Tundra isn’t a true full-size truck; it’s closer to 95-97-percent-size, as compared to the domestic big three. But around town, in what marketers like to call “personal use” (as opposed to “impersonal use"?) it feels just that much more maneuverable, driveable, and parkable. We’re picking up a bit of a wobble…