Innehållsförteckning för September 2007 från MotorTrend

GET THE GOODS ONLINE Our first test of the LS5-powered 2008 Corvette proved the new engine is plenty potent, and we’ve posted a deep dive that outlines the block’s upgrades. On the video tip, we took the all-new Subaru WRX and last month’s cover stars—the 2008 Infiniti G37 and 2007 BMW 335i—out for a good flogging at California’s Willow Springs Raceway. We also shot footage of the 2008 Ford Taurus rolling in the wild. Find the videos here: motortrend.com/multimedia/videos/roadtests. And be sure mark your calendars on August 21 for the first official look at the 2008 Honda Accord.…

CHASSIS TUNES ◼ FE1. AVAILABLE WITH RWD OR AWD, AND PFI ENGINE ONLY. Bilstein shocks; 24mm front, 18mm rear stabilizer bars (33mm front and 19mm rear on AWD); open diff(s); 17.4:1 steering ratio. 8.0 x 17-inch alloy wheels with 235/55R17 Michelin MXV4 all-season tires standard. ◼ FE2. AVAILABLE WITH RWD OR AWD, AND PFI OR DI ENGINE. Same spring rate as FE1, but stiffer-rate Bilstein shocks. 29mm front, 20mm rear stabilizer bars; faster 16.1:1 steering ratio; limited slip diff(s). Larger, wider 8.5 x 18-inch alloy wheels with 235/5OR18 Michelin MXV4 all-season tires. RWD gets FE! brake package (12.4-inch front rotors with aluminum calipers); AWD gets larger-diameter FE3 brakes. ◼ FE3. RWD AND DI ENGINE ONLY. Same steering, springs and bars as FE2, but uprated shocks (Bilstein front and Sachs Nivomat…

The high-rise XC70 increases its minimal off-road cred with improved approach, departure, and break-over angles, the ability to ford foot-deep streams, and with Hill-Descent Control cribbed from sibling Land Rover. An electronically controlled Haldex wet-clutch all-wheel-drive system is standard on XCs and optional on Vs. Volvo set up an off-road course, carefully groomed to accommodate the 8.3-inch ground clearance (up from 8.1). It looked like as rough a road as anybody making payments on a $35,000-$40,000 car would tackle, and indeed the XC70 bounded over the bumps and dips easily. The suspension never bottomed out, but it did hit the top of its travel rather harshly several times, suggesting there's more damping in jounce than in rebound (we're assured that travel in each direction is virtually identical). The harshes bumps…

00.1 ACURA NSX Now expected to appear as an early 2010 model displaying only a hint of the style seen in Acura's 2007 Advanced Sports Car Concept (shown), the next NSX will have a 5.0-5.5L/500-550-hp V-10 up front, a six-speed dual-clutch manual gearbox, and all of it feeding power to the ground through a new version of Acura’s SH-AWD. Also projected: a six-figure sticker. 00.2 ASTON MARTIN RAPIDE The new owners of this storied brand—besides having just won the GT1 class at Le Mans—have announced they're pressing ahead with the Rapide, a hyperelegant sedan version of the DB9. The V-12 powertrain will remain, juiced to around 470 horses. It’s beautiful and rare, but will it be worth nearly double the cost of Porsche's upcoming Panamera? 00.3 CHEVROLET CAMARO We've been…

WHAT IS it about 450-horse F-150s lately? First Saleen comes out with the new $331 Sport Truck, then Roush announces the Stage 3 Nitemare, and finally Ford is giving Chip Foose a chance to paint on the F-150 canvas with his own 450-horse version. Maybe there's something in the water in Dearborn. Take the newest version of the Ford Harley-Davidson F-150, for example, which will be the quickest and most powerful Harley F-truck truck to date, in large part due to the Saleen-developed inverted twin-screw supercharger and intercooler, reported to make 450 horsepower and 500 pound-feet of torque. If those numbers look familiar, it's because the same system is used on Saleen's S331 Sport Truck. The supercharger option adds about $6500 to the total price and requires the truck be…

THE YUKON’S 15,000-mile service cost a stiff $43553, but it did include an oil change, full inspection, tire rotation, and cleaning of the throttle body, induction, and fuel injectors. More important, the service visit remedied another faulty key fob—at 14,000 miles, it became temperamental and useless—under warranty. While our flex-fuel Yukon’s 132-mpg fuel economy shows it’s been flexing too much, editors are still enamored with it, praising its "solid, polished feel," the “push-button-flip second-row seats," and the "cushy ride that isn’t too isolating." Editor MacKenzie sums up the Yukon as "your best buddy, favorite hunting dog, and Trigger, all rolled into one.” That said, some editors would welcome a third row that folded flat and a top speed greater than 98 mph. ◼ Months/miles 11/17,079 ◼ Avg econ/CO2 13.2 mpg/1.47…

WITH ONLY a month left of service in our long-term fleet, the 330i is bound to be missed by everyone, especially photographer Brian Vance. “This is easily my favorite of the long-term vehicles and always a joy to hop into after a long day of work,” he says. “Going to be hard to say goodbye.’ What makes it so special? As Vance puts it, “The dialed-in steering, the nicely matched shifter and clutch, the rip and snarl of the exhaust, the linear pull of the inline-six, and, of course, the attractive sheetmetal that exudes class and style better than any of its competitors.” Add to that the free service for the first four years or 50,000 miles, and it’s easy to understand why the 3 Series has been the darling…

EVEN THOUGH tresi sports a manual trans and two doors like the MxX-5, it’s amassed over 6000 miles more in the same amount of time, proof that one can never underestimate the convenience of a back seat and a sizeable trunk. Much of the Civic’s popularity can be attributed to its adrenalin-pumping fun-to-drive factor. “Driving stick isn’t much fun in traffic,” notes Harwood, “but the Civic sure makes it a blast, practically encouraging you to whiz around pokey drivers. I even zipped through a line of staggered minivans like they were cones in a slalom’ Honda fixed the Sis problem of sustained revs off throttle via an update to the electronic throttle software, which has been implemented in all 2007 Si coupes and sedans. ◼ Months/miles 14/21,535 ◼ Avg econ/CO2…

FINALLY, SOME DIRECTION for Ford's Way Forward revival plan beyond “cut costs” and “build better products.” There are two new moves: (1) Explore the sale of Jaguar/Land Rover, and (2) rationalize worldwide production so that global architecture makes it possible to build any high-volume model anywhere around the world (except the F-Series, a model big only in North America). Let’s take a closer look: 1. JAGUAR/LAND ROVER SALE CONSIDERED VOLVO IS A moneymaker while the two British brands are low-volume and high-cost. The Swedish brand’s S60/$80 architecture is proliferating through the Ford-Lincoin-Mercury lineup, from Taurus (nee Five Hundred)/Taurus X to the upcoming Flex and Lincoln MKS, plus a Lincoln variant of the Flex. A Jaguar/Land Rover sale could bring in several billion dollars. The question is whether FoMoCo will have…

GENERAL MOTORS is considering a small-midsize affordable rear-drive Pontiac sport sedan to be built on the new platform that'll underpin the 2011 3 Series-size Cadillac. Unlike the Caddy (see August “Trend”), the Pontiac wasn't approved for production at presstime, but it may have the green light as you read this. The determinant: continued success of the Pontiac G6. The new car—let’s call it G7—won't replace the G6 or fit in its segment. RWD takes up a lot of real estate in a car the size of the G6, so the G6 will remain Pontiac's bread-and-butter model. The Caddy and the Pontiac will be based on the 2004 Holden Torana TT36 concept (pictured), a sedan that used many Kappa (Solstice, Sky) components, but with a twin-turbo version of the 3.6-liter high-feature…

FOR CTS chief engineer Liz Pilibosian and lead development engineer Rob Kotarak, GMX322 is old news. They’ve been living and breathing the new CTS since spring 2004, when GM brass officially greenlighted the program. Developing a new car involves managing people, process, and politics. And meetings. Lots of meetings. Occasionally, the engineers do get to drive the car. FEBRUARY 2: "Where would you go to get warm weather, cold weather, mountains, city streets, twisty country roads, and long highway passes all in one area? For us, the answer is Southern California. Starting in the shadow of San Diego harbor, we’ve wound our way east and north, where dusty desert highways give way to chilly pine forests, replicating the majority of daily driving conditions most people encounter.”—Liz FEBRUARY 12: “As if…

WITH ITS M3, BMW has owned the C-segment hot-rod market, winning hearts, minds, and comparison tests for decades. Others have competed, few have been competitive. Now Mercedes-AMG is plotting a hostile takeover of this popular niche. Your brows are furrowing, recalling that the last four fat-tired, big-motored C-Classes to roll out of Affalterbach have won drag races only to be outmaneuvered by the Bavarian. You're thinking, can the C63 AMG possibly be that good, or has AMG wined and dined this guy into senseless parroting of the P.R. flack's hyperbole? I claim the Fifth on the subject of alco/gastro inducements, but present the following evidence for my enthusiasm: This is the first AMG product to be designed from its computer-conception for extreme performance. Its predecessors (like most AMG models) are…

BY THE TIME the Tiguan begins rolling off its Wolfsburg assembly line, it'll have undergone extensive testing in myriad terrains, climates, and elevations. VW's small crossover is a sport/utility, after all, not to mention the Touareg's little brother, so much of its allure will be its perceived ruggedness; thus, testing in extreme conditions is essential. So with the start of production just a couple months away, Volkswagen, with time for one last shakedown, had a decision to make: Where to conduct the Tiguan’s final torture test? Naturally, the powers that be opted for Namibia in southwest Africa, a former German colony and now a popular destination spot for Teutonic tourists and transplants. Known for its extensive range of wild game in Etosha National Park, its 1000-foot sand dunes in Sossusvlei,…

MY COPILOT and each lifted a hand to about head level and felt for air movement. Almost none. A few inches higher, the wind was shrieking at 100 mph. Fast, but not exactly a story lead if we were talking about Porsche's solid-top 911 Turbo Coupe. However, we were whooshing along a German autobahn in the turbomonster’s new Cabriolet version—and with the top down. The mesh wind deflector, carefully positioned behind us, was choking the turbulence to an almost leaf-drop standstill. It turns out that just about everything the 911 Turbo Coupe can do, its 2008 fabric-topped sibling can come close to emulating. Or match. For instance, with the top up, both cars have identical drag coefficients, and above 75 mph—the split rear wing's deployment speed—their tails kiss the asphalt…

HERE’S SOMETHING you don't read every day in your new car's owner's handbook: “Do not participate in motor-racing events, test-track days, sports driving schools, or similar for the first 4975 miles." Lemme see… Our Lunar Grey Jaguar XKR, newest addition to the Motor Trend long-term fleet, ought to be ready for Le Mans in a month or so. Jaguar and Le Mans: Fascinating how 50-year-old imagery—dark-green D-Type racers being hustled through the night by phlegmatic heroes in scarred helmets and pale-blue Dunlop racing overalls—still defines this iconic British brand, even though more than a few Jags of the past half century have been anything but fast or sporty. At first acquaintance, though, the new XKR comes closer to the legend than any Jaguar sports car since the original E-Type. After…

DESPITE DEVOURING mites, our Camry Hybrid loves to sip gas, evidenced by an average fuel economy of 32 mpg over almost 20,000 miles. This figure aligns with the EPA‘s revised estimates for the hybrid—33 city/34 highway—but not our vehicle's Monroney (40 city/38 highway). Obviously, the EPA, tired of angry letters, made the proper changes. Speaking of angry letters, no editor has submitted any, but several take exception to the Camry’s overly touchy regenerative brakes and the transition from engine off to engine on, which has gotten rougher over time and is especially noticeable in traffic. Harwood queries, “Used to be a smoother switch—wonder what it'll be like five, six, seven years down the line?” ◼ Months/miles 13/19,745 ◼ Avg econ/CO2 31.7 mpg/0.61 Ib/mi ◼ Unresolved problems None ◼ Maint cost…

LIKE A WILD BRONCO, the G35 S continues to be jumpy on takeoff, prompting editors to note the aggressive tip-in. “Throttle gets touchy at times,’ observes one. Another says, “The throttle is kind of herky-jerky at the start’ Voehringer went so far as to note, “Tip-in is way too aggressive—in a lipstick-smearing, coffee-spilling, poking-your-eye-out-with-the-mascara sort of way.” Otherwise, there's little to criticize and much to praise on the G35, evidenced by the growing appreciation for the lionhearted engine, the smart paddle shifters, and the sensibly arrayed interior that’s bursting with buttons yet friendly to use. Floyd, on the ergonomics: “Every control is easy to deal with and operate without having to hunt and peck. There are cool features galore, all intuitive.’ ◼ Months/miles 6/10,219 ◼ Avg econ/COz2 18.0 mpg/1.11 Ib/mi…

AUDP'S NEW-for-2006 a3 compact sportwagon posed three questions: How successfully could this premium German brand descend the vehicular food chain without downgrading its brand image? How good was the VW Group's new 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder direct-injection powerplant? And what would it be like living with its innovative Direct Shift Gearbox (DSG)? The answers proved to be pretty good—and above all expectations. VW/Audi's old 1.8-liter turbo four was tough and put out good power on boost, but it was peaky and short on torque. The new 2.0, with more displacement and a sophisticated direct fuel-injection system, delivers more power over a much wider rev range, curing both of the 1.8's problems. Most auto-clutch manuals tend toward the jerky side, but the DSG's innovative gearset and clutch design suffers no such drama.…

THE WAIT is nearly over for Ferrari's next light-heavyweight champion. But don't call it Challenge Stradale. The official name will be 430 LP, for “Light Pista,” but most will simply call it Pista. “We don’t repeat the same chapter in the book,” said Amedeo Felisa, Ferrari's vice-managing director. The concept behind Ferrari's hot-rod F430, which will be unveiled at the Frankfurt auto show in September, is similar to the limited-edition, high-performance Modena variant sold in 2004. Ferrari focused on three areas in its development of the Challenge Stradale, and the approach will be much the same for the Pista: Reduce weight, raise handling limits, and increase performance. Although the company hasn't released any official information, the car is in the final stages of tuning and certification, as this prototype, recently…

OH, NO! the blogosphere has been bleating about next year’s demise of the RS4 sedan, blaming it on the new RS4 cabrio and the upcoming RS6. Audi unveils the RS6 this fall at Frankfurt, probably in avant (wagon) form, although the U.S. probably gets the sedan only. Fact is, the RS4 sedan is only going away until after Audi introduces an all-new A4, on which it’s based. The new A4 launches this fall and will be sold alongside remaining RS4s (based off the current A4 platform). The RS4 cabrio gives Audi a chance to extend “buildout” of the high-performance car—use of remaining component stock—after the base A4 model has changed. Only 300 or so RS4 cabrios are destined for the United States, arriving this fall ($89,675). The salient goodies include…

THE LUCKY resident of Tulsa, Oklahoma, who came closest 50 years ago to guessing that city’s current population will drive, er, tow away this low-mileage 1957 Plymouth Belvedere Sport Coupe. Tulsa buried the car as part of a time capsule for its 50th anniversary on June 15, 1957, with plans to give it away after 50 years, Event chairman Lewis Roberts Sr. says Tulsa chose the Plymouth as “an advanced product of American industrial ingenuity with the kind of lasting appeal that will still be in style 50 years from now.” Indeed, the all-new Plymouth line was longer, lower, and wider, prompting the competition to rush to the drawing boards. “Suddenly, it’s 1960,” Plymouth’s ad copy read. Unfortunately, water seeped into the sarcophagus, making the car worth less than the…

quantum physics You couldn’t have picked 10 better cars to toss around and run handling tests on (“Track Attack,’ June). The pictures were gorgeous, the article informative and a great read. One minor complaint: Did you guys use a Harvard Edition ASE Certified Automotive Glossary Thesaurus? I had a heck of a time following the detailed descriptions in almost every paragraph—vertical vibration spectrums, zero-speed angles, steady-state oversteer, and quantifying pitches. It made me feel like a third grader trying to read “War and Peace.” I had to call a long-distant relative of Albert Einstein just to help me understand it all. Atleast I knew what an electronic assometer was. Paul E. LorencPiscataway, New Jersey bringing it all back home I grew up in Indianapolis and remember only too well the…

YOU DON’T want to get it wrong through the Fuchsrohre. This is just one of the places where the legendary Niirburgring Nordschleife can bite you. Hard. You come out the Aremberg turn hard in third and plunge 250 feet downhill along a wriggling stretch of track, straight-lining one, two, three, four, five apexes almost as fast as you can count them. You reach the bottom of the hill on the sixth, the car's suspension on full compression as the track veers slightly left. That's not the tricky bit. Nope, the tricky bit is the next left, a deceptively sharp kink with an apex you can't see until it’s too late. Get it right, and you carry a lot of speed up into the tight complex of corners at Adenauer-Forst. Get…

YOU'VE PROBABLY notice that a horsepower war has been raging throughout the automotive spectrum, much to the chagrin of the Greens—we even have 438-horse hybrids ferpetesake. Naturally, the fighting is most intense among flagship Sports cars, but thanks to a Reaganesque trickle-down effect (powernomics?), lesser models benefit, too. For example, after the engineers finished shoveling horsepower and torque into the engine room of the Corvette Z06 last year, there was enough left over to boost the lesser Corvettes, which will doubtless lead to further energizing of some other GM performance models as well. We've analyzed the new LS3’s myriad engine refinements in previous stories (and, using new engine detail photography released by Chevrolet, we're recapping them now at motortrend.com),so let's get right to the task of quantifying these improvements by…

IMMEDIATELY AFTER subscribers received our May issue—the one with our exclusive first look at the 2008 Subaru Impreza WRX—the cover and story photos lit up Internet forums and blogs around the world. Auto enthusiasts flocked en masse to their favorite sites to weigh in on the new look. At first glance, it was a marketing buzz to die for. Page upon page of comments were generated within hours of the images leaking online, and all ahead of the car's official debut at the NewYork International Auto Show. However, a closer look at what people were actually saying revealed the buzz to be more of a howl. Responses ranged from disbelief (“I really hope this is an April Fool's joke") to outrage (“Somebody find the Subaru designer and shoot him”). On…

SAAB CLAIMS to have made 2157 changes to its 2008 line of 9-3 vehicles. While it's impossible to verify each one, the major improvements are easy to see. For one thing, it looks better, having picked up styling cues from Saab's striking Aero X concept. From the A-pillar forward, the 9-3 sheetmetal is completely new and features aggressive aeronautically inspired grillework, vaguely menacing headlights with perma-lit "eyebrows," and Saab's distinct clamshell hood. Five-spoke, 17-inch alloy wheels and unique bumpers with matte-finish foglamp surrounds make the Aero version particularly handsome. The claimed five-horsepower increase is impossible to detect, but the 9-3 Aero's 2.8-liter twin-scroll turbocharged V-6 pulls smoothly, with little torque steer even during pedal-to-the-mat escapades. While the optional six-speed automatic will dutifully hold any gear at redline and shift reasonably…

DESPITE BEING IN our fleet for 14 months, the MX-5 has accrued only 15,000 miles, an odometer reading that pales beside those of other long-term vehicles at this stage, most of which boast well over 20,000. Has the daily grind of L.A. traffic sucked the enthusiast blood from our left foot and right hand? Have we succumbed to the comfort and ease of automatic transmissions? Well, yes and no. Indeed, many editors pass on the MX-5 for just that reason, as shifting a manual—even one as sweet and slick as the Miata’s—during incessant stop-‘n’-go slogs can become especially tiring after a long day in the office. But beyond the tranny, most editors, many of whom have families, simply need more room than the two-seat MX-5 offers, especially if a long…

ON A ROAD TRIP to Las Vegas, Truck Trend editor Mark Williams took the Jeep out on some open 4x4 areas and found that, even with the BFG mud tires at full pressure (37 psi), they were digging and grabbing the loose dirt with ease. Williams also appreciated the Wrangler’s 4:1 low-range ratio, which gave him plenty of torque feel and quick revs, as well as the anti-roll bar disconnect button and the rear differential locker. Of course, as good as the Wrangler is off-road, it’s less so on-road. “This is as much a single-purpose vehicle as any sports car, just in the opposite direction,’ opines Williams. “Not only is the vehicle twitchy on the highway on a good day, but combine the slab-sided body panels with mud tires and…

GM’S LUXURY BRAND has tried its hand at a “smaller” Cadillac for decades, with varying degrees of success. The original Seville of 1976 was a hit and a half. Its overly baroque, 1980 replacement was less so. The first Catera, launched in 1997, was little more than a tarted-up Opel and a tepid entry at best The CTS that followed in 2003 wasn't perfect, but it was at least worthy of the Cadillac name—and a big seller, too. However, the biggest turkey among them was the Cimarron. One of the five “J-Cars” GM brought to market in 1982 through 1983, the Cimarron was the poster child for everything that was wrong with badge engineering and, in fact, GM, at the time. This compact Caddy wannabe proved you can't take a…