Innehållsförteckning för October 2008 från MotorTrend

“MAKE IT LIGHTER AND SMALLER—IMAGINE THE NEW CHALLENGER, CAMARO, AND 2010 MUSTANG TRIMMED BY AT LEAST 300 POUNDS AND DOWNSIZED 10 PERCENT.” TIMING IS EVERYTHING. Just ask Tiger. Or the Trumpster. Or anyone with an ounce of gasoline in his veins. Detroit launches some of the hottest, fastest, best performance cars in its entire history—the muscular new Challenger and Camaro coupes, the AMG-chasing Cadillac CTS-v, and the first Corvette that’s good enough to frighten Ferrari—just as Washington mandates tough new fuel-economy targets, gas prices hit the stratosphere, and the economy drives off a cliff. We can argue whether it’s simply dumb luck or just another example of Motown myopia, but the fact remains these hot new American performance cars are the Duesenbergs of the early 21st century. Smoke ’em while…

INK HAD barely dried on our September “Trend” story, “SVT + Ecoboost = Fusion GT” when we got word that the car is off, until the next-generation, 2012 Fusion based on the converged U.S.-Europe EUCD platform. While the delay has all the hallmarks of tinkering from Ford Motor Company factions who don’t care about performance cars, the big problem is the rollout of EcoBoost engines in other products. The Lincoln MKS is first to get EcoBoost, then the Flex, and then the Edge. Mustang and F-150 also are contenders for the engine family. The initial plan was to make the Fusion GT a low-volume, end-of-production car. Now, with a heavy EcoBoost rollout designed to increase fuel efficiency in mainstream Fords, the end-of-cycle Fusion GT has been declared impractical. The Fusion…

OVER the next three years, VW will be cascading new and heavily facelifted cars in an attempt to get new design coherence. When Martin Winterkorn became CEO of the Volkswagen Group, including Audi, in January 2007, he threw away most of the upcoming VW brand designs, criticizing them as overfussy and too distant from VW’s core value of intelligent simplicity. Winterkorn’s designer at Audi, Walter da Silva, was promoted to the VW Group job. He set the VW team, led by Klaus Bischoff, on a rapid redesign. That’s why the Scirocco’s nose, flanks, and tail are different from the Iroc concept’s, which was intended for production. The new design crew wanted to make it coherent with the Mk6 Golf/Rabbit revealed this month. Critical facial elements are the horizontal grille punctuated…

ode to days of yore It’s interesting that the folks who acquired Chrysler from Daimler have chosen a name from mythology. Cerberus is a three-headed dog, with a snake tail and snake heads protruding from his back; he guards the entrance to the underworld, allowing the dead to enter but never to leave. As Cerberus pares away the interesting makes and models to make way for high-volume ice-cream trucks that appeal to average median consumers in Pleasantville, I can’t help but recall the gutsy cheekiness from the early days: Chrysler’s advanced-design Airflow of the mid-1930s; the wonderful Fireflyte series of the 1950s, which were larger and more colorful than my first apartment; every boy’s dream of flying cars of the future—the Chrysler Turbine; the organization-wide launch into the iconic musclecar…

“SHOCK AND AWE.” That was the design directive, the mantra operandi that Corvette chief engineer Tadge Juechter instilled in his ZR1 team as they developed the most powerful regular production passenger vehicle in General Motors’ 100-year history (the freshly certified stats: 638 horses, 604 pound-feet). Get team members talking and they contrast this with former Corvette chief Dave Hill’s marching orders for the C5-generation Z06. He reportedly placed greater emphasis on refined performance. Don’t misunderstand, myriad technical advances mean the ne-plus-ultra Corvette ZR1 drives with far greater refinement than any Z06, but rest assured that few concessions to gob-smacking acceleration, cornering, or braking were made in the name of refinement. For more nitty-gritty details than anyone could possibly remember about the nuts and bolts of the ZR1 pull out your…

HOT WHEELS made a 1970 Dodge Challenger R/T model. It seemed large and kind of blocky next to Mattel’s Ford Mustang and Chevy Camaro. The real Challenger was a conveyance for the emerging decade that transformed the ponycar into a musclecar, sharing its platform with the smaller Plymouth Barracuda, not with any compact sedan. A modern musclecar, the 2009 Dodge Challenger R/T has 6.4 inches more wheel-base and six inches more overall length than the 1970, making it full-size by almost any measure. Because it shares the Chrysler 300/Dodge Charger’s tall firewall, the Challenger is longer than those two sedans, despite a four-inch cut in its wheelbase. The Challenger had to be long to maintain its elegant, retro-futuristic proportions, right down to its long overbite/underbite grille and serious blind-spot C-pillars.…

MARTIN MULL ONCE QUIPPED,“Talking about music is like dancing about architecture.” Writing about vehicle handling turns out to be just as tricky if you only have a handful of traditional skidpad, slalom, lane-change, or hot-lap times to work with. Experts who spend their lives wringing cars out on corporate proving grounds or racing circuits can author SAE papers on the subject using an arcane vocabulary all their own. The rest of us yearn for more scientific analysis to prop up our seat-of-the-pants predilections—especially when attempting to rank 10 of the best-handling cars in the land. Toward that end we’ll mount our Racepak GPS receiver and datalogger securely to the passenger footwells of each contestant so that its accelerometers and gyro can accurately register a car’s every wiggle and twitch. Other…

IF HANDLING WERE simply about lap times and lateral-g numbers, the awesome Dodge Viper ACR would have run away with this test. But as our data show, and as Randy Pobst confirmed, handling is about nuance and consistency. If you look closely at the graphs, the diagrams, and the computer traces from our objective testing, three cars consistently produced the smoothest curves, or the most closely grouped data points: Audi R8, BMW M3, and Nissan GT-R. And two of those three—the R8 and M3—figured right at the top of Randy Pobst’s subjective track test rankings. Nissan’s breathtaking GT-R is undeniably majestic at full bore. But while it easily outperformed the M3 on the track, it has a temper at the limit. “It’s violent when it breaks loose,” says Pobst. And…

IN REAL ESTATE, it’s location that matters most. In the car business, it’s more about timing. Audi’s full-size Q7 is a good example. It’s sold well, but it could’ve done better had it reached market earlier in that sinking segment’s boom-and-bust cycle. The Q5, however, hits these shores next March, when more shoppers will forsake size for efficiency and when the quality-for-cost factor is measured against our increasingly reticent spending. In these respects and more, the Q5 is the right vehicle at the right time. The Q5 coming here is powered by a 3.2-liter FSI V-6 with horses 243 and pound-feet of torque, one of four home-market engines to make our starting lineup. Gear selection is through an updated six-speed Tiptronic automatic, and a self-locking center differential sends drive to…

FLINT, MICHIGAN, buggy manufacturer William Crapo Durant took control of Buick on November 1, 1904. Four years later, Benjamin Briscoe Jr. proposed a merger with Maxwell-Briscoe Company. While the two never merged, Durant went on to become a great business organizer by accumulating car companies others started. Here’s what happened next. ■ SEPTEMBER 16, 1908 General Motors Company of New Jersey is incorporated. Durant sells Buick to GM on October 1, then GM buys Oldsmobile and Cadillac. ■ 1909: GM buys Oakland, but a bank declines a $2 million loan toward an $8 million offer for Ford. ■ SEPTEMBER 26, 1910 Bankers underwrite $20 million in loans and oust Durant. ■ NOVEMBER 3, 1911 Durant incorporates Chevrolet Motor Company. ■ DECEMBER 23, 1915 Durant buys up GM stock and regains…

“SECRETARY’S CAR” is the politically incorrect, early Women’s Movement-era term. “Necessary car” might be Chrysler LLC’s term. Coupes are fashion statements, hard to sell for more than a model year or two. The Ford Mustang and BMW 3 Series are two rare, rear-drive exceptions. The 1970 Dodge Challenger lasted just one generation, and Chrysler replaced it with a Mitsubishi-based car for 1976. If the new Challenger is to last beyond the 2014 model year, its six-cylinder model must be popular, like the Mustang V-6. Dodge’s Challenger SE has that potential, with much more refinement and better noise, vibration, and harshness characteristics than the Mustang. It’s based on the Charger/300, after all. It does fall short in terms of powertrain, as a four-speed automatic is the only transmission choice and the…

ROAD-RACING STAR RANDY POBST PUTS PEDALS TO METAL. WE CLICK STOPWATCHES, MONITOR COMPUTERS—AND CHEER PERHAPS NO OTHER single test can reveal as much about a car’s handling as a full-bore hot lap of a race-track. Within a few high-g turns, any idiosyncrasies hidden in the chassis begin to materialize, behavior that seems benign at six-tenths may suddenly become frightening at ten-tenths; the true handling stars quickly stand out from the merely good. There’s nowhere to hide. No wonder cars squeal so much when you wring ’em out around a road course. Of course, it helps if you conduct said hot-lapping on a great track with a great driver. And for our “Apex Predators” test we had both. Mazda Laguna Seca Raceway near Monterey, California, wriggles with 2.338 miles of tight,…

AS CLINT EASTWOOD’S Dirty Harry once said: “I know what you’re thinking.” What is Kia, or anyone, doing introducing a midsize, truck-style framed, V-6-andV-8-powered sport/utility into a shell-shocked economy still getting used to $4-to $5-per-gallon fuel prices? Kia has to be asking itself the same thing. The answer, for better or worse, is that nobody saw these conditions coming. And the Borrego’s Let’s-Build-It button was pressed several years ago. Even though life has changed dramatically since then, the business-case boat has sailed. So here comes the Borrego, a three-row sport/utility that casts about the same shadow as an Explorer. The irony is this: Kia’s new SUV is a darn fine one. While corporate cousin Hyundai went the unibodied crossover route with theVeracruz, Kia wanted something different, with real off-road capability,…

MASERATI has tampered with the Quattroporte, a sedan that inspires visceral, carnal automotive lust wildly out of proportion with its size and door count. Perhaps fearing cries of“blasphemy!” the factory proffered these historic precedents: Leonardo DaVinci’s do-over of his “Virgin of the Rocks” masterpiece and Henri Matisse’s reinterpretation of “Le Luxe.” Well, okay, in that context, we might forgive Pininfarina for extending the nose 1.4 inches and the tail by 0.4 inch in order to strengthen the Quattroporte’s resemblance to the GranTurismo and incorporate new bi-Xenon and LED lighting, and for revamping the already sybaritic interior. We can certainly forgive the infusion of 25 extra horses and 22 pound-feet of torque that come with the new S model’s half-liter-larger V-8. If you take umbrage at these aesthetic amendments, you'll surely…

WITH OUR long-term fleet, we try to maintain a diverse lineup, one composed of a few sedans, a sports car or two, a handful of sport/utilities, maybe a wagon, and at least one truck and one minivan. Oh, and lest we forget, we also like to have an all-wheel-drive turbocharged pocket-rocket on hand that can dash in and out of L.A. traffic, zip a crew up to the mountaintops for a camping excursion or ski trip, yet still be easy to maneuver through a crowded Hollywood parking lot and trendy enough to impress the plethora of snooty Angelinos. Enter the Subaru Impreza WRX STI, a car that fits the bill and then some. Unlike America’s first-generation STI, a big-winged, gaping-hood-scooped sedan, this all-new second-gen comes only as a four-door hatchback,…

WHEN JEEP decided to build a four-door Wrangler, we were excited about its potential. This was, after all, the first time the legendary Jeep was given two more doors; also, its stretched wheelbase made the interior more people- and cargo-friendly. Then the company announced it was going to build a Rubicon version of the Unlimited, and we knew we’d have to try one out for long-term testing. The Rubicon package provides enough off-road gear to make it the most capable Wrangler you can buy from the factory: Dana 44 axles front and rear, Tru-Lok remote locking differentials, Rock-Trac two-speed transfer case with 4.00:1 low range, 4.10 rearend (available only on the Rubicon), and BFG Mud Terrains, etc. It quickly became clear that despite the extra interior volume, Jeep hadn’t gone…

THE NEW SL65 AMG Black Series is one of those uncompromising sports cars that’s a half baby-step away from being a full-bore race car, like, Mercedes says, the current DTM C-Class or the 1997 CLK-GTR from the FIA-GT series. With two bigger turbochargers, the SL’s 6.0-liter V-12 is rated 670 horsepower and 738 pound-feet between 2200 and 4200 rpm (it could make 886 pound-feet if it didn’t have a limiter). Mercedes AMG claims 0-to-62 mph in 3.9 seconds and a top speed of 320 km/h (199 mph), electronically limited. Transmission is the AMG Speedshift Plus, a five-speed automatic with fast manual modes, and the AMG coil suspension is fully adjustable. Its low volume exempts the SL65 Black Series from European pedestrian crash standards, so the grille is lower and wider…

HAVING revived itself with the sublime Elise and Exige two-seaters, Lotus looks ready to take on the Porsche 911 with its new Evora 2+2, unveiled at the British motor show. Lotus Design penned the car, clearly using the Elise/Exige as a starting point. Despite its four-seat capacity, Lotus promises the Colin Chapman ideal of an “innovative lightweight chassis technology.” Its rear seats are “intended for children or smaller adults on short journeys,” which, if accurate, would prove slightly more useful than a 911’s rear seats. Power is again from Toyota, a modified 3.5-liter V-6 with dual VVT-I, rated 276 horses in European form. Lotus says full performance figures will be available about the beginning of next year. For now, it estimates a 160-mph top speed and sub-5-second 0-to-60-mph time. However,…

IF YOU’VE become used to the radical flame surfacing, Bangle butt, and iDrive of the seven-year-old BMW 7 Series, rest assured the new one will respark controversy. We get just the 750i when it launches here in November, with the new 4.4-liter twin-turbo V-8 (rated 400 horsepower and 450 pound-feet in the X6). BMW claims best-in-class fuel efficiency and says the 7 achieves ULEV2 emission standards. A long-wheelbase 750iL comes to the U.S. later, and at least one of two inline-sixes, the 740i’s twin-turbo 3.0-liter, now making 326 horsepower, or the 730d’s new 245-horse, 3.0-liter turbodiesel, probably will be added to the U.S. lineup. The car is packed with leading-edge tech, including optional Dynamic Driving Control, with four settings from “comfort” to “sport+” to make chassis engineers out of its…

WALK AROUND Hyundai’s new Genesis, stare at it from every possible angle, and you’ll swear you’ve seen it before. Not the car as a whole, mind you, but rather the individual styling cues. The front end, for example, especially the grille, resembles the nose on the Mercedes-Benz S-Class. The profile? Decidedly Lexus LS 460. And the rear, well, there’s some Infiniti M there, maybe a little BMW 5 series, too. And speaking of BMW, the Genesis’s trunk line appears to be pulled straight from a 7 Series. Or does the front resemble an Infiniti’s, the profile a Benz’s, and the rear a Lexus’s? Our editors’ views varied like cell-phone plans, but the consensus was unanimous—the Genesis looks strangely familiar. “We didn’t want to make the Genesis’s styling polarizing,” says John…

WE FIND AMERICA’S BEST-HANDLING CAR TEST-GEAR, TEST-GEAR, GREAT AND SMALL, WHAT’S THE BEST-HANDLING CAR OF ALL? We gazed into a maze of wires and circuit boxes and asked that question 16 months ago as we launched perhaps the most rigorous and ambitious regimen of racetrack and airstrip tests mere auto scribblers ever subjected 10 cars to. It responded with 420 megabytes of data that, along with subjective notes scrawled in logbooks and jabbered into voice recorders, revealed an indisputable answer—the Porsche 911 GT3. All that data also helped illustrate how such nuanced elements of handling as transitional behavior, path accuracy, chassis composure, steering and brake feel, and even cockpit ergonomics dovetail with conventional metrics like lateral grip, cornering power, and track-lap times to produce vehicle handling that delights (or dismays)…

JUST THINK: He could’ve been an accountant. Yes, Dayton, Ohio-born Randy Pobst got his college degree in accounting (earning a 3.52 GPA, no less). Fortunately for motorsport, he chose another path after attending his first autocross at age 19. “I watched the first two events, then I ran my Datsun 510 in the third and won, beating the class champion.” The die was cast. In the ensuing three decades, Pobst has forged a solid career up and down amateur and later professional sports-car racing ranks. His first national championship came in 1990, and he’s added a half dozen more since then. Pobst has raced at every major road-racing course in the country, has several SCCA national championships to his credit, and is a two-time class Daytona 24-hour winner. Although most…

THE ELECTROLUMINESCENT speedometer brushes 200 kph as we hurtle down the back straight of a secluded, banked-oval test track near Turin, Italy. From the seat to my left, snapper Bramley captures the moment with his Canons. To my right is Fabrizio Giugiaro, director of styling of Italdesign and the primary creative force behind the outrageous machine we’re riding in. I’m the man in the middle. That’s correct, because a central driving position is one of many fascinating design aspects of the Italdesign Quaranta. “200K! Not bad for a concept car, no?” Giugiaro is engaging, passionate, fashion-model handsome, and funnier than Letterman. The engine blares and blats under full throttle, yet as we glide this futuristic, fighter-jet canopied doorstop to a halt, the expected guttural thrum from an idling four-camV-10 is…

NOTHING Mini offers cuts through the cuteness like John Cooper Works. The JCW version returns in coupe or Clubman form, with two fewer ponies from the new, twin-scroll turbocharged aluminum 1.6-liter engine versus the old supercharged iron block. Now integrated within Mini, like BMW’s M, JCW builds the cars at the factory, eliminating dealer-installation fees. For just under $ K, you get a JCW Challenge car for the road, featuring more robust engine parts, including new pistons Compression ratio is 10.0:1, down from to 10.5:1 to reduce knock. New turbo housing is made of a stronger material. This allows JCW to turn up boost from the Cooper S’s 0.9 bar to 13 bar. BMW’s Dynamic Traction Control and Dynamic Stability Control are adapted for FWD, but the smoothest way around…

VACATION to New Mexico with the wife and kids? In the long-term CX-9? “Sign me up” said technical editor Kim Reynolds, who took our award-winning Mazda to Cimarron and back, stopping along the way at Taos, the haunted St. James Hotel, the Petrified Forest, White Sands National Monument, Tombstone, and McDonald's. And what sort of transport did the CX-9 turn out to be for their 2500-mile excursion? “Quiet, comfortable-riding, and the Sirius Satellite Radio and second-row DVD entertainment system were appreciated/opines Reynolds, “but this is obviously no minivan. Our suitcases were crammed so high in the back we could hardly see out, and every cubic inch below the kids’ feet was jammed with DVDs, coloring books, sweaters, jackets, separated shoes, piles of crayons, geodes to be later cracked, etc” Any…

FATHER-and-son Giorgetto and Fabrizio Giugiaro have executed the “mid-engine exotic" brief dozens of times, with often memorable results: BMW M1, Lotus Esprit, Lamborghini Gallardo, and Maserati Bora and Merak, to name a few concepts that made it into production. Others were design studies intended to stir and advance automotive thinking, if not necessarily reach the marketplace. Giorgetto founded Italdesign in 1968, and one of its first efforts was the Bizzarrini Manta. It was fresh and daring, with its wheels pushed hard to the corners, three-across seating, and abundant glass area. Today’s Quaranta, shown on page xxx, boasts these same design attributes and is fresh and daring. There are big differences in the power department, however. While the Quaranta explores the notion of a green, hybrid-powered exotic with AWD, the Manta…