Innehållsförteckning för February 2004 från MotorTrend

What’s Happenin’ Hyundai’s latest Western Caddy tries racing-again Pontiac quits racing-again SVT takes a powder Spy snot Grand Prix, round two MORE ON THE 2008 NISSAN GTR In last month’s Tokyo Motor Show coverage, we mentioned that Nissan’s much-anticipated next-generation Skyline GTR will arrive in 2007, likely as a 2008 model. The 400-plus-horsepower supercoupe will be built in left- and right-hand-drive versions and will probably be sold in North America as Infiniti’s flagship, replacing the Q45 and topping the next-generation M45 (the Fuga concept at Tokyo). There’s more: The left-hand-drive GTR concept that appeared at the 2001 Tokyo show will be heavily changed before it comes to market, says Nissan chief Carlos Ghosn. Why is it taking so long to come to market? Nissan has its engineering hands full of…

What do you do when a racing sponsor shows up at your doorstep and says “We want you”? You say, "Okay." The Canadian Society of Obstetricians and Gynecologists has hooked up with Christopher Guerrieri, 20, from the Toronto suburb of Pickering. The sides of his FF1600 racer feature swimming sperm, and the sidepods bear the Web site address: sexualityandu.ca. "Hey, it doesn’t matter where the money comes from,” Guerrieri shrugs. "This sponsorship allows me to pursue my dream." At the Molson Indy Toronto, he was featured in the local newspapers sitting in his sex machine before turning a wheel. Chris handed out about 11,000 flavored condoms at the track’s Thunder Alley marketing area. He was the FF1600 series Rookie of the Year in 2002. “There’s no downside to this partnership.…

We told you it was imminent. Here it is: the MazdaSpeed MX-5 Miata, with factory approved and sanctioned turbocharging. Featuring an air-to-air intercooler, the turbo-charged 1.8-liter four makes 178 horsepower at 6000 rpm and 166 pound-feet of torque at 4500. Available this spring, the MazdaSpeed Miata also gets shorter springs with increased rates, tuned Bilstein dampers, larger front and rear anti-roll bars, a Bosch torque-sensing limited-slip differential, and Toyo Proxes on 17-inch Racing Hart alloy wheels.…

Six hundred and twelve horsepower is still a figure associated with drag racers and hypercars like the McLaren FI. Thanks to AMG, you now can access that kind of urge within the environment of a Mercedes CL Coupe or S-Class sedan (with an SL65 AMG on the way). By uprating its V-12 engine to 6.0 liters and plumbing in a new biturbo system—among a host of other measures—Stuttgart’s power specialists have created not only the most powerful road car ever marketed by Mercedes, but one of the most potent series-production engines on the planet. The torque peaks at an incredible 737 pound-feet. The neat thing about the big AMG Mercedes is it doesn’t look like an immature hot rod; big spoilers, vulgar wheels, and gullwing doors are notably absent…

Proof is now more apparent than ever that Infiniti is committed to skimming as much as it can off the top of BMW, Mercedes-Benz, and Audi sport-sedan sales. For 2004, Infiniti is offering an all-wheel-drive version of its G35 sedan, set to compete with the 330xi, C-Class 4-Matic, and A4 quattro. Similar to the setup in the FX sport/utility, the ATTESA-ETS AWD system distributes torque via a lightweight electromagnetic clutch, supplying variable amounts of power to the front wheels (up to a maximum of 50 percent). Standing starts send 25 percent of drive torque to the front wheels and 75 percent to the rear. Once underway, the system can deliver 100 percent of the torque to the rear, mimicking the driving dynamics of a rear-drive car. Snow and ice…

1979. Jimmy Carter was president. There were no such things as an iPod, a DVD, or an MP3. Britney Spears, Fl-championship runner-up Kimi Raikkonen, and Nike $90-million teenager LeBron James weren’t even born yet. It was also the year when Ford brought an all-new Mustang to market. And it hasn’t done so since. In car years, 25 is an impossibly long time, although Ford gave the Mustang many updates along the way. Two of them—for 1994 and 1999—were substantive remodels. Factions within the Blue Oval brass tried to kill the car at least twice during those two-and-a-half decades. And the current car has become woefully long in the tooth. Still, Mustang has, at times in spite of itself, become one of the most iconic nameplates in automotive history. All that…

Don’t believe your eyes. This car may look like the current Corvette with fixed headlamps, but it’s an all-new interpretation of the Classic American Sports Car. Actually, Chevrolet’s engineers and designers have changed a lot of things you can see—and, more important, many more you can’t—in a comprehensive, if not total, makeover. For starters, its new Gen-IV LS2 V-8 makes 400 horsepower in base form. The 2005 sixth-generation (C6) Corvette is five inches shorter than the C5 and within 0.1 inch of its longtime street and track rival, the Porsche 911. And the interior has finally climbed above rental-car-level quality and materials. The whole treatment creates a global sports car designed to appeal to Corvette traditionalists and successfully woo conquest buyers who’ve previously chosen leaner, cleaner Euro hardware. How substantial…

No doubt about it: Americans love trucks. From Texas to Alaska, California to Maine (Canadians love ’em, too), more trucks are sold in North America than in any other corner of the world. Especially full-size trucks; despite rising fuel prices, the three top-selling vehicles in the United States pack big-inch V-8 power. Maybe it’s a residual frontier spirit, a can-do attitude that, whatever the odds, the rig can handle the task. Sort of a horse, a wagon, and a knapsack all rolled into one. Manufacturers have noticed this proclivity and for 2004 responded with no fewer than seven new pickup truck entries. Not only are there more players in the market, but established names like the Ford F-150, Toyota Tundra, and Dodge Ram are now available in more variations. How…

The family road trip hasn’t evolved much in the past half century. True, traditional tourist destinations like Mount Rushmore and the Smithsonian are now routinely bypassed in favor of significant new landmarks like, say, MTV headquarters and the tattoo parlor where Angelina Jolie had her arm etched with “Billy Bob.” But the family-vacation basics remain unchanged: You’ll spend long hours droning down the Interstate; the minute you hit the mountains, little Timmy in the back seat is going to throw up; and, if you’re lucky, at the end of the day you’ll find a Polynesian-themed motel where the kids can swim amid flaming tiki torches while Mom and Dad defibrillate with a few medicinal mai tais. What has changed, of course, is the conveyance you’ll use along the way. In…

Cobra ESP 9870 (69.0 points) The Cobra ESD 9870 represents a strong value with its combination of performance and features in a package that sells for less than $200. Its most exclusive feature is the Strobe Alert, which notifies motorists of emergency vehicles at intersections. The ESD 9870 also offers SmartPower technology that senses the rpm from a vehicle’s engine and puts the unit into sleep mode to avoid draining the vehicle’s battery. Price: $130 (average street price) Manufacturer contact: 773/889-3087; www.cobra.com What’s Hot • Strobe alert What’s Not • K-band sensitivity Bottom Line • Appealing package, great for first-time radar-detector buyers Sensoro (Precision Navigation) Zodiac ll (66.0 points) The Sensoro Zodiac II may be unfamiliar to many Motor Trend readers, but this company has come up with a unit…

2004 SUBARU WRX STI By now, you know the 2002 Impreza WRX’ sportwagon was among our favorite recent One-Year testers. When Subaru said, “Try the Maximum-Strength version,” well, why would we say no? Our World Rally Blue Pearl STi came ready to rock, carrying no factory options because all the good stuff comes standard: new 2.5-liter, 300-horsepower, turbocharged, intercooled flat-four; six-speed manual; all-wheel drive; and driver-adjustable center diff. To the $30,995 base price, we opted for two dealer add-ons: a set of rubber floormats ($175) and an AM/FM/cassette/six-CD stereo with four speakers ($2100). The first 1200 miles proved an exercise in discipline, as we strictly adhered to a break-in procedure of pre-turbo boost granny-shifting. A few hundred miles later, our Subie warranted a dealer visit, as the trunk was difficult…

The magazine you hold in your hands is rare in that it covers the introduction of a new Mustang and a new Vette, both being revealed simultaneously. Yet it’s hardly the first time these two domestic dynasties have battled for attention, and it won’t be the last. Our April 1967 issue also put this pair on the cover, though as a heads-up comparison, since both cars were already currently on the market. The Vette was an automatic-equipped 300-horse 327-powered model, and the Shelby GT350 packed a 306-horse small-block, also with an automatic. Their track times were remarkably close, the Mustang nipping the Vette to 60 by a tenth (7.8 seconds versus 7.9) and by just two tenths in the quarter (15.9 sec/90.5 mph versus 16.1 sec/89 mph). What’s interesting is…

The cast comes off in two days—52.5 hours, actually, as I type these words. For the last four weeks, I have hobbled around with this snazzy blue fiberglass cast protecting the small, cracked bone on the outer edge of my right foot. Frankly, I’m more worried about my sore right hip and lower back, wondering how long those will bedevil me. I bother you with my ailments only to get the ironic truth out early and to assert that one freak incident has not changed my opinion about modern, high-performance karts: They’re among the best race-training and car-control tools available to the enthusiast, aspiring competitor, parent of a teenager, and most anyone else with reason to take driving seriously. You’ve heard that many famous racers started in karting. Personally, I…

Chevrolet says it sells more $30,000-plus vehicles in the United States than any other brand. That’s true because it moves boatloads of TrailBlazers, Tahoes, and Suburbans. It also sells about 35,000 Corvettes per year, and that car serves as a halo for its car line. The new SSR, meanwhile, could be considered a kind of halo for its pickup-truck line. So how about a poster child for those profitable sport/utilities? Chevy has an easy solution: Pull a Silverado-to-Tahoe, sedan delivery-style conversion on the SSR. This truck would have several advantages, including that it won’t be built with the SSR’s expensive, complicated convertible/hardtop roof. And it’ll serve as a big brother for Chevy’s 2005 PT Cruiser-fighter, the Delta-platform HHR. We expect the SSR “bread-wagon” (our term, not Chevy’s) within a…

Toyota aims to beat GM and Ford Motor Company and become the world’s biggest car company within a decade. Nobody expected it would overtake Ford for some time, but it did at the end of 2003. Depending on how the numbers are tabulated, either company can claim the number-two spot for the year. However, there’s no dispute that Toyota sold more cars in the U.S. in 2003 than Ford or any other nameplate. No wonder Ford has declared 2004 “The Year of the Car” as it rejuvenates its line to better compete. Imports have won the first round of the car battle; now they’re turning their attention to trucks. Toyota will have a real full-size pickup within a couple of years, but Nissan has fired the first salvo with its…

LOOK TESTS DRIVES We applaud financially challenged Mitsubishi for continuing to evolve its aptly named halo car. Not sold in numbers significant enough—approximately 3500 a year—to make a huge blip in Mitsubishi’s total U.S. sales, the Lancer Evolution offers new options for 2004, plus a near track-ready variant. At an estimated $26,500, the Evolution RS is just a racing seat, rollbar, and fire suppression system away from being rally-ready. The car has a front helical limited-slip differential (which transfers power to the wheel with more grip) to replace the open diff in the standard Evo. During laps at Willow Springs Raceway in the standard Evolution and the RS, we felt the RS’s front end digging deeper into the pavement—allowing it, like most race-oriented cars, to exhibit slight…

Although Volvo has been selling its entry-level S40 sedan and V40 wagon in the United States since 2000, you might not have noticed until now. The previous car, a joint project with Mitsubishi, was borrowed from other world markets and proved somewhat lost in between a sport sedan and an economy four-door. That’ll change with the arrival of the new S40. Sharing Ford’s new global Cl platform with the next-generation Mazda3 and Ford Focus, and packing plenty of innovative safety features, this Volvo was designed specifically for U.S. buyers. The handsome new body style is reminiscent of an A4 or Phaeton, yet it’s distinctively modern Volvo and picks up cues from its bigger brother, the S60. The turbo four-cylinder engine is replaced with two versions of Volvo’s inline-five. A…

Pop the hood of the new Bonneville GXP, and you’ll see two important badges. The first denotes that before you lies the handiwork of the General Motors Performance Division (GMPD). The second proclaims “Northstar," as in the same 4.6-liter, DOHC aluminum V-8 that powers several Cadillacs. Detuned to a rated 275 horsepower for this Pontiac-branded application, it’s a Caddy motor, plain and simple. The new GXP label will now signify hotted-up Pontiacs, much as AMG does for Mercedes-Benz. Along with the engine swap come new fascias and lower bodywork, replacing the usual ribbed, overstated plastic. The more mature look is further enhanced by beefy, 18-inch five-spoke alloys. The suspension has been recalibrated for better handling, including DeCarbon gas shocks and even a strut tower brace, although the ride remains comfortably…

Upon first glance at photography of the 2005 Mustang in production form, I felt something has been lost from last year’s concept car. That show car was dressed up in high-performance guise, with pronounced air intakes on the hood as well as side air scoops derived from the 1968 Shelby GT 350. The production GT shown here is a bit more “standard,” indicating additional packages to follow. The show car is a modern interpretation of the 1968 model, with crisp lines and a sophisticated feel. These high design qualities are expected of Ford’s worldwide director of design J Mays’s signature design philosophy. He has given us a higher design quality that, in my opinion, was lacking in domestic automotive design. Comparison of the old and new Explorer, Expedition, and Navigator…

The question of the decade, at least for Ford Motor Company, must have been “how do we redesign America’s best-selling motor vehicle without degrading the formula that makes it so successful?” The significance hinging on Ford’s answer is awesome to consider: In 2002 (2003 statistics aren’t yet finalized), Ford sold over 800,000 F-Series pickups, accounting for two in every five light-duty, full-size pickup trucks or one in every 20 vehicles sold (including cars and SUVs). Because the stakes are so high, one might think Ford would do very little to a truck that’s been so well received. On the contrary. Representing 23 percent of its total domestic sales, the F-150 is critical to the health of FoMoCo. And the competition within the full-size pickup category has become so fierce that…

You know the deal: You’re cruising along the Interstate, keeping pace with traffic, driving in a reasonable and prudent manner. You spot a black-grilled Crown Vic on the other side of the highway. A glance at your speedometer reveals 80 mph. In your rearview mirror, you see the white Highway Patrol cruiser crossing the median. Suddenly, that mirror erupts in a dazzling display of flashing lights. If you’re lucky, and the trooper is something of a car guy and happens to like your ride, you may escape with a warning. More often than not, however, the officer will take your license, registration, and insurance card—and return with a bill from the state for at least $100. More damage will come as points are applied to your driving record, resulting in…

BEL Vector 985 (943 points) Best Value Over S200 The BEL Vector 985 offers near-identical performance numbers to the more expensive Passport 8500, making it the value leader in the high-performance dashtop-detector category. The new AccuSweep feature pinpoints detection of specific Ka-band frequencies rather than scanning the entire Ka-band, resulting in lightning-quick reaction to Ka threats. Price: $230 (average street price) Manufacturer contact: 800/341-2288; www.beltronics.com What’s Hot • Fastest Ka-band warning combined with POP mode protection What’s Not • K-band over-the-hill range compared to leaders Bottom Line • Best balance of price versus performance in the category Escort Passport 8500 (949 points) SML Top Protection Dashtop Radar/LIDAR Detector The Passport 8500, with its high-sensitivity, state-of-the-art POP mode capabilities, small size, and high-quality construction, remains at the top of the pyramid…

BMW had the right idea when it took over the Mini brand and redeveloped its iconic subcompact car: Make the new one look retro and cool, make it fun to drive, make it handle well, and make it affordable. The Mini scores a 10 on all counts. But with just 115 horsepower in Cooper trim and 163 in Cooper S supercharged form, the Mini rates only adequate in the power department. Mini Mania offers the hardware to extract significantly more thrust without extracting a significant amount of greenbacks from your wallet. Although a variety of upgrade levels is available, we tested MM’s big-gun Stage III package. For just under $5000, the Stage Ill delivers 245 horsepower from the Mini’s micro 1.6-liter I-4—that’s an impressive 50-percent gain. Upgrades include Mini Mania’s…

Anyone who says sport/utilities aren’t changing the way trucks are built has never been in an Avalanche. The moment you climb into this truck and discover its unique features and innovative space management, you realize Chevrolet’s created a new subsegment in the truck market. When we tested the all-new Avalanche for Motor Trend’s 2002 Truck of the Year competition, we were impressed by its strong powertrain, voluminous interior, unique styling (though opinions weren’t unanimously favorable on this aspect), and inventive convertible cab. Such attributes helped the Avalanche take home the hardware two years ago and earned it a spot in our one-year-test fleet. Our red 1500 Avalanche 2WD carried a base price of $30,465, to which we added leather/power seats ($1115), electric sunroof ($1095), the Z66 premium on-road suspension ($835),…

Practical, environmentally minded car buyers have a lot to like in MT’s 2004 Car of the Year, the Toyota Prius: a roomy but compact five-door hatchback packed with high-tech goodies. Its sophisticated gas-electric hybrid powerplant qualifies it as a Super Ultra Low Emissions Vehicle. Aided by an aerodynamic shape with a standard-setting CD of 0.26, it delivers a combined EPA city-highway fuel economy of 55 mpg. But what about its appeal to increasing numbers of car enthusiasts who expect their family-haulers to accelerate briskly, handle crisply, and deliver the substantial quotient of fun they’d find in a sport sedan? Thanks to a weight below 3000 pounds and more power than its predecessor had—from its gas engine, electric motor, and battery—it does get to 60 mph in about the same 10…

This BMW versus Mercedes rivalry is getting out of hand. The latest spy shot has caught two prototype cars that will, more or less, be direct competitors (at least in terms of price). The first-generation, rear-drive BMW 1 Series will be released in Europe late this year (with a U.S. import shortly after) as a four-door sedan with a direct-injection four and probably a 170-horse 1-6 option. A three-door hatchback arrives a few months later. The second-generation, front-drive Mercedes-Benz A-Class hits the streets of Europe late this year or early in 2005, with a coupe version appearing in January. We’ll get green versions of the A, a hybrid and possibly a fuel-cell car.…

In the 2005 model year, we’ll say adios to that billboard of plastic body? cladding, the Pontiac Aztek. We’ll also bear witness to the first of a new wave of Pontiacs with cleaner, unfettered lines, in the form of the G6 sedan. It arrives this summer and replaces the long-running Grand Am, Pontiac’s bestseller for the better part of two decades. The production G6 is very close in appearance to the concept shown at the Detroit auto show last year. Shorn of the fussy details that festered on recent Pontiacs, the new G6 has a purity of form that’s almost Audi-like. The G6 is perched on the long-wheelbase (120-inch) version of the Epsilon platform shared with the Malibu Maxx and sports muscular wheel arches and short Euro-like overhangs. The…

It used to be the number of performance SUVs could be counted on three fingers, with the X5 4.6is and Mercedes-Benz’s M and G-Class AMG models making up the entire segment. Now, Porsche, Volkswagen, Infiniti, and others are joining the party. BMW’s midlife update for the X5 is a good response: more horsepower, better fuel economy, six forward-gear ratios, smarter traction management, and some interesting load-carrying options. Although the engine is the same size as the previous 4.4-liter V-8, the new version includes updated variable cam timing and variable-length air-intake runners for better response. The obvious benefits are 25 more horsepower and an almost 15-percent improvement in EPA fuel economy numbers (from 14/18 to 16/22). The overall feel of the 4900-pound X5 is noticeably lighter than the previous setup. Another…

It’s a fact: You don’t have to give up notions of driving enjoyment just to help protect the environment. Our 2004 Car of the Year, Toyota’s Prius, proves this notion. Another example is Ford’s Focus powered by an all-new 2.3-liter, 145-horsepower PZEV engine. PZEV? It stands for Partial Zero Emissions Vehicle (as if we needed another acronym), and, in the case of the 2003 ZTS we tested, it means this peppy four-banger doesn’t emit any evaporative emissions from the fuel system. It also receives a perfect EPA antipollution score of 10, which classifies it as an SULEV. With an EPA rating of 25/33 mpg city/highway, it isn’t as economical as a Prius or Honda’s Civic Hybrid. But it is quicker, much more powerful, and cheaper to buy. The engine…

Last summer, Carroll Shelby announced he was going to end his car-building career where it started: with Ford, although he wasn’t exactly clear on what that meant. But, as his legacy was established with Cobras and Shelby Mustangs, it’s only logical that this reassociation will be founded, at least in the beginning, on the same types of hardware. Squint at the new Mustang, and it’s easy to visualize Shelby GT350 and 500 versions of it. The rear quarter windows are an obvious Shelby cue—that also cured a potentially nasty blind spot—and the new GT wheels resemble the optional Shelby/Crager units available on the original. Our exclusive photo illustration just finishes the job of creating the next Shelby Mustang that we hear Ford is already at work on. The major rub…

Cl 1953: First Corvette bows with 150-horse six and automatic trans, at $3498. 1955: Thanks to Zora Arkus-Duntov, Corvette gets 195-horse 255-cubic-inch V-8. 1956: Body design gets first major revision; adopts "side cove" look. 1957: Fuel-injected 283-cubic-inch, 283-horse V-8, four-speed manual options. 1958: New quad-headlight nose, fake front fender cove strakes, longer, wider body. 1961: “Ducktail” rear-end styling, part of minor facelift, portends C2 Sting Ray. C2 1963: New, shorter, trimmer Vette with standard IRS, pop-up headlamps, 360-horse L84 option. “Sting Ray” name and Z06 performance package appears. First and only year of split-window rear glass on coupe. 1965: Four-wheel disc brakes replace four-wheel drums. Big-block V-8 arrives with 396-cubic-inch, 425-horse L78 option. 1966: 427-cubic-inch big-block option added, with 390 or 425 horsepower. C3 1968: New Corvette body, originally scheduled…

The trim-level names of the 2004 F-150 may sound familiar, but new standard and optional features take them a step beyond what you’d expect. Ford sharpened the F-150’s model differentiations to better match customer individual needs. Here are some highlights. F-150 XL (eight configurations) The XL remains the low-cost workhorse starting at $21,215. A choice of 4.6- or 5.4-liter V-8s, 4x2 or 4x4, and either 6.5- or 8-foot beds are paired with Regular Cab and (extended) SuperCab body styles. Both cabs add six inches of length inside. Regular Cabs are equipped with rear access doors on both sides. New features include standard 17-inch steel wheels, tilt steering, and tailgate assist. The latter features a hidden torsion bar to prespring the tailgate for true, one-handed operation, up and down. Eureka! F-150…

JURISDICTIONAL NOTES The state of Virginia, the District of Columbia, and most of the Canadian provinces ban the use of radar/laser detectors. To enforce these laws, all these jurisdictions have deployed radar-detector detectors (RDD) to sniff out vehicles using radar/laser detectors. The first units went by the name of VG-2 and could detect the local oscillator emissions of traditional radar detectors. This forced detector manufacturers to change their designs to conceal these emissions, thus making them invisible to the VG-2 RDDs. There are federal statutes that make radar jammers illegal in all 50 states. California, Minnesota, and Utah specifically ban radar and laser jammers, and it’s possible that laser jammers may become outlawed soon in other states as well. Long-haul professionals get no break at all: Since February 1995, radar…

Our field evaluation revealed that the high-performance units provide significantly more protection than lower-priced models, making the cost difference a choice between paying the retailer now or the court later for those drivers fitted with a heavy right foot. While the full spectrum of available products were studied and tested, we present here the top three performers in the primary categories. (More detectors and detector types are covered online at motortrend.com.) This year’s test showed just how closely matched each of the three high-performance detectors is; it’s a statistical dead heat. Each unit has clear strengths in the various measurement categories. The BEL Vector 985 receives kudos for offering virtually all the performance of the top two detectors at a substantial cost savings due to the fact that it’s widely…

Hard to believe from a 2004 perspective, but there was a time when Japanese automakers dared not tread into one particularly American segment: the full-size pickup. So it may be difficult to appreciate the reaction to the Tundra in 1999 (as a 2000 model). Suddenly, Toyota had a no-nonsense, mostly full-size pickup to go head to head with such stalwarts and sales leaders as the Chevy Silverado, Dodge Ram, and Ford F-150. In fact, Toyota’s first steps into the market came from the comparatively timid T100 in 1993, a trucklet positioned (in bulk and bucks) slightly above the midsize Dodge Dakota, but comfortably shy of the full-sizers. An increment smaller than the domestics, the Tundra appeared with a fine 4.7-liter, 245-horsepower DOHC V-8 or a 3.4-liter, 190-horsepower DOHC V-6. The…