Car and Driver July 2019

TRUCKULANT I am curious. Do you guys get as bored testing trucks, SUVs, and minivans as we get reading about them [“Buffalo Wings,” April 2019]? I understand they dominate new-car sales, and my wife and I each have one—a new Ford Edge for her and a 2017 Chevy Bolt EV for me—but I also drive a BMW E92 M3. Guess which vehicle inspires me to continue subscribing to C/D (since 1985)? Based on your motor trend, you will soon have to rename yourself Truck and Driver—one more cherished institution off track. —Jeffrey Hurwitz Warren, NJ What an irony! The only thing car related on your April cover are three of the letters in your magazine’s name! —Andy Cho Tacoma, WA It’s like rain on your wedding day. It’s a free ride when you’ve already paid.…

Now that I’m old enough to buy a Porsche 911, I’d like to know the difference in acceleration times that translates to a seat-of-the-pants difference. One second? A half-second? Damn, Porsche. Every new, more powerful variant of the 911 seems to be at most a half-second quicker than the last. —Robert, Spokane, WA On one end of the acceleration spectrum, a half-second improvement from 3.0 seconds to 2.5 seconds is the very obvious difference between average acceleration of 0.91 g and 1.09 g’s. In slower cars, a half-second is less noticeable. Going from 7.0 seconds to 6.5, for instance, results in a subtler difference of 0.39 g and 0.42 g. It’s perhaps better to think of it in percentage terms. A 10 to 15 percent improvement in zero-to-60-mph times is about where…

FORGET CRICKET AND CHEESE ROLLING. The British—the automakers at least—are seemingly engaged in a weird new competition to see who can stomp harder on the others’ toes. In May, we told you about Aston Martin’s AM-RB 003, a mid-engined supercar clearly aimed at Ferrari, Lamborghini, and McLaren. Now meet the GT, McLaren’s return volley—a car whose luxurious mission and name plant a heel squarely on Aston Martin’s lower dactyls, even if its engine is in the wrong place. McLaren has used those letters before, but the outgoing 570GT was an evolution of the brand’s entry-level Sports Series. The new GT is a model in its own right, one that McLaren promises will offer unprecedented levels of both practicality and comfort, even if its major components sound awfully familiar. CHASSIS The GT’s most…

READING CAR AND DRIVER is a great way to whet your automotive appetite. But we can’t give you the satisfaction of nailing a downshift or the warm glow of knowing you’re the best lawn-mower racer in Iowa. If hammering your car through the Climbing Esses at Virginia International Raceway sounds too intimidating, our survey of the 2018 National Speedway Directory shows that there are plenty of other ways to scratch your racing itch. We’ve outlined the number and type of tracks in the Northeast and South. Next month, we’ll look at the Midwest and West. Is this a ploy to convince you to buy our magazine again next month? Who can say?…

AMERICA’S PICKUP-TRUCK manufacturers have been waging wars of largely frivolous one-upmanship for decades. It doesn’t matter that plenty of truck buyers never hook up a trailer or test the limits of the bed; owners want to know they could drop a full oil drum in there. You know, in case the need arises. That’s one reason General Motors developed a carbon-fiber-composite bed for the 2019 GMC Sierra. GM says the bed—initially available as part of a package on Denali and AT4 trims—can absorb six times more impact energy than the Sierra’s steel bed. So even if that oil drum is a pointy icosahedron, the guy loading it into his bed, wiping sweat from his brow as the truck’s suspension recovers, needn’t worry about punctures. Here’s how GM is turning carbon…

AS ELECTRIC PROPULSION, autonomous capabilities, and active driver assistance edge toward the mainstream, the demand for expertise in these fields has left car companies seeking partners in the tech world. Michael Ramsey, a senior research director at advisory firm Gartner, says these partnerships give tech firms “a foothold in an industry that is averse to newcomers,” while the automotive manufacturers “get access to technology and talent that would otherwise be impossible for them to create and recruit.” Here’s what we know about the tangled vines that link the auto industry to the tech sector: LYFT-GENERAL MOTORS Neither General Motors nor Lyft took us up on our offer to talk about the $500 million investment GM made in Lyft three years ago or about former GM president now Cruise CEO Dan Ammann’s onetime…