Car and Driver October 2022

COLOR ME BAD I’m 50 percent Ukrainian and appalled that you can’t figure out that the yellow goes on the bottom [July/August 2022]. Who’s running this magazine? Russia? —MikeMount Airy, MD Blue is at the bottom of the C/D logo. We didn’t move it. We should have—Ed. It’s a nice gesture to include Ukrainian flag colors on the cover. Unfortunately, they are blue over yellow. —John KelleyKihei, HI Fish tacos are on me the next time I’m at Fred’s Mexican Cafe in Kihei—Ed. Correction for your headline on the cover: “Ford F-150 Lightning: Ford Wagers Wealthy Americans Will Want an Electric Vehicle, Provided It’s a Pickup That Can Hit 60 mph in 4.0 Seconds.” —James LautierWindsor, CT Your July/August issue kicked ass! A Mustang beating a Bimmer? Road-trip stories? An affordable-sportscar comparo? This is the C/D I grew up…

I’m at the Quail, a Motorsports Gathering. This is a vintage-car show held on the Friday before the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance. Hold up, am I buffering? This is supposed to be the column for the new-cars issue, the one packed with all the model-year changes and redesigns and the old joke about the still-unavailable de Sade package on the Mercury Grand Marquis. What’s with the old cars? The Quail used to be mainly a show for classic metal. It’s now the modern auto show. Traditional auto shows are in decline, something we wrote about three years ago [“The Show Must Go On,” December 2019]. Since then, a lot has happened to accelerate the retreat. Carmakers are questioning the returns on building a show stand, displaying cars, and paying for all…

What to do in a long, cold Swedish winter after the glow of winning the 2017 FIA World Touring Car Cup championship has worn off but before the next season starts? Some might dog-sled under the northern lights or plot that year’s Gävle Goat arson, but the Cyan Racing team in Mölndal, Sweden, had a different plan for offseason entertainment: rewriting history. What if the classic Volvo P1800 had the performance to match its design? The folks at Cyan (formerly Polestar Performance before Volvo bought the name) were just the ones to take on the task of making a P1800 as fast as it is pretty. The work took more than three years, but Cyan eventually introduced its finished product amid a pandemic. Now the P1800 Cyan has finally made…

The road to Sweden climbs the Tehachapi Mountains and crosses the dry, golden plains of California’s Central Valley. Just south of Fresno, on Highway 99, a sign painted with a red Dala horse appears before the freeway exit. “Välkommen to Kingsburg,” it says. Established as a rail stop in the late 19th century, Kingsburg developed into a farming town with the state’s largest population of Swedish immigrants by the 1920s. In the 1960s, as freeway expansion sent travelers speeding past small towns, Kingsburg decided to try to capitalize on its heritage by highlighting Swedish architecture and holding themed festivals. This was the perfect destination for a Volvo painted in the colors of the Swedish flag, and the desert and mountain journey was a good test of the P1800 Cyan’s comfort, performance, and…

To reduce its carbon footprint, BMW is trying something innovative if a bit icky: matte-finish paint made out of poop. Don’t panic. As in other recycling, there are a lot of steps between sewage and the special-order finish on your M440i. Biological waste is a source of organic and renewable versions of naphtha and methane, compounds typically involved in paint production. When separated from their gross surroundings, they’re virtually identical to the naphtha and methane sourced from petroleum. Starting with waste products means using less fossil fuel, and BMW paint supplier BASF says CO2 emissions in this manufacturing process are 40 percent lower. Developing paint from other organic materials isn’t as plug-and-play and requires more time. But since the waste-sourced coating is nearly identical to the oil-derived version, it can be produced…

BMW is not the only company looking at waste to make parts. Here are a few other examples of automakers digging in the recycling bin: FLOORED Abandoned fishing nets and other trash are transformed into Econyl regenerated nylon, used in floor mats for vehicles, including the Mercedes-Benz S-class and the BMW iX. HOLD TIGHT Ocean rubbish is also turned into less visible pieces, such as the Ford Bronco Sport’s wiring-harness clips, which use plastics made from nylon fishing nets recovered from the Indian Ocean. COW-FREE Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) is a polymer in single-use items such as plastic bottles, shopping bags, and straws. Volvo derives its leather alternative, Nordico, from materials including recycled PET bottles and wine corks. LIT UP Hooked on McDonald’s coffee? You’re helping Ford make parts. Coffee chaff, the dried skin of the beans that comes…