Índex per February 2015 a Automobile

The supercharged Ford Shelby GT500, a brute in need of finesse, looked clumsy chasing the less powerful, less expensive, but far more compelling Mustang Boss 302 around a road course. Now, for its sixth-generation Mustang, Ford has canned both the GT500 and Boss 302 in favor of a happy medium, the all-new 2016 Shelby GT350 Mustang. On paper at least, the GT350 skews more toward the track-focused Boss 302. Under the GT350’s hood, there’s a fat-plane V-8 (see sidebar), unique to this car. The high-revving, 5.2-liter, naturally aspirated engine will produce more than 500 hp and 400 lb-ft of torque. That power will be sent through a six-speed manual transmission and a limited-slip rear differential. A seriously revamped chassis and suspension have the GT350 sitting 2 inches lower than the…

BARCELONA, SPAIN Hype surrounding the 2008 U.S. introduction of the Smart Fortwo suggested the little car ran on energy drinks and, at rest in its tiny parking space, worked out problems of chaos theory. But someone forgot that “smart” is also a verb. A lot of smarting took place after the initial sales rush faded to semi-dormancy. The U.S. distributor and dealers smarted after investing in the new franchise; so did owners who contended with the coarse powertrain and sketchy driving dynamics. In hopes of increasing sales and opening the door for an addition to the model lineup, the 2016 Fortwo is new and comprehensively improved. A walk around the 2016 Fortwo reveals a car that could have escaped from a Pixar movie. As before, one color accentuates the safety…

VERSAILLES, FRANCE. With its slick, six-speed manual gearbox, lanedeparture control, and vinyl-like leather seats, the 2015 Ford Focus 1.0-liter feels downright Germanic —a pretty nice commodity car for enthusiasts. Problem is, Ford needs to attract commodity car buyers with this Focus, so it needs a proper automatic. Ford offers a six-speed automatic in Europe, but for now, only the stick is available here. The turbocharged, direct-injection three with twin variable cam timing, already offered in the smaller Fiesta, is designed to reach maximum torque at 1,500 rpm, and there’s no jarring turbo lag, though you won’t feel much forward thrust until you reach the midrange. Instead of a heavy balance shaft, the three-banger is “intentionally imbalanced,” says Andrew Fraser, Ford’s gasoline powertrain development manager in Dunton, England. The flywheel and…

LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY The buyers of large luxury SUVs have rather straightforward demands. “Whether it’s a hip-hop executive in Manhattan or an Orange County family, they want power and beauty,” says Carey White, brand manager for the 2015 Lincoln Navigator. Lincoln addressed the beauty part by replacing the macabre mask of chrome with Lincoln’s split-wing grille, simple HID headlamps, and a tidy fascia. Only the optional 22-inch wheels are pretentious; the standard 20-inchers would be fine. Now to the power. The turbo V-6 is the only engine for both the short-wheelbase Navigator and long-wheelbase Navigator L. We can imagine traditionalists balking at this. Yet the EcoBoost engine plays its tune well in the regular-length 4x4. We turn the corner in Bagdad (Kentucky), and the turbo V-6 speeds us away toward bourbon…

Audi, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, and Porsche are about to invest a combined 6 billion euros (about $7.5 billion) in new high-end electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids due out between 2018 and 2021. Their target: the American upstart from Silicon Valley. Ten years ago, when Elon Musk’s outfit was still a cottage enterprise selling electrified Lotus Elise roadsters, the underdog from San Carlos, California, was not even on the radar of German captains of the industry. But then Tesla released the Model S electric luxury sedan, and the niche manufacturer transformed into a game changer. In addition to selling more than 33,000 cars last year, the company started to roll out a clever supercharger network, announced plans for a second plant and an R&D center in Europe, unveiled an innovative battery-swap program,…

BMW’s Tesla fighter is based on the Chinese-market, longwheelbase 5 Series sedan and is due out in 2018. The plug-in hybrid four-door should contain enough electric power to justify the prestigious i suffix, particularly since the next i3 and i8 replacements are not expected to adhere quite as religiously to today’s exotic and expensive carbon-fiber/aluminum formula. That means the new sedan could also get away with being less radical and still earn an i5 or i7 badge. Whatever it’s called, the BMW is being described as a low-emissions sport sedan featuring an innovative plug-in hybrid drivetrain. The extended wheelbase not only creates more room for passengers—important for both the North American and Chinese markets—but also for the batteries, which will be arranged in pouches between the axles. Using the 5…

On the list of revered Porsche numerals, 914 sits pretty far toward the bottom. A forgotten, somewhat unloved car, the 914 came to fruition when Porsche found itself with a business conundrum in the late 1960s. The price of its 911 was rising beyond the reach of many car enthusiasts, yet its entry-level 912 was dated and no longer as competitive as cars like the Datsun 240Z. Ferry Porsche wanted a new affordable sports car but was hesitant to pay for development of an entirely new car. The solution? Use existing Volkswagen engines, initially an affordable 1.7-liter from the VW Type 411E, to create a cheaper Porsche model. Drawing inspiration from a concept penned by German designer Hans Gugelot, Butzi Porsche created a mid-engine targa-top sports car that would be…

BMW turns 100 in 2016. To celebrate, the automaker will launch a new hybrid supercar, aptly codenamed M100 but likely to carry the name i8S when it goes on sale. It will be not merely an engineering showpiece but a proper production model. As the name indicates, the i8S builds on the able bones of the i8. Development will happen under the Project i umbrella, led by Roberto Fedeli, who recently joined BMW from Ferrari. But the i8S will have so many new parts that it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to call it a totally new car. That starts with aggressive aerodynamic aids that lend the green sports car a more menacing character. The carbon-fiber tub and aluminum-intensive chassis will be retained, but the overall materials mix will be more…

TO SAY “A CAR LIKE THE MUSTANG WILL ULTIMATELY BE JUDGED BY how it drives” (“Editor’s Letter,” December) will draw some criticism. I believe that much of the success of the Camaro, Challenger (my personal fave), and Mustang are based on the feelings they evoke when you look at them. The numbers are just gravy. With this car, sales may be way up with a bullet; on the other hand, the lead bullet might be more like a lead balloon. BRUCE H. ANDERSON TEMPLE, TEXAS MUSTANG BY THE NUMBERS I CAN’T BELIEVE A CAR MAGAZINE would do a road test on the 2015 Mustang and not include 0-60 mph and quartermile times. KEVIN C. DAWE RIO RANCHO, NEW MEXICO WHAT GIVES WITH THE NEW Mustang? Are you not listing performance…

AMENIA, NEWYORK Bentley’s new GT3-R is the (latest) ultimate Continental GT. Thematically similar to the previous Supersports, which departed with the prior-generation Continental, the GT3-R takes its inspiration from the GT3 race car. It shares the race car’s livery of white with green stripes—the only color scheme available—as well as its blackout trim and black-finished wheels. Hood vents, front splitter, lower body extensions, door mirrors, and deck-mounted rear spoiler all are finished in carbon fiber. More green accents enliven the otherwise all-black cabin, which is richly turned out in leather and Alcantara. There’s lots more carbon fiber inside, on the center dash, the door panels, and in the cargo compartment that replaces the rear seat. It’s a sign of the V-8 engine’s ascendancy at Bentley that the top-performance Continental GT…

AUSTIN, TEXAS Forgive us for saying the Audi A3 looks a little awkward. The large gaps in the wheel wells remind us of that kid in elementary school whose pants were always prepared for an impending food. The new S3 fixes these flaws and then some. It sits an inch lower on 18- or optional 19-inch wheels. A four-outlet exhaust system and aggressive rocker panels complete the transformation from entry-level to S model. The transformation is more than skin deep. The turbofour’s engine block is reinforced and has a unique cylinder head and upgraded turbocharger, giving the S3 an extra 72 hp over the already-quick A3 2.0T. A dual-clutch gearbox is the only transmission for now, although North America might eventually get a manual. Our blasts through the undulating and…

“The freewheeling, wide-open era of the American automobile, unfortunately, is over. Time to face reality.” —Motor Trend, February 1974 That’s the trouble with trying to predict the future: You never know how it’s going to turn out. Exactly 41 years after that gloomy quote from our sister publication—written amid the bleakness of gas-rationed, emissions-strangled 1970s America—not only is the freewheeling, wide-open era of the American automobile not over, it’s outrunning even our wildest dreams and throwing a wild foam party to celebrate. As evidenced by the three spectacular new sports machines you see here—the Chevy Camaro Z/28, the Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat, and the Ford Mustang GT—the Big Three aren’t just back, they’re taking names and slapping in-your-face high-fves each time they humiliate a sniffy rival. On tap are mindbending…

Porsche is already offering plug-in-hybrid versions of the Cayenne and the Panamera. On an even loftier plane, there is of course the 918 Spyder. The logical next step would be a Porsche EV somewhere in between those poles. But ever since the company has become part of the Volkswagen empire, such strategically significant projects need to be rubber-stamped by the group. In this highly political environment, where even insiders find it hard to sift facts from rumors, our intelligence suggests that Porsche would very much like to do its own EV, based on the new architecture under development for the next-generation Panamera and Bentley Continental. The car would be a sporty four-seat four-door in a smallerthan-Panamera package with clear 911 overtones. Ground-hugging and emphatically dynamic in appearance, the car—which might…

There are two kinds of Corvette. On the one hand, there’s the fire-breathing, hairy-chested sports car. It often graces the pages of this magazine wearing extra codes like Z51, Z06, and ZR1. The transmission is almost always a manual. But there’s also that other Corvette—the garage-kept, low-miles car piloted by a gray-haired gentleman who keeps a California Duster in the trunk. The transmission is usually a smooth-shifting automatic. It’s true that many sports cars suffer from such a split personality. Porsche would have you believe that the 911 belongs at the Nürburgring with Walter Röhrl at the wheel, even if you’re more likely to see one being driven by a urologist in L.A. on the 405. But with the Corvette, the identity crisis goes much deeper, since about two-thirds of…

One could argue that the boxy new Renegade is the oddball of the Jeep family. After all, it’s built in Italy of all places, shares its DNA with the antagonistically curvy Fiat 500X, and has evidently been designed to please the Muppets rather than Indiana Jones. But if our 440-mile tour up and down the Alps of Tyrol and Salzburg is anything to go by, the public loves the latest bantam SUV. Our Renegade Limited certainly garnered plenty of smartphone attention and thumbs up. Since beauty is in the eye of the beholder, we’ll give facts priority over feelings and start by noting the oddball packaging. The driving position is rather van-like, with the faraway base of the upright windshield creating a deep dashboard. Up front, there’s headroom galore (feel…

Don’t be shy, 2015 Jaguar F-Type Coupe. We just want to play. We’ve got an endless supply of 91 octane for you. We’re eager to hear that crackling supercharged six of yours roar while prowling the concrete jungle. We’re absolutely thrilled to adopt an F-Type S Coupe and have it curl up in our Four Seasons garage for a year. The F-Type has been a critical hit, a shimmering halo for the storied British brand that has turned its fortunes around. We dug the F-Type roadster so much we named it a 2014 All-Star. We’re looking forward to learning how the coupe holds up as we pile on the miles. This particular F-Type hardtop features Jaguar’s supercharged, 3.0-liter V-6 with 380 horsepower mated to the ZF-sourced eight-speed automatic and retails…

FEATURE CAR 1951 FRAZER MANHATTAN CONVERTIBLE SOLD AT $41,250 S/N F516001002. Yellow with black top over black leather. 226-cubic-inch six-cylinder, 115 hp; automatic transmission. With fewer than 66,0000 original miles, this Frazer has never been completely restored but has been freshened at various times. Fair to good paint; the chrome is good to very good. Good interior, but it shows its age. THE STORY BEHIND THE SALE Said to be one of the two pilot production cars later used by Henry J. Kaiser as his personal car, it is also claimed to be the Chicago Automobile Show car. It is serial number 1002, the second car built by the Frazer nameplate in its final year. An important car for Kaiser-Frazer fans, it is worth more than the bid. Kaiser-Frazer was…

CARMEL VALLEY, CALIFORNIA Few racetracks have a sense of place like California’s Laguna Seca. You exit the two-lane Monterey Salinas Highway and rise up into the hills like a heavenly ascension. Reach the top and take in the rolling, glorious panorama. It was one hell of an idea to lay a 2.2-mile track in this cradle of tumbling topography. The engineers who designed it more than 55 years ago were lightningstruck by brilliance. What compels a man to build a thing that is expressly meant for speed, to devote himself to something so impractical, so out of kilter with more regular pursuits? You could pose the same query to the people at AMG. One might ask Tobias Moers why the world needs another sports car. Moers, the CEO of Mercedes-AMG,…

SPARTANBURG, SOUTH CAROLINA Really, it’s like a blind man trying to describe an elephant. When some people get too close to the BMW X6, they have a tough time figuring out what it is. Is it a utility vehicle? Is it a car? What kind of car? Just step back a bit, and you realize that what we have here is a Range Rover Sport with a BMW badge. Like a Range Rover Sport, the BMW X6 is always the appropriate gear, whether you’re driving to the grocery store, making an appearance at the opera or, you know, trekking to Alaska. It has the style and grace to make the trip a pleasure, plus the speed and mobility to get you there. And it has the soul of a hot…

MILFORD, MICHIGAN Do full-size pickup owners yearn for a trimmed-down truck without a V-8? No. To the average Chevrolet Silverado, Ford F-150, or Ram 1500 buyer, the 2015 Chevy Colorado and GMC Canyon’s better fuel economy and $5,000-to-$10,000 lower sticker price won’t be enough to entice them out of a full-size truck. To long-ignored midsize truck buyers, however, the maneuverability, parking ease, and handling advantages of the Colorado and Canyon are worth a slight trade-off in ride, refinement, and interior quality. At a test drive in which General Motors offered myriad variations of its new trucks, a fourcylinder, rear-wheel-drive extended-cab Canyon with a manual and 16-inch wheels offered the best ride and steering. And while the spirited four lacks the V-6’s refinement at idle, the V-6 is not quite a…

In an ideal world, Audi would—just like Tesla—start its electric program with a clean sheet of paper. But a new architecture is complex and expensive, which is why the brand is instead inclined to modify an existing vehicle built in an existing facility. Thus the planned Q6 e-tron, a battery-electric and plug-in hybrid crossover, is derived from the Q5. The Q6 e-tron will almost certainly be a sporty crossover coupe that looks a bit like the proposed Lamborghini Urus with a greater regard for aerodynamic efficiency. Drivetrain options pegged at 300 hp/330 lb-ft and 400 hp/480 lb-ft (with a 500-hp/553 lb-ft flagship waiting in the wings) should be enough to beat the Model S in all disciplines that really matter: power and torque, real-life driving range, and, most important to…

Of the four Germans, Mercedes-Benz is plotting the most ambitious EV assault. It calls for an investment of more than $2 billion in a family of all-new, purpose-built vehicles, which make provisions for rear-wheel drive, all-wheel drive, and rear-wheel steering. The program, known internally as Ecoluxe, is tipped to produce four different product offerings. Two are crossovers, which should do well in most major markets and generate strong profit margins. The clear goal issued by the M-B product planners is to eclipse both the Tesla Model S and the Model X crossover. Due to the substantial battery pack, the seating position has to be raised by nearly 3 inches compared with a typical SUV. The ground clearance, on the other hand, is not much different from an S-Class. For a…

Monticello, New York Watching the grand parade of Ferraris, Lamborghinis, and Spykers slink through the front gates of the Monticello Motor Club on a crisp fall morning in New York, there could be no doubt. Horacio Pagani is the Billionaire Whisperer. It is a Monday, so these guys should be moving the levers of the world economy from their desks in Lower Manhattan. Instead, they have dropped everything to pay homage to the man and his car, the Pagani Huayra. They would gawk, they would test drive and, yes, they would buy. In fact, they would buy to the tune of $1.5 million and more. The Pagani Huayra is the unicorn of the hypercar world. You may never see one in real life. The long-awaited follow-up to the Pagani Zonda…

It’s not hard to think of the Kia Cadenza as a fresh-faced new kid in the offoce, one with a firm handshake and a bright smile, who tries extra hard to ingratiate himself even though no one is quite sure why he’s there. Newly arrived in the Kia lineup for 2014, the Cadenza might be part of the brand’s over-eager attempt to push itself upmarket, but after living with one for 12 months and 20,650 miles, we found the car to be so well-executed and just downright pleasant that we couldn’t help but like it. As always, it helps to be good-looking. (Yeah, we’re shallow.) Conservatively handsome, as per the corporate style under design boss Peter Schreyer, the Kia Cadenza avoids the pitfalls of flamboyant over-design. This isn’t a car…

MILES TO DATE: 19,112 18,094: We wish for more suspension damping and stickier tires. Another red Accord, with the HFP (Honda Factory Performance) package, arrives to answer our plea. The verdict? Not worth the $4,620 extra cheddar. Less wheelspin, better cornering, same annoying torque steer. 18,540: Lumbar support and satellite radio keep Donna, wife of executive editor Todd Lassa, comfortable on a trip to Cleveland. 18,872: Just an Accord, you say? Not so hasty. Naysayers at an open track day eat their words. “Reels in BRZs, RX-8s, and older Bimmers in the straights, no problem,” associate Web editor Jake Holmes says. “Stopping is another story.” 19,000: Despite the track punishment, our Honda feels totally solid. For drama-free ownership, the Japanese still reign. 19,004: We can’t help but love that Honda…