Índex per March 2017 a Automobile

What french fries are to McDonald’s and razors are to Gillette, the 5 Series sedan is to BMW. “We asked people, ‘What do you most associate with our brand?’ and 58 percent responded, ‘5 Series,’” says Klaus Fröhlich, head of BMW research and development. “Worldwide, we have sold 7.6 million 5 Series since the car’s introduction in 1972, some 2.2 million just of the most recent sixthgeneration car. In fact, roughly 20 percent of all BMW revenue now comes from the 5 Series alone.” And now BMW is tinkering with its fries recipe. Coming about the time you read this, the all-new, seventhgeneration “G30” 5 Series represents a massive opportunity and equally huge stakes for the Bavarian automaker. Get it right, and BMW’s corporate coffers will bulge—especially thanks to a…

A LGARVE, PORTUGAL Just when the fourdoor supercar clichés were getting stale, Affalterbach’s latest five-seat übersled nudges so dangerously close to midlife crisis-worthy, scissorwinged, unpronounceable exoticcar territory that there may be more than a trace of truth to the hyperbole after all. Spanking 60 mph in a claimed 3.3 seconds with a 603-horsepower twin-turbo V-8, the 2018 Mercedes-AMG E63 S easily bests its predecessors, not to mention several supercars that lack kid-friendly rear seats and a grocery-hauling trunk. Have we mentioned this is a glorious time to be a four-door fan? Incorporating Benz’s first fully variable all-wheel-drive system, its 4Matic moniker is now followed by a small “+” and a big change in how power gets delivered to the ground. Using an electromechanical coupling the size of a bocce ball,…

to the outsider, land-speed racing at Utah’s Bonneville Salt Flats looks like much ado about nothing; just mat the throttle and steer straight down the middle of a 120-foot-wide, 6-mile-long track fashioned out of one of the smoothest natural surfaces known to man. Big freaking deal. The action looks a lot hairier from the cockpit of an über-yellow 2014 Volkswagen Beetle hurtling along the salt at 208 mph, its bodywork buffeting like a flag in a typhoon and a pylon marking the course’s left edge looming alarmingly large through the windshield. Abrupt steering inputs are verboten at Bonneville—they’re a surefire way to cause a spin—so I hold my breath and just kind of will the VW back to the center of the course. But bounding over a set of ruts…

THINK WAY BACK TO 2005, when the first Honda Ridgeline debuted at the Detroit auto show. The name Obama didn’t ring many bells, the Great Recession hadn’t yet hit, and there stood Dick Colliver, then executive vice president of American Honda Motor Co., preaching about the growing importance of the light truck and SUV market as he introduced Honda’s funky new Ridgeline to the world. Here was a vehicle that pushed against well-established truck norms not only with its unibody construction but also with rarely seen features such as a dual-hinged tailgate that could both fold down and swing open sideways; a lockable, in-bed trunk that could hold three golf bags or be turned into an easily drainable cooler; and rear seats with fold-up bottoms, which meant you could roll…

S/N 1G1YZ23J4L5801278 RED OVER RED interior. 5.7-liter, 375-hp, DOHC V-8. Six-speed manual transmission. Just 300 miles on the odometer from new, stored and now sold by original owner. Exterior and interior in as-new condition. Equipped with air-conditioning and dual removable roof panels—the only two options available. Full service recently performed to prepare the car for use on the road. THE STORY BEHIND THE SALE: I still remember seeing my first ZR-1 in the fiberglass in 1990 at 10 years old. Aesthetically, it didn’t look much different from my dad’s standard 245-hp 1990 Corvette—changes were limited to square taillights, wider rear bodywork to conceal 11-inch-wide rear wheels, and a third brake light mounted high on the glass hatch. But that ZR-1 badge in the lower right corner of the rear bumper…

JUST BECAUSE I PREDICTED NOT LONG ago (June 2016) that FCA would be hardpressed to land on the same continent as its stratospheric sales projections for upscale models from its Maserati and Alfa Romeo brands doesn’t mean I’m not happy Alfa’s new Giulia turns out to be a first-tier sport sedan. As my co-columnist, Sir Arthur of St. Antoine pointed out last month, it’s a driver’s car, an engaging and handsome alternative in a day when too many once-sporting marques have all but imagined themselves into that gray future where driver involvement becomes impersonal, with the wheel man’s function akin to that of an old-time keypunch operator. Job No. 1 for FCA was building a real Alfa Romeo, not something that just looked like one. And the first thing telling…

A limited-edition Pagani Huayra die-cast model signed by Horacio Pagani sits on the corner of Ben Schaffer’s desk, and just next to it is a 3D-printed Tesla prototype model signed by Elon Musk. “Those guys come from totally opposite ends, as far as left brain/right brain, but they represent the most innovative and exciting parts of automotive culture,” says Schaffer, president of Unplugged Performance, a SoCalbased tuning shop that shares a business park with Musk-founded SpaceX. The Unplugged team got its start building outlandish, SEMA-friendly performance cars such as Schaffer’s daily driver— a 2012 Nissan GT-R with a full carbon-fiber body and Lexan windows—and began working on Teslas three and a half years ago after Schaffer bought a Model S. “When I drove it for the first time, my mind…

Emerging from World War II in 1945, the world’s automobile industry had plenty of rebuilding to do, not just in Europe, where bombs had dropped for years, but also in the U.S., where most factory capacity had been turned over to war work. The industry’s enthusiasm for getting back to what it loved most—designing, building, and selling new cars folks wanted to buy—showed. By the turn of the next decade, the cavalcade of automotive progress was back in full swing. MANUFACTURERS ON BOTH SIDES OF THE ATLANTIC WERE DEFINING THEMSELVES WITHOUT THE AID OF COMPUTERS The 1950s: Eisenhower’s Interstate Highway System, McCarthyism, and the Red Scare. The rise of the military-industrial complex, the ascent of the Jet Age, the Space Age, and teenage culture. Bikini Atoll, Sputnik, “Rock Around…

From beneath his wide-brimmed hat and trademark driving goggles, Rudi Koniczek flashes a genuine smile, welcoming me inside from the Canadian morning chill. He motions for me to sit in a cozy armchair inside his tiny, cluttered office. Stacked high are mounds of automotive books, memorabilia, posters, and models, the mad physical overflow of a giddy mind with a lifelong obsession. Not 10 feet above our heads, one floor up, millions of dollars worth of vintage Mercedes-Benz steel is being restored to its former glory. “Are you having an orgasmic morning?” he asks, with a glint in his eye. Most people don’t start conversations this way. Rudi isn’t most people. His house is packed to the gills with thousands of Tintin collectible toys and figurines, as well as high-end art…

Think of box-flared German sports coupes from the 1980s, and BMW’s E30-series M3 is probably the first car to pop into your head. But don’t do yourself a disservice and forget about Porsche’s 944. Sure, the 944 has long been the target of “poor man’s Porsche” comments and yuppie jokes, but as it transitions from being “just a used car” to a classic car, it is worth taking a second look at a model that once signaled Porsche’s future. When the 944 launched for the 1983 model year, Porsche hoped it would mark a change in tides for its entry-level-priced car. The 924 that preceded it was mired in cries of “not a real Porsche” on account of its front-engine, water-cooled configuration, and tepid performance from its Audiderived 2.0-liter inline-four.…

“A lot of guys who had just got back from the war, all this adrenaline built up into them, they raced these hot rods just to get that feeling they got when they were on the battlefield. Also, everybody wants to relive a simpler time, when it was just a matter of get out and enjoy yourself, without the rules and regulations and the restrictions.” JOE OZ, MASTER OF CEREMONIES to pismo beach they came, from Burbank and San Diego, from Denver and Salt Lake City and Asbury Park, even from as far away as Tokyo: hot-rod crazies flaunting throwback hats and rich beards and “Road Zombies” car-club overalls. They mingled around bonfires, beers in hand, percolating with anticipation at the notion of a weekend spent drag racing their…

The first car I ever drove that wasn’t American-made was a Citroën 11 Traction Avant. It looked like a chopped-andchanneled ’34 Ford, and saying it made a deep impression on me—with its low center of gravity and incredible (for 1952) cornering ability—is understatement worthy of a British lord. Since then, I’ve loved the concept of letting advanced engineering take you wherever it will, common practice be damned. I’ve owned four Citroëns and have driven dozens of different models, from the superlative SM down to a prototype 1938 2CV, and genuinely admire the company for its often-great products. From the time André Lefèbvre joined Citroën from Avions Voisin to create the Traction, Citroën has been a leader in extremely advanced engineering, including its hydropneumatic suspension, the first disc brakes fitted…

THANK YOU, ARTHUR ST. ANTOINE, FOR YOUR December 2016 column and for admitting you are a cigar-smoking yahoo. Perhaps you can resolve an issue that divides the Corvette community. My (former) friend Ron Moore and I each have a 2002 Corvette Z06. On that much we agree. Trouble arises because he will not permit eating or drinking, not to mention smoking, in his car. In mine, I smoke Mexican cigars and eat big, sloppy hamburgers that drip sauce down my elbow. He calls me a barbarian. I say he is a wimp. What do you say? JOHN W. KOZINA Edmonton, Alberta, Canada St. Antoine: Eating at the wheel? I tried that once. The candelabra tipped and burned my leg. JUST A NUMBER I know I am considered too old even…

So, just what is the Lexus LC? We’ve followed various concept cars that led to this fully functioning production model, read the technical specs, and we understand this new platform’s significance. The platform is so flexible that the new LS sedan will be the next car to utilize it. And while the LS will no doubt feature a healthy dose of the brand’s edgy and distinctive design language, it’s not difficult to understand its positioning against the likes of BMW’s 7 Series and Mercedes-Benz’s S-Class. The 2018 Lexus LC, though? A press slide show suggests the BMW 650i at $89,995, Mercedes S550 Coupe at $123,675, and Jaguar F-Type R for $106,395 as natural rivals. These relatively disparate cars don’t really rival each other, so either the LC has a never-before-seen…

A n android in the automotive world, mimicking its supercar rivals in a wholly convincing but absolutely atypical way. I’ve yet to be impressed by something as dead behind the eyes as this twin-turbocharged, hybrid 2017 Acura NSX. It’s slightly disconcerting driving around Palmer Motorsport Park’s rising and dipping, 2.2-mile road course, simply because the NSX feels so far from the norm. A first encounter with Acura’s secondgeneration supercar requires patience and understanding. Patience as heat seeps into its Pirelli Super Trofeo R tires and $10,600 carbon-ceramic brakes, and understanding as the $200,000 car inimitably communicates how it is happiest laying down laps at the 2-year-old, 14-turn track carved into the side of a big granite hill in the small Massachusetts town of Ware. The NSX slides wide climbing…

Spend an hour at Automobile headquarters and odds are you’ll witness at least one spontaneous staff debate about the latest new car to roll through our test fleet, or maybe a mostly forgotten, obscure model of the 1980s or ’90s. Lately, though, our Four Seasons 2016 Nissan Maxima SR has been a semi-regular topic. Our editors agree almost unanimously: The Maxima is a top-notch effort. Its initially polarizing styling grew on us quickly—the car receives a fair amount of compliments from strangers, too—and drivers and passengers alike appreciate its roomy, comfortable cabin on both short and long drives. But question whether or not the Maxima SR has serious performance chops—or bring up Nissan’s “four-door sports car” marketing rhetoric—and prepare to spend the ensuing 20 minutes hearing about it from all…