Road & Track December/January 2023

ANYONE WHO FOLLOWS the curving arc of technology knows a little about Moore’s law. In its simplest form, this oft-cited doctrine (not a “law” by any standard), named after semiconductor maker and Intel co-founder Gordon Moore, states that the power of the microchip will increase by about 40 percent every two years. This, in essence, is the driving force behind every investment made in Silicon Valley: Growth is good; growth is inevitable. Let’s all get rich. Even Moore knows this type of growth cannot be sustained forever. But we’re acclimatized to expect it—in iPhones, with their gradual march to complete domination; in internet-connected appliances in our kitchens. And of course, in our cars, which seem to get smarter, faster, and more sophisticated with each successive generation. The first electric cigarette lighter…

Jason Kavanagh At Overdrive Energy Solutions, a start-up focused on smarter ways to power events, Kavanagh directs all things engineering related. Previously, he created some of the best-known Garrett turbochargers you’ve never heard of, and he’s tested hundreds of vehicles for automotive publishers. He also races a cruddy Miata with his 24 Hours of Lemons team, Eyesore Racing. Here, he explains the history of turbochargers in “The Taming of the Snail” (page 110). Greg Pajo A New Zealand native, Pajo spent 15 years doing photography in the U.K. before recently moving to the U.S. He has always had an interest in cars and automotive design and eagerly traveled to Germany to shoot the streamlined Mercedes-Benz EQXX for our cover. When Greg isn’t working or spending time with his wife and daughter, he is…

IT’S FANTASTIC—fantastic to look at and fantastic to drive—and in today’s world, it announces you as an absolute connoisseur of the Prancing Horse brand. It was the car that established the mid-engine, V-8-powered Ferrari as the mainstream model, the one that made Ferrari a viable and profitable enterprise. The Ferrari 308 isn’t just a winner now. It was a winner in its own time. In 1977, Road & Track called it “a blending of man and machine that make the two feel and act as one.” The late P.J. O’Rourke called the targa-roofed GTS “the best damn car I’ve ever driven” in 1980. Collectors assert that 308s aren’t for concours shows or stashing away in collections. They’re for driving. Common for a Ferrari, relatively affordable to maintain, and finely engineered by any…

THE COMBUSTION ENGINE doesn’t have to die. At least, that’s what an industry contends as it scrambles to come up with the answer for a growing problem: how to reduce carbon emissions. E-fuels, or synthetic fuels, promise to be a drop-in solution that not only keeps current cars on the road but also ensures they produce virtually zero net emissions. You have every right to be skeptical. The idea is to make liquid fuel using renewable or zero-emission energy sources. E-fuels are carbon based, much like gasoline, but they’re not extracted from underground oil reservoirs. Instead, with sunshine, wind, carbon-capture technology, and a chemistry degree, one can create a substance suitable for storage in fuel tanks and burnable in internal-combustion engines. With e-fuels, there are two intertwined challenges: cost and efficiency. A…

ON THE SURFACE, the 1250-hp Czinger 21C is unlike anything else on the road. Its giant glass cockpit and gaping side intakes are more aeronautic than automotive. Under the skin, though, is where things get properly weird. Consider what Czinger calls the BrakeNode: It merges brake-caliper and suspension components into a single, oddly organic shape. Sculpted and perforated, it looks lifted from an H.R. Giger sketchbook. But it’s not mere lunacy. There’s a method to this madness. “We are fully, functionally integrating the brake caliper and upright structures, which so far is on track to deliver over 40 percent mass and part-count reduction with 25 percent stiffness increase—no compromise and no tooling required,” explains Michael Kenworthy, CTO of AM Technologies at Divergent 3D, manufacturer of the Czinger 21C. The BrakeNode and many…

IN 2023, THE U.S. will host three Formula 1 grands prix: Austin, Miami, and Las Vegas. That’s the most in a single year for America and the most ever in a season for any country. Some believe F1 finally entered the American mainstream thanks to Netflix’s Drive to Survive, but the increased visibility started years earlier. Everything was stacked against American F1 fans 30 years ago. From the mid-Eighties to late Nineties, races weren’t always broadcast in real time. Unless you had connections like David Letterman, who would drive to ESPN’s Connecticut headquarters to watch F1 races live off the satellite feed, enthusiasts often had to settle for 20-minute highlight reels. Speedvision did a great job building the U.S. audience in the Aughts. The cable network broadcast the entire season live, even…