Car and Driver May-15

Sic your dogs on us at: editors@caranddriver.com or join the discussion at: backfires.caranddriver.com TAKING ISSUE Last month it was that our cars would soon be broadcasting their speeds for any law-enforcement agency to record. This month it was a $106,000 electric car that, in most places, takes more than 10 hours to recharge on a 240-volt source or more than four days on 110, and a $25,000 Ford whose headlights cost 16 percent of its total price or more than 50 percent more than those of a $70,000 Cadillac CTS Vsport. The automobile world is going mad. JOE BULLMERHORSE SHOE, NORTH CAROLINA LIT AND IN FOCUS Please tell me that it was a misprint in your long-term Ford Focus ST test ["Juvenile Delinquent," February 2015]. You meant to say in your "what bits and pieces cost"…

SCRUTINEERING LOST IN TRANSLATION —The Italian cavallo vapore (CV) and German Pferdestärke (PS) are equal to each other but less than SAE horsepower. Lamborghini converts the Huracán's 610-CV rating to 602 horsepower. But Audi will advertise the 610-PS R8 V-10 Plus at 610 horsepower, granting the R8 its first-ever edge over its Lambo platform-mate. IN A WORLD OF TURBOCHARGED FERRARIS, AUDI, OF ALL COMPANIES, IS STICKING WITH NATURAL ASPIRATION. The sideblade can come in a contrasting, body-colored, or carbon-fiber finish. We dig this contrast look. There's a lot OF UPHEAVAL and excitement going on in the world of German sports cars right now. Just not at Audi. BMW recently launched its plug-in hybrid i8, Porsche has announced plans to downsize and turbocharge the complete 911 engine lineup, and Mercedes is chasing said Porsche with…

One Ford Mustang and one Dodge Charger. That was all it took back in 1968 to create what is still considered the greatest chase scene in Hollywood history. A Dodge and a Ford were all Bullitt needed to conjure celluloid magic, if you don't count also needing half of San Francisco. Last year's Need For Speed put together a fleet of Bugattis, Koenigseggs, and a few cars that didn't yet exist, and nobody cared. When it comes to chase scenes, excellence doesn't require expensive sheetmetal or exotic engineering. It just takes brave driving and daring filmmaking. So we're taking a look at how the total value of the hero cars in a selection of pursuit scenes compares with each movie's goodness, expressed through film ratings on the popular website Rotten…

Mopar's reputation at the drag strip has been secure for more than 50 years, ever since Chrysler CEO Lynn Townsend told his engineers to get busy building a modern Hemi to rule them all. If not a lineal descendant, the 707-hp powder keg in the Challenger SRT Hellcat is a spiritual scion of the 426 Hemi, and it's in a car that will turn mid-11-second quarter-miles right off the showroom floor. Hmm, mid-11s? That's quick, but not nearly as impressive as the blown eight's output. Power is nothing without traction, and the stock $60,990 Hellcat is somewhat lacking in the latter. There are a few reasons, starting with the same slab-sided sheetmetal as lesser Challengers, which limits what tires can be fitted, plus a prudent corporate policy to spec street rubber…

RöHRL-PLAYING GAMES We tried out InnoDrive in rally ace Walter Röhrl's Panamera Turbo. Think Porsche charged him $2415 for the personalized carbon doorsills? Because that's what the custom work costs. Today's active cruise-control systems can read the road, spot impending collisions, and automatically apply the car's brakes. A few even steer to some degree. Seemingly every new luxury car boasts an incremental upgrade—now with gopher detection!—but by decade's end, Porsche will debut an active cruise with one feature that no one else has mentioned: excitement. Its InnoDrive system will allow for cornering at up to 0.70 g. That's more sustained lateral acceleration than most casual drivers have ever experienced and the kind of g-force that has even seasoned lappers reaching for the oh-crap handles. Currently under development by Porsche on winding two-lane roads…

Seventeen years ago, I was rather reluctantly serving as this magazine's executive editor. I remember one day making 57 phone calls. But a highlight of my tenure was Pippa Garner, the illustrator for our "Last Page." Her assignment in February 1998 was "Mass Transit for Car Nuts," and she came back with illustrations of a "Self-Propelled Parking Structure (Drive to work, even if your car doesn't run!)" and of an "Auto-Nomy Privacy Pouch," a car pod that slides into your subway seat, allowing you to "do anything(?) you could do in your own car." It was the first time I'd heard the term "autonomous car." Today if you ask Pippa's age, she'll tell you, "It's complicated." Everything in her life is complicated. She (then he) underwent transgender surgery in Brussels in…