Car and Driver September 2013

Sic your dogs on us at: editors@caranddriver.com or join the discussion at: backfires.caranddriver.com COVER YOUR BASES I can't believe you guys sent me my June 2013 issue with a bunch of sedans on the cover when your newsstand cover featured the beautiful new Camaro Z/28! When I contacted customer service, they basically said it's the same magazine (no empathy). When I asked them to send the issue with the Camaro on the cover as part of my subscription (discount it off my sub), they never responded. How can you guys do that? I love the Z/28, and I'm a subscriber! JOSE LOPEZMIAMI, FLORIDA So did you have two Lexus IS350s, or did you decide to make the cover car a different color? I thought a couple of years back you committed to not change [car]…

"If you do DRIVE in the Dominican Republic, you should be aware that the utmost caution and defensive driving are necessary," warns the U.S. Department of State in the generally cautious travel section of its website. Except when it's talking about North Korea, this is about as strong a rebuke as our calm diplomatic corps typically musters. But the warning should be bolder, as the Dominican Republic has the highest rate of traffic fatalities in the world. Globally, traffic accidents kill twice as many people as does malaria. At more than 1.2 million deaths per year, crashes are among the 10 leading causes of death worldwide. With populations and relative incomes booming in low- and middle-income countries, these numbers will only rise. It's obvious, then, why international institutions like the World…

SIBLING RIVALRY STANDARDIZED TESTING ZL1 TEST: 8 DAYS 2210 MILES 760 LAPS 89 MPH AVERAGE LAP SPEED 75–90 Degrees Ambient temperature The Corvette, CTS-V, new Chevy SS, and even the HHR SS have all endured GM's rigorous 24-hour test at its Milford, Michigan, proving grounds. When the Z/28 enters the crucible later this year, engineers will be comparing it with the ZL1's results, shown here: 18 SETS OF FRONT BRAKE PADS AND ROTORS 36 SETS OF FRONT TIRES 12 SETS OF REAR BRAKE PADS AND ROTORS 18 SETS OF REAR TIRES 36 TANKS OF FUEL When Chevrolet unveiled the Z/28 last spring, Mark Stielow, its program engineering manager, assured us that the car could burn through a full tank of fuel on a track without overheating any critical fluids. He knew this because his team had done it, repeatedly. But the…

When it comes to motorsports, if you're not innovating, you're not winning. Or, to liberally paraphrase NASCAR's finest rule-bender, the late Smokey Yunick, to compete is to cheat. But when new ideas are too bleeding-edge, they often get banned. Here are a few of our favorites. MOVABLE AERODYNAMIC DEVICES Wings were becoming popular in the 1960s, but the Chaparral 2E did nothing less than revolutionize automotive aero. It had two movable elements: a giant airfoil on pylons at the rear and a small element in the nose to balance the large force of the rear wing. The wing provided huge downforce for corners, but the driver could reduce its angle of attack for less drag and more speed on straights. The Can-Am series banned movable aerodynamics, citing safety issues, effectively doubling the…

A MICROSTEP AT A TIME MODERN ENGINES are controlled by computers that calculate how many microliters of fuel to inject into each cylinder per combustion cycle. To determine fuel efficiency, the computer keeps a running total of both the fuel delivered to the engine and the distance driven. MPG LOG SOME MIGHT CALL OUR DATA-COLLECTING OBSESSIVE OR ANAL, BUT WE'RE GOING WITH THOROUGH. THOUSANDS OF MILES OF DATA GATHERING REVEALED THE FOLLOWING: DISCREPANCY 5.7% DISCREPANCY 6.4% DISCREPANCY 4.5% In our April 2013 ISSUE, we took the EPA to task for its unrealistic fuel-economy assessments of hybrids. But is it possible that the EPA isn't the only one prevaricating about fuel economy? This is a subject near and dear to your author. Every time I fill up my 2007 BMW 335i, I record the gallons used, the odometer…

Last month, we tested the new Range Rover, and I deployed C/D's long-term 2013 Nissan Pathfinder as a photo/chase car. We drove both SUVs as far up Montana's Bitterroot Mountains as immaturity encouraged, although our ascents were reliably stymied by snow at 6000 feet. At one point, we ran up on the remains of a huge fallen ponderosa pine blocking a third of a muddy two-track. The right side of the road dropped off "a distance best measured by the FAA," opined photographer Roy Ritchie. We eventually inched the vehicles to safety, but it made me queasy. We'd have been a lot better off if both SUVs hadn't, over their lives, swollen into twin studies in naval architecture. The first Pathfinder I drove was a 1989 SE automatic, from which I…