Inhoudsopgave van September/October 2019 - Automobile

LIKE SOME SCRAPPY Nordic rally driver of yore, Volvo regained control of the sliding car that was its corporate self just before it drifted over a cliff. Thanks to billions pumped into its tank by a new adoptive parent, China’s Geely, the smart and feisty Swede gathered its perilously sideways mount to once again nip at the heels of the world’s front-running car manufacturers, with a technological attack and design coherence impressive today in absolute terms but especially for a company of its small size. Along these lines, it was hard at first sight not to be impressed by the company’s new V60. Nor could you easily overstate its importance. Although traditional wagons are not what they once were for the automobile industry, they continue to play an outsized role…

E-Tron, E-Tron GT, Q3 ON SALE: E-Tron: Now E-Tron GT: Late 2020 (est) Q3: Now BASE PRICE: E-Tron: $74,800 E-Tron GT: $70,000 (est) Q3: $35,695 Things are about to get very, very interesting in the electric vehicle space. The choices are multiplying rapidly. The competition will be fierce. And the future is far from assured. Audi, for one, has made it quite clear that, come what may, it’s charging ahead (pun intended) into the electrified fray. When your longtime mantra roughly translates to “being ahead through technology” (aka Vorsprung durch Technik), it’s probably a good idea to at least be in the thick of the electric revolution. It’s also not a bad thing to make your first true production EV a crossover given where the market is today, as Audi…

ON SALE: CT4-V: Late 2020; CT5-V: Early 2020 BASE PRICE: CT4-V: $42,000 (est); CT5-V: $50,000 (est) If you find Cadillac’s newton-meter badging confusing, wait until you get a load of its new sedan strategy. The two surviving sedans would seem easy to categorize, with the Cadillac CT4 replacing the luxury-compact ATS and the CT5 replacing the luxury-midsize CTS. The full-size CT6—Cadillac’s best and most advanced car in decades—ends production in January. Both CT4 and CT5 carry forth on an updated version of the rear-wheel-drive Alpha platform. The CT4 is about 0.8 inch wider but has roughly the same wheelbase and approximately the same overall length as the ATS (Cadillac has been vague with specs thus far), though with a better rear-seat package made possible by a redesign of the interior.…

ON SALE: Bronco: Late 2020 Bronco Scout: Mid 2020 Explorer ST: Late 2019 BASE PRICE: Bronco: $29,000 (est) Bronco Scout: $26,000 (est) Explorer ST: $55,835 International Harvester introduced its cute-ute Scout five years before the launch of the 1966 Ford Bronco. So it almost seems fitting that Ford’s new, rugged-looking Escape-based Bronco Scout will launch before the highly anticipated Ranger-based Bronco. The smaller 2021 Ford Bronco Scout (above), as it’s tipped to be called, will be billed as the off-road antidote to the 2020 Ford Escape, which itself has been redesigned to look like a tall, next-gen (not for the U.S.) Focus wagon. Word is the Bronco Scout chassis is being tuned for trail traction action in order for it to compete with the likes of Jeep’s unibody, transverse-engine models…

ON SALE: EQC: Early 2020 AMG GT R Pro: Late 2019 A/CLA AMG 35: Early 2020 BASE PRICE: EQC: $75,000 (est) AMG GT R Pro: $195,000 (est) A/CLA AMG 35: $37,000/$40,000 (est) Nary a year goes by when Mercedes-Benz doesn’t roll out a showroom’s worth of new and updated cars and crossovers, so many, in fact, that it has essentially created multiple subbrands to manage it all: AMG for go-fast, Maybach for high-end luxury, and now EQ for electrified. The all-new 2020 Mercedes-Benz EQC 400 4Matic marks a first for the three-pointed star’s emerging EQ electric vehicle strategy, ushering in what Benz is billing as a new era of mobility for the marque. Like Audi (E-Tron) and Jaguar (I-Pace), Mercedes decided to start its electric vehicle push with a crossover,…

LIVIGNO, Italy— GIVEN OUR PROCLIVITY for rakish hyper-wedges, you might think we’d be first to take up torches and pitchforks against the wave of uber-luxe and mega-fast SUVs. But we’re big fans of vehicular variety—and more important, if carmakers offering higher-volume, family-friendly models helps to keep their niche sports cars alive, we won’t complain too loudly. There was certainly a precedent at Lamborghini for a wild and wildly expensive super-utility. Whereas vehicles such as Maserati’s Levante, Bentley’s Bentayga, and Rolls-Royce’s Cullinan don’t have any real ancestry, Lamborghini unveiled the Urus to a resounding cry of “Finally!” from more than a few of the marque’s enthusiasts; for decades we’ve pined for a successor to the enigmatic LM002, the “Rambo Lambo.” Comparisons between the two are understandable, but a head-to-head face-off is…

I DON’T KNOW how many road cars Ferrari has made, but the first one I saw when I was at Art Center 66 years ago was probably one of just a few hundred extant, each one different from all the others—even when that was not the intent. The idea in Italy then was that if a door on one side was longer than the one on the other side, well, you can’t see both at once. Today, Ferrari’s historical total build must be well into six figures, and its cars coming off the line are rigorously identical in surfaces and panel alignment, unlike that touchingly asymmetrical Touring 166 coupe sitting outside Ernie McAfee’s Hollywood Hills shop displaying side-to-side discrepancies even an untrained student eye could discern. For decades, any Ferrari…

ON SALE: Continental GT Convertible: Now Flying Spur: Late 2019 BASE PRICE: Continental GT Convertible: $198,500 Flying Spur: $225,000 (est) As Bentley celebrates its centenary, it seems fitting that the first new car of its second century is the 2020 Continental GT Convertible—after all, it was the original Continental GT that set the pace for modern Bentleys back in 2003. Bentley has embraced the marque’s sporting history by making the new Continental GT a much more dynamic car than its predecessor. The Conti uses Volkswagen Group’s MSB platform, the same one that underpins the Porsche Panamera, and has cutting-edge features such as a fast-acting 48-volt Dynamic Ride control system and Bentley’s first active torque-vectoring all-wheel-drive system. And there’s no shortage of torque to vector. The new Continental GT offers a…

ON SALE: Late 2019 BASE PRICE: Stingray: $60,000 (est), Zora: $125,000 (est) If you fervently believe the only real Corvette is a front-engine Corvette, get yourself to a Chevrolet dealership “toot sweet” and grab one of the last of the C7s. Considering how sales have dropped off since its 2014 model-year introduction, typical of a sports car, there ought to be a few lingering on dealer lots by the time the mid-engine 2020 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray goes on sale late this year. General Motors has done all it could do with the front-engine Corvette, and traditionalists who don’t understand why Chevy engineers would move the Corvette’s V-8 from up front to between the seats and the rear axle—allowing for more usable power and a better polar moment of inertia—will probably…

ON SALE: Mid-2021 (est) BASE PRICE: $500,000 (est) It’s kind of strange to refer to the current Lamborghini Aventador as a “new” car, considering the big V-12 beast felt a bit old and outdated when it first hit Rodeo Drive back in 2012. Not that we’re complaining about the continued existence of a mid-engine V-12 supercar. It’s just that when Lambo’s smaller and less expensive Huracán feels much, much more agile and advanced than the halo car that costs the better part of half a million bucks, it’s left us wanting something more. We got our first taste of what a reworked Aventador could be with the 2017 Aventador S and its much-needed rear-wheel steering, but it retained the same clunky single-clutch gearbox, antiquated ergonomics, and wacky seating position. Thankfully,…

ON SALE: 911 Carrera S/4S: Now 718 Spyder; 718 Cayman GT4: Early 2020 Taycan: Late 2019 BASE PRICE: 911 Carrera S/4S: $114,250/$121,650 718 Spyder; 718 Cayman GT4: $97,550; $100,450 Taycan: $75,000 (est) Landing in customer hands right about now, Porsche’s eighth-generation 911 delivers—surprise!—more doses of the same Carrera goodness that has for decades made Stuttgart’s sports car stalwart one of the world’s best. We won’t call driving the 992 series a revelatory experience, but it’s definitely a step up when compared to the 991.2 it replaces. The 3.0-liter twin-turbo flat-six produces 443 hp and 390 lb-ft of torque, gains of 23 hp and 22 lb-ft, thanks in part to bigger turbos, piezoelectric fuel injectors, and electronically controlled wastegates. The standard twin-clutch gearbox features eight speeds rather than seven (a manual…

RM SOTHEBY’S VILLA ERBA, LAKE COMO, ITALY LAKE COMO, ITALY May 25, 2019 RM SOTHEBY’S ANNUAL Villa Erba auction is held on the picturesque shores of Lake Como in Northern Italy, a well-known spot for summer vacationers, just down the shore from the Concorso d’Eleganza at Villa d’Este. This year, the auction house raked in $22,006,506 in total sales, supported by a roster of high-end European classics, a handful with designs by Italian coachbuilder Zagato. Still, rainy weather likely helped contribute to a somewhat dour atmosphere, which kept the all-important sell-through rate down to 57 percent. Just 31 of 54 total cars met reserve, with many highly publicized cars failing to sell. Here are the sales—and the no-sales—that caught our eye: 1 1955 Maserati A6G/2000 Berlinetta Zagato Not sold: $3,105,398…

“THOSE THINGS ARE really freaking me out. Especially seeing ’em way out here.” My friend Case was studying a row of 12 ghosts, their white, hooded shrouds reflecting the last rays of twilight as the sun settled into the vastness of the Mojave Desert. He turned to me. “You told me we were driving to a ghost town. You didn’t say we’d actually see any.” Case and I were standing in front of “The Last Supper,” an outdoor sculpture created in 1984 by the late Belgian-Polish artist Charles Albert Szukalski. It’s near the ghost town of Rhyolite, Nevada, itself a spooky apparition formed by the cadaverous remains of a gold-rush boomtown where, from roughly 1905 to 1908, as many as 5,000 people lived and worked and even attended performances at…

TENSIONS WITH RUSSIA, political instability in Europe, the prospect of ecological disaster and energy crises, and the dawn of another golden era of automotive awesomeness with vehicles on sale now and on the horizon—you’d be forgiven for thinking it was the 1950s all over again. The Cold War is over, true, and while we still(!) don’t have our Jetsons flying cars, this year’s crop of new and future vehicles would satisfy even the terror-fueled imagination of a kid who’d lived through the Red Scare. If you’ve been keeping up with the car industry over the past decade or so, you’ll find familiar themes throughout this year’s selection of what we believe to be the most salient new and future cars, including autonomous driving, electric propulsion, and advanced aerodynamics. But you’ll…

ON SALE: i5: 2021 (est); 7 Series: Now; X7: Now BASE PRICE: i5: $80,000 (est); 7 Series: $87,445; X7: $74,895 Tesla’s cash flow issues are blood in the water to the German sharks of the luxury market, and with the Audi E-Tron and Mercedes EQC crossovers already here, BMW’s iNext is what’s, well, next. We first saw the iNext concept last fall, and as photographs of the first production prototypes show, the originally funky styling has been toned down to reveal a slightly more conventional-looking all-wheel-drive crossover. Expected to arrive in 2021, the iNext (which is rumored to be called i5 when it reaches production) will be powered by BMW’s next-gen electric powertrain, will boast a range of nearly 400 miles, and will essentially serve as the brand’s technology flagship.…

ON SALE: Purosangue: 2022 F8 Tributo: Now SF90 Stradale: Now BASE PRICE: Purosangue: $250,000 (est) F8 Tributo: $274,280 SF 90 Stradale: $650,000 (est) We’ve talked about a Ferrari sport ute seemingly forever, and it’s still approximately three years away from production in 2022, but Maranello’s first-ever SUV—the manufacturer prefers the acronym FUV, natch—officially has a name: Purosangue (“Thoroughbred” in Italian). It will arrive with a front-mid-engine platform and hybrid drive technology, the latter being something that will proliferate increasingly throughout the marque’s lineup. While an SUV might seem antithetical to Ferrari’s ethos, the good news is that Maranello knows it must—and plans to—deliver the world’s fastest. Meanwhile, Ferrari will replace the 488 GTB with the slick 2020 F8 Tributo; the company brings back its traditional four-taillamp look and adds a…

ON SALE: RC F Track Edition: Now LC Convertible: Summer 2020 (est) BASE PRICE: RC F Track Edition: $97,675 LC Convertible: $102,000 (est) Lexus has played it both ways in recent years. It continues to roll out all manner of pedestrian crossovers, from the tiny, all-new UX hatch to the updates made to its all-important RX midsizer for the 2020 model year. But while the SUVs pay the bills, we’re far more interested in the Lexus cars with skills—specifically its real-deal F cars. The latest F model to get a massage is the 2020 Lexus RC F, and although the power of its 5.0-liter naturally aspirated V-8 has been bumped a smidge to 472 horses, the big changes are in the aero, construction material, and stopping power departments. New to…

MALIBU, CALIFORNIA— AS MUCH AS cars from the Hyundai-Kia-Genesis juggernaut have improved over the past couple ofdecades, driver appeal has never been a strong point—at least it wasn’t until 2015, when Hyundai hired Albert Biermann away from BMW’s M Division. He’s steadily improved the group’s products, but the Kia Stinger is his first standard-bearer. After nearly a year with our Four Seasons Stinger, the Automobile staff knows it’s the real deal, but is the rest of America ready to believe in a driver’s car from Kia? That was the backdrop for introducing our Stinger to the godfathers of American performance: the Original Venice Crew. Fifty-four years ago, Jim Marietta, Ted Sutton, and Peter Brock were part of the Shelby American team that helped Carroll Shelby create cars like the competition-ready…

MAKING THE CRUELEST SPORT A LITTLE LESS CRUEL “THIS IS A CRUEL SPORT,” late racer Dan Gurney said as he watched track workers cover the body of a teenage boy his car had just hit and killed. At the 1960 Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort, Gurney’s BRM P48 suffered brake failure at 140 mph, ran off the track and through a barbed-wire fence, and overturned, breaking Gurney’s arm and injuring several other spectators. Three years later, journalist Robert Daley published a book chronicling one of the most dangerous eras in racing, using “The Cruel Sport” as its title. In fact, “Motor racing is the cruelest sport,” Daley wrote. “It is also the most brilliant, because it is man wrestling with his demons on the edge of the infinite.” That was 56 years ago.…