Car and Driver December 2022

OPENING SALVO Gee-whiz, an electric-car issue [September 2022]. Opened the cover and—pow!—a Ford Mustang Shelby GT500-H rental. Must be the last hurrah. —Roy Kimmel Leverett, MA COUNTING IONS The Hyundai Ioniq 5 might be the best battery-electric for the buck [“EV of the Year,” September 2022]. I doubt I could buy a car that requires close study every time I walk up to it to determine whether someone T-boned it and failed to leave a note. —Hal Feinberg Camarillo, CA I must confess, the Ioniq 5 has caught my attention, and I would consider replacing my manual ’86 Mazda 323. In the real world, I don’t think I could learn to drive it (screen phobia, etc.). Since I was born before the Great War, I even have trouble operating my phone. —Joel Wood El Prado, NM I’m impressed that you emailed…

Can you elaborate on how the Porsche 911 GT3 RS’s drag-reduction system (DRS) “stalls the [rear] wing to reduce drag” [“Air Apparent,” September 2022]? My understanding of aerodynamics is that a stalled wing is not the same as a wing that produces zero lift and thus zero induced drag. I would think DRS is setting the rear wing so it produces as close to no lift as possible. In contrast, a stalled wing produces some lift and enormous drag. —Todd Fry, Beaufort, SC Stalling generally refers to a wing getting to such a steep angle that the air passing over it becomes turbulent and detaches, causing a dramatic reduction in the amount of lift created (as with airplanes) or downforce (on cars). But a secondary aerodynamic device—a movable diffuser, a fan,…

About a month into the editor-in-chief gig, the members of the Maumee Valley Region of the Porsche Club of America (PCA) invited me to speak at their 50th-anniversary dinner at the Toledo Zoo aquarium. They bestowed this honor despite my lapsed PCA membership. PCA, which has chapters all over the U.S., is unaffiliated with Porsche Cars North America. That’s fine by me since Porsche’s publicrelations department is currently annoyed with us. Why? Well, here’s a little inside-baseball stuff: The 911 GT3 RS photos in the September issue appeared on the internet a few days before the car’s official debut. Kurz und bündig: Some arschlöch robbed us. Car and Driver’s new cybercrimes unit is hard at work finding the breach and plugging it for good. Walking away with someone’s head should make…

Cryptozoology is the study of animals that don’t exist. Bigfoot, Nessie, Mothman—creatures just a little bigger and stranger than anything else on earth. Some people claim they do exist; it’s just that nobody has evidence beyond a fuzzy old camcorder clip and some photos or castings of footprints that probably belong to a bear. Cryptohypercarology is something we made up, a study of the kinds of mythical automotive creations most of us will never see, except in shaky amateur videos. Are they super? Hyper? Über? Are they even street legal? Will they ever be more than one-offs on the Concept Car Lawn at Pebble Beach? We want to believe. Here’s a guide for spotting some real monsters. MIGRATORY PATTERNS Like all rare creatures, hypercars have native territories. Some you’d expect, like Italy and…

GEORG KACHER has covered the auto industry for more than 40 years. He has a keen eye for where brands are going and what they need to succeed, and his future product knowledge is unrivaled thanks to his network of industry contacts. Dear Mr. Duesmann: Not too long ago, Audi was the undisputed aerodynamics champ (dating to the Audi 5000), the all-wheel-drive king (ever since the debut of Quattro), the aluminum-construction innovator (since the first A8), and an exterior-and interior-design leader (from the ’90s onward). But what exactly does the brand stand for at the end of 2022? In my analysis, Audi’s distinguishing traits are now down to the single frame grille, Quattro-referencing fender blisters, interiors that overreach with smartphone-inspired ergonomics, and capable but somewhat indifferent dynamics, all in an increasingly SUV-heavy model…

It was only 20 years ago that the Porsche Cayenne shocked the automotive world. An SUV from the preeminent sports-car maker seemed wildly incongruous in 2002. Today it’s easier to list the few automakers that don’t offer one for sale than those that do. Sure, there are exotic dream weavers, such as Pagani and Koenigsegg, that ignore the sales siren of the ute. But of brands that produce more than 500 cars a year globally, the only ones without a sport-utility either on sale or on the way are Chrysler (though it has made SUVs in the past; remember the Durango-based Aspen?) and fellow Stellantis subsidiaries Abarth and Lancia; Alpine (Renault’s sports-car division); and McLaren and Morgan in the U.K. While some automakers tried to hold back the tide, cold, green logic…