Innholdsfortegnelse for March 2018 i Car and Driver

HEADS OR TAILS Why on earth did you choose the butt end of the ZR1 for the December 2017 [subscriber] cover? It’s like teasing an interview with a supermodel, then filming the back of her head. —Phillip Fosnot Chandler, AZ Nice pseudonym, Toback—Ed. TEXTBOOK Reading the Encyclopedia Vehicula [December 2017] under “Zimmer,” I noticed that two of the three C/D covers pictured had people on them. I guess, back in the day, attractive people were put on the cover to distract everyone from the unappealing cars. You must have stopped that policy because there should have been a crowd of fashion models around the green Honda Civic Si on the August 2017 cover. —John Poughkeepsie, NY The December 2017 issue was the first C/D in a long time that I…

Imagine, for a moment, that you could own any three cars in the infinite cosmos of cars. But the vehicles you select must remain in your possession until you die. Between six feet above and six under, you can’t sell them, can’t will them to heirs. Now what? Do you choose three daily drivers? Three museum-quality works of genius just to polish and ogle? I’m not ashamed that my own choices get shuffled, rejiggered, mislaid, and delayed as if they were a congressional vote on golfing pants. So I posed the question to friends: •Eddie Alterman—C/D editor-in-chief: 1959 Ferrari 250GT SWB, 2005 Ford GT, 2018 Mercedes-AMG E63 S wagon. •Daniel Pund—C/D deputy editor: 2018 Mercedes- AMG E63 S wagon, 1975 Lancia Stratos, 1970 Dodge Coronet Super Bee (426 Hemi or…

[+] Strong performance, almost every feature in the book, refined powertrain, impressive fuel mileage. [-] Busy ride with the 22-inch wheels, some overly complicated controls. [=]Every hip-hop artist in America is about to trade in an Escalade. FOR MUCH OF THE 20TH CENTURY For much of the 20th century, the Cadillac-versus-Lincoln thing mattered. It had significance well beyond quarterly earnings and the automotive industry. For many, it was about national pride. Today, nobody really cares. For too long, that rivalry has been a fight for last place. It’s like the Bengals–Browns game; there are a few die-hards still sitting in the stands, but America has tuned out. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Stop the clock. The 2018 Navigator changes everything. Everything. And Cadillac knows it, refusing to make an Escalade available for…

The trials of a burdensome beast. July 20, 2016 150 miles: Nissan Titan XD diesel begins its long-term test. August 10, 2016 2172 miles: Dealer updates transmission software under warranty to address slipping shifts, aligns front wheels, and inspects power steering for source of groaning but finds nothing amiss, $0 October 3, 2016 8298 miles: Dealer performs a recall fix for the Titan’s fuel-tank breather tube; also performs oil and fuel-filter change, tire rotation, and inspection, $352 November 22, 2016 13,274 miles: Dealer again inspects power steering under warranty, tops off with fluid, and bleeds the system; also secures loose A/C hose underhood, $0 December 19, 2016 15,744 miles: Dealer performs oil and fuel-filter change, tire rotation, and inspection; reflashes transmission computer again per recall; and replaces faulty tailgate lock…

[+] A drivable special occasion that feels capable of warping space-time. [-] Exactly how scrawny do you have to be to fit in these seats? SCIENCE AND REASON tend to marginalize our awareness of it as we age, but there is magic left in the world. A rich vein of it can be mined from the very name “Lamborghini,” and the Huracán Performante crackles with the stuff. Lamborghini used no magic in creating the Performante, just a practical and reliable methodology of adding power, removing weight, and improving aerodynamics versus the regular Huracán. The first of those is largely thanks to airflow improvements, netting 29 more horsepower and 30 additional pound-feet of torque, for totals of 631 and 443, respectively. The Performante’s lower weight is the result of a simplified…

C/D: What was your first car? ML: It was in 1985 and it was a 1984 Nissan pickup truck. It was brand new and my dad gave it to me. I was, on the one hand, excited but, on the other, disappointed because I wanted something that needed some work done. I wanted that hands-on experience. So I sold that and I got a ’78 Blazer that had a four-inch lift kit and big 36-inch mudders on it. And Hooker headers and glasspacks and a big air cleaner. I changed the cam in it—a little higher lift and a little longer duration, but not too crazy because I wanted it to idle. It was a great car. I did everything myself. Did the body work and painted it in school.…

On that drive, I fell in love with the thing, but only on an intellectual level. It was a gracefully transitioned version of that shocking concept car from 1995, losing none of its aesthetic rigor in its journey to the street. Designer Freeman Thomas envisioned the TT as a neo-bathtub Porsche, but he and fellow designers Peter Schreyer, Romulus Rost, Hartmut Warkuss, and Martin Smith created something artier than even that, a collection of radii and circles that somehow coalesced into a fully resolved, indivisible design. Even the TT badge on the first cars looked like the symbol for pi. Alas, it drove sort of—how do I put this?—fine. It performed admirably for the era, but its driving character did not achieve the wholeness of its styling. Never intended to…

“MOTOR RACING has been very kind to me,” wrote Dan Gurney for the New York Times in 1975. “It has exposed me and those around me to a wide spectrum of experiences, from utter tragedy to intoxicating joy and happiness. Tears at both ends—and a very worldly and interesting in-between.” Daniel Sexton Gurney died on January 14, 2018, at age 86, leaving behind a singularly impressive biography. Pretty much all the legends about him—from his brilliant driving to his winning cars and fearless innovations— are true. Gurney was born April 13, 1931, in Port Jefferson, New York. He relocated with his family to Riverside, California, in 1948, just as the region roared to life as the epicenter of postwar car culture. Gurney served in the Korean War as an artillery…

As if it wasn’t bad enough that Phillips has outed me for lusting after history’s ugliest muscle car, the googly-eyed 1970 Dodge Coronet Super Bee. It’s a muscle car that wears glasses, ferchrisakes. Even the Mopar faithful draw down the corners of their mouths and avert their eyes when confronted with the ’70. And let’s just say, people who welcome the Dodge Warlock into their fold are not exactly the most discerning aesthetes. This revelation comes at an especially awkward time for me because I was aiming to appear to have good taste. Further, I have written this very column about another of my unconventional loves, this one newfound. So now it’s apparently a pattern with me. Whatever. I fell in love with a commercial van and I feel simultaneously…

Disasters are always fascinating. From fender benders to war, humans will stop and stare at the tragic, the grotesque, the hideous. In early December, I watched a massive plume of malevolent brown smoke moving over Ventura, California, threatening my hometown of Santa Barbara. I was mesmerized by the Thomas Fire, like everyone else. But it wasn’t just the physical proximity of the flames that captivated me. I had just returned from Houston, which was still picking up after the devastation of Hurricane Harvey. Last year, as August came to a close, Houston was hit with nearly 52 inches of rain. At least 88 people were killed, and thousands lost their homes. Reports also estimate that up to a million cars were destroyed in the widespread flooding, as many as half…

Here’s how our other long-term vehicles are faring in their 40,000-mile trials: 2017 Porsche 718 Boxster’s Arrival: Apr/2017 Miles: 17,910 Observed mpg: 22 During Michigan’s sunless season, driving the Boxster is nearly as therapeutic as sitting in front of our SAD lamps. The stock Pirelli P Zero summer tires began their protest well before temperatures collapsed into the single digits, with grip suffering in moderate autumn weather. We braced ourselves for winter with Porsche-spec Michelin Pilot Alpin PA4 tires that transformed our Sapphire Blue Metallic Boxster into four-wheeled Prozac to counter the interminable gray pressing down from the sky. The Michelins claw through snow without compromising the Porsche’s responsive steering and sharp turn-in. And the Boxster’s sports-car purity is a virtue even when the roads are slick, as long as…

CHEVY DIDN’T TRADEMARK THE name “Suburban” when it introduced the industry’s first steelbodied, eight-passenger truck-based wagon back in 1935. Other marques subsequently used the term, and it didn’t officially become GM’s until 10 years after Plymouth discontinued its Suburban station wagon in 1978. Now, 83 years on, the Suburban is the longest-running nameplate in automotive history and is attached to the go-to hauler for people with big families and big needs. With a new Chevy Silverado just unveiled, a 12th-generation Suburban is imminent. Chevy first applied the name to a $675 (about $12,000 in 2017 dollars) depot hack, a basic truck used to ferry passengers and luggage to and from train stations and ship terminals. A heater and rear bumper were notable options, but the innovation came in using steel…

At Deere & Company World Headquarters, the lawn is immaculate. The Deere complex in Moline, Illinois, is a midcentury Eero Saarinen masterpiece, low steel buildings hugging lushly forested hills. Nary a blade of grass is amiss. There sure would be, though, if they let me out of the showroom with the sweet model 648L grapple skidder that’s parked inside. With 756 pound-feet of torque and a ground-hugging weight of 39,340 pounds, that sucker could do some major damage in my hands. I know this because they have training simulators inside, and I did major virtual damage with every one of them. Next time you see a dump truck, check out the top portion of the dump bed. It’s probably all scarred up. Now I know why. As they say in the…

“LACKS THE POWER OF CURRENT HD RIGS FROM MAJOR PLAYERS BUT IS MORE STABLE AND EASIER TO DRIVE WHEN TOWING THAN HALF-TON OFFERINGS FROM THE SAME.”—JOSH JACQUOT, REVIEWS EDITOR Arrival: Jul/2016 Departure: Oct/2017 The workhorse blues. There’s no easy way to say this: Our long-term Nissan Titan XD Diesel was one of the most disappointing new vehicles we have evaluated in recent memory, a distinction highlighted by our truck’s serious mechanical issues and grounded in its general inability to endear when it was healthy. Spearheading Nissan’s then new second-generation Titan lineup for 2016, the XD leverages a near-heavy-duty build and an available Cummins turbo-diesel V-8 to serve a niche somewhere between established half-ton and three-quarter-ton pickups. While lesser, gasoline-fueled Titans have since joined the mix, the diesel XD is a…