Innholdsfortegnelse for December 2023 i Car and Driver

Certain machines are intrinsically linked to specific power sources. Chevrolet Corvettes and small-block V-8s. Ram heavy-duty trucks and Cummins diesels. Joey Chestnut and Nathan’s Famous hot dogs. BMW is among this cohort too. For decades, the company was synonymous with the naturally aspirated inlinesix, an engine configuration that in the 1980s became the smooth, pulsing heart of the German automaker’s lineup. As time went on, BMW’s velvety, rev-happy straight-sixes evolved into turbocharged engines that had far more horsepower but lacked the character of their naturally aspirated predecessors. BMW still builds an inline-six that forgoes forced induction. However, it only bolts this engine to a motorcycle. The 1.6-liter unit attached to the BMW K1600 has many hallmarks of the naturally aspirated sixes that powered the company’s cars, including double overhead cams…

EVERY SO OFTEN, WE GET THE NOTION TO RESURRECT A STORY CONCEPT FROM LONG AGO AND PRODUCE A MODERN FOLLOW-UP. For a variety of reasons, this often doesn’t work out—we figure out that Ferrari 250 GTOs have gotten too expensive to huck around Laguna Seca, or John Phillips is banned from Tibet, and that puts the kibosh on that. But every now and then, we page through a favorite story in the vast Car and Driver archives, ask ourselves, “Could we do that again?” and come up with no good reason why not. Such was the case with our August 1998 story that pitted tuner cars in a race to 150 mph and back to a stop—an unforgiving and indubitably entertaining test of horsepower and braking acumen. We billed the…

When our rented Tesla Model S Plaid showed up with a nail in its tire, we attempted to overnight a replacement tire. But Tesla-spec rubber is hard to come by, and the 1020-hp Model S couldn’t make it to Oscoda in time. Instead, we ran it the next week at our regular test venue. Because of the different track surfaces, we’re not including the Tesla in our official results. A further disappointment is that we couldn’t get a Plaid with the $20,000 Track package that offers upgraded wheels, tires, and carbon-ceramic brake rotors; our test car was on the base 19-inch Pirelli P Zero PZ4s. Since we were already adding asterisks, when we found ourselves at Virginia International Raceway with a 1234-hp Lucid Air Sapphire, we figured we might as…

WE’RE LIVING IN AN EV WORLD. Electric vehicles are the glittery objects grabbing everyone’s attention, from the government to car manufacturers to consumers, who are on track to snap up more than a million EVs this year. To which we counter, “Not so fast.” Maybe you want a hybrid instead. Whether your goal is cutting your operating costs, saving the planet, virtue signaling your elevated social conscience, or some combination of the three, hybrids offer some advantages EVs can’t match. To make that point, we’ve pitted the Toyota Prius and the Honda Accord hybrid against each other. They’re two of the most up-to-date—and possibly the best—gas-electrics on the market. At first glance, this contest might appear to be between apples and cantaloupes, a hybrid-only Prius up against a conventional family sedan…

Between the three of us, we’ve attended the Rolex 24 at Daytona, the 24 Hours of Le Mans, and the 12 Hours of Sebring. But none of us had ever raced for that long, so we reached out to Will Plummer, head of human performance for Chip Ganassi Racing. Plummer humored us with some advice, suggesting we increase our carbohydrate intake three to five days before the race. For race day, Plummer recommended a balanced macronutrient breakfast (fats, carbs, protein) and some additional carbs three to four hours before the green flag. Since we weren’t starting at, say, noon, we weren’t looking to fuel with breakfast food before the big race. Fitzgerald chose turkey-andcheddar wraps as his main course. He supplemented that with a handful of energy bars and Reese’s…

In 1902, a miner named William “Burro” Schmidt began digging a tunnel through a mountain in California’s Mojave Desert. He continued, by hand, for three decades, despite that a road was built during that time, and his tunnel came out on a ledge above the valley. You can visit Schmidt’s work down a silty dirt road. It’s a slidey, sandy journey, but it’s so easy in the Chevy Colorado ZR2 that if Schmidt had had one, he wouldn’t have bothered trying to make a shortcut. Much like the burros that gave Schmidt his nickname, the Colorado is stubborn and sure-footed. It’s easier to house than a draft horse, although for 2023, the mid-size Colorado grows in width, wheelbase, and ground clearance. A simplified powertrain lineup means all versions come with…

For many of us, watching Mama Fratelli outrun the cops in the opening scene of The Goonies was the origin of our Jeep Cherokee lust. There might’ve been some poetic license there—in 1984, the year the movie was shot, the Cherokee maxed out at 110 horsepower—but eventually, the rectilinear Jeep got a powerplant worthy of epic beach escapes. The 4.0-liter inline-six arrived for 1987 with 173 horsepower and vaulted the Cherokee to its current exalted status, the rare vehicle that’s both mainstream popular and a cult classic. With unibody construction like a modern crossover but solid axles in the Jeep tradition, the XJ Cherokee straddled eras and personified the rugged but attainable American SUV for a generation. 2001 JEEP CHEROKEE SPORT 190-HP 4.0-LITER I-6, 3607 LB Test Results • 60…

It’s a bit counterintuitive, but the Spanish company INNengine is making the case that the electric car may very well spur massive innovations of the internal-combustion engine. The Granada-based business is parading a clever twostroke engine concept. It calls the operating cycle one stroke, incorrect messaging intended to create distance from the stigma of the two-stroke engines that power chain saws and Weedwackers. The design places the cylinders in a rotary array, not unlike the chambers in a revolver. According to INNengine, the 700-cc engine makes 142 horsepower with 155 pound-feet of torque at unspecified revs. The company is pitching the engine to the automotive and aerospace industries, dubbing the units it has developed for each the e-REX and the REX-B, respectively. As the former’s name implies, INNengine sees the…

We’d imagine that most car designers don’t get too excited when they’re assigned to a new three-row SUV. There’s only so much you can do with a two-box shape, and the segment is so competitive that it pays to play it safe rather than do something entirely novel. But a few years ago, Kia proved all of that wrong with the Telluride, and now the Korean automaker is doing it again with the new electric EV9. Whether you view it from 100 yards away or up close, the EV9 makes a big impression. You can tell that the people who worked on this vehicle—designers and engineers alike—were up to the challenge of executing a battery-powered take on the family crossovers that have become so popular in driveways across the nation.…

Price (C/D est) As Tested ...................... $107,500 Base ................................................................. $107,500 Vehicle Type: mid-engine, rear-wheel-drive, 2-passenger, 2-door coupe Options: none Infotainment: 10.3-inch touchscreen; wireless Android Auto and Apple CarPlay; 2 USB (1 for power only), 1 USB-C, and Bluetooth inputs; KEF stereo, 7 speakers Engine V-6, aluminum block and heads Bore x Stroke ...... 3.70x3.27in, 94.0x83.0mm Displacement ................................ 211 in3, 3456 cm3 Compression Ratio ........................................... 10.8:1 Fuel Delivery: port injection Supercharger: Edelbrock 1740 Maximum Boost Pressure ......................... 8.4psi Valve Gear: double overhead cams, 4 valves per cylinder, variable intake-and exhaust-valve timing Redline/Fuel Cutoff ................... 6800/6800 rpm Power .......................................... 400 hp @6800 rpm Torque ...................................... 310 lb-ft @3500 rpm Drivetrain Transmission: 6-speed manual Final-Drive Ratio ...... 3.78:1/3.24:1*, helical-gear limited-slip differential Chassis aluminum spaceframe Body Material: sheet-molded composite Steering rack-and-pinion with hydraulic power…

The eighth installment of the Forza Motorsport simulation-racing series for Microsoft’s Xbox gaming console has arrived. Many Car and Driver staffers are fans, and fortunately, we have a clandestine gaming setup that Ed. doesn’t know about. [He does now—Ed.] It hides in an abandoned cubicle once filled with broken office chairs. This black hole of productivity contains an Xbox Series X and sim-racing equipment from Logitech [see “Big Rig,” page 62]. We’ve had so much fun playing Forza Motorsport [During lunch, right?—Ed.] that we decided to take the return-to-office policy a step further one Friday evening—we didn’t go home. The $70 game allows players to run up to 24 hours at any of 20 racetracks. We went for Sahlen’s Six, a six-hour race at the 11-turn, 3.4-mile circuit at Watkins…

Ever since a wheezy 88-hp 2.3-liter four-banger appeared under the hood of the much-maligned Mustang II, a Pavlovian recoil occurs whenever someone says “four-cylinder Mustang.” But turbocharged 2.3-liter Mustangs are another matter—especially today. That formula got a rocky, carbureted 132-hp start in 1979, but things improved, and in 1986 the Mustang SVO made 200 horses. Cheap gas, better emissions controls, and stale CAFE targets put them to pasture as V-8s reasserted their dominance. But after almost 30 years on the bench, the turbo 2.3-liter four returned in the 2015 Mustang EcoBoost making a heady 310 horsepower. That engine carries on in today’s seventh generation 2024 Ford Mustang EcoBoost, with a 10-speed automatic the only transmission available. Ford substantially revised the engine, which now features direct and port fuel injection, a…

The Toyota GR Corolla’s assertive styling and trick all-wheel-drive system draw inspiration from rally cars, and the track-focused Morizo Edition, named for the pseudonym Akio Toyoda assumes when racing cars, commits to the motorsports bit. The rear jettisons some nonessentials: The seats, window motors, door speakers, and wiper all go (weirdly, the rear-seat floor mats stay). Weight-saving measures make the Morizo 84 pounds lighter than the Circuit trim. The turbocharged 1.6-liter threecylinder has 300 horsepower, as in other GR Corollas. The Morizo ekes out an extra 22 pound-feet of torque for a total of 295. The torque peak starts a bit higher in the rev range, at 3250 rpm (compared with 3000 rpm), and isn’t quite as broad, finishing at 4600 rpm (not 5500). In that rev range, the Morizo…

General Motors is banking on bigger being better when it comes to its flagship batteryelectric vehicles. After kicking things off with the GMC Hummer EV and the Chevy Silverado EV, GM is handing off the ball to Cadillac and the recently introduced Escalade IQ. As its name implies, the Escalade IQ brings a battery-powered twist to the luxury brand’s full-size SUV. While the Escalade IQ rides on a dedicated EV platform shared with the Hummer and Silverado, it has its own sense of style. We sat down with design manager Aaron Stich, who drafted the interior, and lead exterior designer Robin Krieg to learn more about how they penned an Escalade that’s like no other full-size SUV in GM’s model line. C/D: Why pursue such a different design from the…

The Logitech G Pro Racing wheel is the brand’s first direct-drive wheel. Direct-drive steering wheels mount directly to a motor instead of the belt or gear often found on lesser units. Good for up to eight pound-feet of maximum force, this leather-wrapped wheel offers a lot of resistance, more than tripling the force from previous Logitech wheels. The base can be attached to a table using the provided clamp or bolted directly to a sim rig. Logitech’s metal shift paddles use magnetic Hall-effect sensors to translate clicks to in-game gearchanges, and you can configure the G Pro’s LED shift-indicator lights to your liking. The wheel currently sells for $1000 with Xbox and PC or PlayStation and PC compatibility. The Logitech Pro Racing Pedals set is sold separately for $349. The pedals…

After the latest Nissan Z-car’s last-place comparisontest finish, we hoped the track-oriented model wearing the vaunted NISMO badge would bring redemption. That car has finally arrived, but Nissan is asking for a couple of big concessions if you want to snag one. Depending on the sting of inflation and your driving preferences, they might be deal breakers. Fortunately, Nissan’s go-fast division has significantly upped the Z’s game over the Performance model. Underfloor chassis braces add noticeable rigidity to the NISMO’s structure, while firmer bushings, larger dampers with revised tuning, and stiffer springs and anti-roll bars discipline its body motions and sharpen its reflexes. Larger 15.0-inch front brake rotors with four-piston calipers bring more security in braking zones (13.8-inch, two-piston rear units carry over from the Performance trim). Wider 19-inch Rays…

BMW rocked our world when it debuted the i4, the electric version of the 4-series and one of the few EVs ever to make our 10Best Cars list. The company then created the much larger but also impressive barge-bodied i7. Now BMW has taken all it learned and scaled down that luxohammer for middle management. The result, the 2024 i5 electric sedan, is just as captivating. The i5 will grace our shores in two flavors: eDrive40 and M60. The former nestles a single electric motor on the rear axle. It provides up to 335 horsepower and 295 pound-feet of torque—unless you engage launch control or pull the Boost paddle on the steering wheel, at which point twist briefly rises to 317 poundfeet. The i5 M60 adds a second motor for…

Lucid has won plenty of praise from us for the range and performance of several Air sedan variants. The Air Grand Touring managed 410 miles on a charge in our 75-mph highway test, the best of any EV, and ripped to 60 mph in just 3.0 seconds. The new rear-wheel-drive Air Pure can’t match its grander siblings on those two metrics, but it adds a fresh virtue: value. At $78,900, the rear-wheel-drive Pure is $5000 less than the all-wheel-drive version and looks enticingly priced against rivals that include the Porsche Taycan and the Tesla Model S. The entry-level Pure is the only reardriver in the Air lineup and is not nearly as quick as its multi-motor counterparts. But it’s still plenty swift by mortal standards, zipping to 60 mph in…