Innholdsfortegnelse for September/October 2024 i Car and Driver

Chevy is adamant that the LT7 V-8 of the ZR1 is not just a Z06’s LT6 with a pair of turbos bolted on. That’s because the brand developed the two engines in tandem rather than successively. Even so, there’s no denying the relationship between these powerplants. Both displace 5.5 liters, share an identical block structure, and use what’s effectively the same forged steel flat-plane crankshaft. The duo even had a single code name: Gemini, an ode to the NASA spacecraft of the mid-1960s. Developing the engines concurrently eliminated any potential compromises the LT7 may have otherwise endured. For instance, the six-stage oil pump in the Z06 purposely included provisions for an unused seventh stage of scavenging. This contingency allows Chevy to use the same pump in the ZR1, which needs…

Schumacher. Vettel. Hamilton. Chestnut. Ioniq. They’re all dynasties, though when we started this award honoring the best in electrification back in 2021, we might have set some different ground rules had we known Hyundai would three-peat with variants of the same machine. Unlike the consumer-grade Ioniq 5 (2022 EV of the Year) and Ioniq 6 (2023), this year’s winner, the Ioniq 5 N, delivers a genuine enthusiast experience with an electric vehicle that can hit you in the feels like the a 1980s G-body Porsche 911 Club Sport. Electric vehicles excel in accel, but their mass is typically massive, and their general lack of emotion—no stirring noises, vibration, feedback, or torque interruption—can leave you as numb as a laudanum martini. Gather a bunch of them as we did for this…

SILVERADO: I can’t believe I got parked here next to you. I hope none of my friends see me. CYBERTRUCK: Because you’ll look so banal next to the most desirable truck on earth? SILVERADO: No, because you’re so dorky. You’re like if Dungeons & Dragons had a steering wheel. CYBERTRUCK: Ha. I don’t even have a steering wheel. It’s called a squircle, and it’s less than one turn lock to lock. SILVERADO: See what I mean? In the Bob Seger song catalog, I’m “Like a Rock” and you’re “Shame on the Moon.” CYBERTRUCK: I’ve never heard of that one. SILVERADO: It’s a deep cut. Like the ones people get from your bodywork. CYBERTRUCK: I’m stainless steel, baby. Impervious to dents and scratches. Pretty much the toughest skin on any truck.…

NOT SINCE PORSCHE BLEW air-cooling out the back door in 1999 with the 996-generation 911 has there been a change that upset more Porsche fans than the 911’s hybridization. Fans, however, are not necessarily buyers, and those with the means will not mind the 21st-century tech one bit, because if Porsche didn’t tell anyone this updated 992.2 was a hybrid, no one would know by how it drives. The powertrain at issue consists of a new 3.6-liter flat-six, which operates in perfect stoichiometry (ideal air-fuel ratio) all the time, with an electrified turbocharger and an eight-speed dual-clutch gearbox with an integral electric motor. For now, it’s limited to the GTS, which previously employed a jazzed-up version of the twin-turbo 3.0-liter in the base Carrera. The three-letter suffix is still the…

THE MERCEDES-AMG GT isn’t on its own branch of the family tree anymore. Moving away from its beginnings as a stand-alone sports car, the second-generation GT now shares most of its underpinnings with the SL-class convertible. It’s grown in nearly every dimension, and while it’s still a blast, it delivers a different experience. The old GT practically shrink-wrapped itself around the driver, but this German has been hitting the bierwurst between generations. The second-gen GT is 6.7 inches longer, 1.8 inches wider, and 2.6 inches taller than its forebear. It’s also 546 pounds heavier than the previous generation’s base model, weighing in at 4245 pounds. A significant side benefit to this embiggening, though, is space. The interior feels far less compact, and there’s now enough cabin area for an optional…

EVERY NEW CAR IS a pretty good first date. It’s the second and third dates when annoyances start to reveal themselves. Add in some competition, and it becomes easier to separate the one you want to settle down with from the rest. When the BMW 540i xDrive visited our office, we were charmed by its incredible inline-six, an engine free of harshness or bad vibes. It’s strong too, with 375 horsepower giving the 4365-pound 540i the ability to leap to 60 mph in 4.0 seconds. The powerful six has a good mate in its eight-speed automatic partner. Gear-changes are smooth, and downshifts come quickly. There’s a slickness to the entire powertrain, as if friction does not apply. It pays dividends in fuel economy, with the 3.0-liter returning 37 mpg in…

YOU THINK YOU REMEMBER THIS car. You don’t. What your memory is summoning is the original ’60s-era Lotus Elan that was the size of a beehive and so fragile that it could be demolished by, well, bees. Under review here is the Norfolk company’s second shot at Elanism. It resembled the first like a football resembles a soup tureen. The Elan M100 arrived in the States for 1991 and was, from every angle, a soothing Peter Stevens moonbeam, a melted two-seat wedge with a smiley face, gorgeous even with lid erect. At the time, it was as if a Soviet space chimp had landed on a rooftop in Muncie, Indiana. “Well, hell, it’s cute as a bug,” onlookers cooed. “But what do people do with such things?” Lotus USA never…

To assess whether EVs are ready for prime time, we’ve taken them on 1000-mile trips and driven them far off the beaten path. The result is always affected by charging infrastructure. EVs are not for everyone. Some aren’t even available in every state. But they are chipping away at market share, one ion at a time. Now that we’ve crowned a performance-focused EV of the Year, we wanted to know whether an enthusiast in a regular place (i.e., not the center of the EV world, more commonly called California) could drive to a track day and enjoy themselves. The short answer is: It depends. As with any other trip you plan to take in an electric vehicle, 10 minutes of research helps ensure success. We departed Ann Arbor the night…

STARTING A SUCCESSFUL CAR COMPANY is hard, as Henrik Fisker well knows. After working at BMW and Aston Martin, the talented designer struck out with Fisker Coachbuild (the Fisker Tramonto and the Latigo CS), Fisker Automotive (the Karma), and VLF Automotive (the Force 1 V10). The latest endeavor, Fisker Inc., produced the Ocean electric. We sampled the Ocean One, a limited-production launch edition equipped with everything on the top-of-the-line Extreme model, plus a few unique features. That means two-motor all-wheel drive, a total of 564 horsepower and 543 pound-feet of torque, a 106.5-kWh battery promising 360 miles of EPA range, and solar cells on the roof. This two-row SUV is a little longer and wider than a Volvo XC60. It looks aggressive, with plenty of bumps and grinds in the…

Sometimes you just need to get away. Maybe from the daily grind, maybe from civilization itself. But that doesn’t mean you have to rough it. In search of a capable yet comfortable mount, a discerning explorer might wonder: Can today’s luxury SUVs break serious trail without shedding their bumpers in the process? Lexus believes the answer is yes when it comes to its 2024 GX550, which builds on the already hardy bones of the redesigned Toyota Land Cruiser. That this mid-size SUV also introduces an adventure-themed Overtrail model to the brand suggests it rivals one of the go-to nameplates in upscale overlanding, the Land Rover Defender. Like all new GXs, Overtrail models are powered by a twin-turbo 3.4-liter V-6 backed by a 10-speed automatic transmission and a full-time four-wheel-drive system with…

Don’t fear, a flat-six is still the heart of the 911 GTS. It’s even grown to 3.6 liters from the outgoing GTS’s 3.0. And while it loses one turbo, it gains two electric motors: one in the gearbox for filling in torque, the other for spooling up the turbo. Both harvest excess energy. Peak boost is up from 18.6 to 26.1 psi. The engine also ditches its accessory drive, so there’s no belt; ancillaries that weren’t already electric have been made so (the A/C compressor) or are now internal (the water pump). The on-demand character of the drive motor negated the need for variable valve lift to broaden the torque curve, so efficient finger followers found their way into the DOHC valvetrain. But the 478-hp engine makes just five horses…

THE LIST OF CURRENT vehicles that maintain a real spiritual connection to their decades-old predecessors is a short one. The Porsche 911? Undoubtedly. The Jeep Wrangler? That’s another one. Based on a brief drive of a pre-production version of the latest Europe-spec Volkswagen GTI, we believe it’s worthy of the same claim. Set to launch in the U.S. in early 2025, the new GTI is technically a mid-cycle refresh of the eighth-generation GTI. Dubbed the Mk 8.5 in Volkswagen parlance, the update brings a number of mild tweaks: redesigned lighting elements, restyled bumpers, new 19-inch wheels, and, curiously, an illuminated VW emblem in the grille. In Europe, the turbocharged 2.0-liter inline-four gets a small power bump, but the U.S. engine remains at 241 horsepower and 273 pound-feet. If there is…

A CROWN JEWEL The Toyota Crown Signia is a hybrid SUV or lifted wagon, depending on how you look at these things. A 240-hp powertrain—a 2.5-liter inline-four and three electric motors—propels the Signia to 60 mph in 7.0 seconds, and the car’s chassis managed 0.82 g on the skidpad. Both are decent figures for a vehicle focused on isolation and a smooth ride. And it’s precisely the car’s tranquil, almost Lexus-like demeanor that we enjoy, along with an equally comfy interior and a relatively low base price of $45,040. One downside is that the CVT keeps the engine droning, and we couldn’t match Toyota’s 37-mpg highway estimate on our 75-mph highway loop, where the Signia returned 32 mpg. Regardless, this is a wholesale upgrade over the departing Venza, which had…

EXCEED THE SPEED LIMIT in one of the 27 European Union countries, and you may get some pushback from your vehicle. As of July, new cars sold in the EU must include a speed-warning device that alerts drivers if they exceed the posted limit. At a minimum, vehicles must include acoustic or haptic speed warnings, though the European Commission gives automakers the latitude to supplant those passive measures with either an active accelerator pedal that applies counterpressure against the driver’s foot or a governor that restricts the vehicle’s speed to the legal limit. Drivers can override or deactivate these admonishments, but the devices must default to their active state at startup. Now California is looking to emulate the EU with legislation that would mandate in-car speed-warning devices. The bill, SB…

Gone are the days when an EV in the driveway marked you as the neighborhood eccentric. And although early sales projections have revealed themselves to be more than a tad optimistic, electric vehicles continue to roll off the line and into the garages of everyday consumers. Which brings us to the 2024 Chevrolet Equinox EV LT AWD and the 2024 Volkswagen ID.4 Pro S AWD, a pair of family-friendly EVs aimed right down the center of Main Street, U.S.A. In addition to all-wheel drive, both feature EPA range estimates of over 250 miles and the crossover body style that has all but eliminated the sedan as the vehicle of choice for suburbanites. While neither had the fun factor to win EV of the Year, the competition revealed one of them…

WE NEGLECTED TO CHECK THE WEATHER FORECAST BEFORE WE HEADED TO NINE MILE CANYON ROAD, ROUGHLY 160 MILES NORTHEAST OF LOS ANGELES. IF WE HAD, WE WOULD HAVE SEEN ABNORMALLY HIGH DAILY TEMPS OF 115 DEGREES. HOT ENOUGH TO GET SOME SAUNA-ESQUE NOSTRIL BURN WHEN BREATHING IT IN. It’s not like McLaren’s $333,040 750S, a thoroughly reworked and optimized 720S, needs any extra heat, because it’s already packing plenty of its own. Its twin-turbo DOHC V-8 now makes 740 horsepower, 30 more than before, and most of the rear end of the car is metal mesh to let the excess heat from its 4.0-liter furnace escape without melting the bodywork. In fact, the notch cut out of the center of the new, 20 percent larger rear wing is there because…

THE M5’S NUMBERS ARE WHAT get your attention first. Acceleration? A conservative claim of 3.4 seconds to 60 mph (we managed 2.6 with the 2022 M5 CS). Top speed? With the optional BMW Driver’s package, 190 mph. Horsepower? There are 717 ponies. Torque? A total of 738 pound-feet churned up by the twin-turbo V-8 and the supplementary electric motor. An electric motor in the M5? Yep. Like the XM, the new M5 is a plug-in hybrid. A 14.8-kWh lithium-ion battery powers a 194-hp motor housed within the transmission, enabling an estimated 25 miles on electricity alone. We’re on Austria’s Salzburgring racetrack for a taste of the seventh-gen M5. With the 577-hp V-8 burbling at idle, a unique pre-gearing stage of the eight-speed gearbox momentarily boosts the e-motor’s available torque from…

THE INEOS GRENADIER Quartermaster flies the flags of many nations. The British-owned chemical conglomerate developed the truck with help from Austria’s Magna Steyr, which builds the Mercedes-Benz G-class (and, previously, the mighty Pinzgauer military ute of the Swiss Army). The vehicle is assembled in a former Mercedes-Benz plant in Hambach, France. A BMW-sourced turbocharged 3.0-liter inline-six with 281 horsepower and 332 pound-feet of torque hides under the hood. That output isn’t enough to make the roughly 5900-pound Quartermaster accelerate like a BMW with the same smooth-as-honey straight-six. Ineos claims the truck can reach 62 mph in 8.8 seconds, which means it would lose a drag race to a Ford Maverick hybrid. The Quartermaster’s claimed 14-mpg highway fuel economy is slightly worse than the 720-hp Ford F-150 Raptor R’s. However, the…