Innholdsfortegnelse for July 2022 i MotorTrend

I received a text from a Porsche PR person: “Hey, Jonny. We have something coming up I think Reggie Watts might be interested in: Meeting the guys who developed the Mission R concept race car and going for a ride in it.” Long story short, Porsche was conducting a press launch for notable influencers and had its corporate sights for the American influencer wave on Reggie Watts. (Watts, if you don’t know, is a musician, comedian, and band leader/de facto co-host for The Late Late Show with James Corden.) I’d met Watts three months earlier when he was our guest on the first episode of our future of the automobile podcast/vodcast, The InEVitable. Two things from that experience will always stand out to me. One is that after he left…

The Aston Martin DBX707 represents “a new level for the brand.” So said Andrew Tokley, senior manager of vehicle engineering, before turning the assembled journalists loose upon the unsuspecting denizens of Sardinia, Italy, in the storied marque’s new 697-hp SUV, the DBX707. We scribes were crammed in around two video monitors as Tokley and Aston CEO Tobias Moers explained what it took to transform the “regular” 550-hp DBX into this veritable monster of an SUV. My thoughts drifted to the previous evening’s dinner, where I happened to be seated across from Tokley. I asked him how much of the DBX707 is traceable to the fact former Mercedes-AMG boss Moers now runs the Aston show. He smiled and nodded. “We protected the platform from the beginning for a high-horsepower offering,” he…

Ferdinand Porsche’s first automotive invention was an electric wheel-hub motor, which he raced in Vienna in 1897. Motors are round, they fit nicely inside of wheels, and that’s where today’s EVs might put them if their added unsprung mass didn’t wreck ride quality. Two months ago, we covered a company seeking to solve this problem by using the motor as an active suspension element, lifting itself up over bumps and out of potholes. This month, we revisit Orbis Wheels, which aims to lighten the motor, brake, and wheel enough to eliminate any unsprung-mass penalty. When we first tested Orbis Wheels on the rear of a Civic Type R in 2018, they used tiny, lightweight, inexpensive high-speed/low-torque offset motors driving small pinion gears that engaged ring gears on the wheels for…

With the ID Buzz still approximately a year and a half away from hitting U.S. streets, VW and its longtime brand affiliates have time to make a few classic microbus and Vanagon variations happen. We’re talking Dokas (the Doppelkabine crew-cab pickups based on T1s and Vanagons), Porsche racing support vans, Westfalia campers, and more. To get you as excited as we are based on nothing but wild speculation, we whipped up these illustrations of the models we hope to see. ID Buzz Hippie Van Baby boomers, pay attention—just as you decorated all your VW New Beetles with flower power stickers and actual flowers in that model’s built-in dashboard vase back in 1999, get ready to snap up ID Buzz vans and deck them out like it’s 1969. Peace, love, save…

When Disneyland first opened its doors in 1955, its namesake provided a simple mission: “Here age relives fond memories of the past, and here youth may savor the challenge and promise of the future.” Perhaps no original attraction better encapsulated that ideal than Tomorrowland’s Autopia, which offered adult parkgoers a childlike feeling of discovery while providing many young “drivers” their first taste of driving themselves. Two decades after its opening, a young boy named Peter Menotti grabbed the steering wheel for the first time, took off down the track, and fell in love. “At the end of the track there’s the turn to the backstage area,” Menotti, now in his mid-50s, remembers, “and I always said one day it’s gonna be open and I’m gonna drive right off the track…

The newest Jeep Grand Cherokee’s stepwise launch has been like an infomercial where a presenter screams at you, “But wait, there’s more!” Beginning in 2021, the Grand Cherokee L, the first three-row Grand Cherokee, appeared alongside the old, two-row Grand Cherokee to critical acclaim and buyer confusion. The L paved the way for the new two-row, which appeared later that year to replace the old model, bringing the bigger Grand Cherokee family up to date—but wait, there’s more! In a “call-in-the-next-10-minutes-and-you’ll-also-get-a-plug-and-battery” moment, Jeep now adds a third Grand Cherokee: the 4xe plug-in hybrid. That’s pronounced “four-by-e,” like “four-by-four.” Only available in the shorter two-row body, the 4xe represents “more,” delivering better fuel economy and power than Jeep’s gas-fed V-6 and V-8 engines. The 4xe throws down 375 hp and 470…

Suddenly, the Tesla Model X looks old and boring. Following on the heels of the impressively engineered mid-engine Emira supercar, the all-new Lotus Eletre—say “ee-LET-truh”—is a sharp, focused take on a high-performance electric SUV. It goes on sale in the U.S. by 2025, just five years before Lotus promises to build nothing but EVs. The headline details: dual motors producing at least 600 hp, a 100-kWh battery pack, a sub-3.0-second 0–60 time, and a top speed of 161 mph. Range should be about 330 miles on the EPA cycle, and the Eletre’s 800-volt architecture means 248 miles of range can be added in 20 minutes on a 350-kW charger. A multilink air suspension and continuously variable damping is fitted at all four corners. Active anti-roll bars, rear-wheel steering, torque vectoring,…

Meet the Grecale, the vehicle that might finally restore modern Maserati’s mojo. Yes, it’s a compact SUV rather than a modern take on the elegant coupes that made the brand famous. But when 80 percent of the mass-market passenger vehicles sold in the U.S. are SUVs, the Grecale is right on point. The Grecale is clearly aimed at Porsche’s Macan. It’s slightly bigger but has a similarly sporty personality—but that’s not to say it’s simply an Italian clone. Far from it. The Grecale, which is related to the Alfa Romeo Stelvio, has a character all its own. It’s also far more spacious inside than the cramped Macan, and it has the most upscale interior ambiance among its competitive set. Yes, the Porsche is beautifully finished and offers a plethora of…

The fabulous Genesis GV70 won not only our hearts and minds but also our coveted Golden Calipers. The 3.5T version that powered that victory had the 375-hp twin-turbo V-6, but with gas prices on the rise, the four-cylinder 2.5T is sure to garner plenty of interest. And with one available to test, we wanted to see if fewer cylinders and less horsepower might dampen our enthusiasm. Although it’s less mighty, the 2.5T isn’t necessarily the lesser SUV. Sure, some items standard with the V-6 are optional here—genuine leather, extra power seat adjustments, and the like—but there are only a few nice-to-haves exclusive to the upper trim, including top-spec Nappa hides, a head-up display, and the nifty 3-D cluster. In all, the GV70 2.5T doesn’t feel any less sumptuous than the…

I’m cinched tightly into a narrow carbon-fiber tub, looking down the racetrack at the braking markers for a tight right-hand turn. There is a loud, urgent, omnipresent buzz in my ears: the 1.5-liter single-turbo V-6 hybrid, idling at 5,000 rpm. Pirelli slicks tower just beyond my knuckles as I clench the butterfly-style steering wheel. “Radio check.” A voice crackles through the speakers in my helmet. “I hear you,” I confirm. “Right, you’re good to go. It’s best to feather the throttle a bit in the first four gears. Otherwise, all you get is wheelspin.” Deep breath. Tug at the shift paddle. First gear. Off the brake and tentatively squeeze the accelerator. The revs zing. A twitch of the tail. Second, third, fourth, fifth. The steering wheel’s shift lights strobe as…

THE ENGINE SPINS SMOOTHLY TO THE REV LIMITER AND GENERATES THIRD-ORDER HARMONICS SIMILAR TO THOSE OF A V-12. Yes, it’s a plug-in hybrid with a turbocharged V-6 engine. But the only people who are going to hate on the Ferrari 296 GTB, who will loudly proclaim it a betrayal of all that’s holy at the house of the Prancing Horse, are those who will never get the chance to drive one. Because if they did, they’d know: The 296 GTB is one of the greatest mid-engine Ferrari sports cars ever built. This beautifully proportioned and surfaced car certainly looks the part, with subtle homages to the mid-engine 250LM from the 1960s, including the voluptuous rear haunches and a vertical rear screen shrouded by flying buttresses extending from the B-pillar “bridge”…

American enthusiasts heartbroken by the decision to keep the tiny Toyota GR Yaris, a furious, street-legal rally car, from our shores have been thrown a very juicy bone: The one-size-up, just-as-feral GR Corolla arrives in America later this year. This most monstrous of Corollas gets a more powerful iteration of the GR Yaris’ 1.6-liter turbocharged I-3 to offset its greater size and curb weight. Now boosted by 43 hp and 8 lb-ft to 300 hp and 273 lb-ft, what was already the most powerful production three-cylinder engine in the world is even more so. Peak power doesn’t hit until 6,500 rpm, and peak torque holds from 3,000 to 5,550 rpm, so midrange performance should be as strong as its will to rev out. Additional GR Yaris gear carried over includes…

Toyota’s new bZ4X is simple, approachable, and very likable, an EV that’s futuristic in appearance but screwdriver-simple to operate. First-time EV buyers will probably love it, but experienced electronauts might lament its lack of top-tier EV features. The bZ4X’s most unusual trait is that the flat-screen instrument panel sits above the steering wheel rim, as opposed to being framed by it. The driving position is actually quite conventional, though, and once we got used to the view, we liked having the speedometer up high, close to our line of sight. The bZ4X also features a large infotainment screen, a boxy cargo area, a roomy back seat, and lots of big, clearly marked buttons—pretty much what you’d find in a garden-variety gas-powered SUV. Aside from the button for regenerative brakes, all…

Early in my career, one of my editors bluntly declared: “Mate, all cars are shitboxes until proven otherwise.” Around the same time, a veteran colleague offered an alternative take: “I want every car to be great,” he said. “And I’m disappointed if they’re not.” Glass half full, not glass half empty—passion, with pragmatism. That struck a chord, and along with considering how well a vehicle performs the function its creators intended, it remains a core tenet of my approach to testing and evaluating new cars, trucks, and SUVs. Here are the ones that disappointed me the most over the past 35 years. Pontiac Trans-Am GTA Any last doubts evaporated when the brakes actually caught fire on the way down Angeles Crest Highway that sunny afternoon in mid-1989: The Pontiac Firebird…

… BUT PATIENCE IS STILL REQUIRED FOR THE AMERICAN VERSION Volkswagen has threatened to resurrect the Microbus—colloquially known as the Bus—for more than 20 years. Four concept vans, a rebadged Dodge Grand Caravan, and an emissions scandal later, VW has finally revealed the production version of its all-electric 2024 ID Buzz. The only hitch: U.S. buyers still must wait to get their hands on it. You can’t buy the Euro-spec ID Buzz you see here stateside, and the American version won’t be ready until 2024. Even so, there’s a lot to get excited about. Understanding the Microbus of yesterday goes a long way toward understanding the ID Buzz of today. In short, right alongside the Beetle, the Bus—variously called the Type 2, Vanagon, and Eurovan by VW during its 53…

“Here it comes,” I call out to photographer William Walker. “Yeah, there’s no one driving.” As Walker’s shutter rapid-fires and the upfitted Chrysler Pacifica plug-in hybrid electric vehicle pulls up to where I’m standing on a residential cul-de-sac in Chandler, Arizona, I realize my mistake. There’s no one in the driver’s seat, but someone—something—is definitely driving. We’ve traveled from Los Angeles to the Phoenix suburbs to experience the type of vehicle that might just put us automotive journalists out of business: the Waymo One. You might remember it as the Google Self-Driving Car Project we first experienced in 2015, but it’s now an independent company wholly owned by Google’s parent company, Alphabet. We’re here to explore two fundamental questions: How well does it work, and how the hell do we…

Just one of these mega cars existing in a given year would be epic. Having all three right now? The Lamborghini Huracán STO, the Mercedes-AMG GT Black Series, and the new Porsche 911 GT3? It’s like a supermoon combined with a solar eclipse, in a leap year. Goodness, what an embarrassment of automotive riches. With their high-output engines (each making more than 120 hp per liter), standard rear-wheel drive with rear-steering axles, aggressive aerodynamics, carbon-ceramic brakes the size of manhole covers, track-compound tires, and near record-breaking performance, this spectacular trio is as good as it gets in the supercar world. Consider this a battle among winged Greek deities Eros, Hermes, and Nike. There are many fundamental differences among them. The Mercedes-AMG GT Black Series has a front-mounted mid-engine, the Lamborghini…

Times have been tough at McLaren Automotive. Last year, the supercar company—founded by former McLaren Group boss Ron Dennis to cash in on the cachet of one of the most successful Formula 1 teams—was teetering on the brink of bankruptcy. But it stabilized with a string of dramatic financial moves, which included a major cash injection from shareholders and the sale of the famous McLaren Technology Center. Then it all went quiet. No replacement was announced for McLaren Automotive CEO Mike Flewitt, who quit abruptly last October after eight years in the driver’s seat. And the 2021 launch of the Artura, the new mid-engine McLaren supercar with a hybrid powertrain remarkably similar in layout to that of the new Ferrari 296 GTB, was pushed to July 2022. Still waters run…