Tuesday 31 January 2017
Final Rolls-Royce Phantom Sails into the Velvet Blue Yonder
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The seventh-generation Rolls-Royce Phantom has sailed off into history. After a life that has spanned the entire length of LeBron James’s NBA career and seen newborn babies age into their teenage years, the ultimate Rolls-Royce limo is finally ready for retirement. The craftsmen in Goodwood gave the final Phantom a nautical theme, which is only appropriate for a vehicle that the company considers the grandest luxury land yacht of them all.
The final Phantom is customized to recapture the grandeur of an ocean liner from the 1930s. The interior features multiple shades of Powder Blue leather embroidered to convey the motion of the open sea. The lambswool carpets were cut to mimic a wake, and the wooden dash is precisely inlayed with a landscape of a ship powering past a mountainous coast backlit by a sunset. Expanding on the motif, the clocks were designed to look like ocean liner radio clocks, complete with a rotating bezel up front that displays all 24 time zones. Blue Velvet paint covers the exterior, while pinstripes along the beltline and on the tires complete the nautical look.
The Phantom has been the foundation for the brand’s rebirth after its 1998 purchase by BMW. It has had multiple iterations and special editions throughout its long life. Since its debut in 2003, the Phantom was offered in extended-wheelbase, coupe, and drophead coupe variations. A refresh in 2012 gave the stately V-12 sedan a slightly updated look.
Rolls-Royce may be sending the Phantom to the graveyard, but it has future plans in mind. In addition to the upcoming Project Cullinan SUV, the company has already announced that a future Phantom is in the works. With the Wraith and Dawn covering the coupe and convertible-coupe segments, the next Phantom is expected to be offered solely in sedan form. It also will use an all-new aluminum architecture, and is due to appear in 2018.
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We Subject GMC’s Non-Minivan to Our Entire Range of Tests and Compare It to Its Rivals
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January 31, 2017 at 1:41 pm by Drew Dorian | Photography by Michael Simari
The Acadia’s standard infotainment amenities, handsome styling, and more than adequate performance should make it a family favorite. Unfortunately, it’s plagued by mediocre fuel-economy ratings, poor real-world efficiency, and snug third-row quarters. READ MORE ››
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Monday 30 January 2017
Cell Block: GM and Honda Unite for U.S. Fuel-Cell Manufacturing Starting in 2020
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As cars like the Toyota Mirai and the upcoming Honda Clarity Fuel Cell demonstrate, hydrogen fuel-cell technology in passenger cars is ready for prime time. But as the expensive sticker prices on those vehicles underscore, their greater cost of manufacturing is just one of many hurdles to overcome before these vehicles become more than a narrow subset of the green-car niche.
Although several automakers have already partnered as groups to share in research-and-development costs for hydrogen fuel cells—Toyota and BMW, for one example, and Mercedes-Benz, Ford, and Nissan/Renault, for another—this is touted as the first fuel-cell-related manufacturing joint venture. The agreement will address manufacturing cost concerns through greater economies of scale and common sourcing.
Although that’s an overstatement at best, both automakers have a long history with hydrogen fuel-cell vehicle development. GM mentioned its first Electrovan test vehicle from 1966 (shown above) and has demonstrated fuel-cell powertrains in a number of innovative vehicle forms over the years. One recent example is the military-grade Chevrolet Colorado ZH2—although it has been nearly 10 years since it built 100 Chevrolet Equinox fuel-cell test vehicles. And GM’s E-Flex powertrain technology, later renamed Voltec, in the Chevrolet Volt was originally conceived to accommodate fuel cells.
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As cars like the Toyota Mirai and the upcoming Honda Clarity Fuel Cell demonstrate, hydrogen fuel-cell technology in passenger cars is ready for prime time. But as the expensive sticker prices on those vehicles underscore, their greater cost of manufacturing is just one of many hurdles to overcome before these vehicles become more than a narrow subset of the green-car niche.
To address this problem, General Motors and Honda are teaming up to manufacture core fuel-cell hardware together at GM’s Brownstown Township, Michigan, facility, which will mass-produce components beginning around 2020. Each company is investing $42.5 million into the venture, which effectively will function as one company with fully shared development teams. It is anticipated that the effort will create nearly 100 jobs.
The components made at the Brownstown facility, which already assembles battery packs for a number of GM plug-in hybrids, including the Chevrolet Volt, will include a downsized next-generation fuel-cell stack.
Although several automakers have already partnered as groups to share in research-and-development costs for hydrogen fuel cells—Toyota and BMW, for one example, and Mercedes-Benz, Ford, and Nissan/Renault, for another—this is touted as the first fuel-cell-related manufacturing joint venture. The agreement will address manufacturing cost concerns through greater economies of scale and common sourcing.
Fuel cells harness a chemical reaction between oxygen and hydrogen (with the hydrogen stored typically in carbon-fiber tanks, at high pressures of 10,000 psi), producing electricity, water, and some heat. The fuel-cell “stacks,” where this reaction occurs between membrane-like layers, rely on very precise manufacturing and metallurgic techniques and have until now depended on the precious metal platinum.
The Path to Making Hydrogen Mainstream?
Dan Nicholson, GM’s global powertrain vice president, noted the millions of miles covered in both of the automakers’ efforts and said that it has all helped set a starting point for something bigger. The establishment of the facility, according to Nicholson, “officially marks the arrival of fuel cells. They’re not a science project anymore; they’re a mainstream alternative-energy choice.”
Although that’s an overstatement at best, both automakers have a long history with hydrogen fuel-cell vehicle development. GM mentioned its first Electrovan test vehicle from 1966 (shown above) and has demonstrated fuel-cell powertrains in a number of innovative vehicle forms over the years. One recent example is the military-grade Chevrolet Colorado ZH2—although it has been nearly 10 years since it built 100 Chevrolet Equinox fuel-cell test vehicles. And GM’s E-Flex powertrain technology, later renamed Voltec, in the Chevrolet Volt was originally conceived to accommodate fuel cells.
Honda aims for two-thirds of its global sales to be electrified vehicles by 2030—with fuel cells an important part of that effort. It also builds on several decades of fuel-cell-vehicle development. Its FCX minicar was originally tested in Japan in 1999 and in a few U.S. fleets beginning in 2002. Its FCX Clarity was offered as consumer lease on a limited scale, and Honda will soon launch its Clarity Fuel Cell, a hydrogen fuel-cell vehicle that will go 366 miles between refueling stops. Honda has announced a $369-per-month 36-month lease for the Clarity Fuel Cell, while Toyota is offering its rival model, the Mirai, at $349 a month.
While manufacturing costs have been one major drag on hydrogen-powered vehicles until now, the GM-Honda announcement didn’t address the second stumbling block: infrastructure. Hydrogen refueling stations have typically cost $1 million or more per station, and while costs continue to decline somewhat, establishing more hydrogen refueling points is a far more expensive and daunting endeavor than, say, electric-vehicle fast charging.
For now, because of the extremely limited number of refueling locations, fuel-cell models are largely constrained to California, where the state’s zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) program has encouraged such vehicles. According to the U.S. Department of Energy’s Alternative Fuels Data Center, there are 33 publicly accessible hydrogen stations in the United States, with all but three of those in California.
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ZR1 and Mid-Engine C8 Corvettes Spied Together in Cold-Weather Tests
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January 30, 2017 at 4:45 pm by Don Sherman | Photography by KGP Photography
Fresh spy photos reveal that engineers for the Chevrolet Corvette are making the best of adverse traction and temperature conditions to complete their tests of the imminent C7 ZR1 and its successor, the mid-engined C8 Zora that we expect will break cover sometime next year.
Seeing both generations in the same shot should convince hard-core doubters that Chevrolet is serious about sliding the cabin forward to clear space in the middle of the Corvette for the variety of engines planned for the near future.
Peeking through the camo reveals slotted brake rotors instead of crack-prone cross-drilled designs. The rear view shows a low-mounted transversely oriented muffler, leaving ample trunk space behind and above the engine and transaxle. Also, there’s no evidence here that Chevy has any intention of satisfying some die-hard Corvette fans by returning to round taillamps.
Meanwhile, preparations are proceeding at the Corvette’s Bowling Green, Kentucky, manufacturing plant. Recent investments encompass moving aluminum spaceframe manufacturing in-house ($52 million), relocation and expansion of the Performance Build Center engine facility ($47.5 million), a new paint shop ($439 million), plus $290 million for new assembly technologies and processes and the construction of a solar array capable of generating 1.2 million kilowatt-hours of energy annually.
General Motors has just announced that the Bowling Green facility will shut down at the end of 2017 model production for about three months, beginning in June, to complete this work. When operations resume, the plant will first produce the 2018 model of the seventh-generation Corvette. With a total investment splurge topping $1 billion, it’s clear that GM is serious about invading the supercar realm with the C8.
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Mercedes Awards Itself an A: This One Will Come to the United States
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Mercedes-Benz design has reached the next level. The wild surface treatment of the current A-class is history, and the next generation will feature smoother lines and a more purist appearance. At a press event in Sindelfingen, Germany, Daimler opened up its design department to show us the company’s design process—and a few ideas for its future direction, which chief designer Gorden Wagener summarizes as “sensual purity.”
The event was crowned by the unveiling of a sculpture that provided a fairly accurate hint at the next generation of the A-class. It’s no mistake that the red metallic sculpture seems to hide a four-door notchback sedan: The company is preparing just such a model, and it is destined for the U.S. market, where sedans sell better than hatchbacks (unless those hatchbacks are called crossovers). The A-class sedan will join several other models built atop the same front-wheel-drive platform, known as MFA2. There will also be an A-class hatchback, a CLA-class, a GLA-class, another B-class, and a rugged-looking crossover SUV that could be called GLB and that will resemble the 2012 Ener-G-Force, downsized to fit the compact platform’s size.
We saw the A-class sedan at a recent safety-related event in Daimler’s new crash center in Sindelfingen. Although it was fully covered to be protected from curious onlookers, the short trunk and the pronounced molded-in rear spoiler were clearly visible. While the A-class sedan’s flanks feature smooth lines, there is a calculated provocation: the Rennsport grille, similar to the one on the AMG GT R, which was itself inspired by the grille of the classic 300SL Panamericana.
We expect to see the A-class sedan on sale in the U.S. in 2018 as a 2019 model. It will be more spacious and practical than the CLA, and it could look rather exciting next to the conservatively styled Volkswagen Jetta and Audi A3. Power will come from turbocharged four-cylinder engines, and it will be priced slightly below the CLA, which starts at $33,325.
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More Details Emerge on Honda’s S2000 Revival
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We’ve been reporting on rumors of Honda’s on-again, off-again, on-again plans to create a three-pronged lineup of sports cars for some time. In 2015, the first of that threesome arrived in the form of the S660 microcoupe powered by a mid-mounted turbocharged 660-cc inline-3. Then last year, the long-awaited NSX supercar, with the mid-mounted twin-turbo 3.5-liter V-6 aided by a few electric motors, appeared at the top of the automaker’s lineup under its Acura brand.
The big question inside Honda’s product-planning department has been whether to add a third sports car that would slot in between the S660 and the NSX. The main issue, according to one Honda source, is that, since the S660 is Japan only and the NSX is an Acura, that leaves U.S. Honda dealers with no sports car to sell. Given that the United States is the company’s biggest market by far, it makes sense for a sports car to be created for U.S. Honda dealers. Now more details about that car—a revival of the S2000—have emerged.
Honda launched the original S2000 on its 50th anniversary, in 1998. Twenty years on, it’s time to do it again. Our source reveals that Honda will commemorate its 70th anniversary, in 2018, by unveiling an S2000 replacement along with an RC213V-S superbike.
The S2000 replacement was to employ the engine from the Civic Type R, but that plan is no more. “Sure, the Type R’s 2.0-liter turbo is a great engine,” said our source, “but by 2018, that would be old news. We need to take things forward. As a celebratory model, the sports car must be special, so it must have a new powertrain and a unique chassis.”
Japan’s Holiday Auto magazine reported that the next-gen S2000 will employ a two-stage electric boosting system. Similar to a technology used by Mitsubishi, the system consists of an electrically driven supercharger, a conventional turbocharger, a bypass valve, and other components. Tests by Mitsubishi showed that such systems are not only compact and lightweight but achieve better fuel efficiency than current twin-turbos and nearly eliminate turbo lag. So throttle response is expected to be sharper than current turbos.
According to our source, a design almost identical to Mitsubishi’s system will be bolted onto a longitudinally mounted 2.0-liter inline-4, making in excess of 320 horsepower. We’re also told that the S2000 will be fitted with an eight-speed dual-clutch transaxle to optimize weight distribution.
We can expect to see the S2000 replacement unveiled in the fall of 2018 at either the Paris auto show in September or the Los Angeles auto show in November, with the latter most likely. Expect the revived roadster to have a sticker price somewhere in the neighborhood of $50,000.
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Mustache Tax: Magnum’s Ferrari 308 Sells for $181K
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It can be hard to quantify the extra value a celebrity connection gives to a classic car. At the top end, it’s plenty—the Porsche 911 that Steve McQueen drove during the opening sequence of the movie Le Mans sold for nearly $1.4 million back in 2011, a hefty supplement even given the increasingly daft prices attached to early air-cooled 911s.
Now we know that Tom Selleck has a smaller but still significant effect, with one of the Ferrari 308GTS Quattrovalvole cars used for the filming of Magnum, P.I., having sold for $181,500 at auction last week. That’s about double what you could expect to pay for a similar 308 with less stardust, proof of the still unarguable cool of Selleck’s mustachioed private eye.
For those not old enough to have experienced its lurid appeal, or who have worked hard to wipe their memories, Magnum, P.I., was a hugely popular 1980s TV show set in Hawaii, with Selleck playing the eponymous crime-solving hero, Thomas Sullivan Magnum IV. He lived on an absentee millionaire’s private estate and, for reasons that were never quite explained or certainly not quite remembered, got to drive said millionaire’s Ferrari 308 between assignments, assignations, and even occasional low-budget car chases. It also featured heavily in the opening credits, which we urge you to watch. Right now.
According to auctioneer Bonhams, there were actually several of these cars, with Magnum progressing from an early carbureted 308GTS to a GTSi and then finally moving to the QV in 1984; the car sold at auction was used throughout the 1984 and ’85 seasons. About five cars of each series were used in production, split between those used for close-ups and action, with this car believed to be one of the pretty camera stars.
After being retired—shortly before Magnum himself was—this 308 had only two owners and, to judge from the auction pictures, lives up to its description of being in near immaculate condition, with 35,000 miles showing and receipts for a $5000 service in 2015. It was sold at Bonhams’ Scottsdale auction last week, and we hope its new owner will attempt to re-create Magnum’s trademark grass-spewing takeoff.
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The Love Affair Continues: American Infrastructure and Where We’ll Go Next
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How bad are the highways, bridges, and roads that crisscross this great nation of America? They are in such need of attention that, during the long national nightmare that was our recent election (the most seemingly divided this country has been since Reconstruction), out of all the things that our two presidential candidates butted heads over—Russian operatives and tax returns, accusations of terrible misdeeds, and everything else—just about the only thing that they agreed on was the state of our nation’s infrastructure.
Finally, unity.
“We are going to rebuild our highways, bridges, tunnels, airports, schools, hospitals,” said president-elect Trump during his victory speech. “We’re going to rebuild our infrastructure, which will become, by the way, second to none.”
During the campaign trail, Hillary Clinton pledged $275 billion to resurrecting our nation’s roadway infrastructure. Not to be outdone, now-President Trump pledged a full $1 trillion. He won the election. Now, where is that money going to go? It’ll go to our overall infrastructure, our freeways, our aging bridges, and even our railways and water pipelines, a spending expenditure that both Republicans and Democrats can agree on.
Here’s why: Americans are driving more than ever. Buoyed by cheap gasoline and a resurgent economy, we shouldn’t be surprised that we’ve collectively driven 3.17 trillion miles this year—up from 2015’s total of 3.06 trillion miles. In fact, Americans have been driving more each year since 2012. From 1971 to the Great Recession of 2008, our overall mileage as a nation has grown and grown and grown. There’s little to indicate that there will be a dip.
As a result, our roads have undeniably taken a beating. The American Society of Civil Engineers rates our current state of roadway infrastructure a D, for poor. “Currently, 32 percent of America’s major roads are in poor or mediocre condition,” the group said in its 2013 report card. The group also determined that “the average age of the nation’s 607,380 bridges is currently 42 years.” Nearly half of our roads face severe congestion. Poor pavement costs motorists $324 a year, on average, in repairs and operating costs, totaling $67 billion per year. Similarly, nearly half of the miles traveled on urban roads, or 47 percent, are over terrible pavement.
According to the same report card, $3.6 trillion would need to be invested into U.S. infrastructure—public transit, roads, repaving, new bridges, and traffic improvements—by 2020 to help millions of Americans get to work and back.
“
For the millions of Americans who do not consider public transportation a viable option, roads will still be the ticket, the way forward.
”
At a local level, voters in Los Angeles, Seattle, and Atlanta all helped pass measures on public transit and light rail—in Los Angeles, for example, “voters approved a half-cent increase in the sales tax to raise nearly $120 billion for the transportation system,” reported the New York Times. Seattle approved 62 new miles of light rail. Atlanta approved a light-rail project alongside bicycle and pedestrian paths. This year held the most ballot measures related to transportation ever, according to the Center for Transportation Excellence: 78 measures to be considered, across 26 states, with over $200 billion in funding at stake.
More public transportation will inevitably take the strain away from our overburdened roadways. And for the millions of Americans who do not consider public transportation a viable option, roads will still be the ticket, the way forward. There’s nothing preventing roads from coexisting with walkable cities, environmental friendliness, and our eventual adoption of electric or autonomous cars. The way forward is smarter roads and highways that still allow cities and their pedestrians to breathe, projects that simultaneously preserve the necessary pathways for cars, trucks, and commerce.
That seems to be the pattern moving forward. Seattle’s Alaskan Way Viaduct tunnel moves a prominent state highway underground, along the coast, eliminating an overpass similar to San Francisco’s Embarcadero project in 1991. Massachusetts recently tore down the toll lanes on its famed Mass Pike, switching entirely over to electronic tolling and eliminating the slowed-down bottlenecks from Boston to Springfield. And in New York City, the new Tappan Zee bridge is slated to open in 2018, replacing a crumbling, rickety bridge built more than 60 years ago and only designed to last 50.
“
These are all projects designed to streamline our roads, yes, but they’re also a reflection of our love of the automobile.
”
These are all projects designed to streamline our roads, yes, but they’re also a reflection of our love of the automobile. Americans and their roads are forever linked, forever in love with each other. And if we’re going to continue our affair with the open road, we’ll need to take care of them. Because with our 21st-century roads come rising standards for our cars.
Since 1971, Americans have been hitting the road more and more, minus a dip during the Great Recession. And yet the average fuel economy of our cars has increased alongside our miles: in 2015, we saw an average of 25.5 miles per gallon. Thanks to CAFE standards, designed to improve our fuel economy every year, our carmakers are churning out more fuel-efficient cars. It’s no surprise that the Toyota Prius became a mainstream hit. And anything that can improve our fuel economy to an EPA-estimated 133 MPGe,[1] as in the all-new Prius Prime, will reinforce our love affair with the road.
New roads, new cars, new tires, and less gas. That seems like the future of our own private love affair with the open road that’s somewhere out there, beckoning to us, taking us to cities worth visiting and bridges and toll roads worth crossing. No matter which candidate you voted for, you can take solace in the idea that our love affair with the road still has great merit.
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Friday 27 January 2017
Super Bowl Partiers: These Tostitos Bags Can Tell If You’ve Been Drinking
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On Super Bowl Sunday in 2015, 45 people died in drunk driving crashes—nearly half of all traffic fatalities that day—according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. To help prevent drunk driving after the Super Bowl this year, Tostitos created this Party Safe bag that features an alcohol sensor that is able to detect any trace of alcohol on your breath. Before you blow into the sensor, the bag is plain black, but if alcohol is detected, the bag lights up with a red steering wheel and a code for a $50 Uber ride alongside a message that reads “Don’t drink and drive.”
These bags shouldn’t be confused with Breathalyzers or other sophisticated systems that can tell you whether or not you’ve had too much to drink; they simply detect if you’ve had any alcohol at all (which shouldn’t be too hard to figure out on your own, you know?).
However, the police department in Lawrence, Kansas, made an excellent point on Twitter about these bags.
If you have to blow into a Tostitos bag to know if you're intoxicated, for the love of all that is holy, DO NOT DRIVE https://t.co/gnTcIIL7Oj
— Lawrence Police (@LawrenceKS_PD) January 26, 2017
Which is almost a moot point, since these bags won’t actually be sold in stores. However, Tostitos partnered with Mothers against Drunk Driving (MADD) to provide $10 off Uber rides on Super Bowl Sunday to anyone who buys a bag of Tostitos. All you have to do is plug in the last five digits of the bar code on the bag into Promotions in the Uber app, and you’ll get $10 off your ride on Sunday, February 5.
While this discount can be used by both new and existing Uber customers, it’s limited to the first 25,000 people who use the codes.
“Our goal is to remove 25,000 cars from the roads that Sunday evening,” said Jennifer Saenz, Frito-Lay chief marketing officer. “We wanted to make sure that as people were celebrating, they were also partying responsibly,” Saenz told USA Today.
This story originally appeared on Delish.
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Carbon Tax: Lamborghini Sesto Elemento Listed for $4.5 Million on Craigslist
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Before hybrid powertrains invaded the segment, the traditional supercar formula was high horsepower plus low weight equal fast lap times multiplied by evil laughs of joy. A couple of the best to maintain that basic equation are the Pagani Huayra BC, which weighs a claimed 2685 pounds, and the Hennessey Venom GT, which weighs 2743 pounds. But those are hefty compared with one of the most exclusive Lamborghinis of this or any decade, the Sesto Elemento. An exercise in carbon technology and power-to-weight-ratio supremacy, the Sesto weighs a claimed 2202 pounds (Lamborghini tried to keep it below 1000 kilograms and at 999 it barely achieves that goal) and was fitted with a V-10 engine.
The Sesto debuted in 2010 as a concept car and was later produced in a limited run of 20 examples. This week in Seattle, one popped up on Craigslist, of all places, for a listed price of $4,500,000. The post is extremely limited on info, but it claims that it is VIN No. 3 and that it only has 118 miles on it. Luxury goods site JamesEdition, where there was another Elemento listed in the U.K. for $2.8 million, might have been a more appropriate place to drop a collectible car like this. That the car appeared on Craigslist—right between more typical ads on the site listing a $2800 1998 Honda Civic and a $10,500 modified 2000 Jeep Wrangler TJ—made us extremely skeptical; however, the photos don’t seem to appear anywhere else on the World Wide Web, and the seller didn’t run for cover when the press came calling.
According to the broker who says he listed the car on behalf of a client, he only put it up on Craigslist because it was simple. “[We] chose Craigslist because it was easy and took a mere five minutes to create the ad,” he said in an email. “The response has been overwhelming … was not anticipating for Craigslist to have tens of people looking to purchase such a vehicle. It was more of a joke at first, but then inquiries from potential buyers came flooding in.” The broker also said that there’s plenty of room in the price for negotiation.
The featherweight supercar was so special at its debut because it uses a technology called forged composite carbon fiber, which is basically a bunch of carbon-fiber flakes heat pressed together rather than woven like carbon-fiber-reinforced plastic. Both functional and aesthetically intriguing, it formed the entire body of the car and inspired its name, which means “sixth element.” According to Lamborghini, the low weight paired with the claimed 570 horsepower at 8000 rpm and 398 lb-ft at 6500 rpm made for a claimed zero-to-62-mph time of only 2.5 seconds. That would be quicker than the 2016 Lamborghini Aventador LP750-4 Superveloce we tested just last year.
Before you go looking for a loan, be aware that the Sesto is not street legal and can’t be licensed for road use anywhere in the United States.
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The Volvo Wagon: How Did Station Wagons Come to Define This Swedish Carmaker?
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From the February 2017 issue
If the Volvo brand were a Rorschach blot, most Americans would see a station wagon. But this didn’t come about as the result of some Swedish plot for domination of the American suburbs. It was an accident.
In the mid-1950s, around the time that Volvo first considered exporting cars to the United States, the brand was unsuccessfully experimenting with selling chassis to independent coachbuilders, but in so doing had built up a surplus of unsold chassis. “So,” says Volvo historian Per-Åke Fröberg, “the management said, ‘Let’s start to do our own wagon.’ ” Aimed at Sweden’s small-business owners who needed a practical car and a family car but who couldn’t afford both, the wagon was a way to grow the lineup and use the extra platforms.
The resulting Duett and subsequent Amazon were oddball outliers and likewise found homes with American oddball outliers. “East Coast or West Coast. Liberal, highly educated, intellectual,” Fröberg says. “Somewhat radical, a bit bohemic.” After that, the brand more or less made a wagon version of every model.
It was with the release of the 144 wagon that the long-roofed Volvo began to morph into the rectilinear package seen in our minds’ eye. But the real breakthrough for the brand in America came with the 200-series estate, introduced in 1974. By the time its production run ended in 1993, nearly 2.9 million had been sold worldwide. Based on Volvo’s Experimental Safety Car, shown at the 1972 Geneva motor show, the 200-series cemented the brand’s reputation for safety. The U.S. government purchased some two dozen sedans and wagons for testing in 1976 and canonized them as the benchmark all other manufacturers had to meet for crashworthiness. “And when that became known,” Fröberg says, “Volvo of course used that. There was a famous ad of a Volvo in front of the Capitol saying: ‘It shouldn’t take an act of Congress to make cars safe.’ ”
Volvo 245
The release of the 240 wagon also coincided with baby boomers coming into their peak earning/breeding years. Before Jeep Grand Cherokees, SUV “coupes,” or even minivans, a wagon was the original active-lifestyle vehicle. Over the next few decades, with the 700, 800, and 900 series, wagons became Volvo’s best-sellers, accounting for around one-third of the brand’s American sales—and even more in some regional markets.
Then, just recently, Volvo fled from the wagon in a quest to move upscale. According to Bob Austin, who was head of marketing for Volvo Cars of North America from 1991 to 2002, the thinking was that “in order to move up-market, you needed to be more stylish, more expensive, and less practical.” Basically, all the qualities that are the wagon’s antitheses.
With the updated V60 and the forthcoming V90, Volvo’s wagon sales have rebounded from their recent nadir, and the brand seems to be reembracing the estate. This is in part because kids who came of age during the wagon’s last ascension are now in the market for grown-up cars, and nostalgia’s siren song is loud. But it’s also because the cars’ innate durability means the brand cannot outrun its heritage.
“Other brands have done a wonderful job repositioning themselves. But they were aided by the fact that their older cars were largely disposable,” Austin says. “Volvos as boxy and durable wagons? There are still cars out there from the ’80s and ’90s demonstrating that every day.”
The Big Break
Volvo’s 1972 Experimental Safety Car incorporated features such as airbags, anti-lock disc brakes, a high-strength-steel passenger cell, and impact-absorbing crumple zones. Its semi-passive seatbelts had less staying power.
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Here’s Our Wild-Ass Speculation about How Much Horsepower and Torque We Think the Dodge Challenger Demon Will Make
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How much power? How much torque? How much anything? These are all questions that we’ll have to wait eight weeks to answer with regard to the Dodge Challenger SRT Demon. What we do know with certainty today nestles somewhere between the files labeled “jack” and “squat,” but there are some clues. For instance, Dodge indicates the Demon will be 200 pounds lighter than the Hellcat, and the third tease released by the company, which showed drag-racing rubber at all four corners, indicates the implementation of all-wheel drive. And then there’s the cryptic “#2576@35” license plate in one of the latest images.
What does all this mean? In the virtual, sometimes suspended, and most definitely skewed reality that exists in our collective heads, the Demon engineers need to find something close to 350 pounds of superfluous items in the Hellcat to ditch in order to hit the weight target. That’s because of the additional mass of the all-wheel-drive system.
This weight loss will require more than a two-week cleanse; chopping hundreds of pounds from an automobile is a significant task. The first place we would look is the engine block. All Dodge V-8s employ an iron block—a majorly heavy hunk of metal. When we once asked if there are any Vipers running around with Hellcat engines, for example, an SRT engineer told us it would never happen because the Hellcat is just too heavy.
So, where’s the weight gonna come from? The front fenders, hood, and doors, while steel in lesser Challengers, likely will be made of aluminum, and there may be some application of carbon fiber. The aggressive fender flares that provide shelter to those 315/40R-18 Nitto drag radials will be easier and cheaper to manufacture in low volumes out of carbon-fiber-reinforced plastic than stamped metal. Banging out aluminum requires expensive tooling, while carbon-fiber tooling costs pennies by comparison. Same goes for the doors and the hood. The rear fenders likely will remain steel because they are integrated, stressed parts of the steel unibody. The most gifted UAW welders likely will graft them into place by hand.
The lighter body panels (the trunk should remain steel to help weight distribution) might come close to offsetting the addition of all-wheel-drive componentry. Without directly saying it, Dodge showed its hand by saying the Demon wears DOT-legal drag radials on both axles. There’s no reason to put those tires up front unless it is a driven axle. Well, no reason besides providing buyers an extra set of rears to swap in once they’ve fried the first set, but we don’t think that’s the case here.
When it comes down to it, everything not essential to meeting basic federal vehicle standards will be pulled from the assembly process. The typically dense sound deadening will go, along with the back seats and likely the navigation system and a bunch of speakers. (The last-generation Chevrolet Camaro Z/28 famously had but one speaker, simply to sound the federally required seatbelt chime.) A titanium exhaust is possible. Heck, Dodge mentions electroplating the unibody in one of its releases, so an exposed-metal interior isn’t out of the question. This won’t make the Demon great for a weekend getaway, unless said getaway takes you to the pump-gas nationals. Even then, we’d bet you’d trailer your Demon. We’d at least bring a second vehicle, just in case.
As for the cryptic license plate, we think the 2576 figure is a reference to the maximum torque of the engine (multiplied through the gearbox and final drive and then split among four wheels). This is merely a guess, but it makes some sense, given the Hellcat’s larger, 4010 lb-ft number for each of its two driven wheels. If our supposition is true, and the Demon uses the same final-drive and first-gear ratios as an automatic-transmission Hellcat, this engine will make about 705 lb-ft of torque at 3500 rpm. That would be a roughly 10 percent gain over the Hellcat’s torque output, which would equate to peak horsepower flirting with 800.
Some additional mass may be stripped from the suspension, which should feature modified geometry to suit the car’s extra-wide front and rear tracks, but if we are right in thinking that the cryptic license plate is torque related, the driveline will have to be fortified. Carbon-fiber driveshafts saved the BMW M4 11 pounds over a 4-series coupe, with the bonus being that CF shafts are stronger and stiffer, improving reliability.
The lightest Challenger Hellcat (with the eight-speed automatic) we’ve put on our scales weighed 4488 pounds and returned a quarter-mile time of 11.7 seconds at 126 mph. Take the weight loss-claim and then deduct a few of that Hellcat’s options, and there is potential for a 4250-pound Demon. Taken with the lower curb weight, all-wheel drive, and four Nittos, the ridiculous engine has the potential to make the Demon one of the quickest cars ever made. We’re looking forward to learning if it will turn, too. But that’ll come in time. For now, we wait.
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New Bipartisan SPY Act Pushes NHTSA on Automotive Cyberthreats
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In our politically toxic capital, there’s a bipartisan effort underway to better protect motorists in a world increasingly aware that automobiles are vulnerable to cyberattacks. Two members of the U.S. House of Representatives introduced legislation Wednesday called the Security and Privacy in Your Car Study Act of 2017, or the SPY Act. It would direct federal regulators to conduct a study that would determine the best cyber standards and defenses for motor vehicles.
“Cars don’t necessarily come to mind when most of us think about cybersecurity,” said Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA), who co-sponsored the bill along with Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC). “But the Internet of Things is bringing technology and connectivity into every part of our lives—including our motor vehicles. Without good cyber hygiene, a hacker could easily turn a car into a weapon.”
Terrorists in Berlin and in Nice, France, have shown in recent months that advanced computer skills aren’t necessarily needed to kill with vehicles. But in an era of heightened attention to cyberattacks of any stripe, there’s concern that vehicles—and fleets of vehicles—could be an attractive target for adversaries.
In July 2015, two security researchers demonstrated the capability to commandeer remote control of a Jeep Cherokee from hundreds of miles away, a disclosure that rattled regulators and brought greater scrutiny to an issue the auto industry has been slow to address.
Automakers formed their own Information Sharing and Analysis Center (Auto-ISAC) last year to gather threat intelligence. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) proffered cybersecurity guidance in October 2016 in view of the fact that, according to global consulting firm Gartner, 250 million connected vehicles are projected to be on roads across the world by 2020.
Those efforts are not nearly enough, says Josh Corman, director of the Cyber Statecraft Initiative at the Atlantic Council, a nonprofit that promotes leadership and engagement in international affairs, and co-founder of I Am the Cavalry, a grassroots organization that focuses on issues where computer safety intersects with public safety. Given the years-long automotive development cycle and the similarly long rulemaking cycle in Washington, Corman fears the industry and regulators have left motorists vulnerable to an attack that could span across a connected network of vehicles.
“
“Even as we are more connected than ever in our cars
and trucks, our technology systems and data security
remain largely unprotected.”
— Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA)
”
“Even if they started tomorrow, we would be behind,” he said. “And that’s if we decided right now that we’re going to go implement what NHTSA has already put forth. By dragging our feet, we are wasting years of potential exposure.”
In some sense, the three-month-old NHTSA guidance makes the proposed SPY Act redundant. It essentially asks the agency to study cybersecurity problems and report back to Congress in a year.
On one hand, the clock is ticking. On the other, Corman says there may be a benefit if the additional study encourages NHTSA to fix what he sees as the shortcomings in the October guidance rather than merely repeating what it has already delivered. He says the agency needs to push for faster adoption of over-the-air software update capabilities, which may allow for fast fixes of vulnerabilities that surface.
Further, Corman, whose Five Star Automotive Cyber Safety Program has been used as the basis for some of the Auto-ISAC and NHTSA best practices, says that NHTSA needs to mandate the inclusion of black boxes that capture evidence of cyber anomalies or attacks in all new vehicles.
“We have no such capacity in vehicles right now,” he said. “As we see high-profile attacks on vehicles that shatter public confidence, the inability to harvest data from that black box will have a material impact on important parts of our economy. We need the data, and we need to see that data is being processed. We will regret not having it when we need it.”
This isn’t the first time Congress has tried to spur greater action on automotive cybersecurity. Within days after the Jeep breach became public, Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) introduced a bill by a similar name – the Security and Privacy in Your Car Act of 2015, also known as the SPY Act. That bill never made it out of a Senate subcommittee.
“
“By dragging our feet, we are wasting years of
potential exposure.” — Josh Corman,
Cyber Statecraft Initiative
”
While the nearly identical names may suggest the bills are intended to be reconciled at some point, there are substantial differences between them, chiefly that Markey’s version would charge NHTSA with initiating formal rulemaking that requires automakers to isolate sensitive systems, while the newer House version would only compel a study of cyber best practices.
Further, the Senate version would require carmakers to create a “cyber dashboard” that informs consumers about the security measures installed in their vehicles and the extent to which their personal data is protected.
Markey has been perhaps the most ardent Congressional proponent of stronger automotive security measures in Congress. In 2015, he authored a report called Tracking and Hacking: Security and Privacy Gaps Put American Drivers at Risk, and in 2016, he pressed the Federal Communications Commission to consider protections for consumer information as vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure communications systems develop for cars.
“Even as we are more connected than ever in our cars and trucks,” he said, “our technology systems and data security remain largely unprotected.”
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2017 Nissan Rogue Hybrid Commands $1000 Price Premium, Undercuts Toyota RAV4 Hybrid
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Nissan is gunning for the Toyota RAV4 hybrid with a new gasoline-electric version of its Rogue crossover that goes on sale this spring. Although Nissan doesn’t have as much experience with hybrids as Toyota, the Rogue is looking to take the RAV4 to task on the numbers, as it achieves slightly better EPA ratings and costs less. The 2017 Rogue hybrid starts at $27,180 for a front-drive SV model and $32,100 for a front-drive SL model—about $1000 and $1200 more than the equivalent non-hybrid Rogue.
To achieve a fair comparison with the Toyota RAV4 hybrid, which comes only with all-wheel drive, you have to add the $1350 that Nissan charges for AWD. Even then, the Rogue hybrid SV AWD comes in at $28,530, $1440 less than the RAV4 XLE hybrid. The better-equipped Rogue SL costs $33,450 with AWD, which slots in between the RAV4 hybrid’s SE ($33,125) and Limited ($34,970) trim levels.
Standard equipment for the hybrid Rogue SV includes automatic climate control, heated front seats, remote start, and blind-spot warning, while a $2870 Premium package adds navigation, a Bose audio system, a panoramic sunroof, a heated steering wheel, and a power liftgate. The SL model comes standard with all of those features minus the sunroof and adds leather seats, LED headlights, and 18-inch wheels; a $1520 Premium package adds back in the panoramic roof and automated emergency braking.
Rated at 34 mpg combined for front-drive models and 33 mpg combined with all-wheel drive, the Nissan also beats out the 32-mpg-rated RAV4 hybrid in fuel economy. The Rogue’s hybrid system is composed of a 2.0-liter four-cylinder mated to a 40-hp electric motor for a total of 176 horsepower; that’s short of the 194 total horsepower offered by the Toyota, which still resulted in a sluggish 8.3-second slog to 60 mph in our testing. We’ll see how the Rogue hybrid stacks up once we’re able to drive one.
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Aston Martin Vanquish S Knows It’s Hot, Takes Off Its Top
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The Aston Martin DB11 is a newer and better sports car in just about every way, but the Vanquish remains the supreme ruler of Aston Martin’s lineup. The sharper and more powerful Vanquish S stepped out from behind the curtain in November, and we loved the improvements and its unmatched style when we drove it. But Aston felt the urge to click the enhance button one more time, and the result is the most expensive and possibly most exclusive Gaydon-born car available, the 2018 Vanquish S Volante.
We’ve known about the convertible since the announcement of the Vanquish S, but these are the first photos Aston Martin has released. Priced at $315,775, $18,000 more than the coupe, the Vanquish S Volante is powered by the same 5.9-liter V-12 engine linked to a eight-speed Touchtronic III automatic transmission that is supposed to be smoother and quicker than in previous years. The most notable power improvements to the base 568-hp Vanquish are quad exhaust tips and revised inlet manifolds for better airflow. The U.S. model makes 580 horsepower at 7000 rpm and 465 lb-ft of torque at 5500 rpm; Europe gets a 595-hp version. Aston has not released estimates for top speeds or acceleration times for the S Volante.
Like the coupe, the S Volante has new aero design elements, including a carbon-fiber front splitter, rear diffuser, and side skirts. Keeping the car at a curb weight of less than 4000 pounds is a body structure made of aluminum and carbon fiber, along with carbon-fiber body panels and magnesium door structures. The poundage is about evenly divided, with weight distribution of 51 percent front, 49 percent rear.
As standard, the S Volante comes with 20-inch 10-spoke gloss black cast-aluminum wheels, carbon-fiber mirror arms, titanium hood mesh, bright accents around the window and on the exhaust tips, and an Alcantara and Strathmore leather interior. Optional features include a steering wheel from the One-77, a choice of four 20-inch wheel designs (two 10-spoke and two five-spoke), a graphics pack, painted brake calipers, and a variety of black or carbon-fiber accents.
The first customers will get the Vanquish S Volante in April, Aston Martin said.
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