Evelyn Reynolds

From the March 2005 issue of Car and Driver.The six-cylinder E-class sits smack in the middle of Mercedes’ huge lineup and has until recently been ignored like a quiet middle child. Back before Mercedes started dropping V-8s into the mid-size E-class, the six-cylinder E-class was the shining star of the Benz squad-sportier than the S-class but more accomplished than the C-class and the 190E before it. In 1994 the E320 arrived with an inline-six that had 217 horsepower. The last of the E320s has 221 horsepower from an 18-valve V-6. It’s hard to imagine going more than 10 years without a significant increase in power, but the E320 had to go through two generations with basically the same output. Now, that’s neglect. In the intervening years, seemingly average cars have surpassed the output of the once proud E320. But despite lacking class-leading acceleration, an E320 squeaked out a one-point victory in a seven-car comparo [C/D, March 2003]. So in hopes of keeping its spot on the top of the heap, Mercedes is swapping the old V-6 for the more powerful 24-valve DOHC 3.5-liter V-6 introduced in the SLK roadster.

Packing 268 horsepower, 47 more than the 3.2-liter it replaces and only seven less than the 4.3-liter V-8 from the previous-generation E-class, the E350 accelerates with a renewed sense of urgency. Mercedes claims the E350 lops off 0.7 second from the dash to 62 mph. The last E320 we tested in ’03 did away with 60 mph in 7.4 seconds, so we expect the E350 to run to 60 in less than seven. In the E-class the 3.5-liter doesn’t pin you to the seat as it does in the lighter SLK350, nor will it threaten the superiority of the E500’s 302 horsepower and 339 pound-feet of thrust, but the gain in acceleration is noticeable.The 3.5-liter is a development of the 90-degree 3.2-liter V-6 that debuted in 1997. Bore and stroke have been increased to bring the displacement to 3.5 liters, there are now four valves per cylinder instead of three, and compression increases from 10.0:1 to 10.7:1. Those valves are actuated by four cams that benefit from variable timing on the exhaust and intake sides. Torque jumps from the 3.2-liter’s 232 pound-feet to 258, available at 2400 rpm.Making the most of the healthy power band is Mercedes’ seven-speed automatic transmission with the hip-hop friendly name of 7G-Tronic. Initially only available on eight-cylinder Benzes, the seven-speed will eventually latch onto all Mercedes engines. Compared with the five-speed, the new transmission has closer ratios as well as a lower first gear (benefiting acceleration) and a taller top gear (to boost fuel economy). All-wheel-drive, or 4MATIC, versions of the E350 will soldier on with the five-speed automatic because there is not enough room for the slightly larger seven-speed and the all-wheel-drive transfer case.Accelerate at less than wide-open throttle, and it’s unlikely you’ll notice the seven-speed transmission busily moving through its numerous cogs. Introduce the pedal to the floor long enough to force a shift at the 6400-rpm redline, and you’ll barely see a drop in revs as the transmission whips from first gear to second. Marry the pedal to the floor, and the E350 will whisk you almost inaudibly to a governed Euro velocity of 155 mph. U.S.-bound E350s will be governed at 130 mph. The transplant from the SLK350 to the E-class has entirely changed the character of the 3.5-liter V-6. In the SLK, engine intake and exhaust noise is always present, although never intrusive; in the E350, the intake noise wouldn’t qualify as a whisper, and the exhaust has been similarly emasculated. We understand the subdued nature of the E350 is appropriate for a sedan, but we just love the way the SLK sounds, so we were disappointed that the new engine wasn’t allowed to do its Ferrari impersonation. The E-class is only the second stop on the new engine’s tour of the Mercedes lineup. Soon the 3.5-liter V-6 will be as ubiquitous as steroids in baseball, giving a boost to several models starting with a C-class version, which we’ll get in the States, and CLS-, SL-, and S-class versions, which we won’t get. The E350 goes on sale this month as a 2006. Although Mercedes was coy about exact pricing, buyers shouldn’t expect to pay much more for the added power and content of the E350; the base E320’s price started a few dollars south of 50 grand, and the E350’s should start a few dollars north. The changes are welcome, and the resulting E350 is a happier car than the E320. And that’s what every middle child needs and wants-attention.

Specifications

SPECIFICATIONS2066 Mercedes-Benz E350 VEHICLE TYPE Front-engine, rear- or 4-wheel-drive, 5-passenger, 4-door sedan or 5-door wagonESTIMATED BASE PRICE $51,000ENGINE TYPE DOHC 24-valve V-6, aluminum block and heads, port fuel injection Displacement: 213 cu in, 3498ccPower (SAE net): 268 bhp @ 6000 rpmTorque (SAE net): 258 lb-ft @ 2400 rpmTRANSMISSION 5-speed automatic, 7-speed automaticDIMENSIONSWheelbase: 112.4 in Length: 189.7-190.9 inWidth: 71.7 in Height: 57.0-59.0 inCurb weight: 3700-4200 lbPERFORMANCE RATINGS (MFR’S EST)Zero to 62 mph: 6.9-7.4 secTop speed (governor limited): 130 mphPROJECTED FUEL ECONOMY (MFR’S EST)European combined cycle: 22-24 mpg

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From the April 2002 issue of Car and Driver. Say what you will about the cheese-block lines and frumpy two-tone paint schemes of the outgoing Mercedes-Benz SL, it was no slave to fads. For 13 years the R129, as Mercedes engineers knew it, bucked changing fashions to embody the company’s traditional love of precision engineering, contemporary technology, and restrained design. It was a silk pinstripe on a rack of polyester pretenders.

And as the R129 points its rectilinear nose into the sunset, it’s reasonable to expect that the replacement, the R230, which pioneers a new electrohydraulic brake technology (see sidebar) and has a folding hardtop whose choreography would stand with a Bolshoi number, will emulate the pattern. Germans make things to endure. The Brandenburg Gate survived the Halifax bomber, for example. So shall the conservative SL stay its course against the fashion onslaught of chichi new droptops. Or will it? Today’s plutocrats want more than just safe, dignified transportation, and Mercedes’ competitors are lining up to give it to them. The Porsche 911 Cabrio offers more performance, the BMW Z8 more exclusivity, the Jaguar XK8 has a more coddling interior and classically evocative lines, and the Lexus SC430 is more avant-garde. The old SL may have been content to be timeless executive wear, but the new SL wants to be this season’s sauciest slip-on.Just look at the way it flaunts itself in public. Mercedes’ stylists lengthened the wheelbase by 1.8 inches, widened the track by about an inch, and shortened the overhangs to give it a road-inhaling stance. They folded down the windshield to a garish rake and draped the aluminum sheets in an alluring wedge over the big wheels. The scandalous curves are a magnet for attention and moved one young male passerby to exclaim, “Man, you must get all the women.”

Highs: Slippery sheet metal guarantees status with the valet, a shoo-in if the Nobel committee awarded a prize for droptop mechanisms.

Don’t be fooled. We don’t get the women, and the new SL, despite its gorgeous shape, proves to be only a halfhearted extrovert once you take a closer look. For one thing, the stylists seem to have hit the creative wall after penning the lascivious profile. The nose bears a stock four-sided corporate grille bracketed by a variant of the C-class Mr. Peanut-shaped headlights—livened up somewhat with a tighter waist (Mrs. Peanut?). But the real offenses in our eyes are the hood and fender vents, which look cheap and gape ostentatiously. What fashion crime did the last SL’s artfully subtle slots commit?More important, the new SL moves the driving-excitement needle only incrementally, rather than substantially, out on the road. True, the new car finds 60 mph a full 0.5 second sooner than the last SL500 we tested ( C/D, December 1989), even though its SOHC 302-hp, 24-valve V-8 produces 20 horsepower less than Mercedes’ old DOHC 32-valve V-8. And the holding power on the skidpad was a very sticky 0.88 g, 0.06 g better than the SL500 we tested in ’89. Some credit goes to the fitment of the optional Sport package, which includes side and rear fascia changes and 18-inch wheels wearing the latest Z-rated Michelin Pilot Sports, upsized to 285/40 in the back.

But the dividends to steering precision and road communication from the revised chassis haven’t fully accrued to the overall experience. The SL now enjoys more lively rack-and-pinion steering, but there’s still too much cushion in the weights and responses, too much old software left over from the luxury-car department to make the wheel as sharp as it could be. For example, if the SL were a true sports roadster, the steering would give you the good, the bad, and even the irrelevant news. This SL provides a brief executive summary. Some of the SL’s dynamic shortcomings can be blamed on the weight, which despite the aluminum sheets and magnesium door castings is still 4172 pounds, about the same as a Jeep Grand Cherokee Limited. The Active Body Control system directs a hydraulic ram above each coil spring to continuously alter its spring rate in order to counter body roll, pitch, and dive. This limits the body motions in long sweepers and during hard applications of the pedals, but this heavy mechanism can’t make the car feel less massive than it is all by itself. And except for allowing Mercedes to choose softer springs than it might have otherwise, ABC doesn’t do anything for the ride quality, which is on the tranquil side but which degenerates into quivering concussions over Midwestern frost heaves.

The trademark trapezoidal instrument cluster is among the Mercedes icons relegated to the dustbin in the new SL. The substitute is a pair of sculpted, hooded dials that take the most direct cue not from the lumpy 300SLs of the ’50s or the pagoda-roofed SLs of the ’60s, but from generations of dearly departed Alfa Romeo spiders. The climate-control plate recalls something less savory–we’re thinking Madonna’s chrome brassiere–and the twin aluminum rings that control the temperature for driver and passenger wobble slightly in their races and feel as if they were pilfered from the Hyundai parts bin. Mercedes did manage to blend the conflicting themes of retro wood and nouveau brushed aluminum into a warmer, more spacious, and more organic interior than in the previous SL. The exception is the door armrests, which are as hard as pig iron and brutal to the elbows. At least one can flip up the armrest to open the storage bin underneath and perch the elbow on the much softer spine of the leather-bound owner’s manual.

Lows: A few chintzy and duplicative design details, steering and brakes left some unimpressed.

The most familiar item in the cockpit is the COMAND system panel, which includes densely packed buttons for the radio, phone, and GPS-based navigation functions. The voice-activation feature and the oval steering-wheel buttons help sort it out, but using the system remains as taxing as herding cats. Another thing you can’t do without straining is load the CD changer. The slot above the COMAND screen accommodates one music CD or one of the 11 navigation CDs (there’s still no one-disc DVD system available); the changer is nestled in the left of the two cubbies behind the seats. We find that an odd place to put it, considering a Ford Focus can be optioned with an in-dash changer. At least Mercedes has created a serene environment in which to enjoy the radio. With the top erected, the atmosphere is hushed enough to hear your passenger’s tendons snapping during a postnap stretch. However, the draining of the sound swamp did expose at least one evolutionary throwback wriggling in the mud. At about 2100 rpm, a hollow, moaning resonance disturbs the cabin, thanks to an offensive frequency in the exhaust or powertrain that excites the surrounding body. A new thing the car pictured here doesn’t have, but which we sampled at Mercedes’ introduction, is Keyless Go. It’s a transponder shaped like a credit card that unlocks the car and allows the driver to start and stop it by pushing a button on the shifter. It promises to make a lost art of inventing new curses to call forth misplaced keys. There is no price on the option yet.The SL’s new top is without doubt the category killer. Flip up the paddle switch at console center (the small buttons to manually raise and lower the roll bar are hiding underneath), and wait 16 seconds while the aluminum and glass panels separate, somersault flat, and stack efficiently in the trunk. Once deposited, the top leaves just enough space to wedge in his and hers golf bags.

The Verdict: Incremental improvements served up in a flamboyant new wrapper.

The cavity is accessible by pushing a red button on the trunk sill that electrically tilts the entire top stack to a 20-degree angle. A louver in the trunk that must be in place before the top will come down prevents potato chip crushing. With the top stowed and the stretchy mesh wind deflector in position, the occupants can debate their destination at conversational levels right up to 80 mph.The new SL’s terrific top and improved performance are the best excuses to cash in an old softtop SL and simultaneously rid the garage of its bulky detached hardtop. If those aren’t reasons enough, consider that the $87,000 price may ultimately be the cheapest way to completely overhaul your appearance. Counterpoint Aside from an automatic climate-control system that looks as if it came from a pre-WWII Tatra, the latest SL advances the state of its breed and is a real looker. In fact, it could be argued that this is the coolest Mercedes sheetmetal since the 300SL Gullwing. It’s also comfortable, techno-trick, reasonably quick (for something that still scales in north of two tons), and reasonably agile (ditto). But unless you’re into such accessories as trophy wives and gold Rolexes, the new SL just isn’t the sort of device that raises pulse rates. If you like envy, this ride’s for you. If you want adrenaline, better wait for the AMG version. —Tony Swan Robinson drove the SL500 home from Arizona, reminding me of a similar jaunt I made in the original 600SL. That car, too, was a people magnet, a serene cruiser, and a rocket sled. That car made me feel like a power broker, and so does this one, except here I feel like an addled magnate. Setting the clock took 15 minutes of tinkering, followed by an embarrassing consultation of the owner’s manual. The futuristic top and by-wire brakes set new benchmarks, and the sinuous sheetmetal recalls elements of the original 300SL. I like it all, but I wish the dash controls were simpler. Simple controls would qualify as retro chic, wouldn’t they? —Frank Markus Is there anyone in America who doesn’t pay a little more attention to the driver of a Mercedes SL? The car is such a universal icon of tasteful style and refined substance that it magically confers those qualities on anyone who drives one. The SL performs this alchemy because for nearly 50 years it has represented automotive excellence. The original Gullwings were close cousins to Le Mans winners. The recent ones have bristled with cutting-edge technology. The one common thread has been visual beauty, and this fifth-generation SL is the prettiest one in the past 30 years. It’s sure to keep those valets standing up a little straighter. —Csaba CsereBraking The MoldThis new SL introduces the most significant wrinkle to stoppers since the advent of anti-lock brakes: computer-operated brakes that take control of the calipers in a way no human could emulate without four brake pedals and the feet to work them. The underhood heart of the Sensotronic Brake Control (SBC) system is a large aluminum valve block fitted with an electric motor for maintaining 2000 to 2300 psi of fluid pressure in an adjacent hydraulic accumulator. When you hoof the brake pedal—an electronic sensor with a spring-loaded plunger to mimic brake resistance but not the annoying ABS pushback—the computer flutters the solenoid-operated valves inside the block, releasing pressure from the accumulator to the otherwise conventional steel lines heading out to the calipers.The computer thus has ultimate command over the pressure each caliper receives (a redundant master cylinder provides pressure to the front calipers in case of power failure) and uses its position of responsibility to provide some extra capability. For example, the system varies the brake pressure not only fore and aft but also from side to side, applying increased pressure on the laden outside wheels in a turn while relaxing the inside calipers to prevent lockup. The computer also monitors for sudden releases of the accelerator, in which case it assumes a panic situation is brewing and pumps up pressure while snuggling the pads against the rotors to prepare for a hard stop. In the rain, the system will imperceptibly pulse the brakes every few minutes to keep the pads dry, and over time it will learn your driving style and tailor the brake response.Considering it’s the first shot at virtual brakes, Mercedes and supplier Bosch got it mostly right. Tip into the pedal as lightly as you can, and the initial engagement is undetectable. Whack the pedal hard, and the car freezes in 155 feet from 70 mph, or 10 feet shorter than a Ferrari 360 Modena F1 ( C/D, September 2000). Do it six times rapidly, and the distance grows by just nine feet, still better than the Modena’s best. The SL’s brakes also accept stomps in mid-apex without relying on ABS or squirreling the car into oversteer. The system’s opaqueness increases during prolonged mid-effort applications, such as when rolling up to a stop sign. The pedal acquires supersensitivity, adjusting the pressure out of proportion with small pedal movements. Suddenly, it feels as if the car is lurching ahead when all you meant to do was ease the pressure slightly to stop on the appropriate dime. Release the pedal from a dead stop, and the calipers of our test car sometimes responded with an audible “clunk.” With this wrinkle, Mercedes still has a little ironing to do. —AR

Specifications

SPECIFICATIONS
2003 Mercedes-Benz SL500
VEHICLE TYPEFront-engine, rear-wheel-drive, 2-passenger, 2-door convertible
BASE PRICE (C/D EST)$87,000
ENGINE TYPESOHC 24-valve V-8, aluminum block and heads, port fuel injectionDisplacement: 303 in3, 4966 cm3 Power: 302 hp @ 5600 rpmTorque: 339 lb-ft @ 2700 rpm
TRANSMISSION5-speed automatic
CHASSISSuspension (F/R): multilink/multilinkBrakes (F/R): 13.0-in vented, cross-drilled disc/11.8-in vented discTires: Michelin Pilot Sport, F: 255/40ZR-18 95Y R: 285/40ZR-18 97Y
DIMENSIONSWheelbase: 100.8 in Length: 178.5 in Width: 71.5 in Height: 51.1 in Passenger volume: 46 ft3 Trunk volume, top down/up: 8/11 ft3 Curb weight: 4172 lb
C/D TEST RESULTS60 mph: 5.8 sec100 mph: 14.5 sec130 mph: 26.5 secRolling start, 5–60 mph: 6.1 secTop gear, 30–50 mph: 3.4 secTop gear, 50–70 mph: 4.0 sec1/4 mile: 14.3 sec @ 99 mphTop speed (governor limited): 155 mphBraking, 70–0 mph: 155 ftRoadholding, 300-ft-dia skidpad: 0.88 g
C/D FUEL ECONOMYObserved: 22 mpg
EPA FUEL ECONOMYCombined/city/highway: 18/15/22 mpg

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From the April 2011 issue of Car and Driver. Visibility issues in the turret-like Chevy Camaro, well-documented in this journal, are now cured by simply ordering the car without a lid. The view from Lookout Mountain isn’t as commanding as the one from the long-awaited Camaro convertible—once its top is dropped.

A rocker switch stationed near the rearview mirror puts the Camaro’s canvas in motion after you’ve released the single mechanical twist-handle anchoring the top to the windshield header. The time it took the roof to Z-fold into the trunk seemed longer than the past election season, until we timed it: 17.7 seconds, which is actually quicker than some of those German android hardtops, including the BMW 3-series’.The Camaro’s roof is a cleanly stitched canvas ceiling that hides its joints and spars within a thick, sound-absorbent headliner. Erect, it is almost as smooth and taut as a timpani head, and it’s a decent facsimile of the coupe’s rakishly slippery steel top—blind spots included.

The top is nicely finished, but the tonneau is more than a bit fiddly
MORGAN SEGAL, THE MANUFACTURER

Folded, the top crams into a well in the trunk, mostly lying below the horizontal plane formed by  the Camaro’s body. A couple of stray shin bones stick up, but those can be hidden by the included tonneau cover, whose many  tabs and flaps take some wrestling to put into place. HIGHS: A Camaro you can actually see out of, easy-fold roof retains the coupe’s profile, SS-style smoke and thunder.A fabric curtain in the trunk ensures that the top doesn’t collide with cargo, and it must be in place before the roof will move. About a quarter of  the small, 10.2-cubic-foot trunk is lost to the top, leaving just enough space for half a pro golf bag. Figure on playing only nine holes that day.

MORGAN SEGAL, THE MANUFACTURER

Chevy is proud of the Camaro’s stiffness, claiming torsional rigidity that tops that of the 3-series convertible. Aside from some distinct quivers up the steering column, the Camaro’s structure feels adequately sound. Usually convertible versions get a softer suspension to absorb more bumps and make life easier for the compromised structure. Ford does it on the Mustang, for example.LOWS: Small trunk gets smaller with the top in it, fitting the tonneau takes practice, weighs two tons and change.But the topless Camaro—which has extra bracing linking the front shock towers, supporting the transmission, bridging the prop-shaft tunnel, and tying the front and rear subframes to the unibody—has the exact same spring and shock tune as the coupe, says Chevy. So we weren’t surprised to find as much lateral grip (0.90 g on the skidpad) and steering that feels the same as the coupe’s: quick and a bit lifeless.

MORGAN SEGAL, THE MANUFACTURER

The penalty is weight: a burdensome 246 pounds more than the hardtop Camaro SS (compared with the 174-pound gain of the Mustang GT’s convertible conversion). The topless Chevy’s punch-out times are thus delayed. The 60-mph mark arrives 0.3 second slower, at 4.9 seconds. A standing quarter-mile is covered in 13.4 seconds, almost a half-second longer than in the coupe. But the opportunity to enjoy the popping and sniffling of the 426-hp LS3’s exhaust through the open air on a warm evening  will be well worth the price to some. Speaking of  which, expect to pay an extra $5700 or so for the SS droptop privilege. Fully optioned SS convertibles reach into the mid-40s. Markets may crash, currencies may flutter, and reality-TV stars will come from New Jersey  to make us all look ridiculous, but America will always be exceptional as long as it has convertibles.

MORGAN SEGAL, THE MANUFACTURER

Specifications

SPECIFICATIONS2011 Chevrolet Camaro SS convertibleVEHICLE TYPEfront-engine, rear-wheel-drive, 4-passenger, 2-door convertible PRICE AS TESTED$42,180 (base price: $37,500) ENGINE TYPEpushrod 16-valve V-8, aluminum block and heads, port fuel injectionDisplacement376 in3, 6162 cm3Power426 bhp @ 5900 rpm Torque420 lb-ft @ 4600 rpm TRANSMISSION6-speed manual DIMENSIONSWheelbase: 112.3 in Length: 190.4 in Width: 75.5 in Height: 54.7 in Curb weight: 4106 lb C/D TEST RESULTSZero to 60 mph: 4.9 sec Zero to 100 mph: 11.2 sec Zero to 140 mph: 23.5 sec Street start, 5-60 mph: 5.4 sec Standing ¼-mile: 13.4 sec @ 109 mph Top speed (governor limited): 155 mph Braking, 70-0 mph: 160 ft Roadholding, 200-ft-dia skidpad: 0.90 g FUEL ECONOMYEPA city/highway driving: 16/24 mpg C/D observed: 13 mpg
c/d testing explained

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From the May 2005 issue of Car and Driver. There’s always one guy in a crowd of guys at the bar rail who will, while the group flips through pages of the latest swimsuit issue of Sports Illustrated, feign utter disinterest in what is obviously a particularly beautiful model while the other guys are raving about her. “Naw, she’s ugly,” he’ll say to the utter befuddlement of his friends. For whatever reason-maybe the model has one peculiarly long toe, a misplaced freckle, orange hair, a single tooth veering to the left-even a swimsuit babe in SI can fail to appeal to some guys. So what gives? What makes that one guy stray from the unanimous decision of the group?

A similar phenomenon now arises with the introduction of the Mercedes-Benz CLS500. Most observers who witness its sleek body feel an immediate and strong physical attraction. This is a car you can’t help staring at, and maybe you want to run your fingers along the smooth sheetmetal, feel the glowing red of the taillights. Is it possible to caress a car? Yet there are those baffling few who peer at the CLS and vocalize disdain, not lust.For instance, a woman at a gas station remarked, “Your car has a droopy butt.” How’s that? Was she blind in one eye and unable to see out of the other? A man at a fancy mall told us, “I’ve never seen a Mercedes that wild. I don’t know, it’s pretty extreme.” Is the CLS, for a Benz, too radical? Naw. Like the guy scoffing at the swimsuit babe, some people are just wrong. The CLS is gorgeous. End of story.The CLS prompts a lot of gawking, mostly due to its startling styling. Passersby who can’t see its telltale badges will blurt out, “What’s that?” Retro comparisons will no doubt be made to ancient Rolls-Royce carriage styling, and someone may even see cues from that distinct 1980 Cadillac Seville’s “bustle trunk.” Mercedes refers to it as “the world’s first four-door coupe,” its gun-slit greenhouse more akin to that of a two-door. Perhaps there is some clever marketing going on here. Mercedes can test the styling waters with this single model, and should those waters prove rough, it could withdraw, no harm done.

Highs: Stunning shape, stirring performance, stylish cabin.

Nevertheless, because it has four doors, the CLS, at least by our definition, is without argument a sedan. This, however, will not prevent Mercedes from declaring the CLS500 a direct competitor to the two-door BMW 645Ci, which slots between the 5- and 7-series like the CLS does the E- and S-classes. The CLS500 and the 645Ci reside in the same price neighborhood, the former starting at $66,920, the latter at $70,595. Plus, dimensionally, they’re within spitting distance-the CLS, at 193.3 inches, is longer by a little over three inches and taller and wider by roughly an inch.Like the 6-series, which is based on BMW’s mid-size 5-series, the CLS borrows heavily from Mercedes’ bread-and-butter mid-sizer, the E-class, which donates over a third of its bits and pieces to this new car. Thus, the E500’s 302-hp, 5.0-liter V-8, seven-speed automatic, electrohydraulic four-wheel disc brakes, multilink Airmatic DC suspension, and 112.4-inch wheelbase are all present in the CLS500. The $8400 premium the CLS500 carries over the E500 gets you the new-dare we say swoopy?-styling, and 2.4 additional inches of width, a standard power sunroof, a 10-speaker audio system (versus a nine-speaker unit), and 18-inch alloy wheels (versus 17s) shod with 245/40s up front and 275/35s in the rear. Moreover, compared with the E’s five-seat interior, the CLS’s four-seat cabin (yep, no one has to ride the hump) is more luxurious, pampering its occupants with a leather-covered, French-stitched dash, large areas of burl walnut or laurel wood, and a tasteful dose of chrome trim bits. Rear-seat passengers get to plop down in seats that are more like buckets than a bench, and they’re treated to ample legroom and foot space, although headroom is 1.6 inches short of the E500’s. Otherwise, the CLS’s interior doesn’t seem noticeably smaller, nor does its trunk, which, at 16 cubic feet, is as accommodating as the E’s.

Lows: The decklid badge is like a blemish on an otherwise perfect skin, electrohydraulic brakes still a few tweaks shy of perfection.

So the CLS is beautiful inside and out, but how does it drive? Well, unsurprisingly, a lot like the E, but a notch sportier. The bigger wheels with meatier tires grab the ground for 0.87 g of adhesion, a big improvement over the 0.81 g put forth by the E500 [ C/D, November 2002], a car that seems more prone to understeer than the CLS. But even though it’s as grippy as its CLK55 AMG brother, the CLS500 is still not as tenacious as the 645Ci, which registered 0.94 g on the skidpad [“High-End Sports Coupes,” C/D, May 2004]. The CLS’s power-assisted rack-and-pinion steering feels less cumbersome than the E’s, as if it were feathered a step or two, delivering a deliciously light effort at low speeds but still a relatively firm, responsive feel as the digits climb. The ride is similar to the E’s, which is to say it can be elevated from plush to taut at the push of a console-mounted button. The adjustable Airmatic DC dampers offer three shock settings-comfort, sport 1, and sport 2-enabling the driver to tailor road feel to his or her mood. Whereas in the E the system sometimes feels as if the stiffest setting should be deleted and an even softer base setting should be added, in the sportier CLS the trio of choices seems perfectly appropriate. Much of the CLS’s sporty nature comes from sensations inside the cockpit. Aim your eyes straight ahead, and there’s no remnant of the severely sloped hood to impede your view of the road, not to mention an annoying three-pronged ornament as on an E-class. Peripherally, though, it’s a different story, in which the sharply raked A-pillars and low-slung roofline eliminate some useful sightlines. That said, the capsule-like feeling they impart does seem to convey a sense of speed. Outside or inside, the CLS feels clean and sleek, like a high-end sports coupe, er, sedan, should.

The Verdict: A styling tour de force inside and out.

At 4048 pounds, our CLS500 was burdened with 79 extra pounds compared with the E500 we tested in ’02. Yet armed with Mercedes’ new-for-2004 seven-speed automatic, it proved to be substantially quicker, ripping from 0 to 60 in 5.5 seconds, 0.3 second sooner than the five-speed E. (But a current E-class with the seven-speed would most likely match the CLS’s numbers.) The CLS500’s quarter-mile time comes in at 14 seconds flat at 100 mph, putting it ahead of the E500 (14.3 at 99) and just behind the 325-hp 645Ci (13.9 at 102). The Benz stopped from 70 mph in 162 feet. An E500 requires 181 feet, and a 645Ci, 169. Although powerful and fade-free, the brake-by-wire binders are not easy to modulate smoothly, often causing lurches even when we were consciously judicious with our pedal input. Mercedes has improved the logic of the electrohydraulic brakes since their inception in the current-generation SL-class, but the system is still not ideal. When it comes to the CLS500, it’s hard to imagine a car that is faster and better-looking, although AMG’s tuned-up CLS55 arguably accomplishes that feat. Nonetheless, the CLS500 is an eminently quick and sporty four-door. And it looks so fine, it begs the question: Do you really want to travel so quickly that passersby don’t even have a chance to feel envy? CounterpointWith the CLS came my first interaction with Mercedes’ Keyless Go, one of many systems that enable the owner to lock, unlock, start, and stop the car without ever removing the key from his or her pocket. Mercedes’ approach, however, incorporates major annoyance with this minor convenience. Open the door, and incessant beeping ensues while a message is displayed: “Don’t forget the key.” How could I forget it if it’s in my pocket? The same beeping and warning message happens when exiting the car, even though it’s impossible to lock the fob inside. My suggestion: “Warningless Go,” not the $1080 Keyless Go. —Dave VanderWerpI’m really torn about this CLS500. On one hand, I’m bowled over by its beautiful lines and grand interior. On the other hand, I’m not much for the chopped-and-channeled look that greatly restricts the view adults have from the back seat. The huge gap between the front doors and the C-pillar also bothers me. Despite the low roofline, however, the driver’s view is excellent and the car drives as well as the E500 on which it is based–it even seems to ride better. Still, I find something contrived about taking an E500 and dressing it up in haute couture. But if you love the look and have the extra eight grand, you’ll be happy with the CLS. —Csaba CsereThe CLS feels like the spiritual descendant of the coach-built cars from the first half of the 20th century. Back then you’d buy a powertrain and frame, carefully select your coachbuilder, work with the designers, and months later your creation would roll forth into your life. A high price ensured exclusivity, and your taste dictated the styling. Here we have the 21st century mass-produced version of this process. The CLS sports a couture design that shares much of its internals with the handsome, conventional E-class–an ideal starting place. The details of the CLS are unique, often flamboyant, and make the owner feel special. It’s this feeling that truly connects this modern car to its commissioned forebears. —Tony Quiroga

Specifications

SPECIFICATIONS
2006 Mercedes-Benz CLS500
VEHICLE TYPEFront-engine, rear-wheel-drive, 4-passenger, 4-door sedan
PRICE AS TESTED$74,500
ENGINE TYPESOHC 24-valve V-8, aluminum block and heads, port fuel injectionDisplacement: 303 in3, 4966 cm3 Power: 302 hp @ 5600 rpmTorque: 339 lb-ft @ 2700 rpm
TRANSMISSION7-speed automatic
CHASSISSuspension (F/R): multilink/multilinkBrakes (F/R): 13.0-in vented disc/11.8-in vented discTires: Continental SportContact 2, F: 245/40ZR-18 93Y R: 275/35R18 95Y
DIMENSIONSWheelbase: 112.4 in Length: 193.3 in Width: 73.7 in Height: 55.2 in Passenger volume: 92 ft3 Trunk volume: 16 ft3 Curb weight: 4048 lb
C/D TEST RESULTS60 mph: 5.5 sec100 mph: 14.0 sec130 mph: 26.4 secRolling start, 5–60 mph: 5.7 secTop gear, 30–50 mph: 3.1 secTop gear, 50–70 mph: 3.8 sec1/4 mile: 14.0 sec @ 100 mphTop speed (governor limited): 100 mphBraking, 70–0 mph: 162 ftRoadholding, 300-ft-dia skidpad: 0.87 g
C/D FUEL ECONOMYObserved: 23 mpg
EPA FUEL ECONOMYCombined/city/highway: 18/16/22 mpg

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The future of electric hypercars may not quite exist yet, but Lotus is certainly doing its part to invent it with the new Evija. While several manufacturers have promised to play in this exotic realm, the British sports-car maker looks set to be the first when the Evija goes on sale this summer. To get an idea of what customers can expect from the full production model, we secured a track drive in a prototype version at Lotus’s Hethel headquarters in England.

While deeply impressive, the Evija prototype’s numbers are not quite what Lotus promises for the finished car. Combined output across the prototype’s four electric motors (one at each wheel) is limited to just over 1600 horsepower—a mighty figure but still significantly less than the production version’s nearly 2000 horses. The development car also was, unsportingly, fitted with 140-mph speed limiter, whereas customer cars will be able to exceed 200 mph. It also, for our drive, did without active aerodynamics, adaptive dampers, regenerative braking, torque vectoring across its axles, and the ability to vary its front-to-rear torque split beyond an arbitrary 23/77 percent. This is in keeping with the company’s engineering ethos to first perfect the core chassis before adding support systems. Of greater concern on the day of our drive was the lack of any kind of stability or traction control, which we thought may come in handy given the car’s track-biased Pirelli P Zero Trofeo R tires and temperatures in the low 40s at the company’s the Hethel circuit.
Fortunately, the Evija’s lack of electronic safeguards was not an issue as the tires came up to temperature and began to deliver huge amounts of grip. Along with being Lotus’s first EV, the Evija also is the brand’s first all-wheel-drive road car. Yet despite both of those novelties, its core dynamic experience is remarkably close to that of the company’s existing sports cars. Just much, much quicker.The Evija’s steering is reassuringly Lotus-like, with a slightly slower ratio than the supercar norm but with linear responses and rich off-center feedback. To maintain better feel, Lotus has surprisingly kept with hydraulic assistance in place of an electric rack that’s the norm today, even though this brings the complication of integrating a separate electrically driven hydraulic pump. For similar reasons the Evija employs a conventional brake booster instead of one of the increasingly fashionable electric-assist systems.The car has a relatively tall battery pack situated behind its passenger compartment, rather than a shorter pack spanning the length of the vehicle. Lotus says the 70.0-kWh lithium-ion pack weighs a substantial 1583 pounds—in contrast, the car’s naked carbon-fiber tub weighs only 284 pounds—but its position gives the Evija a weight distribution and center of gravity similar to that of an internal-combustion mid-engined supercar. Indeed, on track the Evija does drive much like a large and very powerful Evora, rotating keenly and responding well to small driver inputs. It feels wieldy and approachable, never skittish. The suspension has good initial compliance, with heavy cornering loads inducing a small amount of body roll providing feedback to the driver.
Formula 1 cars aside, no Lotus has ever accelerated so quickly. The Evija’s straight-line performance is outside normal frames of reference, both in terms of its instantaneous savagery and the lack of drama that accompanies it. This is, for want of a better term, a quietly startling vehicle to drive. The objective evidence of g-forces and spiraling numbers on the car’s digital display is in total contrast to the lack of anything like a recognizable supercar soundtrack, with nothing more than a muscular electrical hum entering the cockpit. We reached the 140-mph speed limiter well before the end of one of Hethel’s longer straights, the rapidly approaching braking zones coming as a surprise every time. Lotus figures the production Evija will be able to bolt from rest to 186 mph in an astonishing nine seconds or so. For comparison, the quickest car we’ve ever tested, the Bugatti Chiron Sport, needed 12.4 seconds to hit 180 mph.Lotus has yet to say exactly how much downforce the finished Evija’s hydraulically operated rear wing and vast diffuser will produce, although it acknowledges the total will be large. The prototype’s wing was fixed during our drive, yet the massive lateral loads that the car could generate through Hethel’s quicker corners left us with no doubt about the presence of serious aerodynamic assistance. The Evija’s pushrod-actuated suspension incorporates Formula 1-inspired front and rear “heave dampers.” This setup features a strut that connects the tops of the upper left and right control arms in order to act equally against forces on both wheels while allowing each corner’s springs and dampers to remain compliant. Even under substantial downforce loads, the suspension never became harsh nor the steering excessively heavy.
Not that the prototype felt finished in all areas. It was running an early ABS calibration for its hugely powerful Brembo carbon-ceramic brakes, which intervened early and made the car feel surprisingly heavy going into the Hethel’s tight hairpins. The brake pedal also became soft after a couple of hot laps, perhaps due to the development car’s lack of regenerative braking assistance.The other issue we experienced is one the Evija can’t be fairly blamed for: the limitations of current battery technology. Harder use devours the battery’s charge at a prodigious rate. While the finished car should be able to achieve a 250-mile range under Europe’s admittedly optimistic WLTP protocol, our experience was that track driving will deplete the pack in less than 15 minutes, although output never seemed to drop as the pack approached empty. The finished Evija will support charging speeds of up to 800 kW, although even today’s commercially available 350-kW units should allow for the battery to be replenished in not much more time than it takes to empty it on the track.Lotus seems to be on course to be among the first to bring an electric hypercar to market. But it may have created a car ahead of its time. Company executives admit it is possible that it may not sell all of the 130 examples that it plans to produce. In addition to a price that works out to around $2.4 million at current exchange rates, the Evija will not be street legal in the United States, which means American buyers will face additional import complications and show-and-display restrictions. Still, Lotus says that hasn’t put off some determined and very wealthy early adopters, with several cars already set to come stateside. Their hypercar of the future is nearly here.

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Porsche’s Taycan Cross Turismo is the wagon addition to the Taycan EV family and will be available midsummer at a starting price of $92,250. The Cross Turismo will be initially limited to the 469-hp 4 and the 616-hp Turbo, with 562-hp 4S and 750-hp Turbo S variants to come. Since the Cross Turismo has the word Cross in the name and the shape of the body implies some crossover-ness and soft-road credibility, the new model features a 1.2-inch increase in ride height, a new Gravel mode for the stability-control system, retuned air springs and adaptive dampers, and some off-road-themed body work.Unlike the Taycan sedan, all Cross Turismo models come standard with the larger of the two available battery packs, an 83.7-kWh unit. In the 4, that pack powers the two motors to an available 469 horsepower when using launch control. During normal use, you get 375 horsepower and 368 pound-feet of torque. As in all Taycans, a two-speed automatic transmission on the rear axle enables brisk off-the-line acceleration and more efficient high-speed cruising. Porsche says the 4 should hit 60 mph in 4.8 seconds, but given that the Taycan 4S outperformed Porsche’s 3.8-second estimate by 0.4, we’re willing to bet the Cross Turismo will hit 60 mph in 4.5 ticks.

Our drive of the Taycan 4 Cross Turismo took place around Los Angeles and took us out toward Big Bear Lake and onto some twisting canyon roads before heading back to Lala Land. With more than an hour of L.A.-area freeway driving right out of the gate, the entry Cross Turismo impressed with its zippy mid-speed acceleration, the reality of which greatly exceeds what you’d expect based on the unimpressive power and torque numbers and its estimated 5200-pound curb weight. Need to pass a dawdling left-lane daydreamer? It’s already done.By the time we arrived at the base of the mountain roads leading up to Big Bear, the battery had gone from its starting point of 97 percent charge to an indicated 77 percent. You might think the weight of the Taycan would rear its head as the terrain grew steep and wizened, but it doesn’t. In fact, if you didn’t know the Taycan 4 Cross Turismo weighed north of 2.5 tons, you’d might never guess it. The Taycan carries its mass low, making a center of gravity that’s low and a boon to handling. This despite the slightly higher ride height of the Cross Turismo compared to the standard Taycan. On the brakes, the Cross Turismo is confident and brutally capable, never nervous—a useful trait on unfamiliar mountain roads.
Steering accuracy and feel plays into that sense of confidence. While not seemingly telepathic like that of a GT3 or GT2 RS, the Taycan steers remarkably well for a car of its size and heft. Grip was provided by (optional) Michelin Pilot Sport 4S summer tires wrapped around unique 20-inch Offroad Design wheels. The Offroad Design package also fitted to the car raises the ride height an additional 0.4 inch, and adds silver-colored lower-body accents as well as small, triangular protectors ahead of the wheel wells to reduce the “witness marks” produced by the gravel thrown around when you are, presumably, powersliding through a forest or a desert wash.At the top of the mountain, the battery gauge indicated 44 percent of the battery’s capacity remained, leaving 93 miles of range. Following an aggressive descent, the battery reported a 41 percent charge and 107 miles of range. Upon returning the car to the studio in Glendale, the battery had 21 percent of its charge left and an estimated 62 miles of range. I’d just driven from Glendale to Big Bear and back in a day, a roughly 200-mile round trip, 60 of those miles on enthusiastically driven mountain roads, on a single charge with no perceptible loss of performance as the battery drained and no need to even look for a charging station or feel stressed about range.
A lack of bags, cargo, and passengers on this short day trip meant we didn’t get to formally test the expanded rear cargo area and additional rear-seat passenger space provided by the wagon shape. Porsche says the Cross Turismo body adds a minor 0.4 inches of headroom up front and a major 3.7 inches in the back seat. The rear cargo area also grows in comparison to the trunk of the sedan, offering 16 cubic feet of cargo space behind the rear seat and 43 cubic feet with them folded forward. There was also, unfortunately, no opportunity to test the Taycan’s new Gravel off-road mode. The Taycan Cross Turismo’s combination of looks, speed, and space put it into the realm of the now-legendary combustion-powered Boss wagons like the Audi RS6 Avant and Mercedes-AMG E63 S wagon. The Cross Turismo offers a compelling alternative to those two super wagons, and while those two lovely German V-8s burn gasoline in excess, the Taycan’s electric-motor powertrain and lack of tailpipe emissions give it some green cred. Determining a winner among the three might be tough, but whenever performance, price, and practicality line up this well, a comparison test seems inevitable. Stay tuned.

Specifications

Specifications
2021 Porsche Taycan 4 Cross Turismo
VEHICLE TYPE
front and rear-motor, all-wheel-drive, 4- or 5-passenger, 4-door wagon
BASE PRICE
$92,250
MOTORS
2 permanent-magnet synchronous AC; combined output, 469 hp, 368 lb-ft; 83.7-kWh lithium-ion battery pack
TRANSMISSIONS (F/R)
direct drive/2-speed automatic
DIMENSIONS
Wheelbase: 114.3 inLength: 195.8 inWidth: 77.4 inHeight: 55.5–55.9 inCargo volume (F/R): 3/16 ft3Curb weight (C/D est): 5200 lb
PERFORMANCE (C/D EST)
60 mph: 4.5 sec100 mph: 9.8 sec1/4 mile: 12.7 secTop speed: 136 mph
EPA FUEL ECONOMY (C/D EST)
Combined/city/highway: 76/73/81 MPGeRange: 225 miles

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The gradual evolution of the automobile has meant that different innovations have arrived at different times, and leaping back 90 years in automotive history makes for a strange combination of the familiar and the utterly alien. It’s a point made spectacularly well by the Bentley Blower Continuation, a vehicle that manages the unique trick of possessing both a new-car smell and a genuine pre-war driving experience. The Blower’s dial-strewn dashboard seems to have been modeled on the mantelpiece of an English country manor, yet it houses both a tachometer and a speedometer—features that few cars had in 1930. It doesn’t have a fuel gauge, however. A period Blower’s owner—or, likely, their servant—would have checked the car’s fuel level by simply gazing into its vast, 26.4-gallon tank. The Blower’s floor-mounted gearshift is laid out in a conventional H pattern—top left for first gear, bottom right for fourth—although it is positioned awkwardly to the right of the right-hand driving position. The clutch pedal also is where your left foot expects to find it. But things get more archaic with the realization that this vintage of Bentley predates conventionally modern pedal positioning, what with its accelerator situated in the middle and the brake pedal on the right.
In short, Bentley has done what it promised when it announced it would build a run of 12 of its most famous cars. Beyond the lack of 90 years of wear, the Continuation is an exact facsimile of the original Blower. Jaguar kicked off the modern trend for factory-sanctioned continuation models in 2015 by producing seven lightweight E-types that the company had originally planned but never got around to making. Additional models have followed. Aston Martin also got in on the act with old-new versions of the DB4 GT, DB4 GT Zagato, and the James Bond-inspired DB5 Goldfinger.But when Bentley’s Mulliner division decided to do something similar, it opted to head much further back in time and to deliver what is a much more demanding driving experience. Yet, there was no shortage of interest. The company says it could have sold considerably more than the dozen cars it will build, despite each example costing $2.1 million and not being suitable for registered road use in most parts of the world.

Despite being one of Bentley’s most famous models, the original Blower wasn’t a factory project. Company founder W.O. Bentley didn’t believe in forced induction, holding that larger naturally aspirated engines were a more appropriately English way to respond to the challenge posed by rival supercharged racers such as the Mercedes SSK and Bugatti Type 35C. One-time fighter pilot and aristocratic Bentley Boy driver, Sir Henry “Tim” Birkin, politely disagreed and set about building a four-cylinder car that would use an Amherst-Villiers Roots-type supercharger to produce more power than the Bentley Works team’s Speed Sixes. Doing this cost Birkin most of his personal fortune, and when that ran short, he managed to arrange additional support from a wealthy heiress named Dorothy Paget, a prolific gambler and racehorse owner. Eventually he persuaded Woolf Barnato, Bentley’s chairman and another factory race driver, to sanction the production of 55 Blowers, five of which would be outfitted for racing.Featuring such innovations as a 16-valve cylinder head, twin-spark ignition, aluminium pistons, and a magnesium crankcase, the Blower’s 4.4-liter four was one of the most powerful in the world at that time, making 240 horsepower in race trim. That was more than the 200 or so horses made by the massive Speed Six cars—the ones that Ettore Bugatti once referred to as the world’s fastest trucks. But the Blower was also thirsty and prone to failure. “The Blower eats plugs like a donkey eats hay,” as Bentley’s chief mechanic put it.
Some more history: The Bentley Blower never won a significant race in its day, although it did play a heroic cameo at the 1930 24 Hours of Le Mans. Bentley had won the endurance race in 1929 and was defending its title with three factory-entered Speed Sixes. Birkin brought another trio of Blowers, driving the No. 2 car himself. The big threat was Rudolf Caracciola’s privately entered Mercedes SSK, a car with a clear performance advantage over the Speed Six but considered mechanically fragile when driven flat-out. When the race began, Birkin set off at a searing pace, overtaking the Mercedes twice and goading the German into giving chase. Caracciola did, and his SSK indeed broke before the finish, but none of the Blowers made it to the checkered flag, either. Barnato in his Speed Six ultimately led a one-two finish for the works team.Bentley now owns Birkin’s No. 2 car and reckons it is worth tens of millions of dollars. There have been various mild restorations over the years, but the core structure and engine are the same that raced in 1930. That car served as the basis for the Continuation project, with Mulliner disassembling it and scanning individual parts before commissioning exact replicas. The car in our photos is the development prototype, officially known as Car Zero, and it carries some extra paraphernalia required as a Volkswagen Group test mule, including both supplementary LED headlights and a data-acquisition system. But mechanically it is identical to both the original car and the dozen production models that will follow it.
Despite being worth far more than the Continuation, the No. 2 car is surprisingly the one Bentley asked us to sample first at Millbrook Proving Ground. This was to impart an appreciation for the car’s rich history and, as Bentley’s public-relations manager admits, because the teeth of its non-synchronized transmission have been smoothed by decades of graunchy gear changes and should therefore be slightly more forgiving in inexperienced hands.Coping with the Blower’s gearbox is the greatest challenge when behind the wheel. The accurately named “crash” transmission requires double declutching—pressing the clutch pedal to deselect a gear, releasing it, and pressing it again to select a gear—for shifting both up and down its ratios, with downshifts bringing the additional complication of matching the engine’s revs to road speeds. The clutch also incorporates an engine brake to still the big four’s input shaft so that first gear can be selected. On the move, this means that downshifts bring the additional challenge of remembering to only depress the clutch halfway while blipping a wrongly placed accelerator and manipulating a shifter that’s partially positioned under your right thigh. Yes, there were some grinding noises.
But the rest of the experience of the No. 2 car feels, if not exactly modern, certainly less old-fashioned. Performance is impressively brisk. The big engine has no enthusiasm for revs and is reluctant to reach its modest 4500-rpm redline. But low-end torque is plentiful, and the boost gauge indicates the supercharger’s significant contribution even at low revs. When the original Blower team cars were sold off in 1931, Birkin guaranteed that each was able to achieve a top speed of at least 125 mph. We were restricted to an indicated 80 mph on Millbrook’s banked two-mile oval, but the Blower feels completely happy at this pace, tracking straight and with less slop in its steering than many later cars. Driving it is a physical experience. The steering barely lightens as the car gains speed, and the cable-operated drum brakes are feeble. Even panic-level pressures produce less retardation than resting your foot on the brake pedal of a modern vacuum-boosted braking system. Switching to Car Zero confirms a nearly identical driving experience. The new car’s fresh gearbox is less tolerant of fluffed shifts, although the heavy shift mechanism feels more accurate. The prototype’s brakes are even worse—we later learned that it had been fitted with new pads that hadn’t been properly bedded—but we soon find that the sizeable external handbrake lever operates a separate set of shoes on the back axle, allowing rear braking force to be usefully increased. The engine emits the same thump-thump-thumpsoundtrack, and although it is limited to 3200 rpm during testing, the car actually feels slightly quicker than the original.
The greater difference is one of perception. The Continuation feels every bit as archaic to drive as its predecessor, but it’s not an irreplaceable historical artifact. We don’t mind pushing it harder on Millbrook’s Hill Route, which could pass for a narrow, twisty Alpine road. The combination of solid axles, leaf springs, and lever-arm dampers cope surprisingly well with harder cornering loads, although the ride feels brutally hard over even small bumps. Peak cornering forces are modest, and the combination of narrow tires and the positively cambered front wheels make for limited grip and the early onset of understeer. Overall traction is decent, but the heavy, recirculating-ball steering tries to center itself when you call for more power with any steering lock applied. Within a couple of miles, it is clear that the biggest limitation to speed on a windy road is most likely to be the driver and their ability to wrestle the Blower through turns. Bentley has done exactly what it needed to do with the Blower Continuation, and to have tamed or civilized it in any way would have entirely missed the point. Bentley’s first continuation model is also the most extreme of the genre so far. Here’s hoping it gives the upper echelons of the market an appetite for other equally impressive newly built anachronisms.

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If only Henrik’s version had been this good. That thought popped into your author’s head on a drive from Los Angeles to Palm Springs in a 2021 Karma GS-6 plug-in hybrid. Roughly halfway into the 107-mile trip, the 24.6-kWh lithium-ion battery pack had given all it could, at which point the BMW-sourced turbocharged 1.5-liter inline-three under the hood fired up to keep power flowing to the pair of electric motors out back. At highway speeds, the transition to gasoline power snuck up on us. It took about 10 miles for us to notice, despite the gauge cluster alerting us that the range-extending engine was now in use.Karma Correction in Just 10 Years With the introduction of the GS-6, it finally appears that someone got the Fisker Karma right. Car designer Henrik Fisker is no longer involved nor is the company that bore his name. Fisker’s company made about 2000 or so Fisker Karma plug-in hybrids about a decade ago. Once the model name, Karma is now the brand that sells the heavily updated Fisker creation. That name change is one of many changes made by Chinese auto-parts supplier Wanxiang after it scooped up the smoldering remains of Fisker Automotive and decided to reintroduce the lusty luxury car under a new name, Revero, in 2017. [image id=’f8fa4752-ee5e-486e-84af-0af4360c91fd’ mediaId=’e04f58e8-4200-49dc-bb7f-eee9ec3024b8′ align=’center’ size=’medium’ share=’false’ caption=” expand=” crop=’original’][/image][editoriallinks id=’eafb1416-1af8-4449-8a9d-e879fe8fd55c’ align=’left’][/editoriallinks]Karma’s early Reveros weren’t much different than Fisker’s version and suffered from many of the problems of the original. Like the Fisker version, the Revero had impractical packaging, a smallish interior, outlandish pricing, and fit and finish in need of some TLC. Worst of all, it neither worked as an extended-range electric car nor a sports sedan. With a driver and a passenger aboard, the original Karma’s weight surpassed 5500 pounds, and that prevented its twin, 402-hp electric powertrain on the rear axle from propelling it to 60 mph any quicker than a modern Toyota Camry V-6. We couldn’t get more than 24 to 28 miles of electric driving from its battery before its 260-hp turbocharged four-banger kicked on to extend the range, bleating like an angry goat while sucking down fuel like a mid-size SUV.[image id=’d2ce6ce8-a6ea-458f-80e7-01fc55b30655′ mediaId=’684106bf-ba1d-4da1-b213-b07a356aade4′ align=’center’ size=’medium’ share=’false’ caption=” expand=” crop=’original’][/image]Karma introduced the Revero with a detuned version of General Motors’s turbo four and a slightly larger battery pack, but that wasn’t enough to improve the car’s range, performance, and weight problems. Then came the 2020 Revero GT with mildly restyled front and rear fascias, improved aerodynamics, and new rear-axle motors producing a combined 536 horsepower, 134 more ponies than before. Out went the GM engine, and in went a BMW i8’s turbocharged 1.5-liter three-cylinder as the range extender. Karma then installed a more energy-dense 24.6-kWh lithium-ion battery pack. Thus equipped and a claimed 357 pounds trimmer, the new Revero (according to Karma) could now hit 60 mph in 4.5 seconds and travel 71 miles on a single charge. Armed now with stats to match the styling, Revero GT seemed more interesting, although with a price remaining well into six-figure territory, we weren’t sure it was more compelling. Priced Aligned, Product RefinedIn fall 2020, Karma unveiled the visually—and mechanically—identical GS-6 models that, starting at $85,700, are more than $60K less than the least expensive 2021 Revero GT. Even in its pricier Luxury and Sport trim levels, which start at $95,700 and $105,700, respectively, the GS-6 seems like a relative bargain. An electric-only GSe-6 model will start at $81,700. Stir in applicable local and federal incentives and the deal gets even sweeter, especially when one considers that the GS-6, like the Revero and the Fisker Karma before it, remains mostly hand-built, even after Karma relocated the production facility from Finland to Moreno Valley, California. [image id=’f441e890-82d9-493c-868d-271527594625′ mediaId=’3f76ae2c-56ed-4ef0-afc3-27e4e1d373e3′ align=’center’ size=’medium’ share=’false’ caption=” expand=” crop=’original’][/image]That’s nice, you say, but what about all the numerous design and packaging problems that helped doom the Karma a decade ago? Well, not everything has been fixed. The weird 10-year-old push-button shifter remains, for example, but the hideous original steering wheel and uncomfortable seats have been replaced with better stuff. Cabin space remains snug, and it continues to be hard to get into, especially in back. The inches-off-the-ground seating position feels lower than ever, which may turn off folks who may have become acclimated to driving trucks and crossovers. Once you’re in, the seating position and the view out the windshield will make owners of a C6 or C7 Corvette feel right at home. Nearly everything inside the Luxury-trim car we drove was swathed in buttery black, expertly sewn Bridge of Weir leather. Carbon-fiber accents dress things up, and there’s almost no exposed plastic. The dashboard design lacks the Tomorrowland feel of a Tesla or a Lucid, let alone the upcoming Mercedes-Benz EQS, but it’s not embarrassingly outdated. The GS-6’s digital gauge cluster and infotainment-system controls are highly configurable. Information-obsessed drivers can call up several dozen different gauges and displays monitoring everything from energy flow to g-forces to various trip-computer readouts.[image id=’40ea1e5f-ce25-4b58-bdc2-2d7dc39ad2ff’ mediaId=’8ed7df27-5f85-4180-99d7-e06fd365eeb6′ align=’center’ size=’medium’ share=’false’ caption=” expand=” crop=’original’][/image]Fun, Fast, and … Flatulent?If the battery is at least 90 percent charged, the GS-6 offers a launch mode, which is engaged when the car is in Sport mode via the leftmost steering-wheel paddle, then mashing both pedals while stopped. The BMW three-cylinder revs to about 4000 rpm and a countdown indicator appears on the dashboard. Once ready, simply release the brake and the car catapults forward like a ball bearing out of a slingshot, mashing you into the seatback while the engine emits a flatulent, high-pitched wail until you release the accelerator. It’s fun, if not terribly pleasant to hear. Furthermore, it’s repeatable again and again “as long as you’ve got enough fuel and tires,” said Karma’s training technical and sales training manager, John Albinson. And we did, many times. We’d like to strap our own test equipment to the GS-6 soon, but until then, we can summarily state that Fisker’s, er, Karma’s sedan is the best it’s ever been. But Tesla’s EV success has shifted the market away from plug-in hybrids like the GS-6 and toward EVs. Still, for buyers looking for a plug-in hybrid with concept-car looks, the Karma remains an iconoclast’s choice. It took a decade to get it right, but if Henrik’s car had been this well sorted from the start, things might have turned out very differently for his company.[vehicle type=’specpanel’ vehicle-body-style=” vehicle-make=” vehicle-model=” vehicle-model-category=” vehicle-submodel=” vehicle-year=”][/vehicle]

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