Evelyn Reynolds

Despite the fast-paced growth at the subcompact end of the SUV marketplace, many of the players in this segment are really small hatchbacks masquerading as crossovers. They may speak the language of SUVs but less than fluently. Given their lack of available all-wheel drive, we’re tempted to classify these models as subcompact cars even though they feature slightly higher driving positions and more rugged designs. Among this group of wannabe SUVs is the Nissan Kicks, which gains a bit more style and sensibility for the 2021 model year, thanks to a modest mid-cycle refresh.
The latest Kicks is distinguished by a larger grille and pinched headlamps, both of which lend it a little more attitude on the road. The rear bumper and liftgate also have been massaged, and a new light strip between the taillights helps hide the wee Nissan’s relatively narrow proportions. New wheel designs and revised paint colors round out the visual updates.

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Nissan

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Inside, the center console has been reworked to include reconfigurable cupholders with removable inserts, an armrest between the front seats, and an optional electronic parking brake. While these enhancements provide a more premium vibe to the cabin, the new center armrest sits lower than we’d like, and the faux-leather upholstery in our test vehicle had a rubbery feel commensurate with the 2021 model’s $20,595 starting price.
The most important improvements for the Kicks come by way of added technology, including standard Apple CarPlay, Android Auto, and an onboard Wi-Fi hotspot across the lineup. A larger 8.0-inch touchscreen infotainment display replaces the standard 7.0-inch unit in mid-range SV and top-spec SR trims, both of which also have a new USB-C port. Our test vehicle, an SR model with both the Technology and Premium packages, also came with an upgraded Bose stereo with speakers in the front-seat headrests.

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Nissan

Under the hood, the front-wheel-drive 2021 Kicks continues unchanged with a 122-hp 1.6-liter four-cylinder mated to a continuously variable automatic transmission (CVT). This arrangement is borrowed from the Versa subcompact sedan and feels adequately responsive for most city driving. We wish a power bump was among the latest revisions, however, as the Kicks is still rather pokey in getting up to highway speeds. During our testing of a 2018 model, we recorded a lazy 9.6-second run to 60 mph and a 17.4-second quarter-mile pass at 80 mph. That said, it’s not the slowest of its kind. The last Toyota C-HR we tested required a glacial 11.0 seconds to reach 60 mph.
Fuel economy is clearly more important here. The outgoing 2020 Kicks earned respectable EPA estimates of 31 mpg city and 36 highway, which Nissan expects to carry over for 2021. (Nissan has yet to release full pricing and fuel-economy ratings for the updated model.) While we wouldn’t describe the Kicks as entertaining to drive, its stable handling and comfortable ride should satisfy buyers who are attracted to its efficient packaging, updated technology, and fuel-sipping powertrain—qualities that are easy to appreciate in any class of affordably priced vehicle.

Specifications

Specifications
2021 Nissan Kicks
VEHICLE TYPE front-engine, front-wheel-drive, 5-passenger, 4-door wagon
BASE PRICE $20,595
ENGINE TYPE DOHC 16-valve inline-4, aluminum block and head, direct fuel injectionDisplacement 98 in3, 1598 cm3Power 122 hp @ 6300 rpmTorque 114 lb-ft @ 4000 rpm
TRANSMISSION continuously variable automatic
DIMENSIONS Wheelbase: 103.1 inLength: 169.1 inWidth: 69.3 inHeight: 63.3–63.4 inPassenger volume: 94 ft3Cargo volume: 25 ft3Curb weight (C/D est): 2700–2750 lb
PERFORMANCE (C/D EST) 60 mph: 9.6 sec100 mph: 36.5 sec1/4 mile: 17.4 secTop speed: 110 mph
EPA FUEL ECONOMY (C/D EST) Combined/city/highway: 33/31/36 mpg

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From the September 2002 issue of Car and Driver.
To use the new 450-hp Audi RS 6 as your grocery-getting daily driver is to use a broadsword as a butter knife. Looking very much like your average Audi A6, the RS 6 is glorious overkill.
Audi claims this 4050-pound all-wheel-drive sedan—third in a line of RS hot-rod Audis and the first to be sold in the U.S.—sprints to 60 mph in 4.6 seconds. That’s faster than the Mercedes E55 AMG by almost a second and fractionally faster than the manual-transmission BMW M5. The Audi easily reached an indicated 174 mph on the unlimited portion of the A92 autobahn near Munich. And so easily and with such supernatural stability does it maintain that speed that we found ourselves noodling with the navigation system while our co-driver bumped against the speed limiter. The limiter is set at 155 mph for all markets, so our test car had either a lazy limiter or an optimistic speedometer. Either way, 155 mph or 174 mph, it doesn’t really matter. Germany is the only place we know where one can fully exploit this car’s greatest trick—providing great speed along with great composure.

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What we have here is a grand German game of wonderfully irrational one-upmanship. Mercedes offers 349 horsepower in the E55 AMG? BMW has 394 horses in the M5? Then Audi will produce 450.
In the engine room of the RS is a hot version of the 4.2-liter, five-valve DOHC V-8 that powers the A8 and the upper-level A6. It has been worked over by Quattro GmbH. “Quattro” is usually a reference to Audi’s all-wheel-drive system, but here it applies to a performance arm of the company that is to compete with the M group at BMW and Mercedes’ AMG.
Two turbochargers have been bolted to the 4.2-liter engine, which in stock guise makes between 300 and 360 horsepower, depending on application. They blow a maximum of 11.6 psi of pressure and come with twin air-to-air intercoolers. The cylinder heads are modified for better airflow and cooling. The two exhaust valves per cylinder are sodium-filled to keep them cool. Freer-flowing intake and exhaust result in 415 pound-feet of torque delivered over a flat plateau between 1950 and 5600 rpm to go with the 450 horses. Its delivery is fluid and almost electric in its smoothness.
And that performance comes while routing the power through a five-speed automatic transmission, the only gearbox available. Audi says there isn’t a manual gearbox under parent VW’s corporate umbrella that can handle this much power. So the RS 6 uses the tranny from the 414-hp A8 W-12 (a car not sold in the U.S.). With this much torque and the quick shifts in either standard or sport mode, we didn’t mind giving our clutch-pedal leg a rest. Should you want to choose your own gears, Audi provides shift paddles behind the steering wheel.
When you need to slow the car more quickly than a downshift would accomplish—which you often will in this beast—Audi has you covered. Massive eight-piston Brembo calipers clamp down on 14.4-inch rotors in front, and single-piston calipers with 13.2-inch rotors handle the braking in back. Audi has upped the braking-technology ante as well. In place of a traditional rotor is a friction ring (the circular part where the pads contact) connected to an aluminum hub by 14 short pins. The pins allow the friction ring to move one millimeter either outboard or inboard. Audi says this allows the friction ring to stay in perfect alignment with the pad surface under extreme conditions. The arrangement also allows for better cooling and less unsprung weight. With full pressure on the brake pedal, the force of deceleration is nothing short of staggering, although the brakes on our prototype had a softer brake-pedal action than we’d like. We’ll have to test a production car before we pass judgment on feel.
The RS 6’s suspension is equally trick. The car comes standard with a semiactive suspension system called Dynamic Ride Control (DRC). Unlike Mercedes’ electronically controlled ABC pitch-and-roll-control active suspension, DRC is strictly mechanical—hydraulic lines that connect diagonally opposed single-tube shocks through a central reservoir and valve. Shock fluid can move around the car to selectively change the damping characteristics of the various corners. For instance, in an aggressive cornering maneuver, as hydraulic pressure in the shocks on the inside of the corner is reduced, hydraulic fluid and pressure move to the diagonal outside shocks, stiffening them to reduce roll. Yamaha developed the system for its racing motorcycles. The result is a reasonably soft ride (at least over well-maintained roads in Germany) and generally good body control for a two-ton sedan.
Audi also stiffened the shocks by 40 percent and the springs by 30 percent, compared with the A6 4.2 model. The entire suspension of the RS 6 is made of aluminum, including the front and rear subframes. To this Audi adds 18-inch aluminum wheels wearing 255/40ZR-18 Pirelli P Zero Rosso tires at all four corners.
The wheels and tires are the visual clues that this A6 is something special. Otherwise, the RS 6 has restrained styling. There’s a new front fascia incorporating intakes for the intercoolers, a new rear fascia to incorporate the large twin exhaust tips, a small rear spoiler to reduce aerodynamic lift at high speeds, and matte aluminum trim. The interior is near-standard Audi, but with the addition of special wood trim or carbon fiber as a no-cost option and perforated leather on the steering wheel and shift knob. Everything is standard but the navigation system and the rear side airbags.
Standard equipment, however, will not be what motivates buyers to step up to the estimated price (Audi officially says only that it will be “less than $85,000”). That estimate would make the RS 6 almost $10,000 more expensive than a BMW M5 or Mercedes E55 AMG. With only 860 RS 6 sedans destined for delivery to the U.S. starting next year, Audi believes there are plenty of people who will happily pay that much for massive overkill and grand one-upmanship.

Specifications

SPECIFICATIONS
2003 Audi RS 6
VEHICLE TYPE  front-engine, 4-wheel-drive, 5-passenger, 4-door sedan
PRICE AS TESTED $82,000
ENGINE TYPE twin-turbocharged and intercooled DOHC 40-valve V-8, aluminum block and heads, Bosch Motronic engine-control system with port fuel injectionDisplacement 255 in3, 4172 cm3Power (SAE net) 450 bhp @ 6000 rpmTorque (SAE net) 415 lb-ft @ 1950 rpm
TRANSMISSION 5-speed automatic with lockup torque converter
DIMENSIONSWheelbase: 108.6 inLength: 191.3 inWidth: 72.8 inHeight: 56.1 inCurb weight: 4050 lb
C/D TEST RESULTSZero to 60 mph: 4.6 secStanding ¼-mile: 14.1 secTop speed (governor limited): 155 mph
FUEL ECONOMYEuropean combined cycle: 16 mpgUrban cycle: 11 mpgExtra-urban cycle: 23 mpg

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From the August 2000 issue of Car and Driver.
See that Northwest DC-10 over there? As a little joke, let’s grab that baby, tow it behind a hangar somewhere, see how long it takes ’em to notice some-thing’s wrong.”
“I don’t think so,” replied 31-year-old supertug driver William Jones.
“Come on. It’ll be funny. I promise we’ll put it back later. Probably.”
“No, really, I don’t think so.”
“Northwest has tortured me for decades. Let’s see if they have a sense of humor.”

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“They don’t. Trust me. They don’t.” At the time, Jones and I were at Newark International Airport, seated within the surprisingly comfortable cabin of a 255- hp, 35,000-pound Douglas-Kalmar TBL-280—a so-called supertug for which Continental Airlines had just shelled out $481,898. It makes as much torque as two Corvettes and can tow any commercial air-craft except a Boeing 747. If Continental needs to tow a 747, it simply fires up one of the TBL-280’s big brothers—the 540- hp, 53,000-pound TBL-400. That one costs $667,657.
At airports around the world, conventional tugs are a dime a dozen. They push aircraft away from gates and pull planes a short distance until they’re clear of ramp traffic.
A supertug differs in five ways. First, its cockpit is enclosed—heated, air-conditioned, and electrically demisted, in fact. Second, a supertug is in radio contact with everyone—pilots, air-traffic controllers, ground controllers, safety observers, possibly even with Major Tom. Third, a supertug is as simple to drive backward as forward, because its seat and instrument panel swivel 180 degrees. Fourth, a supertug can tow a 660,000-pound Boeing 777 to Akron and back, whereas conventional tugs tend to eat their transmissions after only a few hundred yards. And finally, a supertug doesn’t attach itself to aircraft via a steel tow bar. No, sir. Instead, it firmly clasps the aircraft’s front tires, then lifts the whole nose gear right off the ground. At which point it can carry a passenger-packed DC-10 forward, backward, in circles, through a slalom, and up to a velocity of 22 mph. In a straight clean-and-jerk vertical lift, the TBL-280 can hoist 77,162 pounds. The larger TBL-400 can lift 99,209 pounds or, if it feels like it, two dozen Cadillac DeVilles.
“Course, I’d never be at max speed with a ’10’ [DC-10] or a ‘triple seven’ [Boeing 777] on my back [clasped by the supertug],” says 30-year-old Donald Thomas, who is Continental’s manager of supertug operations and a former Navy jet-fighter mechanic. “The port authority has cops out there. You could get a speeding ticket.”
Cop: “What’s your hurry, son?”
Donald: “I was rushing to catch a plane, sir.”
Cop: “Looks like you already caught one. On your bumper there, son. Isn’t that an extremely large Boeing product?”
Among domestic carriers right now, only Continental operates this $5 million fleet of British-built supertugs. But that will soon change, because supertugs save money.
“Every time you move an aircraft under its own power,” explains Thomas, “you cycle its engines, which decreases the time between tear-downs. If the plane takes 15 minutes to warm up, 20 minutes to taxi to another terminal, and 10 minutes to shut down, then that’s 45 minutes off its air life. Also, if you let, say, a 747 move itself— even if it’s only 50 yards to an adjacent gate—the fuel it’ll burn would probably pay my salary for a week.”
There are other economic persuaders at work. Aircraft that are taxiing under their own power must be steered by pilots or specially licensed mechanics, all of whom earn more than supertug drivers. And large aircraft under tow often move more rapidly than under their own power, “because we know the taxiways better than the pilots do,” says Thomas, “especially the foreign pilots who have trouble with English.”
At Newark, the supertugs act as roll-on/ roll-off flatbeds, picking up dead or idle planes and moving them anywhere on the property. This movement of aircraft is a 24-hour process, starting at 5 a.m., when Thomas arrives. “First thing we do is make sure the RONs are in place,” he says, referring to the 50 or so aircraft that “remain overnight” and are the first to depart. After that, the supertugs fetch aircraft from remote locations—those in hangars, for instance, or at U.S. Customs, where planes disgorge passengers but cannot be serviced or reloaded. Thomas tows those aircraft to a terminal a half-mile distant. And finally, the supertugs are used to move aircraft that are broken: “A failed engine, a loss of hydraulics in a steering gear, a flat tire on an active runway—we’ll tow those out of the way to get fixed.” It is usually only for the latter breakdowns that Thomas and his 50-man supertug crew tow “live craft”—airplanes full of kicking and screaming passengers.

Specifications

SPECIFICATIONS
Douglas-Kalmar TBL-280 Tugmaster
VEHICLE TYPE front-engine, front-wheel-drive, 2-passenger, 1-door towbarless aircraft handling tractor
PRICE AS TESTED $481,898 (base price: $481,898)
ENGINE TYPE Deutz BF6M1013CP turbocharged and intercooled pushrod 24-valve diesel 6-in-line, iron block and head, mechanical engine-control system with direct fuel injectionDisplacement 436 in3, 7145 cm3Power 255 bhp @ 2300 rpmTorque 698 lb-ft @ 1400 rpm
TRANSMISSION 3-speed manually shifted automatic
DIMENSIONSWheelbase: 161.5 inLength: 319.0 inCurb weight: 35,000 lb
Fuel capacity: 71.3 galSteering: front-wheel, rear-wheel, 4-wheel, crabTires: Michelin X; F: 445/65R 22.5, R: 7.50R 15 XZR
MANUFACTURER’S PERFORMANCE RATINGSZero to 20 mph: slow enough not to slosh the champagneTop speed (unladen): 22 mphTop speed (towing a 140-ton aircraft): 15 mphBraking, 20-0 mph: (see “Zero to 20”)Roadholding: Oh, sure, more than 56 tons’ worthLifting capacity: 77,162 pounds
C/D-observed sex-o-meter quotient, unladen: 0.1%C/D-observed sex-o-meter quotient, towing: Air FranceConcorde with wine and meals in readiness: 92.8%

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