Car Reviews

From the December 2002 issue of Car and Driver.
Hard to believe, but no longer is a mere 349 horsepower de rigueur for a Mercedes E55 AMG. The company has decided nothing less than the supercharged V-8 of the ridiculously powerful SL55 AMG will do the job of intimidating the Teutonic heavy-metal opposition.
Just five years ago, about 350 horses established you as a credible tarmac-burning player. The BMW M5 raised the bar to 394, only to be recently overtaken by the twin-turbo Audi RS 6 with 450. Now it’s Mercedes’ turn to scorch the rankings.

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This most powerful E55 AMG ever, due in the U.S. in May, gets 34 percent more power and an extra 32 percent of pound-feet over the old, naturally aspirated, once seriously fast E55. It’s enough grunt to qualify this E55 as the quickest production sedan in the world. We estimate it will rip to 60 mph in 4.5 seconds, 0.1 second ahead of Audi’s claim for the RS 6 and 0.2 second quicker than the M5. And the rate of forward motion doesn’t slacken as the estimated 10.5 seconds to 100 mph suggests. All this with an automatic transmission, although you can shift gears manually using buttons behind the steering wheel. And get this: Assisted by an IHI belt-driven screw supercharger that spins at 23,000 rpm to a maximum pressure of 11.6 psi, the 5.4-liter V-8 produces a monstrous 516 pound-feet of torque from 2650 to 4500 rpm.

A word of explanation is needed here. The V-8 in the E55 is not exactly the same as the one in the SL55 AMG. Expect to be confused. At its launch, the SL55 produced the same figures as the E55. Then AMG found that 469 horsepower was at the very low end of the engine’s tolerances. So it had the V-8 that’s in the SL55 recertified at 493 horsepower. Now AMG admits that, due to differences in the induction geometry between the SL55 and E55 and the E55’s longer exhaust system, the E55 produces less horsepower. That longer exhaust system may account for the more subdued, less dominant, but still potent exhaust waffle that’s close to perfect for the sedan. Neither of which, apparently, makes any difference to the torque output. The E55 does have a slightly taller final-drive ratio than the SL55 (2.65 versus 2.82 for the sports car), but since the E55 weighs about 500 pounds less, we think it will be the quicker of the two.

Behind the wheel, it’s impossible not to play rally driver with this car. At least some of the time. Shift time is 35 percent quicker than a regular Mercedes automatic, and roughness increases by a similar amount. But because the tranny is adaptive, it quickly learns when the driver has backed off and then seemingly skims through the gears. You choose between sport and comfort modes (the latter replaces the old winter setting to provide second-gear starts).
It rained hard all day during our first outing in the E55. In the old 500E—Mercedes’ first supersedan—our day would have been punctuated by slipping and sliding. Yet driven fairly hard (as our 11-mpg average attests), the rear-drive E55 rarely stepped out of line, only the occasional flashing of the high-threshold electronic-stability-program warning light indicating a break in adhesion. Switch off the ESP, and you can light up the tires at will, and power oversteer becomes the norm. Yet the big heavy E55 remains remarkably controllable and agile and is still capable of generating plenty of understeer-biased cornering forces on wet roads, even if it lacks the massive security of the RS 6. Its quick (2.75 turns lock-to-lock) speed-sensitive steering has more feel and fluency and is beautifully weighted. Mercedes’ air suspension also endows a far better—even cosseting—ride than the Audi, provided you ignore the hardest of the three damper-and-spring settings, which relays every small bump and irregularity in the road. Stability is impressive, at least up to 125 mph, and we can tell you that the rain management of the body and wipers is terrific. The brakes, from the SL55 AMG, are electrohydraulic, as in all new E-class cars, and immensely powerful, but they require a sensitive touch for smooth modulation as the car comes to a halt.
The E55 interior is superbly equipped, spacious, and comfortable (apart from the ridiculously short receiving end of the seatbelts) if not quite as exquisitely built as an RS 6.
It’s another super-refined, super-subtle, supersedan from AMG. Except maybe this time the lack of visual distinctiveness is too discreet. There are the AMG three-section air inlets in the lower bumper, 18-inch alloys wearing suitably broad 245/40 and 265/35 rubber, and four oval chrome exhaust pipes. But the body would benefit from more macho massaging, especially for a car that will cost about $75,000.
It’s inevitable that one day there will be quicker sedans than the E55 AMG. But we can wonder if any will possess the same balance of refinement, poise, and performance that makes the E55 so brilliantly complete.

Specifications

SPECIFICATIONS
2003 Mercedes-Benz E55 AMG
VEHICLE TYPE Front-engine, rear-wheel-drive, 5-passenger, 4-door sedan
ESTIMATED BASE PRICE $75,000
ENGINE TYPE Supercharged and intercooled SOHC 24-valve V-8, aluminum block and heads, Bosch Motronic ME2.8.1 engine-control system with port fuel injectionDisplacement: 332 cu in, 5439ccPower (SAE net): 469 bhp @ 6100 rpmTorque (SAE net): 516 lb-ft @ 2650 rpm
TRANSMISSION 5-speed automatic with lockup torque converter
DIMENSIONSWheelbase: 112.4 in Length: 190.9 inWidth: 71.7 in Height: 50.9 inCurb weight: 3900 lb
C/D-ESTIMATED PERFORMANCEZero to 60 mph 4.5 secZero to 100 mph 10.5 secStanding 1/4-mile 12.4 secTop speed (governor limited) 156 mph
PROJECTED FUEL ECONOMYEPA city driving 14 mpgEPA highway driving 20 mpg

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From the November 2002 issue of Car and Driver.
A funny thing happened at the 1934 Eifelrennen race at the Nürburgring. Alfred Neubauer, the Zeppelinesque chief of the Mercedes team, directed his crew to grind off all the bone-white paint that distinguished the Benz factory racers.

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Hence the origin of silver as the German color for racing. But that’s not the point. Neubauer’s motive had nothing to do with aesthetics. In those days, the competition weight regs specified a maximum limit, rather than a minimum. Neubauer’s paint trick was designed to get the cars down below the max. The rulemakers set an upper limit, because they saw weight as a dynamic asset. A bigger car would have a bigger engine, and thus go faster. The objective was to slow the cars down. Ha.
This story came to mind early in our first lap of Wisconsin’s Road America racetrack in the new Mercedes SL55 AMG roadster. The Neubauer parable flickered in my mind’s eye like a prewar movie as I hit the rumble strips on the exit of Turn Five and started up the hill. Wow. Was ist los?
See, getting out there onto the exit curbing was not the intent upon entering the turn. First lap in a new car—and an expensive one at that—lots of power, cold tires, etc. Easy does it. But when the throttle went down at the apex, the car was across the track and onto that alligator curbing before you could say, “Götterdämmerung!”

Highs: Prodigious thrust, execujet style, execujet comfort.

This little tableau, reinforced by other examples of mass exerting its relentless influence, emerged as the overriding impression of an all-too-brief Road America experience, laid on by Mercedes-Benz as the finale of its North American SL55 AMG press launch. Given the car’s capabilities, it was certainly the right venue—long straights punctuated by hard braking and generally uncomplicated turns. No esses, no tricky transitions. Moreover, Mercedes had enlisted a platoon of pro road racers to demonstrate those capabilities as dramatically as possible. The demos came after we ordinary mortals had done a few laps, and with a light rain at the end of the session, this became quite dramatic, indeed.
But as we strapped on a new SL55 to head home, the nagging question persisted: What’s up with all this avoirdupois? The standard SL500 we tested last April was certainly no wraith. When the readouts on the C/D scales finally settled, the tally for that one stood at a resounding 4172 pounds. That’s SUV territory, but even so, the AMG version is heftier: 4411 pounds. What’s the deal? Weight is the enemy. These guys must know that.
Make no mistake, this is a formidable automobile, Moby Dick mass notwithstanding. Check the motivational specs: 493 horsepower at 6100 rpm, 516 pound-feet of torque manifesting itself along a wonderfully flat curve from 2650 to 4500 rpm. It’s the most potent Benz ever offered in North America, according to the manufacturer, and also the quickest factory Benz we’ve ever tested: 0 to 60 in 4.5 seconds, 0 to 100 in 10.9, the quarter-mile in 13 seconds flat at 110 mph.
In contrast, the SL500 tested in our April issue hit 60 mph in 5.8 seconds, 100 in 14.5, and covered the quarter in 14.3 seconds at 99 mph. The disparities seem minor on paper, but the real-world distinctions are dramatic. Crack the throttle, and this posh heavyweight lunges forward like a shark that’s been invited to nibble a chunk of Britney Spears. It dissects traffic like a superbike and exudes a sense of mechanical resentment when a soulless microchip arrests the rush at 156 mph.

There’s a corollary to the traffic-sorting prowess, incidentally. This car seems to stir up civilians like few others, and not always in a delighted (read “Lookit that!”) way. All too often we’d cruise past some joker only to find him angrily attached to the Benz’s rear bumper, somehow offended at being overtaken. We believe a similar emotion animated the people who divided Marie Antoinette into two unequal portions in 1793, and we furnish this observation as a public service to potential buyers: Caveat emptor.
But we were discussing the SL55’s power and its increased mass, and in fact the two are directly related. There is, for example, the weight of the AMG car’s supercharger and its air-to-water intercooler, the latter designed with its own separate supply of fluid. Made by IHI, the belt-driven supercharger is of the Lysholm type, with a Teflon-coated screw-style impeller delivering boost up to 11.6 psi. Quietly, too. No supercharger whine.
Although this is basically the same SOHC 24-valve aluminum V-8 used in the SL500, there are significant differences. The hand-assembled AMG version is stroked from 84 millimeters to 92, increasing displacement from 4966cc to 5439, and the forged aluminum pistons drop the compression ratio from 10.0:1 to 9:0:1, an anti-detonation measure. There are heavy-duty bearings with cross-bolted mains at the bottom end, plus a new sump and a more powerful oil pump. Top-end mods include double valve springs, reprofiled cams, and bigger intake and exhaust plumbing.
The supercharged eight feeds its power to a five-speed automatic transmission that incorporates an updated edition of the Mercedes SpeedShift manumatic. This one offers three modes—normal, winter, and manual. Its basic function is essentially the same as Chrysler’s AutoStick: Waggle the lever, and you can shift up or down, or operate in full automatic mode. Unlike AutoStick, the manual mode allows shifting via rocker switches mounted on the backs of the steering-wheel spokes. And unlike the other modes, selecting manual allows the driver to hold a particular gear right up to the rev limiter.

Lows: Full-size-SUV curb weight.

Consistent with the law of opposite and equal reactions—that which goes must stop—there’s also extra mass associated with the SL55’s braking apparatus. The rotors are big enough to double as manhole covers—14.2 by 1.3 inches in front, 13.0 by 0.9 in the rear, vented and cross-drilled at both ends. The diameters are bigger than the garden-variety SL’s, and the fronts are squeezed by eight-piston calipers.
Oddly enough, braking distances failed to match those recorded by the SL500, and by a bunch: 155 feet from 70 mph for the SL500, 175 for the SL55. Moreover, although we didn’t record any brake fade during our testing, we did encounter a squishy pedal while lapping Road America, even with all the electronic enhancements (Sensotronic Brake Control) incorporated into this system.
Grip doesn’t seem to be the problem. Although the SL55’s footprints are essentially the same as the SL500’s—the only difference is a slightly lower rear-tire profile (285/35ZR-18 versus 285/40ZR-18)—the AMG edition’s Pirelli P Zeros pulled a higher skidpad number: 0.91 g versus 0.88. So the SL55’s added mass seems the most likely braking-distance culprit.
Which brings us to this car’s all-around dynamics. Mercedes refers to its “catlike handling reflexes,” which is true—if you envision a cat the size of a Siberian tiger. The key to the SL55’s level cornering attitudes is the corporate Active Body Control electro-mechano-hydraulic almost-active suspension, recalibrated in this application for firmer responses without compromising ride quality. Although this sophisticated system can’t erase weight—it’s always there, always tangible—it manages that weight amazingly well, whether the car is clawing the pavement in a fast sweeper or unkinking a set of switchbacks. This kind of activity is abetted by the SL55’s speed-sensitive rack-and-pinion steering, which seems to deliver a little more tactile information than the SL500’s system, and by the availability of all that torque for blasting off corners.

The Verdict: Proof that heft and passion are not mutually exclusive.

As you’d expect, the SL55 is posh-plus inside, with all the hedonistic goodies that distinguish the SL500, which is far from a torture chamber itself, plus some AMG fillips such as a sport steering wheel, aluminum interior trim, Alcantara suede atop the instrument binnacle and in the headliner, a superb 10-speaker audio system, silver-face AMG instruments with red needles, and, the most seductive interior element, deep leather-clad power bucket seats with serious torso bolsters, for those moments when the owner feels moved—probably rare—to rub up against the limits of adhesion.
Why rare? Check the bottom line. With a base price of $118,295, including luxury and gas-guzzler taxes, the SL55 AMG starts $30,340 north of the SL500. Start adding extras such as Distronic auto-distancing cruise control ($2950), Parktronic proximity warning ($1035), the Panorama sunroof ($1800)—an interesting touch on a retractable hardtop convertible—and the tally escalates rapidly. All of which makes this an unlikely toy for young guys prone to red mist. The SL55 is an executive hot rod for folks with lots of disposable income and Kevlar-clad portfolios. So even though we wonder what this car could do if it shed about a thousand pounds, it’s probably irrelevant. Lose the sander, Herr Neubauer. Scraping the paint off this one ain’t gonna make much difference.
Counterpoint
Hmm, let’s see here. Supercar horsepower, a shape to die for, the trickest top in the land, and active suspension. Sounds like a study-hall dream car, and for the most part, it is. But why did Mercedes leave out an automatic-shifting manual gearbox? You know, the tranny you can get at the Ferrari or BMW store? For a slushbox, the SL’s automatic tranny is fine. But it’ll never provide the control or response that a manual tranny would. I can understand the omission in the standard SL, but the SL55 is supposed to be the supercar that packs the best of Mercedes’ vast engineering talent. Am I wrong to think a $123,000 car should have it all? —Larry Webster
Behold the German Ferrari. We didn’t think those buttoned-down, left-brain Deutschers had it in ’em, but this latest AMG accurately captures the otherworldly rocket-propelled acceleration and Gravitron cornering effects and even some of the charming quirks of a small-line Italian exotic. What corporate engineer could okay white-on-white gauge legends, for example? Sure, they’re invisible most of the time, but they look so cool when you can see them. And the driver’s vanity-mirror lid that obscures the mirror’s overhead light — that’s to prove this is a serious sports car, not a boudoir, right? Message received, through all four bellowing exhaust tips. —Frank Markus
A few years ago, I likened the Mercedes 500SL to a Duesenberg SJ because it occupied a nexus of performance, style, and luxury that seemed beyond modern, more narrowly focused cars. This new SL55 takes that SL concept into overdrive. Motivated by its velvety and vigorous blown V-8, the SL55 doesn’t just accelerate from one speed to another, it gobbles velocity in leaps and lunges. Despite its fleetness, this SL feels as substantial as any convertible on the market. And its swashbuckling styling, bolstered by AMG musculature, instantly conveys its patrician bloodlines to even the densest bystanders. What’s not to like about this 21st-century Duesenberg? —Csaba Csere
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From the November 1994 issue of Car and Driver.
Awright, we knew you’d write in. It was no shock here in the ice-cube quarry that is the magazine’s Michigan domain. You were sure to gripe that Acura’s uncanny Integra GS-R could never better other sports coupes because it was just a “glorified economy car.”

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That was after an Integra GS-R took first place in our June ’94 “Good Sports” comparison test of seven sports coupes, winning with its all-around worth rather than speed alone. (The group also included the Eagle Talon TSi AWD, Ford Probe GT, Honda Prelude VTEC, Mitsubishi Eclipse GS-T, Nissan 240SX SE, and Toyota Celica GT.)
The Integra had speed, but others in the test had more of it. What the GS-R offered was the purest talents at the lowest price (all cars comparably equipped). The Acura never gave us that cut-rate feeling of a bargain item. But some of you chose to read more into test-track results than did we.
Oh, our usual go/stop/turn tests put the Integra mid-pack, but in a group capable of running rings around most cars on the road. Especially on up-and-downy, in-and-outty, hook-and-loopy roads. The GS-R won by doing what a great road car does: it made us want to slip in, buckle it on, turn the key to its mesmerizing powertrain, and press its chassis to the task just for the joy of it.

PHIL BERG, TOM COSGROVE

That feeling does not turn up in test data. If you’re into that, hey, more horsepower to you. As for us, our long-term test of the Integra GS-R brought 35,000 miles of unadulterated fun, the fun being always at hand and right underfoot. Our GS-R was the sum of some impressive parts: A howling 170-horsepower, DOHC, 16-valve 1.8-liter engine with port injection and Honda’s VTEC variable-valve-timing system for good performance and good fuel economy. All-independent suspension with front unequal-length control arms (instead of ubiquitous struts) and a rear multilink layout. Four-wheel disc brakes with ABS. Michelin 195/55 XGT-V4 all-season performance tires on 15-inch alloy wheels. Dual airbags. Side-impact protection. Air conditioning. Power moon-roof. Cruise control. An AM/FM/cassette stereo with six speakers. And all for just $19,894 (the same package would run you $20,215 today).
This Acura arrived in late 1993 as a pilot-production model with 1500 miles on it. Usually we avoid pilot cars. They rarely deliver the performance and reliability that come after the assembly line begins real production. But this GS-R was from Honda’s fancypants branch, so we chose to proceed based on experiences with earlier Acuras. By the end of the test, it seemed that about the only thing risked was the finish that peeled off the alloy wheels—apparently not a fault on customer cars. For an Acura that was used hard and wrung out by our Mr. Berg on the One Lap of America, that’s dandy.
We hustled so quickly that we finished the GS-R’s miles in just under ten months.
At 7578 miles, the GS-R toured Ann Arbor Acura for its first service, specified for 7500 miles. It required only an oil-and-filter swap: 30 cents for a washer, $5.75 for a filter, $8 for oil, $1 for “hazardous waste disposal,” $5.40 for “miscellaneous charges,” and a costly $54 for labor, which consisted of a front brake-pad inspection. The total came to $74.45, plus tax—a lot for a first service.

PHIL BERG, TOM COSGROVE

The 15,000-miler came at 15,270 miles, needing the same plus a valve-clearance adjustment and a muffler and tailpipe inspection, done by Acura City in Rochester, New York. The price jumped to $169.
We paid $151 at the 22,500-mile massage, but $76 of that went for repair of a “leaky valve-cover gasket installed improperly on the 15,000-mile service.” As with the first stop, the remaining $75 went to an oil-and-filter swap and a brake-pad inspection.
The 30,000-mile service called for an oil-and-filter change; a new air cleaner; a valve-clearance check; inspections of the alternator drive belt and the fuel, cooling, and exhaust systems; and a change of transmission oil. That service ran $334. And all those brake inspections finally paid off. The technician replaced the rear pads for $108, bringing the total bill to $442.
The service grand total of $653 is more than we expected, given the Integra’s economy-car genes. The need for rear-pad replacements was a surprise, too. Perhaps it had something to do with our tendency to test-drive the GS-R deep into corners.
The GS-R kept logbook notes coming. Wrote Schroeder: “I couldn’t get comfortable due to the seat’s lack of lumbar support [fortunately not a problem for all drivers]. And the droning engine at 80 to 85 mph gets tiresome—the short gearing and final-drive ratio would never fly on an autobahn. From the passenger seat, my housemate marvels at the wonderful engine, then asks, ‘How much is this thing, $14,000?’ Oops. Honda maybe needs to jazz up the conventional interior. But the Michelin XGT V4 tires (normally not so hot in winter) got me through horrendous snow in Buffalo on Christmas Eve. Barely made it through unplowed two-foot drifts, but I expected more trouble.”
“Buzzy at 85 mph,” noted Yates. “But not bad. And that motorcycle rev limit and taut steering are marvelous. I love this thing—it’s the Sugar Ray Robinson of automobiles, the original Sugar Ray having been considered, pound-for-pound, the greatest fighter in history.”
Another staff writer echoed Schroeder’s assessment of the interior, saying it reminded him of a dentist’s office—comfortable and functional but not likable, and definitely in need of a splash of color. Other drivers felt this serious atmosphere encouraged good driving. “The Integra GS-R is a pure pleasure. I drove it all day without a pain, ache, or complaint. At 70 to 85 mph with the A/C on, it got over 325 miles per tankful.”
As for oil additions, the lone log entry showed a half-quart at 27,256 miles (the day after the GS-R returned from the rigors of One Lap—ahem). A windshield chip was fixed at 28,406 miles for $30. The saddest incident came in a parking lot when the T-Bird of a driver new to America clipped the GS-R’s left-front corner. This left a besmirchment painful to see and brought an insurance estimate for $501.28 in repairs.
The Acura’s wild four-cylinder wore its 35,000 miles well. At the concluding test, the 0-to-60-mph time rose by 0.1 second to seven seconds flat, and top speed increased 1 mph, to 136. Despite all our revvings and our hustling far across the vast reaches of the West, the GS-R also averaged an excellent 30 mpg.
Wait now—that almost is good enough to make the Integra GS-R an economy car.
But to actually declare this splendid Acura a glorified economy car?
Nah . . .

PHIL BERG, TOM COSGROVE

Rants and Raves
The Integra has an odd odor inside. I looked under the seats for an old burger or pizza. Nothing. That aside, the GS-R is the most fun since our Sentra SE-R. The shifter is perfect, with something motorcycle-ish about power and shifting. If you shift at over 7000 rpm, the engine remains in its power band, the revs hardly drop, and the sound is wonderful. Part-throttle 2-3-4 shifts are terrific, too. —Dworin
The front of this car looks like a flounder: two beady eyes above each crooked turn-signal mouth. Inspired by a flounder—now that’s hip. But for those who aspire to a BMW 325i, this is the perfect starter car. Its moves are beyond reproach, its engine is superb. —Schroeder
If Porsche built this it would cost $65,000, smell like leather, have a sexier exterior, and R&T would treat it like the second corning of Dr. Ferdinand himself. This thing is a marvel. —Yates
Four people fit easily if you put the short ones in back. And small as the headlights are, they work well, with a sharp cutoff on low-beam and good brightness on high-beam with no hot spots. Also, the ABS-cycling sound of the brakes on wet leaves is refined—tick, tick, tick, not CLUNK, CLUNK. —Berg

Auxiliary lights and antennas traveled Forrest Gump’s Monument Valley road in Utah with our GS-R on the One Lap of America.
PHIL BERG, TOM COSGROVE

My Own Private One-Lapper
Six thousand of the 35,000 miles that accumulated on our Integra’s odometer were added during a single grueling drive: We followed the six-day automotive regatta known as the Bridgestone Car and Driver One Lap of America. This annual June enduro is organized by Brock “Cannonball” Yates to the delight of Visine, No-Doz, and Dramamine vendors in sixteen states. For 1994, a string of five all-night drives to nine of the better-known racetracks in the Midwest and Southwest was broken by just one night in a motel. So the One Lap is more than just a casual acquaintance with a car—it’s an intense, intimate fling.
Spending this much time in a car isn’t unbearable if you make preparations to keep yourself entertained. The Integra’s sedan-like center console is ideal for adding extra radios. We installed a Uniden BearTracker automatic police scanner and a trucker-quality K40 CB radio. Backing up these two highway essentials were an AOR 1500 wide-band scanner and a Sony shortwave receiver for entertainment.
This stuff alerted us to the news that New Mexican authorities were busy looking for a machete murderer (and so ignored One Lap competitors), that truckers in Texas knew where all the speed traps were, that the state police in eastern Colorado were distracted by a woman who launched a Volvo 50 feet into a ditch, and that Kansas was exposed to tornado warnings. And if all of this news made us weary, we could always switch to “Voice of the Andes” from Quito, Ecuador.
By the fifth night, our eyes were shot but our backs were healthy, thanks to the terrific seats. The engine revs busily on the highway, 4000 rpm in fifth gear, but makes such pleasant noises you never find yourself reaching for a sixth gear. The steering is so communicative that you have to be nearly unconscious to place a wheel wrong.
With 25,552 miles on the odometer between Arizona and New Mexico, we sustained 110 mph for 50 miles and still got 30 mpg. A lot of things about this little bomber make it ideal as your own private One-Lapper. —Phil Berg

Specifications

SPECIFICATIONS
1993 Acura Integra GS-R Long-Term Test
VEHICLE TYPEFront-engine, front-wheel-drive, 2 + 2 passenger, 3-door coupe
PRICE AS TESTED $19,894 (base price: $19,894)
ENGINE TYPE DOHC 16-valve inline-4, aluminum block and head, port fuel injectionDisplacement: 110 in3, 1797 cm3Power: 170 hp @ 7600 rpmTorque: 128 lb-ft @ 6200 rpm
TRANSMISSION 5-speed manual
DIMENSIONSWheelbase: 101.2 inLength: 172.4 inCurb weight: 2661 lb
PERFORMANCE: NEWZero to 60 mph: 6.9 secZero to 100 mph: 19.2 secZero to 120 mph: 34.2 secStanding ¼-mile: 15.4 sec @ 92 mphTop speed: 135 mphBraking, 70-0 mph: 186 ftRoadholding, 300-ft-dia skidpad: 0.81 g
PERFORMANCE: 35,000 MILESZero to 60 mph: 7.0 secZero to 100 mph: 18.7 secZero to 120 mph: 32.1 secStanding ¼-mile: 15.5 sec @ 93 mphTop speed: 136 mphBraking, 70-0 mph: 182 ftRoadholding, 300-ft-dia skidpad: 0.79 g
FUEL ECONOMYEPA city driving: 25 mpgC/D observed: 30 mpgUnscheduled oil additions: 1 qt

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From the November 2000 issue of Car and Driver.
With its 7800-rpm redline, 180 horsepower that peaks just 200 rpm before that, and an aggressive VVTL-i electronically variable valve-timing-and-lift scheme, the 1.8-liter DOHC 16-valve engine in Toyota’s Celica GT-S is plenty edgy. Plus, it’s backed by a six-speed manual transmission, and the body wrapped around that engine looks as though it were designed with a knife. But the suspension, while generating impressive performance numbers, feels more civilized than aggressive.

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TRD’s aim for its Sportivo suspension kit is to sharpen the chassis of Toyota’s edgiest car. So the $1545 kit includes new, stiffer springs (38 percent firmer than stock up front, 30 percent stiffer in the rear), bigger anti-roll bars (24 millimeters in diameter up front, up from 22mm stock; and 21mm in diameter at the rear instead of the 17mm stock), rubber bushings 17 percent stiffer than stock, revalved shocks and struts, and upper-strut-mount reinforcements. In addition, a $136 rear strut brace has been added. On TRD’s demonstrator car, the T2 wheels fitted with P215/40ZR-17 Toyo Proxes T1-S tires replace the optional 16-inch wheels and P205/50VR-16 tires offered on the stock GT-S car.
Although that constitutes a pretty thorough reconstruction of the suspension, the rest of this TRD Celica is only modestly twisted. TRD added its own $634 sport-exhaust cat-back system, a high-flow air filter within the stock filter box, and $4267 worth of spoilers, wings, valance panels, and tinted head lamps. TRD claims the improved breathing of the exhaust and intake is worth an additional 14 hp over stock, but it makes no assertions for the body bits beyond claiming that high-schoolers dig them. Add up everything except the tires on the car, and that’s $6752 beyond the 2001 GT-S’s $21,800 purchase price.
On the tight Streets of Willow road course, the TRD-modified Celica’s turn-in is dramatically better than stock, and when the inevitable understeer arrives, it’s modest. Driven at less than 10/10ths, the car feels neutral and only reminds that it’s a front-driver when accelerating out of corners. Steering effort seems greater than stock, more so than might be expected for a car whose tire contact patch has expanded only 10mm at each corner.

That improvement in at-limit behavior doesn’t, however, mean that the limits themselves have expanded. Despite bigger tires and thicker bars, the TRD Celica only matched our last GT-S’s 0.86-g skidpad orbit. Getting the most of the chassis changes on the track probably means adopting beefier rubber than this car’s modest upgrade.
On the road, there’s notably more noise transmitted from the tires into the cabin than stock. That’s not surprising, given the harsher springs and harder bushings, and it’s just irritating enough that the sound could be maddening during daily commutes. The exhaust system adds to the cacophony, and the change in air filters is, we assume, responsible for the more pronounced octave shift as the VVTL-i variable valve timing kicks in at about 6000 rpm.
But although the exhaust and the intake change the sound of the Celica, there’s nothing to indicate that they make it quicker. The TRD car’s 7.5-second 0-to-60-mph clocking is 0.3 second slower than the last stock machine we tested, and the TRD’s quarter-mile time of 15.7 seconds at 92 mph is 2 mph slower. There’s no reason TRD’s changes should have made the car much faster, but they shouldn’t have slowed it down. We can only guess at the reasons for this small disparity.

TRD’s modifications nudge the Celica GT-S toward the raw-nerve reflexes of a car like the Acura Integra Type R. But the potential is there for Toyota and its TRD division to comprehensively optimize the car as a true, factory-built near racer along the lines of the Type R. There’s more power to be had from this engine, more grip to come from this chassis, and we want it all.

Specifications

SPECIFICATIONS
2000 TRD Toyota Celica GT-S
VEHICLE TYPE Front-engine, front-wheel-drive, 4-passenger, 2-door coupe
PRICE AS TESTED $28,552 (base price: $24,285*)
ENGINE TYPE DOHC 16-valve 4-in-line, aluminum block and head, Toyota engine-control system with port fuel injectionDisplacement: 110 cu in, 1796ccPower (SAE net): 194 bhp @ 7600 rpmTorque (SAE net): 133 lb-ft @ 6800 rpm
TRANSMISSION 6-speed manual
DIMENSIONSWheelbase: 102.3 inLength: 170.4 inCurb weight: 2600 lb
C/D TEST RESULTSZero to 60 mph: 7.5 secZero to 100 mph: 19.9 secStreet start, 5-60 mph: 8.0 secStanding ¼-mile: 15.7 sec @ 92 mphTop speed (redline limited): 129 mphBraking, 70-0 mph: 171 ftRoadholding, 300-ft-dia skidpad: 0.86 g
FUEL ECONOMYEPA city driving: 27 mpg

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From the January 1986 issue of Car and Driver.
Set your time control for 1979. Forget everything automotive you’ve experienced in the last six years. Let yourself drift back, back, all the way back to a time when one high-performance automobile in America stood head and shoulders above the rest.

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Six years ago, things looked grim for car enthusiasts. The feds’ emissions standards and a pair of fuel crises had just about squeezed the life out of hot cars—with one notable exception. Towering Colossus-like above the sea of gas-sipping econoboxes and throbbing diesels was the Porsche 930 Turbo. Its sheetmetal bulged like Arnold Schwarzenegger’s chest. Its engine had turbocharged lungs. It acceler­ated as if there were a Saturn booster strapped to its tail. It became the altar at which car nuts worshiped, and no one with even a few drops of 30-weight in his veins would ever forget it.
The 930 Turbo was the promise of a better tomorrow through turbocharging. But at the end of the 1979 model year, it was withdrawn from the U.S. market. The expense and the complexity of maintain­ing its power level while bringing its air-cooled engine into line with tightening emissions regulations were cited as the pri­mary cause of its demise. Its penchant for gasoline (it delivered only 12 mpg on the EPA city test), its high price, and its low sales volume were the nails in the coffin. America would have to get by with normal­ly aspirated 911s, or none at all.

RICHARD GEORGE

This was not easy news to take. Sure, the Turbo was beyond the reach of all but a few wealthy buyers. Its passing shouldn’t have meant a thing to the rest of us, but it did. That’s because the Porsche 930 Tur­bo transcended the realm of everyday cars and parts and suggested retail prices. It defined and dominated an era in automotive history.
It was inevitable that a car as coveted as the 930 would continue to find its way here through the gray market. It never went out of production, so a ready supply has been available for those with fat wallets; we test­ed a number of such cars ourselves. To thwart the gray-market traffic, Porsche went so far as to offer the 930’s voluptuous bodywork and revised chassis pieces as a big-buck option on the 911 Carrera.
As of this moment, all of these substi­tutes for the real thing are hereby declared obsolete. Porsche Cars North America is once again importing the most potent member of its rear-engined family, this time under the 911 Turbo name.

RICHARD GEORGE

The manufacturer’s reasons for its change of heart are simple and straightfor­ward. Porsche has finally recognized the full importance of the North American market, where more than half of its cars are sold. As a result, we will no longer be de­nied the best stuff, which has been heretofore reserved for Europe. The game plan is for Porsche to offer all of its model lines here, while making every attempt to equal­ize power levels worldwide. Last year, we were granted the four-valve-per-cylinder 928 before the German market got it. The 944 Turbo makes the same power wherev­er it’s sold. The 911 Turbo is the third step in that direction.
Importing the 911 Turbo is also the best way for Porsche to blunt the gray market and to channel the profits from U.S. sales into its own coffers. Why buy a privately federalized European-spec 911 Turbo, which might be hard to get parts for, when you can have a factory-fresh, EPA-ap­proved model with the full dealer warranty?
Corporate maneuvering aside, the best part of the deal is that a solid-gold, heart-thumping supercar has returned to our midst. It’s as if Ferrari had brought back the Daytona, or Ford had resurrected the Cobra. But is all the lore surrounding the mythical 930 Turbo grounded in reality, or have our warm memories been clouded by time and distance? Is the new 911 Tur­bo still the King Kong super ride of our de­mented dreams, or has automotive science passed it by? Only a test drive will tell.

To look a the new 911 Turbo is to stare right back into 1979. Only the keenest eye will notice that the rear tires now fill out the massive flared fenders a little more fully. The engineers have attacked the 930’s nasty tendency to wag its tail during hard cornering by specifying wider-than-ever, 245/45VR-16 Dunlop SP Sport D40 rear tires in place of the old car’s 225/50VR-16 rubber. The bigger tires are mounted on 9.0-inch wheels, which are an inch wider than before.
Precious few cars could live through six years without so much as a face lift, but the 911 Turbo has done just mat. This car has a sexier body than Madonna, and the years have dulled its charm not a whit. We sampled the 911 Turbo in the L.A. area, which has the highest per-capita number of winged and flared 911 s in the Western Hemisphere, but our red beast wowed me masses nonetheless. They still find this a spellbinding automobile, and far more folks man you’d expect went out of their way to let us know that.
Inside, me Turbo could be any 911 of recent vintage, but for a few minor details. A small boost gauge is incorporated into me tachometer at me six-o’clock position. Check me standard plastic shift knob and you’ll see mat the gear pattern stops at fourth. (Turbos have never been equipped with five-speeds by the factory.)
Aside from that, the Turbo is just a well-dressed 911. Soft, sweet-smelling leather is lavished on the cockpit, including the dash top. A full load of extras, from air to sunroof, are standard-just as you’d expect in a car mat comes in at a nice, round $48,000. But that’s it. No surprises or great advances have sprung up since we last saw mis model.
You won’t find any major changes under the whale tail, either. The 911 Turbo’s air-cooled flat six is basically the same one that tantalized us so much back in 1979. The turbocharged and intercooled powerplant still displaces 3.3 liters, and such details as its bore, stroke, and compression ratio remain unchanged.
The bottom line—the horsepower coming off me end of the crankshaft—is fatter than ever, though. Porsche’s data banks are six years richer with emissions-control knowledge, and it’s been put to good use in me 911 Turbo. The tweaking includes a three-way catalytic converter, an oxygen sensor, and electronic assistance for the Bosch mechanical fuel-injection system. In 1979, Porsche was carping about the difficulties of making its air-cooled powerplant comply with federal exhaust-emissions standards. Today, the engineers have made it comply, adding an impressive 29 hp in the bargain. They also managed to improve fuel economy by 33 percent, though the 911 Turbo’s 16 mpg still isn’t good enough to get it past the gas-guzzler law. This scrape with me tax man adds a $500 penalty to the car’s base price.
Nevertheless, if 1979 was a great year for turbocharged 911s, 1986 ought to be even better, right? Twenty-nine more horses, fatter tires, and six years of chassis development could only make things positively dreamy.
There’s certainly no shortage of promise when you get the proceedings under way. On a cool morning, the beat of the 911 Turbo’s idle will warm you faster than the heater. This engine sounds serious: lumpy and hoarse, with an occasional spit! Thrown in for good measure.

There’s no need to hound me 911 around town. Enough torque is on hand for easing along in thick L.A. traffic without fishing for boost. But look out the first time you decide to scoot away from a light. First gear is as steep as the north face of the Eiger—it’s good for 50 mph—and there’s no heavy thrust down low. A cheerleader in a clapped-out Mustang II will have no trouble beating you across an intersection while checking her makeup. As a matter of fact, one did exactly that to us.
Then the boost comes in as the revs go past 4500 rpm, the exhaust hisses like a very angry 3000-pound cat, and whoosh! you rattle the Mustang’s windows as you blow by.
On the freeway, locked in a clot of 65-mph traffic, the Turbo feels dead on its feet. Rolling along in fourth gear with the engine just ticking over, it’s a good five-count before the boost needle moves off of the peg. Drop down to third and it’s still a three-count before the rockets fire and you can blast through a hole into the next lane.
This is no fun. Your average Volvo 740 Turbo would be ten car-lengths down the passing lane by now. In truth, second gear, which goes all the way to 86 mph, is the way to deal with the freeway-but it’s kind of embarrassing, not to mention noisy, howling along at 4500 rpm just to have the horsepower on retainer.
We remember the 930 as having bags full of boost lag, but was it really this bad? Has turbo technology left this car—a Porsche—so hopelessly behind?
Our track testing indicated that something was probably wrong with our test car. Its clutch was definitely slipping, and we suspect that a waste-gate problem kept the engine from building boost quickly. This car also suffered a thrown A/C drive belt and a recalcitrant driver’s door during our testing, so it was not the best example of Porsche quality we’ve seen.
Further study was called for, so we traded our flaming-red 911 Turbo for a deep blue-metallic number (yes, you do see two different cars in the photos) and set off for the test track again. There was certainly nothing wrong this time around. Big horsepower, big rear tires, and a big rear-weight bias enabled our second test car to blowout of the hole like a cannon shot.
With a searing 0-to-60-mph run of 4.6 seconds and a clocking of 13.1 seconds at 105 mph through the quarter-mile, the 911 Turbo is most assuredly this season’s acceleration ace—providing you’re willing to resort to rough, wheel-spinning, drag-race starts.
Out on the road, though, these numbers pale next to the Turbo’s boost-lag arthritis. Even the healthier of our two test cars took forever to spin its turbo up to liftoff speed. Once it was up and running, it was plenty strong, but it just didn’t awe us the way the old 930 used to.
Then again, there’s more to our memories of the 930 than pure speed. It was also known as one of the trickiest handlers around. Driving one hard was a job for experts. Putting the power on aggressively in a corner would pitch the nose way up, and the 930 would try to run straight over its front tires. Lift off the gas just a few millimeters in these conditions and the 930 would swing sideways so fast, it would jump-start your heart.
Not so the new 911 Turbo. On the tortured curves of California’s Ortega Highway, it shows real poise. In the last six years it’s obviously been taught some manners. Antics that would have spun you out before hardly faze it. The brakes are superb. It’s still hard work to drive very, very fast, but it’s much more forgiving now.
Comparing this experience with our last 930 outing, in 1979, it’s clear that things have changed. The 930 was deadly in the curves and awesome on the straights, and the 911 Turbo is mellower in both areas.
This pass through the time barrier, the 911 Turbo’s performance just hasn’t blown our minds—and we think we know why. Back in 1979, there really wasn’t any other car in America that offered anywhere near the 930’s kind of speed. Today, however, we’re in the middle of a horsepower boom. We’ve got 157-mph 944 Turbos, 154-mph 928s, 151-mph Corvettes, 140-mph Camaros—hell, even Saab is in the 140-plus club these days.
Faced with these facts, we can draw no other conclusion than that the handwriting is on the wall for the 911 Turbo. Precious few cars can sprint with it, but the march of technology has produced a whole flock of turbo cars with much better manners. This is, no doubt, why Porsche is hard at work on a four-valve-per-cylinder version of this car, and why the awesome 959 prototype is fitted with a sophisticated twin-turbocharger setup.
But this is today-the here and now. Taking a cold, hard look at the 911 Turbo’s vexing return, we get the feeling that fond memory may have been better left undisturbed.

Specifications

Specifications
1986 Porsche 911 Turbo
VEHICLE TYPE rear-engine, rear-wheel-drive, 2+2-passenger, 2-door coupe
PRICE AS TESTED $49,720
ENGINE TYPE turbocharged and intercooled flat-6, aluminum block and headsDisplacement 201 in3, 3299 cm3Power 282 hp @ 5500 rpmTorque 278 lb-ft @ 4000 rpm
TRANSMISSION 4-speed manual
DIMENSIONS Wheelbase: 89.4 inLength: 168.9 inWidth: 69.9 inHeight: 51.6 inCurb weight: 3040 lb
C/D TEST RESULTS 60 mph: 4.6 sec100 mph: 11.9 secTop gear, 30–50 mph: 11.1 secTop gear, 50–70 mph: 11.4 sec¼-mile: 13.1 sec @ 105 mphTop speed: 155 mphBraking, 70–0 mph: 173 ftRoadholding, 300-ft-dia skidpad: 0.82 g
C/D FUEL ECONOMY Observed: 13 mpg
EPA FUEL ECONOMY City/highway: 16/22 mpg

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From the September 2007 issue of Car and Driver.
Porsche’s Cayenne, the Porsche so few enthusiasts get but many consumers buy, receives more than just a face lift for 2008. Evidence confirms HGH use—that’s “hefty gains in horsepower”—but Porsche has done nothing unethical. There’s a slight enlargement, to 4.8 liters (from 4.5), direct injection, and the addition of Porsche’s VarioCam Plus variable valve timing and lift. After all these changes, the V-8 in a Porsche Cayenne S now puts out 385 horsepower and 369 pound-feet of torque, gains of 45 horsepower and 59 pound-feet. Although those figures won’t grab any headlines, they are gains of 13 and 16 percent, respectively, which is way more than some people here would ever tip.

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With the extra power underhood being channeled to all four wheels through Porsche’s standard all-wheel-drive system, we recorded 0-to-60 mph in six ticks flat and the quarter-mile in 14.5 seconds at 98 mph, figures that beat the old Cayenne S by 0.6 second to 60 and 0.5 second and 5 mph in the quarter.
Those numbers comfortably pad the $35,800 premium the true lunatic pays for a 500-hp Cayenne Turbo—which will perform the 0-to-60 and quarter-mile feats in 4.8 and 13.3 seconds at 107 mph—but they also represent a noticeable gain from behind the wheel over the performance of the outgoing car. This was a necessary improvement considering Mercedes-Benz’s new 382-hp ML550 will sprint to 60 mph in 5.4 seconds and costs some $5500 less. If an ML and a Cayenne ever find themselves side by side at a red light, we can only assume egos will be clashing conservatively, meaning the 5-to-60-mph rolling start will probably be the more important number. Advantage: Mercedes. So you might want to think twice about that Turbo.
Also new for 2008 is the optional $3510 Porsche Dynamic Chassis Control, which consists of a pair of active anti-roll bars meant to counteract body roll. A recent Cayenne Turbo we tested had this system (and summer-only 21-inch tires) and recorded 0.90 g on our skidpad, which seems to pretty well define the limit of what a vehicle this size is capable of.

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This S model did without the bars had lesser all-season rubber and managed 0.82 g, a figure that is still superb for a 5351-pound sport-ute. If you’re a big-league on-ramp bomber really looking to absolutely terrify the wife and kids, though, PDCC might be worth the cash.
Inside the Cayenne, not much has changed. Actually, nothing at all has changed beyond the availability of new leather. Our tester did not have that option, and we were unable to evaluate it. So sad. It did, however, have a nav system ($3070), an adjustable air suspension ($2990), and a sunroof ($1190), among other options that pushed our as-tested price past $70,000.

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Keep the options in check, though, and a base 2008 Cayenne S is only $780 more than the previous gen. That’s just $17.33 per additional horse, which is some of the cheapest horsepower anywhere on the market, even if it is heavy horsepower.

Specifications

SPECIFICATIONS
2008 Porsche Cayenne S
VEHICLE TYPE Front-engine, 4-wheel-drive, 5-passenger, 5-door wagon
PRICE AS TESTED $70,025 (base price: $58,795)
ENGINE TYPE DOHC 32-valve V-8, aluminum block and heads, direct fuel injectionDisplacement: 293 cu in, 4806ccPower (SAE net): 385 bhp @ 6200 rpmTorque (SAE net): 369 lb-ft @ 3500 rpm
TRANSMISSION 6-speed automatic with manumatic shifting
DIMENSIONSWheelbase: 112.4 inLength: 188.9 inWidth: 75.9Height: 66.9Curb weight: 5351 lb
C/D TEST RESULTS Zero to 60 mph: 6.0 secZero to 100 mph: 15.2 secZero to 130 mph: 29.7 secStreet start, 5-60 mph: 6.8 secStanding ¼-mile: 14.5 sec @ 98 mphTop speed (drag limited, mfr’s claim): 155 mphBraking, 70-0 mph: 175 ftRoadholding, 300-ft-dia skidpad: 0.82 g
FUEL ECONOMYEPA city/highway driving: 13/19 mpgC/D observed: 15 mpg

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Ferrari isn’t a brand known for subtlety. So, what are we to make of the Ferrari Roma, a car that Ferrari says is built for a buyer that “doesn’t want to show off.”
Although the Roma is based on the front-engine Portofino convertible, this new coupe doesn’t appear to share much with it at first glance. The Roma’s flowing lines recall Ferrari’s GT cars of the 1960s more than the edgier stuff of late. Of course, there are modern elements such as the perforated grille, the slim headlights, and the futuristic taillights. The mix of modern and retro continues inside. While mid-engine Ferraris reduce the center console to a minimum, the Roma has a distinct area for both the driver and the front passenger separated by a massive center section. There are two rear seats, too, which can work for adults on short distances, provided the front seats are not pushed back too far.

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Ferrari

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Ferrari’s latest ergonomic decisions are present here. The steering wheel contains the turn signals and the small manettino dial to select the stability-control mode. Beyond the steering wheel is a large digital display that can be configured in a number of ways, including a traditional round tachometer.
Firing up the engine requires touching a capacitive switch on the steering wheel. A light touch ignites a raging fire within the 612-hp twin-turbocharged 3.9-liter V-8. Based on the Portofino’s engine, the changes for the Roma include a fatter torque curve and 21 more horsepower. The dual-clutch automatic is an eight speed to the Portofino’s seven.
Driven moderately, the Roma is a superb cruiser that doesn’t really tempt the driver to hunt down and pass every other car on the road. Rather, it invites the driver to relax and enjoy the opulent surroundings and the sweet song of the V-8. The eight-speed dual-clutch automatic shifts quickly and unobtrusively, although it is too eager to select the highest possible gear.

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Ferrari

When you decide to drive fast, the Roma turns into a serious, extremely powerful sports car. The turbos spool up quickly, and the engine races up to its 7500-rpm redline. Gear changes let off a delightful popping report, and speed builds so quickly that you will constantly underestimate the pace at which you are charging down the highway and through the corners. We predict a 2.9-second time to 60 mph, and Ferrari claims a vague “over 199 mph” top speed.
For this test drive, Ferrari selected a route with unusually low-friction pavement. This turned into an advantage as it allowed us to sample the Roma’s agile yet ultimately manageable handling at the limits of adhesion at relatively civil speeds. Steering effort is lighter than you might expect, but the steering manages to convey the feedback that has gone missing in many modern cars. Turn-in is satisfyingly precise and direct.
If a Ferrari appeals to you but you have found the current lineup to be a bit immature and overtly aggressive, the Roma may be just right. Priced at $222,620, it is only slightly more expensive than the Portofino. As a grand tourer, it will compete with the similarly priced and equally mature Aston Martin DB11, Bentley Continental GT, and possibly even the Porsche 911 Turbo. We enjoyed it on its Italian home turf, and we think it’ll be just as much at home in Orange County or Miami Beach.

Specifications

Specifications
2021 Ferrari Roma
VEHICLE TYPE front-engine, rear-wheel-drive, 2+2-passenger, 2-door coupe
BASE PRICE $222,620
ENGINE TYPE twin-turbocharged and intercooled DOHC 32-valve V-8, aluminum block and heads, direct fuel injectionDisplacement 235 in3, 3855 cm3Power 612 hp @ 7500 rpmTorque 561 lb-ft @ 3000 rpm
TRANSMISSION 8-speed dual-clutch automatic
DIMENSIONS Wheelbase: 105.1 inLength: 183.3 inWidth: 77.7 inHeight: 51.2 inTrunk volume: 10 ft3Curb weight (C/D est): 3700 lb
PERFORMANCE (C/D EST) 60 mph: 2.9 sec100 mph: 6.6 sec1/4 mile: 10.7 secTop speed: 199 mph
EPA FUEL ECONOMY Combined/city/highway: 19/17/22 mpg

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Objective reporting can only carry you so far when it comes to a car like the Ferrari 250 GT SWB Berlinetta Competizione. But as it’s one of the most venerated and valuable cars of the late 1950s and early ’60s, it’s hard to do anything else. Calm, rational analysis is near impossible, not least because of the considerable difficulty in persuading somebody to lend you one.

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The faster and prettier versions of the Ferrari 250 sit right at the top of the automotive pantheon. But within its family are degrees of specialness, and the short-wheelbase Competizione—faster, sleeker, and lighter, thanks to aluminum bodywork from Carrozzeria Scaglietti—will always be among the most desirable. It’s not quite at the level of the 1962 to ’64 250 GTOs that billionaires fight over—one of which sold for $70 million in 2018. But to land a good original example of one of the 74 aluminum-bodied GT SWBs, you’ll still need a budget that runs into eight figures.

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GTO Engineering

Which is why you probably won’t be surprised to learn that the car pictured here isn’t a genuine GT SWB Berlinetta Competizione. This is a near-perfect recreation, built by GTO Engineering in the United Kingdom with almost every detail correct except the provenance that wins big concours prizes. It has been given some non-standard updates and modifications, but only ones that most of the supreme originals have acquired over their long, interesting lives.
GTO Engineering’s managing director, Mark Lyon, knows plenty about such alterations and also the fine line that divides the heirloom-grade period cars from the replicas. His company frequently works on early 250s alongside its recreations such as this one. Most originals now have replacement engines, especially those that race, with original V-12s carefully preserved elsewhere. “You’d be a little mad not to,” Lyon said, “as one catastrophic failure is going to take 25 percent off the value of a numbers-matching car.”
GTO’s Revival cars are designed to be driven and used. They take the legal identity of what are normally basket-case Ferraris from the same period, most often 330s or 365s, and are then rebuilt with a new chassis, bodywork, and a fresh V-12 engine. In the case of the GT SWB, that means hand-formed aluminum bodywork, with the big change being an effectively invisible one: GTO Engineering rolls the panels rather than hammer-beating them as Scagletti’s craftsmen did.

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GTO Engineering

Buyers can opt for a variety of non-period modifications. Air conditioning is a popular upgrade for those planning long road trips, as are bespoke audio systems for those who don’t regard the sounds made by a high-revving V-12 as sufficiently entertaining. Yet it is also possible to specify a car to be effectively identical to an original and for a sizeable discount. This will be the only time a car with a roughly $1-million starting price gets described as a bargain.
While most automotive legends grow with the telling, this new-old 250 GT SWB feels every bit as special as its hype would have you believe. The GT Competizione employed a 3.0-liter version of Ferrari’s Colombo V-12, one that made around 240 horsepower. Adjusted for technological inflation, that’s about 1000 horses in 2020 terms. GTO Engineering builds a new-old V-12 for each Revival, which they say takes 300 man-hours apiece, with displacement options of 3.0, 3.5, or 4.0 liters. The buyer of the car we borrowed specified a 3.5-liter engine—a popular and permitted upgrade in some historic racing categories—which bumps the output to 315 horses. That output only has to cope with a lighter-than-Miata mass of 2150 pounds. A claimed six-second zero-to-60-mph time and a gearing-limited 150-mph top speed are impressively brisk for a design more than 60 years old. While it might not be any quicker than a modern hot hatchback, we are entirely certain that nothing sounds as good as a hard-working 250 GT.

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GTO Engineering

Ferrari’s old V-12 is special in a way that modern engines just aren’t. The idle is loud and lumpy, with even the gentlest throttle input sending the revs soaring. Our test car’s competition clutch and chunky four-speed manual transmission meant that getting rolling required more revs than finesse, but the engine is surprisingly tractable at sedate speeds, the induction rush and gurgle from the triple carburetors overlaying a mechanical symphony.
But gentle use is not the point of a car like this. Greater accelerator pressure delivers both instant responses and a dramatic change in sound as the exhaust starts to snarl and bellow. It doesn’t wail like modern Ferraris; the sound is rorty and angrier and utterly compelling. The fury of its top end was savage enough to have us doubting the numbers on the tachometer. Shifting up at 6000 rpm felt daring, and it took most of the half day we spent driving the car to build up to the indicated 7400-rpm redline.

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GTO Engineering

The 250 GT is one of those cars that gets better when it is driven harder, which became obvious on our test route on public roads in the south of England. The long-throw shifter of the four-speed manual becomes more accurate when moved firmly and decisively. The four-wheel disc brakes—a first for Ferrari at the time—feel mushy under gentle use but turn solid and forceful when you stand on the pedal. And the Avon tires—impossibly tall and narrow compared to the low-profile rubber of modern supercars—seem happiest at the edge of their adhesion.
This is not hard to do as grip levels are not high, especially not when we catch a shower of English summer rain. The car we drove had been given a quicker 17:1 unassisted steering rack—another popular modification on original cars—which delivers both impressively quick responses and unambiguous feedback when the front axle runs short on grip. Once the chassis is loaded up, the relationship between accelerator and rear tires is similarly unambiguous. The GT can be powered to the breakaway point of traction, or even slightly beyond it, with ridiculous ease for something so expensive and exotic. We now know why the racing examples were so often photographed in opposite lock with grinning drivers.

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GTO Engineering

As you might expect, driving in the real world does bring some issues. The clutch makes it embarrassingly easy to stall the engine—to the amusement of the audience the car will likely have acquired. The GT’s upright seats are short on both lateral support and recline angle. Interior distractions are limited to those provided by the row of gauges atop the dashboard, all of which are labeled in Italian for extra effect. Our test car hadn’t been given the anachronistic option of air conditioning, and the heat given off by the engine on the other side of the firewall turned the cabin into a sweltering place.
Replica cars are never going to be taken as seriously as those they copy, and that is especially true when it comes to Ferraris. Some will surely view the 250 SWB Revival as heresy, an insult to the brand as egregious as a Fiero-based Testarossa. Yet, barring its price and its lack of qualifications to enter some of the snootier historic racing series, this really does feel like the real thing. If only all tribute acts were this good.

Specifications

Specifications
2021 GTO Engineering 250 SWB Revival
VEHICLE TYPE front-engine, rear-wheel-drive, 2-passenger, 2-door coupe
BASE PRICE (EST) $1,000,000
ENGINE SOHC 24-valve 3.5-liter V-12, 315 hp, 255 lb-ft
TRANSMISSION 4-speed manual
DIMENSIONS Wheelbase: 94.5 inLength: 170.0 inWidth: 63.0 inHeight: 50.0 inCurb weight (C/D est): 2150 lb
PERFORMANCE (MFR’S EST) 60 mph: 6.0 secTop speed: 150 mph

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