Car Reviews

From the June 1997 issue of Car and Driver.
“I’m a little worried if you mention Paul Newman,” says Ross Converse, a former aircraft mechanic whose primary business since 1988 has been selling simple kits to slot Mustang V-8s into rear­-drive Volvos.

Best Station Wagons of 2020

A Visual History of Volvo Station Wagons

The Sportiest, Coolest Volvos of All Time

Converse, a soft-spoken 46-year-old Mainer, is more concerned that Indy-car team owner and actor Newman will be angry with him for divulging a secret: Known fast-car lover and salad-dressing-­and-salsa salesman Newman tools around his home base in Connecticut in a V-8-powered Volvo 960 wagon built by Converse.
See, one of the advantages of having a V-8-powered Volvo, especially in the Northeast, is that Swedish cars blend into the traffic like Toyotas in Tokyo. Cops and autograph hounds normally tend not to notice ubiquitous Volvo station wagons.
The other reason is this: A Volvo wagon weighs only 100 pounds more with an iron-block Mustang V-8, so performance improves. In fact, one of the two Converse-built Volvo wagons we tested got to 60 mph in 5.9 seconds. It was a special version, with a Powerdyne Automotive Products centrifugal supercharger driven by a shielded, toothed belt. It was as quick as the convertible Mustang Cobra we tested last July. In fact, that Volvo got down the quarter-mile in 14.3 second at a trap speed of 100 mph, faster than July’s Cobra. Top speed for the station wagon is 145 mph. That’s 1 mph faster than the sizzling 850 Turbo wagon we tested last March. Our second test subject from Converse had a stock Mustang engine and a four-speed automatic; it made it to 60 mph in a still-zoomy 7.4 seconds. A new 740 Turbo wagon reached 60 mph in 8.0 seconds and took the quarter in 15.9 at 85 mph back in May 1985. Throttle response in both cars is quick, and you can spin the stock-size tires at most speeds on a whim.

View Photos

Jim CaiozzoCar and Driver

In eight years, Converse has built 50 of the V-8-powered cars and has sold 150 kits for do-it-your-selfers. It’s by nature not a lucrative business, since he charges just $750 for the parts or $1700 for doing the engine swap himself. The supercharger is a popular upgrade priced at $2500, and it takes two to three hours to install, says Converse. Our blown test car also had 89,000 miles on the odometer, making it relatively new for the average Converse conversion.
“It was a lot of fun riding with, you know, Newman, as he slid the car through some corners at 90 mph,” Converse recalls, reveling in the pure adolescence of one shakedown trip with the 72-year-old Newman. But the low-key Converse gets nervous about us mentioning his famous clients. The trouble started when another Indy-car team owner, late-night TV host David Letterman, bought one of Converse’s V-8-powered Volvo wagons and was so excited that he let it slip—to the whole world—that Newman had one, too. Appearing on the now-defunct Jon Stewart Show, Letterman revealed: “Six months ago, Paul Newman calls up. ‘Dave, I’m thinking about getting a Volvo station wagon, with a Ford 302 V-8 the size of a small piano. Do you want one? ‘”

View Photos

Jim CaiozzoCar and Driver

Letterman continued: “Paul told me from 20 to 100 [mph] you can chew anybody’s ass. What circumstance would Paul find himself in while driving around in a Volvo station wagon where he feels he’s got to chew somebody’s ass?”
Letterman was chastised for his loose lips: “The guy gets a little cranky about mentioning his name,” Letterman told interviewer Al Roker on CNBC later. Newman, you see, wanted a car he could drive fast but not be noticed in. But Letterman revealed that Newman had already been stopped by the cops. “It’s like driving a go-kart or a jet fighter,” adds the toothy TV star.
Converse designed the package to be an affordable way to preserve otherwise ­sound Volvos; Newman wanted a supercharger and a bunch of engine tweaks, cost no object. Cost, however, was the major motivator for Converse’s conversions. Converse lives on a dirt road on the outskirts of Portland and does all his work in a modest-sized garage. Modest, that is, to a car fan like Newman. Extravagant, perhaps, to Converse, who once lived for two years in the Maine woods in the back of a delivery truck. He also lived in a BMW 1600 sedan for a few weeks in the 1970s and spent a couple years as the live-in mechanic for a wealthy gentleman in North Carolina (“It sure was a lot warmer there than in Maine”). He went to school to learn to be an aircraft mechanic, but his Yankee-inventor, hot-rodder personality became frustrated with strict FAA regulations that discourage the hot rodding of airplane engines.

The five-speed shifter from the Ford transmission pokes up through a Volvo shift boot, but the fabricated shift lever Converse adds to the transmission uses the Mustang shift knob.

Converse is always eager to recycle. In high school, he bolted an aluminum Buick V-8 into a worn Datsun 510. He built his first V-8 Volvo for his 75-year-old mother. At the time, Converse noticed there were plenty of the strong, Swedish wagons available in salvage yards in the Northeast, most suffering from engines that hadn’t been maintained properly. “Diesels blow up all the time,” he says. “No, they do. I wanted to replace a diesel engine with one that was absolutely cheap to maintain, and if it made more power, then all the better.”
He chose the Mustang V- 8 over a small-block Chevy simply because the distributor location on the Ford motor fit more easily under the Volvo hood.
Converse makes a wiring harness that plugs into both the Volvo chassis and the Ford engine harnesses, and solders a 33-cent resistor into the tachometer circuit board of the Volvo so it will read properly with the Ford V-8. The five-speed shifter from the Ford transmission pokes up through a Volvo shift boot, but the fabricated shift lever Converse adds to the transmission uses the Mustang shift knob. “We love recycling parts, using cheap parts and covering them up,” he explains.

View Photos

Jim CaiozzoCar and Driver

The Volvo driveshaft is shortened and balanced, and a new yoke is added to mate it to the Ford transmission. The rear end remains stock. “Volvo uses Dana 30 guts in its housings,” he says, which makes him confident about the durability of the pieces. Engine mounts are fabricated from mild steel.
Our supercharged test wagon had one stock Ford catalytic converter mated to the stock-Volvo resonator for exhausting the right bank of cylinders, and the left bank was plumbed with the second stock Mustang catalytic converter and the stock ­Mustang muffler. “I’m always trying to figure out how to reuse things,” says Converse. So, none of the exhaust pieces went to waste. The downside is you wind up with two tailpipes that look completely different.
Newman’s and Letterman’s cars began life as brand-new 960 wagons, but most of Converse’s customers own high-mileage Volvos. They come to Converse because they are concerned about the reliability of their well-used drivetrains, he says. Our supercharged test car was a solid and rattle-free 1990 740 Turbo that rode soundly enough to belie its seven years of age. Its V-8 and five-speed were from a 1991 Mustang. The normally aspirated tester was a 1986 740, with a 1989 Mustang powertrain.
High-mileage Volvo wagons are cheap: “Anything with 240,000 miles on it is only $2000 to buy,” says Converse. “We’ve converted a number of cars that had over 200,000 miles on them. We go around on an anti-squeak campaign, replacing suspension and body bushings. At 200,000 miles, a Volvo body is still good, but what makes it feel old is rattles and squeaks.”
And complaints from famous folks who don’t appreciate the frugality of the conversion as much as they do the performance.
Converse Engineering, 14 Caldwell Street, Portland, Maine 04103; 207-828-6795.

Specifications

Specifications
1990 Volvo 740 Converse Supercharged V-81986 Volvo 740 Converse V-8
VEHICLE TYPE front-engine, rear-wheel-drive, 5-passenger, 4-door wagon
PRICE AS TESTED $26,000 (supercharged V-8)$10,000 (V-8)
ENGINES supercharged pushrod 16-valve 4.9-liter V-8, 287 hp (mfr’s est); pushrod 16-valve 4.9-liter V-8, 205 hp
TRANSMISSIONS5-speed manual (supercharged V-8), 4-speed automatic (V-8)
DIMENSIONS Wheelbase: 109.1 inLength: 188.4 inCurb weights: 3509 lb (supercharged V-8); 3408 lb (V-8)
C/D TEST RESULTS (SUPERCHARGED V-8) 60 mph: 5.9 sec100 mph: 14.4 sec130 mph: 32.5 secRolling start, 5–60 mph: 5.9 sec1/4 mile: 14.3 sec @ 100 mphTop speed (drag limited): 145 mphBraking, 70–0 mph: 189 ftRoadholding, 300-ft-dia skidpad: 0.80 g
C/D TEST RESULTS (NATURALLY ASPIRATED V-8) 60 mph: 7.4 sec100 mph: 20.9 sec130 mph: N/ARolling start, 5–60 mph: 7.4 sec1/4 mile: 15.7 sec @ 89 mphTop speed: N/ABraking, 70–0 mph: 212 ftRoadholding, 300-ft-dia skidpad: 0.77 g

This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io More

Left hand at 11 o’clock, right at one o’clock, forearms straight down with elbows at the bottom of the steering wheel. And that wheel is up against the driver’s chest. It’s the classic early pickup-truck-driving position. The way a truck without power steering and a confined cab had to be driven. Leverage was needed to steer, and there just wasn’t any room to push the seat back. It’s also the driving position for Icon’s hard-core, high-end, obsessive-compulsive Reformer re-imagination of the short-bed, regular cab 1970 Ford F-100 4×4.
Jonathan Ward’s Icon brand started as an offshoot of his classic Toyota Land Cruiser restoration and service business. It’s now grown beyond boutique status to become a Southern California luxury brand. What Singer is to Porsche 911s, Icon is to old Ford Broncos, Chevrolet and GMC trucks from the early 1950s, Toyota FJs, and whatever else captures Ward’s imagination or sparks the whimsy of a well-heeled customer.

View Photos

Jessica Lynn WalkerCar and Driver

Keep in mind that what Icon does is re-engineer and add overwhelming detail to old vehicles. What makes the Icon machines compelling is that they work so incredibly well. But there are built-in limitations.

Resto’ Legends: Singer 911, Icon Bronco, E-Type

1969 Chevrolet Camaro Red Devil Pro Touring

C/D Archives: Tuner Cars Tested from 0 to 150 to 0

What’s easiest about modifying old cars and trucks is that, compared to new vehicles, they suck. So making them better is a pretty straightforward proposition: replace the archaic pieces with newer, better stuff. For this F-100, that starts with an all-new ladder frame built by Art Morrison Enterprises in Fife, Washington. It’s a stretched version of the frame Icon uses under its Broncos, which C/D drove back in 2013. And that 23-inch stretch pays off.
Like the Icon Bronco, the F-100 uses Eibach coil springs at all four corners. In front, the Dana 44 solid axle is supported by a radius-arm setup and a Panhard rod. The rear, beefier Dana 60 axle is suspended on a four-link system. Fox Racing shocks dampen the ride motions. Big-ass Brembo brake rotors are aboard to do, well, the braking. They’re controlled by a Wilwood master cylinder and Hydratech booster. The wheels are 18-inch alloys painted to resemble the original steelies and finished with the original-style Ford hubcaps. The adoption of the coil-spring suspension necessitated raising the bed floor two inches to accommodate the spring towers. (The F-100, like most four-wheel-drive pickups of the era, originally came with leaf springs front and rear.)

View Photos

Jessica Lynn WalkerCar and Driver

While the suspension system is virtually identical to the Icon Bronco’s, the Bronco has a dinky 92-inch wheelbase. This short bed F-100 puts 115 inches between the front and rear axles. The stretch gives the pickup a much-settled, easygoing ride both on-road and off. The Bronco often feels nervous, like it’s walking on its tiptoes. The F-100, on the other hand, is settled and confident. This pickup is a better everyday machine, even if it may sacrifice some of the Bronco’s off-road nimbleness.
That raised bed floor also made it easier to fit a fuel tank behind the rear axle and between the frame rails. When Ford built this truck, the tank was in the cab behind the bench seat, where a good whack could atomize the fuel and potentially ignite and incinerate the occupants. Not good. The new tank is much safer and uses a filler positioned in the bed.

View Photos

Jessica Lynn WalkerCar and Driver

Again like Icon’s Bronco, the F-100 is powered by Ford’s 5.0-liter, DOHC, 32-valve V-8. Most prominently featured in the Mustang GT, the Coyote V-8 is rated at 460 horsepower in the 2020 edition of that pony car. The version in this truck, Icon says, is rated at 426 horsepower. “We’ve fattened up the torque curve,” Ward explained. “We’ve become pretty good at managing the fuel map.” Behind it is a Ford AOD four-speed automatic transmission, which in turn feeds an Advanced Adaptors Atlas II two-speed transfer case. Engaging the four-wheel-drive system takes a mighty tug on the transfer case’s shift lever and getting out of the truck to twist the knobs on the manual front hubs.
Ford may be selling 10-speed automatics in its cars and trucks now, but the AOD four-speed automatic is better than good enough. The driver will never miss the other six gears. And really, today’s high gear-count transmissions are about fuel economy ratings, not driving manners.

View Photos

Jessica Lynn WalkerCar and Driver

Ford introduced this body style (the fifth-generation F-Series) for the 1967 model year and made several clever design decisions. The big clamshell-style hood covers the fender tops so there’s no sloppy panel gaps along the edges. And the drip rail around the doors continues around the front of the truck to disguise any roof seams. After all, Ford built 626,585 of these things during calendar year 1970 and was selling them cheap. The factory didn’t have time to caress every single body panel. Jonathan Ward, on the other hand, was paid beaucoup bucks to make this one example perfect. So, his shop put in the hours to perfect the panel fit and drench the thing in enough coats of paint to repel artillery fire. Ward’s crew started with a sweet 1970 truck in very good condition and didn’t stop futzing until it glistened.
The full futz continues inside the cab, which appears factory with some slight exaggerations. The knobs were never this shiny when they left Ford, the upholstery so precisely tailored, and the gauges never so clearly marked and legible. An air-conditioning system using Vintage Air components keeps things cool while the close-cropped carpets feel so downy it’s a shame to wear shoes.

View Photos

Jessica Lynn WalkerCar and Driver

The Coyote V-8 sort of yelps to life and settles into a burbling idle. The column-mounted shifter snicks into drive, and the F-100 barks a bit and almost swaggers forward. Throttle response is good, the brakes bite with authority, and the steering is light and precise if somewhat mute.
Here’s the truck’s main drawback: It’s still a 1970 Ford cab. That driving position described in the first paragraph isn’t a choice, it’s a necessity. There simply isn’t enough cab to get comfortable by 21st century standards. One problem is that the restored stock steering wheel, necessarily huge in the days of unassisted steering, is simply too big in diameter for the current power-steering system. A two-inch reduction in diameter would make the steering feel more modern and open up some room for those of us carrying thunderous thighs down there.

View Photos

Jessica Lynn WalkerCar and Driver

Aerodynamics were a dark art when this F-100 was in production. There’s wind noise around the drip rails, and the big side mirrors are out there catching wind, too. Nothing so obtrusive as to detract from the truck’s personality. But it’s not a new F-150 King Ranch, either.
We’re guessing here, but the zero-to-60-mph time is likely in the high six-second range. But slamming the accelerator pedal isn’t what this is all about. There’s a confidence and even-temperedness to this F-100 that nothing built in 1970 could ever approach.
Exposure to off-road conditions was limited. But there’s good reason to expect fine manners there, too.

View Photos

Jessica Lynn WalkerCar and Driver

Managing one’s expectations is the toughest part about re-tailoring an older vehicle for the 21st century. It’s easy to make a 1970 Ford F-100 better, but there are limits to how good it can get. There’s still a lot of 1970 in it.
Icon isn’t shy about charging for its design expertise and fabrication skills. The build bill on this truck is up around $400,000, though the exact cost is between Icon and its customer. That could buy a really nice Rolls-Royce, but who’d want that when you can get an F-100?
This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io More

Its engine is almost nothing, a single cylinder that’s air cooled, fuel injected, and displaces only 125 cubic centimeters. That’s less than eight cubic inches. If it makes 10 horsepower, it would be overachieving. But it doesn’t have that much motorcycle to push around since, as Honda says, the 2020 Super Cub C125 weighs only 240 pounds. This is the first production vehicle I’ve evaluated for C/D that weighs less than I do.
Since the original Cub went on sale in 1958, Honda has built more than 110 million of them. It is by far the best-selling self-propelled vehicle of all time. In the United States, it’s been sold as a harmless thing to play with through the summer. It’s the Honda upon which you meet the nicest people. It’s happy and fun, designed to be operated by someone wearing tight white jeans, boat shoes, and a blond ponytail. But in Asia and other parts of the world, it’s a truck, an F-150 for squeaking through crowded streets delivering food orders or lugging goods from farm to market.

View Photos

Jessica Lynn WalkerCar and Driver

Honda’s Super Cub and Monkey Bikes Are Coming Back

Honda Produces 100 Millionth Super Cub!

Even more than the Civic, Accord, or a HHT25SLTAT lawn trimmer, it’s the Cub that established Honda around the world. Over the past 63 model years, Honda has built Cubs with engines ranging from a nominal 50 cc to this relatively beastly 125. The four-stroke, single-overhead-cam, two-valve engine itself is shared with other small Honda motorcycles, including the super-adorable 2021 Monkey and the goofball Grom. Besides its classic step-through design, the big advantage the Super Cub has over its siblings is its 17-inch alloy wheels and relatively long 48.9-inch wheelbase, which make it more stable and comfortable, and make it more of an actual motorcycle and not a moped.
While it looks like the Cubs of old, Honda pulled the original from the United States in 1974. This is an all-new machine that Honda introduced to the American market in 2019. Assembled in Thailand, every plastic body panel, every engine casting, and every other component is beautifully finished and impeccably built.

View Photos

Jessica Lynn WalkerCar and Driver

Modern touches include a proximity key so that the Super Cub can be started simply by turning on the ignition and touching the switch on the right side of the handlebar to engage the electric starter. The front disc brake is equipped with anti-lock control, but the rear drum is on its own. All of the lighting systems are LEDs, and they work exceedingly well. The instrumentation consists of a speedometer, some warning lights, and a small digital display that doubles as a clock. There’s only a single seat on the Super Cub and no place to store anything. Well, there is a small compartment on the side that’s just big enough to fit the owner’s manual. A chrome rack that bolts to the front of the leg shield is a $73 accessory.
Throwing on a borrowed Arai Classic-V helmet that neatly matched the seat top, I looked like a background extra from Mel Brooks’ Spaceballs. But there’s something emboldening about a helmet no matter how funny you look. I felt a sense of safety as I got onto a motorcycle for the first time in about 20 years.

View Photos

Jessica Lynn WalkerCar and Driver

The Super Cub is amazingly easy to ride. The four-speed sequential transmission operates with a lever at the rider’s left foot. Neutral is at the bottom, and the rider toes up for first and keeps going up until it runs out of gears. If your toe is hypersensitive, the shifter can also be operated with your heel on the opposite end of the lever. A centrifugal clutch and spring-loaded clutch plate handle engaging drive, so the rider can concentrate on keeping a death grip on the left side of the handlebar. The right side is capped with a conventional twist throttle and a lever to operate the front brake. The rear brake is operated by a foot pedal on the right.
Comfortably upright, the riding position compromised the aerodynamics of my torso. Rolling into the throttle, the Super Cub pulls away with no drama. Of course, with a bit less than 10 horsepower available acceleration is hardly intimidating. First gear runs out pretty quickly, but second is good for up to about 30 mph. Third will take the bike all the way up to its terminal velocity of about 60 mph—assuming the rider bends forward to cheat the wind. Fourth is best used as a cruising gear on flat roads or downhill.

View Photos

Jessica Lynn WalkerCar and Driver

During my time with the Super Cub, I rode it for 230 miles and put 1.4 gallons of fuel into its 1.0-gallon tank. Including the gallon of gas that was in it when the bike was delivered, that works out to 96 mpg. The total fuel bill came to $7.40, which is kind of awesome.
That in mind, one frustrating element of the Super Cub is filling that tank. The filler lives under the hinged seat and is accessed by pressing a single release button. That’s no problem. But there’s a support rod that runs across the tank just below the filler, and that makes it impossible to insert the fuel nozzle all the way in. That may not be much of a problem in other parts of the country, but in California where vapor recovery systems are mandatory, it makes for an awkward amount of finagling to pull the rubber vapor hose up enough to allow fuel to flow freely. But since the tank is small, it doesn’t take long to fill it.

View Photos

Jessica Lynn WalkerCar and Driver

This is a stable, easygoing motorcycle for puttering around a town like my Santa Barbara home. Its feathery weight means it’s easy to pull up onto its center stand for parking. Nearly everyone you meet wants to talk about it, and even at full speed it never feels ragged or strained. It corners securely, allows greater lean angles than I have the courage to exploit, and rides comfortably over road irregularities. As my re-entry point to motorcycling, it’s about perfect. And at $3839 the 2020 model is priced at about a tenth that of the average new car. The 2021 models are already arriving and will cost $100 more.
Motorcycle riders make for better car drivers. You can’t afford to be distracted on a motorcycle—no Bluetooth chatter full of podcasts and pundits (unless you wire your helmet), no eating an Egg McMuffin, no daydreaming. On a motorcycle, a keen situational awareness of everything around you emerges almost naturally, and there are so many inattentive drivers out there that stark terror is only one idiot pulling out of a Starbucks driveway. The intense concentration necessary, even on a bike as benign as the Super Cub, will follow you when you get back behind the wheel of a car.
As for meeting friendly people on this Honda? Well, I can be kind of surly.
This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io More

Audi’s boss in the 1980s, Ferdinand Piëch, realigned the company to compete with Mercedes-Benz and BMW, setting in motion a close competition between the German marques. If one of the brands enters a segment, the others follow shortly. If one updates a vehicle, so do the others. The latest in this anything-you-can-do-I-can-do-better strategy is the redesigned Audi A3, which follows the introduction of the second-generation Mercedes-Benz CLA and the new BMW 2-series Gran Coupe.

2020 Audi A3 Is an Early Look at What’s to Come

2022 Audi A3 Sedan Is Aggressively Contemporary

We recently spent a day behind the wheel of the A3 Sportback 2.0 TDI (that’s the hatchback version), but now our attention turns to the A3 sedan, the body style that will be coming to the U.S. next year as a 2022 model. While American A3s will have a 2.0-liter turbocharged inline-four that makes about 200 horsepower, a seven-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission, and a 48-volt hybrid system, the A3 sedan we drove came equipped with a 148-hp turbocharged 1.5-liter four-banger. It might not offer the same acceleration as the one we’ll get, but the 1.5-liter gives a clear indication of what the A3 sedan will feel like going down the road.

View Photos

Audi

At first glance, the new A3 Sedan comes across as an evolution of its predecessor. There are sharp creases, slight fender flares, and it looks more aggressive than before, yet the overall proportions remain very much the same. The bubble roof is a typical Audi element ever since Peter Schreyer introduced it on the A1X concept in 1991, and the horizontal taillights provide another connection to the previous A3 sedan.
The interior is boldly futuristic, with a digital instrument panel that is available in two sizes, as well as a standard central touchscreen. The cockpit is full of creases and hard edges; the materials are soft and attractive. The central infotainment screen is similar to that on Audi’s top-level cars, but it provides feedback in sound rather than the vibrations of other Audis. An informative and well-designed head-up display is optional.

View Photos

Audi

The A3’s telematics systems and levels of electronic assistance are impressive. Audi’s navigation system is easy to operate and delivers precise commands. We are especially impressed by the optional matrix LED headlights and how they lay an crisp carpet of light ahead of the car.
We found the A3 Sedan to be as well-suited to long trips as the Sportback version that we recently drove. Like the hatchback, the sedan has a comfortable seating position and relatively spacious rear seats. The four-door has a sizeable and easily accessible trunk with a low liftover height, and the rear seats can be laid flat to expand the usefulness of the cargo space.
In Europe, the 148-hp 1.5-liter is the second smallest engine. There is a super-efficient 109-hp 1.0-liter three-cylinder positioned below. Fitted with a 48-volt hybrid system, this A3 offered a genuine “hybrid” driving experience: When you take your foot off the gas, the car will coast, the engine shuts off before the car actually comes to a halt, and restarting is a quick and vibration-free affair.

View Photos

Audi

What this engine offers in efficiency and silky-smooth delivery, it loses in acceleration. We won’t complain about a claimed zero-to-62-mph time of 8.4 seconds, but the small four-banger never feels particularly eager to explore its limits. Reaching the claimed top speed of 144 mph will require many miles of autobahn. The seven-speed dual-clutch automatic, which will be shared with the U.S.-bound 2.0-liter, changes gears quickly and unobtrusively. When Audi launches the 40 TFSI model in the U.S., it will be offered with front-wheel drive or all-wheel drive. We did wish for a firmer suspension on the car we drove, but it remains to be seen how the U.S. model will be tuned.
With two AMG-fettled versions of both the CLA and A-class, as well as an M235i Gran Coupe, there will inevitably be new S3 and RS3 performance versions of the A3. While those hotter models haven’t been shown yet, we did learn that the S3 will have more than 300 horsepower and that the RS3 will likely make more than 400. Even at the economical end of the luxury segment, the competition among the German brands remains heated.

Specifications

Specifications
2022 Audi A3 35 TFSI MHEV S Tronic
VEHICLE TYPE front-engine, front-wheel-drive, 5-passenger, 4-door sedan
BASE PRICE $31,000
ENGINE TYPE turbocharged and intercooled DOHC 16-valve inline-4, aluminum block and head, direct fuel injectionDisplacement 91 in3, 1498 cm3Power 148 hp @ 6000 rpmTorque 184 lb-ft @ 1500 rpm
TRANSMISSION 7-speed dual-clutch automatic
DIMENSIONS Wheelbase: 103.8 inLength: 177.0 inWidth: 71.5 inHeight: 56.1 inCurb weight (C/D est): 3000 lb
PERFORMANCE (C/D EST) 60 mph: 7.7 sec1/4 mile: 16.1 secTop speed: 144 mph
EPA FUEL ECONOMY (C/D EST) Combined/city/highway: 32/29/37 mpg

This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io More

View Photos
Michael SimariCar and Driver

The hybrid-only 2021 Venza is one of the best-looking new Toyotas in recent memory—or at least one of the least fussy in its design. But its good looks are one of its few strengths. Although Toyota pitches the Venza as a mid-size two-row SUV in the vein of the Chevrolet Blazer, Ford Edge, and Honda Passport, this new crossover struggles to stand apart from the company’s own compact RAV4 hybrid. Within the greater Toyota lineup, it’s easier to think of the Venza as a high-end trim level of the RAV4, rather than a separate model designed to compete with larger rivals.

HIGHS: Attractive design, solid highway fuel economy, cool panoramic roof on Limited models.

Unlike the previous Venza, which was a Camry-based crossover created for the United States market, this new model is plucked from Toyota’s Japanese lineup, where it’s called the Harrier. A glance at the Venza’s spec sheet reveals a number of similarities with the RAV4, as the two crossovers share a platform and most of their powertrain and dimensions. The Venza is a few inches longer, owing to its different body, but its wheelbase and width are the same as the RAV4’s.

View Photos

Michael SimariCar and Driver

Toyota Venza Returns for 2021 as Hybrid-Only SUV

Why the Toyota Sienna and Venza Are Hybrid-Only

2021 Toyota Venza Costs More Than the RAV4 Hybrid

The supposedly bigger Venza is actually less spacious inside, and its inferior packaging makes it less practical for hauling cargo. We fit just seven carry-on suitcases behind the rear seats of the Venza—three fewer than in the RAV4 and less than half of what you can stow in a Honda Passport. Lifting things into the Venza requires a bit of extra effort as well, as its cargo floor is significantly higher off the ground than the RAV4’s, at 32.3 inches versus 27.5. The Venza’s rear-seat dimensions are nearly identical to the RAV4’s, yet sitting back there feels more confining because of the Venza’s slightly smaller windows and higher beltline.

View Photos

Michael SimariCar and Driver

The Venza features the same all-wheel-drive hybrid drivetrain as the RAV4 hybrid, including a 2.5-liter inline-four and two motor-generators, plus a third electric motor on the rear axle. Combined output is the same 219 horsepower. The only significant difference is that the Venza gets a lithium-ion battery pack versus the RAV4’s nickel-metal-hydride unit. However, the Venza’s more modern battery holds far less energy, 0.9 kWh versus the RAV4’s 1.6. Perhaps that’s why the Venza Limited we tested, at 7.6 seconds to 60 mph, is 0.3-second slower than the RAV4 hybrid despite weighing only 58 pounds more. Either way, a Passport is a significant 1.5 seconds quicker. In our 75-mph highway fuel-economy test, the Venza’s 36 mpg trailed the RAV4 hybrid’s result by 1 mpg, although both numbers are admittedly impressive for any SUV. Still, Toyota’s smooth 3.5-liter V-6 would have helped to differentiate Venza, as would the new RAV4 Prime’s impressive plug-in-hybrid powertrain with 302 horsepower. But Toyota says it has no plans to offer other Venza variants in the U.S.

LOWS: Slower and less practical than a RAV4 hybrid but more expensive.

View Photos

Michael SimariCar and Driver

While the Venza may look a bit classier than the RAV4, it offers similar levels of comfort and refinement. Its four-cylinder can sound buzzy and sends more vibrations through the steering wheel and pedals than we’d like. Wind noise is noticeable on the highway, even though the Venza’s sound measurement at a 70-mph cruise is one decibel lower than the RAV4 hybrid’s. The Venza is reasonably balanced around corners, but its comparatively slower steering and softer suspension versus the RAV4 make it feel larger and a bit lazier on the road, as well as less composed over rough pavement. Our test car’s Bridgestone Ecopia all-season tires were quick to relinquish their modest grip, with adhesion around the skidpad amounting to 0.79 g and stops from 70 mph requiring an unimpressive 179 feet.

View Photos

Michael SimariCar and Driver

Unfortunately, the Venza lags behind the RAV4 in additional comparisons: The Venza isn’t rated for towing, yet the RAV4 hybrid can tug up to 1750 pounds; the RAV4’s physical buttons and knobs on its center stack are easier to use than the Venza’s touch-capacitive buttons; and the Venza has fewer and smaller storage cubbies for stashing small items. Perhaps most frustrating is that Toyota charges between $3000 and $6000 more for the Venza than for equivalent RAV4 hybrid models.
On a technical level, the Venza’s primary advantage is its panoramic electrochromic sunroof, a $1400 option exclusive to the Limited trim that can change from transparent to translucent at the touch of a button. But at our test car’s $43,045 price point, the new Venza struggles to distinguish itself both from Toyota’s own compact SUV and its numerous mid-size crossover competitors. Unless you’re smitten with the Venza’s design, the RAV4 hybrid is the more compelling buy.

Specifications

Specifications
2021 Toyota Venza
VEHICLE TYPE front-engine, all-wheel-drive, 5-passenger, 4-door wagon
PRICE AS TESTED $43,045 (base price: $33,590)
POWERTRAIN DOHC 16-valve Atkinson-cycle 2.5-liter inline-4, 176 hp, 163 lb-ft + 3 permanent-magnet synchronous AC motors, front: 118 hp, 149 lb-ft; rear: 54 hp, 89 lb-ft (combined output, 219 hp); 0.9-kWh lithium-ion battery pack
TRANSMISSION continuously variable automatic
CHASSIS Suspension (F/R): struts/multilinkBrakes (F/R): 12.0-in vented disc/11.1-in discTires: Bridgestone Ecopia H/L 422 Plus, 225/55R-19 99V M+S
DIMENSIONS Wheelbase: 105.9 inLength: 186.6 inWidth: 73.0 inHeight: 65.9 inPassenger volume: 95 ft3Cargo volume: 29 ft3Curb weight: 3879 lb
C/D TEST RESULTS 60 mph: 7.6 sec100 mph: 20.9 secRolling start, 5–60 mph: 7.9 secTop gear, 30–50 mph: 3.8 secTop gear, 50–70 mph: 5.2 sec1/4 mile: 15.8 sec @ 89 mphTop speed (governor limited): 118 mphBraking, 70–0 mph: 179 ftRoadholding, 300-ft-dia skidpad: 0.79 gStanding-start accel times omit 1-ft rollout of 0.3 sec.
C/D FUEL ECONOMY Observed: 36 mpgHighway range: 520 miles
EPA FUEL ECONOMY (MFR EST) Combined/city/highway: 39/40/37 mpg

This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io More

We’ll apologize up front for this being another of our occasional takes on a compelling car that the vagaries of the international auto industry deny us. That’s because although Alpina does exist in the United States—selling its B7 version of the BMW 7-series and set to launch its new XB7 SUV here soon—there are unfortunately no plans to bring any of the BMW tuner’s smaller and more affordable models to the States, such as this impressive 3-series-based B3.
The new B3 isn’t meant to be a rival to the forthcoming M3. Alpina’s close relationship with BMW is based on the clear understanding that the company’s variants are built around a different mission from those that wear M badges. Alpinas are softer and more comfort orientated, designed more for effortless high-speed blasts on Germany’s autobahn than for shaving seconds from lap times. That focus makes for seriously multitalented vehicles, which the new Alpina B3 demonstrates wonderfully.

View Photos

Alpina

Alpina XB7 Throws a Three-Ton Haymaker

2020 BMW Alpina B7 Is a Better 7-Series

Alpina’s status as BMW’s officially sanctioned tuner means it basically gets to play Lego with the manufacturer’s componentry. The B3 uses the all-wheel-drive system, mechanical limited-slip rear differential, and eight-speed automatic transmission from the M340i xDrive model but adds a beefier torque converter to better cope with the output of the S58 twin-turbo 3.0-liter straight-six that the B3 shares with the X3 M and X4 M SUVs. For Alpina duty, the six gains smaller, low-inertia turbocharger compressors, redesigned intake and exhaust systems, and a retuned computer. Its 456 horsepower slots it slightly below the 473 or 503 horses of the M models, but the B3 produces a stout 516 pound-feet of torque versus the M tune’s 442 pound-feet. The B3 should be able to clear 60 mph in about 3.5 seconds, and top speed is an unrestricted 186 mph for the wagon and 188 mph for the sedan.

View Photos

Alpina

The B3’s engine pulls without lag—or indeed much in the way of apparent effort—generating significant speed with the accelerator pedal only halfway through its long travel. Pushed harder, the g forces increase and the sounds it makes get angrier, but the engine’s linearity and broad midrange muscle is in marked contrast to the top-end fireworks of most M cars. The last-generation B3 was less powerful yet struggled for grip in its standard rear-drive form, but the new car just sticks, even when accelerating hard from a stop. While understeer can be found in tighter bends, the front end’s push is minimal and is usually successfully countered by the all-wheel-drive system.
Even more impressive is the B3’s chassis. It employs new Eibach springs but keeps the adaptive dampers from the M340i, which have been reprogrammed to give a broader spread between Comfort and Sport modes. Even with the dampers in their firmest setting, there was no harshness to the car’s ride over the (admittedly few) rough patches we could find on our test route through the German countryside. There was also no sense of float or excessive body roll in Comfort mode. That includes during hard acceleration, which, despite the softer springs, seemed to produce less squat than is typical in punchy BMWs. The steering feels better weighted as well, with a more natural loading of cornering forces than in the M340i.

View Photos

Alpina

We drove both sedan and Touring wagon versions of the B3 on the road and can say there’s minimal dynamic difference between them. The wagon’s open cargo area allows slightly more noise inside, although its cabin is still impressively quiet at cruising speeds. Its responses to control inputs aren’t quite as keen as the sedan’s—Alpina says it weighs 176 pounds more—but with no Touring version planned for the new M3, the long-roof B3 will be the quickest factory-approved version of the current 3-series wagon.
Beyond some discreet Alpina branding, including the company’s badge on the steering wheel in place of the BMW roundel, the B3’s interior is predictably similar to that of a well-specified 3-series. The standard steering wheel features Alpina’s traditional small buttons on the back of the spokes for manual gear selection, but you can opt for more functional machined aluminum paddles instead. Externally, the B3 is similarly understated, especially for buyers who resist Alpina’s optional pinstriping. Beyond the Alpina-branded front splitter—which harks back to when the company competed in the European Touring Car Championship—the B3 shouts remarkably little for being as quick as it is.

View Photos

Alpina

On the demanding Bilster Berg racetrack, an exclusive members’ club built on the site of a former British army munitions depot, the B3 felt impressively quick for a luxury performance car. Its suspension retains tight control of the car’s body motions and reveals a playful side that comes in part from the all-wheel-drive system’s rearward torque bias. Chuck it through a tight corner, and the combination of the more aggressive Sport Plus drive mode and the stability control’s Sport setting allows a liberal amount of slip from the back end. The next M3 will undoubtedly be even quicker and more extreme on the track, but the softer-edged B3 is no slouch.
In terms of global reach, Alpina remains a boutique shop. With production limited to about 2000 cars a year in total, CEO Andreas Bovensiepen admits it’s not possible to financially justify the considerable costs of certifying its less-expensive models for sale in the U.S. Less expensive in this case means a starting price the equivalent of $91,000. Still, it’s a shame. What the new B3 gives up in outright performance it more than makes up for in refinement and exclusivity. Sadly, we’ll have to continue to appreciate it from afar.

Specifications

Specifications
2020 Alpina B3
VEHICLE TYPE front-engine, all-wheel-drive, 5-passenger, 4-door sedan or wagon
BASE PRICE (GERMANY) $91,000
ENGINE TYPE twin-turbocharged and intercooled DOHC 24-valve inline-6, aluminum block and head, direct fuel injectionDisplacement 183 in3, 2993 cm3Power 456 hp @ 7000 rpmTorque 516 lb-ft @ 2500 rpm
TRANSMISSION 8-speed automatic
DIMENSIONS Wheelbase: 112.2 inLength: 185.8 inWidth: 71.9 inHeight: 56.6–56.7 inPassenger volume: 95 ft3Trunk volume: 17–18 ft3Curb weight (C/D est): 4150–4300 lb
PERFORMANCE (C/D EST) 60 mph: 3.4–3.5 sec100 mph: 9.0–9.1 sec1/4 mile: 11.9–12.0 secTop speed (mfr’s claim): 186–188 mph
EPA FUEL ECONOMY (C/D EST) Combined/city/highway: 18/15/23 mpg

This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io More

From the March 1977 issue of Car and Driver.
Here is a car that’s going to make the purists grind their teeth. The thing says Ferrari all over it, prancing horses everywhere you look. You can see six of those noble little Ferrari trademarks right from the driver’s seat and that is without even craning your neck. Walk around the outside, and you’ll see more—front, back and both sides—proclaiming for all the world that this is the latest message to the faithful from El Commendatore.

Best Sports Cars of 2020

Ferrari F8 Spider Protects Your Hearing

The Greatest Cars of All Time: The Seventies

But the purists, bless their over-informed hearts, know perfectly well that this little thigh-high sweetie officially called Ferrari 308 GTB is nothing but a social-climbing Dino. Look underneath if you don’t believe it. The engine is the same all-aluminum, sidewinder V-8 bolted to the same five-speed manual transmission that you’ll find in the Dino 308 GT4. The suspension pieces are identical too. And so are the wheels. What’s old Enzo trying to pull here anyway, sticking his rampant horses to a bogus Ferrari?

View Photos

Don HunterCar and Driver

It must be hell being a purist—fogs the mind and blocks the vision. You can’t see the truth for the facts. Now, to be completely correct, this new Ferrari shares virtually all of its major mechanicals with the Dino 308 GT 4. And it has a V-8, not one of the glorious V-12s, with belts instead of chains driving the four camshafts. So there is none of the old clatter, nothing to cock an ear to two blocks away. As a final indictment, the body is made of—can it really be true?—fiberglass. Like a Corvette. Or a boat. If you’re the sort who weighs the merits of an automobile by the specifications printed on the back of brochures, you’re going to conclude that the EPA and the DOT and the old rocking chair have taken a firm grip of Mr. Ferrari, and he is easing himself into retirement on the strength of past accomplishments.

View Photos

Don HunterCar and Driver

And that, in one short paragraph, is why it is so dangerous to judge a car by the ancestry of its parts. Because this latest Ferrari is a remarkable machine, a truly happy collection of ideas and components that really work well together. Visually, it’s a first-round knockout, just the right blend of old Pininfarina Curvaceous and Modern Wedge. The fenders swoop with undisguised joy while the nose droops in the best aerodynamic tradition. And there are enough slots, scoops, and vents to satisfy those who want the Functional Look. In red, the effect is stunning. Ferrari’s red seems to get more intense each year: The test car made fire trucks look pale. It also made fire trucks with all of their chrome fitments look frivolous. The Ferrari is trimmed entirely in black-bumpers, taillight surrounds, door handles, everything. Which makes the red even redder.
If you are going to spend big money for a car, $28,780 in this case, it’s just assumed that the car will have visual flare in proportion to its price. But with rare exceptions—the 250 GT Berlinetta Lusso and the GTO 64, to name two, and these are more than 10 years old—Ferraris generally have had frumpy styling. So even at first glance, this new GTB is a radical departure from the norm. But then this car goes against the Ferrari tradition in a number of ways. It would appear that its designers approached the problem of a mid-engine GT coupe with an open mind. And as a result, the GTB is one of the most logical, comfortable and easy-to-drive mid­engine cars ever built.

View Photos

Don HunterCar and Driver

If you think back a bit, you will observe that although mid-engine cars have been the dominant theme in racing for about 15 years, the concept has not fared well on the road. Usually, designers got the proportions wrong. DeTomaso’s efforts, the Mangusta and the Pantera, are prime examples. He tried to have a V-8 engine between the wheels and at the same time maintain a wheel­base typical of front-engine cars (both the Pantera and the Corvette measured 98 inches). The result was a short cockpit with little legroom and vertical seats positioned very close to the floor. Calling this a torture chamber would be a rather severe description, but you get the idea. Another source of discomfort was the combined effect of the steeply raked windshield and the short roof. The top of the glass was right over your forehead, and all of the sun’s energy beamed right in full force on your lap. It was like sitting in a Radarange.

View Photos

Don HunterCar and Driver

With the GTB, Ferrari has handled all of these dimensions very nicely. The wheelbase is even shorter than that of the Pantera—only 92 inches—but the transverse engine mounted just forward of the rear wheels is a very compact arrangement, and it does not intrude on cockpit space. So the GTB’s interior dimensions are much more generous than a Pantera’s. Your legs must angle slightly toward the center of the car to clear the arches for the front wheel, but this is less bothersome than in, say, a Porsche 911. And although the windshield angles back severely, it starts from a cowl that is well forward and finishes accordingly, leaving plenty of roof for shade. Overall, the GTB is a very compact car. It’s just over a foot shorter than a Corvette and strictly a two-seater. Baggage space provides about the same volume as in a Corvette, but the shapes of the compartments in the two cars are different enough to make you use different bags. All of the Ferrari’s luggage space is rear­ward of the engine, and it runs the full width of the car. You get to it by lifting the engine lid and then unzipping a vinyl tonneau cover. The space is modest, but at least one golf bag should fit, for those of you who accept or reject cars on that basis. But regardless of what you like to carry along on your travels, if it won’t fit in this trunk, chances are it won’t go anywhere. The front compartment is entirely filled with the spare tire and brake cylinders, and there is barely enough room behind the seats for this magazine. All that’s left is a pocket in each door and a locking compartment between the seats.
But if the GTB is obviously not a pack horse, it still has practical aspects that may have escaped your first notice. The fiberglass body should be easier to repair after a crunch than limited-production steel body panels. Chances are that some enterprising shop will make a mold from which replacement body sections could be lifted for the cost of dune-buggy bodies. Considering the brand name we’re dealing with here, the markup might be a bit higher, but the net should still be less than factory-fresh equivalents from across the sea. Fiberglass is really quite a logical body material for this sort of machine. Manufacturing costs for a short run of cars should be less than with steel, and the finished product won’t rust. It’s also fairly dent resistant as well. A light hit on fiberglass may scratch the paint, but the body is resilient enough to resume its former shape with no permanent damage.

View Photos

Don HunterCar and Driver

To be sure, fiberglass brings its own problems. You don’t have to ride one block in the GTB to know its body materiaI. There is a sort of dull clunking sound, a sensation you feel as much as hear, whenever you hit bumps. This Ferrari, all Corvettes, and some Lotuses have it. There is nothing annoying about it. It’s just there. And in our minds, a fair trade for the rust resistance.
When you mention fiberglass, people usually conjure up visions of fenders rippling like mill ponds. This isn’t the case with the GTB. We inspected the body surfaces quite carefully and found them to be generally within the range of what you’d expect of steel cars. Interestingly, the Ferrari’s front deck lid is made of aluminum, and the surface finish of it is no smoother and no rougher than the glass nosepiece surrounding it.
Although the GTB’s entire body, with the exception of the front lid, is made of fiberglass, the construction of the car itself is not much different than metal-­bodied Ferraris. All of them use a frame welded from simple brackets and steel tubing that’s usually rectangular. The tubes are always sprayed black, and you can always see rust around the welds, even on new cars. This is typical of all the Italian exotic cars, and if the sight of rust blemishing your handwrought frame makes you nervous, it might be best if you didn’t look so close.

View Photos

Don HunterCar and Driver

Certainly the GTB offers other visual attractions. The interior is done up in the Michelin Man style now coming into vogue with the Italian coachbuilders. Most surfaces in the cockpit are covered with huge pillowy rolls of vinyl. Pininfarina gave the padded-cell look to the Lancia Beta Scorpion first, and now it has done a variation on the theme for Ferrari. The effect is altogether different than what the world has come to expect of cars, particularly sports cars. There is no wood, no engine-turned aluminum, no black crackle to act as background for dozens of gauges, levers, and knobs. Instead, the dash, doors, roof and seats all seem to run together in a padded cocoon of vinyl. There is but one interruption. Directly before the driver, right where he would hope it would be, is the instrument cluster. All the dials are round. The tachometer shows a 7700-rpm redline. The speedometer reads to 180 mph. The stylists have fancied up the markings a bit more than they should have for maximum legibility, but the message is by no means lost. Curiously, the cluster ended up too small for all the dials, so two—the clock and the oil temperature—are tucked away below the dash on the left, half buried by the voluptuous padding.
The controls you must reach for either sprout from the steering column or are located on the console. In Italian cars, reaching for the steering wheel tends to be an Olympic-level task. At first glance, the GTB looks as difficult as they come. The wheel angles forward at the top in that awkward way. But then when you slip into the seat, you find the steering is more manageable than you anticipated. The reach is reasonable, and the low steering effort, one of the delightful aspects of a mid-engine car, makes minimal demands. Parking requires some exertion, but you’ll never be discouraged from any maneuver on the road.

View Photos

Don HunterCar and Driver

In fact, there is very little about the GTB that is discouraging. Sports cars and GT cars traditionally have been specialized machines, and frequently you were asked to make major sacrifices in comfort or convenience just to have the look of speed and, if you were lucky, the performance to match. But the GTB is wonderfully accommodating. It has plenty of room inside for two adults. Your head won’t rub the molded, one-piece headliner, and you won’t have to tuck your elbows in your belt loops. The seats are exceptionally good. They are finished in leather, very firm and deeply contoured. They give you the feeling that you’ll be well taken care of, come what may, even if that means 500 miles in one afternoon. And the combination lap-and-­shoulder belts fit comfortably, something that couldn’t be said of their equivalent in the Dino 308 GT 4.
Oh, the Advantage of Owning a Ferrari Dealership
You might think that the Ferrari dealers of this nation would be stumbling over themselves to lend this magazine a test car. They are not. The only one to step up to its solemn duty was International Motorcars Corporation, which also happens to be the newest Ferrari dealership in the country. But don’t think that International Motorcars came through because it was too green to know any better. Instead, the reason had to do with geography-because the newest Ferrari store just happens to be located smack in the heart of Jackson, Mississippi, and business is done differently in that part of the country.
As you would expect, there is not a surfeit of Ferraris in Mississippi. Until just recently, the exact count was seven. And four of these were owned by two men from Jackson: Charlie Kemp, better known for his exploits in road racing, and Sam Scott, a lawyer of no modest skill. Together they started International Motorcars, not to populate the state with more Ferraris but as a way to get dealer tags for their own cars. In Mississippi, the license plates for a Ferrari run about $300 per car per year, but as a dealership, they can get all they want for the lump sum of $160. Scott drew up the papers, and they were in business.
The idea of actually becoming a Ferrari store came later. “To be honest, we just thought it would be a neat thing to do,” Scott says. “But we didn’t know if we could qualify. When we called the importer, they had heard of Kemp through racing and said they would consider us.”

View Photos

Don HunterCar and Driver

After a few months of negotiations, the deal went through. International Motorcars bought $2000 worth of genuine Ferrari parts and a pair of new cars and hung its sign out in front of a remodeled Chrysler-Plymouth dealership in downtown Jackson, a location that is within an exhaust-shriek of the state capitol.
Having a Ferrari store and actually selling Ferraris are two different matters. Kemp and Scott had no way to know if they could move cars. But they soon discovered that the Ferrari business, although it may move in strange ways, definitely moves. Scott remembers the first car they sold. “A kid arrived out front in a taxi with an airplane ticket in his hand. He was wearing a T-shirt and jeans with holes in the knees. Turned out he was from New Orleans and had seen our ad in the Times-Picayune. We had a used 275 GTS on the floor. He walked around the car twice—didn’t even sit in it—and said he’d take it. The price was $14,500, and he gave us a check for $8000 to hold it.”
That was last July. Since then business has been well above expectations. They’ve sold 11 cars, six of them new ones. And poised on the showroom floor right now is one brilliant-red Ferrari 308 GTB certain to become a much sought after collector’s item. It is the Car and Driver test car. If you tell Charlie Kemp that you are a regular reader, he might even make you a deal. —Patrick Bedard

Specifications

SPECIFICATIONS
1977 Ferrari 308GTB
VEHICLE TYPEmid-engine, rear-wheel-drive, 2-passenger, 2-door coupe 
PRICE AS TESTED (1977)$28,780 (base price: $28,780)
ENGINE TYPE DOHC 16-valve V-8, aluminum block and heads, 4×2-bbl Weber 40DCNF carburetorDisplacement 179 in3, 2927 cm3Power 240 hp @ 6600 rpmTorque 195 lb-ft @ 5000 rpm
TRANSMISSION 5-speed manual
CHASSIS Suspension (F/R): control arms/control armsBrakes (F/R): 10.6-in vented disc/10.9-in vented discTires: Michelin XWX, 205/70VR-14
DIMENSIONSWheelbase: 92.1 inLength: 172.4 inWidth: 67.7 in Height: 44.1 inCurb weight: 3110 lb
C/D TEST RESULTS60 mph: 7.9 sec100 mph: 21.1 sec1/4 mile: 16.0 sec @ 89 mphTop speed (C/D est): 140 mphBraking, 70–0 mph: 220 ft

This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io More

AMG wasted no time getting its hands on Mercedes’s smallest crossover, the new GLA. Compared to the 221-hp GLA250, the AMG GLA45 seems to be cut from entirely different cloth. There is an intermediate AMG GLA35 with at 302 horsepower, but the range-topping GLA45, with its 382-hp M139 engine, is the focus of this review.
This same engine can be found in the GLA’s platform-mate, the CLA45. AMG extracts the 382 horsepower from a mere 2.0 liters of displacement. Force-fed by a single twin-scroll turbocharger, peak power comes at 6500 rpm, while maximum torque—354 pound-feet—is on tap from 4750 to 5000 rpm. Compared to the 302-hp GLA35, the 45’s cylinder head is completely different; its intake and exhaust ports are opposite to that of the GLA35. The turbo now occupies the real estate near the firewall, and the intake plenum sits out front. This setup optimizes airflow to feed this engine’s voracious appetite for oxygen and to better serve the powertrain’s cooling requirements.

View Photos

Mercedes-AMG

Mercedes-AMG GLA45 Is a Small Superpower

Mercedes-Benz’s GLA250 Grows Up

2021 Mercedes-Benz GLA-Class Caps Entry-Level Line

If you think that a single large turbo is a recipe for turbo lag, the GLA45 may dissuade you of that notion. Mated to an eight-speed dual-clutch automatic, the engine is so responsive that it largely resembles a naturally aspirated unit, except there’s great power at low rpm. Ripping through the gears, the GLA45 will charge to 60 mph in a conservative claim of 4.3 seconds—a 2018 GLA45 did the deed in 3.9—and the rush continues up to its terminal velocity, a claimed 155 mph. Even in quieter settings, the engine remains somewhat raspy and aggressive.
Our GLA45 came with the AMG Dynamic Plus package that offers six driving modes that adapt the suspension, throttle-pedal feedback, sound, shift strategy, front-to-rear torque distribution, steering assist, and the permissiveness of the stability control. Switch to the Master setting, and the GLA45 will allow you to coax the crossover into an easily controllable drift. The Dynamic Plus package also includes adaptive dampers and larger front brake rotors clamped by six-piston calibers instead of four-pot binders.

View Photos

Mercedes-AMG

The Dynamic Plus package highlights and helps optimize the GLA45’s chassis hardware. Stiffened and fitted with body reinforcements, the AMG version has a tauter suspension with struts up front and multilink in the rear. The steering is ultra sharp and direct while the body control is firm and tight. It feels at the ready, attentively waiting for any driver input to translate into rapid moves. The variable torque split between the front and rear axles is controlled by an electronically controlled clutch pack, and a torque-vectoring rear differential distributes power between the rear wheels.
The same interior that looks so clean and simple in the GLA250 is transformed by AMG with a somewhat-sportier steering wheel, firm and supportive performance seats, grippy microfiber elements, standard red stitching, and red seatbelts. The 10.3-inch instrument cluster features an AMG-specific Supersport gauge cluster that looks great, although it is not more informative than the regular gauges, which can still be selected.

View Photos

Mercedes-AMG

AMG seems to think that owners might take their GLA45 to a track. For those select few, there’s a Track Pace program that serves as a personal instructor, allowing the driver to record their favorite racetracks. Take it on the track, and the system feeds data into the instrument cluster or the head-up display to help improve lap times.
What we don’t like about the GLA45 is common to all GLAs. We’re still fighting with the imprecise touchpad that operates the infotainment system, and even the GLA45 has a decidedly un-sporty column-mounted shifter. There’s also the matter of the GLA45 S, which isn’t available in the United States. At 415 horsepower, 369 pound-feet, and capable of 168 mph, it ladles out the power even more generously. But even without the S treatment, we can’t think of another crossover this size that’s more fun.

Specifications

Specifications
2021 Mercedes-AMG GLA45
VEHICLE TYPE front-engine, all-wheel-drive, 5-passenger, 4-door hatchback
BASE PRICE (C/D EST) $55,000
ENGINE TYPE turbocharged and intercooled DOHC 16-valve inline-4, aluminum block and head, port and direct fuel injectionDisplacement 122 in3, 1991 cm3Power 382 hp @ 6500 rpmTorque 354 lb-ft @ 4750 rpm
TRANSMISSION 8-speed dual-clutch automatic
DIMENSIONS Wheelbase: 107.4 inLength: 174.6 inWidth: 72.8 inHeight: 62.5 inCurb weight (C/D est): 3600 lb
PERFORMANCE (C/D EST) 60 mph: 3.9 sec100 mph: 9.7 sec1/4 mile: 12.4 secTop speed: 155 mph
EPA FUEL ECONOMY (C/D EST) Combined/city/highway: 25/23/29 mpg

This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io More