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2011 Volkswagen Passat for Europe - First Drive Review

2010-11-13T15:24:00.000+07:00

A new Volkswagen Passat is coming, but we won’t see it in the U.S. Instead, we’ll get a yet-unnamed replacement currently known only as the “new mid-size sedan” and likely to be called, uh, Passat. But it won’t be the same as the Passat the rest of the world drives. Are we missing out?

Visual ties between everyone else’s new Passat and the previous car are obvious. The daylight opening, with its BMW-like kink, carries over, and the wheelbase remains virtually identical. But the design team has managed to transform the look into something rather more angular and substantial. The side panels now have creases with smaller radii, the shoulder line stretches through the C-pillar, the front overhang is shorter, and the rear overhang has been elongated.

The shortened front end was made possible by using the CC’s crash structure. The dashing side mirrors are another donation from the CC parts bin. The new Passat’s somewhat bulky front grille and lighting units evoke the Phaeton, as do the taillights. The standard lights look fine to us, but ordering xenon bulbs up front also nets LEDs in the rear, like those on the Phaeton. In Europe, the new car is also available as a station wagon called the Passat Variant.

The interior carries over with few changes. Most notable are the beautifully executed wood trim and the arrangement of buttons around the shifter knob. VW needed more space for buttons—on the previous model, certain options were excluded because there was nowhere to put the associated controls. However, as in the new U.S.-market Jetta, there is evidence of cost cutting inside. The lower dashboard is made of hard plastic, and the stitching on the door armrests is fake.

Slow Motion Doesn’t Feel Slow

VW put a lot of effort into improving the sound deadening, and it paid off. We sampled the Passat with three of the 10 or so engines that will eventually be available globally, and it exceeds class standards with any of them. Perhaps the most surprising is the extremely efficient BlueMotion, powered by a 103-hp, 1.6-liter turbo-diesel. It gets 55 mpg in the (hugely optimistic) European cycle—compared with 59 mpg for a Toyota Prius—and doesn’t feel horrendously slow, despite its anticipated 12.2-second crawl to 60 mph. It will actually cruise at speeds upwards of 100 mph, although not far beyond.

To reach deeper into that range, the top diesel is a 168-hp, 2.0-liter TDI that offers 258 lb-ft of torque coupled to a six-speed dual-clutch transmission. Top speed is 139 mph, and the engine rips the car forward in any gear. The soundtrack is recognizably diesel but is subdued and not intrusive. A 200-hp version of this engine is a possibility in the future.

Cooking with Gas

We also drove the 1.8-liter TSI, with a 158-hp gasoline engine coupled to a seven-speed dry dual-clutch gearbox, and it excelled, too. Although it doesn’t pull as strongly as the 2.0-liter diesel, we have no reason to doubt VW’s modest claims of a 0-to-62-mph sprint in 8.5 seconds and a 137-mph top speed. We do wish this engine had more energy at higher revs, though. Fuel economy is 34 mpg in the European cycle.

Unfortunately, we didn’t have a chance to drive the uplevel gasoline engines. VW offers the 2.0 TSI, with the 208-hp EA888 engine that’s also used in the European GTI. The top-of-the-line model is the V-6 4Motion, with a 300-hp, 3.6-liter VR6, which transmits its power to all four wheels through the six-speed DQ250 wet dual-clutch transmission. This engine was heretofore confined to the Passat R36, a sporty derivative that is being killed off. “An R model has no priority” now, says VW engineering chief Ulrich Hackenberg.

Scratch Golf

Although the Passat’s PQ46 platform is essentially a variation of the Golf underpinnings, it doesn’t drive that small, instead feeling every bit the bigger car. But the accompanying serenity doesn’t come at the cost of agility. The power steering is light but nicely weighted, there’s lots of grip, and the stability-control system executes its corrections so quickly that it usually preserves corner-exit speeds. The available XDS system, taken from the GTI, uses the brakes to approximate a limited-slip differential and makes hustling through turns less of an understeering mess.

VW boasts no fewer than 19 assistance systems designed to chaperone you and steer you clear of harm in just about any situation—like parking your car, being tired, or staying in your lane. The Passat will self-park, warn you when it thinks you are sleepy, monitor your driving, and even pop the trunk open if you move your foot under the rear bumper so you don’t have to put down those cases of beer.

Yes, it’s a loss that we won’t get this Passat here. But U.S. customers have proven time and time again that they are not ready to pay a premium for this kind of engineering—not this side of Audi, BMW, or Mercedes-Benz. Instead, we will get that “new mid-size sedan” that is bigger and has a longer wheelbase but is somewhat decontented. Since we can do without most of the nanny systems, that’s not necessarily a bad thing, but we hope the Germanic driving manners and feel of the Passat translate to the “NMSS.”

2011 Saab 9-5 Aero XWD - Road Test

2010-11-13T15:15:00.000+07:00

Saab’s 11th-hour rescue at the hands of Spyker recalls one of our favorite stories of redemption. Although few would call GM’s stewardship of Saab “excellent,” it was certainly an adventure, and the parallels to the 1989 cinematic masterpiece Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure are strong. The heroes in both stories coasted for 20 years or so before being saved from the brink of disaster: Bill and Ted by a time-traveling rock groupie from 700 years in the future, Saab by an equally unlikely Dutch supercar maker. And forecasts for Saab’s future under Spyker are dubious—“Bogus Journey” may turn out to be as apt a descriptor for the follow-up to Saab’s GM interlude as it was for the Bill and Ted sequel. Spyker scooped up the gasping Saab for a $74-million song, plus $326 million in shares of the newly formed Saab Spyker Automobiles.

Saab Spyker CEO Victor Muller says that, by 2012, the company will break even, with worldwide sales totaling just 85,000. Saab sold fewer than 18,000 cars in the U.S. in 2008, but its global sales total actually exceeded the magical 85,000 by roughly 10,000 units. And this was with mostly outdated and/or badge-engineered products. Prior to this 2011 model, the 9-5 had gone 13 years without a redesign—twice as long as most cars today.

And then along comes this knockout. The taut styling invites long stares, and the aggressively tapered greenhouse and blacked-out pillars identify this as a Saab—the first in a while that doesn’t look like a ’90s model. Two trim levels ultimately will be available. The base model will be powered by a 220-hp, 2.0-liter turbocharged inline-four and will be offered with a choice of six-speed manual or automatic transmission and front- or all-wheel drive. For now, only the uplevel Aero is available, powered by a turbocharged 2.8-liter V-6 that churns out 300 horsepower and 295 pound-feet of torque. This is paired exclusively with a six-speed auto and Saab’s XWD all-wheel drive.

Cool touches abound inside, neutralizing the sea of black plastic in which they swim: The IP needles are rendered in neon-slime green; the shifting-matrix air vents look likethey were inspired by the same ’80s music videos that Bill and Ted watched; and the start button is mounted in Saab’s traditional ignition-switch location on the center console. Nestled into the middle of the speedometer is a high-resolution display showing supplementary vehicle, navigation, or audio information; a head-up display is optional. In a nod to Saab’s aeronautical past, the IP display can show speed in an altimeter-style scrolling readout that, combined with the traditional speedometer surrounding it and the head-up display, results in triplicate reporting of velocity and zero convenient alibis for the question, “Do you know how fast you were going?”

A chassis controller that Saab calls DriveSense is standard on Aero cars, optional on the upcoming 2.0T. It offers three positions: comfort, intelligent, and sport, with intelligent being the default. In sport mode, the steering gets heavier, the throttle and the shift mapping become more aggressive, and the shocks firm up. “Intelligent” is the same as “comfort,” but it mimics the sport mode’s shock and steering settings under hard cornering.

Even widely available gadgets and functions are executed here with an extra degree of thought. For example, Saab’s lane-departure warning chime is particularly shrill when the car drifts over a line, but it is programmed not to beep if it detects steering input. So, while most systems scold the driver for making unsignaled lane changes, the Saab does a better job of detecting the driver’s intentions and spares most of the nannying.

It’s comfortable inside, too. The fantastic bolstering of the front seats had some staffers suggesting that GM keep these thrones and install them in the Corvette. Firm bottom cushions keep them comfortable all day long. Those confined to the back seat will be pleased, too, as the Saab offers more space than the BMW 5-series and Mercedes-Benz E-class. Saab may not enjoy the cachet of those cars, but comfort doesn’t care.

What appears to be a haphazard scattering of buttons across the center stack turns out to be highly intuitive, and specific functions are easy to locate. Most tasks are controlled via an eight-inch display, navigated either by poking the screen or twirling a knob below it. The menu structure is logical and the range of options offered is impressive, allowing drivers to tailor exactly what differs, for example, between DriveSense’s comfort and sport modes.

Although the 9-5 tested here is the top-of-the-line Aero model with a turbocharged 2.8-liter V-6, its speed is only middle-of-the-road. Zero to 60 in 6.3 seconds isn’t slow, but we expect a bit more from a 300-hp, $50K luxury car. This is the same engine we savaged for its nonlinear power delivery in our review of a Cadillac SRX [August 2010] and the same V-6 that Saab has been using for years. With the 9-5, we noted nowhere near the dissatisfaction we found with the SRX and attribute that to the Cadillac’s extra 400 pounds and resultant slower acceleration magnifying the fluctuations. However, this aging engine is far less linear than the latest direct-injection turbo mills.

Still, power builds so quickly that, in first gear, you need to grab the paddle to upshift by 5500 rpm if you don’t want to crash into the fuel cutoff at 6500. Turbo lag isn’t much of an issue—it’s just one continuous pull unless you’re slow on a shift and hit the redline. Then the drivetrain takes a second to collect itself, shift, and spool back up before you get full acceleration.

The automatic has paddle shifters mounted to the back of the steering wheel, and in manual mode refuses to upshift until ordered to do so. There’s an attempt at mimicking rev-matched downshifts, but the result is obviously an automatic transmission falling down a gear.

The 9-5 rides on GM’s Epsilon II platform, architecture it shares with the Buick LaCrosse and Regal as well as assorted GM products. Up front, Aero models pack GM’s new-for-2010 “HiPer Strut” suspension, a sort of modified MacPherson strut that GM says better maintains negative camber under hard cornering (resulting in a more consistent contact patch) and also reduces torque steer; 2.0T models get conventional struts. Out back, both cars ride on a multilink arrangement. Our results are a testimony to the efficacy of the setup, as the 9-5 was utterly free of torque steer, although all-wheel drive tends to help minimize that, too. It stuck to the skidpad with 0.89 g, a number that matches the last 335i sedan we tested. Braking from 70 mph also approaches the 335i’s, taking 173 feet, just five feet more than the BMW. Saab’s XWD mitigates understeer in the front-heavy 9-5, though the nose still leads the way at the limit.

The 9-5’s steering is heavier than the LaCrosse’s and weights up nicely as cornering forces build, but the wheel offers only slightly more feedback than the Buick’s. The car’s cornering ability, however, comes at the expense of ride. Even with DriveSense in comfort mode, the driver feels—and hears—a lot of movement from below. Rotate the knob to the sport setting, and the car’s body is tied even more directly to the road surface. Body movements are much more restrained, but surface imperfections send sharp jolts through the structure. Unless the asphalt is still steaming, it’s better to leave the car in comfort mode.

At the 2.0T model’s expected starting price of about $40,000, the 9-5 is a compelling luxury alternative. But an Aero version loaded up like the one tested here crests $50,000. That price nets a fully loaded 335i, a car that is pretty much perfect. Or, if you need the back-seat space, a comparo-champ Audi A6 3.0T.

Compared with the pedigreed European luxury marques, Saab is all but invisible to consumers who don’t think it’s already dead. Spyker’s first task is to proclaim to the masses that Saab is indeed destined to survive—and is about to do so with the marque’s best-looking frontman in a long time. While we can’t see the new 9-5 stealing many sales from the German elite, if Saab can keep that break-even point low, the handsome new sedan ought to divert enough sales from GM and other mid-luxury players to keep this new adventure from turning out to be way bogus.

Iconic AC Roadster - First Drive Review

2010-11-13T15:07:00.000+07:00

This story is familiar in so many ways but unique in one: Claudio Ballard, founder of Iconic Motors, has actually built a car. He let us drive it, and not only did it not catch fire, lose a wheel, or otherwise attempt to self-destruct, it also drove pretty well.

Ballard’s ambitions are big. He says he wants to build “the world’s most refined sports car.” His first entry into the fierce arena of megabuck sports cars is the $425,000 Iconic AC Roadster, and he hopes to build 100 copies. Riding the coattails of the venerated AC name and Shelby Cobra styling, the roadster’s co-opted heritage and specifications—825 hp pushing around only 2400 pounds—suggest something other than refinement.

Powerful Friends, Powerful Motor

The roadster came about with help from some prestigious partners, namely, concept-vehicle development maven Bob Nowakowski of Technosports in Livonia, Michigan—a company whose portfolio includes work on such projects as the Shelby GR1 concept and the Ford GT—and Ernie Elliott, NASCAR engine builder extraordinaire. The car itself is more upper-crust hot rod than production car. Much of the roadster has been CNC milled from blocks of billet aluminum, ranging from chassis bits down to the monogrammed grillwork in the intake ducts. There are cool engineering tricks, too, like passages drilled in the upper control arms for brake fluid so no brake lines clutter the view of the suspension.

Key the NASCAR-inspired Ford V-8, and it snarls to life, a lumpy cam ensuring the fuel-injected mill sounds appropriately menacing. With a super-heavy clutch and 4000 rpm required to take off from a standstill, it’s easy to forget you’re in a “refined sports car,” and it’s even easier to believe you’re in a ride on the grid ready to fight for the checker at the 24 Hours of Daytona. The performance claims would be competitive on a racetrack—Iconic claims the car will reach 60 mph in three seconds and top out over 200.

With carbon-ceramic brakes, no ABS, and contact patches wide enough to make a Viper jealous, it’s all g-force and anxiety behind the wheel—thrilling, but thank goodness our drive was extremely brief. There’s no pretense of civility: Madness is what the Iconic AC Roadster is all about. In an age of ultra-high-performance but zero-work sports cars aided entirely by computers, it’s refreshing to have a car try to kill you every now and again. The brake pedal, although incredibly stiff, offers gobs of feedback. The manual steering rack is laser-precise, as is the six-speed Tremec gearbox.

RIP, OBD?

The AC Roadster isn’t all caveman grunts and wooden clubs, though. This car also serves as the demonstration piece for Iconic’s sister company, VEEDIMS Corporation, which takes its name from its Virtual Electrical Electronic Device Interface Management System. In an easier-to-digest nugget, VEEDIMS basically replaces the traditional CAN-bus system that various in-vehicle modules use to communicate, instead utilizing good new-fashioned ethernet. It is supposed to make maintenance and monitoring of the vehicle’s vital signs much easier, although we haven’t heard much complaining about the current onboard diagnostic system.

This is where the story turns familiar again. Although the car we drove didn’t break and didn’t try to kill us in any way that suggested it wasn’t well engineered, it was not without its glaring faults. This is a prototype, but some parts that were claimed to be production spec—such as some interior switchgear—were obviously cobbled together. (Notice that many of the images are renderings.) Then, of course, there’s the issue of the styling. To us, Iconic’s AC Roadster looks like a Chinese knockoff of the Cobra it emulates.

Although the car is competent, at its price, our attitude toward the Iconic AC Roadster changes completely. We’d take a couple of the world’s most refined sports cars from one of the world’s established sports-car builders—or, heck, an original Cobra—rather than some upstart’s science-fair copy of one of the most celebrated, brutal, and rewarding cars in history.

2012 Bentley Continental GT - First Drive Review

2010-11-13T14:58:00.000+07:00

What Bentley is asking you to do with the 2012 Continental GT is block out all the pink-over-white-quilted-leather GTCs you’ve seen on TMZ and all the murdered-out, 24-inch-rim-wearing Supersports at the SEMA show and instead think of its coupe as a timeless icon of ultra-refined performance. In its bid for immortality, the Continental GT changes very little for its first full makeover in seven years, as its bodywork—a bit crisper, a bit wider, and a bit more wide-eyed—evolves at a decidedly Porsche 911–like crawl.

Where’s the Wolfsburg?

Beneath the Conti GT’s louche associations was always a car that hewed to Bentley tradition, with hand-stitched leathers, book-matched veneers, and a roguish sportiness. And beneath that car was always a Volkswagen Phaeton. Although the Continental’s Phaeton platform carries over, all outward evidence of German involvement is gone, as a new center stack replaces the outgoing car’s Wolfsburgian HVAC buttons and much maligned, mildly reskinned VW infotainment system. Central to the interior is a new eight-inch touchscreen that fluidly guides you through Google Maps, a 30-gig hard drive, and the $7015 optional 11-speaker Naim stereo that is to sonic clarity what Ronald Reagan was to capitalism—defender, protector, and deshackler.

Around the screen are subtle improvements to the hide- and millwork. The biggest change inside is the more comfortable fluted- or quilted-leather seats, which are 77 pounds lighter in total than those of the old car. Overall, the GT shaves a commendable 143 pounds off the outgoing model’s weight, but it’s still very heavy at 5115 pounds. “This is our market position,” says Bentley chairman and CEO Franz-Josef Paefgen. “Let others build light cars.”

Continental Divide? Not Really

Does it drive differently? Hardly. It is still the same werewolf in a tuxedo, the same savage and powerful brute who dotes on his thimble collection. Its inscrutable combination of muscle and finesse bears evidence of endless tweaking. As in the Supersports, the final and enduring version of the old Conti GT, the Torsen-based AWD system has a 40/60 torque split that helps to dial out some of the GT’s fun-killing understeer. Also as in the Supersports, its ESP system will prevent itself from throttling back if it senses you’re serious about an upcoming corner. But the car is still grossly nose-heavy with the big twin-turbo W-12 hanging over the front axle.

Look under the hood, and you’ll marvel that the Conti GT turns at all. Yet turn it does, even if it is better suited to long sweepers than tight first-gear corners. The steering comes off-center predictably but weights up dramatically toward full lock. Slowing for a curve, the car dives forward and the brakes reveal a grabby spot in the middle of their travel. Grab a downshift from the column-mounted paddles, and all is forgiven: The six-speed ZF trans will let you plunge two gears in an instant to put you in the middle of the flex-fuel 6.0-liter W-12’s power band, an expletive-rife zone that begins at 1500 rpm and doesn’t let up until the horizon. This engine didn’t need any more power, but it gets some: 15 more hp, for a total of 567; and 37 more lb-ft, pegging the total at 516. Bentley expects the 0-to-60-mph sprint to take 4.4 seconds.

Entry V-8 on the Way

There’s a V-8 version coming later this year, with a 4.0-liter direct-injection engine shared with the Audi A8 mated to an eight-speed transmission. It will bring the Continental GT experience to a lower price point that is yet to be revealed, but perhaps it will be closer to the $150,000 mark than our test car’s optioned-up $226,975 (from a base price of $192,495). We hope it will be cheap enough to ward off any remaining Hollywood types.

2011 Ferrari 599 HGTE vs. 2012 Lexus LFA

2010-11-11T15:40:00.000+07:00

You’ve got to admire the Toyota Motor Company’s cojones. Most carmakers usually work their way up to producing a $400,000 supercar through the time-honored method of building expensive sports cars for decades and concurrently making their reputations while on the racetrack. Think Ferrari, Mercedes-Benz, Aston Martin, and Porsche.

Not Toyota. Before the Lexus LFA was announced, Toyota had only one truly fast, modern sports car to its credit: the Supra Turbo, which was sold here from 1987 to 1999. And even it was priced against the Porsche 968, not the 911. In the years since the Supra disappeared from the Toyota armory, the company has concentrated on shoring up profits with lots of worthy but stolid sedans, pickups, and SUVs, but it hasn’t made a seriously rapid sports car.

Until now. Akio Toyoda, grandson of the founder—and the man currently in charge of the company—is a racer and a sports-car fan. He wants to put some soul back into the organization. The LFA, which is positioned as a flagship for the F Performance line, was an on-off project for 10 years before it finally got the green light. Initially, it was going to use aluminum construction with a V-10 engine that drew on and reflected Toyota’s Formula 1 program. Over time, however, the goals changed. Toyota bailed out of F1 at the end of 2009, and the LFA ended up as a rolling test bed for the company’s new technologies, most notably the use of carbon fiber. The LFA has a carbon-fiber central chassis section with bolted-on aluminum subframes front and rear, which make crash repair easier and cheaper. Carbon-fiber composites account for about 65 percent of the body structure’s mass.

The rest of the LFA is relatively conventional. It has a front-mounted, Yamaha-developed 4.8-liter V-10 engine that makes 553 horsepower. Technical highlights include racing-style features such as a dry-sump oil system, titanium valves and connecting rods, an individual throttle body for each cylinder, magnesium-alloy cam covers, and carbon- and silicon-coated rocker arms with integrated oil jets. The rear-mounted transmission is a single-clutch automated manual, and the car, naturally, has carbon-ceramic brake rotors. Lexus is building just 500 LFAs for worldwide consumption, of which 50 will have a Nürburgring package that adds 10 horsepower, a stiffer suspension, a fixed rear spoiler, and—gulp!—$70,000 to the $375,875 sticker.

Ferrari has a bit more experience producing exotic two-place, front-engine coupes. Back in 1948, Carrozzeria Allemano made a coupe body for the 166 Sport chassis. Since then, there has been a long list of great front-engine, V-12 Ferrari two-seat coupes, including the 250GT, the 250GT Berlinetta Lusso, the 275GTB, the 365GTB/4 “Daytona,” and, more recently, the 550/575M Maranello range.

Ferrari’s current front-engine, V-12 two-seater, the 599GTB Fiorano, has been on sale in the U.S. since 2007. This successor to the 575M uses aluminum for its space frame and panelwork. As with the LFA, the engine is mounted back in the frame and takes drive to a single-clutch, automated manual transmission mounted in back, giving a slightly rear-biased weight distribution. The 6.0-liter V-12 engine is a derivation of the one in the Enzo supercar and makes a stout 612 horsepower.

During 2009, Ferrari addressed some slight concerns about the 599’s woolly at-limit behavior with a package called Handling Gran Turismo Evoluzione (HGTE). It features stiffer and shorter springs, a larger-diameter rear anti-roll bar, wider front wheels, and faster shifts and firmer magnetorheological shock settings when the steering-wheel-mounted manettino switch is set to the sportiest “race” mode. Inside, HGTEs receive every carbon-fiber option. The package adds $30,095 to the 599GTB’s sticker. With options, our HGTE-equipped car nearly hit $400,000.

Believe it or not, there was no HGTE test car in the U.S., so we had to make our way to Europe to conduct this comparo. We picked up the cars in England and drove to the hills and valleys of Wales, where the roads are lightly trafficked, lightly policed, and perfect for fast driving.

2011 Ford S-Max Diesel - Quick Spin

2010-11-10T00:24:00.000+07:00

One of the reasons for liking the Mazda 5 is that it’s actually a minivan, rather than a maxivan, which is what the likes of the Dodge Grand Caravan and Honda Odyssey have morphed into. The Mazda seats six and accepts plenty of luggage, but it doesn’t take up tons of space on the road and is actually pretty satisfying to drive.

In Europe, smaller minivans in the same vein are all the rage. And the best of them—according to critics over there—is the Ford S-Max, which shares its underpinnings with the Mondeo mid-size sedan. Ford CEO Alan Mulally agrees with the critics and was reportedly so impressed by the S-Max that he’s keen to bring the next-gen version to the U.S. (The smaller Focus-based C-Max is headed here for 2012.)

So, what are we missing out on? Well, the S-Max is a supremely comfortable, versatile vehicle that provides most of the utility of a full-size modern minivan with driving dynamics that are closer to a mid-size sedan’s. Plus, it has a smaller footprint, with an overall length of 187.9 inches compared with a Grand Caravan’s 202.5.

Loads of Options, Versatility for Loads

The high-spec Titanium edition we drove in England had all the requisite bells and whistles, including a rear-seat DVD entertainment system, seven-passenger seating, and a fancy navigation/infotainment system. Our car was powered by a 2.0-liter four-cylinder turbo-diesel engine that makes 161 hp (114- and 138-hp versions are also available) and was mated to an optional six-speed dual-clutch automated manual transmission. Performance is, one might say, “urban,” with 0 to 60 mph taking 9.8 seconds, according to Ford, and top speed coming in at 126 mph. However, our observed gas mileage, at 33 mpg, was pretty startling for a 3750-pound vehicle transporting a family of four and its myriad belongings.

You’d expect a vehicle of this type to have a great deal of interior versatility, and so it goes with the S-Max. The rear seats fold flat to the floor, and those in the middle row slide forward and fold. The vehicle takes seven passengers quite easily, although there’s not a lot of luggage space behind the third row in this configuration. As a five-seater, cargo space is voluminous. The exterior styling is, well, vanlike—but Euro-modern—and the interior has high-quality materials throughout; there’s no skimping in this segment in Europe.

But the best aspect of the vehicle is the way it goes down the road. The steering is faithful, there is minimal body roll, and the S-Max deftly copes with curving two-lane roads. The ride quality is excellent, too, compliant yet well controlled. The diesel engine gives superb midrange power, but upshifts occasionally occurred earlier than we wanted, which can be alarming in the middle of an ambitious overtaking maneuver.

We’ll Take It

Overall, we can see why the head honcho at Ford is so impressed with his company’s Euro offerings, including this one. But there is a rub: an S-Max equipped like our tester is frighteningly expensive at the equivalent of $53,350, or about $46,000 when shorn of the U.K.’s value-added tax. Even a base gasoline four-cylinder 2.0-liter Zetec model comes in at about $29,000, so if Ford wants to bring the vehicle here, it will have to find a way of taking cost out of the architecture.

2011 MTM Audi S5 Cabriolet - Specialty File

2010-11-10T00:19:00.000+07:00

With the last ergs of performance and efficiency already wrung out of today’s production engines, you’d have thought even the best independent tuning houses would have packed up their engine dynos and gone home. Instead, these conditions have bred a superstrain of tuner, resistant to the power war’s asymptotic virus. These shops—Dinan, Hennessey, and Alpina, for three—are able to keep squeezing out more juice without losing much of a car’s overall integrity. German tuner MTM aims for a place alongside them.

Former Audi engineer Roland Mayer founded MTM (Motoren Technik Mayer) in 1990; the turbocharged inline-five sits atop his résumé. Currently, Mayer’s firm tunes most of the VW Group brands, as well as Spyker, Ferrari, KTM, and Porsche cars. His newest product is the Cantronic system, a CAN (Controller Area Network)-bus-modification unit that bores into the vehicle’s brain and makes it do funny things.

Who You Calling Funny?

In the case of this MTM S5 3.0T cabrio, Cantronic infects the engine with an additional 97 hp (for a peak of 430) and 55 more lb-ft of torque (up to 380) by modifying boost pressure and fuel delivery. Unlike back-alley chip tuning, Cantronic maintains adaptive control of these parameters to balance power, efficiency, and engine life, and the unit can be removed easily. These guys are getting smarter.

With smarts come savings. The Stage 3 Cantronic on our test car costs barely more than $3000. (Stage 2 nets you 380 hp for $2500, and Stage 1 loosens the governor, allowing for a 171-mph top speed, for about a grand.) However, the package we drove came wearing about $15,000 worth of accessories in addition to the ECU lobotomy (all parts are available separately, either through Hoppen Motorsport of Sarasota, Florida, or MTM.) Our S5 wore 15-inch front brake discs pinched by four-piston calipers, 20-inch forged aluminum wheels wrapped in 265/30 Michelin Pilot Sport 2s, one-inch-shorter springs, and a 2.8-inch stainless-steel exhaust responsible for exactly zero of the extra hp. Which begs the question “Why?” until you hear it yelp.

Our test car was 39 pounds porkier than the softtop S5 3.0T we weighed last fall, but with better mass distribution (53.2/46.8 percent front to rear versus 54.5/45.5). It’s a significant 637 pounds lumpier than the nose-heavy S5 V-8 coupe we last put on the scales in 2008 (S5 coupes retain their 354-hp, 4.2-liter V-8s for 2011; all S5 cabrios come with blown sixes). When Audi swapped out the S4’s and S5 cab’s eights for sixes, it argued that the downsized engine’s lower weight and equivalent 325 lb-ft of torque would make 0-to-60 sprints a wash. MTM not only surpasses the cabrio’s acceleration but also brings the car into line with the lighter S5 coupe, managing the run in 4.7 seconds versus 4.8 in the big-engined car (the stock 3.0T cab hits 60 in 5.1 seconds). In the quarter-mile, the MTM cabrio matches the coupe’s elapsed time of 13.4 seconds but betters its trap speed by 2 mph: 107 to 105. Skidpad grip, at 0.91 g, fails to build on the stock cabrio’s excellent performance.

Mood: Enhanced

MTM’s mods change the character of the S5 more than these numbers might suggest. Whereas all varieties of Audi S5 come across as seamless and deliberate, the MTM is entirely flint and bark. It rides roughly over potato-chipped roads, and its brakes can be shrill. It makes up for this with astounding body control, tree-frog grip, a tendency to shoot out of corners like somebody called its momma a bad name, and the ability to release all its power in a great wave.

One thing about that power delivery, though: The Cantronic system shifts the torque peak from 2900 rpm in the stock engine to 4760. As a result, there’s some lugging at low revs in the normal transmission mode as the seven-speed DSG hunts for torque. Alas, Cantronic doesn’t change transmission programming. You’re much better off using the paddles behind the wheel or keeping the trans in sport mode. That way, you’ll keep the 3.0T humming. This engine is a puller, and MTM’s modified version rushes toward redline with even greater determination.

But is this car superior to the series S5? It’s certainly far more expensive: Our tester tickled $85,000—about $25,000 more than a base S5 cab—proof that nobody knows how to charge for horsepower like the Germans. There are a lot of cars we could have for that kind of money, and most of them start with a P, possibly an N. This particular car was not as fully realized as the base S5, or even the best from Alpina, et al. But $3000 for the intelligent, removable Cantronic system? That is totally worth it.

Volkswagen New Beetle Turbo S

2010-11-08T14:46:00.001+07:00

Here's a question almost all automotive product planners face from time to time: If you can't alter the basic shape, how do you sustain interest in an established model?

There are two answers: Cut off the top, or boost engine output, and with the New Beetle embarked on its fifth year, VW is applying both tactics. A convertible version is due this fall as a 2003 model, and a new hot-rod version, the Turbo S, is available as you read this.

These updates, as well as a variety of small cosmetic tweaks, show that current VW management hasn't forgotten the lessons of the original Beetle, which the company stuck with almost to the point of ruin. Volkswagen made hundreds of small engineering updates to the original Beetle throughout its half-century life span, but all were subtle, and most were invisible. Although the latter-day Beetle faces the same fundamental challenge—a profile that is essentially immutable—it also affords more latitude for tangible adjustments.

Consider the Turbo S, for example. Tramp on the gas, and it's instantly apparent that you're managing considerably more muscle than in any previous U.S.-market Beetle, old or new. This isn't entirely a good thing. The ballsier New Beetle hustles from stoplight to stoplight with more authority, for sure, but applying full throttle in a lower gear requires careful attention at the helm, because torque steer is far more of an issue here than in any previous iteration of this car. That is not to say that the New Beetle Turbo S will supplant the Saab 9-3 Viggen as the poster car for this front-drive malady. But the new powertrain contributes far more to the steering than its predecessor, despite the mitigating effect of its electronic stabilization program, standard equipment with this model.

The power increase is no surprise. VW has boosted output of its 1.8-liter DOHC 20-valve turbocharged, intercooled four in all its applications—Passat, Jetta, GTI, and New Beetle—and the New Beetle is the last to benefit. Boosted is the correct term, too. The Turbo S's increase—180 horsepower and 173 pound-feet of torque versus the base 1.8T models' 150 horsepower and 162 pound-feet—is mostly due to more turbo boost: 11.6 psi versus 8.7.

Allied with a new six-speed manual transmission—the only gearbox available with this package—Volkswagen engineers expect the Turbo S to shave 0.8 second off the 1.8T model's 0-to-60-mph times. Doing the arithmetic relative to our long-term New Beetle 1.8T would put the S in the mid-six-second range, with a quarter-mile time in the low 15s.

Beyond its extra punch, the Turbo S includes just about every goody in the New Beetle inventory—power sunroof, Monsoon audio with a six-disc CD changer, leather seats, power windows and mirrors, keyless remote entry, stainless-steel foot-pedal cladding, and tasty aluminum trim touches inside. We particularly approve of the white-on-black instrument lighting, which replaces the previous neonesque red and blue. The design of the 7.0-by-17-inch alloy wheels is unique to this package, although the P225/45R-17 all-season tires and slightly stiffer spring and damping rates are also available on GLS and GLX New Beetles with the 1.8 turbo motor.

Another element common to these three models is a deployable spoiler, which resides just above the rear window. When the New Beetle made its debut, this device was programmed to pop up at 93 mph. This seemed a bit extreme to VW's U.S. marketing people, who finally got their colleagues in Germany to reduce deployment speed to make the spoiler visible in everyday traffic. But the compromise—40-mph deployment, 10-mph retraction—creates a problem. Deployments and retractions are audible, sounding like pieces falling off the car, and in urban traffic they're also frequent.

Clearly, VW should rethink this element of the New Beetle, but aside from that—and the vast plastic mesa of the upper dashboard, another limiting factor that's baked into the design—the Turbo S is an engagingly lively Bug, delivering enough juice to run with some of the taller dogs in this class for about the same money: $23,950. Whether guys—and guys are what VW is looking for here, since some 60 percent of New Beetle buyers have been women—will perceive the Turbo S as a legitimate alternative to cars such as the Acura RSX and Toyota Celica GT-S remains to be seen.

2011 BMW 535i - Long-Term Road Test Intro

2010-11-08T14:29:00.000+07:00

When it comes to ordering long-term test vehicles, we often choose models that have fared well in previous evaluations, and we usually load them up with options—case in point: our $100,000-plus long-term BMW 750Li xDrive. The idea, of course, is to see if our infatuation with a new model can stand the test of time, and to test the newest and best gadgets and technologies.

Our long-term 5-series contradicts both conventions. Indeed, a 535i just finished behind an Audi A6 3.0T and an Infiniti M37 in a comparison test, and we didn’t go options crazy with this one. We selected two extras we couldn’t live without (the $2200 Sport package and the $2700 Dynamic Handling package) and two we could live without but didn’t want to (Cinnamon Brown leather for $1450 and an overpriced iPod connector for $400). We passed on the opportunity to test one piece of new technology by requesting a six-speed manual transmission over the new ZF eight-speed automatic, but we made sure to check the box for the new single-turbo inline-six because we haven’t had one for more than a couple of weeks at a time.

What we ended up with is a $57,225 sedan that many of us would actually purchase. Perhaps the only two options we regret not fitting to our car are heated seats and navigation, which would have added $2400.

New to Whom?

You might be wondering why our “new” long-term 535i has 18,000 miles on the clock. We are just getting around to this introduction because the 5 has barely stopped moving since we collected it from BMW’s North American home base in New Jersey last May. It has performed interstate duty en route to destinations as varied as Yellowstone National Park, Florida, and North Carolina. Nearly every weekend finds the car two to three hours from home.

The 5’s popularity for such trips is not difficult to explain. For starters, it rides well and is particularly smooth with the adjustable suspension set in comfort. The cabin might as well be a direct transplant from the 7-series—it is almost as roomy and has similar seats. Some staffers have bemoaned the lack of bolster adjustment, as in Sport-pack-equipped 3s and our long-term 750Li, but all are pleased with the articulated front seatbacks that adjust separately to support the upper back.

Perhaps the greatest long-haul attraction comes in the form of the single-turbo N55 inline-six, the details of which are chronicled here. With the cruise set near 80 mph, a few of us have seen efficiency in the low-30-mpg range—better than that of many smaller, less-luxurious vehicles. EPA ratings for the 535i are 19 mpg city and 28 highway compared with the twin-turbo 2010 car’s 17/26. Average in our less-thrifty around-town blitzes, and we’re traveling 24 miles for every gallon of gas burned.

We knew this car’s 4075-pound weight—nearly 200 pounds heftier than the old 535i—would hamper it in a drag race, but we were surprised by how much slower this car is. We clocked a 0.6-second increase in the 0-to-60 time, which grew to 5.8 seconds. The quarter-mile took an extra half-second, ticking past in 14.3 at 100 mph, 2 mph slower than the old 535i.

An Unfeeling Bavarian

Few complaints have made their way into the logbook. Among those that have, the overwhelmingly popular gripe centers around the 535i’s horrific steering—the same problem that cost it the aforementioned comparison test. There’s not even a hint of on-center feel, and it loads up artificially. The on-center vagueness seriously compromises the driver’s perception of the car’s capabilities. We’re holding out hope that BMW will remedy this soon, as the 5 uses an electric power-steering rack that can be reprogrammed with all the ease of updating Firefox on a PC.

The usual complaint with Bimmers—cost of ownership—has yet to affect us. As with all BMWs, service is free until 50,000 miles or four years pass. We’ve not had to take the 5 to the dealer once, although we do expect the onboard computer to request a service soon. The only additional cost we’ve endured thus far was adding a $9 quart of oil.

Judging by the rapid accumulation of miles on our long-term 535i, we should complete the 40,000-mile test in about nine months. Most long-termers need a year, perhaps a little longer, to hit 40K; talk about bucking conventions

2012 Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG Roadster Images Leaked - Future Cars

2010-11-08T14:21:00.000+07:00

It wasn't exactly a well-kept secret, and now it's officially out: Mercedes-Benz "is working on an SLS roadster," the company confirms. Stuttgart has simultaneously leaked pictures of a prototype that seems to be production-ready.

The open version of the SLS AMG, of course, loses not only its fixed top, but also its gullwing doors. The doors of the roadster version cut down deeper into the flanks and are operated with utterly conventional, Mercedes-sedan-style door handles, as opposed to the coupe’s pop-out pulls. In addition, the doors stretch farther forward than on the coupe, but the impression of an extremely long hood is still intact.

The photograph taken from above somewhat conceals the fact that the trunk lid is actually substantially taller, in order to cover the electrically operated convertible roof—and we don't believe there will be much space left for your luggage, either. Rollover protection is provided by two fixed roll hoops, and the seats don't look much different from those in the coupe. We doubt the leather-lined interior will be waterproof with the top down, despite the fact that the pictures were taken in the rain.

While AMG is starting to replace its high-revving, naturally aspirated 6.2-liter V-8 with the twin-turbocharged 5.5-liter V-8 (as seen in the S- and CL-classes), we suspect that the SLS roadster will keep the crazy 563-hp 6.2, which produces 479 lb-ft of torque. It is not only a trademark engine for the SLS, it fits the character of this sports car exceedingly well—and, with the top down, you will be even better able to listen to this engine's awesome soundtrack. With structural reinforcements and the convertible-top mechanism no doubt adding weight, performance could drop slightly.

Does the SLS AMG need an open-top version, since it is really defined by its gullwing doors? Well, this roadster proves that Mercedes is truly paying homage to the original 300SL, code-named W198; the gullwing W198 came in 1954, followed by a roadster version in 1957. Unlike its historical role model, however, the SLS AMG won't be entirely replaced by the roadster version. Rather, it will be complemented by it, with both cars being sold alongside each other.

While the SLS AMG coupe comes in at $185,750, the SLS roadster might break the $200,000 barrier. Mercedes-Benz could get away with it, as people are still lining up to get the revived gullwing coupe, so there is certainly no reason to sell this new variant at discount prices.

There's no rush for the carmaker, either: We don't expect to see the final car sans cover and tape before the Frankfurt show in September 2011, likely as a 2012 model. It will then compete with the Audi R8 Spyder, the Lamborghini Gallardo Spyder, and the top-level variations of the Porsche 911 Turbo cabrio.

Ford Announces Rally-Prep Kit, Race Series for Fiesta

2010-11-07T12:47:00.000+07:00

Rallying and hatchback cars have never been as popular in the U.S. as in Europe, but Ford hopes to change that with the Fiesta R2 rally package unveiled at the SEMA show in Las Vegas. The R2 kit lets owners convert their factory Fiesta five-door into a rally-ready machine. It was developed by U.K.-based M-Sport, Ford’s official rallying partner since 1997, and debuted in Europe in March 2009.

The R2 treatment includes new pistons, connecting rods, valve springs, camshafts, fuel injectors, a louder exhaust, and a new air intake to bump the 1.6-liter engine’s output to 168 hp and 134 lb-ft of torque, versus 120 hp and 112 lb-ft in stock trim. Other components include larger brakes with AP four-piston calipers, Eibach and Reiger suspension components, a roll cage, race seats and harnesses, a limited-slip differential, a five-speed sequential transmission that permits full-throttle upshifts, and sundry other components needed for off-road racing.

There will also be a Stage 1 version of the kit for rally fans on a budget—the cars will still be eligible for the same rally series as full R2 cars, but will come with slightly less equipment. Speaking of which, Ford has yet to finalize the prices for either kit. In the U.K., the R2 kit costs ₤19,995, the equivalent of about $32K.

The kit is being distributed in the U.S. by Team O’Neil Motorsports in New Hampshire. Fiestas prepped by Team O’Neil will be eligible for the 2011 Fiesta Sport Trophy Championship, a one-make rally series organized by Rally America. (Team O’Neil also offers a Fiesta rally school for the uninitiated.) The winner of next year’s series will get a spot in a Fiesta R2 competing in the Wales Rally Great Britain and the chance to race in a shootout for a one-year placement working with M-Sport and the Ford World Rally team.

Honda Announces Mugen Kit for CR-Z, Brings Two Concepts and a Bunch of Tuned CR-Zs to SEMA

2010-11-07T12:42:00.000+07:00

Honda’s display at the SEMA show provides a slightly more convincing argument in favor of the “sport” part of the CR-Z’s “sport hybrid” moniker in the form of a pair of turbocharged concepts—we’ve found the standard car fun to drive, but feel its practicality trade-offs compromise the overall car. The display also features a CR-Z wearing Mugen components, as well as some CR-Zs tuned in the aftermarket.

The Mugen accessories (shown on the gray car above) comprise a new body kit, grille, rear wing, 17-inch multispoke wheels outside, and an aluminum oil-filler cap, with a black aluminum shift knob and new floor mats dressing up the interior. Just 300 such kits will be offered starting in spring 2011, each color-matched to the buyer’s CR-Z. Pricing will be set at a later date

We were more interested in the CR-Z Hybrid R (red, above) and CR-Z Racer (white, below) concepts. With turbochargers for the gasoline engine and upgraded IMA hybrid-drive components, the modified cars are said to produce up to 200 hp and 175 lb-ft of torque. (The stock combined power rating is 122 hp and 128 lb-ft.) A stronger clutch, a limited-slip differential, bigger brakes, and a firmer suspension are also on the agenda. The show cars scored new body kits, wheels, and big rear wings, too. Sadly, neither model is slated for production, though two race-spec CR-Zs will compete in the 25 Hours of Thunderhill race this December

BMW to Launch EfficientDynamics Plug-In Hybrid Sports Car - Future Cars

2010-11-07T12:36:00.002+07:00

We barely got started blogging about it, and now BMW is already taking the fun out of the speculation. The mysterious car with the front end of last year’s Vision EfficientDynamics concept and the rear of the outgoing 6-series will be built—predictably, without the retro butt.

Journalists got the opportunity to ride in a prototype today at an event in Leipzig, Germany. The two-door coupe is being developed for a market launch in late 2013 and will cost far less than the all-electric Audi e-tron or the Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG E-Cell.

There are two 94-hp electric motors, one at the rear and the other coupled with the engine in front—a 161-hp, 1.5-liter, three-cylinder turbo-diesel—for total system power of 323 hp. The 0-to-62-mph dash is estimated at 4.8 seconds, and top speed is governed to 155 mph. There are 98 lithium-polymer cells, which allow the all-wheel-drive car to travel 30 miles on electricity alone. With its 6.3-gallon tank and a fully charged battery, it will supposedly go for 435 miles before you need to refuel or plug in. For series production, we suspect the diesel will be replaced by a less efficient gasoline engine to suit the tastes of U.S. and Asian customers (and, even more important, regulators).

This concept takes off silently but moves rapidly as soon as the internal-combustion engine comes alive. It's a new, artificial kind of sporty driving, but at a projected fuel economy of 63 mpg in the European cycle, we may be willing to compromise.

The new car is just 48.8 inches high and BMW makes "heavy" use of carbon fiber to keep weight down. The styling is polarizing, to say the least, but we like the daring and innovative approach. The front end gives you a good glimpse of the new face of BMW cars. If you thought the brand’s design was going to get more conservative after Chris Bangle's departure, you were clearly mistaken.

Mazda Turbocharges Two 3 Sedans for SEMA

2010-11-07T00:47:00.001+07:00

Since its introduction, the Mazdaspeed 3 has only been available as a five-door hatch and it remains the only way to get turbocharged fun from a Mazda 3. We’re not complaining, since it’s the more practical and—to most—better looking of the 3’s body styles. But we’re fans of sticking turbocharged engines where the factory doesn’t think they belong—Mazdaspeed 5, anyone?—so it’s cool to see Mazda getting in on the fun and dropping turbo fours into a pair of 3 sedans.

Mazda 3 Redline Time Attack

Looks aside, this is the kind of tuning we can get behind. The car may not exactly be pretty, but the Redline Time Attack Mazda 3’s 2.5-liter turbocharged MZR is putting out over 500 hp. To the wheels. That explains and makes up for the bone-through-the-nose front wing and shelf-type rear diffuser. It’s designed to run in the Redline Time Attack series’s Super Modified class wherein anything goes—in addition to the engine work-over, the car has been gutted, caged, and aerodynamicized. You can bet that all those tacked-on parts are functional, too, and necessary.

Mazda 3 Turbo Sedan

If ever there was a good looking Mazda 3 sedan, this is it. Subtle gray graphics over the white paint are supposed to mimic the Redline car’s paint scheme, which is itself an homage to the Le Mans–winning 1991 787B. The roof, mirror housings, grille, and fog-lamp surrounds are all gloss black. The taillights have been given an all-red treatment, which does a lot to clean up the sedan’s normally busy rear end.

And then there’s the engine: another 2.5-liter, this one breathed on by Tri-Point Engineering. A turbo kit supplies 10 psi of boost, bringing output to over 250 hp at the wheels—compare that to a crank-horsepower rating of 167 for the stock 2.5-liter and 263 for the Mazdaspeed 3’s turbo 2.3-liter. Front brakes and calipers come from a Speed 3, and the rears are off of a Mazda 5. The car also gets adjustable coil-overs and handsome 8- by 19-inch wheels.

Toyota Brings a NASCAR-Inspired V-8 Camry to SEMA

2010-11-07T00:29:00.000+07:00

We’re not sure how many times—if ever—we’ve used the words “Camry” and “fun” in the same sentence. While Toyota proudly rumbled into SEMA with the car you see here, the shocking and awesome RK Collection Toyota Camry NASCAR Edition, we know that number is bound to stay low. Like most SEMA creations, it is a no-expense-spared one-off, this one dreamt up by a NASCAR team co-owner (with help from TRD). There’s pretty much no chance of this NASCamry ever being reproduced even once, let alone in mass quantities.

But why dwell on that? At least there’s one, and this Camry looks like stupid fun. (See? We did it.) With a roll cage, a Tremec six-speed manual, and a 358-cubic-inch V-8 feeding 680 hp at 8500 rpm to the rear wheels, this is one Camry that no Impala SS or Fusion should make eye contact with on the street. And they’ll hear and see it coming, thanks to its three-inch exhaust plumbing as well as its kitted-out white-over-red body, which Rob Kauffman and friends redrew into a fetching two-door configuration.

The aggressive road stance is achieved by dropping the coupe onto its 20- by 8-inch front and 20- by 10-inch rear wheels with modified Camry Macpherson struts in front and modified Venza-sourced multilink components out back.

Now, if this were an actual NASCAR racer, the interior would consist of little more than sponsor stickers and air, with a seat and steering wheel thrown in for the driver’s sake. But the RK Collection Camry is not an actual racecar; it’s a show car, which will even be paraded in front NASCAR fans on November 12 in Phoenix once its stint on the SEMA stand is through. Hence, it gets a leather-and-Alcantara interior, complete with air conditioning, power seats, a Pioneer audio system with six amps and a 12-inch subwoofer “to help offset the throaty performance under the hood.” Like anyone would want to do tha

So, again, this custom probably doesn’t portend the return of the Camry Solara. And even if Toyota were to revive its mid-size two-door, you can bet a 12-pack of Bud that it won’t come with a V-8.

2012 Buick Regal GS - Official Photos and Info

2010-11-07T00:17:00.000+07:00

When the Buick Regal GS concept debuted at last January’s Detroit auto show, future production was as safe a bet as you’ll find in the automotive world. Sure enough, this past spring, GM confirmed that the GS would head to showrooms, but released no further details. Now, finally, we’ve got the skinny on the first real performance Buick in a long time.

Staying true to the recent trend, wherein a concept car is nothing more than a production-ready vehicle with really expensive paint and a few exaggerated styling cues, the 2012 Regal GS looks almost identical to the car we saw in Detroit. Basic differences boil down to smaller vertical air intakes on the front fascia, slightly different trapezoidal exhaust finishers in the rear, and Recaro-like front seats in place of the concept’s actual Recaros. But the satin-metallic trim; integrated rear spoiler; rocker panel extensions; Brembo front brake calipers; and big, 20-inch wheels all make the cut for production.

More Boost Means More Power

The same uprated direct-injected, turbocharged 2.0-liter four-cylinder found in the concept will be the production GS’s powerplant. It’s identical to the turbo 2.0 found in the Regal Turbo, but GM’s engineers have cranked up the boost and reduced backpressure with a larger exhaust, upping its output to (an estimated) 255 hp and 295 lb-ft of torque, increases of 35 and 37. At launch, the GS will be offered solely with a six-speed manual transmission—Save the Manuals!—while a six-speed automatic will be available later. The concept was initially claimed to hit 60 mph in under six seconds, Buick is now tempering its expectations, saying the production car will hit the mile-a-minute mark in “less than seven seconds.” We recently tested an automatic-equipped, 220-hp Regal Turbo to 60 mph in 7.5 seconds, and we predict the automatic GS will complete the sprint in 6.7 seconds or so.

While the concept sent power to all four wheels, the real GS will only drive its fronts. Admittedly, we were disappointed at this development, but at least the GS will employ the new HiPer Strut suspension system, which uses a modified MacPherson geometry up front to better maintain negative camber in cornering and reduce torque steer. We’ve sampled a Buick LaCrosse prototype with this system and found it rather impressive. The GS’s ostensibly tighter chassis also will include a 0.4-inch suspension drop all around and an adjustable driving-mode system like the Regal Turbo’s for tuning suspension settings and steering sensitivity. The system’s Standard and Sport programs are carried over, but the Turbo’s softest mode, Touring, is ditched in favor of a unique, super-sporty GS setting. Larger front brakes with Brembo four-piston calipers will hide behind the standard 19-inch wheels with all-season Goodyear Eagles; a 20-inch wheel of the same design wrapped in sticky Pirelli P Zero summer rubber is optional.

The interior of the GS will differ only slightly from those of lesser Regals, adding a special flat-bottomed steering wheel, metal pedals, more-heavily bolstered front seats, the satin-finished trim, and white lighting for the instrument panel when GS mode is engaged. The standard goodies list will include keyless entry and start, a 320-watt Harman/Kardon sound system, Bluetooth connectivity, backup sensors, and xenon headlights.

2011 Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Super Sport - First Drive Review

2010-11-04T01:21:00.001+07:00

Sun-sopped Andalusia, home to Picasso and the flamenco, is a solitary landscape of rolling cordovan-hued hills stitched by vineyards and olive orchards and best explored on the back of a donkey. At 204 mph, Andalusia sprays at you in a brown and green smear.

At 204 mph, even freshly rolled pavement, paid for with lavish European Union loans, feels perilously lumpy as the subtle mounds and sags that are invisible at sane speeds become terrifying whoop-de-dos. At 204 mph, if you look down to check your speedometer for just one second, you’ll miss the next 299 feet. Our cerebral cortexes flirt with signal overload at 204, but a Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Super Sport is just getting its wind up and will accelerate another 54 mph before tripping its electronic speed limiter. Drop-down oxygen masks and lighted placards over the emergency exits just might make this thing FAA certifiable.

Apparently, it’s because the regular Veyron is such a pansy jellyfish of a car that Bugatti brings forth the Super Sport. The model will be the last word in Veyrons, representing the final 40 cars in a total production run of 300. Price: one hundred thousand trillion billion dollars, or it might as well be.

For the $2,426,904 a Super Sport costs (at the time of this printing), you could also buy 10 Ferrari 458 Italias and have $127,654 left over for lunch. In its quest to build the ultimate stroke job for the super-rich, the Molsheim operatives don’t seem very concerned with pragmatic constraints such as fiscal prudence or, indeed, the laws of physics.

For example, the Super Sport needed more than just another 20 horsepower to separate itself from the $1.7 million rental-fleet Veyron with its piddly 1001 ponies. Why not another thou? Bugatti probably considered it. But it was decreed that a 20 percent bump in output, to 1200 horsepower and 1106 pound-feet of torque is genug. Enough. So say the Germans who run Volkswagen’s crazy-bus subsidiary, and they don’t say that very often.

Consider these facts: Bugatti prices the Super Sport at 1.65 million euros and will charge the 10 to 12 expected American buyers based on the spot exchange rate. Thus, if the dollar softens by a mere cent against the euro, the car’s window sticker jumps more than $16,000.

Every U.S. Super Sport buyer also pays a 2.71 percent import duty, or about $62,000, plus a $51,000 delivery charge and $6400 in federal gas-guzzler tax. Adding an extra year to a regular Veyron’s two-year factory warranty costs about $70,000, though Super Sport buyers get it free.

A set of the Super Sport’s special Michelin tires cost $42,000 and may last 10,000 miles if you’re careful, though they last only 15 minutes at the car’s top speed (at that pace, however, the 26.4-gallon tank is sucked dry in just 10 minutes, and there’s no place on Earth to safely go that fast that long anyway, so no worries). At the third tire replacement, Michelin requires that you also swap out the $69,000 wheels—coincidentally, the only wheels that fit those tires—to ensure a proper bead seal.

Personal touches are available, such as your own initials instead of Ettore Bugatti’s etched into the gas cap. One customer paid for illuminated doorsills with “words that can’t be repeated,” said a Bugatti staffer. If you want the Super Sport’s body finished in clear-coated carbon fiber instead of paint, add $428,180—just a bit more than the price of a new Rolls-Royce Phantom Coupé.

Let’s be blunt: This car is completely mental. At the Super Sport drive in the dusty hills near Jerez de la Frontera, even its chief engineer, Wolfgang Schreiber, admitted that it’s easier to find an honest hedge fund-manager than places to use 1001 horsepower, let alone 1200.

“Most of our customers drive very normal. Actually, slow,” said Schreiber. “So we needed changes you could see and feel at any speed.”

Since 2005, Bugatti has put 243 Veyrons into customer hands, enough to constitute a focus group of sorts. According to Schreiber, the buyers say they would like a skosh more edge to the car’s handling. We feel their pain. Every Veyron we’ve encountered has accelerated like a line drive off the cricket bat of Shiva but has steered no better than your average Lexus. Perhaps that’s why that guy in Texas made Youtube history by driving his into a lagoon. Either that or he is just an idiot.

Whatever. Bugatti says the Super Sport embodies everything it has learned about the Veyron and its customers over five years. No, it doesn’t come with an inflatable dinghy, but the revised shock tuning and stiffer sway bars do help to elevate the driver’s connection and involvement. The nose dives for turns with far more enthusiasm, and body motion is better controlled, giving the pilot a clearer sense of where the threshold lies between acing a fast corner and flying off into low orbit.

That’s rather vital in a hypercar that can easily triple its speed between mailboxes. So are brakes, and the Super Sport’s carbon-composite discs (15.7 inches in front) are literally breathtaking. Should a truck suddenly turn into your lane, you can drag down the Bug from 140 mph to, say, 53.7 with astonishing alacrity and enough foot control to leave a gap twice the width of your front license plate should you desire to cause cardiac dysrhythmia in your passenger.

To get the Super Sport to its 268-mph production-car land speed world record (real production Super Sports are limited to a tire-saving 258 mph), Bugatti did a little smoothing of the Veyron’s Humpty Dumpty shape. Most noticeably, the polished aluminum bazookas on the regular Veyron’s back that sluice air to the engine are gone. In their place is a sort of carbon-fiber turtle shell that forms a tunnel through which the driver sees what he just left far behind and which is cut with flush-fitting twin NACA ducts.

If you want to show off the engine, it takes two trained technicians about 30 minutes to remove the couple-dozen fasteners holding down the shell. Nevertheless, Schreiber says the ducts increase power by creating a greater ram-air effect than the bazookas while also offering reduced drag.

Further, Bugatti opened up the front radiator nostrils, added a pair of slots under the headlights that feed wind directly to the front brakes, and reshaped the front splitter and rear diffuser for increased downforce. With the reprogrammed rear wing deployed, the body generates 882 pounds of downforce at its top speed. At 204 mph, we can report that it feels slot-car stable.

Launch control should deliver 60 mph in 2.4 seconds. Bugatti recommends an oil change every 3000 miles (or once a year) and a spark-plug change at 37,000 miles. All the bodywork aft of the doors comes off for that.
The extra output—199 horsepower and 184 pound-feet of torque—comes via four turbos that are 10 percent larger and bolted to the otherwise unchanged 16-cylinder warp drive in back. A less restrictive exhaust contributes as well. Fuel pressure is turned up, and an extra pair of in-tank fuel pumps—there are two in the base car, four in the Super Sport—do the juicing. The seven-speed, dual-clutch automated manual drives beefier prop shafts through a reinforced second and third gear and a taller seventh gear, which makes for a claimed 10 percent highway-mileage bump.

With its carbon-fiber outer panels, the Super Sport is 110 pounds lighter than the base, aluminum-bodied Veyron. A new, stiffer carbon-fiber weave is employed in the tub and saves 55 pounds alone. Bugatti also relocates the rear-differential cooler from the passenger-side gill to the rear diffuser, which reduces plumbing hardware, and unique wheels shave a net 25 pounds.

The Super Sport is still much too big and way too heavy to feel like a second skin. With its high sills and dash, it feels more like a really fast Jacuzzi. It’s loud inside—and not the delicious kind of loud you get in a Ferrari. The tires moan oppressively at any speed, and the engine’s voice is mostly a white noise of whirring and whooshing.

It exists mainly as an objet d’art for its owner and a one-car circus parade for the fawning public. It is perhaps the apogee of internal-combustion performance, the final word before the dawning dictatorship of electric pods. It is a Bugatti.

HP Officejet 7500A Wide Format e-All-in-One

2010-11-03T19:21:00.001+07:00

Many small businesses could use the ability to print documents on larger than legal-size paper, but few affordable options have existed, particularly in multifunction printers (MFPs). The HP Officejet 7500A Wide Format e-All-in-One joins the Editors' Choice Brother MFC-6490CW in this small niche. Moreover, the 7500A's combination of supertabloid printing (up to 13 by 19 inches), fast print speeds, and a wealth of all-in-one and ePrint features edge it past the Brother (which is restricted to tabloid (11 by 17) format) as the new Editors' Choice for a wide-format inkjet MFP.

The 7500 builds on the HP Officejet 7000 Wide Format Printer ($229 direct, 4 stars), one of several wide-format single-function printers to have appeared in the past year. The 7500 adds MFP features, ePrint functionality, and WiFi connectivity to the mix.

The HP 7500A prints, copies, scans, and faxes, and works as a standalone copier or fax machine. It can scan to a fax directly from the printer's front panel, or it can fax from within a document on your computer (PC Fax). From the touchpad it can scan an image as an attachment to your default e-mail client. From a program like Photoshop that uses TWAIN or WIA drivers, you can scan an image directly into the program. You can scan a file to a memory card (as PDF or JPEG) as well as print from a card—most standard memory-card formats are supported—or to a computer. One feature I would have liked to see is the ability to scan to or print from a USB key.

The 7500A has a single 150-sheet paper tray, which fits paper up to super-tabloid size. The relatively small paper tray (with no optional trays available) largely limits the printer to micro or home offices; an office that prints more than 30 pages a week will be filling the tray more than once a week. The Brother MFC-6490CW provides 400-sheet capacity between a 250- and a 150-sheet tray, which is more than enough for most small offices. The HP (as with the Brother) lacks an automatic duplexer for printing on both sides of a sheet of paper. The 35-page automatic document feeder (ADF) aids in scanning and copying multi-page documents. The 7500A can scan documents up to legal size.

ePrint Functions
As with all of HP's e-All-in-One line, the 7500A can print selected content directly from the Web as a standalone device, using HP's Web apps. You can output business forms, topical or custom daily newsletters, coupons, recipes, even coloring book pages with Disney and Nickelodeon characters, and much more. Additional free apps are available for download from HP's ePrintCenter.

The ePrint function also lets you e-mail an attached image to the printer for it to automatically print out. ePrint is easily configured; when you register at the ePrintCenter, the printer is assigned an e-mail address. From a single e-mail it can print out up to 10 attached files with a total size of up to 5MB, printing out first the cover e-mail and then the attachments.

Setup
The HP 7500A has a curving, glossy black frame. At 23.9 by 16.9 by 11.6 inches (HWD), this 30-pound machine is too large to easily share a desk with. Its tilt-up front panel has a 2.4-inch color LCD screen and an alphanumeric keypad, which light up on an as-needed basis. The LCD screen controls MFP functions including Web apps, and lets you preview photos for printing.

I tested the 7500A on an Ethernet connection to a PC running Windows Vista. It can also be connected via WiFi (802.11b/g/n) or USB 2.0. This MFP comes with drivers for Win XP (32 bit), both 32- and 64-bit versions of Vista and Windows 7, and Mac OS X v. 10.5.8 and 10.6. You can also download a full set of drivers for Microsoft Windows Server 2003 and 2008 (32- and 64-bit), as well as Linux print and scan drivers, from HP's Web site.

Setup was simple and straightforward. The 7500A uses four ink cartridges: cyan, magenta, yellow, and black, with both large and small black cartridges available. Getting the fax up and running is integrated into the setup process.

Performance
The 7500A has a rated speed of 33 pages per minute (ppm) black and 32 ppm color. It took 10 minutes 52 seconds to print our business applications test suite (using QualityLogic's hardware and software for timing), the fastest among wide-format inkjet printers and MFPs that we've tested. It edged the Officejet 7000, which took 11:15, and easily bested the MFC-6490CW ($300 street, 4 stars), which plodded in at 19:10.

The 7500A was also fast at photo printing, less critical for business printing but still a nice touch. It took an average of 1 minute 6 seconds to print a 4-by-6 photo and 2:28 for an 8-by-10, once again edging out the Officejet 7000 (1:31 and 3:28) while trouncing the Brother (3:49 and 8:50).

Quality
The HP's text quality was on the low end for an inkjet MFP. The majority of test fonts were easily readable at 8 points, with two requiring 12 points to reach that threshold, and one font only 5, but three required 20-point type for the characters to be both easily readable and well formed. The type was not crisp, and loops and narrow spaces between letters were often bridged by traces of ink. The text quality was acceptable for most business needs, but not for creating professional-looking documents or uses requiring small fonts.

The 7500A's graphics were on par with the vast majority of inkjet MFPs we've looked at, good enough for most business uses including PowerPoint handouts. Some graphics exhibited posterization—the tendency for shades of color to shift suddenly in areas that should display a more subtle gradient. Other images showed banding: faint, regular stripes of uneven brightness, particularly in solid areas.

Photos were about the quality you'd expect from drugstore prints. Our monochrome test photo showed a slight tint and relatively poor contrast. Color prints fared better, though one photo showed a trace of aliasing, the tendency for straight lines to appear wavy. The photos proved to be water-resistant.

Tabloid-size (and larger) color MFPs have mostly been laser-driven, but those can be quite pricey. Prices listed on Xerox's site start at $6,999, for example. Ricoh is also a big player in large-format color laser MFPs.

The choice of a wide-format inkjet MFP hinges on specific strengths and shortcomings. The Brother MFC-6490CW will appeal to companies that need greater paper capacity than the HP Officejet 7500A Wide Format e-All-in-One can offer, as well as those that demand professional-look text. The catch is that you'll spend a long time waiting for the MFC-6490CW output, longer than many businesses can afford. The HP can print office documents much more quickly. Add to that the wealth of all-in-one features, including ePrint functionality, and the ability to print at supertabloid size, makes the 7500A a better overall package than the 7500A and our new Editors' Choice.

2010 Volkswagen Jetta TDI Cup Edition Review – V-dub’s cup runneth over

2010-11-03T18:54:00.000+07:00

Props to Volkswagen for trying to inject some fun into a family sedan that would otherwise be more associated with the sober, button-down demeanor of a desk-jockey commuter locked into a 9 -5 job with no hope for advancement beyond his cubicle walls with the neutral tone fabric. Take one tidy sedan powered by a very frugal turbo-diesel and DSG gearbox, dial-in the suspension from the more sporty GLI, dress it up with an aero kit and a shiny set of 18 inch alloy wheels, and the excitement dial gets turned up a couple of notches. Just how exciting is the Jetta TDI Cup Edition? I take the working man’s coach to Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca in Monterey and push it through the turns to find out if getting 40 mpg and having fun at the same time is possible.
The engine remains standard: It’s VW’s 140-horsepower turbocharged 2.0-liter TDI clean diesel four, mated to either a six-speed manual or the undeniably high-tech six-speed direct-shift gearbox automatic. No powertrain changes between the standard Jetta TDI and the Jetta TDI Cup Edition, but it does get a bigger set of binders in addition to the performance mods mentioned above.

Turning Laps at Laguna Seca
Sadly, the TDI has only 140 hp to its name, and worse, it’s reluctant to rev, making top speed and fast exits out of the corners a little difficult. Racing any diesel — whether it’s a family sedan or a semi-tractor — strikes me as the height of silliness. This tiny turbo-diesel engine doesn’t rev up and the usual mountain of torque doesn’t fully compensate for the stunted power curve. That’s not to say this Jetta TDI is without virtue. Its ability to haul five comfortably while delivering 40 mpg qualifies it as the family sedan of the future.
The Volkswagen Jetta TDI is a very good car in base trim, so I was surprised at just how much better the TDI Cup Edition is. The sport suspension and sway bars taken from the GLI transforms this Jetta from a doldrum commuter to an engaging companion. Turn-in response is excellent with a good amount of feedback. Even better, the improved handling comes at virtually no cost to the ride quality. This is still a very comfortable car for daily driving.
The Pirelli PZero Nero all-season tires are a great choice for daily street use, but a huge weakness when trying to turn some fast laps at the track. In addition to announcing myself at every corner from the tires squealing louder than a 10 year-old school girl, braking had to be initiated a little earlier and I had to be mindful of my speed carrying through the turns.

More Than Just a Pretty Face
Inside, sports seats and a leather-wrapped steering wheel set this Jetta TDI apart from its lesser counterparts. A little flair was added with the brushed aluminum door sills.
The other significant change is plaid, bolstered seats that are much more embracing than the flat, leatherette chairs in our 2009 Jetta TDI tested last year. However, the $2160 premium over a base TDI is money well spent, as the suspension creates a wholesale change in how the Jetta drives. I was pleasantly surprised by the Jetta TDI Cup Edition’s sportier-yet-just-as-comfortable chassis.
Decals aside, the differences between the standard Jetta TDI and this Cup Edition aren’t all that dramatic — and that’s a good thing. In daily driving I thought the Jetta TDI Cup Edition was comfortable, wonderfully efficient, and even rather entertaining to drive. The Cup Edition amps up the fun-to-drive quotient just a bit without detracting from all those other benefits. On the open road, the turbo has time to spool up into is power band and it is actually fun squirting in/around traffic. “Shoot the hole! Shoot the hole!”
Even with the firmer damping and larger, low-profile tires, it does a great job absorbing road imperfections. The reduction in sidewalls has also improved the precision of the steering, which was quite good to begin with.
If you’re in the market for a Jetta TDI sedan and like to drive, this is your car. The firmer GLI suspension, larger brakes, and upgraded antiroll bars go a long way towards making the Jetta sedan exciting to drive. Of course those upgrades do nothing to address the modest horsepower of a TDI engine, but we’re especially sensitive to the TDI’s horsepower output because we flogged the TDI Cup Edition harder than an old horse headed to the glue factory around Mazda Raceway and could only muster 82 mph on the front straight. For spirited driving on the roadways near your hood, the suspension upgrades do the job of making you seek the long route home after a hard day at the office.

2011 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited Sahara 4x4 - First Drive Review

2010-11-03T18:37:00.000+07:00

It’s the fanciest damn Jeep Wrangler you’ve ever seen. For 2011, all Wranglers get a new, more upscale interior in place of the previous assemblage of Playskool-grade plastics, and the optional hardtop can be painted body color on Sahara editions like our test vehicle. Available new features include heated seats, heated power mirrors, automatic climate control, and a steering wheel with buttons for the radio, cruise control, and Bluetooth phone connection. Stability control is now standard, there are more power outlets in the cabin, and the rear windows have been enlarged, too. It seems the Wrangler is all growed up.

How Does It Drive?

Well, maybe not all growed up. Driving a Wrangler on the road still feels a bit like sprinting down a cobblestone street while earing wooden clogs, so the Jeep isn’t very competitive if you’re looking at it from a purely dynamics standpoint. (Previous four-door Wranglers we’ve tested have turned in appalling 0.61-g skidpad and 217-foot 70-to-0-mph braking figures.) But piloting a Wrangler has always had a charm all its own, and this 2011 is no different, offering more of a man-and-machine connection than about anything else on sale today. Although the new interior duds make comparisons to less-hard-core SUVs—the ones people drive to Starbucks and never take off-road—more relevant than ever, this remains a one-of-a-kind vehicle that’s fun in almost any weather and over almost any terrain, category five hurricanes and lava fields (just barely) excluded.

Increased sound deadening means less noise than before makes it to occupants, which is a good thing, because the groaning coming from the weak-sauce 202-hp, 3.8-liter V-6 is extremely unpleasant. The optional four-speed automatic in our Wrangler is an abomination, too—better to stick with the six-speed manual, which is at least more entertaining. A much better powertrain—namely, Chrysler’s new corporate V-6, likely available with a six-speed automatic—will arrive next year, and it should cure the Wrangler’s glacially slow acceleration.

How Does It Stack Up?

Against more on-road-centric competition—so, everything else—the Wrangler is less civilized and not as dynamically capable. As we said, the interior invites such comparisons more than ever, but if you’re after a grocery getter, the Wrangler still isn’t for you. This is a vehicle for people with adventure on their minds, even if it’s not on their agenda; it’s just that those folks now get to enjoy more modern amenities and quality interior materials. The soft-touch surfaces and attractive design are great, and we particularly like the brand touchstones sprinkled throughout the cabin, including the Jeep grille logo on the windshield above the rearview mirror and the “Since 1941” insert for the front passenger’s dash-mounted grab handle. Plus, with the painted hardtop and fender flares, the Sahara Unlimited sort of—sort of—looks like a Mercedes-Benz G-wagen. From the back. If you squint.

What’s the Cost?

In the case of our test vehicle, pretty high. The Unlimited Sahara starts at $30,695, and ours had an additional $5800 worth of options, including the $385 Connectivity Group (USB port, voice control), a $490 set of front side airbags, the $825 automatic transmission—charging that much for a four-speed seems criminal—and automatic climate control, which costs $895. In addition, the heated front seats run $250, remote start is $200, and the painted hardtop is $1715. Finally, we had a chance to experience Chrysler’s new nav system as part of the $1035 Media Center pack, which includes a 6.5-inch touchscreen and a hard-drive-based music storage setup. The nav is powered by Garmin software and works very well; it’s as easy to use as Garmin’s aftermarket units.

The final tally was $36,490, which is a lot of moola in Wrangler-land. The same money can buy any number of more civilized options, but if customers decide a Wrangler is exactly what they want, then the amount is far less obscene. After all, where else are they going to get all-terrain invincibility, buckets of personality, four-door rooflessness, and an interior this well done? Nowhere but this Jeep.

Paris Motor Show News: 2012 Land Rover Evoque Revealed Before Show Begins

2010-11-03T18:32:00.000+07:00

Ahead of the 2010 Paris Motor Show, the groundbreaking all-new Range Rover Evoque makes its public debut in London, UK.
The first official picture of the all-new compact Range Rover was released, following an exclusive preview in London for guests attending a 40th birthday celebration of Range Rover held in partnership with VOGUE magazine (watch video below). Named the Range Rover Evoque, this all-new coupé will join the Range Rover and Range Rover Sport line-up in the fall of 2011.
Dr. Ralf Speth, CEO, Jaguar Land Rover said, “These are exciting times for our business as we continue to widen our portfolio with this all-new addition to the Range Rover line-up. Not only will the Range Rover Evoque increase our worldwide market share, it demonstrates our commitment to building sustainable, yet highly desirable products.”

The 2012 Evoque is the lightest and smallest SUV in Range Rover’s portfolio. The model, which will be formally unveiled at the Paris Motor Show, features a 240 bhp 2.0-liter turbocharged gas engine.
The engine is mated to a six-speed automatic transmission which feeds power to a full-time all-wheel drive system.
Baby Range Rover is a fitting name for the new Evoque. With it being smaller at a 171 inches (434cm) it is 17 inches (432mm) shorter and 7 inches (178mm) lower than Range Rover Sport models
The crossover will be available not only as a four-door but also as a two-door.
Buyers will have the option of three exterior design themes; Pure, Prestige or Dynamic. The interiors are inspired not only by the Range Rover Sport but by Jaguar as well and appear to be plush and feature rich.
Being sensitive to the environment is of the utmost importance, especially when you are traveling about in an ultra-expensive, luxury SUV. Land Rover steps forward with technologies to reduce the Evoque’s CO2 emissions by using Electric Power-Assisted Steering (EPAS), smart regenerative charging and optimized transmissions. A front-wheel drive version, which reduces weight and minimizes driveline losses, is being built, but Land Rover hasn’t announced any plans to sell it to the U.S. market.

The Evoque will be built in the U.K. and sold in 160 countries including the U.S. starting fall 2011. While pricing has not yet been announced the Evoque is expected to be the most affordable SUV in Range Rover’s current model portfolio.

2011 Porsche Panamera 4 - Short Take Road Test

2010-11-03T18:10:00.000+07:00

Sticking a 3.6-liter V-6 engine into the Porsche Panamera’s ample frame would seem to be as good a performance recipe as chopping off a couple of engines from a Boeing 747, but in reality, the base Panamera is still plenty fast. Okay, so it doesn’t leap off the line and hurtle toward the horizon like its Turbo sibling, but our all-wheel-drive Panamera 4 still posted a 0-to-60-mph time of 5.0 seconds and covered the standing quarter-mile in 13.8 seconds. Those are great numbers, and they’re backed by a 70-to-0-mph braking figure of 158 feet and skidpad grip of 0.96 g. For comparison, the BMW 740i takes 5.1 seconds to reach 60 mph, manages 0.88 g, and stops from 70 mph in 163 feet.

Underhood, the base Panamera has a new 3.6-liter double-overhead-cam, direct-injection 90-degree V-6 that makes 300 hp and 295 lb-ft of torque. The angle of the V provides a clue that this engine is derived from the Panamera’s V-8 unit rather than being a transplanted Volkswagen Group mill. It’s mated to Porsche’s slick seven-speed dual-clutch transmission, which gets a launch-control program with the optional $1480 Sport Chrono package—a feature our example had; hence, its startling 0-to-30-mph time of 1.4 seconds, just 0.2 second behind the 500-hp Turbo.

Downsizing Doesn’t Mean Much Sacrifice

On the road, the relative lack of grunt compared with the 400-hp Panamera S isn’t that evident. The V-6 engine makes a nice snarl under hard acceleration and is well matched to the seven-speed gearbox. Passing performance is solid, and the car goes on to a top speed of 160 mph, which is more than anyone except autobahn-storming Germans will ever need. The car gets decent gas mileage for a luxo-sedan, averaging 21 mpg in our tender care, better than the Panamera S (19 mpg) and the last Mercedes S550 we tested (17 mpg).

Of course, all the Panamera’s dynamic goodness is passed along: strong brakes, sharp steering, and move-over-pavement-I’m-in-charge handling. For luxury-sedan drivers who prefer pace over highway poise, the Panamera is the perfect tool. It actually rides quite well, too, if you opt for the $3980 adaptive air suspension.
As with other Panameras, we love the stylish interior, the amount of legroom in the back, and the practicality of the hatchback cargo area. But most of us around here still think it was beaten with an ugly stick, and it doesn’t come cheaply, either. The base price is a hair under $80,000, but by the time our test car had gently strolled through the options process, the sticker had risen to $99,210. As is typical for Porsche, you can spend silly money if you’re liberal in checking the options boxes. Playing with the setup, we got to $159,000 for a V-6 Panamera without trying very hard. If there’s anyone left who wonders how Porsche is so profitable, therein lies the answer.

Still, the Panamera 4 is the sleeper in Porsche’s four-door lineup. It doesn’t lose much in performance to the V-8–engined Panamera 4S, uses less gas, and has a base price that’s $15,800 lower. For someone who really cares about back-road romps, the V-6 Panamera makes a compelling alternative to more conventional sedans like the similarly priced Audi A8 and BMW 7-series.

A sample .profile file for Korn shell and Bash users

2009-02-15T05:53:00.000+07:00

Introduction

This article presents a sample .profile file that can be used by Unix Korn shell and Bash users.

The intent of this brief article is to show some of the things that are possible with the Korn and Bash shells. Please feel free to use this .profile at your own site, and modify it as desired!

Brief discussion

Listing 1 shows our sample .profile file for Korn shell and Bash users. For Korn shell and Bash users, the .profile is the shell startup file, just like autoexec.bat is the startup file for DOS users.

#--------------------------------------------------------#
# A sample .profile file for Korn shell and Bash users #
#--------------------------------------------------------#
# Courtesy of Developer's Daily #
# http://www.DevDaily.com #
#--------------------------------------------------------#

PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/bin:/usr/gnu/bin:.

set -o vi # enable the ability to recall previous commands with
PS1='$PWD> ' # set the prompt to display the current directory

#---------------------------------#
# a few Korn/Bash shell aliases #
#---------------------------------#

alias lc="ls -C"
alias lm="ls -al | more"
alias dirs="ls -al | grep '^d'" # show the dir's in the current dir
alias h=history # show the history of commands issued

alias nu="who|wc -l" # nu - number of users
alias np="ps -ef|wc -l" # np - number of processes running
alias p="ps -ef"

# mimick a few DOS commands with these aliases:

alias cd..="cd ../.."
alias cd...="cd ../../.."
alias dir="ls -al"
alias edit=vi
alias help=man
alias path="echo $PATH"

Listing 1: profile - a sample .profile file for Korn shell and Bash users.

Download the .profile file

If you'd like to download the .profile into a separate window instead of cutting-and-pasting the text from Listing 1, click here, and the text will be displayed in the next window. Then just select File|Save As... from your browser to save the .profile to your local filesystem.

Introduction to crontabs and cronjobs

2009-02-15T05:45:00.000+07:00

Read First: It is important to note that there are different distributions of cron and your mileage may vary depending on the cron distribution, version, operating system, configuration and permissions allowed to you by your administrator.

What is Cron?
Cron is a Unix/Linux daemon that allows you to schedule the execution of tasks at regular intervals. Cron is commonly used by system administrators who wish to automate administration or by webmasters who need to have scripts run periodically to update, backup, etc. their web site. You can define both the program that is to be run as well as the minute, hour, day of week, day of the month, the month or any combination of these.

Cron is active from the time the computer is turned on to when the computer is turned off or cron is rebooted. It "wakes up" every minute and checks to see if it there are any tasks scheduled to be run in the current minute and runs them.

This list of tasks is called a cron table or crontabs for short. The crontabs is a schedule that lists commands to perform and the time/date that they are supposed to be run.

On most systems, you must get permission from the system administrator before you can submit job requests to cron. On many shared systems, because there is only one crontab file, only the administrator has access to the crontab command.

Crontab Usage
The crontab commands and functions will very slightly depending on the type of *nix you are running. You can type crontab at the shell or telnet prompt to view the available options. On our FreeBSD system we have the following:

Code :

crontab: usage error: file name must be specified for replace
usage: crontab [-u user] file
crontab [-u user] { -e | -l | -r }
(default operation is replace, per 1003.2)
-e (edit user's crontab)
-l (list user's crontab)
-r (delete user's crontab)

Below is more information about these options:

* crontab -e - Edit your crontab file, or create one if it doesn't already exist.

* crontab -l - Display your crontab file.

* crontab -r - Remove your crontab file.

* crontab -u user - Can be used with the -e, -l and/or -r options. This option allows you to modify or view the crontab file of user. When available, only administrators can use this option.

Crontab Fields
To create a new crontab, you would type crontab -e at a shell or telnet prompt. This will launch whatever the default text editor is (in our case this is PICO). Before we proceed, we need to understand the how the commands that you will enter are structured.

Each entry in a crontab file consists of six fields, specifying in the following order:
minute(s) hour(s) day(s) month(s) weekday(s) command(s)

The first five fields are as follows:

* The number of minutes after the hour (0 to 59)

* The hour in military time (24 hour) format (0 to 23)

* The day of the month (1 to 31)

* The month (1 to 12)

* The day of the week (0=Sunday) to 6=Saturday)

There are also three special characters that can be used in these fields as follows:

* Asterisks (*) - Asterisks are used to designate every instance in the field. For example, in the day field it would mean this command will run everyday
* Commas (,) - Commas are used to separate values in a field. For example, in the hours field 2,8,16 would mean this command will run at 2am, 8am and 4pm.

* Dashes (-) - Dashes are used to include every value between the first and last value in the day of the week field. For example, 2-4 would mean run on Tuesday to Thrusday. Note that 2,3,4 in the day of week field would accomplish the same thing.

Each field is separated by a space to designate the start of a new field this is why you must not leave spaces in the values of a field. For example, 1 - 6 will not work and should be 1-6.

The sixth field is where you would enter the command that you would like executed. For example, if we wanted to run a perl script called build.cgi, the 6th field would look like perl /full/path/to/build.cgi. If this is still a little hazy, the following examples section should firm it up.

Examples

Code :

00 1 * * * perl /full/path/to/build.cgi

This is a basic one. It would execute build.cgi every day at 1am.

Code :

00 2 15 3,6,9,12 * /full/path/to/indexer.pl

This would execute indexer.pl at 2am on the 15th of March, June, September and December.

Code :

00 3 1,15 * 1 /full/path/to/indexer.pl

This will execute indexer.pl at 3am every Monday AND on the 1st and 15th of the month.

Code :

30 17 * * 5 echo "Time for happy hour" | mail -s "Meet For Happy Hour" jsprague

This example would send me an email with a subject of "Meet For Happy Hour" every Friday at 5:30pm reminding me to go to happy hour.

Code :

00 17 * * 1-5 echo "Go home" | mail -s "It is 5pm" jsprague

This example would send me an email with a subject of "It is 5pm" and message of "Go home" every Monday - Friday at 5:00pm reminding me to stop working and go home.

Creating a New Crontab
To create a new crontab, you would type crontab -e at a shell or telnet prompt. This will launch whatever the default text editor is (in our case this is PICO), although it could be VI or other text editor. Once in your text editor, you simply type in one task per line and make sure that you leave a blank line at the end. When saving the file, the filename and location listed by the text editor should be correct. To test your work, go to a shell or telnet prompt and type crontab -l. If you did everything correctly, you should see a list of the tasks that you entered.

System Hardening Process Checklist

2009-02-11T00:21:00.002+07:00

Most administrators and security officers are well aware of the necessity of system hardening for corporate systems.

Hardening is the process of securing a system by reducing its surface of vulnerability. By the nature of operation, the more functions a system performs, the larger the vulnerability surface.

Since most systems are dedicated to one or two functions, reduction of possible vectors of attack is done by the removal of any software, user accounts or services that are not related and required by the planned system functions. System hardening is vendor specific process, since different system vendors install different elements in the default install process.

However, all system hardening efforts follow a generic process. So here is a checklist and diagram by which you can perform your hardening activities.

1. Perform initial System Install - stick the DVD in and go through the motions.
2. Remove unnecessary software - all systems come with a predefined set of software packages that are assumed to be useful to most users. Depending on your target use of the system, you should remove all software that is not to be used like graphics and office packages on a web server.
3. Disable or remove unnecessary usernames and passwords - most systems come with a lot of predefined user accounts for all kinds of purposes - from remote support to dedicated user accounts for specific services. Remove all remote and support accounts, and all accounts related to services which are not to be used. For all used accounts, ALWAYS change the default passwords.
4. Disable or remove unnecessary services - just as the two previous points, remove all services which are not to be used in production. You can always just disable them, but if you have the choice remove them altogether. This will prevent the possible errors of someone activating the disabled service further down the line.
5. Apply patches - after clearing the 'mess' of the default install, apply security and functionality patches for everything that is left in the system - especially the target services.
6. Run Nessus Scan - update your Nessus scanner and let her rip. Perform a full scan including dangerous scans. Do the scan without any firewalls on the path of the scan. Read through the results, there will always be some discoveries, so you need to analyze them.
7. If no Vulnerabilities are discovered, use system - after the analysis of the results, if there is noting significant discovered, congratulations! You have a hardened system ready for use.