Price: $52,425 Major equipment: : Premium Plus Package — bi-xenon headlamps, LED running lamps, auto-dim side mirrors, 18-inch wheels ($1,500)
In the fleet: 6/23/2009 - 6/29/2009
Approximate mileage driven: 750, including 30ish laps of Nelson Ledges Road Course
J. BARUTH: Johan de Nysschen, Audi’s dashing head honcho here in the United States, has repeatedly stated his desire to move Audi into pole prestige position among German luxury brands. Consider this supercharged A6 a toe dipped into the water. At more than fifty-two grand, this midsizer is priced head-ups with the BMW 535xi and just three grand short of a V-8 Mercedes E550. That’s pretty rarefied air, but in the “Premium Plus” trim sampled here, the A6 is decidedly short of equipment. There’s no navigation system, no backup screen, no keyless entry, and no flappy paddles on the steering wheel. Those of who are fans of mid-Eighties Buicks — and who isn’t? — will recognize this as “Custom” trim, rather than “Limited”.
This sedan’s a little light on the goodies, but it does have one feature to pique our collective interest: Audi’s new supercharged six-cylinder, debuting here ahead of its arrival in the upcoming S4 and revamped S5 models. For A6 duty, the engine is tuned to deliver a round 300 horsepower, just about what the previous-generation A6 4.2 turned out and well above the power level of the previous 2.7T twin-turbo V-6. Did we mention it was supercharged? Yes we did. So why is is a “3.0T”? Who knows? Audi is positioning it as a performance model, however, so we took it to the fastest road course on the East Coast to find out just how it performs.
It would be poetic to say that the return of the Great American Sedan was announced as the speedometer of the 2010 Taurus SHO swept past the one-hundred-and-twenty-mile-per-hour mark with the insouciant prowess of a young Mark McGwire taking practice swings in the batter’s box. And it would be more than delightful to describe the way this big sedan trail-braked into an off-camber hairpin, smoking in sideways and providing my dry-heaving fellow member of The Press As A Whole the most panoramic view possible of the Great Smoky Mountains above the spectacular dashboard and sculpted bonnet while the steering spoke to me with crystalline clarity and the transmission snapped off two flawless downshifts. Or I could describe how, on a hill so steep walking it would be a challenge, the twin-turbo SHO squeaked its front tires for a nearly imperceptible moment before swapping drive to the back wheels and rocketing us up the slope with the force of a small-block Chevy.
The truth of the matter, however, is that I knew everything I needed to know about the 2010 Taurus when I was handed a floppy-looking interior door skin.
J. BARUTH: Remember all the things we used to love about “foreign” sedans back in the dino-sized Big Three days of the Eighties? They were good-looking, reasonably-sized, fuel-efficient vehicles that offered manual transmissions, interesting equipment, decent handling, and bulletproof durability.
So now here we are in 2009, and the average “Camcord” is a bloated, cost-conscious, automatic-transmission sled. Meanwhile, Ford has a car that reminds us more than any current mainstream Japanese sedan of what those great Accords and Stanzas used to be like. It’s not overtly sporty, the convincing-looking wheel covers aside, but it’s an acceptably rapid, very spacious, rather pleasant conveyance. To make things more interesting, you can now choose the option of a six-speed manual transmission to help the 175-horsepower Duratec kick the Fusion down the road.
We didn’t have a chance to shoot the TorRed Challenger SRT8 so we’re using photos we took of a HEMI Orange one that we shot earlier in the year. We aren’t colorblind, I promise. — Z
Carl Modesette: The thought hit me somewhere along the lazy, post-rush-hour, 12-mile drive home from picking up the 2009 Challenger SRT-8: “This may be the last fun car Dodge, as we know it, ever makes.” It’s not exactly the kind of thought that cheers you up, but, as Barney Stinson so wisely admonishes on How I Met Your Mother: “When I get sad, I stop being sad and be awesome instead.” And how to be awesome instead in a 425 horsepower car? Drop 3 gears and flatten the accelerator, of course.
Everyone knows what the term midlife crisis means and the type of car that often accompanies it. I am not at this stage in my life (yet), but I have happened upon a term/concept which I find quite amusing - the quarterlife crisis. Many folks under forty are finding themselves in an area of life when you no longer need just a point A-point B commuter car, it can be something more exciting. However, the true quarterlife crisis person cannot afford fancy German marquees or luxury American cars with three-letter names. This calls for something with plenty of push under the hood mixed with hints of econobox-styling inside to keep the price lower. Say hello to the 2008 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution GSR and welcome to the jungle, this car is fun and games.
A few months back, we ran a story about the famous Ferrari Enzo that was featured in the movie Redline, and later crashed by actor Eddie Griffin. Friend of S:S:L, Matt Groner, picked up the wrecked Ferrari and promptly proceeded to put the sacred Enzo back together. This weekend we headed down to MSR Houston to hang out with friend of S:S:L, Michael Mills, who asked us if we wanted to go for a spin. Uh, Fluck yes! Enjoy the video and turn up the volume!
As part of our push for more volunteer and guest driven content, Jeff Glucker of NADAguides.com will be providing us with several of his reviews as a guest contributor. Thanks Jeff, and we look forward to more of these in the near future! - Zerin
The 2009 Mazda MX-5… Home of the Happiest Grill on Earth
I stand 75.6 inches tall. I get physically ill at the thought of the middle row in coach. I am always more than tall enough for any carnival ride. However I was excited at the prospect of getting behind the wheel of the 2009 Mazda MX-5. I have never driven a Miata but I have heard that they are representative of pure motoring joy. Keys in hand and chiropractor on speed dial I sat down in the MX-5 and moved the seat all the way back and all the way down… which wasn’t very much of a move - this could be a long week.
They say that sincerity is the new irony. So let’s be sincere. Prior to two weeks ago, I had never driven a car with the raw horsepower of the Switzer Performance P800 Nissan GT-R. We’re talking about seven hundred and seven ponies at all four wheels, on 93-octane gasoline, dyno-proven and road-tested. It’s terribly fashionable in this business to pretend that we’ve seen it all before, but you deserve to know the truth. Prior to driving this car, the most powerful car I’d driven was the six-hundred-horsepower 2008 Dodge Viper. On a weekly basis, I rarely drive anything faster than my poky little Audi S5 or Porsche 993. My Neon race car puts about one hundred and forty horsepower to the front wheels, although that’s enough to put you in the wall at a pretty high speed. Ask me how I know.
So while it would be very hip and print-journo of me to act like I get up every morning and drive random mega-horsepower cars, the truth of the matter is that it ain’t so. For that reason, I was very, very excited to drive the Switzer P800, particularly as it would be on a road course which I know reasonably well. This wasn’t the typical “press junket” kind of trip. I drove four hundred and fifty miles at my own expense, skipped work, and endured some really lousy weather to make it happen.
I wasn’t the only person busting tail to make sure our readers had a chance to experience the car. A notorious pro racer/road-rally bon vivant rented the track for the entire day and consented to let us share his playdate on the condition that we would maintain strict confidence about his secret new project. Tym Switzer, owner of the tuning shop which bears his name, arranged for the GT-R’s arrival and agreed that we, the Press As A Whole, would print the truth about the car’s performance, no matter what. Jo Borras, Switzer’s newly arrived PR mensch, coordinated the entire effort from the leather captain’s chair of his refrigerator-white VW Routan “press office”. The crew from Jalopnik agreed to share photographs with me in exchange for my services as camera-car operator and winter-weather stunt driver. Last but not least, the GT-R’s owner, J.R., agreed in the most nonchalant way possible to let me drive his pride and joy at one hundred and thirty miles per hour. In the snow.
Story by Jack Baruth, photographs by Jack Baruth and Ford
Highway 1 is Northern California’s “Shoreline Highway”. Green hills to the right, blue water to the left, blue sky above, blue Mustang surrounding me. Second gear in the 2010 Shelby Mustang GT500 reaches above the speed limit on pretty every road in the United States, and it gets there quickly. Traffic ahead but the road doubles back along the coast and I can see the gap. So… See the gap, apply the throttle, make the pass. With a muted supercharger whine, the big blue snake lights both rear tires and transports me to redline in the space of thought. Time for third, I think. It’s good for One. Oh. Eight. Or thereabouts. And it, too, arrives with a tire-spinning fanfare. Across the crown of the road and the “Botts dots” send the rear end wagging. Left. Right. Left. Power is still on. The oscillation is violent but it’s as regular as a grandfather clock. The shift light flashes: a bright red “SVT” logo. Let’s settle it down. Let’s reach for fourth. And that, dear reader, is where we must draw the curtain. For now, anway.
We know the GT500 is fast. In its previous incarnation, we pedaled one around MSR Houston just as quickly as a Lotus Elise. It takes a lot to get a two-ton, iron-block, traditional ponycar around a road course at Lotus velocities, and Ford’s SVT division knows the secret formula to make it happen. But this time, the Blue Oval boys are promising more than just raw speed for the revised GT500. By applying a series of incremental improvements and changes to the platform, many of which were previewed in the mega-buck GT500KR, Ford believes that it has created a pony which is both powerful and refined. “You’ll get some track time,” we were told, “but it’s on the road that you’ll see the real difference in the new car.”
Oh, there’s that phrase. “New car.” Exactly how “new” is the 2010? We covered many of the differences in our 2010 Mustang GT test, but the Shelby is, in fact, more heavily revamped than the normally aspirated models. Not only does it benefit from all of the “regular” changes, there’s far more differentiation between it and the cooking GT than there was in the previous model. Ahead of the A-pillar, only the fenders are shared with regular Mustangs. A new bonnet design addresses the problem of “hood shake”, while Shelby-specific bodywork can be found from the unique nose to the faux-diffuser surrounding the four-inch exhaust tips. The rear badge is applied with wide letter spacing in true Sixties style, a minor touch which required a fair amount of production-line engineering to accomplish. Ford’s worked very hard on the Shelby’s detailing. The overall effect is a visual home run: cohesive, trim, and unbelievably aggressive, all at once. And there’s more to see once you open the door.
Exterior Photos by Zerin Dube, Interior Photos Courtesy of Kia Motor Company
Vehicle: 2010 Kia Soul Sport
Price-as-tested: $18,345 incl. $695 destination
Major equipment: 2.0L inline four-cylinder engine, 5-speed manual transmission, power sunroof ($700 option)
Approximate mileage driven: 175
If ever there was a car doomed to fail in the American market, surely it was the first-generation Scion xB. The underlying idea — hastily converting a Japanese-market “room-on-wheels” based on the showroom-poison Toyota Echo to left-hand-drive — was so terrible that one wonders exactly what kind of blackmail took place behind the scene to make it happen. Of course, the little xB turned out to be Scion’s success story. Nominally aimed at artsy college kids and even-artsier bohemians, the xB turned out to be a massive hit with small businessmen, housewives in search of a shopping-cart-sized shopping car, and older people who appreciated the basic utility of Toyota’s no-frills wagon. The xB’s runaway success was an object lesson in the fact that some people really do want an affordable urban utility vehicle, but Toyota chose to ignore that lesson by making the second-gen xB half as again as powerful, hundreds of pounds heavier, and utterly devoid of the original car’s simple charm.
Recent Comments