Archive: Portfolios

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Known as the original pony car—the sporty Ford’s name inspired the segment’s sobriquet, after all—the Mustang has long provided affordable performance, sexy styling, and abundant personalization opportunities. The latest Mustang has athletic moves that more than match its muscular physique. It’s now also more modern than ever, with a superb-handling chassis that rides on an independent rear suspension. Available as a racy coupe or a classic convertible, it has an engine range that includes a 300-hp V-6, a 310-hp turbo inline-four, and a mighty 435-hp V-8. Plentiful options include an easy-to-use Sync 3 infotainment system, serious performance add-ons, and multiple appearance packages. The pony-car wars are about brand loyalty. Dodge and Chevrolet have their contenders—and their unwavering supporters—and Ford has a seriously sophisticated Stang with which to battle them.

HIGHS
High-performance daily driver, exceptional chassis, slick modern-retro styling.
LOWS
Mediocre interior materials, optional Recaro seats are restrictive, too-tame V-8 exhaust note.
VERDICT
A thoroughly modern Mustang that can compete heads-up in the pony-car wars.

Notably trading the previous model’s live rear axle for a modern independent rear suspension—a boon to both handling and ride. That and a handsome evolution of its exterior and interior helped it better turn both heads and corners, earning it a spot on our 10Best Cars list for 2015. Its 2016 updates included nostalgic appearance packages. For 2017, changes are even less significant. Both driver and passenger windows have a standard one-touch up and down feature along with the ability to open the windows using the key fob. The 19-inch Ebony Black–painted wheels, included in the Black Accent package, have a new design. New paint colors include Grabber Blue, Lightning Blue, and White Platinum Metallic Tri-coat; Competition Orange, Deep Impact Blue, and Guard were discontinued. The 2018 Mustang will introduce several significant changes, such as a restyled front end and enhanced performance. The V-6 engine will no longer be available—making the EcoBoost turbo inline-four standard; the 5.0-liter V-8 adds more horsepower and torque. New options for 2018 include more active safety assists, adaptive dampers, and a 12-inch fully-digital gauge cluster, among others.

Trims and Options We’d Choose

The Mustang continues to provide terrific bang-for-your-buck performance and plenty of style. The base-model coupe has a V-6 and starts at $26,085; opting for the turbo inline-four adds about $1000. A convertible costs an extra $5500 with the V-6 and $9500 more with the turbocharged four-cylinder, which comes standard with the more expensive Premium trim. While the Mustang’s excellent chassis allows even the less powerful engines to be fun, we prefer the Mustang GT with the 5.0-liter V-8 and standard six-speed manual transmission. It starts at $34,095, which virtually matches the Dodge Challenger R/T ($34,090) and undercuts the Chevrolet Camaro SS ($37,900). The GT Premium trim adds $4000 but includes an 8.0-inch Sync 3 touchscreen with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, a leather-trimmed interior, heated and cooled front seats, and an upgraded audio system. We’d check that box and also opt for the GT Performance package ($2995), which includes:

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The Mercedes-Benz G-class, a.k.a. Geländewagen, is a high-powered spectacle of a 4×4, a gloriously antiquated icon for the rich that is just too damn cool—and profitable—for the luxury brand to kill off, despite its being in production for 37 years. While the trifecta of 2016 models includes two stonking AMG versions—the over-the-top 621-hp, V-12–powered G65 and the just-right, 563-hp G63—there’s also a reworked G550, which does without the hot-rod garnish for the less indulgent buyer. But, since the modern-day G-wagen’s brazenness is largely responsible for its continued existence, toning down its wild side doesn’t necessarily make the G550 the best pick.

The entry-level G550 is still big money at $120,825 to start, with the 2016 model featuring Mercedes’s twin-turbocharged 4.0-liter V-8 with 416 horsepower and 450 lb-ft of torque—a significant upgrade over the previous 5.5-liter naturally aspirated V-8 with 382 ponies and 391 lb-ft. The smaller V-8 revs freely to its 6300-rpm redline, and the grumble it emits from the G’s dual side-exiting exhausts, while menacing, is not as chest-thumpingly deep as before.

A Familiar Face

We appreciate the fact that Mercedes continues to update the old G-class with its latest engines, and this is a powerful truck, with the 4.0-liter providing more than enough speed for the G-class’s ancient chassis to safely handle without electronic support—its maximum cornering capability is a paltry 0.66 g, which is heavy-duty pickup-truck territory. That is a likely explanation for why Mercedes won’t allow its stability controls to be turned completely off. Compared with the more powerful AMG models, the G550’s seven-speed automatic has to shuffle gears a little more frequently to maintain momentum, which it does smoothly and effectively. Despite weighing 5882 pounds, our test vehicle was slightly quicker than the old G550, bolting to 60 mph in 5.7 seconds and covering the quarter-mile in 14.4 seconds at 97 mph.

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If there was ever any doubt that the Chevrolet Corvette’s place in the public consciousness is that of a long-awaited reward for retirees, the joy ride that a white-haired, aviator-glasses-wearing Joe Biden took in his 1967 Corvette on Jay Leno’s Garage served as ironclad confirmation. But just because it’s often the province of Social Security recipients doesn’t mean that the Corvette isn’t the real deal. With a thundering 455-hp V-8 under the hood, so much grip that it feels as if it generates its own gravitational pull, and a ferocious countenance, the Corvette is a great sports car—a supercar, in some of its guises. Better yet, it’s far more affordable than many of the cars it competes with for performance. Noticeably Chevrolet-ish interior materials are our only quibble; no one who sits inside will confuse this for an Audi. Once you pin the accelerator or swing through a corner at speed, though, they’ll be too stunned to complain.

HIGHS
Killer-sweet powertrain, as grippy as a gecko, eye-catching design.
LOWS
Decidedly un-luxe interior, heavy targa top, minimal in-cabin storage.
VERDICT
Don’t believe anyone who says you need to be filthy rich—or retired—to own a supercar.

Chevrolet added a new model to the Corvette lineup for 2017 with the introduction of the Grand Sport. It appropriates the flared fenders and extra-strength chassis elements from the track-ready Z06, but it has the same powertrain as the base Corvette. That manageable but still scary fast and hugely competent setup won the Grand Sport a spot on our 10Best Cars list for 2017 and a home in our long-term fleet. The rest of the lineup saw only minor aesthetic changes.

Trims and Options We’d Choose

The Grand Sport, which is new for 2017 and a mind-body melding of the base-model Stingray and the rip-roaring Z06, is our preferred model. It’s almost four inches wider than the standard Corvette, employs more aggressive gearing in the manual transmission for quicker acceleration, and includes a dry-sump lubrication system for improved engine reliability under track duress. Its body panels, suspension setup, and huge tires come from the ultra-performance 650-hp Z06, but the Grand Sport’s ride is actually quite day-to-day comfortable. The Grand Sport starts at $66,445, some $10,000 above the entry-level Stingray model, so we’d keep the rest of the options list light. Standard features include:

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Thank goodness Japan has a wild side. Interspersed among boatloads of politically correct Toyota Priuses comes the occasional Lexus F hot rod. And over at Nissan, punctuating the truckloads of morbidly thrifted Versas is the random GT-R. The muscular Nissan has a legacy going back decades, but for the most part, this fast and furious coupe boldly goes its own way. Quirky, jerky, and perky, it has so much personality that J.D. Power wouldn’t know how to score it. It’s a riot of sensation and sound—some annoying and others cyborg cool. On one hand, it’s a bargain supercar for hard-core gearheads. On the other, for a coupe from a nonpremium brand, the GT-R is a bit spendy, as it costs twice as much as a Chevy Camaro ZL1.

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General Motors must have authorized overtime for its performance and badge-making departments over the past few years. Witness the sustained, affordable excellence of all those SS, 1LE, Z51, Z06, Z07, ZR1, ZL1, and Cadillac V-series models the corporation keeps cranking out. Now comes a car that combines two of those GM-speak codes, ZL1 and 1LE, but the sticker price doesn’t seem to cover the sum of the parts.

HIGHS
Supercar grip and lap time, Z06 thrust, costs less than a base Porsche 911.
LOWS
It’s a Camaro, so a tiny back seat and compromised visibility.

The ZL1 1LE enhancements stretch the Camaro’s performance envelope like a balloon ready to pop. Never mind the Corvette Z06–derived LT4 supercharged 6.2-liter V-8 that is good for 650 horsepower and 650 pound-feet of torque. Or the functional carbon-fiber wing (a first for GM production cars) designed in a Formula 1 wind tunnel. The wing has the same effect as 300 pounds of lead ballast at 150 mph. Or the gaping front end that swallows 106 cubic feet more air per minute than a regular ZL1 at 87 mph. Or the chin splitter and dive planes on the cheeks. Instead, for just a moment, fixate on our measurement of the Camaro’s maximum lateral acceleration: 1.18 g’s. That kind of steady-state grip puts the 1LE in an elite group. Indeed, there’s only one car we’ve measured with more stick and that’s the Corvette Z06 equipped with the Z07 package (1.19 g’s). Everything else lets go sooner, period.

This super Camaro will also bring its 3842 pounds to a halt from 70 mph in 141 feet, besting the 3710-pound Ford Mustang Shelby GT350R by five feet. To make the 1LE’s chassis this capable, GM had partners. Goodyear supplies the Eagle F1 Supercar 3R rubber, and this is the first car to wear these DOT-legal track meats, here in size 305/30ZR-19 (front) and 325/30ZR-19 (rear). They wrap around forged-aluminum wheels that are one inch smaller in diameter and thus, along with the tires, save a total of 13 pounds in precious rotating inertia and unsprung mass compared with the ZL1.

The other half of the chassis performance comes from Canadian supplier Multimatic in the form of aluminum-bodied spool-valve dampers. Not only do they provide an elegant way to vary damping force, but the inverted struts with a ball-jointed top mount provide a means to get race-car-like negative camber out of the front end. Together, the four dampers are about 23 pounds lighter than the ZL1’s steel-bodied magnetorheological dampers. The rear subframe and its multilink suspension are isolated—if you want to call it that—from the body by rigid aluminum pucks instead of rubber bushings, and the rear anti-roll bar is adjustable to three positions. Locking down the rear end and firming up the front means you can feel every crack in the road, and even the slightest variation in lateral thrust, with clarity and precision.

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The hottest Hondas offered to Americans often wore an Acura badge, including the NSX supercar and the oldie-but-goodie Integra Type R. But with Ford’s wild Focus RS joining the Subaru WRX STI and the Volkswagen Golf R in the U.S., the time has come for Honda to finally introduce a machine here that wears its vaunted scarlet H emblem: the 2017 Civic Type R. While we’ve endured a long 20 years of seeing its predecessors rack up accolades on foreign tarmac, this scaldingly hot hatch was worth the wait.

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Daytona is a name with some history. Multiple cars from several automakers have used the moniker, some more notably than others. There was the Shelby Daytona coupe, the Ferrari 365GTB/4 nicknamed Daytona, the Dodge Daytona hatchback, the Studebaker Daytona line, the Ford Mustang Daytona concept, and of course the original Dodge Charger Daytona aero warrior. All take their name from Daytona Beach, Florida, the birthplace of stock-car racing. The locale is now home to Daytona International Speedway, host to the Daytona 500 and the Rolex 24 Hours, and some cars—like the original Charger Daytona—were homologation specials or commemorations of race cars.

HIGHS
Rear-drive and V-8 Detroit heritage, sweet exhaust note, burns rubber with ease.
LOWS
Dude-bro appearance, shoddy interior build quality, less than an SRT.

Dodge reintroduced the Charger Daytona name for 2013. It appears in two variations for 2017: the standard Daytona with a 5.7-liter V-8 (tested here) or as the Daytona 392 with a 6.4-liter V-8. Both sit roughly midpack in the Charger lineup, which isn’t much of an honor for the first stock car to break the 200-mph mark at Talladega Superspeedway.

Charge It to the Name

The 2017 Charger Daytona is essentially a Charger R/T with special-edition add-ons, what Dodge calls the Customer Preferred Package 29S. The items touch just about every portion of the car, inside and out, mechanicals included, but it’s the exterior that sees the biggest changes. Unfortunately, those fall short of a massive wing or a beaked nose as on the original.

Most prominent is a black spoiler and a wide, matte-black stripe that stretches across the decklid and wraps down onto the rear quarter-panels and includes Daytona lettering. The exterior also features a matte-black roof, a matte-black bar on the hood emblazoned with Hemi branding, a functional hood scoop, a black grille, an SRT body kit, 20.0-by-9.0-inch black forged-aluminum wheels, LED fog lights, and special badging.

On their own, those visuals don’t make much of a statement on a muscle car that already looks pretty aggressive, so Dodge turns up the volume by making available vibrant retro colors such as Green Go, Go Mango, TorRed, and Yellow Jacket. Our test vehicle wore Green Go, eye glue that engendered looks of confusion, excitement, disgust, and sometimes all three at once. It’s possible to delete the HEMI hood and the Daytona rear-quarter decals for no extra cost, but that kind of defeats the purpose of the Daytona package.

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It’s said that absence makes the heart grow fonder. A year has come and gone since we first experienced Jaguar’s latest range-topping variant of the F-type, leaving us with separation anxiety and a mild case of cat-scratch fever. The cure comes thanks to this new exposure to the company’s Special Vehicle Operations department and its all-in F-type SVR convertible.

HIGHS
Copious grip, easy to launch, damn good-looking.
LOWS
Not any quicker, twitchy at the limit, Porsche 911s exist.

It’s Got the Looks

Part beauty-pageant contestant and part muscle builder, this F-type looks the part. The SVR’s provocative exterior is mildly tweaked in the name of performance. The reworked front fascia incorporates larger air intakes along with nostrils in the hood to aid cooling. To keep the car stuck to the ground at Jaguar’s advertised top speed of 195 mph, vents are sculpted into the front fenders to prevent front-axle lift, while an SVR-specific diffuser and a larger wing aid downforce in the rear.

The interior, delightfully appointed in leather with contrast stitching, is visually marvelous. The heated, 14-way adjustable bucket seats with SVR headrest embroidery are bolstered just enough to keep the flab in place but aren’t so aggressive as to induce pain. Polishing off the alluring interior in our test car was a $750 carbon-fiber center console, $450 illuminated doorsills, and $1100 worth of leather for the headliner and visors. The convertible top does a reasonable job of keeping wind noise at bay when raised; by our stopwatch, it needed 12 seconds to lower and 15 seconds to raise. When stowed, the softtop renders the trunk essentially useless, leaving just enough space for a duffel bag. Our example augmented the SVR’s base price of $129,795 with the aforementioned interior dress-up bits and $138 worth of locking lug nuts and a Jaguar license-plate frame; the as-tested sticker rang in at $132,233. That’s certainly not chump change, but the SVR looks and feels every bit of the premium cost.

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Brutally powerful and obscenely flamboyant, the Aventador is unburdened by reality. Crazy expensive and crazy fast, it’s capable of amazing performance without feeling like it’s going to spin out into a ditch, which is refreshing in a supercar. Available as a coupe (for now), it has a 6.5-liter 730-hp V-12, a 7-speed automated manual transmission and all-wheel drive. For the ultimate, the Superveloce has 740 hp and a claimed top speed of 217 mph. In our testing, it did 0-60 mph in 2.7 seconds.

Within a roughly 15-mph window around the 80-mph mark, the rear wheels transition to steering in phase with the fronts—up to 3.0 degrees—to enhance stability. Lamborghini claims the hardware adds just 13 pounds and that the additional mass is entirely offset by weight savings elsewhere. An actively variable steering ratio (for the front wheels) and magnetorheological dampers are standard. This marks Lambo’s first use of supplier BWI’s third-generation magnetorheological dampers that split the older design’s single electromagnetic coil into two smaller coils for faster reaction times. Strada, Sport, and Corsa driving modes are joined by the new Ego setting, a customizable position in which the powertrain, steering, suspension, and stability-control modes can be individually configured. None of those modes would be described as a “comfort” setting. Every crack, bump, and pebble that perturbs the short-travel, pushrod suspension reminds you that you’re driving an unapologetic brute.

Twelve-Cylinder Flamethrower

So does the 6.5-liter V-12, now turned up another 39 horsepower to 730. The added power comes from tuning tweaks to the variable-valve-timing system and the variable intake manifold, plus another 150 rpm at the top end. At speeds up to 8500 rpm, the 12-cylinder sings through a retuned exhaust that wails louder at full wood and cracks harder on overrun. When they’re not spitting flames, the exhaust pipes provide a periscope’s peep into the cherry glow of a V-12 run hard.

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The Raptor is unlike any production pickup on the road. Ford fit the regular F-150 with advanced off-road equipment and widened its aluminum body for a purposeful appearance. A 450-hp twin-turbocharged V-6 is sheathed beneath its skin. Operate its paddle-shifted 10-speed automatic properly and its sophisticated drivetrain will rocket the Raptor to 60 mph in 5.1 seconds. Its oversize dimensions make tight spaces treacherous, but an astonishing suspension and comfy cabin mean no territory is untamable and no trip is uncomfortable. Compared with conventional pickups, the Raptor is on another level—providing pure, dumb fun like no other. Spare no expense.