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Detroit Grand Prix: With 100 days to go, downtown’s streets are alive
Posted by Talbot Payne on February 23, 2023
The 100-day countdown to the Detroit GP has begun.
The IndyCar race is returning to the streets of Detroit and the race’s presence is being felt all over downtown. Construction on the track’s pits/paddock area has consumed the waterfront north of the Renaissance Center. Scale-model IndyCar statues have begun sprouting up in the city’s seven districts, and public sightings of IndyCar superstars have become more common than Motown celebrities like Kid Rock and Eminem.
Penske teammates Josef Newgarden and Scott McLaughlin, who finished second and fourth, respectively, in last year’s IndyCar championship, dropped into Detroit on Fat Tuesday to make paczkis for local diners in Eastern Market’s Pietrzyk Pierogi. They also visited with kids and firefighters at Engine No. 9 Fire Station on Lafayette to talk about the integral role that safety plays in auto racing, and even dropped into Shinola to examine some watches.
“It’s hard to believe it’s just 100 days until we’ll be back in Detroit for the Grand Prix,” said New Zealand native McLaughlin, 29, who’ll have to fast for 40 days after tasting his first, calorie-packed paczek. “Making paczkis was fun and they’re very good. I think I may have had one too many, though.”
Two-time IndyCar champ Newgarden, 32, hadn’t even celebrated his first birthday when the last Detroit GP was run in the street. His native Nashville has embraced its own IndyCar street race — which celebrated its second year in 2022 — and he has been an enthusiastic backer of returning the Detroit race downtown.
“From meeting the firefighters at Engine No. 9 to visiting the Grand Prix partners at Lear to seeing how Shinola watches are made, it was great to experience so much in Detroit,” said Newgarden, who also teamed with McLaughlin last month for their first visit to the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona sports car race . “You can feel the buzz and energy about the Grand Prix coming back to the downtown.”
The flurry of activity is a reminder that this year’s race will consume downtown Detroit June 2-4 as the event moves from Belle Isle to a 1.7-mile track encircling General Motors Co.’s headquarters. How big will the race be this year? The main straight will run right down Jefferson Avenue past The Fist statue with speeds of 180 mph before free-admission grandstands.
The Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix presented by Lear will be the first time open-wheel wheel racing has been in downtown streets since 1991.
Like its years on Belle Isle, the event will bring substantial revenue — $77 million according to a University of Michigan study — to downtown as well as infrastructure upgrades like newly-paved streets and upgraded amenities.
To celebrate its new digs, IndyCar is strengthening its roots in the city with regular events and art activations. Ten colorful, scale-model IndyCars designed by Detroit public school students have begun popping up across the city’s seven districts.
Students from nine schools — East English Village Preparatory Academy at Finney, Osborn High School, Western International Academy, Martin Luther King Jr. Senior High School, Cody High School, Renaissance High School, Mumford High School, Cass Tech High School and Henry Ford High School — were tasked with decorating each 1/16th scale-model IndyCar that is mounted nose-up on a base.
The artistic themes are meant to represent school, neighborhoods, and city and are being installed in community gathering spots like businesses, rec centers and art galleries. The student-designed car models will ultimately be available for auction in May, with proceeds benefiting the City of Detroit Office of Arts, Culture and Entrepreneurship.
“The artworks are a great opportunity for our event to connect with our local communities and help build excitement for the Grand Prix,” said Detroit GP chairman Bud Denker.
The so-called IndyCar Art Installation includes a car designed by popular Detroit artist Phil Simpson — known for his “smile art” around town. Student contributions include a Mustang horse-themed design in District 2 by Mumford High School reflecting the school’s mascot, and a red, white and blue IndyCar statue by Osborn High School — its underbelly painted with a community map and Osborn’s signature 48205 zip code. In District 5, Martin Luther King Jr. Senior High School students decorated their statue in black and gold school colors complete with motto: “Enter to Learn, Exit to Serve.”
Tickets are on sale for the Detroit GP and have been running 80% ahead of previous years’ pace. The race weekend will also feature an IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge, INDY NXT and Trans Am races.
Henry Payne is auto critic for The Detroit News. Find him at hpayne@detroitnews.com or Twitter @HenryEPayne.
Payne: How EVs fare in Michigan’s icebox
Posted by Talbot Payne on February 19, 2023
Novi — Electric vehicles are the new, new thing in the automotive market and they wow customers with their liquid acceleration and silent cabins. But these advantages come with challenges like range anxiety and charging issues — issues exacerbated by vehicle velocity and outside temperatures.
In particular, EVs suffer in extreme heat and cold. Cold like Michigan winters.
Where EV range is more predictable in moderate climates, it’s more problematic in Midwest states where temperatures can range from 90 degrees in August to single digits in January. Under 30 degrees, some EVs can lose 30-50% of range, which makes them a challenging sell here as opposed to always-70 California, which accounted for 40% of EV sales in 2022.
How challenging? California had 563,070 registered EVs as of December 2021, while Michigan had just 17,640, according to data compiled by National Renewable Energy Laboratory.
The experience can be off-putting to customers who are told their vehicles have 300-mile range, only to learn that, in reality, they have much less — adding anxiety and time to road trips. Such reliability issues may deter customer acceptance of EVs even as governments force automakers to make nothing else over the next decade.
This winter, I tested three all-wheel-drive, high-tech EVs — the 2023 Volkswagen ID.4, my own Tesla Model 3 Performance and the 2023 North American Car of the Year, the Kia EV6 — to gauge their consistency. I also spoke with a few EV customers about their experiences in our winter wonderland.
On Jan. 25, southeast Michigan got a blanket of snow and accompanying 32-degree temps. The $52,000 VW ID.4 Pro S tester in my driveway was well-equipped for the slippery conditions with AWD, and I was able to grunt around town for my daily rounds, including grocery shopping, lunch, and exercise.
Had I been heading out on a road trip up north, however, I might have struggled.
In my errand-running, I traveled 29 miles in total at speeds up to 60 mph and took 85 miles off the battery — getting just 34% of predicted range. That means the ID.4 would have gotten just 81 miles on a full charge instead of the advertised 240. Had I been heading north to, say, Boyne Mountain Resort to ski, I wouldn’t have been able to make it to the first Electrify America fast charger in Bay City which is 90 miles from my Oakland County home.
Even if you make it to chargers, their reliability is not guaranteed. I’ve had consistent trouble with charging stations, and when — on my Jan. 25 outing — I tried to recharge at EA’s Novi charger, two of the four chargers were being serviced and the other two didn’t work. I spent 20 minutes in frigid conditions on the phone with a remote EA agent trying to charge before finally giving up. Gas engines, too, suffer range degradation in cold conditions, but staffed, gas infrastructure is everywhere — and, crucially, gasoline’s energy density means vehicles can be filled outside in less than five minutes.
Such frustrations are why many owners just use their EVs locally.
“I (get) about 50% range in the winter in comparison to the spring and summer,” said Yasmin Ponce of Royal Oak, who charges her VW ID.4 to 80% of capacity (about 200 miles) at Meijer Royal Oak on long metro commutes with her young family. “I purchased an insulated window sunshade for my car to see if that makes a difference.”
Fifty percent of range is consistent with my experience in owning two Tesla Model 3s over the last four years. When temperatures drop below 30 degrees, my range varies from 50-70% of predicted range. On one typical 33-degree January day this year, I covered 15 miles on local errands and took 31 miles off the battery.
Batteries are affected by temperatures at both extremes. I set out in August 2019 in my $60K Model 3 with 310-mile charge for the 377-mile trip to visit family in Charleston, West Virginia. Using Tesla’s extensive charging network, my EV indicated that I could make the trip (with 16% of battery remaining) on a single stop in Grove City, Ohio, south of Columbus. But as I traveled south down I-75 into Buckeye country, temperatures soared from 75 degrees to 95. Battery range started to crumble, and the Tesla’s big screen told me to slow down — from 75 to 65, then to 55 mph — if I were to make it to Grove City.
Fearing I’d run out of juice (not to mention getting steamrolled by semis below 55 mph), I diverted to a Tesla charger north of Columbus for a 40-minute charge.
“Tesla’s Supercharger network gives me the confidence to go wherever I please,” says Dick Amacher of Rochester Hills, who’s owned a pair of Teslas and has more than 60,000 miles of EV road trips to his credit — including to Florida.
“My worst winter range was driving from Rochester to Detroit Metro Airport (at) Christmas in my Model Y. It was about 5 degrees and windy,” he recounted. “The roads were slushy and not plowed. I took Telegraph Road to intentionally drive slower to have more traction. I used about 70% of a charge for a 90-mile round trip.”
Under optimal conditions, such a trip would use about 30% of the Model Y’s roughly 300-mile range.
Owners who use their vehicles for local commutes, like Farmington Hills’ Alex Alexanian, have little to worry about.
“It’s been pretty good day-to-day, I’d estimate 10-15% drop. I haven’t been doing many long trips,” said Alexanian, who drives an AWD Polestar 2 locally and prefers a gas-hybrid Toyota Sienna hybrid for longer journeys. “On the really cold-snap days, I did watch my range drop more significantly, but that was near zero degrees.” An EV fan, he’s put in an order for a Rivian pickup.
I’ve found Kia models to be more accurate in terms of range no matter the temperature. The Kia EV6 won the 2023 North American Utility Vehicle of the Year (I’m a juror) due to its stylish design and quick-charging, 800-volt platform. The EV6 GT — the $63,000 performance model of the EV6 line — lost about 30% of battery during my cold February test.
Unfortunately, the EV6 GT has but 206 miles of range (compared to 276 miles for its sibling, EV6 AWD vehicle that I drove this summer), so it’s not built for long trips. But like many EVs coming on the market, it tries to adjust its range for temperature and driver style. And it offers clever features — an ECO drive mode and five regenerative modes — to help squeeze a few more miles out of the battery.
I charged the EV6 GT at my home overnight on a 240-volt wall charger to 100% capacity, but — anticipating the cold — the Kia indicated I’d get just 186 miles (90%).
Even that proved optimistic for my mixed driving (interstates, surface streets) over the next two days in temperatures that swung from 20-40 degrees. In 70 miles of travel, I took 100 miles off the battery.
Henry Payne is auto critic for The Detroit News. Find him at hpayne@detroitnews.com or Twitter @HenryEPayne.
Ford saddles up Bronco to ride in the Super Bowl of American off-road racing
Posted by Talbot Payne on February 19, 2023
Johnson Valley, California — Late January in Florida means the start of the sports-car racing season on the high banks of Daytona International Speedway. Some of the auto industry’s greatest brands — Acura, Audi, BMW, Cadillac, Chevrolet, Ferrari, Ford, Honda, Lamborghini, Lexus, Porsche — field 24 Hours of Daytona racers in a demonstration of cutting-edge technology and raw speed.
But on the other side of the continent another epic, late-January endurance race is emerging as a manufacturer test. Except this race features SUVs on the high dunes of the Mojave Desert.
King of the Hammers is America’s greatest off-road race and an emerging battlefield for brand supremacy as SUVs now dominate the vehicle marketplace. Ford Motor Co., which has made a name for itself in sports-car racing with Ford GTs and Mustang GT4s, is determined to make King of the Hammers its playground, too.
Just a week after a Mustang GT4 dominated the production-based Pilot Challenge race at Daytona, Ford swept the podium in the production-based 4600 Class here for the second year in a row. With 100,000 spectators in attendance (compared to 50,000 at the Daytona 24 Hour), three Broncos put their stamp on the week, beating out competitors in Jeeps and Toyotas.
“The style of racing is very different, and the vehicles that do the racing are very different, but what’s common is the passion of the fans,” Ford Performance chief Mark Rushbrook said here. “Whether we’re talking to a Mustang fan at Daytona or a Bronco fan out here, it’s great to be able to connect with (fans) and show them what we are doing for the future.”
In its 17th year, the Progressive King of the Hammers Powered by OPTIMA Batteries attracted record crowds over its two-week auto-palooza, with 2 million watching the races online. They saw a buffet of off-road racing from Can-Am all-terrain vehicles to motocross bikes to modified production utes to the 800-horsepower, all-wheel-drive monsters in the ultimate 4400 class. Some call it the Super Bowl of U.S. off-road racing. Others dub it Woodstock meets Thunderdome.
“It’s the Super Bowl if the Super Bowl had football, soccer — then throw in hockey and couple of other sports,” said Hammers board member and CEO of Detroit 4fest Tom Zielinski, who is working on a new, electric vehicle Hammers class. “It brings together everyone who is an off-road racer and puts them all in one place. Some of the classes are amazing — you got to give love to the 100 class, which is full of old desert buggies.”
Whatever the moniker, King of the Hammers is more than an off-road rally — it’s a cultural event.
Located an hour north of Palm Springs off the appropriately, quirkily-named Old Woman Springs Road, Johnson Valley’s 96,000 acres of Bureau of Land Management desert is transformed each January into a sprawling paddock of competition vehicles surrounded by an expanding ripple of mobile homes, trailers, camping tents and hospitality tents.
Think of Daytona’s sprawling, 180-acre infield, but without the boundaries of its 3.6-mile “roval” course. And without Lake Lloyd in the middle. Indeed, there is no water to be found, and Hammers founder Dave Cole and his team are essentially mayor and city council creating the infrastructure for a small metropolis to function.
Hammertown’s sands are a hive of activity as police cruisers and trucks carrying water, food and gas share the makeshift streets with fans. By event’s end, every person and vehicle wears a cloak of dust.
It’s America’s biggest desert auto show. Brand activations litter the paddock including Polaris, Can-Am, Yokohama, Nitto tires, Toyota and more. Ford found it an irresistible opportunity to both connect with customers and to develop off-road technology.
“(Hammers) became of interest to us about five years ago,” said Rushbrook. “The 4400 class is like Daytona prototype class — but the class we’ve spent a lot to time developing is the 4600 class, which is based on a stock Bronco, and you’re allowed to make some modifications to it. It’s like a Mustang GT4 or GT3 that begins with a production body. It gives us the opportunity to show how the foundation of the Bronco is suited for this kind of racing.”
If Wrangler has become synonymous with crawling over Moab, Utah’s red rocks at the annual Easter Jeep Safari, then Bronco is determined to be Hammers’ favorite tool. Ford is the official automaker for the event and the Bronco racing team’s success gets attention.
“I saw Bronco win 1-2-3 last year and I thought — wow! — that’s my car,” said Bronco owner Alberto Herrera, 35, a San Diego-based computer game designer who traveled to Johnson Valley with friends.
Herrera’s pals hooked him on off-road racing at which point Ford’s “cool new toy” got his attention. “I traded in my BMW X5 for the Bronco because I couldn’t take the BMW out here. I needed an off-road vehicle to go to the races.” Herrera’s Wildtrak model is equipped with a Fox shock package inspired by the race shocks on Ford’s 4600-class competitor.
Some of the vehicles that fans bring to Hammers are as colorful as the 1,000-plus, multi-class racing entries. Races start and finish in the valley, then fans jump into their side-by-sides, pickups, Wranglers, and Raptors and chase the action around Hammers’ 70-mile long course, which includes high-speed desert runs (the 4400 class will hit 150 mph) to tortuous rock ravines where even the toughest vehicles need winches to crawl over giant boulders.
In the feature NITTO Race of Kings 4400 Class race Feb. 11, only 33 of 104 competitors finished, so brutal is the terrain.
Unlike Daytona, where the race course is for competitors only, fans can put their own vehicles to the test when class racing ends each day. Indeed, when the sun sets behind the San Bernardino Mountains, the action is just beginning.
“It gets wild,” said Apple Valley, California, native Jaclyn Robbins, 27, from the seat of her 2021 Can-Am Maverick ATV. “People come out at night in their own cars and just break stuff.”
While some fans stay in Hammertown to watch fireworks, eat or head to the concert stage to listen to bands like Sublime and Mama Foxxy & The Whiskey Gypsy Rebels, others make for formidable boulder canyons with names like Chocolate Thunder and Backdoor to watch racer-wannabes climb the trails.
“We’re mostly here for the after-race. It’s controlled chaos,” said Robbins’ husband, Lance Robbins, 32. “We just love to come out here and hang out with our families.”
An endless line of off-road mods lines up to conquer Backdoor’s formidable rock wall. Engines roar, 40-inch tires spin, tube frames flex. Some make it up, other flip on their backs like turtles.
“Everyone thinks they have that special thing. And when the racing ends, you can find out how good you are and where your talent runs out,” Zielinski said with a laugh.
For Ford, it’s all business.
When the Ford team isn’t taking drivetrain and suspension learnings from the Hammers classroom, it’s entertaining customers in its paddock display booth and Bronco Nation paddock.
This year, the Blue Oval debuted a special King of the Hammers Bronco — complete with 4-inch lift and special Fox dampers — and showed off its first Bronco DR turn-key racer to customer teams. Ford brings a full feet of partners and drivers to communicate the brand.
“We have great drivers like two-time (4400 class) winner Loren Healy, 4600 class champion Jason Scherer, Vaughn Gittin Jr., Bailey Cole, Brad Lovell. Brad had been a great partner for us in developing the Branco Raptor, F-150 Raptor, Bronco 4600, Bronco DR — and he raced Ranger Raptor for us at (last year’s) Baja 1000. Everywhere we go racing, we need great partners, great people.”
Henry Payne is auto critic for The Detroit News. Find him at hpayne@detroitnews.com or Twitter @HenryEPayne.
Payne: Racing across the desert in the ferocious Ford Bronco DR
Posted by Talbot Payne on February 16, 2023
Johnson Valley, California — I swung my body over the door sill, strapped myself into the molded seat with a five-point safety belt and gripped the steering wheel with Nomex gloves. Exploding forward, I watched for the dashboard Christmas lights to blink red before upshifting, the engine’s controlled violence shaking the roll cage around me. Feels like a race car. Sounds like a race car.
Except I am sitting 12 inches off the ground and slinging sand with all four of my 37-inch BF Goodrich all-terrain tires.
Welcome to the cockpit of the Bronco DR, Ford’s first purpose-built racing SUV. DR for Desert Racer. Dearborn’s automaker was born on the race track — Henry Ford raised capital by impressing investors with his vehicles’ performance capabilities — and the company has consistently used competition to hone technology and showcase its brand.
But the DR is something new. Where Ford has long made purpose-built Mustang dragsters and GT sports cars for customer teams to conquer legendary American asphalt tracks like Pomona and Daytona International Speedway, Bronco DR is made for dirt trails. Epic dirt trails like the SCORE Baja 1000 or the King of the Hammers here in California, where I got a brief taste of what it’s like to go off-road desert racing.
“This is a ground-up build,” said Ford Performance boss Mark Rushbrook of the turn-key customer racer that follows the Bronco R prototype Ford raced in the 2019-20 Baja 1000s. “(We’ve created) a desert racer that is competition-ready coming out of the factory — something Ford has never done before.”
WAAARRGGH! WHUMP!
On an undulating desert trail, I powered over a large mogul — lifting off the throttle to reduce stress on the V8-powered drivetrain as I sailed 30 feet through the air. The DR stuck the four-point landing and I was on the gas before the next whoop. Unlike my native sports car racing, where the throttle is treated like an ON-OFF switch as I maintain max revs over billiard-smooth race tracks, off-roading is constant modulation to navigate the ever-changing terrain of Mother Nature.
It’s a different discipline than on-road racing.
Later in the day, I rode shotgun with Vaughn Gitten Jr., a Ford factory racer who pilots a similar-to-the-DR #2565 Bronco in the Hammer’s 4400 racing class. Like me, Gitten was raised on asphalt racing, and he’s a drift-racing legend as a two-time Formula Drift champion. He’s taken on a second career as an off-road pilot.
As we charged across the landscape, I remarked how desert racing seems to involve little drifting.
“Yeah, these cars have to navigate everything from sand to rocks to rough moguls, so ride-height and shock travel is key,” said Gittin through his helmet microphone. “It’s all about tire placement. But give me a steering wheel and four tires and I’ll figure it out.”
To help off-road racers figure it out, the Bronco DR is a completely different weapon than, say, the Mustang GT4 that I watched win the IMSA Pilot Challenge at Daytona two weeks before.
Like Mustang, Bronco is designed for production-based class racing, so it starts life as a “body-in-white” at Bronco’s Wayne Michigan Assembly plant. Then it gets the VIP treatment. The chassis (Ford Performance has made 50) is shipped to Multimatic in Toronto — the same race shop that screwed together Ford’s historic Le Mans-winning GT and now produces Mustang GT4 and GT3 race cars. DR is then assembled with a Frankenstein’s parts list to make it an off-road monster.
While aesthetically similar to the production SUV, the DR’s fiberglass body panels are new and wrapped around a steel roll cage to protect drivers like me and my co-pilot: off-road Hall-of-Famer Curt LeDuc. The all-wheel-drive chassis sits on big, sophisticated spool-valve Multimatic shocks and bead-locked 37-inch BF Goodrich Mud-Terrain T/A tires. The rear differential is taken from the F-150 pickup, the front from Bronco. Under the hood? A 5.0-liter Coyote V-8 out of a Mustang paired with a 10-speed F-150 transmission.
Gittin suggested leaving the transmission in automatic mode rather than use manual paddle shifters, so sophisticated is the 10-speed at managing torque. Given the severity of the terrain, the drivetrain prefers low revs for easier transitions — not the constant winding of the drivetrain to redline as in a sports car.
“Smoothness and reliability are rewarded on off-roading,” said my navigator LeDuc as we bounced across a desert washboard of moguls. “Easy throttle, off the brake.”
I preferred the automatic shifter, keeping revs low at 2,000-3,000 rpm. That was just fine by the Coyote V-8, which is built for low-end torque. The exception was deep sand. There, the V-8’s 400-plus horsepower came in handy — WAAAURRGH! — to keep from bogging down.
Notably, Ford chose not to go off-road racing with its first electric SUV, the Mustang Mach-E. EVs suffer in extreme environments like deserts where temperatures and constant throttle wreak havoc on battery range. There’s also a dearth of, um, charging stations.
The Bronco DR’s massive 65-gallon gas tank is key to getting it around Hammer’s 70-mile laps or 300-mile-long stages in the Baja 1000.
In time, I bonded with my bucking Bronco, learning its steering and braking habits. Unlike razor-sharp on-road racers, DR is designed for variable terrain with its shock absorbers and locking diffs. Oh, those shocks!
The Multimatics are remarkable in their ability to absorb off-road punishment (my spine says thank you) while also firming for high-speed, 100-mph dry lake-bed runs. “Spool-valve shocks are a game-changer,” said Gittin of a technology that originated in Formula One racing. Improving the production Bronco Raptor’s performance by over 50%, Bronco DR boasts ridiculous 15.8-inch front and 17.4-inch rear suspension travel.
The 6,200-pound beast also stands out with an approach angle of 47 degrees, departure angle of 37 degrees and 33-degree breakover angle while maintaining the production Raptor’s 74-inch front and 73-inch rear tracks for firm footing.
Johnson Valley is the natural habitat for Bronco Raptors and DRs, where engineers spent countless hours testing equipment.
My DR test complete, I headed back to Hammers base camp in an orange production Raptor. I rotated the drive mode dial to Baja and charged onto similar trails I had just run in the DR. True to its mission as an all-around beast, the Raptor was not sprung as stuffily as DR, so I couldn’t take moguls at the same speed lest I become a four-wheel pogo stick.
But the Raptor was still impressive and a lot more comfortable than the off-road racer. And when we arrived at Hammertown, I could simply open the door to exit.
Next week: 2022 Genesis G80
Ford Bronco DR
Vehicle type: Front engine, four-wheel-drive, two-passenger racing SUV
Price: $295,000
Powerplant: 5.0-liter V-8 engine
Power: 400-plus horsepower
Transmission: 10-speed automatic with shift paddles
Performance: 0-60 mph, NA; top speed, 105 mph
Weight: 6,200 pounds
Report card
Highs: Shocks from the gods; V-8 roar
Lows: As comfortable inside as a cement mixer
Overall: 4 stars
Henry Payne is auto critic for The Detroit News. Find him at hpayne@detroitnews.com or Twitter @HenryEPayne.
Payne: Handsome, hybrid Honda Accord accelerates toward electrification
Posted by Talbot Payne on February 9, 2023
San Diego — My 2023 Honda Accord is a looker. From its smoky headlights to its streamlined shoulders to its fastback roof, it is the most handsome sedan Honda has made.
But like the serene blue of the Pacific Ocean out my side window, the Accord’s smooth red surface belies the turmoil beneath.
In the U.S., state and federal governments are forcing automakers to go electric and Accord, America’s best-selling retail sedan, is on the bleeding edge of what that transition looks like. Now on dealer lots, the Accord has juggled its lineup in order to satisfy government rules, focusing its 11th-generation model on a hybrid-electric powertrain in order to encourage customer adoption.
The hybrid option has accounted for roughly 10% of Accord sales, but Honda is narrowing the choice of drivetrains to meet an ambitious goal of 50% hybrid adoption for its new model and avoid looming federal and California fines coming with 2026 regulations.
Gone is the 2.0-liter, 252-horsepower turbo-4 liter engine beloved by performance enthusiasts. While the sedan’s 1.5-liter turbo-4 did volume sales, the beefy 2.0-liter and hybrid offered a fork in the road: an option for performance buyers and one for green customers. Like the hybrid, the 2.0-liter served a passionate niche for about 10%-of-volume with Sport, Sport L, EX-L and Touring models. Now Honda will only offer its 204-horsepower hybrid in upper trims, hoping to keep enthusiasts in the fold with a combination of style, handling, torque and gobsmacking 44 mpg fuel economy.
My crimson, black-trimmed Sport L (L for leather interior) is one saucy sedan.
I was already smitten by the 10th-gen Accord that arrived in my driveway in 2017 like Taylor Swift’s “Midnights” album: A blockbuster. The car’s athletic stance, fastback and hot wheels — even the sculpted, horizontal interior — rivaled the BMW 3-series that I was also testing.
The last-gen Accord’s big black maw was the only dissonant note in the visual symphony. Honda designers have fixed that for the new model. The spare grille is now in sync with the rest of the sculpture, punctuating the thin headlights (different than the last-gen, jewel-like LED peepers). The Accord is a front-wheel-driver per tradition, but it looks like the rear-wheel-drive Bimmer with that long hood and fastback settled over its haunches.
At a time when the Lucid Air and Tesla Model S are setting industry style with spare, simple lines, the Accord fits right in. The rocker panels have been cleaned up, the door handles stripped of keyholes, the rear taillights integrated seamlessly into the bodywork. Body by Jake.
As readers of this column know, I’ve been writing about the shrinking gap between luxury and mainstream vehicles for some time. Why pay a premium price when a mainstream badge delivers the same style, tech and power for thousands less? Mazda CX-5, Kia Stinger and VW Arteon are vehicles that can compete on spec with luxury vehicles in their segment.
The 252-horse Accord was such a car, its performance on par with a turbo-4-powered Bimmer 5-series costing 20 grand more. No more. The Accord’s 204-horse hybrid and 181-horse turbo-4 are solid mainstream numbers similar to competitors Hyundai Sonata and Toyota Camry.
Honda’s customers are largely unaware of the extreme regulatory pressure automakers are under. So it’s up to Honda to make the regulations seem as unobtrusive as possible even as choices dry up for the internal combustion engines customers prefer.
In Honda’s favor: governments are forcing ALL brands into similar battery-powered drivetrains. So luxury makers are also fast losing what differentiates them: sophisticated, smooth, inline-6 cylinder and V-8 drivetrains.
Accord wants to use the hybrid as a bridge to electric propulsion, and it deploys some cool tech to hook you.
I exited my hotel parking lot north of San Diego on battery power just like my Tesla Model 3. Assuming moderate temperatures and light right-foot application, Accord will stay in EV mode until about 25 mph, at which point the 2.0-liter, inline-4-banger kicks in. EV MODE text lights up the lovely digital instrument display alongside a battery indicator to emphasize the point.
Honda has stuffed the Accord with insulation so it’s quieter than ever and the transition to gas power is smooth. There are still paddle shifters on my Accord Sport — but they are no longer for shifting gears. Instead, I used electric motor regeneration with the hybrid’s single-speed transmission.
That’s right, the Accord Sport Hybrid now has regen paddles like a Chevy Bolt. Cruising the San Diego ‘burbs, I managed one-pedal driving like a Bolt or Tesla (though the Honda won’t come to a full stop on regen like those pure EVs).
Entering Interstate 5, I matted the accelerator and the Hybrid squirted into traffic like an EV, using the electric motor’s substantial 247 pound-feet of low-end torque. The combination of no gearbox, electric torque, ECO mode and whisper-quiet cabin gave a distinctive EV feel.
Exiting I-5, I headed into the mountains toward two of my favorite places: Julian Pie Company (the Traverse City Pie Company of the left coast) and the California 78 twisties that get you there. I toggled SPORT mode — which firmed the steering and provoked a growl from the engine, and plunged in — leaving the REGEN paddle on full for initial brake assist as I charged into corners. GRRRRRR.
Like the artificial growl of a BMW i4 EV, but with one big difference: the Accord Hybrid has a massive, 560 miles of range with gas infrastructure that is the bane of electric vehicles. Like forcing Americans back to wired, landline phones from wireless cell phones, the EV transition will be difficult.
Driving the Accord is anything but. The sedan is typically intuitive, now aided by front-wheel torque-vectoring that makes turn-in even sharper. While sister CR-V SUV shares similar drivetrains, the Accord Sport is a reminder of why we love sedans.
The interior is a dead ringer for the CR-V with Honda’s beautiful — and ergonomically efficient — honeycomb-accented dash layout complete with wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto (the base, LX and EX models still require wires), crisp adaptive cruise controls, roomy console storage and multi-functional digital instrument and infotainment displays standard at an affordable $29K. Check out my favorite cloth-seat Sport model with wireless charger (so you don’t drain your battery with wireless navigation) and you’re out the door for $33,795.
Miss the 2.0-liter gas engine? It’s right next door on the showroom making a steroid-fed 315 horsepower in the roomy Civic Type R. It’s good to have choices.
2023 Honda Accord
Vehicle type: Front engine, front-wheel-drive five-passenger sedan
Price: $29,485, including $1,095 destination fee ($35,425 Sport L and $38,985 Touring as tested)
Powerplants: 1.5-liter, turbocharged inline-4 cylinder; gas-electric hybrid with 2.0-liter inline-4 cylinder and electric motor
Power: 181 horsepower, 192 pound-feet torque (turbo-4); 204 horsepower, 247 pound-feet torque (hybrid)
Transmission: Continuously-variable transmission (turbo-4); Single-speed transmission (hybrid)
Performance: 0-60 mph, 7.1 seconds (hybrid, Car and Driver); range, 563 miles (hybrid)
Weight: 3,488 pounds (Sport L Hybrid as tested)
Fuel economy: EPA est. mpg 46 city/41 highway/44 combined (Sport L Hybrid as tested)
Report card
Highs: Lovely inside and out; sharp handling
Lows: Wireless smartphone apps not offered on entry-level trims; fewer engine choices
Overall: 3 stars
Henry Payne is auto critic for The Detroit News. Find him at hpayne@detroitnews.com or Twitter @HenryEPayne.
Payne: What a Ford vs. GM F1 rivalry would look like
Posted by Talbot Payne on February 4, 2023
Ford Motor Co.’s blockbuster announcement Friday that it is re-entering Formula 1 racing after 20 years and partnering with the Red Bull team sets up an epic rivalry with crosstown rival General Motors Co. and Andretti Autosport on the world’s biggest, priciest motor racing stage.
Assuming GM and its partner get approval to enter the sport.
The two Detroit automakers are entering F1 at different levels — Andretti and Cadillac (GM’s designated brand for the series) is like an expansion team building from the ground up, while Ford is partnering with the reigning F1 champion Red Bull and its superstar driver, Max Verstappen.
Andretti Cadillac’s application to enter F1’s 10-team, 20-car field has been controversial as existing teams debate sharing profits with another franchise. “We expect to have a decision soon from Formula 1,” said Michael Andretti, CEO of Andretti Global, at the 24 Hours of Daytona last week.
Red Bull, on the other hand, is one of the sport’s titans, battling it out with Mercedes in recent years for F1 racing hegemony. If approved, Cadillac and Ford would go head-to-head — with other manufacturer-sponsored teams including Alfa Romeo, Renault and Ferrari — across 23 grand prix events on five continents trailing a train of private jets, shipping containers and semi-trucks in the world’s most exotic circus before a global television mega-audience of 445 million people.
“Ford-Red Bull and GM-Andretti is like comparing a tech giant like Apple with a startup,” said Charles Bradley, veteran Formula 1 authority and global editor-in-chief of Motorsport.com. “Ford will expect to be competing for race wins from the start, with proven multiple world champions, while GM will likely suffer all the pitfalls associated with a team that’s new to F1.”
Partnership aside, GM and Ford want into F1 for the same reasons: 1) because the sport’s fastest-growing audience is in the United States thanks to the ownership of U.S.-based Liberty Media, the hit Netflix series “Drive to Survive,” and three grand prix in Miami, Austin and Las Vegas, and 2) because F1 is an opportunity for manufacturers to develop state-of-the-art hybrid engines and synthetic fuel technology as the industry focuses on electrification.
The Red Bull-Ford announcement was made at a glitzy event in New York City where Red Bull unveiled the livery for its 2023 season car featuring title sponsor Oracle Corporation. Ford’s official partnership with Red Bull would not take place until the 2026 season as Red Bull is currently using a Honda powerplant. Honda’s decision not to renew its contract after 2025 set off a frenzied mating dance between Red Bull and other manufacturers.
The 2026 season brings significant regulatory changes to Formula 1 as the sport moves toward a fully-electric future. Teams will use complex hybrid units that drink synthetic fuels and split their ferocious, 1,000 horsepower 50-50 between a V-6 gas engine and 350kW electric motor. That dovetails with industry and government ambitions for more electrified production drivetrains. Among Red Bull’s suitors was Porsche, but Ford got the nod.
The announcement was made by Ford CEO Jim Farley, himself a passionate driver who competes in amateur racing. The players at the helm of Ford and GM are an important factor as the companies make financial commitments to a sport where over $1 billion is required to develop a powerplant and top teams consume $500 million annual budgets.
GM President Mark Reuss is also a passionate race fan — and competition-licensed driver — who conspicuously made Cadillac’s entry into F1 public last month.
Ford Executive Chairman Bill Ford is also a passionate race fan, in keeping with the racing culture that helped his great-grandfather, Henry Ford, attract investors a century ago.
“This is the start of a thrilling new chapter in Ford’s motorsports story that began when my great-grandfather won a race that helped launch our company,” the great-grandson said.
At last fall’s Detroit auto show introducing the new Mustang, Ford’s executive chairman took the mike to announce the pony car would go head-to-head against Corvette for world V-8 supremacy at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in France in 2024.
“Mustang will go back to Le Mans,” he cheered. “Once again, we will Go Like Hell.”
A committed environmentalist, Ford also sees his legacy as making the company a global leader in battery-powered tech just as his great-grandfather won the gas-powered battle with the Model T.
The pieces of Ford and GM investment in F1 technology are still coming together.
The shock of losing Honda, its engine supplier, focused Red Bull on building its own in-house unit like chief rival Mercedes. The race team is already well down the road to making a powerplant that conforms with ‘26 rules. That works with Ford’s desire for a strategic partnership — not a capital-sucking, multibillion-dollar engine development program. Ford abandoned its last partnership in Formula 1 — with Jaguar — when it couldn’t justify costs.
“Ford has taken a route that Porsche rejected, becoming a partner with Red Bull on the engine supply side but not the ownership of the entire engine project as the guys in Stuttgart insisted,” said Motorsport’s Bradley. Ford says it will provide technical assistance in all areas like “engine development … battery cell and electric motor technology, power unit control software and analytics.”
GM’s path is less certain, but it is not approved by the FIA (F1’s governing body) to develop a full-power unit. Instead, intriguingly, it may buys its engines from Honda, which will stay in Formula 1 as an independent engine contractor.
Andretti Cadillac is “taking a very brave approach, and it should be braced for pain, while Ford should have a far smoother entry,” said Bradley.
Honda, Red Bull, Mercedes and Audi are already on the list of FIA-approved engine suppliers for 2026. Given GM’s partnership with Honda in electric vehicle development, it would be a natural for Andretti Cadillac to badge a Honda powerplant.
“Honda will no longer be Red Bull’s partner from 2026. However, it has been approved by the FIA to produce its own 2026 power unit, so I assume this will be the motor that’s rebadged as GM — just as we’ve seen them partner in EVs,” said Bradley.
The good news for GM is that Ford’s entry makes it more likely that F1 will approve Andretti Cadillac’s application. With the exploding interest in the U.S. market, two American manufacturers would be icing on the cake.
“Having both American automotive powerhouses in F1 will really push its needle,” Bradley said. “The real resistance to Andretti-GM comes from the selfishness of rival F1 teams. I think everyone else sees it as a good thing.”
Henry Payne is auto critic for The Detroit News. Find him at hpayne@detroitnews.com or Twitter @HenryEPayne.
Payne: Darth Vader’s Lexus RX350h rolls out some interior hospitality
Posted by Talbot Payne on February 4, 2023
Southfield — The Lexus RX has been a standout SUV for better or worse. And its 2023 makeover is largely for the better.
Long the best-selling SUV in the midsize class, the vanilla RX went full sci-fi goth with its 2016 extreme makeover. What emerged from the changing room was the Bride of Darth Vader. Huuuuge spindle grille, broad shoulders, menacing headlights … what, no cape?
It was even more polarizing inside with a touchpad-operated center infotainment screen that had Mrs. Payne running from the cabin in frustration. It was nearly impossible to use on the road with your finger bouncing all over the interface, and the hearing-challenged voice-recognition command system wasn’t a viable alternative. I expected the Lexus faithful would reject this style ‘n’ ergonomic heresy en masse.
But like a patient spouse in a loving marriage, customers just shrugged off the inconvenience as a phase Lexus was going through.
“I love my dealership,” said a Chicago friend even as she admitted she didn’t bother to use the maddening screen controller. “They treat me like family.”
On such standout service is Lexus built, and it helps weather its designers’ more extreme urges. Sure enough, Lexus owners’ patience has been rewarded with Vader, Part 2.
The spindle grille is just as prominent as ever, but — like shoulder-length hair braids in the NFL or Jennifer Grey’s nose job — you get used to it over time. And Lexus designers have softened its look with a hood cap that better integrates the face with the rest of the RX’s sculpted bod.
When I emerged from Zoup! in Southfield with my favorite lobster bisque for lunch, RX stood out in a sea of dark and white SUVs. The blingtastic grille was right at home amidst Southfield’s shiny golden towers. The body has more surfaces than a Frank Gehry building (maybe Gehry is the secret designer?), yet somehow it all works together with a full-width taillight punctuating the sculpted rear tuchus.
Inside is where Lexus has really made strides over the previous-generation vehicle.
RX has flushed the misbegotten touchpad for a proper touchscreen — which has also made for a better organized console for cupholders, phone storage and driving mode buttons. My RX350h hybrid tester featured the optional 14-inch center screen and is an ergonomic standout with big climate controls, volume button and prominent STARTER button in the northwest corner.
It’s the rotary climate controls that grabbed me first. Concave and colorful, they are among my favorite dial designs in the industry. A single volume knob splits them under the infotainment screen.
The screen can’t match best-in-class graphic designs from the likes of BMW or Jeep’s Uconnect, but it is state-of-the-art with wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. And state-of-the-art with voice commands. Where I might as well have been talking gibberish to the last-gen system, the new Lexus translated my southern drawl navigation commands every time.
Navigate to MJR Theater in Troy.Navigate to Uncle Joe’s Chicken in Southfield.Navigate to QuikPark in Romulus.
This being a Lexus, of course, the RX can’t be content with convention. Never mind the touchpad controller disaster, designers are determined to experiment with new toys.
The squeeze-open handles are beautifully done for entering the SUV. And the armrest push buttons upon exit are nearly as easy. More problematic is the automatic shifter that always demands a left notch to negotiate the gear you want. It’s fussy at first, but with time you can master it.
But, Lexus, I draw the line at the touchpad steering wheel controls. Yes, yes, I see what they are trying to do there. Designed in coordination with the head-up display so you never have to take your eye off the road, the touchpads nevertheless are distracting (Lexus isn’t alone. Mercedes has tried similar, quirky steering wheel touch-pads) as you try and coordinate their commands with what you see in the head-up display.
Simple rollers to adjust adaptive cruise control speed work perfectly, thank you very much.
Otherwise, the interior is comfortable and well executed with plenty of rear leg and cargo room. On an airport run, the RX350h swallowed a large suitcase, two carry-on bags, a tennis bag and commuter bag without infringing on the second row. Second-row passengers are encouraged to infringe on the cargo space with reclinable seats.
Oh, did you want to hear about the powertrain? I nearly forgot.
The RX offers three drivetrains — base RX turbo-4, RX350h hybrid (my tester) and RX500 hybrid. The latter boasts a range-topping 366 horsepower, but somehow I doubt you’ll notice. The Lexus is intent on getting you to your destination unruffled, not tempting you to carve apexes like a Bimmer X5 or Mazda CX-50.
The hybrid’s continuously-variable tranny can be mildly annoying as it operates the turbo-4, but the cabin is quiet enough and the acceleration competent enough. I was quickly disabused from trying to lean on the door handles through Oakland County’s rural twisties, but the Lexus won’t let you down if you need to merge with authority onto the I-696 drag strip. In all-electric mode at slow speed around the MJR parking lot, the RX350 was positively pleasant.
Which generally sums up the Lexus RX experience. When I last spent a week in an RX driving to West Virginia and back with Mrs. Payne, we had no interest in spending any more time in the luxury SUV than needed. My wife physically cringed whenever I tried using the touchpad. No more. With clever touches like the door handles and interior ergonomics, I looked forward to driving the RX.
Just as Lexus owners have looked forward to their dealership experience for years.
Next week: 2023 Honda Accord
2023 Lexus RX 350h
Vehicle type: Front engine, all-wheel-drive, five-passenger SUV
Price: $48,550, including $1,150 destination fee ($58,755 Premium + AWD as tested)
Powerplant: Gas-electric hybrid with 2.5-liter inline-4 cylinder and rear electric motor
Power: 246 horsepower, 233 pound-feet torque
Transmission: Continuously variable transmission (CVT)
Performance: 0-60 mph, 7.4 seconds (mnftr); towing, 5,300 pounds
Weight: 4,450 pounds (as tested)
Fuel economy: EPA est. mpg 37 city/34 highway/36 combined (est.)
Report card
Highs: Much improved touchscreen; good interior ergonomics
Lows: Polarizing exterior; confounding steering-wheel controls
Overall: 3 stars
Henry Payne is auto critic for The Detroit News. Find him at hpayne@detroitnews.com or Twitter @HenryEPayne.
Payne: In Daytona’s high-stakes, high-speed classroom, lessons learned for Penske, Porsche, and Cadillac
Posted by Talbot Payne on February 4, 2023
Daytona Beach, Florida — You’re never too old to learn.
At 85, Roger Penske is an auto racing legend. His Bloomfield Hills-based Team Penske has won a staggering 18 Indy 500s, 17 IndyCar championships and three NASCAR titles. This year, Motown’s winningest race team and Germany’s most successful performance brand, Porsche, have teamed up for an assault on the sportscar racing record books. Nothing short of world domination is the goal for Porsche Penske Motorsport. But experience matters, and Porsche Penske haven’t teamed up in endurance racing for 15 years.
In the first race of the gas-electric hybrid sportscar racing era last weekend, it was Acura and Cadillac — veteran endurance racing programs — that dominated the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona over Porsche and BMW.
Backed by formidable engineering know-how, Acura and Cadillac have combined to win the IMSA Weathertech SportsCar Championship for the last seven years. Despite all-new cars for 2023 — and breakneck programs to develop them over 12 months — this year looked a lot like last as Acura and Caddy swept the podium. Acura and its Meyer Shank Racing team won for the second year running (Acura for the third year in a row), its ARX-06 dominating Daytona, taking pole and contesting the race lead throughout.
Like a thoroughbred pacing the field, the #60 Acura — with star jockey Tom Blomqvist at the wheel — pulled away down the home stretch over its sister Wayne Taylor/Andretti Autosport Racing car. A trio of thundering, V-8-hybrid Cadillac V-LMDh prototypes rounded out the Top Five, leaving Porsche and BMW in the dust.
“Massive respect to our competitors. They’re world class, we’re world class. These are the biggest companies in the world,” said Honda Performance Development President David Salters, whose California-based team makes the powertrains for Acura’s IMSA GTP racers and Honda-powered IndyCar teams. “Between us (and) General Motors, we’re game fit. Match fitness, I think, is the right word.”
That two of the world’s most revered performance brands struggled is a testament to the demands of race-car development. Teams expected attrition with the new, complex hybrids and Porsche and BMW took the brunt of it.
The BMW M Hybrid V-8, managed by Team Rahal Lanigan Letterman, suffered an early setback, going back to the paddock garage to replace its electric motor unit. Of the two Penske entries, the #6 Porsche 963, would soon follow — replacing its battery pack. Even the Acuras experienced difficulties as oil, gearbox, and electrical gremlins frayed nerves. In the end, the #7 Porsche finished 14th overall, 34 laps back while the #6 car — showing good pace relative to the Acuras — retired on Sunday morning with gearbox failure.
Porsche and Penske know experience breeds success, and they are in sportscar racing for the long game.
“We will learn quickly and we will have answers and results from all the issues we had,” said the director of Porsche’s GTP program Urs Kuratle. “There were a lot of firsts, issues we never had before … even though we did (18,000 miles of testing) before the actual race.”
The 2023 season has opened a new world to manufacturers and sportscar racing as international sanctioning bodies — IMSA in North America and FIA abroad — agreed on common rules enabling brands to fly their flags across multiple continents from Daytona’s high bankings to the 4-mile Mulsanne straight in Le Mans, France.
The emerging, common GTP and GT classes attracted an eye-opening 17 manufacturers to Daytona, with more to follow.
Of particular focus is the hybrid GTP category, which provides crucial development — and marketing opportunities — for automakers as governments force electrification and luxury buyers crave the new, new thing. In addition to the four brand entries at Daytona, 2024 brings new teams from Ferrari, Alpine, Toyota, and Lamborghini in the GTP class; Ford in GT.
Automakers have hired a who’s-who of racing teams, including Team Penske — its boss keen to add Le Mans to his trophy case. The stakes are high, the technical challenges higher.
“This car has been soul-sucking,” said Michael Shank, Meyer Shank team boss, in reference to the standard, electric-motor system that teams had to marry to unique, V-6 and V-8 manufacturer engines. “It’s been a lot of work.”
As the Rolex 24 demonstrated, electrification adds complexity. Intriguing as e-motors are, gas engines do the brunt of the work for punishing, long-distance runs.
“Racing has always been used as a test bed for manufacturers, and (electrification) is a new technology out there, so that’s why there’s all this interest from all the manufacturers to get involved,” said Michael Andretti, CEO of Andretti Autosport, who partnered with IMSA-vets Wayne Taylor Racing on the second-place Acura in order to learn the sportscar ropes.
It’s a big classroom.
Drivers from all over the world were in Daytona, too, including IndyCar stars like six-time champ Scott Dixon of New Zealand (Cadillac team), Brazilian and four-time Indy 500 winner Helio Castroneves (Acura), Colin Herta (BMW), and Josef Newgarden and Kiwi Scott McLaughlin.
The latter pair, who compete for Team Penske’s IndyCar team, didn’t have a manufacturer ride and raced with Tower Motorsports in the LMP2 class, one of two prototype classes in addition to the manufacturer-dominated GTP and GTD classes. They called Daytona a “race-cation” — an opportunity to keep their skills sharp in the long IndyCar off-season.
But these drivers were also determined to come to terms with hybrid systems, as IndyCar will soon go hybrid as well.
Meyer Shank is the king of sportscar racing for now, with Honda-Acura proving itself as one of the world’s premier powerplant makers (it has also won the open-wheel, Formula One championship with Red Bull two years running). The development process is relentless, and they see Porsche Penske, Cadillac, et al filling their rear-view mirrors.
“That just means the others are coming,” smiled HPD’s Salters. “It’s going to be amazing, isn’t it?”
With its first Indy 500 win in ‘21 to go with three IMSA championships, Meyer Shank is a team on the rise. Fittingly, Miichael Shank is competing against Penske and Chip Ganassi (five Indy 500 wins, 14 IndyCar titles), who inspired him as team owners.
“First of all, me sitting on this stage is out of world, out of body,” said Shank at the team owners’ press conference. “These are the folks that I grew up idolizing, and I run the team very much how they run their teams.”
Henry Payne is auto critic for The Detroit News. Find him at hpayne@detroitnews.com or Twitter @HenryEPayne.
Record crowds see Acura hybrid nip Porsche-Penske, Cadillac, BMW in 24 Hours of Daytona
Posted by Talbot Payne on February 4, 2023
Daytona Beach, Fla. — After an actioned-packed, 24 hours around Daytona International Speedway’s 3.8-mile road course, an Acura ASX-06 GTP prototype took the first win of the hybrid racing era at the Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona.
Acura beat legendary performance brands Porsche, Cadillac, and BMW to the flag and denied Bloomfield Hills-based Roger Penske a win in his return to Daytona with Porsche. Another Detroit favorite, Corvette, also came up short, finishing just seconds behind the GT class-winning, Mercedes AMG-GT.
But the biggest winner this weekend was sportscar racing.
From the shoulder-to-shoulder crowds packing the paddock to an infield jammed with motorhomes and car corrals to the 17 manufacturers represented on the capacity, 61-car grid, the buzz for auto-branded racing was everywhere. The historic presence of manufacturer-supported teams has provoked talk of a second Golden Era of motorsports after the 1960s when brands like Porsche and Ferrari first came to the fore as household names.
“This is a record crowd — 50,000 people — for the Daytona 24 Hour,” said General Motors President Mark Reuss, who was glued to the action in the pit lane with one of the three Cadillac teams GM was supporting.
Reuss wasn’t the only notable here. This new sports-car Golden Era has attracted a who’s who of race names. Ahead of the Saturday’s 1:40 p.m. start, team owners Roger Penske, Bobby Rahal, Michael Andretti, Chip Ganassi, Wayne Taylor, Bob Johnson, and Michael Shank assembled for a press conference — a combined 82 championships, 17 Daytona wins, and 31 Indy 500 wins between them.
They were competing in the new GTP class featuring wicked-looking, winged, gas-electric race cars at Daytona that were the class of the field.
“I just take my hat off looking at the people here on the dais,” said Penske, who was fielding the red-and-white, Nos. 6 and 7 Porsche 963 cars. “Certainly Chip and Wayne and Cadillac have done a terrific job, and I think that with Michael Andretti coming — and Bobby — we all see this seems to be a real platform for us to take sports car racing to the next level here in the United States, and . . . at Le Mans.”
The IMSA Weathertech series has been a test bed for manufacturers for years with manufactures like, for example, GM using endurance racing to make the Corvette a world-class, mid-engine supercar on par with exotics like Porsche and Ferrari that cut their teeth in motorsports.
But an aggressive push by the racing’s governing bodies — IMSA in North America and the FIA internationally — to coordinate vehicle eligibility rules, has suddenly put sportscar racing on an international playing field allowing teams to compete with the same car for championship across the globe. That means Penske will compete this year at the world’s greatest endurance race, the 24 Hours of Le Mans — one of the few trophies he has not won in his illustrious career — with Porsche, which also wants to add to its record 19 Le Mans victories.
It also has meant an explosion in interest from auto manufacturers who see racing as an opportunity to not only improve their product but to market their brands to a global audience at time when new technologies like electric motors are peaking customer interest.
Fans like Guy Arcuri, 62, and his son Vinny, 30, from Daytona Beach, who were part of the record crowd here.
“It’s really cool to see the new technology that is changing the industry in these race cars,” Vinny said. “We knew it was coming. The challenge will be to see if these prototypes can make it to the end.”
The complicated hybrid systems — pushed hard for 24 hours by superstar drivers like Helio Castroneves and Scott Dixon — drew reliability concerns, but, in the end, eight of the nine GTP entries finished even as the Porsch and BMW teams made multiple trips to the garage for electric repairs.
Both father and son have doubts as to whether automobiles will go all-electric as governments are mandating across the globe, but they were intrigued by the combination of gas and electric.
“I like the unique sounds of each of the manufacturer engines,” Vinny said. “But I also like the performance of electric motors.”
They were treated to a barn-burner of a race as the world’s best teams and manufacturers battled just inches from one another at one of the world’s greatest race tracks for hegemony in the new era. After 24 hours at speeds often in excess of 200 mph, only about 11 seconds separated the first four finishers.
The Rolex 24 features five classes — GTP prototype, LMP2, LMP3, and GTD Pro and GTD — but the GTP and twin GTD classes are where manufacturers have the most presence. Corvette has been competitive in GTD racing for a quarter century, and announced an all-new car for 2024 this weekend, but the current car is still plenty competitive.
It was in the hunt to win the GTD Pro class from the start.
“It’s exciting that they build a production car and then race it,” said Doug Cason, 59, a firefighter from Boca Raton who bought a 2021 C8 and then outfitted it with a big rear wing and performance Z51 package. He tracks the car at Palm Beach Raceway.
“Corvette proves that they are meant to be tracked,” he said. “I’m out on track with Porsches, Lamborghinis, and Ferraris. And those cars cost three times as much as my ‘Vette.”
Echoing other fans inside the sprawling Daytona complex, he was thrilled to see the new hybrid cars General Motors is producing — whether the Cadillac GTP hybrid that finished third, fourth, and fifth at Daytona, or the all-wheel-drive, hybrid Corvette E-Ray production car that Chevy just introduced for the 2024 model year.
“You have to keep up with the times. Let’s do it,” he said. “And I like that they are separating the brands on track and racing Cadillac as a hybrid.”
Daytona residents Jim Lloyd, 60, and Andrew Chubb, 46, work at the local Lloyd Cadillac dealership and were cheering on the Ganassi and Whelan Cadillac teams as they raced into the night. The Lloyd family helped make the speedway a reality — when NASCAR founder Bill France moved from the beaches of Daytona to the race track’s high bankings.
“The visibility of racing certainly helps Cadillac as a performance brand,” Lloyd said. “We have beautiful V-series like the CT-4 and CT-5 sedans. And the hybrid class is proof of concept that racing translates to a world with electric power.”
For all the big names on pit row, it was the upstart Acura Meyer Shank team that pulled away from the field in the closing hour of the 24-hour marathon. Michael Shank has been building a powerhouse team in the mold of Penske and Ganassi.
“Me sitting on this stage is out of world, out of body,” Shank said at the owners press conference. “These are the folks that I grew up watching and idolizing and running the team how they run their teams. We’re still earning our respect.”
He was aided by Honda Performance Development, the California-based race shop that produces Honda engines for IndyCar, and now Acura mills for IMSA. Acura seemed to have the perfect formula with standout sportscar driver Tom Blomqvist behind the wheel in the last stint and pulling away from some of the world’s most most storied brands.
“This is a landmark moment,” HPD President David Salters said after the race. “If this isn’t Precision Crafted Performance (Acura’s tagline) then I don’t know what is. It’s a new age. Acura is at the pinnacle of sportscar racing.”
Daytona is only beginning with the Sebring 12-Hour to follow in March and then June’s Le Mans in France. More manufacturers are on the way as well with Lamborghini, Ferrari, and Alpine all coming into the GTP class.
And for Ford fans looking in from the outside this weekend? The Ford Mustang joins the GTD field at Daytona next January.
Henry Payne is auto critic for The Detroit News. Find him at hpayne@detroitnews.com or Twitter @HenryEPayne.
‘Vettes-to-go: Chevy unsheathes Z06 GT3.R for customer racing teams
Posted by Talbot Payne on February 4, 2023
Daytona Beach, Florida — There are fast food franchises. Corvette is franchising fast race cars.
Chevrolet unveiled the Corvette Z06 GT3.R race car Friday afternoon at Daytona International Speedway, the first GT3-class ‘Vette available to private race teams to campaign in race series around the world. General Motors sports car racing manager Laura Klauser introduced the car to a sea of racing enthusiasts here for the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona.
The Z06 GT3.R will make its race debut here a year from now in the IMSA Weathertech GTD class, where it will clash with GT3-class competitors like the Porsche, Ferrari, Lamborghini, Mercedes, Acura, Aston Martin and BMW.
The Z06 GT3.R follows a quarter-century of success by General Motors Co.’s exclusive Corvette Racing team. Managed by Pratt Miller race shop in New Hudson, the factory team has tallied 15 North American sports car championships, eight 24 Hours of Le Mans victories and four Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona wins. The factory program’s most recent generation racer, the C8.R, was crucial to development of the production supercar’s first mid-engine model — in particular the 5.5-liter, dual-overhead-cam engine in the 2023 Z06 now in showrooms that makes a record 670-horsepower for a naturally-aspirated V-8.
Now GM will spread the wealth around, making the Z06 GT3.R eligible across the globe for the popular GT3 class. In addition to IMSA races like Daytona and Sebring, the Corvette GT3.R is also eligible for international FIA events like the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Ford has also announced development of a GT3 Mustang race car to compete in 2024. With delivery to customers beginning this summer, the Z06 GT3.R will be eligible to race in next January’s 2024 Rolex 24.
“The Corvette Z06 GT3.R breaks new ground for Chevrolet,” said Mark Stielow, director of GM Motorsports Engineering Competition. “This customer-focused race car leverages learnings from throughout Corvette Racing’s history.”
Where the Corvette Racing team’s C8.R (and previous-generation C5-R, C6.R and C7.R racers) cut its teeth in IMSA’s now-retired GTLM class, the Z06 GT3.R will be truer to the production-based Z06. The result is a more affordable weapon — backed by factory technical and parts support — that satisfies international as well as domestic series like Daytona’s IMSA GTD class.
The Z06 GT3.R was birthed by a collaboration of Pratt Miller and GM’s Competition Motorsports Engineering. Racing has long been a brand accelerator and petri dish for technology transfer to GM’s production models. The Corvette GT3 program will also bring in revenue. It’s a business formula than has proved successful for Porsche and Ferrari for years. Of the 33 cars entered in this weekend’s Daytona 24-Hour, seven are with Porsche 911 GT3 customer teams and four are Ferrari GT3 privateers.
“Corvette Racing has been an important influence on the design of Corvette production cars for 25 years,” said Corvette Executive Chief Engineer Tadge Juechter. “Corvette production and racing teams worked together closely in development to maximize the benefits of a mid-engine design.”
The GT3.R bears an uncanny resemblance to the Z06 road car — a version of which was present at the Z06 GT3.R’s debut. Both Z06 and Z06 GT3.R use similar, carbon-fiber front splitters for enhanced downforce in high-speed corners. From windshield to tail, surface elements of the Z06 stayed intact for the Z06 GT3.R, most notably side-air ducts to cool the engine and rear brakes. The Z06 GT3.R even features a production-inspired, side-impact crash structure between the driver’s-side door and roll cage.
“We wanted to make sure there was a synergy between the production and race cars,” said designer Phil Zack. “And what we learn in racing goes back into the production design as well.”
You’ll know the race car — not just by its decals, huge rear wing and accompanying diffuser — but by its unique, large opening in the hood to better extract air after it moves through the radiator.
Like the production Corvette, the Z06 GT3.R begins life as an aluminum frame in Chevy’s Bowling Green, Kentucky, assembly plant. Once it moves to Pratt Miller in New Hudson, just south of I-96, a purpose-built, steel-roll cage is secured to the chassis. Engineers upgrade the front-and-rear suspension with race springs and dampers, competition-specific rotors, and brakes. The wing and diffuser are part of an aero package specific to the Z06 GT3.R to optimize downforce, stability and cooling.
Corvette Racing was key to the development of the 5.5-liter, flat-plane crankshaft DOHC V-8 that eventually made its way into the production Z06. Track development began in 2019 — years ahead of the 2023 model Z06 road car. The so-called LT6 engine comes off the same line in Bowling Green on which production Z06 engines are built. The powerplant shares over 70% of its parts with the production engine, including the crankshaft, connecting rods and cylinder heads.
The race car’s engine will be capped at 500 horsepower and 7,000 rpm to satisfy Balance of Performance GT3 racing rules meant to encourage close racing. The production engine, however, is undeterred by such requirements and spins to 8,600 rpm to make its 670 horses. Notably, Corvette will not use the hybrid drivetrain from the Corvette E-Ray race car recently introduced for the 2024 model year. GM is focusing its hybrid race development on the Cadillac GTP prototype. Hybrids aren’t allowed in GT3 racing — Acura’s all-wheel-drive NSX hybrid, for example, shed its electric motors for a simpler, RWD, twin-turbo V-6 powertrain.
Customers of the Corvette Racing “franchise” will benefit from a support program. That includes an at-track parts truck expanding to overseas events in the first two years of the Z06 GT3.R program. Corvette Racing will carry full spares packages of bodywork and internal components while engineers will assist teams with pre-race documentation, chassis setup and data analysis.
“Supporting our customers is an area where we are putting in a lot of time and effort,” said Christie Bagne, GM assistant sports car racing program manager. “With this being our first customer GT3 offering, we have had meetings with many prospective customers to learn from their previous experiences, find what is important to them from a support standpoint and come up with a program that meets their expectations.”
“This has been an intense but very rewarding process,” said Klauser. “From the time we announced a Corvette GT3 car, I’ve received more inquiries than I can count. It’s a testament to a known product like Corvette, the minds behind design, development and build, and the success of Corvette Racing.”
Henry Payne is auto critic for The Detroit News. Find him at hpayne@detroitnews.com or Twitter @HenryEPayne.
Motown in Daytona: Penske, Cadillac and Corvette prepare assault on a great endurance race
Posted by Talbot Payne on February 4, 2023
Daytona, Florida — Auto racing has always been a key proving ground for Detroit automakers, and never more so than the 2023 Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona.
This year’s International Motorsports Association-sanctioned race Saturday and Sunday brings together an extraordinary intersection of Motown story lines. Bloomfield Hills-based Team Penske and Porsche have united for a historic run at the 24-hour race as founder Roger Penske seeks his first Daytona win since 1969 and the German automaker looks to add to its record 22 victories.
Cadillac debuts its first hybrid GTP race car as it vies for an overall win against the world’s best, including Porsche, BMW and Acura. And the mid-engine Chevrolet Corvette C8.R race car goes head-to-head with Porsche, Mercedes and Ferrari for the GT-class crown.
All three Detroit icons see sports-car racing as an essential piece of their brand in a global marketplace.
“Racing plays a huge role in today’s world,” said Corvette Racing Brand Ambassador Doug Fehan, who launched the race team in 1997. “When you look at all the performance elements that we seek in a race car — it’s the same for a production car. We’re looking for better aerodynamics, better fuel economy, we’re looking for new, lighter and stronger materials. They are not that far apart anymore.”
The manufacturer involvement comes as the industry is under the biggest government microscope since the early 1970s, when an OPEC oil embargo strangled gasoline supplies and Washington imposed strict vehicle mpg requirements. Five decades later, governments are trying to force automakers out of gas-burning cars altogether with electric vehicle mandates.
In the 1970s, politicians feared a planet that was running out of oil, and manufactures felt a moral responsibility to scale back on racing. “The shortage quickly put pressure on motorsports, which some saw as the wasteful use of a now precious commodity,” records the International Motor Racing Research Center, and race organizations formed a lobbying campaign in “Washington D.C. to keep Congress from legislating . . . sanctioning bodies out of business.”
Automakers fled motorsports and IMSA canceled the 24 Hours of Daytona in 1974 as well as its sister Florida event, the 12 Hours of Sebring.
Today, political activists are again sounding the alarm — this time warning of a planet that is dying from too much fossil fuel use. Once again, manufacturers feel political pressure — but this time they are investing millions into high-tech solutions like the hybrid Cadillac and Porsche prototype cars that will streak around Daytona’s high bankings this weekend.
“No doubt this is the most disruptive period for the auto industry since the 1970s,” said veteran racing journalist Steven Cole Smith of Hagerty. “Yet this weekend there will be 17 manufacturers on the Daytona grid. The benefits of technology transfer and brand elevation are irresistible.”
Corvette
Corvette Racing is a model of how competition benefits vehicle production.
“When we started the program back in the fall of 1996, the cornerstone was technology transfer. The C8 was the culmination of all those years of hard work and effort.” said Fehan in reference to Corvette’s eighth-generation, mid-engine supercar that was developed in parallel with the C8.R racer.
“The C8 development program . . . started well over 10 years ago (and) involved the race team from the get-go — from a clean sheet of paper,” he continued. My team was “were there looking over body design, aero, suspension. We worked together as a team with (Executive Chef Engineer Tadge Juechter’s) engineering group and Tom Peters’ design group. The three legs of that stool produced the C8, which is the closest thing you can get to a race car today.”
Since 2019, Chevy has introduced three models of the Corvette C8: the 2020 Stingray, 2023 Z06 and 2024 E-Ray. At the heart of the Z06 is a high-revving, 5.5-liter V-8 —– the first duel-overhead cam engine in a Corvette — that first appeared the C8.R in 2020, winning the IMSA GTLM championship in its first year.
“It’s been hiding in plain sight. (We were) developing the heart of the beast,” a smiling Juechter said in an interview with The Detroit News a year ago at the Z06’s media introduction.
The E-Ray is the first hybrid, gas-electric production Corvette. But the team chose not to race that powertrain, instead focusing its electrified racing efforts on Cadillac, a brand converting to an all-electric lineup this decade. Electrified powertrains add considerable cost, so IMSA allowed teams to co-develop a hybrid system paired with manufacturers’ unique engines (a bone-rattling V-8 in the case of Caddy).
Electrified Cadillac
“It’s difficult to go racing with hybrid powerplants. It presents a number of unique challenges,” said Fehan of the 800-volt, nearly 700-horsepower prototype GTP cars that are the class of the field. “We’re not talking here about batteries that are powering your cell phone. We are talking voltage that is capable of instantaneously electrocuting people, whether it be drivers or safety workers on the scene. (There’s a) risk of fire and safety aspect you have to work through.”
Drivers and corner workers must follow a protocol on how to handle the high-voltage cars in case of a crash. Unlike pure, internal-combustion-engine cars, drivers can’t just leap out onto the fender and celebrate a victory.
When Tom Blomqvist took pole position for the 24-hour race in the wicked-fast Acura ARX-06 hybrid prototype, he rolled into pit lane . . . and sat there. No one touched the car. Blomqvist waited for a green light in the cockpit to let him know it was safe to get out. If the cockpit light remained red, drivers are instructed to step out onto the fender, stand up, then jump as far from the car as possible to avoid electric shock.
“These guys in prototypes (have been) learning over the last six months and down here: how do you apply the electric power?” he said. “The connection between internal combustion powerplant and the electronics — how do those two integrate seamlessly in order to improve performance? It’s a huge technical challenge.”
And for Cadillac, it’s an opportunity to prove itself versus European exotics as it transitions to an electric future. In an indication of how important this race is to his company, GM President Mark Reuss will be the Daytona 24 Hour’s grand marshal.
“The element of electricity with their prototype is good for them. Cadillac is rebuilding their brand,” said Hagerty’s Cole Smith. “With the GTP car and EVs like the Celestiq, they want to position themselves for luxury buyers who follow IMSA and Formula 1.” Cadillac recently announced its intention to enter Formula One, the summit of global open-wheel racing.
For all of the storied brands here, though, all eyes are on a living legend. At 85 years old, Roger Penske is on a mission.
America’s winningest team owner, “The Captain” (as his troops affectionately call him) has won 611 races in 56 years as Team Penske boss, including a record 18 Indianapolis 500s. Across multiple racing series, he has 43 championships, including 17 IndyCar and three NASCAR championships. Last year, Penske became the first team owner in history to win both the IndyCar and NASCAR Cup Series championships in the same season.
Yet one trophy has eluded him: the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Daytona, the first major endurance race of the year, is a stepping stone to that achievement. His partner is that effort is formidable. Porsche has won more Le Mans races, 19, than any manufacturer since its first overall victory in 1970. It has also won more Daytona 24 Hours — 22 — than anyone else. But it has not won at Daytona since 2003.
Cole Smith observed that Meyer Shank team’s Acura has been the class of the field so far. It paced the field in the practice/qualifying last weekend — including taking pole. Right next them on the front row is the Porsche Penske Motorsport team’s 963 hybrid. With years of experience behind them — as well as the most miles testing the new hybrid system — Cole Smith counts Porsche Penske as the favorite.
“He was up for 36 hours at Le Mans, on the radio, asking questions,” Porsche Motorsports chief Urs Kuratle said of Penske’s visit to Le Mans last year, when his team entered a special, non-Porsche prototype to test the Le Mans waters. “He knows the open points list as well as our engineers. To me, the man is from another planet.”
Henry Payne is auto critic for The Detroit News. Find him at hpayne@detroitnews.com or Twitter @HenryEPayne
Payne: TrailSport takes Honda Pilot to higher ground
Posted by Talbot Payne on February 4, 2023
Sedona, Arizona — The Honda Pilot is an excellent three-row SUV to drop the kids off at school or take them up Broken Arrow mountain trail to 4,200 feet for one the most breathtaking views in America.
Oh, I’m not kidding.
Broken Arrow is a bucket list item for anyone who enjoys the American West. It’s the exclusive territory of Sedona-based Pink Jeep Tours that load families into three-row, battle-hardened Wranglers that crawl three miles over tortuous red mud and slippery rock to the trail’s grand finale: Chicken Point. Ooooh.
If you dare, you can take your own Jeep Wrangler or 4×4 or side-by-side and join the Pink Jeeps nearly a mile up on Chicken Point. Above you are some of the West’s most famous rock formations: the Two Sisters, Madonna and Child, Chapel Butte. Below you: the red abyss. It’s as heavenly as the names suggest.
I’ve made the trek twice in Pink Jeeps in recent years. Pals have conquered it in their own Wrangler Rubicons. I hadn’t seen anything but truck-based 4x4s or side-by-sides … until this January.
My Pilot TrailSport tester made quite a sight next to these off-road bruisers. A side-by-side driver waggled a Hang Loose! sign at me. Pink Jeep pilots stared like Porsche drivers at Waterford Hills Raceway upon seeing, well, a Pilot doing hot laps.
Track-focused performance cars are a common sight. Pilot TrailSport is the intersection of production and performance, but aimed at off-roading. It’s a growing trend as Americans have gone bonkers for sport utes. TrailSport joins an elite list of three-row SUVs (Ford Explorer Timberline, Kia Telluride X-Pro) hardened with off-road essentials — all-terrain tires, skid plates, all-wheel drive and lifted suspension.
WHUMP! Pilot’s front skid plate took a hit as I descended Broken Arrow. The chassis was unscathed and I kept on muddin’.
Sure, take that Pink Jeep tour when in Sedona. It’s awesome. But if you’re a Michiganian who likes to winter in Arizona, you can return time and again in the TrailSport for a fried chicken picnic on Chicken Point. Ditto if you live in Metro Detroit. Go to Detroit 4fest at Holly Oaks and get a ride aboard an earth-chewing Bronco. Then bring the family back there in the TrailSport with its sure-footed tires and tough underbelly.
Honda built the ‘23 Pilot new from the ground up with off-roading in mind. But also because the three-row SUV segment has become brutally competitive.
Over its four generations, Pilot has had to compete against King Explorer (which invented the segment) and formidable Toyota Highlander. But the three-row shark tank has grown with predators like the gorgeous Kia Telluride, sci-fi Hyundai Palisade, athletic Mazda CX-9 (and coming CX-90). Even the Nissan Pathfinder awoke from its slumber and was remade with handsome looks and endless interior room.
In short, this is a segment that new requires character as well as competence.
Continuous improvement
Pilot has always had bucket-fulls of the latter. The third-gen Pilot was an ergonomic marvel with its sliding console door — Whoa! It can swallow a purse whole! — and second-row seats that would collapse forward — Zounds! With the push of a single button! — for easy third-row access. From the Fit’s magic seats to the Civic’s multi-purpose console to the Pilot, Honda has never lacked in a intuitive understanding of what makes interiors more livable. But … as our friends at Car and Driver bluntly put it, the last-gen model “looks like a lifted minivan.” Ouch.
The next-gen required an emotional connection. Starting with the 2021 Civic, Honda isn’t just remodeling the home with the latest appliances; it’s brought in an interior designer.
Pilot follows the Civic, HR-V, CR-V (and forthcoming Accord) with a handsome, more chiseled exterior and interior to match. Upright, squared-off grille. Slit LED headlights, muscular shoulders outside. Crisp interior switches, tablet dash screen, digital dials inside.
The ergonomic genius is still here: one-touch collapse second-row seats, bigger cupholders to hold tall Thermoses, sub-floor rear cargo room, space-saving “trigger shifter,” 2.4 more inches of second-row legroom. The touchscreen is complemented by (starting with the most popular EX-L trim at $43K) wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, wireless charging (so phones don’t run out of juice while navigating) and standard adaptive cruise control.
Electrifying, not electric
Notably, the Pilot is not electric. It’s fashionable to say the future is electrified, but reality intrudes in three-row family vehicles that demand a gas engine’s superior efficiency and convenience. EVs are niche vehicles for multi-car households.
Pilot doesn’t even offer a hybrid. Swiss Army knife utes are packaging marvels, and hybrid batteries take up space better used for, say, spare tires. Not that Pilot’s 3.5-liter V-6 is an old, pot-bellied wood-burner.
Also remade, the growling six-pack is a peach when paired with a new 10-speed transmission. Multi-cog boxes aid fuel efficiency but often at the expense of smoothness as the electronics hunt for which gear to use. Nailing the throttle in SPORT mode over Sedona’s heaving asphalt roads, I found Pilot the smoothest drivetrain in class this side of the Mazda CX-9’s sublime 6-speed.
That comfort is even more refined in the Honda’s top-drawer Elite model, its chassis stuffed with sound-deadening foam while adding goo-gaws like a 12-inch configurable instrument panel and head-up display.
Put me down for TrailSport. All-terrain tires can be noisy with their bigger tread blocks, so Pilot engineers sweated the details to make them virtually indistinguishable from the standard all-season tires for on-road drivability.
With 30% more body rigidity, Pilot is poised off-road — displaying none of the body flex I’d expected. That rigidity translates on-road.
In Insurance Institute for Highway Safety testing, Pilot’s structure absorbed a 37-mph side impact hit that battered the doors but left the interior unperturbed. Like Tiger Woods’ Genesis GV80, it’s evidence of how safe modern vehicles have become.
All this reengineering costs money, and TrailSport is a healthy four grand (to $50K) north of the last gen’s simpler TrailSport appearance package. Happily, Honda has brought back the base LX model at $37,245.
Turning onto Broken Arrow, I toggled the mode selector to TRAIL. I pushed a button and the ceiling retreated, the panoramic roof revealing the red rocks rising above us. Kind of like a Jeep. Heck, maybe Pink Jeep will paint some Pilots for customers who want more interior comfort than a Wrangler bruiser.
Pink Pilot has a nice ring to it.
Next week: 2023 Lexus RX350h
2023 Honda Pilot
Vehicle type: Front engine, front- and all-wheel-drive seven- to eight-passenger SUV
Price: $37,245, including $1,295 destination fee ($50,150 TrailSport and $53,375 Elite as tested)
Powerplant: 3.5-liter V-6 cylinder
Power: 285 horsepower, 262 pound-feet torque
Transmission: 10-speed automatic
Performance: 0-60 mph, 6.0-6.5 seconds (Car and Driver est.); towing, 5,000 pounds
Weight: 4,035-4,685 pounds
Fuel economy: EPA est. mpg 19 city/27 highway/22 combined (FWD); 19 city/25 highway/21 combined (AWD)
Report card
Highs: Upscale styling inside and out; real off-road dexterity
Lows: Miss the old sliding console door; head-up display only available in Elite trim
Overall: 4 stars
Henry Payne is auto critic for The Detroit News. Find him at hpayne@detroitnews.com or Twitter @HenryEPayne.
First 2024 Mustang GT goes on the auction block to power diabetes research
Posted by Talbot Payne on February 4, 2023
Going once, going twice …
Ford this week will auction the first build of the all-new, seven-generation, 486-horsepower 2024 Mustang GT — VIN 001 — at Barrett-Jackson for big bucks. Proceeds from the most muscular GT model in the pony car’s storied history will help power research by JDRF to treat, prevent and cure global type 1 diabetes.
“We’re proud to offer the all-new Mustang GT to support worthy causes like juvenile diabetes research,” said Mustang marketing chief Jim Owens ahead of the Mustang’s 7:30 p.m. Jan. 28 auction block in Scottsdale, Arizona. “The winning bidder will not only support a good cause but become the owner of the first Mustang GT.”
The first model of the last, sixth-gen Mustang, with a V-8 output of 420 horsepower, sold at Barrett-Jackson in 2014 for $300,000. Other VIN 001 models followed, including the 2016 Mustang Shelby GT350 (for $1 million) and 2020 Shelby GT500 ($1.1 million), which also benefited JDRF.
The most expensive Mustangs sold at auction were the first 1965 Shelby GT350 for $3.85 million and the green 1968 Mustang GT driven by Steve McQueen in the movie “Bullitt” for $3.7 million. Both sold in 2020 at the Mecum collector car auction in Kissimmee, Florida.
The new ’24 model hearkens back to those classics with its fastback coupe, eight-cylinder power, and muscular haunches, but it is in another league when it comes to technology. The new car features twin, digital screen displays, rendered 3D graphics and an electronic brake for drifting,
The 2024 model’s 486 horsepower blows away even the legendary, 1965 Shelby GT350 – raced by Ken Miles of “Ford v Ferrari” fame, thanks to a modern, dual-air intake and throttle body design.
The winning bidder will be able to build their GT from the ground up including the option of manual or automatic transmissions, 11 exterior colors, alloy wheels, Brembo brake calipers, and a Performance Pack that adds goodies like an active exhaust and Recaro sport seats.
Henry Payne is auto critic for The Detroit News. Find him at hpayne@detroitnews.com or Twitter @HenryEPayne
First 2024 Mustang GT goes on the auction block to power diabetes research
Posted by Talbot Payne on January 24, 2023
Going once, going twice …
Ford this week will auction the first build of the all-new, seven-generation, 486-horsepower 2024 Mustang GT — VIN 001 — at Barrett-Jackson for big bucks. Proceeds from the most muscular GT model in the pony car’s storied history will help power research by JDRF to treat, prevent and cure global type 1 diabetes.
“We’re proud to offer the all-new Mustang GT to support worthy causes like juvenile diabetes research,” said Mustang marketing chief Jim Owens ahead of the Mustang’s 7:30 p.m. Jan. 28 auction block in Scottsdale, Arizona. “The winning bidder will not only support a good cause but become the owner of the first Mustang GT.”
The first model of the last, sixth-gen Mustang, with a V-8 output of 420 horsepower, sold at Barrett-Jackson in 2014 for $300,000. Other VIN 001 models followed, including the 2016 Mustang Shelby GT350 (for $1 million) and 2020 Shelby GT500 ($1.1 million), which also benefited JDRF.
The most expensive Mustangs sold at auction were the first 1965 Shelby GT350 for $3.85 million and the green 1968 Mustang GT driven by Steve McQueen in the movie “Bullitt” for $3.7 million. Both sold in 2020 at the Mecum collector car auction in Kissimmee, Florida.
The new ’24 model hearkens back to those classics with its fastback coupe, eight-cylinder power, and muscular haunches, but it is in another league when it comes to technology. The new car features twin, digital screen displays, rendered 3D graphics and an electronic brake for drifting,
The 2024 model’s 486 horsepower blows away even the legendary, 1965 Shelby GT350 – raced by Ken Miles of “Ford v Ferrari” fame, thanks to a modern, dual-air intake and throttle body design.
The winning bidder will be able to build their GT from the ground up including the option of manual or automatic transmissions, 11 exterior colors, alloy wheels, Brembo brake calipers, and a Performance Pack that adds goodies like an active exhaust and Recaro sport seats.
Henry Payne is auto critic for The Detroit News. Find him at hpayne@detroitnews.com or Twitter @HenryEPayne
First Detroit Snowfest off-road event blows into Holly Oaks Saturday
Posted by Talbot Payne on January 24, 2023
Southeast Michigan’s biggest annual off-road event, Detroit 4fest in September, now has a winter partner.
The first annual Detroit Snowfest Powered by Jeep kicks off Saturday with hundreds of off-road warriors in Wranglers, Rubicons, Broncos, Raptors, ZR2s, RZRs, 4Runners, 4X4s and side-by-sides expected to descend on Holly Oaks ORV Park.
At their disposal is a 185-acre playground featuring off-road trials, tracks and the vertical Mt. Magna obstacle course with Moab, Utah-inspired features like Potato Salad Hill and the Hot Tub. Detroit 4fest — which will celebrate its sixth year next September as part of Detroit’s September auto-palooza of events including the North American International Auto Show and American Speed Festival — has been a wild success with thousands of off-road enthusiasts descending on the Oakland County park.
“We wanted to provide the off-road community with a wintertime event based on the overwhelming response we have received from 4fest,” said 4fest/Snowfest CEO Tom Zielinski. “And winter brings its own set of fun challenges with more slippery climbs in the wet versus the dry.”
Snow isn’t forecast to make an appearance at Snowfest this year, with no flakes in the forecast until Sunday. But the tundra will be plenty challenging anyway. Zielinski and his team have been busy grooming the back 72 acres, which came on line last year.
Open to the public since the fall of 2020, Holly Oaks (off Exit 101 on I-75 50 miles north of Detroit) has dovetailed with Americans’ lust for all things outdoors. The auto industry has responded with a flood of new off-road vehicles and trims including the V8-powered Jeep Wrangler 392, Ford’s Bronco brand lineup, Chevy’s ZR2 off-road models, GMC AT4 models, Toyota TRDs, Ford Tremor pickups, even dirt-kicking electric pickups like the Rivian 1RT and GMC Hummer.
Holly Oaks offers enthusiasts the chance to try their new wheels (Snowfest only asks that four-wheel-vehicles — no motorbikes — attend) in their back yard without having to travel to remote parks like Drummond Island in the Upper Peninsula or Silver Lake on Lake Michigan. To that end, Snowfest will offer an Off-Road 101 session put on by Discover 4×4 Adventures as well as two guided tours of the park’s trails.
The Jeep brand is synonomous with off-roading and is Snowfest’s chief patron. There will be a Jeep display in the Holly Oaks paddock and Jeep boss and Stellantis Senior VP Jim Morrison, a rabid off-roader himself, will be on hand for a Jeep Talk with Wrangler product manager Scott Blum.
Gates open for parking and safety flag sales at 8 a.m. High Octane Coffee will be served at 9 am., followed by lunch at 11 a.m. For more information and to register for the event, visit www.detroitsnowfest.com.
“We have a great lineup of participants and are looking forward to a great day of off-roading,” said Zielinski.
Henry Payne is auto critic for The Detroit News. Find him at hpayne@detroitnews.com or Twitter @HenryEPayne
Payne: Nissan Ariya EV turns over a new Leaf with silky style
Posted by Talbot Payne on January 20, 2023
Farmington Hills — Like the Kardashians on a budget, Nissan is a value brand with a taste for high fashion. Go to a Nissan dealership to buy a $25K Sentra loaded with standard goodies — auto high beams, adaptive cruise control, wireless Apple CarPlay/Android Auto — but be sure to wander over to the $45K Murano Platinum SUV and ogle its sculpted grille and quilted albino leather seats.
The brand’s new electric vehicle, the Ariya, is of the latter stylish persuasion.
Draped in bronze, my $45K tester should be strutting down a posh Paris runway, not an uneven Detroit street. Its lines are toned, sculpted. A blackened roof floats above its copper physique. Chic. Check out the shard-like spokes on the 19-inch wheels, also dipped in bronze. Like Mrs. Payne negotiating grated city streets in high heels, I’m careful I don’t stumble into a Michigan pothole.
Step inside and Nissan wants to whisk you away to a club lounge. The unique cabin evokes a five-piece furniture set: four leather seats around a table. The console moves with the touch of a button so that different body types (I’m tall, my wife a foot shorter) can adjust the furniture to best operate the automatic shifter. There’s even a drawer in the dash for storage.
Haptic-controlled, colored climate controls are set into the lush wood of the tabletop — er, dash. The landscape is interrupted by a single knob — for volume.
It took me back to my 2014 Detroit News Vehicle of the Year, the Cadillac CTS, that tried similar bleeding-edge e-controls. They were controversial and ultimately abandoned — but the Ariya advances the art with a light touch to activate. Not so the console buttons.
Located aft of the shifter, Drive Mode, Self-Park and e-Step selectors all require a deliberate push to engage. Nissan assumes you won’t be accessing them often — and it wants you to look at them, not casually punch at them as you might climate control.
As for the blocky shifter, it’s the only raised item on the console face. Like a TV controller sitting on a side table, it makes the device go. This simple elegance sits under the most conventional feature in Ariya’s cockpit — a single screen that contains twin 12.3-inch instrument and infotainment displays familiar to other EVs like the Hyundai Ioniq 5 or BMW iX.
Ariya’s flowing architecture is distinctive. In the age of EVs, drivetrains are all similar. Same lithium ion battery, same electric motors, same instant torque. Smooth? Yes. Quiet? Yes, but how do you create brand separation?
That’s a challenge for BMW, whose silky-smooth inline-6 cylinder engines separated it from the proles. But with an e-motor making a Nissan as smooth as a Bimmer (uh-oh), the Bavarian brand has resorted to piping into the cabin wild electronic sounds to set it apart. Think hard rock guitar versus a Japanese flute.
For Nissan, the serene EV experience is the whole point. As is the exterior — a much more pleasing symphony of lines compared to Bimmer’s in-your-face kidney grille. Ariya’s serenity dovetails with the exterior’s smooth, soaring lines and the interior’s comfortable furniture.
I put my foot into the Ariya through Oakland County’s lake country, but this isn’t a vehicle that wants to be flogged. It’s a warmblood horse aimed at the dressage competition, not a thoroughbred vying for the Kentucky Derby crown.
To this end, Ariya is technically proficient, performing its duties with poise. Cruising a crowded parking lot for a space, I pressed the SELF-PARK button for perpendicular parking. An arrow pointed at an open space as I passed. I stopped the car, put it in reverse and Ariya did the rest. Unlike competitors, however, Ariya won’t extract itself from the space — either perpendicular or parallel.
More comprehensive is Ariya’s self-driving ambition.
So nerdy is Nissan about this sci-fi stuff that it debuted an ad campaign touting its semi-autonomous moves along with the launch of Rogue One, the Star Wars prequel. But Rogue’s adaptive cruise system was a novice compared to Ariya’s semi-autonomous Skywalker.
Cruising along I-696, I toggled adaptive cruise and a green wheel appeared. After a few miles that changed to a blue wheel — the symbol of hands-free driving as I’ve grown used to with my Tesla Model 3’s Autopilot. While Tesla requires torque on the wheel so the system knows you’re present, the Nissan only needs a touch. As a result, the car is easy to self-drive for miles.
My brief time in the Ariya around Metro Detroit didn’t offer me the chance to see how routinely I can access the Blue Wheel mode — but I’ll do a more comprehensive road trip in the future.
A longer road trip will also allow me the chance to explore Nissan’s trip navigation software. Presently, Tesla is miles ahead of the industry with its dedicated charger network and parallel navigation system. Other automakers — Ford, for example — have been making strides in integrating their navigation systems with third-party networks from Electrify America, EVgo and Shell
I asked Ariya to navigate to, say, Charlevoix, Michigan (a common Payne family destination), and the system only responded with a direct route devoid of chargers. Ariya apparently assumes you’ll plan a route using a phone app. That won’t impress cross-shoppers with the Ford Mustang Mach-E or Tesla Model Y.
Speaking of cross-shoppers, Nissan realistically assumes that Ariya’s competitive set is other EVs like Mach-E and VW ID.4 and Kia EV-6 and so on. My $51K Engage AWD tester comes in 10 grand north of a loaded Nissan Roque Platinum. A comparable AWD Ariya Platinum will sticker for $20K north of its Rogue peer.
This is quite a change from Nissan’s initial strategy when it pioneered the EV market 13 years ago with the nerdy-looking Leaf. Even with healthy government incentives, Leaf hasn’t caught on with budget-minded customers. With Ariya, Nissan seems determined to erase memories of Leaf with its more dashing Ariya sibling.
These are two vehicles that shop at different clothing stores — Leaf at Walmart and Ariiya at Nordstrom. Ariya has even rejected Leaf’s signature center-hood charging port for a right-side charger door.
For all the noise about governments mandating EV-only sales in just seven years, Ariya and its EV peers are aimed at premium niche buyers who appreciate its grace — and excellent taste in furniture. And those buyers will also have a Pathfinder or Murano in the garage for long-distance family adventures.
Next week: 2023 Honda Pilot
2023 Nissan Ariya
Vehicle type: Battery-powered, front- and all-wheel-drive five-passenger SUV
Price: $44,485, including $1,295 destination fee ($45,180 Engage FWD as tested)
Powerplant: 63-87 kWh lithium-ion battery with single or dual electric motors
Power: 214-238 horsepower, 221 pound-feet torque (FWD); 389 horsepower, 442 pound-feet torque (AWD)
Transmission: Single-speed direct drive
Performance: 0-60 mph, 4.9-7.2 seconds (Car and Driver est.); top speed, 115 mph
Weight: 4,700 pounds est. (FWD as tested)
Fuel economy: EPA 98-103 MPGe; range, 214-304 miles (214 miles as tested)
Report card
Highs: Easy on the eyes; high-tech, fashionable interior
Lows: Navigate-to-chargers a work in progress; haptic touch controls not for everyone
Overall: 3 stars
Henry Payne is auto critic for The Detroit News. Find him at hpayne@detroitnews.com or Twitter @HenryEPayne
E-Ray Q&A: Chief Engineer Juechter on the first hybrid Corvette supercar
Posted by Talbot Payne on January 20, 2023
Milford — The Chevrolet Corvette’s first chief engineer, Zora Arkus-Duntov, is rightly proclaimed “The Father of the Corvette” for establishing the sports car as a performance icon in the 1950s. But the ‘Vette’s fifth chief engineer in 70 years, Tadge Juechter, will be remembered as the man who brought Arkus-Duntov’s ultimate dream to reality: a mid-engine Corvette.
Arkus-Duntov pushed the mid-engine idea — prized for its balance and rear-wheel-drive grip — throughout his 1953-1975 tenure at General Motors with multiple prototypes beginning with the 1960 CERV I. Juechter finally got a mid-engine Corvette approved for the 2020 model year — in part by arguing that the midship architecture would finally birth an all-wheel-drive Corvette to compete against similar AWD exotics from European manufacturers like Porsche and Lamborghini.
The 2024 Corvette E-Ray, unveiled Tuesday with a 160-horsepower electric motor driving the front wheels and a good ol’ 495-horsepower V-8 driving the rears, is the culmination of that vision. The Detroit News sat down with Juechter at GM’s Milford Proving Grounds to talk about his latest toy.
TDN: The E-Ray is the third model of the eighth-generation Corvette C8 after the standard Stingray and Z06. Tadge, tell us about it.
Juechter: It’s a different mission than the Z06. Even though it is similarly priced, it represents a different value proposition. We’ve long heard from customers they really want AWD to make it a three-or-even-four-season car. We weren’t able to do that with front-engine architecture, but with mid-engine architecture, that freed up space to enable us to do it.
Starting at the inception of the C8, we thought an electrified front axle was the way to go. It’s compact, and gives us a lot of efficiency. It’s independent of GM’s commitment to zero-emissions. We thought this would be a good idea and pleasing to customers. And it brings a new, higher-level of thinking to the Corvette. The Z06 is mission specific: it’s focused on the track experience, whereas the E-Ray is an all-arounder.
We like to say the Z06 is the scalpel — a sharp instrument for a specific purpose. E-Ray is more of a Swiss Army knife — it’s good at all sorts of things. It’s capable on track, but a great daily driver, and it’s great in inclement weather. (It’s) a car for anyone who wants an all-around daily driver.
TDN: Other manufacturers have done hybrid, all-wheel-drive, mid-engine sports cars. There’s the $1 million Porsche 918 and $170,000 Acura NSX that just went out of production in Ohio. How do you make this thing for just $105,000?
You see the same kind of material usage you’ve seen on Corvettes — composites like the battery cover is carbon fiber; our magnesium for the front-drive unit is probably the lightest in the industry; it only weighs a little over 80 pounds. This for a 160-horsepower motor.
Corvette’s value proposition is part of our history. Just because we are going electrified, we don’t feel like we can charge an arm and leg for that. We want to keep it a car that’s reasonably accessible. It’s not inexpensive, but we feel like we are giving you a really good value.
The E-Ray is a little less expensive than the Z06, but it’s got the battery pack, front-drive unit and carbon ceramic brakes standard. We think we are starting down the electrified road in a very appealing way. Being light is very, very important. Batteries and drive units tend to be heavy — this car is less than 300 pounds heavier than a Z06, which shares its proportion and size.
TDN: How heavy is it?
About 3,700 pounds dry weight. Heavy for a Corvette, but very light for an electrified vehicle. So we tried to keep it as elemental as we could — only use the technology in a way that enhances the driving experience. It does happen to enhance the efficiency as well, but we didn’t want to burden the car with so much wiring that we lost the basic element: the ride and handling, track capability, responsiveness. We didn’t want the car to feel more sluggish. We put the heaviest part of the unit, the battery, right at the center of gravity. Low, in the tunnel. So you still get that beautiful turn-in that you get from our mid-engine cars. We didn’t want to lose that.
The drive-unit is pushed rearward in the front — almost in the tunnel — so we’re not putting a lot of extra weight on the nose. So it still drives and feels like a C8.
TDN: You still have a full frunk. How did you package that?
Juechter: Everyone thought we would have to give up the front trunk. We didn’t want to do that. As an all-around vehicle, you want to be able to take this car cross-country. It’s available in coupe and convertible. You put the top down and you don’t lose any trunk space. We wanted to preserve the front and rear cargo for the customer, so you don’t have to leave anything at home. The frunk is almost exactly the same as the Stingray.
TDN: You also kept the pushrod, 6.2-liter V-8 in back like the Stingray.
The small block V-8 has been a part of the Corvette legacy since 1955 and we actually wanted to use electrification to enhance what people love about that small block. So you get all the sound and character — we don’t take anything away from that. However, we tell people this is a 6.2-liter, almost-500 horsepower small block, but the way this car drives is like an 8-liter small block with almost 650 horsepower. Except it has none of the downsides — you don’t feel the weight, you don’t lose the efficiency. This car gets fuel efficiency as good or better than a Stingray even though it has all the exotic proportions — (13.5-inch wide) rear tires. So you would think a car with this kind of looks, presence and performance would be a gas guzzler and it’s not.
TDN: I’ve been out here four-wheel drifting on Black Lake (the 67-acre asphalt testing pad at GM’s Proving Grounds) with your performance engineer Aaron Link. How do you tell E-Ray apart from a Z06?
There are some subtle differences. This car comes standard with more of a monochrome look, so fewer of the carbon accents pieces like you would find on a Z06. But the bodywork is the same as the Z06. Everybody loves it. We have unique badging, unique forged wheels. Because the outboard exhaust is ideal for the small-block V-8, we retain that. That is quite distinct from the Z06.
TDN: That’s because of the different engines?
Yes. The (5.5-liter, overhead-cam V-8 in the) Z06 really cried out for a different solution. We didn’t think we’d have two different solutions, but as we got into the hardware — and listened to the car — we realized we needed a unique solution. One good thing that came out of COVID is that it gave us down time — when the plants were shut down and we were working from home. We still had people coming into the Milford Proving Grounds trying to architect the exhaust and figure out what was the ideal exhaust for this engine. So there was a little pause in the program and we took advantage.
TDN: Let’s talk about the interior. Google Automotive Services is now running the infotainment system, and you’re doing something different with the drive modes.
We wanted to give people other feature functionality with the electric motor. Anybody who has driven a Corvette knows that when you start it, it’s not a subtle thing. The engines are very expressive, very powerful. They have a relatively open exhaust. So they are noisy, but there are times when you don’t want to wake your neighbors when you go into work early.
So we thought: why not use the electric ability to be a neighborhood exit feature? We’ve had Stealth modes on Corvettes before, which tone down the noise — but we never went completely silent. So in this case, there is a mode where — before you start the car — you can actually put it in Stealth Mode and it will run on battery power alone.
You can back the car out, run a few miles, get out on the highway, and then when you step on the gas — or exceed 45 mph — the internal combustion engine will light off and you’re back to regular performance hybrid operation. We think a lot of people will really appreciate that feature.
TDN: Thanks, Tadge.
Henry Payne is auto critic for The Detroit News. Find him at hpayne@detroitnews.com or Twitter @HenryEPayne.
E-Ray: Chevy unleashes first all-wheel-drive, hybrid, 655-hp Corvette
Posted by Talbot Payne on January 20, 2023
Milford — The Chevrolet Corvette turned 70 years old Tuesday, and in celebration the iconic supercar gets its first hybrid, all-wheel-drive model.
The $104,295, 2024 Corvette E-Ray expands the mid-engine, C8 model’s offering with a grand touring version to complement its ferocious, rear-wheel-drive, $109,295 Z06 performance model and standard, $65,895 Stingray. The E-Ray and Z06 share a wider track and more aggressive body panels compared to the base car, but they diverge under the skin. With a Stealth mode that runs on the battery alone and all-season, AWD grip, E-Ray offers more refinement for the daily driver. A $111,2954 hard-top convertible version of the E-Ray will also be available when the hybrid ‘Vette goes on sale late this year.
Not that the E-Ray lacks performance. The Detroit News got a ride along in the E-Ray at General Motors’ Proving Grounds to witness its awesome power and all-wheel grip on a cold January day.
“We’ve long heard from customers they really want AWD to make it a three-or-even-four-season car,” said Executive Chief Engineer Tadge Juechter at Milford. “We weren’t able to do that with front engine architecture, but with mid-engine architecture, that freed up space to enable us to do it.”
With an electric motor up front and 6.2-liter V-8 driving the rears, E-Ray is the quickest Corvette in a straight line yet, accelerating from 0-60 mph in just 2.5 seconds. The hybrid-electric drivetrain makes a combined 655 horsepower and 595 pound-feet of torque (the e-motor’s 160 horsepower complementing the small-block V-8’s 495 ponies). The Z06’s high-revving, 8,500-rpm, GT3-racing-derived, 5.5-liter V-8 — the most powerful, naturally-aspirated production engine made — makes 670 horsepower and 470 pound-feet of torque for a 2.6 second 0-60 dash. The base, 6.2-liter, 495-horse Stingray also boasts a sub-3-second 0-60 number at 2.9.
Paired with Z06, Juechter says E-Ray “splits the family” in similar fashion to Porsche, which offers parallel grand touring and track-focused models. Think of the all-wheel-drive 911 Carrera 4 compared to the rear-wheel-drive 911 GT3, for example.
In prior generations, Corvette has expanded on its standard model with three performance variants: Grand Sport, Z06 and ZR1. With the addition of E-Ray, The Detroit News anticipates the eighth-generation Corvette lineup will include six trims — including a new Zora hypercar at the summit that will combine electric power, AWD and a twin-turbo 5.5-liter V-8 for more than 1,000 horsepower.
The 70th birthday celebration is no coincidence. GM sees the hybrid ‘Vette not just as a game-changer with its unique talents, but as a bridge to an electric future where all of the General’s products will be battery-powered.
Corvette engineers say E-Ray was always at the center of plans to build Corvette’s first mid-engine car.
“Starting at the inception of C8, we thought an electrified front axle was the way to go. It’s independent of GM’s commitment to zero emissions,” said Juechter. “The Z06 is mission-specific. It’s focused on the track experience, whereas the E-Ray is an all-arounder. We like to say the Z06 is the scalpel — a sharp instrument for a specific purpose. E-Ray is more of a Swiss Army knife — it’s good at all sorts of things. It’s capable on track, but a great daily driver, and it’s great in inclement weather.”
Juechter noted the similarity to Porsche’s offerings, but for thousands of dollars less. A Porsche Carrera 4 starts at about $115K and a 911 GT3 at $170,000. Significantly, Porsche does not offer a hybrid version. And with the $170,000 Acura NSX hybrid exiting the market at the end last year, the E-Ray is the only electrified supercar in the market for less than $200,000. Other hybrid models range from the $237,500 McLaren Artura to the $2,640,000 Lamborghini Countach.
True to its “affordable supercar” calling card, the Corvette offers performance and comfort to rival European exotics.
“Corvette’s value proposition is part of our history,” said Juechter. “Just because we are going electrified, we don’t feel like we can charge an arm and a leg for that. We want to keep it a car that’s reasonably accessible. It’s not inexpensive, but we feel like we are giving you a really good value.”
At 2.5 seconds, the E-Ray beats the McLaren and Lamborghini to 60 mph, and nearly matches the $524,815, 969-horsepower, three-motor, twin-turbocharged, 4.0-liter V-8-powered Ferrari SF90 hybrid’s 2.3-second sprint.
The E-Ray achieves its “bargain” status by choosing carefully from the family toolbox.
The hybrid ‘Vette shares its fiberglass body with Z06, which was widened 3.6 inches from the base Stingray to handle more power with bigger tires. E-Ray options the same massive, 11-inch front and 13.5-inch rear Michelin Pilot Sport 4S summer tires that are standard on the Z06. The base tire is a Michelin Pilot Sport all-season wrapped around staggered, 20-inch front and 21-inch rear rims.
Obsessed with lightweighting — at 3,774 pounds, the E-Ray coupe weighs about 300 pounds more than Z06 — engineers kept the powertrain simple compared to three-motor, torque-vectoring systems found in competitive hybrids. The 1,609-horsepower motor and 1.9-kWh battery were developed exclusively for the E-Ray application. Even the lithium-ion, 12-volt battery (which operates the car’s electronics) is bespoke to reduce weight.
Under the rear bonnet is Corvette’s workhorse, 6.2-liter, push-rod V-8 making 495 horses. E-Ray is the only hybrid model that GM offers.
“If you look at the way we do out electrification, it’s very Corvette-like,” said Juechter. “It’s not a replica of technology that you see in other electrified vehicles all the way down to the chemistry in the battery pouches. Everything about this car is designed for performance. You see the same kind of material usage you’ve seen on Corvettes — composites like the battery cover, which is carbon fiber. Our magnesium case for the front drive unit is probably the lightest in the industry — it only weighs a little over 80 pounds.”
Packaging is key to a supercar that promises utility and performance. In that spirit, Juechter’s team used a compact e-motor up front and re-engineered suspension so as not to compromise the “frunk” — front truck — space that fits a small bag. The rear hatchback retains its familiar two-golf bag capacity.
Badging aside, E-Ray is distinguished from Z06 by its tailpipes. E-Ray spits its quad pipes to each corner (like Stingray), while Z06’s quad pipes are centered under the rear license plate.
You may not hear the E-Ray coming either.
The Corvette offers a Stealth mode (along with Tour, Sport, Track, Weather, My Mode and Z-Modes), that runs on the lithium-ion battery under 45 mph. You can wake the neighbors in the morning with a healthy BLAAATT! from the V-8 — or creep around the neighborhood in Stealth mode, emitting only an eerie, federally-mandated electronic noise.“Anybody who has driven a Corvette knows that when you start it, it’s not a subtle thing,” smiled Juechter. “But there are times when you don’t want to wake your neighbors. So we thought: why not use the electric ability to do a neighborhood exit feature.”
The Corvette team developed a unique screen for Stealth mode, and an E-Ray Performance App in the infotainment display to monitor hybrid data. As with the standard Stingray, E-Ray’s twin, digital, driver-focused screens are graphically rich with the infotainment display run by Google’s operating system. You’ll want to keep your eyes glued to the speedo, too — E-Ray gulps landscape in a hurry.
I rode shotgun with engineer Erin Link on “Black Lake,” an enormous asphalt test pad at the north end of GM’s Milford Proving Ground. Link initiated launch control by burying the throttle and braking with both feet. Then he released the brake.
With a V-8 roar, the Corvette e-bliterated 60 mph, cresting at 100 mph moments later. There was no drama. No wheel spin. No fish-tailing. Just relentless acceleration interrupted by lightning-quick shifts from the 8-speed, dual-clutch automatic gearbox.
The electric motor assists with “torque fill,” enabling instant twist from the already capable 6.2-liter. Fink said highway mpg numbers should be impressive (when available later this year) as the e-motor works in tandem with 4-cylinder deactivation. The E-Ray doesn’t skimp on stopping power, boasting standard carbon-ceramic Brembo brakes.
Moving to the skid pad, Fink flicked the wheel left, then drifted the E-Ray in a huge circle. Like an AWD rally car, E-Ray makes for easier throttle management with power at all four corners. Magnetic Ride Control is standard, enabling multiple suspension settings.
Buyers can customize their E-Ray from a buffet of additional features, including four aluminum wheel finishes, three carbon-fiber wheel finishes, 14 exterior colors (including new for 2024 Riptide Blue, Seawolf Gray and Cacti), E-Ray-exclusive Electric Blue striping, black exhaust tips, bright badging and two carbon-fiber packages.
Inside, E-Ray offers a choice of three seats and seven interior colors — including a deep-green, Artemis Dipped interior.
E-Rays start rolling off the assembly line in Bowling Green, Kentucky, this summer.
“In 1953, the enthusiastic reaction to the Chevrolet Corvette concept kicked off seven decades of passion, performance and American ingenuity,” said GM President Mark Reuss. “E-Ray, the first electrified, AWD Corvette, takes it a step further and expands the promise of what Corvette can deliver.”
2024 Chevrolet Corvette E-Ray SpecificationsVehicle type: Mid-engine hybrid, all-wheel-drive, two-passenger sports car
Price: $104,295 for 1LZ coupe; $111,295 for 1LZ convertible
Powerplant: Mid-engine, 6.2-liter-liter V-8 combined with front electric motor and 1.9 kWh lithium-ion battery
Power: 655 horsepower, 595 pound-feet of torque (total system power)
Transmission: 8-speed, dual-clutch automatic
Performance: 0-60 mph, 2.5 seconds (mftr). Quarter-mile, 10.5 seconds at 130 mph
Weight: 3,774 pounds (coupe), 3,856 (convertible)
Fuel economy: NA
Henry Payne is auto critic for The Detroit News. Find him at hpayne@detroitnews.com or Twitter @HenryEPayne.
Payne: Muddin’ in the Ford F-150 Lightning EV
Posted by Talbot Payne on January 12, 2023
Holly Oaks — It’s only fitting that the last vehicle I tested in 2022 was a Ford F-150 Lightning at Holly Oaks ORV Park on New Year’s Eve.
Lightning was the talk of the pickup world in 2022 as the first volume electric vehicle — beating to market its Detroit Three competitors and the Tesla Cybertruck. Like the love child of a Tesla and F-series, Lightning strikes with instant, stealthy torque while offering a frunk the size of a Manhattan apartment. It comes with all the shortcomings of range anxiety, too. From pricing to towing to charging, Lightning helped us evolve our understanding of electric vehicles’ place in the world.
Pickups are Swiss Army knives, and I had the opportunity to test the Lightning’s tools throughout the year. I drove the base $45,284 Pro model in Texas ranch country in May, then its top-drawer $94,004 Platinum edition on a road trip up north in October. The last challenge? Off-roading. So I headed to Holly Oaks in a mid-range, Avalanche White $86,199 XLT on the last day of the year.
My road-trip experience taught me that Lightning is best-suited for metropolitan truck duty.
Charging is a chore on third-party charging networks. More significantly, Lightning drinks electrons when towing — getting just 30% of range when hauling 5,000 pounds, according to TFLTruck.com tests. That means the long-range 320-mile model may not make it the 120 miles between, say, Electrify America fast chargers on I-75. And even if you get to a charger, a truck ‘n’ trailer may not fit the space.
Holly Oaks is an off-road park gem for many reasons — including that it’s just 50 miles north of Detroit, making for easy access to the state’s biggest urban population.
In May, I described Lightning as “fast, affordable and frunk-adelic.” Scratch affordable. Ford’s base Pro went from $39,974 to $55,974 by year’s end — a 40% price hike and about $22,000 north of its gas counterpart. Like most EVs, Lightning is aimed at luxury buyers. I still think it’s the coolest EV this side of Tesla.
My XLT tester starts at $65,269, but the long-range 320-mile battery adds a whopping $17,500 for a starting sticker of $82,769. When I headed north to Holly on a cold, wet 40-degree Dec. 31, I thought I might need every bit of it. EV battery range is a moving target.
Using my home 240-volt charger, I filled the Lightning XLT to 316 miles overnight, then headed out for morning exercise at my local athletic club. A seven-mile round-trip later and my range indicated 290 miles. What?
The range suck would continue on my 34-mile trip to Holly Oaks. At 75 mph in the rain, I took 67 miles off the battery. Still, this variability isn’t much concern within Metro Detroit’s 300-mile radius. Fast-charging stations abound and the Ford’s navigation system is quite good at locating them. It filters chargers by type, and I located an EVgo charger on my route (Great Lakes Crossing in Auburn Hills) should it be needed.
Of course, gas trucks have no such worries given their superior energy efficiency, but once you’ve figured out an EV’s radius, the driving experience is superb.
The Lightning has a ridiculous standard 775 pound-feet of torque (horsepower increases to 580 from 452 with the extended battery), and driving is effortless. The Ford overtook on the highway like, well, Lightning — ZOT! — with a jab of my right foot.
The rest of the time I sailed along on adaptive cruise control (which centers the truck in lane while maintaining a gap from cars ahead) in luxury — listening to Sirius XM while cloth seats cradled my big frame. Luxury is a relevant term in Ford trucks, and a similarly-priced Limited gas model would land me in posh blue-leather seats with Blue Cruise self-driving capability.
I met a couple of Jeep Wrangler 392 Rubicon buddies at Holly Oaks. Rain had turned Holly’s 176 acres into a pigpen and they were licking their chops at the challenge. Their steeds were armed for off-road battle with 37-inch all-terrain tires, skid plates and 13-inch ground clearance. I would have to be more circumspect with the Lightning’s more casual wardrobe: 33-inch all-season tires, no skid plates, 8.4-inch ground clearance.
Expect more from the Lightning Tremor that is surely coming, but I still had fun without chasing my mates up 40-degree inclines or through rock-barbed trenches. Using a modified version of F-150’s tough ladder frame (batteries snugged between between the rails), Lightning was plenty competent over Holly’s heaving terrain. I selected OFF-ROAD mode, which locked the rear differential for better traction.
Lightning clawed up Mt. Magna’s Potato Salad Hill — the 8.4-inch ground clearance (the same as a Bronco Sport) proving useful. It navigated tight Darlene’s Ridge with easy torque. And on sandy flats, it made for a willing four-wheel-drift partner (though I couldn’t turn all the nanny systems off).
Like tracking my Tesla Model 3, off-roading is hell on range. Nine miles around M1 Concourse’s test track (six laps on the 1.5-mile course) in the Tesla sucks 50 miles of range. My seven-mile, two-hour Holly adventure took 70 miles off the Ford’s battery. That’s some serious electron-guzzling.
With 151 miles of range, a mud-caked pickup and a smile as wide as Lightning’s signature front LED light, I headed home. Along the way, I topped up on electrons at that EVgo station. My experience with third-party fast chargers has been, um, spotty, and EVgo would be no different.
Located in the front of Great Lakes’ mammoth parking lot, the stalls were cramped (no room for trailers here). Two of the four chargers were 350-volt capable and I plugged in. It didn’t work.
The second 350-volt charger was more welcoming, and I gained 75 miles in 20 minutes (a long way from a gas F-150’s 400 mile fill-up in 3 minutes) while I made a DQ run inside the mall. When I returned, a Hummer EV was alongside and successfully sipping from the other 350-volt charger.
The last leg of my journey brought one more surprise. At 70 mph, Lightning took just 27 miles off the battery over 36 miles as the onboard Intelligent Range software tried to predict range according to the day’s wide variety of driving styles.
EVs are complicated. But if you drive locally and have deep pockets, Lightning is a treat.
2023 Ford F-150 Lightning
Vehicle type: Battery-powered, all-wheel-drive five-passenger pickup
Price: $57,669, including $1,695 destination fee ($86,199 XLT big battery as tested)
Powerplant: 98 kWh or 131 kWh lithium-ion battery with twin electric-motor drive
Power: 452 horsepower (standard battery) or 580 horsepower (extended-range battery); 775 pound-feet torque
Transmission: Single-speed drive
Performance: 0-60 mph, 4.5 seconds for extended battery (mfr. as tested); payload, 2,235 pounds; towing, 10,000 pounds
Weight: 6,015-6,813 pounds
Fuel economy: EPA MPGe 68 MPGe standard range battery, 70 MPGe long range; range, 230 miles (standard), 320 miles (extended)
Report card
Highs: Looks sharp, go-anywhere toughness
Lows: Range limited, gets pricey
Overall: 3 stars
Henry Payne is auto critic for The Detroit News. Find him at hpayne@detroitnews.com or Twitter @HenryEPayne.
Payne: Why I voted differently for the 2023 NACTOY winners
Posted by Talbot Payne on January 12, 2023
The votes are in for the prestigious, 2023 North American Car, truck and Utility Vehicle of the Year awards and the Acura Integra, Ford F-150 Lightning, and Kia EV6 stand atop the podium with their gold medals. I voted on the jury with 49 of my colleagues, all independent auto journalists. I judged the same finalists. I tested the same vehicles.
I didn’t pick any of the winners. Oh for 3.
I’m like the Olympic skating judge holding up 6.0 when all the other judges are showing 9.0. My selections? The Nissan Z for best car, Chevy Silverado ZR2 for truck, the Cadillac Lyriq for SUV. Let me explain.
Let me start with the SUV category. This was the first year that an entire category’s finalists were electric vehicles. That was not my choice, especially with affordable, gas-engine SUV decathletes on offer like the superb, sub-$40k Mazda CX-50, Honda CR-V, and Kia Sportage. They do everything well. Smooth, torquey EVs are more expensive, less utilitarian, and a bother to drive on long trips (I know, I’ve owned two Teslas) and are therefore best suited for luxury buyers with more than one car in the garage.
The luxurious Cadillac Lyriq is in the meat of that market. GM’s luxury brand is going all-electric this decade, and Lyriq is an innovative ute with old school Caddy bling ‘n’ swagger. Lyriq went bold, moving the EV styling needle with a front-fascia light show outside and curvaceous, 33-inch screen inside.
It isn’t just bold; it’s affordable in its class. Equipped with all-wheel-drive, the base, $64,990 Lyriq comes standard with Super Cruise (the industry’s best, hands-free driving system), Google operating system, wireless Apple CarPlay/Android Auto, 19-speaker AKG stereo, and lovely detail. That’s competitive with a comparable, gas-powered Caddy XT5.
And it’s priced right on top of the Genesis GV60 (the first EV from Hyundai’s lux brand) and just 7 grand north of a comparable Kia EV6. It’s also well below the $75k you’d pay for the best-selling Model Y EV. Don’t get me wrong, this was a close vote. The Korean pair are superb with fresh designs and clever electronic tricks — especially Genesis’s cool, remote parking features. And the Kia is a powerful statement (like the fastback Stinger sedan) of the brand’s premium potential.
My colleagues gave EV6 the nod with 258 points over the Lyriq (136) and GV70 (106). Each of the 50 jurors has 10 points to distribute in each category.
But if you’ve got $57,000-plus burning a hole through your pocket, you’re not going to want to arrive at the country club in a Kia. For a competitive price, the Caddy brings gravitas and Super Cruise wow its competitors can’t touch.
As for best truck, I didn’t think anything could match the Ford F-150 Lightning when I first tested its $42k entry-level Pro model in May. The coolest affordable EV since the Tesla Model 3 blew the world’s mind in 2017, Lightning boasted face-flattening acceleration, silky-smooth operation, a frunk the size of Delaware, and state-of-the-art electronics.
But two things changed my mind on the way to the NACTOY vote: pricing and towing.
The Lightning’s price ballooned to nearly $60,000 by the end of the year — a 40% hike that placed it in the lux realm (top trims of the Lightning are an eye-watering $90k-plus). For that kind of dough, Lightning lacks the Swiss Army Knife dexterity demanded of trucks. Namely, the Ford’s range shrinks below 100 miles when towing 5,000 pounds, limiting it to a metro truck.
My jury colleagues were still agog, granting Lightning a landslide win of 433 points out of 500 cast.
I gave the Silverado (also pricey at $72k) a 6-to-4 point edge due to its superior towing ability as well as off-road talent that can take it miles into the wilderness without fear of range anxiety. A distant third was the Lordstown Endurance truck — an admirable first volley from the startup automaker, but only available to commercial buyers.
The closest category was Car of the Year with the Integra sedan (174 points) nosing past the Genesis G80 Electrified (169 points) and Nissan Z (157).
For me, this was always a race between the iconic, born-again badges from Acura and Nissan. The $80,000 Genesis is a niche lux barge. Integra and Z are affordable toys aimed at enthusiasts everywhere.
My colleague and NACTOY president Gary Witzenburg crowned the winner: “Honda Civic-based Acura Integra looks good, drives well and is among the very few in its (or any) segment offering a slick-shifting manual transmission.”
I, too, am thrilled to have the sporty Integra back after a 20-year hiatus. But it’s the “Honda Civic-based” part that brought me up short. The 11th-gen Civic on which Integra is based is sensational with its refined handling and an upscale interior. Though its snazzy exterior is instantly recognizable next to Civic’s more vanilla wardrobe, the pricier Acura doesn’t do enough to separate itself from its Honda brother. Same front-wheel-drive, same engine, similar interior.
The Nissan Z, on the other hand, is a one of a kind.
Bearing the best Z design since the original, 1970s Datsun 240Z, the ’23 model also brought an all-new, twin-turbo V-6 and interior layout. In a market starved for affordable sports cars, Z is a reminder of how much fun can be had for $40k. I gave the Nissan 8 points to the Integra’s 2.
Put a Lyriq, Silverado ZR2, and Z in your three-car garage and you’ll never have a dull moment.
Henry Payne is auto critic for The Detroit News. Find him at hpayne@detroitnews.com or Twitter @HenryEPayne.