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Payne: 2023 Honda CR-V Hybrid gets leaner, dials up the fun
Posted by Talbot Payne on October 20, 2022
Sisquoc, California — Amidst the rolling fields of wineries, bean and corn is Martin Marietta’s massive Sisquoc Asphalt plant on a lonely stretch of Foxen Canyon Road here. Lonely except for a steady stream of semis pulling dual-trailer trucks. Like oversized ants, they scurry to-and-from the plant every day filling up on asphalt mined and processed from an estimated 11 billion tons of deposits hidden across 38,000 acres of Santa Barbara County. The asphalt has paved the ribbons of road that allow vehicles access to the region’s bucolic wineries and scenic views.
Vehicles like my 2023 Honda CR-V tester.
With its instant 247 pound-feet of torque, my CR-V made quick work of the occasional 75-foot double-semi — the length of a tennis court — as I hustled to lunch at the nearby Zaca Mesa Winery. Leave it to Honda to make hybrids fun.
In fact, Honda doesn’t even call its hybrids “hybrids” anymore. The CR-V debuted a gas-electric powertrain in 2019 in the EX-L Hybrid and Hybrid Touring trims. Taking a page from Ford (another pretty good performance brand) for 2023, the CR-V hybrids get macho black trims and wheels — and Sport and Sport Touring badges.
Sure, the hybrid claims typically sippy 37 mpg, but I didn’t come anywhere close to that on my 130-mile lunch commute from Santa Barbara, passing double-semis, carving canyon roads and merging into highway traffic with authority. My Sport Touring model registered a real-world 28.8 mpg.
With all of its 247 foot-pounds of twin-electric-motor torque on tap at 2,000 RPM, the hybrid with its 2.5-liter powerplant is quick out of the chute for merging and for passing zones. Credit, too, goes to a so-called e-CVT transmission, which responded to my Size 15 lead foot with smooth power — complete with electronically-programmed “steps” to mimic the shifts of a traditional, multi-speed cog transmission.
The CR-V was no Mazda CX-5/CX-50. Mazda’s terrific-handling SUV is my benchmark for the class with its massive 310-torque turbo-4 and milky-smooth 6-speed tranny, but the sixth-gen CR-V is a nice step up from the last-gen ute.
Whether the bigger engine its a step up from the CR-V’s standard 1.5-liter turbo-4 is another question.
The turbo-4, of course, is the same engine found in Honda’s halo King Civic — slayer of the compact car segment — and benefits from similar CVT magic as the hybrid. Over Route 101 toward twisted Aliso Canyon Road, I repeatedly stomped the accelerator, and was always met by a silky response — no jerks, no lags — of electronically programmed “shifts” propelling CR-V just like Civic.
With governments threatening massive fines if automakers don’t go all in on EVs over the next decade, Honda decorates the CR-V with EV toys like regenerative paddles to get you in the mood for the transition to full battery power. With sales volume of 400,000 a year, the CR-V certainly has room for EV models, but don’t expect mass adoption anytime soon.
The turbo-4 starts at $32,355, with the hybrid Sport model upping the ante by $1,300. Higher EX-L and Sport Touring models add goodies like leather seats, heated steering wheel and wireless Apple CarPlay/Android Auto. Weigh the Honda against a competitive set of CX-5/CX-50, Ford Escape Hybrid Sport and Kia Sportage, and you’ll find sub-$40K automobiles loaded with tech — adaptive cruise control, blind-spot assist, auto braking — found on luxe vehicles costing 15 grand more.
If you’re not willing to cough up $40K, then take a look at Honda’s HR-V and Mazda’s CX-30. They are similarly equipped for 10 grand less — but with less compelling drivetrains.
Crucially, CR-V earns its keep in this elite group with a major styling upgrade for 2023 both inside and out. Once again, credit King Civic for inspiration.
CR-V’s busy, blingy styling was eye-catching a decade ago, but it’s grown jowly with age. Gen 6 takes the stage with a leaner, more timeless appearance, while keeping signature touches like the batwing rear taillights. The powerful shoulders are right off the Civic. The bold grille? Think Accord.
Inside, CR-V adopts Honda’s modern, horizontal design language with digital screens, honeycomb dash accent — before tending to much-needed housekeeping.
That where-the-heck-is-the-steering-column adjuster that seemed halfway inside the engine compartment on the 5th gen? It’s now a proper switch on the left side of the column. The space-efficient-but-hand-cramping trigger shifter? Gone, replaced by a proper shifter stalk.
Other welcome details remain.
CR-V set the bar for second-row seating last generation with doors that opened 90 degrees to the body. That gave easy ingress to roomy rear seats that would swallow six-footers with ease. The 90-degree doors are back, and the rear seat room is expanded to boot.
After lunch, I folded my big frame into the backseat to catch up on email. If only Delta coach were this comfortable. The rear seat even reclined.
CR-V’s goal is to be competent in everything without pushing the envelope on one thing. The Mazda is a sports car in ute clothing. Kia’s Sportage is on the cutting edge of tech with a hoodless, curved screen and Level 2 self-driving nearly on par with Cadillac Super Cruise.
The Honda won’t let you self-drive with your hands on your knees for long spells like Kia, but it maintained the lane so that I could, say, manage Sirius XM stations and read text messages when they came in over the wireless Android auto system.
Honda still offers an in-house navigation system (perhaps because an EV version will need it to navigate to chargers), but its smartphone connectivity makes it easy to hook up your phone by wire with the standard 7-inch screen — or wirelessly via the 9-inch upgrade. Worried about your phone running out of juice when navigating wirelessly? The Sport Touring model offers a big charging pad to maintain charge that worked even with my massive Samsung Galaxy S20 (which didn’t fit in the last-gen CR-V).
A lot of Hondas have driven over Sisquoc Asphalt’s product in Santa Barbara County over the years. Civic is an American icon, Accord stole Ford Taurus’s crown as best-selling sedan in 1989, and now the CR-V has become Honda’s best-selling U.S. model — one of the three top-selling non-pickups in the land along with the Nissan Rogue and Toyota RAV4.
With similar Hybrid ambitions, RAV4 is CR-V’s closest competitor. But the chunky RAV-4 takes its design cues from the off-roady Tacoma pickup. With its sleek styling and stylish interior, CR-V is a Civic on stilts.
When another asphalt truck looms, its accelerator pedal is eager to please.
Next week: Road trip! Ford F-150 Lightning EV
2023 Honda CR-VVehicle type: Front-engine, front- and all-wheel-drive, five-passenger compact SUV
Price: $32,355, including $1,245 destination fee ($39,845 Sport Touring model as tested)
Powerplant: 1.5-liter turbocharged, inline 4-cylinder; Hybrid 2.5-liter inline-4 mated to twin electric motors
Power: 190 horsepower, 179 pound-feet of torque (turbo-4); 204 horsepower, 247 pound-feet of torque (hybrid)
Transmission: Continuously variable automatic (CVT) in turbo-4; electronic CVT in hybrid
Performance: 0-60 mph, 7.9 seconds (Car and Driver). Towing: 1,500 pounds (turbo-4), 1,000 pounds (hybrid)
Weight: 3,926 pounds (AWD hybrid as tested)
Fuel economy: EPA, 27 mpg city/32 highway/29 combined (AWD turbo-4); 40 mpg city/34 highway/37 combined (hybrid)
Report card
Highs: Crisp styling; roomy interior
Lows: Real-world hybrid fuel economy shy of specs; no more sub-$30K entry model
Overall: 4 stars
Henry Payne is auto critic for The Detroit News. Find him at hpayne@detroitnews.com or Twitter @HenryEPayne.
EV flagship: $300k-plus Celestiq seeks to redefine Cadillac as world luxury standard
Posted by Talbot Payne on October 18, 2022
Putting an exclamation point on its extreme makeover as an electric-vehicle brand, Cadillac unveiled on Monday its new flagship, the 2024 Celestiq sedan.
Slated for production in late 2023 with a $300,000-plus price tag in the same nose-bleed section as ultra-luxury coach-builds like the Rolls Royce Ghost, Celestiq seeks to re-establish Cadillac as the “standard of the world” for the 21st century with state-of-the-art, battery-powered tech.
First shown as a prototype in March 2020 alongside Cadillac’s first EV, the Lyriq crossover, Celestiq is a Lyriq on steroids. Sporting the brand’s new upright, disco-grille (Celestiq has 1,600 LEDs total), the sleek, all-wheel-drive chariot is draped over an Ultium battery platform and engorged with electronic wonders like a 55-inch touchscreen and quad-zone panoramic glass roof.
Hand-built in Warren’s Tech Center, the 2024 Celestiq will have a limited edition run — each model personalized to its premium buyer’s taste. Celestiq follows other Caddy flagships like the 1933 V16 Aerodynamic Coupe that defined pre-war style, the 1957 Eldorado Brougham that became a tail-fin period icon, and the athletic 2016 CT6 sedan that headlined the brand’s brief Blackwing-engine performance era.
Like CT6, Celestiq shows off Cadillac’s future on a car platform at a time when 7 of 10 new vehicles sold are SUVs. Cadillac’s best-known sport utility, the Escalade, would seem a natural canvas for the brand’s new direction — but with sci-fi tech and a price tag triple that of Escalade, Celestiq is a significant break from current Cadillac convention.
Despite massive investments since the turn of the century to bring the brand on par with Nurburgring-shredding athletes from BMW, Mercedes and Audi, Cadillac sales have lagged. Indeed, it has been another American luxury brand, Tesla, that successfully leap-frogged the German triumvirate with all-electric technology.
Cadillac, too, sees advances in electronics and battery power as an opportunity to remake itself as an electric brand.
“Celestiq is the purest expression of Cadillac, acknowledging our incredible history and driving us to a bolder and brighter future,” said Global Vice President Rory Harvey. “It is a completely bespoke work of automotive art, built around the most advanced and innovative technology that we have ever engineered.”
Just over a century from its founding in 1909, GM’s luxury division seeks to redefine a new century by drawing from Cadillac’s origins making high-style, high-tech, hand-built machines.
Courting comparison to the brand’s storied history, Celestiq’s long-hooded fastback is an unmistakable echo of the ‘33 Aerodynamic Coupe while its estimated charging time — 78 miles in 10 minutes — lags Escalade’s 450 miles in three minutes at a gas pump.
Like England’s Rolls and Bentley land yachts, each Celestiq will be individually commissioned so no two builds are alike. Via dealers, clients will create a vision tailored to their personal tastes.
“With an extremely low volume of hand-built vehicles to be offered globally each year, Celestiq will truly be a custom-commissioned one-of-one,” said Harvey. “Each client will experience a personalized journey to make their vehicle exactly the way they desire.”
Built on the Ultium battery platform and riding on a smooth air suspension, Celestiq will be powered by a 111-kWh battery pack and twin motors to achieve immediate, 640-pound feet of torque and 600 horsepower. Significantly, that is half the battery size of the 212.7 kWh GMC Hummer EV — the first GM vehicle built on Ultium and weighing nearly five tons.
Expect Celestiq to be lighter on its feet, though its estimated 3.8-second spring to 60 mph is shy of Hummer’s claimed 3.0 seconds. Celestiq range will be a Hummer-like 300 miles. That range will come slowly at super charger networks being built across the country with federal help. Ultium Charge 360 will help customers plan a trip by coordinating stops with 110,000 chargers across North America.
For added maneuverability in charger parking lots as well as on road, Celestiq will feature rear-drive steering. Consistent with Lyriq and other EVs, Celestiq will be capable of one-pedal driving, using the electric motors as brakes to restore battery energy.
Or passengers can choose not to drive at all. Celestiq will be equipped with GM’s Ultra Cruise self-driving system. Building on the current Super Cruise system (that debuted in CT6) that allows hands-free driving on more than 200,000 miles of divided highways, Ultra Cruise will expand that capability to 2 million miles of highway and secondary roads.
“Celestiq continues the 120-year Cadillac history of leveraging the most advanced automotive technology in the service of luxury,” said development engineer Ken Althouse.
Inside Celestiq’s quiet blue interior, passengers will sit beneath a four-zone smart glass roof that utilizes “suspended particle device technology” so each passenger can control the amount of outside light they receive. If the quiet gets too eerie, then the pilot can dial up Cadillac-curated propulsion sounds while driving.
The interior will be bathed in ambient light (18 different lighting animations are on offer) complementing the car’s rich materials, jewel-like rotary screen controller, 41-speaker sound system, and enormous 55-inch screen that stretches from A-pillar to A-pillar.
The screen houses two separate displays under a single pane of glass — the passenger-side display enabling media-play, Internet capability, smartphone connectivity and more. Screens are governed by a Google Built-In operating system. Rear passengers get their own 12.6-inch, seatback-mounted displays.
Celestiqs will roll out of GM’s Warren Global Technical Center beginning in December of next year — the first production vehicle made there — thanks to an $81 million investment.
“Cadillac’s brand legacy was forged with hand-building the most advanced vehicles of their era,” said Roma. “We are returning to that tradition with Celestiq, creating a piece of automotive art.”
Henry Payne is auto critic for The Detroit News. Find him at hpayne@detroitnews.com or Twitter @HenryEPayne.
Payne: L-yeah. Family-friendly Jeep Wagoneer L explores America’s frontier
Posted by Talbot Payne on October 13, 2022
Bridger, Montana — Out here in big sky country, the only things larger than the bison are pickup trucks and three-row SUVs. I pulled my 6,326-pound, 6-foot-6-inch Jeep Wagoner L off Route 86 next to a herd of bison grazing on the golden landscape behind a wire fence.
American bison, meet American SUV icon. The bison didn’t flinch. A rancher drove up next to my 2023 Jeep Wagoneer in his pickup.
“Howdy.”
“Howdy,” I replied. “I stopped to take some pictures. We don’t see many bison in Detroit.”
“No problem. Just stay this side of the fence . . . and the middle wire is hot.”
Good to know. I’ve been to the corner of Montana/Wyoming many times, but my family visit to this stunning landscape in 2001 will always be the most memorable. We saw bison, elk, grizzlies, bald eagles, you name it. But we didn’t see any Wagoneers.
Jeep’s famed SUV brand had been extinct since 1991, only to return last year — remade and ready for battle against the Chevy Tahoe and Ford Expedition. For its encore in 2023, Jeep has introduced the long-wheelbase version to compete against the Chevy Suburban and Expedition L.
As with bison and cattle, America’s vast interior are mega-SUVs’ natural habitat — the breed’s roomy seats, cargo space, high-tech interior and high seating perfect for long family road trips. At a whopping $87,000, my Wagoneer L is a lot more expensive than our ‘01 Hertz sedan family rental. But like a cruise ship to Alaska, it’s a first-class way to see Montana.
Since the original Wagoneer went away, the class has been dominated by GM’s quadfecta of Chevy Tahoe/Chevy Suburban/GMC Yukon/GMC Yukon XL. Both GM and Ford have evolved their mega-utes with mega-tech features. Crucially, both automakers have evolved these family vehicles beyond their pickup siblings with third-row seating plus independent rear suspensions to enhance ride quality.
A formidable class to break into, no? Wagoneer was born for this.
Along with its rich heritage (the Jeep brand is a global icon, which Wagoneer embraces with American flags tattooed on its flanks), Wagoneer is based on the Ram 1500, already acclaimed as the best-riding pickup in class, courtesy of its independent rear suspension.
The Wagoneer embraces this advantage by carving out a substantial third-row bench seat. I’m a 6-foot-5-inch ex-college basketball player and could sit behind myself in the second row. Easy headroom, easy legroom.
Pack up your family of four rugrats for a cross-country drive to Yellowstone and they’ll have plenty of real estate in back. You’ll have to set some rules so the kids can rotate seats. The second-row thrones offer Amazon Fire TV screens with all their favorite shows, for goodness’ sake.
The third row lacks screens but it’s hardly the basement. Each seat get its own USB port, a cubby that can hold small computer devices and (I love this) its own sunroof. So when the parents decide to close the panoramic roof, third-row coach-class passengers can still sun-worship if they choose.
With this airline cabin of space, the cargo space in the standard Wagoneer could get tight. Thus the 2023 Wagoneer L. L for loooooong.
My tester added 7 inches of wheelbase and a foot of length to claim best-in-class, 44-cubic feet of cargo space behind the third row (up 16 cubic feet from the standard SUV). Like Suburban and Expedition MAX, Wagoneer L provides plenty of room for a family of six (and the rear two rows flatten, offering generous space when you need to move, say, a big-screen TV).
Wagoneer L is supersized — but with its coveted seven-slot grille, sculpted bod and new, black-trimmed Carbide model, it has instant cred.
That cred attracts both mainstream and luxury buyers alike. For the lux buyer, Jeep offers the Grand Wagoneer (which I reviewed separately last year) wearing more bling than Beyoncé at the Grammys.
Wagoneer swaggers into the mainstream class with standard leather seats. With up to three all-digital dash screens, head-up display, best-in-class Uconnect 5 infotainment, wireless Apple CarPlay/Android Auto, handsome switchgear (including jewel-like rotary shifter and push-button starter) and optional air suspension, the Jeep is a joy to captain.
For all its upscale tech, however, the Wagoneer Loooong can come up short.
Automakers like GM (Super Cruise) and Ford (Blue Cruise) these days are making long-distance driving easier with semi-autonomous systems. Once the domain of lux chariots like the Cadillac Escalade, they are now available in Suburban and Expedition models. Heck, I even drove a Kia Sportage — at $38K, half the cost of these mega-ute behemoths — hands-free from Gaylord to Detroit recently.
My $87K Wagoneer sported no such tech, its average, adaptive-cruise system offering only forward detection for a long highway journey.
Though when you get to your hotel, Wagoneer offers parallel-and perpendicular self-park — one of my favorite features for big utes where the rear C-pillar is in another ZIP code. Modern applications — such as the system in say, the Ford Explorer I recently drove — are fully autonomous, meticulously braking and steering backwards into your designated parking space.
Wagoneer bought the bargain system off the shelf. Parallel parking in Bozeman, the steering wheel spun around in front of me, but I had to closely monitor the rear-view camera while braking into the parking spot lest I run over the VW Jetta behind me like a buffalo flattening a squirrel.
Wagoneer L makes a bigger investment in its all-new, twin-turbo, 3.0-liter, inline-6 Hurricane engine that boasts 420 horses and swallowed slower two-lane traffic on rural roads like a whale ingesting krill. Hurricane complements off-road capability that is the brand’s signature. Determined to play with its Wrangler and Trailhawk kin, L comes with multiple drive modes like ROCK and a transfer case so you can shift into four-low, hike the floor to 10 inches off the ground, and keep going when the asphalt ends.
In the Rockies’ Crazy Mountain range, my crazy Wagoneer dodged cattle on dusty trials. Tell the kids to take a break from “Sonic the Hedgehog” on Fire TV and enjoy it.
They’ll also enjoy the ATVs you bring along — courtesy of the L’s 10,000 pound towing capacity — when you bring them back to Montana as teenagers. Just outside Yellowstone in Big Sky, you’ll find the formidable Buck Ridge trail that winds 15 miles to 9,000 feet for a breathtaking view of the mountains.
Park the Wagoneer, then charge up Buck Ridge’s scenic trails. And there’s no need to worry about crossing fences — or hot middle wires.
Next week: Road trip! Ford F-150 Lightning EV
2023 Jeep Wagoneer L
Vehicle type: Front engine, rear and all-wheel-drive, six-or-seven-passenger SUV
Price: $67,495, including $2,000 destination fee ($81,455 Series II and $87,000 Carbide AWD models as tested)
Powerplant: 3.0-liter, twin-turbo, inline-6 cylinder
Power: 420 horsepower, 468 pound-feet torque
Transmission: 8-speed automatic
Performance: 0-60 mph, NA; towing, 9,850 lbs.
Weight: 6,326 pounds (as tested)
Fuel economy: EPA est. mpg 17 city/24 highway/20 combined (RWD); 16 city/23 highway/19 combined (AWD)
Report card
Highs: Living room on wheels; healthy towing and AWD capability
Lows: Average self-park feature; no self-drive feature
Overall: 4 stars
Henry Payne is auto critic for The Detroit News. Find him at hpayne@detroitnews.com or Twitter @HenryEPayne.
Revealed: 2024 Chevy Trax gains style and features, drops price and a cylinder
Posted by Talbot Payne on October 12, 2022
Buying a new car is a difficult experience these days with inventory scarce and average sticker prices pushing $50,000. It’s tough to find a bargain. Chevrolet hopes to buck the trend with its all-new, 2024, entry-level Trax SUV.
The new model debuts at $21,4951 — nearly a grand less than the current model — while offering more room, more tech, more safety, more style.
Taking styling cues from bigger brothers Blazer and Trailblazer, Trax gets an extreme makeover on the exterior while also adding a Trailblazer-like ACTIV trim. A perennial segment cost leader, the new Trax addresses criticism that it has lacked room and technology features compared to competitors like Honda and Nissan.
“The bold exterior and tech-forward interior design of the all-new Trax redefines what an entry-level vehicle can be,” said design chief Phil Zak. “It demonstrates that design doesn’t have to come at a premium.”
Reports of the Trax’s death after the 2022 model year proved premature. Trax continues as the brand’s entry vehicle in the preferred SUV segment, but Chevy also offers a starter Spark sedan at $14,595, one of the most affordable vehicles in autodom.
Along with the Buick Encore, Trax was a pioneer in the subcompact SUV segment in 2013, including a unique, flat-folding front seat that allowed passengers to use the entire length of the vehicle to carry oversize items like surfboards or lumber.
With its wheelbase stretched six inches longer than the outgoing model, the 2024 Trax gains significant interior room. Rear legroom grows by three inches — eclipsing the 37.7-inch rear legroom of the Honda HR-V, one of the segment’s roomiest rides. Cargo space increases by 12%, though it is still shy of the Honda.
You get what you pay for, and Trax has traditionally undercut its rivals by skimping on standard equipment. The 2024 Trax won’t make adaptive cruise control standard, for example, while it is standard on the pricier HR-V and Mazda CX-30. But for the first time, the feature is available on Trax while the base LS model gains significant content.
Wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto for Google Maps navigation is now standard, as is push-button start and cruise control. Wireless smartphone apps have reduced the gap between mainstream and luxury cars, allowing riders to instantly transfer their phone’s navigation, contacts and text-messaging to their cars.
Other standard electronic advances in the Trax include an 8-inch touchscreen, automatic emergency braking, pedestrian braking, lane-keep assist, forward-collision alert and auto high beams.
Work your way through the model lineup — 1RS, LT, 2RS — and Trax makes available more content like the aforementioned adaptive cruise control, blind-spot assist, sunroof, 11-inch touchscreen, 18-or-19 inch wheels. Step up to the loaded, adventure-styled ACTIV trim with heated front seats, heated steering wheel, heated outside mirrors, remote start, rear-seat USB ports and power-adjustable seats, and you’re paying the same $24,995 price as the stock HR-V.
Both interior and exterior designs follow upstream models. The infotainment screen is now higher in the driver’s view, forming a continuous dash sweep from the instrument display. The arrangement adds to an interior already praised by critics for its good visibility.
Reducing the price to compete with cost-leader Nissan Kicks also means reducing the number of cylinders and the Trax drops from a 155-horse, 1.3-liter turbo-4 cylinder engine to a mousey 138-horse, 1.2-liter turbo-3 powered by a six-speed automatic. Torque also drops from 177 to 163 pound feet, though the latter still trumps the HR-V’s 138 driven by a continuously-variable transmission.
The Trax’s new interior digs are wrapped in an upgraded exterior that drops 4 inches in height for a leaner, more athletic stance.
Gone is the blocky split grille, replaced by a more integrated shape anchored by thin, Blazer-like headlights. Each trim has unique grille and wheel design. The sporty-looking RS trims (1RS and 2RS) are particularly distinctive with black grilles and red RS badging.
Assembled in South Korea and Mexico, the 2024 Chevrolet Trax goes on sale in the spring of 2023.
2024 Chevy Trax pricing
LS — $21,4951RS — $23,195LT — $23,395 2RS — $24,995ACTIV — $24,995
Henry Payne is auto critic for The Detroit News. Find him at hpayne@detroitnews.com or Twitter @HenryEPayne.
Truck wars: GMC Sierra HD family gets beefier, techier, sexier
Posted by Talbot Payne on October 6, 2022
In the heavy duty pickup truck arms race, GMC has rolled out its latest weapon: the 2024 Sierra HD.
Surfing trends in these high-tech, high-performance times, the Sierra HD not only offers a raft of best-in-class claims but also sets a new bar for luxury. The mega-truck throws down the gauntlet on best-in-class towing, screen size, and trailering tech with 14 camera views and a slick feature that renders a gooseneck trailer invisible so the driver can monitor objects behind it.
Heavy duty capability commands big sticker prices and GMC’s premium brand claims 31% share of the over-$75,000 market. To sweeten the pot, Sierra is introducing two more premium models: the Denali Ultimate and AT4X.
The twin titans headline a lineup of that includes 2500HD and 3500HD models in Regular Cab, Extended Cab and Crew Cab configurations with dual-rear-wheel models — so-called duallys — available on the 3500HD. The trucks aim to satisfy customer demand for more diesel power, more interior technology, more stump-pulling capability across an expanded family of seven models.
“This truck elevates the HD segment with the introductions of the Denali Ultimate trim and will soon add the seriously off-road capable AT4X trim, further strengthening the dominance of the GMC truck portfolio,” said GMC vice president Duncan Aldred.
While GMC’s corporate parent, General Motors, is touting the transition of its brands to the Ultium battery platform in the next decade, Aldred said Sierra HD will be powered by diesel and gas technologies.
“This is not an EV,” said Aldred. “The Sierra Heavy Duty will become an EV in time, but it will be toward the end of the 2035 transition.”
Towing tests from TFL Trucks with 6,000-pound trailers have shown range degradation of EV pickup trucks like the Ford Lightning of about 70% to less than 100 miles of range — a problem for long-distance hauls. While diesel and gas engines also suffer some range degradation, they offer better range and refueling infrastructure.
The Sierra will be powered by its tried-and-true, 6.6-liter Duramax turbo-diesel V-8 fed with more steroids to achieve an eye-popping 975 pound-feet- of torque — a 25% gain over the current model. Coupled with a 10-speed Allison transmission the Sierra HD makes 470 horsepower.
That added oomph will allow Sierra HD to clean-and-jerk a class best 21,900 pounds in 2500 HD Crew Cab trim. Spice the 3500HD, dually-rear-wheel pickup with a Duramax and it will tow 36,000 pounds. A 6.6-liter V-8 engine comes standard with 401 horsepower and 464 torque — and is now also paired with the Allision 10-speed for better power management.
While the Sierra HD flexes its muscle outside, passengers can travel in luxury inside.
The 2024 model — due on dealer lots early next year – gets major interior upgrades including 40 inches of digital dash screens. That expanse includes a best-in-class, 13.4-inch infotainment touchscreen.
Available touchscreen features include wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto connectivity and 14 camera views to better tow the 20,000-plus pounds out back.
While Sierra has long won raves for its premium styling and jaw-dropping rear MultiPro taigates, the towing ‘n’ tech upgrades are designed to close the gap to competitors from Ford and Ram.
“As good as they are, the (2022) Sierra 2500HD and 3500HD are outclassed by the Ford Super Duty and Ram HD,” writes Car and Driver of the current lineup. “The Sierra 2500 HD can tow up to 18,500 pounds and the 3500HD can haul up to 35,500 pounds, but those max ratings are eclipsed by rivals. What’s more, those competitors offer nicer interiors or more driver assists — or both.”
To address the latter concerns, Sierra HD also debuts new stitching and six new exterior colors (Titanium Rush Metallic, Sterling Metallic, Volcanic Red Tintcoat, Redwood Metallic, Meteorite Metallic and Downpour Metallic) while offering unique interior designs for the posh AT4X, Denali, and Denali Ultimate trims.
Denali is synonymous with GMC lux — accounting for 45% of HD sales — and the first-ever Denali Ultimate takes its refinement to the next level.
Standard with the Duramax under the hood, you’ll know the Denali Ultimate by its unique grille, Mount Denali fender badging, six-way, MultiPro tailgate, Alpine Umber interior, 16-way power seats, open-pore Paldao wood, power moonroof, 15-inch head-up display, and 12-speaker Bose audio system rolling along on 20-inch aluminum wheels with black accents.
“This truck could hold its own in the luxury sedan space,” smiled Aldred.
HD competitors have long headlined best-in-class tow ability, but — with the explosion in electronic gizmos over the last decade — best-in-class tech is also prized.
Sierra HD boasts the most trailer-assistance tech in class with a suite of available features designed to streamline the hitching-and-towing process. The headliner is an industry-first transparent trailer view for gooseneck trailoring so the driver can virtually “see through” the trailer.
Other features include blind-spot assist extended around the trailer, a warning if vehicle/trailer weight exceed its Gross Combined Weight Rating, and adaptive cruise control. Interestingly, the Sierra HD is not yet available with GM’s Super Cruise, hands-free drive assist.
For off-road enthusiasts who want to unhitch Sierra HD at the end of a long day of towing, there is the AT4X coming later in 2023. Armed with skid plates, meaty tires, and increased ground clearance, AT4X wants to play.
Assembled in Flint, Sierra HD’s pricing will be announced closer to the start of production.
Henry Payne is auto critic for The Detroit News. Find him at hpayne@detroitnews.com or Twitter @HenryEPayne.
Payne: S-class smackdown — Mercedes EQS EV vs. GLS SUV
Posted by Talbot Payne on October 6, 2022
Joliet, Illinois — Mercedes is the pinnacle of European luxury, and the S-class is the summit of Mercedes.
Big screens, big tech, big interior space — the S-class spares no expense to coddle its customers. For 2022, S-class offers a pair of models, the EQS 450 sedan and GLS 450, that try to capitalize on the latest trends in the U.S. luxury marketplace: electric cars and SUVs.
The EQS is a sleek showpiece of Mercedes technology with a screen the size of The Henry Ford’s IMAX theater and power delivery as smooth as water. But with limited range and two rows of seats, the $116,300 EQS indicates why EVs are a niche market compared to the market domination of three-row, gas-powered SUVs like the mighty, $94,230 GLS450.
With a big family weekend of racing, dining and sightseeing ahead in Chicago, Mrs. Payne and I loaded up the GLS 450. Stretched across a 123-inch wheelbase and measuring 17 feet long, the GLS is about the same size as its EQS EV sibling. But if I had an EQS in the garage, I would still want a GLS for road trips.
It’s not just that the Merc SUV offers a roomy third row essential for our six-person Payne family of three guys and their best gals. The GLS boasts 571 miles of highway range compared to the EQS’s 350 — and when your weekend itinerary includes a tight schedule, meeting four people at O’Hare airport and more than 800 miles of travel from Detroit to Joliet to downtown Chicago, you don’t want to be spending 30 minutes at chargers in Walmart parking lots to add 245 miles of electrons to the EQS (the EV’s 400-volt architecture can gain 70% of charge — about 245 miles — in a half hour).
The GLS? I barely gave fuel a thought — filling it only once for five minutes on the way back to Detroit on I-94.
It’s popular these days to say: “Just wait until the federal government builds out a charging infrastructure.” Regardless of your confidence that the feds can efficiently build anything, the problem with EVs is more uncertainty than charger unavailability.
Weather and speed are big variables that make long trips in EVs a nervy affair. I traveled at 80 mph to O’Hare in the GLS — a speed that would have degraded EQS’s range by 20% (if experience in Tesla, Porsche and Hyundai EVs is any guide). There was also the threat of heavy downpours — Lake Michigan’s ecosystem is always unpredictable — which can cause 40% range loss in EVs.
Anticipating such challenges, my EQS tester is designed for efficiency with one of the cleanest skins in the industry. This thing is a bar of soap.
Its 0.20 drag coefficient bests the Tesla Model S and Lucid Air, but results in diminishing the design detail of its flamboyant, gas-powered predecessors. So determined was Merc to hit its drag coefficient target that it sacrificed its frunk — robbing the Merc of a feature prized by EV buyers.
GLS is no looker either with its big, boxy three-row SUV proportions. Yeah, there’s the signature muscular rear hips and the big star logo up front. But painted black, it melted into the schools of big SUVs on the road. My wife would consistently confuse it in the hotel parking lot for a BMW or big Infiniti SUV. Ouch.
So despite carrying stiff price tags, my EQS and GLA testers were unassuming from the outside. The interiors are a different matter.
EQS sports a stunning 56-inch screen that is really three screens in one — 12.3-inch instrument display, 17.7-inch console display, and another 12.3-inch display for the passenger. The latter is a treat for occupants who want to control their own space. My son’s mother-in-law settled into a relaxing Metro Detroit journey by finding her favorite seat massage in the screen.
The GLS’s more familiar twin-dash screen can’t compete with the EQS in size and speed, but it is plenty useful as Merc has perfected a system of integrated graphics, swipe screens and steering-wheel mouse pads (yes, you read that right) so you can find just what you want in the system. The EQS also dazzled with Merc’s latest self-driving software — its lane-centering and auto-lane changing more Tesla-like than the GLS, which gave me some white hairs as I self-drove through Chicago on I-90.
Aft of the front thrones, however, the GLS was much more desirable than the EQS. The big ute not only fit my family of six comfortably for our trip into Chicago for dinner — but its second-row captain’s chairs were first-class seating, with the ability to adjust forward/back to accommodate the third-row behind.
The EQS has rear-seat options, but they weren’t on my $116K tester, which featured utilitarian bench seats with standard-issue armrest and cupholders that folded down from the seatback.
Both EQS and GLS boast more than 300 horsepower, but the EQS comes on liquid smooth as we’ve come to expect from big EVs. But like its rear seat, the EQS complicates its claim to magic carpet smoothness with a rough ride over bumps. Crossing a Telegraph Road intersection, for example, EQS would bounce along — hitting the shock bump stops. Oof.
The GLS actually adopts an EQS gauge on its instrument display — to claim the green moral high ground with a 48-volt battery on board that smooths shifts from its 9-speed transmission. And its air suspension did yeoman’s work in smoothing the two-story-tall vehicle’s ride.
Autobahn Raceway, where my sons and I were competing in Lola sports racers, doubles as an auto country club (think a golf club but with a track in the middle) and allows members and guests to take their vehicles on the track at lunch hour.
I took the GLS on track to show the extended family around the course — in line behind a pace car and a who’s who of performance cars, including a Porsche 911, CT4-V Blackwing, BMW M3 and Corvette C8.
With SPORT mode engaged and air suspension managing the elephant’s girth, I had a blast squealing the tires and stomping the accelerator pedal out of turns. It’s an elephant in tennis shoes.
It’s also an elephant that doesn’t mind burning up fuel on such spontaneous activities — because gas infrastructure is always nearby. A similar track diversion in the EQS would have sucked valuable range, which would have made for another headache as we contemplated getting home on Sunday.
Buy the EQS to show off at the country club, buy the GLS if you need an all-around workhorse.
2022 Mercedes GLS450 4Matic
Vehicle type: All-wheel drive, seven-passenger SUV
Price: $78,900, including $1,050 destination charge ($94,230 as tested)
Powerplant: 3.0-liter turbocharged inline-6 cylinder
Power: 362 horsepower, 369 pound-feet of torque
Transmission: 9-speed automatic
Performance: 0-60 mph, 5.9 seconds (mfr.); towing capacity, 7,700 pounds
Weight: 5,412 pounds
Fuel economy: EPA 19 mpg city/23 highway/21 combined; Highway range, 570 miles
Report card
Highs: Seating for six, long-range utility
Lows: A gen behind EQS in some tech; boxy design
Overall: 4 stars
2022 Mercedes EQS 450+
Vehicle type: Battery-powered rear-wheel-drive, five-passenger sedan
Price: $105,450 including $1,050 destination fee ($116,304 450+ Premium as tested)
Powerplant: 107.8 kWh lithium-ion battery with rear electric-motor
Power: 329 horsepower, 417 pound-feet torque
Transmission: Single-speed direct drive
Performance: 0-60 mph, 5.8 seconds (mfr.); top speed, 130 mph
Weight: 5,597 pounds
Fuel economy: EPA 97 MPGe; range, 350 miles
Report card
Highs: Smooth ride; interior from the gods
Lows: Uninspired looks, jouncy suspension over bumps
Overall: 3 stars
Henry Payne is auto critic for The Detroit News. Find him at hpayne@detroitnews.com or Twitter @HenryEPayne
For new-car buyers in a tight market, the waiting is the hardest part
Posted by Talbot Payne on October 4, 2022
Detroit — Bruce Gorman of Livonia wanted a new 2022 Chevy Equinox. But when he took his aging, 2010 Chrysler Sebring into Serra Chevrolet on Telegraph for a trade-in last December, he was met by a surprise.“There was nothing on the lot,” the 66-year-old said. “They thought that Chevy might be building more by mid-February, so they said to check in the first of March.”
A couple of weeks later, his salesperson called to say that his car had arrived — and the $28,000 Equinox LT was blue after all.
“I love it. It has push-button start, auto-lock, auto-high beams, adaptive-cruise-control, and blind spot-assist,” said Gorman, ticking off some of the electronic advancements that have revolutionized autos in the decade since he bought his Sebring. “(The Chevy) is lacking heated front seats, though. They never got the chips for that.”
On the plus side, Gorman said Serra kept him informed every step of the way — honoring the Equinox’s sticker price, minus a discount for those missing seat-heating chips.
If you’re in the market for a new vehicle, Gorman’s story may sound all too familiar as inventory shortages have frustrated would-be buyers. In a post-COVID market with high demand, supply is constrained by the continuing semiconductor shortage and disruptions in countries like China and Malaysia, which are key component suppliers. Manufacturing states like Michigan are awash in new vehicles sitting on lots waiting for chips.
A modern vehicle may have 900 to 1,200 different semiconductor chips — distributed across 100 electronics modules — to run everything from heated seats to an engine’s fuel injection system. They vary in cost and functionality and are produced across a multi-national supply chain that can include Taiwan, Korea, the United States, China and Malaysia — the latter pair creating significant uncertainty with COVID shutdowns in the last two years. The rush to electronics-heavy EVs will likely only increase the demand for chips.
“Not all vehicles are treated equally. Manufacturers are prioritizing high-margin vehicles and EVs at a time that they are making big investments in battery plants,” said Sam Abuelsamid, principle auto analyst for Guidehouse Insights. “Automakers need the cash flow to do build these plants, so they are building the high-margin vehicles they need to get cash now to fund future EV investments.”
To complicate matters, the shortage comes as the federal government is forcing automakers to transition to costly electric vehicles. To pay for the transition, automakers are shrinking the number of affordable, sub-$30,000 cars they sell and emphasizing new, more expensive models of, for example, high-margin pickups. This perfect storm of factors ballooned the average sticker price in July to an all-time high of $48,000, according to Kelley Blue Book — up from an average of $38,000 just two years ago.
For example, CEO Jim Farley indicated in April that Ford Motor Co. is prioritizing its chip supply for Ford F-150 Lightning EV pickups, which can sell for more than $90,000.
Abuelsamid said chip supplies should start to return to normal in the middle of next year. But Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger told CNBC’s TechCheck in May not to expect an end to shortages until 2024.
Either way, that means more long waits for customers like Mary Schelske of Bloomfield Hills. Her three-year lease ran out on her 2019 Ford Edge in December, but her dealer, North Brothers Ford, had no ‘22 Edges to replace it with.
“They said they couldn’t get me a car until April,” she said. April turned into June. “I kept calling and they kept trying to find me a car. I thought about buying out the lease because the market value of cars has been rising, but Ford waived the lease mileage limit so I could keep driving my Edge until they found a new one.”
Her Edge arrived in June and North Brothers not only waived the extra miles on the old car but gave her the same lease price — $420 a month — on the new one.
Ford’s best-selling SUV, the Escape, is also in short supply. Like Schelske, Lucian Bela of West Bloomfield Township got an extension on his lease after it ended in March — extra mileage waived — until a new one arrived in July. But Anne Ryan, 71, of Grosse Pointe, took advantage of a buyout on her 2019 Escape lease.
With the market desperate for Escapes, Ryan began shopping used car sites like Carvana to see if she could get a sweet price if she bought out the lease on her Escape. Her Ford dealer went one step better, saving her the paperwork headaches by offering $6,000 toward her Escape trade-in. She took the deal, then used it to step up to Ford’s luxury division — leasing a Lincoln Corsair for about the same , three-year, $400-a-month price as her old Escape.
“I deserved it,” she said with a smile.
None of the customers The News talked with considered an EV for their new car, even as the industry is prioritizing those vehicles.
“An EV makes no sense for me,” Ryan said. “I have a business I travel to Up North. … The charging takes too long and there’s no infrastructure up there. My Corsair has 470 miles of range. I can nearly make the round trip on one tank.”
Though Ryan took immediate delivery on her Lincoln, luxury brands are not immune from the inventory crisis.
Carla and John Libbe’s Audi Q5 was hit by a deer on M-115 near Cadillac, totaling the car. Carla suffered a fractured sternum, caused by the air bag deployment. While she healed, they went to her dealer for a replacement.
But Audi Birmingham had nothing on the lot. The wait for a new Q5? Six months.
The Libbes decided to shop for a Range Rover Velar, one of the SUVs on the market that had caught Carla’s eye. But Range Rover supply was no better than Audi. “We would have to wait 6-8 months for new Velar due to the chip shortage,” John said.
They cast a wider Midwest net and found a Velar at Land Rover of Westside in Cleveland that had been abandoned by its would-be buyer. It was the exact trim Carla wanted for a price of $69,285; they picked it up in mid-February.
“We just got lucky,” said John.
Paul Waatti, industry analysis manager for AutoPacific, notes that nearly all automakers have scaled back production estimates, even the Volkswagen Group (which makes Carla’s former Audi Q5) and Toyota, the large global automakers.
“VW has called the dismal supply chain and chip shortage the ‘new normal,’” Waatti said. “Automakers continue to prioritize more profitable models like trucks and other high-volume segments at the upper end of the market but inventory will remain at historically low levels even for those vehicles.”
Take Steve Light of Sterling Heights, who recently shopped for a Ram pickup.
Light has leased four Ram 1500 Big Horns since 2013 without a hiccup, but when his current 36-month lease was up this year, he faced a wait of four to six weeks for a new one and a lease payment jumping from $340 a month to $450.
Concerned that the wait for a new truck would exceed six weeks — and aware his Big Horn model was trading in the used market for $38,000 — Light paid the $30,000 buyout on offer from the dealer when he signed the lease in 2019.
“The consumer suffers two-fold as not only is there limited inventory, but also many of the vehicles that are available are being marked up as dealers are trying to squeeze profit wherever they can to make up for fewer sales than normal,” analyst Waatti said. “That is affecting the used car market, as even those are flying off the shelf in record time with inflated prices.”
Cynasure Ross of Pontiac knows that first-hand. She purchased a used 2011 Hyundai Sonata Limited this summer. But it wasn’t easy.
Under a strict budget of $12,000, she had a hard time finding anything in Michigan that matched her desired trim. “Some listings had taken deposits the day after they were posted and before I could get to them,” she said.
She continued to cast a wide net beyond the state. After about 30 days of shopping, she located the Sonata she wanted — for the price she wanted — from Team Automotive in Ohio. She sent in her deposit, had the car inspected and delivered.
As chip delays continue, Giudehouse’s Abuelsamid recommends that buyers adapt: “If you need a new car to buy or lease, start planning ahead as early as you can so you are guaranteed to get it when you need it.”
Henry Payne is auto critic for The Detroit News. Find him at hpayne@detroitnews.com or Twitter @HenryEPayne.
Payne: Hot hatch Hyundai Kona N-line is more show than go
Posted by Talbot Payne on October 4, 2022
BMW makes an M-azing, M-asterful M3 sports sedan with gobs of horsepower, tires made from Superglue and a taut suspension. It’ll also cost you an M-azing 80 grand. For those who don’t need the full magilla, there’s the BMW M-line which offers M3-like style but without the nuclear power plant under the hood. M style without the M-egaprice.
The Hyundai Kona has decided to get in on the act.
Right next door in the alphabet, the Kona N offers a fire-spitting hot hatch with a loud 286 horsepower, stiff springs, $35K sticker price and N-grin launch control that’ll crush your spine into the seat on its way to 4.9-second zero-60 launches. Sound like fun? No?
Then the Kona N-line might be your cup of Kia with all the N’s styling cues and just enough horsepower — 195 — to make it interesting. Heck, it almost fooled me when I picked my tester up at the airport on a cold April evening.
Lots of black mascara like the Kona N. Signature three-slot hood like the N. Rear diffuser, hot wheels, cladded rocker panels, red-trim and N-embossed sport seats. Just like the N. N-ice.
The N comparisons stop when you put your boot in it.
VROOOOM-NAHHHH, I don’t think so. Despite an upscale, dual-clutch transmission hooked up to the four-banger under the hood, the engine lacks urgency. I confined my enthusiastic driving to 90-degree turns where the N-line rotated nicely before setting off for … the autocross course? No, the grocery. There the Kona showed off its hatchback utility.
However, for a stiff $31K, the N-line made my mind wander to the $20,995 Elantra in the Hyundai aisle. You want affordable style?
At a whopping $10K south of Kona, the Elantra is a much more head-turning vehicle and is loaded with more modern amenities. I’m talkin’ standard wireless Apple CarPlay/Android Auto, blind-spot assist, and auto tranny. And Elantra has its own N-line for 2022 that uses the same turbo-4 as Kona N, and is $1,400 less than the Kona. Uh-oh.
They say Americans don’t like sedans, but the Elantra has significantly more rear legroom for basketball players like me, and that trunk — well, it’s not a hatchback but it will swallow plenty of groceries.
And don’t get me started on hot hatches like the VW Golf GTI, which starts at a similar price to the N-line and will run rings around it in the fun department while delivering better utility.
If SUV it must be, however, then Kona N-line is easy to learn with its tablet screen, useful knobs and digital displays. SPORT mode turns the instrument display red to match your blood temperature. All-wheel drive is a useful feature in the winter months, and the Elantra is just a front-wheel driver. And then there’s that 100,000-mile Hyundai drivetrain warranty, always comforting to buyers on a budget.
Hyundai has hardly been shy with designs. The Elantra and Tucson are unlike anything else on the market and the three-door Veloster has been a joyful addition to my favorite segment, the hot hatch.
Expect the Kona N-line to take over the lovable-if-quirky three-door Veloster’s mantle, given its more accessible four-door setup. That accessibility should mean better sales numbers for the Kona N as well, which in turn will lead more folks to the more accessible N-line. You can see where product planners are going with all this.
With its funky wardrobe, the N-line is worth a walkaround in the parking lot. The menacing slit running lights draw you in, then you notice the headlights at mid-fascia. The bulging fenders look like biceps honed in the gym. The twin tailpipes look like a double barrel shotgun out back. N-teresting.
And with the money you save getting 29 mpg in the 1.6-liter turbo-4 … well, one of these days you might be tempted by a full-blown N so you can go harass those smug BMW Ms.
2022 Hyundai Kona N-line
Vehicle type: All-wheel-drive five-passenger SUV
Price: $28,425, including $1,245 destination charge
Powerplant: 1.6-liter turbocharged inline-4 cylinder
Power: 195 horsepower, 195 pound-feet of torque
Transmission: 7-speed dual-clutch automatic
Performance: 0-60 mph, 7.3 seconds (Car and Driver); top speed, 130 mph
Weight: 3,287 pounds
Fuel economy: EPA 27 mpg city/32 highway/29 combined (AWD as tested)
Report card
Highs: Stylish looks, upscale interior
Lows: Engine lacks pep; lacks value compared to competitors
Overall: 3 stars
Henry Payne is auto critic for The Detroit News. Find him at hpayne@detroitnews.com or Twitter @HenryEPayne
Payne: Preview from the driver’s seat at American Speed Festival
Posted by Talbot Payne on October 4, 2022
Pontiac — Coming hard out of Champion Motor Speedway’s Turn 9 in third gear, I dance my 1966 Porsche 906E around the long Turn 10 sweeper. It’s test day for the Second Annual American Speed Festival at M1 Concourse, and come Saturday, hundreds of spectators will be lining the guardrails here when I will be on track again with other historic sports cars.
The fall auto shows just keep coming. On the heels of the Detroit auto show, Detroit 4fest and Concours d’ Elegance, the American Speed Festival comes to town Thursday through Sunday.
What makes ASF special is not just the opportunity to see some of the most historic race cars ever made — but the opportunity to see them at speed in their natural habitat: a race track. M1 is Metro Detroit’s premier enthusiast auto club with a 1.5-mile race track sharing 87 acres with private garages.
My 906E has been invited to the show along with dozens of other significant racers from NASCAR, IndyCar and sportscar racing — including Carroll Shelby’s legendary Cobras, which will be the featured marque this year celebrating Shelby America’s 60th anniversary. About two-dozen Cobras will be on display, including gems like the 1965 Cobra Daytona Coupe, 1964 Shelby Cobra 289 Hard Top Coupe, 1990 Shelby Aurora Can Am and the Cobra 289 used in the 2019 box office hit “Ford v Ferrari.” Shelby Club Parade Laps will take place from 11:55 a.m.-12:45 p.m. Saturday.
Other notables include Al Unser Jr.’s 1986 Lola T8600, his uncle Bobby Unser’s 1972 Olsonite Eagle, the turbine-engine 1968 STP Lotus, Alberto Ascori’s 1952 Ferrari 375, a 2004 Ferrari Enzo and a 2021 Ferrari Monza SP1. The Ferrari entries celebrate of 75 years of the Italian brand with Ferrari Club Parade Laps from 12:25–1:30 p.m. Friday.
There will also be a contingent of vintage go-kart racers and the V8-powered 1988 Fabcar IMSA prototype owned by David Nikolas, racer and owner of Pontiac’s Nikolas Motorsport.
On test day, I found myself sharing track time with the go-karts and the lightning-quick Fabcar. The latter was based on a Porsche 962 — then updated with a more modern rocker suspension and small-block Chevy V-8.
When Nikolas fired up his V-8 next to my mid-engine Porsche, the earth shook — and I couldn’t hear my 2.0-liter flat-6 engine even though it was directly behind my ears. A racing V-8 is a sight to see — and hear.
Each year, ASF awards a Master of Motorsports and this year’s headliner is legendary designer Peter Brock, who made his mark as a young Shelby America designer. A racing fanatic, Brock left General Motors in 1959 at the tender age of 21 to return to his native California. He was Shelby America’s first employee, and there he would design a stable of cars including the Shelby Daytona Cobra coupes that won the world sports car championship in 1965.
Brock will hold forth on his Shelby career Thursday and again Saturday at noon with driving ace David Hobbs. At noon Sunday, he’ll discuss his work on the Chevy Corvette and Brock Racing Enterprises — a racing design firm he started in 1965. Hobbs will also talk to Vintage Indy’s Mike Lashmett for Insiders’ Garage from noon-1 p.m. Friday.
Brock will receive his award at Saturday’s Checkered Flag Ball presented by McLaren Oakland. The event benefits M1’s philanthropic arm, the Checkered Flag Challenge, to address transportation challenges in Pontiac.
ASF kicks off Thursday with Drive & Dine, an intimate tour of Stahl’s private car collection followed by a sumptuous M1 dinner.
I get to take unleash my steed around M1’s track in the Endurance Sports Car class beginning Friday, when seven groups will be on display: Shelby/Cobra, Vintage Indy, Ferrari, Feature Race Cars, SuperCars, Endurance Sports Cars and Historic Go Karts. Track activities are from 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Friday and 8:30-4:30 p.m. Saturday.
On Friday evening, fans can hang around for the M1 Garage Reveal and enjoy rare tours of M1 garages from 6-9:30 p.m. — complete with hors d’ oeuvres.On Sunday, the track goes quiet (though guests can also take a ride in the right-hand seat of a hot car with a professional instructor) and a juried car show, Speed & Style Expo, takes the fore. Awards will be given in each car class plus an overall Best in Show honoree. The Art Expo showcases top automotive artists, including Nico Rousselet, Dave Chappel, Charles Maher, Alex Buchan, Steve Macy, John Baker, Robert Matthews, Garen Nicoghosian and Francois Bruere.
The weekend also includes live music by Vavoom, pedal/RC/slot cars for kids, food trucks and Carroll Shelby official licensed apparel.If you go
Tickets: $75 Friday/Saturday for 18 and older. Friday, 17 and under are free. Saturday ages 13-17 are $25 and 12 and under are free. Sunday is $50 for 18 and over and free for 17 and under. Tickets for the Drive & Dine Tour on Thursday are $200. Free parking is included with every ticket. Parking and shuttle buses are available at 2000 S. Opdyke Road.For more schedule details, go to: www.m1concourse.com/asf-overview.
Henry Payne is auto critic for The Detroit News. Find him at hpayne@detroitnews.com or Twitter @HenryEPayne.
Payne: Ogling Detroit auto show’s EVs and V-8s with Penske Indycar star Scott McLaughlin
Posted by Talbot Payne on September 23, 2022
Detroit – Even professional race car drivers get weak in the knees around the Corvette Z06.“That’s going to be mine when I win the Indy 500 next year,” smiled IndyCar star Scott McLaughlin, driver of the #3 Chevrolet for Team Penske, as he eyeballed Chevy’s mid-engine hellion. With a production-car record 670-horspower from its normally-aspirated V-8, the sports car is one of the highlights of this year’s show.
A week after the Detroit auto show opened with a presidential visit and media previews, the public portion of the show is abuzz with customers, musical entertainment and the occasional celebrity visitor. A native of Hamilton, New Zealand, McLaughlin’s visit put the “international” in North American International Auto Show in a year in which foreign automaker displays are scaled back from years past.
McLaughlin’s appearance also showcases the intersection between the Detroit automakers, global markets and motorsports. Chevy, for example, brought McLaughlin to the show floor to not only highlight the Detroit Grand Prix but also to understand the larger Chevy product lineup the brand promotes when its race cars win in front of millions of TV viewers.
The Kiwi is a natural ambassador for American muscle.
Unlike European drivers who grew up negotiating narrow city streets in wee, four-cylinder shoeboxes, Australia is a country with miles of open roads like America – and V8-powered American sedans to match. McLaughlin is a veteran of Australia’s biggest auto show in Melbourne.
“I craved V-8s as a kid. It’s hard not to. The national sport is the V-8 Supercars,” said the 29-year-old of the Ford Mustangs and Holden Commodores (similar to the late Chevy SS in this market) that are similar to NASCARs Down Under. In Australian Supercar, Team Penske waves the Ford Mustang flag, different from the Chevy IndyCar colors he flies here.
“That’s what I raced, and I grew up idolizing V-8 Supercars,” McLaughlin continued. “My Dad had a V-8, my mom had a V-8.”
McLaughlin’s dominance of the Supercar series in Australia – winning three titles from 2018-2020 – convinced Penske to bring the personable New Zealander stateside.
“This is the big leagues. I grew up idolizing America,” said McLaughlin. “Roger asks a lot of (his drivers). We promote the sport, we promote his brands, we promote his town. I wouldn’t want to drive for anyone else.”
Where Chevy made its reputation on American muscle, it is now joining the international market to go all-electric by 2035. For McLaughlin, that means getting familiar with the brand’s new EVs, which surround the Corvette display in Detroit. McLaughlin – just like other showgoers on the floor Wednesday – got an in-depth tour of the Silverado, Equinox and Blazer EVs and the Ultium battery chassis they ride on.
“Coming here as a Chevy driver, it’s been an awesome introduction into the GM family,” said McLaughlin. “To see the resources they put into their race cars and into their production cars is great.”
The push to electrification is not as pronounced in motor racing. McLaughlin’s Chevy-powered IndyCar will get battery assist in 2024 as a V6-powered hybrid. And the Corvette Z06 is based on the V8-powered C8.R race car that Chevrolet is, for the first time, selling to international race teams.
McLaughlin’s primary task here is selling tickets for the Detroit Grand Prix, which will return to downtown streets for the first time in more than 30 years next June. NAIAS planned to offer showgoers a tour of the new 1.7-mile track in Chevy Bolt EVs and Volkswagen ID.4s – but that hasn’t come to pass. Instead, visitors can get a brief ride in the vehicles on Atwater Street on Huntington Place’s riverfront.
McLaughlin did manage to take some laps of his own on the new circuit while in Detroit.
“On paper it doesn’t look very interesting, but then you get on track and see how wide it is and the monuments you pass like the Renaissance Center. It’s gonna’ be a really cool and unique race,” McLaughlin said of the circuit where IndyCars will approach 180 mph on Jefferson Avenue into the Griswold hairpin. “Chevy being a part of it and promoting it in the Motor City is really a big deal.”
After leaving downtown Wednesday afternoon, McLaughlin’s day continued with laps on a second track: GM’s Milford Proving Grounds out I-96. In a Corvette Z06.
“To get to drive a Z06 will be awesome,” he laughed. “I’ll get a taste of what I might own one day.”
Henry Payne is auto critic for The Detroit News. Find him at hpayne@detroitnews.com or Twitter @HenryEPayne.
Payne: New Honda HR-V is stylish, roomy and fun. Until you put your foot into it
Posted by Talbot Payne on September 23, 2022
Summit Point, W.Va. — Powered by a 1.5-liter Honda Fit engine, the F1600 class is one of my favorite open-wheel, so-called “Formula” racing classes. It’s a showcase for relentless wheel-to-wheel driving, some of the country’s best up-and-coming teenage drivers on the Road to Indy — and for Honda’s reliable engine technology.
Honda also makes a stylish small SUV that will get you to the track.
I picked up the Japanese brand’s newest entry-level, Mexican-built HR-V sport ute at Dulles Airport this summer to take my family to an F1600 race at Summit Point Raceway, one of the country’s most challenging regional racing circuits. I would also be racing my own Lola sports racer (powered by a Ford, not Honda, engine) in the Sports2000 series, which shared box office billing with the F1600s.
Ford was once synonymous with entry-level racing with its iconic Formula Ford series. But Honda recently replaced Ford engines in the F1600 series. The Dearborn maker is more focused on off-road and electrified vehicles these days with its dirt-kicking Bronco and a full pickup lineup that includes the entry-level, hybrid-powered Maverick.
Needless to say, pickups and open-wheel racing are opposite ends of auto culture — but not for Honda, whose entry-level Civic sedan and CR-V ute are whip-quick compacts that appeal to the young folks hanging around F1600 races and Summit Point.
So my family was surprised to find the 158-horsepower, 2.0-liter engine in my HR-V was the least interesting part of the vehicle. RRRRRRRRRR! Mated to a droning CVT transmission, the HR-V huffed and puffed up the hills of winding West Virginia roads leading to Summit Point.
The F1600’s 1.5-liter Honda engine only makes 130 horses. But since the cars weigh just 1,110 pounds, that’s enough ponies for the job. The 2.0-liter, 158-horse unit in my HR-V, on the other hand, has to push around 3,350 pounds. Oof.
No doubt, the HR-V is as bulletproof as the F1600 mills, which have to endure constant punishment from their drivers. Still, the HR-V’s engine puts it at a comparative disadvantage in its ferociously competitive segment that includes the 186-horse Mazda CX-30 (my favorite driver’s SUV in the subcompact class) or the 184-torque (compared to the HR-V’s 138) turbocharged, 4-cylinder-powered Volkswagen Taos.
At least the HR-V upgraded its engine from the 141-horse hamster wheel in the first-generation model — part of an overhaul for the entry-level ute. As readers of this column know, I’ve got the need for speed, but for most customers in this class, it’s the HR-V’s other upgrades that will really turn heads.
Begin with the fact that the new HR-V is built on the same bones as the excellent Civic sedan.
That means one of the best interiors in class surrounded me as I jumped into the HR-V’s driver’s seat. A cool honeycomb dash stretched from A-pillar to A-pillar, featuring a high-mounted touchscreen for good driver visibility complemented by meaty climate-control dials. The interior fit like a glove. That utility extended throughout the roomy cabin.
I loaded three suitcases, a computer bag and a backpack into the rear hatch with ease, then climbed into the roomy backseat with leg and headroom to spare. My 6’3” son Sam sat comfortably in front of me. The current owner of a 2012 VW Golf GTI, he is the HR-V’s target audience should he and his wife, say, want to buy a second car.
After a weekend in the Honda, he said it would be on his shopping list along with the Taos, since Volkswagen has impressed him with the GTI. The Honda and V-dub are very similar, with bold, roomy interiors and distinctive looks — another big improvement for this HR-V over last year’s appliance.
I mean, it actually looked more like a kitchen appliance than a car. For this gen, the HR-V has adopted a more anthropomorphic face with bright eyes (headlights) and a cute mouth. Think the 2020 Kia Sportage or Ford Focus.
My other son, Henry, was a tougher sell. The owner of a 250-horse, all-wheel-drive hatchback Mazda3, he has understandably high expectations for modern subcompact SUVs.
Charging along between corn fields on Route 632 south of Summit, he gripped the fat leather steering wheel and seemed to enjoy the HR-Vs’s nimble Civic chassis. The engine, not so much. He reached for the DRIVE mode selector and got only ECO, SNOW and NORMAL. No SPORT mode. “Pretty boring,” he said. How about the interior? “Compared to the red interior in my Mazda3? Pretty boring.”
Like I said, tough class.
Mazda CX-30 has set a ridiculously high bar in this class in features, too, with standard adaptive cruise control, blind-spot assist, automatic braking, Apple CarPlay/Android Auto and coffee machine (kidding about the latter). Honda keeps up with standard adaptive cruise and auto braking, but load the two vehicles to the teeth and the Mazda wins on price.
Honda’s strengths are in its boxy utility and ergonomic excellence. The Mazda has its quirks — like a cramped, coupe-like roof and remote-dial controlled information screen. Typically, Honda has obsessively tested its SUV to make sure everything is easy. For example:—Tab on top of the rear seats to help them collapse? Check.—Console storage? Check.—Sub-rear cargo storage for small items? Check.—Wireless Apple CarPlay/Android Auto? Check (on models like my tester with 9-inch screens).—Front warning lights to let me know that I’m within inches of a stack of race tires in the crowded Summit paddock? Check.
Still, there are reminders this is an entry-level vehicle, even in my loaded $31K EX-L model. There are no ceiling grab handles (for passengers to seize when we motorheads choose to throw the Civic chassis around a bit) or climate controls in the rear (honey, could you please turn up the AC in front?).
But on the whole, this is a stylish, roomy vehicle that punches above its price point. Sitting in Summit’s paddock next to the Honda, a friend pointed at the HR-V’s clay-blue wardrobe.
“I like that color,” he said. “Very fashionable.”
In the middle of a sea of race cars sporting all kinds of entertaining paint jobs, it’s no small feat for a small SUV to get noticed. Just a few yards away, a trio of red, yellow and blue F1600s flashed by — nose to tail — down the pit straight.
If a little more of that sportiness rubs off on the HR-V’s engine bay, the Honda will be complete.
2023 Honda HR-V
Vehicle type: Front-engine, front-wheel-drive, five-passenger subcompact SUV
Price: $24,895, including $1,245 destination fee ($30,590 as tested)
Powerplant: 2.0-liter, inline 4-cylinder
Power: 158 horsepower, 138 pound-feet of torque
Transmission: Continuously variable automatic (CVT)
Performance: 0-60 mph, 7.0 seconds (Car and Driver). Top speed, 135 mph
Weight: 3,350 pounds
Fuel economy: EPA, 25 mpg city/30 highway/27 combined
Report card
Highs: Excellent, roomy interior; fun Civic platform
Lows: Engine lacks punch; oh, that CVT
Overall: 3 stars
Henry Payne is auto critic for The Detroit News. Find him at hpayne@detroitnews.com or Twitter @HenryEPayne.
Detroit News Readers’ Choice awards: Z06, V-8s and EVs take prizes
Posted by Talbot Payne on September 21, 2022
Detroit — The Detroit auto show floor is awash in whispery-quiet new electric vehicles, but show-goers still covet American heavy metal.
Muscle cars dominated the annual Detroit News Readers’ Choice awards at Huntington Place this year. The high-revving, 670-horsepower, V8-powered Chevy Corvette Z06 took home Best in Show, while the rowdy Ford Bronco Raptor — inspired by King of the Hammers racing trucks — won best Off-Road Warrior.
Ford’s focus on its iconic vehicles — Mustang, Bronco, F-150 — has received a lot of buzz, and that was reflected in jurors’ selections as the Blue Oval took home the most prizes, winning four of the nine categories. Ford’s luxury division, Lincoln, also took home Top Concept for good measure.
The Readers’ Choice Awards are prized by automakers for their status as the Detroit show’s only awards judged by car buyers themselves. Nearly 100 jurors were let loose on the show floor during the Sept. 14 media day to make their selections.
The 2023 Corvette Z06 had already caught the eye of President Joe Biden when he toured the show, and News’ readers found the orange supercar irresistible as well. The eighth-generation, $65,895 Corvette C8 is the iconic nameplate’s first mid-engine model — and much more affordable than comparable mid-engine exotics from Ferrari and McLaren. The Z06 is the C8’s first performance version featuring the most-powerful normally-aspirated V-8 production engine ever made.
That performance will cost customers another 40 grand over the base car — and for that, The News’ jurors awarded the Z06 the prize for If Money Were No Object.
The North American International Auto Show has traditionally showcased head-turning concepts, and 2022 was no different. In perhaps the biggest surprise of the Readers’ Choice Awards, the Lincoln L100 Concept edged out the much-hyped Dodge Charger Daytona Banshee — a peek at the brand’s first EVs — and Buick Wildcat as best concept.
The sci-fi L100 is Lincoln’s vision of an autonomous vehicle future with no steering wheel or pedals (a “chess piece” is provided on an electronic pad to override the car’s self-driving if needed) and front seats that can swivel to face rear passengers. The chariot boasts other exotic features like a glass canopy roof, glass “frunk” and hub-mounted electric motors.
Mustang’s most powerful model — the Shelby GT500 — took home the trophy for Muscle Machine. The track-focused, 760-horse hellion can hit 60 mph in just 3.4 seconds. You can’t miss its giant cow-catcher front grille.
Best Electric Vehicle awards went to the Ford Mustang Mach-E — inspired by the Mustang coupe — and Cadillac Lyriq. While Mach-E replicates the sports-car’s looks and speed in an updated EV package, Lyriq shows the way to an entirely electric Cadillac future with new fascia and bling-tastic interior.
In addition to winning best Off-Road Warrior, the ballistic Bronco Raptor also inspired the more affordable Bronco Sport, which jurors judged best Bargain Buggy. Based on the Ford Escape’s unibody chassis, the all-wheel-drive Bronco Sport Badlands trim offers surprising off-road capability for half the price of the ladder-frame-based Raptor.
If you want to bring the entire family to Huntington Place for the show, jurors recommend the Jeep Grand Wagoneer as best Family Hauler with its spacious three-row interior. The Grand is a step above the Wagoneer (which competes against the Chevy Tahoe and Ford Expedition) and sets its sights on truck-based luxury models like the Cadillac Escalade and Lincoln Navigator.
Riding on a smooth air suspension, the Grand Wagoneer boasts an interior studded with luxury touches including four screens up front — even one for the passenger. Second-row passengers get their own infotainment screens, and third-row passengers their own sunroof.
Under the hood? A 471-horspower, 6.4-liter V-8, of course. Even family haulers are best served with American muscle.
The winners
HOTTEST TECH: Ford Mustang Mach-E
MOST ELECTRIFYING: Cadillac Lyric
BARGAIN BUGGY: Ford Bronco Sport
OFF-ROAD WARRIOR: Ford Bronco Raptor
FAMILY HAULER: Jeep Grand Wagoneer
MUSCLE MACHINE: Ford Mustang Shelby GT500
TOP CONCEPT: Lincoln L100
IF MONEY WERE NO OBJECT: Chevrolet Corvette Z06
BEST IN SHOW: Chevrolet Corvette Z06
Henry Payne is auto critic for The Detroit News. Find him at hpayne@detroitnews.com or Twitter @HenryEPayne.
Payne: Overlanding across the UP to Michigan’s other auto-palooza, Detroit 4fest
Posted by Talbot Payne on September 18, 2022
High Rock Bay, Upper Peninsula — The Back Yard Overland Tour kicked off Detroit 4fest this week with an epic adventure that included a visit into a 350-foot-deep mineshaft, a front hub blowout, and a mad Jeep dash to the northernmost point in Michigan.
And that was just the first day.
BYOT is the first in a packed calendar of events this weekend for the fourth annual 4fest, one of three auto circuses in town. The Detroit auto show at Huntington Place celebrates the latest vehicles in the industry. The Detroit Concours d’Elegance at the Detroit Institute for Art celebrates the industry’s classics. And 4fest celebrates utes ‘n’ trucks — the hottest segments in the industry, from Jeep Wranglers to Ford Broncos to Toyota Tacomas.
In many ways, 4fest is the most relevant of the three shows. It’s the intersection of some of the biggest trends in the industry as automakers ramp up production of off-road capable SUVs aimed at families in a post-COVID world who discovered how to work remotely and how to vacation at America’s network of national parks. It’s a culture struggling to accommodate government trends forcing the industry to produce overland-challenged electric cars, but 4fest will also have a global auto reveal of its own: the first battery-powered, King of the Hammers Ultra4 off-road racer.
This year, 4fest is taking it up a notch with the introduction of an all-new electric off-road racer and the Overland Tour — a five-day, 750-mile celebration of the state that introduced America to automobiles, the copper industry, the Great Lakes, and more. I joined the train of five Jeeps — and their motley crews — with a plug-in hybrid 2023 Jeep Wrangler Rubicon 4xe for the first day of the journey in the far reaches of the Upper Peninsula.
Their ultimate destination? Detroit 4fest’s auto-palooza Sept. 17-18 at Holly Oaks ORV Park, where owners take the 4x4s they ogled at the Detroit auto show and turn them loose on the most challenging off-road environment in southeast Michigan.
“Off-roading is about more than just light bars and big tires,” said Liam Lafferty, 27, owner of a 1972 Jeep Commando and contributor to GoneGPN.com (Gone Jeepin’, get it?) that helped organize BYOT. “It’s about getting out into nature. Back Yard shows owners how they can experience the off-road lifestyle, but in a less intense environment in some of the most beautiful places in America.”
The UP certainly fits the bill.
With stunning lake vistas, sprawling state parks and geological and mineral history to match, Michigan’s northern “back yard” is a treasure — and today’s off-road vehicles are the perfect tools to explore it.
BYOT’s trip covers 750 miles starting at Keweenaw Peninsula, skirting the southern banks of Lake Superior east through Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore and Whitefish Point before plunging due south across the Mackinac Bridge, cruising along the Lake Huron coast, and arriving Saturday in Holly Oaks for the kick-off of 4fest’s weekend activities.
Overlanding requires improvisation, and our adapting skills were put to an immediate test. After 10 hours on the road from Metro Detroit to Keweenaw, one of our train — a classic Kaiser Jeep M715 (complete with gear tunnel that would make a Rivian R1T envious) — blew a left front hub.
Dead in the water in the little town of L’Anse at the base of the Keweenaw, we sent out an SOS to the local off-road community and were met by immediate support. A local mechanic, Big Off-Road Repair, arrived along with others to fix the issue. It was a preview of the congregation of off-roaders we found along the way — whether in need on the road or at a campsite — who converse easily with one another. Even if they own a Wrangler or Bronco.
Overlanding take many forms. BYOT’s videographer, Mike Harrington, 67, who has a laundry list of Hollywood and auto industry ads to his credit — covered the Ultimate Adventure, perhaps the most extreme overland tour that pitted some of the country’s finest builders of dirt-kickers in a multi-state competition.
But more typical is the nine-day Jeep Safari in Moab, Utah, every Easter when families and enthusiasts gather in the country’s most famous off-road playground to camp, trail-ride, and generally ogle the latest Jeeps.
For their inaugural overland tour, Detroit 4fest wanted to showcase Michigan’s history and scenery as well as its extensive trail network. The Keweenaw is a reminder that Michigan is about more than just making automobiles.
Crossing the Keweenaw Waterway, we took steep, San Francisco-like roads to Houghton’s Quincy Mines. Towering above the Torch Lake valley, Quincy’s last remaining #2 mine shaft is a reminder that the UP was once America’s epicenter of copper mining, churning out the metal for everything from wire to plates.
We visited the Quincy #2 Hoist House — home to the world’s largest steam-driven mine hoist — that was built in 1918 with 2,500 horsepower to pull copper-laden, 10-ton cars at 35 mph up a 9,250-foot (nearly two miles) shaft to the surface.
Jeep dominates the off-road space, but Yoopers drive everything 4×4, including Broncos, Subarus, F-150 Raptors, Toyota Tacomas and more.
My plug-in hybrid Wrangler Rubicon 4xe was an excellent overland companion — though not nearly as fearsome-looking as the Maximus-3 Gladiator pickup truck with 40-inch tires that I followed up Route 41 to High Rock Bay, the northern-most point in Michigan with a staggering view of Lake Superior.
The 4xe’s signature trick is that it could preserve its 26-mile battery range until I got to the top of Route 41 — the end of the line for a road that winds 1,990 miles from Miami. I then went to full electric mode, stealthily crawling through the forest on dirt trails until we reached Superior’s sandy shores.
We were hardly alone, however as the campsite was full of other overlanders even though it was a Monday afternoon. They were on vacation in RVs, on lunch break, or just working remotely.
On the 16-mile round trip to High Rock, I ate all 26 miles of my electric range and needed gas power to get me the last two miles. Four-wheeling on trails — even at 5-30 mph — sucks electrons.
I didn’t see a single electric vehicle in my two days across the UP. Even at $4 gasoline, drivers I talked to resisted the government’s call to buy electric. Gasoline is more than a quick-fill convenience — it also provides range security in the long stretches between scarce service stations, where trailering an RV can eat up to 50% of a vehicle’s gas range. Tow behind an EV — or just go four-wheelin’ in a hybrid as I did — and batteries can lose a lot of range, stranding vehicles far from the energy grid.
Riding the EV wave, 4fest will have the global reveal on Friday of the King of Hammers Ultra4 race vehicle, marking battery power’s entry into the U.S.’s most demanding off-road sport. Whether on the road at BYOT or pounding around Holly Oaks, 4fest wants to teach the culture of off-roading to the thousands of new buyers coming into the ute ‘n’ truck segments today. The event is not only sponsored by Jeep and aftermarket parts companies like TYRI Lights (the Overland tour’s chief sponsor), but also Tread Lightly, a nonprofit that encourages trail and campsite maintenance.
“We want to get more people involved in this adventure lifestyle. It’s great for the soul,” said Tom Zielinski, CEO of 4fest. “At fest we also give folks Off-Road 101 lessons — how do I put this in AWD? How do I air own my tires? — that are important and give them the confidence to go back here to Holly Oaks, or go the the UP, or perhaps out west.”
Henry Payne is auto critic for The Detroit News. Find him at hpayne@detroitnews.com or Twitter @HenryEPayne.
Mustangs, dinosaurs and ducks: The Top 10 attractions at the Detroit auto show
Posted by Talbot Payne on September 18, 2022
Detroit — The Detroit auto show is finally back after a long hiatus. But it’s now more Detroit Fair than auto show.
Walk over to the totally revamped Huntington Place exhibition center Sept. 17-25 and you’ll find animals (Rams, Mustangs, Broncos), games (VR, simulators, raffles), food (elephant ears, corn dogs, pizza), thrill rides (Bronco Mountain, Camp Jeep, Lightning launches) and flying machines.
Even the weather has changed, with pleasant, carnival-like, 80-degree temps so attendees can walk outside and enjoy the day. Or the giant duck (another animal).
Of course, automobiles are still the centerpiece of the fair — er, auto show. But they are presented on acres of carpet like an oversized dealer lobby — not surrounded by the multimillion-dollar mega-stages of yore that looked right out of a Broadway theater. The Detroit Three automakers dominate the show floor with Ford sandwiched between the General Motors’ brands in the South Hall and Stellantis brands to the north. Gone are sprawling stages from BMW, Volkswagen, even Mercedes that once rocked the South Hall with bold autonomous cars and $100,000 AMG SUVs.
A more compact show is in their place so that mom and dad can easily shop for their next family car. But when the kids get antsy — Dad, can we see something other than cars?! — the parents can follow the neon green footsteps across the hall to the Dinosaur Expedition and time-travel back to the Late Jurassic.
I used to write about the Top 10 cars at the Detroit auto show. But in recognition of a show transformed, here are the Top 10 attractions.
1) The Concepts. Detroit auto shows have seen some wild concepts over the years, and ’22 is no different. Electric vehicle platforms and the electronics revolution have given designers new tools to play with. Check out the sleek Buick Wildcat. Or the wicked Dodge Charger Daytona Banshee, which will shriek as loud as a V-8 Hellcat thanks to its Fratzonic Chambered Exhaust.
Or check out the bling-tastic Lincoln Star Concept. It features a see-through frunk that turns opaque when you load it with cargo. It has a slide-out work desk in the front seat — a drink chiller in back. And it one-ups Rolls Royce — replacing the umbrella in each rear door with a “digital briefcase” compartment so can charge your laptop while accessing its files on the Star’s multiple screens.
2) Camp Jeep. Jump in a Gladiator pickup or Wrangler Rubicon on the show floor and a driver will demonstrate the dirt kickers’ diverse off-road skills. The highlight (pun intended) is a climb to the top of a rollercoaster-like hill where you get Huntington Place’s best views.
3) Ram pull. Next to Jeep is the Ram ride where you can luxuriate in the pickup’s palatial interior while the truck clean-and-jerks a 7,000-pound cement wall off the show floor. Dad will be pulled kickin’ and screamin’ out of this ride. The Ram 2500 Limited, for example, has a 850-torque diesel, camera mirror, multiple camera angles, and a console screen the size of the Henry Ford IMAX theater.
4) Corvette Z06. The Biden Administration wants the industry to go electric, but someone forgot to tell Joe Biden. The president is the owner of a ’67 ’Vette and his favorite car when he toured the show floor Sept. 14 was the new, V8-powered, 670-horsepower Corvette Z06 that’ll sing like an F-15 on afterburners when you put your foot into it. It made all the evening newscasts. It’s painted orange so you don’t miss it.
5) Rubber duckie. Painted yellow and unmissable is a 61-foot inflatable duck in front of the convention center. You can see it from space. It honors the Jeepster tradition of getting “ducked.” If a Jeep owner likes another Jeep, they put a duck on it. Sign up for Jeep’s $100,000 raffle and you’ll get a tiny rubber duck, too.
6) Dinosaur Expedition. Rivaling the duck in size are the Brontosauruses in Matt Flynn’s Dinosaur Expedition. Just follow the green footprints in the lobby and they will lead you to the Ballroom, which has been transformed into a dino playground. Take a dinosaur ride, listen to dino stories, buy dinosaur toys. It’s dino-mite.
7) The Mustang. The ’Vette isn’t the only car resisting the electric trend. The new, 2024 Mustang is in the house. It’s muscular, it’s menacing, it’s got a V-8 . . . but the surprise is a 21st-century interior with huge digital screens run by Unreal Engine 3D. That’s right, the same gaming company that designs your kids’ Fortnite video game.
8) Chrysler 300C. The 300C is heading for the exits after 17 years, but not before 2,200 copies of this final edition model are made (they’ve already sold out). With its slab sides, big grille and Hemi V-8, this is the ultimate gangster getaway car.
9) Aircraft. Since you’re no longer freezing in January, the Detroit show wants to invite you outside and scan the skies. There you’ll find the Drone Show with 300-400 drones celebrating Opening Day of the show’s public run at 9 p.m. Saturday. Inside you’ll find the biggest commercial drone you’ve ever seen: the six-engine ASX that will deliver people — or packages.
10) Lap the Detroit GP. Also outside, get in line for a lap around the Detroit Grand Prix’s new 10-turn, 1.7-mile course as the race returns to city streets next June for the first time in 30 years. The track winds north ’round the RenCen, skirts the waterfront, then shoots back west along Jefferson Avenue. At press time, a show spokesman said that VW and Chevy would be giving rides.
We hope the Chevys are Corvette Z06s.
Henry Payne is auto critic for The Detroit News. Find him at hpayne@detroitnews.com or Twitter @HenryEPayne.
Payne: Seven generations of the Mustang family and what made them special
Posted by Talbot Payne on September 18, 2022
Few auto badges have lasted 60 years, but the Ford Mustang isn’t your average auto.
The two-door sports coupe created the affordable muscle car class in the U.S. in 1965 and has been an icon ever since. As the Porsche 911 has defined luxury performance across the decades, so has Mustang endured through seven generations, the latest unveiled this week at the 2022 Detroit auto show.
Its essential, rear-wheel-drive, long-hood, coupe spec has remained the same since its inception. But the pony car has also changed with the times — evolving with technology, surviving strong regulatory headwinds, and spawning Shelby performance versions with eye-watering performance.
Here’s a look at each generation of Mustang and what made it special.
Gen One, 1965-73: The OG was born as a 1965 model in April 1964 and was an instant hit. Ford predicted first-year sales of 100,000 vehicles, but dealers sold 22,000 on the first day alone. By year’s end, Ford had sold over 400,000. By March 1966, the 1 millionth Mustang rolled off the line.
Today it is a collector’s car found in the garages of Dream Cruisers, former President Bill Clinton and Ford Chairman Bill Ford. Everyone has their favorite ‘Stang engine, and the ’65 debuted with 2.8-liter straight-six, 4.3-liter V-8 and 271-horse 4.7-liter V-8. For reference, that’s shy of the 310 ponies made by today’s entry-level, 2.3-liter turbo-4 engine.
It didn’t take long to spawn a performance version from Ford partner Carroll Shelby’s shop beginning in 1965, further polishing Mustang’s reputation. The white Shelby Cobra GT350 would become synonymous with Mustang with its twin stripes and 4.7-liter engine, and the light-weighted GT350R would dominate SCCA B-Production racing. A 7.0-liter Shelby GT500 was added to the lineup in 1967.
Looks and footprint evolved over the decade — the 1969 Mustang Boss 302 being one of the most iconic models with a second set of headlights integrated into the grille. By 1970, sales had come back to earth with less than 200,000 sold.
Gen Two, 1974-78: With the 1970s oil crisis came federal CAFE regulations and everything was downsized, including the Mustang.
The pony car shared a chassis with the common Ford Pinto and sprouted a hatchback option. It featured small pony engines: a 2.3-liter four-cylinder and 2.8-liter V-6. Today, the Gen Two car is dismissed by Mustang enthusiasts, and few are seen at classic Dream Cruises. But in oil-embargoed 1974, the Mustang was embraced, with sales soaring to 386,000.
Eventually, Ford managed to stuff the coupe with a 5.0-liter V-8 (making just 140 horsepower), offered in Cobra II and King Cobra models.
Gen Three, 1979-93: Ford closed out the Malaise Decade with a new car based on the bigger Fox platform shared with the Fairmont sedan. Gerbil wheels continued under the hood with a 88-horse starter four, 132-horse turbo-4 inline-6 and V-8.
The roaring ’80s brought back some of the Mustang’s roar as well with a HiPo 225-horsepower V-8, quick turbo-four SVO, and the first convertible in a decade. For ’87, Mustang got a more muscular bod, though the car’s style had now evolved completely away from the original with a grille-less face and big horizontal headlights.
Gen Four, 1994-2004: Along with more curvaceous sheet metal and a return to the OG’s twin-cowl dash, the fourth-generation pony was powered by a stout, base 3.8-liter V-6 to go with the optional V-8.
There were plenty of toys for enthusiasts, like the 320-horse, V8-powered 1999 SVT Cobra, complete with front skirt and rear wing. The Bullitt model paid tribute to Steve McQueen’s movie car, the Mach 1 introduced a shaker hood, and the wonderfully named Terminator Cobra boasted 390 supercharged horsepower.
Gen Five, 2005-14: Rebirth. To many Mustang enthusiasts, the 2005 ’Stang rediscovered its roots. The coupe brought back round headlights and muscled, fastback looks. The retro-car rekindled the segment, sparking the re-emergence of archrivals Chevy Camaro and Dodge Challenger.
For the ’11 model year, there was muscle under the hood to match its looks with a 3.7-liter V-6 and 412-horse 5.0-liter V-8 on offer. Hot performance models followed, including the torrid, 444-horse track-focused Boss 302 and multiple high-powered Shelby GT500s — celebrating the return of the Shelby badge for the first time in nearly 40 years.
Gen Six, 2015-23: Mustang celebrated its 50th anniversary with an all-new car and big international ambitions. The new coupe would be exported to 140-plus countries. To encourage a wider demographic both abroad and at home, Mustang also got a radical redesign with styling cues more in line with brand siblings like the Focus and Fusion sedans. The round headlights disappeared into a modern headlight casing.
Some enthusiasts would deride the new style as the “Mustang Fusion,” but Ford backed its new car with a remade chassis and ’Stang’s first standard independent rear-suspension — key to the track ambitions of the V8-powered Shelby GT50 and GT500, back in the showroom together for the first time since the ’60s.
Harking back to the 1960s’ GT350, the Shelby was a ferocious driver’s car with stick shift and a unique, flat-plane crank V-8 engine that howled to 8,000 RPM like a Ferrari V-8. The supercharged GT500 boasted more horsepower than any Mustang before it — 760 — and a lightning-quick eight-speed automatic transmission.
Even the entry-level Mustang got a so-called High Performance variant with a 330-horse turbo-4 ripped from the Focus RS.
Gen Seven, 2024-: With killjoy government closing in again on muscle cars with draconian emissions regulations, Mustang defied elimination (the V-8 Camaro and Challenger expire in 2024) with the introduction of its 2024 coupe. Not only does the new ’Stang keep its V-8, it enhances it with twin throttle bodies promising more ponies when the car debuts in the summer of 2023.
But the big advance is in interior upgrades unheard of in the car’s six-decade existence. Gone is the famous double-bubble cockpit replaced by … twin digital screens sporting state-of-the-art graphics courtesy of the Unreal game engine.
Some six drive modes will be offered, including a configurable Custom mode. In a nod to enthusiasts, the styling harkens back to the muscled 2005 model with chunkier cues seen in everything from the hips to the steering wheel hub.
In honor of its heritage, a graphic on the back window features a silhouette of every generation reaching back to 1965.
Henry Payne is auto critic for The Detroit News. Find him at hpayne@detroitnews.com or Twitter @HenryEPayne.
Payne: Five things about the 2024 Ford Mustang
Posted by Talbot Payne on September 18, 2022
The Ford Mustang created the US muscle car segment in 1965, and it looks to be the last V8-powered muscle car standing after the 2024 model year. Both the Chevy Camaro and Dodge Challenger are packing it in.
Credit Ford with shrewd product planning to keep the regulatory vultures at bay. Though some Mustang fans have pooh-poohed the Mustang Mach-E electric vehicle as “not a real Mustang,” Where the V8-powered Challenger and Charger are racking up significant government fines, Ford insiders say the Mustang EV’s credits helped save its V8-powered sibling sports car’s from regulatory jail.
“Investing in another generation of Mustang is a big statement at a time when many of our competitors are exiting the business of internal combustion vehicles,” said chief motorhead and Ford CEO Jim Farley, an accomplished racer.
Product planning innovation aside, the seventh-gen Mustang continues the successful formula of the sixth-gen car with convertible, manual, and turbo-4/V8 cylinder power. But the new car is hardly mailing it in.
The ‘24 promises significant upgrades in technology and styling that should please long-time fans and a new generation of buyers alike. Here are five notable things about the new pony:
1) Style. For the sixth-gen car, Mustang went international, selling in over 140 markets. To appeal to its new audiences, the Ford got a more international style – less American muscle, more Ford sedan model line with softer edges and a cowl-less grille. The car was a huge hit – but the muscle-car faithful at home derided the car as the “Mustang Fusion.”
While maintaining the last gen’s modern design cues, the 2024 model leans into its muscular American design heritage. Take the steering wheel, for example. The sixth gen’s hub was round – the seventh gen’s is rectangular, like the Hulk’s pecs. The theme is repeated throughout the vehicle.
The grille is more squared-off, less ovoid. The headlights (the three rectangular beams) are set back in the bodywork like the 1969 Boss 302 – a horizontal line running across the grille’s brow, emphasizing the cars low stance. Indeed, the whole front clip is different for the GT and standard Ecoboost cars, a Mustang first. Other signature pieces are strong rear hip lines, and a functional GT hood sccop that pulls air through the front grille for downforce and to cool the radiator.
2) Interior. Welcome to the 21st century. While not as radical as the Mustang Mach-E’s screen-focused, Tesla-like interior, the 2024 has a modern interior like no Mustang before it.
Rather than the Mustang’s classic double-bubble dash, the new car gets twin, hoodless 12.4-inch instrument and 13.3-inch console screens running across the dash. A single button on the console operates volume.
The Mustang comes with six Drive Modes: Normal, Sport, Track, Drag, Slippery, and Custom. Thanks to state-of-the-art graphics from Unreal Engine 3D – the same gaming engine found in the hit video game, Fortnight, and the GMC Hummer EV – the screen display changes with each mode. Select the track mode and a map for Grattan Raceway in Grand Rapids – where Mustang underwent extensive testing – appears
The infotainment system is run by Ford’s latest SYNC 4 which allows wireless Apple CarPlay/Andriod Auto.
3) V8 power. The dual-overhead cam Coyote engine makes one of the auto kingdom’s most distinctive sounds and it is back in the GT model. Expect more capability thanks to dual throttle bodies which driver’s will want to show off at the Woodward Dream Cruise with the hood up.
The engine breathes through twin snorkels attached to the twin nostrils on either side of the front grille. The standard, turbocharged, 2.3-liter 4-banger is no slouch either making more than 300 horsepower.
4) Tricks. This being a muscle car, it has some cool tricks up it’s sleeve. The sixth-gen model debuted line lock – so that, dude, you could smoke your rear tires while stationary at stoplight. The 2024 model introduces Electronic Drift Brake for drifting.
The Mustang comes standard with a handbrake, then the e-Brake option (when actuated via the screen) encourages drivers to slew the rear end out and wow your friends – and melt your rear rubber to the cords. Ford developed the feature with professional drift racer, Vaughan Gittin, Jr.
Remote key fob tricks have become hip – think Tesla’s remote park feature. Mustang owner’s can use their key fob Remote Rev feature to rev their steed remotely. Vroom vroom!
5) Customization. Owners have always had a lot of choices to make the Mustang their own. The 2024 is no different. The car options 11 colors including new Yellow Splash and Vapor Blue. Brembo brakes – optioned on the Performance Pack – will also be available in three different colors. And there is even a Bronze trim option – part of the Mustang Design Series – with Sinister Bronze alloy wheels and a bronze pony logo on the grille.
In the screen display’s Custom driving mode, the ‘Stang’s current setup is displayed on the center stack as real-time graphical renderings. Settings can then be adjusted – gaming style – by simply swiping the graphic to rotate the car virtually.
The Mustang begins production at Flat Rock assembly in the summer of 2023.
Henry Payne is auto critic for The Detroit News. Find him at hpayne@detroitnews.com or Twitter @HenryEPayne.
Cadillac Celestiq turns heads at EyesOn Design Awards
Posted by Talbot Payne on September 18, 2022
Detroit — The Cadillac Celestiq, the dramatic sedan concept pointing the way to the luxury brand’s electric future, dominated the 2022 EyesOn Design Awards, taking home two trophies.
The Celestiq won for Best Use of Color, Graphics, or Materials and for Best Concept Vehicle. In the latter category, the Celestiq nosed out two other Motown nominees, the Buick Wildcat and Lincoln Model L100.
The 2024 Chevrolet Blazer EV and DeLorean Alpha5 lost out to the sleek Ferrari Daytona SP3 for Best Production Vehicle. Other winners included the Audi Grandsphere as Best Design Interior.
The EyesOn Design honors are the official design awards of the Detroit auto show and are judged by some of the most respected designers in the industry. They honor the best production and concept vehicles in the world and have attracted added interest this year as designers work with new architectures presented by electric vehicle development. Without a gas engine up front breathing through giant grilles, designers have new freedom to create “frunks” — front trunks — elongated cabins, and new fascias.
Though the Buick Wildcat failed to win a category, it received the most nominations with three. Wildcat was also nominated in the Color and Interior Design categories.
Now in their 35th year, the awards have honored some of the industry’s most iconic designs.
2022 winners:
Best Concept Vehicle: Cadillac Celestiq
Other nominees: Buick Wildcat, Lincoln L100
Best Production Vehicle: Ferrari Daytona SP3
Other nominees: Chevrolet Blazer EV, DeLorean Alpha5, Range Rover
Best Designed Interior: Audi Grandsphere Concept
Other nominees: Audi Urbansphere, Buick Wildcat
Innovative Use of Color, Graphics or Materials: Cadillac Celestiq
Other nominees: Audi Grandsphere, Buick Wildcat
Henry Payne is auto critic for The Detroit News. Find him at hpayne@detroitnews.com or Twitter @HenryEPayne.
Car, Truck and SUV of the Year semifinalists announced at Detroit auto show
Posted by Talbot Payne on September 18, 2022
Detroit — Let the games begin.
The North American Car, Truck and Utility Vehicle of the Year opened the 2022 Detroit auto show by announcing the semifinalists for the 2023 model year in three categories. The contenders were whittled from a record eligibility list of 48 entrants — 20 of them electric, 31 of them SUVs, and five startups, reflecting trends in the industry.
The Ford F-150 Lightning EV will be an early favorite for Truck of the Year, but otherwise domestic nameplates are few in the car and SUV categories.
The Lightning is one of the flood of EVs coming to market as governments are forcing electrification (California, America’s biggest market, has announced a ban on gas car sales by 2035) and manufacturers are rushing to test the market for customer acceptance. The opportunity has also encouraged a bushel of startups to market — and two startup models, Rivian R1S and Lordstown Endurance, made the semifinalists’ list.
But traditional badges also populate the list as consumer favorites like the Honda CR-V and Lexus RX come to market with major upgrades thanks to the electronics revolution sweeping the industry.
“The semifinalist list indicates the enormous diversity available to consumers today,” said NACTOY President Gary Witzenburg, who announced the contenders from the Detroit Auto Show floor Wednesday. “There are a surprising number of sedans to choose from despite the trend to SUVs, while EVs have their work cut out for them given the challenges of charging and the rising cost of electricity. As for early favorites, I wouldn’t bet against the Lightning.”
Judged by 50 independent journalists (including the author of this article), NACTOY is one of the industry’s most prestigious awards.
SUVs now make up over 7 of every 10 new cars sold in the US, and automakers are focusing on the largest segment — compact utes — with EV offerings.
Two of those new models — the Rivian and Cadillac Lyriq — will be early favorites for SUV of the year. Rivian is an all-electric brand and Cadillac promises to be all-EVs by 2030, with bling-tastic Lyriq as its first battery-powered offering. Other EV favorites include the peppy, radically-styled Genesis GV60 and Kia EV6 — both built on the Hyundai Group’s first electric skateboard platform.
Popular gas models like the Honda CR-V, Honda HR-V and Mazda CX-50 are sure to give them a run. Surprisingly absent from the list are the first EVs from Subaru and Toyota — the Solterra and bZ4X. Startup EV automaker Fisker’s Ocean also notably did not make the final cut.
The Lightning — Ford’s first EV from its best-selling F-series pickup line — likely has the truck trophy in the bag thanks to its impressive torque and huge frunk. Competitors include the Chevy Silverado ZR2 and Lordstown Endurance — the latter an EV pickup from an Ohio-based startup that has struggled to bring its product to market.
Domestic automakers have all but abandoned the car market, but the category promises a close run for best 2023 model.
EVs also are plentiful here, including the BMW i4 eDrive 40i and Mercedes EQE. But a couple of sporty, nostalgic nameplates — the Acura Integra and Nissan Z — have early buzz as their fan bases have embraced the models’ updated looks and modern engines.
If Toyota (America’s No. 2 best-selling brand) was shut out in the SUV category, it looks strong in the sedan pool with two all-new gas-powered models: the luxurious Crown and wee hellion GR Corolla.
To be eligible for the prize, vehicles must be all or substantially new and available for purchase before the end of the 2023 calendar year. NACTOY jurors will gather in October for a comprehensive test of the semifinalists. A final trio are then announced in each category at the Los Angeles Auto Show in November, with the winners unveiled Jan. 11 at a special ceremony in Detroit.
The winners for the 2022 model year were Honda Civic as Car of the Year, Ford Maverick as Truck of the Year and Ford Bronco for Utility of the Year.
2023 semifinalists
Car of the Year
Acura Integra
BMW i4 eDrive 40i
Genesis G80
Genesis G90
Mercedes C Class
Mercedes EQE
Nissan Z
Subaru WRX
Toyota Crown
Toyota GR Corolla
Truck of the Year
Chevrolet Silverado ZR2
Ford F-150 Lightning
Lordstown Endurance
Utility Vehicle of the Year
Audi Q4 e-tron
BMW iX xDrive M50i
Cadillac Lyriq
Genesis GV60
Honda CR-V
Honda HR-V
Kia EV6
Kia Sportage
Lexus RX
Mazda CX-50
Nissan Ariya
Rivian R1S
Volvo C40 Recharge
Henry Payne is auto critic for The Detroit News. Find him at hpayne@detroitnews.com or Twitter @HenryEPayne.
The legendary ‘Rain Man’ Buick Roadmaster resides in Detroit and is still raising autism awareness
Posted by Talbot Payne on September 18, 2022
Southfield — One of Hollywood’s most famous cars, the 1949 Buick Roadmaster that Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman drove in the movie “Rain Man,” has found a home in Detroit.
And, true to its movie heritage, it’s making a difference for autistic children.
Hoffman played Raymond Babbitt in the move — the autistic brother of Cruise’s Charlie Babbitt character — and the car shared equal billing as the pair bonded on a cross-country trip from Ohio to Las Vegas. Hoffman adopted the car as his own after the movie, keeping it for 34 years before putting it up for auction earlier this year. It was bought by Detroit collector-and-entrepreneur Kevin Adell.
This Thursday, the car will be in a starring role again, this time in the fourth annual Stahls Automotive Foundation’s Autos for Autism event in New Baltimore.
“I got a call from Wayne Carini — he has a show called ‘Chasing Classic Cars’ on the Motor Trend Channel,” said Adell as he cruised Southfield in the legendary Buick. “I didn’t know until he called that one of his family members has autism. He asked if he could use the car to show awareness for autism. He’ll be at the Stahls Museum this Thursday from 4-8 p.m. . . . and this car will be used to raise money.”
The event on Sept. 15 will benefit the Ted Lindsay Foundation, which supports autism research and education. The Stahls Museum restores and exhibits vintage vehicles, music machines and memorabilia of the 20th century.
Along with Carini, Detroit Red Wings alumni Eddie Mio and Butch Patrick, who played Eddie on the “The Munsters” TV show, will be on hand.
The big, curvaceous, eight-cylinder Roadmaster convertible stands out on Metro Detroit roads surrounded by modern, jelly bean-shaped models. Buick’s signature quad port holes are prominent, as are whitewall tires and chrome grille. Open the door and the interior is a striking mix of cream and burgundy.
Adell says two Buicks were used for the movie — a primary mule car that was covered in plates and drill holes to carry cameras while filming the actors, and his car, which was used for running footage. The former went to director Barry Levinson, the latter to Hoffman.
“The car should have got an Oscar with those guys,” said a smiling Adell of the movie that took home four Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Actor for Hoffman. “Hoffman kept his Roadmaster in a garage for 34 years. Now he’s 85 years old, and he put it up for auction at Scottdale. I’ve got the original title with Hoffman’s home address in Beverly Hills.”
In the movie, Raymond famously tells Charlie that “I’m an excellent driver.” Cruise’s character turns over the wheel to his movie brother and Raymond bumps a couple of curbs outside a Las Vegas motel.
Adell’s car looks no worse for the wear, having been impeccably restored since it came into his collection — right down to the Ohio plates.
That’s how he met Carini, who had done restoration work on Levinson’s Buick in Connecticut. “We were stumped on the transmission,” said Adell, who owns media properties including the The Word Network, 910AM Superstation, and WADL-TV. “It’s a 1949 automatic Dynaflow — he helped with a number of things.”
Tickets for Autos for Autism are $20 for ages 16 and older — ages 15 and younger are free. A VIP ticket costs $40 includes a a photo op with the 1949 Buick Roadmaster, meet-and-greet with the three celebrities, and access to a special car exhibit that includes a 1951 Hudson Hornet and 1970 Dodge Challenger. Tickets can be purchased online at www.eventbrite.com/e/autos-for-autism-2022-tickets-400159757607, or by calling the museum. Stahls Automotive Foundation is at 56516 North Bay Drive in Chesterfield Township.
“I definitely know this car. It’s a 1949 Buick Roadmaster, straight-8 — Fireball 8 — only 8,095 production models,” says Raymond Babbitt in the movie. The most famous copy is in Detroit raising autism awareness.
Henry Payne is auto critic for The Detroit News. Find him at hpayne@detroitnews.com or Twitter @HenryEPayne.
Penske and Porsche united: Two motorsports superpowers, one Le Mans goal
Posted by Talbot Payne on September 18, 2022
aytona Beach, Fla. — Roger Penske’s race cars have been in the winner’s circle of the world’s most storied tracks — including the Indianapolis 500 18 times, NASCAR’s Daytona 500 three times, the 24 Hours of Daytona, the 12 Hours of Sebring, even Australia’s legendary Bathurst 1000.
But there is one title that has eluded Metro Detroit’s most famous car guy: the 24 Hours of Le Mans in France, the world’s premiere sports car endurance race. So Penske has teamed with Le Mans’ winningest sports car brand, Porsche, to realize his ambition at the age of 85.
“It’s like having a new baby. I don’t want to miss it taking its first steps,” said Penske, who came here Sept. 2 to watch the sleek, red-and-white Porsche cyborg take its first test laps around Daytona Motor Speedway’s high bankings.
On the road to Le Mans next June, the 24 Hours of Daytona will be the first test of the Porsche 963. For “The Captain” — as his loyal troops at Team Penske call him — capping his illustrious career with a Le Mans win would be just desserts given that his racing days began behind the wheel of a Porsche RSK in 1958.
Penske long ago stepped out of the driver’s seat to run not only one of the world’s most successful racing programs. He sits atop a business empire that includes Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the IndyCar series, Penske Truck Leasing, and auto dealerships that employs 64,000 people across nine countries and four continents.
And yet, his passion for winning races — and for Porsches — is still at the heart of it all.
Under the banner Porsche Penske Motorsport, the formidable pair are teaming up again for an assault on the record books (Porsche is going for its 17th overall Le Mans win) at a time when the automotive world is in turmoil as government climate policy increasingly forces the industry to go all-electric.
Racing is not unaffected by the electrification push: the so-called LMDh (Le Mans Daytona hybrid) class that the Porsche 963 prototype has entered bows to the trend with a hybrid, 680-horsepower, twin-turbo V-8 that includes electric-motor assist.
But it’s the 4.6-liter V-8 that will do the heavy lifting in brutal 24-hour endurance races where cars crest 200 mph, and thrill crowds with their thunderous internal combustion-engine sounds.
“We didn’t buy the Indianapolis Motor Speedway to run around there with electric cars,” smiled Penske who packed nearly 300,000 fans into IMS last June to see 33 V-6-powered IndyCars take the green flag at full squawk. By contrast, the electric Formula E race series has struggled to gain fans. Penske says that electric racing is a long way off even as production luxury vehicles like the electric, $100K-plus Porsche Taycan EV in his showrooms have flown off the shelves.
Of more immediate interest is adding to his trophy case, a passion that creates a standard for the rest of his companies.
“This is the first (racing program) that is destined for the 24 Hours of Le Mans,” said Porsche 963 team director Jonathan Diuguid, 39, who has been with Penske since he graduated from the University of North Carolina as an engineer in 2005. “As you can see here, Mr. Penske is at the test, which doesn’t happen very frequently. It’s definitely something he is focused on, and it carries extra weight for that reason.”
Porsche first teamed with Penske in 1972 on the ferocious 917 Can-Am car that dominated North America’s fastest sports car series. With drivers George Follmer and Mark Donahue, Penske dominated the 1972-73 seasons before a similar era of government intervention forced performance changes on auto racing.
The two titans teamed up again in 2006-08 with the Porsche RS Spyder, a nimble, efficient racer that was a giant killer — challenging more powerful competition with better reliability and tactics. The bond the two teams share is rooted in decades of success — but also in the larger-than-life personalities behind the racing brands: the Porsche family and The Captain.
Respect for Penske in the Daytona pit was palpable.
He walked among his charges, talking to each individually. He is low-key but extremely well-briefed, says Urs Kuratle, Porsche Motorsports chief. Kuratle worked with Penske at Le Mans this year when the team entered a special, non-Porsche prototype entry to learn the Le Mans ropes.
“He was up for 36 hours at Le Mans, on the radio, asking questions,” said the Porsche team boss. “He knows the open points list as well as our engineers. To me, the man is from another planet.”
Patrick Long was the only North American driver on that team, a stint that launched him on a career as one of the world’s best race drivers.
“Growing up racing in the United States, I watched Roger Penske. He was the guy,” said Long, 41, who retired from racing last year and was on hand for the 963 test. “He called my races in 2008 (meaning each driver has a tactician in his ear during a race). Team Penske provided all the resources you could hope for, and in return was the expectation that you would win.”
Californian Dane Cameron is one of the hot shoes who tested the 963 in Daytona. Like Long, he is family — having won an IMSA title previously for Penske in 2019 when the team ran Acura’s program.
“It’s quite an honor to drive for Roger,” Cameron said. “And it’s quite an honor to join Porsche with their motorsport heritage. For me, that marriage is perfect and really something I wanted to be involved in.”
The car he will co-drive is at the summit of current automotive technology.
Taking its engine from Porsche’s legendary 918 hybrid supercar, the 680-horsepower 963 then adds an electric motor between the mid-mounted engine and seven-speed gearbox. A sophisticated aerodynamic chassis incorporating a Formula One-like front keel wing sucks the car to the ground enabling neck-straining cornering speeds.
As part of an 800-volt electric platform (similar to the Taycan electric road car), the electric current brings new challenges to drivers and tracks. If an incident occurs, the driver is trained to exit the cockpit by standing on the sill — then jumping as far from the car as possible to guard against electric shock.
Prior to the test, corner workers and fire safety teams are brought by the garage and debriefed on how to handle the car if it is involved in a crash. Key is a light in the front windshield that indicates if the electrical system is OK (green) or compromised (red, or no light at all). If the latter, then responders are not to touch the car until a special team from Porsche arrives.
While hybrids advertise efficiency in their road cars, they promise parity in auto racing, making for close competition that manufacturers covet.
“The LMDH regulations allow for all kinds of engine architectures: Cadillac normally-aspirated V-8, Porsche-and-BMW turbo V-8s, Acura twin-turbo V-6,” Diuguid said. “All engines have a different power curve shape (but) the hybrid system fills in holes and dips in the power curve so everyone is making the same power.”
This promise of parity, cutting-edge tech — and the tantalizing prospect of winning Daytona and Le Mans in the same calendar year — has attracted a who’s who of performance brands to the prototype class.
Porsche Penske Motorsport will compete in the years ahead against teams from Cadillac, Acura (both of which were at the Daytona test), BMW, Ferrari, Lamborghini, and Toyota.
With the track record of Penske and Porsche combined, there is no doubt who is the favorite.
Henry Payne is auto critic for The Detroit News. Find him at hpayne@detroitnews.com or Twitter @HenryEPayne.