SVT allows pickup buyers to catch hold of Lightning
[cutline stuff:
No. 1: The front view of the Ford Lightning shows the styling alterations performed by the Special Vehicle Team to turn the F150 pickup into a unique high-performance truck.
No.2 Clean, sculptured look of the SVT Lightning is backed by the power and handling, although it is only available in rear drive and without any extended cab.
No. 3 Even the Lightning nameplate indicates that something special is riding on this vehicle.
No. 4 Special seats, with black textured leather and grey suedecloth, are unique to the Lightning. ]
Anyone Up North who is considering the purchase of a pickup truck would be foolish to consider one without 4-wheel drive. That has always been my philosophy. The SVT Lightning, however, forces modification of that stance.
The Ford SVT Lightning excites all your driving senses, from the stunning sight of its dominating look, to the powerful sound of its overpowering engine through the true dual side pipes of its low-restriction exhaust, to the exhilarating feel as it accelerates, turns or stops with force and/or stable precision, and on to the mentally stimulating high of simply being king of the road.
You can’t haul more than one or two friends, you can’t hope to keep the rear end stationed on any surface resembling slippery, and you aren’t going to challenge for any fuel-economy laurels — what else can you expect for a $30,000 pickup truck?
Having mentioned in overview what the Special Vehicle Team accomplishes at Ford, with the Cobra, the Contour and now the F150 pickup as its focus points, I have subsequently had the opportunity to live with a Lightning — SVT’s version of the F150 pickup — for a week. Granted, the Lightning is mostly an exercise in basic, lustful pleasure, but hey, there’s nothing wrong with a little lustful pleasure, is there?
As with all its choices for in-house, corporate modification, the Special Vehicle Team can make the kind of major alterations to an existing vehicle for comparatively little, compared to what an individual customer would have to spend to do the same. The difference is that the Lightning is a sophisticated, tight, high-quality piece, without any of the loose ends that always confound one-off modifications.
“When we engineer a limited production vehicle, with a set quantity, and the ability to borrow parts from other vehicles, we can do it far more economically than an individual customer, who would have to pay a huge price,” said Al Suydam, who, as Ford’s program manager for the Lightning, is an engineer who governed the development program that takes the basic F150 up to Lightning standards.
“This is the future of high-performance trucks from Ford,” Suydam continued. “This is the next-generation Lightning, and it’s a benchmark vehicle. It is the fastest and most powerful truck in our inventory, and it has no domestic competition. There have been reports of a one-off [Chevrolet] Silverado SS with 395 horsepower, but that’s a concept vehicle. You can bet when they make one for production, it won’t come close to this.
“I’ll make sure of it.”
The F150 pickup truck is the largest-selling vehicle in the nation, and has been for a decade. It has the advantage of technology, with two overhead-camshaft engines proving that high-tech can overcome sheer cubic-inch displacement, and it has an aerodynamic flair to its styling that has kept it ahead of the Silverado/GMC Sierra’s new redesign, and upstart Dodge with its imposing Ram. It will be interesting, however, to see how the new Toyota Tundra fares in that company, with its far-out technology.
Meanwhile, the Special Vehicle Team guys went at the F150 in clever, calculating fashion. They beefed up the suspension by lowering the truck a half-inch in front and 2 inches in the rear, then adding a bigger front stabilizer bar and making it the only F150 with a rear stabilizer bar. SVT enlarged the brakes by installing the front rotors from the heavy-duty F250, borrowed the rear axle from the big Expedition SUV, and, on the inside, they used the Explorer steering wheel and lighted switchgear, rebolstered the seats for much improved lateral support, covering them with black, textured leather and grey suedecloth.
Unique to the Lightning is the lighting for the white-faced gauges, with a sheet of blue-green
phosphorescent stuff behind the surface, lighted with little transformer lights to shine through the white facing.
AH, THE MOTOR
The real secret of success is that for all its pretty facades, the Lightning is far more than just a pretty face. Under the hood there breathes the vehicle’s secret.
Since all U.S. manufacturers have taken advantage of the government’s leniency in excluding trucks from corportate fuel-economy or emission rules — because we all know (wink-wink) that trucks are used for work– they all have loaded their trucks up for power. GM uses the 5.7-liter Corvette-based V8, or a bigger V8, or a huge diesel; Dodge uses its biggest V8 or a giant V10 or a similarly big diesel.
Ford does the same, in its bigger trucks, and offers the 4.6 or 5.4 V8s in the F150. For the Lightning, maintaining its uncompromising objective of making the car managable and operable in everyday circumstances, the SVT engineers took the 5.4 in its 2-valve-per-cylinder form, which produces 260 horsepower, and it plants a supercharger on top to blow in massive amounts of fuel-air mixture. It has a redline of 5,250 RPMs, and an automatic fuel cutoff if you over-rev it to 5,400.
“The difference,” said Suydam, “is that the 5.4 Triton engine goes from 260 horsepower to 360 horsepower and 440 foot-pounds of torque with the intercooled supercharger. And all we had to do was chance pistons; the cylinder heads, crankshaft and other parts are all stock.”
Unlike a turbocharger, which uses exhaust gas to spin a turbo wheel which, in turn, increases the fuel-air intake flow, a supercharger is driven by a belt off the engine, so it actually saps power from the engine it is helping empower. So the SVT engineers, knowing the front bearings might wear out quickly from driving the supercharger, redesigned the engine with an extra bearing in the front assembly to relieve the wear. Also unlike a turbocharger, there is no lag with a supercharger, just instant GO!
“We like supercharging better than turbocharging because there’s no delay,” Suydam said. “And the way we’ve designed it, the supercharger is bypassed unless you need power. There is a vacuum-operated butterfly valve that only opens when you need it.”
SVT guys figure that when show-offs are screeching their tires, real-world driving enthusiasts know they are wasting power, not using it. Armed with forged, anodyzed-aluminum pistons, coated with teflon enhancing the slipperiness of the engine’s close tolerances, the mandatory automatic transmission is taxed in keeping the rear Goodyear Formula 1 tires, on their 18-inch custom wheels, planted firmly on the pavement.
Suydam said Ford drivers had clocked 6.2-second times 0-60, but various enthusiast magazines had done it in 5.8; Ford had clocked 14.6-second quarter-mile runs; customers had reported running it in the 13s. Seems to indicate that Ford ought to hire some better drivers, eh? Anyhow, the beast has an electronic limiter AT 140 miles per hour, regardless of who is driving, and those big disc brakes can stop the Lightning in 137 feet from 60 mph.
The sticker says 14-17 miles per gallon, and Ford folks say you can actually get 14-21. Maybe. I got 13.5 on the first tankful, and got it up over 15 on mostly freeway cruise-controlling.
BOTTOM LINE
Ford wanted to keep the Lightning under $30,000, and it did so, but barely, at $29,995. The key is that you have to inquire to find a Ford dealer that is allowed to handle SVT vehicles — or call 1-800-FORD SVT.
You can select only three options, one being a tonneau cover for the pickup box, another being a Class 3 trailer hitch and harness, and the third a 6-CD player located vertically behind the passenger seat. Then, of course, you’d have blown the $30,000 plateau.
But, I’ve driven numerous ’99 full-sized pickups, and all of ’em were $30,000 or more, and none of them have the outright capability of dominant driving and near-sports-car handling of the Lightning. On a handling course, Ford drivers clocked 55.5 seconds with the Cobra, and 57 seconds with the SVT Contour, and came right between them at 56 seconds with the Lightning. The Contour is my favorite, and there is no question that it outhandles the Lightning, but the overpowering engine output thrusts the Lightning to the top.
In fact, on several occasions, pickup drivers piloting competing breeds would hustle or accelerate to catch up and pace the Lightning, and a few of them were a little obvious about their eagerness to show off their own incredible power. They all lost that enthusiasm as soon as I hammered the throttle and heard that familiar little rising-pitch whistle as the supercharged Lightning zapped ahead.
There is only one passenger seat, although you can tip the center console up to squeeze in a third person, preferably of the diminutive variety, between the two buckets. The fun of driving the Lightning forces you to overlook the blatant inconvenience of limited storage bins and no extended-cab roominess.
The extended cab is roomier, but heavier, and the longer wheelbase required adversely affects handling. As for 4-wheel drive, obviously that also is heavier, and coping with the blast of torque through a transfer case would be unworkable.
Besides, Ford allows SVT to make only 4,000 Lightnings each year. They had made 3,000 as of mid-July, so only had 1,000 more to go. If you insist on going trucking, there’s only one way to catch hold of Lightning.
Grand Cherokee graduates with honors from Jeep 101
[photo caption stuff:
#1/ The Jeep Grand Cherokee bounced over a stretch of large boulders, while another driver in a Wrangler waited to try that final leg of the “Jeep 101” off-road course, and a Cherokee handled a man-made hill in the background.
#2/ The redesignd front end of the Grand Cherokee made the Cherokee (right) suddenly look dated, as a Wrangler — not worried about appearances — played on the hilly course at Canterbury Park.
#3/ The Grand Cherokee’s new look covers an all-new frame, suspension, engine and 4-wheel-drive system, which earned it the International Truck of the Year award in January.
The short, stiff little Jeep Wrangler bounded up the hills and down the other side like a mountain goat. The solid, rugged Cherokee handled the sidehill stretches as if defying gravity, which seemed certain to leave us scraping the door handles. Ah, but the Grand Cherokee handled everything the tricky off-road course could hand out, matching its more-Spartan brethren on the roughest stretches, but doing it all with a graceful elan that made you wonder if you should have such a classy vehicle out there taking such a beating.
The most amazing characteristic of the current truck/sports utility vehicle craze is that otherwise sane consumers are spending well over $30,000 apiece to buy vehicles which are capable of running off the road over all terrain, and which will never be driven off the road. Then there’s Jeep.
The company that made those rugged, all-terrain, war buggies for the U.S. military in World War II has grown and evolved, being taken over by American Motors, and then Chrysler Corporation, and finally Daimler-Chrysler, the new conglomerate that has united Mercedes and Chrysler. Through all those maneuvers, however, Jeeps always have been designed, engineered and aimed at being off-road beasts.
Naturally, in recent decades, Jeeps known as Cherokees or Grand Cherokees have become positively civilized, able to run errands and take mom to the mall with the best of the trendy, yuppified SUVs. Still, their hearts beat to get off the pavement, and even off the gravel, bounding over all manner of terrain.
So while there are more than 40 varieties of SUVs on the market now, most of them have evolved from being streetworthy vehicles adapting to off-road use, or pretending to be capable off-road, while Jeeps have reached the point where they can outdo almost all of their rivals off the road, they know can also whipe most of their competition on the road.
Daimler-Chrysler, meanwhile, knows that the loyalty of Jeep owners runs deep, but they are bombarded daily by lucrative ads for all kinds of very attractive competitive vehicles. So Jeep’s division has hit the road, touring the country to provide its owners, and a few interested bystanders, to experience the Jeep in its favored element.
It is like a traveling classroom, so Jeep calls it “Jeep 101.”
Jeep 101 is a permanent appearing course set up to challenge both novice and off-road expert. It consists of numerous hills, banks, dropoffs, heavy-duty bumps, risky log-riding passes over a menacing pit, and an area of boulder driving, over which you bounce and jolt — but keep moving. Assorted displays and contests and low-pressure technical sites also are scattered around the site, with brief lectures and experiments punctuating the place as well.
The tour sets up that entire course at carefully planned sites all around the country, with Boston, Kansas City, New York, Chicago, Charlotte, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Orlando still to come. It set up shop at Canterbury Park, on the open ground adjacent to the horse race track’s parking lot near Shakopee.
I was invited to join about 3,000 Jeep-folk who converged on Canterbury Park for one of three straight days of Jeep-wrangling, or is it Wrangler-wrangling?
JEEPS ON DISPLAY
One of the more impressive displays featured a ramp made of rollers, and a slick-looking Lexus RX300 tried repeatedly to make it up about a 20-foot rise, to no avail. Remarkably, a Grand Cherokee made it.
Always the skeptic, and this time amid a group of blatant Jeep-lovers, I wondered if the Jeep people had found the only SUV that would fail such a test. However, organizers said they had tried all sorts of different SUVs at other stops around the country, including Ford Explorers and the Mercedes ML320, but no others made it, either. The Grand Cherokee has a limited-slip differential at the rear axle, enhancing its new Quadra-Drive 4-wheel-driving ability to negotiate such a difficult test.
Under another tent, functioning axle cutaways showed how Jeep’s various 4-wheel-drive systems work were in constant motion. Basically, here are the possibilities:
* The Wrangler, looking a lot like the 700,000 Jeeps that flooded the world’s combat zones in 1941, has a 2.5-liter 4-cylinder engine or the 4.0-liter Power Tech in-line 6. It powers through Command-Trac, a part-time 4WD system that you can shift on the fly from 2-4 wheel drive up to 55 miles per hour. Both front and rear axles are locked together to always turn at the same speed, spinning the wheels at a constant rate for an aggressive but predictable attack in limited-traction circumstances. It is only intended for slippery surfaces or the toughest off-road circumstances, otherwise you shift into 2-wheel-drive for normal driving.
* The Cherokee also uses the 4.0 6-cylinder engine, and uses the 2.5 on 2-wheel-drive versions. With 190 horsepower and 225 foot-pounds of torque, the 6 offers good towing power for up to 5,000 pounds. The Cherokee offers a choice of two 4-wheel-drive systems, the Selec-Trac, optional on Classic and Sport and standard on Limited. It comes in either part-time, same as the Wrangler, or the full-time, which sends a constant 48 percent of power to the front axle and 52 percent to the rear, without any shifting to 2WD or to 4WD high or low. The second system is Command-Trac, which is standard on the SE, Sport and Classic models, and also features shiftable high and low ranges when in 4-wheel-drive mode. The Cherokee retains the familiar, squarish look, front and rear, that is familiar and not unattractive.
* The Grand Cherokee, unlike it’s siblings, is entirely new for 1999, with rakish new looks that probably foretell a little about what the Cherokee will resemble after being renewed in a year. With a tighter, more stylish UniFrame body, the biggest news is an entirely new 4.7-liter V8, with overhead camshafts pumping the fuel-air mixture to develop 235 horsepower, and a new Quadra-Drive system which, if one rear wheel starts to spin, activates a gerotor coupling to transfer torque to the other rear wheel. If both rear wheels start to spin, the torque is transfered forward through a transfer case to the front axle. Another gerotor coupling functions up front, and, in extreme cases, could focus 100 percent of the engine’s torque to one wheel. It is all smooth and silent, and all you know is the Grand Cherokee keeps moving. The 4.0 in-line 6 also is available, as the standard engine on Laredo and Limited models.
While the Grand Cherokee is clearly the most expensive of the three (prices of the test vehicles were not available), it celebrated its introduction by winning the International Truck of the Year award voted by a panel of journalists in January.
PUTTING IT ALL TO USE
Whether we’d like to go off-roading or not, a lot of us don’t have time to engage in that remote and somewhat costly endeavor. So it was nice for Jeep to brink the terrain to us. I met people from all over the area who were Jeep owners, or who were Cherokee owners looking to add a Wrangler to the family stable.
But I made a mistake. In my eagerness to drive the Grand Cherokee over the course, I took it first. Over some rugged bumps, then up on the side of a man-made hill, then up a steep enough hill so you could only see sky until you crested it in low-range first gear, then suddenly plunged, nose-first, toward what seemed a rocky introduction to the grille. The steeply angled entry and exit design made such things easily overcome, it’s just that as a driver, you didn’t know for sure you could make it.
After some more terrain, it was time to drive toward this pit, with the logs lined up in parallel, two to the left, two to the right. A Jeep guy signaled that I had the tires lines up well, so go ahead. I did, holding my breath because I knew any slip would be disaster. We made it. The Grand Cherokee also scaled the steeper, later hill, with another fast rise and steep descent. The finishing boulder stretch also had to be taken with great care, and slowly, but thenewly designed suspension handled it well.
The mistake was that after the Grand Cherokee, the Wrangler felt good, but joltingly abrupt in comparison. And the Cherokee felt OK, but was nowhere close to the technical advances that made the Grand Cherokee so impressive.
Had I driven the Wrangler first, it would have been impressive; the Cherokee next would have been impressive from the standpoint of a Wrangler-like ruggedness plus 32.9 cubic feet of cargo space that can be expanded to 69 cubic feet with the rear seat folded down. But doing it in reverse order ruined the buildup for me; the Wrangler and the Cherokee were tough and impressive, but not close to the Grand Cherokee, regardless of price differential.
If I needed a good closing grade to “pass” Jeep 101, it came on the figure-8 course, where a Cherokee had been set up with reverse steering. No, the wheel wasn’t on the right; the wheel was on the left, but turning it to the left made it turn to the right, and turning to the right made it go left. Several drivers went right off the course, and most had great difficulty swerving and correcting to stay on. For some reason, I adjusted easily and was able to negotiate several laps of the figure-8 with only tiny corrections.
My wife suggested that it was because I am somewhat ambidextrous. That’s true. I throw right-handed, but I write left-handed, and I eat with both hands, although I never anticipated that could help my driving.
Lincoln’s 2000 LS appeals to new, old luxury buyers
[CUTLINE STUFF:
#1— The 2000-year model Lincoln LS is unlike any Lincoln predecessor, with a choice of high-tech V6 or V8, a 5-speed automatic, a SelectShift manually-shiftable automatic, and even a 5-speed manual.
#2— The new Lincoln LS stands in stark contrast to the old-style Lincoln Continental sedan.
#3— Contemporary rear styling is interrupted by a thick chrome border around the license place, as if to pay homage to the good-old days of oversized barges. ]
Lincoln has turned out a car for the new millenium: the 2000 LS sedan. You’ve probably heard about it, maybe even seen it, and it is both as good as it looks and unlike anything Lincoln has ever built before.
By tradition, if not birthright or outright stubbornness, U.S. auto buyers drove through the 1960s, ’70s, ’80s and part of the ’90s defining luxury cars as big, heavy barges. Those monsters, mostly from Cadillac and Lincoln, provided the soft, plush luxury of floating on a cloud, as well as great stability — so long as the trajectory was straight ahead.
But as the 1990s fade into the new millenium, the $30,000-$40,000 price-range of luxury sedans is growing at a rapid rate, which is expected to continue expanding long after the Sports Utility Vehicle craze subsides. And U.S. luxury-car buyers are changing with the times.
They have shown with their bankbooks an attraction to classy but tight and sleek vehicles from BMW, Mercedes, Audi, Lexus, Infiniti and Acura. Those new hallmarks of luxury sedans provide comfort wrapped inside a technically advanced package of power and precise handling.
This movement is thrusting a large group of U.S. buyers into the world-class reaches of sophistication, while those aging, riding-on-a-cloud cruiser-folks also still exist. Satisfying both ends of the luxury market may seem an impossible task, but the Lincoln LS is making an impressively valid run at the challenge.
In basic V6 trim, the LS starts out at $32,000. With the V8, base price is about $36,000. Base form means substantially loaded when we’re talking about the Lincoln LS, but you can add some significant options and jack both prices by about $3,000.
The styling looks nothing like anything Lincoln has built since its inception in 1917. The first glance tips you off, and thorough scrutiny spells it out: This is no barge. This is a new, modern, tastefully done sedan, which is moderately compact on the outside but has plenty of room inside to satisfy Lincolnesque traditionalists.
From the front, the LS has a unique look, with its lens-covered headlights remindful of BMW or the finely designed Mitsubishi Diamante, and its vertical-line grille underscored by a smiling lip from the slightly protruding bumper. Below the bumper — color-keyed, not chrome — the lower facade is a ground-effects air-dam housing real, functioning foglights.
From the side, the LS shares a sleekness of lines with the newest Mercedes or Audi sedans, which is classical with a sporty flair.
From the rear, the LS taillights mostly resemble the top Mercedes or Acura sedans, except for that center license-plate housing, which is inset but surrounded with a large border of bright chrome. It is as if the design team kept one loony on staff, and allowed him to dig through the storage bin from stuff that used to adorn outdated Continentals or Town Cars. Without the chrome, the LS would make an even-better understated expression of elegance; with it, we can instantly recognize that it’s a Lincoln, and it hasn’t forgotten where its tradition came from.
This car is aimed at being world-class, and Lincoln built it with the engine in front and the drive wheels at the rear, passing up the cold-climate assets of front-wheel drive in its quest to compete with the top BMW and Mercedes configuration.
SPLIT PERSONALITIES
I got the chance to drive two LS sedans, both the V6 with the 5-speed (A Lincoln sedan with a 5-speed manual transmission!) and the V8 with the automatic.
To get the stick, you must also get the V6, which is a retuned version of Ford’s very good Duratec 3.0-liter powerplant with dual overhead camshafts and four valves per cylinder. I prefered the LS so equipped, and it truly does rival such high-performance gems as the BMW 528 or Audi A6, and the middle-range Mercedes.
The Duratec V6, built in Cleveland, produces an impressive 210 horsepower at a high 6,500 RPM, which is no problem because the engine, thanks to its chain-driven overhead cams, revs freely to a 7,000 RPM redline on the tachometer. (A Lincoln with a tach and a redline!) It also has a solid 205 foot-pounds of torque at 4,750 RPMs, but a full 90 percent of maximum torque is available from 2,300 all the way to 5,700.
The only place where the V6 balked a bit was in takeoff acceleration, where you’re not likely to wind up the revs and slip the clutch. As a 3,598-pound car, a small but strong V6 does have its limits in thrust. But once in motion, when you get the revs up, it performs admirably in all situations.
The V6 is made of aluminum with iron liners in a casting technique perfected by Ford’s Cosworth race-engine method, and its lightness gives the LS a 51-49 weight-distribution ratio, front to rear.
When you get the V6 with the manual, which is an extra-cost option over the automatic, you also get the sport suspension. That, coupled with the car’s balance, made the LS handle every steering and lane-changing maneuver with a definite sporty feel. No wallowing allowed. Along with firmer suspension, the sport package gets you larger, 17-inch wheels, which add significantly to the cornering ability.
With the agility and sportiness of the V6 and stick shift, the LS obviously would can appeal to the younger generation of worldly luxury cars, and it does even if you add the select-shift automatic transmission. But how could such a car appeal to the aging Lincoln-buyers?
It can’t, probably. But that’s where the other version of the LS comes in.
When I got the V8-equipped second LS, I was anticipating a performance upgrade. However, this one was not equipped with the sport package; it was the V8 with the basic suspension. This car isn’t your grandpa’s Lincoln, but he’ll love it.
I don’t want to suggest that the V8 LS wallows, but it does feel less agile, less quick to respond to steering input, and bobs its nose a bit under heavy breaking because of its softer and more “floaty” suspension. The newly available select-shift, which allows for clutchless manual shifting, was also not present, so the automatic shifter didn’t validate the new engine’s ability to wind up high.
The V8 engine measures a mere 3.95 liters in displacement, but also with chain-driven (not belt) dual-overhead camshafts, meaning that atop each bank of cylinders, one cam operates the intake valves and the other operates the exhaust valves. That induces faster valve action, better breathing, and higher revs for more power. The V8 turns out 252 horsepower at 6,100 RPMs and 267 foot-pounds of torque at 4,300 revs.
Heavier by almost exactly 100 pounds, the V8 alters the front-rear weight distribution from the V6’s excellent 51-49 to 53-47, which is still good, but further distances the V8 test car from the exceptional handling of the V6 sport-package test car.
I was disappointed at the drop off in handling firmness of the V8-powered test car, but then I realized it probably was a masterstroke by Ford to provide a version that will keep those loyal, older, soft-riding customers satiated.
CAT IN LINCOLN CLOTHING
To best understand the new Lincoln LS, and the truly worldwide concept that challenges the traditional chauvinistic attitude against “foreign” cars, you must also check out the Jaguar S-Type. That mid-size luxury/sport sedan was introduced last winter, and while I have yet to drive it, the S-Type has met with worldwide acclaim as an exceptional new luxury car. Ford, you may recall, bought out Jaguar about three years ago, and while streamlining production techniques, Ford allowed the proud, old British company to design and build its own new vehicles. The fantastic XK-8 sports car, with its amazing 4.0-liter V8, was the first example of how good such a joint maneuver could work. That 4.0 engine had more power and was lighter than the same size BMW engine.
Meanwhile, the S-Type sedan followed, and Ford and Jaguar shared technology on the platform. Ford sends its Duratec V6 over to be installed in the base S-Type, while that four-cam 4.0-liter V8 from the XK-8 goes into the top model. Months pass, and here comes the Lincoln LS. It has the same platform — chassis and suspension components — as the much costlier Jaguar S-Type. And the 4.0 Jaguar V8 is reworked by Ford at Lima, Ohio, to meet U.S. requirements, and comes away slightly detuned from the Jag’s 287 horsepower 4.0 to become the 252-horse 3.9-liter V8.
Park them side by side, and take your pick. The Jaguar has all the class and rich appointments to live up to that nameplate at something over $50,000. The LS, meanwhile, is the best Lincoln ever built at $32,000. And you can have it either way — contemporary and firmly sporty to attract new buyers, or softened and mellowed down a bit to keep the old ones.
Driving enthusiasts can say ‘Si’ to new Civic
[CUTLINE STUFF:
#1— The Si model injects a bargain-dose of sportiness to the economical Honda Civic.
#2— The $17,000 Civic Si is powered by a DOHC, VTEC 1.6-liter 4 that pumps out 160 horsepower.
#3— Honda’s Prelude SH meets all the demands of a high-tech, personal-luxury coupe. ]
Driving westbound along Grand Av. in Duluth, I pulled into a Spur station in the Honda Civic Si that I was test-driving. As I stopped, I noticed a really neat Honda motorcycle parked by the sidewalk. The young guy working inside said it was his, a 600-cc. CBR that looked like a cafe racer.
“What’s the redline on the tach?” I asked him.
“Thirteen thousand,” he said. “But I noticed your Civic, that’s got a VTEC, right?”
“Yes, it’s the ‘Si’ model, and it’s got a 1,600-cc. engine with a redline of 8,000.”
Honda drivers discuss such things. Drivers of other things don’t, simply because normal cars can boast of huge displacement numbers and impressive horsepower figures, but they run out of revs at about 5,000 or 6,000 RPMs, and attempts to go higher would require a magnet to pick up the shrapnel.
With Honda, the capability of high-revving screamers used to be confined to sporty motorcycles, which perform at RPM reaches incomprehensible to Harleys, which have now capitalized on their low-revving limitations by promoting their low-rumble sound. Honda, meanwhile, has gone on, conducting factory racing programs that first dominated Formula 1 and then CART Champ Cars, while developing techniques for extracting every bit of power from a limited-displacement size engine.
Other companies, of course, also develop powerful racing engines, although the ones in NASCAR or the Indy Racing League let independent engine builders, with after-market parts, turn their basic engines into devices that gain publicity and acclaim but have nothing to do with what they send to the assembly lines for the cars we buy for the street.
Honda, however, has directly applied its racing tricks to its production cars. All Honda engines have overhead camshafts and multiple valves, and Honda also has perfected what it calls “VTEC,” for variable timing and electronic control of its valvetrain operation. Varied valve-timing is like getting a specific tune-up every RPM. The VTEC lets the engine adjust to varying altitudes or weather conditions, and actually lets the valve timing adjust to your driving.
You may not need to know all that stuff, so long as you get enough power when you need it, and your car’s engine runs with optimum efficiency, for the sake of fuel economy, emissions, durability and infrequent repair and tune-up intervals. Some companies get by with ancient technology and make up for shortcomings with bigger engines, as if more sheer power can replace technology. Honda prefers the advanced technology that can extract remarkable doses of power, making over-achievers out of comparatively small engines.
CORPORATE HOT RODS
Honda first installed VTEC on its Acura NSX sports car, a marvel of such technology, with a VTEC V6 and a stunning, aluminum body. It also costs about $90,000. The VTEC technology trickled down through the Integra, the $26,000 Prelude, and on into the Accord and Civic. In Civic trim, the technology was aimed at high economy, leaving the higher-performance to the costlier models.
When Honda redesigned the entry-level Civic in 1991 to add a sleek, 2-door coupe, I wondered why the company never really tried to emphasize its sporty lines by offering some sporty touches. You could only get pudgy, standard tires, and normal wheels with simple, cookie-cutter-like wheel covers. Backyard hot-rodders from a new era started fiddling with computer chips, and found ways to spend all sorts of money to make $15,000 Civic coupes perform better, while also installing their own alloy wheels and low-profile tires, in recent years.
For 1999, Honda took matters into its own hands, and produced the “Si” model of the Civic. It’s interesting that it’s “Si,” and not “SI,” because in Spanish, of course, Si means yes. And after driving the Civic Si, I can say that anywhere in the world, the Civic Si commands a resounding “Yes!”
Shortly before I drove the Civic Si, I test-drove a Prelude SH , loaded with technology on a larger, costlier scale. Both had 5-speed manual transmissions.
The Prelude has been Honda’s flagship sports coupe, a rolling test-bed for futuristic technology, and the new one meets that demand, albeit on a limited-production scale. In the Accord, the 2.2-liter 4-cylinder performs well, with single-overhead camshaft and four valves per cylinder. In the Prelude, the 2.2 gets dual overhead cams and the VTEC performance treatment that boosts it to 200 horsepower.
The Prelude SH sticks to the road like a magnet because it has race-bred double-wishbone upper and lower suspension front and rear, plus stabilizer bars and an active torque transfer system on the front-wheel-drive wheels to send a larger share of torque to the outside wheel in any turning maneuver for improved cornering.
Typically, the Prelude still meets all the requirements of a personal luxury coupe, with limited-size occupants only in the small rear seat, and the SH version boosts it to the level of almost any all-out sports car. Certainly a sophisticated way to have your luxury leather interior and ear-shattering audio system, while also satisfying that fiendish urge to outrun most cars from a stoplight and virtually all others under $30,000 if there’s a curve involved.
CIVIC: REAL-WORLD FUN
Personally, much as I like the Prelude, I prefer the look of the previous generation, which was more dramatically styled, front to rear. The new Prelude has unusual squarish headlights and extremely unimaginative horizontal taillights. It has a slinky look to it, to be sure, but I prefer the look of the Accord coupe, for a few thousand less.
Meanwhile, back to the Civic. The Si is a new gem in Honda’s massive and impressive jewel case. The 1.6-liter 4-cylinder engine is a standard of reliability and economic efficiency in base form, with its single-overhead-cam, 16-valve design, but even the hot-rod tuners have to be amazed at what the company did by adding dual overhead cams to that little motor and getting 160 horsepower from it.
While it would be easy to drive the car routinely, shifting at 5,000 revs, doing so would never get you into the power range, which peaks at 7,600 revs. And it loves to be driven hard, with the needle zooming across those neat, italic numbers on the tachometer on its merry way to 8,000. Driving it, shall we say, enthusiastically still showed 32.5 miles per gallon. It undoubtedly would have been even better, but nobody from Honda told me I didn’t have to rev it up on every shift.
Steering is precise and the handling is excellent. Seats are firmly bolstered and very comfortable, and all the controls are efficiently placed. My only complaint is that while the 5-speed manual works flawlessly, the Si cries out for a 6-speed. Honda has closed the ratios of the 5-speed for performance, and the sound from 4,000 RPMs while cruising makes you feel that you should shift again, even though the revs are OK, considering you can go to 8,000. A sixth gear would allow you to cruise the same freeways at 2,500 revs at 70 miles per hour, and you’d probably get 40 miles per gallon.
You get 4-wheel disc brakes with the Si, but you can’t get antilock brakes, which is curious, although I am not convinced that having ABS pump the brakes for you is always an asset. That was another way of keeping cost down, and as a bargain performer, the Civic Si can’t be touched. Even in-house at Honda.
Compare the numbers: The Prelude costs $25,950 and has a 2.2-liter 4-cylinder engine with dual-overhead camshafts, 16 valves and a potent 200 horsepower at 7,000 RPMs, plus a torque peak of 156 foot-pounds at 5,250 RPMs; the Civic Si costs $17,860 and has a 1.6-liter 4-cylinder with dual-overhead cams, 16 valves, 160 horsepower at 7,600 RPMs and 111 foot-pounds of torque at a 7,000-RPM peak.
Unquestionably, the Prelude SH will run away and hide from the Civic Si — and most other cars, as well — in all-out performance. Like the Prelude, the Civic allows you to taste all the wonders of cutting-edge technology. Unlike the speedy Prelude, if you want to run the revs up to 8,000, you can do it without guaranteeing yourself a speeding ticket. But the Civic Si shows that you can satisfy all the demands of budget and everyday driving while still operating a car with the fun quotient on overload.
In fact, compared to other cars that deliver similar pleasure, you could afford to buy a Civic Si and have enough left over to buy a Honda CBR motorcycle.
Mustang GT kicks stronger than ever after 35 years
[Cutline stuff: (Photos by John Gilbert)
#1— The Mustang GT stood, fittingly, beneath the American flag as the ponycar icon of the U.S. for 35 years.
#2— The ’99 Mustang GT looked ready to take off on the streets of Ely.
#3— Seat travel has been increased to make the sporty interior of the Mustang more user-friendly for drivers and their legs.
#4— The sculptured lines of the hood are carried through artfully as the outline for the grille.
Wnen Ford rolled out the Mustang for the first time in 1964, it was an instant success — a long hood/short deck, 2-door coupe that began life aimed at being a personal sporty car that was inexpensive to buy and to operate.
It has continued to dominate the “ponycar” segment that it, and its horsey name, invented. In fact, it continues to dominate that segment even while its prime competitors from General Motors, the Chevrolet Camaro and Pontiac Firebird, are facing dwindling sales and heading toward apparent extinction.
It only took a couple of years before Ford’s corporate hot-rod types stuffed a V8 with more power under the hood and made a succession of screaming high-performance cars that carried on into the 1970s. That theme was revived during the ’90s, and as this decade heads for a finish, the 1999 version of the Mustang appears well-prepared to charge on into the new century.
In the past few years, the basic V6 Mustang and the sportier GT have been joined by a Special Vehicle Team version, the Cobra, which has turned out to be one of the nation’s top overall high-performance machines. It includes all sorts of suspension and performance upgrades, most specifically a hand-built, all-aluminum version of the 4.6-liter V8, which includes replacing the single overhead camshafts with dual cams and four valves per cylinder.
While the Cobra continues to be worth its $30,000 price tag, everyday drivers need to be cautioned to not overlook the Mustang GT, which is a strong performer on its own, and a comparative bargain at $20,000.
I recently test-drove a glistening “Bright Atlantic Blue Metallic” Mustang GT, and found it, as usual, to be more than I bargained for, and far closer to the Cobra in overall driving pleasure, while even having a couple of distinct advantages when compared to its costlier twin.
DIFFERENT LOOK
The Mustang was a tight, lean and sleek machine through its term that ended a year ago. I must say, it took awhile before I thought the new Mustang was as good looking as the previous model; in fact, I still like several things about the predecessor better.
For example, style dictated change, and form didn’t exactly follow function with the new look. The rear also has a stacked-up look, as if designers had more of the new molded plastic material than they needed, so they used it anyhow to make the car look higher where it used to taper off into smaller, triple-lens taillights. The front is a little taller, appearing to have more body material because of thinner, wraparound headlights, and the look doesn’t match the sleeker former car. I grew to like that view after noticing how the little raised creases on the hood sweep down and neatly measure off against the tapered outer edges of the grille.
My main complaint, though, is that to make the new car look more impressive, it wears a larger air scoop on the hood, and tall, thin air-scoops on both flanks, where they look as though they might cool the rear disc brakes. True, the engine breathes well through new manifolding, but it gets no air from the scoop, because it’s a phony. And the car does have four-wheel disc brakes in GT form, but those side scoops don’t let any air in, because they, too, are fakes.
Call it form following nonfunction.
All Mustangs have the “35th Anniversary” emblem on the sides of the front fenders.
But while you can quibble about the look of the new Mustang, you have to like the changes made under the skin. For the first time, a traction-control system that retards the power when sensors detect wheelspin is available as an option. That should help foul-weather traction, and the Mustang will need help in an Up North winter, with front-engine and rear-drive, and while it wasn’t slippery enough to check out the system this time, it can be controlled by a switch on the console.
The new platform makes a couple other significant improvements. One is that the turning radius is vastly improved. Its turning circle is reduced almost a full three feet.
Speaking of the console, Ford’s engineers struck out on the cupholding front in the GT. The console has two cupholders indented, with the rear one being larger, and the front one conventional pop-can size. That front one held my coffee cup too, except for one problem: Shifting.
You can shift into first well, but if you pull the shift lever back into second, it either won’t engage, or it will give your coffee cup or pop can a quick somersault. On into third, and you’re fine, but coming back down to fourth clouts the cup again, generally blocking the shifter from engaging. It may be a nitpick, but if you move the pop can or conventional coffee cup back to the second cupholder, you’ll find that it is too big. And hopefully you’ll realize it before the cup or can does an “endo” into the back seat as you accelerate.
Inside, the front bucket seats are cloth, and have a sprinting horse embossed high on each backrest. The power seat option, which was on the test car, is 6-way instead of the 4-way of the former Mustang. A drop of 40 feet, 8 inches to 37 feet, 11 inches, is remarkable.
Another major move is in bucket seat travel. At 6-feet, I used to find that it was difficult to position the seat perfectly in Mustangs, mainly because I like to sit with the backrest nearly straight up, which requires sliding the seat back pretty far. And the Mustang seat never wanted to slide back far enough. The new one, however, has a 1-inch longer track that alleviates that problem.
The Mustang remains basically a 2-seater, with the tiny rear seats only for short people or short hops.
CAPTIVATING SOUND
An impressive sound system, the Mach 460, makes your radio, tapes or discs come to life with dual amplifiers and a powered subwoffer. Driving even a short distance with the bass turned up full will cause the car to reverberate like a bass drum. Turning the bass down about to halfway still affords plenty of boom.
But the most musical part of the Mustang GTs sound has absolutely nothing to do with the stereo system. It has to do with stepping on the gas, building up speed in the 250-horsepower (with 290 foot-pounds of torque) V8, and then letting off as you downshift. Decelerating toward a stoplight produces this wonderful, burbling, rapping sound that can take you back to the good-ol’ days when restrained hot-rodders would put glass-pack mufflers on their V8s, trying to get close to that perfect sound.
There is an interesting story behind that tuned GT exhaust. The prestigious Automobile magazine recently listed its favorite things in the automotive world, and it listed the best exhaust sound as coming from the Mustang SVT Cobra. No mention of the GT, which is a mistake. Perhaps the folks at Automobile don’t realize it, or maybe they haven’t condescended to test-drive the less-exotic GT version of the Mustang.
But there are government restrictions to how much you can free up the exhaust flow in an engine, and the more power an engine has, the less you can fiddle with the exhaust, to free it up or to tune the sound. The Cobra V8 has four cams and 32 valves, and turns out 300 horsepower, which means tuning the exhaust note is restricted. It sounds good, but just pretty good compared to the GT.
The GT has plenty of power, despite having only single overhead cams and two valves per cylinder. With 260 horses peaking at 5,250 RPMs, an increase of 35 over the same engine last year, and the 300 torque peak at 400, an increase of 10, Ford engineers were able to play a lot more with the GT exhaust. If you were sitting on a park bench when a Cobra and then a GT drove past, judging by the exhaust note only you would guess that the GT is the hotter car.
Another tribute to how good the Cobra is, is that Ford engineers have been able to let the best features of that specialty car trickle down to the GT. The test car’s handling suspension offered excellent firmness, bolstered by the 225/55 high-performance tires, mounted on 16-inch alloy wheels. That, along with comfortable supportiveness of the seats, the neat feel of the 5-speed manual shifter (despite the heavy-duty clutch that feel heavier and heavier when your caught in bumper-to-bumper traffic) all enhance the sportiness of the GT.
An added advantage of the GT is that the 2-valve, single-cam 4.6 V8 burns regular gas and delivers good mileage for a sporty performing car. The EPA estimates are 17 city, 24 highway; I got the test car to deliver 18.3 miles per gallon in city driving and 23 on a combined city-freeway tankful.
The base Mustang can be obtained with a pushrod V6 engine, while the GT with the 4.6 V8 starts at $20,870. Adding antilock brakes, an antitheft system, remote keyless entry, traction control, cruise, rear defogger and traction control, boosts the GT’s sticker to $22,585. It may not be the Cobra, but drive it just as aggressively, and you might not find the difference all that noticeable.
About the Author
John Gilbert is a lifetime Minnesotan and career journalist, specializing in cars and sports during and since spending 30 years at the Minneapolis Tribune, now the Star Tribune. More recently, he has continued translating the high-tech world of autos and sharing his passionate insights as a freelance writer/photographer/broadcaster. A member of the prestigious North American Car and Truck of the Year jury since 1993. John can be heard Monday-Friday from 9-11am on 610 KDAL(www.kdal610.com) on the "John Gilbert Show," and writes a column in the Duluth Reader.
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