TT Roadster completes Audi’s world-class sports car entry
[[[[[[[CUTLINES:
1/ As a spectacular view, the just-introduced Audi TT Roadster challenged the sunset-colored Bell Rock near Sedona, Arizona.
2/ The TT Roadster looks good with top up or down, and only subtleties like twin exhaust tubes differentiates the 225-horsepower version from the 180 base car.
3/ The brushed-matte finish of the aluminum interior accents is set off by the optional, thicker, amber-red leather with baseball-glove stitching.
4/ The TT Roadster has a distinct, Bauhaus-look in silhouette, with Arizona’s Courthouse Butte in the background. ]]]]]]]
Sports cars are supposed to make emotional impacts on their drivers, their passengers, and on other people who see you coming, or passing by. The Audi TT Roadster fills that bill.
I was convinced while test-driving a silver TT Roadster at the car’s introduction in the mountainous area around Phoenix, by two bits of conclusive evidence. The first was that even slathered with sunscreen against the 95-degree heat, it was apparent my wrists, forearms, neck and cheeks were being fried a lobster-colored crimson. But I wasn’t about to stop or put the top up.
The second bit of evidence came when a fellow-motoring-journalist and I pulled up to a stoplight in suburban Scottsdale and we were second in a line of three TTs. A well-tanned and very attractive woman driving a black, SL500 Mercedes roadster — with the top up — stopped in the next lane. We looked over and she asked: “How long has that car been out, and how much is it?” We explained it was just being introduced and that she could buy four of them for the price of her $135,000 Mercedes. Then we zapped away to leave her behind at the stoplight.
Audi had established itself as the competitive equals of fellow-German auto-makers BMW and Mercedes by the time it introduced its stunning new TT sports car last May. The TT, which stands for “Tourist Trophy,” was an immediate hit, but it was only a preliminary move. Last week Audi introduced the TT Roadster — a convertible version of the year-old TT Coupe — and simultaneously introduced a 225-horsepower version of both TTs as an option to the very adequate 180-horsepower TTs.
“We wanted a ‘hero car,’ a brand-defining car, and we got that with the TT,” said Len Hunt, corporate vice president and Audi of America spokesman at the roadster’s unveiling in Phoenix last week. “The launch of the TT was not just the launch of a sports car, it was the launch of a new tradition at Audi.”
The TT was a styling hit, with its advanced-retro look and high-tech features, when it came out as a 180-horsepower, front-wheel-drive coupe last May, jumping right into battle with the Porsche Boxster, Mercedes SLK, BMW Z3 in the affordable/high-performance sports-car category, which is to say stronger than a Mazda Miata, and not as overpowering as a Corvette or Porsche 911. For Up North sports-car zealots, the TT holds the extra allure of front-wheel drive.
In October, Audi added the quattro version — Audi’s phenomenal, performance-oriented all-wheel-drive system with its copyrighted lower-case “q” designation. The car fulfilled Audi’s objectives, stated by Hunt as having advanced technology, a striking design, strong performance, all while being capable of evoking strong emotion. Incidentally, the quattro version is an even stronger candidate for year-round functionality Up North.
The roadster will be available in dealerships as of the end of this month, to complete the variety of TTs. The TT Coupe with 180 horsepower and front-wheel-drive is $31,200; TT Coupe with 225 horsepower and quattro — $36,100; TT Roadster with 180 horse FWD — $33,200; and TT Roadster with 225 horses and quattro — $38,900.
Those prices include standard leather interior, with an amazing baseball-glove-stitched orange leather option on the quattros. The 180-horsepower version has 16-inch wheels, while the 225 gets standard 17-inch wheels; the 180 gets a 5-speed manual, the 225 has a 6-speed; the 180 has a single exhaust, the 225 has dual exhaust; the 180 has an easy-to-operate manual fold-down top, the 225 a standard power top. Both cars come with an improvement on one of the most impressive warranties in the business — the 3-year all-maintenance-paid warranty has been increased to 4-year, 50,000 miles, with all periodic maintenance done free.
ROADSTER ON ROAD
Taking the top off any car generally guarantees you of cowl-shake, the tendency of the body’s natural flexing to be displayed by wagging itself just a bit, most notably at the cowl area just aft of the windshield. The TT Roadster, however, is free of that vibration.
“The Roadster is not an after-thought,” said Marc Trahan, Audi’s production manager. “The Roadster was established from the start with the Coupe, and they were developed in parallel.”
That allowed Audi’s engineers to design reinforced strength into the Roadster. The door sill beams are 30 percent thicker, the sills themselves 20 percent thicker, there is an aluminum cross-member positioned just behind the seats to reinforce the whole structure, and to anchor the twin brushed-matte aluminum rollbars, which are as functional as they are stylish. Sturdier joints between the pillars and the floor assembly are further modifications meet standards from vibration analysis. The windshield frame pillars have high-strength steel inserts for added reinforcement.
“With the windshield pillars and the rollbars, the Roadster has the same level of rollover intrusion protection as the Coupe,” said Trahan, who added that even the soft top was designed with four cross-struts instead of three to eliminate any chance of wind-buffeting at high speeds with the top up.
The most evident result of all that is the complete absence of any cowl-shake or vibration. But the safety enhancements are also impressive, with that structural rigidity coupled with the TT’s 4-wheel disc brakes, an advanced antilock system, electronic brake-force distribution, electronic differential lock, full-time traction control (on the 180-horsepower versions), and a stability program that becomes available next month.
The body steel is galvanized on both sides to eliminate concern about corrosion, as well.
PERFORMANCE POWER
The same engine powers both versions of the TT. It is comparatively tiny, at 1.8 liters (actually 1,781 cc.) of displacement out of four cylinders. It is as technically advanced as any standard production engine, which allows it to feel much stronger than your basic four-banger.
It has dual overhead camshafts, with five valves per cylinder — three intake and two exhaust valves — and with a low-pressure turbocharger pumping extra life into all those valves. Displacement is measured by combining the total cylinder bore and piston stroke. The TT engine, also available in the A4 sedans and in some of Audi’s cousin, Volkswagen, has 180 horsepower that peaks at 5,500 RPMs, and 173 foot-pounds. A key to performance is what RPM point at which the torque peaks, but a marvel of the collaboration between the electronic management system and the turbo is that the maximum torque is attained at a mere 1,950 RPMs, and it remains at that peak until 4,700 RPMs.
It is little short of miraculous that Audi’s engineers took that same engine and tweaked it up to 225 horses at 5,900 revs, and increased the torque to 207 foot-pounds over a span from 2,200-5,500 RPMs. That range means that other engines may have more power at their peak, but the Audi engine gets to its peak just above idle speed and stays there until you’ve revved up toward the 6,700-RPM redline, where the horsepower peak takes over anyway.
“This is not just a computer-chip-tuned modification,” said Trahan. “The 225-horsepower engine has new pistons, a different compression ratio, different cylinder heads, different intake and exhaust manifolds, a bigger turbocharger, and two intercoolers instead of one for the turbo. The only other roadsters with all-wheel drive are the Lamborghini Diablo and the Porsche Carrera 4, both of which are far more expensive.”
With all that power, the difference between the two models in driving is interesting. The 180-horse version goes 0-60 in a quick 8-second burst, with a top speed electronically limited at 130 mph in North America. The 225-horse version quattro does 0-60 in only 6.7 seconds and has a top end of 143 mph.
When you drive the two, the 180 feels very responsive, and actually seemed quicker up to 4,000 RPMs, undoubtedly because it weighs 3,131 pounds, compared to the quattro’s 3,473. The added weight makes the 225-horse quattro feel always stable, but not as quick until that midrange, with the extra power taking firm command from 4,000-on-up.
After the brief introductory test of both Roadsters, I got the chance stay on after the introduction to spend a few days taking the 180-horsepower Roadster north to Sedona, where it was 20 degrees cooler, then winding northward on a spectacular drive through Oak Creek Canyon, and later to the Grand Canyon. We got 27 miles per gallon overall, and 32.9 mpg on strictly freeway driving, which was very impressive.
Based on preliminary feelings, the 180-horse Roadster is a superb-handling sports car capable of challenging the best of the competition, while the 225-horse version sticks to the road absolutely as if on rails, and has the power to beat most of its rivals. And, as if just for sports-car fans Up North, either version should be awesome on snow and ice.
GM unveils 2002 Bravada surprise with high-tech in-line 6
[[[[[CUTLINES:
1/ Ron Kociba stood proudly next to the 2002 Bravada introduced at the New York International Auto Show this past week with “his baby” under the hood — an all-new, dual-overhead-cam, multi-valve, in-line 6-cylinder engine with variable valve timing.
2/ The 2002 Bravada is all-new, from the frame, brakes, suspension, interior and engine. ]]]]]]
NEW YORK, N.Y.—It seemed like nothing more than a normal introduction, when General Motors chose to introduce four “all-new” trucks at the New York International Auto Show.
The executives and marketing folks took the stage and rolled them out. First, there was the new GMC Denali. Same as the Blazer, really. Then came the Denali XL, the longer version, same as the Chevy Suburban. Third out was a new Sierra pickup truck.
And then it happened. Next came a 2002 model year version of the Oldsmobile Bravada, a vehicle that once neared extinction until benevolent folks at GM decided to salvage it and give it another chance, with a new look reminscent of the Olds family two-vent front seen on the Aurora, Intrigue and even Alero.
But this Bravada is all-new from the ground up, the platform, the frame, the body, the interior, the suspension, and the engine. Especially the engine.
“This is a once-in-a-career opportunity,” said Ron Kociba, the engineer in charge of creating the all-new in-line 6-cylinder engine, “to develop a totally new engine in a totally new truck, to be built in a totally new plant in Flint.”
More on that later. First, a little background.
The automotive world is taking some exciting new turns these days, and a lot of those turns are toward high-technology developments. It costs a little to research and develop the high-tech refinements to engines, but Honda, Toyota, BMW, Mercedes, Audi, Porsche, Mazda, Nissan, Saab — you name ’em, they’ve forged on ahead, spending good money to develop advanced technology, knowing that it would bring payback in the coming years.
Trailing, but at least headed the right direction, have been Chrysler Corporation and Ford Motor Company. And General Motors? Well, with a high-skilled and plentiful crew of engineers, GM stubbornly avoided keeping up. There were a few applications of technology, such as when Cadillac went to the Northstar engine, with its dual-overhead camshaft V8, with four valves per cylinder. A smaller application of that engine was allowed to go to Oldsmobile for the Aurora, and then GM built a new 3.5-liter V6 to be built off it as well, but it, too, only goes to Oldsmobile for the Intrigue and this year as the base engine in the Aurora.
Otherwise, GM automobiles and trucks had the old-fashioned, but inexpensive, system of pushrods actuating the valvetrain from down in the block. So if you got a new car, with fancy styling, like the Grand Prix or Bonneville or Impala or Monte Carlo, you got a 39-year-old engine with pushrods — even while cars from Ford, Chrysler and every import manufacturer were well beyond merely using overhead cams, and had advanced on to multiple valves and variable valve timing.
That’s why it was so exciting to see the Bravada roll out, batting cleanup in the four-truck introduction by General Motors during the press preview days of the New York Auto Show.
ALL-NEW PLATFORM
The Bravada rides on an all-new platform. Its overall length is 10 inches longer than its predecessor, five inches wider, and five inches taller, with a wheelbase six inches greater. That extra size allows for 83 cubic feet of cargo room, up nine.
The frame has eight structural cross-members instead of the six on the previous vehicle. That adds greatly to the stiffness of the body, to say nothing of the safety and handling. All-new suspension includes a double-A-arm front and a rear arrangement with five-link geometry and air bladders electronically controlled to raise, lower and maintain a level stance regardless of road condition. Larger brakes, with discs on all four wheels, and 17-inch wheels (8 inches wide), also help the handling.
But let’s not kid ourselves. The breakthrough with the Bravada is the engine. It is in-line, replacing the hardy V6 engines so common in GM applications. Both block and cylinder head are made of cast aluminum, using the “lost-foam” technique used in the Saturn engine program, where a perfect outline of the engine is done in styrofoam, then molten aluminum is poured in, vaporizing the styrofoam and leaving aluminum in its place with precision.
Its cylinders displace 4.2 liters, with dual overhead camshafts and four valves per cylinder, and with a variable valve-timing, which allows the camshafts to adjust, overlapping when power is needed but backing off for a smooth idle.
Final figures aren’t certain, but the engine will develop 250 horsepower, and something over 250 foot-pounds of torque. Torque, remember, is the low-end pulling power needed more by trucks than cars, but needed for hard-charging starts, towing or not. As for the in-line arrangement, consider that BMW and Toyota still build exceptionally strong and smooth in-line 6s.
This is the first time GM has put an in-line 6 in a truck, the first time it has used overhead camshafts in a truck, the first time it has used multiple valves in a truck, and the first time it has used variable valve timing in a truck.
Question is, how did Kociba and his staff convince the bottom-line constables that they could limbo under the cost-effective bar and build such a progressive engine?
TIMING IS EVERYTHING
Kociba has been with General Motors for 32 years. He worked on the 3800 V6, which began life in 1961 — think about that, in this computer age — and advanced its potential with supercharged treatment. Next he got to run the 3.5-liter V6 engine, the high-tech Intrigue engine, which was the perfect launching pad to send him onward and upward when he was given a clean sheet to build the Bravada 4.2.
“We had the opportunity to build it from scratch,” Kociba said. “We had to meet several objectives. It had to be reliable, durable, affordable, and it had to have improved fuel economy and performance.”
But why an in-line engine, in this world of V6s?
“The cost of doing this on a V-type engine is prohibitive,” he said. “Think of where we’re coming from. With an in-line engine, we only have one cylinder head and one head gasket.”
Right. When Kociba says “affordable” as one key objective, he may have meant affordable to the bean-counters as much as to the customers.
“It’s all aluminum, the block and the cylinder head, with pressed-in iron liners in the cylinders,” he explained. “With the overhead cams, we could go to four valves on each cylinder, and variable valve timing on the exhaust, to give us a more aggressive cam profile.”
It not only worked, it worked so well that the new engine requires no external hang-on emission-control devices. Improved economy, emissions and power all were exponents of the slick styling. Which, of course, was why I’d long been critical of GM’s reluctance to go to such designs a decade or two before this, when the rest of the automotive world was heading that direction. I mean, if GM is the biggest U.S. car-maker, it should be a technological leader we can be proud of.
Added efficiency and durability was also gained by eliminating sparkplug wires, so separate coils at each sparkplug are used. Kociba, who simply couldn’t stop smiling as he discussed his new baby, added that the one advantage of being late to the overhead-cam, multi-valve, variable-valve-timing party, is that he was able to examine a whole world of advanced engines and pick what he wanted.
“We’re really proud of the applications we chose by picking the technology we could produce and still keep it affordable,” Kociba said.
And, of course, the future is now unlimited. This engine will go on and power midsize pickups, I would guess, and who knows what all? And the technique could certainly be applied to other engines. I’m guessing Kociba might end up in charge of redoing a few venerable old V8s in coming years.
“GM can do anything it sets its mind on,” he said.
SAAB engine concept features variable combustion ratio
Automotive engine technology seems to be leaping ahead in giant steps these days, in order to meet tightening laws for economy and ecological concerns. It has reached the point where overhead-camshafts, multiple valves and even variable valve-timing have become so routinely deployed that the line between high-tech and normal is continually blurred.
However futuristic today’s technology may seem, however, the continuation of unique ideas pushes the envelope ever-further.
Amid the high-tech surge, and the development of sophisticated hybrid engines that combine standard internal combustion engines and electric battery-made power, Swedish automakerSAAB — which is now a subsidiary of General Motors — has come up with yet another way to meet the ever-changing demands of the contemporary auto industry.
The concept is a motor with a flexible cylinder head that allows the compression-ratio of an engine to be constantly varied while it is being driven. In all other modern techniques, the valve timing or the fuel feed can be adjusted and changed, and in all of them, the engine’s compression ratio stays constant.
The compression ratio is the piston displacement volume plus the volume of the combustion chamber, divided by the volume of the combustion chamber. In simple terms, it is the amount by which the fuel-air mixture in the cylinder is compressed before being ignited.
The energy in fuel is best put to use when the compression ratio is as high as possible, but if it is too high, the engine will ping, from pre-ignition. So in conventional engines, the compression ratio is preset at a compromise level, which can tend to favor one extreme or the other, but rarely can accommodate both.
High-performance engines of years past had high numbers on their compression ratios — 10-1, or 11-1. When exhaust emissions and fuel-economy became primary, the compression ratios lowered to 8-1 or 9-1. More recent technology has allowed manufacturers to find other ways to harness emissions, and compression ratios have been able to rise again, helping create more power.
According to SAAB scientists, all other bits of technology leave the compression ratio fixed, which means that an engine may only occasionally, and by random chance, be running at optimum compression.
So SAAB has worked for nearly a decade to develop the “SAAB Variable Compression” engine, or SVC, which combines the variable compression ratio technique with lowered displacement and high supercharging pressure. All three factors are vital to the engine’s success
“We’ve been working on this concept for over eight years, and we made a four-cylinder, a six-cylinder and this five-cylinder,” said Hans Drungel, the project manager from Sweden. “We’ve run a SAAB 9.5 sedan test car with this engine with both a four-speed automatic and a five-speed manual transmission. The redline on the engine is 6,000 RPMs, which isn’t particularly high. But it has about the same power as a normally-aspirated 3.0-liter V6.”
The SVC engine is built in two segments. The monohead consists of the cylinder head with integrated cylinders, and the lower portion consists of the engine block, crankshaft, connecting rods and pistons. The monohead is built on pivots, and it can be raised or lowered, depending on the load of the engine.
When running at low load, such as cruising on the freeway, the monohead is tilted away from the lower block by hydraulic actuator, increasing the slope of its angle and lowering the engine’s compression ratio. When power is needed, you step on the gas hard and the slope of the monohead’s tilt is reduced, decreasing the volume of the combustion chamber, and thus raising compression.
SAAB’s electronic engine management system controls the variation, which is calculated to act based on engine speed, engine load and fuel quality, and in the process, it makes the compression ratio continuously variable. The same engine management system also operates a supercharger, which feeds massive doses of air into the combustion chamber off a compressor, for larger doses of boost via a compressor.
SAAB first used a 1.4-liter six-cylinder engine to develop the system, but more recently dropped it in favor of a 1.6-liter five-cylinder engine. The engine varies its compression ratio between 8-1 and 14-1, depending on engine load.
At maximum output, it turns out 225 horsepower and 224 foot-pounds of torque. Obviously, that is more power than most V6 or V8 engines in standard production, and it is incredible output for a 1.6-liter displacement.
Even more impressive than the power increase is that the SVC engine also increases fuel economy by 30 percent, and lowers emissions to meet contemporary and even future demands.
On top of that, the other most feasible concepts feature variable valve timing or alternative fuels to gasoline. The beauty of the SVC is that while it operates on a unique variable compression ratio scheme, variable valve timing could also be applied to it, and it could be programmed to burn alternative fuels.
SAAB engineers insist that the engine still is only in the concept realm, with no date to be powering cars in the showrooms. But with emission laws tightening and competing technology getting prominent reviews, it would seem likely that the SVC engine could be out within two years.
However, technology seems to be leaping ahead by large increments these days
Renovated SSEi Bonneville tries to maintain sporty title
The Pontiac Bonneville for 2000 offers the renewal of its bold statement as the raciest high-performance sedan in the General Motors stable.
If it seems as though the Bonneville was long overdue for a makeover, it’s because the car has undergone only cosmetic changes since 1992, when it became filled with performance features that set it apart from its cousins at Chevrolet, Oldsmobile, Buick or Cadillac.
Those who liked what Pontiac had done to the Bonneville, REALLY liked it, while critics accused the car, and the GM brand, of trying to cater to boy-racer instincts, and overdid it with racy styling touches.
If you remember the Bonneville as a somewhat bulging, gimmicky sedan, you can forget it for 2000. The new Bonneville SSEi, which is the top-of-the-line high-performance version, still retains the plastic side-body cladding with its accent lines and all, and the new bumper has similar accent lines.
But for 2000, the Bonneville is all-new, riding on the same Oldsmobile Aurora platform also used by the Cadillac Seville and Buick LeSabre. The bulbous body is gone, replaced by a stark, wedgy look, angling back from a prominent chin up front. The side cladding even has a major indentation to set it off with less-trite appeal than the lengthy strakes on the previous model.
Despite criticism of the old model, I liked it for its driveability, and its very impressive interior. General Motors has often weakened the personalities of some of its cars with a dull sameness, but the Bonneville has always remained an individual, with well-bolstered seats that feature large supportive side bulges, and with instrumentation that is almost airplane-like in its bold attractiveness.
The new model does everything its predecessor did, and looks sleeker and more fit at the same time.
OLD ENGINE WORKS
Under the hood of the SSEi Bonneville breathes the same old 3800 V6 that has matured and aged over 40-some years of GM usage. It has pushrods where overhead camshafts are featured by all competitors, domestic, foreign and even within GM, if you count Oldsmobile and Cadillac.
But the GM engineers have worked and worked to make the old-style 3800 as sophisticated as a pushrod engine can be, smoothing out the friction and pushing its efficiency up near the limit. Then they put a supercharger on top of the 3800 for usage in the Bonneville. A supercharger runs off an accessory belt and blows large doses of compressed air into the intake, jacking up the available horsepower to 240 at 5,200 RPMs, while the engines strong torque is 280 foot-pounds at 3,600.
While techno-zealots can argue that GM should simply get with it and start using the more sophisticated dual-overhead-cam 3.5-liter V6 used in the Olds Intrigue and Aurora, there can be no argument that the blown 3800 produces strong acceleration and power. On top of that, I got a strong 24.9 miles per gallon in a tankful that was used for both city and freeway driving.
It costs more to build the 3.5 than it does the old pushrod 3800, so GM has no plans to supplant the 3800 with the 3.5. It will continue to offer both in all but the Olds and Cadillac sedans, and it will supercharge the fastest specialty vehicles in the lineup.
The four-speed automatic transmission is the only way you can get the car. GM hasn’t yet seen fit to provide a shifter that you can manually shift in its automatics, even though all of its serious competitors now offer the feature. With the Bonneville now challenged for superiority in its quest to be the top U.S. performance sedan, cars like Chrysler’s sporty and sophisticated 300M offer all sorts of alternatives.
But the Bonneville will run with any cars, particularly in the low-end haul up to over-freeway speeds. And its sports suspension tightens things up just enough to give it a sportier feel compared to other Pontiac models, such as the SE and SLE.
The front-wheel-drive Bonneville also can beat almost all its competition when it comes to flat out gimmicks.
VIEW FROM THE WHEEL
For drivers who don’t discriminate strictly on the height of technology, the Bonneville SSEi offers a sporty, racy feel. It starts when you first sit in the bulgy, heated driver’s seat, with the orange-lighted gauges that provide full instrumentation. In fact, the SSEi offers more than full instruments, with the brilliant heads-up display projecting the speed and certain other details on a little panel superimposed on the lower windshield.
The audio system is exceptional, easy to control and with AM-FM radio, cassette and single disc player in the dash, plus a 12-CD player in the trunk.
A power sunroof is another solid feature, as is the dual-zone climate control, with eight air-heat vents in the dash, and a computer that tells you if your fuel level is getting low, and how such details as oil life, battery and tire pressure are doing.
On top of the normal traction control, the SSEi has GM’s new StabiliTrak skid control system that coordinates speed and braking and functions to counteract any spinning of the drive wheels to eliminate the tendency to skid.
Some of the controls go beyond the competition, others don’t measure up. The dual cupholders up front, for example, have nothing to do with driving through a slalom or being impressded with the SSEi as a hot performer. But they will house two cans of pop perfectly, yet they won’t accommodate a pair of 20-ounce cups at the same time. So stick with the cans if you’re in a Bonneville.
While the hood tapers quickly away from the driver’s vision, control of the SSEi is enhanced by the through-the-windshield heads-up instruments, and is aided by prominent foglights set into the bumper fascia in that smoothly tapered front end.
Price of the SSEi version of the Bonneville is up, up and over the $30,000 mark, with the test SSEi at a bit over $32,000, and if it seems that such a price should get you the highest level of technical sophistication, you at least can settle for a high-tech sedan makeover, with virtually everything except the engine all new. And the engine isn’t that hard to live with, when you know that the SSEi will run with the best, and is likely to outrun most of them.
Ford gives SUV-king Explorer thorough overhaul for 2002
Sure, there are Jeeps. There also are Suburbans, 4Runners, Tahoes, Pathfinders, Durangos, Land Rovers, Range Rovers and sport-utility vehicles of all shape, size and manner. But there is only one Explorer, and with it Ford has both the most popular-selling SUV in the industry, but also a pretty major challenge.
The problem is, when you have the top vehicle in an astonishingly successful segment, how do you redesign it?
Do you make subtle changes, just softening a line here or there, to maintain all the popularity built up over the years? Or do you go for a major, sweeping makeover, from the ground up, knowing that such a move might put you on the cutting edge of technology, but also might turn off some of those faithful buyers?
With the Explorer showing its age against a snarl of SUVs — which numbers 43 at present but is anticipated to hit a peak of something over 70 models in the next five years — Ford tried to reach both extremities in rebuilding the Explorer. The new vehicle is entirely new, from the ground up, and it has numerous distinguishing features, but every attempt was made at retaining a few design cues to prove that it is linked to the popularity of Explorers present and past.
The new Explorer is so new that it won’t be officially introduced to the public until January, when it also can be declared a 2002 model. Here, just as we’re bracing to view all the new 2001 vehicles, Ford unveiled the 2002 Explorer (and companion Mercury Mountaineer) at a special showing at the rotunda in the company’s suburban Detroit compound at Dearborn.
Ford’s executives proclaimed that at home, people show who they are, but on the road, they show what they want to look like. Interesting theory. Ford also proclaimed itself as the world’s most wide-spanned producer of SUVs. Explorer brand manager Ed Molchany said: “This is the 10th straight year that Explorer has had the best SUV sales (topping 400,000 annual vehicles in each of those years). We’ve got six different SUVs.”
Ford has sold 3.5 million Explorers in the past 10 years, and over 4 million if you add in the companion Mountaineers. When Ford added the Expedition as a larger SUV, it found itself tangled into the surging SUV expansion. Next came the Excursion, the largest of all SUVs, but that left a void at the smallest end, which Ford is filling this fall with the 2001 introduction of the Escape, to do battle with the Honda CR-V, Toyota RAV4, Nissan Xterra and the like.
The Escape, however, is so impressive in its sizing and utilization of space, that it appeared it might well intrude on the hallowed ground of Explorer in the eyes of customers. When I asked regional public relations director Scott Jensen about that, his response was: “But wait until you see the new Explorer.”
KEY ELEMENTS
There are several keys to the redesign. Ford took on all of them starting with: improving the style; keeping the size the same but making more of it usable; improving the powertrain; and improving the suspension for handling and agility.
Styling paid attention to every detail, stretching the outer skin around a longer wheelbase and setting off an all-new grille and frontal area with what designer Jay Mays called “crisp, sharp lines.” Wheelwell openings, lower body cladding, everything contributed to what Ford calls a “design DNA” that makes the Explorer unmistakable as an Explorer.
The length of the Explorer remains the same as the existing, and outgoing, Explorer, but the wheelbase has been lengthened 2 inches by moving the front axle 2 inches forward and shortening the front overhang, which also gives the Explorer an improved approach angle to abrupt hills when driving off-road. The tread width of the left and right wheels is 2 ½ inches wider, and the body is 2 inches wider. The underbody ground clearance is increased by 1 inch to 9 inches, and yet the Explorer has a half-inch lower step-in height. The increased size equates to 2.3 inches more shoulder width and 3.25 inches more hiproom. In addition, the roof itself is slightly swept up to increase headroom in the second and third rows of seats.
For power, Ford took the original 5.0-liter V8 and 4.0-liter V6 and added a single-overhead-camshaft to the old 4.0 several years ago, creating a far superior engine. For the new model, Ford is going to its heralded modular 4.6-liter overhead-cam V8, made of all aluminum, for its upgraded engine, while the SOHC 4.0 4-cylinder is the other available powerplant. That puts Ford into a class with the best imported SUVs in technology, and far ahead of General Motors, which doesn’t yet have a single overhead-cam engine available in any purebred GM SUV. An all-new 5-speed manual transmission and a proven and reinforced 5-speed automatic are the two Explorer transmissions.
The 4.0 has 210 horsepower and 240 foot-pounds of torque, while the 4.6 V8 delivers 240 horsepower and 280 foot-pounds of torque. The 4.6 also provides a 62-pound weight reduction over the old 5.0 V8, and has coil-on-plug ignition, which engineers say will eliminate the spark plug wires that are the major source of driveability problems. The extra power and flexibility of the 4.6 gives it a 7,300-pound towing capacity, compared to 6,800 with the 5.0.
The suspension also is a key ingredient of the new Explorer, which will debut independent rear suspension. A stiffer frame 3.5-times stiffer than the old leaf-spring/solid-axle, and has considerably less up-and-down motion with IRS compared to conventional leaf-spring. The new Explorer platform also is eight times stiffer from lateral flexing. Coil springs wrapped around shock absorbers replace torsion bars, allowing more refined tuning of the handling feel. IRS should be heavier than conventional solid-axle suspension, but Ford made a lot of components out of aluminum to improve strength and reduce weight. By fixing the suspension lower, and going to IRS, Ford has been able to greatly lower the body itself, which allows for the seeming contradiction of having lower step-in height and yet greater ground clearance.
COMFORT AND SAFETY
Other objectives Ford had for the new Explorer were improving on the safety, both from the active and passive sides, and improving the ease of operation, the customer-friendly side of things.
The stiffer platform and improved suspension allow the Explorer driver to make better use of the tighter steering feel and become an active part of the safety built into accident avoidance. In concert, Ford has improved the braking capability of the Explorer. Ford produced a chart of random competitors and showed braking distances. The existing Explorer was up there near the Pathfinder and with longer braking distance than the Jeep, Mercedes ML320 and 4Runner. The 2002 Explorer, however, will stop in 30 feet less, putting it at the top of that group.
More than that, to many customers, is the feel that goes along with greater control and agility. The Explorer is aimed at a sportier ride, maybe more fun, while the more stately Mountaineer is a bit softer and more refined. With antilock braking and an AdvancedTrak system to apply braking to a spinning wheel while also transfering torque to the other wheels, the new Explorer should be well-equipped to avoid dangerous situations.
But Ford also paid great attention to passive safety, with a new “safety canopy” side curtain. Augmenting second-generation frontal airbags and pretensioner-equipped harnesses, the canopy is a side curtain that runs from the front seat past the back of the rear seat. In the event of a side impact, the curtain drops down to protect the occupants’ heads from banging on the door or window.
Beyond that, the safety canopy is designed to also function in rollover incidents. As the vehicle tilts toward rollover, it reaches a point of no return. When that occurs, and a rollover is inevitable, the canopy opens on the sides and will remain open for a 6-second duration. Six seconds doesn’t seem very long, but it is much longer than the time it takes for an out-of-control vehicle to roll over and over three times. The canopy not only cushions the head and shoulder of occupants, but it will help keep the occupant inside the framework of the vehicle.
Perhaps most important is the crashworthiness. With frame rails and a boxed frame section running full length, protection against frontal, side and rear intrusion is reinforced. The concept also works to divert impacts around the occupant compartment. The frame rails are designed to line up with sedan frame-rails.
While the Explorer is still too new to have been tested by the government, Ford officials said that after their own 35-mile per hour barrier crashes, all four doors could still be opened.
Occupant pleasantness is further enhanced by great attention to wind noise and road noise. Ford has not only gone to excess in trying to control such noises, but technicians have gone on to tune some noise into the sound of the engines as they accelerate, again tilting toward making the Explorer more sporty-sounding. There is a 25-percent reduction in wind noise at 80 mph, and the more rigid frame, rubber body mounts and microcellular construction inside the pillars, plus laminated dash material, makes road noise also significantly reduced.
Cupholders, a pen-holder, easier to operate hanger hooks on the rear hand-grips, more logical power lock switches, and adjustable pedals as well as the tilt and telescoping steering wheel aid the driving experience. And a 30-degree angled outer door hand grip is both easier to operate and ring and fingernail safe.
If it seems Ford hasn’t overlooked any detail, it proves what a company can do when it is on top of an ever-expanding pile of competitive SUVs, and intends to maintain that position.
[[[[[CUTLINES:
1/ Ford unveiled a completely rebuilt Explorer, for production this fall and introduction in January as a 2002 model.
2/ Two-stage frontal airbags and pretensioned harnesses are supplemented by a safety-canopy side airbag curtain for side impacts and rollover protection.
3/ The interior of the Explorer also has been completely redone for improved ergonomics and occupant comfort.
4/ The underside of the new Explorer shows how streamlined the new independent rear suspension fits with the platform to allow a lower body that also has greater ground clearance.
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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