Revised C-Class Mercedes combines performance and luxury
Nothing breeds excellence better than competition. And nowhere is that competition more intriguing to follow these days than from the standpoint of Mercedes.
Every manufacturer has had to broaden its scope, improve its product and keep prices in line in order to survive, but Mercedes had to do all that while also striving to maintain its reputation on the top rung of worldwide public perception and while fighting off the fierce challenges of other exceptional German manufacturers.
The all-new C-Class sedan is the result of all that, and it might be both the least expensive and most impressive Mercedes from several standpoints.
You could make the argument that United States auto manufacturers deteriorated after the boom years of the 1960s and early ’70s into a downward spiral of mediocrity that carried through the 1970s and right into the 1990s. The U.S. industry recovered and started on an upward spiral of function and quality only because of serious competition from foreign automakers, mainly Japanese.
It’s open to debate whether the U.S. companies have caught up, but we have made impressive strides and are now at least competitive now with some of the top imports.
The Japanese, of course, did well because they copied some German manufacturers in their quest for excellence, built them efficiently and sold them inexpensively in the U.S. Honda and Toyota led the takeover of Volkswagen’s economy-car market, Acura invaded the luxury segment, and Lexus blatantly copied Mercedes while Nissan’s Infiniti brand went after BMW.
Their popularity led the U.S. car-makers to retrench and get serious, but it also forced the German companies to makes huge changes. Mercedes and BMW faced a challenge from within Germany from Audi, which started building exceptional cars at better prices. Volkswagen recovered with new and impressive designs. PorscheÂ…well, Porsche just kept on appealing to elite sports car buyers.
But both Mercedes and BMW had to retool to build better products at reduced prices, and their success has been remarkable.
Mercedes stood at the top of the luxury class, but in 1983, the company realized it had to expand.
“In 1983 we launched the 190 model in Europe, and brought it to the U.S. in 1984,” said Paul Halata, the president and chief operating officer of MBUSA, the U.S. arm of Mercedes-Benz. “That meant we wer emoving into a different segment, with more mass-production and at the entry level of the luxury market. So we started to compete with a product we had never before made.”
The 190 was a pretty neat car — a bargain Mercedes — but it’s rarely mentioned these days. Mercedes replaced it with new letter nomenclature in late 1993, when the model line first took on C-Class designation. The bigger, mainstream luxury Mercedes is the E-Class, and the top-of-the-line Mercedes flagship is the S-Class. The newer SUV from Mercedes is the M-Class.
The E-Class was revised for 1996, a renewed C-Class came out in late 1997, and all-new S-Class and E-Class were brought out last year. So, in the fast-proliferating market segment now known as “entry-luxury” it was the C-Class’s turn.
I anticipate getting a new C-Class for a thorough test drive soon, but an introductory taste of both versions of the model in the British Columbia mountains outside Vancouver a few weeks ago indicated the new car could be a record-breaker, selling for somewhere from $32,000-$37,000, depending on equipment.
MARKETING SLANT
Karen Makris, the product manager for Mercedes sedans, noted that the entry-luxury segment now accounts for over 70 percent of the luxury car market. The C-Class sold a peak of 34,487 in 1998, and tailed off to 29,770 in 1999. The target is to hit 30,000 for 2000, and then onward and upward when production and supply catch up.
It wasn’t long ago that Mercedes might have considered it an unspeakable secret to name the company’s challengers, but Makris shamelessly said the new car’s targets are, mainly, the Audi A4, the BMW 3-Series, the Lexus ES300, and the Volvo S70.
She also pointed out that “more women are getting college degrees than men in the U.S. now, and more women are starting new businesses,” as a way of explaining why the company anticipates that half, or even more than half, of the new C-Class buyers might be women.
To attract new buyers of whatever gender, Mercedes had to hit all the right features. And to maintain its position of prestige, Mercedes had to have design, engineering and technological features built in. And then it had to keep the price down.
“The new C-Class is an all-new design, it has more power, it adds rack and pinion steering, and it has a new suspension,” Makris said. “Our objective was to make it sleek and contemporary, to give it sporty performance, and to dseign it to meet low-emission-vehicle status.”
She also stressed safety, an ever-increasing factor in car-buying decisions these days. The new C-Class has eight airbags, including side and rear-seat door-mounted units. The audio system, always impressive, now has 10 speakers instead of eight. Leather seats are standard, and such design trends as body-color door handles and bumpers and softer, more harmonious interior shapes have been designed into the C-Class.
New design changes from the old C-Class are evident from the outside, with a smooth and sleek nose tapering up so efficiently it has a 0.27 coefficient of drag, where anything under 0.35 is considered excellent. Interior ergonomics include redesigned instrumentation, and the Laurel wood trim replaces the burl-walnut wood trim. Hmmm. I thought burl-walnut was pretty neat, but what do I know? Dual-zone climate control is another new addition.
The new C-Class is 178.2 inches long, which is .9 inches longer; 68.6 inches wide, which is .3 inches wider; and 56.1 inches high, which is .9 inches lower, compared to its predecessor. It has roomier interior space for front and rear headroom and legroom, and the only compromise is 1.1 inches less front shoulder room, which is, in a word, unnoticeable.
In design features, the aerodynamic headlight, sloping nose and sleek body lines much more closely resemble the E-Class and S-Class than they do the outgoing C-Class, which means that anyone achieving the status of buying a Mercedes can buy the “entry-level” C-Class without feeling any sort of technical compromise. In fact, there are some advantages.
PERFORMANCE CHANGES IMPRESSIVE
Mercedes has taken an interesting path on motors. After building some world-class in-line 6-cylinder engines, the company switched to V6 engines when it came out with the M-Class, and two versions of the new V6 are in the C-Class. The interesting feature is that they engines have three valves per cylinder, two intake and one exhaust, and they are of short-stroke design.
The C-240 used to have a 2.4-liter engine, and now it has a 2.6-liter V6, producing 168 horsepower at 5,500 RPMs and 177 foot-pounds of torque at 4,500 RPMs. The C-240 weighs 3,364 pounds, and the engine will go from 0-60 in 8.2 seconds.
The C-320 has a 3.2-liter V6, which puts out 215 horsepower at 5,700 and 221 foot-pounds of torque at 4,600 revs. The C-320 weighs 3,397 pounds, and beats everything in its class, according to Mercedes, with a 6.9-second sprint from 0-60.
While acknowledging BMW and Audi as its primary competitors, Mercedes long has faltered in the minds of performance enthusiasts because both BMW and Audi offer manual transmissions as well as automatics, while Mercedes took the shifting out of drivers’ hands. The new C-Class, sure enough, offers a 6-speed manual transmission on the C-240.
I had a chance to drive the C-320 with the optional sport package for enhanced handling. It was fast, smooth, quiet and strong, easily over-achieving the aim of being a more sporty version of a luxury sedan. And its interior appointments were so good it left me with one lingering thought: If Mercedes didn’t make an E-Class or an S-Class, the new C-Class would be luxurious enough for anybody.
Then I got a chance to drive a swift return trip from the mountains of Whistler back to Vancouver, in a C-240 with the 6-speed. The smaller engine felt plenty peppy, mainly because the stick shift extracts optimum power at every level. For those who prefer, or at least appreciate, the hands-on benefits of manual transmissions, the C-240 was even more fun to drive. It handled very well, feeling light and agile, and left me with another lingering thought: If there was no such thing as the C-320, the C-240 would be more than adequate for anybody.
Open the hood on the new C-Class and look for the dipstick. Take your time. Take all day. Take all week. You won’t find it, because there is no dipstick on the new C-Class. The oil not only is constantly monitored electronically, keeping you informed on the instrument panel, but it also evaluates your oil’s quality and how you drive and alerts you when you should change the oil. While calculating impurities and wear factors in your oil, it is possible that the car’s close-tolerance excellence might allow you to go over 10,000 miles between oil changes.
Car fanatics who buy a C-Class will obvious have so much appreciation for cars that they might be reluctant to the point of refusal to let the car go 10,000 miles without an oil change, but Mercedes offers a 4-year warranty and is now agreeing to do all scheduled maintenance — much like Audi’s impressive warranty.
There’s nothing like competition to improve the breed, no matter how prestigious the company.
[[[[CUTLINES:
1/ The 2001 Mercedes C-320 Sport carries thorough body styling, engineering and interior refinements from the previous model.
2/ A flock of C-Class “entry-luxury” Mercedes sedans were gathered in the British Columbia mountains at Whistler during the model’s introduction.
3/ Design improvements on the Mercedes C-Class not only resemble the costlier E-Class and S-Class, they have an industry-leading 0.27 coefficient of drag.
Timing of Escape SUV introduction couldn’t be better for Ford
My first feeling, after being exposed to the Ford Escape, was that it was a pert, functional, compact sport-utility vehicle. With front-wheel drive or four-wheel drive, and being smaller than an Explorer yet with the same interior capacity, and costing less, the Escape could take a mighty bite out of the Explorer’s marketplace.
Having driven one for a week recently, I feel even more convinced that, despite Ford executives’ assurances to the contrary, the Escape may meet more of the wants and requirements of the masses who have made the Explorer the top-selling SUV on the globe.
My feeling had nothing to do with the tidal wave of bad publicity about rollovers of Explorers, all of which might make Ford’s timing wonderful luck in bringing out an all-new sport-utility vehicle. Ford, of course, also will benefit from good timing in bringing out an entirely new, lower and more stable Explorer just after the first of the year.
There is some evidence that the Explorer problem, linked to Firestone tires, may be the tip of the SUV iceberg, which, when fully disclosed, might indicate an obvious but grossly overlooked fact: Medium to large SUVs are more top-heavy and therefore prone to serious and unpredictable handling problems when swerved.
Another contributing problem to SUV stability is that with front engines and rear drive, which usually involves four-wheel drive that functions only when switched on and not for highway cruising speeds, the steering is also lighter. That creates a situation where abrupt steering maneuvers are easy, but the vehicle doesn’t respond instantly, then, just about the time you turn the steering wheel more, it responds in a rush, and more than the driver anticipates. The top-heaviness of the SUV then sways, when the tires and suspension strain to answer the swerve, worsening the effect of the swift understeer-to-oversteer transition.
If an SUV was duplicated, but using front-wheel drive, there might still be some top swaying, but the steering response is far more instantaneous and, being the drive wheels, the front end is pulling the rest of the vehicle along, instead of the rear wheels trying to overtake the front.
The Honda CR-V has front-wheel drive that switches some of the power to the rear when the fronts spin. So it is no surprise that Ford set out to compete with the CR-V, Toyota RAV4 and Nissan Xterra when it chose to come out with a smaller, more compact SUV. The Escape meets those aims, with a price ranging from $18,000-$25,000, depending on how you equip it.
However, the path Ford took in coming up with the Escape is fascinating. Ford has the big SUV market covered, with the Explorer, the larger Expedition and the enormous Excursion. While smaller, less-expensive vehicles make far less profit-per-vehicle than the larger and more luxurious SUVs, the compact SUV segment is growing rapidly right now. About the time Ford was fiddling with preliminary designs, it found out that Mazda, a corporate partner now partially owned by Ford, was well along in the design of precisely the type of vehicle Ford was thinking about.
Since Mazda was well along in the design and planning for the new Tribute, Ford worked out a unique arrangement with Mazda. Using the Tribute basic design, Ford builds the Escape and Tribute at its Kansas City plant, while Mazda will build the right-hand drive versions of the vehicle for both companies in Japan. The body panels and styling of the two are markedly different, and the interior and suspension design also differs.
The Escape has a bold look to the front end, with a rectangular grille with upswept lines framed by a quite massive wraparound bumper, which houses lower foglights, underlines the headlights, and turns the corner to reach all the way back to the front wheelwells, which are outlined by more heavy, scratch and dent-proof stuff. From the side and the rear, there is a strong family resemblance to the Explorer, although, when you think about it, there is a certain boxiness to all SUVs that is pretty difficult to avoid.
There are some exciting features that the Escape brings to market. It has a unibody platform, which is a first for any Ford truck, straying from the normal body-on-frame design. The unibody gives the Escape an efficiency in design for packaging and roominess, and rigidity from a safety standpoint. The Escape also has four-wheel independent suspension, which also is a first for any Ford light truck.
The tight, cohesiveness of the unibody also has allowed Ford engineers to fiddle with the suspension, setting it more precisely for what it wants. Safety is built in, with reinforced front subframe, cross-member beams, side-door intrusion beams, and a large beam running from the doors to the front end. It also comes with front and side airbags.
The Escape has some of the capabilities and meets the tests required of a super-duty F250 pickup truck, and yet it also has the noise-vibration-harshness sensitivity of a car.
While the interior has, basically, the same volume as an Explorer, the Escape has a much lower step-in height. The test vehicle I drove had a neat little accessory, a tough-looking tubula “running board” that, for me, was useless. The Escape is so low that I can step into it easily, and a partial step onto that bar would only be useful if I was planning to hop onto the roof. It would, however, be useful for climbing up and securing something to the standard roofrack. Besides, it looks so darn good.
There is adequate room in the rear seat, which features a split-back fold-down arrangement where the single right seat folds down, and the double left-side seat operates independently. The 60/40 arrangement can be reclined or popped out, as well.
The tailgate swings up, although the glass opens separately. That’s handy, if confusing at first, because you can flip up the glass part only to put things in, or you can lift the whole thing for larger objects or for ease in removing them.
The performance of the Escape comes from two well-proven Ford engines. The base engine is a 2.0-liter Zetec 4-cylinder, with dual-overhead camshafts and 16 valves. It turns out 130 horsepower at 5,400 RPMs and has 135 foot-pounds of torque at 4,500. The test Escape came with the 3.0-liter V6, the Duratec engine that also has dual-overhead cams and four valves per cylinder. It produces 200 horsepower at 6,000 revs, and 200 foot-pounds of torque at 4,750.
The V6 gives the Escape the kind of acceleration and punch that far outdistances the other compact SUVs, although at a penalty. If you want to cruise swiftly on the freeway and drive it hard in town, you’ll be hard-pressed to reach 20 miles per gallon. Funny, though, that we can complain about 20 miles per gallon when many other SUVs struggle to reach 15.
The suspension has been tuned to be compliant, not harsh, and to accommodate buyers who will be pulling trailers. With a 3,500-pound tow package built-in, the Escape remains comfortable with a full load, and much attention was given to reducing road noise and vibration.
While the Ford engineers admit the Escape is softer riding and less sporty than the Mazda Tribute, the Escape is plenty firm in cornering. The aim is to be good on the road, with the capability of going off-road. While there is a switch on the instrument panel that will allow you to lock it into four-wheel drive, there is no low-range lock for serious off-roading.
However, 99 percent of the driving of 90 percent of SUV buyers never go off the road. And the Escape has the added benefit of being firm, stable and secure-feeling when on the road all the rest of that time.
[[[[[[[[CUTLINES:
1/ Ford’s new Escape has an aggressive, uplifting front end but manages to maintain a family resemblance to Ford’s traditional larger SUVs.
2/ The Escape has 133.1 cubic feet of interior volume, 33 cubic feet for storage with the seats up, 64.8 with the rear seats folded flat.
3/ Escape’s frame shows off its unibody construction, safety cell design, and the side-impact beams to optimize safety.
4/ Efficient and ergonomic, the instrumentation and controls are all logical and within easy reach. ]]]]]]]]
Mazda’s ‘better idea’ for sporty, compact SUV ends in Tribute
With the introduction of the Tribute, Mazda has finally joined the sport-utility vehicle world. And it has done so with style, as the Tribute is a swift, agile, sporty-handling vehicle at a bargain price.
In this era of $40,000 SUVs, Mazda wanted to create something different, planning to include a high level of refinement, plus features such as leather seats, six-way power seats, an in-dash CD player in the audio system, as standard equipment, while still keeping the price down. Mazda also insisted on following up its own tradition of fun, sporty driving, by making the new SUV sporty in its performance and handling.
The result is the Tribute, which is not an over-built, rugged off-road conqueror, but it is an exceptional compromise to provide all-weather security with both a luxury and sporty touch. For under $25,000, Mazda delivers an SUV that is compact on the outside, amazingly roomy inside, and is loaded with luxury features, and high-tech assests, such as its Rotary Blade Coupling drive system.
Unlike most four-wheel-drive SUVs, the Tribute has front-wheel drive with a system to divert some engine torque to the rear wheels depending on the degree of front wheel slippage, such as when you are in snow or on a slippery slope. The torque transfer is activated by a separate unit with a separate clutch mechanism, which shifts an allotment of torque from front to rear at the slightest hint of front wheelspin, and it does it so smooth as to be unnoticed by the driver.
If there is a large disparity between the front and rear wheels tendency to spin, the shifting power is modulated to allow for some spinning that can be a benefit if you’re stuck. And if conditions warrant, you can turn a switch on the dash to lock the vehicle in four-wheel drive.
Mazda has been something of an overlooked, under-appreciated automobile manufacturer. The 626 sedan has been just about as reliable and comfortable and enjoyable to drive as the Toyota Camry or Honda Accord; the Protégé has been every bit as impressive as the Honda Civic or Toyota Corolla; the RX7 and the Miata have set the standard of Japanese sports cars for years. Even the Mazda pickup trucks set new standards for compact pickups in the years when it built its own truck, before rebadging the Ford Ranger.
But Mazda, like Honda, decided the unlikely market segment of sport-utility vehicles wouldn’t be a good venture. Oops! Mazda did try, belatedly, to sell a 2-door version of the Ford Explorer, called the Mazda Navajo, but it never sold well. Mazda’s connection with Ford goes back a ways; Ford owns a major share of Mazda, which is why such cars as the Probe were Fords, but were built by Mazda in Flat Rock, Mich.
While every manufacturer in the world seems to have jumped into the SUV market — including Honda, which finally, this year, is coming out with a luxury SUV — Mazda finally decided to make a move. So it started plotting and designing for its better-late-than-never entry into the SUV field.
Mazda’s concept was to build a new and different style of SUV, something that would compete with the more reasonably sized, compact SUVs such as the Honda CR-V and Toyota RAV4, but with all sorts of luxury features installed as standard equipment.
But a funny thing happened along the way. Ford was nosing around trying to develop a similar plan when it learned that its Mazda “partner” was well along with the design and development of a vehicle that might be the perfect ticket to get into the lower-end price segment of the SUV market.
So the new Ford Escape was born, sister ship to the Mazda Tribute. Typically, the Ford Escape has gotten the large share of the publicity, while the Mazda Tribute is comparatively relegated to the background. With Ford’s enormous presence in the SUV game, the Escape probably will sell three times as many as Tributes, and the Tribute is usually called “Mazda’s version of the Escape,” even though the truth is the other way around.
The joint venture is truly a partnership in this case, with both companies making both vehicles — Ford makes them in Kansas City, while Mazda makes both with right-hand steering in Japan. Both have a 2.0-liter four-cylinder and a 3.0-liter V6, both with dual-overhead camshafts and four valves per cylinder. The V6 in both vehicles is the Ford Duratec, and has 200 horsepower and 200 foot-pounds of torque, as is the automatic four-speed transmission. The five-speed manual transmission is Mazda’s, and there seems to be a discrepancy when it comes to the four-cylinder engine.
The Ford engine is the Zetec, listed at 130 horsepower and 135 foot-pounds of torque, same as the Mazda, but the Escape engine lists bore and stroke of 3.39 inches/3.52 inches, while the Tribute’s four-cylinder lists 3.34 inches/3.46 inches. A Mazda guy told me Mazda was using its own engine in the Tribute, other factions claim both are the same, but set up differently.
Whatever, the differences between the two are more pronounced in style, where every body panel except the roof is different. The Tribute has a stylish grille, with some unmistakable Mazda touches.
While the two vehicles were not stacked side by side to be made different, the aims of the two companies had some differences. Mazda wanted that sportiness, and it accomplished it with sportier suspension for firmer handling, and quicker steering for more responsiveness. Ford’s plan was to aim more middle-of-the-road, for hauling or towing more; Mazda went sporty but certainly doesn’t approach being harsh. As good as the Escape handles corners, the Mazda sticks a little better, with less swaying.
Mazda also set the four-speed automatic (made by Ford) for different settings to shift more aggressively, to respond a bit quicker when the gas is kicked down, and to hold each gear a bit longer before upshifting.
Overall, both the Tribute and the Escape are fun to drive, more responsive than almost all other SUVs. I would take it a step farther. I would enjoy seeing how a Tribute (or Escape) would handle if those tires, questionable or not, were replaced by lower-profile tires for even better handling. As long as SUVs almost always stay on the road, we might as well try one with less ground clearance, better aerodynamics and even grippier hold on the pavement.
[[[[[CUTLINES:
1/ The distinctively styled snout of the Mazda Tribute tips off the differences under the skin.
2/ Fold-down leather seats provide comfortable accommodations for four or five, with numerous creature comforts.
3/ Inside the compact exterior, the Tribute has big-SUV storage capacity. ]]]]]]
Entertaining day-trip can be as close to home as Hawk Ridge
The longest journey begins with a single step, as they say in the travel business. But the most satisfying of journeys may not require much more than a few steps. The destination is Hawk Ridge, right in beautiful, downtown Duluth. In fact, Duluth rarely looks more beautiful than from Hawk Ridge, one of the most interesting places to spend a morning, or an afternoon, or a full day, whether you’re seeking birds of prey, scenery, hiking trails, someplace to eat a picnic lunch, or simply some solitude.
I’ll take “all of the above,” but at this time of year, and for most of the next month, hawks are the attraction, with a few eagles tossed in for accent.
Growing up in Lakewood, just a couple miles up “the Shore” from Duluth, I was first attracted to the magnificence of hawks as a little kid, noticing them whenever they flew past our hillside home on the Lakewood Road. I’d look up at them, when they were there, and I looked for them, always, when they weren’t. Their sleek, streamlined, shape, and the compelling blend of gracefulness and power they exhibit, even while circling lazily above, always riveted my attention.
Every once in a while, there would be dozens of them, and if you looked hard enough, you might see dozens more, much higher. It fascinated me, and I can recall numerous days when I would lie down on my back in the grass of our front yard and stare at the sky, amazed at how many hawks I could see. In those days, nobody ever heard of any hawk migration, and while I was aware of their abundance on certain days, I was unaware that it probably was always from mid-September to mid-November, during what we now are aware is the annual migratory rite of all these raptors.
When I think about hawks, I think about those BIG hawks of my youth, the birds we used to call “chicken hawks,” and not the neat little accipitors, like sharp-shinned hawks. The little ones start in September, and as it gets cooler, closer to winter, the population of the flight shifts to the larger hawks. Those are the ones I like — Red Tails or Rough-Legged hawks, the big, majestic ones, with large wingspans, powerful and adjustable wings, and short, fan-shaped tails.
Even the wonderful Goshowks, which so enrapture the experts like Frank Nicoletti up on Hawk Ridge, don’t do it for me; yes, I know they’re neat and they’re much more rare, but they have stubbier necks and long, skinny tails, and they are disproportionate to my prototype hawks.
Of course, not many years ago, we also had no clue about Hawk Ridge, the fantastic strip of gravel road running along the ridge above Lakeside, as the eastern extremity of Skyline Drive. It is the focal point for the annual hawk migration. Repeated trips to Hawk Ridge have taught me that the hawks from Duluth and northward channel themselves along the North Shore so as not to be caught out over the vastness of Lake Superior. Then they “hang a left” over downtown Duluth and head south for the winter.
Nothing amazes me more than to ask virtually any Duluthian, especially those who have lived here for a few decades, about Hawk Ridge. If you ask a hundred of them, you might find a half dozen who ever go up there. If you do go, you find all sorts of out-of-state license plates on the cars that have gathered there, and maybe a tour bus or some vans. Yes, Hawk Ridge is a major attraction for foks from outside our Up North region, but it stands as the absolute perfect piece of evidence that you don’t have to travel far to make a fascinating trip.
To reach the Ridge, you can take any avenue up from Superior Street — 60th, 54th, 47th, 45th, 43rd — and go until you get to Glenwood, then turn left. The roadway is broad as it climbs the hill, heading over toward the Jean Duluth Road and Woodland, if you so choose. But as you crest the hill just above Northland Country Club, you’ll see the big wooden sign for Hawk Ridge. Turn onto the roadway and you will soon come to a parking area with a spectacular vista of Lake Superior and the horizon, overlooking Lakeside and the still-colorful foliage and residences.
But go further. The road turns from asphalt to gravel, and curves, dustily, up and up until it gets to another clear vantage point. If the parked cars, and Frank’s new pickup truck, don’t tip you off, look for the owl decoy perched high above the hillside, and the sign telling you you’ve reached Hawk Ridge.
There is much more to that little area than hawks, and, in fact, it is one of the neatest hiking areas in the region, with marked trails winding their way through the woods on both sides of the roadway, some going up on rock formations, others winding down through thick forest, still more leading out onto the wide ledges of rock for more spectacular views. You can even climb up on top of the actual highest point in the area, which is worth the only moderate effort required.
Any and all of those sites are perfect for a picnic. Make your own, or stop and buy sandwiches, or hit Sammy’s Pizza down on 47th and Superior Street, then drive up there to eat. The place is hypnotic in its appeal.
For this time of year, however, the raptors are the star attractions. If the wind is blowing from the east, off the lake, you might as well go hiking, because the birds don’t fly in abundance unless the wind is blowing from the west or northwest. Must be that instinct to go against the force that can blow them over the lake. The experts, however, will explain readily that the hawks particularly enjoy gliding up, up and away on the thermals, those circling winds created when the westerly winds hit the tip of the lake.
Frank Nicoletti is a fellow who came here from New Jersey to count birds during the migratory flight. After several trips he quit migrating and simply stayed here, got married, and now counts birds day after day. He would rather not be bothered, not because he’s antisocial, but because he doesn’t want small talk to disrupt him from his task of seeing and immediately identifying hawks when they hit the horizon, long before normal people have any idea that there’s a single bird in the county.
He has help, of course, from UMD and the Audubon Society, the nearby banding station back down the road and up in the woods, and from regular visitors, who scan the horizon with powerful binoculars or spotting scopes. This year, he also had the aid of Nia Palmersten, and she won his complete approval.
“Nia has been great, the way she explains things and relates to people,” said Nicoletti. “She’s the best thing we’ve had here in 10 years.”
This was last week, and Palmerston, a naturalist at the Heritage Nature Center in St. Cloud, was conducting a session with a school-busload of kids from some nearby school, displaying a goshawk that had been caught and banded and was squawking about being hand-held, unaware that release was coming right after a visitor made a donation to adopt the creature.
“I’ve been coming here for 10 years on visits, but this year I took a leave to come here and work from Sept. 1 until October 21st,” Palmersten said. “The neatest thing here? I would say it’s whenever any hawk dives in low to attack the owl [decoy], and anytime any hawk comes in low. I most wanted to see a golden eagle and a rough-legged hawk. I had never seen either one in the wild.”
There weren’t many hawks coming in low on Palmersten’s next-to-last day on the Ridge, last week, but just then a Rough-legged hawk came in pretty low, interested in the owl decoy but then narrowing its wings and racing off toward the gathering sunset. Another Rough-legged circled overhead a couple times, then rode an air current swiftly westward.
Frank read off his chart, and Nia logged them: There were 266 Sharp-shinned, 108 Red Tails, 45 Rough-legged, 7 bald eagles, 2 golden eagles, 23 American kestrals, 5 merlins, 1 Cooper’s hawk, and 7 Goshawks. Not a bad day. I only saw a few of those, in the bright sunshine, against blue sky, sparkling Lake Superior and colorful foliage, but I was only there about two hours. That wasn’t long enough, but then, no matter how much time you spend on Hawk Ridge — the closest day trip in Duluth — it’s never enough.
[[[[[CUTLINES:
1. The sign at Hawk Ridge is pretty unmistakable, but it keeps its well-groomed hiking trails secret.
2. Park your convertible and watch the late-afternoon sun light up the remaining colorful foliage on the distant Moose Mountain.
3. A Rough-legged hawk sped past the Ridge as if eluding the embarrassment of coming close to attacking the owl decoy.
4. Larger hawks, like this Rough-legged, may soar and circle for minutes before speeding westward on its migratory trip south.
5. Naturalist Nia Palmersten stretched out the wing of a captured Goshawk for an assembled grade-school class, before setting the bird free. ]]]]]]]]
Toyota resurrects MR2 as all-out, but inexpensive, sports car
If Ferrari decided to build an inexpensive little roadster, it would be a stretched-wheelbase, low-slung 2-seater with its engine mounted amidships, it would handle like a dream and go like a scalded cat, and it would cost, oh, something over $100,000.
Toyota has accomplished the same objective in the real world, and it even has a little Ferrari resemblance when you look at it from somewhere off the front corner. It is called the MR2, and it sells for $23,553.
That’s right, for a sticker price less than some cars that are more like toys, you can own a mid-engined 2-seater sports car that does everything you could ever want a small roadster to accomplish. And it costs less than $25,000, loaded.
Typically, the absolute fun of driving a car may have nothing at all to do with its price tag. But if the MR2 cost twice as much, it would still be about as fun as you can make a car.
Toyota and Honda have had an interesting parallel in competing for auto buyers. Probably no other companies in the world have matched the exceptional quality, trouble-free ownership and long-term dependability as Honda and Toyota. A few years ago, Honda’s success in racing around the world was because of advanced technology that trickled down to the production cars, and whether you looked at the Civic Si, the Accord or Prelude, the Acura Integra Type-R, on up to the splendid NSX, Honda’s had the jolt of adrenaline built in.
At about the same time, Toyota quit building its most fun cars, like the original and cleverly revised MR2s, which ceased to be made in 1995. The Celica and the Supra also went south, and even though Toyota’s remained trouble-free and dependable, they developed an image of beingÂ…well, boring. They were much like appliances, and you don’t hustle off to work so you can boast about your refrigerator.
Maybe it’s just coincidence, but Toyota has leaped into high-tech motorsports in a big way since then. Toyota power now is making an impact in CART and is about to charge into Formula 1, where it will carry on its heated competition with Honda. But a wonderful thing has happened to Toyota’s street machines, whether by coincidence or not. For the 2000 model year, Toyota brought out a new and exciting Celica, with avant-garde styling, and stunning performance, particulary in the GT model.
Toyota also resurrected the MR2 name, only not just the name. The car is fantastic. Toyota obviously could have gone after the Honda S2000 at just over $30,000, or the Corvette, or BMW Z3, or Porsche Boxster, or Audi TT in that price category. Instead, Toyota went after the Mazda Miata — the standard of inexpensive fun sports cars in the world for the last decade.
When I finally got my hands on one to test-drive, I must report that Toyota connected on all its objectives.
MID-ENGINE BALANCE
Sports cars can come with the engine in front and front-wheel-drive, or with front engine and rear drive, or with rear engine and rear drive. But to find one that qualifies as mid-engine takes some work, such as locating a Ferrari dealership. To do so, a car must have its engine located between the axles, which in most cases means little more than moving the engine from just behind the rear wheels in a rear-engined car, to just ahead of the rear axle.
The MR2 has that, and the engine in question is the same 1.8-liter 4-cylinder that powers the Celica GT, with dual-overhead camshafts, four valves per cylinder, and variable valve timing with intelligence — Toyota’s designation, as VVTi. It allows the valves to overlap when more power is summoned with the gas pedal, allowing more intake for more power. The result is 138 horsepower at a screaming peak of 6,400 RPMs (the engine redlines at 6,750), and 125 foot-pounds of torque at 4,400 revs. With a five-speed manual transmission, you pick your gear and hang on.
Those horsepower and torque figures won’t throw any scares into your friendly neighborhood Mustang or Camaro driver, but the MR2 weighs a mere 2,195 pounds. With that weight over the rear drive wheels, all the power gets used immediately, and the light front end responds instantly and precisely to the steering input.
The wheels are stretched out to the corners of the unitized body of the MR2 — which stands for Mid-engine, Roadster, 2-seater — and the steep-rising slope of the hood gives off the look of a more exotic — more expensive — sports car. The rear isn’t as stunning, it just sort of ends with a neat taper. But the silhouette is striking, with the contoured sides and functional air scoops on the flanks. The extremely low-profile tires are 185/55-15-inch in front and 205/50-15s in the rear, mounted on slick alloy wheels that show off the four-wheel disc brakes.
FUN OVER FUNCTION
To be functional, a car needs to also have some room, for people and for luggage, or to haul the odd bag of groceries. To be functional as a sports car, it needs only to be fun and perform.
That’s fortunate for Toyota, because the MR2 means never hauling your own bag of golf clubs. There simply isn’t room, unless you prop it up in the passenger seat and tie it in with the shoulder belt. In fact, there isn’t anything that would qualify as a trunk. In the rear, there’s the engine. In front, there is a plastic cover that, when opened, reveals a mini-spare tire, with just enough angled space to house maybe a tiny overnight bag, or your lunch.
The only real stowage space is in a pair of lockable compartments behind the two stylishly contoured bucket seats. You can stash a surprising amount back there, such as a small suitcase, a computer case and a camera case. But nothing more. Groceries? Only if you follow the golf-club concept and stand ’em up in the passenger seat, using the shoulder harness to convince ’em to not somersault off when you hit the brakes.
Otherwise, functional use is everywhere. The silvery-backed instrument panel and the round, ribbed air-heat switches are easy to use. There is a CD-player in the dash, along with the radio and cassette player. Two cupholders appear out of a little tray that pulls out of the center dash panel, located low, so as not to get in the way of the audio, climate or shifting mechanisms.
There is a glove compartment and a neat little bin on top of the center of the dash, with a switch to lock it closed.
The best example of a finishing touch on the MR2 is the convertible top. First off, the MR2 is a roadster that looks good with the top up, which is unique. But top-down driving is what defines roadsters, and putting this top down, or up, is a snap.
Much like the Miata, you unfasten two locking switches at the upper edges of the windshield, then just flip the top back and fold it into its receptacle. You might want to tuck the back part of the fabric down under the cowling, but once you do, you click the front edge of the top into a neat little switch that holds it down, preventing any thought of it billowing in the wind. A little wind-screen of plexiglass can be folded up just behind the seats if you choose.
Putting the top up requires you to flip the lock-down switch, then just pull the top up and forward, pulling it in place and locking it down. Takes about three seconds, unless you’re in a hurry. I got so I could do it from the driver’s seat, without getting out.
The wide, low stance has MacPherson struts on all four corners, with a dual-link arrangement at the rear. Whatever it is, it makes you seek out curving, twisty roadways, and it’s a blast to cruise down such roads and let this bright red roadster kick up a wake of colorful, fallen leaves. Airbags are standard, so are antilock brakes, and side-impact door beams. Aerodynamic halogen lights, air-conditioning, power steering, windows and door locks, plus a tilt wheel, remote fuel door release, aluminum sports pedals, and leather-wrapped steering wheel all are standard.
The little engine that provides so much punch also delivers up to 30 miles per gallon if you drive it easy. All I want to know is: Who can drive it easy?
[[[[[[[CUTLINES:
1/ The front corner view of the MR2 provides the racy look of a car costing much more than the sticker of $23,553.
2/ The side view displays how Toyota has stretched the wheels out to the extremities, enhancing handling control.
3/ Although roadsters are defined with the top down, the MR2 design looks good with the easy-up top in place, too.
4/ The sporty instruments, ergonomically sound controls and aluminum sports pedals make the MR2 inside live up to the outside.
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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