[cutlines for auto/motives…]
Cutlines for auto/motives 2-15:
1/ The new Acura RS-X will take over as a high-performance coupe replacing the entire Integra line.
2/ Hyundai introduced the HCD6 sports car concept in Chicago, and it could well become a roadster-on-a-budget for the Korean company.
3/ Nissan’s upscale Infiniti has the FX-45 concept car that is so sleek it belies the fact it’s a 4-door sedan.
4-5/ The Saturn VUE is a compact SUV for General Motors’ most progressive branch, and it offers some unique interior ideas, including television monitors in the backs of the front seat headrests.
6/ Subaru redesigned the Impreza, and gave it a Sport model with 165 horsepower, all-wheel-drive, “blaze yellow” color, and an under-$20,000 sticker.
7/ Toyota’s Matrix is a compact wagon with a sporty flair, especially the Sport model, with the Celica’s 180-horsepower engine.
8-9/ Volvo’s SCC, for Safety Concept Car, has softly flowing lines for a distinctive look, front and rear.
[FORD ESCAPE:
1/ The Ford Escape’s impressive first year is only enhanced when you drive through the worst winter has to offer.
2/ Even the daily blizzard routine in Houghton, Mich., failed to bother the Escape with its front-wheel or 4-wheel drive.
[DAYTRIP TO HOUGHTON:
1/ Parking meters have to work to keep their heads up as the snowfall in Houghton heads toward 200 inches — again.
2/ Downtown Houghton retains its rustic look from years ago, but is a haven for the hardy “Yoopers” from the daily snow.
3/ Annual Winter Carnival sculptures attract constant throngs of viewers and Michigan Tech alumni, despite sub-zero cold.
4/ Houses and driveways require frequent shoveling, or else the patience to wait a few months for the spring thaw.
5/ Drivers are required to Stop! Maybe. A pelting snow left only the faint outline of this stop sign in Houghton.
Not enough snow this, or any, winter? Try a weekend in Houghton
Up North residents have a choice during winter: we can complain constantly about cold and snow from October until April, or we can put on the hat, coat, gloves and proper boots and get out there and enjoy it.
If enjoying winter sounds appealing, you might find a trip to Houghton, Mich., appealing, especially during Winter Carnival weekend, to see how a town can enjoy celebrating the worst that wintertime can throw at us.
Winter Carnival in Houghton was two weeks ago, so you missed it for this year. But every hotel, motel and presumably igloo on the Upper Peninsula was booked at double the usual rate for a three-day minimum anyway. So you could always book a room now, for next year. Better still, take the 4 ½-hour drive to Houghton on any weekend before the spring thaw — that is, presuming there IS a spring thaw — and enjoy the Houghton-Hancock area and the Keweenaw Peninsula in general under mellowere, less-crowded conditions.
The Upper Peninsula is not unlike Northern Minnesota, where hardy mining folk once populated the area to establish the roots of the region’s heritage. On the Upper Peninsula, there was more copper mining than iron, and there is more snow than just about anyplace you can imagine. A bit north of the Houghton-Hancock area, there is a tall pole with the markings of the different annual snowfalls emblazoned all the way up.
Hard to imagine how the folks on the U.P. — who jovially refer to themselves as “Yoopers” — got along before the term “lake-effect snow” came along. Before that trendy name, people just put up with the daily snow, which can range from a trace to a blizzard — and sometimes both, alternating by the hour. Maybe shoveling it all or plowing it is an easier task, now that they know it is lake-effect snow.
Prevailing storms that blow across the Up North region of Minnesota from the northwest may or may not drop snow on the Iron Range or the North Shore, but those weather systems pick up enormous amounts of moisture as they pass over Lake Superior, and they eagerly wait to find a chunk of land to drop it on. The first chunk is the Keweenaw Peninsula, that little finger on the north side of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula that juts out into Lake Superior’s South Shore.
For the last few winters, we’ve heard snowmobilers, skiers and winter-lovers complain that there hasn’t been enough snow. We’ve had to curtail the John Beargrease Sled Dog marathon or cross-country ski races some years. You don’t hear people claiming there isn’t enough snow in Houghton, where too much is just about enough. The snowfall accumulation for this winter was 165 inches when I visited Houghton, but that didn’t count the heavy-duty blizzard that hit that weekend, pushing it over 175. By now the area might well be nearing 200 inches.
Snowmobilers are everywhere, and downhill skiing on the incredibly steep slopes of Mont Ripley, which is directly across the river from Houghton in Hancock, comes close to approximating what it might feel like to jump off a 30-story building with long, skinny slabs of fiberglass attached to your feet.
Michigan Technological University, universally known as Michigan Tech to hockey fans all across the country, is located in Houghton. The comparatively remote location is the butt of jokes by those who travel there for games on stormy weekends, but the area proves that one person’s isolation can be another’s solitude.
Winter Carnival is Tech’s annual “homecoming,” with alumni returning by the hundreds to wander around the dorms, frat houses and campus buildings to examine the elaborately designed and usually enormously complex ice sculptures. They are finished in an annual all-night party called, simply, the “All-nighter.” That, alone, is worth the trip.
There is the mandatory mall up over the hill on Hwy. 26 south of Houghton, but the short and simple downtown area has its own charm. The parking meters are positioned right next to the store fronts instead of at the curbs, reportedly so snowplows can simply take care of the sidewalks as well as the streets. Downtown Houghton consists of a one-way street heading west, with shops, bars, an office-supply store, hardware and clothing stores, and tattoo and tanning booths, plus a couple of motels, and one of the great surplus/outdoors stores.
If you turn right at the end of the street, you are on the bridge crossing over to Hancock. You have to go up and around to come back a block up a steep hill on the one-way heading back to the east. Above that, it’s all residential. The hill continues its steep incline, with more residences as you climb. Most of them have short driveways, to ease the burden of shoveling. Others have long driveways, requiring a lot of work. And still others are unshoveled, with cars piled so thoroughly with snow that you know they aren’t moving until April.
One young man, shoveling furiously on a long driveway, identified himself as a Michigan Tech student and said he lives in the house with five guys, but he said the shoveling isn’t rotated fairly because only two of them have cars. So those two shovel. A lot.
Restaurants serve a fairly basic fare, and pasties are a staple of many shops, restaurants and grocery stores, which are mostly located up over the hill at or near the mall on Hwy. 26.
While there are assorted fast food and other light restaurants, the town’s main hotel, the Best Western at Franklin Square, has a very good restaurant and late-night lounge. Another small Finnish restaurant, the Suomi Café, is a couple of blocks west. It’s been renovated, though. No longer does it have the lighted sign by the clock that used to read: “Today’s special: Meat, potato, vegetable, $5.95.”
Never needed changing.
Driving to Houghton, you take Hwy. 53 south out of Superior, cutting east quite promptly on Hwy. 2, through Ashland and on across the border into Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Just past Ironwood, you turn off onto eastbound Hwy. 28 and continue on it to Bruce Crossing, where you make the 90-degree turn left onto Hwy. 26. Stay on it, and you go right on into Houghton, and you can appreciate the rising hills, the increasingly snow-draped fir trees, and the stark, clean white of the contantly refreshed snow cover.
In the spring, summer or fall, the Keweenaw Peninsula — pronounced “KEE-wa-naw” — is beautiful with lush foliage. You can drive up and around the whole peninsula, to Copper Harbor and along Lake Superior on the western side of the peninsula. Fall foliage viewing is unexcelled, especially along the mountainous ridge at the northern tip.
But it should be illegal to visit there in the spring, summer and fall until you’ve made at least one trip there in winter. Bring your snowmobile, warm clothes, maybe a 4-wheel-drive vehicle, and enjoy the worst, or the best, that winter has to offer. Then later, you’ll appreciate the scenic non-wintertime there, and you might appreciate winter closer to home a lot more.
Touring Texas track in five Porsches too much of a good thing
[[[[CUTLINES:
1/ An array of new Porsches for a group test-drive at Texas World Speedway ranged from the Carrera Turbo 6-speed, to the Carrera Turbo Tiptronic, to the Carrera Cabrio, the Boxster S, and the base Boxster.
2/ The 911 Carrera 4 Tiptronic stayed on the infield road course while stock car zealots could pay to drive simulated NASCAR stock cars on the outer banked oval.
3/ The 911 Carrera Turbo prepared for a driver change, while condos costing up to a half-million loomed in the background.
4/ A gathering of Porsches waiting for the track to clear for some hot laps.
5/ Race driver Richard Spenard patiently waited to provide instruction in the Boxster S.
6/ Tiptronic controls feature steering-wheel thumb controls for the $115,000 Carrera 4 Turbo with automatic transmission.
7/ Light tan leather and wood trim set apart the luxurious Carrera Cabrio.
8/ The condominiums in Turn 3, and the backdrop of stock cars on the oval didn’t alter the focus of driving the 911 Turbo on the infield road course. ]]]]]]]
FORT WORTH, TEXAS—Texas World Speedway rises out of a windswept prairie in northern Texas, somewhere between Dallas and Fort Worth, which are a pair of Texas “twin cities” much like Minneapolis and St. Paul, or Duluth and Superior. Dallas is the swanky, sophisticated business capital, while Fort Worth is basically still quite similar to the stockyard-dominated cowtown it was a century ago.
The race course, however, is a surprisingly modern structure, with something over 120 air-conditioned suites stringing along the upper level of the main grandstand, which runs from Turn 4 to Turn 1 and all along the straightaway in between on the high-banked, high-speed oval. Over behind Turn 3, there is another high, modernistic structure —condominiums, where you can live for something under a half-million dollars, and you can look out your front window and have the finest view of the races anywhere.
The Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART) series, by far the most sophisticated and fastest racing series in North America, will run the third race of its season at Texas World Speedway this weekend, just a week after a couple of groups of automotive journalists were summoned to the same place. It must be exciting to run a CART car around the high-banked oval, where you can stay flat-out all the way around, but I would venture to say we had a lot more fun.
Our purpose for being there was put together by Porsche, the German automaker of fine and exclusive sports cars. Being a small company, Porsche can’t get out the number of press-fleet vehicles of larger manufacturers, so it decided it might be more efficient to bring all five of its models to one site, and then bring in the automotive media to examine them all, at one time and together.
Porsche was smart enough to not allow the media types to get loose on the high-banked course. We were restricted to the small, 9-turn road-racing circuit laid out on the infield of the place. It is short, something less than a mile and a half, and the twists and turns are challenging, while close together enough to prevent you from getting up to too high a speed.
These Porsches are all high-speed vehicles, and they’d love to let their power hang out on an autobahn with no speed limit, but they are at their best when they also can display their incredible handling capabilities interspersed with snarling bursts of acceleration. So a road-racing course, even a short one, makes a lot more sense than merely running up to top speed. Besides, you’d need an air-strip to do it.
Meanwhile, the roaring sounds that dominated the place came from a group of NASCAR-style stock cars. It turned out that the Richard Petty Driving School was going on around the oval. Customers pay some money, and get a little instruction plus the chance to spend most of an hour driving around the oval in a detuned Winston Cup car.
Meanwhile, we journalists were all attending to business. We were apportioned, three to a professional driver. Porsche endurance racers like Hurley Haywood, Doc Bundy, David Murray, Richard Spenard and others were all there, and I was assigned to Spenard, a French-Canadian from Montreal with a smooth teaching style and a neat accent.
At our disposal, to borrow a phrase, were five Porsches. First, there was the basic Boxster, a silver roadster costing about $41,000. Don’t be alarmed; that’s the bargain Porsche. Introduced as a 1998 model, the Boxster is a volume product for Porsche, and has been revised by increasing its flat-opposed engine displacement from 2.5 to 2.7 liters, boosting horsepower from 201 to 217. It will go 0-60 in 6.5 seconds.
Next up the scale was a bright yellow Boxster S, introduced a year ago in response to critics who thought the Boxster was closer to the mellow Mazda Miata in performance than to upscale sports cars such as the Mercedes SLK, the BMW M3, the Audi TT, and the new Honda S2000. The Boxster S goes up $10,000 to $51,000, and has a 3.2-liter engine with 250 horsepower, plus a 6-speed transmission over the Boxster’s 5-speed, plus stiffened suspension and oversized brakes taken off the 911. Its 0-60 time is 5.8.
The middle of the road model was the Porsche 911 Carrera Cabrio. The 911 retains the old nickname, but it became an all-new car two years ago. At that time, Porsche redesigned the 911 for the first time since 1965, which says a lot about the heritage of building a sensational car for all ages. Porsche traditionalists might have been shocked to learn that the durable, shrieking, air-cooled engine has been replaced by a liquid-cooled engine of 3.4 liters, turning out 300 horsepower. It is a rear-engine/rear-drive layout, in Porsche tradition, and the model turned over to us was a dark green convertible, which is called the Cabrio in Porsche vernacular. The Cabrio, surprisingly, is the largest-selling model of the 911 Carrera. It will go 0-60 in 5.1 seconds.
Then we move up to the big leagues.
The top two models for us to drive were both Carrera Turbo 4s, which mean they have turbocharged 3.6-liter, flat-opposed engines, meaning the cylinders lay out on their side, pumping straight out and back in opposite each other. The Turbo was introduced last summer, but it has a different engine from the normally aspirated Carrera, turning out 415 horsepower.
The difference in the two Carrera Turbos we had is that the silver one had Porsche’s Tiptronic transmission, a smooth-shifting 5-speed automatic that can be placed in an “M” slot, from where you can shift it manually by hand, or you can use the neat little thumb toggle switches — up and you upshift, down and you downshift. What could be easier?
The dark red Carrera Turbo had the smooth 6-speed manual transmission, and, quite naturally, we all muttered about how that would be the trick one, the fastest of the bunch. And it was, covering 0-60 in a mere 4.0 seconds, according to the factory test information.
The new Tiptronic has been upgraded significantly. It used to do a good job of reading the impulses from how you drive it, and holding the shift points for what it figures you’d prefer. Up until last year, the Tiptronic calculated your driving imput on five electronic maps; the new one has 250 maps to constantly calculate how you drive. The Tiptronic allows the 911 Turbo to go 0-60 in 5.0 seconds.
Bob Carlson, Porsche’s director of media relations, informed us all that we were not racing, not even trying to drive fast against ourselves, but we were out to examine the differences among the different models. Smoothness and handling were more important than speed. We would not be wearing helmets, and we would have a professional race driver sitting in the passenger seat to offer tips along the way. Each driver in each group would get about 10 laps at a time, then rotate to another car.
“You will see that these five cars each have their own performance characteristics,” said Carlson.
The infield track started out by sending you from the pits onto the longest straight chute, which ends with a 180-degree curve to the right. Coming out of that, you accelerate toward a cone signifying the shut-down point for Turn 2, which is a fairly hard right turn, followed by a quick left, then another left — Turns 4 and 5 — and then a hard right Turn 6, and a short straight leading into a tight, buttonhook Turn 7, another 180-degree curve. A short straight is followed by a fast left Turn 8, leading to a fast left Turn 9, which zooms past the pit road and sends you back down the straight.
Our group’s first car was the silver-grey Carrera Turbo Tiptronic. It had all-wheel drive and the Tiptronic automatic, which would be OK, but I couldn’t wait for the 6-speed version. I tried two laps in manual, shifting for myself with the thumb shifters. It worked very well, but at high speed, it was tough to gauge whether you had clicked it down twice going into Turn 1, for example.
“Leave it it automatic once,” said Spenard. OK.
What happened next was amazing. I can understand how engineers can coax a computer-controlled transmission to upshift on cues given by a driver who drives hard, but I was unprepared for the reverse. I flew into Turn 1, staying wide to set up my apex, then I hammered the brakes hard and veered into the 180-degree right. When I touched the gas, the Carrera had selected second gear — precisely and seamlessly — and that was perfect. Now, how does that computer know, from me driving fast and standing on the brakes, exactly how far to downshift? More to the point, how does it know the right gear and find it better than I could myself?
Next up was the silver Boxster, so we went from the most expensive to the least expensive. The Boxster has its rear engine moved just ahead of the rear axle, instead of just behind it, as it is in the 911. That technically makes it a mid-engined car instead of a rear-engined car, and changes the handling geometry and characteristics significantly. The Boxster was very forgiving when you put in too much oversteer, or steered into a turn too late. Very impressive, also.
Third was the yellow Boxster S, the same car with better suspension and more power. It was a different world. The S model has enough extra punch to allow you to hurl it into turns and actually play with the throttle to break the rear loose just a tad to snap you more directly through the turns. The S is really fun, and definitely moves a category up from the regular Boxster, which was fun more in a Miata sort of a way.
Spenard was enjoying himself, and paid me a big compliment after I had turned some pretty good laps, hitting the cutoff points and sweeping through the turns neatly. “It’s a pleasure to ride with someone who knows something about driving,” he said, in his French-Canadian accent. “The group we had yesterdayÂ…I wondered how some of them got to the track.”
Now it was time to drive the dark green Carrera Cabrio, top down to better expose the tan leather interior. This was not a turbo, nor did it have all-wheel drive. At first, I felt distinctly uncomfortable. The front end was so light, and the steering so twitchy because of it, that I didn’t feel comfortable going too hard into the turns. It felt as though the rear might come around with little provocation. So I took it easy on the first two laps. After the third and fourth laps, however, I realized I was going more smoothly, with less thrashing, and it handled very well. It just commanded a refocus by the driver, and constant attention, unlike the Carrera 4s, which provided an overdose of handling confidence in all instances.
Last came the dark red Carrera 4 Turbo, with the 6-speed. It was awesome. Jumping swiftly at every touch of the throttle, and responding to every shift, it was a joy to hurl it around the course. Very impressive, and very satisfying. Come through a tight turn and upshift to third, and the car leaped forward eagerly, as if you had turned on an afterburner. It had so much power, that it might have been too much power. You had to be constantly aware that it could screech out from under you.
I got out of that last test run smiling, and the smile didn’t want to leave my face. It was exhilarating, and yet there were a couple of lasting impressions. First, Carlson was right. Each car did have its own personality and mannerisms. But the biggest surprise to me was that unlimited power was not necessarily the most fun.
I would have to rank the Carrera Turbo 4 with the Tiptronic as the most impressive, and possibly the most fun of the five, because it could do things automatically that you couldn’t quite master yourself, even manually. And my No. 2 pick, for sheer fun, might be the Boxster S, because you can take some serious liberties in tossing it around, no matter the severity of the corner, and it was light, quick, agile and extremely forgiving.
The only mistake Porsche made was in theory. By bringing the media to the cars, Porsche thought it could satisfy the demand to send press-fleet cars around the country to the media. That was incorrect. Everybody who was there driving left impressed, but every one of us are now more eager than ever to spend a week with one of these Porsches — ANY one of them.
Never underestimate an experienced woman driving a Porsche
[[[‘[[CUTLINE:
Drivers were encouraged not to pass at the Porsche test-drive at Texas World Speedway’s road course, although every once in a while one might encounter another and elicit a wave to pass. ]]]]]
FORT WORTH, TEXAS—Test-driving cars, and even test-driving them on a closed race track, is not the same as racing them. Nor should it be. At the same time, competition brings out the best in people, and in cars, it turns out.
While attending various and assorted new-vehicle introductions, I have become acquainted with Denise McCluggage, a legendary automotive and auto racing writer and columnist, now at Automobile magazine, who has been at the top of the art of writing for a lot of years. She also is a driver of no small reputation, and has driven hot cars and race cars around some of the great tracks of the world. Somebody said she was in her 70s, and I don’t know that. Not that age matters, because as an automotive journalist, she is a charming elder statesman, and one of the most-sought conversationalists, whenever auto folks gather.
We renewed acquaintances at Texas World Speedway last week, when Porsche assembled 25 or so selected automotive writers to test the five varieties of sports cars wearing the Porsche crest. We all drove 10-lap segments and then changed cars. On my second turn, I was driving a silver Boxster, and having a great time sashaying around the nine turns of the little road course set up inside the speedway’s oval.
Suddenly, in my mirrors, I spotted a yellow Boxster S, which had 250 horsepower to my base Boxster’s 217. Obviously, the S could catch me on the straight chutes, so I had to hit the curves perfectly to protect the integrity of my lead. Not that we were racing, mind you (wink-wink). With a couple laps to go, I thought maybe I should pull over and wave the yellow car past, but I hit every turn just right on my last lap to stay just enough out front. When I slowed down to enter the pit area, I was both surprised and impressed that Denise McCluggage was driving that yellow Boxster S. I was impressed that she had reeled me in, albeit with a faster car.
A few minutes later, I was in the yellow Boxster S, and having great fun, sailing through the turns. Pro driver Richard Spenard, accompanying me, gave me a great little tip. I was cutting Turn 3 wide purposely to set up for a sweep through the quick 4-5 left-right combination, and Spenard said: “Cut in closer to the cone on Turn 3, all the way to the fringe.” So I did. And to my amazement, I came out of the turn so much faster that I zapped through the 4-5 combination and startled myself as I headed into Turn 6 with how much more speed I was carrying. I would guess 20 miles per hour more.
That’s the magic of road-racing. If you take one turn right, it can allow you to go much quicker through the next sequence of turns. But you might have to experiment — or get expert advice — to learn it. Halfway through that run, I was gaining ground on a green Porsche Carrera Cabrio ahead. That Cabrio was a classy car, but I had noted its twitchy handling, so it didn’t surprise me that the less-powerful but superb-handling Boxster S could run up to challenge it.
I didn’t try to force a pass, but when we pitted, again I was surprised — but also quite satisfied — that Denise was driving the green car. This time she had more power but I had the livelier-handling car, and reeled her in.
At the end of the session, with all drivers rotating through all five cars, I finished in the most powerful monster of them all — a dark red Porsche 911 Carrera Turbo with a 6-speed manual transmission. I had started the day in the similar silver-grey Turbo with the Tiptronic automatic, and been greatly impressed with its upshifts but also with its downshifting capabilities on auto-pilot. I went down the straightaway and hit about 110 miles per hour in that one before hitting the brakes and diving into the turn, but the automatic was always already a shift or two ahead of me.
Still, the 6-speed was almost a full second quicker in acceleration to 60, and I love stick-shifts. So I had been looking forward to the 6-speed finale.
With about five laps remaining in my stint, however, I botched a shift, going for third and finding fifth, and Spenard said that happens when you try to shift with the car careening through a tight turn. The car slowed abruptly, and as I accelerated again, I noticed the silver-grey Turbo closing up behind me. So I got back on it, hard, and the car fairly leaped ahead at every urging. But the silver-grey car kept closing in. “Hmmm,” I hmmm’d.
I can’t believe that car can beat THIS car, no matter who is driving, because we’re flying. I was coming around on my next-to-last lap, and I downshifted into second to sweep around Turn 7, then accelerated across the track to the far right side, upshifting as I clipped Turn 8. I was headed toward 9 and my final lap when Spenard said, “You hit fifth again.”
Amazingly, the car had so much torque that it pulled smoothly in fifth as I started down the straightaway. However, the Turbo with the Tiptronic also had hit the turn properly and had much more velocity, so we waved it past. As it passed, I glanced over. It was Denise McCluggage, driving effortlessly, in her Porsche with the automatic transmission. And she blew me away.
I was totally impressed with the precision that makes Porsche such a sports car icon, expensive or not. And I was totally impressed with the Tiptronic’s performance in that other car, and realized the Tiptronic never misses a shift. But mostly, I was impressed by Denise McCluggage’s driving. But then, she’s older than I am, so she’s got a lot more experience.
2002 Explorer seems to have grown hefty since introduction
(Note to Sandi Dahl: I’m sending you just one column this week…Hope it’s enough. Photos too…here are the cutlines:
1/ The 2002 Ford Explorer looks the part of being a thoroughly redesigned version of Ford’s top-selling SUV.
2/ The tailgate opens and the third-row bench seat fold down for maximum storage capacity.
3/ Instrumentation is complete and well laid-out from the driver’s point of view, and audio/air controls are clearly set apart.
4/ The Eddie Bauer version Explorer takes the new vehicle’s upgraded looks to a fancier level, but the feeling is more massive and the anticipated good handling might be bothersome. ]]]]]
Before getting a new 2002 Ford Explorer to road-test, I must point out that I was totally impressed with everything Ford did when it redesigned the Explorer.
At the introduction to the Explorer and its sister ship, the Mercury Mountaineer, in Arizona, I drove the Explorer on the roadways north of Phoenix, and I later drove the Mountaineer on some handling courses in Phoenix, against some pretty impressive competitive sports-utility vehicles.
I came away thoroughly impressed with the Mountaineer’s handling, and I must admit, I wondered a bit why Ford didn’t have any Explorers available to also drive on the little road-course they had laid out to show off the new vehicles’ handling characteristics. The Mountaineer stayed remarkably flat through the tightest turns, although that is flat for an SUV, not for a sedan or sports car.
Recently I got a new Explorer to run for a week, and I was puzzled at first, and then a little curious.
The Explorer I drove was a fancy Eddie Bauer Edition, which is the loaded-up top-line version, with the 4.0-liter V6 jacked up to 210 horsepower, and the five-speed automatic transmission.
It also had all the Eddie Bauer goodies, which include trim items and upgrades to set off Ford’s relationship with the outdoor-equipment and clothing company.
The base price of an Explorer Eddie Bauer model is $34,655, and the way this one was decked out, it came to a sticker price of $37,325.
Along with the standard features that make the Eddie Bauer version cost more, the test vehicle came with chrome steel wheels ($245), side-curtain air bags ($495), the third-row bench seat, which folds down for expanded cargo room ($670), black running boards ($395), and the rear-seat auxiliary heating and air-conditioning with separate, ceiling-mounted controls ($610).
The vehicle was impressive, with a blue-green color called “Estate Green,” and “medium parchment” interior colors on the leather seats and interior touches.
The four-wheel drive can be changed from full-time (automatic), to 4WD high, and 4WD low-range at the touch of a button on the dashboard.
The challenge to the new Explorer is that, while it was well into development and the start of production when the problem with Firestone tires and frequent rollovers first came to light last fall, it had to try to overcome those problems even though it wasn’t specifically designed with that in mind.
What was a greater objective to Ford was to distance the new Explorer upscale from the last one, to make room for the all-new 2001 Escape, which is smaller and more compact, with the same interior room, however, as the previous Explorer.
The question, of course, became why would anyone want to pay extra for a heavier and less fuel-efficient SUV if a smaller, more agile and more efficient one could be obtained for less money from the same showroom?
Ford executives assured me the Escape would not intrude upon the Explorer’s impressive segment. And the Explorer is the No. 1 selling SUV in the marketplace.
So it was with all those things in mind that I experienced the new Explorer at its initial introduction. The most impressive feature of the vehicle is the redesigned chassis, which has an ingenious method of running a sleeve through the side chassis members to house the axle shafts carrying the power from the rear differential to the wheels. That allowed Ford to lower the new Explorer, and make it more stable.
All of that, I reasoned, were lucky strokes that would also conquer the top-heavy feeling that could enhance the inherent rollover qualities of all SUVs larger than compact.
And that is why I was disappointed with the extended road test.
When I first climbed aboard, the Eddie Bauer Explorer felt big. Very big. Almost massive. It felt more Expedition-like than Explorer-like.
But when I drove the Explorer, it also felt less-stable than the vehicle I remembered driving through the mountains near Prescott, Ariz., at intro time. In fact, it felt more top-heavy than I had recalled.
That puzzled me. Why would it feel stable and flat in the introduction drive, and top-heavy when I got it in my own familiar territory?
And then I remembered that the Explorer was not available on the handling course. Just the Mountaineer.
Now, I don’t know whether Ford decided to differentiate between the Explorer and Mountaineer, and gave the Mountaineer better, firmer handling for a more stable feel. But it seems that way, in my memory bank.
That flies against the usual logic, in which the Ford gets sportier handling and the Mercury versions — whether Sable to Taurus, or other companion vehicles — but it may be the case.
At any rate, I liked nearly everything about the new Explorer except the hefty feel and non-flat handling. The only other explanation that might bear investigation is whether Ford softened up the fancier Eddie Bauer edition, and whether you can select a more stable-feeling ride from the more standard, and less-costly, checklist.
From a looks standpoint, I think Ford designers did a great job in creating a new-look, flatter front end, with the headlights and grille integrated nicely. The Eddie Bauer contrasting color strip, which runs along the wheelwells and lower sides of the vehicle, also enhances the look.
Climbing aboard, I also thought the seats were supportive and comfortable, and the view from the driver’s seat is well-planned.
You have a complete instrument package, easily read and different enough to be attractive. It is amazing how many different vehicles can put the same old instruments together in an infinite number of ways to make them look fresh and new.
On the steering wheel, Ford has grouped the cruise-control switches on the left side, leaving plenty of room for the remote audio adjustments on the right. Overdrive on the five-speed automatic can be disengaged by a button on the tip of the steering-wheel-column mounted shift lever. That’s handy when you’re coming off a freeway ramp and want to be in fourth gear for city driving.
The center dash area is outlined in a greyish woodgrain plastic.
At the top are the audio controls, which include a 6-disc, in-dash CD player. Under that are the heat-air vents, and below those vents are the heat-air conditioning control switches.
On the left side of those controls there is a vertical row of three switches, with the top one an information switch to give you readouts of different things. Under it is a set-up switch, and below that is a reset button.
On the right side, symmetrically stacked, are the 4×4 switches, with the top one leaving you in automatic four-wheel drive for all-around driving, while letting the Explorer itself decide where most of your power should go. The middle one of the three buttons locks the 4×4 into high range for highway driving with both axles locked in tandem, handy for severe weather, or higher speed off-road or rough-road usage. The bottom button is for low-range, which serious off-roaders know is to allow steep hill climbing, and, more importantly, steep declines, without having the feeling the vehicle is going to run away from you.
The rear seats are also comfortable, and the back seat isn’t bad. One of the reasons — the best reason — for making the Explorer larger is to house that third row seat. And it folds flat to leave you all the stowage you need.
The engine is Ford’s tried and true 4.0 V6, which was upgraded several years ago to include a beefed-up lower end, and overhead camshafts atop each bank of cylinders. That allows for higher revving, and mates perfectly with the five-speed automatic transmission, which will hold itself in a gear while you run it up to near the redline.
Performance is quick and strong, all the way up through the revs.
An optional engine now available for the first time in the Explorer is an even stronger 4.6 V8, also with overhead cams.
The V6, along with its 210 horsepower peaking at a high 5,250 RPMs, has a solid 255 foot-pounds of torque, which peak at 3,000 RPMs, a good split, with low-end torque coming in for pulling power, and high-end revving to easily reach the horsepower peak.
Everything is in place to make the new Explorer a worthy next step up the technology ladder to sales success, and the price goes up commensurately.
But if I were to buy one, the first thing I’d have to do is lower it some more, put on lower-profile tires, and alter the suspension with stiffer, firmer shock absorbers.
A vehicle this good should be able to handle– you should pardon the expression — all the responsibilities of being a new-age SUV for the future. To say nothing of the present.
If you don’t need the extra heft, and size, the new Explorer makes the new Escape seem like an even better vehicle.
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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