Antique car show ignites the urge to get a true classic moving
[[[[cutlines:
1/ Normal traffic flow was interrupted last week by a classic car show between Lake Avenue and 2nd Avenue East on Superior Street.
2/ The 1960s didn’t seem so old when measured by a flawless Corvette Sting Ray coupe.
3/ A familiar 1969 Shelby Mustang missed the show and headed off for a mechanical freshening.
4/ Head on, a mid-1960s Corvette looks more futuristic than most new cars. ]]]]]
It was with great concern that I watched as my pride and joy for three decades was loaded onto a flatbed truck and hauled to a trusted mechanic’s shop for refreshening last week.
The car is a hybrid of two great and classic autos — a 1969 Shelby Mustang, and a 1970 Boss 302 Mustang. The brief history is that I bought the Boss 302 new, unloaded it from the train personally, because my young family was heading off on a three-week driving vacation to auto races at Mosport in Toronto, Bridgehampton on New York’s Long Island, and St. Jovite in Quebec.
Three years later, with the car in perfect tune but custom-painted, I got hit from behind by a sleepy driver in a large truck. Fortunately I saw him coming, at 55 miles per hour and about 25 feet from my rear bumper, in time to do a 50-foot burnout before he nailed me. The rear was a mess, totaled.
By sheer luck, I found a 1969 Shelby that had been treated rather poorly, bought it cheap and had a hot-rod mechanic in the Twin Cities do the transplant. Instead of the 351 Windsor engine that looked good but was underpowered, I wound up with my own 315-horsepower Boss 302, with its chassis, wide-spaced competition Hurst 4-speed transmission, and sophisticated suspension with Koni shocks all around.
Then I had it painted by a fellow nicknamed “Peanuts,” a legendary custom painter in White Bear Lake. He put on four coats of black, then four coats of pearlescent white over the black, taking great pains to put eight coats of the white where the Shelby’s stripes should be. Then he put eight coats of cobalt blue over the whole thing, and topped that with three coats of Imron, the car-painter’s plastic armorplating. The result was a one of a kind car, and the stripes gleamed through the blue from the depths of his artistry.
Years passed, and I drove the Boss/Shelby less and less, refining and retuning the engine completely, 10 years back. But as new-car test drives mounted, the Boss/Shelby sat idle. I turned down several impressive offers from folks who knew of my prize. But this was a car that loved to be driven, and craved to be driven hard, performing best when blipped to its formidible limits.
The last few years, however, I didn’t even take it out from under its protective tarp in my garage, despite urgings from eager sons to drive it, and from a less-eager wife to sell it so we could put that garage space to better use.
Three different factors collaborated to cause me to get it going in the past week. One was that moving from your home means moving everything, including whatever prizes you may have in your garage. Another was the consuming guilt of having “abused” my pet vehicle by not driving it hard enough, far enough — or at all, for too long. And the third was last week’s Classic Car show on Superior Street.
There were a lot of neat cars there, parked on either side of Superior Street for two blocks. But to me, by far the most impressive was a mid-1960s Corvette Sting Ray coupe that was parked right across from the Coney Island joint, just past 1stAvenue East.
A lot of the cars were impressive, and many of them had passers-by gathered for a closer look, but I was in a hurry, so I walked briskly through them all with a hasty overview. Until I got to the Corvette. I don’t know my ‘Vettes well enough to know whether it was a 1964 or 1965, but it was awesome, whichever it was.
There was a nice 1969 Mustang next to the Vette, but it had some sort of supercharged drag-racing motor. Too bad. Also some fine antique cars, and a couple of great street rods. There was even a Plymouth Prowler with a giant No. 3 on the door, and a replica of Dale Earnhardt’s signature. Give me a break! Earnhardt is a Chevy guy, who probably got paid contractually to never drive a Mopar, to say nothing of a Prowler. Put the 3 on a Monte Carlo, or let it rest.
I kept coming back to the Corvette and checked it out from every angle. Corvettes have gotten bigger, heavier, bulkier, then slimmer again to reach the high level of sophistication enjoyed now. But if Chevrolet had never issued the Sting Ray model, and brought it out as an all-new vehicle next year, it would look like the best and most futuristic Corvette ever. That’s impressive.
All of the other cars were old. Nice, well done, but old cars. Only the Sting Ray looked futuristic in style and class. I realized then that my Boss/Shelby, parked back in the Twin Cities, had that same ageless, timeless characteristic. If it was ready to go, it would have ranked right up there as maybe the most dazzling car at the show, and it certainly would have gathered a crowd — especially when true car fanciers got a peek at that Boss 302 engine.
So I hustled on back to the Twin Cities, but I soon realized that it would take more than a lengthy battery charge to get the Boss/Shelby fired up. So I summoned the flatbed, and off it went, to meet with my favorite Twin Cities mechanic.
Hoses were shot, some electrical stuff needs refurbishing, the brakes might be stubborn about functioning, and the carburetor gasket seems to have gotten brittle enough to ignore its duty. I got a call from Paul, the ace mechanic at Automotive Services in Maplewood. “I got it running,” said Paul. “But it’ll take a bit of work to get everything fixed up.”
Go for it, Paul. I get a chill thinking about the exhilaration that comes from stepping on the gas, feeling the surge of power, and hearing that Boss motor rev until it whistles. My wife knows that when we get it going, we can sell it, but I know when it gets going, I won’t want to.
Volvo’s new S60 packs luxury, technology into stylish new shape
[[[[[CUTLINES:
1/ The new Volvo S60 styling matches the company’s traditional smooth-sailing performance.
2/ High-tailed rear aids the S60’s aerodynamics and sporty look, to say nothing of trunk space.
3/ Everything is in place in the Volvo S60 interior, always a secure and comfortable setting. ]]]]]
Who knows why automobile companies nickname their models by creature, numerical pattern or computer-selected-nonoffending symbols? Volvo has all sorts of reasons for naming its new sedan the S60, which is significant to me because it both reminds me of the ’60s and provides full evidence of how far the Swedish car-maker has come from the ’60s.
The 1960s were both aggressive and progressive in the United States, whether you’re talking politics, shocking social issues, coming to grips with racial inequities, rock ‘n’ roll music, or automobiles. Hot cars were everywhere, and they got hotter right on into the 1970s, when they coughed and sputtered to a halt because of nasty emission laws forced onto the industry.
As it turns out, it was better for the cars to choke than for the people, but that’s another issue, which may not yet be resolved.
Last week, I wrote about owning a racy Mustang Boss 302 which ended up transplanted into a Shelby body. That was as progressive and aggressive as the auto world could be, at that point and possible since. But right before I bought that 1970 Boss 302, I owned a 1968 Volvo 142, a squarish 2-door, that was about as conservative as the auto industry could be at that point, but one with electric overdrive on top of the four-speed stick, and with Koni adjustable shock absorbers and a few other touches, it handled well and performed at a level higher than Volvo’s stodgy image for safety might allow.
That backdrop is interesting now. My mom actually owned a 1966 Volvo 122, also a 2-door, but one with rounded lines. That car was fairly bullet-proof in any accident scenarios, and while the Europeans were ‘way ahead of the rest of the world when it came to safety, Volvo was at the forefront, building the closest things to crush-proof vehicles up through the 122. In 1967, Volvo switched directions, and the 140-series (142 for the 2-door and 144 for the 4-door) became the new theme. Instead of rounded shapes, the 140 series was square, and instead of being crush-proof, it was crushable on purpose — designed with collapsible, energy-absorbing front and rear sections, but maintaining a crush-proof occupant compartment.
That Volvo 142S served our young family well, and will always be remembered. Volvos continued to be squarish, both in design as well as social degree of sophistication, for three decades. Back then, Volvo wouldn’t consider building a front-wheel-drive car, siding with Mercedes in favoring front engine/rear drive layouts. Another factor was the stubbornness of the Swedish industry: Saab made only front-wheel-drive cars, so Volvo, trying to be the upscale Swedish company, wasn’t about to acknowledge that its prime, and only, Swedish rival had anything going.
Flash forward now, to a new century for the world, and a new world for Volvo. The Swedish car-maker gets its financial guidance from Ford Motor Company these days, but, just as it has done with Jaguar and other newly acquired smaller and more specialized marquees, Ford has left affiliate Volvo to its own considerable devices for building cars.
The recent introduction of the renamed S80 luxury Volvo and the S40 basic models really shocked me. Both were redesigned with stunning, contemporary looks, and with rounded off lines and a streamlined roof silhouette that did away with that square image — which was left to the mid-range S70 in recent years. What surprised me most of those two cars was that the S40 seemed to offer luxury car features and feel at an amazingly low sticker price of $23,000. I honestly guessed it would be about $40,000 before I saw the sticker.
Now I get a load of the new S60, and I am surprised and impressed all over again.
The S60 is the new mid-range family hauler, maintaining all of Volvo’s noteworthy assets for safety and security, while also offering contemporary good looks and impressive handling and agility.
One look, and your first impression is that Volvo must have kidnapped someone from BMW to design the S60.
If the second look is at the sticker price, you are again surprised and impressed. I guessed it would be mid-$30,000 range. The sticker was $30,300. Now, that’s high enough for most U.S. customers, even those of us in the snow belt. But the real surprise comes when you scrutinize the sticker more and find that you could deduct things such as the automatic transmission ($1,000), the CD player,sunrof, leather power-seat package ($1,825), metallic paint ($400), and you could work your way on down to the base price of $26,500, which would still buy you a heckuva car and be among the world’s automotive bargains.
FRONT-WHEEL DRIVE
While vaulting from the past into the future with its new designs, Volvo also has conceded the obvious advantages of front-wheel drive. In fact, all Volvos are now FWD, except for the Cross-Country wagons, which are all-wheel drive.
All-wheel drive is obviously the supreme for foul-weather traction. But short of that, front-wheel drive can get you anywhere, during any weather, because the entire car simply wants to follow where the front-drive wheels are aimed.
Some aging purists still maintain you have to have rear-drive to have true performance feel, but having test-driven virtually everything driveable, and realizing the northern climate’s imposing threats, there is no situation where front-wheel drive can be outperformed by rear-drive vehicles, regardless of the sophistication of current stability and traction-control devices. Naturally, having the weight over the drive wheels is the ultimate advantage.
Acknowledging that, my only criticism of the Volvo S60 is that its performance is less than scintillating in off-the-line acceleration. The test car came armed with the 2.4-liter 5-cylinder engine. Five cylinders seems strange, although Audi used to use five cylinders in its mainstream sedans. An interesting thing about engineering is that four-cylinder engines have a harmonic vibration that can’t be avoided as the revs build up. Somewhere between 0 and 6,000 RPMs, there will be a vibration. Counter-balance shafts to offset and neutralize the vibration has gained popularity in recent years. In-line six-cylinder engines, meanwhile, are inherently smooth all the way up, although they compromise their smooth power for economy, and for the matter of housing their length in transverse applications.
So a five-cylinder is a good compromise. In the Volvo, the five doesn’t vibrate a bit. In costlier models, Volvo turbocharges the five, and it is extremely swift. Taking the turbo off it, though, removes the jump. It still runs very well at cruising speed, and it has adequate passing force, but off the line, the normally aspirated S60 is not what you’d first think about when you hear the term “drag race.”
Still, low-end torque is an American concept. In the U.S., a lot of buyers only think about quick take-off when they think about performance, while the rest of the world’s drivers and manufacturers are more concerned with having potent high-speed capabilities after moderate take-off. So the S60 might be more advanced and sophisticated than a lot of U.S. drivers. If you can’t outdrag your neighbor’s Bonneville, you can cruise effortlessly through the 5-speed automatic in the kind of comfort you more associate with cars costing over $40,000.
The 2.4-liter engine has variable valve-timing and turns ut 168 horsepower at 5,900 RPMs and 170 foot-pounds of torque at 4,500 revs. The 5-speed automatic has adaptive shift logic to adapt to your driving style, and winter mode settings for optimum traction.
Also, the S60 delivered 28 miles per gallon in combined city-freeway driving, making it a reasonably priced luxury car that could run with some of the best economy sedans.
CREATURE FEATURES
The obvious assets of the S60 are the seats, the driving position and the safety characteristics. You have the unibody construction with high strength steel in the passenger safety cage, with collapsible front and rear sections to absorb the energy of a crash. If the agility of the car’s steering and suspension fails to allow you to duck the ill-handling beast that is going to crash into you, the S60 has two-stage front airbags to complement the vehicles 3-point safety harnesses — five of them, for front and rear — plus side impact front airbags and inflatable curtain side impact head protection, and whiplash protection front bucket seats.
Going back to 1968, I was at a red light on a street in downtown St. Paul when I looked in the rear view mirror and saw a young man roaring up behind me with a hot car. In a flash, I realized he had no chance to stop on the wet street surface. I had an instant to brace myself before he crashed into the rear of my Volvo S142. He did considerable damage, but after evaluating it, I went back to the car and noticed that the backrest of the driver’s seat had dropped back about six inches — succeeding just as advertised in offsetting the whiplash.
That was 1968, so we will accept without further testing the validity of Volvo’s claim that it has improved on its anti-whiplash technology.
Volvo brakes always have been among the world’s standards. Back in 1968, Volvo offered two complete brake systems, each operating the two front and one rear wheel, with four-wheel discs. The new S60 has advanced all that, with the four-wheel discs, antilock, and an electronic brake distribution. The front independent strut suspension has stabilizer bars and antidive geometry, and the rear suspension is a fully independent multilink set-up mounted on an alloy subframe.
All of that means those all-season tires on those neat alloy wheels stop and turn as well as they go.
Fold-down rear seats, a huge trunk, expanded by the aerodynamically sound high-tail rear end and trunklid, and heat/air vents in the main side pillars are other nice touches. Dual-zone front climate control settings, keyless entry, power windows, heated outside power mirrors, dust and pollen filters, and an audio system with six speakers and a big amplifier also are all standard.
That equipment comes at the $26,500 price. When you add leather seats, power sunroof, the CD player, the S60 goes from an exceptional automotive bargain to an impressive luxury sedan.
If you want one last high-tech, ultra-sophisticated touch, consider this: The S60 has a coating on the radiator that helps transform ground-level ozone into oxygen, as you drive. Think about it. Sure, you use up some fuel as you drive, but as the front end of your S60 funnels the airstream into the grille, the car actually cleans up the ozone and converts it to oxygen!
The test car was a neat Cosmos blue metallic, but maybe all Volvos should be green. Come to think of it, my 1968 Volvo S142 was green.
Subaru Outback maintains stability even in freeway emergency
[[[[[[CUTLINES:
1/ The Subaru Outback’s looks are now familiar in the company’s signature station wagon.
2/ A compact exterior and low stance give the Outback wagon stability that SUVs can only imagine.
3/ For 2002, Subaru combines a 3.0-liter engine with all-wheel drive, all-wheel traction control and variable torque distribution.
4/ The Outback offers an inviting interior, plus two sunroof, including a large rear one over the rear seat. ]]]]]
There I was, cruising down Interstate-35, past the Forest Lake exit, on my way to the Twin Cities on a recent Friday afternoon. All is well. I’m driving a 2001 Subaru Outback wagon, armed with a strong engine, all sorts of traction-control devices working in concert, and large, 16-inch wheels, upon which are mounted raised-white-letter tires that say: Firestone Wilderness.
Yup. Those are the tires that supposedly are to blame for the recent Ford Explorer SUV problem, with unexplained tread separation and rollovers and all sorts of other alleged-allegedlies.
Traffic is flowing swiftly, right at 70 or so, but the left lane seems to be slowing slightly. I’m in the center of three lanes, and it appears my lane might be passing the left lane. As I pull up close to the vehicle in front of me, the left lane starts to speed up again, and now more cars are there, bunched up by the brief slowdown. The right lane is already nose-to-tail, and the thought occurs to me that we are three lanes abreast, stacked bumper to bumper, and I’m in the middle of a not-too-easily-digested sandwich.
Just then, I’m aware of something going amiss, ahead and to my left. The vehicle in front of me swerves abruptly, and there, right in my path, came bounding a 2-foot-long, rectangular metal object. In an instant, I recognized this piece of bouncing shrapnel to be a chunk of muffler or resonator. I started to swerve, too, but I realized I had no hope of missing it, so I caught the swerve and instead tried to straddle the thing.
Ka-chunk. I heard it hit something underneath, maybe a couple things. But I kept going. The Outback felt stable, but I slowed down and sought the first opportunity to pull to the right. Once there, and somewhat free of the congestion, I swerved back and forth, left to right, gently at first and then more severely, just to see if anything was evidently amiss. I kept on going, and pulled out my cell phone to call 9-1-1, connect to the Highway Patrol, and inform them that a large and potentially dangerous chunk of metal was right in the middle of the freeway. They thanked me.
Right about then, the Outback pulled unmistakably to the left. Sure enough, my fear was realized. The left front tire was going flat. I pulled over onto the right shoulder, as far as I could go without going into the ditch, and opened the tailgate, finding one of those cute little space-saver spare tires that make so much sense saving space in a sports car, but look woefully undersized for an SUV-like wagon. I got it mounted, and spotted a nasty gash in the inside sidewall of the Firestone Wilderness tire.
I stopped at a gas station, then a Tires Plus store, then a Subaru dealership in White Bear Lake, which sent me to another tire store. At all of these locations, people acted like they had never heard of a flat tire before, when actually they were either too busy or for some reason couldn’t help. Finally, I ended up at a Firestone dealer. They didn’t have the proper replacement tire, but at least they could match the size and quality, and I was on my way.
The lingering question in all of this, of course, is that if those Wilderness tires blow their treads off when mounted on the rear axle and throw cars out of control, how come this was a front tire that blew, and it was easily controllable without ever giving a hint of wanting to roll over?
Maybe it was Subaru’s stability, or maybe its quite impressive list of safety-stability devices. The new wagon wears the Outback attire, and has a little side emblem that reads: “VDC.” That stands for vehicle dynamics control. The VDC system blends with all-wheel traction control, and the company’s trademark all-wheel drive to pretty much take care of evey skidding, sliding, swerving situation you could dream up, and in fact, it helps cure such problems.
Subaru used to make weird little quirky vehicles that worked in all sorts of weather and in foul conditions where most car-owners might choose to stay in the garage. They established a strong cult following of supporters, and deservedly so. Then the company came up with a brainstorm. The Outback. A Subaru wagon with some rugged exterior accessories, rock screens over the foglights, and the image of a rugged off-roader, the Outback became a “crossover” SUV/wagon before that trend became fashionable.
Timing was perfect, because the sport-utility vehicle craze was just beginning, and Subaru was able to hop right on the bandwagon with only a slight alteration to its already-strong station wagon. Outbacks are everywhere. You see them wherever you turn, maybe moreso in the snowbelt than down south, I don’t know. But they always have been a reasonably priced way to beat winter with ease.
Judging by the 2001 Subaru Outback wagon, it would appear that the new Outback is more of a good thing. The reasonable price has become a victim of the economy, and the sticker of the test vehicle was $32,390, with everything but the destination charge standard on the specific Legacy Outback H6-3 VDC all-wheel-drive wagon.
The Vehicle Dynamics Control is a sophisticated system that blends Subaru’s all-wheel-drive system’s variable torque distribution with the all-wheel traction-control. Normally, Subaru’s all-wheel drive system sends 45 percent of the torque to the front and 55 percent to the rear, then responds to driving and road situations to adjust that ratio more or less to the two axles, seeking to give the most responsibility to the end that has the most traction.
The system is high-tech enough to read when you are veering because of understeer, which is the front end pushing out as if intending to ignore your steering move. The system uses individual wheel braking and throttle control to correct that tendency. When you have oversteer, which is the tendency of the front, steered wheels to react too quickly to the amount of steering input, the system works the other way, also to aid stability.
Anyone who has experienced the advantage of traction control in a slippery situation can project how effective having 4-wheel traction control on 4-wheel-drive. The test vehicle had comfortable seats and good controls, and the flat-opposed 6-cylinder engine turns out 212 horsepower and 210 foot-pounds of torque, with the power peaking at 6,000 RPMs and the torque achieving its high point at 4,400 revs. With a 4-speed automatic transmission, this vehicle can handle the steep hills of a city like Duluth with ease.
A highlight of the interior is an extremely formal-looking audio system, which is made by McIntosh, and feeds all sorts of power to 11 speakers, gathered in seven different locations. It had CD and tape players along with the radio. Wood and leather trim, keyless entry, halogen foglights, power windows, locks and mirrors, and some neat details, including de-icing windshield wipers and heated seats, are standard.
The only disturbing thing during my otherwise impressive week with the Outback wagon was the nagging realization that I used to often find Subarus were stubborn about delivering the kind of fuel economy advertised. The info on the test wagon said it would get an EPA estimated 20 miles per gallon city, 27 highway. I combined the two and got only 16.6 miles per gallon. I’d like more than that, even with all-wheel drive.
Still, that’s better than most larger SUVs, and along with being swift, agile and easy to maneuver, the Outback gives you all-weather security, plus the mental security that you can’t roll this puppy over, even if you blow a front tire.
Volkswagen improves upon GTI, Beetle winners with 1.8 turbo
[[[[cutlines: (first, the green gemÂ…)
1/ The GTI started the whole “pocket-rocket” concept of a compact little car that can be fast, fun and safe, on a budget.
2/ With the 1.8-Turbo four-cylinder, the GTI approaches the all-out performance of the V6 but with better economy.
3/ Although the hatchback style conceals it well, the GTI has a surprisingly large trunk.
(Â…and for the black Beetle)
1/ The “New” Beetle is pretty commonplace now, but it still retains the timeless appeal.
2/ Unlike its predecessor, the 2001 Beetle rides on the new Golf platform, with front-wheel drive.
3/ The arching body shape offers unique aerodynamics — and also a lot of front headroom.
4/ The Beetle instrument panel is compact, including a tiny tachometer inset at the left.
5/ A spacious interior that is both ergonomic and efficient greets Beetle occupants.
6/ Under the folding rear hatch panel, the Beetle also offers surprisingly generous storage. ]]]]]]
The New Beetle as a hot rod? The rejuvenated GTI as both an economy car and a street sizzler?
Both premises are true, and both were demonstrated to me in recent weeks when I got the chance to road test both the 2001 Beetle 1.8T and the 2001 GTI.
Anyone who has been on this planet for more than 30 years remembers the Volkswagen Beetle — the OLD Beetle, that is. You have to say that, in referring to the original, because the New Beetle has been out long enough to not only outstrip the “New” phrase, but also to render the original in need of definition.
Similarly, anyone who remembers the VW Rabbit of a couple decades back recalls how a specially-prepared version of that little hatchback became the “GTI,” and wrote new rules about how a little subcompact could become a potent, fun-to-drive machine.
When the Beetle disappeared from the U.S., the GTI stayed around, when the Rabbit gave way to the Golf and moved into a new generation. Since the mid-1990s, the Golf has gotten better and better, and in 1999, it was time to come out with an entirely new platform for the very good and very dependable Golf.
That was when Volkswagen pulled a clever marketing coup. It reintroduced the New Beetle, modernizing and streamlining the arching Beetle shape, and plunking it down onto the platform meant for the new Golf.
The idea was creative, but it paid off in ways even Volkswagen couldn’t have anticipated. Because the previous Golf was a solid and substantial little thing, it always had excellent safety records. So, naturally, the new Golf would improve on those impressive characteristics. When the New Beetle was introduced, it had good, front-wheel-drive performance, strong acceleration, and the best crash-test results of any small car ever tested.
A year later, in 2000, the new Golf came out as scheduled, and it, too, has exceptional crash-test results.
The Beetle and Golf shared the same 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine, a strong, workhorse of an engine. You also could get the turbodiesel, which got over 40 miles per gallon.
German automakers have been on a roll in recent years. Mercedes, BMW and Porsche all have maintained their standards, and even improved upon them by making better cars with tightened manufacturing techniques that allowed them to lower prices. Audi charged into the mix with greatly improved cars in the mid-1990s, particularly with the advent of the A4 sedan.
So Volkswagen’s ability to reclaim the territory once capitulated to various Japanese economy-car-builders shouldn’t have come as a big surprise. Volkswagen did compromise the excellence of the once-proud GTI, however, by offering trim-only versions of the car without the commensurate upgrade in performance. So there are a bunch of bargain-GTIs out there, with fancy wheels and GTI emblems but with no upgrades to the engine or suspension.
All the while, VW did offer a serious upgrade to the GTI line, with a top-end version that had a 2.8-liter V6 engine. It was an absolute screamer, with good reason.
But the most intriguing spinoff to all this German technology was the emerging evidence of the relationship between Audi and Volkswagen, brothers under the sheetmetal. One of the most significant engineering tricks Audi pulled off was in building a comparatively small 1.8-liter four-cylinder engine, and installing five valves per cylinder, where four are high-tech, and two are outdated.
The Audi 1.8T has three intake and two exhaust valves on each cylinder, run via dual overhead camshafts. Because it is small in displacement, and Audi wanted it to perform in cars of varying sizes, it hooked it up to a turbocharger, but it is a low-pressure turbo, so it spins fast and does its job without the usual lag-and-lurch familiar to normal turbo engine operators.
The technology goes beyond that, however, because Audi linked it all to a sophisticated electronic engine-management system, which magically coordinates its maximum 150 foot-pounds of torque with its maximum 150 horsepower. Instead of a torque curve, the full torque is coaxed to life at just about 2,000 RPMs, and it is held in a flat plateau all the way up to about 5,000 RPMs, which thrusts you right into the middle of the horsepower curve.
So you don’t have an overwhelming abundance of power, but what you have you get at just above idle speed.
All this Audi talk would be misplaced, except that Volkswagen has gotten the 1.8T from Audi, and while it is an impressive engine in the larger Passat and midsize Jetta, you can now get that engine in the GTI, and you also can get it in the Beetle.
GTI GLS 1.8T
Like it or not, that’s the official name of the new GTI, as Volkswagen strives to separate its hottest model from the mainstream. It’s foolish, of course, because the Golf is a solid, reliable little hatchback coupe, and VW simply redoes all the power and handling characteristics of the Golf, gives it a sportier interior, and you have the GTI.
The test car was a sparkling emerald green, which Volkswagen calls “green rave pearl,” and which is about as attention-grabbing as green can be when painted on a car.
The highlights of the car are obvious. There is the engine, which can get 30 miles per gallon on the highway, if you can stay out of the hard-accelerating pleasure. It also can get 25 miles per gallon in town, no matter how you drive it.
No, the GTI 1.8T doesn’t have the all-out, low-end charge of big U.S. V6 or V8 engines, but it might be the perfect compromise. You can get on it hard enough to sqeal the tires on takeoff, and ride the surge as the turbo boost comes up, or you can take it easy, drive in a more mellow attitude, and get the kind of fuel economy tiny car owners will envy.
Besides, if some bozo in a hot rod wants to challenge you to a race, you can simply look at him dryly and say: “Do you want to race up to 120? Or FROM 120 up?”
Gets ’em every time.
The sport suspension lets the GTI corner hard, staying flat and stable all the way. The 5-speed manual shifter lets you run through the gears swiftly and smoothly.
Complementing all the power and stiff handling, there is a track-correcting independent torsion beam rear suspension, and the GTI has ASR (anti-slip regulation) and EDL (electronic differential lock) in an all-out effort to make sure the thing goes in a straight line, even when you might be careless about it.
The test GTI had the standard 15-inch wheels replaced by optional 17-inch allow wheels and extremely low-profile, high-performance tires, which was another method of amplifying the cornering capabilities of the car.
Still, impressive as all those items are, there are some other things that may have the best staying power when it comes to making the GTI a family car.
For example, a small, squared-back hatchback doesn’t look like it should have much rear seat room, and certainly no trunk space. But the GTI has enormous trunk space, augmented by fold-down rear seats, if need be, and a little shelf that sits above whatever you’re stowing. The rearseat room, however, is always a surprise. Put a 6-footer back there, via the easy and wide flip-forward passenger side bucket seat, and he’ll remark about how much headroom there is. A small concave channel running crosswise just ahead of the rear window adds an inch or so of rear headroom.
Foglights integrated behind the headlight lenses helps with night driving, and the front buckets are height adjustable as well as the usual fore, aft and tilt controls. Power windows, locks, hatch, and remote keyless entry are other nice touches.
For 2001, the GTI’s already strong safety gets improved with the addition of side airbags to the usual frontal bags. There is a glass sunroof, and a full-size spare tire.
The test car also had what is called a leather package, which includes the steering wheel with remote cruise and audio controls, and the Monsoon sound system, which upgrades the stock 8-speaker system to thundering power.
Driving the GTI remains its strong suit, and the feel of fun you get from driving one is boosted by the sticker sheet, which shows the base GTI costs $19,275, and with those classy options the total price is only $21,800.
BEETLE 1.8T
The biggest asset owned by the Beetle isÂ…it’s so darn cute. It remains an attention-grabbing, eye-catcher. And that’s certainly not bad, for openers, in this era when thousands are spent on cars, trucks and all sorts of transportation devices as status symbols.
The Beetle, in base form, accomplishes all that those who would spend $65,000 are seeking, and for $18,000. We, of course, are talking about a loaded Beetle in our test-drive form.
The car came in jet black, with the aforementioned 1.8-turbo engine under the hood, and high-performing tires on alloy wheels, with some suspension tweaks. If we didn’t know better, we might assume this was a GTI-model Beetle.
At one intersection, I realized a construction thing in the block ahead was forcing a merge into the left lane. I gambled that maybe I could beat the guy next to me, so I ran the revs up just a bit, and, when the light changed, I hammered the Beetle. It screeched the tires, all the way across the intersection. I merged cleanly.
Because it’s the same drivetrain as the GTI, the Beetle 1.8T can be driven hard, for fun, or easy, for great economy.
Inside, the Beetle remains a charmer. The neat little instrument cluster houses a speedometer and fuel gauge, and has a tiny little tachometer tucked into the lower left. Yes, I would like to see a more prominent tach, especially when that 1.8 wants to rev so high and so swiftly, but at least there is one.
About the time you have had enough of being impressed with the gauges, the sun sets, and you turn on the headlights and are startled to see the instruments come to life in an almost iridescent blue. Very neat. So is the tiny bud vase located just to the right of the instruments.
Open the rear hatch, and there is a surprising amount of storage space behind the rear seats. Yes, this car would work as a family car for a small or young family, and it works fantastically for a growing or grown family, where somebody is sane enough to want a compact car for basic, 30-mile-per-gallon commuting.
It is very stable on the road at freeway speeds anywhere up to 80. It was always pretty stable, but the sporty suspension and the lower-profile tires give the 2001 version of the Beetle a better, more stable stance in all circumstances.
The headroom is remarkable. You could be 6-foot-3 and wearing a sombrero and still fit comfortably in the bucket seats. The rear seats are cramped, only because the roofline tapers swiftly down and back.
So a lack of rear seat headroom is a valid criticism, but again we must concede something to Volkswagen’s engineers. If the Beetle is an exceptional personal car, but too confining for a family, you can always move up to the Golf or GTI, or even to the Jetta or Passat.
Good car, natural mountain scenery make perfect vacation trip
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1/ Like a thoroughbred finally allowed to run free, the trusty ol’ Honda Prelude relaxed atop Independence Pass in Colorado.
2/ Dramatic skies signalled a mountain rainstorm sweeping in at Colorado Springs.
3/ An antelope seemed to be gazing at the sunset on a rolling hillside in Wyoming.
4/ The same antelope took off at full gallop.
5/ Only the vaguaries of the roadmap prevented experiencing this Wyoming thunderstorm.
6/ As a thunderstorm rolled over the eastern Wyoming prairie, it engulfed its own rainbow.
There are all sorts of attractions in various parts of the U.S. designed to lure tourists, but it’s become our family tradition to avoid them and to appreciate the wonders of nature. The natural and dramatic beauty of the North Shore, for example, can brighten your outlook after a week like we’ve just endured, with the tragic happenings in New York and Washington, D.C.
For our family, it also holds true that when we go on longer trips, we follow the same scheme. That includes avoiding the plastic-fantastic, mechanical marvels of Disneyworld, for example, in favor of splashing through the edges of the Everglades to observe alligators and exotic birds.
But a week ago, the timing was right for one of our favorite destinations. If you like to drive, you must enjoy driving vacation trips. And if you like driving trips, then you certainly would love to drive in the Rocky Mountains. The problem with living in Minnesota and wanting to drive in the Rockies is that you have to get there. And to get to Colorado, or Wyoming, you have to drive across Iowa, Nebraska or South Dakota. Which means lots of hours of pretty dull highway scenery in order to get to the spectacular stuff.
As an automotive writer who test-drives new cars on a pretty steady basis, my driving trips have been done in a variety of vehicles, ranging from a BMW 740 to a Ford Escape to an Infiniti Q45 to a Cadillac Seville, or a Dodge Intrepid. Not a bad array. But this time, our trip popped up on short notice, and had to start over Labor Day weekend.
The plan was particularly appealing, because it would allow us to get to Colorado Springs in time to watch Herb Brooks assemble the candidates for the 2002 U.S. Olympic hockey team. Since I was fortunate enough to watch Brooks put the 1980 team together, and then cover that team all the way through its miracle on ice at Lake Placid, I felt some tangential patriotic duty to try to make a similar connection. Besides, that would put us in proximity to do a little Rocky Mountain driving. Beyond that, we figured we could go all the way through the mountains and into Utah, then swing up to Salt Lake City, where we had never visited but would keep with that Olympian theme, amid the vast preparations that city is making for playing host to the Winter Olympics in February.
When word came that it would be a problem getting a new test-drive vehicle for that span, because of new-model-year changeover and the Labor Day weekend, we had a unique idea. We’d drive our own car! Because of all my test-drives over the last seven years, the family Honda Prelude has never made a trip of any substantial length. So this would be a great chance to give it an opportunity to perform the way we anticipated, when we bought it.
But first there were a few things to adjust. For one, the original equipment battery had faltered, so we bought a new battery and had it installed two months ago. Trouble was, the elaborate theft-prevention system worked TOO well. The audio system, impressive as it is with AM-FM-cassette-CD player and a huge subwoofer, has a theft-proof device, and if you happen to disconnect and reconnect the battery, the radio quits working.
There is a code number that allows you to reprogram the radio, but we bought the car with 4,000 miles on it, and we never got that card, or that number. So it took $75 at a Honda dealership to get the blasted thing reprogramed. That did two things — it allowed us to play the radio and an assortment of CDs, and it prevented us from realizing that since getting the radio reprogramed, the lighter didn’t work. Being nonsmokers, that wasn’t a problem; being heavy users of cell-phones and fans of radar-detection devices while driving across long prairies, we couldn’t use the auxilliary charging power.
Oh well. We’d take the music and go for it.
With a 2.2-liter four-cylinder engine, the Prelude has the benefit of Honda’s VTEC system for variable valve-timing, which means precious few tuneups. We’ve done one, since 1994. And while it has the reputation of being a personal luxury coupe, the Prelude has spectacular skid-pad numbers to indicate its superlative handling characteristics.
So we were off. The car’s performance was outstanding, and the trip was thoroughly enjoyable, with some intriguing sidelights, always punctuated by our fuel stops. The Prelude drinks premium fuel, so the advertised numbers at gas stations can be misleading, when premium can cost up to 20 cents more per gallon than the advertised regular. We stopped in Owatonna, and got 25.0 miles per gallon.
Heading down I-35, we headed west on I-80 at Des Moines, stopping next in Omaha, where we got 26.0 miles per gallon. Picking at random, we decided to stop in Lincoln overnight, only to learn that not only were there a few lingering Nebraska football fans in the area, but the Nebraska State Fair was going on. We found a place, talked the proprietor down a little in price, then found the only room he had left was a suite, but he’d give it to us for the same price.
Next morning, we continued west, looking for a likely breakfast stop. We spotted a gigantic coffee pot as a restaurant sign, and pulled in. “Does that big coffee pot mean you have great coffee?” I asked the waitress. She chuckled and said, “No, it means you get a lot of coffee.”
She was right on both counts. We could have a lot of it, and it wasn’t good.
Before leaving Nebraska, we stopped again for gas, and got 25.3 mpg. Finally, we reached Colorado, which means switching off onto I-76 for a long stretch in eastern Colorado before you get your first long-awaited glimpse of the mountains. The jaunt down I-25 from Denver to Colorado Springs is pretty much all residential nowadays, but we arrived and checked in to an inexpensive motel after 1,177.4 miles, getting 28 miles per gallon on that tankful.
The hockey was interesting, as Brooks installed some European east-west breakouts on the primarily north-south playing NHL prospects for the Olympic team. We checked the oil level, and found it pretty foul, and a bit low. Checking around the yellow pages, we called several places that would do a fast oil change. My intention was to find someplace that used Amsoil, because I’ve become a firm believer in synthetic oil, and this stuff is the best. Besides, it was developed right here in Superior. I couldn’t find one, however, and settled for a place called “Grease Monkey,” which used Castrol Syn-Tech, my second choice.
A highlight of the days in Colorado Springs, however, was watching a storm come sweeping out of the mountains, right off the pass adjacent to Pike’s Peak. While it rained hard in the mountains, we only got about five minutes of a shower downtown. That made our timing perfect. We left the next morning, right after the storm, and headed west, taking a shortcut through to Buena Vista on Hwy. 24, and than taking Hwy. 82 into Aspen. That turned out to be the only bad part of the trip (aside from the coffee in Nebraska, Wyoming and South Dakota), because road construction and rush-hour caused us to waste an hour and a half trying to get through the small town of Aspen and on to Glenwood Springs, where we filled up again (27.0 mpg) as we reconnected with I-70.
Then we were off again, westbound into Utah, which turned out to be more varied and spectacular for scenery than I anticipated. We left the almost desert-like plains and mesas to turn northwesterly on Hwy. 6 at Green River, and the terrain changed with us, turning into mountains on either side of the road as we headed north. Just before Provo, we refilled the tank, at 27.8 miles per gallon, although we missed the stunning scenery between Provo and Salt Lake City because it was already too dark. We blamed Aspen.
Salt Lake City was very impressive, both as a city and as a prospective Winter Olympic venue. As for the Great Salt Lake, well, I find that freshwater lakes are Superior, if you know what I mean. We had a good time, found a spectacular Brazilian restaurant, and too soon it was time to head home.
We got onto I-80 headed east last Saturday morning, and drove up into the mountains of northern Utah, crossing over into Wyoming before we stopped for a quick breakfast in Evanston, where our fuel fill showed 29.1 mpg. The improvement, I figured, might be due to the oil change. Or to having the wind at our backs.
The mountain scenery in western Wyoming changes from Utah or Colorado, and even from other parts of Wyoming. But when we realized that staying on I-80 would bring us back south into Nebraska, via Cheyenne, we decided to take an alternative route, north at Rawlins on Hwy. 789, then bearing east on Hwy. 220 into Casper, north on I-25 to Edgerton, and then east on Hwy. 387 and 450 and finally 16 through Custer and into Rapid City.
Although we were still half full, we decided to fill up on fuel at Rawlins, and when I set the filler nozzle on automatic and walked away, another customer told me that gas was pouring out on the concrete. Sure enough, two or three gallons of overflow fouled up my mileage reading, to say nothing of requiring a heavy rinse job to make the driveway safe.
As we scaled a few more mountains and raced across the nearly deserted plains, I must admit we went over the speed limit a couple of times. In eastern Wyoming, we saw a spectacular cloud formation and figured we were driving into a heavy thunderstorm or possibly more-severe weather. The roadways curved this way and that, however, and we continued to circle the thunderhead, driving on rain-soaked roads but never actually getting rained on.
We stayed overnight in Rapid City, getting our perfunctory look at the beauty of the Black Hills Sunday morning, and filling up with fuel — we had covered 377 miles on 11.7 gallons for a surprising 32.3 miles per gallon. We had gone through mountains, on twisting roads, and quite swiftly on that tankful, yet it was the best we achieved on the whole trip.
Passing the badlands, and Wall Drug (see Disneyland, above), we headed east on I-90 to Sioux Falls, where our next fuel fill showed 27.0. We continued on I-90 to Albert Lea, then turned north on I-35. One more tankful (26.8 mpg) in the Twin Cities, and we were back in Duluth.
It was a whirlwind trip, and it cleared our heads as well as the Prelude’s long-awaited chance to make a long trip. Driving trips, at a good pace, with a great car, and with a little break in the weather, can be the perfect therapy to energize you to get back to work.
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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