‘X’ marks right spot for Infiniti’s new G35X sports sedan
Most every new vehicle is impressive at its introduction, so getting a second chance for a more lengthy evaluation can solidify or contradict those first impressions. In the case of the Infiniti G sedan, completely revised for 2007, all of its best attributes were reinforced — and then some.
Nissan came out with an all-new Altima midsize sedan for 2007, and it is a winner, with its dramatic styling lines enhanced and everything upgraded. With Infiniti being Nissan’s upscale arm, it made sense that the G would also be renovated, and the new one is better in every way, which is going some, because its predecessor was a vehicle worthy of being compared to the BMW 3-Series — the state-of-the-art benchmark for every midsize sedan.
Because it already had developed an impressive resume of its own, the Infiniti entry level sedan could have rested on its record. But Infiniti marketers researched prospective buyers, asking them what all they wanted in a car and what all they didn’t like, about a variety of vehicles. The G is officially the G35, reflecting on the 3.5-liter V6 under the hood. Now they’re pretty much calling the new car the G, in line with the larger and more powerful M, and the top of the line Q.
The interior is luxurious and ergonomically sound, with high-class fit and finish, and choice materials. There is aluminum trim, and the switches are designed for a balance of touch and surety. The instruments are white and violet. The leather on the steering wheel is hand stitched so you don’t feel any awkward lumps. Wood trim, an option, is African rosewood. The paddle switches on the automatic transmission are magnesium, not plastic. Furthermore, it has a 7-inch screen on the color monitor if you get the navigation system, and the nav system is my personal favorite, for clarity, accuracy, and the unique “bird’s-eye” view that gives you an interesting perspective of where you’re going.
The G35 also has Bluetooth for hands-free telephone, and there is a 9.5-gig hard drive for recording your music favorites for playback of your own favorites as you drive. Playing it back means through a potent, 10-speaker audio system, including a three-way front door speaker set-up with 10-inch woofers, two 6.5 inch full-range speakers, and the usual assortment of smaller midrange and tweeters, plus a digital amplifier with eight channels of equalization, and 374 watts of system power.
Before doing its revision, Infiniti calculated that the 3-Series BMW, the Acura TL, the Audi A4 and A6, Lexus IS and ES, Volvo S60, Saab 9-3, and Cadillac CTS all are valid competition, and marketing chief Jim Hooke explained that all those competitors are bigger, better, faster, and better values than they used to be. Infiniti’s task, Hooke said, is to make sure the G “surrounds you with what you need inside the car, so you can concentrate on what surrounds you, outside the car.”
The eloquence was impressive, and I didn’t know he was speaking from the Infiniti brochure, but when he added: “Sports sedans have come to be regarded as purely machines,” I had to interrupt. “You mean,” I asked, “you think the sports sedans from BMW, Audi, and Acura are purely machines, without personality?”
He backpedaled quickly. “I guess we mean looking inward more than outward,” said Hooke, acknowledging the emotional connection of those cars. “Certainly that’s what sets the BMW, Audi and Acura apart. To compete in this segment, performance is the cost of entry.”
To say nothing of flair, emotion, and personality. Some performance cars have it, and BMW, Audi and Acura are among them, and some don’t. Infiniti wanted to make sure the new G would have it, going past the level of entry or mid luxury.
The shape of the G is distinctly Infiniti, and while the G Coupe — basically a 350Z 2-plus-2 — won’t be changed until 2008, the sedan is a roomy, versatile vehicle built on a 40-percent stiffer structure, and with the fourth generation of what is called the “VQ35HR” engine, which powers everything from the Nissan 350Z, Altima, Maxima, Pathfinder, Murano and Quest to Infiniti FX35 and G35. The new engine is not just tweaked, but has 80 percent new parts, with variable valve timing on both the intake and exhaust valves, via dual overhead camshafts. In its new trim, the 3.5 V6 develops 306 horsepower at 6,800 RPMs and 268 foot-pounds of torque at 4,800 RPMs.
Interestingly, the revised transmission is a 5-speed, while the manual is a 6-speed. Competitors’ automatics have six speeds from the Audi, seven from Mercedes and BMW, and eight from the top Lexus. So why five? Simple, Infiniti engineers say. With six, seven or eight gears, a car spends less time in each, and Infiniti chose to let drivers enjoy the thrill of winding the 3.5 up to higher revs in each gear for a longer period, enjoying the “swell” of power. With a 7,600-RPM red line, the engine has room to rev, and power does build over a broad torque range, much like a wave, rather than coming on in a peaky rush. Besides, it sounds great.
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In the automatic, first, second and third gears are set for performance, while fourth and fifth are set to cruise at lower revs for optimum fuel economy. There are manual magnesium paddle switches on the steering wheel for those who want to shift the automatic manually, and a DS mode setting directs the transmission to hold for higher shift points. The automatic also blips the throttle to match revs on downshifts. The close-ratio 6-speed stick is for those who want to extract every bit of performance.
The styling is familiar, but the 2007 model has some unique upgrades. For example, the horizontal blades of the grille are twisted as they reach their outer edges, crafted to simulate the pride of ancient Japanese swordsmen.
The G also has double wishbone suspension, which is both firm and compliant to meet the demands of performance drivers and those who want comfort. A subtle little touch is that the rear suspension allows flexing and altering the angle for a four-wheel active steering response to quick cornering or precision in emergency handling. It’s one of those assets that you might never notice, until you have to swerve to miss a deer that darts out in front of you, when the quick response of the G steering will be appreciated.
After driving the G in Palo Alto, Calif., I was anxious to get one back on Minnesota roads. I didn’t have any snowstorms to confront in the week I drove it, which was too bad, because the model was the G-35X, which has all-wheel drive. That gives the G a total of five different models — the G35, G35 Journey, G35X AWD, G35 Sport, and the G35 Sport 6MT. In a clever move, you can choose any model and add the sport package as a stand-alone feature.
My G35X had the Sport package, so it handled superbly, even if I didn’t get the foul weather that would have let it shine even more brightly. At a sticker price of about $37,000, the Infiniti G fits right in with its target segment. Whether you call it mid-luxury, sport-luxury, or entry-luxury, it may be the most impressive batch of cars in the industry, and the G35X expands the by one more impressive entry.
Altima Coupe is a sporty car Minnesota could love
It was fitting that Nissan introduced its new Altima Coupe in Minneapolis. It could be a hit wherever it’s sold, but it should be a major hit in Minnesota because you can think of it as a $20,000 cousin to the 350Z, purpose-built for the Great White North.
Nissan to unveil the Altima Coupe, in a media introduction that bypassed the “usual” West Coast locations to give the nation’s auto journalists a rare glimpse of Minnesota, with North American journalists converging on the Graves Hotel in Minneapolis in five consecutive waves, timed to last through Memorial Day weekend, when the Coupe is scheduled to debut in showrooms all across the country.
Both the car and Minnesota showed up impressively. The Coupe is far more than just an Altima sedan with the back doors taped shut, which is evident as soon as you see the car’s sleek, nicely-contoured lines. As for the state, the Graves is as good a hotel as exists in Minnesota,located right across First Avenue from Target Center, and amid such spots as the First Avenue night club, the Loon Cafe with its legendary grilled cheese sandwich, wild rice soup, and variable-heat chili, both within a block, to say nothing of the Fine Line and more adventurous night spots.
Not that the media types got any time for such forays. Nor did we get to drive the potential roadways I had envisioned, such as the curvy, cliffside roads downriver to Red Wing or Wabasha, or the wonderfully rolling hills of the Zumbro River Valley, or even the scenic curves along the Minnesota River. Those might have allowed us to push the firm and stable suspension of the Coupe a bit. Instead, we drove to Stillwater, then quickly crossed the St. Croix River into Wisconsin, avoiding the fear of being fitted for cheese-wedge hats, but limited to straight and flat rural highways.
But Nissan’s mission was to reach a distant farm location where an off-road course was carved in order to do some off-road driving in the also-renovated Titan pickup, and Pathfinder and Armada SUVs. More power — including a V8 engine for the first time in the midsize Pathfinder — was the news for the trucks.
But the spotlight remains on the Altima Coupe, which was first displayed at the Chicago Auto Show in February. By then, the Altima sedan was already out and had triggered the company to what is now an 11.8-percent year-to-date sales increase.
There is a difference between sports cars and sporty coupes, and while the 350Z remains one of the world’s most venerable and affordable sports cars, the Altima Coupe is definitely a sporty coupe. In real-world driving, the Coupe has the feel and flair of a car considerably sportier than its sedan brother, yet it has the front-wheel-drive benefits and a starting price sticker of $20,000 — a price point that is about half of its famous sports-car cousin.
Like most sports cars, the venerable Nissan 350Z is front-engine/rear-drive, and it remains one of the best sports cars available. Its upscale brother is the Infiniti G35, which comes in either 2-plus-2 coupe, or sedan. Unless you get the all-wheel-drive version of the G, however, there will be winter days in Minnesota where you’d be wise to leave them and their rear-drive in the garage. The new Altima Coupe, which shares nothing with those vehicles — except the legendary and constantly improving Nissan 3.5-liter V6, which is the reason for the 350Z’s name — will find Minnesota’s snow and ice no obstacle at all, sharing that front-wheel-drivetrain of the Altima sedan.
The Coupe gets its own chassis and body, with the only shared body panel with the sedan being the hood. Under that hood the potent 3.5 V6 should not cause customers to overlook the 2.5-liter four-cylinder as gas prices rise past $3 on their way to $4.
Nissan could claim to be among the first to the now-crowded midsize segment with the old Stanza, which was renamed Altima a few decades back, and it always has been a willing battler against such segment stalwarts as the Honda Accord, Toyota Camry and Mazda6. The Altima sedan’s fourth major redesign this year elevates it right up to rank with only the Mazda6 as the most outright fun to drive in that group. The Altima Coupe gives Nissan a one-up in the showroom, too, because while the Accord, which is is due for a total redesign later this summer, has a solid-selling coupe, Toyota’s just-redone Camry is rumored to be losing its Solara coupe, and Mazda stopped making its coupe version years ago. If you examine the rest of the hotly competitive midsize, such as the Mitsubishi Galant, Subaru Legacy, Volkswagen Jetta, Saturn Aura, Pontiac G6, Ford Fusion, and Chevy Malibu — among others — you’ll find only the Jetta (with the Golf-cum-Rabbit) and the G6 have coupes to accompany their sedans.
The journalists had good reason to feel at home, because of a blend of Minnesota Nice, which carries over to Nissan public relations director John Schilling, a Minneapolis native. Schilling grew up listening to Charlie Boone on WCCO AM830 radio, so after learning that I do a 7 o’clock Saturday morning radio show with Charlie, he thought it was a great idea to have Charlie join me on the test drive. We joined Miguel Sanchez, a New Jersey journalist who is a native of Cuba, where, as a bright teenager at the time of Fidel Castro’s rise to power, he played chess with Che Guevara. The three of us had great conversations, and got to rotate to see that the rear seat in the Coupe actually is comfortably roomy.
Product planner John Curl said Nissan’s intention was “not just any coupe…but one with unique styling, with a family resemblance, but also an aggressive stance,” achieved with a shorter wheelbase and shorter front and rear overhang than the sedan. The Coupe’s 182.5-inch length is 7.3 inches shorter, the 105.3-inch wheelbase is 4 inches shorter, while the 70.7-inch width is the same, compared to the sedan. The Coupe sits lower, with a roof that is 2.3 inches closer to the ground, and with the steeply sloping rear deck it was notable that the rear seat had adequate leg and foot room, and the comfort quotient increased as occupants grew shorter than 6 feet.
The Nissan 3.5 V6 has been a mainstay of the Z car, the Maxima, then the Altima, Pathfinder, Frontier, G35, and virtually everything made by the company, which builds much of its fleet in U.S. plants now, while remaining No. 2 in sales only to Toyota in its Japan homeland.
While the styling is the most striking thing about the Coupe, so is its reasonable price. The basic S model starts at $20,450, with the 2.5-liter four and its 175 horsepower at 5,600 RPMs and 180 foot-pounds of torque at 3,900. After our brief drives, that’s the way I think I’d buy the car — and the way 60 percent of Coupe buyers probably will. The SE starts at $24,890, with the V6’s 270 horsepower at 6,000 revs, and 258 foot-pounds of torque at 4,400 RPMs. Both engines feature dual overhead camshafts, and both come with either a manual transmission, or, for $500 more, Nissan’s impressively smooth Xtronic CVT (continuously variable transission).
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A subtle but impressive fact is that the stick shift in both models is a six-speed, rather than the five offered by competitors’ sticks. The manual shifter may make V6 models even sportier, but it also extracts more than adequate power from the four. It’s always been puzzling why most companies offer no more than five speed sticks with their smaller engines, and the Altima Coupe proves that smaller engines benefit more from having more gears.
Dual exhausts and antilock brakes are standard with all Altima Coupes, and traction control is standard on the SE. Independent front suspension with struts and coil springs, and rear independent multi-link, both have stabilizer bars. The S has 16-inch wheels, and the SE has 17s. Also standard are dual-stage front airbags, front seat-mounted side airbags, side-impact airbag curtains, and active head restraints. Various packages can boost the price, and options include rear monitor, a navigation system, Bose audio upgrade with nine speakers, power-sliding glass moonroof, and Bluetooth phone system. But in base form, the Coupe is an inexpensive standout.
We first drove in the basic S with the stick, and found it willing to rev and fun to drive. Later, the V6 with the CVT also was impressive, and while the CVT operates on a flexible steel belt self-adjusting (and self-shifting) by an enlarging pulley, a manual gate allows the driver to electronically modify the shift pattern to engage in upshifts or downshifts. I stood on it once, and ran the revs up to 5,500 before manually shifting the automatic to second and third, and it felt like a normal automatic rather than a CVT.
That was on a nice, warm May day, but the firm chassis exhibited none of the torque-steer tendencies that front-wheel-drive critics whine about. And, come next November, when snow flurries threaten, the Altima Coupe not only will feel right at home to Minnesotans — but that front-wheel drive will also GET them home.
Multiple BMW 5-Series cars prove versatile value
When auto companies introduce a new model to the media, the plan usually consists of flying in the journalists, let them drive the new models for part of a day, then send them home, hoping the media will be sufficiently impressed to write something about the experience. Sometimes the sessions are at locations exotic enough to outperform the car.
When BMW decided to launch the 2008 5-Series sedans, the company outdid both ends of the spectrum. The cars, first of all, fit my usual overview of all things BMW — exorbitantly priced…and, because of the technology, worth every penny.
The 5-Series midsize sedans from the Bavarian company were introduced in totally new form in 2004, so this really was a mid-term appearance alteration, which concealed some pretty major powertrain modifications.
The locale? No hasty in-and-out drive routine here. Six of the seven new models were in the company arsenal, with prices ranging from the 528i base of $45,075, up through the 528Xi, where the “X” marks the spot for all-wheel drive, 535i, 535Xi, 550i, at $50,000, and then up to the M5 performance flagship’s staggering $83,675 (which includes destination). The only one missing was the 535Xi Sports Wagon.
It would take a while to wring out so many splendid cars, and so time was made available for a spectacular extended session of three driving days, over all manner of terrain, tracking from 1,000 feet below sea level to 14,000 feet above it.
We started in Las Vegas, and immediately drove into the Death Valley desert for the first night. Next morning, we charged across the desert and up the winding, twisty mountain roads to Yosemite Park for another night. On the third day, we toured the park’s scenic splendor, then drove on, and on, across wine-country valleys and back up the coastal California mountains, twisting and curving back down to reach the Pacific Ocean at Monterey’s Fisherman’s wharf. Spotting the ocean gave my driving partner and I a mini-taste of what Lewis and Clark experienced. Or maybe it was Laurel and Hardy. Well, at least Homer and Jethro. I’m not Jethro, but for the sake of sarcasm, and because of other obvious reasons as well as the odyssey this became, we could call my partner “Homer.”
Before finding my partner, I linked up with a journalist from Ottawa. Years ago, I sat at a table of all-Canadian writers, and, because I like hockey and I can say “eh,” they made me an honorary Canadian. So he and I took off in a 550i sedan, out of Las Vegas and into what was, for me, uncharted territory.
The 550i is a superb car, the top-of-the-line 5-Series car — excluding the M5. All BMW engines have dual overhead camshafts, and when you fit them onto a 4.8-liter V8, it makes four cams pumping 32 valves, and the name of that tune is 360 horsepower at 6,300 RPMs, and 360 foot-pounds of torque at 3,400.
Red Rock Canyon, and then the Pahrump Valley, lead to Death Valley Junction, where the old Amargosa Opera House signals that you’ve crossed from Nevada to California and you are indeed into Death Valley — a 140-mile basin that features borax-streaked hills and stretches that are a couple hundred feet below sea level. We stayed at the Furnace Creek Resort, appropriately named, and about to close right after the BMW drive group departed for the soon-to-be sizzling season that will climb from the 98 degrees we had to 120 or so. In 1913, the world’s highest recorded temperature of 134 was recorded.
From that point on, the four segments over the next two days was being judged on some loose rally themes, so camaraderie was important, at least to some of us. That next morning, we left early in a 535i sedan. That’s the $50,000 model with twin turbochargers boosting power and torque to nicely managed 300 figures. We crossed the desert, and curled down the valley flanked to the west by the Sierra Nevada Range and its 14,505-foot Mount Whitney — the highest peak in the 48 states. We ended up at Lake Isabella, nearly 200 miles later, for a box lunch and a swap of cars.
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This time we took a 535Xi sedan — same model, same power, but with X-Drive,BMW’s revised and significantly improved all-wheel drive system. Jethro, my codriver, had the better roads in the morning, getting the twistier stuff, but I figured it would even up. That afternoon, though, it didn’t, and he again had more fun. I had great roads to drive up into the mountains, but traffic prevented pushing such a pushable beast, so we admired the beauty and made our way to Tenaya Lodge, high up in the mountains.
To start the final day, we got our paws on a stunning dark red M5, with a six-speed stick. The 5.0-liter V10 develops a whopping, but smooth, 500 horsepower and 368 foot-pounds of torque, with a 7-speed sequential manual gearbox — a clutchless automatic — or a 6-speed manual, with stiffer suspension and every performance enhancement you can imagine. Again, Homer had a nice drive, but was restrained by the tight speed limit through Yosemite Park, as we viewed El Capitan, and some spectacular cliff-side waterfalls, and headed on to some better roads. We switched at an ice cream stop in Mariposa, and finally, I was proven correct, and I got my turn at some excessively fun roads. First, on one of those smooth, straight highways where you can see forever, I can suggest that we never tested the M5 at a tick beyond 135 mph. The M5 was at its best mastering the twisty, dangerous 2-lane of Ben Hur Road for 20 miles in the San Joaquin Valley. With tight curves and a narrowness unprotected by guardrails or even shoulders, it was spectacular, but extremely dangerous. When he drove hard, Homer likes to use the whole road width, while to me, the proper lane is sacred and I make sure I never put a tire across the center line, even at speed we shall call “excessive.”
The string of BMWs made it to the La Ramada in Kerman, Calif. — not a motel, but an authentic Mexican restaurant. It was there we got the chilling news that somewhere behind us, one of our fellow-journalists, possibly overdoing his experience level, had taken a sequence of turns on Ben Hur Road too fast, ultimately hooking his right front wheel over the right, unshouldered edge, and somersaulted the car off the road. It then flipped several times before coming to rest upside down. BMW’s superb safety system includes an instant emergency signal whenever the airbags deploy, and it worked. The passenger got out and was fine, but the driver was airlifted by helicopter and was hospitalized with a concussion and four fractured vertebra.
Unintended though this was, the car’s inherent safety structure characteristics couldn’t have been more graphically displayed.
After lunch, and with our freewheeling attitude considerably subdued, the lighthearted but necessary teamwork we had was shattered when Homer insisted we switch rotation, with me driving first on the final segment. I protested, but it wasn’t worth making a scene over, so I got behind the wheel of a 550i. He had suppressed any urge to complain when he had the better roads on the first two major segments, and I didn’t either, assuming things would even up. When that proved true, Homer apparently was so overcome about my morning stretch that he checked with a rally director to learn that the best parts of the afternoon segment would be on the second half. When he had the audacity to use that self-centered news as justification, saying he thought I’d want him to have some fun, too, I was both astounded and perturbed, but rather than leave him for the buzzards, I took the wheel.
Funny how things work out. By wonderful irony, near the end of my first half of the final segment featured a newly-paved stretch of Hwy. 198, which was spectacular in its twists and turns. It might have been the best drive of the whole trip, and it left Homer grumbling in the passenger seat that he had gotten bad been told that Hwy. 198 “was supposed to be” on his part of the drive. Sometimes, even whining to get your own way can’t make you happy.
Coming into Monterey, the ocean was a stunning sight. The 550i, with a 6-speed stick, performed admirably. As the surf rolled up on Fisherman’s Wharf, we all reconvened over dinner with mostly compatible friends. After three days, two of which were 10-hour driving days, we covered nearly 900 miles of hard driving, and nobody could complain about not getting enough driving time. The fleet of BMW 5-Series cars proved to be better than ever, from their engines, transmissions, suspensions, body firmness — and safety. The prices are high, but technology and technical perfection is worth a lot. But if you’re going to drive for 10 hours, choose your codriver with care.
Don’t look back, many more cars beckon
ELKHART LAKE, WIS.—Keep moving, they say, and it’s usually good advice. Similarly, in the immortal words of former Major League pitcher LeRoy (Satchel) Paige, “Don’t look back, someone might be gaining on you.” Those thoughts crossed my mind as I waited in line in the pit lane of the 4-mile Road America race course. Could have been in a Mercedes CLS, or dozens of other new cars, or while plunging down the off-road trail in a Range Rover, or attacking the autocross in a Honda Civic Si sedan.
For auto journalists, who are always trying to gain on each other, the Midwest Auto Media Association is a very active and impressive group based in Chicago, but serving the whole Upper Midwest, from St. Louis, Des Moines, Indianapolis, Illinois, Wisconsin, and one outpost in Minnesota. As a group, it has considerable clout, but one of the things it does best is to have a good time. That’s one reason, undoubtedly, that the Chicago Auto Show is clearly the most pleasant and fun show in the country, if not the world.
And, of course, whoever made up the name knew exactly what was coming with the acronym “MAMA,” as in Mother Ship. One of the remarkable things MAMA pulls off every year is the Spring Collection, a well-sponsored gathering of its journalists at the Osthoff Resort in Elkhart Lake. We spend two days at the race track, pushing about 40 new vehicles through paces far beyond highway duties.
This Spring Collection, known by nickname and date as SC-07, might have been the best of all. Specially lined up were a dazzling new Audi R8 sports car, a Lamborghini, a Bentley Continental Biturbo sports car, and a new Dodge Viper. There also were a couple of restored, street-roddish 1965 Chevrolet Corvettes. We could drive anything else we wanted, but it took patience and waiting in long lines to drive one of those exotic beasts.
In the minds of some, I suppose I blew it, because I never got inside the Lamboghini, R8, Viper, Bentley, or the Corvettes. But allow me to explain the best possible rationalization. I was preregistered for a turn in the Lamborghini, which would have been at 10:20 a.m. on that Tuesday morning. But we all were scrambling to drive the other cars on the track as well, and after being one of the first in line, I took a couple of more hot rides. So there I was, in line, waiting as the starters kept a proper interval before allowing the next car onto the track. I was in a Cadillac STS-V, second in line, when my assigned time in the Lamborghini came…and went. I figured if I hurried, I might get back in time, so I hustled around on my lap, but the car was gone, driven by the next guy in line.
Oh well. We had the rest of that day, and the following day, so I assumed another chance would come around. I had gotten a taste of what was to come by driving a new BMW 760iL “Individual” from Minnesota to Elkhart Lake. It’s about a 5 1/2 hour drive to the course, which is located about an hour north of Milwaukee. The big BMW was, to put it mildly, the perfect road machine for the trip. Loaded with features and options that are mind-bending, the 760 has a V12 engine, with far more power than any normal driver could use in everyday driving, this side of an autobahn, at least. Still, keeping speeds moderate, and combining Interstates 94 and 90 with a lot of smaller rural highways, I averaged 20.8 miles per gallon going, and just under that coming back, when, as we all know, it’s more uphill.
Driving a new car on a normal highway test drive is educational, and after 35 years of it, I have a pretty fair routine down. But on a normal highway, you can’t speed or push the car hot through a turn, unless you have a season pass in the form of a get-out-of-jail-free card. On a race track, where reasonable speed is requested, you can push each car to its limits during one full lap, and get a feel for how the car — and the driver — might perform at extremes.
After our pre-track briefing on the first Tuesday in May, I was first out to the paddock area, choosing the twin-turbocharged BMW 335 coupe. It had rained the previous day and all through the night, and while it stopped in time for us, the track was definitely wet. Logic indicated extreme caution with the array of powerful street machines on the wet course. I took off onto the main straight, accelerating hard but braking early, in a straight line, before the sharp-right Turn 1. No problem, but Turn 1 is about the highest point of ground on the whole track, so I knew lower parts might be wet and more treacherous. Down the short hill for the slight kink and the hard right Turn 3, I tapped the brakes early again, and started to accelerate across the apex of the turn. The rear-drive 335 fishtailed once — just a little twitch, but enough to grab my attention — before my counter-steer and the car’s stability control system immediately straightened it out. Accelerating hard then, I hustled down the fastest part of the track, which concludes on a downhill plunge for the 90-degree left at Turn 6. Before I got hard on the brakes — and early — I noticed the speedometer had reached just past 130 miles per hour. It hauled down smartly, we went smoothly through the turn, and the rest of the lap was uneventful, but very impressive.
After one lap we learned that nobody would be able to run the shiny new Ford Shelby Mustang, because some bozo had overdone it. Incredibly, he overdid it on the first turn of his first lap, going off track, spinning out, and wrinkling the left side of the sleek coupe from nose to tail against a rather unforgiving guard rail.
Next I took out a red MazdaSpeed3. It was fast and strong, and with its turbo-boosted 4-cylinder and a stick shift, it ran the lap flawlessly. A Mini Cooper S, which I hadn’t driven before, also proved a lot of fun. BMW, which owns Mini, has redone the car with slight stretching of all dimensions from the previous model, and replacing the South American-built supercharged engine, a joint-venture with Chrysler, with a new 4-cylinder, turbocharged, and built jointly with Peugeot. The 6-speed stick worked well, but as fun as the car was, it seemed to me that I was mentally wrestling with whether to be revved too high in second or lugging a bit in third at a couple of the sharpest turns. Still, with front-wheel drive, the Mini flew around all 14 turns without a wiggle.
Two sporty luxury sedans with different approaches to the same objective both were outstanding on the track. The Acura TL Type-S, with sports suspension and a hotter engine, has enough punch and handling to prove conclusively that front-wheel drive and hot performance are NOT mutually exclusive. The Infiniti G35 comes in “X” form with all-wheel drive, but this was the “S,” a well-balanced rear-drive sedan with sporty upgrades. It also did very well around the track, although I was more cautious in the corners than with the TL, because the rear-drive still has a greater urge to swing the rear end out.
I then spotted a Cadillac official near a big Cadillac STS-V, with the supercharged NorthStar V8. I said I’d like to take it out, and he asked if he could ride along. Another journalist friend spotted me and jumped into the front passenger seat. So off we went, three aboard. Run hard, brake and turn right at 1, down the hill, brake hard again, then hit it for the hard right. The track was about an hour drier than when I drove my first lap, and since most drivers were in the proper line, the line was driest of all. But when I hit the STS-V, it veered pretty much sideways. If it was a fishtail, it was a large fish. But I caught it, and we straightened out immediately. The Cadillac official even complimented me on the save. Strong and fast the rest of the way around, but I wasn’t sure I trusted the Caddy’s Pirellis as much as some other tires on other cars.
The Volvo S80 continues to be one of my favorite real-world sedans, for its safety and sure-handling, as well as its great seats — and despite some strangely critical rips recently written about its “dullness” in Car and Driver. There was one with the new V8, but I chose another, with the 3.2-liter inline 6 and front-wheel drive instead of all-wheel drive. The S80 leaned a bit more in the sharpest curves than the all-out performance cars on hand, but it tracked predictably, smoothly, and securely all the way around. Volvo also had brought along the C70 retractable hardtop convertible. Top down, it felt good, but it is more of a smooth and enjoyable boulevardier than a race-track hustler — which also describes 95 percent of real-world drivers.
Another favorite is the Mitsubishi Lancer, with its stylish redesign. It is front-wheel drive, too, and it sailed around the track very well, even if I would like a dose more horsepower. The joint-venture world 4-cylinder with Chrysler and Hyundai seems strong and steady enough, but it wheezes a bit from shortness of breath when you really want to hammer it at mid-RPMs. What I don’t understand is that Mitsubishi will come out with its long-awaited Evolution X soon, and it will have Mitsubishi’s own 2.0-liter 4, with all-wheel drive and turbocharging, and it will stun the analysts. So why not take off the turbo, and the AWD, and give us what’s left of that mighty engine in the basic Lancer?
My Lamborghini chance was gone, and I kept glancing at the sweet new Audi R8 Porsche-challenger, but it was never sitting still when I was around. Same with the Bentley sports car, and the Cobra. So I kept going back out on the track, never missing a turn, There was still a lot of time after lunch, and there were so many great cars to drive. A sleek Jaguar XK coupe, for example, the stylish new version of the car that captured the world’s fancy as the XK-E some 40 years ago. An “R” supercharged version was there as well, but the normally-aspirated one was available when I walked up, and it was impressive enough, with class, grace and power.
I couldn’t resist jumping into an Acura MDX — a large SUV in which I had been dazzled during its introduction in a different rainstorm, and on a different race track, in Pennsylvania. Sure, the MDX was taller and less racy than the lower-slung cars, but it tracked just as I anticipated around every turn, with its SH-AWD sending enough torque from front to rear to push around curves without yielding that front-wheel-drive precision. Remember now, I remain in dispute with those hot-shoes who insist true performance can only be attained with rear-drive, and I never whine if there’s a little “torque steer” when a front-wheel driver is over-driven. It’s a signal that maybe I’m cornering a little too hot. Besides, in snow and ice, FWD wins and it’s no contest.
Among the neatest new 2007 models is the Suzuki SX4. It is a compact, or subcompact, a 4-door hatchback with a spunky little 2.0-liter 4, with all-wheel drive. It did well, without the higher-rev potency I’d have preferred, but its cornering stability was excellent.
The fellows from Mercedes had an interesting arsenal of cars, and a PR staffer rode with me on a lap in the CLS — the fantastic “4-door coupe” that looks as sleek as any coupe with its constantly sloping roofline. I had driven one on the autobahn in Germany, and its strong impression was reinforced around Road America, surging through the turns and running also right up to 130 on the main straight. Awesome. Then we took the new CL63 coupe, with an AMG V12 under the hood. It was, I was informed, for “Street” only. No problem. We left the track and hustled around the neatly winding roads of the Kettle Moraine country and came back, and all was beautiful.
Volkswagen’s redone Golf has a 5-cylinder engine, but the GTI gets the fantastic Audi 2.0-liter turbo 4, and a gleaming white model proved the GTI is now available as a 4-door. The 6-speed stick did its job well, although I knew I would meet that car again at autocross time.
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A Ford Fusion was there, the new AWD model. I had been impressed with it during a street preview, so running it around the track would be interesting, especially since it had a comparatively mild 3.0 V6 and no performance equipment. I was right. It handled well, and it went around all the turns smoothly, and as I came up the final hill toward the pit road, I caught a glance of the sticker placed on the upper corner of the far side of the windshield. It said “Street” as plain as day, which is different from “Track” in that it was one of the cars designated to be driven around the town’s rural roadways, but not on the track. I apologized to the Ford folks, but assured them the Fusion didn’t need such a restriction, because it handled every challenge with ease.
When we took a break for lunch, I made a note of which cars I most wanted to drive in the afternoon. No pressure, just fun. Then the word came that the on-track stuff was finished for the day. We now could go over to the infield go-kart track for a little mellow competition. Maybe tomorrow, I thought, I’d get my hands on those exotics.
On Wednesday, we gathered early and spent the first half of the morning on the very challenging off-road course designed by the Range Rover experts. That, too, was fascinating. The Range Rover, Range Rover Sport, and the new LR2 all did their jobs well, as anticipated. My first drive was in a Jeep Grand Cherokee with its new Mercedes diesel engine. The thing had amazing torque for churning up the steepest grades, and I think it may give the Cherokee a whole new outlook. On the steepest plunge of the course, following a blind turn that requires an expert spotter, I put it in low-range, low gear, with hill-descent control on. The tough part, the Range Rover guy said, is to take your foot off both the gas and brake and let the thing crawl down. Except the Cherokee surged the first 10 feet on the quite-vertical slope as if it was going to bury its grille nose-first into the ground below. I cheated and hit the brakes, after which the Cherokee crept down admirably.
The Cherokee and I gained points near the end of the toughest trek, where a Range Rover ahead of us had to back up and restart repeatedly before crawling up and over some severe boulders. I got a pretty good start, stayed left, and — using the old trick from climbing icy hills in Duluth — stayed on the power to keep momentum as it climbed right on up and over.
Most impressive though, was the surprisingly adept handling on the easiest of the three trails of the Kia Sportage, and the Suzuki Grand Vitara. The costlier, purpose-built off-roaders were very good, but these $20,000 vehicles designed primarily for on-road family use showed they could easily handle light off-roading. At one point, a fellow in a Range Rover overshot his turn and ended up coming down a steep hill and onto my lower trail, ahead of a Volvo XC90 and my Sportage. I watched as first the Range Rover, then the Volvo, strained to stay in the very muddy tracks, churning with their front wheels cocked and making it. I zipped through there, clicked into 4×4 lock, and made it, keeping the wheels straight and not even spinning.
Then we were whisked away, to run the autocross. A hastily arranged setup of cones outlined the tightly turning course in the paddock parking area. We went, one at a time, and tried to do our best in a one-lap timed run. My first turn was in an Audi TT 3.2 V6, and it felt great. I flew around the cones, hitting none, accelerated hard on the speed stretch, and used the quattro’s best all-wheel-drive bite in the tightest parts, and easily came to a complete stop in the finishing box. I later ran the GTI, Mini Cooper S., SX4, Lancer, and the new Civic Si 4-door sedan. The Si felt the hottest, but the officials said I missed one of the late gates, where many seemed to stay between cones but still overlook the tiniest of the cones here or there. So, I asked, what about my first lap, the near-perfect run in the TT? Oh, they said, that was the first turn of the day, and they missed it on the clock.
No matter. We had a great lunch, with bratwursts from the nearby Johnsonville Brat factory, and it was time to scatter for our departures. I climbed back into the BMW 760iL, and, after the Sirius satellite radio kept me going for half way, I plugged my iPod into the hidden jack in the console, and cruised the rest of the way into the late-afternoon sun, heading west on I94 and listening to my own array of Greg Brown, and various eclectic singer-songwriter types. It was a most successful couple of days. I don’t think anyone drove more laps than I got in, all in vehicles of my choice. I learned a lot about them, and about myself, too.
Then it hit me. I never did get into the R8! Or the Lamborghini, or Bentley Continental, or the Cobra. I was too busy, keeping moving, always moving. Do I still want to drive all those exotics? Definitely. Would I trade three or four of the others for one exotic? No. Driving 17 cars on the track, two more on the streets, five off-roaders, and six in the autocross…that’s 30 cars in two days. If I missed anything, I’m not about to look back now, even if nobody is gaining on me.
Lexus rides hybrid- V8 to super-luxury pedestal
PASADENA, CALIF. — When you first lay eyes on the new Lexus LS600h, it doesn’t look all that different from the beautiful new LS460 luxury sedan. Then in the chrome lower body molding, you see a little indentation where the word “Hybrid” is emblazoned in bright, environmentally friendly blue letters.
It signals that hybrid cars, which combine electric motors with a gasoline engine for increased power and fuel-efficiency, have come full circle, from lightweight gas mileage champs to wind the premier luxury car ever produced in Japan — or, perhaps, anywhere on the planet.
The “600” designation is aimed at Lexus target super-luxury vehicles, the top BMW 760L, Mercedes S600, and the Audi A8L, all with 6.0-liter V12 engines. The LS600 has a 5.0 V8 engine, but it is emboldened to the equivalent performance of 6 liters by the input of two electric motors in the hybrid system, with all-wheel drive. To pull off such a masterpiece satisfied the Lexus theory of combining performance and luxury at the highest levels, and adding a major dose of technology.
While the loaded Audi, at $119,000, is less expensive than the Mercedes and BMW flagships, the Lexus LS600h plans on undercutting them all at $104,000 — “not counting destination,” a Lexus official said, with a straight face. That puts the LS into a stratosphere, of both price and technical innovation, never before invaded by Lexus.
“Putting a V12 into this car would have been the easy way,” said Jim Farley, Lexus vice president and general manager, during the media introduction of the car at the Ritz-Carlton Huntington Resort. “But that wouldn’t have taken enough innovation.”
Eighteen years ago, Lexus opened for business with the LS400 as its top model, and it clearly was an attempt at stalking Mercedes. Over the years, Lexus built a solid reputation for luxury and quality. The all-new LS460 represents the first complete overhaul of the company’s top model, and Farley flatly states that the LS600h will be a limited-edition flagship, with only about 2,000 annual sales, which would be 5 percent of the hot-selling LS fleet.
It was time, however, for the car to step out from its perception as copier, and to do so, applying the company’s advanced probes in hybrid technology was a natural. “Over the past 17 years, we have some experience in whether to go our own way,” said Farley. “In 1997, Toyota came out with the first Prius hybrid, and 10 years later, we’ve come a long way. This is a separate and distinctive vehicle, with state-of-the-art technology, built by experienced master craftsmen.”
The LS600h starts with a high-tech 5.0-liter V8 with dual-overhead camshafts, 48 valves, with variable valve-timing and direct injection — a powerplant that produces 389 horsepower and 385 foot-pounds of torque, and obviously could have hustled the 5,049-pound vehicle right along. It is linked to a unique battery pack/electric motor arrangement designed in collaboration with Panasonic, using a 288-volt DC nickel-metal-hydride battery pack that dispenses the equivalent of 221 horsepower.
Combining the two systems runs a maximum of 438 combined horsepower through a mechanical transfer case, which distributes it through a Torsen differential to all four wheels. The basic split is 60-percent power to the rear, but road or driving conditions cause it to adjust.
The LS600h has a new system, called Lexus Synergy Drive, the latest plateau in combining gas-electric power. Hybrids still make the most practical sense, because the gas engine and braking energy recharge the battery packs, which either power or supplement propulsion of the car — free energy without plugging into your home electric meter. The first hybrids coupled with tiny engines for spectacular gas mileage of 70 or 55 miles per gallon in the Honda Insight or Toyota Prius, respectively. Playing with larger engines in larger cars proved surprising power could be made, as long as good — not great — gas mileage can be justified.
In the Toyota system, the gas engine serves as a generator, running to make and store electrical energy to power the electric motors — which, in turn, power the vehicle and its accessories. Honda’s system uses the gas engine as primary, with the electric power joining in for acceleration, although the Honda Civic will run at certain moderate speeds on electric alone. The Ford system can run all electric at low speed, all gas engine at high speed, but mostly a combination of the two.
I asked the Toyota engineers if there was ever a time when the LS600h could be propelled by the gasoline engine alone, and the answer is: No.
Clearly, the emphasis is on power and performance. The LS600h will go from 0-60 in 5.5 seconds, which is sports-car territory, and it will attain 130 miles per hour, but EPA estimated fuel economy is only 20 city, 22 highway. Lexus quickly points out that 21 combined is better than the target BMW, Mercedes or Audi models. I would settle for giving up two seconds of acceleration for 10 more mpg, and someday, maybe sooner than later, maybe we will get a dashboard knob to turn one way for power and the other for optimum mpg. But those spending over $100,000 for a car may be less interested in gas mileage.
The car my partner and I codrove was the Launch Edition, the long form of the LS, in a distinctive truffle mica color, with alabaster white leather interior, and black leather on the dashboard and on trim locations. Yes, amid recent criticisms of hard plastic or soft plastic or textured plastic for dashboard surfaces, Lexus stepped above and beyond to put the classiest, high-grade leather on the dash.
That is just one of numerous exhibits that prove Lexus’s attention to detail. Toyota developed the full-size Tundra pickup truck to standards above and beyond the normally accepted definition of a pickup, but that was nothing like this.
For example, the LS600h has a continuously-variable transmission, but not in the normal CVT sense of a long belt running around two size-adjusting pulleys. Toyota uses planetary gears in a super-smooth system in which the switching among eight gears is imperceptible. Unless, that is, you shift into a manual gate, from which you can select any of the eight gears manually.
Whether driving in automatic or the “S” sequential manual mode, the power is further filtered by a toggle switch that goes from snow, to hybrid, to power settings. Hybrid is for normally smooth driving; power makes the gas pedal response sharper; and snow causes a softer pedal response, easier for starting on slippery surfaces. You can also push an EV switch to engage full-electric drive mode for short-range, slow driving by using silent electric power only.
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Driving the LS400h shows that Lexus has not compromised on its highly regarded luxury, but instead has raised it, also. We sat in plush comfort, surrounded by wood and leather and polished metal, and we didn’t even bother to turn on the high-tech audio system. Big Al, my driving partner, virtually boasts about how conservative a driver he is, and he raved about he felt comfortable taking the sharpest mountain highway curves far faster than usual. I drove much more aggressively through those curves, causing Al to reach for his antacids, and the LS600h still stayed flat and stable in all circumstances. As usual, any changes in the hybrid use of gas-engine or electric-motor power is totally seamless.
The suspension, electronic power steering, and variable gear ratio steering all are computer-coordinated to supply optimum control, depending on road conditions and driving style. With VDIM — for vehicle dynamics integrated management — the system coordinates electronic antilock brakes, stability control, brake-force distribution, and throttle-controlled engine torque, by gathering information through all sorts of sensors. The stability control can be turned off, for those who might be tempted to fling the LS400h L into a hot-rod tail-wag. Seems to me they’d be more likely to sit in the right rear seat and take advantage of the reclining/massaging option.
Traditional Lexus safety also climbs to new levels. The standard eight airbags can be increased to 11 with the right options checked. The LS460’s ability to park itself is also available on the LS600h, and then some. An advanced pre-collision system can detect objects in the path of the LS600h, and is coupled to a driver monitor system. A camera mounted on the steering column monitors the driver’s face, and if it detects that the driver is not looking ahead for a few seconds, and an obstacle is detected, a warning chime, quickly followed by a flashing light, alerts the driver. If the driver is slow to respond, the system also starts to apply the brakes, reprograms the steering ratio for emergency action, and ultimately prepares the brakes for full-force usage, and partially tightens the seatbelts for possible impact.
We’re not quite ready for a car that totally drives itself, but the LS600h comes as close as we’re going to get for the near future.
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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