Sierra Club auto rally could help protect us from…ourselves
Virtually everything becomes over-politicized these days, but itÂ’s still hard to comprehend how the Sierra Club became known as a group of extremists.
Founded in 1892, the Sierra Club has been striving to protect the welfare of nature and natural environmental assets — virtually, the air that we breathe, the water we drink and the scenic wonders of nature we all enjoy. And yet, Sierra members have become scornfully categorized as “tree-huggers†by industrial self-interest groups, talk-radio extremists, lobbyists, politicians, and, finally, the public. Somehow, in the year 2002, radicals and extremists have successfully painted environmentalists into a corner as radicals and extremists.
The auto industry is enormous, and enormously profitable, worldwide. In Europe and the Far East, manufacturers have worked quite diligently to not only meet the laws, with cleaner fuels, higher-technology engines, and smaller and more fuel-efficient vehicles, but to also meet the spirit of environmental laws to be user-friendly. Meanwhile, U.S. companies have been forced to meet the same standards, but not before fighting desperately to lobby the government to block legislation that might tighten fuel-economy and pollution standards, while making bigger vehicles requiring more powerful engines.
While glaciers are melting, and northern states are experiencing what feels like tropical heat and severe weather swings, lobbyists and politicians, who stand to gain profits if big businesses don’t have to spend research and development money, try to convince us that “global warming†is a hoax. Then another model year arrives, and U.S. companies boast about bigger vehicles, bigger engines, and more power from faster, stronger vehicles. True, U.S. companies also are working on getting some alternative-energy, high-efficiency vehicles on the road. They’re behind, but they’re coming, in the face of the inevitable tighter laws.
We can’t really be sure about global warming, but is there any advantage to NOT try to clean up our engines, our fuels, and our environment? With that as a simplified backdrop, a couple of weeks ago, the Sierra Club ran an event around Minnesota, called the “Road Rally to Fight Global Warming.†The intention was to show the world that the technology of alternative-energy vehicles already exists to make the future look brighter – a purposeful analogy, because with less emission-caused haze, we might notice more brightness in the sky.
Club members drove gas-electric hybrid models of the Honda Insight, Toyota Prius, the new 2003 Honda Civic, as well as a Volkswagen Jetta turbo-diesel, on a course from the Twin Cities to Duluth, then up Hwy. 2 through Grand Rapids and Bemidji to Grand Forks, N.D., before heading back down to Southern Minnesota. All four test vehicles can be purchased for $21,000 or less. A Ford Explorer was used as an accompanying vehicle, for comparison purposes. After the five vehicles finished 1,268 miles, the figures were carefully calculated. The Explorer recorded 18.9 miles per gallon – which is pretty good for a full-size SUV, actually. The Jetta TDI turned in an impressive 43.6 miles per gallon, the Civic Hybrid got 46.5, and the Toyota Prius 49.5. The easy winner was the Honda Insight, which got an incredible 72.1 miles per gallon.
The Insight had an edge, as a 2-seater, with a tiny 3-cylinder gas motor augmented by an electric motor when power is sought. The Prius has a slightly larger motor and is a 4-door, 4-seat sedan with a gas-electric arrangement where power output fluctuates back and forth between the two energy sources. The Civic Hybrid has a larger 4-cylinder engine with the electric motor operating similarly to the Insight to power the 4-door, 4-seat sedan. All three use energy from the gasoline engine to recharge the battery packs for the electric motors, so they just keep running, without ever needing to be plugged in, which remains a large obstacle in the way of electric cars.
The Jetta TDI, with its turbocharged diesel engine, doesnÂ’t have the futuristic technology of the hybrids, but it performs well, even on the sulfur-laden stuff that passes for diesel fuel in our country. In Europe, Volkswagen makes a more efficient but smaller turbo-diesel that has achieved over 100 miles per gallon, in a subcompact Lupo, using more-refined German diesel fuel. They canÂ’t bring that engine into the U.S. because it wonÂ’t run effectively on our lousy fuel. There is hope a-coming, however. The law is in place for U.S. oil companies to clean up their fuel. Right now, estimates are that U.S. diesel fuel at the pumps consists of about 300 parts-per-million sulfur, and as of September, 2006, that percentage must be reduced to 15 ppm.
The intensity of U.S. companies to try to adjust is interesting to observe. Ford, for example, is working right now using new, clean-burning TDCi turbo-diesel power in the Focus, the Fiesta and the Mondeo in Europe. Those engines range from 1.4 to 2.0 liters in displacement, with sufficient horsepower to easily keep up on the autobahns, and yet provide 20-30 percent improved fuel economy with tremendously lowered carbon dioxide – the infamous greenhouse-gas emission that is accused of helping puncture our ozone layer, which allows the sun’s intensity to broil the earth.
Ford is working with Peugeot on that diesel, and with newly acquired Land Rover on another turbo-diesel, a 2.5-liter 4-cylinder that is running with a parallel 300-volt battery pack running an electric motor in a new Escape Hybrid. The Escape, a popular, compact 5-passenger SUV, reportedly gets 40 miles per gallon in hybrid form in stop-and-go city driving, and retains a 1,000-pound towing capacity. It is intended to be introduced late in the 2003 model year. ThatÂ’s next year, folks.
A gas-electric hybrid system is being tried in 1,000 Ranger pickup trucks, and while every company is pushing the limits of technology to come up with a workable vehicle using a hydrogen fuel-cell concept, FordÂ’s third-generation attempt combines a fuel-cell system with a battery-pack motor in some experimental hybrid vehicles that will be tried in California this year. Breakthroughs in catalytic converters and in lean-burn ignition and thermal efficiency have helped Ford find large reductions in nitrous oxides, hydrocarbons, carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide to reach PZEV (Partial Zero Emission Vehicle) or SULEV (Super Ultra Low Emission Vehicle) standards.
Fuel cells are energy-conversion devices that electro-chemically convert liquid hydrogen into a gaseous state, then into electrical energy, producing considerable power and, most important, producing only water as a by-product. Ford insists it is chasing these alternative answers, but only if it can maintain a “no-compromise†standard of delivering the same, or similar, performance as conventional gasoline engines. That includes having hydrogen-dispersal pumps located at enough fuel stations to make it easy for vehicle buyers to locate.
General Motors also is working on electric vehicles and fuel cells. For 2003, it appears GMÂ’s biggest technical move to help clean up its engines will be with the PHT approach, for Parallel Hybrid Trucks. A 10-15 percent improvement in fuel-economy estimates can be achieved with an electric motor complementing a 5.3-liter V8, allowing the V8 to stop running whenever the full-sized pickup truck decelerates or stops in traffic. Another system is DOD, or Displacement on Demand, which cuts out one bank of the V8 engine when more power is unneeded, effectively turning the V8 into a 4-cylinder.
Interestingly, while Ford seems well ahead of its main rival in striving for real-world-ready alternative vehicles, the Sierra Club continues to focus its challenges at Ford, going so far as to issue cards to be sent to Ford CEO William Ford, challenging him to publicly commit to gas-saving technology and to cut pollution and reduce AmericaÂ’s dependence on foreign oil. That may indicate a certain naivete on behalf of Sierra Club, because Bill Ford already has publicly stated his assurance that his companyÂ’s vehicles will be more responsible world citizens.
Still, itÂ’s pretty difficult to think of the Sierras as extremists. Consider Jennifer Ferenstein, president of Sierra Club, who joined members of the North Star Chapter of the club to participate in the Road Rally tour through Minnesota.
“I was struck by the natural beauty of the state and the pride that people seemed to take in special places,†said Ferenstein, after the run. “From Minnehaha Falls, to the Mississippi River — which made my heart skip a beat when I saw it — to the cooling embrace of Lake Superior, I saw places worth protection. In fact, wherever I went, there were people – indeed, entire families – interested in protecting the air, land, and water.
“In terms of the hybrid road rally, what struck me the most was the excitement that people showed when they actually saw the cars ‘in the flesh.Â’ ItÂ’s sometimes hard to be enthusiastic about technologies in the abstract, but when you get to see the embodiment of these technologies, it makes it real, and it gives you hope that there are viable alternatives out there to the loud, polluting, gas-guzzling vehicles that most automobile makers force upon us.Ââ€
If Jennifer Ferenstein is an extremist, so is everybody who likes to breathe fresh air, drink pure water, and simply gaze off at the spectacular scenery of our country, unencumbered by the hazy glop that obscures such visions near larger cities such as Los Angeles, or Seattle, or DenverÂ…or Minneapolis.
We can’t be positive what’s causing the weird global temperature shifting, but maybe it’s time to recognize that we’ve got to choose which side we want to be on. It’s like the old cliché: If you’re not part of the solution, you might be part of the problem.
GT40 dazzles amid Ford’s 2003 ecology-economy display
The Ford GT40 sports-racing car was introduced in 1965 and, from 1966-1969, it proceeded to win four consecutive LeMans 24-hour endurance races, with drivers like Dan Gurney and A.J. Foyt at the wheel. The amazing success of the Ford GT40 remains the stuff of motorsports legends, and it will be the showpiece of FordÂ’s centennial year of 2003 when it is reintroduced as a specialty production vehicle.
Ford has put together a dream team of design engineers and performance-car experts to put the program together, and the new GT40 is sure to be the brightest star in Ford’s galaxy – you should pardon the expression – of all the products Ford is introducing or upgrading for 2003, the year Ford celebrates 100 years of automobile building.
Ford, in fact, has some substantial vehicles coming out, with the new Expedition and Lincoln-Mercury Navigator already out. So is the Mercury Marauder. Soon to come are the Lincoln Aviator SUV, the Ford Mustang Mach 1, a new Lincoln LS and a 390-horsepower SVT Mustang, and the best-selling Ford F150 full-sized pickup trucks are also slated for full revisions this fall.
General Motors recently introduced all its 2003 models, with a distinct emphasis on bigger engines with more power and more performance, strutting all sorts of muscular advancements that seemed to push a couple of environmental and ecological advances to the background. Ironically, Ford put special emphasis on its environmentally sound, higher-mileage and lower-emission products, and yet without being emphasized, a high-performance vehicle stole the show.
Not only is the GT40 impossible to overlook, but Ford also also is going to expand the popular Focus and its high-performance SVT model by offering an SVT Focus in the five-door model. When automotive journalists were zipped from module to module rapidly – too rapidly, actually – while learning everything Ford Motor Company has planned for 2003, and beyond, during the two full days in Dearborn this past week, it was the GT40 and SVT Focus 5-door that kept popping up front and center.
After getting to drive and check out the latest traction and stability devices, thrashing off-road, and speeding around race courses at the Milford, Mich., Proving Grounds, we ended up in the futuristic showroom at the companyÂ’s Dearborn design center as the climax to learning, examining and experiencing FordÂ’s corporate mindset, as well as its products. Now came the treat of getting to view some of the vehicles Ford intends to bring to market as far off as 2005.
J Mays, a fellow who uses neither a first name nor a period after his first initial, is Ford’s vice president in charge of design. He was at the microphone for the final display of the future products, but he proclaimed to all the assembled motoring journalists that all information from that session was “embargoed forever.†That meant we couldn’t use any of it, and we either promised to obey or we should leave the facility immediately. Nobody left.
So letÂ’s paraphrase what Mays had to say, and what he had to show off under the tarps around the big room. After reading off the impressive list of already introduced vehicles from new Ford subsidiaries such as Land Rover, Aston Martin, Jaguar, Volvo and Mazda, Mays turned his attention to the home-based products.
“Over there we have the Mercury (classified), which will replace the Villager minivan for 2003,†Mays said. “We also have the (classified), a small sport-utility vehicle. And at Lincoln, we have the entirely new (classified), which will redefine midsize premium utilities.Ââ€
After describing Ford’s Australian affiliate, which will bring out a new (classified) SUV in 2004, and Ford of Europe, which has the new (classified), a small “urban activities vehicle†coming, Mays turned his focus (you should pardon the expression) on Ford of the U.S., pointing out freshening projects on the Taurus and the Windstar van. Then he put on display the new 500, which is still classified, but was described on last winter’s auto show circuit.
“The 500 will come out in 2004, and will have all new architecture,†said Mays, as the cover came off a big sedan, whose description must remain classified. We promised. “And then over at our Outfitters, we have the new Escape Hybrid, and the Crosstrainer.Ââ€
All we can say is that, in spite of its name, the Crosstrainer will NOT be designed to look like a shoe, with a swoosh on the side. We can, presumably, talk about the Escape Hybrid, because it is an Escape SUV armed with a hybrid powerplant that combines a small gasoline engine and an electric motor, and will make Ford the first U.S. company to jump into the environmentally sound battle already being waged by Honda and Toyota.
Before showing off a stunning new 2005 Mustang (classified), and the new Ford trucks, Mays put the spotlight on what surely will be FordÂ’s most stunning image car in decades. The GT40 may have been classified inside that room, but it has been displayed all year in auto shows.
The GT40 which began life in 1963, when Henry Ford II announced Ford would produce a new race car to compete in the world’s endurance races, such as LeMans. It was a low, sleek and absolutely dazzling vehicle introduced in the summer of 1964, similar to the slickest Porsches, or anything else in the exotic race classes. Carroll Shelby was brought in that fall to oversee the race program. In February of 1965, Ken Miles and Lloyd Ruby codrove a GT40 to its first victory, at the Daytona 1000 kilometer race. In June of 1966, GT40s finished 1-2 at LeMans, shocking the world. In 1967, Dan Gurney and A.J. Foyt codrove another GT40 to victory at LeMans, and the car also won LeMans in 1968 and 1969.
Chris Theodore, FordÂ’s boss of product development, hand-picked a group of elite high-performance standouts, including John Coletti, the director of FordÂ’s SVT (Special Vehicle Team) operation; Neil Hannemann, chief engineer of Saleen and formerly manager of the Dodge Viper GTS-R program; Tom Reichenbach, who has worked on Formula 1, CART and NASCAR race teams; and Carroll Shelby, who came up with the original Cobra and later high-performance cars for Ford, Dodge, and even Oldsmobile; plus Jack Roush and Steve Saleen.
The concept car came out, under Mays’ design, last summer, and made its debut at this year’s auto show circuit. Naturally, a lot of the details are, as they say, “classified,†but it will have a mid-engine V8 with over 500 horsepower.
Ford executives acknowledge that lowering costs and regaining a position of profit are foremost objectives. Ford CEO Bill Ford, referring to oblique ridicule from General Motors in recent weeks, said: “We wanted to dispel the rumor that our product pipeline is empty. Our revitalization plan is centered on products. Great products made us what we are, and they will take us where weÂ’re going in the future. I feel quite good about where we are in our plans.Ââ€
Richard Parry-Jones, who is a group vice president in charge of global product development, discussed the introductions of all the worldwide Ford products, including 20 North American vehicles. “Business conditions remain a challenge,†he said, “but we believe we can build no-tradeoff vehicles that are exciting and can allow our commitment to make cars that are ‘cleaner, safer, sooner.Â’ That means we intend to reduce the impact of our vehicles on the environment; we will continue to make improvements in safety; and we will take these actions as soon as possible.Ââ€
Parry-Jones pointed to the Focus with a new experimental and clean-burning diesel engine, and the soon-to-be-introduced Escape hybrid as low-polluting, high-efficiency vehicles, and he claims Ford intends to improve fuel economy of its SUVs by 25 percent. “But what we mean by ‘no-tradeoff’ vehicles, is we are not degrading performance while we make these advances, so that they will perform the same as what customers expect from gasoline-burning cars,†he added.
The introductions of new vehicles, new technology, new safety measures including a 4-point seat harness, and new fuel-cell technology were impressive. But, try as they might to stress those technical, everyday advances that will help our economy, ecology and environment, there remained one inescapable fact: Give us that GT40!
New Mercedes SL500 stunning both as coupe and roadster
ItÂ’s true that the Chrysler Corporation we all grew up with is now, officially, DaimlerChrysler, since Daimler Benz took over the No. 3 U.S. automaker a few years ago. But it will be awhile longer before any cross-pollenating between the two causes anyone to mistake a Mercedes model for anything showing at a Chrysler or Dodge dealership. The best example is the Mercedes SL500, all new for 2003.
It is, arguably, the most beautiful coupe sports car in the world. And itÂ’s also arguably the most beautiful roadster sports car in the world. The metamorphosis occurs at the touch of a console button and takes only a few seconds.
Mercedes faced a tall order when redesigning the SL500, because the car’s predecessor possessed eye-popping looks and performance and luxury to match, and to hoist its price sticker up – way up – into the stratosphere of fantasy cars. The general public will not be interested in considering this car for purchase, but everybody capable of focusing on a fixed object will find their gaze attracted to this vehicle.
There is no question on the mind of any onlooker that the SL500 is expensive, but it STILL staggers them when your answer to their question is: “Eighty-nine thousand, four hundred seventy five dollars.Ââ€
That’s right. A cool $89,475 would get you the car I test-drove. While mostly all of us aren’t about to run out and plunk down a down-payment on a car that costly, the other shocking fact is that if you had the money, the SL500 is probably worth that much – when you combine technology, performance and looks.
KNOCKOUT LOOKS
First, the looks. The previous SL500 and SL600 was a knockout. Mercedes numbers its models by engine size, with the 600 being a 6-liter V12 and the 500 a 5.00-liter V8. Trust me, the V8 is plenty. At any rate, when a company decides to revise a classic, it runs a pretty strong risk of not reaching the pinnacle already established. Not so with the SL500. IÂ’m sure it looks good in any color, but the test car was a glistening black. While I often wash test cars for photo purposes, I found myself hand-washing the SL500 four times in a week because the black continually attracted all sorts of road-construction dust and mud. It still looked good.
The front is slanted back steeply, with high-tech headlights and integrated foglights carved artfully into the slope. The resultant aerodynamic measurement shows 0.29 coefficient of drag, a wind-cheating improvement where anything under 0.32 is considered excellent. The body length is an inch longer, and the wheelbase almost 2 inches. While being slightly larger, the 4,000-pound SL500 kept its weight down by the use of aluminum fenders, doors and trunklid, plastic bumpers, and magnesium and high-tech plastics on other parts.
From the side, the SL500 continues that stylish slope from the nose, up quite steeply along the doors to a high-kick tail. The roofline also is attractively curvaceous, blending in perfectly with that rear deck.
The windshield slopes back at a steep angle too, and the whole package blends together strikingly, with slightly bulging fenders housing 255/45-17-inch low-profile high-performance tires, riding on neat alloy wheels that are 8.5 inches wide. The bodywork rises up higher over the rear wheels, bulging neatly over the car’s hips. Just behind the front wheelwells there is a large vent, covered with two slashes of chrome. It looks neat, and it is wonderfully familiar if you recall seeing them on the original SL sports cars – the 300SL Gullwing coupe and roadster of the 1960s and even the 1950s, which represent the true heritage of the new SL500.
Large, red taillight housings wrap around from the side to the rear, where they flank the side angle of the trunklid. Down below, the chrome trumpets from dual exhaust outlets frames the whole thing. The trunklid pops up to reveal a surprisingly large storage area, and if you didnÂ’t know better, you might be surprised to see a thin but stiff little shroud that can be used to cover your trunk items and shield it from the trunklid.
Later, you find out the real reason for that shield. After gazing at the beautiful silhouette of the SL500 coupe, youÂ’re in for another surprise.
Climb into the driver’s seat, and get the shift lever in park and the emergency brake on, and flip the switch on the console. With a meaningful but unobtrusive whir, a symphony of 11 “electrohydraulic†cylinders and a pump hum to describe an incredible concert of moving parts. A segment you didn’t know was movable on the rear deck tilts open from the front, rises to a certain point, and then the top lifts off the windshield and kinks and folds itself back into itself, before the whole thing settles into a perfectly-formed opening on that rear deck, then the panel folds down and clicks shut.
Absolutely no variation, no hesitation, no bulges and no trace of the previously beautiful coupe roof. While a system similar to this has been used on the smaller CLK Mercedes, that stubbier sports car hides it well, but not this well. If you didnÂ’t know it was a foldaway hardtop, you would never guess from the sleek lines of the roofless roadster SL500 that it was anything but a convertible. Further complementing the look, you can hit another button, and a large and meaningful rollbar rises up behind the front buckets.
With that, the stunning coupe becomes an incredibly stunning roadster. The whole thing is quick and efficient. I managed to pull over and reluctantly put the top up after a few raindrops hit the windshield one time in something under 20 seconds.
PERFORMANCE
The 5-liter V8 is a masterpiece of Mercedes technology. It is a short-stroke engine with three valves per cylinder, two intake and one exhaust. It churns out 302 horsepower at 5,600 RPMs, and a muscular 339 foot-pounds of torque, electronically controlled to be delivered steadily from 2,700-4,250 RPMs.
That engine delivers its power via an electronic 5-speed automatic transmission, which shifts seamlessly. One of the interesting things Mercedes has added since its acquisition of Chrysler is an automanual shift lever much like the Chrysler AutoStick, which allows you to drop the lever down into a small horizontal gate, then achieving upshifts by bumping the spring-loaded lever to the right, or downshifting to the left.
ItÂ’s fun, and it also propels the sleek but hefty SL500 from 0-60 in a reported 6.1 seconds in some tests.
The car rides on revised aluminum suspension parts, but, interestingly, there are no stabilizer bars. Instead, the SL500 deploys the latest Mercedes active body control. Thirteen sensors, collaborating with two computers, operate four hydraulic servos that are fixed between the coil springs and the body. The complex-seeming system works to stiffen or soften each of the four wheelÂ’s suspension demands to counter the tendency to lean to the sides while cornering, to the front when braking or to the rear when accelerating.
So the suspension keeps the SL500 flat and stable, and if itÂ’s not stable enough, you can adjust the body control with a control on the console to make it much firmer and sportier. All of that works with ESP stability control and ASR traction-control, which Mercedes also introduced to the industry years ago.
Mercedes didn’t stop there. While various high-tech sporty cars now use a “drive-by-wire†system of unconnected, electronically controlled acceleration, the SL500 uses a syimilar system of electrohydraulics to command sensors and a microcomputer to deploy the brakes. So each of the four wheels stops independently, via a computer that decides how much braking each is capable of, then orders it. The complex braking system and the futuristic stability and traction systems conspire to keep the front-engine/rear-drive SL500 from venturing off course. In fact, it seems to know what course you should be following better than its driver does.
If thatÂ’s not enough for your technical hunger, the SL500 has a device to wipe the brake discs clear of water in wet driving to enhance stopping.
TECHNOLOGY
Naturally, the hiding roof, the suspension and all the sensor-controlled stuff qualifies as the highest of high-tech, but there is more technology there for the driver to use.
And I don’t just mean the 8-speaker BOSE audio system, or the navigation system – which lacked the proper disc for me to calculate where I was going in Minnesota. Or the high-strength steel cabin with front and rear crumple zones, the two-stage airbags, the side impact airbags or the driver’s knee airbag.
WeÂ’re talking seats, here. The buckets are comfortable and fully supportive, and adjustable in far more ways than anyone could imagine.
You can bolster the back support, tilt and slide the whole thing or different parts fore and aft. The main seat adjustment switch is on the door panel, resembling the seat outline. There also is a little switch for the support bolster located on the outside front corner of the seats. You may overlook it, but you shouldn’t, because one of the controls says “Pulse.†Sure enough, if you activate that switch, a slow and rhythmic undulation passes through the backrest and the seat cushion.
Actually, it is undulating, but not really rhythmic so much as it is irregular. A rhythmic pattern might put you to sleep; the irregular nature of the undulations is just right, so that if you were getting near fatigue-time from driving all day, the little pulsations might be the perfect antidote to getting drowsy.
That is an ingenious invention. And it’s particularly useful in the SL500 – because if ever there was a car that makes you want to drive too much, this is it.
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Car fanatics direct GM’s future products for 2003 and beyond
It took two days for General Motors to display all of its new-for-2003 car and truck models to the North American journalists it had summoned to Ann Arbor, Mich. Splitting the two sessions, GM put on an outdoor walking buffet dinner to accompany a Bring-Your-Own-Baby car show, during which the companyÂ’s executives brought out their own private collectible vehicles.
There were enough new vehicles with new technology to fill a notebook, but the image of that collector car show remains the most riveting memory of the trip.
There was Bob Lutz, GMÂ’s new boss, puffing on a big cigar as he stood proudly next to his own 1953 Cunningham Coupe C3, while motoring journalists stopped by to talk casually to him about his passion for automotives. There were a half-dozen GM-owned historic vehicles, and 47 privately owned classics, ranging from a 1908 Oldsmobile Touring 4-Cylinder to a 1938 Buick Special Model 41 Trunkback, and on up to a 1988 Ferrari Mondial. The winning vote-getter, incidentally, was a sensational 1935 Chevrolet Master Series 2-door sedan owned by Wes Rydell, who is a major GM dealer with franchises in Grand Forks, N.D., where he lives, as well as the Twin Cities and California.
But the indelible feeling about the whole session is that the legendary General Motors bean-counters were nowhere visible, replaced by folks who obviously feel passionately about their cars. It is reassuring to know that finally, people who love cars are making decisions at the worldÂ’s largest car-making company, and there is at least a fighting chance they will also care as passionately about the cars they are building and selling.
“When Bob Lutz came in, he saw where we were taking things with our research, and heÂ’s coached us to be a lot more intuitive,†said Mark Hogan, a design engineer and one of the GM spokesmen. “He course-corrected us to use our abilities along with our market research. IÂ’ve never seen the energy, passion and focused intent in this company. And youÂ’re probably going to see much more reach in our designs under Bob Lutz. When you see concept vehicles like Solstice and Belair, theyÂ’ll sell themselves.Ââ€
It has been easy to be a critic about GM. The corporate giant, for about three decades, has backed off from technology, daring design and fun vehicle development for the sake of not disrupting the bottom line, leading to the feeling that “bean-counters†were making all the decisions, and choosing profit margin over research and development. The company’s new direction may counter that.
Here are the highlights of the 20-some new introductions:
Performance. GM is going to coordinate its high-performance concepts into one unit, although that unit intends to stay subtle, without the flash of Ford’s SVT (Special Vehicle Team) or the Mercedes AMG group. “You won’t read our name on the back of the car,†said Mark Reuss, who runs GM’s performance division. “I have 1,000 workers under me, 800 who are in architectural design and 200 who will specializse in performance, concept and show cars, high-performance operations and design. We haven’t really had all these divisions together at GM – ever.†GM intends to offer small-car, front-wheel-drive high-performance parts such as racing cylinder heads and superchargers for the Ecotec engines in the Cavalier and Sunfire, for example.
Concept cars. One easy new car is the 2003 Corvette 50th anniversary edition, which will come only in a dark, bergundy red. Otherwise, some far-out concept cars are expected to spring to life. Most notable is the Pontiac Solstice, the Chevrolet SSR and Belair, and possibly the Saturn Sky, while Cadillac will follow-up its new-generation CTS sedan with a stunning XLR hardtop/roadster convertible. I got a close-up look at the Solstice and Belair, and I drove a prototype Sky, but there were no XLRs around – until we were being bused out of the Milford Proving Grounds, and I spotted one cruising along on a test track. In a year, the GTO makes a comeback, based on the Holden Monaro from GM’s Australian branch.
Trucks. Naturally, the high profitability of trucks is one of the basic assets of all the new car optimism, but GM is hardly going to pass up the chance to expand its enormous truck outlay. Buick, which got the Rendezvous as a neat version of the controversial Pontiac Aztek for 2002, will add the Ranier, which will be a similar but slightly more luxurious sport-utility vehicle, powered by either the new high-tech in-line 6 or the new Generation III 5.3-liter V8. Also, Chevrolet will bring out the SS – a throwback to the Super Sport days of its hot-rod sporty coupes – as a specialty version of the Silverado pickup truck. Aside from also lengthening the GMC and Cadillac versions of the Chevy Tahoe into a full-fledged version of the Suburban, GM also is introducing a new Hummer H2, a much more manageable version of the militaristic all-terrain vehicle.
Technology. Cadillac and Corvette will continue to be the test-beds for new technology, from things such as OnStar, Nightvision, through-the-windshield instruments, StabiliTrak, etc. The new Corvette, for example, will have “MagneRide†suspension, which was introduced on the 2002 Cadillac Seville STS and is an electro-magnetic controlled suspension system. Imagine this: inside the struts that cushion all four wheels, instead of the usual pristine fluid, Delphi (a GM affiliate) has come up with a strut filled with fluid that has magnetic particles floating freely around inside, and the normal suspension is very comfortable and compliant. Set on “touring,†the suspension stays that way, but move the console switch to “sport,†and you get a stiffer mode, plus. A severe cornering move causes an electromagnetic coil to suddenly cause all the free-flowing particles to snap together, greatly stiffening the suspension. It acts so quickly that you don’t really feel anything, except when you corner abruptly, the 50th Anniversary Corvette feels like it has race-car suspension. It apparently acts instantaneously, meaning the right side can handle a jolt it just learned from the left side, and it certainly is faster than the driver can discern.
Engines. The old 5.0 and 5.7-liter V8s – the legendary Chevrolet “small-block†V8s – have been replaced by the 5.3, a clean-sheet design instoduced in 1999 as an iron block unit. The new one is all aluminum, and it turns out 290 horsepower. The other significant new engine is the Ecotec, which originated with GM’s German Opel division, which used it in the Astra sedan. It also will be used in the new Saab, a recent GM acquisition. The 2.2 Ecotec is a dual-overhead-camshaft, 16 valve 4-cylinder, and when it came in last year, it became the base engine in Cavalier and Sunfire, and left the 2.4-liter “Quad 4†as an option. The 2.4 has now been dropped altogether from further production, and the Ecotec takes over, supplying 140 horsepower and 150 foot-pounds of torque.
Environment. While GM continued to emphasize more power and performance with almost every introduction, the company is striving to improve its efficiency for ecological and economical reasons. I drove a full-size pickup with engineer Stephen Poulos riding shotgun, and he explained that our vehicle had a combination 5.3-liter V8 and AC induction motor, supplying 20 more horsepower from 42 lead-acid batteries, located under the rear seat. The truck had very good power, and whenever you stop for a red light, the engine stops. The fuel shuts off as soon as you decelerate, and when you take your foot off the brake to step on the gas as the light turns green, the engine restarts and youÂ’re off. Poulos says EPA estimates show 10-15 percent improvement in fuel economy, and the new engine has no alternator or starter, and the pump and power steering are done electrically by the auxiliary motor.
Interestingly enough, the new alternative-energy truck has no special markings, and no high-tech gauges. “WeÂ’re selling a truck here,†said Poulos. “We donÂ’t want to point out how many differences there are, as much as how similar it is to what everybody is used to.Ââ€
Flash, glitz and performance sells, apparently, but GM customers are wary enough about high-tech economy advances that GM wisely figures it better downplay its advances.
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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