Late blizzard enhances test of tire-siping effectiveness
There is no place better than Duluth, with its steep hillside avenues, to test how tires work in a snowstorm. With only a little bit of planning, I happened to be driving to Duluth in the midst of last weekÂ’s ice storm and blizzard, right while I was in the process of testing the contemporary benefits of having my tires slashed.
I’m not talking vandalism here, but “siping†– the professional process of cutting tiny slits across the tread of a tire to improve its traction on ice and snow. If you’ve ever spun a tire on ice or snow, you know the terror of losing control or being unable to go where you’re going. Anyone who has experienced it would give anything to be trade those anxious moments for the confidence and ability to simply drive where others fear to tread, so to speak.
In a lot of areas, they don’t care about tires that can conquer snow and ice, and they’ve probably never heard of siping, either. But the benefits of the procedure are well-documented in cold-weather cities, whether Chicago, Minneapolis – or Duluth – where numerous tire dealers offer Saf-Tee Siping, usually for around $10 per tire.
Siping, by the way, got its name from John Sipe, who invented the technique back in the 1920s, after he had relieved his own footing for a job on the greasy floors of a slaughterhouse by cutting little slits in the soles of his shoes. When he transferred the concept to tires, his name became the standard for the little slits.
Many new tires come with sipes molded into them at the factory, and when you buy replacement tires, dealers might advise against further siping them, because too many closely spaced sipes can cause chunks of tread to come adrift. Concerns that cutting slits in the tread might cause premature wear have been alleviated by earlier tests, which proved the slits actually ventilated the tread to reduce the heat build-up that is the greatest threat of premature wear.
Tire compound technology also has improved so drastically in recent years that some very good all-season and winter tires are now on the market. Bridgestone has found great success with its Blizzak snow tires, and the newest ones are aimed at adding extended mileage to good foul-weather traction. The Finnish Nokian company makes the “Hakkapelitta,†which has a tread compound that remains flexible in the cold and still does an excellent job year-round, and is my personal favorite.
Because advancements in tire making have been so impressive, there are some cynics who think siping is old-fashioned and maybe ineffective on modern tires. But in this case, the old trick can work even better on new-technology tires. For example, larger blocks of tread are the easy way to make tires stick better on dry pavement, and hard compounds work best for high speed and long wear. But when it gets slippery out there, harder tires donÂ’t stick as well as those with more compliant tread, and larger tread blocks donÂ’t dig in and spit out accumulating snow, so a storm leaves you with free-spinning tires that defy even the most sophisticated traction-control systems on flat surfaces, to say nothing of hills. In fact, the bigger the tread blocks and the harder the compound, the more dramatic is the difference in being siped.
I got the chance to try my own comparison on siped tires, and my personal impressions reflected the findings in a recent test of winter-driving capabilities conducted on MichiganÂ’s Upper Peninsula.
IÂ’ve driven various new cars equipped with Michelin Pilot Sport tires, which are excellent for high-performance driving in dry weather but pretty scary on ice and snow. An independent testing company called Mobility Research Inc., recently ran a set of Michelin Pilot Sports through winter driving tests on its controlled course in Houghton, Mich. The Pilot Sports and Goodyear Eagle LS all-season tires were both tested against the performance of the Uniroyal Tiger Paw, the industry standard for all-season tires.
Test results showed that on medium-packed snow, over three consecutive days of repeated test runs, the unsiped Michelin Pilot Sport recorded only 35 percent of the standard all-season tireÂ’s traction; after being siped, using two different curvatures of the siping, one of the Michelins measured 93 percent of the base tireÂ’s grip and the other achieved 103 percent. With any tire achieving as much as 85 percent of the base tire given an adequate grade for winter driving, the improvement of the high-performance Michelin by siping was impressive indeed.
The Goodyear Eagle LS all-season tire also showed significant improvement. It started out at 101 percent of the base tire in unsiped form, and siping improved the Eagle LS traction to 134 percent of the Uniroyal. Any tire that measures over 110 percent of the base tire qualifies for “severe snow service†designation, and siping pushed the Goodyear well beyond that measurement.
I was able to get my hands on the very set of Michelin Pilot Sports that were tested in Houghton, and had them shipped to Foreign Affairs, a service shop and Nokian dealer at 722 East 9th Street in Duluth, where they mounted them on my own Honda Prelude for some real-world impressions. A week later, I felt like a storm-chaser when I hit Duluth just after the ice-storm, and a follow-up foot of snow, had arrived.
Having already driven, and written about, the problems of driving a rear-wheel-drive car with those Pilot Sport tires on ice, it was the opportunity to try them on our front-wheel-drive car, after they had been siped. First, I had to do some serious shoveling to get another new car with high-performance tires out of the way. Then I simply drove the Prelude through the axle-deep snow out to the highway.
I was looking for slippery circumstances, and I found an excellent variety. On snow-packed roadways the siped Michelin Pilot Sport tires were very good. Not as good as my Nokians, maybe, but as good as most all-season tires. In icy conditions with snow covering the ice, they were still pretty good – surprisingly good, if you’d experienced them before siping.
Even siping met its match when I located a stretch of Hwy. 61 just up the North Shore from Duluth where the pavement was coated with glare ice, after the 40-mile-per-hour wind blowing off Lake Superior had kept the ice free of snow. On that surface, even the siped Michelins were eager to spin, no question, although the front-wheel-drive made the spinning much more predictable than my previous experience with unsiped Pilot Sports. So I could manage a reasonably straight attitude without the panic.
It’s understandable why most tire technology ignores snow-belt requirements and aims at the more attractive – and commercially successful – market segment looking for long wear or high-performance. The same is true for new cars, which often come with the longest-wearing and best-handling tires. With siping as an alternative, you can make those slithery new-car tires work to all-season standards. Or, you can compromise to fit all-out high-performance tires on your car to improve dry-weather handling, knowing you can inexpensively sipe them to get foul-weather traction as good or better than all-season tires.
Sometimes it takes the oldest of tricks to bring the best out of new technology.
Family-friendly Hummer H2 makes an attention-getting SUV
Pulling up to an intersection on one of DuluthÂ’s steep, downtown hills, I stopped at a red light, as three high school girls walked across the street at the intersection. All three of them smiled, admiringly. One of them yelled, “Nice car!Ââ€
I was driving a Hummer H2, and if ever there was a vehicle that could attract attention, as well as shouts and comments from impressed bystanders, this is it — although calling it a “nice car†is a stretch, no matter how you try to qualify it.
When it comes to the most macho of SUVs, there really is only one. Well, two now.
By far, the king of the SUV hill is the Hummer, that all-terrain vehicle that became popular during the Desert Storm war – the first Desert Storm, back in 1991. Now there is another Desert Storm going on, and there is a new Hummer H2 on the market.
First, the first Hummer, which we might call the H1: These square-bodied, wide-standing, diesel-powered monsters could tear over the river and through the woods, or across a desert, to grandmotherÂ’s house or anywhere else you wanted to go. A company called AM General built the beasts, originally identified as “Humvees” in military set-up.
I drove an original Hummer several years ago, and while it was most difficult to keep the wheels between the lines that designate your highway lane, youÂ’d step on the gas, and after a brief delay, the thing would roar and take off. All that was lacking was a gun emplacement, maybe a .50-caliber machine gun, and you could have gone off to war yourself.
In the decade that passed between our decisions to send the military over to help Middle Eastern countries decide what to do with their governments, if not their oil, sport-utility vehicles have pretty much taken over the marketplace for automotive vehicles in the United States. For a while, they got bigger and bolder and more powerful, then they went the other way, getting lighter and more agile and more efficient, and now they seem to be conquering the middle of the road, trying to meet every niche.
About four years ago, General Motors bought out the Hummer name from AM General, and they started conspiring. GM apparently decided that its supply of Suburbans, Tahoes, Yukons, TrailBlazers, Denalis, Escalades, Azteks, Rendezvouses (Rendezvouses?) and Raniers, are not sufficient, so it has gone macho on us again. This time, in collaboration with AM General, General Motors is sending engines and drivetrains from vehicles like the Suburban/Tahoe full-size SUVs, and AM General inserts them between the square, Hummer-like body on top and the rugged undercarriage below.
The result is a vehicle that looks the same as that all-terrain military monster, but actually is quite manageable in all highway situations, or, at least those highway situations that any large SUVs can handle.
The H2 has a three-piece ladder frame, which holds its body up high – ’way up high. You can hop into the driver or passenger seats, but it’s easier if you’re pretty agile. It requires a leap, and the handgrips that are mounted vertically on the pillars front and middle would be more helpful if they were horizontal on the upper door sill. But the handgrips and a light hop get you up and inside.
Once inside, you can forget the heavy-metal gridwork that covers the chrome grille and the headlights, and the taillights too, for that matter. And you might forget the square body and the macho, military look. Because inside, the interior features are comfortable, with leather bucket seats for five, and a foldable jump seat in the rear for a sixth. Instruments and controls are all decidedly user-friendly, from the thick, L-shaped floor-mounted shift lever to the AM-FM-6-CD Bose audio system, to the steering wheel, which is comfortably thick and also contains eight different remote controls at assorted locations.
The 6-liter V8 is that done and redone GM piece, still with pushrods instead of overhead camshafts, but also with 316 horsepower and 360 foot-pounds of torque. It is a thirsty combination, and pulling all that heft around drops your fuel economy to 10 miles per gallon. I got 9.8 on one tankful. But the H2 goes, powerfully and swiftly, pretty much wherever you want it to go.
Pull up to a four-lane highway, where you’re always surprised and amazed that approaching traffic hugs the outside lane so that you can’t pull onto the highway, and you suddenly find that people are pulling over to the inside lane – way over, to give you all the room you might need. Or want.
The original Hummer H1 has a 6.5-liter turbodiesel, with only 195 horsepower, but with 430 foot-pounds of torque. That one is brutish and outrageously appointed for highway use, and it costs anywhere from $106,000 to $120,000. The H2 is like the citified cousin of the H1, with the great seats, white-backed gauges and an aluminum roof-rack, and it costs exactly half of that. The sticker on the test vehicle was $52,870, with a starting base price of just under $49,000.
For the base price, you get the heavy-duty goods. That includes 8,600-pound gross vehicle weight rating, 315/70 by 17-inch wheels mounted with BF Goodrich All-Terrain TA tires, which have a gauge to let you know if they are deflating enough to be reinflated — a task that can be done with a little spigot located just inside the rear hatch. Dual front airbags are there, although you wonder what a little car might look like if you ran into, or over, one. Four-wheel disc brakes, OnStar communication system, 8-way power seats up front with heated seats front and rear, a big power sunroof, dual climate-control settings, rear audio controls, map pockets and the 9-speaker audio system again make you forget about the triple-sealed doors, the front winch, the Class III trailer hitch, and the other macho items.
An aluminum roof rack, chrome door handles and mirror caps, the CD-playing audio upgrade and tubular assist steps, which I never pulled out, needing the workout afforded by high-jumping into the cabin. The storage area behind the second-row fold-down seats is interesting, too. There is a full-size spare mounted vertically back there, with a carpet-like cover, but it takes up a whole bunch of room. That leaves room for only one third-row jump seat, but if you needed it, youÂ’d probably like it.
You can lock the 4-wheel drive into high or low ranges, if the full-time system isnÂ’t adequate for your off-road plans. And make no mistake, the H2 is equipped to go off the road, even with its comfortable interior appointments. Its traction-control and height control and switches to compensate for extra loads hauled or trailered work well on the road, or off.
Powerful driving lights are mounted on the front, although I found they werenÂ’t adjusted very well. I tried tipping and turning them, and I could move the powerful beams all over the place, but I never got them close to being useful complements to the standard headlights.
The H2 is not a toy version of the H1, however, and the creature-comforts shouldnÂ’t mislead. It actually is taller, at 77.8 inches, and longer, at 189.8 inches, than the H1. It also is 4 inches taller and 2 inches wider than the Tahoe, although its 189.8-inch overall length is nine inches shorter than the Tahoe.
Funny, I always thought the Tahoe was pretty macho. Until now.
(John Gilbert writes a weekly auto column. He can be reached by e-mail at jgilbert@duluth.com.)
Final Five intensity obscures focus on NCAA invitations
It seems very likely that the WCHA will send four teams, minimum, to the NCAAÂ’s expanded 16-team tournament this season, and the four are virtually certain to be Colorado College, Minnesota, Minnesota State-Mankato, and North Dakota. Those teams just happen to be ready and set to go in the WCHA Final Five playoffs at Xcel Energy Center in Saint Paul this week.
And even though the NCAA tournament is on the near horizon, the Final Five will be fiercely fought, and command the attention of all five entries, even though the games themselves could go a long way to determining NCAA pairings.
In national rankings, CC is No. 1, Minnesota No. 5, Mankato No. 9 and North Dakota No. 11. There could be more than four WCHA teams making it, because Denver is ranked No. 15 in one poll and 16 in another, and Minnesota-Duluth is the team that flip-flops with Denver, 16th in one poll and 15 in the other. St. Cloud State, also, has received votes. The final selection process must wait until all the college conferences complete their playoffs, and if the right teams lose, teams like UMD and Denver could rise.
The closeness of the WCHA this season, as the nationÂ’s elite college hockey conference, was underscored by the first round of playoffs. Colorado College swept Alaska-Anchorage in two straight, as did Minnesota over Michigan Tech and Minnesota State-Mankato over Wisconsin. The middle series figured to be the toughest, and they were, with North Dakota squeezing past Denver with a pair of 3-2 overtime victories following an opening 4-1 loss, while Minnesota-Duluth beat St. Cloud State 7-3 in the deciding game, after winning 5-4 and losing 3-2 in overtime.
So the pairing for the Final Five are set, with UMD surprising some by reaching the Xcel party, but the Bulldogs (20-14-5) are set to face North Dakota (26-10-5) in ThursdayÂ’s opening game, which will determine the fourth seed for FridayÂ’s semifinals.
On Friday, the UND-UMD winner will face Colorado College (28-5-5) in the first semifinal, while Minnesota (22-8-9) and Minnesota State-Mankato (20-8-10) meet in the 7 p.m. second semifinal.
North Dakota coach Dean Blais said he is happy to be facing his former assistant, Scott Sandelin, the UMD coach. UMD, because of the fragile nature of its rating, is pretty aware that the only way it can reach the NCAA is to sweep three straight games. That would mean beating perennial power North Dakota, then No. 1 CC, and then either Minnesota or Mankato, the teams that tied for second in league play.
Blais said he feels good about the Final Five, but that might be just by comparison to how he felt Sunday, when he was so sick that he said he went out to the players bench with “a bucket,†but retired to the dressing room because of the flu as soon as the National Anthem was played and turned things over to his assistants. He did return to the bench in the third period, and stayed there for the overtime. “I was going nuts watching the first two periods on TV,†said Blais.
The key to the weekend success for the Fighting Sioux came Saturday night. The Sioux had lost 4-1 to Denver in the first game, when the Pioneers scored three early goals. Blais made a goaltending change, bringing in Jake Brandt for a strong relief performance, and came back with Brandt the second and third nights as well. But North Dakota trailed Denver 2-1 late in the game when Blais pulled a bold move.
“We had scored only one goal Friday, and only one more in 56 minutes Saturday,†said Blais. “So when we got a power-play opportunity with over three minutes to go, I pulled the goalie. Brandon Bochenski rifled one in off a defensemanÂ’s shinpad to tie the game. Then Bochenski scored again on a deflection in overtime.Ââ€
Without the comeback Saturday, there would have been no Sunday; no wonder Blais wasnÂ’t feeling too well. “ItÂ’s a surprise that Denver ended up seventh, but thatÂ’s how tough our league is,†he said. “WeÂ’re going to have a tough time beating Duluth, then weÂ’ve got to play CC.Ââ€
The other semifinal pits two of the strongest teams in the country, as well as the league. Minnesota State-Mankato has lost only one game in its last 23, and needed all of its wiles to get past Wisconsin. “We scored with eight minutes to go to win 2-1,†said Mankato coach Troy Jutting. “Then we were down 4-2 and I made a goaltending change. Wisconsin was up, and we pulled our goalie and scored to tie it, then we won in the second overtime…We seem to play best when our backs are against the wall.
“We know the energy level will be unbelievable at the Xcel Center. Minnesota won the national championship, and they’re playing in their own back yard. It’s basically a road game for us. We’ve been the underdog all year, and we’re the underdog Friday night. But there’s nothing wrong with that role. I don’t think there’s any doubt that we weren’t getting a lot of respect, and we’ve used that during the season.
“But thereÂ’s nothing we can do with the computer (for the NCAA pairings), so weÂ’re going up to play the best we can. Colorado College has never won the Broadmoor Trophy, but neither have we.Ââ€
Minnesota came through its two game sweep of Michigan Tech in good shape, and Gopher coach Don Lucia said he was moved by Mike Sertich’s decision to retire as Tech coach right after the weekend. “He certainly had a major impact on my life,†said Lucia.
“WeÂ’ve come a long way, and weÂ’re excited to get back to Xcel Energy Center,†Lucia added. “We know weÂ’ll have a tight game against Mankato. We played them four times, and we were 1-1-2, and we ended up tied with them for second place. We know that any team that can go through the second half with one loss, and that to the league champion when they clinched the championship, is strong. If thereÂ’s one program, and one coach, who have tremendous respect for Mankato, itÂ’s Minnesota.Ââ€
Colorado College coach Scott Owens said he intends to enjoy this Final Five more than others, while awaiting the winner of the North Dakota-UMD game.
“We’ve been in position to play that fourth and fifth place game, with an NCAA berth on the bubble,†said Owens. “I know what it’s like to get so pumped up Thursday night because you know that you could end your season right there. Then you have to come right back.
“This year, we donÂ’t have the stress from that pressure, so we can sit back and watch Thursday nightÂ’s game. But weÂ’re 1-0-3 against both UND and UMD, and weÂ’ve only been on the smaller sheet one time in 60 days. We havenÂ’t put ourselves in good position in years past, but the Broadmoor Hotel has been a big part of the CC program.Ââ€
And the Tigers have put themselves into the perfect position to claim their first Broadmoor Trophy.
Surprising UMD keeps on surprising, reaching Final Five
Undoubtedly, some college hockey observers were surprised when Minnesota-Duluth beat St. Cloud State in a first-round playoff series. But everybody had to be surprised when UMD not only won the series, but finished it off with a rousing 7-3 victory in SundayÂ’s third and deciding game.
The best thing about playing the third game of a three-game playoff series is that it gets a team ready for what is to come in the WCHA Final Five – three games in three days. The suggestion was facetious, and it got the proper response from Scott Sandelin, who is in his third season as coach at Minnesota-Duluth, which just defeated St. Cloud State in three games to advance to the Final Five.
While UMD hadn’t advanced to the Final Five for five years, before Sandelin came on board, no team has ever come from the “play-in†game to win the Final Five. With a 10-team league, the first round pairings determine the five finalists, and teams 4 and 5 play each other on Thursday, with that winner coming right back to face the No. 1 seeded team on Friday. If the 4-5 winner happens to upset the top seed, it then gets to challenge the other semifinal winner – usually the No. 2-3 seeds – for another game on Sunday, the third straight day.
No team has ever come from the 4-5 game to win the Broadmoor Cup as Final Five champion, which also carries an automatic NCAA tournament berth. In fact, the only teams to ever have come from the play-in game to win a semifinal are Michigan Tech in 1996 and Northern Michigan in 1993. Tech’s Huskies beat St. Cloud 4-3 in overtime, then also knocked off league-champ Colorado College 4-3 in the semis – only to fall 7-2 in the final against Minnesota. Northern Michigan beat Tech 4-3 in 1993, then whipped league champ UMD 6-2 in the semifinals, before falling 5-3 to Minnesota in the final.
None of that, of course, matters to Sandelin and the Bulldogs, who have played resolutely through an even-keel 9-3-1 stretch run that includes the dramatic triumph over the Huskies Sunday. Except that if conditioning helps prepare for the grueling task of playing three games in three days, a task even NHL teams arenÂ’t asked to perform, then theyÂ’re prepared.
The only flip-side is that the Bulldogs (20-14-5) will find waiting for them North Dakota (26-10-5) – the team where Sandelin was assistant coach before coming to Duluth. Sandelin said the Sioux no longer are something special for his team to face, although he and Sioux coach Dean Blais remain the closest of friends.
“Scott and I are the best of friends,†Blais affirmed. “But when the puck drops, weÂ’re the worst of enemies.Ââ€
But North Dakota also got conditioned for the three-day run, because it took the Fighting Sioux three games to squeeze past Denver, losing 4-1, then winning 3-2 in overtime to square the series and finishing it with another 3-2 victory in overtime. The Sioux inched ahead of Duluth to take fourth place by one point when UMD was surprised by Michigan Tech for a season-ending split.
Still, the Bulldogs, who showed the largest improvement in the WCHA by leaping from ninth to fifth, with an improvement of 17 points in the regular season, brought a quick reward despite being one of the leagueÂ’s youngest teams, with five first-year players in the lineup (forwards Tim Stapleton and T.J. Caig, defensemen Steve Czech and Ryan Geris, and goaltender Isaac Reichmuth) and eight sophomores, with only five seniors and three juniors.
But the improvement doesnÂ’t seem quick to Sandelin. “I hope getting to the Final Five means a lot,†Sandelin said. “We feel this program should be there every year.Ââ€
The games against St. Cloud were a lot like the regular season for UMD, meaning the ‘Dogs battled hard every shift, got some key goals chipped in by various players, scrambled to play tough defense, and got good goaltending from both Reichmuth and senior Rob Anderson, who will start Thursday night’s game.
In the first game, Brett Hammond scored his first of two goals only 27 seconds after the opening faceoff, and after Jon Cullen tied it with an amazing, falling-down shot that snuck under Reichmuth from the slot, the Bulldogs broke it open with goals 21 seconds apart by Marco Peluso and defenseman Beau Geisler in the second period, and a goal by Junior Lessard at 6:07 of the middle period for a 4-1 lead.
The Huskies closed it to 4-2, but Hammond scored shorthanded at 3:08 of the third for a 5-2 lead, and Reichmuth withstood later goals, including CullenÂ’s second of the game, to win 5-4.
It was more of the same in the second game, as St. Cloud played much more forcefully, outshooting UMD 40-28, but unable to put the game away, thanks to Rob Anderson’s brilliant goaltending. Anderson, who had escaped from the role of back-up to win four straight second games of series he had played, held the Bulldogs in the game. Caig, in fact, rapped in Nick Anderson’s rebound at the crease to stake UMD to a 1-0 lead, which Peter Szabo offset at 17:24. Stapleton – UMD’s top scorer – scored with a dazzling shorthanded end-to-end rush before the first period ended to make it 2-1.
Matt Hendricks tied it in the second period, then the teams dueled through the scoreless third period and 11 minutes into overtime. At that point, Ryan Malone fielded a bad-bounce flip off the right plexiglass and broke deep on the right, beyond two defenders, then passed perfectly to the goal-mouth, where Mike Doyle lifted a quick shot in at 11:00 for a 3-2 decision.
Sandelin pondered coming right back with Anderson for Sunday’s finale, because he had clearly been sharper than Reichmuth. But he decided to stick with the rotation and go back to his prize rookie. “I decided about 2 a.m.,†said Sandelin.
Reichmuth responded with a sizzling performance, although UMD rippled with strong performances throughout the lineup, outshooting the Huskies 36-25. MaloneÂ’s power-play goal had given St. Cloud a 1-0 start, but Evan Schwabe scored on a Drew Otten rebound for a 1-1 standoff after one period. Then came a series of huge plays, executed by the Bulldogs.
Otten, a hard-working senior who had scored only three goals on the fourth line this season, was penalized early in the period. The Bulldogs killed the penalty, and when Otten came out of the penalty box, he caught a pass from Nick Anderson and scored a huge goal to make it 2-1 at 4:57 – just seven seconds after his penalty ended. Nick Anderson, with his back to the goal, deflected Tim Stapleton’s shot into the lower right on a power play a minute later, and Geisler scored another goal, this time rushing to the net with a pass from Hammond, and UMD had surged to a 4-1 lead.
Malone, who had blown kisses to the derisive UMD fans after scoring to start the game, scored again with a spectacular shorthanded rush at 3:57 of the third, closing it to 4-2, but the Bulldogs were not to be deterred. Hammond, the two-goal star of the first playoff game, scored two more – a power-play tally at 4:40 and a shorthanded goal two minutes later – and it was 6-2. Hendricks converted a neat drop pass from Cullen to bring St. Cloud within 6-3, but Stapleton scored a 100-foot empty-netter with 1:42 to go to secure it.
“The goal by Drew was big, coming out of the penalty box, and the shorthanded goal by Hammond was really big,†said Sandelin. “We got our fourth line to chip in a couple (by Otten and Schwabe), and the more we scored, the better I felt.Ââ€
The victory meant the top five seeds advance to the Final Five, where Colorado College remains the favorite, while awaiting the survivor of the UMD-UND clash, and defending NCAA champ Minnesota faces Minnesota State-Mankato in the other semifinal.
But UMD is clearly the Cinderella team in the Final Five. TheyÂ’re just happy to be there, but they havenÂ’t flinched at the task facing them.
“There are no bad teams in the Final Five,†Sandelin said. “The only problem we have is deciding on a goalie. Both have played so well, and Rob has gotten better with every game. So thatÂ’s a great problem to have.Ââ€
Pilot, improved CR-V bolster Honda’s expanding SUV list
The long-standing battle for supremacy in sedan-building has seen Honda and Toyota climb to the top echelon, but Toyota long has held supremacy if you add trucks into the mix, with the Land Cruiser, 4Runner, Lexus GX and RX models, RAV4, and Highlander filling every SUV niche, and the Tacoma and Tundra taking on the best pickup trucks.
Honda, however, is rallying to catch up in the SUV market. The CR-V has been a big hit in the compact segment, and the Acura MDX has made similar inroads in the upscale midsize SUV category. For 2003, Honda added the Element, a quirky, active-crowd CR-V spinoff that has also been a big hit, and its SUVs have proven as reliable and efficient as its cars.
Almost unnoticed amid the outpouring of new vehicles, Honda quietly introduced the Pilot to the mix.
Having already reported at length on the Element, I recently had the opportunity to road-test both the Pilot and the 2003 CR-V, which offer some similarities as a cross-reference to where Honda stands in the SUV business.
HONDA CR-V
When it came out, the CR-V was a bit light on power but filled with outstanding creature-features. My favorite is the floor platform at the rear, behind the second row seats. ItÂ’s handy to be able to lift the platform and have a hidden storage area underneath, but itÂ’s flat brilliant to put folding legs under that platform, and have it be instantly transformable to a picnic table. The hit of tailgating parties everywhere.
More than that, the drivetrain of the CR-V was brilliantly devised, too. Four-wheel drive is the mainstay of the SUV business, but 4WD does take away from fuel economy and is not necessary for most normal driving chores. So Honda equipped the CR-V with a power distribution system that features front-wheel drive all the time, but the ability to redistribute power to the rear axle whenever the tendency to spin signals that all-wheel-drive might be an asset.
The new CR-V has improved tremendously by the upgrade of the 2.4-liter 4-cylinder engine to 160 horsepower, with 162 foot-pounds of torque. ThatÂ’s not a lot of power, but the CR-V isnÂ’t a hefty vehicle, and the power is not only adequate, it eliminates the accusation that the original was a little under-powered. The engine has HondaÂ’s VTEC variable-valve-timing system that adjusts valve timing to the requirements of the moment, with dual overhead camshafts operating 4 valves per cylinder. It will tow only 1,500 pounds, which isnÂ’t bad for a light SUV, weighing 3,201 pounds.
The 4-speed automatic has grade logic control to adjust to your style of driving for shiftpoints. MacPherson strut front suspension and double-wishbone rear makes the CR-V handle well, and front and rear stabilizer bars make it handle even better. Disc brakes on all four wheels take care of stopping efficiently, with antilock brakes, side-impact door beams, and designed-in front and rear crumple zones all enhancing safety.
Air conditioning with an air filtration system, an audio system with cassette and 6-CD changer, driver’s seat height adjustments, a power moonroof, rear privacy glass – all are other standard features of the EX top-of-the-line model I tested. Another of the neat CR-V features is a fold-up center “console,†which is just a tray that can hold papers, maps or other such light stuff. When not needed, you can fold it, and it goes from being firmly in place to firmly locking down vertically, against the passenger bucket seat. That allows you to walk between the seats to tend to kids in the rear.
The ability to alter the interior to various configurations also helps the utility of the vehicle, and while itÂ’s not necessarily designed to go off-roading, it does have a steeply angled underside that provides extra front clearance. ThatÂ’s one benefit of the redesign and fine-tuning of the style, which now looks much better then the original boxy look.
It also handles well in any weather, and a trip from Chicago to Duluth was no problem, turning treacherous sounding lake-effect snowstorms into no problem. The CR-V also delivered 25 miles per gallon on the road. The EX costs $23,000, and came with no options – everything, including the secure feeling in all weather – was standard. The base model starts at under $20,000, and still offers the same drivetrain.
The CR-V is so good, that it reinforces why the new Element works so well, because despite being taller and boxier, the Element is a unique body fastened to the CR-VÂ’s proven platform and powerplant.
HONDA PILOT
HondaÂ’s creativity is always interesting to observe. The Acura MDX has challenged ToyotaÂ’s Lexus RX300 for supremacy in the midsize SUV class, and while Toyota generally makes its SUVs available in both Lexus and Toyota form, Honda picked up on that and remade the MDX into a Honda, giving us the Pilot.
In a way, it could be considered a slightly less-stylish MDX, but it also could be looked upon as an enlarged CR-V. It certainly resembles the CR-V in styling more than it does the more angular MDX, even if it performs up to potent MDX standards.
The test Pilot – that has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it? – also was an EX, meaning top-of-the-line, and came with 240 horsepower out of the single overhead-cam V6, measuring 3.5 liters. It also has 242 foot-pounds of torque, giving the Pilot tremendous power, and it has the similar all-wheel-drive-on-demand feature of the CR-V and MDX. I got 19.5 miles per gallon in mostly city and some highway driving, which is less than I expected, but probably a tribute to how much fun it was to step on the gas and get that variable-valve-timing to respond with pizzazz.
The drivetrain is also livelier because the automatic is a 5-speed, rather than 4. And the handling is very good, thanks to MacPherson strut fronts, multilink rear, and front and rear stabilizer bars. Stopping is enhanced by an antilock system that also has electronic brake distribution to maximize the potential of the 4-wheel discs. Stability is further aided by 18-inch alloy wheels with all-season tires.
While the exterior design might be nicknamed “MDX Squared,†the Pilot will appeal to more than just math students. It is loaded with neat features, including a satellite navigation system, and an audio system with AM-FM-cassette-CD augmented by a rear DVD player and separate headphones for rear-seat occupants. The 7-speaker audio has a subwoofer, and remote controls for the system are on the steering wheel.
The second row of fold-down seats also leads to a third row, which might be best described as bench jumpseats. The third row disappears into the rear floor for a flat platform, a trick Honda initiated with its Odyssey van, and carries through on the Pilot. The climate-control system is synchronized front and rear, with the micron air filter.
Grey leather front bucket seats have 8-way power with lumbar support up front. Airbags front and side bolster the safety features, and the Pilot got top marks in government crash tests.
The 240 horsepower, and particularly the 242 torque reading, mean that the Pilot can tow a 3,500-pound trailer, which is a ton – literally – more than the CR-V, but curiously 800 pounds less than its costlier Acura MDX counterpart. At 4,400 pounds, the Pilot also is heavier than the CR-V by over 1,000 pounds, but its power upgrade sends it 0-60 in only about 8.5 seconds.
All of those upgrades in style and features has a price, although a modest one by todayÂ’s SUV standards. The Pilot I test-drove had a sticker of $32,980 for the EX model, on which everything is standard, while the base model starts at $27,360.
It is HondaÂ’s clever concoction of features that enhances the Pilot, including subtle little things like a net on the backs of the front seats for storing maps, etc., and grocery hooks in the rear, so you can use elastic cargo tie-downs to keep stuff from sliding around.
The Pilot is assembled at a plant in Alliston, Ontario, and has 70 percent U.S. parts, with the engine built in the U.S. and the transmission being among the 15 percent Japanese components, compared to the test CR-V, which was built in Japan, with 65 percent Japanese content.
The Pilot fits right in with the best mid-size SUVs, at less expense, and is a significant upgrade from the CR-V. It also helps Honda achieve a stepping stone, where sedan buyers can move into inexpensive SUVs at the $20,000 level, and now they can move upscale if they need more room and still be at the $30,000 range.
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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