Sport Utilities
Nabbing a Lamborghini for testing involves trying to chisel into a press-car calendar thick with celebrity-studded red-carpet parties hosted by the likes of Donatella Versace. It isn’t easy getting on the schedule. Lamborghini’s silk-suited brand managers are hyping a fantasy lifestyle, and we in the grubby Fourth Estate have nothing to offer against a Donatella photo op except burned-up clutches and chunked tires.
So when our single day finally arrived to snap into the Fritos-shaped buckets of a 632-hp Lamborghini Murcilago LP640 roadster—a car with $52,710 in options—it was tempting to dismiss it as just a cartoon commentary on the excesses of the filthy famous. Tempting, that is, until we arrived at the test track.
Introduced last year as a face-lifted Murcilago, the LP640 smoked 60 mph in 3.5 seconds and went wild whooping through the quarter-mile in 11.8 seconds at 126 mph. It brought its 4100-pound girth to a halt from 70 mph in just 150 feet and pulled more than 1.00 g on the skidpad. Ferrari Enzos move only slightly quicker and sell for more than a million. The base $351,700 LP640 roadster has some engineering cred that true car people can appreciate, even if Donatella hasn’t a clue.
As with the previous Murcilago, the LP640 roadster looks like an LP640 coupe that lost its roof panel to a passing tornado. Jagged edges and some unfinished lines are the result. The roadster’s roof-toupee is a better description-is a flimsy canvas sheet with a few snap-in poles and fold-out ribs to hold its shape. Practiced hands take about five minutes to insert tabs A into slots B. A plaque warns against exceeding 100 mph with the roof on, something the roadster can accomplish in second gear. When not threatening to shear off, the roof stows-just barely-in the front cargo bin.
Article source: http://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/car/07q3/2007_lamborghini_murcielago_lp640_roadster-short_take_road_test
Lamborghini Murcielago LP640 Roadster Experimental Short Film
Listen, this brings us no joy. We love coming across a new car that is so freakishly compelling that we encourage you to sell the house immediately and buy one. At the same time, we are ever ready to publicly smack the snot out of a new car that warrants it.
We’ve just gotten out of the 2001 Acura 3.2CL Type S, and unfortunately, neither approach seems appropriate. That’s because the Type S is so undeniably good, so well-produced, so good at the process of being what it is supposed to be that it has left us utterly unmoved.
This was not supposed to be the new 3.2CL’s lot in life. The 3.2CL, and especially this performance-tuned Type S, was supposed to bring passion and huevos to Acura.
Both of which Acura could use. The pre-’99 TL sedan was so devoid of personality that even radar waves passed through it without taking notice. And other than rear-end styling that looked vaguely like Ultraman’s head, the previous CL didn’t exactly set buyers’ imaginations afire.
If you judge by specs and numbers alone, the 3.2CL Type S should at least throw some sparks. The smooth SOHC 3.2-liter VTEC V-6 introduced in the TL makes a class-competitive 225 horsepower. Added to the Type S model is a low-restriction exhaust, a two-stage intake plenum that creates a resonance-supercharging effect to broaden the torque curve, and a higher compression ratio — all of which add up to a 260-hp powerplant.
The Type S also gets stiffer springs and dampers all around and a larger-diameter rear anti-roll bar. To this, Acura adds 17-inch wheels with wider (215/50) Michelins.
It’s all the right gear, and our track numbers show the Type S to be fleet and capable. Yet somehow the specs don’t tell the whole story.
Although the 0.82-g skidpad number is impressive for a car on all-season performance tires, good grip does not necessarily equal fun. It takes some pushing to get the front end of the front-wheel-drive Type S to push off-line. Inevitably, though, it will.
But that’s not the problem. The problem is that it’s not much fun getting to the limit. The Type S carries 63 percent of its 3526 pounds at the front, and it feels that way.
Honda engineers have done a fine job of stiffening the Type S’s ride for performance duty. Its body is well-controlled, and the ride quality is pleasantly firm. The nice, weighty steering feels eager to turn in, but the steering is making promises the car will fulfill only grudgingly. It lacks the necessary balance and fluidity that we want from a sporting car. No amount of grip can completely mask their absence.
Acura has added performance to a good all-around car instead of designing a performance car from scratch. There are inherent penalties to that approach.
The five-speed manumatic transaxle exhibits the same traits. Its gears are well-spaced. Its shifts are firm and certain. The Type S’s manumatic is one of the best of its ilk. It responds relatively quickly to shift commands. The shifting motion is a natural fore-and-aft flick. And its action has the positive, mechanical feel of a spring-loaded toggle switch. But it still suffers the same dissatisfying pause of all manumatics. More to the point, the high-revving, 260-hp engine positively screams out for a proper manual transmission. The manumatic is a brilliant execution applied to the wrong concept.
The Type S exhibits the same general competence that puts the Honda Accord on our 10Best list with inevitable regularity. That same mix of virtues vaulted the
to first in a comparo of nine luxury vehicles earlier this year . No wonder, since they all share Honda’s new mid-size platform.
Isn’t it fair, though, to ask more of a two-door — certainly one that Acura claims can run with the BMW 330Ci? After all, the two-door configuration gives away practicality. Is it wrong to expect something in return besides basic goodness?
We think not. Yet we’re still in the awkward position of having nothing concrete to dislike about the car, except that headroom isn’t great and the interior trim looks like a low-quality photograph of fake wood.
But if what you’re looking for is a subtly graceful, large two-door with good performance and a luxury nameplate, the Type S fills the bill. And that bill is light. Everything, except the navigation system, is standard, including heated leather seats, xenon headlamps, automatic climate control, a power sunroof, and a CD changer. All for its $30,785 price.
The Type S is a car that succeeds brilliantly at the mission set out for the Ford Thunderbird Super Coupe. It’s a sort of digitally remastered Lincoln Mark VIII LSC — a pleasant, powerful grand tourer that remains a bit wanting.
Acura would like to present the Type S as something else — a BMW 3-series, for instance — but you just can’t believe everything you see and hear, can you?
Article source: http://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/car/00q4/acura_3.2cl_type_s-short_take_road_test
Acura 3.2CL Type S "Palm Springs" Advertisement (2001)
Things are changing very rapidly in Japan and the information that is needed to protect ourselves is not forthcoming from any government. We can only monitor what governments do, not what they tell us, and make decisions as to what the real message is.
Published 18May2011, viewed 75 times
In this article we will cover the Ford, Toyota and VW & Audi single vehicle brand enhanced data scan tool packages. We will draw some conclusions from this series as to the most productive path, easiest learning curve and best allocation of available funds.
Published 20May2011, viewed 96 times
Brake Fluid Flush, Is it really necessary?
Unfortunately it is hard to understand something like brake fluid needing replaced when you can’t relate to it. Let’s try to understand some simple things to unravel it, shall we?
Published 19May2011, viewed 65 times
When it comes to the power steering you can choose whether to believe those that advocate zero maintenance, or you can choose to think about facts like automobiles have changed and how to eliminate or at the very least mitigate the costs of repair.
Published 16May2011, viewed 79 times
Today Fuel Injector cleaning is not about cleaning the Fuel Injector any more and it does not really clean the fuel injectors. It is about cleaning the air induction system, the carbon off the valves, the pistons and out of the combustion chamber.
Published 14May2011, viewed 97 times
In this second installment we examine some of the OEM and more popular multi vehicle brand Enhanced Data Scan Tool capabilities, warranties, construction, cost to purchase, cost to upgrade, and more.
Published 09May2011, viewed 91 times
Published 07May2011, viewed 84 times
An honest discussion of Scan Tools both generic data and enhanced data, their software packages, cost to own and operate, the learning curve and the use of code readers as a diagnostic tool.
Published 02May2011, viewed 96 times
As potential purchasers of Japanese vehicles and parts you should be aware that dangers exist and choose how much risk you and your family should accept to be an owner of one of these vehicles. Mechanics that service these vehicles, receiving and installing parts, need a way to know that a part or a car has excessive radiation. Then choose how to best protect ourselves even when that includes refusing the part or refusing to service a vehicle.
Published 30Apr2011, viewed 173 times
Source: http://www.submityourarticle.com/articles/JD-Durham-9266
About the time you read this, an international jury of automotive writers and Internet voters logging on to www.cotc.com will have selected a "Car of the Century" (the election has been organized by Car of the Century International NV and endorsed by all major auto manufacturers). The short list of 26 finalists under consideration runs the gamut from the exotic and the emotional to practical cars that sold in millions and others considered milestones of design and engineering.
Only two cars on that list are still in production in more or less the same form as when they were introduced: the Volkswagen Beetle and the British Motor Corporation Mini. The Beetle is by far the bigger seller (more than 22 million in 53 years), but the progress of time suggests that the Mini (5.3 million sold) was the more important trendsetter.
The Mini today is regarded as too small and too compromised in space and safety to be the perfect compact family car, its original mission. It is no longer cheap and cheerful, but it fits into the current fad for all things retro. Few young buyers will think, or care, about its lasting legacy.
The genius of its design, the work of the late Sir Alec Issigonis, was to squeeze the engine and transmission into 20 percent of the Mini’s 10-foot overall length. He did this by turning the engine sideways and placing the gearbox beneath it in the oil pan, and by driving the front wheels, which were correspondingly tiny. Some of these elements became universal in small cars — and in many bigger ones — but perhaps Issigonis’s greater achievement was to introduce the auto industry to the concept of "packaging," the art of providing the maximum space for passengers in any size of vehicle.
The Mini appeared in Europe in 1959 as two models, the Austin Seven and the Morris Mini Minor. It received favorable reviews in the motoring press, but the public didn’t take to it at first. It was too different in too many ways from mainstream cars of the ’50s. Even after the Mini Cooper arrived and began winning international rallies, and the car became a fashionable accessory in Britain’s Swinging ’60s, no one expected it to last into old age.
The Mini survived by default. Successive managers at British Motor Corporation, British Leyland, and the Rover Group could not decide whether, or how, to replace it. Death warrants were issued but always withdrawn before execution. Minimal changes were made to keep the Mini abreast of safety and emissions legislation, although the advent of tougher U.S. safety standards in 1968 signaled its demise in America.
The rise of Japanese cars hastened the demise of the British motor industry, so it is ironic that enthusiasm in Japan kept the Mini alive in the first part of the ’90s. The retrodesign movement started in Japan in the late ’80s, and with it came a new wave of interest in old Minis. Rover Japan persuaded headquarters to reintroduce the Mini there and make the necessary changes to meet regulations. Japan became its largest market. Of the 15,000 Minis built last year at Longbridge in Birmingham, 8000 went to Japan.
A 40th-birthday party for the Mini was held last August at Silverstone racetrack, and 15,000 celebrants turned up. Mini people came from all over Europe, Japan, and even America. They brought their concours Minis, racers, and rally cars, Mini-based coupes, buggies, and dragsters, and weird specials from articulated Mini trucks and double-decker buses. There were even high- and low-riding Minis, and a curious mobile thatched cottage.
The Mini’s maker was delighted by this show of enthusiasm, but in a dilemma. The Rover Group was bought by BMW in 1994. BMW said at the time of the takeover that Mini was a valuable brand on which it would build in the future. There would be a new Mini by the time of the 40th anniversary. Well, there is and there isn’t (see photo on page 117). The new car will not go on sale until 2001, and the old one must, because of stricter exhaust-emissions regulations, cease production by the end of 2000. So should Rover show off the new one to its prime audience? Some people in the company thought it should, but the BMW bosses said no. In the end, the new Mini made only a cameo appearance in a theatrical show reviewing the Mini’s history.
Article source: http://www.caranddriver.com/features/00q1/the_mighty_mini_turns_40-feature