Once More…with Feeling

(repeat performance) ✜

THE CARRERA GT is Porsche’s flagship, powered by a 5.7-liter, 605-horse V-10 with a six-speed manual transmission. Going price is $440,000, and, with a $3000 destination charge and a $5400 gas-guzzler tax (EPA rating is a hearty 10 mpg city/15 mpg highway), bottom line is $448,400. Leno prefers the silver version: “It feels like the black car moved around more,”he says;Donohue couldn’t tell much difference.

PORSCHE, Penske, and Mark Donohue (right) made history on August 9, 1975, when Donohue set the American closed-course speed record in his Porsche 917/30 (top), lapping the speedway at 221.160 mph. (Top right) David Donohue, with Leno.“I have a tremendous amount of respect for what he was able to accomplish,”says David in regard to his father’s feat at Talladega.

won in Can Am and Trans Am and,by 1971,had made his first Formula 1 start and won the inaugural Pocono 500 Indy car race.In 1972,he won the Indianapolis 500,and in 1973,won NASCAR’s season opener in Riverside,California,driving an AMC Matador for Penske.The next year,Donohue won the inaugural International Race of Champions.Donohue was,boss Penske has said,“the most consistent driver in the business.”

Shortly after that, Donohue essentially retired, becoming Penske’s motorsport director.But Roger Penske was about to enter Formula 1,so Donohue,having some unfinished business with F1, came out of retirement to drive the car.

A week after setting the Talladega record (see above),Donohue was practicing for the Austrian Grand Prix when,on the fastest corner of the circuit,a tire blew out,sending the car into a catch fence.A track worker was killed and another one injured,but Donohue seemed to come out unscathed—but he’d actually suffered a head injury and quickly lapsed into a coma.

Two days later,Mark Donohue died at 38.His son David was just eight.

Now,David Donohue is 38.And when Porsche asked him if he’d be interested in setting speed records of his own at Talladega,30 years after his father was here,it was an easy decision.

While David hasn’t been able to match his father’s success,many in the business suggest it’s because David seldom has had the best equipment or driven for the best teams.His forays into the NASCAR Busch and Craftsman Truck series were short-lived: “I have some unfinished business with NASCAR,” he says. Donohue’s become a solid sports-car racer,competing with teammate Darren Law in the Grand American Rolex sports-car series in the Red Bull Porsche Fabcar for Brumos Racing.

While some may regard the Talladega event as a publicity stunt, David Donohue takes it seriously.“Being a professional driver after my father was a professional driver,a lot of people assume that, since I followed in his footsteps,there’d be a lot of connections to him and his career.

“But there really aren’t that many,”he continues.“When I’m at a racetrack,I feel like I’m doing my own thing,being my own person, and there’ve been only a few times where I can really feel a connection.And this is one of those times.”

This time around,Porsche isn’t interested in eclipsing his father’s record,which was set in a full-house race car.The company wants to commemorate the feat in a bone-stock Carrera GT.The only concession to performance is a set of Michelin Pilot racing slicks, essentially the same rubber run at Le Mans,but with beefed-up sidewalls to withstand Talladega’s 33-degree banking.At speed, the 3000-pound Porsche will weigh close to 7000 pounds,thanks to the g-loading.

Porsche has two Carrera GTs available:a black one that’s served a long and unhappy life as a press vehicle (press miles are like dog years:multiply times seven) to the point where a new clutch and a newer,less-thrashed silver car are required.The idea is to use the black car for practice,the silver car for record-setting,and that’s how it works out.

Mark Donohue’s 917/30 had a 5.4-liter,turbocharged,12-cylinder boxer engine.It was blisteringly fast,but delicate:Grand American Racing director of competition Mark Raffauf was there and recalls that Donohue hit a stray piece of duct tape on the track,and it did “noticeable damage”to the bodywork.

Raffauf was one of the official timers for Mark Donohue’s run in 1975.Now he’s back for David Donohue’s turn.Raffauf’s crew sets

up multiple lights and sensors—transponders would be easier,but are less reliable—all hard-wired back to Grand-Am computers. From his standpoint,it goes well until Porsche decides to move some of the timing equipment from one side of the track to another. During the move,some of the wiring is damaged,leading Raffauf on a quick tour of local hardware stores in search of 4000 feet of cable.He finds it.Don’t ask where.

Also in attendance at Talladega is now-retired Porsche Motorsports chief engineer Norbert Singer.In 1975,in Germany, his team was working on making Mark Donohue’s 917/30 faster.“It was the first one that had an intercooler,”Singer recalls.He says horsepower was “over 1000,”but press accounts from the run peg the horsepower at more like 1250,possibly as high as 1400.Singer recently went over his notes from that 1975 event:“You know that we set the records in third gear? Third gear and fourth gear were quite close,”he says.“Second gear—that was good for up to about 200 mph.” ✜ ✜ ✜

So what would it take for the “ I did fine, for Carrera GT to go 221 mph? a comedian.

“A second engine?”Singer says,laughing.“It would take Imean, I think about 800 horsepower and a great deal more grip.The tires I could beat on that 917 were 20 inches Carrot Top. ” wide.It looks easy out there on the oval,but it isn’t.You’re ✜ ✜ ✜ on the edge all the time.”

Running at top speed in a street car is at least as challenging as going fast in a car made for nothing else.The Carrera GT,at speed, “is intense,”Donohue says.“There’s a narrow line around the track. I don’t have a choice of going high or low;I’m just guiding the car. You place it the best you can and let it tell you when it really doesn’t want you to make any more input.”The Carrera GT doesn’t like to be corrected.

Soon,practice is over,and it’s time to set records.But plans to have everything done by noon go by the wayside; it’s late afternoon by the time everyone’s ready to go fast.“I just ran 184,” says David,“and that’s fast.Every mile an hour after that is going to be really,really hard.”

Meanwhile,Leno,when he isn’t on a cell-phone making deals for more cars,entertains.“This track,to me,is a big oval.To a real race-car driver like David,they break it down into little pieces.And the concentration required…”

Donohue shrugs.Sure,it requires concentration,but so do a lot of careers. “Like vascular surgery,” Donohue says. “Can you imagine the concentration it takes to perform vascular surgery?”

“Which is one reason I don’t do vascular surgery!”

When it’s time to set records,things gets serious.Donohue sets three flying-speed records in the production category,including a closed-course record for the 2.66-mile track of 196.301 mph.He also sets records for the measured mile at 198.971 mph and the measured kilometer at 195.755 mph.

Leno sets three standing-start speed records in the same car, the fastest being 156.603 mph.Flying records are recorded from a rolling start,while standing-speed records are recorded from a complete stop.

One note about these records: They are, says Porsche communications manager Martin Peters, “Grand American records,since the Grand American sanctioning body is conducting the tests.”Since the FIA doesn’t handle the timing,they can’t be considered for world-record status, and Porsche and Grand American aren’t sure if they can even call them North American records.So they’re Grand American records,which is great,but prior to the event there have been no Grand American records,so whatever the cars run will be the record.

The upshot:Porsche’s Carrera GT goes very fast and doesn’t break.And there’s only minor damage when Leno spins.

Oh,yes,that spin:Leno’s streaking down the front straight,having just passed a timing trap at 182 mph.“He got too close to the wall, and he lifted,”Donohue says,“which suggests just how sensitive the car is at those speeds.”

Leno heads toward the infield,spinning at least five times across the track,then onto the grass,hitting only an orange marker cone.

Leno’s version:“It was…a deer! A deer jumped out in front of me!” There is no photographic evidence of the spin, so, as Donohue says,“It’s our word against his.”

“For a comedian,”Leno says,“I did fine.I mean,I think I could beat Carrot Top.Put me against Roseanne or Rosie O’Donnell,and I’ll be competitive.But for a race car driver—well,that’s David.Not me.” ■

familyvalues

Aisle six: corn flakes, detergent, white bread, sensible family sedans

■ words kim reynolds ■ photographs brian vance

ONE MORNING it happens. You glance in the mirror while stabbing at the wall outlet with the shaver plug to see a rumpled 47-year-old guy glancing back.A guy with a wife, a feisty five-year-old, a wailing newborn, Graco’s finest booster and reverse-facing child seats,and strong opinions about the LATCH system. And then—blink—you’re also a guy with a big, illuminated light bulb over his head.

Realization: All those automaton-driven Wonder Bread sedans, such as this comparison’s Honda Accord,Toyota Camry, and newcomers Hyundai Sonata and Ford Fusion are your friends now—they can store a pallet of 40-count packages of diapers in a locking trunk so your single pals can’t see them,ride comfortably in consideration of a newborn’s fragile neck, don’t tumble laterally off a corner if you suddenly swerve,and they aren’t finicky— and they aren’t minivans.Most important, they represent a value-for-the-money quotient that would be the envy of a Chinese Dixie Cup factory. Could there actually be more to this car thing than quarter-mile slips and slalom times after all? Your reflection is sadly nodding yes.

This edition of our popular family-sedan four-way represents an interesting encounter.Although they could pass for any quartet of cars in any Home Depot parking lot, there are seismic implications here: Two—Toyota’s Camry and Honda’s Accord—represent an almost untoppleable status quo.Another spearheads the furious advance of the Korean manufacturers trying to do to Japan Car Inc.what the Camry and Accord did to Detroit.Completing the circle is Dearborn’s quixotic gambit to recapture its past sedan glories.

Speaking of bets,want to wager on these four sedans’origins? It’s odd enough that all are North Americans,but what does one make of the lone “Detroit”car being built in Hermosillo,Mexico,while our Honda’s birth certificate says Marysville, Ohio; our Toyota’s,Georgetown,Kentucky;and our Hyundai’s,Montgomery,Alabama.Tell us again which is the American car?

Our terms of battle were V-6 engines coupled to automatic transmissions in the most typical trim available.Following the tenet that race horses are compared around turf ovals and poodles at dog shows,we mapped a route that dropped our family fetchers directly into their natural habitat,a big fat node of Southern California mock Spanish suburbia.

Maybe our fourth-place Camry LE test car was just having a bad car day. Or maybe the pedestal America’s best-selling sedan has been preening itself on isn’t as lofty as we’ve thought.At low speeds,its

FORD FUSION SEL

five-speed automatic lurched on downshifts. The concrete-induced tire-whirr decibels were two settings higher than any of us remembered,and its stopping feel recalled the heyday of cable braking. Demerits against a car that otherwise gives vanilla a good name,being erstwhile quiet as a librarian with laryngitis,comforpedic riding,and as solid as a poured-concrete foundation.

But the vanilla can get a bit thick.Roadtest editor Neil Chirico calls it the teddy bear of the group. Senior tester Chris Walton claims the steering is light,almost electrical boost-like (confirmed around our 200-foot skidpad where the Camry required a group low 3.8 pounds of effort at 0.5 g cornering rate). And the aforementioned tardy reply to the brake pedal results in a continuous state of high-alert in dense traffic.While our LE’s track-site stopping distance bettered the Accord’s dismal 149 feet by five,its sleepy reactions are far more consequential (at 65 mph,you’re covering 95 feet per second;do the math).

The 190 horsepower (per the SAE’s latest guidelines) available from the 3.0-liter DOHC V-6 is up to most chores,and,in the car’s 2005 LE incarnation, is otherwise freshened by a modestly redesigned grille, headlamps,taillights,chrome shifter base, and interior door handles. Ensconcing yourself within the Camry’s belly is like opening a textbook titled “Ergonomics Done Right.” with chapters on clearly marked gauges,rotary dials for ventilation tuning,and useable doodad binnery.Only the audio system’s “mode”control,located where the radio’s tuner customarily resides, fractures the perfection.

A car like the Camry needs to be measured against the expectations of its typical owners,who,for the most part desire a midprice, well-crafted, reliable, and limousine-like experience.And here it is.

Remember the moment when you somberly noticed that Japanese products were no longer inept carbon copies of American designs? We suspect Japan’s citizenry is getting that same clammy feeling about now because our third-place Hyundai Sonata is one accurate Camry

HONDA ACCORD EX

facsimile.Get out the micrometers.Length: Camry,189.2 inches;Sonata,188.9 inches. Wheelbase:Camry,107.1 inches;Sonata, 107.4 inches.Nod along with me here.Umhum,Hyundai came up with this car on its own.Now you tell one.

Where our Sonata GLE differs most alarmingly,though,is in price and standard features.Straight up,V-6-equipped against V-6-equipped, the Sonata undercuts the Camry by $2175.While slapping on the table standard stability control, traction control,a manumatic shift toggle,front side and curtain airbags, a 0.3-liter-larger engine with 45 more horsepower (delivering two-mpg-better highway mileage), plus five-year/60,000-miles limited and 10-year/ 100,000-miles powertrain warranties.Think of the last two as roughly one-third-bigger guarantees than Camry offers, during which time you need to just trust in Toyota’s legendary reliability.

But we don’t drive window stickers.In three-dimensional metal,plastic,glass,and paint, the Sonata is an uneven Camry alternative.The doors slam with a thinner thud.Inside,the waterline of cheaper hard plastics along the dash and door panels is an inch or so higher,so your eyes notice them more.Over micro-bumps,which the Toyota’s suspension absorbs without a ripple in your latte,the Sonata’s chassis quivers;on worse surfaces,its suspension skips and patters. But its steering and braking are crisper. “Nowhere near as soft and unresponsive as the Camry,”says Chirico, though Walton remains unimpressed:“The brakes are simply ‘there’and the steering is lacking in feel.”These areas may improve when the Sonata is equipped with the more aggressive 17-inch wheel/tire option,which Hyundai tells us eight out of 10 V-6 buyers are taking.With the group’s second-highest horsepower (235),the Sonata predictably posted the second-fastest 0-to-60-mph time of 6.8 seconds,though,while holding the “on” switch for long starts you begin thinking there might be a Cuisinart somewhere on that standard equipment list,too. Inside and out,the Sonata is conservative but attractively sculpted, with plenty of space front and back (particularly after the

HYUNDAI SONATA GLS

marshmallow seats nearly swallow you). Which nicely brings us to an interesting final detail:our Sonata’s cloth seat fabric.If you’ve never ridden in a Tokyo taxi,here’s your chance to pretend to be in one.The Koreans are so,so close.

After a few laps around Spanish-revival utopia,it became apparent that this fourway matchup was subdividing into two concurrent head-to-head pairings.You have the sense that the first two cars,the Toyota and Hyundai, were invented to ease hapless drivers through yet another week’s sorrowful commutings. The Fusion and Accord,on the other hand,view those hours behind the wheel as time not wasted.

Of the two, the Fusion is the more polarizing.If 90 percent of what matters about a car to you is how it feels in your hands,the V-6 SEL version of this Mazda6derived sedan could be your prize.If your checklist of automotive requirements has more than one box,the picture’s hazier.

Unapologetically sourced from the happy Mazda,the 2.1-inch-beamier and 3.4-inchlonger Fusion is no worse for the stretching needed to match Camry/Accord scale.It’s downright exuberant on twisty roads, in fact,a prancing,road-embracing sedan that left Chirico musing that its personality owes more to Bavaria than Hiroshima. What’s striking behind the wheel is the steering’s high effort (five pounds around the skidpad at 0.5 g) and how steeply the effort ramps as you dial off center.The brakes,too,have a businesslike feel on first touch—though the good first impression sags as heavier brake force is administered.

The 221-horsepower Duratec V-6 makes a respectable showing of itself (0-to-60 mph in 7.2 seconds),abetted as it is by the sixspeed transmission (a nice change from the norm, where the domestic entrant in a comparison reliably shows up a gear short of the rest).Peculiarly,your sole option for manually downshifting is the L slot,which drops you two gears, depending on circumstances.Unlike the Ford 500,which came to market with one arm tied behind its back—a motor too small for its size—the Fusion’s hit the ground swinging.

Where the Fusion’s perfect game aches a