Backfires

TABL E OF CONT ENT S JUNE 2022

C O L U M N I S T S

10. Tony Quiroga

Long time gone.

22. Ezra Dyer

The circle of Bronco.

24. Elana Scherr

Out of stock, out of mind.

U P F R O N T

13. Vim, Vigor, and Vin

Vietnam’s first car company is going all-electric, and worldwide, at full speed.

16. Short Stop

Braking from 100 mph is our newest test.

18. Stormy Six

Stellantis’s new turbo inline-six defies the electric onslaught.

19. Know Shows

Don’t be the schmuck who spoils the fun.

T H E R U N D O W N

66. 2023 Land Rover Range Rover

Sleek and chic.

68. 2022 Porsche Macan

Back to basics.

69. 2022 Bentley Bentayga S

Dollars and scents.

70. 2023 MercedesBenz EQE

Silent smoothie.

72. 2023 Toyota bZ4X

Safe at first.

73. 2021 Ford F-150 Raptor 37 Performance Package

A game of inches.

74. 2022 BMW 230i

Class of one.

E T C .

5. Backfires

Lap it up, readers.

80. The Ford Taurus That Didn’t Make It

Almost famous.

The joyful noise of the commentariat, rebutted sporadically by Ed.

CURRENT AFFAIRS

Just received the February/ March issue and saw that Eddie Alterman is listed as interim editor. Please convince (pay) the man to come back full time and save the magazine. Thanking you in advance. —Cannonball Warthen North Myrtle Beach, SC Bravo! Bravissimo! Car and Driver issues may be getting thinner and less frequent, but every article was car-oriented. We got to read about 30 different vehicles! Now that’s progress, Alterman. You know what? Keep my subscription! —Marek Jamul, CA Okay, regarding February/ March 2022: Wow, what a fantastic return to form. So pleased with the changes, and thank you for the vision and strategy. Everything is where it should be. Looking forward to what’s next! Goddamn, pal, excellent job! —Jim Macdonald Seattle, WA After picking up a copy of a rival, ahem, trendy motor magazine, I realized good writing is so much more important than just getting the bland facts in a flashy layout. I am letting you know I have renewed my subscription for another year. I am expecting you will put the $10 I have sent you to a good purpose. Maybe bring back John Phillips? Or maybe just some K-cups for the break room? Ben Ray California, MO Johnny is back, and we have no rivals; we just won a National Magazine Award—Ed.

LAPLANDERS

Lightning Lap XV did not include previous years’ lap times [February/ March 2022]. “Yardstick to gauge progress over time”? Hit me with it, please (don’t say it’s online). —James Mazgaj, MD Florence, SC Okay, doc. Instead of stating the obvious, I’ll cough twice instead—Ed.

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CAR AND DRIVER® (ISSN 0008-6002), VOL. 67, NO. 10, June 2022, is published monthly, 10 times per year, with combined issues in February/March and July/August, by Hearst, 300 West 57th Street, New York, NY 10019, U.S.A. Steven R. Swartz, President & Chief Executive Officer; William R. Hearst III, Chairman; Frank A. Bennack, Jr., Executive Vice Chairman; Debi Chirichella, President, Hearst Magazines Group. Hearst Autos, Inc.: Nick Matarazzo, President & Chief Revenue Officer; Debi Chirichella, Treasurer; Catherine A. Bostron, Secretary. © 2022 by Hearst Autos, Inc. All rights reserved. Trademarks: Car and Driver is a registered trademark of Hearst Autos, Inc. Periodicals postage paid at New York, NY, and additional mailing offices. Canada Post International Publications mail product (Canadian distribution) sales agreement no. 40012499. Editorial and Advertising Offices: 1585 Eisenhower Place, Ann Arbor, MI 48108. SUBSCRIPTION PRICES United States and possessions: $13.00 for one year; Canada, add $10.00; all other countries, add $24.00. SUBSCRIPTION SERVICES Car and Driver will, upon receipt of a complete subscription order, undertake fulfillment of that order so as to provide the first copy for delivery by the U.S. Postal Service or alternate carrier within 4–6 weeks. MAILING LISTS From time to time, we make our subscriber list available to companies who sell goods and services by mail that we believe would interest our readers. If you would rather not receive such offers by postal mail, please send your current mailing label or an exact copy to Mail Preference Service, P.O. Box 37870, Boone, IA 50037. You can also visit preferences.hearstmags.com to manage your preferences and opt out of receiving marketing offers by email. Car and Driver assumes no responsibility for unsolicited material. None will be returned unless accompanied by a self-addressed stamped envelope. Permissions: Material in this publication may not be reproduced in any form without permission. Back Issues: Back issues are available for purchase in digital format only from your app store of choice. POSTMASTER Send all UAA to CFS. (See DMM 507.1.5.2); NON-POSTAL AND MILITARY FACILITIES Send address corrections to Car and Driver, P.O. Box 37870, Boone, IA 50037. Printed in the U.S.A.

Backfires

What impact do the various drivers have on the comparative performance of the cars? The variable skill and experience of each driver— including how late they stayed up the night before— must have an impact on their and the car’s performance. —Steven A. Judge Royalton, VT We regularly check one another’s lap times to ensure we’re getting the most out of the cars. Typically, the delta between us is 0.5 second or less, with the assigned driver being quicker due to more familiarity with the car in question—Ed.

Wish I could say I cared about your irrelevant Lightning Lap. But I don’t, so I can’t. —Dave Grayson Calgary, AB Just wondering, why no electric or hybrid cars? —Richard Garriott-Stejskal Albuquerque, NM EVs appropriate for a track test weren’t available when we tested. We’re hoping to lap more next year—Ed.

Regarding Lightning Lap, put this letter in the “Where the hell was a Corvette?” pile. —Tom Orashan San Antonio, TX Another Lightning Lap

ignored. What happened to reviews, comparos, and worthwhile photography?

Hey, hey. We just won an Ellie for general excellence for our reviews, comparos, and photography—Ed.

The new issue with Lightning Lap XV is a joke. Where was the Corvette? Were you afraid it would show up all the foreign cars costing tens of thousands of dollars more? —Dick Draper Lincoln, NE The 2020 Corvette ran a 2:49.0 two years ago, you know, when it was new—Ed.

It’s hard for me to appreciate just how fast the Lightning Lap times are. I would love to see times from some regular cars that are out on the road. For example, how fast could one of your drivers take my 120,000-mile 2010 Mazda 3s Sport with the slushbox around VIR on my standard Yokohamas and AutoZone brakes? Would you be able to break 3:45? What about a middle-ofthe-road 2015 Camry or a 2018 Pacifica? How about a tradesman-spec pickup? Once we see what “regular” me better appreciate what the Toyobarus and Type Rs of the world are doing. —Tom Westlake, OH Rental-car agreements expressly prohibit track testing. But we’ve tested a 2015 Honda Fit (3:37.7), a 2019 Toyota Camry V6 (3:25.3), and a 2018 Honda Accord Sport 2.0T (3:18.4). When time allows, we’ll do more—Ed.

I am truly curious if we should accept that tire and track-surface improvements account for the fact that the 2006 Ford GT (fastest at first Lightning Lap) and the 2021 Honda Civic Type R LE tie at a 3:00:7 lap time? Isn’t this really just another subtle step in your pro-Honda, anti-Ford conspiracy? Or maybe you’re getting better at driving? —Justin Webb Columbus, OH It would be an interesting experiment to put some modern rubber on a mid2000s Ford GT and take it

L e t t e r o f t h e M o n t h

What happened to Letter of the Month? Can it be kickstarted again with mine? I was published in July 2017.

—Jem Karunungan, Simi Valley, CA Jem’s truly outrageous request nets a bZ4X water bottle for those sweaty days in Simi Valley—Ed.

time it picked up from that initial Lightning Lap. Of course, that’d depend on you finding someone willing to let you wring out their car. It’d be pretty cool, though. —Rob Gross Summerville, SC This sounds suspiciously like something Colwell wants to do—Ed.

I was surprised to see, in the latest Lightning Lap, that the Acura TLX’s tires lost grip because after one lap they became “hot and greasy. ” Everything else I’ve ever read about tires suggests the opposite: that being hot is good, because they gain grip. Can you explain why some tires get “hot and sticky” (good), but others become “hot and greasy” (bad)? —Bob Woolley Asheville, NC All tires, from racing tires to the track-focused stuff on supercars, create the most grip within a certain temperature range. Get the rubber too hot and the compound loses its ability to grip the tarmac, resulting in a greasy feel—Ed.

FAST TIMER

So, a $340,000 race-car Mercedes on cheater-soft race-car tires with a ridiculous race-car rear wing set the fastest lap at VIR? Yawn. —Ryan Owens Greenville, SC

Aww, someone needs a nap—Ed.

A BIG NUMBER TWO

I’m not sure what shocks me more: a 2-series that is not an M2 for $57K or the fact that a standard 2-series has 382 horsepower and weighs nearly two tons. Damn, I must be getting old. —Jeff Bjerke Klein, TX

BILE DUCT

Your photo of the GT3 shows something like a piece of tape in the front grille. Was that installed by Porsche technicians? If so, what for? —Luis Kahn Paris, France It’s a duct installed at the Porsche factory on all GT3s—Ed.

PEPPER POT

Curious how much you added to the price of the Cayenne Turbo GT Coupe to purchase the oven needed to bake those tires? Those Pirellis ain’t fitting in the run-of-the-mill oven, and no self-respecting restaurant or chef is letting you cook tires in their commercial unit. —Don Evans Sunapee, NH

WILD, WILD WEST

Your review of the new Subaru Outback [“Call of the Wild, ” February/March 2022] totally missed the point of this vehicle. You took it to a mud-bog park where only ATVs and side-by-sides can realistically play. I live in Colorado where steep terrain, ruts, rocks, and drop-offs are the obstacles of concern. I don’t own an Outback, but I have seen them in places I was unwilling to take a fullsize four-wheel-drive pickup. A version of the Outback with more clearance and skid plates will get you in and out of nearly any road or trail you could expect to take a competent street-legal vehicle in any season of the year. This version will sell like hotcakes in the Mountain West. —David Redfern Grand Junction, CO Okay, sure I just canceled my long-standing subscription because I was ticked about the bloated auto-renewal rate you pitched, but I still have to praise Ezra Dyer. His well-crafted tale is a great memorial to the late P.J.

Since no owner is likely to take their Subaru Outback Wilderness to a mud bog, we did just to see if it would survive.

The maximum payload capacity for my 2008 Yukon XL is 1805 pounds, but the sticker in the doorjamb says 1520 pounds. Why is there this discrepancy?

—Steve Wallerstein, Raymond, NH Payload figures are the weight of people and stuff that a vehicle is rated to carry. This important number is the difference between the curb weight and the gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR). Manufacturers set the GVWR for a model, so every pound that’ s added in options—oversize sunroof, power seats, etc. —is a pound subtracted from payload. The best way to know your vehicle ’ s is to do what you did and check the required doorjamb placard. —Dave VanderWerp

O’Rourke, whose Car and Driver pieces were treasures. —Jack Walmer Denver, CO

ELECTRUCK

So, out of the evolving electric-vehicle world, up hops the frog-eyed Rivian R1T [“Your Move, Spaceboy, ” February/March 2022]. Whatever its technical merits may be, a paragon of styling and design it isn’t. Just being new isn’t enough to make it good. —L. C. Bohrer Buckley, WA when they have a few million satisfied customers. Right now, it’s just another Tucker. —Fred Flynn Sun Prairie, WI I don’t understand everyone’s panic over the EVs. I’m old enough that I’ll have my “gassers” with manual-shift transmissions for the rest of my life, but I also hope that within five years I’ll have an EV. I’m glad we don’t all still have Ford Model As. When people run down EVs to me, I simply say, “Don’t buy one. ” There are plenty of gas and diesels available and will be for many years to come. —Kevin Wicker Walterboro, SC

REX EFFECT

A CVT in a WRX? Is the apocalypse nigh?

—Scott Daly Portland, ME If you’re going by that sign, it’s been nigh since about 2015, which come to think of it seems right—Ed.