Motorweek; 1101

The. The. This time on Motor Week 92 we tried the new improved Ford Taurus. We also take a look behind the wall at the heart of the Corvette cigar one that DOS will have more cures for automotive ills and great seeing House journeys to a very expensive auto auction. So come drive with us next.

Monday to. TV's automotive magazine it is made possible by funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and to buy the financial support of viewers like you. Your host from motor week Monday to John Davis. Well hello and welcome to the first motor week ninety two. We're glad to have you with us as we start our 10th anniversary season. Now if you've ever left your house watch TV or open a magazine you probably know a Ford Taurus when you see

one. This aerodynamic family sedan has been the standard of its class since its introduction in 1905. The basic design is so sound that Ford has had little reason to change it for the last six and a half years. But the last couple of years have seen some formidable competitors arrive. Cars like Hondas sophisticated accord and Chevrolets reasonably priced aluminum. So Ford is finally making major changes to the Taurus. But will those changes be enough to keep the Taurus competitive. Along with its Mercury Sable counterpart the Ford Taurus looks much the same as it has in the past. But there are actually more than 200 changes and 750 new parts all of the Taurus has body panels except the doors and roof have been redesigned and smoothed out almost four inches more LINQ than a reduction in drag are the results of the 92 redesign. Headlights have been slimmed down and the nose cleaned up the same treatment is being given to the tail of the car and

both make for a lower profile appearance either coming or going. Sables exterior lines have also been softened and slammed with new body side moldings collar keyed rocker panels on GSA models and special wheels not available on the Taurus squared rear fender arches vertical bumper slats and the familiar light bar separates the more upscale sable from its sister car owners of the powerful Taurus S H O have complained that the car was not distinctive enough from the regular Taurus addressing that problem. The 92 S H O shares headlight assemblies with the stable and supports a smoother front facia ultra slim fog lamps and 16 inch alloy Rams wearing 60 series rubber finish the cars aggressive look. But badging is still minimal and subtle enough to keep the SH O in conspicuous to outsiders. Inside the dashboard has been revamped to a new flow through design but it is still well laid out and retains most of the qualities we like on the old car. In addition to a standard driver side airbag

1992 Taurus and sables will be available with an optional passenger side airbag to improve safety and front end collisions because of the sables luxury orientation. The dash is more sculpted and slightly different from the Tauruses. Supportive seats in the SH show have been lifted directly from the Thunderbird SC and require a good touch to operate the numerous out of view controls. Back with the electric window controls have been moved to a horizontal position on the driver's door for better visibility and ease of use. New radios for this year are more powerful. Easier to operate and offer an optional CD player as well as remote switches for the radio are located on the right side of the instrument pod. Something we're not crazy about. Remote radio control should be on the steering wheel so the driver does not have to remove his or her hands from the wheel. Ford was the first U.S. automaker to use the latest European style rotary climate controls and keeps them as standard in all Taurus and sable models. But this s h o boast the optional

electronic climate control system. Interior storage has been expanded to include dash mounted cup holders and chains dispensers along with a hollow armrest for smaller items. Gauges are still large and easy to read but fall short of informing the driver of vital engine function such as oil pressure and volts. A positive attribute of the original Taurus design was a high rear seat that provided passengers with better visibility than in most competitors. A feature continued here. The extra length allowed trunk space to be expanded to seventeen point nine cubic feet. However the lift over height has not had bumper level making the loading of heavy objects somewhat cumbersome but for really big loads. Don't forget the stylish Taurus and sable station wagons. They continue with all of the sedans upgrades their good looks seating for seven and wide cargo floor. One them our driver's Choice Award as Best wagon design for five consecutive years. We still think they are great wagons and a good choice for those who wouldn't be caught dead in a minivan.

The three point eight leader V-6 first introduced to the Carson sable in 1988 remains an option on sedans but is standard in the wagons. The 55 pound feed more torque it provides over the smaller 3 liter is needed to move the heavier loads that wagons usually carry. Roller tappets have been added to the 3 liter to reduce noise and wear. Yes a choke keeps its Yamaha bill two hundred twenty horsepower 24 about three liter V-6 on chains that includes no automatic transmission. But we are pleased to see a switch from cable to solid rod linkage on the manual shifter. That and other internal transmission changes have improved drivability for the Feinstein. Thanks to this zero to 60 acceleration times for the S H O improve slightly to 6.7 seconds. Automatic with a three point eight leader V-6 will manage the same 9.5 so. Other mechanical changes include numerous improvements to the body structure as well as a retune suspension that allows for a better ride without loss of handling of it.

The. Tires and wheels ride quieter while a speed sensitive power steering unit borrowed from the Continental is standard on Taurus and all sables. Brakes are basically unchanged. Disc in the front and drums in the rear and all just any lock system is optional on sedans and wagons and standard on the SH O. The some of the changes to the 1992 Ford Taurus and Mercury Sable is that the 650 million dollars spent to refine these cars makes them almost as impressive today as in 1905. While competition for the Taurus and sable from GM and the imports. Has improved. Greatly. We think that the trend setting forth products can still hold their own. 92 Taurus Sable is a great design made great here. Regular viewers of Motor Week know that one of our favorite performance cars is Chevrolet score of adze R1. Since its debut in 1989 we spent a good deal of time with our collective right foot planted firmly on the Z-R one's gas pedal.

We've always left the car wanting just one more turn behind the wheel well since we couldn't think of a plausible reason to test the car again. We decided to take a closer look at the driving force behind the Z R1 before cam 32 valve aluminum wonder known as the l t. Exhilarating powerful beastly. The ultimate. American sports cars. These have all been used to describe the Corvette Z-R one a car that any car company would be proud to call its own. So it may come as a bit of a surprise that the heart of this based the all aluminum L.T. 5 engine is made by Merck Crews are the folks famous for marine engines. But this is not as crazy as it may sound. The job was simply too small for Chevy zone engine plants which crank out thousands of units a day to retool a factory for a mere 3000 or so a year would be just too expensive.

And her merc cruiser a division of Mercury Marine a company with a reputation for quality engine work. Lots of high tech equipment and most importantly over 40 years experience and working with aluminum. It was the perfect answer for Chevrolet. So they set the ball rolling and production began about three years ago at Merck cruiser's facility in Stillwater Oklahoma. Components arrived for the LTA five from all over. But don't get the idea that Merc cruiser merely assembles these engines. With hundreds of complex milling and machining operations to be carried out these massive computerized milling machines begin a precisely choreographed ballet of drill bits and grinder. This is where those years of aluminum fabrication experience start to pay off. It's here that some 95 percent of the drilling boring and machining necessary for the LTA five is performed. And through it all tolerances are maintained to within plus or minus seven microns. That's about one tenth the thickness of a human hair.

Tolerances are checked at each station and periodically one of these robotic measuring machines would use a pressure sensitive probe to check precise dimensions. To maintain these tolerances. The temperature of the metal must be closely regulated during all phases of the operation. Technician Al Kersey explains him because aluminum especially aluminum will change its shape and size due to temperature change. The colon. Absorbs heat. From the parts at. The bottom. Of the cooler. Temperatures. Really critical. To finish up a milling process. Parts are cleaned and run through it. The Burren machine which resembles a giant cake shaker full of plastic foam guaranteed to smooth out even the roughest edges heads valve covers an intake plenum for powder coated and baked and then the finishing touches apply the secret formula here. Ordinary barbecue grill paint. The five really starts to take shape in the final assembly area here everything from seeding the valves and pistons to

talking down the heads adding the wiring harness is completed a surprising amount of the work is done by hand. And most workers are profession and several job instruction books at each station. Permit workers to pick up a new skill quickly. As each engine is finished. It is placed on a special cart and rolled into the Dyna room for a thorough check up. HLT 5 is put through its paces for about an hour undergoing tests ranging from half Ronnell cruising the pull power blast. But our story doesn't end here being after all a marine engine company. It didn't surprise us to learn that Murch cruiser had secured two L.T. fives for themselves. One pulls the shiny red Z-R one which in turn pulls around this snazzy wave skipping boat powered by you guessed it an LTE 5 altered slightly for marine use. This L.T. 5 pumps out a healthy four hundred twenty horsepower enough to rocket the way that a 24 foot Baha sportcoat an estimated 80 miles per hour.

Whether it's lipstick red interior and 640 Watts sound system the wet vent is definitely a showstopper which is unfortunately where it spends most of its time. The brainchild of Fred Piquet for president of mercury high performance the wet vent has made the rounds of major boat shows across the country. Luckily we managed to be on hand for one of its rare forays into the water. We were not disappointed. There are no plans to market that at this time but maybe if we all say pretty please. Well who knows. Ford The Complete History is a very big very complete book. The auto editors of Consumer Guide have done their usual fine job in assembling this fascinating look at the Empire that board built. The book follows the Ford Motor Company from its humble beginnings in 1896 through the 1900 model year covering all the ups and downs that the company experienced in between. There are plenty of fine photos

and a very readable text. We recommend it. Now it's time for another visit with Pat Goss. Our viewers have been riding him with plenty of letters and he's ready for a whole new season of solutions to your automotive problems that this time John we have a couple of letters about alloy wheels. Our first letter is from Mrs. Betty Stone of Governor New York. She says she has a nine hundred eighty eight dollars Daytona and they ran into a problem with the alloy wheels on it when it came time to rotate the tires. Seems that they took all of the lug nuts off of the wheels but the wheels were frozen solidly to the car. Now what can you do in a situation like that it happens quite frequently. Well here's one thing you could do. You could get out the old persuader and you could take a mighty whack at the back of the wheel and that certainly would knock it loose. And I don't think that's the most practical way to do it. What you can do in the real world is that you can loosen the lug nuts on one wheel at a time. You loosen them very slightly you want about an eighth of an

inch between the shoulder of the lug nut and the metal of the wheel. If you're unsure how much. Well take a flat bladed screwdriver and slide it between the lug nut and the wheel if you want just about the thickness of the blade of a screwdriver. OK once you've done that get into the car. You start the car put it in gear move it forward a few feet and hit the brakes firmly then move it backward a few feet. Hit the brakes firmly again. Now this action will typically loosen the wheel breaks it away from the hub on the car then take the lug nuts. Take them all off take the wheel off and you have overcome the immediate problem. But what about the long term problem if you put the wheel back on the problem is going to be there next time you want to get rid of the problem. Here's the way you do it. A wire brush you take that wire brush and you scrub the inside of the wheel where it fits around the hub on the car. The inside of the wheel

many times will be rusty it will be dirty it will be corroded. You want to get rid of all of that you want it down to bright shiny metal. You also use the wire brush over here on the hub to get rid of any rust or corrosion that has built up on that portion of it as well. Then you want to keep that problem from coming back so you use anti-seize compound and if you don't happen to have anti-seize compound you can use waterproof grease or wheel bearing grease. Put a liberal amount of it on the inside of the wheel and a small amount on the hub. This keeps the water away from these metals and keeps that corrosion and everything from forming. OK next this letter is again about alloy wheels and this is from Sharon R. Rainer of Camillus New York. She has in one thousand eighty eight Ford Crown Victoria wagon that has another common problem. Seems that they've tried everything imaginable to keep air in the tires but they lose air very gradually. It seems that the wheels have been taken off of the

tires and everything has been cleaned and sealed in re sealed and all of these things but nothing helps. Well believe it or not many times alloy wheels will have porous spots in them where air will actually leak through the metal. So what do you do if you take the wheels and tires off of the car. You leave air in them. You put them into a tank such as we have here and you look for bubbles coming out of the wheel. Once you find the bubbles that tells you where the leak is. The next step is to take the tire off of the wheel such as we've done here. You locate that spot on the wheel and now you need some special things first you need some sandpaper because you're going to clean the area that's bad. Then you need a tube of sealant. Now what you want to do here. Both GM and Ford have issued bulletins about this problem. The bulletin tells you how to fix it. It also tells you the proper sealant to use. Get the ball up and use the products that they recommend and that'll take care of that slow leakage

problem that a lot of alloy wheels have. Now last you're going to put the wheels back on the car torque wrench. It is an absolute must. You must never use an air impact wrench. And also remember when you have alloy wheels. After a couple hundred miles re torque the lug nuts because sometimes they work loose and if your car has a problem how about writing to me. If I use your letter on the air I'll send you a motor week T-shirt. The address is Motor Week Owings Mills Maryland 2 1 1 1 7. That's Motor Week. Always Mills Maryland 2 1 1 1 7. Summer is over and what a summer it was one of the hottest seasons in our home state of Maryland's history. So it's time now to see how our long term fleet handled the heat. As for our newest long term model this is a swift GA hatchback. Little has changed since our recent road test. It continues to deliver basic transportation

and more specifically style and outstanding economy. After 9000 miles in only four months fuel use has settled to 43 mpg right at the Swifts highway estimate. No doubt due to several vacation trips by the more thrifty members of our staff. With only oil changes for repairs it is no wonder that our cost of operation is a very low 3.7 cents per mile between 6 and 7 cents. Is average for most cars. While some of our staff have reservations about what they believe as the thin construction of the swift chassis and interior fabrics back so far show that the swift to be problem free and go on the go. Raring to keep on going is the oldest member of our long term fleet this Mitsubishi Eclipse GSX all wheel drive sports coupe. We did have to investigate some strange vibrations from the front end. Eventually we traced them to a slightly bent cast wheel rim. The result we think of getting the new speed bumps in our parking lot a little too hard. After twenty nine thousand miles the shocks are showing some weakness but that comes under the heading of

normal wear. GSX is too. Drive train is as robust as the day it was new. Economy continues to. Climb. Now stands at twenty three point one for the test cost of operation continues to drop to 6.6 cents per mile. A modest price to pay for the fun of driving this terrific. When it comes to carrying more than two of our group over moderate distances we turn to this Plymouth Acclaim elex after nine months it has endured 18000 miles. Up until very recently those miles were trouble free to a routine check discovered a torn boot front. Constant velocity joint resulting from drive cars run over road debris. At the dealer we had the driver's door power window glass realigned before it would shatter when rolled up and down balancing out these repairs. It's fuel economy that's going up. It now stands at twenty four point six for the test. Very good for an automatic V-6 sedan. Taken together the cost of operating the acclaim remains in

the middle of the normal zone at some. Point. Four cents per mile. A solid performance from a solid value packed mid-sized Ford or family sedan. Speaking of solid value we pick the Toyota Tercel coupe is our best bargain car of the year. It continues to live up to its billing with zero complaints from our staff and find fuel economy of thirty two point nine mpg. But your cell does mostly short range duty and impresses us with its sturdy construction and surprisingly refined ride in handling the vinyl seats did get a little hot in the summer but the air conditioning kept pace. After seventy five hundred miles cost of operation is a very cheap four point two cents per mile and we have reason to think it will continue to drop. And will drop back in for another check on our long term road test models in a few weeks. Perhaps then it will even have a new recruit or two. Our car of the week is a 1957 Ford Ranchero. It

belongs to David Welch of Dearborn Heights Michigan. If you have a special car that you'd like to show off we'll consider it for car of the week. Send a good color photo and a self-addressed return to motorway Owings Mills Maryland 2 1 1 1 7. And now it's time for motor week's end for Mission Specialist Lisa Barrow and the latest Motor News. We recently showed you the new Mazda MPEG 6 John. This week we have a good look at the styling of its cousin the 1903 Ford Probe like the emic 6 the new probes most striking features are significantly lower hood and roof line. The hood is so much lower in fact that it was difficult for Ford stylus to blend the hood into the mirrors as on the current model. This lowering is due to the use of shorter suspension struts which also allows stylus to eliminate the probe's distinctive hood blisters. The shape of the greenhouse area which is disguised with tape on this card to simulate roof pillars will

continue unchanged as a hatchback. The tail has been slightly cleaned but the interior has been completely redesigned and finally features a driver side airbag. On a more exotic note a classic sports car name has been revived and will soon return to the marketplace. This is the isso revolt a grief Oh it's a completely new descendant of the e so grief o legendary Corvette powered Italian sports car of the 60s. It's the brainchild of Pierre revolt the son of the original creator and an engineer on the earlier car. The new grief will be Corvette powered like its predecessor but will ride on a De Lara designed to frame chassis with active suspension and features styling by Marcelo Gandini who also designed the Lamborghini Diablo. John when you greet fellow arrives in 1903 with the price tag of two hundred twenty five thousand dollars but its impeccable pedigree should make the price almost secondary to the wealthy the newsiest rightfully so. Greg singer has been very busy. His travels along the hard road have taken him all

over the US. He's even started keeping a scrapbook. Let's take a look at the first few pages and see what he's been up to. The Hamptons. Located in Long Island it's one of the trendiest places to vacation with its quaint villages and relaxed atmosphere. It's also a great place to hold a prestigious auto extravaganza known as auto Hampton run by Guernsey's Auction gallery and headed by President Arlen and injure the event offered a little of everything to the collector and the kind of sore. But all Hampton is a composite event offering the most many facets of the wonderful world of sporting cars and combining auctions with the racing Concours with exhibitors. Our company is one that a lot of the company that loves sports cars loves racing cars and we're trying to do something that really is unprecedented in this country.

Kicking off the festivities through the streets of Bridgehampton commemorating the 1950s when road racing which is just beginning in the United States and if that wasn't enough exercise for your vintage classic car then it was off to the track for more spirited time. Of course the main reason for attending an event of this magnitude is the auction where just the right bid might buy you the car of your dreams. And there was a point selection to choose from. Whether it was an Amphicar that floated your boat or a vintage roadster or a were just exotic. This was the place to be a buyers and sellers paradise. Very surprised with a variety from all over the world. Different years and different quality. They should go for a nice price I would assume meaning that the economy is so

low and there are a lot of good deals to be held. Basically we're just here checking out the prices we brought our little guy from there a brand classic cars and this is a good chance of any to sort of get an idea where the car market's going so they get to see cars up close to that years if you go to the car shows in New York City and you know miles away from you can come out and get close to them. But fingerprints although I'll admit I'm going to be on BET. So once you have made up your wishlist it was time to take a seat and hope that would make that reality. Twenty twenty two thousand. Twenty five.

Thank you. Join us next week for another new car road test. Lisa Barrow will take us to a high performance motorcycle school. Craig saying hoss learns how to build a race car. Well also have a look at all the new Ford products for 1992 as well as Pat Goss and all the latest Motor News. I'm John Davis. We'll see you then. Motor Week 92 is made possible by funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. And by the financial support of viewers like you. If you'd like a transcript of this program send $4 to Motor Week transcripts Owings Mills Maryland 2 1 1 1 7. Residents of Maryland at 20 cents sales tax asked for show number 11 01. Motor Week is a production of Maryland Public Television.

This is PBS.