Motorweek; 2212

This time on motorways. Fifty years and still going back to the birth of a legend. And lightning strikes twice. So come drive with us. But with. TV's original automotive magazine thanks to my Pep Boys the economy people. That motor week my favorite one great show 30 quality minutes I show you can watch with your friends. You getting excited know there are cars involved. Of course I am and buy. With that. What are you looking for. Your host for Motor Week. JOHN DAVIS Well hello and welcome again to motor week we're glad to have you with us. For human beings turning 50 means middle age a little over halfway through life's journey. But a few car models ever make it to

50. And if they do rarely retain the spirit and excitement of their earlier years well one rare exception to that rule is the Chevrolet Corvette. It's 50 years young and in the prime of its life maybe middle age isn't so bad after all. With. Me. Of course few of us have had such an exciting journey through life as the Chevrolet Corvette. Born in the early 50s as a super stylish young roadster the vet was a feisty pre-adolescent during the 60s a tortured teenager during the 70s gas crunch and finally emerged into the 80s all grown up as America's Big Daddy sportsbook. The 90s saw the Corvette gain the refinement of middle age without losing the tire shredding fire of its youth. And now in the first years of the 21st century Chevrolet celebrates the Corvettes by decades with the special edition 50th anniversary model which is

available in both hatchback coupe. And convertible. No it's not the much anticipated C6 that comes next year but rather the current sci fi platform now with standard fog lamps dressed up with special anniversary red paint 50th anniversary badges and champagne painted by spoke alloy wheels seven teams in the front and eight teams in the back. Inside the 50th anniversary last the fantastic features a unique shale interior color and a host of new standard features shared with all 2003 Corvettes. These include new sports seats that in the anniversary car wear embroidered 50th anniversary badges and dual zone climate control underneath the pain and badges the anniversary rides on CMS new and innovative magnetic selective ride control. Replacing the driver adjust them. Sounds like a. Good time damping. MSR C is now available on all bets for 2003 as well as the Cadillac Seville. Standard on the anniversary that MSR C

shocks contain a special make neato real logical fluid it changes consistency and therefore the shock damping according to the output of a special electromagnetic coil inside the shock sensors on each wheel feed road information to a computer that constantly adjusts the damping to optimize both ride and handling. This is a suspension technology with great great capabilities and what is it that enables us to do as a company. Mr very skillfully tailor the ride personality of a vehicle just for a targeted kind of a customer group so the technology can be applied to all the true service and part of the sports car that said our staff was divided on the benefits of magnetic selective ride control. Some billing it delivered the promised ride quality while others felt the transitions between soft and hard or too sudden giving the car a jerky feel over bumps on smoother pavement However the 50th anniversary model still delivered all the

handling and grip they Corvettes are world famous school. And us RC. Fully eliminate. Funny Rowland from clown though you can still break the rear and lose him a smooth controllable slide if you wish. Thank. Goodness. That's because the 50th anniversary that's still facts five point seven leaders of your pushrod V8 which pumps out 350 or foward and 360 pound feet of torque to the rear wheel. The power flow is controlled by either a six feet manual gearbox or are test cars for speed automatic which when engaged punched the big that to 60 in only 4.9 seconds the quarter mile blackbody an equally exhilarating thirteen point four seconds at 106 miles per hour. As before with the latest generation 5.7 small block the power band is wide and flat with maximum torque available in only 4000 rpm. Throttle response is instantaneous so much so that it actually breaks the rear tires loose with each knobs him wrong.

American power but power is nothing without control of the Corvettes big bore will this brakes with standard abs allow it to stop from 60 in a precise 120 feet. It does dart about a bit when stopping on a loose surface but never enough to unsettle the chassis and pedal feedback is an excellent fuel consumption is surprisingly good as well. The EPA estimates for our automatic Corvette are 18 city and 25 highway. We got a very fine 23 mpg and 500 miles of normal driving price. Birds however jump a bit with the anniversary package adding $5000 to that sticker. This gives a 50th anniversary hatchback to the base price of forty eight thousand nine hundred ninety five dollars. The 50th anniversary convertible car starts at fifty five thousand seven hundred forty five dollars. Still that's nearly 25 grand less than a Dodge Viper are TTN and less expensive than most high end European sports bars with a lot less. Our. Family. And heritage. The

Chevrolet Corvette may be five decades old but it sure doesn't feel middle aged. It's still fast. Ferocious spawn 50 years young and in the prime of its performance like. Do antilock brakes always reduce your stopping distance in emergency situations. A new government study concludes that except on loose surfaces like sand and snow all panic stops can be shorter which will indeed walk breaks then without shorter on what pavement. And shorter on dry pavement. Remember ABS works best when you stop the brake pedal stay on the brake pedal and steer where you want to go. Coming up the very first that. You know part of the fun of owning a car like a Corvette is keeping it running like a champ and no one can keep Chevy's most famous designs in tip top condition like

motor Wake's own that tack pack gone. John Corvettes are wonderful automobiles but they do have some unique problems. Take midyear Corvettes with 4 wheel disc breaks through 1982. They use brake calipers that were fixed in position. So because the calipers couldn't move the Pistons inside the calipers had to be able to move in different directions up down sideways where a normal piston just moves in and out. Well that led to a problem where sometimes after a long drive on the interstate you hit the brake pedal and the pedal would go to the floor or nearly to the floor. Well what cause that was too much run out in the brake rotors as the rotors turned they'd slap these pistons back and forth that would cause the brake fluid to foam or in some cases an air to enter the brake system. Quite dangerous if you have that problem make sure you check the runout on the rotors using a dial indicator. Of course

this portion would be touching the rotor and you rotate it. You take the measurement the amount of runout must absolutely not exceed what the vehicle manufacturer a louse. Well I see 5s. They are highly computerized and they're great cars. But if you're going to do anything on them you need good information. Now if you look in the aftermarket you're not going to find a manual for the C5. The manual stop with the C force and even if you could find it you look at this manual and there is absolutely nothing there. A true C 5 manual comes in three books. There's a lot more there than there is in one of these universal ones. Also you could go online to sites like all data to get your information. Another big thing is with all of these computers spread all over the car some are behind the right front wheel some of them are in the floorboard some of them are even in the trunk of the car. All of

these are susceptible to more or intrusion in a lot of the warning lights and warnings in the information center can often be traced to more Easter. So lots of times it's a matter of following procedure disconnecting the various computers that affect that warning and simply plugging them back in that cleans the contacts. Problems go on if you have a question or comment write to me the address is mine are we always 2 1 1 1 7. Solo. On the auction block this week is a 1949 m g t c Now this is the car that started the sports car craze here in the United States. Returning G.I. is coming back from World War Two would bring them with them back from England. This is a classic English sports car all TC's are right hand drive with the body design itself is classic pre-war design the upright grill the separate headlights the soupy fenders the separate rear fenders. This

particular car even has a dual rear spares mounted on it. This car looks real clean. This appears to be a very very nice older restoration. It's also been driven so this is an ideal car for the collector that doesn't want to get involved in a full restoration So this looks to be a car you could buy take home and enjoy. So anything is worth. Well if the mechanic is really good a shape as a cosmetics probably worth between 18 and 22 thousand and that's a lot of fun for the money. A legend is commonly defined as an unverified story down from earlier times. What this means is that we really don't know if much or any of it ever really happened. But as Craig Singh ha shows us the legend of the Chevrolet Corvette has its roots in some very real and very intriguing automotive history. It was 50 years ago and post-war America was going flat out far Grace. The war shortages were over and returning G.I. had seen the agile and

responsive sports cars of Europe in the streets and on the track. And so the world's largest automaker General Motors debuted their response to the sports car boom at the 1953 motor Rahma car show. It was a new sports car from Chevrolet and since then fiberglass has never been quite the same. And here is the car that started the Corvette legend this is a 1953 Corvette and not just any 53 Corvette. This may well be the lowest mileage most original 53 Corvette in the world. The car is owned by Chip Miller one of the founders of the famed Carlyle automotive flea markets. Craig. This 1053 Corvette I located in one thousand seventy two. It had. Eight thousand seven hundred eighty eight miles on it. Today we're looking at a car. This is 50 years after it was new with nine thousand two hundred one original Miles. My

estimation it's the most original survivor of all 300 of 53 Corvettes. Got the original top but the original interior. It's totally original every nut bolt. Ninety percent of the paint is still the original paint. The tires of the original Firestone's I believe they still have the flint air left in them. I put in the factory there yeah it's great. The world first saw. A 1953 Corvette as the yaks 122 show car. That was the motor on the car in January of 1053. I think that the public loves the press loved it when in a production They're all hand built what we call hand laid fiberglass they were very well done but very labor intensive. Actually the first one rolled off the assembly line June 30th of 1953. And while extremely collectible today. Even by 953

standards these were not considered stellar performers. Everything was special up top. When you take the body off and you look underneath you've got really literally a 1050 Chevrolet frame you've got a Powerglide transmission. Now you've got a six cylinder Chevrolet Motor. Well Craig Here's the heart of the car. It's a blue flame six cylinder motor which I guess for sports cars of its era. Was a big motor in a big car. Six cylinder. Course today we laugh at him with powerful V-8 says had one hundred fifty horsepower breezed through three Carter side draft single barrel carburetors exhaust goes out a split manifold out double exhaust out the back. Driving this car is altogether different obviously than driving a car a Corvette it is just an archaic wail if you will but if you take it back in 1953 and compare it to the other vehicles of that time it really was sporty and had a good sound.

Actually sails very much like a boat or a sports boat of the time if you will of Chris Craft or whatever. It had a little more guts but it still had the two speed automatic transmission but the real thing but the thing about this part it's such an eye catcher it's such a deviation from anything back in that era it was so far ahead of its time to this day as a beautiful car the design work in the car is absolutely incredible. That's why it was such a success at the time. Still is a very sought after today. By the time we say goodbye to most cars and trucks in our long term test fleet they passed the point of familiarity and sometimes confidence. We're hard on the vehicles and you know what they'll be like after several years of ownership. But our 2002 Subaru wor axed is that rare car they continue to surprise us from Mile 1 through mile thirteen thousand four hundred ninety five and the nine months in between. Our drivers choice pick the best sports sedan

group both tenacious in the twisties and with standard all wheel drive totally confident in the wet and cold. Even if the 55 series performance. Fires are not a good choice for snow. We always got where we needed to go. While the two leader turbo charged two hundred twenty seven or so our flat four is high strong and happiest out on the highway. It still delivers a swift kick in the pants around town at an average of 23 mpg with the pedal often to the floor. What didn't we like about the wor x. Not much on really hot summer days the air conditioning couldn't keep pace and the engine sounded a bit strange. The clutch got noisy too. The black cloth seat fabric also holds a lot of heat and almost always looks dirty. Picking up every little piece of lint. But those minor foibles sure wouldn't keep us from owning one. Indeed with a $24000 base price that's about half that of a BMW M3. The Subaru dumb PR act is the most fun you can have on

four wheels and stay out of jail. But for those that get their fun off the beaten path. On the beach in the mountains or anywhere else extreme sports or games. Try this innovative Subaru. The 2003 bombing it's more than a reincarnated brand. The Baja is a cross between the all wheel drive al sac station wagon and a small pickup truck that includes a door into the interior entry. We are enough to make haha the newest arrival for our extended tour testily which also includes this new 2003 Ford Expedition for its first long term review on our next report. Now let's check in with Jennifer because novice for the latest happenings in the auto world and all of the rest of the motor news and current research shows the traffic accidents are the number one killer of children under the age of 14. It also shows that many of these fatalities could be prevented with the proper use of child safety restraints. In fact the latest numbers indicate that fatal

injuries to infants can be reduced by a whopping 71 percent when child safety restraints are properly used. A toddler's chances of survival improve 54 percent when they're strapped in. To bring parents attention to encouraging statistics like this and a new mandatory safety seat restraint system for nearly all new cars. Chrysler and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration recently kicked off an awareness campaign to promote child safety seat inspections and a latch safety seat restraint system. Our search shows that four of five child safety seats are not properly installed when checked at a fitting station to encourage parents to have their say VCs inspected and network of inspection sites has been created during the inspection process. Parents will learn about the latch safety seat restraint system latch eliminates the use of the car seat belt system and in the process corrects the two most common mistakes in safety seat installation. Not getting the safety seat fitted tightly

against the vehicle seat and not properly locking the seat belt into place. But a larger more encompassing safety message is also emphasized the key message is still the same. Every time on every trip. Whenever the wheels roll your child and the child's parents need to be safely buckled into a restraint system in the vehicle to allow the vehicle to do its job. Just in off the street are these latest photos of the 2005 Ford Mustang. Although the rears reported best back styling is well-hidden cars profile is showing a longer lead line and there are hints at a slightly recessed grill and headlands a nod to the Mustangs historic past. Sources indicate that the new 2005 Mustang should go into production sometime in the spring of 2004.

And that's it for this week's Motor News. More of that and celebrating their favorite cars 50th anniversary will want to add these two new titles from Bentley publishers to their automotive librarians. So your arc is done top the legend behind the Corvette by Jerry Burton is the fascinating biography of the brilliant and uncompromising engineer whose dedication to the Corvette was instrumental in making it an American performance legend the man who succeeded done top as Corvette chief designer Dave McClure who has written the fascinating and entertaining Corvette from the inside the terrific behind the scenes history of 50 years of Corvette engineering and development. Both must reach for the serious Corvette fan. Now we're all familiar with the auto makers practice of building wild one off vehicles for the auto show circuit. Most are just flashy come on it's designed to excite show goers while a few are thinly veiled looks at upcoming production models. But still others are hot rodded versions of existing designs and it's often this

last type that stirs us the most and when ever we get a chance to see one of these dream cruisers we can't help but ask the question what if. Fortunately for us our old friend John the leddy chief engineer for Ford special busily engineering thinks the same way we do. He's the man behind the Ford SVT Focus the SBT lightning pickup and the latest. Mustang Cobra. He's also been known to only some pretty wild concept vehicles most notably the US DOWN think Ari's boss 6 0 4 Mustang through which we first met him. But John and his SBT team recently took on a different project. They looked at the potent F-150 lightning pickup and asked themselves one of the lightning had a baby brother and thus was born as one of a kind snarling Sonic Blue baseball long winding home. Now you've got to be thinking what if

I could drive that well what would you do. Would you take the lightning bolt out for a Friday evening cruise. Its aggressive stance and custom paint would be sure to draw stares as you claim a primo spot at the local hot rod hanging out. Face it most of these guys have been saying the same guards every Friday night for years. So anything new is worth a look right. Rolling through the lot. The first thing people will notice is the lightnings alloy. Row up Broadway to 35 55 18 it's Michelin behind you a massive set of 345 dirty bodied teenagers on custom 12 and a happy wide rooms leave no doubt that this is no ordinary Ranger pick up the truck idles quietly. There is a slight rumble even guessing but that could be just one of those huge exhausted right in back the lightning bolt makes its thunder through a set of two inch headers fitting a three inch dual exhaust set up with Borland muffler. One crack in the throttle and heads are beginning to turn your way and you'll soon

find yourself the scribing the lightning bolt do a lot of curious people and I'll certainly be curious to know how Ranger wound up with a super charged 5.4 leader V8 under its hood. To accomplish that. SBT Engineers lowered the Rangers front suspension by two inches lower control arms and steering knuckles from the F-150 lightning were added to keep up the Ranger to accept a heavier powerplay. It all fits under a stock Ranger hood but the transmission tunnel and Bulkhead are slightly reworked for clearance. A modified induction system and a free flowing exhaust boost engine output to an estimated four hundred twenty horsepower and four hundred eighty pound feet of torque. Well talking numbers is nice but this truck was obviously built for action. Maybe next you could take a tour of the stoplight grand prix circuit. Now there's no sense in scaring the locals. Or drawing any attention from the Long know what this truck needs is a few runs down the drag strip just to blow the cobwebs out of it.

Now rather than take center stage at the local Saturday night drag races. You might prefer a nice empty track to keep the fun all to yourself at full throttle the lightning bolt becomes a deafening roar of mechanical mayhem. What better way to spin a sunny morning than by practicing your whole shocked or maybe burning up a few hundred dollars worth of rubber running the quarter mile in thirteen point five seconds at 100 1 mph. Of course to. Burn outs is fun and getting rid of the evidence afterwards is not. But while you're under the truck Be sure to check out the custom fuel cells put it between the box and cross brace frame rails. That Dr. Schatten rear axle are taken directly from the F-150 lightning. But both needed to be shortened. You'll notice also the gas filler is moved to the inside of the bed along with the battery inside custom leather seats with embossed lightning bolts await your next adventure. The cabin itself is sparse but nicely detailed with

body color door inserts and a few novelty accents just for the heck of it. Perhaps you'll take a drive in the country rev up the engine and spare a few gallons. Or maybe you'll just park it stand back in it. Meyer The engineering audacity that brought this Frankenstein to life. The horrid lightning bolt Ranger will probably. Ever see a production line. But it suits us just fine as a concept. They questions the conventional bodies our darkest automotive fantasies and provides the ultimate answer to the question. What is it. I hope you'll join us next week for more motorways. When will test the all new Honda Accord and dodge a second generation viper. Plus we'll take a spin into the world of modern scooters. I'm John Davis. Well see you then. To learn more about Motor Week TV's original automotive magazine visit PBS online at PBS dot org or America Online keyword PBS to order a video cassette of this program call 1 800

873 6 1 5 4. Motor Week has been brought to you by Pep Boys where coffee all fall. That's entertainment. That's better than the smell of new tires. Agree same time next week. You got it and. What are you looking for in the next. One. We are PBS.