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Next on motorway what's new with GM for 94. The automotive love affair meets new challenges at a racer's town called Watkins Glen. So come join with us next. Most. TVs automotives magazine. Your host for Motor Week. John Davis. Well hello and welcome to motor week. Glad to have you with us. And if you've been with us the last two weeks you know that we've been surveying what's new from America's Big Three car companies for the 94 model year one yet to go as America's biggest automaker General Motors its last but certainly never leased a.

Giant General Motors has no fewer than seven passenger car and light truck divisions and they all have something to shout about for 1994. Pontiac is normally known as GM performance division but this year it's safety that's first on their agenda. The popular Grand Prix sedan and Coupe may look the same outside but inside they're the first GM mid-size cars to be equipped with dual airbags plus anti-lock brakes dual bags and abs were already standard on the new Firebird coupe. And now traction control is an option. Stay tuned for a Firebird convertible come spring. There is a change in power for the Grand-Am Pontiacs most popular car a more efficient three point one liter V-6 or plants the three point three leader and all the embodies grandam also gains a four speed automatic transmission as well as its first airbag at a driver's airbag to the plastic transport minivan too. But we also like the new blood in bolder front in also a power sliding side door is now an option. You'll have to wait till the spring of 94 before you can buy the Aurora Oldsmobile that

division's dynamic new be a luxury sedan. But that doesn't mean old has nothing to entice those ready to buy now. For instance 88 ls s luxury sports sedan are 94 the LS ass and all 88 and 98. Again a completely new interior that features dual airbags and vastly improved control placement. All other Oldsmobile sport at least a driver's airbag and a three point one liter B6 is now standard on the midsize Cutlass Supreme and optional on the compact achieved for the first time anti-lock brakes are available on the venerable but still popular cutlass Sierra. Over the last few years Cadillac has been making steady progress in changing the way enthusiastic about American luxury cars. The STDs and Eldorado remain among our all time favorites. But for 94 the traditional Cadillac buyer gets the attention with a new Sedan Deville and Northstar V8 power Deville Concorde while they share the flat slab sided styling of the rear drive Fleetwood. The chassis is mostly front drive Seville. The

interior is also influenced by the Seville but includes a larger dose of wood trim and the first airbag system to protect three front seat passengers. Changes to other Cadillacs follow along power lines with all Eldorado Zinser bills now north star powered and the legendary Fleetwood gaining something from the Chevrolet Corvette namely its five point seven leader L.T. one be eight. Horsepower is now 260 and driving a really big car has never been more exhilarating. Those thrills and more will be available later in the model year and at a lower price when the L.T. one meets with the Chevrolet Caprice to mark the return of the M Palla ss. Meanwhile other Caprice models gain a multi-port injected point 3 liter V8 that is both more powerful and efficient than last year's 5 leader. It's also nice to know this full sized sedan now has dual airbags too. Chevy's mid-size Lumina sedan will get to airbags too when it undergoes a complete transformation next spring and at the same time yet another classic Chevy nameplates

returns when the Lumina coupe becomes the Monte Carlo. We won't have to wait that long for the second f body model the Camaro convertible. Perhaps the most striking rag top money can buy. It's available in base and Corvette powered Z 28 tram. Speaking of Corvette minor changes have been made to suspension and interior liner two of the alterations to the popular Geo Prizm although it does include an optional leather interior. A revised interior and a new instrument panel is standard on the Buick Roadmaster. The biggest Buick also adds the L T ONE be 8 in eighty more horsepower. There's also a passenger side airbag. Ditto the LE saber and Park Avenue. While regal century and Skylark add one for the driver for an all new Buick you'll have to be patient until the Riviera reappears after the first of the year trucks are the fastest growing vehicle markets and GM is in the thick of it with an all new compact pickup design the Chevrolet Aston and GMC Sonoma body is both more rounded and more aggressive than previous compact pickup. All

B6 versions have standard for wheel antilock brakes. Inside the wider S-10 Sonoma is also a total transformation. The tall car like Dash is extremely modern but a full set of gauges to compliment a good stereo selection and tactile rotary climate control. Stretch cab models can see by the nine passengers Suburban is now available with a 6.5 meter turbo charge be a diesel. It's off the line acceleration is comparable to the burb standard 5.7 lieder gasoline V8 only a lot more frugal high mounted stop light is also new. Finally the rising star a GM Saturn things are going so well for Saturn that there are no major changes besides the elimination of freon from the air conditioning. We hope Saturn shine will remain bright and things in general will lighten up for the general. Which once again in 94 provides buyers with more automotive choices than any other car maker in the world. You know most of us take for granted being able to hop in a car and drive as far as we wish.

But for the physically challenging driving even short distances can be most difficult. Fortunately it can be made easier. Lisa Barrow explains in this week's ep why i report. The term physically challenge can range from a person in a wheelchair to someone with arthritis. But even with these substantial hurdles to overcome the physically challenged can enjoy the freedom of driving. This is digi driver drive system that enables those with little or no hand dexterity. Total control of a vehicle. How responsive the user is a compared to when you're driving with your hands or clearing as fast as you are with the wheel. The joystick controls acceleration braking and steering the vehicle and a touch pad allows the driver access up to 24 secondary functions such as power windows and door locks. When it comes to lives there are a variety to meet specific needs and preferences of the individual. Braun offers a rotary design that makes getting in and

out easier. This fold in half lived from Crow River allows the front passenger seat to be almost fully reclined for added comfort. This split platform from Rikon folds up leaving an unobstructed entry way while mobile takes UBL system is there when you need it and gone when you don't. This is a handy gadget from growing dependence. It's called the magnetic strip. You just take this magnet and press the strip and the hatch conveniently goes up. Or down. This mobility product is the traveler 2000 portable hand control. It's lightweight and can be installed quickly with no tools. It allows drivers with little or no leg function to accelerate and brake. However strong upper body strength is needed and it's best used for short trips according to the Arthritis Foundation an estimated thirty seven million Americans have arthritis and FII co-producer Susan Childress is one of them. She personally tested a few helpful

items that can make driving a little easier. If opening a car door is difficult. Try using a door opener. This opener from Matic is made of aluminum and has a soft padded handle for push button handles enrichments offers this design that prevents scratching or denting when turning a key is almost impossible. This key holder also from enrichments works wonders providing the needed leverage for people with arthritic knees or hips. This leg lift from matic can they getting in and out much easier. Also for the physically challenged some car manufacturers are offering their customers financial assistance toward adaptive equipment. These include Volkswagen Ford GM and Chrysler. They can be reached at these toll free numbers. So we some adaptations and the drive to be independent physically challenge can indeed enjoy the freedom of driving. Next up our master mechanic Pat Goss with lots more of his helpful Karkare advice.

This time John we're going to talk about a small but expensive part that most of us have heard of but very few of us ever see. It's a matter of fact unless you're a very serious do it yourself or or a professional technician you'll probably never encounter this in real life. You'll only pay for it and that is the cylinder head gasket. Now we have disassembled this engine so that you can see the relationship of the various parts appear we have the cylinder head which would be sitting down here on the top of the engine block. Well between the engine block and the cylinder head is the cylinder head gasket. It forms an air and liquid tight seal between the block and the head. Now there are two ways that cylinder head gaskets can fail. One of them is very very common and that is when you have that pinging sound you know as you accelerate that it sounds like a bunch of marbles rattling around under the hood of the car. Well what that is is fuel that is burning too rapidly and as the Pistons are moving up and down this fuel that

is burning too rapidly is slamming against the tops of the Pistons. Well it is also expanding and forcing its way outward against everything inside the cylinders including the cylinder head gasket. Now over a period of time if this isn't taken care of you can have a situation like what we have here this constant hammering tends to deformed the head gasket and sooner or later it leads to a head gasket leak. So you must take care of painting if you let it go it could cause serious engine damage. Now another way that head gaskets can be damaged and that is through improper maintenance of the cooling system you don't flush the radiator. I recommend that you flush the radiator at least once a year and put fresh coolant in it. Now to give you an idea what can happen as a result of not doing that. Here we have a new water pump and if we look at the impeller the circular part in the center we can see that it's a relatively solid piece of metal. But here's one off of a car that has had poor

maintenance. Looks sort of like a Swiss cheese all the way. Well that's what happens to many of the metal parts inside the engine because the coolant. Well it becomes acidic so flushed the cooling system at least once a year. Now what does that mean for head gaskets. Well on head gaskets we have this metal ring around the inside and that metal ring can also be attacked by that acidic antifreeze. Make sure you don't have any pinging in your car and make sure that you flush the cooling system once a year and keep the pH level of the coolant at its proper spec.. And if you have a question or comment write to me. If I use your letter I'll send you a motor week T-shirt. The address is Motor Week always Mills Maryland 2 1 1 1 7. This big blue car of the week is in 1934 Pontiac special sedan. It belongs

to Russell and Manda son of Zeus St. Marie Ontario Canada submit good color photos of your car of the week candidate to Motor Week Owings Mills Maryland 2 1 1 1 7. There was a time when Italian cars were a common sight on American roads but nowadays one of the few Italian marque still available here is Alfa Romeo. We think of how we usually think of two seat sports cars like this 78 spider yet the only alpha that you can buy here for 94 is the one 64 sports sedan. But more doors doesn't mean a less Italian car. When we last tested the front wheel drive Alfa Romeo 164 in one thousand ninety we described it as socially respectable but still unquestionably unique. That same description can be applied to our fresh and 164 LS test car on the outside it's received a series of subtle styling changes aimed at smoothing out its handsome shape.

These tweaks pale however to what's happened under the hood 160 Force 3 liter V-6 has been heavily revised with the addition of a second camshaft per bank and poor valves for cylinder all covered by a three year 36000 mile bumper to bumper warranty. It's free revving horsepower jumps to 210 and the LS 230 and the quadrophonic Leo sophisticated for speed automatic is optional but we were pleased that our test car came equipped with a firm and accurate five speed manual. This allowed fast 0 to 60 sprints of six point nine seconds. And fifteen point four seconds. 94 mph put a quarter mile. Wide flat power band in exquisite Italian exhaust note made every touch of the gas pedal a pleasure. Praise the 160 for his handling in 1900 and our LS is substantial grip still reflects the Italian love for fast corners quadraphonic Leo adds variable shock damping but we didn't miss it. The Bosch anti-lock brakes stopped our LS from 60 in an average distance of

117 feet. The pedal feel a strong and secure but smooth also describes the opposite European ride very much that of a high end sports sedan. Talian cars are rarely known for efficient are going to mix in the 160 fours restyled cockpit is solid progress. The driver's air bag is included sitting it's comfortable supportive with plenty of leg room with an improved view of the comprehensive gauge cluster. Dashing climate controls are now well marked if still too numerous. And we would prefer a larger buttons on the concealed cassette stereo sound quality is very good. Rear seat room is generous in the bucket style seating very comfortable while the seventeen point eight cubic foot trunk provides real family sized cargo room. The 164 his cost reflects the scarcity of Italian cars in the US market. The LS base price stands at thirty four thousand eight hundred ninety dollars or test car came to thirty five thousand three hundred ten dollars. Pricey until you remember that the least expensive two seat Italian car that you can buy in the US cost three times as much. So for a true

Italian driving through those with a bonus of Ford or practicality the Alfa Romeo 1 64 is a singular treat. Now it's time once again for Lisa barrow and all the latest in the news this week is Honda's entry into Indy car racing. There was a performance development subsidiary onda will supply 2.6 ride later turbocharged V-8 engines to Ray Hogan racing which will run two cars for the entire 1994 Indy Car World Series. This includes next May's Indianapolis 500 classic team has been testing the new engines in existing cars since April. And the performance will employ 35 to 40 people in its forty three thousand square foot testing facility in Santa Clarita California. In other Honda news the unique civic del Sol winner of motorways driver's choice award for best convertible of 1993 gets a performance boost for 94. This del Sol B.Tech is powered by a dual overhead.

Man 16 down 1.6 leader four cylinder with a version of Honda's variable downtimes of. The resulting 160 horsepower manual the only transmission available gave us the chance for some spirited driving around Honda's new American proving ground. For have a road test of a Dell So later this fall and that's it for this week's Motor News. You know the history of auto racing is one of fast cars heroic drivers and challenging race tracks. But the names of towns such as La Mothe France have also become synonymous with the world's fastest sport. One of those famous names belongs to a small town in upstate New York. A mandatory stop for Craig seeing us out on the high road. My earliest recollection of racing in the band was about the

second race in one thousand forty nine. I was a Southwark high school who heard about all the exciting races and lichens going on our big name drivers of the era. Coming here so I talked the boss in there letting me come up on the weekends and watching the race from the top of the piste. For racing the golden years in the street races are more than just pleasant memories. He is creating a museum to highlight those five Laureus years from one hundred forty eight thousand one hundred fifty two. When the very streets of Watkins Glen New York thundered with the roar of racing cars back then on the old track for the start finish line started down and down by the court housing went down just past the entrance of the Glen you turned right and you went up a long hill and I guess this maybe is where the Allies had the advantage over the other guys with their Cadillac and Chrysler engines and then partway up the hill was a railroad

underpass. That's where they went out of the underpass and there's a straightaway up there were Sam Collier. Unfortunately he was killed up here a race like that. There's a stone bridge around where they turn north. And come down and they cross the railroad tracks again and back in those days they actually help with trains up and stop the trains where the race and coming down the straight when they hit the railroad tracks coming down the hill they would actually become airborne. As I rode with Don Carty I gained a new appreciation for the likes of Briggs Cunningham the Collier brothers and all those others who challenge this narrow twisting ribbon of asphalt and dirt in those old cars protected only by a simple helmet and one's own skill racing at the Glen truly was a death defying act. When you go over the old track and you realize that these women would be averaging 65 miles an hour it's hard to believe back then that the guys

with those speeds have your country roads. And so when they were coming down from down the straightaway it was sort of dangerous so in a way but it was they were making history something that. Later. With with highways becoming more crowded driving today is certainly no picnic. We managed to get in our cars turn the key and go about our daily business unafraid to make turns he traffic lights are a free way for some people however the mere sight of a set of keys can induce overwhelming feelings of fear nervousness and NXT. Lisa Barrow is here again to report on a real problem that literally stops people in their tracks. With. This man is not alone in his driving. He's one of 60 million Americans that

suffer from anxiety disorders. At one time anxiety disorders were thought to be a form of hypochondria. Now they're considered the most prevalent mental health problem in the country. Fear of driving is one of the most common anxieties and for millions of Americans just being in the car can bring on a panic attack. Panic Attack is where a person has a cluster of physical and psychological symptoms of physical symptoms include such things as record heartbeat sweaty palms blurred vision dizziness feeling tightness in your chest supposed to where they're going to have a heart attack. Then the psychological symptoms include overwhelming feelings often of impending doom. Fear of dying. You're going crazy of losing control of oneself. People can have panic attacks just one or two or three and I think about it again and get on with their lives. But when someone begins having panic attacks. While we were driving we associate the attacks with driving and then begin to avoid driving because of fear of having another attack. At that point the person's world generally begins to get smaller.

And they need to get help. The causes of phobias are uncertain. However research seems to indicate a genetic tendency or major stress in a person's life such as a death or new marriage. Panic attacks and phobias accompany them are very treatable and there are two major types of treatment involve psychological treatment which include behavioral cognitive therapy and medication which often can block the panic attacks so the person can get on with the other kinds of therapy. In Los Angeles psych own is a therapist who helps people cope with their driving anxieties. He's been referred to as the Freud of the freeways and has enabled scores of people to get back in the driver's seat. I think a couple more breaths they get breathing in and out on a breathing in the pauses breathing out that they get it. We think everybody should rethink. In the beginning well before I even started with a sigh after having a couple of very

bad experiences on the freeway. Just the thought of getting on the freeway was totally. Just overwhelming but without even get on the freeway not even think about it. There's a lot of people out there and there is hope but that's for sure. And they're not alone. It's important for people to know that when they have a phobia driving phobia or any other phobia as frightening as it feels as alone as they feel as helpless as that is they feel that this is a very treatable condition with a 90 percent of people with this problem who find help are able to get over it and go on and live a completely normal life. For more information on phobias or to receive help write to the Anxiety Disorders Association of America 6000 Executive Boulevard. Rockville Maryland 2 0 8 5 2. Legendary cars like the Chevrolet Corvette don't come along every day nor do books like birthplace of legend. Author Peter Lloyd Castro has produced a thorough

and fascinating account of Corvette production at the St. Louis Missouri assembly plant. From accounts of the problems with early fiberglass body panels for the final move to the new plant in Bowling Green Kentucky this is a necessary reference book for every serious Corvette fan. Be sure to join us for the next edition of Motor Week. Well tests on his new Accord sedan along with the Dodge Ram pick up. Also round up the facts on tire recycling. And remember the forever young Nash Metropolitan. I'm John Davis. We'll see that. To order a video cassette of this program call 1 800 4 2 2 0 0 6 4. Or send twenty nine ninety five plus $4 shipping and handling to this address. That expanded version of motor weeks in Jaguar the roar of the cat is available

on video cassette. It examines past present and future Jaguar models. To use your credit card call 1 800 4 2 2 0 0 6 4 4 cent 995 plus $4 and shipping two motor week home video post office box 6 8 6 1 8 Indianapolis Indiana 4 6 2 6 8. It's. A long time John dates on the next edition of Motor Week will test the

anxiously awaited 1994 Honda Accord so they hand and drive the imposing Dodge Ram pickup that God gives us the lowdown on Spark Plug Lisa Barrow rounds up the facts on tire recycling. And Craig S. Haas remembers the part ever young Nash Metropolitan. So don't you miss the next motorway.