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On Sept. 2 production in record time. Pontiac brings an exciting good drive an easy dove roadster to life. So join us out in the back in the lobby at some steps. Next stop on the motorway. Hi I'm Pat Goss This time high performance exhaust systems I'm Goss's garage I am Henry Topaz and I'm going to show you how I see these in safety and if. We get serious with BMW it's all new 3 series. So come drive with. Little. Rock you bought me. Using the special grade mechanics and automated tools Stanley props to support public television Stan makes the information available at the WW dot standing. By Dunlop tires for center of the Dunlop drivers cup and international competition racing to America testing the skills of nonprofessional enthusiastic off road and

on the track information at Dunlop tires dot com. And buy cars dot com. Let's say you're looking for a car. Cars dot com can help research locate even contact a dealer. Cars dot com find the right car for you. And Buy Radio Shack where the excitement is building with banks robotics. Next lets you create and design a working robot limited only by your own imagination. More information about that robotics is at Radio Shack or Radio Shack dot com. Your host for Motor Week John Davis. Well hello and welcome again to motor week. We're glad to have you with us. The Pontiac Solstice is the essence of a sports car dream. What started out as an auto show concept has now blossomed into a pure and heart open air two seat roadster reality with a low slung body a spirited performance and modest price. Let's also aims to steal more than a

few hearts along the way. While hard core Pontiac fans have long enjoyed the brand's Hallmark big borah pushrod power and boy racer styling the 2006 oldsters roadster makes driving excitement down a different road and to a whole new group of buyers. Solstice is a new kind of Pontiac. The first two seat roadster to ever wear their aero headband and GM is first attempt to challenge Mazda successful M-x Five me on a sports car. And the Solstice is all new from the pavement to the folding top. The Solstice is built on GM as new rear drive kapa platform which will be shared with the Saturn Sky roadster and a Europe only red top for mobile while the twin grills can I headlights said turn in fog lamps are Pontiac familiar. They're set in a very rounded nose that like the rest of the car

looks more Formula 1 than NASCAR. BMW style short overhangs in a higher at the hip profile ride on a ninety five point one inch wheel base that's about three and a half inches longer than an iMac spawn. The euro rear view includes an upswell lower pay show with high set tail lights and low said chrome exhaust him. The folding soft top profile fits in very well with the Speed Racer styling the top has a glass rear window with defroster. It unlocks easily and manually folds under a solid panel that is both the boot and trunk lid only modest effort is required. But you do have to get out of the car to open the panel. Once the top is dropped the cockpit reveals itself to be as stylish as the exterior and surprisingly roomy. It's all very driver oriented with a sweeping aircraft style instrument panel. Very sensible and familiar control layout and pedals arranged for heel and toe driving. There's a slick motorcycle style gauge cluster and front

but unfortunately no side impact airbag seating is a pair of close fitting manually adjustable sport seats with optional leather trim. Standard audiophile is AM FM CD with a 6 disc index CD changer MP 3 capability. XM Satellite Radio and monsoons 7 speakers are all available. Stated on souls This is a proper sports car drive train. GM Sue point for leader Twin Cam echo tech 4 cylinder fitted to a close ratio by speed manual with an available limited slip or a differential of 5 speed automatic comes later in the model year. The eco TEC engine 16 valve heads and twin balance shaft produced 177 orthe power and 166 pound feet of torque that 7 horsepower and 26 pounds be more than an annexe fine. But then the Solstice is about 400 pounds heavier still is 0 to 60 time at seven point two seconds makes both cars and even match. Indeed

the eco tank spins up quickly producing strong power throughout its rib range and a seriously sporty exhaust note. The 5 speed manual has short life throws precisely engaging each year complementing the energetic drive train is an all independent short long arm suspension that uses Bilstein clover monitor shocks. Brakes are all disc with optional anti lock behind standard 18 inch 5 spoke wheel when working in combination with a responsive power rack and pinion steering. The solstice exhibits quick order entry with front push. The platform feels light and with a near 50/50 front to rear weight distribution is very well balanced very much like BMX mom. And our pre-production car felt tight and solid with minimal chassis flex and body shape. It's the best built Pontiac convertible that we've ever driven and it's frugal to drive to fuel economy ratings are 20 city and 28

highway and it's even an expensive to buy base price for the Solstice is nineteen thousand nine hundred ninety five dollars. That's a grand less than the cheapest M-x find on obvious options like air conditioning and abs and you're still under 25 grand. The 2006 oldsters is not just another new Pontiac it's a whole new kind of Pontiac and we loved it like the emacs five the solstice is a pure sports car and a halo vehicle. They could lead GMC excitement division into a brighter and much more exciting future. Coming out satisfying SUV safeguards. You know they keep building cars and we all just keep buying. But when it comes time to fix them there's only one guy that we turn to. Let's just hope we don't exile lost our top tech had gone.

John there is a wonderful high performance exhaust on a high performance car. Doesn't make any difference what you drive. There are high performance exhaust systems available but you know before we go into the high performance exhaust system let's take a look at the way the typical muffler is designed and constructed. See this is the way the average muffler that comes on a car is built. The exhaust comes in here. This is connected to a tube that goes all the way through the muffler goes over here and it ends when the exhaust comes in it bounces off of the end of the muffler. There's no place for it to go except to return through this center too. Then again there's no place for it to go except to bounce off the other end and then back out through that final tube into the tailpipe to exit the car. Well if it keeps cars quiet there's no question about that but all of this bouncing around in there and everything that

leads to a lot of restriction and back pressure and it's not conducive to high performance. But now high performance mufflers hundreds of them on the market and they many of them have a really annoying characteristic and that is resonance inside the vehicle at highway speeds. You know the air in the car just moves around and it sometimes hurts your ears and you can't talk and you can't hear the radio and while it's a mess how do they do away with it. Well here we have a couple of C5 Corvette mufflers cut apart. And these are by course. This one is a touring system it's a relatively quiet one and it uses modern computer design to eliminate some of the annoying characteristics the exhaust comes in and part of it will exit through these little slots here and it goes out into these tuned chambers and each one of those chambers is

designed to eliminate a certain annoying frequency of exhaust tone. And of course it moves on through the system and out through the tailpipe. Now this one is relatively quiet. This one over here. This has a much deeper louder tone because it has fewer of those tuned chambers. But still has no resonance at highway speed you can Talk You can listen to the radio and all of these things makes for a wonderful ride. Now one of the things that you want to do before you buy a high performance exhaust system do your homework and look for one of these systems that uses modern technology you'll enjoy the car a lot more. And if you have a question or comment write to me the address is Motor Week. 2 1 1 1 7. Always on the prowl for something beyond the norm. This week Henrico

pads set his sights on the issue of SUV and safety and that landed him smack dab in the middle of Birmingham's Barber Motorsports Park where he got a chance to get up close and personal with the Porsche Cayenne and put the latest SUV safety systems to his test SUV or one of the best selling segments on the automotive pallet. And that means there are a lot of them on the road. They pull duty is everything from Kit hollers to rolling offices. But while they're all lumped into the same class not all sport utes are created equal. Everyone's concerned about safety when they're behind the wheel of a car. Eccles rescued these two but because of their different handling characteristics SUV is can be a real handful in emergency situations. But it doesn't have to be that way. And Porsche invited me here to Barber Motorsports Park to show me why. Barber Motorsports Park the home of the Porsche driving experience serves as the proving grounds for some of the latest and greatest active safety systems available to SUV drivers.

The event revolved around real world behind the wheel activities and how the new technology can assist drivers out in the open roads. And it all began at the PSNI lane change course PSN or Porsche stability management as electronic stability control that uses selective brake pressure to actively aid drivers in avoiding situations. A vehicle under the hood and out of danger is the driver's number one priority. When things start to get out of hand PSM jumps in. In the blink of an eye to help correct skids and slide while reducing the chance of a rollover while PSM can't overcome stupidity it does allow almost anyone to perform like a professional race driver. After a few hair raising runs through the course with and without a trailer. We moved to what I like to call traction control land. Driving on sealed wet asphalt similar to conditions a driver would encounter in snowy icy or rainy weather. We had a chance to see all the vehicles all speed traction control system. And make the most of it tricky. I guess you could say slick situation. Then after a few

runs through an ABS simulation course with the system turned off only tire flat spots and on and a couple quick runs around a tight auto cross track we headed to the barber road course for hot laps. This is where all the morning's exercises came together. If you go into a turn too hot. ABS is there to safely slow you down. Hammered a little too hard exiting a turn and the traction control system helps you accelerate as fast as you can and the stability management system. Let's just say that if you get into a situation where you need it you'll be glad you have. Any. All having a good time was par for the course. The bigger picture was obviously how all these high tech active safety systems go a long way in keeping SUV out of harm's way. At Porsche we feel that the consumer when they're looking for both a new and a pre-owned SUV should look for a variety of different safety features that not only will protect you in case of accident. But will prevent you from having.

Seen. What was really great was being able to see how the systems work together in a controlled environment for damaging your ride was the furthest thing in your mind. What we wanted to do was to give the participants an opportunity in a real world situation to go out there and experience the vehicle at the limits to be able to go out there and see exactly what these things are all about and what these things are all about is safety. More and more manufacturers are offering these active safety systems in their support units not only because of interest by the public but because the technology is a hands down win for drivers. So much so that in the future these systems may be something that you won't have to hunt for when shopping for a vehicle. It's likely that the government will propose later this year to mandate electronic stability control for example. It's not clear at this point when that would take effect. Buy me a number of years from now but nevertheless it's going to be pushing their own factories and going more aggressively to installing the system and if you ask me that doesn't sound like a bad idea.

Active Safety systems are definitely something you should look for when you're checking out SUV. Not only will they help keep you safe but the help you have a better time behind the wheel. Our long term garage is busier than ever and this week there are plenty of comings and goings leaving us is this 2005 Mitsubishi Galant GTX sedan. After 10 months and sixteen thousand five hundred miles we found this mid-size family four door to be a sharper and sporty or alternative to the blander diet of Cambrian accord. Mechanically it has been well free given our staff's constant use. That's saying something. This move 230 horsepower 3.8 leader of the six and four speed automatic combination delivered good fuel economy of twenty two point nine mpg. While we hate to see that go on go we love the fact that it's being replaced with the all new Mitsubishi Eclipse. This is the sport of the moment and we plan to spend a lot of time in mileage in it over the next year. We're enjoying

all of our time and mileage with this 2005 Ford 500. This highly flexible mid-size outside full size inside family sedan has seating in cargo carrying abilities that approach an SUV powered by Ford's able 203 horsepower Dura tech. These six are 500 includes both a shiftless CVT transmission and automatic all wheel drive. All acceleration seems slower than we'd like. We never have a problem in passing. Plus with sky high gas prices feel like Qana me at twenty four point two miles per gallon. After 4000 miles has something to crow about. Plus we love all the rooms the high seating position folding front passenger seat great rear seat leg room and huge trunk. Now if you have to have an SUV there are fuel saving alternatives. Turbo Diesel 2005 Jeep Liberty C R D is one of them. Its clatter could be music to our wallets.

We'll see how the Honda Odyssey minivan is playing out along with a Subaru Outback Sport Utility wagon on the next motorway. Long term road test updates. Now Jessica for all the latest Motor News. The Department of Transportation recently announced the biggest change in fuel economy standards for pickup trucks minivans and SUV. In three decades. The plan not only calls for the light truck fleet to improve fuel mileage to twenty three point five miles per gallon but for the first time brakes trucks into categories each with their own requirements. Under the new plan light trucks will be assigned to six distinct categories based on size or footprint with the smallest vehicles having to meet higher fuel economy targets than larger ones. If ratified the standards would be phased in beginning in 2008 with full compliance by 2011. And though immediately criticized by environmentalists who claim this effort is not enough the plan to reform the government's corporate average fuel economy or cafe

program is expected to save nearly 10 billion gallons of gasoline in the years to come. The proposal comes forth amid soaring gas prices and is being held is good news for consumers. Now U.S. Secretary of Transportation Norman mañana the program he says will ensure that vehicles we buy in the future will get more miles to the gallon. That's requiring less frequent fill ups currently automakers are required to maintain an average of 21 miles per gallon for light trucks with the standard rising to twenty two point two for the 2007 model year. The new proposal would raise that to twenty three point five miles per gallon by 2011. Small SUV such as the two had a Rav 4 and Ford Escape would have to meet a standard of twenty eight point four miles per gallon. Minivans like the Honda Odyssey and Dodge Caravan would be expected to return twenty three point three miles per gallon and full sized pickups like the Chevrolet Silverado along with big SUV like the GMC Yukon have a charge of twenty one point three. While the proposed new rules still do not include the

largest trucks like the Ford Super Duty and GM Hummer H2 comments on whether they should be included in future standards are being considered. This is the second time the Bush administration has raised fuel economy standards for light trucks and comments on the proposal will be reviewed for 90 days with a final rule in place by April 2006. And that's it for this week's Motor News. Like a well seasoned athlete primed for a competition the fifth generation BMW 3 Series storms into 2006 all ready to defend its title as the quintessential sports sedan. We're streamlined aggression and war power and performance. The three is clearly stronger than ever. So much so that there may be no competition at all. And the auto world when you achieve iconic status those who put you there will

accept nothing less than rolling perfection. That's the challenge facing the all new 2006 BMW 3 Series. And the fifth generation of the world's best known sports sedan meet said challenge head on starting with styling. Inspired by the five series Tiger lines improved aerodynamics and sharper sheetmetal achieve a fresher but still characteristic look the three twenty five I wear 16 inch wheels while the 330 I done 17 the sport package Jan 17 inch wheels on the 325 I and eight teams on the 330 are all trade in the spare tire per state or high performance run flat tire. These rear wheel drive sedans are turned by two versions of the NWS latest three liter Twin Cam 24 valve inline 6 using a magnesium and aluminum composite block for the first time in 325 high series form it delivers 250 North power and 185 pound feet of torque output into 330 Ah it's two hundred fifty five horsepower and two hundred twenty pound

feet of torque transmission's are all six speeds. A standard manual an optional step tronics automatic for both plus a sequential manual gearbox for the 330 odd. So how do these dueling sixes stack up. Well our chess 3:25 II automatic was spread from zero to 60 in a none too shabby seven point two seconds. The manual will do it in six point seven seconds while the 330 II manual comes in at 6.1 seconds. The variable valve timing six read willingly to redline the ring find a high end power after a sluggish leap off the line. The exhaust note is low but they're still aground. There's nothing but praise for the response of the chassis new to the three series is a double pivot strut front and five linked rear suspension that invigoration is well suited to a car with a 50 50 front to rear weight balance. Reaction is rapid in any lane change or emergency situation so quick that most

drivers will welcome assistance from the expanded dynamic stability control steering feel is heavier than its predecessor but in a totally sporting way. Optional is BMW active steering system with a wider variable ratio. While there is also less feedback it can reduce oversteer in emergency. The all bit hit his brakes also score well with stop from 60 averaging one hundred twenty nine feet. The larger distiller bridge smooth and stable stops with a great pedal feel and little abs pulsing. And a bump and grind of daily driving that 325 I delivers a firm yet sporty and compliant ride exhibiting excellent interior noise control. The new 3 series interior is 2.2 cubic feet larger and standard Burl walnut trims the cabin. Yet the look is more functional than fancy buyers can choose from the standard singlehood driver oriented instrument panel or optional dual hood version with room for a simpler to use navigation.

I drive display two audio systems fit the three series standard for the 325 I use a 10 speaker dual subwoofer CD MP 3 stereo optional to our test car and standard on the 330 II is a 13 speaker logic 7 system shared standards our tilt telescoping leather wrap wheel with audio controls cruise control start push button ignition and two way power moonroof at the back. Passengers will welcome the slightly better ne room but it's still a tight fit. The optional split and fold seat backs include a small trunk passthrough and trunk space is also up from Tim point seven cubic feet to 12 plus losing the spare as a storage bin under the load for. What's left. Well how about the price tag. Base for the 325 ah is thirty one thousand five hundred ninety five dollars. The 330 I asked thirty seven thousand two hundred ninety five dollars. Higher than competitors like the Infinity e.g. 35 to be sure. But then this is the one

true three series. The 2006 BMW 3 series keeps evolving improving and staying ahead of its rivals in the two things the brand is most noted for technology and driving feel. The new 3 series is still the affordable sports sedan benchmark and still without fear. But I hope you'll join us next week for more motorways. One more test Chevy's retro crossover the HHR and Mitsubishi is an all new eclipse sports coupe. I'm John Davis. Well CNN. To learn more about Motor Week TV's original automotive magazine visit PBS dot org. To order a DVD or VHS copy of this program call 1 800 8 7 3 6 1 5 for Motor Week has been brought to you by the Steam works makers a professional grade mechanics and automotive tools.

Stanley proud to support public health. In traditional WW dots they. Had to buy Dunlop tires for center of the Dunlop drivers Cup at international competition racing to America testing the skills of nonprofessional enthusiastic off road and on the track information at Dunlop tires not cars. And by cars. Lets say youre looking for a car. Cars dot com can help research locate even contact a dealer. Cars dot com find the right car for you. And Buy Radio Shack where the excitement is building with vex robotics. Next lets you create and design a working robot limited only by your own imagination. More information about vex robotics is that Radio Shack or Radio Shack dot com. This program was produced by American Public Television which is soley responsible for its

content. Yeah.