Motorweek; 1922

This time on motorways Ferrari's latest thoroughbred Hyundai sleek little Tiburon and Suzuki's ultimate Bullock bike. So come drive with us next. What we do. With you is a ritual automotive magazine brought to you by the boys. No matter what you drive and voices over 27000 items in stock virtually any part for any car with the name brand you know Plus it was staffed with certified technicians boys parts tires accessories service. Your host for Motor Week. John Davis. Well hello and welcome again to motorway court glad to have you with us. When you're a legendary company like Ferrari your biggest competitor is usually yourself because enthusiast don't compare the latest Ferrari to other high performance cars but they always compare it to previous Ferrari. And the latest Ferrari to arrive from

the prancing horse stable is this 360 mode. Now Ferrari says that it sets a new standard for Marin Delos eight cylinder cars. But after years of driving Ferrari's fastest most exotic models even we have to wonder how much better can a legend get. Substantially so if you ask us. The Ferrari 360 Modena builds on the design successes of its 355 predecessor in nearly every way for over 5000 hours in the wind tunnel pit in Purina produced a sleek modern clean shape that is still unmistakably Ferrari twinning grille opening radiators and define a center downforce tunnel that is pure formula 1 technology the same Scrubb character defines the rear also with exhaust openings flanking a large center Eric's tractor beneath the signature round tail lamps the side profile is perhaps the most fluid mid engine Ferrari design yet decidedly cab forward in

attitude the eyebrow arched front fenders melt into the sharply wrecked windscreen. From there the contours flow back to a typically high wide Ferrari rear section. The 360 looks liquid ready to pour over any imprudence Super Car want to be. The trim shape belies the fact that this is the largest Ferrari road car ever. So it's no surprise that inside is the most inviting Ferrari cockpit yet. Ergonomics are finally more than an afterthought as the driver is presented with a very intuitive control layout. Climate controls and a CB stereo are housed in their own pot on the set or dash ancillary switches for traction control and suspension settings are located to the left of the wheel. The center console holds the tiny reverse gear lever as well as a small bit of storage facing a deeply hooded analog aids cluster the driver is supported by firm leather buckets and grips a tilt and telescoping wheel behind that wheel on our tester was the available Formula One style electro hydraulic gear shift paddles. We first sampled on the three 55 F

one shifting sequentially through 6 forward gears without the benefit of a clutch pedal. Takes some getting used to but after a few miles we were wishing for this set up in all our cars fully automatic mode allows the driver to go shiftless and avoid the paddles altogether. Some of our drivers found the system bulky around town especially the reverse lever but in its element out on twisty roads or even better on the race track. Shifting the 360 is a pure delight. We spent a rather cold replies West Virginia day pounding the 360 around Summit Point raceways Jefferson circuit and can now understand why Michael Schumacher enjoys his work so much. Entering a past quarter the 360's first tendency is towards safe understeer. Now that will keep most drivers out of trouble. But it's no fun for the rest of us to have a simple cure is a heavy application of right foot followed immediately by a handful of counter steer. As the rear end leaps out under power. And his justice quickly reined in by the precise steering.

Past his corners. This process can trigger a strong pucker reflex and can keep the driver's hands and feet quite busy. But no car in our memory gives the driver so much immediate feedback to work with credit for that goes to near perfect weight distribution. Sticky 18 inch parolees to 15 45 brought in 275 40s in the rear and tremendous 13 inch vintage Brembo brakes with ABS lap after lap the 360 lunges from turn to turn held firmly by a 3.6 liter double overhead cam 40 valve. It produces three hundred ninety five horsepower and 275 pound feet of torque. And along the way serenade you with a mechanical symphony of sound all the way to its Eighty five hundred RPM redline launching in a slightly lower RPM our test car sprinted from a stop to 60 in just 4.1 seconds the quarter mile zoom by twelve point three seconds and a whopping 190 mph adding to the engine's appeal as its highly visible location under the rear hatch and the industrial beauty of the design itself 360 experience from the razor sharp

downshift through every neck training straight away blast is appealing. You never want to be in a street legal formula one feeling at that to fuel your own F1 fantasy plunked down somewhere in the neighborhood of one hundred fifty two thousand dollars to keep that in perspective. That might just get you a used Formula 1 practice engine and driving the 360 Moda is closer than you might think to a true racing experience. In addition to the sequential gearbox Ferrari adapted a drive by wire system variable geometry intake and extensive use of aluminum from its F1 racing program. Faulty aluminum used in the suspension engine chassis and body allowed for a 34 percent weight savings over the 355. The most striking result is in the aesthetic appeal of the architecture details like the exposed rails framing the engine Linda modern high tech look to the whole package and say a lot about the company that produced it. Ferrari has emerged from the shadow of its own cliché as builders of fussy

unobtainable cars for the Richie Rich and his now posed on the forefront of modern performance car engineering. For the Ferrari tree 60 mode not the name alone may make it an instant classic but the design makes it a legend. 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 anti-lock brakes. 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. Suzuki's. Burton. Right. Time now to check in with Pat Goss. Let's see what priceless Karkare advice motor week's top tech has for us this week.

This time we're going to talk about a recipe for disaster. That is a recipe for disaster on your car. It seems that just about every week there's a new bulletin it comes out that tells us not to do something that we've been accustomed to doing for many many years on cars. There's a case in point. Suppose you're sitting in a shopping center and you turn the key to start your car and all you get is a click. The car won't start. And suppose there's a good Samaritan that knows a little bit about cars that happens to be nearby sees your predicament and says oh I can help you out. Now what does a good Samaritan do. The good Samaritan goes to the trunk of the car and pulls out a ball peen hammer or some kind of hammer. Any type of heavy object then carefully slides under the edge of the car where he finds your starter motor. Now. One well-placed blow of the hammer on the body of the starter. You hit the key and the car starts. It's

wonderful. Well what happens. Well see inside the starter there are brushes that make electrical connections to make the starter motor work. These brushes move up and down they're spring loaded. Well sometimes those brushes will stick. Hit the starter with a hammer and that one sticks the brushes the starter starts the car and away you go. But this is something you must never do. See there have been big changes in starter motors used to be that inside the case of the starter motor there were metal windings in there for the electrical energy to flow through. Well these starter over here considerably different inside the body of this one. There are permanent magnets and this is a permanent magnet gear reduction starter. It's very very efficient it wears a long time but one blow of the hammer on the body of this one and a permanent magnets break up and the starter is history.

Well what's so bad about that. Well the problem is this starter the old fashioned one which wasn't nearly as durable. Costs about 100 bucks. Permanent magnet gear reduction which is a lot more reliable and durable that could be anywhere from 500 to $900. Ouch. Now so never hit the starter but also remember the permanent magnet gear reduction starters which are very common these days need a good strong battery. Always the battery has to be fully charged. They're very sensitive to low battery voltage. That means that periodically you need to have your battery tested using one of these battery testers. It will tell you the condition of the battery. It will keep you starting regularly take care of the starter and the battery. You'll never have problems starting your car if you have a question right 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. Our car of the week is a 1957 Chevrolet 150 two door sedan. It belongs to Dave Thompson of Alexandria Virginia. The president of the Capitol classic Chevy club. After a decade long restoration which included 14 months in the body shop it's a real jewel and the perfect cruising machine to show off advantage events. If you have an American classic like this to submit at least two good color photos and a description of the car to Motor Week Owings Mills Maryland 2 1 1 1 7. Builders of high performance cars have been comparing their machines to spirit animals for years at Ferrari it's the prancing horse and Lamborghini it's the Raging Bull and the dodge. Of course it's the Viper motorcycle builders on the other hand have likened their speediest mounts to everything from ninjas to

hurricanes but when naming their latest hyper bike Suzuki surprisingly settled on a name from the animal kingdom albeit a very obscure one. But at the rate it's going at all soon be a household word. That word is high and blue so the name actually of a breed of Japanese Falcon. Known for its ability to dine at speeds approaching 200 miles per hour. Since its introduction a little more than a year ago this is icky GSX 13:00 are high of who has taken the motorcycle world by storm. Design for ultimate street performance. It has astounded both press and public alike generating a slew of rave reviews and industry awards to find out if it was really that good we sought out the best in the West. The editors of Cycle World magazine to help us with the proof California is Carlsbad Raceway was the venue of choice where road test editor John Kennedy demonstrated just how fast is fast. Launched heart offered on the high of the hit 60 in only 2.6 seconds.

And smashed into the quarter mile in a mere nine point eight seconds at one hundred forty five point eight mph. Figures bested only by the incredible result of cycle world's top speed test 194 mph. We were impressed and its performance is even more easily understood. You learned at the high abuse a boast a clean dry weight of only four hundred seventy three pounds yet on cycle worlds die no pumped out a stunning 160 horsepower. And what's all that powered feel like you've seen a star track where they go in the warp drive. That's what it's like. You pin the throttle and run it through the gears and the scenery blurs. Be a tuck in tight behind the windscreen and get up to a hundred fifty plus and buffeting starts that rock your head around a little bit you know you're. Moving. But for all its speed the higher booster can actually be a remarkably docile road bike for every day riding as we found out while exploring its character on twisting arid roads south of Los Angeles. It felt smaller and more agile than

its eighty four point three inch length and fifty eight point five inch wheel base led us to expect and that's a propeller. Coupled with what maybe Suzuki's most refined power train ever a surprisingly smooth ride and a very comfortable riding position made this a machine that even a beginner could ride all day as long as they control their throttle hand. This despite the fact that much of the high who says design is related to that of the championship winning GSX are 750 Superbike a machine well known for its demanding character. The high abuse of power plant is a twelve hundred ninety nine CC liquid cooled dual overhead cam four cylinder. The most potent street bike engine and this is a key lineup period. It's bad by an electronically controlled fuel injection system which uses four big forty six millimeter throttle bodies to squeeze maximum fuel into each cylinder while the air that is mixed with it comes by way of a sophisticated ram air system that potent drive train rides in a beefy twin spar aluminum frame which is in turn suspended on fully

adjustable 43 millimeter inverted forks up front and link type single shock suspension in the rear and stopped by beefy 320 millimeter Twin Disc up front grip by six piston calipers and a single disc two piston set up in the rear all wrapped in unmistakable body work that looks like something out of a science fiction film Alien. But there's a very definite function to this unique for the ram air and the placement of the intake for the ram air system became. The most critical part with the fuel injection system are the fueling system on the bike because they needed to place those docs at the highest dynamic pressure point on the front of the buy and that is why it looks the way it does with more of a vertical style. Have Light and more pointed shape in front a shape that is quickly become synonymous with speed and performance. And would you believe value as well base price for the GSX 13:00 are

higher is only ten thousand seven hundred ninety nine dollars. That's peanuts for performance that best some of the world's great super cars from Porsche and even Ferrari. This is OKI GSX 13:00 are high up. It's a quantum lightspeed leap forward in production street bike performance and present a formidable challenge to any other company focused on pushing the edge of the production bike on below because the high a boozer is so much more than just another fast motorcycle cycle whirls done can a put it back. Well you know every time a bike like this comes out. We think that's it. Did the engineers are probably capable of pushing that further. But we don't think that the government's going to allow a. Couple years down the road another bike comes along that that raises the bar and that's what Suzuki is done. The thing is they didn't raise it by a few inches they raise it by a mile. 2000 Mazda MPV is all new and more than warrants addition to our

motor week long term test fleet to begin with. The NPV is now front wheel drive. That's a standard V-6 engine and two sliding side doors. But while the new MPV includes many of the best ideas of its dominant competitors like this Honda Odyssey style folding third seat Mazda designers provided some innovations of their own. Did you know that this is the first sliding door minivan with roll down rear windows also. Rather than try and match its bigger rivals cubic foot for a cubic foot and PV chose a nimbler more fun to drive route. Not surprisingly this regular link minivan comes wrapped in smooth sheet metal that is more aggressive and sporty than typical people movers. But fitting a performance brand such as monster inside the NPV is extremely airy with a well-equipped cabin and large well marked gauges and controls the standard stereo includes a CD player. While the standard air conditioning system has a pollen filter the V-6 delivers one

hundred seventy horsepower from its two point five liters for its size its pretty gutsy even in passing situations. In those situations you'll find the NPV so agile and capable that you'll forget. If you're in a minivan go see if that feeling holds over the next 12 months. But check back next week when we'll look in on this Toyota Tundra and motor weeks next long term road test update. Now for all the latest on the car world Here's Jennifer CA's Navas and this week's Motor News. Not too long ago the 80 mile per gallon car was a myth surrounded by tales of secret fuel systems and government suppression. Well that car is a myth. But there is nothing secret about to 80 mile per gallon prototypes. Recently unveiled by General Motors and Ford GM is radically stalled precept which cost around 50 million dollars to develop borrows its cutting edge technology from a variety of other ultra high efficient concepts. The Chevy Tri-X the G 90 and the easy one. The five passenger precept

also features two distinctly different approaches to maximum fuel economy. One approach uses diesel electric hybrid power plants. Power is applied to the front wheels by way of a Panasonic electric motor that produces 45 peak horsepower. The rear wheels are driven by an Isuzu 1.3 later three cylinder direct injection diesel engine that produces 54 horsepower. It's oke to a four speed automatically shifted manual transaxle with forward gears only. Shifting is computer controlled and GM claims efficiency losses in this system are lower than automatic or CVT alternatives. Reverse operations are handled by the electric motor up front. These systems work separately and together to squeeze out as demanded 90 miles per gallon fuel economy. Another variation of the precept draws its power from fuel cell technology in this case by using a high drive hydrogen storage system that converts hydrogen fuel and oxygen to electricity with a possible range of 500 miles. The fuel cell precept could top 100 mpg all without

producing any harmful emissions like the precept. Ford's more stylish looking prodigy features lots of cutting edge light weight composite and aluminum material in its construction and a hefty 58 million dollar development cost. The Prodigy is a diesel electric hybrid powered by a one point two lead or four cylinder direct injection diesel engine. It's 74 horsepower output combined with the forty seven delivered by the electric motor. Give the prodigy one hundred twenty one total horsepower and performance comparable to today's Taurus Ford claims will begin producing a practical family size hybrid electric vehicle by 2003. But there's no word from GM as to if and when we will see any precepts on the street and with lots of R&D money to be recouped. No one's saying how much these hybrids will cost and that's it for this week's motor news when Hyundai introduced the Tiburon Sport Coupe for 1997. We question whether a car built for a working person's budget could really be that much fun to drive. Happily the Tiburon exceeded our expectations by

being a very entertaining little machine. Now if three years of market presence under its belt it's time for a new millennium make over so is the 2000 Hyundai Tiburon still a most enjoyable four wheel bargain. You bet it is. And that bargain just got even better because for 2000 the restyled Hyundai Tiburon which means shark in Spanish now surfaces in just one model Tiburon has been upgraded with many of the features that were available only on the discontinued efax. And yet to be Ron's 14 grand base price remains the same to make over starts at the still aggressive front with four projector beam headlamps the center once highlighted by bulging character lines that flow into the hood. One piece lower has a large air dam and lower air intake with integrated fog lamps. Front fenders are also new and the sharp looking 15 inch alloy wheels are now standard. The rear is also been reworked with larger tail lamps and air vents. The complete package has

provoked strong love hate reactions among our staff. But one thing is certain and you'll stand out in just about any school of fish. And the front drive Tiburon performance matches its morning appearance. It scoots to 60 in just seven point six seconds a quarter mile and fifteen point nine seconds at 87 mph all courtesy of Hyundai's to leader double overhead cam 16 valve a the inline 4 cylinder engine. This iron block aluminum head power plant spits out 140 horsepower 133 pound feet of torque all delivered through either a 5 speed manual like the one we tested or a four speed automatic through our low speed slalom the Tiburon displays a nice balance feel with surprisingly little understeer evidence of its more rigid body construction than the independent MacPherson strut suspension with offset coil springs in every roll bars at the front and rear keeps the car firmly planted during rapid side to side transitions. Tire tester came with out the ABS option on the 4 wheel Disbrow aches so we did

experience some blocking of the rear wheels during our braking test and we feel that the 137 foot average stopping distance from 60 is a little on the long side. Do yourself and your fellow motorist a favor and order a beer. Did come with the optional leather trim as part of a fresh and interior way manually adjustable front buckets are comfy with good support although some larger members of our staff found the bolstering on the backs a little restrictive. The steering wheel tilts and front a legible cluster of analog gauges before the center stack features a high tech with aluminum color accents which carry over to the operating rotary climate control. Our shark was also outfitted with the optional 100 watt AM FM Cassette CD player stereo and a host of other on low budget amenities like power windows power door locks power mirrors and cruise control rear seat room is confining for adults no surprise there. The split seat backs do fold bending the trunk 12

cubic feet of cargo space and the Tiburon sans options and freight of course can as we said still be had for a price of thirteen thousand nine hundred ninety nine dollars. Tack on our options which are part of a larger package costing just under twenty five hundred dollars and the destination charge and you're still out the door. Seventeen thousand one hundred sixty nine dollars. But the real kicker is Hyundai's excellent warranty package bumper to bumper coverage for five years or 60000 month 24 hour roadside assistance for five years at no extra charge. And original owners get limited power train coverage for 10 years all 100000 miles. Why add it all up in the 2000 Hyundai Tiburon makes its price your store to competitors. Look a little bit like. I hope you will join us next week for more motor week. Well test drive BMW is new X5 sports activity vehicle and a pair of high performance Cadillac a

terrace. Jennifer because novice brings us up to speed on Automotive Recycling. While past GA shows you how to avoid a nasty shock bus will have another long term road test update and all the latest Motor News. I'm John Davis. We'll see you then. To learn more about Motor Week TV's original automotive magazine visit us at PBS online at the Internet address on your screen. Motor Week has been brought to you by Pep Boys. No matter what you drive Pep Boys has over 27000 items in stock virtually any part for any car. With all the name brands you know plus service space staffed with certified technicians Pep Boys parts tires accessories service. To order a video cassette of this program call 1 800 4 2 2 0 0 6 4 or 7 1095 plus 495 shipping and handling to Motor Week Post Office Box 5 5 7 4 2 Indianapolis Indiana 4 6 2 0 5. Oh God. This is PBS.