Motorweek; 1502 PTV

This time on motor week a new family for a lightning Lotus and the toilet tire testing the drive with us. Next. TV's automotive magazine. Your host for Motor Week John Davis. Well and welcome again to motor week. We're glad to have you with us. For most of the last decade the best selling car in America was the Ford Taurus Taurus along with stablemate Mercury Sable bully the competition with efficient packaging competent performance and a long list of safety features. But while lots of people own Tara says their loyalty was in doubt. Also Ford

found that younger families were still more apt to buy cameras in Accords. So clearly a major change was called for. And here it is the DN 1 0 1 the all new 1996 Ford Taurus. With such a dramatic redesign for both the 96 Ford Taurus and stablemate Mercury Sable Ford expects to put another 570000 blue ovals into American garages each year well into the next century. Actually there's a lot more ovals here than the one on the grill. Ford is taking in an elliptical styling thing to the extreme on the new Taurus. The Oval grill is going to buy instead turn signals and clear lens headlamps that repeat the theme you know even small details like the side lamps door handles and even the general shape of the passenger compartment. While the Taurus looks smaller it is actually five and a half inches longer than last year around at the rear of the Taurus backlight is also elliptical and helps glide air offer you a light bar

that includes a neat integrated spoiler along with oval reflector. The coefficient of drag is down to a slip point. Rio the major visual differences for sable include turn signals inside the grille but also features a lighted logo two side windows per side instead of the three on the Taurus and a more normal roof line and rear facial treatment. That is rather elegant and one UPS other overall efforts like the Infinity J 30 inside the dual air bag interior the overall theme continues but details just warm you up with a wild dash centerpiece the oval integrated control panel and all controls for ventilation and stereo. This futuristic hard looks at first intimidating but in use it is quickly mastered while your eyes remain on the road. There are two seating novelties on the Taurus G.L. and sable G.S. six passenger seating features a flip gold center section that jackknifes into a storage console with sturdy cup holders

in the back seat. You'll find the only center shoulder belt in its class along with more leg room and adequate headroom for a six footer. Here is something else new for Taurus sable a 60:40 folding rear seat. The extra cabin space comes from a two and a half inch increase in wheel base now at one hundred eight engines. This helps move further the good highway right of the whole bar. But a complete reengineering of the chassis and adding single piece door frames quietly drives home the handling the feel of an extremely solid European sport sedan with torsional. Up to 87 percent and the inclusion of passive we're steering for the familiar. It really creates this tension. The new Taurus are impressive in tight corners on a high level of advanced engineering abound. Even the riddle car three leader pushrod Vulcan V-6 engine is revamped a stiffer block a new intake greatly lowers full throttle noise and vibration horsepower is up to 145 with 170 pound feet of torque. Taurus

G.L. and sable Ls are powered by an enlarged euro tech B6 like the jewel that powers the contour and mystique the twenty four valve heads and walk are all aluminum. Only now horsepower is a cool 200 with 200 pound feet of torque. Both engines are rated at 100000 miles between tune ups with the V-6 we managed to find 0 to 60 run of eight point seven seconds. That's over a second better than last year's 3.8. We've got. Brakes on most models are destroying homes with any luck adding this brakes in the rear. The fast reacting Vosh 5 ABS system is still running on the sable ls. The Basha ABS system is one of a very long list of Taurus sable hits we find the styling smart and forward thinking the interior roomy and the integrated control panel ergonomically near-perfect the flip fold front seat and rear center shoulder belt are noteworthy to Mrs arc you are again starting with the abs. It should be standard on all models. There is no performance tire option and no En Dash CD

player. It's also hard to release the folding rear seats from inside the cargo compartment. Speaking of cargo you can carry thirty seven point three cubic feet of it before you pull the seats and even more radically style Taurus and sable station wagon. A rear facing third seat is an option. And now the price. The 1996 Taurus G.L. starts at one thousand thousand one hundred fifty dollars and that includes air conditioning power windows and heated mirrors. The Sable G.S. includes the micron air filter and started 900 thousand five hundred forty five dollars. Prices include destination charges. Our view on TAR Sable is shared by other Automobile magazine says we like the distinctive styling new understanding of the subtleties of quality and the refinements to the driving experience. That should be enough to keep these car solidly atop the sales charts. While the Taurus and sable are nearly as revolutionary as the originals clearly the market today is a lot different than 1085 when strong competitors were few. Still Ford has pulled out all the stops with its new

design. In our opinion and 1996 Ford Taurus and Mercury Sable are the future of the mid-size family car in America and it's a future that's blindingly bright. It's not a proper Motor Week Without the Car Care wisdom of Pat Goss. Here he is with slick advice everyone can use. John many people are really surprised when I tell him that the most important part of their engine isn't something that's bolted on to it but something that is poured into it. It's engine oil. See the job of the oil is to keep two metal parts from touching one another because if two moving metal parts ever touch inside the engine when it's running that part is history in a matter of seconds. Oil comes out of the ground in crude form such as we see here crude oil which we've all heard of and every gallon of crude oil as it is broken down in the refining

process yields about 30 percent oil. 30 percent gasoline and the remaining 40 percent goes to all sorts of different things like the chemicals that you see in the hardware store in the auto parts store where they say caution contains petroleum distillates. They all come from that crude oil. Number one thing in selecting the proper oil for your car is to be concerned with quality and a fine quality. Always look for this starburst on the container of oil that says it is the best quality available. Now you have to go to the owner's manual to make sure you don't make up a big time mistake. And that is in selecting the proper viscosity or thickness of oil. Always refer to the section that tells what thickness should be used in your car. In most cases it's going to be either a 5 W 30 or a 10 w 30 oil the old thick stuff no longer works in many modern automobiles thicker is not

better. It can actually cause more wear on the engine because it doesn't circulate through the engine as quickly after the car has been started. Now there are two basic types of oil. Conventional oil synthetic oil synthetic as its name implies is not really synthetic. Its name is not really correct. What they do is they take the various molecules of the oil they separate them out and theres a handful of these molecules that are really highly beneficial to your engine. Thats what makes up the synthetic oil. It has the ability to protect your engine sometimes as much as 400 times better than conventional oils use best quality. Use the appropriate viscosity and your engine life can be doubled or tripled if you have a question or a comment. Write to me. If I use your letter I'm going to send you a motor week T-shirt. The address Motor Week Owings Mills Maryland 2 1 1 1 7.

Then the week of the 1960 Plymouth sedan want knew by his father. It was revived by current owner bin men of MCCUTCHEON New Jersey. You have an old family friend you'd like to show off amid good color photos to motorway Owings Mills Maryland 2 1 1 1 7. You know every part of a modern car serves a purpose but none quite so vital as the tires. They're your link to the road with your well being riding on it for small patches of rubber. It's critical that they be safe and durable. That's why I Reporter Lisa Barrow wanted to know exactly how much work goes into developing a really good tire. And she went a long way to find out. Italy is noted bordered scenic beauty but it's also home to really one of the world's

premier tire manufacturers. Europe or ellys but it's all a test track we're trying out their latest ultra high performance all season tire. The pay 7000 Supersport. 7000 is designed for American jobs for the U.S. market and the specific jobs like Ford a lot of lost on school but became the major objective of this diet is to give them more stuff has got to be used to drive me away. And I'm driving along with other members of the U.S. press we took to the track for a chance to compare parolees news E rated all season radial to two leaning competitors. Real progress of the star. What that means is that you can tell what it's going to do it doesn't do anything quickly. That's really good. Those words of wisdom about the 7000 Supersport are from Tim Considine whom you may remember as Mike the original eldest son on the TV show. My three sons today he's an accomplished automotive writer for Auto Week CompuServe and more.

What's really good about this tire is it's. It's a typical modern tire and that. It's where you'll get good mileage on it. Stuff like that it's very quiet. I think the interesting thing of these events is that if you go and in a relatively short period of time see differences you know it's subtle differences. Life of the P. 7000 Supersport is about forty thousand miles. The innovative tread pattern is a direct result of her really successful involvement in World Championship rallying of the zinger but is the thing about this profile you can find out different things. That is for example this circum for Angel ribbon proof steering response. These two circumferential grooves minimize hydroplaning on the straight and here on the shoulder we maximize snow traction and minimize noise. We were treated to a thrill ride with test drive as he demonstrated how easy it is to lose steering his jaw when tires hydroplane. That's the point at which water builds up

between the tire and the roadway and actually lifts the tire off the ground putting the V 7000 and its competitors through their paces we were impressed with just how tire technology has evolved. The Pirelli tire was impressive as we weaved in and out of the cones grip was excellent and made for an exhilarating as well as a safe ride. On my oppression of the 7000 is that it recovers really quickly when you either get the front end pushing or or the tail sliding out. You're going right into a wet track and you really have to watch that for conditions. All season tires are the fastest growing portion of U.S. performance tire sales and if the atmosphere here in Italy is any indication Perelli hopes that the 7000 Supersport corner this expanding segment of the US hire market. Well Ace always knows how to get to the heart of a story as he does every week with the latest

Motor News. Here she goes again. This week we celebrate the return of the classic name in British sports cars with the new MGM the NGF is the first new M.G. in three decades and the first energy at all since production of the NGV ceased in the early 1980s. Like most classic British sportscars it's first and foremost a convertible but it's domed hood plush headlights and glowing Fenders are definitely up to date. The most unclassified aspect of the new NGF is the engine its behind the driver except for air intakes behind the doors you would swear this was a front engine car. But being mid engine means the NGF changes direction with a lighter touch than the heavy handed MGB. It's a delight. However this is still a British sports car despite the fact that BMW now owns the NJ name. Virtually all of the cars made in the United Kingdom now for the bad news. You'll have to go there to drive it with BMW ready to build its own Z3 sports car here. Chances are slim that Americans will be able to buy the NGF. In other news Ford has announced plans to

offer the first pick up with the passenger side airbag cut off switch safety experts agree that it is unsafe to place a rear facing infant seat in the front with an airbag in an accident the child could be severely injured to allow for the use of infant seats in pick up sport has installed a switch that can deactivate the passenger side airbag by using the ignition key. An amber light alerts the driver that the airbag is not operational. A 1996 Ford Ranger will be the first pick up to offer the manual cut offs which look for automatic shut off devices to follow. And that's the motor news for this week. Hi I'm Craig Singh hoss and this week's Roadside America finds us at the Marconi Automotive Museum for kids located in Orange County California. The Marconi museum is part of the foundation dedicated to helping children's charities. A museum without Rose the Marconi encourages children of all ages to touch and feel the excitement of exotic and racing cars from around the world.

It's been said that you can't teach an old dog new tricks. Anyone who says that hasn't followed the recent history of Lotus the company's roller coaster fortunes have made development of new models difficult. So Lotus has had to soldier on with updated versions of the venerable spring. But on the right some companies the Lotus idea of an update means some pretty potent changes. It's been around long enough to see new designs by Porsche Lamborghini lorry coming down but the latest offspring of the lotus a spree the F-4s shows that this old dog can still hunt. Slotted between the standard escort model and attract ready sports 3000 Yes boy it offers the best of both styling is the familiar rounded Lotus way with bats and spoilers below or relocated an enlarged wing hugs the rear deck but little else distinguishes the F-4s exterior interior carries more obvious changes including walnut trim around the larger but still

hard to read instrumentation. If you like the revised interior it's still pointed to the off the roof panel is easily removed and stowed away. That's all very well but the real difference is with the MID mounted two point two liter turbo charged or cylinder engine power has risen to two hundred eighty five horses. Thanks to a clever computer can reach 300 push toward Earth torque is a British 277 pound that comes mostly from a larger carry a turbo charger and bigger inlet about recalibrating electronics allow almost 20 percent more boost and powers the S4 ESTA 60 and only 4.6 seconds the quarter mile rips MA and thirteen point six seconds at 104 miles per hour. As if the esprit wasn't already fast enough and it's fast through the corners to stiffer springs and chassis bracing coupled with our test cars optional extra wide 0 0 17 inch wheels giving us more ass remarkable balance and grip laps around Georgia's challenging Roebling Road Race Way also illustrated

substantial improvements in steering wheel and accuracy over that of the also impressive s for the only part that we didn't like was the harsh agricultural 5 speed shifter. But we were able to compensate easily with the engines new found mid range punch heat the high spinning cores revs up and it positively leaps out of corners and dives deep into them as well thanks to its free Brembo brakes. It's a testament to the talents of Lotus engineers that a car nearly 20 years old can still deliver such a body. BORMANN. While still costing less than virtually all other super car suggested retail is seventy five thousand nine hundred ninety five dollars. But if we had it we'd spend it because venerable or not the Lotus Esprit F-4s is one exhilarating driving experience and like a fine wine or a good hunting dog only seems to get better with a. One word that could be fairly applied to most Mercedes-Benz sedans over the years

as a conservative well engineered and solid yes but hardly very exciting. There are some notable exceptions the 6.3 and 6.9 liter V eights of the 60s and 70s and the more recent 500. Well on this week's road test by request we once again meet what Mercedes calls the spiritual successor to those cars the C30 six. It was created in partnership with a German company best known for tweaking a Benz or two. A N G. And what they've done with the reserved Mercedes C to a T has to be driven to be believed. And we are believers. To Europeans Mercedes-Benz means more than just luxury cars. The Stuttgart term also means racing specifically the thrilling bump and grind of a German and European Touring Car Championship. World of carbon fiber gladiators we're saving together one of their own championships and numerous other race win chips here it

carries over to the very limited edition Mercedes. Its brilliant finish would normally be enough to distinguish from the average Mercedes C-class. But there are more substantial features like a boiler with integrated cooling channel carbon fiber look as well as ground and alloy wheels or piston calipers straight off the 600 component is the suspension in the rear replaces the standard shocks with stiffer units of their own design and install. But all this is just a lead in to the engine. Two point eight leaders C-Class walk has been punched out the 3.6 leaders line six now makes two hundred sixty eight

horsepower and 200 feet of torque. That's thanks mostly to a cart load of new components including hams crank Pistons a new engine management control. As well as power runs through the rear wheels through the same silky four speed automatic transmission used in the V-8 powered crime that no manual is available. Power still reaches right now already. Produced zero to 60 times of six point eight second. Quarter mile times registered at fifteen point three seconds at 90 mph. Bottom end torque is unusually strong for a European car but it was still that Autobahn storming top in Russia the last us most. 36 is no crude muscle car maintaining the civilised feel that we're Sadie's is justly famous for. You need only use your right foot however and the seat. Thirty six miles you into the realm of lap time to checkered flag. A world that we explored at George's Roebling road Raceway where our crew labored to

find out if they in GS were downed race tuning magic has indeed rubbed off on the C-Class. Well good to see 36 exhibits of poise and balance in high speed corners that would leave most other sports sedan slumbering in its wake. Driving effort is modest replacing literally origin but the fact is on a par with many more hard edged machines a big part of the car's grip is a little bit like Bridgestone tires. They stick to nature's sleeves wear quickly when the surface is abrasive their stronghold on Roebling did allow us however the use of all of the engines impressive torque when exiting corner entering a braking zone. This is 117 from 60. There's only controller vastly improved. We must restate however that this is a very civilized machine. A proper electric spike the Speed Racer mechanical. Just look inside to see what we mean. This cockpit is pure Mercedes luxury

with some special touches like the compact steering wheel gauge cluster that still lacks an oil pressure gauge. See 36 logo on the ship and a healthy dose of trim. The leather covered firm but so supportive past without discomfort. The power adjustments are familiar controls the standard stereo the practical side of this is reflected in the roomy rear seat trunk that offers plenty of space despite carrying spare and large battery. This is to put it simply a lot and it does cost a lot of money for the C30 forty nine thousand eight hundred dollars with options. Fifty three thousand five hundred twenty dollars but friends. It's a roaring bargain with the pedigree of a pedigree maybe even more exclusive. Only 36 will be built. Over the next year or so if you

believe that automotive Nirvana was a very pointed star you had better not wait. Does a car like a Mercedes Benz seat 36 doesn't come along every day and you. Would drive me to believe it. Yeah we do. The folks across the publications especially editor John Canal are well known for producing some of the most useful automotive history books available. Their latest T-Bird 40 years of thunder follows the same pattern as their previous publications. It's soft cover mostly black and white format is not fancy. It is packed with just about everything that a T-bird enthusiast or collector might need to know. Another fine job. Join us next week for more motorways. Well Dr. Mitsubishi's hard top convertible the 3000 GTI spider and look at how this clever machine is put

together when we go behind the factory wall that boss has more helpful Karkare advice. We'll also see how our long term test fleet is holding up at investigate how some of today's most popular models are doing on the used car market. 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. Water from the Motor Week home video collection or cover the best episodes of the motor week

television series 1 800 4 2 2 0 6 4 0 to order a catalog send a self-addressed stamped envelope to this address. Hello I'm John Davis. On the next edition of Motor Week Dr. Mitsubishi's hard top convertible the 3000 g t spider can see how this clever car is built. We go behind the factory wall. We'll also see how our long term test lead is holding up and investigate how some of today's most popular models

are doing on the used car market. So don't you miss the next motorway.