With an available 2.

5L Turbo engine, 8-speed wet Dual-Clutch Transmission, and sport-tuned suspension

for precision handling, sedan may be too slow of a word.
 GT
#86 M D TEAM
EYER
RACIN SHANK
G
GTD D
MARIO RIV
FARNB ERS
TRENT AC
HINDM HER &
AN

2019
 YES, THE NSX GT3 EVO IS A DEFENDING IMSA CHAMPION.
YES, AGAINST THE WORLD’S BEST SPORTS CARS.
YES, WITH THE SAME 3.5-LITER TWIN-TURBO V-6 ENGINE AS OUR PRODUCTION NSX.
YES, WE SPRAYED CHAMPAGNE. AND YES, VICTORY TASTED GOOD.
BUT NO, WE HAVEN’T TAKEN A DAY OFF SINCE.
BECAUSE LAST YEAR’S TROPHIES DON’T MAKE OUR CARS BETTER.
RACING DOES.
SEE YOU ON THE TRACK.

NSX GT3 Evo Race Car shown. MOTORSPORTS

©2020 Acura. Acura, NSX, Precision Crafted Performance, and the stylized “A” logo are registered trademarks of Honda Motor Co., Ltd.
INTRODUCING

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ROAD & TRACK MAGAZINE | SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2020

CONTENTS
GO
10 SCREWDRIVERS
12 LEXUS LC500 ’VERT
14 YAMAHA TÉNÉRÉ
16 BROCK’S AEROVAULT
20 BEST ROOF TENT
22 CUSTOM CAR PRINTS

COLUMNS
8 EDITOR’S LETTER
24 ENGINERDY
26 GO LUTZ YOURSELF

52
THE COLLAPSE
How inevitability sunk the
Australian auto industry.
BY M AC K H O G A N

58
INVOLVED AT ANY SPEED
Porsche’s manual 911 proves
numbers ain’t everything.
BY T R AV I S O KU LS K I
FEATURES
30 62
PERFECTION AGAIN FERRARI SF90
Gordon Murray designed the The 1000-horse hybrid super-
best sports car ever. Twice. car has emphatically arrived.
BY C H R I S P E R K I N S BY C H R I S C H I LT O N

40 70
GO NUTS! ONE BAD SNAKE
A Bentley W-12, 630 horses, The Mustang GT500: slaying
and several bakers’ dozen. road, and finally, track.
BY K Y L E K I N A R D BY Z AC H B OW M A N

4 | 0 9. 20 / 1 0. 2 0 RICHARD PARDON
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 303automotive.com Editorial Staff
Editorial Director MIKE GUY
Editor-in-Chief TRAVIS OKULSKI

KEEP YOUR
Art Director MARTIN SALAZAR Deputy Editor BOB SOROKANICH
Managing Editor MIKE FAZIOLI Senior Editors ZACH BOWMAN, KYLE KINARD
Editor at Large PETER EGAN Senior Reporter CHRIS PERKINS
Digital Editor AARON BROWN Staff Writer BRIAN SILVESTRO

PLASTIC, RUBBER,
Associate Editor MACK HOGAN Contributing Art Director RALPH HERMENS
Contributing Photo Director BIFEN XU
Contributing Editors ROSS BENTLEY, JASON CAMMISA, CHRIS CHILTON, MATT FARAH,

& VINYL
JOHN KREWSON, PRESTON LERNER, BRENDAN MCALEER, MARSHALL PRUETT, FRED SMITH
Contributing Artists & Photographers TIM BARKER, DW BURNETT, ROBERT KERIAN, EVAN KLEIN,
KEVIN MCCAULEY, RICHARD PARDON, JAMEY PRICE, TOM SALT, JOSH SCOTT, DEAN SMITH,
ANDREW TRAHAN, BILL WARNER, JEFFREY R. ZWART
Editorial Advisory Board CHIP GANASSI (RACING MOGUL), BOB LUTZ (VIPER CREATOR, EXEC),
SAM POSEY (PAINTER, RACER), BOBBY RAHAL (INDY 500 WINNER, TEAM OWNER)

Publisher & Chief Revenue Officer FELIX DIFILIPPO

Associate Publisher, National Sales Director CAMERON ALBERGO
NEW YORK
East Coast Sales Director KYLE TAYLOR
Group Advertising Director JOE PENNACCHIO
Integrated Sales Account Executives
RICHARD PANCIOCCO, SHANNON RIGBY
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PR 4.0 Media PATTY RUDOLPH
HEARST DIRECT MEDIA
Sales Manager BRAD GETTELFINGER
Marketing
Senior Advertiser Marketing Director MERV GARRETSON
Creative Director SAM CONANT
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Marketing Manager CHRIS CALDWELL
Administration
Advertising Services Director REGINA WALL
Production/Operations
Production Manager CHRIS HERTWIG
Circulation
VP, Strategy and Business Management RICK DAY

Hearst
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President, Hearst Magazines TROY YOUNG

LOOKING NEW, Published by Hearst Autos, Inc.

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MATT SANCHEZ

LONGER!
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 F1 GTR originally campaigned by Italy’s Team Bigazzi. Now
owned by BMW, it’s essentially the same as when it raced at
Le Mans nearly 25 years ago.
I have never been so nervous. If something happened to
the F1, a car now worth eight figures, generations of my fam-
ily would have me to blame for their crushing debt. I was also
driving it at a track I’d never seen, Pitt Race, which still had
damp spots from earlier rain. You’ll forgive me for not being
comfortable going flat out.
It didn’t dull the experience. With air intakes overhead,
induction noise dominated the cockpit. Wonderful, wonder-
ful induction noise; the BMW V-12 sucked in an entire sky’s
worth of air each lap. I needed to constantly remind myself
that I was sitting in the middle. Popping the driver’s seat
on a curb would put half the car in the dirt. The clutch was
EDITOR’S LETTER | TRAVIS OKULSKI surprisingly light, the gearbox direct and wonderfully notchy.

REBIRTH
There’s no power assist in the steering, but the suspension
geometry prevented it from being overly heavy or cumber-
some. A peach. Amazing for any supercar, particularly one
that was never intended to race.
In the years since the F1 first graced our cover, we’ve written
about it countless times, both in print and online. It’s one of
We first met our hero 27 years the greats, a car we go back to time and again, a true bench-
mark. We have genius Formula 1 designer Gordon Murray to
ago. Now we meet its successor. thank for McLaren’s masterpiece. Murray has had intriguing
projects since, but none matched the F1’s magnitude.
it was 27 years ago this month that the cover of Road & So when we first heard Murray and his eponymous com-
Track first featured the McLaren F1, a sneak peek into what pany were building a new supercar, we got all sorts of excited.
was to come from the world of cars in 1994. It shared the Remember, the F1’s impact was not just performance-based,
cover with the Dodge Neon, the new Mustang, a modified but philosophical. It set records while retaining an analog
Corvette, and what we imagined the Z3, BMW’s brand-new personality. Every car that’s aimed to beat the F1 has sacrificed
roadster, would look like. All of these cars were important character in the pursuit of speed. We need a reset.
(okay, maybe not the modified Corvette), but none of them Our cover car, the Gordon Murray Automotive T.50, is
became part of the R&T fabric like the F1. that reset. While it likely won’t set speed records like the F1,
The McLaren became our gold standard, particularly after we hope it inspires the new generation of supercars to rely on
we again featured it on our December 1997 cover, this time involvement and feedback. Murray set the trend once. Why
with a full instrumented test. It obliterated most of our met- can’t he do it again? The T.50 has the potential to be some-
rics, our own Peter Egan saying the F1 was “a real driver’s car thing incredible. And, as with the F1, we’ll be with this new
that does exactly what you want, when you want, with no veils legend every step of the way as it comes to life.
of technology or ill-considered luxury between you and the
four large contact patches of the tires.” If we hadn’t realized it Travis Okulski is R&T’s editor-in-chief.
at the F1’s debut, our exclusive U.S. test unmistakably revealed Email him: [email protected].
that we were dealing with a legend in the making. Readers too
PORTRAIT BY TIM MCDONAGH

young to see the Miura, 300SL, or Ferrari GTO featured in

these pages had a new hero. I was one of them, a 10-year-old T H E F 1 I S O N E O F T H E G R E AT S ,
poring over every word Egan wrote about driving the F1, pray-
A CAR WE GO BACK TO TIME AND
ing every night that one day I’d get a chance behind the wheel.
About a year ago, I did. During a feature shoot (“Big Mac AG A I N , A T RU E B E N C H M A R K .
Special,” October 2019), I took a few laps in chassis 17R, an

8 | 0 9. 2 0 / 1 0 .20
 2021 DATES ANNOUNCED
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MARCH 3-6, 2021 AUGUST 30-SEPTEMBER 6, 2021 Guided auto show tours led
A high-octane, high-style driving An epic eight-day tour of Northern by the ultimate experts—
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LIVE THE DRIVE.
TURN
BY TURN
HOW THE
PHILLIPS
SCREWDRIVER
DOMINATED
AMERICA
CHRIS PERKINS

the history of the screw,

and by inevitable impli-
cation, the screwdriver, is
complicated. In One Good
Turn: A Natural History
of the Screwdriver and the
Screw, Witold Rybczynski,
professor of urbanism at the
University of Pennsylvania,
traces the metal fasteners
to the 15th century, though
it wasn’t until the early
18th century that the screw
became common. Around
then, gunsmiths developed
purpose-built tournevis
(French for “screwdriver”)
for use in the intricate
workings of early firearms.
A century later, when screws

GREGORY REID
could be mass-produced, car. But unless you’re Cana-
factories cranked out ac- dian, there’s a good chance
companying screwdrivers. you’ve never heard of
According to the Amer- Robertson screws. That’s be-
ican Society of Mechani- cause Henry Ford wanted to
cal Engineers, toolmaker use Robertsons in all of his
Joseph Whitworth devised plants, and he wanted more
Britain’s first standardized control over how they were
screw in 1841. American made. Robertson, by most
engineer William Sellers did accounts a stubborn man,
the same for his country in wouldn’t agree. No deal was
1864. Standardized screw struck, and the Canadian
heads and screwdrivers lost an important part of his
emerged later. Early screws business. Meanwhile, other
used either a slotted head engineers worked on their
or some sort of square or own types of screw heads.
octagonal drive. As screw According to Rybczynski,
production increased, slot- the one that stuck came
ted drives became standard. from inventor John P.
But if you’ve ever cammed Thompson and business-
(slipped) a screw-head slot, man Henry F. Phillips. A
The Phillips (left) won
you know why it’s not the Phillips screw offers many of
the U.S. battle over the
only design. the benefits of a Robertson
Enter Peter Lymburner flathead (above) and can be driven by a tra-
Robertson. The official and Robertson. ditional slotted screwdriver
history from the Robertson in a pinch. Phillips licensed
Screw Company says that his design to the giant
Robertson, a Canadian American Screw Company,
inventor and industrial- which got General Motors
ist, cut himself when the to use the screw in the 1936
blade slipped during a Cadillac. Within the decade,
demonstration of a new almost all automakers were
spring-loaded screwdriver, using Phillips screws.
forcing an epiphany that A Phillips is, arguably,
the world needed a new not a better screw than
type of screw. Robertson a Robertson. Consumer
designed a fastener that Reports once wrote that
featured a square socket ta- “compared with slotted and
pering towards a truncated Phillips-head screwdrivers,
pyramidal bottom, winning the Robertson worked faster,
a Canadian patent for his with less cam-out.” However,
work in 1907. It’s a brilliant cam-out was good for auto-
design—Robertson screws makers increasingly relying
won’t easily cam out, and on automation, as it meant
the socket shape helps cen- screws wouldn’t be over-
ter the screwdriver, making tightened. Today the Phillips
one-handed operation easy. is the standard, except in
The Robertson was per- Canada, where the Robert-
fect for the burgeoning auto son remains popular, and
industry. Ford began using in Japan, which has its own
it to assemble Model Ts at cruciform screw, the Japa-
its Windsor, Ontario, plant, nese Industrial Standard.
where the screw’s time-sav- Next time you strip out a
ing qualities reduced costs Phillips, shake your fist at
by a significant $2.60 per Henry Ford.

09.20 / 10. 20 | 11
GO DRIVE

LEXUS LC500
CONVERTIBLE
ENGINE 5.0-liter V-8
PEAK OUTPUT 471 HP @ 7100 rpm,
398 lb-ft @ 4800 rpm
TRANSMISSION 10-speed automatic
WEIGHT 4540 lb (mfr)
PRICE $101,000 (base)/$111,920 (as tested)

CHOPPED
LOSING THE TOP ONLY MAKES THE LC500 BETTER. TRAVIS OKULSKI
lexus says it takes 15 seconds to creased taillight treatment; an impossi- sounds this good, you want it in your
put the top down on the new LC500 bly low nose; the smooth arc of the side ears constantly, not fading into the
Convertible. Please note, however: into the wide hip of the rear-wheel arch. background after just a couple redlines.
The first time you do it, it will take ten It creates a car obviously not designed And there are always compromises,
minutes. Most convertibles locate the by committee or focus group. usually to rigidity, weight, and noise,
button controlling the electric top in The same goes for the engine, likely when a coupe becomes a convertible.
an obvious place. Lexus chose to hide it one of the final applications of Lexus’s But the sacrifice depends on the type
underneath a trim piece near the info- excellent naturally aspirated 5.0-liter of car.
tainment controller. This same piece is V-8. In this LC, it makes 471 hp and The LC isn’t a supercar. It’s emphat-
fixed in the LC500 coupe. We eventu- 398 lb-ft of torque. It’s refreshing driv- ically a grand tourer, the GT car at its
ally found it by accident. ing a car that isn’t forced to get by with best. The taut but useful chassis isn’t
That’s an unusually frustrating a downsized engine, let alone one with meant to tackle the track but will keep
detail for a company born of sensible no turbo lag and an actual exhaust note. you comfortable for hours without
design. Confounding details continue Simple pleasures. shying away from the road’s aggressive
through the infotainment system, the Indeed, the sounds are nearly as head- interludes. It manages air surprisingly
UI of which is a fool’s gambit that turns turning as the looks. The LC500 lets well, with limited buffeting. The only
everyday actions, like changing menus, loose with a feral, almost NASCAR bark little flaw comes in with the weather:
into laborious procedures. when you’re hard on the gas. Without a Roof up, the LC looks awkward, the
But those are minor quibbles when a roof, it’s just that much more visceral. coupe’s fastback profile replaced with a
car looks like this. Most Lexus designs Oddly, the 10-speed Aisin gearbox small scrap of cloth.
rely on a gaping face, more cow-catcher does more to quiet the car than the But drop the top, step back, and
than grille, as their defining element. exhaust. The shifts are quick and crisp, marvel. This is the rare coupe that’s
Not the LC500. Every part is striking, but the gearing is tall, and the exhaust improved by losing its roof, looking
a thoughtful mixture of organic shapes doesn’t really rip and bellow until the more like the car Lexus intended. In a
and sharp lines that’s never boring. revs mount. While the LC is nice and class of large, subdued, turbocharged
Unusually for a contemporary car, there loud in first and second gears, by third German V-8 supercoupes, the LC500
are no bad angles. Every look reveals you’re already over the speed limit with stands out. Once you figure out how to
a new detail: a fascinatingly complex seven more cogs to go. When a car put that top down.

DW BURNET T 09.2 0 / 1 0.20 | 13

THE ANYWHERE
MACHINE
yamaha’s ténéré 700 promised to
fix the issues that make big adventure
bikes a bear, starting with weight.
Fueled and ready to ride, it lands at
452 pounds. Not light by dirt-bike
standards, but featherweight compared
to the 575-pound Super Ténéré. The
THE YAMAHA TÉNÉRÉ 700 IS HERE AT LAST. smaller bike feels manageable and
unintimidating by contrast. The factory
ZACH BOWMAN seat lands at 34.6 inches; the cockpit
and controls are set up for off-road use.

14 | 0 9 .2 0 / 1 0 . 20
 YAMAHA BUILT THIS THING TO SPEND ITS TIME IN THE DIRT.
At 5'11", I had no problem flat-footing The crook of Southeastern Tennessee, of a fall. The front fender can be set
it. The bars are wide, with a good rise where the state meets Northern Georgia higher to accommodate knobby tires
and bend to accommodate a standing and Western North Carolina, is a won- or to keep it from packing with mud.
rider, and the machine is surprisingly der. It’s that rare haven in the Eastern There’s a sturdy hand hold molded into
narrow for a parallel twin. Close your U.S.: a place where you can spend a day the rear valance to give you purchase
eyes and your mind says, “dirt bike.” with the throttle pinned wide and never when picking the T7 back up. And why
Thumbing the starter fires up the see another soul. After a short transit, not? Yamaha has decades of experience
excellent 689-cc cross-plane motor we pointed the Yamaha at the best of it: building podium-topping dirt bikes.
from Yamaha’s MT-07 street bike, more than 100 miles of dirt and broken The trail turned more aggressive, rut-
remapped for the Ténéré. Expect stone beneath our spokes. ted, and narrow. There are few joys like
around 72 hp and 50 lb-ft of torque. We started on a fast forest road, the sending a big, heavy machine airborne,
This may not seem impressive in our surface a spray of gravel. We stopped at the two of you in flagrant violation of
age of 100-plus-horsepower adven- the trailhead, defeating the ABS system nature’s laws. The T7 uses a KYB fork
ture bikes, but the T7’s instant torque with the press of a big button on the and rear shock, both fully adjustable.
delivery serves up ample character. instrument cluster. An orange LED While the Ténéré handled launch and
The thing feels and sounds right, with lit on the bottom panel; OFF ROAD re-entry like a champ, the suspension
immediate throttle response and a displayed on the screen. From there, the lacks the buttery fineness we’ve come
delinquent exhaust note. Yamaha sucked down long fourth-gear to know from the likes of KTM. The
The T7 seems quicker than its num- straights, the rear tire firing rocks off into Ténéré only really felt its weight when
bers, gathering up apex after apex on the forest. The T7 rides on Pirelli STR bombing through deep potholes or over
the road to the first trail. The six-speed M+S tires, 21 inches front and 18 inches exposed rock, where the soft springs
gearbox is Yamaha slick, and those rear. They provide decent grip in the dry, struggled to soak up the brutal surface.
wide bars offer plenty of leverage. It but we expect serious riders to abandon But that’s a small complaint, one
takes zero effort to bend the bike into a them for more aggressive options. easily rectified by the aftermarket.
corner. Acres of suspension travel and Yamaha built this thing to spend its Especially given the Ténéré 700’s price.
confident Brembo brakes make for a time in the dirt. The LED headlights The bike starts at $9999. Its closest
bike that would be happy chasing down are adjustable. Both the rear brake competitor, the KTM 790 Adventure,
full-fairing sports machines. and shift levers fold away in the event costs $3000 more.
GO DRIVE

BALLER HAULER
port, and full LED lighting. A front
workbench offers storage space for tires
and gear, and the lockable rear ramp
and side doors all close flush and tight.
The standard model is big enough to
HOW WE’RE GETTING OUR CATERHAM AROUND.
swallow a Porsche Panamera; a high-
BOB SOROKANICH BETH BOWMAN roof variant adds headroom for taller
vehicles. The N-rated tires are balanced
the typical enclosed car trailer is designer behind the Corvette Sting Ray before installation, good up to 87 mph.
a thoughtless thing. A box on wheels, and the Shelby Daytona Coupe, whose The trailer itself weighs 2340 pounds
built like a shed and equally well-suited BRE Racing team made Datsun a with a 4670-pound maximum payload.
to high-speed travel. This is no such motorsports legend. Brock, now 83, set We optioned ours with an in-cab tire
item. Witness the Aerovault, a clever, out to find an enclosed car trailer that pressure and temperature monitoring
unconventional car hauler. The perfect wasn’t just a rolling box of mostly wasted system and a GPS tracker that sends an
way to get our project Caterham around. space. He wanted something secure, alert to your phone whenever the trailer
The Aerovault is designed like a sports lightweight, and efficient, something moves or someone opens a door.
car. Aluminum semi-monocoque con- you could tow with a family SUV. When It feels strange to gush about the way
struction makes it lightweight and stout, he couldn’t find one, he sketched one, a trailer rolls down the road, but the
with no protruding braces inside to whipped up a scale-model prototype, and Aerovault is a revelation. Back in Febru-
scrape mirrors. The slippery shape has constructed the one-off Aerovault MkI ary, Road & Track digital editor Aaron
aerodynamics the typical trailer can only in 2008 for his personal use. He built Brown and I picked up our Ram 1500
dream of, with minimized frontal area, a 30 more, refined the design, and put Rebel Black EcoDiesel in Los Angeles
roof beveled to shrug off crosswinds, and Aerovault MkII into production in 2015. and drove to Brock’s headquarters out-
a belly skinned in aluminum, tricks most Base models come loaded with a side of Las Vegas. From there, we drove
trailer manufacturers never bother with. remote-control winch, an onboard nonstop for the next two and a half days
This is a trailer with pedigree. It battery system for trickle-charging or to deliver the truck and trailer to R&T’s
was created by Peter Brock, the genius jump-starting, a 110-volt exterior power project shop in Maryville, TN, where

16 | 0 9 . 2 0 / 1 0. 20
THIS IS A TRAILER WITH PEDIGREE.
the staff all pitched in on assembling long-term Ram is one pricey pickup, but
our Caterham. the full leather interior and impres-
Over 2000 miles, the Aerovault was sively capable 8.4-inch touchscreen
unflappable, tracking straight and infotainment system made it a plush
smooth through prairie winds and and pleasant way to cover the width of
torrential thunderstorms. Even empty, the country in one shot. And with the
the Aerovault was sure-footed and height-adjustable air suspension at its
planted, and its wind-cheating shape lowest setting, we were able to achieve
never threatened to push our truck fuel mileage in the high teens—no small
around. Without divulging too much, feat when you’re crossing mountain
let’s just say that Brock’s trailer is fully ranges at speed with a trailer in tow.
capable of probing the upper limits We had planned to chuck the Cater-
of those N-rated tires. Peter himself ham inside the Aerovault for a full
congratulated us on efficiently slaying calendar of track days and reader events
our cross-country blast, watching our throughout the spring and summer. Of
progress via the GPS tracker. course, life had other ideas. Our truck,
Our Ram tow rig makes the perfect trailer, and toy all sat idle for weeks,
match. With our featherweight Cater- taunting us with daydreams of open
ham loaded into the Aerovault, we’re roads. When activities begin again, we’ll
hardly close to our truck’s 12,560-pound get the most out of our Ram Rebel and
towing capacity. But the EcoDiesel Aerovault, we promise. Stay tuned.
embodies the same ideals as the
Aerovault: Efficient capability through For more information,
thoughtful design. At $71,305, our visit bre2.net/aerovault.info

Aerodynamic and stylishly

functional, the Aerovault is
the sports car of car haulers.

18 | 09 . 20 / 10 .2 0
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GO GEAR

THE ULTIMATE CAR CAMPER

ROOFNEST’S FALCON the Falcon atop a 2020 Kia Telluride and noise at 70 mph and just slightly dinging
TENT IS BUILT LIKE A hit the road. Simplicity itself! your fuel bill. Solid construction, sturdy
BRICK, COMFORTABLE Well, almost. Roof tents are generally latches, and burly components add to the
AS A CLOUD, AND heavy, so your car needs a roof rack capa- feeling of quality.
EXPENSIVE AS HELL. ble of supporting the tent and a couple At the campsite, the Falcon pitches in
occupants. While the mid-sized, mostly literal seconds, popping open smoothly
KYLE KINARD
aluminum Falcon is a 140-pound feath- on twin stainless-steel gas struts and
FOR REASONS BOTH obvious and nu- erweight by roof-tent standards, it’s still providing instant sit-up headroom and
merous, Americans are reexamining es- hefty. Figure 175 pounds for each camper, stretch-out sleeping area for two camp-
cape. More than any other time in recent and you could easily exceed your rack’s ers. Unlike pole-and-cordage tents, setup
history, they’re choosing the road trip. weight limit. Also, installing the Falcon in bad weather is no issue whatsoever.
And with hotels and Airbnbs off limits, is nontrivial; we recommend that at least And the memory-foam floor of the tent
that means many are camping along the three people undertake this chore. We is, honestly, as comfortable as any bed
way. Airstream sales are soaring, #vanlife strapped the tent to a wheel tractor’s we’ve ever slept on.
posts dominate Instagram, and camp- forks, then lowered it onto our Telluride. There are idiosyncrasies to roof tents,
grounds are busier than ever. Obviously, then, roof-tent ownership naturally. Camping on a roof means
Enter the roof tent, a particularly clever is a semi-permanent affair. If you camp using a ladder, in the dark, for bathroom
segment of the car-camping space. True a weekend or two every month, the breaks. Level parking is a skill you’ll
to its name, this tent lives on the roof of penalties you pay in fuel economy, wind develop quickly. And your cozy camp-
your vehicle. Simply park at a campsite, noise, and a higher center of gravity fire’s way down over there. But if your
undo a couple latches, pop up the tent, might be worth it. Of course, at $3395, partner harbors a fear of, say, bears, the
and get busy roasting weenies. In the the Falcon is probably not an option for Falcon’s height is of great benefit.
spirit of comfy car-bound adventure, we casual campers. For the dedicated adventurer, the
borrowed Roofnest’s Falcon roof tent, an But the tent is, frankly, a marvel. A Falcon is a comfortable, livable, beauti-
aluminum A-frame two-person model mere seven inches tall latched shut, the fully built option for outdoor shelter. If
with panoramic windows and a versatile Falcon is as compact as a well-built roof a roof tent fits your road trip plans, you
channel accessory system. We strapped tent could be, making minimal road couldn’t do better.

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GO GEAR

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ing company then graduated multiple stops on the road spending thousands on HRE on which you’d like it
to a desk job in marketing,” to completion, from artist to wheels and putting a wrap printed. The photo is sent to
Parente said. “But we both printer to framing. on their cars really want Respoke’s graphic artist, who
found ourselves with a “If we can make that something to commemorate vectorizes your image, con-
bit more time to brain- process easier and more that. People who modify verts it into a graphic design,
storm lately.” streamlined for people, I their cars change them so and turns the art around in
Connor sent Nick a photo think they’d jump on that,” often. We’ve had a couple 2-3 days.
one day, a stylized print Gross added. guys who want to memorial- Any tweaks, like custom-
of some enthusiast car or So they did, creating a ize every stage their car has izing license plates, changing
another. “Do you think car one-stop online portal for been through.” wheel colors, or in the case
people would buy this kind of ordering custom car prints. The process is simple. of our image, adding a little
stuff?” he asked. Respoke’s usual customers: Upload a photo of your car R&T flair, are then com-
“I sent over a photo of lunatics like you and me. on Respoke’s website, making pleted. “We’ll make unlimited
my living room wall, which “It’s people that put a lot of sure the color and lighting revisions until the customer
has a photo of my E30 my time and energy into their are suitable for the wall space is happy,” Gross said.

22 | 09 . 20 / 10 . 20
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E N G I N E R D Y JA S O N C A M M I S A

28 DEGREES OF CHEATING
Angling for an advantage.
I AM FASCINATED by things that are related to something If this angle cuts a peculiar line into the front end that
you’d never expect. Like, for example, the meaningless swirl of seems completely out of place with the rest of the design, it’ll
hair starting from the crown of your head and working its way result in that SUV overbite. Chances are that line is exactly 28
out. Hair whorl isn’t actually meaningless, though. It is, for a degrees to horizontal, because 28 degrees of approach angle is
variety of developmental reasons, significantly associated with the minimum required by law for a vehicle to be considered a
sexual orientation. (I’ll wait while you put on a hat, Monsieur “non-passenger automobile.”
Closet Case.) In typical government style, there’s a list of requirements
You won’t fool your doctor about your eating habits, for this classification, beginning with this comedic gem: An
either, Little Mister Diabetic: She’ll take one quick look at automobile may be designated as a non-passenger automobile
the skin tags and dark skin at the base of your neck and know if it is designed to transport more than 10 passengers. Please
that your blood sugar is out of control. You probably didn’t re-read that sentence. I’ll wait for you to stop laughing.
know those things were correlated. Just like you didn’t realize Vehicles can also be considered non-passenger vehicles if
that the dreaded 28-degree line that’s ruining your SUV’s they have temporary living quarters, an open cargo bed, or
front end means it was subjected to less stringent crash and cargo space greater than their passenger volume. This is how
safety regulations. the government identifies RVs, pickup trucks, and cargo vans.
We’re talking about approach angle here. Looking at any The reason for doing so dates all the way back to the Sixties,
vehicle from the side, visualize a straight line beginning at when the government was beginning to toy with introducing
the leading edge of the front tire contact patch, then extend emissions standards. Smothering large vehicles with emis-
this line forward just steeply enough that it grazes the lowest sions-control equipment would interfere with their ability to
surfaces of the vehicle. That line’s deviation from horizontal, carry heavy things like cargo and people. To prevent this, they
measured in degrees, is the car’s approach angle, the maxi- were classified differently than plain old cars.
mum steepness of a ramp that it can approach without making So, too, was any vehicle capable of off-highway operation.
contact with any part of the vehicle. Likely a concession to farmers and ranchers, this subset of

24 | 0 9. 2 0 / 10 . 20
 PROMOTION

non-passenger vehicles was created at a time when off-road

vehicles were so miserable to drive on road that nobody ever
did. Of course, that’s no longer the case. The vast majority of
“off-road vehicles” are now used for regular transportation.
To be classified an off-road vehicle, a car doesn’t actually
have to get Trail Rated. (Much to Jeep’s chagrin, I’m certain.) ES SENTIAL S FOR YOUR DRIVEN LIFE
The first hurdle is that it merely needs four-wheel drive or a
gross vehicle weight of greater than 6000 pounds. Then, it
must have at least four of the five following characteristics: an
approach angle of not less than (you guessed it) 28 degrees, a
breakover angle of not less than 14 degrees, a departure angle
of not less than 20 degrees, ground clearance not less than 20
cm (7.8 inches), or minimum axle clearance of not less than 18
cm (7.1 inches). With only one wild-card parameter out of five,
we begin to see why the 28-degree overbite is so common.
But why would a manufacturer destroy a car’s front-end
looks just to be classified as an off-road capable vehicle? Sim-
ple. Remember, off-road vehicles are a subset of non-
passenger automobiles, all of which are a subset of a group
called “light-duty vehicles.” Since, as defined, these vehicles MAXJAX: THERE WHEN
aren’t meant to carry humans, they’re subject to less stringent YOU NEED IT
safety regulations that help ensure they can perform their farm Low ceilings and limited garage
and hauling duties. They’re also permitted to pollute more. space don’t have to prevent you
And importantly, they’re allowed to burn more fuel. from having a car lift at home.
MaxJax is a completely portable,
Since 2011, each vehicle’s fuel-economy target is based ALI-certified two-post lift with
on its footprint (a multiple of track width and wheelbase full-size lift advantages that stores
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non-passenger-vehicle and given extra credit on the Corporate
Average Fuel Economy, or CAFE, test.
For 2017, the last full year for which NHTSA has published
CAFE data based on the footprints of actual cars sold, the
light-duty target was vastly more lenient than that for pas-
senger cars: 29.4 mpg, which the industry missed by almost 1
mpg. By contrast, passenger cars needed to score a full third
higher at 39.1 mpg. That sounds like an unfair penalty for cars,
and yet the industry beat it, achieving 39.5 mpg overall. (CAFE
numbers are calculated differently than EPA estimates, so
these are all higher than what you’d see on a window sticker.)
So the next time you look at a crossover with a 28-degree
overbite, know that it cheated on its fuel-economy tests and
is subject to more lax safety requirements, because it’s not
actually a vehicle designed to carry passengers. Just like the
relative length of your fourth finger to your second correlates
to testosterone exposure while you were in your mom’s uterus.
Who knew?

Jason Cammisa is an R&T contributing editor who

REPLACEMENT
is standing behind you looking at your scalp. You can find
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JASON SCHNEIDER
GO LUTZ YOURSELF BOB LUTZ

CONUNDRUM
Will COVID kill enthusiast cars?
it’s a perplexing question with no easy answer. Unlike the millions are spent in the three-to-four-year gestation process of
period of automotive stagnation during World War II (and a new vehicle. Canceling or deferring future product becomes
the ensuing catch-up demand), the COVID-19 pandemic has the logical place to save large amounts of capital, with con-
inflicted serious financial harm on industry, governments, and sequences that won’t manifest for a few years. In view of the
individuals. A loss of revenue, for families and companies alike, reduced cash flow, many “nice to have” products are simply
means that any new spending will come with tough choices. dropped. What was to be an all-new version of a decent-sell-
This will certainly be true in the global automotive indus- ing vehicle (at an investment of more than a billion dollars) is
try, the numbers generator of economic prosperity. The car replaced by a “minor freshening,” with the replacement pushed
business is unique in that it combines high levels of technology out by a few years. Since cash flow and profitability are the
with staggering amounts of money, incoming and outgoing. principal drivers, it’s only logical that the best-selling, most
The number of employees, and the billions invested in facto- profitable programs stay in place.
ries, engineering centers, warehouses, and testing areas, make As we speak, highly paid executives around the world pore
for astronomical fixed costs, which must be offset by healthy over the future vehicle portfolio and try to meet reduced cap-
sales of profitable vehicles. When sales drop sharply, as in ’08 ital-outlay targets while protecting the family jewels. In such
and now with COVID-19, the incoming money flow quickly an environment, it’s hard for coupes, roadsters, or even sport
drops too low to cover the expenditures. sedans to survive. They get whacked.
As sales fall, company leadership tries to drive down costs, My last GM tenure coincided with the 2008 economic crisis.
but many can’t be cut in the short term. The crisis-driven At the time, we had earmarked close to $1 billion for a mid-
response usually takes the time-honored form of mandatory engine Corvette, along with a visually different Cadillac variant.
tightening of every department’s budget. (Advertising takes the At the end of hours of painful meetings, the mid-engine pro-
biggest hit—even a marketing veteran will admit that half of gram was canceled. We managed to save about $250 million,
advertising spend is wasted, and as the saying goes, nobody can which bought us a revised, improved, but still front-engined C7.
figure out which half.) Absent that crisis, the world would have seen the mid-engine
But draconian budgeting can’t change the fact that the Corvette as a 2015 model.
reduced revenue streams won’t support the ongoing fixed-cost The same is likely happening now around the automotive
levels. The company quickly slips into the red. Now major world: Performance vehicles are being axed. Car companies,
expenditures are scrutinized, and hard choices are made. The especially those with a sporting or racing heritage, know the
cuts that hurt the most relate to future models. Hundreds of future risk but have little choice. It’s like a WWII B-17 limping

26 | 0 9. 2 0 / 1 0. 2 0
 back to its base, three of its four engines gone. The captain or- Subscribe
ders the crew to toss everything overboard. Out go the machine
guns and all kinds of equipment. It’s expensive getting that to
B-17 back into service, but the crew makes it home.
R&T CREW
Magazine
It isn’t always like that. I recall one instance vividly. I was
president of Chrysler, traveling from bank to bank, fund after
fund, trying to renew our crucial revolving credit agreement.
Our CFO put on a convincing financial pitch. I followed up
with the future product portfolio, complete with dramatic
Every issue is
slides showing realistic clay models of every new car or truck. full of fun and
At that point the program included a production version of the educational
Dodge Viper, designed to be the fastest and most expensive
American car ever made. We had the investment earmarked
stories
at $50 million in the presentation. The money people were all and games!
duly impressed, and we were getting commitments.
During the Q&A a gentleman asked me, “What if things
don’t go as planned? If you find you have to cut or defer
something, what would it be?” I put on my finest bean-counter
demeanor and replied that we’d cut the Viper first, to safe-
guard the essential programs. The man shouted, “Wrong
answer!” The Viper, he said, was the car that would show the
world what Chrysler could accomplish, what others couldn’t or
wouldn’t dare, a new spirit of competence and daring. “With-
out that Viper,” he said, “it’s just the same old ‘wait until next
year’ stuff.”
He’d given the speech I myself had made dozens of times
inside Chrysler. My one attempt at projecting an aura of capital
discipline and fiscal responsibility had ended in an embarrass-
ing failure. Canceling everything that’s fun in order to bring the
next minivan out on time isn’t always the right answer.
But that’s only the supply side. What about potential custom-
ers, many of whom have lost jobs or even whole businesses?
What about the retirees, invested as they are in a stock market
that took an extraordinary hit? Will they demand something
sporty, distinctive, expressive of their personalities? Or will
they opt for the safety and security of a reliable mass-market
mid-size car or SUV? Will the frightened public buy nothing
but comforting blandness?
ONLY
My guess is that many will behave exactly that way—but not
all. Having recently been reminded of their mortality, these
$25
people may emerge like a butterfly from the cocoon, indulging
in a car that gives them style, fun, performance, and a degree
of uniqueness. If they can’t afford a new one, they’ll turn to the
pre-owned lots. And as the supply of late-model enthusiast cars
dwindles, the market must and will be replenished. R&T CREW
We are alive at an interesting time. A time of reduced finan- subscription box
cial resources, of staying at home more, a time for choices by also available!
individuals, corporations, and governments. But there will be
an economic resurgence. And there will be great cars to buy,
be they conventional or futuristic. Personally, I can’t wait for
my C8 Corvette to be delivered. That will make the world seem
normal again.
SUBSCRIBE NOW AT
Bob Lutz has been The Man at several different car companies. RTCREW.COM
I N T H I S E N V I RO N M E N T, I T ’ S H A R D F O R C O U P E S , OR CALL 800-554-4898
ROA D ST E R S , O R E V E N S P O RT S E DA N S TO S U RV I V E .
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3 0 | 0 9 .20 / 10 .2 0
 gordon murray created the
world’s greatest car.
now he’s back with the sequel.
meet the t.50.

chris perkins richard pardon

GORDON
MURRAY
holds weekly weight-watchers meetings. He’s not help-
ing people diet, of course. He’s making absolutely certain
his new supercar is lighter than his last. Murray takes
about six hours every week to meet with his teams and
analyze the car’s every component down to the fasteners.
“They’re fun,” he says of these sessions. “Well, they’re not
fun if you’re one of the designers and your bit’s heavier
than the target, but I enjoy them.”
Why so fastidious? Murray’s new car, the Gordon Murray
Automotive T.50, is the successor to the sublime McLaren F1.
One can’t follow that car without obsessing over every detail.
Even 28 years after its debut, the F1 is still the supercar
benchmark. Its driver sits on the centerline of the carbon-
fiber monocoque. It weighs only 2500 pounds, yet has a
627-hp V-12. It has no traction control, ABS, or power
steering, but it does have an honest six-speed manual
gearbox. It’s capable of 243 mph and won the 24 Hours of
Le Mans its first time out.

3 2 | 0 9 . 20 / 1 0 . 2 0
Every detail on the T.50—from the massive, downforce-aiding At Brabham, he equipped Nelson Piquet for his 1981 and
fan to the perfect driving position and lightened shifter—is ’83 championships with designs that included the innova-
considered and gorgeous. tive dart-shaped BT52. Murray left for McLaren in 1987,
where he helped create the MP4/4, arguably the most suc-
cessful F1 car of all time. His interests extended beyond the
“The McLaren F1 materializes the dream of a single sport; he introduced the Rocket, an ultralight, roadgoing
man,” Paul Frère wrote in his November 1994 Road & single-seater, in 1991. After the F1 road car was finished, he
Track review. “Not just any man, but one of the most imag- stayed on at McLaren to work on the Mercedes SLR before
inative and successful engineers Formula 1 racing has ever establishing Gordon Murray Design in 2007.
seen.” Murray first made his mark on the Formula 1 world His first project as his own boss? A forward-thinking
in 1978 with the Brabham BT46B, which used a gear- concept for a city car, the T.25, produced with a new man-
box-driven fan to suck the car to the ground. After winning ufacturing process called iStream, in which a steel tube
its first and only race, it was withdrawn from competition frame is strengthened with bonded body panels for a stiff,
to avoid pissing off the F1 establishment. lightweight chassis. Later came the world’s first flat-pack

3 4 | 0 9 .2 0 / 1 0. 2 0
 THE COSWORTH V-12
MAKES 654 HP AT 11,500 RPM.
horsepower figures is something I didn’t do in the F1. Chasing
top speed is something I didn’t do. I didn’t even calculate the
acceleration figures on an F1. It just happened to be quick,”
Murray says. Instead, he chased power-to-weight.
The heart of the F1 is its engine, a 6.1-liter naturally
aspirated V-12 designed by BMW Motorsport legend Paul
Rosche. Knowing the T.50’s engine had to be spectacular,
Murray turned to Cosworth for an all-new V-12. Inspired
by classic Ferraris, Murray originally envisioned a high-
revving 3.3-liter V-12, but to get the desired power-to-
weight ratio, the T.50 would need to come in under 1984
pounds. Many calculations later, Murray and Cosworth
determined a 3994-cc V-12 in a 2174-pound car would
provide the desired balance without making the T.50 a
stripped-out nightmare.
Four liters is still tiny for a modern V-12. That small
displacement is a big part of why this engine, the Cosworth
GMA, will rev to 12,100 rpm—higher than any other road-
car mill. Possibly even more impressive is how quickly it
reaches max rpm. Murray challenged Cosworth to beat
the F1’s ability to gain 10,000 rpm per second. Cosworth’s
engineers got 28,000 rpm per second.
Murray wants to recreate the immediate kick in the back
you get in an F1. He also wants an induction note that’s
just as enveloping. A ram-air inlet looms just above the
driver’s head, feeding four throttle bodies, so the sound
should be extraordinary.
In regular operation, the Cosworth GMA produces 654
hp at 11,500 rpm and 344 lb-ft of torque at 9000 rpm. Mur-
ray doesn’t consider the T.50 a hybrid, but it does use an
integrated starter-generator (ISG) driven by a 48-volt elec-
trical system, replacing the starter and alternator. The T.50
uses an ISG because it saves weight and reduces parasitic
losses. Plus, it helps clean up the look under the De Tomaso
Mangusta-inspired engine cover. The ISG also ensures that
the T.50 will have good air conditioning. Murray says the
truck, the OX, which has yet to reach production. But over A/C was a weak point on the F1 because his team couldn’t
the years, the McLaren F1’s legend has only grown. It never find a belt-driven compressor that worked with the engine
left Murray’s thoughts. at idle and also at 8000 rpm. With the 48-volt system
“I had to sit quietly in a room on my own and try to the A/C isn’t driven by the engine at all. The engine has a
analyze why nobody—nobody—has picked up the formula,” 65-degree vee angle, with four gear-driven overhead cams,
Murray says. That simple question led him to two conclu- dry-sump lubrication, and titanium rods and valves to keep
sions: Either people didn’t get the F1 formula, or they did weight down and revs high.
but couldn’t pull it off. Murray is also motivated by new The ISG also powers the fan on the back of the car. This
challenges. “I thought, what would it take to do a better car isn’t just a nod to the BT46B—this fan is far more sophis-
than the F1? People are still telling me it’s the best driver’s ticated, with variable speed control. Murray says the T.50
car out there and it’s the most iconic car. So, what a chal- uses the fan for “boundary layer control,” or in simple
lenge to try and beat that?” terms, managing airflow above and below the car.
Like the F1 before it, the T.50 is a carbon-fiber three-seater, There are six aero modes that alter the behavior of the
a purist’s machine reflecting the tastes of its creator. “Chasing fan, the flaps in the diffuser, and twin aerofoils on the rear
deck. If you don’t want to think about anything while you
pretend Main Street is the Mulsanne, leave it in automatic
and the T.50 will make adjustments depending on how you
drive. Under hard braking, the aerofoils rise to maximum
attack, and the fan spins up to increase downforce. If you
find yourself on a track, select High Downforce, and the fan
speeds up while flaps open in the diffuser to increase grip.
If you find yourself at a drag strip, use Streamline to cut
drag and increase speed. Then there’s vMax mode. When
selected, the fan is driven by the battery, not the ISG, giving
the T.50 an extra 30 horsepower for a short period. Finally,
there’s Test mode, where the fan spins to maximum speed
and the aerofoils cycle through their full range. It’s mostly
for showing off.
The engine is backed up by an Xtrac six-speed manual
gearbox. Yes, automated transmissions are now the norm
in supercars. Murray’s a purist. For him, shifting gears
is essential to the driving experience, and the shift itself
should be great. Murray’s benchmark is the Honda S800,
which he describes as having the sweetest “rifle-bolt” action
of any car he’s ever driven. Xtrac even developed a special
prototype transmission that allowed for quick adjustments
of the shift action, so Murray gets exactly what he wants
before production begins.
Murray says around 50 percent of the 339-pound weight
savings over an F1 comes from the drivetrain. The engine
weighs less than 400 pounds, the gearbox 177. That’s 132
pounds and 22 pounds lighter, respectively, than the F1’s
components. The combined weight of the T.50’s carbon-fi-
ber monocoque and body panels is 331 pounds; the F1’s
monocoque weighed nearly 300 pounds on its own. “With
the analysis tools we’ve got, we can take weight out of the
primary structure, even the secondary structures—the
bodywork—in places that I couldn’t even dream of doing 30
years ago,” Murray says.
Murray has been obsessed with weight his entire career,
following in the footsteps of Lotus founder Colin Chap-
man. “There’s two ways of getting a power-to-weight ratio,”
he says. “One is through weight, then you need a lot less
power, and one is through the power, and then you need a
lot more weight.” He posits a hypothetical 4400-pound car
with 2000 hp and a 2200-pound car with 1000 hp. The
power-to-weight ratio of both cars is the same. “But the
way the cars perform on the road and the feedback they
give the driver is just two different worlds. That’s where I’ve
always come from. It’s not just about power-to-weight, it’s
about how you achieve power-to-weight.” Hence, hours of
weight-watchers meetings. And a final curb weight of just
2174 pounds without fuel.
Interestingly, the T.50 won’t use carbon-fiber wheels,
despite their benefit of reduced unsprung mass. Instead,
GMA went with forged aluminum pieces from Italy’s APP.
Murray says the weight difference between these and

3 6 | 0 9 .20 / 10 .2 0
Gordon Murray designed
the pinnacle supercar
of the Nineties. Now, he
wants to do it again for
the 21st century.
THIS CAR IS GOING TO FEEL
QUICKER THAN ANYTHING
OUT THERE ANYWAY.”
carbon-fiber units is negligible. And alloys are much stron-
ger than carbon-fiber wheels, which run the risk of quick
and catastrophic failure. Brakes are Brembos, 14.6-inch
carbon-ceramic discs at all four corners clamped by six-
piston calipers up front and four-piston calipers in the rear.
Many past supercars used oddly sized bespoke tires, which
became nearly impossible to replace as the cars aged. That’s
true of the F1, and Murray didn’t want it to be the case for
the T.50. So GMA worked with Michelin to develop a Pilot
Sport 4S with a T.50-specific compound, using standard
moldings to help prevent five-figure tire bills down the
road. The fronts measure 235/35R-19; the rears, 295/30R-
20. You might expect a car like this to use Michelin’s more
aggressive Pilot Sport Cup 2s, but Murray says prospective
owners want real daily drivability, and the PS4S is more
appropriate in that regard.
With values cresting $20 million, it’s hard to imagine
anyone daily driving an F1 today, but that was Murray’s
original intent. It’s the same for the T.50; this may be a pur-
ist’s car, but it’s hardly spartan. There are compartments
for luggage on either side of the engine, and the interior fea-
tures multiple storage spaces. A screen next to the analog
rev counter will mirror information from your smartphone,
with infotainment controls on the wheel.
The engineers at GMA pulled apart Murray’s modern
Alpine A110 because he believes it sets the benchmark for
ride-handling balance. And while suspension technology
has moved on significantly since the F1 first emerged,
Murray is still sticking with conventional hardware. “You’ll
generally find people only have to resort to hydraulics and
electrics and compensating systems when their car weighs
a lot,” he says. “They’re going to try to disguise the fact that
they will fall over in the corners unless you run ridiculously
stiff metal frequencies on the springs.”
In pursuit of sports-car purity, the T.50 uses conven-
tional forged-alloy double wishbones at all four corners,
with rising-rate pushrod coilovers. Nothing is adaptive—
there’s one suspension setup. Murray is particularly proud
of the front geometry, which was designed for a pow-
er-steering system unlike any other: Beyond 10 mph, the
power steering disengages entirely, giving you the purity engine maps—one for around-town driving that limits revs
of a manual rack without the nuisance of huge effort at to 9000 rpm, and a second for when you want to play with
parking speeds. Carbon-ceramic brakes necessitated power the V-12’s full 12,100 rpm.
assistance, but GMA is trying to use as little as possible for All of this in the pursuit of involvement, not outright
a purer feel. Modern safety requirements mean there’s ABS, speed. GMA hasn’t revealed acceleration times or a top
traction control, and stability control as well, but the daring speed for the T.50. “Chasing,” Murray says, and pauses.
can shut off the TC and ESC entirely. The T.50 will have two “I just don’t see the point. I didn’t see the point in 1992 and
I don’t see the point now. This car is going to feel quicker “The price reflects what it costs to do a car, an engine,
than anything out there anyway.” a gearbox from scratch,” Murray says. He’s hoping GMA
One gets the impression that Murray is the only per- breaks even, and that the halo effect gets the brand name
son willing to build another McLaren F1. Most won’t try out so it can create an affordable, higher-volume sports car.
because making such an uncompromising car requires a In any case, Murray has no plans for a follow-up. “After
breathtaking amount of money. GMA plans on building 100 you’ve done a car like this, you can go virtually anywhere
examples of the T.50, each selling for around $2.6 million. you like,” he says. “But there won’t be another.”
 Riding a
650-mile
sugar high in
the most
Bentley of
Bentleys
KYLE KINARD

0 9.2 0 / 1 0. 20 | 41
42 | 0 9 .20 / 10 . 20
 he bentley continental gt Convert- Bentley. My father-in-law, an otherwise reasonable man who
ible’s 12 cylinders thump away, hungry lends me tools far too often, has squawked about these Rosau-
for cool morning air. For now, they’re ers bars for years. My college roommate, a mostly unreasonable
idling, restrained, anticipating. It’s 5:59 man who never lends me tools, favors Retro Donuts in Spokane.
a.m., and Rosauers grocery in Colfax, My pick: Madison Park Bakery in Seattle. Over mezcal margar-
Washington, opens in precisely one min- itas one night, a showdown took shape.
ute. Inside, some of the finest maple bars I’d corral a box of bars from each contender, with a blind taste
in the known cosmos are being pulled test to follow. The donuts would have to be baked and eaten
from a pastry oven. the same day, as day-old maple glaze devolves to slime under-
What’s a maple bar? Technically, an ob- neath a hardened crust. The three donut shops are separated by
long yeasted fritter, fried and topped with 359 miles of flowing local highway and sprints of interstate. I’d
maple glaze. Unofficially, The Donut of the West, the most popu- begin in Colfax, go to Spokane, then Seattle, and end up near
lar breakfast confection on the fairer side of the Rockies. The good where I started. Six hundred fifty miles total. Eleven-ish hours
ones taste great. The great ones are sickly-sweet orgasm. How of frivolous driving. For donuts.
they came to flourish by the Pacific, we’ll never know; Vermont And what is a Bentley if not frivolous? The thing costs
and Quebec produce the bulk of our continent’s maple syrup. One $302,000. Its trunk barely fits a pair of folding lawn chairs. Its
baker told me Washington State’s school children were served a rear seats hate human legs. In fact, those seats barely hold a
maple bar and a cup of chili for breakfast during postwar recovery. cooler, a gallon of water, and requisite road trip ephemera (cof-
Odds are, you’ve never experienced a maple bar. They’re a re- fee mugs, jerky bags, empty packets of Arby’s sauce). The Con-
gional delicacy, and every local has their favorite. Ask a dozen tintental GT is aimed squarely at the ease and pleasure of its
Washingtonians where the best bars are born and get 20 dif- driver and one passenger. Nothing else. Perfect.
ferent answers. Less divisive subjects, such as politics, religion, You’re coddled from the moment you slump into the Conti-
and whether Kim Jong Un could out-duel Betty White in a knife nental’s leather. A willowy robot arm proffers your seatbelt (it’s
fight, are safer dinner-table subjects out here. positively vulgar to twist one’s torso and reach, Bentley asserts).
But that’s how we got here. Rosauers parking lot, 6:03 a.m., The seat slides backward to allow your entry, then hums you
a box of oven-fresh maple bars perched in the backseat of a toward the steering wheel.

0 9.2 0 / 10.2 0 | 4 3
 NO S-CLASS PROVIDES THIS BENTLEY’S PAGEANTRY.

A platter of buttons splays across the center console. Every smooth two-lane for the first few miles, but the road soon be-
creature comfort: heated wheel; heated air scarf; heated and comes flowing and trafficless, and you learn that much of this
cooled massaging seats with twenty-some odd settings to adjust Bentley’s comfort stems from its quietude.
position and intensity. Now, if we’re splitting six-figure hairs, With the roof up at 55 mph, the Continental GT Convertible’s
a Mercedes S-class cabrio offers the same amenities at a lower interior is quiet enough to hear your own heartbeat. Sample any
price and gives a firmer massage. other convertible and you’ll understand why that’s impressive
But no S-class provides this Bentley’s pageantry. We chose the (my Miata, which is not familiar with the concept of luxury,
W-12 engine over the standard twin-turbo V-8, and the drop- sounds like a pissed grizzly tearing the ears off my skull). Dou-
top roof over the coupe, a sense of occasion over the merely ble panes of thick glass cut wind noise trailing from the A-pillar.
sumptuous. The rest of the cabin must be neutron-star dense with sound
The cabin is swathed in plush leather; the infotainment deadening. At one point, I caromed the Bentley down a grav-
screen rotates to reveal either a trio of analog gauges or a split el road for photos among Eastern Washington’s seas of rolling
of piano-like lacquer and elegantly figured wood, according to wheat, barley, and canola. It was the single most civilized trip
your mood. It’s magnificent. If you can’t find bliss in this cabin, down rutted gravel ever taken. Pioneering stuff. I can’t remem-
your greasy little soul is incapable of enlightenment. ber hearing a single stone in the Bentley’s wheel wells.
As our greasy little souls are incapable of affording this Bent- The Continental GT loafed into Retro’s parking lot about an
ley, we sought our enlightenment in maple bars. My wife and I hour after leaving Rosauers. I chatted with their baker, who
nosed the Bentley out of Rosauers’s lot and onto Highway 195, had a box waiting behind the counter. He spoke of the donut’s
north to Spokane, Retro Donuts about 100 miles away. Ev- vaunted place in the pantheon of Americana. He spoke of the
erything from tractor-trailers to actual tractors clogs this lazy, Donut Dollies, selfless Red Cross volunteers who delivered a

44 | 0 9 .2 0 / 1 0. 20
 rine V-8, but snarlier. That throaty growl turns to cello-string
hum as revs build. The engine wrings out 664 lb-ft from 1350-
4500 rpm, then pushes on to a 6000-rpm, 626-hp crescendo.
This W-12 seems to revel in its glut of midrange torque, happi-
est when chasing the horizon at high speed and low revolutions.
As we met the Snoqualmie mountain pass dividing Wash-
ington, the Bentley’s 8-speed dual-clutch seamlessly dropped a
few gears to keep the W-12 thrumming in the thick of its torque.
At the base of the pass, the interstate unraveled into four lanes.
Traffic slowed under the uphill strain. But the Bentley grew
wings.
Under full throttle, on any given passing maneuver, the Con-
tinental hits triple-digit speeds in an instant. You’ll barely no-
tice as you swing around a truck while cresting 140 mph. The
usual “built for the Autobahn” clichés apply here; this Bentley
shares a platform with the Porsche Panamera. But instead of the
weighty/bumpy/heavy-so-you-know-you’re-cookin’ handling of
German cruisers, the Bentley simply goes creamy all over.
We hit Seattle four hours after leaving Spokane. The pit stop
at Madison Park Bakery took just minutes, but brought back
years of memories. I ate dozens of these maple bars before mov-
ing to Michigan to start my journey at R&T.
I took a moment before hitting the road to stretch and daub a
glob of maple frosting off the Bentley’s blue top. That roof is an-
RETRO
DONUTS
other marvel, as isolating as any convertible roof could hope to
MADISON
SPOKANE
PARK BAKERY be. It folds up or down in seconds, quick enough that any cloud
SEATTLE
break is worth hiding the drop top. Both pairs of side windows
roll down into the Bentley’s body, too, leaving the Continental
at its most essential.
Top down, the Bentley looks boatlike from the rear, evok-
ROSAUERS
SUPERMARKETS ing Riva yachts and tailored linen pants. The Continental GT’s
COLFAX
front is broader, less elegant. Its woven grille lends a sort of
wide-shouldered-chainmail chic. But this third-generation Con-
tinental GT is still a refinement of the previous generation’s de-
sign, somewhat catlike, certainly slinkier than before. Especially
with the top down. Wind buffeting is nearly absent while cruis-
taste of home to soldiers abroad. On how the donut, inherently ing al fresco. Bentley’s engineers must’ve slept in Crewe’s wind
decadent, is also wholesome fuel for working-class Americans tunnel while they sculpted the GT Convertible’s curves.
from beat cops to Homer Simpson. The final leg to our Pullman home doubled back on I-90. We
I nodded at this wisdom, not mentioning the Bentley idling stopped for gas somewhere outside the city, and it occurred to
in the parking lot. me that nearly 400 miles had gone by in a blink. Fuel econ-
Next up, Spokane to Seattle, a 280-mile slice of interstate, omy seems scarcely worth mentioning in a vehicle that costs
true Continental Grand Touring territory. It’s immoral to drive the same as a suburban house. But this 12-cylinder, 600-horse
this 207-mph convertible at the speed limit. The Bentley’s bub- lump managed almost 24 mpg. The Bentley’s 20-gallon tank
ble of monastic contentment on a 55-mph two-lane is one thing. will let you drive across Oregon nonstop.
But the Continental GT Convertible felt rapturous going flat out We approached home top-down. I took a short detour on
on an arrow-straight superhighway. good, familiar roads, flicking the Bentley into a sequence of
There the engine’s character finally sparked to life. Wonder- corners, thumbing the chassis to Sport mode on the console’s
ful, because Bentley’s 6.0-liter W-12 is a bit of an oddball. At selector wheel. Predictably, the dampers firmed up, the exhaust
one end, it nods to Britain’s early W-12 aviation engines. At the grumbled a bit more. The ride got worse. Ruts and bumps
other, it’s a thoroughly modern power unit developed and lever- poked at my spine for the first time. Before I’d exited the third
aged by the Volkswagen Group lineup’s upper crust. This W-12 corner, I thought, “well that’s rather unpleasant,” and switched
doesn’t deliver the sonorous, silky power of a V-12 or the fire and it back to the car’s default “B” mode. That mode coddles you, but
brimstone of something like AMG’s twin-turbo V-8. allows for fun while bending that 5322-pound curb weight into
But it does have character. Barks and burps and burbles each corner, managing body roll, the car squatting as you lean
erupt from the Continental’s exhaust at low revs. Think a ma- into the throttle on corner exit.

09 . 20 / 1 0.2 0 | 4 5
 The Continental felt flummoxed only when I asked it to be- But finally, the car was parked and beautiful. We set up our
have as a sports car. Slamming the gas pedal down from a stop blind maple bar taste test on a plebian picnic table in the drive-
produced a bucking gear change from first to second. There’s way. My father-in-law and old roommate sat down, looking as
a whiff of lag down low where torque fights curb weight. Body if their lives were on the line. But with each bite, we ascended
motion on that soft suspension is hard for the chassis to control. closer to maple-glazed heaven.
The car feels happiest under measured, graceful inputs, and dis- Tasting notes: Madison Park Bakery’s frosting is thick, lus-
likes hurried motions. So you keep the Bentley at a steady gal- cious, almost boozy with vanilla extract, blanketing a buttery
lop, avoiding the wallow at low speeds in tight corners, soaking soft fritter. Retro bakes a heartier, chewier, more satisfying
in suspension compliance that smooths highway potholes into dough, and their frosting pops with a sugary brightness. Rosau-
plate glass. True Grand Touring stuff. ers’s maple bar is the sweetest and airiest of the bunch, topped
We made it home in good time just the same. Including a with a punchier, more overtly sweet glaze. Each bite begged for
lunch stop, the trip took less than 11 hours. another, no matter which bar.
Backing into the driveway emphasized a final complaint: The Stomachs settled; votes were cast. I’ll die with allegiance to
Continental GT Convertible is hard to park. The Bentley’s body is Madison Park Bakery, but Maple Bar Thunderdome has spo-
broad and squat with rounded edges and a high, visibility-ham- ken. Retro Donuts was crowned champion. For such a hotly
pering beltline. Strangely, the Bentley’s backup and overhead contested topic, nobody seemed upset. We chatted away in lawn
cameras are deeply mediocre, a gut punch on such an expensive chairs, reveling in each others’ company, riding the sugar high
vehicle. The Clooney set will no doubt dent many a fender on the as the Bentley’s chameleon paint flickered with shades of cham-
Bartolini sculptures lining their Lago di Como villas. pagne and lavender under the setting sun.

WE CHATTED AWAY IN LAWN CHAIRS, RIDING THE SUGAR HIGH.

46 | 0 9 . 20 / 1 0. 20
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5 2 | 0 9. 20 / 1 0 . 20
How Australia’s auto industry fell apart.
MACK HOGAN FRANCESCO FRANCAVILLA
T
he stocky speaker in the blue suit spat Pursuit Special. Oz was hot-rod utes and factory super-sedans
venom across the aisle, wagged his finger on Mustang platforms, the land where the V-8 dream never
at the opposition, and took full command died. Until it did.
of the podium. Cheering erupted from be- Perhaps the end was unavoidable, a consequence of factors far
hind him. Booing thundered from the op- beyond the control of any automaker or transportation minis-
posing side. His usual slick smile missing ter. Much of it was structural. The Aussie auto industry looked
in action, he stared down the raucous, an- healthy from the outside, but doing business domestically had
gry crowd that was Australia’s Parliament. always depended on investment from foreign automakers and
The current raging debate was whether subsidies from the Australian government.
to continue assisting the country’s flailing “Australia, like the U.S., came together as a federation,” says
auto industry. The government was tired of Dr. Russell Lansbury, an emeritus professor at the University of
subsidizing Australian carmaking, which employed thousands Sydney and an industrial relations scholar. “And one of the big
but had always kept one foot out the door. Ford and Mitsubi- issues was free trade versus protectionism.”
shi had already left; Nissan had been gone for decades. Imports There were two main political parties, one advocating for free
comprised more and more of the market. Suppliers struggled trade, one for protectionism. Protectionism won out, with the
even as the rest of the economy seemed to be humming along. government that came into power in 1901 choosing to defend its
Much of the debate centered around Holden, the GM subsidi- manufacturing sector. Agriculture and mining, Lansbury says,
ary headquartered in Port Melbourne. The company maintained were the country’s natural industries. Manufacturing would
several local factories but received billions in Australian taxpay- need artificial support to survive.
er aid to do so, while sending meager profits back to Detroit. When postwar industrial players like GM, Ford, Renault,
And now Treasurer Joe Hockey was done playing nice. Nos- Toyota, and Chrysler sought access to Australia’s growing mar-
trils flared, finger jabbing the lectern, he leaned into the micro- ket, they hit a steep tariff wall. With import duties as high as
phone and made the government’s case. If Holden wanted an- 57.5 percent, the automotive market essentially required local
other dime, Australia needed to know whether the company was assembly. Carmakers bought in. Nearly a dozen manufacturers
in it for the long haul. built vehicles in Australia at the industry’s peak. Before long, en-
“Either you’re here,” he said, “or you’re not.” tire supply chains were centered in Australia, with second- and
The next day, he had his answer. On December 11, 2013, GM third-tier suppliers manufacturing fasteners, electronics, and
announced that Holden would cease production in Australia by miscellaneous components. Inside this self-contained ecosys-
the end of 2017. Two months later, Toyota, which had a plant in tem, the industry could turn out dozens of models with major
suburban Melbourne, confirmed it was leaving, too. components sourced directly from Australian firms.
AAP PHOTOS (RIGHT); GETTY IMAGES

And so the winding down began. Factories closed. Employ- Car culture and motorsport flourished. The local tribalism
ees were laid off. Suppliers pivoted, looking for customers in a of Holden and Ford families gave rise to one of the all-time
manufacturing sector that now barely existed. In early 2020, great automotive rivalries. Simple, reliable workhorses like
GM announced it was axing the Holden brand altogether. The the Toyota Land Cruiser roamed through the Australian Out-
news came more as a mercy than a surprise. Australia’s oldest back. V-8 family sedans revved at stoplights next to truck-like,
carmaker was dead, as was the country’s auto industry. quintessentially Australian utes. An honest-to-God, home-
The fortunes of factory towns and thousands of jobs went with grown racing series sprouted; V-8 Supercars thundered over
it. Sixty-nine years of continuous mass production, boarded up. and around Mount Panorama, promoting the culture and
The country was told to move on, forget the automotive sector. producing dozens of top-tier drivers. “The Americans have a
But Australia left its indelible mark on the automotive landscape gun culture. We have a car culture,” Mad Max director George
as the birthplace of Mount Panorama Circuit and Mad Max’s Miller famously said.

5 4 | 0 9 .20 / 10 .2 0
 AUS T RA L IA’ S
GO LDE N Y EA RS

At its peak, Australia

produced almost
500,000 cars per year,
largely on the back of
GM subsidiary Holden.

The boom lasted for decades. Holden, a coachbuilder that be- ic realities, chiefly national buying power. Australia has a smaller
came GM’s Australian arm in 1931 and the company that gave GDP than New York state. Without large-scale vehicle exports,
Australia its first mass-produced car, grew to support seven op- only the most successful cars were produced at a large enough
erational factories and 24,000 workers. Holden would eventual- scale to justify a localized supply chain. This left domestic auto-
ly become Australia’s flagship brand, but it was far from its only makers in a fierce continuous fight for every bit of market share
large-scale manufacturer. By the time the industry peaked in the during the Seventies and Eighties.
Seventies, Ford, Nissan, and Toyota all had plants in the country. Renault bowed out in 1981. Chrysler sold its Australian busi-
The industry was vibrant, but by most objective measures, it ness to Mitsubishi. Volkswagen and British Leyland ceased local
was never very big. Annual automotive production in Australia operations. Meanwhile, the same protectionist policies buoying
topped out at around 500,000 cars per year. That’s about the an- the auto industry were drawing retaliatory tariffs, impacting far
nual production of BMW’s Spartanburg, South Carolina, plant. more profitable sectors of the Australian economy. Eventually,
Hyundai’s largest complex, in Ulsan, South Korea, can make 1.5 the government decided it was time to open the gates.
million cars annually. Even at their apex, Australia’s plants never Enter Senator John Button, federal Minister for Industry and
got close to today’s megafactories. Commerce. Depending on who you ask, his plan to overhaul the
How could they? With the rise of the modern globalized econ- Australian auto industry was either a cursed moment or a neces-
omy, Australia’s manufacturers had to confront certain econom- sary evil. Either way, it’s considered the point of no return.

Treasurer Joe Hockey

demanding answers from
Holden in Parliament.
 This partially explains why fantastic V-8 muscle cars from
Down Under rarely came stateside. Only tastes of what we were
missing—a GTO-badged Monaro, a Commodore dressed as a
Pontiac G8—slipped through.
“I think that it was the perfect storm for the car industry, the
fact that the [Australian] dollar went sky-high and made man-
ufacturing uncompetitive across a range of things, not just the
car industry,” says Dr. Lansbury. That currency boom, he argues,
played a much larger part in the demise of Australian automak-
ing than the role of organized labor.
Australia became home to a thriving car culture. Though many have scapegoated unionized workforces, Dr.
Lansbury ranks it low on the list of reasons that the industry
floundered. Kurmelovs agrees. So does Dr. Harry C. Katz, a pro-
Beginning in 1985, the government encouraged auto man- fessor of collective bargaining at Cornell University’s School of
ufacturers to gradually consolidate and attempt to become Industrial & Labor Relations.
more competitive with the outside world. Import tariffs would “Australian wage rates in the auto sector were not unusually
taper with the goal of leaving three robust manufacturers locally high,” says Dr. Katz. “The unions as well were not particularly
producing about six models between them. Button’s scheme to militantly adversarial. They were tough… but you didn’t hear,
cull the herd worked: By the early 2000s only Mitsubishi, Toy- ‘we have about a zillion disciplines going on’ or ‘we have walkout
ota, Ford, and Holden were left standing. And then Mitsubishi strikes’ or ‘we have union leaders we can’t even talk to.’ That’s
closed its last plant in 2008. just not what I experienced when I talked to the managers of the
Still, it remained tremendously difficult for automakers to turn various plants in the Nineties.”
a profit in Australia. The biggest enemy of localized production, Blaming labor is too easy. So is laying the corpse at the door of
experts say, was the emergence of the Toyota Production System. faceless bean counters or stuffy executives in Detroit boardrooms
Also known as “lean” or “just-in-time” manufacturing, the meth- callously dispatching people’s livelihoods. It’s more comfortable
od relies on close coordination with suppliers to eliminate ship- to see it as a failure of people, of greed, than it is to confront what
ping and storage waste. Ideally, a gigantic factory acts as a nexus, it says about the core struggle of automotive enthusiasm.
fed by a network of suppliers working in unison. Automakers Because Australia had the enthusiasm. Try as they might, au-
across the globe quickly adopted and standardized lean methods. tomakers can’t always blame the buyers. Australia-only sedans
But with aging facilities scattered across a sprawling continent— moved in massive numbers. Even as sales fell with the decline of
and insufficient sales to justify four factories, let alone four man- the industry as a whole, Holden was still selling almost 25,000
ufacturers—implementation in Australia wasn’t possible. Commodores a year when the factory packed up. In a nation
Neither was Button’s vision of propping up a trio of globally with stratospheric gas prices and a world dominated by bland
competitive carmakers. But the Australian auto industry wasn’t crossovers, you have to admire the dedication.
brought down by a lack of investment, the rise of just-in-time Australia tried to avoid reality for as long as it could. The gov-
manufacturing, or the challenges of a unique local market. It ernment spent like hell to balance automaker books: Holden
was a mining boom, and the foreign money that followed. received 1.8 billion Australian dollars in subsidies and grants
“At the same time the car industry was announcing its clo- between 2001 and 2012; Ford and Toyota each reportedly took
sure… iron ore and coal were being sold to China and people over a billion. It wasn’t enough. Profits were tiny and rare, losses
were making pots of cash,” says Royce Kurmelovs, journalist and massive and routine. Ford succumbed in 2013, which made it
author of The Death of Holden. “All of these smaller companies even harder for Holden and Toyota to survive; with so few man-
were making heaps of money. And that changed the currency ufacturers, equipment and supplier costs went up. Hat in hand,
rate to the point where you basically had manufacturers losing they asked the government for more.
money every time they exported cars.” But the economic reality was unavoidable. Australia, once a
As foreign money enters an economy, the value of that coun- thriving automotive fiefdom, was ultimately a country too small
try’s currency balloons, increasing the relative price of the na- for domestic production and too expensive for export manu-
tion’s exports. That impacts automakers worldwide, but Austra- facturing. Fed up with subsidizing companies that could never
lian industry is particularly susceptible due to the volatility of its grow to succeed, the Australian government called their bluff.
GETTY IMAGES

national dollar. As billions poured in from resource extraction They didn’t want to hand out more money without a commit-
between 2001 and 2011, Australian currency doubled in value. ment, without a plan. Cards on the table time.
Suddenly, the shift towards a profitable, large-scale vehicle ex- Hockey demanded to know if the automakers were there for
porting scheme was out of the question. good. They weren’t.

THE AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT CALLED THEIR BLUFF.

5 6 | 09 . 20 / 1 0 . 20
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The manual 911 proves numbers aren’t everything.
TRAVIS OKULSKI DW BURNETT

LOVING PORSCHE’S 911 is cliché. For The latest 992-generation 911

nearly 60 years it has been the most illustrates the appeal. The interior feels
identifiable sports car. It’s won count- superb, Braun’s Seventies razor aesthetic
less magazine comparison tests and is brought into the 21st century. Textured
consistently lauded for how it drives. buttons click firmly. An artful analog
In fact, the 911 has been featured on tach sits between large LCD screens with
these pages nearly every month since its clean graphics. The exterior continues
debut. It enjoys Camry levels of preva- its slow evolution, the headlights, hood,
lence in certain cities. Somehow, the 911 and overall silhouette nearly the same
has become the de facto choice, creating as before the Beatles broke up. But as
a cult of people who know and want the a package, and in the right colors, the
best-driving vehicle around, as well as 911 is painfully pretty. It earns instant
those who merely want a status symbol. admission into a members-only club.

5 8 | 0 9 .20 / 1 0. 2 0
 This new Carrera S, like the previous era of performance cars, one in which Instrumented testing can’t decide if a
generation, is turbocharged. A 3.0-liter software would play an ever larger car is special. It’s far simpler than that.
flat-six with two snails working together role. The McLaren requires its driver to We have a totally unscientific metric
puts out 443 hp and 390 lb-ft of torque, conquer a challenge. The Veyron is as that lacks any defined rules but tells us
getting it to 60 in 3.0 seconds in our much computer as car, incorporating more about a car than you might think.
testing with the eight-speed PDK a dual-clutch gearbox, all-wheel drive, Just 50 feet will immediately show the
transmission, a truly brilliant gearbox. and launch control. This phenomenon tactility of a car that spends its time
But if you’re buying a 911, you want the cascaded. Supercars became quicker and around town. In that distance you can
seven-speed manual. An option that, easier to thrash. More accessible cars discover how a machine works, how it’s
according to Porsche, slows the time became faster than they had any right intended to cooperate with you, how
to 60 by nearly a second. That is one to be. When five-second 0-to-60 runs much of a role you play in the driving
second you’ll never miss. became leisurely, and times under three process. The rule doesn’t discrimi-
Longtime Road & Track readers will seconds grew common, stats became less nate: Metrics like price, test numbers,
remember that the McLaren F1 domi- impressive. After all, smaller numbers are cylinder count, body style, even the
nated our testing in nearly every metric harder for humans to perceive and are type of transmission are not factors. It’s
in the Nineties, its entry in our Road therefore less intuitive. And as cars rely the way the whole package works. Cars
Test Summary a monument in boldface more on computers to hit baffling figures, with straight-sixes and manual gear-
type. And for good reason: The McLar- involvement and engagement are sacri- boxes can look great on paper but let
en was a supercar without compromise, ficed. Instead of managing the car, drivers you down behind the wheel. There are
a clean-sheet design using only the best manage laws: the laws of society on the hatchbacks with average-at-best specs
materials, cost be damned. It became road and the laws of physics on the track. that, once driven, worm into your brain
the world’s fastest road car almost That’s not to say numbers are useless; and never leave.
incidentally, an inevitable byproduct they remain the only objective measure That’s why the Hyundai Veloster N,
of transcendent engineering. It stood of a vehicle. People who have never our 2020 Performance Car of the Year,
atop our rankings until the mid-2000s, driven a particular car can still get some earns near-universal acclaim. Mean-
finally dethroned by the Bugatti Veyron. idea of what it’s like. The trading-card while, the high-dollar BMW M2 Com-
That moment was notable not just element—comparing stats, creating petition didn’t make the final round
because the McLaren had finally been rivalries—will never get old. But it tells of PCOTY. And it’s why we adore the
beaten. It marked the arrival of a new less than half the story. manual Porsche 911.
 The PDK-equipped 911 is brilliant. that I shifted far more than I had to, brag; having a quicker acceleration time
But how often will you hit 60 in three snagging random downshifts around or a higher top speed is far easier than
seconds? Two dozen times the week town just to rev-match, relishing even telling a buyer how involved they’ll
you buy it; after that, approximately imperfect shifts. be. Numbers are easy, satisfying, imme-
never. The seven-speed manual is the Remember errors? So many mod- diate gratification that don’t have to be
wise option. The 991.1 generation’s ern gearboxes, even manuals with qualified. We’ve been taught numbers
manual gearbox was a frustrating, auto rev-matching and anti-stall tech don’t lie, and we’ve confused that
rubbery disaster of missed shifts. But (features also present on this 911), mask with numbers being the whole truth.
Porsche has always responded to its clumsy footwork or make it irrelevant The numbers have always been a big
rare catastrophes with phenomenal altogether. Lurching and stuttering part of the spotlight, and they’re not
performances. reminds you that you aren’t perfect. going anywhere.
A nearly perfect gearbox, a six- Adding increased involvement changes Nor should they. We need them,
speed manual made solely with driver the rest of the car. And it changes you. if only as a starting point. But we
experience in mind, went into the 911 R The steering jitters and moves with should question what part they play
and 991.2 GT3. The learnings from that the road, talkative and alive, a 911 in our experience. Do you need to get
box were transferred to the 992 and its trademark. The engine is obviously out to 60 in three seconds? Will you ever
reworked seven-speed manual. It’s only back, the rear tires planting as the car go 250 mph? Remember, bragging is
available on the Carrera S and Targa S pivots around it. Brakes immediately reserved for something you’ve done,
models, and it’s a revelation. GT3 levels bite with a firm pedal that’s easy to not for something the spec sheet says
of good. modulate. But this is all perception. A you could do. You’ll find that there’s
That immediacy, that mechanical manual 911 is no different in tuning more enjoyment to be had in a car that
connection, changes everything. It got than the PDK model. The difference is involves you at any speed. One that feels
me with the first release of the clutch, a that the car needs a little bit more out of as special pulling up to the coffee shop
firm pedal that feels attached to history. the driver. You pay closer attention. You as it does around Road America. That’s
It inspires the ultimate in driver ap- learn a little bit more. this 911, manual and all. You might lose
preciation. The lever’s snick-snick into That’s how the chase for numbers can a second getting to 60, but just look at
each gear was so direct and satisfying get in the way. Manufacturers want to what you’ll gain.

09. 20 / 10. 20 | 61
62 | 0 9. 2 0 / 1 0. 2 0
Ferrari’s 1000-hp hybrid bridges the gap between
today’s engines and tomorrow’s motors.
CHRIS CHILTON RICHARD PARDON
 he SF90 is pretty much
the slowest Ferrari ever.
Wind this twin-turbo, tri-
ple-motor $507,300 car up against
the brake and let it rip, and its feeble
217 hp won’t squeal the tires on dry pavement. Manage to stay
awake and you’ll eventually reach 62 mph in 9.3 seconds. And
yes, those numbers are the right way round. Only two Ferraris
have been slower: a malaise-era Mondial 8 that took 9.4 sec-
onds to reach 60 mph in our 1981 test, and a 130-hp 166 MM
built in the late Forties that got there in 10.0.
All right, all right: The 9.3-second time in question is
achieved purely in the SF’s eDrive electric mode.
Throw the SF90’s other power unit into the mix and it’s a
whole different story. The revised version of the F8 Tributo’s
twin-turbo V-8 features new heads, a 100-cc stretch to 4.0
liters, and short intake runners, all good for 769 hp and 590
lb-ft. That brings the SF90 to a grand total of 986 ponies.
The limited edition LaFerrari was similarly powerful, but
this isn’t a replacement for that car. The SF90, so named to
commemorate the 90th anniversary of the Scuderia Ferrari
racing team, is a regular series production Ferrari. It’s built
on a new, but still (mostly) aluminum, rather than carbon,

64 | 0 9 . 20 / 1 0. 20
 chassis. It even looks fairly conventional. There are no flip-up
doors, and apart from a new steering wheel and fancy curved

THE SF90 WILL MATCH

TFT digital instrument pack, the interior doesn’t feel much
different than that of an F8 or 488 GTB.
Yet it pulls numbers no roadgoing Ferrari ever has: Zero

THE LAFERRARI’S LAP to 62 mph in 2.5 seconds, 0-124 mph in 6.7 seconds. The
LaFerrari needed closer to three and seven. Go for the SF90’s

TIME AT THE FIRM’S

optional 66-pound-lighter Assetto Fiorano pack, which
includes carbon door panels, Multimatic shocks, and titanium
springs and exhausts (for $69,184), and the SF90 will even

HOME CIRCUIT. match the much lighter full-carbon LaFerrari’s lap time at the
firm’s home circuit.
The secret to those numbers is the SF90’s all-wheel-drive
system. The gas engine and one of the three electric motors
drive the rear wheels through the new eight-speed dual-clutch
transmission. The other two motors are mounted on the front
axle, one for each wheel to allow torque vectoring, drawing
current from a battery mounted on the rear firewall.
Thumb the starter button and there’s no sign of the V-8.
The SF90 defaults to the new e-manettino’s Hybrid mode at
start, which means the only music exiting the tailpipes is John
Cage’s “4'33".” Inside the car there’s only a brief, faint zizz, like
someone trying to tune a Fifties radio.
Pulling out of the famous Ferrari factory gates into
Maranello traffic, there’s still no sign of the gas engine. No
Fauxrrari noise, either, thankfully; only an eerie electric-car
whine. It seems apt that the V-8’s low-profile intake runners
mean there’s now no view of an engine in the rearview mirror.
 The SF90 looks
like a supercar
but performs
like a hypercar.
It’s the quickest
production model
Ferrari has ever
made, and its
most capable
hybrid. It’s a
contradiction,
a departure,
and a stepping
stone on the way
toward the future
of Ferrari—and
performance cars
as a whole.

66 | 09.2 0 / 10. 2 0
 This isn’t Ferrari’s first hybrid; the LaFerrari took that
honor, but wasn’t intended to be driven for any length of time
purely under electric power. (The function was later made
available to owners on request.) EV running is a core feature
of the SF90. Its 7.9 kWh battery delivers 15.5 near-silent
miles in eDrive mode, and charges in two hours via plug,
or bizarrely, in just a couple of miles by switching to Qualify-
ing mode.
Even in the default Hybrid mode the SF90 frequently zones
out the gas engine. The way the powertrain effortlessly blends
EV and gas is genuinely impressive. It’s the mode owners will
come to appreciate.
But to do an impression of Niki Lauda, one needs to step up
to Performance, or the even more extreme Qualifying mode.
It’s best not to wallow in endless detail about driving modes,
but in the case of the SF90 they’re important.
Only in its upper two modes does the gas engine run full time
and truly feel like a Ferrari. The electric motors’ instant torque
almost completely nixes the wait for the twin blowers to spool
up. Plenty of naturally aspirated cars feel lazier.
If that’s impressive, the brake pedal feel, a frequent passion
killer on hybrids, is even better. Pedal travel is short, consis-
tent, and reassuring on the tight switchbacks climbing up
into the hills south of the factory. There’s barely enough space
between turns to really open the car up, but plenty of opportu-
nity to experience the almost total lack of under- or oversteer.
It’s very good. There is a sensation of torque working its way
through the front axle as power is added while coming out of
tighter corners. It doesn’t corrupt the steering, though it’s cer-
tainly not the way mid-engined Ferraris used to handle. Some
purity seems lost to deliver better traction.
Back at Ferrari’s Fiorano circuit, it’s a different story. At
track speeds, where drivers edge up to the limits rather than
suddenly butting up against them, the all-wheel drive system
feels more fluid, the overall feel more like a rear-drive Ferrari.
But no Ferrari with 500 hp ever felt this easy to drive, let

ANYONE WITH
alone one with twice that power or a conspicuously hefty
3461-pound dry weight. Stick to Race mode, and everything

A SHRED OF
stays neat, tidy and predictable, allowing you to focus on the
front end’s precision and the pull of those motors.
But the SF90 is much more fun with the traction switched

INTEREST IN off, blazing into turns on a whiff of trailing throttle, feeling the
car rotate and set up for the next bend. Or keep it neat on the

DRIVING COULD
way in, roll onto the gas midway through that fourth-gear cor-
ner, exit with a quarter-turn of opposite lock. Did we mention
this car has nearly 1000 hp?

JUMP IN THIS That’s not us grandstanding. Anyone with a shred of inter-

est in driving could jump in this car and do the same, because

CAR AND LOOK

it lives to make you a hero. The SF90’s chassis is so witchy that
even in our enlightened age, Ferrari runs the risk of people
burning it at the stake.

LIKE A HERO. Die-hard fans may well want to do that. The SF90, complex
as it is, could easily have come across as massively confused.
If all you want is a traditional supercar experience from the
moment you hit the starter, you might be better served by the
simpler and slower—but lighter and cheaper—F8 Tributo.

0 9.2 0 / 1 0.2 0 | 6 7
 FERRARI SF90

ENGINE 4.0-liter twin-turbo

V-8, 3 electric motors
PEAK SYSTEM OUTPUT 986 hp
TRANSMISSION 8-speed
dual-clutch automatic
WEIGHT 3461 lb (mfr)

Cars like the SF90 are the medium-term future of perfor- Fiorano as quick as the LaFerrari. Yet nearly any driver could
mance, a way to keep the flame of combustion engines lit until jump in it and toss it around like an entry-level Cayman.
a switch to fully electric power become feasible and accepted. There’s not much the SF90 can’t do. Except, since the elec-
Fortunately, there’s more to the SF90 than that. It’s the fast- tric motors decimate front trunk space, carry enough luggage
est mid-engined roadgoing Ferrari, and the most exploitable. to realize its tremendous touring potential. Oh, and smoke a
It cruises like a Japanese coupe, accelerates like a Bugatti, laps Leaf at the lights in an EV showdown.

68 | 0 9 . 20 / 1 0 .2 0
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ROAD & TRACK TEST: 2020 FORD GT500 TRACK PACK

70 | 09 .20 / 10. 2 0
Ford’s most menacing Mustang is a track weapon at last.
ZACH BOWMAN CAMDEN THRASHER
 The last GT500
was a cartoon.
Good for turning
the quarter-mile
inside out and
little else.
it’s early summer, the air thick enough
to hold, and there are better than 200 miles
of go-nowhere two-lane ahead, all tangled
up in the Appalachian foothills. The route
unravels to an empty track that’s mine for
the day, and there’s nothing between here
and there but a few deer, a line of thun-
derstorms, and the kind of asphalt that
demands a little courage. The fastest, most
advanced production Mustang in history is
beneath my heels, its supercharged V-8 fir-
ing out 760 hp. Its massive Michelins reek
of fresh rubber. The tank is full.
This 2020 Ford Shelby GT500 is only
the ninth to roll off the line. The plaque
on the dash says so. This may glide across
an auction block somewhere decades from
now, massive engine silent, a vulgar curi-
osity from the gilded age of petroleum. But
why linger on that dark future when there
are miles to eat?
The road uncoils into a rare straight. I
press the throttle to the floor. The acceler-
ation is violent, the car trying to shove the
universe through my eyeballs. There is a
gear change. Another. They register some-
where past my consciousness: important,
but less so than keeping the car between
the lines. The rear goes loose as the tach
smacks redline with each shift. Officially,
60 mph falls in 3.6 seconds. But that fig-
ure doesn’t tell you what it’s like to grab
this car by its hide and hold on.

72 | 0 9 . 20 / 10 . 20
Horsepower Seven hundred and
and carbon sixty horsepower. The
fiber galore: most powerful pro-
The GT500 is duction Ford engine
the ultimate in history. A full 100
evolution of horsepower more than
the pony car. the twin-turbocharged
V-6 in the Ford GT
supercar. The V-8 uses the same block,
bore, and stroke as the engine powering
the fantastic GT350 but replaces that car’s
flat-plane crank with a cross-plane design.
Workers hand-build each powerplant,
bolting a 2.65-liter Eaton supercharger
on top, complete with an air-to-liquid
intercooler.
Johnny Cash warbles in my ear as
the bark and snap of the exhaust rings
through the trees. I’ve fought tougher
men/but I really can’t remember when.
The last GT500 was a cartoon. Clutch like
a leg press. A slow, crude Tremec six-speed
gearbox. A fantastic wallop of an engine. A
stick axle from King David’s own ox cart.
Good for turning the quarter mile inside
out, vaporizing rear tires, and little else.
This is not that. Everyone will want to
know what’s under the hood, but what’s
bolted behind that monstrous V-8 is what
sets this machine apart. The 2020 GT500
wears the first dual-clutch gearbox in any
Mustang, a seven-speed Tremec unit that
clicks off hammer-blow shifts in sliv-
ers of a second. It’s strange to sit behind
the wheel of a rippling muscle car with a
rotary dial in place of a shift lever, but you
get over it as soon as the car’s in motion.
Whether you command your gears via the
wheel-mounted paddles or let Ford’s pro-
gramming lead the dance, you get crisp,
precise shifts. More often than not, it’s
faster to leave the gear work to the car. The
transmission’s logic is brilliant, grabbing
each gear half a moment before you think
you need it. Porsche’s been doing this for
years with its PDK, routinely lauded as
the only automatic-style gearbox we can
stand, but this GT500’s is easily as good.
I wound up with the car’s massive
snout pointed down U.S. 129, the Tail of
the Dragon. Summer turns the road into
Disney World, the gnarled two-lane a
slow parade of loping Harley-Davidsons
and double-yellow-crossing tourists who
come for the photos. Usually, it’s best
avoided, but there’s no faster way to get to
Robbinsville, North Carolina, gateway to
the Cherohala Skyway and all roads south.
74 | 0 9 .2 0 / 1 0. 2 0
Through the I’ve been running U.S. 129 plays hell on brakes. A stack It was like that all the way to Atlanta
hazy hills of this road since before of straights just long enough to click into Motorsports Park. A moment of sunlight
the South or on I was born. Dad lived fourth, followed by first- or second-gear and dry pavement followed by 40 min-
a rain-soaked in Knoxville, mom turns, the road doubling back on itself utes of rain, the GT500 confident and
track, the in Murphy, and they again and again. For all the composite on fast through the lot of it. The track was
GT500 offers spent their courtship the GT500, engineers skipped carbon-ce- still soaked, weather radar a blossom of
outrageous driving back and forth ramic rotors; you get 16.53-inch two- thunder cells working their way towards
power under across the moun- piece cast iron discs up front pressed by the Atlantic. The course was penned by
confident tains on 129, Dad six-piston Brembo calipers. The rear gets F1 designer Hermann Tilke. Its two miles
control. slinging his Fox body 14.56-inch two-piece rotors. Ford says the splay over Georgia hills, climbing and dip-
notch through banked combination is good for 20 percent more ping into bowls. There are places where
hairpins on Polyglas swept area compared to the GT350. They the walls are close, and with so much
tires or pushing snow with the front didn’t so much as blush as we wound out power under my right toe, the prudent
air dam, chains on the rears. I grew up 129 and tumbled into North Carolina. thing would have been to sit on my hands
listening to him recount dark nights until the sun came out. But June in Geor-
with the throttle welded open and some gia means afternoon storms, and AMP
braggart’s headlights vanishing in his e were in the mist at the dries faster than any course I’ve seen. The
rearview. Or the flashing lights of a Ten- higher elevations by the track was empty, and I was going to run it.
nessee state trooper falling ever behind. time we reached the Skyway. I left the car in Sport mode. Better to
Scarce moments of triumph plucked The pavement turned wet have the nannies step on my toes than
from hard and terrifying days as a teen- and slick, those thunder- back the car into a wall. Even in the
age father, poor and far from home. Those storms booming their way wet, there’s more grip than you’d guess.
earliest lessons were clear: A willing overhead. The GT500 did not care, gath- Less wrestling, too. At more than 4000
engine in a good car can put everything ering up the road with flashes of throttle. pounds, the car feels big, but it builds mas-
else behind you. The rain drove off whatever crowds would sive speed and holds it, miracle Michelins
I couldn’t help but grin at the symme- be in the mountains, and the Skyway was stuck to the ground. With so much water
try of it as I charged the GT500 into the ours. We splashed from one cloud bank on the course, there was only one place
first bend. The two of us chasing the same to the next, everything soaked and some- to go full throttle, coming out of Turn
apexes, split by 35 years and few hundred how better for it. The road runs from peak 16. When I did, the car snapped forward,
horsepower, Mustangs beneath us both. to peak, the Cherokee and Nantahala making short work of the front straight
A gift of his merciless pursuit of a better National Forests spilling out on either and running down the brake markers into
life for us. By some miracle, 129 was as side. Nothing but uninterrupted tree cover Turn 1 before I knew what was happening.
empty as it would have been for him back as far as you can see, the sky brooding in The brakes were infallible, the pedal
then, before the cameras and the market- grays, blues, and blacks. never going long or soft, even after half
ing. Mine for the sprinting. I wound up
tiptoeing into the first turn, expecting a
nose full of understeer. Instead, turn-in
was precise, the big Shelby unimpressed
with my cowardice.
All thoughts of this car
That’s fine. We had time to get to know
each other. In minutes, all thoughts
of this car being a death wish were left
being a death wish were
in the ditch. There is so much grip, and
it yields big confidence. This tester came
with the optional Carbon Fiber Track
left in the ditch.
Pack, an $18,500 add-on, including the
massive, adjustable rear spoiler, spectac-
ular Recaro buckets, and 20-inch carbon-
fiber wheels. Don’ t expect a back
seat. The wheels wear Michelin Pilot
Sport Cup 2 tires, 305/30 up front
and 315/30 in the rear, and the expan-
sive rubber helps stitch the car to
the pavement. Treat the throttle with
respect, and the GT500 digs in, happy
to sling your innards from bolster to
bolster. MagneRide magnetorheological
shocks help, too.

09. 2 0 / 10.2 0 | 75
 O FFI C I A L PER F O R M A N C E T E S T R E P O R T

2020 FORD GT500 TRACK PACK

S P E C I F I C AT I O N S T E S T R E S U LT S

3.6
PRICE GEAR RATIO MAX SPEED (RPM)
BASE/AS TESTED ......................... $74,095/$94,265 1 .................................3.14:1 ......................... 51 mph (7500)
2 .................................2.05:1 .........................78 mph (7500)
ENGINE 3 .................................1.43:1 ......................112 mph (7500)
LAYOUT .......................................front-engine, longitudinal 4 .................................1.10:1 ......................146 mph (7500)
CONFIGURATION.................................................................V-8 5 .................................0.86:1 ......................180 mph (7250)
0–60 MPH, SECONDS
INDUCTION .......................................................supercharged 6 .................................0.68:1 ......................180 mph (5725)

11.4
MATERIAL..................................aluminum block and head 7 .................................0.56:1 ...................... 180 mph (4725)
VALVETRAIN ........................................... DOHC, 32 valves
DISPLACEMENT ....................................................... 5163 cc STEERING
BORE x STROKE .........................................94.0 x 93.0 mm ASSIST ................................................................................ electric
COMPRESSION RATIO...................................................9.5:1 TURNS LOCK TO LOCK........................................................... 2.2
PEAK ENGINE POWER......................760 hp @ 7500 rpm TURNING CIRCLE ........................................................44.1 feet 0–¼-MILE, SECONDS @ 132.0 MPH
PEAK ENGINE TORQUE ................. 625 lb-ft @ 5000 rpm
REDLINE ...................................................................7500 rpm SUSPENSION
FUEL DELIVERY ............................................... port injection

TRANSMISSION
FRONT .................................................MacPherson strut-type
REAR .................................................................................. multilink
180
DRIVEN WHEELS................................................................ rear
TOP SPEED, 1.13
TYPE .........................................................7-speed automatic
BRAKES & TIRES MPH (MFR)
g
DIFFERENTIAL ..............................mechanical limited-slip FRONT ............................................16.5-in vented iron rotors
ROADHOLDING,
FINAL-DRIVE RATIO ........................................................3.73 6-piston fixed calipers 300-FT SKIDPAD
REAR ...............................................14.5-in vented iron rotors
HP/LB-FT HP 4-piston fixed calipers
STABILITY CONTROL ........fully and partially defeatable ACCELERATION
TIRES ...........................................Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 ROLLING START, 5–60 MPH ....... 4.1 sec
SIZE ............................................. F 305/30R-20 (103Y FP) 0–30 MPH................................................ 1.7
........................................................ R 315/30R-20 (103Y FP) 0–40 ......................................................... 2.3
800 800
0–50 ......................................................... 2.9

625
LB-FT PEAK TORQUE
BODY & CHASSIS
CONSTRUCTION ............................................................. unibody
MATERIAL................................................................................steel
0–60 ......................................................... 3.6
0–70 ......................................................... 4.3
0–80 ......................................................... 5.1
@ 5000 RPM
LENGTH............................................................................ 190.2 in
0–90 ......................................................... 6.1
600 600 WIDTH ..................................................................................76.6 in
0–100 ....................................................... 7.1
HEIGHT.................................................................................53.7 in
0–110 ....................................................... 8.2
OUTPUT

WHEELBASE ................................................................... 107.1 in

0–120 ....................................................... 9.6
TRACK, F/R ............................................................63.8/64.4 in
0–130...............................................................11.1
DOORS/SEATS ........................................................................ 2/2
CARGO CAPACITY ..........................................................13.5 ft3 0–140...............................................................12.9
400 400
0–150...............................................................15.1

760
PEAK HORSEPOWER (SAE)
WEIGHT
CURB WEIGHT ................................................................ 4059 lb
DISTRIBUTION FRONT/REAR .......................... 56.6/43.4%
0–160...............................................................18.1
0–170...............................................................21.6
TOP SPEED (MFR)....................... 180 mph
@ 7500 RPM
WEIGHT-TO-POWER .................................................. 5.3 lb/hp
200 200 BRAKING
FUEL 70–0 MPH.......................................... 142 ft
EPA CITY/HWY ....................................................... 12/18 mpg FADE ...................................................... none
CAPACITY ................................................................16.0 gallons
RANGE ....................................................................288 miles HANDLING
RECOMMENDED FUEL GRADE.................................premium BALANCE........................ mild understeer
2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 7000
ENGINE SPEED

76 | 0 9 . 20 / 10 . 20
 101 decibels. This street car had no prob-
lem exceeding that limit in Sport mode.
“I’ll do my best to quiet it down.”
“Sounds good from up here.”
After a quick break in the pits to let the
car cool, I headed back out, this time in
Track mode, the most permissive of settings,
combined with the exhaust’s quiet mode to
keep from rattling windows half a mile off.
Again, I expected unruliness, but the GT500
is easier to drive with the nannies off. Climb-
ing through the long left-hand carousel of
Turn 4, the rear pivoted nicely, aiming the
nose straight through Turn 5 and into 6.
Rewarding. The kind of machine you want
to keep lapping until they close the gates and
shake their fists at you.
AMP is a playground, and with no one
else around it was mine to flit through,
again and again. One of those surreal days

It’s a car that makes you when the dreams of your 17-year-old self
manifest themselves in metal, Gran Tur-
ismo made real. Proof of how far a willing

wonder where limits lie. engine in a good car can take you. I tried
not to think of how close those walls were
as I whittled down my laps. Reminded
myself that I had to drive that car home,
an hour of hammering around the course. The laps got quicker as I trusted the even as the Cro-Magnon part of my brain
Just massive amounts of metal soaking car more, basked in the grip. But there shouted for more throttle, more angle.
up massive amounts of heat, lap after lap. was standing water at the end of Turn Insisted those big pistons flail faster while
And on track, the transmission is a won- 15, a long, open left-hander. The tach sat the rest of me, the bits with a mortgage
der. In Auto mode, it’s not quite better at 7000 rpm for what felt like a year, the and a spouse and a tidy desk, sat shrieking
than human, but close enough, the shifts car’s weight shoved to the outside as I in the corner.
fast and appropriately predictive. Sure, I transitioned from 13 through 14 and into Through all of it, even at 85 degrees
lament the loss of the manual on this car, 15. When I crossed that water, the whole and near 100 percent humidity, the car
but not the clunky inaccuracy of the old machine wiggled its hips in a long heart- stayed cool, swallowing lap after lap with-
Tremec six-speed, all those milliseconds beat. Back off, and I’d lose my momentum. out trouble. Well, almost no trouble: We
squandered to clutch and lever. For the Keep the throttle steady, and the speed- drained the 16-gallon tank in less than two
first time in GT500 history, shift speeds ometer would lick past 125 mph before I 30-minute sessions. Ford, if you’re listen-
matter. It’s not just a straight-line mallet. clipped the first brake marker for Turn 1. ing, we demand a 32-gallon endurance
You don’t find yourself so concerned with The radio crackled. tank as an option. Put it where the rear
throttle application that you can’t dis- “Race Control to Mustang. Gonna need seats were. All the power in the universe is
sect each corner to find out where you’re you to short shift, you were at 103.5 deci- flat useless when it’s parked at the pump.
leaving seconds behind. No, this car is an bels on that last pass.” There were more laps. Then photos.
actual track weapon, and it showed its tal- AMP works to be a good neighbor, and And like that, the day was over, the Geor-
ents as the course dried. Race Control will black flag anything over gia sky painting itself purple, red, and
orange as the sun made for the trees. I
looked at the GT500 as it waited to take
me home through the long summer dusk.
It’s a car that makes you wonder where
limits lie—900 hp? 1000? If anything,
this machine is proof that there may not
be a ceiling. That as long as they’re will-
ing to pump oil from the ground, there
will always be loftier automotive heights
to pursue, all in increasingly usable pack-
ages. Machines that are so much more
than the tally of their digits.

78 | 0 9 .2 0 / 1 0. 2 0
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 In 1997, a kind owner lent us one of the few McLaren
F1s in the U.S. for three days to do an in-depth review.
Now, 23 years later, these test numbers are still some
of the most impressive we’ve seen.

80 | 0 9 .2 0 / 1 0. 2 0