Another Pass at the PassatThe New Beetle may have gotten all the press, but it was the current Passat midsize sedan that solidified VW's presence in the American market during the late '90s. With VW taking a lot of sales hits again, it's preparing to fight back with a new 2006 Passat.
Looking like a slightly scaled down version of the VW's troubled flagship, the Phaeton, the Passat grows a bit with this new generation. It's about two inches longer than the car it replaces, a bit more than two inches wider, and rides on an incrementally longer (less than a quarter inch) wheelbase.
The new structure is stiffer than before, but the suspension isn't much different. What is different is the engines are now transversely mounted in the nose, much like other VWs and unlike the current Audi-like longitudinal mounting used in the current Passat. This lets VW devote more of the car's length to passenger accommodation and cargo hauling. And VW claims both of those are up significantly with the new Passat.
Into that new roomier interior, VW will glue in every imaginable technology, including electronic parking brakes (those mechanical ones were such a chore), Bluetooth telephone equipment, an audio system that does everything except manually manipulate the bones in your ear, and a ventilation system that re-creates everything from Marrakesh in midsummer to Helsinki in January.
The innovation really emerges in the Passat's engine bay, where all the petrol-fired engines except the lowliest four will be of direct-injection design when the car goes on sale in Europe. That includes a new 3.2-liter V6 making 247 hp at the top of the range.
A Fiesta for America?Ford is reportedly considering bringing a car smaller than the Focus to America. If that car is the current Fiesta, that's no bad thing.
In fact, the first front-drive car Ford ever sold in the United States was the original, much-loved Fiesta back in 1977. This would be the car's first trip back to our fair shores since 1980.
The latest version of the Fiesta is the new ST that debuted at last year's Geneva Auto Show. Basically a mini-musclecar, the ST combines the Fiesta's dinky body with a 2.0-liter Duratec engine from the Focus to produce (at least theoretically) solid performance. If this is what Ford wants to bring over, bring it soon.
But don't expect any sort of Fiesta over here before next year.
RaceLegalNearing TerminalBy government standards, $550,000 is chump change. The Federal government blows through that much in less than a second. Any good-size city spends that much on the mayor's overfed entourage. But in San Diego it's too much to attract even a little support for keeping street racing off the streets and on a track.
RaceLegal is San Diego's grassroots answer to the problem of street racing. For almost eight years the independent organization has been running eighth-mile drags on the tarmac of the city's Qualcomm Stadium, offering unlimited passes to anyone who shows up with $20 and a car that can pass a tech inspection.
It takes $550,000 a year to run RaceLegal, but it only attract about $350,000 in revenue. That shortfall had been made up with a state grant, but that grant has run out. So there's a good chance that RaceLegal itself will be shut down.
Street racing in San Diego has been a bloody affair for years, so law enforcement has been behind RaceLegal from the start and officer-owned cars have been regulars at the events. But their support hasn't been enough to pry money out of the city, county or state governments. Where are the corporations that make money selling aftermarket parts and goodies for cars in all this? Good question.
With luck, RaceLegal will find support somewhere. And the 300 or so cars that show up for a typical event won't have to go back to finding races on the streets.
RaceLegal is on the Internet at www.racelegal.com or it can be reached at (619) 265-8159
Mitsubishi Re-Arms for 2005 wrcIt's getting so that Troubled Mitsubishi Motors may as well be the company's official name. But it's back in WRC for 2005 and this is the car with which it'll compete.
Now only inferentially related to the EVO series of vehicles that the company sells to civilians, Mitsubishi isn't saying much about the new Lancer WRC05 except that, according to Isao Torii, the president of Mitsubishi Motor Sports, "we still have more development work to do. An active differential system and semi-automatic gearshift will be the main targets in the development program and our primary focus for the first half of the season. But we intend to get back on the podium in the second half of the year; Rally Japan, in particular, being our target."
From the photo the only thing that's obvious to us are the radically altered front fenders and new nose with a wide-open underbumper air inlet. It should be able to suck enough air through the intercooler to knock the charge temperatures down to Duluth-in-December levels. Power still comes from a very advanced version of the old 4G63, from what we can tell.
The WRC season has been going strong since January (we're writing in December), so you know better than we do how this version of the Lancer has done
Rumors&Lies,* According to Britain's "Auto Express," BMW has already decided to build an M version of the new 1 Series small car. But the car, powered by an amped up 2.4-liter four making somewhere around 240 hp, will not be called the M1, as that name is reserved for the classic midengine car from the late '70s. Instead, expect it to be called 125i Sport. It's still an open question whether any 1 Series vehicles will ever make it to America.
,* Pontiac may release a version of the Solstice roadster with a turbocharged Ecotec engine in addition to the supercharged version that's already coming. The turbo engine could make up to 300 hp and make the car competitive with machines like the Mazda RX-8 and Mustang GT.
,* Toyota will start offering XM Radio as a factory option starting in 2006. SIRIUS Satellite Radio is already a Toyota dealer-installed option.