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Ford Ranger Edge Plus SuperCab 4×4 – Short Take Road Test – Auto Reviews – Car and Driver
Did you know that BMW’s Formula 1 engines of 1980-83 were built with engine blocks taken from used street cars?
It was discovered during early testing that the 1.5-liter turbo four-cylinder screamer could better endure the stress of producing 1200 horsepower if the block was "aged" by about 60,000 miles of regular driving. The process somehow relieved internal tensions in the casting, making the blocks more durable.
This fact has absolutely nothing to do with the Ford Ranger Edge Plus SuperCab 4×4 pictured here. We just wanted to give you something guaranteed to suck the air right out of your next dinner party. We also wanted to make the case that even though the Ranger doesn’t have 1200 horsepower, there are tangible reasons to choose Ford’s compact pickup over a Brabham-BMW BT50 F1 car.
For one thing, the Ranger has headlights. For another, the Ranger can be seen from behind the hood ornament of a Grand Marquis, even by people looking out between the dash and steering-wheel rim.
The Ranger’s cockpit can also accommodate more than one five-foot-seven Brazilian. In fact, it can accommodate four such Brazilians, although the ones in the back will have to squeeze into two folding jump seats nestled in a paltry 13 cubic feet of space. At least there’s an extra pair of doors to access that space, which brings up another glaring omission by the Brabham’s designer—doors.
Tell the dealer you want a Ranger Edge SuperCab 4×4, and he’ll show you a Ranger XL gussied up with body-colored bumpers and wheel-lip moldings, front and rear anti-roll bars, mud flaps, cloth seats, a CD player, and a textured vinyl floor that resembles sneaker treads. Specify the "Plus" trim, and for another $2485 you’ll get a six-disc CD changer, cruise control, various power widgets, remote locking, and larger tires on 16-inch alloy rims. Tell the dealer you want a BT50, and he’ll point you to the nearest Chinese buffet.
At the risk of belaboring the point, the Ranger’s optional 4.0-liter SOHC V-6 lacks relative vitality. But it can make all 207 horsepower and 238 pound-feet of torque for more than three laps of the Caesars Palace parking lot without ejecting its pistons. Absent the optional $295 limited-slip differential, the V-6 punted our 4020-pound Ranger to 60 mph in 8.1 seconds and through a quarter-mile in 16.5 seconds at 84 mph, respectable times considering the turbo boost control was set to "nonexistent."
The Ranger’s automatic gearbox has five ratios to choose from and does its deeds with reasonable fluidity. The two-speed transfer case features no electronic brain, just a solenoid to engage four-wheel-drive high and low at the command of a dashboard rotary knob. Unless you opt for the limited-slip axle, the open differentials will generate nothing more than wild wheelspin in mud, making the Ranger best suited to off-road adventures on hard surfaces.
Edge Rangers all sport the 4×4′s extra 0.7-inch axle clearance (for 7.4 inches total). The extra altitude considerably hampers the Ranger’s ground effects, although chassis stiffness and cabin isolation were both improved in the model-year-2000 redesign. The live rear axle still hops around on corrugated surfaces, but with less punishment meted out to the occupants.
A BT50 comes with enough space behind the driver for a small drink bottle, whereas the Ranger has enough space for a fish pond. The box is stamped with depressions in the sidewalls so a four-by-eight-foot sheet of plywood slides in above the wheel wells. The $195 for the optional bed extender, a removable cage of aluminum tubes that rotates out over the open tailgate to lengthen the load floor by 16 inches, represents money wisely spent.
The $24,080 for our Edge Plus SuperCab 4×4 is all the money you’ll want to spend on a Ranger (only the Edge Flareside costs more—another $65 to start—but it can’t be fitted with the bed extender) and about half the money you’ll need for a BT50′s insurance premium. True, if you buy a Ranger now it won’t have 1200 horsepower, but drive it for a couple years, and who knows?
Article source: http://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/car/01q2/ford_ranger_edge_plus_supercab_4x4-short_take_road_test
E-Z-GO 2Five Eco-Friendly Transportation Just Got Easier
Eco-Friendly Transportation Just Got Easier with the E-Z-Go 2 Five a new idea in Eco-friendly transportaion. Check out this new electric car.
(NAPSI)-On-the-go families are finding a new and eco-friendly way to get where they need to go.
The solution is a vehicle known as the E-Z-GO 2Five. The 2Five is a street-legal vehicle designed for neighborhoods and public roads with a speed limit of 35 mph or less. The car has a maximum speed of 25 mph and features a 48-volt AC electric powertrain, four-wheel hydraulic disc brakes and an onboard charger.
The convenient, fun and environmentally sound transportation alternative can be a great option for neighborhood road travel, running errands and for those who lead an on-the-go lifestyle.
The 2Five meets or exceeds standards mandated by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) as well as additional standards of the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) for low-speed vehicles, or LSVs. LSVs must have a top speed of no more than 25 mph and be equipped with certain additional features including a windshield, seat belts, mirrors and headlights and taillights.
The vehicles are issued a vehicle identification number, like any automobile, and can be titled and operated by licensed drivers on most public roads with speed limits of 35 mph or less.
The car includes four-wheel hydraulic disc brakes for braking and vehicle control. The vehicle’s dash includes a digital speedometer and odometer, cup holders, a locking glove box and an AC outlet for recharging mobile devices.
In addition, a “rabbit/turtle” switch on the dash conveniently limits the 2Five’s speed to 14 mph when conditions require lower speeds, or to prevent turf damage in instances when the 2Five is being used as a golf vehicle.
Eco-friendly features include a 48-volt electric powertrain that uses AC current, which lowers vehicle noise, eliminates hazardous fuel and oil and uses less energy. Regenerative braking recharges the batteries whenever the vehicle’s brakes are applied. An on-board solid-state battery charger makes recharging as convenient as plugging into a household power outlet. The foam seating is made of 100 percent recycled material.
For more information or to locate an authorized dealer, visit www.ezgo.com/2five.
Facebook users can also visit www.facebook.com/4ezgo for more information.
Eco Friendly Travel and Transportation
Chrysler Sebring LXi – Road Test – Auto Reviews – Car and Driver
Since we test-drive more than 200 cars a year, you’d think we could approach any car blindfolded, drive it, and tell you what marque it is. For the most part, we can, and every manufacturer would like its cars to have a unique image and feel that’s instantly recognizable to consumers.
BMW, for one, does an excellent job of giving its range of cars a particular feel that test drivers are quick to recognize. After stepping out of the new Sebring sedan, we’re realizing that Chrysler is on its way to achieving the same feat because the Sebring feels very much like a scaled-down version of its 300M.
This is good news for mid-size-sedan buyers, as that bigger 300M is a fine car. In 1999 and 2000, we voted the 300M onto our 10Best list and awarded it a second-place finish in a nine-car comparison test last February. The 300M costs about $30,000, and the Sebring LXi pictured here starts at a more user-friendly $21,405.
The new-for-2001 Sebring four-door replaces the Chrysler Cirrus and is a twin of the Dodge Stratus four-door. So what’s the difference between the two models? DaimlerChrysler says the Stratus is tuned for sporty driving and the Sebring for comfort. Nonetheless, we quite liked the way our Sebring went down the road.
The front suspension still employs sophisticated unequal-length control arms — a rare arrangement in a mid-size-sedan class that favors less expensive front strut suspensions. The arms do a better job of keeping the tires square to the road during cornering. Despite the good suspenders, ultimate grip in the Sebring is low. We recorded only 0.75 g on the skidpad but found we could effortlessly corner the Sebring at the edge of sliding.
Like every other sedan on the market today, the Sebring safely slides its front wheels when the driver overcooks a corner. We liked how well the sliding front end tucked in with a lift of the throttle, but the Sebring is still a tad soft for our hard-driving tastes.
The upside to the Sebring’s low grip is a cushy ride that softens harsh roads. The ride is supple but not spongy. For 2001, Chrysler says it stiffened the body structure by 13 percent in torsion and 33 percent in bending. It also filled the cavities at the base of the B-pillar and in the lower sills with foam to further dampen road noise. The Cirrus was on the raucous side of the hugely competitive mid-size-sedan class, and the improvements have now brought the renamed Sebring in line with the most refined.
Some of the credit for the new refinement should go to the 2.7-liter aluminum V-6 engine. It replaces a 2.5-liter Mitsubishi-built unit and is shared with the full-size Dodge Intrepid and Chrysler Concorde sedans. In the Sebring, the engine is mounted transversely, and its 200 horsepower is 32 more horsepower than the old unit made.
The engine revs with a subdued and smart snarl, but it’s saddled with too much weight — 3340 pounds. Among the eight mid-size sedans we compared in September 1999, the new Sebring would have been the most powerful — and the porkiest. Because of its weight, acceleration times are only a hair better than that test’s average: 60-mph sprints take 9.1 seconds, and the quarter-mile distance breezes by in 16.9 seconds at 84 mph. The Oldsmobile Alero, the quickest car in that comparo, could hit 60 mph in 8.1 seconds and turn the quarter in 16.3 seconds at 85 mph. (The 3186-pound Stratus we tested back then ran 9.4 to 60 mph.)
New, bigger brakes shaved only two feet off our lighter Stratus’s best stop, taking 199 feet to bring the Sebring to a standstill from 70 mph — that’s 10 more feet than the average braking performance in that aforementioned comparo.
Our test car came with the $1295 luxury-group option that includes chromed aluminum wheels, a theft-deterrent system, and the AutoStick manumatic transmission. If you want at least a semblance of the act of shifting gears manually, the AutoStick is the only way to go, as there is no manual transmission in Sebring four-doors, although there is one in the two-door Sebring. The AutoStick responds promptly when asked to downshift, but if the engine gets close to the 6500-rpm redline, it upshifts automatically. Left in drive mode, the tranny takes longer than we like to downshift. And when you floor the throttle, there’s a short pause — as though the engine is inhaling — before the gear kicks down. Other cars, such as the Oldsmobile Alero, do the job with less fuss.
Article source: http://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/car/00q4/chrysler_sebring_lxi-road_test