Reviews

From the July 1994 issue of Car and Driver. Riding in a hearse—all 21 feet of it—is a harrowing experience. Not because the thing is so large that we discussed photographing it by satellite. And not because it’s morbid or ghoulish. But because the word “hearse” is derived from “harrows,” which were framelike things that […]

It is always brave to call the final result of any contest before it has ended. Yet it seems impossible that anything will beat Great Wall Motor Company’s Ora Funky Cat for the title of the most oddly named vehicle C/D will drive this year. This is no self-built special. The Funky Cat is an

From the April 1997 issue of Car and Driver. Various old-fogy automo­tive wankers are forever lamenting the demise of rattletrap roadsters—the kind that were around when the average guy could tell you who Neville Chamberlain was. Well, cheer up, graybeards, a few of these old-timer cars are still around. Caterham Cars of Cater­ham, England, produces

There is an all-electric Porsche Panamera in the making, but before it arrives on the Scalable Systems Platform (SSP) about four years from now, the third-generation (G3) four-door flagship will bow in early 2024 for its final seven-year life cycle. Unfortunately, it will be offered in only one body style this time, as the take

From the April 1997 issue of Car and Driver. “In the spring a young man’s fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love,” wrote Alfred, Lord Tennyson. Easy for him to say—sports cars weren’t much of a distrac­tion in 1842. But this spring, we predict, love is in for tough competition from the niftiest class of

Hindsight is always 20/20, but looking back we can see that the minivan was an obvious step for the American auto industry to take in the early 1980s. The combination of larger families and longer journeys to the nation’s growing number of destination theme parks gave the impetus to create something better able to carry

Thomas Burberry’s innovative trench coat covered the shoulders of British army officers in World War I. That it would emerge from the reeking hell of battle and become a fashion statement by the Second World War was quite the evolution. Few luxury goods of this caliber originate from war. One is the Mercedes-Benz G-class, which

From the March 1999 issue of Car and Driver. German engineers mining for torque deposits near Affalterbach must have hit a mother lode. At least, that’s what it feels like from behind the AMG-monogrammed steering wheel of this E55. Somewhere between here and the three­-pointed gun sight at the leading edge of the hood is

40,000-Mile Wrap It happened lap after lap at the bottom of Spiral at Virginia International Raceway. The corner sets your stomach back into your belly, having just spanked it left and right through the section’s downhill sequence. In that flat left-hander, we stepped on the gas pedal as if to confirm the murder of a

From the November 1997 issue of Car and Driver. George Hurst’s first customized shifter was for a 1956 Chevy. It had shorter throws from gear to gear and a more precise feel than stock shifters. In no time, performance drivers everywhere were lining up for them. Detroit automakers were serious about perfor­mance back then, and