Road and Driver

The Germans give this SUV some (more) attitude.

BY JORDAN BROWN

Porsche has announced plans to offer U.S. customers its latest special edition of the Cayenne SUV. Building upon the sporty Cayenne GTS, this is the third Porsche Design Edition in the series—and the first sport-ute—and gets a host of interior and exterior upgrades that have it looking fit for a German Batman.

Sprayed in what Porsche calls Lava Grey Metallic paint and festooned with racing stripes, the DE3 also features color-matched 21-inch wheels, blacked-out bi-xenon headlights, and tinted windows that add to the SUV’s menacing exterior. Also available to customers at no additional charge is an extended roof-mounted spoiler similar to the one found on the Subaru WRX STI. The final exterior flourishes are the Porsche Design Edition 3 graphics on the doors.

Keep Reading: 2010 Porsche Cayenne GTS Porsche Design Edition 3 - Car News

Putting a Track pack on the popular pony.

BY AARON ROBINSON

A Mustang with a Track pack? Corvettes and Vipers grab the glory for Old Glory at temples of speed such as Le Mans. The lumbering, log-axle Mustang is just a quarter-miler for the tattoo-and-tobacco crowd, right?

Actually,mes amis, the Mustang is America’s other road-racing workhorse. It has its own pro series, the eight-race Mustang Challenge. And there were more than a dozen Mustangs on the grid at Daytona this past January when a Roush-prepared Mustang finished second in the three-hour Koni Challenge race. It made all its rights and lefts better than Porsche 911s and BMW M3s. [Turnkey Mustang drag cars are featured in this month’s Sport, page 110].

No, we wouldn’t expect that hierarchy to hold on the street, even if the 2010 Track-pack Mustang GT is billed as the hairpin-and-carousel king of the newly reskinned Mustang lineup. Still, Ford’s old pony has a long history of making incremental improvements as it ages, and the Track package shows that the late-night lights still burn in some windows at Ford.

Building a Track-pack Mustang on the order form starts with a GT Premium and its 315-hp, 4.6-liter V-8 and five-speed manual, for $31,845. The $1495 Track package swaps out the 3.31 or 3.55 axle for a 3.73 limited-slip rear end with carbon friction plates. The shocks are less forgiving in both compression and rebound, the anti-roll bars are thicker, and dual-piston front brake calipers with performance pads from the 2009 Bullitt model do the stopping. Also, the stability-control system is retuned to tolerate more sideways play.

Could the Prius and fun finally get along?

BY STEVE SILER

We’ve never gotten too excited about the Toyota Prius around here. On one hand, as an extreme fuel-sipper with a distinctive design and contrarian appeal, the Prius is laudable in the manner with which it eschews traditional luxury and conspicuous speed in favor of high-tech eco features, utter thrift, and unconventional hatchback living. On the other hand, with skinny tires, a loud cabin, terrible rear vision, and a boomy ride, the Prius has been the exact opposite of fun to drive. Indeed, efficiency and green image aside, considered as a plain ol’car, the Prius has represented little more than an expensive Corolla.

Toyota has been relatively fine with that, for there are plenty of shoppers seeking the automotive equivalent of an Energy Star appliance for their transportation needs, and Toyota has wooed more than a million into Priuses so far. For 2010, however, Toyota has stepped up the game, not just updating the styling considerably, but veritably pouring engineering talent (some 200 engineers’ worth) into making countless changes intended to make the Prius both more powerful, more efficient, and—get this—more fun to drive. Plus, there are those impressive fuel-economy ratings: an official EPA-estimated 51 mpg city, 48 mpg highway, and 50 mpg combined.

Transformed? Not Quite

Did Toyota succeed? Now that we’ve had a chance to sample the 2010 Prius along the scenic and winding roads around Napa, California, we can say that it did achieve those three goals. A welcome helping of grunt (okay, maybe grunt is too strong a word) has been injected into the Prius’s vastly improved hybrid powertrain, which mates a larger, 1.8-liter four-cylinder engine to an 80-hp electric motor and a 650-watt nickel-metal-hydride battery pack for a combined power rating of 134 hp, up from 110 for the 2009 model. Furthermore, a new engine management system allows for three driving settings—Battery, Eco, and Power. Toyota also added a 17-inch wheel-and-tire option to liven up the handling.

Keep Reading: 2010 Toyota Prius - First Drive Review