Road and Driver

Paris Cars Fuar?n’da previously introduced in the Megane Trophy as unusual design with a rear bumper new Megane RS on 18-inch aluminum alloy wheels, the exhaust pipe at the center position, air entry, LED daytime headlights to attract attention.

To use the same engine used RS’lerde R26′larda new Megane, but the new Megane will be used RS’lerde the 2.0 liter engine’s 250 hp turbo-supported version will be a line. 5500 d / d ‘also produces 250 horse power car 3000 d / d produces 340 Nm torque. This engine produces 230 hp U.S. R26′larda power. A manual transmission this engine, 6 forward RS’in to accompany. RS’ler new Megane 100km / h speed in 6.0 seconds, is expected to rise.

The biggest advantage the double Renault’lar?n front axle suspension system, the size of the new Megane will RS’lerde. This feature can keep under control with the loss of torque. In the same manner used Brembo brakes R26′da systemic RS’lerede to accompany the new Megane.

New “baby Phantom” will get a 500-plus-hp turbo V-12 and an eight-speed transmission.

BY STEVE SILER

Rolls-Royce has let us in on a few more details about its upcoming RR4, the so-called “baby Phantom” previewed as the fetching 200EX concept at the 2009 Geneva auto show. While showing the car to potential customers in New York, Rolls-Royce CEO Tom Purves announced that the crisply styled RR4 (which won’t be its final name) will be powered by an all-new 6.6-liter V-12 with twin turbochargers and an output of more than 500 hp. A ZF eight-speed transmission will transfer the power to the wheels.

Keep Reading: More Details Released On 2010 Rolls-Royce RR4 - Official Info

This Car and Driver: The people and vehicles we meet.

BY JOHN PHILLIPS

Who: Bob Simpson, 66
What: Owner of Bob’s Classics, Inc.
Where: Tampa, Florida

For 18 years, you’ve sold neo-classics like Excaliburs, Clenets, and Zimmers. Why?
Because they look like million-dollar classics but are easy to maintain. You can drive them every day and not worry if they get banged up.

A lot of enthusiasts think neo-classics are dorky.
I don’t know why. Hot-rodders think nothing of a fiberglass Ford bucket-T, powered by a big-block Chevy. Why is that intellectually better or worse than a neo-classic?

What’s been your best seller?
Mercedes 500K replicas. I’ve sold at least 100.

What do you drive on the street?
An Aston Martin DB7 Vantage—my middle name is James, as in Bond—and a Dodge Viper GTS. I abused the Viper on the day Obama won, because I’m a gun collector. I’ve got 150-some handguns.

But weren’t you shot by a handgun?
I was. In 2002, a former employee forged a company check, and I confronted him. He shot six rounds at me as I was running. The very first round—his first damn shot—got me in the butt. The other five hit a truck. The scar looks like a vaccination. The bullet’s still in my butt.

Keep Reading: Are Neoclassics Dorky? Bob Simpson Votes No - Feature

Ask us anything.

Send questions TO “ASK US ANYTHING,” 1585 Eisenhower place, Ann Arbor, MI 48108, or e-mail AskUs@CARandDRIVER.com.

In various spots along my engine’s air-intake plumbing, there are random-size plastic air cavities (I believe). What are they for?

Joseph Kentrus
In Cyberspace Limbo

Those bumps and bulges on the intake are resonating chambers, made to both reduce and tune intake noise so you hear less whooshing of air and more sweet exhaust. Conversely, excessive whooshing of air in the C/D office is associated with a decidedly foul exhaust.

DI DIY

I am curious about direct injection (DI). I have seen it or heard of it applied only to SOHC or DOHC engines. Can it be used with OHV pushrod engines? Also, what would be the expense and labor involved in converting a DOHC (my Scion tC, for instance) to DI?

Mike Head
Scottsdale, Arizona

There’s no reason why a pushrod engine couldn’t run with direct injection, and don’t be surprised if you soon see a GM small-block or a Hemi with the system. As far as doing a conversion, we’d suggest buying a new car because switching from port injection to direct requires holes in the cylinder head for the injectors, a high-pressure fuel pump to supply them, and a completely overhauled engine-management system. The benefit of direct injection is that it has a cooling effect, allowing for a higher compression ratio, which benefits both power and efficiency. Plus, the individual injectors more precisely meter fuel, which further improves efficiency. Even if you could convert an engine to DI and get it running, you wouldn’t gain much without completely retuning the software and changing the internals to boost compression.

Going The Distance

Under optimal conditions and using only the parking brake, about how many feet would be required to stop a late-’60s piece of hulking Detroit iron from 70 mph on a moderately traveled interstate-quality road? A co-worker of mine suggests that needing to do that (while driving from Chicago to Carbondale, Illinois) without the availability of conventional braking was not necessarily irresponsible.

Dennis Rodman
Palatine, Illinois

The best guess we can give you for braking distance is about three laps of Soldier Field. So keep your insurance agent’s number handy. The current federal standard for light vehicles basically states that if your front brakes fail, you still have to be able to stop from 62 mph in 511 feet. That rule applies to modern cars, so an old car stopping from a higher speed will take even more distance. Also consider reaction time; at 70 mph, you’ll travel an extra 154 feet if it takes 1.5 seconds to get your brain to make your foot hit the brakes. The good news is that average ’60s Detroit iron likely had rear drum brakes, so the parking-brake lever would actually use the regular (a.k.a. service) brakes, which means the brakes might be robust enough to use this strategy more than once. Many newer cars with rear discs have a puny “drum in hat” design for the parking brake that isn’t intended to stop the car repeatedly.

Pipe Proliferation

I see a lot of cars with dual chrome exhaust pipes, a lot of them on what I wouldn’t consider high-performance cars. Many take a single pipe and separate it into two pipes and mufflers. Is there an advantage to this, or is it just done for looks? It seems the new A4 went the other way and now has two pipes from one muffler, similar to some BMWs.

Joseph Marcogliese
South Salem, New York

On most cars with inline engines, dual exhaust pipes are a styling exercise. If there’s only one exhaust manifold, then all of the exhaust gas travels via a single pipe through the catalyst. One exception is BMW’s twin-turbo inline-six, which has one turbo for each bank of cylinders and uses two exhaust manifolds. Even some engines with more than one cylinder bank funnel exhaust to a single pipe before splitting into two exhausts at the rear. Whether there’s a single muffler or two, the main benefit of dual exhaust pipes is a sporty look. Functionally, a single exhaust pipe with the same sectional area of a dual exhaust should work just as well but looks only half as awesome.

Speaking Volumes

Regarding displacement, do quoted figures, standard or metric, describe a single cylinder or the entire engine? If a single cylinder is the case, then a V-twin motorcycle, with an advertised 500cc displacement would actually have 1000cc of total displacement. Is this correct?

BMW shows off its A-game with the second-generation Z4.

BY MIKE AUSTIN

As the brand’s only two-seater, the Z4 carries the torch for BMW’s sports-car line, which traces back to the Z8, 507 TS, and 328 (the one from the ’30s, not the modern sedan). The Z’s new folding-hardtop roadster/coupe configuration allows for more freedom in design, and it is one of the harbingers of the BMW look for the next few years. Thankfully, the questionable styling cues of the previous Z4 have been refined into a more sophisticated and elegant form. With the me-too product strategies employed by the German luxury brands, BMW needs a strong competitor in this segment to demonstrate its ability to build a high-performance car that can match the best that Audi, Mercedes-Benz, and Porsche have to offer.

We drove the 300-hp, twin-turbocharged 3.0-liter inline-six, which sees duty across the BMW lineup; thus equipped, this car carries the ridiculous sDrive35i badge. The sDrive part denotes rear-wheel drive, and the absurd naming convention—a similar xDrive badge is also applied to all-wheel-drive versions of the 3-series and BMW’s SUVs—is reportedly used to better protect the brand’s trademarks. The base engine for North America is the naturally aspirated 255-hp, 3.0-liter inline-six also found in many other Bimmers, here badged sDrive30i. Since the previous Z4—as well as the Z3 that preceded that car—came in an M version, it would be natural to assume a new M Roadster is on the way. There’s certainly plenty of room under the hood for the 4.0-liter V-8 from the M3, but the BMW M division says it’s not working on such a project. Both current models come standard with a six-speed manual transmission. The base car can also be optioned with a six-speed automatic. Turbo models without a clutch pedal are equipped with a seven-speed dual-clutch gearbox called “7-speed Sports Automatic with Double Clutch.”

Keep Reading: 2009 BMW Z4 sDrive35i - First Drive Review

Nissan’s luxury arm dishes on its plans for the future.

BY AARON ROBINSON

The windblown puddle of mercury known as the Infiniti Essence concept car shown at this year’s Geneva show tells volumes about where Nissan’s luxury division is headed both stylistically and technically. The twin-turbo 3.7-liter direct injection V-6 in the Essence will debut, sans turbos, in the redesigned M sedan due in early 2010, making about 340–350 hp. The complex direct-injection technology, in which fuel is injected directly into the cylinder rather than in the intake ports as is more common, most likely will also make its way into the G37 coupe and sedan as mid-cycle upgrades before the cars are completely redesigned in about three years. Besides making more power, gasoline direct-injection technology is also needed to meet tightening emissions and fuel-economy regulations around the world.

Where’s the Q?

As yet, Nissan remains unsure whether to replace Infiniti’s former flagship, the Q45. Infiniti’s U.S. office wants a $70,000–$80,000 car to seal its position as an aspirational luxury performance brand against Lexus, BMW, and Audi. The idea is being explored; recently, dealers from around the world visiting Japan went wild when shown a Q concept which was basically a four-door extrapolation of the fabulous Essence show car.

But Larry Dominique, Infiniti’s vice president of product planning for the U.S., says he wants to see how the economy shapes up before he decides for certain whether to invest in the project. And he has other priorities for the division’s limited resources. Mainly, he says, the division needs to keep its bread-and-butter products fresh, namely the 10Best-winning G and the M. The company also has a replacement for the QX56 sport-utility in the works, which will debut after the redesigned Nissan Armada probably later in 2010. Both trucks will be built in Japan on a traditional ladder frame shared with a new Nissan Patrol, which remains for overseas markets only.

Keep Reading: Infiniti Readies Direct Injection for M37 and G37, Unsure About New Q - Car News