Fact: At May's Car Care World Expo in Las Vegas, the Honda Accord was named the "Most Washable Car" of 2003. This leads us to believe someone has been drinking wheel cleaner.
Rumor: Ford may bring a version of its rear-drive V-8-powered Falcon into the U.S. from Australia. Much depends on the perceived success of GM's experiment in selling the Australian-built Holden Monaro here as the Pontiac GTO.
Rumor: A new cop version of the Chevy Tahoe is coming for 2004. But Chevy is tight-lipped about a Tahoe SS based on the same two-wheel-drive package for civilians.
Fact: After 40 years, Herb Fishel, the head of GM Racing, has retired from the corporation.
Rumor: For all you AMC guys out there, Edelbrock is supposedly working on a cylinder head for the AMC V-8. They may also produce a fuel-injection system to go with it. The big customers are expected to be Jeep owners.
Rumor: Cadillac's replacement for the Seville will offer both rear- and all-wheel drive when it appears during 2005. Adjust your purchasing plans accordingly.
Fact: The kids who were born the last year Jeff Smith was editor of Car Craft now have their driver's licenses.
0305/6-SCUP-H/OChrysler Takes Flite[Photos 116-0306.SCUP 5A through 5F on disc]According to everything coming from DaimlerChrysler, the five-door Airflite concept car shown by the company at March's Geneva Motor Show in Switzerland accurately reflects the styling themes that will become the hallmark of the company into the foreseeable future. But the real treat isn't the styling-it's the rear-drive chassis upon which the Airflite is built that will make or break the company.
The new LX chassis is DaimlerChrysler's first rear-drive platform since the old New Yorker left production after the '89 model year. In the Airflite, power comes from a heavily styled 3.5L V-6, but this platform is fully capable of supporting V-8s, and at least one Hemi-powered version will be in production for the 2005 model year. The high-performance Mopar musclecar could very well be back in full force by the middle of this decade.
The Airflite looks muscular without being cartoonish, the front end shares a family resemblance to the Crossfire, the wraparound windshield is reminiscent of '65 Imperial, and the pillarless four-door design is something the world desperately needs. We're also growing fonder of the sweeping Marlin-like roof too-despite our best efforts to continue mocking it.
Our advice to DaimlerChrysler is to drop out a couple of doors, toss in a 5.7 Hemi, and call it Barracuda.
If Lincoln Had Had This Car, He Wouldn't Have Been Shot[Photos 116-0306.SCUP 8 on disc]There are great forces out to get you. Everybody knows it but-and this is the sinister part-no one will talk to you about it. Sure your doctors are dismissing your thoughts as delusional paranoia, but they're in on the conspiracy too. How will you be safe? How will you be safe?
What you need is the new Lincoln Town Car Ballistic Protection Series (BPS)! It's an armored vehicle that will protect you from small arms fire whether it comes from black helicopters or that grassy knoll over there. It's not perfectly impregnable, so you'll still have to look in the shadows for agents of the CIA, KGB, and AARP, but it offers some protection.
To fortify the Town Car, Lincoln has employed five basic technologies. Advanced ceramic composite materials are used as a bulwark along most of the vertical surfaces and they work by breaking up bullets and dispersing their energy. Ballistic steel is used on other surfaces and supplements the ceramics in others. Ballistic transparencies make up the windows, which, at nearly twice the standard thickness, can stop rifle shots. An interwoven Aramid blanket insulates the bottom of the BPS to keep shrapnel from intruding from below. Polymer inserts allow the tires to keep rolling up to 30 miles at 30 mph after they've been shot out.