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The post 2017 Porsche 718 Cayman S – First Drive Review appeared first on Amigos Insurance Utah.

Offsetting the reduced cylinder count is the enhanced vitality of the Cayman S’s stats, which match those of the Boxster S. The 2.5-liter turbocharged flat-four has 350 horsepower—25 more than the 3.4-liter naturally aspirated flat-six in the previous Cayman S—along with 309 lb-ft of torque, an improvement of 37 lb-ft. That has cut half a second from the factory-stated zero-to-60-mph time (when equipped with the PDK dual-clutch automatic) as well as improved fuel economy.

You’ll notice that the steering wheel of the car in our photos is on the wrong side. We grabbed our first turn of the Cayman S in the U.K.—specifically, in the Brecon Beacons, the bleak and rugged corner of Wales that the British Army’s elite SAS regiment uses for its selection tests, and where the local roads provide a similarly demanding dynamic challenge.

Sound Off

Much of what we’ve said about the turbocharged engine in the 718 Boxster holds true here, but the Cayman’s fixed roof means its driver has no means to escape from its new, carefully engineered soundtrack. You have to listen hard to discern the loss of cylinders—at idle, there’s a shadow of the sewing-machine noise of an air-cooled Volkswagen Beetle (or, more appropriately, a Porsche 356 or 912). But brush the throttle even lightly, and this gets buried beneath more muscular induction and exhaust noises. These get louder and more forceful as the engine is worked harder, enhanced by a system that augments certain frequencies. It sounds fine—there are even some pops and bangs on the overrun in the punchier Sport mode—but it just doesn’t sound anywhere near as good as its predecessor. Then again, few cars ever did.

More than compensating for the aural deficiency, the 718 feels decidedly quicker than the old Cayman S, and to a greater extent than the raw numbers suggest. Much of this is due to the engine’s boosted output. While the old 3.4 had to be whipped like a racehorse to deliver its best, the turbo engine’s torque curve is as flat as an Iowa cornfield. The peak 309 lb-ft is maintained from 1900 to 4500 rpm, and although there’s a fractional hesitation when making big throttle applications at lower engine speeds—thanks to a lag-reducing variable-geometry turbo, it’s too brief to really describe as laggy—the 718 is much happier to pull its tall gearing than the old car ever was. It feels almost as quick upshifting at 5000 rpm as when it’s revved to the 7500-rpm fuel cutoff.

The new engine is only part of the transformation. Porsche excels at balancing performance with grip, and the 718’s extra urge has required a comprehensive chassis reworking to keep it in check. Changes include firmer springs and dampers and a quicker steering ratio with revised geometry. Our test car had the Porsche Active Chassis Management option that brings both adaptive dampers and a 0.8-inch reduction in ride height. The collective results on a demanding road are nothing short of startling, with the Cayman S extracting huge adhesion from its Pirelli P Zero tires. Our test car had a full boatload of dynamic options, including the Sport Chrono pack and brake-based torque vectoring, which could be felt helping out in slower turns. The manual gearbox is still a peach, and the S now gets the 911 Carrera’s four-piston brake calipers, which seemed tireless under hard use.

Less Like a 911

This sharpening makes the 718 feel more mid-engined. Previous Caymans often felt as if they’d been set up to deliver a 911-lite driving experience, in keeping with their position in Porsche’s brand hierarchy. But the S now feels markedly more responsive and agile than a base Carrera, better able to exploit its optimized weight distribution when it comes to making progress along a twisty, bumpy road. The extra torque can be used to help give directional advice—even small throttle changes exert a noticeable influence on the cornering line under high lateral loads—but never to the extent of dominating the proceedings. On first impression, this still feels like the best-balanced junior sports car in the game.

The engineers behind the new Cayman S should be proud. It’s demonstrably better than its predecessor in pretty much every measurable metric. It’s only when we come to the less quantifiable matter of soul that we have to report continued concern. Sports cars aren’t bought for the same rational criteria as minivans, and we’ll fully understand if you’re planning to cryogenically preserve a late-period 3.4-liter Cayman S as your personal apogee of the modern sports car. But the 718 is a compelling reason to be cheerful about the future.

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This green edition of the world’s bestselling luxury sedan is expensive, with a starting price of $44,695, but it’s sure to be a hit with those interested in saving the planet without resorting to public transit.

The powertrain components are a 180-horsepower 2.0-liter turbocharged inline-four in the usual underhood location, teamed with an eight-speed automatic transmission and an 87-hp electric motor/generator. The AC power provider replaces the torque converter inside the ZF 8HP gearbox. Computer-controlled servos and clutches provide manual and automatic command over gear ratios and three different propulsion modes. A 7.6-kWh air-cooled lithium-ion battery lives unobtrusively under the trunk floor, while the 10.8-gallon gas tank rests beneath the rear seat.

To experience the joys of combustion-free driving, simply punch the eDrive button on the console to engage the Max eDrive mode. After an initial driveline shudder, there’s barely a whisper as the car motors toward the future. As more city centers around the globe ban vehicles that produce tailpipe emissions, this mode will be an excellent means of maintaining personal mobility. With gentle accelerator pressure, the iPerformance will motor up to a top speed of 75 mph for a maximum of 14 miles, according to BMW, assuming the battery was fully charged at the start. When the driver inevitably grows weary of turtle mode, pressing deeper on the accelerator pedal—say, to execute a safe pass—automatically fires up the turbo four-cylinder. This occurs so smoothly that the transformation is revealed more by the swing of the tach needle than by any engine rumble.

Mode two, called Auto eDrive, is the default setting. The only difference from the Max setting is that the baton passes from electric propulsion to engine power at 50 mph.

The third choice available through the eDrive button is a Save Battery mode so the car doesn’t squander stored electrical energy before it’s needed. Here, the AC machine operates as a generator powered by the engine to replenish the battery to the 50 percent level, assuring a few miles of zero-emissions driving. Of course, there are static charging options available as well. A standard 120-volt plug will replenish a fully depleted battery overnight (say, six or seven hours). BMW sells a 240-volt i Wallbox for $1080 plus installation, which drops the charge time to two-and-a-half hours. And a growing number of publicly accessible charge points can be found by using the 330e’s ConnectedDrive app.

Our $62,345 test car was endowed with six option packages adding up to $11,650 and eight free-standing options that together cost $6000. It tipped the scales at just less than 4000 pounds. A 320i we tested three years ago with a similar engine, an eight-speed automatic, and fewer options was lighter by 644 pounds, illustrating that green gear is never free from a mass standpoint.

That said, we bring you excellent news from the test track. With a gasoline/electric total of 248 horsepower at your disposal (versus 180 hp in the aforementioned 320i), the 330e is a sparkling performer. It hauls to 60 mph in a fleet 5.8 seconds and to 98 mph in the quarter-mile in just 14.3 seconds, beating the regular 2.0-liter model by 0.7 second and 0.8 second (and nearly matching the 240-hp 328i we ran through our 40,000-mile regimen). Hold the go pedal down, and this BMW tops out at 140 mph.

The 330e’s 171-foot stop from 70 mph was longer than the 320i’s braking distance by eight feet. Roadholding on our skidpad was even closer: 0.86 g for the 330e, versus 0.87 for the lighter 320i. Both BMWs were equipped with the same Bridgestone Potenza run-flat tires. A blast down our favorite back road revealed the 3-series verve we’ve grown accustomed to: not much steering feedback but excellent overall poise, suspension control over bumps and body motion, and a lust for the 7000-rpm redline. During deceleration, there’s no annoying change in pedal feel as regeneration is supplemented by friction braking. Noise measurements were a near match except for the hybrid’s 30-decibel murmur at idle versus the combustion car’s 43 decibels. Silence, don’t you know, is golden.

Gas mileage is the clincher. Tallying dollars of fuel and ignoring pennies of electricity, we averaged 30 mpg, within spitting distance of the EPA’s 31-mpg gas-only combined rating. Factoring in the electricity we drew from a 120-volt plug, the net efficiency still averaged 29 MPGe. That’s 8 mpg better than the mileage we observed with the 320i. Diligent reliance on the electric mode by a driver who rarely ventured beyond urban settings holds the promise of even better efficiency, but without the driving rewards that come with 3-series ownership.

Given the $10,550 base-price difference between a 320i automatic and the 330e plug-in hybrid, decades could pass before an 8-mpg advantage saves enough cents to make economic sense. That said, why not take the high road to environmental responsibility in a car that’s enjoyable to drive?

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When our cars drive themselves, there will no longer be the need for bright, flashing, colored lights to which humans respond. What will smart, sensor-laden, autonomous cars do when they approach an intersection? That’s exactly what researchers from three countries are trying to work out.

“Traffic lights are a 150-year-old technology originally conceived for horse carriages,” says the website for Light Traffic, part of MIT’s Sensable City Lab. “Will they survive the advent of autonomous vehicles?”

The video above shows a glimpse of what could happen when when traffic signals become more like air-traffic controllers. Each car entering the intersection—automatically, of course—pings a central control system, which then assigns the car a time to pass through the intersection. According to researchers at MIT, the Swiss Institute of Technology (ETHZ), and the Italian National Research Council (CNR), the theory goes like this: By giving every car a specific time slot in which to pass through, the traffic buildup of the past will be solved through complex computer algorithms.

Read more at Discovery News, which says that this system of real-time slot allocation would “double the number of vehicles able to pass through an intersection in a given amount of time,” saving both time and emissions. Claims that researchers are also adapting this system to pedestrians and bicyclists, however, are met with a little healthy skepticism. “Maybe I’ll get over it,” says writer Glenn McDonald, optimistically.

But for now, imagine a future where you can actually manage a left turn in Los Angeles. Where cars act smoothly and rationally because their irrational humans aren’t in control. Where the world won’t have to deal with Pittsburgh lefts, fifteen traffic-light cycles, or other psyche-wreaking nightmares that make modern daily driving such a burdensome thing. Actually, isn’t that the beauty that self-driving cars promise us?

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July 8, 2016 at 2:30 pm by Bob Sorokanich | Photography by YouTube/Engineering Explained

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The post Seeing Is Believing: What Makes Synthetic Motor Oil Better appeared first on Amigos Insurance Utah.

According to telematics experts, high-definition maps are the foundation for all future driving experiences. Knowing exactly where the car is, where it’s heading, and accurate road information is what enables navigation, advanced driving assistance (such as automatic braking), and autonomous cars. Maps even influence insurance costs, fuel economy, and ride-sharing opportunities. So it’s no wonder that the methodology used to create and update maps is now in a dramatic state of flux.

Traditional map suppliers such as Google and TomTom still employ technicians driving around in cars festooned with an elaborate sensor array to digitize every minor and major path accessible to autos. These $250,000-and-up tools gather GPS data plus information from radar, lidar, and onboard cameras. Their high-definition vision systems note speed limits, lane markers, and construction detours. Miniaturized versions of these sensors will serve as the eyes of tomorrow’s autonomous vehicles.

This wealth of raw data from sensor-equipped vehicles must be scrutinized and analyzed. Before it’s uploaded to cloud storage, it must be compared with known open-source information and vetted for accuracy. Then it’s ready for the map makers’ customers—typically car makers—to download for use in their models equipped with navigation systems. An added service, at an extra cost, is access to updates necessitated by major and minor construction projects.

Creating and selling maps with updates is the traditional business model. Mapbox, a San Francisco- and Washington DC-based innovator founded in 2010, has devised an alternative approach. Instead of providing map data, this open-source enterprise sells advanced tools to businesses so they can create their own “living’ maps.” Mapbox CEO Eric Gundersen explains, “What we offer is a Photoshop for maps which gives customers the ability to build and update maps best suited to their uses.” In addition to tapping satellite imagery, Mapbox gathers information from vehicles on the road—including precise latitude and longitude, plus a timestamp that allows plotting the centerlines of their paths, directions of travel, speed, and distance from vehicles ahead. To waylay concern about invasions of privacy, this data is anonymized. “We can gather 100-million miles of data per week,’ adds Gundersen. “This is used to quickly and accurately update existing maps. So our users can easily provide their navigation customers information that’s practically real-time.”

MapQuest, the Weather Channel, Pinterest and others are existing Mapbox clients. What Gundersen calls ‘a major deal with an OEM brand’ has been signed. He wouldn’t say who that is but it’s clear that Google and TomTom have their work cut out keeping up with this new map facilitator.

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From the August 2016 issue

Sometime in the latter 1970s, we reached peak carburetor. By that I mean the carburetor on the average family sedan, squeezed by the vise of new regulations, achieved its zenith in complexity and parts count. Take the Rochester Quadrajet as an example, suggests my old friend Paul Wright, a Q-jet expert. Initially an elegant four-barrel design with smaller primaries for quicker part-throttle response and efficient cruising, and larger secondaries for ample wide-open roar, it was the mainstay of fuel metering on GM cars for more than a decade after its introduction in 1965.

But by 1975, control devices, pushrods, and cams were growing on it like boils. There were hot-idle compensators, timed canister purge ports, air-valve dashpots, aneroid metering rod assemblies, and thermostatic coils. Pressed by the safety crusaders and the EPA (established in 1970), GM even gave the Q-jet electronic controls, trying to make it cleaner when cold, more reliable when hot, safer in a rollover, and less stinky when doing nothing at all. As a result, a relatively simple and effective Bernoullian device for atomizing fuel at an appropriate ratio to the incoming air finished its days looking like a steam-powered candy striper. Baffled mechanics like to call it the “Quadrajunk.”

1967 Chevrolet Chevelle SS 396 engine

But even the best carburetor couldn’t deliver the change society was demanding from the automobile, and the industry eventually switched to injection en masse. Briefly, the top of the engine became a simpler place as carbs gave way to fuel rails. However, massive triumphal success cutting the local scourges of smog and soot has only given way to a new societal urgency to attack the global scourge of carbon dioxide. The only way to reduce CO2 is to burn less fuel, so the engine is being pushed to increasingly tortured lengths to find efficiency. The question is, are we now reaching peak engine?

Recently I was sitting in a tech presentation for Porsche’s new 991.2 generation of turbocharged 911 ­Carreras. The MA2, as Porsche calls the 3.0-liter twin-turbo flat-six that becomes the base engine in the 911, features a host of electromechanical widgets intended to save fuel, drip by drop. Electronic control of the oil pump reduces engine load when high pressure isn’t needed. A two-stage water pump speeds the engine up to temperature for emissions and delivers only “need-based cooling” to reduce parasitic losses. A new polymer oil pan saves 4.4 pounds while being durable enough to survive the entire engine being dropped on it from a height of several feet (we saw the video). The assembled camshafts drive high-pressure pumps to deliver fuel to the injectors at up to 3625 psi and are the heart of a glorious temple of expensive, fine-tolerance machining.

2017 Porsche 911 Carrera S

Later I mentioned to the engineer ­giving the talk that compared with the ­zillion-part-number MA2 and its zillion- part-number PDK transmission, each with its millions of lines of software code, an electric-vehicle motor and battery look as simple as a rope and pulley. Surely, simplicity alone is a significant inducement for automakers to invest in EV development? The engineer nodded, then talked about all the shops making engine bits around Weissach that could be facing hard times. In the post-Dieselgate VW Group, electricity is all anyone seems to be interested in. Porsche Cars North America’s new CEO, Klaus Zellmer, confirmed as much that evening at dinner, when he dismissed the rumored 960, a quad-turbocharged flat-eight coupe, as something Porsche has studied but that is “irrelevant” given the group’s focus on electric and hybrid technology.

EVs have issues, from range to weight to cost to consumer acceptance, and their ubiquity may be a decade or two off. But the internal-combustion engine seems to be in danger of collapsing under the weight of its own Gordian complexity. I asked my colleague K.C. Colwell if he could think of any recent examples of engine development gone bonkers. He quickly emailed back a list, including Volvo’s turbo- and supercharged 2.0-liter four, Audi’s triple-­boosted 3.0-liter diesel V-6 with twin ­turbos and an electric supercharger, and Ford’s 10R80 10-speed transmission for the F-150, which has a wide enough ratio spread to keep the engine revs below 1400 rpm in the EPA economy cycles. We’ve reported on dual-injection systems, water injection, several quad-turbo engines, and, from Volkswagen, a 1.5-liter four with an exotic variable-geometry turbo and cylinder deactivation, which means it runs as a two-cylinder because, you know, two is the new four and four is the new 12. More systems, more software, and more of the engine experience simulated through sound generators and robo controls.

Well, if this is indeed peak engine, don’t be too downcast. It’s been a good run, and tremendous simplification may be on its way. Yes, electric motors, whoopee, but then again, weren’t you just complaining that cars are too dang complicated to work on anymore?

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