Jaguar Concept VR Reveal Is the Future of Car Buying

VR could allow car shoppers to test out various aspects of a vehicle from the comfort of their own computer.

The coolest vehicle I saw at AutoMobilityLA (aka, the LA Auto Show) this week wasn't even real, at least initially. To debut its new I-PACE all-electric crossover, Jaguar herded media into a Hollywood studio with a dozen or so tables in a large room, each topped with HTC Vive VR headsets, Dell Precision workstations, stereo headphones, and a joystick controller.

Keep in mind that automotive journalists are a jaded bunch, and I heard a few grumbles from one writer who falls into the category we in the biz call a "Frank Bacon." I also don't think the thumping EDM-light music we heard through the headphones while waiting (for quite a while) for the reveal to begin helped. Eventually, we entered an animated experience of what Jaguar dubbed the "world-first VR reveal" of a concept I-PACE. I'm sure it won't be the last.

A digitized host introduced Jaguar's superstar car designer Ian Callum in pixelated form, who proceeded to sketch out the lines of the vehicle in light and add other details until the I-PACE was built piece by piece. VR was also used to show how the battery packs are arrayed in the vehicle and how much luggage can fit in the "boot." We used the joysticks to rotate 3D images.

While VR enabled some cool special and spatial effects, such as giving participants a floating-in-space satellite view of the US West Coast to demonstrate the more than 220-mile range of the I-PACE, the coolest tech trick was the way each participant was placed in the cockpit of a virtual I-PACE, first behind the wheel and then in the backseat. The details of the VR rendering of the vehicle's interior, while a bit cartoonish, were real enough to make you want to reach out and touch them, and even elements like the logos on the virtual speaker grilles were intact.

Showing the Greasy Bits in 3DWhile this was all pretty impressive, the most practical application for the VR tech was to show the vehicle's greasy bits. Jaguar demonstrated how the electric motors work, for example, by suspending them at just above eye level for an in-your-face 3D view. Displaying the suspension system of a single wheel was so realistic that I instinctively pulled away to avoid getting hit in the head by a life-size spinning tire.

When the VR portion was over, the actual I-PACE Concept in real sheet metal was revealed. But you don't have to be a car journalist to experience the vehicle via VR since a dedicated Jaguar mobile app is available on the Viveport app store.

While there was a certain gimmicky element to what Jaguar called "the largest live and connected VR event of its type to date," I expect to see more VR reveals like this. But the publicity stunt highlights the potential consumer-oriented applications of VR for car companies.

Imagine trying various vehicles on for size from the comfort of your own computer to test the legroom and headroom and really get a sense of the size of the cabin. Gearheads could take a deep dive into an engine, transmission, or suspension, while geeks could scrutinize dashboard displays and infotainment options. And shoppers could virtually outfit a vehicle with different interior colors and materials.

The possibilities are unlimited. And after the Jaguar I-PACE reveal, I expect VR to not only become a popular way for automakers to unveil new cars but also a common method to help sell them.

Faraday Future is looking at another setback after stopping work at its $1 billion factory

A scale model of the Faraday Future FFZero1 concept race car at LeEco's San Jose, California, headquarters.Bryan Logan/Business Insider

Faraday Future, the troubled upstart electric-car company that set out to challenge Tesla, appears to have encountered another setback.

According to a report from the Financial Times on Thursday, Faraday Future is likely to miss a shipping deadline for its first production vehicles. The company initially said it could bring its cars to market in 2017.

Construction was recently halted at the company's $1 billion North Las Vegas factory. A Faraday Future representative told Business Insider last week that the company was "refocusing efforts" on its production vehicle in the meantime.

Faraday Future has said it will unveil that car at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January. But the company's goal to get those cars rolling off of an assembly line by 2017 is in doubt.

A former Faraday Future employee cited by the Financial Times said the 2017 timeline was "not possible."

The startup so far has no factory in which to build the cars.

Nevada state officials and Faraday Future executives attended a ceremonial groundbreaking in April for its plant in North Las Vegas. Business Insider was also there, as was the state's governor, Brian Sandoval, who lauded the project as a "new beginning" and "the next chapter in the Nevada story."

Though the state of Nevada has offered Faraday Future millions of dollars in tax incentives, the state's treasurer, Dan Schwartz, was one of the project's most vocal skeptics. In several conversations with Business Insider, Schwartz said he doubted Faraday Future had the financial means to complete the project.

The company is primarily backed by LeEco chairman Jia Yueting, who recently expressed surprise that the car business was a costly endeavor. LeEco is also developing its own electric car.

Jia wrote a letter to employees earlier this month saying: "We sped blindly ahead ... our cash demand ballooned. We got overextended in our global strategy. At the same time, our capital and resources were in fact limited."

A group of Chinese investors reportedly raised $600 million this month to help boost LeEco.

A Faraday Future representative did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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This 'self-driving' 1956 concept car shows how far Tesla has advanced autonomous driving

A lot has been made about the race for the self-driving car, as Tesla, the Big Three automakers, Uber and other tech giants battle to be the first to perfect autonomous driving.

Ford is promising a "fully autonomous" commercial car within five years — even beer trucks are making shipments without a human behind the wheel , using technology not too unlike Tesla's "autopilot" feature.

Yet, as far as the technology has advanced over the years, the progress can start to underwhelm the longer it drags on — at least until you realize just how far the dream has come.

A perfect example to reflect back on is the ambitious Firebird II concept car, dreamed up and built by the futurists at General Motors in 1956.

Highlighted on the latest episode of CNBC's "Jay Leno's Garage," the gas turbine-powered car was the first automobile ever constructed out of titanium and offered a glimpse into what the future of driving might look like, complete with an automated driving system that was controlled by contacting an electronic strip on the highway beneath the car.

A GM promotional video featured at its 1956 traveling automotive Motorama showcase depicted how the car would enable a driver to take their hands off the wheel while the Firebird II seamlessly drove itself down the highway (leaving the passengers to enjoy the onboard orange juice dispenser.)

"This was the beginning of autonomous driving," comedian and car enthusiast Jay Leno said, adding how unsustainable the idea of having the equivalent of air traffic controllers monitoring the cars along the road was.

"I think the vision back in the day was to have these towers like every 20 miles."

Of course, the idea of an electronic highway and highway controllers in towers never took off, but six decades later, GM is being proven correct in predicting a feature that has now all but become expected of future models.

Last month, Tesla (TSLA) announced that every vehicle the company produces moving forward, including its more affordable Model 3, will come fully equipped with self-driving hardware . "It's basically a supercomputer in a car," Tesla CEO Elon Musk said.

CNBC's "Jay Leno's Garage" airs Wednesdays at 10 p.m. EDT.

More From CNBC

Concept car for the adrenaline-dependent travelers

Combining project design works of Clara Fassler, Benjamin Loyngera, Luis Meixner and Jean-Marc Ephraim has allowed to be born concept car BMW XBase, intended exclusively for customers who value a comfortable ride with all the sports equipment, which is sure to come in handy on a long journey or a rustic pastime.  Inside the four local car very free, and seats are available according to the landing formula 2 + 2 face to each other. Office machine apparently done by intelligent autopilot system. For sports equipment (eg bicycle) provided for external mounting on side planes BMW XBase. Sit down the wagon-shaped vehicle with a panoramic roof can only on one side – on the left side is located only the wide door that opens up. Embody the concept on the real car, not specified.

 

Future technology carsConcept carDesign and tech

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The BMW i8 and Acura NSX Give the Future of the Sports Car Hope

It wasn't that long ago that the idea of a hybrid supercar sounded completely absurd. Hybrid powertrains were for boring cars like the Toyota Prius, not exciting cars for people who care about driving. But in a world where both Ferrari and Porsche have sold hybrid hypercars, suddenly the idea of other performance cars using hybrid powertrai ns sounds a little less ridiculous.

One of the first hybrid supercars to hit the streets was the BMW i8. Looking like a concept car from the future, the i8 uses two electric motors and a 1.5-liter three-cylinder engine to make 357 horsepower. That's significantly less than you get from a Ford Mustang GT, but thanks to its carbon fiber construction and all-wheel-drive system, the i8 is able to scoot to 60 mph in four seconds flat.

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But now the i8 faces stiff competition from the all-new Acura NSX. The NSX is more expensive, but it also packs more power. Three electric motors and a twin-turbo V6 work together to make 573 horsepower and launch the NSX to 60 mph in 3.1 seconds. That's nearly 200 more horsepower and a 0-60 time that's almost 25 percent quicker.

Considering we just named the new NSX our 2017 Performance Car of the Year, it's obvious where our loyalties lie, but it's still fascinating watching Carfection drive the two back to back. And if the performance car of the future drives like either of these cars, we definitely don't have to worry about getting bored any time soon.

via Jalopnik

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The 10 most futuristic concept cars in the world

BMW

Cars of the future could be more high-tech than most homes.

That's at least what we're gathering from the futuristic concept cars automakers have been building.

We rounded up the most tech-savvy cars we could find and what it means for the future of driving.

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A quirky proposition | 2017 Smart Fortwo Electric Drive First Drive

I want to cruise around with the person who's perfect for the new 2017 Smart Fortwo Electric Drive. The pocketable EV is, as we've said before, more of an accessory than it is practical transportation. I think that the person who wants not only a Smart car but the electric one is a person I'd like to hang out with. This is a fun and quirky little plug-in, and I'm pretty sure that whoever buys one has a combination of a sense of humor and environmentalism I can vibe with.

Smart says that it is a pioneer of electric drive vehicles, and that's true to a degree. The brand was conceived as an electric one, so points for history there, but leadership then does not equal leadership now. Just look at the official Smart ED page, which still shows the old model ED, or remember that the the electric model's launch in the US has been delayed. Instead of the promise d "late 2016," the ED will now arrive some time in the spring of 2017. The good news is that the car is worth the wait, with a few caveats.

If the Fortwo is naturally a city car, the Fortwo ED is a you-better-believe-it a city car. The ED is powered by a 17.6-kWh lithium-ion battery with 17.2 kWh of usable energy. That's good for a whopping 100 miles of range .. . but only in Europe where they use the NEDC test cycle. Here in the US, expect to see about 70 or 80 miles from the EPA (The current model, based on the previous-gen Fortwo, gets 68 miles). Given that limitation, this is not the car that wants to wander far from the skyscrapers. You won't either, in one of these, because you'll be having too much fun winning traffic.

Zippy on steroids is a fair way to describe the fun acceleration you can get from a Fortwo ED. Sure, the 0-60 time isn't record-breaking (in fact, it's a leisurely 11.5 seconds to get to 62 miles per hour), but the 0-30 time is what matters in the stoplight-to-stoplight sprint (the ED goes zero-to-60 kilometers per hour, or 37 mph, in 4.9 seconds). There's only a tiny an 81-horsepower electric motor that provides 118 pound-feet of torque, but when it's placed over the traction axle in a small and light rear-wheel drive car like this, that's plenty to push your kiester into the seat. If you're otherwise going to b e maneuvering around delivery trucks and SUVs, at least stomping the accelerator will put a smile on your face. Speaking of fun, the tight, 22.8-foot turning radius is no joke. The first time you experience it, you will utter a word you were not meaning to say. For city maneuvering, it simply can't be beat, and it makes the entire experience a ton more fun. The suspension is reasonable for a car like this. You'll feel your city's bumps, but not in an offensive way.

If you're interested in more powertrain details:

It's no secret that the transmission in the gas-powered previous-generation Fortwo was a hot mess. The old EV version used a shift-free single-speed transmission, which made it noticeably better. The new gas Fortwo has a dramatically improved transmission, which means we can recommend it to the right person (especially the cabrio). With the new version of the E D, the smooth acceleration is such a contrast to the jarring shift points you might remember from the past that if you're even slightly interested in the new Fortwo, you deserve to get yourself a test drive.

We've spent so much time in the new Smart Fortwo that it almost feels like cheating to talk about what it looks like again (see, in chronological order, our previous reviews here, here, and here). Sure, all that time was in the gas-powered models, but the looks of the electric Smart are pretty much exactly the same, aside from the Electric Drive graphics and the slightly different grille. Your almost-endless color choices remain the same (our new favorite: blue with white accent s), as well. And, thankfully, the ED will some day be available in cabrio form as well.

The Smart Fortwo ED is not a car for everyone. Smart says that it doesn't feel any pressure from longer-range, more practical competitors like the Chevy Bolt because the average distance its customers drive if 40 miles a day, and the Fortwo can easily handle that. For the previous generation, about 25 to 30 percent of Smart sales were electric models, and while Smart isn't making any predictions for the new model, the company's European factory stands ready to provide anywhere between zero and 100 percent EV models, depending on demand. The brands' CEO, Annette Winkler, said that she thinks, it will be a "high percentage" of buyers who choose to drive electric. No one is talking about the price just yet, but if the ultra-cheap $99 lease offers (or even the $139 ones) return, then, yeah, she'll be right.

Those buyers are the people I want to hang with. If the Fortwo's "look-at-me" style matches your own, if you like feeling more flexible on a city street than you ever have before – yes, I can make it through there; yes, I can park this in that tiny spot – and if you can live with 75-ish miles of range, then we can heartily recommend the new Fortwo ED. Let's go for a drive.

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Your invitation to electric drive | 2017 Chevy Bolt EV First Drive

Let start with the name. GM's new all-electric hatchback is not called the Chevy Bolt. It is, technically, the Chevy Bolt EV. Oh, and GM would like you to think of this little thing as a crossover. We're not falling for that line. Whatever you call it, the Chevy Bolt sets a bold new bar for electric vehicles. For the money ($37,495, before incentives), no other EV goes as far (238 miles). After spending some time behind the wheel on beautiful Northern Michigan fall roads, we learned that no other EV is as cleverly packaged or as easy to use.

In many ways electric cars are far more convenient to use than conventional cars, since they have fewer moving parts that break and never need to visit a gas station or an oil change shop. Where the Bolt shines is in how it truly makes range anxiety a thing of the past, in the way th at it invites you to drive an electric vehicle the way you would any standard gas car, and how it makes the whole package affordable.

It was GM's stated mission to make the Bolt attractive to a new set of car buyers, not just the ones who are already interested in EVs. To do that, it had to put up little invite cards all over the car - ways to explain what's going on without a training session. You can imagine them on the driver dashboard screen, where your estimated range is brightly displayed on the left side. The car uses an algorithm that tracks the recent history of energy usage of that particular car as well as ambient temperature to estimate how many miles you have remaining before you need to charge. But, because that number is so malleable based on driving style, there are also minimum and maximum figures. You don't need to focus on these, but they're there if you want them. The 10.2-inch center touch screen also invites you to learn about the car through detailed (but not overly so) information about your driving style efficiency since your last full charge and which parts of the car - HVAC, for example, or battery conditioning – are using energy, and how much. GM figures, probably correctly, that new EV drivers don't want a full spreadsheet of data, but getting a handle on kWh used per mile is an important measure to fully understand how electric vehicles are reshaping how we drive.

Of course, the easiest way to understand this new future is to just get in and stomp on the pedal. A 0-60 acceleration time of under seven seconds should be enough to please anyone used to your most average car. And all of the thrills that electric drive offers on any EV are here in full effect– the smooth quietness, the instant torque, the gamification to try and beat your range estimate. With the heavy slab of the 60-kWh worth of lithium-ion cells locked down under the floorboard, the Bolt is stable as she goes around any but the craziest of corners. On the straightaways, there's enough oomph in the 150-kW electric motor to propel you to 80+ miles per hour without any fuss. Telling the friendly police officer that you didn't realize what 266 pound-feet of torque and 200 horsepower were capable of in a small hatchback won't get you out of a ticket, so consider this our invitation to you to be careful during any test drive.

As previously stated, the Bolt has a number of settings that can make it either feel like a normal car. If you just throw it in D and ignore the paddle behind the left side of the steering wheel and all of the EV-specific information on the dashboard, you could be forgiven for thinking you're just in a really quiet and sensible gas car. But that paddle is important, because that's one way to enter the fascinating world of one-pedal electric driving. That paddle alters the amount of regenerative braking in the Bolt EV. Think of it like engine braking that can be controlled by software. First used in the Cadillac ELR and then the second-generation Chevy Volt, pulling the paddle towards you engages a stronger regen power, which puts more of your kinetic energy into the battery pack and slows you down. You can come to a complete stop this way, without touching the brake pedal or converting any kinetic energy into hot pads and rotors.

The difference between D and L (lo w gear on the shifter), is that while the Bolt will coast nicely in D, just like a standard car, in L it will immediately start slowing down and, again, come to a complete stop. (The car will engage the friction brakes if you get hit while at a stop.) This behavior is totally unlike a standard vehicle, but given some time it feels is totally natural. First-time EV drivers should get used to this quickly, just like the way Telsa and BMW i3 drivers already enjoy one-pedal driving. By offering both conventional and EV-optimized driving modes, the Bolt extends an invitation to new drivers.

Not everyone will be enamored by the look, but in the EV scene, the Bolt is a welcome addition. It's easy to see both a Volt and a BMW i3 mixed up in the sheetmeta, from the design of the front end to the tall floating roof. The electric blue logos by the bottom of the A-pillars draws the eye no matter what color paint you choose. We like the Orange Burst Metallic that's been seen everywhere, bu t there's no bad option here. The rear lights are integrated into the hatch, which means the rear opening is larger than it might otherwise be. This certainly adds to the utility of the Bolt EV, but does it make it a CUV? GM sure says it is, and that will be the subject of much dispute when the advertising starts in earnest. We're fine calling it a hatchback – because, c'mon, that's what the Bolt EV is – but GM is adamant about the marketing power of calling it a CUV, so that's what we're gonna get.

There are a few other cool tricks up the Bolt's zero-emission sleeve. Perhaps the smartest item that will be overlooked is the ability for the charging system to know your elevation. Why is this valuable? Well, if you tell it where "home" is, and the nav system knows that you usually leave your driveway and turn downhill for a ways when you start your drive in the morning, the charger will not fill up the battery all the way to 100 percent at night. Because if it did, you'd be able to generate some energy from that downhill segment but not have anywhere to put it. By leaving a little space in the pack – and thus demanding less energy from the grid - the Bolt can make maximum use of whatever energy it can find. If you do need a full charge, it'll take about nine hours from a Level 2 charger. A DC fast charging option with the SAE Combo standard that will get you 90 miles of range in about 30 minutes is available as well.

The Bolt i s also surprisingly roomy. It's not quite a Tardis, but the interior does feel bigger than it should. Part of this is the smart packaging of the dashboard, and the way design options open up when you don't have a big engine up in front. The front seats are further forward than in a gas car, for example. And they've been specially designed to be extra thin, giving the rear seat passengers an extra inch of leg room. The rear bench sits on top of the batteries and perched slightly higher than the front, theater-style. All the seats are comfortable, and there's plenty of head room. If you get the Premium package, even the rear seats are heated, otherwise only the front seat occupants get to bask in warm bottom glory.

Speaking of which, there are two trim levels in the Bolt, the LT and the Premier. The LT comes with two options. There's a Comfort and Convenience Package adds those heated front seats with a heater steering wheel and an auto-dimming rearview mirror. The Driver Confid ence Package brings blind spot warning, lane change alert, rear cross-traffic alert, and rear park assist. Stepping up to the Premier trim means that you get the features of the Driver Confidence Package along with Roof Rails (the easiest way to tell this trim from the LT) and GM's new fancy rear camera mirror. The options for the Premier include an Infotainment Package with wireless phone charging, USB ports in the back. The Driver Confidence II is a sequel that is better than the original, with things like forward collision alert, low-speed front automatic braking, and front pedestrian braking. The full details are available here.

For maybe a year, the Bolt will have its own special place in the EV world to itself. No one else will offer so much for so little. But the Tesla Model 3 is coming. As is Nissan's u pdated, 200-plus mile second-generation Leaf. And who knows what else. When these cars arrive, the invites that GM has carefully printed and prepared and placed on the Bolt will almost certainly have created a public that's more receptive to electric vehicles. Exactly how many buyers will respond and where the EV story goes from here is something we just can't look away from. But for the near future, the Bolt EV stands to change the way people think about electric cars.

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Checklist, but not checkmate | 2017 Nissan Titan Half-Ton First Drive

It's about 90 minutes into our time with the 2017 Nissan Titan and here comes Vince in his murdered-out Hemi-powered Ram. He's right on schedule. I know what's coming. Vince is the contractor that lives down the street. His black-on-black pickup even wears the new-issue, old-school black California plates that have become the rage. And it rumbles through an aftermarket exhaust.

Not even a hello. He wants to check out the new Titan. "Can you open the hood?" he asks. "Is it fast?"Suddenly it's a scene from the original Fast and Furious, except it's a couple of balding suburbanites comparing specs on their $50,000 4x4s in the middle of the day. Yup, it's mor e than a little ridiculous.

It feels like this knucklehead wants to race, so I channel my best Dom Torreto and give Vince the numbers along with a little smack talk. "This is the 2017 Titan," I say, "it's the lighter-duty, half-ton brother to the Titan XD Nissan introduced last year. It's powered by a 390-horsepower all-aluminum 5.6-liter V8 with double overhead cams, 32 valves, and direct injection. It's backed by a seven-speed automatic. And it should smoke your Hemi."

I'm not really sure that's true, but Vince seems to buy it. He backs off and turns his attention to the Titan's styling and its interior, which don't seem to impress him much. He makes a lap around the truck, jumps in the Titan's driver's seat, pushes a few butt ons, and feels around a bit. He shrugs. "I like my Ram better," he says before firing up his Hemi and rumbling off into the distance.

A week later, after driving the new Titan several hundred miles in and around Southern California, and a 200-mile rain soaked road trip up and down the coast, I come to the same conclusion as Vince.

Our test vehicle is a fully loaded 4x4 example in the Platinum Reserve trim. It's the top of the Titan food chain without moving up to the more capable XD line, which uses a more robust frame to underpin higher payload and towing numbers. Sticker price is $56,595. And it looks imposing and properly rich in all its chrome, dark chrome, and Forged Copper glory. Rolling on 20-inch dark chrome wheels and P275/60R20 rubber, its stance is not exactly monster-truck tough, but it's undeniably worthy of the valet at the Texas Cattle Baron's Ball. Running boards and LED headlights add additional functionality and eye candy.

At first blush, the Titan's interior also justifies t he truck's lofty sticker price. Nissan's been rockin' interiors lately. The Murano, the Maxima, and the new Armada are all packing incredible interiors that look and feel special for their segments. And our Titan's guts look fantastic in its black and brown two-tone and cube-tufted leather seats. Contrasting stitching is everywhere – on the seats, the dash, even the shifter. Nice touch.

The wood and leather steering wheel is also properly upscale, as is the list of amenities including heated and cooled front seats, a heated steering wheel, heated rear seats, navigation, and other cool tech like the Around View Monitor with Moving Object Detection. It makes parking this beast a snap. Gauges are clear and attractive. Everything is easy to find and easy to reach. And the center console could swallow a teenager.

Unfortunately, some of the details are off. The trim doesn't feel as good as it looks, f eels cheap. The nav screen, at 7 inches, looks small for 2017, especially in a vehicle of this size, and in fact it is the smallest screen in the segment. It gives the entire interior a dated, woulda-been-cool-a-few-years-ago vibe. And the seats, although generally comfortable and super-size-me wide, are a bit flat, especially the seat bottoms. Thigh support became a problem on our road trip.

Little else did, however. The Titan covers miles admirably. This is a vehicle you want to drive to Vegas for the weekend...from Pittsburg. The Titan's interior is quiet and its leaf-spring rear suspension provides a good overall ride, certainly for a truck of this size, but ride comfort is still a few clicks behind the coil-sprung Ram, which remains the class leader for cush.

Fuel economy was also just okay. The EPA rates the truck at 15 mpg city and 21 highway. With four aboard and its 5.5-foot bed empty, th is Titan averaged 17.1 mpg on the rainy road trip.

Around town the Titan doesn't trip too often, but it feels big and just a little clumsy compared to the more carlike Ram and the more athletic F-150, which has a very likable light-on-its-feet way of going about its business. The Ford is definitely the sport sedan of the segment.

It's hard to pinpoint why the Nissan feels large in and around the suburbs, but its slow, heavy steering doesn't help. Neither do its huge A-pillars, which can cause some visibility issues. You need to look twice for the pedestrians at every crosswalk. The outside mirrors are the perfect size, however, and keep blind spots to a minimum.

The best parts of the new Titan are its powertrain and functional bed features. The big V8 and seven-speed auto are fantastic. Nissan is at its heart an engine company, and the engineers did this one right. Remember this combination is also used in the Titan XD as well as in the Armada and Infiniti QX80, so Nissan needed to get it right, and right it is. Smooth. Powerful. And it sounds good. This 5.6-liter feels like it was designed by enthusiasts for enthusiasts, delivering excellent throttle response, good low-end torque, and a nice kick in the upper ends of the tachometer.

The Titan's automatic is equally as good. Gearing and response, as well as the firmness of the shifts, are all spot-on. Manual shifts are possible with an up or down toggle on the shifter, which works well. Overall, the powertrain is a great combination and possibly the best part of this truck. After a week pushing it around I'm pretty sure it would have smoked Vince's Hemi.

Nail it off the line and the Titan goes like a muscle car with slight spin of its rear tires. Keep your foot down, and good firm gear changes click off right on the tach's 6,000-rpm redline while speed builds. Driving the Titan like you stole it is asking for a ticket. Highway merging, even when loaded, is not a problem for this pickup.

Although I didn't come anywhere near the Titan's 1,610-pound payload maximum, I did make a Home Depot run for just enough manly stuff to give the Titan's factory spray-on bedliner and Utili-track Channel System a mild workout. The track system, which was pioneered on the first-generation Titan, is a series of channels in the bed floor and bed side rails that accepts removable cleats which slide into the channels, providing a wide range of attachment points for securing cargo. There' s a reason why this system has been emulated by other manufacturers. It really makes strapping things down far less stressful – just remember to pack your own rope or bungee cords.

Other bed features on this Titan test truck that impressed were its 120-volt power outlet and the LED lighting under the bed rail, which makes any truck with a single lamp above its backlight seem old fashioned. There's an engineer or product planner at Nissan that likes loading or unloading stuff at night. Or tailgating.

The new Titan is absolutely impressive in many ways. It's comfortable and fast, and its functionality and innovative bed features are extremely attractive. But somehow that just doesn't add up to a strong enough entry to rejigger a very well-established and highly competitive full-s ize truck market.

Aside from the Titan's five-year/100,000-mile warranty, it doesn't really leapfrog that stiff competition in any measurable or even emotional way. Not consistently enough, anyway. Not so much that we can predict that a goodly number of Ram, Ford F-Series, and Chevy Silverado/GMC Sierra owners are going to bail on the trucks and brands they're invested in. That said, owners of the previous-generation Titan will love it, and Toyota should be worried about the Titan stealing more than a few from team Tundra. They do still make the Tundra, don't they?

Maybe I should ask Vince. He had one before he bought his Ram.

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Taco supreme! | 2017 Toyota Tacoma TRD Pro First Drive

It's sticky in Hana, and the mosquitos are thick in the air, going after any exposed skin. Heavy rain has saturated the volcanic soil, and we're waiting at the bottom of an impossibly steep wall of pumice gravel. Our guide notes that pumice can't be stacked artificially at this angle; only natural erosion can pile it to overcome its angle of repose. Everyone waiting at the base of the hill swats at mosquitos and nods. The road to the top is sopping wet from a night of heavy rain, and too muddy for even these capable trucks to climb. The hope is that rising heat and perhaps even the appearance of the shiftless sun will work some moisture out of the hill that leads to the top of said pumice slope, to dramatically demonstrate the 2017 Toyota Tacoma TRD Pro's remarkable descent control function. Nature is always in control, and the key to success – whether climbing a mud-slicked hill or sliding down an improbable slope – is patience.

So we wait. By afternoon, it's game on, and I get to try my hand at making the descent in a sacrificial TRD Pro, the wheels scrubbed hard by abrasive pumice the whole time. The afternoon is a remarkable demonstration of the evolutions of the Tacoma's capabilities. That evolution comes with a cost – not just the bug bites, but in terms of price. This mid-sizer is, to put it bluntly, extremely expensive. As our short time on Maui demonstrated, it's also impressive.

Even in these distracting surroundings, the Tacoma TRD Pro grabs attention immediately. The latest Tacoma's styling is handsome in the same way the big-rig-aping second-generation Dodge Ram's was, if perhaps less pure. It's like someone mixed testosterone into the modeling clay. And the TRD Pro-specific details are tasteful. There's a hood scoop snagged from the TRD Sport model, set off with a matte black decal. It's nonfunctional but looks sharp. Toyota geeks or the nostalgic (or, better yet, nostalgic Toyota geeks) will appreciate the classic "TOYOTA" lettering that replaces the tri-oval logo in the grille. Embedded in the bumper are neat little auxiliary lights developed by Rigid Industries – to make them useful but still DOT-compliant, Rigid built in a two-element lens that casts light to the side like a fog light but also farther in front like a driving light. Since the sun never set on our adventure in these trucks, I can't tell you if they work well in addition to looking good.

My favorite current Tacoma color is still the morbidly named "Quicksand," which is sort of a military khaki, but you can't get that on a TRD Pro. Instead, you're limited to a brig ht and boring white, a tasteful dark red, and the compelling milky clay Cement color. The latter looked particularly good spattered with mud, scrambling through twin tracks roughly scratched into the lush tropical hillside.

And scramble it did, tha nks to a light menu of alterations. None of them apply to the powertrain; Toyota's familiar 3.5-liter V6 is standard and makes 278 horsepower and 265 pound-feet of torque, which is enough grunt to do the job. This V6 has the neat ability to switch from the Otto cycle to Atkinson at will to save some fuel, just like it does in the normal Tacoma and other Toyota vehicles. It does exhale through a TRD cat-back stainless exhaust system, which gives the TRD Pro a mellow but compelling purr.

Automatic-equipped trucks get a standard helical limited-slip center differential, as well as the very cool Crawl Control that allowed us to enter into a controlled slide down that pumice slope. A manual transmission is available, and those trucks are exclusively equipped with the familiar A-TRAC brake-based traction control system – that means no Crawl Control on the manual trucks. All TRD Pros come with an electronic locking rear differential for added grip.

Toyota carved what amounted to a mud-paved short track in the middle of a field, and so after the pumice adventure I headed there to slide around at higher speeds. Both manual and automatic TRD Pros are competent enough in the mud, although it's frustrating that the manual truck cuts power in some situations when it detects wheel slip. With the four-wheel-drive system's low range engaged, that nanny is disabled.

Most of what makes this TRD a Pro is below the beltline. The last-generation Tacoma TRD Pro used Bilstein shocks, but that company couldn't build what Toyota wanted for this new one. So Fox produced a set of shocks that, when paired with TRD front springs and progressive rear leafs tuned for this application, give the truck a phenomenally good ride in chopped-up turf at moderate speeds. They also provide a v ery slight front lift, about one inch in total. The shocks soak up and moderate sharp impulses, so the truck bucks and tosses considerably less when moving at a good clip than a lot of serious off-road specials. In a truck with a less-sophisticated suspension, it's the sort of thing that'd make your passengers sick. None of that here.

The other TRD Pro additions are appreciated too. There's a thicker skidplate that – finally – incorporates an access door so you can change your oil without having to yank the panel completely off. That's been a longstanding customer request, the Tacoma's Chief Engineer, Mike Sweers, told us. There's also a nice amount of TRD icing inside, such as comfy leather-trimmed seats with TRD Pro logos, a TRD shift knob, and the competent if not very sexy Entune premium infotainment system. The integrated GoPro mount proved useful to get some video of the truck in action as wel. Like its non-TRD Pro stablemates, this is a comfortable and well-equipped mid-size truck.

Toyota also fitted some very tasteful 16-inch black TRD wheels with enough offset to widen the track by an inch, although they're wrapped with a comprom ise tire. The Goodyear Wrangler All-Terrain Kevlar rubber is aggressive for an original-equipment tire, but it's left in the dust by the stuff that owners would chose to buy for the kind of terrain they play around in – tires like the BFGoodrich All-Terrain KO2, which, incidentally, the 2017 Ford Raptor gets as original equipment. Despite the Goodyears' on-road bias, the Tacoma spent most of the day gripping instead of slipping, with only the wet hill in the morning stymying us. Some KO2s or KM2s would solve that problem, and should probably be on the to-buy list for anyone actually looking to visit locations with boulders or deep mud along the way. But that's just more money a TRD Pro owner will have to think about spending.

And spending is the name of the game with the TRD Pro. All this TRD Pro kit, and in parti cular the Fox shocks, adds up to a much better Tacoma, and there aren't any items we'd leave off. And yet, they bring an already expensive mid-size pickup to the price point of disbelief: the Tacoma TRD Pro, which is incidentally only available as a Double Cab model, starts at $41,700, or $5,405 more than a TRD Off-Road 4x4 Double Cab with the same V6 engine and no additional options. You wouldn't get those excellent Fox shocks or TRD visual accouterments in the TRD Off-Road trim, but it does come with upgraded Bilstein shocks, an electronic rear locker, and Crawl Control. On the other hand, the Off-Road does lack the presence of the aggressive Pro, which is as important a consideration as the excellent suspension.

It'd be nice if the Tacoma TRD Pro had some direct competition, both for r easons of consumer choice and to exert some pricing pressure through competition. Unfortunately, there's not much to speak of. The Nissan Frontier Pro-4X is ancient, and while considerably less expensive also offers less capability and sophistication – it's more on par with the TRD Off-Road trim. GM's mid-size twins, the Chevy Colorado and GMC Canyon, are great trucks and offer the appealing, torquey Duramax diesel option. You can even add the relevant off-road package on diesel Canyorados, but at a significant cost. They creep up close to the TRD Pro's MSRP, and this is all before GM has even pulled th e wraps off the more comparable ZR2 package that is coming soon. As good as the Fox Shocks are on the TRD Pro, they might not be a match for the ZR2's incredibly cool spool-valve jobs.

Enough hand-wringing about price, though. Until the Colorado ZR2 comes along, the Toyota is the only game in town without stepping up to another size and price class entirely (say, to the Ford Raptor, at $7,820 north of the TRD Pro's MSRP). The aftermarket can certainly fit the TRD Pro with some grabbier shoes, which at the moment is the Pro's only weakness, and not a very significant one at that. With more aggressive rubber, the TRD Pro will become a true dual-purpose off-roader: confident off the asphalt, comfortable on it. If you want to get out in the sticks in a pickup that won't make your passengers sick, right now the s mooth-riding and capable TRD Pro is your truck.

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Yeah, it's more than 10 better | 2018 Lotus Evora Sport 410 Quick Spin

Doesn't it drive you crazy when you get a new toy and within weeks they announce a new, improved version? That's exactly what Lotus has done with the new Evora 400. Just as this two-plus-two coupe is wowing US buyers with its combination of light weight and old-school ride and handling, those sneaky devils have gone and produced a lightweight, sport version.

Your correspondent attended the launch to test the waters, but in the process found that you'll still have time to enjoy your stock 400 model, since the Sport won't be gracing US shores before next summer – Lotus still has to engineer its lightweight construction for US safety regulations. And will you then want to swap for one at a likely price in excess of $105,000? Read on.

Not if you plan to carry the kids, since the new Sport 410 is now strictly a two-seater. The vestigial rear perches, along with the air conditioning, stereo wireless, rear bulkhead glass, sound insulation, door trims, and even the mud flaps have been jettisoned to reduce mass. As a result, you can't see much out of the rear-view mirror except carbon-fiber stays.

Other weight-saving measures include new carbon-fiber panels for the roof, rear deck, and front and rear panels. There's a new lithium-ion main battery saving 25 pounds and an optional titanium exhaust system that's lighter and sounds saucier. Total weight saving is 154 pounds compared to the 400, which makes the curb weight a feather-like 2,923 pounds despite the addition of a new transmission oil cooler.

It pushes itself into the ground harder, too. Aerodynamic tweaks such as the front splitter and rear spoiler increase downforce from 19 pounds to 40 at 100 mph and from 71 pounds to 141 at 150 mph.

Lotus has tweaked its inlet-charge-cooled and supercharged 3.5-liter V6 Toyota Camry engine to yield 10 extra horsepower for a total of 410 (hence the name) at 7,000 rpm and 302 pound-feet of torque at 3,500 rpm. The 410 will hit 60 mph in 4.0 seconds with the six-speed manual, or in 3.9 with the six-speed automatic.

Suspension adjustments include re-valved dampers and an effective spring-rate increase thanks to the lighter weight. The hydraulically assisted steering and AP Racing brakes with two-piece rotors remain the same, as does the geared Torsen-type limited-slip differential. The Sport runs on specially forged Magnesium lightweight wheels shod with Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 19/20-inch tires front/rear.

All this should result in a performance difference, with Lotus claiming the Sport will lap its Hethel test track some 13 seconds faster than the first 2008 Evora models and three seconds faster than the current Evora 400. Since the Hethel test track is smoother than a kitchen counter, this is largely academic, but now you know.

All these changes have a discernable effect on what is already a very competent car. The steering is blindingly precise, progressive, and accurate. You know exactly where this car is on the road, and where and how much you need to turn the wheel. And there's a delicious responsiveness to the chassis – it turns in fast but reasonably flat.

The ride quality, on some of the worst roads, is simply remarkable. Unlike the Sport versions of rival two-seat coupes (you know who you are), this Evora could conceivably be used as a daily driver. Motoring journalists spend their lives trying to explain great chassis feedback and steering precision, and then a car like this comes along and all you can say is: "It's like that!"

While the blown Camry motor isn't the last word in charisma, it pulls harder than a kid in a candy shop from as little as 1,500 rpm, topping out at a yowling 7,000 rpm, although on the street you'll likely have changed gear before 5,000 rpm – unless you plan on ripping up your drivers license up right now.

Which leads to the main Achilles' Heel, the manual shifter. While this cable shift was reworked for the new 400, it's not good there or on the 410. Grating and obstructive, you have to chaperone it through the gate and you're always conscious of the dangers of a missed shift. The six-speed torque-converter automatic isn't a bad alternative, but seems such a shame to have an auto in a car like this, unless you're Richard Gere in Pretty Woman, of course.

This rates as one of the most intuitive supercars on sale. While most discourage you from finding the limits by simply frightening you, the Lotus positively encourages you to drive hard and is forgiving as your grandma, without ever insulting your ability by reverting to nose-on understeer. With a long wheelbase and a terrific setup, it's analogue heaven and goes sideways with the best of them. Best, however, is in race mode, where the understeer-recognition software is switched out and the nose changes direction with uncanny lightness and speed. It's there that you realize this glorious chassis setup is like a wise old owl perched on your shoulder, telling you what to do as you slide this amazing car through turn after turn. It's seriously better than anything else, including cars several times as costly.

It's not all perfect. The cabin, while much improved over those of earlier Evoras, is still dated, using old Ford switchgear and a confusing layout. The heater fan sounds like leaf blower jammed under the manual seat, so it's just as well air conditioning is an option. On the plus side, the carbon-fiber bucket seats are comfortable to a point, and the driving position is good for all heights up to at least six feet.

Dany Bahar and his management cohorts left Colin Chapman's old company in a precarious state, with huge debts and an uncertain purpose in a world where huge conglomerates like the Volkswagen Group can bankroll sports car brands like Porsche. The new CEO, Jean-Marc Gales, has had to turn the company around, cutting back and using the old Lotus adages of light weight and purity.

There's nothing much purer than the Evora Sport 410, but it won't appeal to those who like their sports cars plug-and-play. Lotus is a specialist marque for good and bad, and its appeal is to those who value chassis balance and the work of some of the best chassis engineers in the business.

You don't just leave an Evora in the garage to impress friends after a dinner party. No, they are far too good for that and, right now, the Sport 410 is the best of them all, even considering the extra $10,000 or so it will cost. So start saving now to trade up from that 400.

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The right way to order a Camaro | 2017 Chevrolet Camaro 1LE First Drive

Full disclosure: I'm not a Camaro guy. Never have been, probably never will be. So it was probably fitting that with five 2017 Chevrolet Camaro 1LEs on hand, I ended up in the sixth car: a BMW M4. It wasn't planned, I didn't seek out the provided competitor vehicle, that's just how the chips – or rather the keys – fell in Nevada at the Spring Mountain Motor Resort.

And it must be said, the M4 is sensational. A different and perhaps less-involved sensational than its predecessor, but sensational nevertheless. The mid-range surge of torque that greets you when that oh-so-BMW shifter is slotted into fourth. The absolutely just-right pedal placement. The balanced, nimble way it flicks itself through the mid-course slalom. You get the idea.

But, the fact that the Chevrolet folks provided a $72,645 M4 to compare to its $44,400 Camaro SS 1LE can mean one of only two things. One, they've been guzzlin' too much Motor City Kool-Aid. Or two, they know for certain that the high-perfo rmance machine they've created really is better on a track.

And what exactly have Chevrolet's engineers and designers created? As on the fifth-generation Camaro, the latest 1LE is an all-around performance-improving package available on the V8-powered SS. By Camaro-enthusiast demand, however, the V6 model now gets its own 1LE package. In both cases, the 1LE includes suspension, brakes, and tires trickled down from a model above – the V6 receives bits from the SS, while the SS receives pieces from the ZL1. They also include extra cooling, a short-throw shifter, a dual-mode exhaust, special faux-suede wheel and shifter trim, and a unique, subtle aero package developed in the wind tunnel especially for the 1LE and finished in the same matte black as the also-unique hood.

And "subtle" is the key word, as the 1LE showcases visual restraint that's not the norm at Chevrolet (see: Corvette Grand Sport). That was actually the point, as the designers felt that stripes and a multitude of badges (it doesn't say 1LE anywhere on the car) aren't in the spirit of the package, which originated in the 1980s on the third-generation Camaro as a homologation special for a showroom-stock racing series. It's always been about go, not show, and the special blacked-out elements (spoiler, splitter, mirrors, wheels, and to a much lesser extent, hood) alone serve as the identifier for those in the know. In that regard, it's a bit like some old M3s.

Settling into the eight-way power Recaro sport seats (standard on the SS, optional on the V6), the differences between the Camaro and M4 are obvious. The quality is, appropriately, about $30,000 worse, and the view out is, um, poor. But then that short-throw shifter is slotted neatly into first, then second, and up into third as that ferocious, virtually unaltered 6.2-liter, 455-horsepower V8 rumbles and roars up the fir st straightaway at Spring Mountain's east course. The SS includes an automatic-rev-match feature for downshifts, which is appreciated, since the pedal placement falls well short of the BMW's for heel-and-toeing. More concentration (or wider shoes) would be later required when driving the V6-powered 1LE.

The difference in grip between the M4 and the SS 1LE is palpable through turn 1, a sharp 90-degree followed by a broad, stepped right-hand sweeper. Chevrolet says the SS 1LE sticks to the pavement at 1.02 g (the V6 at 0.97) and it sure feels like it.

"We can't give Goodyear enough credit," 1LE chief engineer Al Oppenheiser said before the drive. Indeed, the ZL1's Eagle F1 Supercar tires deserve a great big thank-you card, but its FE4 suspension and magnetorheological dampers keep things resolutely planted as well. As another straight leads into a left-right-left-right series of turns followed by a skid-pad-like arc, the composure this muscle coupe maintains really is astonishing as its 3,747 pounds are flung from side to side. There's also an immediacy to the steering's turn-in when in Track mode. Through the same track portion, the M4 just couldn't maintain the same pace (it was shod in 20-inch Michelin Super Sports). It felt l ike a highly capable road car exerting itself; the Camaro felt right at home.

And yet, the SS 1LE isn't some track-only special. Sure, the roads we circuitously drove from Las Vegas to Spring Mountain's home of Pahrump, Nevada (a town as nice as its name suggests), were beautifully paved. But I also accidentally left the car in Track mode after bombing through some canyon roads and never found the ride objectionable. Once the magnetic suspension was eventually set to the more appropriate Tour mode, things got comparatively plush. I drove a Mercedes C300 recently with a less pleasant ride. Heck, even the Track steering was perfectly fine on the highway – usually sport steering settings are rife with excessive weight and darty tendencies. There's a reason I didn't notice it was still in Track.

Back in the environment where that setting belongs, there are additional 1LE elements that prove their worth. There's the limited-slip differential – electronic in the SS and mechanical with the V6 – that prudently doles out power through corners. The extra cooling for the engine oil, differential, and transmission. The SS gets the six-piston Brembo brakes from the ZL1 (complete with red calipers), while the V6 1LE comes with four-piston Brembos from the stock SS. In each instance, the pedal is easily modulated and its effort strikes a good balance for track and road use. Importantly, they instilled confidence to brake later with each passing lap.

Now, as for that V6 1LE, it performed similarly enough through the quick transitions and broad sweepers despite having the stock SS's non-magnetic FE3 suspension and lesser Goodyear Eagle F1 asymmetrical run-flats. Actually, with less weight over the nose, it feels a bit more nimble doing it – though not quite to the M4's lev el. And it's important to remember that this is not your grandma's V6 Camaro. It has 335 hp, gets up to 60 mph in 5.2 seconds, and completes the quarter-mile in 13.7 seconds at 102 mph. It even sounds sufficiently snarly when its revs climb above 5,000 rpm.

Plus, it actually looped around GM's challenging proving ground track two seconds faster than the fifth-generation Camaro SS. One of those wasn't on hand to feel the difference, but Chevrolet did provide a 2016 Ford Mustang GT with the Performance pack to sample back-to-back. It didn't last long. The Ford couldn't come close to the Camaro's grip, its gearing resulted in multiple extra shifts (even compared to the V6), and its trip computer ultimately warned that the rear axle was overheating after six hot laps, a 15-minute cool down, and my aborted hot lap thereafter. Chevrolet was admittedly expecting the Mustang to seem soft compared to the V6 1LE, but the early exit came as a legitimate surprise.

Quite obviously, then, the stock Camaro SS is the superior track car – we already knew that after our Pony Car Shootout – and it's made even better with the 1LE package. To put that into numbers, Chevrolet says the SS 1LE hits 60 mph in 4.2 seconds and does the quarter-mile in 12.5 seconds at 115 mph – both slightly better than a stock 2016 SS. More impressively, it loops the Milford proving grounds track three seconds faster.

In other words, if you want a Camaro, you should really want the 1LE. It's well worth the extra $4,500 for the V6 or $6,500 for an SS, and it doesn't require stomaching excessive boy racer styling add-ons. It really does beat an M4 around a track, and believe me, you don't have to be a Camaro guy to appreciate it.

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