Call of the Open Road

European and Japanese manufacturers will continue to be locked in a no-holds-barred sales battle in 1991, and they're going to offer performance at every price level. But don't count American makes out yet. Last year, Buick outscored every other U.S. marque in the respected J. D. Powers car-quality survey. Lincoln seriously challenged Cadillac for the domestic-luxury crown. Ford purchased Jaguar, and that means the big cat is sure to extend its claws even further into the luxury-car market. Chrysler brilliantly redesigned its line of hot-selling minivans, introduced the powerful Jeep Renegade and the Dodge Stealth, a sleek, sexy machine at a remarkably affordable price—about $30,000. With more than 50 competing makes and 500 overlapping models to choose from, Playboy has once again assembled a panel of six automotive experts (their bios and photos are on page 195) to evaluate 1991 cars in a variety of categories. And we've introduced a new feature to our annual roundup: Playboy's Car of the Year award. The winner, Acura's revolutionary all-aluminum two-seater, the $60,000 NSX, is pictured overleaf. Panelists, start your opinions. Hottest Sports GT Under $20,000: Last year's winner in this category, the spunky, supercharged Volkswagen Corrado, once more leads the pack. "The Corrado has that slight element of difference that can only come from being conceived in a vacuum like Wolfsburg," said Len Frank. "I like the harsh suspension and the tight—for (continued on page 195)Open Road(continued from page 140) me—seats. My second choice? The Suzuki Swift GTi, because it's great fun, offers tremendous gas mileage and embarrassingly good performance. It's kind of a born-again Mini-Cooper." David Stevens also opted for the Corrado, commenting favorably on its "stubby boy-racer bravado and kiss-my-acceleration rising spoiler. What's more," he said, "it feels European, and that's kind of nice for a change." Brock Yates cast his vote for the MR2, observing, "Toyota's reliability replaces traditional Continental under-hood zaniness with mid-engine madness—a feature formerly reserved for the gold-plated crowd." Ken Gross chose the Isuzu Impulse: "With its Lotus-tuned suspension, Isuzu's flashy—and affordable—Impulse makes a good driver out of a tyro." Lyn St. James favored the Mustang GT: "It's a real kick to drive. Macho, but so subtle anyone can drive it—even my mom." John Lamm called Mazda's Miata "the sweetheart of the pack," praising its quick-folding top and "the best sports-car shifter ever. I recently drove a Miata back from the desert on a warm summer night. Top down, going like hell on a twisty road.... Take me back; I loved it."

Coolest Wheels for a High School Reunion: "Show up in a Lamborghini Diablo," said Gross, "and they'll think you're a vice cop or a drug dealer. Either way, everybody will know you made it big time." Yates agreed: "Aside from lighting up a top fuel dragster in the parking lot, this thing is an all-time killer with aging prom queens." Lamm: "If you take the Diablo, you'll impress the hell out of everybody, but you'll intimidate them and no one will talk to you. Take a '57 Chevy ragtop and you'll have the time of your life." St. James said everybody should return in "the car he drove in high school [she drove a Pontiac Catalina 2+2], but if that's not available, go for a Ferrari F40. It's a race car in disguise. No one would dare sit in it, let alone ask you for a ride." Stevens would drive a Porsche Carrera 2: "So what if you blow into the old high school parking lot backward?" he said. "Isn't that how you drove in those days, anyway?" Frank: "Even if I owned a 500E or an NSX, I wouldn't take it. I'm from Youngstown, Ohio, so maybe a clapped-out Studebaker Avanti might be appropriate."

Smartest Four-Door Sedan Over $20,000: Last year, in this category, the car our panelists liked best was the Lexus LS 400 and this time around, not many opinions had changed. Lamm felt that "while there are other luxury cars that may perform better, none of them is as good a package as the Lexus." Gross: "European car makers sneered at the notion of a Japanese luxury car before they saw the quick, silent and affordable LS 400. You can bet they're not sneering now." Yates: "A Stepford sedan; perfect in most respects, but is there a passion gap?" Stevens: "I almost voted for the Infiniti Q45, because I like its quick acceleration and snazzy exterior door handles, but I've got to go with the LS 400. It's just so damn competent." St. James preferred the Lincoln Continental for its comfort, roominess and reliability of service. Frank chose the Ford Taurus SHO, "because when you compare its twenty-two-thousand-dollar price with the forty-something-and-up competition, the SHO seems like a winner."

Sharpest Four-Door Sedan Under $20,000: The aerodynamic Volkswagen Passat won top marks from Lamm, who felt that "there's something special about this sedan that separates it from the rest, and it's a difference I like—a bit tighter and more tightly sprung than the Japanese or American cars without being hard or rough. And the pricing [about $15,000 base] makes the Passat a relative bargain." Stevens agreed, commenting on its quick acceleration, taut steering and the fact that "you don't have to be a relative of Billy Barty to be comfortable in the back seat." Yates and St. James praised the Ford Escort GT. Yates: "So it ain't American; the Escort [designed by Mazda for Ford] is a plucky little chugger for the low-rent crowd. Just stay off Park Place and Broadway." Tell that to St. James, who feels that "the Escort is a first-class compact I'd go anywhere in. I like the straightforward, precise way it gets around." Gross's vote went to the new Saturn, because he felt "GM has taken a clean sheet of paper and come up with a stylish, twin-cam small sedan packed with high-tech features." Although he hadn't driven the Saturn, Frank liked the concept: "The Saturn's from by-Gawd Tennessee," he observed. "Why not a little chauvinism, a little jingoism, for a change?"

Most Improved Old Model: Half our panel came through loud and clear for Chrysler's minivan make-over. Stevens called it "a great redo. Even the directional signal feels right. Go for a black short-wheel based Dodge with all-wheel drive, ABS brakes and dark windows and be somebody." Lamm also opted for the minivan, saying, "Chrysler has owned this market segment and will keep its share. As technically interesting as the Toyota Previa may be, all family vans should be as simple and logical as the Chryslers." Yates concurred: "The Chrysler vans are radically refined, and they don't look like monorail locomotives, either." St. James touted the Lincoln Town Car. "The old Town Car was pretty heavy and antiquated. Now it's got a stronger V8 and improved handling. The boat no more!" Gross chose the Porsche 911 Turbo: "Since they've been working on the 911 for twenty-seven years, you can bet they've got it right." "Quietly American," said Frank about the 5.0 Mustang, pointing out that "it has evolved from the most lackluster, lowest-common-denominator Fairmont-based, Iacocca-blessed sporty car of the late Seventies into a real car—great for the buck and great for satiating torque hunger."

Sexiest Car for Your Girlfriend (Boyfriend): In this category, last year's Most Fun to Drive winner, the Mazda Miata, pulled slightly ahead of the pack. Stevens: "If you've got a rich girlfriend, tell her to buy a Jaguar XJ-S convertible. Otherwise, the Miata is still the sexiest skirt-over-the-knees car going. Just make sure your girl looks good in the wind." Frank agreed, saying, "My girl bought a Miata," but he also liked Buick's Reatta. "It's what all those blue-haired ladies in Beverly Hills who own 560SLs should have bought, except Buick didn't build it soon enough." "I don't know about your girlfriends," said Gross, "but mine likes sports cars and she can drive a stick shift. The quick, slick MR2 is an obvious choice for a lead-foot lady." Lamm said his girlfriend "is a tall, leggy blonde whose hair looks terrific in the wind. The Mercury Capri wouldn't be fast enough for her, and she'll never be old enough for a Reatta, no matter how old she is. She also has a practical streak, so I'd pick a Toyota Celica convertible—a great combination of open-air fun and long-term reliability." Yates liked the Capri, saying, "If your girlfriend is half as cute as this little nugget, you're a real winner." St. James split her vote between the Jaguar Vanden Plas sedan and the Lincoln Continental. "Since I will probably be riding in his car," she points out, "both my choices are elegant, and each offers a very comfortable ride."

Most Fun to Drive: Porsche's born-again, superquick 911 Turbo was the winner. Says Lamm, "If you like your fun fast and dramatic, the Porsche is the only answer, provided you know how to control it." Yates agreed: "Is there anything to replace sudden, terminal understeer as the ultimate thrill behind the wheel?" Stevens hadn't driven the 911 Turbo yet but said he'd have to vote for it, anyway: "Some lunatic tried to buy a Carrera 2 that I was testing at seventy-five miles an hour, heading north from Chicago. 'How much? I'll buy it!' he kept screaming through the open window of his Chevy Suburban. If I'd been driving a 911 Turbo, he probably would have run me off the road and included his wife in the deal." St. James voted for the Escort GT, calling it "a great little weekend warrior for autocrossing." Gross praised Alfa-Romeo's new 164: "A snappy Italian confection that turns heads and handles like a sports car." And Frank chose the Acura NSX, wryly adding that the Toyota MR2 is also "a nice enough car, but rumor has it that final suspension tuning was done by-Toyota's legal department."

Niftiest New Feature: The majority of our panel's votes went to Porsche's Tiptronic automatic transmission. Said Yates, "Very clever, those Germans. Unlike dozens of pretenders of yore, this one works. You can actually shift the Tiptronic manually or let it ride in automatic." Gross called it "the finest automatic transmission ever devised for a sports car." Stevens agreed: "You've got to drive Tiptronic to believe it. Porsche has made the clutch pedal the necker knob of the Nineties." Frank: "Tiptronic is the first automatic transmission that doesn't trade the virtues of a manual for pure sloth and an atrophied left leg." Lamm and St. James were impressed with the NSX's all-aluminum body and chassis. Lamm: "Honda has taken aluminum out of the doors-deck-and-hood-only category. Some Ferraris featured hand-built aluminum bodies, but now Acura has made all-aluminum construction a reality."

Top All-Wheel-Drive Wheels: Those two sexy, not-quite-identical twins, the Dodge Stealth and the Mitsubishi 3000GT, drove away with top honors in this category. Yates: "If Porsche or Ferrari had made these things, we'd all be in a state of rapture. All they lack is a name plate for the status slaves." Gross: "The Stealth design is a bit simpler, but I prefer the speed-activated aero package on the 3000GT. Either way, these curvaceous coupes claw the road like a pair of cheetahs." Stevens also cast his vote for the Stealth and the 3000GT but liked the Ford Explorer, too, calling it "a good-old-boy-mobile—big, fast and looking for a good time. The Eddie Bauer model reminds me of a marriage between Hank Williams, Jr., and Meg Ryan." St. James also picked the Ford Explorer: "It's a classy work horse that can handle all kinds of terrain." Frank voted for the Range Rover: "The only car in the sort-of-macho four-wheel-drive group that's good to drive and good to ride in." Lamm, however, preferred the Toyota Land Cruiser, saying that "a number of other machines are more sophisticated, but if you want to bounce off a canyon wall, go skiing in Colorado or—sorry, Range Rover—even go to the opera, this is the one in which to do it."

Ultimate Convertible: Half Our panel picked the new Lotus Elan roadster, despite its relatively high price (about $39,000) and limited availability. Lamm said, "You can't really appreciate the Elan until you've driven it. Not only does it handle like a Lotus, with no front-wheel-drive ill effects, but the car is sooo smooth." Gross observed that the chauvinistic British car magazines "did backflips over the Elan despite its Isuzu-based engine." Stevens thought "it took guts to bring out a small convertible that's more than twice the price of a Miata. You won't see yourself coming and going in this one." Yates and St. James praised the Mercury Capri. Yates: "It's new, it's kind of nerdy under the hood, but so was last year's cuddliest ragtop, the Miata." St. James found the Capri's top easy to use "and there's room to transport small friends legally in its back seat." Frank couldn't decide between the Geo Metro ("it's a better highway car than I expected") and the Buick Reatta ("Not good enough for all those bucks, but still pretty nice"). He still longs for a 1948 Buick Roadmaster.

Most Anticipated Futuristic Wheels: The Citroën XM tied with the new Mercedes-Benz 500 E in this category, but since Stevens, the editor in charge of this feature, owns a 1970 DS 21 Pallas Citroën, guess which one is pictured on page 196. Stevens' comment: "I like Citroëns. They're so outré. But then, I like the New York Yankees and burning the roof of my mouth. It will be good to see the old double chevron back on American roads." St. James gave Citroën a backhanded compliment, saying, "The old ones were so ugly I can't wait to see what they'll come up with next." The rest of our panel opted for Mercedes-Benzes to come. "I've driven the 500 E," said Lamm, "and it's a rocket. I'd actually like two—one for here and one to keep in Germany for those autobahn runs." Frank said, "The 500 E has everything I want in a sedan except its Becker radio. I wonder if installing the Bose from the NSX would cause the Mercedes' Bosch electrics to hemorrhage." Gross and Yates look forward to the new Mercedes S-Class. "It's going to be the baddest Benz ever," said Gross. "Twelve cylinders and four hundred horsepower's worth of German engineering, finished in leather and walnut. Definitely a Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous contender." Yates concurs, wondering, "With the Japanese raising the ante by the day, can the Germans call their bluff in this high-stakes game?"

There you have it, our auto panelists' picks for 1991. They don't always agree on individual models, but they do agree on this much: Despite uncertainty over fuel prices, competition among the world's auto makers has never been keener. American and European manufacturers are responding to the challengers from Japan with dozens of interesting new models. And that guarantees some great bargains in the market place. Happy hunting!

Playboy's Cars for 1991

"'Aside from lighting up a top fuel dragster, the Diablo is an all-time killer with aging prom queens.'"

Playboy's Panel of Judges

Len Frank: Host of the nationally syndicated radio program The Car Show, Frank has been racing, buying, selling and writing about automobiles for many years. Although the cars he races lean toward the unusual (a Cheetah, a Scaglietti-Corvette and a souped-up Volvo station wagon, to name a few), he has eagerly tested nearly every conventional make and model around.

Ken Gross: As Playboy's Automotive Editor, Gross keeps track of the latest new cars and trends for Playboy's Automotive Reports and recently shed light on the collectible market in Million-Dollar Babies (Playboy, December). He test-drives more than 100 cars a year, is the editor of "Vintage Stuff," a monthly feature in Automobile Magazine, and a columnist for Automotive Industries.

John Lamm: As editor at large for Road & Track magazine and Road & Track special publications, Lamm is in the enviable position of traveling the world to write about and photograph the latest dream machines. Also a frequent contributor to six overseas car magazines, Lamm recently returned from the Paris auto show, only to be whisked off to Japan to check out the latest Mitsubishis.

Lyn St. James: The most successful female race-car driver in North America, St. James has set 31 speed records as a Ford Motor Company driver. In 1985, she became the first and only woman to win a race in the International Motor Sports Association's Camel GTO series, a feat she has repeated four times since. Off the track, she is a commentator for ESPN and a columnist for Cosmopolitan.

David Stevens: Street driving may seem tame compared with racing a dune buggy in the Mexican 1000 down Baja or crossing the Sahara in a Land Rover, but to Stevens, who has braved these and other adventures during his 25 years with Playboy, the wheels are as thrilling as the terrain. Our Senior Editor is in charge of the material stuff men love—and that includes the world's best cars.

Brock Yates: Co-host of the Nashville Network's award-winning American Sports Cavalcade, Yates also is an editor at large for Car and Driver and owner of the Cannonball Run Pub in Wyoming, New York. In his spare time—there's little of it these days—Yates organizes the annual 8000-mile One Lap of America endurance rally and recently completed a biography of Enzo Ferrari, due out soon.

Playboy's Pick of the Pack