View Photos of the Ford Performance F-150 Lightning SuperTruck
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Ford Performance will tell you the purpose of the F-150 Lightning SuperTruck is to demonstrate the potential of EVs and show they can be fun, but really it's here to set records.
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Car and Driver
11 hours ago
- Car and Driver
1990 Toyota 4Runner Driven: Finally a Four-Door
From the August 1989 issue of Car and Driver. Since the dusty dawn of modern off-roading, most mini-trucks with enclosed rear passenger quarters made do with two doors. That's changing faster than the weathered face of the still-wild West. Consider Toyota's 4Runners. Tall and tough trucklets from the rogues' gallery of 4Runners have glowered on the wanted lists of sport-utility buyers for years. Now Toyota has fattened its hand with a rework of the whole 4Runner lot—including the handy option of hanging an extra pair of doors on each truck. The new range includes two-door, four-wheel-drive models that are strongly reminiscent of the early tough-guy 4Runners, plus thoroughly civilized four-doors fitted with a choice of two- or four-wheel drive. Each chassis layout includes two engine choices: a four-cylinder or a V-6. The rear-drive models offer only a four-speed automatic transmission, but those propelled by four wheels can be paired with either the automatic or a five-speed manual gearbox. Toyota also offers a shift-on-the-move system that lets you snick into four-wheel drive at speeds up to 50 mph. Called 4WDemand, it's standard with the V-6 and optional with the four-cylinder. View Photos Larry Griffin | Car and Driver Elbow past the extra doors, the added civility, and the familiar looks and logos and you see that the new breed was bred to be "bad" from the knobbies up. Yet Toyota's priority was to make the 4Runner all-around better by making it all-of-a-piece. That meant doing away with yesteryear's detachable fiberglass top. The 4Runner made its reputation for toughness as a pickup saddled with make-do weather protection—something like an early Conestoga wagon, albeit far more hospitable. It worked: for the past three years, Toyota's saddle-soaping of details put the 4Runner atop the sport-utility ranks in the JD. Power & Associates' Compact Truck Customer Satisfaction Index. Still, the factory wants the 4Runner to show schoolmarm manners without giving up old-hand toughness. So rather than tacking on a fibrous shell, Toyota builds a steel roof integral with the new and stronger unit body. Now it's all tight. Depending upon how you buy options, you can brew up fixings from milquetoast mild to mountain-man wild. The trucks' stance, sheetmetal, and exterior trim leave no doubt that Toyota wants its 4Runners to rise from the landscape with a meaty presence. Their curb weights, which range from about 3600 to 4150 pounds, live up to their looks. View Photos Larry Griffin | Car and Driver Taking a seat in many two-door mini-trucks calls first for clambering up to cab height—a tallish task due to most mini-trucks' lofty pretensions of being barely minimized maxi-trucks. Then the tight packaging pinches access to the back seat, even for flexible youths. Two doors are fine as far as they go, suggesting a certain spartan sportiness, but older and stiffer folks can scissor into the back only through torso-twisting contortions. Thanks to the more modern four-door mini-trucks, including the new 4Runner, passengers' transitory aches and pains go the way of Conestogas on the Santa Fe Trail: into oblivion. Consider mainstream sport-utility wagons that take on five-door convenience through four doors and a tailgate: the Isuzu Trooper II, the Jeep Cherokee/Wagoneer, and the Mitsubishi Montero. (Toyota's Land Cruiser, heftier and costlier than the 4Runner, has hauled the sport-utility faithful since about the time Moses said he didn't want to get his sandals wet. Age works against the Land Cruiser, though, when you idle it up beside products of fresher thinking.) The new 4Runners embody talents extracted from the mountain goat, the Conestoga, and the touring car. Meant to traverse the badlands, they also ditty-bop through the good life. You feel the newfound structural solidity and a blissful infusion of mechanical smoothness. The isolation from NVH (noise, vibration, and harshness) often makes the 4Runners feel eerily removed from the action of the moment. View Photos Larry Griffin | Car and Driver We sampled a gaggle of 4Runners in the deserts, forests, and mountains of northern New Mexico. The Toyotas had to brave power-sapping altitudes, making us wish for instant turbo kits, but revealed a glimpse of their repertoire through the 4wd paradise between Santa Fe and Taos. The 4Runners' interiors come across as handsome as the exteriors, which you could classify as strong, silent types. The designs and materials applied to Toyota's truck interiors rank alongside those fitted into its best cars. That puts them near the top for concept, comfort, fit, and finish. From basic seating to complex sound systems, the top-notch materials, logical design, and righteous execution seem to come through. Those parts we can be pretty sure of. We'll reserve judgment on the suspensions, brakes, and powertrains. View Photos Larry Griffin | Car and Driver Each 4Runner's chunky nose sits up on control arms, torsion bars, gas shocks, and an anti-roll bar. The rear holds up its end with a rigid axle, four trailing links, coil springs, gas shocks, and an anti-roll bar. The power-assisted steering turns via a recirculating ball (and slowly, at 5.2 turns lock-to-lock, which helps cushion off-road nastiness). The burly brake system bulges with vented discs up front and drums in the rear. We focused on the upmarket 4Runner we'd be most attracted to, the 4WD SR5 V-6 with the five-speed stick. Toyota outfitted it with optional 7.0-by-15-inch alloy wheels and matching 31x10.50R-15 M+S tires, plus a standard 10.2 inches of rock-avoiding ground clearance. The sweet manual gearbox helps sustain zip that would otherwise be lost to the elasticity of the even-smoother automatic. In the high country especially, the 150-hp 3.0-liter V-6 pulls its load much more easily than the 116-hp 2.4-liter four. Though unrelated, both engines are electronically fuel injected and fitted with a belt-driven single-overhead-cam layout. The four-cylinder offsets some of its horsepower disadvantage by making its peak torque at 2800 rpm, a useful 600 revs lower than the V-6's max-grunt point. Both engines pump valves and whirl cranks with lubricious ease. Very little crosstalk between components penetrates the veil of isolation that drapes the firewall and enfolds the drivetrain. View Photos Larry Griffin | Car and Driver Sport-utility vehicles now knock off more than a million sales per year. Toyota would like ten percent of this growing market by the mid-1990s, a threefold increase in its share. Because all of the vehicles we drove were prototypes, we can't predict with confidence how Toyota's new sport-utilities will do: like all strong, silent, tough guys new in town and dressed to kill, the new 4Runners remain unknown quantities. What we do know is that the 4Runner V-6 that caught our eye will sell for about $18,000. That seems a reasonable sum to pay for four-star four-play. Specifications Specifications Year Make Model Trim Vehicle Type: front-engine, rear/4-wheel-drive, 5-passenger, 5-door wagon PRICE Base: $18,000 (est) //Base price of vehicle as described in specs hed// Options: Option 1, $XXXX; Option 2, $XXXX ENGINE SOHC 12-valve V-6, iron block and aluminum heads, port fuel injection Displacement: 181 in3, 2958 cm3 Power: 150 hp @ 4800 rpm Torque: 180 lb-ft @ 3400 rpm TRANSMISSION 5-speed manual CHASSIS Suspension, F/R: control arms/live axle Brakes, F/R: 11.3-in vented disc/11.6-in drum Tires: Bridgestone Desert Dueler M+S DIMENSIONS Wheelbase: 103.3 in Length: 196.5 in Width: 68.1 in Height: 67.3 in Curb Weight: 4050 lb EPA FUEL ECONOMY (PROJECTED) City/Highway: 16/18 mpg C/D TESTING EXPLAINED
Car and Driver
13 hours ago
- Car and Driver
Airstream's New Trailer Embodies Frank Lloyd Wright's Designs
Airstream has partnered with the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation for a new limited-edition travel trailer. The Usonian trailer employs many of the design principles found in Wright's architectural masterpieces, such as the Taliesin West property used by Wright as a winter home. The limited-edition camper costs $184,900, and only 200 units will be built. Compared with the multi-level rectilinear look of Fallingwater and the monolithic rotunda of New York's Guggenheim Museum, Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin West home in Scottsdale, Arizona, cuts a far subtler silhouette. The property, which served as Wright's winter oasis and is now home to the famed architect's eponymous foundation, consists of a series of low-slung buildings that blend into the surrounding desert. But while Taliesin West lacks the grand presence of some of Wright's other creations, it perfectly encapsulates many of his design philosophies. So, when Airstream—maker of those iconic aluminum campers—decided to partner with the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation on a new limited-edition trailer, Taliesin West was the ideal inspiration. Airstream Airstream Airstream Airstream Airstream Airstream Airstream Caleb Miller Associate News Editor Caleb Miller began blogging about cars at 13 years old, and he realized his dream of writing for a car magazine after graduating from Carnegie Mellon University and joining the Car and Driver team. He loves quirky and obscure autos, aiming to one day own something bizarre like a Nissan S-Cargo, and is an avid motorsports fan.
Newsweek
15 hours ago
- Newsweek
Max Verstappen Teases NASCAR Fans: "I Would Like to do it"
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. Four-time Formula One world champion Max Verstappen showed a strong interest in getting into Connor Zilisch's No. 87 Chevrolet Camaro stock car at the newly reopened Hangar-7 in Salzburg, Austria. Red Bull motorsport athletes gathered at the event to celebrate the reopening of Hangar-7. Verstappen is synonymous with Red Bull Racing. But could NASCAR be a part of his future? With Red Bull, anything is possible, especially considering Verstappen's keenness to get into Trackhouse Racing's Chevy at the event, a team backed by the same energy drink brand. The Dutchman has spoken about his F1 retirement in the past and openly expressed that he would pursue a form of racing that excites him. He was recently granted the FIA Platinum License that allows him to race in the Le Mans 24 Hours. Max Verstappen of the Netherlands and Oracle Red Bull Racing looks on in the garage during practice ahead of the F1 Grand Prix of Spain at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya on May 30, 2025 in Barcelona,... Max Verstappen of the Netherlands and Oracle Red Bull Racing looks on in the garage during practice ahead of the F1 Grand Prix of Spain at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya on May 30, 2025 in Barcelona, Spain. MoreVerstappen joined several other athletes in Austria, such as Daniel Sanders (Dakar), Dani Pedrosa (MotoGP), and Zilisch. While walking past the Trackhouse NASCAR car, Verstappen was greeted by the NASCAR driver, who then invited him to step inside his car. Here's what he said: "You wanna get in?" Verstappen replied: "I mean, I would like to do it." The post on X has been shared by Trackhouse Racing. Could this be a hint of things to come in the future, especially with the situation getting more challenging for Verstappen in F1? The recent Spanish Grand Prix saw Verstappen receive three penalty points on his FIA Super Licence, apart from a 10-second penalty for crashing into George Russell. A late safety car restart, Red Bull's decision to fit his RB21 F1 car with hard tires, and a team order to hand back P4 to Russell to avoid a potential penalty all added to Verstappen's frustration, ultimately leading to the crash. The 26-year-old driver admitted that the setbacks in the latter stages of the race in Barcelona fueled his frustration. Newsweek Sports reported his comments from his Instagram post. He said: "We had an exciting strategy and good race in Barcelona, till the safety car came out. "Our tyre choice to the end and some moves after the safety car restart fuelled my frustration, leading to a move that was not right and shouldn't have happened. "I always give everything out there for the team and emotions can run high. You win some together, you lose some together. See you in Montreal."
