Page 21 - Motor Trend (February 2020)

TREND I 02.20

MIKE CONNOR
MT CONFIDENTIAL

The XK engine made Jaguar famous.
Designed by William Heynes in the 1940s,
the XK was an inline-six with twin overhead
camshafts. It made its debut in 1949 and
stayed in production until 1992. Built in
displacements ranging from 2.4 to 4.2
liters, it was for decades a paragon of
performance, powering the D-Type Le
Mans racers and propelling the gorgeous
E-Type to an incredible top speed of 150
mph in the early 1960s. The good news is a
Jaguar inline-six is back, the new 3.0-liter
Ingenium; it replaces the 3.0-liter AJV6,
an engine that traces its origins back to
the Ford Duratec. The bad news is the
F-Type sports car, spiritual successor to the
E-Type, won’t be getting it. Why? It won’t
fit under the hood. With the demise of the
Mitsubishi Mi-Tech AJV6, the F-Type will only be available
Mitsubishi’s high-concept fantasy-mobile with a 2.0-liter inline-four or a 5.0-liter V-8.
was this gas-turbine-powered plug-in The new Mazda3 was the first Mazda
series electric hybrid dune buggy. It sports compact not to make the finalist round of
gigantic wheels, even bigger wheel arches, our COTY judging, primarily because of
no doors or top, and four inboard electric its disappointingly lethargic powertrain.
motors. The gas turbine that generates The powers that be in Hiroshima weren’t in
the room when we discussed the 3’s lack of
the power for said motors runs on most
performance, but it appears they’ve come
any liquid fuel: gasoline, alcohol, diesel, or
to the same conclusion: It needs more grunt.
kerosene. The minimalist interior features
As a result, an upgrade program means
an augmented reality windshield onto
both the Mazda3 and the CX-30 crossover
which an improved view of what’s ahead
are getting the 2.5-liter turbo-four as an
can be projected based on the myriad
option, delivering an estimated 250 hp and
onboard sensors that also inform Mi-Pilot,
320 lb-ft of torque. Sadly, the engine won’t
an advanced driver assistance system that be available with a manual transmission.
also reportedly works off-road. In addition The decision puts into question the viability
to using the four motors for active yaw of the Skyactiv-X engine in North America,
control, the Mi-Tech can pivot in place especially as the engine is already having
by spinning the left and right wheels in a hard time getting through emissions
opposite directions. Frank Markus because of NOx output. Meanwhile, in
Korea, what Albert Biermann wants,
Albert Biermann gets. There wasn’t
supposed to be a full-fledged N version of
the DN8 Sonata, but it appears Biermann
has found a way to make it happen. The
N-spec Sonata will use Hyundai’s new
2.5-liter turbo-four with 304 hp and 311 lb-ft
of torque, paired to an eight-speed wet
dual-clutch transmission that can handle
up to 347 lb-ft. Sources in Seoul say an N
version of the Kona is also on the way. It’ll
use the same 2.0-liter turbo-four as the
Veloster N and i30 N, but with the output
dialed back slightly to about 255 hp. It will
only come with the eight-speed DCT. The
original plan was way more bonkers: almost
300 hp and 300 lb-ft of torque. It appears
those numbers have been dialed down so
the torque vectoring limited-slip diff from
Veloster/i30 N stays in one piece.
Toyota e-Racer
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