Porsche Does The Electric Slide

Hybrids. Blech. Sick of hearin’ about em. I don’t know if you are too. Electric motors, like CVT’s, don’t do a whole lot for me. I like gasoline engines, the sound of a working valvetrain, the ticking of injectors, the blare of quad exhaust pipes on the back of a Carrera S as it pulls off of a stoplight. I doubt Porsche really likes hybrids either, which is why it’s been doing them it’s own way. In the past few days, details have snuck out regarding two Porsches with electric motors, and both are interesting from an enthusiast perspective.

First up is the Boxster E. Oh, lord – an Electric Boxster? That’s just what we need. Take the flat six out of the world’s most balanced, neutral automotive chassis and shove in a DC Brushless and some batteries, then let me go take a nap. Actually, don’t hang yourself yet! First of all, there are only three of them, and they’re prototypes, not production vehicles. Porsche is using these Boxster E prototypes to evaluate an all-electric powertrain, and they’ll be rolling around Stuttgart accumulating miles and data. Not a whole lot has been said about the technical specifications, besides the fact they use two electric motors that combine to make 180kW (241bhp) and are powered by a 29KwH battery pack, which is pretty strong. Performance should be similar on the low end to a regular Boxster, but all they’ve given us is a German-language press release and a picture of this vinyl-slathered Boxster, so stay tuned.

More important to consumers who want to buy a car, is the new Panamera S Hybrid. While on paper this combines two of my least favorite things (the Panamera, and Hybrids), the technical specifications are pretty impressive. Under the hood is Audi’s 3.0L supercharged V6 (used in the S4, A6, Q7, etc as well as the Cayenne Hybrid) with 333bhp. This is mated to an electric motor producing 47bhp, for a total of 380bhp. The electric range is about 2km on electric power only, at speeds up to 53mph, although the Panamera S hybrid can be propelled by either or both. The electric motor also acts as the starter for the gas engine as well as a generator (instead of an alternator) for the electrical system.

All that power is sent to the rear wheels through an 8-speed automatic transmission, and both performance and fuel economy figures are eye-opening. The Panamera S Hybrid will hit 60mph in 5.8 seconds, with a top speed of 168 – hardly a Prius. Fuel-economy figures depend on whether or not the car is fitted with the optional Michelin low-rolling-resistance tires (which seems like an awful idea, honestly) – an average of 33.1mpg on the US with standard tires, or 34.6 with the Michelins. Coincidentally, that makes it the most efficient Porsche ever made – which is like saying you’re the sexiest spelling-bee champion ever, but alright.

Are having crappy, squalling tires on your Porsche worth 1.5mpg? Probably not. Especially when you consider the Panamera’s pricetag: in Europe, where it goes on sale in June of this year, you can pick one up from €106,185. When it goes on sale in the US, it’ll be priced right around $95,000 minus destination fees. The S Hybrid will include adaptive air suspension with PASM, as well as a hybrid-specific display that will monitor system states. Consider though, that the Lexus LS600hL is about $20k more expensive than the Panamera Hybrid S, is significantly more complicated (5.0L V8, complex gear-based CVT, AWD) and doesn’t return nearly as good gas mileage. And let’s not even talk about Mercedes’ oddly-position S400 Hybrid, which is a bit of a snail (0-60 in 7.2 seconds) and can easily top $100k with options. Will the S Hybrid be a big seller? Time will tell. In the mean time, look out for more details and pictures as we approach the Geneva show, where Porsche will be debuting the big hybrid sedan.

Not Your Usual Civic Hatchback

Ahh, the 90′s Civic hatchback: dime a dozen, get ‘em while they’re hot. I know you wanted to pick a flavor, but I hope you like vanilla, ’cause that’s what you’ll get. Right? Now, normally when you look under the hood of an EG-chassis Civic (92-95), you see one these: a D15.

Boring. On a good day, a single-cam D15 16v PGM-FI motor will make 110 or so horsepower. Which is perfectly adequate for a 2,400lb commuter car, and it’ll deliver 40+ MPG on the highway all day long. But if you want to go fast in your Civic Hatch, you’re going to need a bigger motor. How about one that doesn’t even fit under the hood?

Wait, WHAT? No, this photo isn’t photoshopped. That’s an Acura TL engine poking out of an EG Hatch’s hood. What?

I ran into the gentleman that owns this Franken-Honda at my local gas station while I was filling up my car, and I had a moment of cognitive dissonance when I saw the cam covers poking out of the hood. I went up to talk to the owner, who was an older gentleman named Marsh about the car.

The swap was done using a billet-aluminum motor mount kit from noted Honda tuners Hasport, who makes “swap kits” for putting most any sideways Honda motor into most any other sideways-engined Honda. But this has gotta take the cake for plug-and-play insanity. A stock TL engine makes 270 horsepower, or about double what a stock VTEC-equipped D-series I4 does. He pointed to the front tires, which were down to bare cords, and said “it’s a bit hard on the tires, though.” Well, I’d imagine so.

The Franken-Honda continues inside, where this EG sports an entire gauge cluster from a 3.2 CL Type-S Coupe, as well as the shifter. A bagless Momo wheel and some AFR and EGT gauges occupy the A-pillar, but otherwise it’s standard Honda in there.

As far as mods to the engine go, it looks like it’s got a set of stainless headers, a short-ram intake, and some silicone coolant hoses, but really- how much do you need to do to a TL engine in an EG to make it fast?

What’s funny is the relatively ricer-level quality of the rest of the stuff done to the car. The 18″ Motegi wheels are gaudy and probably weigh a metric ton, the clear taillights are just plain abominable, and there’s a big damn hole cut in the bumper for some reason. But when you’ve got a TL V6 in your Civic, I suppose we’ll afford you some ricer liberties. I mean, it’s not like it’s Ivan The Terrible’s Civic Type ARRRR.

It’s surprisingly quiet, too -- although I guess not that surprising considering the car that donated it’s engine to this swap was designed for ferrying around real estate agents and their clients. What crazy engine swaps have you seen? Did any of them make you drop your jaw like this one? Leave a comment for us below!

1992 Mercedes-Benz W140 S Class Review: The Invincible Sedan

If you aren’t aware it’s 2011 and just like every other year we get one year older. Of course, being mortal when we get older you find your body changing over time. You find hair growing out of your ear lobes, you find aches in places where it has never ached before a year ago and your bones creak slightly more than usual. All of these mentioned above will happen to you, unless you’re not human. However, if you’re a car, especially a W140 series Mercedes Benz S-class, you could probably go on forever.

Designed to be the best car in the world, it actually is, or was. First sold in 1991 the W140 Mercedes Benz S-class cost Mercedes Benz about $1billion to develop and had tons of innovation built into it. It was the first production car that had double glazed glass for the windows, power assisted closing for the doors and boot lid (on higher specced models), electric windows that will stop and lower itself if it detected your hands and objects in its way, an electric powered adjustable rear view mirror (so that the ultra lazy can just move their wrist to adjust it) and other incredible sounding gadgetry at the time. Some of these items had filtered to lower Mercedes Benzes and introduced into cars from other manufacturers. It was one, if not the last, over-engineered Mercedes Benz made and it basically cost 25 percent more than the outgoing W126 model because of this. Everything in the W140 felt good to the touch and also felt like it could go on forever.

The car in question that I drove was a black 1992 300SE. This was the base model in the line-up which went up all the way to the V8 500SEL and the V12 600SEL. This was pre-1994, before Mercedes Benz changed the way it named their cars – the S-classes became the S280 or S500L instead of using the ‘SE’ or ‘SEL’ moniker. It had a 2.8liter straight 6 engine that made 190bhp and about 199lb/ft (270Nm) of torque. Adequate for a barge that weighed in at about 1,880kg (for this base model). Unfortunately, due to the weight of the car, you only get 100/bhp per ton, hence the 0-60mph time of about 10.5 seconds. Not very CarThrottle, but what’s very CarThrottle about this car is that it makes the chore of driving a barge easier than you think possible in every location. With the exception of small, tight backlanes.

This car may be almost 20 years old and in car years, being 20 means you’re almost 50. In most 20 year old cars you will find a lack of refinement and a lack of performance in them. If you had a ride in a 20 year old Toyota Camry you may be grinding your teeth and you would hear squeaks rattles and clunks throughout your drive. There are some old Camrys which would still be nice to drive, but these are rare, few and far between. Not to mention utterly dull to drive. But try hop into any Mercedes Benz W140 and you’d be surprised by how much of a sense of occasion a car like this car give you. That three-pointed star up front does this to you.

The leather seats feel good, the driving position isn’t tiring at all. Half a day of dealing with city traffic and I popped out of the car feeling strangely fresh as when I hopped in the car in the morning. I also remember a few of us driving 400 kilometers in one and none of us felt knackered. It is this long legged ability and the high level of refinement of this old Mercedes that makes it worthy of a CarThrottle article.

And it surprisingly handles in an inert sort of way (blame it on that recirculating ball type steering system), slightly feel-less brakes and a typical Mercedes throttle pedal. It isn’t a small car as even this short wheelbase car seems to have tons of space at the rear. It is actually Rolls Royce Silver Spirit huge if you want a comparison of size. But it would still do a U-turn at a busy street junction with such verve that could embarrass smaller cars and it could also be hustled down a tight mountain road if you want to but you actually won’t. I tried giving it more boot than usual around one of the highways but somehow, I seemed to settle into a serene, hushed trot at about 70mph. I suppose this is what stress-feel motoring is all about.

Now being a typical Mercedes from the 1990s it will tell you that it’s understeering very early into a corner. So you have to actually adjust your driving style to suit it – not the other way round. If not it would be akin to wrestling a bull (and it is bull-sized). Drive within its limits and it does its job well. I suppose you shouldn’t hustle a Mercedes S-class as it is more suited for ushering captains of the industry from one meeting to another instead of tackling the Nurburgring. You could take this W140 to the nearest Autobahn for a workout. Even this base model will hit 130mph if it had enough road to do so. It could also do a 100mph cruise all day if you wanted to. And cruising at 100mph in one feels like cruising at half the speed. Such is the refinement of the W140 S-class that you could do this 20 years on without any problems. In fact, if you sat in the later W210 S-class that came after this model you would be hard pressed to differentiate the ride quality and quietness of the cars.

Did I encounter any problems with this car? No. None whatsoever. The individual air-conditioning controls still worked perfectly in this car, the car’s original 6 cylinder engine still sounded sweet (with only a top or cylinder head overhaul to its name). Most of the electrics basically worked fine and there were no sounds of creaks or squeaks aside from the usual leathery squeaks. The 4 speed automatic (pre-1994 models mostly came in the more basic gearbox) worked decently well too.

I suppose the best things about cars like these is that they are now dirt cheap with prices of between a thousand or so pounds to about three thousand pounds for this base 300SE model and you could even get the fully loaded S500 versions for about the same amount (depending on condition of course). Parts may be pricey as it is an S-class – and spare parts for these cars were never as cheap as the smaller C or E class Mercedes. This was the best car in the world, circa 1992, and in 2011, it still drives better than some of the cars today.