2013 Porsche Cayenne S Diesel

Not so long ago, our Michael Harley drove the Porsche Cayenne Diesel up in flannel-lovin' Alaska, and he returned home safely from that expedition pretty well convinced that Porsche knows how to create a really heavy, mountain-topping 4x4. In fact, since the test for the first generation of the Cayenne Diesel back in 2008, it's been clear: The diesel version of the Spice Islands Porsche is among its very best.

I'm not taking away from the spectacularity of the latest Turbo S or GTS Cayennes, but when it comes to traditional 4x4 duties, a gnarly turbodiesel's progressive power delivery and spitting torque make for great satisfaction. And a 4.2-liter biturbo V8 diesel is just bound to do something right for you. Cue this drive of the Cayenne S Diesel.

Over the standard Cayenne Diesel, the S's horsepower is up by 137, torque is up by 221 pound-feet, and straight-line oil-burning acceleration to 60 miles per hour requires just 5.6 seconds, maybe less. For this additional chutzpah, you'd be staring at a window sticker with a starting price of around $71,500, or just over 25-percent more than seen on the monroney for the S-less Cayenne Diesel Michael left in Alaska.

If, that is, the Cayenne S Diesel was destined for the US, which it sadly is not.

Driving Notes

- Whether you really like or really hate the Cayenne, I have to say that since the first-generation packaging got itself fully sorted around 2006, this interior is about the most robust and finely crafted cabin in the automotive business. Not a flabby or overstuffed anything in sight, though; it's all muscle with an undeniable sense of premium quality.

- Check out the exhaust tips to hear the voice of the Cayenne S Diesel. As one Cayenne team member asked us, "It's not at all like a diesel, is it?" And it's almost entirely true that there's almost no hint of a diesel mill under the hood. Blipping the throttle and accelerating hard stresses this point even further. Pretty impressive.

- Whereas for the most part the exterior still gives me troubles, from certain angles, this thing looks pretty incredible. The front three-quarter view is the best angle on the Cayenne, while I feel the rear three-quarter could also be as great if it weren't for the taillight design on this generation.

- The 377 horsepower peaking at 3,750 rpm is impressive, but it's the towering 627 pound-feet of torque punching things forward between 2,000 and 2,750 rpm (almost all of it available from 1,650 rpm) that can separate my retinas.

- A 4,400-rpm redline is a reality on this 4.2-liter V8 biturbo diesel. That rev limit is no limitation at all, though, as far as holding the throttle in a given gear for a long time.

- The eight-speed Tiptronic S transmission's action and the Porsche Traction Management chassis has reached near perfection here. The half-step gears here help smooth things while also improving fuel efficiency for cruising.

- Despite this storm of energy and the vehicle's 5,005-pound curb weight, this SUV can easily return an average of 25 miles per gallon.

- The performance figures for this Cayenne S Diesel are well beyond the thrills experienced in the already good V6 diesel. Punching the throttle is simply vicious in the midrange.

- Recommended braked towing weight remains 7,700 pounds. It feels like the Cayenne S Diesel would prefer five passengers and about 12,000 pounds to tow. Uphill.

- European deliveries of this exceptional tank begin before the end of the year. Russia is foreseen as a huge market. What a surprise.

Read more by Matt Davis at Autoblog.com

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2013 Subaru BRZ

Last December, our wandering man of intrigue Jonathan Ramsey drove a Subaru BRZ prototype at Japan's Tochigi circuit under somewhat controlled conditions and was nonetheless very impressed. Then, in that same month, SoCal lad Michael Harley – he who knows a thing or two about hot-footing it on closed circuits – took the practically identical Scion FR-S for many unfettered laps on the island's short and sweet Sodegaura Forest Raceway. He, too, was left extremely enthused by the experience.

My turn now. We needed a real road test of the Subaru BRZ just to see if this car really does merit the "zenith" part of its name represented by its final letter. Can the stellar handling and light weight we've already raved about translate into something you could happily drive every day?

The roads on which Subaru sent me with their new star pupil could not be more appropriate: the ominous Route Napoleon in southern France. This is perfect, because the number of new car drives following the Geneva Motor Show has been mind numbing, and I frankly needed a spectacular car-and-road pairing to recharge my enthusiasm. I can think of no better combo for this than a promising sports car and this insanely technical French two-lane. I am here to find out if, in the real sporting car world, 200 horsepower and 151 pound-feet of torque are enough to keep the fire burning in me.

f I'm being flat-out honest, only the Subaru WRX STI and 2.5 RS before it have ever inspired me much when it comes to Fuji Heavy Industries' body of work. Everything else they have done until now has always been appreciated, even the Brat and the Baja in their own particular weird ways. But for me, they have all, to a greater or lesser degree, felt like cars built by robot people for robot people. I enjoy it when the vehicle wrapped around me shows signs of body heat, of cardiac and pelvic passions, of risks to be taken. I love what the Japanese do for our industry, but the Europeans and Americans have generally cornered the market on flagrant driving machismo.

Approaching the first long drive of the Subaru BRZ, all of this is going through my head, together with the preceding opinions from Messrs. Ramsey and Harley, plus a chorus of other career opinioneers. Will the power/torque numbers be enough? Will the 215-width Michelin summer tires feel like too small a footprint for consistent hookup through and out of the hundreds of incredible curves that await me? Is the handling of the BRZ indeed spectacular but the lower revs exhaust voice too plain? Do I even care about trying the six-speed Aisin automatic transmission with paddles and Sport mode?

For the entire day, as it turned out, my drive partner and I greedily protected our silver Subaru BRZ Limited with six-speed manual, also by Aisin. We did this because after just ten or so miles of driving, we both realized that this BRZ with its short-throw shifter was destined to be even more of a great car moment in our lives than we had anticipated.

 Talk to any driving enthusiast who's been lucky enough to have spent a day on the Route Napoleon and they'll go on breathlessly about the road. But they will also frequently state that they "just wish" they'd had this or that other car rather than the one they actually had. Well, we hauled Gunma butt for roughly 200 miles with rarely a straight or flat section for pausing and collecting our thoughts. It's telling that at no point did I wish I was in any other car, because the BRZ, while certainly not the all-time quickest over this route, would prove to be the absolute epitome of this type of sports car. Get my drift here?

 Read more by Matt Davis at Autoblog.com

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