is the Sephia, an attractive but
.very basic four-door with a 97-
cubic-inch engine that produces
a big 88 horsepower. Almost a
knockoff of a Mazda Protege, the
Sephia has debuted to a luke-
warm but not entirely negative
audience. The base price is a
hair over $10,000. They're
promising a sport-utility some-
time this fall.
This isn't quite the year of the
small car; nobody is still quite
able to market a practical
econobox less than $10,000. But
with the economy remaining un-
certain, the market for a new car
you don't have to be on some-
body's board of directors to own
is bound to grow. We'll just have
to see what the carmakers do
about it in the next couple of
years.

l'HE LAP OF LUXURY
Got a couple of minutes to talk
about cars you'll probably
never own? Let's leave the reg-
ular world for a while, and see
what the other 10 percent dri-
ves.
Hint: You know that rattle in
your instrument panel that dri-
ves you nuts at 50 mph? You
know that mud flap that's in

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

nother striking
new GM
product is the
I 995 Buick Riviera.

A

RATES KEEP YOU
FROM BUYING
YOUR NEW CAR!!

Great Lease Packages
Available On...

'95 LUMINA

Jack

Cauley

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SQUARE LAKE RD

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Jack Cauley

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—Z17i;ii5 1

your trunk after it decided it
didn't like your wheel well? None
of the following cars have those
problems, OK?
Judging from new products,
the upper crust spend their time
either driving really fast or plan-
ning to do so. One of the most
ubiquitous go-fast companies is
the good old Bayersche Motoren
Werke.
BMW is riding high: they're
everywhere, they're about to
start building cars in South
Carolina, they're the latest
owners of Land-Rover. Since
1991, BMW's massive, scary
850i has ruled the semi-exotic
roost with its high-tech suspen-
sion and powertrain, and ap-
parently about 50-cylinder
engine.
With a price tag over $77,000,
BMW sold only 1,711 units in
1991 and 715 last year (at al-
most $100,000). The other au-
tomakers didn't even bother
trying to compete. Although the
850i is a lovely monster, it was
clearly time for a change.
Enter the 1995 840Ci, an 8-
cylinder version of the 8-series.
At 282 horsepower, the 4-liter
engine is not as exotic as the
850's V12, but it's plenty scary

on the road. Even with its stan-
dard five-speed automatic trans-
mission, it still provides a
zero-to-60 time of 7.1 seconds.
Price tag? Only $68,100.
BMW also has a new M3 for
1995. The "M" designation indi-
cates that the car is a product of
what was until recently called
BMW Motorsport, the sub-
sidiary responsible for special-
edition, high-performance cars.
So you can expect a car called
M3 to be a go-fast edition of an-
other car, and so it is.
The newly designed M3 is
a speedier version of the de-
lightful 325is Coupe. The engine
has been bored out from 2.5
to 3 liters, its variable valve tim-
ing recalibrated to move the
power band a bit toward the top
end, its exhaust tuned and its
rev limiter revised to allow high-
er engine speeds in lower gear
ranges.
The result is 240 horses at
6,000 rpm, an increase of almost
27 percent, and a zero-to-60 time
of 6.1 seconds, not counting the
time it'll take you to go back and
retrieve your dentures from the
pavement.
The speed trend is so perva-
sive that even Volvo is getting
into the act. The new tur-
bocharged 850 looks as boxy and
sensible as any other Volvo
you've ever seen, but that water-
cooled Mitsubishi turbo pulls
222 horsepower out of its 2.3-
liter 5-cylinder for driving per-
formance totally at odds with its
stodgy exterior. Even with the
four-speed automatic transmis-
sion (no manual is available),
zero-to-60 time is a shocking 7.1
seconds. Talk about your Q-
ships!
What's that you say? All this
is too ordinary? Looking for
something for the person with
way more money than brains?
Something that's street-legal
only if you never start the en-
gine?
Then you need the ultimate
example of Italian exotica, the
car that could make even Darth
Vader sigh with gratification,
the Lamborghini Diablo.
Where its predecessor the
Countach was merely sinister,
the Diablo is sinuously,
sensuously ... sinister. The rear-
engine chassis is made of hand-
welded square tubing. The body
is aluminum where it's not
Kevlar.
And the engine! Oh, the en-
gine: 5.7 liters, the same dis-
placement as a '70s-era Chevy.
But no Suburban sedan ever
had 12 cylinders, 492 horse-
power, 428 pounds of torque, or
a top speed as ludicrous as 202
mph.
With a tab of $239,000, it
seems a shame that after you
buy one, there's no place where
you'd ever be allowed to drive
it at full speed. ❑

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