In this week's Autoblog Podcast, Editor-in-Chief Greg Migliore is joined by West Coast Editor James Riswick and Road Test Editor Zac Palmer. They discuss news about the Cadillac V Blackwing, as well as some interesting auction listings that we spied. They also talk about cars from the fleet including the BMW M760i, X7 M50i and M340i.
Transcript[MUSIC PLAYING]
GREG MIGILORE: Hello, and welcome to another episode of the "Autoblog Podcast." Hope you're doing well out there. It's snowing in Michigan. Yeah, April 15--
JAMES RISWICK: Ha, ha.
GREG MIGILORE: --mark it down, it's snowing. Good times. Laughing from the West Coast is West Coast editor-- where it's probably sunny, I don't know-- James Riswick. What's up, man?
JAMES RISWICK: It's a bit overcast today, but tomorrow it's going to be 74 degrees. Now, I will say, it's very pollen-y here. All of the flowers have exploded.
GREG MIGILORE: I'll take snow.
JAMES RISWICK: So-- yeah. Yeah, I'm a bit sneezy.
GREG MIGILORE: And joining me from-- I don't know, is it snowing out on the other side of the Metro Detroit area there-- is Zac Palmer, our Road Test Editor.
ZAC PALMER: Oh, yes. It's definitely snowing. I'm looking at about an inch to an inch and a half of snow on the ground right now.
GREG MIGILORE: Wow, OK.
ZAC PALMER: There's a flurry or two still falling, but it is melting as I speak. I had one BMW with summer tires taken away and another BMW with summer tires delivered today. So I'm hoping it goes away soon.
GREG MIGILORE: Well, nobody's on the road, so, you know, I guess that removes one degree or scariness.
JAMES RISWICK: So-- yeah, you won't crash into anybody when you fly it off the road. Yeah, great.
ZAC PALMER: True. Only the signs and poles around. That's right.
GREG MIGILORE: And the trees and things like that. So we got a great show--
JAMES RISWICK: No, problem.
GREG MIGILORE: We got a great show for you today. Like Zac mentioned, we've been driving some BMWs-- three of them to be specific here. The M760i, the X7 M50i-- boy, these are great names-- and the M340i, which is what Riswick has had on the West Coast. We'll talk about some of the cool things. We've been seeing listings-- outside of coronavirus news, as far as it impacts the auto industry, there's not a lot of news out there. There is some, but we've also been spending a lot of time surfing listings, checking out our friends at Bring a Trailer, looking at eBay, just all different places. There was pretty cool Impala up there, so we'll talk about that.
Some news and notes-- the Cadillac Blackwing is a thing. They've sort of confirmed that name and given us some details about what exactly it's going to be. It's not like what it was when they used this term about a year ago. So more on that coming up. But let's just jump right into what we've been driving. Zac, the 760i-- the M760i, tell me what you've been doing with that.
ZAC PALMER: Yeah. So this is the granddaddy of the BMW lineup. It's the M Sport version of the 7 series, so M760i. And yeah, it has a twin turbo V12 in it. That's the only V12 in BMW's lineup. It's definitely the most distinctive thing about this specific 7 series. So 601 horsepower, 627 pound-feet of torque. It is one of the most creepy fast cars that I've driven because it is so huge.
This thing, you know, it has an actual launch control. And actually it launches in second gear every single time. But peak torque comes on at 1550 RPM, and it is basically just like a hammer hits you in the back every single time you hit the gas on this thing. It's a bruiser. That's the best term that I could give it there. But it's also supremely comfortable. You know, maybe it's the M Series. It has massive wheels on it, but the adaptive air suspension, when you throw it in comfort, it is just floaty over everything.
So I've driven it over some pretty horrible highways. Downtown Ann Arbor is just-- you know, it's like a war zone through there. They haven't fixed the roads in what feels like a decade. But it makes it feel acceptable. It makes you kind of feel like all of the road workers are kind of rolling around in BMW 7 series, just floating over, oh, we don't need to do anything. It's fine. But yeah, just super, super comfortable. And yeah, you get to roll around with heated, cooled, massaging seats. So long as you're not in the passenger seat, this one had the rear seat executive option which actually deletes the massaging from the passenger seat, because you get the full reclining rear seat. So that means the front passenger seat goes all the way forward, a nice little footrest comes down, you recline, and you're basically treated to one of the most luxurious experiences of any back seat that I've been in. I'm sure it gets better when you happen to a Rolls or an extra large Bentley, but it's--
GREG MIGILORE: Maybe not. Maybe not, actually. Because a lot of those-- yeah, they're all covered in fancier fancier leather and everything. But Rolls-- like, the Phantom does not have all the different toys on there. So it might actually not be.
ZAC PALMER: Yeah. And the actual tech in the back seat, too-- you know, you have two different screens directly in front of you, three total screens in the back seat, a big iDrive display where you can control the radio, the navigation system, the lighting, the sound controls. Essentially almost everything you could do in the front seat infotainment system you can also do in the back seat. And you can do that on the screen that's attached to the back of the passenger seat or in the little Samsung Galaxy tablet that is in the center console, which actually takes up where the fifth seat would be in the middle there. It's a full-length console.
And yeah, I mean, you basically get all of the fancy leather quilting, amazing stitching. This one had a $4,000 BMW individual leather package on it with just glorious stitching. But yeah, I mean, it's hard to think of a better way to roll around all of these deserted streets than with 601 horsepower. Just ultimate, ultimate luxury.
And, you know, it handles pretty all right, too. I went out for a walk in a park the other day, hit some of my favorite roads along the way. And the thing handles way better than it should for its size. Throw it in Sport mode, the air suspension stiffens up a pretty good amount. There's still some roll. You know, it's obviously no M3 or real M car or anything like that. But it's actually fun to drive, which I was a little bit surprised to hear. So that was my week in a $182,000 BMW, actually, was the--
JAMES RISWICK: Wow.
ZAC PALMER: --the final price on that one. So yeah, you pay a lot for that luxury.
JAMES RISWICK: The interesting thing about that-- and Zac, you and I were talking about this yesterday-- is that there's actually two flagship versions of the flagship. So besides M760i, there's also the far better sounding name of the Alpina B7. So this is done by BMW's Alpina tuning folks, but it's right there on the BMW website. Like, you can build one right there. This has 600 horsepower, so the V12 nips it by one horsepower. That definitely was not on purpose. No, not at all. But it's actually quicker. It's 0.1 second quicker from 0 to 60. It's, what, like 15 grand cheaper.
And because it's the Alpina, you get it in unique colors, that Alpina blue, Alpina green. And it has those unique wheels on it. So basically you're getting a more distinctive car for less money and virtually the same performance. And all those toys that, Zac, you were just talking about are also available on the Alpina. I would get the Alpina, right?
ZAC PALMER: The only reason to go with the M760 is if you're a stickler for the V12. And you're basically just paying 15 grand to have a V12. But no, I'm 100% with you there, James-- performance over that ultimate V12 badge. You actually get to go faster in the massive B7, and I think that the Alpina design looks a little better. I prefer the wheels. I prefer the body styling of the Alpina. And yeah, you can have the massive reclining seats. It's all there, and it's also cheaper. So yeah, I'm right there.
JAMES RISWICK: And if you really need a V12, just go out and buy, like, James Bond's 750iL from 1997. And that thing's, like, 12 grand, you know? It'll cost you 12 grand in repairs, but we're talking about a 182 grand car anyway. So--
GREG MIGILORE: Well, it's going to be your--
JAMES RISWICK: Whatever. Or the 850 V12. You get a manual on that sucker from back in the day.
ZAC PALMER: Exactly. That's the old BMW you want right there.
GREG MIGILORE: Both of those will be your coffee table by the end of, you know, two years of ownership or something, your V12 coffee table.
JAMES RISWICK: Yeah. But, you know, we're talking about-- you already have 180 grand that you've spent on the Alpina. So whatever, you can keep that running. You can pay a guy. You can pay a guy to live in your garage and then just keep-- that's his job. Keep that running, please.
GREG MIGILORE: There you go. That sounds like a pretty good way to outsource your mechanic stuff. I'll make it a hat trick. I too would go with the Alpina. I just think Alpinas are cool in general. I really do. I like the approach they take to the cars, the way they tune them. I remember I actually interviewed their CEO once. I'm going to butcher his name. It's Andreas Bovensiepen. I'm sure I'm not saying that correctly. But I went on a BMW trip once to Geneva, and they had an Alpina part of it where we hung out with the Alpina guys. We went to dinner with them.
Somewhere I think maybe we even went into France to really give, you know, old press trip stories. But he was a really cool dude, talked a lot about cars, a lot about wine, a lot about watches, all those sort of things. And the attention to detail they put into cars to make them feel interesting, different, special, I think is something you can't understate. It's a little tough for me a little bit because of the V12. I mean, V12s are tough to find in new cars. So that gives me a little bit of this dissonance.
But I would probably land with the Alpina as well. I just think what they do is so cool. And hey, that stitching, the steering wheel, that's really cool. You don't see colors like that anywhere else. So yeah, big fan of that. And you should definitely-- if you're wondering all about what the backseat of the car looks like, check out-- let's see, Zac has a review that went up yesterday, I guess, actually. So check it out. It's a very comfortable place back there. Zac law it out pretty well. It's an interesting large back seat, all the different features. It's a good-looking car. Obviously there's some light driver views in there, or drive impressions. But it's pretty cool. Any other thoughts on the [INAUDIBLE]?
JAMES RISWICK: There's a cameo video by myself three years ago.
GREG MIGILORE: Whoa.
ZAC PALMER: There is, actually. Yeah. So we're both-- this is a perfectly cast podcast this week for this topic.
GREG MIGILORE: So I noticed you did the first drive of this thing--
ZAC PALMER: [INAUDIBLE]
GREG MIGILORE: Oh, jeez. Yeah, I didn't scroll all the way farther down to see that. Yeah, I just had been doing some very light prep for the podcast. And I was googling the car, and your story, your first drive came up from 2017.
JAMES RISWICK: Yeah. I'd love to tell you in depth what I thought about that car from that time, but I'm just going to defer to what I said three years-- or me from three years ago, because they took us to the Thermal Club, which is outside of Palm Springs. And it's a really tight technical course that's basically-- instead of like-- there's condos surrounding it. And basically instead of a golf course, there's a tiny racetrack.
Now, a tiny racetrack is not the best thing to put on-- or is not the best environment for something as enormous as a BMW 7 series. So you definitely got the impression that, sure, this thing is capable, but this is not something I would necessarily-- you know, it's not really appropriate for the environment. But in terms of driving around, it was the opulent.
ZAC PALMER: I drove the exact opposite thing of you there, James. I had a Mini Cooper hardtop JCW--
GREG MIGILORE: Nice.
ZAC PALMER: --versus the massive 7 Series. It was a real joy around that track in the tiny Mini. I could imagine a massive M760 would be-- wow, that is a lot to handle on there.
JAMES RISWICK: The other time I was around there was in a Rolls-Royce Dawn. So yeah.
ZAC PALMER: I mean, the environment matches the super expensive cars there. It seems like a very expensive place to hang out with your supercar. But wow, interesting vehicle choices for the track.
JAMES RISWICK: It's in the middle of nowhere. It's just like a lot of desert, and then there's this nondescript wall, and yeah, you would not-- but then again, that's Palm Springs in general, just a nondescript desert with some random stuff popping up.
GREG MIGILORE: So I'll see your 7 Series on Thermal and raise you a 7 Series at Monticello in upstate New York, which is actually probably a more appropriate track for that car. You know, that car, there's a little bit more room there to kind of air out such a battleship car like the 7 Series. And it was fun. You know, there's something about driving a 7 Series on a track which is so weird that at least in my case, I know I'm not quick around Monticello-- or any track, for that matter. So I just kind of had fun with it, got the feel of the car, and it's a fun track, too. So yeah.
All righty. Check out Zac's story, Dice Report, check that out. Also check out-- we have kind of a rumor mill piece from Jonathon Ramsey, one of our contributors, about electric versions coming to the 7 Series lineup. We'll see where that goes. So speaking of large BMWs, let's talk about the X7 M50i, also elegantly named, I guess. Let's put it that way. Zac, you've had that in your personal fleet for a little bit. It's kind of nice. I've got some feelings about the X7. I'm curious how you feel about this one, though.
ZAC PALMER: Yeah, so every time I've been in an X7, it has been just a really, really lovely experience. I think that BMW did a really great job of translating the 7 Series experience into the-- and I could call it the 7 Series equivalent crossover with the X7. And the M50i is definitely the ultimate, fastest, best expression of that.
It is just as comfortable, just as luxurious, just as-- all of those wonderful crossover-y things as just the regular xDrive 40i or the xDrive 50i. But it is just a bit faster, and it actually handles a little better, too. So it's the 4.4 liter twin turbo V8 with 523 horsepower and 553 pound-feet of torque. Also ridiculously fast, just like that M760. 0 to 60 on the giant behemoth is 4.5 seconds, which, you know, it doesn't feel as fast from so high up, just because you are sitting really, really high up. But no, it's sneaky quick when you watch the speedo quickly gaining ground on you there.
It's obviously no corner curb or anything like that. But it's adept enough through the corners that you're slightly surprised. It has these big sticky summer tires on it that just grip tenaciously. But no, I think the-- what you really want with this car is, you know, the ultimate in X7-ness. You know, you have the massive space, huge second row, huge third row, with wood trim, leather seats all the way back. You know, the one that I had had five-zone climate control, so two different settings for the front seat, two different settings for each captain's chair in the second row, and then even the third row has automatic climate control in the back. They also have heated seats in the back-- not cooled seats in the back. Too bad about that, right? You just-- you're just stuck--
GREG MIGILORE: How did you make do?
ZAC PALMER: --you're just stuck sweating it out.
GREG MIGILORE: [INAUDIBLE]
ZAC PALMER: But hey, there's a lot more space than in the 7 Series. Throw that third row down, and you can just fill it up with stuff. You can go tailgating with it. It has a nice little dropdown tailgate you can sit on, enjoy a nice drink out there if it were football season. You know, that would be the one to take. You can impress everybody rolling in with the pretty rumbly, loud exhaust and carry everything while you're at it, too.
They changed the looks a little bit for the M50i as well. You get massive 22-inch wheels was on mine. 21 inches are standard. But I actually rode through a BMW dealer and saw ones with the 21s next to my 22s. Weirdly, the 21-inch wheels look small when they're sitting right next to the the other large spinners. But the main thing here is, it's just a super, super-comfortable crossover that-- you know, if you need more space than the 7 Series offers, it's a great option. So that's the main spiel, I think, on the M50i.
GREG MIGILORE: Interesting.
ZAC PALMER: So back to you, Greg.
GREG MIGILORE: I would say, when I look at my very nice, very expensive crossovers, I would almost have to sort of sadly say I would rank this fourth behind the GLS, behind the Escalade, and behind the Navigator. And that's not even, like, saying I don't like the X7. I didn't drive this specific one, but I have driven versions of the X7 before. I like how it looks, I like how it handles, particularly I actually enjoy the steering. It drives pretty well. I think it has a an attitude. I think it wears that BMW design pretty well for such a large vehicle.
So, I mean, I like the car or the SUV crossover, such as it is. But I just feel like when you look at some of those other vehicles, I would put it behind them. So it's not exactly an apples-to-apples comparison when you're talking about the Escalade and the Navigator mixed in there. But it's also reasonable to assume that when you're looking for a big expensive SUV, you're going to look at a number of segments, if you will.
So that's how I would kind of handicap it. But I've liked the X7. I think perhaps more than-- it's grown on me, too. I'll say that. But I do think the GLS is just really excellent in so many different ways. It gets really expensive, too, of course. I mean, they both do. But, you know, I think the X7's in a really tough segment. Let me put it that way.
JAMES RISWICK: Yeah. If I actually needed all of that space-- and let's face it, I bet you the vast majority of people who buy them do not. But if I really did, yeah, I'd get the GLS first. I just think it looks better. But also, yeah, Navigator, I'm with you there, because that's even bigger and more useful. And I love the interior of that.
But if I didn't and I just wanted the fanciest damned SUV around, get a Range Rover, because that's cool. I dig that. And honestly, when I had the X7, I kind of thought it drove like a Range Rover. With the air suspension on that, it feels awfully similar to a Range Rover, and frankly because the last generation Range Rover was engineered by BMW, so I think there's some common DNA. Like, if you go follow the lineage and just-- I don't think it's necessarily that much of a coincidence. You know, it leans into-- it just kind of has that opposite pitch into corners. It just kind of floats. It doesn't feel like a BMW. It doesn't feel bad. None of this is to say necessarily a bad thing. It just evokes something totally different. So I'd just get the real thing, because that Range Rover is very, very--
ZAC PALMER: I'd agree with that. That's a great point. I mean, when you start to think about just different options out there, Range Rovers feel special. They have that presence. They're fun to drive. So yeah, I think I'd probably just drop the X7 down another peg as far as real-world purchasing.
JAMES RISWICK: And you can get it with the plug-in hybrid. That thing-- when you have how comfortable and quiet and refined the Range Rover is, and then you eliminate engine noise, whoa. It's really something. That's one of the best cars I've driven in the last two years, really.
GREG MIGILORE: Cool.
ZAC PALMER: I know that BMW said that they're going to have a plug-in version of the X7. They still haven't released it yet, obviously. But I think that would definitely take it up a notch in my ultimate rankings.
ZAC PALMER: Yeah, I'd agree with that.
ZAC PALMER: The GLS, though, is probably my top for that massive luxury segment. It's bigger than the X7. It's not more comfortable. It's just about the same in that respect. But the actual interior design is much nicer, I think, at Mercedes right now than it is at BMW. And yeah, that puts it over for me.
GREG MIGILORE: Yeah. Mercedes interiors are just gorgeous. And Lincoln exteriors I think, you know, take it or leave it. But their interiors I think are really good as well right now. So that's a little bit of a comeback story, I think, for Lincoln, is just how good their interiors have been the last couple of years. James, you were talking about Range Rovers, but you actually have been driving a BMW M340i, which is an interesting car. What did you do with it?
JAMES RISWICK: Well, I actually put some microphones inside the car as well as outside. And this thing goes from 0 to 60 in 4.1 seconds. But just a-- yeah, there's an M in front of it, but it's a Series BMW. It has 382 horsepower, 369 pound-feet of torque, and with xDrive, 0 to 60 in 4.1 seconds.
GREG MIGILORE: Nice.
JAMES RISWICK: That's insane. And so I wanted to see, OK, let's see what that sounds like. But that's a complicated question because this has BMW's active sound design. Because with the turbo-charged engine and all of the sound deadening materials they make it to increase refinement and make it more luxurious, it just won't be that noisy. So they do pipe in noise into the cabin through the speakers. So I was interested to see, what's the difference inside versus outside?
The answer is, inside it's not contrived. So if you didn't know that that was there, I don't think you'd notice. Like, you would think that it was fake. It's pretty appropriate. So I think they actually restrained themselves in that way. But the other thing is, it sounds so much cooler on the outside. The exhaust kind of sounds like old-school BMW, kind of mechanical and kind of gnarly. And it does crackle and pop, and not in that Jaguar insane way. But when you dangle the camera and the mic off the bumper, it sounds really cool. And I did not hear any of that from the inside.
Now, perhaps it goes without saying that when you're dangling next to an exhaust it's going to sound a lot cooler. But nevertheless, it goes to show that, yeah, these sound different-- there is a price to be paid for all of that sound deadening in the car, taking away from that kind of dynamic driving feel that you get. Otherwise, you know, I would say that this 3 Series has rebounded from-- the last one got a lot of criticism for just losing the driving verve of its predecessor.
The steering is much better. Forget comfort. That can just be thrown into a dumpster. But adaptive mode, the steering is just-- it's much better than it was before. There's actually some feedback. Could there be more? Yes, it would be nice if there was more. The Lexus GS F I drove the previous day I thought was far superior in that regard. But it is a fun car to drive. You can definitely go very fast in it. So yeah, that's the M340i, the xDrive, which sounds like a photocopier.
ZAC PALMER: It does. From Rico.
JAMES RISWICK: But yeah, man, shooting the voice-- just shooting the intro, it was a struggle just to make sure I said the right series of letters and numbers. Not to mention-- here, fun fact-- it's kind of hard to shoot a video about a BMW and say the word "BMW" in a BMW now. Because when you do, you get, dong, how can I help you? Because "BMW" is the catchword for the natural voice recognition. So I kind of had to say it-- I had to have my hand on the Home button to turn it off if it popped up, or just kind of say it a little softer so it wouldn't catch it.
[INTERPOSING VOICES]
GREG MIGILORE: Big Brother is watching you.
JAMES RISWICK: Mercedes has the same problem. You should be able to change the name, which I think you might be able to in BMW.
ZAC PALMER: I saw-- yeah, I actually rode through the settings there, and you can change its name, the buzzword for it to turn on. You can make it whatever you want, I'm pretty sure.
JAMES RISWICK: You can't in Mercedes. I know you can't.
ZAC PALMER: That's too bad.
JAMES RISWICK: So if you're married to '90s actress Mercedes Ruhl, that would get annoying. But otherwise--
ZAC PALMER: Man, I'm really glad to hear that you liked the M340i so much. I've only driven the regular 330i. It was not xDrive, not all-wheel drive, so rear drive. And that was a blast, too. It was surprisingly quick with the two liter turbo. It was like, oh, boy, yeah. I mean, you can have the M340i, but this is plenty already. And yeah, I think the handling, just like he said, is 100% agree better than it was before. You know, a step upwards for the 3 series.
JAMES RISWICK: I also like the fact they've added some heft to the steering just around town. You know, again, comfort's there if you've bought a BMW and you want it to be like an old Lexus around town. But fine. But it actually is kind of nice to have that heft around town. I'm not one-- and then it lightens up as you go faster, as it should be, because I'm not someone who likes, oh, yeah, I need to wrestle with the car. No. But it just feels a little more authentic and natural in that way. But it's just tuned better. They're realizing they lost something.
GREG MIGILORE: Cool. I mean, we're talking about the 3 Series, so we do need to talk about the steering feel. It's sort of like-- it's required, if you will. But cool. Very cool car. Yeah, I think it's something everybody always is interested in, always wants to hear more about. So very cool.
So let's move along. Let's see here. Speaking of cool stuff that was for sale, this was a Chevy Impala. This was up this week and kind of a cool listing. This was on Bring a Trailer, of course, our friends over there. The pictures are great. We don't generally do a ton of these posts because frankly it's a story about a listing. But, you know, we'll do a couple a week, just if the car's interesting, the subject matter is interesting. This one is a '96 Chevy Impala with just under 2,200 miles on the clock, which is pretty remarkable. So Zac, you rode it. What do you think?
ZAC PALMER: Yeah, that last bit you mentioned there, the 2,200 miles on the clock, that's the reason that so many of these really intrigue me. Somebody that buys a car in 1996, a really cool car at the time-- you know, if I bought this car, I would have been driving it like mad. But this owner decided to lock it up in the garage, put a few miles on it a year, not many at all, with 2,173 on it, and then here it is on Bring a Trailer.
The bid is up to $11,000 now at this point. It still has six days left. But I looked up-- the original price on these cars is about 22 to 24 grand. So accounting for inflation, he's going to have to get a decent amount more to make it worth your while to have it locked up all this time. But ultimately it's just a super, super cool time capsule that you don't see every day, because these cars were actually semi-popular. They sold about 70,000 of the Impala SSes between '94 and '96 model years.
So I know I see a ton of them on the roads around here. You go to some kind of a car meet or just driving down Woodward, and boom, there it is. Hey, there's another one. This one has a supercharger on it. You know, a lot of people like to modify these. They were kind of quick-- 7.5-ish second to 60.
GREG MIGILORE: Not bad for the mid '90s.
ZAC PALMER: For the mid '90s, plenty quick.
JAMES RISWICK: And for weighing probably, what, 9,000 pounds?
GREG MIGILORE: You know, it was in the New Jersey-class battleship sort of tonnage. But it was a cool car.
JAMES RISWICK: Well, the thing I like about-- like, if you want to talk about the biggest model line difference in terms of appearance between cars, the Impala was the Caprice. It's effectively the same car. If they called this the Caprice SS, whatever. You want to talk about the greatest difference between these things, I'm looking at them side by side right now, and the difference is stark. I mean, the Caprice is definitely riding higher. It has this chrome sewer grate grill with a hood ornament over it and this chrome strip that wraps around it-- chrome everywhere, on the door handles, these ugly balloon wheels with wire-ish spokes on it. It's not a good-looking car.
And then you look at the Impala, and it's just a different grill. And it's all blacked out, or body colored everything. Definitely lowered, cooler wheels-- it just looks like a completely different car. And yet if you look at it closely, it's the same damn car. It cleans up well. It has those dual pipes in the back. It's kind of like this astonishing transformation. It's like one of these-- it's one of those neat-- not to mention that this car was also a cop car and every single cab from the time.
And then the other thing is, you can turn one of the wagons from the era also into an SS, because you just get rid of all that chrome trim and you put on the Impala grill. And boom, you can find them on the internet. And you can put the same LT1 engine in all of those giant land-- to call it a yacht is actually an understatement, those giant wagon things. So those are-- the actor Dax Shepard has definitely put a modern Corvette engine into his Roadmaster wagon with the wood trim on it, which is something you can do.
GREG MIGILORE: He's done some weird things with cars. Just randomly talking about Dax Shepard, there's some movie from almost 10 years ago now with a bunch of pretty cool early 2010s cars in it. There's like a CTSV wagon I want to say. I cannot think of the name of this movie. But--
JAMES RISWICK: Neither can I. And I saw the-- I went to the press preview of it with him in person, and I can't think of the movie. But it's his own car, too. It's a Lincoln Continental that's featured throughout the movie, and it's his own car. So yeah, he's a real car-- his mother worked for GM, and he also worked in terms related to press cars and automotive journalist events working with his mother when he was a teenager. And so yeah, I mean, he's hosting-- one of the new hosts of BBC America. And of everybody at this point, the 18 variations of that show that have now been around, this one is the one I'm actually most intrigued by, because he knows his stuff.
GREG MIGILORE: Yeah, I'd agree with that. I'm pretty pumped about that show. I forget what service it's on or how we get it, if it's on-- I guess BBC America would probably be on however you get your cable these days. I just assume everything's on Netflix or Hulu or something. But yeah, I mean, random story-- he actually came into the office once at Autoweek promoting something. Maybe it was even that movie. I don't remember. But he just came in.
And he actually randomly started talking to some of the other editors. And he was like, hey, I remember dropping cars off at your house, because he worked for one of the fleet places. And he's like, yeah, I just like driving the cars. They say, hey, take this V Series Cadillac or Range Rover and go drop it off at this guy's house. And he's like, yeah, I have a good time.
I mean, when you really think about it, in non-coronavirus times, it's a pretty awesome thing to get an amazing press car and just drive it somewhere. Not only on our end, but the fleet guys have a pretty sweet gig there too, as far as just take this, you know, Corvette and drop it off somewhere and, hey, drive it. I mean, that's kind of fun.
JAMES RISWICK: Some of them use retired guys. And I tell you, my grandfather would have loved to do that. That would have been, like, his dream retirement job right there. He still gets to work, but he gets to drive around the stuff. Yeah, he would have absolutely loved that. To answer the question, "Top Gear America" will be on Discovery's Motor Trend TV.
ZAC PALMER: That's right, yeah.
JAMES RISWICK: Also starring Rob Corddry and car journalist Jethro Barrington.
GREG MIGILORE: All right.
JAMES RISWICK: You've probably seen him on [INAUDIBLE].
GREG MIGILORE: I ran a Twitter poll this week about the '94 to '96 Impala versus the '03, '04 Mercury Marauder. Do you guys have any guesses as to which one won?
ZAC PALMER: I already looked, so that would be cheating.
[INTERPOSING VOICES]
JAMES RISWICK: But the correct answer was what won, actually.
GREG MIGILORE: Exactly. No, I just thought it'd be interesting to kind of take the pulse and mainly see how many Marauder supporters there were out there. So 64 for the Chevy, 36 for the the Marauder. So I don't know. I guess no surprises there. But I don't know, got 851 votes, which I feel kind of good about. Thanks to the "Autoblog" retweet, if you will.
But you know, I don't know. Some of the responses were really interesting. Like, somebody was talking about how strangled the 4.6 liter V8 was in the Marauder. And then I actually went back and looked up the specs. That car had 301 horsepower. The Impala only had 260. And, I mean, I would guess the Chevy weighed more. I could be wrong.
But I don't know. It's just interesting when you kind of go back and think about the narrative. The Chevy was much better received then and now. I think the Marauder has just become kind of a police car with a few different things that they did to it. It's become more of a footnote to history, and some people would say the Impala is a bit of an icon. I don't know if I'd go that far, but it's definitely a signpost for Clinton-era muscle sedans. So I don't know. Thanks for voting, everybody who voted, if you will.
JAMES RISWICK: So here's a question. So that Marauder, though, that platform dated back to the Carter administration.
GREG MIGILORE: The Panther platform, yep.
JAMES RISWICK: Yeah. So when the-- so that Caprice is a newer car, in fact, even though it died seven years before the Marauder came out.
GREG MIGILORE: Yeah. Yeah, that's true.
JAMES RISWICK: So I do remember hearing from the time that when those Caprices were retired, the cops were sad, because the Caprice was just a better car than the Crown Vics, the, quote, newer Crown Vics that replaced them.
GREG MIGILORE: The interesting thing, too, about the Panther platform, to really go down a rabbit hole, I heard from a pretty old PR guy about 10 years ago-- so just kind of take that time frame and imagine how long this guy's memory must've been-- that when Ford was trying to come up with the Panther platform in the late '70s, they essentially put-- I forget what Chevy, maybe a Malibu-- on a hoist and just reengineered parts of it. And that was the Panther platform. So who knows if that's true, but you know, the guy-- he was pretty old. I mean, he would remember such things. So I don't know. And if that's the case, just think how old the bones and the ideas and the concepts behind the Panther platform must have been.
JAMES RISWICK: OK. Well, I'm about to now disagree with myself from a couple of minutes ago, because I've just fallen down a rabbit hole onto Wikipedia. So take this with a grain of salt. But despite 12 major reengineering and restyling efforts, the B body platform that the Caprice was on dates back to 1926.
GREG MIGILORE: So we're going from-- you mentioned the Carter administration. Now we're in the Harding administration.
JAMES RISWICK: No, Coolidge?
GREG MIGILORE: Coolidge, Woodrow Wilson, that whole time frame. I mean--
JAMES RISWICK: No, Coolidge. It's Coolidge.
GREG MIGILORE: 1926.
JAMES RISWICK: Oh, god.
GREG MIGILORE: Silent Cal.
JAMES RISWICK: So I think major reengineering might be probably a bit of an understatement there. I mean, you hope. But the major reengineering, restyling happened in '91. So depending on how advanced that is, I don't know. You get the impression that maybe body on frame platform is a whole different kettle of fish than the modern unibody platform as we think of them. But right now, some GM-- and I say this affectionately-- nerd is just seething and just bubbling up going, oh, you're wrong, how dare you? And then, you know, here comes a letter. So bring that letter, and we will share it.
GREG MIGILORE: I mean, hey, it's a slow enough news cycle. If you have a letter involving the B body, maybe we'll write a post about it. I don't know.
JAMES RISWICK: Mm-hmm. Absolutely. Bring it on. Bring it on.
GREG MIGILORE: Dive deeply into the archives. All right, so talking about some future product, let's talk about the Cadillac Blackwing nomenclature. This is kind of interesting. They put out a communique, if you will, for the CT4-V and the CT5-V. They confirmed, air quotes, the name. A story written by one of our associate editors, Byron Hurd. It's going to be a limited number kind of thing. And I don't know. It's an interesting-- you know, we complained-- earlier on we were talking about those BMW names and how hard they are to say. CT4-V Blackwing, that sounds kind of cool. So I think they're right with that. I mean, I think they're getting the name right. Let me put it that way, just to kind of start there. I think it's a cool name.
JAMES RISWICK: I absolutely agree. When they announced that the CT-- oh, god--
GREG MIGILORE: Yeah.
JAMES RISWICK: --CT5-V was going to be not the same fire-breathing monster that the old one was, a lot of consternation was going around, rightfully so, because you were severely watering down that name. But here's the thing, it's not that great of a name. CTS-V, CT5-V. You know, you need a lot to get people's attention. Outside of the ultra-involved car realm, from M5s, E63, AMG-- those letters mean something outside the car world. However, you really need to work hard and get, in terms of a marketing standpoint, people to realize and attribute V as meaning something. And clearly Cadillac didn't.
But Blackwing, that's a word in the United States that sounds really cool. American cars at their best have really cool names. And this is kind of-- sure, it still has alphanumeric nonsense attracted to it. But Blackwing-- ooh, is that the Blackwing? Ooh, that's cool. That's cool right there. That's better than all those other things. It's marketable. It makes sense. I think in terms of initially not making any sense at all downgrading the name, this does, because it's actually taking it, applying-- if V meant something at all, well, now this middle grade thing, OK, maybe that has elevated it, versus V Sport, whatever the hell that was. But now Blackwing is something new, more exciting, just something you can market. And I think it's very smart from their end. The only thing it runs the risk of is thgat Blackwing becomes far more recognizable than the gobbledygook that comes before it. So is that the 5? Is that the 4? I don't know. But it's a Blackwing.
GREG MIGILORE: That makes a lot of sense, I think. And actually my first thought was-- do you guys remember-- Zac, you probably don't, James, you might-- "Darkwing Duck"? It was a Disney series in the early to mid '90s.
JAMES RISWICK: I am the terror that quacks in the night.
GREG MIGILORE: So not only do you remember it, you're quoting it. Wow. OK, that's exactly what Cadillac wants us to think about when we're talking about their fastest cars. But that was my thought. But I do think it's a good name.
[INTERPOSING VOICES]
JAMES RISWICK: Car Cadillac Darkwing, that would have been-- only available in purple.
GREG MIGILORE: Purple, that's right. Oh, man. Zac, you were about to say probably something profound and technical and car-related before I threw this off the rails. Jump in.
ZAC PALMER: I was going to introduce a counterpoint to the black wing is a genius name actually I think that it makes a lot of sense. And it's a really cool name if Cadillac hadn't already named something Blackwing in its product lineup that enthusiasts know and recognize. Now, it might not be recognizable beyond a small circle of enthusiast buyers who know about the CT6-V that has the 4.2 liter twin turbo V8 engine, which is called the Blackwing, which unfortunately that engine doesn't seem to have much of a future right now, despite it being awesome.
But, you know, the fact that they are taking that name and now applying it to something else was a bit confusing for me when I first saw the news. I was like, oh, Cadillac Blackwing means this 4.2 liter twin turbo V8 engine, and now it's going to be the name of a trim level on a CT4-V and a CT5-V to indicate the higher performance version of that. So that that is where it trips me up. I think it's a cool name. I mean, the name is awesome.
And I'm also super-excited about the cars themselves. It looks like they're going to be proper successors to the actual ATS-V and CTS-V, both with manual transmissions-- which, let me tell you, we could use more manual sedans these days. I think really there are hardly any luxury performance manual sedans at all. So that is also awesome news with this. But I am not 100% there for the Blackwing name. You know, if that awesome engine-- it's just going to remind me all the time of that really sweet engine that could have been that is not there any longer. That is my brief--
GREG MIGILORE: That's the 4.2 liter V8 you're referring to that had the codename Blackwing, which had a very brief run.
ZAC PALMER: Like, one year run in few cars. But I mean, it's been something that I've followed closely just because I've been so intrigued by that. You know, GM, home of the small block V8, and here's this 4.2 liter double overhead cam, twin turbo V8 that came out of nowhere. And yeah, called a Blackwing. So take with that what you will. I'm just going to throw that counterpoint out there and run away real quick.
GREG MIGILORE: No, it's a good position to try to stake out.
JAMES RISWICK: Yeah. But it's also going to have more power than that Blackwing engine.
ZAC PALMER: It will.
JAMES RISWICK: And then a Corvette, a 6.2 liter supercharged V8, 650 horsepower. That's awesome. Yeah. And the manual, that's cool. They'll sell three of them, and I look forward to buying them, seeing the Bring a Trailer in about 10 years with it only having 1,000 miles on it. But, you know, its existence should at least all make us happy.
GREG MIGILORE: Well, at that point, Zac will be the curmudgeon. And he'll be telling some young auto writer who's about 12 right now who will be 22 at the time. And he or she will be writing up the post on this virtual reality app called Bring a Trailer. And he's going to be like, what's this Blackwing engine? And Zac's gonna be like, well, hold on there, kid. This is what it actually was. You don't even remember. And yeah, then you can be the curmudgeon spot.
ZAC PALMER: This is what Blackwing used to mean. It was cool, I promise.
JAMES RISWICK: In my day, Blackwing was a cool thing, and then they ruined it.
ZAC PALMER: They put it on--
JAMES RISWICK: Listen to me!
ZAC PALMER: They are putting it on other cool cars. I will give that to them. They are also-- they're going to be awesome to drive, I'm sure. GM has some pretty awesome platforms underneath them. So--
GREG MIGILORE: They didn't specify the engines. Now, there's a lot of rumors out there about what's going to be in these things. So I think it's--
JAMES RISWICK: OK. Maybe I was just reading the--
GREG MIGILORE: The rumors are pretty strong. Let's put it that way.
ZAC PALMER: Yeah, yeah.
GREG MIGILORE: Pretty cool. All right. Well, I guess we'll end things there-- cartoons, Dax Shepard, Blackwing, Impala, a bunch of different BMWs, pretty good podcast. What are you guys doing in your quarantine? Cooking anything cool? Drinking anything alcoholic? I don't know. How's life under lockdown?
ZAC PALMER: I made jambalaya the other day.
GREG MIGILORE: That's a win right there.
ZAC PALMER: Yeah. I was feeling inspired from my recent trip to New Orleans and was like, all right, it's time for some Southern food. I made it maybe a little spicier than I wanted it to be, but it just had a nice zing to it. I'll just just say that.
GREG MIGILORE: OK. That sounds pretty good.
JAMES RISWICK: Yeah, I'm missing baseball hard, man. I wake up in the morning, and I watch a segment of Ken Burns' "Baseball" documentary while eating breakfast and go to work, then maybe play a game of "MLB-- The Show," and then while on the treadmill, watching old Blue Jays World Series games. So it usually takes me about a week to watch a full game. So yeah, a bit of withdrawal there.
GREG MIGILORE: That's some serious withdrawal right there.
JAMES RISWICK: Yeah. It's diverse at least. It's diverse.
GREG MIGILORE: Is your ringtone that Joe Carter double off of whoever that guy was to win the World Series for the Jays?
JAMES RISWICK: Double? Double? It was a home run.
GREG MIGILORE: Was it a home run?
[INTERPOSING VOICES]
JAMES RISWICK: I was there! I was there!
GREG MIGILORE: Oh, wow. I enjoy the SkyDome. I think that's a fun place to see a ballgame. I was there about probably five years ago. And really it wasn't the plan to go to the Blue Jays game. We were just hanging out in Toronto and doing things that relatively young people do at the time. And it was raining. And we're like, well, wait a minute, the Blue Jays, they have a dome on their stadium.
JAMES RISWICK: That's right.
GREG MIGILORE: Let's go there. It's indoors. And we ate those enormous hot dogs and drank some Keith's beers, and it was a pretty good time. All right, so I guess we'll leave it there. Everybody out there, thanks for enjoying the "Autoblog Podcast." Thanks for humoring us and listening to us with some of our random tangents. Be safe out there. If you're driving for essential goods, do enjoy those drives because, hey, that's kind of a fun release. And we'll see you next week. Until next time, this was the "Autoblog Podcast."
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