Performance Trends

Olds Leads Indy 500To almost no one's surprise, Oldsmobile's Aurora sport sedan will pace the 1997 Indianapolis 500 on Memorial Day weekend. Since its inception last year, the official pace car of the Indy Racing League (IRL) has been the Aurora, and Oldsmobile is one of only two manufacturers (Nissan, through its Infiniti division, is the other) supplying engines under the new rules conjured by the nascent sanctioning body. The Aurora's adoption as the Official Pace Car for the 81st running of the 500 was almost a foregone conclusion.

According to Olds, the pace-car Aurora will be mechanically identical to production '97 Auroras, except for the addition of safety and visibility equipment. The exterior will be painted White Diamond Metallic with gold and black graphics, while the 4.0-liter/250-horsepower DOHC 32-valve V-8 is completely stock. This is the ninth time an Oldsmobile has paced the 500, the most recent being in 1988 when an Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme powered by the then-new Quad4 four-cylinder engine led the field. It's also the first time a four-door sedan has been selected as the pace car.

Because much of the field will be powered by Olds' racing Indy Aurora V-8s, this is one of the few times in Speedway history that the engine powering the pace car is closely related to engines in the race field. In fact, this is the first Indianapolis 500 in which Oldsmobile-powered vehicles have entered the race, and it's very likely the Rocket division will win on its first try-a great way to celebrate its 100th anniversary producing automobiles.

Meanwhile, now that SLP has shown a supercharged Olds Bravada SUV, rumors are that the tuning firm may next turn its attention to the Aurora. A high-output SLP Aurora, possibly powered by a supercharged version of the Aurora V-8, could be one way to celebrate the racing heritage the engine is developing both in IRL and IMSA road-racing competition.

Update: Vector Performance Taurus ShoIn MT's "Extreme Sedans" (Dec. '96), Vector Performance's '96 Taurus SHO produced disappointing acceleration, with 0-60 mph coming in at 8.2 seconds (0.7 second less swift than stock) and the quarter mile taking 16.1 seconds at 88.3 mph, completely falling short of the production mark of 15.7 seconds at 88.7 mph. Some of that variation was likely due to production differences between the two vehicles and conditions on the different days they were tested.

After "Extreme Sedans," the Taurus went to Borla Industries (where it was originally fitted with Borla's stainless steel exhaust system). The car was inspected and retested on their DynoJet dynamometer, then returned to MT's regular test facility and achieved a 7.5-second 0-60 time and performed the quarter-mile trip in 15.7 seconds at 88.8 mph-both spot on the times produced during our initial test of the production Taurus SHO, with a gain of 0.1 mph in trap speed.

In back-to-back tests, the folks at Borla claim a 10-horsepower gain with the exhaust system on this particular Taurus, yet it may be that this car is a bit down on power from other SHOs. Whatever the power gain, the most attractive element of the exhaust system remains its intoxicating sound; it gives the 3.4-liter V-8-powered SHO the presence a V-8-powered American sedan should have.

Rumor Mill* Ford is rumored to have seriously considered installing 5.8-liter OHV V-8s in the Mustang GT as a regular production item in 1998. It was decided, however, that such a move would be a step backward from the overhead cam V-8s installed in the car since '96, so the program was stopped. Insiders say plans now include far higher outputs from the 4.6-liter SOHC V-8 and maybe the adoption of the 5.4-liter displacement from the F-150 truck engine line.

*Accompanying the rumored changes to the Mustang GT is word that the Mustang Cobra may get a 350-plus horsepower version of its DOHC 32-valve V-8 displacing 5.4 liters.