CHASSIS

Erected by mule teams from stout red-pine timbers, the salt tramway’s towers carried cables that were strung from one precarious outcropping to the next, in some places nearly vertically, up 7400 feet to a saddle in the Inyo Mountains. From a transit station once manned in the warmer seasons by a very lonely family, the 300 buckets in circulation then plunged 4900 feet to waiting rail cars. At its peak before depleting the playa and shutting down in 1936, the tramway deposited 20 tons of salt per hour on the tiny hamlet of Swansea in the adjacent Owens Valley. Steering 2.5 tons of locked-and-loaded Hummer back the other way is breezy work, thanks to the Alpha’s robust V-8. It has muscle enough to tow 6000 pounds (to the Jeep’s 3500) and stampede past 60 mph in 8.9 seconds with a manly small-block snort. On the blacktop, the Alpha skiddoos into traffic more eagerly and holds a highway speed more effortlessly and with less engine-room moan than the Jeep. As we expected a mileage meltdown, our gorpstuffed gobs were thoroughly smacked when we learned that, returning 14 mpg, it gives up just 1 mpg to the Jeep’s V-6 and to our last five-cylinder H3 test vehicle. In the highlands, the H3 demands a careful helm lest it be clawed by every juniper bush and cayenne-colored manzanita along the trail. The Hummer is nearly an inch wider than the already brawny Jeep, so its wheel placement is further compli-

2 HUMMER H3 ALPHA THE HIGHS

THE LOWS

V-8 haste without a big fuel bite, Cadillac trimmings, capable in the bush.

Pinched visibility, narrow rear doors, double-take sticker price.

THE VERDICT

Full-frill ruggedness for those who can afford it.

56

APR 2008

yes

11.9-in vented disc

12.4-in disc

yes

yes

Goodyear Wrangler RT/S, P265/75R-16 114S BFGoodrich Mud-Terrain T/A, LT255/75R-17 111/108Q TEST AVERAGE

LANE CHANGE (mph)

yes

ROADHOLDING 300-FT-DIA SKIDPAD (g)

STABILITY CONTROL

12.3-in disc

BRAKING 70–0 MPH (ft)

ANTI-LOCK CONTROL

12.4-in vented disc

TIRES

REAR

control arms, rigid axle, torsion bars, leaf springs, anti-roll bar anti-roll bar rigid axle, rigid axle, JEEP springs, coil springs, WRANGLER UNLIMITED coil anti-roll bar anti-roll bar *Stability-control-inhibited. HUMMER H3 ALPHA

BRAKES FRONT

CHASSIS

SUSPENSION

REAR

BEST IN TEST

FRONT

C/D RESULTS

197

0.65*

52.4*

217

0.61*

53.0*

207

0.63

52.7