Innholdsfortegnelse for 30/03/2016 i Autocar

FUTURE ASTON MARTINS such as the next Vantage will reap the benefits of new technology introduced on the recently unveiled DB11. Key to this is the new aluminium-bonded architecture upon which the DB11 is built. A replacement for the venerable VH structure, the new architecture has been designed to be adapted to different dimensions and wheelbases. Aston was among the first car companies to embrace the ethos of modular underpinnings for its model range when it introduced VH in 2000, and Aston’s director of product development, Ian Minards, believes the new structure goes far beyond what is traditionally expected of a modular architecture. “We are still using the same principles of modularity of design, using knowledge and techniques we’ve evolved over the past two decades, but now we are taking…

TOYOTA HAS UNVEILED ITS second-generation Prius Plug-in Hybrid in New York. Described as the firm’s latest technology flagship, the new petrol-electric model can reach 84mph in battery-only mode and has a claimed range of up to 31 miles without help from the engine. The car, which will go on sale late this year, returns 202mpg combined and emits 32g/km of CO2 — the best figures yet achieved by any plug-in hybrid. The new Prius Plug-in Hybrid looks virtually identical to the regular Prius, but it gets new LED lights front and rear. Solar panels on the roof help to charge the battery when the sun shines and a gas injection heat pump system keeps the air-con working when the car is being driven in battery-only mode. There is also a…

MERCEDES-BENZ’S AMG division revealed its C 63 Cabriolet at the New York motor show. The four-seat soft-top will go on sale in October, starting from around £66,000. Unveiled alongside a host of new Mercedes models at the show, including the GLC Coupé (right), the C 63 Cabriolet will be sold with two different power outputs, echoing the C 63 Coupé launched last year. In C 63 Cabriolet form, its twin-turbocharged 4.0-litre V8 petrol engine kicks out 469bhp and 479lb ft of torque. In a more highly tuned C 63 S Cabriolet form, it produces 503bhp and 516lb ft. According to Mercedes-AMG, the 1910kg C 63 Cabriolet is capable of reaching 62mph from rest in 4.2sec and the 1925kg C 63 S Cabriolet in 4.1sec. Both are limited to a top…

QUICK FACTS PRICE £23,385 ON SALE NOW Vauxhall has put its new Sports Tourer on a crash diet, saving up to 190kg by using high-strength steel in the body and fitting a lighter exhaust and smaller wheels. Unlike most new cars, which seem to grow with every subsequent iteration, the latest Sports Tourer has roughly the same dimensions as before. But by stretching the wheelbase and playing with the packaging, there’s more interior space – so much so that the Sports Tourer is now on a par with its roomiest rivals, including the Skoda Octavia Estate. New optional features include adaptive LED headlights and a powered tailgate with hands-free operation. MirrorLink and Apple CarPlay are standard, giving better integration of your smartphone with the standard 8.0in infotainment screen. It even…

We’ve got proper studded snow tyres and an emergency supply of sandwiches Beautiful. That’s what Norway is. This sparsely populated country features vast expanses of breathtaking landscape that are untouched by man, and its northern coastline, hugged by the navy blue water of the Barents Sea, bears witness to colourful Arctic sunrises and vivid displays of the aurora borealis. No surprise, then, that a section of land to the north of Norway’s mainland, appropriately named Nordkapp (North Cape), is a popular tourist destination, and, pleasingly for us, also marks the end of one of Europe’s most picturesque driving roads, the E69. Is there a better reason to drive 490 miles into the Arctic Circle than this? Perhaps I should have given the idea a little more thought. Bears, wolves, dense…

‘The boxer engine plays an important part. It’s flat and carries the weight low’ Subaru and motorsport means a mud-spattered, flame-spitting, popping- and-banging Impreza WRC blatting along a damp Cumbrian forest track at lurid angles, right? Not any longer. As of this weekend’s Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship season opener, it means an estate-bodied Levorg trading paint (and perhaps door mirrors) with a rampaging pack of tin-top rivals around the Brands Hatch Indy circuit. Subaru UK’s decision to lend official blessing to Team BMR’s touring car bid was greeted with widespread surprise when it was announced in January. It was an unexpected move to the race circuit, where the Japanese car maker has little pedigree in the UK. “Subaru was once all about blue cars, gold wheels and big…

As electric cars are here to stay and get more advanced, I have found what I think is a flaw with these cars — and the solution. I drive a forklift truck, and when the battery goes flat, we change it and carry on. If electric cars had a changeable battery so that it could be changed when the power is getting low, the owner would not have to wait eight hours or so for it to charge. My plan would be that the electric car is bought without the battery and then the battery is rented. This would keep the cost down for the car buyer. All tyre and exhaust centres, garages and main dealers could have extra batteries on charge and available to change (at a cost, of…

We don’t often press the big R+ button to the right of the Type R’s steering wheel. It adds extra meat to the car’s responses but makes the ride too harsh for the road. Standard mode is more usable. We’ve been waiting to exploit our hot hatch’s full potential, though, so when an invitation came to take part in a VTEC Challenge track day at Castle Combe, courtesy of series organisers Jonathan and Lindsey Fletcher, and with editor Matt Burt busy, I was quick to volunteer. On the day, there was a great feeling of camaraderie among the owners. In addition to a supporting cast of older Civics, Integras, Accords, Preludes and S2000s, there were more than 30 current ‘FK2’ Civic Type Rs. On the track, I was struck by…

1 Volkswagen Golf GTI (2008-2012) You can pick up a Golf Mk6 for half of the £10k we’ve budgeted for here, but if it’s a GTI you want, our budget is about right. The Golf GTI has usually been the hot hatch to opt for and still has that iconic reputation, despite more and more rivals upping their game in this segment. Under the bonnet is a 208bhp 2.0 TFSI petrol engine with 206lb ft. The cabin is surprisingly quiet, ensuring a comfortable drive even when you’re pressing on. The GTI comes with a good level of technology and some nice touches, such as red stitching to match the nostalgic tartan seat upholstery. If a GTI isn’t for you, you could always opt for a low-spec regular Golf Mk7 for…

Lightweights 1 Ariel Nomad From £36,000 If there were simply a list of our top five favourite cars, the Nomad might just top it. A revelation and a riot 2 Morgan 3 Wheeler From £31,000 The eccentric characterful and deftly brilliant Morgan is a three-wheeled testament to English creativity. 3 Caterham Seven 360R From £30,000 The sweet spot in the revised range, its remapped 2.0 Duratec providing just the right level of performance. 4 Lotus Elise S Cup From £43,000 Road-going version of the racing Elise. Suspension mods help to make it an unbridled joy. Justifies its price tag. 5 Zenos E10 S From £30,000 The latest in a line of British mid-engined marvels. Earns its stripes immediately. Expect a dedicated following. Visit autocar.co.uk for all of our Top Fives…

Hypercars 1 McLaren P1 From £866,000 McLaren set out to build the best driver’s car in the world and has come ridiculously close. A 903bhp go-kart. 2 Porsche 918 Spyder From £674,000 Only in this category do five stars not guarantee the class lead. The 918 feels built to rule, too. A mind-boggler. 3 LaFerrari From £950,000 No UK drive means its amazing numbers can’t be verified — but our first look suggests its reputation is deserved. 4 Bugatti Veyron From £1.15 million A waning obsession with petrol power taken to its extreme limit. There are better cars — but none quicker. 5 Pagani Huayra From £1.4 million Last century’s idea of a hypercar. Staggering in almost every way — not least its looks. As exclusive as it gets Visit…

The new Audi R8 Spyder has made its public debut at the New York motor show ahead of the start of UK sales later this year. The svelte soft-top two-seater, which will rival the Porsche 911 Turbo Cabriolet, is expected to carry a premium of around £8700 over the R8 coupé, which starts at £119,500. The R8 Spyder is based on a modified version of the R8’s aluminium and carbonfibre spaceframe body structure. It uses extra stiffening in the A-pillars, windscreen surround and sills to offset the absence of a fixed roof. Audi claims a 50% increase in overall rigidity and a 113kg reduction in kerb weight over its predecessor. At 4426mm long, 1940mm wide and 1244mm high, the R8 Spyder is 14mm shorter and 36mm wider than the old…

Subaru has unveiled its all-new Impreza at the New York show in both saloon and hatchback forms. It is likely to be offered only as a hatch in the UK. In the US, the car will get a new 2.0-litre four-cylinder boxer petrol engine with 150bhp and the addition of direct injection. High-spec models will be offered with a CVT with a seven-speed manual mode. Subaru’s Symmetrical All-Wheel Drive will be standard, and a new Active Torque Vectoring system will be offered on the Sport model. This version also gets bespoke suspension tuning for what Subaru calls a “fun-to-drive performance feel” in a car that aims for a “new ride/handling balance benchmark in the compact segment”.…

GENESIS, HYUNDAI’S PREMIUM brand, has revealed how it intends to fight the BMW 3 Series and Audi A4 with a new hybrid four-door saloon simply labelled New York Concept. The rear-wheel-drive saloon is the first Genesis model to appear since a new design team headed by former Bentley design chief Luc Donckerwolke took over. The New York Concept continues the Genesis design theme of ‘athletic elegance’ established in several concepts and most powerfully in the well-received, full-sized G90 saloon. It is understood to be reminiscent of the upcoming G70, the four-door saloon car that Genesis is carefully positioning to steal sales in the premium compact executive market. The only mechanical detail revealed about the New York Concept’s hybrid system is that its petrol engine will be a turbocharged 2.0-litre four-pot…

PSA Peugeot Citroën boss Carlos Tavares will unveil his expansion plans for the firm on 5 April, under the working title of ‘Push to Pass’, having already achieved all of the goals he set when he joined the firm in 2014. Tavares took the helm shortly after the Peugeot family ceded control of the company, including selling a substantial proportion to the Chinese Dongfeng Group in order to keep the company alive. That year PSA lost around £1.5 billion, although that was an improvement on the £3bn lost in 2012. Tavares, a keen motorsport fan, put in place a strategy called ‘Back in the Race’, which targeted what PSA needed to achieve to compete with its rivals by 2018. Goals included a streamlined product line-up, expansion in key global markets,…

Jaguar has revealed in-depth technical details of its new 200mph F-Type SVR — and they confirm just how thorough an engineering job has gone into a car Special Vehicle Operations (SVO) director Mark Stanton has described as “retuned in every way possible”. The F-Type SVR will be available in the UK this summer and made its US debut at the New York motor show, where Jaguar gave a full technical briefing on the car. Design chief Ian Callum revealed that he worked with the aerodynamics team to ensure the F-Type SVR could hit 200mph in coupé form. “I love the notion of physics telling us what to do,” he said. “I have no problem with wind tunnels telling me how stuff should be shaped. When it’s a 200mph car, physics…

QUICK FACTS PRICE £94,698 ON SALE NOW We won’t go on about this being the new turbocharged 911 Carrera S Cabriolet that replaces the old naturally aspirated blah, blah… That’s yesterday’s news and you are well informed enough to know the technical stuff already. However, this is the most powerful of the ‘regular’ 911s, and that makes it phenomenally quick. Fit this car with the optional PDK dual-clutch automatic gearbox, Sports Chrono Package – which gives you a 918-style rotary selector on the steering wheel – and select Sport+ mode and it’ll crack 0-62mph in 4.1sec. And this is the convertible model that some bloke down the pub will inevitably try to claim is for sissies. Yeah, right. Our manual test car isn’t quite that quick (4.5sec to 62mph), but…

Italy’s beleaguered coachbuilding industry – characterised by great names like Pininfarina and Italdesign – is starting to fight back after a decade of treading water in treacherous financial seas. Pininfarina and Italdesign have new owners and the relaunch of Touring, another great name from the past, is gaining momentum, as exemplified at the recent Geneva show by the Disco Volante Spyder, an exotic, limited-run collector’s car with a multi-million-pound price. “No one believes it will be easy for the Italian coachbuilders to thrive again, but there are important signs of new life in Turin and Milan after years of struggle, upheaval and closures,” says automotive expert Paul Nieuwenhuis of Cardiff Business School. Most significant, Pininfarina, the jewel in the crown of Italy’s coachbuilding industry, finally looks to be emerging from…

The 570S isn’t just another supercar slayer. Its job is to occupy purer and more exciting territory than rivals with front-mounted engines, occasional back seats, four driven wheels and the like – and it does that quite brilliantly. But unlike other rivals, the 570S can do that job entirely without pummelling your backside, trying your patience or testing your concentration. Its performance level is exceptional, without compromise to driveability. Its handling is equally outstanding: a special mix of track-ready purpose, with on-road compliance, precision and stability – and enriched by wonderful control feedback. Great material quality, good infotainment features, decent carrying capacity and a fine touring range make it competitive on usability, too. Six years into its new life, McLaren Automotive has launched the car with which to make its…

Mileage 24,800 We’re at the mid-point of our time with the 2013 Pre-owned Continental GT and everything is going swimmingly, except for two rather important matters. First, the 5000-mile ‘mileage budget’ agreed with Bentley Birmingham is under strain; we’ve already added 3800 miles to the 21,000 showing when we collected the car. Second, just about every preconception I had about the GT has been turned on its head. I once thought the GT unfashionably tall against the Astons and Porsches of its price range. Now, I revel at its businesslike squatness — to the extent that although we’ve agreed to sample the bespoke aftermarket exterior changes Bentley can offer even Pre-owned customers, I’m not sure that there’s another look that will outshine the car as it is, with its carbonfibre…

Pricey motors from the 1990s to early 2000s are the last of the truly fixables It has been brought to my attention that, according to the price guides, cars depreciate. Specifically, that a 2010 Audi Q7 V12 which was north of £150,000 when new is now around £35,000. Well, that’s not strictly true. Price guides, as I tirelessly point out, are just that: guides. Although the trade might be able to snap one up below £40k, the reality is that the opening bid for a 12-cylinder Audi Q model is most likely to be more than £40k. It is, though, still rather shocking. Cars lose money. Well, that’s life, and one of the truisms of buying a brand new car is that it will always depreciate. There are exceptions, of…

Autocar’s star ratings explained Inherently dangerous/unsafe. Tragically, irredeemably flawed. Appalling. Massively significant failings. Very poor. Fails to meet any accepted class boundaries. Poor. Within acceptable class boundaries in a few areas. Still not recommendable. Off the pace. Below average in nearly all areas. Acceptable. About average in key areas, but disappoints. Competent. Above average in some areas, average in others. Outstanding in none. Good. Competitive in key areas. Very good. Very competitive in key areas, competitive in secondary respects. Excellent. Near class leading in key areas, and in some ways outstanding. Brilliant, unsurpassed. All but flawless. Any car that has had a full Autocar road test is highlighted in yellow. FOR FULL RESULTS see page 85…

‘The new Vantage is the weekend warrior — much edgier than the DB11’ Aston Martin will follow its recently unveiled DB11 with a minimum of five all-new models in the next four years. They will span three distinct model lines and form part of a plan to build 7000 cars per year by 2020. The DB11, a GT, was revealed at the recent Geneva motor show and will be on sale in the summer. It will be joined next year by an all-new Vantage sports car heavily inspired by the DB10 created for the James Bond film Spectre and by a replacement for the Vanquish in 2018. Both models will be built on versions of the DB11’s all-new aluminium architecture in Aston’s core sports and GT model line. By the…

THE CHIEF DESIGNER of the Mazda MX-5, Masashi Nakayama, says he took inspiration from exotic models such as the Ferrari 599 GTB when designing the roofline of the new folding hard-top MX-5 RF. Speaking to Autocar in New York, Nakayama said: “The Ferrari and even some Lamborghinis played a part. I’ve always liked those designs.” Nakayama also said the RF’s lengthened roofline and flying buttresses deliberately imitate the lines of a coupé. “If you could design any roof on the body of this car, what would it look like?” he added. “It would look like the roof of a beautiful coupé. We chose this as it’s the most elegant design that didn’t intrude on the boot.” When asked whether the RF’s folding roof uses a mechanism like that of the…

The Nissan GT-R has been facelifted for the 2017 model year. It features new styling, a revised cabin and an uprated V6. It was revealed at the New York motor show last week and will go on sale in the UK later this year. The latest GT-R has a new interpretation of Nissan’s ‘V-motion’ front grille and a reinforced bonnet and new bumper design, said to give the car more downforce. The metallic orange paint of the show car is new, too. The car’s sills have also been widened to clean up airflow, and the rear gets a restyled bumper. Nissan claims these changes help to make the car more aerodynamically efficient and improve high-speed stability. Inside, there’s a new 8.0in touchscreen infotainment system, which has enabled designers to remove…

SENIOR MEMBERS OF the Mercedes-Benz engineering team would like the company to build a convertible version of its new GLC Coupé SUV, to rival the drop-top Range Rover Evoque. Michael Kelz, chief engineer for the GLC, CLS and E-Class, told Autocar that the rise in popularity of drop-top SUVs made a GLC Cabriolet viable and that he was a fan of the Evoque Convertible. “It would be fun and it’s actually not that much of an engineering challenge,” he said. However, Kelz said there was no space in the Mercedes line-up at present for such a model, and for it to be built, another model from the range would have to be axed. The GLC Coupé, which would form the basis of any GLC Cabriolet, made its debut at the…

AH, SOUND. FOR that is what this all really boils down to. We’re in Manhattan, New York, for a first blast in the all-new F-Type SVR, the fastest and most powerful regular production Jaguar yet. And we’re in a tunnel. At night. Jaguar has pulled a lot of strings to have the tunnel shut down for five hours on the eve of the New York motor show. The tunnel is on Park Avenue and runs for 422 metres between 33rd Street and 38th Street. The speed limit has been raised from 25mph to 65mph for the evening, but we haven’t seen any speed cameras in there… A passenger ride first, and it’s in the slightly slower (at only 194mph flat out) convertible version of the F-Type SVR, with the roof…

This DS 3 is easy on the eye, easy to take by the scruff of the neck and easy on the wallet QUICK FACTS PRICE £20,495 ON SALE NOW The last quick DS3 preceded the naming convention that now distinguishes the DS sub-brand from its parent. The Citroën DS3 Racing was its handle, and it was pretty decent – decent enough that we mourned its departure when Citroën decided that 2400 or so cars were enough to sate demand. DS Automobiles has since stuck to ‘Parisian flair’ mode and avoided the hot hatch market. But despite the five years between the two, the Racing’s replacement, this new DS 3 Performance (a full range addition, not a limited edition), doesn’t fall far from its predecessor’s tree. Up front, driving the front…

QUICK FACTS PRICE £35,995 ON SALE NOW We rather like the V8 Mustang. Yes, there’s a touch of the flawed genius about it, but it’s charming and wholly loveable. A big part of that is because of the whopping great 5.0-litre V8 that warbles away up front, but here we have the 2.3-litre Ecoboostpowered version, with Ford’s optional six-speed automatic gearbox and in convertible guise. We’ve already driven the 2.3 drop-top on the Continent, but this is our first opportunity to sample it on home soil. So despite losing four cylinders and a roof, does it retain enough of the V8 Mustang’s charm to still make us smile? In principle, this should be a great engine, because it’s pretty much the same unit that powers the giant-slaying Focus RS. However,…

The brochures call the BAC Mono one of a kind, which neatly covers the car’s unique concept as a single-seat, lightweight, road-going, spaceframe supercar that focuses more on the driver than is normally possible in cars that have to find passenger space. However, the ‘one of a kind’ description also fits the company’s management, whose unique philosophy led us recently to visit the Liverpool factory to view the latest big-engined, wide-bodied 2016 Monos now in manufacture. The Briggs Automobile Company was founded seven years ago by two car-obsessed brothers, Ian and Neill Briggs, when the Mono was little more than a good idea. However, the pair were far from idealistic, inexperienced young men setting out to follow a dream, hardly knowing the implications. The Briggs brothers had already spent a…

In financial terms, choosing between a petrol and diesel Focus is a close-run thing The Ford Focus is a known quantity. It’s popular and practical and it comes in hatchback or estate form, with a wide range of engines and all kinds of trim and kit options. It’s a safe bet and Ford sells loads of them. So what were we hoping to learn from a year spent in one? More than anything, we wanted to find out if diesel was still a better bet than the latest turbocharged petrol engines — the excellent 1.0-litre three-pot Ecoboost, in Ford’s case. It turned out to be a prescient question. Not only did our time with the car start under a growing cloud of anti-diesel mania in the national press, but halfway…

Oh Vauxhall, what must you do to convince people how good your Astra is? This latest version has arrived to universal acclaim, shone with four out of five stars under the spotlight of the Autocar road test and won the prestigious European Car of the Year competition. And still, as I climbed from its cabin after another refined, frugal, comfortable drive, neighbours would wander up and ask: “What on earth are you doing in a Vauxhall Astra?” The answers are widespread: the 1.6-litre diesel engine is amazingly refined and economical at around 57mpg, the sports seats are extremely comfortable, the cabin is smart and the infotainment system slick and intuitive. I covered more than 1000 miles in it in a week, four up and with a full load of luggage…

READER’S CARS: NISSAN X-TRAIL Steve McPherson has just part-exed his 2004 Nissan X-Trail SVE 2.2 diesel for £2250, after running it for eight and half years. “I bought it in 2007 from a guy at work for £8500 with 45,000 miles on the clock. I did 60,000 miles in it, including several camping trips around France, and the overall average fuel consumption was 40mpg. It failed its MOT once on a track rod end and I had to buy it a battery for its 10th birthday. The only other expenses have been normal service stuff. I don’t think it owed me anything.” SEND YOUR BANGERNOMICS TALES TO JAMES Twitter: @Bangernomics Email: james@bangernomics.com WHAT CAUGHT MY EYE THIS WEEK: THE DVLA I’ve often had a go at the DVLA,…

Premium hatches 1 BMW i3 From £30,000 An electrified statement of intent. With a generous budget and modest miles in mind, the i3 is simply unbeatable. 2 Audi A3 Sportback From £19,000 The Volkswagen Golf is our conventional hatch champ, but its sister car is almost as good if only an Audi will do. 3 Volvo V40 From £19,000 No, the V40 isn’t perfect, but it’s handsome, brilliantly well packaged and different — rare commodities. 4 BMW 1 Series From £20,000 It looks desperate from certain angles, but the BMW is still a sure bet. Arguably offers the most sporting drive. 5 Mercedes-Benz A-Class From £20,000 We’re warming to the A-Class, although caution is still advised on how you spec it. Looks and cabin are top notch. Visit autocar.co.uk for…