Innholdsfortegnelse for 21/02/2018 i Autocar

THE NEW PORTOFINO is a 3.5-star Ferrari (p24). When was the last time we could say that? Actually, less than a year ago, when Ferrari put a V8 engine in its GTC4 Lusso. A blip or more serious? Since Luca di Montezemolo, the very embodiment of the brand, left Ferrari as chairman in 2014, replaced by the more enigmatic Sergio Marchionne, significant shifts in strategy have occurred: more turbo engines, more derivatives, evolved replacement models rather than wholesale reinventions, and an SUV (sorry, ‘FUV’: Ferrari utility vehicle) and hybrids coming soon. And for the first time in a generation, some Ferraris are coming up short. Not great timing when rivals old and new are turning out world-class machines every single time. Maranello’s response? The 488 Pista (p16), a significantly improved…

When you’ve been making sports cars for as long as Ferrari has – and it marked seven decades at the game last year – you’re likely to have become quite good at it. Maranello’s 488 GTB is outrageously ballistic and joyously exciting proof of that. The company’s pedigree in modern drop-top grand tourers is, shall we say, somewhat less convincing. It introduced the original folding hardtop California – its answer to the Mercedes-AMG SL63 and Porsche 911 Turbo cabriolet – ten years ago. But straight away it became clear that the Prancing Horse was dipping an elegant equine ankle into waters that couldn’t even be thought vaguely familiar, even with the existence of models like the 575M Superamerica and Daytona Spyder nestled deep in its back catalogue. The task was…

You may have heard it’s possible to spend rather a lot of money on a Range Rover Velar. If not, here’s a reminder that the top-spec P380 version costs more than £70,000, which is enough to put a well-equipped Range Rover Sport SDV6 – more refined, more capable but, we’ll admit, nothing like as chic – on your drive with change for 30,000 miles’ worth of diesel. There’s nothing to stop you paying £25,000 less and choosing the base D180, of course, but the overall appeal of the show-concept-madereal Velar is unusually susceptible to what lurks beneath its long, aluminium bonnet. Its aura of long-legged athleticism demands a certain level of performance, and it should ideally be served with as little fanfare as possible. Consequently, thus far, it has been…

The BMW i3 has never been a rational purchase. Its revelation was to bring innovation and desirability, five years ago, to an embryonic market for electric cars that needed every fillip it could get. However, the EV market has developed and changed with alarming pace and now offers several options with significantly more usable range than the i3 and significantly better practicality, many of which cost significantly less. BMW’s range-extension option may mitigate one of those vulnerabilities and the i3s’s charm and zip partly compensate for the others. But you still have to wonder how many EV owners wouldn’t rather have a genuine 150-mile affordable EV than a cross-breed that needs to burn fossil fuel to cover the same trip. Because, in 2018, they can have one – with plenty…

BENTLEY CONTINENTAL GT FLYING STAR Milanese coachbuilder Touring Superleggera produced an estate version of the Bentley Continental GT called the Flying Star back in 2011. It elegantly added a wider, more accessible luggage compartment to the two-door’s body and came exclusively with the W12 engine. MASERATI QUATTROPORTE CINQUEPORTE A Maserati Quattroporte was converted into an estate for a wealthy Middle Eastern customer by specialist Italian coachbuilder StudioM. The costly process included extending the roofline and even repositioning the fuel tank to maximise boot space. Just one example was produced. ASTON MARTIN VIRAGE SHOOTING BRAKE ZAGATO Italian coachbuilder Zagato Atelier created a Aston Martin Zagato Shooting Brake to celebrate his company’s long relationship with the British brand. The model followed the DBS Coupé Zagato Centennial and DB9 Spyder Zagato Centennial as…

GREAT REASONS TO BUY ON SALE 28 FEBRUARY Volvo XC40 vs six key rivals Stylish Swedish crossover goes up against competitors from DS, Ford, VW and others in this most hard-fought of market sectors Larry Holt Multimatic’s engineering boss on why the Canadian firm is on the up Ford F150 Raptor vs Britain Does it make as much sense in the Cotswolds as it does in Kansas? EVERY WEEK VW Touareg First verdict on the crucial new third-gen flagship SUV from VW Lexus SC430 An acquired taste, but it could be yours for £3000. Find out how Hyundai i30 N We welcome the first full-blooded hot hatch from Hyundai to our test fleet SUBSCRIBE autocar.co.uk/subscribe or see p22…

MILEAGE 7674 WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT To ascertain how appealing Skoda’s first large SUV is to families “Wurgh, wurgh, wurgh… wurgh, wurgh… brmmm”. On reflection, I can remember a few times that I wondered if the Kodiaq’s engine would fire but, despite these occasional longer-than-expected churns, it did always spring into life. And then, one day, it didn’t. At the time, I was sitting atop a windswept multi-storey car park, stranded but fortunately not far from home. My assumption was that I’d done something stupid, such as leaving a light on or using the heated seats a bit too much. Cross with myself, I took a bus home and returned with some jump leads the next day. By chance, the Kodiaq’s smaller, newer sibling, the Karoq, was in for the…

PARIAH NEEDS A BUYER Ferrari Mondial £30,500 Hearsay can be a terrible thing, and many a good reputation has been ruined by idle rumour. There are many in this country who have always detested the Mondial, this cheapest of all Ferraris, despite never having set bottom in one. That contagion has spread, and most wouldn’t touch one with a bargepole. However, the Mondial was always and still is rather likeable, at least as good to drive as the contemporary two-seater 308/328s and 348s and very nearly as quick. Its looks have always been a matter of taste, and its unpopularity isn’t helped by the fact it’s a four-seater, but the flipside of this is that the car’s longer wheelbase makes it more precise in yaw and more stable in pitch…

MERCEDESBENZ 300 SL The Mercedes SL, a car driven by heart-throb oil tycoon Bobby Ewing in TV series Dallas, has always been a thing of elegance: a classy, smooth and distinguished grand tourer, thoroughly and competently engineered in the best old-school Mercedes traditions. This 300 SL borrows the nomenclature of its gullwing-doored 1950s predecessor and the name marks it out as one of the later 3.0-litre inline six models. It’s no speedster, but this one’s had recent work costing £5000 and beat its auction estimate to sell for £7700. The new owners have got themselves a bit of a steal. GET IT WHILE YOU CAN Volvo XC60 D4 RDesign Lux Nav Price new £42,155. Price now £29,850 An SUV is by no means a sexy beast, but for some there…

BRIEF Find the finest and most stimulating 150mph coupé for £10k, guys. Make it fast, lively, interesting and fun, and good to look at too BMW Z4 Coupé £8995 Surely, there is no contest here. The BMW has the most powerful engine despite being smaller in capacity, it has a low-slung seating position and the best part is that it is rear-wheel drive – de rigueur for any great sports coupé. I love the idea of having an Alfa, but the reality is full of warning lights, rattly trim and mechanical breakdowns with those Italian beauties. And my Z4 will do 155mph, whereas that Alfa just barely makes the criteria for this battle. ALEX ROBBINS Alfa Romeo GT £6995 Answer me this, Alex: where can you legally drive at 155mph…

GOT A STORY? Email our news editor rachel.burgess@haymarket.com “The total power and torque of the new Focus RS is estimated to be 400bhp and 425lb ft” Ford is planning an even faster, more powerful and more efficient Focus RS for the 2020 model year and will use it to showcase a suite of 48V mild-hybrid technologies the company is introducing across its global medium- and large-car ranges. With the combination of its combustion and electric motors, the car’s power output is expected to exceed 400bhp, rivalling next-generation offerings from Mercedes-AMG and Audi. While improving the RS’s already impressive acceleration times and driving characteristics, the model’s new-tech features should dramatically cut both CO2 and toxic emissions to meet rapidly tightening world demands. European regulations require car makers to meet a 95g/km…

Ford is marking the end of third-generation Focus RS production in April with a 50-off run of special models, all coloured Deep Orange, to be sold in the UK market only. The car, called the Heritage Edition, comes with increases of around 8% in power and torque from an aftermarket Mountune conversion – plus a special suite of equipment and a price hike of around £3000 to £39,895 over the current RS range-topper. Ford of Britain boss Andy Barratt says that as well as marking the end of Mk3 production at Saarlouis, Germany, the special edition is also intended to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the first use of an RS badge on a Ford Escort, the Focus’s predecessor. Like the Red Edition, announced at the end of last year,…

Kia has revealed the first model in a new, four-strong Ceed line-up. All built on Kia’s new K2 platform and developed at the brand’s European base in Frankfurt, the Ceed will be launched as a hatchback first, with an estate, SUV and shooting brake to follow. The shooting brake was previewed by last year’s striking Proceed concept. The new Ceed offers improved interior space and a 15-litre increase in boot capacity (to 395 litres) thanks to tighter packaging and a 20mm-wider footprint. It also measures 23mm shorter and sits on fully independent suspension that’s been honed on European roads, including some tuning in Britain. At launch, petrol power will come from a choice of two engines, a 1.0-litre T-GDi with 118bhp or a 1.4-litre T-GDi in 99bhp and 138bhp forms.…

The new Ferrari 488 Pista dispatches the benchmark 0-62mph as quickly as the Italian brand’s halo model, the LaFerrari. The 488 Pista – a more powerful, lighter variant of the 488 GTB, just as the 458 Speciale was to the 458 – covers 0-62mph in 2.85sec, while the official quoted figure for the LaFerrari is “under 3.0sec”. The model uses the most powerful V8 in Ferrari’s history and is described as an “extreme evolution” of the turbo unit that won International Engine of the Year in both 2016 and 2017. The 3.9-litre twin-turbo engine produces 711bhp at 8000rpm and 568lb ft of torque at 3000rpm. Top speed is up to 211mph. Performance figures from its key rival, the range-topping Porsche 911 GT2 RS, are near-identical, achieving 0-62mph in 2.8sec and…

What is the world’s greenest car? You could be forgiven for thinking that would be a simple enough question to answer; that there should be a list somewhere. After all, what comes out of the tailpipe is used as a basis for legislation. Much more important, however, and ignored by legislation, are the cradle-to-grave CO2 emissions generated during a car’s entire lifetime. Life cycle assessment (LCA) is performed by most manufacturers, scientific bodies and engineering consultants such as Ricardo. The results can be revealing and sometimes contradict the simplistic yardstick of tailpipe emissions used today. Ricardo breaks LCA into four main blocks: creation and distribution of fuel; vehicle production; vehicle use; and vehicle disposal. Each one of these categories generates CO2 and yet only the tailpipe emissions of the use…

TESTER’S NOTE Hood down, there’s very little buffeting if you keep an optional wind deflector in place, so conversation remains easy. It’s not too bad without the deflector, either. MP The other day I bought a chainsaw. I needed one to saw some firewood, I should add. I didn’t just buy one to defend myself in case there’s a zombie apocalypse. If there is one, I don’t think it’ll be much help anyway, unless all the action happens within three metres of a domestic power socket, which seems unlikely. Anyway, to start with, I was a bit ham-fisted at using it, but the more wood I cut, the better I got. I’d almost go as far as to say that I’ve developed a bit of technique. As with everything, I…

MODEL TESTED i3s RANGE EXTENDER Price £35,625 (inc £4500 ULEV gov’t discount) • Power 181bhp • Torque 199lb ft • 0-60mph 7.7sec • 30-70mph in fourth na • Economy 386Wh/mile • CO2 emissions 15g/km • 70-0mph 51.3m Although it may be a touch disappointing to some to observe how long it’s taking Europeans to fully embrace electric cars – not least, you suspect, the car makers who’ve nursed them through their early ‘problem’ years – it’s not a hurdle that appears to be preventing the breed from improving. Over the past 18 months, we’ve seen battery capacity and associated cruising range improve significantly on the Renault Zoe (by 86%) and Volkswagen e-Golf (48%), while the Nissan Leaf (the new version of which will be road tested soon) has undergone a…

This is it, then. The last of the line. Extinction. The rally replica, once the backbone of Subaru’s and Mitsubishi’s ranges, is no more. This the WRX STi Final Edition, a 150-strong run-out of models once known as the Impreza. After this: nothing. It has been a long time coming. In 2011, Mitsubishi told me (and I reported to widespread disbelief) the Evo X would be the last of its kind, so the gradual retirement of the Subaru WRX and the Mitsubishi Evo was already in progress, even then. Subaru withdrew from the World Rally Championship, the reason for the creation of this car and its ‘World Rally eXperimental’ initialism, at the end of 2008. And with no need for road car homologation, today became inevitable. We’ve seen, then, the…

The weather is terrible or ideal, depending on your outlook. Wind-propelled sleet lashes us most of the time, coating the road so completely with little round ice balls that you have to watch your step. Now and then, strong sunshine melts some of the balls, so as well as being icy, the road is streaming wet. Of grip there is very little. For ex-DTM champion Volker Strycek, the leader of our little test party, these are perfect conditions. A naturally optimistic character, he’s visibly excited by today’s job. We’ve come to these elevated Welsh roads above Bridgend, famed for the way they challenge cars as much as drivers, to see how Vauxhall’s soon-to-be-launched Insignia GSi performance saloon copes when the going gets tough in the UK. Vauxhall has labelled this…

FIRST REPORT WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT To discover if Vauxhall’s flagship offers an unbeatable mix of practicality, value and executive comfort in estate form This 67-plate Vauxhall Insignia Sports Tourer lands on our shores having been on quite a journey. As you will have read in these pages, the Vauxhall and Opel badges had long been foundering under GM ownership. They declared losses of £190 million in the second quarter of 2017 (an average of £3m a day), before the high-profile takeover by PSA Group at the end of last year. As the listing begins to settle under the new admiralty, it is paramount that the marque’s new flagship leads the incoming flotilla of models – that will in future be based on shared PSA Group architecture – to forecast…

THE HIGH PRIEST OF BANGERNOMICS An Autocar reader has got in touch to tell me they once owned a reliable Land Rover Discovery 2. Given that car’s reputation for poor reliability – the Disco 2 I once had imploded – I’m pleased to hear it. I am always happy to learn about good experiences as well as bad. Listening to anecdotal evidence about reliability from the people who really matter – fellow car buyers – is worth its weight in gold when you’re on the lookout for a quality used car. Bad experiences are supposed to put you off doing things. That’s a survival instinct, which explains why car markets in the Australian Outback, the Middle East and sub-Saharan Africa pretty much belong to sturdy, unwaveringly dependable Toyota. My Discovery…

Wired for sound Press the Sport button, blip the throttle and check the sound symposer is doing its job, directing intake noise to the interior Proof the Panamera is the Porsche few want to dance with comes with the news that £30,000 is all you need for a mint, low-mileage 2010-reg 4.8 S with all the trimmings. You’ll be lucky to bag an older but honest 2007-reg 911 (997) 3.8 Carrera S for the same money. No surprises there. The 911 is widely regarded as a real Porsche whereas some see the Panamera as the product of a bloodless decision to unseat rivals in the hot saloon sector, albeit a job it achieved with moderate success, looking at the number of tax-friendly 3.0-litre diesel Panameras now clogging the classifieds. Diesels…

“Modifiications to the car’s chassis were informed by knowledge gleaned from the 911 GT2 RS” Porsche Motorsport has unveiled the second generation of 911 GT3 RS to be based on the extant 991 platform. The car is likely to be the last 991-based model to be launched before a new 911, codenamed 992, arrives on the world stage in September. Available to order now at a price of £141,346, with first UK deliveries in June, the new 911 GT3 RS receives an additional 20bhp from a lightly modified version of Porsche’s race-bred 4.0-litre six-cylinder engine, increasing its power to 513bhp at 8250rpm. This is the highest power figure yet for a naturally aspirated 911 and serves to distance the new 911 GT3 RS from the standard 911 GT3, which was…

The Kia Ceed GT will be more “agile and playful” than its predecessor but not as extreme as its Hyundai i30 N sibling, European marketing boss Artur Martins has said. He added that while development is being headed by Albert Biermann, who led the i30 N project, the model won’t be as focused. “You will see similar handling and balance but not at that level [of performance],” he said. Powertrain boss Michael Winkler added that the Ceed’s powerplant “won’t be as extreme” as its sibling’s 2.0-litre unit – suggesting its output will increase only slightly on the outgoing GT’s 198bhp.…

Although the Ferrari 250 GTO was the first to receive the GTO moniker, it was the 288 GTO – known simply as the GTO – which began an era of creating more powerful, lighter versions of existing Ferrari road cars, an ethos that has continued to this day with the 488 Pista. The Ferrari GTO was built to race but, due to poor participation in the race series, the car never did and all 272 cars built were only ever used on road. Enzo Ferrari gifted the last-built GTO to Formula 1 driver Niki Lauda. The model used a 395bhp V8 with two turbos and achieved 0-62mph in 4.9sec.…

MY WEEK IN CARS “Simple cars continually surprise you; those with big prices hardly ever do” MONDAY Just back from a visit to Sweden and Polestar, the (slightly) off-the-wall brand Volvo is nurturing in its Gothenburg lair. Suddenly I’m aware of a new and very desirable characteristic Polestar has in abundance: design freshness. It’s not that the performance EVs it’s proposing – starting with a beautiful £120,000 hybrid coupé – are wildly different; it’s more the way their beautiful surfaces, design wit and lack of aggression combine to make something very special. CEO and chief designer Thomas Ingenlath, already an Autocar award winner, is blessed with the rare quality of certainty. Everything he and his teams do seems sure-footed. A hatch, saloon and a low-roof SUV are in the works,…

TESTER’S NOTE The smaller 108bhp C4 Cactus shows little difference in grunt to our 128bhp test car. Choosing that instead will save you almost a grand. RB “It’s one of the most characterful cars on sale, despite those dumbed-down Airbumps” When the Citroën C4 Cactus was launched in 2014, it marked the start of a new style-led period for the French car maker and a return to its trademark quirkiness of old. The car’s Marmite-effect side Airbumps, which have since made their way across much of the range, became synonymous with a new era for Citroën under the tenure of Brit boss Linda Jackson. Although the styling was divisive, the model was a modest success for Citroën, outselling its more sensible sibling, the C4, in Europe. This revised model, almost…

VISIBILITY Low scuttle, big windscreen and high-ish driving position make the view forwards unusually clear but chunky B-pillars impinge when checking your blindspot. HEADLIGHTS Full LED headlights are plenty bright enough on dip and full beam, but you’ll have to switch between them yourself. High Beam Assist is an optional extra. WHEEL AND PEDAL ALIGNMENT Pedal placement is great and the driving position is straight-legged. Steering column offers an unusually large range of reach adjustment for a small car.…

Later derivatives of the Mitsubishi Evo and Subaru Impreza would get faster and more powerful. They would become more technologically advanced and, in every measurable or objective way, they would get better. Right here, though, is where they peaked. Launched within a couple of years of one another in the late 1990s, the Lancer Evo VI Tommi Mäkinen Edition and Impreza 22B STi are, by general consensus, the pinnacles of their respective breeds. They are the apex four-wheel-drive rally refugees. They hail from that five-year spell from 1995 to the turn of the century during which Subaru and Mitsubishi dominated the World Rally Championship. The Evo VI TME and Impreza 22B STi capture a moment in time and preserve it in aspic. But is there more to these cars than…

They say all great ideas start in a pub. Science has yet to explain why – probably because no one has produced a coherent post-session report – but evidence suggests a top lip dampened by the froth of ale really motivates a creative mind. For some, these great pub ideas will be lost in the mists of a hangover but, for others, something truly impressive can follow. Take the Tesla Model S Shooting Brake you see on these pages, which was first coined at The Bird in Hand near Hethel in Norfolk. “Three of us were having a catch-up chat and a pint over lunch when we thought it up,” says Dorian Hindmarsh, managing director of the coachbuilding company Qwest that produced the car. “Phil, who had just bought a…

A loss of motor skills As an ever-increasing number of manufacturers add ever-more autonomous aids to their cars, basic vehicle control skills will be lost. If a car can park itself, what happens when the system fails? Now politicians and technology companies are promoting self-driving cars, so car manufacturers are putting resources into this, just as they did for diesels. I don’t think it’s workable, at least not for a very long time. Demonstrations are always in controlled environments; but real-world tests expose current fallibilities. Those in favour always cite the fact that it’s human error that invariably causes accidents, but they never consider how many accidents are avoided, or damage-minimised, by human (re)action. All of these aids have their place, but driver skills, road craft and manners are equally,…

FINAL REPORT MILEAGE 2574 WHY WE RAN IT To see what UK buyers are missing from not being sold new cars with factory-fitted fuel tanks for low-cost LPG So was this LPG-powered car cheaper to run than its petrol or diesel equivalent? Yes. Was it any less convenient? Not really. So why are UK car buyers being denied the option of a manufacturer-fitted LPG tank in their new right-hand-drive cars, to gain access to the cheapest fuel on UK forecourts? That’s the one question we’ve been unable to find a satisfactory answer to in the six months since we started this test. In that time, the only thing that has really changed is how much stronger the case is for the more widespread adoption of LPG (liquefied petroleum gas, also…

MILEAGE 128,228 LAND ROVER SERIES 3 Well, that didn’t last long. After a few weeks’ use, the Lorry’s in-vehicle entertainment system conked out. It was completely dead. So I took the JVC unit back to the shop. (Yes, I frequent a real motor factory, rather than go online.) Anyway, a man bench-tested it and it was finished, so a new one was ordered. It turns out The Police’s Greatest Hits CD was trapped inside the faulty one. Not sure if I should be pleased. Finally, an apology: it seems the speakers I fitted could not possibly have been 15kW. They were pretty loud nonetheless… A to Z BANGERPEDIA C is for Corolla Here it is: the family car as utterly reliable domestic appliance and the world’s best-seller. If all you…

An expert’s view STEVE McPHERSON, PANAMERA REGISTER, PORSCHE CLUB GB “I’d owned 10 Porsche 911s before I bought my first Panamera, eight years ago. I’ve not regretted it. A Panamera is more practical and, in everyday driving, just as much fun. I’ve had four of them (two new and two used) and am about to buy my fifth – a six-month-old 4S Diesel. I do around 15,000 miles a year, the cars are new or nearly new and I have them serviced by a main agent, so there have been few issues. Those that spring to mind are wheel judder on full lock when the tyres are cold, a wonky sat-nav that needed reprogramming and a boot that kept opening when the doors were unlocked. Because the car is so…

TESTER’S NOTES To Silverstone this week, where the excellent people there kindly host yours truly and the rest of the six-strong British contingent from the Car of the Year award panel (which includes senior contributing writer Andrew Frankel, and John Simister, whose words you’ll also regularly find on these pages), as we test the shortlisted cars on local roads. On this year’s Car of the Year shortlist are the Alfa Romeo Stelvio, Audi A8, BMW 5 Series, Citroën C3 Aircross, Kia Stinger, Seat Ibiza and Volvo XC90, which is as good a list of contenders as I can remember. The winner will be announced, as it now routinely is, on the eve of the Geneva motor show in March. By the time you read this, I’ll have been to the…