Innholdsfortegnelse for December 22 - 29, 2021 Double Issue i Autocar

TOYOTA WILL BEGIN comprehensively refreshing ex-customer cars at its UK manufacturing facility as part of a drive to add value to vehicles throughout their life cycles. Agustín Martín, president and managing director of Toyota GB, gave Autocar the first details of a new process that Toyota will implement as part of its new fleet-focused mobility sub-brand, Kinto. He said: “We need to stretch the way we look at life for both the vehicle and the customer. I think we’re very familiar with the usual two- to three-year cycles that are extremely popular in the UK, but we need to go beyond that two- to three-year cycle and say: ‘Okay, what happens in that second cycle and in the third cycle?’” In order to extend its contact time with customers “at…

Dacia is enjoying remarkable growth. How big can it get? “We believe that the cars we sell today give us a prospective customer base of five million customers. When you add in the Jogger and the refreshed Duster, we think that pool will be 9.5 million. Add in the Bigster and it’s more like 13 million.” Who is a typical Dacia customer? “It’s a very broad span. Early on, it was more about customers looking to buy one of our cars rather than a second-hand model. These days, it’s more about new car buyers looking for terrific value – although typically used buyers are still a very significant proportion of our market. Loyalty is incredible, too: our repeat custom is well ahead of that of rivals.” Is there a price-conscious…

The SMMT expects new car sales in the UK in 2021 to total 1.66 million, amid the chip crisis. That’s just 1.9% ahead of Covid-hit 2020 and 38.3% down on the peak year of 2016. Which brands made the best of a bad situation? ALFA ROMEO 2020 market share: 0.13% 2021 market share: 0.09% The Giulia and the Stelvio are rock-bottom in their respective segments, selling at one-tenth the rate of the major models. ALPINE 2020 market share: 0.01% 2021 market share: 0.01% A110 sales are up, thanks to a host of new special editions, but Alpine’s share is still tiny. ASTON MARTIN 2020 market share: 0.05% 2021 market share: 0.06% Sales have increased, thanks to the DBX SUV, but Aston is still losing a lot of money (£188m in…

Anyone who has seen that photo of Alfa Romeo’s 164 Procar – the famous one in profile, front and rear bodywork removed – already understands this new Ruf. Only once the skin was detached from Alfa’s V10 silhouette racer of 1988 was it obvious that the thing had virtually nothing in common with the 164 family saloon, and it’s a similar story with the Ruf SCR. Despite the aesthetic, it shares little with an old Porsche 911. How little? For one thing, it’s constructed, McLaren-style, around an 88kg composite tub of Ruf’s own making. For another, the suspension is by double wishbones with pushrod actuation. There has been only one official 911 with both those elements and that’s the 911 GT1 with which Porsche won at Le Mans in 1988.…

If you think the good thing about the BMW iX is that you can’t see how weird it looks from inside it, then you should see inside it. BMW’s third BEV (after the i3 and iX3) is a big SUV, nearly five metres long, two metres wide and 1.7 metres tall. Not too dissimilar to the X5, then, only more spacious inside. It’s also more radical inside, and not always in such a bad way. There’s a huge screen across the dashboard centre, but the rotary infotainment controller remains, only now created from what looks like crystal glass and sited on a tall, wood-finished console. The seat controls have migrated to the doors (not sure why), which are luxuriously padded, and the steering wheel is sufficiently weirdly shaped that, well,…

MODEL TESTED SPEED COUPE Price £209,900 • Power 650bhp • Torque 664lb ft • 0-60mph 3.4sec • 30-70mph in fourth 4.9sec • Fuel economy 16.6mpg • CO2 emissions 311g/km • 70-0mph 45.5m The clock is ticking for brands that make big, expensive, combustion-engined luxury cars like Bentley’s new Continental GT Speed. Long-stated government policy and associated legislation will allow them to continue to sell their petrol-fuelled wares, but public opinion, and the buying behaviour it influences, is a moving target. Depending largely on which zero-emission alternatives arrive, big-emitting fossil-fuelled luxury sports cars may become very hard to sell in key markets well before the UK’s 2030 ban on combustion-engined cars comes into force. It helps explain why we’re seeing this Speed performance version of the Continental GT just three years into…

Bentley ought to congratulate itself on getting the GT Speed within a tenth of its big rival from Aston Martin around MIRA’s narrow and punishing dry handling circuit, especially given that the car gives up plenty to the DBS on power-to-weight ratio. The GT Speed simply rockets out of second- and third-gear corners once it’s on boost. It takes a little attitude under power with the electronics dialled back and begins to handle a bit untidily when you really press it, and it takes experience to know when and where it’s best to correct the car’s angle and line yourself and when to leave that job to the active systems. You find your way, though. The car’s considerable weight can certainly be felt under braking, however, and when turning in.…

There’s more than a hint of underground flavour about the new Audi RS3. Well, there is to me. I’ve never played a Need for Speed video game nor watched more than 10 puzzling minutes of any Fast and Furious film, so I’m at risk of exposing my ignorance here, as well as my age. But this is a car that looks very much like an invitation for some neon strip lights and an extra-flatulent exhaust to warble fruitily around a cinema car park on a Friday night. This Audi has got dark, angry features that look a little, well, ‘aftermarket’. Flashy, animated LED headlights, too, that light up with ‘R… S… 3…’ when you unlock it. It has a drift mode, of a sort. All it’s missing is the ability…

WHAT WILL HAPPEN THE LAST FEW CAR FIRMS YET TO DO SO WILL SET ALL-ELECTRIFIED DEADLINES Just eight years until you can no longer go out and buy a new car that does the whole ‘suck, squeeze, bang, blow’ thing – and many car firms have already pledged to stop building them. But we’re still waiting to hear when some industry giants, including BMW, Toyota, Nissan and Land Rover, will make the switch to all-electric line-ups, so 2022 could bring a flurry of announcements. ELECTRIC CAR SALES WILL GROW ANOTHER 50% The calculators are still being hammered, but it looks like electric cars will account for just over 10% of all new car registrations in 2021, representing a rise of nearly 60% year on year. That’s both impressive and ahead…

Picture the scene at Audi head office. The company is no longer racing in the DTM and has withdrawn from Formula E. Both announcements meant there were presumably a lot of race engineers standing idly around wondering what to do with all the make-things-go-faster stuff. Then someone hit on a bright idea: why not put it all into a Dakar Rally car? So here it is: the Audi RS Q E-tron, possibly the world’s most recycled racing car. Talk about being on-message with the climate agenda. The RS Q E-tron is also, as you would expect from a German manufacturer, one hell of a statement of intent. Although its road car implications aren’t clear at the moment (or at least aren’t being spoken about officially), it is apparent that, with…

WRC Rallying legend Sébastien Ogier signed off in style in his Toyota Yaris (which is also heading into retirement), winning five rallies on his way to an incredible eighth title (including his last as a fulltime driver), soundly beating both his promising young team-mate Elfyn Evans and Hyundai’s duo. WEC Toyota gave us a taste of the excitement due from Hypercars, as its two trios again fought toe to toe, with Conway, Kobayashi and López victorious, thanks in part to ending their Le Mans curse. Meanwhile, Ferrari 488s won both the Am and Pro GTE classes. BTCC Ash Sutton retained his title with aplomb in the Infiniti Q50, despite the strong efforts of BMW 330i star Colin Turkington and emerging Honda Civic Type R talent Josh Cook. Best of all,…

FEATURE New cars for 2022 We go through all the key new cars of the next 12 months. Don’t order your next one without reading this TRIPLE TEST XF Sportbrake vs rivals Jaguar meets BMW and Skoda in a battle of the load-luggers FIRST DRIVE Kia Sportage Kia’s most vital car in the UK enters a new generation with hybrid power EVERY WEEK ROAD TEST Audi A6 55 TFSIe Plug-in hybrid power tested in Audi’s Mercedes-Benz E-Class rival SUBSCRIBE autocar.co.uk/subscribe or see p46 New-look magazine We’re making a few changes to give you more of what you love in 2022…

“It creates the impression that you’re stuck in first or suffering from some almighty clutch slip” FIRST REPORT WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT To discover whether this chic new coupé-SUV has the substance to back up its obvious style When a new niche forms in the car market, it doesn’t always turn into a firm foothold. Remember the Suzuki X-90 of the mid-1990s? It’s the perfect example: who would have thought that the world was crying out for a two-seat, targa-topped 4x4? It wasn’t, of course, and thankfully that particular new avenue for the automotive industry turned out to be a cul-de-sac. Yet the idea of a sportier body shape combined with the raised underpinnings of an off-road vehicle has refused to go away. The BMW X6 of 2007 was the…

A is for Audi A4 (1995–2001) This was the default business saloon from the 1990s. Not a 3 Series, but from 1999 a revamp improved the suspension and steering. Rear passengers remained cramped and endured rock-hard suspension. Earlier models had mean specifications, especially below SE. Wear and tear of brakes and suspension contribute to MOT failures, otherwise it just needs some history for reassurance. There are loads of petrols and diesels on offer, with economy ranging from 23-53mpg. Top money is a 1996 1.8 SE auto with low-40k miles, £1995.…

Ford SportKa £1900 It’s tough to find a bargain-basement small car with a sporty feel, but the SportKa ticks all the boxes, thanks to some significant changes over the Ka. Its wishbones and roll bar were stiffened, its suspension was dropped by 14mm and its front track was widened by 22mm. There was a 50% hike in power too – with 94bhp on tap from a 1.6-litre four-pot for 0-62mph in 9.7sec – plus the arrival of the Puma’s five-speed manual gearbox. It’s as fun as any small hatchback on sale today, and was praised by testers for a well-damped ride and entertaining handling. The steering is light and reassuring, body roll is minor and braking is strong.…

A road test in any other magazine might well be a short, subjective summary of a new car produced under almost any circumstances, but the Autocar road test is different. Specific, rigorous and detailed, it’s the closest examination we can give of any new model. It appears over at least eight pages and is close to 50 man-hours in the making every week. Most of what the road test process entails is designed to be strictly repeatable and fair. We benchmark standing-start and in-gear acceleration at a purpose-built test facility every week. We carry out both subjective and objective handling tests on both road and track, on the latter up to and beyond the limit of grip, so as to fully assess stability, drivability and limit handling appeal. And while…

Bentley is well under way with development of the second bespoke model from its Mulliner coachbuilding division, both as a way of celebrating the luxury car maker’s venerable W12 engine and previewing the design of its first pure-electric models. The Volkswagen Group’s 6.0-litre W12 engine – the only mass-produced powerplant of this format – turned 20 years old this year, having served in a range of flagship Audi, Volkswagen and, most prominently, Bentley models. It is currently only used by the latter marque and will be retired shortly after the launch of the next Mulliner car as Bentley moves towards an all-electric future. According to a source at the Crewe firm, the new creation will be based on the Continental GT Coupé (its predecessor, the Bacalar, was based on the…

Volvo has confirmed it will replace its long-standing ‘S’ saloon and ‘V’ estate models, despite SUVs now accounting for 75% of its total sales. The firm’s global best-seller, the XC60 SUV, sold more units (162,600) in the first three-quarters of 202121 than the S60, V60, S90 and V90 combined. Volvo CEO Håkan Samuelsson said: “Yes, the [S and V] lines will be replaced with something even more attractive to consumers. We need lower cars with a more conventional body size but maybe a little less square [than previously]. These low cars will be in addition to our high-positioned SUVs. Stay tuned.” When asked if the shape of the C40 Recharge SUV would lead to more coupé-inspired Volvos, Samuelsson said: “Yes and no. Cars will be less boxy in future, when…

THE RADICAL EV9 concept provides another tantalising taste of Kia’s future EVs, but has designer Karim Habib penned his last internal-combustion car? “I love cars myself, and old cars,” he told us. “But I’m also very conscious. My conscience is fine if we only did EVs – I think we should – but other factors will decide: price, infrastructure and the fact we’re present in markets that aren’t yet ready for EVs.” THERE ARE PLENTY of cars we wish would come to the UK, but Lexus’s indomitable LX is pretty high up the list. Is there any chance, we asked European vice-president Pascal Ruch, that the big 4x4 could find its way here? “At the moment, it’s not the plan, to be honest,” he said. “But we notice there’s an…

THE RENAULT ZOE has scored zero stars in the latest round of Euro NCAP safety tests, while sibling firm Dacia’s new Spring EV was awarded just one star. The Zoe had held a five-star rating but was retested after a substantial update last year. This ushered in a bigger battery and extra power but also, Euro NCAP notes, a new seat-mounted side airbag that protects just the occupant’s thorax, rather than the head and thorax as previously. This change represents “a degradation in occupant protection”, according to Euro NCAP, which reported that in the side pole impact test, the “driver’s head directly impacted the intruding pole and head injury values indicated poor protection of this part of the body”. The electric supermini’s showing in the frontal offset crash test was…

“Its savage side is easily engendered, the engine turning louder and angrier as it gets towards its altitudinous redline” The approaching end of the internal-combustion era is creating some strange juxtapositions in marketing messages. The launch event for the new rear-driven Audi R8 V10 Performance took place on the Spanish island of Gran Canaria, closer to Western Africa than the rest of Europe, with the highlight a spectacular high-altitude campsite in the mountains. Audi’s commitment to sustainability meant this featured all-vegan catering and power from repurposed E-tron battery packs. All of which was in stark contrast to the snarling V10 that carried me there. The R8 was never going to die quietly, and although it’s too early to pen an obituary, the arrival of the Performance RWD marks a thinning…

Within three minutes of getting into a Cupra Born in the UK, I’m annoyed. It has told me I’m not driving in the middle of the lane when there’s a perfectly good reason why I’m not, and turning off the lane keeping assistance system is as complicated as putting on a heated seat, which is at least three touchscreen icon pushes away. This stuff is unforgivably irritating. Which is a shame, because I’m otherwise quite enjoying the Born. It’s a lowish electric hot hatchback from Cupra, which is Seat’s sporty bit (although, yes, Seat was also the Volkswagen Group’s sporty bit). It’s based on the same platform as the Volkswagen ID 3 and at 4322mm long is only 61mm longer, so it’s still comfortably the ‘small family’ size outside but…

TRANSMISSIONS 8-spd dual-clutch automatic The introduction of the new GT Speed spells the end of the regular W12-engined GT, which keeps the two-door Continental derivative line from swelling too much. The Mulliner Edition cars, meanwhile, build on the Continental’s luxury ambience with special design details and materials. As is now familiar, Bentley’s optional ‘Specification’ packages (Mulliner Driving, Touring, Styling, Continental Blackline etc) become key de-facto trim levels, which are likely to affect the residual values of your car, so some are worth having.…

VERDICT We applaud Bentley’s commitment to what may be the most performance-focused Continental of its generation. The GT Speed has its moments as a driver’s car – and, as this leather- and aluminium-clad heavyweight swivels underneath you and then catapults forwards, they’re moments to remember. But even the very latest active driveline, suspension and steering systems have their limits. Like a rugby back-row forward given ankle injections, the new toys make a difference, but they won’t make him spin like Rudolf Nureyev, and the GT Speed won’t, either, not in a way that will really hold your attention on road or track. Like so many Bentleys over the years, this one is at its best at a flowing eight-tenths stride down a wide, sweeping country road or, better still, over…

FORD MUSTANG MACH 1 £55,255 Tech highlights: 454bhp, 1745kg, 0-62mph in 4.8sec, 166mph Only a two-door and has no 4WD option but is enticing all the same. If you want something brimming with kerbside presence and audible allure, look no further. PEUGEOT 508 PSE FASTBACK £55,795 Tech highlights: 355bhp, 1875kg, 0-62mph in 5.2sec, 155mph Has a chassis to give the BMW pause for thought, but its PHEV powertrain is a bit uninvolving. Handsome, though, and enjoyable just pottering around in EV mode. TESLA MODEL 3 PERFORMANCE £59,900 Tech highlights: 444bhp, 1847kg, 0-62mph in 3.4sec, 162mph EV gives away little at the price on power or speed. Lacks dynamic sophistication – if you can stop giggling for long enough to notice.…

This year’s nonsensical Frankencar is a paean to performance – performance of the sledgehammer variety, rather than the fairy dust type that’s epitomised by delicate playthings such as the Alpine A110. That said, with its track day-leaning but road-ready set-up, our car should be every bit as rewarding and precise to drive as it is desirable on the spec sheet alone. It has an atmospheric engine and one of the most feelsome EPAS systems around. A rear-drive layout with the engine halfway back beneath the dashboard, DTM-style, also gives it innate agility, yet a saloon wheelbase imbues it with stability and predictability on the limit. We hope. Our unholy creation looks epic and sounds even better – but alas could never actually exist. To create such an utterly perfect machine,…

According to the poker-related cliché, you can learn a lot about people by how they behave when the chips are down – and the car industry has demonstrated that in the most literal of ways this year. An ongoing global shortage of semiconductors means processing chip production is down, which has had a seismic impact on the car industry. With most cars now packed with chips to power new technology, many firms have been forced to slow or suspend production, creating a shortage of cars for customers to buy. The biggest news story of 2021 is a perfect storm of disruption at a time when the industry is undergoing unprecedented change and still trying to recover from the huge impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. WHY THE INDUSTRY CAN’T HAVE ITS…

THERE’S A TON of motorsport to watch every year, but 2022 holds more intrigue than any other in recent memory, as the enthralling ongoing storylines will be enhanced by change abounding in every major series. All are worth watching, but here are the five events that you really shouldn’t miss. 5 Nascar’s Clash at the Coliseum 6 FEBRUARY Okay, so the opening event of the 2022 Nascar Cup Series season is a non-points showcase race, but it’s still worth watching. It’s the first race for Nascar’s radical new car package, and the event has switched from the wide-open banks of Daytona to a tight oval inside the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Expect crashes. Lots of crashes. 4 BTCC at Donington Park 24 APRIL The British Touring Car Championship’s success is…

Although Audi will have only one rival in the T1 Ultimate class (GCK, which runs on biofuels), there are others that will join it in the campaign for the overall win. Prodrive has entered with the Hunter (pictured) and, given the firm’s rally heritage and fifth-place finish last year, must start as one of the favourites. Then there’s Toyota with the GR DKR Hilux T1+, which represents “the biggest technological leap” since the firm returned in 2011. It won in 2019 and features a strong and experienced driver line-up. And last year’s winner, X-Raid’s Mini All4 Racing challenger, returns, but how much the team will miss its two star drivers (Peterhansel and Sainz) remains to be seen. One thing is for sure, though: given the duration of the Dakar Rally,…

WRITE TO autocar@haymarket.com Taycan too long Porsche has just announced another version of the Taycan. May I suggest it concentrates on current orders first? I paid a £5000 deposit in April for a quoted delivery of late June or early July. I released my existing Porsche in part-exchange as delivery was imminent. This was not to be, as delivery was delayed month by month. As a result, I’ve been without a Porsche for more than six months. Today [21 November], I received notification that my Taycan was about to leave the factory but was incomplete and the dealer wouldn’t be able to hand it over, due to lack of undeclared parts. It appears that the factory has run out of storage space for unfinished vehicles. To add insult to injury,…

QUESTION I have a bad back and can no longer lift our dogs into the car. Could you suggest a £25k estate with space for two Labradors?Mary Evans, Bath ANSWER There’s a host of estates to choose from. The VW Golf Estate is an ideal all-rounder. We found a fun 2016 Golf R Estate for £23,125. It has a 2.0-litre turbo engine and a 605-litre boot but is carpeted so would be an effort to keep clean. What about a nearly new Vauxhall Insignia Sports Tourer? It has a 560-litre boot but no load lip, and we spotted a range-topping 2019 Elite Nav for £22,500 with a 1.5-litre turbo petrol and fewer than 8000 miles. Or a BMW 5 Series Touring for £24,990? A 570-litre boot and plenty of tech…

Ford Escort RS Cosworth £59,950 Release your inner Sébastien Ogier with these homologation rally specials. Several cars have made the transition from trails to Tarmac, and we’ve collated five of the best that will warm up cold December evenings. They will deal with winter weather with ease and will be sure to catch the eyes (and the ears) of anybody you blast past, too. Our selection kicks off with the venerable Ford Escort RS Cosworth – a WRC homologation special based on the final Escort. Powerful, great to drive and with a near-unbeatable rally heritage, the Cossie was one of the ultimate poster cars of the 1990s. Four-wheel drive that aped the rally version was fitted to improve stability and traction. Under the bonnet was the revered 2.0-litre inline four-cylinder…

The Murciélago had a tough job on its hands. Not only did it replace the Diablo, the 11-year-old icon of 1990s excess, but it was also the first new Lamborghini launched under the brand’s Audi/Volkswagen Group ownership. Could the Germans keep the Italian fizz and inject much-needed quality control? They could. The Murciélago was one of the finest cars to have made it out of Sant’Agata up to that point. We said it was “just about the sexiest car on the planet” in our 2005 review. The Murciélago of 2001 to 2010 joined Lamborghini as its flagship, with a mid-mounted V12 and all-wheel drive. Much of Lamborghini’s delightful lunacy had been retained: the car featured scissor doors and a wide, dramatic-looking body that sat just 1.2m above the ground at…

It’s the most magical time of the year, they say. And also time for a purge of the ‘columns’ page in my notes, of some thoughts that never quite made it into 570 words on the back page of this magazine. After all, don’t all column ideas deserve their chance? No. No they don’t. Some were too boring, too simple, too complicated or, in the case of ‘Snapchat bus arrival’, too difficult to recall. But some may make snippets. So here they are. Earlier this year, there were stories online about how American vehicles had become “the size of a Sherman tank!”. This is nonsense. Yes, American pick-up trucks are long. The Sherman is 5.8m long and so are some pick-ups. But it’s small for a tank, weighs 33 tonnes…

VOLVO’S LARGE ELECTRIC SUV, due to be revealed in late 2022, will be sold alongside the current XC90 rather than immediately replacing it outright. Volvo’s chief financial officer, Björn Annwall, said: “The XC90 will be replaced and named something else, and it will not have a plug-in hybrid propulsion system. “But we can extend the life of [the current] XC90 and XC60 by giving them some fantastic upgrades. We will keep them running as long as there’s a need.” The new large electric SUV – the first Volvo to ditch alphanumerics in favour of “more emotional” names – will become the third EV sold by the Swedish brand after the smaller XC40 Recharge and C40 Recharge. While these sit on Volvo’s CMA platform, the large SUV will use its new…

Dacia’s commitment to selling low-cost cars will allow it to build lighter and more efficient vehicles for longer than rivals, according to CEO Denis Le Vot – which in turn will mean that the firm won’t have to produce costlier plug-in hybrids and EVs to reduce its CO2 emissions to avoid expensive fines. While Dacia does now sell the Spring EV in some markets (and is likely to sell it in the UK), its only other commitment to electrification is to add its first PHEV – a version of the new seven-seat Jogger – in 2023. Le Vot believes this cautious approach is critical to keeping the brand’s price advantage. “We stand for exceptional value, and we’re able to offer that by giving our customers everything they need but never…

WHEN AUDI HEADS for the desert next month to compete in the Dakar Rally, its RS Q E-tron will have been designed and prepared in excruciating detail to withstand the worst the environment can throw at it. The new car has something in common with the mighty Group B Audi Quattros in that its structure is a spaceframe enclosed by carbonfibre and panels, with the addition in some areas of Kevlar and tear-resistant Zylon to protect the crew and components from sharp objects penetrating the skin. The spaceframe is made from an aerospace-grade, heat-resistant, lightweight steel alloy. The design of the structure draws on knowledge derived from Audi’s years of experience in other branches of motorsport, such as DTM, Rallycross, LMP1 sports cars (Le Mans) and lately Formula E (from…

THE BEST CAR stories are about people. Sure, it’s a cliché, but it’s also true. It takes special characters to shape an industry that’s unique in the way that it forges such scale, such speed and so much front-line technology to make affordable, indispensable products. Today the call for exceptional people is greater than ever. For 120 years, automotive progress had one simple driver: tough competition between rivals. Now it’s hugely more complex: the threatened crisis of pollution and resultant climate change is forcing car companies to prove, adopt and market new technologies much faster than ever before. Not only that, but they’re also hounded by legislation, often poorly drafted, that places tough curbs on traditional technologies whose earnings they continue to need to fund all the new-era products. Inspiration…

Don’t be deceived by the twee(d) aesthetic: Morgan is no stranger to motorsport. It won its class in the 1962 Le Mans 24 Hours, visited La Sarthe again in the 2000s and has its own one-make series. Competition-prepared Morgans are in action most weekends at venues around Europe and the US, because Morgan and its clients like to race. But never in its 111 years has the company been better positioned to go racing than it is today. For that you can thank the new CX chassis, which is the basis of the latest road cars and so will underpin any track-related progeny they spawn. It’s an aluminium monocoque, and in terms of stiffness the old steel ladder frame doesn’t compare. Think dry spaghetti versus cooked. The CX is also…

Having tried the new 911 Carrera GTS abroad in 4WD automatic form and then again on British roads in RWD automatic form, this is our chance to taste the most serious sub-GT3 911 of the 992 era in ‘purist’ guise. Which is to say RWD and with the manual ’box Porsche offers despite knowing that precious few will opt for it. Chapeau, Porsche. First, a quick reminder of what the GTS is. In the past, it has been a bit of a parts-bin special, simply bundling together plenty of desirable options at an attractive price. Not this time. The suspension is mostly taken from the phenomenally well-sorted 911 Turbo, with helper springs for the rear axle, but the PASM dampers are GTS-unique. The cast-iron brakes are also from the Turbo,…

1 ASTON MARTIN DBS COUPE Recently lost its ‘Superleggera’ billing but has lost none of its stellar visual allure, huge pace or stirring GT driving appeal. Epic. 2 FERRARI ROMA Box-office looks and eye-widening performance and handling. Half GT and half sports car but impossible to ignore. 3 BENTLEY CONTINENTAL GT SPEED COUPE Doesn’t transform the regular GT’s driver appeal but adds to it. Remains a first-class luxury car. 4 POLESTAR 1 Plug-in hybrid GT is still on the UK configurator, so new cars may still be on sale. No great driver’s car but fascinating all the same. 5 ROLLS-ROYCE WRAITH BLACK BADGE Special version of our former fave Rolls-Royce is now showing its age yet is still wonderful.…

VAUXHALL VXR8 GTS £35,995 (2015/15-plate, 65k miles) Tech highlights: 576bhp, 1880kg, 0-62mph in 4.3sec, 155mph Holden’s VF-gen Commodore in its sporting pomp. In black, with HSV badging, plenty of equipment and a two-owner history. ‘Lovely condition’. PORSCHE PANAMERA 4 E-HYBRID £59,950 (2018/18-plate, 47k miles) Tech highlights: 456bhp, 2170kg, 0-62mph in 4.6sec, 172mph Heavy but has plenty of ‘torque fill’ to move it along. Price is tempting; 31 miles of electric range. TESLA MODEL S P100D LUDICROUS £77,990 (2018/18-plate, 26k miles) Tech highlights: 762bhp, 2316kg, 0-62mph in 2.6sec, 155mph Now you can experience sub-3.0sec 0-60mph for less than £80k. Should have 250-plus miles of usable range.…

CATERHAM SEVEN 170 MATT PRIOR Whisper it, but the Caterham Seven 170, my favourite car of this year, actually isn’t my favourite Caterham to drive. But I’ve decided that doesn’t matter. When Caterham set out to revive its cheapest and least powerful model, fitted with a small three-cylinder turbocharged Suzuki engine, it decided to do something special with it. It decided to make the lightest Seven it has ever produced. And that is the kind of idea that I can get behind every day of the week. Specifying the engine and the five-speed gearbox that all Caterhams drive through these days was presumably the easy bit. It’s the rest where the firm had to be brutal, either designing the lightest-possible version of something – fashioning the rear wings, narrower than…

JANUARY • The global shortage of semiconductor chips continues to hamper production of electronic goods and therefore also sales of new cars. TVR announces it’s pausing production of the Griffith until the crisis eases, until somebody points out you actually have to start production before you can pause it. • In a bid to curry favour, new German chancellor Olaf Scholz reignites an overblown media storm from 2021 by criticising Volkswagen’s decision to remove currywurst from the main restaurant in its Wolfsburg factory. “You do know it’s only one restaurant, which only sold currywurst once a week anyway, don’t you?” sighs Volkswagen’s chief sausage officer. FEBRUARY • Seeing an opportunity to get one over VW and woo workers at his new Berlin factory, Tesla boss Elon Musk announces plans to…

THE FRENCH GRAND prix of 1923 was a particularly notable one, as the first grand prix outing for a V12 engine and a supercharger, plus the first Grand Épreuve (meaning one of the year’s most important races) to be won by both a British driver (Sir Henry Segrave) and a British marque (Sunbeam). “We have to thank participants in competitions such as these for many features of present-day cars,” commented Autocar, citing the overhead valve engine, “unbreakable” valves and four-wheel braking as examples. “This particular event proved a veritable battle of cylinders – six-, eight- and 12-cylinder engines being pitted against another – whereas but a few years ago four-cylinder units predominated. “The perfect balance attainable by multiplication of cylinders enables extremely high revolutions – and thereby immense power –…

I’ve run a convertible car for more than 10 years now. Three Jaguar XKRs, the last being an XKR-S that I hung onto for nearly six years in the hope of a successor coming out. When it finally dawned on me that Jaguar would not produce anything suitable, I was forced to look around and found the Mercedes-AMG S63 fitted the bill: it had a reasonable boot and my golf bag went on the back seats. What a car in many ways. It had a superb V8 and the AMG Speedshift gearbox was great once it warmed up. The seats were most comfortable and functional, although the control layout’s ergonomics were surprisingly poor. After two years, I decided it was time to upgrade ahead of the warranty running out. But…

FINAL REPORT MILEAGE 4488 WHY WE RAN IT To see if the Ford stalwart is still fit for purpose in its final year of production “Nice car; is that a new Audi S?” To be fair, he had only taken a fleeting glance, but that passer-by as we took the photo below later admitted that he owned an Audi RS himself. His approval for the Ford was mirrored in the surprise that most people express when I explain to them that we’ve been running the Mondeo as a final fling before its production line falls silent early next year. After four months together, I can’t help feeling that the Mondeo remains relevant but is a victim of the fickle nature of fashion. In a world where all buyers want is…

MILEAGE 133,876 LAND ROVER SERIES 3 Hope you’re not too bored by the Lorry’s battery drama, but we do seem to have sorted it. Hats off to the battery supplier who, on photographic proof of the lump of lead’s uselessness, agreed to replace it. It’s simple enough to swap them over and I’ll jot the date down again and see how it goes over the coming months. However, it didn’t start. I had parked differently to make battery extraction easier and that meant the Lorry was pointing slightly downhill. Maybe the petrol pump isn’t what it was. I had to push it into a three-point turn. I was worn out, but at least it finally started.…

Seek out a good used example of the 2013-2020 Volkswagen Golf Mk7 and you’ll have yourself one of the most multi-talented cars of all time. What it offered was a combination of extremely useful all-round abilities in a delightfully classy and tastefully restrained package, all wrapped up in an eminently affordable car that you would be happy to take anywhere. For starters, there’s the range of 1.0, 1.4 and later 1.5-litre turbocharged petrol engines that punch far above their weight in terms of performance yet return impressive fuel efficiency. Then there are the 1.6 and 2.0-litre diesel engines for those who might be doing big miles. Anybody interested in low-emission driving might want to consider either the plug-in hybrid GTE or fully electric e-Golf. For those more interested in speed,…

CORD 812 The Cord 812 was among the most advanced cars of its era, not that you could necessarily tell just by looking at one. Produced in the US from 1936, it was the first to have pop-up headlights, along with fully independent suspension and even drill holes in the hubcaps to keep its brakes cool. However, its advanced technology killed any chance of profits. This, plus reliability issues with its semi-automatic transmission and Lycoming V8 engine, meant the model lasted only three years. It’s rare to see a Cord with right-hand drive, but this one was sold to a diamond magnate in South Africa. It was discovered with no engine 25 years ago, then restored over 5000 hours and converted to rear-wheel drive, gaining a GM small-block V8. It…

An owner’s view WILL LANGRIDGE “I’ve got a manual LP 640. The Murciélago stood out to me over a Ferrari or an Audi R8 because of how savage it looks, but it’s also quite beautiful. You can’t go wrong with that V12. It’s one of the best-sounding cars even to this day. I’m not usually a fan of convertibles but the roadster made sense as I wanted to get a constant earful of that noise, and it’s still ridiculously quick. If I had to highlight any issues it would be that the roof is a pain to remove and put back on again, which in England is risky at best. An owner I know also had problems with the e-Gear system. They convinced me to go for a full manual.”…

IN 1960, HOLDEN invited the press to drive its latest models in Lang Lang, Victoria – only the second time it had allowed us entry into its test facility since its 1957 opening. It featured a 50ft-wide, 2.9-mile speed loop and nine miles of other testing roads, including a “rough track” of crushed rock, pavé, ‘hop-and-tramp’ and scruffy concrete. We said: “On the general circuit, the roads and tracks give a fair simulation of normal city and country Australian roads. “Main hazard occurs at night, when kangaroos and wallabies cross the track in front of cars.” Some 55 people worked there, most developing Holden, Pontiac, Chevrolet and Vauxhall vehicles. Now with 27 miles of roads, Lang Lang was sold to Vinfast last year after GM killed Holden – but is…