Innholdsfortegnelse for July 12, 2023 i Autocar

THE DACIA SPRING – Europe’s cheapest electric car – will go on sale in the UK in summer 2024, the brand has finally confirmed two years after launching it on the continent. Unlike the Citroën Ami, the Spring has been confirmed to be converted to right-hand drive, and will be priced from well under £20,000 to become the UK’s most affordable electric car. The Ami is priced from £8095 (or £118 per month) but is technically a quadricycle. Currently, the lowest-priced electric car here is the Smart EQ Fortwo, at £23,320. Prices for the Spring start at €17,300 in France, translating to £14,760, but the final price for UK customers is expected to be slightly higher. The Spring will arrive here following an extensive mid-life facelift to bring it up…

SHIRO NAKAMURA – THE ex-Nissan design head honcho well known for the Cube, GT-R and much more besides – has unveiled a lightweight, rear-drive electric sports car. Developed for Japanese engineering firm Aim, the 1425kg EV Sport 01 uses two liquid-cooled, high-performance electric motors – one on each rear wheel. The motors are powered by an 81kWh battery and deliver a combined 483bhp and 582lb ft, for what is likely to be a sub-4.0sec 0-62mph time. Aim is considering limited production for the car, which makes its dynamic debut at the Goodwood Festival of Speed. HOT FISKER GT DUE AUGUST American EV firm Fisker will unwrap its Ronin super-GT on 3 August, claiming the UKdeveloped, five-seat Porsche Taycan rival will tout a range of more than 660 miles and supercar…

THE NEW MG 4 XPower is quicker and more potent than the Mercedes-AMG A45, the most powerful hot hatch currently in series production. Revealed ahead of a debut at Goodwood, the performance variant of MG’s electric hatch gets a dual-motor powertrain delivering 429bhp and 443lb ft through all four wheels – more than double the reserves of the Long Range model. This allows the XPower to go from 0-62mph in just 3.8sec, beating the AMG by 0.1sec and matching the five-cylinder Audi RS3. It’s even quicker off the mark than some of today’s most formidable dedicated sports cars, including the Alpine A110 S, Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 and BMW M2. The EV is cheaper than all of those cars too, landing in the UK at just £36,495. Meanwhile, to improve…

I’ve now driven Kamm Manufaktur’s restomodded Porsche 912 again. The Budapest-based outfit has in that time taken a handful of orders for its 750kg 912c. When we drove it for the first time, it had 168bhp, hyper-quick steering (at 1.7 turns between locks) and hard suspension. I don’t think drivers would have fancied a lengthy tour in it as it was, but as a way to hack along a twisty road, I thought it was fun like a Caterham Seven or a raucous street bike. In the past half-year, Kamm has toned down the aggressiveness. The car has been to its suspension supplier in the Netherlands twice to make it more pliant and has been given slower steering. To my mind, these changes widen the car’s use and broaden its…

Remember when Chinese car-making giant Geely bought Volvo? It went quiet for a few years, then came launch after launch. The same is now happening with Lotus, and its new generation starts with the Eletre – a big car in every sense. They call it a hyper-SUV, because it’s a 4x4 with at least 603bhp. A coupé-ish saloon will follow, then a smaller SUV, all on the same platform and all made in China. Only after that will there be a two-door sports car built in Norfolk, electric like the rest. The Emira petrol sports car and Evija electric hypercar feel a bit incidental to what’s coming. The Eletre’s Electric Premium Architecture, of which 47% is high-strength steel and 43% is aluminium, shares some basic ideas but “almost zero components”…

If you like your SUV with a side of extra swoop, the new-generation Mercedes GLC Coupé is here for your delectation. Most of the usual GLC engines are carried over, meaning it’s available with four-cylinder turbo petrol and diesel units, plus a petrol plug-in hybrid with an impressive 79 miles of EV range will follow before long. We have driven the 2.0-litre petrol GLC 300. Officially it sprints from 0-62mph in 6.3sec, but it doesn’t feel quite so sprightly in reality, due to the nine-speed automatic gearbox being quite slow on the uptake, even if it is smooth enough. In keeping with the GLC Coupé’s sporty nature, sports suspension is standard. Even on relatively small 19in wheels it’s rather firm, moving you around in your seat and picking up on…

A few weekends ago, 62 multimillion-pound cars were hurtling around the Circuit de la Sarthe for 24 hours at speeds in excess of 200mph. At the same time, a couple of dozen much cheaper ones with the potential to go equally as fast were tearing around a circular track, fortunately with no possibility of leaving it unexpectedly in a shower of sparks and advanced composites. That’s because the cars, around 45cm long, weighing up to 3kg and powered by tiny two-stroke engines, were attached to a centrally mounted pole by a length of steel piano wire. It’s called tether car racing, although in truth only one car can be run at a time – the point being to go as fast as possible or, in another form of competition that…

MODEL TESTED COUPE MANUAL Price £66,090 Power 453bhp Torque 406lb ft 0-60mph 4.5sec 30-70mph 3.8sec Fuel economy 26.5mpg CO2 emissions 226-230g/km 70-0mph 42.4m BMW has blown hot and cold with its compact M cars. The 2002 Turbo, the firm’s very first turbocharged road car, set the tone, coming only a year after BMW Motorsport was founded in 1973. But the 2002 had a short life, and after it bigger M cars took centre stage. It wasn’t until the late 1990s, with the Z3-based M Roadster and Coupé, that anything smaller than an M3 received a Motorsport badge. In 2011, a penny dropped when BMW squeezed a turbocharged straight six into a shrink-wrapped 1 Series Coupé, and the cultish 1M Coupé was born. The original M2 rekindled the 1M’s spirit in 2016…

MILEAGE 3405 WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT To see if a fast estate is still the best car in the world As I pass broad asphalted and concreted roadside truck parks that used to host the border posts between Belgium and Germany, a blue sign tells me I’ve changed countries and a black and white circle says the speed limit has been adjusted to… well, whatever I think is sensible today. Roads like this have become a large part of the appeal of Alpinas like this D3 S Touring. There are owners “who will use a car rather than plane to go from Munich to Frankfurt”, I was told last year by Andreas Bovensiepen, who, with his brother Florian, has been running the company their father founded to tune BMWs in…

In your Slideshow of 21 June, entitled ‘Great European cars powered by American engines’, Allard was highlighted as one of Europe’s first car makers to use American V8s. Sydney Allard’s problem was getting them. He could have bought crate engines from the US, but that would have been very expensive and very slow, so he devised a plan to get them locally. A relative of a friend of mine worked for Allard in London after the war, and I was sometimes able to chat to him over a pint. He told me that he and his colleagues were asked by Allard to keep an eye out for American V8 cars driven by US servicemen stationed around London whose cars had been shipped over, pursue them and insist that they sell…

An owner’s view PAUL CARPENTER “We bought our 2013-reg V40 D2 1.6 in 2019 with 125,000 miles on the clock and now it’s done 173,000. It never lets us down and is still tight as a drum. It’s an R-Design so has lots of features which all work. It’s not ULEZcompliant and we’re in Kent with London on our doorstep, so that’s a problem, but there’s always a market for a car that does 65mpg!” Buyer beware… ENGINE Poor running and increased fuel consumption on the 2.0-litre D4 diesel may point to a faulty EGR valve. Servicing is every 18,000 miles or 12 months, with the exception of the D2, which is 12,500 miles/12 months. All engines have a timing belt that requires scheduled changing. TRANSMISSION Some later six-speed manual…

Caterham headlines the Goodwood Festival of Speed this week with the unveiling of its stunning Project V concept – a vision of an electric sports coupé that the Kent-based marque could put into production as soon as 2026 at a rate of around 2000 units per year. Completely unrelated to the Caterham Seven and built around a totally bespoke and all-new lightweight architecture, it is described more as a “small tourer” than an apex-hunting track car like its minimalist sibling. It categorically does not replace the Seven, although it has been designed with a rigid focus on the “simple, light and fun to drive” ethos that CEO Bob Laishley says must continue to define the Caterham brand into the electric era. With a targeted real-world range of 249 miles, enough…

THE CEO OF the Volkswagen Group’s Chinese operations, Ralf Brandstätter, has warned that high capital investment and discounting in the electric vehicle sphere “will ultimately harm the interests of consumers”. Speaking at the 2023 China Automobile Forum in Shanghai, he said the electric vehicle market is “overheating”. “Currently, there are more than 120 car makers within the [electric vehicle] market and about 150 new models will be launched in 2023. Intense market competition and high battery prices make them face severe economic pressure. Short-term sales success requires extremely high capital investment,” he said. Touching on the financial squeeze facing electric vehicle start-ups, Brandstätter said many that have entered the EV market in recent years are exiting (or are about to exit) the segment, or are in urgent need of new…

BACK IN 2021, we looked at the move towards using sustainable materials in tyres, with major makers including Continental and Michelin aiming to radically clean up tyre production by 2050. That essentially means replacing petroleumbased products used for the main ingredients (synthetic rubber and carbon black) with biomaterials and recycled carbon black, steel and plastic. Unlikely substitutes include dandelions, PET from recycled bottles and rice husks – a by-product of the food industry normally good only for landfill. Things have moved on: Continental recently said it would be the first to launch a tyre with a “high content” of sustainable materials on the mainstream market. Its new Ultracontact NXT, which is suitable for both ICE cars and EVs, is up to 65% made from renewable or recycled materials. For any…

WE BRITS HAVE come to expect a wiper to clear away the water, muck and frost that accumulates on the rear glass of our hatchbacks, estates and SUVs. However, one brand recently thought it could get away with not fitting one to a new model, because it would have a virtual rear-view mirror. With vision out of the back taken care of by a camera and video screen, there would be no need for the rear window to be clean. This technology would cost around the same as having a wiper mechanism and would be lighter and more aerodynamic too. Unfortunately, no one had factored in the shortage of semiconductors that has plagued the industry in the past couple of years. With no chips, the virtual mirror had to be…

SATURDAY I was invited out of the blue to join a colourful three-car train of Riversimple Rasas – novel, diminutive, hydrogen-propelled ‘local cars’ built in Llandrindod Wells, Radnorshire – on an EV rally to Paris. My leg ended on Brighton’s Madeira Drive, a fact that I regretted because I had so enjoyed driving this tiny gullwinged two-seater while shooting the breeze with Riversimple’s founder and inspiration, Hugo Spowers, a former race car constructor and high-end car restorer. These days, Spowers, wife Fiona and their unique team create special vehicles “for those who value flexibility and freedom and want to live lightly on the planet”. The way they do it is admirable: no hectoring, no excess of missionary zeal – just a quiet and cheerful determination to show by example how…

No matter how jaded you may be by acceleration, the Tesla Model S Plaid takes pushing you back into your seat and flinging you at the horizon and turns it into an event to remember. Given a sufficiently long track, it takes off and doesn’t let up until it hits its 160mph limiter, with no hesitations, no gearchanges and virtually no noise. It somehow feels like a different order of speed to even a Porsche Taycan. What scrambles your mind is that this isn’t some exotic hypercar, it’s an everydayusable saloon. That could easily be all the reason you need to buy one. And buy one you now can – with some caveats. You’re stuck with left-hand drive, and it’s £113,480 before options, though that almost seems cheap when compared…

The Volkswagen Passat has been transformed for its ninth era, moved up into the E-segment by a 144mm increase in length (50mm in the wheelbase) and given a more upmarket positioning, with more space, greater comfort, nicer materials and improved tech. It won’t be shown in production form until September, but we have driven a late validation prototype. It’s an estate; indeed, there won’t be a saloon this time around. The Passat’s styling is described as evolutionary, the most notable things being reshaped headlights, a blanked-off upper grille, a new horizontal light bar and a more prominent body-side swage line. Inside, the bold new-look dash is focused on digital technology, having a 10.3in digital dial display and a central infotainment touchscreen of up to 15in. Ahead of the driver is…

“Along with Glastonbury, it is this country’s biggest gig of any kind held on a green-field site” I first came to the Goodwood Festival of Speed 20 years ago, and I bet the event that took place in 2003 couldn’t happen in 2023 – at least, not when it comes to driving on the track. Back then, I hooned up the hill in a Noble M12, wearing jeans and a shirt, after a cursory check of my race lid by some chap near the start line. When I drove last year, my mandatory race suit and approved helmet had to be scrutineered by Motorsport UK officials, and a current race licence presented to BARC staff. And that was just to pilot a three-wheeled EV. But while the nitty-gritty of running…

MILEAGE 7993 WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT Audi’s inceptive performance EV is a class act, but what’s it like to live with? For an indication of just how excellent the E-tron GT is, consider that I recently returned from an 1800-mile trip – and with it, endless charging stops – not hating the thing. I’m as surprised as you are. This kind of journey should have undone the Audi, with its paltry 240-mile cruising range, but it didn’t. If anything, I like it more. The trip was our first proper look at whether an EV in 2023 can be a true performance GT (the longerlegged Hyundai Ioniq 6 or Mercedes EQE don’t make the cut on dynamic grounds). There will be a feature on our adventure to Verona and back in…

FEATURE Jeep Avenger in the Alps It’s a terrific EV, but is it really infused with the go-anywhere spirit of Jeep? We find out by driving it up to Europe’s highest EV charger NEWS Festival of Speed All the important new metal and exciting moments from Goodwood FIRST DRIVE Audi RS6 Performance Twin-turbo V8 superestate has received a 621bhp ‘extreme’ makeover. We rate it EVERY WEEK DRIVEN MG 4 XPower Highly regarded EV turns hot hatch with 429bhp dual-motor powertrain BUYING GUIDE Alfa Romeo 4C Great to look at and fun to drive: this is an Alfa you need to own SUBSCRIBE autocar.co.uk/subscribe or see p18…

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…

Car makers must embrace a global trend towards minimalism, exploring opportunities to use fewer, less complex and lighter materials to create more striking vehicles. That’s the view of Renault design chief Gilles Vidal, who highlighted a shift towards designing for essential use while unveiling the Rafale SUV recently. “It’s time for an era of less bling, I believe,” he said. “The challenge for designers will be shaping a brand that is strong and impressive but so much simpler than today. We still want to be making striking cars, but with a more minimalistic, essential design.” Vidal noted how the role of advancing technology is opening up new opportunities for designers, particularly around lighting. This includes headlight shapes – the Rafale’s front headlights ape a split version of the Renault logo…

Along-awaited replacement for the Alfa Romeo GTV coupé could arrive as soon as 2026, after the Italian brand’s chief designer confirmed that design work is continuing behind the scenes. It is not yet officially part of the product plan, but if Alfa Romeo’s corporate fortunes continue to improve as they have over the past 18 months, the GTV could be added to its list of new-model releases in 2026 or 2027 (by which time the marque’s line-up will be all-electric), Alejandro Mesonero-Romanos hinted to Autocar. The GTV isn’t to be confused with the low-volume sports car that Alfa Romeo is set to unveil later this year (see box, right). That takes inspiration from the 1967 33 Stradale, which is commonly thought of as the most beautiful Alfa Romeo ever designed.…

THE TAMIYA WILD One R/C car – a mainstay of the 1980s toy box and highly collectable today – has been turned into the full-sized, road-legal electric dune buggy of your dreams. Available to order from £35,000, the Wild One Max is the work of Bicester-based The Little Car Company, known for its downsized EV reworkings of iconic classics such as the Ferrari 250 and Bugatti Type 35. It’s a faithful, 500kg tribute to its pint-sized namesake, albeit with some concessions to real-world usability, including a widened, two-seat cockpit, shorter suspension turrets and – crucially – windscreen wipers. Power is supplied by eight swappable battery packs totalling 14.4kWh and giving about 120 miles of range. Top speed is pegged at 62mph. With 270mm of ground clearance, an approach angle of…

The Mercedes-Benz CLE is a sleek new two-door model that acts as an indirect replacement for the C-Class and E-Class coupés – and will be one of the German firm’s final combustion cars. Set for UK sale by the end of this year, it forms part of Mercedes’ efforts to consolidate its ICE line-up as it ramps up investment in new electric models. The CLE will be sold initially in coupé form only, but a soft-top cabriolet is planned for 2024. The BMW 4 Series rival is based on Mercedes’ MRA platform and shares many components – including its hybrid drivetrains, electrical architecture, MBUX infotainment and interior elements – with the current C-Class and E-Class saloons. It is also styled to closely match those two cars. At 4850mm in length,…

The Ford Fiesta has finally bowed out of production at the firm’s factory in Cologne, Germany, to make way for the new Explorer electric SUV to run down the line. The final two examples of the ever-popular supermini drove out of the factory gates last Friday (7 July). One will head to Daventry to become part of the firm’s UK heritage fleet, while the other will be put on display in Ford’s international historic collection, located inside the factory grounds. Ford’s European boss, Martin Sander, previously acknowledged to Autocar that the supermini’s departure is “sad, because owners have great memories” but said: “If you want to grab something new firmly with both hands, you also have to be willing to let something go.” The new Explorer is set to be…

Robin Shute remains king of the mountain. The Brit took his fourth Pikes Peak Hillclimb win in five years recently, battling adversity to once again conquer the 12.42-mile, 156-turn ascent in Colorado. He remains the only Brit to win the ‘Race to the Clouds’ in the 101 editions run since 1916. Shute had planned an assault in an Aston Martin Vantage GT3 this year, but when a budget shortfall scuppered that plan, he fell back on his trusty Ultimate-class 2018 Wolf TSC-FS. A 20% bump in downforce from a new aero package and more power for its Honda engine from a bigger BorgWarner turbo boosted his chase not only for victory but also the records he craves the most. The first mark is Sébastien Loeb’s combustion-engine record of 8min 13.878sec,…

Between now and 2026, when BMW takes the reins, Alpina will make fewer than 6000 cars. After that, who knows what will happen? There’s a fair chance that Munich will leverage Buchloe’s reputation for lavish interiors and general bespokery to create a neat stepping stone between M and Rolls-Royce, but whether the cars will continue to be so assiduously honed in mechanical terms is open to question. I wouldn’t bet on it, because with the Bovensiepen family out of the picture, profit will probably take precedence. Of those nearly 6000 cars to come, only a tiny portion will be a B5 super-saloon. This model is based on the outgoing M550i but taken to serious heights in performance and breadth. The B5 (historically called the B10) tends to be the flagbearer…

Asingle loud report from a big-bore titanium exhaust announced the Prodrive P25’s arrival. We had started hearing the growl of an approaching car a little earlier, definitely something with a decent helping of horsepower, but perhaps, we thought, it was some other potent machine, just passing by. However, properly bred rally cars generally produce a characteristic crack, when the engine ignition is cut to facilitate their near-instant gearchanges, and that sound was unmistakable. Within a minute, front and centre, its exhaust ticking from the heat, stood the final prototype of the P25, a restomod of Subaru’s ultra-rare 1997 Impreza 22B STi. It had been driven on shakedown by Prodrive’s founder and chairman, David Richards, who will soon start delivering cars to customers in earnest. We had arranged to meet for…

Customer Facility N10 at MIRA proving ground, Warwickshire. Not the most arresting setting, but that changes pretty quickly once you are inside. N10 is currently home to what can only be described as a pack of prototypes: snouty, predatory and a little murderous in the case of one that has been subjected to 300,000 miles’ worth of corrosion tests. Its camo is tatty and long streaks of iron oxide have dribbled down its chin, though the head of vehicle engineering for the Polestar 5, Steve Swift, points out that these ferrous fangs are from the third-party mounts of the light pods needed for night-time testing – they won’t go anywhere near the finished article. So when do we get to see and drive that finished article? It will be next…

AMG’s lost the plot Your road test of the latest Mercedes-AMG GT saloon (21 June) has caused me to write to you, and rarely do I write to anybody these days. I am 78 and have been an ardent admirer of AMG for many years. Since my retirement from the motor industry, I’ve run a number of performance cars, including AMG E63 Estates (6.2-and 5.5-litres), a C43 Estate (a mistake in hindsight) and more recently a C63 S Estate (brilliant at keeping me on my toes). My current steer is a Range Rover Sport SVR, so you can see where my sentiments lie, propulsion-wise. Anyway, to the point: AMG will no longer figure in my future buying decisions, as few as there may be. The introduction of four-cylinder engines and…

Amazon, P1800, 960, 850 T5-R… Volvo knows how to make a cult hero. But with the V40 family hatchback of 2012-19, the firm could have been accused of mislaying the recipe, although the discreetly raised Cross Country version did make an appearance in cult TV detective series Midsomer Murders. Okay, you’re not convinced, but get this: today, the V40 has a surprisingly large and loyal following among those who, we assume, are attracted by its sleek looks, deep quality and, crucially, unshowy – read: ‘not German’ – heritage. On that last point, why else would someone forgo the superior driving experience and practicality of something such as the Audi A3 Sportback? Price, perhaps? True, a V40 is slightly cheaper by around £1000 and comes with a little bit more kit.…

THE FINAL FIESTA left Ford’s factory in Cologne last Friday, ending nearly half a century of production – and neatly coinciding with our coverage of the supermini’s launch. The Fiesta’s origins can be traced back further than you may expect. Ford had never contested Europe’s ‘mini’ car market before, choosing in 1958 to follow the Anglia with another family car – the Cortina – in the correct belief that it would be a greater financial success. A belief solidified by a thorough teardown of Austin’s new Mini in 1959. However, as the Mini became a huge success and gained popular rivals in the Hillman Imp and Fiat 127, Ford felt it should think again. This spawned a mock-up that in 1970 gained reserved approval from management, after which the endeavour…

Sharp styling, large spoilers and sculpted air dams will occasionally trick us into thinking an appropriately meaty engine lies beneath the bonnet. But looks can be deceiving, and they don’t always mean great acceleration or a high top speed. Here are some cars that are less meteoric than they appear. Volkswagen SP2 At first glance, the SP2 resembled Volkswagen’s answer to magnificent big-ironed GTs such as the Jensen Interceptor or Monteverdi 375. Well, not quite. Brazil was starved of sports cars due to high import taxes (and occasional outright bans), so the country had its own, the Puma, based on a Beetle. VW then developed the SP2 division to give the country another sports car. It had a sleek steel body with cut-out rear vents and a long bonnet, plus…