Innholdsfortegnelse for September 2021 i CAR UK

Factfile POWERTRAIN 100kWh battery pack (est), twin e-motors CHASSIS Aluminium and steel DUE 2022 1 THE MASTER’S TEACHINGS A pioneer and huge success in both its generations, the XC90 is a crucial part of Volvo’s electric product plan. Its replacement will remain the brand’s flagship model, but will not be named XC90. Like the outgoing XC90, the new electric SUV will introduce new safety and autonomy standards. 2 A PROPER PREVIEW Volvo gave us a peek at its new design direction with the Concept Recharge (below). Cues from the concept will span the entire model range from Volvo in future, including a bulbous lidar sensor suite that promises Level 4 self-driving ability aided by artificial intelligence. Regional laws permitting, of course. 3 A NEW TOY BOX Scalable Product Architecture 2…

If a car can survive two weeks of racing in the desert, it can survive anything. So Audi’s not held back with its first ever works entry in the Dakar Rally, the electrified RS Q e-Tron. Sven Quandt, the motorsport veteran who’s collaborating with Audi, likens the project to the first moon landing. ‘Back then, the engineers didn’t really know what was coming. It’s similar with us. If we finish the first Dakar event, that’s already a success.’ It’s electric, but with an engine too The wheels are driven soley by the e-motors, not the engine, and there’s no physical centre differential - instead, software distributes torque virtually. The 50kWh battery, in the floor of the RS Q e-Tron, is charged by the petrol engine, positioned behind the cabin, and…

Illustration: Chris Rathbone Emanuele Pirro is good company wherever you are. But in the cockpit of a Lamborghini Essenza SCV12 at the Festival of Speed he’s in his element; thoughtful, articulate, and a force of nature behind the wheel. ‘We talk at the top,’ he smiles as we’re cleared for take-off… The run comprises savage noise, scarcely credible acceleration and, as the race wets get gummy and Pirro dials down the TC intervention threshold on his multi-function steering wheel, a series of deliciously decadent slides. After showing his Emanuele Pirro is good company wherever you are. But in the cockpit of a Lamborghini Essenza SCV12 at the Festival of Speed he’s in his element; thoughtful, articulate, and a force of nature behind the speed in karts in the late ’70s,…

The S-Class has traditionally been the most cutting-edge model in Mercedes range, so it’s no surprise the new, 2021 car is bristling with gadgets. A 5.3-metre showcase of all the technology Stuttgart has to offer, the key question is whether all this cleverness and processing power makes life better for the car’s occupants or simply blinds us with science. You get more choices about how you interact with the new My MBUX system. In addition to the vocal commands of the previous version, the upgrade also gets biometric functionality, gesture commands, mobile office software and a lot more. The new S-Class will learn your face, voice and fingerprints all in a bid to make security faster and easier. And if you want a final layer, it will let you set…

Want to know what a car really feels like; how balanced, communicative and on-your-side it really is? Then pop on some track-ready Cup 2 Michelins, wait for a British July day - persistent rain, clouds the colour of battleships, roads a mirror for the bruised sky - and have at it. A crying shame? Nah. Every mile in a 911 is one to be savoured, and this is the GT3 experience to bookend our first. That was the ‘standard’ car (racecar aesthetic, complete with vast swan-neck RSR-style rear wing) with the PDK twin-clutch ’box on a warm, dry circuit. (Selflessly, video man James Dennison took that one - cheers, James.) This is the GT3 with Touring Package, manual ’box, on wet Sussex roads. A compromised review then, surely? Almost certainly.…

Same money, give or take a few thou. Almost the same output. Similar looks and performance. So what splits the BMW M8 Gran Coupe and Alpina’s variation on the theme, the new B8? Character. The Alpina is a very fast cruiser, the BMW a four-plus-one-seater sports coupe. At 2175kg, the B8 weighs as much as the B7 limo, which explains why the Gran Coupe feels less chuckable, overtly dynamic and sporty than the 5-series-based B5. For better or worse, everything about this car feels solid and beefy. The centre console is too wide, the steering wheel too fat-rimmed, the bodykit too busy, the high-tech approach too intense. Unlike the B3 and B5, B8 has outgrown the age of playfulness. Its main purpose is to deliver, not to entertain. And deliver…

This is a silly car that has fallen out of time. But those who still live in the past are bound to love it Imagine the unimaginable. Like reeling in by magic all that explosive forward thrust on the nose-dive approach to a triple-X bend. Cornering at g-forces that would unglue the rear-view mirror in lesser automobiles. Shrieking smoothly, effortlessly and safely through a wide and long third-gear arc, climaxing momentarily in a hinted tailslide. Briefly exceeding an indicated 196mph on a downhill stretch of the A8. Not lifting through a series of heart-stopping esses in the Black Forest. Questioning the on-board computer’s calculated average consumption of 8.4mpg. There’s no doubt about it: this is a silly car that has fallen out of time. But those who still live in…

Alex Tapley Can a Megane RS do everyday sober as well as trackday spectacular? Ben Barry recently ran a Renault Megane RS Trophy as a long-term test car, and was unapologetic about his approach: ‘I won’t go on too much on the humdrum stuff. This is a Trophy, after all, so its raison d’etre is driving thrills, not supermarket runs. And I promise, no trips to the tip.’ His Trophy had the stiffened Cup chassis, a manual gearbox and the Torsen limited-slip diff. But it left open the question: what if you do want to do some supermarket runs and trips to the tip? Can a Megane RS do ‘everyday sober’ as well as ‘trackday spectacular’? Can it be a genuine alternative to the default VW Golf GTI? To find…

So the question we asked ourselves at the onset of this particular test was, in a world of electric and crossovers, is this dear old new Golf actually relevant any more? Well, after six months, I can say definitively: yes. I’ve thrown the kitchen sink at it, everyday life-wise, and there’s not really been any point where I’ve thought I could do with sitting in a more commanding position, or felt that twinge of guilt as the fuel needle falls. There’s enough room for everyone and everything, and it goes about its business with minimal fuss. I looked at the light grey fabric seats when it turned up and doubted they would stand the test of time, but even melted Maltesers wipe off with a quick swipe. The boot I…

Alex Tapley During the four months I’ve had the Sorento so far, it’s slowly dawned on me that I love it. Don’t just admire it, don’t just find it useful, actually love it. Partly it’s because my expectations were reasonably low, and it’s handsomely exceeded them. It’s an unpretentious car that doesn’t ask to be loved, but it does the job very well. Partly it’s because – as a freelance photographer who needs to turn up when he says he’s going to turn up – I value very highly the Sorento’s reliability. Seven-year warranty, you say? Entirely unnecessary when a car is so well made. And mostly it’s because it feels right. It feels like I belong in here. I’m a tall bloke, and it’s plenty roomy enough. I carry…

Can we just pause for a moment to marvel at the extreme oddness of my Citroën Berlingo XL? It has the body of a van, a cabin which will take seven adults in complete comfort, a 4000-litre boot, and a turbocharged, three-cylinder, 1.2-litre petrol engine turning an eight-speed automatic gearbox. It reads like the product of an online random car-spec generator but it mostly works amazingly well. On a typically busy family weekend it was kept busy ferrying my kids, their mates and their mates’ parents in varying combinations to the movies, the beach and the burger place. The two rear rows of seats were up and down like a yo-yo: it’s remarkable how easy this cabin is to configure, and how easy it is to access the third row…

CARS, PEOPLE, SCOOPS, MOTORSPORT, ANALYSIS – THE MONTH ACCORDING TO CAR Bugatti, Rimac and Porsche are joining forces and will go into business together towards the end of the year. The official announcement confirms news broken by CAR’s Georg Kacher last September. Three legendary brands, one goal: to electrify the performance cars of the future with a new joint venture: Bugatti-Rimac. ‘It’s the perfect fusion of Rimac’s fast-paced electrification innovations, and Bugatti’s 110-year heritage of design and craftsmanship,’ Mate Rimac told the world’s media during the announcement. ‘All of those involved will benefit,’ Lutz Meschke, Porsche’s deputy chairman added, ‘and the future of Bugatti - a proud and tradition-rich brand - has been secured.’ But how exactly will the three brands benefit? How will it all be organised? And, most…

THE HAPTIC TACTIC The biggest change, visually, is the interior; Cayenne-like haptic touch panels, a widescreen display (with a new infotainment OS) and a steering wheel from the 992-gen 911 are all standard. Porsche is going bigger on customisation inside, too, but we suspect most will look as black inside as this one does. RIDING ON AIR Every Macan benefits from chassis tweaks, while hot GTS versions have air suspension as standard – there’s the option to spec a sports set-up with adaptive dampers, too. After maximum performance? The GTS Sport pack adds performance tyres and Porsche’s Torque Vectoring Plus technology. IT’S GOT THE POWER Behind the tweaked face, power has been upped across the board. The basic model gets a new 261bhp 2.0-litre engine – up 20bhp – that…

THE WORLD’S BEST WRITERS IN THE NEW CARS THAT MATTER When you need it, the battery helps churn up 4721b ft of torque, meaning this gigantic car is no slouch A lot of unthinkable things have come to pass over the last few years. Like a global pandemic? I know! No one saw that one coming, right? Except Bill Gates. And maybe President Xi Jinping of China. But I’m not talking about the pandemic, I’m talking about climate change. A few years ago, could you have imagined us talking about a hybrid Bentley? Or an electric Harley-Davidson? And now we have this, the new plug-in electric hybrid (PHEV) Defender. Powered by a turbocharged 2.0-litre petrol four-cylinder along with a 19.2kWh battery and electric motor, the P400e might not seem remarkable…

It’s a steadfast, stoic sort of car, not one that feels like it was designed with sheer driving pleasure near the top of its priorities There’s a massive clue in the name. According to VW, the GTX badge signals extra power, sportiness and street cred. Not so if you remember the Scirocco GTX - a tarted-up farce on wheels born and buried in 1983. Marketing people, what were you thinking? It is, unfortunately, symptomatic of a VW Group MEB-platform product that doesn’t really know what it is and who it’s for. The real added value of the GTX over any other currently available ID.4 model is nothing to do with the hints of hot hatch that take the form of slightly more aggressive bodywork and a lightly spruced-up cabin. The…

Inside, this Golf has all the refinement and tech you’d expect from VW’s most popular car. But switch to its Nürburgring mode, take manual control of the seven-speed DSG to better use all 296bhp, and it becomes very different. Because this isn’t any old Golf. It’s the GTI Clubsport 45, aimed at rivals like the Renault Megane RS and Honda Civic Type R. For those not fluent in VW, the Golf GTI Clubsport 45 is the ultimate expression of ‘GTI’ and marks four and a half decades since the badge appeared. It’s an eighth-generation Golf covered in a thick layer of GTI, lashings of ‘track-focused’ Clubsport parts and a sprinkle of ‘45’ trinkets. The Clubsport bit brings the majority of the changes; it provides that more aggressive front bumper and…

The none per cent In the July 2021 issue the following cars were reviewed: Bentley Continental £195k, Maserati MC20 £187k, Aston Martin Speedster £765k, Rimac Nevera £2m, Ferrari Roma £170k, Porsche 911 £160k, Aston Martin DB11 £178k, Audi RS e-Tron £112k, BMW M5 CS £140k, Ferrari 812 £432k. I am sure that these are all great to drive (and no doubt you enjoy the thrill of testing them), but to the average punter who reads CAR these are just an irrelevance in terms of the lives that we live and the income we have. Truly impractical and unaffordable. The most interesting article in this issue was on the Toyota Mirai. A refreshingly honest review of what is available right now in terms of hydrogen-powered vehicles. Good on Toyota, but we…

► Why is it here? This car is important to Audi: after the warm-up act of the e-Tron SUV and the sportier GT models, the Q4 signals the start of mass-market electrification at Ingolstadt. Audi UK predicts it’ll become the second-biggest seller here (behind the A3) as early as next year. ► Any clever stuff? Underpinning the Q4 is the VW Group’s MEB modular electric architecture (right) – the hardware used across the VW empire from ID.3 and ID.4 to Skoda Enyaq and Cupra Born. This industrial economy of scale should enable cutting-edge tech at more democratic prices. ► Which version is this? This is the likely best-seller, the Q4 e-Tron 40 Sport – the Goldilocks of the range, being neither the puniest 35 entrylevel model (whose range dips as…

When your company name is Bavarian Motor Works Company and you’ve engineered some of the industry’s finest combustion engines, your company has plenty to lose with the world’s rapid shift to electrification. But Oliver Zipse, chairman of BMW’s managing board, is taking it all in his stride. ‘People tend to think the status quo is the best. But performance driving machines like BMWs evolve. Twenty five years ago if you’d have predicted [widespread] diesels in BMWs, that’s impossible. Five years ago, we had 80 per cent diesel penetration in Europe. ‘When I was younger still, it was all about the stick shift. The other day I drove an M3 with a stick shift [not available in the UK]. Yes, it’s very puristic. But I feel the best transmission is now…

On 25 June 2021, in the Munich suburb of Garching, I experience what BMW describes as the Great Entrance Moment. It involves a bespoke aural experience composed by Hollywood movie soundtrack superstar Hans Zimmer, accompanied by an in-dash animation and an LED show that illuminates mirrors, door handles and daytime running lights, not to mention a vast projection of the logo. Or that’s the theory. But when I first open the door of the iX, the chips suddenly go AWOL and the mood swings to Christmas carols and an infinite cartoon loop starring a red-nosed reindeer. This is in 34º midsummer heat. ‘Oops,’ notes the software supervisor on standby. ‘Seems we’re exactly six months out and the computer thinks it’s time to light the candles on the tree.’ Oops indeed.…

HELLO VW GOLF GTI + FORD KUGA, GOODBYE JAGUAR F-TYPE, SKODA OCTAVIA, VW GOLF TSI + AUDI E-TRON SPORTBACK Alex Tapley What a difference a year makes. January 2020 I was in Portugal, on the launch of the new F-Type, driving sensational and largely deserted mountain roads in a P300 Coupe and thinking, ‘Gosh, wouldn’t an F-Type be a lovely thing to have?’ I know this because the photos are there on my phone as proof, though they look for all the world like postcards from another planet. Those bright, chilly and dry days in southern Europe were a joy, and while majoring on the four- cylinder, I also snuck a drive in the flagship R, marvelling at how – in much the same way as the 3-series spans 318i…

It’s been a long time since I’ve had a complete change of opinion on a car, and I’ve just experienced exactly that with the Formentor – for the better. I borrowed the Cupra for a trip to Cornwall. I needed a car with a big boot and bearable road noise on the motorway; Tim Pollard, the Cupra’s usual keeper, had been politely hinting he’d really quite like a go in the Toyota GR Yaris, so we traded cars for a week. On the journey down I decided the Cupra definitely wasn’t for me. The laggy touchscreen is infuriating, and the sat-nav simply doesn’t work at times. At one point in Devon, it calmly requested we turn right through a dry-stone wall and across a field to reach our destination; at…

We do enjoy having an estate car parked in the diminutive herringboned divot that is the driveway of ff-C Towers. Especially now that the much vaunted look-over-walls height advantage bestowed on SUV owners has been effectively nullified by the sheer number of them careering around. The last word in driving dynamics is not, frankly, anywhere near the top of the missus’ list of essential ingredients in a car. But she has been shouting at CAR long-term test cars for long enough now to appreciate a truly spacious family machine that does not roll like a Labrador presented with fox poo at every whiff of a corner. Especially when she has her own evil-smelling example of same curled up astern. So it’s to the Octavia’s credit that it manages to shackle…

What the hell is that? Peugeot’s new 9X8 Le Mans racer, a jaw-dropping prototype so ferociously sexy it’s singlehandedly supercharging sports car racing’s renaissance. The wild aesthetic is the result of an internal Peugeot design competition and combines the menace of Peugeot’s most successful Le Mans car, the 905 that won in 1992 and 1993, with plenty of current Peugeot and Sport Engineered cues. Peugeot CEO Linda Jackson insists a return to endurance racing is both the ideal R&D lab for hybrid technology and the perfect arena in which to demonstrate ‘total reliability’. As well as winning, the 9X8’s job on track will be to market what Jackson describes as Peugeot’s ‘energy transition’ - 70 per cent of Peugeot’s offering will be electrified by the end of this year. The…

This month’s new motoring watches all defy the usual car-watch cliches and – price aside – have quite a lot in common. None is from the usual suspects like Heuer or Chopard, even if one of them does have a very famous motoring name. None has the chronograph stopwatch function you’d expect to find on a motoring watch. And all can be ordered in modish blue, as seen here. 01 | Roger Dubuis Excalibur Spider Pirelli From £68,000 Does anyone love Pirelli so much they’d be prepared to drop most of the price of a 911 on a watch celebrating the tyres it wears? Cool innovations include a strap made from recycled F1 race-winning rubber, and a quick-change system for strap, bezel and crown inspired by pitstops, which lets you…

It’s when I sit in the back seats that the DS 9 makes most sense. It’s blissful. There’s heaps of knee room and lovely seats in this 4.9-metre saloon. Iconoclastic chauffeur companies take note. Here you get the most benefit from the calm ambience, the comfort-orientated suspension and the high level of cabin tech. It’s pretty agreeable up front, too - pleasing to the eye and the touch. Our plug-in hybrid - which has an ii.9kWh lithium-ion battery that can supply up to 34 miles of zero-emissions driving - pulls away in Electric mode, and when the i.6-litre petrol four joins in it doesn’t make much noise below motorway speeds. For a long, heavy, front-wheel-drive car, the DS 9 hauls itself competently through corners, with progressive bodyroll and sufficient front-end…

The world is not short of B-segment SUVs, but there hasn’t been one from Toyota since the slow-selling Urban Cruiser gave up in 2012. So with the new Yaris Cross, Toyota has to find a way into a market that’s already stuffed with perfectly decent cars such as the Ford Puma, Renault Captur and Peugeot 2008. Building it on the firm’s capable TNGA-B (GA-B) platform is a good start, as is offering only hybrid propulsion, using a hyper-efficient 1.5-litre petrol triple. Add a dash of unconventional style and the option of four-wheel drive, and this latecomer is looking like a contender. There are four models to choose from, plus a fully-featured Premiere Edition version. They’re all well-equipped with the usual infotainment tech, plus a good spread of driver-assistance systems as…

VALHALLA VIRTUALLY REALITY If you’re struggling to recall the exact details of the Aston Martin Valhalla, the middle child of former CEO Andy Palmer’s mid-engined triptych (£1m, a shade under 1000bhp, ‘son of Valkyrie’), don’t be too hard on yourself. A lot’s happened since 2018. What’s more, that 2019 Geneva show car was less a car, more an idea – a very-early-days bridge of a concept to span the yawning gulf between the flagship Valkyrie (V12 engine, Adrian Newey aero, cockpit the size of a Kinder egg) and the Vanquish, Palmer’s proposed £220k-ish Ferrari/McLaren/Lambo fighter. Since Palmer’s departure and the arrival of Aston’s new management team, a ruthless and welcome pragmatism has taken hold under the new Project Horizon game plan. And nowhere is this more clearly evident than in…

We’re gonna need our X-ray specs for this Giant Test: to see through the fart modes in Tesla’s Toybox, the achingly cool Tonka style of the Back To The Future Ioniq 5, the Audi’s dancing strobe lights and quartic steering wheel, and Polestar’s vegan interiors and built in Google Assistant. This quartet is bristling with innovation and gadgetry, but it’s our job to separate the sweet from the naff, the super from the superficial. They’re a disparate bunch – one notchback and one SUV, a saloon and a super-sized hatchback – but united in their increasingly viable electric powertrains allowing a claimed 300-ish miles between top-ups and style that’ll make you want an electric car rather than merely need one to poleaxe your tax bills. A dozen years after Nissan’s…

500 ELECTRIC & FIAT’S SMALL WONDERS 1. FIAT NUOVA 500 Miniaturised genius, and the role model for all future 500s – and all small Fiats PRICE £599 then (£10k now) YEARS BUILT 1957-1975 POWERTRAIN 499cc twin, four-speed manual, rear-wheel drive PERFORMANCE 18bhp, 530kg, n/a sec 0-62mph, 59mph 2. FIAT PANDA 100HP Hot second-gen Panda. Not very powerful but a little bundle of driving joy PRICE £9995 then (£1.75k now) YEARS BUILT 2006-2010 POWERTRAIN 1368cc four-cylinder, six-speed manual, front-wheel drive PERFORMANCE 99bhp, 975kg, 9.5sec 0-62mph, 115mph 3. FIAT 126 Rebodied 500, still cute and fun. Motorised Poland rather than Italy PRICE £2895 (£4k now) YEARS BUILT 1972-1992 POWERTRAIN 704cc twin, four-speed manual, rear-wheel drive PERFORMANCE 25bhp, 620kg, 31.2sec 0-62mph, 72mph 4. FIAT 500 The modern phenomenon, here in droptop form with…

Jordan Butters Ford’s third-generation Kuga is the most complete yet, and according to our brief test reviews, the best by far. It looks and drives like a Focus, because that’s what it is, under the skin. A Focus with more interior space, a bigger boot and the more sophisticated multi-link rear suspension you only get on posher versions of the hatch. The range starts at a competitive £25,007 for a Zetec-trim car powered by the base 148bhp 1.5-litre petrol engine, takes in 118bhp 1.5- and 148bhp 2.0-litre mild-hybrid diesels, and, for those who demand four-wheel drive, tops out with a mild-hybrid diesel that makes 187bhp. There’s also a front-wheel-drive petrol-powered full hybrid that serves up the same 187bhp, but top of the tree, and top pick for people who like…

Alex Tapley The e-Tron Sportback is good at being an Audi, and quite good at being an electric vehicle. But it’s not perfect, in part because it’s an EV, and in part because it’s an Audi EV. I’ll explain. Like all the best Audis, it’s ultra-desirable, and looks great, the mix of squared-off rear arches and bigger front intakes endowing it with more presence than the meeker non-Sportback sibling. Interior quality is also top-notch, way beyond what you’ll find in a Tesla. In our 10 months we loved the space inside too, both up front for tall parents, and in the back where we had two chunky car seats. Despite being a button enthusiast I even got on with the dual touchscreens, and the cameras-for- mirrors concept worked as well.…

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