Innholdsfortegnelse for 21/09/2016 i Autocar

Bentley is set to launch its first diesel-powered production model next January. The Bentayga Diesel is powered by a triple-charged 4.0-litre V8 diesel engine, which has been co-developed with Audi and uses two twin-scroll turbochargers supplemented by an electrically driven supercharger. It develops 429bhp and the same peak torque as the Bentayga’s twin-turbo 6.0-litre petrol W12, although the diesel’s 664lb ft extends from just 1000rpm to 3250rpm. That’s enough to launch the Bentayga Diesel from 0-62mph in 4.8sec and on to 168mph. According to Bentley’s head of engineering, Rolf Frech, its acceleration from 25mph to 75mph “is much the same as the W12’s, but the W12 gets a second wind at higher speeds”. Fuel economy for the £135,800 luxury SUV is quoted at 35.8mpg combined and its CO2 emissions are…

Mitsubishi is set to unveil a large plug-in hybrid SUV concept at the Paris show later this month. Called the Ground Tourer, it uses the same powertrain as the Outlander PHEV, with a petrol engine and two electric motors, but the battery pack has been upgraded. Mitsubishi claims an EV range of 75 miles and a total range of 750 miles. The Ground Tourer is described by its maker as a “high-end, next-generation SUV”. The production version is expected to join the firm’s expanding line-up of SUVs after the compact ASX is replaced in 2018. BUILD YOUR OWN £69 CATERHAM SEVEN A Lego Caterham Seven will go on sale next month. The 620R has more than 770 pieces and costs £69. It was initially built by a fan, Carl Greatrix,…

MERCEDES-AMG HAS revealed its new 196mph GT Roadster in advance of a world debut for the open-top two-seater at the Paris motor show this month. Mirroring the G T coupé, the GT Roadster will be sold in two versions when UK sales start later this year: the 469bhp GT Roadster and the more comprehensively equipped 547bhp GT C Roadster. Pricing is yet to be revealed but Mercedes-AMG officials suggest the GT Roadster will be around £10,000 more than the equivalent coupé. If so, the GT Roadster will be close to £107,000 and the GT C will nudge £120,000. First deliveries are not expected until next April. The GT Roadster uses the same twin-turbocharged 4.0-litre V8 petrol engine as the GT, but power outputs have been raised from 456bhp to 469bhp…

As part of a rejig of its Fiesta line-up, Ford has replaced Zetec S trim with the Ford Performance-inspired ST-Line, giving the supermini the sporty looks of the ST hot hatch but without that car’s sparkling performance. ST-Lines are easy to spot, because they wear a full bodykit, including a rear diffuser and bigger rear spoiler, a lip spoiler on the front bumper and a black honeycomb grille. Lower (by 10mm) sports suspension and intricate 17in alloys complete the exterior alterations. Inside, there are red-stitched sports seats, a leather-clad steering wheel, aluminium pedals and ST-Line kick plates, while three versions of the 1.0-litre three- cylinder Ecoboost petrol engine are initially being offered with this trim, including the 99bhp version tested here, as well as a 94bhp 1.5-litre four-cylinder diesel. The…

The DB11 has many more strengths to draw on than its predecessor ever did. Considering the bold new look in particular, some DB9 owners upgrading into the new car might at first not recognise much of an inherited legacy. Then they’ll hear that inimitable V12 growl, get a taste of the outstandingly supple handling dynamism and long-striding, effortless acceleration, let the new-found cabin integrity and sophistication percolate into their perception and realise they’ve bought the car that their old Aston, and every ‘DB’ before it, was inexorably leading towards. The DB11’s styling may not bowl you over like the DB9’s did a decade ago, but we’ll leave a pin in that for now. What the big Aston has gained in terms of accessible performance, handling composure, damping sophistication and material…

 WE WON’T DWELL long on this group (or the pair opposite), because they appeared in our ‘Best driver’s cars for under £25k’ contest recently. But what we didn’t factor into that contest was just how fast they were around Enid. “The DS 3 is the quickest of this group. It’s a really enjoyable track car” The contenders are the DS 3 Performance, the Ford Fiesta ST200 and the Renault Clio RS 220 Trophy. There are differences in their mechanical specification, but none so grand as in the supercar or sports car pairings. All are front engined and front driven and all are within touching distance of 200bhp. Two manufacturers, though – Renault Sport and the team at Ford – have more hot hatch heritage and experience than the other. So…

RUN-FLATS: DOS AND DON’TS Run-flats are designed to get you home or allow you to find a safe place to stop and change the wheel. They’re not designed for driving at speed or for distances greater than the manufacturer recommends, so it’s important that the driver can detect a deflation. They should only be fitted to cars with TPMS, which has been mandatory on new cars sold in Europe since 2014. Bridgestone revealed more details of its new DriveGuard tyre technology at an event in the UK recently. The DriveGuard is a self-supporting run-flat tyre that can be fitted to conventional wheel rims and driven at speeds of up to 50mph for a maximum distance of 50 miles. The tyre can be fitted to any car equipped with a tyre…

Delta blues Loved your comparison test of the new Alfa Giulia Quadrifoglio versus Mercedes-AMG C63 (14 September). The Alfa looks great and makes the Mercedes look ordinary. As a Ford man, I’d have the Alfa, although £59k is an awful lot of money. T hat said, the C63 S isn’t worth £8450 more, and perhaps with the difference used on performance parts, how fast could the Giulia go with, say, 550bhp? Lancia must be champing at the bit, for surely it has the 4x4 chassis basis for a new Delta Integrale and a powerful Ferrari-ish V6 for a new Stratos. C’mon, Fiat, make both, please! Ben Marshall Liversedge, West Yorkshire WIN Letter of the week wins this ValetPRO exterior protection and maintenance kit worth £58.95…

The summer holidays beckoned, so we took the Suzuki Baleno for its first ‘proper’ family holiday, to Camber Sands in East Sussex. Packed to the hilt with a week’s worth of luggage to cope with anything the British weather could throw at us, plus plenty of seaside paraphernalia, the car didn’t even groan once. On the way down, a footbridge collapsing on the M20 meant we had to take an alternative route through lots of windy, narrow country roads all the way to our holiday cottage by the sea. The Baleno coped manfully with the mixed road conditions, although we found it quite noisy on the motorway and a little rough and ready over the bumpy B-roads. The increased noise level meant we had no choice but to crank up…

Peugeot 306 John Dyson recently bought this 1996 Peugeot 306 D Turbo for £600. “I spent £400 on a service, cambelt and two tyres, and it has just passed its MOT with no advisories,” he says. “Unusually, it is completely standard, without modifications. It’s a one-previous-owner car with 66,000 miles.” “It is surprisingly fast, economy is in the low 50s and it has no electronics. It could show many moderns how to achieve tight handling along with an excellent ride. It’s a pleasure to drive and I intend to keep it.” SEND YOUR USED CAR TALES TO james@bangernomics.com…

Expert’s view PHIL BENFIELD, ALLON WHITE SPORTS CARS “The Elise S1 is huge fun, but nice ones are getting harder to find. If you find a good one, don’t delay. The basic 118bhp car is my favourite. The cloth trim is good in summer; it doesn’t get sticky like leather. The Elise is colour- sensitive, though. Yellow is the most popular, while silver can hang around a bit. Prices were falling for a long time but are now creeping up, although not for high-mileage cars. People think they can’t take mileage, but they can.” Buyer beware • BODY AND PAINTWORK Check under the front clamshell for speed bump damage. All panel gaps should be even. Beware Cat C write-offs, which are worth much less. • CHASSIS Aluminium chassis is hard…

1 Ariel Nomad From £36,000 If there were simply a list of our top ›ive favourite cars, the Nomad might just top it. A revelation and a riot. 2 Morgan 3 Wheeler From £31,000 The eccentric, characterful and deftly brilliant Morgan is a three-wheeled testament to English creativity. 3 Caterham Seven 360 From £31,000 The sweet spot in the revised range, its remapped 2.0 Duratec providing just the right level of performance. 4 Ariel Atom 3.5R From £64,000 Everything learnt by Ariel during the past decade has been poured into this update. It shows. Sublime. 5 Zenos E10 From £24,995 The latest in a line of British mid-engined marvels. Earns its stripes immediately. Expect a dedicated following.…

“The new Civic has 52% greater torsional stiffness than its predecessor yet is 16kg lighter” Honda has unveiled its 10th-generation Civic ahead of its debut at the Paris motor show later this month and the start of UK sales early next year. The model has been created to “fight back”, according to Civic project boss Mitsuru Kiraya, who said at the Civic’s launch that the current car is “too conservative for younger buyers”. He added: “Markets have changed since this generation, while rivals have improved their offerings.” The five-door hatchback will be followed by a new Civic Tourer estate and Type R hot hatch. However, the saloon and three-door variants, built primarily for the US market, won’t be offered in the UK. The current estate accounts for 20% of Civic…

E-BOOSTER Electric supercharger requires 48V to power its 7kW motor, enabling it to spin from idle to 70,000rpm in only 250 milliseconds. The result is maximum torque of 664lb ft from only 1000rpm and superb motorway on-ramp acceleration. TRIPLE-CHARGING The electric supercharger (on the bottom right) feeds the cylinders at low revs for near-instant torque. One exhaust valve is closed to intensify the boost, while the exhaust gases prime the second turbo (in the centre). All three chargers feed all eight cylinders and the turbos are twin-scroll. PACKAGING The three chargers are highlighted in red. The turbos are located in the vee of the engine and the electric supercharger is remotely mounted. A sliding cam, in green, deactivates one exhaust valve when the supercharger operates. The blue sub-assembly is part…

A “MORE EMOTIONAL” brand strategy will be revealed by Volkswagen at the Paris show. It will be built around a fresh advertising catchphrase — ‘Think New’ — and is intended to relaunch VW one year after the Dieselgate scandal blew up. Signalling a new, more emotional brand positioning, sales and marketing boss Jürgen Stackmann promised VW would reconnect with its vast customer base and refocus on its heartland of the global middle class. He said: “We have 40 million customers worldwide and these are our biggest asset. We want to stay warm and close to our customers. We might be making breakthroughs with technology, but we won’t become a cold and technical brand.” The ‘Think New’ tag line will be linked to VW’s strategic shift towards electric vehicles and matched…

VOLVO’S NEW V90 estate has spawned a high-riding Cross Country version, 20 years after the original V70 XC was launched. Volvo says the V90 Cross Country has undergone much more extensive chassis tuning than any of its predecessors. The all-wheel drive chassis has had its ride height raised by 65mm compared with the regular V90 and the overall diameter of the new wheel and tyre combination is up to 42mm greater than other V90 tyres and wheels. The front track has been widened by 20mm and the rear track extended by 40mm. The V90 Cross Country’s front and rear departure angles are also notably better than the previous model’s for what Volvo claims will be genuine off-road ability. Vehicle dynamics chief Stefan Karlsson said around 200 different chassis setups were…

Mercedes-AMG is on the verge of setting a “very competitive” lap time in the new GT R at the Nürburgring Nordschleife in the next couple of weeks. During a recent passenger ride in the range-topping 577bhp sports car, we recorded a lap time of 7min 46sec while being driven by Thomas Jaeger, one of the GT R’s main development drivers. AMG insiders suggest that a full-speed run is expected to cut between 20 and 25 seconds from that time. If achieved, that would put the GT R close to the 7min 20sec lap of the 13.9-mile circuit that Porsche claimed for the 911 GT3 RS last year and maybe even the 7min 18sec of the revised 911 Turbo S. The GT R is set to become the fastest car in…

This is the Citroën C3 WRC concept, which previews the brand’s World Rally Championship car for the 2017 season. The car will adhere to new WRC rules that allow for more power and dramatic styling. The concept is said to be “very close to the final race car”. The 1.6-litre turbo engine’s output has been increased to 375bhp and the car is wider and 25kg lighter than the firm’s 2016 WRC car. A C3-based rival for the Ford Fiesta ST hot hatch is also expected and will be spun off the WRC programme.…

Sentence three of the TT RS’s press pack finds Audi in an uncompromising mood. “Driving pleasure guaranteed!” it proclaims, having teed off with the model’s increasingly lofty power output. The exclamation mark is meant as playful confirmation of what ought to be obvious to the reader, but it’s possible to take it as huffy Germanic consternation, too: “You must like it now, surely! Power, Englander!” The previous TT RS did appeal to some of us, in a chin-jutting, brazenly pushy kind of way. But that contingent of fans was in the minority. Mostly we thought it was prodigiously fast and fabulous sounding but still overtly lacking in the dynamic subtlety that made the Porsche Cayman probably the most agreeable sports car of its generation. Its engine – the indubitably splendid…

According to Porsche, the Panamera 4S Diesel is the world’s fastest oil-burning four-door saloon. The headline numbers are 416bhp and a staggering 627lb ft from a new twin-turbo 4.0-litre V8 diesel engine. What’s even more bonkers is that you need only 1000rpm on the dial for the full wallop of twist. You could probably fit a two-speed slushbox and still get more than enough acceleration, but Porsche has developed a new eight-speed PDK dual-clutch automatic transmission. Underneath the new model’s more rakish body is the mixed-material MSB platform that’s set to underpin a variety of other VW Group products. There’s also the option of air suspension and a cruise control system that takes into account speed limits, corners and inclines. Even a 2050kg kerb weight doesn’t stop the 4S Diesel…

Affectionately, we call Blyton Park in Lincolnshire ‘Enid’, and it is a place to think of affectionately. It was designed specifically for the enjoyment of road cars and once in a while – perhaps twice a year – we head there with precisely that intention in mind. Today’s trip we’ll call, for want of a better phrase, Track Battles, because the internet loves a ghastly phrase that you’d feel embarrassed about saying out loud. In short, though, we’re taking a number of cars we know and love and pitching them against each other on a circuit. The aim is the same as usual: we want to know which of each pairing or triplet is faster and which, equally as significant, is more fun. WATCH THE VIDEO autocar.co.uk …

 IT’S IMPORTANT NOT to be harsh here. The Fiat 124 Spider is arriving in one of its softer forms, because that’s what was available, and it goes up against the keenest variant of the Mazda MX-5, so we’ve not given it the easiest task. The 124 Spider is a 1.4-litre turbocharged car with only 138bhp and the MX-5 is a 2.0-litre Sport Recaro edition with not just 158bhp but also Bilstein dampers and a limited-slip differential. “The Mazda MX-5 feels more engaging, alert and involving everywhere” They all count. The MX-5 laps Blyton Park in 1min 17.1sec – 0.2sec faster than a Ford Fiesta ST200, which gives you an idea of how relatively quick it is – and the Fiat is 2.5sec slower than the Mazda. More than that, the…

“There’s still nothing like a long, lonely drive for really getting to know a car” “There isn’t a single area in which this new Mazda MX-5 fails to surpass its predecessor. It’s shorter, lighter, more spacious and better laid out. It’s sharper-looking but still disarming and distinctive. It’s faster, more frugal and even more vibrant and engaging to drive.” So read our road test verdict one year and two weeks ago (give or take a day), prior to awarding the car a four-and-a-half-star verdict. That lost half star? We’d tested the 1.5 and reckoned the 2.0-litre model would probably, all things considered, be the superior choice for the harder-edged enthusiast driver typical of the Autocar reader. And whether it be an entry-level model or top end, the compliments have kept…

Honda NSX vs rivals Second coming of the Japanese supercar fights the McLaren 570GT and BMW i8 SPECIAL REPORT What happens to dead cars? How vehicle dismantlers ensure our expired motors are put to good use GOODBYE DRIVE Last dance in the Disco As a new Discovery arrives, we assess the outgoing Mk4’s legacy MOTORSPORT Why experience counts in the BTCC Veteran tin-top competitors Jason Plato and Matt Neal look back SUBSCRIBE autocar.co.uk/subscribe or see p34…

THE NAVARA HAS been clocking up the miles. It acted as support vehicle for the Three Peaks Challenge some of my colleagues undertook recently, and it has done several other long-haul trips around the country in a quest to find the elusive ‘good’ roads for our videos. That meant Wales. Impressions so far, then? Firstly, there’s no getting away from the fact that this is a pick-up truck. It may try to disguise itself as being family-friendly, but notch the manual gearbox into first gear there’s no mistaking the commercial roots. You’re further reminded by a big whoosh from the air induction, quickly joined by a reverberating groan from the diesel engine that resonates around the cabin. Don’t plant your foot from the off, either, otherwise you’ll quickly hit the…

MILEAGE 71,618 BMW X5 The X5 has behaved itself over the past couple of years. Just recently, though, it’s been doing that thing where it lowers all the windows a tad for no apparent reason. Then one day it was just the nearside rear window, which subsequently made a terrifying grinding sound and refused to work. Not a good thing. Instead of going on the interweb and finding a new motor, we simply raised the window into its shut position and fixed it there with a simple bolt. I mean, who sits in the back anyway? So it’s bolted in position. However, we now have to sort out another problem, which we will cover next time……

1 Drive smoothly and anticipate Richard Gladman, head of driving and riding standards at IAM RoadSmart, says: “Planning ahead is vital to saving fuel. The less you accelerate and brake, the better. If you see stationary traffic or a red light ahead, don’t accelerate up to it only to then have to stop. Try to keep the car rolling, because most fuel is used when setting off. Accelerate and brake smoothly to keep momentum, but don’t compromise safety.” 2 At the pumps Gladman says: “Fuel companies claim that premium versions of petrol and diesel will make your engine run more efficiently. They cost more at the pumps, but it might be worth testing the theory. Also, if you fill up at night — when the air and fuel is cooler…

IT’S QUITE LIKELY that many of those who ride in Bentayga Diesels will never know that this SUV is diesel-fuelled. You barely hear the V8 at idle and revving it in neutral produces little additional noise beyond a (very) distant crescendo of satin drumbeats. Engage the eight-speed automatic gearbox and the rev counter needle mostly shuffles around the lower portion of the dial. Even in Sport, it’s rare that you’ll be conscious of the V8 unless you’re working it hard, in which case upshifts can occur as the needle closes on the 5000rpm limit. At this crank speed, the V8 remains smooth, issuing a light V8 beat that could almost be taken for a petrol signature. So for aural refinement, Bentley appears to have it cracked, even in this prototype.…

Alpine’s all-new sports coupé is gearing up for its official unveiling this winter and has now been spotted testing in preproduction guise. The coupé will go on sale at the start of next year, priced from about £40,000. This will make it a direct rival to the Porsche 718 Cayman. As a spiritual successor to the A110 of the 1960s and 1970s, the new model is expected to be called the A120, although this has yet to be confirmed by Alpine, now a stand-alone brand after being resurrected by parent company Renault. The camouflaged preproduction car was spotted testing in mainland Europe. Its design looks almost completely unchanged from the concept on which it is based. The main differences are smoother sides, a wingless rear and larger door mirrors. The…

KIA WANTS TO become as respected for the ride and handling of its models as it is for design and quality. That’s according to the firm’s European chief operating officer, Michael Cole, who highlighted the appointment of former BMW M development chief Albert Biermann to the role of Hyundai-Kia performance vehicles boss as evidence. Cole said: “We have built a reputation on design, quality and reliability, but now there is a lot of focus on ride and handling. We can compete, but we want to better that and be renowned for our dynamics as well.” Cole said the appointment of Biermann showed that Kia had “strengthened” in that department. “He chiefly works on performance cars like the Optima GT, but his influence is now felt everywhere, and he’s more involved…

MINI IS SET to crown its second-generation Clubman range with a new John Cooper Works model that will be unveiled at the Paris motor show at the end of this month. The Clubman JCW is powered by a turbocharged 2.0-litre petrol engine that produces 228bhp and 258lb ft of torque — increases of 39bhp and 51lb ft over the next most powerful Clubman, the Cooper S. Mini claims a 6.3sec 0-62mph time and a top speed of 148mph. This sprint time puts it directly between the Audi A3 Sportback 2.0 TFSI Sport (0-62mph in 6.9sec) and S3 Sportback (5.3sec). It’s slower than both, though. The 2.0 TFSI has a top speed of 151mph and the S3’s is a governed 155mph. The Clubman JCW benefits from Mini’s All4 four-wheel drive system.…

Mini has long been associated with a front-wheel drive layout. A compact A-series engine stuffed sideways into the nose of the little Austin gave plenty of space in the cabin and predictable handling to boot. But (and ignoring the wacky Mini Mokes of the past) the controversial introduction of the Countryman to the modern-day Mini line-up changed all that. And you can now get all-wheel drive on another model in the family: the new Clubman. All4 is available only on Cooper S and Cooper SD models. The car remains front-driven most of the time, only sending power to the rear in certain situations. It isn’t just a reactive system, though; it can predict when drive is needed at the back and push it rearwards before there’s any slip from the…

MODEL TESTED LAUNCH EDITION Price £167,015 Power 600bhp Torque 516lb ft 0-60mph 4.0sec 30-70mph in fourth 5.3sec Fuel economy 23.9mpg CO2 emissions 265g/km 70-0mph 43.6m Skidpan 1.05g It is often the job of this part of the Autocar road test to filter out the contrived sense of importance with which car makers sometimes seek to surround every new model. Not today. The future of one Britain’s most celebrated and revered brands starts here. Aston Martin’s bold ‘second century plan’, which will eventually see seven all-new models launched in as many years and their maker expand into all-new premises in Wales, has taken shape – and can at last be weighed, measured and scrutinised. The first all-new ‘DB’ car in more than a decade, and the most important Aston in the…

 YOU THINK YOU know which way this is going, and I suspect I’m with you. Circumstantial evidence implies it’ll be close. Both of these cars have the same amount of grunt – 563bhp – but the Aston Martin V12 Vantage S is almost 100kg lighter than the 2017 Nissan GT-R and that, on the face of things, would push the balance lightly in its favour. “The V12 Vantage S is one of the great driver’s cars of all time” But I don’t believe it and neither do you. This is the GT-R, remember. The inner-city academy with its tech-filled classrooms and laboratories versus the old-school Aston with its stuffy halls and crumbling window sills. The Nissan has been bred specifically to produce results. So it doesn’t matter that the two…

“The M2 is the best driver’s car to come out of BMW in half a decade” IT’S HAPPENING ALREADY. The mood is softening. The other day I read that someone “didn’t mind” the noise made by the turbocharged four-cylinder engine of the new Porsche 718 Cayman S. Well, I’m not ready to give in like that just yet. I’m not saying I bear a grudge, but I haven’t sent Phoebe a birthday card ever since she dumped me the day before my GCSE maths exam. I suppose the day will come when the Cayman’s engine note is all right, but that day is not today. Especially not when you’ve got the new Cayman alongside a BMW M2, which is sitting there with its straight six burbling away at idle quite…

ICELAND, ‘THE LAND of ice and fire’, is a baby in geographical terms, formed by the clashing Eurasian and North American tectonic plates a mere 20 million years ago The ‘ice’ moniker comes courtesy of the harsh climate, glaciers and snow-topped mountains — not because of a proximity of the Arctic Circle, which skirts past all but a tiny corner of an island off the mainland. Even so, some of the ice caps are said to be a kilometre thick in places. The fire? Those plates are drifting apart at a relatively rapid 1cm a year, prompting a continual stream of angry magma that flows up from the earth’s core to fill the gap left by the plates, as well as fuelling the 35 active volcanoes on the island. This…

“One in four 3 Series is now sold with the xDrive permanent all-wheel drive system” ‘Moving forwards to stand still’ was the phrase we used at the launch of the facelifted version of the F30 BMW 3 Series last year. That’s because in the past couple of years the compact executive saloon segment has become more competitive than ever, with classy new entrants from Audi, Jaguar and Mercedes-Benz, and the 3 Series is no longer the default choice. The qualities that make the BMW’s fresher rivals stand out – the Audi A4’s lovely interior, the Jaguar XE’s fine chassis and the Mercedes C-Class’s alluring looks – are well known, but a glance at the all-important Autocar Top Five ranking for the class shows that the revised 3 Series sits in…

Twice recently I’ve stopped at a charging point spontaneously, before giving up on the idea of charging because I’m not in that charge point provider’s club. I can’t be bothered to stand in a car park for 20 minutes downloading an app, signing up, confirming email and card details and hoping the charge point communicates with my phone. No, these charges weren’t essential, or I would have done the research and signed up beforehand. Still, this is a menace of the EV infrastructure: in a radius of 10 miles from my Surrey home, there are five different charging point providers, only two of which – ZeroNet and ChargeMaster – allow free charging without needing to register. Now, suggesting a universal charge point provider is probably about as useful as suggesting…

“The first 118bhp 1.8 established the S1’s reputation as a cheap but brilliant sports car” The Lotus Elise S1 is as desirable today as when it was launched 20 years ago. There are still some cars around the £7500 mark (one hesitates to say ‘bargains’, because a cheap, badly bought Elise could cost double that in repairs), but expect to pay from £9000 for an honest high-miler. Even at that price you should take a sceptical friend along, tasked with asking the awkward questions. If you like those answers and the car is straight (a big ‘if’, given the Elise’s popularity as a track day car and the tendency for drivers less well acquainted with its rear-wheel drive chassis and rapier-quick steering to go off-piste), you’re in for a treat.…

MAZDA 3 FACELIFT | OCTOBER Mazda’s family hatchback has received a facelift, which consists of mechanical upgrades and a host of styling tweaks. It also gets G-Vectoring Control (GVC), which aims to improve stability and comfort over long distances. Elsewhere, there’s an electronic parking brake and redesigned dashboard trim, switch panels and door handles. Price From £17,595 SEPTEMBER 2016 Audi Q2 Edition #1, TT RS, Citroën Grand C4 Picasso, C4 Picasso, Fiat Tipo, Ford Kuga ST-Line, Hyundai i20 Turbo Edition, Mercedes-AMG E43, Seat Ateca, Ssangyong Musso OCTOBER 2016 Alfa Romeo Giulia, Aston Martin DB11, Caterham Seven Sprint, Citroën C3 Picasso, Ford Ka+, Hyundai Ioniq, Mazda 3 facelift, Mercedes-Benz E-Class Estate, E-Class Estate All Terrain, Mitsubishi Shogun Sport, Suzuki SX4 S-Cross facelift, Volkswagen e-Up facelift NOVEMBER 2016 Audi A5, Q5, R8…