Innholdsfortegnelse for 22/02/2017 i Autocar

I taldesign, the famous Turin-based design house founded by Giorgetto Giugiaro in the late 1960s and now part of the Volkswagen Group, is set to launch a super-exclusive ‘own-brand’ V10 supercar at the Geneva motor show next month. The car, which introduces a new marque called Italdesign Automobili Speciali, will have a starting price of more than £1.3 million but is tipped to cost close to £2m by the time it hits the streets, with individual owners set to be offered a wide variety of trim, equipment and performance personalisation options. Just five cars will be made, aimed at “collectors and visionary enthusiasts”, and Italdesign expects to deliver the first finished model from its works near Turin before the end of the year. “For the first time we can offer…

“Audi Sport’s renewed sales strategy includes doubling the number of RS models” Audi will unveil an RS Q8 concept at the Geneva motor show in March as a preview to a luxurious 600bhp-plus SUV. The hot flagship SUV will be one of eight new RS performance models to be introduced in the next 18 months under the restructured Audi Sport division. Audi Sport, headed by former Lamborghini boss Stephan Winkelmann, is set to build on the original Q8 concept revealed at the Detroit motor show in January with its own 186mph interpretation of the big five-door SUV. It will feature a powered-up drivetrain and lowered sports suspension, as well as bespoke exterior and interior styling cues. As a result, the production version will be in direct competition with the likes…

Consider these figures: 700bhp and 750lb ft. If you are to understand this new Bentley Continental Supersports, it is not enough to focus on one figure or the other. Power will tell you how fast this car is, but it is torque that determines how it is fast. And it is only the combination of the two that reveals the true character of this car and its unique place among high-performance machinery. We have been here before, of course. Twice. There’s not much need to dwell on the 1925 3.0-litre Bentley Supersports, the first car to fly the wings that was guaranteed to do 100mph. But the name was resurrected in 2009 to grace a two-seat, carbonfibre-chaired Continental GT, lighter to the tune of 110kg with a little more power…

VERDICT The Mini Countryman is a complicated car and not at all the textbook crossover that you might expect it to be. You can undoubtedly grow to like it, but that affection is more likely to come about if you buy into the retro-cool ‘new premium’ design and zappy driver engagement on which Mini has traded for the past 15 years. If you do embrace it, you may decide that only a Countryman will do, particularly against its less tigerish and quirky mid-sized premium hatchback rivals. But for our money, and by the standards of the classy and complete cars at which this Mini is aimed, it’s not quite the bullseye it might have been. The art of developing an outstanding full-size hatchback is in expertly balancing obliging comfort against…

“Click To Buy suits people who like the convenience of buying from home” Keith Peile was sitting at home in Dorset one evening in January when he decided to buy a new Hyundai i10 from the comfort of his armchair. “I’d seen Hyundai’s television advertisement for its new Click To Buy online service,” says the retired security officer. “I picked up my tablet computer and in ten minutes I’d chosen my new i10. “I knew I would be getting the best deal so I was happy with the final price. Paying was easy, too.” In the weeks since Click To Buy was launched in January, 30 people have bought a new Hyundai from the site, and 134,000 people have visited it to find out more. Peugeot has since launched a…

As send-offs go, this ought to do it: Holden’s performance division, Holden Special Vehicles, will mark the end of Australian car making with the fastest, most powerful and most expensive car the country has ever produced. The £105,000 HSV GTSR W1 is based on the Holden Commodore but gets the LS9 supercharged V8 from the Corvette ZR1, a wider track, racing suspension, Pirelli semi-slick tyres, unique body parts, a bespoke six-speed gearbox and the largest brakes ever fitted to a local production car. The 636bhp, 601lb ft model has a 0-62mph time of 4.2sec and is named after the iconic, limited-edition GTSR, which was released in 1996 and was a racing car for the road. The ‘W’ refers to ‘Walkinshaw’, the surname of HSV founder and race driver, the late…

It’s funny the things you find yourself missing once they’re gone. Had you told me a year ago that I’d be recollecting my time with the Tucson with something approaching sentimentality, I would have laughed derisively and rolled my eyes like a tombola drum. But I’ve been separated from the old girl for only a few weeks and already there’s a misty layer of wistfulness descending over the recent memory. I think, perhaps, that’s because a good many of the most memorable things I did last year had the Tucson’s unfussy practicality at their centre. Trips such as an outdoor adventure holiday to the Isle of Skye, a music festival in Cambridgeshire or going to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe were made possible by the car’s ability to swallow four or…

Once they’ve established that it’s not prone to imminent explosion (if anything, hydrogen is safer to carry than petrol), the second thing people want to know about the Mirai is how fuel efficient it is. After all, the Mirai is quite closely related to the Prius, which has economy at its core. Is the Mirai economical too? We were keen to find a figure at the outset, but the more we thought about it, the more truth seemed to be carried in the words ‘depends how you measure it’. The easiest figure to give is miles per kilogram: the Mirai takes around 4.7kg of compressed hydrogen when the fuel gauge says it’s as near as we’re prepared to get to bone empty, at which point it has done around 270…

I’m often asked whether my lorry is just for show or if it actually works for a living. I will admit that the Land Rover doesn’t do the hardcore green lane stuff, but that is hardly the point. I call it a lorry, but in essence it does the job of, at the very least, a builder’s pick-up truck or, as in this case, a lumberjack’s workhorse.The great thing is that it works at all, although there are several very minor issues that would bring a modern car to an expensive, shuddering halt. All hail the lorry, then, as I find another dirty job for it to do.…

“Pre-2009 2.7 TD and 3.6 TDV8 HSEs dominate the classifieds and are usually pretty leggy” Buy a Range Rover Sport with your head and you’ll enjoy it with your heart. It’s a pearl of wisdom you could apply to many cars, but especially this Discovery 3-based chop-job that cost north of £50,000 new and which could serve as a dictionary definition for ‘temperamental’. Timing belts, turbos, cranks, EGR valves, suspension bushes: the Range Rover Sport loves ’em all. But heed this straightforward private seller of a V8-powered 3.6 TD: “If you accept you’re getting a complex car for a fraction of its new price but which can, from time to time, be a complete pain in the backside, then you won’t be disappointed. I get mine serviced by a great…

Volkswagen Sharan From £25,500 Full-size seven-seater offers outstanding versatility and space with tidy handling and VW-brand desirability. BMW 2 Series Gran Tourer From £24,200 Brings a proper premium-brand badge to the MPV table but appeals for more reasons than that. Ford S-Max From £23,300 Better looking and better to drive than most, but not quite the class leader its predecessor was. Cabin a bit plain. Volkswagen Touran From £22,200 The medium-size people-carrier done conservatively. Re›ined and wieldy, with excellent infotainment options. Seat Alhambra From £24,900 A cheaper, plainer and less desirable sister for the Sharan. Spacious, versatile and decent to drive.…

The PSA Group will seek to create a car giant similar to the Volkswagen Group, with numerous brands in similar segments, if its proposed purchase of Opel goes ahead. News broke last week that the PSA Group, which controls Peugeot, Citroën and DS, is in negotiations to acquire a majority stake in the European arm of General Motors (GM), including its British brand Vauxhall. Such a deal would have significant implications for the European car industry. If the sale goes ahead, brands such as Peugeot, Citroën, DS and Opel would sit alongside each other in a company set-up akin to the VW Group’s Audi, Seat, Skoda and Volkswagen line-up. The PSA Group would be likely to position Opel as its premium brand, alongside DS, in effect competing with Audi. In…

Italdesign has designed many successful supercars in its 49 years. Think BMW M1, Lotus Esprit and Maserati MC12, for starters. However, its most spectacular achievements have been its seminal everyman cars, first among them the original Volkswagen Golf, the flat-screened Fiat Panda and the iconic Alfa Romeo Alfasud. This is probably because Giorgetto Giugiaro — the company’s co-founder and star designer for 40 years — had already designed plenty of sports and supercars by the time he decided, with Aldo Mantovani, to open his own studio. The De Tomaso Mangusta, Alfa GTV, Ferrari 250GT Bertone and Maserati Quattroporte, Merak and Bora were prominent among dozens of cars he created. By the time Italdesign was working well, Giugiaro was working on concepts like the Lancia Megagamma (which pioneered MPVs even before…

1 Cosworth will produce a bespoke 6.5-litre naturally aspirated V12 engine that is expected to produce more than 900bhp. 2 Formula The car will 1-inspired use a energy recovery system (ERS) to harvest kinetic energy from braking. Rimac, known for its Concept One all-elecric hypercar, will supply lightweight hybrid batteries. 3 The engine will be mated to a customised seven-speed paddle-shift transmission made by Ricardo. It will be specified by Red Bull Racing and is described as “cutting-edge”. 4 With lightweight construction fundamental to the AM-RB 001, a carbonfibre safety cell will be supplied by Aston’s long-time composites partner, Multimatic, which has worked on the One-77 and Vulcan. 5 The braking system from Alcon and Surface Transforms needs to handle the car’s power-to-weight ratio of 1bhp per kg. The car…

THE MERCEDES-MAYBACH G650 Landaulet is a final swansong for the 38-year-old G-Class. Its production run is limited to just 99 vehicles and each is priced from around €500,000 (£426,000). Our chance to experience this opulent off-roader first hand comes on a drive through the Madikwe Game Reserve in South Africa on tracks used more commonly by a handful of Toyota Land Cruisers heaving with tourists. But instead of a Japanese four-cylinder diesel, the G650 Landaulet has a 6.0-litre twin-turbocharged V12 that’s taking on this tricky terrain with 621bhp and 738lb ft. The G650 draws on the technology of the G500 4x42 , and more. That includes portal axles, electronic dampers and tracks widened by 250mm. The wheelbase is lengthened by nearly 600mm, to 3428mm, to create a lounge-like area for…

The Peugeot 5008 is no longer an MPV. That may seem odd, considering it’s a car whose very reason for being is that it has seven seats, while its sister, car, the 3008 does not. Nope; the 5008 is now an SUV – albeit an SUV that wont ever be offered with four-wheel drive. Be that as it may, whichever three letters best describe the new 5008’s particular niche, what matters is whether this is a good seven-seater. And, after first inspection, we’d say it is – if not the very good one Peugeot would have us believe. There are clearly bigger and more expensive large family cars you might buy, so the 5008 has to strike an ideal compromise between fairly compact and manageable exterior dimensions and well-packaged occupant…

Go green laning, they said. It’ll be a giggle, they said. You know how it is: small car, but large fun, in a slow, discreet, sliding, rocky, muddy, amusing way. Sure, I replied. You never know, they said, like a Fiat Panda 4x4, this new Suzuki Ignis might surprise you with how far it’ll go off-road. It might, I admitted. It might, only now I’m not so sure, because I’m waiting for a photographer (I’m early, he’s not late, because he never is) at a service station by the M4. To pass the time, I’m casually reading the bumpf for the new Ignis and I have a dawning suspicion that this particular example might be two-wheel drive. The Ignis can be had with four-wheel drive, obviously. We asked for it…

Although rather a lone voice in the argument, I had yet to be been blown away by the latest Focus RS. As a fast Ford fan and former owner – well, I thought a 1.8 Focus was fast back then – I was sad that a 345bhp four-wheel-drive version hadn’t quite yet beguiled me in the way it had so many others. A couple of sodden winter days in our Focus RS left me far more endeared to it. I still have some reservations but, short of a Nissan GT-R, I’m not sure what else I would have rather driven during that wet weekend in the Cotswolds. On the road, in dry weather and with Michelin Pilot Super Sport tyres, the limits of adhesion are rarely breached, but on a…

Simon Bibby bought a brand new Cadillac STS way back in 2001 and ran it for 15 years. “It’s the cheapest car to maintain I have owned,” he says. “The first full service was at 100k miles. Prior to that, the annual cost was about £100, for an MOT and oil and filter. By 100k miles, I was on the second set of front brake pads and the third set of rears, and the third set of tyres. Compare that to an annual service bill from BMW or Jaguar. It’s a pity Cadillac no longer makes right-hand-drive cars because I’d buy another.” SEND YOUR USED CAR TALES TO james@bangernomics.com…

An expert’s view CHRIS OSBORN, KEITH GOTT LAND ROVER “The Sport is harder on the wallet than the Range Rover. It’s a sports car and SUV in one, which is asking a lot of springs, bushes and joints. Standard 19in wheels are best; 20 and 21in wheels put too many shocks through the suspension and body. The Sport really benefits from preventative maintenance. Take the electronic handbrake: most people don’t want pay to have it cleaned and lubricated but are then surprised when it fails.” Buyer beware… • ENGINE If a diesel has had a recent cambelt change, check the aluminium oil pump cover, which can break under the new belt’s tension. EGR valves on the 2.7 V6 can fail (warning light, loss of low-rev power, chirping at tickover). There…

BMW M4 From £57,000 Has all the grip, precision, pace and all-round civility you could want but lacks some dynamic charm . Audi RS5 From £60,000 A straight-laced Audi coupé complete with a high-revving V8, but the handling is still a little remote for our tastes. Alpina B4 From £59,000 Twin-turbo engine is more dramatic but less well-mannered than the M4’s. The Alpina is better on road than the track. Lexus RC-F From £60,000 An alternative with plenty of character — but it’s too heavy and sluggish to break into the big time. Infiniti Q60 From £36,800 Tuneful V6 and handling are likeable attributes — but the In›initi is short on power and is showing its age.…

SKODA CITIGO | APRIL This badge-engineered version of the Volkswagen Up has been on sale since 2011, so Skoda has given it a facelift. The Citigo’s bonnet, grille, bumpers and foglights have been redesigned, and it gets new LED headlights. Inside, slight changes include a new instrument cluster and a new optional multi-function leather steering wheel. Price£10,070 (est) FEBRUARY BMW 5 Series, Dacia Duster update, Isuzu D-Max update, Kia Rio, Land Rover Discovery, Mini Countryman, Peugeot 5008, Seat Leon, Toyota Prius Plug-in Hybrid, Volvo S90 R-Design, V90 R-Design, V90 Cross Country MARCH AC Cobra 378, Atalanta sports car, BMW 670Li xDrive update, Ferrari GTC4 Lusso T, Honda Civic, Hyundai i30, Jaguar F-Type update, F-Type 400 Sport, Nissan Micra, Renault Captur update, Seat Leon Cupra R, Skoda Octavia update, Volkswagen e-Golf,…

BASED ON THE official image on the right, the cockpit design seen in the Jaguar I-Pace (above) will be closely replicated in the Velar. The I-Pace, which is a template for the future of Jaguar Land Rover interiors, uses three display screens. The primary interface is a 12.0in TFT touchscreen, while infotainment and climate functions are adjusted on a secondary 5.5in screen controlled by two rotary dials Instrumentation is presented on a configurable 12.0in virtual cluster augmented by a colour head-up display. The system has been built in-house and is based on the same technology used in the InControl Touch Pro system. Other existing tech, including wi-fi hotspots and the ability to use apps from a connected smartphone or tablet, will also feature in the Velar.…

All 100 examples of the new Pagani Huayra Roadster have already been allocated to customers. The £2.3 million soft-top hypercar uses a Mercedes-AMG twin-turbocharged 6.0-litre V12, reworked to produce 754bhp at 6200rpm — 34bhp more than the Huayra coupé and 15bhp more than the hardcore Huayra BC. The rear-wheel-drive Roadster is 80kg lighter than the coupé, with a dry weight of 1280kg. Key to the Roadster’s light weight is its so called Carbo-Titanium and Carbo-Triax HP52 monocoque. The structure is said to be 52% stiffer but identical in weight to the coupé’s.…

“The 812 Superfast accelerates from 0-62mph in 2.9sec” Ferrari’s new 812 Superfast is officially the fastest and most potent series-production model to be sold in the firm’s 70-year history. The hotly anticipated two-door model – unofficially referred to as the F12 M in the run-up to its launch – is essentially a significantly upgraded version of the F12 Berlinetta equipped with a bigger-capacity naturally aspirated V12 engine and new chassis technology. The car’s 6496cc engine is 234cc larger than that of the outgoing F12 Berlinetta and produces 789bhp at 8500rpm and 530lb ft at 7000rpm. Only the limited-run LaFerrari, with its 950bhp hybrid V12, can beat this. The 812 Superfast’s performance also outstrips that of the hardcore F12 tdf, which developed a maximum of 770bhp and 520lb ft from its…

“Land Rover is aware it’s playing with a model that owners have dearly loved” Is this the most important new car of 2017? The new Land Rover Discovery is certainly one of them, and when I tell you it’s new, I mean it’s all-new. You can probably see that yourself, mind. The previous-generation Discovery 4 looked a lot like the Discovery 3, only it was far more upmarket inside. And it drew a lot more sales by being that way. That’s what gave Land Rover the impetus to increase the ‘premium’ count again, make the Discovery a family of cars and launch the Discovery Sport. In the same way the Disco Sport replaced the Freelander, so this Discovery arrives, replacing the old Discovery’s blocky, stubby looks. In its place is…

Spot the flaw in this press release: ‘The new Seat Leon Cupra 300 is the most powerful road car in the brand’s history.’ Hang on, chaps; back in 2008 there was the Leon 310. Fair enough, only 100 were made, and all for the Dutch market, but 306bhp definitely trumps 296bhp in our book. Pedantry aside, the new Cupra 300 does come with an extra slice of power (10bhp) compared with its predecessor, the Cupra 290, as well as a further wedge of torque (22lb ft), the latter being available across a marginally narrower rev range. Can the Leon handle those increases? The old car was already a little unruly compared with the most gifted hot hatches. Effective, yes, in the manner of a slightly wayward tomahawk, but to guide…

MODEL TESTED COOPER D Price £26,020 Power 148bhp Torque 243lb ft 0-60mph 9.0sec 30-70mph in fourth 13.2sec Fuel economy 41.9mpg CO2 emissions 118g/km 70-0mph 48.1m The new Countryman’s press literature implores us to appreciate Mini’s bigger picture. By 2010, BMW’s idea of the Mini had been around for a decade. The slightly larger and haplessly left-field Clubman had appeared in 2007, but otherwise the brand was locked into the supermini archetype prescribed to it by Alec Issigonis’s original. ‘Going large’, therefore, was always the Countryman’s hard sell. The first Countryman was recognisably a Mini, albeit puffed out to ensure entry into the far more profitable crossover segment. In retrospect, it seems a fairly logical step, but Mini previewed the idea with concepts before launching it and even made a WRC…

V8 IS GREAT Aussies tend to care more abou t the V8 sound than the car’s true abilities. The turbo six Falcon was superior to the V8 but sold in half the numbers. HSV also tried to sell a V6. Once. “Ford and Holden have no direct replacements for their high-powered saloons” ONE FOOT STILL IN AUSTRALIA Ford, Holden and Toyota have all committed to retaining their design and engineering capacity in Australia after their factories close. The doors are about to close on the Australian car manufacturing industry forever. General Motors’ Aussie outpost, Holden, will be last to turn out the lights, on 20 October, when the Commodore production line falls silent just two weeks after the local Toyota Camry factory shuts. Holden and Toyota were able to carry…

For better or worse, aerodynamics have dictated the look of racing cars for decades. In recent years that’s led to ugly F1 noses, overcomplicated IndyCar wings and square-fronted LMP1s such as the Porsche 919 Hybrid. As highly efficient as these designs are, they’re enough to leave fans pining for a time when good racing cars still looked great – a Porsche 917 or 956, for example, or the Brabham BT52 F1 car. In the US, help is at hand from IMSA, which runs the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship that takes in the big endurance races at Daytona, Sebring and elsewhere. IMSA’s new Daytona Prototype international (DPi) cars marry standard LMP2 chassis technology – as can be found in the second-tier prototype category at Le Mans – with restyled bodywork to give…

Top Trabants I loved your feature on the 39 cars that changed the world (Autocar, 8 February), partly because I have owned or driven quite a few of them. I’m not sure the Trabant helped change the world but it changed mine. I had one of the first to escape after the Berlin Wall fell. I had five in all and used them as everyday cars in the early 1990s. They were excellent runabouts but awful on the motorway. I once met a Peugeot designer who said he wished they could produce a simple vehicle in a similar vein. I’d worry about the emissions from them now, but I miss my Trabbies. John Fernley Lytham St Annes, Lancashire WIN Letter of the week wins this ValetPRO exterior protection and maintenance…

THE PAST FEW weeks with the Audi SQ7 have been mostly about fluids. The windscreen washer fluid warning light was illuminated for more than a fortnight before I got round to sorting it, at which point it still hadn’t actually run dry despite heavy use. With a 7.0-litre washer fluid tank, at least it shouldn’t need refilling too often. Around the same time, the AdBlue warning light came on, also with a healthy notice period of 1500 miles before the car would run out of the emissions-reducing exhaust additive completely and refuse to start. I had never filled an AdBlue tank before, but I had been told that the urea-based fluid can damage paintwork if you spill any on it, so I invested in a funnel and a 10-litre bottle…

A Maserati that’s worth the risk When it comes to taking a gamble in the used car game, the name Maserati has always come with the cast-iron guarantee of a bumpy ride. Recent examples have been much better, but how about something that’s 14 years old? Well, this 71,000-mile 4200 Cambiocorsa from 2003 has a service history from a main dealer and specialists, so that is reassuring. It has recently been serviced, too, and could be worth your £13,990. Cut-price Cooper with a curious look Here we have an example of the decidedly odd bod that is the Mini Coupé. This one is a Cooper from 2012. It has covered a modest 25,000 miles and is priced at just £6000. The advert is little more than a list of what’s…

Jaguar XJ £15,000 Is a used Jaguar XJ a safe place to put £15,000? It is when it’s the current X351 generation and the worst ravages of depreciation are out of the way. Don’t think this will be some former airport gofer with a mileage to rival that of Apollo 11: look for a 2010 3.0D with 80,000 miles on the clock and you’ll be in for a treat. While most luxury saloons are all about the experience in the back, the Jag is most definitely best enjoyed from the driver’s seat. The car’s aluminium construction makes it light and agile and the 271bhp diesel engine offers 0-62mph in 6.4secs and 155mph. The XJ also promises to return 39.2mpg if you tread gently. There’s not much to worry about provided…

Ferrari 488 GTB From £184,000 Possibly Ferrari’s greatest achievement. Scintillating natural ability intertwined with interactive technology. McLaren 650S From £195,200 McLaren’s mainstay goes from convincing to compelling. Better day to day than a 488 but not as special. Lamborghini Aventador From £260,000 Big, hairy V12-engined Lambo has astonishing visuals and performance. Handling could be sweeter. Lamborghini Huracán From £180,700 Junior Lamborghini mixes all-wheel drive usability and drama skilfully. Chassis and steering need work. Noble M600 From £206,800 Has aged — and crept up in price. Deliciously natural and involving but a bit ergonomically flawed .…