Innholdsfortegnelse for 22/11/2017 i Autocar

How did you balance form and function with the Vantage’s styling? “The aerodynamics of the Vantage were totally developed with the design. The vehicle has no active aero. The balance is achieved by the low front end, the spoiler and the airflow with the flat underbody.” What does this car take from the DB11? “The body and structure of the car is only 30% common with DB11. We utilise some things, such as the firewalls. But there are only a couple of bodywork parts that are common – the door handles and the badges.” What splits the Mercedes-AMG-built V8 engines in the new Vantage and the DB11? “They come from the same family and are built specially for us, and we’ve increased the torque for the Vantage by 10Nm [7lb…

“Tesla boss Elon Musk said it can cover 0-100mph in 4.2sec and a quarter-mile sprint in 8.9sec” Tesla’s long-awaited replacement for its original Roadster model will be the quickest-accelerating car to make production, its maker claims. Company CEO Elon Musk said the 2+2 sports car, a surprise debutant during the launch event for the new Tesla Semi lorry in California, has 10,000nm of torque (7376lb ft) from its three motors and can accelerate from zero to 60mph in 1.9sec. That is 0.5sec quicker than the current fastest-accelerating Tesla, the Model S P100D. Musk said the successor to Tesla’s first production car, which went off sale five years ago, can also cover 0-100mph in 4.2sec and complete a quarter-mile sprint in 8.9sec. “This will be the first time any production car…

Mercedes-Benz’s AMG performance car offshoot is set to reveal three new mild-hybrid production models at the 2018 Detroit motor show as part of a broad electrification strategy. The trio of four-wheel-drive AMG models – the CLS53 4Matic, E53 Saloon 4Matic and E53 Estate 4Matic – are scheduled to make their world debuts alongside the heavily updated G-Class in January before a planned start to UK sales in the first half of 2018. Power for the CLS53, E53 Saloon and E53 Estate hails from Mercedes’ new in-line six-cylinder petrol engine. The same unit is set to appear in a production version of the four-door GT concept tentatively planned to appear at the Geneva motor show next March. The new turbocharged 2.9-litre engine uses a 48V electric system, which is used to…

“The V8 DB11 melds GT-car pliancy with the precise, agile exuberance of a smaller beast” How, then, do you feel about an Aston Martin equipped with a Mercedes-AMG engine? Does it really matter? Should it matter, so long as it improves the product? After all, this ‘new’ engine is a good one, with 503bhp and rampant torque. You may also have heard that this is no case of a straight engine swap, but perhaps you haven’t, so now that we’ve got the DB11 V8 on home tarmac, let’s recap. The 12-cylinder DB11’s ZF-sourced gearbox remains entirely unchanged, sitting a fraction ahead of the rear axle complete with eight short ratios. Elsewhere, Aston has made numerous amendments to the V8-engined car in its attempt to best exploit a 115kg saving brought…

The F-Type 2.0-litre hasn’t rocketed to the top of our chart of £50,000 sports cars – and that won’t surprise very many people, at Jaguar or elsewhere. This was a car originally designed for bigger engines being adapted for a new sporting niche, after all; and one originally intended to serve a dynamic brief balanced between that of a sports car and a gran turismo. A Porsche 718 Cayman S is a purpose-built, laser-guided, lighter, purer and less compromised attempt at an affordable sports coupé. And, yes, it’s a better driver’s car in lots of ways – but it’s also just a very different prospect. Where this F-Type does succeed is in bringing richness, luxury and style to a part of the sports car market that doesn’t currently offer anything…

“Our plan is to become an internationally renowned brand making innovative products” Earlier this year, Shanghai Automotive Industries Corporation produced the one-millionth car born out of the wreckage of MG Rover. Its Roewe and MG brands sold 320,000 cars last year, and this year the brands’ sales are up 78% in a Chinese market that has grown by only around 4%. You can’t call those sales results anything other than successful and Britain’s contribution to them is not insubstantial, SAIC’s Birmingham-based design and engineering centre providing plenty of input for both brands. The UK fortunes of MG Motor, by contrast, have been rather less stellar. It has been 10 years since production of the MG TF sports car restarted at what was MG Rover’s factory in Longbridge, Birmingham. That tentative…

Matt Prior worries that he is not a proper car enthusiast because some aspects of the industry leave him cold, especially the small SUVs and crossovers that are everywhere these days (Tester’s Notes, 1 November). Matt is not alone. Having finally got round to buying a new car this year, I realised I needed something practical with four seats, a hatchback and general ease of use. A small SUV would suit, especially as I’m the wrong side of 50 and winter always reminds me about the serious back and knee injuries I suffered in my youth. I bought a Seat Leon Cupra 300 instead. Those SUVs and crossovers are just too slow, too ugly, too ungainly and, yes, too ‘meh’. Fortunately, Autocar and especially Matt’s writing are anything but, so…

MILEAGE 11,230 WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT To find out if Alfa has regained its mojo with this BMW M3-bashing super-saloon The low tyre pressure warning that was mentioned in the previous report turned out not to be caused by a slow leak, as we first thought, but by a faulty sensor on the Giulia’s nearside rear wheel. I discovered this when I took the car to Alfa Romeo dealer HWM to get all four tyres replaced. I’d been looking for an opportunity to find out what sort of aftersales care we could expect from HWM – not only our nearest Alfa dealership but also the world’s oldest Aston Martin dealer and a former racing car constructor – and the need to fit new tyres gave us a good excuse to…

MILEAGE 79,619 BMW 320 I’ve piled on the miles in the Baby Shark recently. I find that it likes a drink, but these BMWs always do. I haven’t put any coolant in it since the cambelt was changed, but I notice that it doesn’t much enjoy traffic. The temperature rises and I have to keep an eye on it. My Mini Cooper is similar: the temperature gauge is all over the place sometimes but, like the BMW, it never overheats. In other news, some lubrication to the BMW’s steering wheel has transformed the handling. No, really: from a squeaky, obstructive object, it has enabled the Baby Shark to become the ‘ultimate driving machine’ once more.…

“It’s a recommendable bargain-basement daily driver with buckets of character” YEARS PRODUCED 1996-1999 PRICE RANGE £500-£2000 POWER 113BHP Seat of the mid-1990s was a very different animal. The idea of the company launching a performance car would have evoked a snort of derision from many a punter, accustomed as buyers were back then to a diet of reheated Fiats and pretty, but crummy, first-generation Ibizas. But with the aid of the financial reserves of the Volkswagen Group, Seat gradually started to reinvent itself as a sporty brand. Of course, to do that, the company needed some suitable performance offerings – and with the second-generation Ibiza came its opportunity. First, in 1993, there was the Ibiza GTI – a tentative toe in the water that used the VW Golf GTI’s 8v…

An expert’s view RUSS STANLEY, REVOLUTION “I reckon you can’t buy another sports car for £7000 that’ll give you so much pleasure, although keep a couple of grand in your pocket for refurbishment. Once you’ve driven one, you’ll be hooked. Biggest concern? The intermediate shaft bearing. If it’s noisy, walk away. Our focus is servicing Porsches. It doesn’t do to mix sales and servicing. That said, if we’re offered something we know, we’ll have a go. The other week, a customer offered us his 2001 2.7 with 56,000 miles. We’ve looked after it for the past three years and it has a full history. We’ll advertise it for £7500 with a 12-month warranty.” Buyer beware… • ENGINE On a pre-2001 car, emulsified oil could indicate cracked bore liners. Have a…

The new 503bhp V8-engined Aston Martin Vantage is a “statement car” that showcases how the brand’s future models will become more individual and confident, according to its designer. The new two-seater follows the DB11 as the second product of the British firm’s ‘second-century plan’, under which it will launch seven new cars in seven years. To ensure sufficient separation between the models, Aston is taking a bolder approach for each design. The firm has revamped its entry-level model with an “analogue” approach that puts the focus on providing a direct, engaging drive, and that is reflected in the car’s exterior and interior design. “The design team is trying to push a lot more and show the character of each car,” designer Sam Holgate told Autocar. “The Vantage is about being…

Among numerous test facilities that dot the European tip of the Arctic Circle, those surrounding the small Swedish town of Arvidsjaur are justly famous. It can drop to -40deg C here and it snows frequently. Perfect conditions, then, for freezing lakes, and keeping them frozen for the business of car and tyre testing. Aston Martin is here with the new Vantage because Continental is here. Buying an ESP system from the German tyre giant also buys you test time on its winter facility – not for cold weather stuff specifically (Aston does that in Finland) but rather to fine-tune the stability control software so that it delivers a dynamic experience that is suitably ‘Vantage’. At this point in development, early in 2017, the Vantage in question is barely worthy of…

Aston Martin is ramping up plans for its answer to Rolls-Royce: the reinvented Lagonda luxury sub-brand, which is set to produce a new large car and an SUV by 2023. The Gaydon-based car maker has opened a product planning division in Japan – the second-biggest luxury car market in the world – “to get into the minds of future luxury buyers”, according to boss Andy Palmer. He told Autocar that the research would help show “what the future of Lagonda will look like”. Palmer predicted major success in Asia for Lagonda. While China doesn’t currently play a crucial role in Aston sales, he believed the arrival of the DBX SUV and Lagonda models will change this. He said: “There will be a time when China sales are on a par…

You’ll likely know the score with Lotus’s ‘Cup’ models by now: it takes an already track-focused sports car to almost racer levels of performance through a thorough overhaul of the chassis, powertrain and aerodynamics. The results have been, as was planned, totally compelling sports cars. The same is largely true for this new Exige Cup 430, only rather more so. Where previous V6 Exige Cup models have had 345, then 355 and then 375bhp, this car makes the leap to a far more potent 424bhp. Power is produced using the intercooler and Edelbrock supercharger from the Evora GT430, with spectacular results: 0-60mph in 3.2sec and 180mph flat out, plus a lap time at Lotus’s Hethel test circuit of 1min 24.8sec – 1.2sec faster than the old Exige Cup 380. Interestingly,…

“The A14. Dante would today surely write about the ten circles of hel1” The wispy clouds high above the North Sea are slowly turning red and orange, but the sun isn’t due to rise for a short while yet. From the warmth of the car’s cabin, I use those unhurried 30 minutes to review the route for today’s ambitious journey one last time. Starting from this shingle shoreline at Aldeburgh on the Suffolk coast, we’ll head west and carve a meandering, indirect route through the heart of England and across the pinched waist of Wales before, 340 miles later, arriving in Aberystwyth. There, all being well, we’ll find a view a lot like the one we see before us now: calm sea gently rippled by a light breeze, low sun…

 3min 34sec The fastest C1 around Spa-Francorchamps “I kid you not, it was one of the best drives of my life” Have you ever heard a small-capacity two-stroke motorcycle haring along the road at top speed, gone to a window to look at it and realised that it’s not going very quickly at all? It’s all ‘niiinnnnng’, and no go. Welcome to the Citroën C1 Racing Club. Only without most of the ‘ning’. The C1 Racing Club was born because people used to race Citroën 2CVs in large numbers, but don’t quite so much any more. It used to be one of the cheapest forms of motorsport out there but these days even the newest 2CV is decades old and running and maintaining those cars is, by pastime standards, starting…

DRIVEN New Bentley Continental GT The wait is finally over: Matt Prior has driven the definitive production version of the new Bentley Continental GT. So how good is it? NEW VS USED New F-Type or used R8? New 2.0 Jaguar takes on Audi’s original R8 INVESTIGATION What’s the fuss about Formula E? More and more car makers are entering it. We find out why EVERY WEEK USED BUYING GUIDE Aston Martin Vantage The smart way to buy an early V8 version of the outgoing Vantage ROAD TEST Westfield Sport 250 The sports car firm is very much alive and we’ve tested its latest creation FIRST DRIVE Volvo XC40 It’s the first car in Volvo’s new small-car family and its first small SUV SUBSCRIBE autocar.co.uk/subscribe or see p26…

MILEAGE 2260 To see what UK buyers are missing from not being sold new cars with factory-fitted – and fuel-sipping – LPG tanks Cheap, uneventful. Two words I find myself coming back to when people ask what it is like to drive around in an LPG-powered car. Colleagues who borrow it for a week have a happy knack of using similar words to describe their own experiences. “I don’t know why you can’t buy one here officially” is the (paraphrased) follow-up point myself and others typically make. So why is that? As discussed right back at the start of this long-term test, LPG-powered cars, which produce fewer harmful emissions, could be used to help tackle the UK’s air-quality problems while we wait for the more widespread availability of affordable electric,…

Ford Fiesta Andy Spencer, referred to me by Bangernomics acolyte Kenny Smith, is a big fan of Ford Fiestas. When his trusty 15-year-old Mk4 became too long in the tooth and needed expensive repairs, there was only one vehicle to purchase. He spotted a clean 2007 1.25 Zetec Climate model with only 60,000 miles for sale at a local used car specialist. Two years on, it has been perfectly reliable, apart from a central locking fault on the driver’s door, which was fixed by a £5 part from a vehicle dismantlers. SEND YOUR USED CAR TALES AND READERS' QUESTIONS TO ✉ james@bangernomics.com…

BMW 120i Sport £3390 The original 1 Series is certainly not an ideal family car — cramped rear quarters and tight door openings see to that — but if you’re after a semi-sporty hatchback and only need to use the back seats occasionally, a 120i Sport should appeal. It drives with more verve and better balance than, say, a Mk5 VW Golf GT. The price makes this example tempting, especially given that it comes with a full service history and a long MOT. Volkswagen Passat £9989 The sub-£10,000 Passat R36 is here, folks — as evinced by this example from 2009. It has below-average mileage (just) and a full history and is black, for the full stealth effect. The R36 is not the last word in involvement, with a slightly…

BMW i3 From £27,800 With a fairly generous budget and modest mileage in mind, the i3 could revolutionise your motoring experience. Volkswagen e-Golf From £27,200 Pioneering technology delivered with VW-brand polish. Strong in every important area, and as familiar as electric cars come. Renault Zoe From £18,500 Outstanding value and very commendable battery range make Renault’s big-selling Zoe a real contender. Hyundai Ioniq From £24,500 Hyundai’s irst dedicated battery car shows promise. Strong practicality, value and usable range. Nissan Leaf From £22,000 Original electric hatchback poster boy shows how far rivals have moved the game on. Still credible and usable, if a bit dull to drive.…

Key styling elements of the new Vantage will look familiar to anyone who has admired James Bond’s DB10 in the film Spectre. That’s because the design of the film’s one-off was inspired by and inspired the newest Aston. “When the Bond producers came to talk to us, we were starting really early work on the Vantage,” said designer Sam Holgate. “They saw one of my sketches on the wall and said: ‘We want that.’ At the time, I was just starting on a full-size clay model of Vantage but things were moving in big volumes. That design spiralled into the DB10.” The resultant one-off was, somewhat controversially, given a full DB model name. But although it took its own form, the shared DNA with the Vantage gave Aston Martin’s design…

Several major Chinese car manufacturers used this year’s Guangzhou motor show to announce plans to expand outside of their domestic market for the first time. To this point, no Chinese car maker has embarked on a successful export strategy, but Geely-owned Volvo sibling Lynk&Co, Great Wall’s SUV brands Haval and Wey, and GAC marque Trumpchi were among those to outline plans for Europe and the US. Lynk&Co will launch into Germany in 2019, with models sharing underpinnings with compact Volvos. A small SUV called 01 will come first, though, with UK sales in right-hand drive likely at the start of the next decade. Haval, the biggest-selling local brand in China due to its extraordinarily successful H2 and H6 SUVs, is another marque that is in line for international expansion. Parent…

Aston Martin has revealed the track-focused version of its Valkyrie hypercar, which will have more power and torque and less weight than the standard model when it arrives in 2020. The AMR Pro variant is being developed with Red Bull Advanced Technologies and AF Racing. Only 25 will be made and all have been sold already at a price thought to be above £3 million. The standard Valkyrie, all 150 of which have also been allocated, is priced between £2m and £3m. Two computer-generated images of the Valkyrie AMR Pro show the major changes to the exterior. All of the aerodynamic surfaces have been changed to significantly increase downforce. There are also much larger front and rear wings, and there is a revised system of active aerodynamic control created for…

“A fully optioned Stradale will push £180,000, with tax on top of that”` Dallara has unveiled its first road car, the Stradale, at an event to celebrate the 81st birthday of company founder Gian Paolo Dallara, the Italian engineer whose career began under Enzo Ferrari and included the development of the Lamborghini Miura. Although his eponymous company has worked on many famous projects and produces more racing chassis than any other manufacturer, this is the first road car to carry the Dallara name. The Stradale is a carbon-bodied lightweight car that can be transformed from a minimalist speedster to a coupé by the addition of an optional windscreen, roof and doors. The plan is to produce just 600 examples over the next five years, with prices starting from €155,000 (about…

“This is a 1.65m-tall, 4.4m-long car and Jag wants it to drive like an XE. That’s asking a lot” Righto, the first transverse-engined, front-driven Jaguar since the X-Type, eh? Only quite a lot seems to have happened since that car. Back then, it was a saloon designed with more than a gentle nod to the past, as, conversely, it made enthusiasts nod off. Today, the E-Pace arrives looking every bit as fresh as the rest of the Jaguar range and sits squarely in an ever growing market. This whole SUV thing doesn’t look like ending, either. Around half a decade ago, Jaguar was selling 60,000 cars a year. Now it reaches that figure with the F-Pace alone. The E-Pace sits below the F-Pace, then, as the XE sits below the…

For drivers who tackle off-road territory regularly but not to the extent that a full-blown SUV is essential, the Mercedes-Benz E-Class All-Terrain Edition could be just the thing. It’s a new take on the elegant E-Class Estate, equipped with the refined and powerful 350d, 3.0-litre diesel engine, a 9G-Tronic automatic gearbox, 4Matic permanent four-wheel drive and Air Body Control air suspension. Mercedes’ Dynamic Drive gets an extra setting – All Terrain Mode – joining the existing Comfort, Sport and Eco modes. When selected, the ride height increases by an additional 20mm as long as the speed doesn’t exceed 19mph. A limiter can be set to avoid that happening and to prevent the car lowering automatically on rough tracks. In other modes, the ride height is already 29mm higher than a…

MODEL TESTED 2.0 R-DYNAMIC COUPE Price £53,600 Power 296bhp Torque 295lb ft 0-60mph 5.7sec 30-70mph in fourth 6.4sec Fuel economy 30.7mpg CO2 emissions 163g/km 70-0mph 45.2m Since its arrival in 2013, two attributes have come to define the F-Type: its sublime aluminium bodywork and the way it sounds. Its appearance can’t be said to be in jeopardy, Jaguar’s coupé this year having received only a judicious nip and tuck to its much loved curves, but the soundtrack has changed immeasurably of late because you can now buy an F-Type with just four turbocharged cylinders. Yes, downsizing has claimed another unlikely victim, although not – as has been the case for Porsche’s most recent iterations of the Boxster and Cayman – at the expense of choice. Rest assured, you can still…

“Carey used the idea of each grand prix being like a Superbowl in each country” In the middle of January – just 10 months ago – Liberty Media took control of Formula One. Bernie Ecclestone was named chairman emeritus, a role that meant very little. His days in charge were over. Chase Carey became the new chairman and he brought in Sean Bratches to head commercial operations and Ross Brawn to look after sporting matters. As part of the sale process, F1 was listed on the NASDAQ stock exchange (with the ticker ‘FWONK’) and work began to reduce the company debt load and remove the former shareholders from the business. Carey is now happy with the debt levels. The share price has risen from around $26 (£20) to $38 (£29),…

QUESTION What makes a tyre crack? And how much does it need to crack to become illegal? Emma Wright ANSWER A split in the sidewall so that you can see the internal cords should be no more than 25mm long or 10% of the section width of the tyre. Those are the MOT guidelines. Cracking where the tread meets the sidewall can be caused by age or repeatedly hitting a kerb and indicates a very tired tyre. Tyre performance, especially braking and cornering, are adversely affected. QUESTION I drive abroad regularly. Should I worry about cross-border enforcement fines? Kenny Rodia ANSWER EU member states have signed laws that enable them to pursue a prosecution across a border when a person commits a driving offence abroad, and for now that includes…

“Boxsters with a new rear main oil seal and intermediate shaft bearing fetch a premium” The latest chapter in the Porsche Boxster’s story will be written next month when the first examples of the new 180mph 718 GTS land in showrooms. Putting the 550 Spyder of 1953 to one side, it’s a story that began in 1996 with the launch of the 986-series Boxster. The model, which shared many of its components with the 996-series 911, was powered by a mid-mounted 2.5-litre flat six producing 201bhp, driving the rear wheels through a choice of five-speed manual or five-speed Tiptronic automatic gearboxes. Three generations later, today’s 718 boasts a lustier 292bhp from its 2.0-litre turbocharged four, and the new 718 GTS will develop rather more. But guess what? It and the…