Innholdsfortegnelse for 13/06/2018 i Autocar

WITH THE RECENT surge of battery-electric cars, hydrogen power has slightly slipped from the mainstream conversation as a viable fuel of the future and is still regarded more of a curiosity than an imminent reality. But the fuel must be a prominent part of the landscape after internal combustion engines have been legislated out of existence due to its ability to enable long-distance driving with quick refuels akin to those motorists have made for a century. The big change, of course, is that with hydrogen there are no tailpipe emissions besides water. We prove the fuel’s potential this week with the first drive from John O’Groats to Land’s End in a hydrogen-powered car (p46). Our trip was undertaken in a Toyota Mirai. Although it may look like, and seem to…

SLS The modern-day Gullwing was revealed in coupé form at the Frankfurt motor show in 2009 prior to going on sale in the UK in 2010. The SLS Roadster, featuring conventional, front-hinged doors, followed in 2011. An all-electric version of the coupé, dubbed the SLS E-Cell, was also produced in small numbers following a debut in 2013. Project One AMG’s flagship model, the Project One, was developed with the Mercedes-Benz High Performance Powertrain division, headquartered in Northamptonshire, and unveiled at the 2017 Frankfurt motor show. Powered by the same hybrid system that propels Mercedes-AMG’s Formula 1 car, the four-wheel-drive hypercar is claimed to deliver more than 1020bhp. GT The successor to the SLS made its debut in coupé guise at the 2014 Paris motor show, with UK deliveries starting in…

THE HARDCORE ASTON Martin Rapide AMR will be a final hurrah for the four-door saloon before it is withdrawn from sale in 2020. It is the second model this year from Aston’s AMR performance sub-brand. The DB11 AMR was unveiled last month. The £194,950 Rapide AMR – £45,450 more than the standard Rapide S – closely echoes the concept revealed at the 2017 Geneva motor show, with a front grille reminiscent of the track-only Vantage AMR Pro and circular daytime running lights similar to recent Zagato models’. The Rapide AMR has the same 0-60mph time as the standard car, at 4.2sec, and uses the same naturally aspirated 5.9-litre V12 engine but its power has been uprated from 545bhp to 595bhp. Its top speed is 205mph. Extra aerodynamic features include a…

THE PLUG-IN HYBRID version of Peugeot’s new 508 will not have to sacrifice boot space or cabin room to accommodate its batteries like some rivals, 508 project design boss Pierre-Paul Mattei has said. Mattei said the 508’s EMP2 platform was developed from the very beginning with “tight packaging” in order to enable Peugeot to offer an electrified powertrain from mid-2019 without impeding practicality. “Our team of designers spent a year and a half, which is longer than usual, with engineers to access the best technology and knowledge for this car’s platform,” he said. “We have been able to break the conventions for design proportions while keeping those performances [such as boot space] unaffected in the architecture.” The car’s batteries will be located beneath the floor of the boot without impacting…

Learner drivers who take lessons on motorways are likely to be safer drivers in the first six months after passing their tests, according to the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA), the government body responsible for driver training. Thanks to a change in the law last week, it is now legal for learner drivers to have lessons on the motorway. “Statistics show that newly qualified drivers are most vulnerable in the first six months after passing their driving test,” said the DVSA. Many newly qualified drivers feel safer on A-roads and B-roads, where speeds are lower, but in reality, motorways have a better safety record. Motorway deaths dropped by a half between 2006 and 2016 to a new low of 93. “New drivers tend to avoid motorways,” said AA president…

Selling cars in significant volumes and stealing market share from its chiefly German rivals has never seemed like a particularly high priority for Lexus in Europe, with the firm apparently content to play the longest of waiting games as its presence and profile have both ever-so-gradually risen. And yet there are now emerging signs that the company’s attitude to its own growth on the continent may be changing; that it’s rationalising its model range and ‘getting serious’ about maximising its European market potential. Toyota’s premium brand has doubled its European sales over the last five years, mostly on the back of the NX crossover. Now it’s changing tack with its entrant in the mid-sized executive saloon market, with the aim of offering British and European buyers a more practical, better-value…

The new Mercedes-Benz S560 Coupé is where the richer end of the modern S-Class sub-brand opens for business. Because these days, if you like the idea of owning an S-Class but not of driving around in a stretched four-door limousine that looks as if it ought to be on a permanent shuttle run between the airport and the nearest five-star hotel, you can have an S-Class Coupé or Cabriolet instead. Having just updated the S-Class Coupé range, Mercedes has neatly plonked this 560 model at its base as a direct replacement for the old S500. It comes with plenty of trimmings that you’d have to pay extra for on lesser Mercedes models, such as Airmatic air suspension, a widescreen Comand Online infotainment system and Burmester surround audio. In addition to…

AMG’s interpretation of the GLC Coupé is as prominent at the kerbside as it is inimitable in its whimsical conception. Few cars combine a commanding view of the road ahead with such a devastating turn of controlled cross-country pace, and for sheer bombast, the V8 accompaniment goes unchallenged by anything the more affordable side of a full-blown supercar. True, these are relatively simplistic attributes, but so persuasive is the manner in which the GLC delivers them that their collective effect will effortlessly part from a target audience funds that would secure any number of rivals. That’s just as well, because this car trades unreservedly on the intensity of its superficial appeal. From within the dated cabin, there’s little to suggest those who’ve bought a Macan or are awaiting their Stelvio…

Coachbuilding is as old as the car itself but, as car making enters a new era, perhaps it’s fitting that the latest exponent of the art is just 33, and his work has turned a Tesla Model S saloon into a Model S Shooting Brake. Not only are the fundamentals close in concept to those early efforts of Rolls-Royce, Duesenberg, Bugatti et al, but it’s also worth remembering that a fair proportion of the early cars were electrically powered. If there’s some kind of symmetry in that – as well as a healthy dose of the same pioneering, adventurous (some might say slightly madcap) spirit – then there’s also something heart-warming about the fact that the car is the work of a team led by Niels van Roij. This is…

Andrew Frankel’s excellent piece on driving the Porsche 911 GT3 RS through the Isle of Man TT course (‘Take it to the Manx’, 23 May) shows precisely the performance car paradox we’re facing. Even on roads without a speed limit, Frankel finds it hard to access the performance of the 911 GT3 RS in any depth or for any length of time, despite the sublime brilliance of the car and his own skills as a ‘hand’. My Volkswagen Golf R is similar, at a lower level, in that I can rarely use it with confidence for more than a few seconds without going too fast or fearing for my health. I recently hired a Ford Ka Mk1 and it was a complete hoot at 2040mph. Perhaps it points the way…

MILEAGE 1465 WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT To determine whether the country’s bestselling new car is as worthy of that title as its brilliant predecessor was There’s a strangely satisfying feeling of driving a car with taut but well-controlled damping over broken street surfaces. Call it the silver lining of Britain’s poor roads. In such a car, you remain fully aware of exactly what’s going on beneath you, and every crease and crack in the Tarmac is communicated to you, but it’s done so delicately that at no point do you wince as bump-stops are hammered into or tense as suspension struts clang in pain. I experience this sensation regularly on my commute to work in our Ford Fiesta. The car rides with a composure to rival that of premium saloons,…

The saga of the Lorry’s entertainment system crackles on and, you will be relieved to hear, has been resolved in a not very dramatic fashion. Well, the radio supplier took the JVC unit back and bench-tested it and this one was fine. So he dug deeper into the Lorry wiring loom. It seems that there was a cracked earth wire. So normal service has been resumed. Remember the wipers a few weeks back? I sub-contracted the purchase of those. Ones for 1984-on Series 3s were too big; probably for a 90, then. Pre-1984 ones needed a hook-end wiper and mine are straight. Wipergate continues.…

Not only is the Ford Focus ST Mk2 of 2005 to 2011 one of the great hot hatches but also, thanks to high numbers of used ones, it shouldn’t be too difficult to find a good one that fits your budget. Fill your boots with any number of ST-2s or 3s. The basic ST-1 is rarer and not worth bothering with, unless condition and price swing it. The ST-1 has cloth-covered Recaros; the ST-2 has Xenon headlights with washers, a heated windscreen, ESP and two more speakers; the ST-3 has leather Recaros front and rear and those rear seats are a two-seat bench, while the ST-1 and ST-2 have a three-seat affair. As the Focus Mk2’s end drew near, post-2010 ST-3s gained DAB, dual-zone climate and privacy glass. On older…

Mercedes-Benz’s AMG performance car division is preparing to take aim at the Porsche 718 Cayman and a raft of other enthusiasts’ favourites with its own uniquely engineered sports car. The new AMG model has been presented to Mercedes-Benz’s board of management as an indirect successor to the slow-selling SLC, with a possible mid-rear engine layout and styling to provide it with clear links to the upcoming 1000bhp-plus Mercedes-AMG Project One hypercar. The new 718 Cayman rival is currently at a conceptual stage and has been conceived to sit below the existing three-year-old GT in the AMG line-up at a price comparable with that of its highly regarded Porsche rival. The new AMG two-seater is planned to support two bodystyles: a fixed-roof coupé that would go up against the £51,853 718…

PORSCHE WILL FIRE a warning shot at its hometown rival Mercedes-AMG and its plans for a new dedicated sports car model with the launch of up to three new 718 variants, Autocar has learned. The trio of models comprises the 718 Boxster Spyder, 718 Cayman GT4 and 718 Cayman R. Each of these newcomers is rumoured to have a naturally aspirated version of the German car maker’s classic flat six-cylinder engine. The introduction of the three new Porsches is planned to coincide with a mid-life facelift for the current 718 Boxster and Cayman models, which have been sold exclusively with the choice of either a turbocharged 2.0-litre or turbocharged 2.5-litre version of the company’s flat-four engine since they joined the line-up in 2016. The exact timings are still under wraps…

Suzuki will unveil its new Jimny this summer and UK sales will start next year. The fourth-generation back-to-basics 4x4, which was spotted in public last week, will retain a body-on-frame construction and 4x4 system with low-gearing, which means it remains a proper off-roader. It is understood Suzuki is prioritising off-road abilities over on-road performance, based on feedback from existing Jimny owners. It is expected to offer a naturally aspirated 1.2-litre petrol and a turbocharged 1.0-litre three-cylinder engine. No diesel variant will be sold.…

My route with Rebecca Ashton, head of driving behaviour at IAM Roadsmart, is 45 minutes on the A1(M). It’s sufficient to absorb Ashton’s simple message: scan traffic conditions as far ahead as possible, maintain progress and be decisive. As the session develops, Ashton’s focus moves to maintaining a safe space to the car in front, and with mid-morning traffic on the A1 light, there’s plenty of road space to progress in time-honoured ‘mirror-signal-manoeuvre’ fashion. Our Citroën C3 percolates along with its 110bhp 1.0 triple more than capable of pushing well over the 70mph limit, which hawk-eyed Ashton has spotted and smiles as she catches me out. Back at base, she fills out an informal evaluation report. In the eight major assessment areas, I score mostly nines, with a single 10…

Power is nothing without control they say, and while the New Renault Mégane R.S. certainly has plenty of power – 280hp and 390Nm of torque from its 1.8-litre direct-injection turbo, in fact – it has also been designed to deliver total control. Building on 15 years of racing expertise and experience with the Mégane chassis, Renault Sport’s engineers have introduced a world-first to the hot-hatch sector on the New Mégane R.S. – 4CONTROL four-wheel steering. With 4CONTROL, the rear wheels subtly turn in the opposite direction to the front wheels at low speeds for a sharper corner entry. In faster bends, the front and rear wheels turn in the same direction to improve stability. All working together, it creates a much more engaging and confidence-inspiring drive. The New Mégane R.S.…

There are two sports cars they just don’t get wrong. Most manufacturers, even these ones, occasionally turn out a duffer, but in the case of two vehicles – the GT3 RS version of a Porsche 911 and the special-series version of Ferrari’s mid-engined V8 – they don’t miss a trick. This is, I suspect, because they’re engineers’ cars. Purists’ cars. The first 911 GT3 RS (2003) only came about because Porsche needed to homologate two suspension links for racing. And the first mid-engined Ferrari special, the 360 Challenge Stradale (also of 2003), helped justify the Challenge race series. Throughout their iterations since, they haven’t missed a beat. This, then, is Ferrari’s latest, the 488 Pista. ‘Pista’ means ‘track’, or, apparently, ‘get out of the way!’, but I suppose either is…

MODEL TESTED GLC63 S 4MATIC+ COUPE Price £78,560 • Power 503bhp • Torque 516lb ft • 0-60mph 3.7sec • 30-70mph in fourth 5.3sec • Fuel economy 19.4mpg • CO2 emissions 244g/km • 70-0mph 43.9m Given the nature of the publication you’re holding, it’s probable that you already have an opinion on the Mercedes-AMG GLC63 S 4Matic+. And, well, it might not be entirely favourable. This near-£80,000 car is nevertheless something of a poster child within the corporate headquarters of Daimler AG in Stuttgart, where all the product planning, the marketing and the accounting happens, and, bluntly, where the bottom line is the primary concern. It’s also where they’ll be giving themselves a big pat on the back, because demand for SUVs such as the GLC has been nothing short of…

In Orkney, so much electricity is generated by wind, waves and the power of tides that the islands struggle to find a use for it all. In theory, it could be transferred to mainland Scotland, except that the seabed cable required to achieve this would apparently cost around £250 million. So instead, some of this surplus electricity is used to split water into its constituent parts, the hydrogen element stored in pressurised gas canisters and ferried to Kirkwall, the capital of Orkney. Once there, the hydrogen is used to produce… electricity. If that sounds rather a wasteful thing to do, well, welcome to the world of energy generation, and the awkward challenge of storing and transporting that energy to the place you want it, at the time you want it.…

The idea that Autocar should participate in the creation of a brand-new Vauxhall concept car right from the ground up began late last year as PSA chief Carlos Tavares was inking the deal he’d announced a few months earlier to buy Vauxhall and Opel, the former GM brands in Europe. From the outset, it was clear that to have any chance of future success Vauxhall-Opel will need to change enormously, not just in the predictable ‘lean and mean’ ways but also by presenting a reimagined, thoroughly modernised design philosophy leading to even more desirable, saleable products. No pressure… Vauxhall-Opel bosses decided early on that showing a traffic-stopping concept car would be the most public and easiest-to-understand way of doing this. However, even for a company with a distinguished recent history…

COMPARISON New Mercedes A-Class vs rivals So how good is Mercedes’ all-new posh hatchback? Its old foes, the BMW 1 Series and Audi A3, stand between it and new benchmark status FIRST DRIVE World’s worst Ferrari We delve into the world of rat-look cars, and meet Ferrari’s ‘Ratarossa’ FIRST DRIVE Audi Q8 Is Audi’s Range Rover as good as the real thing? We reveal all EVERY WEEK ROAD TEST Mercedes-Benz X-Class Is Merc’s decision to make a pick-up a shrewd one? Read the verdict LONG-TERM TEST Skoda Octavia vRS We sum up our time with the hot diesel hatch, then meet its petrol equivalent FIRST DRIVE Peugeot 508 The French Mondeo is back. Find out if its drives as good as it looks SUBSCRIBE autocar.co.uk/subscribe or see p70…

MILEAGE 9463 WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT To see if the most hardcore TT is preferable to the cooking versions and a genuine alternative to a BMW M2 An Audi TT has passed through a snapper’s hands at Autocar before. In fact, Stan Papior ran one not so long ago. It wasn’t as expensive or as fast as the RS currently in Nic Cackett’s possession, but it was just as red and had much the same make-life-easy DSG gearbox. He rather liked it. Which seemed counter-intuitive to me, given that he has to heave roughly the same amount of photographic kit as I do on a daily basis. On the list of cars – even coupés – that would suit a jobbing photographer, the TT struck me as being no more…

South Africa-based Wayne Keightley has a 2005 Alfa Romeo 147 1.6. “It had done about 34k miles when I bought it and is now at well over 143k miles,” he says. “I have had the cambelt changed twice, the spark plugs once and the brake pads once or twice. Otherwise, I’ve changed the oil and filters myself. It has never failed to start, has never broken down and everything works.” Wayne would like to point out that the bonnet and wiper damage was courtesy of a stray sheep that leapt onto the bonnet recently……

An expert’s view STEVE BENNETT, ST-FOCUS.COM “To my mind, the Focus ST Mk2 is the greatest hot hatch ever. I love the idea that one day a Ford exec said: ‘I know, let’s chuck this big old five-cylinder motor in a Focus.’ I’ve been selling them for more than eight years and I’ve sold hundreds. It has its niggles – split liners, weak clutch, whistling oil filler – but they’re rare. On the whole, it’s reliable. Prices for the best late cars have stabilised. You’ll easily pay over £11,000. Partly it’s because the current car isn’t as good and partly because late, low-mile Mk2 STs are getting rarer. Buy one while you can.” Buyer beware… ENGINE On pre-2008 STs or modified cars, check for oil-filler mayonnaise, misfiring or white smoke…

Audi’s growing SUV ranks are set to swell further with the addition of a new Q9 model in the future. Audi revealed the Q8 as its flagship SUV in Shenzhen, China, last week, and chairman and CEO Rupert Stadler refused to rule out the possibility of an even larger and more luxurious model to sit above it if the expected customer demand is there. “The customers will tell us what they want in the future,” Stadler told Autocar when asked if Audi was planning a Q9. “Time will tell.” Asked the same question, Audi design boss Marc Lichte said: “We have so many ideas, so many ideas…” The Q8 will be priced from around £65,000 when it’s launched in the UK this summer, but some versions are likely to top…

“Jeep, Alfa Romeo, Maserati and Ram are expected to account for 80% of FCA’s revenue by 2022” A range of electric Maseratis, an Alfa Romeo supercar, massive expansion for Jeep and a substantial, £8 billion push towards electrification and autonomous models are Fiat Chrysler Automobiles’ major ambitions for the next five years. For Fiat cars, Chrysler and Dodge, however, the ambitions are modest, although Fiat will offer an electric 500. To understand why FCA will concentrate mainly on its Jeep, Alfa Romeo, Maserati and Ram brands, you need to follow the money, the markets and the barrage of impending regulations. These four brands generate 65% of FCA’s revenue and are expected to account for 80% by 2022. Of the four, three have a global presence and three are premium, with…

It has come a long way, the A-Class. All the way from the 1990s car and its infamous elk-avoidance issues to this: the all-new Mk4, which looks to be so posh that it’s virtually a shrunken CLS. A haughty hatch, perhaps, but in a good way. From launch, the A-Class is available as an automatic only and offered as an A180d diesel, or as A200 and A250 petrol models. Manual gearboxes and more powerful diesels and petrols are due to flesh out the range by 2019. As has already been discussed in our international drive of the A180d (First Drives, 18 April), the A-Class gets torsion beam rear suspension on everything up to and including the A200. The A250 we’re testing here gets multi-link rear suspension as standard. The A250…

It quickly becomes apparent that the tight, winding corners of Millbrook’s Alpine Handling Circuit aren’t the natural stomping ground of a two-tonne SUV such as the GLC63 S Coupé. You need to lean hard on the optional ceramic-composite brakes before entering a corner, because an overenthusiastic entry speed will cause the front axle to fold over into understeer. A restrained right foot is of paramount importance mid-corner too. Go anywhere near the throttle before you’ve properly exited a bend and the electronic stability control system will trigger. Still, the steering is quick and weights up nicely, and despite the GLC’s size, its air springs and adaptive dampers do a commendable job of keeping lateral roll in check.…

In November last year, Aston Martin launched not one but two new Vantage cars. On the same day that it pulled the covers off its new sports car, it also unveiled the Vantage GTE, the racing version that will tackle this weekend’s Le Mans 24 Hours. Launching the cars together wasn’t just symbolic: it was a sign of their entwined development. While Aston Martin’s development team at Gaydon crafted the road-going Vantage, the Prodrive-run Aston Martin Racing (AMR) in Banbury was working on the track version. The previous-generation Vantage V8 GTE, which ended its Le Mans career with a class victory in 2017, was essentially a compromised design. The team had taken an existing road car and done their best to make a GT racer out of it. Launched in…

FIRST REPORT WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT To discover whether this sharply styled crossover is Toyota’s most appealing petrol-electric hybrid yet Toyota’s petrol-electric hybrid powertrains have kept it at the vanguard of electrified car technology since the advent of the Prius back in 1997, but the idiosyncratic character of that model has been both a blessing and a curse here in the UK. Although many adopters have readily embraced the powertrain’s fuel-sipping potential, the Prius has struggled to be a car with sufficient kerb appeal for owners to want to show it off outside of the school gates or the yoga class. Sure, Matt Damon, Julia Roberts and their glamorous Hollywood chums drive them, thus bestowing upon the Prius a sheen of A-list approval, but on this side of the Atlantic…

Honda S2000 £7500 How does a major car manufacturer at the top of its game celebrate turning 50? If you’re Honda, and it’s 1999, you produce a new car, the S2000: a rear-wheel-drive two-seat drop-top sports car of prodigious performance, 50/50 weight distribution and impressively low polar moments of inertia. There was a wonderful 2.0-litre 16-valve VTEC engine, too, which produced 240bhp at 8300rpm. It was a vivid screamer that could potter all day and then hammer like a racer at the switch of a cam profile. Top speed was 150mph and the 0-60mph time was 6.0sec. Chuck in a slick six-speed gearbox and a Torsen limited-slip differential and things looked decidedly juicy. And there was more. A front-mid-engined layout, low centre of gravity, wide track, aluminium double-wishbone suspension, rigid frame,…

Whatever you might think of its distinctive looks, or even its build quality, you don’t often see an early Tasmin 280i. This one looks in need of a little TLC but it sold for a mere £3816, which isn’t too bad a price for a two-seat drop-top sporting car with a glassfibre body and a tubular spaceframe steel chassis. After all, under that long and wedgy bonnet is a Ford Cologne 2.8-litre V6, fuel injected and enough for some quite lively performance, even if it’s all a little tame by later TVR standards. AA membership advisable. Peugeot 508 Price new £29,685. Price now £15,995 There’s a new Peugeot 508 on the way and it looks a bit of a humdinger. Its sharp, five-door, coupé-cum-hatchback styling replaces the modest four-door executive…