Innholdsfortegnelse for July 18, 2018 i Autocar

PORSCHE HAS MASTERED the art, and subtle evolution, of the 911 formula with a successful derivative strategy, tweaking the recipe each time to consistently make cars greater than the sum of their parts. This week, we road test the very latest 911: the GT2 RS (p30). The brief of the GT2 RS was simple, yet also the most challenging placed upon a 911: to turn it from a sports car into a supercar. We’re used to anything that passes through the hallowed engineering halls of Porsche’s GT division emerging with game-changing status but, alas, with the GT2 RS, it is one 911 derivative too far, stretching it in a direction it’s uncomfortable going in. Yet that the GT2 RS exists at all is worthy of huge celebration, as is Porsche’s…

“The Corsa’s styling promises to be a big departure to mark a new era under PSA Group ownership” The sixth-generation Vauxhall Corsa, which will go on sale next year, will be fundamental to the success of the British company as the first car produced under its new owner, the PSA Group. The Corsa will set the tone for a new wave of Vauxhall/Opel vehicles, each of which will be overhauled thanks to access to new platforms, engines and hardware also used across the group’s other car brands, Peugeot, Citroën and DS. Vauxhall’s new supermini has been developed in an unusually fast time. When it is unveiled in 2019, less than two years will have elapsed since work began, just as the deal to buy Vauxhall/Opel was being agreed between PSA…

Skoda will launch an eRS performance version of its upcoming electric SUV, as previewed by the Vision E concept, in 2022. Following the arrival of the zero-emissions model in late 2020, a hot variant akin to the vRS offered in Skoda’s standard range will be added to the line-up, the company’s sales and marketing chief, Alain Favey, has confirmed. “There will be an eRS version of our electric car,” he said. “It will be more about styling and experience, and not necessarily only about performance.” Talking more broadly about the existing vRS performance brand, Favey said: “Customers like the sporty experience without [the car] being a flashy sports car. The most powerful vRS is 245bhp so it’s about the look and the sporty driving characteristics of the car.” Currently, the…

RENAULT IS LIKELY to push to introduce its electric and self-driving technology on small cars despite the packaging challenges that presents. With EVs requiring large batteries, and coupled with the need for autonomous cars to carry large numbers of expensive sensors and associated systems, many firms are introducing the tech on larger cars that can be sold for a premium and on which packaging is less of an issue. Renault has an ongoing testing programme for its autonomous, electric and connected tech in its Audi A4-sized Symbioz concept. But project boss Mathieu Lips said the car doesn’t offer any hints to Renault’s early autonomous production cars. “Renault’s DNA is to provide the best to the masses,” he said. “We focus on selling affordable cars with a high level of quality…

The Hyundai Nexo is one of only a handful of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles that you or I could walk into a showroom and actually buy. It plays the parts of high-riding urban runabout, undemanding motorway hack and versatile family car rather well. As we’ll discover, this is a perfectly adequate machine and there is plenty to like about it. But as we’ll also discover, it suffers from the same chicken-or-the-egg problems of other hydrogen cars like the Toyota Mirai and Honda Clarity that prevent it from being something we can all enjoy. We’ll get to that in a bit too. The Nexo picks up where the ix35 Fuel Cell, launched in 2013, left off. It was the world’s first mass-produced fuel cell vehicle. Unlike that car, though, which was…

Remember the Toyota Camry? Take a cab from a US airport and you’ll see one, but until 2004 you could get one here, before it was canned because the market for big saloons in Europe was going diesel, and the Camry didn’t have one. Now it’s back, still without a diesel, but with a 2.5-litre petrol-electric non-plug-in hybrid. Toyota is dropping the Avensis but this isn’t a replacement: it’s bigger, as befits a car so popular in the US. At 4.89m long, it’s between Ford Mondeo and BMW 5 Series length. It’s based on Toyota’s recently introduced TNGA (Toyota New Global Architecture), whose advantages, Toyota says, include a low engine location, which allows a low dashboard, lowering/improving the centre of gravity. Not that it’ll matter, because big saloons are big…

The GT2 RS is a 911 like no other. It has a more distinct character than many of the increasingly thinly differentiated 911 derivatives and plays to an audience that appreciates rapacious hot-rod character above everything else. It has a spectacular turn of straight-line speed and the usual abundance of dynamic charm. If you were out to make a case that it was the ultimate road-going GT derivative yet offered by Porsche, though, you’d struggle. A GT3 has a more delicate blend of grip, balance, power and adjustability; works better on the road; and has an engine that, despite its relative on-paper deficits, you’d simply treasure for longer. Considering the GT2 RS’s narrow failure to match the outright accelerative pace of its £200k rivals, it earns more qualified praise (below)…

Peter Thompson always haggles a discount on his new cars but when model, a Tesla Model S 90D, the businessman was forced to admit defeat. “I pride myself on the discounts I negotiate but this is the first time I’ve paid list price for a vehicle,” he says. But if he thought that, as compensation, he might be offered a discount by the ‘back door’ in the form of a little extra for his trade-in, an Aston Martin V8 Vantage S Sportshift II, he was to be disappointed again. Thompson says: “The Aston was a beautiful car which, new, cost me £112,000. It had loads of extras including interior upgrades and a black, aluminium grille. I chose Volcano Red with a black leather interior, and the ‘waterfall fascia’ from the…

FIRST REPORT WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT To see if Nissan’s advanced the cause of EVs at the affordable end of the market I have a theory about electric cars. As these things go, it hardly ranks up there with Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity, but here it is anyway: I reckon EVs are good for your health. I’m not just talking about the fact that they don’t produce any exhaust emissions, thereby contributing to an improvement in the quality of the air we breathe. I’m convinced that driving an EV is also a guaranteed way of reducing stress levels and blood pressure. Even the most humble of EVs are so relaxing to drive that I rarely feel any kind of aggression towards other road users or like I’m in a…

Here is, I promise you, the last instalment of Windscreen Wipergate. Maybe the Lorry, which is a very late Series 3, had more 1990-and-beyond bits than I had bargained for. The specialist-supplied blades still didn’t fit, which meant that I had one last course of action: to delve into the archives. I have a box of wipers (from Mopar to Trica and beyond) from the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. I found two very different plastic clips that fitted onto the ones I bought, then clipped onto the straight wiper arms. Job done, thank goodness.…

Seven years since it left the new car price lists, an Alfa Romeo 159 Sportwagon of 2006-2011 still looks a proper eyeful. There’s a saloon but, with its sleek styling, the Sportwagon estate is the pick. Diesel versions dominate the classifieds; no bad thing considering the current demand for used oil-burners. If you’re looking for something sporty and a little off the beaten track, a diesel Sportwagon should do nicely. Available in 1.9, 2.0 and thumping 2.4-litre capacities, the diesels are powerful and economical. They have their fair share of issues, including sticking EGR valves and weak water pump bearings, which, when they seize, can cause the cambelt to break. Generally, though, they’re reliable, as the number of high-mileage 159s for sale in the classifieds testifies. The few petrols out…

“This model is probably the key to Tesla fully establishing itself in the longer term as a global car maker” Tesla is likely to build a “compact” electric car “within the next five years”, according to mercurial company boss Elon Musk. Although the company is still struggling to get fully on top of production of its Model 3, this late-2022 rival to Volkswagen’s upcoming ID is probably the key to Tesla fully establishing itself over the longer term as a global car manufacturer. The compact Tesla is scheduled to be made in the new Shanghai facility announced by the company last week, alongside the forthcoming Model Y crossover. The factory’s production capacity of 500,000 cars per year suggests that Tesla expects the two models to have significant market potential. Tesla…

The eighth-generation Chevrolet Corvette will switch to a mid-engined layout for the first time in the model’s history. Recent photographs of a test mule confirm years of rumours that the next generation of America’s sports car, due on sale in late 2019, will undergo the most radical change in the car’s 65-year history. In a further break with tradition, the new Corvette, known by its C8 model code, will be sold alongside a version of the current car. Sources inside General Motors, which owns the Chevrolet brand, indicate that we can expect a slightly revised version of the existing C7 as an entry-level alternative. Although the C8 will carry a price premium over its front-engined sibling, it will be sold at a price that significantly undercuts the junior supercars offered…

The electric version of the next-generation Peugeot 208, due next year, will not get its own bespoke look, the company’s design boss, Gilles Vidal, has told Autocar. Vidal said the new electric supermini will receive very few modifications, such as a flat front grille and some EV-specific submenus in its infotainment system. “We do not need to shout about the fact that this car is the electric version,” he said. “The powertrain will complement the [rest of the] 208 range, rather than become its own version.” Peugeot’s owner, the PSA Group, and its Chinese joint-venture partner, Dongfeng, have developed an EV-specific version of the Common Modular Platform (CMP) that will underpin the new 208. The so-called e-CMP architecture will be the basis for many of PSA’s planned EVs. Vidal didn’t…

Porsche is readying a coupé version of its Cayenne SUV to take on the BMW X6 from late next year. The Cayenne coupé will be positioned as a performance model, with 440bhp twin-turbocharged 2.9-litre V6 and 550bhp twin-turbocharged 4.0-litre V8 petrol engines set to be offered from launch. No diesel engines are planned. Although a coupé version of the Cayenne had been rumoured for some time, it was only last month that Porsche boss Oliver Blume revealed it had been approved for production. The model is now testing on public roads, as this photograph shows.…

Skoda is planning to launch a conventional five-door hatchback model to rival the Volkswagen Golf in 2020. The model will be in indirect replacement to the Rapid, which is offered in fastback and Spaceback variants at present. The move mirrors a similar one in the SUV segment, where Skoda replaced the Yeti with a more conventional compact SUV, the Karoq. The new model, which arrives early next year, will receive a new name as Skoda bids to reposition it in the competitive hatchback segment, according to the company’s sales and marketing boss, Alain Favey. He said: “Our presence [in this segment] is very humble. With the current Rapid, we didn’t manage to convince people that we are a credible competitor in this segment.” He confirmed the new car was not…

MODEL TESTED GT2 RS Price £207,506 • Power 691bhp • Torque 553lb ft • 0-60mph 3.0sec • 30-70mph in fourth 5.1sec • Fuel economy 18.9mpg • CO2 emissions 269g/km • 70-0mph 42.0m Variously faster, wider, stiffer, more powerful and more ‘motorsport’ than any road-going 911 that Porsche has yet made, the 911 GT2 RS – Weissach’s range-topping GT-car godfather – steps up for examination by the Autocar road test microscope this week. With this car, Porsche comfortably surpasses the official engine output of even the 1990s-era 911 GT1 in competition trim. Leaving aside tuner specials, this is by some margin the most potent version of the firm’s celebrated sports car ever fitted with numberplates. And you’re about to find out if it can, in line with its well-publicised success on the…

In 1949, De Havilland unveiled the world’s first jet-powered and the world stood agog. It was a design that had seemingly jumped the fence from the future and arrived with an effortless three-point touch down in the present day. From that moment, everyone knew two things: the world of aviation would never be the same again, and Britain would rule it. Well, one out of two ain’t bad: the Comet did change the world, but its reign was short and problematic (to put it mildly). Meanwhile, over the water another company was looking on in interest, learning from the De Havilland’s mistakes, designing its own jet with the benefit of that hindsight. It was called the 707, it went into service nearly 10 years after the Comet first flew and…

In Rachel Burgess’s article on the new Range Rover (News, 4 July), she states that “the task with the fifth-generation Range Rover is to create a vehicle that will surpass all of these rivals”, meaning the Bentley Bentayga, BMW X8, Rolls-Royce Cullinan and so on. However, I suggest that none of these vehicles, with perhaps the exception of the Rolls, can ever surpass the Bentley. The Range Rover can be as luxurious, as fast, as technologically advanced, but as anyone who has been to the Bentley car plant at Crewe will know, there is a vast difference between the manufacturing process between the two makes. Bentleys are basically hand-made, and those who want to buy one know they are getting the very best possible. There is no doubt that the…

MILEAGE 2034 WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT We’ve had a diesel vRS for three months. Now it’s a petrol vRS for three months. Which makes the better buy? When the time comes to hand my Octavia vRS 245 back to Skoda, I will conduct a comprehensive breakdown of its running costs and have a look at how they compare with those of the diesel vRS that it replaced. For now, though, I couldn’t resist a quick fuel economy comparison. It goes without saying the diesel engine will achieve better fuel economy and therefore be cheaper to run, but the petrol motor is so much sweeter to use both in everyday driving and while on a bit of a run that I reckon most people reading this magazine would be happy to…

I wrote about buttons and modern cars the other week and got quite a reaction. So it was nice of Nick Williams to tell us about his fantastic decade-old Honda: “My 2008 2.4 automatic Accord EX is still going strong after several years’ contented ownership. If you like lots of buttons and don’t like going through menus for air-con, radio and sat-nav etc, look at a 2008-onwards Accord dashboard. Plus, you can talk to her and she’ll change the temperature, do the sat-nav, change CDs, make phone calls and change radio stations.” SEND YOUR USED CAR TALES TO james@bangernomics.com AND READERS' QUESTIONS TO autocar@haymarket.com…

An expert’s view JULIAN MILNE, ALFA AID “The Alfa Romeo 159 Sportwagon is a great car to look at, to drive and to own but it has its problems. The front subframe corrodes badly. On the 2.4 diesel, it’s caused by the underbody insulation trapping water and, on other models, simply by poor rust protection. The 2.2 petrol has timing chain issues and the 3.2 V6 is thirsty. All the diesels need a thrashing once a week to keep their emissions systems in shape. If you can find one, the 1.75 TBi petrol is the 159 to buy. Full service history is good but you want to make sure any advisories were attended to, as well.” Buyer beware… ▪ ENGINE On the 2.2 JTS, an engine warning light could signify…

Is this new McLaren 600LT more exciting than the Senna? I think, over all others, that’s the question. On the one hand, the Senna is a 789bhp hypercar built primarily for the track but apparently acceptable on the road. Speed, downforce, impressiveness. On the other, there’s the new 600LT. The third Longtail (fourth if you’re prepared to count the 675LT Spider as a different car to the coupé). The 600LT has speed and downforce too, as a result of upping the 570S’s engine output by 30bhp and extending the front splitter, rear diffuser, fitting a new rear wing (hence the name) and getting an 8mm lower ride height. But as much it’s about feel, finesse, “the purest distillation of sheer driving pleasure”, according to McLaren’s Mike Flewitt. Let’s see, to…

At first sight, this performance flagship looks a lot like the XEs we’ve become used to seeing on UK roads these past three and a bit years, only quite a bit cooler. The sleek, compact outline is familiar but there are attractive new side-sills in a tasteful semi-matt grey also used for the grille surround, the side vents, the exterior mirror caps and the rear valance, giving the car an unshowy but very businesslike appearance. The wheels are grey, too, 19-inchers as standard but optional 20s on our test car. Get closer and you’ll spot bright new ‘300 Sport’ badges on grille and bootlid. Jaguar is reverting to four-cylinder power for its XE sporting flagship mainly because V6-powered XEs are no longer offered following the arrival of tougher emissions laws,…

The GT2 RS has slightly less effortless close body control than a GT3 and, because its body moves around more, it tends to understeer at a slightly earlier stage; and it breaks away harder at the rear axle, on the occasions when you’ve deactivated the electronic aids. It’ll also break away at the rear under power under high lateral loads, right up to fourth gear and well into three-figure speeds, if you use too much throttle with the PSM disengaged. For those reasons and because it had Michelin PS Cup 2 tyres as opposed to the almost competition-spec Pirelli Trofeo R rubber on which its Italian rival was tested, the car failed to better the dry lap time that the Huracán Performante set last year. We were disappointed that it…

“I met William Towns. I liked the originality of his thinking. It was such a bold step” The man pictured to the right owns 3.7% of the Aston Martin Lagondas made between 1976 and 1990. That might not be so impressive if only a handful of these exceptionally long, low, sharp-edged and big-wheeled saloons had appeared, but the actual tally runs to 645 vehicles, which means that Rodger Dudding has 24. It also means that he owns 192 cylinders arranged in vees, 48 fuel filler flaps (Lagondas had the convenience of two) and 24 dashboard instrument sets demonstrating a variety of late-20th-century methods for digitally displaying speed, crankshaft revolutions and the state of assorted systems. That Dudding owns 24 of these sharp-edged technological adventures will astonish, although not as much…

ON SALE 25 JULY DRIVEN The Stratos is back The iconic Stratos has been reborn. Richard Bremner drives it to find out whether it can hold a candle to Lancia’s original FEATURE Ferrari 812 Superfast The 789bhp car gets a thorough examination from our testers INTERVIEW Jenson Button What the 2009 world champion really thinks of the sport EVERY WEEK FIRST DRIVE Mercedes-AMG C63 New gearbox and diff are the key tweaks for revised V8 super-saloon USED BUYING GUIDE Audi TT RS Fire-breathing five-pot makes this one of the most characterful used buys LONG-TERM TEST Honda Civic Type R Our time is up: is the best hot hatch to drive also the best to live with? SUBSCRIBE autocar.co.uk/subscribe or see p28…

MILEAGE 2756 WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT To determine whether the country’s best-selling new car is as worthy of that title as its brilliant predecessor was I recently caught sight of a lovely old Ford Fiesta XR2 that is part of Ford UK’s Heritage fleet and resembles our Fiesta ST-Line long-termer. It’s red, sits on silver wheels, features beefed-up styling and looks decidedly purposeful for its size. That got me thinking: is a 1980s hot hatch comparable to a modern warm hatch on the road too? Has Ford, perhaps by accident as much as design, created a modern incarnation of the XR2 with this most peppy version of its standard Fiesta? The numbers suggest so. Our car, with the most powerful variant of Ford’s 998cc triple, troubles its front wheels with…

QUESTION Unfortunately, I can no longer get into fun sports cars without causing serious injury to my back. I need something a bit higher off the ground but it still needs to be entertaining to drive. Any suggestions? Pete Whittle, via email ANSWER The market for ultra-powerful SUVs has been around for a while, so there are plenty on the used market. At one end of the scale, you have the BMW X5 4.6is with 347bhp for £4500; at the other, £45,000 will buy you a Porsche Macan Turbo with a 400bhp V6 and a 0-62mph time of 4.8sec. MA QUESTION I’ve updated my smartphone, but it won’t work with my car now. What should I do? Robert Fillion, Halifax ANSWER Some car companies are quite proactive in offering updates…

£18,790 You may think it a little trite that we’re singing the praises of the Volkswagen Golf R, but if you weigh up the reasons for it, you’ll understand. Although it might not be the most exciting car to drive and it isn’t as exciting to look at as an electric blue Ford Focus RS or the bewinged Honda Civic Type R, that’s what fans are after. It’s supposed to be understated and subtle – but what isn’t subtle about the Golf R is the way it goes. On paper, a 2.0-litre four-cylinder turbo petrol engine isn’t that exotic, particularly next to, say, a six-cylinder BMW 135i. But when you drop a gear or two in the Golf R and pin the throttle, it pulls with such vigour that you’d…

It’s amazing to think that there are any Bedford Chevannes left on UK’s roads, considering the hard lives that these workhorses must have led. Such vehicles can be rarer than most classic cars because few people have deemed them worthy of preservation. Although this one didn’t make its lowest estimate of £6000 at auction, it is worth a lot more than it was only a few years ago. And it makes sense as a starter classic because of its tough mechanicals and simple electrics. Rust is the main issue so take along a magnet and poke around underneath to check for any nasty holes. GET IT WHILE YOU CAN Volvo S60 D4 Business Edition Lux Price new £27,710. Price now £17,000 The Volvo S60 was never the most spacious car…