Innholdsfortegnelse for July 24, 2019 i Autocar

SCHEDULING THE RECENT British Grand Prix to clash with the Cricket World Cup and Wimbledon finals was perhaps peak F1 in its ability to find ways to limit its broader appeal. Yet what headlines did emerge following Lewis Hamilton’s record sixth British GP win were not about his latest incredible success but whether or not he’s actually British. How absurd. Hamilton is a British sporting great, pure and simple. He is the best driver of this generation, if not arguably the greatest of all time. He is a serial winner yet also a brilliant racer, able to go wheel-to-wheel with his peers without crashing into them or causing controversy. Yes, he’s in the best car, yet that has not clouded the legend of drivers before him. In sport, the best…

Lamborghini is evaluating an entry in the new Le Mans hypercar category for 2021. If given the go-ahead, it could put Lamborghini head to head with rivals such as Aston Martin and Toyota for outright victory in the famous 24-hour race. Talking at the recent Goodwood Festival of Speed, Lamborghini boss Stefano Domenicali – the former team principal of the Ferrari Formula 1 team – confirmed that a study into a potential project is under way and will be completed before the end of the year. “There are discussions and we are looking to understand the regulations to see if it is of interest,” said Domenicali. “There is nothing to say until the evaluation is finished, and at that point the answer could be yes or no. For now, it…

BMW’S ENGINEERS FACED a dilemma with the 2 Series Gran Coupé, aiming to create a car with an acceptable amount of room for passengers and a spacious boot, without sacrificing handling. Engineers chose to start with a disadvantage in dynamism rather than one in roominess. Front-wheel drive it is, then. The Gran Coupé uses the same FAAR platform as the new 1 Series, giving 34mm more knee room in the back seats compared with the old rear-drive 2 Series, along with a 450-litre boot. That’s a welcome increase, but the idea of a front-driven BMW sports saloon is still contentious; pugnacious loyalists may argue that Munich has taken leave of its senses. The firm doesn’t think the 2’s target audience (“young professionals”, in marketing speak) will mind. BMW also believes…

Audi has finally launched a rival to the niche-filling Mercedes-Benz GLC Coupé and BMW X4 in the form of this: the new Q3 Sportback. Arriving in the UK in the autumn and set to be priced from an estimated £35,000, it shares its mechanicals and interior with the standard Q3 but adopts a more striking coupé-cum-SUV exterior look. The Sportback receives a raft of specific design elements, including a 29mm drop in roof height and a slight, 16mm increase in external length. Although it’s actually a fraction narrower than the Q3, it gets a new 3D-profile grille and distinct styling lines aimed at creating the illusion of increased width. The model keeps the same ride height as the Q3, but with different surfacing to lower the car’s hip point. Details…

A new Citroën C4 hatchback will be launched at next year’s Paris motor show – and it will look more conventional than the C4 Cactus that it replaces. Explaining the decision to tone down the look and withdraw the higher-riding Cactus from sale, Citroën CEO Linda Jackson said: “We’re in a different place now to when we launched the C4 Cactus. “C4 Cactus allowed us to show off our difference within the group and to establish ourselves as the brand that could be a little quirky and innovative. It inspired everything else we have made since, but we also have to be ready to evolve. “Today, we have C3 and C5 Aircross, so there is no need to have C4 Cactus. Selling two SUVs at almost the same size wouldn’t…

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If you know the new 718 Cayman GT4, you know the new Boxster Spyder. One may get top billing as the track-day star while the other plays second fiddle as its road-ready counterpart, but in mechanical terms these are the same sports car. It’s an exciting development because, for all its exoticism, never in two previous iterations has the Spyder been engineered by Porsche’s GT division at the Motorsportzentrum in Weissach. This is a marriage of style and substance the likes of which we seldom see at sub-six-figure prices. The Spyder is a different proposition from the GT4, though, and not just because of the manual-folding canvas roof, which resides beneath the buttressed rear deck. When you drive the open car, you’re subconsciously putting yourself under less pressure to extract…

MODEL TESTED SVR Price £75,335 Power 542bhp Torque 502lb ft 0-60mph 4.1sec 30-70mph in fourth 5.6sec Fuel economy 18.0mpg CO2 emissions 272g/km 70-0mph 43.5m The F-Pace was a bold move from a marque whose history is so sharply defined by some of the best-handling saloons and sports cars the world has known. There are few bigger risks to take with such a reputation than by launching a tall, heavy SUV, and no doubt the prospect of putting such a vehicle into production was the source of more than one sleepless night for Jaguar’s top brass. Nonetheless, the move was a necessary and thus far fruitful one, and had it not been made who knows where the firm would be now. Not only has the F-Pace now carved out a name for…

Perhaps surprisingly, there is no absolute definition of how wide roads of various classifications should be in the UK, as explained by the Highways Agency’s Jonathan Turley in reply to a 2011 freedom of information request. “There are no regulations, as such, for specifying road widths,” he said. “However, there are design documents that provide guidance and advice. The width of a road depends on the volume, type and mix of traffic expected, and other issues. There’s no straightforward answer.” This guidance, he added, is available online. As of 2017, Britain had 246,700 miles of road, minor roads accounting for 83.7% of the total. Motorways make up a mere 2300 miles. There are 29,200 miles of A-roads, 18,800 of B-roads and 196,400 of unclassified roads. That means there are plenty…

How disappointing it is to read your article on speed limiters (News, 10 July). This seems to me to be another step along the already well-trodden route to dumbing down driving. I am completely in favour of reducing the number and severity of accidents, but I feel that those in charge need to review their attitude to road users. Drivers’ attitudes are not considered at all in the test and it’s this that determines the likeliness to have (or to cause) an accident. You do not have to watch for long to see people still using their mobile phones, driving without seatbelts, teenage drivers with music so loud it drowns out my own car radio and so on. Surely the people who deem these behaviours acceptable are the ones who…

FIRST REPORT WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT To see if the funky van-based MPV can recapture the simplicity, practicality and flexibility of the original Remember when SUVs weren’t the go-to choice for family transport? I do. England fans were wiping away tears after a heartbreaking Euro’96 exit (on penalties, naturally), Dolly the Sheep proved cloning wasn’t just the domain of Jurassic Park and Citroën had just unleashed the original Berlingo on an unsuspecting public. The genesis of the van-based MPV kicked off something of a revolution, and pretty soon every manufacturer had one of its own. It’s only recently, with the surging demand for SUVs, that they have fallen out of favour – but there’s no denying they remain one of the most practical types of car on our roads. And…

Audi S8 £10,995 The Audi S8 of 2006-2010 may not be the first choice of BMW M5 or Mercedes-Benz E63 AMG fanciers, but don’t underestimate its deeply interesting 5.2-litre V10 or the value of its quattro system when conditions are less than ideal. And what a talking point that lump is. It’s closely related to the V10 in the Lamborghini Gallardo and, while it’s less powerful, with 444bhp to the Gallardo’s 552bhp, it’s just as torquey, although at half the revs (3000rpm). Other S8 talking points include the car’s aluminium body (reasonably dent resistant but difficult to repair if it gets a bad knock) and suspension. However, things to keep under wraps are a heroic thirst of around 20mpg, a firm ride and high servicing costs – cylinder 10’s spark…

“The new XJ, due in around 12 months, is expected to be an unashamed super-luxury car” Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) has embarked on a two-year programme of new vehicle launches and massive industrial investments designed to transform the company’s financial fortunes and put it on a long-term, stable footing. As well as three entirely new model lines – the new Defender family, the luxury Jaguar J-Pace SUV and a new Range Rover crossover – JLR engineers are replacing the XJ with an electric super-saloon next year and creating a new version of the evergreen Range Rover by 2022. All of these new models will be built on JLR’s brand-new ‘flex’ MLA architecture, which offers mild- and plug-in hybrid drivetrains as well as a pure-electric option. According to official company documents,…

McLaren is developing a two-seat open-cockpit speedster that will focus on providing exhilarating on-road driving and become the sixth model in its Ultimate Series, Autocar can exclusively reveal. According to a source aware of the car, the new limited-run machine will sit alongside the track-focused Senna and the 250mph Speedtail hyper-GT at the top of McLaren’s range. Whereas the Senna has been designed as the ultimate road-legal track car and the Speedtail developed around high-speed aerodynamic efficiency, the new speedster has reportedly been conceived for road-driving pleasure. It will apparently highlight the more emotional, fun side to McLaren – albeit while retaining the high-performance, high-tech traits for which the Woking firm is known. The as-yet-unnamed machine will be the first pure open road car McLaren has made, with styling that…

FERRARI WILL EXPAND its line-up by diversifying the types of models it offers, according to commercial and marketing chief Enrico Galliera. Rather than focus on traditional replacements and variants of existing models, Galliera hopes to transform Ferrari by introducing new segments to the line-up – and he’s not just talking about its SUV, pegged for 2022. “What we are trying to do is become a lot less predictable,” he said. “We are currently working to redesign our products of the future. “For example, the [recently revealed] SF90 Stradale is not a car that was in our product range previously. It’s a completely new car, new technology, a new segment. It is what we are calling a ‘range supercar’. It’s not a LaFerrari. But it does supercar performance – and is…

You’re looking at the second-generation 718 Cayman GT4, and therefore your new departure point into the big-winged world of Porsche’s quickest and sweetest creations. You’ll remember the original. It was the first time the brains behind the 911 GT3 and GT2 track-day specials were allowed a proper go at a mid-engined model, and they built as near as dammit the perfect driver’s car. Wisely, the basic recipe has hardly changed. The GT4’s front axle is still taken wholesale from the GT3, while at the rear the architecture is once again largely carried over from the common Cayman, only with dampers inverted in true motorsport style and GT3 control arms and subframe. Now as then, the engine is paired with a short-throw six-speed manual gearbox, and delivers drive to the rear…

Just lately, MG has been making a habit of doing things well. The Chinese-owned, British-born company has moved many a mile from its former position as a maker of roadsters for cloth-cap wearers, but its decisions to keep much of its engineering and design here in the UK and to concentrate on attractive and affordable models in popular segments has started paying dividends. Sales of the MG 3 supermini rose 47% last year and ZS SUV sales soared 66%. By 2021, we’ll see three more MGs – an electric sports car and two more electrified models in popular sectors. Confidence is already rising. For now, MG seems to have scored another bullseye with its new ZS EV, an impressively affordable battery-powered version of the soft-roader it launched last year with…

There is a price to pay for the F-Pace SVR’s stability and surprising civility on the road, and it’s one paid at the track – a place where, in truth, it will be of little or no consequence to the majority of owners. That isn’t to say the SVR doesn’t make impressively short work of the Hill Route at Millbrook Proving Ground – it does, feeling monstrously quick and sure-footed – but there’s a degree of body roll you won’t find in either an Alfa Romeo Stelvio Quadrifoglio or either of Porsche’s SUVs. One of the effects of having such a big, burly engine in its nose is that the Jaguar can require some persuasion to change its course, although a steering set-up that isn’t quite as quick as it…

If Somerset’s farmers are worrying about the effects of drought and wanting rain for their crops, I’ve got a simple trick that’s guaranteed to summon grey, angry clouds over this part of the country: just arrange for me to drive an Ariel Atom and torrential storms will follow. After weeks of beautiful weather, there was an inevitability that this long-arranged appointment with the Atom 4 would coincide with a Met Office amber warning for thunderstorms and floods. Tom Siebert, Ariel’s general manager, has seen it all before and, when I arrive at the Crewkerne factory to the distant rumble of thunder, his first question is: “Have you got waterproof trousers?” Unlike many manufacturers of exotic machinery, Ariel has never been shy about letting its products get used in the real…

Mad, many would say. It’s not as if there was much wrong with the Porsche. It was low mileage and well maintained yet neither I nor my wife, who was not only the co-owner but initiated the purchase in the first place, was driving it much. It was a classic mid-life-crisis car, an impulse buy triggered when she saw a Carrera 4S in a showroom and loved its rear end – which, in the case of the wide-bodied 996 Carrera 4S, is particularly sexy. It wasn’t necessarily the 911 I would buy but, when your wife says she wants to go halves on one, what are you going to say? But where I live, its ride is a bit harsh, the tyre noise too strident and the bodywork a little…

COMPARISON BMW Z4 vs Audi TT vs Porsche Boxster T Three recently refreshed or renewed rivals provide three different takes on the sports roadster. We pick a winner FEATURE X-Class in the Outback Australia’s most remote pub needs a beer delivery, and we’re the driver FEATURE BTCC on ITV We go behind the camera for a day shadowing Steve Rider EVERY WEEK ROAD TEST Skoda Scala How good is Skoda’s entry into the mainstream family hatchback class? USED BUYING GUIDE Audi S3 Audi’s original hot hatch is now 23 years old – and yours for a bargain price FIRST DRIVE BMW 330e Plug-in hybrid power arrives in the 3 Series, and is tipped to be a big seller SUBSCRIBE autocar.co.uk/subscribe or see p24 CONTENTS SUBJECT TO CHANGE…

MILEAGE 9650 WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT To see if the third-generation Continental GT rules the roost as the ultimate grand tourer There’s a strain of mouthy modern enthusiasts who’ll try to tell you that old-school grand touring by car is dead. Such people cite speed limits, traffic calming, cost, congestion, encroaching laws and inept fellow drivers as evidence: you’ve heard all the arguments. Yet my past 10 days’ varied journeys in partnership with our Bentley Conti GT put the lie to every sceptical syllable. Our 1500-mile travel sequence contained all the essentials of grand touring: long drives timed for best road conditions, great routes chosen for best driving enjoyment and a welcoming destination practically every time we stopped. The important journeys were these: a return dash from the Cotswolds to…

Here’s a thing. The Flying Pig looked like it had a problem because it leaked coolant. Indeed, a reader sent me a terrifying picture of their Audi Q7, which needed a 20p plastic pipe whose replacement involved the removal of most of the front of the vehicle. I’ll show that when I can find it. So I’m pleased to report that the leak seems to have fixed itself. No Radweld or anything, plus we’ve done a good few 300-mile round trips and the fluid levels stayed normal. Praise be. My daughter, though, can still detect the aroma of wet dog.…

Before PCPs allowed car buyers to realise their wildest dreams, motors such as the practical, spacious and good-to-drive Mondeo were what families bought and fleet bosses leased. The big Ford is still practical, spacious and good to drive, but times have moved on and it, and other large hatchbacks like it (it’s available in saloon and estate forms, too), are being left on the shelf. That’s good news if you’re a used car buyer, because while other people are paying top dollar for an SUV, the bargain hunter has the pick of Mondeos at lower prices. The model was launched here in 2014, two years after its US unveiling. In the interim, Ford of Europe had been tuning Henry’s world car for our tastes. The chassis might have lost a…

Never mind that this Bluebird made £4000 at auction, has done just 86,000 miles, is over 30 years old (it was registered in 1988) and has one owner in the logbook; more remarkable is that it survived the 2009 scrappage scheme. You’d have thought such an unloved repmobile would have been ripe for the crusher but no, some free spirit had the sense to save it. Its 1.8 turbo engine makes 135bhp and is good for 0-62mph in 8.6sec, and being in Executive spec it has leather, air-con and a radio – in 1988, all sought-after options on more expensive cars.…

If at first you don’t succeed… The first-generation M-Class was cursed with reliability issues, but its successor, launched in 2005 and under consideration here, was a better product altogether. It stole a march on the second-generation BMW X5 that didn’t arrive until a couple of years later. By that time a facelifted ML was being readied, with cleaner engines, remodelled bumpers and grille, extra equipment and improved infotainment. The refreshed ML came out in 2008; the following year, the diesel engines that accounted for the vast majority of sales gained BlueEfficiency technology. The striking thing about the ML is the absence, in the classifieds, of petrol-engined models. Correction: there are a handful except that, tellingly, half of them are range-topping 503bhp ML63 AMGs. Pitched directly at the Porsche Cayenne Turbo,…

LOTUS RECENTLY REVEALED the 1973bhp Evija electric hypercar – its first all-new model for more than a decade. Talking to Autocar, Lotus boss Phil Popham explains the thinking behind the Evija and the next steps for the sports car brand. Why have you chosen to build a car like this – so exclusive and expensive? “If you want to make ripples, you have to make a splash. If you want to be on the map, you have to make a mark. This car shows what our future can be like. It shows what we can do, and it paves the way for future visionary Lotus models.” Are you planning a succession of hyper-expensive models? “Our 10-year plan, which we call Vision 80, contains a commitment to be ‘for the driver’,…

BMW’s upcoming 2 Series Gran Coupé has entered the final phase of development ahead of its planned reveal later this year. The Mercedes-Benz CLA rival is the fifth car built on BMW’s front-drive FAAR platform, joining the 2 Series Active Tourer and Gran Tourer, the new 1 Series hatchback and the China-only 1 Series saloon. New images of production-based prototypes highlight the cab-back styling of a car expected to be priced from around £28,000 in the UK. Other key design elements include a wide kidney grille, headlights positioned to provide the front end with a heavily tapered look and frameless doors. The need to accommodate two rear doors and extra rear leg room is understood to be behind the decision to give the model a wheelbase longer than that of…

The new eighth-generation Chevrolet Corvette has been revealed, featuring a mid-engined layout for the first time in an attempt to take on European rivals such as Porsche and Ferrari. Since the first version of the two-seater was launched in 1953, Corvettes have featured a front-engined, rear-drive layout – but the 495bhp 6.2-litre V8 in the new C8 machine is mounted behind the driver for the first time. Mark Reuss, president of Chevrolet parent firm General Motors, said that “the traditional front-engine vehicle reached its limits of performance, necessitating the new layout”. He added: “In terms of comfort and fun, it still looks and feels like a Corvette, but drives better than any vehicle in Corvette history.” The entry-level version of the new car will be dubbed Stingray, reviving a badge…

UNDER THE SKIN JESSE CROSSE ONE WAY OF improving the performance, efficiency and emissions of a combustion engine is to take better control of its breathing. Autocar first looked at the intelligent valve technology (iVT) system from British company Camcon in 2017, and now a single-cylinder version, called Single Cylinder Intelligent Valve Technology (SCI), has been adopted by Brunel University London’s Centre for Advanced Powertrain and Fuels (CAFP). CAFP will use it for advanced combustion research. So what does iVT do? A basic valve train has no variability when the engine is running. Valves are opened by cams on a shaft and usually closed by a spring. It is impossible for an engine to be well-mannered and flexible to drive at low revs and give its absolute best in the…

THE FUTURES OF the joint-venture Citroën C1, Peugeot 108 and Toyota Aygo hang in the balance as their makers assess whether the city car has a viable future in an age of electrification. Speculation that the co-operation to continue building the car is likely to change was heightened at the end of last year when the PSA Group, owner of Citroën and Peugeot as well as Vauxhall-Opel, announced it was passing financial ownership of the cars’ manufacturing plant in Kolin, Czech Republic, solely to Toyota from January 2021. The Aygo, C1 and 108 joint venture was created in 2002. The current generation of cars was launched in 2014, meaning a traditional seven-year life cycle of a car would take it to 2021 before it needed renewing, although some car makers…

Clearly anxious to avoid accusations of door-ism, Mercedes-AMG has taken many of the best bits of the new GT63 four-door and lavished them on the two-door GT. Among the improvements inherited by the two-door are fully digital instruments, AMG’s latest-generation infotainment system, its new ‘performance’ steering wheel and its latest AMG Dynamics multi-modal traction and stability control software. The GT has also inherited the new transmission tunnel design from the larger GT63 four-door, with its ‘display’ toggle buttons for things like transmission mode and active exhaust setting. Its appearance is intended to mirror the shape of the car’s V8 engine although it’s a likeness you’ll need a fair bit of imaginative freedom to appreciate. Truth is, this is an oddly imposing edifice of a fixture in what’s a fairly intimate…

VERDICT Contrary to expectations, the F-Pace SVR is a lesson in the art of compromise. That a car so rich in character and performance should go about its business with this level of comfort and versatility makes it unique in this neck of the market and proves that the best performance SUVs embrace their core attributes rather than attempting to obscure or overcome them. This Jaguar is neither as quick nor as agile or exhilarating as some rivals, and perhaps a sliver more dynamism wouldn’t have gone amiss, but more often than not you’d take its smooth-riding composure and stability over sharper-handling but less well-mannered alternatives. The fact that this potent, bombastic V8 doesn’t need always dominate the driving experience only demonstrates just how rounded the F-Pace SVR package is.…

Do you struggle to squeeze your car down country lanes? Is it awkward to fit in a supermarket parking bay? Is it pointless putting it in your garage, because if you did, you wouldn’t be able to open the door to get out? Welcome to the expanding world of 21st-century cars. We all know they’re getting bigger and heavier – the Volkswagen Polo is now a bigger car than the original 1974 VW Golf. Most of us know why they are getting bigger, too. To comply with today’s stringent crash regulations – by passing offset, side and roof impact tests, as well as those evaluating pedestrian protection performance – cars require considerable cubic metres of controllably crushable bodywork. Another reason why cars have become bigger is diet, whether good or…

FEATURED THIS WEEK FINAL REPORT MILEAGE 6096 WHY WE RAN IT To find out how sporty a sportily configured Ateca can be, and to sample the first fruit of Seat’s Cupra sub-brand One of the Cupra Ateca’s more surprising capabilities – of which there are several – is to start conversations. I’ve had quite a few with complete strangers, each of them baffled by the origins of its elaborate copper-hued grille badge. “What is it?” is invariably the question when checking out what appears to be a very mainstream car bearing a badge they’ve never seen before. Most are happy with my “a high-performance Seat” answer, and most are then strangely uninterested in knowing any more about the Spanish company’s new sub-brand. I mentioned more surprises, and one is the…

MILEAGE 8567 WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT To find out if the e-Niro truly is an electric car you can own without having to make any compromises Any idea what 451 litres looks like? Me neither. Well, I hadn’t until my son and his mates signed up to a three-day Scout camp and loaded the boot of the e-Niro to the roofline. And there it is: 451 litres is exactly the right amount of space to fit six rucksacks, three sets of cutlery and a teddy bear. It’s also, quite frankly, just enough. Just enough to get them where they needed to go with what they needed, just enough to carry all we need as a family of four wherever we go and just enough for me to declare that the…

Vauxhall Astra estate David Robertshaw is back, with a rather marvellous 2002 Vauxhall Astra 1.6 estate. He says: “This one came to me in January on 87k miles and looking ready for the scrap yard, with faded paint, running issues and two weeks’ MOT. But it was free! I got it home, gave it a machine polish and saw it was solid and original. The interior looks unused. It failed its MOT on brake lines and a headlight, then I got it through the re-test, gave it a service and traced the poor running to a faulty ECU. A used one was £38 and fitted in a couple of hours. It now runs nicely and has just completed a 250-mile round trip without issue. I quite like the low-down torque…

Saab 9-5 2.0 TiD Vector SE £3600 For a time it looked like the prices of Saab’s big saloon were stabilising, but it was an illusion and now they’re entering the basement. This £3600 SE is a 2010 car with 112,000 miles on the clock and a recent full brake and cambelt service. At the other end of the spectrum, prices peak at around £10,000 for a 2011 TiD with 46,000 miles. However, we’d prefer to put our money in one of the rarer petrols, such as the 2010 2.8 T Aero XWD with 98,000 miles we saw for £7650 (new price £37,795).…

An expert’s view PETER BRISTOW, HAMPSHIRE SERVICE CENTRE “We’re a Mercedes specialist and have operated several second-generation MLs, including a 500 and a 350 petrol, plus a couple of diesels. Our last diesel, a 320 CDI, regularly towed a 2500kg trailer without fuss. Mind you, it wanted for nothing in the way of servicing. Towing, it returned 20mpg, but on its own, around 30mpg. The ML has its issues and repairs can be expensive, but all in all it’s solid. Don’t write off the earlier ML generation. The 270 CDI was a strong engine. We bought one with 120,000 miles and ran it to 200,000 miles. It’s still going strong with its new owner.” Buyer beware… ▪ DIESEL ENGINES Too much gentle driving blocks the variable-vane turbo. Check turbo seals…