Innholdsfortegnelse for November 10, 2021 i Autocar

The Toyota Aygo has been reborn as an ultra-compact SUV with a rugged-looking design and an overarching focus on affordability. Staying true to the ethos of the boldly styled Prologue concept revealed earlier this year, the new Aygo – now wearing the X suffix in a nod to its baby SUV billing – is described as “unique in the A-segment”. It takes over from its conventional predecessor as the smallest model in Toyota’s line-up, sitting beneath the Yaris. Despite the car’s widereaching reinvention, Toyota has carried over many of the second-generation Aygo’s defining features, such as its retractable canvas roof, one-piece glass bootlid and vertical tail-light clusters. Although the overall height has been raised by 50mm, the Aygo’s squat silhouette remains largely intact, too, with its short overhangs, tall glasshouse…

Alfa Romeo’s first battery-electric car will arrive in 2024, new company boss Jean-Philippe Imparato has confirmed, and there could be a Quadrifoglio-badged performance version. The Italian marque, now part of the Stellantis empire, has already committed to launching only battery-electric vehicles from 2027 onwards. Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares recently approved a bold new Alfa Romeo product plan, developed by Imparato, that includes one new car per year between now and 2025. That product plan will begin with the delayed Tonale SUV in 2022. Further new models will come in 2023 – tipped to include the Brennero small SUV – and 2024. “I will launch in 2024 the full BEV version of the first Alfa Romeo to be fully electrified,” said Imparato. “It will have one trim with two engines. One…

LEATHER HAS LONG been seen as the ultimate premium material for the interior of a car, but now pressure is on to improve the sustainability of its manufacturing processes and lower its carbon footprint. That said, leather has a head start on modern materials in the sustainability stakes, because the raw material (cow hides) are a by-product of the food industry that would otherwise be dumped in landfill and is both bio-based and renewable. As the folk at the UK’s sole manufacturer of automotive leather, Bridge of Weir, like to say, leather is the ultimate upcycled material. The Renfrewshire firm’s own hides are fully traceable and all come from certified sources in Britain and Ireland. When hides arrive for processing, they’re normally treated with chemical biocides to kill bacteria, but…

Improving battery technology is a game of incremental gains. The Mégane E-Tech Electric is the first of what the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance calls its Generation 2.0 electric cars. Its 395kg mattress of lithium ion battery measures only 110mm thick, which is 40% shallower than that in the Renault Zoe and means it can be set low in the car. That in turn results in weight savings and a centre of gravity 90mm lower than that of the old Mégane. The LG Chem-sourced cells use a nickel-manganese-cobalt mix, with increased nickel and reduced cobalt over previous batteries used by the Alliance. They’re also wate-rcooled and, with its new integrated Google brain clever enough to recognise when the charge is low, the Mégane automatically warms the battery when it knows it will soon…

Don’t take this the wrong way, but the VW Tiguan puts me in mind of the Ford Cortina. It shares some fundamental characteristics with that saloon of yesteryear, distinguishing every driveway, fitting every supermarket parking spot, and being a car many households aspire to and need. As a result, it seems to be everywhere – and just as the mass of drivers-in-the-street discover electrification, it has been launched as a plug-in hybrid. There are three models, actually: the £35,515 Life entry version, the plusher £37,780 Elegance and the sportier £38,120 R-Line, our test car. All are well equipped, with niceties like three-zone air-con, adaptive cruise control and parking sensors. The powertrain consists of a 1.4-litre petrol engine in unit with an electric motor (ahead of the six-speed dual-clutch automatic ’box)…

TRANSMISSIONS 8-spd automatic Genesis doesn’t do hybrids and plans to stick with petrol and diesel until it can go fully electric. As such, G70 buyers can choose between a 2.0-litre petrol, which comes with two different power outputs, and a 2.2-litre diesel. There are three trim levels, or ‘lines’: Premium, Luxury and Sport. The low-output petrol engine can only be had with Premium Line, while the higher-output petrol demands at least Luxury Line. All come with the same in-house eightspeed torque-converter automatic.…

The venue for Autocar’s Britain’s Best Driver’s Car 2021 was decided the moment the circuit manager at Anglesey said ‘yes’. Some things were easier to agree on than others in the track office and on the mountain roads of North Wales this year, but all four judges, and all gathered artistes and hangers-on, were of one mind in this respect: that there has never been a better place to conduct our annual comparison of the year’s greatest enthusiast cars than Anglesey Circuit and its nearby roads, and that rarely has there been a more varied and eclectic field of cars for comparing than we had this year. The truth is, though, that even that happened almost by accident. The line-up for ‘BBDC21’ shifted and changed throughout the summer and was…

There was no shortage of surprise driver moves leading up to the 2021 British Touring Car Championship season, and one of the biggest concerned a title contender who suddenly found himself without a seat. Two-time Porsche Carrera Cup GB champion Dan Cammish had been drafted in by Team Dynamics and Honda ahead of the 2018 campaign to replace Gordon Shedden after the Scot switched to the World Touring Car Cup. He had had big shoes to fill, succeeding a triple champion, but did so with aplomb. Close to taking pole position on his debut, Cammish proved to be more than a match for experienced team-mate Matt Neal and in year two went within a lap and a half of securing the title before being robbed by a brake failure. He…

DRIVEN New Toyota GR 86 The GT86 was the standout accessible sports car of the last decade, and its successor promises even more fun FEATURE The English Riviera Monaco has nothing on Torquay, discovers Andrew Frankel on a Bentley road trip INVESTIGATION Future of car buying Just how will our car buying habits change in the era of electrification? EVERY WEEK MOTORSPORT Richard Burns Twenty years on from his WRC title, Burns’ best friend remembers him ROAD TEST Mercedes-Benz EQA Stuttgart’s baby EV will take on VW’s ID 3. But first it faces our testers SUBSCRIBE autocar.co.uk/subscribe or see p18…

QUESTION I like the interior and general design of the Mazda MX-30, but my commute is an 80-mile round trip, so will it work for me? Rowan Watson, Stafford ANSWER The MX-30 would most likely be fine for your commute, but you will have to be careful. Its official range is 124 miles, but our testers managed a real-world range of just 103 miles with an average economy of 2.9 miles per kW. That’s because the MX-30 features one of the smallest battery capacities of any mass-produced electric car. So make sure to take into consideration the significant effect that colder weather can have on batteries going into the winter. At least if you do get stuck for charge, you will be able to recoup 80% of the capacity in…

BRIEF Can I have an interesting hybrid for £5000, please? MARK PEARSON Here it is, the first hybrid to excite anyone’s taste buds ever, and it’s still a hoot today. The Honda CR-Z is fun, ultra-reliable and nippy, and it looks a million dollars. Stick it in its Sport mode and the instruments glow red. There’s a wonderfully low-slung driving position and a sweet six-speed gearbox. Oh, and it will do 56mpg, too. What you got, Oliver? OLIVER YOUNG The Lexus GS 450h became the first massproduced rear-wheel-drive luxury hybrid on its launch. It was ahead of its time, featuring a 292bhp 3.5-litre petrol V6 working with an electric motor for a 0-60mph time of just 5.9sec and nearly 40mpg. So it’s quick and economical, not to mention super-comfortable and reliable.…

A road test in any other magazine might well be a short, subjective summary of a new car produced under almost any circumstances, but the Autocar road test is different. Specific, rigorous and detailed, it’s the closest examination we can give of any new model. It appears over at least eight pages and is close to 50 man-hours in the making every week. Most of what the road test process entails is designed to be strictly repeatable and fair. We benchmark standing-start and in-gear acceleration at a purpose-built test facility every week. We carry out both subjective and objective handling tests on both road and track, on the latter up to and beyond the limit of grip, so as to fully assess stability, drivability and limit handling appeal. And while…

I suppose we should file under ‘not entirely surprising’ the news that budget car maker Dacia has surveyed some drivers and decided they like budget car things. Stand by for Dacia’s shocking statistics: 76% of drivers “think too much technology can be distracting in a car”, 78% of them “only want in-car technology that they deem useful” and 61% “would prefer more affordable cars that are equipped with technology they regularly use”. I wonder whether a survey commissioned by Audi, BMW or Mercedes-Benz would have received quite the same responses – or indeed asked quite the same questions. But also I wonder who would argue against any of those things anyway. Who are the 24% who think too much technology wouldn’t distract them? Fighter pilots? How rich are the 39%…

WHEN THE INNOVATIVE Hillman Imp was launched in 1963, those in Scotland had cause for celebration. In addition to the Albion truck factory in Scotstoun expanding and BMC’s Bathgate truck factory employing thousands, Rootes had built a new facility for the Imp – the first Scottish-built car for 30 years. “When the production target of 150,000 units a year is reached, the Linwood factory will employ 5500 people,” we reported. “World War One knocked the bottom out of Scotland’s car industry. Fortunately, today a redistribution of industry is taking place, and Scotland is ready for the challenge.” Sadly, though, the Imp’s success wasn’t replicated by the Hillman Avenger or Chrysler Sunbeam, and Linwood was closed down in 1981. • Visit themotoringarchive.com for all of Autocar’s history GET MORE AUTOCAR New…

As Audi gears up to launch its final internal-combustion car in just five years’ time, the race is on to transition its Audi Sport division into an electric-only performance brand. Audi Sport’s portfolio of petrol and diesel cars is larger than ever before, comprising uprated S and RS-badged versions of every model in Audi’s ICE line-up except for the A1 Sportback supermini. The hot E-tron GT, however, remains its only electric RS offering. The hot versions of the E-tron and E-tron Sportback SUVs wear just an S badge and the division has yet to show more potent derivatives of the new Q4 E-tron and Q4 E-tron Sportback. That trend is set to reverse rapidly in line with Audi’s wider plans to offer more than 20 electric models worldwide by 2025…

Jaguar Land Rover has posted a £302 million loss from July to September with the ongoing global semiconductor chip shortage resulting in tens of thousands of lost sales – but it has forecasted a recovery by this time next year. The British firm, which is owned by Indian conglomerate Tata, sold 92,700 cars in the second financial quarter of 2021, compared with 114,000 in the same period last year. That was reflected in reduced revenues of £3.9 billion. The £302m loss compared with a £110m loss in the three months from April to June this year. Defender sales rose by 70.4% last quarter to 16,725 – roughly three times the number of Discovery sales. JLR blamed the sales shortfall on its supply issues caused by the ongoing shortage of chips…

A HOT VERSION of the high-riding Aygo X is on the cards to rival the likes of the Suzuki Swift Sport and Volkswagen Up GTI as Toyota continues to expand its GR-badged performance line-up. Asked by Autocar if the new SUV-style city car could be uprated to serve as an entry point into the expanding GR family, Toyota Europe’s vice-president, Andrea Carlucci, refused to rule out the possibility. While acknowledging that he could not be specific about Toyota’s future products, he said: “Whatever our plans, this car may deserve looking at the chassis, the body rigidity – the potential in making a more sporty version. “Let’s be clear: it’s not in our plans, but you will discover yourself and maybe comment to help us understand how much potential you see…

Alfa Romeo boss Jean-Philippe Imparato has revealed that he’s keen to revive the ‘Duetto’ Spider as an EV and admitted that design work has progressed on this – but said the firm must first focus on growing sales in volume markets. “I have the car; I’ve showed it to dealers,” said Imparato. “But I wouldn’t dare to put that on the table to [Stellantis chief] Carlos Tavares until I’m completely secure in terms of market share.” Imparato also said that he was keen to revive the GTV as a three-door model, but that it too would be on his “dream car” list, behind the two-seat roadster. Despite that, the GTV tag could be revived sooner: Autocar has previously reported that it could be used by a forthcoming twoseat or four-seat…

2340m2 Size of the assembly plant at Cambiano Pininfarina is opening a new chapter in its 90-year history by turning to hand-built, craftsmanbased production of luxury electric cars at its factory in Turin, Italy. Its new production line opens this month and the first car off it will be the 217mph Battista battery-electric hypercar. Following the Battista will be a crossover previewed by last year’s Pura Vision concept. The move is part of a €1 billion (£850 million) investment plan funded by Indian car maker Mahindra, which took control of Pininfarina in 2015. It’s a bold step for the firm so Autocar was keen to take an in-depth look at the production operation that will underpin this new chapter. Newly created car-making division Automobili Pininfarina (APF) has turned an assembly…

MONDAY Truly momentous week. Today we unveiled the new, digitised, 125-year Autocar archive to a full house of loyal readers in the Royal Automobile Club, Pall Mall, an organisation with early motoring connections every bit as distinguished as our own. Our event helped kick off the RAC’s annual London Motor Week, whose climax is always the Brighton Run for pre-1905 cars, the world’s oldest motoring event. The indefatigable Pete Boswell, who led our archive project, talked about the sheer enormity of scanning 1.1 million pages – at two seconds a page – without damaging the original magazines. The joy for those of us who operate the mag today was being surrounded both by the people who created it (we were joined by no fewer than five former Autocar editors) and…

“It’s tremendously exciting; anything that slams into a 9500rpm limiter with this verve could be nothing else” Enter, then, the latest special Ferrari that you have to be invited to buy. It’s the 812 Competizione and, as is the norm with different generations of Ferrari, it gets a different name rather than just being, say, another ‘GT3’ or ‘LT’. This car’s forebears are the F12 tdf and the 599 GTO. It’s based on the ‘ordinary’ 812 Superfast, whose 789bhp 6.5-litre V12 has been tweaked even more as the Competizione’s centrepiece, with titanium conrods, new pistons, a 3%-lighter crankshaft and redesigned heads with sliding finger followers between the camshafts and the valve stem (because they cope best with very aggressive cams and high revs). Now the engine revs to 9500rpm and…

know what you’re thinking: another special-edition Alpine? Well, hold on, because this one is worth your time. It’s true that the Alpine A110 has been rivalling the Bugatti Veyron for the number of special editions created by the use of some different paint and wheels, but this year’s Légende GT is different. Unlike last year’s Légende GT, this one has the A110 S’s 288bhp engine, in combination with the standard chassis. We’ve always found the S’s extra power welcome, but not worth giving up the supple chassis that makes the standard A110 unique and such a breath of fresh air, so the Légende GT promises to be a kind of Alpine greatest hits album. All the more so because it also gets the normally optional bigger brakes and sports exhaust.…

1 BMW 320d M SPORT Exceptional combination of performance, economy, interior quality and refinement makes this the clubhouse leader. 2 JAGUAR XE D200 R-DYNAMIC SE Excellent to drive, and recent updates have fixed the interior and infotainment issues. Now also remarkably good value. 3 AUDI A4 40 TDI QUATTRO SPORT EDITION Well mannered, well equipped, practical, easy to use and brisk enough when needed, but rather dull. 4 GENESIS G70 2.2 CRDi LUXURY LINE This creditable alternative to the Germans has a distinctive style and a pleasant interior but is slightly below par to drive. MERCEDES-BENZ C220d AMG LINE PREMIUM Early drives suggest the latest car is a tech fest that’s refined but unexciting. A full road test verdict is coming soon.…

It’s the moment the cricket crowd holds its breath. The first two balls have sent stumps cartwheeling, and this is the third. The hat-trick ball. The bowler has steamed through his run-up, the ball is released. Twenty-two yards away a batsman grimaces. Can it possibly be three in a row? This is our 33rd attempt to find Britain’s Best Driver’s Car, and while plenty have won, just three have successfully defended a win (the Honda NSX, Ferrari 550 Maranello and Ariel Atom 4). That hat-trick car has always eluded us. But as an attendee at all bar the first of those 33 BBDCs, believe me when I tell you none has had a better shot at it than the Atom. That it won in glorious weather as a brand-new car…

Toyota’s Le Mans 24 Hours-winning trio of Mike Conway, José María López and Kamui Kobayashi took a crushing victory ahead of colleagues Kazuki Nakajima, Sébastien Buemi and Brendon Hartley in the penultimate round of the 2021 FIA World Endurance Championship. The Bahrain 6 Hours race was the first of a double-header in the country, and both GR010 Hybrid crews remained in title contention as Autocar went to print. Formula 1 sprint races could get points boost Formula 1 plans to hold sprint qualifying races at six events next year, with managing director Ross Brawn saying that a series of changes are being considered to make them “more engaging”. These could include increasing the number of championship points on offer and reworking the branding. The Hulk tries Indycar Ex-F1 racer Nico…

WRITE TO autocar@haymarket.com Runaway inflation For some time, I’d had the feeling that new car price inflation was racing ahead of wage increases but lacked any hard evidence. Then I received an invitation to visit my local Mini dealer, as my Cooper S three-door was 30 months old and perhaps I would like to consider swapping it in for a new one. With the help of the salesperson, I specced up a replacement car that just happened to be identical to my 2019 car except for a different metallic body colour. The first clue came when the monthly PCP bill worked out at £60 a month more than I’m currently paying. So I made a comparison of the list prices, including the extras. In 2019, according to the invoice, my car…

The Flying Pig is back home, complete with a big fat bill. Actually, it wasn’t as bad as I expected. They replaced the front brake pads and warning wires, plus the nearside front lower wishbone needed changing and the bolts wouldn’t budge. New bolts cost £18 and a new wishbone £105, plus there was an interim service and £250 worth of labour. In all, it cost just over £600 to keep the old thing going. I think it was worth it. Mrs Bangernomics certainly approves and is pleased to have it back, as she rightly refuses to touch any other members of the fleet.…

Anyone looking for a chisel-jawed and capacious seven-seat SUV of decent refinement and good road manners should cast a glance at the Seat Tarraco. Those looking for a bit more zing from their family-friendly motoring have already been choosing this handsome bolide over its subcutaneously similar cousins from Volkswagen and Skoda. It has been impressing us for its practicality and sportiness since 2018, and now it has become a useful used buy. Under the bonnet, new buyers could have chosen from a number of petrol or diesel-engined options. The petrols were initially a 148bhp 1.5-litre or a 187bhp 2.0-litre, with a 242bhp 2.0-litre added later; the diesels are a 2.0-litre unit in two states of tune, either 148bhp or 187bhp, later upped to 197bhp. A six-speed manual gearbox comes as…

Many owners lovingly give their cars personal nicknames (see p72 for proof), but the Nissan GT-R has earned its own already – and ‘Godzilla’ is richly deserved. It started with the R32 Skyline GT-R, which stormed to the 1991 Australian Touring Car Championship title ahead of the previously dominant Ford Sierra Cosworth, leading the Aussie media to name the car after Japan’s famous ‘king of the monsters’. We’ve got our eyes on the R35 GT-R, produced since 2007. It was launched with a hand-built twin-turbocharged 3.8-litre V6 that made a ground-shaking 479bhp and 433lb ft, while four-wheel drive helped to provide a 0-62mph time of just 3.0sec – faster than contemporary supercars such as the Ferrari 458 Italia and Porsche 911 (997). It will still do a number on many…

The much-loved Mercedes-Benz SL has been withus since 1954 and has just been rejuvenated for 2022 with a soft top, a stonking great V8 and standard all-wheel steering. But even the cheaper SL 55 variant is set to cost around £100,000, so it’s hardly an everyman option. No matter, you needn’t break the bank for a soulful V8 cruiser with that covetable SL badge; you just need to do your research, be patient… and probably invest in a good toolkit. We’re looking at the range-topping 500 SL of the R129 generation, which is widely regarded as one of Stuttgart’s finest designs and is quickly approaching classic status. Bruno Sacco’s instantly recognisable angular silhouette, with its long, low bonnet and cabbackward stance, is made to look all the more purposeful on…

Jaguar Land Rover has entered an ‘emissions pool’ with Tesla and Honda to ensure it avoids financial penalties for missing the European Union’s and the UK’s CO2 emissions targets. The firm claimed that it had been on track to meet its compliance targets based on demand but the semiconductor shortage had disproportionately affected the production of low-or zero-emissions electrified cars. JLR has an agreement with Tesla to extend its deal into 2022 if required. While JLR hasn’t said how much it paid the EV maker to join the pool, it noted that it had been able to reduce its compliance reserves by £52m to £37m. JLR has also set aside £59m for 2021 to continue buying ‘emissions credits’ in both the US and China.…

RUMOURS THAT F1 teams swear in pit-to-car radio comms to make sure those messages aren’t broadcast to other teams turn out to be unfounded. Bernie Collins, head of race strategy at Aston Martin F1, said: “Team to team, nothing is filtered. So we’d still get that language and it wouldn’t prevent it [a radio message] going to another team.” SLOW AND STEADY wins the race – or does it? Nissan CEO Makoto Uchida thinks lengthy vehicle development times are giving Chinese start-ups the edge, because they react to the market far more quickly. “Do we do that as a Japanese enterprise? It’s not the same,” he admitted. “We do lots of testing and experimenting before we hit the road. They do have the speed to market, which we need to…

The Renault Group will make electric cars cheaper using existing lithium ion batteries before rushing to introduce more efficient solid-state technology. At the launch of the Mégane E-Tech Electric (driven, p20), CEO Luca de Meo told Autocar: “Lithium ion batteries are here to stay. It’s not a disruptive technology, it’s a progressive technology, and there’s so much production cost invested in it already. “Of course, if you can use solid-state batteries in a Formula 1 car or a rocket, then great; but from a business point of view, I think lithium ion tech will continue for a long time.” Gilles Le Borgne, the executive vicepresident of engineering at Renault, elaborated: “We’re still aiming for parity of cost between EV and ICE cars by 2025. To achieve it takes a holistic…

Better known as the designer of glamorous sports cars, including Ferraris up until 2012, Pininfarina’s origin as a coachbuilder in the 1930s meant that, for 90 years, it had a significant capability to build bodies and finished cars. It started with a site in central Turin that was destroyed by bombing in World War II and peaked with a network of plants in the 2000s but has contracted today to be concentrated at an HQ in Cambiano, southeast of Turin, where the Battista is built. At its height in the mid-2000s, Pininfarina operated three body or assembly plants in Turin, plus a joint venture in Sweden with Volvo, and employed nearly 3000 people in production. In the 1990s, for example, it had capacity for 60,000 units and contracts for a…

The all-new Mégane crossover is another serious ‘budge up’ from battery technology as it starts to shove combustion engines out of the mainstream. After all, the Mégane is a trusty old member of the family hatchback class, but this new car is purely electric – albeit to be sold alongside the plug-in hybrid Mégane for a couple of years. You won’t mistake this new model for the old one, though: its Range Rover Evoque-esque look, complete with a high waistline, a frowning brow and contrasting chevrons on its chin, is very distinct and rather sporting. This, in fact, is because this design was originally conceived as the styling for a performance version of the new car. As design boss Laurens van den Acker told us: “Everyone liked it so much…

The BMW 4 Series Gran Coupé was conceived as a niche model, but there has been nothing niche about its sales performance since its arrival in 2015. With more than 860,000 examples delivered to date, the low-slung liftback has exceeded expectations in almost every market, including the UK. Predictably, then, the new Mk2 model sticks with the same design formula. It shares its front end with the new 4 Series Coupé and Cabriolet, including its enormous grille, but farther back there are frameless doors and an angled tailgate that opens high to reveal a large boot. It also shares much of its interior architecture with its two namesakes, including the dashboard, which as standard features a 10.25in digital dial display and an 8.8in (optional 12.3in) infotainment screen. It’s all pleasingly…

MODEL TESTED 2.2 CRDi LUXURY LINE Price £38,510 Power 197bhp Torque 325lb ft 0-60mph 7.2sec 30-70mph in fourth 8.2sec Fuel economy 43.7mpg CO2 emissions 171g/km 70-0mph 45.5m The main question with any new model from a new brand like Genesis inevitably is: what is it? With the G70, Hyundai’s premium luxury spin-off brand wants to take the fight to the BMW 3 Series and Mercedes-Benz C-Class. So the short answer is ‘a compact executive saloon’, but it appears that even Genesis itself has gone back and forth on what exactly it wants the G70 to be. You see, even though it is introduced as an all-new car over here, it is actually a facelift – albeit a pretty major one – of the G70 that was introduced in the US in…

The G70 is not a track car, but the Kia Stinger has proved their shared platform’s potential. Indeed, a few laps of Millbrook revealed a balanced, if not especially engaging, chassis. Thanks in part to ContiSportContact 5 tyres that are the same 225 section front and rear, it turns in eagerly and can be adjusted on a trailing throttle through longer sweepers. Big compressions are taken without fuss and without upsetting the stability control, and you can be confident that the car is always on your side, even though you won’t feel it through the steering. Loading it up in corners means some feedback eventually filters through, but it’s just too light and mute. With everything on, the traction control is cautious to the point of being intrusive, but it…

Welcome to the 33rd running of our Britain’s Best Driver’s Car contest, informally known around these parts as Handling Day – even though it’s actually three days on road and track and consists of a lot more than assessing vehicle dynamics. But what we’re always looking for is straightforward: the most fun-to-drive car launched this year. Despite everything, 2021’s lineup looks extremely special. There’s always a moment, early in the days we give over to this contest, when we look at them all together and are struck by how competitive, or not, we know the competition will be. This year is a good one. It has everything from modest but brilliant hatchbacks to the wildest supercars, a restomod, sports saloons and not one but two lightweight British sports cars –…

In the end, nobody dissented. From the first few drives on the morning of day one, it was an obvious front runner. What surprised those who had driven a Porsche 911 GT3 already was how well this car dealt with badly surfaced, heavily cambered roads with if not comfort then a deal more compliance than they expected. Its steering was uncorrupted. Its feedback was precise. And while today’s 911 is bigger than it used to be, it still felt more nimble and easily placed than, say, the Lamborghini Huracán or Ferrari SF90 – cars that felt like its natural rivals. In truth, it’s not quite like those. Its engine is an event, just like them, but it is how it develops its power, rather than the quantity of it, that…

I first met Sami Pajari on the 2019 Rally Finland, his World Rally Championship debut. Specifically, the Junior WRC, in a one-off appearance for winning the Future Star competition run by Finland’s renowned AKK motorsport federation. Pajari was gangly to the point that his overalls hung off him like a wing suit, with buck teeth and an endearing smile that was impossible to wipe off. His English was extremely limited, but enough for him to make his intentions clear. He was straight into the top six in his class, despite never having competed at that level before, and set two fastest stage times – one of them by more than 10 seconds. He later retired in one of those barrel-rolling accidents that could only happen in Finland. But he was…

HOW BETTER TO promote a new car than to launch a one-make racing series for it? That’s precisely what British Leyland did in 1981 with the Austin Mini Metro. Replacing the Mini 1275 GT Challenge, the Metro Challenge proved popular as Autocar’s F1 reporter, Peter Windsor, discovered in 1982, entering four races. The car was pretty much standard, albeit tuned up to about 105bhp and stripped out, save for a harnessed racing seat and a roll-cage. Race one at Snetterton didn’t go to plan, as Windsor qualified third from last, then was left sitting on the grid due to fuel vaporisation. Brands Hatch was much better: “The car felt brilliant. There was considerable understeer but not so much that Paddock Bend became matter of fact. The Metro was quick enough…

As a big fan of the BMW 5 Series and the owner from new of a 2012 Alpina D5 and more recently a 2018 Alpina B5 Touring, I was keen to read your BMW 545e road test (20 October) and see what this new car offered. I started off being cynical about the environmental benefits of hybrids, but it did make for an interesting comparison. My D5 is 200kg lighter. It has a higher top speed, at 171mph, but slower 0-62mph acceleration, at 5.2sec. Its range is around 630 miles, compared with 433 miles for the 545e (this is a big difference). Its lifetime average fuel consumption is 37.3mpg, compared with 48.9mpg. The boot is smaller in the 545e, too. And then the predicted depreciation over three years from £72k…

“Even those who desire something more edgy would have to respect how easy the Qashqai is to live with” FIRST REPORT WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT To find out if the third generation of the best-selling SUV is still a cut above the growing ranks of Qashqai rivals I’m not usually one for naming cars, but I’ve decided to call our new Nissan Qashqai Ed. As in Sheeran. You see, I reckon the scruffy-haired singer-songwriter and Nissan’s family SUV have quite a lot in common. For starters, they’re both among Britain’s biggest exports, achieving phenomenal global popularity. And they’ve both used similar tactics to achieve that success. Ed Sheeran basically nicked elements from a handful of genres and repackaged them into a musical form that seemed quite fresh but was actually…

Huge thanks to Stuart, who is not so much a regular on these pages as a very welcome fixture. For those uninitiated with his spectacular work, over to the man himself to explain this latest special-liveried Jaguar: “It’s an XK 4.2 V8, with 300bhp and more than 100,000 miles on the clock. What makes this car unusual – apart from the livery, of course – is that it has raised more than £81,000 for a children’s hospice. And I love it.” To find out more and lend your support, head to facebook.com/sherwoodjaguars. SEND YOUR USED CAR TALES TO james@bangernomics.com AND READERS' QUESTIONS TO autocar@haymarket.com…

Shooting to fame thanks to its starring role in the TV series Magnum PI, the Ferrari 308 was a mid-engined, two-seat sports car produced from 1975 to 1985. The GTBi variant featured a near-identical design to the standard GTB coupé but was driven by a 3.0-litre V8 with a Bosch mechanical fuel injection system. This dropped its power from 252bhp to 211bhp, but it was still capable of 0-62mph in 6.7sec. A few changes were made inside, too: the oil temperature gauge and clock were moved to the centre console and a three-spoke steering wheel and a new seating pattern appeared. One of only 494 GTBi cars made, this 1982 example has been owned by three parties who have driven it just 12,000 miles over its 39 years. It sold…

An expert’s view BRUCE GREETHAM, THE SL SHOP “The appeal to most new buyers of the R129 SL 500 model is the easy roof operation with a flick of a button – the feeling of something expensive and good quality – combined with the smooth performance of its V8 engine. The linear power delivery is seamless throughout the gears. It will be a car you will drive less often but is more special. Most feel it’s the only model worth having, courtesy of its V8. As for which car ticks all the right boxes, it’s mainly determined by colour, condition, history and mileage.” Buyer beware… ▪ ENGINE The oil-supply tubes to the camshafts can blow, causing heavy tapping. The wiring looms on early examples can degrade, causing an engine misfire…