Innholdsfortegnelse for August 17, 2022 i Autocar

2024 MACAN Porsche’s best-selling car will go electric with a new premium-oriented architecture, bespoke styling and a more spacious cabin. It will be sold initially alongside the petrol-engined Macan and will be fundamental to Porsche’s ambitious plan to achieve an 80% EV sales mix by 2030. 2025 718 CAYMAN AND BOXSTER Entry-level sports cars make the landmark switch to battery power but keep their ‘mid-engined’ silhouette, courtesy of an innovative stacked-battery arrangement that promotes a low centre of gravity and thus keen handling. The radical 2020 Mission R concept gives clues as to their design. 2026 PANAMERA The third generation of Porsche’s luxury liftback will be offered as an EV, in line with the manufacturer’s plan to capture new profit opportunities. It’s tipped to be slightly larger than the Taycan…

ONE THING NOT talked about much in the roll-out of EVs generally is what happens if a high-voltage battery fails before its time. Actually, it’s no mystery, and from the word go it’s been possible to fix a battery by swapping out a faulty module for a new one. The fact is, though, that even early players such as Nissan and BMW found it was an extremely rare occurrence, with batteries lasting well into old age, albeit with a predictable drop in capacity. But still, the logistics of battery repair have to be factored in to an EV’s life. Porsche, for example, expects half of its new car sales to be fully electrified by 2025, with that figure increasing to 80% by 2030. Not surprisingly, it has been thinking about…

NEXT DS TO SURPRISE The boss of DS has said that the French firm’s first EV will “surprise” people and be “something new”, adding that she wished she could get the car on the road today. Béatrice Foucher said the unnamed car, due in 2024 as DS goes fully electric, will “have a big impact” but will keep in line with “the values” of the premium brand. “We have to create a surprise,” she said. “I would like to put the car on the road today. I’m sure the car would have a big impact. “It won’t be radical. [But] we want to put something on the road that’s different and creates an impact; something new.” INVESTMENT REGRET Hindsight is a wonderful thing; just ask Formula 1 champion turned influencer…

WHEN POLESTAR REVEALED its jaw-dropping O2 concept earlier this year, CEO Thomas Ingenlath said that it would be “irresponsible” not to launch a production version of the electric drop-top sports car. Following an “overwhelming” consumer response, the firm will now do just that. Expected in 2026, the production version, which will be called the Polestar 6, will keep the concept’s folding hard-top and use the same bonded aluminium platform as the 5 GT, which is due a year earlier. It will also share that car’s 800V charging architecture and twin-motor, four-wheel-drive powertrain, which produces 874bhp and 663lb ft for a 3.2sec 0-62mph time and a 155mph top speed. The 6 will arrive as one of just a handful of dedicated two-seat sports EVs due in the coming years from brands…

How important is the test drive? “We found the test drive experience has been really important. We know buying a car is a big financial commitment and we recognise the importance of giving people the opportunity to have that first-hand experience, especially if they’re new to electric driving or new to Polestar.” Why pop-ups and roadshows? “We had a huge demand from people across the UK wanting to test drive the Polestar 2 but only had two Spaces. But we wanted to give people that opportunity to experience the car. Therefore we had to look at things a little bit differently. We asked people who wanted to drive the cars where they lived, so we could understand how we could go to them.” What does the future hold for buying a car…

“Nigel Mansell did his best to scare me, his passenger” MONDAY At exactly the moment when the authorities were announcing water restrictions, I was sitting in a comfortable chair at the local hand-car-wash station waiting for our Volkswagen California camper van to be cleaned. (I learned long ago that when the roof is covered with bird muck, these local professionals are far better at dislodging it than me). As the news item boomed and my car-washers laboured, two things struck me: how will these people make a living between here and October? Will they still be allowed their normal business? And by what alternative means will we car owners be reassured that a vehicle we own is a keeper? The California is a fine machine, but it was also a…

After the Ariya’s 2020 unveiling, there was a two-year drought of exposure to Nissan’s longawaited and mission-critical second EV. Blame the usual culprits. It’s here now, though, and in quick succession over the course of just a few months, we’ve driven it as a prototype in Madrid, a paid-up showroom-ready model around the lakes east of Stockholm and now with UK numberplates around the far less exotic but infinitely more relevant and revealing environs of the London-Surrey border. Much rests on this Toyota bZ4X rival’s capacity to impress over National Highways’ pockmarked and bruised network. It’s proved agreeably unflappable on the smoother Tarmac of the mainland, but EVs are inherently firmer than their ICE counterparts, so refinement is quickly emerging as a key differentiator – particularly in the mid-size family…

The M8 Competition Coupé, the explosive 616bhp V8-powered head of BMW’s ever-growing M-car family, is billed as having been given a mid-life refresh, but in reality it’s more of a mere model-year update, because the changes only go skin deep. They only really extend to new paint colour, wheel and trim options, a bigger infotainment screen inside and tweaked front-end styling. However, BMW now wants you to consider the 7 and 8 models at the top of its range as true luxury cars, rather than just premium ones. Thus the M8 is labelled as a luxury sports car, one that swells to just over £150,000 with the £20,000 of options as fitted here into Aston Martin Vantage territory and not a million miles away from the Bentley Continental GT. So…

You realise, when confronted with an actual Pagani in actual life, that supercars are like stadium rock. Bear with me here. In this day, music is at our fingertips and omnipresent, just as we’re inescapably fed pictures of fast, gleaming cars on the internet. Complacency sets in; contempt if you’ve contracted the virulent condition known as Supercar Fatigue Syndrome. Yet every so often you find yourself inside the stadium, being forcibly reminded what a life-affirming affair it is when thousands upon thousands congregate to see the show. Not in a million years could digital reproduction replicate that buzz. This, in effect, is the situation when snapper Max Edleston and I arrive at Goodwood Circuit to collect our Huayra BC Roadster for the afternoon. Possibly like yours, my brain has been…

Few sporting greats would call themselves a hypocrite when announcing their retirement. But fourtime Formula 1 world champion Sebastian Vettel has always been a special character, even if it took until his final years in F1 for the watching world to see the hidden depths that lay beneath. When he walks away from F1 after November’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, his legacy will be assured on and off the track. Vettel’s admission that “I don’t mind people calling me a hypocrite, because I know that I am myself” reflects his passion for the environment. A legend of a fossilburning sport yet also a campaigner against climate change, he is far from your normal racing driver. On the track, his F1 achievements speak for themselves. Only Sir Lewis Hamilton and Michael…

I was delighted by the article on Edinburgh’s motoring past in your 20 July edition, having worked for a period at IF Cunningham’s Belford Mews garage in the 1970s, being offered to join after completing an apprenticeship with Rossleigh’s Rolls-Royce and Bentley department at Daimler House. I had great training from the very knowledgeable John Mackenzie, who trained at John Croall Rolls-Royce, then worked at Rossleigh and Cunningham’s. The royal fleet was indeed handled at Cunningham’s. We dealt with the state cars, but I also remember numerous times working on Prince Charles’ 1973 Range Rover and the Queen’s 1968 Vauxhall Cresta Estate. Although the workshop was compact, we managed to carefully drive the state Rolls-Royce Phantom – the one everyone knows, with the removable black cover to expose the glass…

MILEAGE 3634 WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT To see whether the Cupra is a new EV contender or just a gussied-up VW ID 3 There are few things more irritating than deciding on a new car and then realising just a little way down the line that you’ve backed a loser. So it was with some trepidation that I approached the range-topping Cupra Born e-Boost 77kWh that a colleague recently had in on test. Boasting a healthy 227bhp over 201bhp, as well as that larger battery (77kWh compared with 58kWh), it looked to have my Born soundly beaten – as you would expect for its £41,975 price, some £3585 more than mine, spec for spec. Out in the real world, however, the difference in performance isn’t immediately obvious – certainly not…

Sometimes seemingly more like a gentleman’s Jaguar than a hand-built Blackpudlian cut-throat, the Chimaera has occasionally been accused of being the ‘soft’ option of TVR ownership. But don’t let a boot big enough to take two golf bags and a theatrical leather interior fool you: this is still a machine that packs both bark and bite. While the Griffith, and especially the 500 version, may have ended up as TVR’s most famous creation (thanks in no small part to stardom in PlayStation’s Gran Turismo series), it was actually the Chimaera that was its most successful, selling more than twice as many units as the Griffith. Indeed, it introduced to the marque customers who would never have previously considered a TVR. What’s more, the Chimaera shouldn’t be avoided because of TVR’s…

“Both are based on a sporting version of a scalable platform being developed by Porsche” Porsche is preparing to introduce a second generation of the wildly successful Taycan EV – and it will be twinned with an electric version of the Panamera as part of a new “electrified luxury” plan under which up to six electric models will be ushered in by the end of this decade. Both new EVs are based on a sporting version of the Volkswagen Group’s Scalable Systems Platform (SSP), which is being developed by Porsche. The so-called SSP Sport structure adopts the backbone of the SSP architecture set to be used by other more volumeorientated electric Volkswagen Group models. However, it will be combined with what have been described to Autocar as “Porsche-specific modules”. Among…

“The new cell chemistry will allow Mercedes to increase range without resorting to larger batteries” The upcoming Mercedes-Benz EQG is set to become the first model to receive the firm’s new high-silicon-content battery, which will increase range within a compact package. Insiders have confirmed that the electric off-roader, which is due to be launched in 2025, has been earmarked first for the battery technology previewed by the one-off EQXX saloon concept recently driven by Autocar. It will then be used in other forthcoming EQ models. The new battery has been developed in partnership with US company Sila Nanotechnologies. It features a silicon anode that, in combination with other chemical changes in the cells, is said to contribute to a 20-40% increase in energy density at more than 800Wh/l at cell…

The Meyers Manx, a Volkswagen Beetlebased open-sided beach buggy from the 1960s, is returning next year as a retro-styled EV. The Manx ‘2.0’ holds true to the design conceived in 1964 by Californian boat-builder Bruce Meyers, who sold the marque in late 2020 before passing away at the age of 94. The new Manx is built around a one-piece bodyshell, which is now aluminium rather than glassfibre; and apart from a modernised rear end, more deeply dished steel wheels and an overhauled cabin, it’s hard to tell apart from the original. Electrically assisted steering, an electronic handbrake and all-round disc brakes (regenerative at the rear) bring the formula up to date. The creation is the work of Freeman Thomas, who became CEO of Meyers Manx LLC following its founder’s departure,…

I like a simple idea. I like speed. And I like cars. So setting out to make ‘the fastest car on Earth’ is the kind of idea that’s right up my street. It’s what Rodin Cars, as per last week’s news story on the New Zealandbased firm, is setting out to do with its FZero, a follow-up to the single-seater it built and the private race track it made on which to test that. All very niche, all quite wacky, but all the better for it. And it’s at least a fourth entry into the all-out bonkers ‘fastest car’ market segment, joining Aston Martin’s Valkyrie, the Mercedes-AMG One and Red Bull’s upcoming RB17. The thing is, being the ‘fastest car’ isn’t that simple an idea after all. I say there…

UK USED CAR sales dropped in the second quarter of this year, with more than 407,000 fewer vehicles changing hands than in the same period last year. The fall has been called “inevitable” by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), with the lack of new cars due to parts shortages resulting in inflated used car prices. Overall, between April and June, 1,759,684 used car transactions took place, down 18.8% (407,820) on the same period the year before. This was also 13.5% (274,552) down on Q2 of prepandemic 2019. USED SALES BY SEGMENT • Declines were recorded each month in Q2: April (16.8%), May (20.9%) and June (18.6%). • Good news for used BEVs, though, which recorded a 57.1% sales rise to 16,782. • Hybrids posted a 4% decline…

Abarth Last year, Abarth trialled offering prospective buyers the opportunity to test the 595 on North Wales’ finest driving roads without leaving the house. It sent customers an Oculus Quest VR headset so that they could enjoy a 360deg view of the virtual drive and Bose headphones to sample the exhaust note. DS French premium brand brings the dealer to your driveway with its bespoke 24-hour test drives. A DS rep drops the car at a prospective customer’s house, shows them around it and comes back to collect it the next day. “We believe in giving people the choice as to how they want to experience our models,” the firm said. Genesis Hyundai-owned premium maker is promoting brand awareness by bringing its range of cars to a series of high-profile…

In 2010, Alois Ruf Jr took a customer out in one of his family firm’s cars. There was nothing unusual in that act itself, particularly for an haute manufacturer, where production volumes are infinitesimal by wider industry standards and the boss is just as likely to be found observing test benches as sitting in the board room (assuming that there is one). The difference this time was that the car, although authentically Ruf, wasn’t referenced in any official literature. More than that, to anybody not embedded within the small factory operation in Pfaffenhausen, it didn’t even exist. An almost illicit one-off, its remit was to satisfy Alois’s need for something that could express the wildness of 1970s Porsche motorsport, only in road-legal guise and with Ruf standards of everyday drivability.…

There was a time after the 2014 launch of the Porsche Macan when the four-cylinder version was a special order only. You could have one if you really wanted one, but the six-cylinder cars were what Porsche really wanted to sell and what you would want anyway. But times change. Fuel prices have gone up and most forms of car taxation have been revised upwards. Less really needs to be more. The four-cylinder base Macan was taken off the secret menu a long time ago and has since established itself as a commercially successful part of the range, particularly since the Macan was revised in 2018. Now it has been joined by a second four-pot option, the Macan T, in the first time that the T badge has been used…

MODEL TESTED HYBRID MULLINER Price £223,400 • Power 536bhp • Torque 553lb ft • 0-60mph 4.4sec • 30-70mph in fourth 6.4sec • Fuel economy 32.9mpg • CO2 emissions 75g/km • 70-0mph 44.3m Bentley hasn’t always been the most forward-looking of car makers, but it’s now a very different prospect in that regard from how it once it was. Those with long enough memories might recall when, 20 years ago and after some complicated corporate ownership wrangling between Volkswagen and BMW, the company effectively supplanted the much more modern 4.4-litre BMW V8 in the Arnage saloon for its older 6.75-litre two-valve pushrod V8, making the car only marginally quicker but considerably less fuel-efficient – and winning the approval, and return business, of much of its clientele in the process. Continental drivers of…

What goes up must come down, they say, and nowhere is the rule more pertinent than in the used car market. There were some astonishing rises in used values last year, but in recent months things have started to cool. That got us thinking about those cars that are falling fastest. Could there be bargains among them? “We’re on a downward trajectory, but despite consumers falling away due to concerns about inflation, the shortage of new cars is putting the brakes on depreciation,” says Philip Nothard, director of insight and strategy at Cox Automotive. “That said, some cars, including high-end SUVs and MPVs, some hybrids and older cars requiring expensive refurbishment, are looking weak. Some Jaguars have fallen heavily, too, and the Range Rover Evoque is experiencing pressure. Thanks to…

COMPARISON Range Rover P530 vs Bentley Bentayga Both have an isolating ride, V8 punch and the luxury and tech to rival a superyacht, but which is the ultimate one-car garage? FEATURE 2000-mile Jogger Big car, big journey, tiny engine: cheapest seven-seater faces toughest test yet FEATURE Austin Seven racing The first car Autocar ever road-tested thrills on track a full century after it was launched EVERY WEEK ROAD TEST Genesis GV60 Premium electric crossover gets the full eight-page treatment CULT HERO Ford Fiesta ST In-depth buying guide for the evergreen hot hatch SUBSCRIBE autocar.co.uk/subscribe or see p22…

MILEAGE 9501 WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT Have a new platform and PHEV power made Jaguar’s cub fully fighting fit? It wasn’t so long ago that Jaguar Land Rover was notorious for not very good infotainment systems, especially if compared with those of premium German rivals. With the arrival of the Land Rover Defender in 2019 came the new Pivi Pro system. It has inevitably since been shared across the JLR range, and so it finds itself in our E-Pace. If the E-Pace is anything to go by, Pivi Pro is excellent. It’s well designed, relatively easy to use (there’s no touchscreen-based infotainment that I’ve used yet that I would say is perfect) and it hasn’t crashed or malfunctioned once. And it looks even better when you consider the Volkswagen Group’s…

If you wish to gaze at the seeds of time and see which grains will grow, look no further than the Volkswagen ID 3. It’s tomorrow’s Golf, after all, and when it was launched in 2020, it was the flag-bearer for Wolfsburg’s industryleading electric-car offensive. Now there’s the ID 4, the ID 5, the ID 6 and the ID Buzz. It’s quite possible that soon there’ll be more IDs in the showrooms than there are IDs backstage at a Rolling Stones gig. But it’s the ID 3 that arrived first and, as it’s an electric family hatchback, it’s very likely that it will become VW’s future best-seller. It’s built on a bespoke EV platform, has a drag-busting Cd of 0.27 and there’s not a petrol, diesel or hybrid in sight.…

An expert’s view JAMES AGGER, JAMES AGGER AUTOSPORT TVR SPECIALISTS “I’ve been selling and servicing Chimaeras since 1998. It’s a surprisingly practical car, but you have to look after it. Preventative maintenance — checking the chassis and treating any corrosion and replacing old hoses and bushes, for example — will save you a lot of grief later on. It’s all about futureproofing the car. Anticipate and fix problems and a Chimaera will give you miles of faithful service. I’ve been to Le Mans and back five times in mine. Any bargains you see will need work doing, no question.” Buyer beware ■ ENGINE It’s mostly good news under the bonnet. The Rover V8 is tried and tested and spare parts are readily available. The timing chain should be replaced every…

ALL GLOBAL DELIVERIES of the Toyota bZ4X SUV, the firm’s first mass-produced battery-electric vehicle, remain on hold after they were recalled over issues that could result in wheels falling off. A global recall order submitted to Japan’s safety regulator in June warned that sudden braking could cause a hub bolt to become loose, increasing the risk of a wheel detaching. The order covers 2700 cars globally. Around 500 of those are already in the UK, but the recall was announced before any had actually been delivered to their new owners. Toyota said it’s now “looking at how we can sort out courtesy cars” for those still waiting for a delivery. No date has yet been set for when the UK roll-out of the EV – which costs from £41,950 –…

IN MORE SUMMERY retro-EV news, the newly formed EV Technology Group (EVTG), which made headlines recently when it acquired Moke International for £46.2 million, has agreed a leasehold for a 90,000sq ft site next to Silverstone circuit. The building will become the group’s new EV Centre of Excellence, comprising its research, development and production hubs for Moke International and any future brand acquisitions. This will also become home to the Stream Automotive division of Fablink (also recently acquired by EVTG), which is responsible for production of the Moke Electric, a new buggy based on the 1960s Mini beach car of the same name. EVTG founder and CEO Wouter Witvoet said: “The site’s location puts us in the heart of the booming UK EV industry and will allow us to scale…

The striking new DBR22 speedster is an ultraexclusive and highly strung tribute to Aston Martin’s legendary 1950s race cars, built to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the company’s bespoke division, Q by Aston Martin. The DBR22 design concept, which is making its public debut at Monterey Car Week in California, is the latest in a line of radical, low-volume V12 creations out of Gaydon’s Q branch, following the likes of the Vulcan, Vantage V600 and one-off Victor. Over the past decade, Q has evolved into an integral part of Aston’s operations, handling not just the launch of highmargin halo cars such as these but also add-ons for standard Aston models through Q Collection and enhanced personalisation opportunities through Q Commission. Aston has called the DBR22 “a perfect celebration” of the…

Despite the growing popularity of online carbuying, manufacturers across the UK say that test drives are as vital as ever, particularly for newcomers establishing themselves and those selling EVs, with which many buyers are unfamiliar. “The test-drive experience is really important. We want to make the process of buying a car fun again,” said Louise Hardman, head of marketing for Polestar. Because the brand was founded only five years ago, test drives are a key part of its approach – especially in the nascent era of EVs. Hardman reasoned that Polestar sees it as crucial to offer people a go before they commit to such a significant purchase, particularly when they’re unfamiliar with electric driving. Last year alone, the firm got more than 10,000 potential buyers behind the wheel. It…

MORE UNHAPPINESS IN the troubled World Touring Car Cup. Ahead of the round at Anneau du Rhin in France, the Swedish Cyan team that runs five Chinese Lynk&Co cars took its ball away and left the series over ongoing Goodyear tyre safety concerns. Rivals reckon it’s actually a strop over the reigning champions feeling disadvantaged by what they perceive as an unfair Balance of Performance penalty. Whatever, it left just 12 cars on the grid and a sour taste. Still, Briton Rob Huff didn’t care as he scored his second win of the year in his Cupra for the little Hungarian Zengö Motorsport team, while Nathanaël Berthon scored a home win in the other race in his Comtoyou Audi. A hastily revised schedule, after the cancellation of rounds in Asia…

Volvo’s marketeers have played a blinder. The company is seen as future-looking, eco-friendly and huggable, the car brand that everyone loves to love, yet it has never been the fully electric pioneer compared with some rivals. BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Jaguar and Audi all were a bit quicker in the EV dash. The dual-motor XC40 P8 Recharge was the first Volvo EV, back in 2020, followed by the C40 Recharge last year. And now things are expanding again for the Swedes, as we’re given a single-motor XC40 Recharge. The battery size has dropped a bit from the pricier XC40 Recharge (now called the Twin): 75kWh usable capacity plays 67kWh. However, as the new car is 158kg lighter, its range doesn’t tail off too much, managing 263 miles compared with 270. With only…

Even legends die sometimes. The AJ V8 has powered rangetopping Jaguars and Range Rovers ever since it appeared in the Jaguar XJ in 1996. It has been supercharged, it has had thundering exhausts bolted to it and it has had two cylinders blanked off to become a V6. It has given all it has to give, but emissions demands mean that JLR is now starting to phase it out. The first model it has left is the Range Rover, where a 4.4-litre twin-turbocharged V8 from BMW takes its place. The AJ will stick around for a little while in other cars, but the N63B44 is its long-term replacement. We know it from various 50i BMWs as a strong unit that feels equally at home in the M550i as it does…

What do the Audi R8 and Audi E-tron GT have in common? Not much. Different powertrain, different chassis, different bodystyle. Not a single part is shared. And yet there’s one major commonality, as you will probably have guessed by the image here: they are both built on the same production line at Audi Sport’s Böllinger Höfe plant in Neckarsulm, Germany. It’s a feat of manufacturing that’s not to be underestimated: it’s the only example across the entire Volkswagen Group where two models with no commonalities are built on the same line. It’s an unusual scenario. The R8 is predominantly hand-made and V10-powered, while the E-tron GT is fully electric and reflects a new world of automation and digitalisation. So why produce them together? Böllinger Höfe was opened in 2014 and…

Erroneous disclosure I was surprised to receive a parking charge notice recently, charging me £100 for overstaying in a car park. Not only have I never been to that city, let alone that car park, but also the vehicle pictured was a white Audi A1 with a slightly different registration to my black BMW i3S. I raised complaints with both the parking company and the DVLA to ask how this had happened. The parking company apologised profusely and cancelled the notice, stating that they had made a dataentry error when applying to the DVLA for keeper information. The DVLA replied without so much as an apology, stating that it wasn’t its role to arbitrate in civil disputes between motorists and private car park enforcement companies and that it releases keeper…

The first Japanese car sold in Britain THE FIRST EVER Japanese car may have burst into life in 1907, but it took a further 58 years for one to grace British showrooms. This first example was the Daihatsu Compagno Berlina, a saloon we found to be “well made” but “technically inadvanced”. Our 1965 road test was quick to point out the technological deficit. Its engine, brakes, four-speed gearbox and separate chassis followed “very closely much that was popular and conventional among British cars some 10 years ago” while the 797cc four-pot engine made just 55bhp. Straight-line tests revealed that 60mph was impossible, although frequent shifting of gears would be rewarded with “quite good progress among town traffic”. The ride was by no means its greatest asset, choppy and uneven to…

MILEAGE 12,890 WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT To see if any SUV is worthy of the name and if it augurs well for Ford’s future I’ve driven a lot of electric cars for a fair few years now, yet despite never once having hit a problem with range or charging infrastructure, no matter how remote my destination, I have to confess that there have been times when I’ve opted to take a combustionengined car instead, just for the absolute peace of mind of removing one more potential hassle. Now I find my mindset changing. Yes, it has taken years, and yes, I’m fortunate to have had the choice, but whereas once I had to sell a 500-mile trip to west Wales as an adventure to convince myself it was worth doing,…

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…

Motoring history is littered with cars that were problematic in one way or another: poorly designed, badly built, inadequately marketed or simply wrong for their time. Most of them sold very badly, but several actually performed remarkably well on the market. Since we think the latter are rather interesting, here’s a representative seven of them, presented in alphabetical order. Austin Allegro The Allegro, launched in 1973 and discontinued nine years later after two major updates, has been the butt of plenty of jokes over the decades. It looked far dumpier than designer Harris Mann intended, its engines were old-fashioned and the quality of its gearchange was questionable. Then there was the famous quartic steering wheel, which many people seem to believe was its defining feature, even though it was dropped…