Innholdsfortegnelse for November 2, 2022 i Autocar

SEVERAL MANUFACTURERS, including Toyota and Hyundai, have tinkered with the idea of using the car as a mobile vacuum cleaner to hoover up particulates from the atmosphere, and now Audi is the latest to dip a toe in the water. In conjunction with supplier Mann+Hummel, it has begun trials of the Audi Urban Purifier particulate filter, installed ahead of the radiator of an Audi E-tron. The filter is fed via the switchable air cooling inlet of the E-tron and is designed in such a way that particulates become trapped while enabling air to continue flowing through it in sufficient volume to allow the radiator do its job. The project will run until 2024, but test vehicles have completed 31,000 miles of endurance testing to establish the size of the filters…

When you’ve been producing hot hatches for as long as Volkswagen’s R performance division and it’s coming on 20 years, you’re expected to deliver. The latest Golf R is arguably one of the best examples of the genre yet: a rather expensive but still alluring combination of allround performance and dynamic ability that’s made even better by the availability of an optional Performance package that extends its remit with additional driving modes without detracting from its excellent everyday drivability. Now R is seeking to build on the solid foundations of its best-selling model with this: the Golf R 20 Years (which we’ll call the R20 for short). Already on sale in the UK at a price that positions it £5400 above the standard Golf R, the £48,095 anniversary special aims…

Our first drive of the facelifted BMW X7 (31 August) centred on the M60i. Now we’re in the xDrive40i, which makes 148bhp less but then also costs £23,000 less. Chief among the changes to the engine line-up is the introduction of a mild-hybrid version of BMW’s ‘B58’ turbocharged 3.0-litre petrol straight six to the xDrive40i. This adopts a starter-generator, mounted on the crankshaft inside the eight-speed automatic gearbox, endowing it with electric boost for added performance and engine-off coasting, which improves efficiency. Power and torque are up by 47bhp and 51lb ft to 375bhp and 398lb ft, with the starter-generator capable of adding 12bhp and up to 147lb ft. The revised six is both agreeably smooth and quite punchy. Obviously it lacks the vigorous step-off and overall performance of the…

Okay, we admit it: times are tough. The British car-making business is in a state of rare depression for all the reasons we know. But don’t run away with the idea that this perennially high-achieving industry, a vital national employer and a powerful contributor to the country’s fiscal well-being, isn’t doing a great job. It is, and there’s plenty of evidence of that. Yes, we’ve done that classic car magazine thing of assembling a selection of the finest cars this country produces for a reassuring drive. And just to be certain that they really are up to snuff, we’ve driven them to – and repeatedly over – roads that have long established themselves as some of our fast favourites: the sinuous, challenging, up-and-down roads around Crickhowell at the eastern end…

ONE INIMITABLE CORNER of the automotive world in which Britain remains nigh-untouchable is that of the low-volume, lightweight sports car. Ariel, BAC, Caterham, Ginetta, Radical and Ultima: we would be proud to have just one of them, let alone all six. These companies take the man-machine interface and make it so slender as to be non-existent; they make cars that make you burst out laughing for the sheer purity of it. Slightly further down the hardcore scale but no less entertaining sits Morgan, stalwart of the scene since 1909, purveyor of the new Super 3 three-wheeler and now with Massimo Fumarola in charge, a man formerly of Lamborghini and Ferrari. And then who could forget Noble? Leicestershire’s preeminent supercar maker has now launched an M600 successor in the M500 –…

“You can stay on the throttle, making the most of a modest power output” HAS THERE EVER been a British car more successful than the Mini? The originaldefinedthe mechanical layout – transverse front-mounted engine and front-wheel drive – that family cars would faithfully follow for at least 60 years after its 1959 launch, and it has taken the adoption of a different propulsion system to even begin altering that. It was a car that changed the world, and while it might not be doing so today, the ever-expanding Mini range still remains true in many respects to the original’s ethos. It’s a bigger car today, of course, and a more expensive one, because it’s safer and more refined, because we’re all bigger and because the original was such a hit…

The reference to the conversion of an ex-German fire brigade Ford Transit in your feature about Wheeler Dealers (14 September) reminded me of the Swiss ambulance long-wheelbase Range Rover that ITN had converted into an outside broadcast vehicle, initially used for the UK’s first lunchtime news programme, First Report, launched 50 years ago. The Range Rover could provide live reporting, compared with the delay of having to have 16mm film returned to the studio to be processed and edited. As such, it was a revolutionary adjunct to ITN’s mainstay of film crews, who were starting to transition from Ford Cortinas to Volvo 144s, my late father Douglas (a sound recordist) being one of the first recipients. The Range Rover was converted by a coachbuilder to house monitors, editing kit, two…

Cast your mind back to 2016: La La Land was in cinemas, the summer Olympics took place in Rio de Janeiro – and Aston Martin released a crucial new model, the DB11. This grand tourer was slated to make or break the British marque, and – spoiler alert–the firm is still making attention-grabbing cars today, although there have been plenty of other ‘make or break’ moments for Aston in the interim. The earliest DB11s have a V12 engine – a twin-turbo 5.2-litre unit that produces a mighty 600bhp and 517lb ft of torque – and they cover ground with the pace and refinement expected of a serious, top-order GT. But even more 12-cylinder power (630bhp) is available from the AMR version, which effectively replaced the DB11 V12 in 2019. The…

Back in 2015, a few weeks before the Volkswagen Dieselgate scandal and seven months before Britain’s momentous decision to leave the EU, the UK’s motor industry society, the SMMT, voiced an exceptionally bold claim about the future growth of car manufacturing. This history-changing forecast was rapturously received a few weeks later by a confident, 1200-strong audience of industry luminaries at the society’s lavish annual dinner in London’s Park Lane. The nub of the prediction was that by the end of 2015, British car production would have scored its sixth straight increase – another 15% this time – to top 1.7 million cars. At this unprecedented expansion rate, which back then experts were confident would continue, UK car production would set a new record of two million cars a year for…

Ford has confirmed that it will end production of the Fiesta next June, closing the book on a 47-year history, as it focuses on betterselling, profit-making models. The news came as a shock to many, given the supermini’s historic, unparalleled success. Since its 1976 launch, it has been a regular in the UK’s top 10 sales charts, totting up 4.8 million registrations. It held the top spot between 2009 and 2020, the longest run by any model. But in 2021, the Fiesta fell out of the top 10 and is set to be absent again in 2022. Numerous factors have conspired to cause this slide – primarily Ford’s choice to focus chip supply towards more profitable models – and ultimately the cancellation. Officially, Ford is dropping the Fiesta (in addition…

Volkswagen will launch a crossover equivalent of its ID 3 by 2025 that will look “completely different” from the hatchback, CEO Thomas Schäfer has said. He said the firm is “working hard to develop an additional compact SUV based on the ID 3 so that we can also launch a VW product in this fastgrowing vehicle segment.” Currently, Volkswagen’s smallest electric SUV is the ID 4, which shares the MEB platform with the ID 3 but has a significantly bigger footprint than its hatchback counterpart. Volkswagen will also introduce two versions of its highly anticipated entry-level EV – billed to cost less than £22,000 and described by Schäfer as “a small car and a sporty crossover variant”. These models are among 10 new EVs, including facelifts, that will launch by…

Renault Group boss Luca de Meo, until 2020 in charge at Seat, has a big job on his hands: not only making the company profitable after a tumultuous few years but also cementing a smooth relationship in its notoriously tricky alliance with Nissan. We caught up with him at the recent Paris motor show to ask how things are going. What has driven you down the nostalgia route with new cars like the Renault 4 and 5? “All big brands have classics, in any segment. Renault has classics like the 4, 5, [5] Turbo. We’re just doing the thing that everybody expects from us and to reconnect the brand with its roots. We’re not an electric start-up, we have 120 years of history, and you have to leverage this as…

The all-new Maserati Quattroporte will arrive in 2024, becoming the only saloon sold by the brand within a streamlined line-up. Adopting Maserati’s Folgore suffix (Italian for ‘lightning’), it will return as a zero-emissions four-door grand tourer, sitting between the Levante SUV – which will also go electric-only for its second generation in 2025 – and the newly unveiled Granturismo coupé, Maserati’s first foray into the EV world. The new Quattroporte will be Maserati’s sole saloon as production of the smaller Ghibli will end in 2024. Maserati wants to position the Quattroporte to straddle the luxury and executive saloon segments, despite their widereaching price differences (at present, the Ghibli costs almost £24,000 less than the £92,825 Quattroporte). This means the brand will look to attract people driving the likes of both…

REIGNING NASCAR CUP Series champion Kyle Larson is out of contention to defend his crown this year, but that didn’t stop the Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet driver claiming a third win of the season at the Homestead oval near Miami. He dominated by leading 199 of the 267 laps, which at least means he has the consolation of being one of four contenders who will race to win the owners’ title at the final round in Phoenix this weekend. “[I’m] happy for our team, and we get to go race for an owner’s title,” said Larson. “I can’t win the [drivers’] championship, but it means more to me to win it as a team.” Ahead of the penultimate round at Martinsville, Penske’s 2018 Cup winner Joey Logano held a narrow points…

The new AMG G63 4x42 is where Mercedes-Benz’s traditional off-roader takes an unapologetic turn towards the extreme. It exists due to the unexpectedly high demand for the G500 4x42 of 2015: 150 were planned, but in the end more than 2000 were produced. Vast ground clearance helps make the G63 4x42 286mm taller than the already imposing standard G63. Riding on 22in wheels with 325/55 Pirelli Scorpion off-road tyres, it’s the closest a car gets to a monster truck. It retains the traditional construction of the G500 4x42, although much of the ladder frame is now of hot-formed, high-strength steel and aluminium, cutting weight by 131kg, and everything else is new. Rigid-axle suspension up front is swapped for a double-wishbone setup; the rear keeps a rigid axle located by four…

MODEL TESTED D300 DYNAMIC SE • Price £83,325 • Power 296bhp • Torque 479lb ft • 0-60mph 7.2sec • 30-70mph in fourth 7.1sec • Fuel economy 33.6mpg • CO2 emissions 200g/km • 70-0mph 51.8m The Range Rover Sport might be the most significant British-made car of the 21st century. The full-sized Range Rover is the firm’s talisman, and the Discovery Sport its biggest seller by volume, but the Sport is where global volume and luxury car profit margin come together so crucially for Land Rover. This was the car that showed the untapped potential of Range Rover as a sub-brand when it came along in 2004, kick-starting the growth in Land Rover’s model catalogue that subsequently brought us the Evoque and Velar. It also first demonstrated how convincingly the SVR performance…

“It has lovely natural steering feel that communicates clearly when the grip is about to run out” NO OTHER COUNTRY really does cars like this. I’m not talking specifically about ones with three wheels, although that does make the Super 3 quite unusual. The Morgan is here partly because it’s brilliant in its own right, and partly to represent the unique British sports car industry that still includes Ariel, Caterham, Lotus and – with a bit of goodwill – Noble, TVR and Westfield. The examples used to be more plentiful, but at least the Super 3 is a brilliant flag bearer for simple, light sports cars that put as little as possible between you and driving engagement. The Super 3 isn’t especially fast, noisy or big. It’s the opposite of…

Masters of the universe? It’s an old boast when it comes to Britain’s motorsport muscle, which is precisely why it’s so good to hear one of the field’s most prominent and experienced leaders express a sober warning. “We shouldn’t be complacent,” says David Richards, chairman of national regulator Motorsport UK, a member of the FIA’s ruling World Council and chief of Prodrive, one of racing’s most prolific and successful powerhouse companies. “Yes, we’re strong, and people tend to look at the power of Formula 1, how most teams are based here [seven of the 10]. And there’s good depth elsewhere too, in sports car racing and in rallying through Malcolm Wilson’s M-Sport. But it’s all too easy to forget that we’ve lost the single-seater markets we used to dominate.” Good…

That famous big grin flashes as Emerson Fittipaldi pulls the wraps off the new £2 million-plus special-edition hypercar named inhis honour. “Fantastic,” he purrs, just as he did 50 years ago as he slid into his John Player Special-liveried Lotus 72 to become, at 25, Formula 1’s then youngest world champion. Five decades later, the great Brazilian is back at Hethel to give the eight lucky owners of the Evija Fittipaldi a day they will never forget. The same goes for the rest of us, including reunited familiar faces from the days when Colin Chapman’s team bestrode F1 in a glorious blur of black and gold. “It feels like Lotus is alive again,” says Matt Windle, managing director of a company that’s as British as roast beef. “The Evija is…

FIRST DRIVE BMW i7 Is Munich’s new flagship electric saloon now the ultimate in automotive luxury? COMPARISON Civic vs Corolla Acclaimed new Honda takes on excellent Toyota in family car face-off FEATURE Less is more Why you don’t need to pay big bills to get big thrills EVERY WEEK ROAD TEST Morgan Super 3 Tally-ho! Three-wheeler is all-new but still reliant on old-school charm BUYING GUIDE Audi TT3 How to get your hands on Ingolstadt’s iconic sports car SUBSCRIBE autocar.co.uk/subscribe or see p26…

Some unusual engine designs have gone on to find success in sports cars and even mainstream best-sellers – think the V4, straight five and particularly the straight three, for instance – while others have ended up following technical blind alleys. Regardless, all offer an insight into the engineering thinking required to push car design forward. Here’s ourrundown of the weirdest. H16 1966 British Racing Motors (BRM) was nothing if not innovative in its approach to the 3.0-litre regulations that were introduced to Formula 1 for 1966. Whereas other constructors used V8 and V12 engines, BRM came up with an H16, essentially two flat eights laid on top of one another. Each had its own crankshaft, which were joined by gears, but this design made it very heavy. It was used…

THE DEARTH OF UK car production continues to make life difficult for consumers in this country – and it will do so for some time. The supply of semiconductors remains the primary shortage. (Supply to makers of the most expensive cars, such as Rolls-Royce and Bentley, is significantly better than to those who make more mainstream cars.) However, other components and even primary raw materials, such as steel, continue to be hard to source. Speaking at the recent Paris motor show, Stellantis boss Carlos Tavares said there were signs of the difficulties easing, although unevenly, and he expects the computer chip problems, at least, to be “over” by the beginning of 2024. This shortage of new cars has created an extraordinary overheating of the UK’s market for nearly new cars,…

VOLKSWAGEN’S R performance sub-brand will be fully electric by 2030 – and several EVs are already in the pipeline as the firm looks to “gradually” convert its current range by the end of the decade. R models will become all-electric ahead of the mainstream Volkswagen line-up, which will be zeroemissions in Europe by 2035. The brand said it is “gradually converting its portfolio, with several electric R models in the planning stages”. It added: “We’re currently assessing various concepts and possibilities but will only offer R models that meet our requirements.” This means current electric ID models could be the first to get hot variants, with an ID 4 R hinted at by R&D chief Thomas Ulbrich last year. Electric versions of the current R range, such as the Golf…

CHINESE EV MAKER Aiways will launch its new U6 SUVcoupé in Europe in December, at an expected price of around €39,000 (£33,850). The Volkswagen ID 5 rival – which has been tuned by British automotive engineering specialist Prodrive – is the second model from Aiways, following the conventional U5 SUV, already on sale in Europe. The U6 is built at Aiways’ Shangrao factory on the firm’s own More Adaptable Structure. It features a 63kWh lithium ion battery pack as standard, giving it an official range of 249 miles on the WLTP test cycle. Power comes from a 215bhp, 232lb ft electric motor, which pushes the 1790kg U6 from 0-62mph in a claimed 6.9sec and up to a limited 100mph. Initial European sales will solely be of the single-motor, front-wheel-drive model.…

TOYOTA HAS REVEALED its second bespoke batteryelectric car, the bZ3 saloon, featuring advanced batteries from Chinese giant BYD. To be built and sold only in China from 2023, it follows the bZ4X SUV, which was launched globally this year. Based on Toyota’s EVspecifice-TNGA platform, the Tesla Model 3 rival is said to have “responsive performance, with a low centre of gravity and excellent handling stability”. And while Toyota hasn’t revealed powertrain details such as performance or charging rates, it claims that the bZ3 has a range of around 372 miles. In addition, a third car for the bZ series has been confirmed as under development, previewed by a low-lit image that reveals the roofline of a small crossover. More details will be shared later this year.…

If you somehow thought BMW’s previous iX range-topper – the xDrive50 – was underendowed on the performance front, fear not, because the iX M60 has now arrived in the UK with even more power and commensurate revisions to an already competent chassis – along with a £16,000 premium. With 611bhp and 749lb ft of torque from its dual-motor powertrain (95bhp and 185lb ft more than the xDrive50), the M60 becomes not only the most powerful electric BMW but the fastest-accelerating one, too. An uprated 355bhp motor driving its rear wheels, with extra cooling, plus a six-phase inverter replacing the xDrive50’s three-phase one have been key to the performance uplift. The new model’s range of up to 349 miles is still competitive but drops 31 miles compared with the xDrive50. Since…

“It has to go down as one of the most spectacular, red-blooded super-GTs of all time” WHEN WE GATHERED to plan this feature and suggestions were made as to who should bring what and why, a great many very worthy cars were mentioned. But as things progressed, it became apparent to me that we risked leaving a monumental and pretty unforgivable gap in the line-up. Because without wanting to be too childish about it, there isn’t much that’s quite so ‘Best of British’ as the Aston Martin DBS. As an elegantly brutish, V12-fired grand tourer, it’s a car that can trace its roots back through the DB5 of the 1960s and all the way to the Cricklewood Bentleys of the 1920s, if not further still. A century of everimproving DNA,…

NISSAN OFTEN DOES things differently but tends to be discreetly, thoughtfully different. It rarely stands on a hilltop and hollers – and the new Qashqai e-Power, which introduces a unique serieshybrid powertrain to the highly successful, Sunderland-built SUV, perfectly exemplifies this behaviour. The powertrain is quite different from other hybrid solutions in that it completely decouples the 188bhp 1.5-litre three-cylinder petrol engine in the nose from the driven front wheels – yet it’s also free from the complexity (and some cost) of current EVs and plug-in hybrids. What’s better, it has the refinement and control responses that are exactly akin to the electric cars that we will eventually all be driving, complete with adjustable regenerative braking levels. And its hybrid system promises to survive, probably with judicious upgrades to battery…

The further we rolled along, developing an ever-warmer rapport, the more logical it seemed that I should use the end of my tenure of a Land Rover Discovery D300 for a kind of flagship, across-England journey linking visits to my own private heroes of the British automotive business. Don’t shoot me for this, because to some it will sound bizarre, but I’ve often had relationships with cars that carry a human dimension. And especially with Land Rovers. All my life, I’ve loved that special story of how the 1948 original sprang into perfectly timed existence as the ideal mobility tool for an era of post-war rebuilding. And how its essential rightness shocked even its creators to become the basis of a 75-year dynasty. There’s more. I arrived in the car…

Public spellbound by horseless carriages THE SECOND OF November is a very important date for Autocar, as it was on this day 127 years ago our first-ever issue hit the news-stands. To put that into clearer context, it predates all but two of the 300-plus antiques that will crawl from London to Brighton this Sunday. Indeed, so early were we that our biggest story was the first public showing of horseless carriages in Britain a fortnight earlier. It was held at the agricultural showground in Tunbridge Wells, organised by the town mayor Sir David Salomons and automotive entrepreneur Frederick Simms. Salomons’ 3.5hp two-cylinder Daimler-engined Peugeot vis-à-vis was the second car to be imported to this country – just days after the other exhibit, the 3.5hp Daimlerengined Panhard et Levassor…

MILEAGE 5788 WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT Can BMW’s second dedicated electric car live up to its range-topping billing? No sooner had my head hit the pillow, having stayed up a little later than I should, than I shot up again, snapped out of a doze by a car alarm in the driveway shortly before 1am. It was the BMW iX’s. There was no sign of anyone in the driveway, and a check on the BMW app lets you view an image from inside the car (a very cool and clever bit of kit) at the time the alarm was triggered. Nothing. A few days later, I was by the coast on a long weekend and the alarm triggered again, at 6.30am. And once more two minutes later. Something was up,…

Atank and a teddy bear: that’s what the Toyota FJ Cruiser is a fusion of. Who knew a huge 4x4 of merciless off-road ability could look so friendly? Design is always subjective, of course, but we think most people would agree that there’s plenty of personality on show here. In fact, its lovable looks hark back to the classic FJ40 of 1960. The wide-eyed face, boxy wheel arches and upright shape all take inspiration from its iconic ancestor. Both count the same number of cylinders too, with the FJ Cruiser powered by a 239bhp 4.0-litre V6. If that sounds like an engine you would see in the US, you’re on the right track. Along with a few other markets, none of them the UK, the FJ Cruiser was sold to…