Innholdsfortegnelse for March 8, 2023 i Autocar

“Set to rival the Jeep Avenger, the Aceman will be built in China” Mini has pinned the success of its next-generation line-up on its first electric-only car, the Aceman, which it expects to be its best-seller because it “does everything”. Launching in 2025, the five-door crossover is said to be barely differentiated from last year’s concept, although the futuristic LED roof, wing mirrors and parts of the interior will be adapted for production. The Aceman “ticks all the boxes”, said Mini boss Stefanie Wurst. It will be sandwiched between the Cooper and enlarged Countryman as an indirect replacement for the estate-shaped Clubman. It is Mini’s first new nameplate since the Paceman in 2012. Set to rival the upcoming Jeep Avenger, it will be built in China and use a stretched…

Tesla’s keenly anticipated 2023 Investor Day event was uncharacteristically short on game-changing announcements and new-metal unveilings, but it did provide a first look at important new production processes – and confirmed that a new electric car platform is inbound. Taking to the stage at the Texas Gigafactory to give Tesla stakeholders, fans and owners a wide-reaching update on the company’s strategy, CEO Elon Musk was expected primarily to outline a long-mooted new platform that is tipped to underpin an ‘affordable’ entrylevel car sitting beneath the big-selling Model 3 saloon. As it turned out, Musk was less focused on showing new vehicles than he was in recent years, with the Cybertruck, Roadster, Robotaxi and Semi still yet to enter production (or volume production) several years after announcement. Investors didn’t take kindly…

HYUNDAI IS ALSO planning next-generation versions of the i10 city car and i20 and i30 hatches – and it is considering how it can offer entry-level electric models in the future. The Korean brand’s i10 is one of a rapidly shrinking number of city cars on sale in the UK, largely due to the challenges that safety and emissions regulations present in making small cars profitable. But while some rivals are abandoning the market for city cars and traditional hatches, Hyundai Europe boss Michael Cole says the company is committed to the segments. “We are strategising now about what comes beneath Kona long term,” said Cole. “For now, i10, i20, i30, they’re all still in our plan, even for the next generation. We’re looking at what we have. Exactly what…

WILL THE DAY come when we’re all routinely driving around on airless tyres? Do we even need them? Tyre makers have been tinkering with the idea of reinventing the wheel for a number of years now, but so far the brainchild of Scotsmen Robert Thomson and later John Boyd Dunlop, inventors of the pneumatic tyre, has not been bettered. In January, Michelin announced the Uptis, its concept for a puncture-proof tyre, would go on trial in Singapore on a fleet of DHL vans. The Uptis airless tyres will be introduced during the course of 2023, the plan being to overcome the costly problem of downtime and tyres scrapped through punctures on last-mile delivery vehicles. The trial raises the question: could the puncture-proof tyres be an advantage for car drivers? Michelin…

When António Félix da Costa brilliantly sliced past Nick Cassidy to take the lead of the inaugural Cape Town ePrix, I thought maybe I wouldn’t see a better passing move all year. Until he did it again as the Formula E race neared its climax. The second time, the Porsche driver caught DS Penske’s Jean-Éric Vergne by surprise through the fast sweeps of Turns 7, 8 and 9, aggressively attacking on the outside for the first right-hander, which put him on the inside for the next left. It was an inspired move, as Vergne admitted, earning Félix da Costa his first win since he switched to Porsche in the best way possible. AN ERROR THEN INSPIRATION As Vergne pointed out, a mistake inadvertently gave his old DS Techeetah team-mate the…

The knell has tolled for the W12. By spring 2024, resources will be switched to making more hybrids as Bentley rushes into its electrified era. Naturally there’s a big send-off planned, with 740bhp and 738lb ft squeezed out of the last 18 units, to be used by the Mulliner Batur, which costs £2m and has long since sold out. The more relatable finale, though, comes in the form of the new Flying Spur Speed. It supersedes the standard W12 model (while a new S replaces the standard V8), and if you want an underwhelming headline, here it is: nothing vital has changed in the process. There’s no additional power or, more peculiar still, speed. But then anyone craving more of either after even a short spell in this car probably…

MODEL TESTED 1.4 eHYBRID STYLE Price £59,545 • Power 215bhp • Torque 295lb ft • 0-60mph 8.4sec • 30-70mph in fourth 10.5sec • Economy 38.0mpg • CO2 emissions 41-43g/km • 70-0mph 52.8m Things diverge now that we have reached the ‘T7’ stage of the Volkswagen van’s life. This, the T7 Multivan, is one of three commercial-type vehicles that replace the T6 Transporter. Another is the all-electric ID Buzz (road test, 8 February) and the third will be a VW/Ford joint van venture. Those are both, in different ways, significant tangents from the otherwise steady lineage that has brought us to here, and leave this T7 Multivan as the only VW with a direct, unbroken model-line heritage dating back to the firm’s air-cooled, rear-engine origins. The first ‘T’ van was the Type…

Want to make millions in years to come? Buy a race track. As most road cars become more homogenised and enjoying the remainder in public becomes increasingly socially unacceptable, enthusiasts are taking to the track like never before. Ben Taylor, CEO of the British Automobile Racing Club, which runs Thruxton among a host of other race tracks and hillclimb and sprint venues around the UK, says: “Interest in track days exploded after Covid and shows no sign of going away. We had a record year in 2022, and with 2023 essentially already booked out, it will be the same again this year.” What if you’ve never done a track day before, though? What if the idea of pushing yourself and your car harder than you ever have before makes you…

It’s more versatile than a V8 yet more interesting than an inline four and has the potential for colossal outputs. These are just some of the reasons why the V6 – humble or exotic, depending on where it’s found – has propelled a wider range of cars than any other engine. But has there ever been a truly great one? Let the debate begin… RL This debate was precipitated by a facetious remark I made in our Ferrari 296 GTB road test, which was that there had never before been a truly great V6. Look, I would never say anything that I didn’t at some core level believe, but I accept that it was a touch incendiary. And when associate editor Piers Ward suggested that I qualify my comment through…

COMPARISON Britain’s best budget car Not everything has to be a £100,000 SUV. Our five-car budget special shows just how brilliant the options are for less than £15,000 FEATURE Massimo Fumarola Morgan has a new boss and we have the exclusive first interview with him INVESTIGATION Battery materials Just how clean and green is EV battery production? We investigate EVERY WEEK DRIVEN Polestar 2 BST 270 EV gets more power and torque, plus chassis and suspension tweaks USED GUIDE Ford Fiesta It will be off sale forever soon. Here’s why you should buy a used one now SUBSCRIBE autocar.co.uk/subscribe or see p22…

MILEAGE 3314 WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT To see why people are scrambling for this latest hybrid crossover offering o, how are you getting on with the Yaris Cross?” “…Er… Yep… It’s definitely a car.” That conversation has repeated itself several times in my first few weeks with this latest Toyota. This inarticulateness is in fact less about my personal convictions on hybrids or crossovers, and more because this car doesn’t ride, handle or perform in any way that’s really outstanding, sub-par or unusual. That’s why Matt Prior said exactly the same after he took it for a week. It’s actually not quite the criticism it appears to be, though, as I alluded to in my opening report. Engineers would underestimate the difficulty of making ‘just another car’ at their peril.…

In 2002, the front-drive Ford Focus RS torquesteered onto the hot hatch scene. It had 212bhp. Fifteen years later, Honda boosted its front-drive Civic Type R to 316bhp and promised different results. The promise was kept. It came as quite a revelation: all that grunt going through the front wheels and yet it didn’t tear itself apart. It’s a testament to the Type R’s engineering magic – the same magic that causes people to rave about its pin-sharp handling, poise and composure. Take the suspension. It’s a great example of what we’re talking about, because it’s reasonably compliant yet also delivers the flat cornering and quick direction changes you expect from a performance car. The adaptive dampers can be altered via modes ranging from Comfort to track-focused +R. This…

An expert’s view NICK YOUNG, SOUTHAMPTON CHAUFFEUR HIRE “The S-Class has always been a chauffeur car at the top of its game. I progressed from the very competent E-Class to the fifth-generation S-Class (and subsequently the sixth). I had a S350 L and I found its 3.0-litre V6 diesel engine to be capable and good on fuel, while the long-wheelbase body provided lots of passenger leg room. It came with all the bells and whistles of the time, completing the luxury experience essential for all clients who want the highest-rated chauffeur service and are prepared to pay the premium. Mine was reliable and, though not a performance car, great to drive. I have no notable complaints.” Buyer beware GEARBOX Make sure the service regime has been followed. This includes changing…

The reimagined Mini Cooper hatchback will provide the foundation for a “revolution” of the BMW-owned brand’s wider line-up as it pushes towards full electrification by the end of the decade. Along with the Aceman crossover – Mini’s first electric-only car, positioned to take on the upcoming Jeep Avenger – and the larger new Countryman SUV, the freshened three-car range is a statement of intent for new Mini boss Stefanie Wurst, who took over from Bernd Körber in February 2022. “It is the beginning of a new era. Mini’s 100% electric range has to start somewhere. This is a bridge for us to go fully electric,” Wurst told Autocar at a recent preview event, where the trio was shown under heavy camouflage ahead of a succession of reveals over the next…

Mini will take a bold first step into the mid-sized SUV market with the new, larger Countryman, which has been created to stop the firm losing customers whose needs outgrow its current line-up. Now twinned with the BMW X1, the new Countryman will be the first of Mini’s new range to surface, arriving next February, with an electric powertrain option for the first time. Mini boss Stefanie Wurst said: “This is something for people that say: ‘I have a second child now, so I can’t get the stroller into this one [the current Countryman].’ “We need it for the people that we are losing right now, because they don’t have enough space.” The Volkswagen ID 4 rival has also been conceived to grow the brand in the US, which favours…

ONE MODEL DEVELOPMENT programme no doubt being watched intently by Tesla is that of American EV start-up Fisker’s Pear hatchback. Fisker has now outlined some of the ways it will keep the small EV below £25,000 ahead of its unveiling this year alongside the Ronin sports car and the Alaska, a pick-up version of the company’s Ocean SUV. The Pear has been designed with “a new set of automotive specifications”, said founder Henrik Fisker, who hinted that the firm will build fewer prototypes, saving money. The Pear has an electrical architecture that uses fewer, more centralised ECUs and is “driven by software, not hardware”, according to chief financial officer Geeta Gupta-Fisker, suggesting a move to a more centralised computer system to reduce complexity and boost processing power. The Pear is…

HYUNDAI LUXURY BRAND Genesis is seeking retail partners with automotive experience to open around 15 UK sales centres in 2024. At present, Genesis operates its own two venues in London, with a third set to open in Edinburgh this summer. The move to working with retail partners is a significant shift for the brand as it looks to expand its presence in the UK after launching in mid-2021. In 2021, it registered 127 cars, rising to 1000 last year. This year, it registered 121 cars in January alone, underlining its growth and the popularity in particular of its electrified models.…

British technology firm Oxbotica is leading the charge towards autonomous vehicles, which it believes we could see out and about “over the next number of years”, but it isn’t focused on cars, instead looking at “where the world needs [autonomy] the most”. This includes jobs that are dangerous, mundane and very specific, said CEO Gavin Jackson: “Our vision is to unlock the value of selfdriving technology but where there are the most pressing and urgent requirements.” Jackson added that the Oxford-based firm has adopted a more strategic approach to self-driving, which it terms “universal autonomy”. This move away from cars comes despite Oxbotica having a proven pedigree in developing tech that works on public roads – as was demonstrated by participation in the UK government-backed Project Endeavour in 2021, in…

Thieves who had been stealing high-value cars are now targeting and stripping smaller cars in a major region of the UK as demand for parts grows. A dearth of spare parts, due to supply problems caused by the pandemic and the war in Ukraine, has fuelled this, the head of West Midlands Police’s Vehicle Crime Taskforce (VCT) told Autocar. In January alone, nine cars parked in the Birmingham area – including three Citroën C1s – were pillaged, with parts including body panels taken. At least three more cars had been targeted in the months leading up to Christmas. Among the most recent victims was Samantha Rose, a nurse, whose Renault Clio’s bonnet, lights and other parts had been taken from outside her Selly Oak house in the early hours of…

It all started with the actor Erwin Neuwirth – sort of like an Austrian John Nettles only not as famous, as I understand it. During the summers of the early 1980s, he ran a bar in the pretty town of Reifnitz, on the shore of the Wörthersee, and he liked driving his Volkswagen Golf GTI around the place. “I found the contrast between the peaceful banks of the lake and the powerful vehicle so appealing,” he said. So much so that he invited some GTI-owning mates over for a gathering in June 1982. Around 100 showed up. Three years later, 1000 GTI-ists were arriving annually for a miniature car festival, which must have been pretty good business for the bar. And when in 1987 Volkswagen CEO Carl Hahn commissioned a…

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The new Ford Ranger Raptor has landed in the UK, and it’s the kind of vehicle that would be happy if you took that literally. It’s a double-cab pick-up with the capability of a Baja pre-runner – the car that rally racers use to scout a course a little more habitably than their actual race truck. Ford’s Performance division can give us the Ranger Raptor because it’s excise registered as a commercial vehicle, so Ford can deliver it without needing tens of Mustang Mach-Es to offset each 20.4mpg and 315g/km example that it sells (although its 652kg payload is too puny for you to reclaim the VAT on it and BIK tax is at car rates). It gets a twin-turbocharged 3.0-litre V6 petrol engine that, while higher in performance than…

“We can expect more of this pragmatism, and never mind the muddying of brand purity” ‘Badge engineering’is a wry phrase that turned popular in the 1960s because there was an awful lot of it going on, especially in Britain. It refers to the practice of changing a car’s brand and/or model identity by the simple expedient of applying different badging to it. In the most extreme cases, that model will be identical to the one from which it was spawned, bar those badges. For a prime example today, look no further than the Mazda 2 Hybrid, which is the spit of the Toyota Yaris Hybrid. Relatively few not-all-our-own-work cars are born as simply like this, although it’s a solution, occasionally desperate, that has been around for almost as long as…

Micra aggression Could you please tell me why the newly fitted sensors on my 2022 Nissan Micra keep beeping at most irregular moments? The beeping is literally driving me crazy. Janette Howell Via email Welcome to the driving experience of today, Janette. You can send your thanks to European law makers – KC Your country needs you I’m asking Autocar and its readers to support the thousands opposing the expansion of the Ultra Low Emission Zone in London. So many people will be affected, including: parents taking their children to school and after-school activities; young drivers; drivers earning minimum wage; people living in areas where there’s not adequate public transport; those whose shifts span midnight from one day to another, thus incurring two charges; the elderly and infirm who rely…

Get behind the wheel IT WAS ALREADY “difficult to imagine anything like a full and complete life without a car” by 1930, so we urged the few who hadn’t yet “taken the plunge” to do so, providing all the required information in a special issue. Driving tuition was available but amazingly not compulsory. “Considerations of time and expense may preclude your taking definite lessons, but if you buy your car from a firm of dealers of repute, you can be assured [they] will undertake to impart the rudiments,” we said. “Instead of treating the whole process as an unwelcome means to a desired end, try to look upon the handling of a car in an efficient and rational manner as something at least as well worth cultivating as your golf…

MILEAGE 10,584 WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT To see if an electrified estate has a place in a world of crossover competitors I’ve spent more time over the past few weeks driving the 308 SW in Sport mode, which adds a bit of punch to its acceleration. As per Peugeot’s description, it “uses all of the power of internal combustion and electric engines for maximum performance”. Truth be told, Sport mode doesn’t seem to make that much difference with the plug-in hybrid powertrain, the additional weight probably primarily responsible for holding our car back. An official 0-62mph time of 7.7sec isn’t bad, but I’m often left feeling that the noise emitting from the petrol engine should warrant a bit more poke. However, the most frustrating part of the day-to-day experience is…

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…

What does the ‘revolution’ mean for Mini? “This is our gateway into 100% electric and brings us from 15% now [with just the Mini Electric in the line-up], to maybe a little bit more next year and then to more than 50% by the middle of this decade, then to almost 100%.” How is Mini’s position evolving with this new line-up? “Mini is a very democratic brand, but also a premium brand because we offer a really good product. But it’s not a brand you express status with and I think Mini is for people who don’t need to express their status with their car but express a certain state of mind. “So I think Mini, in a way, is a very modern and contemporary product. It is not about…

The new second-generation Hyundai Kona has been “taken to the next level” through a focus on the electric version and learnings from the Ioniq 5 and Ioniq 6. Already on sale in Korea and due to land in Europe this summer, the new Kona arrives just six years after the original. It will continue to be offered with petrol, hybrid and electric powertrains – but whereas the first-gen Kona was developed as an ICE car, the EV was the priority for the new model. The EV accounted for around 40% of first-gen Kona sales in Europe and that proportion will increase sharply in the future. The Peugeot 2008 rival switches to a new multipowertrain platform and has grown substantially. Hyundai refers to it as being “upscaled”. At 4355mm, the new…

The Lotus Type 133, a highly anticipated rival to Porsche’s Taycan electric saloon, has been seen in public for the first time as testing begins in earnest. A development mule was spotted driving on ice and snow alongside other nearproduction cars from Lotus parent company Geely, with prominent badging hinting that its unveiling will form part of the marque’s 75th anniversary celebrations this year. Lotus’s first saloon since the legendary Carlton (a Vauxhallbased BMW M5 beater from 1990) will be given a name starting with ‘E’ before it reaches showrooms, Autocar understands, but it won’t be the widely rumoured ‘Envya’. The Type 133 will be similar in size and shape to sibling brand Polestar’s 5 (see right), which is due on sale around a year later, in 2024. However, the…

GEELY HAS ANNOUNCED a new luxury sub-brand, Geely Galaxy, to showcase its latest technological advancements. Galaxy, described by the Chinese giant as a “high-end electrified product series”, is planned to offer seven cars by 2025: four long-range plug-in hybrids and three EVs. The first of them, the Galaxy L7, is a plug-in hybrid SUV scheduled to go on sale in China this summer. It will be followed by the L6 PHEV saloon in the autumn. All Galaxy PHEVs will be based on the E-CMA platform, which Geely developed with Volvo and already underpins cars including the Polestar 2 and Volvo XC40 Recharge. The first Galaxy EV, the E8, will also go on sale this year. It will use what Geely has called a “dedicated smart electrified architecture”, expected to be…

BRITISHVOLT HAS BEEN sold for an undisclosed fee to Australian battery start-up Recharge Industries, which has plans to revive the failed gigafactory project in Blyth, Northumberland. Britishvolt, which fell into administration in January, will now use Recharge’s preferred battery technology – licensed from American firm Charge CCCV – rather than that which was in development under the original British ownership. It aims to begin making cells for energy storage by the end of 2025, then add automotive clients to its portfolio later. Britishvolt previously held memoranda of understanding with Aston Martin and Lotus. David Collard, founder and CEO of Recharge parent firm Scale Facilitation, said: “We’re confident of making the [Blyth] gigafactory a success.”…

MONDAY AM Electric cars may be thriving, but what’s the case for electric aircraft? A glimpse came today at Gloucestershire airport, where I was invited to view the record-breaking single-seat Spirit of Innovation, built by a Formula 1-style high-tech business called Electroflight, powered by Yasa (via its Evolito aerospace arm) and backed by Rolls-Royce. Its three unbelievably compact axial flux motors, yielding 535bhp, recently propelled it to an official speed record of 345mph. Soon you’ll see it hanging up in the Science Museum. What next? Electroflight’s founder, Roger Targett, is stacked out with aero-taxi projects – many intended to take over car roles – and reckons reality is close. MONDAY PM Our ‘Evening with the Lotus Emira’ at the British Motor Museum went with a swing and was attended by…

Has it been worth the wait? We first told you about the joint plans of Aston Martin and Red Bull Racing to produce a hypercar – designed by Formula 1 ace Adrian Newey – all the way back in 2015. The journey from there to here has been long and complex, with the Valkyrie project outlasting the tenure of two Aston Martin CEOs. But now, with most of the 150 customer cars delivered, we are finally getting a turn behind the wheel. And what a turn it is. The Bahrain International Circuit might seem to offer a limited opportunity to sample any car for the first time, but it is one of the few venues capable of allowing the 1140bhp Valkyrie to stretch its legs. The first question is answered…

Last week, we had our first taste of the fifth generation of Lexus’s flagship SUV, the RX. We drove the 450h+ plug-in hybrid, because Lexus reckons that’s the version 55% of customers will go for. However, if you’re not a company car driver or you do long distances without being able to plug in, there’s every chance you will be better off with the RX 350h hybrid, because then you won’t be carting about 200kg of empty battery. The mechanicals are the familiar combination of a 2.5-litre fourcylinder petrol engine and an electric motor driving the front wheels through the e-CVT, while an electric motor on the rear axle provides four-wheel drive. Immediately, this full hybrid feels like the more natural car to drive. Lighter weight doesn’t turn the RX…

The last time I came to Italy to drive a Ferrari, the weather was fine, with temperatures into double figures, if a little overcast and dewy. There’s a reason why I mention this (I’m not auditioning to be the next Wincey Willis). Had it been Britain and on Autocar’s own tab, we’d have headed merrily directly down the pit lane – but sorry, said Ferrari’s people, it’s too cold for the tyres to work properly around the company’s Fiorano test track, so we’d have to wait and sip coffee until the day warmed through. So I talked to an engineer instead, and while I can’t guarantee he avoided using the phrase ‘SUV’, he told me the company had only committed to making a tall car when it was sure that…

There’s a substantial difference between badge engineering and platform sharing, but both have the same aim: saving money by maximising the common parts between cars. Badge engineering at its most extreme is just that, the resultant cars being 99.9% identical, as per the Toyota Yaris and Mazda 2 Hybrid. A more convincing method of creating two – or many – distinctly different cars is to share a platform, thereby saving a heap of money. It was much easier in the days when cars had separate chassis, as Chrysler, Ford and General Motors endlessly demonstrated in the US last century. The process is harder if it’s the lower half of a monocoque bodyshell that you’re trying to share across models. However, the Volkswagen Group got this down to a fine art…

Matt Prior’s excellent Tester’s Notes from the 15 February issue might just have been a bit optimistic about future headlight unit costs. I broke the outer plastic shell of my Alfa Romeo Giulia’s offside headlight at the end of last year. My Southampton Alfa dealer’s repair branch told me the part would cost more than £1660 [VAT included but not the labour]. They said no part of the unit could be reused. This implies that if any of the LED or xenon elements were to fail, the whole unit would have to be replaced – a worry, noting the inclusion of daytime-running lights, indicators, cornering lights etc. To top everything off, the repairers threw away the damaged unit, despite my specific request to have it returned to me. It wasn’t…

MILEAGE 2672 WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT To see if a vRS badge can make an electric car exciting o a certain extent, we try not to pigeonhole a T particular type of car with a particular type of custodian on our long-term fleet. But there are some limitations – and my commute is the biggie for me, which makes the Enyaq iV vRS an intriguing electric car to run. With a theoretical claimed range of 323 miles, it should get me from Lincolnshire to London and back without having to bother a plug. ‘Should’ is the operative word. The car arrived during a cold snap, the readout read 220 miles with 100% charge and it’s not really budged since. Granted, my 220-mile round commute is at the extreme end of…

Putting aside anything bearing the Spirit of Ecstasy or similar, is there a luxury saloon more revered than the Mercedes-Benz S-Class? We think not, particularly in fifth-generation form. Between 2006 and 2013, everyone from celebrities to world leaders got around in them, often sitting behind a chauffeur. These days, it’s an uncommon sight. After all, the W221-era S-Class has long since been succeeded. That’s no bad thing, though. Now they have fully descended into the used market and examples are in reach of anyone with as little as £3000. Fancy a V8 one? There are some listed for less than £10,000. The extensive engine line-up ranges from the S280’s 3.0-litre V6 to the S65’s 6.0-litre V12, although most buyers opt for the S320 and S350 CDi diesels. They have 232bhp…

Bugatti Royale 12.8 litres Whether we can call seven cars a production run is a moot point, but the Type 41 Royale deserves more than a mention. Its 12.8-litre engine was derived from a design penned for the French Air Ministry but never used. The straight-eight motor came with three valves per cylinder and produced 300bhp. However, those valves needed regular regrinding and that was an engine-out job. The engine drove through a three-speed gearbox mounted in the centre of the chassis and, depending on the coachwork fitted, the 3175kg Royale could top 100mph. Ettore Bugatti (pictured) planned to make 25 of them, but the Great Depression put paid to that idea. The Royale engine was used in the mid-1950s by 79 railcars built for SNCF. Dodge Ram 8.3 litres…