Innholdsfortegnelse for June 28, 2023 i Autocar

THE LAMBORGHINI URUS will go hybrid-only from next year and be followed by an all-electric second-generation version in 2029. The twin-turbo 4.0-litre V8-based plug-in Urus will be Lamborghini’s second PHEV after the launch of the Aventador-replacing Revuelto, company CEO Stephan Winkelmann confirmed to Autocar. The hybrid will replace the pure-petrol V8 Urus in the line-up towards the end of 2024 and stay on sale until close to the end of the decade, when the second-generation Urus EV will replace it. That electric Urus will follow the 2028 launch of the Italian firm’s first EV, which will be a fourth model line with no predecessor. This car will take the form of a high-riding 2+2 GT, a car with “more ground clearance”, and will be “an innovative way of doing a…

DACIA IS LOOKING at the viability of a diminutive, barebones city car in the vein of the Citroën Ami in a bid to tap into the rapidly growing shared urban mobility market. The Romanian brand is currently expanding its market footprint outside of its core B-segment offering and there is potential to reach downwards into the market for tiny urban EVs, as Dacia design boss David Durand revealed to Autocar. While he questioned whether cars have a place in the most congested urban environments (“why do you need a car in the centre of the city?”), he acknowledged that public transport doesn’t work for everyone and bicycles aren’t a suits-all mobility solution, saying: “Two wheels, for many people, is dangerous.” Durand admitted to being a fan of the Citroën Ami…

STEER-BY-WIRE is one of those technologies that has remained on the fringes for a couple of decades and, except for a couple of production examples and in racing, hasn’t been adopted in the mainstream yet. It is due in the Toyota bZ4X this year, though, and will be in the Lexus RZ 450e in 2024. Infiniti introduced it in the Q50 almost 10 years ago but the ‘redundancy’ was mechanical, with a steering column remaining in place, just in case. True steer-by-wire has no mechanical connection between the steering wheel and steering rack, just an electronic link, and that’s what the Toyota and Lexus One Motion Grip system will have. Although it may seem like a dodgy idea, there are many benefits, both for manufacturers and drivers. Steer-by-wire comes under…

Lotus and Alpine recently announced that they would no longer collaborate on the development of an electric sports car platform – but Autocar can reveal that EV replacements for the venerable Lotus Elise and Alpine A110 are still in the works. The two firms partnered in 2021 to share elements of the development programme for their all-important debut EV sports cars, but they came to the “mutual decision” to end the partnership in June, throwing doubt on the future of the two cars. However, both companies remain committed to electrifying their core model lines and it is expected the two cars will still arrive in 2026, as previously planned. BESPOKE PLATFORM FOR ELECTRIC A110 Alpine will now build its own architecture for its electric sports car – with the aim…

The racing is a little more processional than ringmaster Alan Gow may like, but the British Touring Car Championship remains as unpredictable as ever. At bucolic Oulton Park, points leader Ash Sutton scored a third consecutive pole position and looked set to extend his advantage over the course of three races that marked the halfway stage of this championship. Instead, the Napa UK Ford Focus ST driver was bested in the first two and found himself squeezed out of the last. He arrived in Cheshire 14 points to the good but will head to Croft in Yorkshire at the end of July just six in front of reigning champion Tom Ingram. PARK LIFE Undulating Oulton has traditionally suited the rear-wheel-drive BMWs, and that sure was the case this time. Jake…

uman Horizons’ tilt at the BMW iX might have slightly better prospects than its swipe at the Porsche Taycan – and given that the X probably has the greater commercial potential of the two models, that is no doubt as the company would have it. Although it’s older than the sportier Z, the X has a comfortfirst dynamic brief that it meets more convincingly than its coupé sibling does its admittedly more challenging one, and offers some more innovate design features. Sharing its platform and its two air-sprung, steering axles with the Z, the X is longer and taller but not quite as bluff or high as a conventional large SUV. It’s quite like a stretched Jaguar I-Pace, offered as it is in both two-and three-row formats. If you have…

The Peugeot e-2008 is the latest of the Stellantis EV horde to get a mildly updated version of the e-CMP platform that houses a bigger battery. Up 4kWh to 54kWh (50kWh usable), it helps extend the official range from 214 to 251 miles. Efficiency is also improved, with the new system scoring 5.0mpkWh. That is substantially better than what is claimed by rivals like the MG ZS EV Long Range, which manages a longer range of 273 miles but has a much bigger, 72.6kWh battery. Mind you, the ZS is quite a bit cheaper – and there are plenty of other longer-range crossovers the e-2008 must face, including the Kia Niro EV and Hyundai Kona Electric. Inside, there are some new materials in higher-spec cars, but more importantly there’s also…

The Dolphin is the second step in Chinese battery giant BYD’s plans to become a major presence in the UK. Bobbing in the wake of the Atto 3 crossover, it’s an electric hatchback sized roughly between the Vauxhall Corsa Electric and MG 4 EV. We’ve already had a very brief drive, which was enough to reveal that it’s really quite roomy inside and practically if quirkily laid out. Now that we’ve tested it extensively and know how much it will cost, it’s clear that it’s another Chinese EV that could give the establishment something to think about. Prices start at £25,490 for the version with a 44.9kWh battery and £29,490 for the 60.4kWh one. With generous standard equipment and 265 miles of range, that makes it quite compelling compared with…

FIRST REPORT WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT To see if this hybrid can strike the sweet spot between a car and a van Us photographers are an annoying breed: we insist on journalists driving cars out to the middle of nowhere, will always ask for one more pass and will always have a frankly ridiculous amount of kit to hand, just in case. You would think a van would be our perfect method of transport, then, right? Well, as much kit as we have, they are if anything probably a little too big for us. Plus, thieves have a habit of viewing vans as oversized lucky-dip boxes. So what do you do if you need a reasonable but not ridiculously large amount of cargo space in an inconspicuous package? You go…

MILEAGE 5110 WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT To find out whether Citroën’s return to ‘plush’ makes the C5 X a desirable, comfortable daily driver The Citroën C5 X doesn’t come with a spare wheel as standard, and as I suffered a puncture in another car recently (due to a nail, not a pothole), I thought I should check out the situation. Lifting the boot floor cover reveals a polystyrene (I think) utility tray housing a puncture repair kit, which incorporates a tub of foam and a compressor, plus the recovery towing eye and locking wheel nut key. The other compartments in the tray seem to be semi-randomly shaped, but maybe they’re made to fit equipment that’s standard in other markets where they get, I don’t know, a warning triangle, a first-aid…

Aston Martin DB12 British firm’s new flagship is a ‘super tourer’ with a 671bhp V8. Will James Bond’s future company car leave us shaken or stirred? F1 behind the scenes We get the inside line on Silverstone’s preparations for the British Grand Prix Akio Toyoda Toyota’s former CEO (and ‘master driver’) reflects on his successes and failures EVERY WEEK Kia Soul Seoul returns to its value roots with this smaller-battery Soul EV BMW iX1 New electric version of Munich’s small SUV joins our long-term fleet SUBSCRIBE autocar.co.uk/subscribe or see p18…

Ford was founded on 16 June 1903. Within five years it hit the jackpot, creating history’s most important car. Today, it is still one of the largest car makers, and perhaps the one that has ingrained itself into British culture more than any other. This wouldn’t have been possible if it hadn’t made a long series of great cars – arguably more than any other volume brand. Here are the best. Ford Model T 1908 Technological advance and the rapid growth of the US car industry combined to ensure that none of the earliest Fords remained on sale for more than a few years. In contrast, the Model T was available all the way through from 1908 to 1927 and ended up far cheaper than it was when launched. Like…

“We’ve really designed, in a new way, an electric Quattro of the future, which is highly emotional” Audi Sport, Ingolstadt’s storied performance division, will have a 100% electrified line-up by the end of this decade, including searing-hot, pure-electric successors to its quickest and most potent combustion cars, from the RS3 hot hatch to the RS7 grand tourer. Audi will “put more focus on the RS brand” over the coming years, according to Volkswagen Group CEO Oliver Blume, building on the hugely successful formula of today’s RS E-tron GT in adding sporting credentials and more purposeful styling cues to its standard models. Furthermore, the company is dedicated to ensuring that the RS badge doesn’t become a mere trim level. Audi Sport managing director Sebastian Grams highlighted the popularity of the hottest…

LAMBORGHINI ISN’T committing to any future electric cars beyond its two “daily drivers” and as yet has no plans to launch an electric supercar in either its Revuelto or Huracán-replacing lineages because it believes it already has the needs of the supercar market covered. When such cars do eventually arrive, said CEO Stephan Winkelmann, it is “up to us to prove that full-electric supercars can be as emotional as ICEs. We’re working on it, but it is on us.” Once Lamborghini has cracked this powertrain technology, the firm will “need to show it earlier” than the production car it will appear in “as it will need to be digested” by the market. HURACAN SUCCESSOR DUE IN 2024 The Huracán replacement will arrive next year, CEO Stephan Winkelmann confirmed, as a…

THE DACIA SPRING – Europe’s cheapest electric car – will be heavily restyled for 2024 to help it fend off competition from newer, Europeandesigned affordable EVs. Based on the Chinesemarket Renault Kwid K-ZE, the four-seat city car is “lacking a bit of modernity”, according to Dacia design boss David Durand, and it “needs to be reconsidered to express more of this electric trend”. Durand said the updated Spring – expected to soon be confirmed for UK sales – won’t stray too far from the ethos of the current car, which has sold 120,000 units in Europe since its 2021 launch. “The general recipe of the Spring is a good one,” he said, as “you have a lot of [bumps] with other cars when you park. ‘City’ doesn’t mean safe environment.”…

Toyota could join the ever growing list of car manufacturers that are switching to the ‘agency’ or direct sales model. “Every part of our business is going to get turned upside down,” the brand’s head of Europe, Matt Harrison, told the Automotive News Europe Congress recently. “The existing distribution margins and models are undoubtedly not sustainable.” The shift to the agency model has become the leading topic among dealers in recent months as they try to work out the impact on their profitability when car makers move away from the decadesold wholesale business model, under which dealers can choose to sell at full list or stimulate greater demand by discounting that price. The wholesale model benefits outright sales, but as companies scramble to improve profits on more expensive EVs, they…

How involved would you like to be? You might remember that last year Toyota filed a patent for a batteryelectric vehicle with an H-pattern gearshift, so that an electric powertrain would respond like a manual internally combusting car, complete with a clutch pedal that felt like the real thing, even though, like the gearlever, it would be false. As yet, no Toyota has arrived with this hardware. But on p26, you can see where Hyundai’s N performance division has taken a similar concept. The Ioniq 5 N is the first electric product of Hyundai’s N fun division. “For N, fun to drive is the highest priority. Electrification has transformed our lives but [so far] not our hearts,” Till Wartenberg, N’s vice-president, told me before we drove a prototype. “Car enthusiasts…

People who don’t actually own large SUVs often purport to hate them on the grounds that their powerful engines create too much air pollution and their high CO2 outputs contribute to climate change. As often as not, there’s envy mixed in with the disapproval, because owning a big SUV is also a popular signifier of an owner’s prosperity. However, with the launch of the EV9, much of this is going to have to change. True, this new Kia is a large, imposing and fully equipped SUV of near-Range Rover proportions, so that envy might linger, but its most important facet by far is a battery-electric powertrain. That means this large and boxy car (admittedly with a creditable aerodynamic drag factor of 0.28) emits no toxic particles or greenhouse gases at…

There’s plenty Hyundai won’t yet tell us about the Ioniq 5 N, its new electric performance car. Price, power, torque, weight, battery size and even how some of the modes operate are under more wraps than the exterior. But having driven it extensively on road and track, I can tell you that Hyundai’s N division, currently the maker of the world’s most engaging hot hatches, has taken to the electric era with the same commitment and provided the most fun – and, as crucially, excitement – that I’ve ever had in an EV. Plus a bit more. As many basics as I can, then: the Hyundai’s biggish, tallish crossover has had its body reinforced in places (as N did with the i20), gained new suspension subframes and been given unique…

The first time you plant your right foot in this new BMW uber-saloon is the point when you realise it isn’t solely about wafting. A surprisingly characterful straight-six growl gives away that something else is afoot. It’s no M3, but it does have an air of interest that plug-in hybrids frequently lack. In this M760e version of the G70-generation 7 Series, power comes from that 3.0-litre petrol engine and a gearbox-mounted electric motor that is juiced by a 22.1kWh battery beneath the floor. It therefore can manage up to 53 miles on ions alone and so drops into the 8% benefit-inkind tax bracket – handy if the fully electric i7 doesn’t fit your needs. The UK misses out on the diesel and mild-hybrid models, like the V8 760i, but not…

We are off script already and have only just started. This was supposed to be a simple test of manual gearboxes. Then BMW launched the new ‘G87’ M2 coupé, now the only M car you can buy with a manual gearbox and quite an exciting prospect. So we arranged a little get-together with two of the greatest compact, affordable, manual-equipped driver’s cars of recent times: the perennially-just-updated Mazda MX-5, and the previous-generation Honda Civic Type R. Which has the sweetest shift? In which is the act of first-hand cog swapping most enticing? I didn’t realise that those two questions might have different answers but, having driven these three cars extensively, I’m now convinced that they can. Or, rather, they could. It’s impossible, you see, to disconnect the ‘what’ from the…

MODEL TESTED 2.0T 280 VELOCE AWD Price £54,240 Power 276bhp Torque 295lb ft 0-60mph 5.7sec 30-70mph 5.3sec Fuel economy 28.9mpg CO2 emissions 192g/km 70-0mph 43.9m History doesn’t need another reminder of the dashed revival hopes of Alfa Romeo – and yet, in the recently revised Alfa Romeo Stelvio SUV, perhaps we should cherish this one while we still can. In the middle of the last decade, when Fiat Chrysler Automobiles was plotting the return of its premium automotive brand to a long-estranged North American market, billions of euros were spent on this car’s Giorgio platform, and bold plans drawn up for a line-up of models that were to be worth 150,000 sales annually in the US alone. The Stelvio mid-sized SUV, launched as it was at the Los Angeles motor show…

MILEAGE 10,100 WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT What lessons can be learned from this most old-school of current offerings? Some press offices like to do their own servicing, and I hardly drove at all during the Covid era, so I recently needed to visit a dealership for the first time in several years, as my Toyota Land Cruiser hit 10,000 miles. (Yeah, charmed life etc.) I phoned up and booked in easily at a nearby Toyota dealer – which, with 180 outlets nationwide, shouldn’t be hard for anyone. I went for Marshall of Crawley, but there are five within an hour’s drive of my Brighton home. I had a week until the visit – and therein lay a problem. Diesel test cars are so rare these days that I had never…

WRITE TO autocar@haymarket.com Not as advertised We are taking Tesla to court for selling us the £3400 Enhanced Autopilot option on our Model Y. It still advertises EAP with glossy videos and graphics describing how it works, including footage showing self-parking and self-driving from the Tesla app (Auto Summons). But nowhere does it tell you that most of the features aren’t yet available. In October last year, Tesla removed the sensors required for those features and is trying to make EAP work with just cameras. Judging by the terrible effect this has had on the parking sensors, this might never happen. We immediately asked for a refund on EAP, which Tesla refused. It also refused to take back our car under the 15-day online sales terms. In addition, Tesla claims it…

The Jaguar XFR didn’t shout about what lay under its vented bonnet. It didn’t come at you with menace and trinketry like the BMW M5 (E60) or Maserati Quattroporte, because it wasn’t trying to be a fast saloon. It was trying to be a fast Jag. It may have been derived from a commonly sighted saloon (albeit a handsome one), but the only visual changes made to distinguish it were a more prominent beltline, bonnet nostrils, ‘Supercharged’ lettering on the wheel nuts and quad rear exhausts. No, it was modest about its prowess, like a true British gent. With a British-produced 503bhp supercharged 5.0-litre V8, it had the characteristic growl of two lions tussling for a lioness’s favour. Its top speed was (leniently) limited to 155mph. It could reach 62mph…

FRANCE WAS THE leading nation in the formative years of motoring. L’Automobile Club de France (ACF) was formed in 1895, and just three years later the popularity of cars had grown so much – there were about 2000 on French roads – that co-founder Jules de Dion thought the time ripe for a show of them. De Dion, by the way, had in 1894 won the world’s first car race in a car made by his own firm; had been a founder of L’Aéro-Club de France; and later would set up the newspaper that invented the Tour de France and be elected an MP; and still his name is often seen in the name for an axle. Quite a man. The chosen venue was Le Jardin des Tuileries – right…

Toyota has unveiled the second-generation C-HR as a sharply styled crossover with the aim of drawing new customers to the brand, aided by the availability of a plug-in hybrid powertrain for the first time. The production car has adopted the radical looks of the C-HR Prologue concept, which was shown late last year. It is the first SUV in Toyota’s European line-up to feature the new ‘hammerhead’ front-end design that made its debut on the latest Prius, which is not sold in the UK. The new C-HR has the same powertrain line-up as the Prius: a 2.0-litre plug-in hybrid alongside 2.0-litre and 1.8-litre parallel hybrids. The 1.8-litre powertrain pairs a 97bhp petrol engine with a 94bhp electric motor, driving a combined 138bhp through the front wheels and good for 56.5-58.9mpg…

The Dacia Sandero will be reinvented for its fourth generation as a rugged, raised supermini with pure-electric power – but it will stay true to the affordable billing that has made it one of Europe’s most popular cars. Company CEO Denis Le Vot revealed the new Sandero will arrive in “2027 or 2028”, “live until 2034 or 2035” and serve as a flag-bearer for the marque’s low-cost route to a zero-emissions line-up. Once the new Duster is launched in 2024, every Dacia (except the Spring) will be based on the Renault Group’s CMF-B platform, and its EVs will follow suit by moving onto the closely related CMF-BEV electric equivalent. This means the electric Sandero will effectively be Dacia’s take on the Renault 5, albeit with a more overt focus on…

Eric McDonald ordered his Ineos Grenadier 3.0d Fieldmaster in August 2022. He is still awaiting delivery: “Originally, I was told build would start in February, then in May, and now I’ve been told it will begin this month, in June. I expect it will slip back but, like others who are waiting, I’m not concerned.” Not even the news that people are jumping the queue by buying nearly new Grenadiers with delivery mileage from independent dealers and online auctions unsettles him. One that sold recently on Collecting Cars, an online auction company, was, like McDonald’s car, a diesel Fieldmaster with extras and it had just 64 miles on the clock. Registered in 2023, it sold for £73,000. “I paid £64,000 for mine plus a bit more for extras,” said McDonald.…

CAR COMPANY bosses sometimes get their way even when their underlings know it’s a bad idea. Like the time when a brand’s British MD asked for a towbar to be bolted to his V8 super-saloon company car, raising eyebrows in the technical department. It turned out the boss had bought an old caravan from eBay, which he needed to tow to a lake where he and his family went waterskiing. It would be used for getting changed and making cups of tea. The technicians reluctantly fitted the bar and gave the boss some advice. As the caravan wasn’t fitted with a stabiliser, he would have to be careful of ‘snaking’, caused when a trailer starts to sway. The ‘expert’ told him the best way to deal with it was to…

SATURDAY It’s a truth universally acknowledged that the car events that afford you most pleasure are those that your other half is as keen to attend as you are. This was certainly the basis of my enjoyment of Bicester Heritage’s 10th-anniversary Flywheel festival last weekend – that and the fact that the Steering Committee and I were able to waft for an easy hour across the Cotswolds in Autocar’s recently acquired Bentley Flying Spur. This was bigger than the usual Bicester Scramble. The organisers entertained twice as many people and spread the exhibits five times as widely. The track action was gently absorbing, the aerial displays were frequent and I loved the autojumble. Of course, Bicester’s genius for showing gently curated members’ cars was there for all to see –…

HiPhi, the emergent automotive arm of big-tech group Human Horizons, is this week’s most important Chinese car brand you’ve probably never heard of. Born in 2017 with the goal of creating a forward-facing Chineseowned and Chinese-operated luxury car brand, it is already on the cusp of launching its third model in just six years – a phenomenal rate of expansion. Between HiPhi’s two established models, it has already claimed an equally remarkable 25% share of the Chinese luxury EV segment. So, as ex-JLR chief technical officer Mark Stanton admits, it doesn’t really need export volumes. “Our audience in China is younger buyers who are now preferring Huawei electronics to Apple,” he says. “They’re realising that the old ‘west is best’ mentality on luxury goods needn’t apply any more. But our…

Odd though it might seem for Mercedes’ most pampering limo to spawn a rip-snorting performance car, this is a very old tradition, as AMG has fettled every S-Class since 1972’s original. There is a big difference with the new Mk7, though: where before a big-displacement V8 or V12 worked alone or blown, here a 4.0-litre V8 is electrically enhanced as part of a plug-in hybrid powertrain. This system is based on that from the GT 63 S E Performance, the main differences being a less potent (188 instead of 201bhp) electric motor at the rear and a larger (13.1 instead of 6.1kWh) battery under the boot floor. This gives the S63 an extra 13 miles of EV range – although that still means just 21 miles, compared with 53 for…

Peugeot is trying to step on Toyota’s toes with its new 48V hybrid system, which lets a car run as an EV at manoeuvring speeds and on very light loads. It is claimed to deliver electriconly driving for 50% of the time and bring a drop in fuel consumption of 15% over the 1.2 Puretech 130 petrol engine that it will replace across the Peugeot range in the next year or so. The system works with a 28bhp electric motor that is integrated into the six-speed dual-clutch automatic gearbox used by the turbocharged three-cylinder petrol engine. We tried it in the 3008, a crossover popular enough to warrant the new engine even though a next-gen car is due to be unveiled this autumn. Everything else stays the same, including the…

Remember the Eunos Roadster, the right-hand-drive Mazda MX-5 shipped by UK importers from Japan that was popular in the early 2000s? I had one, devoid of service history and with uncertain mileage but reliable and rust-free. Today, the trade in used grey-import performance cars from Japan, where like us they drive on the left, continues with companies supplying models such as Nissan Skylines and Honda Type Rs, although in better condition and with ample evidence of their service history and mileage. Another, increasingly popular trade exists in used, right-hand-drive German and Swedish family cars imported from the same country – models such as the VW Touran, Golf and Polo, BMW 1, 3 and 5 Series (the estate versions of the bigger two especially), Mercedes C-and E-Class (again, mainly estate versions),…

When Alfa Romeo launched both the Giulia and Stelvio in the middle of the last decade, the firm admitted that it had plenty of headway to make on the finer detail of the modern luxury car-making business, gambling on the willingness of its customers to come along for the ride. Six years into the Stelvio’s life, it’s still gambling. This facelifted SUV has no more of the consistent material quality of a BMW X3 now than it had in 2017, and still little of the digital sophistication, refinement or efficiency of that car, or of others. It matches its opponents for cabin and carrying space, however; it beats them for outright performance and handling dynamism; and it offers up its talents in a package that looks good, and at a…

MILEAGE 4855 WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT To see if the new electric Niro is the Volkswagen Golf of the EV world “You must like it there,” say friends, as I tell them about yet another trip I’m making to Bruges. Three times in 11 months is a lot, on reflection, without having any ties there. One was as a base for a broader holiday, the second only an evening in the depths of January to break up a journey and the third an impromptu one-night break to use up a fast-expiring Channel Tunnel voucher. I’ve not got shares or anything, honest. Each of these trips has been done by an electric car. My Kia Niro EV has now followed in the tyre tracks of an Audi Q4 E-tron and a…

With electric vehicle sales rapidly increasing, would it not be timely for the European Union’s legislators to have another look at their official range figures? Back in 2018, a new test standard for fuel economy for ICE cars and range for electric cars was introduced, changing from the New European Driving Cycle (NEDC) to the World Wide Harmonised Light Vehicle Test Procedures (WLTP) to give more realistic/attainable figures. Whereas fuel consumption for ICE vehicles is important for running costs, including tax categories, the issue of range seems to be the predominant metric of interest for EVs. Looking at several of the reports in Autocar, it seems quite apparent that an EV’s range is significantly affected by ambient temperature. Therefore, should there not be another official range figure with an emphasis…

An owner’s view JORDAN MANSFIELD “Living with the XFR is what most people would imagine it to be. As a JLR product, it inherently has everything synonymous with the brand: style, power and problems. With only a few simple cosmetic adjustments over the standard XF, it’s ubiquitous unless you really do know what you’re looking for. The engine and exhaust note are where everything turns on its head and the party comes to life, especially if encouraged by a slight upgrade. This XFR is a great blend of power and practicality for daily life – if you can suffer the maintenance of a JLR car.” Buyer beware… FUEL LEAK Some cars, particularly those from 2010 and 2011, develop fuel leaks from the tank’s outlet pipe. This can be exacerbated by…

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…