Innholdsfortegnelse for May 08, 2024 i Autocar

RED BULL RACING design guru Adrian Newey, whose cars have dominated Formula 1 for decades, will leave the squad in the first quarter of next year – and he will spend his final months with the firm finishing its planned RB17 hypercar. The 65-year-old joined the energy drink giant’s squad in 2006 and has been instrumental in its rise to becoming one of F1’s leading outfits, claiming seven drivers’ championships, six constructors’ titles and 117 race victories. Newey isn’t directly employed as part of the Red Bull Racing operation but has been chief technology officer of the Red Bull Technology Group. Since 2014 his brief has been widened to include other projects outside of F1, one of which was the development of the Aston Martin Valkyrie hypercar. He has since…

BMW has revealed a more potent and trackfocused version of the M4 coupé as the latest entrant into its motorsportinspired CS lineage. Following on from the Competition Sport versions of the M2, M3 and M5, the new M4 CS has more power, less weight and a reworked chassis set-up compared with the ‘standard’ M4 Competition, in a bid to improve its straight-line performance and on-the-limit handling. It packs the upgraded version of the twin-turbo 3.0-litre straight six that featured in the limited-run M4 CSL, upping its peak power from 523bhp to 543bhp with an increase in turbo boost pressure from 1.7 to 2.1bar. Although the CS doesn’t produce any more torque than the Competition, it sustains its 479lb ft peak for an additional 220rpm at the top end of the…

Alpine is preparing to send the A110 off on a high note with a stripped-out, track-focused version that is set to rival the Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS. The climactic variant of the A110 has been developed with input from Alpine Formula 1 driver Esteban Ocon and is understood to be a strictly limited proposition priced well above the £90,000 A110 R. Reputable enthusiast publication Les Alpinistes says just 110 examples will be built, starting from €250,000 (£215,000). The car has previously been spotted testing at the Nürburgring, revealing its significantly more hardcore aerodynamics package. The rear spoiler is much more aggressively raked than that of the A110 R, and its endplates have sprouted small winglets to boost downforce. Below the spoiler is a new lip designed to aid stability…

MONDAY Left home early, stomach butterflies aflutter, en route to Classic Motor Cars of Bridgnorth, Shropshire. It is one of the country’s finest car restorers and home of the famous William Towns-designed Aston Martin Bulldog concept (arguably the world’s first hypercar), which recently set a belated 205mph speed record at a former Nato base in Scotland – an exploit for which it was built 44 years ago. Back then, Aston was struggling to make 60 cars a year and badly needed to demonstrate its ambition and capability, with attendant publicity. I was the world’s first hack to get behind the wheel and today’s plan was to recall that special day. As before, just getting into the car was a deeply undignified struggle but, once installed, I found the driving position…

That the XX wasn’t in the original SF90 product plan is telling. Ferrari made a near-as-darnit-1000bhp plug-in hybrid and added it into its regular range, yet it never quite clicked with customers in the way that its lighter, cheaper, less powerful mid-engined supercars did. Doesn’t the 296 do similar, only cheaper, more spaciously – better? The XX, then, feels reactive. Made, dare I say it, in the most unusual of ways for the maker of the planet’s current best sports cars: on the back foot. “What do we do about the SF90?” The answer has been to go harder and use a formerly very exclusive programme name. The SF90 XX is the first XX car to be road-legal and is made in much higher numbers than the usual handful. There…

TESTED 26.4.24, BEIJING, CHINA ON SALE CHINA ONLY Packaging four adults into a car only slightly longer than three metres has never resulted in a desirable-looking product. So Chinese brands have gone for something else when creating cars in the mini EV segment: self-referential slapstick comedy. Which is why Geely’s Geometry Panda Kart has a whacking great rear spoiler. It’s a good joke. As is the ‘ladder’ on the SUV-styled Knight version. This is a Chinese phenomenon: mini EVs costing around £6000 but with equipment befitting cars much bigger. The range is a claimed 124 miles and top speed around 60mph. A quadricycle this is not. Get in and you could almost forget you’re in a car just 3155mm long. That’s because, at 1655mm, it’s taller than many small SUVs.…

Who spends almost half a million pounds on an electrified restomod? According to Everrati, it’s a very eclectic bunch: many of its customers are in the US; around one-third of them are female; and some don’t yet have a driving licence but are instead the fortunate beneficiaries of petrolhead parents foreseeing a zero-emissions future and ordering an EV classic to ensure their offspring will have something truly special to drive. Perhaps what’s even more striking is that some buyers are already on their second or third Everrati. The Oxfordshire-based EV conversion specialist has grown impressively since I last drove one of its cars, the Porsche 964-based ‘Signature’, almost three years ago. The model range now encompasses various Land Rovers, a Ford GT40 tribute and this 1960s Mercedes-Benz SL, which, alongside…

MILEAGE 5488 WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT To see if the most important McLaren in a dozen years is as easy to live with as it is fun to drive I said last time that something unexpected had happened to the Artura when its winter Pirelli tyres were swapped for the P Zero rubber the car wears as standard. Well, to be honest, it wasn’t that unexpected because I had been here before. It was 2019 and I was running a 720S upon which a similar switcheroo was visited. And with it came what felt like another 200 horsepower. This car that had hitherto felt bracingly fast, swiftly offered up performance bordering on the unhinged. And we’ve just had an action replay with the Artura. Its acceleration has never been exactly…

DRIVEN Aston Martin Vantage Gaydon has comprehensively overhauled its V8 sports coupé, so can it now topple the Porsche 911? We find out COMPARISON Lotus Eletre vs Audi SQ8 E-tron Two heavyweights (literally) of the electric SUV market face off FEATURE David Brown Mini eMastered Specialist reimagines the British icon as an electric runabout EVERY WEEK FIRST DRIVE Mercedes-Benz G-Class Classic off-roader has been given a major upgrade. We put it to the test ROAD TEST Smart #3 Former city car brand’s newest model is an even bigger electric SUV SUBSCRIBE autocar.co.uk/subscribe or see p18…

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…

Anation’s driving laws are influenced by its people, cars and environments. While nearly all ban reckless speeds and drunk driving, some enforce seemingly stranger rules written to address specific local issues, concerning potatoes, headphones, mudflaps and more. Here we sort through the myths and legends to find some of the world’s weirder driving regulations. Australia Potato limit Potatoes are a big business down under, and the Marketing Act of Potatoes passed in Western Australia in 1946 banned drivers who weren’t part of the Potato Marketing Corporation or one of its agents from carrying more than 50kg of them. The police didn’t need to carry a scale – they were allowed to estimate by glancing. And members of this potato patrol could even bust you themselves. The fine was more than…

Ferrari’s new flagship GT car, the 12Cilindri, is the most powerful purecombustion production car it has built to date. Revealed on the sidelines of the Miami Grand Prix to commemorate Ferrari’s 70th anniversary in the US, the 819bhp 12Cilindri “opens a new chapter in Ferrari history”, according to the brand’s chief marketing and commercial officer, Enrico Galliera. Taking up the mantle from the 812 Superfast, the 12Cilindri (pronounced ‘dodici cilindri’) ramps up the power, adopts a bold new styling language and introduces a raft of important new technologies. But, crucially, it sticks with Ferrari’s 6.5-litre naturally aspirated V12 after the Maranello firm invested heavily in making its biggest engine compliant with new emissions regulations to cater to continued demand. Galliera said: “It is already compliant to Euro 6e [emission standards],…

The upcoming Mercedes-AMG CLE 63 will receive a twin-turbocharged 4.0-litre V8 petrol engine developing up to 585bhp, senior officials at the division’s Mercedes-Benz parent company have confirmed. The decision reverses an earlier plan to give the hot new coupé and cabriolet the same 670bhp plug-in hybrid drivetrain as the latest C63 and GLC 63, due to slow sales of the saloon, estate and SUV. Despite its class-leading performance, traditional AMG buyers haven’t taken to the E-Performance PHEV drivetrain, which combines a turbocharged 2.0-litre fourcylinder petrol engine and a rear-axle mounted electric motor. Sales of the models are currently well below those of their V8 predecessors across AMG’s global markets. The latest version of AMG’s M177 V8 engine, which features mild-hybrid technology, will power the most potent versions of the new…

BENTLEY HAS TAKEN the roof off its ultra-exclusive Batur GT to create its most expensive car yet – and one of the most powerful combustion-engined droptops to come out of Britain. The new convertible is the third bespoke model line from Bentley’s Mulliner coachbuilding division, following the coupé on which it is based and the closely related Bacalar barchetta – although, unlike the latter, this new model does feature a retractable roof. Just 16 will be built, each featuring extreme levels of personalisation and costing well in excess of £2 million. The new two-seater is derived from the Continental GT and will be one of the last cars to feature Bentley’s 6.0 twin-turbo W12, production of which ends this summer. Here, as in the Batur coupé, it is tuned to…

THE BMW GROUP will play up the ‘Britishness’ of the Mini brand once again, following a decade in which its more playful side has been toned down in favour of a more grown-up premiumness. The switch happened in the third-generation Mini range created under BMW ownership, with the brand’s design, dealerships and marketing all taking on a more refined look and tone, away from the Cool Britanniastyle theme that had been in play since Mini’s relaunch at the start of the century. Now BMW Group sales boss Jochen Goller believes the new fourth-generation BMW Mini hatchback is more closely related to its 1959 BMC namesake, with shorter overhangs and a lower centre of gravity, which means that “Britishness as an asset is realistic, and we can claim it”. He added:…

PEUGEOT HAS CHOSEN not to expand its high-performance PSE range beyond the hot 508 and to focus instead on its drive to full electrification. Giving an update on the future of the PSE brand, which stands for Peugeot Sport Engineered, company CEO Linda Jackson said: “To be honest we thought about [expanding the range], but then the prioritisation came into play and this is all about electrification. The fact is we are investing, as Stellantis, €40 billion for electrification and Peugeot is a part of that. “We will have a full electric line-up by the end of this year where every model will have an electric version. You have to make your priorities.” Jackson did not rule out a performance car built on one of the modular EV platforms used…

Patience is a virtue tested all too often for Britain’s motorsport faithful. They turned out in their thousands at Donington Park for the opening rounds of the British Touring Car Championship, only for heavy rain (will it never cease this year?) to leave them waiting, and then waiting some more, for anything to happen. No one’s fault, of course: it was dreadfully wet. When conditions brightened in the afternoon, the organisers did a brilliant job to run a compacted schedule of three BTCC races and the supports. But even then, long safety car interruptions and a lack of information on what was coming next and when made this one hard work for the motorsport hardcore. How fortunate that the fans, in their Napa and Bristol Street Motors jackets and baseball…

TESTED 25.4.24, YORKSHIRE ON SALE NOW There’s a new luxury plug-in hybrid SUV with a low-range gearbox and genuine off-road capability available in the UK, and it’s not a Land Rover Defender. No, what we have here is the Jeep Cherokee 4xe. ‘4xe’ is pronounced ‘four by ee’, by the way. Obviously. If you think about it rationally, it’s a fairly absurd concept. Who habitually needs to scale nearvertical slopes but also wants to do it in a plushly trimmed, 4.9m-long, 2.15m-wide behemoth? Oh, and it needs to be able to do some miles on electric power so the company car tax bill isn’t too high. The Grand Cherokee ticks all of those boxes, but if you’re never going to use its somewhat rarefied capabilities, it looks rather shakier as…

The small car is dead, isn’t it? The everincreasing crossover onslaught has sunk a fair few nails into the supermini’s coffin because these high-riding alternatives offer greater street cred for the buyer and a healthier slice of profits for the manufacturer. Certainly, the UK’s latest top 10 new car sales chart for 2024 would bear this out, filled as it is with SUV-flavoured models of all shapes and sizes. Then there’s the race towards electrification. Battery power and bargain basement prices don’t currently mix, so the major players have concentrated on bigger models with larger financial margins. Superminis be damned. But perhaps it was the news that one of the biggest-selling players in town was being put out to pasture that really made motor watchers fear the worst: if Ford…

Ford has pivoted more than any other manufacturer in the UK market over the past few years. The American brand has moved from a heavy dependence on the everchanging passenger cars market and towards an even bigger share of the commercial vehicle sector – and all while grappling with the shift to electrification and the loss of two key models, the Fiesta and Focus. Overseeing these challenging transitions is Lisa Brankin. The Northern Irishwoman was named managing director of Ford of Britain and Ireland in 2020, before also taking on the top role as Ford UK chair in 2023. Brankin’s elevation is especially noteworthy because it began when she joined the firm as a graduate, more than 30 years ago. Under her leadership, the UK arm of Ford is performing…

MODEL TESTED L2H1 320 2.0 ECOBLUE 150PS LIMITED Price £47,748 Power 148bhp Torque 266lb ft 0-60mph 12.1sec 30-70mph in fourth 13.0sec Fuel economy 36.2mpg CO2 emissions 191g/km 70-0mph 72.3m Autocar doesn’t dip into the world of light commercial vehicles very often, but when a staple of British roads like the Ford Transit Custom gets renewed for a new generation, we must take note. Don’t worry: we shall leave bin lorries and London buses to the odd Christmas road test. However, for the past few years, the best-selling vehicle in the UK hasn’t been the Vauxhall Corsa or Nissan Qashqai but the Ford Transit Custom. They are everywhere, not just as a work van but also as a leisure vehicle that effortlessly swallows bikes, camping equipment or – in the right specification…

MILEAGE 11,730 WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT To see if a Baja-ready pick-up truck can handle the Wild West that is British roads I’ve been doing some serious commuting work alongside the practical stuff in my Ranger Raptor. First, its biggest schlep yet, to Edinburgh: I stayed in a castle, found a tiny bit of snow, took in the big scenery and enjoyed the pick-up truck in what isn’t the kind of activity you will find in the brochure, covering mega motorway miles and sweeping A-roads. But I enjoyed both just the same. The Raptor is an unlikely motorway star. With very good forward visibility (unless you’re driving behind it), good stability, the fanciest of dampers that work their best at speed and are entirely untroubled by anything on the road…

Whose idea was it? Was Martin Leach’s proposal for a revival of the Morris Minor (‘A Minor mishap’, 10 April) during the time when he had connections with Menard Competition Technologies, the firm that took over the remains of Tom Walkinshaw Racing? TWR proposed a similar idea, with design sketches, to MG Rover in about 2002, using the Rover 25’s platform. Could Leach have seen those sketches at Leafield and refloated the idea to the potential new owners? Neil Via autocar.co.uk I wasn’t aware of the Menard proposal, but this could well be the source of the idea. Sadly, Leach is no longer around to ask. Still, another opportunity that MG Rover failed to take… – RB Square roots I remember the absolute pasting British Leyland got for the quartic…

Any discussion about the GTI version of the fifth-generation Volkswagen Polo invariably ends with murmurs of respect before everyone agrees they would rather have the rival Ford Fiesta ST. Judged purely on its dynamic merits, the ST is the better car. But the GTI is arguably more rounded and, over time, possibly more satisfying. Still, when it was new, apart from making sure you chose no lower than ST-2 spec, at least the ST got it right from the get-go. If only the same could be said of the GTI. VW got the engine and gearbox wrong the first time around, and then when it fixed the engine (by replacing it with a larger and more powerful but less complicated one) and at last offered it with a manual gearbox,…

“We wanted a more modern, monolithic appearance in the front” Rolls-Royce has updated its best-selling Cullinan SUV, six years after launch, with new styling, an overhauled interior, updated technology and a wealth of new options. The updated Cullinan is expected to raise the base price slightly to around £330,000 by introducing new technology and evolved styling while offering ever more extensive personalisation options. Rolls-Royce design chief Anders Warming said he focused on emphasising the “verticality” of the high-sided luxury SUV for the facelift, with the company drawing a link between the Cullinan’s bluff, towering proportions and the “illuminated skyscrapers in the megacities where Cullinan is increasingly at home”. Warming told Autocar: “We wanted to have a more sheer aesthetic, a more modern, monolithic appearance in the front. That being said,…

NEW BRITISH ENGINEERING firm TWR Performance has revealed an outlandish, 600bhp reworking of the Jaguar XJS as its debut production model – complete with carbonfibre bodywork, a supercharged V12 and a manual gearbox. The 50-year-old British coupé has been reimagined as a high-performance super-GT. Aptly named Supercat, it’s the first project to be unveiled by the Berkshire-based firm founded by a son of famed TWR team boss and race driver Tom Walkinshaw. The XJS’s sleek, smooth shape has been treated to an aggressive redesign reminiscent of 1980s endurance racers courtesy of digital designer Khyzyl Saleem and renowned Porsche modifier Magnus Walker. Ahead of the car’s full dynamic reveal in summer, the firm has revealed that the blown 12-cylinder engine sends more than 600bhp to the rear axle through a six-speed…

EURO 7 EMISSIONS regulations, the toughest yet, will come into force in July 2025. As the emphasis shifts from combustionengined vehicles, so the attention falls on other factors, such as non-exhaust particulate matter from tyres and brakes. The new standards will be the first globally to move beyond tailpipe emissions and set limits for brake and microplastic tyre particles. Naturally, tyre companies haven’t been sitting on their hands. Michelin has been researching tyre wear particulates for the past 20 years; in the UK, engineering consultancy Ricardo, working with Arup, last year published a report, prepared for the Department for Transport, on how to measure them. The European Commission will produce a report by the end of this year to review measurement methods and the subject of tyre abrasion in general.…

ADMIT IT: OF all those car videos you see online, it’s the ones with expensive cars crashing that you can’t help but click on. The marketing agencies advising car makers know it too, which has led to some unorthodox advice. About this time of year, marketing people try to work out how to ‘leverage’ their various partnerships and appearances at shows over the summer. One of the biggest investments will be in the Goodwood Festival of Speed, where the centrepiece is the famous hillclimb. If your car isn’t going to be able to set the fastest time, you will need to think of a novelty to give the commentators some fodder. This could be setting the record for going up the hill while bathing in baked beans, but the more…

I wonder if the mock diffuser at the back of the new Kia Picanto will make it look so sporty and fast that it’ll stop it being tailgated on motorways, as is the fate of so many small cars. And will its newly beefed-up front end shoo slowcoaches from the outside lane in a way that escapes others of its ilk? Look out mate, one of the Cubes from Terrahawks (ask your dad) is chasing you. I liked the old Picanto very much, and I expect I’ll like the new one, which got its prices last week ahead of deliveries starting in July. From £15,595, it arrives with a nose that’s so technical and intricate as to be almost post-aggressive. But aggression, as m’colleague Steve Cropley passingly noted the other…

The latest ‘new Mini’ represents an interesting change of tack for its maker – and in more ways than one. First, there’s the nomenclative departure. In its fourth generation, the hatchback is the Mini Cooper in a formal make-and-model sense (there will be no more Mini Ones, Mini Electrics etc). Second, there’s the technical shift: although the ICE version survives to mirror it as part of a broader model range, the allnew Mini hatchback is, in point of fact, electric-only, because the ICE version is ostensibly a thirdgeneration model with a new body and a new interior. And third? Well, as we will come to shortly, that’s all about the fine detail of the electric version’s execution. This is a slightly different kind of electric Mini, I’d say, in its…

Great Wall Motor, maker of the Ora 03 EV (formerly known as Funky Cat), is adding a second model to its UK line-up later this year: the 07 saloon, which is meant to take on the likes of the BYD Seal and Tesla Model 3. The 07 is expected to be priced from £35,000, offering a 64kWh lithium-iron-phosphate battery in Pure and Pro trims and a 83kWh nickel-manganese-cobalt pack in Pro+ and GT versions. It is claimed to be capable of delivering up to 354 miles per charge, which is in Model 3 Long Range territory. A unique, quirky design will also distinguish it from the competition – but that alone won’t be enough to shift stock. Instead, GWM will use competitive finance deals, a plethora of kit (reversing camera,…

When fighting to attract tourists, it never hurts to have a world. Birmingham has Cadbury World. Orlando, Florida, has Disney World. The New Forest has Peppa Pig World. Countless dismal retail parks across the country have World of Leather. Until now, Gothenburg offered some lovely historical buildings and museums, Scandic scenery and even a century-old theme park. But it didn’t have a world. But now, visitors to the Swedish city can immerse themselves in a whole new tourist attraction. Welcome to the World of Volvo. Gothenburg has been home to Volvo since 1927, but the main headquarters have been located around eight miles from the centre of the city in Torslanda. That was where, until late last year, you would have found the Volvo Museum. This brought together vehicles from…

Stellantis UK boss Maria Grazia Davino has said the motor industry still “is not doing enough” to get more women into senior automotive roles “but this will change soon and fast”. Davino, who took on her widereaching role at the end of last year, said this is due to the next generation “getting ready” to step up as historical barriers are slowly being dismantled. Speaking to a 200-strong audience at the 2024 Autocar Great Women awards in Coventry, Davino had the backing of fellow panellists. Nicola Johnson, people director at Bentley’s Centre of Excellence, said “we have a long way to go” and “it still seems to be men leading the industry”. Johnson said a key factor was that “most executives, I have found, have a partner or wife at…

MILEAGE 2296 WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT To find out if Honda’s first electric SUV can impress in a crowded class I have treasured memories of the summer before last, centred on a hybrid crossover. Not something I ever thought I’d catch myself saying, but the Honda HR-V was beyond reproach when my best mate and I went on a transcontinental road trip during a heatwave. Totally reliable, very economical, comfy and enjoyable to drive, whether on autobahn or mountain pass, beautifully furnished inside with enough room for two mountain bikes in the back. I was therefore dead keen to have a go in the new Honda e:Ny1, seeing as this is essentially a fully electric version of the HR-V. So I did. And goodness, where to start… Okay, let me…

My son tells me I might be the only person on this planet to have swapped a Porsche 718 Boxster for a Subaru Crosstrek, number 100 on your list of cars best suited to their purpose (24 April). Why? Well, I can now transport two grandkids, two small dogs and half a dozen sheep anywhere in any weather. I loved every minute of my three and a half years with the brilliant Porsche, but ‘life moves on’ is my new mantra… and not just in North Wales! We will use our Mercedes-Benz GLB for regular trips to Switzerland, but the Crosstrek could do those too. It gets you there – and back. A great virtue in a car. WIN Letter of the week wins this ValetPRO exterior protection and maintenance…

An owner’s view SANDY Mc CREADIE “I’ve owned my 2016-reg 1.8 Polo GTI for three years. I’m the second owner and it’s showing 67,000 miles. It’s the poor driver’s Golf GTI, but in everyday motoring I don’t feel shortchanged. It is quick, handles great and looks and feels top quality. It has been totally reliable but has required the replacement of both front lower suspension arm bushes. I blame the rough roads in my part of Scotland – this and the fact that, as it’s a quiet place, you can really press on…” Buyer beware… ENGINE Early 1.4 engines can suffer excessive oil consumption and misfires from cold. The timing-chain tensioner can give up at 60,000 miles. On your test drive, feel for a lumpy transition from the supercharger to…

AT THE BEIJING motor show, MG unwrapped an attention-grabbing new concept car in celebration of its centenary: an electric hypercar named the EXE181, with an ultralow profile and a single, central seat. But while it looked futuristic, it was directly inspired by a famous MG from 67 years ago, the EX181 (‘EX’ standing for ‘experimental’). And to tell this story properly, we have to go even further back. In 1930, engineers and racers George Eyston and Ernest Eldridge conspired with MG founder Cecil Kimber to snatch top-speed records in the 750cc class from the Austin Seven, using a blower by Eyston’s Powerplus supercharger company, to score an invaluable marketing tool for both of them. The basis was MG’s new M-Type sports car, with its engine tripled to 60bhp and its…