Innholdsfortegnelse for February 2020 i CAR UK

It’s a classic pincer movement. From one side, rapid advances in clean-running electric cars have propelled the likes of the VW ID3 and Jaguar i-Pace onto many buyers’ wish lists. From the other side, environmental concerns have made internal combustion engines look dirty and outmoded; the VW Dieselgate cheating scandal didn’t help one bit. But, in fact, it’s not so simple. Viewed as part of a bigger picture, EVs aren’t as clean as you might hope. And the urgent need for car manufacturers to meet carbon-dioxide limits has prompted a rethink about low-CO2 diesel. To guide us through this, two experts whose enthusiasm for cars is matched by their knowledge of different aspects of engineering. Bruce Wood is the managing director of the powertrain division of world-renowned Northampton-based Cosworth, while…

On paper it’s an odd compromise, but on the road it all combines harmoniously Momentarily I’m confused. ‘Be careful,’ the man from Mercedes is telling me via walkie-talkie as I drive his new GLE 53 Coupe up a snowy, icy road in the Austrian Alps, a wall of hard-packed snow on one side, a sheer drop on the other. In the next breath, though, he’s bellowing: ‘Go faster!’ Well which is it, man? But then the penny drops. This is an AMG SUV. You don’t choose: you go faster and you get enough fortifications and driver-assistance systems to save you from avalanches, torpedoes and your own stupidity. Could it save me from my own ridiculously high hopes, though? Based on its mild-hybrid straight-six being a fantastic engine in other Mercs,…

If it all goes to hell in post-Brexit Britain – when the riots start and we have to forage ever further into the wilderness for food – we’re all going to wish we were driving one of these. Until then, you may be casually interested to learn Jeep now builds a bigger version of the Wrangler. The Gladiator pick-up doesn’t just have a loadbed on the back, it’s got a longer wheelbase too, taking its total length over 5.5 metres. It’s larger than a Toyota Hilux. Good to drive? By most measures, not really. But in the wilds of suburban Detroit, where the size is unexceptional, it bats away broken tarmac with only a moderate amount of shudder through its body-on-frame chassis. Humming along on oversized all-terrain tyres, riding on…

We know a great deal about the new Golf already. Of course we do – cars this important do not arrive unheralded. And the new Golf is important. When, last year, VW’s highest echelons were asked which of the company’s new-for-2019 hatchbacks, the all-new Mk8 Golf or the electric ID3, was the more important car, there wasn’t a moment’s hesitation: Golf. Potholes simply disappear, and yet the VW never relinquishes its body control We know the new Golf is technologically ambitious, beautiful on the inside and neat but conservative on the outside. But what’s it like to drive? Because that matters more than ever, when the rivals are this good. Ford’s Focus is a dynamic masterpiece and, incredibly, the new 1-series (with Golf-style transverse engine and front-wheel drive) is just…

1st BMW 1-SERIES  Doesn’t re-write any rulebooks – it’s just a fun, practical and desirable hatch… like a Golf, but better 2nd VOLKSWAGEN GOLF Infotainment is not a roaring success but just about everything else is. Refined and desirable 3rd FORD FOCUS Great to drive and the 1.5 petrol engine is a star. Just lacks gloss and premium appeal The Focus is more fun to drive than any mainstream hatch since, well, the first Focus, and the Peugeot 205 before it. It’s the most affordable car of these three, the least pretentious, its engine is a peach, it’s practical and, for some, its incredibly fluid and adjustable handling make it the winner. But for the rest of us the Ford is lacking in this company; its interior feels a generation…

We turn off the road, onto a dusty trail that looks like it’s about to peter out into a dead end but suddenly opens into a spectacular vista, like a stage from the Dakar rally crossed with a scene from The Martian . Climbing out of the DBX to marvel at the view, the heat hits you like opening an oven door. It’s winter here in the hills south-east of Muscat in Oman, but the air is a toasty 28ºC. The dusty, craggy landscape is both alien and empty. There’s neither a soul in sight nor a sound on the broiling air, save for whirring fans cooling the twin turbos within the engine’s vee, its cylinders switched off for the first time in hours. The Aston Martin DBX is caked…

All the best ideas start as a sketch on a napkin. In the summer of 1961, Lotus founder Colin Chapman held a meeting at a pub called the Maple Leaf Inn. The company was developing the Elan, due to be launched the following year. The new sports car was based around a backbone chassis – a strong steel box-tube running down the middle of the car, with an engine attached to one end. Over a pie and pint Chapman’s purchasing director, John Standen, made a simple but startling suggestion: imagine an F1 car with two box-tubes, one each side of the driver, connected by bulkheads. Chapman immediately leapt on the idea and started sketching. A few months later, in May 1962, Team Lotus arrived at the Dutch Grand Prix with…

SHARING THE NEED FOR SPEED Like the McLaren F1, the T.50 uses Murray’s favoured three-seat layout, with central ‘jet fighter’ driving position. A six-speed H-gate manual transmission will be used, to boost the analogue driving experience. A sequential manual shift was originally planned, but customers demanded an ‘old-fashioned’ H-gate. DE-CLUTTERED DESIGN The 400mm rear fan creates so much downforce that big wings and cavernous ducts are unnecessary. It’s a beautifully clean design, as was Murray’s McLaren F1. Final aero tuning is being done in the wind tunnel of F1 team Racing Point (the artists formerly known as Force India). LIGHTEST V12 EVER The T.50 is powered by a new and specially developed 3.9-litre Cosworth V12, which Murray says is completely different from the Aston Martin Valkyrie’s Cosworth-developed V12. It’s naturally-aspirated…

Chris Teagles There may be sharper, fiercer, brasher supercars but there’s an allure to an R8 that’s hard to ignore And just like that, our Audi R8 vanishes as fast as it arrived. Feels like minutes since I got the bulky, tracker-equipped key to the 612bhp soft-top, and it almost feels like a death in the family now it’s gone. I’m not kidding – several people have come up to me since the R8’s departure and said something along the lines of: ‘Won’t be the same without the R8, will it?’ Indeed. It’s been quite an experience: eye-opening, expensive and a great deal of enjoyment. One of the biggest revelations has been the strongly tribal reactions to the R8. For some, it’s their dream car, or at least the one…

Matty Graham ‘The V12 is quick when you want it to be, but it feels like it’s ticking over most of the time’ IT’S A CAR TO FALL IN LOVE WITH I’d previously owned a couple of Porsche Boxsters, and then in 2017 bought a new McLaren 570GT. However, I had reliability issues with it, so I rejected it. I then looked at a Mercedes C63 S and the AMG GT, but my step daughter said why not an Aston Martin? I hadn’t really considered an Aston before because of their previous Ford ownership, using Ford and Volvo parts, perceived reliability issues and an ageing model line. In April 2018 I visited my local dealer in Chichester to test drive the V8 version of the DB11, which was impressive, and…

GP BATTERIES M-SERIES POWERBANKS From £19.99 These slim and sleek aluminium powerbanks come in a choice of colours and three capacities: 5000mAh (£19.99), 10,000mAh (£29.99) and 15,000mAh (£34.99). They’re light enough to carry around in a pocket or bag, while the anti-slip rubber-coated edges provide excellent grip. The ‘pass-through charging’ feature lets you recharge your devices and the powerbank at the same time. uk.gpbatteries.com MULTI-FUNCTION JUMP STARTER £179.83 An efficient, compact emergency engine-starting powerpack from Laser Tools. It takes only three hours to charge and is packed full of additional features, including an LED to illuminate the workspace, two USB outputs (for charging mobile phones, etc), a Type-C input/output port and digital voltage display. It can start diesel engines of up to 3.5 litres and petrol engines up…

Illustration Chris Rathbone Electrification will unlock the firepower for the next generation of Peugeot hot hatches, performance cars and even hypercars, vows brand chief Jean-Philippe Imparato. This bold statement of intent will become reality in 2020, with the roll-out of electrified Peugeot Sport road cars and intense development of the company’s Le Mans endurance-racing hypercar. It’s not long before Christmas, and Peugeot’s expressive leader is detailing his world view to CAR at a Provence hotel. The big question: is electrification the sole route to performance Peugeots in future? ‘There is absolutely no alternative. Absolutely not,’ fires back the 53-year-old executive vice-president. ‘If you chose any other alternative, my friend, you are making a trade-off between pollution and profit, between health and being compliant. ‘Are you ready to explain to the…

Illustration: Avarvarii 1 THE NAMING GAME Ferrari has been explicitly avoiding calling its first highroader an SUV, instead nicknaming it an FUV: a Ferrari Utility Vehicle. ‘Purosangue’ means ‘thoroughbred’ in Italian, a confident name for a car that some devout Ferrari fanatics might not agree with, given its silhouette. The FUV’s design has been signed off and the team are confident it’s a winner. Obvs. 2 GENTLY BREWED An SUV has been on the table for years at Maranello, ever since the late Sergio Marchionne was in charge. Requests for more time from investors at the 2019 Capital Markets Day allowed Ferrari to get the formula right. As the Prancing Horse gears up for its debut, expect interior cues first seen in the SF90 (below) and performance specs…

Finally: Mercedes got the memo about its old GLA. In a field packed with overpriced, underperforming, low-achieving crossovers, the GLA managed to be one of the frumpiest, least practical and soggiest offerings. Mercedes makes some brilliant SUVs, but the GLA was never one of them. Now, however, the penny seems to have dropped in Stuttgart. The result is not sexy or radical, but it does have a clear purpose, thrown into sharp focus by the arrival of the chunky, funky style-led GLB, which mechanically is not a million miles away from the GLA, but has the appeal of a mini-G-Class. The space race gambit While the GLB is intended to be a #Lifestyle accessory for surfboarders and cyclists, the GLA that arrives in the spring (at prices yet to be…

THE YEAR… EV DESIGN WENT RETRO Here comes the era of the gas-less carriage and, so far as design is concerned, it does not look an inspiring one. Design packages and styles technology to make it meaningful. When Benz’s fuel engine was a thing of wonder, the first cars still looked like ancient horse-drawn vehicles. But as the human and cultural potential of the ‘auto-mobile’ became understood, designers created sculptural narratives to tell consumers stories about cars: travel, prestige, sex, power, speed, beauty. Because no one quite understands what the gas-less carriage means, no one knows how to design one; BMW’s Benoit Jacob made the most convincing effort so far with the i3 and i8, but history will see these cars as brave freaks. In an age of anxiety,…

When it’s not restoring classic cars or hot-rodding speed boats, versatile Swiss engineering operation Rinspeed is busy inventing the future of urban transport. The latest version is MetroSnap, and founder Frank Rinderknecht says: ‘The crucial step towards series production has now been taken.’ The aim is to cut down traffic congestion through the deployment of multi-functional self-driving electric vehicles that are relatively affordable to produce because of their modular nature. Underneath is a skateboard-style composite platform, housing batteries and an e-motor, plus autonomous technology developed by TTTech Auto and lidar sensors from Hamburg-based Ibeo. On top, various pods can be slotted in – an idea Rinspeed claims it got from the field of aviation, although it also looks a lot like the pods that could slot into Thunderbird 2 in…

The powertrain starts in silence and is capable of running on e-power alone for up to 34 miles A staggering 82 per cent of Skoda Superb drivers are company car drivers, such is the car’s impressive breadth of abilities to just get the job done in comfort and quiet without costing the earth to fill it up or maintain. Until now, diesel versions of the Superb have taken the lion’s share of sales and registrations – the long-legged and economical nature of the VW Group’s stable of engines lend themselves to the Superb perfectly, but even Skoda can’t avoid the demands to electrify its car range in some form. So, here’s the Superb iV. No one really knows what iV stands for (intra-Voltage?) but all you need to know is…

Your priority should be getting somewhere you can flick the CLA 35 into Sport mode Step in, fire it up and it’s easy enough to forget this is very nearly the entry point to AMG ownership. It sounds great, looks great, feels great – it even smells great. The CLA’s interior is already excellent and adding AMG’s huggier seats and an alcantara wheel makes it even better. There’s a promising bark from the engine to enjoy while you’re taking advantage of the many opportunities to adjust things in the cabin, from the seat to the lighting. It certainly doesn’t feel entry-level. Figuring out the point and purpose of the Mercedes-AMG CLA 35 takes some doing. It does the job of a hot hatch, only it’s not a hatchback. Despite what…

Seems a sound plan. While car buyers flock to crossovers like moths to candelabras, dip a brush in the SUV Styling Cues pot and apply it to the A1 (together with a mildly silly name, in best crossover tradition), stand back to admire handiwork, reap possible rewards. Said handiwork includes an extra 40mm of ride height, a grille swap from the A1’s usual hexagon to an octagon (as per Audi’s Q-series SUVs), and wheelarch cladding – albeit glossily finished, in keeping with the upmarket A1. The results are mild, more akin to an additional trim level than a standalone model. Other faux-off-road superminis such as the Ford Fiesta Active and Kia Xceed add roof rails for added visual height but the Citycarver disdains that trick. It’s simply a slightly jacked-up…

One corner. That’s all it takes. The slightest turn of the Ford’s wheel and you’re smiling. Where the Golf’s measured and the BMW meaty, the Focus feels alert, eager. This is the Ford’s USP: the ability to make a humdrum drive fun; every roundabout an arc of apexes to be kissed. Where the 1-series is all about taut, grippy, flat-stance cornering, the Focus is big on nailed-down front-end grip and a mobile, lightly oversteery rear axle. Both are fun, but a lot of the time it’s the Ford that gives you the bigger kicks. The downside is that, as you experience them, you’ll be sitting in the drabbest interior here, by some margin. The inside of the Focus is underwhelming in isolation, but after the BMW and the VW it…

Great metaphor, terrible paint job. The mirror-finish bluey purple on the Maserati GranTurismo Zeda’s shapely nose bleeds to near black and anthracite and silver before finally there appears to be no paint at all, just the scratchiness of bare metal. The unkind might liken it to watching a nasty bruise healing in stop-motion, but the GranTurismo Zeda – zeda meaning Z in the Modenese dialect – parked symbolically at the end of the Viale Ciro Menotti production line in Modena is a one-off to mark the end of the model’s epic 12-year run, and there’s something of the struggle of a space shuttle scorching back into Earth’s orbit to that paint, a transition between two worlds that’s not entirely painless. We’ve come to Modena to learn about the future but…

F1 engineering Yoda Adrian Newey famously schooled himself in the art and science of racing car design by building a 1:12 scale Tamiya model kit of a Lotus 49. As a kid I tried to do the same, spending long summer days building a Brabham BT44B, but enormous wealth, more trophies than Guardiola’s downstairs loo and a career at the pointy end of Formula 1 continue to elude me. I remember that Brabham in extraordinary detail. I recall piecing together the DFV V8, picking out the Ford script on its cam covers in silver with a very small paintbrush. (The BT44, as did most every other ’70s F1 car engineered in the UK, used Ford’s all-conquering engine, hooked up to a bombproof five-speed Hewland gearbox – the V8 helped democratise…

I remember getting quite bored with F1 in 2002. It wasn’t Ferrari’s fault – they were just doing their job – but after the new F2002 arrived in Brazil (making a late debut in the third round) Michael Schumacher and teammate Rubens Barrichello went on to finish one-two nine times in the next 14 races. Between them they won every race bar one after Brazil, and Ferrari’s constructors’ points total was equal to that of the other 10 teams combined. It was a truly miserable season to be driving anything except this Ferrari. The F2002 was designed by South African Rory Byrne, whose motto was ‘evolution not revolution’. Clearly Byrne ignored his own advice in 2002, because – despite winning titles in 1999, 2000 and 2001 – the F2002 was…

Let’s deal with the colour right away, shall we? It has been suggested, by the less charitable members of the CAR office, that our new Mercedes-Benz long-term test car is finished in a shade of ‘chocolate brown’ or even ‘poo brown’. Mercedes says it’s actually Designo Mystic Brown – of course. But I’m going to refer to it, now and forever, as ’70s Brown. That’s because brown was one of the original launch colours of the G-Wagen back in 1979 (Colorado Beige, to be precise); and because, well, just look at this car. A retro colour for one of the most wonderfully, unashamedly retro cars you can buy today. Regular readers will know we drove the new AMG G63 back in the July 2019 issue – a £146k, 578bhp, twin-turbo…

After 12 months with the S90, I’m a Volvo convert. It joined us just after the arrival of our first child, at a time when steps, buses and just about anything beyond our front door was suddenly fraught and immensely frustrating. By contrast the Volvo made our lives easier. Only when you have children (specifically your child in one arm, flailing, and her toys, changing bag and beaker in the other) is the full worth of keyless go apparent. Ditto the ability to waggle your foot under the bumper to open the boot. We will sorely miss, too, the standard rear window blinds that block out motorway lights at night. And while my sleep deprivation has ended, I can still never remember where I’ve parked – but the Volvo On…

It’s been raining pretty solidly for six months now and the vale where we live is awash with mud, leaves, standing water and bedraggled ducks. You know it’s bad when even they’ve had enough of it. But thanks to our car’s off-road throttle and gear setting, the low-range ratios, locking rear diff, hill descent control and optional extra ground clearance I’ve yet to encounter anything it can’t beast. That said, it’s on Bridgestone Duelers, which are tyres for SUVs with delusions of grandeur, and no more. If this was going to be an everyday off-road workhorse I’d at least swap to winter tyres for the coldest months. They do cut through the acres of standing water pretty well, but that might be because they’ve got 2.5 tonnes pressing them into…

Tom Chapman Lack of fun aside, the Duster is a masterclass in subtle and sensible When I first got the keys to my Duster, I began longing for the day I could return them; eight months on, that feeling hasn’t really subsided. Did I grow attached to the Romanian heavyweight? Did I enjoy driving it? The meagre mileage says that’s mostly a ‘no’. But do I respect it? That – much to the surprise of the me of eight months ago – is more of a ‘yes’. Without getting too philosophical, the key to appreciating the Duster is understanding its purpose. This involves acquiring the mindset of someone for whom rewarding car ownership isn’t about how high the redline is, but rather how high the boot sill is (vital, it…

McLaren’s Sports Series as we know it is on borrowed time, with a new era just around the corner. And what better way to sign out than with a ‘Best of…’ masterpiece that involves mooching around McLaren’s Technology Centre with a big trolley cherry-picking all the really good stuff? Be clear, this isn’t McLaren’s 570S-based equivalent of Porsche’s 911 GT2 RS or Ferrari’s Pista. That was the 600LT (sold out as a coupe, still available as a Spider), a road car uprated to shine on track. The 620R is a racer (the 570S GT4) made barely road-legal and a new Sports Series high watermark. It’s more powerful than the 600LT coupe (611bhp versus the LT’s 592bhp; torque is the same) and, while marginally heavier (1282kg to the LT’s 1247kg), the…

Lamborghini’s latest concept is among the most extreme things we’ve seen from Sant’Agata in recent times – and that’s saying something. The V12 Vision Gran Turismo (below) is all angles, fighter-jet aero and drama. But it exists only inside the PlayStation 4. This V12-powered Lambo is on Gran Turismo Sport, where you will be able to drive it – if you’ve got enough in your virtual bank balance – or watch other highly skilled competitors racing it. It’s not the first bespoke in-game car: almost every major brand now has one. eSports is massive in the gaming world, but is starting to have an effect on the real world too, thanks in part to two key facts: 78 per cent of eSports viewers are under 35, while 50 per cent…

Illustration Chris Rathbone Dream job or poisoned chalice? Alpine’s new managing director is certain he’s landed the role of a lifetime. But after two decades in the auto business – including being head of Maybach when Daimler decided to bin it as a standalone brand – he’s well aware of the way that what looks like a rock-solid route into the future can turn out to be quicksand. Running Alpine for Renault really does sound like a great position, though. The world loves the A110, and there’s a deep-running affection for Alpine’s heritage. However, although everyone in France knows what an Alpine is, in some countries the name means nothing. Then there are the aftershocks of the Carlos Ghosn affair, with more to come when the former Renault-Nissan alliance chief’s…

Active suspension isn’t a new concept – car brands have been experimenting with the idea for decades, using hydropneumatics, air suspension and road-scanning technology to isolate bumps and increase comfort. However, after our first drive of the new Audi S8 limousine, we think Ingolstadt has really cracked it with the super-limo’s as-standard ‘Predictive Active Suspension.’ Based on an air-suspension set-up, PAS has familiar air-sprung tricks up its sleeve, including a quick 50mm ride-height increase when you grab the door handle, minimising chances of celebrities making undignified arrivals or getaways from red-carpet events. But it also uses an electromechanical actuator on each suspension arm, with all four controlled by a central computer. This, in turn, is fed information from a camera embedded in the windscreen that keeps an eye on road…

The RS Q3 devours Blakey Ridge, a hugely fast stretch of tarmac It’s 1981. You’re standing in a forest at the side of a gravel track, supping tea decanted from a thermos into a Charles and Di mug, waiting excitedly for the marshal’s whistle. It’s RAC time and last year’s winner Henri Toivonen doesn’t disappoint, sandblasting you with rocks as he slews past in his Talbot Sunbeam Lotus. The next car is quieter, neater, less exciting. There’s no lurid oversteer, no drama, just a relentless surge forward (quite literally for some drivers, who struggled with the understeery handling). Even before Hannu Mikkola has cruised home in first place having survived a roll on the way, British rally fans getting their first look at this weapons-grade car are left in no…

It changes direction like a housefly and offers more adjustability than many rear-drive sports cars What’s the hold-up? An hour into your first drive in Ford’s most serious ST Fiesta and it feels like everyone else on the road is dawdling horribly. Corners are trundled, painfully slowly, and acceleration away from every junction, roundabout and red-light-gone-green is glacial. It’s as if every car you come across is moving in slow motion and, somehow, your Ford is not. So you wait for a suitable gap, parp past in a choice of at least two gears (remember when hot hatches had to be in the right gear, with at least 5000rpm dialled up, at all times? The Ford’s 1.5-litre three-cylinder turbo doesn’t…) and claim for your delectation a clear stretch of road.…

It’s so comfortable, so well sorted, you would be happy piloting it for weeks on end That Volkswagen’s new factory-built Grand California camper van is packed with clever kitchen, dining, bedding and bathroom solutions is easy to believe. After all, its well-established baby brother, the non-grand California, already demonstrates the firm’s remarkable flair for compact and functional interior design. Rather, the one that’s really going to bake your noodle is that this big bus is at least as good – probably better – than its smaller sibling to drive. For something weighing over three tonnes and based on a large van it handles extremely well – very much like a giant Golf, in fact. It’s so easy to drive, you forget that it’s over six metres long. In three days…

The RS Q8 remains flat and composed almost irrespective of corner radius, surface and speed Viktor Underberg, an Audi veteran of 25 years recently put in charge of R&D at Audi Sport, is convinced of this RS Q8’s abilities – a car that shares its basics, after all, with the Lamborghini Urus. ‘But,’ he says, ‘I shall cry out if you overestimate your talent or underestimate a corner.’ Roger that. But even so, let’s set this thing on fire. With 592 horses roaming the tight 4.0-litre V8 corral and 590lb ft of torque rattling its gates, our master stallion instantly parts Tenerife’s herd of rental-car ponies. The 2.3-tonner takes just 3.8 seconds to hit 62mph, 125mph flashes up a timewarp 9.9 seconds later, and with Drive Select in Dynamic, overtaking…

Illustration by Peter Strain I’ve been doing the 5:2 diet for two years now, because I reached middle age and realised I was going to die soon. For those of you who haven’t heard of it, the 5:2 diet means you restrict yourself to 600 calories for two days of the week, then party on with double breakfast the remaining five. Those two fasting days lower your weekly calorie intake and trick your body into burning fat reserves. (This isn’t official dietary guidance, by the way, I’m just giving you the gist.) One of the things this regime has highlighted is just how hard it is to resist calories in the modern world. Supermarkets are gigantic reservoirs of sugar and fat, and high street coffee chains harbour thousands upon thousands…

Clearly, the Portuguese don’t believe in the concept of lowest common denominator when it comes to pegging their motorway speed limits. We’re racing west, into the setting sun, and fading amber light plays across a mountainous landscape of sawtooth peaks, gut-churning drops and a serpentine stretch of dual carriageway. Overloaded Dacias churn up the climbs, unable to hold anything like the 120km/h limit. On the downhill curves, ancient Clios with dampers that no longer damp squirm at the limits of their equally ancient rubber. The 118i, by contrast, is imperious. Provided you’re carrying a little momentum the 1.5-litre turbocharged triple does a great impression of something far more powerful, hauling the BMW up each slope without fuss. And with gravity on your side you’re left wondering just how fast the…

Four Alfa Romeo 158s ran in the first-ever F1 world championship race. Silverstone, 13 May 1950. A Saturday. Three of those cars finished one-two-three, the closest challenger two laps behind. Not by coincidence did the first season of one of the world’s most tech-centric sports kick off behind one of the most technologically superior and successful GP cars in history. Italy didn’t have Hitler’s money but it did have genius engineers Alfetta means ‘little Alfa’ in Italian. In 1950, the 158 was more than a decade old. The Alfa was originally designed for pre-war Voiturette racing – a ‘step-down’ class with displacement limited to 1.5 litres. By the late ’30s, Hitler’s state-backed Silver Arrows had dominated Grands Prix for several seasons. Italy didn’t have Hitler’s money, but it did have…

Fittingly, given the ’80s was the decade of excess, F1 cars in the ’80s were fast; outrageously so. In fact, the turbo cars of the mid-’80s remain the most powerful F1 cars ever built. The Williams FW11 epitomised the era. It was, quite simply, a beast. In the hands of Nigel Mansell and Nelson Piquet it won the 1986 constructors’ title, and the secret to its success was the potency of its Honda twin-turbo V6. The engine first caught people’s attention the previous year, when Keke Rosberg recorded the sport’s first ever 160mph lap of Silverstone. A more refined, more driveable and more fuel-efficient engine for ’86 raised the bar even further. In qualifying trim the RA166-E produced more than 1300bhp – in a car that weighed just 540kg… It…

Familiarity breeds complacency, contempt even. And if you’ve grown a little tired of silver Mercedes-AMGs securing poles and fastest laps with grinding regularity, you are not alone. But fortunately there’s YouTube, so fire it up. Now search ‘F1 2014 Hamilton pole lap Australia’ and escort from within earshot anyone who might be offended by spontaneous swearing. With the first couple of corners you notice two things. One: the track’s soaked and Hamilton’s on wets. Two: the noise. This, you’ll recall, was the first race of the so-called hybrid era (we’d seen KERS e-boosting previously) and fans raged at the passing of the old V8s and their banshee scream. The Merc’s hybrid V6 is more muted, less insanely extreme, but it’s only when you watch it being spanked again now, with…

The throttle response in anything less than Sport is torpid to the point of insanity 1 ALL ABOARD Two of us, slinking off to London for a night in a hotel so far outside our budget that the cost per night sounds like a mortgage payment. First job, luggage. The RC is more than big enough for our purposes. Hooks for a suit on a coathanger above the rear seats are handy. Hopeless door bins, mind. 2 COOL OR CRUSTY? The interior is divisive: classy, or like drowning in ’80s hi-fi. I like it, even the touch-pointer interface thing, and the easy-to-turn-off main screen is a nice touch at night. Twisting the drive mode to Sport is essential – the throttle response in anything less is torpid to the point…

When was the last time you had a puncture? According to tyre maker Continental, they hit the average European driver once every five years, or 44,000 miles. And since I do around 30,000 a year, I suppose I can’t grumble about falling victim to my second in 18 months. My last blow-out debacle, driving our long-term-test Skoda Octavia vRS 245, resulted in a five-hour wait in the car for the AA to fetch a new tyre because we didn’t have a spare and the patrolman’s universal spare wouldn’t fit over the 245’s big brake kit. Since then I’ve always opted for a spare wheel whenever possible. And there it was, a black rubbery rescue beacon beaming back at me from beneath the boot carpet. It started off well. The jack…

Part of the point of a long-term test is to see if a car can change your mind – for better or worse. A car that shines on first acquaintance can become an irksome bag of niggles to live with every day, while a car that initially underwhelms can worm its way into your affections and convert you. This is one of the latter cases. Winding back to the Z4’s first appearance in CAR six months ago, the question was whether or not it could convince as a desirable sports car after a lukewarm reaction at launch. It was a perfectly nice car, sure, but a memorable one, a thrilling one? Nah, not really. But now the Z4’s gone, I really miss it. It’s been a great companion. Alex Tapley…

Ford’s biggest problem is arguably image. In a brand-obsessed age, the Blue Oval can offer all the steering response, gadgetry and dynamic fizz it likes, but if the badge puts people off then they’ll never get to enjoy those fine qualities. CAR readers are a knowledgeable bunch – and one not backwards in coming forwards. After an appeal on these pages, our first respondent, Tim Nicholson, expressed an interest in our Ford Focus as he’s considering one to replace his Audi A3. ‘This size of car suits my life at present, now the children have left home,’ he muses. ‘We do need occasional space for longer holidays and trips, but most of the time a car like the A3 or Focus is all we need.’ Our second reader is Mike…

It strikes me as somewhat optimistic to scroll the words ‘Please Check Surroundings For Safety’ across the bottom of the CX-5’s rear-view camera screen. Just five minutes of post-jetwash Mudfordshire motoring is more than enough to re-transform the image from just about perfect to Jackson Pollock so comprehensively that you wonder why more car makers don’t hide the lens, VW-style, under the badge. I guess it comes down to prioritising where to spend the dosh. Mazda’s recent drive is towards a new generation of technologies that, by harnessing our natural ability to balance our heads atop our shoulders, purport to make it even easier for a mounted bowman to hit the bullseye at full gallop… Laudable indeed to wish to create a decent-sized SUV that’s good to drive. But the…