Innholdsfortegnelse for December 2021 i CAR UK

Factfile POWERTRAIN 78kWh battery, all-wheel drive, 373-mile range CHASSIS Steel monocoque DUE 2023 1 GROWING FAMILY Polestar’s badging makes it easy to guess what the next model will be called. And now we know what shape it’ll be: the boss has confirmed to CAR that next year’s 3, a large SUV, will be joined in 2023 by a smaller e-crossover called the 4, likely to take design cues from the Precept concept (pictured). 2 A SLEEKER KIND OF SUV The Polestar 4’s lower roofline is clearly visible in a set of teaser images revealed by Polestar. Think BMW X4 (pictured) in its overall shape – though we hope it’s prettier than Munich’s offering. It’ll give Polestar a second foothold in the lucrative premium electric SUV space. 3 SHARPENED GEELY TECH…

Richard Pardon THE MAN WITH THE PLAN Maserati UK’s Peter Charters With the Grecale SUV, an all-new electric GranTurismo on the way, and the long-awaited MC20 supercar finally landing in the UK, 2022 represents Maserati’s big chance to go from bit-player to true market force. Here’s how it plans to do it. REMIND THE PUBLIC YOU EXIST Maserati has become a part of Situ Live, a new space in London’s Westfield shopping centre. A blue MC20 currently sits pride of place in the Situ Live window. ‘Pre-pandemic, Westfield had an annual footfall of 29 million people,’ explains UK general manager Peter Charters. ‘Compare that to a normal dealer, where you’d be lucky to get 1000. Brand awareness has never been a strong point for us; now we have a story…

THE WORLD’S BEST WRITERS IN THE NEW CARS THAT MATTER NEW CAR MEETS REAL WORLD As the road carves left and right, you feel the RS3 subtly shifting its torque balance, like a dancer on their toes Rush hour, north of Athens. Lane changes among the dust-coated cars are more like karate chops. Quarter neither asked nor given. Yet as the jams unsnarl and a dual carriageway opens ahead, cars spring out of our way, stepping smartly aside as if there’s a set of blue lights flashing on our roof. Curious. Then the penny drops: the new RS3’s all-black front end looming in a rear-view mirror looks as menacing as the rugby team of the same name bearing down on you. Gaping grille like a gumshield, arches like a scrum-half’s…

Remi Dargengen The noise is a little disappointing in normal use, but just thunderous when you finally get to hold it wide open In the 1985 French GP, with FI’s turbo era nearing its peak and his 540kg Brabham-BMW BT54 making 1100bhp in qualifying trim, Marc Surer went through the speed trap at the end of Paul Ricard’s 1.1-mile Mistral straight at 210mph, setting a new record for the highest speed recorded in a GP. Last month, in a luxurious road car weighing four times as much, I comfortably hit 217mph on the same straight. Have we now reached peak engine? As the major manufacturers wind down or cease their development of internal combustion engines, there’s a fair chance the Bugatti Chiron Super Sport will stand as the most powerful…

With 537bhp and 586lb ft, it is more potent than an M4, if also some 300kg heftier So, the BMW iX doesn’t float your boat. You’re coming around to the idea of an electric BMW but the milk-curdling looks and SUV format don’t do it for you. And nor does the £70k minimum price tag. (Never mind that the money involved is well justified by the exotic construction and the bonkers interior.) Don’t worry, dear reader. BMW has not overlooked you. For arriving shortly after the iX reaches UK soil is this car, the BMW i4. Essentially an electric version of the 4-series Gran Coupe (hold that thought…), it benefits from all the same in-car tech and fifth-gen e-drive technology as the iX, but comes in at a lower cost,…

Ferrari 125 S, 1947 The first Ferrari. 1.5-litre V12 engine by Colombo. Debut at Piacenza described by Enzo as a promising failure. He was right – it won six of 13 races in the next four months. Ferrari 166 MM, 1948 This evolution of the 125 S (same tubular frame, front wishbones, live rear axle) won Mille Miglia and Le Mans in 1949 with a 2.0-litre update of the Colombo V12. 330TRI/LM, 1962 The last front-engined Ferrari racing car, and last of the Testa Rossas. Purpose-built to win Le Mans – and it did so in 1962. 250 GT SWB, 1959 SWB chopped 200mm from the 250’s wheelbase for extra agility. Powered by 3.0-litre Colombo V12. Won Tour de France Automobile in ‘60, ‘61 and ‘62. Forerunner to legendary GTO.…

THE DEFINITIVE VERDICT The car world has been shaken and stirred. The world’s most valuable automotive company didn’t exist 20 years ago and makes a type of vehicle that, only 10 years ago, was more curio than proper car. Former winners are now losers. Volkswagen decayed from world number one to corporate villain. The motor industry’s most notorious polluter is now the old-school car industry’s highest-profile ‘zero emissions’ EV advocate. Conversely, a few former League Two players have been elevated to the top tier. Hyundai has given us one of the most desirable new electric cars, the Ioniq 5. Now, Hyundai’s sister brand Kia brings its own distinctive look and much high tech with the EV6, the first Kia designed from the outset as an electric car. The EV6 uses…

HELLO HYUNDAI i20N AND NISSAN QASHQAI + GOODBYE CUPRA FORMENTOR AND CITROEN BERLINGO PLUS RENAULT MEGANE RS MEETS VW GOLF GTI Alex Tapley Welcome aboard our new Hyundai izoN. With a weighty-feeling, fat-rimmed steering wheel in my hands (complete with quick-flick drive-mode shortcut buttons), firm suspension rat-a-tatting through the smart-looking, plump-bolstered sports seat and a raspy exhaust note in my ears, it’s definitely an N car. Rewind to 2017 and not many people really know what an N car is, or how it feels. Hyundai’s N sub-brand is in its infancy and cynicism is rife. A performance sub-brand from Hyundai? A bit like M division? Eh? Today, N’s part of the furniture. Thanks to a combination of solid marketing and a more than solid first car – the i30N –…

Jordan Butters My 2010 HP2 Sport is not the M4’S two-wheeled alter ego. (That would be the 999CC, 209bhp M1000RR.) But it is the other BMW in my life, and there are parallels to be drawn. Both use fruity versions of classically BMW engine layouts. Both tap into decades of Bavarian performance engineering. And both are preposterously over-specified for road use, with power outputs, grip levels and suspension set-ups conceived to run flat-out between the strobing kerb paint of the world’s great racetracks. The M4’s S58 six is made special by twin turbocharging and such lovingly crafted power and torque curves it almost feels naturally aspirated. (In doing so, it rights one of the biggest wrongs of the previous car, which dumped its turbo torque clumsily just as soon as…

Jordan Butters North Wales used to seem so close when I lived near CAR’s Peterborough HQ – and, crucially, was young. Take a 911 GT3 to Snowdonia for a photo shoot tomorrow? All in an evening’s work, and no problem to drive straight back once the pictures have been shot. Now, though, I’m old, sleep-deprived thanks to two tots, and Betws-y-Coed is the best part of six hours away. But I know the current Bentley Continental GT is a great car for long drives, and so the closely related Flying Spur should be equally perfect. Here’s hoping, as so far we’ve not quite gelled... We’ve been starting to get there, though. When there are two under-threes to herd, family outings to the nearby beach are always an event, but they’re…

Alex Tapley It feels like a step forward, like the arrival of the Seat Leon 20 VT two decades ago Judge the Cupra Formentor against the closely related VW Golf R, or examine it on its own merits, and either way it stacks up. Just ask reader Jeff Parrington, who judged its design and value ahead of the equivalent Audi SQ2 and BMW X2 M35i and bought a VZ2 like ours. ‘It’s one of those rare cars that seem to do everything it’s meant to do, to a high standard,’ says Jeff, ‘managing to display a degree of originality and panache whilst doing it.’ The VZ2 is the fastest Formentor, with a stonking 306bhp – just 10 shy of the Golf R. Interestingly, the price has risen since the figures…

MG MIDGET REAR LIGHT UPGRADE £89.99 + VAT Traffic conditions have changed beyond recognition in the decades since the MG Midget first arrived. It’s still a lot of fun to drive, but this high-power LED system can make it safer on today’s roads. The kit brings brighter reversing and brake lights, and adds a powerful rear foglight – but without spoiling the looks of the iconic British roadster. Fitting should take less than two hours. www.bettercarlighting.co.uk RIMSAVERS ALLOY PROTECTION £44.99 Rimsavers is an alloy wheel rim protection and styling system. It involves stick-on strips that protect alloy wheel rims from kerb damage and cover up existing marks. They can also bring a visual lift to your car. Being self-adhesive – using a combination of 3M tape and primer – Rimsavers…

Illustration: Chris Rathbone Think Honda and you’re thinking frenetic fours. BMW? Sonorous sixes. Bentley? V8s with a truck’s torque. Those once distinct engineering principles have loosened of late as the car makers have had to turbocharge, downsize and hybridise. But they’ll disappear altogether in the electric era. The things actually turning an EV’s wheels need to be quiet, efficient, reliable, compact and cheap. But they don’t need to be sexy. Car makers once created value by making the most costly part of the car: the engine. Now it’s the battery, which is most likely to be bought in, followed by the drive unit, which only around half will make in-house. That means a colossal change in the economics of the car industry, and a big-bang moment for its major suppliers.…

The Grecale is the perfect car to boost Maserati’s sales volumes right now – but not right now. Its reveal has been pushed back at the eleventh hour from its planned November debut to spring next year. Why? Chiefly, the semiconductor shortage that’s stymying the whole industry. ‘The quantity of production would not allow us to respond properly to expected global demand,’ says an official statement from Maserati, referencing the Grecale’s ‘connectivity and human-machine interface areas’. Parent company Stellantis has forecast it will produce 1.4m fewer vehicles this year as a whole due to the chip shortage, having halted production at plants in Europe and Canada.…

Range-extender hybrid cars have never really caught on in Europe. Vauxhall’s Ampera, aka the Chevrolet Bolt, won Car of the Year before commercially sinking without trace; BMW grudgingly introduced the i3 REx. But Nissan aims to revive the concept by putting its ‘e-Power’ technology into the UK’s favourite crossover, the Qashqai. Nissan e-Power, launched in Japan in 2016, shares much with its REx forebears. A combustion engine acts as a generator, powering a small battery and an electric motor. The idea is to create a car that drives like a pure EV, with instant, punchy acceleration, seamless power delivery (thanks to a single-speed transmission) and battery regeneration from deceleration and braking, but without the hassle of plugging it in. There’s one big difference to GM’s range extender, which could engage…

Keeping up with the TikTok generation must be a nightmare for car companies. How does a manufacturer osmose its brand into the minds of tomorrow’s car-leasing public? Numbers, that’s how. Digits are easy to get across in a 30-second phone video. Two motors, 0-62mph in 3.7 seconds (faster than a standard Porsche Taycan), 634lb ft (more than a Ford GT), 385mm Brembos, 310-mile range: they’re all important to Gen Z. They add up, too. Even the most ambitious of white-van men are a mirror-framed blur when you stamp on the quiet pedal in this new, quicker GT version of Ford’s electric crossover. The GT develops 480bhp, compared to the fastest regular Mach-E’s 346bhp, courtesy of a more powerful front motor. Also separating the GT from lesser Mach-Es are altered suspension…

How’s your cognitive dissonance score? Your ability, that is, to hold two contradictory beliefs simultaneously. Mine’s gone through the roof after getting a good workout from the Black Badge version of the Rolls-Royce Ghost. When Rolls-Royce says the Black Badge version of the Ghost is for radicals and subversives, your first response is to say: no it’s not, it’s for the kids of very rich people, or for the kid inside those very rich people. And when Rolls calls the Black Badge Ghost minimalist, you may find yourself making a note to send a dictionary to Goodwood for Christmas. Similarly, assertions that it’s ‘dynamic’ must surely be made with tongue in cheek. Yet when you drive the Black Badge Ghost – this 2.5-tonne, 6.75-litre V12-powered, all-wheel drive, all-wheel steer, super-luxury…

Timeless virtues I’ve recently sorted out my collection of CAR magazine, stretching back to the ‘80s, prompting me to reflect on what made it so compulsive. Today we are missing quite a lot of the variety, and as the electrified generation is taking over, I fear my interest is waning (I am 63). I skip the electric car tests along with the supercars these days (they come so frequently the impact has been lost). I appreciate that there is a new audience, but road trips and visiting fine pubs and cafes is still relevant. Looking over our shoulders at the petrol area will keep me interested – maybe reprints of old road tests, or cutaway drawings. As Ben Miller wrote recently, many buyers are not that interested in the engine…

ELECTRIC ROVER URBAN ROVER TECH ROVER LUXURY ROVER ELECTRIC ROVER Fully electric from 2024, this is the Range Rover future-proofed Few cars enjoy the privilege of defining a sector: the Golf, 3-series, S-Class, 911 and a handful of others have become shorthand for an entire typology. But it’s a rare accolade and one judged on quality, consistency and reputation. Check out that shortlist again – being German-built would seem to help. But the Range Rover is a home-grown benchmark. Peek under the same-again suit and you’ll find the most extensive clean-sheet re-imagining of Land Rover’s flagship in the car’s 50-year history. Previous replacements have been re-engineered to optimise the established trajectory: to be more luxurious, better off-road and slicker on it. Those ambitions remain, but they’re joined by a more…

Clearly, George Russell is a pretty special talent. He would appear to be quick, consistent and all but impervious to pressure. Mercedes boss Toto Wolff even thinks he can fight for the world title in his first season with the team, if they give him a competitive car. But these attributes only skim the surface of what makes Russell so good. Similarly, lap times and GPS speeds reveal only part of the picture. Even a conversation with his engineers falls short of explaining why he’s so good on track. It’s at this point that you need to look to the other drivers on the grid; find out what they think. Drivers know their peers’ abilities, having spent many laps racing wheel-to-wheel with them. They’re able to complete the picture. Jim…

Jordan Butters You know the drill. There’s the sweet, playing-nice period early on in a relationship, but after a while you relax and have to get used to one another’s quirks. Some are cute, others less so. My Mokka has to handle me spilling pumpkin-spice lattes in the cupholder and using the doorbins as literal bins. But I’m also having to get over some of the Vauxhall’s oddities. You see that little notch on the edge of the tailgate? That’s where the button to release it is, right? WRONG. It’s under the lip above the number plate. It’s caught myself, friends and family out. The door sills are too high – while I’m used to arching my leg up, passengers frequently trip over them getting in. I always Bluetooth-stream my…

I’m told Doncaster’s St Leger Festival is one of the most vibrant events on the UK horse-racing calendar, so when the opportunity to go for the first time presents itself, I immediately get to planning. My transport choices are rich and varied: a Honda E, a Caterham 170S, or my Citroën C4. At 212 miles each way, the distance between London and Doncaster eliminates the E: a range of 125 miles means I’d be charging at least four times on the M1-heavy trip. Even with suitable chargers, that’d still make for around four hours of extra journey time. What of the Caterham 170S, with me for a First Drive story that appeared in last month’s CAR? While incredibly engaging, it is clearly unsuitable, with its busy, noisy ride and cramped…

1 Drive anything and everything London’s Jamie Chadwick’s made it two titles from two seasons of W Series, the all-female world championship. She’s not just a single-seater specialist: she’s raced everything from GT cars in the Nürburgring 24-hour race to electric off-roaders in Extreme E, and tested cars as varied as Caterhams and the Ferrari SF90 for CAR. ‘You can always take something from anything you drive,’ she says. 2 Never give up In the 2021 season-opener Chadwick was hit by another car and dropped to the back of the field. She charged back to sixth place, scoring crucial points. She won the next race, putting her title challenge on track. 3 Be fast and smooth We’ve sat next to Jamie at work and she never misses an apex, with…

In watch making, a ‘complication’ is any function beyond simply indicating the time. A date wheel is a complication. But the really complex complications – like knowing when it’s a leap year and adjusting the date automatically – are the pinnacle of the watch maker’s art, and it’s extraordinary how much engineering complexity can be fitted into a tiny metal case strapped to your wrist. Yes, they’re wildly expensive and practically pointless, but as a testament to human ingenuity I’m glad they exist. Here are three just-launched examples. 01 | A Lange & Söhne Langematik Perpetual £81,400 This one is really crazy. This relatively small watch can tell you the time, day, date, month, the phase of the moon and whether it’s a leap year. Keep it wound and these…

Ryan Hague Fancy playing video games in the middle of nowhere? Or, if you want a less fantastical example, need to power camping equipment in the wilderness? You can, if you have an electric car fitted with ‘vehicle to load’ (or V2L) capability, such as the Hyundai Ioniq 5. It’s a feature of the Hyundai Motor Group’s E-GMP platform, also used in the Kia EV6 and the upcoming Genesis GV60, with plenty more E-GMP cars on the way. V2L means an electric vehicle can become a wheeled power source via a simple adaptor that plugs directly into the charger socket. So instead of power going in to charge the battery, charge is sent outwards, via the adaptor, to whatever you have plugged in. In the case of the Ioniq 5,…

Forget the Formentor or the Leon, the Cupra story begins here, in Barcelona, with the Born EV. Under that striking bodywork and copper, it runs on the same MEB platform as Volkswagen’s ID.3. The question is, is that a good thing or a bad thing for a car that’s not only the first all-electric Cupra but also the first car to really dial into the brand’s self-proclaimed focus on performance, emotion and sustainability? Dressed in the same folds and creases we’ve seen on other Cupras, the Born manages to look far less appliance-like than its ID.3 sibling. There’s no unsightly band beneath the windscreen, with more aggressive lines, LED headlights and a rear lightbar all helping to make the Cupra a more attractive proposition. There are changes under the surface…

Renault boss Luca de Meo clearly enjoys needling his former employer, the Volkswagen Group. His engineers have carte blanche to boast of the new Megane E-Tech Electric’s (claimed) 100kg+ weight advantage over its VW ID.3 rival. And de Meo styles the first Renault on his watch, a zero-emission mid-size hatch, as the GTI of EVs. That’s a mighty appealing prospect to assess in the countryside surrounding Paris, starting in Comfort mode. GTI exhibit A: the steering has a lively 12:1 ratio, and it does feel responsive off the straight-ahead, if a little light and loose. A 160kW (215bhp) electric motor spins the front axle, fed in this top-spec S Edition by a 60kWh battery between the 20-inch wheels. That gives an official range of 292 miles; the 40kWh pack is…

When the new RS Megane first appeared, the reviews centred on the four-wheel steer and somewhat notchy gearchange. The reviewers largely gave it a lukewarm four stars. I have now run an RS 300 Trophy for 18 months. The four-wheel steer is actually a revelation. Learn to trust it and corners are despatched faster than I could ever manage in the previous RS 275 Cup-S. The gearchange, too, is actually a robust bit of kit. The laurels, probably correctly, have gone to the Honda Civic Type R. However, it is worth noting that despite its widest-in-class girth, only four adults can be carried. Also, a quick perusal of the website Fastestlaps reveals that the RS Trophy wins 3-1 in track battles. It also beats the Hyundai i30N, Golf R Mk7,…

Alex Tapley In getting a bit fancier, has the Qashqai lost some of its boy/girl-next-door appeal? Hello indeed. Get in the presence of the new Qashqai and you find yourself doing a double-take, because it really does look like a new car. Seeing it in the metal for the first time up close, you’re struck by the strength of the design, the quality of the finish, and the subtle inching upmarket. Does the third-gen Qashqai need to go upmarket? Is there some danger that in getting a bit fancier, the Qashqai has lost some of the boy/girl-next-door ordinariness that has been a factor in its success? If the Mk1 popularised this style of car, and the Mk2 wisely resisted the temptation to mess with success, what does the Mk3 bring…

Renault driver tries VW… I embarked on our long-term test of the Megane RS asking if this is a hot hatch that can be a genuine day-to-day alternative to the Golf GTI. There’s no better way to find the answer than to drive them back to back. And the answer came back loud and clear: no, not really. Climbing into the Golf after living with the Renault, it’s like being injected with some kind of mild anaesthetic. Everything feels spongy – not slack or imprecise, just oozy and numb. It’s like having warm honey dribbled into your mouth, rather than breaking your teeth on a stick of rock. The ride, the steering, the way it tracks along the road – it feels so cushioned and controlled. Frankly, it feels grown-up.…

This Berlingo long-term test was an experiment. The need to cut emissions has forced SUVs into ever more coupe-like profiles, decimating their boot space. I’ve lived with a few and liked them, but often been surprised by their impracticality. I wanted to see if something way cheaper, with seven adult-sized seats and a hangar of a boot, was now peak family car, or whether its van origins would fatally kipper its image and quality and long-distance chops. The answer? I’m currently trying to buy this one from Citroën. The Berlingo has ruined me for other cars. My next test car has arrived, another premium SUV, and though it has many fine qualities I look into its tiny boot and despair. My eight-year-old son saw the new car and said he…

The Sportback has been seriously spanking the map this month. And, boxing the compass in the interest of diverse weddings, we’ve learned three important things. Firstly, an hotel stands or falls on the quality of its breakfast; so don’t serve a fried egg unless you’ve cooked off the baby snot around the yolk, and stop dishing out semi-raw back bacon with a rind like biltong. Secondly, weddings go on for far too long these days; if you’re not of the ‘How small do you like your talk?’ persuasion, each shouty two-hour pause between events of significance will leave you stamping your foot and muttering ‘Sesame’ through gritted teeth. And thirdly, no matter how cavernous the boot of any ff-C car, one large suitcase will always end up between the hooligans…