Innholdsfortegnelse for February 2022 i CAR UK

Chill-Out Let’s start with the most conventional-looking one. And it looks conventional because Nissan says this is a ‘near-future EV’ – an early preview into the Renault Megane E-Tech-style tall family hatch that’ll replace the left-behind Leaf. All the tech’s already available (it’s the same underneath as the Ariya), so it’ll be almost a slam dunk in terms of production. All-wheel-drive grip is promised, and expect the real one to be capable of around 300 miles of charge. NEED TO KNOW What is it? Nissan’s Leaf replacement in disguise Tech specs Same platform as the Ariya and Megane E-Tech, e-4orce all-wheel drive Aimed at? Re-establishing Nissan’s lost EV dominance Vapourware score 2/10 – might not entirely look like this, but it’s coming in 2024 Hang-Out Does this look familiar to…

Lexus is on the verge of launching its first ground-up, electric-only car, the RZ crossover, but promises that a supercar with a sub-three-second 0-62mph time is also on the way as it evolves into an all-electric brand. While parent company Toyota is taking a more measured approach, keeping hybrids prominent in the product mix, upmarket Lexus will be all-electric globally by 2035 – and by 2030 in Europe. First up is that imminent RZ (right), with styling inspired by the LF-Z Electrified concept from a year ago, and sharing its underpinnings with the new Toyota bZ4X. Unlike the only current electric Lexus, the UX, the RZ will not also be offered in hybrid form. It uses what Lexus calls Direct4 technology, controlling the e-motor on each axle to optimise drive…

THE WORLD’S BEST WRITERS IN THE NEW CARS THAT MATTER NEW CAR MEETS REAL WORLD Everyone falls for a car that moves a couple of notches deeper into sports-car territory than recent SLs Everyone loves the new SL at first sight. Gary the God-botherer and graffiti artist in his ramshackle caravan perched on a hill near Desert Shores. The tanned, ageless retiree at the wheel of a bleached black S55. The poker-faced valet who makes the $10 tip disappear with the ease of a seasoned croupier. The trio of young surfers in San Clemente. The highway trooper who flags us down at 55 in a 55mph zone just because she can. We also get loads of thumbs-up from hikers and bikers of all ages, the homeless Trumpists at Bombay Beach,…

Of all the things Kia is good at, choosing names for its cars is one of its less-developed skills. Stonic? Ceed? And here, the wildly inappropriate Sportage. There’s not much that’s sporting about it even within the context of the ever-expanding lexicon of circa £30k-£40k crossovers/SUVs. Kia won’t be bothered one bit, as this all-new third generation is sure to do exactly what most buyers want of a big, cushy family wagon. You can now choose from mild hybrid, full hybrid and plug-in hybrid powertrains, all of which can be had with all-wheel drive. You can even get the mild-hybrid, 48-volt tech on a frugal 1.6-litre diesel, as well as on the 1.6-litre turbocharged petrol that also features (in various power tunes) in the full- and plug-in hybrid. There is,…

Too much restraint? Interesting article on the Range Rover 5 in the December issue, in particular the comments on the design. The Mk1 became an icon because it was different. At the time, most 4x4s were agricultural in appearance, and the SUVs (started by the Jeep Wagoneer and Grand Wagoneer, by the way; the Ford Bronco was a much more utilitarian product) suffered in Europe because all that chrome and faux wood panelling didn’t look upmarket enough to our eyes. The Range Rover, in contrast, was an elegant and versatile vehicle you really could use on the farm by day, hose out, then drive to a function in the evening. The Mk5 looks rather subdued, albeit refined; but if it is in competition with Bentley, Rolls-Royce, Aston and Lamborghini’s offerings,…

The editor rings me up. ‘We’re doing a story,’ he says. ‘It’s about old relics that still have some life in them yet, ha ha! We thought you’d be perfect for it!’ ‘Ha ha!’ I reply. ‘Sounds great!’ Then a pause. ‘Ben, why did you think I’d be perfect? Ben? Ben?’ Click-brrrrrrrr. The Lada Niva has been in continual production since 1977, making it the oldest new car still on sale today. And the Morgan Plus Four? Well, depends how accurate you want to be. As a basic concept, the ‘+4’ has been on sale since 1950, though Morgan would stress today’s ‘Plus Four’ was re-invented in 2020 with an aluminium chassis. Maybe… but with its ash timber frame and flowing sports car looks, there’s no denying its ancient DNA.…

This isn’t a fair fight, of course, but the sloping playing field advantages both cars in different ways. The M4 has a chassis and powertrain honed by decades of M division know-how, and it isn’t weighed down by a battery pack. But the Model 3’s electric powertrain gives it astonishing firepower: its fast-twitch hit of instant torque makes the Tesla feel more like a ground-level Space X projectile than a humble car. Even after the M4 in full flight, the Model 3 feels absurdly quick. The Tesla isn’t out of its depth on track either, though it lacks a little polish when pushed hard. The fast-racked steering’s a bit quick for its own good, and the Model 3’s stability control can be outfoxed more easily than the BMW’s. Or turned…

Jordan Butters With its creases, folds and splashes of bronze it makes even the hottest Golf R look utilitarian I’m in another overcast car park, and the man walking towards me is going to ask me about my new Cupra Leon. Like a few other people today, he’s been staring at it for a while, and wants to know what it’s all about. ‘What’s this car, then, and which country is it from?’ he asks, quizzically pointing at the gothic Dungeons and Dragons-esque badge on the grille. It’s not an easy question to answer. ‘Well, it’s a Cupra, so a new brand from the VW Group, which is a bit like a Seat but better – and really, it’s a Golf R underneath anyway. I suppose it’s from Spain, but…

You can’t put a small family crossover to a harder test than a fully loaded road trip. That’s the task ahead of the Mokka, which has to became home to myself, my boyfriend and his mum, brother and young sister as we travel from Peterborough via Lincoln to Ballymena in Northern Ireland. The trip is a chance for a long overdue visit for my partner and his family, an opportunity to put the Mokka through its practicality paces, and for me to meet my boyfriend’s family for the first time. The Mokka and I both need to be on our best behaviour, then. The Mokka’s boot capacity is stretched to its absolute limit; it takes some clever Tetris-like thinking to get suitcases, bags and all sorts stuffed into it, to…

This driveway has a diagonal sloped approach that says a lot about the rigidity of a car. Drive something floppy, like a Merc S-Class convertible, and you can feel the car’s structure twist (and maybe even hear a vague creaking) as the front axle, then the rear, find their way over the incline. Drive something super-stiff, like a Renault Sport Megane, and the car pops up onto three wheels. The Hyundai is very much in the latter camp, and it’s that stiff structure that’s probably the reason why it has such consistent responses: every road, every corner, it behaves the exact same way. A good quality in a performance car. Hyundaii20N Month 3 The story so far N’s baby hot hatch. Loud, lairy and actually quite luxurious + Brakes; gearshift;…

There was a lot of chat when this was launched about how VW had made the Mk8 GTI edgier and more aggressive, but after six months with the car I just don’t see it. If anything, the changes to the GTI have made it even more thoroughly competent, as opposed to more highly strung. There’s a section of tight, steeply uphill, S-bend corners on my way home from town. In most cars something’s always wrong. Wrong gear, wrong revs, wrong load, cyclist, squirrel or sheep in the way. But the Golf goes round these corners like they’re not there. That’s because the torque band is so wide it’s a torque girdle, the DSG nails the right cogs every time, the front diff apportions drive to each wheel surgically, and the…

Oh the irony. And the timing. The F-Pace broke down about an hour after I’d been discussing Jaguar Land Rover’s fairly dismal reliability record with another parent at my kids’ school. He has a 20-plate Discovery 5 which has already thrown a belt twice, both times a long way from home, and he really isn’t happy. I couldn’t dispute his experience, nor a series of poor showings in quality and reliability surveys. But I told him I’d run a Disco 5 and a Range Rover Sport as long-term test cars, and had taken Jaguars and Land Rovers into some godforsaken parts of the world, from the Arctic to the Outback, all without issue. You can guess what happened next. Not only did the F-Pace break down on the drive home,…

Illustration: Avarvarii Lamborghini’s rivals are going from strength to strength or, at the very least, evolving with the times. Ferrari’s electrified sports cars are re-writing the performance rule book, Porsche is successfully branching into new segments, Aston’s forged robust ties with AMG and heavily revised its future product plan, and even McLaren may engineer a last-minute turnaround with or without the support of Audi, which is still in contention to buy McLaren. So Lamborghini needs to step up its game, electrify with conviction and pursue new segments. Asked to name the key dynamic virtues inherent in every future Lamborghini, chief technical officer Maurizio Reggiani tells CAR: ‘Awesome design, best-in-class handling, the ability to accelerate in under 3.0sec from 0-62mph and to exceed 188mph.’ Although electrification was not listed as a…

1976 Hunt vs Lauda Memorable for: Protests, cheating death, long hair Contrary to Hollywood’s version, Hunt and Lauda are pals rather than mortal enemies but give each other hell on the track. Lauda nearly dies; Hunt wins. 1984 Lauda vs Prost Memorable for: Comebacks, blow-ups, Senna’s debut Lauda tired of F1 and quit in ’79; by ’84 he’s tired of retirement and is back, with Alain Prost as his teammate. Prost is quicker, but Lauda wilier, and consistency sees him net the title by half a point, the slimmest margin ever. 1989 Prost vs Senna Memorable for: Flames, fireworks, Mansell in a Ferrari The season that ignites the Prost-Senna feud. Decided under a cloud of controversy at Suzuka when Senna lunges into Prost, or Prost turns into Senna (depending on…

What does Morgan do when it’s got some spare Plus 8 rolling chassis lying around? Make a racing-inspired road car – duh. The new Plus 8 GTR – a hardcore send-off for Morgan’s use of the BMW 4.8-litre V8 – is quite different from the Plus Four CX-T thrashed around a quarry on p66 of this issue. It’s slammed to the ground with fatter wheelarches, centrelocking wheels and handcrafted aluminium body panels. The N62 V8 under the bonnet has been treated to a retune and allowed to howl through ‘cannon-style’ exhausts, boosting power to 375bhp. Carbonfibre bucket seats with race harnesses feature inside. The Yas Marina blue paintwork’s been chosen because it’s a similar hue to that used on Morgan’s Plus 8 GT racer of the ’90s, nicknamed Big Blue,…

VW XL1 Plug-in hybrid from 2013, designed to travel 100km on a litre of diesel, or 280mpg; shape and ambition both inspirational for Merc’s team. MERCEDES C111 Wedge-shaped sports car from the late ‘60s/early ‘70s, actually built as a test bed for Wankel engines, shows how low a nose can go. MERCEDES 540 K STREAMLINER Built in 1938 to test tyres at high speeds on autobahns, and also proving the value of wind tunnels. MERCEDES CONCEPT IAA EQXX has borrowed the rear end from this 2015 show car, able to change shape when it reaches 50mph for maximum aero benefit.…

300 SL ROADSTER (1955-1963) Even more desirable than the gullwing, the Roadster was, is and always will be the ultimate SL to be seen in, and to fall for after the very first outing. Nothing compares, period. 280 SL (1963-1971) The pagoda-roofed beauty (pictured) was perhaps Paul Bracq’s most compelling design ever. Best with the rare five-speed ZF manual transmission. 350 SL (1971-1989) This chrome-laden and mildly overweight poseur was a bit of a dog to drive. The V8 versions were thirsty and nose-heavy, the sweeter straight six lacked power. The plasticky interior was solid but uninspiring. 500 SL (1989-2001) The second most desirable SL. Penned by Bruno Sacco, this timeless two-seater pioneered the pop-up rollover protection bar and the mighty 12-cylinder engine. The immaculate build quality was never matched.…

Oh, to live in a country where actually owning a convertible would be worth it. That would really be the dream. Well, it seems only BMW is willing to cater for that dream these days, as the M4 Convertible is the last rowdy, stupid-fast droptop standing this side of a 911. Audi and Alfa don’t make RS5 and Giulia cabrios, and AMG is retiring the V8-powered C63. Sad face. BMW’s taken this seriously. The new roof mechanism is fabric again (which is 40 per cent lighter and takes up less space than the last one, and lowers the centre of gravity) and the multi-link rear suspension has been fettled to cope with the slight weight increase over the coupe. BMW’s also taken a leaf out of Merc’s book and incorporated…

Every time an issue of CAR hits my doormat, I find myself going straight to Our Cars. What a treat the December issue was – 16 pages of real-world commentary on the highs and lows of ownership! Like other readers, I am gradually glazing over at yet more drives of 200mph supercars or reviews of EVs that are too big, too heavy and too expensive to either help the planet or be of much interest to the enthusiast. My suggestion-more insight, more data and more tests on your cars. After all, they are likely to be the cars we, your readers, actually buy. And you never know, a six-month test of a small EV might change my mind. Quite so. Where else do you get such a concentrated dose of…

If you made it to the 2021 Goodwood Festival of Speed you’ll know New Lotus has arrived. There the marque’s vast stand – a yellow and black monolith like a space station touched down in leafy Sussex – dominated the event, as did the car the crowds queued patiently to see and, crucially, to buy: the Emira. But exciting though the Emira is, as a lightweight sports car with a combustion engine it occupies extremely comfortable ground, for both Lotus and fans of its work. No, the first big test of New Lotus (in which Geely has owned a 51 per cent stake since 2017) will be the electric SUV, codenamed Type 132, set to be unveiled in the next couple of months. This, together with concept illustrations commissioned by…

THE SHARK-NOSED E24 WAS MY FIRST ‘WOW!’ MOMENT I don’t remember the first M car I saw but I remember the first BMW: it was an E24 635 CSi, on the way to school. I was maybe eight years old or so, and this shark nose looked fantastic. I was always comparing the cars I liked to draw, like the Mercedes W115, the Paul Bracq car, and they were so nice but somehow heavy. Then suddenly this shark nose [Bracq also penned the E24] was so impressive. It was my first ‘wow!’ moment as a child, because the car had such a strong character. With M I think the first to make an impression was the E30 M3, sketching one for a friend. EVERY BMW IS THE ULTIMATE DRIVING MACHINE…

HELLO CUPRA LEON + GOODBYE VW GOLF GTI + BENTLEY FLYING SPUR MEETS THE ANCESTOR Jordan Butters What does Bentley mean to you? To me it’s what 007 really drives; it’s Red Label and Green Label Arnages; a succession of droptop Azures on the cover of Jay-Z’s Vol 2… Hard Knock Life, or in the hands of Jaheim in the video for Could It Be, and with Will Smith in Miami; a cheeky Le Mans win in ‘03; and then a Continental GT that’s morphed from ‘footballer’s car’ in Mk1 guise to one of the great grand tourers in its current form. In other words, a little muddled in my mind. Which doesn’t seem like the right place to be when there’s one on your drive for a few months.…

The midst of a wintry night, and I’m standing in my pants, running shoes and a long overcoat, trying to access an inert Velar – inert but for a wailing alarm that’s been provoking the neighbours for 10 minutes. How did it come to this? There were hints something was amiss. The Land Rover app warned of a fault with the engine management system, which I relayed to my wife, driving the Velar 120 miles from home. No powertrain issues for her, although the car couldn’t muster the energy to lift the remote tailgate unless the engine was running. They made it home unscathed – until that 1am nervous breakdown… Having failed to get the key fob to disarm and open the car, next day I change the little battery…

Some baffling things: Heston Blumenthal, Midsummer Murders and suspension. I can live with my inability to comprehend the first two, but it’s a source of some shame that my poor theoretical understanding of suspension is matched by my practical inability to do anything about it. With motorcycles, I’ve consistently failed to improve the ride of any bike, ever, by adjusting the springs and/or dampers. With cars, if I have a choice I generally opt for the one down from the sportiest setting. One of the selling points of the Polestar Engineered version of the S60 is that it has manually adjustable damping. Nice shiny adjusters on the Öhlins suspension units, front and rear, loom large in the photos. So adjust it I must. The instructions from Volvo are clear. That’s…

Worse things in the world than a drink that takes forever to arrive at your table, but it’s frustrating when it’d be faster (if forbidden) to fetch it yourself. The 508’s keyless-entry tech would be a terrible waiter, because there’s something laggy and wrong with the driver’s side: pull the handle, the mirrors swing out, but then the door won’t budge, so you pull again, the mirrors swing in and the doors lock. It can take 20 seconds to get in – always annoying considering the whole point is convenience, and potentially dangerous if you’re standing in traffic/needing the sanctuary of your car in a dodgy area. The passenger side’s fine. Peugeot 508 SW Sport Engineered Month 5 The story so far Peugeot Sport’s first plug-in hybrid and the most…

As Lamborghini weighs up its options for an entirely new model, US high-performance specialist Hennessey is doing the same thing in a rather more extreme way. Having previously dazzled us with the Hennessey Venom F5 hypercar, it’s now dreaming even bigger. Oh, to be inside founder and CEO John Hennessey’s mind… What has he done now?! These are sketches of a six-wheel-drive electric ‘hyper GT’ codenamed Deep Space, which it plans to put into production in 2026, claiming it’ll be the ‘world’s most expensive EV’. These concept sketches show a car designed to be six metres long, with around 2400bhp and around 620 miles on a charge. Did I read that right? Yes, you did. Hennessey says six wheels is the future of the performance car, pointing to the additional…

Illustration: Chris Rathbone One brand is arguably the most suave sports car on the planet, and in the movies is 007’s preferred vehicle of pursuit, or escape. The other brand is normally regarded as sensible, cut-price and, at a push, beloved by Romanian farmers. But for some reason Miles Nurnberger decided to quit his design director role at the first of those car manufacturers (Aston Martin) for a similar position at the second (Dacia). When CAR meets Nurnberger in Munich, he’s still new to the Dacia job, and isn’t at all surprised when we ask the obvious question – why? – and in fact greets it with a smile. ‘The phone call came out of the blue, but I’d been thinking for a couple of years about what happens next,’…

There’s an ear-splitting howl of tortured tyres and smoke filling the air. The new Audi RS3 pivots sideways like a trolley that’s spotted a gap in a Christmas shopping queue and then, aided by a careful bit of steering-wheel juggling, the car is suspended in a huge circular powerslide. This is the all-wheel-drive RS3’s party piece, Torque Rear mode, made possible by some clever software and the Torque Splitter, Audi’s name for the rear axle’s drive unit. Instead of a normal differential, the propshaft has its drive taken off at right angles by two T-junctioned gears to an electronically controlled multi-disc clutch unit at each side. The Modular Vehicle Dynamics Controller (MVDC) networks the Torque Splitter with sensors throughout the car, and works out how much torque to apportion to…

It may have soft Italian leather and a veneer of respectability, but this SUV has been honed to be driven by those who love to drive What a relief. Within minutes of firing up this Maserati Grecale prototype, it’s clear the chassis is the star of the show. How many SUVs can you say that about? It’s a select band, and includes the Porsche Macan. That’s one of the Grecale’s key targets, along with the also-popular BMW X3. But the German manufacturers needn’t start quaking in their trainers just yet, as sales now won’t start until later in 2022. Blame the semiconductor shortage. The Grecale’s based on the same Giorgio platform as the Alfa Romeo Stelvio, but stretched in most directions to free up more passenger space. The cabin combines…

You know when the latest Star Wars movies included Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker? Critics called it fan service; just a way to keep the faithful on board. That’s kind of what Jeep’s done with the Wrangler; the current JL generation was lacking the usual V8 engine option to satisfy the most power-hungry Baja bashers and Moab crawlers among the Wrangler’s customers. Until now, that is. In this Wrangler Rubicon 392 beats the heart of a pure muscle car: a 6.4-litre Hemi V8 from a Dodge Challenger. Jeep doesn’t do anything by halves, so that rip-snorting engine is allowed to roar via an adaptive performance exhaust – a first for the Wrangler – and Jeep’s thrown extra off-road kit at it, beyond what you get on the highly capable regular…

The desert remains one of the best things about America. It feels almost lawless; there is also a nearly endless sense of sky and a staggering amount of unpatrolled pavement. Not a bad place to try a 590bhp EV estate, then. Porsche launched the GTS version of its Taycan EV and the new Taycan Sport Turismo five-door at Willow Springs Raceway, 90 miles north of Los Angeles. Willow is a dinosaur, virtually unchanged since its 1953 construction. And yet this 2022 EV doesn’t seem out of place here. At the end of the day, an involving fast car on a circuit is an involving fast car on a circuit, no matter the driveline, and the 590bhp Taycan GTS is an involving fast car. In Porsche-speak, GTS represents a halfway point…

M1 (1979-1981) LEADING EDGE Step One of raising your profile as a car brand: build a supercar. And since you’re BMW Motorsport GmbH (the snappy one-letter nickname isn’t official until 1991), best make one that’s a racing car as well as a road car. Step Two: DM for collab. Giorgetto Giugiaro knows a thing or two about shaping supercars; Giampaolo Dallara knows how to develop them (he did the Miura, and one or two successful racing cars, after all); Lamborghini knows about building them. The brief: Lambo to create the chassis, build the prototypes and, in turn, the production car. Giugiaro gets busy on the design, taking inspiration from Paul Bracq’s stunning 1972 BMW Turbo concept car. So far, so good. But then, with a handful of prototypes racking up…

Last month, an E46 M3 owner test drove the M4 and questioned the wisdom of the compromise performance car; whether a daily driver can be truly rewarding, or whether you’re better off splitting those duties across two cars. I know what he means, but the M4 is a compelling compromise. And this M4 nails the daily stuff. Take voice control. Asked to navigate to Weston Hills it showed options for Western Hills. Easy mistake to make. Then I enunciated the ‘on’ in Weston a little better and bingo, we’re off. Like iDrive and gesture control, BMW’s voice recognition has been evolved to near-perfection. BMW M4 Competition Month 5 The story so far Hottest version of latest 4-series, here to win hearts and minds. It’s working + New M3/M4 is already…

The rear-hinged rear doors are proving challenging, and not for the obvious reasons. In daily use, you simply remember the frontdoor-then-back-door opening and back-door-then-front-door closing sequence. Not difficult. What is grating my teeth is the chirping and squeaking coming from the rubber seals where front and rear doors meet. Not having a B-pillar means the slightest chassis flex has the seals rubbing against each other like a cricket’s legs. On some days the high-frequency squeaking is barely perceptible, on others it grates very quickly. Good job the superb Bose sound system can drown it out with ease. Mazda MX-30 GT Sport Tech Month 4 The story so far No range anxiety here. Move along to the next charging station, please… + Squeaking door seals irritate; brilliant Bose audio soothes -…

I drive the Kuga PHEV almost exclusively on electric power during the week, but can it really go 100 per cent EV? What happens if you run the fuel tank dry but still have loads of charge in the battery? I filled a jerry can and set off to drain the tank to find out. Which took forever. The Kuga had covered more than 60 miles with the fuel range on zero before I finally felt a loss of performance, the engine cutting out and the ECU limiting the electric motor to 35kW, presumably to protect the battery. A red warning message told me to ‘Stop Safely’, which I ignored for a while before pulling over. I switched the car off then on again, but it refused to let me…

1. In terms of functionality, graphics and styling, the bigger, 9.3-inch touchscreen that came in with the 2020 facelift is excellent. It comes with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. 2. Most of the touch points in the RS are well judged*, and the steering wheel is pleasingly chunky and good to hold. Ours has the alcantara and full grain leather option (£250). 3. *Sadly the paddles are flawed. They stick up for finger-shifting when you’re holding the wheel at 10-to-two, but they don’t extend downwards. Hold at quarter-to-three and when you turn the wheel your fingers find only fresh air. 4. Our car’s seats have alcantara trim and red stitching, a £1000 option. The driver’s chair is unusually tight around the hips, even for a sports seat. 5. The RS…

It’s not often that a day out near Bedford sears itself into your memory. But then it’s not often that, in a vast airship hangar, you spend hours poring over every astonishing detail of a car as special as the 720S, the car with which McLaren Automotive – then only six years young – came of age. Modern McLaren’s first car, the 12C, impressed while failing to truly seduce. Ditto its successor, the 650S. The P1, while spectacular, was a £900k, limited-run R&D exercise. And while the 570S was a joy to drive, its positioning as something like an Audi R8 rival meant that no one in Maranello lost any sleep. Then came the 720S. It looked like no other supercar – still doesn’t. And where its stablemates asked that…