Innholdsfortegnelse for May 2015 i topCar

1 WORLD RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP WHY WATCH? These are the best drivers in the world ‘GOOD DRIVERS,’ rally hero Walter Röhrl once said, ‘have dead flies on the side windows.’ Decimating the world’s insect population this year are the likes of reigning champ Sébastien Ogier and ex-F1 star Robert Kubica, who continues to combine terrifying pace with an equally terrifying tendency to crash. Legend Sébastien Loeb still can’t resist returning for the occasional outing for Citroën, trading fastest times with Ogier’s VW Polo WRC at the season-opening Monte before clouting a rock in a rare error – even the best get it wrong sometimes. WHO TO WATCH: Elfyn Evans and Kris Meeke are the British hopes WHERE TO WATCH: SuperSport 2 INDYCAR WHY WATCH? Racing doesn’t get much closer than this…

EUROPEAN DESIGN Designed at Kia’s European HQ in Frankfurt, the Sportspace puts lifestyle ahead of load capacity with a hatchback-style tailgate, sleek lines and 20in wheels. Is this what punters want from Kia? SPORT PACE FOR SPORTSPACE? Under the bonnet is a 2.0-litre T-GDI direct-injection turbo petrol producing 184kW and driving the front wheels LOAD-LUGGING LUXURY ‘Very black’ interior features carbonfibre and aluminium, large infotainment screen and reconfigurable digital dash. Rear camera and small screen replace traditional mirror ROLLERBALL FLOOR Matt leather boot floor is outfitted with 28 rolling balls to make loading easier. These then sink into a recess as soon as the ignition is started, stopping your luggage sliding about…

THE SPORT Series might represent the gateway to McLaren ownership but the model line-up is anything but entry level. The 570S Coupe is the first of two models to be released this year and comes equipped with some serious visual fanfare and firepower to boot. Aesthetically the 570S takes a large chunk of its inspiration from the P1 with a similar scissor door and flying buttress C-pillar arrangement that forms part of the fixed aero package. The design layout also puts the 570S more in line with models from the Super- and Ultimate Series. Other standout features include a set of bespoke 19-inch front/20-inch rear alloy wheels wrapped in Pirelli P-Zero Corsa rubber, aero blades, side skirts, a fixed wing and rear diffuser. It looks very racy indeed. The cabin…

PEUGEOT 308 1.2-LITRE GT LINE PRICE R329900 ENGINE 1199cc 3cyl in-line, turbo, 96kW@5500rpm, 230Nm@1750rpm TRANSMISSION Six-speed manual, front-wheel drive SUSPENSION MacPherson strut front, torsion beam rear LENGTH/WIDTH/HEIGHT 4253/1804/1457mm WEIGHT 1090kg PERFORMANCE 9.6sec 0-100kph, 207kph, 4.8L/100km, 110g/CO2 ON SALE Now THE NEW 308 is the first model to break with the brand’s consecutive naming convention introduced back in 1929 with the 201. Traditionally, the newcomer would have been badged a 309 – to follow on after the 307 and 308 generations, but will now simply be referred as the new 308. Two models form the initial South African line-up: the 1.2 Active and 1.2 GT Line, both powered by a 1.2-litre three-cylinder turbocharged petrol engine in two outputs. Although there are no plans for any of Peugeot’s legendary diesel powertrains to…

THE SEPARATION OF identities in the luxury SUV market has always been fairly simple – the Europeans do exciting, the Eastern nations do sensible. Until now. With the introduction of the Lexus NX200t, and especially the range-topping F-Sport model tested here, Japan has given notice – the sharp weapons are out and there will be casualties. Lexus, traditional gatekeeper of luxury and hush, is the chosen Samurai and has stolen, if not engineering, then attitude from the IS F-Sport sedan, and produced what appears to be Nippon’s first oxymoron – a covetable Japanese SUV. IN A NUTSHELL The NX is aimed squarely at the BMW X3/Audi Q5 market and will also go head-to-head with Mercedes’ upcoming GLC when it arrives in October. It features a brand new 175kW, 2.0-litre turbo…

MERCEDES-AMG C63 S PRICE R1163 800 ENGINE 3 982cc, V8 twin-turbo, 375kW @ 5500-6250rpm, 700Nm @ 1750-4500rpm TRANSMISSION 7-speed MCT transmission, rear-wheel drive SUSPENSION AMG ride control with double wishbone front, multi-link suspension rear LENGTH/WIDTH/HEIGHT 4686/1839/1426 mm WEIGHT 1655kg PERFORMANCE 4sec 0-100kph, 250kph top speed, 8.4L/100km, 192g/km ON SALE Now THE ONGOING POWER struggle between the German big three is a fascinating one, with each brand trying to outdo one another in terms of efficiency, power output, performance and handling. The Mercedes-AMG C63 is Affalterbach’s latest take on the sports sedan concept and has a lot to live up to what with its predecessor’s penchant for scaring both its occupants and passers-by with a feral soundtrack. Like the M3, the C63 also uses a forced induction set-up but a lot…

AFTER A complete revamp of the rule-books in 2014, the incoming season marks an era of welcome stability, with mainly safety-related updates to sporting and technical regulations being introduced. In fact, so minimal are the changes that only slight revisions to noses, cockpit surrounds and side protection panels are required to update the cars year-on-year. Nose regulations have been revised – through a doubling of crash zones – to improve safety and aesthetics, while driver safety has been improved in the wake of Jules Bianchi’s horrific accident. The inclusion of Zylon, an almost-impregnable material, in monocoque sides has long been on the cards, and is mandated. On the mechanical side, engines have been updated according to a strict table of ‘tokens’, with individual components given ‘token’ value and a limit…

THE BEST JUST got better. The team that produced last year’s all-conquering W05 has made an even better car this year, which means we’re staring down the barrel of Lewis vs Nico Part II. The team kept its powder dry throughout most of winter testing, until it could contain itself no more. On what was Nico Rosberg’s penultimate day in the car, the team strapped on a set of soft-compound tyres and asked him to see what she’d do. And she destroyed the opposition, lapping Barcelona 1.2sec faster than anyone else. The look of disappointment on rivals’ faces was all-too-evident. ‘We knew they were quick,’ said Williams star Valtteri Bottas. ‘But that is very quick.’ Sebastian Vettel and Romain Grosjean echoed his sentiments as they all came to terms with…

19 Felipe Massa Titles 0 Starts 210 Wins 11 Podiums 39 Poles 15 Fastest laps 15 Is it a swansong season for the nearly man who came within two corners of the title in 2008? 77 Valtteri Bottas Titles 0 Starts 37 Wins 0 Podiums 6 Poles 0 Fastest laps 1 F1’s hottest new boy took the grid by surprise in 2014. Ominously, he’s now ‘ready to win. May do it! After a stupendous season in 2014, in which the team bounced up to third in the constructors’ championship, can Sir Frank’s history-steeped outfit repeat the feat this year? The drivers say the FW37 is better, but is it good enough? EVERYBODY LOVES AN underdog, and when he returns and does good, the feeling is even better. Ask Williams: Having…

27 Nico Hulkenberg Titles 0 Starts 77 Wins 0 Podiums 0 Poles 1 Fastest laps 1 In danger of becoming one of F1’s wasted talents, he needs to kick arse in 2015 11 Sergio Perez Titles 0 Starts 77 Wins 0 Podiums 4 Poles 0 Fastest laps 3 A hero in Mexico, he’ll be chomping to race at the born-again Mexico GP. Fast but impetuous The new car didn’t appear until the final test, leaving the team on the back foot. They arrive in Melbourne with even fewer miles on the clock than McLaren – and that’s saying something. But they have Mercedes power and two strong drivers. You never know. BUT FOR A TIGHT BUDGET, Indian industrialist Vijay Mallya’s team would arguably have finished ahead of McLaren in last…

LAST YEAR F1’S formbook flew out the window together with the ancient V8 engines that had long outlived their place in motorsport’s top echelon. Suddenly SebVet and Red Bull and Renault were old news; in their place came Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg and Mercedes, their path to peak performance powered by exquisite V6 hybrid engines honed to absolute perfection by the German company. To state that Mercedes dominated is an understatement: the silver cars annihilated the opposition, with customer cars powered by Mercedes invariably being there or thereabouts. Indeed, only Daniel Ricciardo’s opportunism opened the door to (three) wins by Renault, while Ferrari suffered its first winless season since the 90s. Early testing showed little has changed, what with Mercedes-powered cars pounding out laps as the main contenders wrestled…

THERE WAS A time when post-war motorsport in Southern Africa had an international flair by virtue of racing enthusiastically taking place, not only in South Africa, but also in adjoining countries. The Portuguese colonies of Mozambique and Angola offered local and overseas participants a bit of a party atmosphere to go with the more serious matter of wheel-to-wheel competition. And without doubt one of the most popular venues was Lourenço Marques (today known as Maputo), the capital city of Mozambique. It was in 1948 that at very short notice, the Johannesburg Sports Car Club was asked to put a South African team together to compete against a Portuguese East Africa (PEA) team during a festive weekend following the August bank holiday. Ian Fraser-Jones (Jaguar SS 2.5), Sam Tingle (MG P-type)…

MONTH 7 UPS | Customisable setup of 4x4 functions. Despite being a big beast, it still behaves like a mountain goat DOWNS | Doesn’t have a ‘Set Up Camp’ function I LIKE THE lumbering Prado – a lot. There, I’ve said it, but before you judgingly hang me up by my toes hear me out for a moment. The Prado’s 3.0-litre diesel mill is a powerful unit that can adequately dispatch anything you throw at it. While it’s a pleasure on the open road the balance of torque and power only comes to the fore once you’ve taken it off the beaten track. Sure it’s unrefined – this is a turbodiesel after all, but this hardy powerplant is bulletproof and robust enough to deal with such concerns as the poor…

IT’S TOUGH AT the top. The pace of change in the car industry is such that it’s no longer enough to have a successful rule-changing model such as the Continental making the cash registers of Crewe ring loud with luxury lucre. If you stand still in this game, you’ll lose both market share and profit. Hence Bentley unveiling the striking new EXP 10 Speed 6 concept car at the recent Geneva motor show. It’s our first official look at the baby Bentley sports car we first revealed two years ago and shows that VW’s luxury arm is hellbent on staying ahead of rivals both external (BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Tesla) and internal (that’s you, expansionist Audi, Porsche and Lamborghini). The Speed 6 is a two-door coupe with a dramatically refreshed wardrobe to…

LEXUS RECKONS that in a future world filled with autonomous automobiles (still TBC, obviously), driving could become the ultimate luxury. That this is clearly nonsense is illustrated by the concept it’s chosen to associate with the assertion: not some kind of fancy sports car but this funny looking tiddler right here. It’s called the LF-SA, and it’s a concept city car. The Fiat 500 maaaybe worried. Or possibly it won’t. The extraordinarily brutal styling starts with a giant rendition of the Lexus ‘spindle’ grille, and gets wilder from there. At just 3.4m long, 1.7m wide and 1.4m high it’s shorter but squatter than an Aygo, and all-round bigger than the iQ; inside, 2+2 seating places an emphasis on the driver with a fixed seat and adjustable wheel and pedals, in…

VOLVO XC90 D5 PRICE R841000 (est) ENGINE 1969cc, 16v, 4-cyl twin-turbo diesel, 165kW @ 4250rpm, 470Nm @ 1750-2500rpm TRANSMISSION 8-speed automatic, all-wheel drive SUSPENSION Double wishbone front, integral axle with transverse leaf spring rear LENGTH/WIDTH/HEIGHT 4950/2008/1776mm WEIGHT 2078-2343kg PERFORMANCE 7.8sec 0-100kph, 220kph, 5.7L/100km,149g/km ON SALE Aug 2015 VOLVO XC90 T6 PRICE R855000 (est) ENGINE 1969cc, 16v, 4-cyl turbo- and super-charged petrol, 235kW @ 5700rpm, 400Nm @ 2200-5400rpm TRANSMISSION 8-speed automatic, all-wheel drive SUSPENSION Double wishbone front, integral axle with transverse leaf spring rear LENGTH/WIDTH/HEIGHT 4950/2008/1776mm WEIGHT 2078-2343kg PERFORMANCE 6.5sec 0-100kph, 230kph, 7.7L/100km, 179g/km ON SALE: Aug 2015 VOLVO XC90 T8 PRICE R993100 (est) ENGINE 1969cc, 16v, 4-cyl turbo- and super-charged petrol, 234kW @ 6000rpm, 400Nm @ 2200-5400rpm ELECTRIC MOTOR 60kW/240Nm TRANSMISSION 8-speed automatic, front-wheel drive with electric motor-driven rear axle…

MAZDA2 1.5 ACTIVE MANUAL PRICE R188 000 ENGINE 1 496cc Inline 4cyl, 16v, DOHC, 82kW@6 000rpm, 145Nm@4 000rpm TRANSMISSION Six-speed manual, front-wheel drive SUSPENSION MacPherson strut front, torsion beam rear LENGTH/WIDTH/HEIGHT 4 060/1 695/1 495mm WEIGHT 1 045kg PERFORMANCE 12.2sec 0-100kph, 188kph, 5.5L/100km, 130g/km CO2 ON SALE Now MAZDA2 1.5 DE HAZUMI AUTO PRICE R259 900 ENGINE 1 499cc Inline 4cyl, 16v, DOHC, turbodiesel, intercooled, 77kW@4 000rpm, 250Nm@1 500-2 500rpm TRANSMISSION Six-speed auto, front-wheel drive SUSPENSION MacPherson strut front, torsion beam rear LENGTH/WIDTH/HEIGHT 4 060/1695/1 495mm WEIGHT 1 075kg PERFORMANCE 12sec 0-100kph, 179kph, 4.4L/100km, 115g/km CO2 ON SALE Now IT HAS BEEN a busy six months for Mazda SA. Strong recent sales have made it the fastest growing car brand in SA, claiming 1.2 per cent more of the total…

FEW LAUNCHES, CERTAINLY BMW launches, have caused as much chatter as the 2 Series Active Tourer. Much of the noise has been around the fact that it is the company’s first mass-produced front-wheel drive car. Munich’s reason d’etre has long been to make driver’s cars, and they suggest that a longitudinal, front engine, rear-wheel drive system is the only way to achieve an ideal division of labour. Cue the Tourer, a transverse, front-wheel drive mum’s taxi that looks more like a Mark 1 Renault Megane than an M3. No wonder feathers are ruffled. All of which is to miss the point entirely. As BMW has finally accepted, customers in this segment are more concerned with whether they will be able to wipe baby spit off the upholstery and fit a…

I CAN ONLY SURMISE that it must be quite tough to name a car. After all, jazz isn’t everyone’s idea of aural bliss, is it? In Japan the Jazz is badged Fit. Again, ‘what do you drive?’, ‘Oh, I have a Fit’ – doesn’t sound all that pleasant. And yet, the two previous generations of Honda Jazz struck a broad chord with many, including the motoring media who dished out loads of gongs, adding critical acclaim to consistently decent showroom performances. Twelve years after its SA debut comes an all-new Honda Jazz built in an all-new factory in Tapukara, India. Does it advance the art? COLOURING WITHIN THE LINES Honda folk no doubt found it tough to update a packaging concept well-loved for being not just spacious within a regular…

M3 OWNS THIS territory, but it has a real fight on its hands now. The new C-Class has picked up a bunch of fresh virtues. It steers with more enthusiasm, it brakes with more bite, it puts the power down with more determination and, most importantly, it handles with a delicate sweetness none of its nose-heavy, tail-happy predecessors ever came close to. And now it’s got a twin-turbo V8 and an AMG badge too. Gulp. It’s not as if the M3 is at its most confident right now. The only reason it even still exists is on the strength of its badge – otherwise it would have been dinked for the more dynamic looking and more profitable Gran Coupe – and its whiny, downsized six-pot turbo engine isn’t exactly Mr…

5 Sebastian Vettel Titles 4 Starts 139 Wins 39 Podiums 66 Poles 45 Fastest laps 22 Four-time world champ jumps from humiliating 2014 frying pan into Ferrari hot-seat fire 7 Kimi Räikkönen Titles 1 Starts 212 Wins 20 Podiums 77 Poles 16 Fastest laps 39 Spent 2014 understeering quietly at the back of the top 10. This is his last chance After its first win-less season since the pre-Schumacher days of 1993, this year is about consolidation. They need to get the best out of Räikkönen, and help Vettel to bed into his new team quickly. If Seb’s to build a Schumistyle dynasty, it needs to start soon. IT COULDN’T CONTINUE, and it won’t: Last year Ferrari hit new lows, failing to win a race. It came at the worst…

WALKING INTO the McLaren motorhome on the Thursday before the 2007 Belgian Grand Prix, visitors were greeted by the sight of Fernando Alonso sitting at the nearest table to the door; he had his feet on the table and was wearing shades. The wretched look on his face said it all. He was waiting for his boss Ron Dennis to walk in, and we can only imagine the fireworks that followed. This incident occurred in the middle of the McLaren-Ferrari spy controversy, in which Alonso was a central character. He was furious with Ron Dennis for what he believed to be the reneging of his number one status and he effectively held the team to ransom with the FIA. At the end of some furious politicking, McLaren were fined £40million…

9 Marcus Ericsson Titles 0 Starts 16 Wins 0 Podiums 0 Poles 0 Fastest laps 0 Did okay for Caterham in 2014, but the story here is his $18m sponsor package 12 Felipe Nasr Titles 0 Starts 0 Wins 0 Podiums 0 Poles 0 Fastest laps 0 A pot of cash from personal sponsor Banco do Brasil won the Brazilian rookie his seat AFTER A DISAPPOINTING 2014, mainly due to Ferrari’s sub-standard powertrain – linked, it must be said, to recalcitrant chassis and uninspired drivers - Sauber’s prospects are looking up after it signed two talented young guns with strong support packages to supplement its R1.8bn budget. If Ferrari’s power unit is all its made out to be, Sauber should be back in the points, and not a moment too…

NO, NOT THE GTS moniker, which is at best 60 per cent style and 40 per cent substance. What really stirs the souls of Porsche enthusiasts is the classic combination of two letters and one number. Like GT1, the most awesome/fearsome 911 ever conceived in Stuttgart. Or GT2, the most potent rear-wheel-drive iteration of the breed. Then of course there are the GT3 and GT3 RS – cars which are, in essence, hot and super-hot street-legal track machines. The latest addition to the wild and wonderful GT family is the Cayman GT4. Like its GT siblings this is a pure performer, not a puerile poseur. Developed by Jörg Jünger, senior GT4 project manager within Andreas Preuninger’s recently installed, 100-strong Porsche GT road-car division, this very special Cayman is a thinly…

FERRARI CARBONFIBRE CHESS SET DEFINITELY A CONVERSATION STARTER What better way to show off your success than blowing silly amounts of money on trivial things like this brilliant carbonfibre Ferrari chess/draughts set. The board is carbonfibre-covered wood with the squares alternating in carbonfibre and fibreglass. The knight piece is basically a 3D Ferrari prancing horse. Great stuff. $2050 (+/- R23000) thegadgetflow.com MOVING TAIL KITTY CAR DECAL SOMETIMES CORNY IS COOL-ISH Ok, no it’s not, but when you buy yourself something expensive for your car, you can chuck this in to appease the missus and fit it to her car. The set comes with Happy & Grumpy and four tails and when fitted in the combo of your choice, the kitty will wag its tail in the rain. A real…

MONTH 11 UPS | Slick Bluetooth connectivity… DOWNS | …Being connected while you drive BMW’S CONNECTEDDRIVE, MERC’S Command Online, Audi’s 4G LTE wireless data connectivity: hi-tech, convenient and praiseworthy the lot of them. But why, oh why, do you want to be connected 24 hours a day, 7 days a week in your car? For me, the 60 minutes of quiet time I get each day on my commute to and from the city is ‘me’ time. I don’t take calls, much less surf online or indulge in social media like you can on some of the latest apps: ‘Stuck in traffic in my @BMW 316i #justsaying #lol #connecteddrive’. Nope, it’s just me, my thoughts and usually a terribly lip-synced rendition of AC/DC, Chilli Peppers, Metallica or whatever else is…

SWEDISH SUPERCAR maker Koenigsegg’s latest effort is called the Regera, a word that translates as ‘to reign’. With a total power output in the region of 1.11 megawatts (thereby making it a ‘megacar’), it’s propelled by an 820kW twin-turbo 5.0-litre V8 supplemented by a further 522kW from three electric motors – one for each rear wheel and one on the crankshaft. It claims the title of world’s most powerful production car. But that isn’t even the mad part. No. The mad part is the gearbox: there isn’t one. Instead the Regera uses a single-speed direct drive all the way from 0-400kph, a journey it makes in under 20sec. Unimpressed? Try 150-250kph in 3.2sec. Or how the hydraulics that control the active aero and suspension also remotely operate the boot, bonnet…

THE NEXT BMW 3 Series will be the most efficient yet, with at least two plug-in hybrid models and a miserly three-cylinder engine promising to dip below the 100g/km CO2 emissions threshold. The new car, codenamed G20, will also major on improved dynamics, better quality materials and enhanced safety in a bid to reclaim ground lost to the sea-changed Mercedes C-Class. The hybrid options will be a 1.5-litre with a 60kW e-motor good for a 48km range, and a 2.0-litre with a 90kW motor offering 80 EV km. The more conventional modular four- and six-pot engines will still account for the bulk of sales, however. The next M3/M4 will adopt electronic turbos and water injection, inspired by the forthcoming current-generation M4 GTS. The dynamic brief is to fuse cushy ride…

IDIDN’T THINK LAST year’s Formula 1 cars were so ugly, really. I know I’m in a minority on that. The ‘twin-tusk’ Lotus, the ‘ant-eater’ McLaren, that ‘cheese-wedge’ Caterham that looked like it was styled with a Viking hand axe – I loved the alien diversity of 2014 F1, like the cars had all evolved at the bottom of a deep ocean trench. The contrast with this year’s grid is stark – with new rules carefully constructed to get rid of the ‘ugly’ snouts, the 2015 cars are cloned lookalikes, and after last year’s extravaganza they’re disappointedly bland. To me, at least – like I said, I know I’m in the minority. But I bet you’ll agree with me on this: Nissan’s recently announced Nismo Le Mans car is a crime…

MERCEDES C450 AMG PRICE Not yet ENGINE 2966cc, V6 twin-turbo, 270kW @ 5500-6000rpm, 520Nm @ 2000-4200rpm TRANSMISSION 7G-tronic automatic, all-wheel drive SUSPENSION AMG ride control with double wishbone front, multi-link suspension rear LENGTH/WIDTH/HEIGHT 4702/1810/1440mm WEIGHT 1690kg PERFORMANCE 4.9sec 0-100kph, 250kph top speed, 7.6L/100km, 178g/km ON SALE Mid-2016 AS IT CURRENTLY stands the best-selling AMG model in South Africa is the rabid A45 AMG. While this isn’t very surprising considering its price point and explosive performance it’s levelled more towards younger buyers wanting to enter the AMG fray. The Mercedes-Benz C450 AMG caters for a completely different crowd – possibly a more mature driver who wants similar performance but with a more practical and less over-the-top appearance. It’s a genuine AMG no doubt but don’t expect any explosives from the visual…

BMW i3 REX PRICE R595000 ELECTRIC MOTOR Asynchronous, 125kW @ 4800rpm, 250Nm GENERATOR 647cc, 2-cyl petrol, 28kW@5000rpm BATTERY 18.8kWh Lithium ion TRANSMISSION Single-speed automatic, rear-wheel drive SUSPENSION MacPherson-type strut front, multi-link rear LENGTH/WIDTH/HEIGHT 3999/1775/1578mm WEIGHT 1315kg PERFORMANCE 7.9sec 0-100kph, 150kph, 0.6L/100km,13g/km ON SALE Now THE IRONY ISN’T lost on many – in the year South Africa faces its deepest electricity supply crisis, BMW launches its ‘Born Electric’ i-series of cars. But don’t let a non-existent fast-charge infrastructure and a half-bar starting price put you off because the i3, like its i8 brother, is a remarkable achievement. Sure, it’s not conventionally pretty, but it is look-twice arresting and it simply refuses to be anything other than a futuristic BMW, retaining a double kidney grille (non-functional) but ditching the Hofmeister kick for…

WE’VE ALWAYS HAD a soft spot for the Renault Megane RS. It’s been our number one choice in the segment for a while now due to its uncompromising power, handling and value for money and there’s no sign of it relenting. The last few months has seen a rejuvenation of the Megane range with the introduction of the GT-Line and GT Turbo, and now the granddaddy RS has also been given a visual overhaul, both inside and out. The model you see here is the RS 265 Lux, the only RS model currently available. However, don’t be put off by the ‘Lux’ moniker because this machine is as focused and frenetic as any of its forebears. A MENACING FIGURE Of the many Megane RS models we’ve tested, none have sported…

LAUNCHED BACK IN 2007, the second-gen Audi TT silenced many of the original car’s ‘posh Golf’ jibes with a new chassis that was much more gung-ho than hum-ho. The 3.2-litre V6 quattro may have been the tip of the spear but the lighter, better balanced, front-wheel drive 2.0T was the one to have. Despite this, the TT struggled to shake off its poseur tag. Does this new one finally have the dynamics to match the looks? DESIGN ICON The instant you lay eyes on the new TT you’re reminded of all that’s come before, and yet, you’re still thirsty to absorb every new detail. Designer Jürgen Löffler’s subtle but edgier redesign exactly represents Audi’s attempt to balance an unwillingness to make wholesale shape changes with an insatiable desire to apply…

AUDI HAS CHOSEN the Ascari race resort near Ronda in Spain as the venue for our sneak preview of the second-generation R8. There are presumably several reasons for this. It resonates with the millionaire playboy lifestyle that supercar ownership is supposed to represent – and the first-gen R8 certainly looked a million dollars, even if it didn’t cost anything like that much. The circuit’s twisting, undulating Tarmac is a great place to show off the new car’s performance. Yet Ascari is also very private, meaning that though your more ambitious spy snapper might get a long lens onto the outside, in all its camouflaged glory, they won’t get a clear shot of the R8’s interior, which is still a closely guarded secret ahead of its Geneva show debut. But this…

6 Nico Rosberg Titles 0 Starts 166 Wins 8 Podiums 26 Poles 15 Fastest laps 10 He’s ticked the last but one box on his CV. The last one? Can he beat Lewis wheel-to-wheel? 44 Lewis Hamilton Titles 2 Starts 148 Wins 33 Podiums 70 Poles 38 Fastest laps 20 F1’s biggest talent vs its most fragile mentality? The winner of that battle holds the key to 2015 They won 16 of the 19 races in 2014, often seconds ahead of the pack, and a new, improved power unit makes them still the team to beat. Hamilton’s ability we know about; all eyes are on Rosberg to see how he bounces back from last year’s defeat. IT TOOK REIGNING constructors’ champion Mercedes five years to get there, but when it…

FOR THE FIRST time in the 65-year history of Scuderia Ferrari, the unveiling of the team’s new F1 car wasn’t open to the media in 2015. It was an on-line launch, filmed in the sterile environs of the team’s logistics department. No prawn sandwiches or Chianti, no journalists, and no need to answer difficult questions about recent staff changes or years of failure. The idea of the virtual launch came from new team principal Maurizio Arrivabene. He’s a marketing man by trade, having fronted Philip Morris’s marketing department prior to taking the top job at the Scuderia in November, and he rightly believed that Ferrari would dominate the following day’s back pages without any of the hassle of a live launch. ‘I will be satisfied if we score two victories…

8 Romain Grosjean Titles 0 Starts 64 Wins 0 Podiums 9 Poles 0 Fastest laps 1 Has gone from crash magnet to title prospect to also ran. But this is a good car. Redemption time! 13 Pastor Maldonado Titles 0 Starts 77 Wins 1 Podiums 1 Poles 1 Fastest laps 0 Big talent so far obscured by poor judgement. He’s a race winner, but risks us forgetting that After a disastrous 2014, the team looks in better shape this year. The Mercedes power unit is a big step forward from the Renault of last year and the E23 looks much tidier aerodynamically. Hopefully, it’ll allow Grosjean to repeat his impressive 2013 form. AFTER MCLAREN SWITCHED to Honda engines Lotus saw the gap and made the switch to Mercedes, thus becoming…

WHEN AUSTRIAN DAREDEVIL Felix Baumgartner stepped out of his capsule 46km above the Earth’s surface to begin a 4m 19sec freefall that would make him the first person to break the sound barrier without the aid of a vehicle, he broke a record that had stood so long Porsche was still selling 356s when it was set. What almost none of the also-record-busting 8m people watching Baumgartner live on YouTube realised, is that the team and technology behind that jump is also behind some Porsche 356s that are, oh come on, don’t try and deny me, equally out of this world. We spend plenty of pages writing about 911s, but rarely give the car that kick-started the Porsche sports-car phenomenon more than a passing mention, despite its significance and 15-year…

MONTH 8 UPS | Enough boost to take the gap… DOWNS | …when it all comes on stream AS A TEN-YEAR-OLD car-crazy kid back in 1983, I discovered Formula 1 in general and Nelson Piquet in particular. Watching him do just enough at Kyalami’s season finale to win the championship made me an instant fan. More significantly, Piquet’s Brabham BT52 became the first turbocharged car to win the coveted title. If you’re wondering what any of this has to do with a Chevrolet Trailblazer update, the answer is very little beyond the fact that my Chevy also features a forced induction engine. Quite obviously there are precious few similarities between Piquet’s 1.5-litre petrol four-pot estimated to have produced 630kW in qualifying trim and my 144kW 2.8-litre self-igniting four-cylinder, but I…