Innholdsfortegnelse for November 2016 i topCar

Juggernaut, jet, tranquiliser, terrorist – there will be many takers for Stuttgart’s family ferrier All Panameras will be permanently online, SIM cards part of the ownership package THE BUTTONS The well-documented and much moaned about button explosion of the old Panamera is no more, replaced by a new system called Porsche Advanced Cockpit. The central analogue rev counter remains in the dash (a Porsche trademark that remains even when everything’s switched off), but the two dials either side are replaced with 7in TFT screens THE SCREEN The central touchscreen now measures a healthy 12.3 inches (why do manufacturers insist on quoting screen dimensions in imperial measures?). When your hand approaches the central screen the menu at its left immediately appears. You can either navigate around by pressing the options…

AS A HYBRID OF hatchback and SUV it’s probably appropriate that the word Tiguan is itself a portmanteau of tiger and leguan (German for iguana). Yet nine years and 2.8 million units later, the name still doesn’t roll off the tongue… ‘Is this the new Volkswagen Golf?’, asks an interested bystander at the Shell garage we’ve just pulled up at. ‘No, it’s the new Tiguan’, is my (probably mumbled) response. ‘Oh the TakeOne. It looks good. Is it DSG?’ Ours happens to be the six-speed manual but after a few more pertinent questions and a proper feel around the dashboard by the appreciative VW fan we drive off exchanging cheery goodbyes. It’s clear ‘TakeOne’ Take 2 ticks the desirability box more handsomely than before. Rejigged proportions – it’s wider, longer…

CALLING IT A fall from grace might be harsh but Honda’s recent product portfolio has had little to boast about: the mechanically humdrum HR-V, bland Ballade and take-it-or-leave-it Jazz all fall short on desirability, relying instead on the long memories of Honda fans for any success. Blame it on our radically weaker currency and Honda’s recent ‘build different cars for different markets’ approach for the decision to source cars from less costly sources such as Thailand and India, the latter where our Jazz and Ballade come from. When we saw there was another Civic on the horizon, this one built in Thailand, we feared it would be much the same story – a car with a proud heritage (23 million sold over nine generations and 43 years) that promised much…

IN 1989 GODZILLA was born. No not the reptilian icon of Japanese culture that terrorized Tokyo. I mean this one, the GT-R – specifically the R32, famous for terrorizing race cars in Bathurst, Australia. It ended the reign of the Ford Sierra Cosworth upon introduction in 1991, before going on to decimate opposition in all the disciplines it was entered in such as the JTCC (Japanese Touring Cars) and Group A Touring Cars where its dominance ultimately snuffed the formula from the race calendar. The Skyline moniker then, despite being notably absent in the Katsura Orange R35 on this page (and since the model’s unveiling some 8 years ago) is no stranger to motorsport and upsets. In fact the ‘Skyline’ badge has been seen on mighty race cars predating even…

HATING TURBOCHARGED ENGINES is kind of en vogue among purists these days. In 1979 when Saab introduced the blown 900 which destroyed chargers faster than front tyres, and when BMW launched the 2002 Turbo which created what felt like a ten-second throttle-lag, the world could not care less about artificial aspiration. Over 40 years later though, at the height of the turbo era and on the eve of affordable electromobility, it’s not just hardcore car guys mourning the passing of old-school drivetrains. I consider myself part of this group, and I reluctantly admit that I wanted to hate Porsche’s new forced-induction four-cylinder boxer engine, which has replaced the free-breathing six in the Boxster and Cayman. Also for lack of thrill and enthusiasm, we have been critical of the current breed…

> WHEN I first joined Porsche 20 years ago, I was in the engine department and I worked on the 996 Turbo. But before I joined Porsche I was studying near Stuttgart and I did car audio installations at home as a business. I made huge systems – looking back they were crazy! > I LOVE motorsport and have been racing since 1994 in the VLN series. I broke my back at the Nürburgring once, when I led a group of cars into a downpour on slicks and wanted to push. I have kids now, I’d be more careful! > IT’S AN unusual move, but 10 years ago I got the chance to move to the audio department. I have a passion for Porsche, motorsport and audio, so the chance…

I’VE NEVER felt this way about a car before and it’s bothering me. Not in a negative way, but I’ve started to wonder what life is going to be like without it. Yes, I know I’ve still got a long way to go, but I can’t help myself. Especially seeing as though the last 3 months have been some of the most memorable times I’ve experienced with a long-termer. And it’s not just me who feels this way; my family loves it too and that’s quite a big deal. While they’ve never truly disliked any of the long-term cars I’ve brought home in the past they’ve never taken to one as quickly as the CX-5. Maybe it just suits our lifestyle more than the others. Either way my 5 year…

‘New Discovery will, from now on, represent the ‘leisure’ pillar in Land Rover’s new three-tier structure – with the next Defender occupying the gap left by the old Defender and the more agricultural outgoing Disco’– Gerry McGovern LAND ROVER DNA No mistaking the new Discovery for anything but an LR product. The company’s new design language features heavily, including that trademark stepped profile, which helps improve headroom for third-row passengers. New, softer curves obvious too. Tail heavy? We’ll reserve judgement until we see it in the flesh THE CABIN The interior features the same design-style as Discovery Sport but is more premium. It can be personalised too. Chief drawcard though is the space - it will seat 7 full-sized adults, says Land Rover, none of this 5+2 nonsense. We’ll see…

It’s official. The Mercedes-Benz C-Class (W205) has become the first hybrid passenger car to be built on African soil. The East London plant is 1 of 4 factories in the world that will exclusively build the Merc C 350e for both local and international consumption. It’s a pretty big deal. Over the last decade E-mobility has become very important to Merc and the company firmly believes in the ethos of green mobility. As such 8 plug-in hybrids now comprise the range with a further 2 to be added in 2017. Three of these hybrids are now available to SA buyers: the C 350e, S 500e and GLC 500e. As for the locally-built C 350e, the car boasts seamless hybrid integration combining a 155kW/350Nm 2.0-litre 4cyl turbodiesel mill with a 60kW/340Nm…

THAT CONTROL OF F1’s commercial rights changed hands (again, albeit for the first time in a decade) came as no surprise to those who track the modus operandi of CVC Capital Partners – a London-based venture fund that acquired majority rights control from three banks, who reluctantly gained them by default – for CVC failed in its plans to list the Formula One Group on Singapore’s stock exchange in 2012. Since then rumours abounded that CVC sought buyers, for such funds typically invests for seven to ten years before selling out at enormous profit, or listing and moving to the next target. Many prospective buyers were rumoured, with all coming to nought – generally, it is believed, over price, for CVC oft spoke of valuations of US$12bn (or more) for…

THE PANAMERA Turbo’s 4.0-litre V8 with twin-scroll turbochargers nestling in the centre of the 90-degree vee is, like all the power units at launch, a brand new engine. A 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 may sound familiar from the VW Group, but this is not the Audi RS6 engine – in fact, the next RS6 will get this new engine in 2018, as will the next Cayenne and Macan turbos. The unit deploys cylinder deactivation to improve efficiency, using sliding cam elements with a twin-pin actuator, stopping the valves from letting air into the cylinders. With the direct-injection system cut off at the same time, four of the eight combustion chambers stop pumping. The cylinders have a kind of grooved, spiral surface, the aluminium milled back 60 micrometres at set intervals. An…

THEY MAY HAVE won the battle but they haven’t won the war – Hilux vs Ranger rages on. Latest reports from the frontline show 3081 Hiluxes were registered in August, versus 2237 Rangers. A resounding success for Prospection over Silverton you’d think. Until you realise the majority of Toyotas are workhorses and Ranger is in fact the year-to-date leader in the double-cab segment. Now by adding a new automatic to its most popular diesel engine, Ford believes it’s got what it takes to stretch its double-cab advantage even further and make significant inroads where it’s lagging in single and super cabs. Yes, for Hilux to stay ahead it will now have to take on nine new 2.2 TDCi auto derivatives: two single-, three super-and four double-cabs, pushing the full Ranger…

DRIVING THIS imposing car through town looking all smug as you glance into the grubby footwells of the city cars around you makes you feel like you’re bossing this life thing. Right up until the blast of a hooter shatters the fantasy and you realise that no amount of front-, rear- or bird’s eye-view cameras and more sonar than a U-boat can erase the slow angst of parking this colossus. Welcome to the imperious and extremely large world of the Mercedes-Benz GLS 500. ‘Ruggedly handsome’ Like a Gucci-wearing cowboy the GLS is out of place in the narrow confines of a city’s streets. At 5.13 metres long, 1.85m high and nearly two metres wide it’s a slab-sided German juggernaut from most angles. At least the front has been softened like…

350. KILOMETRES. PER. HOUR. And counting. And breathing. Hard. 360. Down the descent, and up again. So effortless, so fast, it’s surreal. 370. The priceless muscle-play on the face of Wolfgang Dürheimer would be an instant six-figure click on YouTube. There is good reason why grandmaster speed’s black polo shirt is embroidered Bugatti 400. After all, the man moulding the marque is a long-time member of the 400kph-and-over club. Is this ride going to be my own validation, eight years after having seen 407kph in the original 746kW Veyron? It can’t. It won’t. It isn’t. Because WD slams on the brake as we approach a blind crest at the speed of a fighter pilot zooming in on his target. In a highly physical, energy-squashing manoeuvre, WOB 9834 decelerates wham-bang hard…

MELTED ICE CREAM runs in white and pink rivulets across chubby, sun-kissed knuckles. Moments later soft balls of vanilla and strawberry slide from the cone and plop onto hot, parched sand, lost forever to the desiccated ground. A crying shame but you can understand the poor child’s lapsed concentration. There he is, perhaps 11 years old, shuffling along the beach in still-damp shorts, thinking about Pokémon, when through the dunes comes a R4-million Bentley in such a dazzling shade of silver that its metallic skin might be chromed. As he watches on, ice cream turning to cream, the Bentayga slowly but imperiously rolls over the next rise and out of sight. The cultured murmur of its 12-cylinder engine is lost to the breeze almost immediately but the Pirellis’ tracks linger…

I’M IN THE driver’s seat of an XF, the meat in the sandwich of a three-car autonomous convoy doing at least 80kph. And this actual demonstration has just started with two firm instructions: 1) do not under any circumstances brake, but 2) if you do brake, brake very hard. Our XF is using cruise control and tailgating an F-Pace being driven around the Gaydon oval by a Jaguar test driver with a liking for emergency stops. The theory is that the F-Pace and XF are linked by Dedicated Short Range Communications (DSRC), with the SUV broadcasting critical information such as brake pedal angle, GPS location and vehicle speed back down the convoy every tenth of a millisecond. Supposedly, if the F-Pace slams on the anchors, the XF should automatically respond…

OWN A GT3 LEGO TECHNIC PORSCHE GT3 RS Ferdinand Porsche said: ‘In the beginning I looked around but couldn’t find the car I dreamt of, so I decided to build it myself.’ We say: ‘Built, not bought’. This amazingly technical and detailed GT3 is the stuff of dreams – a 1:8 scale model, 17cm high, 57cm long and 25cm wide. (+/-R5300) www.lego.com/technic BAKKIE JOLS TAILGATE PONG Pass time when camping and doing other general bakkie-related stuff with Tailgate Pong. A portable party is never a bad thing; just make sure to start the game when your day’s driving is done. Made to fit certain models. (+/-R1500) www.tailgatepong.com STAY COOL ANYWHERE IGLOO ALL-TERRAIN COOLER Watching guys try and carry a loaded cooler box over uneven terrain can make for some good…

A possible bodystyle could be a 929 spun off the Panamera to recreate the 928. ‘It’s doable,’ says Blume THE UNVEILING OF a pure electric sports coupe and a 47-year-old appointed chairman of the board: September 2015’s events encapsulated the transformation reshaping Porsche. Now one year on, Oliver Blume is deep in the process of embedding his, and owner Volkswagen Group’s, progressive, ten-year vision into the heart of the company. ‘We are checking our strategy almost on a daily basis,’ says Blume. ‘To meet future challenges, the group and its brands must invest heavily in a broad array of technologies, develop fresh product without abandoning core model ranges, and consistently rethink and evolve their roles in a fast-changing landscape where differentiation will be increasingly difficult to achieve.’ Blume forged his…

I LEARNED A LOT about Esther Mahlangu and her traditional Ndebele motif art during my four years at Michaelis School of Fine Art, UCT. Renowned globally for her detailed works, Mahlangu is famous in the automotive realm for her 1991 BMW 5 Series commission, transforming the car into an Ndebeleinspired piece of rolling art. It was such a hit that the relationship endured – most recently she got involved with the BMW personalisation programme Individual, transforming the cabin trim panels of the new 7 Series. ‘My heart was full of joy when BMW asked me again to paint for them.’ The process was a painstaking one: specialists at Individual oversaw the manufacturing of special white-stained, fine-wood trim, engineered to be the ‘blank canvas’ on which Mahlangu would work. Her hand-painted…

WE ALL HAVE our pet hates, our dislikes and bugbears. Alfred Hitchcock detested eggs. Napoleon hated cats (so did Brahms, Eisenhower and Julius Caesar). Closer to home, LJK Setright abhorred diesels while that other late great motoring columnist Russell Bulgin disliked 911s. Me? One of my biggest car aversions is badge engineering. It pretends a car is something that it isn’t. If I buy a Citroën, I want a car whose soul is French and whose roots produced the 2CV, La Tour Eiffel and Toulouse-Lautrec. I don’t want a Mitsubishi that can whistle La Marseillaise. I don’t want a Nissan masquerading as a Renault, a Daewoo disguised as a Chevrolet, a Chevrolet trying to be a Pontiac, a Ford tarted as a Lincoln, a Toyota with an Aston grille, a…

IT’S BEEN 20 years since Renault first brought the Megane to our shores and during that time more than 25000 5-door models were driven off showroom floors. That’s a pretty impressive foundation that Renault aims to build on – at a rate of 150 to 250 units per month – with the promise of a higher-quality and more refined new Megane. Like the Nissan Qashqai, X-Trail and Renault Kadjar, the Megane is built on the CMF-CD scalable platform. It also gets a fresh appearance which fits in superbly with the company’s new design language and product portfolio. As the widest car in its class the Megane possesses a muscular stance punctuated by a distinctive shoulder line and prominent lower door crease pressing (something we originally saw on the Clio 4).…

IF THERE EVER was a mule which did not need the full camouflage treatment, then this is it. The new BMW 5 Series, codenamed G30, is anything but a breakthrough design. Instead, its shape is evolutionary, kind of a downsized 7 Series, nicely proportioned but about as unexpected as an reminder email from the taxman in February. The interior owes even more to the 7 Series than the exterior. It can be specced up with so many electronic trickeries one almost needs a spare brain to make full use of this depth of talent. We guess this might be the last BMW to sport a conventional overkill cockpit offering the latest in terms of infotainment, connectivity and semi-autonomous driving. The new 3 Series, due in 2018, will likely feature more…

FULL DISCLOSURE UP front – given half a chance, a tank of fuel and a week off I seek out the wildest, least peopled, least reachable parts of this world. If a horizon is a Modernist parabola and the only sign of life 4000 sheep down a dusty road to nowhere, I’m Larry, happy as. Only natural then that given the task of dreaming up a test of courage and endurance for Jaguar’s late-to-market SUV, it had to be the Great Karoo. Emphasis on the Great; beyond the Audi Q5 pelotons convoying to Prince Albert, further than the Nissan Sentra day trippers arguing about where to see the last of the flowers, past even the Benoni Overlanders in their laden 4x4 egowagons, criss-crossing the interior with Kingsley Holgate in their…

Braking system includes two eight-piston front calipers forged in one piece – a production first. More pistons give more consistent pad-to-disc contact; one-piece calipers flex less for solid, accurate feel at the pedal. Shields on vast ceramic discs direct heat out of the wheel. ‘A very expensive solution,’ laughs head of development Willi Netuschil. ‘You cannot do it in a normal car. But with a Bugatti you can.’ The next level for anti-roll bars? Carbonfibre. Netuschil: ‘We found a 50 per cent weight reduction compared to steel.’ Monocoque looks like the Veyron’s but is in fact entirely new – when your budget’s limitless, why re-use? Put 50000Nm into the tub and it’ll twist one whole degree. Lightweight (and scarily expensive) engine and ancillary parts include a full titanium exhaust, titanium…

1 HOME LINK According to IBM, cars are static 95 per cent of the time, so why not use their sophisticated sensor and camera systems to sniff out gas leaks or extend neighbourhood watch? IoT can switch on welcoming home heating and lighting as you pull into the drive. It can even answer the door for you – using a camera/motion sensor to show you who’s calling. Never miss a package! 2 WEATHER CONDITIONS IoT connects with meteorological stations en route and by V2V with vehicles up ahead with GPS mapping to warn of severe weather or poor road conditions, Vehicle sensor systems pre-programme the car for optimum grip and stability or re-route you if it’s a severe storm. 3 GREENLIGHT SYSTEMS No more traffic light queues for American A4…

THE BEST DRIVE IS the first, surely? The first few metres behind the wheel of a brand new car, the soft touch leather of the steering wheel warming the palms of your hands, that ‘new car smell’ permeating your nostrils for the first time, nothing but positive vibes over the prospect of years (in our case months) of loyal service that lie ahead. We love driving brand new cars. It’s what we do here at TopCar, and feel-good factors don’t surely get any better than when the car in question is a blue and white gumdrop of a Renault Captur. I’m almost embarrassed to admit it because it looks like something my middle-aged sister of three might choose to tool around Pinelands in, doing the school run and emergency sprints…

WHEN NISSAN approached TopCar to test a trio of crossovers over individual four-to-five-month stints, I for one was intrigued at the prospect. How would Nissan’s much-talked-about crossover DNA translate, if at all, across three distinctly different products? More so, how would the 120-day (roughly) test timeframe compare to a regular two week road test or our typical long-term, full-year assessment? Bring it on I thought. Aaron had the pleasure of zooting around in our first crossover family member, a canary yellow Juke, while I was entrusted with the full-size X-Trail that followed. It’s been brief but it’s been real. And the X-Trail has been loved by the Leathern-Kelly family. I’m not being melodramatic when I say there will probably be a mourning period when it departs. Please bring cake. The…