Table of contents for September 14, 2022 in Autocar

A NEW PODCAST called My Week In Cars with Autocar’s Steve Cropley and Matt Prior can be downloaded now from all the usual podcast channels. A new episode will be released every Wednesday, initially on a 10-week run. The podcast is shaped by Cropley’s legendary magazine column, with additional chat on subjects ranging from what he and Prior have been driving and where they have been, to what has caught their eye or been on their mind. In addition, Cropley will take your questions each week. Listeners are invited to email any questions they want posed – or feedback – to matthew.prior@haymarket.com with the subject line ‘My Week In Cars’. Autocar is also launching a podcast series to celebrate BMW M’s half-century. No other brand has the variety of offering…

Jeep will launch an entrylevel electric SUV named the Avenger early next year, then a further three EVs bound for Europe by 2025. It is hoped that the baby Jeep will draw new customers to the American brand – now part of Stellantis – in Europe, with a particular focus on younger women. The Avenger will be joined in Europe by a range-topping Wagoneer S and an extremely off-road-focused Recon (both of which will be launched in the US first), then another as yet unannounced EV that Jeep CEO Christian Meunier described as a look into the future of the brand. The Avenger has been built around the “right size” for Europe, said Jeep’s boss in the region, Antonella Bruno, with the model being the smallest ever produced by the…

t’s not just the experimental cars constantly circulating Horiba MIRA’s secret 60 miles of test track at its 850-acre site in Warwickshire that demonstrate a frequent facility for rapid acceleration. The Horiba MIRA business itself – already unique for the way it combines a very large, overarching engineering consultancy with an elite community of 40 independent technical centres – is starting a new acceleration phase. Work will soon begin to develop several new sites beside its existing boundaries, designed to encourage several powerful but as yet unnamed mobility businesses to open large automotive technical centres there, each housing up to 300 engineers. These operations – likely to carry well-known names – are far bigger than anything the site currently contains. Other important aspirations include establishing several advanced manufacturing operations on…

IN OTHER LIGHTWEIGHT car news, KTM has launched a road-legal version of its titlewinning X-Bow GT2 race car, complete with an 80kg chassis and a 493bhp powerplant. Called the X-Bow GT-XR, the low-volume sports car is the Austrian company’s second road-legal creation after the open-top X-Bow, which has been sold in various forms for the past 14 years. It shares much of its underpinnings with the GT2 race car and fundamentally is based around the same Dallara-designed 80kg carbonfibre monocoque as the X-Bow, which KTM said “has been tried and tested in a dozen crashes since 2008”. It also shares the race car’s turbocharged 2.5-litre five-cylinder engine, albeit detuned from 600bhp and 531lb ft to 493bhp and 429lb ft. Sourced from the Audi RS3, the rear-mounted powerplant revs to 7000rpm.…

SATURDAY Given the pervading gloom, it hardly seems right to start talking about an enjoyable day at Hampton Court for this year’s Concours of Elegance, but we had one anyway. Autocar readers enjoyed it as much as I did, judging by the number of cheery conversations I had while wandering the shiny ranks with the Steering Committee. Everything was right: the stable weather, the wonderful surroundings, the superbly presented cars (if a shade thinner on the ground) and a generally Goodwood-esque feeling of a happy community united by its car obsession. One quirk was a ratty-sounding celeb auctioneer at the Gooding & Co Saturday sale, who seemed to feel customers weren’t progressing their bids as quickly as he’d have liked. It’s a market, mate, I was tempted to shout, but…

It’s time once again for what continues to be a major highlight of the motor racing season: the Goodwood Revival. Founded in 1948, the circuit situated near Chichester in West Sussex was among a fresh breed of race tracks created from perimeter roads around newly redundant wartime airfields in the UK. The new use for the site was the brainchild of the duke Freddie Richmond, and for the next 18 years ‘Goodwood on a summer’s day’ became a motto beloved by racing drivers and enthusiasts alike. It never hosted a world championship grand prix, but in the days when non-points Formula 1 races carried meaning (as well as prize money), it became a firm favourite of Stirling Moss and his rivals, while the Tourist Trophy – established in 1905 –…

An increase of 75%: MG’s recent sales success is in danger of becoming a cliché, but even against the backdrop of the constant headlines, that quarter-onquarter gain is quite the statement. The HS family SUV does the grunt work for the Chinese brand, earning more than 40% of sales and outselling stalwarts like Volkswagen’s Tiguan. No wonder, then, that MG has now introduced a plug-in hybrid version. Two trims are available. We’re sampling Exclusive, which is priced from £33,595, while Excite comes in at £31,095. Either way, the HS is a long way under the Kia Sportage PHEV, which costs £41,795 (or at least it would if you could buy a plugin Kia at the moment #chipcrisis). Both come with MG’s seven-year warranty, so I would go for Excite. It…

Who knows what the collective noun is for more than one Lotus Europa (a Euphoria, maybe), but it’s relevant today, as I’m surrounded by numerous versions of the little Lotus, all on hand for the filming of the next series of Wheeler Dealers, the evergreen television show that has proved a massive hit on Discovery. At the last count, Wheeler Dealers had 100 million viewers in Europe and 200 million worldwide and could be seen in 211 of a possible 217 territories. That’s telespeak for doing rather well. The face of the programme is cuddly car dealer Mike Brewer, alongside his heart-throb ex-Formula 1 mechanic Marc ‘Elvis’ Priestley. They’re currently working with some of their core audience: a dozen-plus car enthusiasts who happen to own a Europa. At the world-renowned…

Hope for the Griffith The two letters in the 24 August edition concerning TVR were very interesting. I would like to add that it would be such a shame if TVR didn’t make it with the Griffith, because it has much going for it when looking at the individual elements that combine within its design to make it exciting and usable in a way that’s generally missing in the new car market today. My guess is that the new Griffith will have that American muscle car feeling about it that gave the original Griffith and Tuscan an attitude that was akin to a Shelby Cobra with a roof. If you’ve ever driven one, I think you will know that the Ford V8 gave the car a special dynamic that was…

Citroën to build cars in Britain THE FIRST CITROEN rolled out of the Paris factory in March 1919, and in that first year of production some 750 Type As went to Britain. By 1923, we were big business for the French firm, with almost 25,000 of its cars on our roads. From 1915, the UK government had imposed the McKenna Duties, a one-third tax on foreign luxuries, to pay for the Great War. They were ended in 1924 but reimposed a year later, so Citroën quickly decided it had better start making cars here. It chose Slough, Berkshire, and opened the plant in February 1926 with 500,000sq ft of space and “the most modern machinery in the world”, employing some 5000. “There are special ovens for the painting system, and…

MILEAGE 1102 WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT Have a new platform and PHEV power made Jaguar’s cub fully fighting fit? This plug-in hybrid Jaguar E-Pace has been a fine companion for the past few months and in terms of driving dynamism and comfort particularly, it feels one of the best in its class. There has been one major, recurring hiccup, though: on occasion, the electric side of the powertrain doesn’t work, and when it doesn’t, nor does the stability control, lane keeping assistance, regenerative braking or parking sensors. This has been far from ideal, and just to add insult to injury, the battery’s charge decreases even when this fault is occurring. The lack of electric power naturally affects the overall fuel economy, so our current 44.3mpg is far from a best-case…

Never judge a book by its cover. The second-generation BMW 1 Series was no looker – nor was the first-generation version, come to think of it – but hidden beneath its sodden flanks was one of the most spirited hot hatchbacks of the past dozen or so years. The M135i was launched in 2012 and ran until 2016, with one mild upgrade in 2015 when the even more willing M140i replaced it. That means there are now plenty of M135is on the used market, with prices from as low as £9000. So what do you get? A muscular 315bhp 3.0-litre turbocharged straight-six engine with a wall of torque and an awesome soundtrack, the whole lot expressed via a deliciously playful rear-wheeldrive chassis. You also had the choice of a six-speed…

We all know of cars that were fitted with an outstanding engine right from the start. There are also many others that were more or less ordinary in their original forms but became more desirable because a new engine was added to the range or because an existing engine became available in a significantly altered form. Here are some of those cars that received a new lease of life. AC Ace The AC Ace roadster was introduced in 1953 and was fitted with several engines during its production run, the most powerful being a 2.6-litre Ford straight six. Its handling made it an effective road-legal competition car, but over in Texas, Carroll Shelby reckoned it would be better if it had a lot more power. Rather than dismissing this thought…

The Purosangue is the most radical Ferrari yet, as the first four-seat four-door model to be graced by the Prancing Horse. Although its proportions and functionality are unprecedented for Ferrari, it has retained some of the brand’s fundamental features, having a front-mid-mounted V12 and being claimed to be “a true sports car”. Enrico Galliera, Ferrari’s marketing and commercial chief, said: “We believe it’s a game-changer. It has the performance of a sports car with the comfort and versatility of a less extreme car. For us, the strategy was to develop a sports car in a different segment.” While Ferrari has a long history with 2+2 cars, most recently with the Roma, this is the first time a four-door model with four fully sized seats has made production. The only previous…

How important is this car for Ferrari? “A few years ago, we decided to develop a complete product range from Ferrari. It started with having the most performance in the market, and that was the SF90 Stradale. At the same time, we wanted to fulfil another position. The 296 isn’t the best-performing, but it is the most fun to drive. Then the Roma and Portofino were created for potential customers intimidated by our other cars. The Purosangue covers the last remaining segment of our product offering. You can now have a Ferrari with a family. This answers all our clients’ needs.” Who will buy a Purosangue? “As soon as we announced the V12 powertrain, interest exploded. So now we have a long list of requests coming from non-existing customers as…

Skoda’s urban EV will look sporty, aggressive and “fun” and won’t just be a smaller version of other cars in the line-up, the brand’s chiefs have told Autocar. Launching in 2026, the as yet unnamed car will be positioned near the foot of Skoda’s electric range and take the form of a mini SUV. Designers say they are focused on creating a rugged-looking car that follows similar design cues to the newly unveiled Vision 7S concept – itself a preview of an electric seven-seater to come in the same year – but it won’t be a copy of it. “There are several things that we want to do differently to other car makers, and I would start with this,” said Skoda’s board member for sales, Martin Jahn, about how some…

For all the BEV development and production activity at Horiba MIRA, boss George Gillespie believes the true story has yet to be told. “I believe we’ve reached peak BEV hype right now. The harsh realities may well hit us in a few years’ time,” he said. He cited BEVs’ looming problems as being the cost of components, which will elude lower-income buyers, and the inadequacy of charging. “The industry is making wonderful cars,” he said. “Driving them is a dream. But they’re expensive, and the journey experience can be grim and is getting worse. Early adopters and technical enthusiasts can handle that, but average consumers not so much. “Politicians say the answer to the future is simple: we should go all-out BEV. But the realities are going to hit us,…

HOLY VEGAN COW BMW The BMW Group will launch its first vehicles to feature completely vegan interiors in 2023. The move comes as demand for leather-free and fully vegan interiors is on the rise – and predicted to increase further – in the US, China and Europe markets. The BMW Group says its vegan alternative to leather will look and feel like leather and feature throughout the cabin, including on the steering wheel, which, it said, posed the hardest challenge. This is because it “must fulfil demanding criteria when it comes to feel, premium appearance and wear resistance”. Fully vegan interiors will be available as an option for BMW and Mini models, although it is not yet clear whether they will be offered as a no-cost option. VENOM F5’S HUE…

Noble is back – only it never really went away. I’m inclined to think of Leicestershire’s supercar maker as the antithesis of TVR. With that, there’s plenty of noise, loads of bluster, lots of promises, a huge (unopened) facility and loads of customer demand… but no car. And Noble? It has a small unit in which it has been making M600s since 2010. No fuss, no bother. It’s there if you want it. It’s just that not so many people do. That’s a shame, because the M600 is a belting car to drive. At launch, the 650bhp from its twin-turbocharged Yamaha-Volvo-Judd 4.4-litre V8 was a heady amount for a supercar (most of them wouldn’t get out of bed for a number starting with a six these days), while the six-speed…

The e-208 is one of our favourite small electric cars, and now Peugeot has given it a number of upgrades to ensure it stays so. In this spirit of ‘if it ain’t broke…’, this is a relatively mild makeover, with extra kit for certain trim levels. Active Premium+ trim now gets dark-tinted rear windows, automatic windscreen wipers and automatic aircon, while Allure Premium+ models feature the aluminium styling pack as standard, a 7.0in touchscreen and a 3D-effect digital driver’s display. More substantially, there are updates to the powertrain to improve its efficiency, including a new final drive ratio and a more efficient heat pump. If that sounds familiar, it’s because it’s the same upgrade made to the related Vauxhall Corsa-e and Peugeot e-2008 we tested last week. The changes result…

Range anxiety is fast becoming a fear of the past, in line with increasing electric vehicle sales and growing public awareness of their generally agreeable endurance credentials. Certainly, there are few electric cars on sale that couldn’t manage the average weekly commute without charging, and while there is still a long way to go to make the UK’s EV infrastructure fit for today’s demand (let alone that predicted by 2030), comfortably covering large swathes of ground in a modern electric car is no longer an insurmountable feat. Driving out of necessity is one thing, however, and driving for pleasure a different ball game entirely. Not only is there a marked deficit of bona fide electric sports cars on sale while we await plugand-play propositions from Ferrari, Lotus, Alpine and others,…

Alfa Romeo’s fresh range of cars, to be launched at one-year intervals from 2023, are intended to trigger “a visceral wow effect”, says design director Alejandro Mesonero-Romanos. They will be “bold, assertive and sculptural” and some “will be pretty shocking”. The new line-up will comprise five mainstream models, ranging from an unusual replacement for the Giulia saloon to a flagship SUV and a small SUV to sit beneath the new Tonale. And amid this mainstream, volume and revenue-generating plan are ambitions for several specialty models intended to restore Alfa’s reputation for glamorous cars. The first of these specialties will appear as soon as 2023, when a highend sports car concept that Alfa boss Jean-Philippe Imparato describes as “exciting, selective and expensive” appears. This is strongly rumoured to draw inspiration from…

I know that at some point in the next 10 years or so, I will need to change to an EV, but October’s rise in the energy price cap and the predicted further rises in January and April give me pause for thought as to how costly it could be to fuel an EV. Home charging could be 28p per kWh now, then 52p from October, 79p from January and 97p from April. Looking at the Volkswagen ID 3, which does around 3.4 miles per kWh, this would make costs rise from 8.2p per mile now to 15.3p, 23.2p and then 28.5p. This with VAT at just 5% (or 1.4p per mile from April), so giving the government a very limited tax take – although public chargers incur VAT of…

Long before the Puma birthed a small SUV from beyond its coupé grave, another Ford performed a similar act. The Galaxie, once a large saloon in the late 1950s, returned as the Galaxy MPV in 1995. The name stuck, too, as evidenced by the two generations that followed, including the latest one you see before you. What’s more, the current Galaxy has been around since 2015, meaning there are plenty to choose from on the used market. You only need around £13,000 to get yourself an early car with a mileage of less than 60,000, while year-old examples go for a reasonable £35,000. You will be choosing from fairly different cars depending on age, mind you, and this is due to some noteworthy changes that have been rolled out over…

An expert’s view KEVIN BIRD, FOUNDER, BIRDS “We’ve still got Autocar’s old modified M135i long-termer here from 2018. It’s running really well and hasn’t put a foot wrong. For my money, it’s smoother, more comfortable and quicker than any other 135i. On the whole, you’d probably be better off looking out for an M140i now, but find a good, standard M135i and you’ll enjoy it. Fuel injectors can be a problem and watch out for any warning lights. When buying, check all the gadgets such as the iController work. Those things can cost a fortune to fix.” Buyer beware… ■ ENGINE Water pump and thermostat issues are not unknown. Coil pack issues are another occasional weak spot. Too many short journeys and not enough motorway blasts can coke up the…

Development of an electric Skoda Octavia is under way and the model is primed to go on sale later this decade as the Czech firm rapidly bolsters its EV line-up. Before a zero-emissions version of the brand’s biggest seller is launched, Skoda will refresh its current ICE and plug-in hybrid Octavia variants, due to hit showrooms in 2024. When the electric Octavia arrives, it will join a seven-seat electric SUV (previewed by the newly revealed Vision 7S concept), an urban EV, a crossover – all due by 2026 – and a mini-SUV Fabia replacement in Skoda’s new electric-focused line-up. Skoda CEO Klaus Zellmer said it is currently investigating an electric Octavia ahead of Europe’s potential ICE car sales ban in 2035. The car maker is targeting 70% of its profits…

FORMER JAGUAR DESIGN boss Julian Thomson has been named director of a General Motors Advanced Design Europe studio that will open in the Midlands later this year. The move is part of GM CEO Mary Barra’s well-publicised plan to get back into Europe’s car markets “in a significant way” with its American brands, having sold Opel and Vauxhall to the PSA Group in 2017. The former world’s biggest car maker left Europe saying it wanted to concentrate on more profitable truck sales, mostly in the US, but it has since missed having an influence over here. Although Thomson will be based in the UK, the Brit said his studio, which will initially have 35 staff, will participate in all global GM projects and have freedom to suggest new ones. The…

HOW AUTONOMOUS VEHICLES find their way around is usually associated with hardware like cameras, lidar and ultrasonic sensors, but Bosch says digital maps are also a kind of sensor. Its point is that the information contained on a high-resolution digital map extends much further than the detection range of any hardware sensors a vehicle may have. Bosch acquired mapping specialist Atlatec this year, a firm that has developed its own kit consisting of hardware and software to collect raw data. AI analyses the data, which is then enriched with specific information such as details of signage, structural features, severity of bends and so on. As the AI code continually learns, the detail in its understanding of the road features and environment increases, building a picture accurate enough for the car…

How has the government’s Test Bed UK investment programme come to be? Horiba MIRA boss George Gillespie explained: “A few years ago, people started saying we should position the UK as the world’s centre for autonomous driving. One view was that this required a big computer at Oxford University; my feeling was that the big R&D was already being done in the US or China and less of it was in the UK. “What we do have, however, is world-class congestion. So instead of trying to be the next Silicon Valley for autonomous cars, it made more sense to position ourselves as the test bed for Europe. That needed a simulator, a proving ground, semi-public roads and an integrated network, all of which we have at MIRA. The government understood…

When Lexus USA couldn’t borrow an original RX 300 SUV from Toyota’s museum in Japan to celebrate the firm’s 30th anniversary in 2019, it decided to buy one itself. So it sent a bloke to browse through the classifieds and pick one up. He looked at a few, spotted a fairly well used one – a little tatty but fundamentally sound – and bought it so it could be on display at the company’s celebrations. Last week, alongside testing the new RX (see p28), I drove it. The first RX was launched as the Toyota Harrier in Japan in late 1997 and was sent overseas badged as the RX 300 from 1998. This one’s a 2002 model, but the 2000-model-year facelift was pretty mild so you’re basically talking about a…

NUMBERS MATTER IN Nascar, and none more so than #43. That was the hallowed number carried by The King, seven-time Cup champion Richard Petty. And in the Southern 500 at the Darlington Raceway oval, Erik Jones took it back to the winner’s circle for the first time since 2014 – and for the 200th time in Nascar history. The Petty GMS Racing Chevrolet driver saw off a tough challenge from former Joe Gibbs Racing team-mate Denny Hamlin for a win that he described as “redemption”. Gibbs let Jones go at the end of 2019, despite him taking victory in the Southern 500 that year, replacing him with Christopher Bell – so his first win of 2022 and the third of his Cup career tasted extra sweet. Just to rub salt…

TESTED 8.9.22, CALIFORNIA, US ON SALE FEBRUARY 2023 The Lexus RX SUV is a quiet, understated seller in the UK and this “95% new” version looks like it’ll pick up from where the last one leaves off when it goes on sale in early 2023. It’s based on an uprated version of Lexus’s GA-K platform, which underpins the smaller NX SUV, and it remains the same size as the outgoing RX, at 4.89m long, albeit with wider front and rear tracks and a 60mm-longer wheelbase, which increases interior space. With more torsional rigidity because of some strengthening at the rear of the chassis, it has a new multi-link rear suspension system and, like the NX, MacPherson struts at the front. The new RX comes in three different flavours, each electrified…

MODEL TESTED GT4 RS Price £113,700 • Power 493bhp • Torque 332lb ft • 0-60mph 3.9sec • 30-70mph in fourth 7.1sec • Fuel economy 22.1mpg • CO2 emissions 299g/km • 70-0mph 41.5m Porsche’s Andreas Preuninger, the chief architect of every one of the company’s revered, hardcore GT sports cars since the original ‘996’ 911 GT3 of 1999, has described the subject of this week’s road test as “a wild child”. Coming from someone well used to the savagery of so many 911 GT2 and GT3 RSs, those sentiments land loud and clear – not that the car he was talking about needs much introduction. This week, then, the Autocar road test records the benchmark numbers without which the story of Weissach’s latest top-level hero sports car couldn’t be complete. We are…

“Porsche says there’s a 90% similarity between the 911 GT3 road car and its Cup racing sibling” They say we share 99% of our DNA with the chimpanzee. But then we also apparently share 98% of our DNA with pigs and even 60% with bananas, so the lesson here is that we should be wary of headline stats. Porsche says there is a 90% similarity between the 911 GT3 road car and its GT3 Cup racing sibling. While a cynic might argue that the two are therefore less alike than us and Pinky down on the local farm, you can’t dispute the marketing power of Porsche’s GT department. But what does that 90% figure actually mean? Well, that’s what we’re abouttofindout, thanksto the kind folks at Duckhams Yuasa Racing with…

DRIVEN BMW 3 Series Can this newly updated saloon save the traditional executive car from drowning in a sea of SUVs? COMPARISON MG 4 vs VW ID 3 The ubiquitous mainstream EV faces off against the new budget player FEATURE Bangers and smash Yes, banger racing is still popular. We meet its stars at Aldershot Raceway EVERY WEEK ROAD TEST Volvo V60 Pretty Swedish station wagon undergoes the ultimate examination CULT HERO Ford Focus RS Fun hatchback flag-bearer for the price of a new Renault Captur SUBSCRIBE autocar.co.uk/subscribe or see p20…

MILEAGE 15,355 WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT To discover whether the increasingly crowded Land Rover world still has room for a full-sized family SUV My mileage in the Disco has climbed rapidly to around 8500 in just a few months, and in all that distance I’ve given very little thought to the engine. I guess it’s because it’s so refined and unobtrusive – and because Land Rover slipped the 2996cc straight-six version of its mild-hybrid diesel into the range with only a fraction of the fanfare that greeted the original Wolverhampton-made Ingenium range. Even so, I see from lots of time spent following other people’s full-sized Land Rovers that the six-cylinder has become a popular choice – and I’m rapidly learning why. It idles smoothly and quietly. It pulls strongly from…