Table of contents for April 2020 in Evo

THE ONLY BENEFIT OF NOT BEING ABLE TO sleep the first night I’m in a different bed is I have plenty of thinking time before the alarm goes off. My go-to subject to occupy this time? The five-car garage conundrum. It takes an hour or so to set the criteria: should it be a daily, classic, track, supercar and dream car portfolio, or a more relaxed and open-plan garage where I can have multiple examples from the same category? A mix of both is common, and on more than one occasion a category has been swapped out for a previously unconsidered one, such as the time I was torn between a Hilux and an Ariel Nomad for my post apocalyptic vehicle (I chose Nomad). And of course there are times…

‘The engine is little more engaging than you’d expect from a luxury limo’ I’VE BEEN TRYING TO GAME OUT WHO might be the buyer for BMW’s M8 Competition. It won’t, I suspect, be the typical M-car fan, as those who want the involvement and balance of a road-and-track sports car won’t be moved by the M8’s 1885kg kerb weight or near 2-metre width shoulder to shoulder. Nor is it likely to be a traditional grand tourer customer, since the Competition bits give this 8-series too firm an edge for true continent-crossing comfort. Additionally, you’d have to not be particularly interested in some of the other choices available at this level, from AMG GTs, Aston Martin Vantages, Audi R8s and Porsche 911s, to BMW’s own i8 – less powerful, but more…

IT’S EASY TO GET DRAWN INTO THE negative narrative dominating the automotive conversation in 2020: the death of internal combustion engines, of fun cars and of driving for pleasure. It’s the very antithesis of what driving enthusiasts, and this magazine, hold dear. However, look only 12 months into the future, rather than 12 years, and it’s clear that the end is far from nigh, and nowhere is this more apparent than in the thriving hot hatchback sector. This month alone has seen the reveals of the Mk8 VW Golf GTI, the new Cupra Leon and an updated Honda Civic Type R. A refreshed Renault Mégane RS (evo 271) and a new Skoda Octavia vRS have also recently been unveiled, and all of these are hot on the heels of the…

HOW DOES ONE IMPROVE ON NEAR-PERFECTION? Fit an Alcantara steering wheel. OK, so there’s a little bit more to this updated Civic Type R than that, but given the car it will replace has been romping to victory in evo group tests since it arrived in 2017, it comes with a sense of relief to learn that Honda has left the winning recipe largely unchanged. Essentially this update brings only detail changes to the brakes, suspension and interior. What is more obviously new is the wider range of Type R variants on offer – up from two to three – and the bigger differences between them. The trim levels are called Sportline, GT and Limited Edition, and common to all are new bushes and low-friction ball joints in the front…

THE MORGAN MOTOR COMPANY renaissance continues apace with this, the new Plus Four, which essentially replaces the 70-year-old Plus 4, the archetypal ‘chocolate box’ four-cylinder Morgan with lashings of chrome and wire wheels, often to be found pottering along a Worcestershire B-road. The new Plus Four – note the change from a numeral to a word – has been co-developed alongside the flagship BMW-powered Plus Six that so enthralled (and slightly scared) us last year, including at eCoty, where it made a surprise and unforgettable (for largely the right reasons) appearance. In fact, the new car is in effect a replacement for both the tiny and technically archaic four-cylinder model and also the similarly antiquated 3.7-litre V6 Roadster, offering the performance of the latter with a footprint somewhere between the…

THIS IS NOT THE CONVERSATION I’d expected. I’ve been at Czinger’s headquarters in Torrance, Los Angeles, for barely half an hour and we’ve talked about battery technology, obscure BBC science documentaries, Edward G Budd’s innovation in creating all-steel cars with Dodge in 1916, hot-rod culture, life cycle analysis, sustainable methanol fuel and the Terminator movies. Kevin Czinger is intense and driven, like all self-styled supercar trailblazers, but with a much wider focus than most of these people allow themselves. He doesn’t just want to build the world’s best hypercar. He wants to save jobs, revolutionise manufacturing and, just maybe, save the planet along the way. He’s convincing, too. Maybe it’s the jet lag, maybe Czinger is just damn clever and makes compelling arguments, but I’m already starting to believe a…

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OH GOD. ANOTHER ONE. ANOTHER piece about the death of a car that represents the love that dare not speak its name. The love of noise and engines greedy for fuel, of power that feels sumptuous, laced with a hint of savagery. Simply the love of a big, straightforward, overly powerful and gratuitously entertaining machine. Only this tale is worse. Much worse. It’s the tale of an entire company disappearing. Holden is dead. Or at least it will be come the end of 2020. I know what you’re thinking. Who cares, right? Unless you’re reading this magazine in Australia the passing of Holden will have little to no effect on you whatsoever. GM is getting out of what it describes as the ‘highly fragmented right-hand-drive market’ and concentrating instead on…

RESTOMODS. MY KIDS CALL IT A ‘ship’ name, like ‘Brangelina’ for Brad and Angelina, or ‘Kimye’ for Kim and Kanye, combining two words to create a new word that you won’t find in the Oxford English Dictionary, or at least not yet. I’m sure you’ll be aware of the growing trend for, and number of, restomods – restorations with a varying degree of modernisation thrown in – across a huge variety of marques. And once you’ve decided which model you would like ‘restomodded’, that’s just the tip of the iceberg in the decision-making process. A light body restoration with a fresh coat of paint and some rebuilt suspension and brakes? Or a complete rebody in carbonfibre, bespoke chassis and interior, not to mention a Formula 1 constructor collaboration for the…

NO ONE LIKES TO MISS OUT. TOO FAR along the queue when the birthday cake is sliced up. Too late to the bar when a mate is getting the first round in. Yes, I missed out on our big Porsche 992 Carrera S group test (evo 261) because I was working on a different story, and I couldn’t help but look on enviously as the 992, Audi R8, Vantage and the rest blatted around the Scottish Borders for a couple of days with the usual crew. Yet the real surprise on location, so I’m told and have subsequently read, was the Lotus Evora GT410 Sport. A wildcard entry, it reminded one and all of the particular magic that seems to radiate only from Hethel. And while its age and deficiencies…

TO SUGGEST BENTLEY’S NEW FLYING Spur is merely a stretched Continental GT, with an additional pair of doors and rear seats that put any first-class airline cabin to shame, would be to undersell Crewe’s most sophisticated four-door saloon to date by a huge margin – to the point where you would be dangerously close to being one of those types who suggests you could buy a Skoda Superb instead and save yourself six figures. ‘They’re both large saloons from the VW Group. How much space and quilted leather do you need?’ Well, quite a lot when it’s this good. You see, the Flying Spur, and the new Conti GT, are so much more advanced than the cars they replaced that they feel like the engineers skipped a generation and have…

THE LAUNCH OF A NEW VOLKSWAGEN GOLF GTI IS a reassuring constant in the automotive universe. Around us everything may be changing, but the renewal of that practical family hatchback with a punchy engine and a red stripe through the grille feels comfortingly familiar. The Mk8 Golf GTI features the latest in VW’s technological advancements, but remains pretty much the definition of a hot hatchback, right down to the continued availability of a manual gearbox and an engine unassisted by mild-hybrid technology. And while there’s no three-door this time around, the latest Golf GTI is still instantly recognisable. New details, such as an LED strip below the traditional red stripe (part of an option pack including upgraded LED ‘IQ Lights’ head and tail lights) and a new metallic take on…

WHILE THE APPEARANCE OF CARS SUCH AS those on the preceding pages might suggest all is well for the hot hatch, its longer-term future is looking less certain, at least in its traditional form. We’ve already seen the near extinction of three-door body styles and naturally aspirated engines in recent years, and it doesn’t take much imagination to predict the disappearance of manual gearboxes or engines unassisted by hybrid technology. Even, perhaps, the traditional hatchback body, as compact SUVs become ever more popular. If market demand doesn’t see to it, then regulations likely will. We’ve previously explored how legislation in France is serving to kill off hatches from Renault Sport, whose relatively high CO2 values can add thousands in punitive taxes to a car’s list price (see ‘The Future of…

EVO’S TRACKDAY SEASON IS BACK FOR 2020, WITH a calendar of events that promises to be bigger and better than ever. We’ll be holding events at three different locations again this year, returning to Goodwood Circuit, Brands Hatch and Bedford Autodrome. There’s also a choice of full-day or evening sessions, all run during the warmer months between May and September. So make sure you book your place now and join fellow enthusiasts and the evo team in 2020 at one (or more!) of our track events. Bedford Autodrome evo’s home circuit is once again on the calendar for 2020, with three evening dates plus a full daytime session. Our evening events will be held on the 2.8-mile South West Circuit, which will test your car’s high-speed stability before you enter…

DOES McLAREN’S 675LT GET THE recognition it truly deserves? An eCoty runner-up in 2015, it was the first of its breed from Woking’s most famous export and is able to stand splitter to splitter with any competitor from Stuttgart or Maranello that you care to mention. It’s a car that alerts your senses like few others, smothers you with excitement whether you’re just looking at it or are gripping its Alcantara steering wheel with one hand, index finger of the other hovering over the ‘start’ button. Find yourself in the latter situation and what awaits will make you re-evaluate your perception of raw, undiluted performance. Few cars have picked apart the ingredients of what makes a driver’s car and reconstructed them with such purity, and the 675LT demonstrated that behind…

HOLLYWOOD COULDN’T HAVE WRITTEN IT better. Ford – that most American of automotive behemoths – makes a triumphant return to the Le Mans 24 Hours with a pure-bred, low-slung, mid-engined racer a full half-century after Henry Ford avenged Enzo Ferrari’s snub to score an outright victory in the world’s most prestigious endurance race. OK, so the 2016 sequel was a class win, but when said conquest also came after a race-long (and ultimately acrimonious) battle with Ferrari, the symmetry with that historic weekend in 1966 is utterly intoxicating. Unfortunately, what the Blue Oval giveth it also taketh away, so while Ferrari (and the other pure-bred sports car brands) are obliged to plug away season after season, decade after decade, Ford preferred to mount a brilliant smash-and-grab raid. History made, lucrative…

THE CURRENT RS MÉGANE IS AN interesting machine, because it consistently divides opinion – even at evo, where our admiration for Renault Sport’s back catalogue rivals that of our obsession with Porsche 911s. That’s why prior to becoming custodian of HY19 FMJ I felt conflicted, torn between a longstanding love for fast Renaults but rattled by a less than starry-eyed first impression of the RS Meg from eCoty 2018. I suspected the Mégane needed extended time and miles to reveal itself fully, but having been in the same boat with a Clio 200 Turbo some years ago – only to find the more I drove it the less I liked it – the Liquid Yellow RS Mégane Trophy had a lot to prove. Helpfully I loved its looks. I’ve always…

IT’S FAIR TO SAY THAT IN RECENT YEARS, WITH advances in technology, cars have become big worriers, using their new-found digital screens to put the fear of God into us. But the seemingly daily alerts about plummeting outside temperatures or the audible warnings whenever another motorist comes within five feet of the car mean we’ve become a bit desensitised to it all, swiping warnings away and ‘seeing how it goes’. After a long day trudging around Cambridge with my family recently, the M135i greeted us upon our return to it with another notice: ‘Tyre pressure or outside temperature low. Drive no more than 60mph.’ I’ve had this before, usually on cold days when the tyre temperatures are low, or when a tyre’s pressure hasn’t quite been set correctly. On this…

FORGET FOR A MOMENT THAT THIS ASTON Martin DB5 replica is a purpose-built stunt car created for the latest Bond movie, No Time To Die, and instead consider the following bold, yet simple statement: this is the purest, most exciting, most entertaining and most downright enjoyable new car evo will drive all year. How so? Well, for starters it weighs 1000kg. It’s also rear-wheel drive and has a six-speed manual transmission with a mechanical limited-slip differential. Under the bonnet is a high-revving, 340bhp naturally aspirated straight-six. Oh, and it wears modest-sized tyres, lays no claim to blistering lap times or neck-snapping downforce, and has a complete absence of electronic driver aids altogether. It all seems too good to be true. And in a way it is, for this replica DB5…

‘If the old car had this much power it’d probably have pulled the whole front end off’ WE STRUGGLED TO GEL WITH THE previous-generation Ford Focus ST. There was undoubtedly a talented chassis – something you can typically rely on from Ford – lurking beneath the brash styling, but unlocking its full potential was a challenge because under power the front wheels always had their own ideas. In an age of sophisticated electronic diffs and the like, the ST’s ability to overwhelm its electronic nannies, light up its tyres and follow ruts like a bloodhound was exciting, but not particularly welcome. So there’s a moment, when I’m driving the car you see here, that I realise how far the Focus ST has come on in this latest generation. I’ve keyed…

PORSCHE’S ULTIMATE SUPERCAR ALL-ROUNDER IS BACK, evolved for the 992 generation of 911 both conceptually and technologically, and more potent than ever with it. In fact, the new 911 Turbo has made its biggest ever leap in power: up 69bhp to a massive 641bhp in ‘S’ form, and with 590lb ft of torque from 2500 to 4500rpm. That’s still short of the 991-based GT2 RS’s 690bhp, but the new Turbo meets the forthcoming emissions regs, does without the water spray system and is naturally a less aggressive character by its very nature. The 992 Turbo is being launched as an ‘S’ only initially, primarily because Porsche’s sales figures show that around 75 per cent of buyers opt for the more powerful, more expensive model. A regular, less powerful Turbo will…

‘THE RS6 STILL LOOKS MENACING, LIKE SOMETHING BATMAN WOULD DRIVE’ I GET THE APPEAL OF SUVS. WHO DOESN’T LIKE to go upstairs on a double-decker bus and sit at the front? I wouldn’t want to do the Col de Turini in one, though, or hack across the North York Moors. Yet ingenious chassis engineers have managed to coax dynamic ability from tall-built SUVs using clever tech such as active anti-roll bars, and basic engineering such as enormous wheels and tyres. There’s a place for the multi-purpose SUV of course, it’s the ones that are just jacked up sports saloons that baffle us, especially the ‘coupe’ versions. Compromised dynamics and hopeless space efficiency in a single package. Why would you, when there are cars such as the Mercedes-AMG E63 S, Porsche…

‘IT’LL BE LIKE THE OLD DAYS,’ SAYS DICK IE Meaden on the other end of the phone. It’s Friday evening, and I’m sitting with a glass of wine in hand trying to work out the logistics of getting a fresh sumpful of exotic Motul race oil into a rather special Subaru in the wilds of Dumfries with not even so much as a day’s notice. We don’t even have the blasted oil yet, let alone somewhere to swap it out on Monday afternoon. ‘Back then we’d be in the latest hardcore grey import Impreza, gunning it to north Wales with the importation documents still on the front seat,’ he continues. ‘There was always a race between magazines to see who could get the latest Japanese-spec Subaru or Mitsubishi first. They…

TING. IF SOLITUDE IS A LUXURY ON this often crowded planet then right now I must be one of the wealthiest people alive. Over sixty-six million people live in the UK and I’m not near any of them. It’s this remoteness from humans and the light pollution that goes with their habitations that makes this area in Northumberland an International Dark Sky Park. Gazing up at the heavens, more and more pinpricks of light appear every second as my eyes adjust to the darkness. Ting. There is an almost overwhelming, vertigo-like sensation of the universe’s enormity and my own insignificance out here. Orion, one of the few constellations I can spot, is rising escorted (Ford joke there) by his dogs, big and small. I read recently that some stars in…

DRIVING MODES DOMINATE OUR TIME behind the wheel more than many of us care to admit. What started with a simple Sport button to give the throttle response a little more pep, or a switch to make the dampers intolerably stiff, has evolved into full-bore chassis and powertrain configuration exercises that, in many cases, require several years of experience as a chassis and powertrain engineer to understand the effect they all have. Why manufacturers think customers know better than the hugely talented people they employ to develop their cars is beyond me. It’s the equivalent of a chef asking you how to cook the meal you’ve just ordered. Thankfully, the Vantage provides one of the most straightforward driving mode set-ups going. Thumb the button on the steering wheel’s right-hand spoke…