Inhaltsverzeichnis für March 2024 in Evo

LOTUS IS WELL ON ITS WAY TO starting its next chapter. A chapter that will concentrate on ending the era of petrol-engined road cars and ramp up its plan to be a 150,000-cars-a-year electric vehicle manufacturer. And it will be funded by an IPO to cash in on its $5.4billion valuation. If you followed Aston Martin’s IPO you might be reaching for the popcorn in preparation for this latest British icon aiming for the stars. There is, however, more fabric to Lotus’s future that stitches its plans together. Since Geely bought its 51 per cent stake in 2017, £500million has been invested in Hethel, and a design centre in Coventry, an R&D facility in Frankfurt and a state-of-the-art factory in Wuhan have all been established. So too have partnerships with…

THIS IS THE XP-1, AN ELECTRIFIED VERSION of the Super 3 three-wheeler that Morgan launched last year with a 1.4-litre, three-cylinder Ford engine under the bonnet. As its name suggests, XP-1 is very much an experimental prototype, but as Morgan CTO Matt Hole talks us around it, it’s clear it has been put together with a level of EV expertise you might not expect to find at the UK’s most traditional sports car company. Perhaps equally importantly, given Morgans are meant to be fun, it’s also clear the team that built it has a passion for driving. At a glance it looks just like a regular Super 3, but as well as having a 100kW battery in the nose instead of the Ford triple, a motor in the tunnel and…

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THE FIRST DRIVE IS IN GRIM CONDITIONS. THERE IS NO HORIZON: THE SKY BLENDS into the ground in one continuous wall of murky grey. The wipers can only just keep up with the sleet-infused stair rods that are steadily hammering down. Pulling away from a parking space at the journey’s start, the front tyres skate and judder. That’s a typical 911 trait; the steering geometry’s Akermann effect often makes the front wheels scud a little against the tarmac when you’re using a lot of lock at low speeds, but this time it’s also because the surface beneath the front rubber is stone cold and slimy. The data cluster on the digital instrument panel shows the engine’s oil temperature in single digits. I imagine it gummy and thick like treacle, and…

IT’S BEEN SO, SO LONG. FIRST IT WAS A bit sick. Then it was a lot dead. Then it might get a new X51-spec 3.4-litre M96 from Porsche Classic. Then it might not be dead after all. Then it definitely was still dead. And that was before anybody had even thought of sticking the 3.8-litre direct-injection engine into my 996 to create something entirely different. So to be rolling out of Litchfield with a packed bag in the front luggage compartment, a Eurotunnel confirmation email on my phone and a slot at a Circuit Days event on the mighty Spa circuit seemed completely surreal. Scary, too. This trip was designed to see if the 996.3 could do all the things a 911 should be able to do: big miles, big…

THE BEST HOT HATCHBACKS ARE GIANT KILLERS. IT seems unfathomable that a Honda Civic could nail itself to the rear bumper of a Lamborghini Huracán, but something about the tenacity of a hot hatch seems to evaporate any gulf in performance to more expensive, more powerful machines. They’re bred on the kind of pockmarked roads that don’t favour supercars and deliver a level of interaction and excitement that belies their humble beginnings. It’s no wonder that hot hatches have been a staple of this magazine – and our Car of the Year tests – for the last 25 years. Granted, some of the latest models have entered a new stratosphere for price, but the used market is awash with greats at a fraction of the cost. As little as £6000…

FINALLY, THERE’S CLEAR ROAD IN FRONT, a ribbon of asphalt dipping and diving across a rugged lump of rain-lashed Welsh landscape. I’m very glad to be here and, as the tacho needle climbs past 5000rpm, it feels as though the car is too, the 2-litre Cosworth BDG pulling clean and strong with a hollow bark that rally fans of all generations will recognise. And it just keeps pulling, past 7000, then 8000, with nape-prickling urgency, the sound as familiar, compelling and confident as Freddie Mercury holding a high note. Straight-line grip and traction are remarkably good, too, considering that those deep-dish 13-inch Minilites are shod with Kumho trackday tyres, and well-used ones at that. The quick-rack front end jinks the car brightly into turns and the combination of soft damping,…

THE MANUAL GEARBOX IS NOW SUCH AN endangered species that you can almost imagine David Attenborough narrating its knife-edge existence in whispered tones. So BMW’s decision to put a stick and three pedals in the latest iteration of its entry-level M car is an act of conservation to be applauded, right? Well yes, of course it is. And with this likely to be the last time a manual shift is offered in an M car, there’s all the more reason to tick that £1200 option box on the configurator. But if you’re even remotely open to the idea of using paddles instead, the G87 M2 equipped with BMW’s Sport Automatic Transmission makes a compelling case for itself. While the paddleshift version of its F87 predecessor used a dual-clutch transmission, the…

WITH REFERENCE TO THE FOUR CARS THAT MADE IT through to the final of evo’s comparison of all the available new hot hatches (issue 318): Two of those cars only seat four people (the Toyota GR Yaris and Honda Civic Type R). One has consumption in the low 20s mpg (Mercedes-AMG A45 S). The other simply repeats the formula for a successful front-drive hot hatch that was established some years earlier by the Mk3 Renault Mégane RS 275 Cup-S/Trophy (Hyundai i30 N). The real sadness is that Renault no longer sells the model that satisfies all these criteria in a positive way – seats five, 30-plus mpg and a demon on trackdays. That car was the Mégane RS Trophy (Mk4). I feel Renault’s mistake was leaving the development of the…

IF THE NEW VANTAGE IS THE CAR TO STEAL SALES from the Mercedes-AMG GT and Porsche 911, this is the one to rub doors with them. Say hello to the new, battle-ready Vantage GT3, Aston’s answer to the Mercedes-AMG GT3, Ferrari 296 GT3 and Porsche 911 GT3 R. The Vantage GT3 will join that eclectic mix of road carscum-racers at various GT championships this year, including the World Endurance Championship, GT World Challenge and IMSA, and of course at Le Mans. Its predecessor was a force of nature in the GT3 and GTE classes, taking 52 class wins since its debut in 2018 – including highlight-reel victories at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, Daytona and Spa. The new car has been comprehensively re-engineered in every aspect to continue that…

HIS SECRET FORDS BOOKS LIFTED THE lid on countless fascinating Ford road car projects that never saw the light of day. Now Steve Saxty has turned his attention to BMW. In BMW by Design, Saxty unearths the stories behind some of the brand’s most iconic models, as well as many more that never made production. Over the coming pages the author shares some of his favourite discoveries – along with a host of previously unseen images – to provide an insight into some of BMW’s design greats. The road to the 1-series THE BMW 1M COUPÉ HAS ALWAYS BEEN an icon-in-waiting, but I hadn’t realised what a fascinating backstory it had. The idea kicked off in the mid-’90s as a skunkworks project – to reinvent the much-loved BMW 2002. I…

JOHN BARKER Why I admire… Caterham I FIRST DROVE A CATERHAM SEVEN IN 1987. It had a Ford 1.7-litre Kent engine on twin-choke carburettors and flowing front wings that acted like umbrellas, but the intensity of the driving experience was extraordinary. It was raw and loud and exhilarating like it should have been illegal, yet once I’d acclimatised to the noise, the buffeting and the explosive performance, I realised that the Seven was brilliantly responsive, agile and controllable. And so small that you could thread it down lanes and still play with power oversteer. The Seven of today is no different, just better finished and, if you want, even more potent. Caterham got the rights from Lotus in 1973 and developed the Seven first out of necessity to keep it…

HOW MUCH OF THE S8’S LONGEVITY can be put down to its starring role on a French alpine pass 25 years ago? Would the current, fourth-generation D5 model still be on Audi’s price list had that nitrous-powered dark green example not whacked a Peugeot 605 and Citroën XM? It didn’t need the nitrous, did it? And does the world need super-limos or are they simply transport for our silver-screen escapism? Logic points to ‘no we don’t’, but logic and car choices rarely align. A regular A8 does much of what our S8 does. It might lack the pure exec-limo magic of an S-class, but it also avoids the coldness BMW’s 7-series always wears to stop you getting to know it. Audi has shaped its aluminium machine into a limo that…

DRIVE A POORLY SET UP MK1 FOCUS RS AND FORD’S motorsport-grade hot hatch will tumble in your estimations. That was certainly the case for evo when we drove early examples in period; where was the finesse, effortless speed and composure this WRC-inspired halo model promised? With Sachs dampers, wide-track suspension and a Quaife limited-slip diff, the specification was mouth-watering, but the result was a scruffy, unruly car on the road. Sometimes… Two decades on, having driven a few carefully maintained examples on modern tyres, the RS has cemented itself as a true evo icon. Its blend of interaction and ability is addictive in the context of today’s effortlessly exploitable four-wheel-drive mega-hatches. You just need to make sure you buy a good one. The Focus RS doesn’t need to be moving…

THE LAST TIME THE MG XPOWER BRAND name featured in a test in evo it was on the SV-R: the Peter Stevens-styled, Qvale Mangusta-based, V8-engined super-GT run by Rowan Atkinson in a Fast Fleet long-term test. Shortly before that, XPower branding also featured on MG-badged BTCC cars and Le Mans prototypes. Heady, if financially tumultuous (and slightly surreal), days. The present-day MG brand is sailing on smoother financial waters, with the Chinese SAIC-owned marque enjoying an unlikely rebirth as a purveyor of long-warrantied, competitively priced family cars. And an EV specialist: the MG4 five-seater, all-electric hatchback is one of the most affordable electric cars on the market and fast becoming ubiquitous on the roads. It’s the budget Tesla Model Y. Now the XPower name is back, MG Motor UK having…

THE NISSAN Z ARRIVED IN 2022 WITH BARELY A murmur. After a mini furore surrounding the Z Proto concept in 2020 – a time when any diversion was welcome – the production model seemed to arrive and then disappear into the ether. Some of that can be attributed to the fact that the cool new 3-litre twin-turbocharged V6 coupe wasn’t destined for Europe, but even when we visited the US nobody seemed to be talking, thinking or dreaming of the new 400bhp Nissan Z. The general consensus was curt and slightly devastating. ‘Not as good as a Supra’ just about covered it. Well, now there’s a hotter and, according to Nissan, ‘track-ready’ Z deserving of our attention. It’s called the Z Nismo and has a lot of the right stuff.…

THERE’S AN ATMOSPHERE TO Estoril. Not an electric, dramatic one, more a semi-sleepy, half-forgotten one. The hotel close to the circuit’s gates that in a previous life would have been heaving with patrons during Portuguese Grand Prix weekends is abandoned. The track within the gates, half an hour’s drive from Lisbon, is faded but still smart; packed with history without feeling like a museum piece. I really like it here. F1 last visited in 1996; MotoGP in 2012. But it’s still an active circuit, and a well-maintained one, used nowadays for various racing events, car launches and testing. Today is a bit of a blend of all three. In the pitlane is a contingent of engineers from Porsche Motorsport and two different, equally immaculate, racing 911s. It’s a timely moment…

THE DBX707 AND PUROSANGUE ARE THE CARS we should hate. At least according to the lazy and predictable narrative. Too big, too brash and too far removed from the heart of their respective brands, they take the supercar in dubious and distasteful directions. In seeking to define that most contentious of all high-performance segments, Aston Martin and Ferrari have entered a fraught field of battle. One that forces them to confront the challenges of applying their well-defined and fiercely protected values to cars that could be seen as the antithesis of everything they stand for. It is their Cayenne moment, but with more to lose. We’ve had a little time to become accustomed to the DBX. In fact Aston toyed with the idea of an SUV-like product for decades, the…

IS THIS THE PERFECT TWO-CAR GARAGE? Well, no. Of course not. But… having these two cars for the past month or so has been pretty illuminating and an interesting experiment. If you want to test the theory that a completely bonkers ‘recreation’ type car and a sensible set of everyday wheels is the way to go, then a Mazda CX-60 fitted with a diesel engine and a 560kg Seven with adjustable dampers and sticky tyres ticks each box perfectly. So, would the Mazda crush my soul and the Caterham remain unused? Or would one make the other seem so much more appealing? Things started badly. My kids describe the Mazda as ‘The Matrix car’. As in, I am now part of the system. Blindly doing the same things as everybody…

THE M4’S QUAD TAILPIPES HAVE PULLED away from the evo office car park for the last time, and I feel really quite melancholy to see it go. Some cars you don’t miss when they’ve gone, no matter how good they were; I knew from early on this wouldn’t be the case with the M4. It’s been a lovely car to live with: as a long-distance tourer, as a commuting carriage, as a weekend getaway car, as a truly rewarding driver’s car and even an occasional track car. As mentioned in previous reports, I’m not crazy about the way it looks (though its design has grown on me a fair bit) and I felt a bit self-conscious about the borderline ostentatious image it presents to the world. But I loved the…

THE MK5 GOLF GTI WAS PIVOTAL FOR THE FUTURE of Volkswagen performance cars. Following the lacklustre Mk3 and blunt, flat-footed Mk4, the GTI badge was in desperate need of a renaissance, and the Mk5 burst through the gloom in 2005 as one of the finest everyday performance cars of its time. It recaptured the understated brilliance that defined the Mk1 and Mk2, and while more exciting hot hatches have come and gone since, few blend seamless usability with honest, analogue fun quite as well as the Mk5 GTI. The Golf nails the basics before you’ve even turned a wheel, the seat mounted low and holding you firmly at the sides, the steering wheel extending far out to meet you. Everything feels easy – mundane, even – at low speeds, and…