Inhaltsverzeichnis für May 2017 in Wheels

ALL AT SEA Do the brains at GM really think that delivering a Chevrolet Camaro in 2021 – four to five years away, with project delays – is seriously a winning strategy? Clearly they missed the MBA lecture on ‘first-mover advantage’. By then Ford will have sold around 30,000 Mustangs in a market for two-door specialist cars where the fleet size is perhaps 40,000 vehicles. Sure, a few cashed-up executives will have one of each, but by then I will have my HoldenVF Commodore SS under cover and the next model Mustang as my daily driver. No matter how cool the Camaro is, the ship will have sailed. David Arelette, via email “I saw a Toyota C-HR today. We’ve been trying to keep bloody cane toads out of Western Australia”…

IT DOESN’T take long to discover Mazda’s second-gen CX-5 is a quantum leap forward where it needed it most. The realisation arrives on the freeway where, after settling on a steady 100km/h, I pause and listen for… nothing. Gone is the tyre roar that plagued the original CX-5. Gone is the rustle of wind noise; the constant chatter of background vibration. Now there’s just an eerie stillness; a sense of refinement and polish that pairs perfectly with the elegantly redesigned interior. We sampled this new-gen CX-5 in California last month, but while that drive provided a tantalising taste, an odd mix of US suspension and steering tunes, and all-weather tyres, meant this is our first chance to deliver a verdict on the local model range’s specification and dynamics. It’s worth…

The Mercedes-AMG E43 is the first fighter from Affalterbach to arrive Down Under built around the technologically masterful W213 E-Class. It will eventually straddle the wide-open crevasse between relatively vanilla non-AMG E-Class models and the utterly unhinged $239,900 E63 S due here in June. In both price and performance the $159,900 E43 is a closer relative of the mainstream E400 4Matic, and has been subject to some criticism for using the latter’s 3.0-litre V6, sourced from Mercedes-Benz, albeit with bigger turbochargers to lift outputs by 50kW and 40Nm to totals of 295kW and 520Nm. Staking a case for ‘real’ AMG status are AMG calibrations for the ECU, air suspension, nine-speed transmission and 4Matic AWD system, which give the E43 a more singular focus. It stops short of the rip-snorting aggression…

FOR A brand with a long history of short-lived nameplates, Holden has remained steadfastly attached to Barina. And in the case of the current TM series, faithfully reliant on a design that has barely changed since its debut in 2011. Along the way, we’ve seen a huge-booted sedan (now discontinued), a turbocharged RS (also deceased), an up-spec CDX (now badged LT) and the odd special edition. But until last December, the entry-level Barina CD (now badged LS) looked and drove exactly as it did nearly six years earlier. In an era of rapid change, that’s an unusually long time between makeovers, though this MY17 version scores a handsome Camaro-esque visage and sexy new alloys (16s on LS, 17s on LT), courtesy of GM’s Australian design team (and adopted by global…

DO YOU ever have that feeling you really should be doing something useful, but just can’t be arsed? That’s the zone I find myself in as I sit outside a nondescript building in a nondescript industrial estate in a nondescript suburb near Melbourne airport. I’m waiting for editor Inwood to arrive in the W1, a weak autumn sun warming my face. I should be using my phone for something productive, like replying to emails or watching Nurburgring crashes. Instead, I’m following a link to an oddly compelling time-wasting site. Deathclock.com purports to be able to predict the precise day of your death, based on a bunch of lifestyle questions. It was started back in the early 2000s when the Grim Reaper finally figured out website construction and decided to apply…

The changes inside specific to W1 over GTSR are not extensive, but they probably didn’t need to be. There are full Alcantara facings for the diamond-quilted seats, and Alcantara wraps the steering wheel. The seats themselves are generously sized and offer ample lateral bolstering; long-legged types may wish for a little more under-thigh support. Heating is welcome, but there’s no cooling for the hot-blooded in warmer climes. Decent Bose audio and quality navigation are givens. What was apparent in our time with the car is the difference in sound levels and ride comfort in the front, versus the rear. Passengers in the back are subjected to a fair degree more impact harshness and bump-thump, while the volume levels, due to the proximity to the muffler system, elevate from thrilling in…

The Stadium Super Trucks race series has enjoyed a popularity trajectory similar to that achieved by drivers as they hit the ramps. Formed by ex-NASCAR champ Robbie Gordon in 2013, it now holds rounds in the USA, Canada, Australia, and China. The trucks are a spaceframe design powered by a 450kW GM V8, and weigh 1300kg. On the quicker tracks, they exceed 250km/h, and routinely fly 5m off the ground. The soft, long-travel suspension needed for landing means comedic levels of bodyroll. Gordon’s lease agreement does not charge drivers for damage, ensuring spectacular, high-contact racing. “It’s absolutely full-on,” says Mingay. “Stuff that would bring big penalties in Supercars is fair game. It’s awesome.” Prior to Mingay’s shocker, the series had been virtually injury-free. “So I guess that means I hold…

IT’S HARD to be a man when your eyes are streaming and it feels like someone is firing onion buck shot at your face. And yet it’s absolutely vital to at least act like one – no wincing or whining – when you’re sitting bum cheek-to-cheek with a giant slab of human like Boris Mihailovic, who didn’t even flinch when he rode a motorbike into a kangaroo and it exploded all over him (there are pictures on his Facebook feed; please don’t look at them). There are several things that I didn’t fully think through when I suggested that Boris – not so much a motorcycle fanatic as a biking viking whose Norse gods have handle bars – was the perfect man to help us review the KTM X-Bow R…

not wrap his thighs about my hips and put his skinny little arms around my waist like he could on a bike. But each time I changed gears, my arm would brush against his. Or vice versa. It even stopped being awkward by the end of the first day. And we really did have other things to consider. For starters, there was my keening terror each time Corby drove the X-Bow in anger. I have never been more terrified of dying in a meat-rich fireball. Trussed to the seat like a tattooed harvest pig, all I could do was shriek. And I shrieked very loudly when Corby compression-locked the X-Bow and almost put it into the Armco during a spirited descent into the Colo River valley. And it is stupidly…

OCCASIONALLY things go tits-up on a Wheels road test. The severity can differ, of course. I recall one really terrible one; the time at a cafe in some Hicksville town in central NSW where Jimmy Whitbourn learned from the ‘chef’ that the allegedly freshly caught ocean trout was, in fact, from a river. A table was upended in fury that day. Then there was the Bathurst Disaster of 2011, when Thomas Wielecki, aka World’s Pickiest Eater, and stickler for circular crockery, had to have his meal served on a hexagonal plate. But sometimes even minor things get in the way, like recently, when a certain 375kW Italian sports sedan that shall remain nameless lunched its own key while parked outside a remote cafe several hundred kays from home. The central…

Honda’s return-to-form gen-ten Civic has arrived in hatch form with (mostly) identical pricing to the sedan version that’s been on sale since 2016. Sourced from the same Thai factory as its booted brother (the previous hatch came from the UK which contributed to less than sharp pricing), the hatch gets the same adventurous styling but with a more practical rump. The base VTi starts at $22,390 and the five-model range tops out at $33,590 for the VTi-LX. The mid-grade RS, with its sporty extras and the cracking 1.5 turbo is $500 more as a hatch because it comes with some Type R-inspired extras, such as the central exhausts and various skirts and spoilers.…

Prices for Porsche’s evergreen 911 have increased across the range, typically by between $3000 and $6000, including for GTS variants, even though the first of them are yet to arrive. Contributing to the increases are additional connectivity (predominantly for non-Apple smartphones) and a standard wi-fi hotspot. For those wanting the GTS performance in their Carrera S, Porsche is offering an upgrade kit that includes larger turbochargers, a sports exhaust and a software update. It’s not cheap, though, at $24,580. Porsche has also upped the price of the soon-to-arrive updated 911 GT3 by some 10 percent, though it now comes with the larger 4.0-litre atmo six previously reserved for the GT3 RS. Yours for $327,100.…

Everyone is supposed to own a sports car at least once in their lifetime. For several million people around the world – more than a million of them as new-car buyers – that was made possible by Mazda’s brilliant MX-5. The world into which the NA-series MX-5 arrived in 1989 had been largely starved of convertibles since the early-to-mid 1970s, when Britain’s MGB ceased production, while other manufacturers shied away from production in the face of proposed – but never enacted – new roof-crush safety standards in the US. The MX-5’s simple and honest styling recalled a more romantic era of motoring; its modern mechanicals implied reliability. It was a roadster without oil leaks, soaked upholstery or roadside strandings; an economical, everyday sports car that was a hoot to drive.…

MERCEDES-AMG is readying a potent new in-line six-cylinder performance engine that will usher in the ‘50’ moniker to replace models such as the C43 and E43. Based on the M256 3.0-litre in-line six-cylinder that arrives in the updated S-Class later this year, the AMG-fettled version will boost outputs to about 330kW, a healthy advance on the 295kW peak of the recently released, twin-turbo V6 E43 AMG. Key to the new engine is an electric compressor, or turbocharger, which Mercedes-Benz dubs with the German acronym eZV. Described as an ‘auxiliary’ compressor, the electric turbo seems certain to mimic the operation of the unit fitted to the 4.0-litre V8 diesel in the Audi SQ7 and Bentley Bentayga, boosting airflow at low speeds, therefore eliminating turbo lag while a conventional exhaust-gas-driven turbo reaches…

If your budget can’t quite stretch to a complete 911 GT3, Porsche fans can still annoy the neighbours with a wicked soundtrack, courtesy of the Porsche Design 911 Soundbar. The Bluetooth system uses a real GT3 exhaust back box to amplify and deepen sounds as it does when it’s attached to the car. DTS TruSurround and 200 watts of sound are the only emissions. Porsche Design 911 Soundbar, $4090 porsche-design.com BMW has launched not one, but five new collections to celebrate its connections to various sporting disciplines. Motorsport, sailing and golf are all represented by the range of clothing and accessories. Included is a hoodie that borrows the camouflage pattern worn by disguised prototype vehicles, while a conspicuous white leather jacket is part of the Motorsport Heritage line…

APPRECIATING the Audi S5 requires but one thing and that is to accept that this 260kW all-wheel-drive sports coupe doesn’t give its best when scruffed through a corner at ten-tenths. Nobody who buys an S5 will drive it like this, yet legions of journalists have used its unconvincing impression of a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo as a means to pigeonhole the old car as something less than the real deal. The latest S5 demonstrates that Ingolstadt understands its target market and has clinically engineered a smart weapon to surgically part people from $105,800 of their hard-earned. The styling is evolutionary, taking Walter de Silva’s magnum opus of lantern-jawed loveliness and chamfering a few curves into edges while implanting a few more Y chromosomes. It’s an in-house effort described by Audi designer…

PINNING a ‘Most Improved’ ribbon upon anything may be an acknowledgement of growth and development, but it’s also an admission that the ribbon-bearer was previously, well, a bit ordinary. And that’s the situation we have here with the Countryman. The outgoing model was far from segment-leading due to sub-optimum packaging that put an emphasis on style ahead of more practical concerns, but its box-fresh replacement lands so much closer to the bullseye that Mini deserves praise. For starters, it now represents better value when you balance its price against its spec sheet. Mini Australia says there’s now $6500 worth of extra equipment in the entry-level Countryman Cooper (see sidebar), which is handy given it’s also $3400 dearer than the outgoing auto base model. But the bigger news is the packaging.…

GOLDILOCKS would love the Mercedes-Benz E-Class Coupe. Or, at least, the premise of the latest iteration of Benz’s four-seat two-door. Slotting between the C and the S, the E Coupe dishes up more comfort and space than the former at half the price of the latter. Perfect, then, for those who don’t need rear doors but do need some semblance of space with their two-door style. That’s the theory, and it’s one that gets more serious with the latest iteration of the E Coupe. Riding on the W213 E-Class sedan’s architecture (the previous car used a stretched C platform), space is a clear sales pitch – there’s a 74mm expanse of additional rear legroom and 34mm of extra shoulder room. Accessing those twin rear pews – which have a 40/20/40…

DON’T BE fooled by the 2017 Audi RS3’s new plastics, fresh alloys and extra in-cabin tech – this is no mere mid-life update. Audi Sport hasn’t just pumped its least-expensive, A3-based model full of Botox to keep it looking fresh – it’s given it an underbonnet transplant that sees power and torque figures ascend while trimming kilos. There’s an RS3 sedan now too – the result of market demand and competition from the Mercedes-AMG CLA45 – which is great news, because the four-door A3 is a tremendously handsome basis for a compact performance car. There are still five cylinders sitting sideways in the RS3’s snout, but the mill weighs 26kg less, and paring these kilos from the RS3’s nose has a small but positive effect on its handling. The 2017…

For someone still trying to break into motoring journalism via the side door in 1988, being chucked the keys to a new VL Group A SS as a 22-year-old as a pure-elation moment. I thought its styling was brilliant; borderline freakish, like seeing Groundskeeper Willie tear his shirt off for the first time. And that V8 ... this was as close to a ‘race’ engine as I’d ever sat behind, even if its 180kW/380Nm outputs do seem a little quaint by today’s standards. But it was injected (a first!) and had a snarl and crispness that thrilled. It was a wet Friday night in the city as I headed north, and as traffic cleared near Woolloomooloo, I gave second gear an exploratory poke. The engine sucked and spat; the rear…

CONNECTIVITY is the buzzword of a generation, built on instant gratification and unimpeded interaction with the world at large, yet there’s an ironic, gaping hole in all of this. We’re being fed communication by the continent load, yet we’re craving taller, less intimate vehicles that lift the driver up from the road, beyond lesser mortals, further from the point of connection. But not the three superstars you see here – Mazda’s freshly targa-roofed MX-5 RF, Subaru’s exquisite BRZ and Porsche’s now-ballistic, turbocharged Cayman S. If you need a reminder about how great it is to sit low, legs out front, at one with the steering and road surface, then this two-door trio must’ve been sent from the car Gods to bear witness. The caveat, of course, is extracting yourself from…

Is the Chiron a one-trick pony? And does it do anything the Veyron didn’t? FOR A car that makes a big noise about going fast, the Bugatti Chiron does a great job of going slowly. Slow, of course, is a relative concept. At 200km/h, the kind of speed when your average affordable fast car is starting to breathe a little heavy, the Chiron’s cabin is an oasis of calm, your right foot treading as lightly on the right pedal as a pond skater dancing on the water’s surface. A pond skater that’s about to slip on some concrete Wellies. “Okay, you can start picking up some speed now just to get ready,” my co-driver Loris tells me gently from the other side of the weird carbon septum that divides the…

HE EVEN HAD KIDS ON FACEBOOK WANTING TO DONATE THEIR POCKET MONEY TOWARDS HIS REHAB COSTS According to Mingay, his Hot Wheels Chevrolet Camaro drift car is “off its head”. Built by PACE Innovations on the Gold Coast, who designed the current V8 Supercar platform, it’s been lightened by nearly 200kg, and runs a full-house NASCAR GM race engine that makes around 560kW at 8500rpm, punched through a six-speed sequential transaxle. It’s set up for passenger rides, and Mingay says he gets just as big a buzz out of showing people what it can do as he does actually doing it: “I say to people, ‘Hang on and hope for the best’, because half the time that’s what I’m doing – hanging on. It’s a friggin’ animal.” And of course…

Good things really do come to those who wait. Austrian motorcycle manufacturer KTM unveiled the X-Bow way back in 2008, when it went on to win various Sports Car of the Year awards in Europe. Australian enthusiasts rolled their eyes and thought “if only”, knowing that something so wild and unconventional would never be allowed on our roads. While the local KTM folks just got on with selling bikes, a company called Simply Sports Cars in Sydney invested three years, and a “significant” amount of money, in pushing the car through the government’s Special Enthusiast Vehicles Scheme, which included crash testing. After solving some other problems, like where to put the mandatory windscreen sticker displaying its fuel economy (it’s in the passenger footwell), the company is now allowed to sell…

MAZDA’S CX-9 arrives in the Wheels garage with plenty of pedigree, having recently been announced as Car of the Year for 2017. Now, all that COTY goodness get puts to the real-world test as the seven-seat Mazda finds itself enlisted for six months of family duties and general around-town running. There will be school runs, loaded-to-thegunnels holidays and plenty of peak-hour grind, as well as the occasional fast blast down a challenging back road to test the handling mettle that contributed to the model’s COTY crown. Our CX-9 is the top-spec Azami finished in Soul Red. Armed with the all-wheel-drive system that half of buyers opt for, it’s the most money you can spend in a Mazda dealership; the RRP is $63,640 before dealer and on-road…

THE GRASS is always greener, or so the saying goes, and I was recently tempted to swap the keys of the Audi Q7 for a few days at the wheel of a bright-shiny new bauble from another renowned European brand. It represented the car maker in question’s first foray into the automotive honeypot that is SUVs and, with the brand’s reputation forged in sports cars and performance saloons, my expectations were high. However, after a week of enduring the leaden lump’s heavy steering, vast turning circle and lethargic diesel performance – all at a fully-optioned price tag that would have enabled me to park an S3 Sportback alongside the Q7 for similar money – I practically hugged the big Audi when the time came to reunite. The incident reminded me…

Hyundai has finally added a V6 to its current Santa Fe range. The 199kW/318Nm 3.3-litre unit is the same as that fitted to sister brand Kia’s Sorento. And, just as in the Sorento, it powers only the front wheels (think of it as the American spec), so expect some wet-road wheelspin on enthusiastic take-offs. The V6 is offered only in Active X spec with leather, dual-zone air-con, 19-inch wheels, rain-sensing wipers and tinted rear glass, plus Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. Dark grey alloys set it apart visually, while inside it’s the same flexible seven-seater package.…

1 TESLA MODEL X 0.0L/100km Up to seven seats and swanky rear ‘falcon wing’ doors make for one snazzy machine. Fast, too, in P100D guise and with up to 542km of claimed all-electric range. 2 TESLA MODEL S 0.0L/100km Same philosophy as the X but with a luxury liftback body. Floor-mounted batteries and low stance keep the centre of gravity low. The same motors as the X with less weight equals more fun. 3 NISSAN LEAF 0.0L/100km It’s a slow seller (less than one a week) and has a design only Noddy could love. But the Leaf offers mainstream hatchback performance with a specialty in low-speed electric motor flexibility. 4 BMW i3 0.0L/100km More batteries makes for a longer range in the all-electric i3 94Ah, which will do about 200km…

HOLDEN’S post-Commodore V8 hero car – the all-new C8 Corvette due in 2019 – will be a $120,000-plus mid-engine belter set to take the performance fight to Ferrari for one-third of the price. The next-generation Corvette will emerge from the Bowling Green production line with the steering wheel on the right and deliver traditional V8 performance as well as a hybrid-infused high-tech knockout as part of a three-tiered range set to redefine America’s most iconic muscle car. It will possibly use the Zora name – referencing Zora Arkus-Duntov, the ‘father’ of the original 1953 Corvette. GM has also trademarked E-Ray, which is expected to be used on a hybrid flagship. The shift to a mid-engine layout will allow for better positioning of weight over the rear wheels, bringing dynamic benefits…

Pack mentality Multi-plate clutch packs are hydraulically actuated and infinitely adjustable What is it? A departure from the traditional rear differential that takes torque distribution away from a set of ring, sun and planet gears and hands it over to just two gears and a lighter, more compact pair of multi-plate clutch packs. The innovation forms part of Holden’s new all-wheel-drive system that will be available under certain variants of the new European-sourced Commodore. Why does it matter? Torque needs to be shared between driven wheels for optimum traction and driving dynamics, but traditional systems have limited control over which wheel power is sent to. With improved torque distribution, grip and driving enjoyment can be maximised. How does it work? Unlike a purely mechanical differential, the Twinster solution uses an…

MAY-JUNE Alfa Romeo Giulia Super and Veloce, Audi A5/S5 Sportback, RS3 sedan and TT RS; Ford Everest 5-seat RWD; Honda CR-V; HSV GTS-R; Lexus LC; Mahindra Pik-up auto; Mazda CX-3 update; Mercedes-Benz E-Class All Terrain, E-Class Coupe and GLA facelift; Mercedes-AMG E63 S 4Matic; Renault Megane sedan and wagon; Skoda Octavia facelift and Kodiaq; Subaru XV Audi TT RS Apart from an inevitable ‘Plus’ version further down the track, this second-gen Audi TT RS will likely be the most powerful car to use the Volkswagen Group’ s transverse-engined MQB architecture . Its 2. 5-litre five-cylinder turbo sends 294k W and 480Nm to all four corners, thrusting the DSG coupe from 0-100km/ h in a rapid-fire 3. 7sec. JULY-AUGUST Audi Q5 and SQ5; Kia Stinger; Mercedes-AMG GT/GT C roadster/coupe and GT-R…

Adopting the Australian-developed two-stroke would have been a risk, the Porsche engineer recalls Back in the early 1990s Orbital Engine Corporation, based in Perth, was an outfit you could point to as solid proof of Australia’s ability to innovate. It was selling its engine technology to some of the world’s biggest car makers. One of them, Ford, built a test fleet of 25 Orbital-engined cars. I drove one of them around Centennial Park in Sydney. That was around 25 years ago. The Orbital 60kW two-stroke triple worked very nicely in a Ford Festiva. It had strong torque compared to similar-size four-stroke engines of the time. It was surprisingly smooth, and there wasn’t a wisp of traditional two-stroke smoke from the exhaust. I’ve wondered ever since why it never made it…

SUCCESSFULLY ripping the top off an already-cracking sports coupe is something Mercedes-AMG is pretty familiar with. Remember the gull-winged SLS, the GT’s more expensive but not-as-great predecessor? Shaving the roof off that bad boy turned an edgy, hairy coupe into a much more polished roadster – one that worked just as well lid up as it did roof down. Much the same applies here, except that the terrific AMG GT coupe needed very little polishing in its transformation into a roadster body style. Thing is, though, just like the SLS, it’s an arguably better sports car with an electrically folding rag top. You lose none of the GT coupe’s dynamic nous, or any noticeable level of body strength, yet you gain a whole lot more in its ability to connect…

SITTING as you are in your favourite chair, this magazine in your hands, it’s easy to think that a day with a bright blue Lamborghini at Phillip Island is an adrenalin-drenched barrel of laughs. The motoring equivalent of cocaine; of hooking yourself up to a defibrillator and twirling the knob to maximum. “Lucky sod” you’re probably thinking. Hell, I would be too. But you’re forgetting one important ingredient: rain. The pictures don’t show it, but when I was at the wheel, Phillip Island felt more like a kid’s slippery dip in a hot Malaysian monsoon than a race track, which changed the dynamic somewhat. All of the Aventador’s numbers are big: $789,425, 6.5-litre atmo V12, huge 355/25R21 rear tyres. And then there’s the reminder that despite the promise of its…

WHILE there’s no shortage of good things to have emerged from the USA (think the internet, Ken Block videos and all things ‘medicinal’), Nissan’s big and bloated Pathfinder wasn’t one of them. The brand’s overhauled seven-seater arrived in Australia in 2013 promising much – having shifted from a body-on-frame design to a car-like monocoque – but failing to deliver. Our road-testers lamented a suspension tune so soft and American it was like its springs had been replaced with cans of Easy Cheese, an on-board entertainment system that lacked Bluetooth streaming, and vague steering that was slower than your average Trump voter. The good news, then, is that this 2017 update addresses those issues and then some. Nissan has stiffened the suspension, modernised the in-cabin tech and safety equipment (including the…

At around $170,000, the W1 comfortably tops Australia’s previously most expensive car, HSV’s own $155,000 W427 of 2008. The W1’s tag makes it around 70 percent more expensive than a GTS-R, so, ignoring the potential collector value and speculative appreciation, does that make it reasonable value? Or crazy money? Let’s look at how a couple of German brands price their limited-run, hi-po models. Compare it to a regular M4 Competition ($154,000) and the limited-edition, water-injected, track-focussed M4 GTS, at $295,000 – a 92 percent increase. Or you could compare at Porsche’s 911 GT3 RS versus a Carrera S: typically a circa-55 percent jump. On that basis, $170,000 sits somewhere in the middle. Further, a couple of industry observers have tipped that given the developments costs, HSV will barely make money…

As with Toyota’s MY17 86 coupe, manual transmission versions of Subaru’s updated BRZ receive a host of engine tweaks. Power rises by 5kW to 152kW (still at 7000rpm) while torque creeps up 7Nm to 212Nm (across a broader 6400-6800rpm range). Changes include a stronger engine block, more durable pistons, polished valve stems, low-friction camshaft finish, lighter rocker arms with revised pivots, optimised new-generation fuel pump, revised fuel system, new fuel-pressure sensor and revised ECU, plus several other tweaks. The intake manifold is now aluminium (in a crackle-finish red), and a new filter and intake system reduce airflow resistance by 30 percent. The exhaust system gets a larger header pipe, larger branch diameter and revised collector shape, while the transmission’s final-drive ratio has been lowered from 4.10:1 to 4.30.…

MINGAY CRACKS A LOPSIDED GRIN AS HE SAYS G’DAY, AND ASSURES ME HE’S NOT DRUNK; HE JUST SOUNDS THAT WAY IMAGINE, for one horrible moment, you are the victim of a violent home invasion. Your attacker is large, powerful, and fast. He comes at you with an iron bar, and strikes your lower face with one vicious blow. In that instant, your jaw is shattered; most of your bottom teeth reduced to broken fragments. You black out from nervous-system trauma and pain, but he’s not done. Just to finish you off, he delivers a massive don’t-argue to the upper section of your skull. Haemorrhaging blood immediately begins to congeal dangerously on your brain. Minutes after this, any medical practitioner would declare your unresponsive condition ‘clinically dead’. If you don’t receive…

The C-HR has the Herculean task of taking on the hot-selling CX-3 TOYOTA has been in the grip of a massive mid-life crisis. Early this decade, following highly publicised recalls and lawsuits, flamboyant company president Akio Toyoda promised that better and more exciting cars would follow. Ones that would be leaders but also true to the brand’s legendary reputation for reliability. Big talk from the Japanese giant that has foisted a long line of mainstream dullards on us, right up to the current Yaris and Camry, but the resulting first fruit of Toyota’s mindset reset – last year’s dramatically styled fourth-gen Prius and now the C-HR (for Coupe High Rider) – are anything but average. Sitting below the RAV4, the latter is a small SUV with the Herculean task…

LET’S be clear: This is not a car. Sure, the KTM X-Bow R has a steering wheel and a rubber tyre at each corner, but it’s just not a car. It has no doors and there is no roof. There is no storage space. There are compartments. You can’t put anything in it and you cannot strap anything to it unless you use duct tape. You can’t even take your mobile phone. There is nowhere to put it. If you slip a credit card into your back pocket, you’ll break it in half when you sit down. Getting into it is a harsh procedure and getting out of it is like trying to escape a UFC bout you’re losing. The non-adjustable seats are thin planks of unforgiving hatred glued to…

WITH Holden’s local manufacturing chapter soon to close, the Astra hatch suddenly finds itself with a helluva lot of weight resting atop its shapely European shoulders. And expectations are sky-high. For starters, as a small hatch it must do battle in Australia’s most popular market segment, up against the big-selling Mazda 3, Hyundai i30 and Toyota Corolla. And as the latest Holden model to be sourced from Europe (the 2018 Commodore will be next), the natural rival of this Polish-built Astra is Volkswagen’s supremely polished Golf VII. Talk about a high bar. With a nameplate stretching all the way back to 1984 (and badge-engineered Nissan N12 Pulsar origins), the Astra brand has cachet in this country, despite an on-again, off-again relationship spanning those three decades. There’s certainly a lot more…

IN JUNE 1967, Toyota launched the Corolla in Australia. Three months later I was born. And almost to the day 30 years after that, the first production series-parallel hybrid system debuted internationally wearing a Prius badge. Now all three of us coalesce to this – my final report on a model that was quietly released in mid 2016 as Japan’s first petrol-electric alternative to the increasingly on-the-nose Euro turbo-diesels. Honestly, however, I wasn’t sure I’d enjoy three months of Corolla Hybrid stewardship. Previous experiences with the regular 11th-gen hatch out since 2012 left me thinking that Toyota dialled it in. Distinctive design and total reliability are both fine and good, but sub-par refinement, comfort and driver appeal against over-achievers like the Volkswagen Golf and (latest) Subaru Impreza reeks of complacency.…

The Grand Cherokee has scored a significant update that also ushers in a Trailhawk version with more off-road smarts and distinctive red tow hooks. A key visual change is a slimmer seven-slot grille as part of a mild design tweak front and rear. The interior has also been given a refresh, ditching the walking stick-esque gear selector for a more traditional lever that should make quick three-point turns easier. There’s a new windscreen designed to reduce noise, a lane departure warning system on all models and a trailer hitch camera view. The V6 now makes 213kW and gets a fuel-saving stop-start system.…

THE AUTOMOTIVE industry is truly a global one. If you want to work your way to the top, chances are you’re going to spend time being punted from one country to another. Andrea Ruggiero, 39, has just moved from Beijing to Sydney – via Italy – to become Lamborghini’s first ever Australian-resident employee in the new role of Oceania Area Manager, working from parent Audi’s headquarters. Ruggiero didn’t grow up in a car family. But hey, he grew up in Padova, 100km from Bologna, and joined Lamborghini straight out of university, where he earned a Business and Economics degree. “My father likes cars, but he was not involved in the automotive industry. It was just my passion. And Padova is not in the terra di motori [the Emilia Romagna region…