Evo

THE CAR INDUSTRY HAS FINALLY FOUND its voice to suggest that a shift to pure electric vehicles isn’t the one-stop-shop solution we are told it is but an approach that, while well intended to reduce carbon emissions, is poorly thought out and unlikely to deliver the anticipated results. Both Luca de Meo and Carlos Tavares, CEOs of Renault and Stellantis respectively, have called for a rethink on the forthcoming Euro 7 emissions legislation for petrol and diesel vehicles, arguing that the investment required to meet the proposed levels would cost billions and have a marginal impact on reducing greenhouse gases. ‘Why are we diverting scarce resources to regulations that are only going to last a few years?’ asked Tavares. Both Renault and Stellantis’s arguments hinge around their pure electric strategies, with these…

THEY’VE THOUGHT OF EVERYTHING. Sweated the details. Of course they have. Despite the connotations of the name Maserati – which range from impossibly mysterious glamour to characterful oddball to plain old-fashioned shoddy irrelevance, depending on your point of view – it’s very obvious that the MC20 supercar and the new spider version, named MC20 Cielo, have been developed with engineering rigour, fully informed of rivals’ strengths and weaknesses and with clear performance and dynamic targets. That’s just the way it is in 2022. Even at Maserati. And yet, it doesn’t feel like it for a second. That doesn’t mean that it’s woefully off the pace. Not at all. The MC20 Cielo (‘Sky’ in Italian) is brutally fast, its carbonfibre chassis is commendably stiff, it grips and turns with a light-footed ease…

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, PLEASE PREPARE the smallest violin you can find, for I’m about to reveal that a launch event for a new Ferrari can be stressful, rushed and deeply frustrating. So packed with activity that it passes in a blur and when you finally slump into the seat of the aeroplane for the return leg you’re completely shattered and can’t piece together exactly what’s happened in the last 14 hours or so. You see, we quite like Ferraris, as do the genuinely esteemed readers of this magazine and the vast YouTube masses that lurk in hiding ready to pounce when a new video arrives featuring the Prancing Horse’s latest and greatest. Millions of incredibly knowledgeable, erudite and well-reasoned enthusiasts salivating at the thought of a lively, balanced debate full of…

TRUNDLING AROUND A COBBLED SQUARE in Ronda, warm Spanish sunlight dappling the pavé, my mind wanders, obviously, to skis. Nothing to do with the lengthy load space of the Avant that I’m in, but everything to do with the coilover suspension that is managing the multitudinous bumps of the stony surface beneath. You see, the last time I bought some winter sports planks I did a bit of try-before-you-buy at an indoor ski slope in Milton Keynes. I had already invested the usual hours poring over catalogues and websites, reading numerous reviews. I knew I wanted more width underfoot, with a bit more performance off-piste. A pair that was light, but still capable of speed. The options were whittled down and then I spent a couple of hours switching between demo…

IT’D BE REMISS WHEN REVIEWING THE Lamborghini Urus Performante not to mention how out of kilter it is with the world around it. How can a £209,000, 657bhp SUV exist comfortably alongside a general populace worrying about climate and cost-of-living crises? The simple fact is it can’t, and to prospective owners that may be the very point. Though it would be unfair to single Lamborghini out in this regard, of course: the Urus isn’t short of rivals, and the Performante sees it bulk up to better take on the DBX 707s and Turbo GTs of this world. Given the way the Urus has flown off the shelves – becoming the best-selling Lambo ever in a laughably short space of time – the Performante could feasibly have been a light ECU tickle,…

IT WOULDN’T BE THE BRITISH CAR INDUSTRY IF IT DIDN’T lurch from triumph to disaster with inescapable regularity. Regardless of the sector that UK companies operate in – and the sunlit uplands that they occasionally enjoy – there always seems to be a cloud on the horizon ready to rain on their celebrations, and in some cases wash them away completely. For every Range Rover scaling new heights of profitability, there’s a Jaguar limping through losses. For every Caterham, Ariel, Morgan or BAC there’s a TVR, Westfield or Keating (remember them?). And then there’s Aston Martin, Lotus and McLaren, who regularly enjoy drinking to their successes with little thought of the hangover to follow. McLaren’s hangover might not be as bad as the one that has reduced bosses at Gaydon to mainlining…