Wheels -julkaisun October 2024 -irtonumeron sisällysluettelo

NEW GENERATIONS of Lamborghini supercar don’t come along all that often – but the latest introduction marks an even bigger step than normal for the Italian brand. Say hello to the Temerario, the replacement for the Huracán, and a model that takes Lambo’s entry-level supercar away from V10 power and into the world of turbocharging and electrification. The V10 was introduced more than two decades ago, but for the Temerario, the company has invested heavily in a new specification of twin-turbocharged V8 powerplant, complete with a flat-plane crankshaft. The new 4.0-litre engine (a ‘hot V’, because its two turbos are located within the V of the layout) can rev to 10,000rpm, with peak power of 588kW produced between 9000 and 9750rpm. Its 730Nm peak torque figure is available between 4000…

FOR A MAN clearly in possession of a gigantic and obscenely powerful brain, Sriram Pakkam sure seems like a normal bloke. No ego, no fancy designer clothes, no pretensions of any kind, actually. He could be any petrolhead, just one with a superhuman knowledge of aerodynamics and blessed with an especially warm and easy-going manner. Oh, and a clunky-looking leg brace. “Oh yeah,” he laughs, pointing to his knee when we catch up in the paddock of a Formula 1 race. “After we ran the Supervan at Bathurst, I went over to Austria for some work stuff with Red Bull and I wanted to have my first go at skiing…” We can learn a few things from that sentence. Firstly, Sriram’s skiing technique clearly needs some work. And secondly, he’s…

THE BURDEN of expectation weighed heavily on the eighth-generation Volkswagen Golf GTI, as the slightly unusual circumstances of this review demonstrate. Our first chance to try this updated ‘8.5’ model comes on a road trip to Wolfsburg for the inaugural GTI Fest. As well as the newest model, Volkswagen wheeled out examples of its seven predecessors. And, well, would you take a pre-facelift eighth-gen GTI over its incredible 7.5 predecessor? Me neither. Consider the Mk8 GTI in isolation and it’s still a really, really good car, but it wasn’t that perfect, intoxicating mix of performance, practicality and everyday useability. The infotainment system suffered from glitches and had that stupid unilluminated slider, while VW’s decision to firm up the suspension to focus more on performance resulted in a slightly harder and…

WE ALL NEED a 292kW goany-where ute in our lives and that is because there is virtually no conceivable driving situation that a Ford Ranger Raptor doesn’t make more fun, more ridiculous or a certain element of both. There’s also no getting away from the fact that $88K is a hefty sum to pay for the privilege. Ford has dipped a toe in the water by bringing us a Raptor-lite before, in the shape of the Ranger Wildtrak X – an off-road-focused variant with trick Bilstein suspension that offered a taste of the real thing’s implacability in the dirt but without going all-in on everything. That car carried a more manageable $76K price tag, and while you only got a 2.0-litre biturbo four-pot diesel under the bonnet rather than a…

THE NEW Dark Horse is very good, but local versions aren’t as good as they could be. Blame Australian Design Rules. In its homeland, the Dark Horse is available with an optional Handling Package that turns it into a proper corner carver. It isn’t cheap at US$5495, but the footprint is massively expandedd with inch-wider wheels at both ends – 19 x 10.5-inch front and 19 x 11-inch rear – wearing massive Pirelli P Zero semi-slicks 305/30R19 front and 315/30R19 rear. It’s like giving Black Caviar 20-percent bigger hooves. In addition, there are bigger spoilers front and rear, stiffer springs, adjustable strut top mounts and further revisions to the chassis calibration. It’s difficult to imagine the tyres alone not being worth two seconds a lap around The Bend. Sadly, that…

I KNOW EXACTLY WHAT the Ford Bronco is going to drive like. Sitting on the same T6.2 platform and virtually identical in size and weight, the Bronco will drive just like an Everest. But you know what they say about assumptions – this is a very different beast. This feature isn’t some amazing scoop announcing that the US Bronco is suddenly available in local dealerships. This car is one of two that have been privately imported and converted by Melbourne’s Crossover Car Conversions. At the time of writing, you can buy this one tomorrow or order your very own, though the entry price – which we’ll get to – is unsurprisingly steep. The purpose of this exercise is to discover if the Bronco would be a worthwhile addition to Ford…

I WASN’T SURE whether it was the clearing fog into the warmth of an unusually sunny autumn day, my sense of adventure or just reminiscing about car flicks of old, but I’m reminded of 1982’s Running On Empty. Or, as a blind man once said: “You cats need any go juice, its 10 miles up the track!” Upon closer inspection, that random recall was being sparked by something a good deal more tangible, the low fuel light, which I’d been subconsciously ignoring for the last 70+ kilometres. Then the battery distance just blipped to zero. Okay, this was getting my attention. I’m not quite in Woop-Woop, but I’m not far off, on a photoshoot that calls for big country, and I thought a self-appointed challenge could be fun. Fully charged overnight…

IF YOU WERE pressed to name the automotive design icon of the 1990s, there wouldn’t be a glut of standout contenders. Compared to the two decades that bookended it, the Nineties was a time of transition, many manufacturers struggling to establish an aesthetic marker. If there was a theme for the vast majority of 1990s designs, it would probably be ‘bloat’. Cars generally became bigger, heavier and more complex. This was the era of twin-turbos, four-wheel steering, fledgling active aero and the dawn of the SUV. Meeting the forthcoming EuroNCAP crash regulations also added weight to vehicles with features such as airbags, extended deformable structures, side impact protection and pillar reinforcement. Body styling became heavier-handed as a result. This gradual drift towards obesity only highlighted in starker relief those manufacturers…

When it boils down to it, buying a mid-size SUV is mostly about responsibility. There’s a responsibility in providing a safe vehicle for your family, a responsibility in spending your hard-earned money wisely, and a responsibility in doing your best to guarantee a certain peace of mind around the ownership experience. Of late, answering that call would mean spending $45-$50K on something like a Toyota RAV4, the caveat being that your order would be fulfilled just as your kids had graduated university and left home. Of course, you could have bought an MG HS instead, but then you’d see those empty nesters in a RAV4 and have the distinct impression that you’d made a few compromises along the way. The old HS, introduced back in 2019, wasn’t a bad car,…

ELECTRIC CARS AND Lotus were always going to be awkward bedfellows. One’s a brand founded by a fastidious designer of grand prix-winning racecars who maintained, with religious zeal, that cars should be as light as possible. The other’s a type of car that’s inherently… heavy. It’s telling, then, that you can’t find the weight of the new Emeya electric sedan anywhere on the Lotus website. It’s not even in its lengthy, detailed press materials (but you will find the towing capacity). To find out the weight, you have to ask directly, and you’ll be told, in a sort of mumbled, matter-of-fact way, that it weighs 2550kg. Or nearly as much as a new Toyota LandCruiser. At 620kg, the Emeya’s battery pack alone is getting close to the weight of an…

THE DARK HORSE might be capturing the headlines (and this cover), but it’s the regular Ecoboost and GT variants – the latter in particular – that will be doing the heavy lifting in terms of Ford Mustang sales. And are already doing so, the first boatload rocketing Ford’s pony car back to the top of the local sports car charts. You’re probably aware that the seventh-generation ’Stang is a much more expensive proposition than its predecessor. A decade ago, the S550 Ecoboost opened the range at $45,990 plus on-road costs, whereas you can add almost $20K to that now. The cheapest S650 is the $64,990 Ecoboost, but that’s only if you can find one in stock, as any new orders will be an MY25 model at $66,990 (+ORCs). It’s a…

THINKING TIME: that vital period when a CEO or senior manager is free to reflect, to contemplate the future, and hopefully come up with strategies that drive a company forward. Too many leaders fill their weekly schedule with endless meetings, responding to questions, solving staff issues and struggling with management problems. Anything but thinking ahead. For Michael Simcoe, senior vice president of global design at General Motors – a position that comes with a staff of circa-2000 – thinking time is achieved not in his legendary, Eero Saarinen-designed office, but the shower. And, of more interest to us, while working on his classic bikes and cars in the garage at home in Birmingham, a suburb north of Detroit. His Corvette E-Ray lives outside. Currently, Michael’s rebuilding the front and rear…

“WHAT ON EARTH is that?” comes the call from a neighbour across the street. I’ve just parked up the Kia EV9 in the evening gloom and after glancing back over my shoulder, I can see what he means. With its black paint reflecting the last of the day’s sun and its bold, geometric LED lighting signature cutting through the fading light, the EV9 looks so otherworldly that it’s more like an prop from Blade Runner than a large family SUV. Observation one, then: the Kia EV9 makes a hell of a first impression. It’s also a brilliant conversation starter. I’ve only had Kia’s flagship EV for a few weeks but already every neighbour has dropped by to ask about it. Most are surprised to learn it’s a Kia, although not…

EVEREST TREMOR: WHY? BECAUSE IT’S THERE As well as the Ranger Tremor that we’ve driven on p.56 of this issue, Ford has announced a forthcoming Tremor version of the Everest for those who want to go further and do more off-road. Priced at $76,590, like the Ranger Tremor the Everest version receives a premium suspension set-up consisting of Bilstein position-sensitive dampers and new springs. Also identical to the Ranger Tremor, the Everest will ride on General Grabber AT3 all-terrain tyres. This suspension and tyre package combines to provide an additional 26mm of ground clearance compared to a stock Everest. The big difference? Unlike the Ranger, Everest buyers get six rather than four cylinders. GET RICH VIA HEMINOMICS We normally associate Mecum’s Monterey auction with European blue-blooded exotics but a slice…

Keep it tight (no more than 200 words) and do include your suburb if via email: wheels@wheelsmag.com.au You can also have your say on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter (search for Wheels Australia) What are the chances of seeing a BYD driven to Cape York like in the old days of Wheels? AS AN avid reader of your magazine for years, I would like to suggest a road test. Back when the VB Commodore was released your magazine drove one to Cape York to see how good it was. I and no doubt many others would love to see you attempt the same with a Tesla, BYD etc. Just to see if these are indeed as good as an old Holden. Thanks for your consideration in this regard. Daniel Rigda We…

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FOR A BRAND that once staked its reputation on bulletproof, boxy, pragmatic station wagons, Volvo has since pivoted on that family-friendly ideal and successfully transitioned into mastering large, seven-seat SUVs. The two generations of XC90 that preceded this all-new, all-electric seven-seat EX90 each matured beautifully – improving over time to become almost a default purchase for brand-conscious buyers chasing safety, surety and space. And now we have yet another Swedish pivot on the notion of family mobility with the XC90-inspired, all-electric EX90. Externally, the EX90 is clearly an evolution of the now decade-old second-gen XC90. The body shape, door apertures, window line – it’s all familiar Volvo DNA. And in 2024, perhaps too familiar for a tech leader such as this when its five-seat relative – the Polestar 3 –…

WHEN TOYOTA AUSTRALIA recently discontinued theV8 in the 70-Series LandCruiser, it inadvertently endowed the Ford S650 Mustang with a dubious honour. It is now the only new vehicle you can buy in Australia that has eight cylinders, sends drive to the rear wheels and requires drivers to select their own gears. Sad, isn’t it? Familiar Ecoboost and GT variants continue, but there’s a new hero at the summit of Ford’s seventh-generation muscle-car range, wearing a $100,000 price tag and the first new performance Mustang nameplate in two decades – the Dark Horse. Let’s face it, Under Dog doesn’t have quite the same ring to it. Paying six figures for a ’Stang isn’t without precedent for Aussie buyers, but whereas in the previous generation that bought you 522kW/827Nm of supercharged R-Spec,…

THE WORLD’S longest continuously-running new car award is spooling up for the 61st time, as the Wheels team prepares to push 25 cars through the gruelling Car Of The Year gauntlet for 2024. Our team of six veteran motoring scribes will sharpen their pencils and dust off their note pads this October when we head to the historic birthplace of home-grown Holdens in Lang Lang, Victoria, to feed the best of 2024’s new cars into the COTY wringer. One thing’s for sure – it’s not going to be predictable, and the class of 2024 looks wide open. However this time around we’re tweaking the process and factoring in more time at Lang Lang and more time on the road to make the testing process for COTY 2024 as thorough as…

EVEN TO THE untrained eye, the Genesis GV80 in this image looks suspiciously like a Hyundai Tucson and there are reasons for that. Firstly, it is a Hyundai Tucson. Secondly, the Berwick Hyundai courtesy car decals will clue you in to the fact that not all is happy in the book of Genesis. A few weeks ago, the car had what I can only describe as an electrical brainfart. It started projecting images of the instrument cluster’s dials over the Android Auto information in the centre screen. I figured that this was something that would clear down once I keyed the car off and ‘rebooted’ it, and so it proved. But it was clear that not all was 100 percent with the GV80’s software. A week or so later, as…

WHEN IT COMES to on-the-nose names, Superfast has to be right up there. It’s not as if we couldn’t have figured out for ourselves that a car with 800PS (588kW) wasn’t going to be somewhat brisk. In replacing the 812 Superfast with the 12-cylinder 12Cilindri, at least Ferrari is honouring a certain tradition for statements of the obvious. When it first appeared in 2017, many took the 812 Superfast to be a modest makeover of the prior F12 berlinetta, and that’s because it largely was. But, as Ferrari enthusiasts know, small changes can spawn extremely consequential results. After all, the wonderful F355 was a development of the unloved 348 performed on a relatively tight budget. Behind all of the headline numbers, the Superfast represented something low-key but high impact. It…