Sommaire pour August 2015 de Evo

IN 1938, BUICK PRESENTED a vehicle called the Y-Job. Designed by Harley Earl, the artdeco Y-Job was notable in that it was a mere styling exercise, furnished with outlandish features never intended to make production. It was, in effect, the very first concept car. Concept cars have since become an integral part of the automotive landscape, allowing manufacturers to preview new trends and showcase technological developments before they reach the roads. These concepts can, however, cause as much derision as they do excitement. Sometimes production models hit the street with only a passing resemblance to their conceptual cousins – smaller wheels, toned-down features, drab interiors far removed from those that rotated on motor show turntables. Two recent concept cars that garnered significant attention were the BMW 3.0 CSL Hommage concept…

LAM BORGHINI aficionados’ worst fears have been confirmed with the news that Sant’Agata is to build an SUV. The Urus concept, first seen at the 2012 Beijing motor show, will go into production at the company’s Italian base in 2018 after the current facility has been redeveloped to cover almost double its current 80,000 square metres. The green light for production has required a commitment from both VW Group and Audi AG, as well as the Italian Ministry of Economic Development and a number of other regional government agencies. When the new SUV arrives in Lamborghini showrooms in two and-a-half years’ time it will not only face internal competition from VW’s luxury brand Bentley, which will likely be enjoying the early flushes of success with its Bentayga SUV, but from…

Torque vectoring, e-diffs and adaptive chassis control are all technologies that show how automotive engineers are still thinking of clever ways to enhance the performance of modern cars. Another technology that has recently joined that list is fourwheel steering (4WS). Actually, make that rejoined, as it’s something of a comeback for 4WS. Honda’s Prelude was the first production car to be fitted with such a system, way back in 1987, but since then there have been very few manufacturers that have considered 4WS worthwhile. However, recently it has started to make headlines again, most notably thanks to its inclusion on Porsche’s 991-generation 911 Turbo, GT3 and GT3 RS, and the 918 Spyder. Now Audi has implemented a similar system on its new Q7 SUV, and while it’s not a hugely…

SERENGETI SAN REMO £225 RAY-BAN CLUBMASTER £135 MAUI JIM WATERWAYS £165 You’d expect sunglasses created in Hawaii to be effective, and Maui Jim’s classic-style shades certainly put you in the mood for a sunny drive. evo subeditor Richard Lane swears by his, praising the way the polarised lenses cut glare and offer ‘superb clarity’ even when it’s overcast. The broad frames also offer good coverage – smaller frames can let too much light leak through. Several lens colours are available, from contrast-enhancing grey to easy-on-the-eye brown, with various frame finishes. mauijim.com RAY-BAN COCKPIT £170 Few brands are better known for shades than Ray-Ban. The firm’s Wayfarer and Aviator styles have been popular for decades – the latter as far back as 1936, when they were used by the pilots that…

The weekend of June 27 and 28 will be super-busy for the Michelin team as they contribute to the excitement of two fantastic motorsport events: the formula e London ePrix being held in the centre of the capital, and for which Michelin is the official tyre supplier, and the Goodwood festival of Speed, where the company is hosting the crowd-pleasing Michelin Supercar Paddock and Supercar Run. Each of these events is a paradise for evo readers, but which one should you go to? Simple: both! The racing in formula e is thrillingly close and quick, while the Michelin Supercar Paddock at the Goodwood festival of Speed is the stage for three uk debuts from koenigsegg, Aston Martin and danish newcomer Zenvo. You’ll not want to miss out on any of…

Test location: Balocco Proving Ground, Italy GPS: 45.36038, 8.10556 ON THE APPROACH road to Fiat’s Balocco proving ground in northern Italy there are a few bends that, in truth, are more interesting and fun to drive than anything within the facility itself. the last-minute saviour of many a photo shoot, the tight little S-shaped complex is made more challenging by an ancient and breathe-in narrow, but thankfully well-sighted, stone bridge bang in the middle. It’s best heading towards the proving ground because the road immediately dips away into a long, early-apex left-hander after you crest the short straight between the bridge walls. As long as you’re carrying enough speed, the sudden directional switch is guaranteed to provoke attitude. It’s worked a treat over the years in various Fiats, Alfas and…

Test location: B660, Cambridgeshire GPS: 52.247773, -0.628624 THERE’S ALWAYS concern when a manufacturer starts talking about its back catalogue of the exotic and iconic when launching a new model. For some occasions it’s to be expected. who could deny Ford a misty-eyed trip down memory lane when it announced its latest Focus RS? however, it was a touch unsettling to read about Porsche’s 904 GTS in the press material that accompanied the new Cayenne GTS. For those unfamiliar with Porsche’s lesser-known ’60s icons, the 904 Carrera GTS, to give it its full name, was designed by Butzi Porsche, the son of Ferry Porsche and whose CV also included the original 911. when asked of his favourite design, he would declare it to be the mid-mounted flat-sixengined, fibreglass-bodied 904. and who…

THERE’S BEEN PLENTY OF FUSS IN THE papers about the value of Lewis Hamilton’s latest contract with Mercedes AMG Petronas, but honestly I’m not at all surprised. That’s not to say I don’t think £30million is an astonishing annual salary, However, Alonso is on similar money over at struggling McLaren and it’s not hard to imagine that the Italians are paying Vettel more. Then consider that Lewis’s hero, Ayrton Senna, is said to have been paid $1million a race by McLaren as far back as 1993 and it becomes clear that drivers are paid whatever somebody is willing to pay them. We should also remember that all these drivers are out there risking their lives, which isn’t the case for Lionel Messi or LeBron James, unparalleled as those guys are.…

Alongside the EK9 there’s the Nissan Pulsar VZ-R N1 with 197bhp from a naturally aspirated 1.6, although with a less focused chassis and transmission. There’s also the turbocharged Pulsar GTI-R. kad MG ZS 180. Double wishbones all round, a sweet V6, and all in a small saloon body. I drove a few and they handled great. _Who_ The Citroën Xsara VTS. It had the same engine as the Peugeot 306 GTI 6, a slightly more interesting chassis and the benefit of a five-speed ’box that perfectly suited what has to still be one of the greatest naturally aspirated four-cylinder engines ever. And it really was largely forgotten about, as was its predecessor, the ZX 16v. Swervin_Mervin You could mention pretty much any Citroën version of a PSA hot hatch in…

THIS IS THE GROUND FLOOR. THE FIRST edition. The Macintosh 128k. The Boeing 747-100. This is the beginning of an icon (and I think you’ll allow me to use the word). This is the very first Impreza WRX, or Impreza Turbo, as it was known in the UK. To be precise, this car is a Japanese domestic market (JDM) Subaru Impreza MY93 WRX Type RA; not only the first WRX ever produced, but at 1170kg, also the very lightest WRX ever produced. Standing, gazing at a ‘GC8’ Impreza on a blustery and bright B660, the unchanged scene of so many evo and Performance Car tests over the years, it feels a little like I’ve stepped back in time. The Impreza was launched in November 1992 and while in rallying terms…

‘It’ll be the wheels falling off mid-corner at Anglesey that’ll get you…’ CAN ANYONE BUILD A Caterham Seven? That’s exactly what we took our first steps towards discovering when we made the decision to have our new 420R long-termer delivered in boxes. What we didn’t quite anticipate was just how many boxes it would come in. Surely the engine just needs a few ‘bits’ attaching to it and you’re away? Unfortunately not. A Seven requires the sort of removal van you’d use to move the average family from house to house. As such, we needed a fully stocked workshop in which to get the build done. Mission Motorsport kindly answered that call, offering us a full week at its HQ near Oxford to put the 420R together. It’s now left…

IT’S A SHAME AUDI AND Subaru’s paths never crossed on the stages of the World Rally Championship. The image of Röhrl in a Sport Quattro S1 against McRae in an Impreza tackling the Col de Turini or Kielder Forest at night is sadly a spectacle we were denied, due in no small part to the parties involved competing in different eras. However, in 2015 Audi and Subaru do compete in the fast road saloon car category, with their respective four-door S3 and WRX STI models. The numbers for the two are close. The WRX is £4585 cheaper than the S3 (£28,995 plays £33,580) and has 300lb ft of torque available compared to the S3’s 280lb ft (although the Audi’s is delivered at a lowly 1800rpm while the WRX has to…

A DISMAL MASS OF RED bricks and corrugated iron, there’s a warehouse that sits on the north bank of the river Thames at dagenham, and neither the public nor employees of the company that owns it can enter without explicit permission. Today, though, is my lucky day, because I’ve been admitted through its timeworn doors, and while the air inside is frigid enough for me see my own breath, my curiosity is white-hot. If you love cars, ford’s Heritage Collection is a treasure trove; if you love fords, it’s nirvana. sitting among artefacts clad in transparent dustsheets, my focus rs is here for a medical to be undertaken by Ford’s top consultant geriatricians, Ivan Bartholomeusz and Colin Gray. The duo conserves what must be the finest fleet of classic fords…

THE CONCEPT OF A LIGHTWEIGHT, BRITISH designed and built track car is nothing new. In fact, the UK is a fervent breeding ground for such ventures. Some of them, such as Ariel, even get beyond the first wave of press announcements and show appearances and grow to become established players in their chosen field. Now Elemental wants to be the next success story with the car you can see here, the RP1. A project that’s been three years in the making, the RP1 is the result of six engineers, designers and business specialists joining forces to produce a road-legal track car that owes its creation as much to F1 as it does to British ingenuity and endeavour. Yet the market for such cars is small, not to mention competitive, with…

IN 2017 WE WILL SEE THE return of one of the most iconic British sports car brands when the first Gordon Murray Design (GMD), Cosworth-powered TVR makes its debut. It will be a remarkable turnaround for a marque that was only brought out of administration by its current owners in 2013. Today’s TVR is headed by Les Edgar, a software entrepreneur, Sagaris owner and a man who works on the principle that you should get the best people for the job, which is why the new car will be engineered by Gordon Murray – and built using his iStream manufacturing concept – and powered by a Cosworth-built V8. Work on the new TVR has been underway for the last 12 months, with GMD finalising the car’s tubular and composite chassis…

‘ISN’T IT DISTRACTING?’ That’s the question most people ask of the 17-inch touchscreen that occupies a vast swathe of real estate on the dashboard of the Tesla Model S P85D. View the screen in photographs, where inevitably the brightness has been maximised for illustrative effect, and people imagine the output is akin to a console-mounted searchlight. Off-putting during the day, positively blinding at night. The reality is rather obvious. Not only can the screen be dimmed during the daytime, but it automatically dims as ambient light fades. It’s always on, so to an extent there’ll always be a glow in your periphery, but it’s no more a bugbear than the screens in most equivalent luxury vehicles. And its myriad functions are more than welcome in nose-to-tail Birmingham traffic, which is…

TAG Heuer Formula 1 McLaren From: tagheuer.com Price: £1200 If you’ve ever wondered where the ‘TAG’ bit of TAG Heuer came from, you’ll need to look back three decades to the purchase of Heuer by Techniques Avant Garde. Mansour Ojjeh, the son of TAG founder Akram Ojjeh, was also a McLaren shareholder, and the TAG Heuer/McLaren partnership has been going strong ever since, making it the longest collaboration between a Formula 1 constructor and a watch brand. This new Formula 1 watch marks the 30th anniversary and will be available from July in a numbered edition of 5000 examples. Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Concept Laptimer Michael Schumacher From: audemarspiguet.com Price: SFr 210,000 Although Michael Schumacher has been out of the public eye for 18 months, Audemars Piguet has – with…

Test location: Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, Spain GPS: 41.572503, 2.255760 I DON’T REALLY subscribe to the theory that lamborghini is somehow ‘going soft’, but I’d love to see and hear the reaction of somebody who does when confronted with an aventador lP750-4 Superveloce. Forget the numbers for a second and just take in the extraordinary sight of the SV. a huge great wedge of carbonfibre and aluminium riddled with intakes and aero devices, nose shovelling into the ground, rear wing flying high. It’s ridiculous, heroically brazen and joyously Lamborghini. If this is the ultimate representation of the marque in 2015 then audi’s stewardship of everyone’s favourite (former) basket case is impeccable. Of course, in the good old days there was always the suspicion that, for lamborghini, that gleeful effect when casting…

Test location: monticello, new York, USA GPS: 41.66550, -74.69516 AT A TIME WHEN most premium car manufacturers are consciously moving away from the manual transmission, Jaguar has gone to significant lengths to offer a stick and three pedals in its F-type sports car. A cynic might say it’s a self-serving, loss-leading move designed to communicate the marque’s apparent commitment to delivering engaging driving dynamics as much as it’s a response to market demand, but the F-type line-up is, nonetheless, more complete for offering an alternative to the familiar eight-speed automatic. The manual gearbox is part of the mY2016 update, which also introduces a revised infotainment system, electric in place of hydraulic power steering, and the option of four-wheel drive (but not in tandem with the manual gearbox). the new transmission…

WAY BACK IN THE DIM AND DISTANT past, when the ink was barely dry on the first issue of evo and Harry Metcalfe had yet to have his left arm replaced with a selfie stick, our technical editor – the late Jeff Daniels – pondered the heretical notion of a diesel Ferrari. It was a brilliantly controversial but far from a crackpot suggestion, and one that got the dobbin fanciers’ ‘SF’ monogrammed knickers in a right old twist. So, in the spirit of blatant plagiarism and in recognition of Jeff’s original iconoclastic idea, I’ve been wondering what the future holds for Ferrari. On the face of it there’s nothing to worry about. Well, apart from the proliferation of branded tat – sorry, ‘merchandising’ – plastered with the sacred Scuderia’s emblem.…

From the forums: community.evo.co.uk/forums You don’t have to buy a BMW, of course. Plenty of great cars are available very cheaply. It’s mainly choice BMWs and Porsches that seem to suffer from this. duncs5000 The Jap stuff seems to be going the same way as well, Duncs. Well, the interesting stuff. Clio V6s have also gone daft. Even the Williams appears to now be on the rise (albeit still not quite daft yet). Swervin_Mervin For more than ten times that 325i Sport’s asking price you can have the Rubystone 964 RS that’s currently for sale. Makes the E30 seem reasonable! Jobbo The thing is, where else are you going to find a 33k-mile 325i Sport? So for someone looking for one who has the cash, this is the Holy Grail.…

AT 5.02AM THE SUN EMERGES FROM AN eerily calm North Sea, growing from tiny radiant jewel to perfectly formed orb. For ten minutes or so, as evo photographer Aston Parrott snaps away, we watch in silence as the new day dawns. This will be our last peaceful moment between now and 9.04pm when, at the day’s end, the sun will set in the west. We’ve given ourselves a full spring day to get from here at Aldeburgh on the Suffolk coast to the vast expanse of Porthmadog beach in north Wales. If all we had to do today was drive we could manage that three times over, but there’s a great deal to be done along the way. We’ll be stopping off at five locations on an indirect route; five…

WHEN YOU QUIZ THE PROJECT LEADER of Honda’s new Civic Type R on his resolute commitment to the Nürburgring, he’ll reply with a great deal of very worthy comments about surface changes, corner variety and long straights. Then, as his boyish grin finally bursts through an inexorably thinning facade of professional solemnity, he’ll admit that the real reason he and his team spent so much time at the Nürburgring with their new machine was because their president announced to the world, much to their surprise, that they would smash lap records with it. That which the president decrees must come to be. For Takanobu Ito it was a glib stringing together of subjects, verbs and objects, but for Hisayuki Yagi it meant three years of hard work and one almighty…

THE ENDURING BATTLE FOR SUPREMACY BETWEEN Mercedes-AMG and BMW M is one of the automotive industry’s great rivalries. Toe-to-toe, blow-for-blow, Stuttgart and Munich revel in the ongoing slugfest that has given us some of the most exceptional cars of recent years. Of those, perhaps none are more significant than the successive generations of C-class and 3-seriesbased cars, for it’s into these family cars with genuine everyday practicality that AMG and M engineers rejoice in shoehorning extraordinary powertrains and heavyweight firepower. Compelling and corrupting in equal measure, by pretty much any measure they are all the car you could reasonably want or need. The battle may be timeworn, but the rules of engagement have changed for 2015, with the latest-generation C63 and M3 featuring downsized turbocharged engines in place of the…

FIRST THE BAD NEWS. Despite assurances in my last Fast Fleet update, I failed to make it to the first evo track evening of 2015. This means I still haven’t had a proper play with the myriad settings on the Mégane’s Öhlins dampers, which is a shame as I’ve been looking forward to exploring their range of performance and compliance. The good news is that the idea has grown into something bigger, which you’ll be able to read about soon. Missing the evening at Bedford Autodrome was a disappointment, but a trip to the Spa Classic historic race meeting offered ample compensation. My steeds for the weekend were a Lotus Cortina, an Elan 26R and a rather fine Rover V8, but the Mégane was my travelling companion for the familiar…

I RATHER LIKE THE CLEAN ‘PET’ (pre-event test) white of my RS2000, but somehow a livery is the clothing of a competition car and unadorned they can look a bit naked. So, a while ago I began collating pictures of all the best Mk2 Escort liveries over the years and started rifling through this virtual wardrobe, trying to decide where to draw most inspiration from. Clearly I didn’t want a straightforward facsimile of an iconic Rothmans, Castrol or Andrews Heat for Hire car; that first one was impossible anyway, as you’re not allowed tobacco liveries unless your particular car wore the same design in period. Anyway, after a while I decided to throw the tricky task out to you lovely lot via evo.co.uk. The stipulations were that the livery had…

IN THE 16M’S ‘NEW arrival’ report in evo 205, I stated that our bonding process was well underway and that the car would most likely be used for weekend runs and road-trips. The reality has been a bit different. Due to no fault of its own, the 16M has done neither to date. A hectic work schedule has pushed all the planned road-trips to later in the year and the local environment has turned out to be not particularly suited to the 16M’s charms. While an unusually cold winter did little to improve the quality of the roads in my part of the States, this has not been a major factor in the very modest use this car has seen. No, the key driver has been the nature of the…

I’VE ALWAYS THOUGHT supercars age a bit like our canine friends, with 12 months equalling seven supercar years. That makes my 458 35 years old and a certain orange Murciélago 73, which seems about right. Back from its top-end engine rebuild, the Italia is in really storming form. munching up the miles daily, that gorgeous v8 is going like a Merlin, but where Ferrari has really nailed it with the 458 is the way this supercar is screwed together. Backtrack seven years and 6th Gear experience had five 360 modenas. Good road cars they certainly were, but pile on the miles and the interiors would literally start coming apart. The 430 was transformed in this department and, digressing slightly, i think they’re still hugely underrated. The 458, though, hits the…

Q I’ve just moved house, swapping a boring motorway commute for a country-road adventure in car control. My BMW 116d is boring, gutless and terrible in slippery conditions. Do I replace it with a Honda FD2 Civic Type R saloon, a Mk5/6 Golf GTI, or get a four-wheel-drive Audi S3 or Golf R32? Whatever I choose needs to be family-friendly and cost under £15,000. Michael Motteram, Essex A As the FD2 Civic (pictured) was never officially imported to the UK, it truly is a connoisseur’s choice, coming with chassis strengthening and a limited-slip diff missing from the equivalent Euro models. Although it will cost you more to buy and run than a Golf GTI, it shouldn’t require too much specialist attention – and being a particularly special Type R, it…

Camera: Canon EOS-1D X. Focal length: 420mm. Exposure: 1/1000sec at f/9.0 (ISO 400). Lens: 300mm at f/2.8 ONE IMAGINES JEAN-PASCAL DAUCE, DISMAYED AT having had his request to give the forthcoming phase two Renaultsport Mégane R26 a power hike curiously denied, felt a lump form in his throat. After all, it being 2007, his counterpart at Ford – none other than Jost Capito – was in the process of arming a new Focus RS with a reported 300bhp and a chassis capable of handling it… In hindsight, the man behind any Mégane worth driving had sound grounds on which to ask the Groupe Renault board for a right of reply, because at a time when the hot hatch power wars were threatening to go nuclear, the R26’s existing 227bhp wasn’t…

Test location: B307, Bayrischzell, germany GPS: 47.68064, 12.02573 LOOKS GOOD, DOESN’T it? sounds good, too. But then apart from the odd ’80s horror, the Mustang has always known how to push our buttons. that’s why more than 4000 Mustangs of various ages are registered in the UK, despite Ford’s most prolific sports car never being officially imported. now, for the first time, Ford has decided to bring Mustang to Blighty. Better still, they’ll be right-hand drive. Do you want one? on face value it’s hard to say no, because designer Moray Callum has done a great job of penning this latest one. It’s still a beefcake, but there’s great definition to its physique and a newfound sharpness to its features. Amongst european traffic it still bursts with stateside spectacle, but…

Test location: A413, Buckinghamshire GPS: 51.850650, -0.827821 AS MID-LIFE FACELIFTS go, BMW’s effort for the m6 is on the subtle side. There are new led headlights, a new kidney grille and front bumper, and the indicators now sit within the door mirrors. However, the facelift also brings with it a new competition Package that sees the 4.4-litre twin-turbo V8 gain 40bhp over the regular m6 (and 25bhp over the previous competition Package), pushing peak power to 592bhp. Torque is up too, by 15lb ft to 516lb ft, while the claimed 0-62mph time is cut by 0.3sec to 3.9sec. BMW says the pack brings over £10,000-worth of kit, including firmer springs, dampers and anti-roll bars, a recalibrated Active m differential and stability control, and new mapping for the electric power steering.…

DO YOU REMEMBER WHAT MOBILE phones were like a decade ago? Mostly, they were crap. And it was acknowledging this fact that prompted Apple to develop their own phone, because they knew with unwavering conviction that they could do better. They were right. Likewise, with the tablet computer. The fruity peoples of California didn’t invent that, but they did see a gap in the market for one that worked with a smooth slickness, thereby creating a big-selling item people didn’t know they wanted until they saw it. Not quite as earth-shattering as the phone because no one really needs to carry around a touch-sensitive slab of internet, but a little landmark nonetheless. Then we come to the recent Apple Watch. Here things get less earth-shattering. Apple didn’t invent the watch…

Huge thanks to Henry Catchpole for his excellent article on the Defender Challenge by Bowler in evo 207. I had been contemplating a return to racing having sold my Caterham Roadsport race car 12 years ago. After reading Henry’s article, an evening of internet research and a ‘go for it!’ from the wife, I decided the Defender Challenge was for me. I contacted Bowler Motorsport the next day and within the week had agreed to buy the press car that Henry drove. So only five weeks after reading Henry’s article, I lined up on the start line of my first rally, the Somerset Stages, having slept little for the previous two nights due to the mix of excitement, anticipation and some trepidation. The result? I haven’t grinned so much in…

TRULY, I WISH YOU COULD SIT IN ON THE PRESS briefing for the new 488 GTB. In fact I think Ferrari should livestream these things to give everyone a little glimpse into the work that goes into creating a supercar in 2015. The interplay of hardware and software, the detail aerodynamic work to create downforce whilst reducing drag, the way engine and chassis response times are measured in milliseconds… It’s jaw-dropping, head-swimmingly complicated and, at times, hilarious. One of the slides concerning Side Slip Control 2 – a series of handwritten mathematical equations concerning yaw rate and roll equilibrium – has the room collapsed in laughter. It might as well be hieroglyphics. (Apparently the German contingent just furrowed their brows and earnestly took notes.) Anyway, the point is that I…

THUD. THEY BREED ’EM BIG out here. Another yellow smear appears on the glass, glistening briefly before drying opaque in the same rushing slipstream that brought the insect to its early demise. The collection of entomological streaks looks almost artistic in the beautiful evening sun. BAP. The needle drops. The sound, that wonderful sound, deepens a little but the onrush is relentless. A full-throttle PDK upshift breaks the RS’s stride no more than the insect impact. A right-hander approaches and although earlier in the day instinct would have told me to brake back when the insect hit, I know that it’s only now that I need to stand hard on the pedal, tap twice on the left-hand paddle and turn in. The nose of the RS reacts instantly. Inside, I…

OUR PETROL OCTAVIA vRS is back, replacing the diesel Octavia vRS courtesy car that I reported on last month. Our long-termer was away because of a squeaking noise emanating from the sunroof. The squeak only happened at low speeds and when the bodyshell twisted, for example when exiting a steep drive at an angle. The vRS had already been back to Skoda within the first few weeks of my custodianship because of the same issue. The first time around it was remedied by replacing a plastic control box that had been squashed, meaning one of the edges was rubbing. This time, though, the control box was fine. Steve, the Skoda technician who worked on our car, found that everything was as it should be, other than the seals being a…

PERCEPTION IS REALITY, right? Whatever some people think, and for whatever reason, becomes a truth. combatting skewed perceptions, then, is a battle that you’d better be prepared to fight long-term. The range rover gets a fair bit of attention and comment, and that’s before people have seen the ebony/Pimento interior. the conversation generally starts with an observation about the car’s size, a question about mpg, then the hot topic – reliability. Some timidly ask if I’ve had any problems with it; others are a little more forthright. of the latter, most are former range rover drivers. Devotees, I might add, but also people who have a story (or ten) about the shonky reliability of range rovers they’ve owned. When I say I’ve not had a single problem in four months…

ONE THING I DIDN’T mention in the Golf’s first report last month is that it recently spent a year sitting in a cold, dusty garage. So steps had to be taken to get it back on the road. My first job was to drop the car down to my local garage for its MOT. I’d anticipated the need to replace some parts – this is a 23-year-old car – but unfortunately those parts were a new fuel pressure accumulator and radiator. Not the best outcome. I thought they might be hard to find, but luckily for me there is one company that is a saving grace for all classic Volkswagen owners: VW Heritage, in West Sussex. The company has plenty of ‘new old stock’ and reproduction parts available, and after…

Insights into the used car market TALK TOO LOUDLY ABOUT THE Mk1 Audi TT and you might hear sniggers of disapproval from nearby petrolheads. Why, you might then ask, are we featuring one as this month’s Next Big Thing? Well, because if you look beyond the lowpowered front-drive versions that were the big sellers, there’s one particular edition that stands out from the rest – the TT Sport. Audi already had a pretty interesting fast-TT package with the 247bhp 3.2 V6 quattro, but the Sport was based on the lighter 1.8T quattro, with power boosted from 222 to 237bhp. It was also developed by quattro GmbH – the division responsible for the development of the RS cars. Big changes included a more aggressive styling package borrowed from the V6, plus…

SUPERCHARGED 4.2-LITRE V8 BANGING OUT 420BHP – Jaguar ushered in its new XK range in style, putting the XKR into the mix from the start of sales in 2006, rather than waiting a couple of years before introducing the hot one. While the new, ian callum-designed XKR ran with much the same engine as its predecessor – a few extra horsepower liberated through changes to the engine management, amongst other tweaks – it boasted a significant advance over its XK8-based forebear in the form of the XK’s all-aluminium bodyshell, which was light, strong and exceptionally well made. The XKR was also treated to a smooth-shifting ZF six-speed automatic transmission, complete with a paddleshift operation of such quality that similar systems on rival cars began to seem primitive. A further advance…

Insights into the used car market THERE’S AN ABSOLUTELY TOP-CLASS LINE-UP OF CARS AT THIS year’s Bonhams Goodwood Festival of Speed sale, which takes place on June 26 at the legendary event. The first of the UK-based auction house’s major attractions is a particularly special Porsche. This 1961 781 RS-61 Sports-Racing (pictured top) was purchased by Sir Stirling Moss just days after his terrible lift shaft accident in 2010. You could say it was a deserved ‘well get soon’ present. Moss never raced this Porsche in period: it was originally bought in the USA, where it was raced by privateers in various East Coast events. After it was recently fully rebuilt by historic Porsche specialist Andy Prill, Moss drove it in a few historic events. However, following a particularly difficult…

Great drives: A708, Scotland Start point: 55.331212, -3.428885, The Holm, Moffat The road: A708 from Moffat to Selkirk Perfect for: Mitsubishi Evo IX, Porsche Cayman R JOHN LOUDON McADAM’S ‘MACADAMISATION’ OF ROADS was revolutionary, not just for the materials but for the addition of a crown (and therefore camber) to roads, allowing water to drain effectively. It is rather appropriate, therefore, that in 1836 he should have died in Moffat, a Borders town that is the start of two of the greatest driving roads in the country. Previously we have covered the A701 (evo 193), which goes almost due north; this time we’re rhapsodising about the A708, which plots a course northeast. Where the 701 dives straight into an interesting climb, the 708 takes a little longer to get going.…