Sommaire pour October 2021 de Evo

ACROSS THIS AND THE PREVIOUS TWO issues of evo we have conducted a trio of group tests featuring solely hot hatches. And we make no apologies for this, or for the fact that we will be publishing a fourth and final shoot-out before the year end, bringing together our favourite cars from all three tests. Initially, we thought we would have just one big blowout ultimate test. Bring together a dozen or more hot hatches and let them fight it out amongst themselves until there was one left standing. But there were two reasons not to do this. The first was that a test of that size doesn’t allow you to drill down to the minutiae of each car, to convey its character and report its good and bad elements.…

ITS RADIUS APPEARS TIGHT AT FIRST sight but you can carry more speed into, through and out of this uphill righthander than initially anticipated. That the exit opens up to present an arrow-straight stretch of tarmac that’s masked by the entry is a welcome discovery. This is a good corner. Well sighted, quick enough to be a challenge, yet not so quick that you need to take liberties to enjoy it. In, say, a 992 GT3 Touring with a manual gearbox, you’d downshift to third on approach, confident that you’ll be operating within the engine’s peak torque range at the corner exit. After a few runs you’ll pick up the throttle earlier in the turn, feel the diff hook up with more conviction as it catches then balances the torque…

IT’S A SWELTERING DAY AT THE VAIRANO test track just south of Milan and the pit garages are empty save for one. Inside it’s a hive of activity, with mechanics swarming around the rear of a car up on air jacks, bare carbonfibre bodywork removed and baking on a stand in the sun in the paddock behind. Next to the exposed car are a row of engineers and a bank of laptops. The atmosphere is tense but excited. The prototype track-only Pagani Huayra R is ready for shakedown and aero tests. Just 30 Huayra Rs will be made and the price of entry is €2.6million plus taxes (let’s call it £2.7million), so it is the very definition of a ‘toy’, but the engineering behind it is serious and the mechanical…

FROM THE DEATH OF THE A610 IN 1995 until the arrival of the new A110 in 2017 things were quiet on the Alpine front, but it wasn’t for want of trying. Even before the salesphobic A610 was killed off without replacement, parent company Renault was confecting schemes and styling proposals for new Alpines and did so for years until, finally, the A110 made it over the line. These ill-fated plans included project Z11 of 1999, a curiously art deco coupe scheduled to be shown off as a concept before Renault management had a change of heart and kept it locked in the design studio. Then there was project W16 of 2005, a mid-engined 2+2 based around the design of the Renault Wind (the 2004 concept car, not the bathtub-like production…

IF THERE’S A FAVOURITE TROPE OF UK MOTORING journalists, it’s the notion of driving to the south of France. Preferably in one hit. Most commonly referenced when discussing the appeal of fast and luxurious GT cars, the sad truth is that this kind of transcontinental jaunt is probably as far from most people’s motoring reality as nailing a sub-7min lap of the Nordschleife in the latest 911 GT3. It’s a lovely thought though, isn’t it? Pack a bag, brim the tank and keep driving south until you can see the sparkling Côte d’Azur. The sense of adventure and anticipation. The changing scenery and rising ambient temperature. The illadvised bursts of speed and yes, even the ropey autoroute jambon et fromage sandwiches. If you’ve ever been fortunate enough to do it,…

AS A YOUNGSTER, AUSTRALIANborn and now UK-dwelling Jayson Fong had no vision that he’d become a photographer, of cars or anything else. ‘I never really saw it as something that I would ever do,’ he admits. ‘Truth be told, I never actually liked photography when I was younger because I used to do a lot of drawing and art, as I still do. Photography I saw as kind of cheating, because I’d spend hours doing a drawing and you could just take a photo and get an instant result. I thought, hey, that’s not right!’ Cars, however, have always been on Fong’s radar. And for that he has his father to thank. ‘Dad has forever been a BMW fanatic,’ he reveals, ‘so there were always nice cars around. Perhaps because…

THIS IS THE PRODRIVE HUNTER. Built to battle the rigours of international rally raid events, it is arguably the final piece of the puzzle for one of the most successful and celebrated names in world motorsport. With decades of success at the highest levels of world rallying, touring cars, Le Mans and F1 (via David Richards’ management of the BAR Grand Prix team at the turn of the millennium), the Hunter has overall Dakar victory squarely in its sights. Driven by Sébastien Loeb and Dakar veteran Nani Roma, the Hunter and the BRX team (backed by Bahrain’s sovereign wealth fund) made their debut in this year’s event, and while it was not without incident (Loeb eventually retired), Roma secured 5th overall – the best-ever result for a new team and…

THIS GENERATION OF C63 HAS LONG BEEN my dream car, and as you may have read in our ‘Living the Dream’ feature two issues ago, after recently spotting a well-optioned 2010 estate for sale I finally took the plunge. A 480bhp rear-wheel-drive AMG will struggle to disappoint even the most seasoned drivers, but, with this technically being my very first car, it’s safe to say that I’m rather pleased with my purchase. Though later, facelifted W204s were within my budget, the low odometer reading, tasteful spec and desirable Performance Pack Plus option drew me to this particular example. Equipped with uprated engine internals from the SLS for an extra 30bhp, plus larger brakes and an Alcantara and leather steering wheel, it’s easy to see why so many look for the…

WE CAN HEAR IT COMING FOR MILES, THE HEAVY V8 beat rising and falling as the car accelerates and brakes, getting closer. Any moment we expect it to appear around the corner closest to us and, confusingly, it doesn’t. The sound gets louder and louder and when the Mustang eventually bursts into view it assaults our eyes and ears simultaneously. The colour! The stripes! In the insect world this sort of colour scheme is a warning that shouts ‘stay away or I’ll leave a bad taste in your mouth!’ But as digital news editor Jordan Katsianis attests, when applied to a Mustang, it draws interest; as he headed up the M1 from London, every BMW M and Mercedes-AMG wanted to race him. Maybe it was the noise that attracted them,…

IN THE LATTER DAYS OF MY SCHOOL education a good friend had an original Mini as his first car. He now reads evo, but I don’t think he’ll mind me saying that few can have combined such naive fearlessness and irrepressible enthusiasm for driving flat out behind the wheel of that British motoring institution as he did. Oh how we giggled uncontrollably as one near-death experience was quickly followed by another, the raucous howl of the mercilessly thrashed 1-litre A-series emanating from a bodyshell two-parts rust to one-part filler, and covered in a variety of shades of British Racing Green that had seemingly been applied by a blind man with an assortment of aerosol cans. I think in modern terms we might have been called a ‘menace to society’. Matters…

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ALMOST FROM THE MOMENT THE 911 was introduced people have wanted to make them go faster. Nearly six decades on it remains a cause many enthusiasts dedicate themselves to, be they Porsche’s own Andreas Preuninger – architect of successive generations of factory GT cars – to all manner of tuners, restomodders and marque specialists who look to put their own stamp on Stuttgart’s most enduring model. It’s a vibrant and crowded scene, with many specialists focusing tightly on a specific 911 era. Among them is Sports Purpose. Founded in the spring of 2018 by James Turner, the Oxfordshire-based concern sources and sells some of the rarest and most sought-after Porsches from its base at Bicester Heritage. Short-wheelbase 911s are a particular passion, and in parallel with starting his business, Turner…

HAVING SPENT A NOT INSIGNIFICANT amount of time inside our RS e-tron GT since it arrived a few months ago, I can’t help but notice a strange lack of synergy between its interior and its price point. Almost all of the interior in our top-spec model is wrapped in some form of super-smooth nappa leather, including the seats, the dash and the doors, while the Alcantara used for the roof lining and on the pillars does its own bit to up the ambience. Yet look beyond these plush materials and this does not feel like the interior of a flagship Audi. There are a few reasons for this, but the most conspicuous is the interfaces. It’ll come as no surprise to see that the e-tron GT shares some of its…

MY 996 AND I MOVED, WITH SLIGHT trepidation, into the 21st century recently. No, we didn’t instantly acquire 100bhp and 100kg: we got connected in a digital sense. Whilst I hadn’t exactly been losing sleep over the 996’s lack of smartphone connectivity, the fact remains that I can’t even remember where I stored the majority of my CD collection in this streaming age. Essentially, the musical possibilities from the original Becker-made head unit and CD multichanger (remember them?) were extremely limited, and the idea of being able to receive a call safely on the move was quite appealing. A number of 996 and 997-owning friends have installed aftermarket set-ups, both single and double DIN, and I was contemplating doing the same when Porsche Classic announced its latest ‘classic’ infotainment system…

YES, IT IS GETTING ON A BIT. AND YES, IT does still share some components from the Chrysler parts bin. And, well, yes, you probably did forget that Maserati still makes the Ghibli. But if you enjoy your supersaloons with a unique slice of character and personality compared with the usual suspects, then Italy’s answer to the M5 has just got a whole lot more compelling and, crucially, competitive. As with the Quattroporte (issue 287), Maserati has added a Trofeo model to the Ghibli line-up, which means that for the first time the smaller of the two saloons from Modena now has an eightcylinder engine where previously only a choice of six-cylinder petrol or diesel units was available. And where the infotainment system might be borrowed from Chrysler via parent…

FOR 20 YEARS A VEHICLE DYNAMICS engineer for Jaguar and then Jaguar Land Rover, and more recently the founder of Life110, the Alpine A110 tuning company whose work has so impressed us, David Pook attributes at least part of his fascination with suspension and chassis behaviour to a radio-controlled car. ‘I was into suspension from an early age,’ he reveals. ‘It stemmed from my dad – an electronics engineer – bringing back a Tamiya Sand Scorcher from Japan when they first came out and building that up and seeing brilliant working suspension. It just grabbed me.’ Enthralled by the Sand Scorcher, Pook went on to race radio-controlled cars at UK regional and national level until he left school. ‘I learnt so much about suspension set-up in that time because it’s…

WE’RE OFFERING ONE READER THE CHANCE TO WIN A HYUNDAI i20 N WORTH £25,545 This is Hyundai’s impressive new hot hatch from its N performance brand, complete with a 1.6-litre turbo petrol engine and a six-speed manual gearbox that can shift the car from 0-62mph in 6.2 seconds. Top speed? That’s a swift 142mph. The i20 N is a car designed and developed by enthusiasts for enthusiasts. Excitement and performance are at its core, and there’s a host of great tech in the cabin like a 10.25-inch digital dashboard with infotainment touchscreen. Plus, features like a wireless phone charger, rear-view camera, climate control and cruise control make it supremely comfortable to drive. This might be a small car but it comes with a big personality. It’s agile, powerful thanks to…

IT’S OPPRESSIVELY HOT IN ITALY. THE sort of heat that seeps into your eyes, nose and throat and seems to boil you from the inside out. Even so, the magnificence of Rome on a summer’s day is like an ice-cool Bellini for the soul after months of lockdown misery. Nothing could stop me from wandering around this extraordinary city for hour after hour… Well, almost nothing. Today every proud building and monument, every narrow street teeming with life and errant scooters slips by almost unnoticed. Today we head north to the Autodromo di Vallelunga to drive the Huracán STO. Finally, Lamborghini has fully uncorked its baby. No apologies, no excuses and – hallelujah – no front driveshafts. The STO is truly a mouth-watering prospect. It feels like we’ve been waiting…

SOMETIMES I’LL FIND MYSELF DRAWN TOWARDS perching at the counter. Other times the quiet room round the back will become my home from home as I line up the espressos and try to think of what to write. Currently my favoured spot in my local coffee shop is in the corner, just to the left of the door as you walk in. It’s particularly good today because I can see the high street and the steady stream of interesting vehicles driving up it. There must be a car meet going on somewhere nearby because intermingled with the monochrome drudgery of SUVs is a succession of hot hatches. The traffic lights up the road turn red and as an ST and a GTI roll to a halt they both decide to…

IT’S A WARNING LIGHT, JUST TURN THE car off and on again and it will go out. Or not. Perhaps if you leave it overnight it will be extinguished by the morning. No? Turn the passenger airbag off and on, see if that does the trick? Nope. Nothing. After four days of man logic, I gave in and called Aston Martin Assistance to ask if they had any suggestions as to how to turn off/ignore the DBX’s warning message that the driver’s airbag had a malfunction and I should consult the workshop. I’d even tried Matt Becker, AM’s head of vehicle engineering, but he was out of office tending to his garden… Thankfully Aston Martin’s assistance programme was as efficient as you would expect from a car company that charges…

THE CUPRA FORMENTOR WASN’T THE first crossover or SUV that I’ve run. My Fast Fleet history also includes an Alfa Romeo Stelvio Quadrifoglio, which was one of my favourite long-termers to date, and Nissan’s Juke Nismo RS, which was one of my least favourite. So now that its time with evo is over, where did the Formentor settle on this spectrum? It certainly made a strong first impression, with a striking design that combined chiselled lines with a long bonnet for a look that was far less dumpy than that of your average crossover. Further emphasising the Formentor’s sporting aspirations was a purposeful rear diffuser with a pair of exhaust pipes on each side, plus 19-inch alloys with a matt black and silver machined finish. The result was a crossover…

I’VE BEEN LIVING WITH OUR FOCUS ST Estate for a month or so now and here’s my conclusion: what a car! I mean that in the purest possible sense. This thing is fantastic at what a mid-sized estate car should be fantastic at: carrying people and stuff. So often we moan about crossovers and sing the praises of hatchbacks or smaller estate cars, but so often my heart sinks when I borrow one back-to-back with an SUV-shaped thing and realise that, practically speaking, the high-riding, heavy, ‘pointless’ option is more practical in nearly every conceivable way. Not so this time. The Focus has tons of rear space, a huge boot and just feels brilliantly equipped to deal with the real world. With this in mind, I also want to tell…