Sommaire pour September 2020 de Wheels

OF THE 1513 fully electric or plug-in hybrid vehicles sold locally in the first six months of 2020, 921 were SUVs. Manufacturers are expecting those numbers to grow exponentially and are sending fresh new metal Down Under to take advantage. These three all-new SUVs have their passports packed and boarding passes at the ready to arrive in Australia next year. They’ll face stiff competition from the likes of the Jaguar I-Pace, Tesla Model X, and COTY-winning Mercedes-Benz EQC. 01 AUDI Q4 E-TRON Technically still a concept, a production version is to be revealed imminently. Built on VW’s MEB platform, the Q4 e-tron will use an 82kWh battery with either twin- or single-motor configurations. Final production figures are yet to be finalised but a claimed range in the region of 500km…

VOLKSWAGEN TOUAREG VW has given its Touareg line-up an extensive overhaul by adding a new V8 flagship and restructuring the existing range. Gone is the 190TDI, with its place now taken by three new Euro 6 compliant variants: 170TDI ($81,490), 210TDI Elegance ($99,490) and 210TDI R-Line ($108,490). The V8 TDI R-Line range-topper uses a Bentley-sourced oiler and costs $136,490. HONDA CR-V Honda’s updated mid-size SUV is now more expensive (by $2000-4000 depending on the variant), but adds fresh styling inside and out, wireless charging, Apple CarPlay/Android Auto and new safety gear. All variants bar the base Vi gain AEB, lane-keep assist and radar cruise. BMW M5 COMPETITION How much should you pay for new shocks? According to BMW, $15,000. That’s the price rise for the 2021 M5 ($244,900) compared to…

Model Ferrari SF90 Stradale Engine 3990cc V8, dohc, 32v, twin-turbo Motor Three (2 x front axle; 1 x rear axle) Battery 7.9kWh lithium-ion Max power 735kW @ 8000rpm (combined) Max torque 960Nm @ 6000rpm (combined) Transmission 8-speed dual-clutch Weight 1600kg (dry) 0-100km/h 2.5sec (claimed) Price $846,888 On sale Now THE FERRARI SF90 Stradale is a 1000-horsepower midengined supercar. Built on an all-new aluminium (with a carbonfibre rear bulkhead) chassis, the SF90 was first seen in 2019 and celebrates the 90th anniversary of Ferrari’s racing arm, Scuderia Ferrari. It doesn’t replace any current or historic cars – it’s not the new LaFerrari – but at $846,888 it establishes a permanent mid-engined halo above the front-engined 812 GTS. It’s tempting to say the SF90 just uses an uprated version of the F8…

AS WELCOMES GO, this one was a doozy. New Nissan Juke delivered, start the ignition and a fault flashes up on the dial pack. The radio cranks up playing ‘What Have I Done To Deserve This?’ by the Pet Shop Boys. I can tell that this relationship is probably going to be eventful. The fault – a glitch in the stop/start system – clears itself after a run around the block and a reboot of the car. Prior to driving the new Juke, I wasn’t sure I’d get on with one. I knew that Byron Mathioudakis would bag me mercilessly after we’d done likewise to him when he proclaimed, not entirely without merit, that the first Juke was one of the most influential cars of the 2010s. After attending the…

SOMEWHERE OUT there in Melbourne there’s a long, sweeping bend that I occasionally take. On approach, other vehicles ease off. Even those road warriors determined to carve through traffic touch the brakes. I do the opposite. Such is the poise of the V60 that it sits completely planted through the arc and I smile like an idiot as I leave the other cars in my wake. Like its handling, there are many aspects of Volvo’s brilliant wagon to admire, but after nine months we’ve come to the point I’ve been dreading – it’s time to hand back the keys. With so many positives to cover, let’s get the few negatives out of the way first. Our fuel consumption hasn’t been anywhere near Volvo’s ADR figure of 7.3 L/100km, but I…

WE’LL FORGIVE YOU for forgetting that Mercedes is still selling its littlest roadster. After bursting onto the scene in the late nineties, where it blazed a path by kick starting the entire ‘folding hard top’ trend, the SLK and its SLC successor slowly but surely faded into the background. Left to wither on the vine? You bet. And now, after 24 years of continuous production, Mercedes has officially pulled the plug with no successor in sight. So how to remember it? We’ll freely admit the SLC has never been our favourite Mercedes. A lack of development dollars means today’s car is easily eclipsed by newer and sharper rivals like the Audi TT and Porsche Boxster. Yet even when box-fresh, the SLC was never the last word in steering feel or…

FRANK-STEFFEN Walliser is on a mission to create the hardest, angriest Porsche 911 GT3 to date. In a conversation with Wheels earlier this year, Walliser, the man at the helm of Porsche’s sports car division, signalled his intention to make the 992 Turbo S a faster and rawer thing. That sentiment is only being amplified with the forthcoming 992 GT3. Originally scheduled to be unveiled at the 2021 Geneva motor show, the cancellation of that event has meant that there’s now a more tentative Q1 launch date pencilled in for the GT3. While Porsche isn’t focused on ladling a whole lot more power at the GT3, with company insiders merely saying it’ll have a slight bump in power to “more than 368kW”, most of the work has been dedicated to…

But please, 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 (search for Wheels Australia), Instagram or Twitter LETTER OF THE MONTH ‘I can’t help thinking that for road use, modern turbo engines are much more effective’ PORK TALK YOUR STORY ON this comparison (911 Carrera vs Cayman GT4, Wheels June 2020) was fascinating for me because I was able to make a similar comparison. I drive a Cayman 718 S (manual), and was given a 992 for a day. Donna Buang seemed like a sensible drive, and the 911 excelled – totally unflappable no matter hard I pushed, and that PDK is genius for its ability to shift very aggressively as I went…

Like Truman with the bomb, if you’ve got it, you’re going to want to use it THERE’S A MOMENT to savour on the road to Mount Buller. Ditch the Hume at the Flowerdale exit and head east 11km along this road to the Murchison Gap lookout. You’ll crest a rise, the vista opening to a stunning panorama of rolling green hills as the road tumbles down a scarp slope in a series of lazy hairpins. Known informally as the Broadford Bends, it’s a well-trodden roadtesting spot, the scarred guard rail bearing testament to those with a surfeit of ambition and a shortfall of skills. An Audi RS6 would be mighty here. I can’t say for sure because I’m stuck behind a B-double that insists on driving at 120km/h along any…

The Speedster is orchestrated by one of the finest manual transmissions to feature in any car OPPORTUNITY. IT ARRIVED as an ordinary press invite, if being asked if I wanted to join Porsche UK at Langley Castle, Northumberland, to drive its most focused open cars can rightfully be described as ordinary. The location piqued my interest as much as the cars. Northumberland was a quick dash to the Scottish Borders, to roads I drove frequently as a kid. The cars, and specifically a car, had a sizeable bearing, too, Porsche promising to have a 911 Speedster in attendance. Ever since the launch I’d been looking for an excuse, absolutely any excuse, to drive it again. It would be busy; the Speedster being used as part of a regular press event.…

THIS IS SOMETHING of a ‘blink and you’ll miss it’ situation. Regular readers will know I’ve been running a Performance Blue Ford hatchback with an ST badge on its rump for the past four months. And now… I’m running a blue Ford hatchback with… well, you get it. However, take a closer look at the image above and you’ll notice some important distinctions. That’s right: I’ve traded up. Literally. Where once sat the pint-sized Fiesta ST, there is now a Focus ST. Physical dimensions aren’t the only things to have grown. Performance is up by a considerable margin (206kW/420Nm plays the Fiesta’s 147kW/290Nm), and so too is the price. Now that Ford has repositioned the ST as the flagship of the Focus range, it carries a sizeable $44,690 sticker. That’s…

WITHIN THE Lexus R&D centre in Japan resides a team of software engineers that all have brains much larger than my almond-sized CPU. But that’s not going to stop me from respectfully suggesting there’s room for them to try a little harder. That’s the core take-out from my four months with the RX450hL. It’s an endearing, mostly pretty polished large SUV that makes the best of unremarkable underpinnings, and is an incredibly easy car to live with. But … I couldn’t shake the feeling that the hybrid powertrain could deliver both better economy and greater refinement if only the software would allow it to run longer in EV mode. It was a constant minor irk to see two bars (out of five) of battery charge, yet to have the car’s…

AFTER months spent at home social-distancing, it’s almost time to jump back in the car and hit the road for that dream regional or interstate trip. Road trip snacks? Check. Perfect Spotify playlist? Check. Destination? Check. Tyres? Get them checked! To that end, we chatted to Mitchell Golledge, Managing Director at Continental Tyres, to find out everything you need to know about checking your tyres and getting your car ready for your getaway. MOVE IT! Tyre flat-spotting is common after a car has been parked for a prolonged period. This happens when the tyre area in contact with the ground creates a flat spot in the rubber due to lack of movement. There are two types of flat-spotting: temporary and semi-permanent. The severity of the flat spot is determined by…

Model Aston Martin V12 Vanquish Engine 5935cc V12 (60°), dohc, 48v Max power 343kW @ 6500rpm Max torque 542Nm @ 5000rpm Transmission 6-speed robotised manual Weight 1835kg 0-100km/h 4.7sec (claimed) Economy 15.0L/100km Price $150,000 (value today) OF COURSE, it was the DB7 that changed everything. We all know that. It was the car that reimagined Aston Martin’s design language, ‘the most beautiful car in the world’ hauling the company out of its 1970s mindset with some verve. What came next was arguably a bigger step for the business, though. The underpinnings of the 1994 DB7 could still trace a bloodline to the Jaguar XJS, and was in fact a modified version of the car that TWR designed to replace the XJS, dubbed Project XX. This was canned due to federalisation…

Model Mini Cooper SE hatch Motor Single (front axle) Battery 32.6kWh lithium-ion Max power 135kW @ 0rpm Max torque 270Nm @ 0rpm Transmission Single-speed reduction gear Weight 1365kg 0-100km/h 7.3sec (claimed) Economy 18.0kWh/100km Price $54,800 On sale Now IF CARS WERE beer, Toyota would be a slab of easy-drinking draft. Tesla would be a craft sour in 310.5ml cans, and Holden would be in a basket at the end of the counter covered in stickers. Mini, however, would be a small-batch XPA. Like a 5.9 percent fruity ale, the company’s cars serve a select audience that’s willing to pay a premium for something that stands out at the posh end of affordable, and unsurprisingly its first fully electric model is no different. At $54,800, the Cooper SE is about $25,000…

MOMENT OF clarity number one: if you were asked to create a luxury SUV that drove with the alacrity that the Aston Martin name demands, you might seek to pull together a team and a parts toolkit not dissimilar to those behind this car, the most important Aston in the marque’s history. The pandemic torpedoed Aston’s original DBX launch plans (set for the perfect light and wide open spaces of California), leaving ever so slightly less sun-drenched Silverstone to host our first meeting with the car in finished, production-ready guise. Aston has an engineering centre on the Stowe circuit, nestled within the flat-out curves of the Grand Prix track, and I get a guided tour with chief vehicle attribute engineer Matt Becker. We head past banks of studious engineers at…

“WELL THAT’S bloody annoying,” I thought to myself. I’d just tried to put my Keep Cup into one of the Venue’s central cup holders. Frustratingly, the cork band on my environmentally conscious caffeine receptacle fouled the edges, and it wouldn’t fit. Turns out only smaller cups and bottles will fit in the central holders. As I spend more time with the Venue, it’s little quirks (both good and bad) like this that have become more prominent. One of the positive surprises has been the rear window wiper, which automatically activates if you select reverse gear while the front wipers are also on. At this price point, value for money is one of the biggest customer priorities, and for a sub-$30K SUV, the Venue remains a compelling option. However, I’ve begun…