Table of contents for July 2023 in Evo

THE SUN WAS SHINING, THE temperature tipping over into the low twenties and the road hung from the side of the mountain, immovable rock to my right, about 800 metres of freefall to my left. Ahead was the local. We’d cleared the Saturday-morning motorised ramblers, leaving the road ahead clear for a handful of kilometres. I was in something new, grippy and with more power than is strictly necessary in a road car (and with driving impressions embargoed, that’s all I can say) and the local was in a Peugeot 2008. White, black plastic bumpers and what appeared to be 15-inch wheels and tyres at each corner. And for kilometre after kilometre he led the way, flowing from turn-in to apex, nailing them both before running out of the exit…

REFINEMENT IS EXQUISITE; THE CABIN is a leather-lined capsule, beautifully cocooned from the outside world. The steering is measured in feel, meaty in weight. Green and blue stitching. Blue dials. It’s definitely an Alpina. Maybe one of the last new Alpinas as we know them. When the Buchloe-based marque’s longstanding cooperation agreement with BMW ends in 2025, it will become part of the BMW Group and the type of new cars it will produce from that point onwards is still TBC: perhaps ultra-high-end, BMW Alpina-badged derivatives positioned above the 7- and 8-series; perhaps something different. Either way, this is an Alpina in the finest tradition: a high-performance combustion-engined model that is pre-assembled on a BMW line then finished in-house at Alpina’s Buchloe base. Alpina makes its own engineering alterations to…

‘WE DON’T HAVE A QUEUE OF PEOPLE wanting to buy an EV Seven.’ It’s a line I’ve heard a number of times from Bob Laishley, Caterham’s CEO. However, since the company’s announcement in late May that it was building an EV Seven to help development of the EV drivetrain for its soon-to-be-revealed, all-new sports car, interest in an electric Seven has spiked. A battery-electric drivetrain and the lightweight Seven have been considered incompatible thus far, yet in its efforts to understand electrification, what is required and what is possible, Caterham has developed an EV Seven concept with long-time engine partner Swindon Powertrain. At the outset, Caterham was very conscious of staying as true to its guiding principles as possible: ‘Lightweight, simple, fun to drive’ is a Laishley mantra. Arriving at…

MY WIFE HAS A 2021 AUDI SQ5 AND I LIKE DRIVING IT. I have a 2001 Alpina B10 V8 that I love driving (and looking after). I’ve also owned five Porsches, a Vantage, Elise, LC500, SL63 AMG, and various BMWs, Audis and Jags. The thing is, we recently re-inherited a humble, manual, 101,000-mile, 2007 Honda Jazz ‘Sport’ that both of our sons learned to drive in, then used and abused, and I simply can’t get enough of it! The manual shift is like a switch, the pedals light in operation and perfectly placed for heel and toeing, and the footprint and weight are such that it’ll simply go anywhere. Yes, the steering is vague and ‘granny’ light, and the engine couldn’t pull the skin off a rice pudding, but the…

THE FIRST ASTON MARTIN TO BE launched during Andy Palmer’s time as CEO at the company, the DB11, is no more. Production has run its course, marking the beginning of the end for the Palmer-era model range. It was an era that started so promisingly but ended with an over-ambitious and near-ruinous public offering, in turn leading to Lawrence Stroll acquiring a big enough stake to take control of the company and replace Palmer with his own team. And while things didn’t go altogether smoothly with first-choice CEO Tobias Moers, they have settled under current ex-Ferrari boss Amedeo Felisa. So much so that Geely has returned to the markets to double its stake to 17 per cent, making it the third largest shareholder after the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund…

EVERY TIME I GET THROUGH THE STEFAN Bellof ‘S’ unscathed, I breathe a little sigh of relief. It’s a wickedly fast, horribly bumpy right-left-right that rises steeply and then flows back downhill just when you crave a clear line of sight to know you’re on course to nibble the flat concrete exit kerbing. The BMW M4 GT4 is unsettled even before you reach this treacherous section, having just flown over the big jump at Pflanzgarten, and it never fully settles as the rear axle thumps over the ragged surface. The one thing that helps is squeezing the throttle wide open as early as possible. A cruel, taunting realisation and one that severely tests the connection between conscious thought, lizard-brain survival instinct and the muscles in your ankle that pivot your…

IT’S FITTING THAT IN THE ISSUE IN WHICH WE introduce the first all-new Aston Martin road car to be conceived and developed under the watch of current chairman Lawrence Stroll, we also introduce to evo’s Fast Fleet a model that was originally conceived by his predecessor, Andy Palmer: a DBX, specifically a DBX707. A recap on the DBX and the 707, should you need one: the DBX is the volume seller designed and developed at the sort of huge expense that Aston could barely afford at the time, but then neither could it afford not to do so. And the 707 is the hyper-luxury, mad-performance model for a market that is still a licence to print money. In the DBX, Aston Martin created one of the few, if not the…

WAY BACK WHEN I FIRST DROVE THE M5 CS, my conclusion was that the M division’s new supersaloon might be the perfect one-car solution. Lately, I’ve had a pretty good go at testing that theory. Its daily life has literally been the grind of school runs, shopping trips, runs to the airport and the usual family activities at weekends. Aside from complaints about the heavily bolstered seats and a strong thirst for superunleaded, the M5 CS copes with this stuff fantastically. From the driver’s seat the only downsides are a lack of storage and the fact that it’s sooooo fast that speed limits feel like an infringement of my human rights. A recent trip to the Nürburgring to test the M4 GT4 that I raced in the N24 (see page…

A YEAR AND 12,000 MILES AFTER WE took delivery, time is up for the Fast Fleet Puma ST. During that time Ford’s performance crossover has been an intriguing presence in our line-up of long-termers, which is exactly why we wanted to run one: to find out how much appeal a car of this kind has for people like us. To get as many different opinions as possible, our Puma changed hands a fair number of times in the year we had it, but it started in mine. With the Jenkins household also in possession of a Mk8 Fiesta ST at the time, it made for a fascinating comparison. Based on the same underpinnings as its hatchback sibling, the Puma’s numbers are near-identical, but a 78kg weight disadvantage, higher centre of…

PHOTOGRAPHER MATT HOWELL TAKES A step back, which is unusual for him, and hard to do because he’s standing against a wall. For a moment I wonder if he’s lost his footing but the look on his face says not. I understand his concern later when I see the shot in the back of his camera: the Integrale heading towards him had clear air under its right-hand wheels. Thing is, from the driver’s seat I had no sensation of anything dramatic happening. I chose this bit of road because it is almost stepped by subsidence and I thought the car might look good compressed into it. The really curious bit was that the faster the Integrale hit the bump, the smoother it felt. In the final shot it was pulling…

I’M ABOUT TO THROW SOME VERY BIG numbers around. The sort that will make some of you very excited (hi kids!) and elicit eye rolls and mournful slow head shakes from the rest. However, before we get into the nitty-gritty of the Lucid Air Sapphire’s beyond ludicrous performance stats, I’d like to convey an inkling of the enthusiasm and love poured into this project. And demonstrate that it isn’t all about the numbers. I’m at Willow Springs to experience the new performance flagship for the Air saloon in late prototype form. It’s an opportunity to meet the engineering team, understand the powerful torque-vectoring technology of this tri-motor EV and to try to determine if it’s worth the $249,000 asking price. For the team, it’s an opportunity to get an outsider’s…

Brew Metric PVD Black c£459 brew-watches.com Brew’s 1970s-style Metric sports watch has been brought into the 1980s for this latest version, thanks to the application of a black PVD coating for its case and bracelet. The dial is a matching matt black, while three of the five hands are fluorescent red, giving an overall look similar to the instruments found in performance cars from the era being evoked. Union Glashütte Noramis Date Deutschland Klassik 2023 €2680 union-glashuette.com To coincide with its sponsorship of this year’s ADAC Deutschland Klassik touring event, Union Glashütte has produced this new take on its Noramis Date model. It features a 3D dial that its maker says is ‘inspired by an iconic vintage-style wheel rim’. No prizes for working out which one… Maurice de Mauriac Chrono…

IT’S THE ECONOMY OF EFFORT THAT GETS YOU, every time. The way the car treads so lightly down the road, tiny amounts of throttle boosting you forward, the steering wheel light in your hands, its rim mildly distracted by bumps and camber changes but those same bumps absorbed by the supple chassis. The compelling sense of doing more with less can be attributed largely to the Elise’s lack of mass, but it’s also about scale: it’s a small car, a narrow car, which means that whatever road it’s on, it has more road to play with. Getting back into a Series 1 Elise is always a joy. It was a remarkable car when it was new back in 1996, genuinely innovative with its extruded and bonded aluminium chassis, to which…

‘PLAY IS THE HIGHEST FORM OF RESEARCH,’ said Albert Einstein (always good for a quote, that man). This car was born through play. Back in 2017, when Lamborghini was putting the finishing touches to the Urus SUV, its senior engineers were charging around the Strada Bianca dirt track at the Nardo development ground in southern Italy. ‘While testing the Urus, we were in love with the driving on this course,’ grins Lamborghini’s likeably enthusiastic chief technical officer, Rouven Mohr. ‘We thought: “Wouldn’t it be amazing to drive on this course in our super sports cars?”’ Head of design Mitja Borkert takes up the story. ‘We were so excited by the idea, I called my guys and said: “We need to start sketching.” We made a third-scale design model, Rouven liked…

‘It had a combination of talents that meant I always looked forward to driving it’ WHEN OUR ARTEON R SHOOTING BRAKE arrived in November last year I couldn’t wait to get my hands on the key. I’d run our previous Arteon Shooting Brake, a 187bhp, 2-litre petrol R-Line, and while I was a fan, I felt it lacked that bit of excitement and bite that would have made it the perfect car for my varied needs. Having also spent time in a Mk7.5 Golf R in the past, the thought of a ‘sort of estate’ version of that car, but a bit bigger, was my blueprint for all-round perfection. Happily for me, our Arteon R didn’t disappoint. On school runs and motorway slogs it performed exactly as I had hoped.…

AFTER PUTTING THINGS OFF FOR months, I decided it was time to start ticking the Panda’s to-do list. First up, a trip to my local garage for a new wheel bearing so the Panda no longer rumbles down the road. This has also fixed the alarming torque reaction to throttle inputs in straight-line running. Next job: new shoes. The original fitment for this car is 195/45 but some 100HPists go up to a 50 profile, chasing greater comfort as well as broader choice. Since the Panda’s ride doesn’t bother me I decided to stick with the factory spec, but if you put the reg into the websites of the usual suspects in high-street tyre sales they universally come up with the wrong measurements. Only Blackcircles.com seem to know the correct…

HAVING PROBED THE COMPACT SUPERSALOON market with the 190E Cosworth in 1984, Mercedes since failed to put a dent in the BMW M3 with a run of fast but lazier alternatives from its AMG division. But everything changed in 2008, when Mercedes threw more engine at the problem to not so much dent but pummel its long-standing rival. It’s a little more nuanced than that, of course, but the W204 C63 is largely defined by its spectacular M156 6.2-litre V8. To put the W204 into perspective, it took two further generations of M3 to better its 451bhp output, and even then you could argue that no supersaloon before or since emanates the same unhinged hot-rod persona. The motor is explosive, with a full-throated bellow and instinctive responses that could only…

THERE ARE SO MANY GREAT M5s TO CHOOSE FROM: of the six generations to date, four have been awarded a full five evo stars in standard guise. But as it’s value for money we’re looking for here, we’re making a case for the third edition, the E39. Where later M5s have favoured fiendish speed and complexity over analogue thrills, the E39 is dripping with understated menace, and from its gutsy 4.9-litre V8 to its intuitive rear-drive balance, it’s as honest as they come. In fact, with its naturally aspirated engine and manual gearbox, it’s one of the last traditional supersaloons. The E39 arrived in 1998 as a somewhat controversial evolution of the formula established by the E28 and E34 M5s. Gone was the trademark straight-six that had featured in those…

POWER-TO-WEIGHT RATIOS GET A FAIR bit of airtime in evo reviews. They often say more about how a car feels to drive than bald bhp and kilogram counts on their own. A quick skim of The Knowledge for benchmarks lists the current Porsche 911 Turbo S at 397bhp/ton, the Ferrari F8 Tributo at 503bhp/ton and the McLaren 720S at 508bhp/ton. This car has 608bhp/ton. That is a big number, which suggests an equally momentous driving experience. But the way the Revolution A-One 500SC accelerates, stops and turns is more intense than even that figure suggests. Accelerating out of Silverstone’s pitlane, it feels ferociously accelerative – of course it does. With a 500bhp engine hauling just 835kg, Revolution reckons on a 100-200kph (62-124mph) time of 5.7sec. Yep, sounds about right. But…

WHO SAW THIS COMING? NOT THE IDEA OF A MODERN MG two-seater sports car; that thought’s been in every MG designer’s sketchpad ever since the TF ended production in the early 2010s (and in a fair few non-MG designer’s thoughts too). But the fact that modern-era MG, almost out of nowhere, has become such a sales behemoth. So far this year alone, MG Motor UK has registered nearly 26,000 cars, a 55 per cent increase on last year. Which was a 65 per cent increase on the year before. ‘This amount of growth is unsustainable,’ commercial director Guy Pigounakis tells evo. ‘Because if we continued at that rate we’d be the only people selling cars in the UK.’ As it is, MG is the 11th best selling brand in the…

‘THE DBS 770 TICKS A LOT OF BOXES ON THE LIST OF “THINGS A CAR CAN DO TO INTIMIDATE YOU”’ WHAT HAPPENS WHEN AN UNSTOPPABLE force meets an immovable object? It’s a paradox that runs through the Iain Banks novel Walking on Glass, and it’s got into my head as I drive the DBS 770 Ultimate across Wales. The DBS is an unmistakably heavy car. The steering efforts reflect this and you sense it when you scythe into a corner. And yet when the twin-turbo V12 comes on boost on just a modest throttle opening, the 770 Ultimate seems to weigh nothing… until you want it to stop or change direction again, and on these dip and dive, nip and tuck Welsh B-roads, you want it to do that a…

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BECAUSE I’M MILDLY OBSESSIVE ABOUT THE way I get my caffeine, there are a few things that will immediately give me a good feeling when I walk into a coffee shop or approach a repurposed H Van. I couldn’t give a fig about the decor or the music; Farrow & Ball with a hint of remixed Dua Lipa might be enough to tempt most, but they’re not what’s really important if you’re the sort of weirdo who gets a kick out of some nice tigering on your crema. Equally, a scruffy set of stools and some Silverchair distorting from a single Bluetooth speaker is nothing to set your stall by. No, what my eyes flick to and what plants the seed of hope in my espresso-craving soul is a good…

THE FINAL FEW MONTHS OF A MODEL’S production life can often lead to the appearance of a valedictory special edition or two. In the TT’s case, this has meant ‘Final Edition’ trim levels for the 40 TFSI, 45 TFSI and S variants, while the RS has been treated to a somewhat immodestly titled ‘Iconic Edition’. Limited to 100 units in total, just 11 are destined for the UK, and we spent a few days with one of those this month to find out how it compares to our Vorsprung-spec long-termer. There’s just one colour scheme for the Iconic, comprising Nardo Gray paint with lashings of black details that help identify almost all of the edition’s extras. Most obvious is the new aerokit, which adds a secondary splitter and corner cannards…

VARIED PLACE, THE EVO FAST FLEET. Coupe, roadster, estate, supercar, SUV; and a neat Panda 100HP and near-300,000-mile Lamborghini pop into its pages from time to time, too. What it’s been missing is a racing car. Until now. This is the Ginetta G56 GTA, and this summer, it’s ours. GTA stands for GT Academy, and it represents one of the first rungs on the Ginetta racing ladder. The Leeds-based road and, predominantly, race car manufacturer has become one of the pillars of British motorsport since the brand came under the control of Lawrence Tomlinson in 2005. The Ginetta Junior championship is now established as one of the must-drive routeways for stars of the future, with alumni including Lando Norris and Jamie Chadwick, and in adult motorsport the company’s G50 model…

The supersaloon recipe is as old as time itself. Well, as old as the E28 BMW M5 anyway. Or should that be the 1960s Alfa Romeo Giulia Super Ti? Or maybe the Jaguar Mk1 3.4 from 1957? Whatever, for those with growing families and a hankering for speed, a supersaloon is the natural step away from an R8 or 911, the irony being that you might find yourself in an even more explosive machine than the sports car you climbed out of. The M5 CS, for example, which won eCoty in 2021, can trade blows with a Huracán STO for absolute engagement, irrespective of its ability to ferry four passengers around in swathes of luxury and tech. Not everyone can part with £140,000 for a car, of course, but if…