Indice dei contenuti per June 2021 in Fast Car

A Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VI Tommi Makinen has set a world record price at auction. When the hammer fell the final winning bid was a whopping £100,100, which beat the previous record price for an Evo (a delivery-mileage Evo IX set in the US in 2017) by just over a grand. The car was part of 15 vehicles, various models and cherished numberplates put up for auction by Mitsubishi Motors UK Heritage fleet, which generated £627,100 across all 51 lots. Hot on the heels of the TME was a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX MR FQ-360 by HKS which eventually sold for £68,900, likely to be the third highest-value Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution ever sold at auction. The Lancer Evolution X, number 40 of 40 of the final batch of FQ-440 MR…

Simon loves a wrap, and he’s not shy about changing up the Astra’s aesthetic as and when the fancy takes him. It’s been Royal Purple, half-wrapped in white with the standard blue paint exposed on the other half, then Royal Blue with graphics, plus some camo along the way, and black with reflective strips, and half-and-half orange and black… “It doesn’t stay the same for that long as I’m always changing how it looks,” he says. “And yes, I have got a few more plans up my sleeve… there will be a new wrap coming soon, I’m just currently deciding what its 10th wrap will be. Yes, I did say 10th!”…

Everyone likes a spotlessly clean car, but not everyone has the skill, patience and products to achieve the kind of show-quality shine we all dream about. So, to give you a hand, we’ve spoken to some of the top detailing experts to compile a list of the must-have products that will be perfect to tackle each of the areas of your car, and get them looking at their best. And not only that, but we’ve also strapped them to a water board and interrogated them – using the two bucket method, of course – to reveal their top insider tips to achieving the kind of results usually only reserved for the pros. So, don the marigolds, dig out the wash mitts and prepare modifications to take out your that shades…

Engine swaps can often be polarising things. Some folks prefer to keep this stuff model-correct; swapping a brawny 2.5-litre M20 into an E30 316i is a good way of throwing a few welcome gee-gees into the mix, but what happens if you choose to go with an M50 from an E36? Or if you’re feeling saucy, an M70 V12? Some people will love the idea of updating and refreshing the car with a newer or more laterally peculiar engine, while others may feel that it’s anathema to swap engines in this manner, like names in a Secret Santa box. And if you’re in the latter category, you’re going to hate this one. See, there’s nothing remotely Bavarian about the beating heart of this E92. It’s one thing to swap engines…

Like a hyped-up Golf GTi that’s been shrunk in the wash, the Audi S1 is a proper little weapon straight out of the box but, with a light licking from the tuning stick, it can compete with the biggest and best hot hatches in the business. And you know what they say… the best things come in small packages. Everyone knows that S and RS badged Audis are supremely competent machines. But what is also true is that they’re sometimes so well balanced that their Germanic efficiency can feel a little numb. The antithesis to the fast Audi norm, however, came about when the S1 entered the scene. Here was a hot hatch that not only did the serious stuff well, but also had a cheeky and playful side that…

Who would’ve thought that punctures and buses had so much in common? I mean, I’ve been lucky enough to say that I haven’t had a puncture on the Civic for years, but the other week I managed to get two come along at once! The first one was in the front driver’s side. I saw that the tyre looked a little under inflated when the car was parked on my driveway and when I checked the pressure it was down some 10psi. And while not impossible, it was a little unlikely that a tyre would lose that much pressure since the last top up a few weeks previously. So, just to be on the safe side, I gave the tyre tread a quick visual inspection to see if anything was…

LOUD NOISES! Well, loud-ish noises. They’re good, aren’t they? And if there’s one area that the FN2 sorely needs addressing, it’s the quietness of the thing. In standard form, the spaceship Type R is whisper-quiet, scything across the countryside like some manner of stealth missile, and to be honest I require a little more raucousness than that. I didn’t want to go too loud, however. On my old EP3 I was running an extremely naughty M2 Side-kicker exhaust which didn’t really have much silencing to speak of, and while I loved the absurd shoutiness of it (which was loud enough to set off people’s car alarms when cruising down the high street), it was kind of boomy and annoying on the motorway. So what I was looking at for the…

Bentley has racing in the blood and has been bludgeoning its competitors into submission on the track for the last century, but did you know the British luxury marque also holds the records for the fastest SUV and fastest production car at the Pikes Peak International Hillclimb? Well, now you do. And it seems they’re not satisfied with that, as they are now hoping to snatch the ‘Time Attack 1’ record, a category for ‘modified and specialised production-based two and four-wheel drive vehicles’, too! To take on the 12.42-mile, 4,800ft, 156-corner accent to the clouds, Bentley has joined forces with customer team, FastR and is using their modified Continental GT3 as the base for this ballistic hillclimb machine, a car that we featured in these pages in its previous circuit-slaying…

HYUNDAI KONA N Hyundai are really making a name for themselves in the performance car arena, with the i30N a true hot hatch hero capable of taking on the established top guns. So when the firm announces a new model to wear the N badge, you can be sure it’ll be something to get excited about, even if it’s an SUV. The Kona N will be the first ‘hot’ SUV to join the N family and is set to deliver the same driving thrills as its hatchbacked sibling but with the added practicality of a Chelsea tractor. Equipped with a 280bhp 2.0-litre T-GDi engine, forged 19in wheels and an eight-speed dual-clutch transmission complete with launch control, the Kona N can sprint from a standstill to 60mph in just 5.5 seconds.…

There are a lot of firsts here; from this being my first ever pandemic shoot, to getting a ticket for hanging out of a car, to taking photos in downtown Seattle at happy hour with absolutely no one in sight. There is something a bit unnerving and surreal about being in a major metropolitan city on a completely dead and quiet summer’s night, but, due to government orders to limit the transmission of the dreaded Coronavirus, it was exactly that. However, the highly unusual situation aside, the one thing that was absolutely normal was a camera lens being pointed at this stunning Honda NSX. Owned by mechanic and owner of DailyDriven.com, Tam Le, this wide-arched wonder is no stranger to having its photograph taken, as it understandably attracts onlookers to…

Er, no, Jay-Z isn’t involved. Let’s be British and pronounce it ‘two-jay-zed’… this is a legendary motor that Toyota first unveiled in the later Mk3 Supras, the 1JZ-GTE 2.5-litre twin-turbo signalling to the world that the firm might have one or two mischievous things planned… and when the covers finally came off the Mk4 Supra, the top-of-the-range model revealed its startling 2JZ-GTE, a 3.0-litre variant, again with twin-turbos, running a six-speed manual gearbox and offering up a gentlemen’s-agreement 276bhp; actually more like 300bhp, and a real-world 326bhp in UK-spec. Which made quite a strong point. The 2JZ went on to feature in numerous cars – in naturally-aspirated 2JZ-GE guise it could be found in the Toyota Altezza/Lexus IS300 and Toyota Aristo/Lexus GS300, the Crown, Origin and Soarer/SC300, while the twin-turbo…

There’s something pure and elemental about driving a convertible. On the right day, in the right scenery, you can feel truly at one with the machine beneath you while the multi-sensory whooshing of nature itself serves to amplify the hedonistic experience. The roar of the engine, the artful rearrangement of your barnet, there’s nothing quite like it. Now, summer is just around the corner, and you know what that means: the roof goes down, the tunes go up, life is sweet. We know it may seem hard to imagine right now – at the time of writing, the weather is pinballing undecidedly between glorious sunshine and random unexpected snow – but the sun will come, we promise. Remember how ludicrously tropical the summer of 2020 was? Get ready for that…

1 WHAT IS A SILICONE HOSE AND WHAT DOES IT DO? Silicone is an inorganic polymer comprising of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen. Silicone hoses are stronger and more reliable than traditional OEM rubber-style hoses. They have several advantages over conventional rubber hoses with their ability to run at much higher temperature ranges and pressures. They will also have a much longer lifespan thanks to them not hardening and cracking like rubber hoses. 2 ARE THEY ALL THE SAME? All silicone hoses are not equal and Samco Sport pride themselves on manufacturing their hoses in the UK for over two decades and on being the original brand of high-performance silicone aftermarket hoses. We have always maintained our testing and development with the world’s best race teams and professionals. Some hoses just…

DRIVER’S TORCH WITH PERSONAL ALARM We modify our cars to attract attention, unfortunately it’s not always the kind we would like. So, to ensure you don’t fall foul to some scummy tea-leaf trying to mug you for your keys, why not invest in some protection – and we’re not talking about some brass knuckles… The Impact Personal Alarm Torch combines a powerful, rechargeable LED torch with an extreme personal alarm and strobe, designed to protect the user from a hostile encounter. Used in normal mode, it is a handy illumination device with three brightness settings, but press the alarm button and you’ll unleash an ear-piercing 130-decibel siren with a dazzling 400 lumen 20Hz strobe to shock and disorientate a would-be attacker into backing down and fleeing the scene. The torch…

Aftermarket limited-slip differentials (LSD) from the likes of Mfactory, Quaife and Wavetrack are almost vital on any hard driven performance car, but are practically essential when on track, even with standard power levels. A limited-slip differential prevents excessive power from being allocated to one wheel, and so keeps power to both wheels ensuring that the traction will not be limited to the wheel which can handle the minimum amount of power. From the factory, cars tend to have either an open diff, or a very mild and ineffective LSD, and fitting a more aggressive aftermarket one, not only drastically increases your traction under acceleration and braking, but most effectively when cornering. We’ve seen otherwise standard hot hatches knock seconds off their lap times simply by fitting an LSD – that’s…

A new MY2022 version of the all-conquering R35 GT-R NISMO was unveiled in Japan recently and as usual it looks set to be even more ridiculously fast than the last one. More carbon-fibre, less weight, bigger brakes and a more responsive 600bhp engine are all in the mix as well as a unique ‘Stealth Gray’ paint job, which is said to be inspired by the tarmac of the various tracks that the GT-R has set records and competed on. But more exciting than all that, was when Nissan revealed it would be taking part in McDonald’s Japan’s Tomica Happy Set (Japan’s Happy Meal) where, not only will the GT-R NISMO be offered up in die-cast toy form, but a special ‘Golden Arches’ version will be available as well. To celebrate…

Identical twins are more common than you might think. Around 1-in-250 births spawns a matching pair, and as fans of questionable 1980s movies will no doubt attest, twins can be entertaining things - and if the Schwarzenegger/DeVito axis Twins is anything to go by, they don’t always have to look a lot like one another either. Of all the types of twins, identical ones are the variant that people generally call to mind when they hear the term (invariably making crap jokes about ‘which one is the evil one?’, which identical twins don’t find amusing at all, trust us), simply because we all love the element of mischief that’s inherent in their very being – clone brothers or lookylikey sisters can have endless fun pretending to be one another to…

Acrid black smoke and the heat from searing flames fills the atmosphere. The smell of burning oil, rubber and leather penetrates Ian Woodridge’s nostrils and carves the moment further into his subconscious memory. Unfortunately, for Ian, or ‘Woody’ to his mates, this wasn’t a moment that he cared to remember, as this was the instant that he lost his four-wheeled pride and joy to the relentless destruction of a blazing inferno. “My garage had caught fire with my beloved E36 M3 Evo and E21 316 still inside,” he remembers with a sigh. “I’d had the cars for quite a while and had a lot of fun in them over the years, so it was heartbreaking to lose them in that way.” As a die-hard BMW-fan, these were just the tip…

AIR LIFT AIR RIDE PRICE: From £2679.99 CONTACT: caraudiosecurity.com Audi’s are born to be slammed and the S1 is no different, but don’t go throwing away your hot hatche’s nimble ride and practicality just for show lows, as you can have the best of both with an Air Lift Performance air-ride kit. An off the shelf solution is available for the S1 starting at £2679.99 for a pressure-based 3P system using Slam front struts and Stealth rear bags. This base level kit will allow you to lay frame or go off-roader style at the press of a button. For those that want a little more control, you can opt for the £3749.99 3H system, which offers both pressure and height based control, which will automatically adjust to keep your car…

How did you get into motorsport? My Dad suffered a severe brain tumour when I was a kid, it was a scary time, though thankfully he made a full recovery. When he got his health back, we wanted to do something together to make up for lost time, so we decided to start indoor karting. I soon became pretty good and progressed quickly. He’s regretted it ever since though, and I think he wishes that he had bought me some football boots instead! He’s my number one supporter though, and it’s been a crazy journey that we wouldn’t change for the world! What has been your career highlight so far? Definitely winning my first BTCC race back in 2019 at my local circuit, Croft. I had only driven that car…

It’s come to that point in new car ownership where we’re having to refresh all the used wear and tear components. So after just over 18,000 miles, both on and off the track, it’s about time we paid some attention to the UP!’s braking system. The OEM brake setup is pretty decent straight out of the box to be honest, but then they’re not exactly having to stop the heaviest of vehicles. For those that don’t know, the UP! GTI runs brake drums at the rear, while at the front has big red painted calipers, which we suspect are from something like a Mk7 Golf GTD. So, to put some perspective on the available stopping power that you can enjoy in the UP!, that’s almost 500kg less weight for these…