Indice dei contenuti per November 2024 in Wheels

A COUPLE OF WEEKS ago, I had the pleasure of going for a reasonably long drive in a Mazda MX-5. It was an NC roadster-coupe, in case you were wondering, and it got me thinking about how the MX-5 ever got commissioned in the first place. Those of you who know the backstory are probably already across howex-Wheels staffer Bob Hall buttonholed Mazda’s engineering boss KenichiYamamoto and impressed upon him that the company ought to build a simple, inexpensive, rear-drive roadster. It’s what came next that intrigues me and which I’ve never really had the opportunity to square satisfactorily. The simple roadster was a concept that was dead and buried. By 1976, when Hall made the initial proposal, automotive evolution seemed to be selecting against cars like the Lotus Elan, the…

NISSAN HAS officially unveiled its first all-new Patrol since 2010, with right-hand-drive Australian orders to begin in late-2026. Revealed in Abu Dhabi, the strikingly differentY63 Patrol sees a huge lift in sophistication. “The seventh generation is a bold leap forward, blending unparalleled performance, cutting-edge technology and a commanding presence to redefine what an SUV can be,” said Makoto Uchida, president and CEO of Nissan. Building on more than 70 years of heritage, the Y63 Patrol replaces the previous 298kW/560Nm 5.6-litre petrol V8 with two engine options: a 3.5-litre twin-turbo V6, and a base naturally aspirated 3.8-litre V6 (236kW/386Nm). The twin-turboV6 generates 317kW (+7%) and 700Nm (+25%), and Nissan says it’s 24 percent more economical than the V8. It’s paired with a new nine-speed automatic transmission, controlled via a horizontal ‘Piano…

IT LOOKS THE GOODS. With 522kW, no hybrid assistance whatsoever and some serious aero, the Ferrari 296 Challenge sits in pit lane at The Bend. I’m ballast for today as ex-Supercars driver Steve Owen demonstrates the many advances of this new race car over the previous 488 Challenge Evolution. The reason we’re all here is because, for the very first time, Australasia is getting the Ferrari Challenge series, following in the footsteps of championships already run in the UK, Europe, the USA and Japan. Ferrari Challenge originally started in 1993 in Italy, and acts as a way for those who’ve outgrown track days or club events to tackle something at a higher level. The Passione Ferrari Club Challenge has been running since 2022, and graduates of that series will make…

A HUGE EXPERIMENT is about to unfold in the Australian new car market, and the entire motoring world will be watching. By my count, 10 new brands headquartered and manufacturing cars in China are set to arrive in Australia in the next handful of years. In no particular order: GAC Motors, Aion, Geely Auto, Zeekr, Lynk & Co, Leapmotor, Xpeng, Skywell, Jaecoo and Jetour. They will join the existing 10 marques already hailing from that country: LDV, BYD, Chery, MG, GWM, JAC and including Volvo, Polestar, Smart and Lotus. Another four are potentially mooted for Aussie shores – Aiways, Changan, Nio and IM Motors – and I’m certain just as many others have at least thought about it. There are, after all, 119 brands in China making electric vehicles. In…

MUNICH’S decision to follow up the groundbreaking X5 with the smaller BMW X3 was a pivotal moment for a firm then best known for sharp-handling sedans and coupes, paving the way for the subsequent huge expansion of its Sports Activity Vehicle – you know, SAV – line-up. Now, 21 years later, BMW feels defined by such models as much as its sedans: the previous-gen X3 was its best-seller last year, with around 1000 sold each day. Really, the only thing BMW got wrong was the SAV tag it still insists on using. With typically Teutonic efficiency of precise seven-year model cycles, the fourth-generation X3 has now arrived to offer fresh challenges to premium SUV rivals such as the Audi Q5 (which has just been updated with a new-generation hybrid-only model),…

JUST STEPS AWAY from the Nürburgring’s dizzying Döttinger Höhe, there is a building that paradoxically manages to be both beautifully conspicuous and yet deeply clandestine all at the same time. Its mirror-polished, stainless-steel shingles are a metaphor for ostentatious mystique, shimmering with their same original brightness despite never being cleaned by anything more than a stout Rhineland storm in 11 years. This is the place that Hyundai develops some of its most anticipated and adrenaline-fuelled vehicles – the Nürburgring Advanced Development Centre. It’s said that all the big European players in high-performance cars (and some others) have sheds in the small industrial estate alongside Route 258 in northern Germany, but only AMR and Hyundai shout about it with branding on the outside. Hang out here for long enough, though, and…

It seems these are two of the 911 moons that lie furthest away from the mothership core IT IS A RULE, of thumb I grant, but one to which I very much adhere. When a manufacturer makes a new model range, replete with the requisite mind-boggling number of variants in terms of body configuration, engine size and type, number of driven wheels and so on, it doesn’t just sit down and design several dozen cars side by side. It makes one. A core product, from which all the others are then spun. Which is why so often the sweet spot in a range can be found not with the fastest, nor most expensive model on offer, but something far more basic. So the rule is that if you can find…

PRICE Recommended retail figure at time of publication (asterisk indicates driveaway price) ENGINE TYPE L, in-line; V, vee; F, flat. Number of cylinders. T, turbo; S, supercharged; D, diesel; H, hybrid; E, electric SIZE Litres or kWh POWER kW TORQUE Nm TRANSMISSION M, manual; A, auto; D, dual-clutch; C, CVT WEIGHT Kerb, kg 0-100 km/h, acceleration in seconds (Wheels as-tested figures in italics) FUEL CONS Consumption in litres, or kWh, per 100km RON Octane of fuel required, as numbered, or D for diesel RESALE percent, 3-year resale in Glass’s ISSUE TESTED month/year DRIVE A, all-wheel; F, front; R, rear. Any figure in bold is our own estimate.…

FRESH FACTS THINGS WE LEARNED IN THE CAR WORLD THIS MONTH 1. Bentley has unveiled its new Continental GT Speed. The 4.0-litre V8 hybrid powertrain is good for 575kW and 1000 Nm, and a 0-97km/h claim of 3.1sec. The electric motor contributes 140kW and allows for 81km of usable electric-only range (WLTP). 2. After suing Nissan for $1.45bn last year, ex-CEO Carlos Ghosn has received some return fire. The Lebanese exile has been ordered by a court in the British Virgin Islands to hand over to Nissan $46.4m and his Custom Line Navetta 37 yacht ‘Shachou’. Here today, Ghosn tomorrow. 3. Fancy a no-reserve auction for not one but three Lamborghini Miuras? In that case, you’ll need to register your interest for ‘The Junkyard: The Rudi Klein Collection’ by Sothebys.…

IF TOYOTA’S ENTRY into Supercars was one of the best-kept secrets in the automotive sphere, Ford’s plans to build a plug-in hybrid Ranger was possibly one of the worst. At the local launch event in July 2022, we asked Ford’s engineers about the possibility of a hybridised version and they were quite happy to share with us that this P703 Ranger platform was built to be electrified. The previous PX Ranger was on sale for 11 years and with the P703 likely to be in market for almost that long, it was clear that some capacity for electrification was required. The wait is finally over for news of progress on that front. Ford chose the 2024 IAA Transportation Show in Hanover, Germany, to debut the new Ranger PHEV, due on…

IT’S LARGELY understood that our smartphones are spying on us. Though Instagram vehemently denies it, we’ve all been in that situation where a weirdly specific advert pops up just minutes after mentioning Latvian crochet holidays to someone in the same room. Facebook is reading your messages and feeding you propaganda it knows you’re partial to, while Google and Apple know virtually everything about your life thanks to the small supercomputers we all carry around. If you don’t like it, then you might not appreciate being told that it’s your fault for not wanting to pay for anything on the internet, thereby forcing tech companies to turn your information into a commodity rather than taking a subscription fee. It’s a bit cheeky but there’s nothing essentially evil about a company profiting from…

THE BMW E36 M3 was a better car than its legendary E30 predecessor. The reason for this is the very reason why it was slated at the time. Unlike the box-arched E30, which launched in 1986, the 1992 E36 wasn’t a car homologated to go racing. It was instead the M3 that BMW wanted, rather than what an arcane set of racing regulations dictated, and it was absolutely and unquestionably a better road car for it. This proposal might sound sacrilegious to many M fans, who will launch into a spittle-flecked tirade about M standing for Motorsport, conveniently ignoring the fact that the car that arrived before the E30 M3, the E28 M5 of 1984, never turned a wheel in anger in competition. Boiled down, the E36 M3 coupe was…

THIS IS A FIRST. There’s a Corvette Z06 sitting in the pit lane at Sandown Raceway and I’m taking it seriously as a performance car. Every prior generation of Corvette has come with the faintly condescending rider that it punched above its weight or that it was fun in a certain unsubtle way. You know, those mealy-mouthed summaries that suggested, without saying in so many words, that it wasn’t anything to rival the best in class. Well, we all know what the best in class is. It’s a Porsche 911 GT3 and has been since 1999. I can understand why Chevrolet winces at this suggestion, given that the Z06 badge first appeared in 1963 as an option package. Engineer Zora Arkus-Duntov was behind that one, equipping the C2-generation ’Vette with…

Nissan Motorsport International has marked a major milestone, with the company responsible for some of the hottest Nissans on road and track celebrating its 40th year of operation. Established in the Omori district of Tokyo on 17 September 1984, Nismo was initially charged with building Nissan’s factory-backed racecars, as well as supporting privateer racers using Nissan vehicles. Later that decade, tuned versions of Nissan’s road cars would get added to Nismo’s portfolio – though these were restricted to the Japanese domestic market for years. It wasn’t until 2007 that Nismo’s road cars would officially go global, when the Nismo 350Z went on sale in the USA. Australia waited until 2017 before the first fully-fledged Nismo road car would arrive on our soil – the R35 Nismo GT-R. That GT-R was…

Last month, I was moaning about schlepping about in a Hyundai Tucson because ‘my’ Genesis GV80 had a terminal problem with its head unit. Thankfully, Genesis has sourced another head unit, installed it into NDA-09D and, crucially, installed the latest software update which transforms the Genesis’s utility. I’d entirely understand if you think that’s a bit of a reach, but bear with me here. Not only do you now get wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto where you had to faff about plugging a cable into your phone before, but an uncabled phone now sits nicely in the wireless charger. It’s all a whole lot neater, and the phone boots faultlessly to your chosen smartphone mirroring provider each and every time. The other key update brought by this software revision…

TOYOTA’S ANNOUNCEMENT that it will field the GR Supra in the 2026 Repco Supercars Championship season represents the biggest shake-up of the format since the Gen3 cars were unveiled in 2020. The world’s biggest car manufacturer returns to the pinnacle of domestic motorsport with what is set to be a minimum of four Supras. Two are going to be operated by Toyota’s homologation team partner, Walkinshaw Andretti United (WAU), with Chaz Mostert and Ryan Wood likely to feature behind the wheel. The destination for the other pair of cars is the subject of much discussion, with the Toyota-sponsored Team 18, currently running a pair of Camaros, expected to be the recipients. Team 18 is owned by Charlie Schwerkolt, whose day job is running Waverley Forklifts, a business with close ties…

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, Instagram or Twitter (search for Wheels Australia) GM promised to support Australian customers for 10 years after they quit the country AT THE beginning of 2018, I purchased a demo ZB Commodore RS Turbo Sportwagon with 5000km on it. The car is a great drive on long interstate trips. It has a brilliant engine, steering and drivetrain. I recently went to my local Holden spare parts department to purchase replacement rear shock absorbers. I was told that supply ran out about a month ago across the country and they would no longer be stocking them. I have contacted all major automotive parts suppliers across Australia…

SAVE on the cover price FREE delivery to your doorstep PLUS free digital access to the Wheels archive DIGITAL ACCESS INCLUDES: Browse every issue of Wheels dating back to 1953 – that’s over 800 issues Early access to the latest issue before it goes on sale Browse from any device SELECT A PACKAGE: 6 ISSUES $59 SAVE 25% 12 ISSUES $109 SAVE 30% 24 ISSUES $199 SAVE 36% Scan the code or phone our new Australian-based call centre on (02) 8315 2092 or visit secure.whichcar.com.au/wheels Offer valid until 30 November 2024. Prices shown are in AUD and available for Australian delivery only. Discounts represent the percentage saving on the cover price. Digital only access valued at $59 p/a. Offer valid for new subscriptions and renewals of existing subscriptions. If you have a current print subscription,…

WE’RE ALL FAMILIAR with middle-child syndrome, where that child tends to be the overlooked and underrated one. Of the three C8 Corvette models currently imported to Australia, there’s the entry-level Stingray, the Z06 flagship, and between the pair the one that’s perhaps a little more difficult to categorise, the middle-child E-Ray. Even GMSV, the local importer, sells it short, billing it as the ‘all-season touring supercar’, a description that makes it sound like the exact opposite of the classic high days and holidays special event that most buyers crave when they hand over their money for a mid-engined supercar. The thing about the middle child, however, is that they’re often the quiet achievers, the ones most likely to spring a surprise. Forget the alpha eldest or the indulged youngest –…

WHAT EXACTLY is a Nismo road car? Performance manufacturers will surely interrogate what epitomises their core beliefs as they attempt to morph into an electrified era – to siphon as much of their old selves as possible into a completely different product. But for Nissan’s now 40-year-old motorsport arm, the truth might be a little hard to pin down. It only made racecars for its first decade – its first major production cars being the S14 Silvia 270R and R33 Skyline 400R. Limited to minuscule production runs and sporting some wacky decals, they could only be products of the Nineties. Yet they also exhibited notable mechanical upgrades over standard, the kind which added backbone to the badging and ensure stratospheric used values for both cars today. Everything that’s come since…

ONE OF THE things that gets me about electrified cars is the absolute partisan nature of it all – namely that if you like a vehicle that draws power from a battery, you couldn’t possibly also like a chunky V8, and vice versa. It’s complete rubbish, of course – something I’m given to ponder as a 5.7-litre Monaro gives it a blip next to me at the lights. I roll onto the throttle as we ascend the on-ramp with no soundtrack other than a faint whine from the Outlander’s electric motor, but crack open the window a couple of inches to hear the small-block disappear up the road. The sound gets me a bit nostalgic and I realise how far we’ve come from my childhood in dad’s garage pumping myself…

LAST MONTH I was opining about how the entry-level Kia EV9 Air might be the smartest variant to buy. In fact, I was so convinced by our beguiling black Air’s long list of standard equipment, sheer sense of space, sublime comfort, pert performance and supple ride quality on chunkily side-walled 19-inch tyres that I titled the report ‘the case for base’. But now, less than four weeks later, I’ve unearthed an issue that has me wondering if the mid-spec, $9500 dearer EV9 Earth is actually a better bet. And that issue is range. Unlike other EV9s, the base Air uses a 76.1kWh battery pack which is roughly 25 percent smaller than the 99.8kWh battery you get in the mid-tier Earth and flagship GT-Line. This gives the Air a claimed WLTP…