Table of contents for July 2019 in Wheels

WE USED TO know what to expect from a BMW M car. Razor-sharp responses, an exotic hand-crafted powerplant and a level of handling genius beyond any of its immediate rivals. And then we didn’t. It’s not easy to pinpoint quite where the dilution in these brand values began, when we started to get overweight and underbaked M Cars, but it’s clear that the M division is delivering once again. The BMW M2 was a stunning return to form and the next-generation M3 and M4 twins could well put Garching back on the top step of the podium. What we know so far is indeed tantalising. Frank van Meel, the ex-quattro boss who introduced all-wheel drive to M cars, is gone, replaced by Markus Flasch, the youngest person to head the…

IN TERMS OF pedigree, there aren’t too many vehicles that carry the clout of the iconic McLaren F1. This no-compromise exercise forever established the bona fides of its visionary designer, Gordon Murray. So when Murray sets to work on a second act – a A$4m, three-seater hypercar with an atmo 3.9-litre V12 – the world sits up and takes notice. Branded the T.50, Murray’s next project is a self-proclaimed Aston Martin Valkyrie and Mercedes-AMG One beater. Just 100 units will be built, with all examples to be completed within a year at Murray’s own manufacturing company, Gordon Murray Automotive (GMA). Apart from assisting the innovative aerodynamic fan, there won’t be any hefty hybrid tech attached to the new vehicle’s powertrain, as Murray believes it’s too heavy and complex. While the…

DUE DEC VOLKSWAGEN PASSAT Poised to offer equipment levels that could embarrass rivals such as the Mercedes-Benz C-Class and BMW 3 Series (eg, matrix LED headlights), the updated VW Passat features a revised infotainment system including Apple CarPlay, as well as reworked bumpers and a bolder badge on its rump. The Alltrack high-rider will be powered by a 162kW 2.0-litre petrol turbo. DUE SEP LAMBORGHINI HURACAN EVO Bodywork changes are said to provide seven times more downforce and allow 16 percent more air to cool the 5.2-litre V10 that picks up the Huracan Performante’s 470kW/600Nm tune. In come four-wheel steering, torque vectoring, digital instruments and an 8.4-inch infotainment screen. DUE AUG BMW X3/X4 M COMP BMW gives the X3 and X4 the full M treatment, including the S58 version of…

HEAVY READING BENTLEY CENTENARY OPUS Fancy celebrating Bentley’s 100th year with a book that’s only a little more affordable than the Magna Carta and requires two people to carry it? All three versions contain the same 800 pages and 30kg of Bentley’s history, but for the ultimate (very sturdy) coffee table sensation, go for the 100 Carat edition which is limited to seven examples worldwide – one for each continent – and costs (yes, really) $367,000. WATCHES HUBLOT CLASSIC FUSION CHRONOGRAPH A stand-out from this year’s Baselworld show, Hublot’s Fusion Chrono temporarily shirks the commercial partnership with Ferrari for a stunning piece in its own right. Polished 42mm gold case pairs perfectly with alligator leather. $34,300 TAG HEUER FORMULA 1 Not only does this fine Swiss watch celebrate the pedigree…

PREVIOUS Wheels encounters with Porsche’s third-generation Cayenne have left predominantly positive impressions. The sweet-spot S is a resounding high-achiever defying segment norms, the entry-level variant is somewhat of a bargain by Porsche standards, and the Turbo will bludgeon a chuckle out of even the most cold-hearted cynic. But there’s a glaring gap in the current range. There will be no successor to the second-gen diesel Cayenne – but customers might not lament the passing of compression ignition for long. Not only does the new Cayenne E-Hybrid exceed the diesel’s power, torque and efficiency on paper, its claimed performance translates into the real world, too. Even better, actually. The plug-in model arrives with all the qualities we approve of in its purely petrol-quaffing siblings. It’s almost as pretty as its Macan…

The contenders We get it, sub-$40K seven-seaters aren’t much to get excited about, but the contemporary urban autoscape tells us that crossovers have eclipsed wagons and vans as the apposite for growing families. And they’re not all a bucket of fun sponges, despite the keen pricing of this petrol duo. Beyond the primordial Mitsubishi Outlander – the dead horse that the Diamond Star continues to flog with success – is the X-Trail that’s well mannered and a better pick. But in enters Honda’s new CR-V, which plans to ruffle up the pecking order in this seven-seat stoush. It is just a few green notes more expensive than the older X-Trail – $38,700 plays $38,990 – and on paper it might appear that the Honda’s techy turbo engine and flash gear…

YOU MIGHT have been to this guy’s house. Over the past 25 years, four million tickets have been sold for the Goodwood Festival of Speed. Allowing for those who come every year, at least half a million people have wandered through the parkland around Goodwood House on the south coast of England over the four July days on which it hosts the Festival. Charles Gordon-Lennox, 11th Duke of Richmond, started the Festival in 1993 on what is essentially his driveway. It was joined by the Revival in 1998 and the Members’ Meeting in 2014. Together, these three annual events have become as central to motorsport culture as the great races and rallies they celebrate. They outrank the British Grand Prix on the bucket list of Australian or American motorsport fans…

Alpina believes its new XD3 will lift the brand’s profile here. It’s an SUV. It’s fast. Australians like both these things. They’ll also like the XD3’s $105,000 price. This is way less than the B3 sedan and B4 coupe, until now the least costly models in Alpina’s local line-up. Engineering the XD3 for right-hand-drive markets wasn’t simple. Left-hand-drive versions have a 3.0-litre in-line diesel six with four turbochargers. Some of them sit exactly where a right-hand-drive steering column needs to be. So Alpina engineers had to design and develop a twin-turbo design that would fit, while striving to minimise power and torque losses. The maximum outputs of the right-hand-drive XD3 engine are impressive; 245kW and 700Nm. A ride with Alpina boss Andy Bovensiepen in a development prototype showed the engine…

PLEASE go ahead and award yourself one RocKwiz bonus point if you’ve even heard of the Fauves, an Aussie four-piece formed in Victoria in the late ’80s. The Fauves are still together, but yet to top the modest success of their minor radio hit of 1996; a track I still believe to be something of a definitive social commentary regarding the messed-up realities of the modern world. Its title? ‘Dogs are the Best People’. Okay, it’s not a song of huge lyrical depth; it’s really more of a catchy rock ditty set to crunching guitars and a propulsive bass hook, but certain lines really resonate with me: “His love comes free and unconditionally / … he never lied to me once / he never flaunted my trust…” Dogs have been…

I KNOW I should be more understanding but when the call came from the Trouble and Strife that she’d run out of fuel several suburbs distant, I politely suggested she had best sort it out. To the gal’s credit that’s precisely what she did – after providing me a character reference that might be just a tad fruity for publication – trudging a few hundred metres to collect the obligatory ‘Can of Shame’, then drizzling just enough of the life-giving liquid into the Santa Fe’s fuel neck to get it back to the servo forecourt for a thorough replenishment. Unfortunately, some of the decanted diesel must have spilt down the inside of the fuel flap, and despite having given it a good wipe out when it eventually arrived home I’m…

WHILE THE NEW SF90 Stradale is the first plug-in hybrid Ferrari, it won’t be the last. Petrol-electric propulsion soon will be a staple of the prancing horse stable. “This is the [step]-off project for the new architecture,” Ferrari’s chief technology officer Michael Leiters revealed after the Stradale’s Maranello unveiling in late May. It would be the foundation for future mid-engine models, he said, and contained little carry-over content from the company’s existing mid-engine 488 family. Ferrari’s embrace of hybrid tech promises a new era of four-figure power outputs – at least for Europeans. The Stradale’s combined system output is 1000 metric horsepower. In the unit familiar to Australians, the number is 736kW, enough to vault the Stradale to the pinnacle of performance for a road-legal Ferrari. It has lapped the…

BACK IN 2011 while he was at Magna International, Markus Flasch was nominated by Automotive News Europe as one of the industry’s rising stars. His bio listed his engineering work on aerodynamics at Audi and NVH at Magna. At the bottom was his daily driver, the iconic BMW Z3 M Coupe so, yes, he’s one of us. After ascending to the director of program management at the Austrian company, Flasch was recruited by BMW and headed quality management before stepping into the big chair of 8 Series development and then succeeding van Meel at BMW M in 2018.…

ANOTHER electric SUV. Getting quite popular now, aren’t they? Though this one carries special significance. It’s the first model in an ambitious plan by Mercedes-Benz to launch 10 new EVs by the end of 2022 (three will be from Smart), at a cost of 10 billion euros. That’s billion, with a B. By that measure, this SUV promises to be the most significant new Mercedes-Benz of the year. Hell, maybe even the next decade. Dubbed EQC, this is our first chance to see what the world’s oldest car maker has in store for us as it squares up to take on Tesla and the growing hoard of similarly timed EV rivals from Jaguar, Audi and BMW. First impressions? It’s all very familiar. Parked in front of our hotel in Oslo,…

T’S A low-whistle, head-shake number; $604,800, particularly for a Porsche. It could get you a 911 and a 911 Cabriolet, a mixed half-dozen used Boxsters and Caymans, a Lamborghini plus change – or exactly one new 911 Speedster. Another remarkable number related to this drop-dead delectable reimagining of a classic is 1948 (enthusiasts/nerds will recognise it as the year Porsche built its first car.) Despite admitting that it spent literally millions on engineering and specific retooling to manufacture this unique, carbonfibre roadster (just the height of the windscreen alone, which had to look different to a Cabrio, cost a bomb), only 1948 Speedsters will be made. This, clearly, is a very special car; an affair-of-the-heart project for Porsche’s GT department and an effort to make something combining purity, pace and…

T’S CONSIDERED socially advisable to never show up to a party on time – always arrive fashionably late. That’s lucky for the F-Pace SVR, because it happens to be both these things: fashionable, and hideously late. Fashionable because, well, look at it. There’s no other SUV out there that boasts such classically attractive proportions as the F-Pace, free of unnecessary creases and bodylines and augmented in the SVR by the tasteful application of bigger air dams and heat-shedding vents, along with subtle aero to cut drag and reduce lift. Late because it’s arrived about a year after it was originally expected. Issues with a parts supplier delayed the SVR’s launch by around 12 months, but besides that it’s a latecomer to the performance SUV party in general. Jaguar’s German friends…

THE ONLY PERSON I can see is wrestling with a reel of fencing wire, the wind attempting to tear his clothes from his back. The mercury’s hovering just somewhere north of zero and the wind’s ripping in off the Bass Strait. Grey sheets of rain queue up offshore, ready to begin their strafing runs. I look over to the farmer and he’s grinning from ear to ear. I crack the window of the Camaro ZL1 down a few centimetres. “Go on,” he yells, dropping the reel and rolling his fist in the universally acknowledged language of petrolheads everywhere, “punch it!” Australia loves a good V8 and it’s easy to understand why. A bent-eight speaks of qualities many of us identify with; a rugged toughness, dependability, heritage, performance over parsimony and…

ARRIVING AT ‘The Wing’ at Silverstone on a cold and windy afternoon in early spring is like turning your internal colour saturation control down to zero. The old World War II bomber base airfield is forbidding at the best of times, but today under scudding nimbus there’s one heck of a monochrome welcome. An arrowhead of Mercedes’ most iconic Silver Arrows race cars sits at the entrance to the function centre. Mercedes is rolling out the red carpet to celebrate 125 years of motorsport, that anniversary defined by the 1894 Paris-Rouen race. Let’s pause for a little perspective here. Porsche is a newbie by comparison, its racing history commencing in 1951. Ferrari started competing in 1929, by which time Mercedes already had a 35-year competition pedigree. Of the 102 entrants…

THINK I’m about to lose feeling in my right leg. I’ve been strapped into one of only three Hyundai i30 N TCR cars in the country, and the belt of the racing harness pressing me into the seat feels like a hot iron as it pinches my flesh. I try to hide the pain spreading through my thigh like a flash flood as the engine fires into life, and the door is closed with a solid THUNK. But I’m getting ahead of myself. The reason why circulation is being cut off in my leg is because I’ve convinced HMO Customer Racing to allow me behind the wheel of its box-fresh race car which is based on our hot hatch benchmark, the Hyundai i30 N. Handy, then, that I’ve brought along…

BUCHLOE IS a small town in Bavaria, an hour or so west of Munich. Alpina founder Burkard Bovensiepen lives here in a house hemmed by buildings that are home to the small car company he founded in the 1960s. Brawny BMWs weren’t the first things to wear Alpina badges. The brand name was chosen by Burkard’s father, Otto Rudolf, for the office machine manufacturing business he established in 1951. Alpina portable typewriters are now sought after by collectors, who appreciate their high-quality engineering. When BMW launched its so-called ‘New Class’ 1500 in 1962, speed-hungry young Burkard went to work in a shed behind the headquarters of his father’s business. The result was a twin-carb kit to boost the performance of the BMW’s 1.5-litre four. ENGINES WITH MASSIVE LOW-END TORQUE AND…

AI I’m not exactly sure why, but I’ve always thought that ‘owning’ a supercar would bring certain social drawbacks. You know, the kind where people label you a ‘tosser’ and make funny hand signals with their pinkies. I once witnessed a previous editor of Wheels emerge from his house to find the Lamborghini he’d parked out front now covered in eggs. For some reason, however, this doesn’t apply to the McLaren. People absolutely adore it. CK Look, I don’t doubt the Macca is a neck snapper, but I have been getting the same kind of reaction in the Jimny – and I didn’t even have to pretend I’ve got the GDP of a small nation hidden down the back of my couch. Blokes in dual-cab utes have stuck their heads…

Add up the outputs of the SF90’s motors and you get more than the 162kW electric boost maximum claimed by Ferrari. The front-axle motors make 85kW each and the one between engine and gearbox 150kW. Problem is, the car can’t use it all. “This is due to the limitation of the battery,” tech chief Michael Leiters said. The good news? “This installation of about 320kW allows us to be very flexible in apportioning torque to the rear, or to the front, on the left, or on the right.” The SF90 Stradale blends overt visual drama and covert aerodynamic sophistication. Its two-section active rear spoiler that Ferrari describes as a “shutoff Gurney”. This patented design varies downforce according to a control logic that takes multiple factors into account. The car’s interior…

2400 Average annual sales figures of the Toyota Supra in the US between 1993 and 1998. The old A80 model, deified today, was in fact a sales flop at the time. During its 13th and final year on sale in 1996, the C4 Corvette outsold the Supra 21:1. So does the new GR version really have such big boots to fill? $130M That’s what Hyundai and Kia are investing in Croatian EV specialist Rimac as part of a technical partnership that will see the Koreans developing a pair of high-performance EVs by 2020. Expect a mid-motored sports EV from Hyundai’s N performance division, and a racy hydrogen fuel-cell halo car. EARLY BIRDS AND WORMS? Aston Martin has revealed that it has already received more than 500 orders for its forthcoming…

LETTER OF THE MONTH “THE ART OF SAFE “ DRIVING REQUIRES CONSTANT JUDGEMENT CALLS” DOWNFALL IN THE RISE OF THE MACHINES MY CENTRAL HEATING unit recently wouldn’t fire up. The screen menu indicated that it would not start until I had booked a service, for which it judged the time was due. Bad luck on a cold Saturday night. Rather than me using my judgement, that choice was frustratingly denied me by overbearing technology. And don’t even start me on compulsory software upgrades to match ‘improved’ operating systems. Technology is meant to serve us, not control us. With a push to include speed limiters in all new vehicles (Wheels, May), one suspects that the boffins behind this may be motorists, but they are not drivers. The art of successful and…

AS ELECTRIC PROPULSION edges ever closer to the critical popularity tipping point, mainstream brands including Nissan are proving that there’s plenty of life left in combustion power. The Japanese manufacturer’s VC-Turbo engine uses an ingenious variable crankshaft arrangement that allows the compression ratio to be altered while running. Unlike some ‘virtual’ variable-compression-ratio offerings that use clever valve timing to achieve something similar, Nissan’s VC-T actually changes the TDC (top dead centre) height of the piston. Under low-load conditions such as freeway cruising, the piston is allowed to travel to the highest permissible position up the cylinder, creating maximum compression before ignition. When maximum power is required, though, the complex multi-link crankshaft pulls its party trick. Instead of a simple plain bearing at the ‘big-end’ of the piston connecting rod, the…

IT’S TAKEN five generations for Toyota to offer hybrid power in what has been the world’s best-selling SUV, and the company is not about to squander that advantage with elitist pricing for the petrol-electric drivetrain. No, you can have the 163kW/221Nm hybrid system for $3500 more than the basic petrol powertrain in the entry-level GX grade. Such is the structure of the 11-model RAV4 range, Toyota expects 40 percent (at least) take-up for the Hybrid. But what about non-hybrid versions of the new RAV4? Does deleting the motor and battery kill the spark? Well, anyone who’s never driven the hybrid will initially feel pretty content with it, because the 2.0-litre doesn’t feel particularly different from other contenders in this class when you’re just trundling around the suburbs. This revised engine…

IF YOU’RE just joining us, here’s a very quick Camaro recap. (Everyone else, skip ahead one paragraph.) The Chevrolet Camaro was never engineered in right-hand-drive form. Holden sat on its hands for an eternity before HSV decided to pitch for the car. GM said yes, and Clayton took delivery of a limited run of Argentinian-spec 2018 cars to show Detroit that it knows what it’s doing in the conversion from left- to right-hand drive. The big office was clearly impressed, because as a reward, Australia’s now getting an extended run of right-hook Camaros. This updated 2019 car has made some significant strides forward, to whit there’s now a choice between a 10-speed auto and a six-speed manual, available from June. The LT1 engine hasn’t really changed, still developing a chunky…

FOUR + FOUR = GREAT AMG’s 4.0-litre V8 is actually a development of the 2.0-litre M133 unit found in the current A45. The V8 is essentially two M133 blocks joined by a single crankshaft; both engines share the same 90mm cylinder spacings and identical bore and stroke (83 x 92mm). Mercedes uses lower-output versions of the 4.0-litre in its (upper) mainstream range, though those reserved for AMG (coded M177 and M178) are handbuilt at Affalterbach.…

The Mercedes W 125 streamliner at Silverstone demolished a series of speed records on the AVUS Ring near Berlin, now known as the Bundesautobahn 115. The ‘Automobil Verkehrs Und Übungsstraße (Automobile Traffic and Training Road) opened in 1921. Until ’98, it was also used as a racing circuit and it was here that Rudolf Caracciola and the 541kW Mercedes streamliner demolished flying mile and kilometre records in 1938. The death of Auto Union star Bernd Rosemeyer in that same year brought the curtain down on AVUS’ suitability as a record-breaking venue.…

one HOT SEAT The seat is bolted low to the floor, which limits vision, but since you won’t be encountering any roundabouts on the track, that’s not a big deal, and the CoG benefits. The steering column-mounted dash displays revs, gear selection, speed, and lap times for ego stroking ... or a reality check. two DON’T TOUCH The old race-car instruction was in force here: “Don’t fiddle with stuff!” Water and oil are primed at the press of a button before the engine is fired up. The big red switch is for the onboard fire-suppression system, while the big stick is the handbrake which is used for launch control. three FANCY FEET The pedal box is adjusted to the driver’s frame. Each pedal is hinged from the floor. Getting the…

It’s snowing hard in this part of Bavaria, but inside the Alpina B5 Touring I’m chilled in the non-temperature sense of the word. It shouldn’t be this easy in something with a 4.4-litre twin-turbo V8 packing 447kW and 800Nm. This is M5-grade punch, but the big wagon is brilliantly surefooted. Its adept all-wheel drive is a major factor in creating this sense of security, but the easygoing exactness of the drivetrain in these conditions also contributes. Conditions aren’t right for exploring the other extreme of the B5 Touring’s performance envelope. Alpina claims a 0-100km/h time of 3.7 seconds and a top speed of 322km/h. Not today... There’s an autobahn opportunity to up the pace. The swelling acceleration of the Alpina as I join the stream of fast-moving traffic lends credence…

IT IS AS I’d hoped. Five weeks into Raptor ownership and the Blue Oval brute is already enriching my life in new and dusty ways. Aware that I may have been a tad hasty in my remarks about off-roading in last month’s report (“About as exciting as a Matthew McConaughey marathon”), and with Saturday dawning bright, I decided the time was ripe for some adventuring. With the wife equally keen to explore, we threw the dog into the back seat and made a beeline for Lerderderg State Park, an hour north-west of Melbourne with some 14,250 hectares of bushland on offer. Its centrepiece is a 300m-high gorge that bisects the park, alongside which runs one of the main dirt arterials, O’Briens Road. It’s a well-maintained track that offers a tasty…

WHEN Dep Ed Andy flung the XC40’s neat rectangular key fob toward me, I thought there’s surely no worse an introduction to Wheels’ long-term car pool. I had settled into my new seat in the office, but this was the ultimate litmus test: “Here’s the 2019 Wheels Car of the Year winner, tell us what you think about it.” If I was anything less than impressed, I’m sure Editor Inwood would be scratching his head. Thankfully, it’s not hard to understand why it took out the top gong, with its slick and spacious interior, good handling and punchy engine apparent from the outset. But I had something more in mind for my first long-term report, rounding up the wife and child to head north along the east coast toward Bega…

TOP THREE SUBARU WRX 22B STI The 22B is at the top of my bucket list. The combination of its rally heritage, timeless looks, perfect proportions, those guards, plus the mechanical upgrades, ticks all the boxes in my eyes. Subaru Australia owns one of only five officially imported into Australia, but so far they haven’t loaned me the keys… AUDI SPORT QUATTRO Sticking to a historic theme, I’d need an Audi Sport quattro in the garage too. Produced in very limited numbers to allow for World Rally Championship homologation, it was transformed from a potent road car into a fire-breathing Group B monster and driven to victory by one of my heroes, Michèle Mouton. Who doesn’t love the bark of five cylinders? FORD GT40 My dad built a Ford GT40…