Table of contents for July 17, 2024 in Autocar

The Red Bull RB17 is a dramatic track-only hypercar that can lap quicker than a Formula 1 car, according to its creator, Adrian Newey. The 1184bhp, V10-powered RB17 is the design legend’s swansong at Red Bull before his departure from the group and was revealed at the Goodwood Festival of Speed. A limited run of 50 examples will be produced. The two-seat RB17 has been in its concept design phase for three years. Newey kick-started the project in 2021 while developing the F1 car that took Max Verstappen to his first world title and also while researching the then new F1 regulations that would come into effect in 2022. Development of the RB17, which has a top speed in excess of 217mph, will now ramp up, including the first firing…

Mercedes-Benz’s AMG performance division has boosted its snarling second-generation GT with the new track-focused 63 Pro 4Matic+. Unveiled at last week’s Goodwood Festival of Speed ahead of UK sales starting later this year, the fourwheel-drive coupé receives a 603bhp version of AMG’s twin-turbocharged 4.0-litre V8 petrol engine, giving it 27bhp more than the standard GT 63 4Matic+. Torque has also been increased by 37lb ft to 627lb ft thanks to revised engine control software. Other drivetrain changes include an upgraded cooling system with additional radiators up front and active cooling via electrically operated water pumps for the radiators mounted on the front and rear axles. Mercedes-AMG claims it will cover 0-62mph in 3.2sec and 0-124mph in 10.9sec – the latter being 0.5sec quicker than the standard GT 63 4Matic+. Top…

THOUSANDS OF car fans will have been at Goodwood this week. To avoid the traffic jams, many will have braved the British weather in campsites or been crammed into any available form of accommodation nearby. While we might look jealously at all the VIP passes, sometimes even the most important visitors don’t have comfortable nights. The most special guests at Goodwood get to stay on the estate itself and sometimes even in the house. This was where a Japanese car company boss was put up a few years ago while meeting to discuss the brand’s involvement in the Festival of Speed. According to several sources, he retired to his room after an agreeable dinner, but after a few hours’ sleep, he found himself awake in the early hours, racked by…

Last week, I drove the Dacia Spring (p26), a small EV with a 140-mile range when new (and warm and not on a motorway). Also last week, my munchkins climbed into a 16-year-old small car and drove 140 miles to camp at a wet music festival. When they had to stop to refuel (once, on their way home), it took them only a few minutes. Fast forward to 2040 and their equivalents might still be tooling around in a combustionengined city car or supermini – or they could find themselves instead driving an old small EV, more tired and less rangy than it is today. Having such a weekend away will still be doable, of course, but it will take longer. One might stop to shop while charging on the…

Priced from £14,995 on the road, the Dacia Spring will arrive in the UK in October as the cheapest electric car on sale (the £8595 Citroën Ami is technically a quadricycle). Given that it’s punily powered (44bhp) at that headline price and that moving up the model hierarchy is unlikely to prove prohibitive for most cash customers, it’s surprising to learn that many are ordering this new city car in its most basic form: at less than 15 grand, please, with 44bhp, and no matter that it takes 19.1sec to reach 62mph. Of more interest to most customers, though, is the variant that I’m driving here, which has a whopping 64bhp motor, pulling the Spring’s acceleration from a 1965 Hillman Minx-equalling level to that of a 1992 Renault Clio 1.2…

When all the elements align, a convertible can be a wonderful thing. No rain, not too hot, not too cold, some quiet country lanes to cruise through: it’s rather soothing. The new Mercedes CLE Cabriolet does its bit too, particularly in 450 form. Its 3.0-litre engine has 376bhp, but that’s not really the point. With the roof down, the smooth straight-six sound is overlaid with a hint of raspiness. And thanks to mild-hybrid assistance and nine tightly stacked gears, there’s plenty of punch from low down. It all makes floating from corner to corner quite enjoyable. But let’s burst the idyllic bubble for a moment and look at the CLE Cabriolet with a slightly colder view. How does it compare with other convertibles? And what’s it like on the daily…

As prices rise and belts are tightened, so our search for value – those things that give us most for the least money – intensifies. Of course, value is largely a subjective thing and we were reminded of that recently when a reader called with news of their new Tesla Model 3. It cost £39,000, a figure that included 15,000 miles of free charging via the company’s Supercharger network, a benefit worth around £2000. Although the reader understood the market is choked with used Model 3s and, as a result, his new car will depreciate heavily, he loved the prospect of being its first owner. However, those numbers got us thinking about how you can get a year-old Model 3 with 5000 miles for £29,000 and how the £10,000 the…

MILEAGE 5325 WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT This hi-vis EV could be the future of hot hatches. Should we be excited? You can always tell how far a long-term test car has burrowed under your skin if you spend some time apart from it – you will always either dread being reunited or greet it warmly, like an old mate. Whoops. I’ve committed the cardinal sin of anthropomorphism there, but look at it – how could you not? Anyway, the point is that I was recently deprived of the flying bogey for a couple of weeks and couldn’t wait to get back in it. Absence makes the heart grow fonder, of course, but then so does a fraught few minutes spent cramming a 5.1-metrelong Land Rover Defender into a space at…

COMPARISON Abarth 500e vs Mini Cooper SE Long-running retro-themed small hatches go head to head once more. Can either truly offer hot hatch joy in an electric age? FIRST DRIVE Ford Kuga Family SUV gets big update with new tech and revamped hybrid powertrain INSIGHT Supercar spotting Snapping exotica in London has become a popular pastime. We give it a go EVERY WEEK ROAD TEST Lotus Eletre R Just how good is Lotus’s enormous, 2.6-tonne, 905bhp electric SUV? USED GUIDE Audi A3 Sportback Why this premium mid-sized hatch remains a superb choice SUBSCRIBE autocar.co.uk/subscribe or see p22…

A road test in any other magazine might well be a short, subjective summary of a new car produced under almost any circumstances, but the Autocar road test is different. Specific, rigorous and detailed, it’s the closest examination we can give of any new model. It appears over at least eight pages and is close to 50 man-hours in the making every week. Most of what the road test process entails is designed to be strictly repeatable and fair. We benchmark standing-start and in-gear acceleration at a purpose-built test facility every week. We carry out both subjective and objective handling tests on both road and track, on the latter up to and beyond the limit of grip, so as to fully assess stability, drivability and limit handling appeal. And while…

Polestar has revealed a stunning new two-seat roadster concept that’s based on the forthcoming 6 and hints at a motorsport-honed future range-topper. Unveiled at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, the Concept BST is a track-honed reworking of the supercarbaiting 6 sports car, swapping Polestar’s traditional Scandinavian minimalism for more aggressive, motorsportinspired styling. The hot two-seater features a fabric roof and adds a vented bonnet, dramatic front splitter, large rear wing, beefed-up wheel arches and significantly wider track. It also sits on 22in alloy wheels. The new concept retains the same bonded aluminium unibody platform as the 6. Polestar has yet to disclose official powertrain or technical details. However, the car is likely to retain the same 875bhp and 663lb ft twinmotor, four-wheel-drive set-up as the 6. Instead, the focus is…

Fiat will launch a Nissan Qashqai-rivalling SUV and a Toyota RAV4-like rakish compact crossover as part of a push towards a new affordable line-up of models. To sit at the top of the Fiat range, they will follow the recently revealed Grande Panda and sit above the 500 and 600 as the Italian brand targets a more diverse spread of segments globally. Revealed as concept cars in February, the pair, which are currently known simply as the SUV and the Fastback, will arrive in 2025 and 2026 as part of Fiat’s 125th-anniversary celebrations. This follows its pledge to launch a new car every year up to 2027. Although little else is known about the pair, Fiat has presented the SUV as a “giga-Panda” that will focus on practicality, adding that…

MONDAY It was amusing to see how the recent prime ministerial manoeuvres at Buckingham Palace led British news presenters to display their ignorance about cars. A prime example came when a top pundit talked of Sir Keir Starmer “getting into his sleek black Jaguar armoured car” when the TV clearly showed a limo with four gleaming rings across the grille. Come to think of it, why do this country’s royals and top politicians go about in Audis? The short-term reason is that a now-departed Audi UK comms director built great contacts at the palace (he was even invited to then Prince Charles’s wedding). The people who do royal deals on wheels doubtless do spectacular ones. But to most of us, Jaguars and Range Rovers seem more appropriate. I know JLR…

n line with just about every combustion-engined performance car, the Audi S3 has been creeping its way upmarket over the past few years. The current, fourth-generation hot A3 appeared in 2020, on offer from a whisker under £40k. But now that Ingolstadt needs to make more profit out of fewer sales of cars like this, departure prices on what used to be thought of as the entry-level, most affordable Audi ‘S express’ are about 15% higher, at closer to £50k. The company is justifying that with some interesting new technical content in the case of this facelifted car, however. Having appropriated the clever torque-vectoring rear differential of the Volkswagen Golf R for the hotter-still RS3 two years ago, Audi has now made it standard-fit on the S3 as well. It…

Blending small car handiness, affordable running costs and practicality with just a dash of SUV swagger, compact crossovers have all but usurped superminis as Britain’s favourite family runabouts. So it’s no surprise that Toyota has reacted quickly to customers’ grumbles about its Yaris Cross, giving it a light refresh after barely three years. Owners liked the chunky Yaris’s hybrid drivetrain, nimble handling, user-friendly interior and option of four-wheel drive but felt it could be quieter and quicker. So that’s just what the brand has tried to deliver. The familiar 114bhp system is carried over, but the GR Sport model and limited-run Premiere Edition feature a more muscular version. Featuring tweaks to the four-pot engine and electric motor (there’s also a starter-generator), this system produces more power (129bhp combined) and torque…

it’s hard to find a definition that adequately covers every part of David Richards’ Prodrive firm – and that’s awkward, as this year it celebrates 40 years of more or less continuous business success, including some of the greatest moments in UK motorsport history. Prodrive’s own brochure description of itself as “the world’s leading independent motorsport company” only goes partway towards doing the job. It certainly encompasses the company’s best-known successes, such as winning enough WRC rallies (46) for Subaru in 18 years to change the entire shape and public perception of the Japanese brand and scoring seven Le Mans class wins and 11 GT titles for Aston Martin since setting up a race programme in 2004. Yet it fails to cover a plethora of other activities. Your long-wheelbase Range…

FINAL REPORT MILEAGE 25,803 WHY WE RAN IT To see if this hybrid can strike the sweet spot between a car and a van FEATURED THIS WEEK When the Corolla first joined us nearly 25,000 miles ago, I don’t think anyone in the Autocar office expected much of it. No disrespect to the legions of private hire drivers up and down the country, but the idea of driving one for the foreseeable future seemed like the automotive equivalent of watching paint dry. However, this particular Corolla has a secret: it’s actually a van in disguise. This secret was a constant source of amusement for most. But any time someone asked about the Corolla Commercial – typically with a slightly incredulous “you came here in that?” while gesturing to my mock-taxi…

ADAS and ADHD I currently read with dread the growing number of stories about driver intervention systems. The Lexus LBX tells its driver to “sit up straight” (Our Cars, 26 June). What are we becoming? These systems produce many annoying and dangerous false positives. Would the money being spent on developing them not be better spent on improving driving standards? There’s nothing safer than a driver paying attention to their surroundings and being able to ‘work’ the tool that is the car. At 70 and still looking to drive for a good few years yet, I fear for the new generations of people getting into cars ill-equipped to deal with the consequences of attention deficit. Charles Kelso Via email They’ve built my dream I’ve just taken delivery of a standard…

Ferrari’s answer to the Bentley Continental GT and Aston Martin Vanquish in 2004 was a front-engined, long-nosed, rear-drive 540bhp GT that was the closest the firm had ever come to making a 200mph family car. On which note, let’s start with the practical stuff. With four seats, good visibility, soft leather upholstery and as much space up front as its nearly five-metre length would have you believe, the 612 Scaglietti has almost all the hallmarks of a consummate GT car. Almost, because its modest 240-litre boot is nearly half the size of the 450-litre Mercedes CL’s and 115 litres smaller than the Continental GT’s. But do you buy a Ferrari for its boot space? If you look past this shortcoming and regard the 612 as a GT that offers more…

SO, AFTER 14 years of Conservative government, Labour has scored a crushing election victory – and it has big plans for the UK’s road transport and motor industry. Its manifesto tasks new prime minister Sir Keir Starmer and transport minister Louise Haigh with “modernising our transport infrastructure”, restoring the 2030 ban on new ICE car sales, helping drivers go electric in the interim, spending £1.5 billion on opening EV battery factories and halting the rapid rise of insurance costs. It’s quite a list – which made us wonder what motoring challenges past Labour governments were faced with or set themselves and how well they handled them. Labour emerged in the late 1800s, and by January 1924 it was in charge of the nation. Ramsay MacDonald’s men actually came a distant…

The EV age may now be upon us, but the fact remains that 97% or so of the world’s cars get powered the old-fashioned way – and ask any driver and they will tell you they’re paying too much for fuel. Yet many countries have petrol prices that are much higher than the global average of £1.05 per litre – and even way above the £1.40 per litre that we pay in the UK. Hong Kong £2.53 per litre With space at such a premium in Hong Kong, car ownership is far lower than in most other parts of the developed world. As a result of this, and it having no oil-refining capacity of its own, fuel is at its most expensive per litre in the ‘special region’ of China.…

The new Audi A5 has been unveiled as the upmarket replacement for today’s A4, introducing a new combustioncar platform and a range of heavily revised engines. The name change comes as part of the German firm’s new branding strategy for its next-generation models, with ICE cars taking odd numbers and EVs even numbers. The A5 will be offered in saloon and estate forms but not, Audi has confirmed, as a coupé or a cabriolet. It uses Audi’s new Premium Platform Combustion (PPC), which replaces the 17-year-old MLB architecture of the current A4 and has no relation to the Premium Platform Electric that will underpin Audi’s new-wave EVs. In keeping with Audi tradition, the A5 retains a longitudinal engine layout, but it’s said to be much more accommodating of various electrified…

MG HAS CHANNELLED the spirit of the MGB GT to create a four-seat coupé version of the Cyberster – and it could be in showrooms as early as next year. Called the Cyber GTS, it made its debut on the hillclimb at Goodwood last week as part of MG’s starring role as the ‘celebrated marque’ of this year’s Festival of Speed. It appeared alongside the new HS (see box, right), the radical EXE 181 concept and an MG-themed central sculpture topped by the Cyberster and original MGB. The GTS is officially a concept for now but the company’s top designers, Jozef Kaban and Carl Gotham, said public reaction to the running prototype will determine whether MG takes it to the showroom. The Cyberster was engineered from the off to be…

Arestomod based on the Ferrari F355, claimed to be the “antidote” to modern supercars, has been revealed as the first car from British startup Evoluto Automobili. Evoluto is a sibling of Boreham Motorworks, the company that recently announced plans to build Ford RS200 and Mk1 Escort restomods under licence from Ford. Its F355 is intended to showcase the ethos and technical ability of parent company DRVN, reworking cherished cars with a focus on real-world exploitability and driver involvement. A key part of the Evoluto 355’s appeal is its new bodywork, which has been designed by Ian Callum and is intended to provide a more modern look without spoiling the clean lines of the original. The front end has been reworked with a larger grille and a carbonfibre lip, while the…

THE NEW GRANDE Panda will be one of the cheapest EVs on the market when it arrives next year, Fiat has confirmed. Priced from “less than £22,000”, the supermini is likely to match the £21,990 starting price of its Citroën ë-C3 relation, undercutting all electric cars bar the £14,995 Dacia Spring (driven, p26). At launch, the Grande Panda will be offered with a powertrain comprising a 44kWh battery and a 111bhp electric motor, which will be good for 199 miles of range. A petrol-engined version will also be offered, costing less than £20,000. Although Fiat has yet to confirm details, it is expected to use the same 99bhp mild-hybrid three-cylinder unit as the C3. The Grande Panda’s funky, vibrant exterior is mirrored inside, with a colourful 10.25in infotainment touchscreen and…

The Red Arrows soar through the heavens, leaving a smoke trail of red, white and blue as Hannah Waddingham’s graceful rendition of God Save the King snaps all to attention. Some of the 165,000 souls in grandstands and on spectator banks even remember to remove their branded baseball caps. On the grid, George Russell, Lewis Hamilton and Lando Norris promise to keep the home fires burning by starting in a glorious one-two-three – Britain’s first since 1968 – as anticipation simmers to a colourful frenzy. Yes, even for the hardened cynic, there’s nothing quite like Silverstone on British Grand Prix Sunday. Roughly an hour and a half later, those crowds spark delirium as an emotionally wrought Hamilton takes in his achievement, draped in a Union flag. It has been 945…

It has been a while since Mercedes-AMG’s model designations had any bearing on engine capacities, but we thought we had figured this out, right? The 63 is the full-house one, while the 53 is basically an AMG Line pack on the biggest engine. In comes the CLE 53 Coupé, looking all butch with its wider wheel arches. The spec sheet mentions a rear-wheel-drive-only drift mode (it’s four-wheel drive as standard), and 443bhp and 4.2sec to 62mph sound pretty full house as well. Sure, it’s slower than the BMW M4, but super-coupé performance has well and truly jumped the shark anyway, so that’s just a question of how unusable you want your performance to be. At £73,075, it’s all of £14,745 cheaper too. There is going to be a 63 version…

The second generation of Skoda’s largest SUV impressed us in top-end SE L trim overseas. But now that it has arrived in the UK, we are driving it in its most basic trim with the smallest engine. Starting at £36,645, the Kodiaq is £5350 cheaper than the Kia Sorento hybrid and £640 cheaper than the new Peugeot 5008 mild hybrid, both with the same level of equipment. The space on offer is equally appealing, with plenty of room to get comfy and a 40/20/40-split bench that provides good thigh support. The boot offers a massive 910 litres of space with the seats in place – more than the Sorento (616 litres), although the Kia is only available with seven seats (the third row is an £860 option on the Kodiaq…

MODEL TESTED 2.0 TDI SE L Price £39,705 Power 148bhp Torque 266lb ft 0-60mph 8.4sec 30-70mph in fourth 9.3sec Fuel economy 52.7mpg CO2 emissions 135g/km 70-0mph 45.8m Skoda has gone up in the world and within the Volkswagen Group. Where the Skoda Superb started as a stretched Volkswagen Passat, evolving to a stretched Passat with a weird boot and finally to nearly the Passat’s equal in the outgoing generation, the latest, fourth-generation Superb has turned the tables. The new Superb and Passat were developed side by side, but with the process led by Skoda. Mladá Boleslav has turned from follower to leader, not just taking an important role in the development of new cars but also taking the opportunity to tear off the shared-platform straitjacket, such as by introducing off-menu user…

MILEAGE 6419 WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT A switch from FWD to RWD brings better range, efficiency and drivability – but what about everyday appeal? I’d forgive you for not remembering the exact locations of my journeys over the past three years in this section of the magazine, given that there have been more than 10,000 pages of editorial in that time, but this is now the fourth electric car in three years that I’ve taken to Belgium (yes, Bruges again) for a long weekend (no, I’m not on the tourist board, I just like the cobbles, canals and beer, okay?), and your fourth single-page write-up on how an EV tackles that journey awaits. The Polestar 2 follows an Audi Q4 E-tron, a Kia Niro EV and a BMW iX in…

I know that Volvo is now bringing its estates back to the UK, but in his letter referring to their withdrawal (26 June), I don’t understand why Christopher Cassidy could “not see any other way” than a BMW Touring. The Audi A6 Avant seems to be the default posh estate around where I live, and there’s also the Skoda Superb Estate. A friend of mine has an older-model Superb and it never ceases to impress me, particularly for the quality of its ride. As well as the Mercedes-Benz C-Class and E-Class Estates, there’s the Volkswagen Passat Estate. After a few years of driving a 3 Series Touring, I’ve since had two Passats. I prefer the Passat in virtually every way to the BMW, as it has a broader range of…

An owner’s view ROBERT WHITEHEAD “I own a 2006 612 Scaglietti HGTS. The car is long and quite wide but very well balanced, with good turn-in and well-weighted steering. Grip is fantastic, with excellent feedback from the front wheels and a good sense of rear grip when it is wet or icy. The only negative is that this car does not have as much leg room for the driver as the long bonnet might suggest. But what I love most is the sound it makes. To my ears, it is one of the best-sounding cars on the road, coming very close to the sound of an Enzo. I drive with the windows down most of the time!” Buyer beware… ENGINE This was the last 12-pot Ferrari with a rubber timing…