Table of contents for May 2018 in Wheels

MAY-JUNE ASTON MARTIN Vantage and DB11 Volante; AUDI RS4 Avant, A7 Sportback and A8; BENTLEY Bentayga V8; CHEVROLET Silverado ute; FORD Mustang facelift; HYUNDAI iMax/iLoad facelift; JEEP Grand Cherokee update; KIA Cerato sedan; LAND ROVER Range Rover plug-in hybrid; MERCEDES-BENZ S-Class coupe/cabriolet facelift; PORSCHE Cayenne; VOLVO XC40 JULY-AUGUST BENTLEY Continental GT; CHEVROLET Camaro; FORD Mustang Bullitt; GENESIS G70 and G80 sedans; HYUNDAI Santa Fe and Ioniq; MERCEDES-BENZ CLS and GLC63 AMG wagon/coupe; TOYOTA Corolla; VOLKSWAGEN Mk6 Polo Beats and GTI, and Tiguan Allspace Mercedes-Benz CLS We have the Mercedes-Benz CLS to thank for the rebirth of the four-door coupe, of which we’re about to see generation three. Landing in July in CLS450 guise, this mid-spec CLS will start at $155,900 (before options and on-roads) and feature the three-pointed star’s all-new…

A McLaren 720S produces 530kW and hits 200km/h in 7.8 seconds. It’s fast. Today, it’s helping me get my eye in ahead of hot laps at Silverstone in something significantly quicker: the McLaren Senna, billed as the ultimate road-legal track car. ‘Our’ Senna is a verification prototype, the final sign-off before 500 production cars roll down the line, but a car that’s fully representative in terms of chassis and powertrain. The basics – carbonfibre passenger cell, 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8, dual-clutch gearbox – appear familiar from the 720S, but there are some big upgrades, and the stats put it on another planet: it makes 588kW, weighs 85kg less at 1198kg dry, and can reach 200km/h in 6.8 seconds, a full second quicker. The Senna’s dihedral door floats open – the carbon…

An organised garage is a happy garage, and with the huge range of high-quality, easy-to-assemble storage solutions available these days, getting the garage in order has never been easier or more affordable. The first step to sorting your garage is getting everything off the floor. This frees up more room for the car, and avoids those hard-to-sort-through piles of junk that just seem to get bigger over time. A sturdy four-tier or five-tier adjustable shelving unit fitted snugly against a wall makes it easy to find what you need when you need it. For items that don’t stack as easily, a set of plastic boxes does the trick. Then consider a lockable storage cabinet, which is a secure place to house valuable tools, and also to keep garden pesticides and…

MARTY DiBergi, the ‘filmmaker’ following rock band Spinal Tap in the 1984 mockumentary, never quite grasped the concept of an amp that went up to eleven: “Why don’t you make ten a little louder; make that the top number?” he asked lead guitarist Nigel Tufnel. Nigel just paused: “These go to eleven.” The brilliantly absurd This is Spinal Tap might have introduced us to the concept of things ‘going to eleven’, but even decibel-loving axeman Nigel would run out of superlatives today. Why? Because we’re on a rallycross track at Winton with a Jeep Grand Cherokee Trackhawk that goes to 522. That’s how many kilowatts the supercharged 6.2-litre Hemi V8 develops. More numbers? How about torque of 868Nm, 0-100km/h in 3.7 seconds and 400m in 11.6 seconds at 186km/h? Eleven?…

I learn you can give the 488 Pista wide open throttle as early as you like AFFAELE De Simone short shifts with a gentle tap of the 488 Pista’s satin-finish carbonfibre right paddle. Ferrari’s 30-something GT development driver tells me later he’s had 150 laps of Fiorano to hone his act. And it’s worth watching… From the passenger seat it’s crushing g forces coming at you from every direction. Acceleration, cornering and braking apply pressure to spine, ribs and chest in turn, while neck muscles constantly strain to keep head and eyes pointed in the right direction. ‘Pista’ is Italian for ‘track’ and this Ferrari lives up to the name. And it needs to. The $645,000 drive-away price-tag is a hefty $175,000 more than that of the 488 GTB. Acceleration…

AH THE three month itch. Typically this is the time in a car’s journey through the Wheels Garage when the excitement of running a new long-termer begins to wane and some frustrations of familiarity begin to rise. It’s a key reason we run long-term test cars: to unearth the niggles and quirks that only begin to surface after prolonged use – the very same journey you’d experience if you bought the car yourself. The only problem is that, in this instance, there aren’t any frustrations to report. Not yet anyway. Three months in and the XC60 T8 is proving the near-perfect companion. Quiet, comfortable and fantastically frugal (it sipped just 4.9L/100km this month; an impressive effort for a 2174kg SUV), the T8 has slipped seamlessly into my life. It’s effortless…

HIGHER ROTATION Revised air intake, upgraded exhaust, lighter internals, stronger crank and revised cam timing will all contribute to the 2.0-litre’s extra revs and power SHOCK TREATMENT Damper rates will be retuned to improve body control without losing the ride pliancy and contained roll we love IT PLUGS; YOU PLAY Upgraded connectivity, including the addition of CarPlay and Android Auto, a much better infotainment screen plus reversing camera will all feature JUST A TRIM Other interior tweaks will be subtle at best: small trim changes and additional colour choices for seats and roof NON-PROLIFERATION TREATY The high-revving 2.0-litre Skyactiv engine will remain exclusive to the MX-5, despite sharing many of its basics with the engines of the same capacity used in the 3, CX- 3 and CX-5. It’s all about…

What is it? Part of Mazda’s gruelling development program that takes prototype and pre-production vehicles and subjects them to tortures they might encounter in only the most extreme real-world situations. In the anechoic chambers, almost all reflected and rebounding sound and radio waves can be eliminated, allowing engineers to study exactly how new models perform in a carefully controlled environment devoid of any outside interference from sound or radio waves. How does it work? Specially shaped blocks of absorbent materials line the walls of the chambers and are precisely designed to dissipate the energy from sound and electromagnetic waves as they meet the wall. This prevents reflection of waves back through the space and creates the effect of an infinitely large room, which is also insulated from outside noise or…

TOP MARKS Well said, Mark Webber! I couldn’t agree with you more (‘Webber: Beyond the circuit’, Redline, April). As a teacher who taught driver education to Year 10 students for many years and who completed two advanced driving courses, the low driving standards and skill levels are a major concern. Unlike Webber’s catch phrase, mine would be: “I’ve never seen so many idiots on the road in such a short space of time!” I would even suggest that this poor skillset he cites and our fixation on using mobile phones while behind the wheel are key factors in the increase of road rage and the carnage we now see on our roads. Thank goodness for the safety-related technology we now find in modern cars that improve ANCAP crash-test ratings and…

TAKE a deep breath, because the next few paragraphs are going to be dense. The E-Pace has arrived in Oz with a model range so broad Jag says its one compact SUV will compete with the BMW X1, X2, X3 and X4, and the small to midsize SUVs from Audi and Mercedes to boot. Pricing starts at $47,750 and spans an almighty spectrum of 38 variants to top out at $84,370 – before options. At launch the breakdown includes five engines (three diesels, two petrols) and five trim grades (E-Pace, S, SE, HSE and First Edition), and nearly any combination is possible. An R-Dynamic interior and exterior styling package available on most permutations adds yet more depth to the line-up. All engines are 2.0-litre four-cylinder Ingenium units linked to a…

TWO STEP Production of BT62 is limited to 70 examples, in reference to 2018 as Brabham’s 70th anniversary year. The first 35 will be Celebration cars, painted in race-inspired liveries that honour each of Brabham’s 35 Grand Prix victories, with an individual commemorative plaque placed on the dashboard. Every Celebration car will be unique. The second half will be Signature cars, configured by their owners. “If somebody says I want to do something a little bit out there and I want to have a car that’s customisable fully to me, we’ll work to do that as well.” WHERE’S BT61? “I have a list that was drawn up by every designer that graced the Brabham Formula 1 team where they all wrote, on the same piece of paper, what car model,…

It 's official . We're 65 years old . If you were horn at the same time as Wheels , you might well be looking forward to mid-afternoon naps and the prospect of uncorking your Super. Meanwhile , we get to respawn like a cheat code in a computer game, pumped full of new blood. You'll have seen a lot and so have we, so to celebrate our 65th , we thought we'd take a look at the decisions that have changed the automotive world over the last six and a half decades, Some were inspirations that altered it for the better, others were engineering dead ends, nefarious cover - ups and valiant flops. Yes, it 's our birthda y but this feature isn 't about its . Athol Yeomans…

E’RE ACCELERATING quicker than a flat-chat Ferrari F40, three-up with a bootful of bags. The climate control is delivering warmth, the heated seats are fired up and my passenger is on Bluetooth ordering takeaway. Preposterous numbers flash up on the M5’s head-up display, its giddying gathering of pace refusing to pall at road-legal speeds. This is new territory for BMW – the debut of all-wheel drive for its pin-up performance sedan – and if this is Munich’s brave new world, then all I can do is shake my head in wonderment at how we arrived here. It hasn’t arrived alone, though. The Mercedes-AMG E63 S 4Matic+ has occupied this turf for the past year, redefining the terms of reference for high-performance large sedans. Even the crazed, end-of-an-era HSV GTS-R W1,…

LAST month we detailed how our latest long-termer had started life as a humble $37,490 Equinox LT, only for it to be upgraded in a matter of weeks to the full-fat LTZ-V. The latter sits at the top of an Equinox range that starts at $27,990 for the LS manual, and steps up progressively through seven models to this, the $46,290 flagship. The entry-level LS and better-equipped LS+ make do with a 127kW/275Nm 1.5-litre four-cylinder turbo-petrol, hitched to a six-speed manual that drives the front hoops. The rest of the Equinox range benefits from a punchier 2.0-litre turbo/nine-speed auto combo and the choice of front- (LT and LTZ) or adaptive all-wheel drive (LTZ and LTZ-V). All-paw traction costs $4300 as an option on the LTZ, but comes standard on ‘our’…

SCREEN-AGER How real is sim racing? Nissan GT Academy winner turned pro GT racer Matt Simmons should know. “You definitely go through similar emotions between the simulator and the real thing, but there’s no reset button … It’s about knowing where that 100 percent is and getting as close as you can. If you’ve got confidence in yourself, generally you can get the most out of the vehicle and yourself.” THE IMAGE of video gamers sitting friendless in their parents’ homes is one nurtured by, well, old people who are crap at e-games. For a new generation of aspiring racing drivers, however, e-games – notably the pioneering Gran Turismo series – are now as real a portal to a motor racing career as the traditional karting…

Six months after closing its Elizabeth production line, Holden is facing an intensifying battle for survival. Sales have dived, some dealers are furious and the latest round of departures has reshuffled the executive order – again. The shift from local manufacturer to full importer has been punishing, highlighting the poor health of the brand; Holden sold more imported cars in the early 2000s than it did in 2017, the year when imports became its sole focus. Discounting has been the solution to clear excess stock. The plight of Holden is unlikely to be high on the radar of GM CEO Mary Barra, who is heavily focused on China and America, where almost 80 percent of the automotive giant’s cars are sold. Local boss Mark Bernhard is under intense pressure, prompting…

YOU know the zeitgeist has shifted when an SUV debuts an all-new platform, well ahead of its traditional hatch and sedan relatives. And so it proves with the Volvo XC40 – Sweden’s more compact follow-up to the COTY-winning XC60. Freshly minted in almost every area, while carrying over Volvo’s finest assets (namely powertrain and multimedia systems), this immensely likeable SUV should be making the Germans second-guess their priorities. Stylistically differentiated from other Volvos while retaining the brand’s trademark grille shape and ‘Thor’s hammer’ headlight signature, the XC40 is chunky and fun. Measuring just 4425mm long yet riding on a leggy 2702mm wheelbase, with a body that swells by 40mm towards the rear to give it a buff stance, Volvo’s Senior Vice President of Design, Robin Page, likens the XC40 to…

WITH the recent launch of Range Rover’s first plug-in hybrid electric models, one might be tempted to think the Brit brand has gone all PC and forgotten about its V8 roots. But put that thought aside folks, because the hooligans … err, engineers at Jaguar Land Rover’s Special Vehicles Operation have provided the yin to the PHEV’s yang, with a supercharged 5.0-litre V8 beast that’s the hardest, fastest and undoubtedly the loudest Range Rover ever built. Powered by the familiar supercharged 5.0-litre V8 of the previous iteration, the engine has had its wick turned up to extract an additional 18kW and 20Nm, pushing outputs to 423kW and 700Nm. Combined with some targeted weight saving initiatives, the extra Neddies help shave two-tenths off the SVR’s 0-100km/h time, stopping the watch at…

Magic touch MBUX (for Mercedes-Benz User Experience) is based around a series of interconnected touch interfaces – the left and right wheel-spoke buttons (left), the central touchscreen (right) and a centre-console-mounted touchpad (far right) – all of which offer general control of the same functions, with specific specialities. It’s a system inspired by the touch concept from smartphones. Three-dimensional control allows you to swipe or press applications, even on the steering wheel, yet there’s a commonality to the positioning of key controls (like the cog-shaped ‘set-up’ icon) and their action that links everything together seamlessly. Clad in ‘Edition 1’ warpaint, the A250 is by far the sexiest new-gen A-Class Balance beam Torsion-beam A-Class’s “agility is better than its predecessor with multi-link”, according to Overall Vehicle Development Engineer for Compact Cars,…

The Polo now represents almost 10 percent of all the cars Volkswagen has ever sold IT’S SAID that the key to happiness is the ability to find joy in ordinary things. All too often we feel pressured to be better, to go bigger, to spend more, to experience everything and we end up overlooking what was in front of us all the time. We forget how to love what we have. On the face of it, the five cars assembled here are steeped in ordinary. You’ll see them or their ilk every day, often bought for the practical reasons of resale, warranty, reliability and the doughty metrics of cents per kilometre. Yet scratch beneath the veneer of fiscal expediency and these vehicles do so much with so little that they…

SEE THAT car up there? That was supposed to be a Range Rover Velar. I’d spent weeks conditioning my partner to the idea of larging it like the wife of an AFL player or moderately successful plumber and, after much cajoling, I was getting somewhere. Slowly she was coming around to the notion of adventure slightly more ambitious than a gravel driveway, but not anything as hardcore as growing a beard or killing your dinner with the back of a spade. Then at the last minute, that plan fell to pieces and I ended up in a Kia. Not that I’m complaining. How could you when you have a 272kW rear driver with a great stereo, tyres with actual tread still on them and a scheduled six months to enjoy…

THIS GLX Turbo was only meant to be a stop-gap until I step into a Swift Sport next issue, but in the two months it’s spent in my hands a trend became quite apparent – virtually everyone who came into contact with the little Suzi loved it. And it wasn’t the kind of affection that only revealed itself after the inevitable “so whaddya think?”. No. These feelings were almost always voiced without prompting, and often before the driver’s seatbelt was unlatched. Remember how I said last month that the Swift makes a profoundly positive first impression? Turns out I’m not the only one who feels that way. So what endears it to people? Interestingly, no single attribute seems to stand out. Rather it’s how complete and well-rounded the whole package…

IT’S A harsh reality of the free market that your product can be on top of the world one minute, deader than disco the next. In February 1983, legendary competitions manager Stuart Turner took the helm as director of Ford Motorsport Europe. Job one was to axe the next Escort rally car, the RS1700T. As recently as 1981, the Escort RS1800 had carried Ari Vatanen to the WRC driver’s title. But in late-1980 had come a new, front-drive Escort road car. The RS1700T was a rear-drive, turbocharged homologation special. However, in 1982 the world was changing. Group B was introduced, Audi’s Quattro was finding its feet and the future would be all-wheel drive. In July 1983 Turner commissioned designer Tony Southgate and engineer John Wheeler to create a Group B…