Table of contents for February 2023 in Wheels

CARDS ON TABLE TIME. I had intended to write a review of the movie Lamborghini – The Man Behind The Legend. I thought it might be fun, chuckling at the ineptitude of a flick that currently scores 7 percent on Rotten Tomatoes. I love a good bad movie as much as the next person, but I watched the trailer for L-TMBTL and just got mad. Instantly. Ferruccio Lamborghini in a Countach street racing Enzo Ferrari at 50km/h in a Mondial made me want to gnaw off my own fist in secondhand embarrassment. In just over two minutes it managed to pack in a frankly astonishing serving of bullshit. There’s Ferruccio’s Fiat-based Barchetta, built for the 1948 Mille Miglia, competing in-period against a 1956 Porsche 356 Speedster and a 1954 Mercedes 190SL…

DUE Q3 PEUGEOT 408 Peugeot Australia has confirmed the 408 crossover is headed our way, expected to be offered in two trims – Allure and GT – with identical powertrains to the related 308 hatch. These include a 96kW/230Nm 1.2-litre three-cylinder turbo-petrol, and a 1.6-litre four-cylinder plug-in hybrid with a 132kW/360Nm total system output and a 67km electric-only range. DUE Q3 Q5 55 TFSI e PHEV Audi’s plug-in mid-sizer will be the most powerful Q5 the company has ever offered. Two versions will be available – SUV and Sportback – both powered by a 2.0-litre turbo-petrol four with a 17.9kWh battery and single electric motor. Combined outputs are 270kW and 500Nm; claimed 0-100km/h is 5.3sec, with an electric-only range of around 55km. Prices start at $102,900. DUE Q1 MAZDA 6…

ON TWO OCCASIONS I’ve bought a 30-year-old car sight unseen from interstate. Why? Because when it comes to cars, my brain has developed a special bypass circuit around the rational, logical bit that I otherwise depend upon to make every other decision in my life. The first one was a 1984 Toyota AE86 Sprinter with about 240,000km on the clock. They don’t come up for sale much, and when it did, I was helplessly tossed about by waves of impulsiveness that then dragged me out into the poor-decision-making ocean where my ability to make sound judgements was reduced from that of a toddler to that of, at best, a parrot. “Just transfer me the $5000 and I’ll meet you at the airport with the car,” said the disembodied voice on…

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: 3 ISSUES $ 29 SAVE 25% 12 ISSUES $ 99 SAVE 36% 24 ISSUES $ 179 SAVE 42% Scan the code or phone our new Australian-based call centre on (02) 8315 2092 or visit shop.whichcar.com.au/wheels Offer valid until 28 February 2023. 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…

Model Land Rover Defender 90 P525 V8 Engine 5000cc V8 (900), dohc, 32v, supercharged Max power 386kW @6000-6500rpm Max torque 625Nm @2500-5500rpm Transmission 8-speed automatic Weight 2471kg 0-100km/h 5.2sec (claimed) Economy 12.8L/100km Price $221,300 On sale Now GIVEN ITS enduring legacy, the Defender nameplate carries a certain amount of weight behind it. Such weight brings a measure of expectation, and when JLR announced the return of its V8-powered icon – in quirky short-wheelbase ‘90’ form to boot – there were many with their own ideas as to what the reborn Defender should be. In this spec, the rugged icon emerges resolutely distinct, with confident roadholding and an impossibly charismatic drivetrain. We reckon it’s one of the coolest machines on the market, but does the lustre begin to fade once the…

Model Audi Q8 E-Tron 55 Motors Dual (front + rear) Max power 300kW Max torque 664Nm Transmission single-speed reduction gear Weight 2510kg 0-100km/h 5.6sec (estimated) Economy 20.6kWh/100km Price $150,000 (estimated) On sale Q3 2023 (estimated) THE ORIGINAL Audi E-Tron broke ground as the German automaker’s first battery-electric vehicle when it launched in 2018… if you conveniently ignore the A3 E-Tron plug-in hybrid (2014-18) that preceded it. Four years on, electric mobility is no longer a fringe sect of motoring – and that’s put a squeeze on Audi’s E-Tron electric-vehicle branding, no longer tied to a singular model. With the arrival of the 2023 Audi Q8 E-Tron, the carmaker’s pioneering electric SUV gains a friendly new face and ‘Q8’ branding (even though this E-Tron version is physically smaller than the combustion-engined…

Operation manual, chapter one. Open the Porsche 911 file inside your head. Hit the reset button and delete everything you know about the product. Scroll down to the Dakar icon. Select it and brace yourself for the unexpected. The mind boggles in sync with the road that soon becomes a spine-shuddering trail. At the end beckons a soaring dune which partly dissolves upon first impact. The blink of an eye later, the sand turns into dust and engulfs us like floating gauze. While the driver reaches for his Roentgen glasses, the camera inside the head keeps registering new sightings, like a solitary camel standing proud, a herd of grazing goats, and the silhouette of a stooped Bedouin. The scenery is dominated by a vast mountain range worthy of a National…

KIA EV6 GT-LINE Price as tested $79,950 (+ORC) This month 1328km @16.8kWh/100km Total 2428km @16.9kWh/100km MEDITATION has never really been my thing. I’ve tried it a couple times, with good intentions, and never took to it. Why stare at the back of my eyelids and imagine a nice sandy beach when I could go and look at one in real life or do literally anything else more productive with my time? My ‘meditation’ has long come with a mechanical twist, either behind the wheel of a car or astride a motorcycle. If you are reading this, there’s a fair chance you too enjoy a greater inner peace in those moments of motorised escapism, where the road reaches up and clears the clutter from your mind. Usually, this kind of automotive…

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) “Any speed limit will be ignored; overtaking is just a sport for thrill seekers” BRAKING BAD I READ THE LETTER from Stuart Kennedy – ‘World’s Worst’ (Wheels, Dec ’22) – claiming that a drive from Melbourne to Sydney convinced him that Australians were the world’s worst drivers. Sorry, matey, but I beg to differ. You try New Zealand roads, but register as an organ donor first. This is the land of the long white shroud, and we measure trips in killer metres. Understandably, an appalling road toll speaks for itself. I’m a New Zealander, but lived 50 years…

Model MG 4 SE Long Range Motor single (rear) Battery 64kWh Max power 150kW Max torque 250Nm Weight 1685kg 0-100km/h 7.9sec (claimed) Economy 15.5kWh/100km Price $55,000 (estimated) On sale Q2 2023I IT’S A LONG TIME since we’ve associated the octagonal MG badge with anything resembling a performance car. The brand’s mid-2000s Chinese buyout has seen its roadster past steamrollered by a bunch of affordable SUVs and – more recently – EVs. A fine way to actually make money and give the venerable MG name a future, but not the way to keep its more traditional enthusiast audience alert. But now the two worlds can gently collide. You’re looking at the MG 4, a clean-sheet EV rather than a petrol-powered car that’s had some batteries squeezed into it. Designed with a…

AS FAR AS battlegrounds go, the mid-size SUV segment is akin to the Battle of Helm’s Deep from The Lord of the Rings. Combatants stretch across the landscape as far as the eye can see, and while some are virtuous and noble warriors, the real difference is, unlike Tolkien’s fictional good-versus-evil clash, the fighters in this story are all in it for themselves. The stakes are high for all of them, for the prize is dominance of Australia’s richest vehicular segment in terms of sales volume. In 2022, SUV sales accounted for 53.1 percent of the total Australian new-car market. Of that gargantuan slice of the pie (can it really be called a slice when it’s now more than half the damn thing?), the mid-size SUV market accounted for 216,151…

“HUH,” I THINK as I stand in the drizzling rain and watch wisps of steam dance across the hot front tyres of the Volkswagen Tiguan R. “There aren’t many family SUVs that can do that…” We’re in the mountains and I’ve just hustled the Volkswagen up one of the most challenging drive loops in the Wheels arsenal. If we were skiing it’d be a black run; an evil mix of hairpins, fast sweepers and mid-corner bumps that’s a challenge for dedicated sports cars, let alone an 1800kg SUV. And the Tiguan has demolished it. Not just for speed, stability and composure, either. Thanks to its twin clutch packs and true torque vectoring, on our rain-soaked run there were even a few moments of throttle provoked oversteer. Like I said: “Huh…”…

HYUNDAI i30 SEDAN N Price as tested $49,060 This month 1620km @9.6L/100km Overall 3080km @9.7L/100km YEP, I’M STILL in the cheapest car in the Wheels garage, but I’m also in one that’s the most fun. And I’m not about to complain about that. After all, it has 206kW going through the front pair of treads – as much as a Skyline GT-R distributes among four – yet weighs a relatively svelte 1480kg. Plugging the trustyVBOX data logger in, we achieved a 0-100km/h time of 5.6 seconds, but couldn’t beat Hyundai’s claim of 5.4. Getting the car off the line cleanly is tricky, 2500rpm being the sweet spot between it bogging down and lighting up the fronts in a riot of axle tramp. Perhaps we would have got a bit closer…

LEGENDARY MOTOWN mover Lee Iacocca quipped in his 1984 autobiography: “So many people have claimed to be the father of the Mustang that I wouldn’t want to be seen in public with the mother.” While we’re not up with the woke rulebook on slut-shaming cars, Iacocca succinctly described how everyone wanted to claim credit for the affordable, sporty two-door that became an automotive industry staple. In the late-1950s and early-60s, Iacocca’s employer Ford identified “a market looking for a car.” An ever-increasing number of baby-boomers were attaining college degrees, putting them in a demographic that accounted for 46 percent of new-car purchases in 1962. The two-car family was also in full swing, with that demographic rocketing from one million families in 1959 to 13 million in 1963. A prime player…

NEW KONA’S UPMARKET PUSH The second-gen Hyundai Kona is just six months away from its Australian debut. Combustion-engined models will arrive first – featuring the 110kW 2.0-litre and 146kW 1.6-litre turbo from the outgoing model. Wheels understands the new-gen Kona does migrate to a newer platform – the small SUV is 150mm longer, and rides on a 60mm-longer wheelbase. Intended to move the nameplate upmarket, the MY24 Kona will feature a pair of 12.3-inch dash screens and N-Line variants for every powertrain. Both petrol-hybrid and full-electric variants will arrive later in the year. TIGHTENING emissions regulations and government legislation are painting a bleak future for affordable performance cars across the globe, and particularly at the N division of Hyundai Motor Corporation (HMC) – at least for petrol-powered models. As Wheels…

AUTOMOTIVE BRAND loyalty is not what it used to be in Australia, but that shouldn’t come as much of a surprise given the expiry of the number-one life-member-making attribute – local manufacturing. Until late last decade, Barra and Alloytec sixes were cast into life with molten metal boiling from our very own Geelong and Port Melbourne plants, top-secret global prototypes stealthily cut laps at the Lang Lang and You Yangs proving grounds, and the pair of true-blue (and red) brands bumped gloves at race tracks around the nation almost every weekend. It was a recipe for staunch patriotism and faith that even a non-native like myself found hard to resist. But when Holden’s production line wound down to silence in 2017, it marked the end of all local car manufacturing,…

HERO CARS don’t come a whole lot more heroic than the fourth-generation Toyota Supra. All of the ingredients are in place: a cult following spawned from bombproof mechanicals, a classic front-engine, rear-drive layout with the option of a manual gearbox and two turbos, 1990s Japanese bubble-era appeal, muscular coupe styling, silver-screen provenance, the original Gran Turismo seal of approval and genuine giant-killing ability. All it’s missing is a cape. As with any vehicle that gets the big build-up, you probably have questions. Lots of them. Above all, does the Supra live up to the hype? Is it a better bet than contemporaries such as the Mazda RX-7 or the Nissan 300ZX? The Supra was different to what went before it. Yes, it shared the basic bones of the Soarer/Lexus SC,…

Model Porsche Macan T Engine 1984cc 4cyl, dohc, 16v, turbo Max power 195kW @5000-6500rpm Max torque 400Nm @1800-4500rpm Transmission 7-speed dual-clutch Weight 1865kg 0-100km/h 6.2sec (claimed) Economy 8.8L/100km Price $92,700 On sale Now IT’S NOT HARD to see why the Macan is Porsche’s top-selling model by some margin. Not only is it one of the most handsome mid-sized SUVs on the market, but it’s also the most affordable route into new Porsche ownership. Entering the Porsche family begins at $89,300 before on-road costs for the most affordable Macan, which is powered by a turbocharged petrol four-cylinder. However, stepping up to the V6 turbo-powered S requires another $23,000 added to the budget. But, as part of a mid-life update, Porsche has narrowed the void between entry and mid-range Macan with the…

AUSTRALIA’S MID-SIZE SUV segment is now so competitive and our eight contenders are so closely matched that we've had to split hairs in some instances. It’s refreshing to report that, with such a large group of high-selling vehicles, there actually isn’t an SUV here we wouldn’t recommend. Popularity doesn't always equal quality. Still, splitting hairs is what we do. And to help you make an informed decision about which $50K family SUV is best, we’ve ranked our contenders based on seven criteria: value, running costs, warranty/roadside assistance, boot space, rear-seat room/family duties, ride & handling, and tested fuel economy. Averaging out how they performed in each discipline decided the final order, while allowing for some minor adjusting from our roadtest team to set a clear hierarchy. That’s why you’ll notice…

FORD EVEREST V6 SPORT Price as tested $69,090 This month 4001km @9.5L/100km Overall 4001km @9.5L/100km THE FORD Everest seems to be a popular addition to the Wheels fleet. So much so that it took nearly three weeks before I managed to get hold of it and it’s had a huge first month. First Street Machine’s Simon Telford used it to tow some overboosted confection off to a fly-blown bush dragstrip, and then photographer Ellen Dewar snaffled the keys to head off on a week-long assignment at Winton and the high country. When it returned, the previously box-fresh Everest definitely had that slightly funky road-trip tang to it. I can see why it’s in demand. Everyone in the Wheels office loves the new Ranger, and a more versatile and family-friendly SUV…

THERE’S SOMETHING INEFFABLY cool about comparatively unloved Ferraris. Whether it’s a 365 GTC4, most notable for not being a Daytona, the scallop-fuselaged 612 Scaglietti or the behemoth FF, these are Maranello’s chorus line cars, rarely enjoying much of a moment in the spotlight. Much the same can be said of the Portofino. It only seems like yesterday that it was being introduced to replace the bulky California T, but we have word that the factory will build no more. That’s a shame because it had quietly evolved, via the later Portofino M model, into a hugely capable junior GT. In latter years, much of its meagre limelight had been stolen by its mechanical sibling, the comely Roma coupe, but the Portofino’s legacy will be that it introduced so much new blood…