EvoApril 2017的目錄

THE PACE OF PROGRESS FEELS GLACIAL, THE entry point looks financially restrictive and the appetite is there but only in the form of curiosity. Similar to choosing the tasting menu because it’s the only scenario in which you could ever consider eating steak and strawberry pie, taking the decision that your next performance car is going to have some form of electric propulsion is a bold one. Albeit one with fewer risks to your digestive system. At one end of the spectrum there is Tesla. A decade ago we looked at its mildly restyled Elise and read its tech spec, made a noise that mixed recognition with a dose of cynicism and went back to marvelling at an 8-litre, 16-cylinder petrol engine that could propel the car to which it…

DURING LAST YEAR’S evo summer tyre test at Continental’s vast Uvalde proving ground in Texas (issue 226), one tyre outshone all the others in the dry tests. The 1.8-mile handling circuit is designed to be as demanding and revealing a test of a tyre as possible. Tight and tricky in places and fast and flowing in others, it tells you everything you need to know about a tyre – about its lateral grip, traction, braking, steering precision and linearity – within just a couple of laps. The tyre that set both the fastest lap time and scored highest in my subjective assessment was the Michelin Pilot Super Sport. Until the end of 2016, the Super Sport, launched in 2010, was the grippiest and most stable ultrahigh- performance tyre available this…

letters@evo.co.uk @evomagazine @evomagazine READING SIMON GEORGE’S ‘I BOUGHT ONE’ THOUGHTS regarding his 80,000-mile Ferrari 458 Italia (Buying Guide, evo 232), something struck a chord. He wrote: ‘There’s no need to fear putting big miles on a 458, except of course for the depreciation.’ Now this got me thinking… What if all supercar owners actually got out and used their cars more? And when I say all, I really mean all. The 458 has shown it can handle it, the various new McLarens seem to be fine with miles, Porsche has never shied away from big numbers, and with Lambo now stealing much from Audi – including build quality if a certain orange V12 is anything to go by – I have no doubt the days have long gone where you…

‘It never feels as ferocious or as responsive as an M6 Gran Coupe or M5 saloon’ THE MOST POWERFUL BMW road car ever built. The fastest accelerating, too. Its long-wheelbase body also makes it the longest. And at over two tons it’s one of the heaviest to wear a tri-colour M-badge on its flanks and rump, making the BMW M760Li xDrive the most unlikely performance car. A folly, then. An exercise in excess for those with more disposable income than sense. The answer to a question no one asked, because let’s be honest, has anyone ever thought: ‘Yes. I need a £132,310, 602bhp, 590lb ft 7-series that will reach 62mph quicker than any BMW that has gone before’? Actually, they have. Quite a few people, in fact, because BMW expects…

‘I’VE NOTICED THE NSX ALWAYS SHIFTS A LITTLE EARLY FROM FIRST TO SECOND GEAR, SO I TRY A FEW RUNS WHERE I CHANGE GEAR MYSELF’ THERE USED TO BEANART TO figuring supercars. Precisely judging the right revs for the standing start, deciding whether to abruptly drop the clutch or feed it in smoothly, balancing torque against available traction, using a smear of wheelspin to keep a cammy or laggy engine on the boil, nailing the firstto- second upshift, not clipping the rev limiter. And, of course, not breaking anything. These days it’s not much more than selecting the correct dynamic mode. The NSX is no exception. Engaging launch control entails turning the simple rotary dynamic mode switch clockwise and holding it until Sport+ becomes Track. Then step on the brake…

HYBRID POWERTR AINS are a stopgap technology. By and large hybrid cars are less satisfying to drive than full EVs, hindered as they so often are by their limp, laggy engines and meagre electric-only ranges. All too often they don’t match their claimed fuel economy figures in the real world, either, unless you can stop to plug in every nine miles. In fact, it’s not unusual to drive a hybrid car and think, ‘This thing is being let down by its combustion engine, not its electric motors…’ Of course, there are one or two petrol-electric sports cars that marry monstrous engines with some form of electrification to devastating effect – the Porsche 918 Spyder would seem to be the prime example, mating a screaming race-derived V8 to a plug-in hybrid…

The Goodwood Revival, 1999. A red McLaren M5A powered by a 3-litre BRM V12 is being driven fast and aggressively. Suddenly it tangles with another car, leaves the circuit and slams backwards into the tyre wall. In it is Sir Jack Brabham, who is knocked out but thankfully suffers no more than a few nights in hospital in Chichester. Brabham, who died in 2014, was 73 years old when he drove in that race. It wasn’t his last either, for he continued to take part in classic events until 2004. The link between age and speed has always fascinated me. At what stage in life does age start to affect a driver’s performance behind the wheel? And what factors are involved? Do reactions slow with age? To find out, we’ve…

THE RAW INGREDIENTS ARE certainly memorable, with doublewishbone suspension, a fabulously direct gearshift, and of course that jewel of a fourcylinder engine mounted longitudinally and entirely behind the front axle line. It produces 237bhp and revs to over 9000rpm; the quality and materials that made this possible also mean it’s a very tough, reliable unit capable of high mileages. Nevertheless, ‘try before you buy’ is a great adage with the S2000: early cars in particular are very tricky on the limit, and given the VTEC zone doesn’t start till nearly 6000rpm, it’s an engine that needs to be thrashed if you’re to feel what it can offer. That’s either a thrill or a chore, depending on personal taste. The electrically assisted power steering was always the car’s biggest weakness, and…

FLICK THROUGH PAST issues of this magazine and you’ll notice that brisk estates, such as this Focus ST, have long been a feature of evo’s Fast Fleet. Whether diesel or petrol, front-, rear- or all-wheel-drive, and regardless of the badge on the nose, a fast estate pairs performance – something we’re rather keen on – with everyday practicality. Or at least, I assume it does. I’ve never really needed a fast estate myself because I don’t have a family to cart around and my shopping trips rarely fill a passenger footwell, let alone an extended luggage area. In fact, I’d go as far as saying that any car with more than two seats is a bit excessive for my needs. The most decadent, cavernous car I’ve ever personally owned was…

‘Irrespective of whatever injury our Seven imparted, the incredible thrills it delivered made the suffering absolutely worth it’ UNTIL I DROVE THE NEW Seven Sprint (Driven, evo 230), I thought the only type of Caterham to have was a slightly bonkers trackday model that deafened you with its ripsaw induction noise. The Sprint taught me that there is a simple joy in a narrower, less grippy Seven, but as fun and charming as that car is, the Caterham I’d want would still look a lot like our departed 420R. Jethro Bovingdon and Dan Prosser spent a gruelling day at Llandow Circuit choosing which of the Caterham lineup would be the most fun to have as a long-termer and which options we should specify (evo 209). They didn’t try the entire…

‘I was a touch nervous pulling out onto a dual carriageway again for the first time’ IT’S BEEN A WHILE SINCE the odo on SG54 LAM turned a few clicks, but turn they recently did – albeit only around a distinctly unglamorous industrial estate at first. I can’t deny I was a touch nervous as the car later pulled out onto a dual carriageway again for the first time. I suppose the severity of the impact it had suffered and the consequent damage to the chassis meant I was half expecting things to not feel quite right. But the further the fat Pirellis travelled, the more confident I became, and the big Lamborghini tracked up the road straight as an arrow. So the old girl is back. Finally! Sod’s Law…

THE 2017 WORLD RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP GOT UNDERWAY in Monte Carlo in January. And as is the fashion with many of today’s FIA motorsport series, rallying has come in for a number of technical changes this year in a bid to spice things up on the stages. With reigning champions VW having walked away from the sport, its spot in the manufacturers’ table is taken by Toyota Gazoo Racing, run by multiple world champion Tommi Mäkinen. VW’s departure left world champ Sébastien Ogier unemployed until he found himself in one of Malcolm Wilson’s M-Sport Fiestas. And despite losing 40 seconds on the first day and dropping back to ninth, Ford’s new boy cut through the pack to second place, ready to take advantage when rally leader Thierry Neuville broke his Hyundai’s…

THE NEW PORSCHE 911 Carrera GTS, which slots in between the Carrera S and the forthcoming GT3, is super-agile, ultra-responsive and very rewarding to drive. It’s also lethargic, lazy and a bit top heavy. It steers very well and also quite poorly. It’s good value for money, though far too expensive. It comes in three bodystyles – coupe, Cabriolet and Targa – with the first two of those available with rear- or four-wheel drive. All versions can be fitted with either a manual gearbox or Porsche’s PDK twin-clutch transmission. On top of all this, buyers can specify rearwheel steering and variable anti-roll bars, tyre option A or tyre option B, and choose between the standard brakes and the very expensive carbon-ceramic ones. That’s before they’ve decided on the paint colour…

‘The RF may have its own look, but it’s an MX-5 through and through’ THE MK3 MX-5 HAD THE same silhouette whether it had a soft-top or a metal folding roof: with their roofs down, both looked practically identical. The same can’t be said of the Mk4, as this new MX-5 RF, with its rear buttresses and coupe-like profile, looks very different to its soft-top sibling. Despite its individual appearance – for which you’ll pay a £2000 premium – most of the RF’s bodywork is, in fact, unchanged from the roadster’s. The wings, bumpers, bonnet and doors are all the same. Only the new roof section, rear deck and boot have changed, and the shapes and proportions of the new bodywork, most notably those buttresses, work well with the MX-5’s…

ENCRUSTED IN A GRITTY CARAPACE OF SALTY winter crud, the NSX is a long way from the dazzling vision of hybrid technology and immaculate engineering that you might expect of Honda’s halo car. Here, high up on the North York Moors, a week’s worth of driving is crystallising – literally and metaphorically – into thoughts and feelings about a unique and fascinating supercar. It was a similar story back in 1993, when as a 22-year-old road tester working for a now long-defunct publication, I was handed the gorgeous Monel alloy ignition key to a brand-new NSX. And for an entire weekend. A ‘Senna-spec’ 3-litre NA1 model with manual transmission, unassisted steering, bloodred bodywork and piano-black turret top, it was an exquisite machine and the first bona fide supercar I’d been…

THE SUMMIT OF THE PIKES PEAK International Hill Climb course is over 14,000ft above sea level. That’s halfway to the top of Mount Everest. What this means, of course, is that the air is very thin, which makes the simple act of breathing a real struggle. You gulp harder and faster and more deliberately at the air, but your lungs just don’t get the oxygen they need. Down at sea level, where the air is so thick in comparison it feels like you could front-crawl through it, oxygen makes up 21 per cent of the atmosphere. Three miles up, at the top of Pikes Peak, that number drops to just 12 per cent. Being up there is like drowning in slow motion. Anything that needs oxygen to operate suffers in…

Nice. Not a good word, nice. It’s a word you dread hearing after a first date. It’s bland but pleasant, inoffensive, nondescript, toothless – a word we were banned from using in English class at school. At first glance the new Audi S5, BMW 440i M Sport and Mercedes-AMG C43 coupes are all ‘nice’ cars: expensive, fast, comfy. Nice badges on the nose. Nice dealerships, too, with nice coffee and nice sales people. They’re the indulgent purchase without getting too carried away. After all, each tends to have a bigger brother that gets the really exciting looks, the outrageous performance, the headlines: the M4s, the RS5s, the C63s – the real deal. Below our trio sit the bigengined diesel variants of the same cars, so smug in their claims that…

‘Now as then it’s the engine that shines the brightest, producing 148bhp at 6100rpm’ SUCCESSION IS ALWAYS INTRIGUING. Sometimes the master won’t go quietly, doesn’t have to, and so plays on. Sometimes the handover of power is crushingly unsentimental, final. It’s the early 1990s, and the 1.8-litre Clio 16v has tussled for hot-hatch glory with the ageing Peugeot 205 GTI 1.9. It’s a better car by many objective criteria, but not a convincingly faster one, and in the eyes of many the GTI still holds the crown. Yes, you could argue that Renault already holds the balance of power with the Clio’s forefather, the 5 GT Turbo. You’ll find a few at evo who believe that, and they’re not necessarily wrong, although I can’t agree with them. It took a…

HAVE YOU EVER CHOPPED a firm, ever-so-slightly under-ripe tomato with a really sharp, professionalquality kitchen knife? It’s strangely satisfying. The forged-steel blade slices through the skin and then flesh of the helpless little fruit and down to the chopping board almost under its own weight. You barely need to apply any downward pressure yourself. It’s a thousand times more enjoyable than trying to chop a squidgy, over-ripe tomato with the blunt old thing you inherited from the previous tenants, the one you swore you were going to throw away but haven’t got around to doing so yet. Maybe that’s just me. Anyway, the tomato just sort of flattens a bit as you attempt to force the blade through the skin and all you’re left with is a juicy, fleshy blob…

‘BMW’s engineers have delivered a supple chassis without losing the sharpness of a Munich-built car’ IT WAS TO BE EXPECTED that the i8, especially in purple, would draw curiosity every time I stepped out of it. The questions? ‘Is that one of those electric cars?’ closely followed by queries regarding its colour, range, fuel economy, price, performance and finally the big one: ‘Is it a proper sport car?’ This is the question that always requires a pause, though I’ve no idea why because it’s the question I answer more than any other. The simple answer is yes, it is; the i8 is a sports car. It has the performance to match the looks, although it’s at its prime when there’s charge in the battery and the Sport driving mode is…

Describing the Chiron’s production facility as a factory would be crude, so Bugatti calls it ‘the Atelier’. Just 20 employees will piece together the new French hypercar inside the logo-mimicking, oval-shaped building. Previously the birthplace of the Veyron, it has undergone numerous modifications, including the installation of a new dyno able to handle the Chiron’s 1479bhp. The site can now fulfil 70 orders per year, each car taking six months to complete. WATCHES: CONNECTED HYBRIDS Skagen Hagen Connected Price: from £185 From: skagen.com The first of this month’s trio of timepieces for people who fancy a watch with smart functions, but not an actual smartwatch, comes from Danish firm Skagen. It looks pleasingly like a conventional watch but will connect to your Android or Apple phone, enabling it to offer…

‘When you arrive at the limit of its ability the car is secure and forgiving rather than snappy’ IN WHAT MIGHT WELL GO down as the mildest facelift in the history of the motor car, VW has updated its Mk7 Golf GTI with a slightly different look, a touch more power and a handful of new interior technology options. The easiest way to spot the revised model is to look for the forward-facing radar panel, which has been moved from its clumsy location in the lower intake to a much more discreet position behind the VW badge. The bumpers and grille have also been tweaked and the lights are now LED as standard. For the most part, though, the Golf GTI looks the same as before. That’s no bad thing,…

‘You’ll ask why it has taken Audi so long to sharpen the claws of its S-cars’ SOMEWHERE IN THE depths of Ingolstadt there is an analyst who can tell you the number of permutations possible within the Audi model range. They spend their working day calculating just how many variants the company could build, should enough people order each model in every trim and specification available. This new S5 Sportback will only add to that algorithm. In simple terms, it’s the four-door coupesaloon based on the all-new A4, a car that’s proving to be far from a flatfooted Audi and one that, in S4 guise (Driven, evo 225), is a genuine rival to AMG’s C43 and BMW’s 440i. In times past, the S5 Sportback has fallen off the radar. An…

ON 22 JULY 2014, SOMETHING HAPPENED THAT made my life a little simpler. It ironed out a wrinkle of uncertainty that had always snagged the smooth running of any conversation heading towards a particular, job-related question. The best car I’d ever driven? Not a clue. Over the years I’d lied, hedged, sat on the fence until my bum went numb. I could make a case for a Frankencar amalgam, maybe a twoway split. But never one set of wheels. Then, sometime around 3pm that Tuesday afternoon, a moment of clarity… For one day only, the Porsche 918 Spyder was the eye of a perfect storm that gathered and raged on the evo Triangle. Weird thing is, it’s a car I’m not sure I ever want to drive again. The memory…

‘Formula E’s street-circuit approach works on many levels: city backdrops, bumpy surfaces that test the skill of the drivers, and a real sense of jeopardy’ MANSELL VERSUS SENNA AT Monaco in 1992. The rain-sodden BTCC feature race at Donington Park in ’98 (also featuring ‘Our Nige’). Button’s charge from the back at the 2011 Canadian GP. René Arnoux and Gilles Villeneuve bashing wheels at Dijon in 1979. Asked to name the greatest races of all time, most of you could probably reel off a similar list. Mine would also include the final few laps of the 2016 Buenos Aires ePrix. Why? Sébastien Buemi on the charge of a lifetime, having started from the back of the grid. British driver Sam Bird fighting for rear grip as he defends a lead…

WHEN THE LAMBORGHINI AVENTADOR WAS first unleashed upon us in 2011, the atmosphere among the upper echelons of the world’s fastest cars was considerably less dense than it is now. Back then McLaren Automotive was still in its infancy, the P1 was little more than a speculative rumour amid the news pages of this magazine, and the 918 Spyder and LaFerrari were still in the minds and on the drawing boards of their designers and engineers at Weissach and Modena respectively. Back then, in fact, the Aventador’s carbonfibremonocoque chassis, its radical pushrod suspension and its seven-speed single-clutch gearbox mated to a Haldex four-wheel-drive system were absolutely at the cutting edge. And then a couple of years later the floodgates opened, and the world of fast cars changed forever. Which left…

‘The V8 is so much more exciting and special than the BMW M4’s twinturbo straight-six there’s almost no comparison’ WITH WELL OVER 3000 miles driven, and deep into the British winter, I’d expected this update to include mention of a switch to all-season tyres. However, when nature decided to treat the UK to some long spells of unseasonably mild weather – it was 13C on Christmas Day, for heaven’s sake! – I became loath to ditch the C63 S’s Michelin Super Sport tyres. And so it has remained, albeit with the nagging worry that this leaves me vulnerable to typically British cold snaps – or ‘Arctic blasts’ as the Daily Express prefers to describe them. On the few occasions the mercury has headed below zero, the Merc has indeed been…

I’M REALLY ENJOYING the 308 GTi. OK, it isn’t quite as sprightly as its little brother, the 208 GTi by Peugeot Sport, and it doesn’t feel as sophisticated as the RCZ R, but it’s a mighty fine hot hatch. Every time I rev the 266bhp engine to its 6500rpm limit, it surprises me with its potency. Below 4500rpm it’s unassuming and allows you to make swift progress, but rev it up and the 308 explodes forwards. It’s rare for a modern turbo engine to take on such a distinctly different temperament as the boost increases, and the 308’s ballistic top end gives its 1.6 a loveable character. There are no downsides, either. Rather than feeling old-school or laggy, the transition from mildmannered to insane is predictable and so well managed…

‘It was an irritatingly perfect example of the sort of hitch many cars develop around this mileage’ I’VE GOT A LOT OF TIME for this car. It once clocked 17,000 miles in a year and yet never felt anything less than one of the most absorbing hot hatches you could ever wish for. During that time we bonded closely, partly because of its steadfast reliability and partly because of its character, which is that of a loveable hound whose crazed energy levels occasionally lead it to shred something it doesn’t really mean to. Perfect? No, but never, ever dull. Indeed, the big Sparco buckets and sweeping visibility even made it a pleasant companion for those times when we weren’t blatting along a country road, and it always elicited a glance…