EvoJuly 2024的目錄

ONE MONTH, THREE NEW internal combustion engines and five global OEMs announcing two new powertrain partnerships between them – Renault and Geely are joining forces (creating Horse Powertrain Limited) and Mazda, Subaru and Toyota have confirmed they will work together, too. Both programmes will focus on the development of new internal combustion engines better suited to work with electric motors, batteries, hydrogen and sustainable fuels. Cosworth, too, has announced that its future product strategy will continue to focus on ICE. Bentley, Lamborghini and Porsche haven’t hastily developed their new ICE powertrains; these are not kneejerk reactions to the public’s apathy to buying electric cars that leave them cold and concerned for their service-station coffee consumption. Porsche and Lamborghini have never taken their feet off the right pedal despite the influx…

WHAT’S THE BEST CAR YOU’VE EVER driven? It’s the question every automotive journalist gets asked the most. I’ve never come up with a good answer: like everything in life, it’s all relative. But the most fun car I’ve ever driven, that one’s easy. In 2016 I raced a season in a Radical SR1, the Peterborough track car company’s entry-level racing car. It felt as if it spliced the genes of a kart with a three-quarter-scale prototype racer. I’ve never experienced another car so immediate, so controllable and so thrilling. That was the original SR1, launched in 2012. It was comprehensively updated in 2017 and now this is its third generation, the Radical SR1 XXR, introduced halfway through 2023 with fresh electronics, revised aerodynamics (including an LMP-style central dorsal fin) and…

WE KNEW THIS WAS COMING. WE KNEW that its time was up and that the wailing, shrieking, spine-tingling soundtrack of a V10 would soon be available only to those who shop in the used-car space rather than ordering a box-fresh supercar. Now, following Lamborghini’s announcement that the Huracán’s replacement is on its way, the first details of what will power it have been confirmed. V10s have never been as ubiquitous as their V8 and V12 counterparts, but they have an exotic quality nothing else can match. Formula 1 played a part in the V10’s cult following without a doubt, with 20,000+rpm red lines and a shattering soundtrack that froze you to the spot the moment you heard one approach. Sometimes from several miles away. What, then, of Lamborghini’s replacement for…

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CHANGING TIMES AT BENTLEY. THE FOURTH-generation Continental GT will be revealed imminently – turn to page 98 for the full story – and it adopts a 770bhp-plus plug-in hybrid V8 powertrain: the next step on Bentley’s stated mission of a fully electrified line-up at the end of the decade. Meanwhile, it’s goodnight from the Crewe firm’s famed W12 engine. The big, smooth, distinctive powerplant has been synonymous with big, smooth, distinctive Bentleys since 2003, but production ended in April after more than 100,000 of the four-bank, 6-litre units had been built. (By the time you read this, production of 4-litre V8 Bentley Continentals and Flying Spurs will have stopped too.) A timely moment, then, to bid farewell to one of the automotive world’s most singular powerplants by revisiting the…

THE CATERHAM ISN’T THE EASIEST CAR TO drive in traffic, as I discovered when dicing through the early-morning M4 mayhem on the way to a shoot last month. The throttle is jumpy at low speed and the clutch doesn’t engage with much progression, so there’s a fine line between an embarrassing stall and bouncing it off the limiter like you’ve just set off at Shelsley Walsh. Which is just as embarrassing, I suppose. There’s only one thing for it, and that’s to stop being lazy and be a better driver. Focus on your inputs, time them correctly and the Caterham feels much happier. You quickly build a symbiotic bond with it, and with its tiny footprint and such malleable handling, pretty much any road is a playground. There’s an addictive,…

ONCE A QUARTER, THE LATE LJK SETRIGHT would use his column in Car to discuss the subject of four-wheel steering. Specifically the four-wheel steering Honda had developed for the Prelude. Like many, I enjoyed reading Setright’s views on the technology finding its way into new cars during the ’80s and ’90s gold rush of car development. And, like many, I rarely had the intellect to fully comprehend his work. Reading his copy then, and now, is the literary equivalent of trying to keep up with Dickie Meaden when he decides to make some progress behind the wheel. What does any of this have to do with our Range Rover Sport? It too has four-wheel steering, and it’s one of the best systems I’ve experienced. Art director Rich Browne’s Audi S8…

DRIVING A FORD MUSTANG ALONG THE French Riviera isn’t as romantic as it sounds. Not because there’s anything especially wrong with the car or the roads, rather that neither was made with the other in mind. On the right there’s a foot-high stone wall separating me from a long, painful tumble into the (admittedly stunning) scenery, and on the left the big ’Stang is bulging out of its lane as the local Berlingo vans and battered Peugeot hatchbacks whizz past within a whisker of the driver’s door mirror. The windows are down, the shades are on and I should be enjoying myself, but I’m having to dial the speed right back. Nailing the point home, a Renault Modus driver lunges past through a gap I’ve left at the inside of…

A MID-LIFE FACELIFT IS TRADITIONALLY quite a thorough affair. Baked into the product plan at conception, its introduction scheduled for when the once-fresh new car is no longer the freshest. Therefore, around its fourth anniversary come the updates. A nip here, a tuck there, possibly some more oomph somewhere. Job done, three more years of sales for before its all-new replacement arrives. These facelift cycles are also the opportunity to address any fundamental issues that were missed during several million miles of testing and while even more millions of pounds were spent on development, and weren’t noticed until the early production stages after the sign-off had happened and there was no turning back. Such issues are rare today, but Aston Martin knew it had one with its DBX before it…

I’D LIKE TO SAY THANKS TO EVO, AS I’VE JUST CHANGED my car again. This was in no small part down to eCoty 2022 – OK, plus a thousand hours of video ‘research’ – all of which was used to justify the change to my partner. A BMW 128ti in 2021 lasted as long as your own positive thoughts about that particular car (a Greatest Misses candidate?), so that became a Giulia Quadrifoglio in early 2022 (‘if Ferrari made saloons’ indeed!). Over the next couple of years I grew tired of the problems with the troublesome Alfa (in their defence, I think I was unlucky) but not its sheer theatre, performance and handling. It was brilliant. Instead, I started tuning in to the back-to-basics driving themes surrounding the Toyota GR86.…

‘IF YOU DROP BACK, I WILL SLOW DOWN; IF YOU are close, I will speed up,’ says Sven Esch, a driving dynamics engineer at BMW M. I doubt he’ll have to speed up. I have driven around the Salzburgring once before but it was literally half a lifetime ago and, looking at the circuit map, I’m sure there’s at least one new chicane. So I can’t see myself pushing him along after one warm-up and a few flying laps in the new M4 CS. Sven will be leading in an M3 CS, the saloon with the same 542bhp straight-six as the latest M4 coupe. As we exit the pitlane, I find myself wondering why he isn’t also in an M4 CS, although that thought recedes at the sight of him…

REALITY CHECK: THE W12 CONTINENTAL GT wasn’t the best Conti GT. That accolade fell to the V8, which hit the sweet spot of effortless go and accomplished handling. Its performance was always just right, the drop in weight significant enough to apply another layer of polish to the big coupe’s dynamics. But the W12 will be missed for its presence, its unique soundtrack and keen responses, and its ability to add some vigour and vitality to the process of wafting around in opulence and luxury. Now it’s gone, supplanted by an all-new powertrain that’s tasked with replacing not only Bentley’s iconic and unique 12-cylinder engine, but the VW Group’s ubiquitous 4-litre twin-turbocharged V8 that also served the Continental – and the Flying Spur saloon – so well. With the Conti…

LATE LAST SUMMER, FOLLOWING A TOUR OF THE Peak District, I finished the Aston’s previous Fast Fleet report on something of a cliffhanger. ‘In four days, the Vantage had covered almost 700 miles and performed brilliantly,’ I wrote. ‘In fact it returned home totally unscathed. Well, almost. More on that next time.’ Well, several months later, this is that next time. And also the last time. The reality of which has only just begun to sink in. And it sucks. Anyway, back to the cliffhanger. Around a year ago I repainted R100’s satin-black grille, and very good it looked too if I say so myself. It looked particularly fine on the Peak Classic – until one evening it didn’t. Closer inspection revealed one of the horizontal bars had fallen out…

I ’VE SEEN SOME INCONGRUOUS SIGHTS in my rear-view mirror before but this is a new one: a grid of Porsche Carrera Cup race cars, elevated on their pneumatic stands as teams gamble whether to fit wet or dry tyres beneath angry clouds at Donington Park. evo’s 911 Carrera GTS road car is idling patiently, ready to lead the formation lap for the opening round of the 2024 Carrera Cup championship. It’ll be my job to drive a safe distance ahead of the safety car, show our 911 off on camera, and try not to stick it in the gravel trap live on ITV4. Great Britain’s Carrera Cup is the high-pressure proving ground for aspiring young drivers to make their mark and potentially springboard to an illustrious career: many Carrera alumni…

WHEN WE LAST SAW THE PANDA IN THESE pages many months ago, its clonking and wonky suspension had been mended, only for sudden plumes of white exhaust smoke and a dollop of Hellman’s under the oil filler to herald the apparent failure of the head gasket. A nice man with a flatbed recovered the car and took it to Paul, the cheery bloke at Genuine Car Services in Odd Down, who whipped the head off and then gave me one of those ominous phones calls that starts and ends with, ‘Rich, mate, you’d better come over…’ You’d like Genuine Car Services, it’s one of those back-street places in a gravelly yard that’s permanently got a puddle in it, they’re always cheery and they’re always busy. But, frankly, when Paul invited…

‘BE CAREFUL, THIS IS THE ACTUAL CAR we’ll be timing at the Nürburgring,’ says Volkswagen R engineer Jonas Thielebein as I open the door to a pre-production Mk8.5 Golf R in the paddock of Germany’s Lausitzring. It’ll be a little while before we see the final car, but it’s clear that the camouflage isn’t hiding any sort of radical redesign, and the signs are that it won’t be much different to drive than the Mk8 either. ‘It was a case of refining a few things,’ says Thielebein. ‘We were very happy with what we had before.’ It’s fair to say that evo’s assessment of the Mk8 R hasn’t been quite as positive as that. It’s a hot hatch we respect rather than adore, one which makes its performance effortlessly accessible…

AT THE SUMMIT I CALL MY SON. IT’S NEARLY bedtime back home, but I have to share this. Outside, the sky is a wash of pinks and purples set over a cloud inversion that is filling the valley below like Chantilly cream on a sundae. There is nobody around. My hands are still shaking slightly. ‘Hi Daddy!’ ‘Hi dude, listen to this…’ and I blip the throttle, once, twice. YEEOW! YEEOW! The cockpit and surrounding mountains are filled with furious five-digit revs. A V12 with the response of a superbike engine. ‘Wowww! That is sooo cool!’ That is not a generic reaction. He might be only seven, but he knows his cars. ‘I’ve just had the most amazing drive,’ I say. ‘This car is unbelievable! I’m about to head back…

I LIVE 180 MILES FROM THE EVO office. That means that while I’d love to daily drive the Fast Fleet Toyota GR Yaris or Caterham Seven (if I’m feeling especially bold), I’d be much happier commuting in either of these. I’m not a mountain biker, a dog owner or frequent IKEA customer, but I am a huge sucker for a stealthy, well-executed fast estate. There’s just something about a spacious, plain-clothes wagon with serious performance that’s endlessly appealing. For me, it’s their ability to surprise. Some of the best moments on evo shoots are watching photographer Aston Parrott whipping our long-term Cupra Leon estate along at about Mach 9 between locations, followed by a crackle on the radio to ask why none of us can keep up in our sports…

A COUPLE OF AIRPORT RUNS AND QUITE A bit of commuting this month have seen the economy climb to previously only hoped-for heights – over 35mpg – the figure barely dented by the occasional enthusiastic run, which is, of course, irresistible. I adore the mid-range torque of the Yaris’s in-line triple, which feels oversized for a 1.6 and comes with an equally oversized and purposeful offbeat growl. It’s especially satisfying if you allow boost to build from low revs on full throttle. The Yaris’s other control weights match its beefy delivery, especially the steering and the heft of the six-speed manual. It takes a bit of consideration to finesse the shift from cold, but I wouldn’t swap it for the Gen 2 GR’s new eight-speed auto because it’s such a…

MY PHONE IS FULL OF SEEMINGLY random pictures of large signs containing the words ‘ROW’ or ‘ZONE’, or just odd letters or numbers on their own. No, I’m not obsessed with post-modern 1980s concrete multi-storey car parks, I just have a terrible habit of forgetting where I park. Indeed, a few years ago in Norwich I ‘lost’ a Golf R for about an hour. Never again, I vowed, so now I take pictures of landmarks, signs and so on to remind me, just in case. (Worryingly I’ve started to do the same in the gym locker room now too, so a collection of wooden doors with padlocks and numbers has joined the party. Um, everyone does this right?) Actually, seeing a few together looks like a cool design for an…

BACK IN 2018-19, I SPENT EIGHT MONTHS with a previous-generation M2 in Competition form. It still ranks among my favourite long-termers that I’ve run, which begs the question: how does the latest M2 measure up? To find out – and rather than relying on potentially rose-tinted memories of that older car – this month we got an F87-generation Competition together with our current G87 M2 long-termer for a back-to-back drive. The Hockenheim Silver F87 you see here was kindly brought along by owner Stuart Dott. Standard right down to its Michelin Pilot Super Sports and with just 15,000 miles on the clock, it’s an example of the model in its prime, so is perfect for our comparison. There’s no avoiding the inevitable first impression upon clapping eyes on an F87…