Table of contents for November 2019 in Wheels

THE SIGNIFICANCE of the name shouldn’t be lost on anyone. When Volkswagen talks of the ID.3, it means that this is the company’s third genre-changing vehicle. Beetle and Golf were iterations one and two. In order to achieve this mass shift in buyer behaviour towards electric vehicles,VW plans to democratise the EV, to remove it from the preserve of early adopters and tech nerds. VW boss Herbert Diess stood at the lectern and made the company’s intent crystal clear, claiming that the Golf-sized ID.3 is “not just a new car, it is the beginning of an electric offensive”. The target price for the entry-level car has been pitched at “under €30,000” (which is still over A$48,000 before local taxes), and three versions of the ID.3 have been announced, offering between…

DUE NOV AUDI A1 It was revealed more than a year ago, but the baby Audi is making its way to Oz after myriad issues with supply and WLTP testing. The A1 gains Audi’s family styling, an updated cabin with driver-orientated dash, and engine choices ranging from a frugal 1.0-litre triple to a punchy 2.0-litre turbo four.. DUE NOV TOYOTA COROLLA SEDAN While the 12th-generation hatch was released last year, the previous sedan has soldiered on – until now. The booted Corolla will ride on the TNGA platform, naturally, and be powered by the new 2.0-litre engine, which produces 125kW/200Nm. A hybrid will join the line-up in 2020. DUE DEC MINI CLUBMAN JCW At 225kW, it’s the most powerful JCWfettled Mini to date – and it’ll cover the 0-100km/h…

McLAREN IS NOT a company known for fickle design follies, and even though the top-exit exhausts that pierce the engine cover of the company’s 600LT look like the stuff of concept fantasy, they make as much engineering sense as they do street theatre. In the case of the Longtail’s sibling, the 570S, dumping waste gases at road level requires a complex exhaust system that hurdles the rear axle, involving restrictive angles all the way, but the 600LT gases take a short cut and that has numerous advantages. Not only does the shorter system reduce back pressure, allowing the 3.8-litre turbo V8 to find even more power and noise, a significant chunk of weight is left on the parts shelf. Eight kilos is saved in tubing and a further 4.6kg spared…

THIS IS much more than a regular mid-life facelift. Land Rover has essentially given the Discovery Sport a new platform and a heavily updated interior four years after it was first released. The big news for the 2020 Discovery Sport is the addition of 48-volt mild-hybrid systems to all bar one engine, which the company claims improves fuel economy by seven percent. Further, the Discovery Sport has been moved to an updated platform, the same that underpins the all-new Evoque released earlier in the year. This brings a claimed 10 percent stiffness improvement over the previous model, and introduces revised engine and transmission mounts. Three diesel and two petrol engines will be available, with the most powerful versions of each made available to Wheels in Spain. Both petrol and diesel…

LICOLA: 37°37’40.18”S, 146°37’25.13”E. Permanent population: 2. Distance from nearest Maccas: 96km. Grid power: none. Mobile signal: none. Well-sighted, traffic-free, 100km/h-posted corners: countless. YOU THINK you know the Toyota Supra, don’t you? Its development story is well documented. You know that there’s a heavy dose of Munich in its DNA and that it reincarnates a badge many thought had gone for good. Its interminable gestation has dulled the sheen of its novelty, tempering the excitement of Toyota’s breathless early promise. Get behind the wheel of the Supra, however, and it might just be the most surprising thing you’ll drive this year. It would be a pointless exercise comparing the $94,900 Supra GTS with a BMW Z4 M40i. Although the Supra shares most of its underpinnings with the BMW, the convertible Z4…

So what is materially different between BMW and Toyota running gear? To the naked eye, not a lot. Clamber beneath a Supra and a BMW Z4 M40i and they’ll look broadly similar. The devil’s in the detail, though. Toyota has finessed the software calibrations of steering, engine and transmission. The springs, anti-roll bars and lower control arms are different too, and these changes are material to the way that the Supra handles a testing piece of road. The stability control system has likewise been given a custom tune, and the suspension features different damper tuning compared to the Z4. So while there’s undoubtedly a lot of BMW hardware, there’s a decent amount of Toyota chassis know-how plugged into the A90 Supra.…

MAZDA 3 EVOLVE Price as tested: $27,690 This month: 1151km @ 7.7L/100km IN MY IDEAL WORLD the sun would be shining and there’d be a warm spring breeze when gifted the keys to a new Mazda 3 G20 Evolve hatch. I assume that’s the kind of experience buyers would also like to receive when taking delivery of their new pride and joy. But then I remember I’m in Melbourne, in the middle of winter. It’s cold. It’s raining. And the keys to ‘my’ 3 slide across my desk as if it’s any other night at Wheels HQ. Call me precious, but I wanted the new-car fanfare. Instead, I walk up to a very grey ZZG107 (there’s no hint of the sparkly metallic blue some sunshine extracts), hop inside and head…

FORD RANGER RAPTOR Price as tested: $76,790 This month: 1969km @ 9.6L/100km I MUST CONFESS I’ve cheated a little this past month, and I haven’t been completely faithful to the Raptor I fell in love with. I’ve been seeing Andy’s orange Renault Megane for a bit of a fling, which has given me a broader perspective on what the Ranger-on-steroids is really like. As a car to drive every day, the Raptor is just so easy to get along with. Everything is in the right place, the controls all work without fuss, and it feels as solid as the work truck it is. It’s not jerky or awkward to drive either, despite measuring over 5.5m long and weighing more than two tonnes. It’s easy to park, vision is good, and…

TOP THREE FERRARI F40 Back when it came out, it was a proper beast, maybe the most powerful car ever built at the time. When I was five years old, the first thing I remember is my dad took me in an F40, and I was so impressed and fell in love with it instantly. NISSAN GT-R I actually already own one of these. When I turned 18 years old and I got my driver’s licence, it was the greatest car to have in terms of value and performance. It was a dream car for me when I was 18, and now I have one and like it very much. ASTON MARTIN VALKYRIE I think this is going to be the best car ever. Not only in terms of power,…

IT’S ENDOWED with big wings, big power and could well take some big scalps. The upcoming AMG GT Black Series is destined for sale in Australia, complete with GT3-inspired aerodynamics, a new AMG engine and tech from the AMG One hypercar. There’s also the not insignificant matter of power, said to be in excess of 520kW. For the likes of the Porsche 911 GT2 RS, consider this your notice. With the most power and torque of the current AMG range, it’ll more than fulfil its status as the halo model. Sitting down with the boss of Mercedes AMG, Tobias Moers, it’s clear to see he’s excited for his creation to be revealed to the world – just not quite in full yet. Moers is a car guy, and his passion…

THIS ISN’T THE NEW S-CLASS. But importantly, the production version of the Mercedes Vision EQS concept (first shown at Frankfurt) will sit alongside the flagship sedan as an alternative in the future. With all the forward-thinking electric technology crammed within the minimalist lines of the Mercedes Vision EQS, the design as a whole is a paradigm shift for the German marque. The interior and exterior design stretches the envelope, but a production version of this concept is coming. While the EQS features the obligatory big wheels and aerodynamic proportions, the finer details reveal 229 individually illuminated stars to create a light bar at the rear and 188 individual LEDs at the front to form a 3D effect. Inside, the Vision EQS gains the latest Mercedes-Benz User Experience (MBUX) and the…

IT COSTS $5.3m and all 63 units are already accounted for, but that doesn’t stop us being intrigued by the Lamborghini Sián FKP 37. It draws its electrical input not from a battery pack but from a supercapacitor system developed in collaboration with MIT. A third the weight of lithium-ion cells for the equivalent power, the supercapacitor in the Sián accumulates and discharges energy far more quickly than a battery, recharging after just one application of the brakes. It augments the 577kW 6.5-litre V12, adding a 25kW fillip at speeds of up to 130km/h in order to torque fill while the single-clutch sequential upshifts. Positioned in the bulkhead between cockpit and engine, the electric system, comprising both e-motor and supercapacitor, weighs only 34kg and delivers a weight-to-power ratio of 1.0kg/hp.…

“Insights don’t have a lot of power but they enthusiastically give all they’ve got. What’s not to love about that?” ANDREW – MELBOURNE “I love the Insight’s fuel economy, light weight and styling. They’re quirky, different and full of character. I bought a red one in 2005 and then added this car in 2012. It can be grid charged and it has heavier springs front and rear along with adjustable dampers. There’s a dedicated enthusiast community based mainly in the US (Insightcentral.net) where there’s lots to learn about Insights and improvements that can be made to them. From the factory, the handling could have been better, but the modifications made to my cars are a big improvement.”…

THE ACCENT has long been the cheapest model offered by Hyundai in Australia. However, times, and the market, have changed, and now the Accent has ceased production with no replacement in sight. Enter the Hyundai Venue, which will be picking up the mantle as the most affordable vehicle sold by the Korean giant in Australia. Thing is, Hyundai never intended for the Venue to be an Accent replacement. Senior figures from Hyundai attempted to temper expectations for the Venue at the local launch, noting that the Venue isn’t likely to match the sales volume of the outgoing price leader. Well, they needn’t worry, because the Venue is a solid thing, and buyers of small SUVs would be justified in wanting to own one. Three variants are available (Go, Active, and…

1 AUDI Q3 Stop us if you’ve heard this one before, but the all-new Q3 compact SUV is about to be less compact. It’s grown in virtually all dimensions, being longer (on a stretched wheelbase) and wider than its predecessor. The cabin is appreciably more spacious, and, naturally, updated connectivity and clever screens abound. Our drive out of northern NSW should see us in the 35 TFSI model, which translates to 110kW from a 1.5-litre turbo four. 2 PORSCHE TAYCAN Finally we get behind the wheel of Porsche’s landmark EV, so time to find out if the hype and our earlier impressions from the passenger seat match the reality. We’ll drive both the turbo-free Turbo, and the equally turbo-free Turbo S (what was the marketing department thinking?) and both promise…

An errant flint in the road brought test proceedings to a halt as the Supra’s nearside front went pancake flat in seconds. With no spare and mobility foam not sealing the puncture, we were left stranded by the roadside a long way from mobile phone coverage. While it might be workable to run a car with no spare in relatively densely populated Europe or Japan, here in Australia it can prove a genuine safety issue. Is there a case for a revision to the Australian Design Rules to stipulate that all volume-selling cars ought to carry at least a space-saver spare? Of the three cars on test, only the Audi TT S had some get-you-home rubber.…

Calvin Luk BMW This Australian-born rising star of BMW’s exterior design team got his start at Munich after graduating from the Art Centre College of Design in California, first via an internship that rolled into a coveted full-time role. Now 33, Luk cut his teeth on the X1 and X3, but really found his groove on the current Z4. Jordan Demkiw FORD OF EUROPE Now based in Cologne, Germany, Demkiw rose to prominence with the exterior design of the Falcon FG X. He quickly parlayed that into a two-door design that had plenty of Blue Oval diehards properly frothing – the XR8 Coupe Concept. “The inspiration came from cars I loved as a kid, cars like the XB and XC hardtops,” says Demkiw. Nick Hogios TOYOTA AUSTRALIA “As a child,…

FOR A CITY that’s the self-proclaimed European capital of design and style, let’s just say that Milan doesn’t make its core attributes immediately evident. In the streets that feed out from the Stazione Centrale, Italy’s busiest (and presumably vision-impaired) graffiti bandit has barely left a wall or shopfront untagged. Dusty retail windows attempt to off-load random tatt, and the bins overflow into the gutters. Sure, there’s a rich history of high-end labels and billion-dollar brands here, but you have to go looking for them. Our journey takes us 20 minutes north-west to the suburb of Rho, but even here, Italy’s pre-eminent carrozzeria of automotive rebodying, currently celebrating its 100th anniversary, doesn’t instantly dazzle you with a glitzy marble and glass facade or elegant water features. Instead, you’ll find Zagato down…

SUZUKI JIMNY Price as tested: $24,490 This month: 1466km @ 5.9L/100km THERE’S A MISSION to complete. On the cards is a ‘quick dash’ to Melbourne’s mega mall, the Chadstone Shopping Centre – though whether it’s quick is in the hands of the traffic gods. Available are the keys to the monstrous Ford Ranger Raptor and the pocket-sized Suzuki Jimny. Which one to pick? The choice is pretty simple to make. ‘Chaddy’, as it’s more commonly known, reminds me of how old I am. I remember this retail behemoth – Australia’s biggest shopping centre – when it was half as big as it is now, and nowhere near as trendy. Mirroring its growth is its damned car park. Half the problem with visiting the place is navigating the concrete jungle and…

MERCEDES-BENZ A250 4MATIC Price as tested: $76,790 This month: 603km @ 7.8L/100km BE HONEST here – how often do you use voice recognition software? Rarely, would be my guess, for beyond asking Siri to explain the meaning of life and how to dispose of a dead body (just kidding, though I’m sure I’m now on some kind of ASIO watch list), I’ve found that voice recognition tends to fall into the same box as tech like Google Glass and virtual reality headsets: clever, but also kind of useless. Happily, this isn’t the case with the A250. Armed with Merc’s ‘Mercedes-Benz User Experience’ infotainment software (dubbed MBUX), I find myself talking to the A250 so regularly that “Hey Mercedes!” is now firmly entrenched in my lexicon. It handles all of the…

EVOLUTION not revolution. It’s a refrain so often uttered when iconic models are due for an update. Think BMW 3 Series, or possibly the biggest culprit, the Porsche 911. Engineers and product planners want to tweak and refine, without risking customer alienation with a radically new recipe. Well, no-one told Land Rover, which has just revealed its all-new Defender to the world at the Frankfurt motor show, 71 years after the original Series 1 Land Rover launched, and 36 years since the last generational update. And we really do mean all new, with not a single part on the L663 shared with its forebear. The early meetings that shaped what would underpin the L663 were held around chief engineer Nick Rogers’ kitchen table, his personal Series 1 parked in the…

2900 The number of hairpin bends negotiated in 12 hours by an NA Mazda MX-5 on the Kaunertal Glacier Road in Austria. A team of drivers managed to break this brilliantly obscure record – which previously stood at 1500 bends – as part of the MX-5’s 30th birthday celebrations. In typically Germanic fashion, the German Record Institute installed GPS sensors all the way up the road and decided that to qualify, a valid hairpin bend must measure between 150 and 180 degrees. SHARING IS CARING Hyundai has pumped more than $8m into car sharing platform Car Next Door. “This capability has been pre-installed and seamlessly integrated into Hyundai cars, making it easy for Hyundai owners to earn extra money from their car,” said HMC Australia CEO, JW Lee. “Other features…

“THE INFORMATION I HAD MISSED MOST WAS THERE, RIGHT IN FRONT OF MY EYES!” DATABANK DATA BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND WOW! Wheels October 2019 just arrived in the mail. Immediately, I tore open the wrap and turned, as has been my practice for years, to start reading from the back cover forward. I turned to the last page of ‘Your Complete New Car Buyer’s Guide’ and it struck me a fair smack between the eyebrows … empowerment had returned, in all its glory! For each variant for each model under each brand, the information I had missed most was there, right in front of my eyes! A ready reference to be sure. Thanks for listening to the feedback provided by readers. You’ve made my day … er, week … er,…

THE HONDA INSIGHT G1 was never built to last. As much as we’ve become latterly accustomed to the idea of a five-year warranty or the notion of Honda’s obsessive engineering, there’s an inevitable mortality to the Insight. By modern standards it enjoyed a cranefly-like existence, the terminal failure of its hybrid battery packs being something you could guarantee. The Integrated Motor Assist (IMA) system could flatline with as few as 25,000km on the clock. Yet an issue that would sound the death knell for any other vehicle as a collectible classic is exactly what has sparked the Insight’s cult appeal. It’s probably the first modern classic you can home hack. Just as there is a whole generation who know exactly which coin was best for adjusting the mix on a…

IT’S AN ODD visual association, I admit, but as I take my first look at Peugeot’s 508 Liftback and Sportwagon on Australian soil, all I can think of is vomit. It’s nothing to do with a personal gut reaction to this pair of French range-toppers for the Australian line-up; on the contrary, I think that the exterior design of both is crisp, contemporary and cohesive. No, what’s making me think of ejected stomach contents is the fact it was dep-ed Andy Enright who first drove the 508 in France (Wheels, Feb ’19), a trip which took him to the formidable cycling mecca of Alpe d’Huez with a Peugeot bicycle strapped to the roof. Indomitable Enright would go on to have a brave rolling chunder while still grimly turning the pedals…

LEXUS RX RANGE WHAT’S NEW ? Plenty, given it’s more of a reskin with carryover powertrains rather than a simple facelift. Chassis tune, body stiffness, third-row seating and equipment have all had serious attention. HAS IT WORKED? Almost certainly. For many, the mere inclusion of a touchscreen, allowing you to ignore the fiddly Remote Touch, will be a small revelation. AUDI Q5 WHAT’S NEW? A cabin that appears to be pretty much lifted from the updated A4, so a 10.1-inch touchscreen, and a binning of the rotary command knob and touchpad. HAS IT WORKED? That’s just the start. More significant is that a plug-in hybrid will join the line-up, boasting 243kW/500Nm, with its 14.1kWh battery allowing an electric-only range of 42km. RENAULT KOLEOS WHAT’S NEW? Right, stay awake. The bumpers…

AUDI TT S The body-coloured inserts on the seats and centre console divided opinion among testers. Some felt they were brash while others liked the lift they gave to the otherwise dark TT S cabin. Quality touch points throughout, from the cool metal finishes to the elegant handshake of carbonfibre on the door pulls. AC controls take a bit of time to figure out as the centre ducts don’t initially appear to angle towards the passenger. Rotate the bezel and they will. Slick. BMW M2 COMPETITION The BMW felt distinctly Spartan in this company. Refinements you may expect at this price point are missing from the M2 Competition but keen drivers probably won’t care. Vision out of the cabin is the best of the lot and the M2’s 390-litre boot…

“AND THIS…” says the compact and impeccably dressed form of Holden’s head of design, Richard Ferlazzo, “…is our modelling studio.” He pauses for a moment, as though for dramatic effect, before pressing his security pass to the door to reveal a top-secret design studio that looks, well, exactly like you imagine it would. Bright and open, with softly diffused light and a laid-back ‘creative vibe’ (all that’s missing are some beanbags and a ping-pong table), its focal points are three full-sized clay models that sit on axle stands at even intervals around the large room. Around them mill a handful of casually dressed designers, their heads tilting and turning like inquisitive birds as they step back to take in new perspectives of their creations. But it’s the clay modellers (or…

01 YOU MIGHT WAIT A DECADE TO DESIGN YOUR FIRST CAR, THEN YOU WON’T GET THE CREDIT I started at Ford. I did 10 years there. I worked on various bits of cars but the majority of my time was spent on steering wheels, bizarrely. I very seldom got a chance to work on a full-size clay model, which is what every young designer dreams of. It was frustrating. Eventually I ended up at Ghia, where I found myself working on full-size cars for the first time in my career. And when you do, it’s very competitive. You have maybe five or six designers putting their ideas forward, and only one of them will get to see that idea through. They’ll feel ownership of it. It’s not egotistical or political,…

RENAULT MEGANE RS280 CUP Price as tested: $50,180 This month: 1619km @ 7.3L/100km FAR BE IT from me to perpetuate national stereotypes, but French cars haven’t always had the most unblemished record of reliability. Let’s just say that they can keep you involved, such are their often novel engineering approaches. Paul Magès, the inventor of Citroen’s fiendishly complex hydropneumatic suspension, had a plaque on his desk which read, ‘Everyone thought it was impossible, except an idiot who did not know and who created it.’ Yet this month, the Megane seems to have soldiered on indefatigably. Even the insidiously deflating tyres seem to have waved the white flag and started behaving. So, a clean bill of health – which can’t be said of all the longtermers in the Wheels garage. Looking…

PICTURE YOURSELF in the USA at the dawn of the 1970s, driving out of a Cadillac dealership in the finest gosh-dang otto-mo-beel that money could buy. Your new-generation Cadillac Coupe deVille was motivated by an 8.2-litre V8, weighed 2.5 tonnes and measured 5.74 metres from one hard-edged chrome end to the other. At the close of the same decade, you’d reckon on driving out of a Honda dealer in a new Civic. But that would be to underestimate America’s favourite luxury car. The early 1970s was the best of times and the worst of times for the US car industry, with waves of labour strikes, oil crises and new safety, fuel and emissions regulations threatening to drown dozy Detroit. Amazingly, though, Cadillac rode majestically above the waves, its flagship deVille…