Table of contents for August 2020 in Wheels

THE FORD Mustang range is set to get a trackfocused halo model in the form of the recently revealed Mach 1. The pseudo-Shelby special edition isn’t yet confirmed for Australia, however our Mustang-crazed market means it shouldn’t be hard to build a business case for its arrival Down Under. If it’s confirmed, the Mach 1 will sit atop the local Mustang range, with the Aussie-assembled R-Spec’s limited run set to come to a close soon. Think of the Mach 1 as the result of what would happen if the Bullitt Mustang raided the undie drawers of the Shelby GT350 and GT500. Outputs from the naturally aspirated 5.0-litre V8 are identical to the Bullitt at 345kW and 556Nm, thanks to an airbox, intake manifold, and throttle body from the GT350. Automatic…

H2X AUSTRALIA is a small tech start-up currently employing 70 staff and based in Port Kembla, NSW. The company’s aim is to bring the vehicle you see here, the Snowy SUV, to market in 2022. That’s right, an Aussie-designed vehicle within a couple of years, assembled locally from an imported chassis. There are some significant hurdles to overcome, not least of which is that the Snowy utilises a hydrogen fuel cell. While that’s H2X’s core piece of intellectual property, it also relies on a fuelling network that currently consists of one station in Canberra. CEO Brendan Norman, who has held executive positions with VW and Audi and has worked on hydrogen start-ups Grove and Riverside in the last decade, is aware of this chicken- and-egg scenario. “We’re already discussing how…

But please, 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 (search for Wheels Australia), Instagram or Twitter LETTER OF THE MONTH ‘How good would an MX-5 EV be with an instant 150kW/350Nm and a 350km range?’ BRING ON THE MX-5 EV! I FIND MYSELF, once again, in fierce agreement with Editor Inwood. A relatively inexpensive electric sports car would do wonders to convert the recalcitrant ICE diehards (e.g. me). How good would an MX-5 EV be with an instant 150kW/350Nm and a 350 kilometre range? Ok there are compromises but auto engineers have been rather adept at overcoming compromises and turning them into a feature. A Porsche 911 has the engine in exactly…

STAND DEAD in front of Audi’s thoroughly made-over large sedans, and you’d be hard pressed to spot the difference. Open the bonnets and it’s almost impossible. So what is the point of having the four-door S6 and five-door S7 in the local roster, especially if lowriders are on the nose? Well… just look at them. If non-SUV passenger vehicles were off the menu, someone forgot to tell Audi. Thankfully. Fundamentally, of course, these two are the same. Both pack Audi’s latest 2.9-litre twin-turbocharged V6 petrol engine that benefits from a 48-volt electric compressor to quell lag, and which is good for 331kW and 600Nm. Both run the same eight-speed automatic that feeds all four wheels via a self-locking centre diff, and both can be equipped with rear-steer and a tricky…

DEPENDING ON WHO you speak to at Skoda, the Scala’s Latin-derived name can mean either steps, as in ladder, or scale, as in spectrum. Whichever, it fits, for this car is an extension into new territory for Skoda: a proper C-segment hatchback to battle the Toyota Corolla and friends. Almost new territory, at least. Remember the Skoda Rapid? You’d be forgiven if you didn’t. A budget-conscious car with about as much flavour as boiled celery, it made little dent on this image-conscious market. This car isn’t a direct replacement for the Rapid or, half a size up, the Octavia. The Scala is a step upmarket compared with the Rapid but doesn’t dance close enough to parent company VW’s Golf to tread directly on family toes. A level below the Golf…

THERE’S SOMETHING magical about 206kW. No, really. Translated to horsepower it’s 276, or 280PS if you prefer. This was Paul Rosche’s target for the M1, BMW’s first and only mid-engined supercar. It’s the claimed power output of the Nissan Skyline GT-R and the original Honda NSX and if it was enough for Ayrton Senna to fling around Suzuka wearing white socks and loafers, it’s probably ample for a five-door Ford Focus hatcback. This ST version of the latest Focus has some big loafers to fill. There’s no fire-breathing all-wheel-drive RS version of this generation Focus planned, so the ST now has to serve as the sports flagship, bumping power up notably from the last model’s 184kW output. But where that car was a $39K deal, the latest Focus ST jumps…

FILLING MY EARS is the deep burble of what can only be a V8 engine, the rear vision mirror lets me glimpse a large practical tray, and ahead of me is a straight, empty drag strip. It’s all oddly familiar, with images of Australia’s home-grown Holden and Ford V8 utes at the front of my mind. The mental picture is nothing but a cultural ghost of Australia’s lost manufacturing, with those car-based utilities now dead and long buried. What I’m experiencing is a new era (for Australians at least) of pick-up performance, and it comes in a package that’s as subtle as a bald eagle holding a shotgun. Australia, meet your new V8 ute overlords: the Chevrolet Silverado 1500 and Ram 1500 Laramie. Representing the GM faithful is the Silverado,…

HYUNDAI VENUE ELITE Price as tested: $25,940 This month: 724km @ 7.5L/100km I HONESTLY THOUGHT my first #DriveAfterIso would be a roaring Alpine Ring blast. But no, instead it would involve less than 100kW and a schlep to an unknown hill. The plan, concocted half as a joke, would be to take ‘my’ Venue long termer to Mount Wycheproof – literally the world’s smallest mountain. It seemed like the perfect tongue-in-cheek destination for a road trip. SUVs are big but the pint-sized Venue is little, Mountains are tall but Wycheproof is short … geddit? This was my first period of extended highway driving with the Venue and I quickly realised that it’s out of its comfort zone. At a true 100km/h the engine is humming along at 2500rpm. At 110km/h…

BEFORE WE bombard you with the numbers – and there are many large ones – take another look at the image above. Wild looking, isn’t it? Every AMG GT is low, wide and intimidating but this one? This is unhinged. And there’s more to it than just a big wing and some extra vents and ducts. Notice that strip of black carbon beneath the number plate? The one practically kissing the tarmac? That’s a new manually adjustable front splitter. And see that lowered section in the centre of the roof? And the way the swollen sideskirts form one gigantic strip of carbonfibre that runs down the entire length of the car? More than the headline stats, it’s these details that speak to the depth of engineering at play here. But…

THE 14TH generation of the Ford F-150 has been revealed, with the model’s first ever plug-in hybrid added to the line-up. Unfortunately, this new F-150 won’t be coming to Oz from the factory in right-hand drive. The unofficial line from Ford Oz is ‘never say never’, but it’s understood that the Yank tank remains off the table. This latest-gen provides insight into engines and styling for the next-gen Ranger. Ergo, expect hybrid and V6 turbo powertrains, along with C-shaped LED lighting.…

IT’S EASY TO romanticise the convertible lifestyle. Sun-soaked weekend jaunts along the coast and whimsical Sunday afternoons frequenting wineries and eateries is the kind of existence a drop-top suggests. Perceived elegance and luxury is part of the deal, one the BMW Z4 has traditionally pulled off with varying degrees of success. Despite this, in our current context the G29 BMW Z4 M40i has two coupe-shaped thorns in its side. On one hand the M2 Competition offers more performance for less, while the circa $45K cheaper Toyota Supra is essentially the Z4’s twin under the skin. The former is an M car ‘proper’, the latter has a cult following. As part of the well-documented Toyota-BMW co-development, the Japanese quotient spawned a two-door coupe, while the latter morphed into a convertible. The…

Aussie buyers are offered the 110TSI at $26,990, with the DSG ’box tacking on another $2000. All cars gets Apple/Android mirroring, wireless phone charging and the virtual cockpit. Electric tailgate, full-size spare and tyre pressure monitoring also feature on the base model. Step up to the sportily themed $33,390 Monte Carlo and you gain a panoramic sunroof, adaptive LED headlights and a lower ride height as well as pushbutton start and dual climate control. The top-spec $35,990 Launch Edition sees heated leather/suede seats front and rear, auto headlights and wipers, a bigger screen and wireless CarPlay (wireless Android Auto later in 2020). All prices are driveaway.…

FORD FIESTA ST Price as tested: $32,940 This month: 1119km @ 7.1L/100km Overall: 2207km @ 7.5L/100km FUNNY HOW an end date sharpens the focus. After four months in the Wheels Garage, during which it has endured a global pandemic, suffered slobbering dogs, scampered up slimy B-roads and shrugged of freezing winter mornings, it’s time for the Fiesta to return to Ford. The consequences of this looming departure have been twofold. The first is that, in order to squeeze out every last drop of fun while I still can, I’ve started to drive with a possessed kind of urgency. Even quick dashes to the shops have become hyperactive affairs, and I’ve discovered it’s easy to dial up the drama, and the fun, without dialling in the attention of the local police.…

LEXUS RX450hL SPORTS LUXURY Price as tested: $111,070 This month: 704km @ 10.1L/100km IF OUR #DriveAfterIso campaign conjured visions of tortured Michelins howling and tacho needles dipping into the red, I fear I may have let the side down a little. My first post-Iso drive was a mostly leisurely cruise in convoy with former Wheels staffer Nathan Ponchard from Sydney to the NSW southern highlands for lunch in Berrima. Partly I wanted to see if Ponch’s fashion sense had improved for the winter season (it hasn’t) but I was also keen to use the RX450hL in touring mode, to assess the cruising refinement, and also to see by how much I could improve on the slightly confounding suburban fuel consumption of 12L/100km. For what it’s worth, a colleague ran an…

DUE OCT HYUNDAI SANTA FE Because wall-to-wall grilles are where it’s at right now, get a load of the new Santa Fe. Most manufacturers unleash a facelift and try to tell you it’s a new car. Hyundai has done the opposite: this Santa Fe rides on an all-new platform. Inside there’s a broad centre console and a 10.25-inch centre screen. No word on engines or pricing yet, but the Santa Fe has grown in size with this model, arriving just three years after its predecessor debuted. DUE SEP TOYOTA HILUX As well as a facelift, power steps up from 130kW to 150kW. This also boosts towing capacity from 3200kg to 3500kg, depending if you choose the 420Nm manual or the 500Nm auto. There are also suspension changes for better comfort.…

NGINEERS TEND not to become heroes but some shuffle reluctantly to front and centre. Hans Mezger’s contribution to Porsche is impossible to quantify. Indeed, it’s a formidable task teasing apart the man from his legacy. So tightly wound is the bond between Mezger’s body of work and the fortunes of Dr.-Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG that this diffident man from Ottmarsheim, a tiny village on the fringes of Stuttgart, came to almost embody the company’s fiercely competitive spirit. His early years, being employed in Porsche’s diesel division are well documented. Let’s consider the ‘Mezger engine’ instead. When contemporary Porsche owners refer to the Mezger engine, they’re usually referring to a watercooled flat-six developed for the 996 and 997-era 911 GT3, GT2 and Turbo; engines that were developed years after Mezger…

FIRST UP, some facts. This second generation Juke replaces a predecessor that had been in the market since 2010, albeit facelifted in 2018. The latest car is bigger in every key dimension, with more than 100mm grafted into its wheelbase. For our market there’s one basic set-up: a 999cc three-cylinder turbo petrol driving the front wheels via a seven-speed dual-clutch. All the oily bits being common across the range, the domestic line-up consists solely of trim options. None of the variants wear model identifying badges on their rear ends, so you’ll identify the entry-level ST and slightly better equipped ST+ by their 17-inch alloys Step up to the mid-range ST-L, which Nissan expects to account for fully half of all Juke registrations, and you get 19in rims, while the top-spec…

VOLVO has added a new flagship variant to its COTY-winning XC40 range. Dubbed ‘Recharge’ this plug-in hybrid is the first of two electrified XC40s heading our way and will be followed by an all-electric version in early 2021 that will usurp it both for price and performance. For now, though, this is the most expensive XC40 of the lot courtesy of a $64,990 sticker. That’s a chunky $8000 more expensive than the previous T5 range-topper and, initially at least, the cost-benefit analysis seems a little skew-whiff. Equipment levels are on-par with the well-equipped T5 R-Design, and the T5 is almost a second quicker to 100km/h and has the benefit of all-wheel drive. The plug-in Recharge is front-drive only. So why buy the hybrid? Saving fuel is the primary attraction. The…

RISK VERSUS REWARD. That’s what this boils down to. Should you be in the position to buy one of the great new cars we’ve lined up here, there will always be the devil on your shoulder tempting you into something with more power, more toys and more presence. You’ll balance that against less peace of mind, higher running costs, and less sophisticated safety and infotainment systems. Of course, there will be a significant percentage of you who yearn for something a little older, perhaps feeling that the story of contemporary vehicle development isn’t to your tastes. We get that. But just as there will be new buyers tempted by a used proposition, if you’ve always thought of yourself as a used car buyer and want somebody else shouldering the scary…

“I hope destiny is calling me for rallying. That’s really what I want to do with my life” Late in his career and with no full-time top-flight drive, Colin McRae struggled to come to terms with being separated from the sport he loved and excelled at. One of McRae’s biggest fears in life was having to go back to his original trade, plumbing. A qualified heating engineer, during one interview at his local pub in Lanark, he laughed about how only 15 years earlier he’d had his arm “down a blocked drain outside this very pub, up to the elbow in shit… I’ve had a job. There’s no going back to that place.” So he set about engineering a potential return to WRC. In 2007, McRae spoke at length with…

VOLVO V60 T5 INSCRIPTION Price as tested: $72,390 This month: 437km @ 11.7/100km EVERY YEAR it seems to happen quicker than the flip of a coin. One day I’m enjoying the summer sun, using the BBQ as much as possible when, all of a sudden, the days become shorter and the temperature drastically plummets, quicker than my attention span when Inwood speaks. Thanks Mother Nature. Needless to say I was a bit shocked when I recently ventured out one evening and was greeted by conditions best described as Arctic. Sitting in the driver’s seat cursing the change of seasons, the V60 revealed a trick that I was completely oblivious to. When the ambient temperature dips below ten degrees, the heated seat and steering wheel automatically activate when the engine is…

MAZDA CX-30 G25 ASTINA Price as tested: $42,490 This month: 1846km @ 6.9L/100km Overall: 5279km @ 8.0L/100km NOBODY COMMENTED much on the Mazda CX-30 while it was in my tenure. Despite being one of the first on the road in Oz, not a single person asked what it was. It’s pretty much the invisible car, a small SUV in a vast ocean of rival offerings, not helped here by its dour grey paint finish. Where Kirby was mobbed by groupies wanting to borrow his Jimny and Inwood was desperately cobbling up excuses not to let the keys to his Fiesta ST leave his person, I knew that the Mazda would always have my seat, mirrors, and phone settings in place. Despite its anonymity, I found myself growing to enjoy its…

THANKS TO THE relentless regurgitation of clichés by life coaches with overly white teeth, you may think that “getting in on the ground floor” is a guarantee of success. BMW’s i Division proves it is not. Despite beating its mainstream premium counterparts (if not Tesla) to market with a range of interesting and pioneering electric vehicles, BMW’s heavy investment in establishing a bespoke range of EVs has turned out to be a wincing disappointment. From the heady days of launching the stunning i8 in 2013, and from winning our Car of the Year in 2014 with the i3, the i Division’s momentum evaporated. Sales were stilted, key staff fled to rival electric start-ups, and now, six years after it entered production, the BMW i8 has officially been axed. Ironically, it…