Table of contents for July 2023 in Wheels

VOLVO’s EX30 is one of the company’s smallest-ever cars – yet, in its own words, one of its biggest opportunities. The company is aiming for half its global sales volumes to be EVs by 2025. Just one year later, its entire Australian offering will take power purely from a plug. The EX30 will be a major player in both stories. At 4.2m long, it’s not much bigger than a Nissan Juke, while pricing is set to be extremely competitive in the electric SUV sector – its entry point here in Australia is below $60,000. Volvo says prices sit as close to an internal combustion equivalent as possible. Its size and pricing may be as slim as possible, but the EX30’s performance is anything but. All three launch models for Australia…

“I think there was an omission in your Greatest Covers feature, and coincidentally it was a COTY cover involving a Falcon” HAS US COVERED I REALLY ENJOYED Andy Enright’s look back at the greatest covers of all time. There are certainly some deserving mention in there, especially the two iconic COTY covers of ‘NO Car of the Year’ and the flying Falcon. However I think there was a glaring omission and coincidentally it was a COTY cover involving a Falcon. I’m referring to 1995 when you perched the (well-deserved) winning Subaru Liberty in front of what I can only imagine were a few barrels of highly flammable liquid, put a match to them and stood well back, then applying the genius headline ‘Car of the Year – so hot it…

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The Megane R26.R shaved 123kg from the weight of the R26 by ditching the rear seats, passenger airbag and curtain airbags, the climate control system, the rear wash/wipe assembly and heated rear window, the front fog lamps, the headlamp washers, the stereo and the majority of the soundproofing. Add a carbonfibre bonnet, plastic tailgate and rear side windows, Sabelt seats with carbonfibre shell and aluminium base and six-point harnesses and you have a track weapon. Renault didn’t stop there, though. Uprated front and rear springs, revalved shock absorbers, beefier bushes, grooved brake discs, a wider track and the option of sticky Toyo Proxes R888 rubber contributed to a front-wheel-drive lap record of the Nürburgring. In the 15 years since the R26.R went on sale, that mark of 8m16.9s has been…

STARTING at $123,000, the Lexus RZ is built on the same all-new, dedicated electric vehicle (EV) platform as the incoming Toyota bZ4X and Subaru Solterra. It’s not the first electric Lexus, that honour going to the UX300e compact SUV. But after years of sitting on the EV sidelines, when the world’s biggest car manufacturer Toyota enters the new-age EV race, you pay attention. We’ve been waiting to see, too, how the Japanese interpret this new EV thing. We’ve seen how the Americans, Britons, Germans and South Koreans imagine the electric vehicle of the future. How might the Japanese, a powerhouse nation of automotive design and engineering, move the EV game forward? What fresh thinking might they bring? To find out, we headed to Adelaide to drive the new Lexus RZ…

A PICKLE inspired this story. More accurately, a slice of pickle. It arced through the air from the passenger window of a Hilux just as the filter light turned green, hitting the windscreen of the yellow Ferrari with a fat splat. I watched it start to slide down the glass before the coefficient of friction arrested it, waiting for me to figure out which of the steering wheel controls operated the wiper. For a moment I was captivated by that pickle. Not for what it was, or for the fact that whoever threw it would have to negotiate his burger without it, but more for what it represented. It was as much a slice of resentment as a slice of dill. The car I was driving had provoked such a…

THE MASERATI Grecale’s mission, which it has chosen to accept, is simple: steal Porsche Macan buyers. Zuffenhausen’s midsized luxury sports SUV has been a predictable success since it debuted in 2014 as a twin to the Audi Q5 and a smaller sibling to its transformational big brother, the Cayenne. As with the Macan, the Grecale broadens its appeal with a spread of pricing and a choice of combustion engines (while both will offer fully electric versions from 2024). The drivetrain you can get for your outlay differs quite markedly, however, as evidenced by our test cars. Although we had the most expensive turbocharged four-cylinder models from each respective line-up, the Grecale Modena costs from $128,000 to the Macan T’s $98,700. (There’s also more than $20K’s difference between the base models.)…

NISSAN X-TRAIL Ti AWD Price as tested $49,990 drive away This month 478km @7.8L/100km Overall 890km @8.7L/100km ONE OF the things that really surprised me about the first month with the X-Trail was its unflappability. It’s not as though past versions have been particularly flappable; that would be perhaps be a little unfair. But this one is a heftier machine with a road presence you feel from the driver’s seat. It’s larger and heavier than the previous model, an SUV I drove many times over its years on sale. But this new one feels even more composed and somehow grippier, which feels vaguely odd to note given that an all-wheel-drive X-Trail has usually been very good both on- and off-road. I think the real change is the weight of the…

FIVE THINGS WE LEARNED IN THE CAR WORLD THIS MONTH 1. Aston Martin F1 has confirmed Honda will replace Mercedes as its engine supplier from 2026. The deal marks Aston Martin’s transition from customer team to running a works engine. 3. A Tesla Model S Plaid equipped with the optional Track Pack has wrested the Nürburgring EV lap record back from the Porsche Taycan, clocking 7min25.231. 4. Toyota Australia has recalled 1258 petrol variants of the 2022-’23 Toyota Corolla Cross, citing a fault with the electronic parking brake software. 5. Kia has trademarked the name Tasman, expected to be used on a HiLux-rivalling ute due in 2025 or ‘26. The Victorian Government has axed its $3000 zero-emissions vehicle subsidy, citing a “lower-than-expected take-up rate”.…

The Cross Country brings some light off-road and trail capability thanks to increased ground clearance (no specific figures provided yet), and skid plates on the front, sides, and rear of its underbody. Black 19-inch wheels are standard, with the option of 18s fitted with all-terrain tyres. Short wheelbase and overhangs should mean good approach, departure, and breakover angles. But no confirmation from Volvo yet as to whether it will come to Australia.…

We’d goggled over the pics of the stunning Ferrari 296 GT3 and its first major victory was this year’s 24 Hours of Nürburgring, which it won for the first time in the marque’s history. This broke a trot of 21 years of German-built winners (Zakspeed Viper GTS-R was the prior, trivia freaks). To make matters even more special, the car was run by Frikadelli Racing, co-founded in 2005 by the late and much-missed Sabine Schmitz. Between them, Earl Bamber, Nicky Catsburg, David Pittard and the magnificently-monikered Felipe Fernandez Laser completed 162 laps; an event record.…

IF YOU WERE being generous, you’d call it a certain lack of attribution. Volkswagen’s 45-minute presentation on the new Amarok went into considerable depth, even mentioning at one point that the vehicle was designed – by persons unnamed – in Melbourne. At a certain point it became curiously entertaining, as we wondered how long the show would go on without mentioning the F-word. Not that one. Ford. Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last year, you’ll know that the new generation of Amarok has sprouted from the bones of the class-leading Ford Ranger that was launched last year. The guts of the Amarok range use the same 2.0-litre Biturbo and 3.0-litreV6 diesel engines as the Ranger but, to add a bit of spice, Volkswagen also offers the…

PRICE Recommended retail figure at time of publication (asterisk indicates driveaway price) ENGINE TYPE L, in-line; V, vee; F, flat. Number of cylinders. T, turbo; S, supercharged; D, diesel; H, hybrid; E, electric SIZE Litres or kWh POWER kW TORQUE Nm TRANSMISSION M, manual; A, auto; D, dual-clutch; C, CVT WEIGHT Kerb, kg 0-100 km/h, acceleration in seconds (Wheels as-tested figures in italics) FUEL CONS Consumption in litres, or kWh, per 100km RON Octane of fuel required, as numbered, or D for diesel RESALE percent, 3-year resale in Glass’s ISSUE TESTED month/year DRIVE A, all-wheel; F, front; R, rear. Any figure in bold is our own estimate.…

JUST LAST MONTH we named the Tesla Model S as the second most significant sedan car of the last 70 years, beaten only by the longstanding excellence of the Mercedes-Benz S-Class. Since that issue of Wheels went to press, Tesla has announced that production of right-hand-drive versions of the Model S have ended. The Model S was the car that made Tesla’s reputation. Forget about the somewhat crude and troublesome Roadster that preceded it. The Model S showed that electric cars could be aspirational. First imports arrived here in Australia in 2014 and those who drove it had earmarked it as an outside bet for Wheels’ Car of the Year award. Here was a vehicle that could achieve 500km of range if you were careful at a time when a…

AMG MINUS ONE Mercedes-AMG built just 275 examples of the its One hypercar, the 728kW weapon that draws heavily from the F1 program, and runs a detuned version of the race car’s 1.6-litre V6 engine and complex hybrid system. Anyway, now there is officially One less, following the recent incineration of a UK example while being transported on the back of a truck in Staffordshire. The cause of the blaze hasn’t been confirmed, but speculation is being directed at the hybrid battery. SPACE RACE Count on Bugatti to take the whole ‘customer benefits’ thing to an extreme level. The French hypercar manufacturer recently invited 18 Chiron owners from around the world to the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida and let them loose in their own cars on the 4.6km landing…

DUE 2024 PORSCHE 718 SPYDER RS If you’re one of those non-conformists who thinks hearing is overrrated, then this one could be for you. The Boxster-based version of the GT4 RS features a redesigned roof with those ear-level intake pods, which suck air straight into the 4.0-litre flat six. The redesigned roof and intake system were essential for the Spyder to match Cayman GT4 RS coupe’s outputs of 368kW and 450Nm. DUE Q4 PEUGEOT e-2008 Debut BEV for the French brand here in Oz will be the electrified 2008 compact SUV featuring a 50kWh battery powering a 100kW/260Nm front-mounted motor. Recharging speed of 100kW means an 80 percent charge in around 30 minutes; range is a modest 328km (WLTP). No official price or on-sale date at this stage, but expect…

YOU MAY NOT know of Mr Vernon Gleasman. But if you drive a Renaultsport Megane 230 F1 Team R26 (henceforth to be referred to as an R26 because damn) you have a lot to thank this gent for. With over 200 inventions and patents to his name, big Vern, who sadly passed away in 2004, lived a long and productive life. We’ll gloss over his hydromechanical steering system for tracked vehicles and his long-piston hydraulic machine and concentrate instead on his Dual Drive system, the so-called ‘impossible differential’, a clever piece of engineering that became better known as the torque-sensing, or Torsen, diff. It’s this piece of technology, supplied by GKN Driveline for the 168kW R26, that distinguished this model from its immediate predecessor, the 225 F1, and did more…

BY 2026 EVERY Volvo sold in Australia will take its power purely from a plug, and the C40 kicked off the process as the company’s first pure EV. It also injected yet more pep into the Swedes’ increasingly contemporary range. Love or loathe the dawn of the crossover coupe, the C40 appears a pretty successful execution of the idea, at least stylistically. This MY24 update arrives relatively early in the C40’s life, but that’s because it goes hand-in-hand with an identical update for its more practical XC40 sibling. The headline is that the cheaper single-motor versions have switched to a rear-wheel-drive layout, which would seem doolally in a purely petrol car, but it’s less of a manufacturing headache in the world of EVs. The move is thanks to a new…

A 718 Cayman armed with the same 4.0-litre flat six as the mighty GT3? This is the car we thought Porsche would never make I ALMOST MISS IT at first. Parked up on the side of the road, the Type R’s engine ticking and pinging as it cools, I lean against the door and settle in for the Porsche to arrive. It’s early in the mountains, the roads freshly washed by rain, and the cold valley below is cloaked in mist that sparkles as it catches the first rays of sun. Sound carries out here but it’s still a few minutes before I catch it. The shriek of six cylinders is soft to begin with, its metallic harmony rising and falling as it ranges in and out of earshot, making it…

WHEN WAS THE last time you read a comparison between two sub-$100K sedans, one of which happened to be a top-ten seller in Australia? Blur your eyes a little and you could almost trick yourself that this is an AU Ford Falcon v VX Holden Commodore battle. The Tesla doesn’t do a great VX impression, that’s true, but the Ioniq 6’s body lines curve in an arch from front to back, giving more than a whiff of AU Falcon. While SUVs and utes are the flavour of the moment, Tesla’s disruptive Model 3 has stamped its foot. Not only is it sitting in third place year-to-date with 8819 sales (this doesn’t always equate to greatness), it also took top honours in our electric car Megatest in December (Wheels Yearbook 2022)…

JUST AS THE Maserati brand had been seemingly headed for an extended period of fresh-metal dormancy, a whirlwind of product activity is sweeping through Modena. After recently playing a couple of halo cards with the MC20 supercar and related Cielo Spyder, the trident badge is now dealing itself into the volume territory of luxury cars. The Grecale, the latest Maserati to be named after a wind, is the company’s first midsized SUV. It’s taken seven years since the Maserati Levante arrived as a rival to the Porsche Cayenne, and now the Grecale must hit the ground running against another Porsche SUV – and one that already has nearly a decade of success under its belt: the Macan. Maserati isn’t relying on either undercutting or price parity, though. A three-model range…

FORD EVEREST V6 PLATINUM Price as tested $79,967 This month 610km @10.2L/100km Overall 610km @10.2L/100km PRODUCT MANAGERS for car manufacturers spend a lot of time poring over specifications. For the most part, they tend to be very good at their jobs. Once in a while, they’ll get things a bit wrong and create models that are either not attractive enough and which wither on the vine, or which everybody gravitates to, creating supply issues and a neglected range structure. I’d always thought the EverestV6 Sport with the 18-inch all-terrain tyres was the sweet spot in the range in terms of equipment and pricing. It did, however, lack a tyre-pressure monitoring system, a fitment you could only get on the range-topping Platinum version. So, to round out our long-term stint with…