Table of contents for April 2018 in Evo

MY FIRST MEMORY OF A FOUR - wheel-drive performance car is of a Hannu Mikkola-driven Audi Quattro breaking up the monotony of Grandstand’s horseracing coverage. The seven-yearold me didn’t really understand how this bulky coupe could get the better of the wild Ford Escort RS1800 and the ace looking Opel Ascona 400. But by the end of the Swedish round of the 1981 World Rally Championship season Mikkola had claimed the Quattro’s first WRC victory, and the rest, as they say, is history (and a day lost ‘researching’ this topic on YouTube). When it came to performance road cars and four-wheel drive, Porsche was an early adopter, with the 959 in 1987, the 964-generation 911 Carrera 4 in ’89, and the 993-gen 911 Turbo in ’95. Both Ford and Renault…

LET’S TAKE AS AN EXAMPLE THE BMW Z4 M Coupe of 2006-2009. Conceivably, the quoted weight of the little coupe could vary by as much as 150kg depending on which standard it is measured against. The kerb weight that we like to quote here at evo is the the DIN figure – that’s Deutsches Institut für Normung, or German Institute for Standardisation. This is the weight of the car with all the fluids necessary for operation, including a 90 per cent full tank of fuel. For the Z4 M Coupe this is 1420kg. BMW also quotes an EU kerb weight (sometimes called EEC kerb weight) of 1495kg. This is the DIN figure plus an extra 75kg for ‘driver and luggage’, and is the weight declared for emissions testing. There is…

MERCEDES-BENZ WILL BRING new levels of technology to the family hatchback class when its new A-class (1) goes on sale in the spring. While the company has long dripfed technology from its most advanced models down the range a generation or two behind, the latest version of Mercedes’ compact luxury car is like an S-class in miniature, from its class-leading aerodynamics to semi-autonomous functions and a stunning new interior. The exterior styling is an evolution of the old A-class’s, albeit less cluttered and punctuated by sharper details. Its drag coefficient of 0.25 is impressive for a hatchback, and the slightly larger structure brings a longer wheelbase and more interior and luggage volume. The cabin hosts the biggest changes, though, with a wide, flat instrument panel home to a pair of…

AFTER THE EARLIER TEASER SHOTS IN EVO OF the Porsche 911 Carrera T, I was really hoping the model could deliver on its promise of being a modern-day Club Sport. But after reading Adam Towler’s verdict from your first drive of the car (evo 245) I felt as disappointed as he was at the missed opportunity it appears to be. Then I read the next page: Adam’s drive of the 911 GT3 Touring Package. What a fantastic car! I want one so badly. The ‘regular’ GT3, in all its winged/caged/ stripped-out glory, is one of the best looking and best driving point-to-point cars known to petrolheads. The fact that Porsche now makes a version with all that same power and handling ability but with looks more subtle than the Carrera…

EVER SINCE THE CURRENT FORD Focus RS swaggered onto the scene in 2016, it has been ripe for aftermarket upgrades. Whether it’s for more power, tweaked suspension or some garish visual ‘enhancements’, there is a long line of tuners and tweakers keen to give your Focus more, erm, focus. Ford, too, has cashed in, with its official Mountune-developed upgrades, and now it has gone further with this new RS Edition model, which is claimed to be aimed at ‘hardcore driving enthusiasts’. On paper the changes over the standard car are fairly minor, running to nothing more than a limited-slip differential for the front axle and a host of cosmetic and equipment upgrades, yet the result is an RS transformed. Visually, the changes are relatively subtle, which says more about the…

IT’S FAIR TO SAY THE EXPERIENCE most Mercedes-AMG S63 owners will enjoy differs somewhat to that of a meagrely paid motoring magazine staff writer spending a mere week with the car in order to deconstruct its abilities. Their house will be worth more for a start. And they probably won’t have to spend ten minutes driving around looking for somewhere large enough to park their S63, squeezing close enough to a kerb to avoid blocking a narrow road but far enough away so as not to scour a diamond-turned wheel rim. It always comes as something of a shock just how enormous the S-class feels when doing normal-car things given the rate at which it moves when doing evo-car things. Now using AMG’s ubiquitous 4-litre, twinturbocharged V8 in place of…

THE E63 S AND NON-S BOTH HAVE THE LATEST iteration of 4Matic+, Mercedes’ all-wheel-drive system, which instead of being predominantly rear-biased as it was before, is fully variable all of the time. On the higher-powered S, 4Matic+ also features a Drift mode, allowing power and torque to be fed to just the rear wheels. The E63 always sends drive to the rear, and selectively to the front, with an electromechanically controlled centre coupling (a compact, multi-plate clutch) shifting drive forwards in a continuously variable way. The amount of torque sent to the front axle – if any – is determined by a complex look-up chart within the all-wheel-drive controller, which receives information from multiple sensors, including those measuring wheel speeds, steering input, throttle position and road speed. The parameters of…

TOUGH NUTS, THESE SUZUKIS. The first-generation Sport was a great little car (buying guide, evo 192) and the Mk2 – which has only just gone off sale – looks every bit as good as a used buy. We couldn’t find an owner or a specialist with a bad word to say about them. And if you still need convincing, consider that Nürburgring car rental company Rent4Ring has a whole fleet of them, having previously run three Mk1s. If they’re up to being thrashed around the Nordschleife every day, it’s a pretty good bet they’ll cope with anything the North Circular can throw at them. We loved the first Swift Sport so much that it made the shortlist for evo Car of the Year in 2006. Derived from Suzuki’s Junior World…

SAY HELLO TO THE NEWEST MEMBER of the evo Fast Fleet, and possibly one of the most useful, too. Compact yet spacious, fast whatever the weather, smart but at the same time rather discreet – yes, the Mercedes-AMG C43 Estate has an awful lot to offer. Naturally, who wouldn’t desire the drama, performance and soundtrack of its 469bhp, V8-engined C63 bigger brother? But in the real world you’d also have to be willing to put up with the sub-20mpg fuel consumption, and while lighting up the rear tyres is entertaining, so the thought of the C43’s effective four-wheel-drive traction is also very appealing. In fact, the C43 Estate feels like it could be a real sweet spot in the AMG line-up, and that’s what we’re looking to confirm or quarrel…

YOU COULDN’T FIND A GREATER contrast on evo’s Fast Fleet if you tried. With its hairy-chested 5-litre V8 the unapologetically gas-guzzling Mustang is the very four-wheeled antithesis of our efficiency-is-almost-everything Golf GTE. One of these cars represents the future of motoring (so we’re told), the other is a dinosaur whose time is very quickly running out (so we’re told). I’ve spent the last six months racking up the miles in our GTE, and it’s fair to say the hybrid hatch has won my respect, if not my heart. Its ability to do a fair impression of a hot hatch when the mood takes, then switch to a near silent and hassle-free commuter is not without appeal. Then there’s technology. Whether it’s a twin-clutch gearbox, adaptive matrix LED headlamps, gesture-control infotainment,…

SPECIFICATION Engine Flat-six, 3996cc Power 513bhp @ 8450rpm Torque 346lb ft Weight 1400k g (est) Power-to-weight 37 2bhp/ton (est) 0-62mph 3.2sec (claimed) Top speed 194mph (claimed) Basic price £141, 346 On sale Summer 2018 1 ENGINE & GEARBOX The GT3 RS’s naturally a spirated 4-litre flat-six is carried over from the previousgeneration car (and the current GT3), with power increa sing by 20bhp to 513bhp at 8450rpm (200rpm higher than its predecessor) and torque rising by 7lb f t to 346lb f t. There’s a new titanium exhaust with 91mm diameter pipes, a revised intake system and a new engine mana gement system that account for the slightest of gains in the sprints (at 3.2 seconds it’s a tenth quicker than the old car to 62mph) but will have a…

IT SEEMS LIKELY THAT SALES OF THE GTC4 Lusso will take a hit when the Ferrari SUV – or FUV as Modena calls it – joins the line-up. For now, the shooting brake-style Lusso is the only full-size, four-seat Ferrari option, and very fine it is too, powered by the V12. An elegant evolution of the rather brittle FF, the Lusso improves on almost every aspect of the earlier model, especially with its more rounded and convincing dynamics and sleeker styling. Unusually, it is also offered with another engine choice, a version of the twin-turbo V8 in the California T and 488, and is called the Lusso T. The Lusso T dispenses with the V12’s novel four-wheeldrive system – effectively a four-speed gearbox driven off the front of the engine…

IT’S A BIG ASK, BEATING THE 911 GT3, A CAR that’s been at the top of its game for nearly two decades, but if there’s a Lotus that can, it’s the Evora GT430. Like the 911, the Evora has been in a constant state of evolution, getting lighter and more powerful with each new version. The limited-edition GT430 offers the best power-to-weight ratio of any Evora so far and, frankly, we’d be gutted if it didn’t, because up close it looks like it’s made entirely from carbonfibre… and it comes with a price tag that suggests as much. But we’ll come back to that. Right now there’s some testing Welsh asphalt to tackle, and the first unexpected discovery to be made. The sun is out and the temperature is mercifully…

THERE MUST HAVE BEEN A DEFINABLE MOMENT when everything changed, but no matter how many times I repeat those brief seconds in my head, I just can’t detect any discernible shift in body language or concentration, or any variation in driving style. It was completely, utterly, quite wonderfully seamless. Picture the scene: Rob Wilson driving, me in the passenger seat, driving sedately around Bruntingthorpe Proving Ground in an unsuspecting and humble 1.4-litre Astra, deftly navigating Rob’s own time-served ‘circuit’. He’s talking lines, technique, all in a constant but measured stream of consciousness. And then BAM! Rob is still talking in his quiet, 50-a-day voice, still finessing the controls as though he’s trying to cajole a petrified mare back into a stable. But the Astra, oh the poor Astra – it…

WHETHER YOU watched it from the sidelines at the time, caught the coverage on the telly, or are only now absorbing it from grainy YouTube videos, the Group A era of touring car racing was quite a sight: the Sierra Cosworth RS500s that dominated its later years were as dramatic and thunderous as you could hope for from a racing car. But their death also spawned one of the most exciting formulae the motorsport world has ever seen. The 2-litre formula, or Super Touring as it became known, was a response to the spiralling costs of homologation and the changing needs of the car industry at the time. And when it ended little more than a decade later, its enduring appeal had been assured. THE 2-LITRE FORMULA The British Touring…

TUNING COMPANIES: FLY-BY-NIGHT operations offering stick-on tat, or proper engineering firms making worthwhile and demonstrable improvements? In the BMW world one name stands firmly in the latter category: AC Schnitzer. Fastest road-legal BMW around the Nordschleife? That’s the AC Schnitzer ACL2, the bonkers M235i equipped with a 562bhp M4 engine. Past Schnitzer records include fastest LPG-powered car (V10- engined 3-series, 197.6mph), fastest diesel (tuned 335d, 179.4mph) and fastest road-legal BMW (V10 M6, 206.2mph). The firm has been fettling BMWs for over 30 years now so it knows its double-kidney grilles, but can it sprinkle its magic on the latest 5-series, specifically the 540i? For many owners it’s the looks that are most important, so Schnitzer has a range of styling additions – front spoiler extensions, a front splitter, sill extensions,…

‘It allows the driver to enjoy rear-wheel drive even if they’re new to this layout’ I’VE RECENTLY BEEN PONDERING the pros and cons of the high level of configurability offered by many modern performance cars – adaptive dampers, different engine maps, etc – and it got me thinking about how I use the BMW and its multitude of settings. I can’t argue with the benefits of being able to tease out better mpg or select a more relaxing ride for longer distances, but can such flexibility detract from a car’s abilities rather than enhance them? In older performance cars you can’t simply change their dynamics to suit your situation. You have no choice but to experience them pure and unfiltered every time you drive them, and I feel that this…

A ROUND A YEAR AGO I WAS RUNNING a Peugeot 308 GTi, another product of Peugeot Sport, which is a department I am becoming quite evangelical about. I often preach about the holy trinity – the 208 GTi by PS, the 308 GTi (270 version) and the sadly discontinued RCZ R – to anyone who will listen. So when we were discussing last month’s test to pit the new Hyundai i30 N against a Golf GTI and, importantly, a 308 GTi, I made sure I was there to spread the good word of Peugeot Sport. I can’t say I’m a fan of the 308’s 2017 facelift; its new pedestrian-friendly bulbous nose makes it look like a sperm whale. Thankfully, what I really love about the 308 – how it drives…

IF YOU’RE A FAN OF anything on four wheels, chances are you have been exposed to at least a little bit of the fanfare generated by the Fast & Furious franchise. There is no denying that the institution has brought with it a whole new generation of car fans, and now Fast & Furious has jumped off the big screen and into a spectacular arena show. It’s playing at various locations around the UK and Europe, and evo recently attended the spectacular opening night at London’s O2 Arena. Masterminded by Rowland French, Fast & Furious Live has been developed to give fans of the series a taste of the action in a live format. In development for nearly five years, the production team had to break new ground in live-action…

FUEL CONSUMPTION Mea sured in miles per gallon or litres per 100km CO2 EMISSIONS Which are directly related to fuel consumption POLLUTANT EMISSIONS Includes NOx, par ticulates, etc ENERGY CONSUMPTION Of alternative power trains, including electric vehicles NEDC New European Driving Cycle Designed in the 1980s Ba sed on theoretic al driving Ha s become outdated OLD TEST NEW TEST WLTP Worldwide Harmonised Light Vehicle Test Procedure Coming fully into force in 2018 Ba sed on real driving data Better matches on-road per formance Thus there was no incentive to lower the actual weight of an example sitting in the middle of the band. In WLTP, both the lightest (most economical) and heaviest (least economical) versions are tested. WLTP will also factor in the effect of options that can be…

ALTHOUGH IT STARTED OUT AS a fairly typical car modification business, Ares Design has undergone a dramatic transformation in the past 18 months to become what its CEO, Dany Bahar, now proudly describes as a coachbuilder. You know Bahar, of course, he who, after roles at Red Bull and then Ferrari, had a three-year stint at the helm of Group Lotus. It was here that he helped to mastermind the dramatic unveiling of five concept cars at the 2010 Paris motor show, as well as return the Lotus name to Formula 1. Bahar’s acrimonious departure in 2012 was eventually settled out of court, but while he has been largely off the radar in the meantime, that’s not to say life has been dull. As much is confirmed as we arrive…

AUDI SAYS ITS NEW A7 SPORTBACK combines the elegance of a coupe, the functionality of an estate and the prestige of a luxury saloon. It’s difficult not to imagine that in trying to combine the qualities of three cars it will end up being slightly worse than each of them at those respective disciplines. So how does it fare? The original A7 was one of the more successful proponents of the four/five-door coupe genre in terms of its styling, and the latest one is the same. It’s still handsome, the sweeping roofline coming to the same abrupt, Kamm-tail halt, and there’s now a little more definition to some of the lines along its flanks, while the nose and tail are pure modern Audi. Functionality? Well, it stands to reason that…

ON PAPER THE RAW statistics don’t look all that appealing – 113bhp, 999cc, 0-62mph in 8.8 seconds and a top speed of 122mph. These aren’t figures to get the adrenal gland working overtime. Yet despite the humble numbers it’s fair to say that the car they belong to, the VW Up GTI, is one of the most hotly anticipated arrivals of 2018. Why? Well, there are a couple of reasons. Firstly, the tiny VW promises to be a timely antidote to a modern motoring landscape dominated by stories of draconian variable speed limits, crippling congestion and the rapid consumption of the earth’s resources. Secondly, the Up’s power and performance figures are uncannily close to those of the VW Golf GTI Mk1, which delivered the sort of unfiltered driving thrills every…

IT’S PITCH DARK, distressingly early, and unremittingly wet as I settle the invoice at our less than salubrious overnight accommodation. John Barker suddenly appears alongside me at the reception desk. ‘Look,’ he says, rotating his laptop to reveal the video he’s playing. ‘I’ve found this film that shows how Honda’s SH-AWD set-up works.’ It’s probably one of the more savoury pieces of content that’s been streamed within these yellowing, dank walls. We are momentarily absorbed by this animation, because understanding the layout and workings of modern four-wheel-drive systems isn’t straightforward, steeped as they are in technology, mythology and oft-repeated untruths. Four-wheel drive performance cars have evolved considerably over the years, from all-weather one-trick ponies, through those wonderful – and sometimes frisky – Mitsubishi Evos, to machines with the in-vogue tech…

THERE HAVE BEEN TWO FACTORS that have influenced Alex’s buying habits. Firstly, his Renault 5 GT Turbo got him hooked on forced-induction engines, which is why he followed up the French hot hatch with a trio of turbo coupes, including the unloved Mitsubishi 3000 GTO and the bonkers Fiat Coupe 20V. But after a holiday to California, where he hired a drop-top Mustang, his new passion became convertibles and he has owned one ever since. His first was the very un-turbocharged Honda S2000, with its relatively tiny torque output and 9000rpm red line. The engine’s lack of twist didn’t faze Alex though, as he was smitten with being exposed to the elements and the limitless headroom. He’s since worked his way through hot rod-style roadsters from TVR, AMG and BMW,…

IKEA. HOME OF THE BILLY bookcase, meatballs and free modifications for the Lexus RC F. You what? Allow me to explain. A month or so back I received an email from a loyal evo subscriber and Lexus RC F owner called Andrew, who wanted to share a rather neat tweak he’s come across for the RC F. His note went like this: ‘Dear Dickie, it’s great to read your reports on the RC F and to find you are liking it as much as I do. I’ve now owned mine for 27 months and can’t see anything to replace it with; it’s a keeper. I’m writing to offer a 20-pence modification for GY17 OBF, courtesy of the Lexus RC F forum. ‘Under the bonnet, on the front offside, is a…

WE’VE ALL PERHAPS BECOME A BIT complacent about the reliability of new cars. I’m old enough to remember walking to school every time my mum’s old Citroën Visa failed to proceed in the late ’80s and early ’90s, and neighbours’ cars had similar problems, yet I’m also young enough that it’s never been a real concern with any of the cars I’ve owned myself. The only thing that’s hobbled me on occasion is letting a battery run down. In the past this was through inattentiveness – it’s amazing how easy it is to leave your lights on if the dashboard lighting is dim and there’s no buzzer to warn you. More recently, long periods of inactivity for my Eunos, thanks largely to driving long-termers such as the MX-5 RF instead,…

IT MAY HAVE SIMILAR RUNNING gear to my recently departed SEAT Leon ST Cupra 300 4Drive (end-of-term report coming soon) but the big Skoda is a very different beast. As James Disdale noted in evo 245, the platform and hardware sharing at the Volkswagen Group is a vast enterprise. I imagine in Wolfsburg there is a vast computer program, a massive look-up sheet, listing all the brands and models and components, and containing all the permutations – and, crucially, the expected relative attributes of those models. That’s to say how much performance each model is allowed, what its refinement targets are, what level of infotainment is permitted, etc, so there aren’t too many duplications. The sort of thing British Leyland should have had in the ’70s. Perhaps. Despite shared running…