Indholdsfortegnelse for May 2017 i Evo

THERE WILL NEVER BE ANOTHER MONTH LIKE IT. SO said a magazine coverline 30 years ago. Of course, there have been plenty of months just like it, with a new Lamborghini, Ferrari, Porsche and Aston Martin often launched within a few weeks of each other. This month, however, there was a single day when these brands, plus Alpine, McLaren, Pagani, Ruf, Ford, Honda, Toyota, Audi (you get the picture) all launched cars so rich in evoness that walking through the halls of the Geneva motor show without being drawn to another headline-grabbing performance car was an impossible task. Geneva never fails to deliver. The exotica rubs shoulders with the luxurious, which sidles up to the hottest mainstream goods, and all want their five minutes of fame. In 2017 they somehow…

STEFANO DOMENICALI FIZZES WITH energy when he speaks. Like many Italians he talks fast. Frantically so, which means you need to work hard mentally just to keep up. He wears a pair of trademark glasses by Ray- Ban, and when he talks he also smiles for much of the time, and he looks you straight in the eye. He loves his cars but also his motorbikes, too, having been the race director at the Mugello Moto GP circuit for two years before assuming his more famed roles at Ferrari. Those roles culminated with him becoming principal of the F1 team in 2008. And it’s been almost exactly one year now since he took charge at Lamborghini. But is he, I wonder, just a good old-fashioned petrolhead at heart who happens…

THE CURRENT SEAT LEON Cupra began with either 261bhp or 276bhp, in models called ‘Cupra’ and ‘Cupra 280’ respectively. Then it moved to just one car at 286bhp – the Cupra 290. Now, well, go on, have a guess. As the name implies, it has 300 PS, or 296bhp. All of this just as the Golf R slips tantalisingly ahead again, rising to 306bhp in the soon-to-be-released Mk7.5 version. How very convenient, politically speaking. No matter: these Cupras have always been rabid in a straight line, and with the TSI motor’s torque rising by 22lb ft to 280lb ft between 1800 and 5500rpm, that should be even more so the case now. The quickest hatchback Cupra 300 (three doors, DSG transmission) gets to 62mph in just 5.6sec – a tenth…

LOOKS GOOD, DOESN’T IT? Mercedes went to great lengths trying to explain why its latest E-class is particularly easy on the eye (in brief: soft shoulderlines, good proportions, a pillarless greenhouse) but, as with any art form, car design either works or it doesn’t. The E-class Coupe just might have the most attractive combination of curves in the current Mercedes range, AMG GT included. Those curves stretch 123mm longer and 74mm wider than they did on the old E-class Coupe, with 113mm of extra bodywork (and glass) between the axles. The track is wider, too (and wider than that of the saloon and estate), and yet, in basic diesel form, the Coupe hasn’t gained a single kilo on its predecessor. The cabin sees the greatest benefits from this expansion, though…

WHITE PAINT, BLACK DETAILING, red logos and easily the wildest body addenda in the hot hatch market. No, you don’t need me to tell you this is the all-new Honda Civic Type R. And normally I’d leave it at that and let you make up your own mind on the looks. But not this time. The ungainly, slab-sided proportions and tacked-on aero of the old car made it highly divisive, and for many it was all a bit cringeworthy. Having had the benefit of walking around the new car, I believe that’s no longer the case. Yes, it’s still a riot of slashed lines, Mangainfluenced forms and bonkers aero – Honda once again claims a class-leading balance between reducing lift and creating drag – and the deep chin, vortex generators…

‘It’s a relatively recent passion that has swept like wildfire through Richard’s automotive life’ BE H I N D T H E SH U T T E R door of a rather nondescript industrial unit, on just another industrial estate somewhere in England, is as fine an example of automotive obsession as you’re likely to find anywhere. And it’s brilliant. Heated, and complete with a sofa, kettle, hi-fi system and ‘facilities’, this extraordinary man cave also features GT-Rs. Lots and lots of Nissan Skyline GT-Rs, squeezed into every last square millimetre of space – overflowing, in fact, into additional storage elsewhere. Yes, Richard Wheeler really likes the original all-wheel-drive, turbocharged Godzillas. It’s a relatively recent passion of his that has swept like wildfire through his automotive life, and today he’s…

OVERBOOST. IT’S THE bane of a car magazine that takes pride in getting its facts and figures correct. Any car equipped with this increasingly common feature suddenly has two maximum power and torque figures to keep track of, along with some accompanying conditions regarding when and for how long the larger pair of peaks might be achieved. That is assuming the car’s maker shares full details of the overboost in the first place. Take the 179bhp Fiesta ST, for example. It can actually produce 197bhp on overboost, but you won’t find any mention of this at ford.co.uk or in the car’s brochure. However, check out the tech spec for 2016’s ST200 limited edition and you’ll see Ford finally let slip details of the boggo ST’s extra power. And suddenly it’s…

A MONTH INTO FOCUS ST ‘ownership’ and I finally opened the boot. Thankfully, the Ark of the Covenantstyle whirlwind of ghouls I was expecting never materialised, and unlike Indiana Jones’s foe, my face remains unmelted. The luggage area is a bit manky, but that’s to be expected given the car’s previous use as a video-wagon. It’s nothing a good vacuum won’t sort. Installing my carry-on case for a flight is hardly the most taxing use of the tradesman’s entrance, but I’ve got to justify it being there somehow. The ST is having to work a lot harder to justify itself to me, however. Where my old Kia Proceed GT long-termer was the equivalent of a kid who arrives at class early, completes all his homework but rarely pipes up in…

This year’s Day tona 500, the 59th running of nasCar’s blue riband event, was plagued by accidents. Kyle Busch lost control of his no. 18 toyota on the 105th lap, causing a four-car crash (pictured) that included race leader Dale earnhardt Jr. the race was red flagged, but all four drivers were uninjured. Busch blames a loss of pressure in a rear tyre for the accident, but tyre maker goodyear has refuted the claim that the tyre was responsible. After the race restart, it wasn’t long before another incident occurred. While trying to defend his position, Jamie McMurray collided with Jimmie Johnson, the two cars then blocked the track at turn three, causing a 16-car pileup. Kyle Busch’s older brother Kurt managed to avoid the multiple incidents and went on…

SHARKWERKS CAYMAN GT4 // SEAT LEON CUPRA 300 // ALFA ROMEO STELVIO // ALFA ROMEO GIULIA 2.0 TURBO SUPER // MERCEDES-BENZ E400 4MATIC COUPE FOR THE FIRST century and a bit of the motorcar’s existence, it was an inalienable fact that the rate at which any given car could accelerate was determined, in part, by such things as load, surface conditions and incline, as well as more mechanical factors such as engine speed and which gear happened to be selected at the time. As of 2017, though, concurrent with the launch of the 700bhp Bentley Continental Supersports, that ceases to be true. It is now possible, I’m convinced, for a car to accelerate at the same rate completely irrespective of how heavily it is loaded with golf clubs and trophy…

WE’VE ALREADY RAVED about the 503bhp Quadrifoglio. The question here is, do similar levels of ability and character flow through the genepool to models at the opposite end of the Giulia range? This is a market dominated by diesel (for now, at least), and Alfa has a pair of diesel-engined Giulias primed for battle. But, for private buyers and those less concerned with CO2 numbers, there’s the 2-litre petrol Giulia, available in either standard ‘Giulia’ or higherspec ‘Super’ trim. Both put a turbocharged 197bhp through the rear wheels only. The new all-alloy engine features MultiAir technology – hydraulically actuated variable valve timing – along with direct fuel injection and a twin-scroll turbocharger. Peak torque of 243lb ft is available from just 1750rpm and is deployed through an eight-speed torque-converter transmission,…

‘THE 720S MOVES McL AREN’S DESIGN L ANGUAGE ON. WHE THER IT’S GONE TOO FAR WILL BE DOWN TO YOUR PERSONAL TASTE’ SE C O N D A L B U M syndrome. That’s what McLaren wants to avoid with the 720S. Not only is this new 710bhp coupe the company’s first ‘second-generation’ Super Series car and the replacement for the 650S, it is also the launch pad for 15 new McLaren models or derivatives that will be produced in Woking over the next five years. And no, there isn’t an SUV in the plan. Super Series is the core of McLaren’s DNA. It’s where the company started with the clumsily named MP4-12C and quickly learnt that building supercars isn’t without its pitfalls – and that buyers in this sector,…

ALPINE A110 E v E r s i n c E J E a n r é d é l é ’ s curious little sports car company was wound down more than 20 years ago – for good, as far as anybody could tell – the Alpine name has faded from consciousness like tail lights slipping into the mist. The last A610 rolled off the Dieppe production line in 1995, the company fatally short of the investment it needed to keep pace with ever more demanding crash and safety regulations. In the two decades that have followed, the very concept of a French sports car has become every bit as obscure as the Alpine name itself. Today, French performance cars are based on very normal hatchbacks, and they’re almost…

T H E C A Y M A N H A S E S S E N T I A L L Y been produced in three separate iterations. It is the first – the 987 model – that we’re interested in here, not the subsequent 981 (sold from 2013 to 2016) or the latest 718 Cayman. The 987 first appeared in 2005 with a larger version of the M96 3.2-litre flat-six from the Boxster S. Known as M97, it displaced 3.4 litres and produced 291bhp, and the car it was in was marketed as a Cayman S (the Boxster S gained this larger engine in 2007). A 242bhp non-S Cayman, with a 2.7-litre version of the newer M97 flat-six, joined the range in 2006. These earliest Caymans are essentially…

LAST MONTH I REVEALED my ambition to learn how to drive an old-school 911 properly. To help me out with this plan, I’ve bitten the bullet and refreshed and upgraded my car’s tired 23-year-old suspension. This has involved some major new parts and some much smaller ones too, plus one very large bill. Hopefully it’ll all be worth it. I started with new suspension bushes. Often overlooked when it comes to upgrades, bushes are crucial for keeping the suspension quiet, controlled and operating smoothly. The Powerflex pieces I went for are made of polyurethane rather than rubber, so should outlast almost anything else on the car. Reducing body roll was also on my hit list – this is a ’90s car, after all – and this is where a pair…

OUR R8 SPYDER HAS THE optional Recaro bucket seats, which is both a good thing and a very bad thing. At £3000 they’re not exactly cheap, but it’s the lack of adjustment rather than the cost that I find frustrating. You can raise and lower the seats – inevitably they’re permanently in their lowest position – but there’s no adjustment for angle or lumbar support. The backs are very upright and the squabs are very flat to the floor, which means you sit with your back as straight as it would be when sitting on a church pew. It’s not a natural supercar seating position by any means. If they could be reclined by a few degrees I think they would be much more comfortable to sit in. In fact,…

IT WAS ALMOST TWO years to the day from when I had last seen the F40, but a business trip to the UK with a bit of free time upon arrival gave me an ideal window to take the car out for a reunion drive. A few past attempts at such had been short-circuited by the wrong kind of weather, but on this particular Monday it was a nearperfect day. My flight landed on time and a good friend picked me up at Heathrow in his mint Ferrari 512TR. After a short drive up into the Buckinghamshire countryside, we were at the gates of the storage unit. The current custodians of the F40 had it out waiting, sitting alluringly in the sunshine and ready to go. A quick visual check…

= new entry this month. * = grey import. Entries in italics are for cars no longer on sale. Issue no. is for our most recent major test of the car (D = Driven, R = Road test or group test, F = Feature, FF = Fast Fleet). Call 0844 844 0039 to order a back issue. Price is on-the-road including VAT and delivery charges. Engine is the car’s main motor only – additional hybrid tech isn’t shown. Weight is the car’s kerb weight as quoted by the manufacturer. bhp/ton is the power-to-weight ratio based on manufacturer’s kerb weight. 0-60mph and 0-100mph figures in bold are independently recorded, all other performance figures are manufacturers’ claims. CO2 g/km is the official EC figure and EC mpg is the official ‘Combined’ figure…

It chewed up and spat out the McLaren 675Lt and Ferrari 488 GtB, but still we reckoned the porsche cayman Gt4 lacked bite. the setting was a dimly lit hotel bar in the far north of scotland, and as the eight judges cast their votes after a solid week of back-to-back testing in the highlands, it soon became clear porsche’s sublime mid-engined coupe had pulled off something of a giant-killing act. It had even taken care of its faster, more illustrious brother, the 911 Gt3 Rs. the hardcore cayman won evo car of the Year in 2015 for good reason. each one of us emerged from the Gt4 on more than one occasion shaking our head in disbelief, muttering incoherently about body control or steering precision. Its chassis was shot…

IT’S THE THOUGHT THAT counts. Launch a car named Stelvio, allow the press to drive it on the Stelvio pass, and watch the column inches pile up. If you’re Alfa Romeo though, it’s not quite that simple, particularly when the Stelvio tourist board’s own website confirms that the pass is closed from November to May. Happily, other alpine routes are kept open, ensuring throngs of people in brightly coloured Gore-Tex can pile into the region each winter in their Q5s, X3s and GLCs. So launching a striking new SUV here is a shrewd move. The attention seems positive, too. Without the Quadrifoglio’s bodykit, the Stelvio’s shape and compact proportions are actually quite easy on the eye. Alfa claims best-in-class interior space, and both ergonomics and quality are a step up…

‘The new car benefits from all the development work we’ve done on 12C, P1, 675LT, 540 and 570. We’ve strengthened the team, refined the process and, as a result, we’ve been able to work to greater detail in any area of the car. We’re such a young company and we’ve developed our capabilities so quickly. The measure of how far we’ve come in the six years we’ve been in business is the difference between the 12C and this car here. ‘You can start at the front of the 720S and work your way back and everything you touch is light years away from where we were with 12C. There are some obvious key items to look at that make it stand out as being different. Obviously the engine is one.…

R e f R e sh m e n t c om e s i n m a n y forms. Last night’s cold pint in the y Pengwern guest house certainly met the criteria. the gale-force weather in north Wales this morning is refreshing, too, albeit less welcome as it tries to strip the hat from my head and turns evo photographer aston Parrott’s tripod into something from an Hg Wells novel. also being battered by the weather are two rearwheel- drive, naturally aspirated sports cars with manual gearshifts and small footprints. Paddling alone in a sea of turbocharged hot hatchbacks, there’s something very refreshing about both of them. in the grey corner is toyota’s gt86, recently facelifted to mixed effect and still powered by a 1998cc boxer unit…

THE MCLAREN 540C, PORSCHE 911 Turbo and Audi R8 V10 all have well over 500bhp, sub-four-second 0-60mph times and showoffy six-figure price tags, and yet each seems destined to be perceived as the slower, cheaper and humbler version. The one you buy when business has been slow, or the divorce settlement particularly brutal. It’s all nonsense, of course, but when you’ve got the 570S, 911 Turbo S and R8 V10 Plus strutting about in the sunnier corner of the showroom, each of these three cars will only ever be marked down as the slightly underachieving younger sibling. Imagine the deep-seated feelings of inadequacy if they had hearts rather than pistons, and brains instead of ECUs. The thing about an inferiority complex, though, is that it can either make a person…

READER JAMES KELLY’S CAR HISTORY contains a fabulous breadth of models, and with Renault Sport and Porsche featuring heavily in the list, there’s no shortage of evocentric drivers’ cars in this back catalogue. James’s love for Renaults can be traced back to his first car, a 5 TL, owned when his friends drove rear-drive Ford Escorts. An incident with a squirrel during a high-speed drive down a Welsh forest track saw the end of that car, but the silver lining was surely its 5 Gordini Turbo replacement. The Porsche contingent consists of a trio of firstgeneration Boxsters – including a rare 550 Spyder 50th Anniversary Edition – plus a much-loved (and missed) 993 Turbo. A Metro 6R4 and an R32 Nissan Skyline GT-R also stand out, but it’s the inclusion…

IT WASN’T A PLANNED experiment and in hindsight it wasn’t a very clever one either. My excuse is that I always want to know just how far you can push a car’s fuel range before the engine splutters and leaves you stranded at the side of the road. Call it curiosity, but I need to run out of fuel just once. It’s why I know an RS6 can roll on for another 27 miles after the range reads zero before its V8 coughs, and a 2-litre VW Group turbodiesel can stretch an extra 61 miles beyond zero when installed in a 2010 Audi A4. The i8 is a little trickier to judge. Fill its 42-litre fuel tank (evo’s car has the optional larger tank; the standard one is 30 litres)…

I KNEW THINGS WERE bad when even Dad said something needed to be done. Lane Senior, renowned sceptic of any Lancia-related expenditure not necessary in the very strictest sense, was referring to the brakes. And as a man who opened his evo account back in the ’70s with an MG Midget, he really would know. Of course, drive anything built before 1990 and the one thing the original brakes are sure to quell is any hope you had of making that apex. The ’Grale is no different in this respect. Decent back in the day, its single-piston calipers and ventilated discs on the front axle were even shared with the Ferrariengined Lancia Thema 8.32. Sounds impressive – it was impressive – but the game has moved on and today those…

THE OCTAVIA HAS RAPIDLY passed the 10,000-mile mark and certain things about it are starting to become a little, well, irritating. I must stress that on the whole this car is still a pleasure to run, but niggles mean it’s far from perfect. Let’s start with the parking sensors, which seem to operate only in maximum-panic mode, erupting into long beeps when the nearest solid object is still a good metre away. The beeping also silences Radio 1, which in my book is simply unforgivable, although some older members of the evo team claim not to be able to tell the difference. The next issue concerns the tyre pressure warning system. A puncture alert is not what you want to see when you’re on the M6 after a long day…