Tabla de contenidos para January 2016 en topCar

HE PARTIED ON Monday and slept on Tuesday, but what did winning a third world title at the US Grand Prix bring Lewis Hamilton, other than a hangover and a healthy bonus from Mercedes Grand Prix? In a word: notoriety. There have been 64 F1 world champions, but only six three-time champions and Lewis is now one of them. He can be mentioned in the same breath as Jack Brabham, Jackie Stewart, Niki Lauda, Nelson Piquet and, most significantly, Ayrton Senna; Lewis has always wanted to equal the achievements of the late, great Brazilian. ‘I pinch myself every day,’ says Lewis, ‘but it still hasn’t sunk in.’ Jackie Stewart was in Austin to witness Hamilton’s title success, 42 years after he clinched his third title for Tyrrell in 1973. ‘This…

THE FRANKFURT MOTOR Show, as usual, was full of German car company chiefs looking pleased with themselves, apart from BMW’s Harald Krüger who fainted. Expansive and expensive stands promoted the collective industrial might of the world’s most successful car producing nation, including the achievements of the newly crowned number one global car maker, Volkswagen. Of course the senior people at German car companies are (mostly) very clever and there were some great new concept cars. But sometimes their sense of their own perfection can be trying, so it was something of a relief to have a cup of tea at the end of the first press day with Peugeot’s likeable CEO Carlos Tavares. As we spoke about possible trends, he said: ‘You know anything can happen in this industry –…

RELAX, MERCEDES-BENZ’S new coupe also comes in less visually and mechanically potent varieties. Non-AMG models share just doors, roof and bootlid; every other body panel is purposefully more elegant. Up front the three-pointed star sits within a sea of chrome-tipped ‘diamonds’ ensuring it won’t be mistaken for anything else. Voluptuous curves and graceful proportions plus a pleasingly less droopy side crease line and an S-Class coupe-mimicking rear end combine beautifully. In current Benz fashion, AMG Line exterior and interior styling packages are available for those of a sportier bent. Front occupants familiar with the current C-Class will feel right at home, revelling in a cockpit design that, specced appropriately, is a visual and tactile treat. Longer and wider than its predecessor, the new coupe also rides on an 80mm-longer wheelbase…

BUT FIRST, THAT styling – oh no, what have they done? Looking like a 2015 concept car from the 1980s, its mental metal melted in the sun now resembling a manga caricature of its predecessor. Its best angle is undoubtedly the front three-quarter, dominated as it is by wickedly pinched sawtooth Bi-LED headlamps, and a señor moustache below its Toyota emblem and above a downturned air dam. If that air dam was a mouth it would be saying ‘meh’. Its profile is steeply raked from the nose all the way to its haunches, a medley of rising and dipping lines that dive across the bootline in a style reminiscent of a 2000s era Celica. As for the rear end, its wonky-arse styling leaves you in no doubt that someone at…

M ERCEDES-BENZ HAS learnt two important lessons in recent times – don’t mess with ride comfort is the most important one (A-Class taught them that) and; South Africa loves a mid-sized SUV. Mix the two epiphanies and you have the company’s latest offering, the GLC, a floating, supremely comfortable soft-roader with more ability than the GLA, less than the GLE (formerly the M-Class) and great dollops of Lifestyle cred, capital L. To highlight its abilities Merc chose the dunes and rockscapes of the Namib. The result was a curate’s egg; GLC aced the blacktop and outcrops, but had to work hard in the sand, admittedly due mostly to tyre choices and variable driver skills. GLC represents arguably Mercedes’ most important model after the C-Class, in that it will appeal to…

IT’S A CLEVER trick, re-appropriating old hardware into something shiny and new. The benefits are twofold: customers get an affordable, quality product on an established platform while minimal R&D and retooling reduces cost for the manufacturer. It’s as old a strategy as it is smart. Remember the Toyota Tazz, itself a barebones extended-run Toyota Conquest? Or much more famously, the Volkswagen Citi Golf – that Mzansi special that went on to sell for well over two decades until safety standards eventually killed it off? Volkswagen didn’t waste any time engineering a replacement with its locally built Vivo, a previous-generation Polo hopped-up on automotive botox. Volkswagen’s dominance of the segment continued unabated until a challenger sprung up from an unlikely place, India – and with a Ford badge on its nose.…

LIFE IS CONSTANTLY changing. Not a very profound thought, I know, but all you need do is take a look through your kitchen cupboards to see what I mean. In there you may find a brightly coloured box of Futurelife breakfast ‘cereal’. Aside from the smart font and the promise of a few more Omegas, how much does it really differ from a box of Jungle Oats? The same goes for that once-white, now pale-yellow blender in the bottom draw – not much different from a shiny metallic Nutribullet, is it? They both blend stuff, surely. It all boils down to an issue of packaging and brand attribution… and, of course, newer is better. Product developers the world over know it’s the one with the slick design and clearly defined…

THE CHASSIS Both cars are based on modular lightweight platforms that will serve everything from C-Class to Maybach, from 2 Series to X7. 48v electrics means greater efficiency and more gadgets: semi-active suspension and virtual dampers coming in the future! THE POWERTRAINS E-Class and 5 Series will go plug-in hybrid, both using 2.0-litre 4-cylinder engines with e-motors. Merc is ditching V6 engines for inline sixes, and both cars will get downsized four-pot diesels in a bid to crack 99g/km CO2. THE TECHNOLOGIES Both cars will feature spookily similar, hugely complex driver assistance systems, with remote-control parking, car-to-car comms, gesture control and sat-nav controlled predictive driving. They disagree on lights though: BM favours lasers, Merc LEDs. THE LINE-UPS Four-door saloons will remain the best-sellers, but Europe will gobble up the 5…

ALPINE IS almost criminally under-appreciated. This is a marque that’s conquered the Monte Carlo rally with a one-two-three finish – twice – won the inaugural World Rally Championship and taken overall victory at Le Mans. It resonates with the kind of engineering innovation that should have made it a true French competitor to Porsche, yet it’s been languishing in a Renault-owned crypt for literally two decades. Finally, though, a comeback is on the cards, in the form of a mid-engined coupe with a four-cylinder turbo motor and a paddleshift transmission. Shouldn’t be tough to better the Alfa 4C, even if the Cayman isn’t looking worried. Shame Renault seems to have taken a leaf out of Honda’s book when it comes to the launch schedule; though we’ll see a production-ready concept…

BUGATTI’S BEST customers saw the successor to the 430kph Veyron SS – named Chiron– at a preview last July. Its public premiere was inked in for the Geneva show in March 2016. But the 442kph-topping, 1100-plus kW supercar is now on hold, the most high-profile, high-performance casualty of Volkswagen’s cost cuts in the wake of the dieselgate scandal. You can understand why VW Group chairman Matthias Müller got cold feet about the Chiron. Imagine the headlines if VW had pampered a thrill-seeking elite with a supercar retailing at €2.2 million (+/- R33 million), when it had barely rolled up its sleeves correcting the 11 million diesel cars running the emissions defeat device. It’s a punishing blow for the Bugatti project, whose world’s fastest car-goal in 2001 encapsulated the VW character:…

THE 2004 Discovery was arguably the least ‘styled’ car of the decade. Four doors without crease or contour, ugly but protective plastic wheel arches, myriad square or rectangular motifs from the rearmost side glass to the chunky front bumper, Geoff Upex’s creation was a Bauhaus masterpiece: maximum functionality, minimum adornment. To these eyes, it was an icon. To Land Rover, it was a polarising design statement that repelled too many prospects, and it had to go. So this is the new Discovery, coming summer 2016. Admittedly, it’s the 2014 Vision show car, but that car IS the new Discovery, down to its slanted waistline, slitty lamps and sculpted bodysides. It’s every inch the vogueish crossover, rather than bluff SUV. Here’s what else you can expect. 1 THE CONCEPT Range Rover…

AT THIS MOMENT in time, the new Ford GT is like an iceberg in the supercar sea. We’ve seen it, it’s real, we even know when it’s going to arrive; but exactly how big the impact is going to be when it hits depends very much on what’s lying beneath the surface. And the waters surrounding it are deceptively murky, despite initial confirmation of over 450kW, carbonfibre construction and exceptional aero. It certainly seems like a significant blip on our radar – just how worried should the establishment be? This has been a secretive project right from the start. Genesis was a small team, located in a Dearborn basement, working late nights and weekends – the only time they could push the car outside and see what it looked like…

ESTORIL CIRCUIT, PORTUGAL. Today they meet as rivals, McLaren and Porsche, 570S and 911 Turbo. Britain’s newest sports car and Germany’s longest lived, prowling through the sopping wet paddock of a storied circuit once a mainstay of the Grand Prix calendar, now a mere footnote in its history. But almost exactly 31 years ago on this very tarmac, it was a different story. A story about the collective might of German and British motorsport brains working together to produce a car that decimated the opposition. A story about the closest F1 championship in the history of the sport. By October 1984, and the last race of the year, McLaren’s Porsche-engined MP2/3 had dominated the season, the constructors’ championship already firmly in the bag following a 1-2 win at Zandvoort three…

SHOULD the diesel engine be tossed onto the scrapheap? Headline writers shouldn’t forget that all combustion engines produce nitrogen oxides. While diesel NOx is higher than petrol (Euro6 NOx limits allow 80mg/l for diesel and 60mg/l for gasoline), the rollout of new NOx after-treatment systems will allow diesel to match gasoline. Chris Brace, automotive propulsion professor at Bath university, believes today’s ‘after-treatments will fix emissions and air quality issues. When real driving emission tests are enforcing Euro 6.2 in 2017, the air quality issue will be largely beaten. Then it’s back to CO2 business as usual.’ Of course, that’s where denser diesel fuel has the edge, containing about 15% more energy than petrol, plus diesel engines are about 20% more efficient. The downside is that diesel produces 2.65kg of CO2…

THE IRONY IS simply too rich to ignore. Toyota won’t let us hapless South African journos loose on the streets of Tokyo in its cars, and I can almost empathise. This frenzied metropolis can be a daunting driving venue for the uninitiated, which is why all the mileage we did in the new Toyota Prius and Mirai on page 28 was conducted in safe isolation on the handling circuit of Fuji Speedway in Oyama. Yet here we were circumnavigating Tokyo along the C1 highway in a modified Lexus GS which has been allowed to drive itself. At the checking for a safe gap can be stressful and yet this unfeeling slice of near-sentience was able to perform the task without any sort of hesitation. As if to show off, a…

MONTH 6 CITROËN C4 CACTUS HALFWAY THROUGH MY long-term test and the C4 Cactus still has me spellbound. In fact the only person happier than me is the Honda Jazz owner who parks alongside. He has an engraved invitation to gleefully smack his driver’s door into the Cactus every time he climbs out. All I can say is thank you airbumps. Perhaps more importantly at this juncture, nothing has broken or failed. This statement is a massive tempt of fate I know, and quite deliberate because perhaps it’ll throw up a nice tasty drama for us to resolve in month seven. I doubt it though. Not only has the Cactus been as dependable and hardy as the real thing, and kept me enthralled with its peachy three-pot engine, commendable fuel…

1 BMW Z8 The look was blatantly pinched from BMW’s classic 507; the cabin created in a parallel universe where it’s always 1958, except with microchips. Yet amid all this retro-rehashing, BMW had the fore (or rear-) sight to graft on some of the slimmest, coolest tail-lights ever seen in the pre-Millennium era.. 2 MERCURY COUGAR An upmarket Mustang spin-off using most of the same hardware, Mercury’s pony car got a stretched wheelbase and more posh, with hidden front lights and some very cool sequential rears copied from the earlier Thunderbird, that pulsed in the direction you were indicating. So cool, Carol Shelby nabbed them for his modded ’67 Mustangs. 3 MASERATI 3200G Though they looked identical, Maserati’s raw 3200GT was radically re-engineered in 2002 to become the much better…

There will be light MX-5 is proof of Mazda’s love of small, lightweight cars made of aluminium. RX-Vision will shrink in its transition to road-ready, Porsche Cayman-baiting RX-7 No distractions Designer Maeda: ‘We reduced the number of elements to the minimum. There is just the saddle leather and a couple of simple dials and controls – no distractions’ Rotary here please Compact rotary engine sits well aft of the front axle, effectively making the RX mid-engined. Remainder of enormous bonnet presumably conceals several spare wheels and a stowaway Manual and RWD No NSX-style fancy all-wheel drive, just driven rear wheels and a manual ’box, though Mazda acknowledges buyers may demand a nice and easy DCT Adjustable aero Rear end dominated by twin exhausts, adjustable rear wing and a prominent diffuser…

1 Roofless streak – purists may tut, but the Evoque Convertible’s set to sate the appetites of those for whom SUV coupes aren’t sufficiently flamboyant. Land Rover may just be ahead of the curve in this premium niche. 2 Less is more – so hearty is the re-engineering – strengthened floor, new windscreen surround, sturdier doors – the cabrio has greater torsional rigidity than the three-door, albeit with a near-280kg weight penalty. 4WD and nine-speed auto standard, 177kW petrol or 140kW diesel engines. 3 Hoodwinked – Remember the 2012 concept’s rigid tonneau cover? It’s vanished. Instead, the largest fabric roof in production concertinas behind the seats, its front third serving also as a vanity panel. Only four seats here, with an inconveniently-narrow letterbox boot opening out back. 4 Spring sale…

LE MANS IS a terrible movie. The storyline is thin and there’s no dialogue for the first 38 minutes. When it was made in 1970 it had the biggest budget of any Steve McQueen film to date, but it still managed to go over-budget and its chaotic production cost him close friends and creative collaborators. The critics hated it and it was a box-office flop. Yet it now has a cult following, because it remains arguably the most evocative, accurate representation of one of the most exciting, glamorous eras in motorsport. That was really all McQueen wanted to do: he didn’t want much of a script or storyline. ‘I don’t think there is any racing driver who could tell you why he races,’ he said. ‘But I think that he…

IT SEEMS INCREDIBLE: After five years in development, a billion bucks collectively spent and less than two years after introduction, Formula 1 seems hellbent on ditching the exquisite 1600cc turbo hybrid power units in favour of 2.2-litre V6 engines based on common-or-garden Indycar designs. What brought about this remarkable volte-face? In two words: economics and politics. Some history: Back in 2009 when the current units were formulated by the Max Mosley-era FIA, the plan was to attract motor manufacturers hoping to push ‘green’ credentials. They would then, in theory, supply their own teams, and provide cut-price units to independents. Once the regulations had been framed BMW, Honda and Toyota, though, exited F1 stage left, with Cosworth failing to raise the necessary budget. Audi and Hyundai failed to join as anticipated,…

THE ADAM HAS been a messiah of sorts for Opel in South Africa selling over 1200 models since its debut last year, a figure that accounts for roughly a third of all luxury superminis sold over the same period. What’s more, Opel is gunning for an even higher market share with the introduction of this, the Adam Rocks – a ragtop urban crossover of sorts. In partial justification of that ‘crossover’ bit, Opel has beefed up Adam’s exterior with plastic cladding and front/rear skid plates, raised the ride height by 15mm, tweaked the suspension and widened the tracks. It looks pretty stylish as a result. While not a convertible in the traditional sense of the word Rocks still embodies open-top motoring with a full-length fabric roof that opens in just…

WE’VE BARELY alighted from the futuristic new Prius before we’re bundled into the even more futuristic Mirai. This one is properly ‘science-fiction’ being powered by hydrogen, with an emissions payload of just a couple of milliliters of pure water. First, just look at it. To call it edgy would be an understatement. To call it ugly, well I’d see your point. I just think it’s awkward. Awkward to look at, awkward to get your head around – clearly someone at Toyota felt that to be cutting edge your styling needs to comprise edges that can cut. In profile it looks less unhinged, the front-end, in good lighting and in a complementary shade of paint (the darker the better) is passable, but then there’s that wonky rear-end I cannot defend. Normality…

IT’S NOT LOST on us that mere months before Dieselgate first hit, Volkswagen began the switch from diesel to petrol engines to drive its Bluemotion eco label into the near future. It’s almost as if the decision makers in Wolfsburg knew someone was about to dump a truckload of poop into their wind tunnel. I’m kidding, of course they knew. VW’s execs have been saying for some time now that the cost of continually reducing diesel emissions has become prohibitive. Still, given the growing vilification of diesel and the steady promotion of electrification in all its forms who would have thought the immediate future of the eco car would lie with turbocharging. Sure, the downsize-turbocharge mantra isn’t new, but as anyone who has driven one of these one-litre wonders in…

TAKING INFLUENCE from the legendary E30 M3, BMW is going back to basics with the new M2 – or at least, as back to basics as it can in 2016. Successor to the madly sideways 1M Coupe, the M2’s emphasis is firmly on an awesome rear-wheel drive experience, and the methodology is a cut-down version of the M4. Motivation comes courtesy of a 272kW 3.0-litre twin-turbo straight-six that employs M4-grade componentry, but it’s the incorporation of big brother’s chassis tech that’s really going to make this car shine. Forged aluminium suspension components, active dampers and – yes – the fully variable M-diff are all here. M-DCT ’box shaves two-tenths off the manual’s 0-100kph, making it 4.3sec. On sale April.…

IS IT ABSURD that an SUV needs to be exciting to drive? Not these days, so Jag’s F-Pace has no choice but to compete. To achieve this it will need to be ballerina-nimble and appreciably dynamic, as the Porsche Macan has both the handling and off-roading aspects waxed. Compared with the Macan’s Audi Q5-sourced foundation, the F-Pace’s modular underpinnings have given the engineering team more freedom to put the wheels in the best place for handling and interior space, and fewer body-in-white hardpoints to work around. Jaguar claims the F-Pace is a winner – it’s double wishbone front suspension possesses a 50% greater lateral stiffness than that of the Porsche, and its integral-link rear 35%. Add to that the 50:50 weight distribution and a 280kW/450Nm 3.0-litre supercharged V6, and the…

Price TBA Engine 3493cc twin-turbo V6 plus 3 x e-motors, 422kW @ 6500rpm-7500rpm, 644Nm @ 2000rpm Transmission Nine-speed paddleshift DCT, four-wheel drive Performance Sub 3sec 0-100kph, 307kph, 9.4l/100km (est), n/a g/km CO2 Weight 1725kg Length/width/height 4470/1940/1215mm On sale Late 2016 THE NAME MAY be the same and the remit similar – an everyday supercar with a road focus – but that’s where the similarities end, as they must for two cars developed a quarter of a century apart. NSX 2.0 is a hybrid two-seat sports car set to cost in the region of R2.6million. The bald figures are 422kW from a car weighing 1725kg, a top speed of 307kph and a 0-100kph time of less than 3 seconds. Unlike the (less expensive) BMW i8 and (significantly more expensive) Porsche 918,…

WHAT IS IT? Not a turbodiesel, despite silly name. In fact ‘tdf’ stands for Tour de France, an endurance road race Ferrari used to serially win in the ’50s (well, they couldn’t call it F1 right now, could they?). They’ve basically taken the F12 berlinetta and turned it up to 11. It’s road legal, but if you don’t live at Nardo you’ll struggle to exploit it. AERODYNAMICS They’ve gone to town – doubling the F12’s aero efficiency by reshaping every panel and then punching clever holes all over the place. Race-car brainpower abounds in the front splitter, dive planes, floor wings, louvres and the bonnet’s signature aerobridge. The rear spoiler’s got huger, and the rear diffuser’s three ‘active flaps’ can now eat unsuspecting small mammals. POWERTRAIN F12’s naturally aspirated 6.3-litre…

THE SHORT answer is both. But there are differences, most of which show the sophistication of the road car. To go racing, Ford has to remove the active aerodynamics, while GTE regulations mandate no more than 500bhp (373kW) – bad news for rivals, as that’s 75kW less than what has already proven durable over 24 hours winning races in a Daytona Prototype. Chip Ganassi Racing ran that car, and it will run the GTs, too, alongside Felix Sabates. The actual road car engine is an updated, enhanced version of the racing unit. Can the new GT take class honours on its anniversary return to Le Mans? Dave Pericak: ‘All I can say is this: we’re going to be ready to race and I hope everyone else is too.’…

CONNECTIVITY IS THE key to autonomous driving. From a Human Machine Interface (HMI) perspective it’s clear you need a safe and intuitive method of bringing the driver in and out of the control loop. In the near future we will not see cars without steering wheels, and people gazing out of the window. You will see autonomous driving on some roads, so how do we do the handover? If you’re going to allow people to read or browse the internet, maybe it’s via a programmable cockpit. So the car is in control and you’re checking your emails on the display. Three kilometres ahead of the handover there’s a notification. With 30 seconds to go the emails fade out and the driving instruments return. >IN THE future there will be a…

DIY HYPERCAR LEGO LAFERRARI Sure you can buy a real LaFerrari if you win the lotto… three times. Or you could acknowledge your inner child and get a detailed Lego version. It has removable wheels, a minifigure driver with helmet and wrench, and authentic Ferrari details. $15 (+/-R210) www.shop.lego.com FOR WHEN YOU DON’T TRUST THE MANUFACTURER’S CLAIMS RACELOGIC V-BOX PERFORMANCE BOX 1 A.k.a. the V-Box Mini, Performance Box 1 uses GPS satellites to accurately record max. speed, average speed, real-time speed, in-car timing with splits, 0-100kph measurements, quarter-mile timing and data logging. Trusted worldwide for accurate timing data. R7850 www.vagcafe.com FULL CONDIMENT WARNING KIT SALT & PEPPER TRAFFIC CONES The next time you visit your friends, check out their cutesy salt & pepper pots; 99.9 per…

Nissan IDS Concept Nissan says we shouldn’t assume the IDS previews Mk2 Leaf styling, but who are they kidding? This all-carbon electric concept is a statement of the company’s thinking about autonomous driving tech, which it remains committed to introducing by 2020. The ‘Intelligent Drive’ features include full ‘piloted driving’ capability – in which the steering wheel retracts into the dash – and the option to park it via iPad. Somewhat alarmingly, it’s proposed the autonomous mode will mimic the owner’s driving style, rather than proceed in the most logical and orderly fashion, but sensors and LEDs around the car aim to signal reassurance to cyclists and pedestrians. Skinny tyres and aero optimisation maximise driving range. Lexus LF-LC Flagship Concept It’s a vast four-door saloon with coupe-ish styling and a…

SHOULDERS JUST BELOW the window sills, you sit low on optional ‘performance’ seats that look madder and hug harder, in a cabin coated in Artico, aluminium and carbonfibre. Grab the flat-bottomed part-nappa-trimmed wheel, hit the starter, toggle to Sport Plus on the AMG Dynamic Select switch, engage Drive on the column stalk and launch. A 375kW power station slingshots you forward like you’re a medieval boulder on a castle crushing mission. The difference is the sound. Instead of a deathly quiet whoosh as you cleave the air, this 1725kg Stuttgartian boulder makes the sound of modern warfare in Dolby Surround 7.1. Through the wide open exhaust flap it’s all artillery fire, mortars and background anger. Only one car sounds more ferocious, but we won’t mention that British F-word here. Approaching…

MOST INDUSTRIES follow a similar pattern: first you get the avant-garde pioneering types (Juke), followed by the early adopters (Duster), then the mainstream users (Ecosport) and finally the party’s latecomers (Captur, Mokka, HR-V). Nowadays, Suzuki falls into the latter category, producing competent, agreeable cars that might’ve been class-leading had they been launched five years earlier. The new SX4 versus the old Qashqai? A fair fight. But against the new Qashqai with its downsized turbos, torquey diesels, touchscreen tech and haute-couture looks – it’s a no-brainer. It wasn’t always this way. Remember the pioneering 1988 Vitara? As for the Jimny, well, it is still trending today. Into this scenario comes the new Vitara – a compact SUV in the spirit of the 27-year-old original. Note: the current Grand Vitara lives on…

THE NEW FERRARI 488 Spider eases itself into gigantic, monstrous speed like a greased frog slipping into a bath of warm milk. No splosh, no drama, just a sudden flash of slithery movement, and with a deep croak you’re gone, up the road, disappeared. All it takes is a flex of your right foot, and the response is instant and overwhelming; a tsunami of torque scoops you forwards in an irresistible lunge. You sense the effortless nature of it, the lack of resistance, as though the weight of the car, the buffeting air, the raw physics of it all are casually swept aside by this titanic engine. Compared to this slipperiness, the outgoing 458 Speciale was like riding a wasp through the gas cloud of an erupting volcano. The new…

BACK IN THE 1990s families of planet Earth drove Mondeo, Accord, Camry and Passat. Sensible, affordable and spacious, these were the real volume players of the global sedan market, easily outselling compact executive offerings from Germany’s more premium brands. Since then buying patterns have shifted dramatically the world over. It has been no different in SA where the Camry is now just a memory, the Accord has turned all niche Yank on us and the Mondeo’s two disappearing acts will not have done the handsome Fusion any favours. This, along with the popularity of crossover SUVs and increasingly image-conscious consumers has put the skids on traditional volume brand sedan sales leaving the old, perennially underrated Passat languishing among the also-rans. What to do, what to do? If premium is the…

HERE’S SOME good news for a change: the internal combustion engine is showing no signs of abating and we’ve got the hot hatch power battle largely to thank for this fact. You see these hatchbacks still employ relatively small engine configurations and maximise their power and efficiency by using crafty engineering, larger turbochargers and ECU software trickery. The Audi RS3’s 2.5-litre five-cylinder turbocharged blueprint is a case in point, no downsizing or hybrid drives here. It’s the only one of its rivals to eschew the now segment-standard 2.0-litre configuration in favour of its tried-and-tested straight-five marvel – a legacy engine if ever there was one. Now re-engineered to deliver more power, more torque and less emissions, it still offers one of the most emotive soundtracks around. Pipe dreams From a…

Price TBC Engine 2261cc turbo 4cyl, 257kW @ 6000rpm, 440Nm @ 2000-4500rpm (470 on overboost) Transmission 6-spd manual, AWD Suspension MacPherson strut with semi-isolated subframe front; SLA independent with control blade rear Performance 4.7sec 0-100kph, 265kph, 7.7l/100km, 175g/km CO2 Length/width/height 4390/1823/1472mm Weight/made from 1599kg/steel On Sale Q2 2016 WENTY THOUSAND dollars. To the Nitrous blue bundle of fury on these pages that’s the cost of tooling the brackets for a slightly thicker rear anti-roll bar, because nothing in the existing Ford parts bin was suitable. But more significantly, it’s the difference between ‘a bar that’s going to change the whole character of the car’ and a compromise. So says vehicle engineering manager Tyrone Johnson, explaining that it wasn’t a compromise he was prepared to make. ‘You don’t ask for $20000…

THE LONG-AWAITED SUV companion to the game-changing Model S, the Model X could have been conventional and still wowed us. Instead, Tesla has conjured up an SUV with a drag coefficient of 0.24Cd – 20 per cent better than any rival – and fitted it with an all-wheel drive, twin-motor electric powertrain that produces either 381kW (90D model) or 560kW in the P90D. Deploy its ‘Ludicrous’ mode and it’ll hit 96kph in 3.2sec. Yet the Model X also seats seven, tows 2.3 tonnes (an electric car first) and travels 400km on a charge. It’s got the world’s biggest panoramic windscreen, front doors that open automatically, and powered ‘falcon wing’ rear doors that can allegedly cope with the tightest parking space. Marty McFly eat your heart out.…

The first proper new Aston in a decade Drum roll please: Aston Martin’s comeback coupe, the DB11, is our most anticipated car of 2016. Aston has a new boss in ex-Nissan exec Andy Palmer, a supplier partnership with Mercedes-AMG, fresh funding, and in March, it’ll all come together in the new flagship. The good news is that this DB11 will continue with the rumbling, Ford-built V12, but massively overhauled. It’ll be downsized in capacity to improve economy and emissions, but twin-turbochargers will increase power to beyond 447kW. There’ll be a V8 model, too The Mercedes link comes good with the addition of a secondary V8 variant to the DB11 range, using a version of the potent 4.0-litre twin-turbo found in the AMG GT. Too few cylinders for a cross-continental Grand…

MOVE ALONG NOW, nothing to see here? While the imminent new Boxster might display the trademark, modest facelifted Porsche tendencies – new bumpers, tweaked front and rear lamp graphics – this early 2016 car is a very big deal. That’s because it’s running a four-cylinder engine. It’s not a V4 like Porsche’s 919 Le Mans-winner’s, although the base Boxster’s opposite piston engine does share its 2.0-litre capacity. The advanced, direct-injection design gets only one fixed-vane turbo. The outgoing Boxster six makes 195kW: expect the new flat-four to best that with up to 224kW, and monster its 280Nm of torque thanks to its forced induction. Pricier Boxsters will also run a turbo four, a 2.5-litre, with up to 272kW for the GTS edition. Theoretically, the high-end four is brawny enough to…

Fiat 124 The Italian MX-5 If this doesn’t float your barchetta, check your pulse. To the charm, rwd chassis delicacy and reliability of Mazda’s roadster Fiat adds new front and rear ends plus turbocharged 1.4-litre power and a name that’s been evoking passions for half a century. Audi TT RS The TT that thinks it’s a 911 Bursting out of its cutesy coupe suit like a frustrated superhero this rabid TT ekes 298kW from its 2.5-litre turbo five-pot, putting Carrera S into sharp focus for much less cash. Okay it lacks the Porsche’s rear-engined magic but its techy cabin is simply sensational. Can Audi’s chassis live up to it? Expected to take style pointers from 2014’s TT quattro sport concept (pictured). Maserati Levante The Sexy Utility Vehicle Swoopy roofline and…

RATHER LIKE DIPPING your hand into Pandora’s Box, every time you delve into South African motoring history, something exciting pops out. A TopCar office coffee break discussion about some old, locally-developed sports cars brought about a ‘where are they now?’ challenge, the result of which led to us bringing together the country’s most famous roadster, the GSM Dart, with the similarly-conceived Protea, the ill-starred Caracal and a true rarity, the Duphet. The Glassport Motor Company’s Dart has to be one of the most renowned cars ever produced in this country. GSM was founded by three talented men, Bob van Niekerk – essentially the trio’s driving force – Willie Meissner and Verster de Wit. Bob’s relationship with legendary tuning whizz Willie began when they were both at Stellenbosch University studying engineering.…

What’s the big idea? Kirobo is an experiment in human/robot interaction, featuring voice and facial recognition software developed by Toyota. He actually started life as a robot astronaut, and was sent to the international space station to cheer up Japanese station commander Koichi Wakata. Now he’s planning to try to cheer you up too, while you’re stuck in traffic. Why does Toyota think we need cheering up? You’re driving a Toyota, for a start. More crucially, studies have shown that drivers in a bad mood drive too fast, too close to the car in front and have more accidents. How does Kirobo plan to overcome that? He has a facial recognition camera just above one of his eyes, and can identify expressions, so if you’re frowning he’ll try to engage…

MONTH 3 VW TOUAREG LUXURY 3.0 V6 TDI 4MOTION R-LINE AH, YES THE turbodiesel powertrain. Before T, D and I became scarlet letters, the initialism, especially when paired with a Euro marque was indeed a moniker for creamy, smooth performance. The pseudo-clean eco credentials were merely a by-product of what was believed a super-efficient mill for getting on with your daily drive in super-economical fashion. Mine then is the V6 one, not the inlinefour cylinder currently under the spotlight for defrauding the emissions watchdogs of the world, although a recent accusation has now been levelled at this engine too. But buttery performance to complement its business suit aesthetic is perfectly unaffected, especially with the eight-speed Tiptronic auto that Volkswagen has enlisted for it. So it dawned on me that the…

KEY INDICATORS – OCTOBER 2015 (% change vs Oct 2014) INDUSTRY TOTAL 54 244 (-8.6) | PASSENGER CARS 36 175 (-10.9) | LCV 15 171 (-4.1) | EXPORTS 27 732 (-13.9) YEAR-TO-DATE 517 322 (-4.5) SEPTEMBER’S NAAMSA NEW car sales figures showed shrinking domestic demand and record exports; October’s data shows exports down a marked 13.9% in addition to an aggregate 8.6% year-on-year slide in local uptake. But, as ever, it’s the story behind the figure that makes for a more accurate picture: this time the changeover to the new Ranger at Ford’s Silverton assembly plant accounting for the sudden export shortfall after months of busy boat-loading. The year’s export total is still expected to be a record 335000 units (roughly 58000 units up on 2014). The third quarter export…