Table of contents for May 2018 in Evo

VOLKSWAGEN WANTS TO TAKE THE chore out of driving. It also wants to build buses, establish a viable car-sharing business with a focus on autonomous driving, and evaluate flying cars. Not particularly inspiring news to hear on the eve of the Geneva motor show. A car company that doesn’t want you to drive is hard to swallow. After all, it’s not as if VW is still making cars as inept as the Mk3 Golf. Why, then, after decades of investing vast sums in brand building, is Volkswagen hell-bent on throwing it all away overnight to gain some column inches and Google traffic? Yes, stakeholders, shareholders and financial institutions want to know where their next dividend and equity return is coming from, but to openly declare the whole business of driving…

ONE UNLIKELY STAR OF 2017 WAS Kia’s Stinger GT S – the rear-drive, turbocharged, six-cylinder Audi S5/BMW 4-series Gran Coupe/Mercedes-AMG C43 rival. And it’s good. Good enough, in fact, to consider on a par with the Germans. But with all the fairy dust sprinkled on the top model, the cars that fill a range beneath can often leave you feeling like you’ve been served a Pepsi in a warm glass when you expected a cold can of Coke. The good news for Kia is the entry-point 2-litre GT-Line Stinger is as ice cold and refreshing as its V6 brother. Visually, there’s not a great deal to distinguish the GT-Line from the GT S; only the 18-inch wheels giving the game away to the casual observer. There’s a lot of body…

Porsche 911 GT3 (991.2) Engine Flat-six, 3996cc Power 493bhp @ 8250rpm Torque 339lb ft @ 6000rpm Weight 1413kg (claimed) Power-to-weight 355bhp/ton 0-62mph 3.9sec (claimed) Top speed 198mph (claimed) Basic price £111,802 Audi R8 V10 RWS Engine V10, 5204cc Power 533bhp @ 7800rpm Torque 398lb ft @ 6500rpm Weight 1590kg (claimed) Power-to-weight 341bhp/ton 0-62mph 3.7sec (claimed) Top speed 199mph (claimed) Basic price £112,450 OK, SO LET’S GET THE spoiler alert out of the way right at the start. There will be fist pumping or eye rolling depending on your point of view, but the Porsche 911 GT3 wins this contest. And it’s not a skin-of-the-teeth, just-scrape-by victory – it’s a proper, pants-down drubbing of the Audi. That’s not to say the R8 RWS is a bad car – far from it.…

‘Apart from being a little loud, the GTS fulfills the GT part of its assignation very well’ THE VOICE COMES OVER THE tannoy: ‘Thank you, crew. That’s ten minutes to landing. Ten minutes to landing.’ Bing. The ‘fasten seatbelt’ light goes on above my head. A man in the aisle on his way to the loo looks suddenly panic-stricken, rendered momentarily immobile on his lavatorial quest. To pee or not to pee? Must be British. I return to gazing out of the small double-skinned window to my left. So many possibilities have been sliding past in the last couple of hours. So many roads I could choose to drive during the next two days have passed beneath the belly of this plane. It’s Sunday afternoon and in an hour I…

THEY WERE HEADY DAYS FOR Ferrari, back in the mid-noughties. It had made Formula 1 virtually its own fiefdom, with an unprecedented six back-to-back Constructors’ titles. It was building some of the finest road cars in its history – cars such as the 360 Challenge Stradale and 575M GTC. And then, in the autumn of 2004, it launched the F430, the latest – and easily the most potent – in a long line of V8 mid-engined ‘junior’ supercars. ‘Ferrari’s baby Enzo’ is what we called it on the cover of evo 074. It seemed to sum up the F430’s appeal: strikingly modern, brutally potent and chock-full of engineering and aerodynamic knowledge gained in the heat of Grand Prix battle. The styling had more than a few nods to the Enzo…

’M NOT SURE I HAVE EVER heard the word ‘rustic’ applied to a car, but I have decided to use it in reference to the DS 3. Much like the imperfections in a sturdy Roquefort, the DS 3 Performance’s dynamic abilities may lack the polish of rivals from Volkswagen or Mini, but somehow the end result is a product possessing a more loveable character. I A recent brief foray in a VW Golf GTI (granted, I am aware of its higher class stature) confirmed that extra performance needn’t always be at the cost of refinement or drivability. The word ‘slick’ kept springing to mind for every element of the car, but I couldn’t help thinking that some of the DS 3’s more raucous nature would be welcome. I found myself…

AS PROMISED IN LAST MONTH’S report, I have been spending more time of late driving the M240i in its Sport+ mode. Perhaps tellingly, fuel economy has taken a slight dip during this period, by around 3mpg in typical daily commuting – a sure sign that the sharper throttle response and keener handling have been encouraging a more enthusiastic driving style from me whenever the opportunity arises. A But what you lose in mpg you gain in enjoyment, as Sport+ gives the car the more aggressive edge you might expect given its M (Performance) badging. It also relaxes the stability control, which brings me to something I’ve found intriguing about the M240i: that just when you think you are really getting to understand its behaviour, it bites at the most unexpected…

I’VE BEEN SETTLING INTO THAT early period with a car where the newness wears off and the reality of what it’s going to be like to live with comes to the fore. If that sounds ominous, it’s not meant to, because overall the C43 is proving to be a fantastic machine. Fast, comfortable and practical, yet not as thirsty as you might imagine, it’s a great car in a good many ways. Indeed, it proved as much by soaking up its role as support vehicle in tough conditions on last month’s 4WD megatest (above). I Yet one thing that does wind me up about it is the drive modes. You’ve probably noticed evo staffers going on about such things a fair bit recently, not least on the preceding pages, and…

AS YOU REACH FOR THE BEDSIDE switch, and with a ‘click’ plunge your world into darkness, so the scenes flicker in your mind. And as your head sinks into the pillow, taking the strain from your neck and relaxing your shoulders, so the sounds begin to play in your ears. There are nearly always two identical cars because, hey, you’re dreaming, and it’s cooler with a pair. And the road is always closed. No traffic. No limits. Initially you see the two shapes, almost perfect wedges in this instance, as if from a helicopter. Already in full flight, they are tearing across a bleak landscape, heathery mountain moorland spreading out around. The distant sea, despite the sun being out, has a steely blue hue. The cars brake – there’s more…

1 ENGINE & TRANSMISSION Perhaps the most notable engine option is Mercedes’ new 3-litre in-line six, badged GT53. It develops 429bhp and 383lb f t, but a s with the new CLS53 (see page 46) it also utilises hybrid technology, an electric motor capable of adding up to 21bhp and 184lb ft when required. The GT53’s 0-62mph dash takes 4.5sec; top speed is 177mph. From there, the range steps up to the GT63, which uses a 577bhp variant of the ‘hot vee’ 4-litre V8, with no hybrid assistance. This slashes the 0-62mph time to 3.4sec and lifts top speed to 193mph. The range tops out (for now) with the GT63 S, which ha s 630bhp and 664lb ft at its disposal, trimming a further 0.2sec from the 0-62mph sprint and…

letters@evo.co.uk @evomagazine @evomagazine RICHARD PORTER HIT THE NAIL SQUARE ON the head with his column on the birth and evolution of the Sport button (evo 245). I find it bizarre to see so many sportingly impotent cars with them on their dash somewhere. The Nissan Juke 1.5 DCI and Mk7 Golf TDI are both perfect examples. And if you are buying an actual sports car, why is there the need for a button to make it better/sharper/faster/more responsive? Surely the job of the engineers is to make the car you are parting with your precious pennies for as good as it can be straight out of the box? My current car is a Fiat Panda 100HP. Great fun, and full of evo goodness, I hear you say. However, its Sport…

TESTING A CATERHAM, ONE without a roof and with only two measly semicircles of glass as a windscreen, in February, probably isn’t the greatest idea. At the very least you’d expect it to be tricky trying to fit into the cramped cabin of a Seven when togged up in full winter garb. But the SuperSprint’s lack of, well, anything means access is relatively easy and there’s nothing to impede movement once you’re nestled inside. Even dressed in multiple layers there’s a surprising amount of freedom to operate all the controls. The SuperSprint, like last year’s limited-edition Sprint (evo 230), is based on Caterham’s current lowest-powered model, the 160. It has the same three-cylinder, 660cc turbocharged Suzuki engine, but rather than making just 80bhp, here it puts out 95bhp. To harness…

IVALO AIRPORT IS GREAT. TINY, A PURVEYOR of two sizes of huggable toy husky, and rocking a Christmas Eve aesthetic all year round, Finland’s northernmost landing strip has something almost no other airport has: charm. Make that two things: charm, and a winter-weather proving ground literally a snowball’s throw away. Called Test World, it was snapped up by the Millbrook Group in 2015 to be an almost permanently snowy adjunct to its Bedfordshire-based facility, mainly specialising in tyre testing where grip is lower than Ant Man’s instep at this crunchy, deeply sub-zero time of year. After an evening of beer and bear burgers at a reluctantly post-Christmas, yet defiantly twinkly Saariselkä – the region’s winter sports resort – I seem to have time-lapsed back to the softly lit airport and…

THERE’S A CLIP ON YOUTUBE of Italian rally driver Gigi Galli negotiating a tarmac hairpin with his usual flair in a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VI. He pitches the car broadside before the turn even starts, his car taking up the full width of the road and almost pointing back where it came from as it enters the hairpin, before sliding through the corner and onto the following straight. Imagine that same turn, but on dirt, and while overtaking five cars in a single hit. That moment, supplied by Kevin Eriksson at the German round of the 2016 World Rallycross Championship, is rallycross in a nutshell. It’s long been an exciting spectator sport, really taking off when drivers like Will Gollop and Kenneth Hansen campaigned 6R4s and RS200s, but in the…

MOST OF THE AFTERMARKET packages on offer for Ford’s Mustang do little to help it adapt to life this side of the pond – 800bhp supercharged engines and fat stripes, although fun, probably don’t suit your European sensibilities. Steeda’s approach is different. The Florida-based company has been operating for 30 years, is the world’s largest aftermarket manufacturer of performance Ford parts and works so closely with Ford it has access to its CAD data and pre-release models. It also has a facility in Georgia with a test track, a skidpan, a brake test area, and multiple road surfaces to assess ride quality. Now turnkey Steeda cars, such as this Q500 Enforcer, are available in the UK. Delve into what Steeda has done to the Mustang V8 GT and there’s plenty…

THERE WAS A NEED TO HAVE some work done on the Carrera recently, which as ever caused tin hats to be placed on heads and sofas to be used as ineffectual and rather squidgy barricades against the prospect of significant financial expense. It was time for a 12,000-mile service anyway, but in the end the car decided to force the issue by its alternator crying enough. As always seems to be the case, the unfortunate moment came just as I was enjoying a really good drive. Just a few miles from my house there was a loud clunk from somewhere in the rear of the car, followed almost immediately by the battery light glowing angrily on the dash. I returned home and parked up. Within a week the battery had…

THEY DO HAVE SOMETHING IN common, this fabulously rare and historically significant Porsche and our long-term Skoda. This 911 is the Carrera Turbo that finished second at Le Mans in 1974, the first turbocharged car to compete there. To be eligible for the Group 5 Prototype class it needed to come in under 3 litres, so its capacity was 2142cc, which, with the FIA turbo equivalency factor of 1.4:1, gives 2999cc. T So, the Skoda and the Porsche both have turbo petrol engines of about two litres, but while the Superb has an impressive output of 276bhp, the 911 has a stonking 500bhp - not bad considering exhaust-driven turbocharging was in its infancy in the early ’70s. The Porsche takes a bit of waking up and then delivers a growing…

ANYONE ELSE FIND THEMSELF driving a car out of guilt? I’ve been using the MX-5 a lot recently and I’m ashamed to admit it’s mainly because I want to avoid neglecting it, rather than because it’s actually good fun to drive. A Leave it sitting a couple of weeks and the crusty brake calipers begin to stick, and the starter takes a little longer to churn over thanks to the immobiliser slowly draining the battery. It never feels too happy over the first few miles either, one or two of the tyres having dropped a few psi and the hydraulic tappets clicking away until they’ve had their fill of oil. Then there’s the car’s slightly sad look: the layer of muck that the evo car park seems to deposit on…

“The M8 Gran Coupe’s credentials will put it right in the thick of the high-performance-limousine action” 1 MECHANICALS BMW is remaining tight-lipped about what lies beneath the skin of the M8 Gran Coupe, but we’re not expecting any surprises. Powering the production version should be the 4.4-litre twin-turbo V8 from the new M5, with just shy of 600bhp and a similar figure in lb ft for peak torque. It should also use the M5’s four-wheel-drive system, complete with the ability to be rear-drive only if you select the appropriate driving mode. Such credentials will put the M8 right in the thick of the high-performance-limousine action, with rivals including Porsche’s Panamera Turbo, Mercedes-AMG’s GT63 S (see page 14), and Audi’s next RS7, which is said to offer both conventional and electrically…

1 MOTORS & TRANSMISSION Rimac’s Concept One already developed comfortably more than 1000bhp, but the C Two almost doubles that, putting out 1888bhp courtesy of a motor at each corner. Even more remarkable is the torque: a combined 1696lb ft (a Bugatti Chiron develops 1180lb ft, while even the Koenigsegg Regera tops out at 1475lb ft). These outputs are harnessed by the ability to employ full torque vectoring. Each front wheel has a single-speed transmission, and there’s a pair of two-speed, carbon-clutched gearboxes at the back. Enormous 390mm Brembo CCMR carbonceramic rotors fill each wheel rim and are gripped by six-piston calipers. 2 BATTERIES, RANGE & PERFORMANCE Rimac’s batteries are developed in-house, and those in the C Two hold 120kWh of energy – more than any other current production EV.…

TOYOTA SUPRA It’s not the final production version of Toyota’s long-awaited new Supra – it was the wing that gave it away, wasn’t it? – but the Gazoo Racing Supra Racing Concept is an incredibly close representation of the fifth-generation Supra scheduled for launch in 2019. It shares much of its underpinning s with BMW’s new Z4, which debuts at the end of the year, but Toyota ha s taken the decision to spend a little longer honing its two-seater coupe after company boss Akio Toyoda felt it wasn’t focused enough. It was this decision that led to the car’s final development being handed over to the firm’s motorsport division – Gazoo Racing. The first new Supra for 16 years will also be badged a Gazoo Supra. With the final…

NO MATTER HOW powerful your car, or how great a chassis it has, you won’t get to enjoy it to the full unless it’s wearing the right tyres. Continental Tyres has been at the forefront of premium tyre technology for many decades, and its current range of tyres, for all types of vehicles, exemplifies its constant quest to push forward boundaries. For instance, its latest ultra-high performance tyre, the SportContact™ 6, uses a unique and highly advanced technical compound called Black Chili, a special blend of natural rubber and synthetic rubber that creates what’s known as a Micro Flexibility Compound: in simple terms this ensures the optimum interlocking of the tyre’s tread and the road surface. The benefits are manifold – better acceleration and shorter braking distances at high and…

LISTER THUNDER // MERCEDES-AMG CLS53 4MATIC+ // BENTLEY BENTAYGA V8 // KIA STINGER 2.0 GT-LINE // CATERHAM SEVEN SUPERSPRINT EVERY TIME WE STOP, AT LEAST ONE person appears, keen for a closer look at the car and a chat. It seems odd that they all ask what it is, because to me it’s clearly a Jaguar F-type with enormous wheels. But take a few steps back and you realise that the design of those 21-inch rims makes them look even bigger than they are, and this messes with your sense of scale so the car looks smaller. And it being black makes it look more compact still, while the painted grille surround changes the car’s face, and in place of the Jaguar badges is the name Lister. All very mysterious…

BENTLEY’S BENTAYGA IS ALL ABOUT the numbers: £800m invested in its development; 130 hours to build one; 10,000 made since launch. Now the latest number to join the list is three, as in engine derivatives, because a 4-litre twin-turbo petrol V8 has just become part of the line-up. For all its dozen-cylinder serenity, the W12 Bentayga has always felt as if it’s as much about the engine as it is the car. And while the V8 diesel offers a near 600-mile range, a Bentley that pulls up at the derv pump doesn’t feel quite right to us. And it’s not a particularly refined powertrain. All of this makes this new petrol version potentially the pick of the range. It possibly won’t surprise you to hear that the petrol V8 isn’t…

AUDI R8 VERSUS BMW M4 – SURELY we can’t be serious? One’s a low-slung, mid-engined entry-level supercar, the other a relatively sensible-looking four-seater coupe, poles apart in concept and execution. On the face of it, yes, but these are a pretty special pair, with one specific quality in common: the R8 V10 RWS (that’s Real Wheel Series, a moniker that will make more sense shortly) and M4 CS are driver’s cars, pure and simple. At least that’s what their makers say. According to Audi, the RWS is ‘for purists with an appreciation for essential driving enjoyment’, while BMW reckons the CS is ‘the perfect combination for track and everyday use’. Two wildly divergent approaches maybe, but a shared and truly focused goal. To find out whether the reality matches the…

AFTER ALL THE FUN – THE WIGGLE OF the front wheels over a crest, the squealy-tyred passes for the photographer, the sound of an angry four-cylinder reverberating between Welsh dry-stone walls – and long after the cars are handed back to their keepers, evo’s production staff toil away in a stuffy office to ensure our efforts on the road don’t turn into a jumble of incoherent colours, shapes and characters by the time the issue drops through your letterbox. The most difficult task, I’m told, is trying to reproduce in print the retina-piercing vibrancy of Renault’s Alien Green metallic paintwork. Thanks to their efforts, the Clio 200 Cup you see here undoubtedly looks fantastic on the page, but for the full experience of its bulldog bodywork extensions and amphibious hue…

AS A REPLACEMENT FOR THE TEN-YEAR-old California, which became the California T in 2014, the 199mph, £166,180 Portofino is the most useable Ferrari money can buy, says Ferrari. So although it’s not the most dramatic car made in Maranello right now, it is the most practical, boasting more rear-seat space than the California, a bigger boot, a redesigned cabin, more equipment, more performance and a new chassis. The Portofino, therefore, should be a Ferrari you can drive 365 days a year. Thanks to an extensive weight-saving regime that includes everything from a lighter V8 engine to seat frames fashioned from magnesium, it’s also lighter than the California T by an impressive 65kg. Up front there’s a development of the electric power-steering system first used in the 812 Superfast, while at…

WHEN GLANCING AT SOMEONE’S car history, quite often certain themes become obvious. It could be hot hatches, turbocharging, cars from a specific country or even models from a particular marque. It’s usually easy to spot. But not in the case of Paul Williams’ buying journey. Yes, he’s sometimes owned more than one or two cars from the same manufacturer, but you could hardly call him loyal to any marque. THE CARS VW Scirocco 1.6 GLS (Mk1) Rover SD1 3.5 V8 VW Scirocco 1.6 GLi (Mk1) Renault 21 Turbo TVR 390SE TVR Griffith 5.0 V8 TVR Griffith 5.0 V8 Subaru Impreza Turbo Porsche 911 Turbo (996) Audi R8 V8 Ferrari F430 Spider BMW 330d Touring (E90) Range Rover TDV8 Vogue (L322) Mercedes-AMG E63 S 4Matic (W212) Porsche 911 Turbo S Cabriolet…

THIS YEAR HAS STARTED WELL, WITH the damp and slippery conditions providing the perfect excuse to get the 690bhp Italian beast out of the garage. As evo’s road test team discovered in appallingly wet conditions during last issue’s four-wheel-drive megatest, the Aventador’s 4WD system makes for rapid, sure-footed progress, and although my Roadster’s roof panels are pretty much a permanent fixture at this time of year, the small window behind the seats opens just enough that the feral scream from the 6.5-litre V12 is only a firm accelerator push away, no matter what the weather. I’ve owned the Aventador for a couple of years now and, to my eyes at least, it still looks extraordinary; nothing comes close in terms of drama, noise and impact at a similar price. It’s…

I’LL ADMIT, I STRUGGLE TO GET excited by tyres. I understand that some people, evo readers included, geek-out about them like I might when poring through catalogues and websites for other performance parts, drooling over potential future upgrades. But for me tyres tend to be a product I only think about when my current set are past their best and I need to start thinking about replacements. Yet one of the first things I did after buying my Eunos Roadster (p152) and, more recently, the Rallye was to fit some new rubber. With the Roadster, this was down to the old tyres looking rather ancient, with one in particular appearing as if it’d been hacked at by a lunatic with a cheese grater. With the Peugeot it was because the…