Table of contents for August 2018 in Evo

WHY QUOTE A ‘DRY’ WEIGHT FOR YOUR new car? What purpose is served in telling a customer the weight of their car in a configuration that would make it impossible to drive? The last time I drove a car without one of its vital fluids I had to do the Plastican walk of shame. At no time did I think to myself ‘Hah! Now my Giulia weighs 42.66kg less than it did before I started my journey.’ I also don’t remember a mate using the excuse ‘I wanted to make my car lighter’ when his gearbox oil made a break for freedom one night. Nor, indeed, did any of us at evo think it was a useful weight saving when our Caterham 420R decided the contents of its dry sump…

THE ASTON MARTIN DB11 AMR IS slightly troubling. On one level the product of a car maker that has avowed to pursue sharper distinctions between its models, it also looks remarkably like an exercise in blurring the lines. ‘New Aston’ could hardly have been clearer when the DB11 arrived in 2016. This was a GT specialist, its skill set informed by speed with suavity and comfort; hardcore ‘super sports car’ sensibilities were at that time left to a madeover version of the old-gen Vanquish S. The subsequent DB11 V8, with a biturbo Mercedes motor instead of the ancient, Fordbased V12, arguably made an even finer fist of the GT remit, trading a little straight-line pace for greater powertrain refinement, chassis balance and comfort. And there’s the rub. If Aston’s peachiest…

THE NEW AUDI A6 IS A DIFFERENT car depending if you’re European, American or Chinese. Not physically, that is, but conceptually. To Europeans, the A6 is a luxurious executive saloon: handsomely styled, built to uncompromising standards and comfortably appointed. To Americans, it’s a sports sedan, dynamic and aggressive, designed to fend off not just the usual BMWs and Mercedes but also to distance itself from Cadillacs, Lincolns and the like. And to the Chinese it’s a wheeled smartphone – a flashy, premium-branded device to make your life easier by driving itself through choking traffic and allowing you to control your life through touchscreens. Possibly from the back seat, where there’s more room to lounge than before. The need to satisfy the more luxury and technology orientated of these diverse goals…

THE LONG RUNWAY STRETCHES ahead, the shimmering heat haze distorting its far end. The Audi is up first to charge towards it, and thanks to its four-wheel drive and launch control it should be a doddle to get off the line. With the ESP and transmission in their Sport settings, I floor the throttle and wait for the revs to settle at about 4500rpm before slipping my left foot off the brake. There’s a momentary pause and then the R8 rockets off the line, screaming unrelenting and rock-steady to 150mph, at which point I lift my right foot and glance at the VBOX. It shows the 0-60mph dash was ticked off in just 2.9sec. Wow! Equally easy to fire off the line is the 911, which zaps to 60mph in…

WHEN A NEW CAR GOES ON SALE TO THE PUBLIC, IT’S usually the result of a six-year process; one that begins with an idea and flourishes through the digital space and on to the opaque world of the automotive development industry. Using the latest Bentley Continental GT as an example, below we’ll detail the different types of cars involved in that development process and what their roles are in realising an incredibly complex product. Before that, consider that initial styling sketches and digital engineering work will have begun in year two, following the first 12 months of product idea generation, profiling, and the definition of requirements, competitors and target markets. By the third year, prototype vehicles will be running in digital form, amassing thousands of virtual miles before a wheel…

GABRIELE TARQUINI remains the quintessential Italian racing driver. When evo catches up with him at a freezing Brands Hatch, he is wrapped up beneath a team jacket and beanie hat, but his beaming smile, lilting Italianicised English and piercingly intense eyes light up the pit garage in the same way they did 24 years ago during that memorable BTCC season, in doing so capturing the loyalty and admiration of British racing fans forever. Tarquini began racing in karts at five years old. ‘I won a lot of titles in Italy, and European and World titles in 1984,’ recalls the Italian. ‘I started from zero and became an F1 driver.’ The Italian’s rise was indeed rapid, culminating in his F1 debut for the Osella team in 1987. Even then, Tarquini’s versatility…

I DON’T LIKE TO KNOCK THE CIVIC Type R, because to be frank I absolutely love it, but there is one aspect of it that does frustrate, and that’s its infotainment system. It’s a touchscreen type, and is largely unchanged from the one found in the previous Type R, which is a shame because it already felt quite dated there. The first thing you notice about it is the lag: hit one of the touch-sensitive buttons and often the delay will be long enough for you to assume your press hasn’t been recognised and cause you to jab the button again. Even worse is the (physical) Climate button. Push this and you can sometimes count a full four seconds before the appropriate screen eventually appears on the display. If it…

‘The trip brought into stark relief the role that each of these cars plays in the Black fleet’ THE RE-EMERGENCE OF THE SUN meant it was time for the year’s first proper road trip, and therefore the Black fleet 720S’s toughest test yet: a jaunt from Monaco into Italy, with Woking’s McLaren going head-to-head with one of the home team’s star players, the Lamborghini Aventador Roadster. The route was set to include motorways, viaducts and tunnels through Italian countryside, and the most picturesque of roads carved into the mountains, to get a real sense of each car’s capabilities. Some friends would be there, too, in an M4, AMG C63 and a 911 GT3 (991), and the agenda was simple: have as much fun as possible over two days, enjoy the…

THE A1 ISN’T THE IDEAL TESTING ground for exploring a car’s dynamic strengths and weaknesses, but that’s where the Ibiza has found itself a lot of the time these past few months. With the water-torture-like process of a house sale to navigate, KM67 XUG has been putting in the hard miles between Bedford and Yorkshire of a weekend. It’s had pretty much everything thrown at it, too – rain, sleet, snow, and thankfully, more recently 25deg C sunshine (hallelujah!). So, a good opportunity to see how competent it is at doing the family thing: think less long-distance grand tourer, more middle-distance mover of me, my wife and the pooch. And so far it’s proved a comfortable place to be… mostly. Those Alcantara sports seats have provided good support on the…

YOU CAN’T HELP BUT FEEL A LITTLE sorry for Mini’s engineers. With the first generation of the BMW Mini – a car that is now 18-years-old – they created a classic. British-built, encapsulating the style and classless appeal of the original but with a funky, retro-modern twist. Brilliant handling, class-leading dealer back-up, unimpeachable image. It won prizes and plaudits and sold by the bucketful. Since then they’ve been asked to do it all again – twice. To reimagine the Mini, to retain that funky character and those best-in-class dynamics, but in bigger and bigger packages. There comes a tipping point where size and weight start to count against a car, and for those who place involvement above all else, we may have reached that point as far as Minis are…

THE NEW RENAULT MEGANE R.S. IS once again causing a stir in the hot hatch market. This latest car is looking to reclaim its crown in a fiercely competitive class with its downsized 276bhp 1.8-litre turbo engine and wider tracks, as well as innovations such as its Hydraulic Compression Stops and 4Control four-wheel steering system. But any performance car fan can reel off a list of stats and compare technology, just like a game of playground top trumps. Where the new Mégane R.S. leads the way in the real world of hatchbacks is with its feel. Climb aboard, and you’ll see exactly how much thought Renault has put into the driving environment. The heated Alcantara bucket seats* are shaped around you, providing the ultimate support. They’re widely adjustable and clearly…

AFTER READING ABOUT THE UPCOMING Brabham BT62 (evo 249), I couldn’t help but think that £1million is an extortionate amount of money for a car that can only be driven on a track. Yet this seems to be the norm nowadays, as barely a month goes by when I don’t read about another FXX, GTR or Vulcan and then nearly have a heart attack at the amount being asked for it. This got me thinking – and looking in the classifieds. If I had £1million to spend on a trackday car, what would I look for? Well, after losing most of an afternoon drooling over GT3 and GT4 cars, I realised that for the price of one Brabham I could buy a McLaren 650S GT3, an Iveco truck, enough spares…

THINK WHAT YOU WILL OF THE Vantage’s looks, there’s no denying it attracts attention, while its performance is in another league to the old version, V8 and V12-engined. It also feels far more sophisticated than before, plus it’s genuinely engaging and entertaining to drive. Up to a point. What happens when you push the car harder ultimately undermines its bid for victory. Because, where our other three contenders up their game the more you ask of them, the Aston gets into a muddle as the chassis clearly struggles to keep a handle on the car’s mass (why oh why is it so heavy?). Further demerits are the poor visibility, an occasionally truculent gearbox and some niggling doubts over build quality. You can sense there’s a really good car lurking within…

A YEAR OR TWO AGO KIA STRETCHED THE DEFINITION of ‘United Kingdom’ to absurdity by holding the ‘UK launch’ of its then-new Optima Sportswagon in… South Korea. Driving the Optima was something of a sideshow to the main event, though, which was a tour of the firm’s Namyang test facility and a chance to speak to the man Kia and Hyundai had recently poached from BMW M to lead its car development: Albert Biermann. Two things stick in my mind from that day. The first was that the Optima Sportswagon was surprisingly adept around Kia’s wet and dry handling circuits, benefiting greatly from the fitment of Michelin Pilot Sport 3 tyres, a new rack-mounted power steering set-up, a much stiffer bodyshell and heavily revised spring and damper settings, all changes…

DOWNFORCE. IT’S ALL WE HEAR ABOUT THESE DAYS, RIGHT? THE latest, greatest front-drive hatchback has ‘downforce’. That big 600bhp saloon that launched last week (t here’s one every week) has ‘downforce’. I expect there are people scribbling press releases about a new 700bhp SUV (t here’s one of those every other week) and they’re writing ‘downforce’ as you read this. Of course, for the most part, all these aerodynamic claims are slightly absurd. Nobody really needs their hot hatch pressed into the ground by huge wings. And in a world of ever-spiralling power outputs and startling improvements in tyre technology, you could argue that aerodynamic grip is only adding to the problem of performance cars stepping further and further beyond what’s useable on the road. Bloody hell this is good…

THE TOOLKIT HAS BEEN OUT recently, and likewise the 993’s back seats. More on this in a moment, but first you need to hear my justification. When you are surrounded by performance cars day-in, day-out, as I am fortunate enough to be in my job as evo’s staff photographer, you can’t help but feel drawn towards certain models, and also to analyse exactly what it is about them that appeals so much. Over the years there have been a handful of cars that have had me feeling a deep urge to sell my kidneys to own them. The first was the incredible 997-generation Porsche 911 GT3 RS 4.0, then later the Cayman GT4, Mégane R26.R, 458 Speciale, Golf Clubsport S and Ruf SCR 4.2. As you can see, there’s a…

MOVING THE 2002 TO A MORE suitable location – a workshop rather than a conservatory – has meant that it’s been possible to carry out some real mechanical work on it. But before I could fit any major components, such as the engine and axles, I had to remake all of the hard brake lines that run through the engine bay and down the length of the car. It was a job I really wasn’t looking forward to, as I knew I wouldn’t be able to bend each pipe to the perfect angles to match my ludicrously high standards. And I was right. But I did manage to make them look neater than I ever thought I would, even if achieving this took me around six weeks of working on…

‘Some thought it a mismatched combination of “premium” hatchback set up to be too hardcore’ MUCH LIKE THE BEES OF THE American Midwest, our petit ‘bumblebee’ has left us for pastures new and unknown. Without quite such disastrous implications for the local ecosystem, admittedly, the DS 3 Performance has nonetheless left behind a void, because for reasons not entirely obvious, it appealed in a way few hot hatches do. The DS 3 was often a source of controversy within the evo office. Some thought it a mismatched combination of ‘premium’ hatchback set up to be too hardcore. Others thought it a hot hatch lacking the handling finesse and capability to rival the best in its class. In reality, it probably sits somewhere between those two points of view, but it…

IT’S TO MY IMMENSE FRUSTRATION that since the day I took possession of the Mustang it has rained almost incessantly, or failing that it has at least been unpleasantly blustery. Worse still, on the rare occasions the UK has seen the sun, EA17 PPZ has been parked at some airport or other. Consequently I’ve still yet to drive it with the roof lowered. Ordinarily that wouldn’t be too big a deal, but I can’t help thinking – hoping, in fact – that folding back the canvas hood will be the key to unlocking more of this big-hearted car’s appeal. If that sounds uncharitable, I don’t mean it to. I like the looks, love the sound and enjoy the impressive shove delivered by the smooth and sonorous V8. I don’t even…

IT’S INEVITABLE THAT WHEN approaching just about any car you care to mention you’ll have certain preconceptions, and in the case of the Insignia Grand Sport GSi I expected it to be commodious, packed full of kit, yet ultimately lacking sparkle when it comes to the driving experience. A solid family car, then, but not one to set the pulse racing. The ‘commodious’ box is ticked off, as is the one for the level of equipment, but what about the third box? Vauxhall has made a big deal of the GSi’s ability to lap the Nürburgring Nordschleife 12 seconds faster than the outgoing, more powerful Insignia VXR, so what better place to put it through its paces? For anyone who has witnessed me bouncing from one Armco barrier to the…

“We’ve seen cars like this before, such as Clapton’s SP12, and this is Ferrari’s latest bespoke rendition” THIS IS THE FERRARI SP38 DEBORAH, A bespoke commission designed, engineered and constructed by Ferrari for one very lucky customer. It’s becoming increasingly fashionable for high-end manufacturers to appeal to the 0.1 per cent, and like couture fashion or the hottest residential architecture, ‘bespoke’ is all the rage for the privileged few at the top. It’s not surprising, then, to see a supercar marque such as Ferrari responding to requests from its wealthiest customers and building single or super-low-volume models under its One-Off programme. We’ve seen cars like this before, such as the SP12 EC (built for Eric Clapton), which was based on the 458 Italia and took direct design references from the…

BMW FIRST USED THE CS MONIKER ON THE E46 M3, WHICH blended some of the best elements of the track-focused CSL with the standard M3 to create a more useable, yet still tack-sharp driver’s car. Fast forward 13 years and BMW has once again chosen to apply the CS name to an M3, this time the run-out version of the F80-generation car. But does this reintroduction of an old name signify the sprinkling of some missing magic onto the middle-sized M saloon? To be fair to BMW M it has honed the M3 (and its M4 coupe sibling) into a much sweeter tool in the four years since its launch. The Competition Package cars are now class-leading, and just as the M4 CS evolved from the M4 Comp Pack, so…

IT TAKES ALL OF ONE CORNER TO deduce that the latest Mercedes- AMG G63 is a better car than its predecessor. Mainly because you can navigate said corner with a much lower heart rate and plenty of colour still left in your knuckles. The old G63 could be startlingly unpleasant to drive at times, the hilarity of its outright speed and boisterous V8 soundtrack outweighed by wildly inconsistent steering responses and the disconcerting motion of a pair of live axles struggling to contain the undulations of the road beneath you. The new car may look very similar to its predecessor – brutal, brash and bloody brilliant all at once – but it’s not an exaggeration to say that it’s completely different underneath. Mercedes has kept the spirit and purpose of…

FINALLY, THE WAIT IS OVER: WE’RE GOING to get to drive the Aston Martin Vantage. And I mean really drive it. We’ve already had tasters, but neither of those outings gave us the full picture of a machine that Aston claims has the beating of every significant member of the sports coupe firmament. First there was the drive of a pre-production example on a zero-friction frozen lake and snow-covered roads (evo 247). Then came the glamorous launch in Portugal (evo 248), where we discovered that a 500bhp rear-wheel-drive car is very fast on smooth tarmac and can go spectacularly sideways on a racetrack. But there was still much left to learn about a car that’s likely to be the brand’s biggest seller yet, until the DBX SUV arrives. And crucial…

SITTING NEXT TO VOLKER STRYCEK FOR A LAP OF THE Nordschleife is an education – he’s intimate with every bump, kerb, crest and nuance. If the name’s familiar it’s because as well as heading up Vauxhall/Opel’s performance car and motorsport division he’s an accomplished racer, too. He won the first-ever DTM championship in 1984 in a BMW 635 CSi, was overall winner of the Nürburgring 24 Hours in 2003 in a V8 Opel Astra and is also one of the drivers of the N24 Kissling Motorsport Opel Manta. Although racing is still part of Strycek’s life, it’s his work at the Opel Performance Car (OPC) centre at the Nürburgring that’s his priority, particularly training the next generation of engineers. Part of the reason for our hot lap is so Strycek…

THERE ARE MANY REASONS why it’s possible to get excited by the Jaguar XE SV Project 8 – there are 592 of them lurking under the carbonfibre bonnet, for starters, but the bits that seem to be getting Special Vehicle Operation’s head of vehicle dynamics Dave Pook most animated are the engine mounts. Buried deep in the engine bay, these unique pieces of billet metal are virtually impossible to see, yet Pook reveals they have a small but crucial effect on the way the car drives: ‘With the standard mounts there was enough movement in the engine and transmission unit [all 395kg of it] to have a small effect on the way the car steered. With these additions we got a subtle, but crucial, improvement in response.’ For a more…

‘WITH 350BHP HAULING LITTLE MORE THAN 1200KG, THE TCR IS PREDICTABLY POTENT’ HYUNDAI N’S PECULIAR SIGNATURE SHADE OF LIGHT blue is already becoming burned into our consciousness: this i30 N TCR is part of a burgeoning range of performance road and motorsport cars that include WRC- and also now R5-spec i20s, and, of course, the admirable i30 N Performance hot hatch. According to its chief engineer, Matias Brutos Schmidt, the i30 N TCR ‘retains a lot of parts and concepts from the road car, including the front and rear subframes, the steering arms, many suspension parts, and the bonnet, doors and windows. From a dynamic point of view, the kinematics of the suspension are along the same lines. This is the philosophy of the series. The engine [block] is exactly…

AS SOON AS OUR VIPER GREEN RS3 rolled into the car park I knew its Pirelli P Zeros would prove problematic. Nothing to do with the grip available, you understand (with an optional 255 section at the front and 235 at the rear, the cliche you’re looking for is ‘limpet-like’), rather the vulnerability of the lowest-of-the-low 30 profile. Look at them and it’s clear it wouldn’t take much of an impact with a pothole to cause some damage. Factor in the effects of that gloriously vocal but hefty engine hanging over the front axle and you’ve got a perfect recipe for a violent strike on the sidewalls. And so it proved. Twice. The first occurred while the Audi was out of my hands, and must have been such an innocuous…

OUR M240i HAS BEEN WITH us for a good six months as I write this, but despite plenty of opportunities, I haven’t felt particularly compelled to hop into this 335bhp rear-wheel-drive coupe. Why? Because I’ve simply never fallen for the M240i, nor its predecessor, the M235i, or its hot hatch equivalent, the M140i. To me they’re good, ordinary BMWs: fast enough and with decent handling, but the M Division influence implied by the ‘M Performance’ branding has never felt overwhelming. Then recently I noticed that our 240 had spent a couple of nights in the car park, so I took pity on it. And I found more obvious M-car traits than I was expecting, although, as is the modern way, I had to select Sport or Sport+ mode before these…

DRIVING MODES ARE UNAVOIDABLE with any car in 2018, performance or otherwise. My previous Fast Fleeter, the delectable Alfa Giulia Quadrifoglio, had a very simple approach, its Pro-DNA system offering four individual, preset modes ranging from Eco (hah!) to Race (oh my god!) that you couldn’t configure any further. Then there’s Antony Ingram’s Hyundai i30 N Performance long-termer, which has permutations running into the thousands (no, that’s not a joke). The M5 sits between the two. These last few weeks have provided plenty of opportunities to set the M5 up to my liking, or rather three different likings, because that’s what’s on offer. The default (start the V8, select Drive) is Comfort for everything, primarily because evo long-termers are driven by everyone on the team, and I’d rather they built…

THE ARRIVAL OF BENTLEY’S ALL-NEW Continental GT in final production form has taken longer than initially planned. We had a couple of bites of a late prototype in the autumn of 2017, then nothing, until now. Thankfully, it’s been worth the wait. While Bentley is enjoying the uplift in production and sales from the Bentayga’s introduction, the GT remains an integral part of the firm’s strategy, hence the lengths gone to during the £156,700 model’s development. Porsche may have had responsibility for the new platform (it’s also used by the Panamera), but Bentley’s engineers were involved from the get-go and were integral in its development. It’s why the Panamera has a three-chamber air-suspension system, which is over the top for the Porsche but essential for Bentley in order for it…

FIFTY-FOUR THOUSAND POUNDS seems a lot of money to spend on just an engine, but without wishing to sound overly puerile, that’s essentially what you’re doing when buying a TT RS Roadster. Let’s be fair: this latest TT, including the TT RS, is much more deft dynamically than any of its forebears. It’s actually a highly capable, pleasant car to drive, particularly if you avoid the bigger wheel option, which of course no TT RS Roadster customer ever will. For a droptop, the structure is admirably solid. But this is not a particularly inspiring, invigorating, rewarding sort of drive. It’s very capable, but in the manner of a German high-performance hot hatch, not a true roadster. Drive around one corner in the TT RS and, by and large, you’ve driven…