Author: Peter Anderson

The McLaren Honda Nightmare Is Over

Well, almost. At the end of the 2017 Formula One season, McLaren Honda will be no more. After three seasons of almost unending woe, the Honda power units are off to Toro Rosso.

Honda’s presence in F1 is creating quite a trail of destruction.

To get a supply of engines that don’t blow up every five laps or so, McLaren had to offload Honda to someone else. Initially, that someone else was Sauber. But with new owners and investors on the scene, that idea was sent packing, as was Team Principal Monisha Kaltenborn. Sauber re-signed with Ferrari, and that was the end of that idea.

This infuriated everybody except Sauber’s designers and drivers, one imagines.

Honda’s performances grew worse and worse. Much-heralded improvements yielded more disappointment and more amusing radio outbursts from Fernando Alonso.

The final straw appears to have come at this year’s Belgian Grand Prix. Honda had promised an update, delivered it, and the engines blew up. Another total disaster, which infuriated everyone except Haas.

Since the Italian Grand Prix, talks have centred around Red Bull’s second team and driver creche, Scuderia Toro Rosso, taking on the troublesome Honda engines. These talks had been off and on for a while but since Belgium, stayed on.

Around and around it all went. McLaren wanted Renault, Renault wanted Ricciardo, Palmer wanted to keep his job, Zak Brown wanted to keep Fernando, Fernando wanted a car that didn’t blow up.

So, on the eve of the Singapore Grand Prix, a series of orchestrated press releases and interviews dropped.

The Announcements

1. McLaren thanks Honda, but seriously, we’ve had enough, so it’s best you leave.
2. McLaren welcomes Renault, because seriously, anything is better.
3. Toro Rosso welcomes Honda (and lots of money) because…uh…well, we’re not sure why, actually.
4. Renault welcomes Carlos Sainz Jr for the 2018 seasons because, seriously, we’ve had enough of Jolyon Palmer. And Red Bull wouldn’t give us Danny Ricciardo.
5. Red Bull Racing still has Renault engines in 2018 but dammit, that’s it.
6. Red Bull Racing suggests Aston Martin might come to F1 as a supplier, but probably not.
7. Jolyon Palmer says f*** and he actually hasn’t yet had enough of F1.

Okay, that last one wasn’t official, but you have to feel for the guy. He found out he’d lost his job on autosport.com. Ouch.

Fernando Alonso

This has all been terribly embarrassing for everybody but hugely frustrating for McLaren’s star driver.

Fernando Alonso has been denied the chance to continue demonstrating his incredible driving talent. He’s not too flash at politics or picking the right time to go to the right team, but boy can he drive. He has consistently driven the wheels off the McLaren, which appears to have a handy chassis. McLaren even let him do the Indy 500 to keep him interested and the sodding Honda in the back of that car blew up too. Apart from Monaco, which clashed with Indy, he has turned up at every race and driven his heart out.

Remember when the Red Bull wasn’t to Sebastian Vettel’s taste and he started to coast a bit? Hasn’t happened with Alonso.

McLaren

McLaren’s reputation is severely damaged, but no worse than the torrid Peugeot experiment in 1994. They may have built a car to challenge the might of Mercedes, Ferrari and to a lesser extent Red Bull. They may have built a car better than all three. We’d never know.

The Honda power unit is demonstrably worse in 2017 than it was last year. In 2016, Honda appeared to get a handle on things but changed philosophy over the winter. McLaren knew on day one at Barcelona that the 2017 season was already over, so started desperately casting around for a new engine deal. F1 is a tough business but a team like McLaren shouldn’t have to beg for an engine supplier. No team should really, but that’s part of F1’s wider issues.

Part of Honda’s participation meant tipping a lot of cash into McLaren. The situation must be so bad that the rumoured $100m isn’t worth the ignominy.

McLaren Honda is radioactive

McLaren Honda, as an overall brand, is now irretrievably tarnished. Without going into idiotic nostalgia, the partnership between those teams is one of motorsport legend. That’s now dead and buried, because today’s F1 fans will remember only the power unit’s unreliability, lack of power and total lack of sensible decision-making at Honda’s F1 operation.

Hopefully that will change in the future, but Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna’s domination with Honda power units now seems like a century ago rather than a mere thirty years.

Carlos Sainz and Renault

Carlos Sainz must be pleased. He’s got an escape from Franz Tost and Helmut Marko’s overly-critical oversight at Torro Rosso. To be fair, they’ve been good to him as a rule, but it must be a difficult atmosphere, especially given STR’s history of turfing their drivers after two or three seasons.

Renault also has a future star in the car to replace Jolyon Palmer and put Nico Hulkenberg to the test. Palmer seems like a lovely kid, but is totally out of his depth in F1. Sainz too needs a challenge, because his STR teammate is the hapless Daniil Kvyat who, like Honda, appears to be getting worse too.

Red Bull and Renault

Renault promptly pulled the pin on Red Bull during the week. One of Renault’s (rumoured) demands was to get Daniel Ricciardo in the yellow and black next year, but they got Sainz instead.

Red Bull spent a lot of time trashing Renault over the past couple of seasons, so retribution was swift. Renault is basically condemning RBR to Honda engines in 2019, the final year of the current engine formula. It could go either way, but if you track Honda’s poor decision-making, it’s hardly likely to be a great engine by then.

That means losing either or both Ricciardo and Verstappen. If Ricciardo isn’t on the blower trying to replace Kimi Raikkonen in 2019, he’s mad.

What now?

We wait. Palmer looks like he’s already gone at Renault, so we might see Sainz in the factory colours in Malaysia and a Honda driver in at STR to replace him. The whole deal isn’t especially satisfactory for the fans of most of the people involved here, but it was the least worst result. F1 really has to sort out the over-complex engines, the dull racing and the dumb rule changes that put teams and engine suppliers on the back foot all the time.

But with a Renault engine, at least McLarens can challenge. Fernando in with a shout is formidable and exciting.

Goodbye California T, hello Ferrari Portofino.

A new car from Maranello is always something of an event and the replacement for recently-turboed California T, the Ferrari Portofino has certainly created a heapin’ helping of cheer.

Ferrari says that the car is all-new, just like the is-it-really-new GTC4 Lusso, but this time you really can tell at first sight.

It’s the same basic package as the California – folding hardtop 2+2 with a turbo V8 upfront. After that, pretty much everything has changed.

For a start, the 3.9-litre twin-turbo V8 now packs a nice round 600hp (592bhp/432kW) and 561lb ft (761Nm) of torque. That torque figure is a planet-ripper and is probably even more important than that headline power figure.

All that power and torque assaults the tarmac via the rear wheels and a seven-speed twin-clutch, firing the Portofino to 100km/h (62mph) in 3.5 seconds. Top speed is a toupee-ruffling 199mph (322km/h).

The techie stuff

The Portofino’s underbits are based on the Scuderia’s new all-aluminium architecture, meaning a “significant weight advantage over the California T it replaces.” I don’t remember the Cali being particularly heavy, but weight reduction means more speed and better handling, so I won’t argue.

More reasons to not argue include an increase in stiffness, another problem I don’t recall the California having, but again, it means a better platform on which to work handling magic while maintaining a good ride.

Ferrari’s third-generation E-Diff makes an appearance between the rear wheels. That thing is brilliant, moving torque around while also allowing lairiness if you so choose. The manettino switch stays where it is on the smaller steering wheel, letting you dial up the fun.

The magnetorheological damping also makes a return, now with what Ferrari calls “dual coil” technology. This system is used to great effect across the range – bumpy road mode is so good, it’s hard to believe you’re in a hard(er)-edged sports car.

For the first time, a Ferrari is running electric steering. The press release says it not only cuts fuel usage (ahem) but also reckons the steering feel is just as good as the outgoing hydraulic setup. The Cali T has quite light but magically feel-filled steering, so it’s probably not a stretch to think Ferrari has this sorted.

What’s inside?

Lots of new stuff. You’ll see from the pics that the Portofino has more aero devices visible to the naked eye. These will reduce wind noise while boosting downforce and look amazing.

Occupants will be more comfortable according to Ferrari (again, the Cali was not an uncomfortable machine…), with 30% less buffeting. The seating is new but the back seats still look useless for humans.

The new 10.2-inch media system is a touchscreen and no doubt features Apple CarPlay. You can see various refinements of the interior bitc and pieces but from the photos. And it seems that the passenger-side dashboard makes a welcome reappearance (you used to be able get one in the FF).

What do we think?

The Ferrari Portofino looks terrific. It seems a more focussed machine and will hopefully silence  the whining about the California’s lack of “Ferrariness”. While I was a fan of the California, plenty weren’t, and had to tell everyone all the damn time. You can’t argue that it brought lots of new buyers to the brand, particularly women. And more buyers means more mad cars like LaFerrari.

We’ll see more of the Ferrari Portofino at the Frankfurt Motor Show which kicks off soon. We’ll give you the lowdown as soon as we’ve got it. Meanwhile, enjoy all of the photos Ferrari gave us. And yes, the colour is Portofino Red.

The new Jaguar E-Pace

“I didn’t want it to be a small F-Pace,” says Jaguar designer Ian Callum of the company’s new compact SUV, the E-PACE.

At the global launch of the Jaguar E-Pace, design head Ian Callum was up front about the new car and its design, a departure from the F-Pace. As part of the main presentation, Callum said Jaguars should be assertive and not aggressive.

The Redline sat down with the man who has arguably designed more beautiful cars than anyone else alive today – and almost singlehandedly rebooted the Jaguar look – and talked about the new E-Pace.

While there’s a clear family link to the F-Pace, the E-Pace’s muscular look owes as much to the F-Type as the F-Pace. Callum told the gathering that the team called the car “the Cub. The E-Pace’s look was derived unashamedly from the F-Type.”

Jaguars should never be aggressive.

“Jaguars should never be aggressive. We want it to look precise. People love small animals because they have big eyes and big paws,” he said, referring to the headlights and optional 21-inch wheels.

“Assertive has a bit of respect about it, aggressive has a bit of dislike about it. And there is a subtle difference. We can respect assertive people, we don’t like aggressive people. There is a difference and I think a Jaguar has to have a confident, assertive look. There are some aggressive cars out there, with grilles the size of houses, grilles that do something strange. They’re very aggressive and people don’t warm to them very well.”

“Because it’s a beautiful car brand, it’s not a car brand that wants to shout any more than it has to. It’s part of its capital.”

As part of the team’s effort to reduce the visual impact of the front overhang – a result of the transverse engine placement – the corners are chamfered off. If you look at the car from overhead, you can see where the front corners are buffed away. It also makes the car look less bluff from down the road.

Design is a moving feast

“We temper the sides of the grille, make it look bigger. There are other factors that determine that, like the position of the cooling and that sort of stuff. We do temper [the aggression]. It’s interesting how the whole graphic, the front faces of cars are definitely changing. What might have been aggressive before is becoming quite tame. That’s a bit of a moving feast.”

“You look at the latest Audi A8, it’s got the most enormous grille in the world,” he laughed. “The next one is just going to fill up the car, isn’t it? You have to temper it to the mood of the time.”

Moving on to the decision to use the F-Type style of light to suit the proportion and profile of the car, I asked how long that creative process took.

“We started with the first models that came out of Advanced [Engineering], it probably took us a good six to seven months to get us to the design that we’ve got. It’s a long time. The best designs look easy. This was not an easy car. This took ages, to balance it. You haven’t got room to move, it’s a very small package. It took a long, long time to get it right. And I think it shows.”

“I didn’t want it to be a small F-Pace. As we started off, it was turning out too much of a small F-Pace. And we said, ‘Guys, we’ve kind of already done that with the XE and the XF, we’re not doing it again.’ So that was another motivator to do something very different.”

Geely to buy Lotus. Yep. Chinese car company Geely is buying Lotus. Let that sink in. It’s brilliant.

There’s a few reasons why it’s brilliant.

First, Geely already owns Volvo. In 2010, the Chinese company rescued the Swedish manufacturer from the mildly incompetent clutches of Ford’s Premier Automotive Group (look, it wasn’t great…although out of that arrangement, Volvo came out best) and the brand has been cranking out some belting cars. The XC90 is brilliant (although we won’t see it here on these pages) and the Polestar variant of the S60 was a blinder.

The fact Geely owns Volvo and has done a great job with it feeds into the second reason it’s great – Geely clearly knows to leave things alone while injecting capital to make things happen. Lotus has had a bit of a revolving door of late. Since  1996, Lotus been owned by Malaysia’s DRB-HICOM (which owns Proton, another part of the deal).

Recent Lotus history

From 1986 GM owned Lotus and wasted lanveryone’s time (a pattern will emerge). Mad and loveable Romano Artioli bought the brand in 1993 while at the same time owning Bugatti. Artioli threw money at Lotus and the company duly delivered with the Elise, still in production today and better than ever.

When ol’ Romano ran out of cash, Proton stepped in and bought the company. Heads were duly scratched, but the company’s engineering arm was the point of the purchase, to help sort out Proton cars and make them ready for prime time. Proton’s money dried up, just like GM’s. Although the Elan went back into production in limited numbers for a while. That was slightly crazy, and not just because Kia built it.

Even crazier were the Lotus badges slapped on the back of Protons, although the Satria GTi was alright.

Lotus has soldiered on for years, spinning new cars off the Elise platform, the Exige and Evora and doing things no car maker with such a small budget should. The Tesla Roadster and Hennessy Venom GT were also built on Elise underpinnings, so it’s obviously a quality bit of kit.

Danny Bahar came over from Ferrari, kicked out five concept cars and completely embarrassed himself before being removed from his post for allegedly being very naughty. Which was good, because his ideas were in direct contravention of Lotus’ decades of history and tradition.

What will Geely do?

The deal includes 49 percent of DRB-HICOM (i.e. Proton) and a controlling 51 percent stake in Lotus.

If I was to speculate, this is what I think will happen:

• New Elise
• Switch to Volvo powertrains
• New Evora
• New Exige
• New something

Lotus will be able to raid Volvo’s extensive parts bin, which includes some excellent turbo and twin-charged four-cylinder engines. Then there’s the hybrid powertrain…

The new Elise will probably be more like Alfa Romeo’s lively 4C, so a carbon tub with a properly nutty four-cylinder turbo.

Money has been tight for the last decade, so Geely will hopefully be the great lifeline the company needed.

I am extremely pleased. I can’t wait to see what happens.

What is a performance car?

It’s a serious question that fuels debate on and offline – what is a performance car?

I asked myself that question after I decided to reboot the site.

What sort of car belongs on The Redline?

I had to think long and hard about what would appear on these pages. I’ve been reviewing cars for a while now and it’s a fundamental question that journalists argue over during those long dinners at product launches. Those arguments often spill over into the flight home, coffee meet-ups and Facebook feuds.

Power and Passion

When I were a lad, if a car did less than nine seconds to 100km/h (62mph), that was a performance car. I remember reading a story by one of the greats saying that there were doubts over his manhood at handling a vehicle that could complete the benchmark time in under eight seconds.

That car was the Jaguar E Type. Performance car? You betcha.

A car that “quick” today is considered normal. A BMW 120i will do it in 7.1 seconds.

One of the great complaints of two iconic Japanese sports cars of today – the Mazda MX-5 and the Toyota 86 (and Subaru BRZ and Scion FR-S) is the lack of power. These things will show an E Type a clean pair of heels, finding the ton in around seven seconds. Too slow! they cry.

Wrong. These cars are both fantastic. They really are. Give them more power and they might be more fun, but they won’t be as satisfying as they are fresh off the floor. They’re about Getting It Right, making the most of what’s available.

Let me throw you another one. The Suzuki Swift Sport. 100kW/137bhp and 160Nm/118lb ft, means it’s not very fast at all. But with a set of 17-inch rims wrapped in RE.050 rubber, it’s a hoot to drive.

What – or whom – is meant to perform?

This is the question I came to as I thought more about this post and about the site. What – or whom – is meant to perform? It very much depends on the car. In the case of a Ferrari 488 GTB, not only does the car perform – you’d be slightly cranky if it didn’t given the money it costs – but it pushes you back. Come on, it says. Push me. Perform. And you will. You can’t help it.

The Suzuki Swift Sport is a cheap car, but it’s a lark. Come on, push me. But it adds another phrase, one you won’t hear from the Ferrari. I won’t bite because I can’t. Unless, of course, you’re driving like a total idiot. It’s really important that drivers of all levels – skill and experience – can find a car that pushes them to perform. I am not a terrible driver but I’m not a racing driver either. I stay well within the limits of a Ferrari 488GTB, and not just because the ones I drive don’t belong to me. But a Swift Sport, Mazda MX-5, Toyota 86, they’re all about you and you can find the limits easily and safely in the right setting.

And there’s plenty of cars in between that will push you and pull you along. Some will out-perform you, some won’t. Not enough power in the 86 is plenty for some as they chase the balance and the precision of a lovely chassis with that important piece of tech – the limited-slip diff.

Technology

This is one that really gets people talking. Technology takes the decisions out of your hands.

In some cases, yes. Another Ferrari, the incredible F12 berlinetta, is far too fast for mere mortals like me to jump in and hammer. When I first drove the F12, I was utterly terrified. By the time I handed it back, I’d moved from terrified to respectful. Without all the tech, the possibility of going from “terrified” to “cut-from-the-wreckage” was much higher.

Here’s the thing about the F12 and cars like it – they are way too fast for most people. YouTube isn’t all cat videos. There are also many idiots crashing exotic cars because they think they don’t need the tech. Ferrari’s ability to tune its F1-TRAC diff, engine and stability management to make you feel heroic – Push me! – is astounding an welcome. I love it because I can feel like I’ve performed to my best despite the car’s peak being way past my limits. But it’s still my favourite car. And the tech takes some decisions out of your hands because otherwise you might die.

What’s The Redline, then?

The Redline is a site for performance cars. There will be lots of very, very fast cars here. I can’t wait to get the first few videos in the can (for younger folk, that means shot and edited, not in the toilet) and start releasing. But there will be some slower ones, too, along with me telling you why they belong on a site where performance lives.

The Swift Sport deserves a place here just as much as a McLaren P1. The site will feature fast SUVs, warm hatches and electric cars that aren’t Teslas. It’s going to be grand.

Oh, and feel free to argue with me and each other. Keep it clean, keep it nice and keep it fun.

The Redline’s Audi RS7 review video has been a long time coming. Sorry about that. Been a bit busy. No, you are.

Audi RS7 Review

The Audi RS7 is an absolute animal. Twin-turbo V8 with stonking power and torque figures, driven through a ZF eight-speed automatic and a rear-biased Quattro all-wheel drive system.

The one we drove – around Australia’s Philip Island racetrack and the streets of Sydney – not only had that awesome matte grey paint job but it also had the incredible carbon-ceramic brake discs. Coupled with the sharp set of threads and those amazing 20-inch wheels, it’s still a sleeper. Nobody knows what it is until they hear that V8 roar and bark and see those LED taillights disappear down the road.

The TFSI engine pumps out a mighty 412kW (560PS/564bhp) and 700Nm/516lb ft of torque. Let that sink in. And in the sportiest mode hisses and spits like a Lamborghini Huracan. It’s an unforgettable, addictive experience just to accelerate in a straight line, let alone find a set of corners through which you can have a tremendous amount of fun.

The Redline’s Audi RS7 video review is right here. Don’t forget to subscribe if you haven’t already.

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