To kick things off, here’s my Audi Q5 TDI Review – Road Trip from a couple of years ago.
Haven’t done much with The Redline for a while and this is a test post to see what’s what with the new theme. Let me know if there are any problems, dramas, ideas you’ve got to improve things.
Audi Q5 3.0 TDI S-Line Review
Waking up in Glasgow.
I shot this video in January 2015 during a terrific holiday in the UK. Audi Australia (because they are brilliant people) very kindly organised an Audi Q5 TDI (3.0-litre turbodiesel) for two weeks to take me and my family on a bit of a winter wonderland trip around Scotland and Northern England.
It was a great holiday except for…well, watch the video. And subscribe to the channel, obviously.
Oh-ho, now we’re talking. The fine folk at Dr Ing hc F Porsche (we’re very formal here at The Redline) have just dropped two new models.
The Cayman and Boxster have had the GTS treatment, making them even faster. How good is a weekend press release catchup?
Porsche Cayman and Boxster GTS
Boxster GTS
[GARD]
While the company is battling some slightly poor press regarding the self-immolating 911 GT3 engines, engineering has somehow found the time to make go-faster Cayman and Boxster twins.
This isn’t a strap-in-a-big-one and let ’em go sort of development. It’s subtle, yet effective, in true Porsche style.
The GTS pair is powered by a tweaked 3.4 litre flat six from the S editions. The GTS gets an extra 11kW, taking power to 243kW for the Boxster and 250kW for the Cayman coupe.
Porsches says the extra power comes from “optimised fine tuning” or what we would commonly say, “They chipped it.”
When fitted with a PDK double-clutch transmission, the Boxster will hit 100km/h in 4.7 seconds while the Cayman will get there a tenth faster. Again, the Boxster has a slightly slower top speed of 280 versus the Cayman’s 285.
Torque is also up 10Nm in both engines and Porsche reckons you’ll get 8.2l/100km on the Euro combined cycle, 9.0l/100km with the manual. Good luck with that, because these things are a hoot to drive.
The GTSes also pick up Porsche’s PASM and Chrono packages, which allow you to switch between driving modes, changing the damper rates and various things like throttle response.
The cars roll on 235/35s at the front and 265/35s at the rear, wrapped around 20-inch Carrera S wheels. Front and rear suspension has been tweaked, too, for a bit of extra grip.
Boxster GTS interior
The interior comes standard with leather and Alcantara, that grippy stuff that stops you sliding off your seat.
It’s not just the dynamics that get a tweak either – the headlights are blackened and come standard with dynamic lighting.
Porsche Boxster GTS: $146,000 + ORC for 7 speed manual Cayman GTS: $161,400 + ORC for 7-speed manual On sale in Australia: May
Meanwhile…
[GARD]
Four Cylinder Porsche Engine Coming
Yep, and it’ll be a flat four, too, Porsche CEO Matthias Muller told Germany’s Auto Motor Und Sport.
The last four banger in the Porsche line-up was the 968, a car for which I have a secret crush in bonkers ClubSport form. That car had a 3.0 litre (!) inline four and went out of production almost twenty years ago.
The new four cylinder will not only be a boxer, but it’ll have a turbo – so it’ll be just like Mark Webber’s 919 WEC hybrid. Well, a bit like.
“We will continue with the downsizing strategy and develop a new four-cylinder boxer engine, which will see service in the next-generation Boxster and Cayman. We will not separate ourselves from efforts to reduce CO2.”
He says the engines could develop up to 295kW, rather more than the flat six in the current GTS pairing. With a lighter kerb weight, that should make them go even quicker and harder.
The link with the inevitably brilliant WEC program won’t go astray, either.
We’re talking about the Kia GT4 Stinger Concept, which is, as you might’ve already noticed, quite a handsome beast.
KIA GT4 STINGER CONCEPT REVEALED
Kia likes a good concept and since former Audi man Peter Schreyer stepped into the designer slippers in Seoul, we’ve liked a Kia concept.
From the Trackster to the Provo, there’s just nothing like a Schreyer show car but there is a problem – they won’t make them. Will the GT4 Stinger break the curse?
Inside & Out
KIA GT4 Stinger Concept
The design is simple, but effective with a more than a hint of retro cool. The lines are smooth, the almost Mercedes SLS-esque face is bold and the proportions are bang-on.
Heavily sculpted wheelarches complete the look giving the car real presence and, well, just plain and simple sex appeal, really.
See those funny looking A-pillars? They’re transparent to provide the driver with greater visibility, although, we can’t imagine anything like this featuring on a production car.
The Technical Bits
KIA GT4 Stinger Concept
The Stinger is not all show and no go, this small rear wheel drive coupe is powered by a 2.0 litre turbo engine which produces a stout 234kw. A six-speed manual gearbox sends power, thankfully, to the rear wheels.
Stopping power is supplied by Brembo Gran Turismo cross drilled rotors with four-piston calipers. The car wears 235 section Pirelli P-Zero tyres at the front and larger 275s at the rear.
The pretty little Kia coupe weighs in at just over 1300kg and does away with unnecessary interior luxuries such as carpets, a stereo and even door handles to save weight.
Kia says there’s no need for a stereo because “the GT4 Stinger’s free-flow exhaust burbles and blurts unabashedly and is music to the ears of driving enthusiasts everywhere” – sounds very promising indeed.
“[The GT4 Stinger] is about purity, simplicity and timelessness. The GT4 Stinger is a throwback to days when driving a car was a visceral experience that wasn’t muted by electronic gimmickry.”– Tom Kearns, Chief Designer, Kia Design Centre America
Unfortunately Kia has no plans to put a car like this into production any time soon (insert sad face). Instead we can expect to see some design elements from the GT4 Stinger in future Kia models.
Man up and build the damn car, Kia. We’ll all buy it.
Read all of our 2014 Detroit Motor Show coverage here.
The venerable Gallardo is dead – long live the Huracan.
Lamborghini is finding it impossible to keep the new baby Huracán under wraps and so here are the images in all their glory.
What we know about Huracán
The internet is deducing from the LP610-4 that the car is powered by a V10 (we are big, big V10 fans here) good for 602bhp or 440kW. The noise from its quad-pipes is bound to be marvellous if Auto Bild’s video of a Huracán firing up is anything to go by.
The internet also knows that it has a seven-speed dual clutch box, so say goodbye to manual Lambos, we reckon.
The Gallardo
The Gallardo has been with us now for just on a decade and was the first fruits of the initially-inexplicable purchase of the company by Audi.
It is also the car that carried Lamborghini through the Global Financial Crisis, totting up over 14000 sales in its decade on the books.
It came as a coupe and Spyder drop top and was even used by a number of police departments, most notably the Italians (who crashed them with seeming monotonous regularity), the English and various Middle Eastern jurisdictions.
There were a few special ones, too – the SE, with its black roof and Callisto rims; the Nera, a gauche, over-personalised model for those without taste; and the daddy of them all, the Superleggera (superlight).
The final years saw a tidal wave of special editions, none madder than the LP-570-4 Squadra Corse, the answer to the upcoming Ferrari 458 Speciale.
The Gallardo was a game-changer for the brand, and rightly so. Hardly any of them caught fire, you could drive them in any weather condition but the company still maintained its image of being totally mental.
The last Gallardo down the line was a LP-570-4 Spyder Performante, in Mars Rosso red, no less.
Enough talk. Have a look at this bad boy. And enjoy.
[Photo Source: La Stampa]
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