The Redline

Tag: Fast Cars

  • 2025 Toyota Supra Review

    2025 Toyota Supra Review

    The six-speed manual Toyota Supra seems like the obvious choice for folks who really like to drive, but not everyone is a fan.

    Words: Peter Anderson
    Images and co-pilot: Matt Gerrard (@mattg81)

    Supra. It’s a brand all of on its own. The Toyota part is unnecessary given it’s so strongly embedded in people’s minds. It’s like Mustang is to Ford – no, really, – you just call it Supra. The GR bit…well…it really ties it to the 86/Yaris/Corolla set but, again, nobody calls it the GR Supra.

    The A90 has been an incredible success, at least as far as awareness and the generation of brand cachet goes. It eclipses the car with which it shares so much – the BMW Z4 – here in Australia in a way I didn’t think possible. You tell people it’s a Z4 with a hat and they shrug, telling me it looks like a Supra.

    It’s an astonishingly bold and intelligent design. The body is stretched tight over its underpinnings and is so curvy and muscular it looks absolutely nothing like its under-the-skin sibling. The idea that hard points would define the way it would look is out the window, they don’t even share a windscreen. It’s as different from the Z4 as the 86 and BRZ are similar. Or shares as much with the Z4 as the Yaris GR does with your mum’s hybrid hatchback (that’s just a little joke to make you click on a story I loved writing).

    The references to the fabled FT-HS and FT-1 concept cars are so clear, too, but not a straight-up rip-off. More came from FT-1, which generated a vast amount of excitement when it appeared. It has a wonderful fluidity to it and has proved to be an incredible base for aftermarketeers keen to pump the looks even more. As ever, some of it is awful but some of it is superb. It can cope with addition but looks amazing without it. This is a controversial opinion to some, I know.

    I am a particular fan of the way the bonnet rolls so far down over the arches. It screams race car clamshell without actually being a clamshell. When Matt asked me how I wanted it shot I said, “At rest. We don’t even need shots of it driving, really.” The rain and mist and Matt’s undeniable eye have made me love this car even more. If I was allowed, one of these shots would be on my wall, right next to one of Blake’s shots of the Vantage.

    Interestingly, my description of the Supra being a Z4 with a hat comes from one of the early cars and echoes a reference I once made to the Jaguar F-Type coupe. Both cars are based on convertible-first structures and are internally compromised as a result. Strict two-seaters, not much room for luggage and a roof that liked to squeak.

    The first Supra I drove many moons ago – how my wife loved that car and how that feeling was ruined by ute-driving yahoos screaming at her – squeaked madly, in a very un-Toyota way. In squeaked in a Jaguar F-Type coupe way, which is to say it did but you forgave it because good lord it was pretty. This 2024-built example was tight as a drum and I assume this propensity to squeak was fixed long ago.

    Just look at these gorgeous details – the shape of the lighting elements, the bevelling of the exhaust pipe, the Supra script on the boot, the F1-like1 fog light with the LEDs for the reverse light as a frame. Just some incredibly fine work that we see because it’s there and it all just works. You can just see the designers had so much fun and freedom, led by Nobuo Nakamura. Yes they had the FT-HS and FT-1 inspiration to work from but this is a rare 2020s-era car that is genuinely beautiful. And it’s under a hundred grand in Australia, at least in GT form. And only a bit over in GTS form.

    Under that long bonnet is BMW’s gorgeous B58. I have mentioned the B58 in my X3 M50 review and I don’t care if you made fun of me. It’s an incredible engine and here in the Supra is good for 285kW between 5800-6500rpm (the early cars had 250kW and the Supra was almost immediately upgraded for 2021 in line with the Z4’s power bump). Torque is a nice round 500Nm between 1800 and 5000rpm.

    For the manual, Toyota had to work hard. It took the same ZF six-speed in the Z4 and, er, made it nice. To be fair, in the Z4 it’s ok but the clutch placement means my size 10 (Euro 43) brushed the steering rack. Co-pilot Mark didn’t like the manual Supra at all and when he had a brief spin in this exact car before I had it and came away with the same opinion – he doesn’t like it. He disliked it so much in fact, that he didn’t drive it this time. He was happy for me to lead the way.

    I, however, did love it. The pedal placement seems better in the Supra, which honestly wouldn’t be hard. The clutch action wasn’t exactly to my taste and the ZF is like it is always was – good but not great. Not Fiesta ST great, not Mazda MX-5 great, just good. Feels unburstable, though.

    Working so well with the revvy straight-six, the Supra is just perfect for a midnight blast. The big LEDs light the darkness, the big Michelins bite the ground and only come unstuck when you tell them to. The power on a hard launch is perfection but never feels overdone – I don’t need more, it’s exactly where it should be.

    The seats are supportive, everything works fine and the stripped back mix of Toyota and BMW is still a bit odd but nothing you can’t live with.

    When you are on it, this car just delivers and delivers, with a lovely front end that just wants to go where you point it. I love practically sitting on the rear wheels and being down so low. Not just because I seem to spend my life six feet in the air in a Chinese SUV wondering how I’m going to explain the terribly calibrated safety systems but because it’s so right.

    I love the way the brakes feel great and haul the speed off. I love the way the rear hangs on if you want it to and the front stays where it is when you punish the rear tyres. The diff is beautifully set up for the road.

    As is the suspension. It works so well under duress as well as on the commute. Potholes aren’t terrifying and the solidity and stiffness of the chassis is a testament to its fundamental engineering depth.

    Sales are falling, however, all over the world. The US and Europe have lost interest and it’s a sign of the ailing sports car market that just isn’t interested in things that aren’t Porsches. Very often great cars fall by the wayside and this is most definitely a goodbye to the Supra, hence my intention to have the photos portray a stillness.

    The imminent departure of the Supra is a genuine shame because this thing can take it to cars a lot more expensive. It’s more fun to drive than most things on the road and given its petite cabin, still manages to be practical enough to be a daily. And that’s not something to sniff at – in these pricey times, having a car that can be this much fun but also drag you to work in the morning without either being compromised means you don’t have to compromise. No, it won’t take the family to the beach but you know what I mean.

    I would have a Supra in a heartbeat. I want to own a Supra before I get too old to enjoy it. Would I have the manual? No, I don’t think so. If we were talking about the 86, it’s no contest. But the Supra’s eight-speed is everything you could ever need and plays along with you the way you want. While Toyota worked hard to improve the frankly dire manual gearboxed Z4s, I’m not quite sure it was enough for me.

    Either way, though, the A90 Supra remains utterly desirable six years into its life. It feels shorter than that – partly because of the pandemic, partly because life is moving fast these days – but the Supra has made its mark on the automotive landscape once again. The Z4, with which the Supra shares its Austrian production line at Magna Steyr, will die next year with no successor in sight.

    The Supra, though, looks to be headed for a new life as a hybrid, rear-wheel drive four-cylinder. It might be good, it might be great. But with the last of the mighty six cylinders fading into the night of emissions regulations, the A90 will surely be endlessly sought after.

    1. Yes I know they’re rain lights in F1, but it looks like the rain light. ↩︎
  • 2025 Aston Martin Vantage Review

    2025 Aston Martin Vantage Review

    We spend a week with the V8-powered Aston Martin Vantage – deliberately in bright orange – to see how it stacks up against the competition.

    Words: Peter Anderson
    Images and co-pilot: Blake Currall

    I’ve not had a lot of experience with the Aston range, and that’s mostly on me. I admired the Rapide, DBeverything and Vanquish from afar but just never brought myself to pick up the phone and ask nicely. Thankfully, Aston asked me where the hell I’d been all these years, especially after my first drive of one back in early 2022 that I really rather enjoyed.

    I loved the Vantage F1 and ever since I’d wondered what the car was like without the go-fasterish bits on it. Sure, it’s had an update since and brought with it a bunch of features missing in action on the older car like Apple CarPlay and Android Auto but it’s still a vanilla-ish Vantage.

    Amazingly, I had a choice and those of you who know me in real life will be further astonished that I chose this Cosmos Orange unit over a more traditional green. Because you only live once.

    How much is an Aston Martin Vantage and what do I get?

    Aston Martin Vantage Coupe: $410,000 + ORC:

    The Vantage coupe kicks off at $410,000 which is around the price of a Porsche 911 GTS, give or take. Even a cursory glance at the photos on this page will suggest a liberal application of options and ya-huh, that suggestion is reality:

    • Bowers & Wilkins Audio System
    • Black Wings Badges
    • Brake Disc Type – Carbon
    • Centre Finisher – Satin Carbon Fibre
    • Leather Colour – Contemporary
    • Carpet Colour – Contemporary
    • Paint – Q – Special
    • Headlining – Contemporary Alcantara
    • Lower Trim inlay – Carbon
    • Carbon Fibre Lightweight Seat
    • Roof Panel – Carbon Fibre Gloss
    • Contrast Stitching
    • Smoked Rear Lamp
    • Carbon Pack – Upper
    • Carbon Pack – Lower
    • Upper Trim inlay – Carbon
    • 21 Y Spoke Forged – Satin Black DT

    So there’s not a heap left standard, with a lot of carbon fibre added in and some bling removed. Despite the plush seats getting the hoof and replaced with carbon buckets, it remains comfortable. If you spec this up on the website, you don’t get a price, so I’m assuming it’s a lot and down to negotiation.

    The exterior colour is a Q colour. Q is the advanced personalisation department at Aston, sort of like Ferrari’s bespoke department where you can pretty much choose any old colour you like and match it with your favourite tie or socks or yacht or whatever. And yes, Q is a Bond reference.

    There is an impressive level of customisation in this car, more than I thought practical for such a small company, but I guess when you’re asking people to stump up north of four hundred grand, you better be able to give them exactly what they want.

    Do you like coffee? I’ve done something a bit different on the Youtube channel, so have a look here: https://theredline.com.au/2025/07/10/video-london-coffee-adventure/

    Look and Feel

    The refreshed interior is much nicer than the pre-facelift car’s although the hefty options applied to this one may have muddied the waters a little. Carbon fibre bucket seats are very hit and miss but these were a hit, although you have to be extremely careful about rushing an entry as my poor wife found out the hard way. Once in, though, they were beautifully comfortable, the blue Alcantara somehow working despite the flashes of blue leather and orange stitching.

    I much prefer the reorganised centre stack. A new 10.25-inch screen – it looks small because it’s quite wide – is clearer and backed by less ambitious and therefore less terrible software. The ageing version Mercedes’ COMAND system has thankfully been shown the door. I still think Android Automotive would be a better choice here (and I’m an Apple guy) but it’s still better than the old clunker.

    Instead of the previous orthogonal wheel, there’s a more traditional flat-bottomed round wheel and I don’t know how I feel about that. I really liked that wheel in the F1 I drove…anyway, it’s a nice wheel, I just liked the other one, felt racier.

    This interior also feels more special with fewer obviously cheap plastics and if there are parts from other cars, they’re hard to spot, apart from the Mercedes stalks but as I say in the Emira and Elise videos, who cares? You want stuff that just works and these work.

    The interior door handles are a pain to see in the dark and they’re really small but that’s about the worst of it.

    For the update, Aston redesigned the front end. I personally felt the old one was a bit weak, with a lot of Ferrari Roma mixed with Nissan Z. it wasn’t ugly but it didn’t have the presence of its predecessors or its brethren. The new grille is more Aston, the lights make more sense in the sheetmetal and I like it a lot.

    The side strake in the front quarter panels is back and looking superb as it integrates with the doors. I love the way the doors open, the trademark Aston swan movement.

    I can’t believe how much I adored this colour. I would not buy this car in this colour, let me be clear, I would prefer it in something more muted, more Aston, but it was so much fun just to look at. It works beautifully with the lines, as though the inherent beauty of the proportions and the loudness of the colour worked hand in hand rather than against each other. It’s a neat trick.

    There is some beautiful detailing on this car’s exterior and I love the ducktail wing at the rear, no messy extra accoutrements for this machine. The diffuser looks properly aggressive, the quad exhausts a signal of intent and if you don’t black out the badges for Cosmos Orange you’re doing it wrong. It really is spectacular, from grille to exhaust tip. This is the sort of car people build houses around so they can look at it.

    And incredibly, between the ducktail and the diffuser, Aston says there’s 70kg of downforce at just over 320km/h. This thing can do 320!

    Chassis

    The Vantage rides on Aston’s long-serving aluminium-intensive platform and in this particular car, the steel brakes are replaced with expensive carbon ceramics. These lop 27kg of unsprung mass off (the Vantage has a 1700kg kerb weight), so are not a bad investment if you want to reduce the standard car’s bulk.

    Tyres are courtesy of Michelin, with AML-coded Pilot Sport 5S rubber, measuring a massive 275/35 R21 at the front and 325/30 R21 at the rear. It’s quite something seeing over two feet of rubber from behind the car (if you’re crouched low enough). 

    There is also a recalibrated active diff, a new Launch Control system (untested, the week I had this car, the weather was horrific)(okay the real reason is that I hate using launch control systems, I have too much mechanical sympathy) and the ability to dial in how much wheelspin you get out of the launch system.

    Aston also says the new dampers have five times the “bandwidth of force” of the previous model and these dampers work together with structurally stiffer rear end (up 29 percent) and new under trays front and rear which both add more rigidity. The extra bandwidth means the engineers have more choice on damper settings.

    Front brakes measure a colossal 400mm and the rears 360mm. In standard guise and carbon guise the discs are drilled and Aston says the pedal weight has been tweaked for increased feel. One thing that had me laughing every time I saw it was the handbrake caliber which is larger than the front calipers on a Corolla.

    Engine and Drivetrain

    The Vantage’s AMG-sourced M177 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 remains one of my favourites of all time. Flexible, indomitable and with a torque reserve you’ll never exhaust, it’s also incredibly characterful. In this iteration it offers up a thunderous 489kW at 6000rpm and 800Nm between 2000 and 5000rpm.

    Aston says power is up by 30 percent and torque 15 percent and claims it’s the biggest power jump between models the company has ever implemented. My only complaint. is that the engine bay could be more attractive and with neater welds but as co-pilot Mark Dewar reminded me, we’ve seen worse on a Ferrari. The black triangular brace, though…phwoar.

    As well as the brace, Aston has fitted bigger turbos, more aggressive cams and a whopper of an exhaust system in concert with a bunch of detail changes. 0-100 is over in 3.4 seconds according to Aston and I have no reason to disbelieve that.

    The engine is really burrowed into the car, too, responsible for it being front mid-engined and therefore giving the Vantage a claimed 50:50 weight distribution.

    Aston chose the ZF eight-speed – honestly, you could write a doctorate thesis on how good this gearbox is – for transmission duties, sending power to the giant rear wheels. Compared to the previous version of the Vantage, there’s a shortened final drive (3.083:1) and recalibrated shifts (ie they’re faster). The gearbox itself is located at the rear axle to help push the weight rearward

    Driving

    This thing is an absolute treat to drive. Getting in reminds me of its obvious competitor, AMG’s own GT family, but this car feels more together (admittedly the last time I drove a GT anything was 2020). The carbon seats are so good but as I’ve already mentioned, you need to be careful you clear them on the way in.

    There is plenty of adjustment, with the optional seats losing powered sliding but I can’t be bothered caring about that. The new wheel is lovely if a bit fat for some folks but I really love the paddles which have a lovely haptic clunk when you pull them, unlike say, an Audi R8 (RIP) or Lotus Emira.

    Firing up, the engine has a lovely little whirr and the 4.0-litre barks into life. The toddler-tongue gear selector works well and is easy to understand, rocking back and forth depending on the gear you want. You also get a gear quickly which is important when you’re manoeuvring a car that isn’t exactly endowed with a small turning circle.

    In Sport mode – which is as low it goes, apart from wet – the Vantage is quite happy. You do get a lot of road noise on bad surfaces because there is a phenomenal amount of rubber underneath you, but it’s comfortable and easy. The chunky torque is well managed by the ZF’s calibration and what I like about this transmission is that it’s more obedient to commands than in the current M3 or M5. Or Audi RS6 for that matter. It’s like Aston is more confident in its ability to shift hard and fast.

    Annoyingly, the Bowers and Wilkins stereo’s extra speaker on the middle of the dash means that sunny days deliver even more reflections. Given the weather was vile when I had it, I didn’t notice that until the morning I returned it. On the upside the lovely wing mirrors are surprisingly big and therefore functional. Which is handy given the limited over-the-shoulder visibility.

    I did find a break in the weather and took it somewhere fun and the same fun place I took the F1 I drove a couple of years ago. I found the F1 to be excellent to drive, I really loved it. The power in that car was somewhere between the old and the new but this updated V8 is something else.

    The new gearbox and diff work the rear wheels very hard out of corners. There is an appreciable difference between Sport and Sport+ (no Track on the road for me)(fight me) but there’s enough slip in Sport+ for the Vantage to feel just the right kind of loose.

    Its V8 bark really dominates the experience but I really feel the new car has more in the chassis and it feels more of a cohesive piece. The faster steering, the little bit extra out of the diff, the more cooperative gearbox all prove very entertaining but it’s more controllable. While the F1 was better, my colleagues said the standard car bordered on wayward when under pressure. Not so much in this car.

    The brakes are colossally effective, of course, and turn in is further aided by the clever diff and the updated braking system. It’s so much fun to hustle and as the weather closed back in, I was left frustrated I couldn’t explore more.

    Redline Recommendation

    This car is vastly more convincing both in itself and in company. It feels more aggressive than the Roma, more comfortable than the AMG GT and more interesting than the 911, all while keeping up with each of them. It must be incredible on track with all those detail changes. And if it wasn’t Cosmos Orange but a more traditional Aston colour, it would be superb as a sleeper.

    It’s fast, it’s fun and it feels more luxurious and expensive than before, better matching its substantial price. The more powerful and even sharper Vantage S was just announced a couple of weeks ago so that thing will be bonkers. But as more of an all-rounder – at least as all-round as a two-door sports car can be – the Vantage is incredibly competitive.

  • Side by side: Toyota Corolla GR and Yaris GR

    Side by side: Toyota Corolla GR and Yaris GR

    Two hot hatches. Three drivers. A whole lot of fun. The team takes on the two Toyota Gazoo Racing hot hatches, the GR Yaris and GR Corolla.

    Words: Peter Anderson
    Images: Blake Currall
    Co-pilots: Mark Dewar, Blake Currall

    Two hot hatches. Three drivers. A whole lot of fun. The team takes on the two Toyota Gazoo Racing hot hatches, the GR Yaris and GR Corolla.

    Toyota, typically, has been methodically beavering away at A Thing. For the first twenty years of this century – give or take – the Japanese giant stamped out the dullest, most dependable machines on planet Earth.

    They were crushingly dull but sold by the millions and rightly so. Most folks couldn’t give a rat’s what makes their car go as long as it turns on every time you start it. The company basically invented hybrid and their whole go to market strategy for hatches and sedans marched towards electrification.

    But the barbs were starting to stick to Toyota and the board were getting a bit antsy about the brand’s image. President Akio Toyoda (yes, related to the founder) had been in charge of the company since 2009 and weathered a recall of 8.5 million vehicles and being hauled in front of the United States Congress in 2010 to tell them how things would get better.

    That all took a while. In 2016, without any of us really knowing, Toyoda-san signed off on a car that would change the way a lot of people would look at his company. The Yaris GR was born. Toyoda was already famous for being a massive hoon, partly because of his involvement in the delightfully bonkers V10-powered Lexus LFA. Toyoda even carries the status of Master Driver at Toyota having raced under the name Morizo Kinoshita. He was heavily involved in the development of the Yaris, too.

    Then there was the (in)famous and now-legendary public pronouncement – no more boring cars. In the space of a few years, Toyota went from having nothing interesting for people who like driving to having a portfolio of performance cars and a flagship performance brand in Gazoo Racing.

    In the rear-wheel drive sports car corner we’ve got the A90 Supra and second-generation GR86. In the all-wheel drive rally weapon corner we got the Yaris GR. And finally we got the Corolla GR, a classic hot hatch in the GTi mould.

    We think buyers roll into a dealer looking at both of those cars. So we put them together to see what’s different and why you’d choose one over the other.

    Please bear in mind that we tested the pre-facelift MY2024 versions of both cars. Yes, I’ve been busy.

    Toyota GR Yaris

    MY2024 Yaris GR: $51,390
    MY 2024 Yaris GR Rallye: $56,390 + ORC

    MY2025 Yaris GR GT: $55,490
    MY2025 Yaris GR GTS: $60,490

    The Yaris GR is like a modern-day Ford Escort Cosworth, a car I was obsessed with as a teenager. I nearly wrote kid, but I’m too old to get away with that. The Escort was a Frankenstein car, knocked together from (mostly) Sierra bits, right down to having a longitudinal rather than transverse engine.

    While I wouldn’t say Toyota went that far with the Yaris, it is half-Yaris, half-Corolla with a purpose-built turbo three-cylinder and barely any shared body panels with its nameplate base car. It was made for the WRC but a little global health crisis pretty much killed that version of the rules, leaving the GR Yaris a bit of an orphan. A homologation special for homologation that never happened.

    But, when it comes down to it, the bewinged Escort and chunked-up Yaris were both built for rally stages. So yeah, I reckon the description holds.

    The Yaris comes in two flavours, the entry-level and the Rallye. I asked for the Rallye spec partly because last time I drove one, it had the Dunlop tyres from the basic car rather than the Michelin Pilot Sport 4s. On the base car, they allow for an extremely solid level of hooliganism that I appreciate, but I wanted to see what PS4s did for the sharper Rallye in the real world.

    The Rallye’s upgrades from the standard car include the tyres, 18-inch BBS wheels (replacing the Enkeis), limited-slip diffs front and rear, red brake calibers, uprated springs and dampers heated seats and a few bits and bobs. It’s mostly about the mechanical package to deliver a sharper drive over the standard car.

    Toyota GR Corolla

    MY2024 GR Corolla GTS: $64,190 (manual)

    MY2025 GR Corolla GTS: $67,990 (manual) $79,490 (automatic)

    Pretty much as soon as the Yaris landed, the internet started screaming for a GR Corolla. It made a lot of sense. The Yaris is tiny, impractical for families and both the i30N and Golf GTI exist. The Corolla’s global appeal endures, even in our SUV-mad world and as a hatchback, doesn’t look half bad.

    Toyota had less to do making the GR Corolla. For a start, it’s actually a Corolla rather than the mix-and-match build of the Yaris. Technically it should probably be cheaper than the Yaris because it would be less expensive to build, but that just wouldn’t be cricket, Yaris owners would howl about their resale getting smashed.

    So it’s basically a tough-looking Corolla with new front and rear ends, skirts and wings along with a lot of plastic cladding to widen the body and fit everything in. Wheels you won’t see on any other Corolla and of course, the Honda-style triple exhaust.

    The interior is largely the same as a ZR Corolla but has nicer, grippier seats, alloy pedals and a manual shifter, something you won’t find anywhere else in the Corolla range (I think). It has all the same pros and cons as any other Corolla hatch – including the tight rear seat – but overall it’s a more comfortable car than the Yaris.

    I mention the ZR because the GR is based on just that spec, with LED headlights, auto high beam, LED fog lights front and rear, dual-zone climate control, keyless entry and start, a heated steering wheel and heated front seats.

    The GR also gets 18-inch Enkei alloy, Yokohama Advans, triple exhaust outlets and Torsen LSDs at both ends like the Yaris Rallye/GTS.

    What are they like to drive?

    GR Yaris Rallye

    Engine: 1.6-litre turbocharged three-cylinder
    Power: 200kW
    Torque: 370Nm
    Transmission: six-speed manual, all-wheel drive.

    Let’s start with the Yaris. Before this, I’d had a good amount of seat time in both versions as well as a week with the Rallye on the wrong tyres (on that point, I think Michelins weren’t always easy to come by after the Yaris’s initial launch and the thrashing these cars got meant they needed whatever rubber was available).

    Stepping into the Yaris, you sit quite high, like the Recaro-equipped first and second-gen Ford Fiesta STs. It does limit taller folks a little from enjoying the delights of the smaller car, so bear that in mind if you’re a towering inferno of a person. It also means a slightly awkward position for the rest of us, with a funny wheel-pedal-shifter relationship that takes a little bit of getting used to. But it works. And whatever you do, make it work.

    The day we had to thrash was damp and dismal but the rain had held off long enough for dry tarmac. Settling in took all of ten seconds and I was immediately able to absolutely throw the Yaris down the road without having to think too hard about it.

    It’s one of those cars that activates your sixth sense for keying the performance to the conditions, something I noticed the first time I drove one around the Sutton Road facility in the ACT so beloved of Toyota. It takes no time at all to find a comfortable level and give it the whip.

    It’s an incredibly quick car for its size, the turbo three-cylinder conjuring up an improbable amount of driveable power. It’s not what you’d call super-linear but it gets up and goes surprisingly quickly and you’ve got a ton of torque to play with so you don’t have to constantly change gear.

    The Rallye/GTS’s pair of Torsen LSDs make it a much sharper machine, with a lot more mechanical grip over the Dunlop-shod/open-diff GT. That car definitely has its charms – it’s delightfully loose even on dry tarmac – the GTS counters with a very different, sharper drive. That in itself is a genuine, colossal achievement if you ask me. The same car with two distinct characters, yours to choose. I really like that.

    More grip, better turn-in, better exit. The car rotates happily in just about any situation. There’s a twisty dial on the console that takes you from Normal to Sport to Track. I was perfectly happy in Sport all of the time. Track made the car feel tighter and given I like a bit of movement, I stayed away from Track, but quickly understood the point of it.

    It’s a ripper of a car and if we had to wait this long for something this good, it was worth it.

    GR Corolla GTS

    Engine: 1.6-litre turbocharged three-cylinder
    Power: 221kW
    Torque: 370Nm
    Transmission: six-speed manual, all-wheel drive.

    Next, the Corolla. Immediately this car feels more normal. It probably helped I hadn’t long before had a Corolla ZR hybrid, a car that we’re not supposed to like but I do. Everything is easy to find and as a daily, it’s more refined overall and easier to live with. Bigger boot than the Yaris, better seating position, a few more little niceties.

    On the face of it, the Corolla seems more like the Golf GTI of more recent years (I have not driven the most recent Golf 8 refresh, so restrict your thinking to 8.0 back to 6). A car aimed at folks my age and a bit younger, but who have given up a bit and are more on the luxury end of buying, treating themselves. Hmmm. Let’s see how this pans out.

    Like the Yaris, the interior is a bit plasticky and Toyota just can’t help themselves with Fisher Price rocker switches I thought had long since been banished, but there are still a couple, as there are in the Yaris. The seats are great and Toyota is doing well with front seats in there upper-end cars these days, I feel like at some point someone bought a Peugeot and went, “Yeah, like that.”

    You feel a bit of Yaris in the clutch action as you dip it for the start, and the suitably notchy shifter feels instantly familiar. As does the mild rasp of the turbo triple as you fire it up. Start it rolling and oh my goodness, how did I get to be going this fast already?

    So much of the Yaris DNA is in this car, so much that I think it’s just plain GR DNA. The Supra feels great really quickly, too, so the range feels like that golden period of BMW M cars when Albert Biermann was put in charge, before he went to play with Hyundais on the Nurburgring. The consistency across the GRs feels like the M2, M4 CS and M5 under his leadership – same but different and clearly built by hoons for hoons.

    Its extra weight is smothered by the extra power. The 5.3-second 0-100km/h is testament to that, the extra power coming from freer flowing exhaust with that extra central outlet, bigger fuel pump and oil cooler capacity and just plain old more boost (up to 25 psi).

    The Corolla loves corners and given its longer wheelbase, inspires even more confidence. You feel like it’s more likely to catch you than throw you off the road. You can cover ground very quickly in this car, but it feels more together in the sense that there’s less movement – and, as you might expect, an ever-so-slightly softer turn-in. We’re talking two tenths of bugger-all here, but enough to notice.

    The Yaris feels like it gets off corners better, but honestly, they’re difficult to split. And that is where we come to say the glorious words:

    Choosing one over the other is not going to be a mistake.

    Unless there is a super-niche reason you’d need one or the other, they’re both incredible fun. The Corolla is more liveable day-to-day, no question, but nobody who has a Yaris GR is buying another car because they can’t stand it in traffic. Degrees. Tiny ones.

    I would – just – choose the Yaris. I don’t have to carry kids around, it’s usually just me and my beloved. The Yaris is tiny, which is my kind of car – I love these small hot hatches having owned a Clio 172, a Peugeot 205 GTI and 306 GTI-6. The Yaris is as special to drive as each of these in the right time and place but with all-wheel drive, less scary.

    And my co-pilots Blake and Mark?

    Mark, with whom I have spent a lot of time in all kinds of machinery and who is a very accomplished driver, was more in favour of the Corolla. “I liked the Corolla as the Yaris is mischievous. Fun and involving but more likely to bite if not well-guided. Corolla is a bit less on edge for me. Second run on 30/70 [front-rear drive bias] was the best.”

    See? It’s a split decision.

    Blake, snapper extraordinaire and former-now-sometime racing driver says the Yaris is hands-down more fun, more up on its toes, more of a scamp that feels a little unhinged thanks to the short wheelbase. He concedes the Corolla is arguably the better car, but a bit too sterile and grown up for his taste.

    Blake drives incredible cars all the time and looked like he was having the time of his life in these things.

    And so as the day drew to a close and weather brought with it mist and rain, I sent them both ahead of me on a stretch of road we all know well. Entirely coincidentally, I followed them in a GR-adjacent machine, Mark’s immaculate second-gen BRZ, the Subaru version of the GR86.

    Yeah, the GR86 is more different these days, but close enough for my purposes. Same easy-to-use gearbox, very different character but a car you can grab a hold of and send, although in this weather with a lot more care and caution.

    The Yaris and Corolla? Long, long gone. Nothing can stop you having fun in these things.

  • 2025 BMW M5 Review

    2025 BMW M5 Review

    Words: Peter Anderson
    Pics: Matt Garrard (IG     @mattg81)
    Co-pilots: Mark Dewar and Blake Currall.

    BMW’s performance flagship sedan goes hybrid (with a plug), literally amping up the power, torque – and weight.

    Getting on twenty years ago I arrived home and fixed my wife with a look of helplessness. I had just come back from an afternoon driving M cars around Philip Island, long before I had this gig as a motoring writer.

    “What did you do?” she asked in reply to the look.

    “Nothing! I didn’t buy anything!” I replied to ease the idea I had just bankrupted us with a rash M car purchase. I had been whisked off to the day at the track because a dealer had made several separate hashes of a simple fix to my E87 120i.

    “You did something though.”

    “Well, yes. I drove a lot of cars really fast around Philip Island.” (well I thought I was going fast until Geoff Brabham took me round in an E92 M3) “And I drove an M5. I think I’m going to have to have one before I die.”

    It was an E60 M5 sedan. Derided (initially) for its looks, it has aged beautifully in my eyes and was the sole V10-powered M5.

    A few years later I went into a dealership in Sydney with my E87 130i (our third 1er, we’re on our eighth as a family) intending to return home with a Renaultsport Megane. I have no idea why I had lost my mind and wanted to sell the 130i, a modern classic, a six-speed manual with the the N52 3.0-litre straight-six.

    Anyway, my eye was caught briefly by a Ferrari 360 Modena for just $60,000. We were still in the aftermath of the GFC and cars like that were cheap. Even a twin-clutch one, safely locked away, would have doubled in value in the following year or two for a tidy profit. The Lotus Elise for $35k that I passed on? Seventy grand today. Even my wife admits I would have been right to buy either.

    Then, behind the F360 my son spotted a silver BMW. He was only 10 at the time but he recognised the M badge. It was a proper M-car, an immaculate, V10-powered E60 with 110,000km on the clock.

    A few phone calls later (the mechanic responsible for it at a BMW dealer said, “He babied it, just buy it.”), finance, a hard bargain on the 130i as a trade-in and it was mine. It needed new rubber, a good service and I bought a pretty good warranty for it because I knew a V10 wasn’t cheap if it went bang (this was before the rod bearing issue became A Big Thing).

    I couldn’t believe my luck. I had a bucket list car that I never truly thought I could own for a fifth of what the original owner had paid for it. And it was just six years old. Over the following years I drove its successors, they were great fun, but they weren’t as unhinged as the E60 I so adored and want back.

    And so we come to the G90 BMW M5. It’s still a V8, twin-turbo and a big four-door sedan, as it has been since the end of E60 production.

    But, like, really big. It looks big and it is big at over five metres long. It’s also got a hybrid system, amping up the power and delivering a torque number formerly the preserve of modern Bugattis – 1000Nm. As a result, it’s 2500kg, nearly three quarters of a ton more than my E60.

    I don’t buy into the keyboard warrior nonsense that M is dead or this is heresy or whatever, but that weight figure made me pause for more than a moment. Could this be the end of the M5 as we’ve known it? Or has something a bit unexpected happened and it’s gone back to being utterly nuts? Or has a third, even more unexpected thing occurred?

    How much is the 2025 BMW M5 and what does it cost?

    M5 Sedan: $259,900 (April 2025)
    M5 Touring:

    Two hundred and sixty large looks like a lot of money. And it is. Apologies for taking you back to the E60 again, but 20 years ago an unadorned M5 was $225,000 in Australia, give or take and there were a lot of options.

    M5s went as low as around $185,000 in the F10 for a stripped-out Pure but in twenty years it has picked up just $35,000 in the new car price and it’s fully loaded.

    And if you look around, the F90s got into the $250k area, so despite the crushing inflation on new car prices, we’re back where we started ten years ago, give or take.

    Naturally it’s fully loaded, with big screens, heated seats, leather everywhere, configurable screen, many zones of climate control, laser headlights. It has the works, you’ll want for nothing except lightness.

    Drivetrain

    Returning to the M5 is the 4.4-litre twin-turbo V8, now with nearly 800 horsepower. If you’re one of those EV-haters, that’s all you need to know. Move on.

    On its own, the V8 spins up 430kW, which is actually quite a bit less than the old car. Well, its official figure, anyway. Torque is a massive 750Nm.

    Added to this is a hybrid motor buried in the gearbox, which still the ever-awesome eight-speed ZF. The 145kW motor is fed by a 22.1kW gross/18.6kWh usable battery in the back of the car and as a plug-in hybrid, you can wizz about in EV mode at up to 140km/h. The only drama is the 7.8kW AC-only charging speed, which pretty much locks you out of public charging but on the bright side, you can plug it in anywhere.

    If you don’t do anything silly you’ll easily run 50km in EV mode or even more if you’re careful. That’s impressive but, obviously adds to the heft of this machine. BMW had considered going mild hybrid but figured in for a penny, in for a lot of pounds. Personally and after much mental deliberation, I think it’s the right thing.

    The electric motor’s torque figure is 280Nm but BMW says a “pre-gearing stage enables effective torque at the transmission input to be increased to 450Nm.” Yikes. It feels like has plenty of torque in electric mode.

    All told, BMW says you have 535kW and 1000Nm of torque. I mean, that’s a lot, two and a half tonnes or not. And, being BMW, 535kW is a straight-up fib, because anyone who has put the G90 M5 on a dyno has seen close to 800 horsepower, so the M5 is closing in on 600kW. Let’s call it 580kW, split the difference.

    Hilariously, the M5 gets 3.0L/100km on the official combined cycle. Due to my stupid schedule, co-pilot Mark picked up the M5 and when he handed it over it was doing 5.9L/100km.

    The WLTP figures are more fantastical, with 1.9L/100km on the combined cycle. Less fantastical is the 25kWh/100km on EV mode, but that’s pretty much what you can expect hauling about a big V8 as well.

    It can work in a very normal, familiar hybrid mode, which is another reason the combined cycle figure is low.

    0-100km/h is over in a McLaren-like 3.5 seconds and independent testing has seen that figure slip down to 3.4 seconds. Top speed is a predictable 255km/h while the optional speed restrictor will see it beyond 300km/h.

    The F90 was slightly quicker to 100 which has caused the usual internet bamboozlement but it didn’t have an electric motor in it which means you can slip around town with zero emissions.

    And on that point, many M5 owners will likely own their own home and therefore be able to fit solar panels. I charged the M5’s battery at the slower 3kW rate (I don’t have a wallbox) and paid exactly nothing for it because it all fell out of the sky. I get bugger-all feeding it to the grid because of AGL and Ausgrid’s crushing greed so putting it into your car and saving fuel is far more cost-effective.

    And if you’re a data nerd, reduces your payoff time markedly. Go on, get some panels and feed your super sedan electrons to own the libs.

    Driving

    Some more numbers before we go on. The 20-inch fronts and 21-inch rears are shod with Hankook Ventus tyres as standard. This was an interesting choice which we will explore more. They measure 285/40 ZR20 on the front and 295/35 ZR21 at the rear. UK-spec cars appear to come with Michelin Pilot Sport 5s these days and I’m not sure if that’s like an Audi thing where it’s pot-luck which rubber you get (the RS3, for example, had a choice of two or three tyre manufacturers).

    Active rear-wheel steer is a first for the M5, counter-steering up to 1.5 degrees at low speeds for turn-in and in the same direction at high speeds for stability.

    I loved pootling about in electric. That sounds stupid and looks pretty silly written down but there’s something utterly breathtaking about all this potential prowling the streets in near-silence. As I said, the electricity fell out of the sky on to my roof. It felt fine, right almost.

    I carry a lot of guilt (yeah, yeah, what a snowflake, yada yada) about my carbon impact so the idea I could, if I had the money, have the best of both worlds is very appealing. Every day smugness with zero emissions motoring, occasional smugness brought on by just how damn fast thing can go when everything is turned on.

    And boy is this thing fast. I went in thinking it would be like the mad X5 M I drove a few years ago. Heavy but creaking when you really had your foot in. The M5 was not a bit of it. It felt completely tied together in brisk on-road motoring on my favourite bit of road.

    Braking was straight, true and powerful, which is cheering because of the speeds and weight they have to deal with.

    The engine’s galactic torque number had me thinking if I got anything wrong I’d be in orbit. I really didn’t mind the steering at all, it was perfectly geared, nicely weighted. All together – it could do with more feel.

    And of course, the engine could do with more sound. But honestly, when you’re threading together your favourite bit of road and keeping this wide boi off the armco and out of oncoming traffic, you don’t really notice.

    The tyres were the only part of the package I wasn’t sure about. The Hankooks had tons of grip and the compliance in the sidewalls was welcome, as was the way they signal when things are approaching a bit naughty. But around Sydney’s abomination of a road network they hunted every ripple and hump. I don’t want to have to correct so often.

    Which was in sharp contrast to how they were when the pressure was on. But you just know the last thing they’ll see will be a set of fresh Michelins. I know that’s what I would do.

    Perhaps the only thing I would do at purchase is specify the carbon ceramic brakes up front (for a mere $14,231). While the steels were super-impressive, even in my short bursts of hard-driving I felt I wanted just a little more confidence. That may just have been me rolling the weight figure around in my head but I did wonder how they would fare on track.

    And this is where my hot take about this car that you will shortly read will make a little more sense. This doesn’t, in this spec anyway, feel like a car you’d take to the track. You will absolutely rule just about any road – Corsica excepted, I suppose – in this thing. I can’t imagine how much fun a tarmac rally would be in one. I couldn’t see myself enjoying a track day in it.

    Which is fine, not every car is built for that and maybe not every M5 is. Or has to be. Because the cars that started it all, even the perceived pinnacle of M5-ness, weren’t track cars.

    Redline Recommendation

    So here’s my hot take about the M5, controversial even. You know how everyone bangs on about the E39 M5? It’s a lovely thing. Manual, naturally-aspirated V8. Elegant, refined, fast. A real executive express. It could dance a bit, yes, but fundamentally it was a really, really good sports sedan. For the road.

    I think the G90 is the closest in spirit to the E39 than any M5 since. The margins aren’t big, I’ll grant you that, but the G90 is a crushingly fast executive express just like the E39. It’s refined in a way the E39 could only hope for and probably a lot more comfortable.

    Photographer Blake and I argued about this a lot and it was glorious fun. He’s of the opinion it should be half the weight and, in a sense, he’s right. But that’s not how cars are in 2025. We all want everything and if we don’t get it, we don’t buy it. Stuff means weight.

    And Blake isn’t a knuckle-dragging anti-electric guy. He and I could and probably will record a three-hour video on the joys of the new electric Renault 5 when it reaches our shores.

    Co-pilot Mark and I were closer in our opinions. Mark absolutely adored the M5 and wrestling it from his hands was understandably difficult. We were completely in agreement that this is a belter of a machine.

    European regulations demand electrification for this car to survive into the next decade, which it must. And I really hope it does because I think it will change some minds on electrification. You don’t have to love EVs but they’re coming whether you like it or not. If BMW can convince you it’s not the worst thing in the world, perhaps you’ll come around to a more pragmatic way of thinking about it.

    I loved this car. It’s a massive wrecking ball of a thing, demolishing all before it. The way it goes about its business is breathtakingly simple on the surface despite everything that’s going on underneath. The E60 is still my favourite even though it’s demonstrably less capable, but you’d be hard-pressed to talk me out of a G90 if I had the money.

  • 2024 Lotus Emira Review

    2024 Lotus Emira Review

    Words: Peter Anderson
    Images: Blake Currall and Matt Garrard
    Co-pilot: Mark Dewar

    Lotus has had many owners, some consequential, others just treading water. In the Before Times (2017), Chinese automotive giant Geely – still not yet really a household name outside of China – added Lotus to its group of brands. I’m going to tell you a story but the summary is that Geely’s ownership of Lotus is definitely consequential.

    Geely has form for buying brands from companies who don’t know what they’re doing. Its first major acquisition outside of its homeland was Volvo. Ford had not done a great job with any of the brands in the ill-fated Premier Automotive Group, surrendering the Swedish carmaker for US$1.8bn in 2010, less than half of its purchase price in 1999 of nearly US$5bn.

    Since Geely’s purchase, Volvo has taken flight and is now making the best cars since its 1960s heyday.

    The Lotus story is a lot more wobbly. Started by Colin Chapman in a garage (like, actually in a garage, not like these stupid creation myths of tech companies), the iconic Seven launched the brand to the world. It wasn’t the first Lotus but it arguably remains the most famous.

    Perhaps more accurately, the Seven launched to a bunch of lunatic English gentry with a taste for danger. Lotus started winning stuff all over the place in motorsport and the road car division grew alongside it.

    A global recession and Chapman’s untimely death in 1982 aged just 54 sent both the race and road car teams into a spiral. A bit of a turnaround sparked some hope with a new chairman but eventually, the business was sold to General Motors in 1985.

    GM didn’t really know what to do with it having assumed complete control in 1986, then selling it on to a company controlled by mercurial Italian entrepreneur Romano Artioli.

    Under his inevitably chaotic three-year rule the Lotus Elise was born, as was his granddaughter from which the revolutionary new car took its name. Malaysia’s DRB Hicom (owner of Proton Motors) then bought the company from Artioli who basically vanished from view after his Lotus and Bugatti forays.

    Proton used the Lotus badge on a Satria GTi hatchback but like GM before it, didn’t really know what to do with it. Lotus remained underfunded but punched well above its weight with endless tweaks to the Elise and the creation of the Exige, the Europa and Evora.

    Then in 2017, a complicated deal saw Geely take a controlling stake in Lotus and duly chucked a bunch of money at it. Out popped the Evija electric hypercar, two new EVs and in between all of that, a new sports car the Emira.

    When it arrived we were told this was the Last of the Line of petrol-powered Lotus sports cars. I bloody hope not.

    How much is 2024 Lotus Emira and what do I get?

    Lotus Emira I4 First Edition: $199,990
    Lotus Emira V6 First Edition manual: $209,990
    Lotus Emira V6 First Edition automatic: $213,990

    The inline four-cylinder First Edition is the entry-level and represents a fairly decent price rise over the Evora. It sort of replaces both the Evora and the Elise but nothing can really replace the Elise. That car was its own thing and will forever be a gem.

    First Editions feature a bunch of stuff over the standard cars which are starting to filter through and this particular car was around $206,000. Non First Edition cars are coming and will settle in the upper reaches of the $100k mark – as in closer to $200k – but unlikely to be a significant rise over the final Evora, which is nice.

    In the First Edition you get a choice of Sport and Touring chassis as a no-cost option as well as a string of free cosmetic choices like paint, leather and brake caliper colours. And lots of First Edition bling.

    This car was the Sport chassis. I have driven an Emira briefly on the Touring chassis as well.

    Also along for the ride are 20-inch wheels shod with Goodyear Eagle F1 tyres, leather and Alcantara interior, digital dashboard and a 10.25-inch touchscreen, climate control, a few handy safety features, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, USB ports and even somewhere to wirelessly charge your phone.

    Look and Feel

    Fundamentally, wow. The exterior styling of this car is superb. Perfect proportions, gorgeous angles and details, there isn’t a single bad view on it. There are echoes at the rear of the dramatic Evija and a complete departure from Lotuses past at the front, with a beautifully resolved front end featuring gorgeous, arrow-shaped hot air exits. It’s just lovely.

    The exterior detailing is a huge step up from Lotuses past which is evidence of the huge sums of money invested by Geely. You have a wide choice of wheels and despite the diminutive size of the car itself, the 20-inch alloys are spot on. The risk was it would look a bit roller-skatey but they’re visual perfection.

    I also love the sculpted air intakes on the side, reminding me of a McLaren. The rear end is as clean as you can imagine and definitely not shouty. I’m kind of sad however that you can’t see the engine under the plastic covers. I’d probably want to see a bit more bling there but knowing what the M139 AMG engine looks like, perhaps it’s better hidden away.

    Still, a grey plastic cover with Lotus written on it is a bit lacking in drama.

    The interior is lovely and huge jump over the Evora’s. The chassis itself has been re-shaped and while fashioned from extruded aluminium, the door aperture is more human-friendly. This dark-interior hides the quality and design a bit, makes it look a bit generic, but it isn’t.

    It’s roomy like the Evora was, but so much easier to get in and out of, instantly transforming the Emira into a daily driver. I’m getting old but there was no grunting and huffing to get in and out, just a nice easy fluid movement. The sill is still wide but you’re not negotiating a diagonal extrusion.

    When I say it’s roomy, it’s obviously not a Bentley inside but remarkably my long-legged friend Stephen who stands at two metres fit without drama. Co-pilot Mark and photographers Blake and Matt are all a little broader than me and none complained.

    The squared-off steering wheel looks weird and if I’m being totally honest, it’s a bit on the thick side. I think it’s isn’t helped by the shape of the rim being a bit complex, more of a triangular section rather than tubular, but it’s perfectly usable.

    I like the perforated outer surface but the fact it’s off centre makes it visually top heavy. But that means the bigger members of the crew were able to slide in without drama.

    The digital dash is pretty simple to look and doesn’t feature any significant customisation. It’s big enough, though, and works really well. I wouldn’t mind a bit style tacho like a Ferrari’s with the big speed readout in the middle, but I think it’s too short and there isn’t the real estate for that to make sense.

    Down on the centre console is an inoffensive shifter with a mildly baffling action (more on that later). Behind it is a start-stop button covered by the cheapest, nastiest flip-top cover that I was tempted to tear out and cast asunder. It’s unnecessary in the first place but if you’re going to do it, do it properly.

    That’s the worst complaint I have about the interior.

    As with the dashboard, the 10.25-inch touchscreen is hardly the last word in excitement but features some interesting stats, a G-meter and everything you need. It’s a bit slow, though, and could do with a bit more grunt to make it easier to use.

    The climate controls are separate and even have a helmeted figure for the button directing the airflow which made me laugh.

    It’s functional, well-made and doesn’t smell of glue.

    Drivetrain

    2.0-litre four-cylinder turbo (Mercedes M139)
    Capacity: 1991cc
    Power: 268kW at 6500rpm
    Torque: 430Nm between 3000 and 5500rpm

    Emira debuts the M139 AMG 2.0-litre four-cylinder in the lower state of tune we don’t get in Australia in the A45. With “just” 268kW on offer today, the SE arrives in 2025 with 310kW if that and the 4.4-second sprint to 100km/h isn’t enough.

    Speaking of that sprint, it’s just 0.1 seconds slower than the supercharged V6.

    Along with the engine comes AMG’s eight-speed dual-clutch gearbox, straight out of the A45/GLA45. We’ll be talking more about that.

    The reason there’s an AMG engine in here has a lot to do with Geely somehow building up a shareholding in Mercedes-Benz that makes them the largest single shareholder. That has also spawned another purchase, that of smart, of which Geely now owns half.

    The engine is mounted amidships and uses an aluminium subframe, meaning despite the higher complexity of the M139 engine, the four-cylinder Emira is a little lighter overall than the V6 which has a steel unit. The weight is also lower down and Lotus if-you-kn0w-you-know folks reckon it’s a better car for it.

    Chassis

    The Emira is built around Lotus’s Elemental extruded aluminium chassis technology. Much has changed since the Evora, not least the giant chunk of aluminium making it a bit tricky to get in and out of.

    Double-wishbones at both ends hold the car off the ground. It’s amazing how compact they are, the front end is so lithe and also houses a bunch of cooling gear.

    As with Evora – and McLaren – the steering rack is hydraulically-assisted which bodes well for replicating the fabled steering feel of both, but particularly Evora which was considered a benchmark for a long, long time.

    Front brakes are drilled 370mm discs with four-pot AP Racing calipers while the rears are only slightly smaller at 350mm, again with four pistons.

    Wrapped around the 20-inch wheels are Goodyear Eagle F1 Supersports, measuring 245/35/R20 on the front axle and 295/30/R20 at the rear. Optional are Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tyres.

    What is the Lotus Emira like to drive?

    The fact that this car is related to the Evora is no bad thing. I loved that car, even with its Aisin six-speed automatic that wasn’t quite the trackday weapon even if it was great on the road.

    And you feel a lot of Evora in this car, which means the magic is still there. Fire up the M139 and it hoots and hollers and chuffs and whistles. Lotus has a different intake and exhaust setup, partly for the obvious mid-engined reasons but partly to improve the noise.

    You hear so much more of it because the intakes are right behind your ear, like a Ferrari 360 Spider and I love it.

    I nearly fell out of love with the car straight away, however. The shifter is annoying to use and seems to want up to seven pulls to make it work (slight exaggeration). Parking and three-point turns are embarrassing. I’d prefer a D button instead or better still the manual that simply doesn’t exist on the four-cylinder cars.

    Vision forward is brilliant. The big windscreen, the way the wheelarches peak over the wheel centre line, it’s a great view and a clear one. The mirrors are almost SUV big but you can see what’s coming and they’re a key part of the styling’s cohesion.

    The rear window is a narrow slot, of course, and over the shoulder is catastrophic, but the mirrors cover most of that sin well. Of course it’s inevitably like this, it’s a two-door sports car. Could do with a better reversing camera though.

    I’ve already talked about mildly weird wheel (it reminded me of the Aston Martin Vantage F1 I drove) but I haven’t talked about the Volvo switchgear (good, move on, it’s fine) or the metal paddles (lovely).

    While tactile, there’s no haptic feedback from the paddles, no pleasing click or mechanical clack. I guess you can’t have everything. Another small point of complaint in a sea of big points of praise.

    Because my goodness this car is dead-set wonderful.

    Even bumbling about at low speed it’s easy to live with. Nobody knows what it is so there’s no getting cut up by an angry ute driver. Although they fact they can’t see you under their high window line might have something to do with it.

    The M139 is a little on the cantankerous side at low speeds and the inherited gearbox isn’t much to write home about, but it does the job and you learn its quirks quickly.

    Basically, there’s no issue driving this to the shops or the school drop-off or to work.

    Point it a great piece of road, though, and hoo-boy. Get into sport mode and just let it rip. Like Elise, Exige and Evora, you don’t so much build confidence as inherit it, like Neo learning jiu-jitsu with a download.

    The Emira beckons you into corners with the kind of poise and grip some more expensive supercars can only dream of. The poise comes from a chassis that seems completely resistant to bottoming out, choosing instead to let you get on with wringing its neck rather than worrying about scraping its belly.

    It doesn’t bounce or bobble on rugged surfaces, the tyres just bite and the car – by sports car standards – glides over the top. You never, ever feel like a bump or pothole or sudden surface change is going to chuck you off the road.

    Few cars feel this good, this stable, this capable through the messiness of the road I save for the stuff that needs a good going over. On-camber, off-camber turns, terrible surfaces, messy joins in the road surface, tight hairpins and long sweepers. The Emira ate them up. The low-end drivability concerns of the engine go out the window.

    I’ve driven so many very fast cars down this particular stretch of road I like and the Emira stands tall as the car I’ve had least to worry about, the Elise excepted. The front-end grip on these road-biased F1 Eagle Supersports is phenomenal. You cannot unsettle this car unless you’re trying to and even then, you’re really going to have to put your mind to it.

    You have to work with the engine’s strengths, though. The turbo four has a habit of hanging on to a gear too long despite you demanding a downshift. It gets there in the end – and those monstrously big brakes are washing off great chunks of speed anyway. This quirk is more than made up for with the hilarious soundtrack and blunt force of the power delivery.

    The way this thing rockets out of corners despite running a four-pot behind your back beggars belief.

    Perhaps the most Evora-ey thing about this car is the steering. Still vivid – although perhaps slightly less so – still sharp, always inviting. It feels just right with a change of direction that will almost certainly apply a permanent grin to your face.

    But at the same time, it’s so civilised. Folks might complain about that, long-suffering Elise owners (of which I dream) will whine that its too nice. The fact it is so nice but still goes, stops and turns like a Lotus means the Emira has moved things on spectacularly. As the sports car pool shrinks, the Emria has landed in it with a car that looks twice its price, does everything they do but probably won’t cost $15,000 to service after a trackday.

    Redline Recommendation

    This car has joined my five-car fantasy garage, right next to the Elise. It’s so absurdly fun and capable but at half the price of the cars it feels like. This drives like a McLaren 570S which is a massive compliment because McLarens are the only supercars that can handle the difficult tarmac I sent the Emira down without expensive scraping noises.

    It’s got the delicacy for which Lotus is so famous but without the ascetic interiors. What Lotus did for twenty-five years with Elise, Exige, Europa and Evora is nothing short of miraculous but the Emira justifies its price tag by being as fun as a McLaren to drive and as comfortable as an R8.

    The fact it does so with a turbo four (or supercharged six) is immensely impressive. Lotus isn’t back – it never went anywhere – but with a car this good, inside and out and a chassis that scarcely puts a foot wrong on the road, it’s in incredible shape.

    The Emira is my car of the year. I guess you’re wondering which car fell out of the five car garage? The McLaren 570S. It costs twice as much as the Emira but aside from a more powerful engine – it’s not twice the car.

    The Emira is another landmark car from Lotus. Long may it live.

  • BMW Z4 2019: Review

    The BMW Z4 is a car that polarises opinion. The second-generation hardtop was not a particularly accomplished motor vehicle and had none of the character of the oddball Z3 that went before both Z4s.

    BMW killed the E89 almost three years ago and nobody really mourned its passing. It was heavy and dynamically compromised by the high-set weight of the roof and its mechanism. It was a 90s car in a 2009 body, perhaps crushed by the weight of the Global Financial Crisis. And the roof, obviously.

    After a bit of think and some time in a dark room, BMW came up with the G29. Rolling on a platform shared with both the 5 Series and the new Toyota Supra, the new Z4 is sleek, sophisticated, laden with tech and it’s here.

    I’ve driven the Z4 30i with M Sport Plus and the M40i and I’ll be driving the 20i first chance I get.

    Words: Peter Anderson
    Images: Supplied

    Peter travelled to Nagambie in central Victoria as a guest of BMW Australia.

    Z Series History

    BMW Z4 E89
    E89 Z4
    BMW 507 Roadster
    507 Roadster

    BMW has been buildimg roadsters for nearly a century. Z, however, is relatively recent, with the Z1 arriving in 1989. Z stands for Zukunft, the German word for future which has always been an excuse to get weird. The Z1 was a weird car, with plastic body panels, vertically sliding doors and the running gear of an E30 325i.

    It was designed by Harm Lagaay, who went back to Porsche to design the 1992 Boxster concept that became the 986 road car. Only 8000 Z1s were made.

    Next came the mass-produced Z3, made famous by Pierce Brosnan’s Bond in Goldeneye and based (again) on the E30 3 Series. The Z3 ran from 1995 to 2003 and was built in BMW’s Spartanburg plant in South Carolina. It, too, spawned a couple of weird cars, most notably the breadvan M Coupe. You hardly ever see them anymore, which is kind of sad. Breathtakingly ugly but also wickedly fast for their time.

    Another Z car dropped in 2000, the gorgeous and limited Z8 (BMW Australia has one!). 5703 rolled off the line in Germany and half of them ended up in the US. It was left-hand drive only (dammit) and ran the E39 M5’s V8 and gearbox.

    The Z8 started life as an homage to the 507 roadster and was designed by Henrik Fisker, who now runs an electric car company (to a fashion) and designed Aston Martins for a while.

    BMW Z4 History

    Then the first Z4 arrived. The E85/E86 series came during the halcyon days when BMW’s design  was under the guiding hand of Chris “flame surfacing” Bangle. He’d started with the slabtastic 7 Series (well, he came to prominence at Fiat with the amazing Coupe Fiat) and continued to convince the BMW board to produce individualistic cars.

    The Z4 split opinion, but that was kind of the point.

    Dynamically, it was a lively thing. The trailing arms of the Z3 were replaced with a multi-link rear-end that didn’t mind stepping out, on or off the throttle. The Z4 also spawned a coupe in 2005 which was far stiffer than the roadster and the choice for enthusiasts. Not as individual as its predecessor, though…

    The E89 replaced the 85/86 in 2009. The design was BMW’s first attributed to two women – Juliane Blasi on the sheetmetal and Nadya Arnaout in the cabin. The 89 brought with it a folding hardtop as had been the fashion and production started in Regensburg alongside the 3 Series Cabriolet. The looks were more conventional, shall we say.

    It wasn’t a bad thing, but nor was it much of a smash-hit. More boulevarde than racetrack, the enthusiasts weren’t keen and there wasn’t a Z4 M or M Coupe to encourage them. It seemed weird to have two lifestyle convertibles in roughly the same segment (the other was the 3-Series cabriolet), but hey, car makers build what their customers want (most of the time).

    The E89 died quietly in 2016. To give you an idea of how popular it was here in Australia not once was the Z4 on BMW’s press fleet when I asked for one.

    BMW Z4 2019 (G29)

    And so to the G29 Z4. It’s been a while coming and I was a bit surprised BMW committed to another one. It made more sense when it turned out that it would roll on the CLAR platform and, critically, Toyota would base their new sports car (which turned out to be the Supra) on the same running gear.

    Game-changer. It worked on the 86/BRZ so why not a new Z4? Sports cars are increasingly difficult to make profitable, so it made perfect sense. I asked BMW Australia CEO Vikram Pawah if the G29 would have happened without the Supra and he firmly told me that BMW builds what customers ask for.

    Just quietly, I think the Toyota link-up probably helped. Going out on a limb, there, right?

    Look and Feel

    BMW Z4 2019 headlights
    Stacked headlights
    Integrated bootlid spoiler
    Z4 roll bars
    Integrated roll bars
    Mesh grille, big air intakes
    19-inch light alloy wheel
    Air breather and lovely wheels

    The new Z4 draws much from the past. Australian designer Calvin Luk penned the exterior and says the Z8 inspired much of the Z4, which in turn took plenty from the 507.

    The distinctive, wide and low kidney grille filled with a mesh effect rather than the usual slats, the vertically-stacked headlights (a BMW first) and an integrated spoiler are still unmistakably BMW. It’s more of a reboot than an evolution, though. A particular favourite element of mine is the functional air breather on the front guards that draws turbulent air from the front wheel arches.

    The cabin is terrific. I actually read something somewhere where an overseas reviewer complained that the cabin didn’t feel like a stripped out roadster. 1. Wut? 2. For this money, I want all the things. Buy an MX-5 or a Lotus Elise if you want bare-bones top-down action.

    The same week I drove the Z4 I also drove the G20 3 Series. There are a lot of the same components which is, frankly, awesome. The new Live Cockpit is brilliant and looks terrific, the redesigned iDrive screen running BMW Operating System 7.0 is great. It just feels good.

    The seats look like the same as those on the X2 M35i but are wrapped in more weather-friendly Vernasca leather rather than Alcantara.

    Drivetrain

    BMW Z4 M40i straight six

    At launch, all Z4s feature the eight-speed ZF automatic BMW is rightly so fond of, replacing the seven-speed DCT in plenty of cars as well as the older six-speed auto.

    You can choose between two 2.0-litre B48 twin-scroll turbocharged engines.

    The 20i generates 145kW (197PS) and 320Nm of torque. That’s not bad for an entry level machine, delivering a 0-100km/h (0-62mph) time of 6.6 seconds and combined fuel economy figure of 6.5L/100km.

    Step up to the 30i and the same engine delivers 190kW (260PS) and a very healthy 400Nm. The benchmark run to 100km/h is over in just 5.4 seconds and BMW reckons you’ll get an identical 6.5L/100km despite the significant increase in power and torque.

    Then there’s the big fella, the M40i. The lovely B58 (as seen in the X3 M40i and M140i) is along for the ride, with 250kW (340PS) and 450Nm for a 4.5 second run to 100km/h and a combined fuel figure of 7.4L/100km.

    There’s still plenty of room in those figures for a Z4 M which should be epic, probably packing the X3 M’s S58 (we live in hope). It will also be interesting to see if the 225kW tune of the B48 found in the X2 M35i ever finds its way to the Z4…

    Chassis and Aero

    BMW Z4 M40i 2019

    The Z4 rolls on BMW’s Cluster Architecture (CLAR) platform, shared with a very wide range of Beemers such as the 7, 5, X3, X4 and X5. And X6 and X7. And the 3 Series. Yeah. BMW is working it hard.

    The Z4 is the smallest car on CLAR, but is bigger than the old Z4. Looking at it, that’s hard to believe, but it’s 85mm longer and the front and rear tracks are 98mm and 57mm wider respectively. Interestingly, the wheelbase is down by 26mm.

    Front suspension is by double-joint spring struts with plenty of aluminium to keep weight down. The rear is a complex five-link setup, the first time that arrangement has appeared in a BMW roadster.

    If you choose the M40i or the M Sport Plus Pack on the 30i, you’ll also get an electronic limited slip-diff.

    All Australian cars feature the M Sport package, notionally lowering the suspension by 10mm. The 30i and 40i have adaptive dampers and you can option it on the 20i. The 30i and 40i have M Performance brakes and again, they’re optional on the 20i.

    And the 30i and 40i run on 19-inch light alloy wheels, which on the cars I drove had Michelin Pilot Sports.

    You can see the aero in the front bumper, with the signature BMW air curtains at the front and, interestingly, an integrated spoiler on the boot. The air breathers on the side are real and actually extract the nasty bumpy air from the front wheelaches.

    (for detailed spec, read our specifications story)

    Driving the 30i

    BMW Z4 2019

    If you want to break a years-long drought in Australia, launch a highly-anticipated roadster. The skies opened up not long after we left Melbourne’s Tullamarine Airport and kept up most of the time I had behind the wheel as we pushed northwards.

    To get the boring stuff out of the way first, the roof didn’t leak and even with a ton of water to push through, the cabin remained fairly civilised. We could easily hear each other’s weather jokes but you couldn’t accuse the cabin of being quiet.

    The 30i was very sure-footed in the slippery conditions. BMW is very good at sorting out a non-interventionist stability and traction control system, the diff doing plenty of hard work before cutting the power when things get hairy.

    Common to all of the Z4s is a fantastic driving position. It immediately reminded me of one of my favourites, the Jaguar F-Type, although the Z4 is a smaller car and a fair bit lighter. You sit right down in the chassis and everything is in the right place – pedals, steering wheel, console. It’s cosy, comfortable and a great place to get down to business.

    The steering is really nicely-weighted in all modes, never getting too heavy even in Sport Plus. BMW used to just wind off the assistance and leave you with a heavy, fuzzy feeling rather than genuine steering feel.

    The front end loves to change direction without hesitation, with the diff turning the car in on an ambitious late-braking gambit without letting you embarrass yourself. And boy can you get on the power early. It’s not as predictable or ultimately as awesome as a proper mechanical LSD, but it’s not far off.

    The 30i’s lighter nose rides the bumps well and it’s only on the big stuff that you feel the rear might be a bit too stiff in Sport Plus. Having said that, it doesn’t upset the car, the bumps merely underlining that you’re basically sitting on the rear axle.

    Driving the M40i

    After some nit-picking about the weight distribution – the heavier six-cylinder sits slightly further forward than does the four – it turns out it isn’t even as bad as 51:49 front-to-rear. It’s like…50.2 to 49.8, so near as makes no difference. Park your backside in the car and it probably evens out. Anyway.

    There is a lot of torque. In fact, there is a near-overwhelming amount of the stuff meaning the M40i is a lively thing. The deep lungs of the B58 mean the Z4 surges forward at a rate no Z4 has done before. The linear power delivery is the same as everywhere else but with the roof down.

    You have to stay awake in the M40i. Well that’s not strictly true. When it’s in comfort mode, it cruises beautifully. The suspension is still quite firm – the wheelbase is always going to be the enemy of a plush ride – but you can get around without needing surgical intervention.

    Wind it up into a proper mode, though, and the Z4 loosens up and gets a bit more jumpy-in-a-good-way. The rear wheel drive sportscar is always a delight, even when it’s not very good (I can’t remember a bad one in the last ten years) but the Z4 is a step above. The active steering is so seamless you have to check it’s actually fitted and those big front tyres grip the tarmac hard.

    I love the way the Z4 changes direction and the way it digs in at the front and the car goes with you. I love how the M40i wags its tail, again without letting you embarrass yourself. The fact the conditions were tricky but the Z4 stayed planted until I unplanted it won my heart.

    And the M40i’s speed, oh the speed. Top-down speed is so, so good. If only the engine made a bit more racket…

    Redline Recommendation

    I’m not about to tell you which one is better but I will say that the 30i with the M Sport differential was terrific. As it was still pretty damp even on Day 2 of the launch program, I took it easy but was still impressed with the Z4’s grip in the wet, the lovely, sharp steering and the mildly charismatic engine.

    It’s lighter than the M40i and makes you work a bit harder for speed. I like that.

    The M40i, though, is lively. Fitted with the same diff as the 30i I drove, it’s a lot of fun in the wet and you need to keep your wits about you in Sport mode. It will shrug off pretty much anything you throw at and if you intend to take a Z4 to the track, the M40i is the car for you. The bigger lungs of the M40i will be worth it.

    Oh, and the M40i knocked off a lap of the ‘Ring in 7:55. That’s quicker than the M2 Competition.

  • McLaren 600LT: The Longtail Returns

    McLaren 600LT brings back an evocative name, pumping up the 570S for a hard core drive.

    McLaren 600LT

    McLaren’s near-constant new model barrage continues with the 600LT. Tagged with “The Edge is calling“, the Woking team has amped up its core 570S, added some rear bodywork and, well, done a lot more besides.

    The Longtail name was last seen on the 675LT before its replacement by the properly psycho 720S and it’s a name that means something. The first McLaren LT, the F1 GTR is a true icon, so the company has been careful not to splash it around too liberally.

    McLaren 600LT

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    As the name suggests, the McLaren 600LT packs a 600PS punch from its 3.8-litre V8 engine. Translating to 441kW, the seven-speed twin-clutch transmission also has to channel 620Nm to the rear tyres.

    The new top-exit exhaust is apparently “more extreme” than the Senna’s and hopefully sorts out the lack of aural drama in the cabin. Unless you’re in a tunnel – then you can really hear the flat-plane crank’s glorious racket.

    The twin-turbo 3.8-litre V8’s engine mounts are rather firmer, too. The 570S isn’t exactly the quietest of cabins to start with, so this one is definitely skewed to trackday use. That dovetails nicely into the announcement that a standard feature of the 600LT is a day of track tuition.

    Aerodynamics

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    The 570S is already an aerodynamic machine, with a beautiful set of aero devices baked into a curvaceous body.

    The Longtail name physically manifests itself in a longer tail. The 600LT is 74mm longer, which aids high speed aero. That was the original point of the F1 GTR – more top-end for the long La Sarthe straights.

    A bigger front splitter, extended diffuser and big fixed rear wing. That rear wing is actually rather modest when compared with the Senna’s mad 747-sized monstrosity. If you pulled a 570S and 600LT apart, 23 percent of the parts are different.

    Chassis

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    Straight off the bat, the 600LT is 96kg lighter than the 570S, which itself is hardly chubby. Standard weight saving includes carbon fibre body panels to replace the aluminium skins. Go hard on the MSO options list (seats, interior trim, deleting bits), you can get the weight down to 1247kg, or about 140kg lighter than a manual Lotus Evora.

    Amusingly, the F1 GTR Longtail was just over 100kg lighter than the standard GTR, so the team got close to mirroring that figure. Obviously they locked marketing out of the engineering meetings.

    Do that and you’ll have a power-to-weight ratio of 354kW/tonne (481PS/tonne), but you can’t go anywhere because there’s no fuel. Or oil. Or coolant. So dry weights are pointless. Still, that’s a good number.

    Throttle, steering, brakes and suspension are all quicker to react and the Pirelli P-Zero Trofeos (same as the Huracan Performante’s Nurburging lap record tyres) are super-sticky. The same forged aluminium suspension carries over, but there’s nothing wrong with that to start with.

    Can I get one?

    We’ve only got British pricing, coming in at £185,500.

    McLaren is unlikely to say no to you unless you live in North Korea, so yes. And no. Like the Senna, its numbers are limited, although one wonders if they’re not already sold out. McLaren says the production run is 12 months and 600LT production will be fitted in around existing orders.

  • DBS Superleggera – Aston Supercar Goes Superlight

    Aston’s DBS Superleggera has dropped and it looks mighty.

    Aston Martin DBS Superleggera

    Aston Martin’s Vanquish S is gone but it’s okay, everyone – the DBS Superleggera is here.

    It’s been a while between drinks for the DBS name – it first made headlines in the late Sixties. The DB6 was getting on a bit and the William Towns-designed, straight-six powered S debuted as a fastback GT. A couple of years later the 5.3-litre V8 arrived with “the fastest four-seater in the world” tagline.

    The DBS name returned in 2007 and – get this – replaced the first Vanquish S. It’s almost like there’s a pattern here. It hung around for a few years before it was displaced by, er, the Vanquish S. Both DBSes have appeared in James Bond films, so I wonder what’s going to happen next?

    And Superleggera? Well, that’s Italian for super light. The term was first used by Italian coach builder Touring and has, as you are well aware, appeared on Lamborghinis every now and again. And the occasional Ducati.

    DBS Superleggera

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    The new DBS Superleggera gets its name mostly because the body is made from carbon fibre, saving 72kg alone. That cuts down a lot on that pesky mass that slows you down and chews your tyres. Underneath that stunning body is an extruded aluminium structure familiar to Aston fans.

    The cabin is a classic Aston 2+2 and looks pretty good. I’m not completely in love with the slightly ageing look of the centre console, but the seats look incredible. Less incredible is the carbon fibre trim in the doors. I didn’t much like a similar treatment in the Huracan Performante and I’m similarly unsure about it in the DBS.

    The new DBS’ looks continue “Aston Martin’s pursuit of highly individual designs for each of its models.” That’s press release talk for saying, “We’re not doing the same design in different sizes anymore.”

    Driveline

    Aston Martin DBS Superleggera

    Under that huge clamshell bonnet is a 5.2-litre twin-turbo V12 punching out 533kW (725PS) and a staggering 900Nm. All that somehow finds the road through the rear wheels via a rear-mounted eight-speed ZF automatic transmission. You can leave it in auto or change with a set of big, shiny fixed paddle shifters.

    I like fixed paddle shifters. Don’t ask me why, I just do.

    When the rear tyres aren’t frying under all that stress, Aston says you’ll streak to 100km/h (62mph) in 3.4 seconds and 162km/h (100mph) in 6.4 seconds. It will also accelerate from 80km/h (50mph) to 162km/h (100mph) in just 4.2 seconds.

    The stainless steel exhaust system is a quad system and in Sport and Sport Plus modes will make a tremendous racket. Apparently this exhaust meant that Aston could go for “purity” in the cylinder firing order, which is an interesting detail. I wonder if Aston will do a titanium to knock off a few more kilos.

    Like the body, the propshaft is made from carbon fibre, again to keep weight under control.

    Chassis

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    The Superleggera is clearly a driver’s car and the guts of it suggest it’s not meant to be a long-legged cruiser.

    Front suspension is by forged double wishbones and the rear a multi-link setup. Adaptive damping stiffens up as you go to more aggressive modes. The Superlegga is 5mm lower than the DB11 and various detail changes such as increased camber front and rear further sharpens things up.

    The brakes are a set of pizza-sized carbon ceramic brakes. The fronts measure 410mm and the rears 360mm. Those rear discs are also involved in the car’s dynamic torque vectoring system.

    The 21-inch alloys are wrapped in the almost obligatory Pirelli P-Zeros – 265/30 at the front and 305/30 at the rear.

    Aerodynamics

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    The Superleggera’s body is bristling with aero cleverness.

    At the front, the splitter and air dam generate real downforce while directing air to the brakes. A deeper slot behind the front wheels extract dirty air from the wheelarch to cut lift. Aston calls the the devices behind the front wheels the “open stirrup” and “curlicue” and says they’re from the Vulcan hypercar.

    The rear end features a double diffuser and what Aston calls “Aeroblade II”. Along with various other measures, the DBS Superleggera generates 180kg of downforce, which is pretty good going for a roadgoing GT car.

    Is it super light?

    Uh…yeah? Kerb weight is 1693kg, which is not bad at all – for perspective, it’s lighter than either the F-Type SVR convertible or Coupe and not far off a Lamborghini Aventador S. So in the context of a 2+2 GT, yeah, it’s light. It’s not Lotus-light, though.

    A DB11 AMR weights in at 1870kg, just for context.

    Aston Martin DBS Superleggera Pricing

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    Nick Knight DBS Superleggera Video

    Missed our story about the Aston Martin Rapide AMR? Click here.

    Like our Aston Martin coverage? There’s more here.

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  • Huracan Performante: Best Lamborghini Ever Made

    Huracan Performante: Best Lamborghini Ever Made

    Lamborghini’s Huracan Performante might just be the best Lamborghini ever made.

    Huracan Performante

    I’ve driven a few Lamborghinis – the Aventador S and Huracan Spyder. All-wheel drive, V12, rear-wheel drive V10. Before The Redline there was the Huracan LP610-4 at the Sepang Circuit in Malaysia and then on Australian roads.

    It’s a terrific car. Fun, silly, entertaining, emotional. And a naturally-aspirated V10. The Spyder I drove was fun because it was rear-wheel drive and I came away thinking that it was my favourite Huracan.

    And it was. Then the Performante came along.

    The Performante is one of a great tradition at Lamborghini. SVs, Superleggeras – Sant’ Agata knows how to turn up the volume.

    Drivetrain

    The Lambo/Audi 5.2-litre V10 is still here in all its high-revving, soundtastic glory. Except here in the Performante, power is up to 470kW (640PS), a rise of 22kW (30PS). Torque is also up slightly, to 600Nm (up from 560Nm). Well, slightly is a relative term. Another 40Nm makes quite a difference in a hatchback, less so in a V10 supercar.

    Lots of stuff is new and/or improved. Shorter intake ducts, lighter exhaust, modded software contribute to the extra power. Not sure if the gold coloured cam covers do much, but they look good.

    The seven-speed twin-clutch transmission is back, but Lamborghini says it’s even better and the all-wheel drive system has absolutely been tweaked.

    0-100km/h (0-62mph) now arrives in just 2.9 seconds. 0-200km/h (0-124mph) is an impressive 8.9 seconds. Braking from 100km/h (62mph) to zero happens in just 31 metres, or about 103 feet.

    Chassis

    Lamborghini Huracan Performante

    Yes, there’s been some work done here. The suspension had a lot of work done and our car was fitted with the optional magneto-rheological dampers. Huge 20-inch forged alloy wheels are fitted with Pirelli P-Zero Corsas, with 245/30s up front and 305/30s at the rear.

    Braking is by a whopping set of carbon ceramics – 380mm up front and 356mm at the rear.

    When my fat backside isn’t in the driver’s seat, the car weighs 1390kg and weight distribution is 47/53 to the rear. That works out about 22kg lighter than the LP610-4 coupe.

    Aerodynamics

    This is kind of important. So far, the changes aren’t really all that big. Ten percent here, ten percent there, it’s a bit lighter. Lots of small details. Most of the changes Lambo don’t really talk about – the software, the tweaks to the oily bits. But the company is super-happy to talk aero.

    For the first time, a Lamborghini is fitted with ALA – Aerodynamica Lamborghini Attiva – or Lamborghini Active Aerodynamics. ALA partially explains the giant wing at the back and the even more racy front splitter.

    That front wing changes its angle of attack to improve downforce in the corners.

    The rear is even more complex. If you’re familiar with the way torque vectoring works, ALA does the same with air. In a straight line the air flows over the wing creating even downforce. Hidden in the engine bay are two intakes with flaps. They’re connected to two ducts hidden in the struts holding up the rear wing.

    Underneath the trailing wing is a series of perforations. When you turn the wheel, one of the engine bay flaps opens and lets air up the duct to help equalise the pressure – or stall – that side of the wing.

    So when you apply right lock, the left side of the wing stalls to promote turn in. Can you feel it? Not specifically. Is it clever? Hell yes.

    Driving

    I was convinced this car was over-tyred – 305 is a lot of P-Zero Corsa at the back and without a ton of extra torque, it was hardly likely the fairly neutral-to-mild understeer attitude of the Huracan LP610-4 (with oversteer on provocation) was going to change too much.

    But I was wrong. So wrong.

    The Performante is a whole different beast. It’s hugely fast. It’s enormously grippy. It’s utterly, devestatingly, brilliant. And you should watch the video to find out just how good.

  • Aston Martin Rapide AMR: Four Doors Fast

    The Aston Martin Rapide AMR may well be the answer to a question nobody asked, but it’s here, it’s a V12 and it looks amazing.

    Aston Martin Rapide AMR

    The Aston Martin Rapide is, let’s face it, getting old. It’s still gorgeous. It’s still one-of-a-kind and it’s the car I’d have if I needed one like it. Even though I’ve never driven it. Because it’s pretty and it’s fast and it’s an Aston Martin.

    Aston Martin Rapide

    Aston Martin Rapide S

    The Rapide is an interesting thing. I actually wrote “old school” first, but it’s nothing of the sort. A four-door sedan with a coupe roofline, Aston pedigree and a V12 engine was unheard of until it arrived way back in 2010.

    You could probably call it a four-door GT car and that’s as close as you can get without just saying, “It’s a Rapide.”

    As it has been around for a while, the Rapide has been tweaked over the years, with the Rapide S now leaving the factory with its 5.9-litre V12 (Aston calls it a 6.0-litre) producing 412kW (550PS) for all your…uh…rapid needs.

    Rapide AMR

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    Like the other DB11 AMR cars, the Rapide ups the power, the torque and the grrr. A mere 210 of these bad boys will hit the streets and tracks and are price accordingly.

    Power is up on the V12 to 440kW (603PS) in the US and Europe, while other markets (read Southern Hemisphere) “only” score 433kW (589PS). Car makers should stop doing that.

    The extra poke comes from a freer breathing engine courtesy of larger inlet manifolds and tuned dual inlet runners.

    The shouty new exhaust probably has something to do with a few extra horses, too. And shouty it will be with peak power arriving at 7000rpm.

    It’s no quicker to the benchmark 100km/h (62mph) – 4.4 seconds – but will run on to 330km/h.

    The AMR rides on huge 21-inch forged alloys wrapped in Michelin Super Sports. The huge carbon ceramic brakes – 400mm front and 360mm rears – help wipe speed off the two tonne machine. Cornering is further improved with a 10mm lower ride height.

    Styling

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    As you can see, it’s not the elegant, lithe four-door coupe that is the S. No, the AMR isn’t shy. You can choose from three different colour schemes. The Signature you see in the Aston-supplied photos and there is also Standard and Silhouette.

    The front splitter and grille is lifted from the Zagato concept used as the Rapide AMR’s styling taster, along with circular LED driving lights. Some of the styling changes are all function, with a ton of aero parts made from carbon fibre. The rear diffuser is particularly striking, flanked by quad exhausts either side.

    Inside is…well, it’s pretty much the same in front of you. It’s not bad it’s just looking a bit old. You can get the whacko steering wheel from the Vulcan, though, if you want. The front seats are deep buckets trimmed in Alcantara with an AMR lime stripe.

    If you don’t like any of it, you have a choice. 1. Don’t buy the AMR (oh, duh) or 2. You can engage Aston’s Q design division.

    Pricing has finally been announced and makes this slightly late article look bang up to date. Unfortunately for Chinese and Russian buyers, Aston won’t be making the AMR available. Officially, at least.

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