The McLaren GT is Woking’s softer-but-still-scintillating continent-crushing long distance tourer. And in Australia, it’s almost a bargain at $399,995.
I’m not sure I’ve ever driven a McLaren – from the 540C to the 720S via all manner of 570S and got out thinking, “Hmm, this needs to be more comfortable.” Because McLarens are amazing in their own right, riding like no other sports car on earth.
Still, customers of high-end speed do like their driving. If you live in Europe or the US where driving isn’t considered as sinful as, say, spewing in your neighbour’s sock drawer, a long-distance tourer makes a lot of sense for McLaren.
This new car is calmer than its McLaren brethren, infused with Speedtail DNA (so the press release says) but staying true to McLaren ideals – fast and engaging.
What is it?
Oh, look. Golf clubs. Great.Spacious front bootElectrochromatic sun roof
The McLaren GT is most likely the result of the rather appealing experiment that is the 570GT. That car is basically a 570S with a clever side-hinged glass hatch. Replacing the flying-buttress effect of the 570S, the hatch creates a space for bespoke luggage.
The GT is bigger, much bigger. There’s a new design direction, with lots of Speedtail in it. While the Sports Series cars are very much about showing off the aero and shapes, the GT is a more restrained, elegant and accommodates a more day-to-day experience.
The long hatch opens up over a fully-trimmed cargo bay that will take a few pieces of custom luggage (which is rather nice stuff, if you’re interested). Or you can ruin a good walk by taking your golf clubs. Or ensure you never walk again by taking yourself skiing.
The front boot (froot or frunk) is quite big at 150 litres, which will take two cabin bags or a decent-sized suitcase.
All up, there’s 570 litres of cargo capacity, which is more than some family SUVs.
The front splitter won’t, er, split on kerbs because it’s high enough without the lift kit engaged, the interior is supposed to be much quieter than any other McLaren (to be honest, that’s not difficult, they’re noisy buggers).
The GT also has heated front seats, a 12 speaker Bowers and Wilkins stereo and some lovely aluminium trim and switchgear.
Drivetrain
Being a McLaren it’s a) a 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 that b) you can’t see.
In the GT, the engine is 100mm lower than other McLarens, which helps with the luggage space. Despite a 1500kg-plus kerb weight, the McLaren GT will streak to 100km/h in 3.2 seconds and 200km/h in nine seconds dead.
This kind of performance is courtesy of 456kW (620PS) and 630Nm, which isn’t messing about. As always, the seven-speed SSG transmission gets the power out the door.
How much and when?
The McLaren GT price starts at $399,995 before on-roads and custom luggage (and the usual long options list. Australian customers will start receiving their GTs in November 2019.
The third-generation 2020 BMW X6 is on its way and will be in Australia well before Christmas.
Australians are mad for the big fella X6. Based on the X5 SUV (BMW insists on calling them Sports Activity Vehicles, but I don’t), the X6 has been massive for the Munich brand here in Australia.
And it’s a massive car. New for the 2020 X6 is a bold new look with that new grille.
Toothy grin is standardThis one is lower
The new car looks a lot better than the old, I reckon. Sleeker headlights, a bit more definition and much-improved proportions. It’s still not gorgeous, not by a long shot, but current X6 fans will like it.
The new car is longer and lower which is partly why it looks better. It’s also wider which makes it look a bit less like it’s tottering about. It remains an acquired taste, but given how many of them there are, many have put in the effort.
Lots of new gadgetsStill not very big in the backBut comfy up front
Inside are all the new bits and pieces in the X5 and X7, including the awesome 12.3-inch Live Cockpit dashboard. Much like Audi’s excellent Virtual Cockpit (found in lotsofAudis), it’s a fully-digital screen with lots of customisation. The presentation is beautiful, too.
The fun stuff like sat nav and media system are run by BMW’s iDrive 7.0 system. You control it all through the other 12.3-inch screen at the top of the centre console. Using both touch and the console mounted iDrive controller, it’s the best in the business and is really easy to use.
The diving roofline will brush taller heads, like the old one, so it’s not as roomy as its under-the-skin sibling, the X5. But the boot is now 30 litres bigger, with 580 litres for your stuff. Put the seats down and you’ll have 1530 litres. Not many lifestyle SUVs actually have the room for your life, so that’s refreshing.
All X6s have M Sport as standard and you can option a high-capacity towing unit that doesn’t look horrible when it’s fitted.
Engines
When the X6 arrives, you’ll have a choice of three engines, two petrols – including the M5’s belting V8 – and a diesel.
[table id=44 /]
Whichever one you pick, it’ll go fast and it will also have all-wheel drive to keep everything on the straight and narrow.
How much and when?
The 2020 BMW X6 will arrive in Australia by the end of 2019, but I bet if you ask nicely, a dealer will take your money now. Speaking of money, here’s a handy table with prices:
The Kia Cerato GT is one of about a zillion warm hatches that seem to have a knack of dragging punters through the door.
Kia is doing Very Good Things these days. It took a while for the company to build a reputation for making honest-and-worthy cars but did it with a long warranty and, eventually, knocking together some real lookers.
Attention-grabbing stuff like the Soul also helped and then came some properly fun stuff like the Pro’Ceed GT, the Stinger GT4 Concept and then the actual Stinger GT. And who could forget the fun-loving Picanto GT? I certainly haven’t and would quite like one, thanks.
What quite a few people don’t know is that Kia quietly popped a rival for Hyundai’s i30 N-Line into its range. A turbo engine, tweaked suspension and a some fine-looking bodywork later, we’re not entirely sure this one has hit the mark.
Look and Feel
MY19 KIA CERATO SEDAN GT – rear garnish detail. / MY19 KIA CERATO HATCH GT – front interior. / MY19 KIA CERATO HATCH GT / MY19 KIA CERATO HATCH GT / MY19 KIA CERATO HATCH GT – GT badge detail. / MY19 KIA CERATO HATCH GT – rear seat space.
I’ve a had few conversations with people who tell me they really don’t like the Cerato GT hatch. I really don’t mind it. It’s a bit odd from some angles, sharing a lot of its proportions with the i30 Fastback. I don’t mind it, but the back is a bit busy. But I can live with that.
I’m fond of the wheels, though, they look pretty good.
The cabin is by-the-numbers Kia, which is to say it’s good if a bit jelly bean-ey. The GT brings plenty of aluminium trim bits to lift things up above the humdrum but I’m not sure the interior has quite the sharpness the market seems to like. There’s nothing wrong with it, though, and it’s got plenty of stuff to like.
With dual-zone climate control, convincing fake leather, a big 8.0-inch screen (with Android Auto and Apple CarPlay) and a cracking set of seats, you’ll be pretty happy in here. You also get an eight-speaker JBL sound system, which isn’t bad, along with DAB+. The Kia entertainment software is okay, easy to use and it also includes sat nav.
Engine and Chassis
The GT scores a 1.6-litre turbo four-cylinder, spinning up 150kW (204PS) and 265Nm. To get the power to the front wheels, you get Kia’s own (well, shared with Hyundai) seven-speed twin-clutch with paddle shifts to keep you occupied. For those who care, the clutch is a dry one (and also explains why it’s not fitted to the i30 N)
That 265Nm torque figure is a long way north of the humdrum 2.0-litre in the rest of the Ceratos – 73Nm to be exact. That’s a lot for a car that’s barely heavier and worth that for the price alone.
Like the upper-end i30s (because this is a i30 underneath), the Cerato GT flings the cheaper torsion beams in favour of a multi-link rear end. New springs and dampers all round stiffen things up and the front brakes grow to 305mm, up from 280mm in the normal hatch.
The 18-inch alloys come with Michelin Pilot Sport 4s in 225/40 spec. These are pretty decent tyres for a warm hatch…
Driving
Things started well with the Cerato. It looks good and it feels good, it’s beautifully built and it’s just all-round likeable.
Tooling around town quickly revealed a few issues. The front suspension – tuned by the usually-reliable local team – is really hard and it crashes and bashes on our rubbish Sydney roads. That got pretty tiring during the week as I negotiated the usual suburban and urban horrors.
Also tiring was the transmission’s dithering. If you’re not giving it a kick in the guts, the gearbox seems to want to please you but fails, panicking about which gear to give you. It’s a real pain because lurking behind that gearbox is a very good engine.
And you work out what a good engine it is when you’re out on proper roads. Get into a flow and you’ll be having as much fun as you will in its i30 cousin. The suspension never really settles, though, so you have to work a bit harder, but it is a lot of fun.
I’m a fan of the steering – the weight is just about right and you know what’s happening underneath you. I’m not a fan of the brake pedal, it felt really dead and I had no idea what was going on with the brakes.
Redline Recommendation
The Cerato GT is well-priced, has a whopping warranty and hugely sensible servicing regime and looks great (I think). But as a warm hatch, it stumbles on a couple of key obstacles.
Warm hatches are all-rounders, keeping everyone (including the accountant) happy. Where the Focus ST-Line keeps you comfortable while also providing a few thrills, the Cerato just misses the mark.
That’s probably not the end of it, though. Korean companies take this sort of thing very seriously. The 2020 Cerato GT will likely come out swinging.
Hyundai’s ground-breaking i30 N hatchback may not be for everyone, so the Korean giant has fixed it with the i30 N Fastback.
https://youtu.be/kkgLfAgCydA This is a review of the hatch. You should watch it. Heaps of people already have.
The i30 is an excellent car. The i30 N is superb, walloping the good-but-reheated Golf GTI from its undeserving place at top-of-mind for hot hatch fans. It’s a tricky segment with lots of contenders, but the Golf’s long history, quality and its legions of unquestioning fans kept it on the boil.
Hyundai’s i30 N arrived with a bang, a lower price tag than most of its rivals, better ownership proposition and a similar form factor. Then wiped the floor with it. Problem was, not everyone was so keen on the hatch. It looks largely the same as its lesser versions and not everyone is so keen on that.
The other problem Hyundai had was the Veloster. In right-hand drive markets, it didn’t sell well enough to justify the expensive asymmetrical tooling. Australia and the UK quite like fast hatches, but not enough to warrant the weird Veloster N’s RHD production.
To make the i30 N happen, Hyundai invested a colossal amount of money, so the company needs to sell a few more to keep the suits happy. So it turns out there was another i30 in the works, a four-door coupe style thing called the Fastback. A car that doesn’t need expensive tooling to make right or left-hookers.
Obviously, it seemed like a good idea at the time to make an i30 N fastback instead of an Elantra N.
Words: Peter Anderson Images and co-pilot: Matt Hatton
Look and Feel
It’s pretty obvious what’s changed when you get to the rear end what has happened here. The more abbreviated hatchback has been replaced with a Mercedes CLS-style swoopy backside.
I like it.
Not everybody does and not every angle is especially pretty, but it’s a nice job given the designers didn’t have a longer wheelbase to play with. The Fastback is 120mm longer at 4455mm and it’s all boot. Perhaps to offset the extra length, it’s also lower by 28mm. I reckon that saved the Fastback from looking like a BMW X4.
Most of the detailing is the same, with the grille, skirts and wheels we all know and love already, as well as the red brake calipers.
Inside, instead of blue stitching you get red and, er, that’s about it.
Drivetrain
The i30 N Fastback engine is a 2.0-litre four-cylinder turbo, part of the Theta II engine family. With direct injection and variable valve timing, it produces 202kW (275PS) and 353Nm. Pin the loud pedal to the firewall and you’ll get another 25Nm, taking the total to 378Nm on overboost.
As with the hatch, you’re still in charge of changing gears until the often-rumoured eight-speed twin-clutch hoves into view. N could probably use the six- or eight-speed Aisin in most of other front-wheel drive performance cars, but that’s not Hyundai’s style.
The same obnoxious exhaust is also along for the ride and engages its loud in N mode.
Chassis
The N comes with stiffer springs, adaptive damping, 19-inch Pirelli P-Zero tyres, torque vectoring and a LSD.
The Fastback weighs a mere 12kg more and it’s all on the rear wheels, so the weight distribution is actually better at 59.7-40.3 front to rear.
The suspension has a had a bit of a going over. The front end is slightly softer to improve ride but also helps to get the power down a bit more cleanly. Front and rear dampers have a had a tweak, with a rebound spring and softer bump stops. The front anti-roll bar is slightly smaller (by 0.8mm).
Out the back there’s a new camber control arm, but that’s probably mostly to help with the extra weight.
The adaptive damper software has also had a bit of a going over. Hyundai says it’s more comfortable, without losing any of the hatch’s agility.
Driving
Changes. There have been a few. That could be a problem. I mean, how much did I love the i30 N? How much do you love your i30 N? The Fastback is bigger, heavier and – whisper it – softer. Right? With smaller anti-roll bars and softer damping, it can’t possibly be as sharp as the hatch?
Bzzt.
How can this be? The steering is still amazing, the grip still brilliant and the rear still playful. This car is fast, just as fast as the hatch, but more comfortable as a daily driver.
Haring down my favourite bit of road, I don’t have to dodge the bigger bumps as carefully as I did in the hatch. The extra compliance of the bump stops means less of a jolt through the shell and a more adherence to the line I’ve chosen.
The steering is precise, not too heavy and you can get the power down so early because of that lovely limited-slip differential. It’s fast everywhere – up hills the overboost gives you 378Nm to haul with. And when you get the top and start your descent, those brakes will be there for you.
And that gearshift – super-fast for a road car and with those carbon rings letting you slice from second to third as you manhandle it around. That’s an expensive detail that ensures the N team covered every base. Pretty important when this is the only gearbox you can get. If only the new Renaultsport Megane’s manual gearbox was this good.
The only real difference is that rear seat passengers have less headroom, traded for more boot space. The Fastback is meant to be more luxurious, but don’t be put off by that – it’s more practical while still being a giant barrel of laughs full of funny cat videos.
Redline Recommendation
The i30 N Fastback is just as much a delight as the hatch. Fast, loud and silly in all the right measures, it’s a cheaper alternative than Honda’s ridiculous Type R and far more interesting than VW’s Golf GTI (yes, the Golf is good, but not this good).
The new setup is so right, the MY20 hatch will have the same. It’s car you can take on holiday, rip out all the luggage and go for a pre-dawn blast.
The Kia Picanto GT has moved the benchmark for very small warm hatches. I’m not shocked, just very, very pleased.
When I started this site, I decided that it would cover performance cars. And what did I think was a performance car? Everything from a Swift Sport and up. That left me with a pretty wide range of cars to play with and that suits me just fine. Just because you can’t afford something expensive doesn’t mean you can’t have any fun.
Thing is, here in Australia, the Swift Sport isn’t very cheap at all. For what you get, you’re actually paying a fair bit. And I think the original starting price of $25,490 – just a few grand short of the now-departed Ford Fiesta ST – came about because there was nothing else.
But there is. It’s not from Europe, but from Korea. In what is a continually pleasing and inevitable continuation of the Koreans doing to the Japanese what they did to the West, Kia has taken the small warm hatch formula and done it quite well.
And for not very much money.
Words: Peter Anderson Co-pilots: Spencer Leech and Mark Dewar
Picanto GT History
Not much to report here. It’s the first Picanto GT. But it does fit in with a short, if impressive list of performance-oriented cars from Kia. The Stinger GT everybody knows about but do you remember the stupidly-named Pro’ceed GT? No, I didn’t think you did, but it was a nice prelude to what was to come not only from Korea. The Hyundai i30 N surely took some inspiration from that underrated quick hatch.
Look and Feel
I quite like the Picanto for many of the same reasons I like the Swift. Small, chunky, ready to rumble. The GT-Line Picanto is a nice looking thing and the GT amps things up a bit.
You get a nice set of alloy wheels, some funky red flashes, deeper bumpers, fog lights and styling details to lower the look of the car. It’s nice looking but clearly Korean. That’s okay, they’re doing a pretty job of styling these days, so I’m not complaining.
The cabin also contains a few flashes of red, but it’s basically the same as the bog-standard Picanto’s. Which is to say very cheap and reasonably cheerful. The top half of the dash is quite stylish and has a nice blade of aluminium-a-like to break up the plastic. The steering wheel is covered in buttons and has nice red stitching while avoiding the flat-bottom cliche. Nice work. Once you go to the bottom half of the dash, it suddenly goes super-cheap with big old-school controls for the air-conditioning. No big deal, just be aware that this is a genuine bargain for what it is.
Plenty of room up front, too – co-pilot Spencer is a tall unit with even taller hair and he was quite happy punting it around, chasing me in the Range Rover SVAutobiography.
Super-tight in the back though, so this is really only a two person car for most of the time.
A surprisingly large screen on the dash houses an okay sat nav and multimedia system while it also has the magic of Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. The Ferrari GTC4 Lusso T I drove charges (in Australia) $7000 just for CarPlay whereas that kind of money would pay for quite a lot of upgrades on the Kia.
Drivetrain and Chassis
The Picanto GT scores a single-scroll turbocharged version of Kia’s 999cc three-cylinder. It’s good for 74kW (100PS) and a very decent 172Nm to shift 1007kg. It’s still a front-wheel drive and only has five forward gears, but you change the gears yourself. A nicer bonus would be the 88kW version from the Rio, but you can’t have everything,
Chassis changes are more of the detailed variety rather than seriously different. Luckily, here in Australia Kia has a small and hugely dedicated team who have already extracted a pretty decent tune out of the basic car and didn’t have to do too much to improve things. The team couldn’t do much with the rear-end’s torsion beam setup. Which is a shame, so it meant there wasn’t a lot you could do with the front-end without making it feel like two different cars welded together.
And for some reason the wheels have a set of 195/45 16s (good) from Nexen (bad) and they’re eco-style tyres (oh dear). And the tyres have a stupid name – N’Blue.
So budget a few bucks for a set of better tyres and you’ll be doing the right thing.
Driving
MY19 KIA PICANTO GT – front 3/4 static.
I’m known for my unpopular/optimistic opinions about cars and I hold a very optimistic one about the Picanto GT – I think it’s a blast. No, it’s not very fast – in fact, I think my VW up! is only ever so slightly slower to 100km/h.
The tyres are noisy and not very good, the gearbox has only two gears worth using when you’re on it and even with 72kW and 172Nm, it’s not very quick. But I don’t care.
You see, I quite like underpowered hatches with a good chassis. The base Picanto rides really well and I reckon the GT holds on to most of the ride comfort with a bit more pointiness. Rowing it down through tight bends, just leave it in second and swoop around, enjoy yourself.
It’s got a proper sense of humour, the front tyres squealing if you push too hard into a corner, but hanging on pretty well. The triple likes to rev, but only you know about it – it’s pretty quiet. If you want noise, you’ll have to upgrade the exhaust, which might yield a bit more power.
I think the Picanto GT has all the makings of a cult car and replaces the (long dead) Barina RS as my small car surprise.
Redline Recommendation
The Picanto GT is a lot of fun. I seriously considered buying one after spending a week enjoying its many charms. It has AEB, lots of gear to keep you amused in traffic and has a very long warranty. The cheap servicing and insurance were also a top consideration. This car will cost a lot less to own than a Swift Sport and is more fun to live with.
A lot of folks buy their kids a new car to keep them safe and ensure reliability – I think this is the best first car option you can buy new – safe, fun, cheap to run and looks pretty cool. And it won’t coax you or your kids into any trouble.
The Range Rover SVAutobiography Dynamic has a very silly name but with all those words comes plenty of power, tech and gorgeous comfort.
Sometimes you have to wonder where it will all end. In my work for mainstream car site carsguide.com.au, I will occasionally climb out of a Kia and think, “Phwoar. I can’t think what else they could cram into a car for twice the money.”
I mean, sure, there are Rolls Royces. And Koenigseggs and Maybachs and whatever else, but it seems like cheap cars are now chock-full of stuff you don’t need or, sometimes, want.
The Range Rover SVAutobiography is a car for those who haven’t stopped dreaming and not for people who think a $35,000 Mazda CX-5 has all the stuff you could ever need. It’s a car for that inner eight year-old who drew fast cars but also drew luxury cars. It’s a car designed by James Bond’s Q division after they left the business of hurting people.
This is a car that, in Australia, costs six times a Kia Stinger and, somehow, justifies that cost.
Words: Peter Anderson Co-pilots: Mark Dewar and Spencer Leech (Incredible) Images: Niko French
Look and Feel
One of the striking things about the SVA is the massive set of stunning 21-inch alloy wheels. This stunning colour, Firenze Red, is one of the classiest reds on the planet.
There’s no hiding the Rangie’s bulk though. I am a big fan of the current Land Rovers and Range Rovers and I reckon the SVAutobiography looks great without being unnecessarily (more) overbearing than it already is.
The grille and front bumpers aren’t the gaping maws you see on some performance SUVs and there aren’t any dumb fake aero details to busy up it appearance. It remains as classy as ever without the silly accoutrements.
The cabin is genuinely extraordinary. The rear seats stretch out airline-style for those big cross-country bombing runs. There is also a set of entertainment screens, the usual wifi bridging service and a set of brilliant headphones. Why you’d want to drown out the V8 is beyond me, but okay.
From the driver’s seat you’ve got the excellent digital dashboard and the Touch Pro Duo screens for the media and car functions. And Apple CarPlay natch. The sound system has more speakers than I can count on hands and toes and when you turn it up, you know all about it.
Instead of wood or aluminium, there are slabs of carbon fibre and, unusually, it works. The leather is softer than whatever you can think of that isn’t actually liquid and it’s sensationally comfortable. This car carried four likely lads to and from a secret location on a long, long day of filming and there wasn’t a moment where we didn’t discover something new.
Drivetrain
The beating heart of this beast is one of my favourite engines – bellicose, angry and hugely powerful, JLR’s supercharged V8 lives underneath the football-pitch-sized bonnet. Displacing 5.0-litres over eight cylinders in a classic V formation (yes, it’s a Ford, shoosh), the SVA packs 416kW (567PS) and 700Nm.
Granted it has to shift over 2500kg, but with all-wheel drive (of course) and an eigtht-speed automatic from ZF, it will crack the metric ton (100km/h or 62mph) in 5.4 seconds.
Twenty-five hundred kilos. In 5.4 seconds. Have a little think about that, perhaps have a lie down. It’s epic.
Obviously, being a Range Rover, all four wheels are supplied with go and LR’s Terrain Control system is along for the ride.
Chassis
The SVA rolls on a set of 21-inch alloys (the 22s on this cars are optional) wrapped in very road biased Continental Crosscontact tyres. So it leaves some off-road ability intact, but really, very roady at 275/40, let’s face it.
Slung under the 2500kg monster is a complicated air suspension setup that can raise and lower the car. The SVA rides 8mm lower than the Vogue and the suspension bits like springs, dampers, links and knuckles are all set up to be a bit sportier.
Incredibly, even with all the performance-focussed changes, the SVA will still wade in up to 900mm of water, which seems like a lot with a petrol V8 under the bonnet..
Driving
This car is so, so big. But you know that going in – a small Range Rover is called an Evoque and even then, it’s not very small.
Driving around town, the air suspension smoothes out the pockmarked tarmac and handles the commute beautifully. The 5.0-litre supercharged V8 is super torquey low down so you just need to think about the accelerator moving a millimetre or so to get it moving.
Passengers – and this is surely the point of this car – will adore it. Absurdly comfortable and usually quiet, it’s bristling with stuff to keep rear seat passengers cool, calm and collected. The massage seats, various blinds and apparatus to keep them shielded from the glare of the sun or the media, all of it conspires to make life lovely.
Front seat occupants score plenty of comfort features, too – those seats massage, heat and cool your back and tushy. As the driver, you are way up in the air and can see the curvature of the earth. It’s not actually that promising. But press the buttons and get into Dynamic mode and everything changes.
No, actually, it doesn’t all change. The V8 is still a hard-revving, charismatic engine that never fails to smear a smile across your face. It hurls the car down the road like one of those space probes NASA crashes into comets. The way this thing moves is astonishing.
It’s also not bad in corners. The air suspension that keeps you on the straight and level also keeps you from tipping over in the curves. It can lower the car even further than it it already is to help the beast reach a 225km/h (138mph) top speed.
It almost doesn’t matter how hard you have to brake for the corners, the power and torque of the V8 will have you flying away from a “normal” Range Rover at an indecent rate of knots.
Obviously, yes. I mean, it’s hugely expensive but is so full of stuff. As one of my passengers put it, it’s a low-flying private jet and he didn’t mean it as a joke. That addictive, charismatic V8, the Range Rover presence and comfort and genuinely good road dynamics all combine to make the Range Rover SVAutobiography properly special.
I cannot for a second think why you’d get a Bentley Bentayga over this much better-looking mega SUV.
New Lotus Evija electric supercar packs 2000PS and some startling performance figures.
British sports car maker Lotus is on the move following its acquisition by Geely (who also own Volvo and Lynk&Co among others). The company has been drip-feeding this new car for a while but we’ve got a stack of images and the motherlode of information to get us going.
First, the name. Pronounced E-vee-ya (Lotus rendered it ‘E-vi-yah)(I think mine is better), it means first in existence. As in Eve (Adam and Eve), the first woman. And, of course, EV. Yeah, I know.
“The Lotus Evija is a car like no other. It will re-establish our brand in the hearts and minds of sports car fans and on the global automotive stage. It will also pave the way for further visionary models.”Phil Popham, Lotus Cars CEO
Look and Feel
I don’t know about you, but I love this. It has the compact length of the Elise, along with a familiar Evora-Elise tail, in profile at least. The lovely paperclip shape of the aero is amazing to look at, complex shapes but all with an obvious purpose, a bit like a McLaren 570S.
A bit like the Valkyrie and that other aero-obvious McLaren, the Senna, you can see a lot of the aero, the body work cut open to channel and move air around pesky things like people and wheels.
The interior looks terrific, apart from that ridiculous (but functional) steering wheel. The carbon bridge with its lovely hexagonal pattern houses climate control and various other functions. It looks terrific.
Lotus says you’ll be able to personalise (ie spend a lot of money) your Evija, including changing the Union Jack on the C-pillar.
Drivetrain
Before we get too carried away, let’s just quickly address the 2000PS (1471kW) and 1700Nm figures – they’re both listed as targets. Which means that all performance figures are also targets. Electric hypercars with stupid figures are a dime a dozen (life’s too short to report on all of them…or any of them).
If Danny Bahar was still in charge of Lotus, this story wouldn’t exist, but the adults are in charge and this car looks properly real, so it’s here.
Lotus says the Evija will sprint from 0-100km/h (0-62mph) in under three seconds and on to over 320km/h (200mph). More amazingly, the 100-200km/h (62-124mph) run is also a three second job. And then 200-300km/h (124-185mph) will be under four seconds. That is seriously fast.
Key to these targets is a massive 2000kW mid-mounted battery system. Lotus teamed up with Williams Advanced Engineering, a spin-off of Frank’s famous racing team. The pack is stored behind the cabin and Lotus reckons it means you can swap it out for a track-ready battery pack. That sounds pretty amazing.
Each wheel scores a 368kW (500PS) electric engine and gearbox unit. Each gearbox is a helical ground gear single-speed unit. Instead of diffs, software sorts out what goes where, so the stability and traction control systems will ensure, er, serious grip.
With the Lotus Evija we have an extremely efficient electric powertrain package, capable of delivering power to the road in a manner never seen before. Our battery, e-motors and transmission each operate at up to 98% efficiency. This sets new standards for engineering excellenceMatt Windle, Executive Director, Sports Car Engineering
The front houses four radiators to help cool everything and Lotus reckons you’ll be able to go absolute flat-out on-track for seven minutes without the electrics stepping down to prevent overheating. Seven minutes doesn’t sound like very long, but with all this grunt, it’s probably three laps of Sepang.
Chassis and Aero
Just like its compatriot, the Evija is based around a carbon fibre tub supplied by CPC. The tub weighs just 129kg. The whole package is 1680kg, which isn’t classic Lotus-light (it’s almost two Elises) but batteries weigh a lot. It’s an easy 400kg lighter than most Teslas.
Fun fact: the first Tesla, the Roadster, was a modified Elise chassis and weighed around 1300kg.
Amusingly, the steering is the purist’s favourite, electro-hydraulic. It’s heavier than electric steering but, as we know from McLarens, is worth the weight.
The suspension sounds super-complex – each corner has three adaptive spool-valve dampers (Google it) – two corner dampers and one heave control damper. Mounted in-board (very race car), the system comes from Multimatic.
The most striking bit of aero is the rear section. The bodywork wraps tightly around the battery pack and, with rather less cooling required, leaves a huge space for downforce-producing aero that reminds me of the new Ford GT’s rear section.
Getting that power to the ground are magnesium 20-inch front wheels and 21-inch rears, with Pirelli P-Zero Trofeo R tyres. To stop you entering orbit or having a crash that will send you there, a forged aluminium AP Racing brake set with carbon ceramic discs will provided the deceleration power.
No doubt there will also be a very aggressive kinetic energy recovery system, too. And for a bit more F1-inspired fun, a drag reduction system (DRS).
Charging
The mammoth battery pack has a claimed range of 400km/h (250mi) on the WLTP cycle, which is probably the least worst measure of electric range.
Lotus says if you can find a 350kW charger (good luck), the Evija will charge to 80 percent in just 12 minutes and 100 percent in 18 minutes. That sounds…quick. Once again, these numbers are targets.
For plug aficionados, it’s a CCS2 socket, housed under a flap at the car’s rear.
How much and when?
Lotus will take a £250,000 deposit and collect the rest of the total (minimum) cost of £1.7m plus taxes and duties during 2020. Just 130 of Evijas will be made, but we’re sure Lotus will find a way to make more of them if demand outstrips supply (say, a Spider version…).
If my maths is right, that means something like A$4m if you plan on running it on the road once you put GST and LCT on it…
Don’t worry too much if you miss out. It’s hugely unlikely the next few years won’t hold at least one Lotus EV for the masses. Well, the Lotus masses anyway.
The 2019 Nissan Leaf is a late-starter here in Australia. So late, in fact, I drove it almost two years ago around the streets of Yokohama on a short preview drive that only gave me a bit of a taste.
I knew then that it wasn’t a performance car. But it’s an important car, because it’s the second generation of Nissan’s trailblazer electric car, the one the industry laughed at, the one they said was a waste of time. That was almost ten years ago.
Electric cars are where it’s all going. These pages have already hosted the fun-filled BMW i3. That wasn’t so much as a preview as a what-if. Sadly, there aren’t more electric cars like it. But what’s coming in the next year or so is super-important because it’s going to set the scene for the next half century (at least) of motoring.
Thing is, they’re all expensive cars, out of reach for a good percentage of us, including me. So the Leaf is here to deliver what most other electric cars in Australia can’t – affordable(ish) electric motoring.
History
Nissan’s first Leaf started rolling down the first of what would eventually be three assembly plants – Oppama in Japan, Smyrna in Tennessee and Nissan’s Sunderland plant in the UK. The car that woudn’t did – 300,000 sales in nine years doesn’t sound like a lot, but nobody else was pulling those kinds of numbers until Tesla’s faltering Model 3 finally got going.
ZE0, as it was codenamed, started its journey with an 80kW/280Nm electric motor driving the front wheels.
Two years after launch the range increased to 121km and then to 135km another year or so later. A new 30kWh batteery arrived in 2016, boosting range to 172km.
At its 2009 presentation, Nissan said the Leaf was meant to be more appealing to mainstream buyers with a more conventional look. In other words, it doesn’t look like a Prius.
Yeah, nah. It was dumpy and odd-looking, wobbling around small skinny wheels. That didn’t really matter, I suppose, because it had inner beauty. Perhaps the Dalai Lama can weigh in here and say it needs to be better-looking in order to sell its good karma.
The interior was weird, too. And people even ordered the beige cabin without their children first being threatened.
The Leaf proved a few things over its decade on sale – a ten year battery life was kind of right, the lithium-ion batteries themselves were reliable (Nissan claimed a replacement rate of just 0.02%, or about five batteries per year) and, most importantly, buyers were into it despite all its compromises.
Look and Feel
The 2019 machine is much better-looking, but it’s still no #blessed Instagram post. Sadly for Nissan, the Honda EV and even the Hyundai Kona EV are better-looking. It’s kind of like a taller Pulsar, like the designers mixed in some Tiida along the way.
It’s still too tall for its wheels and still looks like it was dropped onto a platform one size too small for the body. Again, its inner-beauty is what it’s all about but at least its aquatic mammal look is less pronounced. On porpoise, I imagine (I am not sorry).
The interior is much more sensible, though, with just the oddball transmission selector from Year 3 pottery class surviving. The rest of it is pretty normal, but in classic critic style, it could maybe be a little more committed to the idea of being futuristic. To be fair, the dinky 5.0-inch screen from the Leaf I drove at launch has been replaced by a much nicer 80-inch touchscreen with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.
The back seat is predictably small and hatchback tight and everyone sits Popemobile-high because the batteries are slung underneath the floor. That does have an effect on headroom and the feeling that you’re sitting on a skateboard, but it does liberate some leg and kneeroom in the back.
Drivetrain
For the second-generation, the Leaf has more power and torque. Power is up to 110kW and torque a very pleasing 320Nm.
Power goes to the front wheels via a single-speed automatic.
Battery density is up a whopping 67 percent since 2010, with a claimed 270km range from the 40kWh unit. The car comes with a portable charger but you can also step up to CHAdeMO charger for a fast DC charge.
Nissan claims a 0-100km/h time of 7.9 seconds and an understandably limited top speed of 144km/h.
Charge times and cost
From a standard 240-volt wall charge, you’ll go from zip to full in about 24 hours, or the rough standard of 10km per hour of charge. As you go over 80 percent, charging slows, so keep that in mind.
Wallbox charging falls to about 7.5 hours for a full charge and Nissan reckons 70 percent of punters will go for that.
A 50kW CHAdeMO DC charge will take 60 minutes for an 80 percent charge.
“Only 270km?” I hear you cry. Well, yes. It’s not a lot, but here are some stats. In Australia (and I imagine this is similar the world over), the average daily commute is around 38km. That’s five easy days of commuting without plugging in at all. If you plug in every day, you’ll never drop below 200km, all things being equal.
If you want more range, you’ll need to wait for the bigger battery car which will surely be along soon.
If you need more range now, you need another $10,000-$15000 for a Hyundai Kona EV. Hardly anyone really needs a 400km range. Heck, I spent a week in a Range Rover PHEV with just a 30km real world range and used 14km of petrol because I kept plugging in when I got home.
JetCharge’s CEO Time Washington says that if you’re tarriff is 30c kW/h, you’ll use around $2.10 per day or about $760 per year. If you can work out off-peak charging, that will likely halve. Petrol is way more and the price is variable. Some power companies are offering all-you-can eat charging for a $1 per day. The maths is easy on that score.
The nifty thing about the Leaf is that it features Vehicle to Grid (V2G) technology, meaning if you’ve got the right gear, you can charge for free at the shops (ha!) and then power your home when you get back. Useful in a blackout, though. In earthquake-prone Japan, a few EVs plugged into buildings can take over in a power failure and keep the lifts moving.
Driving
Ah, yes. You’re probably expecting some carefully-worded statements about what it’s like to steer because you’re expecting me to say it’s boring. Yeah, well, it’s actually pretty good, but not especially exciting.
Having said that, because the weight is nice and low in the chassis, you can really keep the speed up through corners, which is unexpected only if you’ve never driven an electric car before.
The steering is deader than Donald Trump’s irony gene but it’s important to remember who this car is for. This car is for normal people wanting to buy a low-fuss car and have a few bob extra to try and make a difference. The Leaf will grab EV people and likely grab previous Leaf owners.
Anyway.
Once you’re used to the light steering, you can think about the e-Pedal. Long-time Redliners will know I was very keen indeed on the i3’s single pedal operation and the Leaf’s is even a bit better. With the range displayed loud and clear on the dashboard, as well as a sensibly arranged graphics for which way the power is flowing, it becomes intuituve within a few miles.
There are two main advantages to this – traffic is less irritating. You only need to use the brake if someone jumps in front of you or you’ve got a bit ambitious. Secondly, it’s entertaining as you play with the pedal to work out the smoothest and most efficient way to drive. Certainly keeps you occupied.
The energy recovery in the Leaf is reasonably aggressive, which is what makes the e-Pedal most useful. If you want more aggression, select B mode on the pottery ashtray tranmission selector.
Bombing around town is where the Leaf is most at home. The torque delivery is super-smooth, with none of the neck-snapping nonsense of some electric cars (I like it, but most people don’t)(the neck-snapping nonsense, I mean).
Redline Recommendation
Diehard Tesla fanboys/fangirls make going electric as unpalatable as the Prius’ do-gooder image did for hybrids. Making a car look obviously electric puts some people off. I think the Leaf treads a fairly fine line, but it will certainly get first-gen Leafers upgrading.
Other people teetering on the edge will also be attracted to the Leaf. It will go on the list alongside a bunch of ICE cars. It will likely be a second car for a good number of buyers, one to sit next to the big SUV or – seriously – the sports car. People are like that.
The Leaf may not be the car with the longest range or the most enticing package. It is, however, a proper full EV from the ground up. It’s all about the future with these cars and with a far more sensible range, a solid ownership proposition and a mildly entertaining chassis, the new Leaf is a pretty EV good option.
And it claims the distinction of being the first second-generation EV.
Ferrari’s GTC4 Lusso replaced the FF a couple of years ago. In a series of very amusing events, it has taken me this long to get a hold of one. I specifically wanted the twin-turbo rear-wheel drive Lusso T because I suspected it would be brilliant.
The Ferrari FF was a special kind of Ferrari. Twelve screaming cylinders, all-wheel drive, a cabin you can fit four people in and, for some reason that will never make sense to me, a boot that fits golf clubs. Mostly because I can’t imagine why anyone would play golf, but there you are.
The GTC4 came along (all new, said Ferrari) and looked a lot like the FF. But with a new name came a new model – the all-wheel drive V12 now has a sibling, the rear-wheel drive, twin-turbo V8 GTC4 Lusso T.
Words: Peter Anderson Images: Rhys Vandersyde
Look and Feel
We’ve gone for dark and moody with this night photoshoot because my goodness, this car looks great under lights. I’ve heard all the complaints about the FF/GTC4. It looks like a breadvan. It’s too long. It’s not a real Ferrari. The usual stuff and I reckon all of it is complete nonsense.
There is so much Ferrari DNA in this car it hurts. Functional shooting brake design (you think the rest of them look the way they do purely for styling? Please), muscular rear end, stacked headlights, wide air intakes. I genuinely love it in the way I don’t adore the Portofino (although it is pretty). It looks special without screaming about it.
I also love this body style – I’m that weirdo who didn’t mind the Z3 M and Z4 M Coupes. Arrest me.
The cabin is lovely, certainly lovelier than the FF’s. It feels a lot more designed and feels unique to the GTC4. Sensible places to put things, cupholders (gasp!), a good size glovebox to go with the almost-usable boot. The central media screen that means you don’t have to faff about with dials while you try and activate Apple CarPlay the way you do in a 488.
Also, the FF I drove had this dreadful tartan interior, so I might just be coloured (I am not sorry) by that.
Drivetrain
Ferrari’s F154 V8 lives under that long bonnet. It’s a lonely existence in an engine bay created for the much bulkier V12. A good number of the cylinders actually live the other side of the windscreen. It looks great.
In the Lusso T, the 3.9-litre twin-turbo V8 rustles up 449 kW (610PS) and 760Nm between 3000rpm and 5250rpm. As in the 488 and Portofino, maximum torque is limited by Ferrari’s clever torque management system that ensures the longevity of its seven-speed twin-clutch Getrag gearbox.
People say the engine is quite different in the Lusso T than the other cars, but I disagree. I think the reality is that the exhaust is a long way back and you don’t hear it as well. It’s still amazingly drivable for such a high powered, turbo, with so little lag it’s virtually absent.
Ferrari says the Lusso T will crack 100km/h (62mph) in 3.5 seconds and go on to a top speed of 320km/h (199mph).
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Chassis
Lots of lovely aluminium has gone into the GTC4’s chassis and if you look close enough, there’s probably a lot of the f12 berlinetta/812 Superfast underneath. When you pop the massive bonnet you could be looking at either of these cars. Except if you pop the cover at the front, you’ll notice it’s missing *counts on fingers* four cylinders, so there is a lot of open space.
There is a lot of technology, too. Magnaride adaptive damping, four-wheel steer, Side-slip Control 4, Ferrari’s e-diff and a whopping set of carbon ceramic discs.
This GTC4 ran on 20-inch chrome painted forged alloys (optional) that look a lot better than they sound. They’re not some fully sick chromed wheel, they’re just a very bright silver. The usual Pirelli P Zeros are along for the ride, with 245/35s at the front and 295/35s (!) at the rear.
The carbon ceramics are 398mm at the front and 360mm at the rear. I think that makes the brakes the biggest I’ve ever used, along with the 812 Superfast.
Another weight-saving measure is the very clever (and appropriately loud) ceramic exhaust system. This car had the optional black ceramic exhaust which looked amazing.
Like the Portofino, the GTC4 has the simplified manettino on the steering wheel, offering Ice, Wet, Comfort, Sport, ESC off.
Is it any good with a V8?
I’m no stranger to V8 twin-turbo Ferraris. I’ve been very lucky to drive the 488 GTB, 488 Spider, the California T and the Portofino. It is a brilliant engine. Refined, torquey and it revs as though those two turbos aren’t even there. It shouldn’t do it, but it does because Ferrari put in an absolute truckload of work to reduce the lag.
Much of the credit goes to the very clever electronic wastegate control on the F154. That control does a few jobs, the most prominent of which is controlling the delivery of 760Nm of torque. As with the 488 and Portofino, you can’t have all of that number until seventh gear.
Ferrari has long acknowledged that the turbo doesn’t respond as quickly as the naturally-aspirated V8 or V12, but claims it has reduced the gap over the years.
The V8 is smooth and powerful and even with an exhaust pipe a long way behind your ears, it sounds fantastic. It still revs to a very impressive .
Driving
The driving position in the GTC4 is terrific. Because you have a lot of extra glass to around you and you sit maybe a touch higher than the 812, you get a very good view around you. The reversing camera weirdly useless because it’s mounted in the fog light assembly, but it doesn’t matter.
The seats are, of course, wonderful and there’s plenty of adjustment to ensure you’re comfortable. It’s surprising how much space there is for rear passengers, too. Three of us piled in – one insisting that he sit in the back so he could tell people all about it. We’re all about the same height, just under six foot tall and we were all comfortable. Like, two or three hour trip comfortable. That’s quite a feat, because when you look at the space for rear passengers, it doesn’t look pleasant. Contrast that with the Portofino’s tiny rear seats and the clever shape of the GTC4’s, you soon realise how it works.
Obviously, being tall is not going to be great back there.
As with all Ferrari’s there’s a big red button on the steering wheel to fire up. And fire up it does, with a flourish before settling into a busy idle. One of the things I really like about Ferraris is how drivable they are all the time. Some twin clutch transmission equipped cars are deeply unpleasant when cold. Some big meat twin-turbo V8s with a lot of torque get really shunty as the high warm-up idle clunks against the clutch.
Dispense with the silliness of driving in Comfort. Leave it in Sport and enjoy the sharp throttle response and the well-weighted steering. If you don’t like the ride, hit the Bumpy Road button and let it all smooth out.
The GTC4 is lovely around town. The low down torque and easy feel of the long wheelbase means it rides happily and with four-wheel steer is ludicrously manoeuvrable for a car of its length, 4922mm (193.8-inches). That’s just a touch shorter than an Alpina B5. Or just a few centimetres shorter than a Mazda CX-9 seven-seater. It’s longer than a Honda CR-V.
Don’t be afraid to get on it, though. The four-wheel steering turns this car into right animal, along with the more purist rear-wheel drive. Fire it at a corner, even if it’s bumpy and messy, the long nose swings in like a much lighter and smaller car.
You can be fairly brutal on the throttle on the way out, too. Between the huge rubber, e-diff and steering, it will swing a bit and then settle down, getting on with the business of getting you out of the corner.
High speed stability is also amazing, with a planted high-speed lane change behaviour as well as unbelievable grip in long sweepers. It really does everything and it does it while still managing to be comfortable.
And it does it while being a Ferrari.
But you know what else it does? It won’t draw the wrong kind of attention. Nobody really knows what it is – at least in Australia – and so will leave you be. You can park it wherever you want (within reason) and like an Audi R8, it will only get the attention of people who know their cars.
Redline Recommendation
Well of course. It’s not an 812 Superfast, it won’t scare you or tear strips out of the road. It’s also not for those who really need the all-wheel drive capability if you’re one of those well-heeled types who takes their Ferrari to the snow or, heaven forbid, on gravel.
While I personally would find it difficult to own a 488 or 812, the choice for me would be tricky between a GTC4 Lusso T and the Portofino. And I think, ultimately, it would fall in favour of the Lusso T.
I think it’s fair to say that the Mercedes A45 AMG packs the most powerful four-cylinder in a production car. The M133 in the noses of the A45, CLA45 and GLA45 (anything else?) parps up a massive amount of power to which all other aspire.
But being AMG and with a new A45 on the way to take over from the A35 as the top-of-the-A-range, there’s a new engine. Well, a heavily-updated one, anyway – it’s the M139.
Mercedes M139
The M139 is still a 2.0-litre turbo four-cylinder for installation in transverse-engined Mercs. With a fair few changes, the new engine spins up 285kW (387PS).
Big deal, you’re saying.
Yeah, that’s the “basic” version. The S version winds it up to 310kW (421PS). That is…a lot of power.
Torque for the basic comes out at a staggering 480Nm between 4750rpm and 5000rpm while the S has a nice round 500Nm between 5000rpm and 5250rpm. Not a wide torque-band, no, but hey. There’s a lot of it.
The new engine has done an about-face and put the exhaust manifold on the turbo on the firewall side of the engine. That means all the cooling is on the rather more sensible side, out the front where, you know, the cold air is. It also means that the intakes are shorter and there’s less complexity in the pipework.
The new turbo has roller bearings to reduce friction, spinning up to 169,000 more quickly. The new exhaust manifold is also tricksy, to smooth the flow of turbo-turning exhaust and keep the individual cylinders from upsetting each other.
There’s a ton of other detail changes, but they’re not that interesting. Yes, the “One man, one engine” handbuilt philosophy continues in the Affalterbach factory and I daresay you’ll be hearing one of these engines farting in back streets near you before mid 2020.
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