TVR is probably the only company in the world named after a bloke called Trevor (and vowel removal pioneer). What’s more, its rebirth appears to be on-track (so to speak) as the company has released a new video of the resurrected Griffith testing at Dunsfold aerodrome.
The new Griffith’s power comes from a (we think) a 5.0-litre Ford Coyote V8 supplied. As you can see in the video, there’s a chap with a Cosworth jacket on. That’s not some mad fan, he’s actually from Cosworth. The new owners seem pretty clever and have the famed engine company on the job to fettle the bent eight to produce a very handy 500PS (372kW/490bhp). Fitted with a dry sump, the engine sits low in the car to reduce its height and therefore lower the centre of gravity.
Sadly you can’t hear much of the engine over the tyre noise, but you can’t have everything.
The Griffith is said to weigh around 1250kg, but that’s likely its target rather than with fluids and bodies on board. Either way, with all that grunt from the V8 means it should hit around 400hp per tonne. The Griffith will come with a six-speed Tremec manual which can handle a truckload of torque, so expect a big number there.
With that kind of grunt, you can expect a sub four second run to 100km/h (62mph).
What is it?
These side pipes will keep pedestrians on their toes
The new Griffith is a typically mad-looking thing. You can see the moveable aero wing fully deployed at the rear and the side exhausts, long a TVR trademark, will no doubt put on a noise and light show when in the right mode.
Another TVR signature piece is the double-bubble roof to reduce the frontal area but also look seriously cool.
The car should be brilliant as McLaren F1 designer (road and race cars) Gordon Murray is on the job and he doesn’t mess about.
The car rolls on 19-inch wheels up front and 20s at the rear. Helping keep the car stuck to the ground is a giant rear diffuser and massive front splitter. Double wishbones all round promise excellent handling.
The new TVR uses using Murray’s patented iStream manufacturing method. Murray has spent years and presumably a considerable amount of money developing a small-scale production method. Made from advanced materials such as carbon fibre and aluminium, the new TVR Griffith will be worthy of its wild predecessors.
TVR Rescued
Sports car fans love TVR. Maker of kit cars then a proper manufacturer based in Blackpool, England, the company was famous for bonkers rear-drive machines. During its heyday under down-to-earth owner Peter Wheeler, the company turned out the Griffith 500, the Chimera and Sagaris. They even made their own engines for a while.
Wheeler sold up and the company ended up in the hands of a Russian kid who made a mess of it. Then the company was rescued by a company led by John Chasey and Les Edgar and here we are. Obviously it’s a bit more complex than that, but the new ownership seems much smarter…
These side pipes will keep pedestrians on their toesCheck out the harnesses…
Lamborghini’s Aventador S is probably the last of its kind. It stands as the last mid-engined V12 supercar from established manufacturers.
It’s a throwback to the past with its impractical body, tight cabin and those crazy doors. The coupe is also packed with up-to-date technology like pushrod pepension, carbon-ceramic brakes and heavy lashings of carbon fibre.
Low and sleek, the Aventador S looks like nothing else on the road.
History
The Aventador S is one of the wildest road-going Lamborghinis ever. Mid-engined V12 Lamborghinis have captivated the eight year old in us all for over half a century. The tradition stretches right back to the Miura (1966-1973) but everybody remembers the angular, alien-like Countach of the eighties.
Launched at the Geneva Motor Show in 2011, Lamborghini had twelve orders on the books even before the salon opened. Replacing the Murciélago, the Aventador sported a 6.5-litre 700hp V12. As is traditional at Sant’Agata, the car’s name came from a particularly distinguished fighting bull.
Over the first six years of its life, the Aventador sold over 5000 units alongside the wildly popular V10-powered Gallardo and now the devastatingly good Huracan. The Aventador easily outsold its unpronounceable predecessor, which just ticked over the 4000 mark.
Along the way the platform has sprouted wild special editions such as the Veneno and 2016’s tremendous Centenario.
Over the years, power grew from 700hp (521kW) for the “base car” (if you could call it that), to 720hp (531kW) for a couple of special editions. The Super Veloce Coupe and Roadster (2014 and 2015) peaked at a massive 750hp (552kW).
Much of the Aventador S spec comes from those Super Veloce cars, but in series production. Officially known as at the Aventador LP-740-4 S, most of us refer to it as the Aventador S.
Let’s break down that mouthful – L for Longitudinal, P for Posterior (where the engine is mounted), 740hp is self-explanatory and the -4 denotes all-wheel drive.
Launched in 2016, the S has already attained cult status. And for our first video, we got to drive it.
2017 Lamborghini Aventador S
The Aventador S is completely nuts. It is so low that you can barely poke a foot under the front splitter. Climbing in is like negotiating a submarine hatch and once you’re in, it’s snug. Headroom is marginal for me and I’m not even six feet (182cm) tall. Those mad scissor doors, always in our hearts as quintessentially Lamborghini, lift and lower easily. They’re almost practical given the gigantic width.
A fat-bossed steering wheel is wrapped in lovely, tactile Alcantara where your hands rest at a quarter-to-three. The interior isn’t exactly roomy and nor is it super-modern. Things have moved extremely quickly since 2011, but the digital dash saves the Aventador some embarrassment. The switchgear is pretty good and very clearly related to a B8 Audi A4. That’s perfectly fine, if a bit old. The starter button lurks under a red cover – flip it up and press start.
V12 Engine
Lamborghini’s 6.5-litre V12 is only the second all-new V12 to come out of Sant’Agata. The first was the 350GT’s, so it was a long time between drinks. Getting the green light for such an extravagant engine must have been the subject of many hours of discussion, with lots of hand-wringing at Audi board meetings.
It’s an extraordinary engine. Amazingly, it doesn’t share a single part with any engine in the rest of the VW Group. Here in the Aventador LP 740-4 S it produces 740 metric horsepower (544kW, 730bhp) and 690Nm (509ft lb).
Codenamed L539, the angle between the cylinder banks is 60 degrees and it revs to a stratospheric 8250rpm. With a dry sump and all-alloy construction, it sits low in the chassis and ahead of the gearbox.
Yes, that gearbox. Forgetting that the Aventador is a curious car to start with, the single-clutch ISR (independent shift rod) transmission is a curiosity itself. BMW, Maserati and Ferrari have long-since abandoned this clunky style of semi-automated gearbox in favour of twin-clutch setups. Porsche had already released its twin-clutch gearbox, the PDK, two years earlier.
The ISR has seven forward gears and Lamborghini claims the fastest shift takes 50 milliseconds, 10ms slower than a 2011 F1 car (and probably a 2017). Lighter than a twin-clutch unit, it was the same transmission as the Murciélago’s. So it’s not only lighter in weight but also lighter on the R&D budget. The final excuse was that the transmission tunnel is too narrow to fit a dual-clutch unit. Despite the Aventador’s width resembling that of a 747’s wingspan, the wide sills push the passengers inboard, robbing available space for a gearbox.
Amusingly, Fiat and Citroën persist with single-clutch transmissions in dinky hatchbacks and they’re predictably awful.
The gearbox drives all four wheels through a new Haldex electronic all-wheel drive system and the three driving modes decide the basic torque split. Always rear-biased, Strada (Street) gives you 60/40, Sport 90/10 and Corsa (Race) 80/20. Of course, the split changes depending on the conditions.
0-100km/h (0-62mph) arrives in a startlingly quick 2.9 seconds and on to a top speed of 351km/h (217mph).
Chassis
The Aventador S is heavily-based on the SuperVeloce (SV) special editions. Power drops from 750hp to 740hp but the S picks up the magnetic pushrod suspension (yes, I got that wrong on the video), which at the rear is installed over the top of the gearbox. And it looks tremendous.
Remember the Honda Prelude and Mazda MX-6? The S scores that very 1990s Japanese feature of four-wheel steering. It’s a proper system, which turns the rears in the opposite direction to the fronts (up to 1.5 degrees) to improve manouverability at low speed and switches to turning them in the same direction as the fronts (up to three degrees) for high-speed cornering stability. When you get used to it, you realise just how much you can get away with and you can’t get that silly grin off your face.
The 20-inch front wheels and 21-inch rears are wrapped in massive Pirelli P-Zero rubber and the brakes are carbon ceramic monsters.
Driving
Slow driving in the Aventador S is a proper chore. There is no other way around it. Even though I’m not very tall, my cranium bounced off the roof on big bumps. And that’s a relative term. Riding barely five inches off the ground and running very stiff springs and magnetic suspension, even in Strada mode you feel every single grain of sand or dirt on the road underneath you. Up to about 70km/h (40mph-ish), it’s bouncy, clunky and with that single-clutch gearbox, a little bit embarrassing.
That engine, though. Pin the throttle and it screams. Forget Strada mode, Sport is where you will live in this car. Spitting blue flame and roaring and cackling like a crazed uncle high on crystal meth at Christmas, the Aventador S must be the most theatrical car on the road.
The V12 bellow comes out through a retuned exhaust and it’s glorious. People can hear you coming blocks away such is the sheer size of the sound. When you’re hurling it down your favourite road, that sound grows to fill valleys, escaping through the trees, shimmering across rivers and dams. This thing is like the oncoming storm.
One of the great joys of the car – apart from manhandling it down a country road – are the huge alloy gearshift paddles. Fixed to the column, they make a lovely sound both in their actuation and the enormous racket from an upshift or downshift. You’ll work these things shiny if you live in a city with lots of tunnels.
It’s properly wide, though, meaning you need to be careful – once you work out the width, you can throw it around with huge abandon. While the all-wheel drive prevents you from breaking free under hard acceleration, the chassis will dance under hard braking and if you tip it in hard enough, it will slide.
If you’re less brave, it will understeer ever-so-slightly, more for safety than through lack of application from engineers. The size and weight of that V12 could easily fling you into the weeds if you were to go without the electronics.
Nothing this side of a race car will excite you the way the Aventador can. It’s a flawed, silly car but it’s also the last of its kind. You can’t help but love it.
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The McLaren Senna has been public for barely a week. We were told when it went public that we couldn’t have one because they were all sold.
Or were they?
It turns out there was one final, “unallocated” (cough) Senna and it went to auction at an annual customer event held at McLaren’s technology centre.
The company says that bidding was “fierce” with auctioneer Max Girardo kept busy until the final bid of £2 million (almost US$2.7m) before taxes and charges.
We wondered in our launch story what the Senna family’s price was. We always knew it would go to a good cause and now we know. The proceeds of this final car will go to helping out underprivileged kids in Brazil through the Ayrton Senna Institute. Ayrton’s sister Viviane and nephew Bruno were on hand for the auction.
According to the McLaren press release the auction was a surprise, so one imagines the winning bidder has that kind of cash just lying around. Sucks to be whoever they are.
The Ayrton Senna Institute
Vivianne and Bruno Senna
Ayrton Senna was well-known for his business and philanthropic efforts. While absolutely ruthless on-track (as Alain Prost will attest), he was a thoughtful man off it. Born to a privileged family, Senna was revered for his efforts on the racetrack. The spurred him on to contribute something to his own people, many of whom live well below the poverty line.
The Institute has trained 750,000 teachers all over Brazil to improve the education of 17 million children. At its inception, the Ayrton Senna Foundation encouraged children to study and as a reward, allowed them to participate in sporting activities funded by the Foundation.
The money raised here is part of a broader fundraising effort using the Senna name, with a deal for Sony to use the name and brand in Gran Turismo, starting with Gran Turismo 6.
There you have it – there are now no longer any McLaren Sennas to buy. Bummer, eh? Console yourself with this video:
The 2018 McLaren Senna has been unveiled – with a 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8, 800hp and 800Nm, it will be blindingly fast and earn its Ultimate Series tag.
The McLaren Senna is the newest of the British car maker’s Ultimate Series, following on from the P1. Billed as a road-legal track car, it weighs a claimed 1198kg (dry weight), lighter than most small hatchbacks and a fair bit lighter than the P1 and the lightest McLaren since the F1.
The production run will be limited to just 500 units and will come down the same assembly line as the rest of the McLaren range. And they’re all sold.
The predictably purple press release says that the Senna is “legalised for road use, but not sanitised to suit it.” Quite.
What is it?
The McLaren Senna is third model introduced under McLaren’s Track22 business plan and part of the top shelf Ultimate Series. Track22 will see X number of models introduced over the next few years and help build the McLaren Automotive’s volumes. The company has already blown by Lamborghini (although that might soon change with the Urus) and is rapidly catching Ferrari.
The car is named after multiple Formula 1 world champion Ayrton Senna. The Brazilian won his world championships – and built his legacy – at the wheel of Woking’s finest. A sometimes-controversial figure, he died at the wheel of his Williams FW16 at the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix while in pursuit of Michael Schumacher’s Benetton.
The Senna name is inextricably linked with McLaren and the company’s racing ethos is bound up in much of what the man himself said about racing. He was a fairly complex chap and is still revered by F1 fans more than two decades after his death.
“You commit yourself to such a level where there is no compromise. You give everything you have; everything, absolutely everything.”
Ayrton Senna
The decision to call the car Senna wouldn’t have come about in an afternoon – his family fiercely protects the name. You can’t slap the iconic Senna logo on just anything.
It probably doesn’t hurt that Ayrton’s nephew, Bruno Senna, is a McLaren ambassador, but it still wouldn’t have been easy. McLaren really believes the car is worthy of the name and is at great pains to explain why. Convincing the Senna family would have meant not only lots of talk, a few runs in the prototype and most likely a sizeable portion of each car’s £750,000 (around US$1m) price tag going to the late driver’s charitable foundation.
Styling
This car is wild. It’s almost like Rob Melville’s team sent the images down a modem line and cut the transmission – none of the lines join up and it is more than a little reminiscent of a WEC racer without some of the panels fixed on.
It’s all about aero and cooling and it’s kind of a naked version of the 720S – you can see where the air flows through the car and around the teardrop cockpit shape.
The styling is linked to the 720S, with that evocative and striking eye socket for the headlights. McLaren’s signature dihedral doors are made purely of carbon fibre (Sports and Super Series cars have aluminium skins) and open up a huge (for this kind of car) aperture. The wide opening is handy because getting in and out is hard with a helmet on. And yes, they’re a bit like the BMW i8’s doors.
Like the iconic F1, the windows are split, with a small lower section that opens so you can pay the Norschleife toll but not so wide you can swing by McDonald’s. As the door is a frame, you can specify the lower half in glass for that cockpit bubble feeling. Which continues with the door releases and window switches, which are built into an overhead console.
There isn’t much else inside – the 720S’s nifty folding digital dash makes a welcome appearance as does its central console screen. What McLaren calls “visual carbon fibre” (i.e. it’s just decoration) is prominent in the cabin and you can choose from Alcantara or leather to cover the dash and airbags. Apart from that, it’s bare bones, so perhaps ask for a set of ear plugs at the dealer.
The boot has been gobbled up by moving the radiators towards the centreline of the car, so there’s just space for helmets in the cabin.
Engine and transmission
The Senna runs McLaren’s twin-turbo V8, pumped up from the Sports Series 3.8-litres to 4.0 litres. Codenamed M840TR, it develops a monster 575kW and drives just the rear wheels through the company’s seven-speed twin-clutch transmission. The gearbox will want to be strong – with 800Nm (590lb ft), there’s quite a bit of twist to deal with.
McLaren says the two twin-scroll turbos are “ultra-low inertia” and fitted with electric wastegates. The latter is meant to improve throttle response (some people call it anti-lag) – if the 720S is anything to go by, the lag should be virtually non-existent.
The technical highlights include a flat-plane crank and a dry sump, meaning engineers could mount the engine as low as possible
McLaren’s gearshift is a rocker system, meaning you can operate the gearshift with two hands or just one – you can push or pull. In the Senna, you’ve got bigger carbon fibre paddles that can be used with or without gloves.
Just for comparison, the Super Series 720S, revealed in 2017, boasts 720PS and is heavier than the stripped out Senna.
Chassis
The 720’s tub, Monocage III, provides the basis for the Senna. A super-strong carbon monocoque that weighs less than the average human male (around 80kg) forms the basis of the technical platform.
McLaren’s second-generation RaceActive Chassis Control (RCC II) makes an appearance on the Senna. Coupled with the hydraulic steering (oh, yes, it’s worth all of the extra weight), McLaren says “the car feels fully ‘alive’ well below its upper limits” which is a fun way of saying it’s going to be completely hyper.
Hydraulically-interconnected electronic dampers work with double wishbones front and rear and hydraulic anti-roll bars. All of that gear means not only can the stiffness change but so can the ride height.
Dual valve dampers allow for independent control of compression and rebound. Ride stiffness is controlled with a kinetic roll system McLaren calls the K-damper.
Drivers can choose between three settings through the now-familiar Active Dynamics Panel – Comfort, Sport and Track. The fourth mode – Race – activates from the roof mounted central console.
Race mode drops the ride height to a less road-friendly but track-loving level, the same going for the suspension stiffness.
Power to weight is a seriously impressive 668PS (491kW) per tonne. That’s better than the comparatively chubby P1 which weighed in at 1395kg dry. Some of the weight savings come from the carbon panels – the front wings are just 650g versus the 720’s 2.2kg aluminium units.
Aerodynamics
Looking at the Senna, you can see that aero, rather than smooth lines, has taken a front seat. It looks like someone has taken a vegetable peeler to the 720S. The gigantic double diffuser sucks the car to the road and is made from a single piece of carbon, stretching from the rear axle.
The radiators now live further inboard than on the 720. That means there’s no boot, but the aero path from the “socket” is now clear.
A twin-element carbon fibre wing hangs off the rear. It measures a whopping 1219mm from the ground when the car is stationary. Like the P1, hydraulic actuators tweak the wing to keep it at the right attack angle, settling the car under braking. As you’re approaching VMax, it trims the car to make it as slippery as possible.
When you switch to Race mode, the 50mm drop in ride height boosts downforce by a startling 40 percent.
Wheels Tyres and Brakes
McLaren has gone for carbon-ceramics for the Senna, there was no other choice, really. You can’t choose your wheels or tyres, at least not at the factory. The lightweight 19-inch alloys fix to the chassis with a centre-lock system. That will be interesting – some jurisdictions ban that type of carry-on but McLaren says it will available in all its current markets.
The tyres are likely to be fairly marginal for road use. Pirelli developed a set of P-Zero Trofeo R tyres for the Senna. That means you can drive to the racetrack you’re intending to use to ruin those tyres. No mention of driving home again, so that makes sense…
When?
The car will make its public debut at the 88th Geneva International Motor Show in March 2018. Production will begin in the third quarter of 2018. Expect a bit of noise around the 2018 Goodwood Festival of Speed.
BMW confirmed one of the car world’s worst-kept secrets – the go-faster sedan is to get the same CS treatment as the M4 and will be called the M3 CS.
The M4 CS has been a huge critical success for the brand, with a harder, sharper chassis and torquier engine. The CS washed away the (sometimes bizarre) criticism of the high-priced M4 GTS with a more practical, manageable proposition, along with a big price cut. Some countries got a bigger price cut than others…
M3 CS Specs
The CS badge on the back of the M3 CS means quite a number of changes, both under the bonnet and under the skin. First, a bit of history.
The CS is based a little bit on the M4 GTS and a lot on the M3 Competition.
The M4 GTS’s spec was expensive and lightweight and the two are closely related. The exhaust was a super-expensive titanium unit, the interior was missing a lot of stuff – including the back seats – to both reduce weight and fit a gorgeous and pricey roll cage/fire extinguisher package.
Power was massive, 368kW (not far off 300hp) and 600Nm of torque from BMW’s twin turbo straight six. The standard M3 produces 317kW (440hp) and the Competition is rated at 331kW (460hp).
All this was packed in to a bodyshell further lightened by keeping the carbon fibre reinforced plastic (CFRP) roof and adding the same material for the bonnet.
Engine
Power is up on the twin turbo straight-six by 10hp/7kW to 460hp/338kW. The big news is the 50Nm jump in torque to the GTS’s 600Nm. The character of the engine – as installed in the M4 CS – is much more aggressive. Coupled with BMW’s 7-speed twin-clutch, it revs like a banshee and is properly mental. The CS version of the gearbox shifts sharper and hard, the more relaxed DSC means it’s a bit of fun in the wet. The M4 CS lights up the rears between the gears and it’s hilarious, wet or dry.
The GTS’s titanium exhaust is replaced with a stainless steel unit. Yes, it’s heavier but, wow, is it cheaper. The loss of the water injection unit also significantly reduces the cost.
BMW says you’ll crack the 0-100km/h (0-62mph) run in 3.9 seconds, which is nice. And on to 280km/h (174mph).
Wheels and Tyres
Of course, power hits the road through the rear wheels as is only right and proper. Like the GTS, the rears measure 20-inches, wrapped in semi-slick Michelin Sport Cup 2 rubber. They’re 285/30s, if you’re wondering.
The fronts are down an inch to 19-inches, like the Competition package, with 265/35s. The wheels are smaller, BMW says, to improve steering feel and in the CS, that is definitely a thing. They’re made of forged alloy and look fantastic.
Chassis
Much of the Competition’s chassis tweaks are carried up to the CS, but with detail changes to the adaptive damper-equipped suspension. In the M4 these are largely successful, with only a small penalty in the ride but delivering a properly fleet-footed feel.
A more aggressive Active M diff coupled with a less uptight DSC systems means plenty of fun on tap. Tweaked steering setting should herald more feel and with a bit of luck won’t be as heavy as the M4 CS.
You can choose carbon ceramic brakes, but seriously, the steels are amazing as they are, so unless you’re going to spend regular days on-track, you’ll be okay.
Styling
The exterior styling is very aggressive – along with the carbon roof and the dark wheels, there are carbon splitters front and rear as well as a carbon gurney flap on the bootlip. LED headlights are standard and the daytime running lights mark out the CS from the rest of the pack. It looks lower and wider courtesy of the chunky front bumper and carbon splitter and the CFRP bonnet looks appropriately bulgy.
Annoyingly, the deeply sexy OLED taillights haven’t made it to the sedan. That’s boring, but probably means you won’t pay as much.
The M4 GTS interior featured some fun changes that reflected the focussed nature of the car. The CS has dialled them back a bit, but my absolute favourite feature – the the door-straps – stayed. But for the M3, it’s a bit more friendly, with standard M3 door handles. Amusingly, it’s only a four-seater, just like the M4.
The front seats are also not the wacky slotted M4 seats, but that utterly delicious, fat, Alcantara-clad steering wheel made the transition. It could do without the naff red starter button, though.
There’s plenty of Alcantara on the dash – along with that lovely CS logo punched in – and the armrest is MIA. Some more carbon pieces complete the picture. And theres’s a big screen, iDrive 6 and cupholders and really, do you care?
How many and should I get one?
BMW says it can churn out around 1200 of these bad boys, limited only by time and production availability (there’s a new 3 on the way, after all) and there’s also the M4 CS to produce. These will go quickly and you can plonk down your deposit from 2018. You can plonk down your deposit now.
(Australian readers will want to know that the price is $179,900, $33,000 more than the M3 Competition.)
Should you get one? If it’s half as good as the M4 CS, yep. Without delay.
Here’s a typically silly video for you:
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Well, almost. At the end of the 2017 Formula One season, McLaren Honda will be no more. After three seasons of almost unending woe, the Honda power units are off to Toro Rosso.
Honda’s presence in F1 is creating quite a trail of destruction.
To get a supply of engines that don’t blow up every five laps or so, McLaren had to offload Honda to someone else. Initially, that someone else was Sauber. But with new owners and investors on the scene, that idea was sent packing, as was Team Principal Monisha Kaltenborn. Sauber re-signed with Ferrari, and that was the end of that idea.
This infuriated everybody except Sauber’s designers and drivers, one imagines.
Honda’s performances grew worse and worse. Much-heralded improvements yielded more disappointment and more amusing radio outbursts from Fernando Alonso.
The final straw appears to have come at this year’s Belgian Grand Prix. Honda had promised an update, delivered it, and the engines blew up. Another total disaster, which infuriated everyone except Haas.
Since the Italian Grand Prix, talks have centred around Red Bull’s second team and driver creche, Scuderia Toro Rosso, taking on the troublesome Honda engines. These talks had been off and on for a while but since Belgium, stayed on.
Around and around it all went. McLaren wanted Renault, Renault wanted Ricciardo, Palmer wanted to keep his job, Zak Brown wanted to keep Fernando, Fernando wanted a car that didn’t blow up.
So, on the eve of the Singapore Grand Prix, a series of orchestrated press releases and interviews dropped.
The Announcements
McLaren thanks Honda, but seriously, we’ve had enough, so it’s best you leave.
McLaren welcomes Renault, because seriously, anything is better.
Toro Rosso welcomes Honda (and lots of money) because…uh…well, we’re not sure why, actually.
Renault welcomes Carlos Sainz Jr for the 2018 seasons because, seriously, we’ve had enough of Jolyon Palmer. And Red Bull wouldn’t give us Danny Ricciardo.
Red Bull Racing still has Renault engines in 2018 but dammit, that’s it.
Red Bull Racing suggests Aston Martin might come to F1 as a supplier, but probably not.
Jolyon Palmer says f*** and he actually hasn’t yet had enough of F1.
Okay, that last one wasn’t official, but you have to feel for the guy. He found out he’d lost his job on autosport.com. Ouch.
Fernando Alonso
Photo: Steven Tee for McLaren Racing
This has all been terribly embarrassing for everybody but hugely frustrating for McLaren’s star driver.
Fernando Alonso has been denied the chance to continue demonstrating his incredible driving talent. He’s not too flash at politics or picking the right time to go to the right team, but boy can he drive. He has consistently driven the wheels off the McLaren, which appears to have a handy chassis. McLaren even let him do the Indy 500 to keep him interested and the sodding Honda in the back of that car blew up too. Apart from Monaco, which clashed with Indy, he has turned up at every race and driven his heart out.
Remember when the Red Bull wasn’t to Sebastian Vettel’s taste and he started to coast a bit? Hasn’t happened with Alonso.
McLaren
McLaren’s reputation is severely damaged, but no worse than the torrid Peugeot experiment in 1994. They may have built a car to challenge the might of Mercedes, Ferrari and to a lesser extent Red Bull. They may have built a car better than all three. We’d never know.
The Honda power unit is demonstrably worse in 2017 than it was last year. In 2016, Honda appeared to get a handle on things but changed philosophy over the winter. McLaren knew on day one at Barcelona that the 2017 season was already over, so started desperately casting around for a new engine deal. F1 is a tough business but a team like McLaren shouldn’t have to beg for an engine supplier. No team should really, but that’s part of F1’s wider issues.
Part of Honda’s participation meant tipping a lot of cash into McLaren. The situation must be so bad that the rumoured $100m isn’t worth the ignominy.
McLaren Honda is radioactive
McLaren Honda, as an overall brand, is now irretrievably tarnished. Without going into idiotic nostalgia, the partnership between those teams is one of motorsport legend. That’s now dead and buried, because today’s F1 fans will remember only the power unit’s unreliability, lack of power and total lack of sensible decision-making at Honda’s F1 operation.
Hopefully that will change in the future, but Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna’s domination with Honda power units now seems like a century ago rather than a mere thirty years.
Carlos Sainz and Renault
Carlos Sainz must be pleased. He’s got an escape from Franz Tost and Helmut Marko’s overly-critical oversight at Torro Rosso. To be fair, they’ve been good to him as a rule, but it must be a difficult atmosphere, especially given STR’s history of turfing their drivers after two or three seasons.
Renault also has a future star in the car to replace Jolyon Palmer and put Nico Hulkenberg to the test. Palmer seems like a lovely kid, but is totally out of his depth in F1. Sainz too needs a challenge, because his STR teammate is the hapless Daniil Kvyat who, like Honda, appears to be getting worse too.
Red Bull and Renault
Renault promptly pulled the pin on Red Bull during the week. One of Renault’s (rumoured) demands was to get Daniel Ricciardo in the yellow and black next year, but they got Sainz instead.
Red Bull spent a lot of time trashing Renault over the past couple of seasons, so retribution was swift. Renault is basically condemning RBR to Honda engines in 2019, the final year of the current engine formula. It could go either way, but if you track Honda’s poor decision-making, it’s hardly likely to be a great engine by then.
That means losing either or both Ricciardo and Verstappen. If Ricciardo isn’t on the blower trying to replace Kimi Raikkonen in 2019, he’s mad.
What now?
Photo: Steven Tee/McLaren
We wait. Palmer looks like he’s already gone at Renault, so we might see Sainz in the factory colours in Malaysia and a Honda driver in at STR to replace him. The whole deal isn’t especially satisfactory for the fans of most of the people involved here, but it was the least worst result. F1 really has to sort out the over-complex engines, the dull racing and the dumb rule changes that put teams and engine suppliers on the back foot all the time.
But with a Renault engine, at least McLarens can challenge. Fernando in with a shout is formidable and exciting.
The all-electric I-Pace hasn’t hit the roads yet, but already Jaguar has announced the i-Pace eTrophy. Slightly cringeworthy name aside, the racing series will support Formula E races.
The British brand was the first to get themselves a place in the electric open-wheeler series which is growing in popularity.
What’s an I-Pace?
SUVs aren’t really The Redline’s thing, so it’s worth having a quick trip down Jaguar’s high-riding product line. The company’s first SUV was the F-Pace, which went completely ballistic, selling over 80,000 units in its first year. Then the I-Pace was unveiled to much excitement. In the middle of 2017, Jaguar announced its third SUV, the E-Pace. That car will actually reach customers before the I-Pace and is resolutely not electric. But will be in 2020. A bit.
So anyway, the I-Pace is a sort of mid-size SUV but the whole point of it is that it’s Jaguar’s first, and so-far only, fully electric vehicle..
Good question. As you can see, the video is all renderings, but the cars look good.
Jaguar says that the company’s Special Vehicle Operations (SVO) arm will build the I-Pace eTrophy cars at their base in Warwickshire. SVO reckons it will build up to 20 of the race cars and the series will support the FIA Formula E open-wheeler championship from Season 5, which kicks off in late 2018.
Interestingly, Jaguar’s “factory” team was the first big brand to throw itself into Formula E. Mercedes, BMW and Porsche, have each abandoned established race series like DTM and WEC to join Jaguar.
The e in eTrophy is obviously to establish that the racing series is for electric cars only and will only be I-Paces. It’s an interesting play for Jaguar, because SUVs and racing don’t really go together.
The cars certainly look good, but there isn’t much in the way of tech specs for us to pore over. Hopefully the I-Pace can do a whole race distance without the amusing mid-race car change of Formula E (yes, we know there’s only one more season of that, stop showing off).
The RenaultSport Megane feels like it’s been “coming soon” forever but, finally, at the 2017 Frankfurt Show, we got our first look at Renault’s now-legendary hot hatch.
Stepping to the top of the Megane range, all of the familiar ingredients are there. Wilder-than-normal looks, a lairy signature colour, a clever piece of technology and the potential for a bananas Nurburgring lap time.
What’s it got?
A few fun things. Let’s start with the basics. Built on the new Megane platform that’s been doing the rounds for getting on two years, it’s obviously wider. The RenaultSport bods at Dieppe have pumped the car out for a much wider track with the attendant flaring of the guards to contain the extra width.
The 1.8-litre turbocharged four produces a neat 280hp (205kW) and 390Nm, with a 300hp/400Nm unit along by the end of 2018.
The chassis will be available in Sport and Cup types, but as on the Clio, it’s unlikely either of them will be granny-spec.
Wait…it has four-wheel steer?
Oh yes. It’s pretty obvious that there’s a sensible limit to engine output, especially from a 1.8-litre. Blow-ups are expensive, rather inconvenient and RenaultSport Meganes are driven like they’re stolen.
Ring lap times are important for marketing types (and internet bores), so a good way to reduce the lap time is more speed in the corners. Four-wheel steer not only helps gain a few tenths but also makes the car way more stable.
Four-wheel steer used to be a thing in the Eighties. So was Honda, when they were punching out some super-clever stuff, like the four-wheel steer Prelude. Mazda had some fun with the same technology, too, with the AWS MX-6 coupe. Then it went away. The GT-R popped up with it, but hardly anybody cared.
Peugeot had what it called passive rear-wheel steer on its rather lovely 306. Rather than using heavy and failure-prone electric motors to turn the wheels, it used physics. When you turned the car into a corner, the suspension would – basically – bend and allow a bit of same-direction steer from the rear wheels. Then Peugeot got boring with the 307 and all the fun went away.
Then, without warning, in 2016, two cars brought it back. The wild Ferrari F12 tdf special edition had it and then the Lamborghini Aventador S followed suit. So obviously the RenaultSport Megan was the next place it was going to appear. It’s the first time I can remember a hot hatch in about 15 years (306 GTi-6) having it.
Anything else worth knowing?
Of course! The suspension features hydraulics stops “to provide additional damping and eliminate the effects of rebound.” You can choose between the six-speed manual or six-speed twin clutch (the Clio is only available with the latter). The EDC transmission, as Renault calls it, also has launch control.
The turbo is a twin-scroll unit, which should mean it’s a bit more drivable than the old one. You will also be able to choose from a bunch of drive modes as well as safety tech, something the last car was a bit skinny on.
And in conclusion?
The RenaultSport Megane has become the benchmark over the years, soundly beating VW Golf bores and keeping the bonkers Focus ST extremely honest. With the new generation interior and five-door body, hopefully it’s a bit more appealing and will see quite a few more. Personally, I’d quite like a go in one right this minute, but I have to wait.
If you’re going to turn 50, you may as well do it in style, right? Mercedes AMG is doing just that with what one assumes is the ironically-titled Project One. As always, Project One (ahem, P1, get it?) is pitched at buyers who don’t care how much it costs and want that “F1 car for the road” vibe from their multi-million dollar/Euro/pound purchase.
What’s under the engine cover?
Image: Mercedes AMG
The AMG Project One certainly fits the bill when you discover it has a 1.6-litre turbocharged V6 hybrid. If that sounds familiar, it’s the kind of engine Messrs Hamilton and Bottas use to impressive effect in their F1 cars. Revving to a stratospheric-for-a-road-car 11,000rpm, the internal combustion engine alone generates 440Kw/603bhp. Which is rather a lot for a tick under 1600ccs.
603bhp? Is that all?
No, that’s not all. Add another four motors, all electric, to the tally, supplying a further 352kW/483bhp. The front wheels get an engine each for that all-wheel drive grip so handy on bumpy, slippery back roads. Each wheel also has its own gearbox. The electronics to make this lot behave will no doubt be a barrel of laughs to get right.
The front wheel motors also feature MGU-K (K for kinetic) style energy recovery which boosts the battery under braking.
Another 120kW motor is attached to the engine’s crankshaft for a bit of ERS boostage.
And finally an 80kW motor spins up the no doubt bucket-sized turbo. Turbo plus electric motor are known as the MGU-H (H for heat) and can spin at 100,000rpm. The point of the MGU-H is to spin the turbo up without needing exhaust gases to do it.
Getting the power to the rear wheels from the ICE is an eight speed Xtrac gearbox, with the usual paddleshift functionality because good gracious, you won’t have time for a manual.
The grand total, after overboost comes into play, is 828kW/1134bhp. That ought to do it.
Rather surprisingly, AMG reckons you won’t have to service the engine until you’ve done 50,000km/30,000mi.
This must all get pretty hot?
Oh yes. There is cooling everywhere. Five separate cooling circuits wind their way through the car. The engine, transmission, electric motors, batteries and intake all have their own cooling. The engine and turbo will generate colossal amounts of heat on their own, which is why everything has been separated. While it probably weighs more, pushing the car would be a right pain.
Okay, so it should stay cool. Is it fast?
Duh. With a target weight of just over 1200kg (a quarter of that is the electrical gear), the run to 100km/h will be out of the way in well under three seconds. Mercedes AMG says the top speed is well over 200mph (320km/h).
What’s it like inside?
Not much in here, but you’ll be fairly busy.
Sparse. Lots of carbon fibre. A very F1-tastic steering wheel. There will be a few airbags to add to the doubtless near-unbreakable chassis and the pedals move rather than the seats. That might restrict taller folks from climbing aboard. Two screens will do media and important information duties and the thing will even be crash-tested. Twelve times! Oh the humanity.
And outside?
Not..ugly but not amazing to look at either.
I’m not sure about the looks, but it’s certainly dramatic. Rolling on 19-inch wheels, there are wings and scoops and extensions everywhere and it’s very, very low to the ground. The doors are dihedral like a McLaren’s and there’s even a shark fin. Most of the exterior images look like renders but the interior looks basically done.
When?
2019.
How much?
Somewhere between “yeah right”, and “GDP of small country”, the Mercedes AMG Project One is unlikely to have not already sold out.
A new car from Maranello is always something of an event and the replacement for recently-turboed California T, the Ferrari Portofino has certainly created a heapin’ helping of cheer.
Ferrari says that the car is all-new, just like the is-it-really-new GTC4 Lusso, but this time you really can tell at first sight.
It’s the same basic package as the California – folding hardtop 2+2 with a turbo V8 upfront. After that, pretty much everything has changed.
For a start, the 3.9-litre twin-turbo V8 now packs a nice round 600hp (592bhp/432kW) and 561lb ft (761Nm) of torque. That torque figure is a planet-ripper and is probably even more important than that headline power figure.
All that power and torque assaults the tarmac via the rear wheels and a seven-speed twin-clutch, firing the Portofino to 100km/h (62mph) in 3.5 seconds. Top speed is a toupee-ruffling 199mph (322km/h).
The techie stuff
The Portofino’s underbits are based on the Scuderia’s new all-aluminium architecture, meaning a “significant weight advantage over the California T it replaces.” I don’t remember the Cali being particularly heavy, but weight reduction means more speed and better handling, so I won’t argue.
More reasons to not argue include an increase in stiffness, another problem I don’t recall the California having, but again, it means a better platform on which to work handling magic while maintaining a good ride.
Ferrari’s third-generation E-Diff makes an appearance between the rear wheels. That thing is brilliant, moving torque around while also allowing lairiness if you so choose. The manettino switch stays where it is on the smaller steering wheel, letting you dial up the fun.
The magnetorheological damping also makes a return, now with what Ferrari calls “dual coil” technology. This system is used to great effect across the range – bumpy road mode is so good, it’s hard to believe you’re in a hard(er)-edged sports car.
For the first time, a Ferrari is running electric steering. The press release says it not only cuts fuel usage (ahem) but also reckons the steering feel is just as good as the outgoing hydraulic setup. The Cali T has quite light but magically feel-filled steering, so it’s probably not a stretch to think Ferrari has this sorted.
What’s inside?
Lots of new stuff. You’ll see from the pics that the Portofino has more aero devices visible to the naked eye. These will reduce wind noise while boosting downforce and look amazing.
Occupants will be more comfortable according to Ferrari (again, the Cali was not an uncomfortable machine…), with 30% less buffeting. The seating is new but the back seats still look useless for humans.
The new 10.2-inch media system is a touchscreen and no doubt features Apple CarPlay. You can see various refinements of the interior bitc and pieces but from the photos. And it seems that the passenger-side dashboard makes a welcome reappearance (you used to be able get one in the FF).
What do we think?
The Ferrari Portofino looks terrific. It seems a more focussed machine and will hopefully silence the whining about the California’s lack of “Ferrariness”. While I was a fan of the California, plenty weren’t, and had to tell everyone all the damn time. You can’t argue that it brought lots of new buyers to the brand, particularly women. And more buyers means more mad cars like LaFerrari.
We’ll see more of the Ferrari Portofino at the Frankfurt Motor Show which kicks off soon. We’ll give you the lowdown as soon as we’ve got it. Meanwhile, enjoy all of the photos Ferrari gave us. And yes, the colour is Portofino Red.
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