Mercedes-Benz GLC Coupé review (2016-on)

AT TIMES, deciphering the names of models within a car maker’s range can feel as daunting as your first lesson in Latin, all those years ago at school. The GLC Coupé reviewed here is based on the GLC, which in turn is based on the C-class (GL means SUV these days, with the following letter indicating on which hatchback/saloon it’s based).

Whereas Mercedes’s GLC promises a sure-footed SUV option when the going gets soft or craggy, taking aim at the Land Rover Discovery Sport more than the likes of the BMW X3 and Audi Q5, the GLC Coupé is designed to be much more of a corporate cruiser; albeit a heavy duty one.

But Mercedes has done more to it than simply chop off a section of roof at the rear to make it look sportier. It’s almost 8cm longer and 4cm lower than the GLC, and so is more car-like in appearance.

Despite this, it’s more cramped in the rear and comes with a loftier pricetag. This style and exclusivity over practicality approach says everything you need to know about at whom this car is aimed. Its owners (or leasees) will no doubt favour pin-stripe suits and its natural hunting ground is most likely the City of London.

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Does that mean it’s a slick, honed beast of the road, then? Unfortunately not. All versions come as standard with Dynamic Select drive modes including Eco, Comfort, Sport, Sport+ and Individual, although even in Sport+ mode our test car (fitted with the optional £1,495 air suspension package) felt very soft on-road. The GLC Coupé tended to roll noticeably through corners and dip its nose under braking, and you couldn’t call it agile, with changes of direction fully conveying the bus-like weight (around 1.8 tonnes) being lugged around.

It’s more of a lumbering pudding than a sports car, no matter how Mercedes spins it. This was despite it sitting on over-sized and less forgiving 20-inch wheels. BMW’s X3 feels more composed, let alone the sportier X4 that is more of a direct GLC Coupé rival. The Merc’s standard suspension is a steel spring set-up with variable damping, which may be a preferable to the air suspension set-up for everyday use.

The suppleness does lend itself to a comfortable ride, at least, and the Mercedes at excels as a pliant cruiser, ironing out road imperfections with ease, even with the thinner tyres that come with the 20-inch wheels.

It’s more of a lumbering pudding than a sports car, no matter how Mercedes spins it

The high driving position and comfortable, supportive seats are combined with a well-insulated cabin that shields passengers from tyre, engine and wind noise. There are four diesel and four petrol versions, including a plug-in hybrid and more powerful (and, no doubt, fun) Mercedes-AMG model. Our 250 d test car’s 2.1-litre, 204bhp diesel was a little rattly when standing next to the car at idle but from the inside, on the move, any harshness is superbly deadened.

It’s a smooth power delivery, too, offering plenty of grunt from very low in the rev range, while the nine-speed automatic gearbox shifts through the cogs seamlessly.

The interior deserves praise, as it’s class-leading in terms of design as well as fit and finish. The quality of the materials, equally, is second-to-none, although we’re still not sold on the Halfords-esque infotainment screen protruding from the dashboard; the latest E-class and S-class integrated screens are much more in keeping with their surroundings.

Mercedes’ infotainment system isn’t the simplest to navigate, either, and we were especially bemused by the optional Air Balance package, with offers cabin fragrance diffusion with three levels of intensity. Surely on or off would do, if you really have to make the interior smell like a minicab? More usefully, it allows oxygen ionisation and improved filtering, which removes sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and aromatic hydrocarbons from the air entering the cabin. Good news for those negotiating traffic jams.

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There are so many safety features packed into the GLC Coupé — mostly with preposterous-sounding names such as ESP with Curve Dynamic Assist and Parktronic — that it’d send you to sleep if we were to list them here in detail. But they’re there, especially if you opt for the £1,695 Driving Assistance package, and it should all help keep you on the road and make the GLC Coupé a safe car to drive. Importantly, these assistance features don’t appear to interfere in normal driving conditions; it all happens in the background and doesn’t nanny as do the systems of some other cars.

It also has plenty of gadgets fitted as standard, including LED headlights, keyless entry and start, sat-nav, DAB radio, heated seats and a reversing camera, which neatly pops out of the three-pointed star badge on the tailgate when needed. Our test car came loaded with the 360-degree camera set-up (£335).

Overall, on balance it’s hard to recommend the GLC Coupé as it’s less practical and not as good off-road as the GLC and not much fun to drive on-road, either. However, if all you want from a car is a body that cuts a dash, and a comfortable and commanding perch, not to mention the Mercedes badge, there is some appeal.

The post Mercedes-Benz GLC Coupé review (2016-on) appeared first on Sunday Times Driving.

source https://www.driving.co.uk/car-reviews/mercedes-benz-glc-coupe-review-2016/

First Drive review: 2017 Alfa Romeo Stelvio Q4 SUV

“Goodie,” you were thinking, “a review of an Alfa Romeo; a nice new sports car from Alfa.” Then you looked at the pictures, and realised that the Stelvio was not what you’d hoped it would be: a new rival for the Porsche 911.

Alfa Romeo is meant to be the Jimmy Choo of the catwalk, isn’t it? Fans of the Italian car maker would probably argue that its cars should be pieces of art; beautiful and desirable enough to hang on a wall. That they should thrill and enthral a driver. And so what if they’re as highly strung as a sleep-deprived supermodel?

Then again, if you’re not a car enthusiast at heart, perhaps the Stelvio is exactly what you’d hoped for: a four-wheel drive SUV that’s Alfa’s answer to the Audi A5, BMW X3, Jaguar F-Pace and Porsche Macan.

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Ah yes, Porsche. You may remember how, 15 years ago, Porsche was accused of selling out. The German sports car maker announced it would sell a 4×4 or SUV and purists scoffed at such an idea. It was like Dr Martens trying its hand at making high heels, they said.

Today, the company’s best-selling model is the Macan SUV, chalking up 95,642 sales in 2016. By comparison, the most popular sports car in its range, the 911, managed just over 32,400 sales last year.

So Alfa needs this car to stay in business. Its new boss, tough-talking Reid Bigland, says it enters what will become “the largest premium segment in the world” this year.

It has put in place the building blocks, including the Giulia saloon, reviewed here. The Stelvio is built on that car’s platform and shares its engines, transmissions and four-wheel drive system.

A Ferrari-powered SUV? Now there’s a thing… it’s only taken 30-odd years to catch up with Lamborghini’s LM002.

Initially, two models will go on sale in the UK, in September. A 2-litre, four-cylinder, turbocharged petrol with 276bhp, and a 2.2-litre, four-cylinder turbo diesel with 207bhp. These will be respectively followed up with less powerful, more affordable, 197bhp and 178bhp variants, all built in Cassino, south of Rome.

Both engines will come with four-wheel drive and an eight-speed automatic gearbox, and Alfa Romeo’s UK arm says it doesn’t anticipate selling a version with rear-wheel drive or a manual gearbox, because that’s not what British drivers want.

The red-blooded flagship of the Stelvio range is the Quadrifoglio version. It runs the same hardware as the hot Giulia of the same name, which can only be a very good thing indeed, including a 503bhp twin-turbo V6 that’s said to be related to the V8 used in the Ferrari California. A Ferrari-powered SUV? Now there’s a thing… it’s only taken 30-odd years to catch up with Lamborghini’s LM002.

Most drivers, however, are going to be buying the sensible diesel or petrol versions. And they’re the only models Alfa let us drive. So what are they like?

Let’s get the practical stuff out of the way first. The Stelvio makes for a surprisingly good family car. This is a pleasant surprise, as Alfas of past have had driving positions only fit for an ape, back seats fit for a chimp, interiors that felt as flimsy as an Airfix kit and buttons in places you least expected to find them – such as the electric window switches set in the roof.

The Stelvio is deeply rational – a car a family could live with without cursing it every time they had to pile aboard.

The driving position (on left-hand drive versions) is excellent, the seat’s supportive in all the right places and when set for an average-height adult there’s still plenty of leg room in the back seat. It’s even dog-friendly, with a large, flat-sided boot with 525-litres of luggage space – almost matching a BMW X3 and more than a Porsche Macan.

Okay, so the fit and finish isn’t going to give anyone at Audi sleepless nights, but then what car maker can? Only one piece of trim fell off – the bonnet release lever – but generally it’s attractive and looks well executed, if you don’t peer too closely.

The car’s name is taken from the famous Stelvio Pass, one of the highest roads in the Alps. It was chosen because the company wanted to suggest that SUVs could be exciting to drive – and as edge-of-the-seat driving experiences go, they don’t come much more spine-tingling than winding your way along the Stelvio Pass.

Does it live up to the promise of a great drive? We started with the 2-litre, four-cylinder turbo petrol version that produces 276bhp. Unlike Alfas car enthusiasts know and love, it didn’t rev very high or sound special – the rev limit was 5,800rpm, for heaven’s sake – so this is the first Alfa in which you’ll turn the radio up, not down. But with so much torque it delivers a brisk turn of pace. Acceleration to 62mph takes 5.7 seconds and the top speed is 143mph, while the combined fuel consumption is 40mpg.

It feels as though Alfa’s engineers have struck a well-judged balance between control and comfort

The Stelvio’s chassis does a good job of putting the performance to good use – and is greatly helped by the fact that this is comfortably the lightest car in its class, at 1,660kg for the petrol model. The suspension rides bumps smoothly, yet body roll is kept in check and the steering response is – as ever, for an Alfa – more direct than Jeremy Paxman.

The Q4 four-wheel drive system knows how to gives the driver a good time, sending power to the back wheels as a rule and only diverting it to the front when extra traction is required. (Alfa will offer keen drivers a rear, mechanical locking differential as an option.) And it didn’t disitegrate under duress – unlike the last all-wheel drive Alfa I tested, the 33 S Permanent 4.

Overall, it feels as though Alfa’s engineers have struck a well-judged balance between control and comfort. Alfa has set out to make a more entertaining SUV than the competition, and on first acquaintance, the Italian company has done a commendable job. The only slight fly in the ointment was the automatic transmission, which didn’t behave as smoothly as some.

The high-powered, 207bhp version of the 2.2-litre diesel engine elevates the fuel economy to 58mpg. This is a pleasingly smooth, quiet engine with even more torque than the petrol version. That torque makes its presence felt with an even bigger kick of drive to the back wheels that requires a dose of corrective steering lock on a slippery bend, when driven in ‘Dynamic’ mode. Alfa wasn’t joking when it said it wanted to create a more involved driving experience than other cars of this ilk.

To my mind, at least, the Stelvio feels like more of an accomplishment than the Giulia saloon on which it’s based. Alfa doesn’t yet have pricing for the new model, but says it will be competitive with the BMW X3, which starts at £34,400.

Drivers who approach it with an open mind will find this is the SUV that can put the fun into the school run. Skip the Pilates session and take the long way home, says Alfa.

If you don’t like the idea of an SUV, let alone an Alfa Romeo SUV, the chances are you won’t warm to the Stelvio. A lot of people felt that way about the Jaguar F Pace, but look how well that has done for the British-based car maker. If the Stelvio can do the same for Alfa, perhaps then the Italian company can set about creating the Porsche 911 rival we all want it to make.

The post First Drive review: 2017 Alfa Romeo Stelvio Q4 SUV appeared first on Sunday Times Driving.

source https://www.driving.co.uk/car-reviews/first-drive-review-2017-alfa-romeo-stelvio-q4-suv/

The Clarkson Review: 2017 Seat Ateca

WHENEVER someone leans across a dinner table and asks me what car they should buy, I always say “a Ferrari F40”.

Then they look a bit exasperated and explain they need something sensible, so I say “a 1986 Lada Riva shooting brake”. This normally does the trick and they go back to talking about something that is more interesting, such as accountancy or ornithology.

However, at dinner the other day, the man opposite really was quite insistent. He didn’t want a Ferrari F40 or a 1986 Lada Riva shooting brake and demanded that I came up with another alternative. “A Bugatti EB 110,” I said, hoping that would shut him up. But it didn’t.

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“Come on,” he said, “I’m being serious.” So I told him to buy a Cadillac Escalade.

I hate being asked about cars as much as doctors hate being asked about ailments. They can’t possibly determine, when they’ve had two bottles of agreeable red, what’s wrong with someone who’s fully clothed and on the opposite side of the table, any more than I can tell someone what car to buy when I don’t know what they need it for and how much they have to spend and if they have any prejudice towards the French or the Japanese.

“Are you a racist?” I asked the man on the opposite side of the table. And, before he could answer, “Is your wife extremely fat?” These are the things that matter when it comes to choosing a car. There’s more too. If your children are prone to explosive car sickness, you don’t want cloth seats. And if you have only one arm, you don’t want a flappy paddle gearbox.

I went through a full range of weird questions with Mr Persistent, including, “Will you be having sex on the back seat with your secretary?” and then told him the best car he could possibly buy was a Vauxhall Astra van.

It turned out, however, that he actually wanted an Audi Q5. “Well, get one of those, then.”

“Are they any good?” he asked. “No,” I replied.

I don’t like the Audi Q5 or any car of that type because they seem too pointless. You get the same amount of interior space as you would in a normal hatchback but because of the extra weight and tallness, you get less performance and terrible fuel economy. It’s not swings and roundabouts here. It’s swings and falling off the roundabout into a pile of dog-dirt-encrusted broken glass.

I explained all this to my dinner companion but he was most insistent. He said he liked a car that gave him a commanding view of the road and didn’t have any truck with my argument that a hatchback and a cushion would do the trick. So I told him to buy the Q5 and started talking to the woman on my right.

“What car should I buy?” she asked . . . I then went to the lavatory and drank all the Domestos.

The trouble is that, these days, absolutely everyone wants a hatchback on stilts. They all want a commanding view of the road. And they don’t realise that soon it won’t be commanding at all, because everyone will be at the same height. Which means cars will have to keep on getting taller and taller until you need a ladder to get inside. And instead of airbags, you’ll have a parachute.

The other problem is that crossover mini SUVs, or whatever it is they’re called, are all extremely dreary to drive. And look at. And be near. I really genuinely hate them and, as a result, I was not looking forward to spending an entire week with something called a Seat Ateca.

I mean, quite apart from anything else, you just know Ateca is one of those names that’s been plucked by the marketing department from a bag of Scrabble tiles, because trademark infringement problems mean that every other actual word has been registered. This means you end up with a name that sounds like it could be an insurance company or an antifungal cream.

“Are you a racist?” I asked the man on the opposite side of the table. And, before he could answer, “Is your wife extremely fat?” These are the things that matter when it comes to choosing a car

Everybody wanted a Cortina. It may have been named after a small cafe on the King’s Road, but it sounded exotic. Nobody wants an Ateca in their life. Unless they’ve got thrush.

Seat claims Ateca is a town in Spain and that it’s named it after that. But this doesn’t wash. Because if you’re going to name it after a town in Spain, why not pick one we’ve heard of? It’d be like Rolls-Royce launching a car called the Pontefract.

Anyway, it arrived, and in essence it’s a Volkswagen Tiguan, which means that when all is said and done, it’s a jacked-up Golf. Same basic platform. Similar range of engines. Only slower and less economical and more expensive and less fun to drive and no more practical.

Actually, because this is a Golf designed by Spaniards and built in the Czech Republic, it’s cheaper than its sister car, the Tiguan, which is a Golf that was designed by Germans and that is built in Germany, Russia or Mexico, depending on which model you choose. I don’t get that thinking either.

Whatever, it has doors so that you can get inside, and a boot lid that is operated by electricity so that you have to stand in the rain to make sure it closes properly.

Inside, there are some chairs so that you can sit down, but it should be noted that all of them seem to be fitted much lower than you’d expect. As you peer over the dashboard at the road ahead, it feels as if you’re moving around in a wheelie bin. And I don’t get the thinking here either. Because if you want a car with a commanding driving position, why would you buy one with seats that are so low?

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Other things. Well, it’s quite quiet, which is nice. But then it was also a bit bumpy, which wasn’t. And the boot was big enough for a footstool I’d bought.

My test car had a 1.4-litre Golf engine, which provided no discernible performance at all. Put your foot down in sixth gear, at 70mph on the motorway, and absolutely nothing happens. My kitchen table is faster. Economy, however, is what you would expect — around 50mpg — and it produces 123 carbon dioxides. But these are Volkswagen figures, so they probably mean very little.

On the face of it, then, you’d struggle to think of a single reason why you’d buy this car rather than one of the many alternatives. But my car was fitted with orange wheels and matching door mirrors. And that’d clinch it for me.

On normal wheels, it’s just another way of wasting £24,440, but those snazzy rims, teamed with some plastic roo bars, give the Ateca a visual leg-up. And as a result it’d be my choice if I were being forced at gunpoint to buy a car like this. But I’m not, which is why I would buy a Ferrari F40.Which is much better.

 

Head to head: Seat Ateca v Nissan Qashqai

	Seat Ateca 1.4 EcoTSI Xcellence	Nissan Qashqai 1.6 DIG-T 163 Tekna
Price	£24,440	£26,305
Power	148bhp	161bhp
0-62mph	8.5sec	8.9sec
Fuel consumption	52.3mpg	47.1mpg

Write to us at driving@sunday-times.co.uk, or Driving, The Sunday Times, 1 London Bridge Street, London SE1 9GF

The post The Clarkson Review: 2017 Seat Ateca appeared first on Sunday Times Driving.

source https://www.driving.co.uk/car-reviews/clarkson/clarkson-review-2017-seat-ateca/

Acura NSX – Watch Your Car Being Built

Acura NSX Owners Can Watch Their Cars Being Built

To have a hand in building your own car is a rare experience these days. In the world of exotic cars, the highly technical assembly processes leave little room for error. So we were shocked to find Acura pulling back the curtain on building the 2nd generation NSX. The Insider Experience is a one or two day vacation with concierge service at The Joseph Hotel in Columbus, Ohio. A press release this morning outlined six versions of experience, with a starting price of $2,700.

 

 

Related – Ludacris’ New Acura NSX Matches His Shoes

Single day experiences will be limited to final assembly with customers installing the Acura badge as it rolls off the line. Buyers who opt for the two-day packages will have an opportunity to visit the engine factory in Anna to see the heart of the beast come to life. To make sure every NSX arrives ready for the track, the V6 engine is balanced and given 150 miles of break in before installation. This makes us smile because we see so many exotics that fail to get a proper break in by unscrupulous dealers. Probably because they know it will lead to future service visits. Some of us fall into the category of a minimalist because if I was part of my car’s assembly I would have made sure it left with a roll cage and headers. But Acura is committed to shaking up the world of supercars, so ask our dealers for more information.

 

Acura NSX Owners Can Watch Their Cars Being Built

http://blog.dupontregistry.com/news/acura-launches-nsx-insider-experience-22117/embed/#?secret=VbfwSA4zSb

D.I. Auto Care
4747 E Elliot Rd
Phoenix, AZ 85044
Phone: (480) 233-1529

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Source: http://cardetailingphoenix.com/index.php/2017/02/21/acura-nsx-watch-your-car-being-built/

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Abarth 124 Spider review

IF YOU look at the heritage of the Abarth 124 Spider, you could be forgiven for assuming that it is a bit of a dog; a mongrel born from the union of an Italian car maker with one from Japan, then injected with steroids.

Drivers will most likely know (perhaps from our twin test) that Fiat, wanting to introduce its first two-seater sports car since the Barchetta of the ’90s, did a deal with Mazda to use its new MX-5 chassis for the job. It then clothed it in a bespoke bodyshell and dropped a 1.4-litre MultiAir engine under the bonnet. Most pundits agreed that the resulting car was OK but a little lukewarm and disappointing, and not a patch on the pure-bred Mazda.

Abarth, Fiat’s tuning arm, aimed to change all that with the car you see here. It uprated the engine from 138bhp to 168bhp, changed the suspension settings and added a mechanical limited slip differential, which improves traction to the outside wheel through corners, improving lateral acceleration.

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It also stripped out the standard exhaust and added its own, which it calls the “Record Monza”. Abarth talks of “dual mode technology” and a rather unpleasant-sounding “variable back-pressure system”, but the effect is most noticeable when it comes to the sound. The noise coming out of the back of the Abarth 124 is sensational. It growls and pops and farts (maybe that’s the variable back-pressure at work), adding an addictive sense of drama to proceedings.

Abarth has also managed not to over egg the pudding when it comes to power. The 30bhp increase transforms the 124 Spider from a car that we described as lacking energy, delivering a dribble of power when you want a dollop, into one which is positively tugging at the lead and packed with vim, without ever feeling too hot to handle. It’s a jack russell rather than a whippet.

The handling modifications have worked wonders, too. It’s less supple and more aggressive than the MX-5 but it’s comfortable enough to be a daily driver, and through tight and twisty turns the car comes into its own, staying level and composed yet pointy and engaging. The electrically-assisted power steering is lithe and the rack is fast, while there’s true joy as you work your way through the six-speed, short-throw manual gearbox (an automatic “Sequenziale Sportivo” ‘box is also available). If there’s one criticism with it, it’s that the squarish gearknob doesn’t fit the hand as comfortably as would a more rounded one.

If anyone tries to tell you the Abarth doesn’t handle as well as the Mazda, tell them they’re talking rubbish

What feels like near-perfect 50:50 weight distribution (most of the 1,060kg is between the front and rear axles) means you’ll be reaching to turn off the traction control and switch on Sport mode for every trip, keeping the back end a little free and loose but, with nice linear power delivery, always under control.

If anyone tries to tell you the Abarth doesn’t handle as well as the Mazda, tell them they’re talking rubbish — this is the car that gets the most from the excellent underpinnings.

Abarth has continued the sense of drama with tweaks to the exterior and interior. The contrast-coloured black bonnet and boot lid signal intent and look better in the metal than in photos. The splashes of red on the seats and door mirrors, and at the top of the steering wheel mark the car out from the pack, too.

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It’s not short of creature comforts, with a climate control system, four speaker stereo with MP3 player and USB port, cruise control, 7-inch colour display, DAB digital radio, Bluetooth connectivity and electric door mirrors as standard, but you’ll need to pay extra for the satellite navigation system, Bose stereo upgrade and a rear backup camera.

And that brings us to the issue of price. The manual Abarth 124 Spider will set you back upwards of £29,565 whereas the most expensive 124 Spider costs £24,995. The top Mazda MX-5 is just £23,690. Is the Abarth 124 Spider worth it? Give me the mongrel every time.

 

A new slant on the roadster: Mazda MX-5 v Fiat 124 Spider

The post Abarth 124 Spider review appeared first on Sunday Times Driving.

source https://www.driving.co.uk/car-reviews/abarth-124-spider-review/

Audi A5 coupé review (2017-on)

WHO DOESN’T like to feel good about themselves when they get dressed in the mornings? A sharp suit, striking shirt or designer blouse and killer heels can make us walk taller, figuratively and literally.

But there’s a limit. Can you picture yourself strolling into Starbucks, to order your morning cappuccino, wearing a Vivienne Westwood outfit? Of course not; you’d look like a clown on the run from the circus.

Which is why, when it comes to anything to do with style, most of us play it safe and stick to high street labels. We want to feel good about ourselves, rather than feel like a fashion victim with more money than sense.

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Car makers understand this. None more so than Audi. It has built a business out of selling high street style to drivers. The TT, the car of the noughties, put a skip in the step of hundreds of thousands of drivers who couldn’t care less how well it turned around corners; they just wanted to turn heads.

The TT’s big brother, the A5 coupé, has been taking much the same approach, since it was launched in 2007. It wraps designer-look clothes around a workaday chassis and sells at high street prices.

Now the second-generation A5 coupé is strutting its stuff in British showrooms. Prices start from £30,700, which pitches the four-seat model on the catwalk against the likes of the BMW 4-series and Mercedes C-class coupé.

There are four-cylinder petrol and diesel-powered versions, some of which can be ordered with quattro four-wheel drive, as well as a V6 diesel and, in the S5 flagship, a turbocharged V6 petrol – which raises the price to £47,000.

The model reviewed here is the 2.0 TFSI quattro S line S tronic. Costing £41,240, it’s the jalfrezi of the range, a hot-ish number with a four-cylinder petrol engine kicking out 249bhp to all four wheels, via a seven-speed, dual-clutch automatic gearbox. In other words, it’s the S5 Lite.

It sure does look good, especially in S line trim and wearing the optional (£1,050) ‘multispoke V’ 19 inch alloy wheels. The designers seem to have exaggerated all the design cues of the last A5. In particular, the side panelling looks as though it’s been left in a giant trouser press overnight, with a prominent crease running from nose to tail.

Predictably, the interior leads the way in terms of perceived quality. Everything you can see and touch feels expensive, and the clarity and functionality is second to none. Much of the layout is lifted straight from the A4 saloon, on which the A5 is based, which is as good a starting point as you’re going to get in this price range.

It’s annoying that in a car with restricted visibility, a rear-view camera is a £450 option; prepare to twist your neck out of alignment

The transmission tunnel is quite wide, but the driving position is good and the sports seats, which initially feel firm and unforgiving, prove supremely comfortable over time. When tilted forward, they slide forward automatically and there’s even a seatbelt butler, in the form of an arm that passes the belt toward the driver’s shoulder – a trick which is cheekily pinched from Mercedes of years gone by.

What’s not so impressive is the back seat space. This is a big car – 4,673mm long and 1,846mm wide – but average height adults will have their knees jammed into the back of the driver’s seat. And for the benefit of the uninitiated, it’s worth highlighting there are only four seats.

Equally, it’s annoying that in a car with restricted visibility, a rear-view camera is a £450 option. Prepare to twist your neck out of alignment, unless you have blind faith in the parking sensors are standard. It’s also worth adding that the car has scored a maximum five star safety rating in the Euro NCAP crash tests.

The boot is surprisingly spacious, holding 465 litres – a Mercedes C-class coupé offers just 400 litres – and the seat backs can be lowered to free up more room still.

So it looks good, inside and out. But what of the driving experience? Audi’s engineers have been attempting to put some emotion back into their cars, the A5 included.

That’s why you get sport suspension as standard, and can now order a ‘sport’ differential for the rear axle (£1,200) to complement the four-wheel drive. Drivers that want to soften things off, though, can pay £600 to change the S line to ‘Adaptive Comfort’ suspension, which means you can change it at the touch of a button to soften or stiffen the dampers.

Our car came with the standard S line set-up. It’s sure-footed along a winding road, generates a lot of grip through bends and there’s just enough power sent to the rear wheels to prevent the nose from washing out when pushed beyond the tyres’ limit of adhesion.

But if you want excitement, may we respectfully suggest you look elsewhere? A BMW 4-series, or even the Mercedes C-class coupé, do a better job of sending just enough of a shiver down your spine to make driving interesting.

The A5’s steering is lifeless, the turbocharged four-cylinder engine has been smothered under a mountain of sound-proofing material and the Drive Select system is one of those gimmicks that you’ll soon tire of. Even the dual clutch transmission can be caught dithering at times.

It’s a shame, because this is a deceptively quick car, with oodles of thrust from 1,500rpm and capable of getting from A to B no matter what the weather conditions without putting a foot wrong. But along the way, the driver is left feeling like a passenger.

What is does do fantastically well is make a long journey feel like a trip to the corner shop. Few coupés are as hushed and relaxing as this one. But we’d happily trade some of that calm for a bit more interaction between man and machine.

As if often the case with Audis, then, the A5 coupé is dressed to thrill. Unfortunately, while the clothes look great the person wearing them isn’t all that interesting.

The post Audi A5 coupé review (2017-on) appeared first on Sunday Times Driving.

source https://www.driving.co.uk/car-reviews/audi-a5-coupe-review-2017/

The Clarkson Review: 2017 Honda NSX

BACK IN the days when you could walk from Calais to Dover and wattle was a popular building material, Honda decided it would like to build a supercar with a V10 engine. It would, the company said, be a replacement for the old NSX, and I was very excited.

Every so often I’d call Honda to see how it was coming along, and it’d say, “Very well”, but that there’d been a bit of a delay because of the ice age, or the eruption of Krakatoa or some other geological disturbance. I seem to recall at one point it said it’d had to change the interior because modern man was a different shape from his Neanderthal predecessor.

And then there was a wobble in the Japanese economy, and the V10 engine lost its Formula One halo, so Honda announced that the new car would be some kind of hybrid with electric motors and a turbocharged V6. That sounded pretty exciting too, especially when Ferrari, McLaren and Porsche were busy demonstrating just how biblical a combination such as this could be.

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I kept calling Honda to ask when I could drive its new offering and was always told the same thing. “Soon.” It said the design and engineering team in California was “benchmarking” the Chevrolet Corvette, and when this was done it would be ready.

A year later it said the team had decamped to Germany to benchmark various Porsches. And then a year after that it was in Mauritius benchmarking cocktails. I began to think the new NSX was a machine that existed only in Honda’s dreams and that it would never see the light of day.

But then last year, after a quick trip to Sydney to benchmark some surfboards and a stopover in Bali to benchmark a couple of beaches, the tanned and relaxed designers and engineers announced the car was finished.

And I must say it looked good. It’s very low and very wide — wider than almost anything else on the road, in fact. It also appeared to be very clever, since its mid-mounted twin-turbo V6 was fitted with a 47bhp electric motor that would provide power while the turbos were drawing from the well of witchcraft but were not quite ready to deliver it.

Furthermore, each front wheel was fitted with its own 36bhp electric motor, which meant this fairly conventional-looking supercar was anything but, under the skin. Can you even begin to imagine, for instance, the computing power needed simply to keep all four wheels rotating at the same speed?

When you start to consider that, you can see why it’s taken so long to get the new NSX from the doodle, “Wouldn’t it be nice?” phase and into the showrooms. Especially when you step inside and realise that despite the behind-the-scenes complexity, it comes with a normal steering wheel, normal pedals, normal paddles for the nine-speed gearbox and a normal price. I’m not being flippant. At £143,950 it’s almost five times less expensive than Porsche’s hybrid alternative.

“The sat nav is woeful. I suspect it’s the same unit you get in a Honda Jazz or Civic, so on the upside it could probably find the nearest beetle drive or bingo hall”

On paper, then, this car looks like a genuinely realistic alternative to Ferrari’s 488 GTB, Lamborghini’s Huracan and whatever car McLaren has just launched. However, it isn’t.

The first problem is that it’s not that quick off the mark. If you are driving in Quiet mode — which you will be most of the time, because the other settings make the car noisy, uneconomical and bumpy — and you put your foot down, there is a very noticeable moment when you just know the computing system is having a think. “Right. Hang on. What gear should I select? Fourth? Fifth? We’ll have a meeting about that, and in the meantime let’s see if we can work out which wheel needs what amount of power. Front left to start with …”

Meanwhile, the driver of the Vauxhall Vectra you were trying to overtake is at home watching Game of Thrones.

So all the clever-clever hybrid tech doesn’t give you the power you were expecting, which would be fine if it gave extra economy, but it doesn’t really do that either. Don’t reckon on getting much more than 20mpg.

Then there’s the handling. You’d imagine that with its weird four-wheel-drive system it’d have a ton of grip, and that’s probably so. But you are never inclined to find out for sure, because you are aware this is a heavy car and nearly a ton of the weight is located in the rear end. So if you went over the limit of grip, it’d be like wrestling a grandfather clock back into line.

What’s more, the steering is numb, and there’s a curious wobble when the car settles into a bend, as though the suspension is having a bit of a row with itself about what it should be doing.

As a car for petrolheads, then, this is no match for its rivals from McLaren, Lamborghini and Ferrari. And then things get worse.

The sun visors are the size of stamps and feel as though they’ve been lifted from a Soviet bread van, the horn sounds as if it’s from a Toys R Us pedal car and the sat nav is woeful.

I suspect it’s the same unit you get in a Honda Jazz or Civic, so on the upside it could probably find the nearest beetle drive or bingo hall, but on the downside it’s a touchscreen, which doesn’t work in any car, and the software appears to have been written by Alistair MacLean or some other author of fiction. Twice it told me the road ahead was closed. And it just bloody wasn’t.

Then there’s the stereo, which sounds like Radio Caroline did in the early 1970s, and I wouldn’t mind but the engine doesn’t compensate for this. In the old NSX there was an intoxicating induction roar when you accelerated; in the new one there’s just some gravelly noise. Which you aren’t really hearing, because you’re busy seeing if the carpet is stuck under the throttle pedal.

Worst of all is the fuel gauge. I don’t have OCD, as anyone who has seen my desk will testify, but the needle isn’t centred, so it always looks cock-eyed. And that drove me mad.

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You are left, once you’ve lived with an NSX for a few days, with a sense that the engineers have beavered away at the difficulties of making a high-performance hybrid and then just garnished it with parts from the factory floor. Everything you touch and look at feels either low rent or annoying.

On a recent television programme my colleague James May said he liked the NSX because he found it interesting. Later he told me that the car’s lack of apparent acceleration has something to do with Newton metres per inch per inch and that the linear nature of electric motor delivery … I’m afraid I nodded off at this point.

He is right, though. This car is interesting. And it is pretty. But that, I’m afraid, is the full extent of its repertoire.

 

Head to head

	Honda NSX	Porsche 911 Turbo S
Price	£143,950	£145,773
Power	573bhp	572bhp
0-62mph	2.9sec	2.9sec
Top speed	191mph	205mph

 

The interview: Camilla Long meets Clarkson, Hammond and May

Write to us at driving@sunday-times.co.uk, or Driving, The Sunday Times, 1 London Bridge Street, London SE1 9GF

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source https://www.driving.co.uk/car-reviews/clarkson/clarkson-review-2017-honda-nsx/

Caterham Seven 310 review

“If Caterham was only going to make one car for the rest of its days, this would be it,” declared the boss of Caterham Cars when the Seven 310 was unveiled, last summer. That’s a pretty bold thing to say when it’s not the range-topping version of its legendary lightweight British Sports car. It’s not the most affordable, either. The beauty of this version, says Caterham, is that it’s the perfect blend of power and handling; not too extreme and not too weedy.

The last Caterham Seven Driving tested was the 620 S, which features the company’s most extreme powerplant — a 2-litre supercharged Ford unit producing 310bhp. Weighing just 610kg, or less than half a Ford Focus, it blew our socks off. Or bobble hat, at least.

The experience behind the wheel of the new 310 is far less hair-raising. It has the same 1.6-litre Ford Sigma engine that can be found on the Seven 270, but with an uprated engine that was developed for the Caterham Seven Supersport racing series so that it now produces 152bhp instead of 135bhp. Caterham says it had only intended to offer 270 customers the more powerful engine as an upgrade (which it does), but decided the new engine deserved a model in its own right.

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Combined with the featherweight chassis (the complete package weighs 540kg), the resulting 281bhp per tonne still makes the car feel very lively, but not ridiculously so. Max power comes at 7,000rpm and it’s more than possible to spin the rear wheels when pushing the needle that far round the dial, but it’s a car that will tend towards controlled understeer rather than spinning you round in circles and can feel surprisingly settled at a canter.

In fact, cruising around town is an enjoyable experience rather than the exhausting beast-taming chore of the 620 S. The latter sounds like an oil barrel full of angry hornets but the noise from the 310 exhaust is a low, distinctive growl with a few friendly pops from the exhaust when shifting down through the gears letting you know that, although it’s not a fire-breather, it’s no pussycat, either.

“The noise from the 310 exhaust is a low, distinctive growl with a few friendly pops from the exhaust when shifting down”

Meanwhile, the standard road suspension (sport suspension is available) keeps the car flat and level through corners while remaining compliant and offering comfort on uneven surfaces. There’s no need to avoid roads with particularly aggressive speed bumps, for example.

The cabin is less of a squeeze than the 620 S, too (particularly with the wide-body S5 chassis), with wider, more comfortable seats and a three-point seatbelt as standard, rather than a full racing harness, which makes climbing in and out less exhausting. Having said that, buyers may want the extra reassurance that the optional four-point harness (£250) provides.

As standard you get rubber mats and boot floor carpet and black cloth seats but there isn’t much else from a comfort point of view. A fully-carpeted interior is £115 extra and if you want a heater, that’ll be a further £300. The latter, we would argue, is essential.

Our car came with the S Pack, which includes the above plus a full windscreen (an “aeroscreen” is standard), hood and sidescreens, black leather seats, Momo steering wheel and a choice of four paint finishes, as well as a unique key, gearknob and instruments, although at £2,995 buyers may want to pick and choose upgrades for the base car.

Those wishing to buy something more suited to track days can opt for Caterham’s R pack (pictured), which adds a limited slip differential, a lightweight flywheel, more powerful brakes, the sport suspension, racing seats and gearshift lights. But for us, the 310 works best as an all-rounder rather than a track-focused machine; the S Pack version is, indeed, a perfect blend of power, handling and relative comfort.

Having said that, climbing in and out over the side exhaust with the full hood attached is still an art not best suited to the less nimble. The appeal of a Caterham Seven, though, is that in an age of traction control, dual-zone climate control, parking sensors and Apple Car Play, it remains resolutely old-school.  And long may it continue.

 

* As a low volume manufacturer, Caterham is not required to put its vehicles through the official NEDC economy and emissions tests

The post Caterham Seven 310 review appeared first on Sunday Times Driving.

source https://www.driving.co.uk/car-reviews/caterham-seven-310-review/

First Drive review: 2017 Toyota Prius Plug-in

TOYOTA has been watching the recent commotion around diesel with some interest. The Japanese company has been banging on about low-emission petrol-electric hybrid technology for decades and now offers hybrid versions of most of its range, from the little Yaris to the RAV4 crossover. Its sister company, Lexus, does the same with its upmarket range.

The model that spearheaded this movement was the Prius. Would you believe that the original poster car of the hybrid petrol-electric eco movement is now in its fourth generation?

The Prius Plug-in is in effect two cars in one: electric power for short trips, which constitute most of our driving, and hybrid propulsion for long-distance motoring without the inconvenience of having to recharge.

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Last month, alternatively fuelled cars — hybrids and all-electric models — accounted for 4.2% of all new cars sold. It’s the first time they have surpassed 4% of the market, says the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders.

We have been running extended tests of some of these cars, including the Audi A3 e-tron and BMW 225xe, and both have proved a viable alternative to diesel-powered family cars, so long as you have access to a charging point.

Toyota first launched a plug-in hybrid version of its Prius in 2012. It could travel up to 15 miles on electric power alone before the petrol engine needed to lend a hand. Toyota reasoned that most trips are less than 15 miles, so the range of the Prius Plug-in was perfectly adequate for most drivers’ needs. However, a lukewarm response and rival models capable of travelling further on battery power alone forced a rethink.

So with the second-generation Prius Plug-in tested here, Toyota has more than doubled the battery-powered range to 39 miles (according to the official, optimistic EU figures). You could also break the national speed limit using just the battery: it will operate in isolation up to 84mph, an appreciable jump from the 51mph of its predecessor.

The car is said to be capable of returning up to 283mpg, and to emit just 22g/km of CO2, but to get anywhere near such figures you’ll have to confine your driving to a laboratory. Or drive on battery power alone, in which case why not buy a pure-electric car?

Toyota says its new Prius Plug-in isn’t just a standard fourth-gen Prius packed with a bigger battery; it’s a distinct model in its own right. For a start, there are cosmetic changes to the nose, including a bespoke light cluster, that lend it a more aggressive look than the standard Prius. At the rear, a smart double-bubble on the rear window continues into the line of the spoiler, while the rear lights are spread horizontally rather than vertically, as on the non-plug-in car.

It’s bigger, too, with a 25mm longer nose and what a lonely hearts ad might refer to as a more generous back end (the rear overhang is a full 80mm larger). This is to accommodate a new, larger (8.8kWh) and more powerful (3.3kW) high voltage battery below the boot floor. The increased length doesn’t increase interior space over the standard Prius and, in fact, the central seat in the rear is sacrificed to accommodate electrical components, making this a strict four-seat car. Otherwise, the interior is virtually identical to the Prius Mk 4.

A new battery warming system helps keep freezing temperatures (as low as -20C) from playing havoc with its chemistry and diminishing electric range, while the drivetrain now benefits from dual motors thanks to a clever trick that can turn the hybrid generator into a motor in itself, increasing power by 83%, according to Toyota.

Other technical features impress, too. LED adaptive headlights turn into corners and dip full beam around oncoming cars, so as not to dazzle drivers while providing maximum illumination of the rest of the road. A gas-injection heat pump — a world first for a production car, Toyota tells us — warms the cabin three times more efficiently than a standard air conditioning system and so doesn’t drain the battery so fast, and can heat the cabin and start the engine in temperatures down to -10C. It can also be charged faster than before: two hours with a fast charger or three hours 10 minutes from a standard UK wall socket.

Perhaps the most eyebrow-raising addition to the new car is an optional solar roof panel. Photovoltaic panels on cars have generally been used to help run low-powered devices such as the infotainment system, but the ones on the roof of the new Prius Plug-in feed into the main hybrid drive system to help move the car. Toyota reckons, in London sunlight, the panels can generate enough go for 400 miles of electric driving every year. Or if you live in sunny Rome, 715 miles per year. That’s not to be sniffed at.

The way it feeds into the hybrid battery is ingenious, too. Merging a low voltage electrical supply into a high voltage system “is a challenge”, says the Japanese car maker. It was overcome by adding a small, intermediary battery that is drip-fed power from the roof over time and, when it fills up it dumps the entire stored charge into the high voltage battery in one large pulse. Imagine a toilet cistern, only filled with electricity.

But there’s a price for this cleverness, namely £1,500 on top of the £34,895 (before any government discount for plug-in cars). That works out at £3.75 per mile over the first year for London-based drivers. But then, of course, the cost drops for every subsequent year. Keep the car for two years and it works out at £1.88 per mile; three years, £1.25. The real value will be for secondhand buyers. Uber drivers, take note.

Interesting aside: opt for the solar roof and Toyota will remove a few of the other tech options on this car: colour head-up display, Blind Spot Monitor and Rear Cross Traffic Alert (both use sensors to check for objects beside or behind the car). When quizzed on this, a spokesperson revealed that weight is the problem.

It’s difficult to imagine how much weight a head-up display adds to a car, but it’s too much if you want to power your car in part by the sun. And so are leather seats: forget them. If you want the range-topping Excel spec car, solar panels aren’t an option. Perhaps Toyota is deliberately targeting this at the aforementioned Uber drivers?

Which makes you think: how much does the car weigh? Is it some lumbering elephant of the road? Well, it’s not light at up to 1,550kg, but on the road it doesn’t feel excessively weighty. Throw it into a corner and body roll is more than acceptable and it becomes patently obvious on twisty roads that it is perfectly decent in the handling department, particularly when compared with its predecessor.

It feels at its happiest as a car about town

Yes, the front end can begin to lose grip on the tightest corners when really pushing hard, and through a long, quick right-hander it did dip the front left corner somewhat, but who will push a Prius hard in everyday driving? On the whole Toyota has done a fine job of finding a nice balance despite the weighty battery at the rear of the car.

On the motorway the ride comfort was decent. The retuned suspension and small, 15in wheels with thick tyres help here, and added sound deadening over the standard model reduces road and wind noise.

The continually variable transmission, which for the uninitiated works in a similar way as an automatic but with no gears, results in the 1.8-litre petrol engine whirring away in a sliding scale of disconcertingly monotonous tones. It’s a deeply uninvolving power delivery, and acceleration is lacklustre, but through 20 years of engineering development the throttle response is at least lightning fast, even if overall performance isn’t thrilling. Toyota talks up the smooth acceleration but smooth isn’t always best; just ask peanut butter fans.

It feels at its happiest as a car about town. Switch on the EV City mode to disengage the petrol engine and run on electric, and you still get better acceleration than in the standard hybrid car. HV (hybrid)/EV (electric) mode is used out of town and will seamlessly provide the best combination of petrol-electric power for any given situation, while a new Battery Charge mode will generate electricity to fill the battery for use later in the trip. In addition to these powertrain settings, there are three driving modes: Normal, Eco and, amusingly, Power.

It’s not a cheap car, starting at a lofty £32,395 – close to a BMW 330e

Toyota has modest ambitions for sales of the new Prius Plug-in: just 435 sales in the UK this year, most of which will go to fleet (company car) buyers. Given it’s not by any means a cheap car, starting at a lofty £32,395 (including the £2,500 government incentive), which pits it not far off the cost of an entry-level BMW 330e plug-in hybrid, this seems a fairly realistic prediction.

Tax changes coming in April also penalise anything other than pure-electric cars, and the Toyota doesn’t offer any savings over the BMW or any other alternatively-fuelled car costing less than £40,000 when new. In fact, plug-in hybrid buyers only save £10 per year over diesel or petrol cars from the second year after a car is registered.

With the introduction of mass-market, low-cost and long-range pure electric cars expected over the next five years, will the plug-in hybrid be looked back on as a stepping stone on the road to cleaner, greener motoring? Toyota’s engineers probably know the answer, but for now, unsurprisingly, they aren’t saying.

Toyota Prius Mk 4 review (2016 on)

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source https://www.driving.co.uk/car-reviews/first-drive-review-2017-toyota-prius-plug/

800 Horsepower Yenko Camaro

SVE Unveils 800 Horsepower Yenko Camaro

 

Known for building some of the fastest Chevrolets of all time, Don Yenko would be proud to see his name living on. Specialty Vehicle Engineering (formerly known as Street Legal Performance, or SLP) have built incredible versions of GM cars since 1992. Back then it seemed impossible to reach 350 hp while keeping the EPA happy but Ed Hamburger and his son David designed a revolutionary intake and exhaust system for Camaro and Firebird. Fast forward to 2017 and they are still as innovative as ever.

To take a new Camaro to 800 hp is no easy task, so the stock 6.2 liter V8 is bored and stroked to 6.8 liters (416 cubic inches). The new bottom end is completely forged and topped by CNC ported & polished heads. The camshaft is a top-secret design, but it probably has a longer intake duration to make use of the boost. The blower is also proprietary to SVE, and it probably moves more air than most V6 engines.

To fit all that goodness under the stock hood would be impossible, so a new carbon fiber hood is painted to match the Camaro’s factory paint. I can attest to the quality of their paint as I am restoring my 2002 Camaro SS. My hood and rear spoiler look new, while the GM paint has aged in a less than graceful manner. A rarity in the aftermarket, SVE includes a 3 year/36,000 mile warranty on the engine, supercharger and body panels. The best feature of the beastly engine is that it’s not limited to the Camaro. SVE offers this package for the Escalade, Corvette and Silverado. As soon as we get our hands on one, expect to see some wild footage here on Autofluence.

 

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SVE Unveils 800 Horsepower Yenko Camaro

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BMW M3 vs Mercedes-AMG A45

German Drag Race: BMW M3 vs Mercedes-AMG A45

There are plenty of rivals in the automotive world, whether it be between manufacturers, models or even drivers. One of the greatest rivalries has to be between Mercedes-Benz and BMW, two German companies that are constantly competing against each other.

(Dodge Challenger Hellcat vs Ford Mustang GT350)

Archie Hamilton Racing recently took this rivalry to the tarmac and pitted two cars together in different races. The cars in the race were an M3 and an A45 AMG. The races included one from a stop, which gave the A45 and its launch control the advantage. After this drag race came the rolls races from 30 mph and 50 mph.

Check out the video below to see who wins the race!

BMW M3 For Sale | Mercedes-Benz For Sale

German Drag Race: BMW M3 vs Mercedes-AMG A45

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Phone: (480) 233-1529

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First Drive review: 2017 Mercedes-AMG GT R

IT’S A well-known fact, at least to motor company bosses, that luxury sports cars are desired by adolescents but bought by the middle-aged. Young men don’t have the money, and even if they did, they couldn’t afford the insurance.

Take the Mercedes-AMG GT R, for example. It looks as though it has been plucked straight from a poster on a teenager’s bedroom wall. Bright colours, fat tyres, huge scoops and a rear aerofoil as big as a dining table. It’s as if Mercedes were aiming to make the next Bond car.

The £143,245 price tag will restrict it to the wealthy, but Mercedes knows that inside the head of every banker or chartered accountant is a juvenile trying to get out (women do buy these vehicles, but the main market is stubbornly male). Accordingly, this car is packed with features that can only be intended to satisfy adolescent streaks.

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The engine sound, for instance, is deliberately loud. Normally, engineers work tirelessly to eliminate the friction that produces noise, because it equates to inefficiency and wear. Far from removing it from the GT R, Mercedes has engineered more of it.

True, other manufacturers do the same (stand up, Ford and Peugeot), with fake electronic noise, but Mercedes has succeeded by using exhaust valves that make the GT R sound, at idle, like a powerboat tethered to a jetty. There’s a button that ups the level from loud to very loud.

The tyres are Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2s — the choice of racing drivers — and you won’t ever use their cornering ability on a slog round the M25. Indeed, their stickiness increases fuel consumption. But that isn’t the point — you know they’re there if you need them.

“It’s big but nimble, like Muhammad Ali. You wouldn’t guess to drive it that it tips the scales at more than 1½ tons”

Likewise the clever aerodynamics that increase downforce and improve roadholding, and the traction control system with its eight settings — eight! — allowing you to dial from Comfort to Race mode and everything between. And that doesn’t include Off. I challenge anyone — including Tobias Moers, the head of AMG, Mercedes’ tuning division, whose baby this car is — to undergo a blind test and tell which setting he is in. It doesn’t matter, though. You pick one to go with how you feel.

And so it continues. There’s more power — 74bhp of it — than in the original GT, and it has active four-wheel steering. In other words, the back wheels point in the opposite direction to the front wheels at speeds of up to 62mph, and in the same direction at speeds above 62mph.

The result is that this car is dazzlingly, brilliantly fast on straights and through corners. So fast that it will snatch the breath from your lungs as you launch it down the track. It’s big but nimble, like Muhammad Ali. You wouldn’t guess to drive it that it tips the scales at more than 1½ tons or that the distance between the axles is more than 8ft.

Mercedes is keen to crow that the GT R has set a record on the Nürburgring racetrack for the fastest road-legal rear-wheel-drive car (niche sports cars such as the Radical SR8 excepted). It’s a fact to drop casually at the pub — along with your AMG key fob.

Completing the lap in 7 minutes and 10.9 seconds, it was quicker by almost 11 seconds than the Ferrari 488 GTB and only a couple of seconds behind the legendary Nissan GT-R Nismo. Maybe the GT R’s Kermit colour scheme suited the circuit’s nickname, “the Green Hell”. This, boasts Mercedes, is the hardest-core, most track-focused of its AMG family.

Unfortunately, though, the car has a problem — and it’s the same one as Bruno Senna has. He is a fine driver, but no matter how hard he tries, he will never be Ayrton. In 2009 Mercedes unveiled the SLS AMG, a sports car that took its inspiration from the 1954 Mercedes 300SL, or “Gullwing”, the fastest production car of its day.

The SLS was the first car that AMG’s designers were given a free rein to sketch from the wheels up by their bosses at Mercedes, and the result was a preposterous thundering tyrannosaur of a machine.

Celebrities climbed out of their Toyota Priuses to acquire one. According to Hollywood websites, its fan club included Eddie Murphy, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Al Pacino, Mark Wahlberg, Sylvester Stallone and Tom Hanks.

Jeremy Clarkson referred to it as “the greatest car in the world”, concluding that “it’s more powerful than a Ferrari 458, just, it’s a little bit louder than a Lamborghini and it’s way more fun than the 911 RS GT Turbo 3S, or whatever this week’s ultimate Beetle (ie, Porsche) is called; this is the thinking man’s supercar.”

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Of course it couldn’t last. The SLS’s thirsty 6.2-litre engine became a symbol of excess in the austerity years. Bosses in Stuttgart wheeled out an electric version to mollify regulators, but it was like Marlboro offering to sell a few iron lungs to offset millions of cigarettes.

Just five years into production, the SLS was put down and replaced by a decaf GT with an engine only two-thirds the size and no gullwing doors.

Since then, AMG has been trying to use bits of the dead dinosaur’s DNA to make a new monster. The GT R is its best effort yet. It costs £45,000 more than the basic GT but it’s more car for your money and worth it. To keep up with the latest offerings from Ferrari and Porsche, you’ll need the extra power and the four-wheel steering. It’s still no tyrannosaur, but at least it’s a velociraptor. And your teenager will love it.

Jeremy Clarkson is away

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Mercedes-AMG E63 S Wagon

Mercedes-AMG Unveils New E63 S Wagon

You knew it was going to happen. The mad scientists at AMG have stuffed their twin turbo V8 into the new E-Class wagon. The new E63 S wagon uses the 4.0 liter V8 found in other AMG models to offer 603 hp and 627 lb-ft of torque. Six times the power of a 1.0-liter Focus is sent through a nine-speed multi-clutch transmission to a revised 4MATIC+ AWD system. It allows 60 mph to arrive in 3.4 seconds and a top speed of 180 mph (limited electronically). The twin-scroll turbochargers spool up quickly, offering maximum torque from 2,500 to 4,500 rpm.

(Mercedes-Benz Unveils AMG GT C Edition 50)

In an attempt to harness such power, 4MATIC now has an electronic center differential and a locking rear. The body is 1.1-inches wider, which brings cargo space up to 35 cubic feet. A new air ride system has triple chambers which offer lightning quick changes to ride height along with improved camber control. Front brake rotors are 15.4″ and 1.4″ thick. The power steering is electric, with a variable ratio to offer proper feedback. A new Drive Pilot mode uses hands-free steering control along with intelligent cruise control to drive itself in bumper to bumper traffic jams. Handing over that much power to a computer sounds like Skynet, but we will know all the details after the formal launch at the Geneva Motor Show. Stay with us for more Mercedes-AMG news.

Mercedes-AMG E63 For Sale

Mercedes-AMG Unveils New E63 S Wagon

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BMW Unveils i8 Protonic Frozen Editions

BMW Individual Frozen Paint Guidelines

Protons are located in the nucleus of almost every atom, so they like to be the center of attention. To be formally released at the Geneva Auto Show, the Protonic Frozen Black Edition will arrive in matte black with glossy accents. BMW has offered frozen finishes through the Individual program for several years producing the best matte finish in the industry. The graceful curves of the i8 are made possible by a body of carbon fiber. It will be visible for miles when covered in Protonic Frozen Yellow.

If you have not experienced the i8, its nothing short of amazing. With an electric range of 15 miles, you will have 76 MPGe at your disposal. Efficiency doesn’t diminish performance, as 420 lb-ft of torque and 357 hp make for incredible acceleration. It comes with a home charger that is capable of 240v or 120v operation. The gas engine is a 1.5 liter inline three cylinder with a single turbo. A futuristic cockpit is very low, but being close to the center of gravity and the yaw axis makes cornering very fun. Take a look at these new color options and let us know what you think in the comments below.

BMW Unveils i8 Protonic Frozen Editions

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Phone: (480) 233-1529

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Aston Martin Teases Tom Brady

Aston Martin Teases Tom Brady Collaboration

About last night! Wow, what a game. Superbowl 51 will go down as one of, if not the best games in history. Tom Brady, in Tom Brady fashion didn’t allow the first half to discourage The Patriots from an incredible comeback. At the beginning of the 3rd quarter we were lamenting a Monday morning post involving vintage Falcons for sale, but Ford fans will have to wait another year.

Leaving old grievances in the past, Aston-Martin (who retain a Royal Warrant from the Queen) are working with the most famous Patriot in recent history for a transatlantic collaboration.  Mr. Brady has an eye for detail, so something new is in the works for the five time champion. Uploaded to Facebook on Saturday, we hope Gisele will offer input on the build. For many, the idea of an unlimited list of options can be overwhelming. The DB11 is a blank canvas, ready for inspiration. The most powerful DB series engine to date, the 5.2 liter twin turbo twelve offers 600 hp and 516 lb-ft of torque to a hand crafted body. You don’t need a Lombardi Trophy to have your own Aston-Martin, our dealers look forward to bringing your dreams to life. Tell us how you would spec your DB11 and stay with us for more Super news.

All Aston-Martin DB11 For Sale

Aston Martin Teases Tom Brady Collaboration

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Phone: (480) 233-1529
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