Road test snippets: SMMT Test Day 2013

May 19, 2013 by Tim Kendall Leave a Comment

The ‘Good’ the ‘Really Quite Good’ and the ‘Bloody Brilliant’

SMMT Test Day 2013

Another year, another SMMT test day. For DrivingTalk readers not au-fait with what an SMMT test day is, its purpose can be summarised quite succinctly thus: it’s a speed dating event between motoring journalists, car companies and their four-wheeled wares. Except there’s no romance – aside from fleeting flirtations betwixt (wo)man and car. Moving on.

Thankfully the sun shone again this year onto a packed Millbrook Proving Ground in Bedfordshire. Cars were driven, relationships forged, preconceptions shattered, opinions formed and suncream was smeared onto new upholstery. Not by me, I might add.

A summary of noteworthy drives now follows.

2013 Audi A3 Sportback 1.4 TFSi SE – £19,825

The new Audi A3 Sportback. A high quality fitted kitchen of a car

There’s more excitement to be had elsewhere in Audi’s range than this, the entry-level A3 Sportback. But even at the lower echelons of the Golf-on-a-better-pay-grade range, there’s much to like about this junior Audi. Restrained, understated style, the slightly oleaginous feel to its slickly-damped controls and an eager, willing gait on the road. The cabin is almost sparse in its simplicity, but predictably Audi and beautifully finished. It’s a high quality fitted kitchen with soft-close drawers, the A3 – satisfying to own but hard to get excited about.

Quick verdict: Audi A3 1.4 TFSI Sportback: Good

2013 SEAT Leon FR 2.0 TDI 150 – £21,385

The new SEAT Leon FR TDI. Like a Golf… and an Audi A3

On the subject of VW Group offerings, I liked the new Leon, a lot. Shorn of the prestige pretentions of its four-ringed sibling, it’s got a genuinely attractive interior which reminded me of a high-end hi-fi. That’s a turn up for the books, because the old one reminded me of a lump of featureless, injection-moulded plastic. Which indeed it was. The driving experience is positive too – this torquey, tight-handling Spaniard is very easy to drive fast. Even the faintly astonishing claimed economy of 68.9mpg is nearly worth getting excited about. Shame it’s lost the distinctive looks of its predecessor, mind.

Quick verdict: SEAT Leon FR TDI 150: Really Quite Good

2013 Mercedes E63 AMG – £73,745

The E63 AMG. What a mean looking thing in black

Audi has made the latest RS6 less powerful than its predecessor. Perhaps that’s a subtle white flag from a weary Ingolstadt, its power-crazed engineers having grown tired of the German horsepower war. “Nein! Nicht mehr Pferdestärke, bitte!” they might say if this bizarre vignette of mine had any roots in reality. And onto my point. Which is that Mercedes doesn’t seem to care about calling a truce, a point evidenced by the fact the latest pumped-up E-Class has more power than its amply-powered predecessor. So in standard, off-the-shelf E63 AMG guise, the 5.5-litre V8 Biturbo (say it, it sounds good) engine produces 557 horses. And those horses sound really, really pissed off about being trapped under the big AMG’s nose. I can’t comment on the E63′s prowess through the twisty bits, as driving time was limited to the high-speed bowl only. Suffice to say, this unassuming Merc is quite breathtakingly rapid. How about 0-62mph in 4.2 seconds? There’s an even quicker ‘performance pack’ version available too.*

A full road test of the E63 AMG will follow on DrivingTalk.

*Insert cliché of your choice. Something about sledgehammers & nuts would do nicely.

Quick verdict: Mercedes E63 AMG: Bloody Brilliant

2013 McLaren MP4-12C – £176,000

The McLaren MP4-12C on track at Millbrook

Topping off the accelerative vigour of the E63 wouldn’t be easy, I mused whilst handing it back to the nice people from Mercedes. Where upon I clapped eyes on this scissor-doored delight, looking a picture in white. Fortune favours the brave apparently, and a foolish motoring journalist hadn’t turned up for their scheduled date with the MP4-12C. So I asked if I could hop in instead. Which I duly did.

Confession time. The MP4-12C is a supercar that’s never leapt off the pages of a car mag and into my affections. It’s not in my lottery win fantasy garage. And the reason why is pretty much the same as what many others have said about this car – it’s lacking emotion. Silly reason really – it’s phenomenally capable and brutally quick – the magic 62mph arriving in just 3.1 seconds. What’s more, the speed with which you can rifle through the gearbox’s seven ratios using the steering wheel paddles is mesmeric, and the explosiveness of the performance without question. Thank 616bhp for that. But the noise is not awfully seductive and there’s just something missing from the experience. Yet perversely, the fact the MP4 isn’t universally loved is a bit of a draw for me – that and the fact it’s not a shouty Ferrari. The thinking man’s supercar just got my vote.

Quick verdict: McLaren MP4-12C: Really Quite Good

2013 Audi RS4 Avant – £55,525

Uber-dog carrier: The 2013 Audi RS4 Avant

“It’s easy to sell cars when they look this good” comes the swift reply from Audi PR man Jon Zammett when I ask about the appetite for Audi’s latest steroidal small estate. He has a point – the latest generation RS4 looks staggeringly aggressive with its UR Quattro-aping boxed wheel arches and unapologetically squat stance. It’s also a hoot to drive – 444bhp and a quattro drivetrain see to that. The grip is seemingly never-ending and the enthusiasm with which the 4.2-litre V8 spins up to its 8,250 rpm limiter is incredible. So too, the seven-speed S-tronic dual clutch gearbox and its ability to play ball or relax into slush-matic mode. There’s got to be a dog carrier on the lottery win garage list and the RS4 rather superbly fulfills that brief.

Quick verdict: Audi RS4 Avant: Bloody Brilliant

2013 Jaguar F-Type V6 S – £69,500

Delicious – the new Jaguar F-Type V6

It would be a bit remiss not to mention the headline act. Like going to a film premiere and then only talking about the trailers, I feel duty bound to opine some pithy wisdom on the new F-Type. However, I do so in a slightly guarded fashion as firstly, you already know the F-Type is good, very good in fact. And secondly, a relatively brief, chaperoned drive in the V6 S wasn’t enough to really get under its skin. The successor to the E-Type? Not really, as the original was just that – an original. Any sequel to that would never quite be the real deal. Thank Jaguar the F-Type is not a retro-facsimile of its forebear then.

Yet the F-Type is its own car, and even after the briefest drive is evidently a very, very special piece of engineering. From the delicacy with which it scythes through turns, to the faintly astonishing compliance and damping finesse, it’s a genuine treat to drive. I tried the 375bhp V6 S, which not only felt plenty rapid enough on the sinuous Millbrook hill route, but sang a deliciously anti-social tune from the twin howitzers poking out of its rear valance. And in Dynamic Drive mode it’s even louder and more focused. I can’t wait for the coupé to arrive, but in the meantime I need a longer date with an F-Type please, Jaguar.

Quick verdict: Jaguar F-Type V6 S: Bloody Brilliant

Filed Under: Featured Articles, Road Tests Tagged With: AMG, Audi, Car Reviews, dream cars, ferrari, McLaren, Mercedes, performance cars, porsche, road tests, SEAT, SMMT, SMMT Test Day 2013, supercars

The Ministry of Silly Names

March 14, 2013 by Tim Kendall Leave a Comment

For a while now, car companies have been quietly waging war on each other. Not the obligatory sales war, but a war of daft model names. A high-stakes game of who can saddle their new car with the most ridiculous moniker and not kill sales stone dead. We’ve had silly names before of course….

…But not since the sight of my English teacher’s comically misnomered Hyundai Pony – never was a leather elbow-patched Lancastrian and his car less likely to appear at a gymkhana – have I felt the need to crow about car names. Until now.

Perhaps the car industry is fatigued with model names that evoke distant African tribes or exotically-named winds. Maybe the suits have said ‘enough of these logical engine-size linked hierarchical numbering systems, let’s get wacky’. Or perhaps the automotive power-mongers of our global car industry have been intimidated by over-zealous marketing types and their thick-rimmed spectacles. Let’s look at some of the evidence….

1. Vauxhall Cascada

Straight in at number 1, it’s Vauxhall’s confident and – I hope – not at all ill-judged assault on the premium cabrio market. But will the Griffin badged Audi A5-baiter be hamstrung by being named after a mediocre Eurodance act? Who knows, but the masters of motoring humour, Sniff Petrol had an amusing take on it.

The Vauxhall Cascada

2. Vauxhall Adam

Giving a car a bloke’s name just sounds…odd. But then this is a heritage-driven move – the founder of Vauxhall’s European sister brand was called Adam Opel. Fair enough, but the personification of Vauxhall’s city car lends the try-hard Fiat 500 rival a whiff of a ‘please like me, I’ll be your best friend’. If other car companies had followed a similar logic when dreaming up names, we could have ended up with the TVR Trevor, the BMW Karl Friedrich, or indeed the Ferrari..Enzo. Right.

Fresh and funky? Or annoying? The Vauxhall Adam

3. LaFerrari

Which leads us on to the recently uncloaked Ferrari LaFerrari. It’s Ferrari’s new flagship, a ‘mild hybrid’ V12 hypercar that goes from 0-124mph in less than 7.0 seconds. And forces its owners to explain to their friends they haven’t developed a stutter, it really is called the Ferrari TheFerrari.

The Ferrari TheFerrari. One more time?

4. Kia C’eed

How did the Koreans come up with this name? Why? I don’t understand, it’s silly.

The reasonable priced car with the unreasonably punctuated name

5. Smart Forjeremy

What happens when pocket-sized car manufacturer Smart teams up with flamboyant American fashion designer Jeremy Scott? A monstrously stupid name and this dubiously-attired motorised rollerskate. With wings don’t you know. Why didn’t Red Bull think of this first? Because they have eyes.

Smart Forjeremy. Forf*ck’s sake.

6. Volkswagen up!

Adding spurious and redundant punctuation to a car name just sounds camp, forcing one to utter this baby VW’s name with unwarranted enthusiasm. If I were in the market for a competent little city car, having to say up! in the manner of Barbara Woodhouse training a Labrador would certainly put me off buying the VW-badged version. I’d rather slum it in the more tastefully-named but identical Skoda Citigo thanks.

What goes up…

7. Volkswagen e-up!

VW have just announced an electric version of the plucky and effervescent up! It’s called the e-up! Yes! Rumours of special editions aimed at customers in Yorkshire, including an e-up vetinary! and e-up lad! remain uncorroborated at the time of putting finger to keyboard.

Thought I was joking?

8. Hyundai Scoupe

Thank goodness the Koreans branched out from equine-themed names to give us this early nineties creation, with a name evocative of those plastic poo-trowels beloved of dog owners. In the days when the Hyundai Scoupe Turbo SE prowled the streets, the Korean firm’s strapline was ‘prepare to want one’. I still don’t want a Scoupe, but I’d take a Veloster.

Prepare to want one. The Hyundai Scoupe Turbo.

Thought of some more stupid car names? Let me know using the form below.

Filed Under: Featured Articles, General Blogging Tagged With: blog, cars, ferrari, Kia, Kia C'eed, Motor Industry, Smart, Vauxhall, VW

Ferrari 458 Spider: first pics

August 23, 2011 by Tim Kendall Leave a Comment

Ferrari 458 Spider revealed with folding hard top

Ferrari has peeled the lid off the 458 Italia to give us this – the 458 Spider. Equipped with an aluminium folding roof, Ferrari’s latest drop-top will debut at the Frankfurt motor show in September.

458 Spider gets folding aluminium roof;
lighter than equivalent soft top;
on show at Frankfurt in September.

The retractable hard top is not only a world first for a car with the mid-rear engined open layout, but tips the scales at 25kg less than the 430 Spider’s soft top. It’ll also retract fully in just 14 seconds, ideal for catching the fleeting glimpses of sunshine which characterise British summertime.

The oily bits stay the same, so the 458 Spider uses the 562bhp 4.5-litre V8 and twin-clutch F1 gearbox of its fixed-roof cousin. Whilst the fundamentals haven’t been fiddled with, Maranello’s finest have been busy turning the topless Ferrari experience up to 11, with some fettling of the soundtrack said to make it even more ‘captivating’. Ferrari also say the damping has been honed and the accelerator mapping tweaked for optimum performance in top-down mode.

The transition from Italia to Spider body style adds 50kg to the 458, which blunts performance – if only slightly. As a result, the 0-62mph dash is despatched in 3.4 seconds – a tenth slower, whilst the drop-top car maxes out at around 198mph, 4mph down on the coupé.

The roof stows behind the front seats, just ahead of the engine, and is compact enough to leave a bench area behind the seats for luggage. Buttresses instead of a flat, 355 Spider-style rear-deck give it a slightly busy profile, but optimise airflow and cooling to the clutch and gearbox oil radiators.

Ferrari is also proud of the electrically-adjustable wind deflector fitted to the 458 Spider. Designed to slow and diffuse air in the cockpit, it allows occupants to carry on a normal conversation at up to 125mph. Handy for avoiding the indignity of raising one’s voice or disturbing the coiffured barnet on a top-down cross-continental blast.

Ferrari 458 Spider video:

Ferrari 458 Spider picture gallery:

[Show as slideshow]

Filed Under: News Tagged With: ferrari, Ferrari 458, Frankfurt, supercar

Sold in 60 Seconds

December 11, 2010 by Tim Kendall Leave a Comment

Click link to see magazine feature.

Car auctions. Exhaust fume-ridden haunts of the shady car dealer, right? Not necessarily. If you’ve ever bought a used performance or prestige car, it’s likely your hunting ground would have been classified ads on the likes of Pistonheads or Autotrader, and assuming you aren’t salesman-averse, the dealer forecourt. Buying a top end car from auction means leaving most of your sensible buyer intincts at home. So is it worth it?

BCA's Top Car auctions feature a diverse range of metal

To an auction virgin, mixing with the likes of hardened traders brandishing CAP guides and Arthur Daleyisms, it can be off-putting. Buying under the hammer is a calculated risk when you are spending four figures, but when you are parting with serious wedge, you could be forgiven for thinking it’s foolhardy. Actually it isn’t as stupid an idea as it sounds, but you may still require unfeasibly large cojones to go through with it.

One of several GT-Rs on offer, this had less than 2k on the clock

There is one blindingly obvious reason for throwing your buyers’ comfort zone out of the window – price. In return for shouldering a load of risk you can often save yourself thousands. But if you do choose the auction route, be prepared to dip your hand into an automotive tombola. You may go along with a particular car in mind, but come away with something entirely different, the only limiting factor being your wallet, and your willpower.

To test this theory, I went along to November’s ‘Top Car’ auction, at BCA’s Nottingham branch to nosey at some of the precious metal going under the hammer. As Europe’s largest vehicle auction group, British Car Auctions handle a substantial amount of high-end machinery from a variety of sources, the majority of them finance and leasing companies. When I visited, the auction hall was crammed with a smörgâsbord of exotica. Ferraris, Porsches, Bentleys, Astons, Jags, and to be honest anything the trade might call ‘a bit tasty’.

How about a ’98 Ferrari 550 Maranello in Grigio Titanio? In 1998 the flagship prancing horse would have been £144k in ‘basic’ spec. Some 12 years and 35k miles on, owner number one got bored and chopped it in at a Bentley dealer, so there it was, looking forgotten in a corner of the auction hall. It reached £32,800 – not much for a fully historied, one owner V12 Fezzer – and a useful saving over the retail ‘book’ value of £40,250. If you are of a more patriotic leaning, then an 8k mile 2007 ’07 Aston V8 Vantage Roadster, which looked fresh out of the box was staggering value at £51k, compared to a retail price of £61k. Just be thankful you didn’t part with £94k for the privilege of being the first name on the V5. There was more eclectic metal on offer too – a 55 plate Alpina B5 V8S made a paltry £18k, compared to £62k new. Meanwhile at the ‘budget’ end, an E39 BMW M5 on a ’99 V plate struggled to reach £4,500 against a retail book value of £9.5k. Word of warning though, not all auction buys are the conspicuous bargains you would expect. A grossly un-PC 2008 Hummer made £31k, against its book retail value of £30k. One of a brace of F430s on offer also made a silly £10k north of the retail value, which makes no sense at all.

Ferrari 550 with 35k miles made £32k against a retail value of £40k

If this has whetted your appetite and you are thinking of going the auction route, you can make it less of a leap into the unknown by doing a bit of groundwork before you get there. BCA publish catalogues online, complete with vehicle descriptions that include more info than ever before. You can see pictures, check the MOT expiry (assuming it has one), whether it has service history and when it was last serviced, along with mileage (and whether they are ‘warranting’ it as correct). You can also download a condition report which grades the car on a scale of one to five according to what kind of state it is in, one being a minter, five bringing new meaning to the word used. The condition of auction lots will always be declared, and the majority sold ‘without major mechanical faults’. In the event something has a dubious past, the catalogue description or the auctioneer will make it known, so HPI checks aren’t needed.

And when you get there – be ready. Cars are pushed through the hall in a fast and furious manner. About 3 minutes before it gets driven in front of the rostrum your target will be unlocked, and started. This is your opportunity to open all the doors, check for squiffy paint, signs it’s been ‘bent’, and peer at the dashboard for tell-tale warning lights. Finally, don’t fall prey to the myth that you can buy a car if you sneeze – the auctioneer will look for eye contact as confirmation you are bidding. When the hammer falls and you realise you’ve saved yourself thousands, bought your dream car and avoided the middle man, it’s a buzz like no other.

Filed Under: Articles and Reviews Tagged With: Bentley, bmw, car auction, ferrari, porsche