LA Auto Show 2019: the good, bad and rad

Here’s the big – and, if the comments are anything to go by, controversial – car from the show: the Ford Mustang Mach-E electric SUV. The opinion splitting five-door crossover is Ford’s new all-electric car and some people have got really rather angry that it's got a Mustang badge on it. 

The £40k base version has a 75kWh battery and RWD, for 280 miles of range (WLTP). A bigger 99kWh pack takes it to a seriously impressive 370 miles. Even the slowest does 0-62mph in less than 8.0 seconds. The AWD is about a second faster in the sprint. Later, there’ll be a GT, with 465bhp, and a sub-5.0sec sprint time. In fact the American engineers talk sub-4.0sec for 0-60. To match, it rides on uprated adaptive suspension and brakes, 20-inch wheels and an aero kit. Proper sports seats to hold you in as it does its stuff.

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Can't afford a Lamborghini Urus? Don't worry. This is the next best thing. Audi's RSQ8 has a 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 that's related closely to the Lambo’s motor. It's knocking out 592bhp and 590lb ft. That’s when it’s running on all eight cylinders – it can shut half of them down when cruising to save fuel. This is essentially a high-rise RS6, good for 0-62mph in 3.8 seconds, a still-limited top speed of about 190mph and something that can lap the Nurburgring in 7:42.253. Which is three seconds faster than the Renault Megane Trophy-R.

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Are you overly-fertile and in a hurry? Well, Merc's GLS 63 could be what you need to get you and your six kids to school on time. This seven-seat, 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 whopper has 603bhp and up to 627lb ft of torque. It also implements Merc's ‘EQ Boost’ starter-alternator serving up 22bhp and 184lb ft of torque on its own while supplying 48v for the electrical system. And it's rolling on 23-inch monoblock wheels that look the absolute dog's danglies.

Hurrah! Long live the estate! VW used the LA to show that not all EVs need to either be multi-million-pound hypercars or crossovers, they can be estates too. And we like estates. This is the Space Vizzion, the seventh ID. concept to be built on Volkswagen’s new MEB platform. The one on display at the LA Motor Show has a 275bhp rear-mounted motor connected to the 82kWh battery, which gives an impressive predicted range of 367 miles on the WLTP cycle. However, VW also mentions that a second motor could be added at the front for 4WD and 335bhp in total. ID. Space Vizzion R anyone?

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Lexus has scalped its large, fast, luxurious coupe and boy oh boy it looks good. It's a recipe we can get onboard with: V8 up front, drive at the back, sky all around. Indeed, no performance metrics have been announced (expect it to be slightly slower than the coupe’s 4.7secs to 62mph), other than the four-layer soft-top’s mechanism – it takes 15 seconds to open, and 16 to close, at speeds of up to 31mph.

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Good news: the new Mini GP looks exactly as mad as we thought and indeed hoped it might. Only 3000 will be built, of which 575 will land in the UK in right-hand drive costing almost £35,000 each. Under the bonnet lives the 2.0-litre four-cylinder motor from the BMW M135i, which makes 302bhp and 332lb ft.

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Meet the Audi e-tron Sportback. Yep, the niches just keep coming. You’ve had the SUV. You’ve had the SUV coupe. Now, you’ve got an electric SUV coupe. And it's got very clever headlights that can project crazy animations.

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The previous Land Rover Defender featured heavily as a henchman’s runabout in Spectre, the last James Bond film. Next year, there's a new Bond flick and it features the new Defender. More specifically, this New Defender. With black paint, black wheels and darkened skid pans, they’ve got villain written all over them. And, apparently, the No Time To Die Defenders were the very first to be built at JLR’s new factory in Slovakia, and they remain remarkably standard aside from some interior modifications for stunt work.

The BMW M2 CS is here; a 444bhp track-honed road car that aims to send this generation of 2 Series Coupe off into the stars with a big, fat powerslide. Oh sure, BMW trumpets its “class leading” handling and precision. But mostly: powerful straight-six, manual gearbox, rear-wheel-drive.

That engine. It’s ‘derived’ from the M4 Competition’s straight-six. So it’s a twin-turbo 3.0-litre, producing 444bhp – 40bhp up from the ‘regular’ M2 Competition – and 406lb ft of torque which are meaningless unless you consider the context. BMW reckons on 0-62mph in 4.2s with the standard (yay!) six-speed manual, or 4.0s flat if you spec the seven-speed double-clutcher.

Tick the Driver’s Pack box, and the top speed rises to 174mph (limited), and you’re looking at 27.7mp– oh what the hell, you’re not looking at mpg. You’re looking at skids.

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Ha! Those LOLtastic folks at KIA had some time to kill so made this little spicy concept, the Habaniro. For all you Lemon and Herb types, it's a play on the habanero hot pepper. 

This is an Infiniti Q60 that you can neither drive, nor buy. Not yet, anyway. It’s a technical exercise; a result of a conversation between Infiniti and its friends (partners) over at Renault Sport F1. The question? How can F1 tech be made relevant for road use. The answer? A 563bhp, dual-hybrid, bewinged two-seat coupe with a trim spec even The Dark Knight himself would be proud of.

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Are you the type to be salty about the Mustang Mach-E not being a 'proper' Mustang? Well, here's the 750bhp GT500 to make you feel a bit better. 

You may have noticed summer has made a sudden disappearance. So what better time to show off a convertible sports car, huh? Meet the new Chevrolet Corvette Stingray convertible, the completely inevitable addendum to the new, eighth-gen ‘Vette revealed earlier in 2019.

The big news is its folding metal roof, a first for a Corvette and a slight surprise given the rest of the industry seems to be turning its back on such heavy, complex tech. Still, if it’s good enough for a Ferrari F8 Spider…

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You may remember the no-nonsense, all-electric off roaders from Bollinger. Well, check out the length of the B2. We were initially promised 360bhp and 472lb ft of torque in both the B1 and B2, but battery and EV technology has come on so much since that both cars now put out 606bhp and 668lb ft. Lovely.

Now we've got all the corporate stuff out the way, here's some of the more irreverent stuff from the show. And if you think you're out running this cop car, think again. Well, until it's run out of fuel. Which is about a quarter of a mile. 

This is what happens when you paint match your car to a two-week-old bruise. 

LA traffic is work of the Devil. This is the best solution – just drive over it all. 

We couldn't be in LA without showing you some lowriders. And these Mini trucks are dope AF.

Well, something has to balance out all the EVs at the show, right?

This is why you don't let the work experience kid drive your LA show car.