Ad Feature
List
Everything you need to know about cars this week: 10 Mar '19
A 300mph Koenigsegg. A £12m Bugatti. A 1,900bhp Pininfarina...
Suzuki Jimny vs Dacia Duster
"The Dacia Duster and Suzuki Jimny are exceptions, though. They’re not really SUVs, for starters, with no real semblance of ‘sport’ to questionably tack onto their undoubted ‘utility’. Above all, though, they feel honest..."
Advertisement - Page continues belowReview: the Peugeot 508 hybrid prototype
"It feels as lively as the 225bhp suggests. The electric force helps cover for turbo lag, so when you hoof it the sensation is of a big petrol engine. Not like the Toyota-style manic rev-up. The engine dies when not needed but you seldom hear when it re-starts. This is a far more civilised car than a diesel..."
Lynk & Co and Cyan Racing have made a 528bhp road car
"Developed by the same team that did the Volvo C30 and S60 Polestar concepts, the 03 uses a 2.0-litre, four-cylinder engine turbocharged up to a faintly ridiculous 528bhp at a screaming 7,800rpm..."
Advertisement - Page continues belowThis is an armoured Range Rover
"For those whose real life resembles a James Bond movie though there’s this – the armoured Range Rover Sentinel – and it’s even more insane than ever. Whereas the previous version of this car used a 3.0-litre V6, this new Sentinel deploys a monster 5.0-litre supercharged V8 with 375bhp on tap..."
This Final Edition is the last V12-engined Merc S-Class
"This, to spell out the bleedingly obvious, is a very expensive, V12-powered, AMG-badged S-Class. And it fulfils the usual AMG S-Class tropes, such as possessing enough power to run a small village and enough torque to pull said village down. Or 630 horsepower and 737 lb ft, if you’re the kind of person who needs numbers instead of absurdist analogies..."
It's the new Lamborghini Aventador J Roadster!
"There are many impressive numbers that come as standard with the new Lamborghini Aventador SVJ Roadster. 759bhp, 0-62mph in 2.9 seconds, 217mph flat out… and only 50kg heavier than the Nürburgring record-setting SVJ coupe..."
The Pininfarina Battista is a 1,900bhp hyper-EV
"This, ladies and gentlemen, is the most powerful road-legal car ever to come out of Italy. It’s probably worth pondering that for a second. Thanks to a 120 kWh lithium ion battery pack, the Pininfarina Battista produces approximately 1,900bhp and 1,696 torques. Barmy numbers. And because of the unique properties of e-motion, it’s enough to give this drop-dead beautiful looking thing Formula One car-style acceleration. Zero to 62mph apparently takes a tarmac-melting sub-two seconds, 186mph up in less than 12. All without the toxic haze of spent hydrocarbons from the tail-pipe, which is the more relevant point..."
Advertisement - Page continues belowThe Morgan Plus Six now comes with Supra power
"Meet the Plus Six, an almost entirely brand new Morgan. Which looks – perhaps reassuringly – just like an old Morgan. Believe it or not, a mere four components have been carried across from previous models, and they’re the round metallic stoppers for the centrally hinged bonnet. Everything else has been replaced or completely redesigned..."
The Bugatti La Voiture Noire is a £12m one-off hypercar
"‘La Voiture Noire’ is the result, an extraordinary looking machine that uses the Chiron as its basis, with the familiar – if that’s the word – near-1500bhp, 8.0-litre, quad-turbocharged, 16-cylinder underneath that majestically reworked rear end. There’s one other thing: although the exact figure hasn’t been confirmed, this one-off has apparently set its new owner back £12m, making it the most expensive new car ever. Sheesh..."
Advertisement - Page continues belowBehold: the mid-engined Aston Martin Vanquish Vision
"The Aston Martin Vanquish has returned, in the form of this svelte, lightweight concept supercar designed to give Ferrari and McLaren something to think about. Welcome to Aston Martin’s first mid-engined production supercar..."
This is the Koenigsegg Jesko, the world's first 300mph car
"Just when you thought the Hennessey Venom F5 or Bugatti Chiron was on course to top 300mph first, Koenigsegg once again reminds us that nobody does speed like the Swedes. OK, they haven’t cracked it yet, but according to the boss, Christian von Koenigsegg, his all-new Jesko hypercar is capable of over 300mph in simulations (the current production record-holder, the Agera RS, hit an average of 277mph in 2017), albeit in a lower downforce set-up than you see here. They would still need to find somewhere to do it, someone mad enough to drive it and a tyre manufacturer to back an attempt… but the science says it’s possible..."
Volvo will cap the speed limit of all its new cars to 112mph
"Next year, every single new car Volvo sells will be automatically limited to a top speed of 112mph.
"It’s because Volvo reckons that above a certain amount of speed, in-car technology and ‘smart infrastructure design’ aren’t enough to prevent injury and fatality. Volvo of course, has made it a mission that by 2020, nobody is to be killed or seriously injured in one of its cars..."
Audi unveils the Q4 e-tron concept
"And if you were in any doubt about Audi’s seriousness in adopting electric power, this year’s Geneva concept will become the company’s fifth electric model when it goes on sale by the end of 2020. It’s been a busy year in Ingolstadt..."
McLaren is building a lightweight Bentley Conti GT rival
"A new McLaren GT is coming. It’s not a replacement for any of the supercars, but a more practical and luxurious addition..."
The Mercedes CLA Shooting Brake has arrived
"Say hello to the Mercedes CLA Shooting Brake - the swoopy estate version of the four-door coupe version of the A-Class hatchback. And as you’d expect, mechanically it’s basically the same as those cars. That means a load of petrol and diesel engines, manual and auto gearboxes and the option of 4Matic all-wheel drive. The big engine, until the inevitable CLA 35 and 45, will be the 250 petrol - that’s 2.0-litres, 225bhp and a seven-speed auto..."
The Alfa Romeo Tonale is a BMW X1 and Audi Q3 rival
"It’s right in the hot part of the crossover market, against compact stuff such as the Audi Q3 and BMW X1. But they don’t have the headlights off an Alfa SZ and the wheels off a 33 Stradale..."
Here's what we learned driving the electric Mini Cooper S E
"In news that should surprise precisely nobody, the electric Mini shares a hell of a lot with the old 94aH BMW i3. So you get the same 33kW battery pack (29kW of which are actually usable), and the same motor and transmission for broadly similar performance figures. Apparently. Mini’s engineers can’t tell us - German law means they’re not allowed, at least while the car’s still officially a prototype - but we’re led to believe you’re looking at the same 181bhp output as the i3S..."
Every Peugeot will get a plug-in hybrid Peugeot Sport version
"Peugeot’s using the Geneva motor show to reveal its new sporting direction, with a little help from the 508 Peugeot Sport Engineered. The thinly veiled concept not only previews a 350bhp hybrid sports saloon, but a future strategy where every Peugeot model gets a plug-in performance version..."
Volkswagen R’s next car could be an electric I.D.
"'I really do not believe in hybrid power for sports cars, because you have the worst of both worlds.'
"The words of Volkswagen’s R division boss Jost Capito jar with some of his rivals - and perhaps colleagues, given the existence of the Golf GTE - but ought not to be a surprise coming from a man with motorsport coursing through his veins..."
Pagani is working on an all-electric hypercar
"Pagani is going electric. Well, you didn’t think Pagani was going to let the likes of Aston Martin, Bugatti and Koenigsegg steal all of the Geneva motor show supercar limelight, did you?"
The Hispano Suiza Carmen is a 1000bhp EV like no other
"Well, all logic suggests this is the real Hispano Suiza, given its styling unsubtly nods to a 1930s classic and much of the founder’s family were in attendance to help whip off the covers..."
Volkswagen T-Cross review
"The VW T-Cross is effectively a taller, beefier-looking Polo. Previewed by the drop-top T-Cross Breeze Concept at 2016’s Geneva Motor Show, VW’s smallest SUV to-date rides on the same MQB platform, uses the same three-cylinder engines and is built in the same Spanish factory as the Polo, but is 54mm longer and 138mm taller. You sit 100mm higher up..."
What Gumpert did next: an 800bhp methanol racecar
"Remember the Gumpert Apollo? While the utterly bonkers Apollo Intensa Emozione appears to be the car that rose from its ashes, there’s another to consider. The is the Roland Gumpert Nathalie, a methanol-powered sports car from the man behind the original Apollo..."
This new £1.3m wing comes with a McLaren Senna GTR attached
"Welcome, internet, to the production version of the McLaren Senna GTR. The track-only version of an already track-focused car, it arrives a year after a concept car that looked spookily close to production..."
The next BMW M3 will come with a 4WD option
"A four-wheel-drive M3? It’s on its way, people. A 4WD M4 too, in all likelihood. Rumours suggest that the next M3 and M4, launched later this year, will be available in both rear-wheel drive and 4WD versions. Y’know, just like a regular 3 Series..."
Trending this week
- Car Review
- Car Review
