Category Archives: Opinion

Opinion

Matt Prior: We will not ditch our automobiles till practice journey improves

It’s 4.15am and I’m in my kitchen ready for the kettle to boil whereas flicking between the Google Maps and Waze apps on my telephone.

I’ve to be at a lay-by in Teesdale between 9.30am and 10am in a automobile that’s fuelled sufficient for the day, and I want to select up a videographer from Leeds on the best way.

My telephone says Leeds is 1hr 30min from our vacation spot, so I ought to get to the videographer by 8am. And he’s 2hr 50min from my gaff close to Bicester, so I might go away virtually an hour later than now, at 5.10am.

But that – and also you’ll have recognized this as you learn it – could be a mistake. Because by the point I get to Leeds for 8am, there will likely be a great deal of folks attending to Leeds for 8am. So the kettle boils, I fill a mug and off I’m going.

Initially it seems like I’ll be daftly early: 7.20am. But I’ll need extra tea and a bun on the best way, and if I gas the automobile close to Leeds, it should final the day. My estimated arrival time creeps onwards.

After a relaxed gas cease, I arrive at 7.55am. Spot on.

The second part of the journey is extra predictable. We’re the one folks attempting to get to a lay-by in Teesdale by 10am, so site visitors is expectedly mild and we’re there by 9.35am.

It couldn’t be less complicated. Or might it? There are variables and choices to go round if it goes awry, which I learn about solely by expertise. Different leaving occasions give completely different outcomes. But a close to fixed, no less than, is how a lot it should value.

A number of weeks in the past, I took a practice to Birmingham. As with the automobile, I stood in my kitchen figuring out journey occasions. Being naive, I might have gone to the station and purchased a ticket.

Opinion

Which manufacturers are in finest form as ZEV mandate comes into impact?

The ZEV mandate, which dictates that 22% of every automotive maker’s gross sales within the UK should be electric cars, has now lastly come into impact – and a few are in much better form than others. 

Data from Automotive Services International (ASI) on 2023 new-car registrations to the top of October revealed which you could depend on one hand the standard makers which are already over the edge of compliance.

Every automotive offered above the 22% will entice a £15,000 fantastic, until a automotive maker defers the gross sales to a future 12 months.

Opinion

Our favorite automobiles of 2023: Peugeot 205 GTi Tolman Edition

Is ‘restomod fatigue’ a factor? I’m unsure, however whether it is, then I’ve definitely been affected by one thing prefer it over the previous yr or so.

The early exponents of this updating artwork have been pretty easy of their strategy, serving up a sharper driving expertise whereas retaining the donor automobile’s retro appears to be like and character.

Yet just lately the scene seems to have modified, the emphasis shifting to outlandish money-no-object initiatives that seemingly obliterate the unique machine’s character in pursuit of the coffee-run (ugh!) bragging rights of a well-heeled few.

However, the Tolman 205 GTi proved that it doesn’t must be this fashion.

For starters, it truly appears to be like just like the automobile it’s primarily based on, to the purpose that even eager lion lovers will most likely dismiss it as a inventory instance, albeit a fantastically saved one.

And whereas the period-perfect exterior and inside disguise some closely modded mechanicals, not one of the many modifications dilutes the quick French hatch’s core enchantment.

James Disdale driving Tolman Peugeot 205 GTi

If you’ve pushed a 205 beforehand, then a blast within the Tolman will convey joyful reminiscences, and in case you haven’t, then you definately’ll quickly perceive what the fuss was about.

Yes, it’s sooner than the outdated automobile (a bespoke 200bhp twin-cam 16-valve 1.9-litre motor sees to that) however the razor-sharp throttle response and traditional hot hatch big-engine-in-a-small-car vibe stay intact.

And whereas there’s a welcome injection of precision, management and braking energy, the Tolman handles with the identical old-school Gallic aptitude as the unique, its acrobatic agility, fluid journey and limitless throttle adjustability serving up engagement and leisure no matter pace or circumstance.

Opinion

Our favorite vehicles of 2023: Prodrive P25

The Prodrive P25 shouldn’t actually enchantment to me. As a reminder, it’s a reinterpretation of a 1997 WRC Subaru Impreza, however with 2023 parts, know-how and know-how.

Crucially, it doesn’t require an engineering workforce to run it and you’ll – effectively, might – apply it to the highway. It does come at a value: greater than £550,000.

I suppose it’s geared toward the one that liked WRC within the ’90s, has come into some cash over the previous 25 years and now needs to relive that point.

That may be very a lot not me: I used to be 5 on the time and I typically suppose Subaru Imprezas are a bit naff. I harbour no nostalgia in any way for Colin McRae and Richard Burns.

But I like a singular driving expertise, and flinging the P25 round a humid Anglesey circuit was precisely that.

Driving it under nine-tenths is pointless, aside from to get to a location the place you may drive it flat out, so that you must be on a circuit or a closed highway.

Prodrive P25 powersliding – rear

On a monitor, I’m typically a really easy driver – gently pouring the automotive in to corners and never upsetting the steadiness, however the P25 woke up a latent rally driver in me.

It quickly turned clear that the P25 likes to rotate into corners off the facility, with the fantastically mild but communicative steering speaking you thru each diploma of rotation.

Then there’s a second, and a selection. With its four-wheel drive and complex diffs, it’s by no means going to settle into a mild powerslide, so that you must both collect it up and be in your approach or Commit. With a capital C.

Opinion

Our favorite vehicles of 2023: Porsche 911 Sport Classic

Porsche is at present hooked on the exhausting stuff: the rare-groove particular editions each producer of word appears to be purveying as if their existence trusted it. (Maybe it does?) It’s apparent why.

These creations delight the engineering groups, however so too have they got the bean-counters positively frothing on the mouth, such is the willingness to swallow outrageous costs. It’s straightforward to see these initiatives as cynical.

And you then meet the vehicles first hand.

The Porsche 911 Dakar? Silly automobile, foolish worth, however actually, fantastically tremendous firm in the true world and an instantaneous basic.

The new 911 S/T? Hugely contrived, despicably costly, however most likely essentially the most intoxicating but usable supercar Porsche has ever made. Sublime.

Which brings us to the 911 Sport Classic, which arguably began all this nonsense within the ‘997’ period, when it embraced a style-over-substance method with a wholly pointless duck-tail, houndstooth innards and nearly no mechanical tickles.

Porsche 911 Sport Classic braking – rear

Asking worth: £140k. Or, in 2009, £10k greater than a 911 GT2!

This yr, Porsche reprised the Sport Classic thought, cueing prejudiced ambivalence within the Autocar workplace, significantly when the worth was revealed to be £214k.

Except the brand new SC is a genuinely attention-grabbing 911, with its personal character and quirks.

Yes, you get all of the aesthetic trinkets, which I can take or go away, however beneath that’s an entity each particular and distinctive: a non-S 911 Turbo shorn of its entrance driveshafts and fitted with a guide ’field. In 2023, it feels a bit rebellious.

Opinion

Our favorite vehicles of 2023: Lamborghini Huracan Sterrato

The Lamborghini Huracán Sterrato is ludicrous, a millionaire’s gewgaw designed to ship on a use case that appears barely possible: off-road supercar.

But it’s additionally essentially the most enjoyable I’ve had in any new automotive of 2023, which is why it seems right here.

Not, crucially, simply on free surfaces. I did get to expertise the Sterrato in desert sand once I drove it for the primary time within the US in June, however most of my time with it was spent on street.

Which is the place you’d anticipate it to be most closely compromised, provided that it sits 44mm taller than the standard Huracán and rides on what are principally bespoke off-road BF Goodrich tyres that look higher suited to a pick-up truck.

But the Sterrato’s gentler character is its superpower, an implicit reminder that as top-end efficiency vehicles have grown grippier and faster, so the alternatives to take advantage of them in the actual world have diminished to close nothingness in most elements of the world.

Lamborghini Huracan Sterrato driving on dirt – side

The Sterrato has adequate traction to keep away from feeling wayward on Tarmac, however its limits are nonetheless low sufficient to be genuinely accessible, and extremely progressive once they arrive.

This is a 602bhp supercar that’s just about as pleasant on the restrict as a Mazda MX-5, a Toyota GR86 or – the automotive it actually jogs my memory of – an Ariel Nomad.

Even within the unlikely surroundings of a correct racetrack, the Sterrato stays composed when pushed into lurid oversteer.

Lamborghini Huracan Sterrato driving through water – rear

Opinion

Editor’s letter: EV makers construct case for smaller batteries

Early electrical vehicles had been outlined by vary. While vary stays an vital a part of an EV’s spec panel, a broader understanding of battery sizes and effectivity, in addition to the reliability of the charging community and the velocity at which an EV may be recharged have change into simply as distinguished and vital as that final vary determine.  

Unless a automobile’s vary is notably smaller in comparison with the market norm or notably larger, then it may be 234 miles, 256 miles or 291 miles and that may usually be outlined as being someplace between sufficient and greater than sufficient.

Opinion

Why do not automobile corporations have good slogans anymore?

Whatever occurred to ‘engineered like no other’?

My colleague Steve Cropley final week requested this about Mercedes-Benz’s erstwhile promoting strapline, which was first talked about in promotional copy in 1956 (with ‘…in the world’ on the tip) and which routinely accompanied the corporate’s publicity till 1995.

It was adopted, for those who keep in mind, by ‘the best or nothing’, a extra nothing than greatest phrase that also will get airtime immediately. It’s the title of a web page on Mercedes’ US web site not less than, though it doesn’t spotlight the tip of any new adverts I’ve seen.

Today, on-line, the place most adverts are seen, Mercedes advertisements are principally signed off solely by the three-pointed star and a clickable hyperlink to a related net web page. Sometimes there’s a distinct, model-appropriate slogan just like the additionally forgettable ‘so AMG’.

There isn’t, then, an overarching single Mercedes message – one factor that you need to affiliate with the model each time you see it.

Maybe in a world the place the mannequin vary and the promoting of it have each modified a lot and the place old-school engineering sits behind, say, type or connectivity, Mercedes doesn’t assume lasting consistency issues prefer it as soon as did. It nonetheless shouts about engineering immediately, however principally by means of its Formula 1 workforce. 

The world’s two different best-known automotive practitioners of the slogan artwork aren’t but prepared to present them up. 

BMW has toyed with just a few completely different phrases however primarily retains the identical ‘Freude am Fahren’ (‘sheer driving pleasure’) line it first utilized in 1965, adjusting it to ‘the ultimate driving machine’ for its two largest English-speaking markets, the US and the UK, in 1972.

Opinion

Is It Possible to Have Too Many Drive Modes?

Hyundai executives can be defensive about criticism of the abundant drive modes and options on performance cars like their i30 N.

That’s one of my favorite hot hatchbacks, but it’s undeniable that it offers a multitude of customizable features.

The onboard systems provide options to adjust suspension stiffness, change steering weight, fine-tune engine response, and much more. Reportedly, there are nearly 2000 combinations.

Some argue that this is excessive – and I might agree. However, Hyundai’s driving attributes chief, Tyrone Johnson, suggests that if the multitude of options is overwhelming, users can simply stick to the preset configurations, including what Hyundai believes is the ideal N mode.

This seems like a reasonable approach. Until now, I wasn’t sure where I stood on this issue. I have sat in BMW M cars and Mercedes-AMGs, and even spent six months in an M5 without feeling like I had fully mastered all its capabilities.

Having so many choices can feel like being at a cook-it-yourself restaurant – there’s a great chef in the background who knows the best way to cook the ingredients, but lets you make a mess of it.

I prefer when an expert handles things, whether it’s cooking or tuning the suspension of a Toyota GR86.

As driver’s cars become increasingly electrified, this situation is only going to become more complex – or more interesting, depending on your perspective.

In the i30 N, there are mechanical limitations to the adjustments that can be made. The drive is strictly front-wheel and the engine’s responsiveness has its limits. However, as shown in the recent first drive of the Hyundai Ioniq 5 N, electric cars offer a different experience.

The Ioniq 5 N comes with four preset and two customizable modes for regular driving. In the adjustable modes, you can modify damping, steering weight, motor and differential response, and more, but that’s just the beginning.

Additional buttons enable maximum boost for 10 seconds, reduce power to increase circuit endurance, engage full braking effort on throttle lift-off, activate a low-speed drifty mode, and adjust power distribution between the front and rear over 11 stages.

Opinion

Why the Bloodhound Project Holds Promise for the Future

The team working on the Bloodhound project, which aims to break the land-speed record using a combination of jet and rocket power, has been seeking additional funding for a while.

Recently, they have also been searching for a new driver, a move that appears to be a sensible change in the project’s challenging history. This development struck me as a logical step that should have been taken earlier.

Instead of appealing solely to corporations, the project should have targeted individual egos from the beginning. The current land speed record of 763mph has been unbroken for 26 years, ever since Andy Green achieved supersonic speed with the Thrust SSC.

At the age of 61, Green has been in the driver’s seat for the Bloodhound project since its launch in 2008, and has already tested it at a speed of 628mph. While the initial goal was to reach 1000mph, the current focus is on surpassing the previous record by achieving a speed of 800mph.

Since the establishment of the first land speed record, it has never remained unbeaten for such a long period. The high costs and the already broken sound barrier have raised questions about the relevance of pursuing further speed achievements from a business perspective.

For Bloodhound, the primary aim has always been to promote skills and education in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).

The car has been featured in roadshows and educational tours, with volunteer ambassadors visiting schools and colleges to raise awareness about the technology behind high-speed travel. Its objective has not only been to make noise and achieve speed, but also to inspire the development of engineers.

Although the project garnered support from several major companies, it was never enough. Consequently, given the change in societal attitudes towards noise and speed, the educational focus of the Bloodhound project has shifted towards green technology.

If the project materializes, the jet will run on synthetic fuel, and the fuel pump, initially planned to be a detuned Formula 1 engine and later a Jaguar V8, will now be a high-capacity electric motor. Additionally, the rocket’s emissions will consist solely of steam, oxygen, and excitement.