Debuting at this year’s SEMA Show, Superformance’s ‘Future GT Forty’ is a mix of old and new.
With the style of a GT40 – California-based Superformance is a classic car replica company – and the running gear from a modern Ford GT, the Future GT Forty is a tribute to the Ford GT40’s victory at Le Mans 50 years ago.
2019 Ford GT scores Gulf livery
In addition, the livery of the current Ford GT endurance racer acts as a nod to the success of the modern version in recent years.
The 3.5-litre twin-turbo V6 powering the Future GT Forty is race-prepped, and most parts of the steel monocoque chassis can be swapped for parts from an original GT40.
The car was completed thanks to input from several different aftermarket and performance brands, says Superformance, which coordinated the vast majority of the project.
“The engine installation work was handled by the experts at V’s Performance in Orange, California,” Superformance says.
“A handmade and state of the art exhaust system was fabricated by the experts at Magnaflow and the twin turbochargers were provided by Honeywell-Garrett.
“HRE Wheels supplied the custom pin drive wheels which are wrapped in Michelin tires. Fuel supply was provided by Aeromotive and HPS supplied the hoses for the vehicle.
“Other parts include a Centerforce clutch, Ridetech Shockwave air suspension, Dynamat sound insulation, a custom Stitchcraft interior, DEI heat insulation, Speed Hut Custom gauges, and a Quaife 5-speed transaxle.
“In addition to supplying the MkI rolling chassis, Superformance and Hillbank Motorsports also painted the current Ford GT livery, added the racing decals, and fitted it with modern lighting front and rear.”
THERE’S an American invader on our streets, and a new issue of Wheels on newsstands this month.
The November issue of Wheels goes on sale today, and our resident good ‘ol boy Ash Westerman has put HSV’s converted Chevrolet Camaro to the test on local roads for the definitive Aussie verdict.
Before Westerman was cut loose in the rear-drive V8 coupe, Deputy Editor Andy Enright was given an exclusive look inside HSV’s Clayton facility to witness firsthand the process of re-engineering the Camaro to suit Australians. Spoiler alert: there’s a lot to it.
Ryan Lewis has also been playing with a rear-drive coupe, though this time it’s missing two cylinders but gained a turbocharger. Yup, it’s the reborn Toyota Supra, and Lewis was lucky enough to get behind the wheel of a pre-production prototype on both road and track.
Ben Oliver filled his grill with bugs on the Isle of Man in the gun slinging BAC Mono. Don’t like sharing? This single seat wonder is the car for you.
If you are in the market for a mid-size SUV our team of experts have been out on the road with a four car comparison, pitting the Mazda CX-5 against the fresh fifth-gen Subaru Forester, sporty Ford Escape ST-Line, and former COTY finalist the Volkswagen Tiguan.
Our resident motorsport fanatic Cameron Kirby was handed an access all areas pass at this year’s Sandown 500. Instead of sneaking his way into Craig Lowndes’ trailer, he shadowed Craig Baird, the man put in charge of keeping the rowdiest touring car drivers on the planet in check.
All the news from the 2018 Paris Auto Show
Enright and Lewis were our boots on the ground at the Paris Motor Show, and the dynamic duo returned with luggage filled with pastries, and notebooks brimming with the hottest news. We’ve got classic BMW racing at Laguna Seca, Holden’s pivotal Acadia SUV under the microscope and the intriguing story of sabotage and other shenanigans on the London-to-Sydney road race.
While regular readers need to look for the bright red Camaro on newsstands, subscribers will enjoy the return of special covers landing in the mail box.
All that, plus our usual selection of in-depth first drives, opinion, long-term test reports, and all the facts and figures that matter in Showroom.
The issue is available now at your local newsagent, or online at Magshop.com.au.
A touring car racing-inspired Volkswagen Golf R with 400kW has been unveiled by VW and Audi aftermarket specialists at the SEMA Show.
Called the APR Golf RLMS, it takes a 2018 VW Golf R and bestows upon it APR’s stage 3 engine upgrade and extensive body and chassis modifications.
VW testing a five-cylinder Golf R
APR says more than 18 months of development has resulted in “a system capable of 10-second quarter mile passes and 0-140 mph sprints 15 seconds quicker than a stock Golf R.”
A twin-scroll Borg Warner turbo replaces the original, though the standard motor remains with upgraded injectors, fuel pump, a carbon intake system, new intercooler, and an ECU upgrade.
Styled after the VW Golf TCR racer, the RLMS features a prominent adjustable rear wing, APR’s ‘Roll-Control’ racing coil-overs and stabilizer bars, as well as a custom APR exhaust, and two-piece APR wheels.
Inside, a roll cage, harnesses, and a fire extinguisher system keep those in the bucket seats safe.
President of APR Mitch Williams says the 400kW RLMS was created to dominate on the track as a culmination of APR’s motorsport history and experience.
“APR’s extensive racing history has helped us to develop the Golf RLMS,” says Williams.
“We wanted to create a Stage 3 track car that can dominate circuits around the country. With 536 horsepower and all-wheel drive, we can’t wait to turn some laps.”
Dozens of licenced APR dealers are located on the NSW coast, in Melbourne, and South-East Queensland, with Hobart, Canberra, and Adelaide also having a dealer each.
Regardless, we’d be surprised if a car of this specification was able to be made road-legal in Australia.
The Chevrolet COPO Camaro is one of GM’s most recognisable super-muscle cars, built to beat the rest when it showed up to the dragstrip.
It’s been 50 years since the original was created, so Chevrolet has honoured its legacy with a new version – though COPOs have been brought back and built in limited runs throughout the last half-century.
The 2019 version features styling intended to mimic the original, with a run of only 69 of the drag cars also a reference to the original COPO’s limited availability.
For this version, a ‘50th Anniversary Engine Appearance Package’ is available to be installed on the LSX-based 7.0-litre race engine, which “emulates the look of vintage Chevy performance engines.”
Also available to run the COPO Camaro for 2019 is a 5.7-litre LSX-based engine, with a 2.65-litre Magnuson supercharger, or a 4.9-litre (302ci) small block.
Electric eCOPO Camaro revealed at SEMA
“Chevrolet is proud to celebrate 50 years of the COPO Camaro legacy,” says Chevrolet VP of performance and motorsports Jim Campbell.
“It’s one of the most enduring legacies in drag racing, with a powerful past and fast future.”
Chevrolet’s official history of the COPO has the story starting with Illinois-based Chevrolet dealer Fred Gibb using GM’s Central Office Production Order (COPO) system to order ZL1 427 engines for Camaros rather than using the system for ordering “special paint or truck equipment” as it usually was.
The engine was lighter and more powerful than the Camaro’s normal big block, so it became a popular choice for drag racing… but 50 examples had to be sold for it to be NHRA-eligible.
“Gibb ordered them, but knew he’d have a hard time selling the pricey muscle cars, which were essentially twice the cost of a standard Camaro. He sold 13 and the remaining 37 were redistributed to other dealers,” Chevrolet says.
“In the meantime, more dealers found out about the ultimate performance COPO Camaro models and ordered their own. When the clutch dust settled, 69 COPO Camaro models with the ZL1 engine were built.”
Toyota is pressing ahead with its plans to introduce five new hybrid models in Australia during the next two-and-a-half years.
Toyota Australia’s decision to expand its petrol-electric range was cemented by stronger-than-expected buyer demand for hybrid versions of the latest Japanese-built Camry. The petrol-electric hybrid accounts for almost half of the popular mid-sized sedan’s sales, which have topped 12,000 so far this year.
The five new hybrids – including a variant of the all-new RAV4 medium SUV due during the first half of 2019 – will join Camry and electrified versions of the Corolla, Prius and Prius C light hatch.
Toyota is yet to confirm what the other four models will be, but they’re likely to include C-HR and Kluger variants.
The affordable hybrid space is currently ruled by Toyota and luxury sibling Lexus, with the majority of the 300-odd hybrids sold a month currently sold by the two. However, Hyundai is set to enter the hybrid space with the Ioniq small car, while more petrol-electric hybrids are set to contest the space going forward.
Toyota Australia’s Vice President, National Sales and Marketing, Sean Hanley, said the recent spike in petrol prices has also influenced the company’s forward planning in respect to hybrids.
“No matter what happens with petrol prices, Toyota offers motorists a way to save on their fuel bill,” Hanley said.
“The hybrid system in the latest generation Camry, for instance, offers more power than the four-cylinder petrol version, yet consumes half the amount of fuel at just 4.5 litres/100km.
“As a result, owners travelling an annual average of 15,000km could save up to $900 a year at the pump, based on the current national average retail petrol price of $1.59 a litre.”
Hanley said as well as its emphasis on providing more efficient vehicles, Toyota was continuing to refine and develop its hybrid technology to offer great performance, pointing out its hybrid-powered TS050 race car that won this year’s gruelling Le Mans 24 Hours.
Since the Prius was first launched in Japan in 1997, Toyota has sold more than 12 million hybrid vehicles globally.
The fourth-generation Jeep Grand Cherokee has been a mainstay of the brand since its launch in 2011 – and it’ll have to keep up the good fight for another couple of years yet.
The large five-seat SUV – which competes in the same space as the Toyota Kluger , Mazda CX-8 and CX-9, Ford Everest the new Holden Acadia and many more – has been slated for retirement May 2021, according to powertrain sourcing documents in the US.
Jeep has already published a succession plan, though, with a traditional five-seat Grand Cherokee to be joined by a yet-unnamed seven-seat variant.
As well, a larger, more luxurious 4×4 range, to be known as the Wagoneer and Grand Wagoneer, is slated to sit above (and be based on) the Grand Cherokee.
All will offer Jeep’s newly developed plug-in hybrid powertrains across various powerplants, including a 2.0-litre four-cylinder turbo petrol, a six-cylinder Pentastar petrol and a petrol V8.
It’s likely that the next Grand Cherokee will see the debut of a new platform that will also underpin other Jeep products, including the 2022 Cherokee.
The current Grand Cherokee architecture can be traced all the way back to the Mercedes-Benz ML-Class of 2006, when Merc’s parent company Daimler owned Jeep’s overlord Chrysler.
While larger SUVs generally have longer shelf lives than passenger cars, the only car that’s older in the category is the Mitsubishi Pajero, which launched in its current guise all the way back in 2006.
The Grand Cherokee was once one of Fiat Chrysler Australia’s hottest properties, but sales have steadily slid 40 per cent down wards year on year from 2015, despite the addition of new models.
These have included the off-road focused Trailhawk, which was launched in 2016, and the fearsome 527kW Trackhawk – which is actually the third most powerful car on sale in Australia today, behind Lamborghini’s V12-powered Aventador and McLaren 720S.
Any wagon with a three-pointed star on the nose, an AMG badge on the bum and 350kW under the bonnet has gotta be a thug in a Hugo Boss dinner suit, right? You’re damned right it has. The sedan version of the E55 AMG didn’t crack the top six at PCOTY 2003 based on its subtle good looks.
This review was originally published in MOTOR’s December 2004 issue
So how does the Estate go? Like the proverbial off a shiny shovel, once the five-speed auto gearbox had rubbed its eyes and got out of bed, that is. It was a pretty exciting ride, and the legal limit arrived in a wristwatch-timed 5.6 seconds using a foot-off-the-throttle start instead of the balls out left foot on brake and right foot loading the torque convertor technique we use when performance testing cars.
And the pace is accompanied by a sensational note from the supercharged V8. Certainly, it’s not as nape-prickling as the thunder-deep rumble heard from an SL55 (which has a shorter exhaust system), but it’s also not what you expect from a subtle family wagon.
But then there’s nothing subtle about a station wagon packing a 5.4-litre huffer-enhanced bent-eight, with 700Nm of torque available between 2650-4500rpm, which can rocket from 0-100km/h in (a claimed) 4.8 seconds. But more than any performance boast, it’s the sheer elastic urge of that colossal engine that defines the E55 AMG Estate. Hit the throttle and the boost swells almost instantly, flinging you down the road towards the horizon.
There weren’t a lot of hard cornering opportunities on our route but a hairpin signposted at 40km/h was no drama at double that speed. A bit of tyre squeal in protest, that’s all.
Like most Mercs, the E55’s steering is a bit too light and not that sharp. The rack is reasonably slow and there’s a surprising amount of kickback through the wheel over anything but racetrack-smooth roads – which don’t exist in Australia. These are all complaints that kept the E55 AMG sedan from finishing further up the order at PCOTY 2003 and also made themselves known on the SL55 AMG roadster at the same event.
The biggest difference between the three adjustable suspension settings seemed to be a slightly rougher ride on the stiffest setting, along with the expected reduction in bodyroll and pitch.
The brakes – 360mm cross-drilled rotors squeezed by eight-piston calipers up front – do a fine job of countering the tremendous urge of the V8 and crushing 1990kg weight. But over bumpy roads, the E55 will squirm about nervously during a panic stop.
So, no real surprises about how the E55 went. Strip away the fancy AMG gear, though, and there’s an E-Class underneath. A typical Benz: oozing with snob value, put together like a Swiss watch, and with more features than an art-house movie company.
Two that tickled my fancy were the speed limiter, which took the worry out of speed cameras around town, and the cruise control, which downshifted when travelling downhill to make the most of its awesome engine braking.
The AMG-tweaked E55 and I would have got along just fine if only a handful of annoying irritations hadn’t spoiled the fun. Mostly silly little things, like a foot-operated park brake that barked my left shin when I used the footrest. And a very user-unfriendly sat nav. And a cheap-sounding stereo system that took three button-pushes to change from AM to FM. And an in-dash info display that had me punching the steering wheel scroll buttons from Tulla to Tarcutta trying to work out how to zero the tripmeter (it’s just a manual twist-stalk).
Nit-picking aside, is the E55 AMG Estate worth $230k-plus? That kind of money buys some seriously talented sports cars, so maybe not. But if you need to move four or five people and their gear in fast luxury, the mega Merc is hard to beat. At least until BMW builds its much-mooted first M5 Estate…
FAST FACTS Engine: 5.4-litre supercharged V8, SOHC, 24-valve Power: 350kW Weight: 1990kg Drive: rear-wheel Price: $231,600
Rumours suggest Ford is bringing a four-door Mustang to the market.
In fact, the rumours have become so wide-spread that a render by digital mod-wiz X-Tomi has been dug up from last year. Plenty seem to think this is roughly what the four-door pony will resemble.
Of course, sceptics will note that Ford has just all but killed its range of cars in the US, leaving the Mustang and Focus as the sole non-commercial, SUV, or utility vehicles set to live on. Why bring a sedan to the market after removing sedans from future plans?
There’s plenty about these rumours to be wary of, particularly the claim that it’s Ford’s intention to take the fight to the Porsche Panamera.
So, where did these rumours take hold? According to Mustang forum mustang6g.com, it was the same dealer conference that was the setting for the leak of the next Ford Mustang Shelby GT500.
The forum post also says dealers were told the Mustang will (not could, or might) come with a turbocharged V8.
That part might hold some credence if expectations for the next ‘Mach 1’ (though Ford announced it won’t be reviving the iconic badge) are to hold true.
It’s expected the crossover will arrive as a hybrid crossover, inspired (rather than based) on the Mach 1 of old. Its thought this crossover will be built on the same platform as the Ford.
If it does arrive with a turbocharged hybrid V8 powertrain, its ability to take the fight to the Panamera will be under plenty of scrutiny.
More potential fuel for the rumour fire is the ad from Ford, featuring Breaking Bad alumnus Bryan Cranston, which appears to tease a future mustang, with a very ‘electric blue’ vibe.
Obviously you shouldn’t believe everything you see on the internet, which is why there will be plenty of surprise in the MOTOR office if Ford does soon announce a turbocharged, hybrid V8-powered four-door Panamera rival.
MOTOR contacted Ford Australia for comment, and product communications manager Damion Smy said Ford has “no announcements on a four-door model for Australia.”
“Mustang is a product that we know MOTOR readers resonate with, which we’ve seen with the 2018 model and its significant upgrades, the Mustang GT4 that we showcased at Bathurst, and of course the first Mustang Bullitt to go on sale in Australia.
“We have no announcements on a four-door model for Australia, as we focus on 2019 when the Mustang makes its debut in Supercars at the Adelaide 500 in March.”
KIA is attempting to woo American constabularies towards a potential US police car by exhibiting the Queensland Highway Patrol Stinger to SEMA in Las Vegas.
As part of a big showing at SEMA, which includes customised Tellurides, a widebody K900, a DUB-fettled Stinger on air suspension and a drift-spec Cerato, Kia brought along its pursuit-ready Stinger wearing Queensland Highway Patrol graphics.
Kia North America flew the car over intent on showing off the twin-turbo V6 sedan to prospective police departments of the United States, who have traditionally used American cars, much like our local police forces did until manufacturing ended last year.
Queensland Police has so far ordered 50 Stingers to replace both Holden Commodore and Ford Falcon pursuit cars, with more to follow in 2019.
Unlike the local, previously employed police cars, the imported police-spec Kia Stinger is almost unchanged from the everyday version, save for a special wiring loom for police electronics.
That means a twin-turbocharged V6 which produces 272kW and 510Nm of torque, with the same factory brakes and suspension tune.
After the selection process, Assistant Queensland Police Service Commissioner Mike Keating said “The Stinger performed very well in all areas and we had nothing but top reports from all the field officers.
“The result is a road-policing first for us, the first foreign car to perform these duties.”
Western Australia also has its eyes on the Stinger for police duties with a similar number on order, while New South Wales and Victoria have opted to go with the BMW 530d and Chrysler 300 SRT.
Kia hopes to catch the attention of other states that haven’t made up their minds as yet like Northern Territory and South Australia, who are currently considering a number of options including the ZB Holden Commodore.
Whether or not the Stinger ends up patrolling wider Australia, Kia sees a big opening in America’s huge police fleet – which will also need to migrate from the Australian-made Caprice soon.
It’s rare that a carmaker will offer to perform a significant infotainment retrofit to cars that rolled out of dealerships years ago, but Mazda Australia has announced that all vehicles equipped with its MZD Connect infotainment system are now eligible for a smartphone mirroring upgrade.
That means owners can now plug their Apple or Android smartphone into their car via USB and enjoy a range of internet-enhanced features, like audio streaming, voice searches and high-featured sat-nav mapping with live traffic updates – as well as the usual hands-free phone functions.
It’s not free though – if you want to unlock the capability, you’ll need to visit a Mazda dealer with $495 to get it fitted. On the plus side, given the retrofit can be applied to vehicles as old as a 2014 Mazda 3 or Mazda 2, it’s an easy way of giving an older car a new lease on life.
Of course, your vehicle needs the MZD Connect infotainment hardware to enable the upgrade. Essentially, if your Mazda has a touchscreen display on the dashboard along with a remote control dial on the centre console, it’s eligible.
Compared to putting your phone in a cradle and operating it from there, smartphone mirroring tech is easier to use thanks to proper integration with the steering wheel buttons and its ability to display maps via the much larger dash-mounted touchscreen. It’s safer too, helping keep driver distraction at bay by limiting the need to actually interact with the phone itself and by making many commands – such as entering a navigation destination – voice-activated.
The BT-50 and the recent update of the CX-9 were the first Mazda vehicles to feature CarPlay and Android Auto integration from factory, and all new Mazdas sold with the MZD Connect system from this point forward will come with smartphone mirroring as standard.
