Despite currently being embroiled in a trademark dispute with Hyundai over the name, Nissan today revealed a trio of N-Sport special editions which will go on sale next month.

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The Nissan 370Z, Pathfinder, and X-Trail have all been given the N-Sport treatment, following the success of the limited-run N-Sport Navara released last year.

MORE 2008 Nissan 370Z review: classic MOTOR

Inspired by the “Black Gold” special edition of the Datsun 280ZX of 1980, Nissan’s 370Z N-Sport features GT-inspired exterior graphics, 18-inch alloy wheels, and gloss black side mirrors.

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Inside, Nissan has added yellow accents to the 370Z’s door trims, steering wheel, shift knob, knee pads, and dash, while black cloth seats have bespoke yellow embroidery.

A new Chicane Yellow premium paint is also available for the N-Sport Zed. Just 50 370Z N-Sports will be available in total, starting at $48,490 for the six-speed manual. That’s a $1500 discount against the vanilla 370Z manual, making the N-Sport an extra-compelling deal for sports car shoppers.

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Customers wanting something with a little more utility can opt for the X-Trail N-Sport, which should stands out from the 10,000-plus regular X-Trails which have been sold this year.

Starting under $40,000 in 2WD form, the X-Trail N-Sport starts life as an ST-L variant, before gaining 18-inch black alloy wheels, gloss black mirror caps, dark metallic front and rear bumper finishes, black side sills, a dark chrome front grille and black roof rails. Production will be limited to just 600 units.

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MORE 2017 Nissan Navara N-Sport Black Edition revealed

250 Pathfinder N-Sport models will be offered alongside the X-Trail and 370Z specials, and are fitted with 20-inch alloys, black mirror caps, black front grilles, and black roof rails.

“The Nissan N-Sport series has been popular with buyers in the past, so we have listened to a market that wants more, and offered N-Sport editions on a wider range of Nissan nameplates,” said Nissan Australia managing director, Stephen Lester.

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“The Navara N-Sport was a strong seller, we think the N-Sport treatment on 370Z, Pathfinder and X-TRAIL will also be popular.”

All Nissan N-Sport models will be on sale from August 1, and available with Diamond Black, Gun Metallic, and Ivory Pearl paint. Premium colours such as Diamond Black and Shiro White will cost an extra $550.

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N-Sport range pricing:

A NEW Audi Q3 is on the horizon and Audi has revealed a few morsels of information about its upcoming small SUV in a teaser video released overnight.

Shielded by shadows, you can see some visual details of the updated Q3 design like the reshaped headlights, sharply designed grille and light-up dash emblem. The changes in design aim to bring the new Q3 in-line with Audi’s current design language and position it as a sibling to Audi’s newly-unveiled flagship SUV, the Q8.

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Following closely behind the releases of the new Q8, A1 and TT, Audi’s showroom refresh is hitting full stride. Being a volume-selling SUV, the Q3 is arguably the most commercially important model in the German automaker’s product pipeline, and is expected to be revealed in full tomorrow, July 25.

MORE Audi Q3 review

It’s set to be built on Volkswagen’s modular MQB platform, which also serves in the Volkswagen Tiguan, Skoda Karoq and Audi Q2, not to mention the Golf.

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And the box-fresh Q3 can’t come soon enough, seeing as the now-seven-year-old small SUV is currently one of the oldest Audis currently on sale. Its core rivals such as the BMW X1 and X2, Mercedes-Benz GLA-Class and Volvo XC40 are all significantly newer too.

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It’s expected to be powered by similar engines to what powers the current line-up, namely the 1.4-litre TFSI COD, the 2.0-litre TDI diesel and 2.0-litre TFSI petrol engines. There will also be a choice of front or rear-wheel drive versions, with dual-clutch automatic transmissions across the range.

MORE BMW X2 review

Sportier variants from the Audi Sport division are expected to follow in 2019 and 2020, with the brand likely to develop another five-cylinder turbocharged RSQ3 while also introducing a more attainably-priced four-cylinder SQ3 offering beneath it.

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Stay tuned for the full worldwide release of the Q3 in the coming days.

FORGET Koenigseggs and Paganis – there’s an even faster breed of car available to purchase in Australia.

Aussie Invader III, the car that madman Rosco McGlashan once piloted to over 1000km/h, is currently for sale at Unique Cars. It’s not the first time the car has been offered for sale, with McGlashan attempting to offload the jet-powered beast in 2012 for $350,000 to help fund his current Aussie Invader 5R project.

Does the name ring a bell? It should. McGlashan is one of the titans of the land speed record community, being a prominent figure despite never having officially claimed the title.

The Aussie Invader III may be surplus to his needs, but it’s certainly not for a lack of thrust. Powered by the jet engine from a Mirage fighter jet, it can do the 0-1000km/h sprint in roughly 22 seconds.

The current seller of Aussie Invader III hasn’t listed a price for the sale, but it’s likely any potential buyers will have to come ready to pay a figure deep into six figures.

If you are wondering what it might be like to drive a vehicle with four wheels at 1000km/h, well McGlashan has some advice.

“You cannot appreciate how fast you are going,” he told Wheels earlier this year.

MORE Archive: Rosco McGlashan’s world land speed record attempt 1995

“All you can look at is these barrels which are whizzing past you at a great rate of knots. They are all numbered, and you can count the barrels as they go past. Eight… seven… six… Then the measured mile is coming up, and there are some big black lines painted on the ground to know you are on the measured mile, record your speed, and then you have to try and slow the whole thing down.

“The biggest sensation of it all is driving a car over the curvature of the earth. If you haven’t been on a salt lake, the hardest thing to describe is you are standing on the salt and looking at the horizon over the curvature of the earth. If someone is three kilometres away, you couldn’t see them.

“When you are going that quick it feels like you are looking over a hill. You really know you are moving fast. In Aussie Invader II we pulled 4G, and I lifted my bum out of the seat. I would get out of the car and my neck would be killing me, I thought ‘Geez, I have been drag racing all my life and it’s not the G, I don’t know what is going wrong’.

MORE Inside Bloodhound SSC’s 1600km/h cockpit

“Then when I looked at the onboard vision I was climbing up and pushing my head against the rollcage and just about snapping my neck because I’m trying to look over the curvature of the earth.

“If you had to go that fast on a race track you’d shit yourself with all the trees and what not whizzing past.”

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Aussie Invader III came tantalisingly close to claiming the land speed record (LSR) over two decades ago.

When McGlashan and the team arrived at Lake Gairdner in 1996, the record was held by a British chap by the name of Richard Noble at 1018km/h.

On their first run, Aussie Invader III and McGlashan recorded a peak speed of 1026km/h over the measured mile.

MORE Land Speed Record Heroes

Unfortunately, bad weather prevented a return run being completed before the hour time limit elapsed.

By 1997, the Brits had improved the record, going supersonic at 1227km/h, and moving the LSR outside McGlashan’s reach.

The West Australian is now developing a rocket-powered car in an attempt to finally achieve his lifelong goal of breaking the Land Speed Record.

There will possibly be those who don’t reckon that the Limited Edition version of the Focus RS should be here at all.

This track review was carried out in conjunction with MOTOR’s Bang For Your Bucks 2018

They will point at the BFYB rule that says a car must be substantially changed (or totally new) before it can have a second bite at the Bang cherry. They will further ague that autonomous braking and blue leather trim does not a new Focus make.

To be brutally honest, the Focus RS didn’t wow us at last year’s Bangfest as much as it probably should have. Well, speaking for myself anyway. I just came away from the Winton circuit wondering why the RS didn’t carry more corner speed. Oh sure, it was fast in a lap-time sense, but purely because it jumped out of turns so hard and accelerated like it was on fire. But actual mid-corner speed? I couldn’t find it.

But now, with the extra power-down of the clever diff and those super sticky Cup 2s, I was able to make the Focus flow so much better. Suddenly, I could tip it in, line up the apex and get back on the noise fast, just as you should be able to in an all-wheel drive hot hatch.

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Luffy’s equal-fastest lap time in the wee blue Ford backs that up; so does the RS’s average corner-speed trace that puts it up at the pointy end. And suddenly, you can make better use of that super-quick steering-rack and the way it allows you to really stick a fork in the apex rather than simply brush by it, hoping for the best.

In fact, the RS is a car that will easily cope with giving the ripple-strips a bit of an elbow now and then, too. There’s more compliance than I remember and, while that does amount to a small degree of body roll, the damping is bang on the money. And since the seats grab you so well, that bit of roll doesn’t matter quite as much.

This new level of grip and poise allows you to also further exploit the Focus’s other charms of which there are many. Primary among them, of course, is that monster engine which not only sounds grouse, but also tugs you along like only a 257kW claymore mine can.

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You still get a slight sense of disjointedness as the acceleration graph dips while you shift gears, but that’s really only because it’s such a surging animal when it boosts back up and, possibly, because we’ve all become used to seamless double-clutch transmissions.

Perhaps the only mild downside to all this new grip is that the RS is even harder to launch across 400m than ever. You need to ignore all concepts of mechanical sympathy, rev the thing to the limiter and side-step the clutch.

Fortunately, the RS feels like it would take that sort of thuggery all day long, but sometimes, even that level of brutality is insufficient to keep the engine on boost and the 60-foot times where they should be.

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Frankly, the new LE version of the Focus RS is so good that had it turned up last year in the same form, it might very well have taken home the chocolates. Problem with waiting 12 months to give us the LE is that the rest of the world hasn’t been standing still either.

MORE Bang For Your Bucks 2018

Ford Focus RS Limited Edition BFYB 2018 Results – 2nd place

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0-100km/h: 5.00sec (3rd) 0-400m: 13.34sec @ 170.49km/h (4th) Lap Time: 1:35.90sec (=1st) Price: $56,990 Bang Index: 186.7 Bucks Index: 88.1 BFYB Index: 142.4

Judges’ Comments

Warren Luff – 2nd “You can drive the Ford Focus RS LE really hard into the corner, to the point where you feel like you’ve gone in too quick, but as soon as you grab the throttle, all of the electronics makes the car turn and rotate. Yet, in some low-speed stuff I think the basic mechanical grip isn’t quite a match for some of the other cars here. Still, this thing, on the limit, is a huge amount of fun. It’s also got a great engine, that’s reasonably torquey.”

David Morley – 2nd “Stickier tyres have completed the picture”

Dylan Campbell – 2nd “Made for the track, endlessly fun, epic chassis to explore”

Scott Newman – 2nd “Fast and grippy yet supremely adjustable. So much fun”

Louis Cordony – 4th “Tyres and diff inject it with unbelievable grip levels, but its brakes eventually went soggy”

FAST FACTS 2018 FORD FOCUS RS LIMITED EDITION

BODY: 5-door, 5-seat hatch DRIVE: all-wheel ENGINE: 2261cc inline-4, DOHC, 16v, turbo BORE/STROKE: 87.4mm x 94.0mm COMPRESSION RATIO: 9.4:1 POWER: 257kW @ 6000rpm TORQUE: 440Nm @ 2000-4500rpm WEIGHT: 1575kg POWER-TO-WEIGHT: 163kW/tonne TRANSMISSION: 6-speed manual SUSPENSION: struts, coils springs, adaptive dampers (f); multi-links, coil springs, adaptive dampers, anti-roll bar (r) BRAKES: 350mm ventilated discs, 4-piston calipers (f); 350mm ventilated discs, single-piston calipers (r) WHEELS: 19.0 x 8.0-inch (f/r) TYRES: Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2; 235/35 R19 (f/r) PRICE: $56,990

Bang For Your Bucks 2018

Bang For Your Bucks 2018The Contenders, Judges & Criteria
15 of the hottest new fast cars under $100K roll up to take on our famous formula. Which will be number 1?

We all have that one friend who likes things just because they’re different. That friend probably likes Alpina, a BMW offshoot that has been adding a unique touch to Bavaria’s best for years.

So the Biturbo B4 S isn’t an M4, but it’s also not a 440i. No, it fills a niche middle ground, one that lends itself to those who revel in something that goes against the mainstream.

It’s enough to propel the eight-speed ZF-auto-equipped coupe to 100km/h in 4.2sec before topping out at 306km/h. So far, it’s all sounding very M4-esque.

While there’s no doubting the fact it is fast, the reality is it never feels as quick as all the numbers suggest. Still, 660Nm makes it a torque monster and the N55 does its best work in the swelling mid-range.

MORE E90 M3 v F82 M4

The specifically tuned auto is happy to oblige and allow you to ride the wave between 3000-4500rpm in higher gears. It sounds good, too, with a meaty overrun filled with purposeful burbles. However, that’s from the outside only. A chirp from the blow-off valve is about the only acoustic excitement you hear from within the cabin.

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Dynamically there’s a more mature persona at play here. The M4 is a hungry grizzly, while the Alpina is the (somewhat) cuddly bear. Fitted with adaptive dampers (and scrapping run-flat tyres), the B4 S has real compliance to its ride quality at speed – especially in Comfort mode. It only becomes fussy in CBD driving thanks to the 30-profile Michelin Pilot Sport 4 S boots wrapping 20-inch ‘classic’ wheels.

The Michelin rubber offers ample grip in all conditions and the standard-fit LSD aids getting all that torque to the ground – no single peggers here.

The wheels, pin striping, dash-mounted production plaque and the blue and green stitching binding the leather-wrapped steering wheel are all traditional styling cues of the BMW tuner. Although sadly the tiller isn’t an M Sport item and Alpina has added vexing shift buttons for manual mode.

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Buttery soft, cream cow hide covers just about every surface – as does love-it-or-hate-it woodgrain – and the overall ambience is upmarket. The B4 S also utilises some of the LCI updates for the iDrive infotainment from the 4 Series.

MORE MOTOR reviews

Ultimately the Alpina B4 S offers a luxe experience, entertaining dynamics and a ride quality its M counterpart could only dream of. The trouble is, for $10K less you can buy an M4 Pure, which is a more competent and exciting performance coupe – if not a little more mainstream.

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2018 ALPINA B4 S SPECS: Engine: 2979cc inline 6, DOHC, 24v, twin-turbo Power: 324kW @ 5500-6250rpm Torque: 660Nm @ 3000-4500rpm 0-100km/h: 4.2sec (claimed) Weight: 1690kg Price: $149,900

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

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Ordinarily, shipping us a BFYB car with a conventional manual gearbox when the thing is also offered with a sharp-shifting DSG would be a hiding to nowhere. But maybe not this time, in the case of the VW Golf R Grid.

This track review was carried out in conjunction with MOTOR’s Bang For Your Bucks 2018

See, what the conventional six-speed manual lacks in shift-speed, it almost certainly makes up for in entertainment value, and there wasn’t a judge here who wasn’t glad to see a Golf R with three pedals.

As it turned out the Grid’s 0-100 time wasn’t too badly distorted by having to operate a clutch and 5.6 seconds is a good result. Even better was the 400m time of 13.6 which, if you ignore the time of the ballistic Audi, is right up there at the pointy end. Okay, so that’s all-wheel drive for you, even if the corner speed average at Winton was a bit less impressive.

What’s going on? Hard to know, because the Grid deal is really just a smaller infotainment screen and a delete of the leather seats. It’s still got the same 213kW tune of the other Golf R, but for some reason, this particular car felt like it had a driveline that was simply a better match for its chassis.

Yes, the 2.0-litre turbo-mill has always been a cracker, but now it just seems even fatter and it’s never in any danger of quitting on you.

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Again, yes, the Focus feels fitter (and it is) but you’d never call the Golf R a slacker. And with the manual gearbox with which to keep flogging it along, it’s about as much fun as a Golf has ever been.

MORE Golf R v Focus RS v WRX STI

Golf R v Focus RS v WRX STI

And that’s the key, really – the Grid is bulk fun. Even if it’s not going to stay with the Focus (and it won’t, based purely on the numbers for which BFYB is so rightly infamous) it will still be making you laugh lap after lap. Need proof? Okay, so the Nissan 370Z and the Peugeot 308 were both faster around Winton. In fact, almost 3.0sec and 1.5sec faster respectively. But neither of those car was anywhere near as much thigh-slapping fun as the Golf R.

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In fact, both the Nissan and the Pug only outgunned the Grid on the basis of superior stomp and when nobody’s grizzling about the Golf’s urge in the first place, can it not be said that enough is enough? Especially if it means more smiles-per-hour anyway?

In the end, it comes down to the way the car interfaces with you rather than simply its clinical abilities. The Golf has beautifully weighted steering, for instance, with enough feel to remind you that, really, nobody does electric power-steer as well as the VAG. The Grid sounds good, the seats are lovely and there’s just enough tail-out action – if you’re game – to keep you entertained without getting you in too deep.

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Fact is, we’ve often driven Golf Rs and GTIs back-to-back and wondered out loud if maybe the purity of the GTI’s execution would get it over the line against its big bro. But this time, even though it was predictably grippier than the GTI, the Grid in R spec just seems like a double helping of that concept.

Balance is a word used a lot at times like these, but often it’s to paper over a shortfall in some area or other. But in the case of the Golf R Grid, ‘balance’ is still entirely appropriate, yet it doesn’t infer the same apology. Not a bit.

MORE Bang For Your Bucks 2018

Volkswagen Golf R Grid Edition BFYB 2018 Results – 3rd place

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0-100km/h: 5.61sec (6th) 0-400m: 13.62sec @ 170.31km/h (6th) Lap Time: 1:39.80sec (7th) Price: $47,490 Bang Index: 152.0 Bucks Index: 105.8 BFYB Index: 131.2

Judges’ Comments

Warren Luff – 5th “The R Grid Edition takes the fundamentals that make the GTI so great and simply adds to it again. It’s got all the things you want to have on your wish list in one car. You can definitely feel the difference with the adaptive dampers as you can trail brake and get a bit of looseness in the rear. VW has given it back a bit of liveliness and character that it always had. You’ve got to be smooth to get the most out of it, but it’s a 10 out of 10 for fun factor.”

David Morley – 3rd “Manual gearbox returns to hero’s welcome”

Dylan Campbell – 5th “The best ‘car’ here. What is the Golf R not good at?”

Scott Newman – 3rd “Most don’t realise just how good this car is. Shame on them”

Louis Cordony – 5th “Amazing all-rounder, but can’t help wanting its oily bits under a lighter three-door bodyshell”

FAST FACTS 2018 VOLKSWAGEN GOLF R GRID EDITION

BODY: 5-door, 5-seat hatch DRIVE: all-wheel ENGINE: 1984cc inline-4, DOHC, 16v, turbo BORE/STROKE: 82.5mm x 92.8mm COMPRESSION RATIO: 9.6:1 POWER: 213kW @ 6000rpm TORQUE: 380Nm @ 1850-5300rpm WEIGHT: 1429kg POWER-TO-WEIGHT: 149kW/tonne TRANSMISSION: 6-speed manual SUSPENSION: struts, coil springs, adaptive dampers, anti-roll bar (f); A-arms, coil springs, adaptive dampers, anti-roll bar (r) BRAKES: 340mm ventilated discs, single-piston calipers (f); 310mm ventilated discs, single-piston calipers (r) WHEELS: 19.0 x 8.0-inch (f/r) TYRES: Pirelli P Zero; 235/35 R19 (f/r) PRICE: $47,490

Bang For Your Bucks 2018

Bang For Your Bucks 2018The Contenders, Judges & Criteria
15 of the hottest new fast cars under $100K roll up to take on our famous formula. Which will be number 1?

LAMBORGHINI has finally confirmed one of its worst-kept secrets, taking to social media to partially reveal the much-spied and discussed Aventador SVJ. Short for Super Veloce Jota, the SVJ badge has been around since the Lamborghini Miura, though its usage has since been very limited.

It’s back in fashion though, and the Raging Bull has set blood racing by teasing the heavily camouflaged SVJ in a brief video shot at Germany’s famed Nürburgring. But, while the 28-second clip confirms the halo car’s existence and name, the caption at the end of the video: “Lamborghini Aventador SVJ meets the legendary Nürburgring Nordschleife”, has splashed fuel on reports that the ‘roided-up Aventador has already claimed the title of ‘fastest road car’ at the fearsome German circuit.

It’s no small boast: to achieve that feat, the Aventador SVJ would have to have bettered the stunning 6:47.25 lap record set by the Porsche 911 GT2 RS last September. However if true, it would return the crown to Sant’Agata Bolognese given the Nordschleife production-car lap record was previously held by the Huracán Performante, with a time of 6:52.01 set in October 2016.

Lamborghini Aventador SVJ
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Whether it has reclaimed the record from Porsche will soon be revealed along with the SVJ’s performance stats. If online scuttlebutt is to be believed, those metrics may see the Aventador S’s 544kW/690Nm 6.5-litre V12 swell its muscles to a hefty 600kW.

Not so subject to speculation is the SVJ’s aero package. Clearly visible through the camo are a huge rear wing, deep front splitter and a re-worked rear diffuser to create the additional downforce required to help keep the twelve-pot monster firmly adhered to the Green Hell’s blacktop.

It began with the FIA ‘Appendix J’ regulations for racecars, which came into play in 1965, leading Lamborghini to build a Miura called the ‘Jota’ – the Spanish pronunciation for the letter J – in 1970 to fit within these rules.

Since then, only the Diablo, and now Aventador, have featured a very limited edition Jota.

One of the most exciting rally cars to compete this year has been Ken Block’s Ford Escort Cosworth.

Block and co-driver Alex Gelsomino have been using the iconic Blue Oval WRC machine to compete in this year’s American Rally Association championship.

Their fight against newer machinery such as the Unlimited Class Subaru WRX STI of David Higgins has tragically been cut short with an accident and subsequent fire destroying Block’s Escort ‘Cossie’ during the weekend’s New England Forest Rally.

The crew was lucky to escape uninjured as the speed with which the fire takes hold is terrifying. Gelsomino, husband to Aussie co-driver Rhianon Gelsomino, sister of Brendan Reeves, was kind enough to share the story of the accident with MOTOR.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Blf8XgmhbSb/

“We were having a solid day, running third overall even though we had a gearbox issue,” said Gelsomino. “If you watch the video, you can see the engine oddly redline right before we hit the rock.” It’s this rock on the inside of the corner that flips the Escort over.

“KB was expecting the car to run wider (the normal drift line of a 4WD rally car on a corner like that), but when the gearbox finally downshifted, it didn’t engage. We aren’t sure if it was just an engagement issue or if something broke.

MORE Ken Block Terrakhana

“Either way, it meant we had no drive and the car ended up on the very inside of the corner, catching the rock with the front left that threw us into a roll. Once we landed the flames started immediately. We suspect a fuel or oil line may have ruptured and with turbo temperatures in excess of 800C, whatever fluid spread under the bonnet ignited and the rest is history.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BlgtETvhIrl/

“We dumped four fire extinguishers on the fire, including a large industrial one, but the flames didn’t even budge. By the time the fire truck arrived, there wasn’t much left of it. [It’s a] very helpless feeling to see the car burning to the ground without being able to do anything to save it.”

MORE Block’s ‘Cossie V2’ revealed

Sadly, virtually nothing can be salvaged from the wreck, but Ken has vowed to build another Escort Cosworth, a car he dubbed “one of my favourite race cars”.

Ford’s all-new Focus hatch and wagons will go on sale in Australia from November, with the hatch available across three model grades.

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For the first time, Ford will offer a Focus ST-Line in Australia, for customers wanting a sportier look without the more focussed dynamics.

MORE 2019 Ford Focus: 10 things you need to know

Built on the new ‘C2’ platform, Ford claims the new Focus has a 20 percent increase in torsional rigidity compared to the previous generation for improved ride and handling.

Filling out the local line-up is the entry-level Trend hatch, ST-Line hatch and wagon, and flagship Titanium hatch.

The Focus Trend hatch will roll on 16-inch alloy wheels, while inside the cabin Ford’s SYNC 3 infotainment system is operated through a full-colour eight-inch touchscreen.

The ST-Line replaces the old Sport variant and is the only model grade to feature hatch and wagon versions. It’s distinguishable from Trend and Titanium thanks to its athletic styling which includes a honeycomb grill, side skirts, and a rear bumper which is capped with a chrome finished twin-exhausts. Adding more visual spice is an integrated boot-lid spoiler and 17-inch alloy wheels, while dynamics are more focused with a unique sports suspension tune.

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Inside, drivers are treated to a flat-bottom sports steering wheel, with red stitching throughout the cabin.

MORE 2018 Ford Focus ST: Hot Hatch Megatest 7th

At the top of the Focus family will be the Titanium, which is distinguished by unique front grille and body styling with 18-inch alloy wheels.

The Titanium is fitted with Ford’s new LED lighting pack, with illuminates more of the road with a broader beam of light, and has projector headlights capable of glare-free high beam, speed sensitive light modes, sign-based light modes, and camera-based dynamic bending.

In addition to the standard safety features, the Titanium gains rear cross traffic alert, adaptive cruise control, evasive steer assist, and lane centring.

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Inside the cabin, the Titanium adds leather upholstery, and a 675-watt 10-speaker Bang & Olufsen audio system.

Autonomous emergency braking is standard on all Focus variants, along with night-time pedestrian detection and cyclist detection, lane departure warning, and lane keep assist.

Post-impact braking is also included in the safety suite, which is designed to apply the brakes after a collision to reduce the risk of the vehicle rolling into another car and causing a second incident.

MORE 2017 Ford Focus Review

Each Focus variant will be sourced from Germany and will all be powered by the new 134kW/240Nm 1.5-litre three-cylinder turbocharged petrol engine.

The low-capacity engine will be paired with a new eight-speed automatic gearbox, which should placate buyers who are nervous following the ongoing PowerShift scandal which has plagued the current-generation Focus and Fiesta.

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Ford will offer Focus buyers in Australia a five-year, unlimited kilometre warranty as standard.