For those who have come in late, the biggest, baddest and wettest perpetuation of MOTOR folklore kicked off last issue with a shootout between an 18-strong affordable army of under-$75K contenders.
Of a total 30 contestants, they comprise a whopping 60 percent of the entire Castrol Edge Hot Tuner Shootout 2010 contingent.
And for good reason, too; the wallet-friendly end of motoring makes up a huge chunk Australia’s, and the world’s, tuning business. There’s an ocean of tuning options for the sea of sub-$75K makes and models on the market.
Upwards of $75K, the tuning game becomes more rarefied and exclusive. We’ve capped the group here below the $150K-plus hypercar stratosphere, but it’s still big-dollar material. And with that comes certain customer expectations.
There are seven $75K-$150K competitors but just five different model variants, given a trio of quite unique C63 AMGs. By weight of numbers, they prove the most popular tuned car in the field.
But, boy, could you possibly find more variety across just five cars? One Aussie, a lone Yank, a single Brit and a pair of German offerings. Even at the lower end of the $75K-$150K price scale, you couldn’t find two more polar opposites than the hefty 6.2-litre blown-V8 HSV GTS and the screaming 1.8-litre, huffered, four-banging featherweight Lotus Elise 111R presented here.
Despite also sharing 6.2-litre V8 engine capacity and pricetag, with both just scraping under the $150K ceiling, could you find two more different muscle cars than the AMGs and Chev’s Camaro? But the real attention-grabber of the field is the extraordinary Harding Performance Cayman S.
Add the neat GT3-style bobtail and nosecone, a full roll-cage and one-piece Recaro race seats and it looks ready to grid up for a Le Mans enduro – and to monster the Eastern Creek circuit’s curves.
First up, though, is the strip. And using of one of TPC’s 550HP (410kW) Stage 2 Turbo Kits to do the hard grunt work. That’s roughly 180 percent of a stock Cayman S’s horsepower! Mods cost: $40K.
By the second run, Morley wrings a 12.28sec pass at 199.7km/h, but clearly the wheel-spinning Cayman isn’t a happy camper. Our Dave, though, reserves his plaudits not for the time, but for its engine’s delivery. “This engine feels so linear,” he says, “that it doesn’t even feel turbocharged.”
“Dave’s the only bloke in Australia to have ever broken that particular component,” laughs the ever-jovial Guy Harding. A mercy dash to Newcastle results in “the wrong part” and, ruefully, Australia’s most wildly modded Cayman spends the remainder of the event parked. It’s Hot Tuner’s only DNF. Meanwhile, the HP crew turns attention to its pair of sub-$75K Golfs.
Crossover Car Conversions’ Camaro marks a huge contrast. It has no more go, grip nor stop than GM intended, yet it does have, engineering -wise at least, perhaps the most extreme fettling a normal car gets: a ‘mirror-image’, OE-quality, left-to-right-hook conversion. Cost is $35K. Complete turnkey ‘Transformer Pack’ Camaro SS: $148K.
“It drives just like a Commodore,” says Paul Morris, in a good way. “It’s more driveable than the Walkinshaw GTS,” which, incidentally, pulled a group-smashing 367.8kW at tyres on the Dyno Dynamics rollers, compared with Camaro’s mere 203.8kW, which was the lowest of the group.
The Camaro pulls a stunning third-quickest lap time (2:11.7), a full 2.7sec quicker than the WP GTS. And its 51.8sec motorkhana time is also a bronze medal effort, just 0.7sec off winning pace.
“You just give it full throttle and let it run,” Morris summarises about the Chev’s circuit prowess. “It just gets on with the job.” And in ways Simply Sports Cars’ Elise can’t.
But so many of its $35K enhancements (on an $85K Lotus 111R baseline) simply don’t function in monsoonal conditions. It’s built to rev to over 8000rpm, yet its dry Kumho R-specs cry freedom above five grand on The Creek’s soggy tarmac. The result? A ho-hum 2:08.6 lap.
But Morris makes no bones about the Lotus’s huge potential: “A lot of fun! One of the best cars I’ve driven. In the dry, nothing would touch it.”
What SSC’s mods add to the Lotus is a really hard-core motorsport vibe. Forearm burning steering, snickety-tight, rose-jointed shift action, bigger track-focused Lotus brakes and a banshee-wailing exhaust shriek that could cut concrete.
At the other end of the scale – both literally and figuratively – is the Walkinshaw Performance ‘E2 Supercar’. But the full-fruit, luxo-headbanger’s all-round performance prove that getting caught out with a good car in poor conditions isn’t exclusive to SSC’s Lotus. Or anyone else.
This beast has changed very little since gracing MOTOR’s cover in March. It has the same WP190 four-lobe (Eaton) supercharger with 0.56bar of boost, water-to-air intercooling, ECU retune, LS7 camshaft, big, stepped headers and fat dual-3.0-inch bi-modal exhaust. It’s yours for $33K, which includes slick 19s loaded with Michelin Pilot Sport Cups – an awesome tyre in the dry but noticeably handicapped for grip when faced with standing water, as all cars fitted with Cups find.
Morley wrings a 4.84sec for 0-100 and 12.78 for the standing 400, respectively 0.6 and 0.3 slower than the car ran in the March issue. Point the finger wherever you wish, but Blind Freddy could see that all the horsepower in the universe is still going to stumble over a hurdle of nearly 1.9 tonnes of mass, particularly when channelled through only two wheels. And 12.8sec is bloody handy for such a heavy road car.
The R-spec rubber and wet conditions simply make mass management that much trickier. The WP GTS struggles around The Creek in 2:14.4, the fourth-slowest time of the entire 30-strong field. And yet its top speed down the straight of 221.55km/h is right up there in the big numbers. On corner speed, though, the pace clearly isn’t there. Once again, Blind Freddy…
Its skidpan performance relative to the entire field, though, is impressive. Its 52.1sec puts the GTS right in the mid-field, and it’s actually quicker than any of the pricier $150K-plus competitors! That’s bearing in mind that this is essentially the heaviest car of the field, pumping out the most grunt at the treads.
Yep, that’s right. Despite Hale expressing some disappointment with the actual dyno number, its robust 367.8kW at the treads topped everything. All of which leaves us with three AMG siblings.
In standard form, we know that it’s a modern classic. And a future collectible, guaranteed. It might have only taken one modified version fronting up to Hot Tuner to display, in no uncertain terms, the serious tuner potential under the unassuming C-class skin. A cynic might even call it a fluke.
But, having three C63s show up, all kicking serious bum in outright terms, cements the sedan’s legend firmly. What is amazing is that all three have been tailor-tuned for different types of customers, and yet all bullied themselves to the sharp end of the standings. The key to it all is that 6.2-litre V8 engine.
Put simply, AMG created an engine that could fit across its range. So, excepting a few details, the 420kW/650Nm version powering the SLS halo car is very similar to the 336kW/600Nm version that’s bolted into the C63. That’s right, they detune the (importantly) smallest, lightest, least-expensive mega-Merc to ensure it won’t out-punch or out-perform larger and pricier AMG-spanked Es, Ss, CLs, SLs and even the ML-Class jobbies.
Try up to 100 bonus kilowatts! And out of a series-production naturally-aspirated donk. The least powerful of the trio, the gunmetal grey example tuned by RamSpeed spins the dyno rollers to an impressive 294.8kW, less than 10kW shy of a figure Evolve Tecknik’s V8 E92 M3 can muster with the aide of a supercharger.
It’s copped a complete Brabus package that’s developed in and imported from Germany, dubbed the ‘B 63 S’ package, which in its entirety comprises a B 63 S ECU (which handily raises the rev-limiter), a custom remote-controlled bi-model 3.0-inch exhaust system with Brabus Sport cats, and a Sport air filter. But for the addition of a mechanical LSD and a set of HRE 19-inch rims shod with 245-front/275-rear Pirelli P Zero all-weather rubber, that’s all she wrote.
It even rides on standard AMG suspension. I suppose you’d call it a ‘gentleman’s tune’. From its ride and quietness, to the completely linear throttle take-up, you’d really have to A-B the Brabus with stockies to see that it was quicker.
Then you whip out the stopwatch. Its 2:11.3 lap around the circuit is third-quickest in the group, and more than three seconds quicker than WP’s GTS. Then it scampers around the motorkhana cones with a 51.6sec for a class second place. It’ll fire to 100 in 4.2sec and flash by the 400m mark in 12.27. And it does it all with such minimal fuss and real-world certainty that you could throw the keys to Nanna for safe passage to bingo, even if the venue it takes place in is Thredbo, in winter.
The only really frosty bit is the price. The B 63 S makeover will set you back a cool $28K. But while you won’t see the money in hardware, you’ll definitely feel its worth in the OE-like polish. “The suspension is the best bit,” says Morris. “It’s a really great touring car.”
If there was a Super Stealth award to be handed out (there isn’t), it would land in the hands of the crew from Marrano’s Enhancement Division for its white C63. But for the obvious lowering job courtesy of a set of coil-over dampers and sticky dry-weather Toyo Proxes R888 R-spec rubber, it looks stock, right to its exhaust tips. Then you prod the Start button and its 6.2 kicks into a creamy, low-pitched burble, and you sense that we’re not in Stuttgart any more, Toto.
The cut-slick Toyos don’t play ball on the skidpan, and its 52.3 makes it the slowest of the Mercs … just. But the white C63 springs its revenge on the circuit with the group’s top lap time, a very handy 2:08.2. “This is way quicker than the other two (C63s),” Paul enthuses. “I has great low-down torque.”
And it’s this torque – or, specifically, added urgency in low-rpm throttle response – where the Marrano’s tune shines. It’s a hugely driveable car at any speed and any rpm point, but also has a jackhammer mid-range surge that lunges the Merc forward with just a squeeze of the right foot.
Getting out of the hole is another of this particular C63’s talents. On the dragstrip, the Marrano’s beast marches promptly to 100km/h in a fraction (7/100ths) more than four seconds, and eclipses the 400m mark in a smart 12.07sec.
What separates RamSpeed’s and Marrano’s AMGs is that the former is targeting well-to-do daily drivers keen on a bit of extra all-round performance and the cache that comes with attaching the Brabus badge to its bootlid.
There’s nothing coarse or compromising about either when it comes to real-world streetability (though you’d probably want a set of all-weather hoops under the white car if you wanted to venture into public, day in and day out).
You can drive either to the track, unleash near-supercar levels of performance, and then drive them home again in a peak-hour crawl. And the same cannot be said about many of their competitors this year, some of which would rarely, if ever, see double-whites or traffic lights.
To find out exactly how hard the C63 trio pushed the top 10 outright placings – well, okay then, the top six positions – you’ll have to wait until the December issue. But it was pretty clear to everyone involved with this year’s shootout that two of the AMGs we’re holding back on the reins to keep things sensible, while another (see over) was going for the jugular.
Audi is doing away with buttons with an all-touch screen virtual dashboard that is expected to make its way into the fourth-generation Audi A8, due for launch early next year, according to a report in UK motoring site Autocar.
First seen in the Audi Q6 e-tron quattro concept car at last year’s Frankfurt Motor Show, the “starkly reduced dashboard” will have three digital displays to control and monitor all functions and information.
The primary display in front of the steering wheel serves as the instrument panel similar to the Audi’s current virtual cockpit but is made from a very thin OLED (organic light emitting diode) screen that is curved to dramatically reduce glare.
The 14.1-inch screen has a 2240×720 pixel resolution and displays general driving information such as speed, fuel level, or battery charge status and remaining electric range where applicable and is controlled via the multi-function steering wheel.
Two more screens on the centre console control and display all key functions, which can be personalised. The upper screen shows infotainment content such as navigation and media functions, while the lower screen is used for text input and to operate the air-conditioning.
There will be no physical back-up buttons or dials, which are generally easier to operate while driving. Instead, the screens use haptic feedback, where the user hears a noise and feels a vibration whenever they press a touchscreen ‘button’.
According to Audi this helps prevent the driver’s finger straying across the screen and selecting the wrong feature on bumpy roads and they can feel the switch activate without having to look at the screen as with a physical button.
Current Audis use a rotary control knob to control touchscreen functions, but company believes doing away with that is a natural progression as everyone is used to using touchscreens on their smart phones.
Audi’s electronics expert Andres Lamprecht told Autocar the technology is “just around the corner”.
“The general philosophy of the split screens and the haptic feedback systems will be in production cars in less than one year”, said Lamprecht.
While he wouldn’t confirm the technology would be in the new A8, he did admit it would first appear in the big Audis and work their way down through the range, hence the speculation it would feature in the all-new A8.
The A8 is expected to be officially launched at the 2017 Geneva Motor Show in late February with a plug-in hybrid variant and advanced autonomous driving technology.
HERE are the clearest pictures yet of Hyundai’s long-awaited response to the BMW 3 Series, Mercedes-Benz C-Class, Audi A4, Jaguar XE, Lexus IS, Infiniti Q50, and Alfa Romeo Giulia.
Known as the Genesis G70, the medium-sized rear-drive sports/luxury sedan is slated for Australia, but not before the second half of next year at the very earliest, following a probable world premiere by the time the North American International Auto Show in Detroit rolls around in January.
Though masked by both canvas and swirly tape camo, the prototype’s general form is obvious from the images, with the G70 adhering to the long-bonnet/short boot sports sedan silhouette. While no where near as dramatic, there is more than a hint of the ‘Hybrid Sports Sedan New York Concept’ unveiled in the Big Apple last March. We hope the show car’s striking interior translates into production relatively intact.
Confused by the alphanumerical nomenclature? To refresh, the G70 will be the smallest of the recently established Genesis brand’s three-pronged luxury segment attack on Europe and Japan’s finest, sitting below the BMW 5 Series-rivalling G80 (the new name for the facelifted sedan currently known simply as the Genesis 3.8 in Australia, and due here in March), as well as the flagship Genesis G90 that may not even make it to our shores owing to it being left-hand drive-only (for now).
Whether all share the same basic architecture remains to be seen, so watch this space.
Have spy pics of your own? We’d love to see them. Just email them to [email protected]
Four-tenths have been sliced off the zero to 100km/h sprint of the Porsche Macan Turbo thanks to the addition of a new Performance Package option now available locally.
The 3.0-litre twin-turbocharged V6 petrol engine has copped a 30kW and 50Nm boost to now produce 324kW and 600Nm, the latter spread between 1500rpm and 4500rpm, and teamed with the seven-speed dual clutch automatic the Macan Turbo Performance Pack manages a claimed 4.4-second 0-100km/h.
Porsche has dropped the standard Macan Turbo’s air suspension (dubbed PASM, or Porsche Active Suspension Management) by a further 10mm, while the front discs are now 30mm larger and the full Sport Chrono launch control package and sports exhaust is included.
Further options still abound, of course, including a Turbo Exterior Package featuring 21-inch alloys, LED headlights and black detail highlights, while the Turbo Interior Package adds black leather/Alcantara interior, and coloured appliques with carbonfibre flourishes.
“No longer will you be able to call us the Commodore car company.”
That’s the message from the chairman and managing director of Holden, which is desperate to reinvent itself as it approaches the end of its often illustrious seven decades of Australian vehicle manufacturing.
Mark Bernhard is a man with the enormous task of leading the reinvention of the company that has relied on big cars and big engines – and the fact they were made in Australia.
As of late 2017 it will have almost none of that. The Holden Commodore will be a hatchback imported from Europe without a V8 engine.
“We need to broaden our appeal to a wider audience, to today’s Australians. Our appeal needs to be more multicultural. We need to be attracting more young people, we need to be attracting more women to our brand.”
“We remain fiercely proud of our history – that won’t change,” said Bernhard.
Holden is also offering 24-hour test drives in an effort to take some of the pain out of the car shopping task.
GODZILLA will race with factory support once again, but not in Australia … yet.
Nissan Australia is backing a factory Nissan GT-R GT3 NISMO in the Australian GT Championship, but the car won’t actually race in Australia in 2016.
Instead, the car will take to the track at the final two rounds of the series in New Zealand at Hampton Downs and Highlands Motorsport Park.
The ‘Nissan GT Academy Team Kelly’ car will be piloted by V8 Supercar driver Michael Caruso and ex-Australia Post courier driver-cum-racer, Matt Simmons.
NISMO won the Bathurst 12 Hour in 2015 with a GT-R GT3 piloted by international factory drivers.
Nissan Australia then purchased a brand-new car for the 2016 race, finishing runner-up.
That car hasn’t raced since, but will turn a wheel in anger once again late next month, starting with the Hampton Downs 101 on October 28-30.
“It’s great to confirm that the Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 will be making its Australian GT Championship debut,” said Nissan Motor Co. (Australia) Managing Director and CEO Richard Emery.
Caruso will be making his competitive GT3 debut at the events, despite being initially slated for a start at this year’s Bathurst 12 Hour, having tasted the car in 2015.
“I’m very excited and grateful to be getting my first opportunity to race the Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3,” he said.
“I am a lifelong GT-R fan and I’ve had the chance to test the car a couple of times now. So it will be great to race it at these two New Zealand events alongside our Aussie GT Academy winner Matt Simmons, who has been racing one of these cars this year in Europe.”
“I can’t think of a better way to cap off my first year of racing than to compete in my home GT Championship – albeit on the other side of the Tasman over in New Zealand,” he added.
“Racing alongside Michael will be a buzz. A little over 12 months ago I was cheering him on in Supercars, now I’m his team-mate in a Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3.”
The car will run with #35 on the side, will be entered as ‘Nissan GT Academy Team Kelly’, and run by the Kelly family-owned Nissan Motorsport race team.
Ford’s all but confirmed the Focus RS500, but that hasn’t scared US tuner Hennessey Performance from forging its own super Focus.
Those too impatient for Ford to greenlight its meaner, fitter Focus RS can turn to Hennessey Performance, as its new HPE400 kit is claimed to bump a stock RS’s power to 298kW/576Nm.
More impressive is the extra 41kW and 106Nm are unlocked with only a few parts, which are relatively light by Hennessey’s standards.
New engine management software ups the 2.3-litre inline-four’s brain capacity, while a new ‘high-flow’ air filter will feed its hard-working turbo much needed extra air.
There’ll be a slew of badges, too, to slap on upgraded cars, which label them as a “HPE400” and “Powered by Hennessey”.
All up it’s reported the parts alone cost US$2995 (AUD$3980), but HPE will throw in a dyno tune for a total of US$4995 (AUD$6636).
While Mountune’s kit is warranty backed in the UK (Ford Oz is yet to announce it’s coming here), as will be whatever Ford Performance comes up with for the RS500. Hennessey Performance promises to serve the more adventurous, announcing intercooler systems and turbo upgrades to come for the Ford Focus RS.
Stay tuned.
The compact luxury car market is a fascinating showroom battleground where the prices of premium cars start to overlap with those of higher-specification mainstream models.
Medium-sized cars remain the ‘volume’ segment of luxury vehicle sales, though models such as the Audi A3, BMW 1 Series and Mercedes-Benz A-Class and B-Class twins have helped to close the gap in 2016.
Here, WhichCar provides a guide to any changes planned or expected for these models during the next 18 months – to help you pick the perfect timing for buying one.
The latest-generation A3 was released in 2013 and the range has since grown with additional body styles (sedan) and extra variants (e-tron hybrid and RS3 hot-hatch).
An updated version of the A3 is due in late 2016.
The facelift will bring subtle design tweaks, though the headline changes include the introduction of new optional technology such as Matrix LED headlights and the Virtual Cockpit variable cockpit display.
The biggest news under the bonnet is the smallest engine yet for the A3 – a 1.0-litre three-cylinder turbo, with outputs of 81kW and 200Nm.
Another update to BMW’s smallest car arrives around a similar time to the rival A3 – and follows many of the changes introduced recently on its 2 Series Coupe and Convertible relatives.
The mid-range 120i and 125i models switch to the company’s new modular 2.0-litre four-cylinder engine, which brings lower fuel consumption despite increased power and faster performance.
The 125i also gains extra features for no extra cost.
The fastest 1 Series changes its badge from M135i to M140i, turning up the wick with a revised 3.0-litre six-cylinder that produces an extra 10kW and 50Nm for a total of 250kW/500Nm.
Pricing jumps $2000 to $64,900, though standard equipment grows to include leather-trimmed and electrically adjustable seats (with heating for the fronts), Comfort Access, and a 12-speaker Harman Kardon audio.
The range continues to kick off with the 118i, priced from $36,900.
BMW’s 1 Series remains unique in the segment with its rear-wheel-drive layout, though the replacement model – due about 2018 – is set to move to a front-wheel-drive platform currently used by the Mini, X1 and 2 Series Active Tourer.
The baby Benz was given a ‘Series 2’ update in early 2016 – nearly three years after the A-Class turned into a more conventional-looking hatchback.
While there was a styling refresh and new additions such as LED headlights and an iPad-style 8-inch dash display screen, mechanical changes were particularly notable.
A revised suspension countered criticisms of ride quality, and the flagship, all-wheel-drive A45 AMG became the world’s fastest and most powerful production hatch after its 2.0-litre four-cylinder turbo engine was upgraded.
Price increases across the range were matched with increased specification.
The next-generation A-Class isn’t expected until 2018.
The MPV twin to the A-Class had its facelift back in early 2015 – with a similar compilation of changes to styling and features.
The B-Class range also received a price hike in return for additional equipment across the board.
Having also been released a year earlier (2012) than the A-Class in latest-generation form, anticipate an all-new B-Class in late 2017 or early 2018. There are reports its name could change.
First published in the November 1980 issue of Wheels magazine, Australia’s best car mag since 1953.
Out goes the Falcon’s iron head, and in swoops the Honda-built alloy one.
Thorough road-testing of Falcons new and old proves that Ford’s economy claims for the Honda-headed model are probably conservative. But the rest of the car remains unchanged.
THERE IS ONLY one question of any real importance to be answered regarding the new, Honda-headed Ford Falcon: Is it more economical than the old Falcon with its cast iron head?
The answer must be an unqualified, Yes. What’s more, the improved economy hasn’t been gained at the expense of performance. Ford’s engineers, it must be said, have done a commendable job in giving the Falcon six fuel consumption that is decidedly superior to the old car and good enough to go at least some of the way towards changing the image of the Falcon as a petrol guzzler.
Of course the Falcon’s economy figures aren’t as good as those for the average two-litre fours but the gap has been narrowed. How many new car buyers, we wonder, realise the difference in petrol costs over a year, at an average 16,000 km, is less than $200, or just $4 a week?
In back-to-back fuel economy testing with our long-term XD Falcon GL 4.1 auto and a new XD1/2 Fairmont Ghia – with the same transmission and 2.92 final drive ratio – over our economy loop the difference was impressive – 7.8 km/1 (22 mpg) for the old car and 8.8 km/l (24.8 mpg) for the new. Officially Ford talks about a fuel saving of between seven and 10 percent for the new car but that would seem to be conservative.
Other checks, in a variety of driving conditions, between the two cars confirm that there is at least a 0.7 km/1 (two mpg) difference. Is that sufficient to halt the slide in sales away from what has, for so long, been the standard-sized Australian family sedan?
Probably not, though the reasons for the slump don’t have much to do with the logic of fuel costs in objective terms as we’ve shown.
The economy improvement comes about through a weight saving of 24 kg, most of which was achieved by the new alloy head, and by increasing the efficiency of the 3.3 and 4.1-litre six-cylinder engines. Our performance testing proved Ford’s claim that there hasn’t been any drop in acceleration, for the times against the stop watch are virtually identical with those for the Falcon 4.1 auto tested in WHEELS June 1979.
Two things, however, need to be said about the performance/economy mix. The first is that driven hard the Falcon can still go through petrol rather more quickly than it should, and secondly the Sigma 2.6 automatic has the same performance level as the Falcon and, because of its size, feels more lively.
Certainly, however, the new engine seems quieter in the Ghia than the old unit in the GL, no doubt due to the additional sound-deadening materials fitted to the more expensive car. In both however, there is plenty of fan noise above 130 km/h and this, and the excessive wind roar from the A-pillars that has been apparent on most of the Blackwood range we’ve driven, means that they’re not as relaxing at high speeds as the Falcon’s image suggests.
Ford does have a 2.77 final drive which is used on the 3.3-litre four-speed models but it has yet to be offered on the 4.1 Falcon although such a move seems logical both in the interests of lowering noise levels and further improving economy.
Starting the 4.1 is easy. It requires plenty of choke from cold and then constant inwards adjustment. There is no choke warning light, an unfortunate omission on any car with manual enrichment of the mixture.
There is nothing to be gained by driving the car manually with the automatic selector although it is always pleasing to note that Ford (unlike Holden) doesn’t believe in having a lock-out from drive to intermediate. In recent months we’ve come to the conclusion that Holden and Ford’s philosophies are also opposed when it comes to shift smoothness. Holden’s Trimatic is at its best when the accelerator is hard down on the firewall, while the Borg Warner unit in the Falcon only slips comfortably between ratios if the driving is gentle. Sudden lift-offs while in intermediate can result in a jerky change while kickdown occasionally produces a clunk on the way in to intermediate.
Of the rest of the Ghia there is little to add to the many words we’ve already published about the XD Falcon and its derivatives. Still, we were surprised to find that power steering is a $326 option. Considering the Ghia is the top model in the Falcon range – that is if you view the Fairlane and LTD as being different cars – this is a strange omission. Less than 20 percent of Falcon and Fairmont buyers bother to fit the power steering option but without the benefits of its assistance the car is cumbersome to drive. With over five turns lock to lock the steering is both indirect and heavy and contributes to creating the impression of a ponderous and extremely wide car.
The power steering is far from perfect for it does increase the already large turning circle and it is too light at high speeds, but with 2.6 turns lock to lock it is far more responsive in normal driving and the lightness, even nervousness, of fast driving is appreciated in commuter conditions. After 16,000 km in our long-term Falcon, in which we deliberately chose the standard manual steering because that is the way the majority of buyers prefer them, we can only say that power steering would be the first item we’d check off on the order form.
We also drove the new Falcon in its ESP form – ESP for European Sports Pack – and left it wondering how the marketing men could ever have convinced themselves that it warranted such a name tag. Perhaps it will attract some of the performance-oriented buyers who once drove Falcon GTs but have now graduated to Alfas but we doubt it.
No, more work in the area of suspension and steering is required before the ESP can even pretend to appeal to buyers of European sporting machine. Which only goes to point up the fundamental limitations of the Falcon’s live axle, leaf-sprung rear suspension.
Quiet it may be in keeping tyre and road noise out of the cabin, but it lacks the genuine refinement of other, more modern, systems as the sideways step over any bump encountered during cornering indicates.
Still, Ford has managed to do what Holden couldn’t, and that is to give the ESP a light gear change with short, well-defined movements between ratios. The clutch, too, is easy on the leg muscles. A manual Falcon is not the frustrating driver’s car that a manual Commodore can be…
The four wheel disc brakes of the Ghia and ESP simply went about the business of stopping the car in a straight line. They really are very good brakes by any standards and a credit to the local engineers.
Inside you’d never pick the new model unless you knew the AM/FM cassette radio (of excellent quality, by the way) was now standard in the Fairmont. The steering column still seems unnecessarily long and many of the minor controls require a stretched arm. The relationship between the seats, pedals and steering wheel is more awkward than it should be. Scheel bucket seats are standard in the ESP, they are firmer in their padding and have more lateral support than the standard buckets but they also locate the driver even higher in relation to the steering wheel, so high in fact that many drivers will find their thighs rub against the lower edge of the wheel. The Scheel buckets are comfortable for tall drivers with plenty of under-thigh support but they still don’t go back far enough.
Our original criticism of the rear seat remains for it is mounted too low and the cushion is rather shallow. Likewise the boot with the spare wheel sitting in the floor. Perhaps it is unfair to apply the word shallow in a general description of the XD but under that still very attractive exterior it is painfully obvious that there isn’t the engineering depth, nor the refinement, that should be expected for a modern car in the ’80s. For all that the new alloy-headed Falcon does represent a significant improvement over the old in the area of fuel consumption. That’s important . . . but there’s a great deal of development and expensive modification required elsewhere to turn the Falcon into a great car.
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HOLDEN’S SUV strategy has crystalised with confirmation the GMC Acadia will arrive here from the United States in 2018 wearing a Holden badge.
The large seven-seater will take on class kings such as the Toyota Kluger, Mazda CX-9, Nissan Pathfinder, Hyundai Santa Fe and Kia Sorento.
Like those cars, Acadia is built on car-based underpinnings with an emphasis on the suburbs rather than the scrub. But it will come with a four-wheel-drive system for added traction and occasional jaunts to the mountain or bush.
Holden chairman and managing director Mark Bernhard describes the SUV strategy as critical, admitting it is key to recovering from record low sales.
“SUVs are the fastest-growing segment of the market and we’re currently under-represented, but that’s changing, fast,” Bernhard said, pointing to the Trailblazer and updated Trax.
The second-generation Acadia made its debut at the Detroit motor show in January this year and went on sale in the US in May as a 2017 model. It is produced in Spring Hill, Tennessee.
The only Acadia engine confirmed to date is the direct-injection 3.6-litre V6 that also appears in the Commodore. It produces about 210kW and 350Nm.
