MERCEDES-Benz is believed to be preparing a special one-off exhibit this weekend that will celebrate 60 years of its two-door, two-seat coupe and convertible range.

The German luxury car maker plans to use this week’s Motorclassica car show to display what one spokesman says is “so special that it could be the only one left in the world”.

The exhibit, believed to tie in closely with the low-slung SL coupe and convertible range’s 60th anniversary, will take centre stage alongside the Australian premiere of the German luxury marque’s S-Class Coupe.

The big two-door limousine will officially launch in Australia in February, with Mercedes-Benz using the annual concours d’elegance to introduce Australian and New Zealand customers with the two-door S-Class ahead of its launch early next year.

Mercedes-Benz’s “Gullwing” coupe was introduced in 1954. It initially featured a 3.0-litre in-line six 300SL, and added a 190SL featuring a 1.9-litre four-cylinder engine and a removable roof a year later.

A 300SL-badged roadster version of the low-slung two-door was introduced in 1957.

Benz’s showing of the S-Class Coupe follows on from a similar event at last year’s Motorclassica when it showed the four-door version in Australia months ahead of its launch here.

Motorclassica, an annual concours d’elegance held at Melbourne’s Royal Exhibition Building, opens to the public on Friday morning, and runs until October 26.

The event will have more than 500 classic and collectable cars and motorcycles on show. For tickets visit motorclassica.com.au.

Hot on the heels of the Cayman and Boxster GTS arriving in Australia comes news of the new 911 GTS.

With rumours coming out of Germany that the facelifted 911, due late next year, will switch to turbocharged engines across the entire range (bar GT3), this could be the last opportunity to own a naturally-aspirated 911 Carrera.

We’ll have more on that story in the coming days, but for now, here’s a look at the GTS.

As always with the GTS treatment, modifications are relatively small, but if past experience is anything to go by, cherry-picking choice parts from throughout the range results in a product that’s pretty special. After all, the 997-series 911 GTS was arguably the sweetest car of the entire range.

Headline news is the adoption of the Power Kit, which lifts power from the 3.8-litre flat-six to 316kW and cuts the 0-100km/h to just 4.0sec for the Coupe PDK (4.2sec for the Cabriolet). Top speed of all models is beyond the magic 300km/h mark, while fuel consumption is claimed to be unaffected by the power hike.

Available in both two-wheel drive and all-wheel drive guises, all models receive the wider Carrera 4 bodyshell and are fitted with Sport Chrono, PASM active dampers, sports exhaust and 20-inch centre-lock alloy wheels.

The 911 GTS is available to order now, with deliveries commencing in February 2015.

Model – Price (Manual/PDK)

911 Carrera 2 GTS Coupe – $268,700/$276,090 911 Carrera 2 GTS Cabriolet – $289,700/$297,090 911 Carrera 4 GTS Coupe – $284,100/$291,490 911 Carrera 4 GTS Cabriolet – $305,300/$312,690

The fifth annual Motorclassica opens later this week, with Melbourne’s Royal Exhibition Building once again set to fill to bursting with some of the world’s rarest and most desirable cars from October 24-26.

Motorclassica has quickly established itself as one of the world’s most prestigious automotive gatherings, and this year’s event will be no different, with displays celebrating 100 years of Maserati and 50 years of Ford Mustang, as well as rare exotics such as a Lancia Stratos ‘Stradale’ and genuine AC 289 Cobra.

While still predominantly a classic car event, in the absence of an Australian Motor Show Motorclassica is increasingly being used by manufacturers to showcase their latest and greatest wares.

Mercedes-Benz used last year’s show to debut the new S-Class, while this year it’s the turn of the S-Class Coupe to make its first public appearance.

Also on hand will be Jaguar, Maserati, Alfa Romeo, Aston Martin, Caterham, Morgan and Lotus, while the grounds outside the Exhibition Building will be bumper to bumper with exotic and prestige cars as Victoria’s car clubs converge en masse.

If you’ve a millilitre of petrol in your veins, make sure you don’t miss this event, which continues to get better year after year. For more information or to purchase tickets, visit www.motorclassica.com.au.

MOTO3: Miller joins the greats in a thriller

QUEENSLANDER Jack Miller yesterday joined a very special group of Australian riders who have won their home world championship motorcycle grand prix.

KTM rider Miller, who started eighth in the Moto3 GP at Phillip Island, needed a strong result to keep alive his championship hopes and charged hard early to stay on terms with pole man and points leader Alex Marquez on the more powerful Honda.

The initial lead bunch of 11 bikes swapped places in ferocious fashion, with Miller happily working over Marquez at every opportunity.

Throughout the race, Miller experimented with slipstreaming, aware that the Hondas had the straight-line grunt to gobble up his KTM on Gardner Straight. When Miller held only the tiniest of leads in the final corner, his Honda rivals must have fancied themselves in the run to the chequer.

But in an outcome that left the patriotic crowd ecstatic, Miller cannily broke their draft with a bit of lurid swerving and beat home Marquez by 0.029sec.

Marquez’s team-mate Alex Rins was third, the first three covered by just 0.032sec.

It was no surprise that Miller declared it the most satisfying win of his career.

“I definitely gave that my 120 percent,” he said. “On the last lap I nearly dropped the front; I was trying to get the last sections perfect; it seemed to pay off really well.

“I’m just super-dooper happy. It’s just awesome.”

Miller is now 20 points behind Marquez in the World Championship with only two rounds remaining.

Son-of-a-gun Remy Gardner, in only his second GP (and first Australian GP) had to endure the frustration of his bike being reluctant to fire and was forced to start dead last from pit lane. He fought back to pass some riders and see out the race.

The penultimate round of the 2014 Moto3 World Championship will take place in Malaysia at Sepang next Sunday, October 26.

Most motor sport fans know that local heroes Wayne Gardner, Mick Doohan and Casey Stoner have won world championship Australian GPs, all in the premier class, but back in 1996, when the event was held at Sydney’s Eastern Creek Raceway, Garry McCoy triumphed in the 125cc (now Moto3) Australian GP.

Jack has now joined that elite bunch of local AGP winners. Five in all.

MOTOGP: Rossi wins crash-strewn AGP

NINE years after his last win at Phillip Island, Yamaha’s Valentino Rossi won an incident-packed 2014 Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix in a memorable 250th start in the premier class.

Rossi’s 82nd 500cc/MotoGP victory equalled Australian Casey Stoner’s record of six wins in Australia and moved him clear of Jorge Lorenzo and Dani Pedrosa in the battle for second in the 2014 world championship.

Honda’s Marc Marquez, who has already wrapped up this year’s crown, exited the race in dramatic style, crashing out of the lead while holding a comfortable four-second lead. Pedrosa was never in contention and was forced to retire after being clipped by Andrea Iannone.

Lorenzo made it a one-two finish for Yamaha, while Bradley Smith secured his first podium finish in MotoGP on a satellite Yamaha.

In an indicator of his lousy, luckless season, Cal Crutchlow threw away what would have been a great second place for the Brit and Ducati, dropping the Italian bike under brakes heading into the hairpin on the last lap.

Australian actor Eric Bana, former Formula One driver Mark Webber, Olympic gold medallist Sally Pearson and a brace of AFL players were among the crowd.

FORMULA RENAULT 1.6: De Pasquale is our newest champ

ANTON de Pasquale is Australia’s newest champion on the global stage, having pocketed the 2014 Formula Renault 1.6 Series victory with another crushing performance in the three-race finale at Zandvoort, Holland.

The teenager dominated qualifying, taking pole for the first two races and earning a pole start in the third race by virtue of his brilliant earlier two wins of the weekend.

De Pasquale (Lechner Racing School) clinched the series by winning the first race.

“I am so happy to have won this race and won the championship,” de Pasquale said. “I had a good start and could control the race to bring the win home. We are now going to celebrate.”

Emphasising his supremacy, the Australian went on to win the second and third races, his eighth and ninth wins of the series.

ARC: Team Citroen back in 2015, but who are the drivers?

ELI Evans and Scott Pedder have each been in separate discussions with Team Citroen Australia about driving for the squad in the 2015 Australian Rally Championship.

Citroen team principal Ron Cremen has confirmed Citroen and a handful of backers will return to the ARC after a tough 12 months campaigning a pair of DS3 R3s, driven by Adrian Coppin and Tony Sullens.

The Citroen DS3 is the dominant front-wheel drive of choice in world rallying, but the fledgling Australian team spent 2014 learning the ropes in the face of stiff competition from the likes of Scott Pedder and Brendan Reeves, who are just 27 points apart at the top of the ARC title table.

“Being new in the (Australian Rally) Championship, we had to find out exactly where we were compared to our opposition and then to try and be as competitive as possible while learning with a new car,” ex-driver Cremen said.

Cremen admitted he has been surprised by the performance of Pedder and Reeves this year. Although he expected both drivers to be fast, he was caught out by just how rapid they have been at the front of the field.

While the two Citroens run with identical paint schemes and are serviced side-by-side, the DS3s are in reality separate operations, Coppin owning his car and running his Innate Motorsport team separately from Sullen’s NSW Central Coast-based outfit.

Cremen admits the make-up of Team Citroen Australia may vary heading into the 2015 season.

Many options are under consideration. Coppin has international ambitions, but Sullens may drive a Citroen again next year. The option of replacing Sullens with another driver remains a possibility and Cremen has opened discussions with others including Eli Evans and Scott Pedder.

The speedy Reeves may also find himself in consideration following his recent revelation that Rally Victoria, the last round of the ARC, will be his final drive in the rallyschool.com.au Mazda2.

STANDING in tropical sunshine, gazing across the shimmering waters of the Torres Strait with an inflatable gecko beneath my arm, wasn’t quite the image I had in mind for my final road-trip in Wheels colours.

Behind me, sitting proudly on oversized rubber and baring its mud-splattered body like a badge of honour, the bright yellow Mazda MX-5 that had brought us here seemed as incongruous as a Landcruiser on the Mulsanne Straight.

We’re a long way, 3500km in fact, from the Japanese restaurant in Sydney where I’d first floated the idea of taking the world’s most popular sports car and twice Wheels Car of the Year winner, to the rough, tough and dusty tip of Australia. Mazda’s Allan Horsley, a craggy-faced, gravel-voiced bear of a bloke, had listened, nodded, and then taken the bait like a striking barramundi.

As the reel spooled out, the bloke who collected the Australian touring car title with Allan Moffat in 1983 and four 12-hour races with RX-7s in the ’90s, reminded me that it was he who conceived and executed taking a pair of Mazda 929s to the Cape in 1996, getting them there and back in a couple of days without dramas.

Now, as then, Horsley loves a challenge and by the time the teriyaki beef arrived he was already well engaged with the mental process of how and where the MX-5 would need strengthening, what sort of fuel range could be extracted from its 2.0-litre engine, and other logistical arithmetic.

Fast forward several months and the fruit of Horsley’s labour sits gleaming in the forecourt of a Cairns hotel on a steamy tropical morning. Mechanic Shane Bradford burrows busily beneath the canopy of a heavily-laden Mazda B-Series, making final checks and adjustments to an array of spares that’d make a WRC team envious. Nearby, Horsley’s right-hand woman, Jodie Steward, runs an eye over an itinerary so tightly scripted it lacks only for predictions on where we might stop for toilet breaks.

Horsley’s years of motorsport management mean nothing is left to chance and what had been conceived as a leisurely trip to the Tip, has now morphed into an all-out rally assault, complete with pace-notes. Wielecki’s already whingeing about the lack of photo time, but Horsley’s regime demands strict adherence to team orders; and his attractive itinerary-Nazi will be his perfumed steam-roller.

Before leaving Sydney I check in with an old 4×4 journo mate, Allan Whiting, to find out what we might be in for. Having never been much farther north than Cooktown, I figure Whiting’s 20-plus years of Cape travel might come in handy. But I sense the disdain in his voice when I tell him our proposed route.

“Only sooks go up the Bamaga Road,” deadpans Whiting, before acknowledging that tackling the 4WD-only Old Telegraph Track in a sports car might be a bit daunting, even for a hairy-chested Tip veteran like him.

He expects the sump, gearbox, shock absorbers and springs to be our major mechanical weak links, but Horsley’s already anticipated that. With the help of old motorsport partner-in-crime Murray Coote, he’s fitted special coil-over shocks at each corner, a sturdy metal bash plate running the length of the car, and rally-style stone deflectors ahead of the rear wheels. The standard 17-inch alloys have been ditched in favour of Mazda Tribute wheels clad with 195/65R16 Michelin Agilis tyres.

The chunky Michelins, reportedly favoured by WRC reconnaissance teams for their strong sidewalls and excellent puncture resistance, may raise the ride height and fill the little roadster’s guards manfully, but on the run up through the damp, rainforest-draped Kuranda Range it’s immediately obvious they have bugger-all grip in the wet. I almost lose it before we get going as the front-end washes out on a bend, the rear end twitching and squirming nervously as I bring it back on line with a lift and a handful of opposite lock.

It’s a case of short-shifting and feather-footing it up the rest of the climb through a dripping, overhanging canopy. Even so, I relish the flexibility of the fizzy little 2.0-litre, the intimacy of the fast, accurate steering and the snick-snick precision of its short-throw six-speed.

Near the rainforest village of Kuranda, famed for its scenic railway and colourful markets, the road flattens and within minutes we’ve transitioned from the rainforest gloom to more open tropical savannah. On through the dusty streets of Mareeba we head north to Lakeland, where the Mulligan Highway veers north-east to Cooktown and the coast, and the Peninsula Development Road spears north-west to Laura, Coen, Weipa and beyond.

Our orientation is north, like the towering magnetic termite mounds dotted either side of the road, but we’ve travelled only a few kilometres more when the bitumen abruptly ends and we strike the first of the dirt. The MX-5 is soon being shaken so violently by corrugations that I’m forced to slow to 80km/h for fear Wielecki’s Marty Feldman eyes will rattle out of their sockets.

We soon realize that the road conditions, like the passing landscape and vegetation, are extremely variable, with the transition from well-maintained to heavily-corrugated dirt happening in the blink of a (big, red) eye. Between the worst patches, where the corrugations and loose sand nip and tug at the steering, slowing us to below 60km/h, we make good time and are in Laura for lunch.

A half-crippled old ringer with a battered stockman’s hat pulled low over his brow takes in the sight of us filling the little yellow jellybean outside the general store.

“We don’t often see them this flash up at the Cape,” he offers in a rasping voice, seasoned I fancy by decades of dust, rum and roll-your-own ’baccy. He tells us to watch on the next stage for rocks from oncoming vehicles that’ll shatter a windscreen, and that creeks and rivers to the north have been over their crossings recently.

“There’s been water over the Wenlock, but I dunno what the Archer’s doing… It’s been up and down like a whore’s panties lately.” Struggling to his feet, the old-timer hobbles over to the MX-5, measuring the top of the rear bumper against the mid-part of his thigh. “That’s about how deep them dust holes are up there,” he adds with a nod to the north. “Just poke along steady. Don’t fly into them culverts. Once you do that, you’re stuffed.”

Sage advice duly noted and stomachs full after a round of Barra burgers at the Quinkan Hotel, we’re not long back on the road when an innocent U-turn for a Wielecki photo causes the first bogging of the trip. I’m as red-faced as the soft, freshly graded sand in which the Mazda is embedded as I summon the B-Series for the recovery operation.

Shane goes about the job with an enthusiasm that suggests he relishes the opportunity to delve into the bag of tricks in the back of his ute. With the help of a snatch strap we’re soon out of the bog and making good time to Musgrave Roadhouse, where we steer east off the main road for the 30km run to our overnight digs.

We roll into Lotusbird Lodge just on dusk, the cluster of elevated timber cabins standing handsomely among paperbark trees alongside a lily-clad billabong. The expected tranquillity is shattered the moment we open the car door, however, by the raucous honking of hundreds of magpie geese, enthusiastically accompanied by an orchestra of their feathered friends.

Our dust has barely settled and Shane has the MX-5 up on jacks, painstakingly checking wheels, tyres and suspension components for evidence of damage or fatigue. After a half hour he gives the thumbs up and we head thirstily for the open-sided bar-cum-restaurant.

Given the lodge’s close proximity to the billabong, I ask owner Gary Brown if crocs are a problem. He answers no, but says he did once have a “13-foot lizard” in the billabong that occasionally could be heard crunching 70kg wild pigs into edible bits. Curiously, no-one opts for a post-dinner stroll.

Day two dawns with Jodie urging haste as we’ve eight-to-10 hours of driving ahead of us to be at the Jardine River ferry before its final 5pm crossing. Rumour has it that not even Chris de Burgh’s money will convince the ferryman to make another run after five.

Wielecki’s still stressing about the pace of Horsley’s itinerary and, having consulted with some locals overnight, reckons there’s no need to push quite so hard. Horsley, speaking via mobile back in Sydney, snuffs out the dissent with the brutality of Captain Bligh.

“Don’t ask the locals about road distances,” he tells Jodie gruffly. “They’re good for the weather and that’s about it.”

We’ve been told that the road from Musgrave Roadhouse to Coen will be the roughest so far, and it doesn’t take too many kays of bone-jarring corrugations and billowing dust to realise the pundits weren’t kidding.

Mercifully, stretches of good quality bitumen also appear sporadically, like a tarmac-coated mirage. Even so, we’re an hour behind schedule by the time we hit Coen, the halfway point of our journey.

And then it starts to rain.

As rust-red rivulets run down the centre of the greasy road I ponder for the first time the possibility that we may not actually make it. Yesterday’s dry bogging showed just how tenuous our grip on forward progress is and I’m under no illusions that if the rain closes in we’ve Kennedy’s chance of keeping the rear-drive MX-5 headed northwards.

Between Coen and Archer River the road deteriorates further into a roller coaster of undulations punctuated by washaways that require a downshift to second, or even first, to negotiate safely. In these conditions the responsive little engine earns its keep, providing plenty of verve to get the roadster back up to speed again. The steering, too, is excellent, feelsome and well-weighted yet free of rack-rattle or kickback, even over the worst corrugations and bumps. And the well-calibrated ESC works brilliantly, correcting in a largely unobtrusive fashion the subtle slews and slides that are part of dirt-road driving.

Forty kays north of Archer River the Peninsula Development Road veers west for the 146km run across to the bauxite mining town of Weipa. But we keep the little Mazda’s bright yellow beak pointed resolutely north, turning onto the southerly juncture of the Telegraph Road.

Later, at Bramwell Junction as we pump unleaded into the Mazda’s tank at $1.80 per litre, the roadhouse manager Jamie Molyneau sums us up in the dry, understated style of the Northerner.

“You don’t see too many of these around here… But there’s a first time for everything, eh? Just shows how good the road is if you can get these up here without too much hassle.”

I wanted to tell him it was our sheer skill and daring that had got us this far, but figured the jig was up when he added that, “Bamaga locals regularly drive to Weipa or Cairns in Falcons and Commodores.”

“But not MX-5s?” I prompted. “No, not MX-5s,” he conceded. It would have been a bummer to get this far and find the MX-5 Club of Australia had been through just last week.

It’s here that the dinkum four-wheel-drivers part company with the Telegraph Road and branch out on the Old Telegraph Track, a more direct but rough-as-guts route that crosses numerous creeks and rivers before rejoining the Bamaga Road at the Jardine River Crossing.

North of Bramwell Junction the landscape changes constantly: from savannah to coastal heath to tropical rainforest and back again. At times the road resembles a beach access track as it ducks and dives over sandy ridges hemmed by dense scrub. The last 20km is as rough as anything we’ve encountered but there’s a real sense of achievement when we sight the ferry crossing at 4:35pm, with less than a half hour to spare.

The crossing itself is a bit of a non-event, however; just an old cable-operated barge taking three vehicles at a time across a strip of river so narrow you could throw a stone across. Nevertheless, it’s too deep (and probably croc-infested) to be forded. It strikes me that it’s also got to be one of the world’s shortest and most expensive cruises, at $88 per vehicle, or $96 if you’re towing a trailer.

The dreaded bulldust and potholes large enough to swallow a car have failed to materialise, and as we get closer to Bamaga the dirt gives way to high quality bitumen that links the Cape communities of Injinoo, Bamaga, Seisia and Umagico.

Thankfully, this sort of sealed civility hasn’t yet reached the Tip, however, and just metres out of the north side of Bamaga the MX-5 once again thrums to the beat of corrugated dirt.

At the Croc Tent on the juncture of the tracks to Cape York and Punsand Bay we stop for a yarn with owner Lea-Anne Mears. She tells us the road is freshly graded and that we should have no problems, but not far into the journey we realize she probably doesn’t drive an MX-5. The corrugations are brutal and the track is tight, forcing us to slow to below 60km/h in places, which in turn sends wave after wave of violent judders through the little roadster’s body.

All the bumps, thumps and dust seem worth it, though, when we round a bend and catch our first, filtered glimpse of the sparkling waters of the Torres Strait. Our excitement is tempered slightly when we discover there’s still some work to be done, with the last 500 metres or so accessible only by foot.

The clamber over that final rocky headland heightens the sense of anticipation at being so near the most northerly point of the Australian continent. Despite this, our pace is slowed by the inconvenience of lugging the MX-5’s bootlid, which Wielecki has decided will make a useful prop at the Tip; his ‘logic’ being that at least one part of our trusty chariot should make it all the way. Personally, I’d have been happy with the owner’s manual.

Fifteen minutes later, having worked up a decent sweat in the tropical heat, we gaze out across the blue-green ocean, surging in a powerful tidal change between the mainland and nearby York Island. Descending the headland for the obligatory team photo beside Australia’s most famous signpost, we pass a group encountered earlier in the trip. “Is that all that’s left?” asks one wag, grinning at the grimy bootlid tucked under my wing.

It’s water off a duck’s back to a bloke who’d earlier been convinced to pose semi-naked with a fluorescent gecko. As the architect of that ignominious image scooped sand into a bottle to complete his collection gathered at Australia’s other geographic extremities, I savoured the sense of achievement at having driven the diminutive roadster to this point. Along the way we’ve been chided and derided by fishermen, pig hunters, four-wheel-drivers and backpackers, but we’d made it and the MX-5 had proven a terrifically durable and capable travelling companion.

So, has the Tip been “myth busted”, as Wielecki put it? Well, yes and no. Our success owed as much to smiling weather gods and fortuitously timed grader crews as to anything else. In the absence of these elements, I wouldn’t recommend driving there in your Porsche Boxster. Then again…

Postscript: Thomas Wielecki was eventually forced to upgrade his inner-city home to accommodate his burgeoning soil sample collection. Shane Bradford built a new MX-5 out of the bits left in the back of his ute. Jodie Steward is expected to make a full recovery but no longer works with photographers. Allan Horsley is contemplating taking the MX-5 Cape York Edition into series production. And Ged Bulmer was last seen sailing towards Thursday Island … on an inflatable gecko.

Have you bought our media-rich iPad edition yet? A quick trip to the Tip was originally published in November, 2010. Next week in The Weekend Read, two of Porsche’s most accomplished race cars tackle the spiritual home of Australian endurance motor sport

WHEN you’re in the market for a slick new motor, the process of comparing, tyre-kicking and dreaming is seemingly filled with infinite possibility.

But actually laying your cash down at the dealership can snap you from a daydream into a grim reality of lacklustre resale values, wildly expensive insurance premiums, spiralling repayments and untold thirst for premium fuel.

What if someone could expose the hidden costs, crunch the numbers, present the data, and draw conclusions about how to best spend your hard-earned on a brand new car? Enter Wheels’ annual Gold Star Value Awards.

We take the cream of the crop in a number of vehicle classes – just about all of them, in fact – and break each car down into key cost components such as annual fuel cost, insurance premiums and depreciation, then feed the data into a clever set of formulae.

More than 200 cars are tipped into the hopper, but just one winner in each of 20 classes is earns the coveted Wheels Gold Star Award for value.

Gold Star Value Awards Explained

Class ceiling

Gold Star Value Awards eligibility is capped at $150K. The reason? Even the best $150K car will lose almost $50K to depreciation in the first three years – far more than you’d spend on fuel, insurance and other running costs.

Depreciation

The biggest cost of ownership for most new cars. Of more than 200 cars number-crunched, three-year retained value figures – as supplied by data authority Redbook – range from less than 40 percent to more than 70 percent of the MSRP.

Fuel

Annual fuel cost calculated based on ADR combined-cycle consumption figures – not real-world, but broadly comparable. Annual distance travelled is taken as the Australian Bureau of Statistics average of 14,000km.

Insurance

Comprehensive insurance quotes provided by AAMI for a 35-year-old male living in Chatswood, NSW, Rating 1 for life, no finance and private use.

Purchase price

Most new-car buyers set out with a budget in mind, so Gold Star Value Awards is divided into price brackets. The real cost of owning the car is depreciation, which is where purchase cost comes into our value equation.

Real cost

It’s relatively easy to put a representative number on the three-year cost of depreciation, fuel and insurance, so the total of these running costs equate to 80 percent of a car’s score.

Service

Widespread fixed-price or capped-price servicing schemes should make it possible to compare servicing costs. Except there are still some brands or individual models without such schemes. As a result, service intervals are scored. A 12-month interval (or longer) will usually result in less expense (and certainly be more convenient) compared with six-month or nine-month intervals, so takes maximum points. Cars with variable or ‘condition-based’ service intervals are also awarded the maximum 10 points for this discipline.

Warranty

There’s potentially money to be saved in having a longer warranty. If nothing else, a five-year warranty gives greater peace of mind compared with a three-year warranty. However, it’s impossible to put a hard cost on what an extra warranty is worth – it only translates into cash if and when something goes bang and it’s fixed free of charge. Warranty also accounts for 10 points out of 100.

HSV is updating its range of V8-powered Aussie hot-rods for 2015, promising more power and performance.

From November Clubsport and Maloo models will swap the 317kW bent eight for the more potent 325kW 6.2-litre LS3 unit from the current R8 models and E Series 3 GTS.

The R8 range will also receive a power bump up to 340kW/570Nm as the previously optional ‘SV Enhanced’ pack becomes standard.

Power figures across the GTS range remain the same as before with the 6.2-litre LSA supercharged V8 pumping out 430kW/740Nm.

A six-speed manual transmission is standard on all models, while the automatic gearbox will be a $2500 option across the range and also adds steering-wheel mounted paddle shifters for the first time.

Pricing will vary slightly for the entry-level models with the Maloo ute set to wear a $59,990 retail sticker (up $1000), while the base Clubsport will cost from $61,990 (up $1000).

For 2015 the R8 range will also take a price rise with the Clubsport priced from $73,290 (up $2000), the Maloo from $69,990 (up $1700), and the now auto-only Tourer from $76,490 (up $2200).

The price of the GTS sedan will also increase by around $1500 to $94,490 for the manual and $96,990 for the automatic.

The limited edition Maloo GTS is priced from $87,990, though all 250 examples of the super-ute are believed to have been sold.

HSV has also tweaked the styling of the Gen-F range for 2015 with new exterior colours and alloy wheel designs.

The GTS model gets a unique ‘dark stainless’ finish to its 20-inch ‘Blade’ alloys, while the 20-inch hoops on the R8 models feature ‘Tornado Grey’ accents.

The two new colours are ‘Some Like it Hot’ – a dark red – and ‘Jungle Green’ – an olive green reminiscent of the lime hue seen on VY Commodore and HSV models.

These two colours replace Karma – a dark metallic blue – and Holden’s bright orange known as Fantale.

A new ‘Hyperflow’ slim-design rear spoiler will also available as an option on all Gen-F sedan models, while a ‘Pitch Black Style’ pack adds black accented fender vents and mirror scalps with the lo-line spoiler.

Production of the updated Gen-F range will commence in November with cars expected to be in dealerships later in the month.

2015 HSV Gen-F list pricing:

Clubsport (manual) $61,990

Maloo (manual) $59,990

Clubsport R8 (manual) $73,290

Maloo R8 (manual) $69,990

Clubsport R8 Tourer (auto) $76,490

Senator Signature (manual & auto) $83,990

Grange (auto only) $85,990

GTS (manual) $94,490

GTS Maloo (manual) $87,990

Punchy performance doesn’t have to punch a hole in your bank balance

1. Mercedes-Benz CLA45 AMG BENZ’S weapon-fast compact sedan might price itself out of contention against the likes of the $60K Audi S3 and $50K Subaru WRX STi, but at $87K it’s something of a bargain in the next price bracket up, where it has more than the speed and talent to hold its own.

Against the Cayman, there’s only a whisker in it aside from depreciation, where the Porsche’s $20K-higher purchase price hurts its chances.

The $100K Volvo S60 Polestar is a more likely cross-shopping candidate, but the small German soundly beats the medium-sized Swede.

2. Porsche Cayman THE Cayman’s biggest threat comes from an in-haus rival, the Boxster. Predictably, their key stats are similar, but the tin lid version’s 67 percent three-year retained value trumps the drop-top’s 62 percent.

3. Volvo S60 Polestar THE S60 Polestar’s Gold Star Awards performance is at least as impressive as its surprise V8 Supercar race form. It couldn’t match Audi’s S4 (5th) at comparo time, but pips it for value here.

Notable classmates: Audi S4, BMW Z4 sDrive35i / Number of cars crunched: 8

Peugeot’s hot hatch turns the tables on Ford

1. Peugeot 208 GTi PUG’S return-to-form GTi may have bowed to Ford’s Fiesta ST at comparo time, but when it comes to number-crunching, the feisty French hot hatch turns the tables on its rival.

Despite costing $4000 more to buy, the 208 fights back with stronger resale, for starters, though whether this will be reflected in real-world used prices remains to be seen. Then there are the Pug’s 5.9L/100km official fuel use and $978 insurance premium, the best of any of the 25 performance cars considered. Only a good (but not great) three-year warranty stood between the reborn GTi and a Gold Star Awards clean-sweep.

2. Hyundai Veloster SR Turbo ONLY 0.7 percentage points separated the 208 GTi and Hyundai’s quirky four-door coupe. The boosted Veloster boasts fine efficiency, superb resale, inexpensive insurance, a 12-month service interval and a five-year warranty.

3. Renault Clio RS200 EDC RENAULT’S re-priced, fourth-gen hot Clio, now with turbo-assisted shove, moves firmly into the crosshairs for value-conscious buyers, narrowly ahead of another hi-po Korean coupe, the Kia Koup Turbo.

Notable classmates: Kia Cerato Koup Turbo, Ford Fiesta ST / Number of cars crunched: 25

­Korean marques again take the cake

1. Kia Rondo Si THERE’S more than one way to skin a people-mover, and that’s just on the podium. While our winner embodies old-school MPV values, others here are commercials doing passenger-car duty.

The Rondo has cropped up more than once at the pointy end of the Gold Star Awards, and it’s clear why. The $32,790 Korean bus is a cheap way of carting the family, and efficient as well, thanks to a 6.4L/100km turbo-diesel. Resale is reasonable and insurance is cheap-as. Then there’s Kia’s long service interval and five-year* warranty.

2. Hyundai iMax 2.5 CRDi SLX THE split between Hyundai’s huge eight-seater, a passenger version of its iLoad van, and third place was close. Size should make your decision clear.

3. Volkswagen Caddy Maxi Comfortline GOLF-DERIVED (up front, at least) Caddy, like iMax, has workhorse origins, but it drives like a hatch. Terrific 70 percent three-year retained value.

*STOP PRESS: Since pubication of this article, Kia has increased its warranty to seven years/unlimited kilometres

Notable classmates: Citroen C4 Grand Picasso, Honda Odyssey VTi / Number of cars crunched: 10