The current Lotus Exige with its 3.5-litre V6 motor from the Evora has gained great attention for Lotus, so the 2012 Geneva Motor show sees the unveil of the roadster version. If you can find it among the dozen other models on the stand!
Lotus is in a bit of a spot because many of the Toyota engines it has relied upon for years no longer comply with the latest regulations. So this Evora is a sort of stop-gap roadster, though a thoroughly welcome one.
With a big, supercharged V6 in a car as tiny as the Exige, there’s no questioning this is going to be a hoot to drive. We’ve always preferred our small Lotuses in roadster form because the noise stays out of the cabin with the roof down.
Reaching 100km/h from rest in a neck-snapping 4.0 seconds and 160km/h is just 8.5 seconds, this Exige Roadster is certainly quick. It comes with a six-speed manual gearbox, but will also be available with Lotus’ Serial Precision Shift (SPS), a paddle-operated automated manual transmission.
But beneath the hype this is, after all, a Lotus Elise with some subtle modifications and new running gear. The additional weight worries us a bit because it distances Lotus from its ethos of “adding lightness” that makes the cars such fun.
There’s finally a sporty version of the Honda Jazz. Sort of.
It’s called the Jazz Si and it features upgraded dampers, a bigger front roll-bar and a modified electric steering system.
Sadly there are no power upgrades. The Jazz Si keeps the 72kW 1.4 litre engine from the regular Jazz. Frown face.
There’s also a few aesthetic updates including an aggressive body kit, 16-inch wheels with low profile tires and a shiny red Si badge.
Alfa Romeo first built the C52 Disco Volante as a lightweight racer in 1952. Now, some 60 years later, it is releasing an all-new Disco Volante with the help car stylers Touring Superleggera.
Based on the body of an Alfa Romeo 8C Competizione, the new Disco Volante pays tribute to the original with its custom-crafted body panels made from aluminium and carbon fibre.
Underneath it’s basically just an 8C, retaining the same suspension and 326kW 4.7-litre V8 engine. This means the Disco Volante can do 0-100km/h in 4.2 seconds and travel on to 90km/h.
Although marketed as a concept, you can buy a new Disco Volante if you’re prepared to wait the eight months delivery time.
Hot off the heels of the new SL63’s debut at the Geneva Motor Show, Mercedes has now released the first pictures of the upcoming revamped SL65 AMG.
The new SL65 AMG sees a bunch more power extracted from its 6.0-litre twin-turbocharged V12, along with increased fuel economy thanks to a lightened body shell and powertrain tweaks.
Max power is now 463kW – up from the previous 450kW – while the 1000Nm of torque remains the same. 0.2 of a second has also been shaved off the AMG’s 0-100km/h time, which now stands at four seconds dead. The new 7G-Tronic seven-speed automatic gearbox and automatic start stop function also helps the SL65 AMG achieve 11.6L/100km.
The SL65’s new aluminium body shell and other weight saving measures imported from Merc’s vast garage bring kerb weight down 170kg to 1950kg.
Dogs chew things, we know this. From shoes and sticks to hoses – it’s a canine thing. But this innocent-looking British pooch has taken it to a whole new level.
The border collie-spaniel cross, called Luce, completely destroyed the front of its owner’s Aston Martin DB9 Volante by chewing through the fibreglass fender.
The hound is said to have caused more than $5000 of damage to the luxury car, and its owner was so incensed he gave the dog away.
“I came home and saw her covered in white stuff and I thought she got a bird and it was feathers,” 42-year-old Royston Grimstead told the Daily Mail. “But it was the fiberglass from the car.
“She had chewed out a huge chunk. I just laughed. I mean, what else could I do? I’m not a crier, and she knew she had done something wrong because she had this guilty look on her face.”
Apparently Grimstead had already been considering giving Luce away because she didn’t get along with his other dog.
We just hope the new owners don’t have a Ferrari.
What a soul-destroying job it must be, lying to people. And no, I don’t mean journalism. In fact, being a journalist is more about being lied to than it is about making stuff up. If I had a dollar for every time a car company has stood up and told me a bare-faced lie, I’d be able to pay cash for the new, front-wheel-drive 2 Series Active Tourer that BMW swore it would never, ever build. Because no BMW would be FWD, never ever.
It’s possible that on some of the occasions the good, honest Germans told me this, they really meant it. Perhaps the decision to go FWD hadn’t been made the first time I heard them claim that “the ultimate driving machine can only be rear-wheel drive, so no BMW will ever be driven through the front wheels”. I’m pretty sure that was at the launch of the original new Mini, in 2001, when it seemed a pretty obvious question to ask, considering what they were unveiling under a sister brand plate.
But the fact is, car companies make their product decisions years in advance, and they kept up those denials – “sheer driving pleasure only comes from rear-wheel drive” – for a long, long time. Long enough that the people telling us it wasn’t going to happen knew damn well that it was.
But such is the job of a car-company spin doctor.
One of my favourite experiences of watching these truth-dissemblers at work was when a woman I’d worked with for years quit a job at BMW to move to Audi. Suddenly all-wheel-drive cars were no longer inferior to the one true God of rear-wheel drive. And front-drivers were actually pretty good, after all.
It’s not just the Germans, of course. I’ve looked right into the eyes of a PR person for Mazda and seen not a flicker of doubt as he told me what I absolutely knew at the time was a lie. Mazda was launching a new generation of MX-5 in 2005 when we asked whether they were considering a folding a hard-top for the venerable roadster.
“No way, absolutely not, never,” he wailed. “Our car is all about light weight, shaving every gram. It would be too heavy, it’s not something we’re even considering.” The whoppers were flying faster than in a Burger King kitchen, and yet the folding hard-top that now graces most of the MX-5s sold in this country duly arrived in 2006. As we damn well knew it would.
So why do they lie?
On the one hand, there is justification in keeping a little mystery. Porsche played games for a while about whether it would build the Macan, and what stupid name it would come up with for it, but it’s fair to try and keep the punters interested by playing a bit of a guessing game.
And both VW and Porsche were coy about whether they would or wouldn’t build an MX-5 competitor together. A fair enough tactic, because they really hadn’t decided. A Porsche exec recently conceded that the plans were made, and were still in a drawer somewhere, but it had been decided not to go ahead.
Speculation that might harm the company or disappoint the customer is something the PR minders would be paid to quell. But flat out lying about plans for a folding hard-top, when everyone else in the world was already building them and it was clear Mazda would have to? That seems like lying because you either enjoy it, or you’re so secretive you have mental problems. Or perhaps it’s just a Japanese thing.
For BMW, the big lie about going FWD now becomes a real spin challenge. If a front-driver can’t provide ultimate driving pleasure, as they’ve been telling us for years, why should anyone buy a 2 Series?
It will be interesting to watch them come up with an answer. Or a new lie.
The final four at Wheels Car of the Year 2008
The proving ground at Wheels Car of the Year 2008
A selection of images showcasing Car of the Year 2008.
A selection of images showcasing Wheels Car of the Year 2005.
