Among 2012’s more eventful moments were Lance Armstrong’s performance-enhanced fall and the meteoric rise of Mazda’s CX-5. But after several extended drives in the petrol-powered latter, we confess that thoughts of the former’s alleged banned “activities” kept cycling through our minds.
Namely, why couldn’t Mazda also find a way to squeeze a bit more from its sweet-revving but under-endowed SkyActiv-G powerplant? Sure, the Maxx 2.0 manual version feels fine schlepping about with a light load and a heavy right foot. But add the extra ballast of the best-selling 4WD/auto combo, and the 1543kg Maxx Sport AWD loaded up might struggle to peel a ‘My Family’ sticker off a rear window if faced with a sizeable incline.
And that’s a shame, because there’s so much going for the neatly styled, fresh-from-the-ground-up Japanese SUV – from sweet steering, agile handling and controlled ride goodness, to an interior that majors on above-average packaging smarts.
Yes, with 420Nm available from the optional 2.2 SkyActiv-D, the diesel is punchier than Rhianna’s ex. But from $40K-plus, your wallet is also in for a hit.
Happily, Mazda’s slinky new 6 has swooped in to the rescue, transplanting its 2.5-litre SkyActiv-G heart to turn the Mazda CX-5 petrol – note in AWD-only guise since the 2.0 lives on in all FWD models – from a shouter to a torquer.
To prove its mettle, Mazda let us loose through the Sunshine Coast hinterlands on roads that at times mimicked river crossings.
Now, the 2.5 isn’t slap-in-the-face fast from standstill, but as revs rise, the acceleration feels palpably more vigorous – and a whole lot less strained – than before.
As with the 2.0, the 2.5’s tacho swings effortlessly past 6200rpm, but with a lot more torque now along for the ride, so all it takes is an ankle flex – rather than a pedal stomp – for overtaking or maintaining momentum up a mountain road.
Far from shrinking from the challenging conditions, the newcomer sailed through like Noah’s SUV, with steely insouciance, utterly unfazed by the deluge.
Unfortunately no 2.5 manual is available, but Mazda’s trick six-speed torque-converter auto is no slouch, acing the appropriate ratios selection test on our drive.
Yet we’ve saved the best bit til last. While the 2.0L AWD didn’t have enough poke to stoke the chassis into action, the 2.5L version – adding just 15kg over the front axle – lights a firecracker under it, providing exceptional handling agility and throttle-adjustment capability, and backed up by huge reserves of grip.
Now eclipsing the 75kg-heavier AWD Diesel, the 2.5 AWD is the driver’s choice. Only the occasional pitter-patter from the higher-grade 19-inch wheels grated. So there you have it. A bit of claimed performance enhancement breaks one career and unmistakably makes another.
Here, at last, is a truly fast Volvo that isn’t rubbish.
If the S60 Polestar Limited Edition was human it could to walk and chew gum at the same time, something that’s never been true of high-performance Volvos in the past.
Engineered by Volvo’s Swedish racing partner Polestar to order for Volvo Australia, the first batch in a limited run of 50 cars will arrive here in late June. It will be priced above $100,000.
This car’s mission is to add muscle to the image of the entire S60 line-up in Australia. The Polestar-tuned turbo 3.0-litre in-line six-cylinder engine delivers a creamy 257kW at 5700rpm and at least 500Nm from 2800 to 4750rpm through a six-speed Getrag automatic and Haldex all-wheel-drive system.
Polestar promises a 4.9sec 0-100km/h time.
Although the project was only green-lighted in October last year, this is a polished, potent and refined drivetrain.
Even more remarkable, it’s Polestar’s first attempt at a complete RenaultSport-style package for a Volvo.
The company has been the Swedish car maker’s competition partner since 1996, and has produced performance enhancement packages for roadgoing Volvos as a sideline for some years. But the tiny Gothenburg-based outfit – it has only 35 employees – has never attempted anything as ambitious as the S60 Polestar Limited Edition.
The engine has a larger twin-scroll turbocharger, intercooler and exhaust system, plus Polestar-developed engine management software. Mods are also made to the software controlling the automatic transmission.
These add a simple-to-use launch control system and decrease shift time in ‘S’ mode. The software controlling the clutch of the Haldex all-wheel-drive system was also altered to increase the amount of torque directed to the Volvo’s rear wheels.
Polestar and Ohlins engineers collaborated on suspension. There are changes to most bushings, both bars and some suspension hardware. The car’s adjustable front struts and rear dampers utilise Ohlins’ patented DFV (dual-flow vale) technology. The S60 Polestar wears 19-inch cast wheels with 235/40ZR19 Michelin Pilot Super Sport tyres.
Enhanced standard brakes and a set-up using Brembo front calipers and compound discs were developed by Polestar’s engineers. While the Brembos pass the toughest fade-resistance tests, they’re grindingly noisy even when applied lightly.
For normal public-road driving, the upgraded standard brakes deliver similar power, silently. With start of production just days away, Polestar and Volvo Australia must make a choice.
The enhanced standard brakes are more in tune with the car’s civilise character. Two days of driving on a variety of roads in southern Sweden demonstrated that Polestar has created a remarkably polished, cohesive and desirable car.
Ride comfort is simply brilliant for a car with such impressive cornering power. The S60 Polestar also has the grip and software to make use of every single kilowatt the engine produces.
It’s quick in a straight line, quick through corners. The unmodified steering is precise and feels well connected to the road. It’s everything that past generations of high-performance Volvos were not. The price of the entry ticket is high, but the S60 Polestar is a car that really deserves to find an audience…
Can Volkswagen do no wrong?
The German giant’s run of red-hot form continues with the Golf GTI, which goes on sale in Europe in May.
As with the regular Golf, weight is down and tech is up. But more than the 42kg that’s been subtracted and the host of electronic safety and driver aid systems that have been added, it’s the new GTI’s great leap forward in driving pleasure that makes it special.
There has never been a hot hatch so refined and comfortable, agile and fast.
Significantly updated, Volkswagen’s 2.0-litre turbo engine now belts out 162kW. Or, for the new GTI Performance version, 169kW.
Both feature a torque curve 70Nm fatter than before and a 350Nm maximum.
The difference between the two is hard to pick. Volkswagen claims 0-100km/h in 6.5sec for the regular engine and 6.4sec for the Performance, with the choice six-speed manual or six-speed DSG making no difference in either engine’s case.
Where the big advances are to be found are the new GTI’s chassis.
Both versions feature a new variable-ratio steering rack that’s much more direct than the standard Golf, just 2.1 turns lock-to-lock. Volkswagen has also expanded the capabilities of the suspension’s variable dampers, with more driver-selectable options and greater operational flexibility.
The result is a hot hatch without match for breadth of capability. It’s not only more agile, but also more comfortable.
The previous GTI’s reputation was built on the way it blended doing the backroad business with pleasure in daily use.
The new GTI is the same, only better. Much better…
The R8 supercar is the best thing that has ever happened to Audi.
Even now, seven years after it launched, the R8 has the street presence and sporting clout to hold its head high among its competitive set.
And if you want proof of how well the R8 has aged, what we’re about to discuss are details of its first facelift. If you could call it that.
Only truly devoted trainspotters will notice any major visual change. The single-frame front grille is new, apparently, and the front and rear diffusers have been altered to improve aerodynamics. The V8 gets a new style of forged-aluminium 19-inch alloys and the full-LED headlights have been re-drawn with an ‘angrier’ graphic outline for the daytime running lights, which makes the R8 look meaner than ever.
The visual party trick, though, happens at the rear. The LED tail-lights feature what Audi calls “dynamic indicators”. These ‘grow’ the indicator line from the inside out, just like a 1965 Ford Thunderbird. That’s about all the R8 shares with the Thelma & Louise T-Bird, except maybe its status as an appropriate getaway vehicle for two female outlaws.
Engine-wise, the R8 is as fit as it’s ever been.
Or slightly fitter in the case of the new V10 Plus. The 316kW/430Nm direct-injection 4.2-litre V8 carries over unchanged, as does the 386kW/530Nm 5.2-litre V10, although the V10 Plus adds 18kW and 10Nm to the tally. Sadly, the open-gated six-speed manual is now only available in the V8 because Audi expects up to 90 percent of R8 buyers to tick a new box marked ‘S-tronic’.
This new seven-speed dual-clutch transmission replaces the clunky old Lamborghini-derived R-tronic ’box that was never on anyone’s Christmas card list.
It still hurts to see the V10 manual resigned to the past, but the seven-speed S-tronic is a superb transmission – super-smooth around town, with imperceptibly slick upshifts and intuitive gear selection, yet with a calibration totally focused on extracting every ounce of shove from the R8’s great engines.
Audi claims the dual-clutch V10 Plus will hit 100km/h in just 3.5sec, which is 0.1sec faster than the regular V10 S-tronic and several tenths quicker than the best anyone ever extracted from the old six-speed manual V10.
The Plus’s top speed is also marginally superior to the regular V10’s, but this car is not about numerical one-upmanship. It’s about making Ingolstadt’s supercar a bit more hardcore.
While the R8 V10 never feels quite as sweetly balanced as the quieter, less urgent V8, the Plus version’s lightweight seats, titanium wheels, and carbonfibre mirrors, sideblades, and interior inlays all contribute to a 50kg weight loss.
So do its massive ceramic brakes (380mm front, 356mm rear), which cost $23,560 extra on lesser R8s, and are more than up to the task of handling 404kW worth of wailing, hair-tingling V10 hauling down Phillip Island’s main straight.
It also comes in a unique matt Sepang Blue, which is an $11,540 option, but it’s the only clear visual signal that you paid more than $408,200 for Audi’s gracefully ageing range-topper.
Thinking of the CLA-Class as a baby brother to the CLS is right and wrong.
Conceptually, the smaller CLA shares the CLS’s ‘four-door coupe’ focus on form at the expense of function.
Yet the CLA shares little with the C- and E-Class on which the CLS is based. So the family traits are few and far between.
Uniquely, among Mercedes-Benz sedans, the CLA is front-drive because it is built on the A-Class platform. And just like the A-Class, the CLA deftly avoids front-drive pitfalls and is an engaging and thoroughly enjoyable car to drive.
Pricing is still being finalised ahead of a September launch. Benz expects a circa-$52K starting point for the CLA 200, which is powered by a 1.6-litre four with 115kW and 250Nm, the latter from 1250 to 4000rpm.
This 1480kg compact sedan is not a screamer – 0-100km/h in 8.6 seconds – but has decent low-end torque and is capable of keeping up with urban traffic without resorting to regular gearchanges.
The CLA250 will get a higher $70K price tag to justify its extra equipment and performance. It runs the same 155kW/350Nm 2.0-litre engine as the A250 Sport, but there’s no AMG-tweaked gearbox and suspension on this model.
That’s being saved for the CLA250 Sport, due in 2014. As for the all-wheel-drive CLA45 AMG, expect to pay close to $100K for its 265kW, 4.6sec performance.
Inside, the CLA’s cabin is incredibly quiet. The dashboard layout is similar to the A-Class, so it also has a younger, fresher vibe than the rest of the Benz range.
No complaints about the driving position or anything about the front seats, but the rear is definitely compromised by the CLA’s sloping roofline.
The rear door opening is narrow, so adults will need to contort themselves getting in and out. And although there are three seatbelts in the back, even a half-starved supermodel wouldn’t fit between two adults.
If the CLA’s European on-road performance translates to Australian roads – and there’s no major reason it shouldn’t – the CLA will win a lot of customers.
The CLA250 we spent most time in does the everyday stuff well, and is even more convincing when the wick is turned up. It turns in hungrily, has plenty of grip in corners and isn’t short of herbs on the straights. The rear end is relatively tame and therefore happy just to follow, as you’d expect of a Benz. This isn’t a sports car, after all. But it is good.
Yet the CLA carries a significant price levy over the equally engaging and more practical A-Class, so it’s not a pragmatic choice. It’s a purely emotional one, just like choosing the CLS over the E-Class.
Excess, as AMG well knows, equals success.
It will surprise no-one that the E63’s mid-life update brings even more power. Especially in America, a crucial market for AMG, power superiority sells cars.
And that’s exactly what the new E63 S delivers.
While 430kW isn’t a crushingly better number than the 412kW of the M5, it is inarguably bigger.
Any pain this is causing deep inside Bavarian lederhosen must be ever so slightly eased by the standard engine in the new E63. While its 410kW maximum represents a 24kW leap to parity with the previous E63 Performance package output, the M5 still has 2kW, or 0.5 percent, more.
There’s no physical difference between the 410kW and 430kW versions of Affalterbach’s twin-turbocharged 5.5-litre V8 M157 engine, says Dr Gerald Thater, the new head of AMG powertrain development.
The difference between the 410kW, which he confirms is the old Performance package set-up, and the new 430kW S engine is a painstaking one-and-a-half year recalibration of the engine’s electronic controls.
There are changes to spark timing, fuel-injection strategy and combustion control. AMG, he says, now has around 80 engineers working on specific application calibrations like this.
In Europe, and the rest of the left-hand-drive world, the big news with the facelifted E63 AMG is the introduction of all-wheel-drive as the standard drivetrain in the 410kW wagon and anything with the 430kW engine.
With the S engine twisting out 800Nm across a broad rev range, this seems a smart move. But the Mercedes 4matic system’s front differential goes exactly where right-hand drive steering hardware needs to live.
Australia, and other members of the right-hand drive minority, will continue with rear-drive. This is, the AMG people like to point out, a decision made by Mercedes-Benz, not them.
Still, the 430kW S engine will be installed in rear-drive E63 for right-hand markets. It will lack the traction to match the claimed 3.6sec 0-100km/h time of the S 4matic, but could shave a fragment of a second from the 4.1sec of the 410kW rear-driver. Mercedes-Benz Australia could import both 410kW and 430kW rear-drivers, although there is a chance they may decide to bring only the more powerful S.
As well as gaining the suite of ‘Intelligent Drive’ dynamic driver aid and safety tech that’s been added to E-Class the E63 also adopts AMG’s new ‘A-wing’ front-end design, which more clearly than ever sets the car apart from Mercedes’ regular range.
The look may have changed but the driving experience hasn’t. The new E63 is thunderously quick, brilliantly raucous and surprisingly agile for its size.
The AMG-specific linear-ratio steering rack is excellent, and the E63’s big brakes (same for both standard and S spec cars) blend power and precision.
At the international launch in and around Barcelona, both 410kW rear-drive and 430kW 4matic sedans were sampled. Although the latter had obviously superior traction, it was otherwise difficult to pick any great difference between the performance of the two.
The rear-drive 430kW S that will arrive in August, with or without the company of the 410kW version, won’t have this handicap. It promises to be the most excessive E63 Australia has ever seen. Success guaranteed, then…
Is it a sign of the times that Porsche Australia reckons the typical 911 Carrera 4 buyer is motivated by its fatter stance and greater presence, not necessarily its extra grip? Yep, it’s all in those J.Lo hips.
Just like the old Carrera 4, the all-wheel-drive 991’s rear haunches are 44mm wider than standard.
And as with its predecessor, the philosophy behind the new Carrera 4 surrounds enhancing the 911’s mechanical grip, rather than relying on electronics to disguise any lack of it.
For the Carrera 4’s Australian launch, Porsche let us loose on the Phillip Island race circuit (it’s been busy there) in a rare opportunity to compare both a rear-drive Carrera S coupe and all-paw Carrera 4S coupe and cabriolet – each with seven-speed PDK. And the comparison proved illuminating.
First up, we’re in a Carrera 4S coupe with sports exhaust and sports chrono package.
As with any new-gen 991, the benefits of a 100mm-longer wheelbase and less weight than the old 997 is felt immediately in the car’s more planted stance and the huge levels of confidence it inspires. Through the banking turn one after the main straight, followed by a double-apex left hander, the Carrera 4S feels just like a regular 911, only with its claws dug deeper into the tarmac.
Several more laps around the phenomenal PI circuit merely enhance that impression.
You can drive the Carrera 4S incredibly hard, yet it barely ever flickers its PSM stability-control light (they wanted us to leave it on), and the feeling that you’re in a rear-engined 911 remains. But somehow, there’s mechanical superglue injected into the mix.
It’s the everyman’s 911, but despite the enormous reserves of grip, the C4S is still a brilliant driver’s car.
Flat out in the Carrera 2S, the differences are noticeable but minor. The rear-driver is more throttle adjustable, in that it responds quicker to a lifted right pedal, tucking its nose in with more eagerness, tweaking its balance more readily.
But there’s really not a great deal between the two – at least not on a fast circuit like Phillip Island. Punt the two through the twisty new section at Eastern Creek and things might be different, but without doing that, it’s hard to say.
Visually, besides the voluptuous hips, you can pick the new Carrera 4 from its red tail-light strip, which runs between the rear lights, and its tweaked front air-intake grilles with parking-sensors built into the design, rather than tacked on.
A running change sees rev-matching on downchanges in Sport mode for all MY13 991 manuals (think 370Z ‘synchrorev’).
You can be certain of one thing when you show up at a Subaru launch. Japan’s most idiosyncratic car maker won’t be offering the same stuff as everybody else.
Subaru persists with the horizontally-opposed four-cylinder layout, for example, and remains committed to all-wheel drive. Subaru designers also have a unique and at times incomprehensible take on what constitutes a good-looking car.
Subaru now joins Audi as the only manufacturers to use a turbo-diesel/CVT drivetrain.
The Outback 2.0D CVT costs $42,490, a $2500 hike over the manual. Premium specification, with leather and a sunroof, adds $3000.
CVTs are usually employed to compensate for the torque deficiencies and peaky nature of small-capacity petrol engines, characteristics which the gaps between ratios in a conventional auto tend to amplify.
Subaru explains its diesel/CVT choice with the rather bizarre statement that “It is designed to compensate for the typically narrow usable power band of diesel engines that would otherwise require drivers to constantly change gears.”
That would be Subaru’s diesel engine, presumably, which has a terrible flat spot just off idle and is easy to stall in the manual, which is also overgeared and does indeed require frequent and vigorous use of the stick. Most modern turbo-diesels require you to change gears only every other Thursday.
What irks many drivers about CVTs is the fact that when you put your foot down, the transmission seems to take an eternity to deliver the road-speed result you want.
So Subaru has masked this sensation by having the transmission mimic a seven-speed auto when you use more than 65 percent throttle.
It’s an elegant, efficient compromise. When you’re gentle on the accelerator the CVT keeps the revs as low as possible and is perfectly smooth. However, Subaru has dialled in snappy launch response, so you’re not left marooned and screaming at the lights.
Get busy, or hit a serious hill, and the CVT works just like a refined, well-calibrated automatic with the benefit of a wide ratio spread.
It also shifts down a ‘gear’ if it senses you’re driving heroically and want a bootful of revs to powerslide out of a corner.
That would be futile. Subaru’s diesel is one of the milder examples of a pretty meek species. Its numbers are competitive on paper and there’s no compromise to the manual’s 1700kg towing capacity, but while the CVT is a great improvement over the manual, the engine itself still works to its brief as a frugal, leisurely device.
One for the long road, less travelled, as befits the philosophy of its maker.
Yes, it’s a Jaguar, folks, but almost certainly not as you know it.
This is not a supple-riding, dignified conveyance for men who fold their knitwear.
In fact, if you own a pipe, slippers, or a fat labrador who sleeps by the fire, you are almost certainly not going like, nor get, the new F-Type.
What it is, friends, is a resurrection of Jaguar’s sports-car heritage, which fizzled into history in the early ‘70s when the penis-on-wheels E-Type was finally retired from stud. So keep an open mind.
The F-Type encapsulates just how much has changed in the intervening 40 or so years. So if you pay more than $50 for a haircut, possibly have tattoos, and are left a bit lukewarm toward a base Porsche, this could very likely be the sports car to ignite your mojo.
The three-car range kicks off with the 250kW V6, which, at around $139K before on-roads and options, is compelling value for those with one eye on the till.
Like the V6 S model above it, you get Jag’s 3.0-litre supercharged V6, here making 250kW while delivering 0-100km/h in a claimed 5.3sec.
Naturally you also have the ultra-rigid all-aluminium structure, the totally cool and driver-centric ‘one-plus one’ cabin, and a soundtrack which will make you wonder which crazy Italian from Maserati’s sonics departments was poached to make a modern Jag sound this joyous.
It’s not just induction, nor exhaust, it’s a whole crackling, popping, belching, spitting cacophony that comes with every upshift or lifted throttle. I challenge you to not cack yourself laughing when first exposed to it.
Meanwhile, the steering is hydraulically assisted, immaculately weighted and tactile, the damping and body control expertly calibrated, as you’d expect from a company with dynamics legend Mike Cross leading the team.
It’s quick-ish, quite agile, very polished, and utterly engaging. It makes a base Boxster feel a fraction ‘straight’ and undernourished, and is a must-drive for anyone even vaguely tempted to this two-seater segment.
Now here comes the ‘but’. The mid-level model, above, the V6 S, adds $30K, yet brings a bunch of key performance upgrades no keen driver will want to be without.
The extra 30kW are handy for over taking blasts, yes, but the S model’s standard dynamic suite, which includes, crucially, adaptive dampers and limited-slip diff, raise the car’s involvement and cornering prowess to a ‘next level’ stage you can’t ignore.
If you’re sufficiently into cars enough to read Wheels and you’re on the fence, spend the extra.
The V6S is a raucous, beautifully balanced and involving sportscar that will reignite anyone’s passion for driving and have even the most jaded car perv setting the Sunday morning alarm for 5.30.
As for the V8 S, well, it’s something of a 500 horsepower animal, almost a factory-polished example of a low-volume, open-top, rear-drive weapon.
Compared with the odious, ugly X6 or the awkward, ponderous 5 Series GT, the new 3 Series Gran Turismo is relatively inoffensive.
But it is another baffling BMW, a car that makes you wonder if Munich is beginning to lose focus on the qualities which made the brand great.
This hefty hatchback is based on the same long-wheelbase 3 Series platform as the ‘L’ sedan, built specifically for the Chinese market.
The extra distance between front and rear axles delivers a big gain in rear-seat legroom and accounts for more than half the 200mm increase in overall vehicle length compared with the 3 Series Touring wagon.
Simple changes to front and rear suspensions increase ground clearance, and the new GT body also has a taller floor-to-roof measurement.
Designed to be roomy and versatile without being a wagon, high-seated and easy to enter without being an SUV, luxuriously roomy without being a big limousine, and with frameless side glass filling its I-really-wanted-to-be-a-coupe daylight opening, the 3 Series GT, unsurprisingly, looks a little confused. BMW claims there’s a niche in the market for something that combines the attributes of other vehicle types.
Maybe there is, but aiming to satisfy the kind of customer who knows exactly what they don’t want has inflicted collateral exterior-design damage.
Although the 3 Series GT’s greater bulk doesn’t bring a great increase in weight, its height and higher centre of gravity affect the way it drives. And not in a good way.
On the winding roads of western Sicily, where the international launch was staged, the BMW felt the opposite of agile. The complete numbness of the electrically assisted steering, with its odd resistance to moving off from centre, is one of the chief reasons it’s unsatisfying.
Both the 3 Series GT’s sampled in Sicily were adaptive suspension equipped (it’s an option in Europe, and Australia may follow suit). Before electronic dampers were commonplace, BMW had a richly deserved reputation for doing suspensions that balanced ride and handling better than anyone.
‘Comfort’ in the adaptive-suspension 3 Series GT is distinctly underdamped on ill-maintained roads. In Sicily, switching to ‘Sport’ actually improved ride comfort. It also brought a pointless increase in weighting of the lifeless steering and made the drivetrain more responsive.
While there are five engines in the launch line-up for Europe, only three are presently planned for mid-year release in Australia, at prices ranging from $70,000 to $76,000. They are the 135kW 320i and 180kW 328i turbo 2.0-litre spark-ignition fours, and the 2.0-litre 135kW 320d turbo-diesel four. Of these, only the 320d was present at the international launch.
Although the engine doesn’t struggle with the 1650kg kerb weight of the 3 Series GT and the eight-speed auto is sweetly responsive, it felt like BMW’s engineers ran out of time to polish refinement. There was more noise than expected when the engine was asked to work hard and at idle the steering wheel vibrated in time to the diesel’s beat.
The best time and place to appreciate the 3 Series GT is on a motorway and from the hugely roomy rear.
With the engine working easily and quietly you can lounge comfortably in the high-set seat and appreciate the high-quality materials and fine workmanship of the car’s attractive interior.
Trouble is, ‘Ultimate Passengering Machine’ isn’t the company slogan. Not yet…
