The most important auto show in North America, the Detroit Auto Show has been a mainstay for more than 100 years.From its beginnings during the infancy of the automobile to its rise to international prominence in 1989 when it became the North American International Auto Show, the event has been host to more than 1,000 North American and worldwide vehicle introductions.The Detroit show is one of two auto shows worldwide to be named an international show on an annual basis by the Organisation Internationale des Constructeurs d’Automobiles (OICA).Each January more than 6,000 international journalists from around the world attend this exciting event. Here now, is our best of the show coverage for 2011.

A six-month trial of Intelligent Speed Adaptation (ISA) systems by the NSW Roads and Traffic Authority (RTA) has found that while a significant number of deaths and injuries could be avoided, the technology will not be made compulsory.According to the RTA, around 35 fatalities and 1500 injuries could be prevented if ISA technology was installed in every vehicle in NSW. The trial also showed that, as a direct result of the in-car system’s alerts, 89 percent of participants cut their time spent speeding.NSW Roads Minister David Borger confirmed this week the state will continue testing the technology before the possibility of mandatory installation would be addressed. Mr Borger acknowledged that around one quarter of participants did not like the beeping alerts made by the dash-mounted device.“This is not something we want to impose to make people’s lives more difficult,” he said.In the meantime, versions of the software will be made available to the public next year for certain mobile phones, after the RTA has completed mapping the state’s speed limits.In cars installed with the system, visual and audio cues alert drivers that they are speeding. An accompanying data logger will record changes in driving behaviour, including whether they slowed down after an alert is given.The technology works by using GPS satellites and systems to track the speed of enabled vehicles as they travel from one point to the next.Mr Borger said that road safety modelling made during the trial showed that if every vehicle in Illawarra had the ISA technology installed, road fatalities and injuries in the region would drop by 8.4 and 5.9 percent respectively.A similar trial is underway in Victoria, with VicRoads and the state’s Transport Accident Commission set to release publicly-available versions of the software in the future.What’s your say? Should this technology be compulsory?

The Lamborghini Reventon debut at the 2007 Frankfurt Motor Show and it is the most powerful and expensive Lamborghini road car to date, costing approximately one million Euros.The Reventon features an all-new carbon fiber exterior all of which have exactly the same exterior color, described to the press as “mid opaque grey without the usual shine.”For this next-gen model, Lamborghini also borrowed ideas of parent company Audi, in particular daylight running lights into the headlamps. Seven Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) at each headlamp flank the bi-Xenon main beam and stay lit whenever the car is in movement.Due to the high temperatures in the rear lower part of the car, special heatproof LEDs are used for the indicator and hazard lights, stoplights and rear lights with a triple arrow optical effect.According to designers, the exterior styling was inspired by the look and feel of the world’s fastest airplanes which is part of the reason Lamborghini staged a race between a Reventon and a Panavia Tornado fighter jet plane.

The artist behind the 3D landscapes in James Cameron’s movie blockbuster ‘Avatar’ has created a unique art collection to celebrate Alfa Romeo’s Centenary.The artwork by Federico Alliney is titled the ‘Snake and the Cross Collection’ and is described as a cinematic collection of Alfa Romeos in other-worldly visual landscapes. Much like the world of Avatar or in worlds suggested by the cars themselves.

Remember Andie MacDowell in Groundhog Day? Poor old Bill Murray took a fearful caning in his attempts to play the beast-with-two-backs with her and some people wonder why.

See, if you break Andie down into her component parts, there are a few, erm, unconventional bits. The smile’s a bit goofy, the teeth are from a larger mammal and even the frizzy hair is the sort that most teenage girls spend hours trying to straighten.But put all those slightly off-centre components together, and Andie MacDowell is eight shades of luvverly. More than the sum of her parts is an understatement. And without wishing to defame either La McDowell or the vehicle on these pages, the Porsche 356 is more of the same.Break it down into its individual components and the sides are too slabby. The whole profile owes more to an upside-down wheelbarrow than it does a wind-tunnel, and the slitty side glass makes a gun-turret feel airy.

Mounting the engine way beyond the rear axle should make it a rock-on-a-string to drive, the petrol tank sat in your lap should make it an agate-bomb in a frontal hit, and even the air-cooling seemed oddball at a time when liquid-cooling was hardly a black art. Just like a bee shouldn’t fly and frizzy girls with goofy grins shouldn’t appeal, a Porsche 356 just shouldn’t work.Absolutely none of which explains why the 356 is such a glorious, enduring piece of design with styling that, however flawed, has become nothing short of iconic. And if you’re ever lucky enough to drive one, you’ll also know that the experience is an involving, tactile triumph. Um, yeah, we like them.

Mark Webber’s Porsche 919 Hybrid in London The 356 was Porsche’s first production car and it was born in 1948 in Gmund. What’s so strange about that? Well, Gmund isn’t actually in Germany. In fact, it’s in Austria, but the less said about influential Germans born there the better. Ironically, Porsche only moved to Austria during the war to avoid the Allied bombers over Stuttgart. It was a tiny affair at first with only 50 cars or so built in the first year.By 1950, Ferry Porsche (son of company founder Ferdinand) moved the whole shebang back across the border and set up shop in Zuffenhausen, a suburb of Stuttgart (which the company still calls home). In those days, the 356 used a lot of technology that would be familiar to VW tragics, as Ferry’s dad, Ferdinand, designed the Beetle.Porsche Senior was actually banged up by the Allies in 1945 as an accused war criminal. He spent 20 months, without trial, in a French prison.

The fact that he won the 1937 German National Prize for Art and Science, as well as designing some pretty handy tanks for the Nazis, did him no favours but it did make the Allies realise he had a bit going for him as an engineer. Ferry was arrested, too, after the war, but was let off with a warning.While Pa was doing porridge, young Ferry kept the business running by repairing cars and working on anything from water pumps to winches. Eventually, the company scored the job of designing a racing car which raised enough money to spring Ferdinand from French Sing Sing.Those early Gmund-made cars are now rarer than a happy day in a Frog prison, but the ones that have made it through have probably done so because their bodies were made from aluminium rather than the steel of the later, true, production cars (the Gmund models were all hand-made).Even then, Porsche was concerned with weight and, just like Colin Chapman’s on the other side of the ditch, the cars that resulted made a heck of a lot from not much. And in those days, not much meant a 30kW 1100cc engine borrowed from VW.

Porsche teaches the perfect driving position While early 356s used a lot of VW parts, by the ’50s, Porsche had re-engineered the important bits and there was virtually no commonality between the two despite sharing the same basic layout.Cars built up to 1954 are the ones for the real purists out there. Known as Pre-As, you’ll spot them by their two-piece windscreen (which used a strip of metal to split it until 1952 and then became two butt-jointed pieces of glass for 1953 and ’54).The car known as the 356A turned up in 1955. Running changes resulted in the more refined second version for 1957 and even more changes and improvements brought us to the 356B in 1959. The last incarnation was the 1964 356C, which featured disc front brakes and the most powerful of Porsche’s pushrod engines, the 71kW SC mill.Despite Ferry’s initial estimate that the world could probably cope with about 1500 356s, the company went on to make just shy of 80,000 over 17 years. As many as half those cars are believed to still exist. Porsche was still selling 356s as late as 1965, two years after the 911 (and 912, which was a 911 with the 356’s flat-four) rolled into town.Part of the 356’s mystique was its racing success. Nothing establishes a legend like a full trophy cabinet, and the little Porsche has scored major success in events as diverse as the Le Mans 24-hour, Mille Miglia and Carrera Panamericana.For the diehards, only a Pre-A or an A will do. They’ve got a point, as the earlier cars are certainly prettier. They’ll also argue that the newer a 356, the less pure it is, but the later cars generally drive better. The front discs of the C made a huge difference and the bigger, more powerful engines of the Bs and Cs didn’t do any harm either.That said, it doesn’t really matter what age or specification of the 356 you drive, because they’re all gorgeous. Straight-line stomp isn’t the point (just as well) but for tactile, direct steering and a taut yet supple feel, not much comes close even today.And if you think that the bigger, heavier cars of today have gone off on the wrong tangent, a spin in a 356 will confirm it. Despite being up to 60 years old, a 356 still points like a good ’un and is light enough to sidestep like a rugby winger, allowing you to keep corner speeds high and make the most of every one of those little horsepowers.If you do score a drive in one, unlike Groundhog Day, you’ll wish you were doing the same thing tomorrow. And tomorrow. And tomorrow.

THERE is a moment, just the briefest, fleeting instant, when the GT3 RS feels obsolete.It’s difficult to fathom how the pinnacle of Porsche’s racer-for-the-road portfolio could ever feel out of date given that its 3.8-litre engine now pumps 331kW, and when the abiding impression you’re left with after a decent drive is a sense of wonder at how these GT3 variants can just keep getting better.But the Ferrari 458 Italia isn’t the normal updated-V8-Berlinetta. It isn’t a 360-to-430 exercise. The 458 is a paradigm shift in the way Ferrari approaches performance, and it does things that other – perhaps lesser – machines cannot.Accordingly, after a squirt in the Ferrari, I clamber back into the RS. Synapses still tingling from the Ferrari’s outrageous pace, you twist the key and the flat-six fires with a baaaaarp and the single-mass flywheel chunters away behind you. You push the heavy clutch pedal down against its stop, move the Alcantara-covered gearlever to select first gear and get rolling.And it’s during these first few moments that the 911 suddenly feels almost vintage after the 458. Minutes earlier the 458 was imperceptibly swapping gears in fractions of a second at the touch of a paddle, steering with such speed that it wasn’t necessary to cross your arms – and now the Porsche is asking you to move a lever. It feels slightly backward: almost like stepping from a full-carbon Bianchi racing bike onto a penny-farthing.The disappointment – if you can call it that – doesn’t last long. Once your hands, feet and bum acclimatise to the messages that fizz through the RS’s structure and controls, it comes alive and its burgeoning personality is utterly addictive.Only then do you begin to understand the fascinating dichotomy playing out between these two superb sports cars. Because they are just that: perhaps the two best series-production, road-going sports cars ever produced, and yet having driven them both back-to-back, and now sitting here writing about them, I’m still not sure that they should be compared to each other.You see, Ferrari hasn’t just moved the game on in terms of performance – although taking this car out to 419kW at 9000rpm, with a kerb weight of 1485kg is pretty extreme – it has also genetically enhanced the price to $526,950. And a generously specified car like the one tested here now occupies a price-point so far removed from the GT3 RS’s $337,700, that for the same money you could have a base spec RS for track days and a cooking Carrera for everyday use.Then again, price comparison points fade into insignificance when Porsche and Ferrari unveil their latest, naturally-aspirated machines. Regardless of price and intent, a comparison is inevitable.The Porsche may be 88kW shy of the 458, but it does counter with a delicious specification of its own. That famous Metzger-designed flat-six now displaces 3.8 litres and runs beyond 8000rpm. Interestingly, it uses titanium rods to run at those crank speeds, whereas the 458 spins to a crazy 9000rpm with steel internals. The torque deficit isn’t as great, but the Italia’s extra displacement (4.5 litres plays 3.8) brings 540Nm to the Porsche’s 430Nm.However, perhaps the most telling figures are the power-to- weight ratios. The 458 offers a startling 282kW/tonne, the 911 trails with 242kW/tonne.Back to the 458 then. Styling is a personal thing, but in black the Italia is surely one of the company’s more interesting shapes. Combining distinctive mid-engined Ferrari Berlinetta traits with some stunning aerodynamic detail work, there are so many scoops, intakes and outlets that the car seems semi-porous. And, of course, those triple exhausts are a respectful nod to the F40.But if the exterior seems futuristic, the interior goes several steps farther. It’s an environment that allows the driver to either keep both hands on the wheel at all times or, at the very least, have him reach no more than a few centimetres. It’s a complete departure from anything we’ve seen from Ferrari before and it’s notable for looking stunning, being mostly logical and, even on this early production car, very well constructed.Then the V8 yelps into life and idles surprisingly smoothly. You pull the right lever to select first, just as you did with the old-style F1 ’boxes, but this time there’s no unseemly clunk as the gear engages and no ugly shunting as you try to drive away slowly – the new dual-clutch transmission has transformed the slow-speed manners of the smallest Ferrari. It’s now a pussycat in town.The steering is very fast and light: almost arcade-game in its apparent detachment from the front axle. Throttle response is also very sharp, and combined with the steering and blink-and-you’ll-miss-it gearshift makes the first few minutes in a 458 rather unsettling. And then you realise to drive and enjoy the 458, you have to adjust to its way of doing things, and that means managing your inputs with a greater degree of delicacy – especially the steering.Performance is pretty startling. Don’t think for a minute that the peak output point of 9000rpm leaves this car lacking in the mid-range, because it hauls from 2500rpm in one great wall of noise and those seven ratios are so closely stacked, and the gearshift so fast, that the impression is of one long, sustained, ballistic rush of acceleration.The chassis’ electrical systems are truly amazing. At first you push gently on the long-travel throttle, waiting for the point when the e-Diff begins to lock and push the car into oversteer. But with the manettino in ‘Sport’ mode, the differential and traction control work almost imperceptibly – to the point that you’re quickly burying the throttle with increasing anger, just to see what happens. The answer, on dry asphalt, is grip and grip. Plus grip. Traction is superb.The ride is busy with the dampers on the firmer setting, but you can improve this by knocking them back to ‘bumpy road’ mode, but even then the 458 is less supple than the RS, which I didn’t expect. The car has good wheel travel, though, and rarely gets deflected.What emerges from the 458 is a driver-vehicle relationship unlike any other. You drive the car with your wrists; making small, neat inputs. You lean on the electronics to transfer as much of that 419kW to the road as possible and you almost forget about the gearshift because it’s so damn efficient. You cover ground at an extraordinary rate, you snigger at the ebullience of the engine and you admire, greatly admire, the technical brilliance of Ferrari’s achievement.And, at first, the precocious genius of the 458 does hang heavy over the RS. As I said, it just feels antiquated and unnecessarily demanding by comparison. At first.The gearshift is so heavy, the steering much slower and the engine, despite being superbly responsive, doesn’t fling the car at the horizon the way the Ferrari’s V8 does. There’s somehow slightly more inertia in the package, which is odd given its 115kg weight advantage. Like all 911s, you need to gel with the latest RS – work with it, not against it.When you do, what emerges is one of the great analogue driving experiences: this is very much Porsche’s vinyl to Ferrari’s MP3. That slower steering rack greets the driver through a thin-rimmed wheel and the way it writhes and wriggles in your hands might actually be the clearest representation of the differences between the two cars.The Porsche is obsessed with involving the driver, it just wants you to take charge and feel everything, whereas the Ferrari is much more concerned with technical excellence, with deploying its fearsome potential to the surface at all times.Through a series of tight, technical sections, there’s no doubt that the Ferrari is marginally quicker, its front axle holds a slightly tighter line (even on normal Michelin rubber compared with the Porsche’s Cup tyres) and its traction is remarkable. But the RS is more effervescent; you feel its mass moving around, you have to manage the power more actively and it sends some glorious messages back through seat, pedals and wheel. The noise is telling, too. For all the 458’s volume and shriek, it offers a slightly synthesised shout; the 911 is more natural.By now you’ll have picked up on the vast differences in the way these two go about their business. The Porsche is infinitely more demanding of the driver. All it takes is a second- gear turn, approached by a fifth-gear straight to expose the vast gap that exists between the two experiences they offer. In the Ferrari you simply choose your line, avoid any notably bumpy sections in the braking zone, thump the left pedal, feel those huge 398mm carbon-ceramic Brembos come to life, flick the left paddle three times and turn-in. Easy as A-B-C.Not so in the Porsche. Again, you pick your braking zone to avoid bumps, even though the Porsche is actually deflected less by them because it’s a little softer. But each gearchange requires a perfect combination of shifting, steering and heel ’n’ toe if you’re to avoid agitating the rear axle.You have to manage the mass more carefully, too. Hit the brakes hard (smaller at 380mm, but with a more consistent pedal response) and the nose dives under deceleration, but release them too quickly and it rises too suddenly, unloading the front axle and bringing a whole world of pain called understeer. In short, the driver has a much bigger influence on the quality of the RS’s behaviour. Does that make it the better car? That depends on your point-of-view.The 458 is a superior technical statement and its spread of abilities shades the 911’s. You could use the 458 every day, the gearbox is brilliant and the cabin is ideal for long distances. What it doesn’t deliver is as pure a driving experience as the RS.Some will find the 911 too difficult, too demanding, but its judgement of hardcore adrenalin rush and surprisingly useable machine isn’t that far behind the 458’s. This one even has sat-nav, iPod input and folding seats. It’s just not as refined as the Ferrari.No, I prefer to summarise them thus. If you told me I had to drive one of this pair every day for the next 12 months, I’d take the 458. It’s a stunning achievement. But if you told me I could only drive one car, for one hour, I would choose the latest GT3 RS. It’s a rush and it reminds me what driving is all about.

What type of car do you currently own?A Mitsubishi Triton Ute, which living in St Kilda, Melbourne, probably seems strange but it’s perfect so I can put my Golden Retriever, who slobbers everywhere, in the back.Out of all the cars you have ever owned, what has been your favourite?A 1990 Mitsubishi Magna. I used to call it ‘the magna of death’, it was white, had different panels on it and a coat hanger for an aerial. It didn’t cost me much to buy so the money I saved from owning this car helped me with my future investments.If you could own any car in the world, what would it be?An off-white 1990 Mitsubishi Magna – they are great cars.Has there ever been a time when you’ve been in strife with your car, such as an accident or if it was stolen?When I was 17 my Dad and I restored a 1966 XP Falcon together. One day my mates and I decided to take it out for a drive down to a mate’s place. On the way there I didn’t realise there was a truck behind us and as we turned a corner it clipped us from behind.Did you have comprehensive car insurance when the incident occurred?No.How much did it cost you and were you regretful? Are you insured now?I can’t remember how much it cost but I was more worried about Dad and what he would say, it was a fender bender so it wasn’t that bad . Yes I am insured now.Do you have any advice for other drivers out there?Insurance is the one thing I don’t mind spending money on because I know it’s worth it. You might have all of your finances sorted but without car insurance one slip up can put them out of whack. If you can afford comprehensive car insurance then get it, just make sure that you read the fine print and you are aware of the exclusions. Also, don’t drive like a ‘bogan’.What are the three main factors that are important to you when choosing car insurance?1. No two policies are the same, so make sure you read exclusions on the product disclosure statement (PDS).2. Choose a reputable insurer.3. Shop around. If you can afford it, if you have a ‘mojo fund’ (an emergency fund), opt to get the highest excess you can afford so that you premiums are lower.Scott’s television series, The Barefoot Investor, appears on Channel 10 and CNBC and is currently available in around 12 million homes where he advises people about a range of financial topics such as home loans and investing.

There has never been cop-bait to equal the bronze XR GT Falcon. In the week leading up to the April 1967 Calder Park launch, Ford’s PR people diligently put miles on test cars. In five days, all four were pinched for speeding. Only after testing the GT at Calder did I understand.Breaking the speed limit was an inevitable consequence of the GT; this was easily the fastest and most powerful car I’d ever driven. At a stroke, the bronzed Aussie GT – 289ci (4.7-litre), 225bhp (168kW) V8 and four-speed manual – established a performance standard matched only by European sports cars like the E-Type Jaguar, at two-and-a-half times the GT’s $3890 pricetag.Bill Bourke’s creation, born of a police pursuit vehicle to target Bathurst, established a local horsepower race and created a class of unique supersedans that survives to this day. Modern FPVs and HSVs are way faster – cutting more than three seconds from the GT’s 16.4sec for 0-400m – and far more sophisticated, with greater grip, brakes that don’t fade after two stops, and quick, light steering. Yet none can hope to equal the impact of that first GT.Bourke, then Ford’s deputy MD, combined police spec with black Fairmont interior, Stewart-Warner instruments, a deep, wood-rimmed steering wheel and oversized central binnacle. Mustang GT badges and thin black stripes adorned the body sides, the 5.5in wheels wore stainless steel trims.You can argue the Chrysler Valiant’s 3.7-litre, 108kW slant six – twice the power of its Holden rival – started the ’60s horsepower race. Ford responded with an optional 2.8-litre six and later 3.1-litre. Holden replied with the 179 ‘red motor’ and so began the automotive leap-frog.Then the ‘Mustang-bred’ XR GT unleashed a five-year eruption of hero muscle cars: ever more powerful GTs and the mighty HOs from Ford; Holden’s Monaro 327 and 350 V8s, the hot-six Torana XU-1s; and, Chrysler’s six-cylinder Hemi Pacer and brilliant Charger RT E38 and E49.Massive public and press reaction to the GT forced Ford to abandon plans for a limited run of 255 cars. By the time the XT GT arrived in March ’68, Broadmeadows had pumped out 684, including eight in the silver of Bathurst sponsor Gallaher cigarettes.For the XT, the GT became a normal, more subtle Falcon model and even offered a choice of colours. The 289 V8 was replaced by the 302, the Hurst shifter disappeared and an automatic version was offered.Maybe it’s because the XT GT was my first experience of 120mph (193km/h) on the road, but after testing all the GTs during this golden era, the XT remains my favourite, ahead even of the much faster Phase III HO. The XT achieved a performance and handling balance the heavier, extroverted XW/XY GTs never matched.But the XT was too restrained for Bourke. He insisted the XW needed a 351ci V8 to top the Monaro’s 327. When the competitions department doubted even this would guarantee a Bathurst win, the engineers developed the so-called Handling Option (HO) – $245 over the GT’s $4250 – and another legend was born.Visually, the only difference was a fibreglass front spoiler. But detail improvements included a rear anti-roll bar, bigger 600cfm Holley carburettor, aluminium inlet manifold and three-inch tailshaft. Officially, output climbed 8kW from the GT’s 290bhp (216kW) to 300bhp (224kW). Unofficially, closer to 330bhp (246kW). Bathurst ’69, however, was a tyre-related disaster for Ford, and the Monaro won.For 1970, Ford switched the GT and now GT-HO Phase II from Windsor to Cleveland V8. They shared the same bore and stroke, but the Cleveland featured canted valves and a new block, plus an even bigger 780cfm carby. Ford claimed the same official outputs.In 1970, I compared the Phase II with an XU-1 Torana and Valiant Pacer. This HO was the wild one, a race car for the road: lumpy 800rpm idle, tall first gear, heavy clutch and steering, and real power only from 3000rpm to the 6000rpm redline (up 500rpm). There were compensations: the oversteer of the first HO was gone and (for the era) performance was staggering. Its 14.9sec 400-metre time thrashed the XU-1’s 16.1sec and Pacer’s 16.4. The Phase II stormed home at Bathurst.‘The Biggest Stick’, Mel Nichols’ drive story on the XY Phase III GT-HO contains Wheels’ most famous photo: Uwe Keussner’s over-the-shoulder shot of the HO at maximum revs in top on the Hume Highway (see page 95). Except, in the August 1971 issue, when the speedo needle was doctored to sit at 97mph, as if the car was in third gear. Management ordered the change.A few years later we ran the real shot, speedo at 140mph-plus, and Nichols wrote his equally famous ‘HO Down the Hume’ story. This HO was, and remains, Australia’s matchless muscle car. More flexible and friendlier than the Phase II, its 14.4sec 0-400m was equalled only by a Charger E49. Driving his Phase III solo, Alan Moffat easily won the ’71 Bathurst.The Sydney Sun-Herald’s ‘Bullets on wheels’ story killed off the 1972 Bathurst supercars, including the XA Phase IV HO (just four hand-built cars escaped) and delayed the launch of a V8 Torana. Once the furore settled, and the Bathurst regs relaxed, Ford quietly offered a Regular Production Option – the legendary RPO 83 – on the XA GT sedan and hardtop; a neat way to use up all the bits created for the Phase IV. To avoid unwelcome publicity, Ford didn’t advertise it or provide journalists with test cars. Wheels drove (and loved) racer John Goss’s personal car.The GT continued into the XB, but when Ford announced it was withdrawing from motorsport in 1974, its days were numbered. The XC launched in 1976 without a GT and, to the chagrin of blue-blood fans, the V8 was dropped in late 1982 – to return, as a 5.0-litre Windsor V8, in 1991’s EB Falcon.To celebrate the GT’s 25th anniversary, Ford built a run of 250 227kW EB GTs, but the car lacked the flair and muscle of the original. And a tame 30th anniversary EL GT appeared in 1997.Ford officially returned to the performance field in 1992 with the S-XR6. Developed by Tickford, a British company established to form Ford’s high-performance arm, the S-XR6’s tweaked six produced 161kW, and the car showed promise. It was the start of a decade-long battle to build credible Falcon competition for the HSV Commodores.In 2002, unhappy with the results achieved with Tickford, Ford set up Ford Performance Vehicles (FPV) with UK-based road/race engineering outfit, Prodrive. On sale in March 2003, the Boss 290 GT (and luxury GT-P) was finally a car worthy of the GT badge. Bathurst winner John Bowe appreciated what the name and image meant to Ford. He told Wheels, “The early GTs gave Ford performance credibility no amount of marketing money could buy. They were race cars. Not just any race cars, but ones to conquer The Mountain.“Without wishing to denigrate the EB and EL, this is a far brawnier car. Those two cars were more in keeping with the early GTs – the XR/XT – but the ones everybody remembers are the XW and XY. They were the ones that created the mystique about the GT Falcon and this new car is of that ilk.”

TIME HAS passed Hill End by. In the 1870s this was a thriving NSW gold town with 27 pubs, five banks, two newspapers and a population of 8000. But now the crooked, bisecting streets are bare, the tin-roofed cottages hiding behind gap-toothed picket fences are mostly uninhabited. There is one pub, no banks and today’s papers won’t arrive from Bathurst till this afternoon. Just 100 people live here, making a living from tourist traffic.Appropriate then, that this is the halfway point of our two- day sojourn in this most interesting member of Subaru’s fourth generation Outback range, the new 2.0-litre turbo-diesel 2.0D.It’s the sort of wandering 1000km trip that people who buy Outbacks envision themselves making. After following the M4 out of Sydney, we’ve clambered up to Katoomba on the Great Western Highway, meandered southward along the Jenolan Caves Road, cut west through curiously named Duckmaloi, frigid Oberon, ancient Rockley and shambling Trunkey Creek. Then northward to Orange and eastward to our overnight stop, the last few kays on dirt in the dark dodging the occasional bit of scurrying or bouncing wildlife.We’ve been on freeways, highways, back-country bitumen and even explored some forestry commission dirt. The weather has become steadily colder, the skies more overcast and there have been suggestions of rain. These mixed conditions are exactly what this all-wheel-drive Liberty-based wagon was designed for, ever since the original Outback pioneered the crossover wagon category back in the mid-1990s.In this age of high fuel prices and lowering CO2 targets, the arrival of the diesel makes that proposition all the more attractive.Subaru tips the diesel will add a useful 100 sales per month to the newly updated Outback range. Not bad considering it only comes with a six-speed manual, something dictated by the engine’s primarily European target audience. There’ll eventually be an automatic transmission option for the diesel, but it’s years, not months, away.The engine’s horizontally-opposed design pays homage to Subaru’s heritage and is a world first, but apart from the same bore spacing it has limited technical cross-over with the company’s 2.0-litre petrol engine. Instead, the diesel engine’s symmetrical 86mm x 86mm bore and stroke contrasts with the petrol 2.0’s dramatically over-square 92mm x 75mm vitals.And while they share all-alloy construction, the diesel has been toughened up considerably to cope with its 16:1 compression ratio, including metal matrix composite journals incorporated into the cylinder block, strengthened cylinder head and stronger pistons.Add chain-drive DOHC and 16 valves, an IHI variable-nozzle turbocharger, a top-mounted intercooler and Nippondenso common-rail direct-injection, and the outputs are a competitive 110kW at 3600rpm and 350Nm between 1800 and 2400rpm. Official combined fuel consumption is a mere 6.4L/100km, while a closed-loop diesel particulate filter is standard.From the driver’s seat the result – perhaps unsurprisingly – is a different yet vaguely familiar experience. The diesel still has that boxer smoothness, still spins happily and offers a more civilised and composed feel than most in-line four-cylinder diesels.Of course, it delivers all this within the more restricted limits imposed by the compression-ignition combustion process. Our youthful engine was running out of useful revs by about 4200rpm, but you can expect that feeling of constipation to ease as kays mount up. Never expect it to be a manic revver, though.But it doesn’t need to rev hard, considering it provides the sort of torquey punch in the mid-range a 2.5i Outback owner couldn’t even imagine. In any of the first four gears the diesel will pull from 2000rpm with enthusiasm. Below that it prefers first and second. On winding, undulating bitumen like the Jenolan Caves Road, it’s sometimes in third, mostly in fourth and occasionally fifth when a straight appears. Sixth is moon-shot, only good for motorway dawdling and theoretical fuel consumption claims.No doubt that tall sixth helped our final fuel figure, which came out at 8.4L/100km, a result that matches the official figure for the CVT 2.5i, undercuts the manual by 0.5L/100km and the 3.6R by 2.0L/100km. Combine that with a 65-litre tank and the Outback 2.0D delivers a useful theoretical range of 770km. Not that the diesel is the only new carrot Subaru has dangled in front of potential Outback buyers. As we’ve already detailed (August, 2009), this is a bigger, more spacious car with upgraded petrol drivetrains, better fuel economy, a stiffer body, revised suspension, plentiful airbags and a five-star ANCAP rating.While the styling is convoluted, the model line-up is straightforward, with three specification levels. The equipment line-up is basically identical (see breakout, right), but you do pay a premium for the diesel, its pricing lining it up to the dollar against the 2.5i with the new CVT auto, or $2500 more than the manual.Day two arrives bright, blue-skied and much warmer. After breakfast we strike north-east on the route home. We stop for fuel at Rylstone and from there it’s up through Bylong and Sandy Hollow to the Golden Highway.Disappointingly, this fast, flowing and virtually deserted backroad has now been sealed, robbing us of one last opportunity to enjoy the Outback’s progressive lift-off oversteer. Driven straighter, the Outback remains as secure as ever on gravel. That’s no surprise considering the viscous-coupled, permanent all-wheel-drive system is fundamentally unchanged apart from the mechanical LSD being replaced by an electronically controlled braking function within the (as always) sensitively tuned and switchable stability control system (VDC).With time fleeting it’s on to the legendary Putty Road for the run back to Sin City. It’s here on the tightening off-cambers, hairpins and esses that the 2.0D is at its weakest. The diesel weighs in 62kg heavier than the petrol 2.5i and it shows. Subaru has tried to compensate by bumping up the front spring rate a couple of notches, but the diesel Outback is clumsier, less communicative and more prone to kickback through the steering.It’s obvious this car has a big nose and leads with it, something emphasised by how much it has grown compared to its predecessor. At 4.8m-long, it’s a compact SUV in VFACTS categorisation only. Having said that, its 1551kg kerb weight remains commendably slim.The longer wheelbase no doubt aids the excellent ride quality, as does the more rigid body and some specific local suspension tuning.Man-size seats, good noise damping and plenty of storage complete a well-thought-out interior, apart from the continued mounting of child safety seat retention hooks in the roof. And with that we’re back in Sydney, negotiating the clogged arterials at peak hour, dodging pedestrians and scooters, trying not to be rammed by buses. The Outback 2.0D’s coping without fuss, just as it has the entire trip. Time has passed, but not passed the Outback by. With the addition of the 2.0D it remains as relevant and worthy as ever.

We all know not to speed or drink drive, but there are a bunch of other rules from around the world that almost can’t be explained.Some are local custom, some are because of quirks in the regional infrastructure, while others simply defy logic.When travelling, you’d best keep some of these more obtuse rules in mind, lest you be fined or thrown in the slammer!