Everyone should own at least one thing made of carbon-fibre.

It doesn’t matter if it’s a ballpoint pen or a 30-metre super maxi, possessing an item that’s made from carbon-fibre reinforced plastic serves as a constant reminder of just how exceptionally cool and impressive this composite material is.

First used in the aircraft industry in the 1950s, CFRP is now in everything from bike frames to artificial heart valves and, of course, along the way, the miracle material found its way into the automotive realm.

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There’s no doubt Formula 1 and race cars generally wouldn’t be as safe today if someone hadn’t wondered what would happen if you glued a bundle of tiny whiskers together in epoxy resin 60 years ago.

And I’m absolutely certain that the McLaren Artura I recently drove wouldn’t have misshapen my face with quite the savagery it did if its new passenger cell wasn’t built using the latest composite material technology. But you really can have too much of a good thing and I feel the car world is excessively dominated by carbon-fibre today.

I’m not talking about its use in building monocoques or ultralight wheel rims because I love cars that can hit 100km/h in 3.0 seconds and corner at light speed.

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But where the car industry has become utterly obsessive about carbon-fibre is its use decoratively.

If you need a good example, look no further than tasteless car modifier Mansory which has built a business ruining luxury cars by replacing all their body panels with carbon copies and then adding 400 extra carbon-fibre pieces in the form of spoilers, ducts, splitters and fins.

The result is a ‘finished’ vehicle that looks as though it was penned by a six-year old (no offence to our younger readers) and weighs more than if it had been cast in tungsten.

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And unfortunately, everyone is at it.

Virtually every premium car brand and some others currently offer options to replace perfectly functional and aesthetically pleasing parts of a given model with carbon-fibre equivalents, which add no performance benefits and, in some cases, are actually heavier than the part they replace. More significantly though, they’re expensive.

Adding the full exterior carbon pack to the Lamborghini Huracan STO, for example, adds another $40,000 to the bottom line. Mansory asks several hundred thousand for a car that it couldn’t even be bothered to paint, while Bugatti once charged an extra $400,000 for a Chiron that had been visited by the carbon fairy.

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carbon-fibre has a very special place in the automotive realm. But if you love it as much as I do, save your cash

I understand that some car fans enjoy the uniform appearance of carbon-fibre matte or the chaotic swirls of so-called forged carbon-fibre, but if you’re prepared to decorate a car in a material that is pretty but structurally unnecessary then why not get your door trims in polished granite?

Or maybe a crystal gear selector, or solid gold bonnet badge? Unfortunately the last laugh is on me here because, albeit absurd, those have all previously been offered as options by Maybach, BMW and Bentley respectively.

carbon-fibre has a very special place in the automotive realm. But if you love it as much as I do, save your cash from the outrageous options list and put it towards a new pushbike, tennis racquet or F22 Raptor. Unlike carbon trims, all three work better than the alternative.

“Back and left-hand down, back and left-hand down!” are the words hurtling into the McLaren Artura’s cabin as I straddle the centre line with reverse refusing to engage. ‘Charge level too low’ insists the digital instrument cluster, despite showing 13 percent battery.

The Artura is McLaren’s first-ever series-production hybrid model (the 2013 P1 was limited to just 375 examples, so it doesn’t count) and is the first clean-sheet design since the 2011 MP4-12C. That means all-new architecture and engine, a rather spacious cabin, and an eight-speed dual-clutch gearbox.

A 7.4kWh lithium-ion battery bestows the Artura with 31km of hushed electric driving range so you’d expect McLaren’s new supercar to weigh a bit. The battery itself is 88kg, while a 15.4kg electric motor, inverters, and cooling gubbins adds 130kg worth of high-voltage equipment.

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Yet the Artura hits the scales at 1498kg with driver and fuel onboard – a mere 46kg heavier than the outgoing 570S coupe.

McLaren has managed to keep pork down with a combination of its new ‘MCLA’ carbon chassis (that cuts kilos by 10 percent), a compact 430kW 3.0-litre twin-turbo V6 engine, and an eight-speed ’box that ditches the reverse ratio, relying instead on the 70kW/130Nm motor for backward momentum … which is what has landed me in this predicament.

Mercifully, I’m not stranded. I’d heard about reverse issues in the Artura’s initial road tests (and other electronic issues that thankfully didn’t present themselves), so I left space to drive out.

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To charge the battery without a cable (doing so with one takes 2.5 hours) you can toggle the Artura into either Charge or Track modes and simply drive, using the V6 as a generator. It’s the perfect excuse for a quick blat up the Old Pacific Highway.

Cut sharply into Sydney’s sandstone, the ‘Old Pac’s’ cliffs bounce the dry-sumped V6’s vibrations back into the Artura’s cabin. The sound isn’t comparable to a V12 shriek or a full-bodied V8 snarl, but the Artura’s functional motorsport bark makes for plenty of aural enjoyment approaching its impressive 8500rpm redline.

The medium registers at partial throttle openings are more intriguing than flat-out. The V6’s coarse timbre changes through different pockets, fluctuating with throttle input to remind you this isn’t synthesised fakery.

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We’re heading northwest through the lower Hunter to our halfway point at one of Australia’s coal power hotspots

Speaking of the right pedal, its long travel and heavy weight are in perfect harmony with the Artura’s other controls, making it easy to apply just the right amount of grunt. Despite multiple power sources at play, it never feels clumsy, either.

Battery levels recuperated, I’m able to place the Artura for Wielecki to work his magic while I plan the rest of the day. We’re heading northwest through the picturesque lower Hunter – ‘convict country’ – to our halfway point at one of Australia’s coal-power hotspots.

It’s a big outing and requires some freeway slogging, for which the Artura is rather well equipped. Although the GT is McLaren’s everyday model, this Artura still packs adaptive cruise, lane-departure warning, and speed-sign recognition to ease long slogs.

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Enabled by McLaren’s new ethernet-based electronics, the systems work well enough. There’s still the issue of ever-present road and engine noise but who buys a supercar and doesn’t expect some measure of practical compromise?

Trading coastal beauty and smooth hotmix for the thin, scrubby gums and ratty asphalt of George Downes Drive should provide the first real challenge.

Regularly pummelled by coal-packed semi-trailers, the Artura’s excellent damping provides support and pliancy in equal measure as it skims the broken asphalt. The steering wheel writhes more fervently in my hands, reminding me the Artura retains a hydraulically assisted power steering rack.

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With no annoying touchscreens to concern us, it’s elementary dialling in my ‘Goldilocks’ mode

Past the township of Kulnura, the bumps become less severe and invite me to fiddle with the Artura’s drive modes. Powertrain settings are on the right toggle above the cluster and Chassis on the left.

With no annoying touchscreens to concern us, it’s elementary dialling in my ‘Goldilocks’ mode, with the right switch in Sport to prime the throttle and open the Artura’s lungs – Track is a little angrier again, but we’ll save that for later. Experimenting with the dampers, I find Sport isn’t overly harsh (for a supercar) and helpfully sharpens the body’s responses.

Usually the domain of nimble hot hatches with plenty of suspension stroke, the low-slung McLaren proves wieldy and exploitable through a favourite set of testing bends.

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Communicative steering and supportive suspension goad me into attacking a tightening off-camber left-hander, trailing the reassuring brake pedal to lock the Artura’s nose on course.

Building throttle pressure to neutralise the chassis, I notice the E-Diff locking under power and continue committing to test the tyres’ resolve. A little too far and the steering weight lightens, but a light lift is enough to tuck the Artura’s front Pirellis back in.

Pulling into Wollombi, the Artura’s predatorial bodywork stands in stark contrast to the car du jour (Subaru’s third-gen Forester), its Volcano Yellow paintwork accentuating the shapely air intakes.

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This particular car is fitted with a black styling pack, roof, and satin black 19-inch front and 20-inch rear alloy wheels that really make the Duco pop.

Yet the Artura undersells its ground-up novelty; to the casual observer, its proportions and details aren’t radically different from the 570S it replaces.

After lunch our support car departs, leaving us with all of Thomas’s camera gear to fit inside. The McLaren’s capacious frunk obliges, though opening it does draw our attention to some less-than-stellar finishing: the shut lines are variable across the panels with the bonnet especially sitting lower than the arches, unintentionally parlaying the Artura’s handmade nature.

There’s a similar feeling inside. The materials are decent with this TechLux spec’s mix of leather and Alcantara upholstery.

But the door card’s leather appointment is curiously interrupted by a stitch that runs from the window rubber to the grab handle halfway along – it’s almost like McLaren couldn’t find a big enough cow for a seamless application.

The Upper Hunter is a proverbial canary down the coal mine for climate change, with residents treated to near-apocalyptic events in recent memory. In 2020, the wine-growing region dumped nearly an entire grape harvest due to bushfire and smoke damage, yet just two years later it was inundated with the opposite – a freezing, wet winter and historic floods.

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The traces of these events remain on Payne’s Crossing Road. The broken (and half-missing) surface draws grimaces as we crawl along at 40km/h with the Artura’s standard nose-lift activated.

Even at this pace, it’s not long before the road mercifully smoothes out and vehicles near our citrón supercar change from derelict single-cab utes and luxury SUVs to mining-fleet Hiluxes and dust-covered B-Doubles.

Between Broke Road, the Golden Highway and our halfway point, we pass no less than five sprawling open-cut sites where mechanical giants sift through dirt in search of black carbon deposits that still makes up 70 percent of NSW’s energy mix.

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Even with cheap, local coal providing the lion’s share of power generation in the state, there’s more than Australia needs in the ground so the rest is shipped out at Newcastle.

With more renewables in the mix, we don’t need so much local generation either – even to charge our supercars.

The first casualty of that is what’s brought us four hours from Sydney in the Artura: to the left of the New England Highway are the broad cooling towers of the operational Bayswater power station; on the right are Liddell’s comparatively svelte stacks.

More than a third of NSW’s electricity was generated by this pair at one point, though smaller Liddell was decommissioned in April after 52 years to make way for a future renewable energy hub. There’ll be hydro generation, arrays of solar panels, geothermal, and massive batteries to store any excess generated energy.

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Before all that happens, we get to step inside a church of horsepower.

Like entering a place of worship, there’s an eerie quietude with no clanging from coal being atomised in crushers, no roiling steam being transferred from the boilers as they spin up Liddell’s quartet of five-megawatt generators, and there never will be again. The only sounds in Liddell’s belly come from the Artura hybrid’s gently ticking exhaust pipes and the sci-fi hiss of its electric motors.

It’s odd driving such a visually loud supercar through the town of Singleton with little more than the electric motor whirring away in the background. We still have to brim it with fuel; always an exercise with a supercar.

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One bloke in particular is taken by it, descending from a bin truck index finger aimed at the car, asking if it’s a 650S.

Pretty good knowledge, I reply, before educating old mate that it’s an Artura – McLaren’s all-new hybrid supercar – and fill him in on various specs as he grabs an ice-cold energy drink from the fridge and a lukewarm Four’N Twenty from the pie shelf.

“Give it a rev, would ya!”

I oblige, only to find a limp limiter at 4500rpm, much to the disappointment of the crowd of local young-uns who chase us out of the servo on their BMXs with camera phones in hand.

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Tank full and egos inflated, we’re off to sniff out the best tarmac within a day’s drive of Sydney – Putty Road. All 154km is good, but the 30km heading south from Milbrodale through Howe’s Valley is truly premium tarmac.

After cruising through about a kilometre of traffic-light-controlled roadworks, it’s time to turn up the Artura’s wick and feel what it’s all about with the chassis in Sport (after finding Track too uncompromising) and powertrain in full-attack mode.

Putty’s unpredictable corners open, tighten and change cambers like a rollercoaster track, though an abrasive surface offers plenty of forgiveness.

Clicking the single-rocker paddle-shifter, I whip through the acquiescent eight-speed dual-clutch transmission from fifth down to second approaching a tight switchback, with each new cog accompanied by a staccato V6 bark.

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Accelerating out, there’s a gentle (and deliberate) thump into third reminding you of the Artura’s mechanical nature.

I’ve become accustomed to the quality in the touchpoints, but the Artura is still growing on me with its poise and consistency. Though separate businesses, Woking’s automotive division takes inspiration from the Formula 1 team. Case in point being the Artura’s rear suspension – it’s a version of double wishbone with a split lower arm and a tie-rod in front of the axle line to increase ‘anti-squat’.

The concept is similar to the ground effect ‘MCL60’ F1 car: keep the body as flat as possible to maximise the diffuser’s effect while minimising fore-aft pitch. It means the Artura can run lower rear spring rates for greater independence across the axle and more grip (as well as a better ride) without promoting front-end push under power.

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I’m tuning into the Artura’s capability and the flow of the section of Putty now, carrying the brake pedal deeper and getting on the throttle sooner to egg the mid-engined Artura into moving around beneath me.

But even with its clever ESC – that’s getting information about temperature and pressure from Pirelli’s smart Cyber Tyre – in Dynamic mode, the 295mm-wide rear tyres retain their purchase on the tarmac.

For all the electronic trickery, complexity, and F1-inspired chassis design, the Artura holds onto a uniquely physical connection between the driver and tarmac: that hydraulically assisted power steering.

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The flat-bottomed wheel communicates the tarmac’s grip level in high definition – great for driver confidence – but it also means the Artura is nearly as engaging gently flowing through bends as it is at full attack.

Adding to the Artura’s charm is its powertrain. The heavily boosted M630 V6 develops its power (7500rpm) at the top of the rev range and, while peak torque is spread from 2250-7000rpm, the electric motor fills any turbo lag at lower revs and delivers a searing punch when the ICE is on song.

Despite all the moving parts, the Artura replies to commands from the throttle with consistency, and if the boost-by-gear antics editor Enright noted in his drive of Ferrari’s edgier 296 GTB (Wheels July 2023) are happening in the Artura, they’re far more subtle.

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Performance figures? All bar top speed comfortably eclipse the McLaren F1

McLaren’s latest doesn’t create awe through fear, then, though that’s not for a lack of firepower.

With 500kW and 720Nm, the Artura is capable of completing the now almost irrelevant 0-100km/h sprint in 3.0 seconds, hitting 200km/h in 8.3 seconds and going onto 300km/h in 21.5 seconds before topping out at 330km/h. All bar top speed comfortably eclipse the McLaren F1’s acceleration figures, but fall shy of the 296 GTB.

Despite the two cars sharing so much on paper (the plug-in hybrid and their unique 120-degree-angle V6s), it remains up to McLaren’s 750S to beat the 296 at the lunacy game until Woking turns up the Artura’s theatrics, potentially with a future Long Tail variant.

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Thirteen hours have elapsed since our first coffee and the low winter sun is igniting the pearlescent yellow paint as we make our way home.

Clouds rumble through the valley, dropping saturating rain for a brief few minutes. Far from dampening the spirit, the Artura’s rooster tail of spray illustrates its aero trickery.

With the sun at rest, I’m left blinded by the 8.0-inch touchscreen. There’s no simple setting to adjust the brightness and the high-contrast software is distracting in the pitch black. The screen does at least house creature comforts like wired Apple CarPlay and navigation, as well as fun touches such as the brand’s Track Telemetry and Variable Drift Control information.

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The McLaren has proven a comfortable beast despite its Clubsport seats not offering typical adjustment.

Another gripe is the TechLux Artura’s sound system. On paper, it should sound fantastic with a subwoofer built into the carbonfibre tub and 11 additional speakers from Bowers & Wilkins, yet even at full volume it has to compete with too much tyre, engine and wind noise.

The McLaren has proven a comfortable beast despite its Clubsport seats not offering typical adjustment. Instead, the fixed-back buckets slide manually and ‘pivot through an elliptical arc’ with power control that tweaks the backrest angle and under-thigh support in one.

The driving position is impeccable and suits taller drivers who are able to fully stretch their legs out and have the power-adjust steering wheel (with its anchored binnacle) up, down, in, or out.

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As I open the Artura’s sexy dihedral door and clamber over the low-set sill for the final time, I pause to consider the Artura’s place.

It’s not quite the future – the bulk of its momentum is still generated by immaculately controlled micro-explosions. Is it the missing link? A product of an engineering boom-time not dissimilar to the turn of the 20th century when engineers competed for the ‘perfect’ solution?

And anyway, does someone in the market for a $449,500 supercar really care about their occasional-use supercar’s CO2 emissions? I’d argue not, but there’s a certain righteousness in stalking through Sydney’s environmentally conscious Inner West on electric power knowing exactly how many times I’ve kissed the 8500rpm redline.

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This car wasn’t constructed to save the environment at all. Instead, the Artura is built by enthusiasts and engineers with the aim of implementing as much technology as possible without creating an anodyne monster.

Long gone are Chairman Ron’s hollow boasts of objective superiority. The artful and precise blending of both power sources for either maximum efficiency or devastating effectiveness underlines the potential of the Artura’s oily, carbon and electrical bits.

More than an involving supercar, the once-troubled Artura emerges as a bright star for the future of McLaren Automotive.

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What’s in a name?

Making a more memorable McLaren

Alphanumerics be damned, McLaren’s most tech-packed car to date swaps toner cartridge serial numbers for a cogent word. But what does it mean? It apparently has nothing to do with the female name that means either ‘she-bear’ in Celtic or ‘guardian of the bear’ in ancient Greek.

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McLaren denies it’s a cheesy portmanteau of ‘Art’ and ‘Future’, yet the brand does admit it represents “the art of design and future technology”.

Instead, they’ll point to the fact that the Artura’s name represents a step change in what McLaren stands for.

You can define the company’s eras by product: Pre F1, the F1 glory days, rebirth with MP4-12C, and the next generation that the Artura promises to usher in. Expect the new MCLA architecture, ethernet-based electronics and plug-in hybrid 3.0-litre V6 to stick around for some time.

With an all-new V6 turbo engine bolted to plug-in hybrid powertrain, ground-up aluminium and carbon fibre monocoque design, and a revolutionary ethernet network, the Artura is arguably the most daring car to ever emerge from McLaren’s Woking technology centre.

But its technical accolades are more intrinsically woven into the aesthetics than most would realise. McLaren chief designer Joao Dias reveals some of the Artura’s secrets that hide behind a super-formed aluminium skin.

What appears to be a top-exit exhaust a-la 600LT is, in fact, a heat chimney to channel superheated air away from the pair of turbos nestled in the 120-degree V6’s hot-vee, and the hot air can be seen by the driver in the rear view mirror as it rises from the duct.

Dias explains that a huge amount of effort was put into extracting heat from the engine bay which measured up to 800 degrees in testing.

C-pillar flying buttresses increase airflow into the engine bay, while the tail light design was slimmed to maximise the amount of hot air escaping through the full-width rear aluminium mesh. Heat challenges also prevented engine bay illumination found in the 720S – “Engineering told us everything would melt,” said Dias.

The Artura’s rear-mounted radiators are fed air via two large vents clearly visible behind the doors not hidden inside the door like the 720S design.

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This, says Dias, was to reduce weight and complexity with the panel instructed using a single super-formed aluminium sheet compared to the 720S door which was built from 11 separate panels.

“We didn’t want a Senna-like aperture. The Artura had to give a similar level of drama but with a more simplistic execution,” he explained.

McLaren’s Woking manufacturing centre is known for its lack of automation and silence but there is one machine that was necessary to make the Artura possible. Its roof is the largest body panel and is impossible to install using human power alone so the ‘aided tool’ was added to the production line.

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Dias said that introducing the first machine to the manufacturing centre was a significant decision but the company is not governed by principles if they stand in the way of progress.

“If the theme is going to be more expensive to deliver but everyone loves it, the business is going to adapt the process and budget to deliver that. This is one example.”

Maintaining a short wheelbase for packaging, proportions and handling was a significant challenge, but the engineering team worked with the designers and succeeded in fitting both the V6 engine and hybrid batteries inside the new carbon fibre passenger cell. Dias says a longer wheelbase would be acceptable for a larger McLaren but not for the “baby” Artura.

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“The challenge was always to keep the wheelbase as short as possible,” he said. “If you had a V8 engine with the batteries, this wheelbase would have to grow 60mm.

“For the successor of the 720 which is a bigger car, maybe it could be possible, but for this, it was the limit.”

Dias’s biggest challenge was actually one of the Artura’s smallest details, and finalising a design for the door handles which looked right but didn’t upset airflow into the radiators took months of back and forth.

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“If you embrace the technical, your creativity doesn’t stop. If you see the technical as an obstacle, your creativity will always be affected”

“Engineers wanted to cut a hole in the surface and put a plastic door handle in there. I said, this is not going to happen. I’m not joking – we spent three months on this.”In the end, inspiration came from, of all things, a common household item.

“At home I had a shoe cupboard and to open the door was this very thin aluminium part with a lip.I told the guys from ergonomics the only thing we need is just enough grip to pull the door.”

“If you embrace the technical, your creativity doesn’t stop. If you see the technical as an obstacle, your creativity will always be affected”

There are so many choices in the ute market, with more to come – but what are the best available right now if you’re not prepared to buy the evergreen current HiLux, and can’t wait for the new model coming next year?

JUMP AHEAD

• Ford Ranger
• Volkswagen Amarok
• Isuzu D-Max
• Mazda BT-50
• Nissan Navara

Ford Ranger

The Ford Ranger has only been on sale for aroound 18 months, but what an impression it has made. Whether you choose the 2.0 bi-turbo diesel or the V6 turbo-diesel you’re going to enjoy a very un-ute-like ute.

The Ranger has achieved new standards for the dual-cab ute market that most competitors can’t match. There is so much where the Ranger excels, from refinement and ride quality to technology and safety.

Then there are the smart, useful features that show Ford has listened to owners. There’s an integrated trailer brake controller option, a tailgate ruler, and great side steps to climb into the tray. It’s just so well thought out and well-engineered.

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Volkswagen Amarok

Given it is platform-shared with the Ford Ranger, the Volkswagen mirrors many of the Ford’s attributes – but also goes its own way in some areas, making the Amarok quite a unique experience.

The Amarok offers an excellent, refined performance and decent economy from the smooth and quiet V6 diesel and has a large, comfortable interior.

With lighter steering and a firmer ride, the Volkswagen turns into corners more quickly than the Ford and on twisting roads is more fun to drive quickly. However, some might find the Volkswagen’s suspension is a touch firm on bumpy roads

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Isuzu D-Max

The Isuzu D-Max got a great reception when it arrived three years ago because it was such a big step up from its much more basic predecessor, but it didn’t completely lose its forebear’s simplicity.

The D-MAX presents such a strong argument where safety, technology, comfort features and towing/payload are concerned.

It’s also not far behind the front runners Ford and Volkswagen to drive, with decent on-road and off-road performance and handling with a simple, efficient powertrain.

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Mazda BT-50

As Mazda is very much the same as the D-Max, it should be no surprise to see it here nudging up to the platform-shared Isuzu. There is not much in it between the pair.

It also does well in the areas of safety, technology, interior comfort, and features and presents an excellent heavy-duty towing package while the payload is also good.

The BT-50 has a year less warranty than D-Max, but goes one better on the kilometre cap: It doesn’t have one (the D-Max is 150,000km).

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Nissan Navara

Although the oldest model here with a 2015 original on-sale date, the Navara has improved a lot, with Nissan giving it a make-over most recently in 2021.

With a 140kW/450Nm 2.3-litre twin turbo-diesel four-cylinder and (optional) seven-speed auto, the Navara performs better than the numbers suggest and has good off-road performance.

While the Navara’s 2015 five-star ANCAP rating has expired, it still has good safety features, and it’s not bad to drive on the road. Towing is much improved, as is payload with the 2021 update, but the infotainment system and dash feel very old school among newer vehicles.

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The last Jeep Cherokee rolled from the production line at Belvidere, Illinois on 28th February this year, bringing to a close production of a nameplate that stretches back across five model generations to 1974.

The original SJ Cherokees had an Australian connection, being assembled for right-hand drive configuration in Brisbane, Australia from 1981. Due to Aussie tariff regulations which defined 4×4 vehicles as having a ladder frame, local assembly of the old SJ versions continued for three years after its more modern unibody XJ replacement was launched in other world markets.

To many, the XJ was ‘the’ Cherokee. On sale for fully 18 years, total production topped over three million units. It spawned the Grand Cherokee, originally designed as its successor, and was a massively superior vehicle to its Wagoneer-based predecessor.

Not only was it over 500kg lighter, it was also 79cm shorter and 30cm narrower yet retained 90 percent of the SJ’s interior volume. With superior approach, breakover and departure angles, it was better off road.

With some mods it could conquer the Rubicon Trail,but it found its match in Wolfgang Bernhard, the ex-Mercedes-Benz executive hired to slash Jeep’s cost base.

One of his first actions upon arriving at Chrysler in 2000 was to green light the replacement for the XJ, the KJ or ‘Liberty’ which continued the Cherokee nameplate in most foreign markets. It sold well but always felt built down to a skinflint price.

Its successor, the KK Cherokee, never reprised this success.

Where the KJ realised peak US sales of 171,000 units in 2002, the KK, introduced in 2008, never shifted more than 93,000 vehicles. It lasted in market for six years, before being replaced by the Sergio Marchionne-inspired KL model.

The final iteration of the Cherokee, the KL, was highly successful and did much to resurrect the reputation of the nameplate after some lean years. Running on the Fiat Compact Wide platform, it could be equipped with three different all-wheel drive systems.

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Early models encountered glitches with the new ZF nine-speed auto that delayed deliveries, but once the pipeline from Belvidere opened, it could hardly be satisfied.

Jeep sold 355,402 Cherokees worldwide in 2016, with the model enjoying its best year in its domestic market in 2018 with 239,437 vehicles finding owners.

Sales then tailed off and Jeep idled the Cherokee’s plant indefinitely on March 1 pending negotiations with the United Auto Workers union. So the Cherokee is dead. For now. But when a nameplate carries that much equity, who’d bet against a resurrection?

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Cherokees vs Cherokees

One party not so keen to see the Cherokee name revived are the Cherokees themselves.

The Cherokee Nation has long campaigned for its tribal name to be removed from Jeep sport utility vehicles and has requested discussions with Jeep on “cultural appropriateness”.

If the Washington Redskins NFL team and Squaw Valley ski resort can rebrand, maybe Jeep can too.

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Jeep Cherokees rated

Wheels magazine has always had a passionate audience, with a thriving letters section. Here’s the latest from our readers.

And while we’re talking about the mag, have you subscribed?

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Ice Ice Baby

?️ Malcolm Bassil, Carlton, VIC

Look, I get it. I know that the motoring industry is moving to an electrified future and that Wheels reflects what the motoring industry is doing, but I really can’t see myself ever buying an electric vehicle.

I’ve driven a few and they just leave me absolutely cold. There’s so little of the character that I love about cars in them. I’m 63 but I’m no Luddite and, given the glacial pace of Australia’s adoption of EVs, I really can’t see a point during my lifetime when I’ll be unable to fuel an internal combustion engined vehicle in this country.

Am I right in thinking that fossil fuels still have a long future ahead of them Down Under?

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Rinsolvent?

?️ Ian Hamilton, via Facebook

I was browsing the Wheels digital archive this morning and in the May 2002 issue, I chanced across the Rinspeed Presto, a car which, at the touch of a button, would expand from a 2.7 metre, two-seat cabrio to a 3.6 metre, four-seater.

Firstly, I thought this was a great idea that has never really gone anywhere, making large cars easy to park, but it also got me thinking about Rinspeed, who seemed to present at virtually every Geneva Motor Show with some weird and wonderful concept car.

They’ve been at it for more than 20 years, yet don’t sell any of the cars. How on earth do they stay in business?

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The Wheels question to you

Would Elon Musk’s public persona prevent you buying a tesla?

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Never have i ever

?️ Steve Brezowski, Rockingham, WA

Being an occasional Wheels customer (I grab one off the rack in my local servo if the cover looks interesting), I was really excited by the latest edition of the magazine with the BMW Neue Klasse concept.

I dunno if it’s just me, but there seems to be a real buzz about the global motor industry at the moment, as if it’s undergoing a real shift with all sorts of weird and wonderful cars being tipped out of that process.

Not only do we seem to be seeing car makers go absolutely crazy with their internal combustion engines, but we’re also seeing some exciting electric cars. The mix of cars in the October issue was just deranged. I don’t think we’ve ever seen a time like it.

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Dating Honda

?️ Alan Townsley, via email

Just wondering if Wheels was going to celebrate the 75th anniversary of Honda at all?

I was watching Max Verstappen clinch the Constructors’ championship at Honda’s home track in a Honda-powered car on Honda’s 75th birthday and the company doesn’t seem to be getting much love from Wheels.

Any particular reason?

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Rest easy, big red

?️ Asif Tarafdar, via Facebook

I was horrified to hear of the recent passing of Wheels veteran Ash Westerman. I feel as if Ash has been pretty much a constant fixture in my history of reading MOTOR and Wheels and I always enjoyed his effortless turn of phrase and effervescence.

Seeing him on page 78 of the last issue was especially poignant, but I wanted to go back and read some of his best pieces. I loved the one about finding the Lithgow Panther and the accompanying video was excellent. Any others you’d recommend?

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Off beatz

?️ Jay Stanley, via email

Loved the Lotus Elise feature in the last issue and Enright’s namecheck of Swizz Beatz as a design consultant for Lotus.

I used to work in New York and was nearly flattened by Mr Beatz’s Evora company car at a crosswalk. Having fallen off my bike, I was then nearly collected by his entourage in a giant Chevy Suburban that was crashing every red light trying to keep up.

I’ve heard that post-Lotus, he has taken to camel racing in Saudi Arabia. If his talents behind the wheel of an Evora are anything to go by, I feel sorry for the camels.

Want to have your say? Keep it tight (no more than 200 words) and include your suburb if via email: [email protected]. You can also chime in on Facebook & Instagram.

My love affair with Lamborghini began in 1974, or more precisely, at the age that I got my first packet of Top Trumps cards featuring the Countach LP400.

At that point the company was 11 years old, fresher-faced than marques like Singer Vehicle Design and Rimac Automobili are today. As a five-year-old, I was aghast that my father had never heard of it.

Yet here was a car manufacturer with no pedigree trying to compete in a sector against the likes of Ferrari, Maserati and Porsche – companies with heritage leaching out of every orifice.

To say that Lamborghini was a financial basket case in those early years was understating the point.

In 1972, Ferruccio Lamborghini had been forced to sell a majority stake in the company to a Swiss friend for US$600,000. In 1973, things got even worse. The oil crisis bit hard and old Ferruccio sold his remaining 49 percent holding to another Swiss.

Lamborghini was then controlled by the government for a short time, suffered the indignity of compulsory liquidation, and then built military Cheetahs as a government make-work scheme.

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In 1980, the Bologna courts sold Lamborghini to more Swiss investors, the Mimran brothers.

At first things didn’t look all that promising. Jean Claude Mimran was known as the Sugar King of Africa due to the fact that he was the largest employer in Senegal. His brother, Patrick, was famous for making the tallest giraffe sculpture in the world. Unlikely saviours for a sports car company, you’d imagine.

Yet the Mimrans were keen and their ideas and investments were sound. In came the Jalpa, the Countach LP5000 QV and the LM002 before Jean Claude sold to Chrysler for US$25m in 1987, the first owner to ever make money from Lamborghini.

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Lee Iacocca then oversaw the introduction of the Diablo as well as Lamborghini’s half-baked venture into Formula 1 before selling in 1993 to Megatech, an Indonesian and Malaysian conglomerate which bid US$40m.

This was a troubled time, with the company failing to make profits before introducing Vittorio di Capua as a cost-cutting axeman. He slashed costs and brought the company into the black by the skin of its teeth, the difference between profit and loss being the revenue of a mere 13 cars.

Still, it was enough for the Volkswagen Group to see growth potential, bite the bullet and acquire Lamborghini in 1998.

Sant’Agata has enjoyed that largesse and expertise for a quarter of a century now. Last year, Lamborghini made profits of US$660m on revenues of US$2.59bn.

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That’s on 9223 sales: a profit of US$71,560 per vehicle. Or, to put it another way, Lamborghini now makes more profit on one car than it netted across the first 35 years of its existence.

As Lamborghini celebrates its 60th birthday, it’s never been in better financial shape. In fact, so swollen are Sant’Agata’s coffers that it now no longer needs Audi to partner it on the development of its Huracán replacement. That’s not to say there won’t be another R8 – it’s just that Lamborghini rather than Audi gets to be the development lead this time round.

I still adore Lamborghini for all of its silliness and extremity. There’s enough dull and worthy in the world of motoring today. Sant’Agata’s success shows that there’s still space for the fabulously immoderate.

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Hey, we get it. With dozens of news and reviews stories published every week, it can be hard to keep up with all the latest in the automotive world.

Obviously we reckon every story we run is a banger, but if you’re looking for the highlights reel, this is it. Read on and click away!

Zero stars for MG 5 and Mahindra Scorpio

Australia’s most affordable sedan and one of the most affordable 4WDs on the market have received the lowest ANCAP score since 2021.

All the new Mazda models on the horizon

Your quick guide to all the new and updated models coming to Mazda Australia showrooms in 2024 and beyond… plus potential additions yet to be confirmed.

All the new Hyundai models on the horizon

Your quick guide to all the future models coming from Korean brand Hyundai – including its first-ever ute – from 2024 and beyond.

DRIVEN: Tesla’s new-look Model 3

Tesla’s popular electric sedan has arrived in Australia with its first major update inside and out. We find out if the Model 3 is now even better.

First official look at new Porsche Macan

Augmented-reality HUD and optional passenger infotainment display among features for first electric version of Porsche’s big-selling Macan SUV.

DRIVEN: Hybrid GWM Tank 300 off-roader

Great Wall’s hybrid, 255kW Tank targets Jeep Wrangler. And at least on price, blasts it away – if you can overlook a few flaws.

Smaller, cheaper engine for Isuzu MU-X in 2024

Isuzu Ute Australia has confirmed it’ll add the smaller, more affordable 1.9-litre turbo-diesel from the D-Max ute in select MU-X variants in 2024.

Three-row Cadillac Vistiq EV could come to Oz

Three-row crossover to sit between the Lyriq SUV and larger Escalade IQ in the luxury car maker’s Tesla-chasing line-up, and it may be in local showrooms in 2026.

Bids for ‘NSW 1’ historic plate surpass $8 million

The famous NSW 1 will shatter records for Australian number plate sales.

New-gen MG ZS revealed in design patents

Is this the next-gen MG ZS? You won’t find a badge on the model, but the patent filing seems clear.

Audi’s defining sports car will be no more as the German car maker wheels out the 2024 Audi TT Final Edition – the last iteration of the coupe/roadster that first went in sale in 1999.

The transformative TT’s design and Ingolstadt’s confidence to park it in showrooms spoke volumes of where the car maker was heading – and helped unlock a design-led rise of the four rings that cemented it as an automotive design powerhouse.

Across three generations, the TT Coupe and Roadster helped hone the Audi image after decades of being considered an also-ran to Mercedes-Benz and BMW – but it’s the original 1999 TT that will be remembered most fondly.

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The Audi TT earned its place in automotive design legend by breaking all the rules.

Sports cars are supposed to be aggressive, defined and purposeful, and when the TT concept landed at the 1995 Tokyo Motor Show, its contemporaries were dominated by wedge forms dating back to the 1970s.

Yet the TT looked back even further to evoke 1930s Bauhaus concepts.

Audi’s brand-building breakthrough was designed under the leadership of Hyundai’s now head designer, Peter Schreyer, with Thomas Freeman and J Mays.

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The TT was a concept that was so different, intimately detailed and so un-car like in terms of its design principles that it was shrugged off by many as just that – a fantasy.

It took elements from the 1991 Audi Avus Concept, so named as it paid homage to the Auto Union racers that set records at the near-20km Berlin circuit in the 1930s using both mammoth powerplants and clever aerodynamics – some records it holds to this day.

A stylish Audi Sport Spyder concept was shown in 1991, too, but never made it to showrooms. The TT was for many another design department mufti day before Audi would revert to type and make stylish yet hardy avant-garde sedans and Audi at the time was not the trend setting company it is today – that came from having the guts to build the first-generation TT with few changes to that original concept.

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That was ballsy because of its odd execution which did not follow conventional wisdom.

The TT was not a wedge-defined coupe with a low noise and rising waistline. Instead, viewed side on, the TT possessed a perfectly horizontal waistline with two almost symmetrical ends.

The TT did not have a sharp line, crease or jagged edge to speak of, and its symmetrical profile departed from the wedge ideals – this was a car that was not designed how a car should be.

Instead of aggression, Freeman used organic shapes to create the TT, curve upon curve that never met in anger but complimented each other with crisp, precise surfacing that had no needlessly decorative strakes or punctuations – they were, are, the decoration.

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It’s hard to look at a point and isolate a shape without taking in the entire car as whole.

That waistline was high well before side-impact regulations dictated as such, while the roofline was also close to symmetrical from to rear.

The graphic on the front and the rear was also near identical – and the original, as aficionados will tell you today, did not have a spoiler to interrupt its rump.

In soft-top form – as it would remain for its entire 25-year production – the roll-over bars were made a focal point as rounded forms to become part of the design story.

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Somehow, despite its roundness, the TT was not a conglomerate blob – its wheel arches set 2.4 metres apart stretching its roofline to define its shape.

Nor did its design story end inside: the 2+2 seater’s aluminium fuel surround was complimented by the gear shifter, with its riveted look and brushed aluminium that continued on the triplicate circular air vents and even the door pulls.

The TT was not just a car for car enthusiasts: it spoke to designers, creatives, artists and those who admired depth and thinking beyond next month’s sales chart. Of course, that also meant turtle-neck wearers, and former Saab owners…

The original TT used the first generation A3 platform making it front-wheel drive – a dealbreaker for some purists at the time – when it arrived in 1999 using the Golf/A3’s a 1.8-litre four-cylinder turbo-petrol engine making a modest 132kW/253Nm.

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With no racing pretensions, the TT became an astute performance car in its own right after a significant early setback.

Blemishing the design to some fans, a rear wing was added in the year 2000 along with rear suspension changes (anti-roll bars, new wishbones and dampers) after five TT owners were killed in Europe, mainly at high speed in Germany [↗].

A blow for the all-new nameplate, the issue prompted a recall, dampening enthusiasm for the TT as Audi retro-fitted the parts to 40,000 examples already sold globally and making ESP, relatively new at the time, available at a lower price.

In Australia, it was sold in five-speed manual form only from 1999 – getting a sixth gear in 2004 – with an automatic option and Quattro version added in 2004.

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In 2005, the 3.2-litre V6 taken from the raucous R32 Golf – 184kW and all – and fitted into the TT to arm the seductive coupe with a 6.7 second 0-100km/h time. The TT’s bark could finally match its bite.

The second-generation TT arrived in 2006 and carried on the design spirit in a marginally more aggressive package.

Trademark lines remained, including the clamshell bonnet shut that was interrupted by the front wheel arch; the high waistline; and brushed aluminium fuel-filler cap.

Even more aggressive powerplants arrived: the second generation delivered the first Audi TT RS Quattro.

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The TT RS packed a 250kW Quattro-esque turbo five-cylinder with growl to boot.

It was overshadowed by the Audi R8 at the time, which went on sale in 2006 after the company invested in Lamborghini and used the Gallardo’s underpinnings for its own sports car.

The R8 the hero of the brand, race tracks and bedroom walls while the TT was stylish, but, erm, yeah…

That meant the TT was sorely underestimated as a performance car, as noted on the now defunct MOTOR magazine’s 2008 Performance Car of the Year.

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While not perfect, the TT was starting to climb to new heights – as was its price.

A bright orange TT S – not even the hero RS – with baseball glove leather was the packer’s pick, outpacing the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X down the quarter-mile and around Wakefield Park, where it handled with the same precision of its bodywork lines.

It was an upstart: how could something ape so much style yet perform more than superficially?  While not perfect, the TT was starting to climb to new heights – as was its price.

The core elements of the TT remained throughout its quarter-century innings: the three curves – roof and wheel arches – teamed with that high waistline.

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The third generation’s arrival in 2014 brought with it the fashion of the day – unlike the original’s disregard for convention – in a sharpened nose and angular taillights.

It was true to the organic lines of the TT playbook, but the playbook had moved on – and the square edges were not as convincing a fit for the Bauhaus design of the rest that gave the TT its identity.

The interior took the spirit of the original, though, eschewing a central touchscreen but without sacrificing modern creature comforts – the Apple CarPlay runs through the driver’s display, and its digital HVAC controls are elegantly integrated into physical dials. A masterstroke in minimalism.

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Still fantastic to dive in its higher-spec versions, which again included an RS version, the TT name outlasted 1999 debutants such as the brilliant Honda S2000, and rivals such as the mixed-bag BMW Z3 and its M derivatives.

If the UR Quattro marked the Audi brand technologically, the TT defined it stylistically. It’s had its moment, and in a world of SUVs and ladder-frame pick-ups, we’re forever grateful.

Red Bull Racing has notched up another world record: this time for completing a pit stop in under 3.0 seconds – in complete darkness.

Okay, it’s a weird record, but it’s easy enough to imagine how the idea came about. Pit stops are a crucial part of Formula 1, and shaving tenths off a car’s stationary time can mean the difference between winning and losing, which is why F1 teams practice them over and over again.

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Teams practice pit stops so much, in fact, that you can just imagine an observer muttering “Geez, I bet you could do it with your eyes closed…”

Cue that being overheard by a clever marketing exec and hey presto, you have the ‘Pitch Black Pit Stop’.

Red Bull gave itself 10 attempts to see how fast it could complete the blind stop which was captured using special infrared lights and infrared cameras.

The two jackmen and the driver of the car wore night vision goggles but everyone else was operating in total darkness.

Red Bull’s first pit stop took 7.52 seconds but by attempt eight they had cut it down to 3.2sec, showing just how impressive and adaptable the crew is.

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On the tenth attempt, Red Bull completed the dark stop in 2.84 seconds – which, remarkably, is only a second away from the team’s fastest-ever pit stop in an actual race.

Before the challenge, Red Bull asked key team members to predict how quickly the team could do the dark stop. Jonathan Wheatley, team sporting director, guessed 2.1sec while team boss Christian Horner was closer to the mark at 2.6sec.

Red Bull’s drivers were way off. Max Verstappen thought it’d take 6.69 seconds, but Sergio Perez wasn’t even in the same ballpark with a guess of 33 seconds. Such faith…

Amazingly, this blind pit stop isn’t the craziest stunt Red Bull has put its crew through.

Back in 2019, Red Bull attempted a ‘zero gravity’ pitstop where it bundled 16 crew members and an F1 car into a Ilyushin Il-76 MDK plane which flew at 33,000 feet. The plane then dived in a special arc to allow 22 seconds of near weightlessness for the crew to do their pitstop.

As for what’s next? We’re almost afraid to ask…

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