Mid-sized SUVs continue to be the super-heated segment in Australia, so our June issue is your essential reading to learn the pecking order between the all-new Toyota RAV4 Hybrid and its key rivals: the Mazda CX-5, Subaru Forester, Hyundai Tucson and VW Tiguan.

Spoiler alert: the ending is way more climactic than the final ep of Game of Thrones.

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Meanwhile, editor Inwood rather fancies himself in a snug-fitting Nomex racesuit, so our hard-pedaling leader hops the ditch to New Zealand to wring the neck of the ultimate track-day weapon – the spectacular, F1-car-on-a-flexi-day Rodin FZed.

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Then, reluctant to climb out of a suit that’s so slimming, Inwood jets home to drive the Mercedes-AMG GT4 race car, and gives us the need-to-know on this emerging category.

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And how about BMW resuscitating the 8 Series badge? We take the M850i, a pulse-raising 2+2 super coupe, to visit the NSW racetracks which were killed off years ago.

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As for EVs, we’ve got both ends of the spectrum covered this month. Ged Bulmer takes Hyundai’s battery-powered Kona EV SUV the full length of Queensland’s ‘EV Superhighway’ and finds recharging provides ample time for roadside kebab breaks, while Porsche’s first-ever pure EV sports car, the Taycan, shows its appetite for doughnuts in the Arctic Circle.

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What about even more fresh metal? Glad you asked.

We jump into the Mercedes CLA250, a car that’s now bigger than a C-Class, yet shoehorns into a narrow niche. So is it fit for purpose?

Less questions hang over the Cabriolet version of Porsche’s new 992-generation 911. This really is the rag-top sports car you can buy, thrash, and not hate yourself in the morning.

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More? Of course there’s more! Some 25 years after his passing, Ayrton Senna’s own Mercedes 190E 2.3-16 graces our studio, as we dissect what made this spiritual forebear to the C63 such a game-changer for Benz.

Oh, and ex-F1 ace David Coulthard fesses up to the four life lessons he should have learned earlier, and we stick cash-rich EV builder Rivian under the microscope to see if it really can be the Tesla of 4×4 utes.

It’s all busting at the seams of the piping hot June issue of Wheels, on sale now or subscribe here.