Autocar April 03, 2019

THINGS WERE ALWAYS better in the past, right? Not a bit of it. There are countless examples in our safer, better performing, more reliable, better built and more efficient road cars of today, and even some evidence in motorsport, too. The common conception was that the British Touring Car Championship, which kicks off again at Brands Hatch this weekend, was at its best in the Super Touring days of the 1990s, with big-name drivers racing works cars in front of big crowds. Yet speak to those who’ve competed across several BTCC eras, as we do this week (p56), and the truth is we’ve never had it so good as today. A 30-strong grid of cars, often covered in their entirety by a few tenths of a second in qualifying, and then…

“The new hybrid drivetrains are developments of those already engineered for the 911” Porsche is developing a fully electric 718 Boxster and 718 Cayman that will be launched by 2022 – and is considering offering them alongside mild-hybrid and plug-in hybrid versions of the current cars. The next generations of the two-door roadster and coupé sports cars have for some time been thought to be among a range of future pure-electric models set to be spearheaded by the upcoming four-door Taycan and the Taycan Sports Turismo. However, Porsche chairman Oliver Blume has indicated that hybrid powertrains are also being considered. “We have prototypes of the 718 running in electric now, and a hybrid prototype is being built,” he said. “If you look to the next generation of those cars it is possible, although…

The Porsche Boxster E, launched in 2011, was officially created to support an electric mobility project run by the city of Stuttgart. But the car, built at the firm’s Weissach R&D facility, also served as a testbed for Porsche’s nascent EV tech. Autocar drove the concept, powered through the rear axle by a 121bhp, 199lb ft motor shared with the Volkswagen Golf blue-e-motion. We noted the EV motor meant it “glides away with the sort of urgency you don’t get in the standard Boxster”, adding that it “doesn’t feel 185kg heavier”. With a limited top speed of 93mph and a 0-62mph time of 9.8sec, we noted: “The step off gives a good turn of speed around town, [but] the modest power output fails to haul the Boxster E along with the sort…

PORSCHE IS UNDERSTOOD to be developing two-door coupé and cabrio versions of the Panamera designed to rival the BMW 8 Series and Aston Martin Vantage. According to reports, which senior figures at the firm have not denied, Porsche is developing the two variants of its grand tourer for a planned unveiling next year. The cars are designed to offer enhanced practicality and space over the 911 but still be considered as 2+2s rather than outright four-seaters. Asked about the possibility of such cars, Porsche design boss Michael Mauer, who designed the original Panamera, said: “As a designer there are no limits to what I can conceive. I believe it is the design department’s role to sketch and consider every model it can for the future so that we are ready should anyone…

PORSCHE DESIGN BOSS Michael Mauer is deciding whether the firm’s new hypercar, due around 2025 as a successor to the 918 Spyder, should be styled futuristically or with a retrospective nod to some of the greatest cars from the company’s past. The firm recently released a Porsche 917 Concept design study (below) to mark the 50th anniversary of its 1970 Le Mans victory, with Mauer saying it reflected ongoing discussions over the next-generation hypercar. “If you launch a new hypercar then you can go extremely modern in your thinking or maybe just go back to our sports car roots and take inspiration from some of the many icons in our history,” he said. “When you look at the 917 Concept then, personally, I love it. You look at it and you immediately…

The Ford Kuga has been redesigned from the ground up in a bid to attract more buyers in the still-booming family SUV sector, and the new model will be offered with plug-in hybrid and mild-hybrid powertrains, along with conventional petrol and diesel offerings. The hybrid line-up in particular is expected to be key to attracting new customers, with interest in electrified powertrains escalating exponentially. The new Kuga won’t go on sale in the UK until early next year, but Ford should still beat many of its rivals to market with its plug-in option, which mates a 2.5-litre petrol engine with an electric motor and 10.3kWh battery pack to deliver 222bhp. The model can travel up to 34 miles on electric range alone, giving it an official economy figure of 235.4mpg, with…