Autocar March 16, 2022

SO LOUD HAS been the chatter around that ending to the 2021 season, you’d be forgiven for forgetting that the Formula 1 cars back on track this weekend are the result of the biggest shift in regulations in decades (p52). The return of ground-effect aerodynamics is the headline change to cars that are larger, heavier and harder to handle. They have been developed to reduced, cost-capped budgets with less wind tunnel time and will compete over 22 shortened race weekends. Only the complex V6 hybrid powertrains are really carried over from before in a new rule book written to bunch up the pack and allow for closer running and more overtaking. Ironically, the regulations come at a time when the on-track action is as close as it’s been in a generation, and in…

Bentley is readying an all-new Mulsanne, due to arrive before the end of the decade, for its radical electric era. The new flagship model will be part of the firm’s recently announced five-in-five strategy, in which it will launch five electric models between 2025 and 2030. The first of those Bentleys, expected to be previewed later this year, has been described as a Mulsanne replacement because it will be the most expensive model in the marque’s line-up at that time, as the Mulsanne once was, but it will not share similar proportions. Instead, it will be a smaller saloon, riding higher to accommodate underfloor batteries. Ultimately, though, a modern-day flagship, which will elevate pricing far beyond that of the former Mulsanne, will stand at the top of the lineup before 2030. This will…

A big Bentley is a quintessentially old world vehicle concept to me. The kind of car that exists beyond the reach of most luxury rivals, one where you go to escape the stresses and strains of the everyday, into a world where the very latest infotainment technologies and efficiency-boosting measures just don’t figure. So it’ll be fascinating to see how Crewe updates the concept of a big Bentley for the electric age. This won’t be a limousine, of course, and that’ll free the designers’ hands somewhat, but will Bentley simply throw existing reference points in the bin and design a range-topping GT from a completely clean sheet? I would love it if Crewe took inspiration from its gorgeous 1950s R-Type Continental to produce something long of bonnet and sleek of silhouette. Not…

The retro-styled ID Buzz has officially been unveiled five years since it was revealed in concept form, taking Volkswagen’s line-up of bespoke EVs to five. Due on sale in the UK in May in passenger and commercial guises, the compact van shares its MEB underpinnings with the ID 3, ID 4, ID 5 and ID 6 and will ultimately be available with the same array of batteries and drivetrains. First to arrive is the rear-wheel-drive version with one motor giving 201bhp and 228lb ft of torque and a 77kWh battery providing around 250 miles of range. More powerful, dual-motor, four-wheel-drive models with up to 295bhp will be added to the line-up in 2023, as will a 168bhp rear-wheel-drive base model and a shorter-range version with a 52kWh battery. An eventual long-wheelbase variant will be…

MAZDA IS COMMITTED to keeping the formula of its venerable MX-5 sports car intact even as it embarks on a strategy to heavily overhaul, expand and electrify its line-up in the coming years. The firm has confirmed that it will launch a range of electrified SUVs atop its new rear-driven platform and three new pure-electric cars on its smaller, front-driven architecture, as used by the 3 hatchback and MX-30 EV. However, it has so far said little about how the 33-year-old roadster fits into that strategy. Now, though, Mazda’s head of product development and engineering in Europe, Joachim Kunz, has given strong hints that the MX-5 will be considered completely separately to the more mainstream models that underpin the firm’s growth, with a view to maintaining its enthusiast appeal. “It’s our brand icon…

Mazda is deploying its new rear-driven platform and straight-six engines for the CX-60 SUV and three more models to follow, but a production version of the admired Vision Coupé concept looks increasingly unlikely, five years after its reveal – and it’s no surprise that SUVs are to blame. Mazda Europe’s Joachim Kunz said: “This SUV trend is continuing, and even more for Mazda. It’s what’s selling best. “It would be very nice… to have the FR [front-engine, rear-driven] concept and sixcylinder engine for a Mazda 6 successor or a large sports coupé. We would like to have it, but at this point in time, it’s most important to sell SUVs.”…