MOTOR Magazine Australia

andy enright

I’LL ADMIT IT. I’m left a bit puzzled by the new Subaru BRZ. I struggled a little with the story of the original BRZ and Toyota 86, specifically the two manufacturers’ dogged refusal to bend from their original vision for the cars. A sharp tail-off of global sales demonstrated that these models appealed to a relatively narrow slice of the car buying population. Within 36 months of a 2013 sales peak, BRZ and 86 global sales had more than halved. By 2016 there needed to be something materially new on the horizon, with more power and capability. That never happened. Toyota and Subaru ploughed on, haemorrhaging millions. Subaru has just shown the second-gen BRZ. Weight has crept up a little, and it packs 170kW; some 15.6 per cent more power than…

01 australia’s best value performance cars of 2021

MOST PERFORMANCE CAR buyers are prepared to bend the truth in all manner of ways to justify a purchase in terms of value for money. We’ve all been there, explaining how the fast one was the one to go for because it holds its value better, or that the bigger engine was a wiser choice because it wouldn’t be working so hard on the highway and would therefore get better fuel economy. Usually there’s a kernel of truth in there somewhere. These man maths are usually just enough to salve our conscience, but all too often we just want to have fun. The crew across the aisle at Wheels and Which Car are a little more analytical than the unreconstructed tyre fryers at MOTOR. They’ve been suspiciously quiet of late and…

02 what the hell is lmdh?

LET’S BE HONEST. The last couple of runnings of the 24 Hours of Le Mans haven’t been the greatest in the endurance classic’s nearly 100 year history. Toyota, the sole factory LMP1 team since 2018 has romped home to win with ease, having no serious competition. It’s like dynamiting fish in a barrel. In just a few short years that is set to change, with the most prestigious endurance race in the global motorsport calendar set to enter a new golden era thanks to a new American-run type of prototype known as LMDh. Standing for Le Mans Daytona hybrid, the new set of regulations has been created by IMSA, which is responsible for sports car racing in North America, and has already lured the two most successful manufacturers in Le Mans history,…

has formula e run out of juice?

While LMDh is attracting some of the biggest names in racing, Formula E, is beginning to lose its shine. Audi’s commitment to LMDh comes at the expense of its factory-backed Formula E program, which has netted a pair of championships (one teams’ and one drivers’) from six seasons. In the wake of Audi announcing its departure, BMW followed suit, letting slip in a press release the core issue that now haunts Formula E. “When it comes to the development of e-drivetrains, BMW Group has essentially exhausted the opportunities for this form of technology transfer in the competitive environment of Formula E,” BMW said. In plainer terms, the benefit of racing in Formula E is no longer greater than the cost. That is particularly worrying for the category, given how cheap it is…

03 hot hatches facing the chop?

FRANCE HAS announced that its already severe emissions based taxation system will be revised for 2021, with duties more than doubling in certain cases. The result is that combustion-engined hot hatches could prove to be financial non-starters. The country that spawned greats like the Peugeot 205 GTI and the Renault Clio 182 has seen increases result in a new Megane RS costing its first owner as much as €10,488 in carbon dioxide emissions tax above its €40,700 price tag. While this might not seem to affect Australia’s market in the short term, it puts a very unambiguous end stop on traditional hot hatch development, and means that new F1 team Alpine will need to commit to ultra-low emission plans. French cars have traditionally overperformed in their domestic market. Remove that strong local element…

04 bull market

LAMBORGHINI HAS unveiled the jaw-dropping SC20 special, a one-off designed to act as a technological showpiece and expression of its new design language. Or, if you’re of a more cynical bent, a handy revenue-raising exe-rcise. The SC20 is based on the underpinnings of the Aventador SVJ LP770-4 and shares that vehicle’s 556kW/770Nm 6.5-litre V12. There’s little doubt that it’s a stunning visual exercise, but then Sant’Agata has never really struggled to create arresting shapes. What was the last bland Lamborghini? The 400GT that last rolled off the lines in 1968, maybe. Since then it’s been nonstop showstoppers. Of course, we’ve been here before. In 2018, Lamborghini Centro Stile revealed the SC18 Alston, also based on an Aventador SVJ, that had more of a motorsport theme. It’s not known whether the same ultra-wealthy enthusiast…