Evo May 2021

A CONVERSATION WITH BENTLEY’S CEO, ADRIAN Hallmark, delivered a piece of insight that subconsciously you and I had most likely already considered, but which we had yet to hear from such a prominent figure in the industry. Essentially, he made the point that any car sold leading up to the proposed ban on the sale of petrol cars in 2030 could still be on the road and in perfectly serviceable condition for at least another 20 if not 30 years after it is first sold. He went on to say the industry has a duty to support these cars and not leave customers high and dry. It’s why Bentley is taking a keen interest in Porsche’s development of synthetic fuels, although it has yet to start its own programme. Supporting Hallmark’s comments,…

BMW’S M-RANGE USED TO BE A straightforward concept to get your head around. There was the small, racy one: the M3. There was the bigger, more relaxed one: the M5. And that was pretty much it. But that was also 30-plus years ago and it really is time we moved on, isn’t it? After all, BMW M has. It would be simple to dismiss the new M3 Competition as nothing more than a four-door incarnation of last month’s cover star, the two-door M4 coupe. But that’s never been the whole story since BMW M announced in 2013 that it was to add to the M3 stable and split the range, resulting in the two-door coupe and cabriolet gaining the M4 nomenclature. Curiously, for many the Three has consistently outshone the Four.…

LITCHFIELD HAS AN EYE FOR SPOTTING cult cars and then working quickly to offer upgrades. It did it with the Alpine A110 and such is the firm’s reputation that owners were sending their brand new cars to its workshops to be upgraded before they’d even driven them. So it’s no surprise that the Toyota GR Yaris has attracted similar attention, Litchfield already offering a suspension upgrade as well as an engine uplift that takes the 1.6-litre triple to just over 300bhp. Given the deluge of positive press the Yaris has had, you’d think it was beyond improvement, but a bit more power never does any harm, does it? I’m more interested in the suspension work, though, because I feel like I’m a rare dissenting voice on this aspect of the car. I…

‘Making it feel very similar to the ICE car meant getting the weight distribution perfect’ IT’S DAMP, COLD AND I’M IN A PORSCHE 964 with a 440bhp motor in the back. Experience tells me that extreme caution will be required. I used to knock around in a 964 Turbo S in the late ’90s and that had 380bhp and was a bit of a beast, with some good oldfashioned lag thrown in and not much in the way of an electronic safety net. That this car has an extra 60bhp is of concern, but the bigger issue is that it’s electric. I’ve driven almost all current EVs but never a classic car that has had an electrical transplant. We’ll get into the philosophy of electrifying classics, and indeed the morality of it,…

PORSCHE ANNOUNCED RECENTLY THAT it is investing $24million in a plant to produce carbon-neutral synthetic fuel for its internal combustion engine (ICE) cars. It is the first car maker to do so, and it looks like a smart move. The annual output from the plant in Chile, South America, is expected to be 55million litres by 2024, ramping up to 500million by 2026, and Porsche will be the sole customer, using it at its ‘Porsche Experience’ driving centres and to fuel its motorsport championships. This season’s F1-supporting Porsche Supercup Championship will trial an ExxonMobil-developed biofuel under race conditions, then in 2022 synthetic ‘efuel’ components will be added. However, Porsche is not banking on governments around the world allowing road-going ICE vehicles a stay of execution, even though they too could be…

THAT NOISE YOU CAN HEAR IS THE internet gnashing its teeth at the thought of the next-generation AMG C63 no longer being powered by a hot-vee twin-turbocharged V8 engine. Just wait until they hear that its replacement will have only four cylinders and be hybrid-powered. It’s part of AMG’s strategy to integrate electrified powertrains not only across its traditional model lines but also Mercedes’ EQ range of electric vehicles, with AMG also developing bespoke EV models. Before the first of those AMG EQ models arrive, Affalterbach will be busy phasing out pure internal combustion engines and replacing them with hybrid variants under its new E Performance brand, two examples of which we will see this year. The first will be the GT 73 four-door (above right), a near-800bhp plug-in hybrid to sit at…