Tabla de contenidos para July 2018 en Torque

It is often said that the best athletes aren’t just the strongest or fittest individuals, but the most intelligent, too. After all, the ability to run the fastest or lift the heaviest weights isn’t achieved through physical training alone. The best athletes know that this sort of prowess is only possible if their minds are as strong as their hearts. This is exactly why the BMW 5 Series has continued to be the benchmark among executive saloons. It is a view shared not just by drivers, but the model’s rivals, too. When you walk up to a BMW 5 Series, its dynamism is reflected in its taut lines and planted stance. It’s like a sprinter whose muscles are tensed, ready to release their explosive potential once the starting gun is…

FOND memories of my visit to the Road Safety Park as a primary-school student still remain vivid in my mind. I had very much wanted to be a motorist driving one of the pedal cars, but ended up being a pedestrian instead, while other schoolmates assumed the roles of cyclists. Nevertheless, the miniaturised roads, replica road signs and petrol station mockups allowed me to live out my childhood fantasy. I dreamt of being a part of the empowered driving-and-commuting population in a decade or so. Now that I have arrived, usually by a combination of private car, public transport and walking, that dream of mine not only didn’t come true, it actually feels more like a nightmare these days. When I was a child, there weren’t as many cars on…

DRIVETRAIN TYPE Inline-3, 12-valves, turbocharged CAPACITY 998cc BORE X STROKE 71mm x 84mm COMPRESSION RATIO 10:1 MAX POWER 118hp at 6000rpm MAX TORQUE 172Nm at 1500-4000rpm POWER TO WEIGHT 95.7hp per tonne GEARBOX 6-speed manual DRIVEN WHEELS Front PERFORMANCE 0-100KM/H 12 seconds TOP SPEED 181km/h CONSUMPTION 18.5km/L CO2 EMISSION 125g/km SUSPENSION FRONT MacPherson struts, coil springs REAR Torsion beam, coil springs BRAKES FRONT / REAR Ventilated discs / Discs TYRES TYPE Continental ContiPremiumContact 5 SIZE 215/55 R17 SAFETY AIRBAGS 6 TRACTION AIDS ABS, ESP MEASUREMENTS LENGTH 4165mm WIDTH 1800mm HEIGHT 1500mm WHEELBASE 2600mm KERB WEIGHT 1233kg TURNING CIRCLE 10.6m BUYING IT PRICE INCL. COE $90,999 (after $10k VES rebate) WARRANTY 5 years/unlimited km MOST FUN TO DRIVE, MOST AFFORDABLE, MOST WILLING ENGINE SMALLEST BOOT, TIGHTEST BACKSEAT, BUMPY RIDE BESTIN SPORTINESS…

VOLVO XC60 T5 versus LEXUS NX300 MY parents, for the first time in a long while, surprisingly greeted the shiny new four-wheeled things I brought home with effusive praise. “Okay lah, nice cars,” they gushed, attention briefly transfixed with deadpan cursory regard. Their monotone voices positively fizzled with degrees of excitement greater than they have ever mustered for any one of the sports cars, supercars or bright orange thunder-machines I have disturbed their slumber with. “Quite comfortable,” their relentless praise continued, as they stepped out upon arriving at my grandmother’s place. “What’s for dinner?” The avalanche of exhilaration finally slushed to breathless halt. It warms this son’s heart to see his parents’ eyes sparkle with the verve he thought long lost to the ether, when they would regale him with…

AMERICAN technology company Eastman Kodak may now be a pale shadow of its heyday, but it famously coined the phrase “Kodak moment”. “IF SINGAPOREANS WARM TO THE KODIAQ, IT WILL BE A REAL KODAK MOMENT FOR THE SKODA BRAND IN SINGAPORE.” The phrase is used to describe a memorable event that is worthy of being captured in a photograph. In real life, Kodak moments can include milestones like the birth of a child, graduating from university and exchanging wedding vows. The Kodiaq, a seven-seat sports utility vehicle (SUV), may well be a Kodak moment for Skoda here. In a way, it marks the rebirth of the Skoda brand in Singapore. The Czech brand has a chequered past here. It has come and gone numerous times since the 1990s. Its last…

I am driving a seven-year-old Japanese car. I observed recently that when the vehicle is stopping, there is a “tuck tuck tuck” sound coming from the engine compartment or front wheels. What is the cause and what are the consequences? Is the problem serious or should I wait till it is more obvious to do something since the car behaves normally at other times? This is not an uncommon problem and is caused by an excessively worn brake disc. Usually, when the disc is badly scored (grooves on the surface) or gets warped over time, workshops recommend that you have the disc surface machined or skimmed to remove imperfections and unevenness. There is nothing wrong in doing so and it is, of course, the cheaper alternative to replacing with new…

HYUNDAI SONATA FROM $115,999 ON THE ROAD Towkays who still prefer mid-size saloons to big SUVs may want to check out this updated model. The Sonata gets a sharper exterior and better features such as LED headlights, wireless smartphone charging and ventilated front seats. Hyundai claims to have improved overall refinement, too, thanks to the revised suspension. Left untouched, however, is the car’s performance, as the 150hp 2-litre engine has been carried over unchanged. RIVAL: TOYOTA CAMRY SKODA SUPERB $158,900 ON THE ROAD This fastback offers practicality, luxury and performance in one neat package. Its key strengths include a roomy interior with 10-colour ambient lighting, three-zone climate control, and a ginormous 625-litre boot (rear seats up) that should easily accommodate golf bags and groceries simultaneously. Motivating this Czech flagship is…

Hypercars like the Bugatti Chiron are beyond the reach of mere mortals. With a starting price of around $3.78 million, even millionaires may think twice before attempting to acquire one. But thanks to Lego Technic, the Bugatti Chiron can be yours for just $599. No COE, road tax or insurance – which may cost as much as an HDB flat – required. You don’t even have to wear a suit to buy it from a Lego-certified store. The catch is that you will require a sizeable work bench to assemble this 1:8 scale model. The kit consists of 3599 pieces and when finished, will be 22cm long, 25cm wide and over 14cm high. Cool details replicated from the actual Chiron include the active rear spoiler, 8-speed gearbox with paddle shifters…

THIS Mister Singh grew up helping dad fix and tinker with his motorbikes and cars. So, pardon the cliché, I have had petrol in my veins from a young age. In fact, I wished I could drive in Primary 3, well before my puberty at 21. My father’s first car was a Volkswagen Beetle 1200, followed by a Ford Anglia. A Triumph Herald replaced the Ford, and after that a Morris 1100, an Austin Mini 850 and then an Austin 1300 GT. By the time I became a car-driving teen, we owned an Austin 1300. I particularly remembered the Triumph Herald. I was in Primary 1. It came with a removable hard-top. But somehow, we never went topless (the only topless experience I had was on the beach). I hated…

HYUNDAI KONA 1.0 versus MG ZS 1.0 versus SEAT ARONA 1.0 TURBOCHARGING enables small engines to produce as much power as bigger naturally aspirated units. It’s a win-win for carmakers who must meet more stringent emission standards, and for motorists in Singapore who want a bigger car without paying more road tax. Applying this formula to crossovers, which are the most popular type of car today, should make for a winning combination. Tempting buyers with its sharp lines and well-equipped cabin is the Seat Arona. The Spanish brand, which is owned by Volkswagen, will undoubtedly want to capitalise on the fact that its parent company has no equivalent model available here. Offering buyers an even more unique driving experience is the rugged-looking Hyundai Kona. Unlike its more powerful turbocharged 1.6-litre…

DRIVETRAIN TYPE Inline-3, 12-valves, turbocharged CAPACITY 999cc BORE X STROKE 74mm x 77.4mm COMPRESSION RATIO 10.5:1 MAX POWER 109hp at 5200rpm MAX TORQUE 160Nm at 1800-4700rpm POWER TO WEIGHT 88.5hp per tonne GEARBOX 6-speed automatic with manual select DRIVEN WHEELS Front PERFORMANCE 0-100KM/H 12.4 seconds TOP SPEED 180km/h CONSUMPTION 15.9km/L (combined) CO2 EMISSION 144g/km SUSPENSION FRONT MacPherson struts, coil springs REAR Torsion beam, coil springs BRAKES FRONT / REAR Ventilated discs / Discs TYRES TYPE Maxxis Premitra 5 SIZE 215/50 R17 SAFETY AIRBAGS 6 TRACTION AIDS ABS, ESP MEASUREMENTS LENGTH 4314mm WIDTH 1809mm HEIGHT 1611mm WHEELBASE 2585mm KERB WEIGHT 1231kg TURNING CIRCLE 11.1m BUYING IT PRICE INCL. COE $105,888 (no VES rebate/surcharge) WARRANTY 5 years/100,000km MOST SPACIOUS INTERIOR, CUSHIEST FRONT SEATS, SMOOTHEST GEARBOX THIRSTIEST ENGINE, ERGONOMIC ISSUES, RELATIVELY UNKNOWN MAKE…

PEUGEOT 3008 1.2 versus OPEL GRANDLAND X 1.2 THE documentary Twinsters is based on the true story of a French woman who discovers that she has a twin sister. The film chronicles their eventual reunion, and their discovery that they have so much in common, despite having different parents and growing up in different countries and cultures. It’s the same story with the Peugeot 3008 and Opel Grandland X. At first, it would seem that the 3008 and Grandland X are actually “cousins”, since Peugeot and Opel are sister companies. However, when you learn that both models share so much DNA but don’t look alike, it actually makes them seem more like fraternal twins. At first glance, the external resemblance between these two SUVs isn’t obvious, as their front and…

THE, Touareg is Volkswagen’s most storied sports utility vehicle (SUV). It has a string of rally wins under its belt, including the famed Dakar Rally three times from 2009 to 2011. Famously, in 2006, it towed a 155-tonne Boeing 747 jumbo jet at an airfield near London. It repeated the feat in 2014. After the Phaeton was canned in 2016, the Touareg took on another task – being the flagship in the Volkswagen lineup. The Touareg was launched in 2002 and it is now in its third generation. An often heard criticism of the second-generation Touareg, which entered production in 2010 and was facelifted in 2015, was that it was too plain-looking for a flagship SUV. Volkswagen must have heard the feedback. The latest Touareg is a sharp-looking car. The…

THE world’s most prolific sports-car maker has launched another variant of its large third-generation SUV and it is called the Cayenne E-Hybrid. An electric motor in the drivetrain gives a useful boost to the forced-induction petrol engine, very much like how the superseded Cayenne S E-Hybrid was set up, but there are plenty of changes made to the new model. If you were expecting the same drivetrain as the Panamera Turbo S E-Hybrid, you might be a little disappointed. For that, you will have to wait for a Cayenne Hybrid with an “S” in its badge. Right now, what we have is the 3-litre V6 coupled to an electric motor and 8-speed Tiptronic transmission. Still, Porsche is adamant that this plug-in hybrid Cayenne is a performance-focused vehicle which has an…

AUTONOMOUS EMERGENCY BRAKING WILL SAVE LIVES IF IT’S MADE MANDATORY ROY Imagine for a moment if all our cars had autonomous emergency braking (AEB). Pedestrian deaths/injuries will be greatly reduced, and so will rear-end accidents, vehicle pileups, traffic congestion and the related social costs. Seatbelts and airbags save lives when the accident has occurred. AEB greatly improves the chances of avoiding the accident. AEB helps alert the driver that a potentially dangerous situation has started. AEB has at least four stages, starting from visual, audio and, finally, braking. The local motor trade’s authorised dealers do not seem to tick the option box when it comes to safety features like AEB. Cars fitted with the feature in other countries/markets seem to lose it when they come here Is it because this…

If putting together a Lego Technic Bugatti Chiron seems too easy, then set your sights on completing a 1:1 scale Lego McLaren 720S. Consisting of over 280,000 pieces, the completed model will weigh 1451.5kg, or 169kg heavier than the real-life supercar. For reference, you can check out the “Brick Mac” on display at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles. It took a team of six over 2000 hours, or more than 83 days, to finish the project. The McLaren factory, on the other hand, finishes a 720S in 12 days. If the brick-laying sounds too tedious, you can always acquire a completed full-size Lego McLaren 720S, priced at $380,000.…

Suburbanites who want a lot of crossover for not a lot of money should consider the MG ZS, which has the roomiest cabin and largest boot. It also has the cushiest front seats and, for less enthusiastic drivers, reasonable performance. The ZS, however, has some shortcomings in terms of user-friendliness. Apart from the potentially confusing speedometer, there’s no footrest and the boot’s loading point is too high. But those issues aside, our impression of the ZS is that it is well-assembled (in Thailand). We didn’t find anything to worry about during our four-day test drive. As enthusiasts, we wish we could’ve spent four weeks with the Hyundai Kona. You’d imagine that its manual gearbox would be a turn-off to many buyers, but that hasn’t been the case. With around 100…

ENGINE 1199cc, inline-3, 12-valves, turbocharged MAX POWER 129hp at 5500rpm MAX TORQUE 230Nm at 1750rpm POWER TO WEIGHT 99.6hp per tonne GEARBOX 6-speed automatic with manual select 0-100KM/H 10.9 seconds TOP SPEED 188km/h CONSUMPTION 18.2km/L (combined) CO2 EMISSION 138g/km PRICE INCL. COE $149,888 (no VES rebate/surcharge)…

It is fitting that Volkswagen picked Austria to launch the new third-generation Touareg. The Touareg may be Volkswagen’s most famous SUV, but it is not the first. The first VW SUV was the one-off, jacked-up, four-wheel-drive, off-road version of Golf called Golf Country, produced in 1990 and 1991. And the Golf Country has an Austrian connection – the regular Golfs were sent from VW’s German plant to Graz, Austria where they were fitted with four-wheel-drive gears by Austrian vehicle manufacturer Steyr-Daimler-Puch. Some 7700 units of the car were produced.…

HOBBITS are small human-like characters in J.R.R. Tolkien’s novels The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. “IF HOBBITS WERE REAL, THEY WOULD RESIDE IN HOBBITON, MATAMATA, WHICH IS ABOUT TWO HOURS’ DRIVE FROM AUCKLAND.” The have hairy legs, are about half as tall as the average human, and have little to no magic in them. If hobbits were real, they would reside in Matamata, which is about two hours’ drive from Auckland, New Zealand. You see, Matamata is home to Hobbiton, the movie set for The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. The aim of this adventure was to visit Hobbiton. Our fellowship consisted of four journalists who were paired up to drive two BMWs – the X2 and the 6 Series Gran Turismo (GT). I hopped into the…

GEAR FOR GEARHEADS Capturing memories during your road trips might be more fun when you use an instant film camera like the Fujifilm Instax Wide 300. Unlike the hundreds of photos that usually just remain in your smartphone, using an Instax means you’ll have actual pictures to display around your home and office. From $144 Frequent travellers looking for an affordable but powerful laptop can check out the Aftershock Apex 15. Even in base specification, this machine is powered by an eighth-generation, six-core Intel Core i7 processor, 8GB of RAM and an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050TI graphics card. That’s a lot of hardware for something weighing less than 2kg. From $1873 Formula 1 fans looking for a new phone for recording race action may want to check out the Sony…