MOTOR Magazine Australia

I RARELY SAW EYE TO eye with my father. As a child, I avoided him, bolting out of the front door as soon as his van pulled into the garage at 4pm, kicking my heels on the city streets until dinner time. He mellowed in his later years due to the decline of his physical faculties but the relationship was always fractious. He died 17,000km from me as I was walking to work in 2014, the news coming in a call from my brother. I carried on walking, choosing not to burden anyone in the Wheels office that day with this piece of news. Some weeks later, my mother presented herself on these shores with a casket of ashes. I took them to a beautiful local lake and tipped them…

Rating 4.5 ENGINE 6162cc V8, OHV, 16v, supercharger POWER 474kW @ 6500rpm TORQUE 815Nm @ 3900rpm 0-100KM/H 4.16sec WEIGHT 1895kg • PRICE $169,900 LIKE: Huge lungs; fantastic soundtrack; meaty controls; charisma; collectability DISLIKE: Rare; expensive; thirsty; firm on road; tyres won’t like damp surfaces IDEALLY, WE’D HAVE first driven the W1 on the road. But, given production doesn’t start until April and HSV isn’t even sure there will be a press car (though there’s certainly a desire for a car to be made available) a handful of laps around Philip Island might be the best we’ll ever manage. But hey, that’s a pretty good second prize, innit? Exactly. Thing is, in any other car, a few hot laps might be less than relevant, but the W1 is so damn track-focused…

Rating 5.0 ENGINE 6064cc V12, DOHC, 48v POWER 461kW @ 7400rpm TORQUE 650Nm @ 5600rpm 0-100KM/H 3.2sec WEIGHT 1575kg • PRICE $1.2 million LIKE: Staying power; clever tech and packaging; V12 soundtrack to die for DISLIKE: Prohibitively expensive; wooden brakes; we’ll never see its like again GORDON MURRAY HAS a party trick. Behind his back the 6.1-litre Vl2 is burbling away happily at tickover, the needle just edging up as he snicks the gear lever into first and trickles out of the Goodwood pits. At 50km/h he moves the lever, a satisfying snickety-snick, and floors the throttle. WOW! A shrill, vibrant noise fills the McLaren’s cabin, and there’s the sensation of a giant hand at our backs. Was there ever a motoring sensation like this? A cloud of spray plumes…

Rating 4.5 ENGINE Dual permanent magnet synchronous POWER 310kW TORQUE 601Nm 0-100KM/H 4.4sec (claimed) WEIGHT 2108kg • PRICE $127,800 LIKE: One of the most significant new cars of this generation; big innovation; lots of mechanical grip DISLIKE: Very heavy; dynamic driving eats range TESLA AIMS TO ELEVATE THE ELECTRIC CAR FROM INTRIGUING CURIOUSITY TO A VIABLE MEANS OF EVERYDAY TRANSPORT IT’S UNCLEAR AT this point whether Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk intends to save the world or try and take it over. Perhaps it’s both. In between building space transportation vehicles, planning to colonise Mars and inventing new methods of high-speed transport, the 43-year-old Canadian billionaire entrepreneur found time to create the world’s first manufacturer of all-electric cars. Tesla’s first offering was the Roadster. Built from 2008-2012, the Elise-based sports…

Rating 4.5 ENGINE 2463cc inline-4, DOHC, 16v POWER 173kW @ 7200rpm TORQUE 245Nm @ 5000-6000rpm 0-100KM/H 7.1sec (claimed) WEIGHT 1575kg • PRICE $92,850 LIKE: Road presence; touring car provenance; on-road civility DISLIKE: Never sold in Australia; left-hand drive only; going rate of $300k IT LOOKED AWESOME… low, black, inhabiting its space like a crouched jungle cat, coiled for action, oozing menace. The flanks draped with profane bodykit, fat 17-inch wheels lurking under flared arches, and there at the rear, this outrageous wing. Even knowing what it is doesn’t allay the impact of seeing the beast for the first time in the flesh – it hits you right between the eyes. Is this really a Mercedes-Benz? And just for the hell of it you seek out the three-pointed star, to indulge…

Rating 5.0 ENGINE 2977cc V6, DOHC, 32v POWER 201kW @ 7300rpm TORQUE 284Nm @ 5400rpm 0-100KM/H 5.9sec (claimed) WEIGHT 1350kg • PRICE $170,000 LIKE: User-friendliness; unhinged development; great driving position DISLIKE: Cabin materials could be better; badge lacked clout of rivals HONDA’S FIRST FORAY into the upper stratosphere of high performance cars – the Ferrari-like NSX – isn’t a good car. This tour de force in aluminium is a great one. My exposure to Honda’s new, mid-engined, two-seat beauty consists, so far, of an all-too-brief day behind the wheel on smooth German roads. But if my senses are as good as I reckon they are, that’s enough to determine there is no place in this report for damning with faint praise. I’ll just tell it like I found it… though…