Table of contents for April 2018 in CAR UK

Sea what he’s done there? You new ’d think car launches , given the might level be of leisurely interest in aff their airs comprising cars, that Ferrari long, ’s consecutive days of hassle-free driving in which to really get to know Enzo’s latest stallion. Er, no. Ben Barry and photographer time Charlie for an Magee astonishing had just set a few of pictures precious and hours , in Charlie but still ’s found case, the a bit of a paddle in the sea – lovely. Ferrari Portofino big drive, p54 Specific rim Much of the lush photography in this month’s Giant Test was brought to you from on board our Hyundai i30N long-term test car, but disaster struck when it picked up a puncture. Thanks to North Hyundai Wales…

SEAT IS SPINNING off its Cupra trim level as a brand in its own right. The new logo resembles two crossed harpoons, and it will spearhead seven high-performance cars over the next three years. The first Cupra is a 296bhp, four-wheel-drive Ateca capable of 0-62mph in 5.4sec; 200bhp Cupra Ibiza and Cupra Arona models using Polo GTI power follow in 2019. What will mark out these Cupras? The cars will be ‘unique, sophisticated and performance-oriented’, to quote the neat if painfully literal set of USPs. ‘Cupras are special, individual cars that are in sophisticated in their materials, finish and colours. And they will always remain performance-focused, through driveability, handling, sound and everything associated with that,’ says Wayne Griffiths, sales and marketing chief. But why is Seat investing the effort and…

ILLUSTRATION: SENOR SALME IT’S NO exaggeration to say Thomas Ingenlath has transformed Volvo design. Now he’s trying to revolutionise electric cars. Last year, he was appointed CEO of Polestar, Volvo’s new performance electric division. The likeable 53-year-old German is one of the car industry’s most admired designers. The one-time RCA student had a top career at the VW Group – star cars included the Skoda Yeti – before joining Volvo, soon after the Geely takeover from Ford, in 2012. Liberated from Ford, and with generous funding from Geely, Volvo launched a new range of bespoke Volvo platforms and engines – unheard of under Ford’s stewardship. These platforms – SPA and CMA – were heavily influenced by Ingenlath and his team to ensure good proportions and stance. Ingenlath admits that one…

WE’VE ALL BEEN there: a dark winter night, temperature around zero, driving on an unfamiliar country lane, when suddenly the wheels lose traction and, for one heart-in-the-mouth instant before the ESC kicks in to correct the slide, you’re heading for a tree. Black ice and other weather-related hazards are real killers. But what if your car knew there was a chance of black ice on that road and had warned you and prepared the car’s safety systems in anticipation of such a drama? Engineers at tech supplier Continental are developing Road Condition Observer. It’s made possible by the ever increasing sophistication of sensors and cameras, combined with the ability to stream data in a car. That, and the engineers’ ability to write sophisticated algorithms. Camera images from the front of…

Ah, this is about WLTP, that new wrestling series... Sort of. The new World Light vehicle Testing Protocol (WLTP) is now in service, and this more stringent lab test – longer, at higher speeds and with real-world gearchange patterns – will ratify new cars’ mpg and CO2 figures, replacing the misleading data from the New European Drive Cycle. What’s the upshot? When Mercedes took CAR to its Untertürkheim test centre to discuss the new system, engineers stressed that cars won’t change technically, but mpg and CO2 figures will be calculated to a new standard. ‘It’s akin to a currency reform,’ Merc said. How will punters compare NEDC and WLTP ratings? With CO2 set to jump and mpg dive by about 20 per cent, old cars ratified under NEDC would look…

DOWNSIZING IS a relative term in the parallel universe of Bentley. A new V8 model is the latest addition to its Bentayga SUV range, which reduces the cylinder count by a third and the price by approximately £30k versus the W12, which remains the range topper. But that still equates to a twin-turbocharged V8 engine, £136,200 price of admission and 542bhp of muscle – the latter only just short of the recently bumped up Range Rover Sport SVR, the punchiest Range Rover ever. But it’s not all about less: product line director Peter Guest describes the V8 as a Bentayga with ‘slightly more of a sportingedge’. The new 4.0-litre V8, with its twin-scroll turbos mounted inside the vee, has been designed by Porsche for the Cayenne and will also do…

LET TE R OF T H E M O N T H Georg Kacher (March compact SUV test) asked, ‘Are we wasting our time focusing on diesels?’ This may have been intended as rhetoric, but I have to respond with a resounding yes! I am no diesel hater – in fact quite the opposite, having run, and enjoyed, a succession of three VW Golf TDIs (two Mk5 GT Sports and presently a Mk7 GT). But knowing what we now know, I could not, in all conscience, be happy with a diesel replacement, and other drivers appear to be deserting the diesel camp in droves. You suggest that manufacturers don’t believe they are wasting our time with diesels. But isn’t this really a case of them having so few acceptable alternatives…

THIS IS THE new A6. No, really, it is – we promise. It definitely isn’t just a downsized A8, but we’d forgive you for thinking that. The A6 looks sharp, promises a peerlessly refined driving experience and comes with the same Level 3-ready autonomous driving systems recently seen on the new A8 and A7. Plus, since this is an Audi, there are fabulously complex and glitzy LED lights front and rear. Inside it’s the same story: twin-screen A8-style infotainment system with haptic feedback, Virtual Cockpit and lots of black panels. It’s also impeccably well-built inside – trust us: we were invited for a full lowdown and a walkaround of the new car at Audi’s Ingolstadt headquarters – and boasts the kind of neat detailing (like clever little illuminated seatbelt clasps)…

GOOD TO SEE you, i-Pace, you haven’t changed! The production version of Jaguar’s first EV is here, and it’s stayed true to the original concept, first shown at the 2016 LA show. ‘It’s narrower and taller, and the wheels are smaller, but I hope you agree we haven’t deviated too much from the concept,’ says design director Ian Callum, proudly. Taking the £4500 plug-in-car government grant into account, i-Pace prices start from £58,995 for the base S iteration, £64,995 for a middling SE and £69,945 for a top-level HSE. A super-plush First Edition will be sold in limited numbers, at an eye-watering £76,995. That’s the only version available in the fluoro-carrot Photon Red paint pictured here. Production starts this summer in Austria, alongside the E-Pace. In the i-Pace, a 90kW…

MERC’S 2018 A-Class is here with a fresh look, a flashy interior and a whole new range of engines. The new hatch foregoes needless creases and bumps for clean surfacing and a longer, wider stance, and Mercedes insists the more mature, less cluttered look is symbolic of a more grown-up driving experience. The new MBUX infotainment system dominates the plush cabin, which is all about solid materials, increased space (the wheelbase is up) and handsome details such as an S-Class-inspired steering wheel and turbine air vents. In the engine bay, Mercedes will offer a 161bhp 1.4-litre turbo petrol with cylinder deactivation for the A200, which will be available from launch alongside a 114bhp 1.5-litre diesel A180d. A punchier 221bhp A250 will join later in 2018, and a weeny 1.2 turbo…

Bugatti Chiron Sport Because your standard Chiron’s not the B-road boogie partner you wanted The Chiron was always intended to be a sharper drive than the Veyron that came before, but if you really want to deploy the car’s extraordinary W16 to full effect you’ll be needing this, the lighter, stiffer Chiron Sport. As you might imagine, given the Chiron already enjoys a surfeit of it, power from the quad-turbo 16 is unchanged. Instead Bugatti has cut weight via lighter wheels, a carbonfibre intercooler cover and – in a world first – carbon windscreen wiper arms, claimed to be 77 per cent lighter than standard. Cosmetic changes include a Sport interior trim package combining black alcantara with Italian red accents. A striking ‘16’ on the radiator grille denotes the cylinder…

T’S EARLY. REALLY early. Runners pound Redondo beach’s surf-flecked boardwalks against a spectacular pre-dawn sky. We’re set for another perfect day, obviously – this is California – but the sun’s yet to rise. Last night’s gloom lingers in the deep steel and glass canyons of Downtown Los Angeles. When you’ve just flown in from London, early is easy – jetlag flings your eyes open at 4am. So you jump out of bed, take the elevator to basement parking and slide into the best-looking car in the place, a Lexus LC500, red like a candied apple. Regrettably, there isn’t another soul around to enjoy the 5.0-litre V8 as it flares into life, a rude, very un-Japanese exhaust racket reverberating around this stark space of violently bright strip lights and cool concrete.…

I’VE NEVER BEEN so excited to drive a new Hyundai. Actually, I’ve never been at all excited about driving any Hyundai. Which means the i30N has already been doing its job, even before it’s turned a wheel. This is Hyundai’s first fully focused hot hatch (2011’s Veloster was a quasi-coupe oddball, 2015’s i30 Turbo a restrained warm hatch), and its mission is to broaden the brand’s image beyond being a maker of competent but nondescript transport for people who aren’t interested in cars. And there are more than a few reasons why you should be very interested in the i30N. Starting with the consonant after its name: N is the new high-performance sub-brand for Hyundai, and the i30 is its first product. Think of N as Cupra is to Seat,…

EVEN AS WE say arrivederci to the 3008, it continues to baffle me by winning awards seemingly for little more than being a lot like a Nissan Qashqai except a bit better. It has also picked up a few awards in the ff-C household, although none of them perhaps especially plaque-worthy. The Grayson Perry Award for paint that the missus instantly dismissed as ‘turd-like’, for instance. Then there’s the U-Boat Award for klaxoning the driver’s ears off should you dare open the door with engine running and handbrake off. And of course there’s the Aloe Vera Award for seat heaters which cluster all their energy into a small molten lava patch under the lower thigh. We shouldn’t forget the Despicable Audi-Driving Toe-rag Award for the fastest wound ever administered unto…

ALEX TAPLEY ‘AHHH – THAT’S better’ sighed the missus, waving goodbye to the Car of the Year as she settled into what, by rights, should have a fair-to-middling shout at the shortlist for the next one. This is the car which confirms that Gothenburg has finally got its eider ducklings in a row on the premium pond. By which I mean that the only reason to go out there and buy an XC90 instead is for want of a bigger car; all the good stuff which heralded the arrival of the former now putting in an appearance here. There was no opportunity to tailor this XC60 to specific ff-C family requirements (somewhere for the missus to stow her ruddy handbag other than the front passenger footwell, rear-seat central sandbag barricade,…

1 That’s a bit blander than I remember… It certainly is, particularly at the front, where the grille has nearly disappeared. It’s all about maximum aero, rather than toning down the styling of a quirky looking compact SUV – that’s just a side effect of the need to keep this plug-in electric version as sleek as possible. 2 Give me some electric specs Called Kona Electric, it comes in two versions, using different batteries and electric motors. One, with a 39.2kWh battery, makes 133bhp and does 0-62mph in 9.3sec, with a range of up to 186 miles. The 64kWh version gets to 62mph in 7.6sec thanks to its 201bhp, and is claimed to manage up to 292 miles. 3 What about charging? The Kona EV has fast-charging capability, so if…

THINK OF THE Merc-AMG CLS53 four-door coupe and E53 Coupe and Cabriolet as the new ‘starter’ series for AMG’s larger cars, a little like the C-Class’s 43 range – but packing far more tech. The 53s feature Merc’s latest generation of straight-six mild hybrid powertrains, with 48-volt electrical architecture, an electric compressor in tandem with a conventional turbo, and a hefty electric power boost under acceleration. The powertrain also features on other non-AMG Mercs including the CLS450. 1 The ingredients The CLS53’s engine is a 3.0-litre straight-six with an exhaust-driven turbo plus an auxiliary electric compressor. The key new element is EQ Boost, Merc’s name for an integrated starter-generator (ISG), which combines starter motor and generator in one powerful electric motor, housed between the engine and transmission. It helps provide…

COMPROMISE IS THE name of the game when it comes to convertibles. You probably know that they cost more than the coupes they’re based on, and tend to be heavier, wobblier, slower, less refined, more cramped and sometimes uglier too. That’s a lot of compromise just to get some fresh air over your head. Aston hasn’t worked miracles with the new DB11 Volante, because much – if not all – of the above still applies. The price of £159,900, for instance, makes this the most expensive DB11 of all, even if the coupe can be had with a larger engine and a chunk more power. Nonetheless, Aston has done a great job of mitigating the downsides to make this a very satisfying drop-top of the GT variety. Perhaps most impressive…

RANGE ROVER EVOQUE CONVERTIBLE TD4 HSE DYNAMIC LUX > Price £51,700 > As tested £53,270 > Engine 1998cc turbodiesel 4-cyl, 177bhp @ 4000rpm, 317lb ft @ 1750rpm > Transmission 9-speed auto, all-wheel drive > Performance 10.3sec 0-62mph, 121mph, 49.6mpg, 149g/km CO2 > Weight 1967kg > Example insurance quote* £367.37 > On sale Now > Rating ★★★★★ BMW 420D M SPORT CONVERTIBLE > Price £43,510 > As tested £47,015 > Engine 1995cc turbodiesel 4-cyl, 187bhp @ 4000rpm, 295lb ft @ 1750rpm > Transmission 8-speed auto, rear-wheel drive > Performance 8.0sec 0-62mph, 142mph, 64.2mpg, 124g/km CO2 > Weight 1790kg > Example insurance quote* £327.06 > On sale Now > Rating ★★★★★ MERCEDES-BENZ C220D 4MATIC AMG LINE CABRIOLET > Price £39,285 > Astested £44,055 > Engine 2143cc turbodiesel 4-cyl, 168bhp @ 3000rpm, 295lb…

ARDER, FASTER, stronger and stickier, Ferrari’s most powerful V8 sports car ever draws on F1 and Le Mans know-how as it picks up the baton from the old 458 Speciale. Power is up 7.5 per cent, down-force by 20 per cent. And the name is at least five times more annoying. Because obviously it was meant to be GTO. 488 GTO. You know, like 288 GTO, itself a homage to the legendary 250 GTO racer from 1962. Or at least we all assumed it was going to be GTO. But then the Italians, who don’t like anyone telling them what to do, went and Pista on everyone’s chips by naming the hot new 488 after their native word for ‘track’. And the track really does look like it’ll be the…

IDEAS ABOVE ITS station? Hardly. That Land Rover is the world’s greatest SUV brand is beyond doubt. No one else has yet managed a luxury SUV with anything like the Range Rover’s effortless elegance. Look at Bentley, at Lamborghini, at the spyshots of Rolls-Royce’s imminent Cullinan – the challenge of delivering an SUV of aesthetic merit has already taken some big scalps. Thus far, SVO’s output has eased the Range Rover to a list price of £170k. Factor in a fat typical options spend and suddenly the new SV Coupe’s £240,000 doesn’t look so much like a bolt from the blue. ‘Just’ 999 will be built. It rides on 23-inch wheels. There are only two doors (with frameless windows and power close). The engine is JLR’s supercharged V8, pushed to…

THIS AUTUMN Peugeot’s hard sell – its new 508 four-door coupe – becomes a beacon of style… honest! First up, the 508 has a concept car’s interior, with a stepped dash layering pale wood, nappa leather and plastic to stunning effect, as per the 2014 Exalt show car. A 10-inch central touchscreen and a customisable 12-inch digital instrument pack further burnish a special cabin. The five-door body – shrunk to an Audi A5 Sportback’s dimensions – has classy frameless doors and some eye-catching details: LED icicles hanging from the headlamps, three-dimensional red claw slashes in the rear light bar. And the undulating rear wing panel, a massive pressing so complex Peugeot simply couldn’t have done it just a few years ago, is something to behold. Most appealing will be a…

Everything you see from us – the hypercar, the GT – is considered; a piece of the puzzle,’ says AMG’s Tobias Moers. ‘Take the two-seat GT. We repositioned that car compared to the SLS before it. We’ve also extended the AMG portfolio, moving up with the hypercar and down with the AMG 43s. Previously we didn’t have the breadth or the volume. And now the GT 4-Door takes us in another direction. For now, it’s as luxurious as an AMG should be.’ Saloons are out, four-door coupes are in, and so the AMG GT 4-Door joins the line-up, just months after the new CLS. Unveiled at the recent Geneva show, this is the production version of last year’s GT Concept four-door and its take on modern high-performance luxury. With soaring…

IF WE’RE BEING rational about things (and no one ever had any fun being rational), nobody really needs a modestly sized estate car that can do 0-62mph in 4.0sec. But isn’t it great that such things exist? More pointedly, isn’t it a pity there aren’t a few more of them? As the new Audi RS4 Avant rolls into British showrooms, it finds itself with only the Mercedes-AMG C63 Estate as a direct opponent. BMW doesn’t make an M3 Touring, nor Alfa Romeo a Giulia Sportwagon Quadrifoglio, but we’ve got a softer spot for the Alfa saloon than for the current M3 and that’s why it’s here, as a yardstick with which to judge the two hot wagons. (Why is there no Alfa estate? Alfa cancelled the planned five-door Giulia to…

They represent great value and can give some far more exotic machinery a hard time STYLE LIKE A sports car, with dynamics and running costs to rival a hatchback – that’s the allure of our used front-wheel-drive coupes. Not only that, but the Audi TT, VW Scirocco R and Peugeot RCZ R represent great value, and can even give some far more exotic machinery a hard time if you choose the right spec. We’ve united the trio under a nominal £18k umbrella, mostly because that’s as cheap as you’ll find the latest TT, the newest of the bunch. But go for a slightly older or higher-mileage Scirocco R or RCZ R and you’ll be heading towards £10k territory. Bargain hunters who like the coupe looks but don’t mind trading a…

Perving at other people’s bulges I have been enviously eyeing up other people’s bulges, feeling rather inadequate at my lack of tumescence. Unlike various E-Class Coupes and the C63, the C43 has the flaccid bonnet metalwork of the standard Coupe. I’m thinking of going Max Power and gaffataping a couple of drainpipes on it by way of compensation. Pipe up, or pipe out The C43 looks like it’s sporting four near-rhomboidal pipes, but if you get on your hands and knees and peer there’s actually only two hidden behind the cladding. Fortunately, it sounds amazing with the Sport exhaust engaged (and even more manic in Sport Plus mode). So, being a bit of an unreconstructed teenager, I drive everywhere with it switched on. Through a reversing camera, darkly There’s a…

Honda Civic Type R MONTH 2 Curtis Moldrich ONE MILE-HEAVY MONTH into life with the Type R and my brain is now fully dialled into manual-gearbox driving. With the rustiness gone I’ve been fully appreciating the crisp but solid, firm yet smooth feel of the Honda’s six-speed ‘box. And on quite a few slip roads, I’ve been making the most of what those gears can extract from the turbocharged petrol engine. Blasting the Type R to cruising speed from third is the perfect antidote to miles of A1 (M). After that burst of fun, it’s then easy to drop it into sixth, click on adaptive cruise control and lane-keep assist, and fire up a podcast. A car that looks this lairy has no right to be this comfortable on the…

 THAT DELICIOUS new-car smell is beginning to fade, and as our Mazda MX-5 RF long-term test car turns one year old it’s time for a first service (due at 12 months or 12,500 miles, whichever comes sooner). The service wasn’t too bad, except two litres of Mazda’s fancy oil cost £72 Handily, there’s a Donalds Mazda dealership in my town, part of a big retail group in the area, so I booked it in there. They were polite and efficient and it was all done on time, and the bill came to £195, which I didn’t think was too bad for a year’s driving. The actual service itself was listed on the bill at £99 (including VAT), but the additional parts doubled that. In particular, the oil – two litres…

‘WE SEE NO LIMITS for Lagonda. It will be a brand for the restless.’ So says the ambitious Aston CEO Andy Palmer, on the reveal of this truly stunning concept from Aston Martin’s ultra-luxurious sub-brand. This is the Lagonda Vision Concept; the latest in the chequered yet very illustrious history of the British marque. But this isn’t an old-school, diamond-encrusted, V12-powered Liberace-mobile. Oh no, this is a pure electric, very sophisticated grand tourer. ‘The Lagonda Vision Concept is an incredibly bold design statement,’ says Aston’s chief creative officer Marek Reichman. ‘While Aston Martin design language can be seen as organic and natural, that of Lagonda is more sculptural, shocking and challenging,’ he adds. We won’t disagree. The Vision Concept may be a saloon, but the silhouette is rakishly tapered, with…

VW Vizzion Why the Arteon doesn’t look like this is anyone’s guess. The ridiculously named Vizzion might be 90 per cent blue-sky free thinking and just 10 per cent car, but the 10 per cent looks great – elegant contrasting cantrails, sharp surfacing and an illuminated VW badge neatly integrated into the LED rear lights. The Vizzion exists to show off the flexibility of VW’s EV platform, Level 5 autonomy (from 2025, maybe 2030, says VW), a 3D interface via Microsoft HoloLens technology and facial recognition that’ll open the car when it spots you coming and immediately set about configuring itself to your preferred pre-sets. Neat. NEED TO KNOW > What is it? A preview of the fourth ID model > Tech specs A twin-motor EV powertrain with just shy…

1 WEAK LINKS A car’s radar system will usually be programmed to detect moving objects and ignore stationary ones – such as a parked fire truck that could suddenly appear ahead as other traffic changes lane. Numerous warning systems are built into Autopilot, but a Tesla driver – like any other road user – is still required to pay attention and be ready to assume full command of the car. 2 IMPERFECT PRESENT Tesla’s Autopilot uses a combination of forward-facing radar and a camera with three lenses of differing focal lengths – wide angle, standard and long distance – to view the road ahead. It also has forward and rearward looking side cameras and a ring of sonars around the car to give a 360° view of its surroundings. 3…

> I’VE BEEN at Seat for seven years, I love my job here. When I started, people were saying ‘We don’t need Cupra, we can close Seat Sport’ but for me it’s always been the icing on the cake. Over 20 years we’ve sold 60,000 Cupras. In the last year we’ve sold 10,000, which shows the progress. That’s a fantastic base to bring the product and the brand to the next level. > CUPRA IS neither Ford RS nor DS. Our cars have to drive like a Cupra. That means agility, and if front-wheel drive they need to have neutrality, if you go off throttle it has to turn in. But a Cupra has to have balance, a normal Cupra customer is not having five cars in the garage. [So…

THIS IS, FRANKLY, ridiculous. It’s a Ford F-150 Raptor, in the UK. Nobody needs one of these over here – towering over typical British traffic, it’s out of context like the mis-booking of Napalm Death at a Rotary Club dinner and dance. So completely out of whack, in fact, that at times other road users just don’t know how to deal with it. One poor Corsa driver nearly ditched their car in response to the Raptor’s sudden appearance. A tractor actually blinked and gave way. I digress. Perhaps we should start with some Raptor 101. This is the Ford Performance version of the latest F-150 pick-up truck – the F-150 being the best-selling vehicle in the USA, a title it’s held since 1981. Supposedly Ford sells one every 17 seconds,…

WHO’D HAVE THOUGHT the Quattro GmbH name hung so heavily around the neck of Audi’s performance division? Within mere moments, it seems, of ditching the literal association with four-wheel drive and being rebranded Audi Sport, the little tinkers have produced a rear-wheel-drive model – the first in the entire history of the Audi brand. You can tell they haven’t had much practice at this: the Audi R8 variant in question has been labelled RWS – which to every other gearhead on planet Earth stands for rear-wheel steering. This R8 does not have rear-wheel steering, at least not in any technical fashion. Perhaps it’s Audi Sport’s idea of a joke: ‘An entire 533bhp 5.2-litre V10 directed exclusively at the back axle, of course it’s got rear-wheel steering, ha ha.’ RWS actually…

TWENTY-FIVE THOUSAND Aston Martin Vantages were built between 2005 and its recent demise, making Aston’s smallest model the company’s biggest seller ever. The Vantage replacement has some sizeable shoes to fill, then, and today we’re driving it. The garage shutter rolls up to reveal a final pre-production prototype ‘camouflaged’ in acid yellow and black like a poisonous snake. Outside there’s a test track carved from snow in the far north of Finland. Aston sets up cars in these conditions as well as on dry roads, and a chassis that feels well balanced when pushed hard here should feel nicely sorted on grippier surfaces too. Press the starter button and the 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 echoes off the walls with an animalistic roar, sounding every bit as potent as 503bhp and 505lb…

IT’S AROUND 6000 miles from the coast of California to Portofino, a fishing village on the Italian Riviera. One glance at the new Ferrari Portofino’s taut aluminium bodywork – and a quick scan of its specification – suggests there’s a similarly large gulf between Ferrari’s new entry-level model and its predecessor, the California T. Squeeze the throttle, feel the twin-turbo V8’s huge swell of midrange torque morph seamlessly into a frantic rush to the redline, then pull back on paddleshifters that engage gears like they’re firing ammunition. And suddenly the subjective gloss of style and the empirical detachment of stats become real with one noisy burst of acceleration. If foot-to-the-floor first impressions suggest the Portofino is a sizeable step on from the California T, it promises to be better at…

SINCE ITS INTRODUCTION, Lamborghini’s V10-engined little monster has multiplied from a car to a model range. We love the iterations that bookend that range: the most ‘affordable’ Huracan, the RWD Coupe (two driven wheels, reduced weight, marginally less money); and the range-topping Performante, which deploys increased power, reduced weight and uprated aero to take the Huracan to a level uncomfortably close to that of the mighty V12 Aventador. Until now, Lamborghini’s offered Spyder versions of two of its three Huracans, with the Performante the conspicuous lonely coupe… The Performante Spyder fixes that. Changes are nothing more or less than you’d expect. In comes a folding soft-top roof, up goes the weight (by 125kg to 1507kg thanks to the engineering required by the roof mechanism) and the astonishing performance figures go…

As has become customary, the 991.1 iteration of the Porsche 911 will bow out with what promises to be its high watermark: the track-ready, PDK-only, impossible-to-buy-unless-you’ve-serious-dealer-Brownie-points GT3 RS. Power from the 4.0-litre flat-six climbs to 513bhp (128bhp per litre, versus the old V10 Carrera GT’s 107bhp per litre…) while the 0-62mph time to drops to 3.2sec, just 0.3sec tardier than the all-wheel-drive, 572bhp Turbo S. Optional Weissach Package (more carbon, magnesium wheels) promises to lift your 911 GT3 RS above all the ordinary ones out there……

JUST FOR A MOMENT, let’s park the ‘is Cupra a brand or a level of trim?’ debate – there’s plenty of time for that elsewhere (see Insider) – and focus on the car. In the Ateca, Seat has created one of the most dynamic compact SUVs you can buy, with a chassis that could take a lot more power. So the Martorell engineers have given it… a lot more power: 107 additional horses no less, from the 295bhp 2.0-litre turbocharged inline four you’ll know and love from the VW Golf R. Throw in an adaptive four-wheel-drive system, lowered suspension with uprated springs and shocks and specially tuned Dynamic Chassis Control, and the Cupra Ateca can blitz standstill to 62mph in 5.4sec and power on to 152mph. To get comparable performance…

WHEN I WAS LAST at Formula 1 HQ, I was ushered into the ‘penthouse’ meeting room. It wasn’t situated on the top floor, with panoramic views over central London; its walls were merely adorned with every Penthouse front cover from the last 50 years. It was Bernie Ecclestone’s little joke. Something to talk to heads of state about when they visited him in London. As was the pile of $100 bills (amounting to $1 million) in the meeting room opposite. Thirteen months on and I’m back at F1 HQ, but that’s where the similarities end. The meeting room in which I sit, with coffee, tea, biscuits and water all at hand, is on the top floor – the penthouse, you could say – and its walls are white. No magazines…

BOB ATKINS YOU KNOW those Leica cameras, where cutting-edge digital image capture is wrapped up in a classical exterior design? I reckon this Jaguar XF Sportbrake, a 2.0-litre diesel Prestige model, is a kindred spirit. While the F-Pace looped the loop onto the public stage and the E-Pace barrel-rolled along behind – the brashness of SUVs! – Jaguar unveiled its XF wagon at the sedate, very traditional All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club. Now our XF’s £705 Loire Blue Metallic paint, with glitzy flakes that twinkle in the sunlight, would doubtless be called for a dress code violation. But otherwise Wimbledon’s officials would find little to offend: the base Prestige’s 17-inch rims are only upgraded by a modest inch to this 10-spoke design (£840), and chrome piping is present…

EARLIER IN THIS issue you may have read the Giant Test. In it, we compare and contrast the new Audi RS4 Avant, Alfa’s Giulia Quadrifoglio and AMG’s C63 S estate. But this battle is in fact one that rages most days in the CAR office, where we’re fortunate enough to be running both the Giulia and the RS4’s two-door sister car, the RS5 coupe. This month Ben Miller and Phil McNamara flitted between each other’s daily drives in the name of science. PM: Interesting to finally spend some time in the RS5. Its most compelling aspect is its refinement. Wind noise is minimised and there’s barely any rolling tyre noise. A great cruiser. The Alfa isn’t bad, but it’s not in the Audi’s league. Jumping from the Giulia into the…

ON PAPER, there are lots of reasons to opt for a lesser, more sensible BMW Gran Coupe than the 440i, including running costs, purchase price and CO2. These are significant factors, and I get why business users might be attracted to the four-cylinder diesels and petrols – the 420d M Sport, for instance, costs £37k (440i: £45k) and offers 62.8mpg (440i: 41.5mpg); a 420d doesn’t even look particularly different to a 440i with those M Sport styling add-ons. But I don’t think the Gran Coupe’s more luxurious positioning over the very similar 3-series rings true with four-pot power, and each time I press the starter button I’m so grateful I’ve got the only six-cylinder petrol available in the Gran Coupe range. The 3.0-litre engine clears its throat with a purposeful…