Drive Magazine March 2010

2 MARCH 2010DRIVE MAGAZINE

I have to say, it’s an all-too-familiar feeling this. Fortunately, not quite as much of late as it used to be, before I was lucky enough to be able to use brand-new test cars on a regular ba-

sis.

That sensation of being marooned. Cast adrift in the sea of purposefully-purring ve-hicles fl owing across our country’s roads each day. Alone. Vulnerable. Frustrated.

But I was very unexpectedly reminded, just this past Thursday, of this devastat-ing range of emotions, when the sub-10 000km press fl eet car I was in, and I’m not going to name any manufacturers or make any allusions to any brands here whatsoever, decided it was going no fur-ther.

It was on a pretty quiet back-road be-tween Jo’Burg and Springs as well. Al-most home, as usual, but still out in the bundus a bit. And not the nice, unpopu-lated sort of bundus either. With an an-gry-looking storm blowing overhead, thir-ty-grand’s worth of review ICT hardware tucked in the boot of a beautiful, shining pearl-white extravagance on wheels, and an emergency services department seemingly more intent on attributing the cost of the recovery to somewhere. And failing utterly to understand the very con-cept of a motoring journalist actually been

Drive TeamEditor: Russell Bennett

Deputy Editor: Steve Allison

Editorial Contributors: Russell Bennett,

Steve Allison, Kyle Stone, Bruce Bennett,

Christo Valentyn, Bob Allison

Art Contributors: Heide-Marie Botes

AVC

Management: Russell Bennett,

Steve Allison

Advertising Sales: [email protected]

Photography: Steve Allison Photographic,

www.quickpic.co.za, direct from

manufacturers

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information only and every effort is made to

ensure its accuracy. However reviews,

comment and instruction are the views of

the authors and may contain inadvertent

errors, for which Drive apologises but takes

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DRIVE MAGAZINEMARCH 2010

loaned a manufacturers SA vehicle.

It’s a bit strange that. I know there aren’t millions of motoring journos in the world, but we’re hardly the rarest of beasts either, are we? Yet mention the fact to someone who isn’t in marketing, PR, publishing or upper management, and people just fail to believe that a major motoring manufacturer has simply given you their brand-new wheels for a test period. You should just try, for instance, professing a lack of cash to car-guards when you’ve pulled up in a Q7! Their faces only ever shout one thing.... Liar!

Anyway I digress. The broken car.

In the end, the recovery guys helped out very quickly. After a fi rst call at around 17:45, the car and I were at my house about 8 kms away by 19:15, the sorting-out to be fi nal-ised early in the morning and the stricken car delivered back to wherever it needed to be sent for examination and fi xing.

But it’s still a harrowing time, being stranded. Absolutely, these sorts of things hap-pen, so you can’t really get mad or start postulating wildly based on a single failure. But when my know-it-all mechanic tenant burst out with “Oh I know just what it is! The ECU control cable to the ‘box has worked loose, be the work of 2 minutes to reattach that!” I huffi ly replied; “Yes, that’s exactly what I said. The gearbox went braindead, and a braindead gearbox with nothing but Neutral is useless to me, as a car,” and stomped off inside.

It wasn’t just a cable by the way.

The only moral of this story, is that failures do still occur. We journos regularly these days, amongst ourselves, opine that “All cars are good these days”, and to a certain extent that’s true.

But some individual cars, regardless of brand or perceived reliability, just aren’t. They just aren’t good at all. And then it’ll be the response of the roadside assistance offered by your selected brand which will mean everything to your beleaguered brain, and nothing else.

Russell


6 News The latest happenings, including extensive coverage of the highlights at the recent Geneva show.

32 Drive Launch Feature Another Peerless Porsche: Yes he Panamera has been officially launched to SA punters, even though it’s been on sale for a few months already. We drive it for the first time on a gorgeous, and long, test route.

44 Drive Launch Feature French without the flair: Citroen’s new C3 might not be as quirky

and off-the-wall as we’re used to from the French brands. But it is a very good car, and that’s enough for most.

52 Drive Launch Feature Star credentials: BMW is going to be shaking the superbike status-quo up with this incredible new machine, the much-anticipated S1000RR.

60 Drive Feature Carbon copy cats: Our research-loving Bob Allison takes a look “under the hood” of the new emissions tax coming this year. And finds a lump of swarf.

68 Drive Feature A year on two wheels. A

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new drive contributor, yes yet another Steve, shares how his commitment to two-wheeled commuting has gone over the last 12 months.

74 Drive columns Russell laments the death of the right to freedom of mobility, and Steve gives enormous super-SUVs the middle-fingered salute on his Triumph.

80 Drive Tests Chrysler Sebring Convertible

92 Drive Tests Renault Clio Sport

102 Drive Versus Mitsubishi Outlander versus Subaru Outback

112 Drive Tests Volkswagen Golf Mk1

120 Drive Tests Yamaha YZF-R6

128 Drive Tests Suzuki GSX-R 1000

136 Drive Tests Volkswagen CC 2.0 TDI DSG

142 Drive Tests Nissan Qashqai n-tec

150 Drive Tunes The latest smash-hits from the biggest international and local players. Drop us a line and win your very own copies of these must-have albums.











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MARCH 2010DRIVE MAGAZINE

Sadly the SLS won’t be taking up medi-cal duty as well, the by comparison bor-ing C 63 AMG Estate still has that job. I guess one really does need a back seat of sorts for a medical car so the SLS maybe wouldn’t be ideal, but F1 drivers are so small I’m sure the FIA could’ve made a plan.

It really is great to see Mercedes jump-

When the 2010 F1 sea-son kicks off in Bah-rain early March some of the worlds most im-pressive cars will be

on display, but threatening to steal the show is AMG’s all-new halo car, the SLS gullwing. The new Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG Offi cial F1™ Safety Car replaces the already very special SL 63 AMG.


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ing into the worlds most glamorous and expen-sive motorsport series feet first, 2010 will af-ter all see a Mercedes team, all the official FIA vehicles and Mercedes power bolted into sev-eral cars besides their own team.

If you’ve been living un-der a rock and are com-pletely unaware of just why the SLS has the credentials to be motor-sport’s premier pace car I’ll happily oblige. The SLS has a 6.3L V8 but not the standard AMG 63 that they put into just about every AMG out there. This motor pro-duces 420kW/571hp and

650Nm of torque, enough for the SLS to explode from 0 to 100km/h in 3.8 seconds. The SLS truly is an awesome vehicle, particularly with it’s impressive power, but really the only thing people will talk about is the gullwings.


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The RS 5’s 331kW is produced by Au-di’s illustrious 4.2L FSI motor, the FSI referring to it’s common rail direct fuel injection. Maximum power arrives quite high up for a V8 at 8,250 rpm but maxi-mum torque of 430 Nm will be delivered lower down, between 4,000 and 6,000 rpm. The RS 5’s prodigious power em-anating from the hand made V8 will be

The latest RS from Audi was recently presented to the public at the Geneva Motor Show. So far what we know is that lurking beneath the

surprisingly tame exterior of this coupe is a 331kW/450hp high revving V8. Audi’s famous Quattro system has been given an upgrade for this RS 5 too in the form of a newly developed centre differential.


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on the Quattro system of the RS 5 is also a new entrant into my list of things I-don’t-understand-but-still-want. This illustrious list includes great things with awesome names such as Ford’s Revo Knuckle’s and Pagani’s Carbo-tanium.

The RS 5’s centre diff comes in the form of a crown-gear differential, which is compact, light weight and also self-locking. The new centre diff works in conjunction with electronic torque vec-toring and to be honest seems to do the same job Quattro’s always done, it’s just slightly better now. The Quat-tro system can send up to 85% of it’s power to the rear but the standard set-ting is a 40:60 rear-biased split.

The RS 5 comes equipped with dynam-ic steering, Audi calls it’s version of this concept speed-dependent servotronic steering and in the RS 5 is set up to be very tight. Audi’s drive select sys-tem is there too with the ability to adjust steering, the seven-speed S tronic, the sport differential, the engine, and even the exhaust system.

Should be one to keep an eye on.

channelled trough a seven-speed S tronic gearbox. These impressive pow-ertrain figures naturally translate into some equally impressive performance figures; 0-100km/h in 4.6 seconds and on to a governed top speed of 250km/h, although Audi will up that to 280km/h if you ask nicely.The aforementioned new development


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will be joined as standard with the eight speed automatic gearbox out of the BMW 7 series.

Let’s be frank though, all BMW’s have an impressive and extensive array of luxurious equipment fitted as standard, and many powerful and efficient engine options. That the 5 series GT is like that then is no surprise, nor that newswor-thy really, the true talking point of the 5 series GT unquestionably is the styl-ing. More specifically the styling of the unusual rear end, with its somewhat, shall we say fat boot. Regardless, styl-ing choices are always subjective so I’m afraid you’ll have to make up your own mind on this one.

BMW has unveiled the new 5 Series Gran Turismo, which they are touting as a unique concept which will defi ne an all-new segment of the mar-

ket. The 5 series GT will enter the market initially offering three drivetrain options; the 530d, 535i, and 550i Gran Turismo.

The 530d is a180 kW straight-six die-sel, the 535i naturally is BMW’s famed straight six petrol motor with Twin-Power Turbo, High Precision Injection and VALVETRONIC technology good for 225kW. Last but certainly not least is the V8 TwinPower Turbo delivering maximum output of 300 kW in the BMW 550i Gran Turismo. All of those engines


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There are 6 engine options, 3 petrol and 3 diesels. Chances are though that the diesels won’t be available here due to the poor quality of our fuel. The top spec is a 1.6 turbo developing 115kW and 240Nm of torque.

The modern funky colours are what re-ally make the DS3 stand out from the crowd. There is a vast array of colour combinations with the separate choice of roof colours and patterns, 38 in to-tal. Of course South Africa being a smaller market, the choice will be lim-ited for those that want a car straight away, your own choice will probably be a special order. Whatever combination you go for, the DS3 is going to be the king of cool.

Hot on the heels of the re-cently launched C3, South African Citroen showrooms will be offering the hot hatch version, the DS3. The DS3

looks fantastic and should appeal to the younger hot hatch buyer that likes to stand out from the crowd. Styling, whilst based on the C3 is completely different. It has an aggressive front end with LED sidelights. Sports style alloy wheels are housed in fl ared wheel arches. The car looks fast even at a standstill.

The interior has a sports looking dash and gear lever and is available in a choice of colours. The seats are of the deeply sculptured bucket variety cov-ered in either cloth or leather.


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which to me is the definition of local operations being affected. To be fair South African production of the HUM-MER H3 was halted in May 2009 so lo-cal operations won’t change in terms of them already being dead for awhile now. The element of local operations that will remain unaffected completely it seems is after sales service. GM will continue to care for their customers vehicles through their HUMMER ap-proved dealerships and all warranties will be honoured.

Not that there are a huge number of them in South Af-rica but nevertheless HUM-MER owners can breathe a sigh of relief. GM South Afri-

ca has announced that despite GM head offi ce winding down the HUMMER brand, local operations will be unaffected. Whilst the news from GM South Africa may be good news for HUMMER owners the statement that local operations won’t be impacted is, well it can be misleading.

GM will no longer distribute and sell HUMMER vehicles in South Africa,


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been found to be at the root of the is-sue. The fuel gauge defect is unrelated to the faulty brake pins, some vehicle-shave been incorrectly indicating fuel levels, causing drivers to embarrass-ingly run out of fuel presumably.

Vehicles potentially affected by the faulty brake pin are the Nissan Titan, Armada, Quest and Infiniti QX56 with model numbers from 2008 through to 2010. The fuel gauge list of vehicles is slightly different with the Nissan Titan, Armada and Infiniti QX56 from 2005 through to 2008 being affected. In addi-tion to these vehicles the Nissan Fron-tier, Pathfinder and Xterra produced between January and March 2006 and between October 2007 and January 2008 are also on the list.

Nissan North America re-cently announced that they would be undertaking a vol-untary recall of selected ve-hicle types to check brake

pins and correct fuel gauge inaccuracies. Whilst no injuries have been reported as a result of these defects, Nissan is no doubt being cautious in the wake of the Toyota crisis. The recall involves 539,864 vehi-cles, fortunately however Nissan South Africa has reassured its customers that no local vehicles are affected. In fact the vast majority of impacted vehicles were sold in the U.S.

The recall has been instigated as a re-sult of three instances in which brake pedal pins partially disengaged. A man-ufacturing error on the part of the brake pin supplier and not Nissan itself has


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new rear bumpers which have an updated and lower diffuser integrat-ed, hardly groundbreaking stuff but then Lotus don’t need to break the mould too much. The headlights have also been given a makeover, the Elise now boasts all in one in-tegrated headlights including LED day light running lights and LED di-rection indicators.

The Elise has some changes in the engine compartment accompany-ing the exterior modifications, the base model engine has had 200cc lopped off. The 1.6 litre Valvematic engine meeting EURO 5 regulations may be smaller than the 1.8L from the outgoing Elise S but still pro-duces similar power. This should be balanced out by the requisite lower weight of a smaller engine and of

course in an ecomentalists world there will be theoretical fuel savings. The new 1.6L produces 100 kW/134 hp at 6800 rpm with maximum torque of 160 Nm at 4400 rpm, and for the first time in an Elise that peppy powertrain can be tempered with cruise control.

As this is a Lotus, weight saving meas-ures are present virtually everywhere. The optional forged wheels are no dif-ferent, tipping the scales at 29.26 kg per set, 2.14 kg lighter than a set of lightweight cast versions.

They haven’t had the decades upon decades to perfect their concept as Porsche with their 911, but the Lotus Elise has been around for fourteen

years now and over that time the idea has been gradually refi ned by Lotus. Now the 2011 variant of the 2-seat mid-engined sportscar from Lotus has been unveiled at the Geneva Motor Show.

Of course to continue the comparison with the 911, the changes to the new Elise are hardly revolutionary but rath-er evolutionary in nature. Little tweaks here and there in fact. There is a new engine cover in a ’twin-spine’ layout,


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relies on tried and trusted petrol in the form of a Lotus Range Extender engine.

The Evora 414E Hybrids rear wheels will be driven by two independent electrical motors each producing 152kW/204hp. As the motors are independent but working through a common single speed gearbox, Lotus has been able to imple-ment torque vectoring to enhance vehi-cle stability. The Range Extender engine is probably the most interesting part of the 414E, partly because James May fi rst came up with the idea on Top Gear. It is a 1.2 litre, three-cylinder engine de-signed by Lotus specifi cally for use in hybrids. Unlike most hybrids however it isn’t used to actually drive the car but rather just to charge the 414E’s electric motors. The Lotus Range Extender en-gine provides 35 kW/47hp and is light too as it is of aluminium monoblock con-struction, integrating the cylinder block, cylinder head and exhaust manifold in one casting.

It’s all well and good, but it’s still just a hybrid in my eyes.

The Lotus Evora has won ac-colades left, right and centre all over the world, and whilst it was only launched in South Africa recently the reception

has been equally positive. So despite the Evora proving to be a successful concept and design, Lotus seem intent on changing the very foundation of the Evora. As witnessed at the Geneva Mo-tor Show, Lotus unveiled an Evora hy-brid high performance technology dem-onstrator, along with a Proton car that it seems will feature the same concept of hybrid technology.

The Evora 414E Hybrid will according to Lotus reach 60 mph in under four sec-onds, so 100km/h should be on or around the four seconds mark too, which is im-pressive performance indeed, too bad it’s a hybrid. All of the 414E’s electrical power amounts to 306kW/416hp, which is once again very impressive consider-ing just how light and effective the chas-sis and body that the powertrain is at-tached to. The electrical aspect of the powertrain is plug-in equipped, but also


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sold almost immediately. The 918 also has some 917 inspirations it seems.

Okay, the performance stats are impres-sive if I’m honest, 0-100 km/h in just under 3.2 seconds, top speed of 320 km/h, all with a claimed fuel economy of 3L/100km. I’m not sure how true that fuel economy is, even considering the hybrid system, there is still a develop-ment of Porsche’s 3.4L high-revving V8 churning out over 500 horses positioned midship, surely that’s going to drink more fuel than 3L/100km. It spins all the

One of Porsche’s Geneva reveals is yet another hybrid, and whilst we’ve been forced to accept that this is the way the

industry is heading, this Porsche really makes me sad. It is one thing for hybrid systems to fl ood the market with boring cars that we wouldn’t have been all that interested in even if they did just burn petrol, but it is quite another issue when an otherwise gorgeous and monstrously powerful Porsche goes down the hybrid road. And gorgeous the 918 most cer-tainly is, its Carrera GT undertones and almost Ferrari like sleekness had me


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GT3 R Hybrid the regenerative braking system can also be deployed in F1 style as a power boost, a push-to-pass but-ton feeds in additional electrical power (E-Boost) when overtaking or for even better performance.

The 918 Spyder has four powertrain confi guration modes; E-Drive is pure electric mode but really that’ll take you not much further than your driveway, Hy-brid mode obviously uses both electrics and combustion and then two additional sporty hybrid modes, Sport Hybrid and Race Hybrid. The primary difference between normal and the sporty hybrid modes being driving dynamics, more power for instance is channeled to the rear wheels in Sport and Race Hybrid mode. The push-to-pass button is avail-able in Race Hybrid as well.

The construction of the 918 Spyder is fairly advanced as well, the modular body is made from carbon-fi ber-rein-forced plastic (CFP) with what Porsche calls “liberal use of magnesium and alu-minum” reducing weight to below 1,490 kg. All I know is that it looks very attrac-tive, now all they have to do is chuck the electrical malarkey, and then build it.

way up to 9,200rpm for crying out loud, that will consume a lot of fuel no mat-ter which way you look at it. The electri-cal aspect of the powertrain is actually fairly standard stuff, an electrical motor sits on each axle producing a combined power output of 160kW/218hp. Getting energy into the batteries is possible in a few ways, the 918 Spyder is a plug-in as well as coming equipped with a KERS system of sorts. A regenerative braking system can convert kinetic en-ergy and channel it into the batteries. Just as in the recently revealed Porsche


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getting excited?

The current Turbo with it’s flat-six box-er engine produces 500hp/368kW, but the engineers in Stuttgart felt it neces-sary to plow an additional thirty horses in there for the Turbo S. It’s still roughly the same 3.8L twin turbo motor, just better. So the Porsche Turbo S will pro-duce 530hp/390kW, torque too is very meaty at it’s peak, with 700Nm. Appar-ently fuel economy remains the same despite the power boost but in this sec-

Drive may be starting to sound like a broken record with this story, for two rea-sons actually. Firstly, this is yet another story about

a car introduced at the Geneva Motor Show, and secondly this news piece is about another brilliant Porsche, okay we don’t know that yet but what are the odds of it not being awesome? This announce-ment after all is hot on the heels of our editor going on the launch of the Panam-era and absolutely loving it. The Porsche Turbo S is set to be the fastest 911 of the range so can you really blame us for


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their awesome Quattro system through rallying and now everyone has to have a vague name for all-wheel drive in-stead of just calling it what it is.

Other features on the Turbo S include Dynamic Engine Mounts and Porsche Torque Vectoring (PTV). Those I think are a bit like Ford’s Revo Knuckles or big piston forks on bikes, I don’t com-pletely comprehend just what it is they do or how they go about doing whatev-er it is that they do, but what I do know is that I want some of them. And be-sides, when 0-100km/h is dealt with in 3.3 seconds you’ve got to believe that all that vectored torque is doing some-thing right. The Turbo S is also a com-fortable member of the 300km/h club, top speed is 315km/h. Being a range topper the Turbo S will come equipped with Porsche Ceramic Composite Brakes (PCCB), which although very impressive, here at Drive we’re not ab-solutely convinced they’re outright nec-essary and thus anything more than an expensive gimmick.

The Turbo S will be arriving at inter-national dealerships during may 2010, although South Africa does tend to lag behind Europe and the States, there’s always hope though.

tor is that actually relevant? Naturally the Turbo S comes equipped with Porsche’s double clutch gearbox, the seven speed PDK, with steering mounted paddles thankfully. Unfortu-nately all that power going through the PDK will then be delivered to all the wheels via the Porsche Traction Man-agement (PTM), instead of just the rears. On a side note I blame all the varying and confusing names for all-wheel drive from different manufactur-ers on Audi, they made a legend out of


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Suspicions surrounding the use of Wil-liams F1 technology in road cars has actually been bubbling for some time now because of William’s peculiar be-haviour regarding KERS in F1. After the controversy that KERS caused dur-ing the 2009 F1 season, the F1 teams association FOTA banded together and decided to ditch the troublesome sys-tem. It was troublesome not because it didn’t work but rather that the dispar-ity between KERS equipped and non-equipped cars created a lot of prob-lems in the racing itself. So everyone

Love em or hate em the impact of hybrid technology in the motor-ing industry is growing continu-ously, and now even Porsche have fallen victim to the hybrid

craze. The Porsche 911 GT3 R Hybrid upon announcement made the hearts of several Drive staffers immediately a little heavier, although when discovering that this isn’t the run-of-the-mill hybrid system, but a performance orientated system de-veloped by Williams Hybrid Power we lightened up somewhat. And yes, that’s the same Williams from F1, so what we potentially have here with the GT3 R Hy-brid is a fully fl edged F1 KERS adaption.


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from the flywheel generator for 6-8 sec-ond bursts.

So here’s in very simple terms how it works. When braking, energy which was previously converted into heat and thus useless will now be utilised. Un-der braking the electric motors reverse their action on the front axle and be-come little generators themselves, this energy they produce is then sent to the flywheel generator. The driver can then tap into this charged up flywheel when-ever necessary, the flywheel is electro-magnetically slowed down to supply it’s energy back to the electric motors up-front, all very confusing I know.

This part however isn’t confusing, the electrical alchemy up front works in conjunction with a 353kW/480-bhp four-litre flat-six in the rear, which means when the 120kW boost is in use the GT3 R Hybrid will technically be hang-ing on to a 473kW monster powertrain. That’s roughly 640hp in a stripped out racing Porsche, that’ll be easy to con-trol then.

Following it’s Geneva debut, the GT3 R Hybrid will be given a baptism of fire test at a 24 Hour race on the Nordsch-leife of Nürburgring.

was happy to get rid of it except Williams re-sisted, and they didn’t even use their system during the season so it was very strange that they didn’t want to abandon it. The only explanation really was that they wanted to keep developing KERS for something else, and now we know it was for at least the GT3 R Hybrid.

The race spec hybrid system in the GT3 R Hybrid replaces the ‘traditional‘ battery

layout of most hybrids with a flywheel generator spinning at 40, 000rpm, in the cabin. Yep, Porsche didn’t feel it necessary to put that sort of equipment in, I don’t know, maybe the engine bay. I’m being too harsh really, there really isn’t any danger from that flywheel and racing cars are all about compactness and weight distribution so you put your flywheel generator wherever it needs to go. The GT3 R Hybrid has two 60kW electric motors which send their power through the front axle, using energy


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still there to channel all the power. The Auto Start Stop function remains as well to save fuel of all things, saving fuel in a Porsche rocket, what on Earth for?

The V6 Panamera could turn out to be a really good option, we already know just how good the current Panamera’s are, particularly at their price point. Now it should be cheaper, sure there’s less power but the motor is significantly lighter than the V8 in the Panamera S and 4S to compensate somewhat. With the driving dynamics retained and the new look wheels really rounding off the styling well, all I can say is that I want one.

Porsche have already sold over 10, 000 of their excel-lent Panamera so it’s not as if the range is struggling, but they still felt it necessary to

revamp it a little. And the revamp comes in the form of a new engine for the ‘en-try level’ Panamera, entry level Porsche’s seems a bit of a contradiction in terms but nevertheless that’s how it is. There are ac-tually two new models, but really it’s just the same engine in the rear-wheel drive and the Panamera 4 all-wheel drive.

A 3.6L V6 producing 300hp/221kW will power the new Panamera, this direct injection motor is one already used for several VAG vehicles including the next Cayenne. Of course the PDK is


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ed - Saab’s future is now secure.” He continued: “From today we will be con-centrating all of our efforts into reviving Saab and transforming it into a sustain-able and profitable company with the confidence to be bold. We will reinforce the emotional experience between Saab drivers and their cars and we will focus on Saab’s historical strengths in the fields of independent thinking, air-craft heritage, ecological performance and motorsport.”

Now all of that sounds good but it’s not as if Spyker are a global super pow-er in the motoring industry so will they actually be able to turn SAAB around. The oft delayed 9-5 platform will now be launched later in the year though which should be an important cog in any SAAB turnaround.

The takeover deal between Spyker and SAAB has offi -cially gone through. Spyker Cars N.V. will be the over-arching parent company with

SAAB and Spyker forming separate and independent arms. The fi nalisation of the deal means that SAAB and importantly for SAAB it’s Swedish workforce are safe, for now.

Transfer of ownership has now taken place in black and white and SAAB it-self has exited liquidation, which means management are back in control and not their creditors. The transfer of SAAB Automobile from General Motors to the Amsterdam listed Spyker took place on the 23rd of February.

SAAB’s new boss, Spyker CEO Victor Muller had this to say: “We are delight-


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crammed in there too of course.

The new Polo’s beating heart is a de-velopment of VW’s acclaimed 1.4L TSI engine, this twin charged motor uses it’s supercharger to force in all the ex-tra air it needs up to 3,000rpm, at which

The fi rst time VW introduced a performance Polo was 1986, it was a little supercharged pocket rocket, and now all these years on not much has

changed it seems. The new Polo GTI will still be supercharged, with a turbo


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delivered over a wide and accessible band because of the twin charging and the Polo GTI will surely be no differ-ent. The Polo GTI has a 1,184 kg ker-bweight, which normally I’d say is a bit on the portly side but nowadays with all the modern comfort and safety features required is fairly standard.

The standard gearbox for the Polo GTI is VAG’s seven speed double clutch flappy paddle unit with steering wheel mounted shifters. Other features include the truly excellent XDS diff nicked from the Polo GTI’s big brother- the Golf VI GTI. The XDS forms part of the traction control system and is essentially an electronic limited slip diff that provides cross axle traction control.

The Polo GTI has stiffer springs than the standard Polo and the ride height has been dropped 15mm too. And we all know a lower riding car looks better, but to further separate the looks of the GTI from the Polo pack VW has fitted the GTI rims from the Golf. Other subtle styling changes will be present too but beyond the red GTI stripes there isn’t much to really tell the GTI apart. That’s how VW GTI’s are though and it seems to work so no problem there then.

point the turbo begins to blow and take over the supercharger’s duties from 3,000 onwards. The end result is 178hp/131kW at 6200rpm and 250Nm of torque at 2,000rpm. Of course what has made that motor so successful is that the impressive power figures are


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Naturally in addition to the supercar brigade, more mainstream man-ufacturers are also throwing their weight

wholeheartedly behind hybrid solu-tions at Geneva this year. Including BMW, who had this 5-series Active-Hybrid concept on their show fl oor for showgoers to mull over.

Basically, this Five is built around the award-winning twin-turbo 3.0-litre straight-six, now with a small electric motor complementing the shove for 10 percent more kms per litre of juice. Shuffl ing cogs is cour-tesy of an 8-speed automatic ‘box.

Hardly earth-shattering stuff then, but there you go. BMW loves electricity too.

While all the manufac-turers (including, sad-ly, this one), fl uttered around at Geneva showing off hybrid or

zero-emissions future product that will apparently save the world, even though it doesn’t need saving, the hardcore among us can take some consolation from know-ing that behind closed doors, Porsche is readying its new GT2 RS to do some glo-bal tarmac-tearing.

Now, one thing the 993 GT2, the original Widow Maker, did not really lack was a stripped-out, specialised and hardcore RS version. That’s because that is ex-actly what your “average” 993 GT2 was.


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A pure homologation special, this mod-el was a racecar pure and simple, that Porsche happened to build and sell for road use as well, to make the vehicle legal in races around the world.

But as each successive generation came and went, the GT2 became a lit-tle, well, soft. Sure it still had a heav-ily boosted twin-turbo flat-six which outgunned the flagship Turbo range, and remained faithful to the RWD-on-ly ethos, but this latest 997 GT2 in-cluded all sorts of things that the 993 would have nicked from it and pawned for some more unleaded in its tanks. Things like traction control, and ABS,

for instance.

We suspect these digital nannies will remain in the RS version, you can’t have customers of really expensive cars wiping themselves out willy-nilly as they try and explore the stratospher-ic limits of the engineering after all, but development of this extreme model has moved back to where it started, the in-ternal Porsche motorsport department, whereas both 996 and 997 GT2s have been created in the road-car workshop alongside far more mundane 911s. So, expect some pretty devastating re-sults.

It’ll be as obsessively weight-conscious as the extravagant GT3 RS launched just a couple of months ago, and like-ly as demonstrative as well with light-weight centre-locking wheels and a skyscraper of a rear wing. It’ll also po-tentially pack in the region of 600 hp into its rear engine bay, driving the rear wheels only of course, and ought to still have a manual ‘box over PDK.

So it may be an admission that the GT2 lost its way a bit, but you can be certain Porsche will, having decided this, do everything possible and a little more to redress the issue with the RS.


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built entirely on, ahem, hot air.

So, we now have Lotus, Porsche, Mer-cedes/AMG, and Audi all confirmed to be close to producing supercars which run on Volts rather than kilowatts. Inter-estingly, Ferrari is the first (and so far, only) Italian brand to have joined this mad rush. Well, considering the elec-trical reputations of old Alfas, we know

Mere months after announc-ing that it was dropping the open metal gate of its famous manual trans-missions, and in fact the

manual transmissions themselves, the Geneva motor show saw Ferrari strike another blow right to the heart of its hard-core fan base by joining the herd as it stampedes towards an all-electric future


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Anyway, the 599 GTB Fiorano HV-KERS Concept isn’t a production car just yet, but the Geneva demonstrator wasn’t far off by all reports. It’s also one of the most basic implementations of elec-tric propulsion we’ve seen from the big names – the big V12 is unchanged but there’s now an electric motor strapped on which recaptures kinetic energy from braking or simply coasting along and uses its huge torque to help the motor out on standing starts. The result being a 35% cut in emissions to satisfy the draconian limits now being put in place in various developed markets.

Sure the company has developed this car to remain in-line with the “ultimate sportscar” brand message, with a cen-tre of gravity lower than the regular 599 and a new type of F1-derived electric system which helps optimise the distri-bution of that weight for supposedly su-perb dynamics, but it is still very much a hybrid.

Further boosting the eco-friendly mes-sage, the company also showed off a California equipped with Stop-Start technology which kills the engine in-stead of idling it at traffic lights, as al-ready fitted and on sale in the Porsche Panamera and various other large-ca-

just how well Italian motors and elec-tricity go together don’t we? Yes I’m sure it will come given the Audi linkup, but I must say Lamborghini being the only supercar maker not to look to nu-clear fission, or in our case, the burning of huge amounts of dirty smelly coal, as their future “fuel”, may have just usurped the Prancing Horse slot in my personal list of favourite supercars.


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as though the famous GTO nomenclature, last seen on the gor-geous 288 GTO which effectively formed the platform for the penul-timate road racer the F40 and, therefore, the father of the entire F-series lineup, might be making a comeback. And it’ll arrive sooner than the hybrid.

That’s because this time they’ve gone the other way, and developed the car on which it’s based, the track-only 599 FXX, first. Essentially the GTO will be a 599 FXX which is also road-legal, so packed with all the latest and most hardcore technologies the firms not-inconsiderate engineering prowess is able to throw at it. More power, fast-er shifting, obsessive aero work, and, naturally, jaw-dropping visual aggres-sion will undoubtedly be the order of the day.

It’s going to be a great year for the su-percar as manufacturers line up what could well be the final hurrah of the purely petrol-powered examples of this rare breed of dream car.

pacity performance cars.

Technically, as the world appears hell-bent on believing all of this tomfool-ery, supercar manufacturers like Fer-rari have no choice but to implement this type of technology to still be able to sell new cars in their largest global markets. So if it’s a choice between the famous brand dying out and adapting, we suppose this is better. Look closely, and you’ll note this somewhat noncom-mittal display certainly seems to lack a lot of the traditional Ferrari passion and fire, a subtle statement you really have to appreciate. It seems even Maranello might be doing the “green” thing, but like us, they don’t necessarily have to like it...

As final evidence of this, it appears


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Performance, naturally, will be noth-ing short of scintillating, if anything matched only by the glorious scream-ing of that epic V10 delivering it’s best. Visually, a massive front air scoop a la Reventon and significant rear diffuser are the biggest tells, and will likely also improve the car’s aero performance for further fuel-consumption savings!

Like you buy a Gallardo because you’re concerned about the planet-killing lies doing the rounds...

By the way, Lamborghini, have we told you lately how much we adore your Raging Bull brand here at Drive?

As all and sundry trip and fall over themselves to go electric, Lamborghi-ni has stuck to it’s guns and unveiled this at the

Geneva show, the Gallardo LP570-4 Superleggera.

Same 5.2-litre V10, now churning out a bit more power (561hp, 38 up on the previous model), but more importantly to its eco aspirations, weighing very nearly 100kg less! That makes this four-wheel-drive, V10-engined “baby” supercar lighter than a Boxster! Appar-ently, most of this weight comes from the fitment of new, lightweight wheels.


Porsche and 911 are, absolutely, synonymous in the automotive world. The famous model nomenclature, in turn, globally recognised as the epitome of sports coupes. It’s a rich, hard-won heritage eked from engineering nous so exceptional that even a car built on a platform which is basically “wrong” can be so damn right.

Porsche PanameraPorsche Panamera

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The introduction of the Boxster was kicked against, but ultimately not too bad. It was, after all, a two-seat sports car still, just one with a different layout.

Then there was the Cayenne, and how the Porsche purists (myself included)

bemoaned that one! A four-door multi-seat off-roading Porsche? They’d never accept it.

Yet, does this one towering success re-ally limit the brand forevermore to build-ing only the 911? For many years, it seemed even Porsche agreed with this

narrow-minded thinking. Oh they tried to vary the recipe now and again, but it

always came back to the 911. Well, up until the last couple of decades.

“Yet, does this one towering success really limit the brand forevermore to building only

the 911?”


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four-door Porsche limo? And why make it so damn ugly to boot?” The answer is really inescapably simple though. The company has sold 10 000 of these

things within 4 months of launch. That’s way more than they’ve moved 911s...

But for argument’s sake, let’s retain our purist stance. “Hell with the bottom line, the company has lost its heritage,” we’ll retort with. All right, now let’s talk about that a bit, because I’ve just been driving the three Panamera models for hundreds of kays of the Western Cape, and as a result this line of argument is pretty clear to me now.

And yet, these two models and particu-larly the Cayenne, turned out to be eas-ily the best thing Porsche as a compa-ny could have done. Being priced lower

and targeted at a far more “mainstream” market, Boxsters and Cayennes sailed off showroom floors and catapulted Porsche to the very highest rung of car manufacturer profitability. Love them or hate them, they brought the brand to more customers across the globe than ever before, and can only be regarded as rip-roaring successes.

Now there’s the Panamera, and once again I joined in the chorus of “Why a


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All three models have wings which rise gracefully into the airstream before crossing the 100km/h mark, but only the Turbos then proceeds to split in half, power these halves up and outwards

and then raise another section of wing into this vacated space for a more ag-gressive, wider spoiler area. It’s a vir-tuouso performance, and a pleasure to

watch happening at speed, like some kind of ultra-rare high-velocity butterfly unfolding.

Let’s start right up front with the looks. It definitely still has some seriously shocking angles. But, it also has some pretty appealing ones as well. Basi-cally, from the front it looks quite a bit like a Corvette, which is no bad thing, and from the rear, at drivers’-eye level at least, it looks a lot like a 911, which is great. Any other angle is pretty bad though, but it’s a real grower and as you spend time with the car you’ll find yourself disliking it less and less.

All three models look more or less the same. The Turbo on our flying fleet has yellow callipers indicating PCCB is fit-ted (Porsche Carbon-Ceramic brakes), and its quad pipes are square-edged rather than subtly ovoid like the oth-ers. You’re likely to be able to specify these, and the bigger wheels, on your “average” S or 4S though, so the one unmistakable identifier is a sensation-

ally elegant rear wing, and only those still with the Panamera Turbo at high speeds (180km/h+) will really notice the difference.

“It’s a virtuouso performance, and a pleasure to watch happening at speed, like

some kind of ultra-rare high-velocity butterfly unfolding.”


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with, operated by banks of buttons sur-rounding the gear lever on either side. Active suspension settings, electronic assistance systems, manual control of that wing, Sport and Sport Plus pre-

There’s more commonality within. All feature the seven-speed Porsche PDK dual-clutch transmission system, actu-ated by those weird little buttons on the thumb-scallops of the wheel. Push ei-

ther of them in, towards the classical-ly-Porsche instrument cluster, for up-shifts, and pull them towards yourself with your index finger, for down. It is silly, and takes a while to get used to, but nevertheless accesses a superbly capable transmission which has all the bases covered.

There’s also superb build-quality, evi-dent in every millimetre of trim and tangible in every hard, shiny surface. It feels great, just sitting inside one. And there’s a vast array of toys to play


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in the Turbo, that blown V8. The pow-er is relentless, and seems to make a mockery of the nearly 2 tons of weight, driving all four wheels to just rocket the limo off the line. Four seconds all day long is just an incredible achieve-ment, nothing supposedly in this class actually comes close. Maybe the AM Rapide will, but it’s unlikely. The Pan-amera Turbo is a superstar sprinter, all stocky, bulging muscle on a solid, bulky frame.

Despite not having all that firepower, the nat-asp version of this V8 in the S and 4S models is hardly lazy. There may only be 294kW, that’s still enough for 0-100 in just about 5-and-a-half. And it sounds better, stripped of the plumbing of the twin-turbos you can hear more of

sets. But you’re probably best off leav-ing Sport Plus alone for the smoothest surfaces.

You do have to at least be in Sport though, because otherwise the crazy ‘box pulls off in second. Not that it’s re-ally slow like this, you’ll still crush little things like M3s thanks to the prodigious, friendly, and extremely flexible muscle of the twin-turbo 4.8-litre V8 engine. On Overboost this monster develops 770Nm! Or “just” 700 without this tem-porary function. And there’s 368kW of power there too, delivered in the most wonderfully silken way, with a suitable but distant V8 burble supporting this showstopping act.

It really is a commanding performance


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inadequate.

Then there’s the regular old S. It’s the cheapest of the Panameras, available at launch for less than R1-m! It’s also the one which has sold the poorest ap-parently, the factory having received orders for the most 4S models, with the Turbo close behind, for its initial 10 000 units. But it’s the best.

It takes the best bits of the other mod-els, great build, exemplary interior, charismatic V8, supple suspension, PDK gearbox, and adds in a fraction of lightness and crystal-clear steering un-filtered by drive hardware and forces to the front rubber which make the Pan-

the V8, and let it spin higher too. It’s a really pure, lovable powerplant in this guise.

And you aren’t quite as focussed on the next braking point either, as you are in the Turbo. Both 4WD models seem to perform miracles with their drivetrain hardware, and the grip is just huge, eve-rywhere. You can almost not even feel the extra weight of the layout, turn-in is precise, the feel is great, and there’s an invincible feeling of a platform which can almost ignore physical limitations. But the Turbo is the only one of the pair that feels even close to pushing the capabilities of this incredible platform. The 4S can make 300kW seem, well,


“The Panamera Turbo is a superstar “The Panamera Turbo is a superstar sprinter, all stocky, bulging muscle on a sprinter, all stocky, bulging muscle on a

solid, bulky frame.”solid, bulky frame.”

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continue to appreciate the S the most, but 4S and Turbo are in their own ways utterly sublime too. Despite being ap-parently bulky these machines aren’t daunted by tight mountain passes, and there’s plenty of power available to be sure you’re never stuck behind slower-moving traffic for very long if you don’t want to be. Every corner is a challenge of nerve, skill, and talented engineer-ing, while on the flat we see 274 on the speedo in an S, 282 in a Turbo, so don’t ever let anyone tell you “but you can never use all that potential!”In fact, despite huge amounts of space at the back and armchair comfort, the back seats of this car are definitely not the best in the house. When driven as it enjoys being driven, the Panamera is a car best relished from the drivers’ seat.

amera a sensationally engaging drive. More than a car this size really has any right to be.

The raw, purist heart of Porsche the brand is right beneath your fingertips every moment in the S. Somehow, with a completely different mechanical lay-out even the balance of the car seems, impossibly, very much pure 911. There’s a fraction more precision to the wheel now, clear communication from the alert and biddable rear, more urgency in the higher-revving screech of the nat-asp motor. It is, first and foremost, a superb driver’s sports saloon, rather than a nu-clear reactor-powered limo.

The 400km launch route just melts away beneath rapidly-rotating tyres. I

“The raw, purist “The raw, purist heart of Porsche the heart of Porsche the brand is right brand is right beneath your beneath your fingertips every fingertips every moment in the S.”moment in the S.”


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punch of the Turbo might be worth the extra R600K to the G-Force ad-dict, but the S at R1-million, or the 4S at just R25K more, actu-ally have to be considered un-believable value too! And that’s not something you can often say of any car weighing-in with a million-buck pricetag.

And after you’ve experienced this richly satisfying glow, well, even a full-on side profile really isn’t that ugly anymore. Once you know what the car is.

Another achievement. But still a slightly barmy one. Just like the Germans that birthed it.

Russell Bennett

Passengers are sub-jected to the violence of a ride in a pure-blood-ed sportscar, without the warning or, indeed, less comfortable but ef-fective support of sporty buckets. The Turbo in particular, delivers epic levels of violence when being unleashed and I can reliably inform you that in the rear it feels

as though you’re being flung about by the combination of a gale and an earth-quake at once.

It’s a blend, a target market, in fact un-catered for until now. The drivers’ limo. It just doesn’t seem quite right.

Yet it’s selling like hotcakes, while the good news for the purists, is that it re-mains completely faithful to the brand at the same time. The devastating

“in the rear it feels as though you’re being flung about by the combination

of a gale and an earthquake at once.”


Citroen entertained the press at the launch of the new C3 in Cape Town. Being a bit of a Citroen fan, I happily went along when our editor decided I was to be our “French Connection”. This is a pretty signifi cant launch. In common with the C5 launch in January, Citroen are not just launching the car, they are re-launching the brand.

Citroen C3

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Citroen has finally accepted the fact that they are French and have stopped try-ing to emulate other European competi-tors. I like that, I’ve always appreciated the quirkiness of some older models. One thing that is a little disappointing is that Citroen has some of the most advanced technology in the world and then doesn’t use it. Why is it that we only get Hydropneumatic suspension on the high-end models? That said, even on conventional suspension, the

Citroen in South Africa until this year was imported and distributed by a third party company. That earned the brand a reputation for high price spares and less than ideal service. Citroen France has now put its hand on the tiller and now you will be buying a car from Cit-roen, it will be maintained by Citroen and Citroen will carry the warranty. All of this should restore customer confi-dence and help to restore resale val-ues.

“This new C3 has been completely restyled to give it a more masculine feel.”


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C3 rides extremely well.

This new C3 has been completely re-styled to give it a more masculine feel. The outgoing model was a bit girly and Citroen realised that it was alienating a large segment of the buying public.

Prices start at around R159 000 for the base model but even at the lower end of the range; buyers get a reasonably well-equipped car. Electric front win-dows and air conditioning are standard as are safety features like emergency brake assist.

There are four models in the C3 range. The 1.4 Attraction base model offers a 14.l engine developing 54kW and entry-level standard equipment. The 1.4 VTi Attraction+ has a more powerful 70kW

engine and adds a few more lux-ury items. Most notably you get automatic dig-ital air-condi-tioning and alloy wheels. The 1.4 VTi Seduction has the same en-gine but equip-ment levels are


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control, the Alcantara seat coverings and the aluminium steering wheel in-serts all help to cosset the occupants in luxury.

The new C3 is less quirky than some older model Citroens but you can tell someone was really thinking when they designed the car. The glove compart-

ment is recessed into the dash so that if there is a tall rear seat passenger the front seat passenger can pull the seat forward without banging their knees against the dash. A small thing I know but it’s the attention to detail that puts the overall package a cut above the rest. It does have a Tardis-like qual-ity, for those of you that are not Doctor

even better and you get the cars big talking point, the Zenith windscreen. The 1.6VTi Exclusive is fitted with an 88kW engine and as many gadgets and conveniences as you could wish for.

By the time you get to the range top-per, it really is well equipped. You get cruise control, auto dimming mirror,

auto headlights and wipers. You even get iPod connect as standard, an op-tional extra on so many cars. You get Bluetooth as well and not just straight-forward phone pairing either. The C3’s Bluetooth will even play any music that you have stored on your Smartphone.The interior ambience has the feel of a bigger, more expensive car. Climate


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space and then there is the panoramic view. The top section is tinted to protect your delicate skin from the sun. And if you still feel that the suns rays are too much, there is a blind that pulls across which makes it look like a conventional windscreen from the inside.

The back seats are slightly higher than the front seats which helps rear seat passengers to get a good view out front. It eliminates that feeling of being buried

Who Fans; the Tardis is a structure that is actually bigger on the inside than the outside.

Apart from the styling, the big selling point of the new model is the pano-ramic Zenith windscreen, standard on the Seduction and Exclusive models. The windscreen effectively goes over the top of your head and ends about a third of the way into the roofline. It real-ly does give you an amazing feeling of

“Apart from the styling, the big selling point of the new model is the

panoramic Zenith windscreen,...”


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to take us over some of the roughest roads the Western Cape has to offer. The trip successfully demonstrated that even without Hydropnumatic sus-pension they can still make a car that

rides better than the competition. And if you think that they have just made the suspension really soft, think again. Our

in the back with the Zenith windscreen, the view from the back is excellent. Not only that, the light and airy feeling of openness gives the impression of be-ing in a bigger car.

We drove the C3 on a variety of roads in and around Cape Town and full marks to Citroen for having the confidence

“The C3 does a lot to distinguish itself from the competition and being a small French

car, it has a chicness that the Japanese can only dream of.”


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gesting which gear you should be in. Supposedly this little device will save you fuel and for those of that persua-sion, save the planet too. A handy lit-tle gadget but some times it does take economy too seriously, suggesting 5th gear on a fairly steep incline.

The C3 does a lot to distinguish itself from the competition and being a small French car, it has a chicness that the Japanese can only dream of. It may not be the cheapest in class but even in base spec it has equipment that would only be available on other manufactur-ers options lists.

Steve Allison

test route included several twisty sec-tions of road, some with hairpin bends. The little C3 handled the corners with aplomb without excessive body roll or tyre noise. The only criticism is that the steering feels a bit “Playstation”. The car goes where you point it but there is absolutely no feel through the wheel. This trait is becom-ing more common in small cars with elec-tric power steering.

We started out in a 1.6 VTi for the first half of the route and then changed to a 1.4VTi for the second half. The 1.6 as men-tioned earlier is well equipped and has a luxurious ambiance. Performance wise though, the smaller 1400 engine punched above its weight. The differ-ence in driving experience between the 2 engines was small enough to be in-significant.

The gear efficiency indicator is a little display that has an arrow pointing in the direction that it thinks you should be changing gear and a number sug-


PPerhaps the worst erhaps the worst kept secret in kept secret in motorcycling his-motorcycling his-tory, the BMW tory, the BMW S1000RR has fi -S1000RR has fi -

nally been offi cially launched nally been offi cially launched in South Africa. BMW has been in South Africa. BMW has been talking about their entrance talking about their entrance into the superbike market for a into the superbike market for a couple of years now and then couple of years now and then to entice us further entered the to entice us further entered the bike in the World Superbike bike in the World Superbike series last year. I spoke to Troy series last year. I spoke to Troy Corser about the bike when Corser about the bike when they were here December be-they were here December be-fore last. He said that when fore last. He said that when the road bike was launched it the road bike was launched it would be for similar money as would be for similar money as the Japanese bikes. I was, I the Japanese bikes. I was, I have to say, a little bit scepti-have to say, a little bit scepti-cal about that statement but cal about that statement but sure enough you can now go sure enough you can now go and buy a new S1000RR for a and buy a new S1000RR for a mere R160 000. mere R160 000.

BMW S1000RRBMW S1000RR

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Of course you are going to want all of the fancy electronics so you’ll have to shell out an extra 20 grand but still you are getting technology like no other 2-wheeled machine. Even at R180 000 it is will still put a far smaller dent in your wallet than any of the European competitors.

This is no soft, half hearted attempt at a sports bike. No, this bike breaks with BMW tradition, it is the real deal driven by, shock horror, a chain. There is a menu of 3 options available. You can choose from Race ABS, Dynamic Trac-tion Control and Gearshift Assist or as


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The bike is fitted with a mode switch, one that actually works. There are four modes to choose from. Rain mode is self-explanatory and reduces the power output as well as dulling the throttle re-spose. Should you have DTC, the trac-tion control cuts in at a fairly shallow lean angle. Sport mode gives you all the power and sharpens up the throt-tle response. DTC allows you a greater lean angle before it gets involved. Race mode turns the bike into a full house track toy with even sharper throttle re-sponse, even less interference from DTC and the ABS will allow you to get right up against the limits of adhesion. Slick mode is, well for riders using

we would call it, a quick shifter. Should you choose DTC that automatically in-cludes Race ABS.

Even without the options this is a pret-ty well specced bike. It has top quality Sachs suspension with all of the usu-al adjustments including high and low speed damping on the rear. The brakes are from Brembo and are of the Mono-block variety. There is a clever exhaust valve that changes the system between 4 into 2 and 4 into 1 depending how you are riding and another valve to in-crease noise at higher revs. There are variable length inlet tracts and a light-weight aluminium tank.


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I could go on and on about the amazing technical details but what you want to

know is what is it like to ride. In a word, spectacular. BMW held the launch at the Zwartkops raceway and gave each

journo their own bike for the afternoon. I was having so much fun that I man-aged to get through a tank of fuel. All of the bikes on the launch were the top spec and BMW believes that that is what most customers will order.We started off in Rain mode and I was

slick tyres with the absolute minimum of electronic interference. And then of course you can turn all rider aids off if you’re brave enough or just a die hard tradi-tionalist.

All very impres-sive particular-ly considering that even with all the electron-ic gadgetry the bike weighs in at 183Kg. But the real talking point is the power. BMW claims a class leading 193 BHP (142kW) but one of the U.K. magazines tested it on a dyno

and they reckon that it makes closer to 200Hp (147kW) and that’s a first, a manufacturer that actually under-states the power output. It is rumoured that BMW thought that the do-gooders would be up in arms if it was launched as a 200 HP road bike...

“The traction control will allow you to lean the bike much further over before feeling

the need to intervene.


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I was bored with that quite quickly and anyway I wanted to get a feel of the power available.

Sport mode is the one that makes most sense for road riding. Even a “C” group track day rider will be quite at home. It gives you all the power but delivers it in a user friendly way. The bike is eye wa-teringly fast without trying to throw you off the back if you’re a bit ham fisted with the throttle. The traction control will

already impressed. Being a light bike and delivering 150 HP, the bike feels as good if not better than a Supersport 600. The clever traction control senses the lean angle of the bike and it does cut in at a fairly shallow lean to protect you from yourself in wet conditions. It’s a bit like riding a fast middleweight with your mother in law on the back. It will let you go in a straight line but complains if you go too fast around corners. Need-less to say, in the bone-dry conditions


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track fitted with slick tyres. It apparently al-lows the bike a lot more free-dom to slide around which is what you want on slicks. Our bikes were fitted with road tyres so we

didn’t get to try it out. You have to insert a plug before the bike will allow you to use slick mode. Not that it invalidates

allow you to lean the bike much further over be-fore feeling the need to inter-vene. Unless you are dragging your knee on the ground you prob-ably won’t even know that DTC is even there but with the comfort that it will get you out of trouble when you get it wrong.

Race mode is the one you want for rid-ing a fast track session. You don’t get any more power but the throttle re-sponse becomes a bit more urgent and the DTC will allow you to run your knee along the tarmac without interfering but you still have the comfort of know it’s there should things get too lively. At one stage powering on to the main straight, I felt the rear wheel slide but then like a guardian angel, DTC sorted everything out. It does allow a bit of a slide and then it says, “That was fun, now I’ll catch you before you end up upside down in the grass.”

Slick mode does what it says on the tin, it is designed for using the bike on


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is perfect for going fast. It fits my tall frame comfortably and I was able to get off the side of the bike with ease and

without ever feeling cramped.

The Race ABS is there when you need it but even with the rear end fishtailing on the brakes into the hairpin it didn’t overreact. In fact I didn’t even notice it was there at all. Riding on the roads of South Africa, ABS is always a bonus even better knowing that it will allow you

as much fun as you want on the track. That’s the beauty of the electronics on the 1000RR. You have a warm feeling know-ing that you are being looked after but without spoiling the fun.

All in all the S1000RR is a very impressive machine and totally unlike any BMW that has gone before. If you are in the market for a litre class sports bike, you will be doing yourself a huge disservice if you don’t ride one before making your decision.

Steve Allison

warranty or anything like that, it’s just to prevent you selecting the mode in-advertently on the road. Of course, as

one of the journalists commented, this is South Africa so most breakfast run riders will have the plug in all the time.

The bike handles like a truly well sort-ed superbike. Even on the factory set-ting and with my weight on board, the suspension was able to cope with fairly hard track riding. The riding position

“The bike handles like a truly well sorted superbike.”


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The IPCC or Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change has been shown to be a perpetrator of fraud, ignoring scientific facts and publishing results eagerly desired by their governmen-tal masters. One source describes the IPCC as ‘controlled by political hacks who override the scientists with a pre-determined agenda’. Calling it science is a complete fantasy.

Carbon dioxide (CO2) is a natural com-ponent of the atmosphere. It is one of the components of what are called ‘greenhouse gases’. Nor is it the larg-est component. Of the gases that make up our atmosphere, nitrogen and oxy-gen between them comprise 99%. Yes that’s right 99%. Ah, then, you will con-clude, the other 1% is greenhouse gas-es. No. Most of the other 1% is argon.Greenhouse gases, which are essen-

Emissions tax

All I want is the air that I breathe…

Motor vehicle emissions tax, eh? Why is that then?

What on earth possesses this stupid government to impose a US-EU tax on a country like ours? A tax based on the biggest con in history. Are they toady-ing to the major powers that have im-posed this ridiculous tax on their own citizens? Or have they just grasped a ready-made opportunity to fleece the motorist some more?

Before we examine this blatant theft of money based on flawed premises and in the most inequitable circumstances imaginable, let us look at a few facts.


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During daylight they absorb CO2 and emit oxygen. At night they emit CO2, albeit not as much as they absorb dur-ing daylight. However, there is a greater abundance of plant life than animal life. Animals are, of course, great produc-ers of methane along with rotting veg-etation. So, the two demon greenhouse gases are produced, in the main, natu-rally.

So the powers that be have singled out CO2 as the main culprit, though of what I’m not quite sure. Global warming? Climate change? These are natural events which occur in cycles of rough-ly 500 years. Scientifically it is a great stretch of the imagination to blame a miniscule portion of the atmosphere, much of which occurs naturally. They feign paranoia about natural events for what? Well, it’s quite simple. They have

tial for keeping the earth warm, com-prise only 0.05% of our atmosphere. The components of greenhouse gases may surprise you. By far the largest — and the one which contributes most of the greatest greenhouse effect is — water vapour. Surprised? I thought so. It is estimated that mankind only causes about 1% of atmospheric water vapour. The next abundant at around 10% each are the demonized carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane. Carbon di-oxide comprises 0.005% of the atmos-phere as a whole. If we are to get jittery about such a small component of the air that we breathe, let’s analyze how it gets into the atmosphere.

Animals (including us) absorb oxygen all the time and emit CO2 all the time. Trees, flowers, grass, in fact almost all vegetable growth, use photosynthesis.


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cial endeavours? A bit less than 5% of the to-tal. Of the human-gen-erated CO2 production, the proportion emitted by all road transport is around 12%. The much vaunted clean power, electricity, chucks dou-ble that amount of CO2 into the atmosphere. Other industrial enter-prises contribute over 50% of CO2 emissions. Not much of a peg to hang your ad valorem tax hat on, Mr Gord-han, is it?

Now let’s look at the proportion of global CO2 attributable to South Africa. If I tell you that Africa, as a whole,

only contributes 4% of the total world CO2 emis-

sions, you will probably be surprised. If I tell you that South Africa is responsi-ble for almost half Africa’s emissions, you will probably be more surprised. The RSA accounts for 1.8% of the world man-made CO2 emissions. And road transport is responsible for only

to have something to impugn to justify outrageous taxes. The annoying thing is that they assume their constituents are simple and will not see though their skulduggery.

And how much of this evil gas is gener-ated by people in their industrial and so-

What comes out of here is what the Government mistakenly believes is killing us.


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Europe IV engines? Well, because our fuel is not of sufficient quality to use in Europe V engines. Yes, our illustrious government is imposing a tax on new car purchasers who cannot buy compli-ant cars because their government is not prepared to ensure the availability of compliant fuel. Now that is extortion! We are going to tax you for not doing something we won’t allow you to do. Effectively they are penalising new car buyers even though they will be produc-ing less CO2 than those driving older cars. Yet they are encouraging those with older, less compliant, cars to keep them. This is called political logic. If the

12% of that — some 0.2% of the global total. So what woolly brained plonker came up with a tax on new passenger cars which don’t comply with Europe V emission standards? Not, you will no-tice, freight vehicles, though this may come later. At present about half the CO2 emissions from road transport is attributable to commercial vehicles.

It gets worse. Most cars manufactured in this country are fitted with engines which only comply with Europe IV standards. The industry is quite capa-ble of making and fitting Europe V com-pliant engines. So why do they still fit

Because of the Governments refusal to repair the roads you’ll want one of these - but will we be able to afford them?


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as we can ascertain, is R75 for every gm/km over the stipulated 120gm/km. Now, a bit of research into emissions from current new models available in South Africa raises an eyebrow. When trawling the S A industry websites, of those that quoted CO2 emissions, we only found three mod-

els below the 120gm/km tax base. These were the Smart

and the Daihatsu Charade with 1 litre engines and the VW Polo 1.6 diesel. Even the Charade automatic was nine points over. The majority of cars looked at were between 1.6L and 2L, being the most prolific. But we included a sprin-kling of larger engines to give some perspective for those in the 4x4 league and the medium luxury bracket. This revealed that few models will avoid the tax. What is the government trying to prove here?

Let’s translate this into figures. Have a look at the table to get an idea of the price increase that some of the current models will attract. Current prices listed are the February 2010 recommended retail to the nearest R1 000.

objective of the government was hon-ourable, i.e. really reducing CO2 emis-sions, they would surely see the folly of the premise.

No matter that this is going to hurt man-ufacturers and sales outlets as well in this rather tough economic climate. If less new cars are sold, it will prolong the recovery of the motor industry. I am sure, though, that fat cat government ministers will still continue to buy op-ulent gas guzzling luxury cars at pub-lic expense. Which, of course, means that the government will be fleecing the taxpayer yet again. And it isn’t just one car, is it? They have a convoy of half a dozen, with blue lights.

The additional tax calculation, as far

Diesel engines usually have lower emissions than their petrol equivalents.


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Make

Alfa Romeo

Daihatsu

Mercedes

Peugeot

Smart

Toyota

Volkswagen

Model

MiTO

Charade

A180

A 180

B 180

B 180

C 180

C 300

208

308

Fortwo

Pulse

Auris

Corolla

Corolla

Fortuner

Fortuner

Polo

Polo

Jetta

Jetta TDi

Passat

Passat

Scirocco

Scirocco

TSI DSG

Engine (L)

1.4 P

1.0 P

1.7 P

2.0 D

1.7 P

2.0 D

1.8 P

3.0 P

1.6 P

1.4 P

1.0 P

1.6 P

1.6 P

2.0 D

3.0 D

4.0 P

1.6 P

1.6 D*

1.6 P

1.9 D*

1.8 P

2.0 D*

1.4 P

2.0 D*

CO2 gm/km

153

109

160

142

167

148

177

220

169

145

103

161

165

141

228

315

153

109

176

135

180

153

154

174

Tax (R)

2 475

0

3 000

1 650

3 525

2 100

4 275

7 500

3 675

1 875

0

3 075

3 375

1 575

8 100

14 625

2 475

0

4 200

1 125

4 500

2 475

2 550

4 050

Feb 2010 Price (R)

245 000

Not quoted

240 000

270 000

282 000

344 000

334 000

440 000

250 000

157 000

166 000

205 000

220 000

279 000

360 000

380 000

167 000

209 000

216 000

255 000

285 000

285 000

282 000

339 000

The VW engines marked with an aster-isk (*) are quoted on the VW web site as being EU V compliant. This raises ques-

tions about how the figure of 120gm/km was chosen as the tax base.


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That’s about what most of them deserve anyway. And think how much that would save the taxpayer.

So why is the minister of finance introducing this ri-diculous tax? It has been proved that the IPCC pre-dictions are based on lies. Nobody with an ounce of scientific integrity can real-ly believe that the amount

of carbon dioxide produced by passenger cars in South

Africa can make an iota of difference to the amount of atmospheric CO2.

What then, is the government’s objec-tive here? If it wishes to reduce atmos-pheric pollution, fine and dandy. Then the taxpayers must insist that all new government vehi-cles must comply with the dictate and emit less than 120gm/km of CO2. Government minis-ters will be restrict-ed to VW Polo die-sels. No blue light convoys. Directors General in the pub-lic service would have a choice of a Smart car or a Daihatsu Charade.

Gas guzzling V8’s will attract punitive tax.

Diesel engines usually have lower emissions than their petrol equivalents.


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we would be more willing to accept the tax. If you were to put the proceeds to-wards improving our roads so that we didn’t sit with idling engines in traffic jams, we would be much more willing to accept it. But you’re not going to do any of these things, are you? You and your cabinet masters are just going to use this flimsy excuse to extort more money from the motoring public. Prob-ably without having the wit to realise the damage you are doing to the econ-omy.

Bob Allison

Please, Mr Gordhan, credit us with rather more intelligence than the aver-age MP. If you were to allege that this is to help reduce pollution in the air that we breathe, we would be much more willing to accept the tax. In that case, though, we would expect you to tax air polluting industries for every ton of filth they push into the atmosphere. Though I’m not sure what you should do about SASOL. They emit a fearful amount of pollution to produce 35% of our fuel.

If you were to use the proceeds for al-ternative energy research, Mr Gordhan,

All of the power and lower emissions. Forced induction may be the answer.


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SSteve Wicks keeps telling us teve Wicks keeps telling us that he wears short pants that he wears short pants because he’s only got short because he’s only got short legs, but here’s proof that he legs, but here’s proof that he does indeed own a pair of does indeed own a pair of

long pants, even if they have a DMD logo long pants, even if they have a DMD logo rather than Levi.rather than Levi.

I’m a privileged soul. To avoid the traf-I’m a privileged soul. To avoid the traf-fic that clogs Gauteng everyday, I use a fic that clogs Gauteng everyday, I use a motorcycle. Not only is it cheaper than motorcycle. Not only is it cheaper than a car, it also saves so much time that I a car, it also saves so much time that I have more time to waste more time! have more time to waste more time!

BikingBiking

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coming back from Badplaas in the mid-dle of winter and the panniers eventu-ally lost the unequal struggle with aqua but luckily I’d stuffed everything into plastic bags (you learn these little tricks

after riding bikes for a few years). They do come with waterproof covers, but I’d left them at home. My camera equip-ment and laptop was in a bag on my back which proved very uncomfortable.

I would be lost with-out my matching magnetic tank bag. I find it so useful, es-pecially on a long trip where tollbooths are encountered.

Talking of waterproof, I invested in a pair of DMD’s Fantasy rid-ing pants which offer a good deal of rain protection and when used with the water-proof inner, proved surprisingly water-proof around the

Also, as a motorsport journalist, I often have to get to away events. Obvious-ly it pays to fly to the majority of away events, but for those closer to home, say a distance of under 400km, I rely

on two wheels. Not so much because I save time or money, but also because it is a whole lot more fun than driving.

We had a particularly wet and cold win-ter up on the highveld plateau, but it didn’t deter me. I’m a firm believer in dressing for the occasion and because I have to watch my finances carefully, I tend to buy at the more affordable end of the price range.

When I was in the market for some luggage I settled for a pair of soft pan-niers from the Oxford First Time Motor-cycle Luggage range. Besides the fact that the prices suited my pocket, they looked like they’d suit a wide range of motorcycles, they also carried a 12-month guarantee.

So far they’ve done everything that has been asked of them and I haven’t had an issue attaching them to most of the motorcycles I used during the year. I was caught in a torrential downpour

“I would be lost without my matching magnetic tank bag.”


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crotch area. Pockets on the thigh also proved useful, especially when arriving at tollbooths.

For the hot summer months I armed myself with a Lookwell airflow jacket to replace the cheap Red Wing version that the straps of my camera bag wore holes in the shoulders after a year of riding.

Another longish trip I undertook was

to Ermelo in May and I elected to use a Hyosung GT250R. People laughed when I said I was going on a little 250, but the Korean V-twin really surprised me. A claimed 17 kW coupled to 18.7 Nm of torque resulted in an easy cruis-ing speed of 120 km/h. It has a big bike feel, but the biggest surprise is the low price.

Later on I had Kawasaki’s Ninja 250R for a week during which I used it mainly


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town I found the 840mm seat height a bit much for my stubby stumps.

The ER-6F has more power (53kW @ 8 500rpm) which made it a joy to ride. The power comes in with a bit of a rush, but is smooth and manageable which makes it ideal for commuting.

I felt really cool riding the fuel injected Triumph Bonneville and I’m still sur-

as a commuter although I did do a Eden-vale to Zwartkops trip. It is smaller and lighter and feels more nimble than the Hyosung. The motor feels more willing and it also delivers slightly more power from its parallel twin although it doesn’t have as much torque as the Hyosung, but it is faster …. and more expensive.

During the course of the year I also had the joy of sampling Kawasaki’s com-muter range; the KLE 650 Ver-sys and the ER-6F Ninja. Both have the bullet proof 649cc par-allel twin, but a slight change in specs sees the Versys de-liver slightly less power (47kW @ 8 000 rpm) which, coupled to longer gearing, makes the ER6F feel much more lively. I did a trip to Nelspruit on the Ver-sys which I enjoyed, but around


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prised they are not more popular on our roads. A nice upright riding posi-tion is comfortable which, coupled to a torquey motor makes cruising the high-ways and byways of Gauteng a pleas-ure. Yup, I liked it a lot.

The most mileage I did on a test bike was aboard Yamaha’s FZ6-R (why do so many bikes have an ‘R’ in their mod-el designation?). This is not the FAZER

as one magazine referred to it as.

With a detuned version of an earlier generation R6 motor, it is well suited to intercity trips. I went to Welkom for a motorsport event and the next day I headed to Polokwane for a Scania bus transport function. It was a pleasure to ride and I arrived at my destinations as fresh as a daisy but toll fees were a killer as they worked out to R298.40 for the round trip. The four cylinder en-gine was smooth and although Yamaha don’t quote power output for it, I did see an indicated 200km/h on a level road.

My wish for 2010 … that motorcycles are exempted from toll fees. Pretoria to Polokwane is currently R99 which is about the same I spent on fuel!!

Steve Wicks


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appeared in Mr Gordhan’s first budg-et speech just a few weeks ago, com-pletely out of nowhere.

And all based on the rising prices of a barrel of Brent Crude, a substance which our local refineries have never even so much as sniffed.

Then there’s the (to me) even more lu-dicrous tolling of all of our existing road network in Gauteng. I spotted the signs go up on the new Pomona Road onramp (the same, perhaps slightly worse, than the old) to the R21 early in February and suddenly it all became very, very real. Frighteningly so.

Just a little bit of digging had me real-ising one thing: there’s been no public

The pressure on the con-cept of motoring for enjoy-ment continues to mount, from all sides, and more often than not based on

that particular type of fact, the made-up one.

Looking just locally for a moment, the cost of motoring in SA is shortly go-ing to soar to even more unattainable heights. There’s the draconian and il-legal emissions tax being imposed on the purchase of new vehicles this year, which Bob Allison has this month writ-ten us a full, in-depth feature on – the blatant extortionism that it is. There are apparently a whole string of fuel price increases to support the randomly-applied “free money” fuel levy which


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Fourways, or vice versa, you can add R65 per day to your travelling costs when these things go live. Oh, also add an hour to travelling time, therefore de-ducting that valuable time either from your allocated work hours (unlikely) or your already sparse private time. E-Tags will not help congestion, mark my words.

I was just a lad when the Tolcon-oper-ated N17 went up, yet I clearly recall a clause in the legislation permitting its creation stating that a viable, simi-larly-sized alternative route had to be left in place for them to build and toll a new route to a destination, in this case Jo’Burg. Hence the N12. But anyway.

So, add that cost to increased fuel pric-

uproar about this money-cheating sys-tem because, quite simply, not many members of the public who care to make this sort of uproar are aware of it just yet. At least, it’s no more than a fringe awareness, some dreaded future event to deal with when it happens.

Well it’s happening, and now that same concerned public are just too occupied complaining about other huge cons hitting our economy at the moment, things like the Nersa-approved raping of electricity consumers by Eskom and the municipalities, and the yawning in-equalities before the law of politicians versus civilians.

Here are the facts though. If you cur-rently live in Centurion and work in


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what was seen on the roads daily at the turn of the last century (yes, as in, from the 1800s to the 1900s)!

So we’re going backwards in terms of development, and are required to pay an enormous premium for this leap. Of course, if you don’t buy-in to the whole man-made climate change lie, you’ll still have to pay more, on fuel and emissions taxes like what we’re being hit with right now.

Naturally though SA selectively imple-ments European governance trends. Despite the wailing about our “unique culture” and other societies not impos-ing their methods to it, little things like morality and the like, we’re very quick to adopt the latest regulatory trends which benefit the back pocket of the administration alone.

This country is rushing headlong down a very rocky path. And if anyone is able to clamp on a last-minute handbrake before the looming precipice is beneath our wheels, well now is most definitely the time!

Russell Bennett

es, escalated new-car prices thanks to emissions taxes which cannot be com-plied to, exorbitant electricity bills, more stringent SARS practices (if you’re not an ANC politician), increased costs of every single other product from basic foodstuffs up (thanks to the electricity and fuel price increases, which retail-ers will simply pass on), and you come up with one very basic truth.

Motoring, the enabler of one of our most basic freedoms, the freedom of move-ment, is rapidly being stamped into the limited, control form our government wants it to be. Freedom in chains. Like our education system, which today only teaches propoganda, as to truly edu-cate a young mind is to free it from the shackles of the ignorant, and we can’t have that.

But it isn’t just locally that this is happen-ing. If we cast our net of observation a bit wider and consider the international motoring industry, one look at the news coming out of Geneva is enough to re-veal that the manufacturers are throw-ing all their weight behind eco-friendly motoring. Even the giants of the indus-try, players like Ferrari and Mercedes, have new hybrid or all-electric options on display. Very similar technology to


mailto:[email protected]

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over the road showering all in his wake with gravel and dust. Discretion being the better part of valour, I backed off and let him go. That will of course have made him feel like the king of the hill and I’m sure that he told all of his col-leagues that his car is faster than a su-perbike.

But here’s the thing, not only did his car cost ten times as much as the bike but he probably used as much fuel in that little escapade as my tank holds. And then there was the familiar wiggle of a car under serious braking as he caught up with the traffic ahead. And that’s when I eased past and crept up to the front of the queue at the next lights. Without any trouble at all, I left him as a distant memory in my mirror. At least I would have if the Triumph actually had mirrors fitted.

The point I’m making is that whilst I love fast cars, they are not going to help you get to work any quicker. A car moves at

I jumped on the Old Daytona this week for a quick trip to the airport. Not an ideal traffi c buster I know but I only had an envelope to drop off and the little Triumph hadn’t been out for a

while. And then it happened like it does every time you ride a sports bike, some-one wanted to race me away from the light. It never happens when you’re on a motard or naked or any other type of bike, even though just about any bike will out accelerate anything short of a supercar.

So our wanabe racer sitting in a brand new BMW X5M, which cost in excess of a million, obviously wanted to justify the purchase to himself by proving that he was the fastest man in town. I as usual was half asleep and only realised that the race was on when I heard the urgency of his pullaway.

Now I’m not a big fan of street racing but you somehow get drawn into the situation so I cranked the throttle open. It soon became apparent that Mr. X5 was no race driver, his car moving all


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rush hour traffic.

There is of course the vulnerability as-pect given the appalling state of our roads. The authorities in Gauteng seem to believe that road users are expend-able and have no interest in safely lay-ing out road works, repairing pot holes and re-painting white lines.

Another good reason for buying a bike is that you avoid the ridiculous carbon tax. Although it remains unclear weath-er bikes are going to be affected by the new tax, in the main, motorcycles will be under the threshold. Keep your eyes wide open and the potholes should be less of a problem than they are for cars. You only need a thin strip of tar be-tween the holes. Save time, save fuel and save on carbon tax, use the cash saved to buy a rain suit.

Steve Allison

the speed of the traffic. Any bike will get you to work quicker than any car in traf-fic. I didn’t need to be on a track orien-tated sports bike, I would have beaten the X5 on a scooter. As I keep saying when people complain about the traffic, if two wheels is the answer why do you keep asking the question?

I once left Randburg on route to our of-fice in Kempton Park. My colleagues left at the same time in a car. It took me 35 minutes to get back and the boys ar-rived nearly 2 hours later. I felt as fresh as a daisy whilst they got back irritable and tired.

I do accept that the weather is a factor for us 2-wheel pilots but if you can save 2 hours a day, that’s like having an ex-tra day off every week. Carrying capac-ity is also a problem. I’m not advocat-ing a complete switch by the motoring public to 2 wheels but there is a huge saving both in time and fuel for those that simply go to the office and back in


80 Drive Tests Chrysler Sebring Convertible

92 Drive Tests Renault Clio Sport

102 Drive Versus Mitsubishi Outlander versus Subaru Outback

112 Drive Tests Volkswagen Golf Mk1

120 Drive Tests Yamaha YZF-R6

128 Drive Tests Suzuki GSX-R 1000

136 Drive Tests Volkswagen CC 2.0 TDI DSG

142 Drive Tests Nissan Qashqai n-tec



102






Brangelina’s pending divorce. Not a subject you were likely expecting to come across in this hardcore motoring magazine, yes? Not a subject, to be honest, I expected to fi nd myself writing about...

But this hottest of Hollywood couples is calling it a day. Enough. Done. Pay the Piper and get on with life.

Chrysler Sebring Convertible

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must say this is very unlikely, she’s like the veritable one-armed Albanian in the sack? Who knows, but clearly there’s something.

Of course these same arguments apply from the lady’s point of view as well. But

I’m a man, so just flip it around yourself OK?

The point is, that even the most sen-sational-looking people in the world have flaws. Quirks, foibles, which at

Now pretty much every even half-hete-ro man is looking at Brad and thinking “Good grief, what a schmuck!”. And the ladies are sneering at Angelina thinking “Your loss, girl”. But you know, there must be underlying reasons for his wanting to spend the US2.5bn (!!!!!) to

end it with one of the most aesthetically exquisite specimens of sultry woman-hood on our planet today. Perhaps she snores like some sort of cave-dwelling dragon-troll? Maybe she cooks like a Prawn from District 9? Maybe, and I

“I think I got more attention in this than I did swanning around in that

sensational R8!”


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of the world still looks at the seductive face and flawless bod and stops in their tracks, Brad is more inclined to walk on by and try another model. Maybe some-thing a bit more... athletic.

The biggest difference between these scenarios is that, to be honest, I nev-er found the Sebring convertible to be particularly pretty. But judging from the reactions of the average SA citizens, I must be more than slightly loony. You utterly adored this car! I think I got more attention in this than I did swan-ning around in that sensational R8! Se-riously, there were men driving in traffic in front of me who were only very lucky not to have accidents, as their eyes re-mained locked on the Sebrings shovel face.

first glance you’d never guess at, and would take some time of living with to fully understand the depth of. But when you do, it’s likely that no amount of exterior beauty could save the sub-ject of scrutiny from being disliked by the knowledgeable scru-tineer. Even though the rest of the world might go “You’re mad! She’s per-fection on legs!” But a man’s gotta do...

Getting to the point, the Chrysler Sebring Con-vertible is a little bit like what Angelina now is to Brad. Whereas the rest


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for the standard Boston Premium Audio arrangement is delightfully uncluttered and clean-looking, bar a single bank of switches between the audio system and ventilation controls beneath. Despite the exterior bulkiness, the rear seats are typically useable only by children or double leg amputees.

The button to operate the roof is affixed to the facia to the right of the wheel. Although modern enough to be a fold-ing hardtop rather than fabric, the roof

Beneath the apparently striking exteri-or however is a car which is very much still a Chrysler to its core. The interior is an eclectic mix of lovely, soft cream leather trimmings and cheap scratchy dashboard plastics, festooned here and there in supposedly heavily varnished and polished wood featuring a pattern more akin to that semi-prescious stone, Tiger’s Eye. The driver’s seat is adjust-ed electrically while the passenger has to use good old manual levers, and the centre console featuring the head unit

“this is not a convertible you can quickly drop the roof of at a traffic light”


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some pretty burdened-sounding elec-trical motors whirring away performing every little action.

With the roof down, there’s a signifi-cant amount of buffeting as there is no wind-deflector – the only way to reduce this is to raise the windows, which does help quite a lot. At least you can drive at speed without feeling like you need one of those pairs of WW-I flyboy gog-gles to avoid being blinded by random road debris pelting the inside of the cabin, you included.

Still, despite some chintzy and plenty of downright nasty materials, it does feel pretty good in there. The seats are very plush and would be comfortable on any length journey, the audio system pow-erful enough to ward off the beats of the most over-ICEd Corsa pulling up

tucks itself away laboriously indeed – this is not a convertible you can quickly drop the roof of at a traf-fic light for instance, the time taken to stow the roof demanding a more delib-erate stop, and nor will it operate when in motion at all. It also arcs very high in its operation, so beware of low-hanging tree branches overhead or a low parking-lot ceiling. And you hear


a six-speed automatic gearbox to be a six-speed automatic gearbox to be scorching, and it really isn’t. Thanks to scorching, and it really isn’t. Thanks to some noticeably peculiar gearing, which some noticeably peculiar gearing, which uses fi rst, second, and third-gear ra-uses fi rst, second, and third-gear ra-tios just short enough to dispatch with tios just short enough to dispatch with the 100km/h sprint, it’s all right in this the 100km/h sprint, it’s all right in this discipline. Then there’s this huge chasm discipline. Then there’s this huge chasm as fourth engages, and acceleration as fourth engages, and acceleration becomes largely academic, something becomes largely academic, something

alongside you when your roof is down, alongside you when your roof is down, and the overall experience more magis-and the overall experience more magis-terial than you’d expect of an American terial than you’d expect of an American vehicle of this price. vehicle of this price.

The same can be said of the drive, in The same can be said of the drive, in truth. You don’t expect that much of truth. You don’t expect that much of a 2.7-litre V6 propelling this ponder-a 2.7-litre V6 propelling this ponder-ous weight of metal and plastic through ous weight of metal and plastic through

feeds the growly V6 roar to your ear-feeds the growly V6 roar to your ear-drums gratuitously. It always sounds like drums gratuitously. It always sounds like you’re going faster than you really are you’re going faster than you really are which for the most part is quite engaging. which for the most part is quite engaging. That said, it can also be quite embarrass-That said, it can also be quite embarrass-ing when there’s a three-litre turbodiesel ing when there’s a three-litre turbodiesel bakkie holding station alongside you de-bakkie holding station alongside you de-spite all the effort evident from the noise spite all the effort evident from the noise spilling out of the engine bay. spilling out of the engine bay.

which once you’ve fl oored the accelera-which once you’ve fl oored the accelera-tor will happen when it happens, no rush. tor will happen when it happens, no rush. We managed a maximum of 180km/h in We managed a maximum of 180km/h in the Sebring Convertible and it should the Sebring Convertible and it should see 200 with a long straight, which is see 200 with a long straight, which is enough. enough.

But that V6 does make just the sort of But that V6 does make just the sort of noise you want, and the lack of a roof noise you want, and the lack of a roof

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you have to assume the handling is go-ing to be pretty much akin to trying to drive a jellyfish. The real surprise is, it

isn’t. No it’s not scalpel-sharp, but the basic chassis responds quite well to en-thusiastic driving. The tyres make one hell of a noise when you are approach-ing the admittedly low limits, clearly telegraphing precisely how close they are to letting go, but there is a certain

What’s more, our demo model arrived with less than 2000kms on the clock, so I’m sure the motor will loosen up a

bit more with time and feel closer to the quoted power outputs, which inciden-tally are 141kW and 260Nm.

So, it’s a front-drive, four-speed auto-boxed American V6 with the chassis rigidity of a piece of thin cardboard, so

“Unfortunately, we just couldn’t get hold of any E85 in SA to test this with.”



and seriously unanticipated keenness to enjoy up to that point. It’s good fun, rather than in any way competition-winning. Ain’t ever going to be a drift king though, but that’s hardly the point of this car.

Speaking of torsional rigidity, again the Sebring is surprising. I’ve driven much sportier German droptops that flex a lot more over knobbly roads. OK the Se-bring’s big advantage here is really its soft, spongy suspension setup which doesn’t ask too much of the actual

http://issuu.com/actions/openurl?url=www.drivemagazine.co.za

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quite green? No, it isn’t light on thirst, averaging over 13l/100km over the test week, but it is a FlexFuel design. Which means it can run E85 bio-ethanol just as easily as it can run regular Unlead-ed. Unfortunately, we just couldn’t get hold of any E85 in SA to test this with. So no, here, it really doesn’t, except perhaps as an interesting side-note to eagle-eyed friends who may have been

admiring your cabbie on the way into the bar.

At the end of the test period, we were pretty unanimous that the Sebring Convert-ible wasn’t a car that any of us would actually buy. But that’s purely a taste thing, and our insatiable lust for sportscar dynamics of course, and fortunately for Chrysler there are clearly

many customers out there who don’t share our sentiments. Because the Sebring Convertible was undeniably a show-stopper – young black upwardly-mobile ladies would stop and stare from a few hundred metres away, and even continued to look interested when they noted a middle-aged and overweight white bloke was behind the wheel so blinding was the Sebring itself.

In fact, during our time with it we start-

chassis at any point, but nevertheless scuttle-shake is only evident on the nastiest bits of SA tarmac.

Yes, all right, there are some build-quality concerns. The movable panels which rise above the boot to fold the roof down look like they’ve never been particularly interested in actually lining-up with the crease-lines running into

them, the big gaps between the door mouldings and dash don’t speak of mi-cron-based engineering precision, and the non-functioning boot-release button next to the roof switch is some sort of a sign. And sometimes, the radio refuses outright to come on until you’re a good fifteen minutes into your journey, which is a bit strange.

Does it make any difference whatsoev-er that this clever V6 is also, potentially,


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powered folding hardtop from any other stable we can guarantee you.

Russell Bennett

ed to see several of them appearing on our roads, so that distinctive look is def-initely moving it out of Chrysler dealer-ships well enough. And it’s priced well too, no R344K will be getting you a V6-

Liked Throaty V6

Plush interior

Boston audio

DislikedRelaxed nature of performance

Build-quality “quirks”

Slow and ponderour roof mechanism

StatisticsEngine V6 petrol

Induction Natural

Capacity 2736cc

Power 141 kW @ 6400rpm

Torque 260 Nm @ 4000rpm

Kerb weight 1697kg

Driven wheels Front

0-100km/h Data not available

Price R344 000


TThe latest Renault Clio he latest Renault Clio RS has been called RS has been called many things and its many things and its picture embellished by picture embellished by many a descriptive-but-many a descriptive-but-

witty adjective by the motoring press witty adjective by the motoring press of the globe. Spectacular, scintillat-of the globe. Spectacular, scintillat-ing, sizzling, and countless more, ing, sizzling, and countless more, and that’s just the ones starting with and that’s just the ones starting with the letter s!the letter s!

Renault Clio SportRenault Clio Sport

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Gauteng conditions. Most of them have been done in Europe, where the air is cold and dense, you only get major el-evation above sea-level when you’re heading for an alpine resort, they have a substantially better grade of fuel pumping through their cars veins, and for the most part roads are if not baize-smooth at least quite well maintained on the whole. Even the local launch, as reported on in this magazine, was at coastal altitudes, and by all reports the Clio excelled. So just how does this latest French pocket-rocket fare in our

Our time discovering the reality behind this sea of glowing press started really well too. I’d driven it less than 500m when I had rude signs gestured at me by an old lady loitering in her own drive-way, alerted to my evil by the explicit soundtrack from the twin exhausts. All I did was pull off and accelerate hard in the first two gears. A good start for a car which is meant to be oozing at-titude.

However most of these glowing road tests haven’t been conducted in our


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unmistakably finely-tuned blares from the pair of tailpipes separated at the rear by a very obvious diffuser. Looks rather a lot like one of those guys who wear pants which are usually most-ly fallen-off, like it’s trying too hard to show off its huge diffuser. But the noise starts at a burble, passes into a rasp at 5000 and then morphs into a rabid animal in the high-sixes culminating in a strained shriek as the shift indicator beeps at you on the redline itself. And then you ram hard into the limiter, a bit

before the indicated 7600rpm redline most of the time.

It also has looks which really ought to be a boy racer’s dream. Look up either

oxygen-starved climate driving on real-world tarmac?

Sadly only one adjective describes it perfectly.

It’s broken.

It’s all about the engine, you see. It’s a racy 2.0-litre four now revving to within a few hundred rpms of 8000! It develops 147.5kW @ 7100rpm (very nearly a nice round 100bhp per litre in old money),

and at the coast will apparently dip be-low 7s to 100 from rest. But only 215Nm, and at a heady 5400rpm. The first sign.

There’s one of those deeply enjoyable,

“Sadly only one adjective describes it perfectly.

It’s broken.”


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just feels all wrong as it is. There isn’t nearly as much power as the looks and sound should support, and as that torque figure I mentioned earlier attests to, you really have to go looking for that

power hard, scaring literally hundreds of old ladies into flagrant rudeness in the process. Then there’s the closed-throttle jerkiness. It feels frighteningly reminiscent of what my old ’83 Escort used to do in bad traffic – which is to say overheat and get all recalcitrant on me!

The Clios water and oil temps stayed perfect but the scrappy chuntering - and you can run into it just about all over the

flank from the rear with enough angle to clearly see the vents exiting from the chunky front arches and you’re pretty much sold on an emotional level. Inside you get grippy cloth-covered sports

seats, tasteful silver seatbelts and silver RS stitching with accompanying flash-es on the facia brightwork. And a rev counter, yellow like a Ferraris, redlined closer to 8 than 7. Oh and even one of those rally-aping centre strips of stitch-ing on the great-feeling wheel.

But that engine.

Now I’ve no doubt that a remap for lo-cal variables would really help things, it


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keep it in if you’re waiting for a gap and need the power available ASAP. Makes it sound exactly like you’re piloting this mad hatter of a car from inside a very active beehive. It feels a lot like one of those tuning jobs you got in the 80s where the tun-ing gods gas-flowed, free-flowed, and popped the wildest possible cam with

massive lift and then over-fuelled it to keep the mixture in the same ballpark. There’s power there for sure, but the overall drivability has suffered in the extraction process. Suffered tragically.

Apart from this quirk of being 1700m above sea level, the Clio RS has a chassis and steering which genuinely deserve all the kindest adjectives I spoke of

rev range and in any gear, obvi-ously 4000rpm+ in 1st or 2nd are the most devastating. It some-times even happened on sudden throttle openings, but usually when you came off the throttle after accelerating hard through first and most of second.

What’s more the inconsistency makes the throttle modulation right at the top of the travel in-teresting. Going to about 30% throttle is a light switch. There’s nothing in-be-tween. It’s a beastly trait for a road car, surely curable though? Unlike the vibra-tion which sets in at the 4500rpm mark, shaking panels about despite the cabin feeling exceptionally solidly put togeth-er, and at exactly the zone you need to


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ing their own performance brakes, their own seats, their own bespoke steer-ing wheels. Guys like Brembo, Recaro,

Momo, are world-renowned for a rea-son. May as well not only incorporate their expertise, but be proud of it too. The stoppers on the Clio RS prove this emphatically, being both resilient and tremendously feelsome.

In fact, this car is far more savage through the corners and on the brakes than it ever gets from pure throttle usage. Add that dys-functional fuelling map and, well, you have a great car in desper-ate need of a likeable motor. The old 2.0-litre Clio engine mated to this chassis would be

riveting, breathtaking, and all those good things. Like this, there’s mostly frustration.

Yes there is real excitement and enjoy-ment on tap when the road opens, the traffic clears, and you can carry on driv-

at the beginning. The pretty firm ride (firmer than the Twingo RS) translates into breathtaking cornering prowess,

although again the dimpled tarmac of real-world roads can upset the aggres-sive setup mid-corner. It doesn’t really matter though, because the interface between the driver and the car, through the combination of crystal-clear steer-ing and a chassis which is literally an

open book, has you almost peerlessly engaged.

It also has epic brakes. We at Drive like the Brembo logo proudly displayed through the sexy alloys – all too often these days manufacturers are creat-

“you have a great car in desperate need of a likeable motor.”


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sheer pace – perhaps the Multiair pow-erplants coming soon will change that, but then they’ll also undoubtedly up the cost as well right out of this apparently underplayed bracket.

Sure Renault themselves have recog-

nised this, and the real hot-hatch game is now played by the Megane RS, leav-ing this old original the class leader of a class which has largely disappeared. While the old great Clios literally led the pack, this one now limps along be-

hind it, the baby brother of the real con-tender.

Lumbered even more, at Jo’Burg al-titude and with African fuel pumping

ing with the throttle either fully planted or fully released. But in between it gets painful.

Then, when we came to compare it against its rivals in the vast hot hatch battlefield, we had another problem.

There isn’t really anything to compare it to directly, anymore. The Cooper S is about the closest – R20K more and force-fed. Mazda and Ford hot hatches are blown, a lot gruntier, and crossing R300K. The hot hatch segment ap-

pears to have largely been vacated, for the premium hatch price range. Per-haps the MiTo, but although impressive we don’t think the regular 1.4 turbo we’ve tried so far is quite up there for

“the class leader of a class which has largely disappeared.”


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the thoroughbred. But can’t back up the flamboyant and admittedly impres-sive prancing with winning pace on the course.

Russell Bennett

through its filters, by a surly tramp of a motor hell-bent on making any drive with a potential lady friend make it look like you’ve no idea what you’re do-ing behind the wheel of such a high-ly-strung car. It’s like it’s trying to play

Liked Pin-sharp chassis

Strong Brembo brakes

Aggressive looks

Disliked Jerky, inconsistent engine

Cabin vibrations

StatisticsEngine Four-cylinder petrol

Induction Natural

Capacity 1998cc

Power 147.5 kW @ 7100rpm


Kerb weight 1240 kg

Driven wheels Front

0-100km/h 6.9 Seconds

Price R258 900


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just to hear more of it. Even on a long motorway, the Clio burbles along and crackles every time you feather the throtle. Even cruising along in top gear the throttle response is instant if not brutal.

The overall experience though, con-sidering the excellent roadholding and braking ability is of being in a true hot hatch. It looks cool and will win favora-ble comments down the pub. The inte-rior is sports focused and yet surpris-ingly comfortable. The price is a factor that cannot be ignored, you get all of the sporting prowess and sexy looks for a lot less money than the competi-tion. The street cred alone will make it the choice of the younger buyer. When you need to impress your friends and more importantly girls, you want a car that looks fast and has a rally car feel inside. The exhaust note only adds to the overall experience.

Steve Allison

I really enjoyed my time with the little hot hatch. Yes the engine struggles to deliver all of its power at altitude but it delivers it smoothly. I had none of the jerky throttle problems experienced

by our ed. I will be in serious trouble for suggesting that his right foot is probably heavier than mine but I managed to get the Clio off the line without a stutter.

The power thing is slightly dissapoint-ing since expectations were so high but we can hardly blame Renault for the Gauteng altitude. Sure they could have gone the Mini route of a 1.6 turbo but we are if we’re honest a very small market compared to Europe. Even smaller when you consider the number of coastal customers in this country.

The RS took me back to my youth and made me feel like a boy racer again, albeit one whos hair has long since de-parted. I found myself getting involved in childish drag races away from the lights. The engine note is spectacular enough for you to turn the radio down

Second Opinion: Renault Clio SportSecond Opinion: Renault Clio Sport

smoothersmootherride.ride.AA


Yes here it is! The battle SA motoring enthusiasts have been waiting for for at least a decade, playing out on lo-cal shores! It’s the classic

Red versus Blue. Mitsubishi squaring up against Subaru. This is it!

Except, not quite. No, still no Lancer Evo...

Instead we have a pair clearly quite in-tent on taking you and your family, well, out. Somewhere. In the red corner, the new Mitsubishi Outlander 2.4 CVT. In the blue, Subaru’s 2010 Outback 2.5i CVT. And without further ado, let the battle for the soccer-mommy shopping-car category commence.

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targeting the same sort of space.

In fact, look a little beyond the striking, shapely new face of the Outlander with

its distinctive modern-Mitsubishi styling, and surprisingly you find – yes, basical-ly a crossover! When I came across an older-generation version of this same car on the road, it struck me... the Out-

All right, they may not be the rally refu-gees the intro first suggests, but make no mistake, the competition these two find themselves entering is fierce. El-

bow-singing, eye-gouging, back-biting kind of fierce. This is a key customer zone for any mainstream manufactur-er today, just take a look at all these crossovers coming out at the moment,

“Instead we have a pair clearly quite intent on taking you and your family, well, out.

Somewhere.”


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lander used to be an estate. Exactly like the Outback in fact. Now it’s some-thing, well a little bit more. A... tall estate, shades of SUV pre-tensions, lines which are sporty despite the obvi-ous bulk. That’s a crossover to the Tee.

The Subaru has stuck to its original brief, al-

though even it is looking slightly taller than it used to, but it hasn’t gone to

quite the same lengths. The new sheet metal for 2010 is bulky, typically boxy, but distinctively Subaru.

Both are handsome cars and this would

“the competition these two find

themselves entering is fierce.

Elbow-singing, eye-gouging,

back-biting kind of fierce.”


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uously-variable transmissions (CVT), and the Mitsubishi features a 2.4-litre four-cylinder, the Subaru a 2.5-litre boxer four. Both offer limited off-road

capabilities thanks to AWD hardware, and both sport five seats and the most practical boot possible.

Fair enough? We thought so – and it al-lows us to pit these two perennial com-petitors toe to toe in our usual, unique sort of way.

Back to the cars though. And let’s talk engines.

Although very similar in capacity and power output (123kW(Subaru) versus 125(Mitsu), 229Nm versus 226), the Subaru’s flat-four wins the perform-ance race, but the Mitsubishi fights back by being smoother and more re-

have to come down to personal taste. My wife adored the Outback, I preferred the more modern looks of the Mitsubishi overall. They’re both very well execut-

ed in their own right, with nice detailing and cohesive shapes. The bigger car is actually the sportier-looking of the two with that Lancer front-end, and to my eye more a car of “today”. But that could just be me.

At this point, you may be asking, why compare an estate to a crossover? Well, obviously, apart from the fact that the Outlander has sneakily grown into what it is today from an estate original-ly, and now is in fact called a Crossover by Subaru, there’s the price. And the specifications. They’re both compet-ing for just under R350K for entry-level models, close to R400 for the ones we have on test. Both boast clever contin-


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aru simply boasts the Asymmetric All-Wheel Drive which, again, is a strong

feature of the heritage of the brand.

The diff-lock function of the Outlander is likely to make it that bit more effective off-road, but honestly neither of these cars are meant to be scaling cliffs in the rain despite an acceptable 215mm or so of ground clearance each, so it’s value is questionable. What’s more the full-time 4WD car, with the bigger motor, is actually lighter on fuel than the one which can be set to FWD only, which is unexpected. Outlander, 12.4L/100km- Outback, 11.8.

Again, however, both ride brilliantly. The fidgety primary ride of the Outland-

fined. For the target market, that would make the Outlander a more liveable car

day to day, but if you love your engines, there’ll be no choice whatsoever. The Subaru has by far the most character, thanks mostly to the characteristic bur-ble which the brand literally made fa-mous. The Mitsubishi’s sounds like a sewing machine – in fact an unforgiv-ably noisy, thrashy sewing machine at that. Not appealing to the heart-strings no, but it is basically as effective at hauling the car around at our Gauteng altitudes.

When it comes to the drivetrain, there are more option in the Outlander, as it can be set to FWD, AWD, or Lock modes for the 4WD system. The Sub-

“honestly neither of these cars are meant to be scaling cliffs in the rain”


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the position of your throttle pedal. So floor it and the revs will soar to just un-der 6000 rpm and stay there, right the way to V-max, without any detectable shifting whatsoever. Because it doesn’t

shift, it merely varies the transmission ratio of its effectively single gear.

There is a manual mode, which boasts six preset ratios just like the Subaru’s does, operated on the shifter itself and not via paddles. It works well, and is actually better for fuel economy than the Auto CVT option, particularly if you drive like us, which is to say accelera-tor stuck open most of the time. Must be because it introduces the traditional

flaring and dipping of the revs through the ratios as you accelerate up to speed, while the CVT will just maintain power

er seems to magically disappear when you come to some dirt, and the car is very comfortable even barrelling along with gravel pinging up against the un-derside. The Outback initially feels softer and more prone to wallowing, but it handles beautifully and also takes rougher back-roads in its stride without forcing complaints from the dash area.

Although both offer CVT gearboxes, the execution is completely different in these cars. The Subaru’s is defined into

six pre-set gear ratios, and sports love-ly aluminium paddles behind the wheel for shifting up or down if you don’t feel like letting the ‘box’s own brain sort it

out. The Mitsubishi’s is that rather un-settling manner of CVT box which con-stantly adjusts its ratio depending on

“it’s difficult to imagine two so similar cars that could deliver a more

intrinsically different feel.”


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swanky with the extension of this hide to the top and frontal areas of the dash itself. Both seats, as well as the usual niceties (windows, mirrors), are oper-ated using electricity, although only the Outback has a memory function, while only the Outlander offers a two-stage seat heating element for those colder mornings. And there’s plenty of room, in the Outback it’s just there, in the Out-lander you can have it or not, thanks to rear seats on their own slide rails.

But then the Mitsubishi, in this range-

topping GLS specification, incorporates some handy comfort features not in the Subaru. Keyless go, at first a novelty, is really nice to have when you do, while the Outback doesn’t even have automatic-locking on pulloff, a strange omission given our necessary security-consciousness in SA. The Mitsubishi

peak, and max fuel consumption, until you’ve reached your target speed.

This comparison has really turned out to be very interesting indeed, it’s diffi-cult to imagine two so similar cars that could deliver a more intrinsically differ-ent feel. The transmissions highlight once more that the Outback is by far the smoothest and most mainstream-oriented. It’s a gearbox for those who have never cared to even know what gear their car happens to be in, only that it’s in the right one when they want

it to be. While the Subaru is more a reflection of the rally-winning icon, for those with a family and probably a dog to take along.

And finally we get to the interior. There’s good-quality leather filling both, al-though the Outlander is that touch more


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it knows pretty well, mainstream con-sumer, but with an impressive amount of style and panache. The Outback is Subaru, a company born in the heat of the WRC, moving to broaden its market share.

And for everyday use they reflect these backgrounds. The Outlander is the perfect choice for the shopping and/or school run, for the driver who wants to focus more on the road and other traffic than on the experience of driving itself, and the Subaru is the car which the enthusiast who now finds themselves blessed with family would be drawn to, retaining that spirit of performance but adding massive capability as general-purpose runabout.

In the right hands, neither will disap-point, or feel worth less than what you paid, for a moment.

Russell Bennett

has PDC as well, and a thumping Rockford-Fosgate sound system including a significant and mean-looking sub mounted in the capa-cious boot.

There isn’t even anything to sep-arate your options on the pricing front. There are only two Outland-ers on offer, both mechanically identical but differently appointed, the cheapest coming in at a very reasonable R337 500 (GLX), while our test model will set you back R397 500 (GLS) with all the nice trimmings. Outback pricing begins at R345 000 for a manual ‘box in the 2.5i Premium, up to R358 000 for the Lineartronic CVT transmission, while the range-topper sports an en-tirely different, six-pot 3.6-litre engine, and is over R450K.

What sort of advice then can we offer you, considering how basically insepa-rable the Outback and Outlander have turned out to be? They’ve traded points incredibly evenly throughout this com-parison, and any margin is more per-ception than quantitative data... they really are just equally good cars.

But completely different. The Outlander is Mitsubishi falling-back onto a market


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LikedGenerous spec on the Mitsubishi

Flat-four beat of the Subaru

Evo-esque Outlander nose

DislikedCVT ‘box, but can see it’s appeal for those who aren’t that interested in

actual driving.

Bland Mitsu engine note

Drive Vitals: Mitsubishi Outlander GLS 4X4 AutoEngine Four-cylinder petrol

Capacity (cc) 2360

Power (kW) 125 @ 6000rpm

Torque (Nm) 226 @ 4100rpm

Kerb weight (kg) 1587

Driven wheels Front/All (selectable)

Wheel/tyre 225/55 R18

Price R394 500

Drive Vitals: Subaru Outback 2.5i Premium CVTEngine Four-cylinder Boxer, Petrol

Capacity (cc) 2495

Power (kW) 123 @ 5600rpm

Torque (Nm) 229 @ 4000rpm

Kerb weight (kg) 1552

Driven wheels Symmetrical AWD

Wheel/tyre 225/55 R17

Price R358 000


This is the last of its kind. A limited-edition example of a genuine real-world classic. Ex-clusive enough that by

the time you read this they’ll prob-ably all be sold. And yet, at a price which matches the heritage. A real people’s exclusive.

No, I’m not being paid to write VW PR gumpf, but I’ve been driv-

ing the Mk1 all week now and it actually manages to live up to the hype. And it should make hard-core South African petrolheads sad to see it go.

Golf MkI

“A real people’s exclusive.”

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do so is sent. A chunky three-spoke leather wheel with solitary airbag (take that safety moaners!). Even sporty alu-minium pedals, and an aluminium-look bezel on the dials themselves.

My kids were probably most delighted, having never seen anything like them before, at the manual-winding windows, but there is still more quite exciting stuff to this limited edition. There’s a grumbly, rough, old-school 1.6-litre injected mo-tor up front, propelling a chassis sitting 10mm lower than “regular” Citi models. A pair of fruity (if dainty) tailpipes which rasp aggressively at every opportunity. And then there’s the exterior.

The thing is, yes it has no ABS, air-bags, ESP, power steering, or even aircon (really the biggest shame of the lot). Instead it cuts straight to the es-sence of the car. There are four attrac-tive wheels, a tin box for sitting in, an-other wheel for steering the whole lot and then three pedals and a stick for deciding how fast you want it all to go.

And to this basic home recipe is add-ed some deeply tantalising spice for the Mk1. Part-leather seats, complete with red stitching just like in an old CTI. There’s central locking, even if it is of the dinosaur variety, each door whirring loudly into its locked position a good four seconds after the original command to


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some youngster with a can of silver spraypaint but halfway decent taste has sorted it out on his own. Which is sad, because you’d really like to respond to

these imaginary onlookers in-the-know “Yes, it is, and it really is that brilliant.”

Girls aren’t going to appreciate it too much either. The lack of power-steering, compared to the finger-twirling steering wheels of today’s city-car, makes for shockingly heavyweight parking ma-noeuvres for such a little car, while the

It’s subtle to be sure. You’d never no-tice the ride-height drop without a very trained eye, but the blue-to-black paint-job and the distinctive chrome/silver

flashes are unmistakable. That is if you haven’t already spotted the little silver Citi silhouette on the fenders and hatch lid itself.

Which, sadly, means you’re never go-ing to have people sauntering up to you in parking lots and going “Hey, is that a Mk1 then?” Most are likely to think

“Most are likely to think some youngster with a can of silver spraypaint but halfway decent taste has sorted it out on his own.”


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gine clatters noisily and unevenly when cold. The gearbox takes some warming of its oils before it gets exactly smooth either. Sadly, the brakes don’t ever “come to temperature”, so to speak.

And then you need some beefy fore-arms to muscle it out onto the road so that you can set about working it all up to temp.

Once you have though, it is such a

absence of aircon in place of a basic fan/heater arrangement will likely make this dark tin box a pretty close environ-ment in our SA summer. Then there are the brakes. About an inch and a half

of completely dead travel at the top of the pedal action does not inspire confi-dence if yours in any way wavers.

No, this is a lads car. It stinks when you start it up in the morning, and the en-


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able muscle all the way through its rev range. Yes, it sounds rather thrashed a lot of the time, but that’s part of the charm really. And the chassis isn’t in any way filtered, diluted, or restrained. Just the interface between the raw, pri-mal forces being exerted on the vehicle by the drive, to the driver. A direct, hard line.

It is just a huge amount of fun. Yes, it absolutely feels the dinosaur it is, but it’s a lovable one. Like the ones from kid’s cartoons more than the one from Spielberg’s murdered movie series.

And the “new” looks even mean that you glance admiringly back over your shoulder when you do park and walk away, even if no-one else really does. It’s a special feeling which a numbered plaque on the dash reminds you of eve-ry moment you’re inside it. And there is

sweet little car. It hammers home the fact that beneath all of this, is the chas-sis which gave birth to the hot hatch genre. A design a few decades old per-haps, but an example which is brand-

new and fighting fit. If this were thirty years ago, you’d have been the king of the road in one of these.

The four-pot motor is constantly gnash-ing its teeth, and offers up plenty of use-

“No, this is a lads car. It stinks when

you start it up in the morning, and the engine clatters

noisily and unevenly when cold.”


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long. It’s a triumph. And a tribute. On wheels.

We will also probably never see it’s like again. Cheap cars are now emaciated, jokey, Pikachu cars with sewing-ma-chine engines and chassis’ of jelly. Nei-ther heart, nor soul. Mere innocuous transport. Nowadays you’ve got to pay more handsomely for any fun or charm whatsoever. But sadly, our loss doesn’t mean it isn’t time for the Citi to leave us. It is un-questionably a car of yesterday. But like

quite literally no other car on the mar-ket for R120K that even comes close to giving you that. None.

That price allows the indomitable Citi to exit, stage left, as gracefully as it ar-rived. The Mk1 epitomises the entire model range, basic ingredients, huge heart, massive fun, for not a lot of mon-ey. VW could have gotten greedy with these last 1000 models, deigning them to be for collectors only, but instead have priced them to sell to the people who made this dinosaur so great for so

“If this were thirty years ago, you’d have been the king of the road in one of these.”


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ends the production with a flourish.

Russell Bennett

say a Nissan 1400 bakkie, it’s a true people’s hero. Affordable, adorable, re-liable, dependable, and utterly loveable to enthusiasts everywhere.

And the Mk1, the last of a great line,

LikedCharacter. In spades.

Fruity exhaust note.

Subtle silver/chrome bling

Disliked The end of an era

All the safety moaners who had a hand in killing it.

StatisticsEngine Four-cylinder petrol

Induction Natural

Capacity 1595cc

Power 74 kW @ 5400rpm


Kerb weight 858 kg

Driven wheels Front

0-100km/h 9.7 Seconds

Price R113 500


TThe YZF R6 is Yamahas take on the hotly contested middleweight he YZF R6 is Yamahas take on the hotly contested middleweight supersport market. On the face of it, the little R6 is fairly similar supersport market. On the face of it, the little R6 is fairly similar to the competition. It has 4 cylinders and a capacity of 600cc. to the competition. It has 4 cylinders and a capacity of 600cc. It has a sports bike riding position and a full fairing. So what It has a sports bike riding position and a full fairing. So what exactly does it do to distinguish itself from the competition? exactly does it do to distinguish itself from the competition?

Well, where it does win hands down is on aesthetics, it defi nitely looks much Well, where it does win hands down is on aesthetics, it defi nitely looks much better than the competition, well, the Japanese competition at least.better than the competition, well, the Japanese competition at least.

Yamaha YZF-R6Yamaha YZF-R6

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ha family feel, looking very similar to its big brother the R1. The sharp angular nose looks like it cuts through the air efficiently. The only thing that spoils the handsome lines are the mirrors which

As I mentioned earlier, the R6 is one of the most attractive sports bikes around. It looks good from any angle and the red and white livery of our test bike enhanc-es its beauty. It has a distinctive Yama-


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you run out of talent, they’ll pull you up in plenty of time before you run off the road.

The moment you swing your leg over the bike, you know what it’s all about. The foot pegs are set high and well to the rear. Your weight is over the front wheel and the bars are nice and low. The riding position is arguably the most focused of the Japanese middleweights.

Flick the starter button and even with

look like an afterthought. They do work very well though so we shouldn’t criti-cise them too much. Nice to be able to see traffic behind you instead of admir-ing your leather clad forearms.

The R6 has dual speed compression damping so you can really fine tune the suspension for your own riding style. Stiffen it right up for the track and when you get out on the road, whilst fairly stiff,

it doesn’t shake your fillings out. What it does lack is a steering damp-er. Not too much of a problem but once you start pushing hard, particularly on a rough surface, it will shake its head a bit. The brakes are phe-nomenal. You should be able to outbrake all but the bravest of riders and if

“The R6 has dual speed compression damping so you can really fine tune the suspension for your own riding style.”


like a diesel car that’s fallen out of the turbo band. Now you know why Cal Crutchlow struggled with his starts in last year’s Supersport championship.

This is without doubt a bike for those that will be spending most of their time on the track and the rest of it on a breakfast run. The fact that the engine really does nothing at all below 9000 rpm makes it less than ideal as a daily commuter. Not that that’s a problem, it’s just a question of choosing the bike for

the standard exhaust it makes a pret-ty decent noise. The pipe even looks good. Somehow they’ve managed to get past the ecomentalists without fit-ting a can the size of a dustbin.

Grab a handful of throttle and the noise gets even better right up until the tacho needle passes 11 grand when the R6 develops a high pitched scream that makes earplugs essential. And it’s only then that you really get the power that’s on offer. The little Yamaha bogs down

“This is without doubt a bike “This is without doubt a bike for those that will be for those that will be spending most of their time spending most of their time on the track and the rest of it on the track and the rest of it on a breakfast run.”on a breakfast run.”

ble machine and with the high revving engine, there is a hightened sense of speed. Keep the revs soaring and the acceleration is impressive. Sliding down behind the rather small screen I managed an indicated 250 km/h but what impressed me the most was how quickly it got to its top end. At 250 it seemed to hit an acceleration brick wall so I’m not sure a lightweight rider would have achieved a higher speed.

Despite being a very focused machine,

what you actually want to do with it.

What you do get is a bike that is always involving to ride. You don’t ever get off the bike with the feeling that you can’t really remember the ride. That’s what sports bikes are all about. What the R6 doesn’t do is make excuses for what it is. Many have criticised the bike for being too focused but it’s a sport bike through and through.

Out on the open road the R6 is a sta-

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I know that you don’t buy a bike like this because it’s economical but even so, petrol is expensive. So it’s worth not-

ing that despite running the little engine continually at high revs, we managed more than 200k’s on the 17,5 litres that the tank holds.

The YZF-R6 may not be the best all rounder but as a sports bike it really does hold its head high. The very things that other comentators have criticised are the things that apeal to me. It’s fo-cused, it’s about going fast, it’s about good lap times on the track. It keeps the adrenalin flowing every time you ride.

Steve Allison

the R6 is nevertheless reasonably easy to ride. The clutch is light and the bril-liant brakes have good feel. They’ll

stop you as quickly as you like without feeling like you’re about to go over the bars. As you might expect from such a focused machine, the riding position is ideal for hanging off in corners. Before too long you’ll need a new set of knee sliders.

Desirability is a subjective thing but helped by the fact that this is the bike that won a Supersport World champi-onship last year, it will no doubt be a good seller. On top of that, the brand as a whole has credibility having won just about every 2-wheeled world champi-onship last year.

Drive Vitals Yamaha YZF -R6Engine inline 4-cylinder

Capacity 599cc

Power 99.6kW

Torque Not available

Dry weight 161kg

Price R106 999

The clutch is light and the brilliant brakes have good feel.


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TThe GSX-R range has been he GSX-R range has been around for several years and in around for several years and in 2001 Suzuki increased the capacity in line 2001 Suzuki increased the capacity in line with World Superbike Rule changes. Yes the 750 re-with World Superbike Rule changes. Yes the 750 re-mains on the price list to this day but the range topper was mains on the price list to this day but the range topper was

upped to a full litre. The Gixxer beat the competition in group tests year after upped to a full litre. The Gixxer beat the competition in group tests year after year and the K5 was considered to be the ultimate superbike. But, in common with year and the K5 was considered to be the ultimate superbike. But, in common with so many manufacturers, by the time the K7 was introduced it had put on weight and so many manufacturers, by the time the K7 was introduced it had put on weight and lost its edginess. It beat the competition in 2007 but that was because they were all lost its edginess. It beat the competition in 2007 but that was because they were all suffering from similar problems. Until along came the new Fireblade which took the suffering from similar problems. Until along came the new Fireblade which took the market by storm so Suzuki worked hard to bring us a completely new bike in the K9.market by storm so Suzuki worked hard to bring us a completely new bike in the K9.

Suzuki GSX-R 1000Suzuki GSX-R 1000

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Now you might think that being a ground up completely new bike that it would look dif-ferent but you’d be wrong. Put the two bikes side by side and the un-initiated would be hard pressed to tell you which is which. I un-derstand that Suzuki didn’t want to alienate its loyal supporters but brand loyal buyers are exactly that. Honda went for a complete-ly new look with the FireBlade and whilst it was initially met with scepticism Honda fans bought them in droves. Power remains un-changed and the bike hasn’t lost much weight so what have they done with all these new parts? Throw your leg over the bike and, you


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rear end grip under power, which is of-ten the road to high side city. By now you might think I’m a little bit down on the new bike. On the contrary, what the bike is like out on the road is what re-ally counts and that’s where you real-ise that this really is a new bike. It has regained the hard-edged feel of the old K5 with all of the refinement of the K7.

In order to solve the rear traction prob-lems, the wheelbase is now 10mm shorter allowing for a 32mm longer swingarm without changing the over-all dimensions. The swingarm is a race bred gull arm, which is unfortunately hidden by the exhaust pipes. Perhaps the designers though they would try to emulate the swingarm in the pipes to compensate for it being hidden? At the front, the forks are now of the really

trick looking Showa big piston variety. Keeping it in the family, the rear shock is also supplied by Showa.

The instrument panel is standard GSX-R fare but you do get a lap timer. The Multi mode switch is still there so you can flick it over to C mode if the

guessed it, it feels exactly the same as the outgoing model.

I liked the K7. You could easily keep up with your mates on the breakfast run even if they were doing 300. You wouldn’t embarrass yourself at a track day and the bike was easy to ride. But superbike ownership is about bragging rights not ease of use. And pushed to the absolute limit, the K7 would lose

“Even in A mode it’s as docile as a Labrador puppy at low revs.”


“You feel like you sit inside the bike rather than being perched on top of it.”

roads are all wet and slippery. That will soften the power and the overall riding experience preventing you from overdoing things with your right hand while you concentrate on the road and traffic. Other than that, ignore B mode and leave it on A for the full house superbike experience. Even in A mode it’s as docile as a Labrador puppy at low revs.

The K9 GSX-R has that endearing Suzuki character-istic of being a docile easy to ride bike at low speed and then turns into the devil incarnate as you wind the throttle on. The engine doesn’t develop any more power than the K7 but delivery is so much more pro-gressive. Fuelling is as smooth and accurate as we have come to expect from the Gixxer range. The ac-celeration when you do get the needle to the top of the dial is phenomenal. The noise is slightly muffled with the standard pipes fitted but the induction roar lets you know that the bike is working hard.

The ride is all sorts of soft and comfortable, surpris-ing considering the piss poor road surfaces we have to endure. So you would expect it to be a bit wallowy through corners on standard settings but it isn’t. I don’t know how they’ve managed to pull that little trick off. Sure the standard settings are too soft for hard track riding but road riders don’t really need to get the screwdrivers out for the best setting, the fac-tory have already done that for you.

The big piston forks that keep the front end in con-tact with the tarmac feel different to conventional units. I like them but they do take a bit of getting

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and easy to use. Gear ratios are well spaced although first is slightly long. Hamfisted down-shifts are taken care of by the ex-cellent slipper clutch. You can get the back to step out if you try but for day to day riding you’ll have to try very hard to find a situation that the slipper can’t cope with.

The GSX-R 1000 has a comfort-able riding position with plenty of space. You don’t get that cramped feeling with all of your weight on your wrists riding style so com-mon on other sports bikes. That’s probably why Gixxers have al-ways been popular amongst the middle-aged rider. As years pass, us older riders don’t want to be

used to. Fork dive is kept to a minimum un-der braking and they chatter less through fast bumpy corners. Should things get out of hand though, there is an electronic steer-ing damper to calm a potential tank slapper.

The gearbox is slick


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Drive Vitals SuzukiEngine 4-stroke, liquid-cooled, DOHC

Number of Cylinders 4

Displacement 999 cm³

Compression Ratio 12.8:1

Kerb weight 203kg

Price R155 000

squeezed onto a frame designed for a 5 foot 60 kilo race rider. You feel like you sit inside the bike rather than being perched on top of it.

There are some fortunate people out there that have more than one bike

“We saw an indicated 300 without any real effort.”

but it remains a fact that most riders will be lim-ited by finance and fam-ily pressure and will only own a single motorcycle. The Suzuki GSX-R 1000 is a suprbike for all sea-sons. It is as fast and brisk off the line as any of the competition. We saw an indicated 300 with-out any real effort. You can use it for track days

with a bit of suspension tweaking and then you can ride it to work on Monday. And that’s what has always made the GSX-R 1000 a poular choice.

Steve Allison


However, when it comes to corporate identity in automotive design, things can easily get monotonous and just plain uninspired, the aforementioned manufacturers being prime examples. History has given us numerous exam-ples of the successful implementation of corporate identity in design, with Audi being an excellent example from recent history. While their cars all have a dis-tinct identity, the family genes are eas-ily identifiable. The same can’t be said of all Volkswagen designs, however.

Ask any branding expert and they will soon extol to you the virtues of having a proper corporate iden-tity, and rightly so. Without

strong corporate identities, people would have no frame of reference for discern-ing the good from the bad or the good from the better. Some manufacturers, like Toyota and Volkswagen, have such a well-established brand image and corpo-rate identity that they manage to sell cars based solely on their image and reputa-tion.

© Christo Valentyn | February 2010A member of the South African Guild of Motoring Journalists

Volkswagen CC 2.0 TDI DSG

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are quite good at.

The concept is simple though: take the underrated Passat and make it lower, wider and longer. Then smooth out the roofline to make it look more like a coupe and spec it higher than most cars in its segment. Oh but wait, there isn’t a segment for reasonably priced four-door coupes yet. There’s just the Mercedes-Benz CLS, and let’s face it, the Passat…uhm, I mean CC…doesn’t get close. Or does it?

With the CC, Volkswagen finally de-signed a car on which its ‘smiley face’ look actually worked. The front is low and the infamous grille wide, giving the CC a stance that’s both sporty and elegant in execution. The low roofline

The ‘smiley face’ grille years were in my opinion quite unsuccessful in creating a look that is memorable and striking. Yes, the Polo and Golf 5 sold in dozens locally, but they weren’t the most excit-ing designs to start with, even if they were hugely successful. The Passat is another prime example, as is the larger Phaeton in European markets: excel-lent, underrated cars, but boring as hell to look at.

Enter the Volkswagen CC, or Comfort Coupe (in Europe also known as the Passat CC). Now why VW decided to sell it simply as the CC in South Africa, no-one really knows, but it could be be-cause the Passats of yore were crap or because they just wanted to confuse everyone, which is what the Germans


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ness. At lower speeds there’s a tiny bit of lag before the 350Nm of torque kicks in at a low 1 750r/min, but the CC is definitely not underpowered in urban circumstances.

I was even more surprised when tak-ing the CC out on the open road where one can generally achieve and main-tain higher speeds. Thanks to its low-ered suspension and squat stance, the CC also handles like a dream, belying a much sportier persona than its elegant

does wonders to create a sleek pro-file, especially combined with the lines and chrome detailing running along the

flanks. It all tapers at the rear, where the boot lid provides a cheeky lip to emphasise the inherent sportiness of the car.

It’s not all successful though, and that’s unfortunate. The overall elegance of the design is thrown out of balance by the car’s oversized taillights that make it look tacky instead of classy. Aesthetically, this is probably my only criticism of the design – the CC is in-credibly sexy and drew much more at-tention that I ever thought possible of a Volkswagen.

Our test model was fitted with the VW Group’s well-known 2.0-litre turbodie-sel engine, mated to their equally re-spected DSG double-clutch automatic gearbox. I initially thought that the en-gine’s 125kW was a bit on the low side for a car of these proportions, but I was surprised at it’s flexibility and eager-

“With the CC, Volkswagen finally designed a car on which its ‘smiley

face’ look actually worked.


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in without chopping your head off. Yes, the downside of that sleek exterior styling is that the A-pillar is incredibly low, requiring you to have contortionist talents to get in and out without bump-ing your head. I had several people get behind the wheel to see if it’s just me, but everyone – especially the taller ones – complained about it. Those, like me, who have a bit of a ‘boep’, com-plained even more.

What was quite nice though was the electric panoramic sunroof that could, for a change, actually open up 40mm to let some air in, stretching all the way back to the B-pillars. It certainly opened up the cabin, especially considering the small glass house. In general, though, I couldn’t find too much fault with the CC’s interior.

It’s a pure four-seater though, reflect-ing the coupé philosophy with its seat layout. In both the front and rear, er-

gonomically designed individual sport seats are used. The CC is also the first Volkswagen to have a newly developed climate control system user interface,

exterior displays. The DSG gearbox re-mains one of my favourite autoboxes and works very well with the smaller diesel engine. It accelerates the CC from standstill to 100km/h in 9.58 sec-onds seconds, all the way up to its top speed of 224km/h.

I doubt whether CC owners have ac-quired one for enthusiastic driving, though. Typical CC owners would be people requiring a large, striking vehicle

that’s a bit different from the tradition-al German offerings and who doesn’t have a Mercedes-Benz CLS budget. In that sense, CC ownership should be quite rewarding…that’s if you can get

“It’s a pure four-seater though, reflecting the coupé philosophy with its seat layout”


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engine and instead consider the 3.2 V6 petrol model which, while offering the same amount of torque, has almost double the power output (at R100 000 more).

The Volkswagen CC is undoubtedly one of the best VW designs of the past dec-ade, definitely top 3 in my books (along with the Scirocco and forthcoming Am-arok). At a mere R349 000, it offers a significant package, although I would suggest taking one on a test drive be-fore putting pen to paper.

I just can’t see myself living with the dif-ficulty with which I got in and out every time. As a concept it comes so very close, but ultimately still misses out

on the cigar. In the CC’s case, beauty really is pain, and I for one can think of more pleasurable ways to bump my head on a daily basis.

which is quite intuitive and extremely well organised in its layout.

I quite liked the fact that the numbers and markings glow in a white light, as does the multi-functional display. The

numeric dials with their chrome bezels and white on black design looks ex-tremely classy and is superbly legible. Speaking of chrome, there are touch-es all over the cabin. Using it around the gear lever was per-haps not the brightest idea, because with the steep sloping windscreen, the sun is always reflecting off it, which is quite irritating.

I desperately wanted to love the CC, simply because it at-tempts to provide something you would have to pay significantly more for oth-erwise. But the CC falls short on a few points. Personally I’d ditch the 2.0TDI


© Christo Valentyn | February 2010A member of the South African Guild of Motoring Journalists

Nissan Qashqai n-tec

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in very small segments of the market, it’s the crossing of passenger cars with off-road vehicles that have made the biggest impact on the market. As such, Nissan’s Qashqai is probably one of the best-executed crossovers ever to reach the market. Locally, almost 5 000 Qashqais have found a home.

Combining the driving characteristics of a hatchback with the space and practicality of a small MPV and the ride height of a small SUV, the Qashqai of-fers the benefits of all three in a pack-age that is attractive without being os-

The concept of a crossover vehicle is not entirely new anymore and generally ap-plies to vehicles that take the good elements of one type

of vehicle and tries to marry it with the good elements of another type of vehicle. Manufacturers have tried it with metal, fold-away roofs on convertibles (the CC, or ‘coupe convertible’) and low-slung pro-fi les on four-door passenger cars (‘four-door coupes’).

But while the aforementioned crosso-vers have become successful over the past few years for specific reasons and


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the UK (one of Qashqai’s biggest mar-kets) to bring us a special, limited edi-tion Qashqai, simply dubbed the ‘n-tec’. It takes the already excellent Qashqai

but adds styling that’s thoroughly up-dated as well as a few other nifty specs. And it’s definitely limited, as Nissan SA only brought in 200 Qashqai n-tecs.

The first and most noticeable differ-

tentatious. I’ve always considered it to offer excellent value for money for those with active lifestyles (and even with young families) who like to ven-

ture off the beaten track occasionally but who don’t necessarily need proper 4X4 credentials.

To celebrate the success of the Qashqai in South Africa, Nissan has looked to

“I’ve always considered it to offer excellent value for money for those with active life-

styles...”


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sidered using a grey plastic in my opin-ion.

To pimp your Qashqai n-tec even more, it’s offered with an exclusive accesso-

ries package at an additional R17 500. This package includes an advanced infota inment system fea-turing satellite n a v i g a t i o n , fully-integrat-ed Bluetooth funct ional i ty and an auxil-iary input for your iPod or c o m p a t i b l e MP3 player.

This is a simi-lar package to that used in the Navara King Cab (see Drive October 2009) and I still find it dif-

ence between the n-tec and the stand-ard Qashqai is a set of stylish 18-inch diamond-cut alloy wheels that does wonders to the Qashqai’s image, hun-kering it down and bringing out an even

sportier persona. And it’s not just plain old alloys either, but finished in a very stylish and sexy gunmetal grey.

Added to this is tinted glass at the rear that adds much to the stylish look of the n-tec package. Rounding off the aesthetic changes are chrome-finished roof rails, door handles and front grille in the same gunmetal shade as the alloy wheels, thereby completing the package.

Depending on the paint colour you choose, this could create a very strik-ing image. Our test unit was finished in black, which made the car look dusty most of the time. I suspect the chrome finishes will truly come to life on darker or sharper colours. The plastic mould-ings around the wheel arches, front, back and side remains black for practi-cal purposes, but Nissan could’ve con-

Added to this is tinted glass at the rear that adds much to the stylish look of

the n-tec package.


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full complement of Nissan’s advanced airbags (driver, passenger and curtain) system, disc brakes front and rear fea-turing ABS, EBD and Brake Assist, as well as a full VDC (Vehicle Dynamic Control) stability management system.

Powered by the same 2.0-litre, four cyl-inder petrol engine found in the ‘nor-mal’ Acenta spec Qashqai, the unit de-velops 102kW of power and 198Nm of torque, 90% of it available from 2 000r/

ficult to use – there are much more in-tuitive systems available. The package also includes leather upholstery, which really should’ve been standard in my opinion.

Strip away the aesthetic additions of the n-tec package and you’re left with a bog standard Qashqai 2.0 Acenta. This is not necessarily a bad thing, as you get a 5-star Euro-NCAP safety rating, ISOFIX child-seat anchoring points, a


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In addition, the rear shock absorbers are tilted to ensure minimal intrusion into the trunk area. Rebound springs

reduce body roll to give a greater feel-ing of security behind the wheel while ride comfort is enhanced by the adop-tion of friction control dampers.

The Qashqai comes complete with a full 3-year/90 000km Service Plan, 3-year/100 000km warranty as well as Roadside Assistance for peace of mind motoring. All new Nissan vehicles are also fitted with the Microdot hi-tech an-ti-theft security feature as standard.

The Nissan Qashqai has always of-fered a unique blend of street-smart

min and easily putting it in line with sev-eral of its non-linear competitors. The Mercedes-Benz A200, for example,

produces 100kW and 185Nm of torque at a slightly better price, but without the practical space and ride height.

Driving the Qashqai remains one of the main reasons I love it so much – it drives like a car! Handling is precise and stability excellent at speed thanks to a fully independent multi-link rear suspension. Attached to the vehicle via a rigid rear subframe to keep unwanted noise and vibrations to a minimum, the compact assembly features an alumin-ium rear upper link to reduce weight (about 4kg).


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Since its introduction locally in 2007, Nissan has held firm that the Qashqai competes with C-segment hatchbacks;

that it is in fact a C-segment hatch-back, but with crossover elements to make it stand out from the crowd. The fact is, however, that Qashqai is more MPV than hatchback, and the market has also responded in that way. Those who want hatchbacks, buy hatchbacks. Those who want MPV practicality with-out having to buy a mom’s taxi have looked at the Qashqai.

As a concept then the n-tec has certain-ly breathed new life into the Qashqai range. It’s an image builder at heart

though, trying too hard to move the Qashqai into that sporty C-segment hatchback charac-ter than acknowl-edging that it isn’t entirely that, con-trary to what Nis-san believes. It’s nice to look at, but give me the chunky, original Qashqai instead.

presence and go-almost-anywhere practicality without sacrificing on inte-rior space, comfort levels or ride and

handling characteristics. I’ve always considered it one of the best crossover MPV/SUVs out there.

However, at R289 500, I’m not con-vinced that the n-tec package is worth the R8 500 premium you’re paying over the 2.0 Acenta specification – after all, you’re only getting a larger set of al-loy wheels and tinted glass extra. Nis-san could’ve – at least – thrown in the leather seats as well. I also prefer the Qashqai’s original, chunky off-roader image.

“...I love it so much – it drives like a car!”


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rates opens the album and you imme-diately wonder whether this is really Norah Jones. But the album fl ows from one style to the next with absolutely no effort, exploring different types of melo-dies along the way without losing touch with the jazzy sound that made her fa-mous. It’s a feel-good album of note and has been my fi rst choice for those laid-back Sunday afternoon drives.

BEST SONGS: Chasing Pirates, Light As A Feather, Waiting, Back to Manhat-tan

GET IT IF YOU LIKE: Slow, sexy, jazzy sounds and smouldering, smooth vo-cals

Occasionally, I’m a bit late to join the bandwagon. Such was the case when Norah Jones’s fi rst album, Come Away With Me, was released in 2002. I didn’t immediately like the fi rst single, Don’t Know Why, and as such didn’t under-stand or appreciate the fuss…until I got the album and got properly introduced to Norah Jones. I was blown away, to be honest, and wasn’t surprised when she walked away with eight Grammy Awards in 2003. Her follow-up albums, Feels Like Home and Not Too Late, were critically at least on par, but I did fi nd them a bit more diffi cult to get into. I was thus eagerly anticipating her fourth album, The Fall, and my, oh my, is Ms. Jones back on top form! Chasing Pi-

THE FALL NORAH JONES

Marketed and distributed by EMI Music



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vocal delivery pained. The first single, Kings and Queens, is all over radio, and This Is War is bound to continue 30 Seconds to Mars’s meteoric rise to the top.

BEST SONGS: Kings and Queens, This Is War, Vox Populi, Stranger in a Strange Land

GET IT IF YOU LIKE: Intelligent, mean-ingful rock with touches of electronica

It seems everyone really does want to be a rock star, even if they already seem to have everything most guys would kill for. Take Jared Leto as an example. He already had a success-ful Hollywood acting career and had women throwing themselves at him wherever he went, but no, Jared want-ed to be a rock star. 30 Seconds to Mars really took off with its second al-bum, though, a dramatic change from the style of their debut album from the early 2000s. This departure continues with This Is War, an angry collection of heavily instrumented songs about faith and spiritual matters. It works brilliantly, the lush instrumentation always having the sound of fighting in them and the

THIS IS WAR 30 SECONDS TO MARS




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ite piece of clothing over time – it has an inexplicable feel-good capability. It’s not something I’d listen to at night (or on a long journey), but it works a charm in traffic: your cares just flow out the window when her voice hits your heart.

BEST SONGS: Are You Here, Feels Like The First Time, Paris Nights/ New York Mornings

GET IT IF YOU LIKE: Feel-good, floating vocals and textured melo-dies

I remember being in the car on my way to some arbitrary destination when a local radio station first played Corinne Bailey Rae’s debut single, Put Your Records On. It was a sweet song, but I wasn’t entirely convinced with the global success that followed. However, Corinne Bailey Rae’s talent didn’t lie in the actual song, but in her voice. If there was ever a voice that would be the perfect sound of nos-talgia, it would be hers. This magic comes to the fore on her latest re-lease, The Sea, which again isn’t a chart-topping pop album. No, The Sea is a deeply layered, heavily textured treasure that becomes like a favour-

THE SEA CORINNE BAIYLEY RAE




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OCEAN EYES OWL CITY

Marketed and distributed by Universal Music

You’ll be forgiven for not being familiar with Owl City prior to the release of the massive hit single, Firefl ies. Owl City is in fact not even a band, in the technical sense of the word, but rather a musical project headed by Adam Young. Starting in his parents basement, Young’s music eventually found its way onto MySpace before Universal Republic showed inter-ested and ultimately signed the project. Ocean Eyes, while being his fi rst major label album, is therefore technically his third. Infl uenced by disco and Europe-an electronic music, it’s no surprise that the entire album is basically a collection of synthesizer pop tunes which, while initially annoying, becomes a clever

body of work that deserves the current interest in the project. Firefl ies went all the way to number one on the Billboard Hot 100, and deservedly so as it’s prob-ably the highlight of the album. Howev-er, we’re bound to hear more from Owl City in the near future, so best you get familiar now!

BEST SONGS: Firefl ies, The Bird and The Worm, The Saltwater Room, Va-nilla Twilight

GET IT IF YOU LIKE: Lighthearted pop with a retro, disco, electronica feel



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Were A Boy, Halo and Sweet Dreams,

the DVD with eight music videos is

a delightful bonus – let’s face it, Be-

yonce’s not bad to look at either…

BEST SONGS: Single Ladies (Put A

Ring On It), If I Were A Boy, Halo,

Sweet Dreams, Ego

GET IT IF YOU LIKE: Top notch

dance/ R&B music

While her dress sense is not always

spot-on, Beyonce’s musical choices

have always been excellent. With the

groundwork laid down while fronting

Destiny’s Child, it’s no surprise that

her solo career is going from strength

to strength, as recently highlighted

with the numerous Grammy awards

won for work from this album, I Am…

Sasha Fierce. Yes, it’s not a new al-

bum as such, but the Platinum Edition

does add four new songs and a bonus

DVD to the already successful pack-

age. Featuring the well-known hits

Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It), If I

I AM...SASHA FIERCE PLATINUM EDITIONBEYONCE

Marketed and distributed by Sony Music

Christo ValentynA member of the Southern African Freelancers’ AssociationA member of the South African Guild of Motoring Journalists


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Drive Magazine March 2010