Porsche 911 Targa by Theon Design review: Bright fantastic Life&Style Back in the 1960s, Automobile Engineer magazine expressed its fear that dark paint colours made cars more dangerous. Shades such as grey and black, it reasoned, could transform a vehicle into a ‘camouflaged weapon’. The respected German car magazine Auto, Motor und Sport held a similar view. It suggested that sports cars should be [...]
Aston Martin Vanquish 2024 review: Veni, vidi, Vanquish Life&Style Remember when Daniel Craig replaced Pierce Brosnan in the role of James Bond? Britain’s least secret agent was as sharp and urbane as ever, but a newly powerful physique lurked beneath his Savile Row suit. If Brosnan is the Aston Martin DB12, Craig is the new Vanquish. Positioned above the DB12 and replacing the DBS [...]
Audi RS E-Tron GT Performance review: With great power… Life&Style My knuckles wrap white around the roll cage as the car slews violently sideways then slingshots onto the main straight. A mechanical war cry bursts forth as the driver rams the graunchy manual lever into third gear, then fourth, then back to third, each shift punctuated by the giddy chirrup of a dump valve. I’m [...]
McLaren GTS 2024 review: Woking’s forgotten supercar November 13, 2024 For its first 11 years in existence, every car built by McLaren Automotive followed the same template: two seats, a mid-mounted V8, a dual-clutch gearbox and rear-wheel drive. From the original MP4-12C to Ultimate Series exotics such as the Senna, these supercars majored on going fast and having fun. Only the McLaren GT really broke [...]
Porsche Panamera GTS 2024 review: A sports car for all the family November 11, 2024 Stonking V8 engines without electrical assistance have suddenly become an endangered species. Not long ago, all of Germany’s super saloons followed this recipe; now the BMW M5 has become a plug-in hybrid, while the Mercedes-AMG E63 has thundered off into the sunset, replaced by the E53 and its hybridised straight-six. Aside from the (largely forgotten) [...]
Unique Rolls-Royce Phantom Goldfinger is the ultimate Bond car October 25, 2024 As an emphatic statement of wealth, it’s hard to top a Rolls-Royce made from solid gold. But then Auric Goldfinger was never the modest or timid type. It was 1964 when this evil mastermind scaled the Swiss Alps in his Phantom III Sedanca de Ville, pursued at a safe distance by Sean Connery as James [...]
New Porsche 911 GT3 revealed – including option of rear seats October 18, 2024 Say Guten Tag to the new 911 GT3. The most hardcore, track-focused version of Porsche’s iconic sports car has received a mid-life makeover, with revised aero, a shorter final-drive ratio and more lightweight parts. Plus the option of rear seats for the first time. The updated, fourth-generation GT3 – known as the 992.2 to Porsche [...]
Porsche Macan EV review: Popular performance SUV goes electric October 15, 2024 You’ll note the title of this review refers to the ‘Porsche Macan EV’. In truth, this car is just the ‘Macan’ – a clean-sheet new SUV intended to replace the long-serving combustion car. However, the market’s less-than-ravenous appetite for EVs has forced a rethink. So, for now at least, Porsche will continue selling the petrol-powered [...]
McLaren W1: A ‘once in a generation’ hybrid hypercar October 8, 2024 When the opening gambit is ‘a successor to the McLaren F1 and P1’ – two of the greatest supercars in history – you know what follows will be something special. Or it certainly needs to be. The McLaren W1 does not disappoint. Welcome to the inner sanctum of a futuristic, semi-subterranean factory in Woking: home [...]
Bentley Continental GT Speed 2024 review: Need for speed October 1, 2024 The Continental GT changed everything for Bentley. In 2002, the craftspeople in Crewe – many of whom still referred to their workplace as ‘Royce’s’ ‒ hand-built just over 1,200 cars. But when the svelte new W12-powered coupe was unveiled in early 2003, dealers were inundated with 6,500 advance orders. Almost overnight, Bentley had gone from [...]
