Buckle up for a test drive and keep up to speed with the latest motoring news
Text Ted Macauley, James Kevin Mac Goris
Images Getty Images, Alamy
Diesel dynamo
Audi claims to have introduced the world’s first genuine diesel sports car with the TT 2.0 TDI Quattro
Audi, progressive planners that they are, have put their sports car rivals on red alert with a snazzy, ground-breaking model that they reckon is a world first. After its debut at the Geneva Motor Show in March, a money-saving new diesel Audi TT will be on sale in the summer.
The frugal four-cylinder 2.0 TDI Quattro offers amazing diesel-powered performance figures of 226km/hr top speed, a 0-to-100km/hr time of 7.5 seconds, and all for a return of more than 5.3ltr/100km with C02 emissions coming in at a lowly 140g/km.
The company is claiming that there is no other bona fide diesel sports car anywhere on earth. The projected price? Around €32,900.
There’s a soft-top roadster version to follow later in the year, and Audi promises to give the well established likes of BMW, with its 320d coupe, Mercedes, with the C220 CDI sports coupe, and Alfa Romeo’s JTDM SV, a run for their money.
Noted motor industry guru Professor Garel Rhys says: “There’s no doubt that Audi is the new kid on the block and is closing quickly on BMW and the rest.”
Jaguar’s rising star
The XF ticks all the buttons and could be its maker’s salvation
The Jaguar XF deserves all the accolades pinned to it. The newly released twin-turbo diesel version is destined to be a big seller, and possibly a lifesaver for the company.
It’s among the finest products Jaguar has ever developed, ditching the retro past and making a strong style statement. Its environmentally friendly output (C02 emissions of 199g/km) will please the green brigade while taking nothing away from its performance. How about a top speed of 229km/hr – plus carrying four people in comfort with vast leg room and luggage space?
The base price for the Premium Luxury 2.7ltr V6 turbo diesel is about €46,800. “The XF offers grace, pace and space,” says Jaguar – and great value for money.
Racing through the streets
Bernie Ecclestone wants to move the French Grand Prix to the avenues of Paris
Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone’s unremitting quest to ensure that only the finest Grand Prix racing locations feature on his calendar has doomed the Magny Cours venue in France to extinction. The 77-year-old race-rights holder wants the French GP to move to Paris for a race around the streets.
He has refused to extend the event – hosted by the Circuit de Nevers in Magny Cours, deep in rural France, every year since 1991 – beyond 2009. He argues: “It has never been a great hit with either participants or fans. We need a new place for the French Grand Prix because we’re not returning to Magny Cours. Paris would be ideal,” he says.
The mayor of Versailles, he reveals, is lobbying keenly for the race to move there. If he has his way, France could be the next location after Monaco, Valencia, Singapore and Abu Dhabi (2009) to host an F1 street race. The mayor, Etienne Pinte, argues that staging a Grand Prix would harvest about €70m for Versailles, equivalent to half the town’s annual budget.
“This is a very realistic objective,” says Pinte, “and I have plenty of support for the plan, including the deputy sports minister Jean-Baptiste Marvaud.” Marvaud said supportively: “Our avenues are wide enough to be able to hold a race.”
There has been a French GP most years since 1906 at various venues including Reims, Rouen, Marseilles and Dijon. “I don’t want France to lose out, but they must come up with a suitable venue,” says Ecclestone.
In the news
Toyota IQ to take on Fiat 500
Keep an eye out for Toyota’s cheeky challenger to Fiat’s sensational best-seller, the iconic and much re-visited 500 baby car.
The Japanese company forecasts that its funky three-door supermini, dubbed the IQ, will be a massive success and a threat to both the petite Fiat 500 and Mercedes-Benz’s Smart commuter. The 1.0ltr-engined IQ is fitted with a stop-start device that cuts the power at traffic lights to reduce emissions. Plus it accommodates three adults and a child on seats that may be folded to give more boot space. The price is in the region of €11,250.
TEST DRIVE
Mini Cooper Clubman S
The boot of the new Mini Cooper Clubman S might not be big enough to carry an antique table home, but the car offers plenty of room for all the usual family kit – plus plenty of scope for fun. James Kevin Mac Goris takes a spin
It’s a wry truth familiar to many a 30- or 40-something city dweller, that while they may now have the wherewithal to live the kind of loft lifestyle they dreamed of (but couldn’t afford) in their 20s, today their requirements include such evolutionary inevitables as long-term relationships, children and trips to the DIY store.
The new Mini Cooper Clubman offers an appeal that goes straight to the heart of that audience – and happily for BMW, it’s a seriously blossoming demographic. Because, while anyone who saw the 2002 remake of The Italian Job will understand exactly why the retooling of this particular retro was a niche-market demand just waiting to be filled, the Cooper Clubman goes ahead and futureproofs it. This car is the Lingotto rooftop chase transferred to an IKEA car park.
From their late 20s ’til their late 30s, people on the move career-wise (BMW’s Mini target) are also on the move home-wise, family-wise, space-wise… They may not have owned a new Mini, but they sure as heck would have liked to… and now that they need a trade up from their three-door compact, what stands out as a stylish, quirky but thoroughly modern technology retro? You’ve guessed it.
Both fun to drive and fun to be seen in, the Clubman doesn’t disappoint. Not at all. For its light weight, it offers max power at 120bhp (170bhp for the S version) and it’s still super-safe – on the open road it’s highly responsive to both steering and braking; and even in difficult conditions such as rain on a badly drained surface, it’s roadholding is better than the standard Mini, no doubt due to the longer wheelbase. At speed it’s more than reassuring – up a notoriously difficult stretch of the A12 from Brussels to Antwerp one wet and rainy morning I deliberately drove fast and hard, barrelling into and out of corners much faster than cars whose aggressive grille and front-wing profiles marked them as far higher-performance machines than my quirky family compact. Averaging 160kph, I was getting the same kick as I would have driving a ‘seat-in-the-road’ 1970s Mini, but I felt an awful lot safer doing so.
As an urban car, the Mini Clubman can’t be matched for cool meets functionality. My three kids loved the car’s looks and streed cred, and were oddly insistent that I drop them right in front of the school gates in it. They particularly liked the single short rear door (the saloon door), just aft of the main door on the passenger side, and even took to bagsing a place in the back in order to use it. Driving them around, I discovered there’s enough room in the back for three kids (or for two adults), which is a lot better than the standard Mini – not to mention the fact that there’s a boot as well. Here, the double opening rear doors are a nice design touch (though the central pillar does impede rear-view vision somewhat), and they do add extra functionality to the rather shallow boot. But estate it isn’t – while the boot is great for lugging around kids’ sports/camping/ nature-trek gear, you still can’t load up that nice hexagonal table from the antiques market.
All in all, the Mini Cooper Clubman is a car that fulfills urban dreams that others don’t. Sure, it’s expensive for what it is, but what other marque offers such individuality to city buyers in the family 2+2 range? The competition may have the hard and practical stats on their side, but nobody has the cool of the Mini Cooper Clubman.
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