A halo car is a car that has a specific purpose that's so much bigger than just selling. It’s supposed to show to the world what a carmaker is capable of when given a bigger budget to play with. For Toyota, the last great halo car was arguably the Supra from the 90s. For Kia, their halo car, the 2018 Stinger GT-S, is probably set for the legendary aura that now surrounds the Mk3 twin-turbo Supra.
For one, the Stinger is also twin-turbocharged but that has little to do with why it’s so great. It also has 375hp and 510nm of torque and goes from 0-62mph in 4.7 seconds but the numbers mean nothing when the whole car is so characterful.
One of the main reasons why the Stinger is sublime to drive is the involvement of a certain Mr. Albert Biermann of BMW M Division fame. He and his team of engineers seem to be my kind of people because they insisted that the Stinger had a mode in which it could be completely unshackled from the stability and traction control systems - something no Kia had had before. I reckon Albert drove it only in that mode.
You engage it by flicking the drive-mode selector into Sport+ mode then holding a button on the central console for several seconds. You then get your left foot on the brake and right one on the gas. Let the revs build and wait for a message “Launch mode engaged!”.
By that point, the lights have changed several times and whomever you wanted to race is long gone, but lift your left foot and all hell breaks loose. Despite the rear-wheel drive, the Stinger digs in hard shooting you up to about 35mph. At this point, you realise that in this hardcore drive mode, the 8-speed automatic gearbox won’t ever change gear for you and you have to do it via the paddles mounted behind the steering wheel. At the same instant you realise that, you hit the rev limiter and the whole car dips down along your smile. You then flick the drive mode back to Smart, which juggles between Eco, Comfort and Sport and carry on with your journey with an embarrassed face.
That isn’t to say the Stinger is not an absolute joy to drive. The simple fact is that I felt comfortable and familiar with the car after a mere few hours behind the wheel. There are few cars that feel as welcoming as the Stinger and most are far more expensive than it’s £40,000 price.
What you see is also what you’ll get - everything in these pictures is standard and you only need to pick the paint. Heated and ventilated leather-upholstered seats are standard and so is a 15-speaker Harman Kardon stereo that's better than the Burmester in the Mercedes E-Class. To my ears at least.
However, the main reason I think this will become a legendary car for Kia is that it’s brimming with character. At a time of platform-shared cookie-cutter German cars seemingly thought of by machines, the Stinger feels like a car conceived by people who are really into cars and have finally sold enough Picantos and Sorentos to allow themselves some fun with a car. Kia needs to sell around 1,750 Stingers in the UK in order to guarantee we will see more passionate cars from the Korean automaker. So, if you have the available funds, please go and buy one so I can then buy it used in about 10 years. Or keep it and wait 20 years to sell it when it has achieved legendary status.
and you can begin to understand where KIA comes from. Now though they are a huge seller of fleet cars and go-to choice for taxi drivers all around the world. And during that time KIA became more and more European in its design and much more appealable. The sales results speak for themselves. Nowadays having a KIA is not an embarrassment you hide even from your closest relatives but rather a very smart choice in the congested reasonably priced car market. Not only that but with the help of some talented designers KIA have been lately making cars that anyone would give a limb to own. They are utterly gorgeous to look at and pack technology equal to any German or Japanese rival. I also like the new design direction set by the beautiful SPORTSPACE concept that is set to be fully unveiled at the Geneva Motor Show. It is practical and sporty and is a lot of cars packed into one. Something every motorist wants but few car makers can provide a viable proposition. Let's see in more detail just how beautiful the SPORTSPACE concept is:
The old DS was a car that turned the world upside down upon it's introduction to the market back in 1955. It was the time of recovery after the second World War and the time of the space race, so every country had to develop it's image in the post-colonial world. In the 1950s Citroen was a company famed for technological advances, striking design and unconventional for the time engineering. The predecessor of the DS was the Traction Avant which was the first unibody front wheel drive mass produced car. So the old DS had quite a pedigree of innovation to live up to. When it was unveiled at the 1955 Paris Auto Show, the DS was such a success that there were over 750 orders in just the first 15 minutes rising up to 12,000 until the end of the day. You can say people quite liked the car and contemporary motoring journalists were in awe. They compared it to fallen from the sky - it was that beautiful. And it was not only beauty that won the hearts of reviewers and potential customers, it was the technical innovations as well. Hydraulic suspension, transmission, brakes and power steering all helped achieve that "Magic carpet" ride quality that arguably is not surpassed even today. Not to mention the futuristic interior with steering column mounted shifter, "mushroom" brake pedal and the headlights that follow the road. You can begin to see what the new DS 5 has to live up to. So let's see if the new DS 5 has as much technical innovations as the original "Goddess".
Have BMW lost their minds? The company that made rear wheel drive it's most important selling point. The ultimate driving machine, as BMW refer to any of it's cars, has a simple formula: engine in the front and power to the back. It was this weight distribution and the fact that the front wheels only have to do the steering that made BMW so great to drive. The feeling you get when driving a rear wheel drive car can only be described as perfect synchronization between car and driver. It gives you all the control your driving ability can provide and if you know your way around a steering wheel, some very impressive drifts can be achieved. Now, however, BMW are trying to make us like their new model - the 2 Series Gran Tourer that is even more van-like than the 2 series Active Tourer. So is the new 2 series Gran Tourer the worst BMW in the history of time? Far from it. It is actually a car that has been missing from BMW's line up and many customers have been jumping to other manufacturers when needing a premium compact seven seater. If you already have an M3 and the wife is constantly nagging to buy her "that spacious Mercedes B-class" the choice becomes simple. According to BMW, after the transition to FWD, the 2 series Gran Tourer still remains the most exhilarating car to drive in it's class. I haven't driven one yet to confirm but I am confident that BMW can make great handling cars. Here is a more detailed look at what the 2 Series Gran Tourer will be offering.
And here is Ken Block drifting about in it:
The
2015 Autosport International car show was held between the 8th and
the 11th of January and I learned about the show around noon on the
11th. So I quickly gathered what I could manage in a prepper during
an apocalypse type of way and was out of the door in a matter of
minutes. After a surprisingly cheap bus ride I was at the Birmingham
International Airport. From the airport it's a very long walk to the
NEC. It was all indoors and must have been at least two miles from
the departures lounge at the airport to the ticket kiosk at the NEC.
This is definitely the biggest auto show I have ever been to. And
the amount of cars was stunning. And I use the term cars very loosely
as there were race cars, stock cars, dirt track cars, drift cars,
drag cars, highway pulls cars, old cars, new cars, beautiful cars and
revolutionary ones as well, racing trucks, and even racing tractors.
The one thing more stunning than the number of cars was the number of
people there. It was very crowded. So crowded that I was unable to
get a clear shot of the cars without standing 20 centimetres away
from it.
What
I give you below is just a small part of the vehicles that were
there, for the full gallery with over 170 photos click HERE.
Supercars
I finally got to see the LaFerrari and my gosh is it gorgeous. This car looks more like a sculpture than a means of transport.
The Huracan was also a car I had never seen. Set to replace the Gallardo it definitely has the Lambo aggression we all know and love.
The old girl still has it. The Gallardo Superleggera looks like a stealth bomber.
This is the Ferrari 458 Speciale. Don't know much about it except it has even more aerodynamic elements and a rather good looking racing stripe.
And I almost forgot. The Ferrari 458 Speciale has fake exhaust pipes.
PAGE 2
Toyota and BMW to continue on the FT-1, price or engine - still unknown.
"Toyota and BMW are in the concept stage and all is going according to plan" - said an official BMW source and then suddenly lost his voice. That is about the whole amount of factual information we have about the FT-1. Nothing is said about what engine it will use or whether it will have an engine at all. My thoughts are that it will be a high revving 4 litre BMW V8 with intake fiddling by Yamaha but I am secretly hoping they make a 2JZ ver. 2.0 and rewrite history again. At least we have some pretty pictures of it and we know it does sexy things like this:
Prices for Mercedes AMG GT in UK announced
 |
| GTS Edition 1 |
 |
| base GT |
At £97,195 the base GT model will have around 460 bhp and will be available in the UK late 2015. Until then we have the £110,495 510 bhp GTS Edition 1 which is available right now and when you're thinking of buying a £100,000 sports car, waiting 1 year for a slower version is not really something you'd want.
At that price the GTS Edition 1 is a bit cheaper than a Porsche Panamera Turbo S and a little dearer than a Panamera Turbo. Both of these Porsches are ferociously fast and
wonderful grand tourers, so the Mercedes AMG GT faces tough competition in the comfort and speed department. In the smoke making department,however, the AMG GT is still unsurpassed.
wonderful grand tourers, so the Mercedes AMG GT faces tough competition in the comfort and speed department. In the smoke making department,however, the AMG GT is still unsurpassed.
BMW M4 gets even more aggression
This is the M performance package for the already very M performance BMW M4. The added splitter makes the front really aggressive and what looks like a potential cutting hazard. Sharp angles and edges are what M performance have been aiming for with this M4, but I believe the beauty of the car is in it's flowing forms and swooping lines. To fully appreciate the sexiness of the M4, here it is, doing it's thing at the same slow-mo skidpan as the AMG GT above:
Clarkson being Clarkson
Top Gear's resident orangutan and the world's most practical man has done it again. During a rehearsal for the upcoming Top Gear Live show, Jeremy suggested the brilliant idea to accelerate to 60 and then stop all inside a not very large stadium and on a not very grippy surface. The results are... predictable.
2002 Opel Zafira Covers 500,000 kilometers
As the last news item for the week we have this Zafira that has covered 500,000 kilometer without any major issues. Very interesting news. I can almost hear all the w123 300d Mercedes owners laughing in their retirement homes.
Not much is known about the Nissan Juke. Except, maybe, that its name sounds suspiciously close to the word joke. From the small number of enthusiastic reviews this car has an overall trend seems to be emerging - the Juke is reviewed from more of a mature buyer point of view. As a result the reviewers mostly note the elevated, commanding driving position, the small space in the back and in the boot, the uninvolving handling and that it was too dark at the back with the tinted windows. Also that it has styling only a mother would love. I agree on that one - it does look like a frog. The overwhelming opinion and stereotype, then, for this little SUV is that it's a mutated Micra for the moms that want something different than a VW Tiguan but don't quite have the money for a Range Rover Evoque. I think they are missing the whole point of the Juke.
Let's start with the handling. Saying that the handling of the little Juke is uninvolving speaks directly how little the tester pushed it. Once you press the sport button on the main console the engine springs to life, the throttle gets sharper and the little crossover transforms into a short wheel base four-wheel-drive rally car. The Juke has torque vectoring technology operating it's rear differential so it sends power to the wheel that most needs it. A similar system is used by Mitsubishi in their Evolution. So every time that the Juke is cornering in an uninvolving manner, apply lots of power and be amazed how the rear steps out and all understeer is abolished at the exit of the corner with an Evo-style powerslide.
There is, however, a limit to this all wheel drive drifting as the Juke is a bit higher than a normal car and is more prone to rolling over. Unsurprising, then, that the Guinness world record for most distance traveled on two wheels was done in a Juke.
The Juke that I drove had the 1.6-litre direct injected turbocharged engine producing a respectable 190hp and 177 lb ft of torque across a very wide rev range. This engine is also shared by the current generation Renaultsport Clio and most interestingly it propelled the 2012 Nissan DeltaWing racecar in the 24 Hours of Le Mans. As a result of this performance pedigree, the engine in the little SUV really wants to prove it's worth at every opportunity. Yet at just 15000 miles a turbo pipe popped off on mine and there wasn't a check engine light to alert me to this fairly serious problem. The good news is that I was able to fix a 2012 car in the era of microprocessors and laptop diagnostics with a screwdriver and off I went.
There are a few problems with the Juke, though. For starters, even though it's 4WD it's not a real off-roader - the ground clearance is more suited for an MPV. In all my time driving the Juke, I didn't think for a second how good it would be off the road - my brain didn't even dare to suggest such a laughable idea. An off road journey would probably look similar to Jeremy Clarkson's adventures with the BMW X3:
Another issue the Juke has is the prehistoric infotainment system. Every time the car is turned off by the push-start button all the electrics cut of, the music stops, your phone is out of synch and the worst part of it is that there is a 2 minute wait for the system to start back up. Also there's a limit of only 4 phones that can be recognised at any time, but squeezing five people in the Juke is an achievement of its own. The USB does not recognise folders and in Bulgaria you have to pay 150£ to have the map for the GPS navigation that you already have in the car.
In a way this car is ahead of its time. The Juke has an engine that has racing pedigree, a short wheel base and styling influenced by the GTR - it really was not conceived to be a 4x4 Micra. The best representation of what the Juke should have been comes from Nissan themselves with the bonkers Juke GT-R. And don't forget - 3 years ago I wished for a Juke with a V6 from a 370z and Nissan overdelivered. Well done Nissan.
Sin Cars started life as a motorsport team. After many years of running and maintaining manufactured cars it they decided that they should design, develop and manufacture their own competitive modern race car.
The Sin R1 represents a vision for a modern GT supercar and after two years of testing in optimal race conditions and the continuous development to the chassis of the car, Sin Cars decided to present the R1 to the market.
Sin Cars' plans are concentrated on the constant improvement and development of vehicles and the technology involved. They are looking at the production of convertible vehicle in the near future.
There is currently design and development for a low-cost car with a smaller engine for motorsport and leisure use. Future plans will also include a competition off road vehicle.
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