drive magazine december 2009

2 DRIVE MAGAZINE DECEMBER 2009

Drive teamEditor: Russell Bennett

Deputy Editor: Steve Allison

Editorial Contributors: Russell Bennett,

Steve Allison, Kyle Stone, Bruce Bennett,

Christo Valentyn, Phuti Npyane, 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

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We’re a fortunate bunch, we know. Just brows-ing through the list of vehicles we’ve had on test this month is

enough to make any petrolhead positively livid with jealousy – there are three cars in this issue which crack the R1-million marker, some by quite a margin in fact. Nissan’s brutal GT-R, Audi’s sublime R8 V10, and Merc’s uber-limo, S63 AMG, all thoroughly driven for your entertainment this month. What a job.

Hasn’t helped our petrol budgets how-ever, and as you all no doubt are aware motoring journalists are ordinarily not the most cash-flush individuals in the world. Bar Clarkie and his crew of course. We tend to be such car-nutters that, even though we don’t strictly need to, all spare cash is already pre-allo-cated for buying something else old, oily, and dripping passion. Or repairing the old, oily stuff already parked in our and our unfortunate families garages, lawns, backyards, and the like.

3DRIVE MAGAZINE DECEMBER 2009

Eds Welcome

Back to our three millionaires toys though, it has been interesting to try out three such thoroughly-developed, immensely powerful vehicles in a row, yet bicker af-terwards about their correct “classification” in the great motoring hierarchy. So, clearly, it isn’t just power, or for that matter the 0-100km/h sprint, which earns cars their respective pigeonholes, and these three are amazingly able to clarify these positions between them. We hope you enjoy our detailed explanation of the hows, whys, and wherefores ahead.

Our Lumina SS Ute test takes the paradigm-testing theme a little further as well, giving two distinctly unique views on the same vehicle, both based on precon-ceptions. How these affect the big, basically honest 6.0-litre V8 bakkie is made absolutely clear by the end of the day, so read on and let us know if you agree or think we’re just being full of bollocks.

We’ve also been having a lot of fun with more humble models though, and estab-lishing pecking-orders in the R250K bracket in-between pedalling the big-money monsters around town, and again have come up with some interesting results. Check out how the family-man Chevy Cruze fares against range-topping hot hatches from the big Japanese brands in this month’s group test.

There’s plenty more in this issue too, so download the PDF and take your time to read through each and every lovingly crafted detail. We’re sure you’ll enjoy the rides.

Russell

6 News Our first apology this month. And Porsche’s latest racecar. And more interesting stuff.

24 Drive 2010 Feature Catching the Sun

36 Drive Feature Nissan GT-R - Super speed

48 Drive Feature MY10 Range Rover Sports and Land Rover Disco 4

66 Drive Feature Checking out the view in the Tata Indica Vista

72 Drive columns Russell Bennett moans even more about DSGs, while Steve Allison ponders just how some company’s think in a recession?

78 Drive Tests Mercedes Benz S63 AMG

88 Drive Tests Alfa Romeo MiTo

98 Drive Tests Honda Civic Diesel

104 Drive Tests Toyota Prius

112 Drive Tests Honda Fireblade

120 Drive Tests Suzuki Alto GLS

126 Drive Tests Big Car, Bigger shoes – Lumina Ute SS

138 Drive Tests Audi R8 V10

http://issuu.com/action/page?page=6














156 Drive Tests Kawasaki Z750

162 Drive Versus Chevrolet’s new Cruze takes on the cream of the hot-hatch crop, Honda Civic 1.8 VXi and Mazda 3 2.0 Individual.

176 Drive Gaming Forza Motorsport 3 is here, but is it all the racing game community has been waiting for? Full review right here.

182 Drive Tunes Christo Valentyn reviews some of the latest albums, and thanks to the generous record labels gives you yet another chance to win something for Nada!

186 The Drive Portal Bob Allison takes us on a technical tour of the science of speed. Strap in and enjoy!







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stuff though, carried over from the E60 5 Series is active front steering as well as the option for active rear steering which is designed to improve the 5’s low speed turning circle but its dynamic nature will improve stability at high speeds.

The advanced suspension and drive-train in the 5 Series is said to offer both a sporty driving experience and high

The sixth generation of BMW’s 5 Series Sedan is set to land in the mid-sized premium se-dan segment of the South African market in May 2010.

BMW have clearly been working rather studiously on this new 5 Series, as evi-denced by a new bonnet, a host of under-the-hood tweaks and a huge 75 page press release, the press release probably took the longest to perfect. That’s the new


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ences which will naturally aid BMW in achieving their sporty and comfortable goal.

The most important under-the-hood specifications however are as always the engine numbers. In this regard the

overall comfort, a trick which many manufacturers have tried and failed to achieve but when the 5 does arrive the truth will be revealed. The suspension does offers Dynamic Driving Control, a system that allows the driver to custom-ise the suspension for personal prefer-


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a twin-turbo unit. From there BMW of-fer the 528i straight-six making 190kW and the 523i limping along compared to the rest of the family at 150kW.

The 6-cylinder diesel 530d will churn out 180kW and the aforementioned 4-cyl-inder turbodiesel makes 135kW. The little 4-cylinder 520d does have some interesting features as the crankcase will be aluminium and fuel injection is of the common-rail direct flavour.

There really are many more details on the 5 Series but the press release was 75 pages long! I never really expected to finish reading the thing. Some of the very impressive technology present is electric power steering and a sort of KERS system although the energy cre-ated from the brakes won’t be used for an F1-style power boost, but rather just to reduce the load on the engine and thus improve the motors grunt. I really like this idea because an engine should be there to pedal the car, not power your air-conditioning. Deserving a spe-cial mention is the option of a 8-speed automatic gearbox for the 550i and 535i, eight gears! Shifting through eight gears will probably take long enough to read through a 75 page press release.

5 Series will initially offer a single 8-cylin-der option in addition to four separate 6-cyl-inder options. There will also be a 4-cylin-der turbodiesel motor arriving a little later but who really wants a 4-cylinder diesel in a 5 Series anyway?

The range topping 550i is a TwinPow-er Turbo technology and High Precision Injection V8 produc-ing 300kW/400hp. Don’t get confused by the marketing terms though, what that means is that the mo-tor is simply BMW’s excellent direct injec-tion twin-turbo V8, the one from the X6 actu-ally.

The 6-cylinder options are obviously all straight-sixes with only one diesel thrown into the 6-cylinder group. The meatiest six will be nestled in the 535i and deliver 225kW, this engine is also


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establishment of Erik Buell Racing. The fi rm will offi cially launch on the 1st of De-cember and will be an independent unit building race-only bikes.

Whilst Erik Buell Racing may be tech-

As was reported in the last issue of Drive, Buell as we knew it was shut down by their then owners Harley-Davidson pulling the plug.

Now however Erik Buell has struck back in emphatic fashion by announcing the


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that Harley-Davidson still owns the license for. So if they decide to revoke Buell’s license rights Erik Buell Racing will be a bike manufacturer with-out a bike to build-which wouldn’t be ideal if we’re honest. That is not inde-pendence in my mind. Furthermore, Erik Buell Racing doesn’t really have a choice to build any other superbike because as they aren’t building road bikes they cannot homologate anything, so developing their own products wouldn’t be fea-sible. Erik Buell Racing also plans to offer techni-cal assistance to anybody purchasing racing bikes.

The new Erik Buell Rac-ing firm will be formed from now former Buellemployees, not to be con-

fused with Erik Buell Racing of course. The bad news is that not all Buell em-ployees will be warming a seat in the new Erik Buell Racing as the startup simply doesn’t have the capacity.

nically independent the reality howev-er is that Harley-Davidson will still be indirectly linked to Erik Buell Racing’s future. You see what Erik Buell Rac-ing plans to do is build 25 superbikes a year based on the Buell 1125R, a bike


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the replacement for the GT3 Cup S. This time round however the focus for the car has apparently been on better drivability and easier handling.

The engine in the GT3 R is naturally a six-cylinder boxer engine, this par-ticular one is of the four litre variety which allows the boxer to pump out 353kW/480hp. The GT3 R could hardly be accused of being overweight, based on the recently launched 911 GT3 Cup

Another day another product from the relentless product mill that is the VW Group, this time in the form of the 911 GT3 R. Don’t get me

wrong though, I really like the fact that the guys at VW, Audi and of course Porsche have decided to extend the middle fi nger to the alleged recession and continue to churn out a bewildering number of vehi-cles. Back to the GT3 R, this latest rac-ing Porsche for International GT Sport is


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sche construct the 911 GT3 R at their Weissach Development Centre and for their trouble will be asking customers to cough up 279,000 Euros plus local sales tax/VAT, which converts roughly to 3.1 million Rand, which is a lot. It must be said however that this car has been produced for the 2010 motorsport season, which is an expensive game so it isn’t surprising that the cars are rather pricey. It’ll be very fast and that is usually enough to justify just about any price for us Drive staffers anyway.

the GT3 R is just 1,200kg’s and I would say that the 353kW motor should be enough to pedal that weight rather well. It should also be wide enough, a vital characteristic of course, being as it is that the GT3 R’s body is based on the exceedingly wide body of the street-legal GT3 RS. To really drive home the point on the wideness front, the wheel arches both front and rear are flared significantly.

Porsche have said that better drivability was a priority for this new racer, which I guess makes sense when consider-ing that the amateur racing driver with more money (so he can afford one of these) than actual talent is one of the big markets for a car such as this one. With regards to the improved drivability there is ABS, traction control and an e-gas with “throttle-blip” function. All that will combine to make for a driving ex-perience that is more accessible than the previous generation GT3 racer, or at least that’s what Porsche say.

The official world debut of the Porsche 911 GT3 R will be on the 14th of Jan-uary 2010 at the Birmingham Motor Show, which hardly shouts ‘flashy rac-ing car‘ but I guess the car simply wasn’t ready to be launched at Frankfurt. Por-


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damage to your car then you need to find out who the relevant agency is re-sponsible for that particular road and go from there.

As a Gauteng motorist it would be impossible not to know about the vast and extensive raft of roadworks occurring on the road net-

work. And as many if not all Gauteng driv-ers have experienced the road works are not merely an inconvenience but more im-portantly dangerous. The list of dangers created by driving through a construction site is too long to list but suffi ce to say the risk of driving on our roads at the moment is at a heightened level. When there is an increase is risk there will naturally be an increase in the risk of damage to your vehicle as well.

Fortunately for motorists however it is not a completely lost cause when your vehicle is damaged as a result of road works. The SA National Road-works Agency Limited (SANRAL) has informed the public that any damage to your vehicle caused by the roadworks of the Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project will be treated just like any oth-er insurance claim.

With regards to any insurance claim however it should be noted that the claim would not be with SANRAL it-self but rather with the individual con-tractors responsible for the particular stretch of road upon which any damage occurred. So if roadworks have caused


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So really what you need to do is im-mediately photograph the damage on the vehicle, note the exact location and cause of damage and then hope for the best.

The contractors and their insurance company would then proceed as usual and investigate any claim whilst tak-ing into account the road conditions as well as the drivers role in the incident.


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Of all the things I think of w h e n I think

of Denmark, I never thought a 1000+ hors-es supercar would be top of the list. And yet that’s where we’re at, the Zenvo ST1 has the

looks, power and sheer presence of a su-percar and even the exclusivity, but it’s from Denmark. As far as the exclusivity goes Zenvo will only be making 15 of these monsters so if you have the requi-site millions to burn on a European super-car be sure to get your oder in quickly.

Heritage aside the stunning ST1 is, in my opinion, the most beautiful car in the world. Yesterday I thought the


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Ferrari 458 Italia had it, but today this Scandinavian stunner holds the crown. The Zenvo has the cre-dentials under the hood as well, the figures on the spec sheet are mind boggling, although it remains to be seen whether or not it will be able to put all its power on the road effectively.


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all this in a car weighing 1376kg’s and I’m sure you’ll understand my excite-ment. The ST1 will after all take you to 100km/h from 0 in three seconds and is electronically limited to a top speed of 375km/h and that’s just about all you need to know.

The ST1 has a 7 litre turbo super-charged V8! The monstrous engine produces 810kW/1104hp at 6900 rpm, yes you read that right, making the ST1 easily more powerful than pretty much everything, even the Veyron. If you think those power stats are impressive, wait for the torque. 1430Nm at 4500 rpm,


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etc, and yet for fuel consumption and CO2 emissions there is a just a series of N/A’s for everything. Enough talk though, rather just drink in the sight of the Zenvo ST1.

Zenvo also deserve special applause for snubbing the ecomentalists, some-thing Drive can’t get stress enough. The spec sheet of the ST1 has all the usual stats; power, mechanics, options,


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center of the screen.2. Select settings3. Scroll down and select proximity points4. Disable speed points5. Exit until you are back to the “where to” screen.6. Select the x icon bottom right.7. Select yes (This automatically saves the updated settings)8. Never be interrupted by another speed warning ever again! “

Thanks Maurice for set-ting the record straight! I’m pretty sure that I’d en-joy the vehicle as a whole a fair deal more armed with this information, that grem-lin really, really irked me! I literally drove every kilom-eter in that car with a spine-tingling bonging endlessly persisting and wrecking the sounds of the entertainment system!

There’s something we need to clear up in the second-issue review of the Navara King Cab. Turns out that one of my biggest gripes with the

car, the crazily nannying Garmin-based integrated satnav system, actually can be disabled if you know the right incanta-tions...

Fortunately Maurice van Heerden of Planet Electronics, who fits these sys-tems locally for NSA, reads the mag-azine, and was quick to jump on our heads for stuffing that up. We really did try, browsed through what we thought was every menu and tried every option it looked like being, but apparently it wasn’t enough. Anyway Maurice sent us step by step instructions, which we’re reprinting here in case you have the same problem we did, and are going more than slightly batty from it. I mean, we had the car for but a week and then Nissan took it back, and it got to us quite badly. Here, then, is the trick.

“Hi Russell,

Please see instructions below as per Garmin:1. When in “Where to” and “View map” interface, select the spanner icon in the bottom


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The Peugeot Tepee is basically a van with seats but that’s not a bad thing. Peugeot have done much more than just fi t seats, the whole persona of the vehicle has

changed making it much more car than van. What you get is a real seven seater rather than a fi ve seater with occasional foldaway seats in the boot. What that means is that not only do you get seven comfortable seats, you get real luggage space as well.

The level of equipment is what sets the Te-pee aside from the crowd. You get luxuries like cruise control and a CD Front loader. You get separate front and rear air condi-tioning and storage bins all over the place. The Tepee of course meets with all the latest European safety standards and includes air bags, ABS brakes and front fog lights too.

Peugeot are known for their diesel engines and using their 2.0l HDI engine, the Tepee will return 8 L/100km. and being French it’s a bit of a looker. Based on the Expert van, the Tepee has tried and tested DNA.

The Tepee probably won’t tempt a buyer away from their people carrier cars and is aimed squarely at the hospitality indus-try. There will be some private buyers no doubt, those that have bought Kombi’s in the past.


Drive Feature

from which the Gauride network ought to provide transport as well as enter-tainment, to the game and back to your cars later, but visit on an off day in your own vehicle and follow these directions to one of the most intriguing little drive outs in all of South Africa.

All right, so you’d have to be a jam-my sod to replicate the drive in what we’ve got out here today. But as part of another article this month we just had to bring the R8 V10 out on this spectacular route. Be-

If you happen to be heading out to the picturesque outlying dorpie of Rustenburg for a match at the Royal Bafokeng Stadium, be warned. There are two Royal Bafokeng Stadiums, in

a town just barely large enough to justify one.

From the town itself, you’ll pretty much go past the older one as you join the R24 heading West, and then you’ll turn right onto the R565 for a few kays be-fore the glorious new construction, with it’s leaping, elegant minarets reaching into the sky, arises from the suburbs on your right. Reportedly costing in the region of R350-million (say US $50m), this modern beauty is equipped with all the technology, amenities, and neces-sary facilities that could be required to host nearly 50 000 spectators of the world’s best matches of the beautiful game.

No matter where you are coming from though, the big yellow signs with a top-down depiction of a sports stadium, pretty noticeable in the rich mountain-ous scenery out here, will get you to the right place. Signage which will no doubt have quadrupled by the time the fans start pouring in next year. Naturally on match day you’ll actual-ly be heading to the Park ‘n Ride points,


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Still whatever you can wangle, rent, borrow or steal will do. These are good roads, and the halfway destinations are well worth it.

So from the stadium you’ll turn right, back onto the R565. If you’ve been to a game in Jo’Burg already you’ll already have noticed something. Out here, eve-ryone is decidedly friendlier and more easy-going – the absence of the pres-sure-cooker nature of the Big Smoke I

suppose. Even other road users are less likely to do something dangerous, per-haps partly to do with the low traffic volumes, and more relaxed general am-bience.

This Audi supercar/Honda superbike com-bo looks and feels ab-solutely outlandish in these surrounds.

Where we’re going though sort

sides, when you have an R8 V10 in the garage, you don’t want it to be there. You just want to be out driving it, for as long as your allocated time and then a few more hours please? Steve was pretty enamoured of his ‘Blade as well by that point. A new one now, without the Repsol livery. Apparently these things account for something like half the Superbike market share in the country, which seems to make a lot of sense.

“If you happen to be heading out to the picturesque outlying dorpie of Rustenburg

for a match at the Royal Bafokeng Stadium, be warned.”


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is single-lane backroad today, we did go through a few roadworks sites even all the way out here who were busily widening things so it should be less lumpy here next year at least. Anyway although testing there’s a lot of oppor-tunity to stretch the scintillating super-car/bike legs of our slightly track-weary

duo. The Audi’s firm ride is impressively manageable, and even when bounced almost into the air by a large, unseen

c o m p r e s s i o n

of makes this town look positively met-ropolitan. And yet, there our machines will blend right in. It doesn’t seem pos-sible as we stop at a new mall still in the shadow of the vaulting stadium, but it’s true.

Once we break free of the town traffic

(just a little inside joke – there isn’t any, but beware of speed cops anyway un-til you’re on the open road), you can start enjoying the immensity and diversity of nature. Apart from a few smallholdings here and there and general-supply “hotspots”, it’s basically our Highveld bush as far as the eye can see, the Pilanesberg mountain range which is our destination jutting proud-ly from the horizon to the North.

You’re on this road for over 20kms, but don’t despair, it’s hardly boring. Although a lot of it

“And then pause at the charming Ma Solly’s roadside cafe, where some of the braver little ones are agog about being

photographed with the car.”


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satnav misdirects us, pointing us left onto the main road through Le Dig just a few hundred meters on from where we joined the R556. We find plenty of enthusiastic kids just getting out from school, who run alongside us whooping and howling and begging to hear this superfreak bellow out its song. We, of course, oblige. Several times.

And then pause at the charming Ma Solly’s road-side cafe, where some of the braver lit-tle ones are agog about being photo-graphed with the car. A quick round of Cokes and we’re off. And then we

find one of the most awesome, if short, stretches of tarmac for driving we’ve come across today, possibly one of the nicest in the country!

There are a couple of wicked draining ditches running across the road to ne-gotiate first however, but then you pass

it lands and recovers with absolute aplomb – and this at 260 km/h! Although we know that car can do more, that’s more or less the maximum speed we manage today, these roads keep you awake.

As you enter the outskirts of the com-munity of Le Dig, you’ll come to a stop street where you’ll turn right onto the R556. All right so by now you’ll have guessed from all the signs where

we’re off to – good old Mr Kerzner’s sensational Sun City! And you bet-ter have packed your costumes...

Interestingly, our R8 just cements its position as an absolute supercar at this point, by failing. At least, the


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natures shine forth and we rejuvenate him with some detailed tales of how ef-

fectively the car’s air

conditioner masks things like ambient temperature, and head back down the road for the last time, unite briefly with our new friends

the Kubu gate on your left (one of the entrances to the spectacular Pilanes-berg game reserve which surrounds this area, and you’re suddenly sur-rounded by hills, and the road twists and bucks but is mercifully free of eve-rything – traffic, bumps, surface issues – for about 2 kms.

In a way we’re glad when the entrance we proceed to run into, which the R8 satnav says is where we need to go to get to Sun City, turns into the service entrance at the back of this gargantuan ca-sino resort, and we have to turn around and attack the run once more. A couple of runs later we’re completely sated, and happen to find a gorgeous, almost-hidden shot with this billion-dollar icon of cash poking out of the wild sur-rounds in the mountains behind us. And Steve, as you can see, is knackered. It’s comfortably over 30 degrees C out here, and he’s wearing full leathers. Our sympathetic


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characteristic neon glow. There are several options of hotel, self-contained cabanas, and lodgings of unfathoma-ble opulence here, casinos all over the place, an enormous cabaret theatre, even a fully-fledged watery wonderland the Valley of the Waves, for the young-er at heart or those who’re more inter-ested in a healthy tan than any form of gambling.

It’s all completely unbelievable. And absolutely wonderful. You have to ad-mire the vision that went into building this place out here. Sure it was in part due to the legislative environment of the time, which forbade casinos within the borders of South Africa itself, but allowed them in the tiny, neighbouring, independant “homelands” of the time.

passing through Le Dig, and turn left to rejoin the R556, guidance officially off for the remainder of the journey.

We’ve barely begun to enjoy the fast flowing road when suddenly there it is, the entrance to Sun City, on our left. This place always sneaks up on you. Probably because of how effective-ly it’s nestled between mountainous ridges, effectively occupying an entire, sumptu-ous semi-trop-ical valley of this range. Even from the gate there’s no hint of the opulence, or the scale, of this world-class enter-tainment complex, which happens to include the world-famous Gary Play- er golf course, and ultra-luxurious Palace of the Lost City.

The monorail journey seems dreamlike to first-time visitors. An elevated mono-rail, after all, out here in the absolute middle of nowhere, travelling over thick, verdant jungle. Then the hotel begins, and the contrast of safari and Vegas’


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West Province, and is gorgeously built, finished, and fitted. Not to mentioned staffed, and there are several culinary delights on the various menus for sampling. It’s not exactly a day-trip place, but if you’ve got a cou-ple more days to relax in the bush...We don’t. We still have an R8 to drive. From the Kwa-Maritane main gate we

You’re standing in Swaziland at the moment, although there weren’t any border posts or passport control points along the way.

But we can’t linger, sadly. We’re not quite done for the day. So shot in bag, we carry on in the direction we were travelling once more, which is East on the R556. In 2.6 kms there’s a sliproad go-ing left, and a sign to our more nature-loving travel tip for the day, Kwa-Maritane. It means “Place of the rock”, and refers to the enor-mous rock shelves this Bush Lodge is built on, formed thousands of years ago by an alkaline volcano.

Also part of the Pilanesberg re-sort, Kwa-Maritane offers ac-cess to game viewing drives an-ywhere in the 55 000 hectares it covers, and visitors can see every single one of the Big Five as well as other interesting animals – cheetahs, hyenas, hippos, crocs even – in their own, unspoiled, natural habitats.

The Lodge itself offers a host of more relaxing activities when you just want to enjoy the generous sunshine of the North


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speed advantage of the bike was obvi-ous. And that Subaru ain’t slow. But as soon as I straight opened up, followed by the throttle on the bike, it basically just disappeared into the horizon. But today this lightweight, maniacal race-bike can’t outrun this machine. The R8

drops back only a little un-der full throttle, and maintains its mad

speed that much bet-ter. Neither are huge

fans of broken black-top but Steve’s self-

preservation instinct

mean the car can actually take the lead, if we really wanted it to. I suspect there aren’t going to be a huge amount of cars coming through our office that we’d be

hook right, and rejoin our old friend the R556 going East. Another nice piece of road, you once again have to be careful of those hidden compres-sions whose effects are multiplied the higher your speed. Luckily it’s another lightly-trafficked one at least and we can revel in the screaming V10 once more.

The Blade has been in front since just after the stadium, and I can see why. We go over a dusty piece of road at speed and I can see a huge rooster-tail of debris get picked up and spat backwards by the underfloor aerodynam-ics which help makes this car so stable, even at big speeds. Steve reports that on a bike it’s like driving straight into a shotgun blast. At 250 km/h. Constantly. So he grabs point at the first op-portunity.

When the ‘Rex and ‘Blade came togeth-er on similar roads last month, the sheer


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spend more than the half hour we did there, make this Rusten-burg trip well worth the effort, especially if you’re already in the area, after all. The entire area is breathtaking, and a great game reserve option if the enormous Kruger seems a little too “done” to you. And

the jewel in Sun In-ternat ion-al’s crown, the one that started it all pretty much,

is just a must-see.

If you’re a local but you love a

good road-trip, get into a nice car and go. It’s not that far out of Jo’Burg or Pretoria and is like another world once you’re out there. And that little service road, if you’re a petrolhead of note, like we are, will blow you away.

Russell

a b l e to faithfully report that about!

Turn right when you hit the R510 towards Rusten-burg, and you’re almost back where you started. If you started in Rustenburg itself that is. These roads are well-surfaced and ab-solutely thrilling as they wend through the surrounding hills, but you’re almost back in suburbia, so not only is traffic heavier, so are the odds of picking up a nasty fine. Burble straight through Rustenburg, and you’ll be back at the Royal Bafokeng Stadium (the wrong one) and the R24.

Both that anonymous back-road at Le Dig, and Sun City itself if you’re able to


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soundtrack of the V10 never got old to our petrolhead ears and really did con-fi rm the R8 as a fully fl edged supercar.

The updated styling makes the V10 much sleeker than the old V8 which along with the sound certainly attracted a lot of at-tention during our trip. All that in a car that only costs two million (considering the price of the Italian competition it is a bargain) and can actually handle most of South Africa’s rough roads, just don’t leave the suspension stiff the whole time though.

Our R8 roadtrip can only really be sum-marised by the way it ended when we dropped off the beast at Audi HQ, a feel-ing of genuine sadness came over me with the realisation that it was over. I love that car.

R8Roadtrip Passenger

The R8 V10 had three things wrong with it during the roadtrip, that’s it. The navi-gation system was, shall we say, rather dimwitted.

Then there is the hazard button, it isn’t that well placed and to be frank a lot of people move out of your way in this car. Thanking them can be a bit of a hassle. The last issue I don’t personally agree with but is an issue for many people nonetheless, the badge. It isn’t an Italian supercar brand but just a mainstream brand you see every day.

Beyond those rather irrelevant issues the R8 was spectacular in every way and as a roadtrip car certainly made for a trip to remember. The raw power which was so easily unleashed on the unsus-pecting world is just so much fun. The

The View from 2 wheels

So, the boys thought they had a car that could fi nally dem-onstrate 4-wheel supremacy. It didn’t quite go according to plan though. Sure the car

was faster around the track by the most minute of margins but on the road, the FireBlade outruns the car, not with ease but it does stay ahead. Not that we were actually racing of course!

The down side for me was the fact that we ended up in North West Province on the hottest day of the year. In full leather, the “aircon” only works at silly speeds and instantly becomes a heat-er every time you stop. While they sat in the air-conditioned car sipping soft drinks, I looked on like wishing that La-zurus would put a drop of water on my tongue.

“That Nissan GT-R”, I’ve postulated loudly on more than one occasion, “just can’t be a great drivers’ car. It may have the power and the pace, but it’s all tamed by that insanely sophisticated AWD system, electronic safety

nets sprouting from every orifi ce, and high-tech double-clutch robotised manual ‘box! And at just on 1800kgs, there can’t be any fi nesse either, just brutal power and computer-sanitised dynamics.”


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and red example at Gerotek we pored over the slats, vents, and bulges and had really started to appreciate them. The Super Silver finish of our press vehicle, despite costing an absolutely whopping R40K extra, is that bit more understated and again highlights the shrinking-violet nature of the R35s aes-thetics. It really can blend into an aver-age car park quite effectively.

I’ve just driven one though. And as much as I hate to admit it, I was wrong. Oh, how very wrong indeed.

It isn’t the looks which have seduced me, I’m still not entirely convinced by the softer, sleeker front end and han-ker for the brash brutality of the pug-nascious R34 model, but the R35 is a bit of a grower – when we had a black


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the gearbox, the amount of teeth-crack-ing in the ride, and those electronic traction aids, controversially. There’s a big, beefy steering wheel in front of you though with GT-R emblazoned on the boss, and even big chaps can get com-fortable using the powered, multi-way adjustments on the drivers seat. Hav-

It’s nice inside though, ridiculously posh in fact considering the humble brand name. There’s a centre-mount-ed touchscreen which seems to house a bazillion largely useless, incredibly geeky measurement and reporting func-tions, the already-famous trio of toggle switches which control the brutality of


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truly angry rumble and the whole car, heavy though it may be, leaps up the road in the blink of an eye. The accumulation of speed which rede-fines standard reference points though, is expected. It’s a given. You don’t lap the ‘Ring quicker than a GT2 without something a bit special beneath the hood after all.

What comes as a surprise though, and I had the same surprise in the R8 V10

ing said that, not as comfortable as you can get in the mid-engined R8 though, which says a lot about how intelligent the packaging of that Audi really is!

The engine starts with a percussive rumble and then settles to a deep, bas-sy idle, all menacing intent but not the techno-feast soundtrack you might ex-pect. In fact, it’s almost trad V6, with augmented balls. There’s no doubt it means business though, an aggressive jab of the throttle on pull-off elicits a


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you’re travelling on, it all starts to make a lot of sense.

Of course the dual-clutch transmission means that your senses aren’t distract-ed by something as trival as having to change gears, unless you want them to be, at which point it’s simply a curl-ing of an index finger around a long, shapely paddle mounted behind the wheel – complete with a nicely posi-tive click to its every action. There’s so much torque right across the rev-range anyway though, that there isn’t all that much point unless you happen to be actually racing on a track somewhere. The thrust the GT-R summons is breathtaking every time. Flex your right foot and medium-length straights just disappear. Fortunately the four-pot Brembo brakes are more than strong enough to cope with wiping off the lu-dicrous speed, making the insanely ex-pensive carbon-ceramics which are the main component of the V-Spec upgrade seem a little pointless. Again, unless you need top-performance, fade-free braking every lap in a 60-lap race.

Nor will the chassis ever leave you hanging. It may weigh as much as a fair-sized van, but it feels nothing short

just a couple of days earlier, is the qual-ity and feel of the steering. It’s heavy in the GT-R, but also full of detail. Our entire drive out to Magaliesburg from Lanseria was dominated by the quite emphatically writhing, squirming of the fat leather-covered rim clamped in my hands. At first, so busy is the wheel at all speeds, it can be quite disconcert-ing, but when you stop hanging on and fighting every wriggle and just relax into the flow, interpreting this rich flow of information about the road surface

themselves.

There is one moment where I test the threshold of the electronic safety nets, which we’ve naturally turned to Race but not off entirely (as this would inval-idate the warranty for the poor future owner of this example). With the elec-tronics juggling power and braking, the

of revelationary every time you push it through a corner. Admittedly, on our public-road test route, we never really came close to overstepping its limits, and I can guarantee that few custom-ers ever will either so stratospheric are they. Again, unless of course they’ve bought their cars to compete regular-ly in a race series and are pro drivers

sensitive egos.

Unfortunately our GT-R for the day happens to be the original, JDM-spec demonstrator which was shown at JIMS, in its last year as Auto Africa in fact, and therefore was still hampered by the ludicrous 190km/h hard limiter. Colleagues in unfettered samples, who

GT-R just seems to offer up some of it’s “spare” threshold of pure grip and we make it out the other side without hassles, but it’s not a natural, pleasant feeling. The digital nanny simply steps in, takes control, and sorts it out. As ever with digital systems, without much caring for our frail human comfort lev-els or, indeed, pandering to our over-


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Talk about frustrating. Away from any stop streets and through more chal-lenging twisties naturally the sports car left the SUV for dead, but they always caught up on longer straights, reporting that the X-Trail ran into it’s own aero-dynamic brick wall at around 208 km/h.

were already back in their offices by the time we returned to Lanseria, re-port seeing 317km/h on a GPS-based speed measurement device. Mean-while the med/sweeper team trailing us at the launch, in a diesel X-Trail, were, surrealy, all over the tail of our wrung-out GT-R!


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Now, I’ve confirmed its insane speed. Its seemingly physics-bending han-dling. Its strong and tireless brakes, and even its upmarket cabin. It’s a car built for one purpose, and it’s achieved that goal in every respect. To humble the es-tablished players in this ultra-premium

That’s nearly 20km/h faster than our, admittedly insanely unstressed, GT-R was managing. What’s more, we could only enjoy the deliscious, brutal, sense-less acceleration for around 8 seconds, that’s how long it takes the monster, from standstill, to ram up against the inflexible 190km/h mark.


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industrial area here in Kempton Park the other day looking for my destina-tion, and I saw two – parked-up in the lots of clearly successful engineering works.

That is not a supercar. I’m sorry, it just isn’t, despite the kind of go that most supercars would kill for.

One final detail, at Magaliesburg we pulled up just after lunch outside the Wimpy, the major teenage hangout of the little town it would seem. Only a couple of the lads, clearly with good car knowledge, even turned to look. The R8 would’ve had them running along-side the road cheering.

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league. Comprehensively. That Audi R8 V10 I waxed lyrical about earlier in the issue – it couldn’t keep station with this car. And it’s savage. Almost noth-ing, short of dedicated race machinery or the ultra-lightweights which aren’t re-ally represented in our market, would. And yet, I’ve just called it a sportscar, and not a supercar. What gives?

It’s the price. I know it’s snobbery, but that price also relates to exclusivity. How many times do you think Lolly Jackson spots another identical example on the road when he’s driving his ‘Egg? Or his Zonda? Right, practically zero.

And yet, in just a quarter on sale locally, Nissan say they’ll have delivered 100 GT-Rs by the end of December. And you can see it too. I was driving through the

Drive Vitals Nissan GT-REngine 3.8-litre twin turbo V6

Power 357kW@6400rpm

Torque 588 Nm@3200-5200rpm

0-100km/h 3.9 seconds

Top speed 310 km/h

Price R1 175 000

Wow. It seems that the recession isn’t affect-ing everyone all that badly. In these days of declining sales fi gures

and the imminent threat of dealers doors being closed for the last time, quite a few of the new-car launches we’re attending these days are, well, let’s just say a lit-tle sparser than they were during boom times.


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Waterfront in Cape Town, and the next morning the scene-setting was repeat-ed this time on boats, apparently the fastest of their kind!

Now admittedly, all this pomp had been arranged not for the introduction of just one new model to SA shores, but two! In fact this is the first time in the com-pany’s history that it has released so many new or updated models in such a short space of time! So yes, it is a big

Not this Land Rover one however. There were chartered helicopter flips, over some of the most compelling scenery the country has to offer in fact, en-route to the first-day rendezvous with the new Discovery 4s, all designed to make us journos feel like playboys or high-powered execs or something, basically just the type the company still focuses on making cars for. That night we were shacked-up in the sensational One and Only hotel right by the V&A


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each portion of the two days. Care-fully crafted to highlight the impressive strengths of these machines. But let’s

not get carried away and start at the beginning of this tale. It begins at the pumping station of the Berg Rivier Dam, where enormous wa-ter pumps are controlled from a board, as you’d expect, occupied by nothing more than an on/off key and 10” touch-screen. Sort of sets the tone for the high-tech Discos we’ve come here to drive. When the company moved from

deal. The cars? Well first-up we sam-pled the all-new Discovery 4 lineup, the latest-generation of this Imperious off-

roader with its impregnable reputation hot on its heels. And sav-ing the best for last, the new icons, both TDV8 and Supercharged petrol V8 Range Rover Sports.

And to get the most mile-age from the two days, there are long and var-ied test-routes plotted for

“It begins at the pumping station of the Berg Rivier Dam, where enormous

water pumps are controlled from a board, as you’d expect, occupied by nothing more than an on/off key and 10” touchscreen.”

“There’s a bit of light off-roading to begin with, and a couple of

river-crossings which the Disco just breezes.”


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without going into obsessive details, it has really worked. The new Disco cabin is more modern, more functional, and even more upmarket than its plush

predecessors. After all the company is no longer restrained to using old Ford switchgear, and is clearly enjoying its newfound freedom, and the result is a cabin which is typically eclectic but positively wonderful for it.

Naturally it’s specced to the gills as well, even entry-level S variants, while

traditional manually-lockable offroad hardware to the high-tech Terrain Re-sponse Control system they use today there were tears from hardcore offroad

enthusiasts. Still, you have to keep pace with the way the world is moving, and the system certainly works, in pret-ty much every situation.

Speaking of keeping pace, although from the exterior only some details have been revised over Disco 3, the interior has come in for a major reworking. And


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an even more distinctive front end, a quality it has truthfully never lacked!

moving up in the range to SE and then HSE you get even more premium ele-ments, like even better leather seats (electrically-operated on all models),

improved audio system (Har-mon & Kardon 9-speaker is the starting point on the entry-level), and in the case of “our” cho-sen HSE TDV6, enough little cameras to cov-er every exterior element of the car, fed to the screen perched in the centre of the console. Also useful for tight off-road spots, of course, these

cameras literally see all your extremi-ties!

There’s also adaptive air suspension on all models and Bi-Xenon lights for inkier darkness in the middle of nowhere. The standard 19-inch al-loys fill the beefy arches nicely, and the new light treatment gives this car

monstrous 600Nm on tap from 2000 rpm after all. There’s a 5.0-litre petrol V8 available, but they weren’t at the launch. Still, the way this car just eats up the miles while sipping from its tank is impressive, and when we do venture onto lesser-travelled dirt roads the ride remains unflappable.

Then there’s a pretty serious off-road track lined up for us. Unfortunately, there’s been quite a lot of rain in the area of late and there’s plenty of treach-erous mud making some of the “regular”

There’s a bit of light off-roading to be-gin with, and a couple of river-crossings which the Disco just breezes. Then it’s up and over the spine of the Midden-berg to drop down into the glory of the Franschhoek Wine Estate, essentially a rough gravel track. The Disco isn’t even slightly daunted.

Once we’re back on the roads through and past Franschhoek and head-ing out towards Hermanus, the ride is very impressive and the 3.0-litre TDV6 summons good shove. It does have a


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obstacles just about impassable. Two of our convoy ends up getting quite se-

riously stuck in these treacherous pud-dles, but they’re the sort of thing that nothing short of an amphibious military machine would’ve made it out of, so not a reflection on any weakness of the cars.

We, eventually, manfully abandon our comrades in search of some food, fol-lowed by the easy blat straight through to Cape Town itself, through mercifully light late rush-hour traffic, and the out-right serenity of driving a Disco day in and day out starts to settle in. It is, ba-sically, seven little thrones on wheels, capable of going anywhere, anytime, without any sacrifice or compromise.

“We, eventually, manfully

abandon our comrades in search

of some food...”

“It definitely feels better in the sand though.”


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ment the plans have had to change, with rides heading out West and then back to the One and Only, where our

RR steeds would be waiting. I elect the more measured extended morning-cof-fee option rather, so come to our TDV8

Range Rover SportsBut after a great night out with the family, who’d been in Cape Town for a week already when I flew in yesterday, the day I’d been really waiting for dawns, well, with viscious gale-force winds coming in off the white-capped ocean! So bad in fact that the port authorities had given our ridiculously fast boats a heads-up on the scheduled trip, and at the last mo-

“...the TDV8 Rangie Sport isn’t exactly fast, the company claiming 9.2 seconds to 100km/h...”


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model nice and sedate.

It’s, well, rather a lot like an even fancier Disco inside. The exterior is decidedly more butch yes, again peppered with small detail changes to differentiate it to the in-the-know spotter. For some reason the new, black-backed badge which will adorn all Range Rovers in future really stands out, proud and well basically as loud as the upper-crust Landie marque will allow. Brilliant.

Naturally, the V8 diesel is even strong-er than the V6 we were in yesterday, and manages a remotely V8-like rum-ble under full throttle. This one delivers an eye-watering 640Nm, and 200kW. Still with nigh-on two-and-a-half tons to move the TDV8 Rangie Sport isn’t exactly fast, the company claiming 9.2


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on this beach-desert. The more chilled power delivery of the diesel seems bet-ter suited to the task at hand.

Once back onto the road though, the TDV8 feels a little, lacking. And it’s actually the chassis doing it. This RR Sport is pleasantly nimble for such an enormous beast. And you see, all the other sporty hardware is exactly the same, only the petrol choice changes. So this TDV8 feels and rides like a car capable of 6.2-second dashes to 100, like the S/C can.

seconds to 100km/h, and a top speed just the right side of 200.

It definitely feels better in the sand though. On the Atlantis dunes V8 S/Cs seemed to get stuck at the drop of a hat, and this despite an all-new “Sand” setting for the Terrain Response system specifically put there because these cars have had this problem be-fore. But the monstrous 375kW of pow-er this new Jag-sourced 5.0-litre V8 just seemed too much for it, particularly on the road-oriented low-profile tyres,


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bly well. It feels big and comfortable, confident in anything (bar sand, obvi-ously), supremely comfortable, and

then adds barrel-chested shove com-plete with tuneful V8 hammering and a miraculous chassis with deeply talented suspension.

There are others in this league that go quicker and accelerate harder, prob-ably even corner better although the RR Sport actually manages to excel through the twisties, but none no not even the 911 on stilts actually pull it all together quite so elegantly as this car. It really is a World Champion boxer in a particularly fine cut of a suit.

The new 5.0-litre SC engine is just su-perb on the open road. So much beefier than the last-generation model, it pro-pels this 2.5-ton beast down any road with unfussed alacrity. You do have to watch the speedo a bit as the chassis is competent but it’s hardly a ground-hugging sportscar now is it? Yet despite the obvious bulk of the monster its al-most miraulously controlled even when

Finally, after some first-class “plaas lunch”, I get my backside into the one car I was really keen on driving this

launch, the RR Sports V8 S/C. And was it worth the wait?

Well, it’s really good on the road, this car. A bit like yesterday’s Disco, it just covers every possible base impossi-

“So much beefier than the last-generation model, it propels this 2.5-ton beast down

any road with unfussed alacrity.”


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really prefer it this way, and the Discos do look rather expensive next to the competition. But the RR Sports don’t cost anywhere near what the self-pro-claimed leaders in this odd segment do, I’m talking of Cayenne Turbos and Q7 V12 TDIs of course. And for that outlay you get a lovely engine (in the V8 SC particularly), a shockingly gifted chas-sis, a quirky but always-classy interior, and looks which may as well be classed as the definition of Automotive Status. Russell

taken to the extreme. But this handling doesn’t come at the expense of the ride thanks to the always-active chassis and suspension control systems.

And you really have to adore that un-derstated look, leaving it to the big al-loys alone to telegraph its dynamic in-tent.

Sure it’s quite a lot of money to pay, but in this class it doesn’t really look like bad value considering the strength of the brand, and the quirky but delight-ful nature of the car itself. Land Rover

Drive Vitals Range Rover Sports V8 SCEngine 5.0-litre supercharged V8

Power 375kW@5800rpm

Torque 625 Nm@1800-4000rpm


Top speed 225 km/h

Price R961 000

Drive Vitals Range Rover Sports TDV8Engine 3.6-litre turbodiesel


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Power 200kW@4000rpm

Torque 640 Nm@2000rpm


Top speed 209 km/h

Price R934 500

Drive Vitals Land Rover Discovery 4 TDV6Engine 3.0-litre turbodiesel

Power 180kW@4000rpm



Top speed 180 km/h

Price R595 000 S

R645 000 SE

R725 000 HSE

Drive Vitals Land Rover Discovery 4 V8Engine 5.0-litre petrol V8

Power 276kW@6500rpm



Top speed 195 km/h

Price R720 000 HSE

The journalists assembled for the launch of the new Tata Indica Vista were rather confused at one point in the launch presentation. Exactly what the Indica Vista was was the point of concern. Is it a replacement for the regu-lar Indica? Is it a whole new model range? What exactly is the deal?


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with satellite controls on the steer-ing wheel. It’s got electric mirrors and windows. There’s power steering and aircon as standard. All the bodywork is colour-coded, and perhaps most im-portantly it not only has ABS but driver and passenger airbags in the front.

The enormous Indian manufacturer has even breathed on the 1.4-litre Safire engine a bit, unleashing an additional 10 kW for a maximum output of 65 kW, and another 2 Nm giving a total of 116. Looks a bit sportier from the outside as well, show to match the go, as it were, although the bling alloys on these cars are an option.

So it turns out that the Vista is the new, range-topping, lifestyle-friendly ver-sion of the cheap and cheerful Indica, one of few vehicles still available for under R100K today. Except that there are three models in the Vista lineup it-self, and only the range-topping one of them, the IGNIS, actually adds anything to the bare-basic Indica range.

We only got to drive the mid-range, the AURA, at the launch, although an IG-NIS was on display at the classy base camp, reflecting gloriously (wait, may-be, eye-catchingly) off the horizon type water feature. This model is packed to the gills. It has a 2 DIN, USB and Blue-tooth-ready audio system, complete


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Our AURA versions have the regular Safi re lump, so they make 55 kW and 114Nm, and cost R130K. It still seems quite high as this one sees the tastier specs disappear – no ABS, airbags, techie audio system, or even rortier motor. It keeps the power windows, AC, and sportier colour-coded look though. When we climb in, it’s also clear that all of the dimensions of the Vista are larger than the regular Indica, so there’s quite a bit of cabin space in here. In fact the Indian offi cials who are out here for this launch are very interested to fi nd out how comfortable I am, being something of a big bugger. Turns out the answer is very. It’s pretty spacious in fact, in part thanks to the height-adjustable seat

But, it is expensive, for an Indica, at R140K. That safety comes at a price, we suppose.


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German quality, and the lack of airbags is a little concerning at full speed, in the region of 160km/h, down some back roads. But the car beneath you feels quite faithful, and not like it’s about to separate into components or anything. It’s even fairly zippy thanks to that light weight.

It’s just that look-only IGNIS, in fact, which does bring up some build-quality concerns. You can see the bonnet-gap inconsistencies a veritable mile away!

and steering column. So we head off on our drive.

And find a little motorcar which is really not so bad to drive. It may put out very little power but because it weighs just over 1000kgs it isn’t uselessly immo-bile either. It gets pushed about quite a lot by wind and definitely suffers a lit-tle from the somewhat jostly ride you’ll always have with lightweight, circa 1000kg cars, but its competent overall. Of course the materials inside aren’t


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There were some inconsistencies, random gremlins, infecting the fleet of demonstrators as well it seemed. Chiefly, differences in tacho redline experiences (a few of us appeared to have a tacho from the planned diesel model installed).

It is good that they have those active safety options available now. Parents buying first cars for young daughters and sons like to see that sort of stuff, given the dangerous situations that de-velop daily on our roads. It’s a shame the company saw fit to limit it to just the one, priciest model yes, but at least it is there, if you want it.

It’s definitely also comfier for larger oc-cupants, maybe even with a child or two at the back. And a torquey little 1300 diesel motor will also soon be added to the range.

But the hyperactive “Changes every-thing” tagline is a touch optimistic. In fact, the car changes very little at all. It may be a sound budget buy or first car, but it’s hardly class redefining.

Russell

Hopefully a rare Monday sample, and the reason it couldn’t actually join our convoy today. Inside the more upmar-ket seat upholstery and flashy radio manage to lift the interior tone, but will it be enough to take on the funkiness leaders in this class? Not being an out-right expert in funk measurement I’m not sure, although still-tightening budg-ets may drive customers to their doors. Although that’ll usually be for a sub-100K Indica.


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exclusively a double-clutch affair, the whole car having been designed around this bulky solution, and of course the current fastest top-speed in the world belongs to the DSG-equipped Bugatti. And even if they aren’t exclusive, just about every manufacturer has one in their high-performance range now and is seeing a strong uptake of the flappy-paddle systems BMWs M3 has one, called DCT, Mitsubishis Lancer Evo (Still not in SA... why?) uses a setup called SST, and then naturally there are the DSG/R-Tronic twins in the VAG stable.

They certainly do have their appeal, I’ll give them that. The seamless, never-ending lunge towards the horizon in the big Nissan would undoubtedly be slow-er and a touch less surreal with dis-tinct pauses on the action as the next cog is selected and engaged. And we

One of those bedrock com-ponents, an absolute lynchpin of motoring pleas-ure and a de facto stand-ard feature of the modern

automobile, is drawing it’s last breaths as we speak.

The three-pedalled, manual H-pattern gearbox. Out like Sir Elton John.

That very bastion of driving passion, excitement, and otherworldy perform-ance Ferrari confirmed as much at the recent Frankfurt show, where it was naturally highlighting the gorgeous new 458 Italia. No manual ‘box will be made or offered on this model, period the dual-clutcher is the choice of the next-generation of petrolheads, apparently. Which adds one rather important name to the growing list of companies produc-ing DSG-only sports models. The ram-pant GT-R from Nissan is, of course,


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around. The big red beast, usually cruising since it turns out that’s all it’s really great at, pulled the gazes of a huge heap of ladies. Mostly those lean-ing into middle age, in fact.

But it wasn’t with desire or even partic-ular interest that they looked at us ped-alling along. No, usually it was in bla-tant, slack-jawed and wide-eyed horror! Even in eco-unconscious SA there are plenty of people from the green fringe I suppose, and when they clocked our ostentatious 6.0-litre gas-guzzler they looked absolutely shocked that a cou-ple of male jerks could have the gall to actually drive around, in public, in what is basically an obvious planet-killer of note. Of course there were those who could appreciate the Ute better too, but side-long glances of respect, admiration, and even envy don’t quite stick in your mind

saw this pure performance effect first-hand recently when we tried to keep up to a Mk6 GTI DSG with a 6-speed manual Cooper S JCW. The two cars are so closely matched in performance terms that I could feel, following in the MINI, the Veedub gaining a metre or so with each shift before the two cars settled into their stations once again. It would’ve made all the difference in a proper timed drag away from the Christ-mas tree.

This month I’ve been struck on a couple of occasions by how differently people can perceive the same car. How differ-ent backgrounds, outlooks, life expe-riences and even our social positions can and constantly do affect the way in which we see the real, the physical, the simple fact of an object’s being.

It began when we had the Lumina


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only read all about why we felt this way next month, when the new 3 MPS takes on some stiff competition, in the new MINI Cooper S JCW, and VWs iconic Mk6 incarnation of the GTi.

And finally, the R8 V10. Nothing and no-body was spared this ruthlessly sculpt-ed assault on our artistic senses. Guys gawped at the richly layered V10 and over-300km/h potential of the thing, la-dies by what really should be consid-ered the shape of supercar modernity, and every one rich, poor, young and old – and yes even those same stern greenies who hated the Lumina – were just sucked in by the obvious passion of the thing.

Which leads us to conclude that the most beautiful car in the world is, like any question of beauty, an entirely per-sonal decision. You either “get” a look, a shape, or you don’t. Which is why so many motoring manufacturers survive after all – everyone has different tastes, needs, and wants in their cars. And you fall for those cars that provide just the right mix of these elements which, in your uniqueness as a perfect, most value.

Russell

as much as a facial expression which simply shouts “Vulgar, selfish pigs!” without saying to much as a word.

They’re right, of course, in a way. Pay-ing that price in fuel bills for that little outright performance isn’t sensible at all. But is it really necessary to react as if we’ve just retracted the cooling rods but manually cranked output around to 160% at Koeberg? We weren’t actual-ly, actively punching baby penguins in their little beaked faces or anything.

Then the new Mazda 3 MPS arrived, a car which split our office down the middle with polar opposite opinions. The sort of discussions which cannot be brought to a compromise, where no middle-ground exists. And the dividing line appeared to be pure gender. The ladies adored this thing, the handsome new face and tricksy red “flip” paint-job gaining it the accolades “cutie” and “baby”. They instantly thought it should take the podium in any group test it might take place in. The guys had to disagree though. While we were similarly enamoured of her looks, her underlying engineering was our problem, and we couldn’t get past this knowledge to enjoy the handsome exterior once again. I’m afraid you can


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too many sets of lights. I have seen working traffic lights at a junction where the joining road is behind a locked gate. This is one of the few occasions where the traffic police sit and book motorists for not stopping at these completely pointless lights. Metro police always seem to be available when there’s easy money to be made. There appear to be traffic lights literally at every street corner in urban areas, with the possi-ble exception of where they are really needed.

The second problem is that the lights are phased so poorly that once you have stopped, you sit for ages while the lights go through their 3 or 4 phas-es. The lights are sequenced for the morning and evening rush but the se-quence doesn’t change at other times of the day. As a result you often sit at the lights waiting for nothing at all.

We live in what can only be described as a lawless society. One of the biggest gripes amongst road users

is the fact that people don’t stop at red traffi c lights anymore. Sure the fact that the traffi c police would rather spend their time sitting behind a camera instead of policing is a factor but it goes much deep-er than that.

It is not uncommon to be at a set of lights and even after the lights in your direction have gone green, you still have to wait for 2 cars in the other direction. It is without doubt annoying and often leads to a serious accident. It is easy to get on a soapbox and call for harsher penalties for red light ignorance but to solve the problem we need to assess why people act the way they do.

The first problem is that there are just


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it is and if we look at, for example avia-tion, human nature is the basis for de-signing systems and procedures.

The answer is of course to use rounda-bouts particularly on high-speed roads like dual carriageways. Here in South Africa we don’t seem to be able to un-derstand roundabouts but then surely driver training is what is seriously lack-ing.

On the other hand perhaps if we had competent traffic engineers, the lights could be sequenced correctly and the traffic would flow. After that, we could get our traffic police away from their revenue generating cameras and po-lice situations that are genuinely dan-gerous. I’m not holding my breath.

Steve

So now let us look at the human fac-tor. As one drives around on their daily business, usually running late because of the miserable traffic situation, every time you get going, the lights change against you and you have to anchor on and stop. Get going again and within a very short distance, the same happens again. Each time having to sit for what seems like an age.

By the time you get to the umpteenth set of lights, stressed about being even later, as the lights change to or-ange you think, “I have had enough of all this stopping”, and zoom through. Even when you are not particularly late, some sets of lights take so long to go through the sequence that if you get there as it goes orange, you just keep going knowing that if you do stop you are going to be there for all eternity. It’s wrong I know but human nature is what

Male PMS is not something you hear dis-cussed every day, but that doesn’t mean that the phenomenon doesn’t exist. It’s not cyclical and has nothing to do with the moon, and while for some men it’s a state

that never really comes into play, for others, it’s whats life is about. Power. Money. Sex. Add some wheels to it, and you’ll get the Mercedes-Benz S63 AMG, a car designed with four key criteria: exclusivity, dynamism, effortless su-periority and high tech.


Drive Test

370Nm more torque and costs half a million Rand more. But that’s a whole different story.

The latest S-class benefits from a number of enhancements but in es-

sence remains a face-lifted model. The S63 AMG now sports a new, more pro-

Since the introduction of the first Mer-cedes-Benz S-class in 1954, it’s been considered the quintessential luxury car; a surefire way to announce to the world that you have in fact arrived. Looking at our country’s monthly ve-

hicle sales, it’s also evident that more and more people are in fact arriving: Mercedes-Benz manages to shift an average of 25 S-classes every month.

Also take into consideration that South Africa is one of AMG’s five largest mar-kets globally and that 8 000 of these AMG S-classes have found a home since the latest design hit the roads three years ago, making it the undis-puted market leader in the small yet highly-exclusive high-performance lux-ury saloon segment.

Thanks to my still inexplicable penchant for gargantuan vehicles, even I have fallen prey to the S-class’s charms, and especially so in AMG trim. Mind you, the S63 AMG we tested is not the top model in the range – there’s also an S65 AMG that has 64kW more power,

“Power. Money. Sex. Add some wheels to it, and you’ll get the Mercedes-Benz S63 AMG...”


Drive Test

of a double “C” also give the S-Class an unmistakable appearance from be-

hind. While it’s certainly striking, 52 LEDs may just be a tad excessive and – dare I say – tacky. LED overkill, as a close friend described it. I do however love the AMG sports exhaust with its

nounced arrow-shaped radiator grille with a new front apron that incorpo-rates striking AMG-specific LED daytime driving lights and two transverse air outlets on each side. Further striking features in-clude the “6.3 AMG” lettering on the front wings and redesigned exterior mirrors.

New tail lights with 52 LEDs in the form

“While it’s certainly striking, 52 LEDs may just be a tad

excessive and – dare I say – tacky”


Drive Test

pear every bit as exclusive as the high-tech package the exterior promises, especially behind the wheel. The cars extensive range of standard equipment includes PASSION leather appoint-ments with natural leather in the seat side bolsters as well as AMG sports

two chromed twin tailpipes and the 19-inch AMG multi-spoke wheels painted titanium grey with a high-sheen finish. Especially on our Flint Gray test model, the car looked elegantly purposeful.

The S63 AMG’s interior furnishings ap-


Drive Test

the rear passenger space disappointed slightly though, even with the seats as far back as possible – and neither the front or rear passengers were anything close to Russell’s 7-foot frame.

These niggles fade into ob-scurity though once you turn the key fob and the V8 grumble envelops you like the waft of a Cuban cigar.

Fitted with a high-revving 386kW AMG 6.3-litre V8 naturally aspirated engine, it develops 630 Nm of torque and is ca-pable of accelerating the S-class to 100 km/h in 4.6 seconds. The acceleration is a feeling that’s utterly indescribable, really, especially because the S63 is a consummate cruiser most of the time. Taking off in a Boeing comes close though, but sadly the AMG is limited to only 250km/h.

Getting there happens by means of the AMG SPEEDSHIFT 7G-TRONIC gear-box with DIRECT SELECT gearshift through AMG aluminium shift paddles on the new AMG sports steering wheel. While making gearshifts even quicker,

seats with climate control, massage, multi-contour and dynamic handling function at the front.

Ample use of trim elements abound, which in our test model includ-ed olde worlde wood trim and the AMG-spe-cific analogue clock with an IWC design. While both these features are in-tended to add to the luxurious ambi-ance of the cabin, neither really tick-led my fancy: replacing the wood with a brushed aluminium and moving the analogue clock to a digital position on the main display would’ve been much better, especially since it detracts too much attention trying to tell the time on the small analogue device.

Our test model also sported optional luxury rear seats (R8 200), an optional Harman Kardon Logic 7 Surround Sound rear passenger entertainment system (R10 000) and an optional refrigerator built into the mammoth boot (R12 000), accessible through an opening between the two rear seats. On a 300km road trip

“These niggles fade into obscurity though once

you turn the key fob and the V8 grumble envelops

you like the waft of a Cuban cigar.”


Drive Test

The driving experience is further height-ened thanks to the Direct-Steer system that, with its variable ratio depending on steering angle, helps to ensure a more direct response when cornering, and therefore more responsive handling.

Based on the ADAPTIVE BRAKE sys-tem, the AMG high-performance brak-ing system continues to provide opti-

the paddles are positioned too close to the steering wheel and I often found myself clutching them when not making use of the DIRECT SELECT function. Fuel consumption and carbon emis-sions have been reduced by 3%.

Keeping all that manic power in check are a number of superbly advanced driver aids. The S63 AMG rides on an AMG sports suspension with Ac-tive Body Control (ABC) that provides crosswind stabilisation as standard equipment for the first time, effectively compensating for and, in the case of strong gusts, reducing the influence of crosswinds to a minimum by adjusting the wheel load distribution within milli-seconds, using the yaw-rate and lateral acceleration sensors of the Electronic Stability Program (ESP).

Also making up the standard equipment on the S63 AMG is the new Torque Vec-toring Brake, an additional feature of the ESP. When cornering, brief direct application of the brakes has an effect on the vehicle’s inner rear wheel so that the car corners precisely and un-der control at all times, noticeably im-proving responsiveness but also active handling safety in critical conditions.


Drive Test

You can literally be as safe as a house in the S63 AMG – should you tick the options list – as unrivalled combinations of innovative camera and radar-based driver assistance systems are available. These include the ATTENTION ASSIST drowsiness detection system, Adaptive Highbeam Assist, Lane Keeping Assist and the PRE-SAFE Brakes which are linked to the proximity regulating ra-

mum fade resistance, deceleration and sensitivity. The front axle features a double floating brake caliper that com-bines the advantages of a sliding-cal-liper disc brake (reduced heat transfer to the brake fluid and clear advantages in terms of comfort thanks to the brake lining guide mechanism) with the effi-ciency of an extra large fixed calliper brake.


Drive Test

complement of available features at a measly R23 000 extra.

Spending R1.5 million on a car is some-thing a precious few of us can do on a regular basis, if ever. If you’ve come this far, it’s undeniable that you’ve got Money and the Mercedes-Benz S63 AMG nonchalantly adds the Power and the Sex to the equation. I certainly don’t have that kind of money, but the S63 AMG is undoubtedly the automo-tive epitome of male PMS.

dar and intervene independently in the event of an impending accident to act like an invisible crumple zone. Night View Assist Plus with infrared camera also features a novel pedestrian detec-tion system.

The Brake Assist PLUS and DISTRON-IC PLUS proximity control support the driver in the event of emergency brak-ing. The PRE-SAFE positioning func-tions and NECK-PRO luxury head re-straints in the front make up the full


Drive Test

It is however a car I genuinely – desper-ately – wanted to love, and when you

love something that much, the subtle flaws transform into acceptable quirks. As its bright LED taillights disappeared around the corner, leaving me power-less, broke and undersexed, I involun-tarily found myself humming that clas-sic Joni Mitchell song. Oh Lord, won’t you buy me a Mercedes-Benz…

Christo

The styling is aggressive to the point of being subtly sexy. The lines are classi-

cally stylish with just enough LEDs front and rear to keep the general look from being trashy. The speed is blistering at full throttle and the handling exhilarat-ingly precise, but equally suave and sophisticated when simply cruising. It’s luxurious and elegant inside with eve-rything you can possibly need. It is in-deed Sonderklasse.

But, importantly, it’s not perfect.

“It is however a car I genuinely – desperately – wanted to love, and when you love something that much,

the subtle flaws transform into acceptable quirks.”

Drive Vitals Mercedes-Benz S63 AMGEngine 6.2-litre petrol V8

Power 386kW@6800rpm



Top speed 250 km/h (very limited)

Price R1 590 000

Alfa Romeo as a brand can hardly be classed as a vol-ume seller in South Africa. An Alfa has always been seen as a car that you buy

with your heart not your head. Alfa is the defacto Italian car that puts style ahead of practicality, driving experience ahead of outright performance fi gures.


Drive Test

crossed over into the love-it camp. Tak-ing its styling cues from the 8C Com-petizione, the MiTo doesn’t have the instant family feel of its larger siblings. Nevertheless, it is still very obviously an Alfa.

Facts n FiguresFor the asking price you get a car that is certainly not light on equipment but neither is it what you would call fully loaded. Have a look at the options list though. Once specced up, the MiTo is much better value than the base mod-el. Spec up a german hatch and you’ll

The MiTo is no exception in terms of styling - love it or hate it, you have to admit that it has character. You certain-ly won’t be driving through a city with-out being noticed. So many cars these days look as though they were carved from a cube of butter and the butter has started to melt so that you can’t tell one from another. Not so with the MiTo.

StylingStyling divides opinion, there are those that love the MiTo and those that hate it. There are very few fence sitters al-though several initial doubters have


Drive Test

the years. The performance isn’t mind blowing but it does feel spritely and the turbo ensures solid torque right through the rev range. Turbo engines suffer from that old phenomenan, tur-bo lag. The MiTo does of course have the same problem but it manages the lag well and it is hardly noticable on the daily commute. Racing starts away from the lights are really the only time that it bogs down a little.

Most surprising for a small car is the

spend months convalescing from open wallet surgery. Not so with the MiTo, add some extras like Bluetooth, climate control, auto lights and Bose sound and the list price goes up to just R265000. Compared with say a 1.4 TSI Golf it starts to look like a bargain.

PerformanceThe MiTo uses the 1.4 turbo mill bor-rowed from Fiat. An engine that has been around since the old Uno Turbo but obviously significantly refined over


Drive Test

Normal or All Weather. Dynamic mode stiffens up the susspension and the steering response whilst remapping the engine management for performance driving. In Dynamic mode the throttle response is quicker but the steering can get a little unsettled by rough road surfaces. The throttle response is a bit too urgent when you are stuck in traffic but then you can just switch it back to Normal – even on the move. Dynamic does really come into it’s own on roads like mountain passes though.

ride which is exceptional. The car cruis-es along without a hint of road or wind noise. Our test car had no rattles and really gave you the impression of sit-ting in an expensive car. Clearly recruit-ing a quality control expert from BMW is starting to pay dividends.

Uncommon for a car in this class is the Alfa D.N.A system, which changes the dynamics of the car at the flick of a switch. D.N.A is really just an abbrevia-tion of the modes available, Dynamic,


Drive Test

Normal mode works well for day-to-day driving. You don’t lose any power, it’s just that throttle response is a bit more lazy. The suspension and steering are far more suited to a comfortable ride. The All Weather mode doesn’t seem to feel any different from the Normal mode and since it didn’t rain much while we had the car, we simply ignored it.

DesirabilityThe MiTo is desirable, make no mistake. It amazes me how many people keep

saying that they want one, particularly the younger generation. The MiTo is certainly the king of cool compared with it’s rivals and is without doubt the car to be seen in on a University Campus.Small Alfas have always been appeal-ing particularly to the wannabe Ferrari drivers - and there are a lot of them.

EconomyItalians have never really been too con-cerned about fuel consumption, and they pay more for petrol than just about any other nation. The old theory was that you can extract extra power from a small engine by allowing it to drink fuel. Nevertheless, the MiTo is not too thirsty, returing an average of 8 litres per 100 kilmeters. Even in lead foot mode it stayed under the 10 l/100km mark. The tank does unfortunately hold a mere 45 litres so you will be visiting the pumps fairly regularly.

Emotional valueAs I mentioned earlier, an Alfa is gen-erally a purchase made with the heart. You really need to appreciate the Ital-ian design philosophy. There are very few Alfa owners that bought their cars because it just looked like the reasona-ble car. Alfa owners tend to be passion-ate about the brand and are often seen


Drive Test


Drive Test

colour coded to the exterior. You just don’t get that on run of the mill small cars. The little MiTo makes you feel special every time you slide into the driver’s seat. Interestingly enough, I loaded four adults into the car and the back seat passengers commented on how much legroom and headroom they had. The MiTo does have a Tardis like quality.

ConcludeThe MiTo is not only cool and fun to drive but it seems that Alfa have ad-dressed their build quality issues of old. Now here is an Alfa that you can buy with your head as well as your heart.

Steve

wearing branded jackets and caps. I remember someone asking me if he should buy an Alfa, influenced by my enthuisiasm. I told him to ask himself a couple of questions. “Do you ever walk away after parking your car and then stop, turn round just to have another look at it?” “Do you ever go home the long way just to spend more time driv-ing, preferably on a twisty road?” If the answer is no, an Alfa may not be the car for you.

Interior ambienceSitting in a MiTo is a pleasant experi-ence even when you are not actually moving. The dual-clock instrument bin-nacle harks back to the old Alfasud. The carbon fibre effect dash is actually

Drive Vitals Vehicle NameEngine In line 4 cylinder

Induction Turbo

Capacity 1400cc

Power 114kW

Torque 230 Nm

Kerb weight 1145 kg

Driven wheels Front

0-100km/h 8 Seconds

Price R 245 200


Drive Test

when you start driving hard, things like that. Sort of made the lovely raspy en-gine note, velvety but alert ride and old-school classy cabins a bit pointless to me, although my old publisher who is let’s say less hardcore than I admitted a few weeks ago, the Brera was one of his favourites of his association with Drive magazine.

So the MiTo has quite a lot of heritage, passion, and raw expectation to make

Ah the little MiTo. Had a lot to try and live up to.

Thing is, the latest crop of Alfas, and I’m still fairly

young so I’ve only really driven stuff from the 147, even a couple of 155s type of era. Had a whole string of Q4 3.2 models – Brera, Spider, 159. All dread-ful cars suffering identical catastrophic foibles. Five-seven rev-limiter in first, safety electronics that all run and hide


Drive Test

It didn’t break, even trawling the back-streets of JHB after dark behind the over-portly rump of the 308CC, every-thing remained working. Even when, gasp, driven rather enthusiastically it all hung together.

But it wasn’t boring and characterless either. After a hard thrash the night be-fore for instance, the cockpit did fill with the heady brew of unburnt petrol being

up for then.

At first it wasn’t doing it. The base-spec isn’t exactly over-flowing with goodies for the price, although the be fair a generously-specced exam-ple wouldn’t actually cost that much more (circa R40K ful-ly-equipped), so that’s nice. But at first its looks gave me no more shivers than the lat-est Fiesta, and that’s bad.

It’s a bit of a grower though, the MiTo. After my allotted three days in it, before faith-fully turning it over to genu-ine, lo0ng-term Alfisti Steve, I didn’t want to give it back. The good stuff I found:

cleared from the throaty exhaust. The headlights are atroscious. And under severe duress the Q2 differential does sound like it’s about to come off. But it doesn’t.

And it gives you such a plucky drive eve-ry time... All right in the Normal mode the steering was way too light and the throttle not sharp enough, but just use the lovely ally selector by your knee to go up into Dynamic mode and you get meatier steering, tauter responses (sometimes a touch too taut), a more positive throttle response and even a thick wodge of bonus torque. For a to-tal of 230Nm. From a 1.4.

It’s brilliant. Who needs clever but ex-pensive twincharging when you can achieve this much with “just” a turbo?

And once you’ve connected with the MiTo, it starts to look sensational. And nothing like other cars in its class. Even at R241 000 (plus R1800 for paint, ap-parently optional), it’s worth it. And it’s a new, modern car which actually deliv-ers that Alfa magic motoring wordsmiths spin of the days of yore while bowing to the environmentalist leanings as much as is necessary.


Drive Test


Drive Test

When we asked Honda for their biggest-engined, most grunty, lairiest Civic available, we were a little confused when the 2.2 CTDi arrived at our Kempton offi ce...


Drive Test

– 340 versus 174. And let’s not forget the affect of the turbo at our operating altitude here on the Highveld!

Both models will run to a claimed top speed of 205km/h though, and the CTDi is quicker in the sprint to 100, al-

beit barely according to the manufac-turer’s sea-level claims – 8.6 compared to 8.9 seconds. But of course, there is the fuel economy, right? The high-tech

Unfortunately they don’t have Type Rs, or even Championship Whites available in the press fleet this long after the launch of the model, and a quick browse through the specs of our oil-burning model revealed that, in-deed, this is the pokiest of the selec-

tion. All right, claimed maximum power is identical to that of the next one down, the 1.8-litre petrol, at 103kW, but the torque of course is just about doubled


Drive Test

to summon impressive shove without registering at all on an emotional scale. It is in fact a rough-sounding diesel

engine despite plenty of clever Honda modernity under the hood – it clatters and wheezes and runs out of puff long before the red line. In fact the delivery is peculiar. There’s nothing below 2000 rpm, then suddenly all that twist arrives in a massive swell, then goes away again at about four thou on the dial.

What surprised us the most however was the interior. Honda has a reputa-tion in the industry, for superb build quality at a reasonable price. But our high-mileage diesel example contra-dicts this perception thanks to creaks, squeaks and rattles from the dashboard that a far cheaper car could wipe away as “character”. But the Civic is butting against the R280 000 mark. Even the plastic outcropping which the gearlever is mounted to regularly moves about – and the resultant plastic on plastic

1.8-litre petrol four is itself impressive-ly frugal, Honda claiming 6.7 l/100km, but the diesel blasts this out of the wa-ter with an amazing 5.3 for the same combined cycle, depite 400 ccs more cubic capacity and a great

big blower!

On real roads, this sort of differential doesn’t really hold up. Yes, the CTDi is astonishingly light, but call on all 340Nm, the turbo blowing hard to produce this twist, and that figure rapidly worsens. While the nat-asp petrol we group-tested against Cruze and Mazda this month didn’t really seem to care where our throttle foot was posi-tioned. In the end we were averaging 8.4 l/100km, with liberal application of the right foot, while “our” petrol example was peak-ing at 8.6.

The diesel is undeniably quicker though. And yet, as is normal with cars pow-ered by this fuel alternative, manages

“...a quick browse through the specs of our oil-burning

model revealed that, indeed, this is the

pokiest of the selection.”


Drive Test

keeps dust off it, is shocking when there’s any sun fil-tering into the cab-in, rendering all your instruments irrelevant. Bar the speedo of course, which is mounted on the second tier further up the dash, and the Economy LEDs surrounding the speedo.

The diesel model is pretty comfortable nonetheless, if quite tight for larger drivers. Being pretty much the range-topper in price, it includes all the mod-

cons Honda has available for the car. So the seats are in leather as stand-ard, there’s climate control, electric windows and mirrors, heated seats (al-ways pleasant), and Honda’s acclaimed 6-speed manual ‘box.

However the heavier-than-normal en-gine out front doesn’t do the dynam-

scraping where this addendum meets the fascia itself is particularly discon-certing.

While we’re on the interior, the space-age layout has had plenty of time

to grow on us now. But it hasn’t. It’s passed right through from “New, inter-esting, but peculiar” straight to “Aging, dated, and still peculiar” without ever going through “Actually working pretty well once you’re accustomed to it”.

That dual-level dashboard, especially the raked clear plastic screen which

“While we’re on the interior, the space-age layout has had plenty of time to

grow on us now. But it hasn’t.”


Drive Test

petrol model was very difficult to get above 8 l/100km. It’s also just as well specced, so basically you’re paying the premium here for the perception of

enhanced eco-credentials, but it’s just that – a perception. So the only reason to go this way is if you must have that lowest possible 0-100km/h time without stretching all the way to a Type R.

Trust us. Don’t do it. A Type R is not that much more expensive, and if it’s performance you want, it’s the model you must buy. Otherwise stick to the petrol, it’s marginally sharper dynam-ics and even more frugal consumption make the extra money impossible to justify.

Russell

ics any favour, especially at the front of course, which is already quite keen to understeer even with smaller, lighter petrol engines out front. In the diesel it ploughs-on even sooner if you have entered a corner slightly too hot. Of course drive within its limits and it’s quite competent. But the combination of the safety-spec chassis, dull engine note and flat torque curve beyond 2000 rpm create a vehicle which is terminally dull to drive. At least the revvy 1.8-litre petrol has some aural fire in its belly, even if Honda claims put it 0.3 seconds slower than this car. Of course, here at altitude, the gap is much larger, and the diesel would run away from the petrol in a drag race.

Surprisingly though it wouldn’t really be any more economical – the i-VTEC

“Trust us. Don’t do it.”

Drive Vitals Honda Civic 2.2 i-CTDiEngine 2.2-litre turbodiesel

Power 103kW@4000rpm



Top speed 205 km/h

Price R289 900

The upgraded Toyota Prius is not a car normally associated with passion, at least not of the motor-ing kind. If you’re passionate about saving the ice shelf, polar bears or rain forests, then one would expect the environmentally friendly Prius to stir

up emotions.

But I was surprised at the depth of feeling, purely on a motoring level, that the Prius provoked when I brought it home. It almost caused a fist-fight in the driveway.


Drive Test

We saw before our eyes how the Prius touched a heart that, until then, had hardly seemed to notice cars except as a means of getting from one place to another.

An equally enthusiastic relative entered the discussion, but from the opposite direction. The car, she said, could not be more hideous, adding that it looked like a Ford Focus that had been dipped in the ugly bath, or words to that effect.

As it happened we had a lot of rela-tives visiting at the time. One of them, admittedly a Toyota Hilux fan but oth-erwise almost completely uninterested in motoring matters, couldn’t get over the Prius. He was in ecstasy over what he saw as its long sleek aerodynamic lines, the supernaturally silent engine, clever hybrid technology mating elec-tric and petrol power, the spacious in-terior including the huge boot … what could be more perfect?


Drive Test

tio and offering them cups of tea “met eish” or other soothing substances.

There was one particularly interesting difference. Two of the people on op-posite ends of the schism were young women, both intelligent and articulate. One could hardly bring herself to look

at the Prius. The interesting thing is that she had previously been exposed to a lot of expensive, beautiful vehicles, through links to the motor industry.

The other specially asked to come along for a ride to the shops, so fascinated was she by Toyota’s green meanie.

The styling, she added, was just plain nasty, and the feel of the Prius – the thinly metalled doors, for instance - fell squarely into the cheap sector.

Someone else scoffed at the Prius’ fuel economy and green credentials, saying that small diesels could do as well in

terms of litres per 100km while other alternate-energy vehicles were friend-lier to the environment.

Factions were soon formed and com-ments flew thick and fast. We had to calm matters by ushering people to separate sections of the backyard pa-

“We saw before our eyes how the Prius touched a heart...”


Drive Test

It did not take too long before these re-strictions were removed and South Af-ricans were able to buy a Prius. Sure, they show no signs of following the trend in California and becoming big sellers. Conditions here are not the same – there is not yet any tax incentive, or the sort of easier inner-city access for hy-brids that one finds in Europe.

But the new Prius is a big advance on the ones we first saw in South Africa

Her own exposure to fancy cars was more limited – by her own admission she had never sat in a new car before.

So maybe, just maybe, a lot of the anti-Prius sentiment comes simply from petrol-head aficio-nados of what we at Drive would call real cars. In other words, they simply don’t like even the idea of a vehicle so focused on saving fuel and the environment that it is prepared to give up the things that stir drivers’ souls – rip-roaring perform-ance, sexy lines and raucous exhaust notes.

After all that, what do I think of the car? I must admit to liking the fi rst Priuses when they came to South Africa a few years ago. At that time they were hampered by some odd conditions – they could only be leased, not bought, and they could not be driven on gravel roads.


Drive Test

where you can read useful info (such as your speed) on the windscreen in front of you, without having to move your eyes to the centrally situated in-strument panel. You also get automatic rain-sensing windscreen wipers, seven airbags, heated front passenger seats, a park-assist system with a camera and screen showing what is behind you when you reverse, pop-up headlight cleaners, satellite navigation … you’re getting a lot more than the approval of the environmentalists here.

Toyota have also upped the petrol en-gine, from a 1.5-litre to a 1.8-litre that puts out 100kW (24% more than be-fore). The electric motor, too, has in-creased power by 20% to 60kW and when the electric and petrol motors work together under hard acceleration there is nothing wrong with the Prius’ get up and go. Top speed is a claimed 180km/h and the 0-100km/h is between 10 and 11 seconds.

The Prius is at its best in stop-start traf-fic where the electric engine can work without calling on the petrol engine for help. There is even an electric-on-ly mode (press a button on the dash-board) but this will take you only 2km, at a maximum speed of 50km/h. Then

four years ago, quite apart from the fact that you no longer need to stick strictly to tarred roads.

Naturally for cars costing between R326 200 for the Advanced model and R370 000 for the Exclusive, the Prius comes with electric windows, power steering, air con, audio, and ABS. As they say on the TV ads, there’s much more.

You get a rather sexy heads-up display,


Drive Test

charged by energy from the brakes, the same principle being used in some of this year’s Formula One GP cars.

Contrary to what some people think, you don’t plug the Prius into the mains at night or between journeys. It is com-pletely self-sufficient and that, in my mind, gives it an edge over a purely electric car which, in South Africa, will

the petrol motor will come in, both to charge the battery and to help move the car along.

You can also choose a power mode for maximum punch and an eco mode, said to improve fuel economy by 15%.

Apart from the petrol motor being used as a source of energy, the battery is also


Drive Test

both eerie and awesome.

The Prius, for all its clever technologi-cal innovation, will remain an oddity and a rarity on South African roads for some time to come, as much for the unusualness of its motive power as for its price. While it might not quite represent the future of motoring, it is a significant part of the journey along that road.

PS: The new Prius has been named as one of the eight finalists in the Car of the Year contest run by the SA Guild of Motoring Journalists and WesBank.

Bruce

have to rely largely on getting its en-ergy from coal-fired power stations.

Toyota claims fuel economy of 4.1litres/100km and while I did not do as well as that I did see figures below 5litres/100km, something I have, until now, achieved only in Nissan’s diesel Micra, a far smaller car.

The most striking thing about the Prius, still, is that if the battery is fully charged, there is no sound of the engine starting up. You get behind the wheel, press the Start button, and a “ready” sign comes up in the instrument binnacle. Slip the car into Drive or Reverse using the lu-minous green gear knob, The feeling of driving away in complete silence is

Drive Vitals Toyota Prius Gen 2Engine 1.8-litre Hybrid Synergy Drive

Power 73kW (petrol) + 60kW (electric)

Torque 142 Nm (petrol) + 207 Nm (electric)

0-100km/h 10. 4 seconds

Top speed 180 km/h

Price R326 200 (Advanced)


Drive Test


Drive Test

fourth gen model enjoyed much success on the racetrack winning, among oth-ers, both British and World Superbike championships. Unfortunately though the ‘Blade was being beaten up by it’s rivals in group tests and you didn’t want your mates running away from you on the road just because James Toseland

was winning on the track.

No, it was time for Honda to get the FireBlade back to the spir-it of the original and that’s exactly what they did. Al-though when it was launched the new ‘Blade was widely criticised for its unattractive looks, it looked like it had been whacked on the front with a shovel, it was an aerody-namically superior design. Since the launch though, we have gotten used to it and some in-

Opening statementThe Honda FireBlade has been around since 1992 and is regarded as the first of the modern superbikes. By the time the FireBlade reached its fourth incar-nation, it had put on some middle age spread, lighter than the original but much heavier than the model it replaced. The


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differences really were. All of you track riders that believe ABS and Sports bike are words that should never appear in the same sentence can put those thoughts right out of your minds. The system doesn’t act like a nanny state safety fascist continually spoiling your fun. In fact as far as braking goes, you would be hard pressed to even notice that the ABS is there at all. If anything the ABS model has better initial bite and overall feel. The only time it does get a bit nanny state on you is when you want to impress your friends with a stoppie.

The combined braking system works at keeping the back wheel on the ground for stability, which is a good thing. But if you are the kind of rider that likes to spend time on one wheel, it will have to be the back one.

Yes the non-ABS bike is quicker off the mark and slightly more agile but that’s as a consequence of the 11 kilo weight difference. Overall though, I found the ABS bike more satisfying to ride. Both

cluding myself even find it attractive particularly in race rep livery. It is how-ever a design that needs a good col-our scheme to enhance it. Our orange Repsol rep looked spectacular but the dark blue and silver is a little bit under-stated.

To ABS or Not to ABS that is the questionIn the interest of safety though, Honda have added Combined Antilock Brakes, as an option, which does add 11 kilos to the weight and 10 grand to the price.

Now Sport bike riders usually turn their noses up at ABS systems and for good reason. In the past ABS on a motorcycle was over sensitive, intrusive and had to be disabled for track riding. Honda must be confidant with their system to have added it to their flagship super-bike without even so much as an on off switch.

We got hold of both an ABS as well as a “standard” FireBlade to see what the

“All of you track riders that believe ABS and Sports bike are words that

should never appear in the same sentence can put those thoughts

right out of your minds.”


Drive Test

range which takes a bit of getting used to. It does however pull cleanly and ea-gerly right from 4000 until the rev limiter curtails your enthusisam. The gearch-ange is quick and precise and together with an incredibly lightweight clutch it’s quite easy to get the front wheel off the gournd – unintetionally – changing be-twween first and second, particularly when pushing hard. In fact when racing an Audi R8 on the Non-ABS bike, I had to roll of to put the front wheel down –

and then still stayed ahead of the car.

Ride and handlingI found the riding position a little bit un-

bikes are phenomenal on the track but the extra weight means that you have to work with the bike a bit more and at the end of a session you feel a huge sense of achievement. I guess I’m just one of those strange people with maso-chistic tendencies.

PerformanceThe FireBlade is properly fast . 160Km/h in first gear before topping out just short of 300 and that’s only because of a Gen-

tlemans agreement between manufac-turers to limit the top speed of Super-bikes to 299 Km/h. There is definitely a dead spot right at the bottom of the rev


Drive Test

wheel and the riding position is perfect for hanging off through corners. Climb-ing across from one side to the other through the Esses is peotry in motion. The ride which is hard works brilliantly on the track but does tend shake your bones on some of this countries rough roads. You can of course adjust it to suit your own riding but I prefer a more track orientated setting so I left it as it was. The Monoblock callipers provide probaly the best brakes on a modern superbike both in terms of braking ef-

comfortable for my 6 foot frame. It feels like the pegs are too far forward but that is easily cured by fitting rearsets which are in most peoples eyes must have accessories anyway. The bike feels small, more like a 600 than a 1000 and that makes it less comfortable in traffic. Take it out onto the open road though and it takes on a whole new character. We only managed a few laps of Kya-lami but on the track you start to feel that everything is just the way you want it. Your weight is nicely over the front


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You do get a trip computer but it is a little bit fidly and at high speed, the dis-play is difficult to read. All of the infor-mation is there when you stop but when you’re in a hurry and trying to decide if you’ve got enough fuel to get home, you’ll wish you had eaten more carrots.

ficiency and feel.

EquipmentThe new FireBlade is light on equip-ment compared to some of its rivals. You don’t get dual speed suspennsion settings and you don’t get a lap timer.


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of people that walk up to you and say “Great bike. I want one of those.” We were fortunate enough to keep the 2 Fireblades a lot longer than a standard road test. By the time the bikes went back, it was as though someone was taking one of my children away.

ConclusionIs the FireBlade the best superbike available today? Well that’s a difficult question to answer. It is certainly the best of the current Japanese offerings as an all round track and road machine. You might prefer some Latin exotica but you’ll have to dig much deeper in your pocket for an Italian compettitor.

Steve

You buy a FireBlade for its blissterring perfomance and sublime handling not because it’s loaded with gimmicks.

EconomyWhilst we don’t usually buy superbikes to save fuel, it is worth mentionoing that the FireBlade is surprisingly economi-cal. On one of our road trips where our average speed was well above the le-gal limit, the non-ABS machine retured 17.5 K’s per litre. Even the heavier ABS bike returned an average of 15.7 K’s per litre with a mixture of high speed road riding and commuting.

DesirabilityThere can be no doubt that the Honda is desirable. The number of viewing it gets whenever it’s parked bears teste-mant to that. Not to mention the number

Drive Vitals Honda CBR1000RR FireBladeEngine Inline 4 Cylinder

Capacity 1000cc

Power 131 kW

Torque 112 Nm

Kerb weight (kg) 199kg Standard, 210kg ABS

Price non-ABS model R137 999

ABS modelR147 999

When I was told that my fi rst road test for Drive would be a one litre Suzuki I was naturally very interested, upon discovering however that my editors had arranged a, near as make no difference, pink Suzuki Alto instead of a GSX-R I didn’t see the funny side. So now I have the Alto, a small and economical city-car.


Drive Test

and actually chose the least frequented parking lot which was further away just so no one I knew would see me. I’m sure its styling will appeal to the fairer sex though, particularly in this colour. I understand that the Alto isn’t supposed

to be a petrol heads performance dream but I still think there is some way to go for the Alto in this department. The Alto

As a compact car the Alto actually looks quite nice, our test unit however was the worst possible colour available which completely overshadowed any aesthet-ic appeal the exterior may have had for me. I am just going to say it up front, if

you are a man don’t get the Alto in this colour, it is embarrassing. At one point I needed to park at a shopping centre

“I am just going to say it up front, if you are a man don’t get the Alto in this

colour, it is embarrassing.”


Drive Test

thing that should have alleviated torque problems somewhat. So for a car that is supposed to be all about economy, when you have to rev the thing until the valves pop out to go anywhere, fuel economy is compromised. This type of engine also subsequently means a lot of shifts, par-ticularly down shifts if shown just a hint of an uphill, which once again hinders fuel economy. I really think a stronger engine in this car would have been more effi cient if driven properly, a theory sup-ported by a distinct lack of fuel economy fi gures for the Alto on Suzuki’s website spec sheet. To be fair the fuel economy

has a three cylinder 1 litre motor, which is fi ne for a compact car tipping the scales at 895kg’s, it even has a slightly amenable growl for a brief moment, but how the engine is set up is the problem. You see the Alto’s peak power of 50kW at 6000rpm is actually quite sprightly but the ‘hamster-on-a-wheel’ under the bon-net doesn’t have any toque whatsoever lower down, apparently its peak is 87Nm at 4500rpm with a relatively wide torque band. I’m not convinced of this, there just isn’t enough lower down and all the power is up top. This is strange consid-ering that the engine is a triple, some-


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not fun because you are constantly on and off the brakes.

The 5-speed manual in the Alto is ex-cellent, and is undeniably my favourite aspect of the car. The clutch is short and smooth and the gear shifts are a real breeze, which is good in itself but a huge selling point when considering one of the Alto’s major target markets-

fi rst time drivers. Many learner drivers struggle with manuals, on shift and pull-off, the Alto will make learning to drive easier than many cars. Combine this with acceptable handling, a comfortable ride over bumps and potholes as well as power steering with a great turning circle and you have nice fi rst-car pack-

was good, just not amazing.

I don’t like the brakes, and it is a shame because when you plant you foot fi rmly they are vigorous enough. When you gently push the brakes however there is nothing there, so you push harder and still nothing. Harder still because that barrier is getting awfully close now and still there is nothing. Then all of a sud-

den you get everything at once and your face hits the windscreen as a result of the impressive stopping power of the ABS system. The brakes have an alarm-ing de facto deadzone, there is no in be-tween or breaking progression and for a city-car it is annoying. Sitting in a traffi c jam, an inevitability for a city-car is just


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have been better. And the problem with the said ‘good points’ is that a lot of them only come with the overpriced GLS mod-el. It will get to 160km/h though, but we do that so you don’y have to, seriously it’s not recommended.

Kyle Stone

age. In fact the Alto GLS is very well equipped, but is in my opin-ion a little overpriced for what’s on offer. I can’t however say the same for the GL model.

The Alto is a good compact city-car, price aside and col-our of course. The big problem I have with it however is that there are just too many small issues that could have so eas-ily been avoided. The spongey brakes for one, the oversized right A-pillar that makes some right turns like the Cork-screw at Laguna Seca for another. You just turn the wheel and hope the corner is there because you can’t see anything. The Alto is not bad, it’s actu-ally got several good points, it just could

Drive Vitals Suzuki Alto GLS Engine Three cylinder petrol

Induction Naturally aspirated

Capacity 996cc

Power 50kW

Torque 87Nm

Kerb weight 895kg

Driven wheels Front Wheel Drive

Price R119 900

The people at GM have tried hard to persuade us that the Lumina Ute is a 2-seat sports car with a big boot. Russell fell for the hype and tried to

drive it like a sports car, which didn’t go as well as he had hoped. I on the other hand completely ignored the marketing people and drove it the way it was de-signed, as a luxury pick up truck.

The word “ute” is an Australian abbrevi-ation of Utility, and translated to South African means Bakkie. It may sound more glamorous in Australian but it still means the same thing.

I secretly am a lover of all things Ameri-can – well maybe not all things. I stop short of American politics and obesity. I am a closet country music fan and I love V8’s. American cars in this country are thin on the ground so the Lumina Ute is about as close as we can get to an American truck and it really ap-pealed to me. Even the name – Chevy – was right.

I got myself a Stetson and took my country music compilation CD with me and went for a drive. I felt really at home in the Ute with the music playing and my arm out the window. Just a pity it was raining that day. The roofline is


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don’t use their Ute’s as bakkies but they should. You could drive around with half a ton of cement in the back and not even know it was there. It’s big too; you could have a family of refugees living in the load bed and still have room for your building materials. The automatic gearbox works well and I think that go-ing for a manual would be pointless, it would ruin the whole secret American experience.

a bit lower than a real American truck so your hat touches the roof but there is more than enough headroom when you’re not wearing headgear.

The Chev with its big 6-litre engine is not short of power and yet it doesn’t do an-ything that would scare your grandma. There is just that wonderful deep down surge every time you press the throttle with enough torque to drag small build-ings around behind you. Most owners


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I say as cool as you feel because you certainly don’t look cool, not in this country anyway. Everywhere I went people sarcastic comments about Brak-pan folk and people whose mother was also their sister. I don’t know why peo-ple here are so derogatory about this type of vehicle but the fact that they don’t get it didn’t put me off. If I were in America or Australia they wouldn’t be laughing at me.

What is different in America of course is the price of gas and the trick in the Lumina is not to look at the fuel compu-ter. As you might expect from a 6-litre lump, fuel consumption is staggering returning around 16 l/100km. Of course this is not an American car and In Aus-tralia fuel is also hellishly expensive but that doesn’t seem to put them off building big-engined cars. I guess that if you spend your day driving around at 50 Km/h you don’t really notice.

I really enjoyed the Lumina Ute but then I’ve never been concerned about what other people think of me.

Steve

The interior is spacious and comforta-ble. It has big leather seats and a wide centre consol so you don’t spend all day rubbing shoulders with your pas-senger. You get plenty of equipment as well. You get cruise control and electric windows as well as Bluetooth as stand-ard so all you need to do is keep one hand on the wheel and waft along ef-fortlessly. There is a 6-disc CD player and dual zone climate control to keep you as cool as you feel.

Earlier this year after all this vehicle was given a pretty impressive title by a local motoring magazine, and beaten out all sorts of just ridiculously tasty, and capable, sports cars in the proc-ess. Performance Car of The Year is the new title on its admittedly broad shoulders, and it was this newfound swagger which to an extent changed

Steve may have requested this Lumina Ute SS for some casual, arm-up cruising complete with cork-dangling ten-galloner on his head and

some straw sprouting from between his lips, but I came to the big AusYankian bakkie from a totally different perspec-tive.

only once every few years, at the most. It has to really, or what’s the point?

But it can be a dangerous force too. In fact, in this case, it established unreal-istic preconceptions, possibly.

the way I was looking at it. I think it changes the way we all look at our cars

after all, enthusiasts who drink in the words of motoring journalists all year long despite actually purchasing cars

“...I came to the big AusYankian bakkie from a totally different perspective.”


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original version, actually fits in with the unashamedly Hick nature of the thing and its muscle-car roots. Performance cars for the masses they were, not the super-elite!

It’s usefully quick though, more than savagely fast, our thin atmosphere at the Reef seeming to rob more from the lazy, truck-like V8 than some straight-sixes I know. Even so, it makes the accumulation of some major speed all rather effortless, the motor never really seems to be working too hard even if extended to the redline in every gear, yet the needle on the speedo maintains

It’s certainly a charming brute, the Ute. Big and aggro, yet as cuddly as the children’s favourite character it can be painted the colour of. In a much more grown-up shade of red, our car looked

the absolute nuts. And the 6.0 badges on the flanks just make it that much better.

It’ll make the enthusiast smile every time, the bearish V8 bursting into life with a chassis-twisting boom before settling to a muted but still burbly idle. Even the cheap and plasticky interior, admittedly much improved over the


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tion – a complex blend of attributes which come together to form the com-plete picture of any car. And the SS Ute, well...

Again, it isn’t like I dislike the Chevy. Especially when taken in the context of its price. Besides the unique duality of

bakkie and sports car in one, where it quite literally stands alone.

its clockwise trajectory very impres-sively right round to 200.

But to take on anything of the sort from established stables, the precision of

BMWs M3 for instance, or the absolute joy of Aston’s V8 Vantage range, takes a bit more than that. It really takes a

whole added layer or two, of finesse, involvement, control, and sophistica-

“After all, even earlier-generation Corvettes from which, of course, the Ute gets its big

heart, proved inadequate”


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automatic transmission, the brakes are also a concern. There never seems to be enough stopping power as there is potential for speed needing scraping off. And when you do call for the most

from them the suspension once again betrays the balance as the heavy front end dives for the tarmac, the resultant pitch sending the powered rears up-wards away from the contact patch for some heart-stopping moments.

But dynamically there are some issues. After all, even earlier-generation Cor-vettes from which, of course, the Ute gets its big heart, proved inadequate against the stratospheric dynamic abili-

ties of Europe’s finest from Stuttgart and even Maranello. And similar short-comings hamstring this car.

The steering for instance is vague and lifeless. So much so that traversing our new, narrower, unlit, pockmarked nightmare the highways and byways around Jo’Burg have become since I last ran a Ute along them, is quite a hair-raising experience, and it’s not just the imminent threat of power oversteer that incapacitates you. Throw in some rain and you’d honestly rather just stay parked-up, although there is electronic traction control now.

Especially when allied to this SportShift

“But these new expectations, and to a certain degree the changing of

our every day driving situations as Jo’Burgers, actually

made our reacquaintance a touch bitter-sweet...”


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Yes, the red dials with their V8 logos and the SS splattered on the bulkhead behind the seats all do add some to the romance, but you only pay any heed to these when you’re cruisin’ the boul-evard, so to speak, and as Steve ap-

preciated. The Performance Car of the Year though should seldom be seen in-dulging in these moments. It’s a whole other measurement criteria.

The funny thing is, I recall writing about


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Drive Test

what it does, and makes a powerfully emotional case for itself with a comfort-able ride, entertaining handling and a really nice exhaust note. And it definitely does have the biggest boot you’re ever going to see on any pseudo-sportscar. As a focussed driver’s car, well, un-less you absolutely had to ferry a quad, some dirt bikes, or a few soon-to-be-vomiting-all-over cows fairly regularly, you might consider saving a hundred grand or so and buying a GTI or WRX saloon instead - larger bank accounts are likely to prefer the honed, polished benchmark that is the M3, or a 335i or S4 for that matter.

And compared to a 911, any 911 even one from the mid-80s? I think you prob-ably already know the answer to that one actually.

the launch of this exact model, and on the mountainous roads of Mpumalan-ga the strides this SS had taken over its predecessor were vast and the car absolutely commendable. But these new expectations, and to a certain degree the changing of our every day driving situations as Jo’Burgers, actu-ally made our reacquaintance a touch bitter-sweet. Oh, and then there’s the ludicrous thirst.

And it just doesn’t deliver enough of that pure thrill of performance driving to live up to such an exalted position. As an icon of excess, just the type of vulgar over-muscled yet strangely un-derwhelming expression you expect of the two countries it could call home, the Lumina Ute SS actually goes way be-yond what an impressive target would be, make no mistake. It’s very good at

Drive Vitals Chevrolet Lumina SS UteEngine 6.0-litre petrol V8

Power 270kW@5700rpm


0-100km/h Sub-6 seconds

Top speed 240 km/h

Price R405 600

An interlude in the action. A brief pause for a comm’s catchup and some sleep in a busy two-day schedule. There was a lot to get through.

Tomorrow things will be getting serious. Rather than the same old comparisons, we’ve foregone the Porsches and Astons and GT-Rs for something, well, a bit different. And first thing tomorrow morning the R8 will square up against this protagonist at Kyalami, with racers at the helm of each, for some friendly lappery. The Audi might appear to have a mountain to climb, but at Drive ultimate track times are not exclusively the measure of a car.


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take on the matter. And it has to start with clarity on our ultimate definition of the term.

Very strangely for the Drive office,

we’re actually all broadly agreed on the essential ingredients necessary for su-percardom. In no particular order they distil down to these points;

Earth-moving looks. Aesthetics which, in short, quicken your pulse even be-

Particularly a car as downright delec-table as this one. An R8. No not only an R8 in fact – the Big Boy. The full-fat unfiltered V10. Ingolstadt’s supercar, nothing less.

But is it?There are plenty, however, who question its status as a full-blooded supercar. Too useable day to day, too clinical, too efficient, too sensible, too “mainstream” a badge. We’d like to take this opportunity to give you our


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ably. The sort of thrust which just never seems to run out of breath.

Soul-nourishing noises. A soundtrack nothing short of epic. An event just to hear scream by, and a constant remind-er of the quantity of engine shoehorned into as compact and lightweight a plat-form as possible. Preferably spinning smoothly but with zero-inertia alacrity to unfeasible rev-limits. Today I’ve been blatting about Jo’Burg in this R8 V10 seeking the answers to the tricky question, “Is it a proper, red-blooded supercar?” all over. Tomorrow after taking on the ‘Blade we’ll also be heading out to some favourite moun-tain roads to cement our thoughts, but for now it’s been all about asking as many people’s opinions as possible, giving joyrides to friends of Drive, and even a couple of enthusiastic members of JMPDs finest!

In fact, perhaps that story is a good place to start.

So you have an R8 V10 for a couple of days and are keen to do something interesting with it. Yet here you are, stuck in a hot and sticky logjam waiting for the police to steadily work their way

fore any of the mechanical experience hits you. Which turn heads wherever you go. Which you cannot help but look back at when you walk away. And most importantly, which causes ripples like

the landing of little green men wherev-er it goes. Mind-scrambling performance. Power which just piles on speed relentlessly, pinning you to your seat through the first four gears, and then charging on to three figures beginning with a 3, prefer-


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because these are “mere” sportscars, and lack the gargantuan presence of this surprisingly compact little rocket-ship.

It isn’t only police who are affected. Park the R8 up anyplace at all and the crowd quickly focusses. If you hap-pen to be getting-in, the simple act of starting the engine is enough to please

most of them, the V10 ripping into life with a little blip up to 2000rpm, sound-ing every inch the supercar powerplant supporting the outlandish looks.

It’s seemingly gravitational force of at-traction for everything around it has been supremely crafted. Start with a standard R8 V8, itself a stunning car but decidedly more girly, more TT, than this V10 version. The front gains huge air-inlets beneath each headlight clus-ter complete with piano-black cross-bars in front of menacing black meshed grille. The back end is made similarly more purposeful, piano-black slatting dominating everything below the high-

through roadblocked cars up ahead. Of course, the R8 can’t avoid getting pulled.

“What do you need officer, my license, car details...?” I begin.

“None of that really, but can you give me a ride up to those robots and back in your car, flat-out?”

“Errr, sure jump in,” is my response. Then to his supervisor who has taken the rapidly-vacated place at the driv-er’s window. “You know, I’m going to be touching 200 by the time I get to those lights. You’re not going to arrest me then are you?”

A hearty laugh reassures me. “No we won’t don’t worry, go for it.”

This is the power of a supercar at work. I’ve been yanked in some seri-ous machines before, Aston V8 Van-tages, Beemer M6s, Porker Boxsters, and each time been met with belliger-ence and general aggression. That’s

“It’s seemingly gravitational force of attraction for everything around it has

been supremely crafted.”


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just about be enough to propel the R8 firmly into supercar territory.

We’ve got two days, well Monday morn-ing to Tuesday evening, to find out for sure. In this time we’ll end up covering around 850kms, throwing everything SA has at the car including Kyalami, Bushveld, inner-city and a huge degree of highway surfaces along the way. And we call this work. We know, you hate us.

mounted LED taillights, and eventually this area is truncated itself by a pro-nounced splitter sprouting from beneath the two, big-bore oval exhausts. The ride is lower, the extended wheelarches perfectly filled by the sticky 295/30/19 wheels and tyres, and there’s a new lip to the front splitter as well.

All suggest whole new levels of per-formance in all areas - aerodynamic, accelerative, aesthetic, which ought to


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rpm in top. It’s just indomitable every-where, mind-sharpening thrust just a flex of the ankle away.

I couldn’t quite understand the queasi-ness in my gut all morning, worried I was coming down with something that was going to ruin my time with this

beauty. I did recog-nise the sensation at last though, as sheer nerves. Butterflies, as they say, at pilot-ing a near 400-k W mid-

engined 300km/h plus monster through the vagaries of Joeys traf-fic. Yet it takes just 45 minutes in the R8 for that sensation to be (largely) dispelled. The car shrinks around you, shrugging off the R2-m pricetag and hardcore focussed dynamics to allow you to start ex-ploring its limits quite quickly.

Conquering the roadDriving an R8 V10 around Jo’Burg and surrounds even if just for a couple of days was a rare privilege which we worked to its fullest. It is just addictive in every way. Once you’ve gotten beyond the sculpt-ed but intimidating look, bum firmly en-sconced in the Com-mand Seat, well there’s still a whole lot more to look for-ward to, the tacho redlined at a dizzying 8500 rpm and speedo run-ning right round to 350km/h sombre re-minders of the utterly ballistic nature of the device.

Reminders you really don’t need, as long as that engine is running. An absolute gem, it idles with a distinct bassiness, opens its throats into full song at 4000 – 5000rpm, and then just goes berserk with a cultured shriek of frenzied acceleration. It wakes you up every time. And yet despite the crazy redline, it’s so civilised and flexible, pulling meaningfully even from 2000

“Driving an R8 V10 around Jo’Burg and

surrounds even if just for a couple of days

was a rare privilege which we worked to its

fullest.”


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And that R-Tronic ‘box, especially with Sport mode engaged, utterly brutal about shifting cogs fl at chat. The way it slams second home has the ESP fl ickering as all four wheels try to spin up to release the excess energy being poured into them. I’d spec a manual for sheer me-chanical sympathy though, the very stiff structure bucks as if it’s being twisted as the new ratio is engaged, and you can sense the halfshafts wincing under the strain. A human-controlled clutch pedal would be more sympathetic, for sure.

Not that there isn’t an edge, a sting just waiting to catch the unwary, in the dy-namics of this version, especially com-pared to the crazy agility of the original V8. This is a far more serious proposi-tion after all, and while you could treat the older car with absolute impunity this V10 demands a certain degree of respect. Perfect for a proper supercar, really.

The outright speed knocks your breath clear out your lungs. It’s savagely fast.


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the only time the nose feels anything but laser-locked onto line.

More tellingly however, is that if you climb on the power instead, the man-ic engine, and the additional weight of this midships-mounted V10, come into evidence. This is that evil edge I talked about, the whole car suddenly starts saying “Sure we can do this, just watch yourself now” as the balance shifts into a natural degree of neutral oversteer. A tank-slapper at this speed would not be funny though, or affordable for that matter, and it feels as though if you take too many liberties the car will chew you up. Again, perfect for a proper super-car.

More than the rampant power though, what really pricks your mind into Whoa-what’s-going-on-here mode is the in-formation. The R8 is, a bit unexpect-edly, a vividly communicative thing. The steering and seat of your pants are both alive with rich, detailed feed-back. So when you’re rushing through a fast sweeper at 200km/h, every dy-namic nuance is telegraphed directly into your brain. On a balanced throttle the grip is immense, body-control im-peccable if briefly unsettled by bumps due to the very stiff platform. Lift off, and you instantly sense the need for a fraction more lock, as the front wheels start to understeer just a touch thanks to the Quattro drivetrain. It is just about


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today, would be none other than a su-perbike. The screaming Honda Fireb-lade CB1000R to be precise. The age-old battle as well as an intriguing view into the outright performance of this monster all rolled into just short of two adrenaline-filled hours free of traffic, Metro Police, social acceptability, the lot. Let’s go.

Of course we aren’t leaving the perform-ance from these super-fit machines in our own meaty paws, no we’ve got pros in their fields doing the piloting for us. Thanks to the Audi Driving Experience, 4Rings Driving Academy for loaning us their master instructor as well as resi-dent 2-wheeled racer for this exercise.

R8 Versus Blade - Kyalami shootoutUnfortunately by the time we have the R8 V10, the mainstream print press has run every permutation of pretender-versus-established supercar premise. And Porsche SA, having just seen HQ release a slurry of updates to just about every 911 in the range but most par-ticularly Turbo, wanted to send a newer model anyway for the best current rep-resentation, but didn’t have any in the country as yet just days after the inter-national unveiling.

So, with Kyalami booked for a morn-ing session, we decide the best test for this newcomer to the supercar ranks

Endless thanks Riaan Neveling and Mark Al-lison (yes, like Drive’s own two-wheeled spe-cialist). These guys pound around Kyalami all day long and know the place intimately, and both are talented wheel-men which very few mere civilians or even brash motoring journos would have any chance of out-running without using a pencil for the lap timing sheets rather than the more-permanent ink of a pen.

It’s the bike up first. Naturally the rivalry has come up in the office al-ready, for weeks now in fact ever since we first planned this outing. Ste-ve reckons the bike even

on street rubber should be good for a minute 55. I’ve seen reports (in hindsight, ones written using the aforementioned lead-based recording method) sug-gesting the Audi would run a minute 57, 58. Close enough to be interesting at the very least, and de-spite the evidence my flag remains firmly behind four wheels at all times.

The rains the night before give me even more hope. A damp track could see the R8 snatching victory from

the jaws of defeat, four-wheel-drive ver-sus one. But the morning dawns bright and clear, and the track nicely dry and grippy, although both drivers did find the slight sheen of residue from the evening’s precipitation made things a bit tricky.

The ‘Blade heads out first, and Riaan is clearly having some fun with us,

which is good since that was the whole thinking behind this feature. He has at least half a dozen sighting laps gradu-ally building pace and tyre temperature before unleashing three full flyers and returning to the pits only when time constraints see us flagging him down. Then it’s the cars turn, and the pres-sure is on. The Audi gets a warmup lap and two full-on runs and that’s it.

From the side of the track, the V10 is clearly moving and the driver fully com-mitted, although both our pros have been informed they aren’t in fact qualify-ing for F1 championship points, a veiled plea which racers just cannot seem to remember when the smooth tarmac is flowing beneath their wheels. So, OK, he’s probably about 8/10ths committed in fact. But the V10 sounds intoxicat-ing, if that little bit more relaxed than

the screaming V8 version. The addition of just two cylinders and an extra litre in capacity making all the difference be-tween zinging, high-revs V8 and yowl-ing, high-tech supercar motor.

Now you want to know the lap don’t you? Car, or bike?

The slower time, a 2:01.6, was post-ed by the ‘Blade. The R8 a mere 0.4

s quicker at 2:01.2. As soon as Riaan gets this news sitting on the pit wall, he hops off with the look of a man who’s just getting started on his face. “I’m off to set that bike up properly,” he mutters back to my querying glance. Unfortu-nately, the challenge was specifically for a single-lap, sudden-death type re-sult, everything totally stock, one hot-test lap the decider. And therefore, de-cided it has been!

It’s an astonishing result. It’s an as-tonishing car too. That bike is properly quick, nothing but a true red-blooded supercar can hope to match its pace. But the R8 V10 is an absolute weapon, shattering the V8 cars reputation for be-ing merely quick rather than positively scintillating in one fell swoop.


Drive Feature

it’s stop, the Audi’s throttle is already nailed and the shove is immense, the response positively tigerish. In a sprint from a decent cornering lick of 60 km/h to beyond 200km/h sees the ‘Blade put about a car length, at the most, on the demented V10. Yes, it is that fast. And the lumps and dips of a regular South African road actually give it an advantage, where the bike is having to tap off just a fraction now and again as the weight unloads off the rear-wheel, the AWD Audi can stay to-tally focussed.

On the Run These two speed machines stay to-gether the whole day and it isn’t long before I get a vivid example of just how the car was able to beat its lap time. You imagine that the R8 would corner faster and brake harder, and the su-perbike then have it’s way again on the straights. The thing is, it definitely does turn with a substantial amount more speed, and brake so beautifully and, again surprisingly, with fulsome feel coming back through the middle pedal, but then when the road opens up and the Blade in front is twisted round to


Drive Feature

specialist. It’s pliant enough to be used

on the vast majority of our road surfac-

es without going home with a broken

front lip (we did scrape it once, on a

particularly nasty speedbump) or fir-

ing you off into the Bushveld due to the

extreme stiffness of the thing. Yet the

control is absolute, provided you bear

the weight of the V10 and the extreme

speeds you’ll be travelling at in mind,

the AWD traction practically unshake-

able and ultimately tuned for safe un-

dersteer in the worst of situations. Not

that it can’t be provoked into gratuitous

controllable slides using the full fury of

And so completely does it engage emo-tionally, that even when a superbike isn’t filling your screen you’re tempted to unleash the glory that resides just over your left shoulder at every opportu-

nity. You somehow feel that other road-

users have clocked the supercar shape

and are expecting the entire show, and

the R8 gives them what they’re looking

for as the electronics blip the seeming-

ly zero-inertia engine for the downshift,

and that scintillating bellow erupts from

the pair of large oblong tailpipes!

It’s multi-dimensional satisfaction as

well, the Audi is no one-trick drag-strip


Drive Feature

the Lamborghini-related motor.

We can see some of the points

those that dismiss it from the su-

percar ranks have made. The in-

terior is, in fact, decidedly famil-

iar to other Audi drivers, perhaps

not matching the exotic nature of

the metalwork for sheer flair, but

that also means it’s beautifully-

built and everything is perfectly

placed! It’s even easy to see out

of, and you aren’t left blind while

reversing.

From the outside, we can see

how the original V8 was consid-

ered slightly too dainty for en-

try into the hardcore supercar

club as well. But the changes

made to the V10 highlight this

by transforming the car into the

complete opposite without com-

pletely changing the gorgeous,

flowing shape.

Yes, for a supercar, the R8 is al-

most sensible. Even in this more

pumped-up guise, you could con-


Drive Feature

Audi after all, and therefore inherently

well-built and reliable, and yet it runs

with the most hugely expensive exotica

on emotional terms, every single day if

you really want it to. You’ll never tire of

it, never feel short-changed regardless

of what pulls up beside you at the lights,

and never once think of it as anything

less than a supercar to its wailing V10

heart.

It is quite simply sensational, and a

huge step on from the V8 particularly

from an emotional point of view. And,

with absolute conviction, a genuine su-

percar.

Russell

sider using it daily, the tractable motor

is never anything less than completely

on top of proceedings, and although it

draws gazes like flypaper it isn’t com-

promised at low-speeds or too fazed

by bumpy tar. It even has a fair-sized

“boot” in the nose, and is very comfort-

able for hours on end inside.

But the V10 introduces the precisely

right kind of madness to the mix. Mad

speed, mad power, mad cornering abil-

ities. And a noise so beautiful and pure,

yet so utterly savage that it is the epit-

ome of unfiltered madness.

In fact, it very nearly makes the price-

tag of just on R2-m, without options,

seem like rather good value. It is an

Drive Vitals Audi R8 V10 R-TronicEngine 5.2-litre petrol V10

Power 386kW@8000rpm



Top speed 316 km/h

Price R1 950 000

157

Drive Test

Middleweight naked bikes are gaining in popu-larity at a surprising rate. Nakeds appeal to people that fi nd the riding position of a dedi-cated sports bike too extreme. People that aren’t ready to don a high vis vest and go

touring. People that still want to have fun and yet maintain an element of practicality. Nevertheless some fi nd the litre class naked offerings a bit too hard-core. It’s no surprise that the Z750 is the best selling Motorcycle in France given their ridiculous 100 horse power limit for bikes.

There is no question that the styling department at Ka-wasaki has created a real looker. The metallic green of our test example really enhances the lines, distinctly Ka-wasaki and yet much more attractive than the flat lime green.

Jump on the bike for the first time and ride away and you could be forgiven for thinking you were on an electric bike. The fuelling in common with so many Kawasaki’s is simply as good as it gets. The bike responds instantly and accurately to every movement of your wrist. Then there is the noise - or should I say the lack of it. I know the do-gooder green people put pressure on manufactur-ers but this bike takes it to the extreme. It’s so quiet that when you stop at a set of lights you have to look at the rev counter to see that the engine is still running.

The exhaust pipe is big enough to hold a dance in. Still, it will probably end up on a shelf at the back of the garage as owners look to the aftermarket to unleash some po-nies and decibels, saving weight in the process.

Now you might be thinking that buying a 750 you would


Drive Test

you the impression that you’re about to be left on the road on your arse. If any-thing, the Z feels a bit weak at fi rst, sure it’s as quick as any 600 naked but it’s a 750 so you sort of expect a bit more. Apparently this is deliberate to cater for the buyer that doesn’t want the edgi-ness of the Z1000.

have a power advantage over those that went for a 600 naked but you’d be wrong. What you do get is more torque, which is spread evenly across the rev range. Unlike Kawasaki sports bikes, the Z750 delivers power cleanly right from the bottom of the rev range to the red line. Cranking open the throttle doesn’t give


Drive Test

holds its line and doesn’t do anything to scare you but it does feel a bit wallowy particularly with my weight on board. Unlike some of its competitors though, it does have fully adjustable suspension so you can dial in some stiffer settings.

Out on the back road the little Ka-w a s a k i

managed to run up to just short of 240 km/h and remained completely stable – with the wind behind it anyway. Turn-ing onto the next section of road with a cross wind the bike started to get a little bit unsettled at around 190km/h High speed corners with a cross wind set off a bit of head shake, nothing too seri-ous but an inexperienced rider might have needed a change of underpants. A steering damper would certainly cure the problem and not only are they rea-sonably inexpensive, they look cool as well.

One area where the Z750 is found want-ing is braking. The brakes will stop you but the low budget callipers lack initial bite and feel. You do fi nd yourself pull-ing hard on the lever when trying to shed speed.

The Z750 is nev-ertheless an en-joyable bike to ride and if stunt-ing is your thing it is an ideal wheel-

ie machine. The excellent fuelling makes it so easy to control on one wheel. In the real world out on the breakfast run I had no problem keeping up with the rest of the group on more powerful bikes. On a particularly bumpy road I ac-

tually ran away from the others with my softer suspension soaking up imperfec-tions with ease. I arrived feeling relaxed and all of my fi llings remained in place.

The softer suspension compromises handling through high-speed corners. It

“The softer suspension compromises handling

through high-speed corners.”


Drive Test


Drive Test

though and the lack of a wind deflecting fairing will take its toll. I managed just 180 km on 13 litres of burning dust.

I had a lot of fun on the Z750 and as an all rounder it works well. Given the extra torque from the 750 engine and the adjustable suspension it is just a cut above the competition. The asking price makes it look like a real bargain.

Steve

Inexperienced riders and born again bikers want a bike that’s easy to man-age and yet looks cool as well. Fear not, from that point of view the Z750 is high on the desirabilty stakes. It’s a bike that you can ride to work and back on and then go out on a breakfast run on the weekend. It will even handle the occsional track day.

A full tank of fuel will keep you going for about 240 km when you are riding at sensible speeds. Start pushing hard

Drive Vitals Kawasaki Z750Engine in-line 4 cylinder

Capacity 750cc

Power 77.7 KW (105HP)

Torque 78 Nm

Dry Weight 203 kg

Price R79 995

alternative for the same sort of money, especially if we’re talking the 1.8-litre fully-loaded automatic version.

That’s the world of the premium hatch. Also range-toppers, our selection adds just R20K or so to the price of the Cruze but ought to be richly confi gured as a result.

The new Chevy comes to blows with an updated Mazda 3 and Honda Civic hatches.

Chevrolet’s new Cruze, the company it-self insists, competes most directly with models like Toyota’s Corolla sedan, and VWs Jetta series. But there is another

pact 5-door bodies to lure buyers into their embrace. Perfect to really test the breadth of effort behind the Cruze, in other words.

ExteriorBoth hatchbacks are defi nitely sport-ier, but there’s something about the Cruze which is intrinsically appealing.

Besides the Corolla is such an easy tar-get to take pots at. Overpriced, termi-nally austere, and surprisingly basic, it’s one of those vehicles which sells so well purely on the strength of its brand, not on the product itself. This Civic 1.8 LXi and Mazda 3 2.0-litre Individual have to try a whole lot harder, and therefore pack a whole lot more into their com-


Drive Test

to like the Cruze straight away.

It makes the space-age lines of the Civ-ic look overcontrived straight away. The Honda is still an attractive, and decided-ly different option, but it’s looks haven’t aged too gracefully and the Civic range could do with a heavy-handed make-over at this point in its life cycle. The triangular tailpipes still look interesting

Something in the bluff prow and pinched waist which just suggest that Chev-rolet’s international design team has done a better job of capturing the spirit of a Chevy at last in this compact pack-age, rather than just sticking the bowtie badge to any old obscure Eastern de-velopment. It’s a look which really had us hoping that the Cruze would do the business in this shootout. You just have


Drive Test

ful engine of our trio doesn’t hurt, but nor do those attractive, twirling alloys and purposeful facial treatment. Having recently been facelifted it matches the Cruze for freshness step by step. And rides on really nice 17” rims. Yet the Chevy still takes this portion of the test. It’s mature without being utterly bland, sensible without being all sensi-bility. It just looks like the car you want it to be, a mid-sized Chev saloon which is modern, well put together, and priced to sell. The new Mazda 3 certainly runs it close though, slanted more towards sportiness than maturity, and highlights the need for a Civic refresh soon.

InteriorSwing open the door to the Chevy, and you’re in for a big surprise. A pleasant one. Once you’ve settled behind the wheel, you’ll be looking at a dashboard which largely mirrors the exterior – styl-ish, very modern, and with just acres of space in every direction. But especially for front-seat passengers – it’s been a looooong time since, after going through my usual ritual of seat all the way back, all the way down, and wheel as far up and close to my chest as is possible, I’ve actually had to rethink and ratchet the seat forward a notch or two! The NBA’s biggest stars would fi t comfort-

of course, and the clear plastic “grille” section joining the headlight clusters is absolutely unique and eye-catching. But it pales beside the new Mazda 3. In this Individual guise (the only way to get a 2.0-litre 3 these days, the saloons having moved up to a 2.5), this hatch delivers a strong sense of sportiness from the moment you clap eyes on it. Sure having the biggest, most power-


Drive Test


Drive Test

among the fi rst to get really creative with dashboard layout and design in a mainstream product, but it didn’t work that well. It compromises legroom, is a mess of refl ections in sunny conditions (like, every day, here), and like those trick digital Corvette dashes of old, is

looking quite seriously dated now. There’s nice leather interior, and it’s clearly a well-built car. But there’s noth-ing particularly extraordinary in it. In fact, it rather reminds me of another Japanese volume spinner, which GM are specifi cally aiming the Cruze at in fact, which we didn’t include in the end for fear of coming down with a serious case of the Blahs. It’s just effective, does what it should well enough, and also richly specced. In fact in addition to the convenience features on the Mazda for instance, the Honda adds cruise con-trol, automatic aircon, and even rear PDC! The seats are even heated! Not bad, but still strangely unsatisfying.

PerformanceAs for how our 1.8-litre auto-boxed Cruze performed, sadly here the car is quite badly lacking. Lacking decent urge up here, for starters, which in turn high-

ably into one of the Cruze’s front pews. The materials are of a high quality as well, particularly the leather on the seats which feels genuinely plush. The controls and fascia plastics are a bit nasty but they don’t detract too much either. And it’s nicely architected, lots

of fl owing lines forming a space which is modern, roomy, and bright. It’s really trying, and that’s nice. And it’s got all the gadgets this Cruze.

The Mazda counters with pure funki-ness, backed-up by brilliant standard specs. Apart from the gears, which are slick and light with a nice, effort-less clutch action, just about everything else is already automatic. Lights, wip-ers, mirrors etc. And although not quite as sculpted in line it’s nicely mood-lit at night, decidedly younger and brasher in design, and at least as well-built. Leath-er clasps the seats tightly, there’s a pre-mium Bose system already installed, even Keyless Go all standard. It’s ex-ceptional for a R260-grand car. It’s just missing climate control, still featuring only manual aircon.

And it shows up the Honda. Both of them actually do. Now the Civic was

“There’s nice leather interior...”


Drive Test

spec, climate control, auto wipers and lights being the major ones.

The i-VTEC engine of the same capacity in the Honda is defi nitely a bit keener-revving. Still hardly a fi recracker though, but where it really shines is its econo-my! Even working it hard we couldn’t get it to average as high as 8l/100km! And it develops 103kW so getting past 200km/h is on the cards. Although the claimed stats put this car more than a second in front of the larger-engined Mazda, it doesn’t feel accurate, the two cars feel very similar in performance, while the Cruze in this guise defi nitely lags behind them both.

The Civics dynamics are a bit odd. Per-

lights the lack of an adequate auto ‘box. Yet despite being so limp, it certainly en-joys its fuel, averaging 11l/100km with us. With heavy use of the right foot, in search of some meaningful forward mo-tion (and fi nding little)!

It does ride beautifully, like a car from the R300 – R350K bracket would. Han-dling is safe rather than sparkling but without major fl aws, really. It’s not ex-actly an involving drive given these de-tails but it is certainly comfy. Perhaps the much cheaper manual gearbox might help with some driving entertain-ment, the workload also doesn’t entire-ly suit the sheer serenity of the Cruze at, well, a cruise. And that model does lose out on some of the more high-tech


Drive Test

commendable, and when you’re driving a favourite section of road the 3 feels willing to run at the edge for a bit at least.

As for consumption, it looked a little heavy compared to the thrifty Civic, but came in well below the Chevy averaging 10.2l/100km. That’s the price you pay for reengineering and redeploying old-tech engines, as GM has done in the Cruze, none of the newer fuel-effi cient tech is in there.

The lineupThere always has to be a last place in this kind of thing, and this time it be-longs to the Civic 1.8 VXi. And it isn’t even that it does anything particularly

haps it’s just that my most lasting im-pressions of a Civic are from the wheel of a Type R, but there seems to be sur-prisingly little front-end grip on this one. It turns-in well enough, but if you get too aggressive on entry it just starts to un-dersteer without even seeming to really try and dig for anything more. Still, tidy overall, although unsettled at the rear under braking from speed.

Not surprisingly, the 2.0-litre Individual 3 is by far the most exciting of the trio to drive. The 110kW engine isn’t remotely rampant but is nice and muscular with a pleasant four-cylinder raspiness from the exhaust. The gearbox isn’t quite as excellent as the shifter in the Honda, and of course lacks a cog, but it’s also


Drive Test

R210K budget though, or if you’re able to wait, there will be a 2.0-litre turbodie-sel next year thumping out 300Nm!

Which leaves the Mazda 3 2.0-litre In-dividual as the winner in this one. It’s the best-rounded car for the money. We might prefer the look of the Cruze, and the Civic may technically boast the bet-ter spec (but present it so boringly), but the Mazda can even be fun, and isn’t far off on the fi rst two factors either. What’s more, if you must have a boot, the 2.0-litre Individual is only available as a se-dan now, the hatchback version having moved up to a 2.5-litre motor since we had our press demonstrator.

bad, like the Cruze did in the perform-ance part of the test, it just never really works. Never excites, never connects. And yet, if fuel economy is critical to you, there’s no doubt, this is the one you’ll like most. It just isn’t that crucial to us.

Then the one which all won us over un-expectedly, has sadly had to be knocked back to second. The very pleasant Cruze, always a bit out of its depth in this test, has done well to make it into this position, and impressed all of us with its ride, looks, and generous cabin. But the engine and gearbox combo kill it. I’d unreservedly recommend a 1.8-litre manual version to anyone with a “mere”


Drive Test

Drive Vitals Chevrolet Cruze 1.8 LT A/TEngine 1.8-litre Ecotec petrol

Power 104kW@6200rpm



Top speed 190 km/h

Price R244 440

Drive Vitals Mazda 3 2.0 IndividualEngine 2.0-litre petrol

Power 110kW@6500rpm



Top speed 209 km/h

Price R265 300

Drive Vitals Honda Civic 1.8 VxiEngine 1.8-litre i-VTEC petrol

Power 103kW@6300rpm



Top speed 205 km/h

Price R267 900


Drive Test

problems, particularly at altitude. Per-formance - the engine is underpowered and that leads to the automatic gear-box hunting for the right gear. That is bad enough in itself but the gearbox is not up to the standard of modern au-tomatics with slow and lumpy changes and harsh kickdown. Our test vehicle consumed a staggering 11 litres every 100km, which needs to be taken into the equation when buying a car in the value arena. It is a shame, but for the poor performance, this car would be a clear winner.

Steve

The Cruze is an attractive looking car with a well laid out interior. The interior am-bience is very American but quite pleasant and it does

come well equipped. The Automatic gear lever is the size of a walking stick and the trim is a bit plasticky but that’s fi ne in this price bracket and adds to the American car feel. The seats are covered in quality leather and are comfortable to sit in. The Cruze rides like a much more expensive car and although the plastics are cheap, the build quality is right up there with the best.

The Cruze is a car I so much wanted to love but it does have a couple of


Drive Test

mechanical issues.

The Honda may not be any less excit-ing to drive than the Mazda but the “3” is loaded with equipment and feels like an expensive car. The Honda is light on equipment and although well put together has a low rent ambience. That wouldn’t be a problem if you were saving cash but you aren’t, it’s the same price as the Mazda. Where the Civic does shine is in the economy stakes and that has to be considered. The cost of running a ve-hicle can easily outweigh the purchase price over a long period of time, and the Civic barely ever delves into its gas tank to get you around it seems.

The Honda Civic was a de-velopment of a concept that was designed to look like a Spaceship. They have hit the nail on the head from that

point of view with its triangular tailpipes and space age door handles. The theme continues sitting in the drivers seat and at night the dash looks spectacular. The Civic performs well and is not a bad car to drive. So why you might be asking is it at the bottom of the group?

The answer to that question is that it does everything competently and noth-ing spectacularly. It will get you from A to B with the minimum of fuss and being a Honda, probably for years without any


Drive Test

turers. The power whilst not particular-ly outstanding is always available and never leaves you feeling that you need more. The build quality is excellent al-though the appointments are distinctly Japanese, not that that is a bad thing.

There is simply no comparison between the Mazda and the Honda. Both are mid sized Japanese hatchbacks and cost about the same. The Mazda is simply loaded with equipment and drives like a luxury car. The Honda is light on equip-ment and drives like a medium sized hatchback. There really is no justifica-tion for buying a Civic unless it’s space age styling appeals to you.

The Mazda 3 is without doubt the clear winner in this test. Yes it is a lot more expen-sive than the Cruze but it’s worth the extra money for

the engine, which is coupled with one of the most pleasant gearboxes in the business. If Automatic is your prefer-ence though, you’ll have to look else-where. The interior ambience is one of comfort and quality. The Mazda in common with the Cruze includes pretty much every gadget you could wish for without having to dig deep in your pock-et with the options list in your hand.

The Mazda is a pleasant car to drive and the ride really feels like a serious rival to the high-end German manufac-

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


Drive Review

Microsoft into sending us a copy. Which they eventually did. Quite fortuitously, I’d also just won myself a shiny new Xbox 360 Elite, at last replacing the dodgy, limited-capacity Arcade version I’ve been using up until now. A very good thing, as FM 3 has 1.9GB of ex-tra data which has to be installed to a HDD, so I’d have been missing out on a lot! Not with the Elite though, all extra content installed and there’s still 103 GB on the HDD! Score.

A little history – FM 2 was actually the game I bought my Xbox for, like Gran

Forza Motorsport 3Developer: Turn 10Publisher: Microsoft Games StudiosPrice: R699

We love good racing games here at Drive. Why just a month ago we gushed over the latest in the Need for

Speed franchise, Shift, although we did note that the only challenge to this EA titles racing genre dominance, would be Forza Motorsport 3.

So we begged, pleaded, and cajolled


Drive Review

like 500+ expected for the latest eager-ly-awaited PS3 installment. No, it was a little technical nugget called Refresh. Most console games refresh 30 times a second, and that’s because the human eye doesn’t really perceive many more than 25 fps (the refresh rate of PAL vid-eo), so having the actual game engine refresh more often than that seemed a little pointless.

But not in a simulator. In fact, the more times you can get a simulator engine to calculate the effects of your inputs, the more realistic it will feel. After all, driv-

Turismo and Tekken were the only two titles I ever really played on my old PS2. I’m a PC gamer after all. But FM 2 was different. The developers, Turn 10, nailed the racing genre on the head with that title. The recipe isn’t all that complicated but few actually get it quite this spot on.

The things that made this title so far ahead of its competition wasn’t the vis-uals – the graphics were good but there were others out there that were better, even at the time. Or the list of cars – GT owns that space with something


Drive Review

the most accurately modelled driving simulation engines ever released.

It even actually lacked a little in terms of graphical quality, the tracks in par-ticular looking rather bland and flat, although the car models themselves were superb. And that was the reason it never actually became a mainstream title, and was quietly ushered off to

ing a real car is a real-time experience, and every nanosecond there are small reactions in the suspension to the forc-es acting on the car as a whole, lateral and longitudinal Gs, cracks in the sur-face of the tarmac, all have an effect on the chassis and outright balance of a car and have a resultant counter-effect. FM 2 refreshed at 60 Hz, or 60 times per second, and the result was one of


Drive Review

es like the railing on a mountain road not perfectly following the curve of the tarmac itself, sometimes spearing un-expectedly into the width of the road, and obviously bumpy and scarred by years of preventing unfortunate vehi-cles whose drivers have lost control from sailing over the edge to certain doom. So exceptional is the level of road and roadside detail, that you can actually get lost just admiring the scenery on the more, well, scenic tracks. And the actual car models themselves are su-perbly detailed too, even when it’s been a rough race and there’s been some contact in the field.

GT may have a larger overall selection, but the Turn 10 chaps know their cars and have made great choices on what to include. And not just in terms of the latest hypercars, which includes the likes of the Lamborghini Reventon and Bugatti Veyron, but a delightful number of real old-school classics. What’s more, some of the more “mundane” of these babies are as cheap as chips – a pristine Golf GTi Rabbit for 5000 Cred-its, for instance, or the original E30 M3 for a mere 15 grand. Ferrari 250 GTO? That’ll be 20-million thank you!

the small niche of hardcore race-sim addicts, while more arcadey-oriented but graphically spectacular titles like Project Gotham Racing took the main stage.

FM 3 looks right away like it’s sole pur-pose is to address this criticism. It is gorgeous. The tracks are rich in realis-tic, finely-textured detail. Small touch-


Drive Review

last lap and, no problem, just reverse time a little bit and give it another shot. I think this has more to do with sav-ing the Xboxes optical drive than really making it much easier for the driver, eliminating endless race-reloads. It can be annoying though, as the “Press but-

ton to rewind Race” reminder pops up at the bottom of the screen, momentar-ily breaking your concentration, for the most minor of infractions. As the bril-liant Robert Duvall says to a rattled Tom Cruise’s character in Days of Thunder; “He didn’t bump you, he didn’t knock you, he didn’t hit you... he rubbed you. And rubbing, son, is racing!” Wish I could get that through to the overen-thusiastic FM 3 reminder system which interrupts your mental flow for the mer-est brush of metal on metal.

Anyway, pick your weapon and get out on the track, and the racing will enthral you. All right, the load times are insane, even compared to the already-lethar-gic Shift. It takes all of four minutes just to load up some of the more de-tailed tracks! Once they are in memory

though, the experience is intoxicating. Each AI driver has individual character-istics for instance and will remain true to them throughout the race. Things like “Will make a mistake under sustained pressure”. Get to know these and you can use them to your advantage, all of which just further draws you in to en-joying the experience.

The developers have also included an interesting little “cheat” in the Rewind mode. Make a race-costing error on the


Drive Review

the next dream car you spotted in the digital dealerships, just to feel how it goes and reacts at maximum attack. Anything poor about it. Yes, in fact. The soundtrack. It’s rubbish. Luckily you can turn it off. We really recommend you do so.

In every other way however it’s the game for hardcore petrolheads this Christmas season. If you have an Xbox there’s absolutely no point in delaying. Order it now. If you don’t, well if you’re as much of a petrolhead as me, go and buy one, and preferably one with some sort of HDD so you can have the ad-ditional content installed. I know it’s a lot of money. Trust us, even if all you ever play on it is Forza 3, it’s worth the outlay. Forget waiting for GranTurismo, if it’s the same as it is in Prologue it’s not even close. Nor is Shift.

Now excuse me while I go and pay my daily tribute to the Turn 10 developers, and for Microsoft Game Studios for recognising the briliance of these guys and publishing this Xbox-exclusive se-ries. They are the emperors of digital motoring enthusiasm, period.

Russell

And, even on a regular Xbox wireless controller, which incidentally is just made for racing titles with its analogue trigger buttons ideal for metering out engine or braking power once you’ve attuned your index fingers, the feel of FM 3 is pretty much unmatched. GT 5

doesn’t deliver this much driving de-tail, nor does Shift. Hit an unexpected compression when you’re fully-commit-ted mid-corner and the stiffer cars will jump off line and require fidgety correc-tion to keep on the track. Cross too far over the rumble strips onto grass and the slippery stuff seems to want to suck you into the wall.

This makes driving each individual car a unique experience, and you become absolutely absorbed in racing to attain


Drive Tunes

Eleven studio albums released, 120 million albums sold worldwide, 2600

of everyday worries. It’s happy and up-lifting, often giving an entirely new feel to the songs – perfect for those trips where you’re going nowhere slowly.

BEST SONGS: Under Pressure feat. Keane; Because the Night feat. KT Tunstall; Beat It feat. Fall Out Boy; Runaway feat. The Zutons.GET IT IF YOU LIKE: Flawless musi-cianship and inspired arrangements

Rhythms Del Mundo Classics is the second non-profit collaborative al-bum fusing an all-star cast of Cuban musicians (Buena Vista Social Club) with some of today’s biggest artists to transform some of our favourite songs into something rare and timeless, all to raise funds and create awareness around the human role in climate change. Cuban beats and melodies weave through the familiar chords and vocals, transporting you to a place free

RHYTHMS DEL MUNDO CLASSICS VARIOUS ARTISTS

Marketed and distributed by Universal Music SA

THE CIRCLE BON JOVI


concerts performed in 50 countries for 34 million fans. This is the rock leg-


Drive Tunes

memorable melodies, solid riffs and a good balance between fast-paces and balladry.

BEST SONGS: We Weren’t Born To Follow, Superman Tonight, Fast Cars, GET IT IF YOU LIKE: Rock that won’t blow the speakers

ends known as Bon Jovi. While their latest album, The Circle, has nothing even closely resembling anthems like Bad Medicine and Living On A Prayer, it remains a welcome addition to the catalogue. It’s more mature, more grown-up but the elements that made Bon Jovi the icons they are remain:

THE PURSUIT JAMIE CULLUM


Jamie Cullum returns with another collection of irresistibly jazzy pop tunes that will have you smiling in next to no time. See, Jamie Cullum is a jazz-rooted pianist with a huge love of pop, in effect bringing the sensibilities of both genres to his music, vocal slides and crisp piano fills included. The Pursuit is all over the place in terms of style, sound and subject matter, mixing main-ly original compositions with a few

classics from the likes of Cole Por-ter and even Rihanna. It’s undoubt-edly his most experimental album to date, and thankfully the results are favourable. It’s ambitious and shows a great disregard for playing things safe.

BEST SONGS: I’m All Over It, Wheels, MixtapeGET IT IF YOU LIKE: The funkier side of jazz


Drive Tunes

Portuguese-Canadian superstar Nelly Furtado returns with her fourth studio

liant songs (definitely more emotive than Leona Lewis’s version). Up To Now is the band’s own way of stopping to reflect on their success and leaves you safe in the knowledge that there’s more to come.

BEST SONGS: Chasing Cars, Crack The Shutters, You’re All I Have, Choc-olate, RunGET IT IF YOU LIKE: Authentic Irish rock

Up To Now is essentially a selection of assorted classics, a smidgeon of new tracks and a couple of live performanc-es by Northern-Ireland’s Snow Patrol, a band that’s amazingly been around for fifteen years but only hit the big time when Chasing Cars ended up in Grey’s Anatomy. Perhaps that’s why their mu-sic still sounds so fresh: they’ve got a vast, unheard back catalogue! Chas-ing Cars remains a highlight, as does Crack The Shutters, their most recent hit. Run remains one of their most bril-

UP TO NOWSNOW PATROL


MI PLANNELLY FURTADO


album – her first full-length Spanish album, Mi Plan. After the unbelievable


Drive Tunes

success she achieved with Timbal-and on 2006’s Loose, Mi Plan signals a slight change in direction. The first single, Manos al Aire, became Nelly’s first solo number 1 on the Billboard Hot Latin Tracks chart and made her the first North-American artist to achieve a numer 1 with an original Spanish song on the chart. It could be her Por-tuguese heritage, but what stands out most on the album is the authenticity of the songs – it doesn’t sound like

some big-shot American singer trying to secure a piece of the Spanish mar-ket. The up-beat tracks have several similarities to her most recent English work, while there’s a beautiful vulner-ability to the ballads.

BEST SONGS: Manos al Aire, Mas, Suficiente Tiempo, Silencio with Josh Groban, Feliz CumpleanosGET IT IF YOU LIKE: Sexy, sultry sen-ioritas

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

mailto:[email protected]


Drive Column

ic death, because the speed of the air entering the nostrils and mouth would rupture the lungs. Or some such non-sense. Of course, most early cars were open tops and had very little in the way of windscreens.

Some representative speeds, just to give you an idea of the differentials between rates experienced in various types of endeavour…

• Speed of a common snail = 0.004 km/h. • A brisk walk = 6 km/h. • Olympic sprinters (average speed over 100 metres) = 36 km/h. • Speed limit on a French autoroute = 130 km/h. • Taipei 101 observatory elevator = 60.6 km/h • Cruising speed of many jet

The Oxford English Dictionary defi nes speed as:Rate of progress or motion or Change of distance with time

The Wikipedia Free Internet encyclopaedia defines speed as:… the rate of motion, or equivalently the rate of change of distance.

Speed is a scalar quantity with dimen-sions length/time... Speed is measured in the same physical units of measure-ment as velocity, but does not contain the element of direction that velocity has.

When the motor car was making its debut at the turn of the last century, it was believed by at least some notable scientists of the era that travelling at 50 km/h would lead to death. A horrif-


Drive Column

sense? Perhaps ignoramus is a better term than moron. For it is clear that the worthies of yesteryear formed their be-liefs of bursting lungs with little empiri-cal data at their disposal.

It is clear that most perceptions of the causes of accidents are based on emo-

tions rather t h a n

airliners = 950 km/h (Mach 0.82) • Speed of sound (in dry air at sea level pressure and 20°C) = 1235 km/ (Mach 1 by definition). • Official flight airspeed record = 3,530 km/h. • Space shuttle on re-entry = 28,000 km/h (landing speed about 350 km/h). • Average orbital speed of planet Earth = 107 218 km/h.

Analysing these figures you might be forgiven for thinking that the moron who coined the phrase ‘Speed Kills’ was oversimplifying things a bit. I would love to meet the git who came up with that one. But if he was a moron, what must be the IQ levels of those in authority who subscribed to the non-


Drive Column

they have ever stopped (sic) to think it through. If a road accident is defined as a vehicle colliding with another ob-ject (be it pedestrian, car or bridge sup-port), this presupposes that at least one of the objects was moving immediately prior to the collision. Given that speed is a rate of progress or motion, speed must be a factor in all road accidents.

After all, if none of the vehicles were moving, there could

be no collision.

So let’s delve a little more into what speeds we earthlings are subjected to. If you look at the examples above, you will see that

we all, along with our habi-

tat, hurtle around the sun at over

107 000 km/h. If our at-mosphere didn’t travel with

us, that would certainly ruffle your hair and might be in danger of burst-ing your lungs. We, of course don’t feel it because the atmosphere does trav-el with us. The earth also spins on its

knowledge. Hence the reason that au-thorities are quick to use fatuous slo-gans which they know will play on the emotions of the uninformed majority. Of course many of those have themselves formed their opinions based on similar precepts and not a little ignorance.

Another form of the speed myth is perpetrated by the traffic author-ities (par-t i c u -

lar ly t h e J M P D , EMPD and KZN Provincial Traf-fic bullyboys). They state, when sum-marizing their statistics, that the ma-jority of accidents are speed related. Now there’s a thing. I don’t suppose


Drive Column

And here we are getting to the crux of the issue. Dennis Jackson pointed out the other day (he probably points this out quite often) that if you walk into a glass door it can be quite painful. So, are we to restrict the speed of pedestri-ans? No of course not. We say to them, look where you are going, you silly bug-ger.

Speed kills? No of course it doesn’t. Inappropriate speed leading to sudden deceleration kills. Not quite. More like the sudden deceleration resulting from inappropriate speed can kill. Decelera-tion. That occurs to vehicles when the brakes are applied. Now what are we

looking at? Braking distances. That means keeping an appropriate distance from other objects, whether they are moving or not. This allows you to bring your vehicle to rest, with comfortable deceleration, prior to reaching another object. That means looking ahead, not

axis to give us interesting variations of darkness and light. At the equator the peripheral speed of the earth’s rota-tion is about 1060 km/h. Of course at the poles it is… well, it isn’t really very much at all.

Take the rather commonplace activ-ity of air travel between major cities. Again, in the examples above you will see that the average jet airliner travels at about 1000 km/h. Now, no one on board is at all perturbed by this. How-ever, at the sharp end, where the pilots sit, there would be great consternation if the speed were to fall below a certain figure. A stall occurs at a speed when the airflow over the wings is insuffi-cient to develop the lift need-ed to sup-port the aircraft. Should that happen, disaster could be imminent. The best case sce-nario is; coffee cups, meal trays and people all congregating on the ceiling for a few moments. The speed at which they got there is irrelevant. It is the de-celeration experienced when arriving on the deck that is the uncomfortable bit.


Drive Column

Four US states abolished their upper speed limits in favour of a law requiring vehicles to drive at speeds appropriate to the conditions. In all but one case the road death toll reduced. The fourth did not show an increase in road deaths. These states unfortunately had to re-introduce speed limits or lose Federal highway grants. Guess what? Their death tolls began to rise again.

Bob

at the damned speedo.

But how far is appropriate? Well, a mod-ern car with good brakes should stop in about 25m from 50 km/h. At 110 km/h this has increased to almost 100m — 4 times the distance. The rough equa-tion is; if you double your speed you quadruple the stopping distance. So it is not just how fast but also how far. We need to say to drivers, ‘Look where you are going, you silly bugger and stay far enough away from hard objects.’

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drive magazine december 2009

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