54
‘A knighthood? Absolutely not a thing I’d want’
Issue 6413 | Volume 304 | No 10
NEWS
Two new Mini SUVs Bigger Minis will include an EV 6 BMW 4 Series Full details on divisive-looking coupé 10 Porsche 911 Targa 4S specials Retro-look editions 12 Volvo’s 112mph limit Why it has capped top speed 14 Autocar Business Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi rethink 16
TESTED
Morgan Plus Four Is the all-new one worth £63k? 20 Porsche 911 Turbo First UK outing for 641bhp flyer 24 Toyota Corolla Trek Hybrid estate turns soft-roader 25 Mercedes CLA 220d Shooting Brake Sleek diesel 27 BMW M8 Competition Coupé ROAD TEST 28 Road test rewind Noble M600 outpaces McLaren F1 34
FEATURES Dyson’s electric car Behind-the-scenes exclusive 38 Bentley’s surprise UK tour £1m convoy rerouted 48 Richard Noble Interview with patriotic speed king 54 Extreme E racers Electric super-SUVs to do battle 59
OUR CARS Suzuki Jimny Final verdict on the characterful 4x4 64
EVERY WEEK Jesse Crosse Why faster charging is a cool pursuit 15 Jim Holder Mergers and consolidation on the way 17 Steve Cropley Aston’s change of CEO, Dyson scoop 19 Subscribe Save money and get exclusive benefits 36 Damien Smith Andrew Jordan on hectic BTCC plan 56 Motorsport round-up Le Mans dramas, WRC latest 57 Your Views A 911 for the price of a Tesla Model 3 62 Matt Prior Was it a Land Rover or a Range Rover? 82
DEALS
James Ruppert Desirable SUVs for under £3000 66 As good as new The smart way to buy a Seat Ateca 69 Spied in the classifieds Top speed hero going cheap 70 Used buying guide Vauxhall Calibra from just £800 72 New cars A-Z Key car stats, from Abarth to Zenos 74 Road test index Track down that road test here 81
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THIS WEEK
COMMENT
BENTLEY’S IMPROMPTU BRITISH ROAD TRIP 48
ROAD TEST: BMW M8 COMPETITION COUPE 28
NEW-ERA MORGAN PLUS FOUR DRIVEN 20
❝ EVERYBODY HAS AN OPINION AND A TASTE. THERE'S NO RIGHT OR WRONG IN DESIGN ❞ BMW DESIGN CHIEF DOMAGOJ DUKEC ON THE NEW 4 SERIES AND THAT GRILLE 10
NEW ELECTRIC SUPER-SUV RACE SERIES 59
DYSON’S EV WAS A BRILLIANT FAILURE
WHEN SIR JAMES Dyson’s vaunted UK carbuilding operation hit the buffers last October, the armchair experts told one another it was the usual kind of car company failure: an oddball idea and a team with insufficient car-building experience chasing insufficient investment.
Even the £2 .5 billion of his own money the entrepreneur had earmarked for the project was too little, they said. Who, in this day and age, would expect to start a whole car company on that? We now know the armchair experts were wrong. Dyson did not fail for the classic reasons. It was killed by a strange, adverse and temporary market. It died because practically every other electrified car on the market is underpriced so its manufacturer can meet tough new CO 2 targets yet go on selling profitable conventional cars. Only a solus EV operation with tens of billions to sustain itself for many years – as Tesla is doing – could survive that. Yet the Dyson car was a great piece of British engineering and design. How do we know all this? Because Autocar was recently granted access to the Dyson car team, the prototypes and the billionaire entrepreneur. What we found was a car that could and should have worked, a car so good that our roads will be poorer for the fact that it won’t be on them. Yet, as we also discovered, we haven’t seen the last of so many of the pioneering parts of this fantastic emblem of British ingenuit y. Mark Tisshaw Editor mark.tisshaw@haymarket.com
21.May 2020 16:50:06
CANUKCAR INDUSTRYSURVIVE COVID-19?
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Est.1895|autocar.co.uk | 27May2020
Huge losses mountup UK factories face closure Record carsales slump Why there’s still hope
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