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‘Victory went to a CNG-fuelled Mitsubishi linen delivery truck’

THIS WEEK

Issue 6465 | Volume 308 | No 10

NEWS

Rolls-Royce Boat Tail £20m two-seat GT cabriolet 6 Audi E-tron Update to add extra range, new motors 11 Lambo for sale? VW Group considers £6.49bn bid 13 Rimac Nevera 1888bhp C_Two in production form 15 BMW i4 revealed Details of crucial electric five-door 16 Classic car sales boom Why prices are soaring now 18

TESTED

BMW i4 M50 xDrive Prototype drive of 536bhp EV 22 DS 9 Exec saloon rival to the Audi A6, in PHEV guise 28 Audi Q4 E-tron Sportback 50 Rakish look, 295bhp 32 Audi E-tron S quattro ROAD TEST 34

FEATURES Ferrari Roma vs rivals Bentley and Aston square up 42 Lamborghini’s reinvention Bullish talk from i ts CEO 50 Mini: Ys and wherefores What makes Y-reg special? 54 Robert Kubica After F1 comeback, Le Mans beckons 63

OUR CARS Bentley Bentayga Final verdict on V8 luxury SUV 68 Mazda MX-30 I s this EV’s range simply too short? 70 Hyundai Kona Electric You can’t charge here, son 71 Suzuki Across Face to face with its Toyota tech twin 71

EVERY WEEK Jesse Crosse Under the skin of Merc-AMG’s new SL 17 Jim Holder Why i s Elon Musk praising VW and Ford? 19 Steve Cropley Enzo, the bishop and a Ferrari tester 21 Subscribe Save money and get exclusive benefits 58 Damien Smith The guy driving two cars at the N24 60 Motorsport round-up F 1 , WRC, Nascar, Extreme E 61 Your Views Great engines, Lotus, lane-keeping aids 66 Matt Prior Has time come round again for airships? 90

DEALS

James Ruppert Now i s a good time to buy a banger 74 As good as new Save cash on a Porsche Panamera 77 Spied in the classifieds Five cars with iconic motors 78 Used buying guide Noughties Audi S4 from £5500 80 New cars A-Z Key car stats , from Abarth to Zenos 82 Road test index Track down that road test here 89

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FERRARI ROMA TAKES ON DB11 AND CONTI GT 42

AUDI E TRON S ROAD TEST: NEW KIND OF EV? 34

CEO WINKELMANN ON LAMBORGHINI’S FUTURE 50

COVER STORY

❝SOMETIMES I FIGHT WITH MYSELF. I CAN HAVE BETTER AND WORSE DAYS. I LOOK FOR CHALLENGES❞

ROBERT KUBICA ON HIS RETURN TO ELITE RACING AFTER A LIFE CHANGING CRASH 63

BMW i4: WE DRIVE PORSCHE TAYCAN RIVAL 22

COMMENT

WHY THE NEW £20M ROLLS ROYCE MATTERS

IT’S TEMPTING TO dismiss cars like the RollsRoyce Boat Tail (p6) as an irrelevance in mainstream motoring terms: a coachbuilt, handcrafted niche within a niche for the uber-rich. But that shouldn’t detract from what it represents. This is RollsRoyce flexing its muscles as a true luxury maker and genuinely pushing the realms of automotive possibilities. Up close, the Boat Tail is stunning, with an incredible attention to detail and level of craftsmanship, from the hand-formed bodywork to the custom-designed champagne fridge – or, yes, the built-in sun umbrella. It is gloriously extravagant and wonderfully overblown. And, in doing so, it pushes forward the possibilities of car making. Not in a direct sense, of course: the future Ford Focus is unlikely to feature a pop-up parasol. Instead, imagine the Boat Tail as you would a painting or sculpture you’d find in a high-end art gallery, or a meal in a three-starred Michelin restaurant. It represents what is possible in a space when imagination is freed from most constraints. On top of this, the Boat Tail signals that Rolls-Royce is expanding its Coachbuild arm, a potentially lucrative revenue stream that can help it grow without the need to add volume. It helps firm up the future of a British success story (yes, even if it is owned by BMW). And that’s surely worth celebrating. James Attwood Executive editor james.attwood@haymarket.com

@atters _ j

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