For all its larger-than-life charisma and showmanship, and for all its undeniable straight-line speed and bulk-defying deftness, the Bentley Arnage T was a fabulous fake. In a world inhabited by BMW M5s, Mercedes AMGs, Maserati Quattroportes, Lamborghini-engined Audis and, indeed, the considerably less-expensive but significantly more talented VW Phaeton-based, W12- engined Flying Spur, Bentley's flagship saloon simply didn't cut it ...

How time flies. Yep, it's been two years since Mitsubishi dropped the Evo X on our shores, and we've only just got our mitts on a long termer.That's not because we didn't want one sooner, or that Mitsubishi wasn't prepared to give us one. It's just that right now is the perfect time to become reacquainted with the Evo because ...

Saw a Mk6 Golf being dragged onto a flatbed the other day and immediately thought of our GTI. The stricken Mk6 may have simply run out of fuel, but either way, like a bloke wearing a scarf with just a T-shirt, being towed is never a good look.But our Mk6 GTI has been faultless. Or as close to glitchfree as ...

All it takes is just two gearchanges. Our manual Golf GTD's twin-cam turbodiesel briskly spikes to nearly 5000rpm without suffering an asthma attack, backed by the best diesel induction growl I've ever heard. Grabbing third, I turn to my co-driver in amazement: "Jesus, a diesel that actually sounds good1."The switch to a latest-generation common-rail injection system for the 1968cc TDI ...

Mercedes AMG's HQ is located in the small town of Affalterbach, just outside Stuttgart. Apart from a couple of large flags bearing the company's name at the entrance, it's a surprisingly understated affair and, from a distance, might be mistaken for just another M-B dealership. But, rather like the cars that wear the famous three-letter badge, it's what's on the ...

WHAT CAR DID YOU LEARN TO DRIVE IN?I learnt to drive at about eight years old in an original Holden Ute. In the early days my dad had a service station and we used to load the ute up with rubbish and go to the tip. We used to drive down a big hole in the ground to empty the ...

YEARS AGO, two Saab engineers were sent Down Under for outback testing on a prototype. They were exclaiming about the dust in Queensland when locals told them to go further out, to the "real bulldust". So they did. At the airport in Sweden they produced two big jars of suspicious powder. "And just what is this?" asked customs. "Yotta-yotta-yotta" quoth ...

Unless you're a certain age, you probably don't remember what a mighty cat the Allan Moffat Mazda RX-7 represented to the established pigeons of Aussie touring-car racing in the early 1980s. I mean, we all remember when Group A lobbed and suddenly imports like the V12 Jaguar XJS, Ford Sierra worth and - most infamously - the Nissan Skyline Godzilla ...

* IF YOU MISSED out on one of the 10 Gallardo LP550-2 Valentino Balbonis that reached Australian shores last year, a 'regular' LP550-2 has been announced as a standard model in the Lambo line-up.Twenty of the 405kW rear-drivers will be made available to Aussie customers for a comparatively affordable $399K.The LP550-2 weighs 1380kg, sprints to 10Okm/h in 3.9sec and has ...

When Kimi Raikkonen's rname went on the entry list for Rally Finland, his homeland's World Rally 'Championship event, back in August 2009, the WRC fraternity and punters who follow the sport - went nuts. Suddenly, rallying's top flight had a genuine Formula One superstar in tow. The stature of big names such as Mikko Hirvonen, Petter Solberg and Jari-Matti Latvala ...

Mick Doohan's credentials and abilities on two wheels are beyond any sniff of reproach. But he's no slouch on four wheels, either. And he clearly knows his way around Phillip Island. As we hurtle down Gardner Straight, Mick's giving me a bit of a commentary via the intercom."That was indicating 237 on the read-out at the braking mark," he tells ...

This isn't motorsport as you probably know it. Traditionalists might even think of it as half a race meeting. It's called Time Attack, where each driver contests a series of qualification-style sessions and whoever sets the fastest lap time at the end of the weekend wins. Simple as that. Except hardcore race fans mightn't like the fact that there's no, ...

IT'S A WET track as I round Eastern Creek's flip-flop and the Subaru in front of me brakes. Hard. I ignore the brake pedal yet the Liberty I'm steering (literally) brakes for me seamlessly, and avoids the slowing two-tonne mass in front. Job done, collision avoided.We've seen systems like this before which will prevent a car hitting a slow-moving or ...

For all of its unquestionable success in the last decade or so, Audi still doesn't have a sparkling record of responding to sudden threats. Sure, the company made a killing during the GFC, but that's largely because it instigated a business plan it tucked away in the bottom drawer years earlier and stuck to it, which took huge reserves of ...

Mazda FD RX-7 SPIt was the Japanese runaway that trumped the Germans in Aussie enduros. In 1995, BMW's M3R and Porsche's 911 RS CS were sent here to stop the RX-7 winning three 12-hour races on the trot. So Allan Horsley built the RX-7 SP and cleaned up. With a bigger tank, more power (204kW) and less weight, ifs a ...

It happened at a Brisbane auction house, one night a couple of years ago. That was the night the market for Aussie muscle cars imploded. It was also the moment in time when people who'd bought Phase III GT HOs and GTS Monaros at the top of the market suddenly discovered they'd done their dough. Cold.Effectively, people went to bed ...

STUTTGART'S ROAD RACER SERVES NOTICE FOR OUR BIGGEST TROPHYAs far as vintages go, 2010 is an absolute corker for high- performance machinery. And if the bumper crop is the result of an economic winter chill, then I'll toast the banker wankers that brought Wall Street down.Y'see, we were all but prepared to pre-order this year's Performance Car Cup trophy with ...

JEALOUSY might be a curse, but it's hard not to feel a tinge of it when you cop eyes on some of America's muscle-car reprisals. Think Dodge Challenger, Chevy Camaro and Ford Mustang coupes, not to mention the super-bad Dodge Charger sedan.It's this last car that should resonate loudest for Aussie V8 fans, simply because it has four doors. And ...

THE DIESEL engine in the new six-speed-manual-only Forester 2.0D Premium isn't perfect. But considering it's Subaru's first oiler (it came here in the Outback last year), it's a decent effort.It's laden with the latest common rail diesel tech, including high-pressure piezo injectors and variable-vane turbo, while a diesel particulate filter allows the engine to meet strict Euro 5 emissions quotas.On-road, ...

No matter how the GT3 RS is specced, it won't disappoint on account of its mechanical abilities.Twist the key and the gritty flat six fires into life with a gruff, hollow warble through the lightweight silencer and big-bore twin exhausts. Even before you snick the beautifully mechanical short-shifting gear lever into first, it's immediately apparent that it isn't designed for ...

Unless I knock off the local Westpac, I'm sure mat I'll never get the chance to bid for a bigmoney, seriously collectable car at auction and I suspect that at least a few of you reading mis are in the same boat. But armed robbery isn't our only option, because there are plenty of alternatives for would-be collectors of automotive ...

White is the new black, Red is the new Rudd, and four cylinders is the new six. Yep, downsizing is now alive and well in the performance-car Held, though thanks to the wonders of turbocharging, losing a sizeable chunk in measurement doesn't mean losing face. Just ask the fast-Benz boys at AMG. What was previously a 6.2-litre V8 is about ...

A new era is about to dawn in the sleepy town of Trollhattan, now that Spyker owns Saab. And the Swede's first step to recovery is the 9-5.Developed in close collaboration with Opel, the all-new 9-5 is a good car. And quirky enough to qualify as a proper Saab. Cases in point include the start-stop button between the seats, trademark ...

Never in my wildest dreams did I think our Hot Tuner Shootout would end up like this! To be honest, our inaugural event last year was not a new idea; the Germans have been doing it for a decade now. But then they're the heart and soul of the modern tuning market thanks to the likes of AMG, Ruf, Techart, ...

IF YOU'RE HOPING to buy an Aussie delivered Cosworth Impreza, don't get your hopes up. Fettled by Cosworth in the UK, the tweaked 294kW STi will sprint to 100km/hinasupercarslaying 3.7sec. Only 75 Cossies will be built, yet Subaru Australia has ruled out the car's sale in local showrooms."Even if this car could [come here], and that is extremely unlikely, the ...