12 cars tested, starring BMW X5, Honda Civic saloon, Fiat 500X, Audi A6 Avant, AMG GT 4-Door and Jaguar F-Type versus rivals
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600LT loves to keep things neat, tidy and fast. Or do this
MCL AREN 600LT
The rogue one McLaren’s sublime Sport Series gets its edgy, out-there LT flagship – resistance is futile. By Ben Miller MCLAREN 6 0 0 LT > Price £185,500 > Engine 3799cc 32v twin-turbo V8, 592bhp @ 7100rpm, 457lb ft @ 5500rpm > Transmission 7-speed paddleshift auto, rear-wheel drive > Suspension Double wishbones front and rear, adaptive dampers > Performance 2.9sec 0-62mph, 204mph, 24.1mpg, 276g/km CO2 > Weight 1247kg dry, 1356kg fuelled
I
F I COULD pause real life I’d hit the button right now. The view through the panoramic, vaguely Group C windscreen is split at the horizon into two contrasting worlds: above, the unbroken blue of a serene September sky; and below a speed-blurred streak of hot Grand Prix circuit. Pinch me. The McLaren and I have made our best fist yet of the Hungaroring’s first four corners: brake-bursting turn one, endless two, interlinked three and the blind-on-entry, over-a-crest rush of four. In third gear through daunting turn four everything’s just so, the car smearing out to the edge of the track with just the right balance of front/ rear slip. And we surge on into the rest of the lap, happy like cats up to our ears in cream. Thing is, this is the 570S I’m driving, not the new 600LT. Smaller, less complicated and considerably less expensive than the extraordinary 720S (and the outlier that is the Senna), for me the 570S is a meltwater-pure example of McLaren’s thing: stunning steering, serious performance and a refreshing paucity of nonsense. The cockpit, for example, is beautifully gimmick-free and sparse like an East Berlin
apartment block, if easier on the eye. And today the 570S, on hand for circuit familiarisation, is every bit the delectable creation I remember: small, agile, friendly and exploitable. On the road it feels indomitable and dronestrike accurate but here, with laps, you wonder if a few tweaks might unlock still greater brilliance. The engine, for example, is omnipresent but here it feels a touch breathless, its ultra-flat torque curve a little lacking in drama. Then there’s the slight fuzziness when you really lay the car into the longer, faster corners, a moment’s delay before you understand exactly where you stand, and how much harder you can – or can’t – push. And couldn’t the rear end just be a little less keen to move around during the lap’s two heavy braking events? Clearly McLaren wondered the same, and has seen fit to fuse two of its finest machines, the 570S and the long-since sold-out 675LT, to create what’s now probably the pick of its range, the 600LT. A Porsche 911 GT2 RS or Ferrari 488 Pista rival on paper, the LT’s list price is the right side of £200k – £185,500 before you delve into the (admittedly tempting) options. Your money (which should be safe
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Forged wheels are standard, but you pay extra for the titanium bolts
in a 600LT, incidentally; 675LTs have corner’s braking zone once again. This, gently appreciated since the day they you think to yourself, is the engine the were born) buys a carbonfibre-tubbed 570S’s always should have been: louder, road racer weighing in at 1247kg (dry) feistier and, thanks to its less insulating and powered by a 592bhp version of mounts, alive behind you in a way McLaren’s twin-turbo V8. And once that only long-distance pilots would you’ve bought one, the very next thing bemoan. Changes to the chassis are more exyou must splash for is some track time – after all, it’s for such rarefied loops of tensive, and start with bespoke Trofeo R tyres with relatively soft sidewalls for tarmac that the LT’s been optimised. McLaren claims 23 per cent of friendly on-the-limit traits. The chassis components in the 600LT are new, and gets an increase in front track width, certainly the list of work touches almost revised geometry, a lower ride height every element of its being, engine in- (by 8mm), lighter load-optimised 720S ternals excepted. The new exhaust and wishbones, meatier anti-roll bars, a revised ECU alone have unlocked the a quicker (but single-rate) steering additional power and torque, though rack (14.8 versus the 570S’s 15.6; the they’ve also had a fairly transformative 675’s was 14.5), recalibrated adaptive dampers and upgraded brakes that pair affect on the powertrain. In the LT I’m hugging the inside of 720S discs and calipers with a brake Hungaroring’s final corner, which goes booster developed with Senna learnon for what feels like a couple of weeks. ings, for improved feel at the top of the Finally you’re cleared for take-off: foot pedal, hitherto a McLaren weak point. The rear suspension’s been tweaked to the floor, off with the lock and let her run out to the first kerb (not the second, to reduce unwanted rear-wheel movewhich kicks like a mule). In the 570S ment; this will be incorporated into the rest of the Sports Series range. and the 600LT you’re in third That a 570S optimised for gear, revs a little lower than is LOVE Design, circuit use is better on a circuit ideal. Both pull convincingly powertrain, than a 570S isn’t surprising: but where the 570S does so in chassis, size, that a raft of individually one sustained lunge, the LT’s spunk small changes can create a car more clearly defined top-end H A T E of such a profoundly different rush makes for a more thrilling Limited build, price with character is. ride. The shift lights flash, options, drive The notion of the start/ the next gear flashes in immode selectors finish straight as sanctuary perceptibly (changes in Sport doesn’t last long. We flash are deliberately brutal, for the V E R D I C T All things past the 200m board, the drama, but eerily smooth in considered, V8 trembling through the maximum-attack Track) and it’s the best tub as it continues to pile on you take a moment to breathe McLaren yet speed in fifth gear. Hit the left as you bear down on the first + + + + + 32
CARMAGA ZINE.CO.UK | November 2018
UP AGAINST BETTER THAN Lamborghini Huracan
LT’s steering and chassis are next level, even if V10 trumps turbo V8 WORSE THAN Ferrari 488 Pista
But it’s close, and the LT’s less expensive WE’D BUY McLaren 600LT
Now, which colour?
Lightweight Senna seats are a thing of £4990 joy and wonder
pedal and the power is impressive, as is the ABS’s deft calibration, but it’s the car’s rock-solid composure as its mass is hurled onto its nose that really stands out. At the back of the circuit, in a cerebrally interwoven complex of third- and fourth-gear corners, the LT’s elevated sense of control really hits home. Here the alcantara wheel is your point of contact with an altogether grippier and more precise chassis. The LT holds on where the S can’t, runs your chosen line with more conviction and goes without any trace of confidence-sapping lost movement. Think, turn, understand – they run in seamless sequence, and the sense of power and control the car creates is quite mesmerising; quite special. Slacken the stability control’s intervention through Sport to Track (still a needlessly complex system in a McLaren, relative to Porsche and Ferrari set-ups) and the LT will get gently out of shape, but it’s a testament to the car’s tyre and chassis philosophies that, while the outright limits are higher than the 570S’s, broaching them is, if anything, less daunting. The 600LT takes what is probably McLaren’s finest car and systematically addresses the shortcomings we knew it had – an occasionally numb brake pedal and an emotionally underwhelming powertrain – while also elevating its already peachy chassis to something so capable it’ll take you places you didn’t think you and your skillset could go. Compromised on the road? Potentially: this opportunity was track-only. The more direct engine mounts may grate with miles, as might the more purposeful set-up (14 per cent firmer at the front, 34 per cent rear). But few could find reason here to swerve the 600LT’s magic. That it also looks fabulous, smells faintly of good value and will prove all but immune to depreciation should eviscerate any lingering doubts.
BMW X5
Reach for the pies The fourth-generation BMW X5 is more innovative than it looks – but it’s also bigger and heavier. By Adam Binnie
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IP HOP LEGEND DMX may not have written the lyrics ‘X gon’ give it to ya, X gon’ deliver to ya’ specifically about BMW’s burgeoning range of SUVs, but it does seem to have acted as a spur to BMW to keep adding more models to its X line-up, and to keep making those vehicles bigger and more complex, all in the cause of feeding the kayak and mountain bike fantasies of the world’s wealthier citizens. When the first X5 arrived nearly 20 years ago it was an outlier, a Range Rover rival from a company more used to battling the E-Class. Now it sits temporarily at the top of a range that doesn’t miss a digit from 1 to 6, with the
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even larger X7 just months away. The fourth-generation X5 is all about more. More eye-catching tech, more power, more luxury and more space: although still not as big as its key rival, the Audi Q7, the new X5 is longer, wider and taller than its predecessor, as well as now coming with air suspension, allwheel steering and a techier cabin. There are four engines in the USbuilt X5, although only three of them are coming to Europe; we don’t get the 4.4-litre petrol V8. Our engines are all straight-sixes: a 3.0-litre petrol in the xDrive 40i, a quad-turbo 3.0-litre diesel in the M50d and the more modest 3.0litre diesel in the xDrive 30d, which is likely to be the best seller.
CARMAGA ZINE.CO.UK | November 2018
LOVE Standard air suspension, neater cabin
HATE Q7’s cabin is still tidier
VERDICT More future-facing tech and satisfying driving dynamics bring the X5 bang up to date
+ + + + +
Trim choice is simple – if you can afford to step up from xLine then pick M Sport (as 80 per cent of drivers will do) and you get 20-inch alloys and an M Sport bodykit and badges. But xLine is well equipped as standard: eight-speed automatic gearbox, all-wheel drive, air suspension and BMW’s latest cockpit. This involves two 12.3-inch screens and is highly effective, if not quite as spaceage as the two-screen system you’ll find in a Mercedes-Benz. The old climate control panel of many buttons has been stripped right back, offering a much more modern and decluttered centre console, plus knurled switches (like a Bentley!) and a crystalline gearshift (like a Volvo!). Audi’s cohesive and simple Q7 interior is still the benchmark here, but it’s fair to assume the newer two-screen set-up from the Q8 will find its way into the Q7 soon, at which point the comparatively cleaner X5 will look all the more attractive. There’s plenty of space in the second row for adults thanks to a low transmission tunnel, and the
New X5 is the biggest yet – and the even bigger X7 is on its way
Mk4 gets new grille and kink. Bigger changes are inside
650-litre boot is usefully square, with minimal intrusion. It expands to 1860 litres with the second row down; a third row is optional. You get a split tailgate as standard, which is handy for perching on while you lace up your walking boots, or as a picnic table. The possibilities are endless. Cool tech includes a host of semiautonomous and connectivity gadgets – you can now programme the sat-nav from your smartphone and have it send you messages warning about traffic and other delays en route to your next appointment, even when you’re not actually in the car. You can also use your phone as the car key, which BMW says is harder to hack than the standard key. Plus you can send access codes to up to four friends, and because their BMW profile
X5 is first to get BMW’s simplified new iDrive 7.0 instruments. Nice
UP AGAINST BETTER THAN Mercedes GLE
Merc is dated and on the pricey side WORSE THAN Audi Q7
Masterclass in quality and refinement WE’D BUY Audi Q7 50 TDI
But we’d be perfectly happy with the X5, too
Four-mode of-road package is a new option
can be stored in the cloud, your X5 will automatically set itself up for them when they drive it, terrible radio station choices and all. But it’s the way it drives that separates the X5 from the bulk of its rivals. It’s unlikely you’d select any SUV as your first choice for tackling a challenging stretch of blacktop, but the heartening thing about the X5 is that it does all the muddy stuff you could ever need while still being highly entertaining on the road, even with the most modest of the three engines. The 30d is ruthlessly effective: smooth and quiet until you stretch it, with a decent enough whoosh of torque so you shouldn’t need to experience its more vocal upper reaches. The petrol 40i is faster and much more hushed, yet spicier sounding when you wring it out. The trade-off for this in a two-tonne car is, of course, fuel economy, but given the 40i is barely a handful of tenths slower than the M50d and substantially cheaper to buy, it could make sense.
Standard air suspension works well to isolate potholes and on our route didn’t demonstrate any of the pitterpatter wobbliness often associated with such a set-up. We found it to be very comfortable indeed, but the roads we drove on were pretty smooth so it’ll be interesting to test it fully in the UK. Active anti-roll bars help to keep the body movement neat and tidy and there’s very little sloshing weight transfer to worry about in a series of corners, allowing you to really lean on the all-wheel-drive system. This subtly shuffles power around in combination with rear-wheel steering to give the X5 a confidence-inspiring nature – it always feels like there’s a bit more grip and a bit more lock to use if you bowl into a corner with abandon. It’s a relaxed, sophisticated car that can provide uncanny thrills as long as you don’t ask too much of it. And, unlike more focused performance cars, you can also pack it full of people and scuba tanks and neoprene and go and have a fabulous day out somewhere adventurous. Or at least give your neighbours the impression that you do.
BMW X5 xDRIVE 30d xLINE > Price £57,495 > Engine 2993cc 24v
turbodiesel straight-six, 262bhp @ 4000rpm, 457lb ft @ 2000rpm > Transmission 8-speed auto, all-wheel drive > Performance 6.5sec 0-62mph, 143mph, 47.0mpg, 158g/km CO2 > Weight 2110kg > On sale November
November 2018 | CARMAGA ZINE.CO.UK
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HONDA CIVIC SALOON
Dull and proud of it With the Accord no longer sold in the UK, the saloon version of the Civic brings normal back to Honda’s line-up. By Colin Overland
T
HE CIVIC HAS been many things over the years, but the best ones have all been hatchbacks and the worst ones saloons. The last saloon that made its way to Britain was a particularly grim hybrid that set back the cause of electrification by several years, and made innocent bystanders wince at its ugliness. Some still can’t sleep. This time around Honda has done the safe thing, which is also the smart thing, and could well prove to be the successful thing: the new four-door version (they’re not even calling it a saloon) is as much like the current hatchback as you could possibly get. Which is to say that both of them are coupe-shaped and low, yet wonderfully roomy inside, with loads of luggage space. The boot is accessed via a conventional lid, rather than the five-door’s cyclefriendly hatch opening, and you get a regular parcel shelf rather than the hatchback’s side-sliding roll-up soft shelf. The capacity is a mighty 519 litres – a full 100 litres bigger than the boot in the nearest rival, the Mazda 3 Fastback, and 101 bigger than the Civic hatchback. The rear seatbacks still fold forwards to expand the space, but it doesn’t become
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LOVE Roomy cabin, grown-up package
HATE Slender engine choice, fiddly infotainment
VERDICT Like the hatch but with its weirder edges smoothed of + + + + +
Big boot, a bit more chrome, decent engines: Honda didn’t overthink the Civic saloon
CARMAGA ZINE.CO.UK | November 2018
such a neatly unified and easily accessed area as in the hatchback. Honda is clearly aiming the saloon at older, more traditionally minded drivers. So the hatchback’s aggressive, nearpsychotic angles and slashes get toned down, there’s a bit more chrome, no more central exhaust, smaller fake vents, and the engine range favours efficiency over larks. Your choice is turbocharged 1.0-litre petrol three-cylinder or 1.6-litre four-cylinder turbodiesel. There’s no sign of the lovely 1.5 turbo petrol four we enjoyed so much in our grey long-termtest hatchback, and no hint of a Type R-style 300bhp-plus 2.0-litre turbo. The petrol comes with a six-speed manual or a seven-step CVT (we haven’t driven either of those), while the diesel comes with a six-speed manual or a ninespeed automatic. That’s the first time any Civic has ever had the combination
of diesel and automatic, which could be a big attraction for retired headmasters everywhere, especially if they haven’t spotted anything in the newspaper about diesels maybe not being such a good idea after all. It’s smoothly competent rather than stump-pullingly grunty. And yet, for all this subtle positioning of the saloon 12° to the right of the hatch, the way they drive is actually very similar. Especially with the involvement encouraged by the sweet-shifting manual ’box, it’s an agreeable kind of almost-fun: precise steering, decent body control, fuss-free brakes. It’s refined but not detached, roomy but still easy to squeeze through tight spaces. There are three spec levels, starting with a high degree of standard safety kit and adding extra labour-saving devices as you pay more to graduate from SR (which starts at £19,395 for a manual petrol) via SR to EX (which can reach £27,120 for the diesel auto). As with the hatchback, there’s lots of infotainment but it’s often fiddly to operate. Not as classy as the Audi A3 saloon. A bit bigger and a bit better than the Mazda. And several months ahead of its only other true competitor, next year’s Mercedes-Benz A-Class Saloon. But reassuringly normal.
HONDA CIVIC FOUR DOOR 1.6 i-DTEC SE MANUAL > Price £20,745 > Engine 1597cc 16v turbodiesel 4-cyl, 118bhp @ 4000rpm, 221lb ft @ 2000rpm > Transmission 6-speed manual, front-wheel drive > Performance 9.9sec 0-62mph, 125mph, 83.1mpg, 91g/km CO2 > Weight 1366kg > On sale Now
FIAT 500X
Keep it clean Forget the fake-4x4 image and enjoy the fab new engines and extra cabin tech. By Colin Overland
The rings of competence
AUDI A6 AVANT
Job done
S
TYLISH BUT NOT fashionable. Upmarket but not flashy. Modest but not humble. Techy but not nerdy. These are the fine lines trodden by the new estate version of the Audi A6, and quite possibly by many of the people who will be drawn to it. Offering vast interior passenger space, a practical rear end, all the kit you can find on the more expensive A7 and A8, and some punchy powertrains, it poses serious questions about why you’d look at any other type of car. But does it do enough to distinguish itself from the key rivals – the Mercedes E-Class, the BMW 5-series and the Volvo V90? Possibly not. While its handsome looks, tech-heavy interior and all-round quality are very impressive, it’s up against a bunch of excellent and well established alternatives. The whooshy 3.0-litre V6 diesel (badged 50 TDI) with air suspension isn’t as wafty and smooth as an equivalent E-Class (nor as vast inside) and it’s also not quite as responsive to drive as a BMW 5-series. The all-wheel-steering option is effective at making the A6 feel much more agile, but it’s never quite as refined nor as sporty as you might like when you flick between modes. A standard steering set-up combined with adaptive dampers is much more effective and indeed really rather pleasant. We’d suggest picking the entry 2.0-litre diesel (badged 40 TDI) in a modest spec – Sport or S-line trims are available – and you’ll get a refined, composed, grown-up estate car that just gets the job done efficiently and without any drama. TOM GOODLAD
AUDI A6 AVANT SPORT 40 TDI
L
IKE STING BRIEFLY pretending to be some sort of punk rocker because that was the way to get noticed in 1977, the Fiat 500X has now abandoned even the faintest suggestion that it’s the offroad version of Turin’s retro city car. No longer available in all-wheel-drive form in the UK, the facelifted X is now a better car, thanks largely to the arrival of two new engines. They are both newly developed turbocharged petrols: a 1.0-litre triple and a 1.3-litre four, making 118 and 148bhp respectively. The triple comes with a sweet six-speed manual gearbox, the four with a so-so six-speed DCT paddleshift auto that’s overly-keen on changing up early. You can also get a tweaked version of the old naturally-aspirated 1.6 petrol four, but the diesels still available elsewhere are now steering clear of the UK along with all-wheel drive. The clean new turbo petrols are both smooth and torquey, and the official mpg figures are reasonably impressive at 48.7 and 46.3mpg respectively. The 1.6 engine comes in slightly muted Urban spec, and is the cheapest way into the new range, with an onthe-road price of £16,995. But our pick would be the City Cross 1.0, which costs an extra two grand. The manual
gearchange works beautifully with the spunky little triple. The 1.3 is a bit smoother and usefully more gutsy, as we found on the steep hills above Turin, but the compulsory DCT is annoying, and the cheapest 1.3 costs a mildly troublesome £21,195. The ride quality is very well judged. There’s not much bodyroll, and yet the car swallows up the shocks of potholes and (ahem) unnoticed speedbumps without fuss. The external facelift (new bumpers, mostly) and internal changes (snazzier infotainment, more safety aids as standard) are less significant than the engines, but they contribute to an overall package that makes a lot more sense on the road than it does on paper. Stop worrying about this being a fake 4x4 or an over-inflated 500 and just appreciate its roominess, comfort, easygoing nature and decent value.
FIAT 500X CIT Y CROSS 1.0 > Price £18,995 > Engine 999cc 12v turbo 3-cyl, 118bhp @ 5750rpm, 140lb ft @ 1750rpm > Transmission 6-speed manual, front-wheel drive > Performance 10.9sec 0-62mph, 117mph, 48.7mpg, 133g/km CO2 > Weight 1320kg > On sale Now > Rating + + + + + V E R D I C T Enjoyable all-rounder dressed up as a cartoon 4x4
> Price £40,740 > Engine 1968cc 24v turbodiesel 4-cyl, 201bhp @ 3750 295lb ft @ 1750rpm > Transmission 7-speed dualclutch auto, front-wheel drive > Performance 8.3sec 0-62mph, 149mph, 60.1mpg, 124g/km CO2 > Weight 1710kg > On sale Now VERDICT Polished, but not the best estate + + + + +
Facelift brings new lights, bumpers and the world’s least convincing bash plate
November 2018 | CARMAGA ZINE.CO.UK
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MERCEDES-AMG GT63 S 4-DOOR
It’s Merc’s M5 Don’t get distracted by the semi-coupe body and the complexities of the Merc-AMG hierarchy: this is a head-on rival for BMW’s big performance saloon. By Georg Kacher
E
XIT THE CLS SHOOTING Brake, enter the new AMG GT 4-Door. Seems like a fair exchange in the upper reaches of the Mercedes model line-up. The sort-of estate version of the feisty coupe was always an agreeable oddity, whereas the four-door version of the high-performance GT coupe has a very clear USP: tackle the BMW M5 at its own game. The super-powerful, super-fast, super-expensive four- or five-seater market is starting to look a little crowded, with the Porsche Panamera Turbo S E-Hybrid already established, the BMW M8 Gran Coupe on its way to join the M5, and Audi set to keep turning the dial up until the A7 becomes the RS7. If you’ve understandably succumbed to the considerable potential for confusion as to what the awkwardly named GT 4-Door actually is, here’s a
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quick refresher. You know the GT? The aluminium-intensive two-seat coupe and convertible built from the ground up to be Merc’s performance flagship? Well, the 4-Door is not as closely related to that as Mercedes might like you to think. Its underpinnings are actually closer to those of the CLS than to the other GTs, and it’s no lightweight like the other GTs. But nor is it a mis-badged CLS, even though the new CLS line-up conspicuously lacks a 63 version, which must be to avoid direct comparisons with the top two versions of the GT 4-Door. Best just to think of the GT 4-Door as a thing unto itself, developed by AMG boss Tobias Moers and his team as a new four-seater king of the fast lane. Pity they didn’t bother to find a suitable name for it. Solitude (Stuttgart’s historic former racetrack) was a candidate, as was Sportcruiser,
CARMAGA ZINE.CO.UK | November 2018
UP AGAINST BETTER THAN Porsche Panamera Turbo S E-Hybrid
Merc’s mighty V8 tops the hybrid; they’re equal on awkward names WORSE THAN BMW M5
But we’ll need to drive them back to back to be sure WE’D BUY BMW M5
The smart money will wait until the M8 and RS7 arrive
and it could have been simply GT-4, but that was nixed because the punter would allegedly confuse it with the GT4 race car. Give us a break, please. This four-seater coupe which turns heads even before you start the engine deserves a catchy badge on the tailgate. We get three versions, all of them all-wheel drive. The GT53 AMG gets an entertaining 429bhp out of its straight six, plus 22bhp from its mild hybrid electronics. There are two versions of the twin-turbo 4.0-litre V8 to choose from. While the 577bhp 63 edition has already got what it takes to twist the driveshafts dizzy, the 630bhp S variant is the real tarmac-peeling McCoy. It dishes up 644lb ft of explosive torque, can play an extra bunch of chip-induced tricks and is kitted out even more flamboyantly. Trouble is, the prices (at least in mainland Europe; UK prices have not yet been announced) are significantly
There are many modes to help you do this, and many to help you not do this
more than even the Competition version of the key rival, the M5. What do you get for your money? A proper four-seat coupe body, for a start, with enough room in the back for sixfooters. Having said that, entry and exit are compromised by the bulging sill, the bulky front seats and the sloping roofline. The wide and flat boot holds 461 litres of luggage, easily expanded by playing with the split bench. The infotainment controls seem unlikely to please either digital natives or analogue silver-agers. The flimsy swipe buttons on both spokes of the steering wheel are an object lesson in hit and miss, while the touchpad that replaced the Comand controller between the seats just isn’t sufficiently intuitive. The new A-Class makes it easier to access its talents than this flagship coupe, and that’s even before we turn our attention to the complex second display on top of the centre
stack. You can waste a lot of time in a car park with the engine running, singlefingerdly scrolling, swiping, zooming, pushing, grinning, despairing and cursing through this haptic maze. But this fades into irrelevance when you get out on the road, ideally in the 63 S, which is the version that really delivers the goods. Why the S? For a start because of the extra poke and grunt, but also because of such high-performance enhancements as the tauter air suspension, quicker rear-wheel steering and six remarkably clever driving modes complete with the marque’s trademark drift mode. All these features are, incidentally, available for the lesser models. While the two-door GT coupé comes (in R form) with a bright yellow drift mode thumbwheel, which takes eight steps to remove the safety net, the fourdoor has a different set up, coming with 4Matic+ all-wheel drive as standard.
Twin-turbo V8 comes as 577bhp GT63 and 630bhp GT63 S. Hmm, now let’s think… Merc’s state-of-theart interior marred by stupid fiddly touchpads
Just like the M5, it deactivates frontwheel drive when it’s sure that’s what the driver really wants. First, you must select Race. Next, choose manual gear selection. Now switch off ESP completely. At this point, a screen pops up instructing you to simultaneously pull both shift paddles. The final move is to confirm this setting. To do so, hit the right paddle one more time. At this point, blood pressure and pulse rate should match the unhinged driftability, the adrenalin flow rate may have doubled, and the palms are bound to be moist. On the racetrack, hard cornering is a totally different ball game now, primarily because you look at most apexes through a side window. After only two laps, the tyre pressure sensors begin to beep for mercy, but after a brief pitstop we’re back out again, burning rubber with absolute dedication. The main handicap is its weight.
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With a full tank of petrol and the driver on board, the S rolls off the scales at an almost obese 2120kg – that’s normally a big-SUV figure. Shifting all that mass and bulk is, however, amazingly effortless. The two most important pub-ammo numbers – acceleration from 0-62mph and top speed – are 3.2sec and 196mph, so congratulations for bewitching the law of physics. You’ll pay the price at the pumps, though. In addition to familiar adjustable parameters like ESP and damper control, the S version comes with a further enhancement called AMG Dynamics. This feature bundles the actions of stability control, 4Matic torque distribution, rear-wheel steering actuation and limited-slip diff calibration in four fixed attitudes labelled Basic, Advanced, Pro and Master. Sounds confusing, but works a treat. Every level becomes more challenging as you move up the ladder. AMG Dynamics can be personalised. While it is not possible to activate ESP in Master, it is for instance worth trying ESP off in combination with Basic. It works really well on road and track, where it makes it easy for the driver to adapt without compromising confidence. It’s not long since the days when the Comfort setting in some AMG saloons was synonymous with an almost total lack of compliance. The new slantback takes no prisoners in Sport Plus and Race, but there is enough spring travel
This is the first AMG with its own built-in fragrance (AMG#63). Wind down the windows and you can replace it with Burntrubber#4
LOVE Chassis and engine in harmony
HATE Fiddly switchgear, high price
VERDICT Power and passion in a remarkable package
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and shock absorber mercy in Sport, even on some quite poor surfaces. With Master activated, body movements are kept extremely well in check, cornering is encouragingly flat, and waywardness is kept to an absolute minimum. As always, tyre temperatures can spoil the fun, but even on hot rubber our test track’s most challenging section, involving three successive high-speed fourth-gear esses, is wide enough to let you play with the line, tweak the entry speed and connect to the following right-hander without losing too much momentum. Add to this the Loctite roadholding, the dobermann cornering grip and the robust manners at the limit, and you get a good idea of how speed and control join forces in this remarkable sports coupe. The optional carbon-ceramic brakes generate one punch of counterthrust after the other, which is essential
on the circuit and extremely reassuring elsewhere. Despite all the stabilityenhancing trickeries, the 295-section tyres don’t take a lot of persuading to leave a souvenir on every second- and third-gear turn. The engine asks a lot of the ninespeed twin-clutch transmission. The initial escape from first into second gear can be a tad jerky, even in Comfort. But it’s a different story when you’re pushing hard. The way chassis and steering interact with the torque flow builds up your confidence, and you get to choose how wild you want the ride to be, from mild slides to tyre-smokers. When the car turns in and the stubby rear end swings round, you can leave it ridiculously late before feeding in the power along with a matching dose of opposite lock. Mercedes will almost certainly do the lion’s share of GT 4-Door business with the 3.0-litre model. It’s a compelling car for sure, advanced in concept and a great all-rounder. But it doesn’t come even close the outlandishly fast and wholly awesome GT63 S.
MERCEDES AMG GT63 S 4-DOOR > Price £150,000 (est) > Engine 3982cc 32v twin-turbo V8, 630bhp @ 5500rpm, 664lb ft @ 2500rpm > Transmission 9-speed twin-clutch auto, all-wheel drive > Performance 3.2sec 0-62mph, 196mph, 25.2mpg, 256g/km CO2 > Weight 2045kg > On sale Late 2018