Auto rig

AUTO RIG

The Monthly Car Magazine

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The

POWER

Edition 001, January

DYNAMIC

MACHINE

LetĂ­s talk CARS!

PORSCHE GT3RS

Cars that matter the most

Editorís Note

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warm welcome to our readers in this our third issue of Auto Rig Sports. I greet you with the news that the first edition of our magazine has won a Silver ADDY for Design at the Caribbean Advertising Federation (CAF) 2015.

Over the last few months the regions’ biggest sports of cricket and football hit an all time low, albeit, off the playing field. Firstly, we had the WICB, WIPA and their players’ abandoned tour of India, and secondly, the FIFA scandal that shook the football world and Concacaf like an earthquake of epic magnitude.

Interestingly, WICB, WIPA and FIFA all held elections during their rocky periods. And lo and behold the incumbent presidents Dave Cameron, Wavell Hinds and Joseph Sepp Blatter were all re-elected for another term in office. The system of voting has to be looked at as these entities are accountable to no one.

These stories are expertly covered by Alvin Corneal, Sheldon Waithe and Renaldo Matadeen in this issue.

The 2015 Cricket World Cup saw hosts Australia and New Zealand playing exciting cricket.

Deservingly, both made it all the way to finals where the Aussies were too experienced and skilled to be beaten on the day, successfully regaining the ICC World Cup Trophy that they had surrendered to India 4 years before.

In my opinion the CWC tournament should be no more than one month. The games only got interesting in the second round.

Before the games, Clive Lloyd, WICB Chairman of selectors, omitted Dwayne Bravo and Keiron Pollard for their roles played on the Indian tour; he said, “This team can surprise many people”. The cricketing world did not share his view, with three wins out of seven (2 of which were over Zimbabwe and UAE) and our first defeat to the Irish. Today, West Indies faces being eliminated from the 2017 ICC Champions Trophy for the first time in its history.

It take immense pleasure to announce the new edition of Auto Rig. Scroll through the pages and get acquainted with all the events and new car launches.

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10 Cars that B

MATTER

eauty, indeed, is a powerful thing. Specific though it may be to the observer, to each one of us, beauty has an intoxicating power that affects our judgment, blinds us to shortcomings, and, in many cases, provokes lust.

Troll the lawn of any major concours d’élégance, and you’ll see that old Johnny was right on the money. A beautiful car is a thing to be savored, treasured, and preserved. Why else would people display their cars on the concours if not for the flowing beauty of their sheetmetal? Why else would we sink so much time, effort, and money into an inanimate object if it didn’t look back at us with such a wanton, animate gaze?

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3- 2009 Porsche Cayman The Boxster is bitchin’, but the Cayman is beautiful. Yes, they’re more or less the same car, but the Cayman proves there’s something about a well-rendered roof that takes a good-looking car and drops it off at the doorstep of gorgeous. In our book, it is just as purposeful but even more sexy than—dare we say it?—its big brother, the legend itself, the Porsche 911 Carrera.

Blessed as it is with balanced mid-engine proportions, roof contours that drip down into the swollen fenders, and a smart, determined gaze, the Cayman makes its driver look as good as he or she feels. And as we’ve said many times before, when you drive one, you feel pretty good.

4- 2009 Mercedes-Benz CLS-Class Beauty is seldom encountered among four-doors since, in the car world, accumulating doors usually means subtracting style. But the Mercedes-Benz CLS-class proves that sedans can be beautiful, too. Sure, the CLS cheats a bit, achieving its captivating looks by incorporating some coupe-derived design elements such as a low, chopped roof and slim windows, and this translates into a cramped rear seat that holds only two people—short people. This car is best enjoyed from the outside, where light streaks over spectacular arching body contours like shooting stars. It is at once delightfully simple and wonderfully extravagant, and we celebrate it as an experiment in style that went very, very well. Fast forward to Pebble Beach 2058, and you can

1- 2009 Lotus Elise/2009 Ariel Atom

2- 2009 Audi R8

Beauty is not always purely a matter of the aesthetic. To those more technically minded (as are several of our editors—Csere, VanderWerp, you know who you are), beauty can be a more cerebral, associative, objective factor. Although the eensy, insectile Lotus Elise and the skeletal Ariel Atom are not necessarily beautiful in the traditional sense, the fact that they weigh next to nothing yet offer more power than many sport-utilities can make a math-minded car enthusiast drool at the sight of their unconventional bodies like Pavlov’s dogs in a bell factory. We’re talking 0 to 60 mph in 4.5 seconds for the 2000-pound Elise and three seconds flat in the 1400-pound, 245-hp Atom (a 300-hp model is also available). You don’t have to be a spreadsheet to get turned on by that.

Before the R8, the thought of Audi building a credible supercar was audacious enough. That it could make one that would be so arousingly beautiful was simply unfathomable. But with the R8, Audi has brought the world a car that performs like a true supercar and is sculpted in double-take sheetmetal. Certainly helpful is the fact that Audi owns Lamborghini and thus has proven supercar innards—in this instance, those of the Gallardo—at its disposal, as well as a number of excellent powertrains capable of launching the aluminum-bodied sexpot forward as if it were shot from a cannon. All that was left, then, was to wrap it in something beautiful. And that Audi did.

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5- 2009 Audi S5 Current Audi/Lamborghini/SEAT design chief Walter de’Silva has designed many beautiful cars during his illustrious career. But even after designing the mouthwatering Audi R8, de’Silva himself called the Audi S5, along with its less powerful, somewhat more subdued A5 twin, the most beautiful car he has ever penned.

One of the most passionate designs ever to come out of Germany, the S5 wears a perfect balance of masculine and feminine elements, mixing a strong, assertive gaze with elegantly flowing fenders and a thick fuselage offset with delicate brightwork. Sporty accents to the S5 include a squared-off chin, subtle sill extensions, a slightly longer decklid, and four wonderfully vocal tailpipes—all without detracting from the coupe’s innate beauty. Best of all, it sets the tone for the styling of Audi’s lineup henceforth. Lucky us.

6- 2009 Pontiac Solstice Coupe Although most of the cars in this group are rather costly, beautiful cars are not the exclusive domain of the rich. For proof, we submit Pontiac’s upcoming Solstice coupe. Little more than a Solstice convertible with a bit more sheetmetal and cargo space, the Solstice coupe joins the Cayman in proving that more is indeed more when it comes to beauty.

With well-integrated rear flanks, a radius-edged liftback window, and a double-bubble targa top.

7- 2009 Aston Martin V-8 Vantage It is entirely accurate to consider Aston Martin’s little V-8 Vantage a seveneighths-scale DB9. Roughly the same size as a Nissan 350Z and only a little bit quicker, the V-8 Vantage is nonetheless much, much pricier. So how can Aston get away with charging $80,000 more for the V-8 Vantage? Simple: The V-8 Vantage is absolutely gorgeous.

With the same long-hood, short-deck formula as that of its larger sibling, but with a slightly different styling edge in the form of large wheels and a ducktail tush, the V-8 Vantage offers a rarely achieved balance of beauty and sportiness, proving that classic GT proportions are indeed scalable.

Most Americans currently don’t know—or care one way or another— about Alfa Romeo’s plans to return to the U.S. But anyone lucky enough to lay eyes on the brilliant 8C Competizione that is leading the charge will be darn glad Alfa’s back. Why? Because this is beauty.

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ut it’s not just BMW that’s down and out. We can’t shake the feeling that the discerning driver is also on the losing team these days. Never mind the 707-hp Hellcats or that seemingly every automaker wants to build a mid-engined car. Product planners have abruptly decided that mass appeal and crisp dynamics are at odds with each other, and nowhere is it more obvious than in this sweet-spot compact-luxury segment that once so deftly combined sport, refinement, and practicality. The non–F Sport Lexus IS models are butter-knife dull. The Audi A4 mutes the analog art of driving with a digital sense of speed. Choose the wrong options and your BMW will be softer than

the comparable Mercedes C-class.

All of which makes the 2017 Jaguar XE an anomaly and a heaven-sent savior. We’ve just taken our first drive in Britain’s first car in this segment since the Ford Mondeo– based X-type, and it’s so good that we can’t think of a reason to mention that grim, four-wheeled disappointment again for the rest of this story. The two XE variants we drove—the supercharged V-6 XE S and a 180-hp diesel—sit at opposite ends of the performance spectrum and yet they both demonstrated the reflexes and the grace that are conspicuously absent in the competition. Keep your enthusiasm in check, though, because we’re still roughly a year away from the XE’s U.S. arrival (hence the 2017 model year on this story).

FIRST DRIVES The month’s new car

JAGUAR XE

The moment of truth has arrived for the final production version of Jaguar’s compact esec car. Is it in the same league as its german rival?

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FIRST DRIVES

Like the larger XF and XJ, the smallest Jag sedan wears a body structure made mostly from bonded and riveted aluminum. The steel bits—all four doors, the trunklid, and the floor pan aft of the rear seat—are strategically located to shift the weight distribution toward the driven rear wheels.

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Yet Jaguar admits that its aluminum car isn’t exactly light. With the supercharged V-6 and rear-wheel drive, the XE weighs nearly 3700 pounds. That’s on par with the 3-series and about 100 pounds heavier than the neurotically optimized, steel-intensive Cadillac ATS. The claimed 53/47-percent front/ rear weight distribution also fails to impress. Jon Darlington, XE engineering manager, says a lighter body-inwhite allows Jaguar to use heavier, more complex suspension systems.

Between this XE and the Ford F-150 (which now weighs about as much as a Chevy Silverado), we were ready to declare aluminum the official material of reduced expectations.

Then we hammered the XE over Portugal’s wandering two-lanes, connecting sun-bleached villages with a supercharged wail and a red blur. Behind the wheel, the pounds melt away in an effortless hustle that’s all precision and dexterity. Helped by adaptive dampers and brake-based torque vectoring, the XE S turns in quick, corners flat, and exits fast. A crease in the asphalt at the apex becomes a twitch in your palms, a flash of recognition in your brain, and a wiggle of your wrists, all without conscious thought. This is real, living, breathing steering feel, and the XE has it in spades. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry tears of joy, and you’ll marvel that this is Jaguar’s first use of electric power steering in a sedan. It is exceptional.

Power for the range-topping XE S comes from the 3.0-liter supercharged V-6 used throughout the Jaguar range.

It excels in delivering its power, and it’s instantaneous, seamless, and strong all the way to the 7000-rpm redline.

Given its 340 horsepower and 332 lb-ft of torque, we predict a zero-to-60-mph run near the head of the pack at 4.7 seconds. The excellent ZF eight-speed automatic—also used by BMW and Audi—is another reminder that no automaker should waste the time or money trying to develop something quicker, smoother, or smarter, because it’s likely an impossible task.

The V-6 engine is neither as honeyed nor as musical as the Audi S4’s engine of similar configuration, displacement, and output. But even if the Jag engine doesn’t achieve the same level of polish, the NVH team has done an admirable job of burying the unpleasant sounds and vibrations behind insulation and bushings. At full throttle, the supercharger is barely audible and the en-

gine plays a subtler variation of the six-cylinder F-type’s rasp.

The 2.0-liter turbo-diesel four-cylinder is our first taste of Jaguar’s new Ingenium engine family, which will sever the final ties with Ford Motor Company once it’s been fully adopted. The characteristic diesel clatter is suppressed so well that the compression-ignition engine might be more refined than the V-6—at least relative to its peers. In the diesel, the eight forward gears do a fine job of keeping the engine parked in the window between the 317-lb-ft torque peak at 1750 rpm and the maximum power output of 180 horsepower at 4000 rpm.

than those of the cluttered mess in current-gen Jaguars, but the underlying software appears to be plagued by the same problems, namely slow responses. Rear-seat space is also on the small side, but then trying to be all things to all people is exactly how this segment became so anesthetic.

The diesel’s aluminum block also will form the foundation for a gas-burning Ingenium four-cylinder. That turbocharged 2.0-liter will ultimately make up the bulk of U.S. sales, but we’ll have to wait about six months after the XE’s spring 2016 launch for its arrival.

All-wheel drive will be optional with any engine, and we’re promised a six-speed manual for either of the four-cylinder engines, albeit only with rear-wheel drive.

Of course, the XE isn’t without flaw. The graphics of the new InControl system’s eight-inch touch screen are cleaner and crisper

You can buy a bigger back seat, a more opulent interior, a web browser on wheels, a suite of pseudo self-driving technology.

JAGUAR XE DIESEL R-SPORT

A new 3 series is looming but, for now, the XE is the best-driving small executive saloon.

Price

RS. 28,00000

Engine

4cycls, 1999cc turbodiesel

Power

317lb ft at 17502500rpm

Gearbox

8-spd automatic

Kerb Wght 1565 kg

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