Along came a Spider

It’s been a while since I’ve had a chance to update the blog, but rest assured I haven’t been twiddling my thumbs. One car that’s remained very much on the radar is the Porsche 918 Spider. Now confirmed to be making the switch from concept to production car, the futuristic super-hybrid, which combines 74mpg frugality with a 198mph top speed, can finally be seen in action in the video below.

The reason this car is so exciting is that it gives us hope in an era where fast cars are seen as increasingly socially unacceptable. Whether or not you subscribe to that theory is a moot point – enough people (including, it seems, the law makers) do to threaten the reign of the conventional large-capacity internal combustion engine, and cars like this prove we’re no longer dependent on it.

Despite its performance the Spider emits just 70g/km of CO2. That’s nearly 20g/km less CO2 than a Toyota Prius and yet it’s a proper mid-engined Porsche supercar. Suddenly the future seems rather bright.

Countdown to Motion: Porsche 918 Spyder Hybrid Drives. from TangentVector on Vimeo.

Zig and Zag

One Caterham, 48 hours of freedom and a full tank of petrol, but what to do? The dilemma of how to spend my first free weekend in ages isn’t an entirely unpleasant one, granted. In the end I make the decision to head down to some friends holding a barbeque in Bournemouth. The trip is about 130 miles – mostly on the motorway – so it seems the ideal chance to try out the car’s touring capabilities.

To give myself a fleeting chance of avoiding the weekend exodus I set off at around 7am. There are already a reasonable number of people on the M25, but I appear to be the only one driving a stripped out ex-racer with no roof, an unpadded plastic seat and a competition gearbox of deafeningly low ratios. Funny that. In order to make things a little more bearable I’ve packed an MP3 player and a pair of powerful in-ear headphones that just about manage to make themselves heard over the engine. Although the Caterham emits a very pleasant racy bark under acceleration, the constant mechanical blare of a 5,000rpm cruise (in 6th!) rapidly becomes wearing. Unservoed brakes and a competition clutch make traffic somewhat fatiguing, while slightly dubious ergonomics make it very difficult to rest your legs in a comfortable position when cruising. Not surprisingly, the motorway isn’t proving to be the Seven’s forte.

As the A31 emerges from the New Forest I turn off to investigate a tip off I’d been given about a good driving road en-route. The B3347 from Ringwood to Christchurch is said to be something of a biker’s favourite, which is usually a good sign, but to be honest I don’t find much to recommend it for those on four wheels. There’s one nice set of S-bends, but they fall inside a 40mph limit and you have to contend with traffic for much of the rest of the route, even at 9am on a Saturday. And, while half of Dorset seem to be bumbling along the B3347, those I'm due to meet have yet to surface, so it seems like the perfect opportunity to satisfy a long held curiosity.

There’s a section of the B3081, better known as Zig Zag Hill, which is officially the twistiest road in Britain. It packs seven tight bends into a little over half a mile, but does this actually make it a worthwhile driving road in the real world or just a curiosity for the map makers and statisticians? To find out, I first have to get there. The ‘Zig Zag’ part of the route is close to the village of Cann Common, some 20 miles to the west of the road’s start, but fortunately even the busy opening section of the B3081 is an improvement on the previous road. Once past Verwood, the traffic starts to thin out and there are some nice little sections as the road threads its way through the impossibly lush setting of the Dorset/Wiltshire border. There are still a few slower cars around, but the Caterham comes into its element here, nipping past traffic with ease thanks to its tiny dimensions and impressive power-to-weight ratio.

As the road tightens up even the Seven finds itself marooned behind a slow moving horse transporter. I pull in to the side to let a biker past, but he can’t find a gap big enough to get past the truck either. Finally the road clears, the bike takes off and the gap is just big enough for the Caterham to follow. The trees thin out and the long sweeping corners give the road a slightly unexpected moorland feel. It’s ideal bike territory and our newfound companion edges ahead under acceleration, while we claw back some ground in the car through the corners. It’s good fun, but eventually discretion kicks in and I ease off to watch the two-wheeled silhouette disappear over the horizon.

Soon the landscape changes again as we approach the top of the hill and descend towards the famous Zig Zags. It only takes one corner for you to realise that the hill lives up to its reputation. It feels like an alpine pass that's been compressed, with a series of tight switchbacks crammed into a small space under the trees. The road may be narrow, but it's not so tiny that you can't have some fun if you're sensible, particularly in something the size of a Caterham.

Heel and toeing my way down into the hairpins, peering round for a clear view of the road ahead and then slingshotting down to the next corner I start to grin manically. Before long the bike creeps back into view and we howl along the final section in unison.

Rather pleased with the result of my investigation, I turn round and head back up the hill. The ascent is, predictably, a hillclimb waiting to be staged and I’d love the chance to really attack it. Even on open roads, the Caterham just feels so right here, threading its way up a course that would leave something like an M3 struggling for space and render most hot hatches bloated and underpowered. It’s a superb drive and perhaps the best on-road experience I’ve had in the car so far.

After retracing my steps along the moorland section I take the local roads into Bournemouth and park up. Silly as this may sound it’s the first time the car’s been left out over night, so I assemble the tarpaulin I’d bought to keep any unexpected rain out and set about laying it up. In truth this highlights the biggest obstacle to ever using it every day as far as I’m concerned – even Seven owners who have a full hood report mixed luck at actually keeping the water out, and the flimsy canvas cover, held on with poppers, must look rather inviting to those of a criminal persuasion.

On the whole, the Caterham has coped well with its first long distance trip. Okay, it wasn’t much fun on the motorway, but it wasn’t as bad as I’d feared it could have been and the open road experience more than made up for it. With a suitably masochistic outlook, a strong set of calf muscles and a good pair of headphones you can overlook the Seven’s lack of creature comforts, even in the most basic ex-racing model. What you can’t do is keep it safe and secure outside in, say, a dodgy area of London. With that in mind, the solution seems clear – I need to move to a nicer location. The foot of Zig Zag Hill perhaps.

Fiat drops down a size

The idea of ‘turbo-downsizing’ took another step forward today with the unveiling of a new family of twin-cylinder 900cc engines from Fiat. The turbocharged TwinAir range, set to debut in the Fiat 500 next September, promises performance equal to that of a conventional 1.4-litre unit, despite 30% reductions in fuel consumption and CO2 emissions. It does so by combining the current trend for small capacity turbocharged engines with Fiat’s clever MultiAir valve control system.

The result is 85bhp from a small, lightweight engine that returns 57mpg and emits just 92g/km of CO2. It’s perhaps the purest application of the turbo-downsizing theory so far, having only two cylinders and displacing less than a litre, and shows the technology has truly come of age.

The TwinAir-equipped Fiat 500 is good for 107mph and dispatches the 0-60mph sprint in 11 seconds. This comfortably trumps the current base spec 1.2-litre model and comes within a whisker of the 1.4, but what’s perhaps more impressive is that it produces 145Nm of torque from just 1,750rpm in standard mode. A special ‘city mode’ reduces this to 100Nm, softens up the throttle response and re-programs the robotized manual gearbox (where used) to maximise fuel economy around town. Additionally, all cars come with a gearshift indicator light to prompt you when best to change gear and a stop-start system to cut the engine in traffic.

The Fiat press release also hints at bigger things to come. The TwinAir engine’s compact dimensions make it particularly easy, it says, to package an auxiliary power source such as an electric motor next to it. Also, it’s said a version of the TwinAir engine featuring methane injection, running in parallel with the usual petrol supply, will soon be available. According to Fiat this should reduce CO2 emissions to the point where they’re hard to better with a conventional internal combustion engine. That’s a bold claim, but there again a sub 1-litre turbocharged direct injection twin-cylinder hybrid (and breathe...) is pretty much the specified goal of current small car powertrain thinking.

(Photo for illustration only. Source: Newspress)

Along came a Dagger

Barely a day after the Bugatti Veyron Super Sport raised the intriguing prospect of a 300mph road car, US firm TranStar Racing has announced its intentions to build one. The TranStar Racing Dagger GT - gotta love our Atlantic cousins' flare for names - is due to be powered by a 9.4-litre twin-turbo V8 producing 2000bhp.

It's not the first time a start-up company has appeared with a new supercar design promising big numbers, and it's anyone's guess as to whether this one will get any further than the usual renderings. The idea of using a big Old School V8 is promisingly grounded, though, and 2000bhp is certainly not unrealistic for a drag racing engine.

With that sort of power on tap 300mph should, in theory, be attainable. What's somewhat more surprising is the company's suggestion that it will also meet US emissions requirements and provide 'reasonable gas mileage for a big block engine'. There's also the small matter of keeping it on the ground at 300mph, keeping the tyres intact, and, not least, funding the project.

If the Dagger ever does come to fruition its base price of $400,000 will comfortably undercut most of the existing hypercars, but cynics might argue this is rather academic until the first prototype actually turns a wheel. In the meantime what we do have is a collection of renderings and you'd have to say they look rather good. Let's hope we see it in the flesh one day.

Bugatti Veyron Super Sport hits 268mph

Remember when 200mph seemed an almost impassable barrier, reserved only for the fastest hypercars? Those days may be long gone, but even in the era of 200mph estate cars there’s something pretty special about Bugatti’s latest achievement.

Yesterday, at the Volkswagen Group’s Ehra-Lessien development facility a Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Super Sport piloted by factory driver Pierre Henri Raphanel set an average speed of 431kph over two runs. That’s 268mph. In a road car.

More to the point, it was also a standard production road car – provided, that is, you can ever classify a 16-cylinder, 1200bhp, €1,950,000 Veyron as standard. Upgrades relative to the modest 1,001bhp base model include enlarged turbos and intercoolers, greater spring travel, revised dampers and a re-programmed 4-wheel drive system. All of which throws down the gauntlet to the likes of the Hennessey Venom GT (a 1,200bhp Anglo-American supercar said to be capable of ‘at least 262mph’). How long until the first 300mph production car? Place your bets now.

Renault's Wind blows in

Preconceptions can be a wonderful thing. Essex, for example, is actually quite a nice place to live; TVRs don’t have to breakdown (much); and sometimes racing drivers can construct a sentence without even using the phrase ‘for sure’. Wherever we get preconceptions there are inevitably bargains to be had by those capable of seeing through them. And the ‘girlie’ end of the car market is no exception. The Mazda MX5, for example, may attract more than its fair share of hairdresser jibes, but once you’ve seen one slithering around a wet track the idea of dismissing it for its image is a bit like writing off Napoleon because he was 'a bit short'.

Admittedly, the drop top supermini market, frequented by cars like the Vauxhall Tigra and Peugeot 207 CC, hasn’t traditionally been the most promising place to look for a driver’s car, but a closet gem may be about to emerge. Its name is the Renault Wind, and underneath the mildly effeminate exterior lies a chassis honed by Renaultsport. What’s more, the larger of its two engine options – a naturally aspirated 1.6-litre unit producing 133bhp – comes direct from the Renaultsport Twingo. So far, so good.

It’s not actually that girlie to look at either. The roll hoop and flying buttresses at the back have a hint of Lotus Elise about them – at least if we’re being kind – and the somewhat squat proportions almost make it look mid-engined. At the front, the chunky grill with its twin air intakes lends it a meatier stance than cars like the Tigra, although, admittedly that’s not difficult.

The Wind boasts some neat design features too. In an era of increasingly complicated folding hard tops its roof is a model of elegant simplicity. Instead of contorting through some tortuous path and then devouring half the boot space it simply flips – Ferrari Superamerica style – through 180 degrees and comes to rest on the rear deck. The whole process takes just 12 seconds and the boot space – said to be on a par with the Clio hatchback – remains unaffected.

Click on the video below to see the Wind's clever roof in action

Weighing in at a modest 21.8kg the rotating roof mechanism also helps to keep the overall weight down. Starting at 1,131kg for the 1.2 TCe 100 and ranging up to 1,173kg for the 1.6 VVT 133, the Wind isn’t going to frighten any Caterhams, but it is a respectable build for a mainstream modern supermini, which after all is what it is. That’s enough to propel the turbocharged 1.2-litre base model to 60mph in 10.5 seconds, while the 1.6 takes 9.2 seconds (half a second off the equivalent Twingo).

Only time will tell if the Wind’s driving experience lives up to the promise, but the potential definitely exists for it to upstage the supermini-based competition and provide some cheap and cheerful fun. Or at least that’s theory. With prices starting at £15,500 and rising to £18,200 it’s perilously close to the Mazda MX5, and already costs more than many warm tin tops. Given a few years the first examples should depreciate to a very tempting second hand buy though – providing, that is, you can live with the image.

A bug's life

"Come and see this car," beckoned my girlfriend as she appeared in the flat this afternoon. It was an odd request for several reasons; principally because she tends to treat cars with a level of disinterest normally reserved for me flicking through a shoe catalogue. Something about this particular example had clearly caught her attention though.

A friend had given her a lift in what turned out to be a 1973 Volkswagen Beetle. It was sporting a slight patina, with the odd scratch and dent that only added to its appeal (as befits a trusty workhorse that brought every day transport to millions).

I know the phrase 'character' is banded about too frequently in automotive circles, and often used as a euphemism for something less flattering, but the humble little bug really did have it by the bucket load. I was busy mumbling my appreciation when the owner thrust the keys forward and asked if I'd like to have a go. Under the circumstances it would have been rude not to.

After a couple of stabs of the throttle to prime its carburettor, the horizontally opposed 4 chuntered into life and settled to a percussive idle. The first tentative steps were all surprisingly easy. The clutch was light and progressive, the gearshift was actually better than you might expect given it's a 40 year old mechanism operating something at the other end of the car and, to my amazement, the brakes were both well servoed and reasonably effective.

Predictably, the performance wasn't spectacular by modern standards, but there was something very engaging about the way the ancient 1500cc engine went its about business. The same could be said for the dynamics. The steering was extremely light around the straight-ahead, feeling a little floaty under normal circumstances, but it weighted up markedly under lock, requiring a degree of effort at manoeuvring speeds. The only really issue came from the gearbox, which seemed to be losing its synchromesh on second, but, to be honest, double de-clutching on the way back only added to the retro experience.

So does this mean I'm a Vee Dub convert? Well, yes and no. I'm not sure I'd want to forego the conveniences of a modern run-around for one. And, engaging as it was, I wasn't sufficiently smitten to want to swap the Caterham for one as a toy. But, if money was no object - after half a dozen assorted Astons, the odd Ferrari and various other types of exotica - there might just be a space for the bug in my fantasy garage.

(Photo: VW/Newspress)