Evo_September 2015

ALFA’S NEW M3 RIVAL
Faster, prettier – but should you buy it?
SUPERCAR SUVs
Drivers’ cars? Seriously?
Range Rover SVR v BMW X6M
v Porsche Cayenne Turbo
T H E
T H R I L L
O F
D R I V I N G
summer’s hottest new metal
LOTUS
3-ELEVEN
Fastest ever Lotus
JAGUAR
PROJECT
7
Not mad enough
NEW MX-5
DRIVEN
Simple pleasures
CIVIC
TYPE-R
Five car mega-test
WILDEST
FERRARI
Meet the man behind
the crazy FXX K
LONG-TERM
TESTS
Hello Mini JCW& Porsche
GT2, goodbye BMW M4
C@ntrol MSS
NICK TROTT
@evoNickTrott
ISSUE 212
SEPTEMBER
2015
Ed Speak
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A L FA ROM EO H A S T H E
world at its feet. Parent group Fiat
Chrysler Automobiles has been
restructured, Alfa’s manufacturing
capacity has increased thanks in
part to a five-billion-euro investment and (shock)
the brand is finally on the verge of having an
actual range of cars.
Yes, instead of stumbling from facelift to facelift
and quietly euthanising cars, Alfa is promising
seven new models in three years and 400,000 sales
per annum by 2018. In 2013 it sold just 74,000
cars. By comparison, Porsche sold 162,000.
Of course, Alfa has been predicting sales
increases at every key launch in recent times, but
having spent a day with the firm in Milan recently,
I sense a renewed vigour. Finally, the predictions
seem realistic.
I can’t tell you how exciting it is to write these
words, not only as a car enthusiast but also as
someone who grew up with an Alfa-mad dad who
rallied-crashed-rebuilt-repeat an original Giulia
(see pic). So why, then, do I fear that Alfa cannot
deliver a genuine drivers’ car? Because 4C.
Alfa Romeo’s 4C is by far the most disappointing
new car I’ve driven in the last five years. Achingly
beautiful yes, but this only exaggerates the sense
of deflation when you climb behind the wheel and
wrestle with its woeful dynamics.
Remember that this is a car with all the right
ingredients: a clean-sheet design with a stiff
carbon tub, a mid-engine/rear-wheel-drive layout
and a 237bhp turbocharged engine. The 4C was
a spectacular defeat clutched from the jaws of
victory and a car that stank of being signed-off by
marketeers rather than drivers.
The new Giulia (see p18)? It’s also a clean-sheet
car. It has rear-wheel drive with a four-wheel-drive
option and Ferrari has had a hand in developing
the V6 twin-turbo version. A manual is available
and it looks absolutely sen-bloody-sational.
Active aero? Yep. Proper torque-vectoring? Yes.
Sophisticated suspension layout. Sì.
It’s all there – the badge, the looks, the
engineering and the driver-focused layout. If they
cock it up, I sense the whole car community will
effectively hand in their Alfa badges, if you know
what I mean.
In Milan, CEO Harald Wester explained that the
Alfa Romeo brand remains as strong as ever but
the challenge ahead was releasing, and realising,
A
‘My dad ralliedcrashed-rebuilt-repeat
an original Giulia’
its potential. ‘Nothing of the brand needed to
change, we needed to change,’ he said.
It’s refreshing to hear a car company boss speak
so frankly (he even went on to describe Alfa’s
premium rivals as ‘cold, autocratic and boring’),
but I’d question his assessment of the equity in
the Alfa brand, particularly among the younger
generation. I might get misty-eyed at GTAs and
Quadrifoglios, but the Gran Turismo generation
positively froths over GT-Rs and McLarens.
There is some positive news about the Alfa
Romeo mindset. That being that the Giulia
project was spearheaded by what Wester
calls ‘skunks’ – a team recruited to challenge
incumbent conventions within the company.
FCA chairman Sergio Marchionne says the
programme was inspired by Lockheed Martin’s
Skunkworks division formed in 1943 to build
America’s first jet fighter. ‘We needed a revolution
of mindset,’ said Wester, with Marchionne
adding: ‘We created a free-thinking environment,
with the team working in isolation from the rest
of the company.’
I’m sure that put some noses out of joint in
Milan, but you’ve got to applaud the decision. I
just hope Marchionne and Wester are similarly
brave when they appoint the person to carry out
the Giulia’s final sign-off. L
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007
CONTENTS
ISSUE 212 SEPTEMBER 2015
FE ATUR ES
062
NEW MAZDA MX-5
Does the lightest MX-5 since the 1989
original deliver as a drivers’ car?
070
MAZDA 787B
Meaden drives the screaming Group C
car that made Le Mans history in ’91
074
MX-5 GROUP TEST
098
MEET MR XX
Enrico Galliera is the man who
decides who gets a special Ferrari
104
JAGUAR PROJECT 7
Behind the wheel of Jaguar’s
bespoke F-type Project 7
110
FERRARI v ASTON
You’ve read our verdict on the new
MX-5, now revisit the oldies
The high-tech California T meets
Aston’s V12 Vantage S Roadster
078
AUDI R8 AT LE MANS
114
LE MANS ROAD TRIP
Before its official press presentation,
evo goes flat-out in the new V10 R8
Ferrari 458 Speciale and Porsche 911
GT3 head to the Le Mans 24 Hours
084
TYPE R GROUP TEST
The new Civic Type R faces its biggest
challenge against the class elite
REGUL ARS
013
NEWS
Lotus’s trackday 3-Eleven and the
new 503bhp Alfa Romeo Giulia
053
COLUMNS
Richard Meaden, Richard Porter
and Dario Franchitti
059
LETTERS
Should the Aston Martin V8
Vantage enjoy more recognition?
124
LONG-TERM TESTS
Eveleigh’s Mini JCW arrives on the
fleet while our BMW M4 goes home
139
EVO KNOWLEDGE
TVR Tuscan buying guide plus Alfa
Romeo GTAs as our Next Big Thing
170
ART OF SPEED
On Alpina’s 50th birthday, evo
celebrates the famous Deko Set decals
DRIVEN
040
Cayenne Turbo v SVR v X6M
048
Bentley Continental GT Speed
046
Revo Ford Fiesta ST
050
Alpina D4 Bi-Turbo Convertible
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