Zenvo ST1 & 50S Limited Edition

ST1: V8 / 7.011 cc / 1.120 PS / 1.106 ft/lb (1.430 Nm) @ 4.500 / supercharger + turbo / 0 - 62 mph (100 km/h): 3,0 s / Vmax (limited): 233 mph (375 km/h)

ST1 S50: V8 / 7.011 cc / 1.250 PS / 1.055 ft/lb (1.500 Nm) @ 4.500 / supercharger + turbo / 0 - 62 mph (100 km/h): <3,0 s / Vmax (limited): >233 mph (>375 km/h) / Limited edition (3 cars) for 1,8 mio USD each

(click images for a larger view)

McLaren unveils new successor to F1 supercar

 

IF YOU liked the McLaren MP4-12C then you'll love the stunning new supercar its creators have come up with.

The McLaren P1 - which luckily has a slightly less confusing name than its smaller sister - is being billed as the spiritual successor to the company's F1 supercar of the 1990s, which held the honour of being the world's fastest production car for more than a decade thanks to its 627bhp BMW Motorsport V12 and its slippery, Peter Stevens-shaped body.

Ron Dennis, exectutive chairman of McLaren Automotive, said: "The McLaren P1 will be the result of 50 years of racing and road car heritage.

"Twenty years ago we raised the supercar performance bar with the McLaren F1 and our goal with the McLaren P1 is to redefine it once again."


There's no official word on the car's performance - the old F1 could shoot to sixty in 3.2 seconds, before heading onto a top speed of 241mph - but expect it to be significantly quicker than the smaller MP4-12C, which can already hit 207mph thanks to its 592bhp twin-turbocharged V8 engine.

At the moment the P1 is being presented as a "design study" but the company has already said it expects a production version to be unveiled within the next 12 months.

Chris Evans has a hit with CarFest North

CHRIS Evans pulled up alongside us in a golf cart, prompting a moment of comedy genius. 

Someone in the crowd turned to the Radio 2 DJ, gave him a cheeky glance and shouted “It’s nice to see you’ve brought your car to show, mate”. It was hilarious but I think Chris saw the funny side.

Say what you want about Chris Evans but even if you didn’t like his stint on The Big Breakfast you can’t deny he’s a proper petrolhead, through and through; a car connoisseur rather than someone who just throws their millions at any old Ferrari or Lambo. That’s what made CarFest North far better than I could’ve expected it to be, because Chris wasn’t hiding backstage. He was out there gawping at supercars, just like everyone else.

I turned up at Cholmondeley last Saturday with the same exasperated question as everyone else – sounds great, but it costs HOW much? Even bearing in mind it was a fundraiser for BBC Children In Need, with a third of the price going straight to charity, at £60 for a day ticket it’s nearly as twice as much as Cholmondeley’s other show, the Pageant of Power, which until now has been the priciest automotive outing I’ve enjoyed. On the basis you can actually buy a secondhand supermini for the cost of some of the VIP weekend glamping packages, I was ready to declare it a bit of a rip-off in these pages.

But here’s the rub – I can’t, because even with the price in mind it was a truly enjoyable car show quite unlike any other. There was all the stuff you’d expect to see at a high end car show – supercar sprints, Group B rally cars, classics being auctioned off and so on – but at the point when I’d normally trapse out of the gate, overloaded with freebies for the long drive home, the car show ended and the music,  Chris’ other passion, began.

Life On Cars took these pictures at the event, which continues today (September 9, 2012):

Admittedly, I stayed right to the raggedy end because Texas, one of my favourite bands, were headlining, but it’s amazing to think that I met Chris Evans, sang Say What You Want with 20,000 other people and saw hundreds of shiny supercars, all at the same show. If this the future of charity fundraising, count me in.

I’m already planning on making a weekend of next year’s event, when Chris inevitably confirms it. Time, I think, to dig the tent out...

 

Fire up the... Jaguar XKR-S Convertible

BILL Lyons would have liked this car. Jaguar's late, great founder would, I reckon, have got out of the XKR-S, taken in its lines and given it the thumbs up.

Why? Because Jaguar's sports cars, right from the original XK120, through the Le Mans winning C and D Types and through to the iconic E-Type were all about being as fast and beautiful as anything Aston or Ferrari could knock out, and for a fraction of the price. This roadgoing missile and the old E have a mission statement in common.

The XKR-S, to get it out of the way, is almost unspeakably fast. Thanks to a supercharged five litre V8 and a uprated exhaust system at its disposal it has no less than 542bhp at its disposal, meaning that in terms of big cats only the old XJ220 supercar can outsprint it. More importantly, it offers more grunt than the Ferrari California and the Aston Martin DBS for a lower price. Which is a very Jag thing to do.

It also pulls off that other crucial Jaguar accomplishment - it looks good, although I'd argue not quite as svelte as the cheaper and less powerful XKR the S is based on. The XKR-S, in its bid to look bolder and more aggressive, loses a little of the elegance of its slower siblings. Different strokes and all that, though.

In fact, the biggest bugbear about the absolute gem of an engine that Jaguar's created for the hottest XK ever is a surprisingly simple one; that the company, quite simply, has fitted it to the wrong car.

The XKR-S is a wonderful showcase for what the company, finally freed from the limits of ex-owner Ford's finances and the needs to play second fiddle to Aston Martin, can do, but with two doors, tiny back seats and a £103,000 pricetag it's left looking a little indulgent. Especially next to the likes of the BMW M5, a car that'll offer even more grunt and a similar prestige in a more practical package. This engine belongs under the bonnet of the XJ saloon, and when and if the company get around to it (please, pretty please) they'll create a performance car package to die for. Until then, however, the XK will do just fine.

Don't worry, however, if you reckon a 542bhp Jaguar costing upwards of £100,000 is bordering on irrelevant in today's recession-ridden times, because the company does the real world just as well as the surreal one. Tune in next time to find out why...

Ferrari have got a surprisingly good reason to celebrate the Diamond Jubilee

I WAS a bit confused when Ferrari announced how it'd be celebrating the Diamond Jubilee.

Italy's most iconic car maker are not only sending a cavalcade of their finest creations to Windsor to mark the celebrations, but they're also bringing a division of the mounted Carabinieri (that's Italian for bobbies on horses) with them. All this for a foreign head of state who, while being fabulously rich, has never actually owned a Ferrari. Prince Charles we all know for being a bit of an Aston man, but I don't recall Queen Elizabeth II being on the waiting list for the 458 Italia.

Then it clicked. The bosses of the most obviously petrolhead company on the planet are paying tribute to something you probably didn't know about Her Majesty. Whisper it softly, but the Queen is a car enthusiast! You probably thought Britain's highest profile motoring fan was Jeremy Clarkson, didn't you? There are, even if you exclude the presenters of Top Gear, all sorts of powerful and influential people who have a passion for motoring. Steve Coogan, for instance, or Jamiroquai frontman Jay Kay. Chris Evans, meanwhile, is a proper Ferrari ambassador, and has an entire collection of the Prancing Horse's finest. Arguably, though, the Queen is more high profile than any of those. She appears on our banknotes and everything!

Don't believe me? Well, it's a fact that Her Majesty The Queen is a trained mechanic, and while she could have done all sorts of different things to help the British war effort in the 1940s she spent most of the conflict in a boiler suit underneath army trucks, mending things. It's also true that she had a Rover P5B Coupe (a proper, regal old Rover from the days they were fitted with plush carpets and thumping great V8 engines) which she had not as something she could be chauffeured about in, but so that she could actually drive it herself, simply because she enjoyed it. When she eventually got rid of it she got a Jag for exactly the same purpose.

There's something strangely comforting in these austere times about knowing that the ruling monarch, deep down, is a keen driver with a James May-like command of mechanical knowhow and a taste for V8-engined luxury saloons. No wonder Ferrari thought it'd be a good idea to celebrate 60 years of her reign by showing her some F40s and Daytonas.

Deep down, I reckon she'd like ‘em...

Lotus Evora S - better than a 911?

THIS story begins not in Hethel – the spiritual home of all things Lotus, from Elite to Exige – but on the M6, heading north towards Coventry.

The traffic jam, thanks to an accident, has backed up for miles. It is stuffy, confined, and frustratingly slow. There are hundreds of drivers here who have all have one thing in common. Not one of them wants to be here.

If I could choose a car to tackle these congested conditions, it wouldn’t be a mid-engined, supercharged, rear-wheel-drive, look-at-me supercar, and the Lotus Evora S is all of those things. It is a supercar because it goes like a jet aircraft, corners like a go-kart and looks like something styled by a Renaissance artist, but it’s a super car because it does all this with next to none of the drawbacks.

It was – and I don’t say this lightly – no harder to drive in a motorway crawl than a BMW 5-Series.

I know because this time last year, I drove an Elise, the modern classic which to this day can provide any motorist with a master class in how to do ride and handling properly. On the right roads, like any of the mountain passes in the Lake District, it was sublime, but on the motorways it was a noisy companion and once you pull over you’ll do your back in trying to get out.

Naturally, I as tried to figure it out on the train down to Norfolk to visit Lotus’ factory, the Evora would be worse. A big Elise with all the drawbacks, but with a bit of a supercar-style traditional truculence thrown in. But it isn’t.

First, the drawbacks. It’s easier to get into than any other Lotus offering, but it still requires a slightly more agile frame than most. The rear visibility is shocking, the rear seats are hopelessly cramped, and when you first set off, it is very, very wide. Oh, and the supercharged V6 is like me – endlessly reliable, but loves a drink. Own an Evora and petrol stations will become familiar places.

Yet you’ll forgive it everything because it’s two brilliant cars in one; a thirsty executive express with cruise control, leather seats and satnav, and a stunning supercar crafted by hand by Lotus, the company that brought you the Elan and the Esprit. The Evora S has 345bhp and feels like it, belting its way not only down the straights but using its seemingly divine levels of grip to destroy corners too. Oh, and it all comes in what I reckon is one of the best shapes on sale today – the Evora was and still is a truly wonderful aesthetic achievement.

Would I, if I had the £60,000 asking price, go for an Evora S? I suspect I probably would - in fact, every opinion I’ve canvassed since getting it is one of going for the Lotus rather than a 911. Luckily for me, I’ve still got a few days left to find out for definite.

I’ll keep you posted...

Prepare to fire up the... Honda NSX

A SUCCESSOR to one of the most influential - and overlooked - supercars of all time is being considered by the company which first created it more than 20 years ago.

Few companies back in the early Nineties could boast that their fastest offering had been developed by the late Formula One ace Ayrton Senna or boast then-revolutionary construction and engine technology, so it's incredible to think the Honda NSX wasn't more of a hit. However, now that the world is cottoning onto the original's classic-in-waiting status prices for the original are soaring, and Honda itself is keen to cash in on the car's cult following by launching a long-awaited successor.

Yet that's exactly what Honda will be showing off at next month's Geneva Motorshow and if - or, more likely when - it generates enough interest the Japanese automotive giant is likely to get cracking on a production version, which is likely to show off the hybrid technology it's already used to good effect in the Insight and CR-Z among others.

Honda president Takanobu Ito said when he unveiled an Acura-badged version to American enthusiasts last month:

"Like the first NSX, we will again express high performance through engineering efficiency.

"In this new era, even as we focus on the fun to drive spirit of the NSX, I think a supercar must respond positively to environmental responsibilities."

Like the original, the new NSX will have its rear wheels powered by a mid-mounted V6 engine, but it'll use not just hybrid technology but also direct injection to make the most of every drop of fuel. It'll also use a dual clutch transmission with built-in electric motor, to create supercar acceleration while offering outstanding efficiency.

In fact, the biggest problem will be overcoming the brand snobbery which dogged the original, because the NSX will up against the prestige offered by the likes of Porsche, Lotus and even Ferrari.

Can lightning strike twice? With all the technology on offer with the new NSX, you'd hope not for Honda's sake.

Bella Maserati!

AS PROMISED, some pictures of a gathering of old Maseratis I managed to gatecrash on my trip to Germany last week.


Proof that - away from the inevitable old Porsches, Mercedes and Volkswagens - there are clearly some Italian GT connoisseurs living just outside Cologne.



In a pub car park just outside the picturesque Schloss Burg castle, near to the city of Solingen, German supercar lovers could clock everything from the gorgeous Ghibli, the mid-engined Merak, the angular Biturbo and a modern Maserarti in the shape of the latest Quattroporte saloon.


I'll take a Ghibl and a Merak SS, please...

The troubled history of Jaguar's supercars

THE car-loving chaps at Jaguar, if history's anything to go by, are about to get themselves into a world of trouble.

You'll probably already know I'm a big fan of the Big Cat - and judging by the accolades the XF, XK and XK keep attracting, so are lots of you - but what you might not be aware of is that it's just announced it's going to go to the trouble of making another supercar. That's trouble as in lots of it, because Jaguar seem to be the unluckiest supercar creators in history.

It all started so well when they fitted a windscreen, some doors and an extra-seat to the iconic D-Type which had done sterling work for them at Le Mans in the Fifties. The raw, race-bred XKSS was the GT3 RS of its day, thanks largely to its streamlined shape and a meatier version of the company's XK straighr six which mustered no less than a mighty 250bhp. Or rather it would have been had the factory not caught fire in 1957. They made 16.

Its Sixties successor, the mid-engined XK13, would have been a better-looking GT40 baiter had it ever made the step from racing prototype to actual road-racer, but sadly that never happened because the rules for GT racing changed, making it obsolete before it could tear a track up in anger. They made just the one of those, and that ended up shedding a wheel at 140mph a couple of years later on the banking at the MIRA test track. Rumours that the number 13 is somehow unlucky remain unfounded.

In fact, the only Jaguar supercar you're likely to recall is the XJ220, which was, the company proudly proclaimed at the height of the late Eighties supercar boom when they showed off the concept version would have a V12 and four-wheel-drive. The production version had two-wheel-drive and a V6 - even if it was a rally-bred one with 542bhp - so people tried to pull out of their investments, which got so bad Jaguar ended up taking some of them to court. Still, it was the world's fastest production road car... until Mclaren unveiled the F1. It was beautiful and brutally fast, but it was a CD Walkman in an iPod world.

A couple of years later, even as the last of the XJ220s lingered unloved in the showrooms, they had another bash with the XK180 concept car - a car so beautiful I still have the scale model on my mantlepiece - but Ford, who owned Jaguar by that point, told us motoring enthusiasts that it was a birthday present to celebrate Jaguar's sports car heritage and wasn't for sale. Ever.

That's how the company had left things supercar-wise until this week when it confirmed the C-X75, which wowed crowds at the world's motorshows last year, will go into production (minus the fantastic gas turbine engine technology, it's already admitted). It's eco-friendly, it'll get to sixty in less than three seconds, it'll do upwards of 200mph but more importantly just look at it.

So it's a stunning supercar with green credentials and a Jaguar badge, and absolutely everyone will want one. What could possibly go wrong?

You wait ages for a new Lotus and then five come at once

IT'S the Paris Motorshow and every right-minded petrolhead is pondering the same question; why launch one new model when you can launch five?

I always imagined the chaps at Lotus would get quite offended if you called them a conventional car maker, so it's somehow appropriate that just months after returning to the world's racetracks with a semi-official F1 effort they've launched a quintet of new cars.

Not only have the Elise, Esprit, Elite and Elan models been revisted with a selection of sports cars in different shapes and sizes, the Norfolk company's also gunning for the likes of Porsche's Panamera with its four-door Eterne, making it the first Lotus saloon since the slightly loopy Lotus Carlton of the early 1990s.

Is the company's PR coup five times better than just launching a single model, which on its own would have been enough to steal the show, like the Evora managed to at London's motorshow two years ago? I'm not so sure.

The new Esprit is the most immediately exotic and exciting - it's a real Ferrari-chaser, and the first we've had from Lotus since the original Esprit died off several years ago - and the Eterne is a bold venture into uncharted waters, but the others stray from Lotus heartlands a little too quickly.

The £35,000 Elise, for instance, is getting worryingly close to Porsche Boxster territory for what's meant to be a small, lightweight little sports car, but it's the Elan which is almost unrecognisable from its illustrious predecessors. Lotus reckons Elan drivers demand more but the last two were a success because they gave less - as in less weight, which made them a favourite with keen drivers.

And the Elite? As a £115,000 Lotus it makes little sense, but I love it already. Clearly nobody actually needs one, but that's exactly why I'd have one.

I have until 2014 to save up.

Greece needs money more than Bugatti does

MY other half, who's German, is infuriated that her country is having to pay for 53-year-olds in Greece who've just retreated to a retirement of yachts and Ouzo.

The Greek economy is knackered, and there's almost nothing the Berliners, the Frankfurters and the Stuttgarters can do about it, although I do have a suggestion. Borrow some cash from the country's largest car company, because they've obviously got loads of it.

How else do you explain the news that - while you were queuing at the Job Centre - they've reclaimed the title of world's fastest supercar? The Bugatti Veyron Supersport might be built in France and named after a Gallic engineering genius, but the funding that made it happen is all Volkswagen's. It's where the money they made on that Polo you've just bought went.

Building an even faster version of a car that already did 253mph just to reclaim a record just seems a trifle tasteless at a time when entire countries are going bust, but they've gone and done it anyway. Bugatti - or rather Volkswagen - make a loss on every one they sell, so they're throwing money away at 268mph. Money which could have been spent on Mr Papandreou instead.

I'm not one of these road safety bores who argues every car should do 70mph and no more - otherwise we'd all still be driving Ford Anglias - but why not make Bugattis the late Ettore, the company's founder, would have been proud of? Cars with epic engineering, no question, but ones which excel on roads and racetracks rather than one endless straight at the VW test track. It'd cost less than a Veyron or a villa on the Greek coast, that's for sure.

If you're reading this and you're eight years old you might think owning the world's fastest car is a fine idea, but it is't. Even though I've never driven the big Bug and probably never will I'll happily wager that anything even slightly less surreal - even the Lamborghini Gallardo or the Audi R8, which are also VW products - will be much more rewarding on real, tangible roads.

And anyway; Volkswagen now sells a stupendously quick car which even Greek pensioners might be interested in. It's called the Porsche 911.