SEPTEMBER
Two twin-turbo V8s, a diesel straight six, and two four-cylinders – one turbocharged and with more than 300bhp, and the other naturally aspirated and attached to, of all things, a four-speed dog ’box and paired with an electric motor. Yes, September’s road test section (see below right) put on an interesting spread of powertrain technologies, although with none of the five cars involved managing to score more than four stars come verdict time, we can hardly describe it as a vintage month.
The Aston was fun, demonstrating an amusing sled-like propensity for power oversteer on the Dunlop handling circuit at MIRA, but it’s still too blunt compared with much of the opposition and the interior is properly starting to feel its age. The Alpina was mighty, lavish, freakishly quick without making much fuss about it and in general had many of the hallmarks of an allconquering ’bahnstormer, but there’s no doubt Mercedes-AMG’s GT 63 4-Door Coupé shades it for involvement and personality. Further down the order, the box-fresh Genesis was inoffensive but unlovable, the Leon phenomenally versatile but similarly unlovable, and the Mégane? The novel drivetrain concept was fascinating, but the rest of the car felt a generation old, mostly because it is.