One Liners:
- The Mercedes-Benz X-Class will allegedly face challenge from Britain in the upcoming Land Rover Defender
- BMW will finally be giving iDrive a massive update in 2018
- Led lamps are prohibited according to the National Road Traffic Act
- Apparently Daimler is looking to buy a major stake in Volvo. Does this spell Mercedes-Benz engines? But we really like the Volvo engines.
Lexus ES shaping up nicely
We covered this last week by there's been developments since, a teaser video really, on the seventh coming of the Lexus ES. It’s about to be revealed next week at the Beijing Motor Show and will go on sale later this year in South Africa. Shew, that was quick. It’s a fairly stunning medium-sized saloon most likely featuring a 3.5 litre V6 and you can bet there’ll be a hybridised option as well. Watch the video here.
Polestar 1 caught testing
And by caught we mean Volvo have made us a film. And by testing we really mean drifting the pants off the thing in Northern Sweden, well within the Arctic Circle. The chassis is non-assisted so what you see here is all driver. Thomas Ingenlath, Chief Executive Officer at Polestar insists that “this is a driver’s car. We have now passed a major milestone in the development of the Polestar 1, and prototype testing continues throughout 2018”. Well then let’s get cracking Volvo; production begins in China next year and soon thereafter we’ll get to sample the 447kW and 1000Nm on offer from its super and turbo charged 2.0 litre 4-cylinder engine and electric motors. (Watch the video above)
Here's that miniature Type R nobody asked for
Meanwhile in Indonesia; it’s called the Small RS Concept, is a Honda Brio and looks like an impish Civic Type R. They’ve painted it in a colour I’ve taken to calling “Donald Trump fresh from the tanning salon” and endowed it with all the aero/wing addenda you could imagine, some silver accenting here and there. There’s no talk of performance at this stage, or a motor in general but the traditional Brio 1.2 powerplant isn’t feisty enough to pull off a band-aid so some work will be needed here if Honda have any intention of its bark matching its bite. Otherwise we might just skip this one.
Meet the BMW iFE.1.8
Yes that is correct. BMW have made an electric race car that sounds like an internet browser. The BMW Formula E car lovingly named by bashing the keyboard indiscriminately as the iFE.1.8, borrows the electronic gubbins that underpins the i3 and tunes it to the nth degree. They’ve also lightened it by half, and packaged it incredibly compact. A proper (and uncommon nowadays) transference of road cars to motorsport sport then, and should be an exciting car to watch when Nico Rosberg races it next month.
New Ford Ranger Roush. Errr… Roush Ranger?
You can buy a what now? Yep, right now, as in way before the Raptor gets here, Roush can sell you a Ford-approved Roush Performance-tuned Ranger doublecab with a 3 year / 60,000km warranty in three states of Roushyness. The RS1 at R135,000, RS2 for R185,000 and RS3 for R245,000 on top of their respective base prices. The first stage is predominantly an aesthetic upgrade while RS2 and RS3 see power hikes of 170kW and 550Nm, and 190kW and 650Nm respectively on a 3.2litre turbo diesel. Jinne! Naturally that takes outputs well and beyond the Raptor’s 157kW and 500Nm. Which fast Ford bakkie will you choose?
