Snippets:
- Formula E is allegedly on its way to Cape Town sooner rather than later. Here’s hoping...
- Luxemburg has become the first country in the world to offer completely free public transport. "That will totally work in South Africa" said nobody.
- Meanwhile, back in South Africa, NWM has built the most powerful Ford Rangers in the world with their EcoBoost 3.6l V6 powered rally trucks.
- A R30million Pagani Huarya has landed in Johannesburg. Chaos ensues still.
- Reghard Roets has won the Emerald Speed Festival Hill Climb in a Nissan GT-R.
- Volvo and Isuzu are collaborating on a new line of heavy-duty trucks. Please, please call them Voluzus!
- The new Audi A3 will come in Sportback profile only, so is basically a Golf.
- BMW has completely redesigned its logo! Using a technique, I like to call, ‘delete the black bits’. It finds its way onto the new, Mzansi-bound, BMW i4 SUV.
Coronavirus update
The Thai and Qatar MotoGP races have both been postponed thus far – for the top tier at least. And four-wheeled motorsport is similarly affected.
The Ferrari F1 team will most likely skip the first few races too so yikes. “If a team is prevented from entering a country, we can’t have a race. Not an F1 world championship race, anyway, because that would be unfair,” added Ross Brawn. Well, bugger. Damn you COVID-19! Completely unrepentant, the same virus has gone on to disrupt the rest of the motoring world, most notably closing down the Geneva Motor Show.
Undeterred, the manufacturers have used the internet to unleash their upcoming metal. Here’s some now…
The Alfa Romeo Giulia gets two criminally seductive models
Behold the GTA and (more extreme) GTAm
Naturally, both cars are more potent, more limited (to just 500) iterations of the already fiery Quadrifoglio performance saloon, GTA denoting Gran Turismo Allegrita with the latter name literally meaning lightened. So, it weighs less, 100kg to be precise, but let's talk about that potency, shall we? I mean, lest we forget, the very Alfa Romeo emblem is a graphic of a snake devouring a baby.
Yes, the bog-standard QF must make do with a paltry 375kW whereas the sport rubbers on the GTA and GTAm cars must contend with, from its 2.9-litre V6 Biturbo engine, a whopping 403kW. Now, we know - we were all anticipating a coupe, but you wouldn't exactly kick this sedan out of bed, would you?
So to recap, that’s a 0 to 100km/h in 3.6 seconds and an active front splitter, Akrapovič exhaust plus carbon rear wing all extra.
You also get fuzzy Alcantara on the dashboard, not everyone’s cup of tea but we enjoy that sort of thing very much.
Aston Martin V12 Speedster is a go!
Just 88 of these headless beauties will exist, a bespoke V12 creation for purists with deep pockets.
Aston Martin Lagonda President and Group CEO, Dr Andy Palmer had this to say about this exquisite teardrop, "It makes me enormously proud to reveal Aston Martin's latest, most exciting special model today. The V12 Speedster is an incredible demonstration of the breadth of capability and determination from the 'Q by Aston Martin' team, who have worked tirelessly to create this stunning, two-seat sports car aimed at our most demanding and enthusiastic customers."
So, 21-inch alloys hoops reside in each arch, with similarly gigantic carbon-ceramic brakes poking through, providing a clue into the performance that lives under that swooping bonnet. I refer to the 522kW and 753Nm from its 5.2l twelve-cylinder symphony.
Just, yum. Good for 0-100kph in 3.5 seconds, she is.
The new Porsche 911 Turbo S is pure madness
For this one fact alone; it will hit 100kph in just 2.7 seconds. And that’s just nuts. You can thank its 478kW heart for this.
It arrives in Coupé and Cabriolet body styles, both powered by a new 3.8-litre boxer engine with two VTG turbochargers, delivering the aforementioned 478kW – that's 51kW more than the car it replaces, whilst torque rises to 800-newton metres – that's 50Nm more than before. The Turbo S's eight-speed Porsche Doppelkupplung (PDK) helps it achieve that 2.7seconds (0.2 seconds faster than the old car) and the S will top out 330kph.
It's all good news then.
The untrumpable Koenigsegg have lost their minds and delivered unto us…
Meet the Gemera, a four-seater with gunslinger doors and 1000+ kilowatts from a camless 3-cylinder engine, and a zero-to-hundred sprint of just 1.9 seconds!
It tops out at 400kph, looks remarkable and is the company’s first Mega-GT – a term Koenigsegg themselves have come up.
Frankly, they can call it whatever they like, we’re smitten! (Ed – FYI Gemera means ‘to give more’)
