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Motors
Revised GR Yaris retains its riotous magic
YOU wouldn’t necessarily associate the Toyota Yaris with ever being the epitome of cool but take a peek at the classifieds and you’ll see something scarcely believable.
The GR Yaris shocked the world when it arrived and, four years later, there are several reasons why early examples are still fetching £30,000 and that’s because it’s massively special.
It’s arguably the car that completely transformed the once-ailing manufacturer’s fortunes, when yo
New mark 8.5 Golf is better than ever
VOLKWAGEN’S Golf - thanks to its eight generations over almost 50 years - has always been the go-to choice for families from all backgrounds. Its can-do-all ethos, no matter what setting, has yielded a legion of fans who expect the best from VW’s most famous creation - space, comfort, a good drive and an everything-to-everyone character.
It’s an amazing feat when you think about its breadth of ability - the Golf is a car anyone...
RS4 is the perfect daily driver
PROWLING the classifieds has long been an enjoyable way to pass the time - you often find yourself in dreamland scenarios where budgets aren’t a factor, so you pick the best in each sector and end up with a fleet of ten, just in case you fancy a blast in whatever takes your fancy.
I suppose that notion goes back to Harry Metcalfe's early YouTube days when he'd lovingly showcase his sensational garage. You'd be...
RF spec adds to the MX-5's appeal
MY neighbours often come up to me when I’m on my driveway to ask about new cars I’ve been road testing. Their first question is always the same: “What’s it like, then?” After a polite exchange, they’ll make their second enquiry: “So… would you buy one?”
The latter question’s answer isn’t as long-winded as my first and nearly always ends the same. “Well, erm, no, actually, I would not…”
In truth there&rsqu
Anniversary model is best Golf R yet
BACK in 2002, as a 12-year-old, a pumped-up hot hatchback was released by Volkswagen and it left quite the impression on my future taste in cars.
Given I went on to buy multiple hot hatches as soon as I could, when I think about the early to mid-noughties, it is a period which spawned my absolute adoration for normal, daily cars which are plucked from mundane obscurity and transformed into B-road leviathans by clever engineers....
New Type R is Honda's best yet
SEVERAL years ago, Honda released the latest in a long line of brilliant Civic Type Rs and it was - by far - the stand-out star amongst its rivals for the entirety of its lifespan.
Although turbocharged - an unthinkable thought for Type R purists a decade or so ago, especially those who adored EK9 and EP3 varieties - Honda managed to retain some of its high-revving magnificence and stayed true to its manual, front-drive...
Warm GR Sport Corolla hatch bridges the gap
A FEW months ago, I remember lapping up every detail about the wonderful Gazoo Racing-fettled Toyota Corolla. Its headlines were as follows: 300bhp, four-wheel-drive… a sure-fire alternative to Honda’s dominant Civic Type R.
But hold it there, let’s not get ahead of ourselves, because it isn’t actually coming to the UK as Toyota believe its GR86, GR Yaris and gorgeous Supra are enough for those on these shores.
All’s not lost, though: while the full-fat...
Limited-run Type R is an all-time great
IF I picked the perfect ingredients for a countryside drive the car would - 100 times out of 100 - be a hot hatch. Their uncanny knack of fitting tight, twisty roads like a glove mean you’re not worrying about grazing an eye-wateringly expensive, low-slung carbon splitter and you can instead concentrate on why the car of choice was created: the thrill of driving something built purely for enthusiasts.
There’s been many stand-out, pumped-up...
New Supra worthy of its name
WHEN I was a youngster - no older than 12 - my mate’s dad had a highly-modified Toyota Supra. It was absolutely the car’s fault for starting my obsession with Japanese cars.
Having been a twin-turbo A80 version - arguably the most famous Supra of all from the mid-90s - it was converted, like many, to a single-turbo unit and, if memory serves right, was running a north of 600bhp.
I remember the...
New Juke's set for sales success
REMEMBER a time when families only had the option of choosing between humble hatchbacks, a saloon or its estate version?
The motoring world’s a very different place in 2022 and just about every manufacturer has branched out into the complex world of MPVs and SUVs.
You’ve got large ones, middling ones and smaller ones - no matter what your budget is, there’s something for everyone.
Take Nissan, for example, a marque that’s...
Rally-ready GR Yaris is an all-time great...
EXCITEMENT levels always ramp up when eagerly anticipated cars are released after months of spy shots and the subsequent glossy magazine splashes.
Usually the furore - heightened by cars wearing camouflage taken on the Nurburgring, then the following media coverage - is reserved for exotic manufacturers: new Ferraris, GT-badged Porsches and road-going Lamborghini racers dripping with carbon fibre always register column inches.
But hot hatches - special ones in particular - never fail to strike
Eighth-generation GTI is the perfect daily driver
There’s always a tiny bit of trepidation when an all-new version of a motoring icon is released.
Volkswagen’s indomitable Golf GTI is unquestionably royalty, formed over more than 40 years of providing pace, practicality and supreme quality.
Although there's been some low points during previous decades, the eighth-generation GTI looks, on paper at least, set to re-write past cars' wrongs.
To be fair, VW’s been on a role since the woeful mark...
C-HR steals Qashqai's class-leading crown
IF you’re not into cars, I can all but guarantee you’ll have seen a handsome-looking thing gliding around. Angled lines, extremely futuristic, albeit with a familiar Toyota badge on its front and rear.
It’s called the C-HR and it’s their crack at the competitive family SUV sector, which in recent years has been dominated by the good-but-dull Nissan Qashqai.
Based on the Prius platform and sharing its 1.8-litre hybrid engine in this test...
Grimethorpe tuning company's two creations to be raffled
As someone who’s always been an OEM-plus kind of bloke when it comes to cars, you’d perhaps think an assignment to drive two heavily modified superminis would fail to ignite my excitement.
My car modifying history is as follows: Supersprint, Milltek and KTEC exhausts on my S2 106 Rallye, Clio Trophy and Megane R26 respectively, and a nice remap on the latter to unlock a bit more power. That’s it.
When I look...
RS5 is one of the great fast Audis
THE German-led battle in the world of family-friendly performance cars with supercar pace shows absolutely no signs of abating - and thank goodness it hasn’t.
For years we’ve been treated to many - BMW M3s, Audi RS4s and Mercedes C63 AMGs to name a few - but there’s always been a little gap in the market for those punters who just don’t really require as much space as an RS4-sized car affords them.
That’s where...
New Focus ST comes of age
ONE of the motoring world’s simple pleasures is attacking a tricky stretch of countryside road in a car that’s brimming with steering feel and involvement. If you enjoy driving and being an integral part of the process, little can beat the brilliance of doing such a thing in a hot hatch.
Key to the exercise, repeated countless times over the years, is the subject’s simplicity. Intrusive stability programmes are often dialled down or made redundant...
Entry-level F-Type impresses
THERE’S long been misconceptions attached to cars in the motoring world which, more often than not, have been formed by silly people who don’t really know what they’re talking about.
The Porsche Boxster, for example, is instantly dismissed and regarded as a ‘poor man’s 911’ which is utterly ludicrous when you hang on to that well-used riposte and analyse it. While normal people who have an ounce of sense know the Boxster is one of...
i30 N stakes its claim for the hot hatch crown
I’VE regularly voiced my opinions on manufacturers’ seemingly unquenchable thirst for honing their latest, greatest performance car on 12-and-a-bit miles of German track nestled in the Eifel mountains.
There’s a similar routine: an email will ping into a journalist’s inbox from a hyper-active PR officer containing a car’s lap time around the fabled Nurburgring Nordschleife circuit, like that somehow means it’s better than everything else… even though the majority of us will never
Enigmatic Cupra divides opinion
IT’S only normal to feel a tad apprehensive when a manufacturer’s performance arm announces it is becoming a standalone brand. Those initial apprehension levels grow somewhat when Cupra, whose engineers have been responsible for transforming dour Seats into some cracking cars, say they’re launching their new sporty venture with a mid-sized SUV, the Ateca.
If that decision’s a hard one to come to terms with, it’s a bit of a weird one to look at,...
Best-in-class Jag impresses
I’M a fickle person and if I had been given a Jaguar E-Pace to review before becoming a dad for the first time, I’d have scoffed and probably moaned about its lofty driving position and failed to see its point.
As someone who loves driving, preferably with a manual gearbox, an automatic SUV never really floated my boat until a little bundle of joy came into my life.
Your preferences change in the blink of...
