COVETED RIDES
Performance car preview
The streets of Montreal might still be sullied in snow, but inside the Palais des congrès de Montréal over the next few weeks will sit many of the top performance cars coming to our great Canadian roads this year.
The Montreal Auto Salon will showcase 38 Canadian debuts along with several important performance cars for the 2018 model year, from manufacturers ranging from Audi to Volvo. And high among the most coveted vehicles will be these six performance cars.
2018 LOTUS EVORA 400
The small English manufacturer brings to Canada its wickedly fast production car, the Evora 400. While the Evora name is familiar, the 400 was new to North America in 2016 and only starting shipping to Canada last year, replacing the Evora and Evora S.
The “400” references the supercharged 3.5-litre V-6 sourced from Toyota that delivers 400 horsepower and 302 pound-feet of torque. Lotus says the 1,400-kilogram Evora will exceed 100 km/h in a Porsche-like 4.2 seconds on its way to a top speed of 300 km/h. A six-speed manual transmission is standard, as is one of the sweetest exhaust notes this side of an Aston Martin. The 400 competes with cars such as the Porsche 718 Cayman and Alfa Romeo 4C in performance and starts at north of $140,000.
LAMBORGHINI AVENTADOR S
It’s often said that when you want to be somebody, you buy a Ferrari, but when you are somebody, you buy a Lamborghini. For those somebodies, the manufacturer has an Aventador S it would like you to see. The Aventador S, with 730 hp, takes the already formidable Aventador and adds a dose of track-focused manners fuelled by a divine, 6.5-L V-12 that shunts the angled and chiselled supercar to 98 km/h in 2.9 seconds or less.
For a starting price of $465,000, the S gets four-wheel steering, along with AWD and a seven-speed automated manual transmission to go with good looks and a truly inspiring soul. The Aventador S may not be the fastest Lamborghini ever built, but it might be the best.
LAMBORGHINI HURACÁN PERFORMANTE COUPE
A Huracán with much better aerodynamics and downforce, the Performante is all about numbers, as in a V-10 with 631 hp, a zeroto-100 km/h time of 2.9 seconds, and, more importantly, a 6:52.01 lap around the Nürburgring’s famed Nordschleife circuit. That makes the Lamborghini Huracán Performante the second-fastest production car in the world to circumnavigate the famous ring, second only to the 2018 Porsche GT2 RS (6:47.3).
First on sale in Canada a few months ago, the 2018 Huracán Performante starts at $302,565, less than the bigger Aventador S, but with better performance. Truly fast, the Performante uses aerodynamic advancements to make this supercar more manageable.
KARMA REVERO
The automaker once known as Fisker has been resurrected and brings to Montreal a plug-in hybrid sedan, the Karma Revero. With a U.S. sticker price of $130,000, the Revero is said to travel up to 80 km on its 21 kWh battery before requiring the aid of a small, gasoline engine. A solar panel on the car’s roof can also charge the battery. The Revero’s total horsepower is 403, but torque, thanks to two electric motors, is pegged at 981 lb-ft, according to the company.
Under Wanxiang Group Corp., Karma is one of several Chinesebacked plug-in car companies wading into the North American market with electric cars, seeking to compete with the Tesla Model S. The Revero looks much like the highly regarded Karma that never made it to production after Fisker went bankrupt in 2013. Wanxiang bought Fisker’s assets out of bankruptcy in 2014 and plans to open a $375 million factory in Hangzhou, China.
MCLAREN 720S VELOCITY
Fresh off the release of the McLaren 720S comes the 720S Velocity, finished in stunning, multihued red paint that goes from dark to bright as the eye travels from front to rear. Perhaps the paint symbolizes the car’s breathtaking speed and braking power, because the 720S Velocity is fast enough to nudge the speed of light: zero to 100 km requires 2.9 seconds, and 200 km/h only 7.8. Stopping from 200 km/ h needs no more than 4.6 seconds. The 720S Velocity uses a 4.0-L twin-turbo V-8 producing 710 hp and 568 lb-ft of torque.
Prepared by McLaren’s Special Operations division, the Velocity also gets bronze wheels and an equally striking interior, including Alcantara seats with red stitching. Expect to pay about $500,000 in Canadian greenbacks for the privilege of owning and driving one.
BMW M5
A legend among true performance sedans, the BMW M5 has long been crowned the king of the segment, its front-engine, rearwheel-drive architecture creating the perfect blend of driving pleasure and performance. The sixth-generation, 2018 M5 takes all that has been good about M5s of the past and adds a crucial new dimension — AWD — along with an new eight-speed automatic transmission.
Do not think, however, that power to all four wheels will erase the tire-smoking and drifting credentials of this 600-hp super sedan; the M is mostly driven by the rear wheels and can be contained to RWD mode. With all four wheels providing traction, however, the new M5 is almost a second quicker than the previous model in going from zero to 100 km/h. It now needs 3.4 seconds, as the 4.4-L twin-turbo V-8 spools out 553 lb-ft of torque, even though the car weighs 1,855 kg. With sharper looks and improved technology, the autobahn burner looks to be back in fine form, and is one of many performance cars to be seen at the Montreal show.