Cars to Crave
In the market for new wheels in 2018 and bamboozled by the choices? Let jon wall ease your task by narrowing down the options
regular readers of Prestige will know by now we’re almost always led by the heart and not the head. It explains why we aspire to dress in Chanel or Canali rather than Cotton On, and at the very least to strap a TAG Heuer or Tudor on to the wrist rather than a Timex.
Much the same applies to our attitude towards motor cars. We prefer to drive — or, failing that, simply gawk at — machines that stir our emotions, rather than those designed purely with practicality in mind. Which is why, on this list of seven cars we’d love to add to our collection in 2018, you’ll find at a pinch few that can claim to being in any way sensible — and, perhaps not so coincidentally, one of those also happens to occupy a spot right at the bonkers end of the sane/ mad continuum.
If that means by following our advice you end up with nothing in the garage suitable for carting the kids to and from school, well, tough — the lazy little tykes can jolly well take the bus. Happy motoring!
Dallara Stradale
Near-legendary among fans of motor racing, Italian manufacturer Dallara builds all the chassis used in the Indycar, Formula 3 and Formula E series, and if that alone weren’t worthy of respect, the company’s 81-year-old founder, Gian Paolo, designed the first modern supercar, the fabulous Lamborghini Miura. Fulfilling a lifelong dream to build a road car under his own name, Dallara recently unveiled the Stradale, a tiny, track-focused, two-seat missile constructed largely from carbonfibre and weighing a little more than 850kg. Powered by a heavily breathed-upon 2-litre Ford Ecoboost engine (chosen for its ability to be tuned virtually ad infinitum) that produces around 400bhp, the mid-engine street racer offers supercar performance and race-car handling, though there are a couple of major drawbacks: There are no doors, and a full windshield, roll-over bar and gull-wing side windows/roof are all pricey options. But that doesn’t appear to be an obstacle, as all of the first year’s production quota (around 120 cars) has already been snapped up, Fiat- Chrysler and Ferrari boss Sergio Marchionne being among the fortunate few.
lamborghini URUS
Smitten though we aren’t by SUVS here at Prestige, we can’t avoid mentioning the new Lamborghini Urus, which, after years in the gestation, finally made its appearance as a production model at the Los Angeles motor show in December. The Urus’s styling has evolved since it was first teased as a concept in early 2012, so now there’s more of a resemblance to the VW Group’s other suburban tractors, particularly the Porsche Cayenne, though with its sharknose bonnet it’s more distinctive and aggressive-looking than any of them. Open the lid and, instead of discovering one of Sant’agata’s naturally aspirated V10s or V12s nestling in the engine bay, you find a twin-turbo, 4-litre V8 that’s tuned to offer more than 640bhp and, from 2,200rpm, 850Nm — which translates to a 0-100km/h time of 3.6 seconds and a 306 maximum, making this the world’s fastest SUV (there’s four-wheel steering, too, and hybrid power is in the pipeline). Whatever your views on the necessity of bridging the gap between supercar and workhorse, you can’t help admitting that the Urus comes closer to achieving that feat than any other automobile — which will doubtless send Uruses flying out of the factory faster than Lamborghini can build ’em.
Porsche 911 carrera t
When asked, as we often are, which is our favourite car, the answer is invariably it’s impossible to say. Rephrase the question to, “If you had to own just one automobile, what would it be?” then our riposte would almost certainly be, “Porsche 911.” And that’s because the evergreen
Carrera, which this year celebrates its 55th birthday, just goes on getting better. So, to mark fiveand-a-half incredible decades of the Greatest Sportscar Ever, we’re adding the recently announced, stripped-down 911 Carrera T to our list of automotive musthaves for 2018. Weighing 20kg less than the baseline 911 and with a glorious, close-ratio seven-speed manual mated to its 3-litre, turbocharged boxer six, as well as standard lowered sports suspension and mechanical locking rear differential, the T recalls the Touring models of the late 1960s and is designed to deliver an even more visceral driving experience than its more civilised siblings. And to our ears, that sounds like a car to crave if ever there was one.
Alpine A110
Right-hand-drive examples probably won’t start appearing till spring, and there’s no word yet on whether the Alpine A110 is even destined for Asia, but given the desirability of this new lightweight two-seat coupe, the chances are we’ll almost certainly be seeing a few in this part of the world anyway. Renault’s Alpine-branded A110 resurrects both marque and model names that are treasured by petrolheads, and its styling draws heavily on that of the original 110, which won the Monte Carlo Rally twice and, in 1973, the World Rally Championship. Unlike the older one, however, this new car is constructed from aluminium and, with almost 250bhp available from its 1.8-litre turbo motor and a weight of just 1,100kg, it offers terrific performance as well as the superb balance that derives from its midengine configuration. Among the uninitiated, the name Alpine may not resonate anything like as strongly as that of Porsche, but in terms of driveability and sheer enjoyment the A110 is easily a match for the latter’s 718 Cayman. There’s a choice of three colours only, but obviously you’ll be ordering yours in French racing blue — just like the one that won the Monte, non? Audi RS5
Launched back in 2012, the firstgen RS5 was, to be honest, a bit of a hound: Brutally fast, with its magnificent naturally aspirated 4.2-litre V8, but, thanks to its overfettled chassis and over-assisted steering, unsubtle and strangely uninvolving. What a difference, then, the 2018 model — which arrived in Asia late last year — has turned out to be. Although in appearance a dead-ringer for the earlier car, it’s actually entirely new, from the considerably smaller — yet just as powerful and massively more torquey — 2.9-litre twin-turbo V6, to the revised architecture, which has helped shave more than 50kg in weight