A year of slow sales and rapid development
2016 HIGHLIGHTS/ The Motor News team looks back at 2016 and picks out some of their highlights and the occasional lowlight
From Portugal to Finland, Stuttgart to Sweden, the three motoring hacks have been there, driven it and lived to write about it.
LERATO’S HIGHLIGHTS
As I look back at the year that was 2016 through my rear-view mirror, a few things stand out, aside from the significant drop in vehicle sales month on month compared to 2015, which is somewhat of a lowlight.
Foremost is the most refined diesel engine I have ever sampled — the 4.0l, triple charged V8 engine in the Bentley Bentayga. All those inherent disadvantages that have deterred some people from diesel engines have, in my view, been totally dispensed with by this unit. It is silky smooth, unequivocally powerful and characterful under full load as it produces an ever so subtle but impressive V8 baritone.
Then there is the highlight of being one of the first people to experience the much improved and faster flowing Kyalami racetrack, which coincided with the launch of the updated Porsche 911 range. Hauling down the main straight with the speedo needle almost licking 250km/h before braking for Crowthorne is an experience to be relished.
Being the first South African motoring media representative to experience the Maserati Levante, the company’s first SUV, at its international launch in Siena, Italy was quite memorable.
My trip to Stuttgart, Germany to visit the Mercedes-Benz Commercial Vehicles’ technology workshop was an eyeopener to the possibilities and strides being taken in the way we view delivery vans. The next five years will be interesting indeed as some of the technology will start to trickle into the market. Still on the brand, experiencing the semi-autonomous technology that debuted in the new E-Class at its international launch this year pushed the envelope in the segment, if not the premium sector as a whole.
I was also fortunate enough to be invited by one of the public broadcaster’s television channels to chat about my career with youngsters who might be interested in automotive journalism, which was a humbling experience and one I hope I can repeat in the near future.
For now, I wish you and yours a peaceful festive season and remember to keep it safe on the roads. See you in 2017.
MARK’S HIGHLIGHTS
Honestly, I expected 2016 to be quiet. I was very wrong. It started off for me with a week in Sweden braving -16°C temperatures and meeting with various road safety agencies and experts. It was a highlight in terms of seeing what real commitment to road safety is all about. Sadly, I continue to be frustrated by the lack of progress in SA given the vast amount of global knowledge that could be saving lives now.
Talking of safety, a major highlight involved not a car, but an aeroplane. Leaving Tenerife after driving the McLaren 570GT and 675LT, we had a fire in the cockpit of an Easyjet flight bound for Gatwick. It might seem like a bizarre highlight, but experiencing such incredible customer service and skill from the crew was amazing.
There were a few track highlights this year, not the least of which was experiencing the superb new Kyalami track for the first time and then taking to the circuit in a Ferrari 360 Challenge race car. That was followed up by being offered the chance to drive in the Media Challenge by Volkswagen SA. It was one of the best experiences ever and one which I hope will be repeated in 2017.
Probably the biggest highlight was the people I interviewed this year. I chatted with the global bosses of BMW, Daimler and Porsche and the heads of design at BMW, Renault and Rolls-Royce. They all provided insight not just into the automotive world of today, but the direction of the future. Technology evolved rapidly in 2016 and I expect 2017 to be the same.
MICHAEL’S HIGHLIGHTS
You know that cartoon thing where the Road Runner just disappears in a puff of dust and streaks off into the distance? Well, that was 2016.
It left some deep impressions, though, not the least of which was watching Volkswagen continue to flail haphazardly to talk its way out of its Dieselgate woes. We didn’t do it. We did some of it. We did it, but only in the US. We have a fix. We don’t have a fix. We have bits of a fix. We will buy back your cars. No, not yours, theirs. It was just some rogue engineers. It was just dozens of rogue engineers. It might have been hundreds of rogue engineers. We’re not telling you who it was. Bugger it, here are some shiny new cars.
That’s probably the ongoing lowlight. Broader highlights include getting deep-dive looks at the electric and autonomous technology that will turn the car industry into the watch industry by 2030. Once everybody can make a “movement” that accurately measures a second and an hour, the rest will be design, branding and marketing.
As for drives, it’s tough to go past belting a Porsche 911 R through the Black Forest watching rally legend Walter Röhrl doing the same thing right in front of me. A magic car, one of the best of all time, driven by one of the best of all time. Then he nearly hit a bus that pulled out in front of us and he got out to berate the driver.
There were others. Having to ease off in places around the Portimao track in Portugal to avoid the back of DTM legend Bernd Schneider’s Mercedes AMG GT S was one, though not because of any particular skill of mine. The AMG E63 S I was in had all-wheel drive and his car didn’t. And it was raining hard.
AFTER DRIVING THE MCLAREN 570GT AND 675LT, WE HAD A FIRE IN THE COCKPIT OF AN EASYJET FLIGHT
Back in April I jetted in to Finland’s far north to drive the Mini Countryman Dakar racer, just a week after doing the same in Peugeot’s Dakar-winning car. Very different machines, the rear-drive Peugeot was lighter and more fun, the Mini felt more robust and unstoppable. And we flew to Rovaniemi, which is where Santa’s letters go to at the North Pole.
Hope he hasn’t forgotten mine. It included toys like the 911 R, the BMW M2, a Porsche Mission E, a Jaguar I-Pace and an Audi SQ7 to tide me over until the electric cars are ready.