RISE OF THE MACHINES
From the Jensen FF to today’s hyper-powerful EVS and SUVS, we chart the rise of the fourwheel-drive performance car
THERE’S POSSIBLY NEVER BEEN A bigger–orheavier–oxymoronthanperformance SUV. Excess weight (two tons is par), a skyhigh centre of gravity, a footprint to make a city planner cry into their designs for urban motoring utopia, and a driving experience that’s at best aloof, at worst catastrophic – most are guilty as charged.
BMW was first to demonstrate that an SUV could be made to drive like a car with its original X5. Then Porsche showed us that its own SUV, the Cayenne, could get pretty close to steering, riding and stopping like a sports car, too. What’s followed has been a torrent of behemoths that are as powerful as the latest supersaloons and quicker than anything their size and weight has any right to be.
The performance SUV makes an indecent contribution to the profit line, the familiar argument going that every Cayenne/x6/gle/ Q8 helps fund a sports car lower down the food chain. But while that was true back in the day, the reality now is that they are helping the cash flow as frighteningly expensive EV development costs continue to rise.
Like their EV relatives, performance SUVS tend to provide a similar experience when it comes to driving: absurdly quick and capable but ultimately uninvolving. There are exceptions, of course. Aston Martin’s DBX, Porsche’s Cayenne Turbo GT, BMW’S X5M and yes, the loutish Lamborghini Urus (above) all impress for their capability of delivering on their claimed performance credentials and their willingness to add some sharpness to the sector’s general bluntness.
They remain, however, accompaniments to rather than a replacement for all-wheel-drive performance cars. You might pick a high-end performance SUV over an RS6 or M5, but you’d be mad to ditch a 911 Turbo S for one.
WHEN IT COMES TO THE BUSINESS OF MAKING fast cars go fast, all-wheel drive remains something of a conundrum. Chasing traction has always made sense, especially as engine builders have always managed to generate more power than tyre makers can provide grip. Trouble is, all those additional differentials and driveshafts come at a price, for not only do they add weight and complexity but, in successfully delivering steadfast traction, all-wheel drive often seems anathema to the purist driver’s view that grunt should always outstrip grip.
When Audi introduced its quattro all-wheel-drive system, it sparked a revolution. But like many engineering advances the concept of driving all four wheels was nothing new, having been applied to agricultural vehicles as early as 1893. Perhaps inevitably, the world’s first all-wheel-drive road car – the Jensen FF – owed its engineering to a tractor firm. Featuring a 4WD system developed by Ferguson Research Ltd of Masseyferguson tractor fame, the FF (built between 1966 and 1971) was fearlessly advanced but a sales flop. Being fiercely expensive compared with its rivals didn’t help, but it was the packaging of its 4WD system that was most problematic as it precluded the build of left-hand-drive models, thereby denying Jensen the opportunity to market its Chrysler V8powered super-gt in the US.
Subaru began its love affair with all-wheel drive in the mid-70s, but wouldn’t apply it to a genuinely sporting car until the first Legacy RS and Impreza Turbo models a decade and a half later – well after Audi stole the first mover advantage with the Quattro. Ingoldstadt’s dominance of world rallying was a marketing coup: the perfect demonstration of how fourwheel drive could thrive in conditions that left its rear-drive competitors floundering. It may have been an inconvenient truth that a lighter and more nimble rear-drive rally car was still faster and more driveable on dry tarmac, but with the advent of Group B, 4WD’S advantage across a full WRC season would see more and more manufacturers follow suit.
What are the most dynamically distinctive all-wheel-drive cars? Nissan’s GT-R, and its Skyline GT-R predecessors, have always offered a very particular take on total traction. The R32/33 and 34 exhibited quirky handling traits that actually made them feel less intuitive or predictable than a rear-drive car, at least until you learned how to exploit the attributes of Nissan’s ATTESA E-TS 4WD system. The R35 is more of a pure grip and traction monster, but you can still feel it doing unusual things beneath you when pushed towards its limits.
Porsche’s Group B-inspired 959 was Stuttgart’s fourwheel-drive poster car, but the tipping point came when the more mainstream 911 Turbo made the switch to all-wheel drive, transforming what had become a rather wild car into something altogether more polished. Latterly the Turbo has used clever torque vectoring to zero-in on the feel and balance of its two-wheel-drive siblings, the 991 and 992 generations in particular combining rocket-sled launches and tarmactearing traction with exploitable, progressive on-limit poise. As a result they are paragons of total performance.
To a lesser extent Lamborghini’s adoption of Lm002-derived VT all-wheel drive performed a similar transformation on the Diablo. Introduced as part of a suite of improvements –
Right, from the top: BMW now offers 4WD on its M-cars, but with the ability to switch to rear drive if conditions are conducive; 4WD helped transform the Diablo into a much more wieldy supercar; Impreza was a standard-bearer for a generation of accessible 4WD performance cars
including power steering and better brakes – it made the Diablo a more civilised, less intimidating machine and led directly to the Murciélago, Gallardo, Aventador and Huracán all featuring all-wheel drive as standard.
Who understands high performance all-wheel drive best? Good question. Fittingly the answer is probably Audi. No other brand has built itself around all-wheel drive so completely or successfully. The RS4 and RS6 are desirable precisely because they exude confidence and sure-footed capability. They are the Special Forces operators of the fast saloon/estate world.
It’s no surprise that both BMW and Mercedes AMG have ultimately followed suit with 4WD systems for the latest M5 and E63. To be honest, when you’re deploying upwards of 600bhp it’s the only satisfactory option, but both BMW and AMG have tried to stay true to their own roots by making it possible to switch to rear-wheel drive. In fact most all-wheeldrive systems are set up to deliver a neutral-to-rear-drive balance by default. Still, the flexibility of contemporary allwheel-drive systems is in stark contrast to the rigid and highly prescriptive nature of the early days.
In a way these two-wheel-drive modes also hint at the stubborn subliminal resistance to all-wheel drive amongst enthusiasts and purists. It’s odd when you think about it; we can harbour this resistance to all-wheel drive while knowing full well that the best examples not only explore realms of performance denied to two-wheel-drive cars, but deliver driving experiences that are uniquely exciting and in some cases unusually challenging.
And just to confound us, sometimes it’s the all-wheel-drive versions that feel the sweetest. Witness the Audi R8, which strikes such a deft balance between traction and handling that the rear-drive R8 seems to lack sparkle. And yet, when you look at Lamborghini’s Huracán it’s the rear-drive models that come to life. Go figure.
It seems the best examples of all-wheel drive are those which you simply couldn’t imagine wanting any other way. Often this comes at the more affordable end of the spectrum, the most recent hero being Toyota’s GR Yaris. Its whole look and demeanour are shaped by it being 4WD. Other everyman champions are the much-missed Imprezas and Evos. Though very different in character (Subaru preferring a more stable and inert balance while Mitsubishi liked to use its 4WD to aggressively rotate the car into corners) both shared supercarhumbling capabilities when the roads or weather got gnarly.
Since then the Golf R has filled the void. Until recently the VW Group’s Haldex system never felt 4WD in the manner of those Imprezas and Evos, but each iteration has sent torque rearwards sooner and with more conviction. An honourable mention also to the AMG A45 S, which uses 4WD to bring us a 400-plus bhp hot hatch with crazed point-to-point ability.
As to the future of four-wheel drive, the rise of the supersuv is leading the way. The best of these is the Aston Martin DBX – now available with a world-beating 707bhp (see page 31) – which uses its active centre diff and electronic rear diff (with the ability to send 100 per cent to the rear) to achieve a degree of deftness and precision that should be well beyond a vehicle with such mass and a high centre of gravity.
The shift to EV powertrains is seeing more and more cars with all four wheels driven. Weight, chassis set-up and stability systems designed with low thresholds and safe, neutral handling meant EVS such as the Tesla Model S felt leaden and flat-footed, but as technology and understanding improves, the ability to vector all that instant torque will make for some extraordinary dynamic tricks.