It's the week all sports car fans have been waiting for: PH has driven the BMW M4 Convertible. Oh yes, and the
Mk4 Mazda MX-5
has been shown to the world. Easy to forget really...
We've rather been fawning over the little Mazda this week, but there's been plenty more to discuss as well. Aston has battled Porsche, Harris has driven a Ferrari 250, there's a new Land Rover Discovery and Ian Callum's Jag Mk2 will make production. But you'll hopefully excuse us for starting with the MX-5 first.
Now the launch of a new MX-5 is a very significant event; our editor
owns one
after all (alright, a Eunos import). So to mark the occasion, Dan is out on the Tokyo launch and racing a Mk3 MX-5
at Tsukuba
. We're doing the event justice!
The MX-5 is legendary for reinventing the affordable roadster, so it only seemed right to feature a Mk2 as SOTW. And to provide some balance, Chris Rees has argued the Alfa Spider S4 may actually be a better roadster than the first MX-5.
Alright, that's enough MX-5 hype for now. Just wait until we get to drive one...
Where would your £140K go?
A good week for other sports cars on PH this week too as September began. The
BMW M4 Convertible
will surely continue to divide opinion like its M3 predecessors despite the name change.
Speaking of hotly debated cars, the Subaru BRZ was back in the news with a reintroduction of a base model at £22,495. It has been vastly outsold by its Toyota counterpart so far; is this price drop the key to boosting sales? One Subaru that won't be offered in the UK at all though is the WRX S4. But then with a CVT gearbox, it probably wouldn't prove too popular.
And on unpopular gearboxes (keep the links going), the Aston Vantage V12 S has been under scrutiny in the UK this week. If that's not stern enough a test, it was pitched against a 911 Turbo S. Read that story here. And if both are a little sanitised for you, best get an order in for a Noble M600; they're rather in demand.
All three out of reach? They are for many. But the £25K Zenos E10 reaches customers very soon, and this week a turbocharged E10 S was confirmed at £30K also.
May sound better than it looks. See the vid!
As well as Harris's drive of the
Ferrari 250 GT TdF
a video
to accompany it also. Quite a special car all told. The auction's on Monday...
Pre-Japan, Dan raised his concerns on Porsche backdating and also pondered a hot hatch conundrum: Cupra or GTI? It's power versus polish, and the conclusion may surprise you.
We've had plenty of content from PHers this week also. John Crook was our winner of the Adrian Flux competition prize and updated us on life with his Lancia Delta Integrale. Two more £100K Garages featured as well; see Wednesday's hereand Friday's here. Carpool is definitely worth a read, a great story of a BMW 6 Series rescued by two brothers.
Unsatisfied? Then see the Evo 6 Tommi Makinen and Ford Racing Puma found in the classifieds, the 600hp Maserati Quattroporte and everything on Aston Martin's new boss. More next week!