The PistonHeads Motoring Week
Spring sunshine too much? Take up a pew inside and review the week on PH
And there's been a whole host of great new cars to get excited about this week too. We've driven the Peugeot RCZ R and Alfa 4C in the UK, plus received first details of the Porsche Boxster/Cayman GTS and Mercedes S63 AMG coupe. Read it all here.
3-door or 5, the S1's a cracker
But it was to snowy Sweden at the start of this week for the Audi S1; could it really do justice to such an evocative badge? The S3 Cabriolet was also driven in Scandinavia, and a Sport quattro too. Blog to follow on the latter next week when Matt has calmed down...
With 231hp, the S1 takes the tiniest hot hatch segment to new levels of performance, a point forced home by two features on Friday. The Abarth 595 Competizione is a similar size to the Audi yet packs 'just' 160hp and this week's Shed, a 106 GTI, makes 120. The S1 is of course heavier and more expensive but it's an interesting development nonetheless.
It says something of engine development that, not so long ago, a 231hp 2.0-litre turbo would have looked a healthy specific output, even for a turbo. Now we have cars like the Alfa 4C making 240hp from a 1.75 and the Peugeot RCZ R's 270hp from a 1.6. Though it proved just as absorbing to drive here as in France, it's not quite perfect unfortunately.
This debate will run and run...
If there was one thing guaranteed to spark debate on PH, it's a controversial viewpoint. So it was with Chris Rees' Tell Me I'm Wrong on modifying cars, which currently stands at over 350 comments. Appropriately enough a beautiful and (mostly) unmolested Renault 5 GT Turbo, the darling of tuners not so long ago, was also discovered in the classifieds.
It seemed the Porsche Boxster/Cayman S was pretty damn good already but that hasn't stopped Porsche doing its own little bit of fettling. The resulting GTS, in either form, promises to be one of the best cars of 2014. Cayman GTS v F-Type V6 S anyone?
Some less positive news for Porsche also this week with the confirmation that all 991 GT3s will receive new engines following the recent spate of fires. The disappointing headlines continued with an announcement that Bertone has ceased trading.
Expect to see a few more of these shots!
Even by our usual standards, an especially hectic seven days for all at PHHQ. Matt has finally picked up his Academy Caterham, Garlick has been enjoying the sunshine in the Chimaera and Dan has been pondering the Lambo Huracan. Oh, and Monkey has bought another Ferrari. A busy week!
As well as this, PH announced another driving tour with Dettaglio and paid homage to the wonderful De Tomaso Mangusta in POTW.
Finally, we've been to the BTCC 2014 preview, Keith has developed an E34 M5 fascination and we have another competition for you. It's a Le Mans one, so don't forget to swot up on everything new...
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