The PH Motoring Week

A rather exciting BMW, appetite whetted for the McLaren 570S and more besides!

By Nik Attard / Saturday, 17 October 2015 / Loading comments

A busy week on PH (do we know any other kind?!) with the team jetting off to various parts of the world to drive supercars, only some of them with speed monitoring black boxes and ominously large insurance excesses. More on that next week; for now enjoy the ones we were allowed to drive in suitable style!

Jet-setter lifestyle

We are bound by embargo (and, by extension, a desire to be invited on future McLaren launches) to keep schtum about our driving impressions of the

570S Sports Series

so in the meantime we decided to play a game of Top Trumps, pitting it against some its hottest rivals. On paper at least.

We can, however, tell you all about the Ferrari 488 Spider and whether or not it's now a Ferrari for drivers as well as posers. At a slightly more realistic level specs for the BMW M2 were leaked and it sounds good. Very good, especially with the official info that followed. Do we need an electronically assisted 'Smokey Burnout' function when the car already has 370hp going through the rear wheels? Going by experience of our PH Fleet M4 probably not!

Is there any challenge to the Germans at this level? Actually yes, if you live in America at least. Step up Cadillac's M3/C63 chasing ATS-V to prove there is more to life than M...

Death Knell

Sad new for all Evo lovers out there. Word from Mitsubishi's CEO is that the

Evo badge

will not make it on another saloon. Next time the badge will be seen, is probably on a PHEV SUV. Remember the Ferraris that had been offered for sale and all proceeds going to the

RNLI

? Both have sold netting a sum of £9.5 million.

Spy shots of a modified Ferrari F12 had been floating around for a while, we weren't sure whether it would be called the GTO or Speciale. Now have the details. Dubbed the F12 TdF, the Tour de France has 780hp, revs to 8,900rpm, weighs 110kg less than the standard F12 and hits 0-124mph in 7.9 seconds.

That's the kind of supercar powerplant we can get behind. Will we feel the same way about electric motors though? Chatting with Aston boss Andy Palmer at an SMMT event, he has confirmed that over the next two years the fastest accelerating Astons will be electric-powered rather than petrol powered. Gulp...

Team PH Speaks

DIY bites back as

Ben's Caterham

build leaves him with a black eye while Danny buys his way out of guilt from not using his

Lotus Elise

enough by giving it a proper mechanical going over. He's also testing out the 'snake oil'

ceramic paintwork protection

we wrote about the other week.

True to form Matt got a bit excited about a Honda Integra Type R while Chris Rees tried to convince us the Renault Twizy can appeal to petrol-blooded PHers. Make sure you check out the latest PHTV too, Dan and James using the PH Fleet Mini Cooper JCW as an impromptu studio after the heavens opened at the test track.

Are you looking forward to the looming winter? No? Perhaps you will be after Shed's choice this week; what better for some cheap all conditions motoring than a Subaru Legacy.

Coming soon: