Car Reviews

Depending on how old you are, the name Testarossa either means something, or everything. In the mid-1980s, we're talking proper dog-eared-posters-stuck-to-bedroom-wall status here.There was also the small volume V12 Ferrari 250 Testa Rossa (250 TR) sports racer built from 1957 to 1961. But in the '80s it was a 4.9-litre, flat 12-cylinder engine producing the power, making an inconceivable 287kW and 490Nm, and earning the wedge-shaped icon a place among the most powerful supercars in existence at the time.I'm giving you this little history lesson because the Testarossa name is back, only this time it's attached to the plug-in hybrid Ferrari 849 Testarossa. And if you're one of those people who think electrification has no place in the supercar world, just relax for a second. Because the new Testarossa's outputs make the 1984 version seem every bit as exhilarating as a Segway.We're now talking 772kW and 842Nm, generated via the combination of a 4.0-litre twin-turbocharged V8 paired with three electric motors, all of which combine to produce an electrified powerhouse of genuinely epic proportions. The other thing that's gone skywards is the price. It's hard to believe, but that 1984 Testarossa listed for as low as US$85,000, or $121,000. This one starts at $932,648.The numbers only tell part of the 849 story, but we'll cover them off quickly anyway. The 100km/h benchmark arrives in 2.3 seconds, with 200km/h taking just 6.35 seconds from a standing start. Top speed is a claimed 330km/h. The turbo is the biggest ever fitted to a Ferrari production car, while the electric motors (responsible for around 160kW on their own) are arranged with one at the rear and two at the front. The 7.45kWh battery delivers an EV driving range of 25km.And yes, some of those are big and impressive numbers. But the bigger story here is the feel, the emotion, that the 849 Testarossa generates in great big bucketloads. The thrum (this time less orchestral and more mechanical) of the exhaust. The spectacularly direct steering. The sense of car and driver as one.But weirdly the thing that really got myself and my fellow testers the most excited wasn't the brutal acceleration (which was surprising, as this genuinely one of the fastest-feeling cars I've ever driven), but was instead the bull-whip crack of what might be the sweetest, sharpest gearshifts in existence.In this new Testarossa, it's an eight-speed dual-clutch transmission the brand says is derived from its F1 division, and the feel of a flat-footed shift upwards, or a hard-braking downshift into a corner, is genuinely visceral in its action. If you still long for manual gearboxes, the 849 will cure you of that ailment. You end up searching for extra reasons to reach for one of the paddle gearshifters, just to feel and hear the shifts.Driven at noise, this two-seat rocket is a vehicle that demands attention. And not just from the driver (seriously, this is a car that collects speed in such an other-worldly fashion that constant focus is required – blink too long and it feels like you're in a teleportation device as, when your eyes open, you're a long way away from where you were when you closed them), but from anyone in its vicinity, too, with the Ferrari seemingly sucking in bystanders like a vortex, especially in Italy, where even clapping eyes on the latest from Maranello is a near-religious experience.It's also, somehow, not terrifying. The fact that it's AWD and not a snap-happy rear-drive set-up probably helps to settle the nerves. But also the fact that it's something approaching comfortable as a commuter, helped by its adaptive damping, and even has a silent and front-wheel-drive EV mode for city motoring, helps to smooth some of the 849's more murderous edges. That and the fact that Ferrari has a whole heap of high-tech help on board – headlined by something called the Ferrari Integrated Vehicle Estimator, which adjusts its level of control to the quality of your driving – designed to keep you on the tarmac without ever feeling like it's babying you. Driven at noise, the Testarossa is a car that demands attention. And not just from the driver (seriously, this is a car that collects speed in such an other-worldly fashion that constant focus is required), but from anyone in its vicinity, too.The styling was controversial at its unveiling, mostly because of its two-level nose design and blocky rear end with its centralised and mid-mounted exhaust exits, but it grows on you fast. I can also attest that the nose feels every bit as low to the ground as it looks, and you will become quickly accustomed to the nose-lift function, which gives you an extra three centimeters of clearance.Downsides? As is pretty predictable with Ferrari, none turn up in the drive experience. But the interior tech takes some getting used to. With no traditional centre screen, almost all functions are controlled through the steering wheel – including some of the drive modes, like 'EV' – and you have to 'wake up' the digital panel before selecting one. Which I didn't know, and so instead just blindly stabbed at areas until the Ferrari did what I wanted.It also feels very, very big, at 4718mm in length and 2304mm in width. When you're driving at speed you don't notice it, as I'm sure you wouldn't on a racetrack, but I can assure you threading your way through tight Italian streets in a million-dollar supercar can feel like you're playing a very high stakes version of Operation.So, is the 849 Testarossa a worthy wearer of one of Ferrari's most iconic nameplates? You betcha.

Given the way so many four-wheel drives have morphed into performance SUVs over the years, it’s no surprise Range Rover had its own take on a high-spec, high-stepping wagon. The difference being, of course, that with a Range Rover badge, the end result needed to be sporty(-ish) and capable of plugging through the worst forest tracks and trails imaginable.The product of that thinking became the Range Rover Sport.Although the badging and high-end interior materials said Range Rover, the platform with its semi-monocoque construction said Land Rover. Land Rover Discovery 3, to be precise. But when you started to explore the Sport’s on- and off-road abilities and its tremendous looking body, any misgivings might have been scratched.The range kicked off in Australia in 2005 as the L320 series and included a huge range of mechanical packages. They started with the 2.7TDV6 which used a 2.7 litre turbo-diesel V6 with a six-speed automatic. With 140kW performance was okay, but importantly, the L320 used a proper two-speed transfer-case with permanent four-wheel drive.There was also a 4.4-litre petrol V8 option with 220kW and a storming 4.2-litre supercharged petrol V8 with no less than 287kW at its disposal. Both of those also had six-speed automatic transmissions and all V8 models had a locking rear differential for more off-road prowess.A year after the model’s launch, Range Rover added a 3.6-litre twin-turbo diesel V8 model with 200kW.The Range Rover badge decreed that luxury could not be forgotten, so every version of the Sport featured 18-inch alloy wheels, dual-zone climate control, cruise control, LED lighting and leather upholstery. The 4.4-litre V8 version added a CD stacker, bi-xenon headlights, and rear parking sensors, while the diesel V8 carried the same specification but with 19-inch alloys. The supercharged Sport added 20-inch wheels, Brembo brakes, front parking sensors, memory seats and mirrors as well as hydraulically controlled anti-roll suspension.Air suspension was a much hyped part of the Sport deal with the (on-paper) ability to make the independent suspension work as if the vehicle had solid axles in tougher off-road settings.Range Rover gave the L320 a facelift (to Series 2 spec) in 2009 with new engines and improved suspension as well as interior improvements to make the driver’s job easier.The new engines started with a 3.0-litre turbo-diesel V6, while the V8s were replaced by a 5.0-litre petrol V8. Available in either naturally aspirated or supercharged form, the new V8s were good for 276kW and a massive 375kW.The model was eventually replaced in 2013 by the L494 model Range Rover Sport. The short answer is yes, and no.The Range Rover Sport is a pretty amazing thing dynamically, able to combine high-speed stability with good comfort and even exceptional off-road abilities. That’s the ‘yes’ part.The ‘no’ comes in the form of a litany of serious mechanical and electrical problems that have surfaced over the years, tainting the Sport’s reputation.This car is a classic case of buyer beware, but if you do get lucky and find one that is reliable, the driving experience is hard to match. The problem is picking a good one, because the odds aren’t great that it will be clear sailing. In a nutshell, not great. In fact, not even close. Too many owners have had expensive, often catastrophic failures to make any other judgment. The problems are wide and varied, too, so there’s no short-cut to finding one that won’t necessarily break the bank.The rusted-on fans out there will beg to differ, but the facts are the facts, and this vehicle’s a gamble at best. This is no short list and the Range Rover Sport’s reputation for fragility and dud engineering is based on many years of turning motorists into mechanics.Let’s start with the real elephant in the room, the 2.7 and 3.0 litre V6 turbo-diesels. These have a pretty shocking record for destroying themselves due to problems with the bottom end bearings. Speculation is that the bearings themselves were either fitted incorrectly at the factory, or that they could wear and 'spin' in service. Either way, once you hear the warning noises from under the bonnet, you had a handful of seconds to pull off the road, shut the engine off and call a tow-truck. Any longer and you were likely to destroy the engine completely as the crankshaft failed due to the bearing problem.Symptoms that you have those precious seconds remaining include a knocking noise that gets louder as you load the engine, and a low oil pressure warning on the dashboard. Ignore it and you’ll soon have the con-rods on the ground under the car. Not nice.Scandalously, despite this being a known problem affecting the very earliest L320 cars, it took Land Rover until 2012 to sort a fix with a revised bearing design.Early examples of this engine also had a major design flaw in the oil pump assembly which was too weak to support the tensioner for the rubber timing belt that was mounted on the pump casing. This often showed up straight after a new timing belt was fitted and the added tension of the new belt exceeded the integrity of the pump casing.At that point, all hell boke loose as the timing belt jumped ship, allowing the pistons to collide with the valves and reducing the engine to scrap in milli-seconds. A revised pump casing design fixed things, but not before plenty of owners were replacing entire engines.The single turbocharger unit fitted to the 2.7-litre V6 was also prone to internal wear. Lots of white smoke from the exhaust was a sign that this was the case. Replacing the turbocharger unit was the usual fix. EGR valve failures on this engine are not unknown, either.The 5.0-litre supercharged V8 was not without problems and it often developed a rattle or ticking noise. This was usually traced to the timing chain tensioner, requiring the tensioner and the timing chain to be replaced. An improved design of the chain and tensioner helped, but didn’t arrive until the 2012 model.The Sport’s air suspension has also caused its share of grief with many owners returning to their vehicle to find it lying almost flat on the ground. The cause is usually the air suspension’s compressor system which can either fail to maintain the required ride height or simply allow all the air to escape the suspension units. One theory holds that the compressor itself was too small and was overworked, leading to failures.We’ve also heard of a few instances where the suspension units themselves have failed requiring costly replacement. But even the plastic plumbing for the air suspension seems underdone in the sense of a car designed for off-road work.Those are by no means the only faults associated with this make and model, but they’re the ones that keep surfacing over time. None of them are minor. Again, this is a long list because the Range Rover Sport has been far from immune from safety recalls to fix things that should never have gone wrong.Let’s start with the transmission which could sometimes refuse to select Park. This affected very early build L320s.Then there was the ABS sensor which could chafe its wiring on the wheel under extreme cornering and suspension travel situations. Again, this affected early (2005 and 2006) models.Perhaps the recall with the greatest potential for mayhem was one for V6 turbo-diesel vehicles built between mid-2004 and mid-2009. In those, there was a chance the vacuum system and the entire braking system could fail, leading to a total loss of brake performance. And again, that’s an awful lot of cars to be affected by such a serious defect.The L320 was also recalled at various points in time to correct faulty crank angle sensors that would stop the engine in its tracks, door latches that wouldn’t (latch) and fuel pumps that could fail prematurely.You can find out more by visiting https://www.vehiclerecalls.gov.au/ Later built cars were definitely better than earlier-build examples, purely because Range Rover had time to sort things out (not that it always did). But the one vehicle we’d avoid would be the turbo-diesel in any of its forms as these were the ones with the dicky bottom end. This is a vehicle where the fewer kilometres covered, the better. That said, you do see the odd one with better than 400,000km on board still getting around, but it would be very interesting to find out how much of a grandfather’s axe it is. Those high-milers are also almost always turbo-diesel cars, too, but that’s as much a function of the fact that this vehicle arrived in Australia when diesel was the new black, and people were flocking to it. It’s very difficult to recommend this make and model unless you’re an expert in diagnosing and fixing them and don’t mind a bit of down time. The non-supercharged petrol V8 stands a better chance of going the distance, but even it lives in the shadow of air suspension failures and other maladies. A high-mileage turbo-diesel can be had for comfortably less than $10,000 these days. In fact, you see them advertised for as little as $5000 which still makes them a punt, but a much lower-stakes punt.There’s a wide spread of prices after that with something like a supercharged V8 version with 100,000km showing for between $45,000 and $50,000. The one thing in the Sport’s favour as a long-term proposition is the magnificent repair and parts industry that has sprung up around the brand. You could argue that’s a function of necessity to keep a flawed product on the road, but it also reflects the fanaticism the Range Rover brand has created for itself.There’s a legion of specialist workshops that know these vehicles backwards and can supply pretty much every part needed. Independent specialists are also usually a lot cheaper than Range Rover dealership repairs and servicing.The better news is that every time a Range Rover Sport is pensioned off or scrapped its parts help keep other Rangies on the road. There’s no way of knowing how many L320 Range Rover Sports were sold during the model’s eight years on sale. But we can tell you that the bigger online sales sites have between 50 and 140 L320s available for sale.The vast majority of those are turbo-diesel V6 variants.

In the current economic climate, a small car that can only comfortably fit two adults and gets 11.4L/100km on a test drive seems utterly unsensible.But the 2026 BMW M2 CS was never meant to be sensible, was it? Even in the stable of bonkers BMW M cars, the M2 CS is arguably the one that most fits into the category of ‘fun over function’.The M3 has four doors, the M4 has more space and the M5 is half-EV these days. And while the M2 is silly fun, the M2 CS is serious fun.The 353kW of the regular M2 becomes an intimidating 390kW when adorned with the extra two letters, standing for Competition Sport by the way, and paired with 650Nm the two-door rear-driver is capable of a 0-100km/h sprint in a claimed 3.8 seconds. That thrust goes on to 302km/h, if you’re brave enough to find out, rather than just 250km/h.This is all, of course, thanks to a twin-turbo 3.0-litre six-cylinder engine, code S58 in the M2’s case. BMW hasn’t given up the in-line six game just yet.It runs power to the rears via an eight-speed automatic transmission, which is unfortunately the only transmission available in the CS. The standard M2 has the option of a six-speed manual, but the ol’ DIY shifter apparently isn’t up to the extra 100Nm of torque the CS’s engine is putting out. Even the auto ‘standard’ M2 gets 600Nm, splitting the difference.More changes to the M2, then, come in the form of a set of staggered gold wheels - 19-inch by 9.5-inch fronts and 20-inch by 10.5-inch rears. The ducktail boot lid is a much-appreciated touch for some more flair. And at the other end the vents and an effectively open kidney ‘grille’ mean a wayward rock could probably do some nasty work on the cooling system.A carbon-fibre roof and bonnet go some way to helping lower not only the weight, but also the centre of gravity, with the CS coming in at a 1775kg kerb weight compared to 1805kg in for standard M2. The CS is also slightly longer (by 7.0mm) and its suspension slightly lower (by 8.0mm) according to BMW’s specs.Inside, the CS affords you less than you might want in the way of comfort if this is to be your main mode of transport. No proper central armrest along with extremely bolstered, rigid carbon sports seats (with leg mouldings) and no real storage save for a phone charging pad or the bottle holders in the doors mean the M2 CS doesn’t quite work as a daily drive.All this means an extra $44,800 at the dealership, for a price tag of $172,900, before on-road costs. Carbon fibre and extra power ain’t cheap, unless there’s also something special about those CS badges…Oh, and our test car is fitted with carbon ceramic brakes, so there goes an additional $19,000.It’s a price that demands as much attention as the CS does to look at, especially in this 'BMW Individual Velvet Blue Metallic' paint over those 'Gold Bronze' wheels. But is it as special from behind the other important wheel?Peak power comes in at 6250rpm, while the optimum torque band is between 2750 and 5730rpm. It means for most of the time you’re not short of nudge, and even if you’re already making expeditious progress along your road of choice, there’s almost always more pace at hand through most of the rev range.While it might feel a shame there’s no manual option, you’ll quickly find yourself engaged enough without involving a third pedal. Of the many settings available to toy with, something that’s easy to adjust is the aggression of the transmission thanks to the 'Steptronic' button on the shifter. Using the paddles, or using the shifter itself if you want to feel a little more manual, is almost always my preferred method to letting the automatic decide for itself, but in the right settings the CS’s eight-speed does fine on its own.Even in too-high a gear, the sheer torque available means the 1775kg coupe bursts out of corners with plenty of aggression, though the CS’s manners don’t leave you feeling intimidated.While small BMWs of the past have been lairy, wicked little things - the 1M had a reputation for being quite persistent about trying to leave the road - the M2 CS’s bite isn’t directed at the hand that steers it.On capable Michelin Pilot Sport 4S tyres, which suit road driving better than stickier Cup tyres that hate a damp surface, the M2 CS provides plenty of accurate feedback and reacts receptively to inputs in a manner that belie the way the thing looks and sounds.In its most aggressive settings before you start getting into track modes and safety-off areas, the M2 doesn’t even wag its tail through corners where you might have expected the previous generation car to. And even though its suspension is stiff there’s enough give to let the driver sense the limits of mechanical grip.While the CS exudes ‘playful puppy’ energy, the true attitude of the car is well-trained. If you wanted the M2 CS to really let loose, you could make it happen, but it’s not likely to happen by accident if you’re half-capable behind the wheel.The carbon ceramic brakes fitted to this test car also mean pulling up quickly in an emergency without needing to worry if the brakes have faded from previous hard driving, though in most cases on the road they’re probably overkill.The steering feedback is succinct, and while there’s more road surface information communicated through the seat that you might want from a daily driver, the combination in concert with the front wheels means you’re rarely guessing how to attack a corner.On that, the M2 CS is arguably more comfortable than you’d expect, but for the vast majority of people it would be optimistic to think of this car as suitable day-to-day transport. I’m 31, don’t have bad joints, and have spent most of my career in sports cars, and I reckon I would get a bit tired of the feeling of these seats after a couple of months. If someone says otherwise, they didn’t spend enough time living with it.

Subaru's high-performance STI division has a deep and rich history, but the name has never officially been applied to the low-slung BRZ two-door coupe. The top-spec tS is the closest we've got to date and this one is filled to the gills with STI-tuned accessories and goodies.

The 86 was, when launched, extremely affordable but has since become more expensive, and getting into a top-spec version of the GR86 is a task that’ll sap $20,000 more from your wallet than the original 86 base model. To find out if it’s worthwhile, we’ve snagged a 2026 Toyota GR86 GTS with optional Dynamic Performance Pack.

The Porsche 911 GT3 has been given a thorough update and gets more equipment. Is it still the track weapon of choice?

The Evolve is the flagship trim in the Australian Nissan Ariya line-up and the only one offered with all-wheel drive.

The Engage is the entry-level trim in the Australian Nissan Ariya line-up.

The BMW M240i xDrive, one of our favourite coupes, has undergone a revamp, but not where you might expect. A redesigned dash, new screens and updated operating system are the big changes, meaning the big 3.0-litre turbo in-line 'six', all-wheel drive and superb chassis balance remain. But that raises a question: in the four years since release, has BMW's smallest coupe kept up with the times?

The Advance+ is the most affordable trim with the larger 87kWh battery pack option in the Australian Nissan Ariya line-up.