Articles by Paul Gover

It takes a very special car to make a Carrera Cup racer look slow.The Porsche 918 Spyder is that car.Not just that, but the 918 can make an ordinary driver - let’s call that me - look good against a champion racer called Craig Baird.As we hot lap at Phillip Island, a track where the 918 will wind around past 280km/h with ease and generate race-car grip on road-car tyres, I’m having no trouble at all in keeping pace with Baird in the Cup car.The 918 can make an ordinary driver look good against a champion racer.The 918 gobbles him up out of every corner, keeps pace through any turn, and can brake much, much later than the track-only 911 while also offering the chance of full electric driving for 31 kilometres at up to 150km/h.This is a car that’s all about the car. I’m just along for the ride, even when I have control of the steering wheel and pedals.It’s so easy to go quickly that I have to suppress the sort of five-year-old enthusiasm I have not felt in years. It’s woo-hoo fun, and so, so, so fast.Yet the 918 is also a new-age hybrid that can run for 31 kilometres on pure battery power, and also accelerate up to 150km/h - with a 0-100 sprint time of 6.1 seconds - without dipping into the onboard batteries.If you could buy a 918 in Australia it would cost $1.5 million. But that’s irrelevant, not just because it’s only left-hand drive and cannot be registered but also because all 918 cars already have customer names against them.This 918, with the Weissach package, is in Australia for a whistle-stop tour that included hot laps at the Australian Grand Prix and a couple of very special days at Phillip Island.That’s where I get my chance to drive, and have all my benchmarks for a road car comprehensively re-set.It’s the same track where I drove a Porsche Carrera GT a decade ago, and also where I’ve sampled flat-out laps in a Nissan GT-R and a Black Edition Mercedes-AMG SLS, although my (very) brief time in a Bugatti Veyron was at the Sandown race course.For comparison, the Carrera was fast but nervy, with a trigger-action clutch; the GT-R was ballistic quick but awful on public roads; the Black beast was fast but felt very heavy, and the Veyron was awesome in a straight line but not a car I’d like to own.The 918 can really only be compared with its current supercar rivals, the LaFerrari and McLaren P1, but there are none in Australia. And I’ve yet to drive them.So it’s me and the 918 at Phillip Island, with a warm-up in the 911 Turbo and GT3 road car to get my brain (partially) calibrated for the challenge to come.When it comes, it’s almost too much.The 918 is nicely quick in full electric model and easily quicker than the Turbo and GT3 in Sport model. Then I turn the switch to RACE and it’s like hitting the afterburner switch.The car now accelerates far quicker than the Cup racer and can brake far, far later. It’s incredible to think that is a road car on road tyres.Yes, there are some downsides. Apart from the price, the legroom is not great and it’s very noisy at any speed.But I cannot help falling in love with the way it fires down the road whenever I touch the throttle, how it challenges me through the corners, and how it stops like I’ve dropped the blade on a bulldozer.It’s also incredible to feel the way so much technology - remember there is a petrol engine, a battery pack, three electric motors, and four-wheel drive - is seamlessly integrated.Would you believe it’s also at its best as a fully automatic. There are flappy paddles for the seven-speed PDK gearbox, but I don’t use them and it doesn’t need them.

Paul Gover road tests and reviews the Hyundai Santa Fe Active with specs, fuel consumption and verdict.

The two-time V8 Supercars champion had been humbled through four starts on the same course where he had once starred as a youngster in his first touring car meeting and it was too much. Ambrose had decided he was not getting the job done and should step out of the driving seat to try to get the DJR-Team Penske program back on track. So, after calling the big boss, American billionaire Roger Penske, Ambrose jumped in a car to go walkabout."That was really just trying to lose a couple of days to let things calm down. But I got a couple of hours into the trip and realised that I wanted to get home and see the kids," Ambrose told News Corp Australia.I wasn't going to be able to do what was expected of meHe says he has not quit driving but, after arriving home from a decade of NASCAR oval racing in the USA with high hopes and a high-profile program, he knew he had to step out from behind the wheel."It became pretty obvious to me that I wasn't going to be able to do what was expected of me in that role right now. Once it came, it was a pretty solid thought. It was pretty clear."Whenever you're making a decision, especially one like this, they are serious and somewhat humbling. You have to be sure you're ready to pull the trigger. It's taken a lot of weight off my shoulders."There was shock at DJR-Team Penske when Ambrose announced his decision, even though his crew knew he was struggling."I could sense he was frustrated, but we could also see him getting better. The key message from us is that he is still a hell of a driver," DJR-Team Penske team principal Ryan Story said."I understand his rationale and his reasoning. But, certainly, it took us all by surprise."Trying to improve the car...was harder than I had expectedSo, what went wrong? How did a two-time champion fall towards the back end of the V8 Supercars field? And why not give it longer than just a handful of starts?"It was a combination of a lot of factors. It became obvious to me that returning to be the lead driver in this one-car team, and trying to improve the car - ultimately by race results and also by engineering the car - was harder than I had expected."So the duty on my shoulders, as a relative rookie in a series that has moved on, was to improve the race car and the results. When it became obvious I couldn't do that...it became an untenable position on me personally."Ambrose has copped plenty of flak since stepping down, even though he is handing a golden opportunity to his young understudy Scott Pye. There were rumours of total retirement, a retreat back to NASCAR oval track racing in the USA, and even a mental breakdown.But Ambrose is tough and professional, and he's tackling things head-on. For now at least, he and Pye are switching roles. The youngster becomes the lead driver and the veteran becomes the long-distance co-driver. There is a plan for a two-car operation in 2016, although Ambrose is not looking that far into the future.

A silly stunt above the River Thames in London is a reflection of the biggest new-car overhaul in the history of Jaguar.

Paul Gover road tests and reviews the Rolls-Royce Ghost with specs, fuel consumption and verdict.

Paul Gover road tests and reviews the Jeep Grand Cherokee Summit Platinum with specs, fuel consumption and verdict.

It's easy to give The Tick to the new Peugeot 308.After a series of dismal and uninspiring arrivals over recent years - some of them downright ugly - the compact hatch proves that the French brand can still do good cars.I wonder why they are not all as good as the new 308, but that question would take more than a single CarsGuide edition to answer. In any case, the 308 looks good, drives well, has a frugal three-cylinder engine and has the plush look and feel of a Volkswagen Golf.It's won a European Car of the Year award, picked up five stars in Euro NCAP safety testing and drives well for the class and price.The price is still nowhere near sharp enough for what amounts to a "challenger" brandNo, there is no reversing camera, some members of the CarsGuide crew are uninspired by the engine and the price is still nowhere near sharp enough for what amounts to a "challenger" brand in a class where the Mazda3 and Toyota Corolla are the sales benchmarks and the Golf is the car to love.I'm also not convinced about the i-Cockpit driver layout, which provides an excellent steering wheel but an instrument binnacle that is always partly obscured by the top of the rim.It's the same in a number of new Peugeots and I don't like any of them, despite Peugeot's belief that it is leading in a new direction.I first drove the 308 in France last year and believe it could have been a CarsGuide COTY contender with a better price, more refinement on arrival and that rear-view camera.Now I'm sliding into a 308 on roads I know, still with the new-age three-cylinder engine but better equipped with a six-speed automatic gearbox and an Allure package that brings a 9.7-inch touchscreen, cruise control, alloys and parking radar. On the safety front there is a six-airbag package, tyre-pressure monitoring and the usual stability control.It's a tasty package but the Peugeot people in France don't understand the reality of price pressures in Australia, where $30,490 is too much for this car and even the $21,990 starter price is too costly when you can buy many of its rivals for less than $20,000 on the road.Still, I can see and feel the quality in the car. There might be some hard plastic surfaces but the seats are truly excellent and so is the wheel, the ride is plush and it's quiet at any speed.It takes some learning to get the best from the baby triple, which makes a useful 96kW but is tweaked mostly for economy. The six-speed auto is always looking for the highest gear but you can hit the Sport button for sharper response or resort to manual changes - where the "correct" race-style change means pushing forward to downshift and pulling back for an upshift - if you really want to go.There is a lot to like and not much to complain aboutThe syncopation of a three-cylinder engine is unusual at first but I've known them since the original Daihatsu Charade in the 1980s through to the latest BMW i8 hybrid and quite like the sound and feel.Moving through the cabin, the 308 has good space, there is a big boot and the fuel economy is very good.

Grey power is giving a surprising boost to the new green car at BMW.

Based on his master class at Albert Park yesterday, as he reduced Nico Rosberg to an also-ran in an identical Mercedes-Benz WR06 and left Sebastian Vettel more than 30 seconds behind in his first start for Ferrari, no one will trouble him for the crown.Rosberg will have days, Vettel might trip into a win, but the title is Hamilton's to lose.And Daniel Ricciardo? Yes, he was there and finished sixth at the flag, but Red Bull-Renault is in a lot of trouble and he is facing a tough year.The 20th Australian grand prix was the worst in the history of the Melbourne race, with the smallest field since 1982 and a boring event that lacked excitement.The best action was the banter with Arnold Schwarzenegger on the podium and then as Rosberg and Vettel shared jokes and jibes in the post-race press conference.After his seventh win from his past eight starts, Hamilton had little to say."It's an incredible feeling to carry on from last year. Once you get a two-second gap you try to manage that," he said.He hinted things might get tougher, but was really only being diplomatic.Lewis drove like a world champion today"I think the Ferraris have taken a huge step forward. We definitely cannot back off. I anticipate we might have a good fight with them at some stage this year," he said."Really? It's a big gap, a lot for everyone else," Vettel said. And Rosberg?"Lewis drove like a world champion today but I was driving to the max every lap and I will be doing my best to give this guy a big run for his money," he said.There was drama before the start when Daniil Kyvat and Kevin Magnussen failed to make it to the grid, and the inevitable first-corner contact took care of Pastor Maldonado - for once it was not his fault. He was soon joined in the garage by his Lotus teammate Romain Grosjean after a mechanical failure after just one lap.The other two retirements were baby-faced rookie Max Verstappen and Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen. He was looking racy but was let down when his pit crew failed to tighten the left-rear wheel enough on his second tyre change.The race was run at a solid clip but the Mercedes men were never threatened as Hamilton controlled the gap back to Rosberg. The German planned a final lunge after saving fuel in the middle part of the race, but was frustrated as Hamilton did the same.Felipe Massa could have been third but was outfoxed by Vettel, who was quicker through the laps around his rival's pit stops.Felipe Nasr was the best of the rookies, finishing fifth for Sauber and running several times in tough battle packs against drivers like Raikkonen and Ricciardo. Carlos Sainz could not repeat his speed in qualifying with Toro Rosso, but finished ahead of Sergio Perez of Force India.We're obviously a long way off but it's a good starting pointFormer champion Jenson Button and McLaren, the team that often dominated in Formula One, were dismal. Button did his best, but once his teammate Kevin Magnussen's Honda engine had exploded on the formation lap he was always driving for survival.For a while it looked like he could score a championship point thanks to the carnage but he eventually missed out and tailed home in 11th, in last place and two laps behind the winner."The longest (run) we'd done before this weekend was 12 laps, so I think that's pretty impressive. We're obviously a long way off but it's a good starting point," Button said.1. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes2. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes 3. Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari4. Felipe Massa, Williams5. Felipe Nasr, Sauber6. Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull7. Nico Hulkenberg, Force India8. Marcus Ericsson, Sauber9. Carlos Sainz Jr, Toro Rosso10. Sergio Perez, Force India11. Jenson Button, McLaren

Albert Park hosts motoring's finest this weekend - and there will be an F1 race, too.