Articles by Paul Gover

If a real sports car needs a manual gearbox then the F‒Type Jaguar finally qualifies.The classic British belter is finally picking up a slick ZF six‒speeder with a clutch for its 2016 model update, as well as all‒wheel drive for people who worry that too much fun is more than enough on slippery surfaces.Jaguar expects between 20 and 30 per cent of F-Type buyers to go for the "stick" globally, although that number could be slightly lower in Australia when the updated F‒Type coupes and convertibles arrive in May.Before then, and well in time for winter weather, the F-Types with added front-end traction land in March.The 2016 update, which seems awfully early at the start of 2015, also includes a switchable sports exhaust on all models, a parking pack on V6S and R versions, and memory electric seats on the R cars.Just like Porsche with its 911, Jaguar has also fitted electric power steering — mostly for the economy and emission benefits it brings.Globally, there is extra stuff, including a smartphone app that allows you to start the car remotely and fire up the aircon, but the final specification for local cars is still being confirmed.The manual F-Type will not be cheap, with pricing from $119,470 with a V6 engine, but there are already people with cash to splash. And Jaguar believes it will give the brand a more competitive car against Porsche, which sets the benchmark with its Boxster/Cayman/911 triple act."There have been inquiries about availability of a manual version since launch, and since the announcement that we will be introducing a manual version the dealers report that inquiry has increased," says James Scrimshaw, Jaguar spokesman for Australia.He says 168 F-Types were delivered through 2014 and there is a considerable order bank for cars, as the production line in Britain is working at full capacity."We expect these new derivatives to perform well and increase overall F-Type volumes in 2015," he says.The clutch is light, and the gear ratios work with the force-fed V6 engineThe new F-Types were rolled out for a track-based preview in Portugal during the teaser program for Jaguar's landmark XE compact sedan. There was a wet handling course with track laps and a short road loop. The cars ran from the manual V6S coupe on the road to the AWD V6S in the wet to the AWD V8 R on the Estoril circuit, a grand prix track built back in 1972.The manual F-Type was the pick, but there was nowhere near enough time to get to know it well. I can say that the clutch is light, and the gear ratios work with the force-fed V6 engine, but not much more.Well, apart from the location of the lever. For me, it's awful.Jaguar says it has put the "stick" in the best location available, and also shaved the top of the centre console to clear elbow room, but that did not help. I had to cock my wrist awkwardly to shift in the 2-4-6 plane and I never felt comfortable.It's a good thing that, like the vast majority of Australians, I'm happy with a crisp paddle-shift automatic in most cars.The V8 F-Type was a delight with all-wheel driveThe wet handling track proves that the F-Type has the chassis balance and all-wheel drive system to suit a sport car. Most people would never know it's feeding so much power to the front wheels and it's possible to give full throttle on a soaked road without worrying about the steering wheel tugging or the back stepping out.On the Estoril track, one of the fastest used by carmakers, the V8 F-Type was a delight with all-wheel drive. There was no sign of a manual box, because even the ZF cannot handle the extra torque and that's why the ratios and tuning were optimised for the V6 S.There was a little front-end push in slow corners, and also at better than 140km/h on a very long right-handed sweeper, but most of the time the car stayed planted and obeyed my instructions. Once again, there was no hint of the all-wheel drive package as the car is tuned to stay rear-drive until the tyres reach overload and then to feed drive forward.On the steering front, I could not detect any loss of feel with the switch to electric assist.

The V8 Supercar stars were red-hot to run against the world’s best GT teams and drivers in the Bathurst 12 Hour and they are not alone.The newest long-distance classic on the global motorsport calendar is filled to capacity and the cars are as tasty as it gets, including Bentley, McLaren, Ferrari and Porsche.The date clash is deliberateBut politics has overruled common sense and, instead of heading the line-up for a race on Sunday that promises to be an absolute cracker, the V8 drivers have been forced to drive in a pre-season test at Sydney Motorsport ParkThe date clash is deliberate and has as much to do with television as racing.The 12 Hour is on Channel 7 and the V8 Supercar test is on Foxtel.No-one from V8 Supercars wanted their marquee drivers to be strutting their stuff on a rival network, particularly at the start of a new season with a fresh television deal about to fire up in the new partnership between Foxtel and Network Ten. And with Foxtel trying to sign motorsport enthusiasts to their new cut-price monthly sports package.The original clash between the two events was a one-day overlap and it would have been simple for drivers to cover commitments at both. They could have qualified at Bathurst on Friday, tested at Eastern Creek on Saturday, then raced at Mount Panorama on Sunday.It’s a ridiculous situationEven when V8 Supercars stretched their event to both days it would have been possible, using a helicopter, to race the first and last stints at the 12 hour. Lowndes and Kelly were both keen to do it that way. But V8 Supercars stipulated that all drivers had to be at their event, all weekend. Game over.It’s a ridiculous situation and the losers are the drivers and — far more importantly — the fans.

Paul Gover road tests and reviews the Jaguar XE at its international preview in Portugal.

But there is a catch, as the cars that are coming are not "real" AMG Benzes.They will look tough, and deliver sharper driving, but will come without the signature V8 engines which put the real punch into the performance sub-brand of the world's oldest car maker.The official name for the newcomers is AMG Sport and the first for Australia is the C450 AMG 4Matic, which will be priced from about $80,000.They are serious AMG carsEven though they are diluted from the pure-bred AMG models, such as the top selling C63 and the latest GT coupe, Mercedes-AMG boss Tobias Moers denies they are just "AMG Light"."No, these are not light cars. They are serious AMG cars," he says."We intend to keep the pedal to the metal and double our sales again over the next three years. Believe me, we've still got some interesting ideas in our minds. Stay tuned."The C450 is not coming immediately, as a delay until 2016 means it can have the company's latest nine-speed automatic gearbox, even though this is not confirmed.It brings more sportiness to the entire Mercedes brandBut the C450 will spearhead a Sports group that is intended to compete directly with the S-Line cars from Audi and the M Performance models at BMW."There was a gap. The pure-bred AMG models have been so far up there," says Mercedes-Benz's design boss, Gordon Wagener."It's actually great. It brings more sportiness to the entire Mercedes brand."The first Sport engine, plugging into both the C450 and the GLE Coupe unveiled in Detroit, is a twin-turbo 3-litre V6 making 270kW and 520Nm of torque, with fuel economy from 7.6L/100km.It has a claimed 0-100km/h sprint time of 4.9 seconds, significantly short of a full-house C63 AMG but still quicker than a BMW 335i M Sport.Wagoner says enthusiasts will quickly pick the Sports cars from the fully-loaded AMG cars."AMG is now a unique sub-brand, and we want to bring it level with Porsche. The pure AMG cars always have this A-frame face and the twin-bar grille, and we push that even further with a new identity, but we are not there yet. The four-pipe signature in the rear is also unique."

Which way would you go? It's an impossible choice, but imagine it was out of your hands. That's the nightmare scenario of autonomous driving, when you give control of your car to a collective of on-board computers.It's one of the reasons — beyond the inevitable legal battles following a crash — that self-driving cars are not going to be a viable motoring choice for some time.They might be fine on highways dedicated to road trains of autonomous cars, where the driver and passengers can get on with more important things such as iPads and email, but no-one knows yet how they will drive in the real world.BMW admits it has yet to answer the tough questions on crashesBMW is one of the world leaders on self-driving cars and I rode in an autonomous 7 Series last year that's one of the best in the business, provided you stick to the 10km of German road it knows better than I know my computer keyboard.Introduce a crash scenario and things get woolly. Very woolly.Even BMW admits it has yet to answer the tough questions on crashes."Hit a truck or a pedestrian? That decision cannot be taken by a machine," says Ian Robertson, the global head of marketing at BMW and one of the men who will soon be selling us into self-driving cars, told me at the Detroit auto show. "I'm not sure we, as an industry or a society, are wanting machines to make those decisions."Do I see full autonomous driving in the near future? NoRobertson believes autonomous driving will be a stepped transition, as driver-assistance technologies show a clear benefit — as ESP stability control and blind-spot warnings do today — beyond auto braking for hazards."Do I see full autonomous driving in the near future? No," says Robertson. "The questions that need to be answered are not easy ones."

I never liked the Land Rover Freelander. It was too cramped, too costly against Japanese rivals, and not classy enough against new-age European SUVs.Then there was the time a Freelander 2 engine detonated on a beach in Morocco and I had to abandon ship as the car caught fire.Its replacement, the Land Rover Discovery Sport, is altogether different and altogether better.The car looks good, it's quiet and refinedIt will take a proper local drive to know exactly how much better, because the global press preview was held in the extreme landscape of Iceland in winter, which could not be more different from an Australian summer.But the car looks good, it's quiet and refined, there is much more space in the cabin — including fold-down occasional seats for a seven-place layout — and it's right on the money at $53,300 for the manual TD4 SE. It will be more like $60,000 once you get an auto and anything but white paint, and the top model is $69,000, but the sales team won't have to work very hard to top the 1200-a-year performance of the Freelander, even though it started at only $44,900."We don't particularly want to compare this model to Freelander. But if you look at the standard features, it's a very different vehicle," says Matt Weisner, sales and operations director of Jaguar Land Rover Australia."We feel this vehicle is incredibly competitive against the BMW X3 and Audi Q5. For that price, you get navigation, electric seats, 18-inch alloys, and rear-view camera, and grain-fed leather seats. It's a pretty compelling package."It can carry more passengers and luggage than anything in its classMore importantly, it's a total rethink and rework of the starter car in the Land Rover family. That's why the Freelander name is dead and gone.The Disco Sport — which gets some rub-off from the popularity of the full-sized Discovery — gets back to the idea of a compact SUV for families, not a four-wheel handbag like the Evoque, with smart detailing that even runs to air vents for the third-row jump seats."We think it's the most practical and versatile compact SUV. It can carry more passengers and luggage than anything in its class," says Murray Dietsch, the head of the Discovery Sport program who has been with Land Rover for nine years after a transfer from Ford Australia."We see it as a cracking opportunity. It's a car, from a quality point of view, that allows us to be positioned against the BMW X3, Audi Q5 and Volvo XC60. It can draw from below as well, from the Japanese brands."But if you're thinking it's a workhorse, think again. It's not as fashion forward as the Evoque, which provides the basic mechanical package from the bumper through to the rear seats, but it's elegant and refined.You can see it in the dashboard layout with a new multimedia system, and feel it in a nine-speed automatic and vastly improved suspension and four-wheel drive. There's also the larger boot with a lower loading lip, sliding second-row seats and much more.Nothing remotely challenges the Discovery SportThe Iceland preview drive, with Dietsch running point, ran to about 300 kilometres in the 2.2-litre turbo petrol model with 177kW/340Nm and the high-output turbodiesel with 140kW/420Nm which is expected to be most popular powerplant in Australia. The conditions changed from dry coarse bitumen to rugged snowy tracks and even a fast-flowing icy river.Nothing remotely challenges the Discovery Sport, which is clearly worthy of a Land Rover plate. It is easy to handle, utterly competent, and often better than the drivers in the tough stuff.The nine-speeder makes sublime shifts, the engines are punchy from the get-go, and the suspension is compliant in all conditions. I'm not sure about Australia, but it wins in Iceland.It's just as easy to appreciate the quality in the cabin, a safety package that includes seven airbags and auto emergency braking — Land Rover says it's just won five stars in Euro NCAP testing — and the extra space in the cabin. There is 86 millimetres of extra legroom in the back and, although not advisable for long trips, I slid into the ($1990) third-row jump seats to confirm they are even fine for 178-centimetre adults.For me, it's also important that the legroom in the front is a lot better than the Freelander, that it's much quieter, and that the look and feel is more as you would find in an Audi.The Discovery Sport goes on sale in May and is crucial to the future of Land Rover in Australia. It's the first step up the ladder to the Range Rover and I can — finally — see and feel the family connection.It's also more family focused than its German opponents, and more off-roadable as well, which are both good things. And towing capacity is up to 2200 kilograms

Just as Porsche used the original Cayenne to save the company, and continue the success of its classic 911 sports car, the British brand is confident of future growth with the car originally previewed as the C-X17 concept.The newcomer is called the F-Pace and will be ready for showrooms in 2016. The inevitable arrival of a high-performance version is likely to see the creation of an F-Pace R.The F-Pace is the latest stretch for the Jaguar Land Rover group and comes in the final countdown to the make-or-break XE compact car, but chief designer Ian Callum does not see any conflict with the four-wheel drive Range Rovers at the other half of the company.It's a crossover with an on-road focus"Our car will be very different," Callum reveals to CarsGuide at the Detroit motor show. "It won't be an off-road four-wheel drive. It's a crossover with an on-road focus. That's the major difference."It also helps that the SUV is based on the F-Type sports car, which helps explain its name.Jaguar sprang a carefully-set ambush on the day before Detroit, revealing the name and details of the production C-X17 before another of the rival brands could unveil their concept cars.It also trumped Bentley, which confirmed at the show it's heavyweight SUV would go into production as the Bentayga. It combines the names of the Roque Bentayga, a rugged peak in the Canary Islands, and the Taiga snow forest.At Jaguar, the F-Pace name is also a nod to the original Jaguar boss, Sir William Lions, who said his cars had "Grace, pace and space".It has to be sexyThat could point to an F-Space and an F-Grace, although that's extremely unlikely."I don't think so," says Callum.He reveals the conflict in designing an SUV after working so hard to reinvent a Jaguar style direction for the 21st century."It has to be sexy. It has been difficult because it goes against every muscle of your body in some ways," he says."Once I realised that a crossover makes good business sense and that, for a lot of young people, they don't know anything else other than crossovers, I said to our team ‘We've got to embrace this car'."We will push back on this obsession of getting the biggest volume inside, the biggest capacity and the largest tailgate opening. I wasn't going to buy into that."

The Renault Clio already has a Tick, but this one is different. Instead of the base-model starter car, it’s the full-on Renault Sport pocket rocket.The basics are same, from its four-door body to class-leading European safety score, but the mechanical package has had a significant tweak.The engine is now an RS-tuned 1.6-litre turbocharged petrol, while the brakes, tyres and wheels are bigger, there is sports suspension and a six-speed double-clutch gearbox.The car was great fun to punt around a racetrackIt sits at the top of the Clio line-up, as well as competing with a mixed bag of compact speedsters including the Fiat Abarth and Citroen DS3. These cars are popular choices in Europe, although not so much in Australia where V8s still rule.It also doesn’t help that the Abarth is well into the $30,000 bracket and the DS costs at least $28,000. The Clio RS is also relatively costly, from $29,290, but it is good value and well priced when you look at cars such as the Ford Focus ST at close to $40,000 and the Clio’s big brother Megane RS from $44,000.The Clio is officially called the 200, since it has 200 horsepower — that’s 149kW — to play with. It also has, more importantly, 240Nm of torque from around 200 revs.I come to the RS after a first drive in Europe that was masked by heavy rain, although the car was great fun to punt around a racetrack. I’m expecting a lot, particularly because the Megane RS is so sharp and enjoyable.There is way too much torque steerAt first, I like the car. It’s comfortable like the regular Clio, with a sharper edge, and a variety of engine and transmission settings that make it a great little sprinter. There’s a Race setting for extreme fun, but I avoid it for my road work.And yet, and yet.The longer I spend with the car, the more I find it is lacking. It’s good, make no mistake, but it’s missing the sharp edge of greatness I expect from a Renault Sport car.There is way too much torque steer — the wheel tugs under acceleration and the front end gets wayward — the engine is strong but not focused, and the gearbox never really snaps the shifts the way I want.

Australian designers played a starring role in the Motown showcase, with Holden building two concept cars — a limousine for Buick and an electric car for Chevrolet — and a Ford Australia designer penning a reborn GT40 supercar.But in a cruel twist, none of them has any real significance to Australian car buyers.On that score, the show car that could create the most waves Down Under was Hyundai's Santa Cruz ute — or pick-up as the Americans call them.The Santa Cruz is the forerunner to a Hyundai ute that will look to take a slice of the booming Australian ute market, which accounts for one in six new vehicle sales.Elsewhere at the show, it was all glitz and glamour, with Honda revealing a new NSX supercar and Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen unveiling sporty SUVs.Here are CarsGuide's show highlights.After more than three years of very public development work, including a disastrous fire at the Nurburgring, the born-again Honda NSX is ready to roll.Almost exactly 25 years after the birth of the original NSX, the new hybrid supercar has broken cover and is being fast-tracked to Australia.Some of the final detail is missing, including power and performance figures, but the NSX has a twin-turbocharged V6 engine, a double-clutch gearbox and twin electric motors to boost acceleration.The output is believed to be more than 400kW and the engine, which is set north-south behind the two-seater cabin, is believed to be 3.5-litres in capacity.The car has a body that combines lightweight alloys with carbon fibre, a step on from the original all-alloy NSX that was pitched against Ferrari in the 1990s.The price is likely to be more than $250,000 in Australia, but despite the price tag, there is considerable interest in the car in Australia.NSX deliveries in the US will begin later this year, pointing to an on-sale date in Australia in the first half of 2016. Less than 250 of the originals were sold down under, although it was a massive hit with car enthusiasts.Ford's latest Ferrari fighter, the new GT supercar, was designed by Australian Todd Willing, who was seconded from Ford Australia two years ago to work on the top secret project.He has since returned to Ford's design studios in Broadmeadows, where he is now the head of design for Ford in the Asia-Pacific region. How long he stays there is anyone's guess, as the GT40 is an impressive boast on a CV. At Detroit, the chief engineer for the Corvette, Tadje Juechter, the head of Jaguar design Ian Callum and former Volvo chief designer Peter Horbury all queued with the masses to get a closer look at the car.The Ford GT has special significance to Ford, having one the Le Mans 24-hour race four consecutive times from 1966 to 1969.In a controversial move, the latest iteration of the GT40 comes with a twin-turbo V6 rather than a V8, but Ford says it makes more power than its predecessor without burning as much fuel.There are no plans to sell the new Ford GT supercar in Australia because it will not be built in right-hand-drive.The Chevrolet Bolt concept car, which was built in Port Melbourne, can travel 320km on battery power alone and is expected to cost just $US30,000 when it eventually goes on sale.The vehicle was also unveiled by a former Holden boss, Alan Batey, who now runs Chevrolet.Mr Batey would not say when the Chevrolet Bolt would go into production but indications are that it will."We're going to gauge the reaction from today … but we're pretty convinced this is the right vehicle at the right time," said Mr Batey.It may not make it to Australia, though.Just 132 electric cars were sold here last year and Holden is unlikely to take the second generation Volt plug-in hybrid because of slow sales.The Santa Cruz pick-up was Hyundai's hero and it's clearly headed for production, with a timeline that could put it into Australian showrooms within three years (see separate story on page 8).Based on the next-generation ix35 SUV, the Santa Cruz Crossover Truck Concept was styled at Hyundai's design centre in Los Angeles and is aimed in the US at the 20-something "millenials" who are the second-biggest group of car buyers.The Santa Cruz is a four-door five-seater that's smaller than mainstream American pick-ups, which have become true trucks.It has "clamshell" doors and an expandable tray bed, with Tonka-style centre-lock wheels that won't make production.Hyundai says the Santa Cruz is for people who don't need a full-size truck. The company says "towing, payload and ground clearance were not primary goals".The SUV rush continues apace, with Volkswagen taking the covers off yet another softroader concept.This one is a pointer to a seven-seater that in size and philosophy will fit somewhere between the baby Tiguan and the family-sized Touareg. The show car had a plug-in hybrid system (a 3.6-litre V6 paired with two electric motors) but the showroom version is expected to be much more conventional.It is due to go into production in late 2016 ahead of a 2017 showroom arrival.So far it's not confirmed for Australia but Volkswagen locally has expressed interest in the vehicle.The only Chinese car maker at the Detroit show is also coming to Australia.The world debut of the GS4, a compact SUV, is proof that Guangzhou Automobile Group has aspirations beyond China. An Australian import deal for GAC is believed to be in the works at Auto Distributors AsiaPacific, a company established by Ateco boss Neville Crichton and the former head of Fiat Chrysler Australia, Clyde Campbell.Crichton was the first to bring Chinese cars to Australia, with Great Wall and Chery, and has been looking for extra brands to distribute.The big stumbling block at the moment is that GAC's cars are only built in left-hand drive.

While mainstream brands Ford and Honda wowed the crowds with fire-breathing supercars, the top end of town was more about whetting appetites of buyers in the huge and lucrative US market with production-ready models.The Alfa Romeo 4C is already a sellout in Australia, with 180 hands up for just 120 coupes.Now the demand is certain to jump even higher with the unveiling of a 4C Spider.The open-air 4C is more of a targa car than a full-on convertible, because the mid-engined layout puts the powerplant where the roof would normally fold away.The 4C is already the most charismatic car of the current Alfa generation, with a carbon-fibre chassis, gorgeous shrink-wrapped body, and turbocharged 1.8-litre petrol engine that makes 177kW and 350Nm of torque.The Spider keeps with the lightweight promise of the coupe, weighing in at less than 900 kilograms.The car is expected to arrive in Australia in the first quarter of next year.The new Q7 was the focus of the Audi stand and it was a technological tour-de-force.The show car had a new 10-inch computer tablet that can be used by back-seat passengers to control the radio and to watch their trip progress on the navigation system, much like a passenger jet.There's also an advanced radar and camera system that enables the Audi Q7 to accelerate, brake and steer itself automatically in stop-start traffic up to 60km/h.And the technical wizardry doesn't end there. The new Q7 can reverse a trailer into position using cameras and radar via a touch pad in the centre console.The new Audi Q7 is due in Australian showrooms later this year priced at about $100,000.There are no details on the engine and no concrete plans for production, but the Buick Avenir — French for "the future" —turned heads both in Detroit and Melbourne.A joint effort between Holden's styling studios in Port Melbourne and General Motors' design centres in Detroit, the car was built here and shipped to the US just before Christmas.It was unveiled by former Holden boss, and the current president of GM North America, Mark Reuss.For now, the Buick Avenir is just motor show tease, but Holden insiders say the striking limousine will likely be made in China and sold globally.It may also come to Australia as the eventual replacement for the Holden Caprice.The German sports car maker unveiled new versions of the 911 Targa and Cayenne SUV.To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Targa (half coupe, half convertible) model, Porsche has launched an all-wheel drive GTS version. Power is boosted by 22kW over the Targa 4S to 316kW, enabling a 0-100km/h sprint of 4.3 seconds.The Cayenne Turbo S betters that time by 0.2 of a second.Both models will go on sale in Australia in the second quarter of this year. The 911 Targa GTS will start at $305,300 and the Cayenne Turbo S will sell from $284,700.Toyota's luxury brand Lexus whipped the covers off the long awaited high-performance version of its mid-size limousine, the GS. Called the GS F it is powered by a high-revving 5.0-litre V8.The only problem is, while the peak power of 348kW is reasonably impressive, that only kicks in at close to 7300rpm and torque — the grunt that gets you moving — is a more modest 527Nm. A $45,000 Holden Commodore SS has more (530Nm). Expect it in Australian showrooms late in 2015 or early 2016 priced beyond your pay grade.A concept with more curves and contours than Kim Kardashian previews Infiniti's take on a 2+2 sports coupe.The Q60 concept will morph into the production car by 2016, powered by a twin-turbo 3.0-litre V6 engine.The steer-by wire system already seen on the Q50 is also used here, along with Infiniti's Intuition system, which can store details on audio, airconditioning and seat position preferences for up to four drivers.When it finally arrives in Australia the road-going car will be expected to compete with Audi's swoopy A5 and the BMW 4 Series.There's no news on prices but the current Q60 starts at $63,990.A new heavyweight contender has joined the ranks of crossover coupes.The GLE Coupe is a curvy high-riding four-door SUV that will compete with BMW's X6.Two versions were at the Detroit show this week, the full-on 63 AMG and the (slightly) less aggressive GLE 450 Sport, with a diesel-powered 350d and GLE 400 to follow.The X6 was originally the answer to a question that no-one had asked, but has become a big global sales success.The newcomers are part of a wholesale overhaul of Mercedes-Benz's wagon range in 2015 that includes the replacement for the mid-sized GLK SUV and the new GLA Shooting Brake.There is no talk yet of prices, but the GLE Coupe is certain to have a starting price beyond $100,000 when it arrives here in the third quarter of this year.A new group of 6 Series "halo" cars took the spotlight for BMW in Detroit as the German company celebrated its fourth straight year of sales growth with more than two million deliveries in 2014.There are only minor changes to the M6, 650i coupe and Gran Coupe but global marketing boss Ian Roberston says the trio will be part of a global focus on growth."These are clearly the sportiest and most luxurious 6-Series vehicle we have ever built. We are launching a lot of new products again," he says.