Every day last week featured news of a performance car, beginning with the Audi S5 Cabriolet I drove recently and ending with the Ford Focus RS I sampled at Zwartkops Raceway.
Contrary to what you might think, the Audi S5 Cabriolet is powered, not by a thundering 4.2-litre V8, but rather a supercharged 3.0-litre V6, that churns out 245 kW and 440 Nm of torque. In the styling department, the S5 Cab sets itself apart from the rest of the range with chrome mirror caps, radiator grille surround, window surrounds and of course the quad-exhausts exiting the rear bumper. Inside, Audi’s cabin wraps you in alcantara and leather combination seat trim. The signs are subtle, but between the decorative carbon inlays, sports seats, ‘S’ badges on the aluminium door sill inlays and multi-function steering wheel, you know you’re in one of their range toppers. Like all open-top Audi models, the new S5 Cabriolet has a classic fabric top. The lightweight soft top opens in 15 seconds – and closes in 17 seconds at the touch of a button. Best enjoyed with the roof down, the S5 begins to speak to you as the supercharged V6 spins past 4 000 r/min – even more enjoyable if you can find a cliff-face to amplify and bounce the exhaust note off. The S tronic paddle shifters are always at your finger tips and offer up seamless changes through the 7-speed transmission. It’s not all picture perfect though, as the brakes get lazy when driven in ‘S’ fashion, the suspension is uncompromising at times and pricing starts at R722 000. It does look beautiful though.
The next performance car to make headlines was the mighty Nissan GT-R. In an effort to keep the car ‘fresh’, Nissan are preparing to release a number of subtle updates, the first images of which hit the Internet last week. As a result, we know the exterior now boasts a restyled front bumper with LED running lights and a new rear diffuser. These changes are said to help drop the GT-R’s drag coefficient from 0.272 to 0.268, while also improving rear downforce by 10%. The latest GT-R will also benefit from a new set of Rays forged aluminium wheels, which reportedly save a total of 12 kgs, while two new paint colours are available, ‘Aurora Flare Blue Pearl’ and an updated black colour known as ‘Nebula Opal Black’.
I first told you about the BMW M3 GTS back in May, but in case you missed it, here’s a refresher: 70 kgs lighter than the standard M3 at 1 530 kg; 331 kW and 440 Nm; M-DCT 7-speed transmission; sports suspension 16 mm lower at the front and 12 mm at the rear; zero to 100 km/h sprint of 4.4 seconds; and a top speed of 305 km/h. Now this is all good and well on paper, but the litmus test – if you excuse the pun – is an official lap time of one of the world’s toughest race tracks, the 20.83 km long Nurburgring Nordschleife. Proving that its go-faster looks aren’t just for show, the BMW M3 GTS managed a lap time of 7 minutes 48 seconds – 17 seconds faster than the standard BMW M3 and 2 seconds faster than the previous generation M3 CSL. Not bad, when you consider a Porsche 911 GT3 RS and Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano managed a lap just 1 second faster. There is a downside though. The GTS comes with a hefty price tag (almost three times that of a standard M3) and it won’t be available in South Africa.
Finally, what’s bright green, has a gloss black front air dam and splitter, rear diffuser and dominant rear spoiler? No, not a Porsche GT3 RS, but a performance car almost as rare in South Africa, the Ford Focus RS. It’s taken Ford South Africa the good part of a year to bring the car to SA. The reason is because the car has been so well received in the UK, one of Ford’s top markets, that they’ve battled to find 60 cars to send our way. However, they have arrived and I headed to Zwartkops Raceway just outside Pretoria to sample the car. For those that don’t know, the Focus RS is a halo car within the Ford stable and rightly so, with 224 kW and 440 Nm in a hatchback. On the racetrack, it quickly became evident that the RS is a very good car. You can read more here about what’s gone into developing the world’s most powerful front-wheel drive car, as well as my driving impressions from a lap around Zwartkops Raceway.
As you’re reading this I’m in Mozambique with Kia, for the launch of the new Sportage and in the SACarFan garages at the moment are a Chevrolet Spark and limited edition Suzuki Swift Sport. Have a good week, mine’s already a busy one.
