Road Strikers

SPECIFICATIONS: year: 2014 make: Jaguar Model: C-X75 Engine: inline-4 Horsepower @ RPM: 500 Displacement: 1.6 L 0-60 time: 3 sec. Top Speed: 200 mph Jaguar unveiled the C-X75 Concept car at the 2010 Paris Auto Show to show everyone that they had plenty of potential left to uncover as an automaker. And, although the concept was a huge success and served its purpose, Jaguar still needed to prove that this potential prevailed in more than just a design study. Now, under Tata’s influential arm, Jaguar is looking into building "a more accessible variation of the C-X75 concept" and will do so sometime between 2013 and 2015 with 250 units of the crazy cool production version of the C-X75. The production model will be sport-based and will be built in conjunction with the Williams F1 team. “We were always determined that the Jaguar C-X75 would be as striking on the road as it was in concept form,” said Ian Callum, Director of Design, Jaguar Cars. “This will be t...

AeroMax? Looks like an Aero 8 with a roof to me Yup, that’s exactly what it is. They’ve used their traditional ash frame for the bodywork and extended it to include the roof. The craftsmanship inside is gorgeous with a beautifully curved wooden central spine running from windscreen to boot floor. Like the Aero 8 the bodywork is made of aluminium and that’s also used in the roof. There are some other differences too. While the Aero 8 has got a 325bhp BMW engine (as had the prototype we drove), the engine in the new model’s has been boosted to 380bhp so performance will improve too. And then there’s the price tag… How much is it going to cost then? The AeroMax will set you back – deep breath - £110,000. That’s a princely £47,500 more than the roadster. It puts Morgan firmly into Ferrari, Aston Martin and Porsche 911 Turbo territory but company boss Charles Morgan claims it’s a logical progression. They’re only planni...

Back again, like Sylvester Stallone churning out another ill-advised boxing movie, it’s South Korea’s own square-jawed bruiser: the SsangYong Rexton W. After a nine-month sales hiatus in 2014 owing to the absence of an EU5 emissions-compliant engine, the seven-seat SUV has retuned. Facelifted lights and grilles sharpen the looks, it uses a new in-house engine, and still purports to offer all the utility of a Toyota Land Cruiser and the space of a Mercedes GL, for not much more than twenty grand. The Rexton W is a quintessential ‘lot of car for the money’ definition. But does cheap also equal cheerful? How much SsangYong Rexton W do I get for my money in 2014? The range starts at £21,995 (which gets you seven seats, all-wheel drive with locking differentials, and 265lb ft of grunt from the new 2.0-litre turbodiesel engine). If you need to conquer the Outback on a shoestring, this is one hell of a candidate. And what about this posher-looking test car? W...

‘Designed in the USA, built in Italy’ is perhaps not the most reassuring way Jeep could have introduced the new Renegade. This small SUV – and it is an SUV in the literal Sport Utility Vehicle sense, rather than some kind of new-fangled crossover – is the first fully cross-Atlantic product of the Fiat-Chrysler conglomeration. It is also the forthcoming Fiat 500X in the macho (ish) equivalent of drag, but that’s not to say it doesn’t offer chin-strokingly capable off-road potential. Particularly in this range-topping Trailhawk specification. Trailhawk? Sounds like some kind of country music prog rock horror show – what gives? Think the Panda 4x4 is a tenacious little terrier off-road? The Renegade Trailhawk takes small cars – ok, so not that small – into much more challenging territory, and comes back covered in mud and screaming for more. Sized (and probably priced) to take on Mini’s Countryman and the Skoda Yeti, if you ac...

With its faux-rally flared wheelarches, stubby nose complete with diamond-studded ‘Mount Fuji’ nose and hatch-mounted spare wheel, this new fourth-generation Shogun may look pretty much the same as before. But three-quarters of it is new, apparently. Like the new Outlander , it arrives here next March, and comes as a stretched five-door or short wheelbase three-door, running one engine – Mitsubishi’s familiar 3.2-litre four-cylinder turbo diesel. An opportunity to hike prices? No. There’s the familiar Equippe, Warrior and Elegance derivatives, and Mitsubishi will also introduce a topdog Diamond model, complete with big 20inch alloys, a lot of chrome and a different front grille. Despite these wholesale changes, prices remain unchanged, ranging from £22,949 for the three door entry-level Equippe to £34,999 for the new five-door Diamond. Expect the aggressive-looking long-wheelbase Warrior – the car we drove – to take the bulk of UK sa...

Yet another FQ car from Mitsubishi - aren't these faux-rally cars a bit out of favour at the moment? True, but after ten minutes behind the wheel of the UK-only FQ360, you’ll wonder why. It's an absolute belter. Utterly driver-centric, unfeasibly fast, with incredible body control, excellent damping, and superb steering. To cap it all, it has four-doors-and-a-boot practicality. It may not be the flavour of the day, but there's no denying the Evo's supercar-slaying qualifications. Always the same with an Evo. What makes this one really special? Its sheer drivability, in a nutshell. While the majority of the FQ line-up major in frenetic redline acceleration, the 360's 4G63 2.0-litre engine has been retuned to deliver massive mid-range punch, without sacrificing any of its high-rev potency. A completely reprogrammed engine management system - three months of non-stop key-tapping by the boffins at Ralliart, Mitsubishi's go-even-faster department - as well as incl...

Ah yes, the Outlander, aka the C-Crosser and 4007… Yes indeed. Mitsubishi’s new Outlander, which arrives in the UK next March, is the perfect example of the interwoven intricacies of the current automotive market. It’s a soft-roader built on a platform jointly developed by Mitsubishi and DaimlerChrysler, powered by a Volkswagen-sourced diesel engine and a petrol unit co-developed with Hyundai, and both PSA Citroen and Peugeot will rebadge the Outlander to create their own versions, the C-Crosser and 4007. Expect a start price around the £19,500 mark for the entry-level Equippe, rising to around £25,000 for the top Elegance model. It’s a hell of a lot better looking compared to the outgoing model. True, the Outlander’s predecessor was the wallflower at the soft-roader ball, but the rakish and more aggressive new model should turn more heads. Mitsubishi is hoping for around 5600 sales in the first 12 months – around 10% of the UK’s mi...