Vicarious | Fall 2020 Issue

Fall 2020

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See pages 116-117

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Discovered The Isle of Man TT

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Power Brokers

Mini Runs Deep Charlie Cooper

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EV Avenue

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editor In Chief “Winning is one thing, but out of losing I always learned more” – Niki Lauda

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t is an absolute fact that when we lose, the opportunity for learning is in many ways greater than when we win. It seems counterintuitive to say, “Go out and lose, it’s better for you” in an automotive culture that is so driven, and rightly so, to win. Of course, the goal is never to fail, it should always be to succeed. But history proves those who are brave enough to take their best shot and fail have a unique opportunity to learn and get it right the next time. The key is not to quit.

As someone who enjoys racing, I am excited that the F1 season has started up again. It would have been easy to shut it down for the year, close up the paddock and send everyone home until 2021. But the pressure to succeed in what is arguably racing’s highest platform is intense and there were iconic companies such as Williams, McLaren and Aston Martin who needed to race in order to thrive and maybe even survive. So, F1 took a chance and designed a new race schedule focussed on the first The global automotive industry is under tremendous eight races of 2020. Teams race on circuits with pressure to win, especially in this new Covid-19 limited people in attendance, remain in Europe where reality we currently find ourselves in. Mergers and it is easy to drive from country to country and trust the talk of more to come is constant. Some of the it succeeds. Could it fail? Of course. But the bigger biggest companies with over a century of success and failures are looking to former adversaries for fail would be to not try, so they are taking as many renewed vision and strength. Who would have precautions as possible to make it safe for all and will thought that FCA (Fiat Chrysler Automobiles) compete once again at the highest level. and Groupe PSA (Peugeot, Citroën, DS, Opel and At ViCARious, we are also not afraid to try new Vauxhall) would come together and form the new things, but if it doesn’t go the way we plan, we don’t global brand Stellantis? But they did, and it creates fear failure and will continue to move forward one of the largest automotive companies in history. with the goal of long term success. In that light, we And then there is Tesla, the outlier in the global auto welcome you to the next chapter of our magazine and - motive marketplace whose valuation is currently website! You may notice a newly styled logo, several rated higher than that of Ford, General Motors and new storylines and writers contributing to our magaFCA combined. For such a new company to achieve zine. As well, go online to our newly updated website this level of success so quickly, you know there had www.vicariousmag.com and the same is true. We are to be many disappointments along the way and will probably continue to be for years to come. But do you growing, taking chances, putting ourselves out there think the brains behind Tesla fear failure? I am sure and striving to succeed. We might fail in some areas they don’t enjoy it, but from an outsider’s perspective, and that’s ok because we will learn from it and keep I would say they don’t appear to be overly concerned. coming back for more. It’s who we are, and we are glad To get it right, it has to go wrong first. you have chosen to join us on our new adventure!

Jeff Voth Editor in Chief | ViCARious jvoth@vicariousmag.com

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editor at large “One’s destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things.”

– Henry Miller

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t’s a bright, warm and beautiful afternoon. Just the kind of weather you’d expect on the 98th day of March, but the vibe is definitely a touch chilly. Nobody is quite sure how to interact with one another, or even if we should.

There are protections in place like physical distancing pucks on the ground, hand wash stations in high traffic areas, change areas and picnic tables offer limited seating but everyone here, staff included, is smiling whether behind helmets or masks.

I was supposed to be headed towards Newfoundland, Labrador, P.E.I. and, with some luck, the French overseas collectivity of St. Pierre and Miquelon.

Obviously, those plans have been stymied. And while travel seems to have relegated itself into the realm of dreams, it really hasn’t. Things need not be nearly as depressing as they may feel. Now is the time for us to go out and explore our homeland.

Positioned roughly three metres behind my cousin, I’m dodging dust, ruts, rocks and downed trees. I’m chasing him and our instructor through some pretty tight single track on a Honda CRF250F. The bike is just slender enough to squeeze through everywhere it’s pointed and thankfully, so am I. I catch a bit of air through a section of whoops, ride out a small wheelie or two here and there and manage to keep the bike shiny side up.

The cities, counties, provinces, territories, and this country that we all call home offer a bevy of adventurous options that most of us have neglected in favour of jet-setting somewhere, anywhere else.

It’s easy to take local things for granted when the world is your oyster -- the Elora Gorge will always be there; we’ll visit next year! -- but now is the time to change that.

I ventured outside of my Covid-19 containment unit to explore an area about an hour from Toronto.

Ontario is slowly opening and I’ve been itching to gain a little of the sanity that can only be afforded by doing (slightly) dangerous things on two-wheels, so I’m swinging a leg over a dirt bike for the first time in a few years. Trail Tours and the Ganaraska Forest it calls home recently reopened to the public and coming here is the best decision I’ve made in months.

Matt Neundorf Editor at Large | ViCARious

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Things are far from what I’d consider normal -- there will be no post ride hangouts, handshakes, hugs or high-fives -- but sunlight is flickering through the trees we’re splitting, the smells of spring are mingling with burnt fuels and my arms are starting to pump.

It’s absolute bliss.

If motorcycles aren’t your thing, there are still plenty of options. A walk in the park, hiking through a nearby trail, blowing the dust off that mountain bike eating up garage space or even simply going for a drive. Get out there, explore and support your local communities. Travel doesn’t need to be international to be meaningful. This may not be the vaccine we need but it does provide some vital therapy.

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Contents Winning isn’t the only thing Editor In Chief

Our Team 6

One’s destination is never a place Editor at Large

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Contributors

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THE ISLE OF MAN TT Discovered

16

Roadside CHIC Featured Hotels

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Crossing The Continent Discovered

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Reinventing the (Steering) Wheel Special Feature

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OFF THE BEATEN TRACK WITH GIULIA Discovered

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2021 Porsche 911 Turbo S Featured Car

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Mini runs deep in the family Power Brokers | Charlie Cooper

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1967 BULTACO TSS200 Featured Motorcycle

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2021 Porsche Cayenne GTS Coupé Road Test

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2020 Audi Q7 First Drive

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German Power Wagons Game Changers

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The Volvo S60 T8 eAWD Polestar EV Avenue

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West Coast Editor Dan Heyman dheyman@vicariousmag.com Editor at Large Matthew Neundorf mneundorf@vicariousmag.com EV Editor at large Steven Bochenek sbochenek@vicariousmag.com Contributors Dan Heyman John Walker Matthew Guy Matthew Neundorf Noah Joseph Steven Bochenek

Universal Translator Featured Region

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Alpinestars tech-air 5 airbag system Gear Up!

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Final Thoughts Exit Lane

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Editor in Chief Jeff Voth jvoth@vicariousmag.com

Emily Atkins Peter Bleakney Design & Layout Jennifer Elia Publisher Vicarious 16 Heritage Court St. Catharines, ON Canada L2S 3H9 Advertising Inquiries advertising@vicariousmag.com

Drive Toward a Cure for Parkinson’s Disease

Make Every Mile Count

Join our upcoming all-inclusive “Getaway” and “Adventure” events to support Parkinson’s Disease, take part in local club events to support the cause, or start your own fundraising event - ask how!

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for Parkinson’s Disease research and patient care. We are inspired by the friendship found within the automotive culture and since 2016 have harnessed the enthusiast community to support those living with Parkinson’s through driving-focused lifestyle programs and events.

Fostering the true spirit of cars and camaraderie, we’re engaging enthusiasts and industry professionals to grow our support for the Michael J. Fox Foundation and the Parkinson’s Institute and Clinical Center. In 2019 we also aligned with the Parkinson’s Foundation and several regional Centers of Excellence to support patients directly.

Whether through our Special Assistance Fund - which supports ongoing patient care needs during catastrophic times - contributing directly to grassroots Parkinson’s groups, or providing funds to the organizations that perform the research so desperately needed to find a cure, our mission is one of unity: to help those that need it most.

Visit drivetowardacure.org to register for events, donate, or learn more about why we do what we do. We’re in this to win this - join us and like-minded enthusiasts, support the cause, and have some good fun along the way!

Drive Toward a Cure is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization.

News, event registrations, and donations at

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Contributors Dan Heyman Years of magazine reading, movie watching (Gone in 60 Seconds ftw!) and Hot Wheels collecting has given Vancouver, BC native Dan Heyman what some would say is an unhealthy obsession with all things motorcar. His dream drive? A 1971 Porsche 917K racer on Circuit de La Sarthe in Le Mans, France.

Dan is especially passionate about his photography, having won the published photo of the year award from the Automobile Journalists Association of Canada (AJAC) where he serves on the board of directors.

Steven Bochenek Steven Bochenek (pronounced b-KEN-uk) has written professionally since 1989, although the first 15 years of his career were spent in marketing agencies. In 2007, he started writing automotive reviews and travel features to create content for Daily XY, an online guys’ magazine he edited.

In 2016 Steven completed a Master’s of Arts in Interdisciplinary Studies (whatever that is) through the Royal Roads University online program. His interests include reading, playing piano and writing about himself in the third person.

Noah Joseph The editor of IsraelAutoTech.com, former editor-in-chief of CarBuzz, and long-time foreign correspondent for Autoblog, Noah’s work has appeared in such publications as Car and Driver, Road & Track, The New York Times, and right here in ViCARious.

He earned his first motor vehicle license as a kid skippering motorboats on Lake Champlain, and in the decades since has learned to pilot everything from supercars and motorcycles to bulldozers and excavators. Born and raised in Montreal, Noah lives in Jerusalem with his wife and two kids.

Matthew Guy Living in rural Nova Scotia, Matthew Guy has immersed himself in car culture for over 30 years and relishes the thought of a good road trip. A certified gearhead, he enjoys coming up with and then writing about long distance drives few others in their right mind would consider attempting.

Whether it’s wheeling a Land Rover across the deserts of western Utah, climbing over the red rocks of Nevada in a Ram Power Wagon, or bidding on collector cars at the Barrett-Jackson auction in Arizona, Matthew is never far from something with four wheels and an engine.

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There’s no Road to Happiness Happiness is the Road Road trips with Canossa Events North America

Grand Tour California Fall Rallye New England Rally of Enchantment www.canossa.com

From Autumn 2020

discovered

THE ISLE OF MAN TT Where Asphalt and Adrenaline ConnecT

Story & Photography

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I

Matt Neundorf

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leep was elusive on the Steam Packet Ferry. Even in the premium cabin where I had billowy cushions and a reclining seat. The Sandman had remained ashore, for a number of reasons, apparently. One of which was because I was still soaked to the core from our hours long wait to board in Belfast harbour. I also had concerns about how securely I had tethered my bike, a fittingly-hued emerald green Yamaha XJR 1300, in the belly of this beast below. But mostly it was because I knew, with every wave of the Irish Sea it pounded through overnight, this boat was bringing me closer and closer to Mecca.

Isle of Man TT. Goosebumps still sprout when I write those words. A dot on a map shouldn’t hold such power but it has forever resided in a nook of my brain reserved for things such as dragons, Maple Leaf Stanley Cups and air-cooled Porsche ownership: mythical concepts I won’t likely experience any time soon. And yet here I am, damp, tired, cramped and worried, inching ever closer.

Ever since I’d first swung a leg over a bike of my own, I’ve dreamed of riding a lap around the famed 60.72 km long Snaefell Mountain Course.

For over a century, a 572 km2 patch of moss and fog stationed between England and Northern Ireland has played host to what’s widely regarded as the Not at race speed, mind you. I’ve spent enough hours most dangerous motorcycle race in the world; The watching dash-cam videos, documentaries and

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live coverage of the Manx madness to know I have neither the stones nor the talent to pull that off.

the grip through Conker Fields, the sunlight flits through the branches and leaves creating a zebra Any lingering fatigue fades the instant spark fires print along the road. It’s pretty from the sidelines fuel as I and hundreds of like-minded mates spill but it’s playing havoc on my retinas. Like a nightclub from the ferry onto the streets of Douglas. The sun strobe, it turns this part of track into a flip-book. is shining, and the town is absolutely buzzing. You’d On race day, Peter Hickman, the current course think a vessel unloading this lot of bikes would raise record holder, will blast through here pivoting his an eyebrow or two, but we don’t even register. It’s as race-prepped BMW on one wheel around a cresting if cars never existed here. There are bikes, bikers and left hander. future riders of all kinds, everywhere.

Coming out of the Ramsey Hairpin, the A18, better The run from the grandstand in Douglas, along the known as Snaefell Mountain Road, is 15 miles of absoA2 has my adrenaline peeking already. The road is wider and smoother than I expect, and I’m building lute freedom and terror. With no speed limit and no some conservative speed. The first major kink comes oncoming traffic, the “run to the pub at Creg-ny-Baa” at Bray Hill. The pros will hit speeds of 180 mph at is a stretch of asphalt worthy of its legend; it ranks the bottom of this dip. My speedo is showing about high in National Geographic’s top-ten of Driver’s a third of that pace and with the hedgerows and Drives. Climbing towards the top of Snaefell, it seems houses closing in on either side, I’m feeling that’s we’ve entered a different world. Packs of riders are quick enough. everywhere. Some, like us, are out for a spirited yet Not only has the road’s width seemingly contracted touristy ride while others clearly have podiums in the but its pavement tells the tale of daily commutes and back of their minds. We pass some and are passed Irish Sea weather patterns. It wrinkles, undulates by others. The view is expansive and flanked by an and crowns in all the wrong places. Especially if your endless blanket of green. Even at sane pacing, the mission is speed. ride can feel intense. The road climbs with a steady I simply can’t fathom the levels of trust and commit- incline, so I’m constantly on throttle and with the ment the competitors rely on for a fast lap. Twisting increasing elevation I can feel the temperature drop.

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Somewhere between Mountain Mile and Stonebreakers Hut, fog, wind and rain appear out of nowhere. The mountain is wearing a cloud like a crown, apparently. Everybody’s pace slows but there’s still plenty of passing going on. Windy Corner is aptly named. I lean my bike to fight the gale and as quick as it appeared, to give a shove, it’s gone and dry conditions are ahead.

Barrelling down the straight from Kate’s Cottage I see the speedo hit triple digits. While that is no Manx record, “running the ton” for a stretch of the TT is certainly something I’ll cherish forever. Of course, with a tight right-hander sending us back towards Douglas approaching, I quickly file the memory for safe keeping, get on the binders and lean to the right.

After crossing the finish line my group and I pull over to chat, celebrate and down a well-deserved pint. The

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pits are wide open, and the pros mingle with fans as if they’re just other riders in town for the spectacle, like everyone else.

Over the next seven days, the racing is nothing short of incredible. All of those YouTube videos, although butt-puckering, fail to capture exactly what it’s like.

The rush of having man and machine blur by you in some arcane form of controlled chaos will endlessly smack gobs, every time. It’s nuts, crazy, brilliant and beautiful.

I’d like to tell you that the best thing about being on the Isle of Man wasn’t the racing.

That riding its arsenal of roads, bathing in its scenery, getting to know its people and immersing in its culture were the true standouts. But I’d be lying.

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You see, everything about this place -- those roads, the scenery, the culture and its people -- have been shaped and honed by racing. After over 110 years of petrol-powered evolution, the island and its people are all so brilliant because the magnificence that is road racing is so interwoven into everything Manx.

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Featured Hotels

Roadside CHIC Story & Photography

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Jeff Voth

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hat makes for a great adventure is equal parts about the drive or ride and where you end up.

I am the first to admit the call of the open road is a powerful tonic and I don’t necessarily need to have a plan in place to know what I am looking for- freedom! But, at the end of the day and with a little fore-

thought, I might find myself basking in the perfect

Black Rock Oceanfront Resort

extravagance to best the standards of most luxury hotels and resorts on the island.

It feels like the resort has been in this location for as long as the surrounding old growth forest. Black Rock Oceanfront Resort masterfully incorporates natural elements into the design along with the latest technology for a totally unique coastal island stay.

mix of release from the stresses of life and respite for my body and soul. Here are some of my favourite one-of-a-kind hotels and resorts for the next time you need to escape.

Currents restaurant serves artisanal West Coast cuisine. Fresh island ingredients highlight locallysourced salmon, shellfish and BC’s finest beef and farm fresh produce. The wine list is extensive, so too is the list of local beer. Big Beach Bar & Lounge A total of 132 luxurious suites; including studio, 1 offers casual fare and perfect sunset views or and 2 bedroom and Trail Cabin suites, are situated to watch the waves roll in during storm season. high above the Pacific Ocean. The view outward After dinner, spa appointments await at the onsite is breathtaking. Inwardly, accommodations offer Drift Spa. www.blackrockresort.com a contemporary feel while still featuring enough 26

Rival Hotel Opened on September 1, 2003, the Rival Hotel is a “dream come true” for Swedish music composer turned entrepreneur Goran Bror “Benny” Andersson.

You will recognize him mostly for his work as part of the Swedish mega music group ABBA. Mama Mia, this is one amazingly sophisticated, yet splendidly simple and elegant 99-room hotel.

Originally designed as a cinema in 1937, painstaking reconstruction crafted the seven-storey structure to allow for seamless flow between bars, bistro, entrance hall and the main lounge.

Filled to capacity on a nightly basis with the hip and elite of Stockholm, the Rival Hotel is as much an entertainment destination today as it was nearly eight decades ago. Dining takes place in the Rivals Bistro, the setting for a spectacular buffet breakfast, lunch or dinner. Right next door, caffeine and croissants flow freely at Café Rival. Tables are scarce throughout the day as customers share their stories in the tight, friendly confines of this excellent coffee bar. www.rival.se Mandarin Oriental Munich The renowned Mandarin Oriental Munich is conveniently located in the “Old Town” district. A perennial favorite of celebrities and dignitaries, it first opened in 1880 as the Johann Kilian Stützel’s Ballhaus.

Supremely luxurious rooms and suites define the interior space of the hotel, while a massive grand staircase graces the main lobby. Wide hallways lead to rooms featuring down-filled king-size beds, oversized marble baths and the latest tech. Grand views of Munich’s majestic spires are visible through large windows overlooking the city.

Museums, the Opera house and the finest shops in town are all within easy walking distance of the hotel. The famous Hofbräuhaus and Glockenspiel at Marienplatz are mere steps away. Those seeking a luxurious dinner need look no further than Matsuhisa Munich. Casual fare is served at The Lounge or Mediterranean-style on the heated rooftop pool from May to October. www.mandarinoriental.com/munich/altstadt/ luxury-hotel 27

Rosewood Castiglion Del Bosco Tuscany is renowned as one of the world’s exceptional wine-growing terroirs, and is also one of the best places to drive a sports car on winding two-lane country roads. Be sure to get a convertible!

The 5,000 acre Rosewood Castiglion Del Bosco resides in the Val d’Orcia and encompasses old castle ruins, an ancient church and the original village.

Suites and villas offer the absolute best in luxury accommodations. Leisure activities involve attending classes at the Osteria La Canonica Cooking School, truffle hunting, horseback riding, golf at The Club at Castiglion del Bosco, a private course and more.

Dining options include Ristorante Campo del Drago serving classic Italian cuisine, the Tuscan trattoria ambience at Osteria La Canonica and CdBar for terrace drinks. The Spa at Rosewood Castiglion Del Bosco features a full menu of services and soothing ambience. Relax, you’re in Tuscany and life is good. www.rosewoodhotels.com/en/castiglion-del-bosco Fogo Island Inn If the thought of enjoying ice in your morning breakfast coffee alongside warm French toast dripping with maple syrup sounds appealing, Fogo Island Inn is for you. The ice I am referring to will be several kilometres out in the ocean as you watch icebergs float lazily past from April to June. It is a sight to behold.

Situated on what the Flat Earth Society considers to be one of the four corners of the earth, Fogo Island Inn is both wild and tame at the same time. The island itself highlights spectacular geology, birds including puffins, harlequin ducks, white winged scoters and much more, plus breaching whale pods in the summer.

A total of 29 guest rooms and suites offer spacious surroundings, relaxed colour schemes, exceptional amenities and handcrafted touches throughout. The dining room highlights floor to ceiling windows with views stretching to infinity. An art gallery, 37-seat cinema, soaking in the hot tub and stargazing are just a few of the ways to enjoy this uniquely Canadian locale. www.fogoislandinn.ca 28

Blanket Bay Lake Wakatipu is located inland on the South Island of New Zealand. It is on this lake, and in a setting famously portrayed as Lothlorien in the Lord of The Rings movie trilogy, that Blanket Bay reigns as one of New Zealand’s proudest and most celebrated lodges.

An experience more so than just a lodge of imminent beauty, there are a host of exclusive activities to choose from when staying at this resort property. Heli-skiing, fly and Heli-fishing, horseback riding, following the wine trail, golf and discovering Milford Sound during a 4-hour helicopter ride are just some of the adventures guests can take advantage of.

Lodge rooms offer spacious accommodations built with schist stone and old steamer wharf timber beams. Four separate chalet suites offer exclusive views of the lake. Dining takes place in the main lodge; the nightly five-course meal can, of course, be paired with the area’s renowned Pinot Noir wines. www.blanketbay.com Design Hotel Navis Croatia is one of those countries that can easily slip under the radar when considering must-see places to visit around the globe. It should instead be right at the top of your list as it claims some of the most magnificent scenery in Europe, exquisite beaches, incredible architecture and beautifully paved highways and sideroads to get lost in and enjoy every moment.

Design Hotel Navis is located in the traditional seaside town of Opatija, a popular summer resort and winter getaway destination. A total of 40 superior suites and rooms all look outwards to the sea. Morning coffee, or an evening glass of wine under the stars, is best served on your private terrace with views of the Kvarner archipelago.

The hotel restaurant highlights dark walls, modern artwork, fisherman’s lights and floor-to-ceiling windows. Fish is a specialty given the location; with Adriatic tuna is a favourite. The spa offers massage, a Finnish sauna and Turkish bath, as well as an indoor pool with unobstructed views of the sun and sea. www.hotel-navis.hr 29

DISCOVERED

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Crossing The Continent Sweden To Portugal By Way Of Britain

Story & Photography

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Dan Heyman 31

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t must have been quite a sight; over a dozen brandnew Jaguar F-TYPE coupes and convertibles, rolling slowly (but not especially quietly, as we’ll see in a minute) into the tiny Portuguese hamlet of Almendra, about 200 km east of the bustling port city of, well, Porto. So much so that no sooner had we parked in the town square, locals – both young and old – were on us like sugar on a Pastéis de Nata, one of the most popular deserts in the long, skinny Mediterranean country. It was roughly the midpoint of an epic journey through ice, snow, fog, rain and even some sun, on roads that one can only dream of, at the wheel of the best sports cars Jaguar currently produces – or, indeed, is soon to produce.

We start our cross-continental European journey way north of Almendra, about 60 miles – or just under 100 km – south of the Arctic Circle in a little town called Arjeplog in Scandinavia’s most populous country, Sweden.

Thing is: unless you have a private jet, Arjeplog can be tough to get to and if you’re flying from the west coast of Canada as I was, getting there often necessitates an extended stopover in Sweden’s capital city of Stockholm.

modern-looking as a capital whose country spawned Ikea should look. Massive boulevards are flanked by glassy buildings or concrete edifices finished in bright colours; it seems that when you only get a few precious hours of daylight in the winter, you want your buildings to shine as brightly as possible when they have a chance.

It also pays to remember that Stockholm is kind of a Silicon Valley-lite in Europe, hence the modern glass buildings. Video game giant Electronic Arts’ DICE studios are there, as is Ericsson of Sony-Ericsson fame so you really do get a sense that you’re walking Which is no bad thing, really, because even in the dead through a properly modern town as you amble of winter, Stockholm is a great place to visit and as down Götgatan street in the town’s busy Hornstull 32

district, surrounded by all manner of nightlife, from speakeasy-style joints, to old-fashioned British pubs, to more modern establishments. Me? Winter or no, I decided to grab a pint served right out of a copper still at the open-air portion of the Ljunggren restaurant.

It was the right call.

Along with the requisite bars and restaurants, Götgatan is also a shopping street, but not of the Gucci-Louis Vuitton-Coach style -- that’s reserved for a different part of town. Here, you’ll find somewhat more accessible stuff including a sporting goods store that may as well have “SportChek” written on its marquee, so similar was the style to the popular Canadian chain of sports superstores. You can pick up long underwear and hockey gear, but I settled on a hoody finished in the mint green and white of Stockholm’s Hammarsby IF Södermalm football team, loosely translated as “Hammertown Seacity Sports Club”. Righty-o.

Beer finished, fanwear purchased and movie star Stellan Skarsgård’s home visited (the Chernobyl/ Good Will Hunting/Ronin star’s face also greets you upon arrival at Stockholm’s Arlanda airport), it was time to return to the Clarion Hotel for an early bedtime, as the Arctic Circle awaited.

So back to Arjeplog.

It’s a little town, yes, but one that sees a constant flow of temporary workers not because it’s a big logging area, not because there are oil fields nearby or because it’s a massive tourist town but because it sits in a region peppered with lakes that freeze for a large portion of the year. That makes them the perfect winter testing grounds for almost every European auto manufacturer, and some others as well.

It’s also home to the Jaguar Ice Academy, a multi-day crash course on how not to crash while driving on ice. That being said: that’s a bit misleading because participants are encouraged by the instructors (many of them former racers as well as current Jaguar test drivers) to spin the vehicles on-hand -- the RWD F-TYPE Coupe and AWD F-PACE SUV -- because if you’re going to learn how to save a spin, you first need to get in one and what better place to do it than on an obstacle-free ice racing course carved out of the Arctic Circle? Amirite?

I say “obstacle free” but that’s not entirely true; there are plentiful sticks sprouting from the snowbanks that demarcate the track boundaries and they were so often the victims of errant slides and spins that it 33

almost became a running joke among the group. If you weren’t “taking some stick”, as it became known, you weren’t going hard enough.

Essentially, the Ice Academy is a set of modules that teach how to control vehicles in many different slippery situations.

Interestingly, it wasn’t just the high-speed open course that proved to be the most challenging – although we’ll hear more about that exercise in a minute.

find another instance where piloting a vehicle at 20 km/h can be this thrilling, I can tell you that.

Participants are broken down into two groups, each visiting the various modules in a different order.

If you’re lucky – as we were – you’ll start slow and then move on to the faster stuff. It’s a great way to progress through the course.

From the low-speed handling course we moved on to a larger course, but remained behind the wheel of the F-PACE. While the previous module occurred at low-speed, much of what you learn there – weight Rather it was a very low-speed exercise that proved transfer, when to apply throttle, when to apply to be one of the toughest, as the goal is to try and keep braking (or better yet, when not to) – all works the an F-PACE sliding around an entire course, though same at faster speeds; you just have to react more a short one. That is not easy to do even at 20 km/h quickly. It’s like studying math: you establish a but it’s a great way to both demonstrate what AWD baseline knowledge set, and stat layering variables does – how it shuffles power from wheel to wheel, on to it. In this case, the main variable is speed but for example – but also to teach you what to do when also a wider track that requires you to adjust your things start going a little, well, sideways. It’s hard to vision parameters, vision being one of the most

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important elements of track work. Even on snow and while moving sideways, where you look is most likely where you’re going to end up.

For its part, the F-PACE was up to the challenge (aided by metal-studded tires), allowing for long, lairy drifts and with enough steering and throttle response to really be driven at speed on the track. It felt surprisingly at home in this environment, even though we were piloting the “S” version of the F-PACE, which sits a rung below the all-out performance SVR version. Still good for 380 hp and 332 lb-ft of torque, though, which is more than enough to get the tail out ‘round here.

If you want to really get the tail out, though, then you need rear-wheel-drive and, preferably, a nice big engine slung out ahead of you. The Ice Academy provides that as well in the form of the 2020 Jaguar F-TYPE R-Dynamic Coupe (badged “P380” on the European-market cars seen here), and this is where everything really goes bonkers.

While throttle inputs do a lot to help you around turns in the AWD F-PACE, the effect they have on the RWD F-TYPE is magnified manifold. In these conditions, even a slight dab of the throttle can send the rear end ‘round depending on your steering angle, so you are always concentrating, always focused on precision, precision, precision. Luckily, participants get to cut their teeth on a slalom and slightly smaller course before being let loose on this one, in order to get accustomed to the new powertrain.

Which is all great, but becomes a mite tougher when you look at the clock reading 4:15 PM, and it’s absolutely, 100 per cent, pitch black outside. This is the Arctic Circle in January, remember, and this is just

how it is. Driving flat-out on-track is one thing, but doing so with just your bone-stock LED headlights to guide you (no rally lights here, though many cars you’ll see on the roads around Arjeplog have them) is a whole other ballgame. On top of the darkness, there’s just something about the fact it’s so early in the day that just throws one off-kilter a little bit. Not to mention that were in right-hand-drive cars, which is just another layer added to the fun.

Get over the original trepidation, however, and this is some of the most fun you’ll have on a track, in any car, ever. All you have lining the tracks are snowbanks and if you end up in one, it’s really no big deal as there are plentiful Land Rover Discovery recovery 35

vehicles that will pull you out in no time, with little more than a bruised ego as punishment. So, you can let ‘er rip, pulling even wilder drift angles and faster cornering speeds.

Our mission? To start in Porto and take a drive about 550 km South to Lisbon, Portugal’s capital. And, as it happens, one of the shortest distances from North America to mainland Europe.

It reminds of those great in-car videos you used to watch of the World Rally Championship stages held at night in Sweden. Nothing to light the road ahead of you but the arc of your headlights, with the occasional flashbulb bursting (we had that, too, as Jaguar brought photographers along). All that was missing were the throngs of fans, so numerous that they aren’t behind the guardrails – they are the guardrails.

“But wait!” I hear you saying. “Porto to Lisbon is only about 320 km!” Well, that’s true – if all you do is stick to the E1 expressway and beeline it down there.

Anyway, that’s how I felt as I continued to push, push, push and push harder still, as the F-TYPE proved to be a very willing partner on this trek. You’d never think a low, sinewy, predatory-looking thing like the F-TYPE would work here, but lo and behold, it does and it’s almost happy doing so.

Not us, though. We were taking the scenic route because if not, we’d be missing some of the best driving roads you’ll ever see. And when you’re behind the wheel of the next evolution of that great F-TYPE Coupe that spirited us through the snowy wilds of northern Sweden (those were 2020 cars; our arrival in Portugal had us driving the new 2021 version in both coupe and convertible form), you’ll want to take the scenic route when the scenic route involves roads as sinewy, spirally and downright gorgeous of this.

More of that in a minute; first, the car.

Sound like fun? Well, the Jaguar Ice Academy is open to any and all comers – you don’t need to be a Jaguar or Land Rover owner to qualify; just a driver’s license, eagerness to improve your driving, and a little need for speed.

Changing Climes Travel south – waaay south -- of Arjeplog (no, we did not drive this bit, though the three flights we did have to take kind of made me wish we had) and you’ll eventually find yourself in the Northern Portuguese town of Porto, the next stop on our journey.

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For 2021, Jaguar widened the F-TYPE’s front clip and added enlarged headlamp lenses, a wider hood and new wheel types. Otherwise, not a whole lot changes stylistically -- which is a good thing, because the new F-TYPE maintains the classic proportions espoused by the original – long hood, short rear deck and one of the best taillight designs in the business. The unique styling has always been one of the F-TYPE’s calling cards and you don’t want to change that up too much.

Its other notable feature, of course, has been the sound it makes. Especially in V8 R form, the crackling exhaust and thumping V8 have always been noteworthy; how can a car with styling this taut and

The hairpins, though, were just the start of it as we proceeded to tackle the various “N” roads in Northern Portugal’s Villa Real and Porto districts.

Well, it always has, and the trend continues for “N222”; “N313”; “N108”; they don’t sound like 2021, except now the R makes 575 hp, a 25 hp jump much, but these roads offer some of the best over the 2020 model and the same power made by driving opportunities I’ve ever had. Mile after mile the current top-spec SVR version. No word yet on of undulating tarmac, sometimes with classic stone whether the new car will get a similar version, but one buildings on either side, sometimes with a sheer can only imagine the brute force that could deploy. drop, sometimes with huge open fields peppered While you can get the lower-spec F-TYPEs (there with orange groves – they are the kinds of roads are four- and six-cylinder models as well for 2021) that, as a North American, you can scarcely believe with RWD, the R comes only as AWD, which actually even exist. But here we were, with Jaguar’s finest at our fingertips and as a driving enthusiast, it’s hard to turned out to be a godsend. imagine a better place to be.

While I’ve always thought sun-bleached roads and buildings when it comes to Portugal, January is still Yes, even with the fog and rain – the latter of which January and our journey started out shrouded in fog eventually ceased, the former of which actually kind and with rain droplets streaming up our windscreen. of added to the experience, really. After all: when It had been doing so for a few days so the roads were you’re driving on roads you can hardly imagine, why slick, and when you’re attacking multiple off-camber not be surrounded by fog to make the dreamlike hairpin turns over, over and over again in conditions qualities of the scenario even more potent? Sure; sun like this with 575 hp at your disposal, you want all the and blue skies are nice, but where’s the adventure help you can get. in that? almost, well, delicate, sound so absolutely brutal?

So feral?

Then again: you’ll want a break or two in the fog just to be able to take in some of the truly awe-inspiring vistas here. The road is as bendy as it is because the topography is truly hilly and if you’re able to pull over – just for a minute – to take in one of the postcardperfect views of villages like Sarnadelo, Covêlo and Santa Marta along the route, you’ll be all the better for it.

However; if your intuition (or your Weather Network app) tells you that the weather Gods may provide you with one nice day and one nice day only during your trip, try and save it for a day – or afternoon, or even a lunch stop – at the Villa Galé Douro vineyards and Val de Moreira winery, on the border between the Vila Real and Viseu districts and just a few clicks off the N2 heading south to Lisbon. Enjoy lunch in a dining area so brightly lit by floor-to-ceiling windows that you may as well be on a patio, overlooking the gorgeous Douro River and surrounding farmland.

It’s a modern, yet serene place where you can enjoy a glass to be sure, but considering we were on a driving tour, it was the fantastic tapas lunch that we treated ourselves to, ripe with chorizo sausage, gorgeous home baked breads and sauces so rich in texture and flavour they could be a meal unto themselves. It was worth the detour off our route.

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Of course, once out of there, you’re still in the Portuguese boonies as it were, so more of those twisty b-roads are the order of the day and we wouldn’t have it any other way.

The F-TYPE has what some would say is the unenviable job of competing with the Porsche 911 and Boxster/ Cayman, the BMW M4 and – at a push – the Chevrolet Corvette. These are all tough competitors that have sharpened their game over the years, but the Jag brings to the table many traits that level it – or indeed, pull it above – some of the competition. The aural audaciousness of the exhaust note is one thing, but that’s a little on the novel side. After that, performance cars like these need to keep the driver involved and the F-TYPE does so by providing feel, some precise steering and although an auto ‘box is your only choice for the F-TYPE R, it’s a whip-cracker of a transmission that does well to keep up with the high-revving engine.

With all the right parts in place, these roads continue to provide the perfect tapestry on which to showcase the F-TYPE’s strengths. As the roads continue to flow from turn to turn, apex to apex, tunnel to tunnel and beyond, the F-TYPE just digs in and continues to spirit you forward on a razor’s edge, but with enough predictability that you have little trouble keeping it there. This car was made for these roads – you can tell.

Interestingly, if you want a less on-the-nose experience, the four-cylinder F-TYPE is happy to oblige. If the F-TYPE R is the heavy hitter, prepped for battle against the 911, then the four-cylinder turbopowered P300 model has the also four-cylinder turbo-powered Porsche 718 Boxster/Cayman in its sights. It’s a lighter vehicle thanks to its smaller engine and RWD chassis so the 300 hp it makes doesn’t have as much work to do in order to provide fast progress.

It even sounds somewhat angry, even though turbo four-pots often suffer from a muted powertrain. It’s a little softer-sprung, too, so once you leave the bendy b-road and hit the highway – as we did on our final stretch into Lisbon – it is not a bad tool with which to complete the journey. Even with the top down, the body shape is such that wind is channeled nicely over the car, keeping occupants safe from too much buffeting.

Plus, when you’re rolling into a town as classic as Lisbon, you want to be able to see as much as possible as you arrive and what better way to do that than in a car with no top?

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As a capital city, Lisbon is quite the opposite of Stockholm. The glassiness and modernity found in the Swedish city is replaced with arched windows and light-coloured stone, the wide, ultra-smooth boulevards replaced with cobbled thruways that are often trolley-tracked – but you don’t really notice because it’s pretty rough to start with. All part of the charm.

An even bigger part of the charm is actually made up of a number of small pockets of joy found in and around the Praça do Rossio, a 10 minute walk up from the coastline along the Tagus River estuary, where the Iberian Peninsula’s largest river joins the Atlantic Ocean. Bookstores, cafés and even surf shops line the alleys here, ending in one of the strangest sights, but one that represents an important economic achievement in Portugal’s history: the O Mundo Fantastico da Sardinha Portuguesa, or “The Fantastic World of Portuguese Sardines”. You read that right: this here is a store dedicated to selling this salty – yet important – fish.

coastline was ideally set to get on board with the trend. As a result, sardines became one of the first major Portuguese exports. Which is why in this little shop in the middle of Lisbon, the walls are lined with cans of sardines, many of them inscribed with a year in history and important events that happened that year. It’s here I learned that DNA was discovered in 1953, the concept of a Third World was first explored in 1952, and colour TV a year before that. The more you know, you know?

Of course, all good road trips must come to an end – no matter how epic – and this was no different.

It’s an adventure that really is beyond the scope of anything I’d imagined, and it’s impossible to even name one single place that was the clear “favourite” for me above the rest, so different and varied was the experience.

Which, really, is what the best road trips are all about.

With the rise of the canning industry and its related export in the early 1900s, Portugal’s extensive

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Special feature

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Reinventing The (Steering) Wheel Story Noah Joseph

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Photography John Walker

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“What’s more important on a car, the wheels or the engine?”

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fter telling people that I’m an automotive journalist, I’ve been asked a whole range of questions – some smarter than others. But this one got me thinking: how many parts could you strip away before the car would cease to be a car?

The steering wheel, unlike the rolling stock and motor, wouldn’t rank very high on the list. After all, not every car ever made has had one, and it may not be long before self-driving cars won’t need them, either.

At the end of the day, a car would still be a car without a steering wheel. But that one component typically stands as the primary point of contact between the car and its driver – and that makes it pretty darn important.

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Though widely considered to be the first automobile, the Benz Patent-Motorwagen bore little resemblance to today’s cars.

It rode on three wheels, had no roof, doors, or windows, and was steered by a tiller. But it wasn’t long before rival Panhard started equipping its cars with steering wheels... and the rest, as they say, is history.

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For the first several decades of automotive development, steering wheels were made up of a hub, spokes, rim, and little else. Today’s smaller, more ergonomically contoured units still perform the same essential function, but they’re packed with airbags and all manner of auxiliary controls that Karl Benz and René Panhard likely never even dreamed of.

The one common denominator between the earliest steering wheels and those found in today’s road and race cars is that they still turn left and right, and whether by mechanical linkage or digital signal, direct the front wheels to pivot and alter the vehicle’s trajectory. And that’s a pretty essential function to a car’s operation. But in another decade Even more glaring, though, is the difference between or two, the steering wheel is likely to lose its place of the basic steering wheel and those at the center of prominence on a car’s dashboard. It may eventually today’s racing cars. Peer into the cockpit of a modern disappear altogether, replaced by computers and Formula One car and you’d see a device that barely sensors that do the driving for you. When that day looks like a wheel at all – more rectangular than comes, the car will still be a car... but we’ll miss the round, and festooned with digital displays and more simple, tactile, and intuitive experience of steering it with a wheel. buttons, switches, and dials than an old hi-fi stack.

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Discovered

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OFF THE BEATEN TRACK WITH GIULIA EXPLORING EASTERN ONTARIO IN ALFA ROMEO’S FLAGSHIP SEDAN

Story & Photography

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Emily Atkins 51

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astern Ontario is one of the longest-inhabited zones in this huge province, and its history often lies undiscovered. Hidden among the rolling hills, piney forests and rocky outcroppings of the rugged Canadian Shield are fascinating traces of the hardscrabble life our pioneer forebears scraped out.

To seek out some of that past while driving the most modern and European of cars provides a piquant counterpoint. The luxurious and swift Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio stands in stark contrast to the rough horse drawn wagons and steam trains that first ventured across this landscape.

Quadrifoglio finishes on the exterior include the four-leaf clover logo in prominent locations, and carbon-fibre ducktail, splitter and mirror covers. A pair of air intakes on the hood is reminiscent of the upward facing nostrils on an alligator, lending the car a vaguely menacing air, and providing a clue to what’s beneath the hood.

The 505-horsepower 2.9-litre twin turbo, Ferrariderived engine is the largest Alfa has ever installed in a car, and it’s enough to have won the record for fastest five-passenger sedan around the Nürburgring.

But the Giulia is at home on these roads. Alfa’s fivepassenger grand touring flagship is built to drive the twisting byways that wind past stunning lakes and pristine swamps, through the rocky farm country. It’s a car with grunt and finesse, an Italian with style and substance who knows how to hug a corner.

Driven from the rear wheels and paired with a sweet eight-speed automatic and equipped with paddle shifters, this car powers up to 100km/h in about four seconds and boasts a top speed of 307 km/h.

At first glance Giulia is a handsome, but not pretty, car. Stoutly built with broad, squared off haunches and a rounded, sweeping snout that culminates in the signature Alfa trefoil grille, this four-door car is pure Euro sedan. Dressed in glowing pearlescent Trofeo White, it looks wildly impractical (and did end up well-covered in bugs at end of our route).

Where better to test these skills than on quiet back roads? Our route led from the quaint town of Napanee on the Bay of Quinte north through a loop of about 120 kilometres. Highway 41, north out of Napanee soon passes through bucolic farmland and into the wild lands of Lennox and Addington County.

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The hamlet of Erinsville on Beaver Lake was once a bustling burg and a stop on the long defunct Bay of Quinte Railway, which was a vital lifeline carrying passengers, lumber, marl (marlstone) and ice. Now, the hamlet offers a boat launch, a historical plaque by the old train station and a lovely café and corner store (The Beaver Lake Convenience & More). It’s also the end of our loop, with a good opportunity for a leg-stretch and comfort break.

North of Beaver Lake, in the Moira River watershed, the landscape changes quickly to swathes of granite and deep forest punctuated by tiny farms that seem to be barely holding the woods at bay. Not far along is the Lennox and Addington Dark Sky Viewing area, a popular destination for nighttime viewing of meteor showers and other celestial performances. In the daytime it’s a concrete pad with a great view.

Highway 41 becomes a wide and smoothly paved playground, allowing Giulia to open up and demonstrate what her rear-wheel drive, ultra low-profile performance tires and Brembo ultra-high performance carbon-ceramic brakes (an $8,000 option) can do. Through the broad sweepers and rises Giulia

tempts you to keep the power down, holding her line sweetly and without drama, and eliciting a little grin of delight.

Where 41 meets Highway 7 the game changes. A few short kilometres further north you’ll find the Flinton Road. It connects 41 back to Highway 7 in a southwesterly direction through the historic village of Flinton with its tiny church, picturesque waterfall, and the only Service Ontario office that’s smaller than a car.

But while they are an interesting diversion, you’re not really here for the tourist sites. This road is all about the drive. Hundreds of corners and endless elevation changes really test the Giulia’s gumption. And for a big beast of a car, she handles the challenges with precise turn-ins and superb true braking. It’s an exceptional, non-stop workout for about 23 km.

Back at Highway 7 there’s a picnic area where you can catch your breath beside the lovely Skootamatta River before you continue onto Highway 37 south towards Tweed. This part of the route carries you through mining and lumbering towns founded in the early to mid-1800s, and some of which are bustling 53

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villages today. On the way through Tweed, which Phoenix Tavern – an imposing former roadhouse on started its life in the 1830s, are numerous places to the Bay of Quinte Railway – which is still open as a stop for refreshments. local watering hole. From there a quick spin along After Tweed it’s a left turn on the Marlbank Road, County roads 32 and 13 return you to Erinsville and a rolling, bucolic romp through fields of wheat, and Highway 41. past ancient split rail fences and century farms. It’s This route is typical of Ontario’s southeast. From a feast for the senses; the car’s sonorous exhaust punctuates the whine of cicadas in the late summer its quiet old hamlets and historic railway near to haze. Shimmering mirages project watery images on lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River, to the wild, the road ahead except in the shade where dappled rocky bush lands a bit further north, the region is shadow brings cool relief from the heat wave. Fresh replete with history and rugged natural beauty. Wellpine mingles with new-mown hay and the occasional maintained roads reward the driver who ventures whiff of manure. Best of all is the pull of the G-forces to explore the area’s many sites and sights. And the as you wind Giulia over the smooth pavement, around Giulia Quadrifoglio, with its smooth power, fine broad sweepers and over gentle, rolling hills. handling and luxurious comfort provided a wellAt the end of the road is the improbable Marlbank mannered ride for the trip off the beaten path.

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featured car

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2021 Porsche 911 Turbo S

Story Jeff Voth

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Photography Steve Enns 59

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uick! What else can I say, but the newest turbo from Porsche is neck-snapping, eye-watering, breathtakingly fast! It is one of those rare cars that require you to think before you press hard on the accelerator as it will consume pavement with such voracity that you arrive at your destination almost before the thought of where you want to go has completely taken hold.

Under the rear decklid resides a 3.8L flat six-cylinder engine with 640 horsepower and 590 lb-ft of torque that is capable of 0-100 km/h acceleration in 2.7 seconds with the Chrono Package and a top speed of 330 km/h. New active cool air intake flaps and side air intakes are optimized for aerodynamics and cooling. Inside, sumptuous and firm adaptive sport seats with 18-way adjustment take comfort to a new level.

Think it and you are there. No other modern day supercar can accelerate with such ease. It is truly incredible.

Fit for the track, the 2021 Porsche 911 Turbo S is a true supercar that will have you taking the long way home; just point, press, and hold on!

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Power Brokers

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Mini runs deep in the family Charlie Cooper

Story

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Jeff Voth

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here is nothing miniature about the family legacy of the Cooper family. Charles Cooper started the brand with his son John in the late 1940’s.

What followed was the complete transformation of Formula 1 from front engine to rear engine power, as the Cooper T51 proved superior by winning the 1959 Formula 1 World Championship, inspiring a generation of change, and it never looked back.

But there was much more to come from this family of entrepreneurs. Together they designed and built the first Mini Cooper, a small and lightweight car perfect for the tight city streets of England or a spirited jaunt on the backroads of Europe and eventually the world. Reborn in 2000 as part of the BMW Group, it continues to grow with new models, the raceinspired John Cooper Works division and the new all-electric MINI Cooper SE 3 Door.

spokesperson for the Mini brand and his own company, Cooper Bikes. The entrepreneurial spirit is alive and well in the Cooper family and Charlie sees a strong future for electric vehicles and e-bikes as the world continues to embrace new alternatives to gasoline-powered, or in the case of bicycles, pedalpowered vehicles.

What does it mean to you to have the Cooper last name and carry on the legacy of your great-grandfather Charles Cooper and grandfather John Cooper, no pressure I guess?

Yeah, it is slightly daunting! There is a story I tell about each generation, I think there are some real similarities between each one, but also some differences. We all want to do things our own way. It is something where the older I get, I am immensely We had a chance to spend some time with Charlie proud to be part of this family history and heritage.

Cooper, the great-grandson of Charles and grandson I want to help continue to make the Cooper name of John Cooper and discuss his role as the official relevant today and I am having fun with it.

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That’s what my great-grandfather and grandfather did when they started the company; they wanted to go racing. They didn’t race cars for other people, it wasn’t a big business idea, or way to make money.

It was just to have fun and put their name on the cars. And actually, now that I work with Mini as a brand ambassador, I do it because I enjoy it. It’s not to become a multi-millionaire businessman, but to keep the name relevant. Of course we negotiate a contract (laughs). It’s just to do interesting fun things and I think that reflects well on the Mini Cooper brand. People should smile when they think about it.

Do you enjoy being an entrepreneur?

Yeah. It has its ups and downs, I obviously have my bike business, my e-bike which is doing really well in Europe and not yet here in Canada because of legislation by each market. There’s up times and down times and it does get stressful, but of course I enjoy it. I wouldn’t do it if I didn’t.

What made you decide to get involved with the business and add your name to the family ledger?

So I grew up working the summers for my father and my grandfather when they had the garage business and when my father did start John Cooper Works I helped out. As a young kid out of college, I wasn’t that experienced, but it was amazing seeing my father -what he built- as things evolved in those days at John Cooper Works- incredible!

My family has a history of working with multiple car brands. My grandfather had a Honda dealership as well and he helped Soichiro Honda get into motorsports. If you go to Motegi, Japan and visit the Honda museum, one of the few non Honda cars is a Cooper.

I did leave and went off and did my own thing in There is also a long history with BMW as well. I think marketing, I wanted to do that and forge my own way. it is the Coventry Climax engine that was in the Ironically, I went off and did some Renault adverts at T51 Formula 1 World Championship winning car in the time, I worked with them while they were winning 1959. I think it was based on a BMW block engine; it in Formula 1. Brand adverts, the Renault Clio, there’s may have been one of the earlier engines, but early a big history of Renault and what happens in the UK Cooper Formula 1 cars were based on BMW engines, so there is really a link with BMW. and so I worked on that.

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So it was a natural progression to go back to the family business then?

Exactly. Another, story the Mini was designed in response to the oil and fuel crisis at the time as back in the day it was extremely expensive to run cars. But actually there was also a big rise in the bubble cars from Europe like the BMW Isetta, which they have at the BMW Canada head office. So there is a link that goes back with Mini and BMW and it’s great!

One thing my grandfather did say is if you want to go and design something new, go to the museum. He may have read that somewhere, but I remember him saying it to me and I can’t find it anywhere else, so we can give him credit, ha!

What are some of the valuable lessons you have learned while sitting at the table surrounded by your family of inventors and entrepreneurs?

I still bounce things off my dad for advice, whether it be in the e-bike world, or actually things I am working on with Mini and other ideas. Each generation, I think my grandfather did it, certainly my great-grandfather was a big influence on the Cooper Car company and the success in Formula 1. I think my grandfather had a respect for the experiences my great-grandfather had. Obviously, my father did it, John Cooper Works was started after my grandfather sadly passed away in 2000. He respected the experience my grandfather had in the 90’s and likewise for me and the success my father’s had with John Cooper Works, I try and take his experience and use it with every new project. I feel I can have as much success as they have.

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What was it like being part of that unique inner circle?

I think you take it for granted a little, you don’t see it as anything special, it’s just your family. But funny enough, my father was at Jackie Stewart’s 80th birthday, he was lucky enough to have a luncheon with the Queen and there were many famous people there. It was pretty special. We didn’t believe him, but it was in the newspapers the next day, so alright. But he sat next to Edsel Ford at the dinner and they had a chat and Edsel said his mother’s favourite car was her Mini Cooper, so Mini cars touch everyone, even the famous Ford family have a connection! Enzo Ferrari used to in a way mock the garages, car companies, the big and small ones in south west London. But he went full circle from mocking them to respecting the rear engine revolution in Formula 1, Cooper winning in 1959 and 1960 and his favourite car turned out to be a Mini Cooper. He drove that over many of his Ferrari cars.

So other than your family, who are some of the entrepreneurs, the inventors that inspire you currently in the automotive world?

I look at the automotive world as being all about mobility. I am a massive petrol head, I love cars and the design of cars, it appeals to me. I’ve spent some

time with Oliver Heimler, the Head of Mini Design and fully respect him. I am really excited with some of the things he is doing with his team. Mini is in a good place.

In terms of who do I look at, I take inspiration from all sorts of places. I recently read a brilliant book titled Digital Minimalism (by Cal Newport). It talks about how people are actually using technology to enhance their experience, not dictate or imitate their experience. This is not a movement to reject technology, but rather to use it sparingly to enhance the real world experience opposed to detracting from it.

I see that a lot with e-bikes, it’s a perfect example of this. Riding a bike is a beautiful experience if you’re a bike rider, you enjoy being in the open air. The beauty of peddling an e-bike is you’re not dominated by electricity, you can use it when you want to, so it’s a beautiful marriage of letting technology enhance your real world experience. I think there’s something to be said for that in the automotive world as well. People talk about autonomous cars and taking the driving experience away from people. But I think there will always be those people who want the experience of getting from A to B and the balance it offers. So it’s not necessarily one entrepreneur I am listening to, but a book that sort of opened my thinking on this.

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So other than Mini, what are some of your favourite car brands?

I think it gets down to the engineering and balance of the car, to use the balance to create a great driving experience. At the same time, you get instant torque I do love Porsches, they have some great driving and that’s a benefit, but that won’t mean something cars, driving being the connecting point. Not to name to every customer. It is quick off the mark and that’s names, but there are some brands that come out good too, but it’s still about the driving experience. with great performance figures, but I don’t like them The electric Mini drives like a Mini, it’s still fun to as much because they are not drivers cars. There are drive. I think sound is important and it will become some British brands I like; I actually drove my friend’s more important with time as part of the overall Lotus recently. That was a real analogue experience, driving experience. but his does breakdown quite a lot. Like I said, I am a Switching gears, as someone with a storied history in petrolhead at heart. automobiles, was there an ah-ha moment that caused One of my favourite cars was the original NSX which you to get into designing e-bikes and bikes in general? my dad had; I managed to sneak the keys from him It was living in London, getting to work at the office once and he didn’t know it. When he found out, I in London and that’s what my main transport is, bicygot in a lot of trouble, but it was amazing to drive cles or an e-bike. I love my cars, but I wouldn’t want to that. The NSX has a history with my family because drive to work. A statistic that really stuck out for me my father had a Honda dealership in the south of was the average speed of an automobile in the city of England and we were the first European dealership London is 4 mph and the average on a bike is 10 mph, to get the Honda NSX (Acura NSX in North America). more than double the speed. It was like, WOW, that is incredible! London is crazy at rush hour; it’s an old With today’s Mini brand, what excites you the most? city and the streets just aren’t wide enough for the I am massively excited about the all-electric Mini number of cars on the road. I do think that big cities Cooper SE 3-door. There are loads of opportunities will be dominated by personal transport and public that open with it and that car is pretty special. For transport and electric vehicles will be part of that. people who want to get into the electric market, it Can Cooper bikes revolutionize the bike industry like will appeal to them and to those who love the Mini Mini did for the automobile industry? brand as well. The John Cooper Works brand is really healthy, they have launched two new models We’ve got some big projects in the works and recently, the Countryman and the Clubman. It’s a big new models that are coming out in the next while. moment for a car brand to have 300 horsepower, it’s Hopefully, the e-bike world will stand up and take notice and say that’s pretty cool, plus the outside a nice car with a lot of torque as well. world as well. And also some projects with Mini as How does the coming shift to electric powered vehi- well, so my fingers are crossed. It excites me! I think cles enhance the fun-to-drive elements that are so there is a huge future for Cooper bikes, Mini and of course, John Cooper Works on the global stage. fundamental to Mini?

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Featured Motorcycle

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1967 BULTACO TSS200

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Matthew Neundorf 71

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uilt between 1960 and 1970, the Spanish motorcycle manufacturer Bultaco designed a series of factory racing motorcycles known as the TSS line. Powered by 2-strokes of various displacements, these light weight racers were quickly adopted by privateer road racers of the time.

This particular example is a 1967 TSS200 that was road raced in Northern Ireland and the Isle of Man

by Jim Farlow. Jim tragically succumbed to injuries during a crash at Church Bends during the 1974

Southern 100. While he was not riding the Bultaco at the time, his brother George -- an Isle of Man TT and Northwest 200 veteran himself -- painstakingly restored this 196cc, air-cooled, single-cylinder beauty as tribute to Jim. The bike now resides in his sister’s living room, where these photos were taken prior to my visit to the TT. However, don’t despair; this purpose-built bike still sees active duty. George makes sure to get it out on the track from time to time

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Road Test

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2021 Porsche Cayenne GTS CoupĂŠ A Glorious Past Meets The Present

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Jeff Voth

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n the world of high-performance automobiles, Porsche is uniquely positioned to rest on its laurels.

It is one of the benefits of designing an automotive icon. The Porsche 911 has been around for almost six decades and while it has experienced monumental revisions with each new generation, it still highlights the curved facade first sketched by Ferdinand Porsche in 1959. And let’s be completely candid here, that classic silhouette reflects throughout the Porsche line-up. You never look at a Porsche car or SUV and wonder if it is built by another automaker.

You just know, it’s a Porsche.

While the inspiration for all of their vehicles starts with this historic shape, it cannot be said that the German automaker is somehow stuck in the past. In fact, the exact opposite is true. In a world that seems

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determined to buy anything that remotely resembles an SUV, we forget that Porsche was one of the first to demonstrate that a vehicle built for on and off-road excursions could be cool, exotic and might even be considered iconic in it’s own right.

Think back to 2003 when the Cayenne first launched and what else was available at the time. The pinnacle of luxury meant you could purchase a Cadillac Escalade or BMW X5. While they still represent an excellent choice in the luxury SUV marketplace today, the word exotic doesn’t come to mind. The thought of a Porsche SUV incorporating many of the design elements from the 911 Coupe was not only hard to fathom, it was for some, heretical. But it worked, and forever established the company as a benchmark for others to follow. No resting on their laurels here.

The 2021 Porsche Cayenne GTS Coupé moves the needle forward into the future, while once again drawing on the past with its sleek 4-door coupe styling. There is no mistaking it for anything other than what it is, a true Porsche, with the lineage of a high-performance sports car coursing through its veins.

In Porsche-speak, the GTS designation means that it is typically the most sporty, fun-to-drive, passionate vehicle for that particular model range. It is not necessarily the fastest, but there is a very good chance it will sound the best and be, from the driver’s perspective, the most in-tune with curving through twisty pavement at speed. The 2021 Porsche Cayenne GTS Coupé is no exception.

Power comes in the form of a twin-turbocharged V8 engine that sounds raspy, especially in Sport and Sport+ mode. Matched to an 8-speed Tiptronic S automatic transmission, it delivers 453 horsepower and 457 lb-ft of torque. The result is a zero to 100 km/h blast in 4.5 seconds and a top speed of 270 km/h with Sport Chrono Package.

That should be fast enough for anyone of sound mind and body, especially here in North America. But when you compare it to the technical specs of the Cayenne Turbo Coupé which delivers 100 km/h in 3.9 seconds and achieves a top speed of 286 km/h, it has the potential to sound a little underwhelming.

Especially when you consider our test vehicle retails for $181,995 CDN. 77

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So why is the GTS Coupé the better choice?

For the same reason why the best player on a sports team isn’t necessarily the biggest and most powerful person on the field of play. In the end, athleticism wins the day and puts the most smiles on the faces of fans watching from the seats, front or rear in the case of the Cayenne GTS Coupé.

Ground clearance is part of the reason why many people choose an SUV over a sedan or wagon, not just excellent rear storage space and room for four, both of which this offers as well. The Cayenne GTS Coupé highlights a maximum air suspension off-road height of 520mm between the road surface and any parts that may be sensitive to water. It’s impressive to experience firsthand.

On the road, our test vehicle performs the way you expect a Porsche should and there is very little sense that you are driving an SUV. Yes, it is somewhat stiff on city streets; potholes and speed bumps do get noticed and you will feel the road through the sculpted sport seats. But that connection to the pavement is what you want in a sporty vehicle and any temporary discomfort is quickly abated by punching the accelerator and listening to the glorious sounds of that sweet V8 engine work its magic.

However, this is not your typical heavy duty, rockclimbing, trail-forging SUV. The vast majority of driving the GTS Coupé will be done in Sport or Sport+ mode, meaning maximum air suspension ground clearance is limited to approximately one third of that. It should also be noted, you may want to think twice before subjecting the optional 22-inch GT wheels on our test vehicle (part of the optional Lightweight Sport Package ) to rocks and gravel.

A scratch of the flat black coating could be costly.

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And go easy on the $3,500 Cashmere Beige Metallic paint, it’s worth every dollar!

The options list when buying a new Porsche has always been extensive, with the prospect for bespoke treatment seemingly endless. Opening the driver’s door to get in, I am greeted with classic houndstooth fabric covering the center portions of the 18-way power sport seats. It is a welcome change from the more typical all-leather interiors found in most sporty vehicles and a throwback to the classic era of Porsche.

A thick 3-spoke steering wheel is also a Porsche hallmark, this one is wrapped in Alcantara with thumb rests for comfort and a host of controls aiding

functionality. It also includes what I like to call the round “fun knob” to adjust vehicle performance with a simple click of the dial. And every Porsche features a tachometer at the center of the gauge pod and ignition switch to the left of the steering wheel.

Guarding tradition on the inside is just as important to Porsche as it is on the outside.

It is interesting how an exotic, modern-day SUV such as the 2021 Porsche Cayenne GTS Coupé can fully embrace the history of an iconic sports car almost 60 years in the making. Maybe that is one of benefits of holding firm to a glorious past, staying rooted in family values, all the while fully embracing the need to keep moving forward and change with the times.

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First Drive

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2020 Audi Q7 On The Ring Of Kerry

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Peter Bleakney

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saw landfall though the window of the charter plane If you’ve never driven on the left side of the - and it was green. Not just any green, but an iridesroad, the Ring of Kerry might not be the cent, glowing kind of green that brings to mind jade best place to start. and emeralds. Ah yes, the Emerald Island. Of course!

No hyperbole there. From aloft, southwest Ireland The combination of very narrow roads, very wide appears to be the very definition of lush, verdant tour buses, and breathtaking vistas that lure you fertility. into the occasional concentration lapse make for a We landed at Kerry Airport, and the mission for the challenging experience. And my aim was to enjoy the day was to drive the famed Ring of Kerry (N70) in scenery - not be part of it.

Audi’s refreshed 2020 Q7 luxury SUV. The Ring of Kerry, a popular tourist destination, is a 179-kilome- Complicating matters was the fact that these Audi ter scenic drive that circles the Iveragh Peninsula in Q7s had their steering wheels on the left side (which Ireland’s County Kerry. Highlights include Killarney is the right… er, correct side for us). On the plus side, National Park, the Skellig Islands, the Cliffs of Moher this positioning made it easier when squeezed up and Dingle Peninsula. You can also find some pretty against rock face by a passing bus. Which is where I fine Irish Stew along the way, and a well poured found myself within just a few kilometers of leaving Kerry on our clockwise tour.

Guinness at the end of the day.

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There’s a very good reason why this part of Ireland is so green. Rain. Lots of it. The sun was breaking through at the start of our day, but things soon devolved into a steady overcast with low hanging mist, punctuated by the occasional downpour. Yet you couldn’t ask for a more appropriate mood. Just south of Kerry we entered Killarney National Park, and here the landscape opens up to a lonely, rocky moor that beckons with harshness and beauty in equal measure. Squint hard and you can almost see an invading party of Vikings coming to do their worst.

While the Ring of Kerry might seem like an odd place for Audi to introduce its redone full-size Q7 SUV to the international press, there was method to this madness. Already one of the best driving of this ilk, the updated Q7 benefits from quicker-ratio steering and better body control thanks to newly available active roll stabilization that keeps this big ‘un flat and poised in the corners. And never was the ride jarring.

Once through this inland landscape of rock and wonder, we reached the ocean and traced the rugged coastline. Passing through such charmingly named places as Parknasilla, Castlecove and Beenarourke, we found ourselves looking down on Waterville and out over the Atlantic Ocean. Billed as one of Ireland’s most spectacular views, it is worth taking the trek down to this quaint little seaside village.

We soon pulled into the town of Cahersiveen where we lunched at The Oratory Pizza and Wine Bar. The Oratory is housed within an old Church of Ireland green sandstone structure dating from 1863.

Boutique pizza is the house specialty, but how could I not pick the Irish Stew that beckoned from the menu? It proved to be a fine choice for this moody, blustery day.

Across the road is a fabulous shop full of old brass maritime fittings and other weird brick-a-brack.

Fittingly, there were a few old-timers out front on 85

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some benches. We struck up a conversation and talk jokingly turned to an old rivalry. “It’s not the English we don’t like, it’s the British.”

While the base 2020 Q7 carries forward with its 248 hp, 273 lb-ft 2.0L TFSI turbo-four cylinder, V6 models ditch the old 3.0L supercharged engine for Audi’s newer 3.0L turbocharged V6 paired with a 48-volt mild hybrid system. It twists out 340 horsepower and 368 lb-ft from 1,370 to 4,500 rpm - that’s up 11 ponies and 43 lb-ft over the outgoing unit.

It’s hooked to an eight-speed Tiptronic gearbox, and quattro all-wheel-drive gets the power to the ground. Indeed, the V6 versions we drove here were swift, smooth and quiet.

a slick looking setup and generally functions well, although as is the case with these new systems with acres of digital real estate, basic tactile functionality takes a hit. Case in point - while piloting this rather large crossover over the always winding and narrow route, my attempts at changing the interior temperature via prods on the touch panel were mostly inaccurate and distracting. And that’s all I’ll say about that.

A few kilometers up the coast from Cahersiveen you’ll want to drop into Kerry Bog Village - a charming clutch of thatched cottages and period farm equipment that gives visitors a taste of what rural life was like in Ireland in the late 19th century. You’ll Inside, all 2020 Q7 models get Audi’s new dash archi- also see some Kerry Bog Ponies, a moorland breed tecture that replaces the long-serving MMI interface unique to the region that almost reached extinction with dual central haptic-feedback touchscreens. It’s in the 1990s.

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At the day’s end we looped back into Kerry’s airport.

There was one thing left to do, and that was quaff a Guinness - the dry stout that is the pride of Ireland.

Naturally the airport has a little pub, and of course they serve this dark elixir that dates back to the mid 1700s. The bartender poured my pint and set it down in front of her beside the tap. It sat there for a good three minutes. Had she forgotten about me? Was it something I said?

I was just about to ask her to hand it over in a very polite Canadian way when she put the glass back under the tap and expertly topped it off with a foamy head worthy of a magazine shoot.

It was almost too perfect to drink. Almost.

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Game Changers

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German Power Wagons Story

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Noah Joseph

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he station wagon is dying a slow and agonizing death, ceding more ground with each passing year to the increasing encroachment and popularity of crossover SUVs. But the wagon isn’t dead just yet.

but they’re offering them with performance capabilities and levels of output that would embarrass most sports cars.

These are not the Ford Country Squires and Buick Roadmasters that your parents (or grandparents) drove on family vacations. They’re performance machines, capable of covering ground as quickly as they’ll swallow up your entire family and their Not only are several of Deutschland’s finest still luggage. But this particular combination of the best bringing wagons across the Atlantic to our shores, of both worlds doesn’t come cheap.

Those who still prefer their vehicles with long roofs, liftgates at the back, and a lower-slung form than a top-heavy sport-ute still have a few options. And we have the Germans, in no small part, to thank for that.

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2020 Mercedes-AMG E63 S 4Matic+ Wagon A perennial favorite in its class, Mercedes-AMG’s E63 wagon is a wolf in sheep’s clothing if we’ve ever seen one. It looks for the most part like an ordinary family-hauler, but it’ll rocket to 100 km/h in just 3.3 seconds and max out as high as 290. Like its main rivals here, the E63 employs a 4.0-liter twin-turbo V8 driving all four wheels – in this case, kicking out an astonishing 603 horsepower and 627 lb-ft of torque.

If that strikes you as a bit over-the-top, AMG also offers the E53 wagon, with a 3.0-liter turbocharged straight-six and a mild hybrid assist to deliver as much as 450 hp, 568 lb-ft, and a 4.5-second 0-100 time. Either way, it’ll fit a class-leading 640 liters of luggage in the back, or up to 1,820 liters with the rear seats folded.

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2020 Audi RS 6 Avant The newest player on the field, Audi is bringing its latest RS 6 Avant to North America for the first time.

It’s not quite as potent as the Mercedes, and with between 565 and 1,680 liters of cargo capacity, it’s not quite as capacious, either. But its 591 horsepower and 590 lb-ft of torque are prodigious, to say the least, and will propel this power wagon to 100 km/h in 3.6 seconds.

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Spec it right and give it enough runway and it’ll top out at 305 km/h, which would get you from Toronto to Ottawa or Windsor in a little over an hour... if only the 401 were derestricted like the Autobahn on which it was built to run. Pricing has yet to be announced, but we’d expect it to land in the same $120k ballpark as the rival AMG E63 and the more streamlined RS 7 Sportback.

2020 Porsche Panamera Turbo S E-Hybrid Sport Turismo For a sports car with extra space, look no further than the Porsche of station wagons. With a 425-liter trunk (expandable to 1,295 liters), the Panamera Sport Turismo won’t carry as much stuff as the Audi or the Benz, but it packs the punch to make up for it.

Canadians can get it in three specs, with the same essential powertrain but increasing levels of output and performance. The GTS offers 454 horsepower and 457 lb-ft of torque to return a 4.1-second 0-100 time. The Turbo amps it up to 542 hp and 568 lb-ft for a 3.8-second sprint (or 3.6 with the optional Sport Chrono Package). The top Turbo S E-Hybrid plugs in to generate a massive 671 hp and 626 lb-ft and rockets to 100km/h in just 3.4 seconds.

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Conclusion Of course, these aren’t the only wagons available in Canada, where you can also get models like the Mini Clubman, Subaru Outback, and both the standard and Cross Country versions of Volvo’s V60 and V90 wagons. Audi also offers the Allroad versions of its A4 and A6, and Mercedes can hook you up with a more sedate C-Class or E-Class wagon. But if you like your wagon with a healthy dose of power and performance, these are the ones you’ll want to cross-shop.

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EV Avenue

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The Volvo S60 T8 eAWD Polestar A Rich History and The Future of Electricity

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Steven Bochenek

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elcome to the next milestone on Electric Avenue, a regular column dedicated to the accelerating electrification of Canada’s roads and vehicles. Today, we’re starting not in Canada and not in the present. Shhhh … someone’s about to speak.

“The Underground Railroad operated around here in the 1850s and ‘60s” says my friend Greg.

It’s 20 years ago, and he’s showing my children a claustrophia-inducing hiding spot behind a false wall in the fronthall of his antebellum farmhouse.

“Maybe they hid runaway slaves here.” Greg can offer no other proof that abolitionists worked undercover where his winter boots are cached, but the kids and I are fascinated.

We’re on the edge of ski country in the village of Holland, in Western New York.

This is where the story you’re reading was supposed to start, so it does.

The concept for the story was sound: One of the less coded freedom songs slaves sang was Follow the Drinkin’ Gourd, instructions to runaways to head 100

towards the Big Dipper. Which points to the North Star — aka Pole Star. Which is also the name of the optimized upgrade to the Volvo S60 T8 AWD, whose 2-litre direct injected, supercharged, turbocharged engine is effortlessly floating us by any traffic snags on the way towards Greg’s home. Follow the Polestar to a brighter future: perfect title!

Normally the traffic on the Golden Horseshoe’s Queen Elizabeth Way (QEW) is hellish — more golden horseshit than shiny good luck charm — but today, it’s upgraded to merely purgatorial. Yay! Like its namesake, the QEW is old, slow, swamped with gawking idiots on their phones, and — like the Duke of Edinburgh — dangerous for other drivers.

However, during our short getaway on this last day of January and first of Feb, traffic’s relatively light. People are still depressed and broke from the holidays and we only share the road with miserable commuters, not escaping weekenders. So, a drive that’s normally like the conga line in a seniors’ home is more like a track and field relay for fat kids: regular bursts of genuine speed with sudden dizzied stops for coughing and throwing up.

Except we’re not going to Greg’s farmhouse for the night. We’re stopping 48 km’s north of there in Buffalo.

You probably know that ante-bellum means pre-war and, for some reason, in America it means pre-civil war.

So, Greg’s house is old. “My abode is a construction zone and not suitable for entertaining … or even sitting down” he writes on the night before I was planning to visit — and the day after I’d suggested this trip story.

In case you’re wondering, the car in the story also didn’t go almost everywhere else in the world but that’s a tediously long detailed tale. Instead, let’s talk about S60 T8 and its substitute visit to Buffalo, NY. Volvo’s committed to a greener future — starting now.

Underground Railroaders not only envisioned a better world, they took serious risks in the middle of what they (and history) deemed a crisis. While no one’s liberty or soul is at stake, there is a parallel you could draw with Volvo’s corporate environmental story.

The Freedom Crossing Monument 101

From the company’s Canadian website: “Our ambition is to reduce our carbon footprint by 40% per car by 2025 compared to 2018. And to be climate neutral by 2040.” That’s more specific than many countries’ environmental goals. The Volvo blurb finishes with the even more specific, “Because we have only one planet.”

There’s no need to fact-check whether you have more than one planet (if you believe otherwise, bless you) but it’s worth asking for specifics regarding Volvo’s ambitious targets, especially 2025’s. Do they use steel straws and bamboo cutlery in the cafeteria; have they grown a green roof with hemp?

Sort of: Amanda, the company’s communications rep reports the Canadian head office features, among other green initiatives, carpeting and tiles made from recycled materials; a recycling box in every room; LED lighting; a ban on single-use plastics in the office and at any events; and low flow plumbing fixtures.

However, Volvo also declares a commitment to boosting sales of electric vehicles (EVs) to 50% by 2025. That’s a massive commitment and at the time of writing, Volvo has yet to release its lineup of EVs, called Recharge.

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It’s a start but there’s a lot of territory to cover before 2025 if they want to make their targets.

However, this 2020 Volvo S60 T8 R-Design Polestar is a hell of a good place to start, and definitely worth spending some virtual ink and paper on. Fully laden, with several premium packages and accessories, it’s $76,600 before taxes and freight. Buckle up.

wrote “greenhouse gas emissions from Sweden’s transportation sector” increased. ‘What do you expect when you put people in cars that they feel good (or at least less guilty) about driving, which are also cheap to buy and run? Naturally, they drive more … [and] obliterate energy gains made by increased fuel efficiency.’1

Nothing’s black and white when you’re talking green vehicles, I think while teleporting past the sluggish drivers too selfish to qualify for the diamond (aka two passengers and therefore ‘high-occupancy’) lane. As the professor implied, I can further smother my guilt Some stats regarding that engine: 400 horsepower combined, 87 of which come from the electric with some of the S60’s more comforting comforts. motor; and 472 foot-pounding torques, 177 of Pampering your passengers, the S60 is designed first which are achieved between 0 and 3,000 rpm in that and foremost with you, Johnny Driver, in mind. The sweet electric motor. If you want fast soon, you got supportive sport seats are full-on heated leather, as both now! is the grippy R-design steering wheel with shifter Ever wonder why Volvo touts safety so much? They produce such tempting and potentially dangerous cars!

That’s substantial power. Small wonder that discussions about ‘green’ cars can get mixed up with smelly brown stuff, even before you colour the subject with politics. Really.

A few years back, Sweden passed legislation which economically encouraged citizens into ‘greener’ cars. In 2011, Professor Firmin DeBrabander

paddles. Mind, you read the torque stats above. We don’t need no steenkeeng paddelss. Mind, the autodimming inner mirror comes in handy when the occasional testosterone-drunk millennial tailgates me and my already illegal speed. I let him go and turn up the $3,750 Bowers and Wilkins sound system.

Ah, we’re here at the border! Passports please.

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Buffalo, New York

Maligned by ignorant Ontarians, Buffalo rewards history and architecture fans on a budget.

Talking about electrification of the planet’s roads, did you know that Buffalo was the first city in North America to light its streets at night? Niagara Falls gushes just 32 km’s up the road, and it’s a great source of coal-free electricity. Buffalo became known as the City of Light in 1886, just one year after-bellum.

Buffalo was a convenient middleman/tollbooth, a gate to the Great Lakes between the endless farming territory of America’s Midwest and its wealthy eastern cities, accessed via the Erie Canal. So, this city and the entire surrounding area was rich. But by the mid-20th century, Buffalo began falling on hard times and continued falling.

The St. Lawrence Seaway functionally put the Erie Canal out of business. Colossus blue-collar employer Bethlehem Steel gradually closed over several years.

By the ‘80s, jibes about this once boomtown’s many wooden homes going up in flames regularly fueled nasty patter in Toronto comedy clubs.

But over the past decade, a post-industrial hipster chic has grown up between the albeit many cracks of 104

downtown Buffalo’s sidewalks. The blight became an inadvertent boon: for 70 years, there wasn’t enough economic activity to merit tearing down the old buildings. Suddenly millennials started sniffing about, discovering Buffalo’s buffet of ready-made and beautiful but cheap buildings. Built from Victorian to pre-war (not to be confused with antebellum) times, the places had decorative panache up front and good bones beneath. Simple renovations restored their original splendour.

So, while all the cheap wood-framed stuff burned down nightly on the news, to the delight of schtick-schtarved Toronto comics, a decades-long depressed economy accidentally produced a vast outdoor museum of 19th and early 20th-century architecture. And the museum’s free. That is, if you’re willing to walk — occasionally briskly and nervously — through what real estate agents like to call ‘up-andcoming’ areas.

There was no need for any semi-automatic Park Assist Pilot with 360-degree camera in downtown Buffalo.

Despite being walking distance from Sabres’ KeyBank Centre arena and a 5-minute drive from the Peace 105

Hotel Henry Urban Resort Conference Center

Bridge, there’s plenty of free parking on our Airbnb’s effect was nuclear. Low flow fixtures wouldn’t save street. Renaissance aside, much of central Buffalo is the world here. still a post-apocalyptic scene from Omega Man. Next day: We’ve made plans to meet Greg in town.

We walked five blocks to Allentown, Buffalo’s quiet The S60’s nav-sat route between our breakfast but firm answer to Montreal’s student-heavy Plateau, choice in Allentown and the Burchfield Penney Toronto’s Annex or Vancouver’s Railtown (before the art gallery avoids the more direct traffic-lighted opioid epidemic). Dining and entertainment choices path and announces the quicker highway trip. are limited to a three-block radius, but top notch. Which is a shame because the wide boulevards and The cautiously hip gastro-pub we choose doesn’t spoke-like streets in Elmwood Village and Albright turn the music up to annoying levels before 8pm, were designed in the style of Washington DC’s when grumpy greyhairs have mostly moved on. Its confident grandeur. menu is hometown hipster proud, as evidenced in my special: Buffalo Wings drenched in their homemade The name Charles Burchfield is to Western New spicy sauce, then showered with — honest — crushed York art weenies what Emily Carr is to Vancouverites Flamin’ Hot Nacho Doritos chips. Heinous as the dish or the unimaginatively named Tom Thomson is sounds, it was delicious, although the morning-after to Torontonians, and this magnificently curated

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Several more deliciously inspired hipster dishes, designer coffee and some local craft beer later, the Henry is decidedly more jolly than the hour before.

The sprawling bright halls, once easy inspiration for a Stephen King bestseller, are now ubiquitously decorated with pieces from local artists. And the entire first floor is dotted with tables, burbling with Behind the Burchfield Penney sprawls the 100-acre conversations, creating a sprawling chamber-togrounds of the former state psychiatric hospital, chamber restaurant. My wife and I are inspired called, in less enlightened times, the insane asylum. enough to want to return sometime. Which is just as At its centre stands the impressively shocking colos- well because it’s time to drive home after our brief sal Victorian goth-castle, built to house those of architectural tour. unsound mind by the Masons in the late 19th century.

Abandoned for decades, it was declared a national On the way: formerly rich Buffalo hasn’t forgotten historic landmark in 1986, but recently converted everything, continuing its history of tollboothing into the Hotel Henry Urban Resort Conference passers-through, and Volvo will soon receive elecCenter— named after one of its chief architects. tronic charges for our trips across Grand Island, The architecture? Henry’s influences range from slightly north of town.

London’s St Pancras Station to Dracula’s Castle.

Against the brooding sky on February 1, the sheer Footnotes: bulk of this endless structure imposes. If you weren’t 1 From ‘What if green products make us pollute utterly mad before being committed, chances are more?’, Baltimore Sun, Firmin DeBrabander, June 2, you were deeply troubled within minutes thereafter. 2011. collection includes, big surprise, many of his works, including studies. The larger specialty is early 20th-century American artists. The building is 11 years old and located across the road from the worldfamous Albright-Knox museum. A visit there was our first choice but at the moment the Albright-Knox as much a construction zone as Greg’s farmhouse.

So, what a great place for lunch!

Umm, that’s it.

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Featured Region

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Universal Translator Exploring Automotive Culture- Saudi Style

Story & Photography

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Matthew Guy

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cience fiction tales have long promised us the ability to immediately understand beings from other parts of the galaxy, whether it’s through Star Trek’s universal translator or Douglas Adams’ curiously titled Babel fish. But here’s the thing: for gearheads, a translation device already exists - it’s called the car.

Saudi Arabia is in the midst of trying to reinvent itself as a tourist destination, presumably after seeing just how much revenue places like Dubai and Qatar are making by welcoming people from the West to their countries. Until about a year ago, it was nearly impossible to even get a tourist visa into Saudi Arabia; the only way in was as an employee or as a visitor of someone local.

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That changed in mid-2019, when the Kingdom started to once again issue tourist visas after a nearly ten-year moratorium.

These visas started to trickle into the travel plans of Westerners in September or October of that year, making us one of the first tourists to land on Saudi soil in nearly a decade.

In an effort to draw tourism, those wielding the levers of power created Saudi Seasons, aimed at transforming the Kingdom into one of the most important tourist destinations in the world. There are several major events planned, not the least of which was our objective - the Global Auto Salon.

Your author originally described Riyadh’s Global Auto Salon (appropriately abbreviated GAS) as a Saudi SEMA, an apropos description considerSome people travel to see history. Some for research. ing there were hundreds of vendors in attendance Us? Well, we gladly hop on a plane in order to see a ranging from Western companies like Gas Monkey few cars and talk with the people who drive them.

Garage to local drag racing tracks promoting their Landing at King Khalid International Airport placed facilities. Ratcheting the event beyond SEMA was an us right in the middle of a car culture that has few automotive auction attracting modern exotics and equals, yet, thanks to those travel restrictions, American muscle alike. remains relatively unexplored. What we found was a bright and enthusiastic car scene very open and Veyrons littered the show area like Corollas litter a university parking lot. Hyper-rare Paganis and welcoming to outsiders.

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Koenigseggs were parked amongst the throng, along with more Ferrari F40s in one place than your author has ever seen in his entire meagre existence. A semitruck endowed with a 24-cylinder engine pumping out nearly 4000 horsepower sold for a stunning $13.4 million.

Out in center court of the Janadriyah Cultural and Heritage Festival Grounds, organizers had constructed the world’s largest Hot Wheels loop, measuring 19.5 meters and built to allow UK stunt driver Terry Grant and his specially prepared Jaguar F-PACE to break a world record. Hitting the ramp at nearly 150km/h, Grant accomplished the perfect maneuver to cement himself in the record books on Saudi soil. Then, they shot a guy out of a cannon.

This crowd knows how to throw a party.

But it wasn’t just hypercar exotica and gonzo one-offs that define the car scene in Saudi Arabia. On a hot Friday morning, we took the opportunity to check out a cars-n-coffee style car meet held in the middle of the Kingdom’s capital city. Over 300 vehicles were in attendance, ranging from squarebody Chevy trucks to homemade race cars.

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And, in a uniquely Canadian twist, we discovered the whole affair was being held in a Tim Horton’s parking lot.

A pair of ’57 Chevy shoeboxes, owned by the same man, bore an incredible amount of patina. The owner told us he built them like two sisters who have vastly different personalities. One is interested in history and study, while the other likes to party. Laughing heartily, he pointed to the Camel Jockey Garage logos on their doors, so called because “Gas Monkey was already taken,” he chuckled. Plans are in the works to take both ‘57s on a six week, 1600 kilometer road trip.

We chatted with enthusiastic gearhead Fawaz Al-Harb, a resident of Saudi who recently moved back to the Kingdom after earning a master’s degree at a university in Texas. He was rightfully proud of his 1986 GMC stepside, a well-kept example into which he swapped a 6.0L V8, replacing the stock 350 cubic inch engine. As you’d expect in a country where Other gearheads, both at the Global Auto Salon and at temperatures routinely top 40 degrees Celsius, he the cars-n-coffee meet, were far less fluent in English opted to retain the factory air conditioning. but it hardly mattered. The excitement shared by the “Most of the GM trucks like this are step side, simply revving of an uncorked V8 or the turning of giant tires because that is the most popular body style,” Al-Harb on a Jeep J10 pickup are all the translation one needs explained to us as he demonstrated the floor- to enjoy the company and kinship of other gearheads mounted manual shifter. “Some guys have driven 400 who live a world away. That the Tim Horton’s coffee km to be here for today’s meet.” The pride in his voice cups are draped in tasbih beads and the air smells of is evident, both in terms of his truck and his coun- incense adds to the air of international comradery. try, and it’s clear that locals are excited to welcome outsiders to their country with whom they can share It sure beats waiting for Captain Picard to show up a love for all things automotive. with a universal translator.

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u o y e v a e l l l i it w

s es l h c ee p s

) er ll te y or st a to in u o y rn tu (then

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Alpinestars Tech-Air 5 Airbag System Photography Carolyn Merey & Matt Neundorf

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Story Matt Neundorf

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efore I’ve even rolled my bike out of the driveway, I’m confident of two things regarding the new Alpinestars Tech-Air 5 Airbag System: first of all, this is an absolute game changer for rider safety.

I’m already well versed with both the street and track versions of Alpinestars previous generation airbag systems and they work incredibly well both as a bacon-saver and psychological confidence booster.

Every rider should be using airbag technology, every time they ride. Full stop. And now doing so is easier than ever.

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That’s because, unlike the Tech-Air Race and Tech-Air Street compatible systems previously available, the Alpinestars TA5 (Tech-Air 5) is a standalone product.

It doesn’t need to be paired with or connected to a separate Alpinestars branded, compatible jacket.

Just slip on the TA5 before donning your favourite outer layer and go. There are some caveats to ensure things fit properly (that we’ll speak to later) but with the TA5, form meets function in an incredibly efficient, safe, and cost-effective manner. What’s not to love?

How It Works: The TA5 is equipped with six integrated sensors, three gyroscopes and three accelerometers, all driven by a complex AI-governed algorithm to detect and react to a rider event. Thousands of computations are processed per second and, in the event of a crash, a canister of compressed gas in the TA5 will fire and inflate within 20 to 40 milliseconds (depending on vest size), ensconcing your vitals in a cushion of air.

The airbag itself provides a protective cocoon that covers a rider’s shoulders, back and torso -- essentially the entirety of the garment itself -- and provides up to a 95% reduction in impact forces, compared to standard protective riding gear. If you were wondering why airbags were made mandatory in MotoGP, that would be it; nobody wants to lose a top tier rider due to a preventable injury, your family included.

However, the TA5 isn’t meant for track use nor is it recommended for technical off-roading. Just like the Tech-Air Street system I reviewed last year, the TA5 is meant for street riding and constantly monitors conditions, even when you’re stopped at the lights and could be caught by surprise from behind.

In addition to safety, the TA5 also communicates with your smartphone via Alpinestars Tech-Air app. Once connected, you can see what charge level the TA5 vest has (a full charge is good for 30hrs ride time) and even track rides, complete with mapping and speed displays. I had a few issues getting my demo vest connected (as it hadn’t yet been disconnected from the previous tester) but once the two pieces of technology were talking, it was an easy app to navigate and a welcome feature. The app also works to provide firmware updates to the TA5, as they are released by Alpinestars.

In the event of a deployment, you will have to send the unit back to Alpinestars to repack and replace the canister. The costs of having that done are around $300 USD but the rumour is, there should come a day when locally licensed dealers may be able to sort that out for you. Here’s hoping it’s a service you simply never need.

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What It Works With:

our hot and humid days of summer, I didn’t feel overheated when moving. Stopped, however, is a different story altogether as an additional layer is, well, an additional layer but let’s be honest, that’s to be expected, especially right about now.

As I mentioned above there are some limitations to what exactly you can wear the TA5 under. Essentially anything textile is fair game but if leather is your look, you’ll need to ensure there’s 4cm of space between you and your cowhide to allow for inflation. As a rule Fitment is meant to be slim to ensure proper protecof thumb, if you can already zip your Perfecto over tion. I wore a large (I typically wear a 42R suit jacket) top of a hoodie, you should be good to go. and found it to be perfect in terms of comfort and its Of course, you can also slide it under any one of ability to slide under my outer layer. Activating the Alpinestars’ Tech-Air Compatible leather products TA5 was as easy as zipping up and closing the velcro too, as those have been designed with stretch and clasp sitting at my chest. A collection of three LED accordion panels in the proper places. As for what (green, yellow and red) lights would ignite and blink would happen if you wore and activated a TA5 under before a constant green up top alerts that the system a jacket where there wasn’t 4cm of clearance, nobody is armed and ready: just like traffic signals, green will say for sure as there are just too many variables. means go.

My guess is you’d run the risk of blowing apart your abrasion resistant layer or not receiving the benefit of a full and complete inflation when needed.

Hopefully, if you’re reading this, you take rider safety seriously enough to abide by the 4cm rule.

What It’s Like to Ride With: The TA5 is a lighter system than the other TechAir street vest I currently ride with regularly, although it still tips the scale just shy of 2kg.

It is also quite breathable, depending on what you choose for an outer layer, and even during

It takes no time at all in the saddle to forget about the TA5 as a second layer. There was no obstruction to my movement in the saddle and even during a few stops to run errands, it didn’t make itself known in any negative ways. Wearing a backpack isn’t problematic either as the integrated back protector isn’t Quasimodo-levels of bulky.

I wouldn’t recommend using the TA5 as a base layer as it isn’t exactly machine washable. I typically had a moisture wicking long-sleeve, underlayer beneath and that helped keep the funk at bay.

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Missteps: In terms of negatives, the TA5 doesn’t have many.

I did find that the charging port could be a bit of a pain. The TA5 uses a magnetically-connected Type 3 USB charging cable, which any Mac user will tell you is a good thing to eliminate trip hazards and broken cords. However, the magnetic connection proved to be a little tedious as the cable had to maintain a certain angle to maintain charging. On my first ride with the TA5, after I thought I’d charged it overnight, I discovered I had an empty cell and no airbag protection.

I’d also love to see the app interface developed further to allow users to chose between algorithms for street and more technical off-roading use. As a fan of adventure riding, I love to explore off-piste sections during my travels and have found that my crashes tend to happen in these spaces, usually at

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low speeds in tight, technical and challenging terrain.

It would be nice to be able to select a more “docile” off-road setting to avoid any unnecessary inflations.

Of course the argument can always be made that any off could be catastrophic, so maybe I’m just pipe-dreaming. Regardless, the TA5 is already programmed for light off-road trips (fire roads and such) and is truly an incredible piece of reasonably priced protective technology -- especially when you calculate what an injury could cost in lost time from work.

Oh, and that other thing I was so convinced of about the TA5 was this. The fine folks at Alpinestars, who let me borrow their latest rig, are probably not going to be very happy with the fact that I’ve buried their new baby under a layer of a competitor’s gear for all these photos. But then again, maybe they won’t. That versatility is kinda the point, no?

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Exit Lane The Case For The Ram SRT-10

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ickups don’t often feature in these pages, but if there’s any worthy of exception, it’s the Ford F-150 Raptor. The dune-jumping super-truck represents the last word in high-performance pickups today, leaving every other manufacturer to play catch-up.

Until recently, that included Fiat Chrysler, whose Ram division just announced the launch of its own challenger to the Raptor’s crown. But we think FCA could have taken a different approach, and take it right out of its own back catalog.

Almost two decades ago, FCA’s predecessor DaimlerChrysler stunned the 2002 Detroit Auto Show with the reveal of the Dodge Ram SRT-10. It was based on the third-generation Ram 1500 that had just been introduced, but packed the 8.3-liter V10 from the Viper sports car, good for a massive 500 horsepower and 525 lb-ft of torque.

That was more muscle not only than the 8.0-liter V10 offered in the heavy-duty Ram 2500/3500, but handsomely outgunned any Ford performance truck – including the F-150 SVT Lightning that came before and every version of the Raptor to date. Despite its hefty curb weight, the SRT-10 could rocket to 100 km/h in five seconds, cover the quarter-mile in 13.6, and top out at over 248 km/h (154 mph), setting a Guinness-certified world record.

It was no show truck, either. Between 2004 and 2006, Chrysler built over 10,000 of them. That’s barely more than a tenth the number of Ram pickups FCA sold across Canada (never mind the 600,000-plus it moved in the US) last year. And it’s barely more than a rounding error vis-à-vis the 1.2 million Ram trucks it sold in America over the three years in which the SRT-10 was made. But Chrysler sold roughly twice as many Ram SRT-10s as it did Vipers over the same period. And while shoehorning that big block into the light-duty truck’s engine bay could have been no simple matter, it was surely less intensive than developing the Viper from the ground up.

Over a decade after the last Ram SRT-10 rolled off the line, the final Viper did the same in 2017, leaving the V10 without a host. And this writer at least thinks that the latest, fifth-generation Ram 1500 – with its lighter-weight construction, more aerodynamic form, and trick air suspension – would have been just the place for it.

For better or worse, though, a new SRT-10 stands little chance of ever seeing the light of day. And the reason, in a word, is “ Hellcat.”

The supercharged 6.2-liter version of FCA’s Hemi V8 delivers 707 horsepower and 650 lb-ft of torque (or as much as 840 hp and 770 lb-ft in Demon form)... far more, at any rate, than the V10 ever produced.

It’s powered versions of the Dodge Charger and Challenger, the Jeep Grand Cherokee, and crucially, the 2016 Rebel TRX concept, based on the previous Ram 1500, and now confirmed to be heading into production and packing the Hellcat V8 under its hood, not the Viper’s V10.

When it does arrive, it’ll surely pose a credible threat to Ford’s Raptor. But part of me will still miss the old SRT-10, and long for a new one. And if Ram – under the new merged entity Stellantis – is interested in carving out a niche for itself instead of chasing after its rivals, maybe, just maybe, it’ll bring back the V10 street truck one last time.

Noah Joseph

Automotive Journalist | ViCARious 126

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