040-41simister SL
26/10/04
9:54
Page 40
FORECOURT OPINION
iSpy JOHN
SIMISTER Cars capable of 155 mph or more are but a tiny proportion of the entire road population. Yet new ones keep cropping up to delight us and frustrate us in equal measure. What are we to do with these things? Where can we drive them and stay out of jail? It's especially odd then, that in America, one of the most regulated countries in the world (despite its claim to be the land of the free) they sell in big numbers. Maybe it's to live out the shreds of a dream, to know they have the capability if not the opportunity. How else can you enjoy a BMW M5, just one of this month's five 155 mph wondercars? Week One American brutes, M5 and Focus I got to fulfil a dream and drive a Ford GT40 course car just before the final race at the fabulous Goodwood Revival race meeting. The GT40 is my favourite car of all time in the entire world. But I also had another car with a rumbling American V8 engine, the slightly retroflavoured Chrysler 300C. Its V8 is a reactivated iteration of the Hemi design that used to help old Mopar musclecars light up their tyres, although this one slims down to a V4 under light loads to improve economy. The 300C is a big, brutal-looking beast with deep flanks and shallow side windows, a car proud to be American yet well up to European standards thanks to some underskin engineering borrowed from the Mercedes E-Class. It should cost about £30,000 when it goes on sale here, in RHD, next October. It's not a Merc, BMW or Audi, but I love it to tyresquealing death.
GT40 still a thrill
Prediction: Those for whom a familiarly respectable image is all, will stick to the German marques, but those with an individual streak and a sense of fun might find the 300C very tempting. It could become a bit of a cult car and as such do better in the depreciation stakes than previous yank tanks like the Cadillac STS. 40 USED CAR BUYER
The last four weeks have been a speed-fuelled blur with anything less than 155 mph just not good enough And so to Munich and BMW-land, for a dose of the new M5. This car would crack 200 mph if electronics didn't intervene, thanks to a 507 bhp, 5.0-litre V10 engine and a seven-speed sequential gearbox. Oh, and 60 mph is yours in 4.6 seconds if you can stand the transmission torture inflicted by the launch control system. There's a power button to reduce output to 400 bhp if you feel the need (why?), plus the most fantastic soundtrack. Think Grand Prix incar camera footage and you'll get the idea. The most extreme M5 yet
Even when trickling through a village the growl from an automatic downchange throttle-blip will turn heads. This is the most extreme M5 yet. Prediction: There will always be a market for an M5. It's a kind of ultimate. These will command premium prices for a year or two at least. And back to earth, albeit a fairly heavenly part of it, near Siena, Italy, for the Ford Focus. Yes, the new one looks less daring than the old one but it's better than ever to drive with less noise and a smoother ride to go with that fantastic handling. There's a lot of hard plastic inside the staider cabin, though, which chips away at Ford's claim of a more upmarket ambience. Well it is easier to recycle, and when the end-of-life recycling legislation bites Ford will have to pay for that. Prediction: An instant best seller of course. And the used market will be awash with them in three years' time. The current Focus will be a better bargain than ever. Week Two Wrong SEAT To Barcelona, land of SEAT, for the most confusing car launch so far this year. The new Toledo is being marketed as a saloon,
«M5 is some kind of ultimate and there will always be a market. These will command premium prices for a couple of years at the very least» just as the last one was, because that's what its home market wants. One small snag. To everyone else it's an MPV. In fact it's an Altea with a bustle-back tailgate. Over to you, marketing men. Prediction: It will disappear without trace, because people will buy the prettier, and cheaper, Altea instead, at least that's a car that knows what it is.
Will sink without trace