Month: May 2020

The DB11 AMR, launched last year, is a powerful GT car with its handling honed by Aston Martin’s Chief Engineer, Matt Becker, who spent the earlier part of his career working for Lotus. Mr. Becker not only has impeccable formal credentials, but he also has a rare talent for balanced chassis dynamics, and I fully intended to put this particular talent to the test. I planned to cover almost 1,000 miles on different types of British roads in order to see if the AMR would acquit itself as a long-distance weapon of choice. Motorways, twisty B-roads, heavy city traffic, rain, and snow were all on the menu.

The interior is exquisitely finished, and I am talking about a standard coming close to the Rolls-Royce level. The ergonomics are very good, but some things require a period of acclimatization, however after a few days I operated all controls intuitively in the dark, their haptics are by far the best in the history of Aston Martin Lagonda. The Bang & Olufsen sound system initially sounded extremely disappointing, but I discovered that some poor soul had adjusted the bass and treble controls in such a way that only a solo viola could possibly sound good on it. Since I very rarely listen to solo viola recordings (I assume they must be pretty irritating), I readjusted the sound and all was good from then onwards. The visibility from the cockpit is excellent for a modern supercar, and an array of cameras are there to help the driver avoid running over small animals and unwary children.

These are all minor things, the most important is how it drives. And… yes, it appears that Matt Becker’s wizardry with chassis calibration has paid off. The steering feels natural, well-weighted and linear, and the compliance of the suspension in normal mode (it is an adaptive Skyhook setup) makes this car a viable grand tourer. The stiffer suspension settings are better reserved for the track only, as the DB11 AMR drives best on normal roads with the suspension in the normal setting and the drivetrain using the hottest map, as it reduces turbo lag, sharpens the throttle response and speeds up gearchanges, at the expense of fuel consumption.

In default modes, the car, staying within speed limits, can offer a fuel consumption as low as 9.5 l/100 km: it is only possible because this turbocharged engine has a huge swept volume to start with (5.2 liters) and develops lots of torque before the turbos spool up. The paper figures are impressive, too, 639 hp, 700 Nm of torque, 334 km/h, 0-100 km/h in 3.7 seconds. And it certainly feels that fast, albeit the default gearbox mode exacerbates the turbo lag. That said, the transmission, an 8-speed hydraulic torque converter ZF unit, is perfect for what this car sets out to do: absolute genius in stop-start traffic (unlike the automated manuals of some rivals…), almost invisible while cruising, and quick enough when pressing on.

What’s most important, a proper Gran Turismo should never become annoying, and this one doesn’t. On winter tires it did very well in snow and slush, braved very bumpy roads and long motorway jaunts while keeping me entertained with great feedback from the chassis. Over a series of bumps, the body movements were still controlled, and the tires remained resolutely stuck to the tarmac. Yes, twice it did go into “limp home” mode for no reason and twice reported a non-existent gearbox fault, but that is the charm of modern electronics. Those things happen. The faults were never repeated, and the car took me where I needed to go with no difficulties. What I like very much is the fact that there is absolutely zero stupidity in how this car is engineered and thought out, and there is nothing on it that is similar to the ridiculous reverse gear button on the Lamborghini Gallardo.

I don’t really care about the color of the car I am driving if it drives well, but here I will make an exception: the AMR (Aston Martin Racing) looks fabulous in its pale green hue with the lime detailing, and the lime stripe in the headliner is a stroke of genius. The car feels suitably special, and its price tag is fully justified. A useable, friendly supercar that just happens to be hellishly handsome. And the Becker effect? Yup, it works, combining fantastic suspension compliance with a rare surefootedness at medium speeds. If you are not a product of the video game generation, you will enjoy it just like I did.

Jaguar Land Rover has developed a system that projects the direction of travel onto the road ahead of self-driving vehicles, to tell other road users what it is going to do next. The intelligent technology beams a series of projections onto the road to show the future intentions of the vehicle – for example stopping and turning left or right – as part of research into how people can develop their trust in autonomous technology. In the future, the projections could even be used to share obstacle detection and journey updates with pedestrians.

These projections, tested on autonomous pods developed by Aurrigo, feature a series of lines or bars with adjustable spacing. The gaps shorten as the pod is preparing to brake before fully compressing at a stop. As the pod moves off and accelerates, the spacing between the lines extends. Upon approaching a turn, the bars fan out left or right to indicate the direction of travel. Trials were set up by a team of advanced engineers, working in Jaguar Land Rover’s Future Mobility division, supported by cognitive psychologists, after studies showed 41 percent of drivers and pedestrians are worried about sharing the road with autonomous vehicles.

The innovative system was tested on a fabricated street scene at a Coventry facility with engineers recording trust levels reported by pedestrians both with and without projections. The trust trial program – which also included the fitting of ‘virtual eyes’ to the intelligent pods in 2018 to see if making eye contact improved trust in the technology – was conducted as part of Jaguar Land Rover’s government-supported UK Autodrive project.

Hispano Suiza is a historic Spanish car brand owned by four generations of the Suqué Mateu family. Hispano Suiza Fábrica de Automóviles S.A. was founded in Barcelona in 1904 by Damián Mateu with the support of the Technical Director and engineer Marc Birkigt, also a partner in the company.

Between 1904-1946, Hispano Suiza built more than 12,000 luxury performance cars and 50,000 airplane engines. In 2000, Hispano Suiza built a prototype luxury two-seat supercar HS21, which was shown in Geneva that same year. The K8 and HS21-GTS models, both evolutions of the first, were presented in 2001 and 2002.

Since it was founded, four generations of the Suqué Mateu family have preserved the family brand, injecting impetus and dynamism to maintain the significant heritage. On taking control of the company, Miguel Mateu – the son of the founder – continued the production of prestigious, top-of-the-range cars. After his death, his daughter Carmen Mateu was nominated President and she continued her father’s work, keeping the essence of the brand alive through a diverse range of activities including events, exhibitions, conferences, book and magazine publications, research articles, and participation in rallies. Today, Hispano Suiza is overseen by its President – Miguel Suqué Mateu – the great-grandson of Hispano Suiza’s founder.

Hispano Suiza is part of the Peralada Group, which represents the pinnacle of luxury in gastronomy and entertainment through its global portfolio of casinos, restaurants, hotels, golf courses, vineyards, music festivals, and marinas.

Next month’s Geneva Motor Show will see the world debut of the ‘Carmen’ – a fully-electric hyper luxe grand tourer from iconic Spanish luxury car brand Hispano Suiza. Named after Carmen Mateu, granddaughter of Hispano Suiza’s founder, the new model is the ultimate expression of classically-inspired design, next-generation technology, exhilarating power, and expertly-engineered dynamics.

Designed, developed and manufactured in Barcelona, the handcrafted Carmen is based on a super-stiff, hand-laid carbon fiber monocoque. This provides the foundation for the car’s exceptional luxury, comfort, innovation and attention to detail, which is uniquely combined with technologically-superior, fully-electric performance. While the new model takes inspiration from the Dubonnet Xenia, one of the elegant and luxurious vehicles built by Hispano Suiza in 1938, development and build of the Carmen and its custom-designed electric powertrain will be led by the company’s production partner, QEV Technologies.

Also based in Barcelona, QEV Technologies boasts a team of highly-skilled engineers with experience across design, engineering, R&D and production for Formula-E teams, supercar brands and mainstream car manufacturers. QEV Technologies has its foundations in motorsport with Campos Racing and is also the technology arm of Mahindra Formula-E Racing, plus the European R&D facility for Chinese firm BAIC.