HOT WHEELS, STRANGE BADGE

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Some cars are more than they seem. Paul Markillie revs up ...

From INTELLIGENT LIFE magazine, September/October 2011

Back in the 1980s there was one hot hatchback that could easily see off Volkswagen’s mighty Golf GTI. To most people, however, it looked like an unexciting Fiat Strada. But the car-obsessed could spot the differences: suspension a little lower, wheel arches a bit wider and small badges bearing the image of a scorpion. What I loved about this car is that it was a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Forget the fact it rusted almost as rapidly as it would go, and that it kept garages busy trying to tune the multiple carburettors on its two-litre engine. The thing about the scorpion badge is that it bestowed upon the car a certain specialness; this was no ordinary Fiat, but an Abarth.

Now I have been driving another Fiat bearing the scorpion badge. This too has wolverine tendencies, though they emerge very differently. The Abarth 500 has all the manners of the cute, modern Fiat 500 runaround upon which it is based—until you press the “sport” button. Then the steering tightens up, the exhaust starts to bark and more power is delivered to the wheels as it turns into a rocket-powered skateboard. Technology has become vastly more capable of creating two cars in one.

Abarth is an example of a hot badge, a brand within a brand borne by some high-performance versions of a standard car (see "Badge engineering", below). A Porsche or a Lamborghini is what it was designed to be: a sports car. The hot badges appear on souped-up hatchbacks, saloons and coupés that can be as quick as a sports car. Some, like the Abarth 500, are now badged a little more brazenly, but that is because buyers who have splashed out a third or more above the price of a well-equipped standard model are now more keen to advertise that fact.

Abarth’s history is fairly typical of the bunch. The company began in Turin in 1949 where its co-founder, Carlo Abarth, tuned cars for various motor sports. He put a scorpion badge on them because he was born a Scorpio. Abarth was bought by Fiat in 1971 to become its racing division. It faded from the scene after the 1980s, but has since been revived as a separate outfit to engineer the hottest Fiats and sell them through a separate dealer network.

One of the best-known badges is Cooper. Charles Cooper’s garage in Surbiton, Surrey, used to build racing cars; it was the place to take your Mini to have it prepared for racing or rallying. In 1961 Cooper’s son John developed the British Motor Corporation’s Mini Cooper, which came to dominate rallying. The name was licensed to BMW after it revived the range with the new mini. Almost every other mini now seems to be a Cooper, so the badge has become less special. But the fastest versions bear the name John Cooper Works. A sub-brand within a sub-brand, then.

The most formidable hot badges appear on BMW and Mercedes-Benz cars. The Mercs hail from a town in southern Germany called Affalterbach, where Mercedes’s AMG performance division is based. This also began as a tuning specialist, set up in 1967 by Hans Aufrecht (who provided the A) and Erhard Melcher (the M). The G comes from the town where Aufrecht was born, Grossaspach, as Aspach is written in German. Over the years AMG became more closely integrated with Mercedes and since 2005 it has been a wholly owned subsidiary. It uses the daunting Nürburgring racing circuit as its test track. Indeed, an AMG SLS is used as the safety car to lead the pack in Formula 1 races during incidents and rolling starts. From the moment you slip through its gull-winged door, driving an AMG SLS is like being in charge of a batmobile.

Other AMG models could, at a glance, pass for standard Mercedes saloons, although closer up you can spot carbon-fibre brakes, aerodynamic body trimming, multiple exhaust pipes and, of course, the AMG badge. A CL63 AMG kept me amused for ages, even adjusting the seats. Every part of the seat could be altered electronically, and it worked dynamically, moving side cushions to hold you tight in fast corners. It would also give you a massage (four different settings). And the night-vision camera could spot a deer in the hedgerow down a dark country lane.

But what really makes AMGs special are their engines, still built by hand in Affalterbach. This car had a twin turbocharged V8. It could purr along like any luxury car or, at a press of the ubiquitous sport button, growl loudly as you disappear down the road.

Some of these hot badges are used in a process known as “homologation”. This is an agreement that a certain number of cars need to be constructed for road use in order to qualify as a “production” car. It is how one of the petrol heads’ favourites, the BMW M3, came into being. In the 1980s BMW had to build at least 5,000 high-performance versions of its 3 Series cars within 12 months to qualify for touring-car championships. BMW needed only a handful for racing, but the rest went like hot cakes. Nowadays, instead of building the minimum number of cars needed to go racing, BMW’s M (for motorsport) division makes as many sports versions as it thinks it can sell without diminishing the exclusivity of the badge.

Some are very exclusive, like the BMW M3 GTS. The 15 that were available in Britain have all sold. A radio in this £117,600 car is an optional extra, left out to save weight, as in essence this is a racing car, albeit one which can be legally driven to the track. Once there, it is hard and brutish; a roll-cage occupies the rear seat.

The new BMW 1 Series M Coupé is civilised for everyday use, but still a very quick car with a three-litre six-cylinder engine. Only 450 are available in Britain. The 1 Series M Coupé is something of a swan song for BMW’s smallest cars: in September a new 1 Series range goes on sale. An M version of the new model is some years away, but if you can’t wait, you could fake it. Many people do. You can buy the badges, body trim and wheels to stick on a standard car and make it look like the high-performance version. The only problem is, if the real thing draws up beside you at the traffic lights, your sheep will be left behind bleating.

BADGE ENGINEERING

Abarth 500 Bad-boy version of a cute car with a 1.4-litre turbocharged engine. Great fun. From £14,155

MINI John Cooper Works Delivers a kick from a 1.6- litre fuel-injected engine good for 148mph. From £22,330

Alpina D3 Biturbo Smart twin-turbo diesel from Alpina, a German specialist which makes a range of BMW-based cars. From £35,250

BMW 1 Series M Coupé Powerful, yet comfortable; wild or refined. Can be driven either way. From £40,020

Mercedes-Benz CL63 AMG Large, luxurious, furiously fast and only two doors to show its sporting intent. From £115,620

Paul Markillie is innovation editor of The Economist.

Illustration: Nick Hardcastle