cars

CHARGING ACROSS COUNTRY

Paul Markillie — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 15:31:20 +0000

Can electric cars cope with rural conditions? Paul Markillie finds out ...

From INTELLIGENT LIFE Magazine, Winter 2009

Darkness is upon us, so the headlights are on. That will only make matters worse because we still have some way to go. Who do I know in the next village? Jake’s a green and I’m sure he wouldn’t mind letting me use an electric socket for an hour or two. That should be long enough to top up the battery for an assault on the hill towards home. Perhaps we can reach the pub? I make a mental note to put an extension lead in the boot–one long enough to reach the car park from the bar.

It will be touch and go. The dial on top of the dashboard is mesmerising. The needle is well into the red now and will soon drop below 10%. My fault, because I failed to charge up fully before we left. But we are still going. We pass Jake’s place and then the pub. We are now on a single-track lane, but at least there are no lights coming. So I go for it: floor the accelerator and take the hill. Amazingly we hit 50mph. Only a few hundred yards now and up the drive, stop and plug a power lead into the socket fitted in the hole where petrol would normally go. The secret of life with an electric car is perfect planning.

A number of new electric cars will be launched over the next few years. Many will be hybrids of various sorts, but among them are cars that will rely only on their battery. With incentives like zero road tax, freedom from tolls such as the London congestion charge and perhaps even subsidies, all-electric vehicles could make a lot of sense in cities, where average speeds are slow and most journeys short. But what about getting their tyres dirty in the countryside?

You would think that rural electric motoring has a lot going for it. Out in the sticks people are more likely to have a drive or a garage available for an overnight charge. And with scant public transport most households tend to have more than one car, so the electric one could serve as a short-range runabout. But there are drawbacks, which soon become apparent during the downpour that greets the arrival of an electric Smart Fortwo (on a trailer because it lacks the range to reach rural Hampshire from Milton Keynes). The lanes in these parts turn into rivers when it pours. The Land Rover just ploughs through, but the Smart is small, and water and electricity don’t mix. I am particularly concerned about the big battery under the floor. But to survive in the countryside any car must cope with chores like an eight-mile (13km) round trip to a convenience store, come rain, wind or shine.

It is strange turning the ignition key to be greeted by silence, but pressing the accelerator sends us zooming off. The Smart is surprisingly nippy. One of the great attributes of an electric motor is that it delivers torque almost instantly. Which is why there is no need for a gearbox. The Smart has all the safety features of a real car, including air bags and anti-lock brakes, plus a heater, a fan, lights and windscreen-wipers—all of which go on as the interior steams up and we pick our way through the shallows.

The journey is completed without a glitch, although it has relieved the battery of about 10% of its capacity. The next morning, after an overnight charge, it is back to full. All other trips proceed much like driving a small petrol car, except that fast main roads also sap the battery. This is why the electric Smart is electronically limited to 60mph.

I estimate it cost about £1 to recharge overnight. Daimler, which owns Smart, reckons it can go for 70 miles on a charge, but I would be more comfortable with about 50 miles and plenty of reserve. As most small cars will now do more than 50 miles on a gallon of petrol, the Smart could in theory go four or five times farther for the same money—just not in one go.

The total cost of ownership is less clear because the big manufacturers have yet to launch and price their all-electric cars. My Smart was a test vehicle. The final version, soon to go into production, will have a more efficient battery and will initially be leased to companies. Sales to individuals are due to begin in 2012.

As a rule of thumb, expect the initial outlay on an all-electric car to be twice that of its petrol equivalent, because the batteries are expensive. Subsidies could reduce prices, but drivers wanting longer range or better performance will have to pay more for extra-powerful batteries. Some carmakers will sell or lease batteries separately. Only when electric cars take to the road in increasing numbers will it be possible to compare costs and performance properly. Still, as the prototype Smart showed, the sums just might add up to use one in the countryside—provided you remember to plug your vehicle in.

ALL-ELECTRIC OPTIONS

Smart Fortwo ED Up to 115km and 0-60kph in 6.5 seconds. Due 2012

Renault Fluence Five-seater saloon with a 160 km range. Due 2011

Tesla Roadster Ferrari rival with supercar price-tag. £94,000

Mitsubishi iMieV A four seater 160km-range city car. Due 2010

Trabant nT Born again in electric form, if its German backers can raise enough cash

Illustration: Nick Hardcastle

(Paul Markillie is innovations editor of The Economist. In past columns he has written about when drivers are passengers and computer gearboxes.)

DRIVING WITH A DOPPELKUPPLUNGSGETRIEBE

Paul Markillie — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 16:04:55 +0000

Automatics are now so good, gearboxes may soon be history. Paul Markillie is a convert ...

From INTELLIGENT LIFE Magazine, Autumn 2009

A certain type of driver believes real cars have manual gearboxes while automatics are for wimps and Americans. He—it’s usually a he—gets the same satisfaction from rapidly double declutching through the gearbox of a 1953 Jaguar C-type and flicking around the gearstick on a nippy little 2009 Hyundai i10. But now, even drivers who have never owned or desired an automatic are having their prejudices rattled.

The case against driving an automatic used to be strong. They were sluggish, thirsty and expensive, both to fill up and to maintain. An auto might seem sophisticated in big, lazy cars because it made them easy to drive. Yet the same car with a mechanical gearbox could overtake faster, go through corners with more precision and, because manuals had one or two more gears than an auto, run more economically too. But now some new cars are showing that most of these things are no longer true.

The best example is a Porsche 911. Ever since it was launched at the Frankfurt Motor Show in 1963, the 911 has been something of a drivers’ car. In 1990 it was offered with the option of a new sort of gearbox called a Tiptronic. This was an automatic that could also be driven like a manual, and quite aggressively on a racetrack, by nudging the shift lever forwards to change up or backwards to change down. Now things have moved on again and the latest 911 comes with the option of another remarkable piece of cog-changing equipment: the Doppelkupplungsgetriebe.

It’s more conveniently known as a PDK gearbox, and a good way to try one out is by doodling around town with auto mode selected. As the car in which the PDK comes is a 911 Carrera 4S (the 180mph four-wheel-drive version), a trip to the supermarket is hardly exerting. But it is telling. The Porsche runs so smoothly that it is hard to detect when it is changing gear. And, until the traffic built up, it was showing a fuel consumption of more than 30mpg. Though not impressive in eco terms, this is good for a supercar with a six-cylinder 3.8 litre engine.

As I head back out of town it is time for a different pace. With the auto mode still on, more energetic use of the accelerator produces a character change. This is not the kickdown effect, in which accelerating hard causes a conventional auto to change down. It is much more subtle than that. The Porsche’s computer constantly monitors your driving style: get more forceful with the accelerator and brakes and the point at which it changes gear moves accordingly. Uphill, downhill, into corners, it seems to know exactly what gear to be in. Push harder and as the engine starts to growl the gearbox’s change points enhance the performance.

Want more? Pressing the “Sport” button causes the engine to rev still harder, but now with a bit of a thump in the back when it changes up. And what’s that noise when braking hard into a corner? It’s even blipping the throttle on downshifts. Floor the accelerator and the gears change like lightning as children and shopping disappear into the creases of the back seats. Still want more? There is another button marked “Sport Plus”, but in Britain it’s hard to find a public road to begin to try that out. As this is a German car, perhaps it should be called the “Nürburgring” button.

So what happens when you drive the car properly by manually changing gear? It can be done by nudging the selector lever or racing-driver style with paddles on the steering wheel. But however you do it, you won’t beat the computer. In automatic mode the PDK can change gear faster than any driver can—and without fluffing a gear change. The changes are completed in microseconds, which means there is hardly any interruption in the power being delivered to the wheels.

What makes the PDK different from older automatics is that it is, in effect, a manual gearbox being operated by a computer—or rather two manual gearboxes and two clutches combined in one device. This still works out lighter and faster than using a big torque converter, which traditional automatics have. In the PDK, one clutch operates the even gears (second, fourth and sixth) and the other the odd gears (first, third, fifth and seventh). What happens when accelerating in second is that the computer knows third gear is likely to be required next and pre-engages it. The change is then almost instant.

Computer-controlled gearboxes like the PDK are being fitted to a number of new cars. Because they are lighter and more compact, they are also more suitable for small cars, and the ability to programme them for different styles of driving means more consistent and lower fuel-consumption figures when the cars are in normal or economy mode.

Even heavy automatics fitted with torque converters are getting a new lease of life with similar electronic controls. So, to put the macho image of the manual gearbox to rest, I took a Jackal 2 for a spin on an army training ground. This is the latest version of an extreme off-road vehicle built by Supacat, a Devon-based company. Through ponds, up steep sandy hills and flying over ruts, the Jackal 2 is capable of 80mph and preserving your spine with a suspension system made from a cushion of air. Yet it is amazingly easy to drive, because its automatic gearbox does all the clever stuff to make sure you don’t get stuck. In combat that could be fatal. I have to admit it, autos are now the smart choice.

CLEVER SHIFTERS

Porsche 911 Carrera 4S Latest incarnation of a classic, with PDK gearbox from £75,400 (pictured top)

Fiat 500 1.2 Stylish town car with Dualogic semi-automatic gearbox from £9,130

Mitsubishi Evolution X GSR Hooligan tendencies with dual-clutch automated manual from £32,999

Audi 3 1.4 SE Good-looking small car from a big brand, with dual clutch automatic from £18,195

Supacat Jackal 2 Runs rings around a Hummer. Only available with a computerised gearbox, from £200,000 plus armaments

(Paul Markillie is innovations editor of The Economist. In past columns he has written about buying a car at auction and when drivers are passengers.)

WHEN DRIVERS ARE PASSENGERS

Paul Markillie — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 17:35:51 +0000

Before long, your car could be driving you. Paul Markillie gets a foretaste ...

From INTELLIGENT LIFE Magazine, Summer 2009

In an emergency we react instinctively. So it is hard not to slam on the brakes of a big and expensive Mercedes-Benz when the stop lights on the big and expensive Mercedes-Benz I am following suddenly glare alarmingly red and loom closer. But I have no intention of even touching the brake pedal. Instead, I grip the steering wheel in nervous anticipation and hope that the radar is working.

It is. Quickly the car comes to a halt a safe distance from the one in front. This is spooky; the car knew what to do and I did nothing. Then we try it again, but this time the preceding car keeps to one side, as if in an adjacent motorway lane, before suddenly swerving in front of me. Again, it is devilishly hard not to hit the brakes. But the Merc’s computer has got there before me and is automatically slowing the car to avoid colliding with the idiot in front.

Even if I had stabbed at the brakes the car would have ensured I did so hard enough to avoid the vehicle in front. It would also prevent the wheels from locking up in a skid and keep the vehicle stable. To prove this I drive as fast as I can into a skid pan being sprayed with water, lift my hands from the steering wheel and brake violently. The seat-belts quickly tighten and the seat-cushions pump up to hold me firm, just like a jet-fighter does in a high-g turn. There is a judder from the traction control, but amazingly the car stops in a perfectly straight line.

This is not the sort of thing to try on the open road. I did so accompanied by experts on the test track at Mercedes-Benz World in Surrey. You cannot yet buy a production car that is capable of driving itself, but as cars get smarter and bossier the elements that will make this possible are coming together. For now, at least, a vehicle like the Mercedes-Benz S320 CDI is probably the closest thing to it. It costs around £60,000 and will need to be equipped with some optional extras, the most interesting of which (at £1,443) is called Distronic Plus.

Many cars now have ultrasonic sensors, which help parking by bleeping alarmingly if you get too close to an obstacle. Some also use radar sensors which can “see” much farther. The S320 uses radar to measure the distance to the vehicle in front and, if the closing speed is worrying, it at first warns the driver, helps him brake at the optimal level or, if there is no response from the driver, applies the brakes automatically. Distronic Plus uses the radar and braking system for a sort of intelligent cruise-control. The driver can set the system to remain not just at a certain speed but also at a certain distance from the car ahead. So, apart from the bother of steering, the S320 will just about drive itself along a fairly busy motorway.

The same sensors on the S320 can also measure the size of a parking place and combine that information with the view from a camera mounted in the boot that is activated when reverse gear is selected. By super-imposing a series of coloured lines on the picture, it shows the driver how best to steer into the space.

Some cars will even turn the steering wheel for you. One of these is the Skoda Superb. It may not be as flash as a Merc, but when the £345 option of Park Assist is added to a Superb Elegance (priced from £21,105) you can fold your arms as the car parks itself. All you need to do is accelerate and brake when instructed to do so. Companies are working on versions that will brake and accelerate too. And BMW has an experimental 7 Series that automatically parks itself in your garage when you get out and press a button on the key fob. Press the button again and the car starts up and reverses out.

What makes such automation possible, and for relatively modest additional cost, is the fact that cars are becoming more electronics-based. So linking all the bits up may require only a handful of extra parts and some control software. Steering, for instance, is often electrically assisted, which makes it easier for computers to operate when parking. Forward-facing cameras that warn you if you stray from a motorway lane are being taught to read speed-limit signs too, and could slow the car down if it is exceeding them.

At present these systems are designed to provide assistance but leave the driver ultimately in charge. Yet the cleverer they get, the less clear that distinction will become. It is already possible to wire up a car so that it will drive itself. That was demonstrated in the Urban Challenge held in 2007 in a mocked-up town in California that is used for military training. Teams competed with robotised vehicles capable of coping with traffic, crossing junctions and parking. The event was sponsored by America’s defence department, which hopes to send unmanned convoys through war zones.

Similar technologies will make the cars we buy increasingly autonomous. It is hard to argue against this if it makes driving safer. But I have a niggling worry that it could make some drivers lazy and less attentive. If your car can park itself, why bother becoming familiar with its dimensions and learning how to manoeuvre it correctly? Why bother braking when the car will do it for you? These are questions the car industry, insurance companies and motoring organisations will have to face. Accidents will happen, and inevitably it will lead to more drivers blaming the car itself.

Soon after playing with the clever Mercs, I am behind the wheel of a 40-year-old Triumph Spitfire. You have to put up with rattles, noise and a bone-jarring ride while thinking as far ahead as possible about braking and how to position the car to ensure you get around fast corners. By demanding your attention the Spitfire makes you concentrate on the road and respect the limits of its handling. If it had automated systems taking care of these things it would be more relaxing to drive. But I don’t think it would make you a better driver.

AUTO-MATED

Volvo XC70 D5 from £29,675. Adaptive cruise control, collision warning and auto brake: £1,300 extra.

Skoda Superb Elegancee from £21,105. Park assist to locate and steer into parking places: £345 extra.

BMW 730d from £53,730. Night vision with pedestrian recognition, £1,470 extra.

Jaguar XF 3.0 from £34,634. Adaptive cruise control and emergency brake assist £974 extra.

Lexus LS 600h from £79,730. Monitoring system to warn driver if looking away when hazards lie ahead: standard fitting.

Picture Credit, top: Delcio G.P. Filho (via Flickr)

(Paul Markillie is innovations editor of The Economist. In past columns he has written about renting the car of your dreams and buying a car at auction.)

GOING, GOING: BUYING A CAR AT AUCTION

Paul Markillie — Fri, 29 May 2009 21:36:25 +0000

With prices tumbling, auctions are where the action is. Paul Markillie picks up some tricks from the pros ...

From INTELLIGENT LIFE Magazine, Spring 2009

For one day in 1978, this was the scene of a famous Bob Dylan concert. But the vast expanse of Blackbushe aerodrome, Surrey, is also home to British Car Auctions. It’s cold and wet, and I’ve arrived early to take my time walking through a sea of more than 700 cars, all nicely washed and parked in long lines nose to tail. I’ve also followed the advice of experts and attended previous sales to watch and learn. And now I’m ready to buy.

The mission is to find a family vehicle with six seats to replace an ageing Toyota Previa with intergalactic mileage. In view of the credit crunch, the idea is to buy used and to cut out the middle-man by going to a car auction. My previous visits have confirmed that, by and large, auction prices can be quite a bit lower. Many of the vehicles are two or three years old with one previous owner. These cars have either just come off lease from one of the big finance firms, who insist on regular servicing, or have been taken in as trade-ins by the big dealer groups. Some are from smaller garages or are privately owned.

As a wholesale market this is the natural haunt of car dealers, although the public can turn up and bid too. A family standing in front of me in the queue for a catalogue confess to being novices. “Anyone else here for the first time?” asks the receptionist before running through the procedure. I listen in too—just in case. “And remember ‘sold as seen’ means just that,” she concludes. That’s the scary bit: no test drives, no opening the bonnet and checking the oil. And you can’t even sit in the driver’s seat.

So how do you avoid a banger? Some of the vehicles may have a bit of a guarantee, like a warranted mileage. A service history could also be available. But I’ve concluded that the surest thing is to act like a car dealer. A hundred years ago they would have traded horses. And like horse dealers, they have developed a keen eye for what makes a good, reliable and saleable form of personal transportation. They also have a few tricks up their sleeve.

I join them walking the lines. Dealers have a knack of evaluating a car by walking around it and peering inside. They know what to look for. Alloy wheels badly scuffed from careless parking and bits of trim missing or damaged indicate a tough previous life. The dealers are not taken in by smart-looking tyres and unmarked carpets. Just as horse traders paint oil on hooves to improve the look of the equine leg, dealers paint tyres. And they always throw out scruffy mats to reveal untrodden carpet below.

I find the cars I’ve circled in the catalogue. Some look good, and a blue one in particular takes my eye. I retire to the cafeteria for coffee and market research. It’s always advisable to set yourself a bidding limit. A copy of Auto Trader helps, as does a text-message service offered by “Glass’s Guide”, the bible of the motor trade. Text the registration number and mileage and back come the trade-in and retail values. It costs £1.50 a time plus network charges. I also need to work out where to go. There are three auction halls at Blackbushe and most cars are sold in under a minute after being driven up to the rostrum.

I take a seat in the first hall, just to get tuned in. Auctioneers take bids quickly and talk even faster. It takes some getting used to. Screens that display the bidding help, as do the lot numbers which are going under the hammer in the other halls.

As the first lot I am interested in gets closer I join the dealers, who don’t sit down but mill around outside the entrance to the auction halls. There it is possible to hear if the engine is running properly and possibly detect other faults. The dealers follow cars that take their interest into the hall and bid from the floor.

A Ford Galaxy which I had seen earlier joins the queue, its diesel engine ticking over nicely. It’s a 2005 model with under 24,000 miles on the clock. This would do, I suppose. But there’s no time to procrastinate; it’s gone at £6,600. The silver Chrysler Voyager is almost five years old, but it’s too American for me. Gone at £4,350. I pass on the Volkswagen Touran because a three-year-old Volvo XC90 looks better and is classier. But could the local garage service it? Gone at £8,100. I simply couldn’t bring myself to bid for the Vauxhall Zafira, even though it looked and ran perfectly. The TV ads for this car are horrible.

The family I saw earlier go for a 2005 Vauxhall Astra diesel, which mum bags for £3,000 to the delight of her daughter. And so it goes. A 2007 Toyota Corolla Verso diesel has just 12,000 previous miles and enough seats for the children—but not all the stuff they take with them. It drives off at £7,850. A couple of Mitsubishi Shoguns pass through (Land Rovers are better) and then that nice blue car arrives.

The adrenaline is building. I’m nervous. I double-check my notes. “Glass’s” reckons a 2001 Porsche Boxster 3.2 S roadster trades in at £10,351 in top condition, a little over £8,000 if below average. It would retail at just over £13,000. It’s a fantastic sports car which might top 160mph. I took one around a test track once. They are well built, reliable and a new one would be almost £40,000. Mileage is fine, service record good, but five previous owners is a worry. I had written down £8,600 max, which with the buyer’s premium of about 3% would keep it under £9,000.

They’re off at £8,000. “Eight two, eight three,” rattles the auctioneer. Bids seem to be coming from everywhere, but I go for it with a wave of the catalogue. “Eight five.” For a millisecond it’s mine. “Eight six,” says the auctioneer looking to my right. Soon it’s between two young men, one seated at the back and another standing near the exit with the strands from an iPod dangling from under his woollen hat. These guys are determined and it’s up to £9,000 already. “Nine five,” says the auctioneer. The iPod man nods it up. “Selling at nine six,” says the auctioneer. The man at the back goes for it. “Nine seven,” says the auctioneer. The iPod man turns dejectedly and the hammer falls. The young guy behind me walks to the podium. They will want 10% immediately and the balance in 24 hours. I hope he enjoys it. At least he saved me from finding a tricky explanation on my return home.

OTHER DISTRACTIONS

Audi A3 Sportback 2.0 Tdi September 2005 with 97,955 miles on the clock. Only one owner. New: £20,835. Sold for £5,900.

Mercedes C180 1.8 Elegance July 2008, 6,281 miles. Solid German engineering. New: £24,052. Sold for £17,000.

MG TF 1.8 VVC Roadster September 2003, 49,445 miles. A cheap mid-engined sports car. New: £16,055. Sold for £3,000.

Range Rover Sport 2.7 TDV6 September 2006, 26,938 miles. Bling but still tempting. New: £37,685. Sold for £18,800.

Toyota Prius 1.5 T4 Hybrid July 2006, 22,662 miles. Green but zippy. New: £18,635. Sold for £9,900.

Picture Credit: Hugo90 (via Flickr)

(Paul Markillie is innovation editor of The Economist. In past columns he has written about driving economically and renting the car of your dreams.)

RENTING THE CAR OF YOUR DREAMS

Paul Markillie — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 11:04:26 +0000

More and more people are driving fast cars--for a day or so. Paul Markillie joins the club, and takes his son along...

From INTELLIGENT LIFE magazine, Winter 2008

Usually it’s a male thing that begins when you are young. The give-away symptom is when car posters start appearing on the walls of a boy’s bedroom. Spotting exotic vehicles during car journeys soon follows. Eventually it leads to loud arguments in pubs. The afflicted are tormented by a single question: what’s the world’s best supercar? There is rarely any agreement--not least because so few ever get to drive any of the contenders. Ownership may be beyond the reach of most, but at least the dream is becoming easier to rent.

Which is why I’m sliding into the driver’s seat of the latest Porsche 911 (type 997) Turbo and William is getting into the passenger seat. Father and son hit the open road in an amazing vehicle that is capable of almost 200mph (322kph). And immediately the generation gap opens. “The rear spoiler is retractable,” I inform him in that older-person way. “It doesn’t rise until you are going fast to help keep the back end on the road.” He reaches forward, presses a button and up goes the spoiler--at only 30mph. And so it continues. When Sam Barker, the photographer covering our day out, asks if anyone knows how to drop the roof on a Lamborghini Gallardo Spider, William instantly obliges. For an 11-year-old, he’s clearly watching too much “Top Gear”.

Being able to drive two supercars in a day is a treat. But we have four more to try out before tea: a Ferrari F430, an Aston Martin DBS, an Audi R8 and a Bentley Continental GT. In all, that’s about £750,000-worth. They belong to dreamcarhire.com, a company based near Oxford, which hires out a fleet of supercars. For £995 you get an hour behind the wheel of six of the best on glorious routes winding through the Cotswolds.

It’s a mixed bag of folk who fork out this sort of money just for a drive. They range from petrol-heads who have been saving up for the thrill of spending a day behind the wheel of something they adore, to those simply enjoying a weekend birthday treat. Then there are visiting executives who want to hire something a bit flash for a week or more. Some renters are already supercar owners frequently keen to test-drive a new model without a salesman in the passenger seat.

There are various ways to get behind the wheel of such vehicles without buying one. Joining a car club can provide regular access to top models. There are many schemes available. Steve Marshall, who runs Driving Spirit, a Hampshire-based car club with a pristine fleet of modern and classic performance cars, operates a system in which points are bought with different tiers of membership and then traded for between 20 and 75 days of driving. Much depends on which cars are used and when. Hence taking the club’s Aston Martin V8 Vantage out for a weekend in the summer uses up more points than borrowing the 1961 Jaguar Mk2 on a weekday in the winter. It costs £500 to join with annual membership fees starting at £3,700. Each membership includes two named drivers and insurance, but the excess (what you could pay if the car is damaged) might reach £5,000 on some of the pricier motors, although it can be greatly reduced with an additional fee. Owners can park their own cars at the club’s secure premises when they take out a vehicle.

Driving experiences have become one of the most popular attractions offered by Red Letter Days. About three-quarters of its participants are male and their days out are mostly bought as a gift by wives and girlfriends, says Bill Alexander, the company’s managing director. Most driving events are held on circuits. They range from driving supercars to race cars, rally cars and monster trucks. I should keep this quiet, but a new package gives children aged from 12 a chance to drive a Ferrari--after a bit of practice in a Mini Cooper.

Aware that motoring experiences can be a marketing opportunity, some manufacturers are now getting in on the act. Land Rover, for instance, stages off-roading events that allow you to wallow along muddy tracks in a Range Rover. And Mercedes-Benz World, near the old Brooklands race track in Surrey, has become something of a one-marque automotive theme park. The thrills available for hire include taking some of Mercedes’s top models out on a handling course and being shown how to slide them through a skid pan.

But back to the super six and the tricky decision about which one, assuming our lottery numbers come up, we should take home. William began with the Lambo at the top of his list and never swerved. It is the next best thing to having a racing car on the road; striking looks and stunning performance, but I worry about practicalities. The Ferrari is wonderful, seductive and terrific going around corners. The Aston sounds glorious, a superb mix of elegance and power. The Porsche is fast, impressive and feels like it has been built to go for ever. And as a new entrant to the supercar league, Audi’s R8 is hugely competent and an attention grabber because of it newness. In fact they are all good, but in different ways. Aston Martins have always been at the top of my list, but when you get a chance to drive some of the world’s finest cars back-to-back, your impressions can change. It is probably advancing years, but I found something very comforting about the Bentley. And with 600bhp it could still keep up with most of this pack. But best of all it also had a back-massager built into the driver’s seat. Just the thing after a hard day playing with supercars.

VROOOM

Bentley Continental GT Luxury on wheels. One days hire, £495. dreamcarhire.com

Aston Martin V8 Vantage A gentlemanly set of hot wheels. Annual membership from £3,700. Driving Spirit

Ferrari 360 An Italian sensation. Two to four hours at Donington Park racing circuit, from £250. Red Letter Days

Jaguar E-Type Roadster A 1970 icon from a classic specialist. One day's hire, £350. The Open Road

Mercedes-Benz AMG An extra quick Merc. One hour on a circuit, from £150. Mercedes-Benz World

Picture Credit: Sam Barker

(Paul Markillie is innovation editor of The Economist. In past columns he has written about the world's sexiest brakes and driving economically)

DRIVING ECONOMICALLY

Paul Markillie — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 03:23:14 +0000

How thriftily can you drive? You'll need to ape the hypermilers, writes Paul Markillie, "who disdain the brake, coast into parking spaces and even turn the radio off. And, of course, they are deeply nerdy"...

From INTELLIGENT LIFE magazine, Autumn 2008

Wives have an uncanny knack of knowing what their husbands have been up to. Mine also has a fuel-economy meter. Whenever I borrow her car, I am told to drive more economically and be more light-footed. But I understand all this more than she realises and just to prove it have borrowed her car again--for a journey back in time.

The engine is warmed up, the windows shut (improves aerodynamic flow) and the air-conditioning turned off (it steals power from the engine). My note-taker will be Henry, our smallest boy (less weight). The fuel-economy meter is reset and we're off. Slowly. Our mission is to drive economically, whatever it costs.

To begin with it's mostly downhill, but that advantage will not last because the Hampshire countryside will soon roll up again. Now you might think the best trick downhill is to slip the car into neutral and freewheel. It's not. You need to ape the hypermilers, or nenpimaniacs as the Japanese call them. These folks delight in driving as thriftily as possible; they disdain the brake, coast into parking spaces and even turn the radio off. And, of course, they are deeply nerdy. But to win at this game you need to be. Which is why I had found a helpful person at Toyota to explain how the engine-management system is programmed in my wife's Yaris.

This arcane information is essential because some modern cars have DFC, otherwise known as a deceleration fuel cut, and the Yaris is one of them. It means that if you take your foot off the accelerator at a certain engine speed (above 1,500rpm in the Yaris) the injectors stop supplying fuel to the engine, whereas if the car is in neutral they keep pumping for the engine to tick over. The difference might save only an eggcup of fuel along a stretch of road, but hypermilers care about eggcups of fuel because they eventually add up to gallons. So I leave the car in gear and take my foot off the accelerator. After two miles the meter shows an average of 92mpg (3.07 litres per 100km). Amazing.

Passing through a small town demands more use of the accelerator, but at least the traffic is light. The technique is to keep things as smooth as possible. Feather the throttle, don't brake hard and work through the gears quickly. By the time we have climbed the first hill the average is down to 84mpg. Then it's onto the M3 motorway. I know what to do here: keep the speed at about 50mph and tickle the accelerator. It's called "pulse and glide", a sort of on-off technique carried out very gently to coax the engine along at its most efficient level. Everyone overtakes me, including a car towing a caravan. A lorry driver glares as he roars past, uphill. If there were traffic lights on the M3, we would surely have become victims of road rage.

One more stretch of motorway, a main road and then a turn into the New Forest. By now the average is down to 83mpg, but we can do better. The road is clear. Feathering the throttle and playing the DFC gets the numbers creeping up. Luckily there are no ponies wandering on the road. Straight through the village without touching the brakes, coast up to a junction, turn right and pull up at the entrance sign to the National Motor Museum at Beaulieu to take a photo to prove it: 85.1mpg at an average speed of 37.9mph.

There's a reason for going to Beaulieu. In the fuel crisis of the early 1970s, I was taught to drive ultra-economically in order to compete in a fuel-economy marathon with other journalists. I won the small-car section, wringing 57.4mpg out of a Vauxhall Viva, which usually managed 35. There was no DFC then, but that is about all I can remember about the car. Even a faded press clipping gives little away, apart from my awful hair and even worse fawn suit. The Viva is so unmemorable that Beaulieu does not have one, nor do any of the classic-car enthusiasts attending a show there. But there is a man with a nice drophead E-type Jaguar and we spend a while discussing how he rebuilt it.

Blame the E-type. I reset the meter for the journey home but drive the car to enjoy it. The Yaris is sprightly with its torquey 1.4-litre diesel engine. This time I sprint up the hills and leave the lorries for dust. We pull up at the spot we left from with 60.6mpg on the meter having travelled at an average 42.9mph. It was a much nicer journey, still economical, and even better than a champion fuel-miser with big hair could manage in a Vauxhall Viva.

FRUGAL IN ANY LANGUAGE

Smart fortwo 269cm
60.1 mpg 112g/km. From £6,530. A German cutie to park in tiny places.

Citroen C1 1.0i 343cm 61.4 mpg 109g/km. From £7,295. Small, cheap and with French flair.

Fiat 500 1.3 Multijet diesel 355cm 67.3 mpg 110g/km. From £10,900. A great little Italian job to rival the Mini.

Kia cee'd 1.6 CRDi diesel 423cm 62.8 mpg 119g/km. From £12,395. South Korean cars get better all the time.

Toyota Prius T3 hybrid 445cm 65.7 mpg 104g/km. From £17,932. An even greener plug-in version is coming from Japan. Mpg is combined cycle.

Picture credit: kevindooley (via flickr), Motoring Picture Library

(Paul Markillie is innovation editor of The Economist. In past columns he has written about convertible sales and the world's sexiest brakes.)

ROOF DOWN, SALES UP

Paul Markillie — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 12:43:55 +0000

GOING TOPLESS | August 6th 2008

Rolls-Royce

Convertibles are a roaring trade. Paul Markillie, innovation editor of The Economist, reports from a soft-top Rolls ...

From INTELLIGENT LIFE magazine, Summer 2008

The roar of the motorway has been left behind along with the curious looks. On a deserted country lane, the time has come to abandon the balm of climate control. Flip open a centre console, hold back a small lever and a whirring begins as five layers of canvas lined with cashmere rise high into the air, fold up and quickly disappear behind the rear seats. Then a smart teak-planked tonneau cover plops into place. A little bell, of the kind that might be used to summon a butler, announces that all is complete. It is time to point the flying-lady perched on the front of the super-long bonnet between the hedgerows, to press the accelerator and go.

The warmth of sunshine feels good, the breeze refreshing and the birdsong unusually loud. Normally the burble and rasp of the exhaust sets the note for driving a convertible high-performance car along a back road--the best place to do so. With a 6.7-litre V12 engine there is plenty of performance, but the car is almost silent. Much nicer to amble along majestically, and to chime in with the many touches from an earlier era of motoring: the thin steering wheel, the clock in the centre of the dashboard, the abundance of wood and leather. Even the car's name is an echo of the past. The Rolls-Royce Phantom Drophead Coupé, all £307,000 ($614,000) of it, glides effortlessly to the top of topless motoring.

This is a rarefied field. Last year about 900,000 convertibles were sold worldwide--a fraction of the 70m cars that rattled off production lines. But the number is steadily growing. Some places are more in love with convertibles than others. Britain and Germany are Europe's hottest soft-top markets: the share of convertibles in Britain has more than doubled in the past decade, with just over 100,000 sold last year, representing 4.4% of the market. In America, more than 250,000 convertibles were sold, but that was just 1.6% of sales.

In hot and very sunny places, roof-down motoring can be uncomfortable, so convertibles often don't sell as well as they do in temperate climes. But even if it is a bit chilly, northern Europeans quickly drop the hood at a glint of sunshine--especially if they are new owners. With the windows up and the heater on, it can be surprisingly cosy. Some convertibles also have a pop-up wind deflector behind the seats, which can reduce the blast from the rear. When the roof is down, hair tends to be blown forwards. The air flowing up across the windscreen lowers the pressure inside the car, which causes air to rush in from the rear.

Technology has made living with convertibles much easier. Roofs fit better, leak less and are often electrically powered. Some models now have folding metal roofs. Growling along in a Healey 3000 or a Triumph Spitfire with the roof down can mean turning up with wild wind-blown hair and a waft of exhaust fumes. With a modern convertible and its aerodynamic tricks, you arrive feeling less battered.

That so many old convertibles remain on the road--even a few 1920s Phantom 1 Dropheads with their big pram-like hoods--is testament to their ability to avoid the scrapyard. This is because, from super-luxury to the mass market, convertibles share a sort of specialness that seems to endure. Being cherished by a succession of owners also means they tend to depreciate in value more slowly than many other cars.

But most of all, convertibles look good. Nearly all manufacturers now have one or more in their range, and they often use them to front their advertising, even though they sell in relatively small numbers. Nor is building a convertible as simple as removing the roof from an existing model. Rolls-Royce, which has been owned by BMW for the past ten years, took a classic approach to completely redesigning its Phantom saloon to make the new Drophead. It has coach-style rear-hinged doors (to help with the extra rigidity that a convertible needs) and a sit-on picnic-style boot. A quarter of the cars leaving Rolls-Royce's new factory at Goodwood are now Phantom Drop-heads. And as most of them will be driven by their owners rather than chauffeured, this shows what is perhaps the key characteristic of topless motoring: these are cars for people who enjoy driving.

SOME CHEAPER OPTIONS

Not all soft-tops cost £300,000. Here are five more affordable options--you could buy the lot for less than the Rolls and still have a hundred grand left over. Prices are British, checked in late April.

FASTEST (OF THIS BUNCH) Mercedes-Benz SL 350 Epitome of a German roadster, from £65,000

SEXIEST Alfa Romeo Spider As good-looking as in "The Graduate", from £25,500

CHEAPEST Mini Cooper Convertible More fun without the roof, from £14,970

BEEFIEST Land Rover Defender SVX Convertible Yes, even they make one (price tba)

GREENEST BMW 1 Series Convertible Starts at 134g/km CO2, from £22,330

(Paul Markillie is innovation editor of The Economist. For the spring issue of Intelligent Life, he wrote about the world's sexiest brakes.)

THE CAR IN FRONT MAY SOON BE A HONDA

Fri, 10 Aug 2007 23:10:40 +0000

AND THE THING IN THE GARAGE MAY BE A PRIVATE POWER-STATION

Traffic Jam, by David Kozlowski/dallasphotoworks

Toyota seized a decisive lead in green motoring a decade ago with its Prius hybrid. Now Honda is chasing the post-petrol market by offering not only hydrogen-powered cars, but home power-stations to go with them. By Nick Valery ...

From INTELLIGENT LIFE magazine, September 2007

IN ITS BID TO wrestle away Toyota's halo, Honda is testing a flashy family saloon code-named FCX--the third in a series of hydrogen-powered electric cars Honda has been quietly developing since 1989. The FCX is not the first electric vehicle to hit the road with a hydrogen fuel-cell under the hood: in a recent test on public roads General Motors showed that its Chevrolet Sequel could travel 300 miles on a single tank of hydrogen.

But compared to the FCX, the rest are experimental mules. Honda proposes a roomy family saloon with all creature comforts that breezes along with a hum, accelerates briskly to 100mph, rounds bends with barely a hint of roll, and goes 270 miles on each tank of fuel. As far as everyday motoring is concerned, no compromises have been made to accommodate the vehicle's radical innards.

The FCX gets the equivalent of 75 mpg--three times the 24 mpg achieved in the city by the relatively frugal Honda Accord. In performance terms, the two cars are pretty much the same, except that the FCX's greater low-end torque makes it a lot quicker off the mark.

The FCX is also vastly cleaner. Because a fuel cell works like a car battery in reverse--combining hydrogen from the tank with oxygen from the air to produce electricity--there is no combustion processes and therefore no greenhouse gases from the car itself. The only waste coming out of the FCX's tailpipe is water vapour.

Carmakers everywhere see the fuel cell as the ultimate replacement for the internal combustion engine. But they've been idling along on the assumption that the changeover won't happen until 2020 at the earliest--after a decade spent building the infrastructure for making hydrogen widely available to the public. Right now there are only 60 or so hydrogen stations in the whole of America (50 of those in California) compared with 160,000 petrol stations.

Why has Honda turned up the heat? For one simple reason: it is not waiting for the hydrogen infrastructure to get built, but intends developing a network of refueling stations of its own instead. And it plans to put them, not on petrol station forecourts, but in motorists' own homes.

Honda's plan for marketing the FCX presumes that motorists will buy or lease the home-brew equipment to make their own hydrogen from natural gas. The Home Energy Station uses the natural gas supply to produce hot water and heat for the home as well as hydrogen for the fuel-cell car. If the domestic power supply goes on the blink, a built-in inverter can take juice from the car's fuel cell to produce alternating current for running the home.

California's authorities love the idea. They want to see clean co-generation in the home and energy efficient cars on the road; and they hope FCX owners will be tempted to leave their fuel-cell vehicles running in the garage rather than taking them for a spin. By selling their surplus electricity back to the grid, FCX owners could help local utilities meet their peak demands and avoid California's dreaded summer brownouts.