Performance / Sports Cars

This is it! The last of its kind. The Doctor Who of Holden’s once ubiquitous Commodore-based Ute. It is highly unlikely that a car-based ute will ever grace our roads again after the demise of the locally made Holden. While the Commodore may reinvent itself in the form of a …

After what seems like an excruciatingly long and wet winter, the sun’s ray has finally made a triumphant return to chase away the cold mornings and the dark nights. With it, the milder temperature brings an outburst of colour and the welcoming scent of blooms in the garden. Like ladybirds …

The Abarth 595 ’50th Anniversary’ celebrates the introduction of the first Abarth tuned Fiat 500 in 1963. Relaunched in 2007, Fiat’s performance arm Abarth had been making performance parts for the bambino since the early 50s before rolling out the original 595 at the Turin Motor Show a decade later. …

The Power to Surprise. That’s Kia’s tag line and they really are all about the power to surprise, especially with their European-sourced and curiously named ‘pro_cee’d GT’. The surprise here is how well it drives! I don’t usually spoil my review by giving my verdict at the start, but I …

The last time I took a second look at a city car was when a P-plater zoomed past in a white Audi A1 with the registration plate “THX-DAD”. I thought to myself: “Lucky Girl”. Most city cars are about as interesting as a phone directory. But not this one. Based on …

The Ford Focus ST is one of the household names when it comes to hot hatches. Along with the Volkswagen Golf GTI they define the best recipe to inject performance into a mainstream hatchback. Now in its third generation, the new ST – for Sports Technologies – is set to …

GTI – the three letters that is synonymous with Volkswagen’s famous hot hatch. Based on the equally celebrated Golf, the original Mk1 GTI was a guerilla project by a handful of VW engineers who saw the potential in the Golf’s chassis. The philosophy behind it was simple. Take a basic …

The new Lexus RC F stormed into the opening day of the 2014 North American International Auto Show looking like it’s ready to pounce on the BMW M4 on display a few stands away. The RC F is Lexus’ answer to BMW’s recently launched M4. Both are high performance rear-wheel-drive …

617kW of power and 1,161Nm of torque. Enough fire power to launch the Apollo 13 to the moon. One Australian. One American. Both with a big petrol V8 at the front that powers the rear wheels and big Brembo stoppers as anchors. And the best part – both are ForceGT’s …

The Peugeot 208 GTi has a lot on its shoulders. Not only does it have to face stiff competition from the Ford Fiesta ST and Renault Clio RS, it is also charged with reenacting the brilliance of the iconic 205 GTI in the 80s, which was tarnished by the 206 …

The last BMW Z4 wasn’t quite sporty enough to challenge the Porsche Boxter, nor comfortable enough to cruise ahead of the Mercedes SLK. It was confused with what it wanted to be. And the controversial ‘flame surfacing’ design philosophy courtesy of Mr.Bangle didn’t help either. Meet the new Z4. The …

Imagine a duffle bag stuffed full of fire crackers. Now, imagine throwing the bag into a cave and lighting it up. That’s what you get when you jab the Start button on the Chyrsler 300 SRT8 Core. The 6.4-litre HEMI V8 awakens with a thunderous roar that’s enough to set …

Back in September, we drove the 2013 Holden VF Commodore SSV and were impressed by its sharp handling, quality and unbeatable value for money. It didn’t take too long before we find ourselves getting behind the wheel of its high performance cousin, the SSV Redline, to find out just how …

The Honda CR-Z is one of those cars with a ‘world first’ claim by its maker under its belt – the world’s first hybrid sports car. When we tested the 2012 model, we were impressed with the car’s handling and fuel economy. Since then, Honda has given the car a …