Performance cars still provide the Bass-line beat at Frankfurt

 

By Stuart Johnston

As the 2017 Frankfurt Motor Show enters its first full public-viewing week at the enormous Messe complex skirting the heart of the city’s business district, performance cars still remain a major draw-card at the world’s biggest 10-day motoring event.

This shouldn’t come as a huge surprise to anyone who has driven on German Autobahns, where 200 km/h is seen as an absolutely normal everyday occurrence, while the “big boys” stretch the legs of their Porsches and AMGs, and M-badged Bimmers to speeds in excess of 300 km/h. And it’s all completely legal, on certain unrestricted stretches of Germany’s famous highway system.

Taking a look around the show, we were struck by a diverse range of performance cars that blew our ears back while still standing still under the glare of the spotlights. Here are just a few of them:

The Aspark Owl electric prototype

Such was the high-profile presentation of this car, that we were at first convinced it was a concept car shown under the banner of one of the major manufacturers. Truth is, the Owl is a 750 kW all-electric hypercar created by Japanese entrepreneur Masamichi Yoshida, in conjunction with Japanese motorsport component manufacturer Ikeya Formula.

The bodywork of the Owl is simply stunning, with a profile lower than the famous Ford GT40, (one of the lowest cars ever built for limited road use, hence the name GT40, for 40-inches high).

The Aspark Owl utilises two huge electric motors mid-mounted behind the driver, and linked to a four-wheel drive system that includes a locked central differential to provide equal torque to all four wheels. The body, all sensuous, flowing curves,  is made of carbon-fibre but shrouds a rather basic tubular-steel chassis with aluminium stressed panels.

The Aspark Owl has apparently some seriously strong financial backing, and the idea with this car is to position it as the world’s fastest-accelerating  electric car, produced in very limited numbers. Asking price for the finished product is said to be in the region of R30-million!

The Hyundai i30 N - for the road N track

Hyundai launched its sporting motor campaign a few years back, first with a team of WRC  rally cars and then concept cars, showing potential ‘hyperformance’ levels of power and grip for the road.

The 2017 Frankfurt show marked the debut of a race-orientated Hyundai you can buy for the road, the i30 N.  The “N” stands for both the Nürburgring, where much of the car’s handling package was developed, and the company’s Namyang R&D centre in Korea.

The street cred looks good so far: Power is via a two-litre turbo motor producing just over 200 kW, and 353 Nm of torque (378 Nm with an overboost function). Transmission is through a six-speed manual gearbox and front-wheel-drive.

Hyundai says the i30 N is an everyday sports car that can double as a track day car, and it is fitted with 18-inch Michelin or 19-inch Pirelli rubber. Electronic programming offers five different modes for engine performance and damping settings. Hyundai says the prototypes covered over 10 000 km of testing at the Nürburgring, so the car should have impeccable manners in all sorts of road and track conditions. Much care has also been taken to provide a suitable engine note that “increases the driver’s BPM”, which Hyundai says stands for “heartbeats per minute.”

Renault’s new Mégane RS

The Mégane RS, courtesy Regie Renault, needs no introduction to performance car fans here in South Africa, and this third-gen RS is not likely to disappoint. The latest version has an all -new 1,8-litre turbocharged motor good for 205 kW and 390 Nm of torque.

It also has some “firsts” in this hot-hatch segment, including four-wheel-steering (for added high-speed stability), which Renault calls 4CONTROL .(How these motor companies love their acronyms, huh? And how they love to ignore traditional rules of the written word!)

In the suspension department, it now utilises hydraulic-compression bump stops which Renault says was inspired in the field of rallying.

A Cup version of the car employs an all-new Torsen differential to improve traction in mid-corner and when accelerating out of bends. The RS is also offered, for the first time, with a choice between a manual six-speed and a dual-clutch transmission with paddle shifts…

And , speaking of RS…. Audi RS4 Avant

Audi’s RS4 Avant made its official public debut at Frankfurt 2017. And what a beautiful car it is. The RS4 is also available in sedan format, but Audi showed the wagon, or Avant version prominently, aware that it was the iconic RS2 Avant developed in conjunction with Porsche in the early 1990s that created the whole RS legacy at Audi.

The latest RS4 uses a 2,9-litre direct-injection, bi-turbo V6 petrol-engine to accelerate the wagon from 0-100 km/h in 4,1 seconds, while a special dynamic package increases the electronically-limited top speed from 250 km/h to 280 km/h. It goes on sale early in 2018, and we will probably get an RS4 update here too. But alas, probably the sedan version, and not the inordinately elegant Avant wagon!

And now, celebrating half a century of Mini Motorsport success…

Mini says its John Cooper Works GP Concept is, at least in part,  a celebration of the original Mini’s success on the Monte Carlo Rally, its third and last victory coming in 1967.

This new John Cooper Works concept car is much more track-orientated, however, with huge front aprons, side skirts and a ginormous roof spoiler, indicating excitement.

The use of carbon fibre also emphasises the car’s fixation on a weight-loss programme, important for any car with performance aspirations.

The car dispenses with a rear seat, headliner, and other non-essentials for the typical track-day driver, and interior door panels were also considered superfluous to requirements. In good old concept car tradition, with wheel diameters are huge – 19-inchers on this one. Oh, and the race number refers to the year the original British Mini came into being – 1959.