The Ford Focus ST with tweakage by Mountune. Available on new and used STs, the Mountune St receives engine tuning – the chassis remains unfettled. A larger intercooler, new air filters and electronic map push power up form 222bhp to a mighty 256bhp and the torque swells by 59lb ft to 259 lb ft – [...]

The Evo X may have come over all urbane with its new sheetmetal, but don’t be fooled- its still raw, an incorrigibly edgy handful that feels truculent ay any speed below flat-out. Get into the Mitsubishi and you instantly feel genetically programmed to set new speed records. Around the track, both cars are eye-wideningly brisk [...]

The Impreza’a biggest crime is its styling. Previously STi may have been ugly but their grotesqueness was part of their allure. They had charisma, the appeal of their ballistic pace heightened by their visual oddness. The Impreza is impossibly bland. Even in fahkinhell 296bhp type UK spec it looks eminently forgettable. And, after the Impreza [...]

Traditionally the scariest car in any given supercar group test is the Lamborghini, but not today. Today it’s the bulging Porsche 911GT2 that’s has my nerves tensed so tight I hear a creaking noise every time I move my arms. It’s the GT2 that seems me so hesitant on the pedals its giving me in [...]

The lower slung, conventional looking RS6 is a more obvious track contender, but its outrageous 10 cylinder engine has a lumpen effect on the front end. Even Usain Bolt would lose a few tenths if he had to run with Phill Jupitus sitting on his shoulders. So the Audi, unsurprisingly, understeers on the track, through [...]

Just one corner, that’s all it takes. The BMW X6 hurtles towards it with a kind of rock off a cliff momentum, obeys the dab of slow pedal and then makes a hefty lurch for the turn in. you imagine its going to loll and further like an SUV should on a racetrack, an impression [...]

I have two early Volkswagen golf memories. When a student in the early 1970s I had a tutor whose house in North Wales I used to visit. Quentin Hughes was an architect polymath, conservationist, soldier, bon-viveur-a big influence. He introduced me, in no particular order, to the Wine society, to Eames chairs and to the [...]

The two really cleverly packaged small cars of recent years the Mercedes Benz A class and the smart both performance a weird visual trick after you have parked them and climbed out. Having spent sometime in the cabin and become used to its airiness , you look back at the car’s interior and cant believe [...]

Its time to say goodbye to our hard riding high revving little red rocket, we have had it for a year and nearly 11,000 miles and that time it defeated its category rivals in the last year’s performance Car of the year, won a seemingly unwinnable battle against Subaru’s new turbocharged, four wheel drive Impreza [...]

Restorative justice is forcing a criminal to apologize to his victim. And I am in the dock again, with prosecutor Chilton accusing me of kerbing without due care and attention. His memory is much longer than he is, because this rap dates back to a nibbled alloy on his long-gone MX-5. The day he got [...]