This episode started with a proper old skool hot hatch, the iconic Volkswagen Mk2 Golf GTI. I’ve been fortunate to see a great example of these up close and they really are bloody good cars. Take a well loved Mk2 GTI to a tight mountain pass and it will keep any current hot hatch very [...]
Volkswagen Australia, are you watching! Even Tom Ford, all the way over in England, knows the deal—bring the Scirocco to Australia in place of the three door Golf GTI. While GTI production is in limbo prior to the launch of the MkVI model the case for the Scirocco is even stronger. WHAT ARE YOU WAITING [...]
The shootout saw Jason Plato in a Lexus IS-F with Tiff Needell in a BMW M3 saloon. The Bimmer was quicker round the track. Just. But no surprise that the Toyota felt softer and more distant. Tom pitted the new Subaru Forester against a Land Rover Freelander II. He reckoned the Forester was tinny and [...]
Apologies for the late update to this week’s show. Jason Plato—AUSmotive’s preferred Fifth Gear presenter—started the show comparing the JDM Honda Civic Mugen RR v the UK spec 2000 GT. The Japanese Civic was the quickest around their test track, and by some margin, plus it sounds bloody good, too. I didn’t want to mention [...]
A much better showing from the lads at Fifth Gear this week. The shootout saw Jason Plato pit der neue Passat R36 Estate against der neue Audi A4 3.0TDI Estate. TheR36 is Volkswagen’s most powerful and quickest production car to date, but it didn’t have it all its own way against the A4 oil burner. [...]
So the next episode of Fifth Gear has been and gone and if you can’t wait for it to air on Foxtel’s Lifestyle Channel, here’s a quick recap. Tiff brings back the shoot-out, starting with Mazda’s revised RX-8 up against Nissan’s 350Z. Whoa, that beeping rev limiter on the RX-8 is just daft. Just as [...]
Fifth Gear is back on UK screens and Episode 1 of Series 14 saw the debut of a new presenter, Tim Shaw. No, not the Demtel man, but someone possibly as, erm, loveable. We also saw Snooker legend and resident bad boy Ronnie O’Sullivan get some advice on how to blow his Crucible winnings. He [...]
This was the last episode in Series 13 of Fifth Gear. The Anglesea shootout was between the early 1990s Ford Escort Cosworth and the early 2000s Ford Focus RS. Interestingly the older Cossie took the honours and was around 1.5 seconds quicker around the track than the RS. Amazingly, and somewhat surprisingly, as seen on [...]
Renault Australia, get your arses into gear! Why do we not get the Clio down under? It was released when Napolean was telling Josephine ‘not tonight!’ There’s no excuses, surely! Rant aside, this is a clip featuring the Renault Clio Cup and the MINI Cooper S with JCW tuning kit, as broadcast on the final [...]
Oops, a bit late with this precis (Episode 10 aired last night)! Fifth Gear‘s Series 13, Episode 9 kicked off, as usual, with a shootout at the Anglesea track, and we saw the current hot-hatch du jour, the Mk5 Golf GTI take on the newly launched Subaru Impreza WRX. It seems the new Rex has [...]
Episode eight rolled off Fifth Gear‘s production line last night. Starting off at Anglesea, as usual, was another pointless comparison, as usual. This week saw a Porsche Cayenne GTS against a BMW X5 4.8 V8. And just in case you want to know which SUV is quickest around the track, which of course you do, [...]
The seventh episode of Fifth Gear‘s thirteenth series aired in the UK recently. Crumbs, this latest installment really was scraping the bottom of the barrel. As usual, Vicki kicked off the episode by punting a couple of cars around Anglesea, this week’s thrashings were the Vauxhall Corsa SRi and Ford Fiesta ST. Is it ever [...]
Episode six of the current series of Fifth Gear featured the highly anticipated Nissan GT-R and Audi RS6 (see youtube clips below). In fact, Fifth Gear claimed theirs was the world’s first TV clip to review the GT-R. Jonny and Tom had a camp-off, erm, pun intended, with a pair of Volkswagen vans. The second [...]
Episode five of the current series of Fifth Gear featured the much anticipated comparo between the BMW 135i and the Porsche Cayman (see two part youtube clips below). A short interview with Moto-X legend and rallying hopeful Travis Patrana showed some of his amazing career highlights. The second hand star saw Johnny looking for the [...]
The latest episode of Five’s Fifth Gear saw Jason Plato take us behind the doors of the Segrave Club—the latest way to access the world’s greatest supercars, including one of my favourites, the Porsche Carrera GT. Johnny takes the new BMW 635d to Poland in search of cheap diesel fuel. And the second hand star [...]