Ferrari unveils new 200 mph convertible

Ferrari has released photos of the new convertible model it will unveil at the Frankfurt Motor Show next month. The V8-powered Ferrari Portofino will replace the California T, Ferrari's entry-level model.

Entry-level for Ferrari (RACE), however, is still over $200,000. Pricing for the Portofino will be announced in Frankfurt but it's expected to be similar to the California's, which is about $203,000.

The Portofino will be powered by 552 horsepower turbocharged V8 engine, an improved version of the one used in the California. The Portofino's engine will provide better responsiveness and improved fuel economy, Ferrari claims.

Ferrari promises that the engine's sound, with its characteristic snarl, has been enhanced so that it can be better enjoyed with the roof down. The body is also lighter and stiffer for improved handling. The car's top speed will be 199 miles per hour. 

 the Portofino will have four seats, including two back seats "suitable for short trips," and a folding hard roof. A new design for the front seatbacks allows more legroom for occupants in those small backseats. A new wind deflector will calm the airflow inside the cabin when the top is down

 The new name, Portofino, refers to a resort town on the coast of the Italian province of Genoa.

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The Ford Focus RS

When it goes on sale next spring,The Ford Focus RS will cost £28,940, sprint from 0-62mph in 4.7 seconds and hit 165mph. That’s a set of numbers worth boasting about, isn’t it?

 Honestly, under £29,000 for the Focus RS? Well done, Ford. 

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Mercedes-AMG A45

What’s AMG done – fitted some sort of Bloodhound-style rocket motor?
The next best thing – eked even more power out of the world’s highest specific output engine. The facelifted A45 AMG develops 376bhp and 350lb ft, rises of 21bhp and 23lb ft on the original.
Remember, we’re talking about a 2.0-litre, four-cylinder engine here. One that’s road-legal, fully warrantied by one of the world’s most recognised luxury carmakers, and returns north of 40mpg on the official combined cycle.
This incredible motor develops more punch than the V8 in the back of a Ferrari F355. It is, regardless of the moral dubiousness of The Horsepower Wars, a remarkable engineering achievement.
So it’s fast, then?
Yes, both on paper, and on a road. The raw stats claim 0.4 seconds have been trimmed from the A45’s 0-62mph sprint, which falls to 4.2 seconds. That beats Audi’s 4.3 boast for the RS3 (never mind that Top Gear has already timed a fully fuelled RS3 at 3.9 seconds over the same discipline).
The top speed? I ran out of clear autobahn before the A45 stopped pulling, north of 160mph. It’s extremely fast.
The diminutive engine is nonetheless tractable, and pulls keenly from zip, though it really prefer life above 3500rpm. And, at last, we’ve got a gearbox that agrees.

Tell me more about that gearbox.
The A45’s transmission is all about raw speed, and thanks to shorter gear ratios for third, fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh, the acceleration is relentless. Oh, and launch control has graduated from ‘amusing’ to ‘downright uncomfortable’.
The way the A45 initially moves from standstill to, say, 15mph does things to the squishy bits of your body that verge on abuse.

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BMW M140i

Refresh my memory, if you would.
Well, iDrive’s had a refresh with sharper graphics a la 7 Series. Only kidding, let’s talk about whirring bits of metal. 
Power is up by 14bhp to 355bhp, while a hefty 396lb ft (a 37lb ft leap) matches the M2’s output. This is courtesy of a new 3.0-litre straight-six turbo motor that revs cleanly and crisply to 7,000rpm, sounds sweeter than anything else in the class (if you pigeonhole the £7,000 dearer five-cylinder Audi RS3 as a rung above), and is slightly greener than the motor it ousts. 
BMW claims 36.2mpg and 179g/km of CO2, bettering the M135i by 0.7mpg and 9g/km. And that’s for the six-speed manual. Spec the £1,430 eight-speed ZF auto and the official claim rises to nigh-on 40mpg. As basic as it gets, you’ll pay £31,875 in total, which is still a bit of a bargain for so much power.

And the auto makes it quicker too?
Yup, thanks to those relatively seamless shifts and precisely no fear of human cock-up, an auto M140 oozes to 62mph in 4.6 seconds – 0.3 less than before. So it’s still right up there with the Golf Rs and Focus RSs. In fact, the powertrain is irreproachable. Beyond the tuneful engine note, pinpoint (for a turbo) throttle response, urgent torque and obedient gearbox, what more did you want, exactly?

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Seat Leon Cupra 300

Another new Seat Leon Cupra?
Unbelievably, yes. Since it first arrived in 2013 with a choice of either 265bhp or 280bhp, Seat killed off the 265bhp version, then boosted it to 290bhp, and sometime after having had a crack at the Nürburgring lap record, messed around with the bumpers, ruined the infotainment and gave us this: the Leon Cupra 300. Go on, guess how much power it’s got?

Is it fast?
Efficiently and effortlessly so. With the six-speed paddleshift gearbox doing the legwork for you, it’ll get from 0-62mph in a claimed 5.8 seconds – but a lot more consistently than you’ll manage the same in a manual Civic Type R, say – and do the standard 155mph all out. As you’re no doubt familiar with this 2.0-litre direct-injection turbo engine from Golf GTI, Golf R, Skoda vRS, Audi and so on, it’ll come as no surprise that there’s very little turbo lag to work around. 

So it sounds good too?
Um, no. It sounds flat. There is some audio-massaging going on, but it’s not as warbly as a Golf R or Audi S3. It’s as if Seat (and Skoda) are denied as rorty an engine note as their more premium cousins in an effort to create some clean air between the brands. But it’s not as if the Seat is a bargain – a DSG five-door Cupra is £31,805. That’s north of what the new Type R will cost you, and £2,445 less than a Golf R. Monthly payment-wise, an equally-specced Cupra is £405, and the Golf R is £445. So, one night out fewer a month and you get the VW. But no friends. It’s that close.

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