SEEN from the performance: funny or just outrageous?

FCA

Marc Lachapelle

Wednesday, march 7, 2018 07:01

UPDATE
Wednesday, march 7, 2018 07:01

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Do you like trucks?

Surely a lot, since 68.8% of new vehicles leased or sold last year in the country were “light trucks”. Let us speak rather of “light duty”, because three-quarters of these machines are the suvs which are much more of the car than the truck.

And since these vans are selling better and better, the manufacturers multiplied, of course the variants, in all formats imaginable, to convince us that these vehicles can do everything as well as cars, including riding very fast, even on a circuit.

BMW takes the first shot

Unsurprisingly, BMW was the first to play the card of the performance and handling of the road with its X5, which was launched in the year 2000. Unlike the ML, Mercedes-Benz, arrived earlier, it was constructed with a shell that is self-supporting and not taking no for an all-terrain, despite the systems to be borrowed from Land Rover which BMW owned.

BMW X5 2002

After a short ride on the road and a long way from earth, the rest of the launch of the X5 was held at Road Atlanta, in Georgia, on one of the circuits the fastest and most demanding of the continent. I remember being as impressed as astonished by the aplomb of the X5 put on the laps of the track in the background, without flinching. Firm suspension and wide tires to offset its mass of over two tonnes and the height of its body. The engineers of the bavarian were challenged, successfully, the laws of physics.

The success of the X5 has not remained long without a response. Porsche has given a big boost in 2003 with its Cayenne, including the Turbo version, powered by a supercharged V8 of 4.5 liters and 440 horsepower, has raised the bar a few notches.

Porsche Cayenne 2003

Mercedes-Benz has responded with versions AMG a more aggressive approach to all of its utilities and at BMW, the X5 M is equipped with a V8 of 4.4 litres, as his ancestor, but it is two times more powerful than 555 horses, with its two turbos. And what about the new Lamborghini Urus with its bi-turbo V8 engine of 4.0 liters and 650 hp, or the Jeep Grand Cherokee Trackhawk, and the 707 horses of its V8 surcompressé?

Lamborghini Urus

I drove it a few days ago, the new Alfa Romeo Stelvio Quadrifoglio has become, last fall, the SUV the fastest time on the famous Nürburgring, with a lap time of 7 minutes 51,7 seconds. Eight seconds better than the Cayenne Turbo, which V8 book now 550 horsepower.

The V6 biturbo engine of the Stelvio in product 505, but it is lighter by almost 200 kg. I had fun like a madman at the wheel, on the route of the Circuit of The Americas in Texas, where to run usually the F1, once you’ve found it heavy and its suspension too soft in the first fast lap. Because the laws of physics do not change.

Alfa Romeo Stelvio Quadrifoglio

FCA

Squaring the circle

Nevertheless it is a beautiful madness to it all, if you think about it two seconds, with odds of over-consumption and pollution emissions, to make turn pale Steven Guilbeault. With reason, if we consider the current need to reduce drastically our carbon dioxide emissions, and all the others, no offense to the climate skeptics.

BMW and Porsche have delivered hybrid versions and plug-in their big SUV and Bentley has just unveiled a hybrid version rechargeable the opulent Bentayga. These models consume and pollute a little less than their peers, but they are still heavier, with their batteries. The right answers are elsewhere.

It is rather funny to say, but with these SUVS that are growing in number, it is really not out of the woods. For the moment, at least. The worst thing is that SUVS are particularly well suited to our roads too often full of potholes. Not the most chic or sporty with their 20-inch wheels, but most of the others.

To ride in Quebec, we should have SEEN structure and body lighter, with good battery life electrical and a thermal engine of the booster need. And why not versions more efficient and agile? Something like the new Jaguar I-Pace, all-electric, for example.

Jaguar I-Pace

Less expensive, ideally.