The Alpine A110 is a small sports car that is very light and designed for quick handling. It's known for being fun to drive and has a unique design that many car enthusiasts love.
Power to weight ratio tells you how much power a car has compared to how heavy it is. If a car is powerful but also heavy, it might not be as fast as a lighter car with less power.
The Porsche Taycan is a high-performance electric car that combines luxury and speed. It's known for being very fast and has a lot of modern technology.
EV sports cars are electric cars that are built for speed and performance, similar to traditional sports cars. They use electricity instead of gasoline to power the engine.
The Tesla Roadster is an electric sports car that can go really fast without using any gas. It was one of the first cars to show that electric cars can be exciting and powerful.
The Porsche Boxster is a small sports car with a convertible roof that you can take down when the weather is nice. It's known for being fun to drive and is a popular choice for people who love fast cars.
The Volkswagen Tiguan is a small SUV that has a lot of space inside and comes with cool features like seats that can give you a massage while you drive.
The gearbox is a part of the car that helps it change how fast it goes. It's usually connected to the engine and helps control the car's speed and power.
The transmission is a part of the car that helps it change speeds. In electric cars, this part is usually simpler because they don't need to shift gears like regular cars do.
An EV powertrain is the part of an electric car that makes it go. Instead of using gas, it uses electricity stored in batteries to power an electric motor.
The BMW iX3 is an electric SUV from BMW, which means it runs on electricity instead of gasoline. It's designed to provide a spacious interior while being environmentally friendly.
The BMW New Class is a group of cars made by BMW a long time ago that helped the company become popular. They are known for being well-designed and innovative.
Oversteer happens when a car turns too much, making the back end slide out. It's important for drivers to know how to handle it to stay in control of the vehicle.
The Aston Martin Valhalla is a fancy sports car that uses both gas and electricity to go fast. It's designed to be powerful and has a lot of new technology.
A 3-liter V6 hybrid turbo engine is a type of car engine that uses both gasoline and electric power to run. It helps the car go faster while using less fuel and producing fewer emissions.
A four litre V8 is a type of car engine that has eight cylinders arranged in a V shape and can hold four liters of air and fuel. It's powerful and often used in sports cars.
A flat plane crank is a special part in some car engines that helps the engine run smoother and sound different. It’s often found in high-performance cars.
Car
Bentley Super Sport
The Bentley Super Sport is a faster and sportier version of Bentley's luxury cars. It's made for those who want a more thrilling driving experience while still enjoying luxury.
The Bentley Bentayga is a super fancy SUV that is made for people who want a luxurious ride. It's designed to be comfortable and can handle rough roads too.
The Bentley Continental GT is a very fancy and expensive car that is made for driving long distances in comfort. It's known for being powerful and beautifully designed.
The Bentley Flying Spur is a luxurious four-door car that was launched in 2019. It's known for its comfort and high-quality features, and it shares some design elements with the Continental GT.
Supernatural Car Care makes products to clean cars. They avoid using strong smells and colors that don't help clean better, making their products safer and easier to use.
The Porsche 911 GT2 RS is a super-fast version of the 911 sports car, designed for racing and high performance. It's known for being one of the quickest cars you can buy.
The Mazda MX-5, or Miata, is a small, light sports car that is very fun to drive. The RF version has a roof that can open and close, making it great for different weather.
The Lexus LFA is a very special and fast sports car made by Lexus. It's known for its powerful engine and is considered a luxury car because there are very few of them.
The Land Rover Defender is a tough vehicle built for driving on rough terrain, like mountains or muddy roads. It's popular among people who love outdoor adventures.
The Audi A4 is a nice car that feels comfortable and has a lot of cool technology. It's a good choice for people who want a mix of luxury and fun driving.
The Alfa Romeo Stelvio is a stylish SUV that looks different from most other SUVs. It's made for people who want a car that is both fancy and fun to drive.
The Renault 5 Turbo is a small, sporty car from the 1980s that was made for racing. It's known for being fun to drive and has a lot of fans.
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Welcome back to the intercooler, everybody, the podcast powered by car finance specialist, JBR capital. This is episode 294 with Dan Prost, an Andrew Frankl. Actually, this is the last episode of the year. Yeah, I know the years come to an end. I just can't believe how quickly the time goes. It doesn't quite, isn't it? Because they could have done one next week. We're having a break. Have we earned it?
You betcha. I think we've earned a break. So yeah, this is the last episode this year. This is going out on the 22nd of December. So if you're listening to this anywhere near its date of release. Happy Christmas. Well, happy Christmas, indeed. Happy new year. There is still time. Oh, yes, that too. There's still time. Forget happy Christmas. Give us your money. There's still time to buy the car lover in your life, a gift subscription to the intercooler for Christmas.
Yeah. So if you've left it to the very last minute, even if it's Christmas morning, yeah, it's hilarious. The thing is, you can check out in seconds and you decide when the recipient receives the gift. So you can choose pretty much instantly if you want to. They decide when to activate it, by the way, and a gift subscription to the intercooler gives all the same benefits as a full subscription.
So you can read our multi award winning ad free online car magazine and you get the best writers in the world. Absolutely. You get access to the entire archive, almost five years worth of stuff, two million words that will keep you busy for a while. You can listen to this podcast, ad free. You can listen to ask the intercooler, which is our other weekly podcast where we answer your questions. And you can, if, if the recipient, this person in your life who loves cars doesn't particularly want to read about cars.
It doesn't have the time. It doesn't have the time. They can listen instead because we now do audio articles, audio versions of our articles all voiced by proper human beings, not AI bots indeed. So it's a brilliant Christmas gift. And as you like to say, if they like it, you just do it again next year. That's them taking care of the year after year.
And if by definition, because you can't be listening to this before December 22nd, you're getting a bit twitchy about what to get your, you know, your car crazy love one.
It's the answer. It is. And if you happen to know of anyone who is still scratching around trying to think about what to give you. Yeah, yeah, just drop on my head, the intercooler. Yeah, point them towards us. Yeah, we'll, we'll be grateful for it. And they will be grateful for it too. Because you'll love it. And then they'll never have to think about your Christmas present every game. They everybody wins.
There'll be a link in the show notes in the description. So go and check that out or just head to the dash intercooler.com and find the gifts page. It's really easy to do. It takes no time at all. Okay. So this is the last, uh, the last podcast of the year.
Well, we're not going to use it to look back. Are we? No, we're going to look forward instead.
Three, there, there are a lot of interesting cars coming in 2026. And so that's what we're going to do for the next however long. We're going to run through some of what we think are going to be the highlights of 2026.
And when we say new cars coming, we either mean we're going to see a concept for the first time or a production version for the first time. Or we're going to drive them. Yeah, the first time.
So these could be cars, which could simply be shown next year, even though we may not drive them until 27 or whatever. All they may be cars, which are absolutely getting into production. We will drive them and impressions of which we will bring you during the course of the next 12 months.
So there's quite a lot to get through. I think we probably need to crack on. Okay. My list is in alphabetical order. I don't know about yours. My list is in absolutely as it comes all that it's all over the shop. Okay. So perhaps let's go through your list. Okay.
And I'll, you know, name a car and I'll tell you what I think Alpine A110.
Yeah, that'll be a car we'll see next year. I don't think we'll drive it. No, but we'll see it. We'll learn much, much more about it. Yeah.
And what do we already know? So like the current A110, our only ever 10 out of 10 car, it's going to be a relatively compact, relatively, we'll come back to this relatively lightweight two seat sports car mid engine.
Except where's electric? Yeah. Yeah, but it'll be configured like a mega like a mid engine.
It's muted. Yeah. Well, except they'll be on the rear axle, aren't they?
But the electric gobbins will be behind the cabin. Yes. Okay. But also for an EV, if not for by the standards of the original A110, really pretty like.
I'm trying to think of the number that I was given 14, 50 kilograms, 14, 50 kilograms less than. Yeah. So that's right. So you went to go and look at the A390, didn't you, which is their electric SUV, which was only so interesting.
But during that event, there was a lot of talk about the new A110 as well. And the new Alpine Supercar as well. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So maybe we'll learn a bit more about that next year.
But this new A110, the, what you were told and what you put in your story was that Philip Creefe, yes, who is the, I don't know if he's MD or CEO, but he's the boss man at Alpine.
And he confirmed that the next day 110 will be lighter than the outgoing Porsche Cayman. Yes, which is about going petrol. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Which is something like 14, 50 kilograms. Yes.
So that, I mean, that is 350 kilos heavier than the current A110. But for us, for an EV sports car, that's pretty good. It's actually very good. Yeah. And when he says lighter, he, therefore, must mean lighter on a light for light comparison.
So that's not going to be a sort of dry with, you know, titanium hub wheel nuts and version. That'll be, that'll be a sort of production.
In weight, which, you know, we'd all want it to be lighter, wouldn't we? But I still think a sub-tire half to seat EV has the potential still to be really interesting. Yeah.
He says it will be not much bigger, which is a good thing. The compact size of the A110, which is another way of saying it'll be bigger. It will be bigger more than 350 miles of range.
Two motors on the rear axle, and there is talk of a triple motor variant. So one on the front axle for four-wheel drive. Yeah.
Why would you want that? I don't know why you'd want that. More power, more weight. Yeah. Less of what that car should be about. That's not Alpine at all, is it? Not to me.
It's hard to know exactly how much power this thing's going to have. Maybe around 500?
Yeah. So it's power to weight ratio will be a lot better than the old car. Yeah. If you care about such things. Yeah.
So 500, that is double the base version of the current car. Yeah. I mean, yeah, I'm over that already.
There is talk that the platform might be adaptable for an ice powertrain.
Well, I mean, it wouldn't be the first, would it? I mean, I presume we're going to be getting onto Porsche's new allegedly mid-engine or mid-motor products at some stage later on in this podcast. Well, let's just do that now. We don't have to do this in alphabetical order. Okay. I think it's very topical. It's very relevant to the Alpine because, yeah, so we've known for a couple of years that the current 718 came in a box that would be out of the box.
Are they out of production now? Yeah, they are believe so. Okay. So they've not been on sale in Europe for a long time because of security software considerations.
And I think they've died in the UK now. I think you can buy one, but it'll be from stock. Yeah.
And so for the longest time, their replacement was going to be fully V.
And we were all wondering, why aren't we? How on earth do you replace those great cars with pure electric sports cars?
Turns out you don't. You don't. So what we know now is that I think the quote was top models, which could mean anything will be available with ice powertrains now.
And so essentially what this is is Porsche doing a U-turn on making the came in a box, the EVO.
Which will have come out considerable cost and considerable delay. But I think in the circumstances, it's the right call.
Well, their EV strategy, by the way, the product, the cars, the electric Porsche are fantastic.
Yeah. The Taycan is a brilliant car. Of course. But their electric strategy hasn't worked for them.
No, no, because the volume just isn't there. And you can't blame Porsche for what? You can blame Porsche for going all in too soon.
You know, I think that that is a criticism that has been leveled at them or be it only with the benefit of brilliant hindsight.
Yeah. But what you can't say is that cars like the Taycan and the McCarn are kind of half-hearted attempts.
No. They're not. They're absolutely outstanding. They're the best versions of their art that exists out there at the moment.
That doesn't mean that they're necessarily going to resonate with the car buying public out there who are being asked to spend an awful lot of money on a technology that has yet to convince them.
And it is not yet remotely clear that there is demand for EV sports cars.
There's no, I don't think there's any evidence for that at all at the moment.
What electric sports cars have there been? The MG. Yeah, we just scarcely set the marketplace on fire
before her Tesla Roadster. Yeah, which is so old now. It's sort of not relevant.
It is a complete irrelevant. And so yeah, so there will be electric, but sorry,
there will be combustion engine versions of the, the Cayman and Boxster.
So what do you think they mean by top models? I don't think they just make it,
and this is pure guesswork, because nobody taught me. I don't think they just mean GT4s and spiders.
I hope not. I think they mean, I think that there will be GTSs as well.
Let's hope so. Something a bit more realistic, a bit more affordable.
Okay, think about it logically and commercially. If you've gone to all that effort,
and I can't even imagine what kind of effort it'll be, to turn your EV only platform into something
that will bear an internal combustion engine and a gearbox. Why would you restrict that only
to the new sales at the top? You're going to want a mainstream product,
which anybody can go and buy. And so my guess, and again, couldn't stress more
guess that the standard car and the S, if you like, will be EVs.
And we will watch with interest to see what kind of take up there is, but then there'll be a GTS
and then there'll be the GT4s and the spiders and my totally speculative punters that they will
be the one which have the the ice engines in them. Yes, I would say so.
So, Portia has made that decision. It has reversed this decision to go fully electric with
its next came in a boxed-down. So Alpine, perhaps they don't have the resources to make big U-turns
like that. Or maybe they have just decided that this is a hump, which has to be gone over.
You know, later on in this conversation, we'll doubtlessly be talking about the new Jaguar,
which I can now talk about. But they are absolutely not going back.
Really, I did ask the question of Gordon Glover, who's the MD of Jaguar. And I said, you know,
what possibility is there. And he didn't say, we will not do this. Under no circumstances,
I categorically wouldn't say that. He said, there are no plans. It's not something we want to do.
This is an electrical architecture. This is an electric car.
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Okay. So we'll see. We'll see what Alpine does. What's your understanding on the
the Porsche? The came in on the box. Are we going to see anything next year or has the whole
project just been kicked down the road? No, no, I think we'll see. No, because it was going to be
this year, wasn't it? Yeah. It was absolutely going to be this year. So I think we will see it.
I think we might even drive it next year. Maybe we'll see it sometime, drive it later in the year
and we'll go on sail and learn in 27. But no, we will know. I'm convinced that by this time next year
and if you're listening to this, this time next year, this isn't the case with my apologies,
but I'm convinced that this time next year, we will know all within reason, all there is to
know about those cars. Let me do one more because it's, again, it's topical,
Caterham Project V. Yeah, I don't know where that project is. So this is in 2023,
so two and a half years ago that they should be looking at good words. Cool looking car.
Alpine by Anthony Janarelli. Yeah, that's right. Really cool looking car. I went over to have
a proper look at it because I was intrigued. Not Project V. That's what they really call that.
I call it Project V because that's what the V is, but apparently not. Project V. They've dropped the E
haven't they, clearly. And what we know now is that there will be a working prototype shown
in the next couple of weeks, early in the new year. So that project has not stalled entirely,
it seems. What working prototype means, I don't know, but presumably it's going to be much,
much closer to a production car. So again, this is a something very, very different from Caterham,
and it's a fully electric Caterham sports car, but it's a more substantial car. It's more like
an Alpine than a little lightweight seven type thing. Yes, I mean, it's more,
I guess in the sort of space that a Lotus Elise used to occupy relative to a seven,
thirty years ago. It is a more sophisticated, more mature thing. I think the secret with these cars
is what you have to produce is a car that is so visually compelling and desirable
that the fact it's an EV is almost a side show. You're just going to produce something,
and I have to say I thought the project V when I first saw it at the festival speed
two years ago, two a bit years ago. I did just think, wow, I thought this is an amazing looking car.
And I think if they are able to retain 95% of that design look,
I don't know if it'll be a success or not, but I think that's the correct way to go.
It's not to big up the fact that it's an EV. It's to big up the fact that this is an amazing,
beautiful British two seat sports car which happens to be powered by a Yamaha trim motor.
Yeah, that's right. The the show car had a curious interior layout. Do you remember that?
I will when you remind me. It was a three-seater. So it had one little seat in the back in the middle.
That's right. Yeah, very, very strange. And it's because it's a it's an EV,
so you don't have a combustion engine right in the middle there. You don't have a transmission
and gearbox down in there. So all the feet sort of, if you sat in the back, would your feet be
next to, do your feet go down between the two front seats? I mean, there's no reason why they couldn't.
If your passenger has stinky feet, you might not appreciate it, but no, but the thing is,
it could be quite interesting because a two seat sports car is very limiting for a lot of people.
Absolutely. But if you're you and your partner have got one kid, where you go?
Yeah, and also storage space. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that's a great limiting factor, isn't it?
It's why 9.11's always outside of the camels, even though they are bigger, heavier and more expensive.
And that really is turning the virtues of an EV powertrain in your favor. Packaging is
very, very different with an EV. And if you can clear up all that space in the interior to
take another passenger, brilliant, very, very clever. Do you want to give us one of yours?
Yeah, I mean, one of the cars of that, and it sounds quite boring until you think about it.
One of the cars I'm most excited to see this year is the BMW i3. Yeah.
The new i3. And don't go thinking it's a replacement for the previous i3.
It's not. Now, we've already seen the iX3. We've even tested it, reviewed it,
Andrew English did that for us. But this is the first of the
noia classic. This is the next three series. Yeah.
But it's not just like a replacement for the old one because A, it'll be an EV. But B,
this is the start of the next era of BMW. I don't think it is too strong to say that.
So the last time they used noia classic was when the 1500 came out in 1962. And that was the car
that say, and the cars that came off that was the car that saved BMW. And this is a complete
transformation. We hear it, don't we? It can have a range of 500 miles.
Yeah. Well, the iX3 does up to 500 miles.
Yeah. And the three series because it'll be lighter, lower, more error. We'll do at least that
and more. And we know that that's not sort of pipe dreams because Mercedes have already got
450 miles out of the new CLA. I mean, these are transformative numbers. I mean, for somebody like
me who lives in the middle of nowhere, about to go to Heathrow quite a lot, or Gatwick.
Gatwick is 150 miles away from where I live. And to get in the car and to know that come hell or
high water, however fast I drove, however bad the weather is, however much I use the bum was,
it'll get me there and back without even thinking about going anywhere. That to me is transformative.
And there will be so many other people around the country who'll be thinking in the same way.
So I'm, yeah, I think it will be, that's not me, I mean, yeah, I mean, the most significant
new BMW of modern times. If one of these cars will do a genuine real world, 400 miles.
Yeah. So they claim, let's say they claim 520, that means it should do 400.
And if it will do that, which means you'll be looking for somewhere to charge after
340, 350. But if you know you can scrape 400 out of it, you are almost never, and you can charge
it home, you are almost never going to plug into the public network. No. How many round journeys are
more than 400 miles? And if you do have to plug into the public network, it's going to be for such
a short period of time. And so infrequently that it's not going to trouble you. And these are,
you know, we mentioned on the podcast last week about this new generation. This was actually
in context of the EU putting back the ban on hybrid cars until 2040. But the new generation of
electric cars and how electric car manufacturers seems to have finally got its act together.
And this is one of, A, I'm talking about, and there'll be other cars that we talk about during
the course of this podcast, the much more affordable, desirable EVs coming up. But it's also
cars like this, which are real world everyday cars, that people, you know, all the reasons that people
didn't buy EVs in the past are going away. They haven't gone away yet because of course you can
have the best EV in the world, but if the infrastructure still isn't there to support it, it will still
be a barrier. And I also think that one of the problems with EVs is that they've had such a bad
wrap for such a long time now that people, even though they can be confronted with the numbers in
the new and I can sit on this podcast on right on our website. And nausea, I think that there's
such an inbuilt resistance to them now that it will take a bit of time to get over that hump,
but I think they will. And when they do, they'll arrive the other side and they'll find cars
like this waiting for them. Yeah, yeah, I agree. And so you mentioned the new i3, which is, yeah,
it's essentially an i3 series, an electric 3 series. That's what it'll be. And so we might also see
maybe a concept version of the X3. Well, they're talking about that, aren't they? And what they've
said is that it'll be a quad motor thing, so one motor per wheel, which does, it allows you to do
weird, extraordinary things with torque vectoring. But who's going to do them? That's not what
thing is. It's not just about crazy oversteer or whatever. It's even within the limit of grip,
you can make the car behave in a very, very unusual way. Yeah, okay. So maybe that car comes out in
27. Yeah, that'd be interesting. If the EU puts the band back until 2040, the entire lifetime of
that car and probably its successor will be within, that will be within the scope of that.
So why would, why are the lights of you and I not going to drive it and just think, well,
fantastic, but this is an M car and we just rather had a V8 in it. Yeah, I don't know. Yeah,
maybe it'll be a may do amazing things and it'll sound incredible because they've done some
clever stuff with technology. But all these things you are talking about strike me as being
mitigation strategies to try to get around the fact that fundamentally the platform that you have
for us, you know, and I'm not talking about the i3 has a completely different perspective,
but from an M car, yeah, the raw materials you are dealing with just aren't terribly interesting
to people who are interested in their sorts of cars. I'll be really interested to see whether
people respond positively to the idea of an electric M car. Yeah, I think you're right. But, you know,
if it's got two, three hundred horsepower more than the petrol M3, no, no, no, I know you don't,
but there will be people out there who go, wow, eight hundred horsepower. Wow, two and a half
times. Yeah, I know, I know, but who knows, we need to wait and see, don't we? But I mean,
we say it all the time that the best cars are not the ones that have been fitted with all sorts
of crazy technology and tuned to within in each of their lives, they're the ones that are
fundamentally inherently right from the get-go. You have to, exactly right, you have to ask yourself,
why is that technology there? What is it going? The reason it is there and what it is doing is
getting around the fundamental limitations of the former repulsion that I have chosen for that car.
Yeah, that's true. That is true. It's not all EVs coming in 2026. I give you, and hopefully we'll
get to drive it in 2026. As to Martin Valhalla. We will get to drive it in 2026.
Oh, you pee. Yeah, well, I think I even know what I probably can't say, but we will definitely
drive it. We'll drive it in quite early 2026. Oh, wonderful. Yeah, that's good.
Presumably you're going not me. Well, I absolutely undecided.
No, no, no, no, no, no, if it is, you're doing that one. Well, it may not even be me.
Okay, fine. All right, well, I mean, the Valhalla is very interesting car because it
arrives almost alongside the Ferrari F80 and McLaren W1, which we'll come to.
And it's broadly arrival for those cars, isn't it? Well, except it's,
I mean, it's what a quarter of the price of an F80? It's a million quid. Yeah, so it's maybe a
third of the price. I thought it was less than a million. Is it a million? Okay, I think probably
with taxes and, you know, I think it's probably up, maybe it's like 900,000 pounds or something,
but it is less than a million. Actually, no, it's quite significantly less than a million.
I think it probably is 850, 900 pounds. That's what I think was what it was. Yeah. So it undercuts
cheap, the McLaren and the Ferrari buy a lot. Okay, it doesn't have the same power. They're building
999 of them. That's not very many more than Ferrari are building. No. And, you know, maybe there'll
be some more convertibles later on or something. Well, I mean, I don't try, I don't know this,
but if I'm not sure, it's not in. You know, and the way they do things, there will be a Valhalla
spot. I'd be amazed if there wasn't. But that's okay. It's the best looking of the three.
I think I can say that. Yeah, it does look very cool. Yeah, it looks great. But it's an interesting
strategy isn't it to build a few more of them. Charge a third of the money. And it's, I don't think
it's going to look or feel, you know, inferior to the Ferrari in the McLaren. It's still going to be
an amazing, we don't know this, but it's going to be really fast and we can imagine that it's
going to be exciting to drive. Yeah. So it's not going to feel like the whipping boy in that competition.
I wouldn't imagine. And this is a car that has been a long time coming. Yeah, because we heard of
it. I mean, they were talking about its existence at the same sort of time. They were talking about
the existence of the Valhalla. Yeah. And son of Valhalla. How many times did we hear that? Yeah. And
if you remember, it was going to come with Aston Martin's own in-house Valhalla 3-liter
120 degree V6 hybrid turbo engine, which to be as merged during his brief and somewhat
disruptive state at Aston Martin, chucked in the bin. And it was then completely re-engineered
to take the four litre V8, but the four litre V8 out of the GT black series. So with the flat plane
crank and with the hybrid attached to it, I mean, on paper, looking at it, I really like the way
that it looks. And I really like the way it sort of stacks up on paper. I'm not really going to
get into whether it'll be a good investment proposition or not because I don't really know,
I don't really understand the way those things work. But I do really want to drive it because I suspect
it will be of the three of them, probably the most usable. I don't think it's going to be one of
these impractical cars that all 999 or 998 of them will get stuck in air-conditioned dehumidified
garages and never be seen again. And I think it's a good addition to the Aston Martin portfolio.
And we've said this before on a previous podcast quite recently that the Aston Martin
project lineup has never been better than it is now. Yeah, that's brilliant. And what a shame
it is is that so far at least this has not been reflected in the company's financial performance.
So a couple of weeks ago on the podcast, we spoke about the Bentley Super Sport, didn't we?
Yeah. So we know all about that, but hopefully we get to drive it next year. And there is Bentley's
first EV coming as well. The Urban Luxury SUV or the Urban SUV. I don't have it down here,
but it's something like that. Yeah, so I think that's how they build it. So what is this car? So
it's not an electric Bentayga, that's what it isn't. It's an all-new car on a new EV-only architecture.
We know it'll be smaller than a Bentayga. And it'll be for Bentley's first EV. And I think we've
said on a previous podcast that we think one of the reasons for the Super Sport's existence is
to balance it out. And so they produce a very main stream EV, SUV type thing on one hand,
and then a bit of a nut ball near the other to remind people that they still understand
where they came from and what's important and a lot of their customers.
I don't know the thing. I'm interested in it. I'm interested in driving it. I'm interested in
talking to Frank Deffenweiser, the head of the company, into what his hopes and aspirations for it are.
I wonder whether they think it's going to be a volume model or not.
I mean, we've waited so long, haven't we, for some genuinely all-new, I mean, the last all-new car,
well, the last all-new car they launched was the Continental GT in 2018. I mean, you could say
the flying spur that came in 2019 was also all-new, but it was obviously derived from the same
platform that the GT sat on. So, by the time this turns out, it'll have been, you know,
seven or eight years since we've last seen a genuinely, completely new Bentley. Fascinated,
yeah. I mean, I think the numbers will be amazing. I don't just mean the pound. I think they've
released some stuff about which I don't have charging capacity, but don't forget, you know, this
comes from the same parent company that owns Porsche and Volkswagen and I think the electrical
architecture will be unbelievable. So, it'll, it'll charge in five seconds flat, not literally,
but you know what I mean. And it'll obviously have an enormous amount of horsepower,
but whether it resonates out there, whether people out there just enough people out there think,
yeah, well, I really wanted an electric Bentley in my life to the extent that I don't want a V8
powered Bentley. Well, see, we will see. You've been riding in the new Jaguar EV, which is a very
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we're like a 997 GT3 RS. Probably like Hebe, you know, with no stereo, no aircon.
Gen 2. Yeah. Stripping away all the stuff you don't really need and just focusing on the stuff
that makes a difference. Very good. So the Jaguar, I mean, goodness me. Most must be the most anticipated
car of the FN anyone, isn't it? And the most discussed car for a long time because of that ad and
because of the way the show car looks. Yes. So, away you go. I have to be really careful here
because I could get me and I sent a great deal of hot water by saying something I shouldn't
because the way these things always work when you go to, because this is all part of the media
drift feed, building up interest, maintaining interest in the van, which they have to do
for a car that's, you know, deliveries aren't going to be happening any time soon.
Yeah. You sort of trot along and the time you're there is split into two halves. There's very
much the on record bit where you can talk about after an embargo has lifted what you've seen and
what you've heard and what you've experienced. And then there's the off the record bit where they
may or may not show you an awful lot more. But you do, you say it on condition and also sign
paperwork to the effect that this is all for your background information. But you can't say anything
about it until someone specified data in the in the future. And this was one of those. So I
can talk to you about jaguars positioning of the car, their aspirations for the car. I've also had
a ride in it. And I can talk to you about that. So what is interesting, but the so the car, which is
and the story is up on the website and on the app now and the photographs are all the camouflage
cars. But it's not the kind of camera. It didn't seem to me to be the kind of camera where they got
big sort of cardboard boxes disguising the shape of the car. So they filmed across the bodywork.
Exactly. So they got that sort of black and white stuff all over it. But the I think the
silhouettes that's probably is the silhouette or close to it. And I think if you look at that and
then you look at the concept car, I think that you will see as I saw just how close it is to
what jaguars said that they would produce. And I think I derive two things from that. One is I
think it's good because I did like the concept car. And I think if the production car takes that
design language, but maybe just dials it down a tiny bit. I think a really distinctive and interesting
looking car could result. But perhaps even more important to me is this shows to me that jaguars
going all in. Yeah. That they are not mucking about with this. They're not sort of producing a
concept car which is kind of like, I know the philosophy of jaguar and then the production car turns
out to be something completely different. I mean, they did this before. You won't remember
this because you may remember, there's a very long time ago. Before the original ranger of a
sport came out, they produced an amazing looking concept car called the rain stormer. Yeah.
The stormer. And then the production person came out. That's the problem with concept cars.
Yeah. Yeah. My sense is this ain't going to happen here. Okay. Just from looking at the outline of
that of that camoed car, I think it is very light. And if you look back and look at the concept car
and you think, gosh, I could be driving down the M4 one day and one of those things is going to
come up behind me. It's going to get your attention. Yeah, it is. It really is going to get your attention.
What else can I tell you about it? There are 150 prototypes out there at the moment doing their
thing, 150 cars. So all those people who said, oh, and it'll never happen. It'll never happen.
This is just jaguar sticking there. There's jail last sticking the jaguar toe in the water to
assess demand. And then once people see what it is, they'll be very interested. It is happening.
Jaguar is coming back. There's no question about that at all. You don't build 150 prototypes
for a PR exercise. You just don't. I know that the car is... Those prototypes, by the way,
probably cost a million quid or more to throw together. Exactly. This is no toe tip.
So we know the car has done its last summer of testing, so all the hot weather stuff is done.
We know it is about to go into, probably actually by the time we listen to this,
it has actually started its last winter. And then next year, 26 is going to be nickel and
diming it. We see going on already. It'll be damper iterations. It'll be tire specifications.
It'll be door seals, and it'll also be the very long and ever more drawn out and
protracted process of emoligation. Just making sure the car is complied with every single region
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The new Avengers. Have you ever come across? Did you ever watch the stumble across the
episode of the Avengers? I vaguely know what you're talking about. You vaguely know what you're talking
about. So so Patrick Metney, Diane, Janet Diana Regan, yeah, that was it in the 1960s. Briefly
in the 1970s, they rebooted it and Joanna Lomley was in it and Patrick Metney was still in it and a
practical character. Anyway, the point of this is that Steve, the lead character played by Patrick
Metney, drove a Jaguar XJ12C coupé in this in the mid 1970s. And of all the cars that Jaguar
have produced, and I was three different people this. I asked Jordan Glover, the MD. I asked Jonathan
who was its chief engineer near Al's Mac Becker, who is JLR's chief engineer from the point of
you're getting car sign off production of all the old cars because they went and drove all the
Jaguars off. They went and drove XK120s and D types and E types and XJs and everything else.
They all said independently. They weren't all in the same room. We're agreeing with each other.
Independent. They all said the same thing. That's the car that they the feel of which they
they're most trying to evoke with the new, well, we don't know its name, it's typed up below, isn't it?
Four door GT is what they're calling it at the moment. So it's not a sports car.
It'll be a sporting car, but if you look at the sort of the span, if you take, you know,
ultimate sports car, an ultimate luxury car, as your two poles, it's much narrower the
latter than the former. They are going for comfort, they're going for refinement, but with a
Jaguar sporting feel. And I think, I mean, I actually think, I did ask them this, but they kind
of battled it back a bit. I think it's kind of XJSE in the kind of car that they're hoping to produce.
So I went in it and, you know, I went in it on their test track that they have at Gaden
with Matt Becker driving it, and I hate, and I said this to them at the time. And we genuinely don't
generally, sorry, don't do these passenger ride-along stories, because we've all read these stories,
haven't we, haven't we, where you see the cover magazine that goes flat out in the new,
such as such. And then you read the story and you actually write the journalist hasn't driven it at all,
and he's been driven around the track. And usually what you find out most with these stories
is just how good the driver is and just how well he or she knows the track. And I've always
thought they're disappointing stories, and you don't get much from them. However, when it is this
car, when it is the most hotly anticipated car, I think of 2026, you can't ignore an invitation
like that. And I have been in the story that I've been very straightforward about what I felt I
could and could not divine from the 20 minutes or so. I spent on a couple of different configurations
of circuit. One was quite fast, one was quite slow and natchy. With Matt Becker, who is one of the
all-time great test drivers sat next to me. I couldn't tell you much about the refinement,
because the cars, excuse me, door seals and so on and so forth, are not signed off. And also,
all that camo makes a lot of noise. But I can tell you that it's very fast. Well, how surprised
you really? I mean, we think it might have up to a thousand. No, we know they're on the record about
that. So what we can tell you is it's got three motors that's on the record, one on the front,
two on the back. Air suspension all around, active torque vectoring, four-wheel steer,
all chucking all the technology at what many would perceive to be the problem of having an EV
powertrain. I did ask, I don't think I'm going off the record here, I did ask about whether they're
going to put, you know, V12 noises into it. And I was told that every JLR product, EV
product will have its own distinct sound signature. I don't know what that means. But it'll make,
whatever a Jaguar sound, whatever JLR I think a Jaguar sound like, it'll sound like that.
So it's fast, ride comfortable? Yeah, I'll get to that in a minute. In terms of the performance,
we've got a thousand horsepower so it's going to be fast. Matt Beckett said that to them,
how the car gets some 60 to 100 miles an hour is far more important than how I guess we're not
60. The quality of the performance is much more interesting than the quantity because, you know,
as fast, we knew it kind of would be. The first half second, when you put your foot all the way down,
you know, if you were in a, I don't know, a Tesla Model S plaid and you can just get a thousand horsepower
and a thousand horsepower. It's not a pleasant experience. They are aware of this and they have
tried very, very hard. And from what I could see, very successfully, in making that a far less
violent, more sophisticated experience, the car surges forward. It doesn't sound like
snap or bite or just lunge, which I think is absolutely because what it does is it removes the
aspect of that performance, which to me is entirely undesirable. He did also, I mean, I think we
got up to about 160 miles an hour in it, which on an enormous test drive, I thought was quite
impressive, but he did just sort of cruise along at 100 and then put his foot down. And it rapid.
So the ride, the ride, I think, was the thing which was most instructed, it seemed to ride and they
got a really deliberately broken surface on one of their roots, which is the kind of surface
that you should look at. If it were a sort of British b-road and you think this is really pretty
nasty and it was beautiful. And there's a bit also where you approach it and you're going on
quite fast and there's this big crest in the road, I can approach it and thinking how, you know,
is the car going to sort of, you know, heave over it and wallow into the dip artery and it just
didn't, it just maintained its right height very impressively. And the secondary, so the lumps and
bumps, the way it absorbed that on those broken roads was, yeah, I mean, impressive is really the
only, it's only the word for, I know it is a, I have been told the numbers, but I don't know whether
these are wrong or authorical, so I better not say it, but it is a massively stiff structure,
maybe massively stiff, a stiff as you could ever need a car to be. And this is the new
J.E.A. Jaguar electrical architecture, so this is not any existing architecture, this is not
an adaption of the high-paced architecture, this is not an architecture that's been bought in from
some other manufacturer, this is a brand new platform. And they call it the Jaguar electrical
architecture, I can't believe it isn't going to be adapted into the Land Rover electrical
architecture at some stage as well. For what I could tell, it rode like a Jaguar,
from what I could tell, and I do qualify that because I wasn't driving it, I was on the track on
which it was developed, so if it was ever going to ride well, anyway, it would ride well there,
but from what I could see, yeah, the car is going to ride beautifully, I know it's whether you get
an all season or a summer or whatever time you get for it, it'll be a bespoke Pirelli that's been
developed for the car. And I don't really want to go an awful lot further than that because
I don't think that I could really tell you much more than that. If there is much more to be told,
you'll find it on the story that I've written on the website and app, so go do go and have a look at
that. I'm also going to have a look at the picture so you can see what it looks like. And even a
camoed car, some bright spark, I'm sure could take that photograph and give it to AI and say,
take the camouflage away. Yeah, I haven't done it. I don't know whether it would have looked like,
but the idea has occurred to me. So I'm encouraged, I'm encouraged by the fact that they are going
all in and that they are really trying to. One another interesting thing was when I sat in the
car, so looked behind me, and the prototype I was in didn't have rear seats in it, but I was
looking at that thing. You're trying to imagine what would be like rear seats in it and looking around,
and I don't think it's going to be enormously spacious back there. I think it's going to be
kind of room for four adults, but probably not with sprawling space. And I think what they have
done, and this used to be a decision which Jaguars take all the time, particularly with the XJs,
is that they have traded interior package for the correct Jaguar proportions and lines.
And given that this is going to be a low volume car, they are absolutely not trying to chase
Porsche Taycan volume sales. I think they're trying to come up with a distinctive
look to the car, which is going to appeal to a certain sort of person, and I think they accept
they'll be trade-offs with that. I think that one of those trade-offs might be that it's not
particularly spacious in the back. It's not going to be like a continental GT, which is really
very cramped in the back. I think for average side adults will be able to sit in there in
relative comfort, but you're not going to be rolling around. And I don't really think that there's
an awful lot more than that that I think I could say without getting myself into a world of
payment JLR. Okay, so just thinking then about why this car has been so discussed over the last
year or whatever it is, they have distanced themselves from that ad, haven't they? They are
actually publicly done that. I don't know if they've done that, but we're not going to see more of
that stuff, are we? I haven't heard that we wouldn't, but I'd be amazed if you had to guess.
I know, I'm in a minority of about one on a beer. I'm still not sure that ad didn't work for them.
Well, I know, but we've talked about it endlessly. Lots of people have for months and months.
I mean, it was on everything. This brand which stops making cars,
still doesn't use, you know, Jaguar's not making cars at the moment. And they were quite
interesting. Rod and Glover was quite interesting on that. So he said we had to have the brake,
because if you're going to redefine a mark and introduce it, not as a sort of traditional premium
competitor, but at the kind of bottom end of proper luxury. You have to have the brake. You
can't just go from one seamlessly into the other. You have to get into that, wait, wait, wait,
right. Bang, here we go. Yeah, because this is going to be a six-figure car, isn't it?
Oh, absolutely. Okay, so that's okay. That's nothing I can tell you. He so Rod and Glover said
to me, he said, never say never, but there are no plans to sell one of these cars for either less
than £100,000 or for more than £200,000. Okay. So they'll all come together with the one?
And they think that there is a huge gap in the market, because there isn't really an awful,
I mean, right, top end tie cans are nibbling into that kind of area, but there's really very little
else in that space. So they think that they have identified a good jaguar-shaped hole in the market
for that. I completely lost my train of thought. What else will I talk about? They're not about to
wedge a V8 petrol engine in it, are they? No, no, well, I asked that question, and again,
he said, never say never, but there are no plans. No plans for a combustion engine version.
I mean, it's a fascinating car. Hopefully we're going to find out much more about it in 2026.
So we're going to drive it. Was that too early? Are we going to drive in 2026? Yeah, we might.
Yeah. I certainly think that there will, and hopefully we'll be invited. Anybody from JLI listening
to this, we would love to. I think that there will be some prototype drives, because I mean, clearly
that's the next step. We've seen the concept. We've ridden in the camo production version,
so next thing is either on our frozen lake or, sorry, anywhere. I mean, I'll go anywhere,
there we go in it. Yeah, yeah. I just want to see what it's like. Very, very interesting.
We're running our time, but just to prove that it's not all EVs, and I said that there is
another EV that I want to talk about before the end of the show. I think we're expecting to see
a new Porsche 911 GT2 RS in 2026. Well, GT3 RS. And a GT3 RS. Yeah. Have you been reading what I've
been reading about the GT3 RS? Don't think so. It's got turbochargers. I've heard this.
Oh, interesting. It is being speculated. Yeah, because there have been some spy shots,
and people have been looking and thought, hang on a second. Well, those intakes, you could only
be doing that. I mean, maybe this is Porsche playing a blabla blabla. I suspect they're not.
Yeah. Well, well, you know that they were running out of time with the naturally aspirated
folate of flat six, and there was really not much more, nothing more they could do with it,
to get more power out of it. Well, the new GT3, so the 992.2 GT3,
which you've driven, haven't you? Yeah, I haven't. That's got the same power, but let's talk.
Yeah. That's the previous one. That's right. So they're good to do something. Yeah.
Because they can't within the legislative. I mean, you say we're running out of time. I've got
so many cars on this list. Okay, well, let me just wrattle through a couple more. So GT3 RS,
GT2 RS. We know there's going to be the McLaren W1. We've seen it, of course, but we should be
driving it in 2026. Yeah. Quite similar, really, to the P1 in terms of its technical makeup,
hybrid, twin turbo, V8, active air-row, two-seater, carbon turbo, all that stuff.
1250 horsepower, only 399 to be made. Really pretty low numbers, compared to its rivals,
the F80, they're doing 799. And the Aston Martin Valhalla, as we said earlier, 999.
Maybe a new Mazda MX-5. I mean, not a production car ready to go, but perhaps we're going to
learn about the future of the MX-5 in 2026, because the current car, the fourth generation car,
the ND is 10 years old. So it's due. And there was a gorgeous looking Mazda concept car in 2023,
the iconic SP that perhaps hints at the next generation MX-5. We saw the Toyota Supercar,
the Toyota GR GT, very, very striking looking thing, twin turbo, V8, hybrid, brand new V8.
Yeah, aimed at sort of... They're not giving up on the internal combustion engine, are they?
No, aimed at top 911s, so it's not a half-million-quid thing. But there is also going to be a
successor to the LFA, which is a full EV. And that's really all we know at the moment.
Yeah. And just the last one then that I want to talk about, again, another EV,
Ferrari Electrica, which is a code name for now. Yeah, which has been pushed back.
Has it? Yeah, well, yeah, but they were going to show us the car,
by now I think, but they've released a little technical details on it as a sort of...
I've got a solder. Ferrari's first EV, right? So it's going to have four motors, one per wheel,
more than 1,000 BHP. Yeah, that's standard now, isn't it?
Two and a half seconds to 62, more than 300 mile range, more than 100, it's all very vague,
more than 190 miles an hour. Huge, 122 kilowatt hour battery. What's going to weigh?
It's going to weigh so much, F80 style active suspension. So it's going to be a four-door four-seat car.
So really, unlike anything they've done before, it's not an SUV like the pure sangway,
it's a more of a sort of grand tour of thing. Ferrari's first EV, interesting. Can I
trot through a few other ones? Some of these are slightly speculative. Baby G-wagon? Yes.
Look forward to that. That'd be cool. Very excited about that. So yes, it'll be
baby only by G-wagon standards, not anybody else's. And then maybe a baby defender.
And maybe a baby defender too. Audi A4. Audi have got an all-new design language,
which is interesting. And if you think what we've spoken about with Mercedes is doing with EV
technology, what BMW are doing with the new three series, it would be very interesting to see
what Audi do to respond to that. The new 2CV. I read this in AutoCar, and they're speculating,
and they have sort of said that they're looking at it. And this AutoCar speculating is going to
be called the Citroen 2 EV. Send any voice note. Hey, sis. So, okay, you know that cozy hoodie you
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Oh, don't knock it. I love the idea. Some really interesting little cars. Oh, yes,
there you go. If you're watching this on YouTube, Dan is now holding up a picture of the greatest
car that's ever been built. It's actually a Citroen 2 CV, but there we go.
Some really interesting little cars. Renault Twingo, Honda Super N, VW ID1. These are all the
sort of the sub 20 grand, really compact, probably quite good fun little electric cars that we've
been really waiting for. How about this, Perso E208 GTI? Yeah. Interesting.
252 horsepower. They're putting the GTI name on an EV. We know that every time that they have put,
there's not every, it's worked, it's nice to give me. It does not work every time that they put
the GTI badge to a six or a two or seven or a two or eight, but please goodness that they've done
with this. Brand new Alpha Julia and Stelvio EVs coming up. Honda Prelude. Yeah. There's all sorts
of stuff. It's going to be, I'm not sure it's going to be a vintage year. I'm not so sure
this time next year, but we can back and think, those are the greatest cars we have ever driven.
It's going to be an interesting year. I'll tell you what, it's going to be. It's going to be a
big year for electric cars. Big year for electric cars. There's because there's some genuinely
exciting stuff coming. Renault 5 Turbo 3e. Yeah, of course. And hopefully we'll get to drive that.
There are some EV sports cars coming. There are some, as you just said, very, very interesting,
promising little EVs. Yeah. I think that's what 2020-26 is going to be, really.
Yeah. I also want, one of the things I want most of all,
oh, Polestar 5 is coming. Maybe a six based on it. Yeah.
But one of the things I most want, I want to know what the hell Lotus is going to do.
We need to dig into that a little bit. It sounds like a job for Ben Oliver, I think. We need to
get him quizzing people about what is Lotus. I mean, is there a plan for Lotus? I mean,
we hear stories about a new Elise and this, that and the other and hybrid engines.
Surely they can't just go another year with things as they are.
Well, they are making plug-in hybrid versions of some of the EVs, aren't they?
Have they actually started doing that? I believe so.
Okay. Okay. Well, anybody from Lotus listening to that, I'd really like to drive one of those,
because I want Lotus to be a good new story. Yeah.
I spent so much of my career reporting on bad stuff that's happened to Lotus and every time
there is good stuff and sadly, the number of those occasions is somewhat outnumbered by the times
when it's not being great. It's fantastic. We all want Lotus to do well. We want it to thrive.
We want to be proud of the brand to give us something. Yeah, please.
Let us know what you're up to. Make 2026 the year. Well, listen, this is the last podcast of 2025.
So thanks all for your support. Thank you so much throughout the year.
We're taking a break next week, but Merry Christmas to all of you and a happy new year.
And before we disappear, I will just remind you that that is still time to buy a gift
subscription to the intercooler for the car lover in your life or just prompt
your partner or your brother or your kid or your parent and tell them that you want a gift subscription
to the intercooler this year because you do just head to the dash intercooler.com and find the
gifts page. It's really easy to do. We offer 6, 12 and 24 month gifts starting at just starting
just 45 pounds and it's very, very straightforward and if you love cars, you'll get a lot of value
out of it. I am sure. You know, you shouldn't say happy Christmas anymore. What should we say?
Happy Holidays. Happy Holidays. All the best for the festive season. Yeah.
I'm going to say happy Christmas. I hope you have a wonderful new year to do and we will see you
at least a stone heavier on whatever it is January the 5th. We're back on January the 5th.
I look forward to it very much. Have a great break everyone and we'll see you next time. All the best.
Bye.
About this episode
The final episode of the year dives into exciting upcoming cars set to debut in 2026, featuring discussions on the new Jaguar electric car, Alpine A110, and Porsche's shift back to combustion engines. Hosts Dan Prost and Andrew Frankl share insights on various anticipated models, including the Aston Martin Valhalla and BMW i3, while reflecting on the evolving landscape of electric vehicles. The episode wraps up with a light-hearted holiday message and a reminder for last-minute gift subscriptions to The Intercooler.
Dan Prosser and Andrew Frankel look ahead to the most interesting new cars that are due to arrive in 2026. From thrilling petrol-powered hypercars like the McLaren W1 and Aston Martin Valhalla to affordable EV city cars like the Renault Twingo, and from the new and very controversial electric Jaguar (which Andrew has ridden in) to a number of battery-powered sports cars, next year looks set to be a memorable one for new metal.
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