Autobiography EVOQUE

The RS has been canned and we can get this:

http://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/new-ca...ets-281bhp

No word on price of course but I suspect mid 50's?

It sounds like we will never see a bigger engine in the Evoque and after watching the LR assist man grapple with the lack of space when changing my battery last evening, I can see why. That increase in power is coming almost entirely from the increase in torque rather than a higher red line, achieved presumably by higher on-boost pressure from the turbo though they may have made other changes to engine breathing to improve driveability.

I am sure it will be an attractive upgrade but the favourable reviews of the Porsche Macan so far make it the clear leader in the compact performance SUV stakes. LR must be happy that a spec'd up Macan is touching £80k. Compared to the 281 bhp from this new car, the Macan turbo develops 394 bhp and there's an S version in the works, good for 450bhp.

Still, it's a step in the right direction for the Evoque. However, given how few petrols are sold, I wonder how many of these there will be? Depreciation alarm bells ringing, even from me with an RRS Autobiography Dynamic on order...

Hmmmm...
The RS was probably the only thing to get me to go again with the Evoque.
Autobiography looks great but for the price and power the Macan is looking too tempting.
I love my Evoque but it needs a performance version.

TBH, this IS the performance version. 141 bhp/litre is going some (my 911 turbo is only 129 bhp/litre) so if they want a higher performance version, it would have to be a bigger engine and there is no space. The other approach would be to reduce weight and maybe the next Evoque will be aluminium but the goal will be to reduce fuel consumption, not improve performance.

Reviews I have read of the Macan (Autocar and now Car Magazine) are very positive and it sounds like the initial target of 50000 cars a year is going to be low, never mind the fact that they will at some point introduce 4 cylinder models which will trample all over the Evoque. That, in itself, is going to be a problem because, like the Evoque, they are going to be everywhere. In spite of that, Porsche are saying that even so, only 3 cars in 1000 made world-wide will be Porsches. There's a lot of Toyotas around...

Georg Kacher in Car Magazine refers to the Evoque as over-designed and under-powered; the first is a matter of taste but you can see his point. The second is definitely true if you want to compare it with the hotter versions of the Q3 and Q5. I expect the new Evoque will compare favourably with these two Audis but the Porsche leaves them all well behind.

The diesel Macan will probably replace the diesel Cayenne as their biggest selling model variant. Given how wedded we are to diesels in this country in spite of DPFs, I expect this new Evoque is going to be a rare beast

I'm visiting the factory in Leipzig where they are made so hopefully may get to drive one round their track. Were it not for a Firenze Red RRS SC beckoning me, I would be seriously tempted.

An Autobiography with the next generation of diesels will most probably be the one for me.... if I need to go quicker it will be a Macan.

That said, it's all slightly academic. I've had close encounters in the last week with three average speed cameras on the A14 (you can tell they're live because of the floodlights which illuminate your number plate as you drive by) and two camera vans working on a Sunday (A429 near Northleach, M40 near Oxford) and with the proposed 60 mph speed limit on the M1 and the use of speed cameras in the new managed motorways, the relevance/advantage of performance cars is being squeezed to death.

Close but no cigar. Why do some manufactures give us hints of something great and then deliver a diluted version? Who wants to drive an orange car?

More info here from a local dealer's site

There are also images of it in an Orkney Grey looking colour but maybe from a different palette.

(18-02-2014 09:38pm)Evo-king Wrote:  There are also images of it in an Orkney Grey looking colour but maybe from a different palette.

It will look better in grey than orange!