| Review : Garmin Fenix 2 |
| The good folk at Garmin must have gathered around a table one day and decided to design a GPS running watch to rule them all. That is how the Garmin Fenix 2 was born. |
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| Middle-earth: Shadow Of Mordor |
| In Middle-earth: Shadow Of Mordor, you play the role of Talion, a Gondorian Ranger, whose family is killed by Sauron's army of orcs and goblins on the night they return to take over Mordor. |
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| The Mercedes-Benz E 250 CDI – Small Motor Good In Big Benz |
| Strange it is that over time a particular model often becomes quicker and more fuel efficient, yet also larger and heavier, some of it from added spec. Sometimes this is unexpectedly accompanied by a decrease in price, as has happened with the updated E 250 CDI. |
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| The Toyota GT86 – Great Fun To Drive |
| The first test for the long-term GT86 was just three days after it arrived: Junior Handling Day. No problem. Well, one problem. The test, obviously, would involve quite a lot of hard driving, and the GT86 had arrived with just 61 miles on the clock. |
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| Striiv Touch |
| The Striiv Touch is a wristband activity tracker that doubles as a smartwatch - which is what the yet-to-be-released Razer Nabu is supposed to do.
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| Game on for Ultra HD gaming |
| Visit the TV department the next time you step into an electronics store and you will soon realise that the latest must-have feature touted by TV manufacturers is ultra high definition, or UHD. |
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| Porsche 968 & Club Sport Review |
| At the time the 968 was a case of too little too late. Now, however, it’s revered as one of the best handling Porsches ever devised, although that is to perhaps do a bit of a disservice to the 944 and even the 924 on which the 968 is based. Indeed scratch the surface of the 968 and its evolution can be traced back to the Porsche/VW 924 project of the mid ’70s. |
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| Porsche Boxster ‘S’ (981) Review |
| Being the hardcore, minimalist bunch that we are, we would also not bother with the PCM (Porsche Communication Management) system which incorporates the sat-nav, Bluetooth and music functions. That would save you a cool $3,600, but we have to concede would probably hit its resale value. |
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| Porsche Cayman & ‘S’ (987) Review |
| It proved to be a massive hit with us journos, but perhaps slightly less so for the buying public, although as a niche model, that wasn't too much of an issue. What the Cayman achieved was to turn the Boxster into something that was pretty much 100% complete as a driver's car, thanks mainly to its more rigid shell. |
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| The Alfa Romeo Giulietta QV – The Italian Mistress |
| It's easy to have preconceived notions on cars, especially Italian ones. We thought the Alfa Romeo Giulietta QV, which is part of a re-aligned, better-priced local line-up, would be a typical Italian mistress; beautiful but hard to live with. We also thought there'd be too many quirky Italian characteristics to contend with; a rock-like ride, a dodgy clutch pedal, poor ventilation and visibility and a weird driving position. Happy to report we were wrong. |
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| The Mercedes-Benz CLA 200 – Another For The Merc Rank |
| German carmakers continue their quest to fill every market niche possible, and Mercedes-Benz has plugged another gap with its new CLA. What is this new four-door exactly? From the front, it looks like another A-Class, but further back, its flanks take their own sleek, swooping profile while the roofline flows 'coupe-like' down into the sculptured rear end. |
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| Return Of The Mac McIntosh MXA70 Review (Part 2) |
| Starting with the standard analogue input and MXA70 sounds lots of fun. It has a clean, fast and direct sound, but is decently sophisticated too; indeed it reminds me of a full-size Macintosh amp. It’s certainly not a soft and fluffy delivery; there’s no artificial added warmth but it has a smoothness and a refinement that you wouldn’t expect from a mini system. |
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| Return Of The Mac McIntosh MXA70 Review (Part 1) |
| The small system isn’t a new idea. Indeed, those outside the rarefied climes of separates hi-fi would probably regard it as the norm. After all, do we really need yards of pressed steel casework, acres of cables and multiple power plugs? For that reason alone, since the late seventies when Aurex sold its first microsystem, many folks wanting decent quality sound from a system taking up only a small space have eschewed traditional hi-fi. |
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| Porsche 911 GT3 (996) Review |
| It’s the 2.7 RS of its generation, but for some reason the investors haven’t (yet!) spoiled the huge fun to be had from this modern gem |
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| Porsche 911T (1967 SWB) Review |
| Now we weren’t expecting this. It had been decided, when we were compiling the list of cars for our ‘Real World Porsches’ that anything pre-1974 911-wise was going to be out of budget. And then, on the day, up popped this 1968 short-wheelbase ‘cooking’ 911T in National Health hearing-aid beige - or a sort of ‘sand’ colour if we’re being generous. |
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| The Rolls-Royce Wraith – A Car Of Considerable Allure And Significance |
| This is a vehicle that’s meant to be driven, a fact the Wraith announces immediately with its thick-rimmed steering wheel—or thick for a Rolls, which means a diameter larger than a fetus’s fibula, to say nothing of a circumference that’s a Breitling Montbrillant to the brand’s usual Big Ben. |
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| Floorstanding Loudspeaker ATC SCM40 Review (Part 2) |
| There are too many loudspeakers describing themselves wishfully as ‘studio monitors’, but here we have something that is far closer to this than most. The big ATC is unerringly revealing of what you put into it, and certainly doesn’t sugar the pill. But if you imagine that it is cerebral, analytical and dispassionately forensic then think again. Feed it a high-quality source via a smooth, punchy solid-state amplifier and you get a startlingly fine sound back. |
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| Floorstanding Loudspeaker ATC SCM40 Review (Part 1) |
| There’s something odd about ATC’s SCM40 - it doesn’t look or feel like almost any other loudspeaker in its price class. It’s almost as if someone has forgotten to style it, like they’ve taken three drivers and put them in a box designed to do the job and then gone home. |
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| The Mercedes-Benz CLS 350 – Smooth And Impressive |
| Ten years ago, Mercedes-Benz hit an E-class on the head with a hammer, smoothed out the result and gave the world the CLS. The first mainstream four door coupe looked as sexy as a plunging neckline and it did well enough to convince Audi and BMW to come out with their own versions of long, low and swoopy. |
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| The Mercedes-Benz GL 350 CDI – Light And Efficient |
| Range Anxiety. The big worry that you’ll run out of juice before you reach home is always a sticky point with electric cars. But here in Mahabaleshwar, in the month of May, the peak holiday season when everyone runs to the hills to escape the heat, car owners are facing Range Anxiety too. And it’s not because everyone is zipping around in E20s... |
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| The Porsche Macan – Nearly Hot Hatch (Part 2) |
| One of the keys to that talent is the optional Porsche Torque Vectoring Plus system. Available for $1,490 on both the Macan S and Macan Turbo, it includes an electronically controlled, variable-locking rear differential and software that will brake the inside rear wheel in turns. Trust us, you want it, as it’s essentially an understeer eliminator. Pile the truck into a corner, and you can feel the initial front slide evaporate as the rear end wiggles under full throttle. |
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| The Porsche Macan – Nearly Hot Hatch (Part 1) |
| For the most part, the Porsche Cayenne has lived up to the crest on its hood. It’s quick, it handles well, and when you line it up against its foes, the Cayenne is just plain better to drive. But this is better than that. The agile new Macan is as much essence of modern Porsche as can be stuffed into the shape of a small SUV. |
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| The BMW X5 – Smooth And Spacious |
| Eight years ago I ran a Volvo XC90 for a year, and it is fair to say the experiment didn’t really work. Actually, it worked brilliantly for two of the four of us, because my then very young children loved sitting high and being able to see out. |
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| The Jaguar F-Tpye R Coupe – The Cat’s Coupe |
| Jaguar landed some nice new metal in local show rooms last month in the form of the sleek F-Type Coupe. Actually these cats aren't made from any old ferrous material, being alloy and all, and the Coupe follows up the F-type Convertible which launched last year, injecting some much needed oomph into the Jaguar line up. |
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| The Porsche 911 Turbo – Hugely Fast (Part 2) |
| For all its ability to do the everyday driver role, however, l imagine most people don't just buy a Turbo as a convenient means of transport. Or perhaps most do, but some don't. Either way, it's capable of more. |
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| The Porsche 911 Turbo – Hugely Fast (Part 1) |
| The weather was suitably dispiriting when I drove out of the office car park to head home late on Halloween. With spits of rain in the air, cloud covering the moon and a chill wind whipping at the leafless branches of the trees, it was an October night straight from the pages of an M.R James ghost story. Perfect, in other words, for a 911 Turbo. |
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| BMW Z4 Versus Porsche Boxster S – Top Off The World (Part 2) |
| The Boxster’s up for hearing now. Merely 100 metres into the drive, I can tell that it’s a very different animal. It feels like a military-grade precision tool. The mid-engine, rear-wheel-drive layout puts me in the centre of the action and I know I’m going faster than I was in the Z4 just before. |
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| BMW Z4 Versus Porsche Boxster S – Top Off The World (Part 1) |
| Giving the Z4 company today is the Porsche Boxster S. It’s more powerful than the standard Boxster, and with 315bhp, it closely matches the Z4’s 302bhp of power. That it looks like a baby Porsche 918 also helps it keep its own against the classic long-bonnet, stubby-boot roadster silhouette of the Z4. |
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