Production of the current BMW M5 has come to an end this week.

The V10 powered saloon and estate have been the most successful model in the history of the M5 which began 26 years ago.

The saloon vastly outsold the estate (or touring in BMW speak) with 20,458 compared to 1025 for the load lugger.

Using probably the last large capacity naturally aspirated engine to be fitted to an M car the 5 litre V10 produced 500 bhp and 384 lb ft of torque.

This meant 0-60 mph in 4.6 seconds and a limited top speed of 155 mph.

In February of last year I was lucky enough to be asked to drive an M5 on a round trip from London to Seville.

The M5 proved to be as adept a luxury cruiser as it is an out and out sports car.

Most of the trip was spent at 90 mph on the auto-route keeping an eye out for the local traffic cops.

However on the Spanish border I had to detour into the hills as suspected ETA terrorist activity had closed the motorway. The M5 then turned into a nip and tuck sportster with the simple push of a button.

The ‘M’ button on the steering wheel spoke tunes the suspension to its hardest setting, throttle and steering to their most responsive, the automated manual gearbox to its quickest and ensures the engine produces the full 500 bhp’s.

All this made short and enjoyable work of the Spanish back roads and I found my way back onto the main road a few miles south of the closed section of motorway. 

The rest of the trip was thankfully relatively uneventful and I could enjoy the amazing performance and noise of that V10 engine. Every tunnel meant all the windows and the sunroof had to be opened and the throttle pounded in second gear. Quite often to the thumbs up approval of local drivers.

Later this year BMW are expected to launch the next generation M5 with a bi-turbo 4.4 litre V8.

It will no doubt be faster and more efficient than the model it replaces but is unlikely to beat the drama and character of that V10.

Recently I was given the opportunity to spend an afternoon with the new Porsche 911 GT3 RS.

Any previously written rave reviews about this car in motoring publications are entirely justified.

This IS a race car for the road.  As proven by Porsche in the Nurburgring 24 Hours race at the weekend, they drove an RS there, raced it finishing 13th, and drove it home again.

It looks like a racing car and certainly sounds like one.

The rumbling, grumbling throb of the flat six engine at idle and the squeal of the carbon ceramic brakes, the pinging of stones picked up by the sticky tyres on the underside of the wheel arches as you first pull away all build anticipation of the speed and sensations to come.

First a confession. I didn’t find/know about, the ‘sport’ button. Had I done so it would have been firmly pressed, it allows for a slightly looser rein on the traction control and more importantly opens two baffles in the exhaust system to allow an even louder noise from the twin central pipes.

However don’t let this fool you into thinking that without the ‘sport’ button this becomes some sort of granny-shopper car.

Putting your foot to the floor all the way to 7900 rpm produces 444 bhp propelling just 1370 kg, and if unprepared slams you into the seat back as the car seems to hurl itself at the horizon.

Noise is not a problem. There’s plenty of it!

Its a proper masochist this engine, it responds best to a good thrashing and produces a pure, rasping howl at the limit of the rev range. By the time you’ve done this in third gear you’ll be well into illegal speeds. Any more can only really be enjoyed on a race track or autobahn.

Super-quick and communicative steering, a dead-body heavy clutch, six short stacked gears and eye popping brakes continue the racing theme. As do the interior additions and extractions.

Suede, or a fake substitute, covers most of the interior surfaces including the steering wheel so sweaty hands are less likely to slip - no aircon in here so the committed driver will appreciate that.

No rear seats, but a roll cage, a lack of sound deadening and plastic rear window all add lightness. The red fabric straps that you have to use to open the doors are a bit of a gimmick, awkward to use and the cover must weigh almost as much as the handles. Looks good though.

Our photographer was very underwhelmed by the dull grey of the test car but the garish graphics applied to the rear wings almost make up for it, and a nondescript colour may allow you to blend into traffic a little easier.

£104,841 is what Porsche asks for their most focused 911 currently on sale. 4 seconds to 60 mph and a 193 mph top speed, the last thing following drivers will see is the carbon wing disappearing into the distance. Bargain.

A trip to Beijing last month allowed me my first glimpse of the new Audi A1 supermini, albeit in concept form.

Due for UK launch in October this year, and priced from around £14,000, Audi hopes this premium product will take on and beat rivals such as the Mini Cooper.

I’d been disappointed in the spy-pics shown on motoring web sites in recent months, it appeared to me that from the outside it was nothing more than a face-lifted Fiat 500.

However in the flesh the concept at least appears lower and far more sophisticated and detailed a design than the small Italian.

Audi claims the A1 will be the sportiest car in its class with a unique and modern design, helped by features such as a low drag coefficient of 0.32 and wheel arches that can accommodate 18 inch alloys if desired.

Two petrol engines producing 120bhp and 85bhp from their 1.4 and 1.2 capacities respectively along with the 1.6 diesel in 104bhp and 89bhp forms power the new car at launch.

A range topping S1 will follow equipped with the turbocharged 1.4TFSI engine producing around 180bhp and 184lb ft of torque.

Priced at near £19,000 the S1 is likely to arrive around 6 months after launch.

China is an important market for Audi, demonstrated by the large number of long wheelbase A6 limos prowling the streets, and the A1 concept shared floor space with an R8 V10 at the flagship showroom.

Production has already started at the Audi plant near Brussels where they hope this car will become the best selling model in the firm’s history.

First Drive – Peugeot 308 1.6 HDI

What is it?
The new Peugeot 308 1.6 HDI is the latest offering from the French manufacturer designed at taking the fight to competitors such as the Ford Focus and Vauxhall Astra.

This particular model show cases Peugeot’s new small capacity diesel engine the 1.6 HDI, available in 90 or 110bhp versions.

What’s it like?
Well, pretty darn good to be honest. Our test car was the higher powered version; in mid range trim and impressed with its ease of use and understated competence.

The new engine is quiet and smooth, and provides brisk if unspectacular progress. It also promises to be economical to run but has just missed out on the band B excise licence by a few points.

As with other recent Peugeots the chassis doesn’t like to attack a B-road with quite the same enthusiasm of old. However it isn’t bad and as long as you haven’t just stepped from a Focus ST you are unlikely to be offended.
What we did find time to criticise however is the ride quality. This is rightly a relaxed car but the soft suspension settings can’t seem to settle on uneven roads. Whilst in town, or at higher speeds on the open road.

Some may argue that Peugeot’s style has gone the same way as its once legendary handling. But beauty is in the eye of the beholder and other than the large grill, which isn’t helped by an integrated black bumper; it has a distinctive look that couldn’t be mistaken for anything else.

On the inside the spacious and airy cabin impresses with a tasteful use of materials and logical layout. The rear passengers even benefit from individual air vents between the driver and passenger seats.

So, should I buy one?
If you are after a conventional five door hatchback the 308 has a lot to offer.
It is a spacious, stylish and economical car. And as long as you are careful with the extensive options list, competitively priced.

It is a car that will cope with 99% of the tasks thrown at it, by 99% of the people likely to buy it. And as such it will prove to be a satisfying ownership proposition, with style to stand out from the crowd.

RRRRRRRIIIPPP ! BANG ! BANG ! BANG ! CLATTER ! CLATTER ! CRUNCH !!!

No, don’t worry, you haven’t picked up the latest Jilly Cooper bonk fest by mistake – the words above are the best way I can describe the noises and sensations you don’t want to hear whilst travelling through the Australian wilderness, 80 kilometres from civilisation in either direction. On a totally deserted highway. You haven’t checked the spare. Can’t remember if you have a jack or wheel wrench. And if you think there’s going to be a mobile phone signal out here, think again. Ermmm …

The initial plan had been a simple one. Arrive in Sydney, buy a car, set off around Australia, see as much as possible, back to Sydney, sell car.

Following my arrival in Australia there had been a fruitless trawl around many a wannabe Frank Butcher style car lot, poking around old Japanese imports and ex backpacker station wagons, complete with tents and camping gear at an old underground car park in the ’lively and interesting’ Sydney suburb of Kings Cross. Whilst this appealed for a time, I couldn’t find myself trusting the word of a fellow traveller who was about to jet off into the sunset never to be seen again.
What I wanted was a real Australian car, a Holden Commodore or Ford Falcon. If possible one that had not been to the moon and back, but nothing flash and not too new.

I found the answer to my quest a week later in the form of a 1980 Holden VC Commodore, in white with black slatted rear window shade and a tasteful hint of chrome to the bumpers. A brief train ride later and I was stood admiring the beast. And a beast she was. 3.3 litres of straight six power clothed in what was known in Europe as the Opel Record and to us in the UK as the Vauxhall Carlton. For similar money I could have gone for something newer and possibly more comfortable but my reckoning was to run something mechanically simple, classically Australian, and familiar to grease monkeys countrywide.

Simple is a word, basic is a better one, to use to describe this car. Although in excellent condition, the climate helping to preserve the bodywork and mechanicals, it was short of the sort of luxuries we now take for granted. No power steering, or electric windows, or air conditioning, just nice shiny powder blue vinyl seats and a mere 4 gears.
The lack of more gears I thought may be a problem as I would be mostly cruising the open road, but they proved to be tall enough and well spaced to cope, the engine didn’t so much as rev as growl a bit louder so a steady, and very legal, 100 km/ph became the norm.

Following a trip to the local Kmart to stock up on camping gear and other essentials I set off west into the vast open continent of Australia.

The first stop just happened to be the motor racing town of Bathurst, famous for the 1000km touring car enduro, and following a look around the small but informative museum it was time to give the VC its first test.

This partially public road course hosts the blue ribbon event for the domestic touring car series the V8 Supercars. Populated by monster Ford Falcons and Holden Commodores powered up to the hilt with rumbling V8 engines they hurtle around Mount Panorama once a year in what is an extended round of the series. As it is considerably longer than a regular event teams use two drivers with sports car style changes that often feature familiar names to European race fans such as Matt Neal, Jason Plato and in years gone by BTCC legend John Cleland.

The day of my track debut was as wet as you can get, and as this is also a public highway I wasn’t going to do anything silly. Myself and a few other sight seers managed a tentative  slither through the Esses and I gripped the thin wheel rim just a wee bit tighter for the plunge through The Dipper before counting my blessings, and four intact wings, to head on westward.

The following couple of weeks passed relatively uneventfully as I clocked up kilometres counted in the thousands – Melbourne (including the Albert Park Grand Prix track), Philip Island (yes another race track!), Adelaide (erm, yes, a part time race track), across the vast Nullarbor Plain with the longest straight in Australia at ninety miles, competing with other straight parts of the road long enough to act as emergency air strips for the Flying Doctors Service !

There followed a very pleasant few days in Perth and Freemantle before heading for the wet and humid north towards Darwin, and the speed limitless highways of the Northern Territory.

It was at this stage that I should have started thinking about the reliability of my trusty steed. We had so far covered over 4000 trouble free kilometres, and in a 24 year old car that couldn’t last forever. I had checked that the car was equipped with a spare wheel, a jack and other equipment, but crucially had never tested them.
And so it came to pass, on an oppressively hot and humid Northern Highway the right rear tyre decided to go its own way. Although the tread was deep enough to pass inspection the rubber was almost as elderly as the vehicle itself and it simply ripped from the body of the tyre and wrapped itself around the rear axle. This was accompanied by the previously mentioned noises and vibrations.
The tyre however was still inflated so whilst I was able I decided to continue, albeit very slowly, in the hope of finding an appropriate place to stop and make repairs.

Within a couple of kilometres I came across a rest area, with no facilities but civilisation in the shape of a VW camper van and its two occupants, parked up, taking a break in their journey.
I set to and quickly had the rear end up on the jack but came across a problem. The wrench for the wheel nuts simply spun around them, far too big ! Fortunately the occupants of the camper van were glad of the distraction and came over to look for the source of all the swearing and lend a hand. They were keen to help and fetched their own tool box which seemed full to overflowing with all sorts of handy equipment. Everything in fact, except the much needed wheel wrench!
Luckily for me a local family stopped a short time later and they were properly prepared for such an eventuality and were able to lend the necessary tools to change the wheel.
They were thanked in the form of my last bag of none liquid chocolate for their children and the camper folk with my useless wrench, which fitted their wheel nuts perfectly!  

After releasing the shorn tread from its cosy hug around the rear axle I continued for 80 kilometres farther north and stayed that night at the small community of Fitzroy Crossing, which is blessed with a very well run roadhouse and mechanical engineers ready to assist the weary and incompetent traveller.

The Australian roadhouse is an oasis of welcome service dotted every 100 kilometres or so along the highways. You can be sure of refreshment for you and your vehicle whatever the hour and here too the next morning I had my fill of bacon and eggs, and just to make sure for the rest of my journey, the Commodore had four nice new tyres. Oh, and a cross style four sizes wheel wrench, just in case lightening does strike twice.

As I continued north to Darwin and then headed south through the ‘Red Centre’ of the country the time and many hundreds of kilometres passed by without serious incident; Alice Springs, Uluru, the moonscape like opal mining town of Coober Peddy were interesting stops along the way.

However I had a deadline to make. You may have noticed a theme running in my first few rest stops along the journey, it wasn’t meant to be a tour of Australian race circuits but when nearby it would be wasteful for a motor racing fan not to indulge themselves.
And so the trusty Commodore made it back to Melbourne for the beginning of March and first free practice for the Australian Grand Prix.
I’ve decided she was entirely reliable and the one unplanned detour was due in the whole to my poor preparation.

The Commodore had been a comfortable, spacious and not too thirsty a companion with which to explore this great continent, I hope she’s still running the highways to this day.