Not all images were able to load for printing. Please close the print window and try again. The Best Stories from the Petrolhead Corner
Sit down, strap in and get ready for some petrol-driven adrenaline with this year's best of the best car stories.
For about six years now, we have been entertaining you, hopefully, with our Petrolhead Corner stories. The idea came from the fact that at least three of us (Frank, Brice and I) are absolute car-nuts, as much as we are watch-nuts. We also felt it offered something of a break from the onslaught of news we deliver to you on a daily basis. And while originally it contained pretty much all “behind the desk” stuff, we’ve had the pleasure of experiencing a selection of very thrilling cars this year! So it should be no surprise that we’ve selected our real-world reviews in our look back at this year’s Petrolhead Corner stories!
Porsche 911 GT3
Sports cars are fine and all, but how usable are they on a daily basis? Especially something as exhilarating as a Porsche 911 GT3? To answer that very question, Frank got behind the wheel of one to see what it’s like to live with. School runs, grocery shopping, trips to the MONOCHROME studio and so on, all lead to a rather simple and expected conclusion: It is very, very addictive, but also very, very dangerous! The car itself is brilliant, so it’s not to blame. It’s just that it is such an entoxicating machine, it always begs for more, and more, and more, and I can attest to that after having a little spin myself! And that can become expensive, real quick, in more ways than one!
Check out Frank’s thoughts on the 911 GT3 as a daily here.
Morgan Supersport
To me, the Morgan Supersport is the absolute highlight car of the year. Yes, it comes with its quirks and flaws, but it’s such an amazingly fun machine that it is forgiven on all fronts. The design is just brilliant, and in this deep black paint, it becomes somewhat of a retro-Batmobile, which I just loved! I mean, just look at it! The 335bhp from the turbocharged straight-six BMW engine is more than enough to cope with the lightweight roadster, and safety features are toned down to the essentials: ABS, ESP, and your right foot. Push it hard, and it starts stepping out in a controllable but hugely entertaining fashion! Just don’t turn the ESP off, and you’re good!
Check out the full report on the exhilarating Morgan Supersport here.
Alpine A290 GTS
Even though we regularly write about EVs, mostly in the sports and supercar range, we still prefer petrol power over volts and watts. Call us old-fashioned, but to us, most of them lack soul. That somewhat changed with me getting behind the wheel of the Alpine A290 GTS, an electric Hot-Hatch based on the retro-styled Renault 5. Capturing the spirit of the legendary Renault 5 Turbo and Turbo II from the 1980s, it looks pretty darn cool from any angle! The blue paint, the wide wheel arches, the rally lights. It just works! Pair that with a pretty entertaining driving experience at any speed, and things will start making sense! To me, it’s just a fun and cool machine, period!
Check out the full test drive experience of the Alpine A290 GTS here.
Porsche 911 GTS vs Porsche 911 T
Coming back to Porsche again, a brand of cars we simply love, we had the chance to test not one but two 911s at the same time. We opted for the new hybrid 911 GTS, in purple, against the slightly more purist 911 T, in white. Both are brilliant cars, and although from the same lineage, hugely different in character. It’s manual versus auto, battery assistance or not, naturally aspirated versus turbocharged, and the discussion about which is best can go on and on! Before Frank and I even drove a meter in any of them, we knew the outcome. He would probably fall in love with the T, and I would likely get hooked on the GTS’s Jekyll-and-Hyde nature. And lo and behold, it came down to exactly that!
Check out the full story of the battle of the 911s here.
Brooklyn Spares EV Defender
Merging old with new, when done right, can work wonders for anything. It’s the same in watches as in cars, and in this case, the marriage of a classic Land Rover with an all-electric drivetrain. Thanks to Brooklyn Spares and an EV conversion kit developed with Electrogenic, I got to feel what a mid-1990s Defender on battery-power is like. And let me tell you, it’s surprisingly fun! Especially with this Safari-style open roof construction! When you get going, it rattles and shakes like a typical Defender, but when you come to a standstill, the whole thing quiets down. It’s an unexpected but captivating juxtaposition, and it put a huge smile on my face from the very first to the very last second!
Check out the full story of the Brooklyn Spares EV Defender here.
