Comparisons
Gallery 1
All Tasmania needs to come to life as a drivers’ nirvana is seven cracking performance cars and a bunch of primed pilots. That’s our cue…
BOATS AND cars usually don’t mix. When describing how a car handles, if you’re painting the picture using any references to water or nautical pursuits, there’s a strong chance that said vehicle is a wallowing, nauseating pile of sick. And therefore not suited to Tasmania’s magnificent roads.
If you’re from mainland Australia, however, and want to traverse the Apple Isle in something other than a rented Camry, it’s across Bass Strait you’ll go by the only means possible, on board the ‘new’ Spirit of Tasmania, which apparently isn’t a boat at all. It’s a ship. A bloody huge one that also transports cars.
Well, how about the sub-$100,000 performance stars of 2015?
After burying six cars in the Spirit’s bowels for a surprisingly calm passage, the aforementioned Audi RS3 made its rendezvous at Devonport’s terrific Laneway cafe to square up against a mouth-watering cross-section of what $50-80K currently buys you.
The list reads like a ‘who’s who’ of semi-affordable performance. A now-iconic front-drive turbocharged manual coupe (the Renaultsport Megane 275 Cup Premium), an equally cult-ish rear-drive V8 manual sedan (Holden Commodore SS-V Redline), a small but very feisty hot hatch (Mini John Cooper Works), a larger and longer-tailed variation of the world’s favourite hot-hatch (VW Golf R Wolfsburg wagon), a purist-pleasing, traditional rear-drive turbo-six (the BMW M135i) and a most un-traditional, mega-boosted hot hatch in box-fresh 2016 form (Mercedes-AMG A45).
Almost unintentionally, our selection throws up a bunch of mini comparos. New 280kW A45 versus the 270kW RS3. Slightly cheaper 240kW M135i versus both those two and its smaller 170kW Mini family member. All-wheel-drive Golf R versus its pricier RS3 relative. Megane versus anything with four cylinders and a pulse. And SS-V Redline versus the lot, packing the greatest performance-metal-for-money quotient on the planet.
Day One: Devonport – Strahan
HOLDEN COMMODORE SS-V
EVEN FOR those of us who’ve spent umpteen years behind the steering wheels of highly powered Holden Commodores, the VF Series II V8 feels and sounds like a breath of fresh air. Finally, there’s an exhaust note worthy of eight cylinders, while the meaty, sharper-geared 304kW 6.2-litre LS3 V8 is the perfect companion for the Redline version’s excellent FE3-tuned chassis.
You’d think that Hellyer Gorge earned its name from the “hell yeah” challenge of its super-twisty 9km rainforest section, but it’s actually named after the first Pommy to survey the area (Henry Hellyer), who was also the first European to reach the summit of Cradle Mountain (in 1831).
Through the Gorge’s narrow, undulating twists and turns, I push hard in the SS-V Redline to maintain a lead over the Catalunya Red RS3 flashing in its rear-view mirror. The VE/VF Commodore has never had great pedal placement for heel-and-toeing, but delving deep into the brake travel of this car’s resilient Brembo-clamped discs, the big-boned Redline manages to thread the whole experience together with surprising deft.
I stick with the Commodore until lunch, a diversion away from the A10 into the former tin-mining hub of Waratah, the first town in Australia with electric street lighting (1886). Over burgers (but sadly not beer) at the Bischoff Hotel, we’re regaled with stories of the area, but the most valuable is the suggestion that we head via Reece Dam, half an hour south, rather than the main highway.
RENAULTSPORT MEGANE 275
Exiting Waratah in the only other manual of our group, the white Renaultsport Megane whooshes and crackles its way towards the Reece Dam turn-off on Pieman Road. Indeed, every time you lift off the throttle, the 201kW Megane’s Akrapovic exhaust pops on cue, to an almost certifiable degree because this thing is truly nuts. In the best way possible.
Hammering into the setting sun along Pieman Road, the ageing Renault is sensational. You point and it pivots, matching every driver input with a sublime level of poise that Renaultsport should bottle right now, just in case it forgets what constitutes handling greatness.
The next-gen RS Megane will be five-door-only, and possibly dual-clutch only, just like the Clio, so this is truly a moment to savour. As the road snakes left and right, peppered with the odd long-ish straight, I laugh out loud as the Megane blasts and cracks from its exhaust, edging its tail out with utter confidence on corner entry, adjusting its line almost instinctively via the throttle, and sucking itself towards each apex like a giant vacuum.
MERCEDES-AMG A45
Twenty seconds in, the difference in character is blatantly obvious. Gone is the almost raucous, animalistic flavour of its exhaust, replaced by an entirely different sound. With its ‘loud’ exhaust button activated, the 280kW A45 produces a true high-fidelity sound – sharper, crisper and edgier than before – that’s more pure in its tone, but also a little more grown up.
AUDI RS3
Flush with the sweeter taste of AMG’s little road rocket, I grab its nemesis – the instigator of this seven-strong epic, Audi’s RS3 quattro – for the final ’Roo-dodging 100 kays or so into Strahan.
The voracity of Tassie’s wildlife and the volume of its road kill is well-documented, yet the off-beat RS3 manages to bark its way through the Mount Dundas forest without messing up its pretty face.
Unwilling to divert my eyes from the darkening road long enough to program its Individual mode, which separates the steering setting from damping, drivetrain, exhaust sound and ESC sensitivity, I push on with the RS3 in ‘Auto’, wishing at times that it had the adaptive cornering headlights of the Audi S3 I drove on these very same roads in the dark nearly a decade ago. But the RS3’s full-LED peepers throw plenty of white light forward, and somehow I don’t see a single glint of animal life.
Day Two: Strahan – Hobart
RS3 V A45 V GOLF R V MEGANE
DEPENDING on your viewpoint, the eastern exit out of Strahan is either the greatest stretch of main road in the country, or the worst. From virtually the moment the 100km/h zone begins, just on the high edge of town, the Lyell Highway draws a squirrelly and wonderfully indirect 40km route to the Zeehan Highway, just outside of Queenstown.
Trucks, school buses, scenic dawdlers and enthusiastic locals trace its length every day, yet it’s the perfect back-to-back location for our magnificent seven.
In Dynamic mode, with ESC Sport allowing some play time, the RS3’s steering (with just 2.1 turns lock-to-lock) improves immensely when it’s being thrown about. On a multi-faceted, challenging road like this, the five-pot Audi feels brilliantly chuckable, and far less nose-heavy than I’d expected. Perhaps that’s the genius of fitting narrower rear tyres (235/35R19s) than front (255s), allowing a small amount of tail slip in order to dissolve understeer. Yet there’s so much rear-end purchase to lean on that you simply keep building speed and confidence, while digging deep into provoking some rear-biased drive out of corners. Unless you’re being ham-fisted with it, the harder you push, the better the RS3 gets.
The A45 loves blurting its exhaust too, only it’s never been as sharp as this. Its 280kW 2.0-litre turbo four produces a more sporting note than the RS3’s velvety 2.5, and it delivers both outside and in. But it’s the new A45’s finessed handling ability that shines.
In Sport+ mode, it’s a more neutral handler than the RS3, with not as much emphasis on its back end if you trail-brake into a corner, but it’s surprisingly resistant to understeer and has better body control than the pre-facelift model.
I’ve never been a huge fan of any Golf R generation, or even its R32 predecessor (rasping exhaust note aside), but the Mk7 Wolfsburg is really impressive on the Lyell Highway. Maybe it’s the extra weight out back but there’s something eminently likeable – and amazingly chuckable – about this Golf R for families.
In contrast, the front-drive Megane manual feels like it’s hard-wired to your nervous system. In the dry, there’s almost no corner-exit understeer and its power-down is as impressive as the RS3’s and A45’s, or perhaps even better given the way the Megane pulls itself tighter in a corner. Add throttle adjustability par excellence and a faithfully wagging tail and it’s no wonder everyone climbs from the Megane astonished at how great its chassis still is.
That’s all bad news for the Mini JCW though. Blasting away from our back-to-back base, the Mini’s muscular 170kW 2.0-litre turbo four makes all the right noises as it growls and blurts its way up through its ratio set, but you can already sense its relative lack of front-end grip. And, after a couple of corners, its lack of dynamic cohesion. There’s something a little synthetic about the JCW’s hot-hatch approach. Its steering feels overly reactive, and while its handling is fun to a point, its 205/40R18 low-friction tyres aren’t grippy enough to deliver what its balance and initial turn-in promise. Until you get used to it, you can’t really lean on the JCW in a corner with the confidence of its rivals, yet there’s no doubting its speed or accuracy.
For a price that’s closer to Golf R territory than RS3 or A45, the turbo-six M135i hatch sits in its own little niche, underplaying its talents by looking very unassuming. But once you nail its loud pedal, prepare to see the whites of the driver’s eyes.
The M135i handles fluidly, and it’s great to have rear-wheel drive for balance adjustment and corner-exit drive, if not brakes that feel a bit mushy. What it ultimately lacks is the definable performance edge of its sportier M235i coupe brother. Given its understated ability, is the M135i a performance car mainly in name and acceleration?
With its tireless brakes, tremendous V8 grunt and brilliant corner-exit thrust, the Redline again proves astoundingly adept at transferring its brawn into brio. Indeed, it’s punchier out of second-gear corners than Mundine at his best, supported by its exceptional mid-corner grip and balance. Sure, the SS-V Redline is a big and relatively heavy sedan, completing the journey alongside three-door hatches weighing up to 500kg less, but it ties everything together superbly. And it’s fun!
Even our hired gun, Carrera Cup-winning Matt Campbell, is surprised at how agile the Commodore is: “It held on a lot better than I thought; it’s really fun”.
MINI FINDS ITS FEET
IT’S AFTER lunch, and Hobart is still almost 300km away. With yesterday’s wildlife love-tap fresh in everyone’s minds, and the odd rain squall dumping on Tassie’s perpetually drenched West Coast, we swap cars at the lookout above Gormanston and hammer east.
With its LED headlights blazing, and rain dampening some very slippery corners on the other side of Queenstown’s mountain range, I tread the fine line between keeping the grip-shy Mini pointing in the right direction, and keeping the hard-charging A45 behind me honest. It’s a challenge that grows into a pleasure.
As the shoddy weather retreats and Hobart’s 30-degree ‘heatwave’ beckons, I really start to bond with the Mini JCW. No, I don’t like its styling ‘add-ons’ and I wish someone had confiscated the crayons from the interior design team, but with its big sunroof wide open, its windows down, its cracking engine on song and its Harman/Kardon stereo cranking Tame Impala’s ‘Currents’ with distortion-free abandon, I’m having a seriously great time. And I’m being deafened by something other than its tyre noise.
Hours later, we check into Hobart under the cloak of darkness, incident free. After dinner and a beer at the New Sydney Hotel, someone makes the call that fuel, a scrub, and track-spec tyre pressures might be a good idea before bed.
But it seems big-smoke Tassie isn’t quite sure what to make of our car line-up. With six hi-po Euros and just the one Aussie parked at the BP car wash, a long-haired local yells out “American Muscle!” with mosh-pit-like fervour, then gets into a VW New Beetle and dawdles away.
Day Three: Baskerville – Devonport
POISE ON THE EDGE
First car out is the Golf R wagon, clocking a decent 1.04:3 and some solid praise from Matt. But the excitement factor just isn’t there. While the black-wheeled VW is a foolproof track-day car, it isn’t particularly happy at ten-tenths. Dial your enthusiasm back to eight, and with a bit of provocation, it’s kinda sporty and fun. But the hottest Golf on sale is more about being a proficient road car, at least until the rumoured 295kW R400 sees the light of day.
The pointy Megane is next, and while it doesn’t have the AWD Golf’s off-the-line squirt, it definitely has what it takes on a racetrack, as shown in its 1:03.3 lap time. That said, while the front-drive Megane would be more suited to a fast circuit like Phillip Island than tight Baskerville, it’s still a blast to hear it popping, and feel it pivoting, around the Tassie circuit’s elevated goodness. Yet the Megane does share one quality with the Golf. Pushed too hard, it will scrabble for traction and can wash a bit wide in understeer, which is something you almost never feel on the road. Yet if you edge back a touch from the Renault’s slightly woolly extremities, it’s instantly back on line, chasing that dragon.
Next, the German big guns. And the Mini. The RS3 heads out first and clocks the best time so far – 1:02.6 – but it isn’t faultless. Matt has uncovered some braking quirks while setting a lap time and there’s ultimately some corner-exit understeer, though the RS3 is still a blast. As on the road, you can throw it around like a footy at the beach and it never goes out to sea. It’s just that it’s a bit too cultured to really go nuts.
An even bigger surprise is the M135i. It sneaks under the radar to clock a 1:02.6 – exactly the same time as the RS3 – which says volumes about its balance and the strength of its drivetrain, battling against its lack of appropriate rear-end hardware to really channel all that relentless turbo-six drive to the ground.
Finally, the Mini. On Baskerville’s bumpy surface, with its damping in skatey Sport mode, the JCW is a bit unsettled, betrayed by its 1:06.3 laptime. There’s exhaust-blurting grunt aplenty and good chassis grip, but its underdone tyres and tail-wagging propensity when braking hard dissolve both confidence and speed.
HARD-EARNED THIRST
With the track hot-lappery over and a looming Devonport departure, we head to the nearest BP for gullet-loads of 98 octane and definitive proof of what you pay for the performance on offer.
Unexpectedly, the rapid RS3 almost seems parsimonious at 16.1L/100km, whereas the A45 (17.4) and the big-capacity V8 Commodore (19.3) demonstrate not only their hard-driven thirst, but the enthusiasm of their drivers behind the wheel. Some cars were definitely pushed harder than others, and the SS-V Redline actually travelled the most distance (862km versus 808km in the Mini).
HOME STRETCH: THE WASH-UP
PRECONCEPTIONS are a funny thing. As decent humans, we’re meant to approach everything with an open mind – like transporting cars across notoriously rough stretches of ocean without getting sea-sick – but you can’t help pre-judging what may be.
Yes, it would be great if the stealthily quick M135i toughened up a bit (and was manual), but that’s the job of the 235i coupe, and the forthcoming M2. And while the Mini JCW isn’t without its flaws, there’s a really good hot hatch in there waiting to be realised.
The Volkswagen Golf R wagon has its little niche all to itself (if you exclude Holden’s SS-V Redline Sportwagon) and we reckon it’s an excellent all-rounder, as well as a better car than the hatch that spawned it. But if the French offered us the Megane 275 Cup Premium in a carry-all version, that would be a wagon to covet. Instead, we’re left with an ageing but still amazing three-door coupe. If Porsche made a front-drive manual sports coupe, we reckon the Megane would be pretty close to what it came up with, both dynamically and mechanically.
But you know what the real surprise was? The Commodore. For everyone. Without any hint of jingoism or #straya bullshit or nostalgia, the SS-V Redline manual sedan is a seriously fun, extremely accomplished and hugely likeable performance sedan. It requires no excuses, and it serves as a great reminder as to how much Tasmanian roads are gonna miss polished rear-drive muscle cars like this.
GOING STRAIT
Overnighters can travel frugally by sleeping in a Recliner (think Economy class), or choose from 222 ensuite-equipped rooms – twin singles, four-person bunk beds, or a Delxue Cabin with a queen-sized bed. The day trip is 9am-6pm, the night version (always our choice) is 7.30pm-6am. Check out spiritoftasmania.com.au.
Matt Campbell: Acing It
MATT’S VERDICT: HOLDEN
MATT’S VERDICT: RENAULT
MATT’S VERDICT: MERCEDES-AMG
“Possibly the quickest car in a straight line, and also smashes the rest under brakes. It does squirm around a bit under really hard braking, but as long as you’re smooth, it pulls up really well. It also puts its power down so well compared to the other cars. Its corner-exit ability is brilliant; you can feel the new front diff really working. Coming off the turn, you can feed it loads of throttle, with heaps of lock still on, and it just gets it to the ground.”
MATT’S VERDICT: BMW
MATT’S VERDICT: MINI
“Doesn’t matter whether it’s high-speed or low-speed corners, initial turn-in sees it moving around quite a lot in the rear. You don’t want to hit a bump the wrong way, or have a little bit of attitude on it at the same time, otherwise it could actually turn you around. And it struggles up the hill; it doesn’t quite have the top-end power of the faster cars. It’s still fun, just not as complete as the others.”
MATT’S VERDICT: VOLKSWAGEN
“Really good in the mid-corner phase, and really good under brakes. It does understeer a bit under power out of corners, but I think for a wagon, it does really well. Obviously Baskerville is a pretty bumpy track, and it does make the Golf R bounce around a bit on entry, and it does push the nose a bit on the way into slower corners, but overall it hangs on really well.”
MATT’S VERDICT: AUDI
SPECS
Audi RS3 quattro Price as tested: $91,215 Engine: 2480cc 5cyl, dohc, 20v, turbo Max power: 270kW @ 5550-6800rpm Max torque: 465Nm @ 1625-5550rpm 0-100km/h: 4.3sec (claimed) Fuel economy: 16.1L/100km (tested)
Volkswagen Golf R Wagon Wolfsburg Edition Price as tested: $58,990 Engine: 1984cc 4cyl, dohc, 16v, turbo Max power: 206kW @ 5100-6500rpm Max torque: 380Nm @ 1800-5100rpm 0-100km/h: 5.2sec (claimed) Fuel economy: 15.5L/100km (tested)
BMW M135i Price as-tested: $70,344 Engine: 2979cc 6cyl, dohc, 24v, turbo Max power: 240kW @ 5800-6000rpm Max torque: 450Nm @ 1300-4500rpm 0-100km/h: 4.7sec (claimed) Fuel economy: 14.8L/100km (tested)
Mini John Cooper Works Price as tested: $55,450 Engine: 1998cc 4cyl, dohc, 16v, turbo Max power: 170kW @ 5200-6000rpm Max torque: 320Nm @ 1250-4800rpm 0-100km/h: 6.1sec (claimed) Fuel economy: 11.7L/100km (tested)
Mercedes-AMG A45 Price as tested: $82,370 Engine: 1991cc 4cyl, dohc, 16v, turbo Max power: 280kW @ 6000rpm Max torque: 475Nm @ 2250-5000rpm 0-100km/h: 4.2sec (claimed) Fuel economy: 17.4L/100km (tested)
Renaultsport Megane 275 Cup Premium Price as-tested: $52,990 Engine: 1998cc 4cyl, dohc, 16v, turbo Max power: 201kW @ 5500rpm Max torque: 360Nm @ 3000rpm 0-100km/h: 6.0sec (claimed) Fuel economy: 16.0L/100km (tested)
Holden Commodore SS-V Redline Price as tested: $54,540 Engine: 6162cc V8 (90°), ohv, 16v Max power: 304kW @ 6000rpm Max torque: 570Nm @ 4400rpm 0-100km/h: 4.9sec (claimed) Fuel economy: 19.3L/100km (tested)
