Autocar magazine 31 October - on sale now

This week: new Ford Focus ST, McLaren Speedtail revealed, Hyundai's game-changing EV gets the full road test treatment and much more

Ford’s upcoming Focus ST leads this week’s issue of Autocar, with plenty of inside knowledge on the hot hatch set to beat the next Golf GTI to market in 2019.

McLaren’s Speedtail Hyper-GT also saw its debut as a spiritual successor to the F1, complete with centre driving position and highest top speed of any of Woking’s cars to date. Elsewhere in the automotive industry, the Gumpert name returns on a 190mph electric hypercar, and Swedish EV firm Uniti commits to building cars in the UK.

Also In this issue

Reviews

This week we’ve driven the swansong for Morgan’s Aero 8, the limited-run Aero GT. With hard-edged looks and a soulful V8, it’s the most appropriate way to send off a classic. We also drive the enthusiast-focused Porsche Panamera GTS to see whether it can challenge the rest of the super saloon set, and test the Alfa Romeo Stelvio Quadrifoglio on UK soil.

This week’s road test review is the antithesis of all that petrol power - the Hyundai Kona Electric, the battery-powered crossover with the numbers to shake its market segment to the core.

Features

We go hunting for the family ties between Ford’s value hot hatch king, the Fiesta ST, and its supercar bigger brother, the GT - is there really anything that connects these two vastly different cars together?

Meanwhile, a £200 budget banger gets turned into an endurance racer, as we take a used Nissan Micra on a three hour grass-track marathon to see just how far you can go in motorsport with next to no budget.

And on the opposite end of the price spectrum, we meet Italdesign for the inside story behind the £1.5 million, only-five-ever-built Zerouno hypercar.

Opinions

Steve Cropley takes us through his week in cars, swapping a Jaguar I-Pace for a Suzuki Jimmy and bemoaning the awkward interview segments bookending Channel 4’s Formula One coverage. Matt Prior, meanwhile, questions why so many new cars seem to be misjudging their styling.

Deals

This week’s used buying guide looks at Ford’s forgotten super saloon, the Mondeo ST200, and explores how to get one in your garage from just £1000. Bangernomics looks for a suitable replacement for a Honda CR-V that’s been perfectly reliable after 130,000 miles, and eyes the classifieds for future classics.

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