Car Tuning and Modified Cars News

I am sure that this isn’t your opinion, too, but I’ve wanted to present in this top my preferences. So, you can only agree or contest my top!

No1. Bentley Continental GTC
Price: £130,500
When you’re paying £130,000 for a car, it’s 90 % what the car says about you and makes you feel and 10 % what it actually does. Still, for those that fixate on diminishing returns, here’s what the Bentley Continental GTC can do.
It will accelerate from a standing start to 60 mph in an eyeball popping 4.8 sec and the 552 bhp twin turbocharged 6.0-lite W12 engine will keep accelerating right up to a heady 195 mph. Unless you want to experience an accelerated course of male pattern baldness, you will need to have the roof up at these speeds but you probably didn’t need me to tell you that. The full 650 Nm slug of torque is available from as little as 1.600 rpm which means that the Continental GTC is as effortless to drive as its coupe sibling. If you’re concerned about fuel economy and emissions, buy something else. No excuses required here. With the security of four-wheel drive and whole panoply of safety features, the Continental GTC is as reassuring as it is rapid.

The hood itself deserves a mention. Although it’s not the quickest folding mechanism around at 25 sec from roof up to roof down, it’s nevertheless a beautiful piece of craftsmanship. With seven bows to preserve stiffness, it features a triple lined fabric construction to ensure the best acoustic and thermal insulation properties.
Power is transmitted to the road via a rear-biased four-wheel drive set up which gives the Continental GTC a handy advantage when the going gets slippery. The link between the driven wheels and the engine comes courtesy of a six-speed automatic transmission built for Bentley by ZF.

No2. Jaguar XK Convertible
Price: £64,955
If you evaluate a car like Jaguar’s XK Convertible, it’s worth remembering that, despite its long British tradition, we’re not really the target market. Big convertibles sell in vanishing small numbers here. They may be assembled in Birmingham, but a big share of these drop top Jaguar XKs will go west, aiming their sleek noses at the wide open roads of the USA. That’s not to say this model is an irrelevance on these shores. How can any car that looks this good and which features such a mouth watering technical specification be anything other than a very welcome addition to the domestic motoring scene?
Unlike many premium convertibles, the Jaguar relies on a fabric roof rather than the voguish folding hard top, but there are valid engineering reasons for doing so. Folding tin tops require a whole host of heavy electric motors to operate and the ethos of the latest XK is clever design and light weight. It may be a mere 1.5 cm longer than the old XK8, but thanks to that advanced aluminum construction, its weight has plummeted to 1,635 kg. It’s not only lighter on its feet than any of its rivals, but this has instant benefits in terms of acceleration, braking, cornering, fuel economy and emissions. All the important bits, in other words.

The refreshing thing about the Jaguar XK Convertible is that it doesn’t need to play the heritage card. It’s good enough in its own right to stand up to and face down the best of its rivals without having to fall back on notions of character or badge equity. Expect this car to be renowned as the class standard bearer for some time to come.

No3. Audi A4 Cabriolet range
Price: £25,730-£59,580
There’s a lot to be said for progression. In bringing the A4 Cabriolet up to date in line with its tin top siblings, Audi have created a convertible that must rank as one of the best looking four seat open-topped cars on sale today. Beneath those svelte lines are a number of changes that make the car better to drive, spiking the guns of rivals who lined up to denigrate the old Audi’s rather stodgy road manners. The combination of great engines, better driving characteristics and unfussy but sleek styling looks set to restore the Audi Cabriolet to its rightful position.

At a glance, you can see why. In a class full of particularly pretty cars, this one stands out, even against drop-top versions of the BMW 3 Series and Mercedes CLK. And with competitive pricing counting in the Audi’s favor, the A4 looks set to continually reprise the sales success of its predecessor. The single-frame grille and sculpted headlamps will be the thing most will spot but a subtle redesign of the rear lights and updated alloy wheel designs are also part of the latest soft-top A4’s arsenal. Yes, the Audi continues with a soft top, arguing that the engineering compromises required fitting a folding hard top force designer into all sorts of other knock-on issues regarding weight and packaging. This electro-hydraulically operated hood features a heated glass window and there’s even an option of a special acoustic hood with fabrics of greater density to further insulate the driver from wind noise. Audi insiders claim it makes the Cabriolet virtually as quiet as saloon versions.
The A4 Cabriolet is a car that has been quietly and frequently updated and improved to the point where it’s now an extremely polished product. This is a car that offers a refined blend of qualities and fully justifies its position at the top of the convertible tree.

No4. Volkswagen Eos
Price: £19,410-£28,095
It’s always a little humbling when you fall flat on a subject you held yourself to be rather knowledgeable about. For many years VW has done without the sort of sporty, desirable coupe or convertible models that rivals were making some serious coin from. Volkswagen claim to have a trick up their sleeve with this roof. Not content with the normal concertina tin top, they have also managed to engineer a system that incorporates a sliding glass sunroof.

The engine line up includes a 1.6-liter 115bhp entry level unit, a high-tech 2.0 liter FSi with 150 bhp and the engine out of the Golf GTi, the turbocharged 2.0-liter FSI that’s good for 197 bhp. Pride of place in the petrol-powered line up goes to the 3.2-liter 247 bhp V6 that should make the Eos a real handful. Diesel customers are catered for with a 140 bhp 2.0-liter TDI diesel.
The Eos is the first Volkswagen that a new wave of customers will have considered buying. It’s a very polished offering and one that points to a sunny prospect for the German giant.

No5. Mitsubishi Colt CZC
Price: £13,999-£15,999
Mitsubishi based the CZC prototype on the chassis and running gear of their existing Colt five-door hatch. Which means that they needed to engineer a folding hard top roof and space for two adults up front plus two ‘occasional seats’ behind into a wheelbase of no more than 2,500 mm. That’s quite a task and the results, while impressive from a utility standpoint, won’t win Mitsubishi any awards for aesthetics.
That may be a little harsh as with the roof folded into the boot, the Colt CZC is a cheeky and rather appealing looking thing, with a pleasantly wedge-shaped profile and a great wheel-at-each-corner stance. It looks less happy when the roof is raised, so Mitsubishi may struggle for sales in a sector of the market that’s becoming quite vicious but they have an ace up their sleeve.

Alongside the normally aspirated 1.5-liter 107 bhp power plant, there’s also a model that hands the Tigra a question it just can’t answer. Mitsubishi have taken the turbocharged 148 bhp 1.5-liter engine from their Colt CZT hatch and have plumbed it into the nose of the CZC, giving this car an unexpected dose of attitude. The other model in the range may not have the eye catching figures of the Turbo but Mitsubishi will be directing most of their sales push towards making the 107 bhp normally aspirated car the bigger seller.

After you have read my top, what do you think?

Tags: cars, top cars, Bentley, Bentley Continental GTC, cars engines, sport cars, wheels, Jaguar XK Convertible, Jaguar, Audi, Audi A4 Cabriolet range, VW, Volkswagen Eos, Mitsubishi Colt CZC, Mitsubishi, diesel