RS ROAD TEST

It looks a million dollars (but costs less than half that) and — all credit to its maker — combines new tech with brutal, old-school power and glory

- DARREN STYLES

Who would be a car manufacturer right now? From blank sheet of paper to showroom floor is a five-year design and development process, and then — if you're lucky via a face-lift at the mid-point — you have an eight-year lifecycle in which to recoup your investment and make a return.

In some ways, it’s a bit like making a fine wine: grow the grapes, press the juice, lay it down and then collect your pay-off later. Save for one thing: every 18 months for the past five years somebody in government isn’t re-writing your recipe for Chardonnay. But that's been the lot of the automotive sector.

Five years ago was five UK prime ministers back. And each has tinkered with the fundamentals of car design in the meantime, with changing diktats as to the future of motoring. All new cars for sale in the UK needed to be fully electric by 2035, then 2030, then 2035 again, and now — apparently — 2030 again, but with previously cancelled hybrids allowed for a bit longer. Perhaps.

And that’s just here in the UK. There’s no regulatory alignment either with Europe — which has stuck with 2035 from the off — or the USA, currently undergoing a bonfire of all things eco and set for an oil-drilling spree under the Trump administration. Which must have made for an interesting chat over a McDonald's with First Buddy and Tesla founder, Elon Musk.