How does the new VW Golf GTI fight back against its posh Audi S3 sibling? With the new Performance Pack, an optional upgrade that gives you bigger brakes, another 10bhp under the bonnet, and a traction-boosting limited-slip differential. That proper diff is a first for a Golf GTI, but it’s also electronically controlled (just like in a Ferrari 458) so up to 100% of the torque can be sent to an individual front wheel.

So, what's it like to drive?

Drive it quickly with the Driving Mode selector set to Comfort or Normal and despite the diff it doesn’t feel too different to a regular Golf GTI, which has a new version of the XDS system that debuted on the Mk6 GTI in 2009 and uses the stability-control electronics to mimic the action of a mechanical locking differential.

And when you really put the hammer down?

Switch the GTI Performance Pack to Sport and you can really start to feel the differential working as the computer brain that controls it becomes noticeably more aggressive. Its effect is especially obvious out of tight corners or on wet roads, where you can feel it juggling power between the wheels as you change the throttle position and steering angle. Just when you think the nose might start to nudge wide you sense the outside front wheel driving harder than the inside wheel, keeping your line tight and tugging you through the bend.

It’s more subtle than a Megane RS, the GTI’s diff not quite as aggressively pulling you through corners, but spec the Cup chassis in a Renaultsport Megane to get its limited-slip differential and you also get stiffer springs and firmer dampers to the detriment of ride quality. And although the rival Vauxhall Astra VXR has adaptive dampers, its motorsport-derived diff suffers from too much unruly torque steer. There’s no such failing with the Golf GTI: the diff (and enlarged brakes) might add 32kg to the overall kerbweight but it’s worth it for the massively improved driving experience, the GTI feeling sharper and more incisive than ever before – there are no drawbacks.

Is the GTI Performance Pack good value for money?

When  the 19-inch wheel upgrade (18s are standard) is £965 and the panoramic roof is a £930 extra, the Performance Pack seems good value at £980. Volkswagen UK expects only a third of GTI customers to opt for it, but the uptake will surely be much higher.

How does it compare to the Audi S3 enemy witihn?

Against the S3? The Audi’s extra power and traction mean it’s much quicker to 62mph, but although the advantage of four-wheel drive might show on a sodden road, for the most part the GTI’s diff will be more than enough. Like-for-like, a front-wheel-drive Performance Pack GTI is 88kg lighter too, so its movements are a little more agile and instantaneous. The downsides are the GTI’s got the same Progressive steering as the S3, which again feels too light in Normal and ultimately lacks real feedback in Sport, and it does without the Audi’s two active exhaust flaps so it’s not quite as aurally exciting.

Verdict

Still, with a £3740 difference between the Volkswagen and Audi, I’d take the cheaper GTI every time.

Certainly with the new-for-2014 M6 Gran Coupe, the fourth of BMW’s similar M cars powered by the 552-hp S63 engine and based on 7-series underpinnings, you have grown tired of our carping about aloofness and artificiality, isolation, and whatever other synonyms for cold we can muster. So here’s a complaint specific to the M6 Gran Coupe: You likely will bang your head against the roof as you clamber out of the driver’s seat the first time. At least the headliner is a nice two-tone combination of faux suede and leather.

The M6’s roofline is, indeed, low; it gives the four-door “coupe” its streamlined water-beetle look. Like the two-door M6 coupe, the Gran Coupe has a carbon-fiber roof panel, which at 54.8 inches in height is 2.5 inches closer to the ground than the M5’s steel lid. Both four-doors share a 116.7-inch wheelbase, but at 197.2 inches, the M6 Gran Coupe stretches 3.7 inches longer. Nominally a five-seater, the middle passenger in back must straddle the console and suffer the climate-control vents blowing directly into his or her business. Cold, indeed.

Can You See Me Now?

Obviously, compared with the familiar conventionality of the M5 sedan, the appeal of the M6 Gran Coupe is in the looks department. As in, look at me, I’m better-looking. And it is, for now. Conventional wisdom says coupe designs have an abbreviated shelf life; we’re not sure whether genetically modified coupes have immunity.

As expected, test results for the M6 Gran Coupe were close to those of the M5. The twin-turbocharged, 4.4-liter V-8 blasts the M6 to 60 mph in 3.7 seconds, same as the last dual-clutch-equipped M5 we timed. (Although the seven-speed M DCT is standard, a six-speed manual is a no-cost option.) Ditto for the quarter-mile, where both Bimmers turned in identical 11.9-second elapsed times. On the skidpad, the M6 pulls 0.92 g; the last M5 we tested, 0.91.

Halting Remarks

Braking was a different story, with a plot that’s a bit thicker. The M6 took 168 feet to stop from 70 mph, eight feet longer than the M5. Both cars were wearing identical-width Michelin Pilot Super Sport tires on 20-inch wheels, but the M6 was equipped with optional carbon-ceramic brakes ($9250). The super-fade-resistant carbon-fiber discs didn’t help the M6 Gran Coupe stop any better, but they are significantly lighter (BMW says they weigh 43 fewer pounds than the iron rotors they replace) and reduce unsprung weight by a considerable amount. Lest you view this as an incentive to supersize your lunch order at the next track day, our M6 Gran Coupe weighed 4395 pounds, 118 pounds heavier than the M5.

But that’s not the last word on braking. A test of a similarly equipped M6 Gran Coupe in Europe produced 24-foot-shorter stopping distances—144 feet from 70 mph. That’s impressive. Skeptical of such a wide discrepancy, we retested the first car back in Michigan only to replicate our initial results. BMW assures us that both cars had the same brake pads and fluid, so our best theory is that the pads on our test car were glazed. 

The Goldberg Factor

We had difficulty activating BMW’s Rube Goldberg launch control, which requires switching off stability control, selecting the quickest of three manual shift modes, lightly applying the brake, and pushing the gearshift lever forward before mashing the throttle and releasing the lever. This can be simplified by programming one of two steering-wheel-mounted M buttons to cover the first two steps or made more complicated if you want to adjust the launch rpm by way of the cruise-control buttons. It will take you longer to perform this sequence than it takes the M6 to launch itself past 60 mph.

At highway speeds, the M6 Gran Coupe starts to come alive, and the steering and the suspension begin communicating what’s going on. Poking around town, the Gran Coupe isn’t much fun to drive, its silly limits mocking the driver at every, literal, turn. Want more engagement with your Gran Coupe? BMW will sell you a Competition package with 15 more horses for an extra $6000. That’s five percent more than the base $115,225 for only 2.7 percent more power, but you do get a 20-percent-stiffer suspension in the bargain. The net result is 100-percent overkill, unless you’re taking your M6 Gran Coupe to the track.

In which case, you will likely knock your helmet against the roof at least once.

The Vauxhall Insignia Country Tourer is a more rugged crossover version of the regular Insignia Tourer estate that we saw in facelift form last month.

We’ll find out how much extra you’ll pay for the Country Tourer when it’s shown off at the Frankfurt motor show in September 2013. We're expected a price tag of £31-32k, compared to £28.5k for a standard Tourer with the same engine.

In the realm of premium sports cars, Porsche takes a back seat to no one. But when it comes to back seats, Porsche isn’t the first marque that springs to mind. Every person geeked on cars knows that premium sedans with generously proportioned aft quarters hail from the likes of Rolls-Royce, Mercedes, Audi, Jaguar, and BMW. Porsche builds light, agile two-passenger sports cars, right?

The last word in luxury limos hasn't been spoken until Mercedes-Benz has had the floor. Herr Dr. Benz’s firm was making the preferred shipping containers for the mostly un-elected elite when Audi was just a business plan, when BMW was in the bubblecar business, and when the word “lexus” was just badly butchered Latin. No company in this market has more experience catering to finicky buyers.

Upon announcing the cancellation of the C-X75 supercar last December, Jaguar brand director Adrian Hallmark tried to put a positive spin on the story, saying that the car’s development would be completed, and that regular Jaguars of the future would benefit from the work done on its hybrid technology, aerodynamics, and carbon-fiber composites. He also promised that Car and Driver, who had followed the project closely, would have a chance to experience Jaguar’s vision for a 21st century supercar. That opportunity came just a few days ago and showed that Jaguar, together with Williams F1, is capable of producing a high-tech road car that could compete with the likes of the La Ferrari, McLaren P1, and the Porsche 918.

In the realm of premium sports cars, Porsche takes a back seat to no one. But when it comes to back seats, Porsche isn’t the first marque that springs to mind. Every person geeked on cars knows that premium sedans with generously proportioned aft quarters hail from the likes of Rolls-Royce, Mercedes, Audi, Jaguar, and BMW. Porsche builds light, agile two-passenger sports cars, right?