Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?
What happens when you post a picture of "an absolute unit" of a sheep to your work Twitter account and it then gets picked up by Elon Musk - also known as the 25th most powerful person in the world? The Tesla founder has history with the museum after temporarily changing his profile picture into a photo of an Exmoor Horn aged ram that @TheMERL owned and was a viral sensation a year previously. In response, Adam changed the museum's Twitter name to the "Muskeum of Elongish Rural Life" and its profile picture to Musk's smiling visage. He tweeted last month that after six years working with "amazing people in Reading" he was leaving his job as programme manager and digital lead for Museums Partnership Reading to go be the social media editor at The Royal Academy. Do androids dream of electric sheep? In April Adam wrote a Medium post entitled "Swapping souls with Elon Musk" which explained his strategy around the surreal sheep interaction this year which took the internet by storm. He added that the museum's Twitter account received many private messages from people thinking they were contacting Mr Musk himself and seeking jobs, money, Teslas and memes.
This is not a brand new concept for the Macan, because the engine was previously available via special order in the UK. It鈥檚 just that not many punters went for it when there was a far torquier turbodiesel on offer. Now, though, this is where the Macan entry point sits in the UK, and while the petrol engine might lack a bit of low-down grunt compared with the diesel, there is much to like about it as well. What鈥檚 perhaps less impressive is the power output of the engine, at least on paper. Porsche claims a mere 242bhp at 5000rpm, which is well down on what this same motor produces in many other VW Group installations. Surely when installed in a Porsche SUV, rather than a SEAT, VW鈥檚 ubiquitous 2.0-litre petrol turbo should produce the most power of all? On the road it is better than ever to drive, with uprated suspension and some minor revisions to the steering and drivetrain to make it sweeter from behind the wheel.
It鈥檚 also not particularly slow either, despite the shortage of cubic capacity. It鈥檒l crach 0-62mph in 6.7sec, or 6.5sec if you spec the optional Sports Chrono package. Either way, the fact that there are only four cylinders and 2.0 litres beneath the bonnet doesn鈥檛 seem to have blunted the real-world performance. Get the engine spinning at anything above 2,000rpm and the response is surprisingly strong, even if the exhaust note isn鈥檛 especially memorable. There is little or no turbo lag, and the way the engine combines with the superb seven-speed PDK gearbox ensures that there鈥檚 always just enough thrust on tap, without there ever being too much. Inside the 2019 Macan it is very much business as usual, albeit with a couple of minor tweaks to the infotainment system. So there鈥檚 a good but not class-leading amount of space in the rear seats and boot, excellent build quality throughout, a surprisingly decent amount of kit and tech as standard. You also get the same excellent driving position that defined the car on its launch four years ago.
While the base xDrive30i model isn鈥檛 a very good competitor for the Macan S at 249 horsepower and 258 pound-feet of torque, the M40i features a more powerful 3.0-liter inline-six rated at 355 horsepower and 369 pound-feet. Getting to 62 mph takes 4.7 seconds, almost a half-second quicker than the Macan S. However, top speed comes in at "only" 130 mph. Read our full review of the 2018 BMW X3. The current GLC has yet to be updated, but it鈥檚 still a solid proposition. Its design isn鈥檛 dated, and its interior remains appealing without the big cluster and infotainment displays that Mercedes introduced on other models recently. Just like the X3, the base U.S. Macan S. To get similar specs; you have to go with the AMG GLC43. Powered by an AMG-enhanced, 3.0-liter V-6 with a pair of turbos, this SUV hits the pavement with 362 horsepower. It鈥檚 quicker than Macan S too, needing less than five seconds to hit 62 mph from a standing start. Read our full story on the 2018 Mercedes-Benz GLC. The F-Pace is the youngest nameplate here and Jaguar鈥檚 first-ever crossover.