60 SEPTEMBER 2019
BMW X4 M40d
M
ost new drivers are
pretty darn useless. It’s
not that they lack the
skill, they have that, we’re sure.
It’s rather a case of the modern
car being so good that young
drivers don’t get to develop any
decent driving skills.
With the advent of traction
control, there’s no more
unintentional drifting (except
if you disable the system,
of course) in a powerful‘oops’ – as if you had never
intended for that to happen.
Thanks to fancy stability
control systems, even the most
hapless driver can now ‘pilot’
a high-powered vehicle through
a corner faster than our grand-
parents ever thought possible in
their motoring heydays.
In some cases, it’s like
handing a loaded bazooka to
a six-year-old and telling him
to definitely, unquestionablynot press the fire button.
But that’s just the tip of the
iceberg. Nowadays, cars also
brake for you. They steer for
you. They navigate themselves
to a destination. If all goes
wrong and you land up in an
accident, a trillion and 10 air-
bags, fancy safetybelt systems
and a whole lot of other what-
nots are supposed to prevent
you from ending up with a
headache, or broken limb.leisurewheels.co.zaHAMMER
One is a posh SUV fitted with an absolutely sublime supercharged V8
engine making the kind of noises that entice angels to descend from the
heavens. The other is a red-blooded sports car in SUV disguise, powered
by a Ferrari engine. This is the story of two spectacular compact SUVs.
rear-wheel-drive car.
Like when you borrowed your
dad’s rear-wheel-drive car with a
couple of your friends, tackled a
corner way too fast (possibly also
supplemented by a deft flick of
the steering wheel to unsettle the
rear) and the back-end stepped
out, which you promptly
corrected with copious amounts
of countersteer, resulting in a
delightful power slide,
accompanied by a nonchalantTEST Alfa Romeo Stelvio Quadrifoglio versus Jaguar F-Pace SVR