Air-support: When cars take to the skies

Who doesn't like some air?

Autocar

24 April 2018

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Britain’s Royal Air Force marks its 100th birthday in April 2018.

The RAF’s creation was doubly notable as it was the first independent air force in the world – for a long time other nation’s air forces were parts of their respective armies, and also navies where available. America’s air force didn’t get its independence until 1947, for example.

We’d show you some pictures of RAF aircraft, but as we generally do cars, not planes, we’re going to celebrate with some pictures from our archive of cars in the air instead. Please go full screen to see the photos as they should be seen.
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Caterham Seven

The Seven is the modern incarnation of the Lotus Seven, the iconic model built from 1957 to 1972. A proper ‘ten-tenths’ car, it is not for the fainthearted – if it rains you have to assemble a tent to protect you – but its handling is sublime. And it weighs only around 600kg (1320lb), so taking to the air is easily done.

Here we see it do the jump at the England’s Millbrook test circuit, a huge purpose-built facility in central England originally built by General Motors.
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Toyota GT86

At the same location, this time we have the Toyota GT86. This car is famously not especially powerful as modern sports cars go - 197bhp - but it more than compensates with excellent chassis balance and just 1250kg (2750lb) in kerb weight.
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Ford Focus RS

We had to wait for four years for the hot version of the original Focus, but it was well worth the wait – its turbocharged engine belted out 212bhp, and weighed just 1278kg (2811lb). We drove it again recently and remembered how easily it stuck to the tail of an ‘exceptionally well-driven’ Aston Martin Vanquish. This photo from when we first tested it back in 2002 gives an idea of how much fun we had.
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McLaren MP4-12C

The MP4-12C of 2011 was by no means perfect, but for McLaren to get so close to Ferrari’s mid-engined maestros at essentially its first attempt was a triumph. And we did quite enjoy lighting those twin-turbos when we first tested it.

This shot is notable as it’s an official press shot, and you don’t often see air in such pictures. If you look closely, you can see the driver is enjoying his work.
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Peugeot 306 GTi

It may not be much to look at, but the 306 was a very good car and in hot GTI guise, a great one. Arguably the last truly great Peugeot hot hatch, a tempting blend of power, agility, good looks and driver involvement offered up with decent practicality
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Porsche Cayenne Turbo

There is quite a story behind this picture. Shot at the Chobham test circuit in 2003, the location features tank ramps used for testing armoured vehicles – but you can also use them for jumping cars. The first two attempts at getting THE shot of Porsche’s brand new, first-ever SUV in flight that we wanted failed, so we used rather more power on the final attempt, as our driver recalled in 2011:

“Halfway up the ramp I could already see this was a mistake. The extra speed brought more of the 450bhp into play… the crunch was sickening as you’d expect when a 2.5-tonne SUV lands from 8ft and three wheels smashed on impact.”

In the meantime, the photographer did have to roll out of the way with some alacrity – but not before snapping our greatest car-in-flight picture ever.
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Porsche Cayenne Turbo

When the second generation Cayenne launched in 2010, we decided to give the car (not quite) the same treatment, this time at Millbrook. We’re pleased to report that the aftermath was easier all round.
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Renault Megane RS 250

At Millbrook once again, this time for the excellent hot-hatch that was the 250bhp Megane RS 250.
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Ford Focus ST

The ST of 2005 was the warm follow up to the first-gen RS for the second generation Focus – we would not get a RS until quite late in the model’s life, in 2009. The ST was equipped with a warbling turbocharged five-cylinder 2.5-litre Volvo engine, and we absolutely loved all of it, apart from its horrendous thirst.
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Nissan GTR V Spec

The R33 V Spec GTR of 1997 featured a 2.6-litre twin-turbo straight-six engine which cranked out a blistering 302bhp, so we took it to Millbrook to see what it could do.
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Jaguar C-X75

Millbrook is where they recorded the famous barrel-roll of the Aston Martin DBS that features in the 2006 James Bond film Casino Royale. The Jaguar C-X75 concept car featured in the 2015 Bond film Spectre, and Jaguar brought it to Millbrook for a publicity run.

The running concept didn’t feature the fancy hybrid-electric powertrain of the original car, but was replaced with something equally interesting: a 1.6-litre four-cylinder engine, but one featuring both a supercharger and turbocharger, capable of producing 500bhp - at 10,0000 RPM.
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McLaren F1

Opinion differs as to whether the F1 is the best car ever or merely in the top five, but McLaren’s achievement remains extraordinary, and when Autocar performed the only official road test of the car in 1994 we felt obliged to see what it could do.
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Subaru WRX STi

This car has four-wheel drive, powered by a 2.0-litre turbocharged 4-cylinder engine good for 261 bhp at 6000 rpm, with a 1470 kg kerb weight (3234lb).

Back in 2002 Tiff Needell - a columnist for Autocar at the time - took this fire-breathing rally-derived super-saloon up the tank ramps at Chobham – and down again.
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Jaguar XFR

We really liked the first generation XF when it arrived in late 2007, and we liked it even more when the 500bhp XFR variant arrived a few months later. So much so we wondered if we could get some air with it at Millbrook. The answer is yes, quite a lot in fact.
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Mercedes-Benz G 500 4×4²

As we’ve already noted, official press photos from car manufacturers tend not to show much air – unless they wish to make a point. Which Mercedes most certainly does with this promotional picture of this super-off-road G-Class variant, yomping its considerable 2996kg (6591lb) bulk around a quarry like a billy goat.
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Land Rover Discovery

SUV group tests at off-road locations are a great place to get pictures of cars taking flight, so at a recent shoot we did. Here we see the latest Discovery earn its wings.
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Dacia Duster

The Duster from Renault’s budget brand Dacia may be one of the cheapest SUVs you can buy, but it’s nicely capable off the road, and indeed off off the road too.

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