In this week’s news you need to know: Toyota bestowsus with the Land Cruiser 300 (and a GR Sport version), BMW favours its performance SUVs over its legacy M cars, you can buy a 615-kW kit for your Mustang and could Opel be hinting at the possibility of an Astra that will honour the legend of the mighty Superboss?

Land Cruiser 300 with GR treatment – South Africa’s favourite off road limo returns

While the mighty Toyota Motor Corporation’s R&D department weighs up the merits ofbattery-electric- vehicles versusthose of their hydrogen fuel-cell electric counterparts(who knows in whichdirection TMC will ultimately go – perhaps they’ll do both), the Japanese firm is keeping itself busy by paying tribute to the last years of the ICE engine. And how? Well,just about every Toyota model is getting the Gazoo Racing (GR) treatment. And we’re not talking about the “creativelybranded” Toyotas you’d see in a shopping-centre parking lot – they’re not just slappinga TRD badge on an old Corolla 1300…

Read more:Toyota Land Cruiser 300 has arrived plus a GR Sport model

We thought it would be limited to the holy trinity of GR Supra, GR Yaris and GR 86, but Toyota’snot stopping there – the new Land Cruiser 300 is getting levelled up too.A GR Sport version of the big daddy SUV is coming and so is a GR Corolla. The Land Cruiser is bound to consolidateits “King of the dirt” status;it’s the off-roading limo that South Africans love and aninexhaustible goldmine for the brand.

X3 M Competition – ‘Faster than an M3 Comp.’

For many years, there was no performance derivative of any BMW model that was quite in the league of the brand’s M3 sportscar. The 1 Series M Coupe had thatpotential, but its maker reined it in. That strategy appears to have changed:the new X3 M Competition sprints from 0 to 100 kph in 3.8sec, making it 0.1secquicker than the current rear-wheel-drive M3 Competition. Let that marinate overnight.

Read more:2022 BMW X3 and X4 LCI Revealed

To me, it’s a sign that BMW now regards the M3 and M4 as just a couple of models (no, products) in its ever-expanding M-car line-up, as opposed to the crowning achievements of the Bavarian marque’s celebrated M Division. Before you write in and whine about the M3 and M4 being better overall performance packages than their SUV counterparts blah blah, my point is centred around the sportscars and SUVs’ respective accelerationfigures.

Is the future of the BMW SUV electric? The latest X3 M detail tells me that this may be the first nail in the coffin. Will there even be a next-gen X3 and X4?

Shelby Super Snake – ‘Hou vas my dop en check hierdie‘

A peak power output of 615 kW in a road car is right next to the idea for the atomic bomb and a lab-engineeredZoonotic pandemic –it’s not good for anyone’s health. Shelby’s latest Super Snake and Super Snake Speedster(shown above) kit is a big fat slice of American muscle-car steroid injection thatI’d strongly recommend you think through carefully. Thattype of power is just not suitable for a public road…

Read more:You can have this 615kW Mustang in SA

Apart from the hefty price tag attached, the real kicker comes in the fact that it’s merely R1.5 million for a kit, but thatmeans you kindaneed to buythe donor car (a Ford Mustang 5.0 GT Fastbackor Convertible) first. I have nodoubt that somewhere out there a tribal-tattooed transport entrepreneur has crackedopen a bottle of Klipdriftpremium and is about to emailhis local Ford dealership.

All new Opel Astra – Missing the marque

WARNING: If you suffer from PTSD brought on by Opel’s inabilityto produce a hot hatch that could remotely live up to the Kadett GSi 16V S, better known as the “Superboss”, I advise you to speed-dial your psychologist now. I often sit in disbelief and ruehow badly Opel got it wrongby not building on the tremendous success of the “Superboss”; what an amazing performance legacy it could have had.

A Superboss could run rings around the Volkswagen Golf GTIof its era and the turbocharged 200tS derivative of the subsequent generation of the Kadett (which is now known as the Astra) did not hang about either. You only have to look at how well VW has done with the (now ubiquitous) GTI in South Africa to realise how Opel threw away its early-’90shot hatch supremacy. So potent was the Superboss that it took a knife to the throat of the rear-wheel-drive BMW 325iS; there was nothing in the front-wheel-drive segment that could touch it. Feeling emotional yet? This is your safe place, so let it all out.

Read more:All-New Opel Astra Teased

Okay, the Astra OPCs loosely carried the performance baton, but they lost the magic that the Superboss had. It’s asad chapter in the South African motoring story and I can’t help but look at the new Astra and think what could have been. Could they tap into that legacy once more? I certainly believe there are plenty of die-hard fans that’d want a performance Opel again. Come on Stellantis, please make it happen!