Home//BBC Top Gear Magazine/March 2018/In This Issue
BBC Top Gear Magazine|March 2018WelcomeWhen I was growing up (a long time ago, back in the days when TV had four channels and driver aids consisted of a travel sweet and a road map), the forecast for ice or, even worse, snow on the roads would cause much muttering from my dad and complete fear from my mother. At the same time, it would cause mild optimism in the young me about a day at home because the journey to school would almost certainly result in a shunt. The following morning, after a good 20 minutes of swearing had managed to defrost the Rover Vitesse, Dad would slither his way off up the road to do “business” having helpfully reminded Mum that injudicious application of the brake pedal would result in certain death. It…2 min
BBC Top Gear Magazine|March 20182 You can now purchase a brand new Jaguar D-typeThis is the brand new Jaguar D-type. No, really. This Longnose-spec racer is the engineering prototype for a box-fresh run of 25 more D-types. Why? Well, because it’s excellent business and because it’s the completion of a story that started more than 60 years ago. The original D-type was a fabulously successful (not to mention exquisitely beautiful) racing car based on the earlier C-type but with low-drag aerodynamics (for the age) specifcally aimed at Le Mans success. That box was mightily ticked with a triplet of 24 Heures du Mans victories in 1955, 1956 and 1957. However, while Jaguar originally intended to produce 100 D-types, only 75 were completed before the car became uncompetitive. So, following in the sold-out tyre tracks of the six Lightweight E-type and nine XKSS recreations,…1 min
BBC Top Gear Magazine|March 2018New G, like the old GHow do you reinvent a hero like the Mercedes G-Wagen? By making it look exactly like the old one. No surprises there, because despite being close to its 40th birthday, sales have improved year on year of late. There are new LED lights, but all the hallmarks are there: exposed spare wheel, prominent indicator lights, protective exterior strips, aerodynamics of a cube. Merc has even kept the endearingly old-fashioned, “characteristic closing sound” of the doors. The G is 170kg lighter than before, but bigger – 53mm longer and 121mm wider. Inside, the passenger’s dashboard grabhandle stays, as does the driving position that puts your face right in the windscreen. The dials are all digital, while the media system gives haptic and audio feedback as you twiddle its controls. It launches…1 min
BBC Top Gear Magazine|March 20186 Lexus has made a samurai sword on wheelsLexus might be trumpeting bleeding-edge technology for this LF-1 Limitless concept, but it’s the design that’s bleeding edge. Yep, Lexus has invoked the spirit of the Japanese sword – ‘molten katana’ – to infuse the LF-1’s lines with a liquid-metal-meets-samurai-sword effect. Its proportions – 5m length, 2m width, 1.6m height – have been masked by a low stance, and tight arches and overhangs. There’s a continuous stroke running from front to back, many creases and the trademark spindle grille. Inside, there’s less swordsmanship, more omotenashi (hospitality), meaning a welcoming, chiffon-white leather-bound sanctum fitted with haptic controls, 4D nav and a touchpad. Though Lexus hasn’t detailed what provides power in this concept, “the LF-1 concept could be powered by fuel cell, hybrid, plug-in hybrid, gasoline or even all-electric,” we’re told. We…1 min
BBC Top Gear Magazine|March 20189 Ferrari’s future will include an FUVWe’re in a huge anteroom with horrible carpet in Detroit’s Cobo Arena. Right now it’s FCA and Ferrari boss Sergio Marchionne working the floor. After 14 years at the helm, Marchionne has the air of a war-weary old general, but even as he enters the twilight era as FCA CEO – 18 months to go – he remains as colourful and charismatic as ever. The room is rammed with several hundred mostly American, mostly business journalists, so the subject matter is chewy. Then we decide the time is right to bring up the Unmentionable. The small matter of Ferrari’s mooted entry into the most profitable of all segments, the SUV. Mr Marchionne, BBC TopGear here. I’d like to ask you about another truck, the FUV, the Ferrari utility vehicle… “You…4 min
BBC Top Gear Magazine|March 2018Reid“If you’re a boy, the world is your oyster. But if you’re a girl, the world expects you to put on some heels” You’ll all be aware by now that Formula One has consigned grid girls to the scrapheap. The sport’s new owners, Liberty Media Corporation, have decided that using women to dress up its events no longer “resonates with its brand values”, and instead will be introducing Grid Kids, budding racing drivers from karting and junior categories. Obviously, the news was met with a mixed reaction; some praised the move as a welcome shift towards 21st-century morals, while others claimed it was an assault on a woman’s right to stand next to a racing car while holding a stick with a number on it. For me, it’s pretty simple:…3 min
BBC Top Gear Magazine|March 2018MY LIFE IN CARSI was quite old when I passed my test, I can’t remember exactly when it was, but I was 21 or 22. I used to live in Wandsworth when I first moved to London and used the tube all the time. Then my wife and I moved to Surrey, so I did a one-week crash course. The first car I bought was a Volkswagen Polo, and I still have it. One of the guys I work with drives it regularly, but I still love that car. When I stopped driving it my wife told me I needed to sell it, but I couldn’t – it’s strange, I haven’t had that feeling towards any of my other cars. After that I got a Golf GTI – it felt like a big…3 min
BBC Top Gear Magazine|March 2018#TWITSExcited. I love RACING. I’m just a RACER. Indy 500 here we come!!! #mclaren #honda #14 #f1 #indy FANTÁSTICO FANTÁSTICO FANTÁSTICO FANTÁSTICOFANTÁSTICO FANTÁSTICO FANTÁSTICO FANTÁSTICO FANTÁSTICO FANTÁSTICO!! Not only the fastest man on earth, but one of the nicest. @usainbolt. Thanks for the visit With the legend @ MarioAndretti #totalRacer You must understand that there is more than one way to the top of the mountain…1 min
BBC Top Gear Magazine|March 2018Socket and seeNissan Leaf £25,990 inc grant WE SAY: AT LAST! A LEAF FOR LONG JOURNEYS Everyone I know with an M3 says…”, “I’ve got a couple of mates with 911 GT3s and they both…” Such are the snippets you overhear when surrounded by motoring writers. Small wonder the Nissan Leaf is so widely misunderstood by the car press. I don’t move in those social circles, but I do have a couple of good friends with secondhand Nissan Leafs. They love them. Fulminations of the metropolitan lentil-hugging classes? Nope. They live on the outer edges of small villages a long way from any metropolis. Nissan shifted nearly 300,000 original Leafs to super-satisfied owners. There’d have been more converts if it had been capable of going further on a charge. More acceleration was…2 min
BBC Top Gear Magazine|March 2018Bright and breezyAston Martin DB11 V8 Volante £159,900 WE SAY: DOES THE NEW ROOFLESS DB11 V8 HAVE ALL THE ATTRIBUTES OF A CLASSIC GT? Assuming it’s not breaking a drought, rain is one of the frustrations by which we British define ourselves. Rain falling upon us in the South of France is a higher scope of vexation. And rain in the South of France when there’s a British 510bhp Aston Martin to be driven? Now that is just really bloody annoying. But I did it so you don’t have to These photos were shot under kinder skies, and doesn’t it look glamorous, eh? The front and rear of it are clearly as per any other DB11. What mattered intensely, obsessively, to the designers was that the middle region around the folded hood…4 min
BBC Top Gear Magazine|March 2018Going largeLitchfield BMW M2 Pack £6,361 upgrade Litchfield Audi RS3 Pack £2,058 upgrade WE SAY: THE SECRET IS OUT. IF YOU FANCY GIVING YOUR AUDI RS3 OR BMW M2 A FACE-BENDING TICKLE, HEAD TO LITCHFIELD Some cars roll of the production line with so much power you’d have to be in one hell of a hurry to need even more performance from them. The Audi RS3 is not a big car – it’s slightly smaller than a Ford Focus – yet it has 395bhp in factory tune. The BMW M2, meanwhile, doesn’t lag too far behind, equipped as it is with a 365bhp turbocharged straight-six. Neither Audi’s junior RS nor BMW’s pugnacious little coupe is crying out for more shove. But that hasn’t stopped tuning specialist Litchfield from turning up the…2 min
BBC Top Gear Magazine|March 2018Merc X-Class vs Land Rover DiscoveryWE SAY: MERC’S PLUSH PICKUP TAKES ON LAND ROVER’S SEMINAL SUV How’s the image? Affluent builder. Of course Merc wants it to be more than that, to be a family lifestyle truck, and inside and out it’s done a good job of hiding the Nissan Navara that lurks underneath. But it’s still a pickup. Just with slick PR. Country set. Yes, despite the slicker panelling of the new Disco, this is still the default choice for the Home Counties. Can be had as a pickup-rivalling commercial, but it’s just as pricey unless you’re VAT registered. Which has the best clanky bits? If you want clanky, you’ve come to the right place. X-Class uses the Navara’s 2.3-litre diesel and ladder-frame chassis. Coil-sprung and with switchable 4WD, it has a wider track…2 min
BBC Top Gear Magazine|March 2018Wireup the quattroAudi A7 55 TFSI quattro S line £58,040 WE SAY: THE NEW, A8 TECHENCRUSTED A7 IS AS ALOOF/ BEGUILING AS AUDIS GET When Audi decided, about a year ago, to launch the MkII A7 in Cape Town, it could scarcely have known that come January, the Mother City would be three months from completely running out of water. Drought and inefficiency has brought the Cape to the brink of running out of mankind’s most precious resource. 21 April is D-Day, and every billboard, motorway matrix sign and radio ad begs tourists and residents to save as much water as they can. Don’t flush. Ninety-second showers. No baths. It’s a modern day man-made crisis-in-waiting. Doing more with less is a state of mind the car industry has embraced like few others…4 min
BBC Top Gear Magazine|March 2018ColdweathertestingASTON MARTIN VANTAGE Price: £120,900 Engine: 3982cc, V8 twin-turbo, 508bhp, 505lb ft Transmission: 8spd auto, RWD Performance: 0–62mph in 3.6secs, 195mph Economy: 26.9mpg, 245g/km CO2 Weight: 1429kg We finally get the Vantage started.It turns out that if you leave a prototype Aston Martin in a trailer for three days while driving it to the middle of Sweden through temperatures that drop as low as -25ºC, you have issues – a frozen starter motor currently being the most pressing. Neither a hot pan of water nor a blowtorch does the trick. It’s only once it has been rolled inside the barn at Kall’s woodyard and left for an hour that we can coax life into it. This is the life of a prototype. This is why you do winter testing. Coming…4 min
BBC Top Gear Magazine|March 2018fullycharged“No matter how fast your Tesla, it can’t outrun an elk” There is, it has to be said, something utterly serene about piloting a Tesla P100D through the glowing gloom of a Scandinavian sunset. A bonfire sunset left crystal-sharp through the frigid, unpolluted air. The soft snicker of studded tyres, and the soothing hum of 750bhp of electrical power. Power proven on the ice lake, where the biggest-output Tesla laid waste to… pretty much everything in a straight line: perfectly metered torque, an endless delivery. You look ahead, at the frozen forest edges, and know that you aren’t – at least locally – responsible for famethrowing the snowy bits of the postcard with a massive ICE engine. Oh, the irony of the acronym. Teslas – and EVs in general –…2 min
BBC Top Gear Magazine|March 2018THE TECH BITTYRES We once tried driving a Porsche 911 Turbo on ice wearing its standard tyres. After a little practice we had the speedo needle beyond 200mph while the car itself wasn’t moving at all. Strap two bars of wet soap to the bottom of Usain Bolt’s feet and he’s not going to win the race to the far end of the tiled changing room, is he? To move you need friction. On ice, this means cold-weather tyres, although we usually refer to these – incorrectly – as winter tyres. Yes, they are designed to cope with snow, but first and foremost they’re designed to work when the average daily temperature drops below 7°C. That’s because the key difference is the one you can’t see – the compound. Cold-weather tyres have…3 min
BBC Top Gear Magazine|March 2018Salooneytunes“I could spend months on an ice lake and not stop grinning” This is going to be hard. Perhaps impossible. The power wars between M Division and AMG have been raging for a long time, and with the pair’s latest 600bhp four-doors, they appear to have reached some kind of deadlock. The new BMW M5 and Mercedes-AMG E63S both have clever all-wheel-drive systems that make them usable in winter, but with a naughty rear-drive Drift mode to appease the purists. Each has a twin-turbo V8 engine with around 600bhp, each one mated to a long-legged but snappily reacting automatic gearbox. Both have a suite of driver modes and traction-control settings to make them malleable to all talent levels and handling tastes. I’m professional, though, and I promise I’ll reach a…8 min
BBC Top Gear Magazine|March 2018Centre of attentionReport 2 Vauxhall Insignia Sports Tourer SRi VX-Line £27,350 OTR/£34,575 as tested If you’ve been anywhere near a telly recently, you’ve probably seen the trailer for the new series of TopGear, which starts on 25 February. It was filmed at the TG track and at various farm and countryside locations nearby in early January and features Matt, Chris, Rory, Ivy the cow (you kind of need to see the clip), a Volvo digger and around £40m worth of supercars. Our long-term Insignia estate doesn’t feature in the trailer, but we did use it as a support car for the day. Granted, it’s not as good-looking as the Aston Vantage Zagato, the McLaren 720S or Porsche 918 in the background, but it’s still a handsome thing (I particularly like the crease…1 min
BBC Top Gear Magazine|March 2018Snow goGoodbye Peugeot 3008 £27,595 OTR/£32,410 as tested That’ll teach me. There I was saying that I’d been using the snow setting to deal with wet grass, and the following week, just before the 3008 was due to go back, actual white stuff began falling out of the actual sky. Which means I am now in a position to tell you the snow setting works very well on snow. This may come as a surprise to the Grip Control doubters, but we always had faith in the Peugeot’s ability to deal with slippy stuff. Now we’re at the end of our custody of the 3008, my thoughts have turned to the past eight months. I’ve been trying to think of an occasion when the Peugeot failed me, when it let me…2 min
BBC Top Gear Magazine|March 2018Training wheelsGoodbye Skoda Kodiaq £29,960 OTR/ £33,895 as tested Six months ago when I found out I was going to be running the Skoda Kodiaq, I was secretly over the moon. Yes, over the moon about an SUV! Oh how my life has changed. You see, it’s one of those cars that just ticked all the boxes for my family needs (one ball and chain, and three monkeys). Seven seats, practical, VW/Audi engineering quality and at a jaw-dropping starting price of £23k. I was a genuine punter for this car and still am. So what’s it been like? Well, in short, fantastic – but personally disappointing, too. I went into this thinking it could be the next Franklin wagon. And while it might be down the line, it’s just not right…2 min
BBC Top Gear Magazine|March 20181 Steve McQueen’s Bullitt Mustang lives onTHINGS WE’VE LEARNT THIS MONTH If this limited-edition Ford Mustang Bullitt hasn’t immediately topped your must-buy-for-2018 list, you may need to check your vitals. A surprise reveal ahead of the Detroit motor show, the new Bullitt is a special edition that marks 50 years since Steve McQueen fred up his gorgeous, Highland Green Stang and decided to lay down one of the best movie chases the world has ever seen across San Francisco in 1968’s Bullitt. “It’s my favourite Mustang,” explains the Stang’s chief designer, Darrell Behmer. “Devoid of stripes, spoilers and badges. It doesn’t need to scream about anything, it’s just cool.” And that, it most certainly is. We start with the classic 1968 Bullitt Mustang’s exterior hue being deployed to excellent effect here – Dark Highland Green –…2 min
BBC Top Gear Magazine|March 20183 What Dany Bahar did next“The real value here is to make the customer happy. It's not a rational investment, it’s an emotional one.” Dany Bahar is a survivor. He’s also someone with an amazing ability to gather top-tier talent around him when a business idea strikes. The former Red Bull and Ferrari marketing man, who later and controversially gambled on a massive expansion plan as CEO of Lotus, has just formally opened his next project: Ares Design, a contemporary carrozzeria/coachbuilder based in the heart of Italy’s motorsport valley in Modena. For anyone who still doubts Bahar’s motivations, Ares Design’s HQ is a pretty effective means of shutting down the naysayers. Housed in an 18,000m2 former Fiat and Alfa Romeo dealership, Bahar and his principal partner in the business, Waleed Al Ghafari – a telecoms…3 min
BBC Top Gear Magazine|March 2018Hybrid AMGs are hereA new CLS, a new number for AMG: 43s. 45s and 65s… and now the 53 A Hybrid Gasp. A 3.0-litre straight-six produces 429bhp and 384lb ft. while an EQ Boost starter-alternator motor between the engine and transmission delivers 21bhp and another 184lb ft to neatly fill the turbo lag ana boost fuel consumption to 33.6mpg. Permanent 4WD and a nine-speed auto all sound a little un-AMG, but 0-62mph in 4.5 seconds redresses the balance. The CLS 53 AMG comes with 19in wheels as standard, 20s optional, and a subtle body kit. Don't want a swoopy four-door? The 53 powertrain simultaneously drops into the E-Class coupe and convertible and slots neatly above the V6-only 43s.…1 min
BBC Top Gear Magazine|March 20187 Need new brakes for your Bugatti? Just press printTitanium is apparently quite difficult to manipulate in a 3D printer. Nevertheless, Bugatti has found a way. A square millimetre of this titanium-aluminium-vanadium alloy can support 125kg and the caliper – the biggest ever developed for a road car at 41cm long, 21cm wide and nearly 14cm high – only weighs 2.9kg. Just for comparison, the Chiron’s forged-aluminium units weigh nearly five kilos each. But what does it mean for us? Not a lot for now – check back in 20 years and they might be available for your Focus.…1 min
BBC Top Gear Magazine|March 201810 The McLaren Senna’s looks are dictated by downforce“Unforgiving design in pursuit of absolute performance.” That, in McLaren’s words, is the styling direction of the Senna. It’s not a conventionally beautiful-looking car, and the comments section of the internet has been only too happy to point that out. It looks far better in the metal, though. Honest. “The design is a reflection of what the car’s intentions are,” says design director Rob Melville. It’s claimed to be McLaren’s most extreme track car still able to wear number plates. “With only 500 cars, we can be super-extreme in our approach. But the proportions were a tricky thing to handle,” he adds. “On a mid-engined car you normally have a 2:1 ratio on front and rear overhang length. On this car, the ratio is maybe 3:1. The reason is more…2 min
BBC Top Gear Magazine|March 2018View“Snow is the most sensitive ground, where you learn what a car can do” Changing from a rally driver to an ice-driving instructor wasn’t something I always thought would happen, it’s come a little bit by circ*mstance. My two children were born when I was still driving professionally. They would be in the car, in normal traffic, and I’d suddenly see how dangerously some people were driving in bad weather. I thought: “Bloody hell, my kids are there on the back seat, and some idiot could come and hit us.” I started to build up a little idea of using my occupation as a rally car driver in another way. Not to teach normal drivers to become ready for the rally stage, but to make them a bit better than…3 min
BBC Top Gear Magazine|March 2018GOOD WOODU-9 GRAND PRIX CAR MODEL Forget Lego – this is a build-your-own kit that takes it to the next level. Beautifully crafted with wooden components, the U-9 Grand Prix Car model set produces a fully functioning and moving machine with a transmission switching the modes between idle, reverse, and race ahead. Under the bonnet you’ll find a delicately crafted 16-valve V8 engine, plus spring-mounted suspension fork and rubberised wheels ensuring smooth but rapid acceleration and a long driving range. All things your pet hamster will appreciate from the driver’s seat. £50; ugears.online BAMBOO BICYCLE CLUB KIT Carbon fibre? Old news. This DIY kit lets you construct a road, mountain or track bike frame out of bamboo. Weekend courses help you perfect your craft, but be warned – the price only…1 min
BBC Top Gear Magazine|March 2018ON THE SET OF LE MANSDerek Bell 1970 My first set visit was a few weeks into the shoot. I’d never been involved with anything like that before, and had no idea what I was getting into or what it would become. I was in the pit lane and the world and his wife was there. Then Steve walked down, very casually, and shook hands with everyone. He was so laid-back, there was no sense of the superstar thing, and that’s what came through with us the whole shoot. He didn’t want to be an actor – he wanted to be a racing driver. Every spare moment he had, he’d sit with us. He wanted to glean every bit of information he could. He loved breathing the racing atmosphere. It became a way of life.…2 min
BBC Top Gear Magazine|March 2018Heated UpVolkswagen Up GTI £13,750 WE SAY: VW’S ENTRY-LEVEL GTI HAS LANDED. AND IT’S TEMPTINGLY PRICED Is this the long-awaited production version of the Up GTI? It is indeed, all 113bhp of it. More importantly, we now know prices too, and they start at just £13,750 (or £400 more if you want the kids to have their own doors). Ooh, that sounds a tempting price. That’s because it is. An Abarth 500 starts at £15,510, a base Mini Cooper is £17,340, even a 110bhp Renault Twingo GT is £14,250. And it’s not like the Up is poorly equipped, either. Six-speaker stereo, USB, aircon, Bluetooth, heated seats, DAB – it’s all standard. The Up is available to order now, first customers will have theirs by the end of February. Will they be…2 min
See Also
What Is Liquidity in Stocks?BBC Top Gear Magazine|March 2018DRIVE IT BEFORE YOU DIEWhich bit? Something for everyone here. The narrow and wriggly climb for your hot hatch, the high fast plain in your supercar I still can’t find it… Start at Vence, head over the col towards Coursegoules, but bypass the village, head on to Gréolières, up a dramatic gorge face, then forge east When should I go? Early spring or late autumn. There might be snow in winter. Avoid obvious holiday seasons and the attendant Dutch motorhomes Why the DB11 V8 Volante? The view outward and upward, the provençale aromas in the valleys, the sonic echoes off the rocks, the power to use overtaking chances…1 min
BBC Top Gear Magazine|March 2018What comes after X1?BMW X2 £33,980 WE SAY: MUNICH WANTS A BIG SLICE OF THE EVOQUE PIE (OR IS THAT TORTE?) The X2 is, to no one’s great surprise, a counterpart to the X1, for people who are willing to swap some space for more singular looks. You know, like the X4 is to the X3 or the X6 to the X5. What is surprising is that the man at BMW responsible for the project was prepared to say that its main rival is the Evoque. Usually the big three German luxury brands mention only each other. Since the Evoque’s sales have so thickly buttered Land Rover’s bread, you can assume the X2 will do the same for BMW. In 2017 the X models accounted for one in three of all the BMWs…3 min
BBC Top Gear Magazine|March 2018Viking invasionVolvo XC40 D4 £39,905 WE SAY: WATCH OUT, RIVALS – VOLVO HAS GOT SERIOUS ABOUT THE CROSSOVER CLASS First things first: don’t be scared by the price you see above. That’s for the flagship First Edition model. The car you’ll actually buy, indeed the model that makes more sense, is a mid-range 150bhp D3, probably with the £1,590 auto ’box. So you’re looking around the £32,000 mark. Why not the D4? Because it’s not an exceptional diesel. It’s gruff at low speeds, has a lethargic turbo and never feels as quick as it should with 190bhp. Better to let the XC40 live a more relaxed life. Because the XC40 is a very good crossover. I know it’s not cool to like these things, but they are the way the market…2 min
BBC Top Gear Magazine|March 2018HELLOKALLDriving on snow and ice is a ridiculous amount of fun.The speeds are low, the banks are soft, the cars slide around, the jeopardy is minimal. But there’s another reason we do this: snow and ice offer a superb testing environment. On tarmac, you have little idea of what the car’s drivetrain is doing unless you’re at tyre-shredding speeds. On ice, the sensations are magnified, the characteristics exaggerated. When grip disappears, you get a much better picture of how a car behaves: how the stability systems function, how well balanced it is, how well it shuffles power between wheels and axles, what signals the steering delivers. If a car performs balletically on ice, it’s almost a guarantee it’ll be a belter on your local B-road. Almost. Without wanting to give…3 min
BBC Top Gear Magazine|March 2018WHAT IS AN ARJEPLOG?It’s not a word we soft Western Europeans are meant to wrap our mouths around. And it’s not a place we’re naturally equipped to survive, either. But Arr-yuh-plug is one of the most important places your new car visits, in gnarled prototype form, before it ever reaches your driveway. It’s a cold-weather-testing wonderland of perma-snowed roads and lakes topped with ice a metre thick, and every major manufacturer decamps hundreds of thermal-shod engineers to this remote outpost every winter to make sure that, come the first frost, your car is more reliable than your preferred airline, train or smartphone. Jaguar had to lean on a Swedish hamlet to install a city-spec electrical grid transformer to turn its existing cold-weather boot camp into an EV’s Arctic Circle nightmare. It had to…4 min
BBC Top Gear Magazine|March 2018Stranger things“ A grizzly RRS taking on an Ignis Care Bear” It’s not always easy being Goliath. Here you are, the top player, big, muscular and with form in the game. Powerful and proven. You shouldn’t even be challenged by a skinny kid swinging a sock with a rock in it, let alone struck down. But sometimes, those Davids can be really annoying. In this case, we’ve got the best 4x4xFar versus a relatively pasty little hatch with AWD pretensions. A grizzly of a RRS taking on Suzuki’s Care Bear of an Ignis. This, one feels, will be bloody. But when it comes to properly low grip coefficients, what really wins – heavy, powerful and clever, or light, modest and simple? The stats very much emphasise the depth and breadth of…4 min
BBC Top Gear Magazine|March 2018A goodday toslide hard“What’s wrong with a fast estate?” That’s the petrolhead response to top-heavy, cost-heavy performance SUVs. They’re fawed from the outset, and it’s cool to call them uncool. Lord knows, I’ve been guilty of it. As well as hosting childishly big skids, though, a secluded frozen lake has another advantage. No one can see you. Deep between snow-capped trees, where the satnav still thinks everything should be blue and wet, only nosey deer know what you’re up to. For driving a vastly overpowered SUV without shame, it’s perfect. That SUV is the Mercedes-AMG GLC 63S. We’ve got it in its more potent S trim, which means the same, thunderous 503bhp 4.0-litre V8 twin-turbo engine you’ll normally find in a C63. Or the new Aston Vantage. In a sensibly shaped 4x4, it…3 min
BBC Top Gear Magazine|March 2018Out with the new, in with the oldHello Nissan GT-R £83,875 OTR/£85,650 as tested Godzilla is back in the TG Garage. Not the rampaging sea monster (that was an interesting day at the office, though), but the latest and greatest GT-R. See, keen readers may remember that many moons ago we ran an R35 Skyline on the feet. That’s when it first kicked down the door that read Supercar Performance with a size 13 boot of technology. It actually did more than that – way more, in fact – as the GT-R shook up the scene by setting new standards for point-and-shoot performance at an enthrallingly accessible price point. The R35 instantly became a bang-for-your-buck yardstick and YouTube icon. At just over £50k it’d consistently and effortlessly eviscerate more prestigious and expensive supercars. But that was nearly…2 min
BBC Top Gear Magazine|March 2018Home on the range?Report 4 Tesla Model S P90D Ludicrous £111,900 OTR/£78,400 (s/h) This month we suffered extreme range anxiety for the first time during our running of the Model S. Mr Rix, having borrowed the car over the weekend, returned to the TG Garage with 18 miles left. As I was heading down to the local Supercharger at lunch, we left it unplugged, safe in the knowledge that 18 miles range would easily get us there. I duly returned at lunch to discover that the cold weather and background power usage (the Tesla uses some battery when sat still and range is significantly affected by the cold) had reduced that to five miles. Still, with the supercharger just down the road, all would be fine. Well, it would’ve been if the supercharger…1 min
BBC Top Gear Magazine|March 2018The anti-AudiGoodbye Alfa Romeo Giulia QV £61,000 OTR/ £73,505 as tested “ The Giulia is lit up; grinning like a madman as it incinerates its rears” I don’t know exactly how many photographic frames of our Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio have been committed to SD cards over the past nine months (“a lot” is the easy answer) but the glorious shot here is my favourite. Taken by Mark Riccioni on our first group test of the new Audi RS5, it sums up what I love about the QV in one easily-saved-to-my-desktop-wallpaper image. Where the Audi looks mopish as it apathetically walks a tightrope of understeer, the Giulia is lit up; grinning like a madman as it incinerates it rear tyres with 503bhp and sensational chassis balance. It looks fun. And makes…3 min
BBC Top Gear Magazine|March 2018Slippery when wetReport 3 Porsche 718 Cayman £42,897 OTR/£52,435 As joint keepers of the Cayman, it’s lucky Stevie and I agree on almost everything. Whether it should be filled with regular or super unleaded (super), how often it should be washed (never) and what sort of cars it should be hanging around with (none). The three of us are getting along swimmingly, but Essex’s narrow, poor roads and the British winter have revealed a chink in the Cayman’s usually superbly effective armour, namely a lack of wet-weather grip. Not a progressive one, but a snappy one when the turbo starts to spool, slews you sideways and leaves you and the little orange light to regain control. Things we’ve learnt: winter tyres are Very Good, and Porsche’s standard PSM allows an ounce too…1 min
BBC Top Gear Magazine|March 2018Trying on for sizeReport 7 Mazda CX-5 £30,195 OTR/£31,555 The CX-5 has been so well received in the Norris household that we are considering making it our family car, so I thought I’d try a manual AWD one in the interest of balance. I wanted to test the petrol but it only comes in FWD, so diesel it has to be. Four-wheel drive does make it more sure-footed around wintry London for sure, and surprisingly the mpg doesn’t seem any different, even though it’s a manual and has that extra 4x4 mass to lug around. I was very impressed with it. But I wouldn’t swap my auto ’box for the stick shift. Doing mostly town work, the laziness of it really helps. And you can keep that red paint too. I’ll stick with…1 min
BBC Top Gear Magazine|March 2018RACING LEGENDSThe BT52 is a major entry in the bulging CV of a certain Gordon Murray. When the FIA banned ground-effect aerodynamics in 1982 in favour of fat bottoms, Murray’s response was a mix of his signature engineering genius and sly ability to figure out a way of making the regulations work for him. The resultant car still looks like no F1 car before or since, its aggressively arrow-shaped chassis and abbreviated sidepods designed to reclaim the downforce lost in the rule change. The monocoque was a mix of aluminium and carbon fibre, and the return of refuelling meant that Murray was able to gamble on a smaller fuel tank to minimise weight. There were big wings, front and rear, chasing more downforce, and relatively conventional front and rear suspension. But…2 min
BBC Top Gear Magazine|March 2018MEET MOLLY McQUEENHow did this all come about? Ford wanted a third-generation McQueen to introduce the third-gen Bullitt Mustang. I’m only the eighth person to sit in the original car, I think. It smells like… history, like a car should smell. What was it like growing up knowing you had the coolest grandfather in the world? I don’t want to sound jaded but I grew up in LA, among lots of celebrities, so my grandpa was always just… my grandpa. There were lots of stories about him, like most people have about their grandparents, but they were really cool stories, y’know. Was there cool memorabilia around the house? Oh yeah. There was an old Bullitt script in a drawer, covered in Steve’s hand-written annotations, with line after line of dialogue crossed out.…1 min
BBC Top Gear Magazine|March 20184 Luxury Mercs, now available in smallSo, the new A-Class – Merc’s biggest seller in the UK, and the smallest Mercedes that isn’t technically a Smart. Only now it’s bigger than ever: 30mm longer, with a 14mm wider front track, more shoulder-, head- and elbow-room and a more voluminous, more easily accessible boot than the car it replaces. Good news, we’re sure you’ll agree. But there is better, more interesting news elsewhere… News, for example, of the all new MBUX infotainment system, which employs machine learning to “adapt to suit the user” and “create an emotional connection between the vehicle, driver and passengers”. So, for example, if you regularly switch to Radio 4 at 6pm for the news, the car will remember this and remind you. Like the S- and E-Class, the A’s swish interior is…3 min
BBC Top Gear Magazine|March 20185 Mini is flying the flagThe new Mini family drinks less fuel, has a new dual-clutch gearbox, and is precisely thirty-seven per cent more British, because the Oxford-built supermini has inherited Union Jack motif taillights. There are also new alloy wheels, LED headlights with matrix tech and a lightly refreshed Mini badge logo. But really, the only thing you’ll notice without the aid of a forensic pathologist are the tail-lights. We expect in the coming weeks, Mini will reveal even more awfully British features, including a satnav read by Joanna Lumley, tweed floormats, a red double-decker version only sold in London, and a clock that bongs like Big Ben on the hour. Underneath, many of the technical and mechanical swapsies are inherited from the BMW 2-Series Active Tourer, which shares a platform with the Mini.…1 min
BBC Top Gear Magazine|March 20188 SUVs and V8s are the ideal pairingLadies and gentlemen, the Land Rover Defender has returned. Sort of. This is the Defender Works V8, built as a limited-run special edition that both pays homage to those early V8 performance Defenders, and to the Land Rover marque’s 70th anniversary. And it is simply excellent. Of this, there can be no disagreement. The idea emerged only a few years back, when in 2014, while the old Defender was still busy trundling of LR’s production line and into your hearts, the company recognised the sheer need for something packing a haymaker. Thus, we come to the Defender Works V8’s powerplant: a 5.0-litre naturally aspirated unit with 400bhp and 380lb ft; a far cry from the regular Defender’s 120bhp. As such, this Works V8 will reach 60mph in 5.6secs, and top…2 min
BBC Top Gear Magazine|March 2018Harris“The motorway limit of 70mph is patently ludicrously low given the state of automotive technology in 2018” Anthony Bangham, the policeman who recently suggested that all motorists travelling 1mph over the speed limit should be prosecuted, has now retracted his comments and admitted that his proposed strategy might cause some extra workload in the courts. Because, let’s face it, he would have been potentially criminalising at least half of the population of the UK. Now I’m not a lawyer and I have no understanding of the cornerstones of law-making, but it does strike me as strange that the current road-policing laws effectively render most drivers criminals at some point every week. And not just selfish toads in fast cars, but nice, ordinary people like nurses and, um, deputy police commissioners.…3 min
BBC Top Gear Magazine|March 2018LAUNCH EDITIONFaces. Retro. Entertainment. Car Culture. Every month Tesla boss Elon Musk is no stranger to PR stunts. World’s quickest EV, flamethrowers, tunnels of whimsy, supersonic monorail... it’s all in a day’s work when your business interests are out of this world. So, what better payload for a test fight of the reusable SpaceX Falcon Heavy unmanned transport rocket – which aims to be a Mars stepping stone – than strapping aboard Elon’s own cherry-red Tesla Roadster, complete with a SpaceX suit-wearing dummy? After a successful launch on 6 February, it’s now on an eternal trip through the galaxy, hi-f (silently) playing David Bowie’s ‘Space Oddity’ into the vacuum. Talk about “boldly going”. Now, about those delayed Model 3s...…1 min
BBC Top Gear Magazine|March 2018CALIBURNUS : EXTERIOR DESIGNI’m Simon Coggle, Head of Agitation at Caliburnus Automotive, and I’m here to tell you all supercars look the same. Ferraris, McLarens, Porsches: if you can even tell the difference, you should probably be running this company instead of me! Which is why, as our mission to build Wales’ – and indeed the world’s – first 300mph production car gathers pace, I decide not to enlist the services of a recognised car designer or styling house to bring our vision to life. Instead I call upon Joël Canape, avant-garde furniture maker to the rich and famous. Carl Woodco*ck, my co-founder, suggests that, before finessing the design, we should nail down a few of the car’s mechanical basics. Like its drivetrain. And transmission. And engine. “Carl,” I say. “When that Jackson…2 min
BBC Top Gear Magazine|March 2018Gallic bredEvery new car that matters, rated or slated Megane RenaultSport £30,000 (est.) WE SAY: THE BATTLE FOR THE HOT-HATCH CROWN IS ABOUT TO GET WAY MORE DRAMATIQUE... For a car with such a defined mission statement, the new Megane RS is multi-faceted. You can choose between a Sport or Cup chassis, and a 6spd manual or dual-shift EDC ’box, although the motive power is supplied by a reworked version of the group’s turbo’d 1.8-litre engine, good for 277bhp and 288lb ft, whichever one you go for. Motorsport trickle-down is present in the Diamond-Like Carbon in the valve-gear and mirror bore coating inside the cylinders, Renault reckons. Emissions have been cut by 11 per cent to 155g/km CO2 (on the smallest wheels), fuel consumption is up eight per cent for a…5 min
BBC Top Gear Magazine|March 2018Alfa Romeo Giulia Veloce£38,260 8 10 Engine 1995cc 4cyl turbo, RWD, 280bhp, 295lb ft Performance 0–62mph in 5.7secs, 149mph, 46.3mpg, 141g/km CO2Weight 1429kg While the M3-baiting Giulia Quadrifoglio is all noise and arm-waving frivolity, the petrol-powered Veloce that sits below it is a calmer, more measured thing. There’s no Race mode and its 280bhp 2.0-litre turbo four is quiet to the point of meekness. It rides very softly on modest 18in wheels, while the 8spd auto is wonderfully smooth. So it’ll be easier to live with than any previous Italian 4dr, but it still has the handling nous. Its composed ride feels tailor-made for UK roads, while keen reactions come from being 100kg lighter than rivals. Cheaper than an Audi S4 or BMW 340i, it’s also a sports saloon without needless aggression, and…1 min
BBC Top Gear Magazine|March 2018Cad designCaterham Seven Super Sprint £29,995 WE SAY: WHAT IF TOAD OF TOAD HALL FANCIED A TRACK DAY? We’re a nation suspicious of good business. Nothing like doing a bit too well for yourself to lose friends and alienate people. Caterham ought to be careful. It’s had two record years, and is fresh from punting its fastest-selling model (and one of its slowest cars) ever. The Sprint brought twee running boards and pastel paint to the turbo’d Seven 160. But what if you are – and I refer verbatim to Caterham’s website – “the discerning chap or chapess who prefers the unbridled thrill of the race track to the constraints of public highways”? Someone enterprising has filled that niche by adding lashings of retro and a heady 15bhp boost to the…2 min
BBC Top Gear Magazine|March 2018SO, WHAT ELSE IS NEW?6 10 Volkswagen T-Roc What should I know? It’s VW’s new mini crossover in (nearly) its most basic form, a 113bhp 1.0-litre petrol SE with FWD and a manual. From £20,425. Should I care? Depends how much you want a crossover. The T-Roc is more fun to drive than most rivals, but it’s pretty uninspiring – inside and out – without fancy spec and colours. A similarly powered 5dr Golf is £500 cheaper and more nicely appointed inside. If not as ‘on trend’… 7 10 BMW 530e What should I know? That if you’re a company car driver, having one of these over a 520d might save you thousands. Because BMW claims 141mpg and 46g/km CO2, the BIK tax rate is way, way lower. Should I care? If the PHEV-y…1 min
BBC Top Gear Magazine|March 2018GOT 60 SECONDS SPARE?READ THESE7 10 Porsche Panamera TSEH The Turbo S E-Hybrid is the most pricey and powerful Panam: £137,140, 671bhp, 4.0-litre V8 mated to a 134bhp e-motor. But it also never feels that fast. It gains speed without excitement or drama – perfect for an autobahn, less so in the UK. All this engineering makes it heavy. Bentley heavy, Disco heavy. Steamroller tendencies means it does ride well. Porsche claims 30 miles of e-range, but 15 is more realistic, but use the electric intelligently and you’ll top 35mpg on a long run. Engine: 3996cc, V8 twin-turbo + e-motor, 671bhp, 626lb ft Performance: 0–62mph in 3.4secs, 192mph, 97.4mpg, 66g/km CO2Weight: 2310kg Price: £137,140 6 10 BMW X3 3.0d BMW’s family SUV with the best motor, the beefy 3.0-litre turbodiesel. Huge torque, 40mpg, good…1 min
BBC Top Gear Magazine|March 2018SlushfundIt’s a beastly business, going fast. It’s all serotonin overload, adrenal glands, pumping hearts and throbbing bits. Nerves crackling and eyes that water themselves right through an inability to blink. Fear. Triumph. Aggression. Joy. A piña colada of excitements gulped direct from your own hormones. And it’s that adrenaline that goes on a murderous rampage through your organs, over-revving biological systems and probably carving a couple of days of your meagre life expectancy with every misjudged braking point. Or at least it is on a road or racetrack. Transfer to an ice lake, and somehow, in the dropping of temperatures and the unclenching of the ability to find traction, it all gets slightly more serene. Quieter, certainly. Mainly because deploying absolutely everything a car has to offer in terms of…9 min
BBC Top Gear Magazine|March 2018VoltsvsV-PowerThough my grasp of maritime law isn’t all that firm, I’m reasonably sure Kvarntjärnen, our icy home for these few halcyon days, doesn’t count as international waters. So let’s call this a technicality. You join me cloaked in thermals, hiking boot resting on the pedal of a Nissan GT-R. I’m not strictly allowed to drive it. Seriously. In the UK, press demonstrators of Nissan’s ultimate speed machine come shackled to an over-30s-only insurance policy. It can be negotiated, but for my entire life so far, I’ve been too young to drive one on a public road. But atop a metre of frozen water walled by trees hiding kamikaze elk, surrounded by expensive sports cars and a certified lunatic on a snowmobile, this is legit. Funny old world. First things first:…5 min
BBC Top Gear Magazine|March 2018Frozenin time“ The skinny pillars give excellent visibility of, well, a lot of snow” The cold does funny things to your brain. It’s why I decide to warm my hands on a scalding-hot chimney, melting my gloves and giving my colleagues much ammunition with which to attack me for the next two days. It’s also why, I maintain, at first I struggle to find third gear in Below Zero Ice Driving’s Tuthill-prepared Porsche 912. My instructor Simon Redhead just used it, as he demonstrated the correct and most consistently sideways way of guiding the 912 around a short, twisty circuit that feels barely one and half times its width. But the first few times I go for it up the back straight, it’s first or fifth. I nail it after 20…5 min
BBC Top Gear Magazine|March 2018WackyracesWe start with a drag race,because that’ll give me a clue what I’m up against. I’m in the Ariel Nomad, and beginning to suspect we’re both out of our depth. Yes, the Nomad as well as me. I know, I know, it’s wearing spikes ’n’ spots and looks about as at home out here as the snowmobile. And around the other cars, the ordinary cars, it looks epic, ready for an expedition to the North Pole. Just hook it up to a team of huskies and say mush. Frame the Nomad against the M5, the NSX, even the Ignis, and it looks Scandi-native. But now change the frame and view the Nomad against the backdrop of an RX2 ice racer and a Polaris 800 Switchback XCR. Both are products of…8 min
BBC Top Gear Magazine|March 2018Deer, oh dearReport 2 Mercedes E350d AT £58,880/£61,260 Wildlife has a terrible disregard for road safety. In fact, a lot of it seems either daft or depressed, and will fling itself in front of whomever happens to be picking his daughters up from gymnastics practice. Like me. There was a bend with a slight rise. There was a small roe deer running towards the car, like suicide Bambi. I braked hard, only to nudge it with the front bumper. Mr/Mrs Deer then spasm-jumped onto the bonnet and rolled, which caused the active pedestrian safety bonnet thing to pop up. Still, it must work, as two seconds later, the bastardo stood, shook, and standing-jumped a 7ft hedge like a SuperDeer. No damage to the E apart from needing a bonnet reset at the…1 min
BBC Top Gear Magazine|March 2018City slickerReport 4 Audi SQ7 £72,895/£94,920 co*cklebarrow races. Lots of Land Rovers, acres of tweed, much mud and one SQ7 trying desperately to fit in but failing miserably with its 22-inch rims. The equivalent of wearing stilettos to a damp Glastonbury. To be fair to the Q7, with air suspension jacked up in of-road mode and more wheelspin than was strictly necessary, it did manage to skate across the car park and come to rest neatly next to our friend’s Discovery, complete with gun rack turned picnic hamper. Once stationary, the country set were intrigued by its petrol-like burble and high-fashion interior, although the wheels were the subject of much ridicule. “You’d be laughed of a shoot with those,” I was told. “You’d be laughed out of town with a hat…1 min
BBC Top Gear Magazine|March 2018Ain’t snow stoppin’ us nowReport 5 Land Rover Discovery £66,595 OTR/£77,970 as tested Snow at home. It’s the season for it, after all. So we planned an afternoon walk with friends up on the hills. Seven of us piled into the Disco – well, once we’d fafed with the electric folding seats and crammed wellies into the tiny boot slot – and of we went. Keen to demonstrate winter tyres and proper clanky 4x4 bits we travelled by the littler lanes, aiming for a particular spot where I suspected the snow would have drifted across. It had. Excellent. But we weren’t the first there. Ahead, a van, stuck fast and a bloke on a quad bike trying to tug it loose. No chance. Out we climb, deploy the towbar (electrically of course), attach the…2 min
BBC Top Gear Magazine|March 2018Package tourHello Hyundai i30 Tourer £24,155 OTR/£25,740 as tested Hyundais are, as we all know, Really Not Rubbish nowadays. The i30 has graduated from left-field choice into a credible rival to the VW Golf and Ford Focus... a car with no glaring weak points. But here’s a question. Though there may be no reason NOT to buy an i30 in 2018, is there a compelling reason TO buy one? In other words, does it have what it takes to move from the “ought to consider” to the “must have” column of your shopping list? To find out, we’re testing an i30 Tourer for a few months, because TopGear likes estates. And I reckon this one looks pretty tidy, by small estate standards. Sleek and understated, without being utterly anonymous, and adorned…2 min
BBC Top Gear Magazine|March 2018Climbing frameReport 7 Ariel Nomad £36,538 OTR/ £55,313 as tested Being the practical device that it is, there are plenty of solutions for carrying things on your Nomad. True, most of them involve ratchet straps, but I did say on, not in. Speaking of in, the Nomad does have an element-proof boot. It’s under the bonnet and about the size of a shoe box. I use it for storing those essentials everyone carries with them: ratchet straps, bungee cords, tie wraps and gaffer tape. In the past, I have strapped more tyres to the spare tyre, but most of the time it’s a bike wheel that sits on there. The rest of the bike gets to travel on the £357 rack. It’s a standard roof rack, but Ariel has fabricated the…2 min
BBC Top Gear Magazine|March 2018ADVERTIsem*nT FEATURE PAGEKITVISIONOBSERVER DASH CAM Every petrol head needs the reassurance a dash cam can provide. The automatic start/ stop HD camera is linked to your vehicle’s ignition so you don’t have to worry about remembering to switch it on before every journey. And with a built-in G sensor, the Observer records in a continuous loop and will automatically lock and save the footage when it detects a collision. www.kitvision.co.uk RRP £59.99 CATRAHONEKNIFE SHARPENER One of the World’s best home sharpeners, the CATRAHONE, gives you very sharp knives in seconds, no skill, mess or bother. Buy directly online from UK inventors, 2 day delivery www.catra.org.uk RRP £75.00 delivered DU MAURIERWATCHES The Commodore by Du Maurier Watches. This Swiss-made diving watch is a Limited Edition of only 125 pieces. A classic combination of…2 min
