Innholdsfortegnelse for April 2016 i BBC Top Gear Magazine

It’s been a somewhat frantic start to the year. In fact, I can’t remember a busier kick-off, or an issue more rammed with content. As I sat trying to work out how to shoehorn it all in, it became immediately clear that this was going to be something of a special edition. TopGear has had 37 presenters in its history, and this month we increase the number to 43 as we announce the team for the new series. Few starting line-ups can have been more eagerly anticipated, speculated upon or scrutinised, but I’m delighted to welcome Matt, Chris, Eddie, Sabine and Rory to the team. The other end of the office is humming as they race towards the new series; the walls are covered with maps, routes, plans and pages…

We suspect you probably haven’t looked at a 542bhp Jaguar F-Type R AWD and thought, “Y’know, what this really needs is more power and some more speed.” Jaguar it seems, does not share your opinion, because it has confirmed precisely that: there will be another new F-Type with more power and some more speed. It will be called the F-Type SVR, and you can have one this summer. That’s right, step forward Jaguar Land Rover’s special ops division whose work you might recognise in the riotously unhinged Range Rover Sport SVR. “We could do an SVR version of any of our cars,” boss John Edwards told TG late last year. Indeed. So, what we get is a pumped-up, angrified F-Type, and also the first-ever SVR-honed Jaguar. As you can correctly…

Well-heeled antiques dealers, prepare to want. This, Lovejoy fans, is the latest in a long bloodline of Volvo estates that stretches back 60 years, and the third model in Volvo’s high-end ‘90’ line that already includes the S90 saloon and XC90 SUV. And doesn’t it look dashing – its angular rear end and enormous tail lights adding that hint of drama lacking from the slightly vanilla S90. Volvo is playing coy and not releasing exact figures for the bootspace, but judging by the length of the side-profile, “ample” should be close to the mark. The roof, meanwhile, is perfectly sized for lashing a Regency wardrobe to. Beyond the styling and all that space, it’s based on the same scalable SPA architecture as the rest of the 90 club, so expect…

“I bought an estate so I could transport my mobile disco” Chris Evans WELL-KNOWN GINGER-HAIRED CAR ENTHUSIAST What’s your first car memory? A melange of my dad’s cars: Ford Anglia, Hilman Imp and the mighty Vauxhall Victor. Especially the priceless few occasions he and Mum picked up my sister and me from school on a Friday and took us for a weekend at the seaside. Who taught you to drive, in what... and did you pass first time? I was fortunate to be taught by a rather beautiful mum of one of my friends. It was all very Mrs Robinson – in my head, not hers! I passed first time, not long after my 17th birthday. Tell us about your best car... My best car ever was my first car.…

PLANET TG / #14 SLIPPERY SLOPE Red Bull could be fined €30k after having Max Verstappen slither down an Austrian ski slope in an old F1 car “Must be a slow news day if denying service to a super-rude customer gets this much attention” Tesla founder Elon Musk, after cancelling the pre-order of a blogger who published a post criticising a Model X launch event “You have to shoot me first” FCA, and therefore Ferrari, boss Sergio Marchionne is asked whether Ferrari will ever build an SUV “The next time he is stopped by the traffic police, if he doesn’t have a pasta strainer on his head, his licence will be taken from him” Russian official on a man who won the right to wear a colander in his drivinglicence…

Volkswagen, you might surmise, needs some good news. And it could arrive in the shape of this new Tiguan. The omens are good: Tiguan MkI departs after eight years and over 2.6 million sales. It’s outsold the Land Rover Defender, with a production run 59 years shorter. And the Tiguan trades off utilitarian talents, too, apparently. The bumpf accompanying this all-new version not once uses the word ‘crossover’, while all but the littlest engines are available with 4Motion all-wheel drive. It’s a Haldex system able to send all its power to the rear axle, and which comes with a handful of Snow, On-road and Off-road modes. A 2,500kg towing capacity is also uncommonly good for a small SUV. Around three quarters of UK Tiguan buyers opt for AWD, and around…

It isn’t the modular new platform, with its 250mm lower centre of gravity and 60 per cent stiffness increase that’s really important, because the Prius is not, as ever, an engaging drive. Nor is it the styling by Edward Scissorhands and Sweeney Todd, because no matter how garish and oddly detailed a car is, if it’s one as common as a Prius, you’ll never notice it. Just ask the Ford Focus. No, it’s what Toyota has sweated over to make the new Prius more efficient that’s key. Because this mild-hybrid, whose batteries can only charge when you press the brake pedal, claims official figures only plug-in hybrids have achieved so far. How does 94.1mpg and 70g/km for a car without a cable sound? A lot has made that happen. A…

This F350 Super Duty’s 6.7-litre PowerStroke diesel V8 produces 434bhp at 2,800rpm and 860lb ft of torque at 1,600rpm. That’s quite a lot. Not the bhp figure, of course – even a puny Porsche Cayenne GTS can match that, I’m talking about the torque: 30 per cent more than a McLaren P1. Now, I know what you’re thinking: a P1’s powertrain is designed for maximum top-end zing, whereas this F350 Super Duty is an apple pie-munching, confederate flag-wearing workhorse, but the P1 isn’t exactly short on low-end punch. First, a quick refresh on your F-Series pub ammo: The 350 is a mid-sized (yep, it isn’t even the biggest) member of Ford’s pickup and truck family that sells 800,000 units each year in the US alone. Or put another way, someone,…

To paraphrase the Blues Brothers, I’ve got a full tank of gas, it’s midnight… and I’m wearing shades. In my defence, Yas Marina has a severe case of nyctophobia, and if I lift when I’m alongside a wall, it glows orange from the reflected flames. I kid you not. The Aston Vulcan is named after the god of fire and volcanoes and forges and other things that are hot, orange and perilous and is clearly anxious to prove it’s not the runt of its mythical Dad’s litter. Then, a black cat runs across the track as I’m braking for Turn 1. Bad luck, good luck? I don’t have a position on black cats, but, either way, I balls up the braking, so I miss the apex while considering the luck…

A stray dog is standing obstinately in the centre of my turning circle. I am mid-manoeuvre, trying to turn and point the Huayra BC back up the road for another pass through a picturesque set of corners that opens onto a long straight, and said dog is completely unphased by the €2.3m, 789bhp rolling carbon-fibre work of art using him as a mobile mini-roundabout. As I wait for the photographer to reposition and call me through, my slightly careworn canine friend is eyeballing the car with an unmistakeable gleam: it seems that Horacio Pagani’s newest creation has an early admirer. As I set off for another pass, so does my new four-legged fan club, keen to demonstrate that dogs are better than hypercars. The most uneven contest in drag race…

“THE HURACÁN IS THE LEAST NAUGHTY LAMBO” When it comes to stopping traffic, Lamborghinis are usually pretty effective. But, in Miami, the challenges to the car world’s lairiest brand come thick and fast. Or, in this case, slow. Slow to the point of stubborn immobility. We’re on the 913 south past Hobie Island en route to Key Biscayne, when a woman in a bikini halts our detour through an obscenely picturesque coastal car park. “No!” she screams, while waving her arms frantically. “Nooooo! Stop! There’s an iguana on the road!” There’s an iguana on the road. I’ve been doing this job almost 23 years, but this is the first time an iguana has stopped a road test. He’s a big fella, too, a good three or four foot long, tail…

HELLO 1968cc, 4cyl TD, FWD, 187bhp, 295lb ft 65.7mpg, 113g/km CO2 0–62mph in 7.9secs, 143mph 1530kg £35,430/£43,920 Total mileage 1620 Driver Adam Waddell Why it’s here Is the all-new A4 really as conservative as it looks? I recently took delivery of my new long-term test car, the all-new Audi A4 Avant S line in red, and it feels remarkably familiar. You see, back in 2009 my long-term test car was also the then all-new Audi A4 Avant S line in red. The new-generation A4 doesn’t look terribly different from the previous model, but that’s no bad thing as it was always a decent looker, and, in any case, I’ve always felt that Audis and Volkswagens age better than most cars simply because new models tend to be evolutions of their…

REPORT 6 1598cc, 4cyl TD, FWD, 120bhp, 236lb ft 68.9mpg, 109g/km CO2 0–62mph in 10.5secs, 116mph 1320kg £20,845/£24,004 Total mileage 12,445 Driver Paul Horrell Why it’s here Why are small crossovers taking over the world? GARAGE LOGBOOK 500X GOOD STUFF The matt paint seems resistant to wintry grime and birdlime I think the ride has become slightly more supple in the past 12,000 miles. There seems less harshness now BAD STUFF The so-called connected navigation is still infuriatingly resistant to connecting. And at times it crashes completely. Was supposed to have been fixed at service Last month I told you the 500X went in for a service. I didn’t tell you what else needed doing because I wanted to see whether it had been fixed successfully. And… drum roll… it…

Freakishly-tall billionaires listen up, Bentley has built something with your legs in mind. This is the new long-wheelbase Mulsanne – a car that Bentley says delivers a “first-class air-travel experience on the road”, minus the attentive hostess. The wheelbase has been extended by 250mm to 3,516mm, with every mm of that dedicated to extra rear legroom. To make the most of it, an extending leg rest lets you choose between upright, relaxed and “wake me up when we’re home, Jeeves” reclined positions. There’s a new separate sunroof in the back, too, so you can stargaze between important phone calls. Power from the 6.75-litre twin-turbo V8 remains an adequate 505bhp with 752lb ft of torque – enough for 0–60mph in 5.1secs. Performance for the standardwheelbase model and the 530bhp Speed remain…

What’s this beast? It’s a 635-tonne bridge-building machine from China which uses its own body to form a temporary span as it lowers sections of roadway, or railway viaduct, into place. How does it work? It lays bridge sections like tracks. So rather than hoisting sections into place, it shuffles along the span and drops them from its belly before reversing back to fetch the next piece. Doesn’t it fall over? With the rear section serving as a counterweight, the front end can push through thin air, resting its chin on the next concrete support pillar as it edges forwards, section by section. Must take ages Once it’s laid one section, it drives back to the casting yard to pick up another. It can lay up to seven sections –…

Efficiency, improvement, evolution. A measurable more for a weight of less: that’s what the new 911 Turbo is about. More power – 533bhp this time, 572 for the Turbo S – for less consumption – 31mpg and 212g/km CO2 for both. Better acceleration, better responsiveness, slightly enhanced visuals. Think of this as an upgrade, rather than an entirely fresh perspective on what it means to be the top-dog 911 that doesn’t come from a specialist department. No massive changes, then, but being an engineer on the Turbo must be immensely frustrating: you have to improve one of the best point-to-point cars on the planet without ruining its practical and usable USP. So you can’t just make it a road racer and step on the GT3 RS’s ultralight toes. But improvements…

I am in trouble with the internet, or at least one corner of it: the TopGear.com comments section. My online review of this car reads like it was written by an accountant, says Mattias Persson (could he possibly be slightly Swedish himself?). He complains I harped on about the dubiousness of the T8’s fuel-saving claims and ignored the XC90’s widely acknowledged other qualities. In pleading guilty as charged, I’d say in mitigation I was the first one to test the XC90 for TopGear, and it was me who wrote fulsomely of how safe, relaxing and highly desirable a family charabanc it is. It’s a humane and honest thing, the XC90 in general. But the T8 aims to deceive. This is the plug-in hybrid version of the range. Volvo presents it…

Isn’t that an RC F? Nope. This is the more sensible RC coupe, arriving, somewhat unusually, over a year after the madcap V8 halo model. Prices start at £34,995, little more than half the RC F’s entry point. But in F Sport spec, as pictured here, its styling does a very plausible impression of its burlier brother. What engines can I have? There’s the usual Lexus hybrid offer (below) or this RC200t, which comes with a 2.0-litre 4cyl turbo petrol. What it gives away in capacity, it compensates with power: 241bhp and 258lb ft yield a 7.5sec 0–62mph time, and the RC feels a little quicker still. So it’s as exciting as it looks? Um, not quite. Accelerate hard and the engine sounds coarse. At 1.7 tonnes, it’s also around…

What we have here is a Smart ForTwo with an indefinitely improved amount of headroom. The canvas retracts in 12secs flat, and while most cabriolets demand you pull over or at least slow to 30mph, the Smart’s top can be raised or lowered at any speed. It’ll only do 96mph, but still. Not even a Rolls-Royce offers this. You can open the middle bit like a big Webasto sunroof – leaving the glass rear screen in place – or have the whole thing folded down and stacked on the rear deck. The former is great around town, but somewhat irritating at speed. The wind rushes over the windscreen, catches and swirls around the cabin. It’s loud and does funny things to your hair. Having the whole thing down is quieter…

“IT’S CLEAR THE M2’S HEART BEATS RAPIDLY AND ITS NERVOUS SYSTEM IS ALERT” Was there an identifiable moment when it happened? I’m not sure. It was a gradual thing. Maybe the end of the V8 M3 was the inflection point, but look deeper and it has been a longer process than that. BMW M has become a different company from the one that is still lodged in our collective conscious. For the past three or four years it hasn’t sold a single car that is quite what we really think an M car should be. Today’s M cars – and M SUVs, we shouldn’t forget – are all brutally quick and extremely capable. But they aren’t the intimate driving machines they once were. The mission has been creeping; the plot,…

Fourteen miles – that’s the best I manage. Fourteen miles without touching the steering wheel or a pedal. Watching the car steer its way down the road is strange. I hover my hands, but the Tesla seems content getting on with things itself. It maintains gaps, waits for slower-moving cars to pull over before accelerating, and generally drives with better discipline than anything else on the road. I know what you’re thinking – is this legal? Well, there’s nothing in the Highway Code that says you can’t. Rule 150 simply says: “You MUST exercise proper control of your vehicle at all times. Do not rely on driver-assistance systems such as cruise control or lane-departure warnings.” Nothing about keeping hands on the steering wheel or feet on the pedals. Tesla is…

HELLO 1999cc, 4cyl turbodiesel, AWD, 180bhp, 317lb ft 53.3mpg, 139g/km CO2 0–62mph in 8.9sec, 117mph 1884kg £43,000/£51,499 Total mileage 2829 Driver Owen Norris Why it’s here Is the Discovery Sport the best of both worlds? We’ve been brave when speccing our new Discovery Sport. It was quite hard to envisage exactly what the Phoenix Orange was going to look like, but it reminds me of a Land Rover G4 Challenge – £1,200 well spent. We’ve also opted for the Black Pack, which at £1,500 gives you the hard-looking 20-inch wheels and makes all those shiny exterior bits black including the roof. It looks fantastic and really sets it apart. But I reckon the upper bonnet panel should be black too, as it really stands out now as the only silver…

GOODBYE 1984cc, 4cyl turbo, AWD, 296bhp, 280lb ft 40.9mpg, 159g/km CO2 0–62mph in 4.9secs, 155mph 1495kg £31,475/£41,330 Total mileage 12,582 Driver Ollie Kew Why it’s here Can we expose chinks in the ultimate Golf’s armour? When TG’s Golf R arrived last year, it was box-fresh, with just 135 miles under its wheels. It leaves over 12,500 miles later, and I’m not really sure what else I could’ve done with it in that time. It’s been a polite city traffic commuter, a 4am airport taxi, a removals van, a B-road hero, a photography tracking car, a racetrack fiend and a group-test winner. I’ve driven it in four different countries, in a 30°C heatwave and stormforce hail, eaten in it, slept in it, won more than a few drag races, and been…

You can’t fault the enthusiasm behind the 1997 Plymouth/Chrysler Prowler. Dyed-in-the-wool, all-American motorheads finally got hold of budget control, and decided that they wanted something that aped the Thirties rod they had in their midlife-crisis garage. Something that created as much of a stir as the Viper in 1992. Chrysler design director Thomas C. Gale was that man, whose love of the old-school and access to real-time development budget resulted in a design widely credited to a certain Douglas ‘Chip’ Foose – he of superior custom-car design. The result was the Prowler. To be honest, the production car wasn’t so much retro as just a new-built Foose-alike custom weighed heavily with Thirties Ford Roadster influences. Yet it was a happy, enthusiastic statement. A car that warmed the collective cockles of…

Is McLaren going all soft on us? This is the 570GT – a modded version of the all-conquering 570S with milder chassis settings, added luxury and more cargo area. But to leave it there would be bending the facts. It’s still the lightest car in its class at 1,350kg, and is propelled by the same 562bhp twin-turbo V8 as the 570S. It therefore still crushes 0–62mph in 3.4 seconds (0.2 slower than the 570S), 0–124mph in 9.8 and tops out at 204mph. For the benefit of our American readers, it completes the 1/4 mile in 11.1 seconds at 132mph. Not slow, then. The obvious difference between the GT and the S is the body shape. There are no more flying buttresses; instead, the bodywork sweeps into a gentle, softly curved…

Named after a little town in northern Spain, the Ateca may be Seat’s first SUV, but it almost certainly won’t be its last. The Ateca will rival the all-conquering Qashqai when it goes on sale this September, but a smaller, Juke-sized effort is to follow, plus, with any luck, maybe something a bit bigger that’ll bare a passing resemblance to last year’s rather lovely 20V20 concept. This thing had better be good, then. And it probably will be. Based on VAG’s existing MQB platform, the Ateca will get the usual petrol and diesel engines, from a 1.0-litre 3cyl all the way up to a 187bhp 2.0 TDI, via a 148bhp 1.4 petrol with cylinder deactivation (boss Luca de Meo tells us Seat is “discussing” a Cupra version). Some good tech,…

Coupes still matter. Small, oh-soperfectly-proportioned sports cars are still relevant, still wanted, and here’s the quite impossibly cute proof. Opel’s (and by default, Vauxhall’s) headline act at the Geneva motor show – and their first major salvo in 2016 – is a two-seat, sports-car concept called the GT. Who said that all we want is crossovers? OK, let’s not get too carried away. As you’ve spotted from the GT’s marshmallow front tyres, AWOL mirrors and side glass made from the same one-way fibre stuff they use to plaster Jennifer Lawrence’s face on doubledecker bus windows, you can tell the gorgeous two-door is very much on the sketchy side of concept. It does not preview a Luton-bred Mazda MX-5 rival. Sorry. There’s good reason for this – sports cars need platforms,…

MECCANO MECCANOID G16KS If your definition of a friend is someone who can drink eight pints and still remember your name, you’ll be disappointed by Meccanoid. This is because Meccanoid is a fourfoot-tall robot, even though its makers insist that when you construct him from 1,100 Meccano pieces you are, in fact, building a ‘friend’. Alright, he mimics your speech and will even copy your movements (which doesn’t sound at all irritating), but he is still unavoidably a machine. He has eight servo motors and 128mb of flash memory, complete with voice recognition and over a thousand pre-programmed “phrases, comments and witty comebacks”. So if you do take him drinking, he will almost certainly learn what it’s like to be punched in the head. £350 approx; meccano.com PARROT DISCO DRONE…

SUVs and the Nürburgring might not seem like natural bedfellows, but with most manufacturers now having R&D facilities at the German track, even models such as Kia’s fourth-generation Sportage crossover get to do hundreds of laps of the circuit during development. And while the Sportage’s ability to deal with the Green Hell might not seem relevant to the target market, the good news is that this durability testing has led to the most appealing version of the Korean firm’s compact SUV yet. Given a chance to drive nearproduction-ready examples of both 1.6 GDI dual-clutch petrol and 2.0 CRDi manual variants of the Sportage along an autobahn, before a lap or two of the Nürburgring GP circuit, the Kia didn’t disgrace itself. Focusing on the big-selling diesel, it strikes a superb…

Lexus reckons 80 per cent of RCs sold will be this hybrid. Let’s hope most of those buyers are city dwellers, for it’s urban driving where this drivetrain shines. Its combination of four-cylinder engine and electric motor isn’t conducive to performance, but does serve up decent economy (around 40mpg in town is double what the 200t provides) and silky-smooth propulsion, so long as you aren’t heavy of right foot. If you are, the CVT gearbox will drone and frustrate. More frustrating, though, is that Lexus doesn’t offer a cleverer hybrid. It helped pioneer the tech, but now plug-in rivals (which can cover dozens of electric-only miles, at proper speeds) feel better. They’re flexible to your needs, whereas this system can’t be charged from the mains and requires plenty of driver…

It’s a bit of a curiosity, the GS F, because it uses a naturally aspirated engine. So it doesn’t have M5 torque, but it’s super-responsive and there’s a nice duality to the V8 that suits the car – at low revs, it hums mildly about, but once past 3,800rpm, it’s a different beast altogether. Rorty and edgy. It’ll make you feel good. It’s a bit of a sleeper actually, better than you might expect. The fixedrate dampers are nicely set up, the chassis is both sharp yet composed, plus it’s lighter than the M5, and feels it. Not much steering feel, but still... Confusing. Feng shui needed to be applied, but wasn’t. It’s fiddly to navigate and awkward to use. However, our test car had precisely zero options fitted, yet…

1 It’s a Porsche. So it’s going to be good, no matter how many cylinders it has Or whether it’s turbocharged. These are busy times for purists, as one by one our most cherished car companies ditch naturally aspirated engines in favour of forced induction. The Boxster has always used a sweet flat-six that burbled and warbled at low speeds and emitted a pure Porsche wail as it got on the cam above 4,000rpm... and you wondered where the nearest tunnel was. The jury is out on how much tunnel action the new 718 Boxster is going to generate, but TG has sat in the car, started it up and given it a bootful, and the signs are promising. The new entry-level Boxster (£41,739) uses a 2.0-litre, single-turbo, flat-fourcylinder that…

MERCEDES-AMG A45 Price: £39,995 Engine: 1991cc 4cyl turbo, 376bhp @ 6000rpm, 350lb ft @ 2250rpm Performance: 0–62mph in 4.2 seconds, 155mph Transmission: 7spd dual-clutch auto, AWD Economy: 40.9mpg, 162g/km CO2 Weight: 1555kg FORD FOCUS RS Price: £29,995 Engine: 2261cc 4cyl turbo, 345bhp @ 6000rpm, 325lb ft @ 2000rpm (347lb ft on overboost) Performance: 0–62mph in 4.7 seconds, 165mph Transmission: 6spd manual, AWD Economy: 36.7mpg, 175g/km CO2 Weight: 1599kg VOLKSWAGEN GOLF R Price: £32,890 Engine: 1984cc 4cyl turbo, 296bhp @ 5500rpm, 280lb ft @ 1800rpm Performance: 0–62mph in 4.9 seconds, 155mph Transmission: 6spd dual-clutch auto, AWD Economy: 40.9mpg, 159g/km CO2 Weight: 1495kg HONDA CIVIC TYPE-R Price: £29,995 Engine: 1996cc 4cyl turbo, 306bhp @ 6500rpm, 295lb ft @ 2500rpm Performance: 0–62mph in 5.7 seconds, 168mph Transmission: 6spd manual, FWD Economy: 38.7mpg, 170g/km…

“We locate the perfect spot for gold panning, so I roll up my trousers and leap in” I’m looking for three golden tennis balls or five golden eggs. I’m not picky. Why? Because gold is currently trading at £785 per troy ounce, and I need 204 troy ounces (6.3kg) to be able to purchase the £160,200 Bentley Bentayga. Taking into account its density of 19.3g/cm3 that’s equivalent to the volume of three tennis balls, or a large omelette. And that’s before options. If I want the rotating Breitling Tourbillon dash clock, I’ll need to find the same again. Meet Jim. Jim has dedicated his life to pursuing this aureate metal, knows more about nuggets than Usain Bolt and owns American Prospector Treasure Seeker, the largest gold-mining equipment store in Southern…

REPORT 3 1998cc, 4cyl turbodiesel, FWD, 148bhp, 251lb ft 68.9mpg, 109g/km CO2 0–62mph in 8.9secs, 135mph 1430kg £23,290/£30,320 Total mileage 9100 Driver Esther Neve Why it’s here Is the Superb estate more than just a huge boot? The Skoda has been a sterling workhorse these past few weeks. First of all, it provided excellent service in the snow. Which is surprising considering that the Superb is not equipped with winter tyres (how I wish I’d organised for these to be fitted prior to our mini winter...) and it’s also not brilliant on low-down torque – no chance of pulling away gently in second gear in this. It also had a weighty job to do when I used it to transport the broken gearbox from our Land Rover Defender to the…

REPORT 7 1998cc, boxer 4cyl, AWD, 148bhp, 258lb ft 50.4mpg, 145g/km CO2 0–62mph in 9.7secs, 119mph 1622kg £30,995/£30,995 Total mileage 9150 Driver Andy Franklin Why it’s here Has Subaru’s move to the mainstream struck gold? Look, I’m just going to come out and admit it. This month I’ve been cheating on the Outback. Worse still, I’ve been dabbling with its younger and slightly cleverer sister. The girl I’ve been hiding from my lifer is the 2.5-litre petrol Outback with a CVT ’box and Subaru’s ‘EyeSight’ safety system. When it came to choosing the spec on our Outback, we opted not to have the CVT. There was much debate in the office if that was the right decision – the plus points being that as a rule all CVT gearboxes are…

HELLO 2979cc, 6cyl twin turbo, RWD, 410bhp, 405lb ft 127.2mpg, 242g/km CO2 0–62mph in 5.0secs, 177mph 1810kg £63,805/£75,685 Total mileage 1105 Driver Jason Barlow Why it’s here Because it’s a Maserati. Do we need another reason? If you hate the way this Ghibli looks, blame me. Well, not the actual design – that was overseen by the great Lorenzo Ramaciotti, nothing to do with me – more the colour, wheels and trim. Getting to spec a new car is a rare thrill, never mind speccing a Maserati in a showroom in London’s South Kensington, opposite the very nightclub oligarchs and royalty misbehave in. They have espresso coming out of the taps here. A friend of mine had his Alfa Romeo 8C Competizione finished in marrone, a shade of brown the…