Innholdsfortegnelse for May 2016 i BBC Top Gear Magazine

The launch of any new Jaguar is laden with expectation and cliched feline headlines. For as long as I have been in this industry, it feels like every new Jaguar launched has laboured under the expectation of being “the most significant car in the company’s history”. But as milestones go for the brand embodied by William Lyons’s adage of “grace, space and pace”, Jaguar’s first foray into the SUV market is a big deal. In fact, as a brief for the largest growth sector in the automotive landscape goes, Lyons’s slogan (first used in Fifties Jaguar advertising campaigns) couldn’t better reflect what an ever-increasing number of people are looking for in a modern car. Like it or not, our roads are a battleground, with size and driving position now major…

WE SAY: ROLLS IS TARGETING A YOUNGER AUDIENCE WITH ITS NEW DAWN CABRIO New Rolls-Royces don’t come along very often, and fortunately there’s more to this one than first meets the eye. According to director of design Giles Taylor, the aim when they got cracking on the Dawn drophead wasn’t just to design something beautiful, it was to create a car that made its occupants look like rock stars. Or perhaps 21st-century incarnations of the characters in The Great Gatsby. A noble ambition, but a tall order given that Taylor and his team are car designers, not magicians, and team TG probably didn’t feature in any of the mood boards. You need serious chutzpah to pull this thing off. Following all the ghostly goings-on with Phantoms and Wraiths, Rolls says…

DS 3 Performance £20,495 WE SAY: DS JOINS THE HOT HATCH PARTY, THANKS TO HELP FROM PEUGEOT... Let’s avoid getting bogged down in why DS, the now standalone posh Citroen offshoot named after a legendary barge famed for exquisite ride comfort, is building a firmer, louder hot hatch. We’re interested in the driving, and whether your 20 grand goes better in DS’s pocket than in Mini’s, or Ford’s, especially with a faster Fiesta ST200 incoming. Mind you, Peugeot has a right to get uppity with DS, given how much of the 208 GTi by Peugeot Sport has been pinched to tone up the 3. The Pug donates its 205bhp, 221lb ft engine, limited-slip front diff, bucket seats and Brembo brakes. The 18-inch rims are DS’s own, and with a 15mm…

Please tell me what I’m looking at Easy. A bog-standard Adam S, the sporting flagship of Vauxhall’s citycar range. It has a turbocharged 1.4-litre four-cylinder engine that gives it enough performance to be called peppy, but not a lot more. Inside, there are optional Recaro seats and some toys to play with. Less easy. It’s an Adam that’s had a proper overhaul, turning it into an entry-level rally car that complies with the FIA’s R2 class. So it has a naturally aspirated 185bhp 1.6, sequential gearbox, three-way adjustable dampers and a hydraulic handbrake. We like those. Is it fun to drive? For the most part, it actually is. It’s perky and game for a laugh, which comes as a pleasant surprise. It doesn’t have much steering feel, but it turns…

£32,995 Buxom bumpers, LED lights, a spanglier grille and cabin tech from more modern Benzes separate the old SLK from the new SLC. Yep, another identity crisis. This is the diesel, complete with 369lb ft and 64mpg. It makes sense. No, really. It’s hardly incisive or other such German handling codswallop – it’s more nose-heavy than a mallet. But the engine has been cleverly dampened so its clatter doesn’t ruin topless motoring and it’s reasonably brisk. SPECIFICATION 2143cc 4cyl turbodiesel, 204bhp, 369lb ft 64.2mpg, 114g/km CO2 0–62mph in 6.6secs, 152mph 1605kg…

“Aston is the most successful, unsuccessful car company in the world. It’s been bankrupt seven times or something stupid like that.” Chris Evans has a point, Aston has always been expert at producing cars dripping with desirability, but less good at making any cash. However, that was then, this is now. New boss Andy Palmer has secured around ￡700m in funding – enough for the next four years, by which time the debts will be paid and the new models will be flowing freely. DB11, Vantage, Vanquish and DBX – in that order – that takes us to 2020, then there’s an electric Rapide, an AM-RB 001 hypercar and a fleet of Lagondas. Seven new Astons in the next seven years. That’s the plan. And it starts here, with the…

If a beautiful racing car is a fast racing car, as demonstrated by the likes of the Ford GT40 and Lancia Stratos, Audi might just as well be sending an A4 diesel to Le Mans this year. Because the new R18 TDI contender for the premier LMP1 hybrid endurance class is quite exquisitely, spectacularly ugly. But here, ugliness means speed, thanks to bleeding-edge aerodynamics, which is just as well, as Porsche has also revealed its easier-onthe-eye defender of its 2015 Le Mans and WEC title: the new 919 Hybrid. So, it’s VW Group twins with the gloves off – petrol vs diesel, Stuttgart vs Ingolstadt. Seventeen Le Mans wins for Porsche vs Audi’s 13 victories in the past 15 races. Hope you’re feeling techy – it’s time to meet the…

Unfair, isn’t it, when one of the coolest gentleman of the 20th century also gets to tool around in the coolest car? If there were women around, and with McQueen there invariably were, other men didn’t stand a chance. Until now. The car in question is the Jaguar XKSS – a roadgoing version of the D-type that won Le Mans in ’55, ’56 and ’57, with a handful of comfort-orientated mods. A higher windscreen for example, a passenger door and a deleted fn so a passenger could actually use said door. In ’57, only 16 of a planned 25-car run were actually built when production was halted by the infamous Browns Lane fre, but now the missing nine will see the light of day. Built new, but to the exact…

Given so many people inside the sport seem to have all but given up on it, I wonder whether any of us should give a fig that another Formula One season is groaning into action. Even the reigning world champion says it’s “broken”. Meanwhile Bernie Ecclestone told The Daily Mail that “Formula One is the worst it has ever been. I wouldn’t spend my money to take my family to watch a race. No way.” Leaving aside my personal distaste for speaking to The Daily Mail at all (I, of course, saw this quote reproduced in The Guardian), the fact remains that if the sport’s de facto gaffer reckons it’s a bit stuffed, what hope is there? Major sponsors, and possible entrants including Volkswagen, are also going away or staying…

1884 PARKER ELECTRIC Widely agreed to be the world's first practical electric car, the Parker Electric was built in London in 1884 by Victorian inventor and engineer Thomas Parker, who helped to electrify the Underground as well as overhead trams in Liverpool and Birmingham. 1902 BAKER TORPEDO Walter Baker's streamlined, electric Torpedos could have been bnd-speed record holders. Unfortunately he had a habit of crashing them, so none of the speeds - including a lOOmph run - were officially recorded. He also fitted harnesses - a world first. 1959 HENNEY KILOWATT In the golden age of internal combustion, when oil was cheap, electric cars were almost forgotten. But some people had a crack, including American company Henney with its Kilowatt (geddit?), which shared some bodywork with the Renault Dauphine. 1985…

Normally the first thing I do when the track gates open at Dunsfold is disable the stability control. I did today – you don’t get shots with smoke pouring from arches, and wheels canted contrary to the direction of travel without first dismissing the e-nannies. I even went so far as setting the BMW’s M1 button in my preferred modes for doing skids (stability off, Sport Plus throttle, Comfort steering, since you didn’t ask). But at some stage during the day, it all calms down, Stigsmoke dissipates and the nannies are re-engaged. And this, oddly enough, is where it got interesting. I was looking for ways to start this story, to show both similarities and differences between the Lotus 3-Eleven and BMW M4 GTS, to find some small common element…

3982cc, V8, RWD, 469bhp, 479lb ft 33.6mpg, 196g/km CO2 0–62mph in 4.2secs, 155mph 1785kg REPORT 4 With 12,500 miles fast approaching, the C63 flashes up that it is due an A-Service. I call Robinsons Mercedes Cambridge and arrange to drop the car with them at 8am. As I arrive at the dealership, a squadron of other Mercs are landing, details are taken and I opt to wait for the service to be completed. At 9:30, after a couple of coffees and 90 minutes’ working thanks to the free wifi, the service is done and I’m on my way. The A-Service has seen the C63 have its air, fuel and oil filters replaced and a full inspection of all brakes, tyres (somewhat worn) and myriad other parameters checked. It cost ￡370.…

1998cc, 4cyl, RWD, 158bhp, 147lb ft 40.9mpg, 161g/km CO2 0–62mph in 7.3secs, 133mph 1075kg HELLO In that strange, lovely way of things in the world of TG, our MX-5 has mysteriously become more powerful. And a new colour. Yes, our red 1.5-litre MX-5 has transmogrified into a grey 2.0. I’ve checked, and it doesn’t seem this transformation is likely to occur if you buy an MX-5 from your dealer. Sorry. First up, that means more power – 129bhp has become 158bhp, still achieved without forced aspiration. True, this is still a decidedly safe output, but, as with the 1.5, the MX-5’s hardly there kerbweight allows it to make the most of its power, on-the-road shove feeling far greater than its official 7.3secs 0–62mph time may suggest. Where the 1.5 got…

1999cc, 4cyl turbodiesel, AWD, 180bhp, 317lb ft 53.3mpg, 139g/km CO2 0–62mph in 8.9secs, 117mph 1884kg REPORT 3 After being named our Family Car of the Year in last month’s Awards issue, the Discovery Sport has made itself useful by assisting on the Jaguar XF shoot. The half-a-Jag show car didn’t have any brakes or power, so its distant JLR cousin was called upon to help get it into our underground car park here at TG HQ. This was a first outing for the detachable tow bar. It’s a hefty ￡675 option on our car – for that money you’d expect it to be electric and swing out cleverly, but, no... it’s hidden in the boot floor under a rather flimsy cover that gets moved around when large items are manoeuvred…

WE SAY: BIG, HEAVY, LADEN WITH TECH AND ÜBER FAST. OPEN-AIR OPULENCE AT ITS BEST It’s a wilfully German sort of luxury, the S Cabriolet. Lane assist, blind-spot assist, digital displays, a 360° camera with night vision and intelligent climate control that maintains temperature whatever you do with the electric three-layer roof… it’s luxury through grandiose technology, not the hiding of it. A very different approach to the Rolls Dawn, then, for half the price. The odd thing is that less, bizarrely, is more, with this two-tonne, five-metre-long German uber cabrio. You’d imagine the AMG S63 version would be the perfect execution of Mercedes’ ultimate drop-top, a 577bhp, twin-turbo V8 homage to opulence and to hell with political correctness. Hmm, not so sure about that. Yes, it’s prodigiously, unnecessarily fast,…

WE SAY: CALI T UPS ITS GAME. SHOULDN’T HAVE BEEN NECESSARY... Isn’t this the Ferrari for poseurs, not drivers? Not so much anymore. You can now have an optional Handling Speciale pack for £5,568 on top of the £155,230 asking price, although that includes the magnetic dampers that 70 per cent of Cali T buyers go for anyway (normally £3,168). Ferrari is keen to stress this is not a track-dwelling California T, but a gentle tightening of the standard car’s handling. Still, every little helps. So what’s new? There’s a redesigned silencer for the exhaust – turning up the volume by 3dB across the rev range, plus new springs: 16 per cent firmer at the front and 19 per cent at the rear. New software for the seven-speed twin-clutch gearbox…

Hitachi Personal Finance We all had that dream – of rolling into the school car park behind the wheel of some modified hot hatch, classmates gazing on in awe. But for many of us, it was never a reality. Vote for your lust-have Car that Got Away for your chance to right that wrong with ￡10,000 courtesy of Hitachi Personal Finance, and help find the nation’s lost car love Oh yes, the millennium – remember that? The years either side of that potentially apocalyptic milestone seemed like a golden era at the time, a period of never-ending prosperity (ahem), world-changing technological revolutions, and a certain Mr Schumacher catching the eye on the F1 circuit. Of course, all that optimism sounds a bit silly now. But behind the bluster, this was…

This is the new Audi R8 Spyder. And if you’re looking for aural pleasure, it’s one of your best opportunities to acquire some. Stop sniggering: losing the roof means more of the R8’s lovely V10 noise can make its way to your lugholes. Obviously. The roof is the only place to start. Much like on the first-generation R8 drop-top, it possesses flying buttress-type fins, all the better for keeping it nice and taut, and not an unexpected homage to the Jaguar XJS. The result is that the R8 remains one of the few convertibles to look as natural roof up as roof down, something you can also pin on Audi’s decision to stick with cloth, shunning a heavier folding metal hard top. The roof opens or closes electronically in 20…

1 It opens and closes a bit like a Porsche 911 Targa Complicated roof mechanism alert! At the push of a button, the rear hatch lifts up, and the entire roof stows away automatically into the rear. Then the hatch pops back down again, and bingo, you’ve got a load more sky, engine noise and many other convertible-motoring cliches. All this takes just 12 seconds, and you can targafy it while you’re stationary, or at speeds of up to a dizzying 6mph. 2 It’s around 50kg heavier than the soft-top, and plusher Mazda hasn’t released a weight figure for this Retractable Fastback MX-5, but we’re told to expect about a 50kg weight increase over the soft-top. Which is the same weight penalty the last-gen Roadster Coupe had over its fabric-roofed…

Montenegro is a curious place. As far as I can tell, the national pastime is fly-tipping, and while the men are mostly surly, thickset and shaven-headed, every woman looks like a potential candidate for Miss World. I am ill-equipped to explain this genetic phenomenon, but if you are a romantically challenged gentleman, may I suggest you move there immediately. Unsure? Don’t be – there are other benefits, such as easy access to rubbish dumps (any roadside will do), excellent local prosciutto (no really, it’s special) and some of the most hauntingly beautiful scenery anywhere in the world. It’s as if, once satisfied with his designs for the white sand and azure waters of the Caribbean and the brutal majesty of the French Alps, God decided to splice the two, just…

Memories bear heavily on the Porsche family. The most successful sports car company in the world is famously reserved and will only occasionally indulge in self-congratulation. But it is as much shaped by its past failures, as it is by spiralling sales figures and endless Le Mans wins. That is why Porsche reveres the 993 series 911 in a different way from you and I. We see the perfect, compact air-cooled 911; it sees the car that began the current, and still burgeoning, profitable cycle of growth. It views the Boxster the same way. Without the 1996 Boxster and the 996, there would have been no cash surplus to build the Cayenne, and without the vast revenues gleaned from the controversial Pork-truck, you wouldn’t have had any GT3s for the…

In 1981, Roger Moore spent a month in Italy filming For Your Eyes Only. He drove a Copper Fire Lotus Esprit Turbo. 35 years on, in homage to Roger, we’re on a Bond pilgrimage of our own. “The plan is, in true TopGear style, utterly unimaginative” The mounting brackets could have been designed by Q branch. Four sleek, surreptitious vertical fins, each with a bar mounted through it and screw clasps to hold the skis in place. Simple, effective. And now proven up to 115mph. The skis poke over the Exige’s roof like rocket launchers – maybe if I brake hard enough they’d fly over like winter sport javelins, impaling those errant skiers we saw earlier crossing a road without taking their skis off. Clearly Kristatos’s henchmen. Then I’d have nodded wryly, raised…

1968cc, 4cyl TD, FWD, 187bhp, 295lb ft 65.7mpg, 113g/km CO2 0–62mph in 7.9secs, 143mph 1530kg REPORT 3 Audi has long been known for rapidly filtering down the latest technology to even its most humble models, and the new A4 is no exception. Adaptive cruise control has been around for a few years now, and as more and more average speed checks are rolled out across the UK, it has become invaluable. Simply set the cruise control at 50mph, and the system will speed the car up or slow it down depending on the traffic around you. All you need to do then is steer. Except now even that is taken care of in the new A4. The car’s Traffic Jam Assist works at speeds below 40mph – all you need…

2979cc, 6cyl twin-turbo, RWD, 410bhp, 405lb ft 27.2mpg, 242g/km CO2 0–62mph in 5.0secs, 177mph 1810kg REPORT 3 John Hughes is a good friend, a very kind man, and most importantly, a doyen of classic Italian machinery. It was while TG was sampling a smattering of his Seventies rally cars that John mentioned that he had a 1972 Maserati Ghibli SS tucked away back in the UK. This just happens to be one of my favourite cars ever. The ‘note to self’ made at the top of an Emilia-Romagnan mountain in November has just been cashed in, and here we are on a gloriously sunny morning in London’s Mayfair. New Ghibli, meet your celebrated predecessor. You’ll probably notice the same thing I did: how vast this year’s model is compared with…

There are many advantages to being in the mafia – stacks of cash, free Italian sunglasses and extensive weapons training, to mention only a few. Problem is, those are outweighed by the likelihood of life imprisonment, constant fear of assassination and the need to demonstrate regular violence to uphold your reputation, or we’d all be doing it, wouldn’t we? Far easier, then, to buy a Chrysler 300C and project just as much intimidation wherever you go, without any of the pesky run-ins with the law. Just look at it – hit a deer with that bluff grille and it would dice it into neat cubes and carry on without breaking stride, those wheels are just swallowed by the arches and that shoulder line is concept-car high. It’s a line that’s…

€28,000 An all-electric convertible based on the Bollore Bluesummer (we had to look it up too). Range is 124 miles, it corners like a fishing trawler, the interior feels home-made, the doors creak, it has no airbags, the steering wheel looks like something from a kit car and when the roof is on it feels like you’re sitting inside a sweaty growbag. So the €28k e-Mehari is not a car you’d consider buying, but it’s fun enough to consider hiring from the many European rental outlets it’s destined for. SPECIFICATION 50KW/67bhp electric motor, lithium metal polymer batteries 0g/km CO2 0–62mph in n/a secs, 69mph 1405kg…

WE SAY: SEAT FLASHES ITS CREDENTIALS AND GAINS ACCESS TO THE BURGEONING SUV PARTY You weren’t expecting to see these three badges in the same sentence, but here goes. Seat resembles Maserati or Aston Martin. Maserati and Aston became aware that high-zoot sports cars are a market that’s growing too slowly, whereas SUVs face no such glass ceiling, so they each made one. Swap ‘sports cars’ for ‘hatchbacks and MPVs’ to see how Seat is in the same predicament. It needs to grow, and a crossover is the way to do it. Not just one, either – on the day TopGear drove the Ateca, Seat confirmed it’ll add another, smaller, crossover mid-2017. The Ateca’s looks are drawn and proportioned well, and mercifully fuss-free. You can guess much of its mechanical…

2000s Fancy winning ￡10,000 to spend on your dream car, courtesy of Hitachi Personal Finance? It couldn’t be easier. Take a look through the cars on these pages – chances are, you’ll find your teenage sweetheart among them. Next, head to TopGearPromo.com/HitachiPersonalFinance/to find the complete list of cars from the Seventies through to the Naughties. Vote for your favouriteand you’ll be entered into a competition for your chance to win the ￡10,000. Next month, the votes will be totted up and you’ll discover Britain’s ultimate Car that Got Away. So get voting, and good luck. Honda S2000 It might have had only four cylinders, but it could rev to a frankly ridiculous 9,000rpm. So it arguably had one of the finest naturally-aspirated four-pots ever, and what’s more, its power was…

In the blue corner Name: Vijay Pattni Age: 35 Occupation: editor, TG.com Secret weapon: tea In the red corner Name: Stephen Dobie Age: 28 Occupation: senior writer Secret weapon: biscuits Gentlemen, these are your instructions. Obey the rules, protect yourself at all times, and only resort to violence if you really have to. Ding ding… VP: Elon Musk is going to save the world’s sea turtles. And frogs. And giant pandas. Well, not personally, but his new Model 3 – the £24k electric baby saloon – just might. Because it’s electric. 12:45 SD: Is this the same Elon Musk that burns through thousands of gallons of fuel every time one of his Space X rockets aims for the sky? 12:46 VP: Um, yes. Maybe it’s because he wants to explore…

What is it? This is not what you think it is. It might look like a Dodge Charger Daytona, but it’s a little more interesting than that. Created in 2007, this is a pro touring tribute to the NASCAR champ created from the bones of a tired 1969 Dodge Charger SE. What does “Pro Touring” mean? That the car has been fitted with upgraded brakes, engine, suspension, etc. Things that make it faster and more reliable. But not more comfortable. Didn’t a car like this appear in Fast & Furious 6? Yes, it did – and you might want to suggest that this car here was the inspiration for that one. This car was built in 2007; the film car, which was billed as a pro touring Daytona and driven…

01 NERF BATTLE RACER A Mad Max-style go-kart from the well-known supplier of child-friendly munitions. It has an adjustable bucket seat, a handbrake, racks to carry NERF blasters, plus bonnet clips for the foam ammo. Time to hide those priceless ornaments... £250; very.co.uk 02 TAMIYA DT-03 RACING FIGHTER This build-it-yourself, R/C buggy sits on Tamiya's hardy, rear-wheel-drive DT-03 chassis, so it's easy to assemble but quite hard to destroy. It might be an entry-level kit, but it has independent suspension with oil-filled dampers to keep it under control. From £150; hobbyco.net TOP RETRO POSTERS Printing perfection A SELECTION OF CAR ART FOR YOUR BORINGLY BARE WALLS 03 SILVER ARROWS FOIL PRINT Silver foil prints of silver arrows racers - the early Mercedes grand prix cars from a time before hashtags…

Stig’s just finished several smoky laps and grunted his approval. Or disapproval, it’s hard to tell. I’m behind the wheel now, and it feels like something’s gone wrong. Every time I accelerate, something happens – the engine sort of runs out of puff at 4,500rpm and refuses point blank to go beyond 5,000. Must be in limp-home mode. Engine note is a crashing disappointment too. I’m being facetious. Yes, I have a diesel; no, nothing is wrong with it; and yes, this was all part of the plan. We want to know if the F-Pace is, as Jaguar promised, a track-happy SUV. But it can’t be so only when powered by a supercharged petrol with 375bhp, otherwise everyone will assume it’s just the petrol that can really deliver a hit…

The aim is so drastically out of the ordinary as to be scarcely credible. Adrian Newey, working with Aston Martin, says he will build a road car with performance vastly beyond any hypercar the world has known. Around a track, the target is a lap time comparable with current top-level race cars – Formula One or Le Mans prototypes. Can this be so? “It is correct.” My eyes widen. Newey qualifies slightly. “Just to be clear, there will be two variants. The road-going variant and the track variant. Although the track variant will be a very close relation. It’ll have, as you might imagine, slightly bigger wheels, bigger wings, to achieve that level of performance. But the road car, I think, is a very different car to anything that’s out…

1999cc, 4cyl turbodiesel, FWD, 210bhp, 332lb ft 51.4mpg, 139g/km CO2 0–62mph in 8.9secs, 117mph HELLO Six people (four children, two adults). That means 12 skis, 12 poles, six helmets, 12 boots, 12 gloves, plus three rucksacks and an assortment of bulky jackets, daily spares, snacks, goggles and – luckily – one snow shovel (you can probably guess why). Firstly, speaking as a parent, that’s a lot of kit to go missing. Secondly, also speaking as a parent, that’s a lot of kit to get in a car. But our new S-Max is big. I know Ford pretends it’s svelte, but there’s up to 2,200 litres of space out back, and, more pertinently for my purposes, 130cm kids’ skis fit diagonally across the load bay. This a bi-turbo 2.0 TDCi Titanium…

1496cc, 3cyl turbodiesel, FWD, 114bhp, 199lb ft 78.5mpg, 95g/km CO2 0–62mph in 9.4secs, 126mph 1190kg GOODBYE Farewell, Mini, it’s been… well, I’m not quite sure where to go from there, so let’s just say I’ve had my ups and downs with it. It took me a while to put my finger on why that was exactly, but I’ve now sussed it out. I have a family, and so it seemed logical to try to use the five-door Cooper as a family car. Surely this is what Mini intended the five-door to do, to be a regular hatchback, to do the things a Polo or maybe even a Golf can do? Surely practicality was the pay-off for the ungainly, unfinished looks? So I tried to use the Mini for family things:…

2979cc, twin-turbo in-line 6cyl, RWD, 425bhp, 405lb ft 32.1mpg, 232g/km CO2 0–62mph in 4.1secs, 155mph 1560kg REPORT 4 An almost totally complete #LapoftheAlps. It seemed to deserve a hashtag while we were doing it – and it still does. It was rather epic: 11 days, 2,319 miles on foreign soil, which at an average of 45.5mph meant we spent 50hrs and 58mins in the car. Biggest mileage day? 797 miles. Best mpg from a single tankful of petrol? 33.1mpg. No, really. This was #ToothlessonTour. Partnerin-road-trip Rowan Horncastle came up with that one. Well, we did have a lot of time on our hands. And yet Toothless was only the support act as we weathered the perfect storm of motorshows, test drives and feature stories travelling across Austria, Italy, France, Switzerland…

1998cc, 4cyl VTEC turbo petrol, FWD, 306bhp, 295lb ft 38.7mpg, 170g/km CO2 0–62mph in 5.7secs, 167mph 1378kg REPORT 7 I felt myself slipping into a malaise after several months of Type-R life, irritated daily by appalling visibility, the needlessly stiff (though exceptionally controlled) damping, duff noise, loose trim and awkward image. This annoyed me. Like you, I was so excited about this car when it was confirmed in 2012, and hooked on its drip feed of specification. So, I headed to my favourite road in the entire world, on a damp, drying spring Sunday afternoon, and just did some driving. For the hell of it. To see if releasing the Civic from its commuter-shopper duties onto a Leicestershire B-road reignited my want-factor. In short, the Civic nailed it – but…