Innholdsfortegnelse for July 2016 i BBC Top Gear Magazine

Few car companies can delight and frustrate to such extremes as Alfa Romeo. The Italian brand’s history is littered with some of the most jaw-droppingly beautiful cars ever created – the designs radical touchpoints for the decades they represent. Names like Disco Volante, Duetto, Tipo 33, Montreal, SZ and 8C conjure stunning forms. But far too often, where the looks have thrilled, the performance has frustrated. The old TG adage goes that you can’t be a true petrolhead until you’ve owned an Alfa. Well, I can’t be a true petrolhead, then. Like a number of you reading this magazine, I’ve often thought about owning one and wasted many happy hours poring over potential purchases. My love affair with researching and not buying Alfas started when I got my first proper…

WE SAY: THINK A3 SPORTBACK ON STEROIDS. THE BABY Q HAS ARRIVED A six-metre-long candy pink Cadillac DeVille convertible idles noisily to my left, a chromed-up ’55 Chevy Bel Air emits a fug of black smoke to my right and yet it is me, sitting at the lights in my red Audi Q2, that is attracting all the attention. Locals aren’t just staring, they’re gawping – totally confused as to how and why a futuristic craft like this could have landed in their town. Havana, Cuba: a city with a transport and civil infrastructure stuck in the prerevolution era, isn’t used to new things, especially new cars, and I’m sticking out like a sore thumb. The Q2 won’t even be sold here, on account of the few foreign cars the…

WE SAY: THE BLUE OVAL TAKES ON THE GERMANS WITH ITS HEFTY AND PRICEY CROSSOVER Americans have been able to buy an Edge – Ford’s Mondeobased Q5 and X3 rival – for a couple of years now. But ours is a bit different to theirs. Most obviously, the EcoBoost V6 has been ditched in favour of Ford’s familiar 2.0-litre diesels, with up to 207bhp (compared with the V6’s 311). Every Edge gets AWD, and you’ve a choice between a 6spd manual or an auto. There’s some new kit, like LED headlights, and a few other bits, but perhaps most interesting is Ford’s new Adaptive Steering set-up, which is standard on the beefylooking Sport models Ford expects to account for the greatest proportion of sales. We’re not normally fans of systems…

WE SAY: WELCOME TO THE LATEST UK TRACK-DAY THING Ah, Zenos. In the A-to-Z of the British sports-car industry, we know where to find this one. Alphabetically, yes. But a few years into its existence, this start-up is doing just fine, and after 10 minutes behind the wheel it’s easy to see why. The E10 is what the Caterham Seven would have morphed into if it hadn’t been kept in a state of – admittedly highly amusing – suspended animation. Given that ex-Caterham (and Lotus) figures Ansar Ali and Mark Edwards set Zenos up, this isn’t a total surprise. Is there room for another adrenalised Brit tiddler? There is if it’s as good as this. The E10 R is the raciest Zenos, powered by Ford’s 2.3-litre EcoBoost unit, turbocharged to…

CLIO RENAULTSPORT 182 TROPHY Engine: 1998cc, 4cyl, 182bhp @ 6500rpm. 148lb ft @ 5250rpm Performance: 0–62mph in 7.1secs, 139mph Transmission: 5spd manual, FWD Economy: 34.9mpg, 194g/km CO2 Weight: 1090kg L x W: 3811mm x 1940mm CLIO RENAULTSPORT 220 TROPHY Engine: 1618cc, 4cyl turbo, 217bhp @ 6050rpm, 207lb ft @ 2000rpm Performance: 0–62mph in 6.6secs, 146mph Transmission: 6spd automatic, FWD Economy: 47.9mpg, 135 g/km CO2 Weight: 1204kg L x W: 4063mm x 1732mm A decade isn’t all that separates these two Clios. Going by name alone, one is inarguably a direct descendant of the other, and yet what we have here is an automatic five-door with a turbocharged four, and a naturally aspirated three-door with a manual gearbox. Such is progress, then, that on first inspection these two diminutive Frenchies share…

In the blue corner Name: Jack Rix Age: 32 Occupation: deputy editor Secret weapon: a beret In the red corner Name: Dan Read Age: 32 Occupation: you’ll have to ask him Secret weapon: long fingernails 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… JR: Do my eyes deceive me? I’ve just been looking at pictures of the new 3008, and it’s really rather fetching. In an ocean of bland Qashqai-sized crossovers it actually stands out, which is precisely what its blobby predecessor didn’t do. 10:32 DR: I agree, it’s much better than the old one, which looked like some sort of bottom feeder. But just because something’s better, it doesn’t mean it’s good.…

01 SHORTEST F1 PIT STOP Red Bull Racing showed Kwik-Fit garages everywhere how it was done with a 1.92-second pit stop at the American Grand Prix in 2013 -a far cry from the Ricciardo shambles at the recent Monaco Grand Prix. 02 FASTEST LAWN MOWER Now firmly part of TopGear legend, the lOOOcc 109bhp Honda mower was driven to a recordbreaking average of 116mph by fearless former staffer Piers Ward at the IDIADA Proving Ground in Tarragona, Spain in 2014. 03 FURTHEST ON TWO WHEELS This badge of honour belongs to Michele Pilia, who in 2009 drove his E30 BMW 316i on two wheels constantly for 230 miles at Sant'Elia Stadium, Cagliari, Italy. Why on earth he didn't just buy a motorbike and be done with it we'll never know.…

1:18 SCALE ARIEL ATOM V8 According to the laws of quantum mechanics, atoms don't shrink. The distance between the protons and neutrons and their surrounding electrons simply can't be reduced, even if you have a really futuristic ray gun. Of course this only applies to actual atoms, although if this model is anything to go by, it's also true of Ariel Atoms. "We've been approached by a few model makers over the years," says Ariel boss Simon Sounders, "but when they understood the complexity of modelling the Atom they all gave up at an early stage." But it appears Spanish company Soul Models was up to the job, and it's not just picked any old Atom; it's gone for the maddest of the lot, the 500bhp Atom V8. Only 25…

The city of Indianapolis lies 760 miles inland from New York, where green pastures meet the golden cornfields of the American Midwest and beyond. To the north, Chicago and the Great Lakes. To the south, Kentucky and hill country. Its location is important. Because, despite being a fairly modest town whose tourist hotspots total a few nod-worthy monuments and museums, it’s also one of America’s most visited. This is partly because it’s at the crossroads of several interstate highways, but mostly because of an event it holds every year on the last weekend in May. You already know what it is. In fact, it’s hard to say “Indianapolis” without adding “500”, like “Derby” after “Kentucky”. The Motor Speedway was the first purpose-built racetrack in America, and the first 500-Mile Sweepstakes,…

The military has always advanced civilian engineering, but it’s the mix of artistry, innovation and science that makes it work. Radar, the microwave oven, the expansion of the internet, GPS, air-traffic control, drones, portable X-ray machines, sanitary pads, jerrycans, pressurised cabins, synthetic rubber and oil, mass-produced jet engines – the list is amazing. And Nir Kahn is one of those people that you suspect would invent everything, given enough time and resources. Based at Plasan’s HQ on Kibbutz Sasa in northern Israel, Kahn works in a kind of hothouse for industrial materials science and modelling. There’s a state-of-the-art ballistics laboratory that can measure the impact effects of pretty much everything from a handgun to a rocket-propelled grenade and computer modelling suites where deformation and impact absorption can be measured using…

1969cc, 4cyl twin-turbodiesel, 4WD, 225bhp, 347lb ft 48.7mpg, 152g/km CO2 0–62mph in 7.8secs, 137mph 2009kg REPORT 4 Of all the situations Volvo expected the XC90 to be in when it decided to lend its flagship premium SUV to the TopGear Garage, descending Turn 4 of Rockingham Motor Speedway’s banked circuit at – ahem – *some* miles per hour, probably wasn’t one of them. Still, in keeping with our decision to do decidedly non-boring things in this particular Volvo, we currently find ourselves trying to find the perfect line around the banking that doesn’t set off the XC90s strangely comforting warning bongs. There must be something about NASCAR banking that sets off some worrisome yaw/ABS/stupidity sensor. It’s not as if it’s particularly struggling – even at even more miles per hour,…

Land Rover Discovery Sport Driver Owen Norris Price £43,000/£51,499 1999cc, 4cyl turbodiesel, AWD, 180bhp, 317lb ft 53.3mpg, 139g/km CO2 0–62mph in 8.9secs, 117mph 1884kg Ford S-Max Driver Andy Franklin Price £32,260/£39,460 1999cc, 4cyl turbodiesel, FWD, 210bhp, 332lb ft 51.4mpg, 144g/km CO2 0–62mph in 8.8secs, 135mph 1766kg A country pub, one lunchtime... Andy Franklin: Took the Dakar detour to get here did we? Owen Norris: Very funny. You know you love it, though. AF: I’ll admit it’s a good spec you’ve got there. ON: So it should be for £51k! I suppose it all boils down to: have you accepted your fate or are you willing to fight it? My head says that the S-Max is the car I should be buying, but my heart says the Disco Sport. AF: At…

Sometimes a bad car can be enlivened by a good journey. It’s just as well it was, because as cars go, the Mitsubishi 3000GT was largely devoid of any redeeming features. I know, it looks fast and actually is quite fast, arriving from Japan in the same wave as the twin-turbocharged Nissan 300ZX, Toyota Supra and Mazda RX-7, but that’s about it. Its 281bhp was deployed through all four wheels, it had four-wheel steer and “computer-controlled” suspension. Allegedly. More importantly, it was, as I remember, one of the most tuneable cars in the original Gran Turismo, capable of being boosted to somewhere above 900bhp. Largely as a result of that, I’d wanted to drive one for ages. What a disappointment. The engine was coarse, the gearbox clunky, the brakes weak,…

WE SAY: LUCKILY THERE’S PLENTY MORE THAN MEETS THE EYE IN THE CASE OF THE SQ7 Don’t turn the page. Thanks. You might not think you’re interested in this onlyslightly-less-drab-looking version of the Audi Q7. But how does 4.9 seconds to 62mph grab you? A V8 bashing out 435 horsepower and 664lb ft of torque? And a piece of new technology that’s going to change all sorts of cars? The engine is a new V8 diesel with – count ’em! – three different compressors. Two are turbochargers, a big one for highrev power and a little ’un for low-rev perkiness. But we all know even a little turbo is still a turbo and will still show lag. So the SQ7’s third compressor is driven not by an exhaust turbine but…

This is the F-Pace most people will buy. That’s because it comfortably tops 50mpg, even when you inevitably add four-wheel drive and an automatic gearbox. But happily, it also feels a bit nicer than the V6 on p134. In the real world, at least. The 2.0’s max torque arrives earlier (at just 1,750rpm) while it weighs over 100kg less than the V6, both elements contributing to more immediate responses. And specced on 20 instead of 22in wheels, it rides nicely in town, too.…

WE SAY: STILL SERIOUSLY FAST, BUT NOW WITH A DASH MORE COMFORT When the R25-generation GT-R launched in 2007, it was pretty much the Godfather of brutal acceleration. Now it’s more like the Grandfather. It’s still pretty effective, mind, and so this senior citizen remains in the workplace, aided by a set of nips and tucks. Crude edges have been smoothed away. A new dash looks, unlike the last one, as if it were all designed by a single team. It’s more plushly trimmed too. A new active noise-cancellation system takes away the booms when you’re cruising. Road noise is cut too. Plus, the transmission is very much more housetrained, having lost the gear whine and low-speed snatchiness. The ride, though it’s still stiff, isn’t so wearisomely harsh. Unusually for…

The new Cup 250, replacing the S Cup, is another stage in the transformation of the Elise from delicate back-road grazer to serious track scoffer. Power is boosted 26bhp to 243bhp, plus the throttle calibration and gearshift action are finessed. It’s 21kg lighter than before, or 31kg if you splash yet more cash to switch to carbon fibre for the standard downforce kit. Wider front tyres keep that end gripping harder, yet the steering remains sublime. Utterly fab on a B-road too.…

Volvo has revealed a pair of concepts for its next range of mid-size 40-series cars. The 40.1 concept is a ringer for the XC40, a BMW X1-rivalling SUV due to hit showrooms next year, while the 40.2 wears fastback-saloon disguise, but is actually a hatchback. Design director Thomas Ingenlath has confirmed the 40.1 is very close indeed to the XC40 and despite its name, the 40.2 is the concept version of the third body style in the new 40 series, we understand. A regular hatch, replacing the current V40, will come next after the XC40. Underneath the 40.1 and 40.2 is Volvo’s freshly minted Compact Modular Architecture platform. Volvo’s head of R&D Peter Mertens says the platform is a step ahead for Volvo. “We are going to fire the next…

Van man Squeezing 265lb ft through a Clio requires much change. The RS16’s front suspension (here with RS boss Patrice Ratti) is a bespoke mix of Megane and MkIII Clio Cup parts, while the engine uses bracing components from the Kangoo van. Really… It’s three years since the Clio RenaultSport was the high point of small hot hatches. But that could change if Renault puts this rampant little RS16 into production. “We said, ‘Let’s make a car we can homologate,’” says RenaultSport boss Patrice Ratti. “A return to crazy cars!” The crazy cars in question are sprinkled through Renault’s history, the mid-engined, rear-driven 5 Turbo and Clio V6 the craziest of all. The RS16 has not followed their formula. Its engine and driveshafts remain frmly at the front. But what…

There’s no real need for a car like the Vulcan. Doubtless, it is an engineering masterclass, the resolute pursuit of performance without compromise, and yet only 24 people will ever own one. But that's not the point. The Vulcan is all about reaching – and even exceeding – limits, from what it is made of and how it looks, to the carefully-chosen components and equipment that make it possible to make the most of its capabilities. Like the oil, for example. When Aston Martin test driver, Darren Turner, is pushing a Vulcan to the ‘Vmax’ he needs to know his oil will perform at the same level as his engine. The intense pressures that a modern engine works under can be the same as the pressures generated by five family…

Once. Just once. That’s how many times Italian designer Marcello Gandini has drawn the scintillating silhouette of what we now know as the Lamborghini Miura. As a 27-year-old in 1965, he knew he’d nailed it. His stylish squiggle was perfect. And not wanting to ruin the masterpiece, or succumb to failure, it’s a profile he’s never redrawn. To be fair, you don’t see golfers teeing up to have another go at a hole-in-one, do you? A group of young, enthusiastic and revolutionary Lamborghini engineers took Gandini’s design and threw it over an avant-garde chassis. With a transverse V12 in the middle, independent suspension, four equally-sized fat wheels at each corner and a mischievously childish doodle of a logo on the back, it was the world’s first supercar. Shown publicly to…

Tell us what it was like winning Le Mans. It was a great feeling to win the race, but I’ve got to say it was tainted by all the politics. I just can’t remember the timing, but at a certain point, Ford decided to hold station, basically. Bruce McLaren was driving at the time, and he backed off. But Ken Miles ignored the slow signs. At that point, somebody in the Ford management said, “Ah, well, if we can’t get the drivers to do what we’re telling them to, we’re going to stage a dead heat, and there’s not going to be any arguments.” Ken and Bruce sort of formed up for a dead-heat finish. I’m never quite sure to this day, but our car crossed the finish line well…

Connectivity. It’s a very 2016 word. But slide behind the wheel of a 1928 Alfa Romeo 6C 1500 SS, and the tyrannous 4G wifi matrix that enslaves the entire planet these days instantly dissipates in a cloud of meaningless ones and zeros. Rather than marshalling a set of software signals and algorithms, which is what driving a modern car is increasingly about, the 6C demands not just wrists, forearms or even shoulders’ worth of physical input, it wants your whole body to be involved. The huge, four-spoke steering wheel makes your hands tingle and smell of metal. There’s no synchromesh in the gearbox, so guiding the spindly lever across the open gate is a process that requires maximum mental and physical dexterity. You can’t help but picture those spinning cogs…

If you walk, a bicycle is luxurious. If you cycle in the rain with cramping calves, a bus becomes an affluent lifeboat, even if you do have to share the top deck with a man who smells of boiled cabbage and defeat. But if you have to deal with the vagaries of public transport on a regular basis, and eventually people who smell of far worse than vegetables and melancholy, then even a 1989 Toyota Corolla that whiffs lightly of damp Alsatian and long-dead cigarettes can seem grand. And thus we find that any concept of luxury is always a mutation formed though the lens of situation. But a luxury car has always had a bit of a blueprint. Long and limousiney. In fact, when the concept of a luxury…

THE CASE FOR MONACO By Sir Stirling Moss The first thing I’d want on my CV is a Monaco win. You cannot compare Monaco with Indy, other than the fact that F1 cars sometimes did both of them. A long time ago when I was racing, it was part of the F1 world championship. Indianapolis is something I’d have loved to have done, but I didn’t go because at the time it was quite possible I could’ve won a world championship in Europe. Monaco, particularly as it was, is more of a road race, and I’m more of a road racer. There’s no doubt Indy in itself is the greatest promotion. Le Mans is a hell of a deal too. But I would have thought, if you ask any European…

PORSCHE 911R Price: £136,901 Engine: 3996cc, flat-six, 493bhp, 339lb ft Transmission: 6spd manual, RWD Performance: 0–62mph in 3.7secs, 201mph Economy: 21.2mpg, 308g/km CO2 Weight: 1445kg As technology whisks us kicking and screaming into a world of autonomous cars and 3D-printed pizza, there’s something satisfying about stepping off the conveyor belt and indulging in objects of the past. Teasing a crumbling cork out of a bottle of Cabernet Franc, for instance, despite screw-tops keeping your tipple just as fresh and fungusfree, is oddly reassuring. And you only need to flick through the adverts in this very rag, to see the market for biblically expensive watches, driven by intricate mechanical movements, is booming – even though we all have a smartphone in our pocket that tells us the time more accurately. The…

WE SAY: McLAREN’S RUN OF OUTSTANDING CARS CONTINUES. GOOD JOB Funny how things turn out. When the new-era McLaren began with the MP4-12C, it was a fantastic long-distance supercar, and it could do searingly fast laps. But it didn’t quite tingle your emotional sensors, so it was developed into the even faster and vitally spicier 650S. Now we’ve got a new long-distance McLaren, the 570GT. It’s only a whisker less quick than that first 12C, and much more practical. But it’s tuned to make use of what they’ve since learned at Woking about smearing a silly grin across the driver’s face. McLaren always intended its entry Sports Series to have three bodies: coupe, spider (next year) and this GT. They were designed side by side. The upper superstructure is different…

WE SAY: FIRST JAG TO GET THE SVO TREATMENT DIALS DOWN THE MUSCLE-CAR MADNESS TO GO FASTER The F-Type SVR is all about big numbers. It’ll do 200mph. It has a power output of 567bhp. It has the option of 398mm diameter carbon-ceramic discs and a carbon-fibre roof, which together lop 50kg of its weight. There’s a new aero set-up at the front, a rear venturi configured to house a trick new exhaust, and an enormous rear wing. The SVR is louder, shoutier, and costlier (‘from’ £110,000 for the coupe). It’s… more, of everything, and this on a car that was hardly backwards about coming forwards in the first place. Yet the more you drive it, the more you realise that doing everything in CAPITAL LETTERS is not the SVO…

What is it? It might look like a lightly and tastefully modified second-gen 1970 Camaro, but underneath the very orange skin of Nick Relampagos’s car are some pretty serious modifications. All of which are driven by Nick’s wish to build a classic that could compete – and win – in autocrosses, on road courses and in the Optima Ultimate Street Car Challenge Series – a national search for the fastest and best-handling classic cars in the US. But don’t think this is some pampered racecar. Nick drives it to work every day in between weekend races. What’s so special about it? If those big 18x12 back wheels don’t already give you a clue, this Camaro is packing some heavy power. The standard engine has been swapped out for a 6.2-litre…

Mark Higgins – three-time British Rally Champion and Manx local – is already the fastest man on four wheels to lap the Isle of Man TT course, but like any “proper” racing driver, he lives to go faster still. In 2011 and 2014 he navigated the 37.7-mile road course, normally associated with banzai superbikes, at an average of 115.4mph (including his now infamous 150mph tank-slapper) and 117.5mph respectively in what was essentially a stock 300bhp WRX STI with a roll cage and tougher brakes and suspension fitted. Impressive numbers, clearly, but this year, for his third attempt, he’s got the tool he always wanted – a $700,000 monster designed specifically to destroy the TT circuit and tailored to his specific requirements. We caught up with Higgins at the car’s final…

A beautiful Italian villa nestled on the shores of Lake Como. Three of the world’s finest concept cars. Much sun. A good day, then. Meet – from left to right – the Aston Martin Vanquish Zagato, the Alpine Vision, and the Alfa Disco Volante Superleggera. They were three of the entrants for this year’s Villa d’Este concept cars and prototypes award. Enjoying its worldwide debut was the Vanquish Zagato, the fifth to emerge from AM and Zagato’s partnership. It wraps a bespoke, carbon-fibre body around the base of an upgraded, 592bhp V12 Vanquish. Keen eyes will spot the in-references to earlier Aston and Zagato design, while its running base means a production version must surely be on the cards. The second concept is Alpine’s riposte to the Porsche Cayman: a…

A medeo Felisa has just retired. Even though he was CEO of Ferrari, you probably never saw a picture of him; he always hates being photographed, or shoved into the spotlight in any way. He’s the quiet, professorial type, the absolute opposite of the alpha-male swagger that usually goes with high office in car companies. So why make a fuss of his departure? Because I don’t think it’s exaggerating to call him the father of not just the modern Ferrari but the modern supercar. Felisa arrived at Maranello 26 years ago as chief engineer at the road-car division. He could see the wheels had been falling off. The flat-12 Testarossa series was having its midlife crisis, and so were its owners. The 348 was nowhere near quick enough and handled…

Charlie Turner Three days masquerading as an official Alfa Romeo works driver. It was the Mill© Miglia (what else?), and I was in the vastly privileged position of viewing it through the slot-like windscreen of a 6C SuperLeggera. Alfa's relationship with that event runs deep, and watching Italy spool past that long, narrowing bonnet was enormously evocative. It helped that in the passenger seat was my actual life co-pilot, my Dad. We'll gloss over the major argument we had on the way into Rome, and the subsequent two hours of silence, but the next day, egos parked and the map thrown out of the window, we had the drive of our lives... Alfas can do that, and I will remember that day, those roads, that car and that man for…

The answer to the future of everything lies in the middle of an Israeli desert some way south-east of Gaza and very south of Tel Aviv, in a naked scorch of badlands that might be a spur of the Negev, but might be somewhere else, I’m not quite sure. It’s the same colour as the yellow ochre rocks that surround it, blending its geometric surfacing gently with the natural backdrop. This morning I watched dawn break over the Jordanian border and the salty southern end of the Dead Sea as the sun burst past the horizon, breaking hard shadows across the windscreens. It has a turrety roof hatch, enough armour to stop pretty much anything short of a rocketpropelled grenade and handspan-thick glass. It’s called a Plasan SandCat. It’s probably…

In 2013, Jaguar flashed a light show and billowed dry ice over the C-X17, and tried this hard [finger and thumb so close they’re touching] to pretend to the public it was only a concept. Ha ha. Ever since, off-record briefings have spun us the line that Jaguar would come to the crossover party with something late but great. The best to look at, the best to drive. Throughout those three years TopGear has arched an eyebrow and replied “We’ll be the judge of that.” Well, that moment has arrived. Most people are going to end up with a four-cylinder diesel in their F-Pace (the name is silly enough without us capitulating to Jaguar’s insistence on uppercase). But there’s no Macan in that engine format, and Jaguar says its car…

Honda Civic Type-R Driver Ollie Kew Price £29,995/£30,520 1998cc, 4cyl turbo, FWD, 306bhp, 295lb ft 0–62mph in 5.7secs, 167mph 1378kg Peugeot 308 GTi 270 Driver Ollie Kew Price £28,155/£29,920 1598cc, 4cyl turbo, FWD, 266bhp, 243lb ft 0–62mph in 6.0secs, 155mph 1205kg I’m not really one for car nicknames, but if Ollie Marriage’s M3 is “Toothless”, then meet “Lipstick”. The red Joker grin that laps the Peugeot 308 GTi 270’s chequered flag grille is one of a few giveaways that this car runs the world’s most powerful streetlegal 1.6-litre engine, landing Peugeot back in the fast family hatch battlefield with sensational numbers. Subtle, isn’t it? Also bespoke are the forged 19-inch wheels, red four-piston brake calipers, twin-bore exhausts and those weeny aero flicks on the front bumper, but it’s still a…