Innholdsfortegnelse for January 2018 i BBC Top Gear Magazine

We’ve had five years to come to terms with the idea of a Lamborghini SUV, following the reveal of the concept at the New York show in 2012. Plenty of time, you would have thought, for engineers to find a suitable place for the rear doorhandle. For some, the Urus represents a heretical dilution of their much-loved supercar company, the legendary purveyor of bedroom-wall poster stars of their childhood and beyond. For others, it removes a number of the barriers of accessing the brand, namely practicality and broader capability – now you can take the whole family on your latest Lamborghini adventure. Whichever side of the argument you fall on, what you can’t argue with are the metrics. The Urus was not created as a technological tribute to Lambo’s history…

Just a few weeks after the mad ZR1 coupe comes this, the ZR1 convertible. It uses the same 755bhp supercharged 6.2-litre V8 as the coupe, with the option of 7spd manual or 8spd auto gearboxes. With the auto, the hard-top has a top speed of 212mph and does 0–60mph in sub-3.0secs, but that’s with a special aero package. Chevrolet says the convertible will still have a top speed “over 200mph”, though. And all that unholy supercharger whine and V8 roar – unencumbered by a roof – should make up for any performance deficit. No extra strengthening has been required; the only mods are to fit the folding roof and reposition the seatbelt mounts. So suspension tune is the same and the convertible weighs just 27kg more than the coupe. It…

Pobolycwm*! I’m Simon Coggle, co-founder and creative lead of Caliburnus Automotive, Wales’s newest, and only, supercar company. Over the next few months, from Caliburnus’s glamorous new creative space just of the Burger King roundabout in Merthyr Tydfil, I’ll be documenting our exciting start-up on its breakneck journey to 300. Yes, Wales is joining the race to build the first 300mph production car, and we’re darn well going to win it. True, Caliburnus Automotive has no car-building experience, but that’s our secret weapon. Unlike those lumbering dinosaurs at Bugatti, Koenigsegg and Hennessey, we’re not constrained by “production lines”, “supply chains”, “shareholders” or “potential customers”. Joining me at the helm of Caliburnus is my business partner and co-disruptor Carl Woodcock, who is also temporarily my landlord, following a disagreement with my wife,…

You ought to hove heard of Autodromo - the American watchmaker whose pieces “draw aesthetic inspiration from a golden age of motoring”. We like them a lot - the Monoposto is a particular fave of ours. This new collection, created in partnership with Ford, celebrates liveries from the company’s past - from the GT40’s Le Mans win in ’66 to the new car’ win 50 years later. The one pictured is a generic blue and white stripes job, and probably our favourite of the four-strong collection. $695; autodromo.com RAYMOND WEIL MAESTRO SKELETON There’s something so satisfying about seeing the inner workings of a mechanical watch. Granted, the open-faced Maestro only has a work-a-day Sellita movement, but we bet it’s great fun to watch it tick. £1.695; raymond-weil.co.uk TISSOT EVERYTIME SWISSMATIC…

Porsche Panamera Turbo S E-Hybrid ST £ £139,287 WE SAY: STUTTGART PLUGS ANOTHER MICRO NICHE WITH A HYBRID SHOOTING BRAKE... SPECIFICATION 3996cc, bi-turbo V8 & electric motor AWD, 671bhp, 649lb ft 94.2mpg, 69g/km CO2 0–62mph in 3.4secs, 193mph 2325kg VERDICT: Astonishingly clever and exceptionally fast. Great daily, but not as exciting as a Turbo S should be. 7/10 Turbo S means the PTSEHST is fast – the fastest Panamera, in fact – but not hardcore or focused because then it would be a GTS. E-Hybrid means it’s a plug-in hybrid. So it has an internal combustion engine, a bi-turbo 4.0-litre V8 with 542bhp, that works in tandem with a 134bhp e-motor and eight-speed PDK to deliver much speed, as well as 30 miles or so of engine-off running. Sport Turismo…

Seat Leon Cupra R £34,995 WE SAY: THE HOT HATCH’S GREATEST ERA CONTINUES. THIS CUPRA IS ANOTHER BELTER... SPECIFICATION 1984cc, 4cyl turbo, FWD 306bhp, 280lb ft 38.7mpg, 170g/km CO2 0–62mph in 5.8secs, 155mph 1453kg VERDICT: It’s the most expensive, most powerful Leon ever. And probably the best, too. You’d better be quick... 8/10 It’s the most powerful Seat yet. The Leon Cupra has broken through the VW Group hot-hatch glass ceiling and channels Golf R power – 306bhp from a 2.0-litre turbo – through only its front wheels. That’s a 10bhp rise on standard, while there’s nerdy stuff like wider tracks from more negatively cambered wheels, which the slightly tacked-on wheelarch extensions house. The exhaust is a bit louder, the steering a bit quicker and the brakes a bit bigger.…

WE SAY: HOW D’YOU GET SOMEONE TO BUY AN MPV? DISGUISE IT AS A CROSSOVER, OBVIOUSLY Skoda Kodiaq SE L 1.4 TSI 4x4 £30,035 Peugeot 5008 GT Line Puretech 130 £28,195 Crossovers. Exciting times The Skoda Kodiaq may not be very exciting, but it is very good. Brilliantly thought-through, superbly executed and important in a world where the only seven-seaters anyone really buys are SUV-shaped. Which is precisely why the 5008 isn’t an MPV anymore. The old car was an upright minicab of a thing – this new one is far more interesting. Largely because it’s based on, and is conceptually similar to, the smaller 3008. I have many children... Marvellous, the Kodiaq can accommodate them all. Its interior is functional above all else – the seats are easily tumbled…

Report 3 Land Rover Discovery £66,595 OTR/ £77,970 as tested SPECIFICATION 2993cc, V6 turbodiesel, 4WD, 258bhp, 442lb ft 39.2mpg, 189g/km CO2 0–62mph in 7.7secs, 130mph 2230kg TESTER’S NOTES The upshot of these electrical gremlins is that I don’t fully trust the Discovery. MILEAGE: 14,057 OUR MPG: 27.2 Right, much to discuss with the Discovery. Some things are going well, others badly, the overall impression so far is… lukewarm. I suspect this is going to read negatively, so I need to point out now that as far as driving goes, all is wonderful. The Disco rides smoothly (now on newly fitted inch-smaller rims wearing winter tyres), is light on steering, torquey and very quiet. However. Roof rails aren’t standard. On a Discovery. I know. They’re £439, plus you have to add…

Report 2 Tesla P90D Ludicrous £111,900 OTR/£78,400 as tested (secondhand) SPECIFICATION 90kWh, 4WD, 532bhp, 687lb ft 270-mile range, 0g/km CO2 0–62mph in 2.8secs, 155mph 2250kg TESTER’S NOTES Recent update has given us a new driving mode, Chill, increasing the range. Which is nice. MILEAGE: 29,016 One advantage of EV ownership is the ability to charge at home – or at least it should be. Park the car up, leave it and in the morning you’re good to go. In advance of our Model S arriving, I was keen to get my house fitted with a suitable charging point. I emailed both PodPoint and Chargemaster, and the latter responded instantly. I discussed my needs, and they offered three options: 3kW, 7kW and 22kW (which requires three-phase power supply), so we opted…

Report 5 Ariel Nomad £36,538 OTR/ £55,313 as tested NOMAD SPECIFICATION 2354cc, 4cyl, RWD, 235bhp, 221lb ft n/a mpg, n/a g/km CO2 0–62mph in 3.4secs, 125mph 725kg TESTER’S NOTES An utter riot ofroad – right up to the point I overdid it. Massive fun while it lasted. MILEAGE: 12,848 OUR MPG: 26.1 A phone call from James Cameron, who runs Mission Motorsport, the forces charity that specialises in the rehab of injured ex-serviceman by getting them involved in motorsport: “We’re having a day out for some of the blokes on the of-road course at RAF Abingdon. D’you fancy bringing your buggy along?” Did I ever. The chance to hurtle about of-road in the Nomad is one I never pass up, and getting it together with a bunch of other daft…

Each rear lamp features 88 LEDS and weighs just 1kg – that’s roughly half as much as the tail-lights on the 570S. Without glass, the doors weigh just 8.8kg Three months ago we took a McLaren 720S to Scotland and introduced it to 12 other of our favourite performance cars of 2017. It was driven hard on track, slightly less hard on soaking B roads and crowned our Speed Week champion. At no point during these five days did anyone, not even Nomex and speedy boot enthusiast Chris Harris, suggest that it could do with more performance. In fact, several staf members, once they’d changed their trousers, proposed it could do with a little less. Yet here I am, standing next to what can only be described as a 720S…

You’re looking at the “entry-level” road car from Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus. It’s a carbonchassis’d, carbon-bodied midengined supercar with a 641bhp bi-turbo V8, a tri-seat, McLaren F1-style cabin layout with a manual gearshift, and a base price of $400,000, or just over £300,000. Some base model… A sizeable chunk of cash for a new supercar upstart, but there’s proper, race-proven pedigree. You may remember James Glickenhaus was the man behind the Pininfarina P4/5, the stunning one-off homage to the P3 racer of the Sixties that shocked the car world in 2004. Thanks to all-carbon construction, it apparently weighs just 1,179kg. Take the old McLaren 650S as a comparison (same power, similar chassis), and the SCG is around 250kg lighter. The twin-turbo V8’s 641bhp and 531lb ft ought to make short work…

Tesla has caught the rest of the world on the hop. Again. Meet the new Roadster. First things first: it’s FAST. Here are the numbers: 0–60mph in 1.9secs, 0–100mph in 4.2secs, the quarter-mile done in 8.8secs and a top speed of over 250mph. The acceleration figures are bananas. Much quicker than we’ve seen from any of the world’s conventional supercar manufacturers, nothing short of record-breaking. Faster than a Bugatti Chiron, no less. Much. Although it’s worth noting the Roadster’s acceleration looks less outlandish as speed rises. From 60–100mph it’s only 0.3sec faster than a McLaren 720S, so it’s very likely that beyond 100mph the Roadster’s acceleration will be weaker than the best of the supercars. The Roadster, which was a surprise arrival at the launch of the Semi truck (see…

AMG versions will be along soon, starting with the hybrid AMG CLS 53, which combines a straight-six petrol with an electric motor for a total of 429bhp The new Mercedes-Benz CLS is the third generation of the genre-busting saloon/coupe, and it shows of Merc’s svelte new design language in all its creaseless glory. It serves up a sleek new profile with a high-arching waistline, low roofine and frameless side windows to squish the whole thing down and make it look less four-doory. Around the CLS you’ll notice simpler lines than before, making it easier on the eye. Up front, a new, sharky snout nose has been added, while the grille has been widened towards the bottom to resemble the AMG GT supercar. A new, bigger headlight cluster follows the lines,…

AUDI Q7 V12 TDI EXCLUSIVE Price: £96,295/£140,645 when new Engine: 5934cc, V12 TD, 493bhp, 738lb ft Transmission: 6spd auto, 4WD Performance: 0–62mph in 5.5secs, 155mph Economy: 25.0mpg, 298g/km CO2 Weight: 2635kg AUDI SQ7 Price: £72,895/£94,920 as tested Engine: 3956cc, V8 TD, 429bhp, 664lb ft Transmission: 8spd auto, 4WD Performance: 0–62mph in 4.9secs, 155mph Economy: 37.2mpg, 199g/km CO2 Weight: 2330kg Hard to believe, but back in 2006 diesel was being lauded as the next great performance fuel. Well, by Audi at least. On track, the R10 TDI LMP1 racer was wiping the floor with everything petrol-powered in endurance racing, then two years later a distantly related 493bhp 6.0-litre V12 TDI was dropped into something that was neither racy nor dynamic… the big-boned Q7. In 2008, the same engine was also fitted…

BMW M5 £ 89,640 WE SAY: THE M5 HAS TO BE BETTER THAN EVER TO COPE WITH THE E63. IT’S UP TO THE TASK SPECIFICATION 4395cc, V8 bi-turbo, AWD 592bhp, 553lb ft 26.9mpg, 241g/km CO2 0–62mph in 3.4secs, 155mph 1855kg VERDICT: The best M5 since the E39. BMW’s M Division has upped its game. 9/10 There is such a thing as too many options, and I have found it in the new F90, sixthgeneration BMW M5. Three different settings for the quality of upchange on the new Steptronic auto ’box (gone is the DSG of the old F10 model), three different damper settings, different settings for steering weight, display configuration, paranoia of traction control and throttle aggression. And now a slew of new configurations for the xDrive all-wheel-drive system. Including…

Lotus Evora GT 430 £112,500 Lotus Exige Cup 430 £99,800 WE SAY: TWO FOCUSED SPORTS CARS, ONE HOWLING V6. BUT WHICH IS BEST? TIME FOR AN OFFICE ARGUMENT EVORA GT 430 SPECS 3456cc supercharged V6, RWD, 430bhp, 325lb ft 27.1mpg (est.), 249g/km CO2 (est.) 0–62mph in 3.8secs, 190mph 1299kg VERDICT: The most extreme Evora yet is a staggeringly usable road car. At a cost, mind. 9/10 EXIGE CUP 430 SPECS 3456cc supercharged V6, RWD, 430bhp, 325lb ft 27.1mpg (est.), 249g/km CO2 (est.) 0–62mph in 3.3secs, 180mph 1093kg VERDICT: The most extreme Exige yet is a stagg… yeah, see above. They’re both brilliant. 9/10 Paul Horrell: I’ve been driving the quickest road-going Lotus ever. The Evora GT 430 tops 190mph and is faster around the Lotus test track than the 3-Eleven.…

“To be honest, Swarm looked a little out of context where I live in Lincolnshire” It’s 4am and freezing bloody cold. I’m not-sleeping in a dry hitch of the Ugab river in Namibia, badly wrapped in some sort of tarpaulin body bag, dusty, smelly and the kind of happy that makes your heart hurt. Yes, there’s a rock poking my kidneys and something furry keeps grunting from the brush 30 feet to my left, but, my God, when the stars look like this, it’s impossible to be voluntarily unconscious. In fact, this is way past the jurisdiction of the normal and well into the glittering realms of fairy tale. Earlier on, the burning ruins of a sunset collapsed into the flat black velvet of night-time, and then the stars exploded.…

Report 6 Skoda Kodiaq £29,960 OTR/£33,895 SPECIFICATION 1395cc, 4cyl turbo, AWD, 148bhp, 184lb ft 40.9mpg, 156g/km CO2 0–62mph in 9.9secs, 121mph 1578kg TESTER’S NOTES Though it’s our Family SUV of the Year, it’s not great at heavy-duty of-roading in this spec. MILEAGE: 10,031 OUR MPG: 34.9 Regular readers will know that the Kodiaq was our Family SUV of the Year. While some might be surprised it beat the Discovery, it’s great value for the size, quality and drive you get for your bucks. And the Kodiaq does many things that the Disco does, one of those being 4x4. But the big question is, is it any good of-road? A couple of months back, I piggybacked the Discovery group test (issue 295) where we went to Europe’s longest zipwire, based in…

Goodbye Honda Civic £25,405 OTR/ £25,930 as tested SPECIFICATION 1498cc, 4cyl turbo, FWD, 180bhp, 162lb ft 48.7mpg, 133g/km CO2 0–62mph in 8.2secs, 137mph 1548kg TESTER’S NOTES Oh, what we’d give for a real handbrake. The campaign to ditch the eBrake starts here. MILEAGE: 9518 OUR MPG: 40.9 Time to say “sayonara” to the Civic, because frankly any foreign words you can’t learn from watching Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles aren’t worth knowing. And it’s a car that leaves us with plenty of happy face stickers in the “good behaviour” column. Mechanically, the Civic is nothing short of irreproachable. The 1.5-litre, 180bhp aluminium four-pot is an absolute cracker: smooth and punchy and much keener to rev than most of the modern forced-induction brigade, with a hot hatch turn of pace. The six-speed…

Roof takes 16 seconds to close, up to a speed of 31mph. Interior design is a step behind newer models... but still looks like it’s from the future BMW has – at last – shown of the i8 roadster. Its development has been lengthy and its teaser campaign a bit drawn out, but the production version is here. Unveiled at the LA motor show, its styling isn’t in the least bit surprising, but you probably don’t want it to be. It’s been revealed alongside an updated BMW i8 coupe, whose midlife facelift neatly arrives. The good news is it brings more of everything: improved battery tech means more energy, so the motor now produces 143bhp, up 12bhp, taking the car’s total petrol and electric output to 374bhp. The roadster is…

This is no ordinary truck. With an 80,000lb (36.3 tonne) load, Tesla reckons this electric Semi (no laughing at the back) will go from 0–60mph in 20secs. Sans trailer, it’ll go do that in FIVE SECONDS. Yes, an electric truck will outrun a VW Golf GTI. It also has a drag coefficient lower than a Bugatti Chiron and promises a 500-mile range. That, says Tesla, makes it handy for American truckers, because apparently 80 per cent of freight in the US is moved less than 250 miles. We’re told ‘Megachargers’ will add around 400 miles of range in 30 minutes, the windscreen is composed of impact-resistant glass, and ‘jack-knifing’ is prevented thanks to many onboard sensors that detect instability and reduce/increase wheel torque and manage braking to counteract it. You…

You read that right. Alfa Romeo is entering F1. In 2018. A brand known and loved for often beautiful, sometimes unreliable and recently quite-good-to-drive Italian motoring is getting stuck into the world’s premier racing series, and they’ve already shown the car. Bella, no? Alfa isn’t going it alone as a manufacturer, though. Instead, it’s signed what it’s calling a “strategic, commercial and technological co-operation” with the existing Sauber team, which currently employs drivers Pascal Wehrlein and Marcus Ericsson. It’s the “technological” part that intrigues us most, because it means that Alfa Romeo’s not simply asking parent company Fiat- Chrysler to stump up a large pot of euros in return for an Alfa sticker on the nose of next year’s Sauber. Alfa might be getting stuck into the oily bits. Imagine…

Winning the Mille Miglia was much more difficult than winning the Le Mans 24 hours. The stress on the car is far higher, you’re racing on public roads… it was a much more intense 10 hours than anywhere else. I could learn the Targa Florio, I knew how to set the car up for each corner. But you couldn’t for the Mille: you can’t learn 1,000 miles. There were spectators lining the road so you can’t see the apex of the corner, and so you’re driving with the knowledge that as you go around [the corner] it might get tighter. Every one of those 1,000 miles was a great big adventure. You’re either a person who relishes the thrills and risks of what you’re doing, or you’re not, and you…

Porsche 718 Boxster GTS £ From £61,727 WE SAY: PORSCHE REACHES INTO THE LETTERS BOX AND PICKS THE RIGHT ONES SPECIFICATION 2497cc, 4cyl, RWD, 360bhp, 317lb ft 34.4mpg, 186g/km CO2 0–62mph in 4.3secs, 180mph 405kg VERDICT: £8k more than standard for 15bhp, extra kit and cosmetics. Oh, and the GTS badge. Mustn’t forget that. 8/10 G, T and S are good letters. Hell yeah. Porsches so labelled are quite often the best of their respective model lines. Want a 911? GT cars and Turbos notwithstanding, you want the GTS. The Macan GTS is good fun too, and so were the last-gen Panamera and Cayenne GTS, with their fantastically unfashionable nat-asp V8 engines. And before the Cayman and Boxster had two cylinders cruelly liberated from their engines, irreversibly transmogrifying them into…

DS 7 Crossback Puretech 225 £ £38,985 WE SAY: POSH CITROEN PLAYS IT SAFE TO BUILD THE BALANCE SHEET SPECIFICATION 1598cc, 4cyl turbo, 225bhp, 221lb ft 47.9mpg, 135g/km CO2 0–62mph in 8.3secs, 141mph 1420kg VERDICT: More interesting inside than it looks outside. Comfy, well-specced and a decent drive. 8/10 DS says it’s avant-garde and French, yet it’s built a metoo crossover with the anglophone name of Crossback. Ah well, this shape of vehicle is 2018’s cash jackpot. If it keeps the accountants happy, maybe DS will get permission to be radical again. Poke your head inside and the promise draws closer. DS’s motif is the diamond shape, and it repeats all over the cabin like the LV or Chanel monograms on their handbags. French, see. The luxury bit comes from…

Volvo XC40 T5 AWD R-Design £35,705 WE SAY: THE SWEDES GET IN ON THE COMPACT-CROSSOVER ACT SPECIFICATION 1969cc 4cyl turbo, AWD, 247bhp, 258lb ft 39.8mpg, 166g/km CO2 0–62mph in 6.5secs, 140mph 1684kg VERDICT: Stylish and useful. And just so stressless: relaxed to drive, safe, even the ‘subscription’ deal is risk-free. 8/10 You join me on my compact crossover Groundhog Day. Here the Volvo XC40, on p52 the Jeep Compass and on page 53 the DS 7. Last month the T-Roc. At the same time I drove this Volvo, the Jag E-Pace was also coming out of captivity, and while I am recursive, I’m not cloned, so Ollie Kew covered that one. Can this sector really keep growing? These new entries have to swim in a pool that’s already so thick…

Scour Lamborghini’s press release for the new Urus and you’ll find no fewer than five references to bits “taking cues” from the LM002. I shan’t list them because as you can see for yourself on page 82, this is utter codswallop. Clearly, Lamborghini is keen to ram its SUV credibility down our throat and make sure we’re clear about one thing: the Urus isn’t about selling out, it’s about selling more cars. Park an Urus in the shadow of an LM002 and it’s obvious Lamborghini has come a long, long way. One is a failed attempt to win a military tender, subsequently wrapped in leather, given a polish and sold to anyone mad enough to take it on; the other is a collection of the finest VW Group parts draped…

Report 5 Peugeot 3008 £27,595 OTR/ £32,410 as tested SPECIFICATION 1199cc, 3cyl turbo, FWD, 131bhp, 170lb ft 54.3mpg, 120g/km CO2 0–62mph in 10.5secs, 117mph 1270kg TESTER’S NOTES I can’t wait for dashcams to be standard in all cars. This must happen. MILEAGE: 10,900 OUR MPG: 37.8 We used to have a Citroen C3 in the TopGear Garage. I loved that car for many reasons, but one of them was for its built-in dashcam. Until I drove that little orange Citroen, I had thought a dashcam would cramp my driving style, stop me from taking that last-minute, cheeky turn. What actually happened was that it empowered me as a driver. Yes, against all expectations, the dashcam did not stifle my driving, but instead ameliorated it. Which made me want one in…

Report 8 Alfa Romeo Giulia QV £61,000 OTR/ £73,505 as tested SPECIFICATION 2891cc, V6 twin-turbo, RWD, 503bhp, 369lb ft 34.4mpg, 189g/km CO2 0–62mph in 3.9secs, 191mph 1524kg TESTER’S NOTES Life with an Alfa is a rollercoaster. Sometimes you’re forced to get of… into a courtesy car. MILEAGE: 8340 OUR MPG: 22.3 For last month’s Awards issue, I spent a lovely crisp autumn morning zig-zagging across the Wiltshire/Oxford border on some surprisingly quiet and well-sighted roads in order to refamiliarise myself with the McLaren 720S Coupe. Having zipped up and down the same slice of glorious dry road to affirm and calibrate my judgments, I concluded that the 720S is still one of the most capable, unbelievably quick and transcendental supercars ever created. But, having driven the Giulia up to the…

Report 4 Mercedes S500 Cab £111,215 OTR/ £126,520 as tested SPECIFICATION 4663cc, twin-turbo V8, RWD, 447bhp, 516lb ft 32.5mpg, 204g/km CO2 0–62mph in 4.6secs, 155mph 2115kg TESTER’S NOTES Both the automatic boot-closing gizmo and the keyless entry have a mind of their own. MILEAGE: 10,980 OUR MPG: 25.6 Being an island isn’t always a positive thing, but at least it means plenty of coastal roads. You’ll be amazed by some of the roads the little splodge in the Solent, the Isle of Wight, serves up. From Ventnor I head south in the S500 Cabrio to Freshwater. You know the cliche about a car shrinking itself around you? Well, the Merc doesn’t do that; it purposely feels rather grand. With another phrase in my head (“match speed with vision” – that’s…