BBC Top Gear Magazine December 2015

Not many industries are as driven by the spirit of competition as the automotive business. We live in a world where figures matter and every micron of performance is measured, scrutinised and benchmarked. This month’s issue features the very best and worst of what that culture creates. At the positive end of the spectrum is the McLaren 570S, which goes into battle in the sports-car heartland against the stiffest competition yet. Few car companies embody the spirit of competition and constant evolution more than McLaren. Competition is in its DNA, and while early 12Cs were best described as “variable”, the product development that has seen that car progress from those tentative early steps to the 675LT has to be admired. Especially when you add the P1 into that journey as…

TWITTER.COM/BBC_TOPGEAR FACEBOOK.COM/TOPGEAR INBOX@TOPGEAR.COM SECOND FLOOR A, ENERGY CENTRE, IMMEDIATE MEDIA COMPANY LONDON LIMITED, MEDIA VILLAGE, 201 WOOD LANE, LONDON W12 7TN FROM TOPGEAR.COM The Ferrari F12tdf is a 769bhp, trackready, V12 maniac. Nastier F12 loses 110kg, gains downforce and carbon I prefer it over the original F12, but sometimes it looks like an Italian version of the Corvette Z06/ZR1. Jo Agreed. Dangerously close to Corvette in appearance. Until you see the back. Justin Case Jones I LOVE the F12. I think this thing is a little ugly but I could not care less. SgtStig Words fail me. Personally I can’t find a flaw in the way it looks. Astonishing numbers as well. Gimazz89 People said that 730bhp was way too much for a road car. This has more power and…

FASTER FERRARIS 360 CHALLENGE STRADALE Basically a road-legal 360 Challenge race car. Lighter, more power, stickier tyres. All good 430 SCUDERIA Upgraded, stripped-out F430 was faster round Fiorano than an Enzo. Just call it Scud SCUDERIA SPIDER 16M A 430 Scud minus the pesky roof. Therefore noisier. Therefore even better 599 GTO 6.0-litre V12 made 661bhp. It cost £300k. Sounds tame by modern standards? It wasn’t 458 SPECIALE A swansong for Ferrari’s naturally aspirated V8, the Speciale was as pure as they came 458 SPECIALE APERTA A 458 Speciale minus the pesky roof. Therefore noisier. Therefore even better Deep down, we all know the days of the naturally aspirated V12 – at least, the days of the naturally aspirated V12 unfettered by electric assistance or the like – are drawing…

Everybody say “Ahhhh”: it’s Toyota’s unfeasibly cute S-FR concept. Its name is a contraction of ‘Small, Front-engine, Rear-drive’, and so it’s no surprise to discover it squeezes below the GT 86. Which pitches it right on the MX-5’s turf… There is no word on its drivetrain, but rumours suggest a 1.5-litre four-cylinder with around 130bhp. Sounds modest, but then so is a subtonne kerbweight. The resulting power-to-weight ratio wouldn’t be far off big brother 86. At a smidge under four metres long and with a pair of back seats, the S-FR isn’t quite as small as the dinky little Kei cars it brings to mind (below). But it’s certainly as brimful of character as the S660 and Copen; its styling could be described as a mash-up between Mercedes-AMG GT and…

Excuse me, are you really talking about a 120-grand BMW 4-Series? Um, when distilled like that, yes. But we’ll come back to the price in a bit, because this BMW M4 GTS could well be greater than the sum of its parts. Explain. Yes, it’s a 4-Series. But it’s an M-Division 4-Series; specifically, an M4. That’s already £57k worth of oversteery goodness to get us going. So there’s a new badge, and power. How much power? Thanks to a water-injection system that sprays directly into the plenums of the manifold, the intake air is cooled and the twin-turbo straight-six engine can run higher boost. Long story short, that 3.0-litre sixer now makes 493bhp, over the standard M3’s 425bhp. That’s considerable. It is. As with any hardcore special edition, you also…

1 It has doors that put a Lamborghini to shame No, Tesla hasn’t invented the world’s first flying SUV (although ‘Professor’ Musk probably has one up his sleeve). Those ‘wings’ are actually Falcon doors, designed for added convenience – the fact that they will attract more attention than an Aventador is just a by-product. The double-hinged mechanism opens up then out, and requires a slimline 30cm either side of room. Sensors will stop them opening if they are about to leave stripes on the adjacent car, plus open them automatically as you approach. 2 Move over, XC90 – Tesla makes the safest SUV Although yet to be smashed into a stationary steel block surrounded by slo-mo cameras, Tesla is confident the Model X will score a five-star safety rating in…