Innholdsfortegnelse for June 2018 i BBC Top Gear Magazine

They say that power corrupts, and there’s an argument that the hypercar’s pursuit of ultimate speed is corrupting the gene pool of performance cars. As the quest to break the 300mph barrier continues, tyre widths increase, brakes bloat in diameter and the aero gets so complex that you end up piloting a device akin to a Eurofighter, where a rear-wing activator failure at a key moment will leave you wishing you could reach for the ejector seat. We all love to marvel at such mind-boggling creations and their physics-challenging capabilities, and dream about the lottery-win scenario that would turn the dream of ownership into a reality, but their ripple effect is felt all the way down the automotive food chain. These days, supersaloons with 600bhp (a figure reserved for supercars…

I lived in a little house in a working class area of Dublin, and a fella down the road showed up one day in a Jensen Interceptor. I remember looking at it: a Saturn V rocket may as well just have landed on the road. My first car was a Triumph 1300. My father was going to scrap it but I reckoned I could fix it up, so he gave it to me. The suspension was shot, and the front wheels were pointing towards each other. I came home one day to discover that my dad had scrapped it – quite rightly, looking back on it – but neglected to tell me. He’d squashed a dream so I decided not to talk to him… for an entire year. He was…

Bentley Continental GT £159,100 WE SAY: AFTER 15 YEARS, AN ALL-NEW CONTINENTAL. WITH A NEW-FOUND LEVEL OF SPORTING ABILITY You can’t overstate the importance of the Continental GT to Bentley. Not only for the bottom line (a whopping 66,000 sold since it arrived in 2003), but also because the 2dr coupe set the tone for the whole brand. In Bentley’s timeline, BC means Before Continental. It’s a handsome thing, the new Conti GT, at least in profile, where the front wheels have been shifted forward 135mm to improve the weight distribution and drop the engine lower and further back in the chassis. Fifty-five per cent of the weight still sits on those front wheels, but there’s less of it than before – the body alone is 80kg lighter, helping the…

Alpina D5S £62,000 WE SAY: WANT TO GET NODS OF APPROVAL FROM THE COGNOSCENTI? ALPINA KNOWS HOW… Alpina’s ostensibly minor tweaks add comfort, refinement and speed to BMW’s best barges. And so, the D5S has the same twin-turbo 3.0-litre straight-six as the 530d xDrive on which it’s based, but with 322bhp to the standard car’s 260bhp, and 516lb ft vs 457. Bloody good engine, this. Economical, refined – even sounds decent. And it means this near-1.9-tonne car hauls itself to 62mph in 4.9secs, and runs on to a derestricted 171mph top speed. But this is not an all mouth, no trousers-type upgrade. The suspension has been tweaked – special wishbones give a degree of negative camber for better turn in – the power steering, gearbox, adaptive dampers and AWD system…

Whatever your response to the Rolls-Royce Cullinan, you can’t fault the company’s credentials. Prestige players crave authenticity above all else – it’s a valuable USP, particularly in China – and rather than being fashionably late to the SUV party, Rolls-Royce can legitimately claim to have been a pioneer. With the ultimate celebrity endorsement. “More valuable than rubies in the desert,” Lawrence of Arabia noted of his nine-strong feet of Rolls-Royces, modified to handle the brutal theatre of war he operated in. His personal car was called Blue Mist (he’s said to have commandeered it from its owner after spotting it outside a Cairo nightclub); others were open-bed tender vehicles, and several were armoured. During his legendary campaign against the Ottoman Turks, none ever broke down. A century later, Rolls has…

“Preuninger’s job is to work the details, to hone each car until it’s as sharp as his own cheekbones” and progress, so why should we say this is the end of all days? It’s not, I’m sure. Despite everything that’s going on we always find ways around it”. The proof of the cars is in the driving, of course. And this is where things get interesting. If I’m honest, even I wasn’t convinced the differences between the cars would be that pronounced. But if there’s ever a way to discover a new car, it’s at the end of the trail that led to it. I head out on to Snaefell mountain. The weather is foul, but wet roads serve to exaggerate handling characteristics. The 996 GT3 RS feels like what…

Report 4 Nissan GT-R £83,875 OTR/£85,650 as tested The Nissan GT-R is an incredibly complex driving device. But nothing scrambles the brain quite like its 4WD system. Even its name is hard enough to get your head around; Advanced Total Traction Engineering System for All-terrain with Electronic Torque Split. Or, ATTESA ET-S for, erm, short… Normally I’d recommend a track in order to pull back the curtain on such a car’s cleverness – somewhere you can push the limits, make mistakes. Not for the GT-R, though. The bar is too high. You need to put everything in slow-mo so your brain and bum can keep up with what’s going on. What you need is a Swedish ice lake. Luckily, we had just that for TG’s Winter Games issue. The GT-R…

Hello Hyundai i30N Performance £27,995/£28,580 as tested We’re living through a golden age of hot hatchbacks. From bargain Up GTIs to supercar-slaying RS3s, every carmaker with a hatch in its range and a modicum of petrol coursing through its engineers’ veins has something to offer. Even Hyundai. The i30N is a belter, too. Just 25bhp less than the Porsche next door and tons of usability. There’s every bit of equipment you could hope for, a big boot and five seats. Civic Type Rs only have four seatbelts, something that’s scuppered me in the past. Good behaviour is only one half of a great hot hatch, of course, but luckily the i30N is also a proper tyke. It’s dripping with the sort of details normally found in only the most serious…

You’ll have read that any number of turbo engines are “free of lag”. There’s the Ferrari 488 GTB’s V8. That one is tantalisingly close. Various BMWs and AMGs are nearly there, but only the 488 Pista’s V8 is free of lag. No punctuation required. That’s the electrifying achievement of this car. There’s vastly more to it, though. Has to be. Because the 488 Pista must follow the smoking tyre marks of the 458 Speciale and, in chasing the Speciale’s genius, the Pista has 50 more horses than a 488 GTB. It’s had a major overhaul of the already fabulous 488 engine. Plus an all-new exhaust system, promising a hair-raising song. The Pista’s chassis electronics are cleverer than ever, and its aerodynamics substantially altered. Fiorano (Ferrari’s private test track) is clear…

Formula One’s history resonates with a signifcance rivalled by few other motorsport disciplines. Everything can be traced back to those halcyon days of the Fifties and Sixties and tales of derring-do and otherworldly heroics. Brabham understands this. The fabled former F1 team is as storied as the best of them, which is why the launch of its brand-new track-only supercar, dubbed the Brabham BT62, wears such a big badge of honour. It’s an entirely bespoke, clean-sheet design, dreamed up by Brabham to serve the racetrack and nothing else. It’s a lightweight chassis with bespoke lightweight carbon fbre body panels and carbon Kevlar wheel housings. There’s double wishbones, together with pushrod actuated four-way adjustable Öhlins dampers, adjustable anti-roll bars and “active bump control”. The whole thing weighs in at just 972kg…

SWAROVSKI HELMET Celebrate the Formula One season with a makeover for your helmet. House of Hope jewellery originally started adding sparkles to ski helmets, but has now taken over the world of speed with their 40,000 Swarovski crystal-embellished lids. Design and colours can be completely personalised, and the whole process takes just three weeks to complete. Whether your current lid or just one to display, make your helmet one you’ll be proud to show off and watch it glisten in the sun. £30,000; houseofhope.com McLAREN FLIP-FLOPS McLaren has teamed up with fashion brand Gandys to create a limited edition flip-flop, inspired by the ‘beauty’ of the new safety Halo. See the resemblance? All profits go to the Orphans for Orphans foundation. £24; gandyslondon.com CAR PART CHESS Swap the chequered flag…

“I like it because I can see my face in it. It’s like a mirror!” says Bunny Amber. “I like it because I can lie in the back so comfortably!” says Bunny Dagmara. “I like it because it’s a statement. But I’m more a fan of the aesthetic than the ergonomic,” says Bunny Sara. Don’t judge a rabbit by her tail. And so began one of the strangest episodes in TG’s history. 25TH ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL OFFER Subscribe today and SAVE 57% turn to p64 for more details The plan was to drive a gold-and-platinum-plated, four-tonne armoured limo, the official ‘Aladeen’ Prombron, created by quirky Latvian from Dartz for Sacha Baron Cohen’s new flm, The Dictator. It began smoothly enough. We met Dartz boss Leo Yankelovich and the Prombron of the…

Mercedes-AMG G63 £143,305 WE SAY: MEET THE NEW G-CLASS. SAME AS THE OLD G-CLASS. EXCEPT IT’S NOT. FAR FROM IT, IN FACT The doorhandle button, the headlight washer nozzles, the sun visors and the spare-wheel cover. Those are the only parts carried over from the outgoing G-Class. It may not look it, but everything else is new. About time, really. The old G had been around since the dawn of the motor carriage (well, 1979), an old soldier refusing to desert its post. The post is of-roadability. I ask Gunnar Güthenke, G-Class’s boss, if he was tempted to take the new one in a more urban direction, since that’s the landscape the G seems most able to conquer. “Not at all. Above all it had to be authentic, so there…

Chevrolet Corvette ZR1 $119,995 WE SAY: WE YOROPEANS WON’T BE ABLE TO BUY THIS BEAST. THANKS A BUNCH, CHEVY Sometimes you can be surprised by something, even when you know almost everything about it. Take the new Corvette ZR1, for instance. We’ve been reading all about its facts and figures for months – its bonkers new 755bhp LT5 twin-injected small-block V8 with a 50 per cent larger supercharger than the Z06; that it accidentally smashed the Ford GT’s lap record at Virginia International Raceway by almost 1.5secs; and that its brakes are strong and sure enough to stop a runaway locomotive. But still I was a bit shocked the first time I mashed the throttle into the bulkhead. The Z06 I’d been following, which was also on max thrust, suddenly catapulted…

Porsche 718 Cayman GTS £59,866 WE SAY: WHAT HAPPENS WHEN PORSCHE CHOOSES THE OPTIONS FOR YOUR CAYMAN? It’s important to review a car with a clear, unbiased mind. But I have to admit to being slightly partisan here. I spend rather a lot of time driving the 718 Cayman in the TopGear Garage (p130), and it’s a car I couldn’t stop thinking about while testing the new Cayman GTS. Much like an illicit affair (I imagine, anyway), I felt guilty. Setting aside a car that’s been nothing but faithful for a racier alternative surely constitutes a classic fling. The GTS’s long list of visual tweaks include standard 20in alloys, a restyled front end and gloss black detailing, while there’s also reams of Alcantara inside. You can even have it on the…

McLaren Senna £750,000 WE SAY: McLAREN’S ROADLEGAL TRACK CAR HAS LANDED. TIME TO HOLD ON VERY TIGHT The McLaren Senna has 789bhp. 789bhp is the least impressive aspect of the whole car. The brakes, oh my God, the brakes. I still can’t get my head around them. This was only a taster, a brief encounter with a late development prototype, a few laps of Silverstone’s International circuit, but wow… The Senna is the next product in McLaren’s Ultimate Series line-up. It isn’t a direct replacement for the P1, but instead answers a different question. I’m not quite sure what that is, but it involves aerodynamics. The Senna ain’t pretty, but if you only see it in terms of beauty, you’re looking at it wrong. Forget aesthetics; think function. Now, isn’t…

Mountains, an art installation by Swiss artist Ugo Rondinone, that consists of seven 30ft-plus towers of rocks painted in fluorescent colours, and have a little wonder. Apparently the piece is a “creative expression of human presence in the desert”, but it seems to provide an actual expression of humanity, seeing as it’s crawling with tourists seeking the perfect selfie, and content to examine the piece through a high-def screen rather than through their actual eyes. We go meta-ironic, take pictures of the picture-takers, and leave. We overnight in Las Vegas, a town sweating so much neon that you can hear the colours and feel the advertising amperage on your skin. When you cruise the Strip at night with the Wrangler’s roof panels of, I swear you can also smell the…

Report 2 Jaguar F-Pace £44,615 OTR/£61,590 as tested The Brooks leather saddle on my town pushbike began in the shape of a saddle. Now it’s the shape of my bum. (Control yourself, ladies.) With car seats. it’s often the other way about: it’s me who does the adapting. At first, this F-Pace’s seat gave me all sorts of grief. Too high below the knees, too hard on my cheeks, too hollow in the lower back. But yesterday I did 500 miles and it was OK. Even so, shouldn’t a car this fancy have a lumbar adjuster? London to Cornwall and back in a day was easy, but that’s no great commendation of the Jaguar. Decades ago my boffiny and slightly eccentric dad often drove the opposite itinerary in cars that…

Report 3 Honda Civic Type R £32,995 OTR/£32,995 as tested As ever, the pics tell only half the story. Looks like the Type R chased our Fiesta ST along its 2,220-mile test, saddled with camera gear, spare walkie-talkies and dubious protein-infused flapjacks, and had a lovely, incident-free time in the sunshine. Actually, it nearly didn’t happen. The Civic’s been in the wars. The first clue something was awry was Tom ‘Mr Punctual’ Harrison being late to the rendezvous point on the A1 before both cars convoyed north on a Saturday morning. He’d been at the Civic’s wheel when it was wounded by the Mariana Trench of potholes. Unavoidable, smack in the middle of a 70mph carriageway. “The Civic thumped through it with the sharpest, most violent crack I’ve ever experienced…

Every new car that matters, rated or slated Lamborghini Urus £164,950 WE SAY: LAMBORGHINI: 1, PHYSICS: 0. PERFECT WHEN YOU’RE REALLY RUNNING LATE ON THE SCHOOLRUN “The reason people buy a Lamborghini is 60 per cent design,” Stefano Domenicali, Lamborghini’s CEO tells us over a pasta dinner. I don’t doubt him – if you want shock and awe, nothing does the trick like a Lambo. But here we are in the midst of an industry-wide SUV frenzy, and the goalposts have shifted. There’s passion and fair in the Urus, the world’s first self-proclaimed super-SUV and Lambo’s first of-roader since the tank-like LM002, but its task isn’t just to surprise and delight – it needs to double sales fgures from 3,500 cars a year to 7,000 and build a foundation from…

Mercedes A-Class £30,240 WE SAY: THE A-CLASS GETS ENOUGH OF A MAKEOVER TO KEEP IT IN CONTENTION The A-Class is a huge UK seller for Merc, so this replacement matters. It is pretty much an all-new platform, but most of the changes are evolutionary. It’s stronger and lighter, though an extravagant 12cm longer. But there’s little extra passenger room to show for the swelling. Luckily there are on-road improvements, too: the poor ride and transmissions of the old car have gone. But we’d forgive you for not noticing. What you can’t miss is the dash. There are no dials at all, just highly configurable screen displays. It’s called MBUX for Mercedes Benz User Experience. Because everything’s an experience these days. On base cars it includes two 7in hi-res screens, running…

“Below 4,500rpm, cylinder deactivation supposedly buys a six per cent fuel saving on boring roads” Primary colours, little pigs, dimensions. Yes, the best things come in threes. This now includes cylinders. Because the brand-new Ford Fiesta ST is powered by a mere three. And this got us thinking. Three countries make up Great Britain, we could sort out three family challenges… and, um, then we ran a bit short. Because as well as city, country and motorway, we wanted to do some track driving. And three writers was logistically one too few. And we couldn’t drive everywhere on three wheels. But three countries and three challenges in a three-cylinder hot hatch, a car we hope to be worthy of three cheers? Sign us up. Three tanks of fuel? Well, we…

“These two aren’t really about the numbers… but the simple pleasures that stream through your fingers, toes and spine” 0–62mph in 5.1secs, but the modestly specified, manual car here – a member of the TG Garage – has a list price after options of £52,435. And it doesn’t have cruise control. Confused? Let it go, because these two aren’t really about the numbers, it’s the control weights, the tactility, the simple pleasures that stream through your fingers, toes and spine that matter. With the Alpine, it begins with opening the door, a featherweight action that tells a story of extreme emaciation. Dropping into it, I immediately feel an inch or two too high… I’m not, just a symptom of coming from the slammed seats in the Cayman. Push the big…

Hello Audi RS4 £72,175/£77,145 as tested From one rapid Audi to another, a seven-seat SUV to a family wagon. Spot the new dad. But bear with us – there is method to making me the unofficial Audi correspondent. SUVs are fast becoming the default replacement for saloons and hatches and estates. They are the Swiss Army knives of the car world that also happen to be bang on trend. Fortunately, not everyone wants a ‘command’ driving position or to sacrifice their centre of gravity just to keep up with the neighbours. If you need space but also speed, an estate is just so much better-looking, so much better to drive and so much cooler than a lumpy SUV. Or at least that’s what I have engrained on my brain. The…

Hello Citroen C3 Aircross £18,845 OTR/£21,975 as tested I remember being the first in the office to drive the Fiat 500L. I know, I know, no one likes a show-of… but the reason I mention it, is that I was transported back to that day when I got into the C3 Aircross. Mainly because in both, the overriding feeling is one of driving a bus. Which is fine. Up high, great view of the road, comfy squidgy seats, bouncy suspension. You just have to be ready for it. With the 500L, I was not. I had got out of a sporty 500 and into the L. Bad move. Everything that was right with the hatch was wrong with the L. Sad face. But, in reality, the L was good at…

Goodbye Land Rover Discovery £66,595/£77,970 Well before this Discovery joined our fleet last year, Paul Horrell group tested one against a Volvo XC90 and Audi Q7. I spoke to him the following day and asked him what was going to win. The Disco, he reckoned, but only by a hair. After eight months and over 20,000 miles in OE66 XOV, I’ve been asking myself the same question. And I have the same answer. I’d have the Disco, but only by a hair. I know, especially having spent time in Jack’s SQ7, that the Audi is way better to drive, better built and more suited to my life. And that the XC90 is the best family wagon. But what I liked about the Disco was the feeling that it was always…

Goodbye Audi SQ7 £72,895/£94,920 as tested Confession time. Not once in seven months did I use seats six and seven. I tell a lie, I once raised them electrically from the bootfoor to show off to my wife how well integrated they were. And then never touched that button again. I like to compare it to the Discovery’s ability to scale the nearest mountain, or a McLaren’s lap-time potential: you’re unlikely to ever call upon said superpowers, but knowing they’re there adds value to the car and helps the bond grow deeper. A lot of the SQ7 is overkill. Take its glorious, triple-compressor, 4.0-litre V8 diesel engine: truly a thing of wonder, but 90 per cent of the time a 3.0-litre V6 would do the job just as well. Thing…