Innholdsfortegnelse for October 2018 i BBC Top Gear Magazine

Heritage. Pininfarina has it in spades, which makes its newest venture – a separate carmaking entity called Automobili Pininfarina – something exciting to behold. Mainly as it’s planning an electric hypercar that’ll see the scary side of 250mph. Welcome to the PF0. Or at least the back of it. Underneath a full carbon-fibre body sits a powertrain capable of 0–62mph in less than two secs, 0–186mph in less than 12, and that scary top speed. AP reckons on 310 miles of range, less so if perchance you fall upon an empty autobahn… AP is looking to a 2020 launch date for the PF0; the year Pininfarina celebrates its 90th anniversary. No more than 90 are expected to be built, each costing in the region of £1.7m each. “Pininfarina’s design values…

Infiniti isn’t like its competitors. It doesn’t have much of a history. No legendary, decades-old models on which to base special editions of its diesel crossovers, or use as inspiration for concept cars it has no intention of building. Concepts like the Prototype 10, which its maker says is an attempt to “recapture the spirit of early speedsters”. And presumably dupe the elaborately trousered, expensively loafered people of Pebble Beach into thinking a brand founded in the late Eighties has ‘heritage’. While we’re 110 per cent sure Infiniti isn’t going to start building single-seater speedsters all of a sudden, elements of the P10’s design will trickle down into its road cars. Not the single-seat layout, though, which is supposed to be indicative of the brand’s “driver-focused approach”. Design director Karim…

What gives a car character? I’d suggest character comes from the way a car makes you feel, through the way it looks and sounds, the way it breaks down or falls apart on a routine basis or, crucially, the way it responds to your inputs. But if we’re racing towards a future of self-driving pods that no longer require inputs, will autonomous cars be devoid of character? If all autonomous cars have a user-drivable mode, then great, we can pilot them ourselves from time to time and divine some form of character from those interactions. But if a manual mode either doesn’t exist or is restrictive, cars will lose a huge part of what makes them unique. And if that becomes the case, we’ll have to think of new ways…

Time was when the sight of a stickered-up tuner car complete with a wing that requires council planning permission was far from a welcome sight in a northern city centre. But this isn’t a still from one of those Traffic, Cops, Action compilation shows that sustain high-numbered Freeview channels. Actually, it’s from the first Red Bull Drift Shifters competition to take place in Liverpool. New Zealander ‘Mad’ Mike Whiddett dreamt up the tyre-shredding event back in 2012, which now features on-board sensors that rate each drift for speed and audacity to rank who’s the best oversteer merchant. That’s right, folks: joyriding’s been gentrified.…

SCG 003S $2.2m WE SAY: DEEP POCKETS? LIKE A TRACKDAY? LOOK NO FURTHER… Racecar for the road’ gets bandied around a lot. But this is the real deal. It’s the SCG003S – a new road-legal American hypercar that bears the DNA of an N24 endurance racer. The brainchild of Jim Glickenhaus (you can read more about him on p110), it’s designed to go toe-to-toe with limited-run hypercar ateliers like Koenigsegg and Pagani, but demolish the established big boys of McLaren and Ferrari with circuit-crushing performance. That ‘S’ at the end of that barcode of a name stands for Stradale – a softened-off road-legal variant of the ‘C’ (Competizione) that took pole at the N24 in 2015 but shares the same carbonfibre monocoque chassis and LMP2 levels of aerodynamic downforce. Powered…

GOT 60 SECONDS SPARE? READ THESE Mercedes A250 AMG Line This, in theory, is the latest A-Class in mild hot hatch form. Its 2.0-litre turbo petrol has 221bhp, not far off an entry-level Golf GTI. It comes only with a 7spd auto. It’s not especially sharp, and the engine’s no fun to rev. But it's quick and surprisingly economical. There’s lots of nice interior chintz but the basics feel cheap – its gear-selector and handbrake in particular It rides too firmly to be a comfy family car, but the handling’s not good enough to properly rival a GTI. A missed opportunity. Engine 1991cc 4cyl turbo, FWD, 221bhp, 258lb ft Performance 0–62mph in 6.2secs, 155mph, 45.6mpg, 141g/km CO2 Weight 1455kg Price £30,240 Nissan Qashqai ProPilot Buying a top-spec Qashqai 1.6 diesel with…

Hands up who didn’t read the brief properly? I admit the Ariel Ace is a superbike, not a supercar, and the Nomad is an off-road buggy thing, not an SUV, but in terms of combining speed, utility and wetting-yourself-with-laughter, I’m standing by my decision. It’s not like the Nomad can’t do the schoolrun. In fact, it’s probably several minutes faster than an RRS SVR because you can turn hard left through the nearest hedge, traverse a field at 70mph then leap the fence on the other side, arriving at the school gates covered head to toe in cow dung. Then when the surface is more… tarmacky, little comes close to the Ace. More living sculpture than transport, it’s lavished with the same microscopic attention to detail you get with the…

In 1883, a volcano on the Indonesian island of Krakatoa went bang in a big way. The explosion was so loud that it ruptured the eardrums of people 40 miles away, and was clearly heard on islands more than 3,000 miles west in the Indian Ocean. The Jaguar XE Project 8 and Range Rover Sport SVR are louder. No question. I half-expect my colleagues to clutch at their ears in pain as I start the P8 and ease it onto its Brian James trailer. These two are all about the noise. A rude, incongruous noise that never fails to put a smile on your face, no matter the situation. Yes, they look absurd and are driven mainly by the kind of people whose houses have fake Roman columns, and maybe…

Report 3 Merc-AMG GT R £143,245/£153,960 The GT R has had a busy month. The biggest problem with running a car this exciting, engaging and, er, green is that everyone keeps borrowing it. But having managed to secure the keys for the tow-car challenge and gained access to the Dunsfold, it was time to dig somewhat more deeply into its capabilities than is legal or advisable on the daily commute. From a standing start (without launch) and flat-out down the runway, the GT R shows a rabid pace as it charges to 177mph, before it’s time to brake, HARD… the GT R scrubbing speed without drama. Dopamine suitably spiked, I grab the chance for a few laps around the rest of the circuit. It’s an all too brief look into…

Report 4 Volkswagen Arteon £40,305/£47,810 VW might fancy the Arteon as an Alpes-Maritime luxury boulevardier, but it’s also a hugely effective GT. And long-haul transport, for a last-minute Barlow family sojourn. It demolished the first part of the journey, for our Lyon stopover, with only the occasional grumble from the engine, reminding you that it uses the devil’s own propellant. Truly luxurious grand touring is not having to stop at a superheated French service station – we saw 39.5°C – and once again the Arteon’s giant range and mile-swallowing high-speed gait proved almost hypnotic. For future reference, though, avoid the A7 l’autoroute de soleil on the first weekend of August. It runs from Lyon to Marseille, and basically becomes a 185-mile traffic jam.…

Report 6 Jaguar F-Pace £44,615 OTR/£61,590 Here’s an advantage of high-roofed crossovers. They’ve got a high roof, duh. This means you can carry tall objects upright – in this case a bicycle, wheels-off but otherwise undismantled. In an estate you’d have to lay it flat and it’d take up more fore-aft space so you’d have to fold a section of the seat. Useful, as I could carry three cyclists, plus another bod, in the car. One of their bikes and their panniers stood in the boot and two more bikes on a simple towbar-mounted carrier. This is perhaps the only day in my time with the F-Pace I haven’t been feeling I’d rather be in an XF estate. I don’t like the ride and handling of crossovers. But whenever I…

“If at first you don’t succeed, stop thinking logically and draw something so white-hot radical it burns a hole straight through the middle of the drawing board and lands, still smouldering, on the floor.” It’s not official, but we can assume that’s the brief at Audi’s ‘Design Loft’ in Malibu, California, which has dreamt up this electric hyper-estate inspired by Audi’s dominant decade in Le Mans racing. This 23rd-century rollerskate is the Audi PB18 e-tron. Ignore the underwhelming name with initials referring to the car’s unveiling at the Pebble Beach festival of brightly dyed corduroy and champagne pricier than liquid platinum. Concentrate instead on details like a low, mid-mounted 95kWh solid-state battery, capable of accepting a 310-mile charge in 15 minutes, thanks to 800-volt charging. Or, if you’re less stung…

“There was a lot of silence,” explains Lego’s senior art director Allan Jensen. “It was quite funny, I’ve never seen them like that.” No surprise, really, considering the brick-shaped gauntlet thrown into the Lego Technic engineers’ briefing room back in June 2017: build a Lego Bugatti Chiron. A full-size Lego Chiron. And make it move. It was only after project manager Lukás Horák and his team stopped laughing they realised this was no joke. Then silence. “These projects always start with laughing, and then the problems come.” So here we are: just over a year of problems, 13,500 man hours and more than one million Technic bricks later, we’re staring at the most astonishing Lego project ever created. A full-size, 1.5-tonne ode to Bugatti’s mind-bending Chiron. Though, of course, the…

Was Fernando Alonso’s decision to retire from F1 a shock? Not really; you could sense that his interests were broadening – he raced in the Indy 500 and tried his hand at sports-car racing last year, winning the Le Mans 24hr. I guess he’s ready to try something different. The thing about retiring, and I speak from personal experience, is it’s very much an internal journey. Imagine you’ve been doing something ever since you were a kid, the sole purpose of your life. You wake up every morning thinking: “I know what I’m doing today – I’m trying to become the best driver I can be,” then all of a sudden it shifts, when you’re still in the prime of your life. A decision like this has a dose of…

North Carolina State Highway Patrol has managed to catch a 22-year-old who drove his Dodge Hellcat at 198mph on public roads before doing donuts in the muscle car and speeding off. How? The driver posted footage of his escapades on YouTube. Two helpings of idiot pie, please. The first 40 Formula E racing cars are up for sale. They were only ever leased to the teams and are now expected to fetch $200k each at auction. Batteries are included. But kinda used ones. To pep up the ageing but excellent Golf R hot hatch, VW has announced 40 – yes, forty – new colours for the 4WD flagship. Sadly, said hues are only availbable in the US, as a $2,500 option. Options include TNT Orange, Traffic Purple and Ginster Yellow.…

Bad news: I can think of other cars I’d rather take to a track. Jaguar may claim to have benchmarked the Project 8 against the 911 GT3, and, sure enough, it’s not a lot slower around the Nürburgring (7:21.2 plays 7:12.7), but that’s not the whole story. The Jaguar is taller and significantly heavier, so struggles to contain its weight. The Michelin Cup 2 tyres do an immense job of resisting the forces working on them, but eventually the hard-worked outside front can’t hold a line any more. Up to that point though, it’s very good. I particularly like the smooth way that, when you nail it out of a slow corner, the back end slips out into oversteer and then the 4WD system cuts in, transferring power forward so…

Skoda Fabia SE 1.0 TSI 95PS £14,845 WE SAY: OLD UNDERNEATH BUT DRESSED IN LOVELY NEW CLOTHES Doesn’t look new That’s because it isn’t. In the last couple of years, its three siblings – first the Seat Ibiza, then the Volkswagen Polo and just recently the Audi A1 – have been given all-new platforms (the same one, obviously, called MQB A0) and complete redesigns. But not the Skoda Fabia. This is just a facelift, which means the Czech supermini rides on an older, less-sophisticated VW Group platform, and is therefore effectively a generation back when it comes to engines, technology and so on. So what is different? New front and rear fascias (both featuring LED lighting for the first time), better standard equipment across all grades, additional active safety technology…

At what point does a car and trailer become a necessary licence upgrade? Bentleys are heavy. I wanted the Bentayga as my towing weapon for the simple reason that I suspected it would be masterful at it. But the thought of hooking it up to a Conti GT? Someone pass me the HGV regulations, ’cos that’s a whole lot of tonnage. But, ah, Bentley has a GT3 racing programme, and nowhere in Wook’s statute of rig limitations does it say no racing cars. This is excellent. I bet Charlie and Wook were thinking they were going to rule the track with the AMG GT R and 911 GT3 RS. Not. A. Hope. And the tractor unit up front? That might be no way to speak about a £160k Bentayga V8,…

EVERYTHING IS FAMILIAR, EXCEPT IT ISN’T. NOT QUITE. There is shotgun neon, and purposeful bustle. There are huddles of shops, striding people and the pulse of commerce, industrious swarms of taxis and more neon, layered upon each other in a deluge of information that arrives in a rush, breathless and unapologetic. A million little stories played out in seconds, like any modern city in the world. But there’s a subtle flavour of wrong. The smallest of inconsistencies, as shocking as an unexpected grain of sand caught between your teeth. The neon is in kanji, logographic symbols instead of letters, the shops unfamiliar and often inscrutable, because I’m sure that the store called simply ‘Green Peas’ sells other things, too. The people are compact and – generally – more precise in…

Report 2 VW e-Golf & Nissan Leaf £28,230*/£31,965 & £28,390*/£30,575 Month two with our electric hatches, and this time we’re talking home-charging. Who does it, what it costs, how you manage it and so on. OM: Is the ancient monument that is your home updated with the correct main fuse? TH: It is. The 60A fuse was simply not enough to power the charger and the rest of the house, hence the upgrade to 80. Which, in fairness, UK Power Networks did for free in about five minutes. The 7kW Chargemaster Homecharge is installed and working as it should. Which is well. OM: I went for PodPoint instead. Very efficient actually, hole drilled though to the fusebox, attractive box bolted to the wall, all done in less than two hours.…

Report 5 Citroen C3 Aircross £18,845 OTR/£21,975 Incredibly, someone has managed to prise the C3 keys from my clammy grip. Last issue, Chris Rowles our repro wizard, had an early-morning date with the printer, for which he needed transport. The Aircross was offered and accepted. Chris had plenty to praise about the Citroen: “It’s very comfortable,” he reported to me. “And it’s got good fuel consumption and easily keeps up on the motorway,” he said. “But that colour combination. Who thought that was a good idea?” [Not me, Chris.] Each of his thoughts is totally valid, and I agree with all of them. The good news is the only negative he had about the C3 was something that you can change as a punter. Choose a better colour combo……

The 166 won the Mille Miglia in 1948 and again in 1949. Such feats from a nascent Italian car manufacturer were amazingly impressive, and inspired the 166 MM. Ferrari would anoint Pinin Farina his preferred creative partner in 1951, but until then a multitude of Italy’s carrozzeria were tasked with clothing the chassis. Touring of Milan was renowned, not least for its lightweight ‘superleggera’ technique that artfully encased the 166’s tubular steel chassis in aluminium panels of breathtaking beauty and simplicity. From the distinctive egg-crate grille to its pert posterior, the 166 MM was a perfect evocation of the artisan’s skill. The car was done entirely by eye. It was powered by Gioacchino Colombo’s magnificent V12, a 2.0-litre bored and stroked for duty in the 166, and with a consequent…

This is the new Aventador SVJ, the most extreme version of Lambo’s big-boy supercar yet. It’s a car we already know to some degree, having already driven a prototype (TG 312, and on TopGear.com) and seen it demolish the Nürburgring production-car lap record. This, though, is our first glimpse of the SVJ without any confuddling camouflage. And doesn’t it look punchy? Lamborghini has tacitly admitted that it draws on “every inspiration from a space ship to a jet fighter”, citing them as “the most exceptional examples of super-fast, super-athletic, aerodynamic superiority”. Has Lambo relocated its design office to Area 51? We missed the memo… As is the way, much of its design has been led by aerodynamics, with a new version of Lambo’s ALA active aero tech. As a result,…

Aston has announced a run of 25 brand-new DB5s, modelled after one of the world’s most famous movie cars: the Goldfinger DB5. Just like the DB4 GT Continuation models we saw at the end of 2016, Aston is building 25 brand-new Aston Martin DB5s, built as “authentic reproductions” of the exact car that Connery, Brosnan and Craig all drove in various screen outings. By authentic, Aston mean things like revolving numberplates “and more”. We suspect the ejector seats and oil spray won’t make the cut, though we live in hope.…

Reading this magazine from front to back, are you? Good. You’ll have already spotted this year’s Pebble Beach car-luxe-festival has lit the touchpaper on a series of all-electric super-concepts from Audi, Infiniti and Pininfarina. Unbowed, Mercedes has been busy with its own entry. The EQ Silver Arrow plunders real heritage (not Infiniti’s wish-we-were-there wistfulness) and applies an electrified spin to the record-breaking Benz single-seaters of the Thirties. Imagine, if you will, this design study as a fantasy future for Formula E. Oof. Yes please. Now dismiss that mouth-watering notion. Sorry. This is merely the design department getting demob-happy over the summer holidays, but it does include some design traits we’ll see in the upcoming Tesla-fighting EQ electric offshoot imminent from the Mercedes mothership. Blue detailing, wraparound lights and rose-gold wheel…

In April, Bosch claimed to have developed new technologies that would allow diesel engines to meet all future emissions targets for passenger cars. Volkmar Denner, Bosch’s, er, boss, promised to end the death-of-diesel debate with new technology to cut NOx by “10 times lower than limits set for 2020”. Isn’t it strange that in the fallout of a massive scandal, the largest car-parts supplier has suddenly happened across a way of fixing smelly old oil-burners? Without wanting to sound unduly sceptical, how has Bosch managed to achieve such a dramatic step-change in diesel cleanliness? Moreover, why should we care? Because let’s face it, the diesel era of the car is over. The people with large foreheads at Bosch could declare pretty much any advance in diesel, and people just wouldn’t…

Canon’s latest range of DSLR cameras, from the entry level EOS 4000D to the superbly versatile EOS 77D, plus a few handy insider tips, can take your car photography to the next level. From making sure the location is perfect to the type of car you’re shooting, plus using any surrounding landmarks and details to your advantage, there are plenty of ways to make your images stand out. Canon’s mission was to find a lucky would-be sharpshooter and give them a car photographer masterclass at Dunsfold. Canon launched the #CanonCapturedStories competition on Instagram, and quite a few of you got involved with your best pictures of your favourite drive. Th ere was a Canon EOS 77D DSLR camera and two lenses up for grabs, as well as the masterclass at…

DODGE VIPER The Viper’s 600lb ft isn’t the meatiest torque output in this list, but its massive 8.4-litre, naturally aspirated V10 is surely the least stressed engine this side of a cruise liner’s. Unlikely to be great in a crosswind tankslapper. BENTLEY MULSANNE SPEED The grand old Mulsanne’s 6.75-litre bi-turbo V8 ‘only’ makes 530bhp, but its effortless torque reserve – a majestic 811lb ft – truly dwarfs other luxury saloons. And it’s a much less vulgar towcar than a Bentayga, don’t you think? CORVETTE ZR1 We’re perilously close to consumer advice here, so let’s get back on track. Not only is the 750lb ft superVette a strong contender for towing, that huge rear wing is an ideal lashing point for extra tow ropes. (GM may disagree). MERCEDES S65 AMG Torque…

1898 Magnificently named Frenchman Gaston de Chasseloup-Laubat sets the first recognised land-speed record, hitting a dizzy 39mph in his electric-powered Jeantaud Duc. “See? Told you this petrol thing would never catch on,” says everyone. Several disgruntled horses point out they can do 39mph no problem, but no one’s ever given them a shiny certificate. 1902 American mogul William K Vanderbilt reaches 76mph in his petrol-powered Mors Z. “See? Told you this electric thing would never catch on,” says everyone. 1904 In Ostend, Belgium, Louis Rigolly and his Gobron-Brillié pass the 100mph barrier for the first time. To this day, this remains the most exciting thing to have happened in Belgium. 1924 British daredevil Ernest Eldridge breaks the speed record on the public road, hitting 146mph in Fiat’s ferocious Mephistopheles. Adjudicators…

Kia Ceed 1.4 T-GDI £25,750 WE SAY: SMARTER LOOKING, GOOD KIT – AND THE NAME’S BEEN FIXED Pity the copywriters at Kia. After two generations of the cee’d, they must have just about got their computers programmed not to autocorrect the spelling, only for the bosses to change it to what it always should have been – Ceed. Still, it makes sense. This isn’t a car that has to rely on gimmicks to sell itself; it’s a car that can rival the best in the class. Engines available now are either 1.0- or 1.4-litre petrols, and a 1.6-litre diesel. The petrols produce 118bhp or 138bhp, with 114bhp and 207lb ft for the diesel, and fuel economy is up there with rivals. The 1.4 we’ve been driving returns 48.7mpg and 132g/km,…

LR Defender by Twisted £80k–£160k WE SAY: FORGET THE LR WORKS DEFENDER. TREAT YOURSELF TO A TWISTED Since the last Defender rolled off its production line in 2016, the world has gone bananas for the slab-sided stalwart of British military and agricultural engineering. A bit like the air-cooled Porsche boom, demand for the Defender – and prices for it – has gone through the roof. So much that LR recently decided to bring it back to life with the limited-edition £150k V8 Works. Now, Defender specialist Twisted has made a properly engineered luxo twist on this classic. One that just might be better than LR’s. How? Firstly, the Twisted cars are actually newer. Unlike LR’s limited series of stripped and rebuilt old cars, Twisted’s Defenders are delivery mileage ’16-plate cars…

If this were a track day, I’d have nailed it from the start. Let’s be honest, any public circuit event is essentially a competition both on track and off it, and the points scoring starts when you rock up in the paddock. Why? Because your rig is a rolling articulation of intent, and while poling up in a polar white G63 towing a Magno green road-going version of the F1 safety car might not win any awards for subtlety, it definitely makes a statement. makes a statement. There are many good things about total Mercedes-ness. With both vehicles powered by AMG’s guttural, 577bhp twin-turbo 4.0-litre V8, both sound like angsty thunder, and there’s torque aplenty from both, the G63 using its higher 627lb ft output to pull the GT R…

Inspiration for my rig? Simply that original is best. And I have – without doubt – the best-handling set-up here. Some 542bhp from the original SSUV, the Porsche Cayenne Turbo, dragging behind it 513bhp of ultimate track satisfaction in the shape of a very green, very 9,000rpm-red-line GT3 RS. You know why things end up being cliched? Because often, they’re the best at what they do – ubiquity really can be a pointer towards greatness. Come at me, Trailer Queens, the best is right here.…

When Jenson Button quit full-time F1 at the end of the 2016 season, one question popped up pretty quickly – was there a race series that would turn his head? He could have had a crack at Rallycross like his late father John, or wandered to the US, where he would have been warmly received. But instead, Button decamped to Japan, and Super GT. He took part in the showpiece Suzuka 1000km race in August 2017, and then announced that December he’d signed a deal to drive for Honda in the Team Kunimitsu NSX GT for the full championship in ’18. Looking tanned and fit at Fuji, it certainly seems that life in Japan agrees with Button. And his reasons for heading east? Quite simple really: Button cites his continued…

Report 4 Ford Mustang $64,740 “What are you trying to do?!” my neighbour shouts from her second-floor window. “Sorry, I can’t hear you!” I reply, as the Mustang’s Voodoo engine clears its throat from cold. Shouting “ARE. YOU. TRYING. TO. WAKE. THE. DEAD?!” like she’s trying to enunciate to a deaf alien, she hits boiling point. It’s 6am, and safe to say neighbourhood relations aren’t at their best. The Hennessey Mustang is incredibly loud. I think it’s one of the loudest cars we’ve ever had on the fleet. So loud that the marshals at Goodwood just laughed it away during a 102dB track day as it was way, way over the limit. But that doesn’t stop me hitting the exhaust button when I get in to uncork the already incredible…

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