Innholdsfortegnelse for September 2016 i BBC Top Gear Magazine

With the UK’s relationship with Europe best described as “slightly strained” following the decision in June to leave the EU, this month we felt it best to do our bit for UK–European trade relations. OK, so TopGear’s history as cultural attachés is littered with disenfranchised nations, questions in The House and some VERY angry ambassadors, but we weren’t going to let that stop us… What could be better than a trip across Europe? Meeting our neighbours in a true British icon, a rolling statement of all that’s good about the UK in one fourwheeled, shiny package – the stunning Aston Martin DB11. As trade delegations go, Jack and Rowan dressed in shorts, T-shirts and smelling of four days on the road following a diet of processed, service-station foodstuffs might not…

WE SAY: START THE PETITION TO PERSUADE RS TO PUT THIS CONCEPT INTO PRODUCTION The hot-hatchback market has never been as buoyant as it is right now. Barely a month passes without a new contender upping power and handling prowess, in turn sending 0–62s and ’Ring times tumbling. There’s a subplot among it all, though, and it concerns the Clio RenaultSport. For the best part of two decades, a fast Clio was about as much fun as you could find on four wheels. But with the arrival of the fourth-generation car, and its more languid personality, 19 years of class honours came to an abrupt halt. Perhaps spurred on by this – as well as RenaultSport’s 40th anniversary – a skunk works team squirrelled themselves away over winter and spring,…

The shape may call on Swedish saloons of old, but don’t be fooled: the new S90 is all new-age Volvo beneath. Same superbly esoteric interior as the V90 and XC90, then, and similarly effortless dynamics, too. Its price reflects all that, mind. A generously specced 235bhp D5 diesel like we’ve tested costs as much as a six-cylinder BMW 530d. But the S90 eradicates the pain from driving, and is wilfully different enough from its German rivals to warrant serious consideration. Good car. SPECIFICATION 1969cc 4cyl twin-turbo TD, 4WD, 235bhp, 354lb ft 58.9mpg, 127g/km CO 0–62mph in 7.3secs, 145mph 1763kg…

WE SAY: BRUTALLY QUICK POINT-TO-POINT, RUBBISH ON THE SCHOOL RUN Why Mark Higgins agreed to let a ham-fisted amateur in a TopGear romper suit drive his 600bhp Prodrive-developed WRX STI, fresh from a 129mph average lap record around the Isle of Man TT course, I’ll never know. But here I am, about to drive it up the hill at Goodwood. And then it starts to rain. Oddly, this could play into my hands. A few days earlier, I had the chance to drive this Time Attack WRX STI for a few familiarisation laps at Dunsfold, with Higgins in the passenger seat. On that day, the heavens also parted and turned the airfield into a puddle. Back to Goodwood, and I’m queued up behind the line. The start process goes like…

On paper, it’s a GLC SUV with a chopped roofline, sharper dynamics and a pricetag around £3k plumper. In practice, it’s a gloriously slick interior wrapped in an exceedingly divisive exterior. And it is indeed better to drive than a regular GLC, but it’s still a 1.8-tonne crossover that struggles in tighter corners. So the Macan’s dynamics go on undefeated. This is a talented car, though. But so is the regular – cheaper – GLC. Our heads, including our eyes, would make us stick with that. SPECIFICATION 2143cc twin-turbo diesel, AWD, 201bhp, 369lb ft 56.5mpg, 131g/km CO2 0–62mph in 7.6secs, 138mph 1845kg…

WE SAY: PEAK AUDI HAS BEEN REACHED. DULL TO DRIVE, BUT WILL ANYONE CARE? Few brands know their customers as inside-out as Audi does. Think about it: you hear about Marks & Spencer launching an ill-judged clothing line which expensively tanks, or Apple narking off its users by releasing must-have software updates that, oh, we’re sorry, your halfused device couldn’t possibly support. When was the last time Audi dropped the ball, and scared off its faithful? Basing the dear A1 on a Polo didn’t stop it selling like Mr Kipling’s finest; neither did styling the original Q7 like a whale shark with thyroidism. So here’s the new S5, and Audi’s rival for the sharp new Mercedes-AMG C43 is officially peak Audi. It looks painstakingly similar to the old S5, which…

Let’s keep this straight to start with. A few months back Porsche updated the Boxster. As part of this it did away with the iconic fat-six engine, replacing it with a turboassisted fat-four. Now the Cayman is undergoing the same alterations. So, the facts. The standard Cayman has a 2.0-litre motor with a monoscroll turbo delivering 296bhp and 280lb ft, while the S we have here has a wider bore (102mm rather than 91mm) version of the same block, yielding 2.5 litres, 345bhp and 310lb ft between 1,950 and 4,500rpm. Its turbo has variable geometry. It has more power than the old 3.4-litre 321bhp/273lb ft Cayman S and so is a bit quicker (0–62mph in 4.6secs for the 6spd manual, where the old one took 5.0secs). Fuel economy is claimed…

Chances are you’ve heard of Bristol Cars, but don’t quite know why. We like to think of it as the industry’s weird uncle – an interesting backstory but a bit too odd to spend any time with. However, after a financial hiccup in 2011, Bristol is back and riding alongside TVR in a resurgence for Britain’s cottage sports-car industry. Its new weapon is the Bullet – an idea born when the new owners “discovered a speedster, neglected and ignored under a dusty tarpaulin in its old factory”. Bristol is calling the Bullet a 70th anniversary present to itself, and, true to form, it’s quite unlike anything else on the road. With its startled expression, many round headlights and fins at the rear, it channels a retro vibe, but the hardware…

What is it? With all the hoo-ha going on around the new Shelby Mustang GT350 – and the unseemly rush to sell an internal organ to buy the hallowed, redbadged R version – you could reasonably ask: why? Part of the reason – a big part – is that the new 8,500rpm-red-lined V8-powered pony car is one of the best things to happen to Ford’s line-up in a long time. But another chunk of the hysteria is being caused by the fact that the new car is a modern interpretation of the raucous 1965 Shelby GT350. What’s that got to do with this car? The problem with old cars – even gorgeous classics – is that they, even being kind, drive terribly. They don’t steer, stop, handle or anything else…

How much trust do you place in a car’s on-board technology? Lamborghini drivers do so perhaps more than most, able to deploy 600, maybe 700bhp with unthinking ease, what with their super-wedge’s adaptive all-wheel drive, telepathic paddleshift transmissions and wally-proof traction control. Justin Bieber has owned several, after all. Would Master Bieber, or anyone, for that matter, trust their supercar’s tech enough to drive one without windows, though? That’s the idea of this rendered LV-426 concept, dreamt up by Polish design whizz Tomasz Prygiel. Instead of a conventional windscreen, Prygiel has imagined a future Lambo that uses a fleet of cameras to broadcast an image of your immediate environment inside, rather than simply looking through a pane of glass. With no blind spots, wipers and risk of pointy shrapnel coming…

Nothing keeps out the smell of the peasantry like a Mercedes-Maybach Pullman. Not only are you sealed off from the world behind privacy glass and curtains; you can even silence the butler with the electrically operated partition between the driver’s quarters and the “club lounge” in which you’re reclining at precisely 43.5° – the preferred posture of the world’s highest rankers. In short – or rather, long – it’s a 6.5-metre super-limo with a 5.9-litre, twin-turbo V12 making 522bhp, which is a sufficient amount of poke, should Jeeves be feeling frisky. It’s a full metre longer than a regular stretched S-Class, so there’s plenty of legroom, so long as you’re happy sitting scissor-legged with the person opposite. If you can’t bear that sort of physical contact, simply delete the fold-down,…

What do they do? Wind defectors or draught-stops keep your barnet in check by reducing the turbulence you’d normally experience driving an open-top car at speed. If you’re follically challenged, move right along because this doesn’t concern you. I don’t have a PhD... Us neither, but the basic principle is simple enough. High-pressure air rushing over the top of the windscreen meets the low-pressure air already swirling about in the cabin. This creates a kind of vortex, which effectively reverses the airflow and blows your hair forwards towards the dashboard, all over your face. Not ideal. How do those flimsy things help? A screen erected behind the front seats (or in a four-seater, the rear seats) mostly stops that air, which has been whipped around, from hitting you in the…

Two weeks after the likes of Porsche, Audi and still-sobbing Toyota roll out of Le Mans in their clinically clean team trucks, an army of old-timers arrives to party like it’s, well, anywhere between 1923 and 1993, actually. Le Mans Classic welcomes everything from pre-war Bugattis and Blower Bentleys to D-types, GT40s and sublime, howling Group C monsters, racing in chronological categories through day and night. And we do mean racing. It’s as evocative as sport gets, the air thick with leaded fumes and grids worth more than an RBS bailout careening around with legends like Derek Bell and Andy Wallace at the wheel. Honestly, it makes the Goodwood Revival look like a fancy-dress garden party, and word is spreading. In 2014, 53,000 people attended. 2016? Try 120,000 people, sweltering…

I was off to Gatwick Airport in a Mercedes-Benz E-Class. I’ll look like an UberEXEC, I thought. I mentioned this to a mate who, among other jobs, has done a bit of Uber driving. He said, “Just wear a tie, drive really badly and you’ll fit right in.” Well, I had the rubbishdriving bit covered, because this particular E was optioned up with all Mercedes’ semi-autonomous technology. It’s seriously maladroit, but then again I’ve tried the rival systems including Tesla’s. They all labour under the same deficiencies. I know it takes time to acclimatise to sharing the driving with such a system, so I used the E-Class for a week on the main routes through London and on motorways. I began the trial determined to be openminded and receptive. I…

“Bad decisions make good stories.” A wise man once told me that. Well, I say wise, it was actually Rowan Horncastle somewhere in the back end of Romania after several pints of Plop, or whatever the local lager was called. I shan’t elaborate on where the evening took us from there, but the point is this: if there’s even a shred of truth in Rowan’s mantra, then this story was destined to be a winner from the start. Why? Because it began with a very poor decision indeed. “Wouldn’t it be cool if we drove the DB11 to Athens?” an overly enthusiastic member of the TG team proposed. Really? When for £100 easyJet will fold you into an orange tube and have you there in less than four hours? A…

Supercar ownership or becoming an astronaut? Not a question many of us will have to grapple with, but for those with the disposable income to buy a serious toy, Virgin Galactic is offering an even more extreme way to spend your hard earned... Sure, having a 488, 650S or Huracán on the drive would open up a boundless set of opportunities for four-wheeled adventure. But how about trading all that to explore space? Driving at 200mph is all well and good, but 3,000mph buys you more bragging equity at the bar. Being able to say you’ve (almost) slipped the bounds of the planet, travelled at Mach 4, spent five minutes weightless while staring at Earth from a perspective that, until now, has been the preserve of 536 people, is a…

WE SAY: THE SMART BRABUS IS BACK. TROUBLE IS, IT’S NOT WHAT WE WERE HOPING FOR There’s one number associated with the new Smart Brabus ForFour we cannot ignore. Not the power output, increased to 107bhp; not the 20 per cent firmer suspension nor the 40 per cent more responsive automatic gearbox. It’s the whopping pile of cash that’s needed to buy this thing, estimated at about £18,000. Unload your savings at a Ford dealer and they’ll hand you over a shiny new Fiesta ST. All 179bhp of it, and throw in a permanent grin for free. The Smart ForFour counters with much lower running costs, a tiny, city-friendly footprint and a turning circle you’d struggle to better with a shopping trolley. But the standard ForFour offers all that; what’s…

WE SAY: JAPAN BASES ITS BRIT SPORTS CAR ON THE ONE THAT RENDERED BRIT SPORTS CARS REDUNDANT Perhaps you desire a Jag XK120 but recoil at the cost. Maybe you’d like a Morgan but are allergic to wood. Clearly then, what you need is for a Japanese outfit no one’s really heard of to chop a last-gen Mazda MX-5 clean in half just ahead of the windscreen, insert a 70cm length of new chassis, and cloak the resulting phallic chassis in fibreglass panels which doff their kasa to Britain’s finest classic sports cars. Actually, it’s difficult to think of anyone who needs a Mitsuoka Roadster. Not when the cost for this elongated MX-5 – still complete with its standard 158bhp 2.0-litre drivetrain and a grey plastic cabin left as Mazda…

True enough, the rivalry with Ferrari doesn't have quite the same bite today that it did back in 1966. Ford's remarkable victory in France last month still came after a race long battle with the Italian manufacturer, but 50 years ago it was a rather more personal affair. After agreeing to sell his company to the American car giant, Enzo Ferrari backed out of the deal at the 11th hour, enraging Ford and prompting them to build a car with the sole purpose of beating Ferrari at Le Mans. T at car was the original Ford GT, and the Americans pulled it of in style. In1966, the team finished first, second and third in France, creating one of racing's truly legendary stories in the process. THE CAR Fast forward half…

In this job, it pays to be impartial. You need to approach new cars with an open mind, untainted by allegiances or grudges. Yet sometimes emotion takes hold. As I walk around the Caterham that never was – codename C120 – I can’t help but echo some of my hosts’ melancholy. How cool would it have been for this to have been put into production? To tell this car’s story, we need to wind back the clock to 2012. Caterham chairman Tony Fernandes brokered a deal with Renault to team up on a new sports car: a mid-engined, rearwheel-drive, two-seat coupe which would simultaneously bring back the Alpine badge and give the venerable Seven a stablemate. The cars would share architecture and componentry – their DNA around 85 per cent…

FOCUS RS MKI Engine: 1988cc, 4cyl turbo, 212bhp @ 5500rpm, 229lb ft @ 3500rpm Performance: 0–62mph in 6.7secs, 144mph Transmission: 5spd manual, FWD Economy: 27.9mpg, 237g/km CO2 Weight: 1278kg L x W: 4183mm x 1762mm FOCUS RS MKIII Engine: 2261cc, 4cyl turbo, 345bhp @ 6000rpm, 347lb ft @ 2000rpm (on overboost) Performance: 0–62mph in 4.7secs, 165mph Transmission: 6spd manual, AWD Economy: 36.7mpg, 175g/km CO2 Weight: 1599kg L x W: 4390mm x 1823mm When Ford first fixed an RS badge to the back of a Focus, I was too young to drive, but I remember the furore. And with my parents’ Focus 1.6 Zetec out on the driveway, I felt sorry for its tricked-up 212bhp relation. I yearned for that halo car to be a blinder. The RS was as divisive…

DRIVE IT: BENTLEY CGT BY SIR PETER BLAKE A one-off created in aid of the Care2Save Charitable Trust by British pop artist Sir Peter Blake, co-creator of the artwork for the Beatles' Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. There's a vast St James' Red heart motif on the bonnet, the doors, wings and boot are St Luke's Blue and the lower body British Racing Green. The grille-surround is Fuchsia Pink, and no two seats are trimmed in the same colour hide. Beneath it all is a standard ContiVoS. Sold for £250,000 at Bonhams' Goodwood Festival of Speed sale, bentleymotors.com READ IT: CARROS DE CUBA BY PIOTR DEGLER Cuba's motoring landscape is the consequence of a decadeslong, now-relaxed trade embargo effectively banning the sale of imported cars. The result is a…

VW CAMPER BED Our Novelty Bed of the Month award goes to this, the Circu ‘Bun Van’, a sleeping pod modelled on an early, split-screen VW Camper. If you want one, you’ll need two things: a bedroom the size of a squash court and a bank balance in five figures. That’s because it’s four metres long, two metres tall and costs 33,000 quid. So it’s the same size as the real thing, it has a fibreglass body, wheels with real tyres, a double-ish-sized bed, a curvedscreen telly and a fridge. But this isn’t a stripped or converted camper, it’s purpose-built, so the dashboard is a desk, the driver’s seat is a padded chair, and the whole interior is lined with a rosewood veneer. £33,000; circu.net ANKI COZMO They say that…

On 5 September 1909, the Eduard Bohlen ran aground on a sandbank at Conception Bay on Namibia’s Atlantic coast. In a desperate attempt to dislodge her, the captain reversed the engines, but sand had clogged the cooling system and they seized. All 30 people onboard made it safely to shore, and a tug was summoned from Lüderitz. But in the five days it took to arrive, the sand had welded the Bohlen into position and the chain they threw across snapped. At that point the 2,272 tonne, 310ft freighter that ran supplies from far-off civilisation to the remote diamond camps on this desolate coastline was abandoned to her fate. The Eduard Bohlen was another victim of the Skeleton Coast. For a while, as the sands shifted and the sea withdrew,…

Price/as tested £43,000/£51,499 Model HSE Luxury Driver Owen Norris Why it’s here Is the Discovery Sport the best of both worlds? 1999cc, 4cyl turbodiesel, 4WD, 180bhp, 317lb ft 53.3mpg, 139g/km CO2 0–62mph in 8.9secs, 117mph 1884kg REPORT 7 I’ve decided it’s time to learn some new skills, so I’ve started volunteering at the Epping Ongar Railway near London. I bought the Disco Sport along to see if it could be used to do any of the heavy work they often have to do. Turns out there’s not a great deal a road car can do due to the rather impassable tracks that get in the way. Never mind – it’s a great excuse for a good photo opportunity and a proper steam clean by the very fine-looking Gresley N2 locomotive…

BMW M3 Price £56,505/£64,560 Model M3 Driver Ollie Marriage Why it’s here Which side of the lairy/liveable line does the M3 live on? 2979cc, twin-turbo in-line 6cyl, RWD, 425bhp, 405lb ft 32.1mpg, 232g/km CO2 0–62mph in 4.1secs, 155mph 1560kg I once wrote that the Audi RS6 was the best car I’ve ever run, but now I’m not so sure. That’s how much the M3 has got under my skin. I hadn’t expected that. I hadn’t expected that for a few reasons, chief among them that I’d previously been a bit wary of the fastest 3-Series. The first time I drove an M3, at its international launch, I remember thinking that, keen to counter any criticism of the move to turbocharging, they’d sharpened the chassis to a particularly edgy edge. It…

WE SAY: LATE TO THE PRIUS’S PARTY, HYUNDAI EMBARRASSES THE HOST Some cars are so engrained into our senses as “the one to have in that class”, you can’t imagine why anyone would bother tackling it. Toyota’s Prius annexed the mass-market hybrid territory yonks ago. Hyundai, undeterred, has had a crack at usurping it, and succeeded first time out. That’s not just because the Ioniq Hybrid, unlike the Toyota, has styling viewable pre-watershed. It’s due to fitting a proper dual-clutch ’box, instead of a whining, power-sapping, “I don’t care how hard you press the throttle” CVT. Result? The Ioniq’s combo of 103bhp 4cyl petrol and 45bhp e-motor actually propel the car noticeably, and without fear of tinnitus. All that would be futile if the heavy, complicated gearbox were chewing those…

WE SAY: GLITZY YANK SHOOTS FOR A SHARE OF THE EXEC MARKET A new Caddy for the UK? Yep. The CT6 is a full-size luxury sedan, or – in English – a big, posh saloon. But US car categories are different from ours, so in terms of length it actually lives somewhere between the E-Class and S-Class, or 5-Series and 7-Series. How American is it? Visually it’s up there with a Vegas casino, but it has some European manners. The chassis is split 60/40 between a-loom-inum and steel, there’s active suspension, 4WD and even four-wheel steering. And there’s no V8 – instead, a 3.0-litre, twin-turbo V6. Numbers? 411bhp, 409lb ft, 62mph in 5.7secs and a top whack of 149mph. Does it handle OK? Yes, especially for such a big, long…

WE SAY: ONLY ONE OF THESE TWO UPRATED POCKET ROCKETS IS WORTH £22K... Aren’t these little tykes getting old? The Fiesta’s ancient now and even the ST’s knocking on, but greatness isn’t diluted by age and the Ford’s still the benchmark small fast hatch. For an extra £2,350, 200 grey run-out editions bag you a shorter final drive and a tickle more poke, tweaked suspension and shouty badges. The 208’s four years younger than the Ford and was facelifted last year. Peugeot Sport seized the opportunity to do a 30th Anniversary model dedicated to the 205 GTi. Its front diff, slammed suspension and power boost were a hit, so it’s now a permanent range fixture. Don’t these both have naff cabins? Dated inside? The Fiesta’s practically retro. Materials are pretty…

Citroen promised to add a little C4 Cactus to all its cars, and here’s the first evidence, the new C3. We’re not just talking about the floating roof design, the airbump side protection or the split headlamps, either. It’s about an emphasis on comfort and straightforward good cheer. Citroen boss Linda Jackson told TG: “It’s got the spirit of Cactus, but it’s not something bizarre or strange. We aim to stay mainstream.” It comes as a five-door only, but there’s plenty of decoration choice beyond that. The configurator will have a palette of colours and patterns for several parts – roof, mirrors, plus the bezels on the airbump and fog lamp. In the interior too: the trims for dash, doors and steering wheel are all selectable. The flat seats and…

1 Off-roading is about to go numpty-proof Imagine you’re on a top-level UN peace mission deep in the Guatemalan rainforest...or just in a line of Defenders in a safari park. Using Dedicated Short-Range Comms, a convoy of Land Rovers can constantly “chat” without line of sight, with the lead car warning of a slippery surface, steep gradient or tyre-killing boulder. Other cars’ computers log these observations and set up their 4x4 systems, traction control, ground clearance and so on to tackle the obstacle. 2 You can attack trails flat-out Land Rover already has a gadget called All Terrain Progress Control, a sort-of off-road cruise control designed to maintain a steady pace in the rough. Upping the ante is Terrain Based Speed Adaptation (breathe), which monitors the car’s trajectory, angle and…

Us petrosexuals have been doodling farfetched car designs on the back of beer mats and fag packets for decades. But technology has changed the game. With the help of digital artistry, these fantastical drawings can now be photo-realistic “speculative renders”. They’re now a prominent part of the industry. And have simultaneously opened up our minds and woken up our saliva glands to new possibilities. Problem is, with our new instantaneous lifestyles, no matter how fantastical they are, we want them built now! Take what’s on this page, for example. It’s the Porsche 908/04, a render by some nimble-fingered Photoshoppists that mashes together Porsche’s techy plans within a silhouette of its long-tail heritage. At this point, Porsche’s lawyers would like us to tell you that this has nothing to do with…

The EDDIE JORDAN interview Bernie Ecclestone: “I should have sued you.” I’m very relieved to report Bernie wasn’t talking to me, but to editor-in-chief Charlie Turner. Fourteen years ago, Charlie handed in his notice to Mr Bernard Charles Ecclestone at F1 HQ after six tumultuous months working on his magazine. Today, much to Charlie’s unease, we’re back in the same room (with its eclectic melange of art and artefacts, including a supersized bronze of the man himself, a framed broken plate entitled “Let it be” and a World Business Award, presented in 2002 by Mikhail Gorbachev) for me to interview the F1 ringmaster. Luckily as he utters these words he cracks a smile and shakes our hands, but some things never change… At 85, Bernie shows no signs of slowing…

“Although it looks like conceptual eye candy, the DVS is a production car” You need some balls to take a car as beautiful as the Alfa Romeo 8C and junk it. But for Touring’s Disco Volante Spyder to live, that’s what has to happen. Under a scorching Tuscan sun, on a corner of the Passo della Futa that would have thrilled to the sight and sound of the Mille Miglia back in the day, Touring’s design boss Louis de Fabribeckers muses on this act of sacrilege. Behind him sits his masterpiece, metal pinging and zinging after a spirited drive. (The DVS is no gelded show pony.) “Actually we’ve proposed to our clients that they put the 8C’s body on a jig and display it as a sculpture,” he says. “I…

Stanfords, the world’s best cartographic shop, deals me a pre-flight downer. Maps and guides to Iceland are to be found on its “Europe” floor. I wanted it to be more exotic than that. At least another continent. Well, now, having sampled the whole thing in one headlong day, I can report it’s another world. Several other worlds actually. The original plan was to circumnavigate the country by its Route 1 ring road, departing Reykjavik at sunrise on the longest day of the the year and getting back by sunset. That’s 21 hours at this near-Arctic latitude. Most guidebooks say you should take a week, minimum. Any old how, the morning before we set off, we learned the country’s greatest band Sigur Rós was doing the same route in the opposite…

T he Matra Murena died in 1983 meaning that fans of three-abreast front seating had nothing to waste their money on, until the arrival of the Fiat Multipla some 15 years later. And when it did turn up, a long-overdue replacement for the original (and unbelievably cute) 600 Multipla of 1956, everyone promptly forgot the two-rows-of-three layout as they were too busy gawping at the thing. The ugliness of the Multipla trod that fine line the Ford Scorpio so notably failed to – people felt sorry for it. Didn’t mean they bought it, of course, but they did point. And often roared with laughter. Lots of little round headlights dotted the front end, and it appeared to have had the glassy superstructure of a Popemobile plonked onto the lower body…