Innholdsfortegnelse for May 2019 i BBC Top Gear Magazine

@TopGearEditor editor@bbctopgearmagazine.com Electric beats petrol. As headlines go, those three words carry huge significance, an impact I’m well aware is amplified when placed on the cover of the world’s largest monthly car magazine. It’s clearly a controversial statement but, such is the pace of change in our world, that a claim that only a matter of years ago would have been fanciful is now a reality. While electric cars have beaten their traditional combustion-powered rivals in a number of key parameters since their inception, no EV has delivered pure driving thrills to match the heartland performance-car heroes. So when Elon tweeted that the “dual-motor, all-wheel-drive performance Model 3… will beat anything in its class on the track”, we felt duty-bound to go and test the claim. The results will surprise…

BRITAIN IS FULL OF SWEARY MARYS Road rage special! Glaswegians are the UK’s biggest potty mouths, with 53 per cent admitting to traffic Tourette’s, closely followed by Bristolians and Brummies. Cardiff is the goody two shoes – just nine per cent of drivers admitted to cursing on the road. Lying bastards.…

01 MICK SCHUMACHER The 20-year-old son of Michael has announced himself at the top level – going second fastest in Bahrain in his first outing as a Ferrari F1 test driver. Chip off the old block. 02 BLOODHOUND IS BACK The mission to go beyond 1,000mph is back! To celebrate, Bloodhound’s had a makeover. Credit to entrepreneur Ian Warhurst, who’s saved the project with his own beer money. 03 LOTUS TYPE 130 No, not a slow-motion sneeze, but a cryptic glimpse of Lotus’ first all-new car since 2008. An electric hypercar, no less, it’ll be revealed in London later this year. 04 ARES PANTHER Ares’ 610bhp Huracán-based homage to the DeTomaso Pantera has finally shed its camo, and it looks as good as we hoped it would. Seven sold, 10 left. Chop, chop. 05 ASTON…

£30,950 1.2 3cyl turbo 130 bhp 8spd auto 9.2 secs 42.2 mpg 115 g/km FOR Decent dynamics and strong comfort, cabin design dares to be different AGAINST Once you get the kit you need, it starts becoming pricey, lack of visibility in the back 7/10 “IT’S A BIT BLINGY, BUT YOU MIGHT FIND IT REFRESHINGLY DISTINCTIVE” One look at the DS 3 Crossback tells you that it’s no replacement for the DS 3. Indeed that little hatch, an old fave around here, lives on for a while. But the big picture is that three-door supermini sales are wilting as small crossovers rage across their turf. While the bigger DS 7 Crossback wears conservative sheet metal, the little 3 rocks a freestyle shape. The surfaces are rippled, the openings florid. Family…

£18,580 1.0 3cyl turbo 112 bhp 6spd man 9.8 secs 47.0 mpg 113 g/km FOR Inoffensive, quality midsized hatchback for small hatchback money AGAINST Excessive optioning misses the point. Conservative Scala is the best Scala 6/10 “IT’S TARGETING THE LESS SEXY END OF ONE-STOP-SHOP FAMILY CAR” Just what the world needed; another mid-sized hatchback. This time spun intricately by Skoda from the A0 (think Polo) subset of endless carmaking Lego that is the VAG MQB platform, aiming once again at the practical end of the market. It’s called the Scala. Mind you, this makes sense for Skoda, because the Scala slips neatly into the gap left between Fabia (small hatch) and Octavia (big hatch/saloon/estate). Gap, plugged. It’s targeting the less sexy end of one-stop-shop family car, so think Ford Focus,…

£41,005 2.0 4cyl turbo 296 bhp 8spd auto 5.7 secs 33.6 mpg 168 g/km FOR Quiet and comfy yet brilliant fun to drive. Lots of new tech to play with AGAINST Adults will be squeezed in the back, no estate version 7/10 The Jaguar XE launched four years ago to great fanfare and huge praise, and proceeded to sell a mere fraction of what its big three German foes do. Thus there are a few changes for the facelift, to right some of its predecessor’s wrongs. First up, sharpening its appearance, important when a whole new Alfa Romeo has since joined the class. While the XE still looks familiar, neater lights, reshaped bumpers and an optional lip spoiler have turned it into a fantastically handsome thing. Next, a wealth of…

1.Wheel of fortune Each ‘hollow core’ carbon wheel takes around 40 hours to complete. Caution: this man hasn’t slept in days 2.Bake off Autoclave used for curing vacuum-bagged carbon parts. Around 30 mins at 180 should do it, 35 mins if you like it crispy 3.Mind the gap Before painting, panel fit is checked on a wooden buck, stripes – worth 50bhp a piece – are marked out for painting later 6.The marriage V8 engine, direct-drive gearbox, battery pack, high-voltage cables. Some of these things could be in this picture – it’s hard to tell 5.Spaghetti junction Either this man is figuring out CvK’s new surround-sound home cinema system, or the Regera has a lot of wiring 4.The engine room Exclusive spy shots of Koenigsegg’s next-gen, raised ‘trolley’ architecture caused…

Four cars that only exist in the virtual world Chevrolet Chaparral 2X 240mph, 900bhp, 0–60mph in 1.5secs. A frickin’ 671kW laser. There’s even a life-size model. The best Vision GT by far New/old Toyota Supra All the new Supra’s missing is a little more MkIV. Thanks to the spoiler and offset exhaust in this pic, now it has it Yasid Design Tyrell Here’s an idea for jazzing up F1 – a grid of monster six-wheel, pickup-based, Tyrell tributes. Too extreme? The Grumobile – Despicable Me Armour-plated, rocket-powered and as high as a house. This is where the super SUV will lead us…

TG RUNS A YOUNGTIMER 306 RALLYE: PART 1 HELP THE AGED 2.0 4cyl n/a 167 bhp 6spd man 7.8 secs 30 mpg n/a g/km The barn find: unearthing an old car from a shed or lock-up. People get very excited about this, but it’s not exactly difficult. I mean look what I found – a 20-year-old, 88,000-mile Peugeot 306 Rallye that had lain undisturbed in a garage for several years. To be fair, I thought I was going to find it in the lock-up next door. That’s where I remember parking it. T916 JKP is my embarrassment and now I’m giving it an airing. God knows it needs it – when I opened the door and reached inside to check for cobwebs and run my hands over things, I’d forgotten it…

REPORT 2 £34,410/£44,055/£433 WHY IT’S HERE We loved our XC40, but is the wagon better to live with? DRIVER Adam Waddell LOOKING AT THE SPEC SHEET FOR our long-term V60 test car, I noticed a £745 option called ‘Polestar Engineered Optimisation’. Having not the slightest clue what this might mean, I started digging. Polestar has run Volvo motorsport programmes since 1996, was bought outright by the company in 2015 and has more recently launched as a standalone electric performance brand. However, you can still have Polestar breathe on your Volvo, either at the factory or later on at a dealer where the software upgrade takes an hour. What you get for your £750 is an extra 10bhp, better throttle response and faster gearshifts, all of which kick in when you…

Stephen Dobie: I’ve just spent the weekend in this Suzuki Swift Sport you moan so incessantly about. I really like it. In fact, I think it’s pretty mega. Ollie Kew: Are you feeling alright? What exactly was it about the character-vacuum engine, clunky gearchange, saggy yet brittle damping and steering inspired by an Alfa Romeo 4C on remoulds that did it for you? SD: Wrong on every count, Kew. It doesn’t suffer engine character or steering feel issues any more readily than the bulk of its contemporary rivals. And I can only assume you’re benchmarking the gearshift against a Honda S2000… or an open-gate Ferrari F355 Challenge. There’s nowt wrong with it.…

Adam Waddell: Keyless entry is great but I do like to press a button to lock and unlock my car. In this respect, the Kia Stinger has a great key. It’s very clear which buttons you press to lock and unlock – and the lock button makes the ten year old in me feel like I’m releasing a depth charge every time I press it. The Volvo key however is a case of design over function – the buttons are small and indistinguishable, with the lock and unlock icons so tiny that they are illegible to anyone over 40 – like most Volvo owners, I imagine. Yes, the key looks sleek but I’m forever pressing lock when I want to unlock and vice versa, which is starting to grate a…

FACTOID 1900 THE EV’S HEYDAY 28 per cent of cars produced in the US, and a third of those on NY roads, are electric… outnumbered only by disgruntled horses MYTH BUSTER Debunking EV folk tales, one at a time “YOU CAN’T TAKE A EV THROUGH A CAR WASH… THE BATTERIES WILL CATCH FIRE” We all know electricity and water don’t mix. You wouldn’t take a hair dryer into the bath, so you should never take an electric car through a car wash – you should only clean it gently with a soft, damp, lint-free cloth… only kidding. Electric carmakers have thought of this – everything high-voltage is thoroughly waterproofed. Of course, you can use an automatic car wash, or a bucket and sponge if you’re so inclined. Even a jet…

The speed limiter debate puts anyone who loves driving in a difficult position. If you stick your head above the parapet and suggest you think the European authorities have made a terrible decision, you find yourself in a tricky place: justifying lawless activity. I find that problematic, as I am a law-abiding citizen. So perhaps the speed limiter debate – whether cars should have them fitted or not – is actually the wrong conversation. If speed limits were more reasonable in appropriate locations, then people wouldn’t feel so aggrieved. Is there any law more regularly flouted than the UK motorway speed limit? No. A good percentage of British citizens criminalise themselves daily, to the extent that you have to question the veracity of the law. If enough people ignore it…

I’m driving a prototype of a car that’s on sale late 2019. It moves with liquid smoothness at town speeds, and zaps off the line without fuss or torque steer. At higher speed, it’s still instantly reactive, but power ebbs off, and it’s fighting a 300kg weight gain over the petrol car. The stats: 136bhp, a 50kWh battery, 200-mile range WLTP, half-an-hour to charge to 80 per cent on 100kW. Heat-pump climate control should help meet the range target whatever the weather. The battery is shaped to fit where there’s space vacated by absent combustion-engine stuff: under the front seats, in the exhaust tunnel, in place of the fuel tank. Legroom is unaffected and the boot intact. Space and performance match the petrol one. Cost to own one does too…

Audi S3 You want a five-door VW Group hatch? Have one with a posher badge. And four-wheel drive. And 300bhp. £19k buys a 48k-miler… Range Rover TDV8 OK, you need more space. Well, here’s a 2013 in dodgy salesman black for £19k with only 106k on the dial. Hmm. Need something faster? BMW M5 V10 One of the all-time maddest super-saloons, then. And thanks to 5mpg thirst and mechanicals made of chocolate, £19k buys a minter Cadillac Escalade But what if you, erm, really want a car with’Scala’ in the name? Well, allow us to point you towards a 6.2 V8 Yank tank. It’s even got a fridge…

JUST A WEEK BEFORE HIS FIRST-EVER FORMULA ONE GRAND PRIX, on a blustery roof terrace above London’s Trafalgar Square, 19-year-old F1 rookie Lando Norris already had the world at his feet. Now, after a storming start to the season, it’s in palm of his hand too. But even he might not have seen that one coming… TG: HI LANDO. SO, WHEN DID YOU START WATCHING F1? LN: I must have been around six or seven. It was around 2005. I remember it more when Lewis joined McLaren, and the Alonso versus Hamilton season. Those are the first few races of Formula One that I can remember. I mean before that, when I was even younger, I actually wasn’t so interested in Formula One. I was much more into MotoGP and…

Flights Atlantic Airways does flights to Vágar (the only airport) in the Faroes twice a week from March to December, and the flight takes about an hour, for roughly £220 return. Transport You can hire a car at Vágar, but they aren’t cheap – a 24hr rental of a Kia Rio is around £105, so better to stick to the island tours (of which there are many). You’ll get more info that way as well. If you want to take your own car, Smyril Line ferries sail all year from about £240 from Denmark. Accommodation We stayed in the Hotel Føroyar just above Tórshavn, cost around £87 per room for two sharing, depending on the time of year, or whether there’s one of the excellent music festivals going on at…

“WHAT IS THAT GRILLE COMPENSATING FOR, APART FROM THE PIGGY LIGHTS?” Paul Horrell We’ve been here before, so perhaps history can teach us. The 2001 BMW 7-Series threw our world into spasm. Its jowly face, slabby sides and grotesquely stepped rear stopped everyone in their tracks. Anyone who got behind the wheel found themselves faced with the first iDrive and its brutally hostile learning curve. Controlled by just the selector wheel and no shortcut buttons at all, it was a rabbit warren of fathomless menu hierarchies. Now BMW is making another audacious move, with a new face at the top of its range. And what a face! It’s like those people you see emerging from the first-class lounges as they fly between Nice and Geneva, Malaga and Frankfurt. Orange-tanned skin…

REPORT 4 £43,295/£44,485/£528 WHY IT’S HERE It’s a ‘premium SUV’ from a value brand. Still need a Disco? DRIVER Andy Franklin WITH THE EU ANNOUNCING A whole new raft of permanent safety regulations for new cars from 2021, it got me thinking about how the lane departure on the Santa Fe is quite annoying. I’ve found on occasion that it can pull the steering wheel when on narrow country lanes, presumably getting confused by ridges in the side of the road being lines. So, every time I drive it, I have to press the button to disable it. So far, I can’t find a way to disable it permanently. If it didn’t come as standard, I think I definitely wouldn’t tick it in the options list. Yet in the same…

What we’re watching/listening/doing, while we should be working Formula 1: Drive to Survive We’re streaming this Netflix series about 2018’s ups & downs – “It makes F1 way more enjoyable”. SPOILER ALERT! May contain swearing from Haas Six-hour Britpop playlist It’s spring… Wake up Boo! Foals – Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost Part 1 The Brit guitar band’s new album has been getting us in the mood for going to press This Time with Alan Partridge Alan’s back at the Beeb! The series will have finished by now, but that won’t stop us watching endless repeats on BBC iPlayer Off Menu with Ed Gamble and James Acaster podcast Who knew food could be this funny?…

“I STILL GET NOSTALGIC WHEN I SEE OLD MICRAS ON THE ROAD” We definitely didn’t have a standard family car while I was growing up. It was a miniscule Honda Acty camper van that my dad, who’s a vet, had converted into an animal ambulance. I have two sisters, so there were three children, two golden retrievers and an African grey parrot to carry around. We all sat in the back around the operating table and played Monopoly. It was noisy and there were often bits of different animals splattered around in it or oxygen bottles on the floor, but it was great – we’d go on trips to France and travel down to Sussex at weekends. It even had a green flashing light on the top. We had that…

SHOULD I CARE? Probably not, but we’ll plough on. This is Hyundai’s vision of a future that involves replacing the majority of physical buttons with vast touch displays on the steering wheel. SHOULD I BE SCARED? If you’re easily distracted, yes. You can adjust the volume, make and answer calls, listen to messages and cycle through the menu system on the instrument display in front of you, all by tapping away at the screens. SHOULD I TELL MY FRIENDS? Depends whether you value their friendship? We all like a bit of car chat, but this might be a bit niche for your local. SHOULD I SPEND M Y MONEY? Not any time soon. The system still needs a lot of work before it’s ready for public use, but secret customer…

Britain’s global influence may be receding faster than Prince William’s hairline, but at least we’re still world leaders in one automotive sector. Potholes. Big ones, small ones, some the size of your head – when it comes to potholes, we’ve got it nailed. Last year, according to a recent RAC study, motorists reported over 500,000 potholes to local authorities. That’s a rise of 44 per cent since 2015, though it’s unclear whether that’s because our roads are getting worse, or simply because Simon at Daventry Council HQ is finally bothering to answer all those calls to the Pothole Complaints Department hotline. (Who are these people? For most of us, surely, clanging a pothole is like leaving the barber with the exact opposite haircut of the one you asked for: inevitable,…

£31,835 1.8 4cyl turbo 296 bhp 6spd man 5.7 secs 34.4 mpg 183 g/km FOR Crisper, much improved 1.8-litre engine, huge grip and suspension control AGAINST As a road car it’s too stiff and the four-wheel-steering integration is flawed 6/10 We’ve pretty much driven this car already. The Trophy is the hardcore version of the RenaultSport Megane, but its suspension is carried directly over from the Cup chassis you could already option on the standard car. There, it’s a £1,500 option (which includes Torsen limited-slip diff, red brake calipers and hydraulic bump stops as well as stiffer springs, dampers and anti-roll bars), while the Trophy costs £4,000 more. You get more stuff, obviously: unique (and dubious) 19in wheels, sports exhaust, grooved bi-material brake discs, the RenaultSport performance monitor, a leather/Alcantara…

£252,765 3.9 V8 bi-turbo 710 bhp 7spd auto 2.85 secs 24.6 mpg 263 g/km FOR Just like the Pista Coupe, but with a neat folding top. Now with added vitamin D AGAINST Some may see the Coupe as more ‘pure’, but there are few compromises here 9/10 “A BLAST IN A PISTA SPIDER ON A SUNNY DAY WILL REMIND YOU WHAT’S GOOD ABOUT LIFE” Let’s get straight to the point: the Pista Spider is exactly the same as the Pista Coupe in most respects. It’s got the same ballistic, race-derived 710bhp engine, the same complicated set of e-diffs and electronic managers, the same joyously technical weave of aerodynamics and the same uncanny ability to make you worry you may actually swallow your tongue under full-bore acceleration. Depending on the position…

£26,975 1.3 4cyl turbo 136 bhp 7spd auto 9.0 secs 47.1 mpg 125 g/km THERE AREN’T MANY CARS THAT ARE ACTIVELY obstructive, with drivetrains that require you to adapt your driving style beyond what is normal or indeed acceptable. The Mercedes B180 is one of them. The problem is the gearbox. A left-over from the old A/B/CLA/GLA range, the 7spd DCT was those cars’ weak point. And though Merc claims it’s been revised for this new gen of small cars, it still isn’t great. There’s lag when you pull away, which is annoying at junctions. And when the car does move, you lurch into the road with the elegance of a learner on a first lesson. The revs flare, then hang at 4,000rpm for a mite too long before the…

Remember his musings on Catherine the Great shagging a horse? A personal fave. Or his April fool joke claiming his (publicly listed) car company had gone totally bankrupt? Then there was the whole ‘paedo’ debacle… that was a low point. Elon Musk’s Twitter feed is wildly unpredictable at best and a catalogue of PR blunders at worst. It’s also indicative of a man with a limited set of social skills. I was three-back for his keynote at the Model Y reveal last month and witnessed some moves that made the Maybot look like a slickly choreographed routine. Don’t get me wrong – Tesla’s decade-long journey he was recounting was enthralling, but the delivery was more than a bit #accidentalpartridge. I digress. Our mission here is to salvage some sanity from…

Around F1 for 20 years (a large part of which as Jenson Button’s fitness guru), now head of McLaren’s Human Performance Centre, Collier’s helping to shape the next generation of drivers, who could be even sharper than the current batch “To come into a sport – whether it’s on a pitch, a field or a track – at a young age is more and more common, especially with the support mechanisms that weren’t there 30 years ago. With our new DNA programme, for example, we’re getting young karters to understand the basics of engineering and car set-up, so that when they get into a single-seater for the first time they understand what it should feel like and how they communicate that. We all know that the great F1 drivers were…

There exists a simple formula for calculating the theoretical amount of power you require to hit a certain top speed for a car with a given drag coefficient and frontal area. It’s fascinating stuff, honestly, but I shan’t put us through it here. Ten quid says John Hennessey has it tattooed on the back of his eyelids, though. Because when it comes to his ongoing, road-legal 300mph project – the Venom F5 – you get the sense he’s designed something that looks cool and slippery, then cranked up the turbo boost until his calculator says the top speed is sufficiently large. After spending a day with Christian von Koenigsegg (CvK), touring his factory in Ängelholm, Sweden and exploring the all-new Jesko hypercar (literally hours before it was packed off to…

TG Hi Adrian, we need to talk about grilles… AvH Of course people have talked about the size of the grille, but if you look at our history, we’ve had even taller grilles. Narrow, tall, wide – we’ve had it all. In this model generation we can offer a bit more variety in the size of the grilles, but the grille has to be in proportion to the size of the vehicle. And I think it is. The whole front end is designed in a very precise manner: thin headlamps, tall grille and a not overly aggressive bumper. It is no bigger or taller than a Range Rover or GLS. TG How hard is it to transfer BMW design cues to a car the X7’s size? AvH It’s a challenge…

1933 FIRST PURPOSE-BUILT IN-CAR RADIO Galvin Manufacturing Corp’s $130 Motorola radio was compatible with most cars 1955 FIRST IN-CAR RECORD PLAYER. KINDA Chrysler’s Highway Hi-Fi only played proprietary 7in records… was thus a fairly spectacular failure 1965 FIRST 8-TRACK Ford Mustang was the first car with a factory-fitted in-dash 8-track tape player 1985 FIRST FACTORY-FITTED CD PLAYER Pioneer released first in-car CD player, but Mercs were first to get factory-fitted head-units 2011 BYE-BYE CASSETTES… The last new car with a tape player – the Ford Crown Victoria – went out of production 2014 … AND HELLO CARPLAY Ferrari FF: first car with the full version of Apple CarPlay. Digital formats replace CD players…

LESS THAN £5K SKODA OCTAVIA vRS (2007) Price Now: £3,500 Harris says: Alright, it looks a bit like a minicab. And it has 136,000 miles, so it might actually have been a minicab. But it basically has a Golf GTI’s turbo engine, and an eminently tunable one, at that. LESS THAN £10K VOLVO 850 T5R (1995) Price Now: £7,000 Harris says: It doesn’t put 240bhp through its front wheels anything like a modern hot hatch can, but its five-cylinder turbo sounds mega and there was a British Touring Car version, too. YouTube it. LESS THAN £20K MERCEDES C63 AMG ESTATE (2008) Price Now: £17,000 Harris says: One of the last AMGs to use a naturally aspirated engine, and what an engine. It’s worth most of the price alone, so all…

REPORT 4 FORD FIESTA ST-3 The Fiesta is a small car. But even so, its door mirrors are absolutely diddy. But they work remarkably well – unlike the Tesla Model 3 that I drove recently drove, where the bigger wing mirrors were useless. Actually, the overall visibility in the Fiesta ST is brilliant – allowing you to zip around pretty much everywhere in confidence you’re not going to clatter an alloy. RH REPORT 3 MERCEDES-AMG G63 It doesn’t make a bit of difference if you’ve got three diff locks and 577bhp… if you haven’t got the correct tyres you’re not going anywhere. That’s why the G63 has lost its Pirelli Scorpion Zero Asimmetrico tyres and got some Goodyear winters ahead of a trip to the Alps. Hopefully, it’s now less…

REPORT 7 £39,500/£39,500/£331 WHY IT’S HERE The grant is gone. What’s left to recommend the Outlander? DRIVER Sam Philip I GRANT IT’S A NICHE PURSUIT, BUT if you, like me, enjoy driving your car into the middle of a big field, better to appreciate the majesty of nature and so forth, the Outlander PHEV is very much the car for you. Yes, there are plenty of 4x4s out there that’ll pick their way across a muddy meadow (with appropriate permissions from the landowner, obvs), but many fewer that’ll do it in silky electric silence. A rowling V8 may be all very well when you’re giving it Maximum Beans on a Challenging B-Road. But if you wish to luxuriate in the gentle sounds and dungy smells of the great outdoors, without…

Dura Garage Interiors Clear your garage from clutter, and transform this space into every petrolhead’s dream – showcasing your pride and joy! Dura design and install beautifully organised garage interiors – with modular cabinets for general storage, a ‘clip-on’ wall system for bulkier items, plus luxurious floor tiles and lighting to complete the room. For a FREE brochure call 0845 371 0041 or visit our website for inspiration! duragarages.com The Knife Sharpener Guy The Knife Sharpener Guy sells the World’s BEST knife sharpener. Customers are now seeing the exciting new range of colours including Iridescent, Purple, Copper, Brass and Wolfram and these are proving to be our best sellers. Check out the website to find the ideal gift, but be aware you’ll want to treat yourself first. theknifesharpenerguy.co.uk The Boutique…

WHAT: AN ARREST WHERE: INGLEWOOD, USA That unpaid parking ticket finally catching up with Rowan. We joke! But still, proof the BBC only puts us up in the very safest parts of town WHAT: FAST FOOD WHERE: SUSSEX, UK Waiter! Waiter! There’s a large lump of cheap-looking plastic in my chips! The only way to make your ploughman’s lunch Insta-ready WHAT: JACK’S LEGS WHERE: ÄNGELHOLM, SWEDEN Visit Koenigsegg’s factory and you’ll be asked to wear special trousers that don’t scratch the cars. Also useful after a high-speed run in the Regera… WHO: TOM FORD AND FRIENDS WHERE: MARANELLO, ITALY To the family who gave up hours of their Italian holiday to help Wookie do tracking photographs of the Pista, TopGear salutes you. Thanks guys WHAT: A BAG AKA ‘THE WORM’…