Innholdsfortegnelse for December 2016 i BBC Top Gear Magazine

As a reader of this magazine, it’s fair to assume you (just like everyone in this office) will have spent a disproportionate amount of time finessing a dream garage in your head, defining those cars that would create your perfect collection, then tearing it all up and starting again. How many hours have we spent collectively kicking around different scenarios of “what ifs”? For some, the dream garage conversation is the starting point for a lifelong mission to turn a conversation into reality; for others, a good excuse to have another conversation about cars and dream a little bigger. And that’s the joy of the dream garage – it doesn’t actually have to be rooted in reality or constrained by your actual bank account. The possibilities and parameters are endless.…

Audi R8 Spyder £129,990 approx. WE SAY: DROP-TOP AUDI R8 LOSES A LITTLE FOCUS, BUT EARS GAIN MUCH PLEASURE The noise. That’s what convertible supercars are all about, right? Because in all other areas they’re a compromise: slower, more expensive, not as sharp to drive. The all-new, second-generation Audi R8 Spyder – with its 197mph top speed and near-£130,000 pricetag, £11k more than a coupe – is at least two of those things. But naturally, with a large capacity V10 engine shorn of any turbochargers, it’ll fill your lugs with as much noise as they can bear when the roof is stowed. With the R8 (and its Lambo Huracán cousin) among a diminishing group of nat-asp supercars, it makes one of the greatest sounds in the business. Extend each gear…

Isuzu D-Max Arctic Trucks AT35 £34,499 WE SAY: NOW THE DEFENDER IS NO MORE, IS THIS THE RUGGED OFF-ROADER? Want a slice of Icelandic motoring but live in Ipswich? Well, we’ve got just the thing for you. It’s the Isuzu D-Max Arctic Trucks AT35. A one-tonne pickup that’s gone to the gym, thanks to Icelandic off-road specialists Arctic Trucks. Offered in two flavours – an extended cab (from £30,999), or a four-door double cab (from £33,499) – it’s around £7k more expensive than standard. But for your money you get one of the most off-roadcentric, utilitarian consumer production vehicles this side of a Unimog. There’s still the same 2.5-litre, 161bhp, 295lb ft twin-TD engine under the bonnet. But the ride height has been upped by 55mm, and huge 35in Nokian…

BMW X2 The BMW X6 is a sportier, swoopier version of the X5. Ditto the X4 to the X3. And so we come to today’s new microniche, the new BMW Concept X2, which is, as you guessed, a sportier version of the X1. It’ll share a platform with that X1 – which is also used for the 2-Series GT and Mini Countryman – and likely come with all of the X1’s 2.0-litre petrol and diesel-engined offerings, in various power outputs. Looking at the Concept X2’s enormous grille, huge air intakes and “muscular” surfaces, surely an X2 M is on the way... Expect to see the production version – which will carry the same outline, only with less concept garnish – in 2018. Hyundai RN30 Remove the RN30 concept’s butterfly doors,…

Noddy Holder is clearing his lungs, the halls are ripe for decking, which must mean one thing: it's time to give the kids a basic education in the noble art of drifting. Razor's new Crazy Cart Shift has done away with the old model's 'drift bar' (a lever that induced a slide), so to get it sideways you simply turn the wheel and wait for the back end to break loose. Then it's all about steering angles and throttle control, which - when you think about it - is what Christmas is all about. And if there's still room under the tree, don't worry, because McLaren has just launched an all-electric, convertible version of the PI with a top speed of 3mph, for budding billionaires. Oh, and there's a Mercedes…

A new Discovery launched last month, and Land Rover studiously points to a load of visuals it has in common with the 1989 original. There’s a stepped roof. A thick pillar at the aft of the back doors. A domed bonnet. A blacked-out pane above the rear-side windows. The back numberplate is mounted of-centre in the tailgate. Land Rover’s blurb calls this “authentic Discovery design”. What cobblers. It’s not design. It’s styling, done purely for decoration. Those elements on the Discovery 1 were the authentic ones, all of them rooted in function. In the mid-Nineties I had a slightly boozy evening with someone who’d been a big wheel in the team that made the original Discovery, or Project Jay as it was internally known. I said what a brilliant-looking thing…

“Side by side, this pair makes a bracing rebuke to any worries that modern hatches are all the same” Well, it hardly takes a professor of automotive semiotics to decipher what’s going on here. The signs are clear. There’s something of the night about the Honda. Wearing brushed-black paint, it gesticulates with razor-edged aerodynamic aids and shouts with open-gob air intakes. The VW’s dazzling pearlescent exterior has the blue-whiteness of a fresh morning, pure as the driven snow. Its drag-reduction surfaces soft and smooth like a bar of soap, its intakes demure. Welcome to the 2016 Paris show’s battle of good versus evil. Assuming, that is, you think the potential of freedom from emissions and crash-less autonomous driving do represent what’s good. If it represents your actual nightmare of a…

Millennia from now, archaeologists will be able to construct a pretty accurate synopsis of 21st-century mankind when they unearth the fossils of crossovers. Some will incorrectly assume that early Noughties mankind needed ground clearance and part-time all-wheel drive to escape the ever-rising sea levels and erosion caused by civilisation driving towering, obese cars. Astute Tony Robinsons of the year 3000 will link that tallness with our ageing population, unable to lower their creaking frames into a “hatchback”. Whatever that was. Mollycoddled 21st-century families valued a sensation of safety, and of communication with primitive handheld jukeboxes, they’ll realise upon observing adaptive AWD and several hundred USB ports. Few machines sum up modern life as succinctly as the crossover. And no section of the entire car market is growing in popularity as…

Price £54,547/£54,547 Model Caravelle Gen 6 Driver Simon Bond Why it’s here Is the Caravelle a genuine alternative to an SUV? 1968cc 4cyl turbodiesel, FWD, 201bhp, 332lb ft 44.8mpg, 164g/km CO2 0–62mph in 9.9secs, 126mph 2405kg REPORT 2 Twenty-four hours. That’s how long the VW Caravelle spent at TG Towers between Ollie Marriage bringing it back from France and me turning around and heading straight back across the Channel. Of to the Alps this time, rather than the south coast, but you have to take any opportunities to use the VW bus quickly – the realisation has struck everyone about just how capable and useful the big VW van is. When it comes down to it, you rarely actually need a sports car or a convertible, but you quite often…

Price/as tested £32,260/£39,460 Model Titanium Sport Driver Andy Franklin Why it’s here Is the S-Max still the answer for families? 1999cc, 4cyl TD, FWD, 210bhp, 332lb ft 51.4mpg, 144g/km CO2 0–62mph in 8.8secs, 135mph 1766kg GOODBYE That’s it then. See ya laterz, my American pal. After nearly 16k miles, the Ford S-Max has left the TopGear garage. Unfortunately, I must confess that I’m not too disappointed. It’s not that this car is rubbish in any way. (In fact, it’s a bloody good car, and a brilliant, practical family wagon that ticks all the boxes that Ford set out to achieve with a car like this.) It’s more of a case of “It’s not you, it’s me.” Somehow, I just didn’t gel with this car and often found it… well, dull.…

At the end of 1948, Rover added another version of the Series 1 ‘Land Rover’ to its line-up. It was called the 80-inch Station Wagon, and the story goes it was developed alongside the normal Series 1 for people who wanted the same kind of go-anywhere-ness, but with a degree of comfort the standard car, which didn’t even get a roof as standard, was simply unable to provide. So, the Station Wagon got a body fashioned from wood and aluminium by coachbuilder Tickford. A one-piece, laminated glass windscreen was fitted along with the all-important heater and plusher upholstery and trim. It even had a split-folding tailgate. But few were sold, just 641 in all, so it was withdrawn in 1951. Why? It was way too expensive – £950 in 1950,…

HOW IT WORKS... Rules, so often the perfect way to spoil all the fun, but in this case absolutely necessary. If we gave each of our presenters, and you at home, three choices with an uncapped budget on each, the tendency would be to vere towards astronomically expensive hypercars or ultra-rare classics. So in the name of variety, we devised a plan: three cars, three categories, each designed to focus the mind in a different way. The first an unlimited budget, the second could cost no more than ￡250,000, and the third had to sneak under the ￡50,000 mark. Admittedly, one of Matt's picks breaches those parameters slightly, but the choices were made before the pound took a 14 per cent nosedive... Used cars were allowed, but not depreciated examples…

You can’t trust your eyes. Not on a black night in the most distant corner of Scotland when the headlamps are two drops of rheumy yellowed light. I see a ghostly dead tree picked out against the memory of a purpling sky, just have time to think “I’m sure that wasn’t there a couple of hours ago” before the whole branch structure turns and trots of across the heathered moor. I wouldn’t usually spend this much time on an analogy, but that was a moment. I’d already been having one, realising as I guided the 3.0 CSL back to Lochinver how harmoniously its gentlemanly yet commanding demeanour suited the tone and flow of these roads, this landscape. And then the stag appeared and the stars aligned: car, animal and landscape…

AUSB slot. Thank God. It’s like seeing a wedding ring on a Mafa hitman – proof that there’s more to his life than death and dark suits. Apple CarPlay too, and satnav. Good on you Ferrari, for fitting these trinkets to a car that wears each aero fick like a knuckle-duster, for they remind me that the F12tdf is only a car. A track-orientated car, though, so to a track then? We might refer to it as solitary confinement. However, there was one stipulation from Ferrari: no track use. I’m not even going to pretend I know why, although my unsettled mind latches on to the idea that Ferrari could be deploying the F12tdf simply to cull a TopGear writer. So, a plan: I’ve chosen to come and chase fast…

Mock a seven-seater all you like. Make jokes about minibuses, taxis and airport runs. But once you’ve got a couple of kids or more, they suddenly make sense. That extra child that seems to appear from nowhere, needing a lift to football practice, tea, or more attentive parenting? Getting to airports? Keeping warring factions apart on different rows? It can all be dealt with, minimum fuss. And the Volvo XC90 is, in my opinion, the best of the bunch for family duties right now. Why? Well, you can get seven actual adults in the three rows. It’s butch but non-threatening, and looks like an SUV rather than the aforementioned un-glam minibus. There’s a proper boot with the rearmost seats folded – though the access from the folding second-row seats could…

Price £90,843/£103,999 Model 911 Carrera C4S Driver Charlie Turner Why it’s here Is the all-new C4S the ultimate winter sports car? 2981cc 6cyl twin turbo, 4WD, 414bhp, 369lb ft 31.7mpg, 204g/km CO2 0–62mph in 4.2secs, 189mph 1565kg REPORT 2 “This is Jackie Stewart’s favourite 911,” says Mark Webber. “I was on a track day with him a month or two back and told him he ought to try a Turbo S, but he loves the C4S.” I’m with Jackie on this – as a daily driver, the C4S feels more responsive than the Turbo S, you don’t need 572bhp when 414bhp is plenty to, ahem, keep up with the trafi. Mark has clearly been spoiled by the fact his daily driver produces something in the region of 1,000bhp. Nope, the…

Zenos E10 R Price £39,995/£43,995 Model E10 R Driver Jack Rix Why it’s here Does more power mean more fun on planet Zenos? 2261cc turbo 4cyl, RWD, 345bhp, 2347lb ft n/a mpg, n/a g/km CO2 0–60mph in 3.0secs, 155mph 700kg (dry) Rowan Horncastle: Your long-term Zenos E10R is rubbish… discuss. I say that as someone who believes the Caterham 620S is the best over-powered road-legal lightweight. Honestly, why would you ever go for the E10R? Jack Rix: Rubbish? Steady on. It has many things going for it that the Caterham doesn’t: namely it was designed this century and can fit actual people, not just lanky sods like you in it. And this is the full Billy-big-balls version with the 345bhp Focus RS engine, although it weighs less than half the…

Maserati Ghibli diesel £49,160 WE SAY: MASERATI WANTS TO TEMPT YOU OUT OF YOUR E-CLASS. AGAIN Maserati has kept the midlife update very restrained. The sub-Quattroporte has brought new levels of volume, and it accounted for 75 per cent of Maser’s sales until the Levante SUV arrived. Messing with the formula was never on the cards. Changes, then, are all about the details. Refnement tweaks to the suspension and sound deadening aim to make the Ghibli a better high-speed cruiser, while there’s a refreshed, smartphone-friendly infotainment system and a bundle of new active safety systems. Engine choices are a couple of 3.0-litre V6 turbo petrols (345bhp/404bhp) and a 3.0-litre V6 diesel, its single turbo helping it yield 272bhp and a chunky 443lb ft. That’s the one most people buy, in…

Trivia fans, a question: What links Anchorman, Captain America, Wayne’s World, Twilight, The Hunger Games, Jason Bourne, Transformers and… Alvin and the Chipmunks? No? Well, before you start trawling websites trying to find a little-known but prolific bit-part actor, I’ll tell you. It’s the vehicles. Because the wheeled stars of all of those movies – and a full credit roll more – were all provided by the same company: Cinema Vehicles in Los Angeles. Nestled on an eight-acre plot in a nondescript corner of an industrial estate in North Hollywood, the whole Cinema Vehicles universe is basically nirvana for movie car geeks, a working tribute to silver screen wheels. Established by an enterprising chap called Ray Claridge way back in 1975, CV is the place directors and producers from film…

01 FORD FIESTA ST RX43 The star of Gymkhana 5 was a 600bhp Fiesta developed for KB's assault on the 2013 Global Rallycross Championship, and capable of 0-60mph in under 2.0secs. Just as well - its course involved outmanoeuvring a giant spiky wrecking ball. 02 FORD FOCUS RS Ken's latest toy, seen hanging its tyres out over a dock in Gymkhana 9, is also his 2016 World Rallycross Championship car. Its engine is smaller than the road-going RS (2.0-litre versus 2.3), but with 600bhp, far mightier. Drift mode is compulsory. 03 FORD MUSTANG HOONICORN RTR You might have seen this one giving Matt LeBlanc □ gentle sightseeing tour of London, or taunting lowriders in Gymkhana 7. Either way, you're unlikely to forget a 1965 Mustang slammed and boosted to 645bhp…

“The best bit was Park Lane. I got second gear, got to give it a bit. And then I had to think, OK, I’m on cold tyres…” Yep, a month or so back, just before he announced his retirement, Mark Webber drove his Porsche 919 Hybrid LMP1 car around central London. Around Trafalgar Square. Past Big Ben. Did a lap of Parliament Square. He was chased by a new Panamera E-Hybrid as part of its international unveiling, but we can ignore that because it’s the 919’s first ever venture on to the public road that we care about. Trickiest part? “The second run through Parliament Square was a mess. We got the wrong side of the traffic lights and with the weight of traffic it was carnage out there. At…

“And what do you know? TopGear readers have immaculate taste” You voted in your thousands, we roped in a work experience underling to trawl through them, and several spreadsheets later the results are in. And what do you know? TopGear readers have immaculate taste. We didn’t doubt you for a second. Top tens for each category are displayed below, with the £1.8m Chiron, £149,995 GT-R Nismo and £31,250 Focus RS coming out on top (Matt will be delighted), but it’s the trends further down the tables that are just as revealing. For a relative minnow like Koenigsegg – in terms of sales volume – to have two cars in the Unlimited top four, should be cause for celebration in Ängelholm, while three entries for Ferrari in both the Unlimited and…

BMW Vision Next 100 This slippery little sucker is the blueprint for your 3- or S-Series in 30 years' time. Brown and a bit scaly, much like its ageing owner, the wheels are wrapped in a stretchy 3D-printed lattice, reducing drag by 30 per cent. It's an EV with no buttons or screens on the inside (no need with an augmented reality windscreen) and with the wheel folded away, it can do the driving for you. Mini Vision Next 100 Pretty soon, the idea of actually owning a car will be laughable, says Mini. Instead we will approach a communal vehicle like this, facial recognition cameras will spot you, open the doors and automatically upload your preferences - driving modes, nav history, tragic Eighties music, that sort of thing. You…

Price/as tested £95,150/£102,635 Model SVR Driver Jason Barlow Why it’s here Does JLR’s first SVO model hit the spot? 5000cc, V8 s’charged, 4WD, 549bhp, 502lb ft 22.1mpg, 298g/km CO2 0–62mph in 4.5secs, 162mph 2333kg REPORT 4 Who knows if Kanye West reads TopGear? Still, he strikes me as the sort of wellheeled family man who might have narrowed his choice of vehicle down to a Range Rover Sport SVR or Bentley Bentayga, and we’re nothing if not helpful. The Bentley’s route to market was trailed by one of the most visually ofFensive concept cars of all time. It reminded me of an oddball I once saw in the eccentric and now sadly defunct car collection in the Imperial Palace hotel in Vegas, the Mohs Safarikar (Google it from a safe…

Price/as tested £32,450 Model 2.0 CRDi Premium SE Driver Esther Neve Why it’s here Is there more to the Tucson than the pricetag? 1995cc 4cyl turbodiesel, 4WD, 183bhp, 295lb ft 43.5mpg, 170g/km CO2 0–62mph in 9.5secs, 125mph 2250kg REPORT 5 To continue the lifestyle vibe that we began last issue, this month the Tucson is going to be indulging in a little horseplay. Actual horseplay. With an actual horse. Yes, the time has come to test out the Tucson’s towing smarts. But there will be no pifing little trip to the tip with a tiny trailer for us... instead, we’ve gone for the full monty and employed a laden horsebox. The important thing about testing towing ability, after all, is to make sure you’ve towed suficiently heavy stuff for a…

Price £23,535/£26,475 Model SRi Nav Driver Owen Norris Why it’s here Is the Astra worthy of European Car of the Year? 1598cc 4cyl TD, FWD, 160bhp, 258lb ft 67.3mpg, 112g/km CO2 0–62mph in 8.4secs, 137mph 1435kg HELLO The first car I can remember was my dad’s 1974 Opel Ascona three-door estate. My mum’s über cool MkI Opel Manta wasn’t practical enough for our growing family and keeping with the Opel brand the Ascona Caravan, as it was called, was the next logical step. With our large labrador in the back, we’d go for days out in it all the time. It was heavy to drive, but with the shark nose, pretty smart-looking. Fast-forward 42 years, and this Astra Sports Tourer that I’ll be running is the modern equivalent of that…