Innholdsfortegnelse for July 2015 i BBC Top Gear Magazine

SUBSCRIBE TO TOPGEAR Get Britain’s number-one car magazine every month, delivered to you as a hefty paper offering, an interactive app or a digital edition. See page 148 for more details TOPGEAR.COM Check out TopGear.com for your daily dose of TG. Or you can join us on Facebook and Twitter TELEVISION Watch your favourite episodes again and again (and again) on Dave NEW CAR BUYERS GUIDE Comprehensive road tests for every new car on sale in the UK, available at all magazine retailers TOPGEAR PORTFOLIO Available exclusively at WHSmith,TopGear Portfolio is a collection of the best images from our archive A Cobra attack helicopter scything around the final corner of the Red Bull Ring, a bare 20ft above two and a half million quid of performance cars, tends to focus…

Ooh, is that the new Golf GTI? No. That’s the Golf GTE Sport Concept, unveiled at the Worthersee tuner meet as a gift to the VW Group’s baseball-capped enthusiasts. Under its bonnet sits the 1.6-litre turbo four from VW’s Polo world rally car, making just short of 300bhp. That’s supplemented by a pair of electric motors, one on either axle. Combined, they produce 395bhp and 495lb ft of torque, making this 4WD Golf capable of 0–62mph in 4.3 seconds, and 174mph. Sounds fruity. Can I buy it? Nope. Like that deranged W16 Golf from Worthersee in 2007, it’s strictly a concept, a caricature of the future of fast Golfs. Beyond the styling, it’s a bid to accustom us to the idea of hybrid hot hatches. Can’t you already buy a…

FILMOGRAPHY OF CARS POSTER Bueller’s Ferrari, Batmobiles, Shaguars, mobile meth labs – if they’ve been on your telly screen, they’ll be on this poster. The artist has picked 72 star cars from 1929 to the current day, drawn each one by hand and gathered them together in one simple poster. Some are famous for their performances, others for the performers who drove them. De Niro’s taxi, Doc’s De_Lorean and the Dukes’ Dodge, these are Hollywood’s finest props, and they deserve a permanent place on your wall. From $57 (plus international shipping); calmtheham.com GARMIN NUVICAM It’s a two-in-one dashcam and satnav, meaning you’ll have fewer boxes mounted to your windscreen. It will even overlay navigation instructions on the camera view, so it can literally point you down the right road with…

Pinch yourself, to check it was really happening? For James Tumilty, it really was. The 33-year old from Northumberland was the lucky winner of Mercedes-Benz’ competition to drive this all new sports car at Dunsfold Park. And little wonder he couldn’t believe his good fortune… The Mercedes-AMG GT is only the second production car to have been wholly developed by AMG – the famous performance engineering division of Mercedes-Benz – and is no highly tuned version of a standard model. This near-200mph sports car is the product of AMG at its very best, an unashamed thoroughbred that goes, sounds and feels as close to a race car for the road as it’s possible to get. And James would be driving it at Dunsfold Park, home of the Top Gear TV…

Audi has done a typically thorough job on the new Q7. It’s been reinvented from end to end. It’s done all the right things. But it lacks any particular flair or imagination. I can’t see why you wouldn’t shop elsewhere. It’s designed so as to look smaller than the old Q7, not just because it is (if only slightly) but also because it’s got the proportions and surfaces of a tall estate rather than a 4x4. So, it’s only when you get close that the true bulk smites you. That loudmouthed grille gives it some character, and the details are well turned-out, but, really, overall… meh. Still, the inside is as beautifully made as any Audi’s is, and, if you’ll fork out the option prices, can be had with a…

Ordinarily, the highest compliment you can pay a roofless car is to say it drives just like the hard top. But exceptions prove rules, and the 4C Spider is better than its equally beautiful twin. But, and it’s a big, flamboyant Italian but, only if you tread carefully in the speccing minefield Allow me to be your guide, as – keeping in the spirit of the carbon 4C’s lightweight ethos – less is so much more. Shun the busy Race pack suspension, that ludicrously boomy sports exhaust (Alfa’s increased the size of the standard pipes’ silencer, and it’s miles less wearing as a result), and go for small wheels, you show-off. Yes, I love how those telephone-dial 18/19s look too, but if you want a 4C that can travel down…

The good news is you don’t have to choose one over the other. In what promises to be an unprecedented – and unmissable – weekend of motorsport, there’s enough action across the 27th and 28th of June to do both! While Battersea Park hosts the final two rounds of the 2014/15 Formula E season (round 10 on the Saturday; round 11 on the Sunday), Lord March’s annual hillclimb-come-garden party – the Festival of Speed – takes place at his Goodwood estate (25th-28th June). So, what’s it to be? A day at each? It’s a call that Michelin hasn’t had to make – the tyre maker will have a significant presence in London and Sussex. As the exclusive tyre partner to Formula E, Michelin has supported the championship at every round,…

The nerves set in about three days beforehand. Up until the phone call, I’d been telling myself the P1 GTR was just a car. A car with four wheels, an engine, two seats and a steering wheel. Practically a Mazda MX-5. What was there to be intimidated by? But then my memory bank would churn a bit, “You’ve driven a McLaren P1”, it would say, “was that just a car? Let me twang a few nerve endings to remind you what 900bhp felt like through the rear wheels on a damp road.” And I’d have to confess to myself that, no, the P1 had more in common with an especially volatile and creatively destructive piece of military hardware than a car. And then McLaren phoned up. “We’re going to send…

The diversity of the engines on show in the 1966 Formula One season would have sent any self-respecting UKIP candidate into meltdown. The ’66 starting grid saw 2.0- and 3.0-litre V8s, a 1.0-litre inline four-cylinder, a Ferrari V6, a host of V12s and, most remarkably, a 3.0-litre H16 from BRM. An H16! Reports of the day noted its racing success was limited due to being “heavy and complex”. Imagine. Such drivetrain diversity has, of course, long departed F1. Same story with other corners of technology, too. In the early days of what we now call smartphones, way back in the mid-Noughties, there were flippy phones and slidey phones and phones with unwieldy great fold-out keyboards. Now all smartphones look give-or-take like an iPhone. The first efforts at boiling water using…

MAZDA MX-5 Price: ￡18,495 Engine: 1496cc 4cyl, 129bhp, 111lb ft Performance: 0–62mph in 8.9secs, n/a mph vmax Transmission: 6spd manual, RWD Economy: n/a mpg, 139g/km CO2 Weight: 980kg My radio crackles into life. “Tom,” it squawks, from one of the MX-5’s cupholders. “Where are you?” It’s my colleague Sam Philip, and he sounds worried. I’m not going that slowly, but it’s not been 20 minutes since The Boss gathered us together in Garage 11 and left us in no doubt that, should we embed something in the Armco, he would be most unhappy. I have been missed. “Don’t worry, I’m on my way back,” I reply, as I round Pirelli at half-speed. Which, in the Mazda, is maybe 6mph. Fast, the all-new MX-5 is not. In this company, 0–62mph in…

HELLO 1984cc, 4cyl turbo, 306bhp, 280lb ft , 4WD, 6spd DSG 38.7mpg, 169g/km CO2 0–62mph in 4.9secs, 155mph 1365kg ￡40,310/￡48,970 Total mileage 1262 Driver Ollie Marriage Why it’s here Does the TTS have real sporting smarts? TDI? Audi TT MkIII – in more ways than one. This is the third of our third-generation TTs, a flagship TTS to replace the TDI and the 2.0 TFSI that went before. The diesel was a blindingly good car – providing you’re buying a coupe with your sensible hat on. A hard hat maybe? That’s very sensible. However, while the 52mpg economy, lusty mid-range and placid road manners were suitably impressive, it wasn’t exactly a compelling driver’s package. Partly this was down to the understated spec of our car, but, even gussied up a…

REPORT 3 898cc, 3cyl turbo petrol, RWD, 89bhp, 100lb ft 65.7mpg, 99g/km CO2 0–62mph in 10.8secs, 103mph 943kg ￡12,545/￡13,765 Total mileage 2280 Driver Sam Philip Why it’s here Is this the best city car on the market? As I’m loading myself, blearyeyed, into the Twingo early on a Tuesday morning, a pretty lady emerges from a house across the street. “Lovely car,” she smiles. “I’ve had my eye on it…” Now then. In the past couple of years, I’ve been lucky enough to park many smart cars in front of my house. Astons, Lamborghinis, even a Chevrolet Aveo. Never has anything like this happened before. “That’s my little Fiat down there,” she says, waving at a powder-blue 500C. Figures. “But this is the new Twingo, yeah? What’s it like?” “It’s,…

FACT #1 THE NUMBER OF MILES OF ENGINE TESTING COMPLETED WITH CASTROL EDGE IS EQUIVALENT TO 1.86 million Castrol’s Global Sponsorship Manager, Donald Smith, is well aware of the benefits of having the Castrol logo on a race car. “Motorsport is a great platform for building awareness,” he explains, “but it’s far from the only reason we’re involved.” Castrol’s reason for racing goes much deeper than mere marketing. “For us, these are crucial technical partnerships,” continues Smith. “We work with manufacturers and teams to maximise the performance of their race cars, but it works both ways. Each partnership enables us to improve the performance of our product, too.” And it’s the pace and intensity of motorsport competition that delivers the cutting edge. “Motorsport is an extreme, high pressure research and…

While choosing your next car, you think (or think you ought to think) about fuel consumption. Sadly, everything you know is either wrong, or unknowable. Here are 10 great economy myths. 1. Manufacturers make exaggerated economy claims. It’s not their claims. The tests are conducted in independent labs, to a Government-mandated drive cycle. Those are the only figures they’re allowed to quote. 2. It’s an independent test, so the manufacturers can’t cheat. Depends on how you define ‘cheat’. It’s gaming the system, but it’s allowed. Mostly, they set up their powertrains to do well at test speeds not real speeds, and test them with the Eco button pressed, making the car so sluggish no one would use it that way. Plus they can accumulate all the little test tolerances in…

Dear Uncle TG I was in Belgium recently and saw a weird-looking saloon version of the Renault Clio. Why do they have such a thing? Pete, by email Have you ever tried traditional Belgian beer? It does peculiar things to your brain. Next thing you know, you’re demanding a weird-looking saloon version of the Renault Clio. Or falling over on some cobbles into a puddle of your own sick. Dear Uncle TG I’m thinking of buying a 1983 Alfa Romeo Spider. Am I mad? Fran, by email The purchase of a small Italian roadster isn’t usually considered a reliable indicator of psychiatric disorder. If you’d said, “I’m thinking of throwing an occasional table at a policeman and then shouting ‘WEASEL BUTTER’ into a wheelie bin. Am I mad?” then I would have…

NICELY DODGED Lucky Challenger Hellcat escapes unharmed after a tornado flattens buildings in Bridge Creek, Oklahoma PARK & RIDE Welsh bus company pulls advert which shows semi-naked woman holding up ‘Ride me all day for ￡3’ sign. Classy. SWIFT JUSTICE Man contests speeding fine. Prosecution hires Audi R8 and an airfield to prove him wrong. Man pays ￡11k A FINE ROMANCE Angry Saudi woman and her brother rack up ￡51,000 worth of traffic fines in her husband’s car. PICK ME UP Council moves woman’s legally parked Mazda MX-5… to a road with double yellows, then gives it parking ticket. “Let’s get a couple of things straight right off the bat: Corvettes are better than Porsches. They’re quicker and they corner as well.” US Vice President Joe Biden tackles the thorny…

ZENIThEL PRIMERO CHRONOMASTER 1969 TOUR AUTO EDITION When it appeared in 1969, after seven years in the making, the El Primero caused a commotion in the watch world. Not only was it a fist-bitingly pretty thing, but it was the first wristwatch with an automatic chronograph movement – the defining feature of any decent driver’s watch. Over 40 years on, it’s still going strong, having survived the threat of quartz (just) and fierce competition from Rolex and Tag Heuer. This one is a special edition created for the Tour Auto, a 1,600-mile blast through the French countryside, which explains the tongue-twisty name and slightly loud tricolour paintjob. £7,500 approx; zenith-watches.com NOMOS METRO 38 DATUM To kick off our trio of Germans, how about this one from Nomos? An update of…

We’re on the M4, emerging from a set of roadworks as we head west out of London. Ahead, a diesel van. It would be easy to get caught out by his torque lunge away from the final cone, left choking on his sooty exhalation. After all, Type Rs, famously, have no torque. And this feels every inch a Type R: the instruments glow red, there’s a fiddly dash, gorgeous manual gearchange, firm suspension and an exterior design that’s… well, we’ll come on to that later. Right now, I’m preoccupied by the van. Will I need fourth? Third even? But then I remember. I have a turbo. And even on what’s only been a brief acquaintance so far, I know sixth will be fine. I had, for a split second, forgotten…

Mercifully, I’m not sat here in the Tesla Model S modelling Bacofoil, and lunch was a beefburger, in lieu of Orwellian vitamin pills and intravenous nutrient paste. But otherwise, this is the future. The world’s best electric car. Alongside it is perhaps BMW’s greatest achievement to date, the mind-blowing i8. Meet the first EV (and sub-￡700k hybrid) ever invited to Speed Week, and they’re certainly not here to offset our carbon footprint or as a sop to the noise limit obliterated earlier by a helicopter gunship playing chicken with a McLaren P1 GTR. No, I’m gliding out of the pitlane in the Tesla with total impunity because, quite simply, it’s the fastest car here. That won’t be news to anyone with a working internet connection really, as the Model S…

Perfect family cars? To those of us without kids – or an unhealthy obsession with films such as Drive – they’re perfect getaway cars. Why so? Plentiful space for purloined valuables, the pace and precision required to effortlessly escape the law, and looks subtle enough to fox the casual observer. “What car were they in?” “Er, a blue one…” Of course, subtlety has hardly ever been present in AMG history; audaciously smoking rear tyres and thunderous soundtracks are typically dish of the day. And dowdily restrained as it looks, the new C63 will – of course – oblige rapscallion tendencies. AMG’s bestseller joins the performance division’s twin-turbocharged era in some style; there’s a 470bhp ‘entry’ version, but the more potent C63 S, blazing all of its guns here, uses a…

Compared with the Ferrari and Lamborghini collection, this might look like the short-straw group. Especially on a power circuit like this one, where you need all the bhp you can muster to haul up the long hill from Castrol Edge (Turn 1) to Remus (Turn 2), then fire you out of there and along to Rauch (Turn 3). But that’s not the case. Because this little trio has been designed to wring out as much fun as possible from every mile of road or track you point them at. These are the real-world supercars. The evergreen – or dog-lipstick pink in this case – Caterham doesn’t need a huge amount of introduction, as it’s been around longer than any of us can remember. But, because they all look the same,…

GOODBYE 1582cc, 4cyl turbodiesel, FWD, 126bhp, 192lb ft 47.1mpg, 158g/km CO2 0–62mph in 11.7secs, 110mph 1406kg ￡21,450/￡21,450 Total mileage 5724 Driver Simon Carrington Why it’s here Can the Soul hack it as an urban family runaround? First impressions weren’t good. Last November, I honestly thought that the new Kia Soul was quite possibly the most ridiculous-looking car I could ever drive, and that was before I realised it was to arrive painted white with a red roof. The TopGear office has plenty of cool cars at any point in time… and then there was our Soul! Swing forward seven months, and I can say with absolute honesty that living with the car has completely changed my opinion. Yes, of course, it is an odd-looker, and people do laugh and occasionally…

HELLO 5204cc, V10, 602bhp @ 8250rpm, 413lb ft @ 6500rpm 22.6mpg, 290g/km CO2 0–62mph in 3.2secs, 202mph 1422kg ￡180,720 Total mileage 10,036 Driver Charlie Turner Why it’s here Is this the first Lambo you can use day-to-day? No, you’re not hallucinating. Somehow, we seem to have persuaded the good people at Lamborghini HQ in Sant’Agata to let us run a Huracan for a few months, to see if this is truly a daily-usable supercar. And yes, I still pinch myself every morning. Some initial reviews criticised the Huracan for having gone a bit soft, a bit too accessible, a bit lacking in drama. In my opinion, what a lot of the criticism failed to take into account is that this is the baseline Huracan, the one that’s supposed to be…

HELLO 6166cc, V8, RWD, 707bhp, 650lb ft 15.6mpg, n/a g/km CO2 0–62mph in 3.9secs, 199mph 2013kg $60,990/$65,695 Total mileage 1750 Driver Pat Devereux Why it’s here What’s it like to live with a 700+bhp muscle car? It’s hard to think of a car that sums up all that’s good about car ownership in the US in 2015 better than the Dodge Challenger Hellcat. It’s super-fast, sumptuously comfortable, looks good inside and out and costs just $61,000. Horsepower has never been less expensive or more readily accessible in a production car. It’s got all the retro muscle-car design cues sorted – from its classic low and wide two-door fastback shape to the completely redesigned and reimagined interior – combined with all the modern technology you want and need. The award-winning U-Connect…

Heritage is big business these days, and BMW leverages it more imaginatively than most. Last year saw the Mini Superleggera – now confirmed for production – and that was preceded by an M1 reboot and two unashamedly retro reinterpretations of the 328 MM. BMW has an enviable back catalogue for sure, but this year’s reboot – unveiled at posh classic car concours Villa d’Este – mines the brand’s barrel-chested Seventies CSL Batmobile lodestar for inspiration. Not surprisingly, it’s been in the mix for a while. “What’s my favourite BMW?” head of exterior design Karim Habib asks TopGear “That changes constantly. But the CS coupe was certainly one of the most elegant BMWs, and the CSL helped establish the template for BMW as we know it now. I’ve been lobbying for…

TG TOP FACT This isn’t the first time NASA’s made a tiltwing. In 1957 it successfully tested a manned one, known as the Vertol VZ-2 What’s this? It’s a transformer drone – half helicopter, half plane, and 100 per cent terrifying. It has four rotors on each wing plus two on the tail, and it’s flown by a man with a remote control. What does it do? The GL-10 – known as Greased Lightning – combines the vertical takeoff and hovering talents of a helicopter with the long-range, high-speed cruising ability of a plane. How does it do that? The wing rotates, pointing the rotors upwards for a chopper-style take-off. Once up, it pivots forwards so the rotors become propellers and it flies along like any turboprop aircraft. Sounds simple!…

1. WHO American people 2. WHAT Driving on the beach 3. WHERE Daytona Beach, FL 4. WHEN The Fifties The first speed hunters arrived in Daytona in 1902, attracted by the long, hard-packed sands where they could wring out their homemade contraptions in a lawful fashion. First to break a land-speed record there was Fred Marriott in his steam-powered Rocket – his 124mph run was greater than the contemporary rail-speed record and remained the benchmark for steam-powered vehicles until 25 August 2009. Over the next 25 years or so, the overall land-speed record would be broken many times at Daytona, and at Ormond Beach to which it’s connected. In 1927 it was the place where Henry Segrave became the first human to drive at 200mph, before passing the British baton…

1 Heeling ’n’ toeing is a technique used by drivers of high-performance cars, but one that is falling into disuse with the widespread adoption of ‘robotic’ twin-clutch gearboxes (aka ‘flappy paddles’). 2 The problem is this: you are approaching a bend and braking hard. You dip the clutch to drop it down a cog, but to avoid a clumsy gearchange you need to blip the throttle. But you don’t have any legs left. 3 The answer is to heel ’n’ toe. While pressing the brake with your right toe, pivot the foot so the heel can give the throttle pedal a quick poke. It relies on the pedals being nicely arranged and close enough together, or your feet being long enough. Or a bit of both. 4 A bigger problem…

What’s in a name? Viva doesn’t just fit in nicely with all those other names from Vauxhall, it was also the badge on the company’s successful no-nonsense Sixties/Seventies small car. This time around, we have a rival for the Panda, the Up family, the Aygo and its French cousins, and the Koreans. It’s a replacement for the Agila, but it’s trying harder. Who’s it for? Not enthusiasts. But a wide-ranging constituency: pensioners, and new drivers who’ve been bought a car by their parents. For them all, it’s paramount to have low costs, ease of use, space and safety. But the youngsters probably want more style. What about the value, then? The £8k OTR opening bid includes cruise control, fogs, lane-departure warning, six airbags, aux-in, trip computer and remote locking. The…

Back when it hosted the F1 Austrian GP for 18 consecutive years (1970– 1987), it was known as the Österreichring – a track considered by many of the contemporary drivers to be fast, pretty and uniquely scary. A track that, when turbo F1 pushed 1,400bhp in qualifying trim in 1986, regularly had cars approaching corners with little or no run-off at more than 200mph. That sort of nonsense couldn’t last much longer. With drivers and riders seeing increasingly serious injury and worse, legend has it that the old 3.7-mile circuit was seen as too dangerous for modern F1, and was dropped in 1995 so that Hermann Tilke could redesign it to become the A1-Ring. Updated to improve safety, it was shortened by a mile, removing the fastest, hairiest sections of…

BELL COBRA TAH-1F ATTACK HELICOPTER Price: ￡7,000,000 Engine: T53-L-703 turboshaft, 1800bhp Top speed: 218mph Cruising speed: 184mph Economy: 88 gallons per hour Dimensions: 13.8m (l), 4.2m (h), 3.2m (w), 13.4m (main rotor) Weight: 2994kg (empty), 4536kg (max take-off) IT’S SPEED WEEK’S PRICIEST ENTRANT. At around ￡7 million new, it’s equivalent to filling your dream garage with all 19 cars here. Twice. But you get what you pay for. The thing isn’t even moving and we’ve regressed back to schoolboy impishness, mouths agape as we produce an identical set of pictures on each of our cameraphones. Even Bruno Senna scampers over, grinning like an idiot as he finds more and more details to throw at Instagram. Missile buttons! Gunner controls! Smoke cannons! Impossibly narrow yet impressively long, the Bell Cobra TAH-1F…

Two Austrian men are rummaging around in my lap. I raise my arms above my head, failing miserably to get out of their way, as they tug on the many straps that surround me. With every yank, I’m anchored more tightly into my seat. Only it’s not really a seat. They ought to be called no-seaters, really. ‘Single-seater’ implies at least one seat, and all there is in this thing is a man-sized, duct-tape-lined hole in the bodywork. The ‘thing’ of which I am now a fleshy component is a Formula Renault 2.0-litre. Lewis Hamilton raced these. So did Kimi Raikkonen. And Felipe Massa. And they’re pretty handy. I, however, will not be racing. I will simply be trying to stay on track, and not accelerate nose-first into the back…

HELLO 2494cc, 4cyl turbo petrol hybrid, AWD, 195 + 141bhp, 155 + 199lb ft 54.3mpg, 121g/km CO2 0–62mph in 9.2secs, 112mph 1785kg ￡42,995/￡44,640 Total mileage 6237 Driver Esther Neve Why it’s here Is this a worthy competitor to the Evoque? Hybrids are new to my everyday life. So I’m intrigued to see how the NX300h fits in with my motorway/congested London rat-run commute. I need my car to be fast-reacting, comfortable over the million speedbumps I cross each day and able to cruise at motorway speeds smoothly, quietly and efficiently. None of this should be difficult to achieve. I do, however, acknowledge that hybrids aren’t designed for my driving life, but it’ll be an interesting experiment to see how one copes with the demands my regular journey places on it.…

GOODBYE 1984cc, 4cyl turbo, FWD, 276bhp, 258lb ft 42.8mpg, 154g/km CO2 0–62mph in 5.8secs, 155mph 1421kg ￡28,865/￡32,980 Total mileage 2938 Driver Ollie Kew Why it’s here Has Seat got its hot-hatch groove back? Right away, let’s answer the question above: yes, Seat has exploded back onto the hot-hatch scene with this new Leon. Adam was almost completely sold on the Cupra’s talents during their all-too-brief time together, so now he’s been seduced by the charms of a big-booted Ford, let’s round-up just why the Cupra is a dark horse for the best hot-hatch package on sale. Yup, I’m a huge fan too. I’ve not yet driven a car spun off the VW empire’s modular MQB platform that’s a dud. Some are far superior to others, but what the Cupra does…

HELLO 1997cc, 4cyl, FWD, 176bhp, 295lb ft 56.5mpg, 130g/km CO2 0–62mph in 8.7secs, 135mph 1703kg ￡27,165/￡33,510 Total mileage 580 Driver Adam Waddell Why it’s here Is Ford’s family favourite still a sensible family choice? Is it just me, or does the new Mondeo’s chrome grille look a bit Aston Martin? If you squint really hard, try telling me that the Mondeo doesn’t look a teensy bit like a Rapide. OK, I appreciate that this might be pushing things a bit, but it’s still a decent-looking car. I reckon the estate is better-looking than the hatch, and, with 19in alloys – a ￡500 option over the standard 17s – it looks the business. Step inside, and you’ll find a roomy and well laid-out interior. The seats are big and comfortable, the…