Innholdsfortegnelse for May 2020 i BBC Top Gear Magazine

Well that’s quite a sight, isn’t it? If the Aston Martin Valkyrie – a track-focused hypercar with a 1,160bhp output and 11,100rpm redline – has so far seemed too otherworldly to get excited about, then here it is looking utterly spectacular on a regular old road. “I’ve shot on that road,” declared staff writer Tom Harrison as soon as he saw these pictures. “I would not want to drive a Valkyrie down it, that’s for sure.” Looks like some Sparco-shoed aliens have descended from another planet in their V12-powered UFO to sniff out Britain’s famous B-roads. Viewed from behind, the car looks especially mesmerising, with huge gaps where normal cars have ‘bodywork’ and a diffuser that could make reverse parking a financially ruinous venture. “Following successful circuit testing, Valkyrie has…

Volkswagen’s commercial vehicle department has just unveiled its most exciting model in years. Not to hate on the Caddy and the Transporter too much, but oh how design has regressed since the Sixties. This particular 1966 T1 Samba Bus isn’t exactly standard, because under the skin is an all-electric e-Up powertrain. Yep, with the help of eClassics, VW has removed the old 43bhp flat-four and has plugged in an 80bhp electric motor driving the rear wheels. That’s connected to a 45kWh battery, which provides a range of over 125 miles and can fast charge from empty to 80 per cent full in just 40 minutes. The bus you see here – which VW is calling the e-Bulli – is just a concept for now, but eClassics is planning to put…

01 Going water-cooled Porsche purists insist a quintessential 911 needs a flat-six engine, dangling behind the rear wheels, cooled by air. And that’s the way things were until 1997, when the new 996 came along with a water-cooled engine. 02 Ditching the 718’s turbo flat-four We’re not saying dropping a 4.0-litre, nat-asp flat-six back into the Boxster and Cayman GTS is an admission that the downsized 4cyl engine was a load of tosh that offered no real-world fuel saving, but, well, that is pretty much what we’re saying. 03 PDK-only GT3 going manual When Porsche decided to put a paddleshifter into the 991 GT3, there was uproar. A couple of years down the line, a limited-edition 911 R came along, with a 6spd manual. “That went down well,” thought Porsche.…

“GETTING ONE AS A COMPANY CAR? THE SUMS WILL LOOK IRRESISTIBLE” SKODA SUPERB iV SPORTLINE PLUS £38,435 1.4T + e-motor 215 bhp 6spd DSG 7.7 secs 148.7 mpg 35 g/km FOR Potentially low running costs. Room, glorious room AGAINST Don’t expect that mpg in the real world, batteries eat into boot Here it is then, along with the Citigo iV, Skoda’s first step into the world of electrification. Hardly earth shattering – it’s a mildly facelifted Superb with the same plug-in hybrid gubbins as a VW Passat GTE – but how often do the Czechs do radical? Skoda’s modus operandi is to incorporate tech when it’s genuinely useful, reliable and, more importantly, affordable. This Superb iV (that’s the Skoda electric sub-brand we’re about to see a lot more of) starts…

“0–30 PUNCH IS ENOUGH TO SEE OFF DETERMINED UBER DRIVERS” SKODA CI T IGOe iV SE L £19,815 inc gvt grant 1 electric motor 82 bhp 1spd auto 12.3 secs 170 miles 0 g/km FOR Like an Up, only cheaper AGAINST Feels quite dated in places VW Group’s triplet of tiny hatchbacks – the near-identical Volkswagen Up, Seat Mii and Skoda Citigo – are getting with the times. Now only the VW – traditionally the most expensive and indeed best of the three – is available with an internal combustion engine. With the other two it’s electric or nowt, as Seat and Skoda race to cut average CO2 emissions in the face of tough new EU rules. The Skoda is the cheapest. It’s available in a bare-bones SE spec the…

It was no April Fool. When order books opened for the Tesla Model 3 on 1 April 2016, people dived on in. By the end of the following day Tesla had advance orders for 276,000 cars – an order book worth over £7 billion. It was the most hyped car in history. This was a year before it was due to go on sale. And then it was late. And then later. And when it did start being built, the rate of production was nowhere – it was going to take Tesla a decade to catch up. Wall Street was nervous, Elon Musk was gambling and 63,000 people decided they didn’t want to play, cancelling their cars. But by then the order book was approaching half a million. It was…

“THE HONDA e ISN’T A CAR, IT’S A CINEMA WITH WHEELS, DOORS AND BATTERIES” “You can please some of the people all of the time, you can please all of the people some of the time, but you can’t please all of the people all of the time.” John Lydgate might have croaked 450 years before the car was invented, but he was a man ahead of his time. There’s a tendency these days for carmakers to chase the impossible, to dazzle in every department, but attempt to build something that’s roomy, fast, fuel-efficient, techy, sporty, comfy, premium and affordable at the same time, and they’re doomed to roll out a forgettable, conflicted mess. AKA a copy-paste crossover. Standing out is about knocking one thing so far out of the…

You know what’s really terrifying the global car industry right now, don’t you? No, not environmental pressures, or oil prices, or emissions fines… it’s kids. And it’s not just millennials to blame, for once. Generation Z, or should that be generation zzzzz, when it comes to motoring. For some time, there’s been a swelling fear in the pit of the car giants’ stomachs that young people don’t really care about cars any more. Or learning to drive. So Citroen’s gone radical, and created a car that 14-year-olds can bomb around in. If they’re French. Elsewhere, 16s and over can pilot this cute lil’ box: the Ami. Citroen’s 2CV for the 21st century. Strictly, Citroen hasn’t built a car at all – it’s a quadricycle, which means a maximum weight of…

GOODBYE £24,145 OTR/£28,978 as tested/£315pcm WHY IT’S HERE Would you have a faux-SUV over a decently specced Golf? DRIVER Tom Ford AT THE START OF THIS PROCESS, WE ASKED OURSELVES IF WE’D rather have the T-Roc over a similarly specced Golf. At the time of writing, we’d be able to get into something like a new R-Line Golf MkVIII with a manual transmission, five doors and a 130bhp TSi – lightly aping the T-Roc’s functionality. That’s the very new Golf, with a slightly less powerful engine. And the answer? Probably not. Personally, I’d rather have a Golf. Why? Well, it’s not that the T-Roc is a bad car, far from it. Just that for the benefits apparent for having the Roc, the Golf would punch harder. Let me explain. As…

GOODBYE £159,900 OTR/£200,345 as tested/£3,000pcm WHY IT’S HERE Is living with luxe all it’s cracked up to be? DRIVER Ollie Marriage THE CONTI GT’S TYRES HAD MORE GRIP THAN I EXPECTED. WELL, UP to the point they left the ground. I didn’t think I’d be able to carry enough speed around the corner that led into the Longcross jump, but once again the Conti GT surprised me. That’s been the story of living with it – a time that has now come to an end. Every fibre of this car is built to tour grandly. And not just the headline stuff such as astonishingly low wind noise and a washing wave of whirring torque, but the small stuff: the dignified movement of the seatbelt arm, the weighted action of the…

Perhaps Friday 13 March was the turning point. The Australian GP, cancelled at just two days’ notice after a McLaren mechanic tested positive for coronavirus. How many teams, then in full spool up for the new season, would have envisaged that within two weeks, they’d all be working together? Things move fast in F1. Trouble is, as we know all too well, so does Covid-19. The disease affects the respiratory system, so those that are hospitalised can need help breathing. This is done by a mechanical ventilator. But there were only 8,000 of these in the UK, and the NHS believed it would need around 30,000 to cope with demand. So government put out the call to industry to help. All seven UK-based Formula One teams came together to form…

“CAST YOUR EYE OVER THE IMAGE BEFORE YOU AND LET YOUR MIND DRIFT AWAY” Let’s not overcomplicate this, shall we? Cast your eye over the image before you and let your mind drift away into a world of infinite possibilities. A world where this car actually exists. Unfortunately, this isn’t BMW’s latest retro homage, it’s the work of annoyingly talented vehicle artist Khyzyl Saleem. Khyzyl recently posted how the IMSA 3.0 CSL Batmobile is: “One of the most beautiful racecars ever created.” And lo, the seed was planted in his head, and this render of a road-legal interpretation was born. We’d proffer that this is one of the finest, most lustworthy BMW renders ever created. So, here it is, massive, for your viewing pleasure. You’ll probably already know a bit…

1 Why did you do the electric 500 right now? FCA was always resistant to ‘compliance cars’ and said every car must make profit. This is one of the rare occasions where you have business objectives meeting brand objectives. The brand objective is relevance – a little car that’s totally relevant. The business aspect is to embed the cost of electrification into an intangible – premiumness. The price gives us a good business. We have proof, as we sell super-high-end versions of the existing 500. Either you go big or go home. The 500 Electric is cutting edge in every detail. An urban Tesla. 2 Will it be unique? This is not a Plan B, not a tweaked current car. We make the most of the investment, sharing with our…

ShiftCam 2.0 ProLens Series Want your car photos to look good enough to grace the pages of TopGear magazine, but don’t fancy spending thousands on a bulky SLR and all the kit that goes with it? The ShiftCam 2.0 ProLens Series could be your answer. Essentially, this is a set of six fancy camera lenses that have been shrunk in the wash and now fit onto the back of a specially designed iPhone case. The result, ShiftCam says, is “professional-grade mobile photography” at a fraction of the cost. Each lens can be bought separately, or you can get the whole set with a bit of a discount – although the 230° full-frame fisheye might be more suited to Instagram than your i30N. Our tip? Pick one or two lenses and…

PEUGEOT 208 GT-Line PureTech 130 £23,350 FOR Looks ace, good engine and build quality AGAINST Somewhat ergonomically flawed 1.2T 3cyl 129 bhp 8.7 secs 51.9 mpg 103 g/km FORD FIESTA ST-Line X EDITION 125PS EcoBoost £21,365 FOR Handles properly, good value AGAINST Bit boring inside (but at least it works) 1.0T 3cyl 123 bhp 9.9 secs 49.6 mpg 104 g/km Ubiquity, thy name is Fiesta. If you don’t have one yourself, the odds are you’re related to someone who does. Yep, it’s Britain’s best-selling car, a now-three-year-old model that recently fended off attacks from the new Clio and Corsa in TG issue 331. Enter, then, the also-new Peugeot 208, which is in essence the same car as the Corsa. Only – spoiler alert – much better. The problem with the…

PEUGEOT 2008 GT PURETECH £31,350 FOR One of the better-looking small crossovers AGAINST Not the best model in the range 1.2T 3cyl 153 bhp 8.2 secs 41.7 mpg 121 g/km This is the top-spec version of Peugeot’s 2008. It’s stylish, with distinctive good looks and a roomy interior. It boasts a smart layout and decent materials, but the infotainment and other controls aren’t always intuitive. This GT-spec model has adaptive cruise control, keyless entry and a panoramic glass roof, but it also has 18in wheels and a stiffer ride, which ultimately means there are better picks elsewhere in the range. SB MERCEDES-MAYBACH S650 £176,910 FOR Incredibly quiet, comfortable and relaxing AGAINST So’s a normal S-Class, which costs half as much 6.0TT V12 621 bhp 4.7 secs 20.2 mpg 320 g/km…

Call us old-fashioned, but when it comes to big family cars it’s being family friendly and big that matters. Nobody does no frills family motoring quite like Skoda – the master of unassuming design and well-built interiors that work and won’t fall apart… but aren’t so fancy you’ll get precious about jammy fingerprints. And then there’s size: both the boot and rear legroom in the Superb – whether you go for the semi-skimmed hatch or gold-top estate – are wonderfully excessive. If a Rolls-Royce has sufficient horsepower, the Superb has sufficient space – it’s a different kind of luxury. We’re well aware that a plug-in hybrid won’t work for everyone. Travelling salesmen with Costa platinum cards don’t want to be dragging a redundant battery stack and electric motor up and…

NOW e-tron 50 The e-tron dipped to vaguely affordable levels with the 310bhp ‘50’ badged version. 402bhp ‘55’ sits above NOW e-tron Sportback Coupe-SUV shape actually comes with a benefit: better aero than standard to boost the range by six miles JUNE 2020 e-tron S The first EV from Audi’s S brand is in danger of being the most fun S-badged car ever LATE 2020 e-tron GT Essentially a Taycan in disguise, production saloon could get RS badges to give it performance car nous LATE 2020 Q4 e-tron Expect many e-tron crossovers. This’ll be the smallest, most attainable yet and is due by the end of 2020 2023 PB18 Concept Striking 2018 concept shows us what a fully electric R8 of the future could look like. Swoon…

If the coronavirus could be transferred between cars, my garage may as well be called the Wuhan Automotive College. No amount of hand sanitiser could’ve prevented this pandemic; it’s taken me a solid 31 years of terrible car buying to reach this point. The epicentre lies firmly with the Asian corner of the garage. My R34 GT-R needs a new cylinder head and the RX-7 a whole new rotary engine. Having acted relatively fast, the German corner avoided full quarantine in the form of a new boot release (E61 M5) and new exhaust valve (S600 AMG). The M635 CSi has been back under the knife this month, though fortunately not served up as soup. It is riddled with a virus, however. Thanks to leading surgeon Ron Kiddell from RK Tuning…

If imitation really is the sincerest form of flattery, then Sega must have been blushing Ferrari Testarossa red when Cruis’n USA arrived in 1994. Borrowing the OutRun formula wholesale, Cruis’n USA was a geographically dubious trans-continental dash across America. The race began in a San Francisco that featured at least one suspension bridge too many, ran through a Grand Canyon stage that included Mount Rushmore, even though they are literally a thousand miles apart, and ended with you screeching to a halt outside the White House lawn. At least, mercifully, that was located in Washington, DC, and not Washington State. While the handling was twitchier than an over-caffeinated quiz show contestant, the ever-evolving scenery gave Cruis’n USA an authentic roadtrip vibe that hid a multitude of gameplay sins. The Redwood…

REPORT 7 £135,550 OTR/£146,625 as tested/£2,090pcm WHY IT’S HERE Because the TG Garage must have an AMG V8 at all times DRIVER Rowan Horncastle HAVING SPENT 46 YEARS DINING OUT ON ITS ABILITY TO engineer cars that bonfire rear tyres, it’s amazing that in just seven, AMG has managed to do the exact opposite. Merc’s go-faster arm first dabbled with 4WD back in 2013 with the A45. “Sacrilege!” enthusiasts shouted. And they had a point, it was far from a ground-breaking system. But, since then, the clever folks in Affalterbach have bashed their heads together and got the front and rear wheels talking to each other so fluently that now the traction light barely flashes. So much so, even in the recent torrential downpours the 4dr still had the ability…

FALSE CLAIMS WHO: OLLIE KEW, ROAD TEST EDITOR The I-Pace was plugged in at a grim M3 services when a fellow electric Jag driver pulled in alongside. “Excuse me, how much range are you getting?,” the distraught gentleman enquired. I replied it was good for 210-ish on a mild day but only about 170 miles with the heater toasty in mid-February. “What? The website dealer said it does 300!” he spluttered. “That’s on the NEDC test cycle – in reality, you’ll struggle to match the 240-mile WLTP claim,” said I. At that moment, I learned that not all EV early-adopters are big tech-heads. Some just bought the car because it looks cool. IT’S THE FUTURE WHO: OLLIE MARRIAGE, MOTORING EDITOR Last year I drove a Tesla to meet a Taycan…

Is this a time of unusual change? It would appear so as we contemplate our computer-driven, automated future. But if you look at mechanical technology, it’s not so clear – planes remain pretty much the same, and most cars are powered by fossil fuel and driven by humans. As for watches, almost all the desirable ones are powered by clockwork. For an era of real change, the interwar years are hard to beat. Shaky wooden biplanes and exploding airships were replaced by fast metal monoplanes. Cars and boats were coming of age, many piloted by the unstoppable Sir Malcolm Campbell. He set his first land speed record in 1922 at 138mph. Within a decade, this had almost doubled, then in 1935, Campbell broke the 300mph barrier in his last land…

Overpass is not, as the name might suggest, a game about late-night drag races across Hammersmith flyover. Instead, it’s about passing over the sort of unforgiving natural terrain that would normally have Bear Grylls trying to survive in it. The problem is, the more time you spend with the game, the more the little physics engine inconsistencies start to nag. While there’s a very generous number of routes to tackle, the career overview screen is a confusing, spidery mess of different icons connected with lines. It’s difficult to tell whether this is the roadmap for a successful off-road career or if the FBI is trying to track down a serial killer. Overpass? It’s a pass from us……

PORSCHE 911 CARRERA 2 £82,793/£977pcm LOTUS EVORA GT410 £82,900/£1,189pcm JAGUAR F-TYPE P450 £69,990/£1,053pcm Strange times indeed. No vapour trails in the sky, no hand sanitiser on the shelves, no pubs open – it’s like the build-up at the start of a Simon Pegg movie. Everything’s (not quite) normal. What’s needed at a time like this is a Porsche 911. I know, there’s never a time that a Porsche 911 isn’t needed, but what it does for us right now is act as a known quantity. A safe harbour. Not so much a bridge over troubled waters, as a fortress in the flow. It is automotive bedrock, unaffected by the passage of time or vagaries of virus. As impervious to outside forces as your purchase of this magazine. Ahem. This one’s…

LAMBORGHINI HURACÁN EVO RWD £137,000 5.2 V10 602 bhp 7spd DCT 3.3 secs 20.5 mpg 330 g/km FOR £30k cheaper, this is a softer, gentler Huracán AGAINST Like a Grizzly. Looks soft and gentle. Until prodded A slower, cheaper Lamborghini. And not for the first time. Back in 2009 Lambo launched the Gallardo LP550-2 Balboni. Instead of 4wd, it was rear-drive. Lighter, but also a little less powerful, a few tenths slower to accelerate and a useful fistful cheaper. The formula worked for that limited range of 250 cars, so in 2015 it did it for the Huracán, and now again for the facelifted Huracán Evo. Although it has dropped the name of the legendary test driver, simply calling this the Rear-Wheel Drive. And romance is dead. But then it…

“NOTHING ABOUT THE ZOE EGGS YOU ON, THIS IS A CHILLED SORT OF TOWN CAR” Until now, the only entertaining, desirable small electric cars tainted bedroom air with the nostalgic odour of hot carbon brushes, and took chunks out of the freshly painted skirting board after a power-oversteer disaster at the hairpin bend. 2020’s the year life-size small electric cars start to inspire. Renault’s Zoe was just about the only one worth entertaining until now, but not with a measly 22kWh battery. This wasn’t lost on Renault, who steadily updated its electric Clio alternative, first with a 41kWh battery, and now a 52kWh unit that’s no bigger or heavier than the original battery pack. Progress in action. So, eight years after you were probably underwhelmed by the original Zoe’s stats,…

RANGE ANXIETY… the single greatest barrier to EV ownership and, arguably, an irrational one. For EVs to shift from early-adopter curiosity to a mass-market transport solution, the charging infrastructure needs to be so ubiquitous in its availability, and swift in its delivery, that anxiety becomes an irrelevance. So, in the interest of science and, if I’m honest, to try to banish my own concerns, we need a challenge. Just how far can you travel, around Europe, in an electric car in 24hrs? Context adds an interesting perspective to this story, because as I sit here in lockdown while Covid-19 wreaks global havoc, the thought of having the freedom to travel through as many countries as you want in 24hrs is the stuff of distant dreams. We will get back to…

It drives like a Porsche. That’s all you need to know really. Probably better than Porsche’s other supersaloon. Sitting low in the Taycan’s seat, every point that meets your hands and feet is gorgeously exact, perfectly weighted, and connects you intimately with the machine’s efforts. Efforts which are grippy, controlled, unflappable… and almost hair-raisingly fast. The depth of engineering, both mechanical and digital, could have ended up as a confused and off-putting bag of contradictions. Instead it came out both consistent and soulful. Look, we’re not blind to the Taycan’s issues. It’s a saloon with a rather snug back seat. But then, how many times do you see an M5 with four adults inside? The bigger drawback is the electrical bit. Porsche reinvented electric drive, with elevated voltage and a…

“WE’RE ABOUT TO WITNESS THE GREATEST LEAP IN PERFORMANCE THE CAR WORLD HAS EVER SEEN” How do we feel about the future of hypercars? The future beyond the Aston Martin Valkyrie and AMG One? The future where petrol simply can’t compete? We know it’s coming, even if so far all we’re seeing are pictures and promises. We know how power dense an electric motor is, so can work out that if you stick one of those little fellas on each wheel, you ain’t in Kansas anymore, Dorothy. A new lexicon to learn, and new names to apply it to. Rimac is an electric tech pioneer, the C_Two is simply the showcase. Pininfarina has spent over 100 years making everyone else look good. For its first production car, it’s going to…

ELECTRIC MOTORSPORT HAS BEEN AN EXERCISE IN COGNITIVE DISSONANCE EVER SINCE FORMULA E REALLY STARTED RAMPING UP ITS PR EFFORT. Motorsport is all about the competition, the challenge, ego-versusego to find out who’s best. It is also – and nobody likes to admit this – fascinating because those egos often lead to crashes. Big, bits-flying-everywhere pile-ups that do interesting things with the physics of speed. And all of these things, Formula E does with gusto. Except that motorsport is also about an innately visceral thrill for the spectators; the smell of vaporised hydrocarbons at live events, the noise, the very real chance that these highly tuned engines might explode and do exciting things with fire. You can’t remove the lungs and liver from an entity and expect it to function…

“My team manager Trevor Foster phoned me when Michael did his first test for us in the car at Silverstone, 33 laps, on a part of the circuit we used for shakedowns,” Eddie Jordan tells me. “I remember Trevor calling to ask me to check that all the cones were in the right place, that nothing had been changed. When I asked him what was going on, he said, ‘the speed this guy is carrying through the corners is like nothing I’ve ever seen’.” The Michael in question was, of course, Schumacher. It’s part of motorsport lore that the (statistically) greatest Formula One driver of all time got his big break in the 1991 Belgian GP, replacing the otherwise deposed Bertrand Gachot in only the 11th F1 race for the…

WHO’S GETTING MARRIED? Nobody, but I should be so lucky to have such a fine old thing as this immaculate ‘58 S1 Continental Flying Spur to ferry me around on my wedding day. Back when it was new more than 60 years ago, it cost its first owner a whopping… £8,034 – 10 times the average UK salary, or about £195,000 in 2020 money. Today’s Flying Spur is relatively cheap in comparison – at £168,300 it’s only around five times the average UK salary. LOOKS LIKE YOU GET A LOT MORE CAR FOR YOUR MONEY, TOO The Flying Spur is physically far bigger than the S1 – longer, wider and heavier – but cars are just bigger nowadays. Easier to drive, too, thanks chiefly to a steering wheel and pedals…

Porsche Panamera REPORT 5 £85,865 OTR/£103,815 as tested/£1,086pcm WHY IT’S HERE It’s one of the world’s cleverest PHEVs. But will it stay relevant? DRIVER Rowan Horncastle Audi RS6 HELLO £98,850 OTR/£101,700 as tested/£1,158pcm WHY IT’S HERE Is the RS6 everything to everyone? With bells on? DRIVER Ollie Marriage WE WERE ABOUT FOUR HOURS INTO FRANCE WHEN THE TEXTS started pinging. “Geneva motor show cancelled.” Rowan and I were unfazed by this development. It was Friday, we weren’t due in Switzerland until Monday and besides, we had plans for the weekend. Plans that involved two super-estates, a ski resort and a pair of roof boxes. You join us in a pizzeria a couple of nights later. OM: Well this has been thoroughly pleasant. Mountains, fresh snow, beer and Netflix in the…

REPORT 3 £25,295 OTR/£25,295 as tested/£350pcm WHY IT’S HERE To see if the original baby crossover can reclaim its crown DRIVER Esther Neve HERE’S A QUESTION: WHAT DO YOU CONSIDER TO BE THE HALO car of the Nissan range? Take your time, don’t rush into a decision. Who am I trying to kid? You know why I’m asking… the answer is the Juke. When you’ve stopped laughing, I shall continue. To be honest, it’s not something I would have entertained myself until Ollie Kew mentioned to me that the Juke is the prime recipient of all Nissan’s swanky new technologies. Let’s have a look at the list… the Tekna+ as standard gets: Intelligent Around View Monitor (with moving-object detection and forward-collision warning), Pro-PILOT (with traffic-jam pilot, lane-keep assist, intelligent cruise…