Innholdsfortegnelse for October 2020 i BBC Top Gear Magazine

Just look at it. Feast your hungry eyes upon its crisp, classical lines. The bejewelled headlights, the snub nose, the just-so proportions. And now imagine just how flaccidly the Alfa Spider must have driven to achieve the status of bona fide #fail. Imagining it? Not quite you’re not. Bit more, bit more, scooch to the left… there you go. Rubbish, it was. Call it an achievement of sorts: delivering a driving experience shonky enough to outweigh those considerable aesthetic charms. But the Spider managed it. Its chassis offered the structural rigidity of warm hummus, and more scuttle than a rat marathon. One can only assume Alfa spent the Spider’s entire development period lovingly finessing its bodywork, and got to the day before launch before someone quietly murmured, “Um, guys. Shouldn’t…

My first motor was a Morris 1100 that cost me £640 with a year’s tax. It would have been 1964, when I was 17. Racing green. ENO 848B. It was a great little car. I met my wife Sandra when I had that car. The relationship between footballers and cars has changed massively during my career. I was rewatching the 1966 World Cup final the other night and I said to Sandra when Martin Peters scored – Martin passed away recently – that before I had the Morris I used to get off the bus in the morning about four miles from the West Ham training ground at Chadwell Heath. It was usually a long walk, but Martin had a little blue Ford Anglia and he would often stop and…

We can guess exactly what you’re thinking right now. You’re pondering why these rather lovely retro sunglasses look so familiar to you. Well, we’ll put you out of your misery, because these are the sunnies Matt Damon sported while playing Carroll Shelby in the 2019 film Le Mans ‘66, and they are now available for us non-movie folk to buy too. Designed by LA-based eyewear firm Entourage of 7 and handmade in Japan, the frames are made from zyl acetate and are supported by titanium hinges. Uncrate.com; $319…

1 IT’S WATCHING YOU Cameras in the ceiling watch the occupants and, terrifyingly, they learn your habits. This allows the ‘Interior Assist’ to basically read your mind. Turn your head around from the passenger seat and the car lowers the rear sunblind in case you’re about to be dazzled. Reach across the dashboard after dark and the cabin lights illuminate where you’re looking. Very cool. Bit creepy. 2 IT’LL NEVER GO OUT OF DATE As well as observing how often you pick your nose, the S-Class now also learns from the internet. The screens and even the headlights are just a couple of the 50 electrical systems that download over-the-air updates, keeping the Merc flagship brimming with the latest tech and meaning fewer visits to dealerships, apparently. Give your driver…

An uncanny amount of the world’s greatest fast vehicles hail from this slither of northern Italy… Something’s in the water in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy, because the coffee’s delicious and the east-to-west area known as ‘Terra dei Motori’ also does a rather fine line in world-class road and racing machines as well. Hence ‘land of motors’. Here, you’ll find the house Enzo Ferrari himself had built in the grounds of the Ferrari factory. His office is preserved as he left it, complete with his fountain pen containing the purple ink cartridge. The likes of the SF90 Stradale, GTC4 Lusso and 812 Superfast are still built a stone’s throw away, with secret new prototypes testing on the Fiorano circuit providing the backing track. There’s also the Ferrari museum. Lamborghini…

Ross Brawn had a year off, back in 2007. After helping mastermind Ferrari’s imperial championship run, he elected to hang up his headphones and strolled away from the pit lane. His public persona is avuncular, a perception that’s backed up by his love of fishing and gardening. It was time for a rest and reset. But as good as he is at catching salmon, Brawn is also a master when it comes to dealing with Formula One’s piranhas. Few if any people have survived and thrived at F1’s pointiest end as successfully as Brawn, and now he’s guiding the sport’s entire destiny. A former apprentice who was hired by Patrick Head as a milling machinist for Williams in 1978, he worked his way through the ranks in Eighties F1 (not…

When it comes to home motor shows there’s a real pressure – you want to wow the local crowds and show the world that INSERT COUNTRY HERE is the one to beat when it comes to car design. At Paris or Frankfurt in particular there has always been a bit of healthy competition between native brands to pull off the biggest showstopper. Citroen certainly ground things to a halt with its Karin concept at the Paris show in 1980, but this was no bold vision of the future – rather, the French firm apparently didn’t have anything to show that year, so someone was sent to the design department to ask if they wouldn’t mind terribly coming up with something tout de suite. It didn’t even have to be driveable.…

SURELY YOU’RE NOT GOING TO PUT THESE HEAD-TO-HEAD? Of course not, there’s 40 years between this pair of Octavias and it’s difficult to imagine how much everyday motoring has improved since the original – so named because it was the eighth car Skoda built after WW2 – was launched back in 1959. We’ll spell it out by pondering the spec of this brilliantly beige 1964 Octavia Super – the 1.2-litre 4cyl engine produces 46bhp and drives the front wheels through a backwards 4spd gearbox. Top speed is 74mph, there are hydraulic drum brakes all round, unassisted worm and nut steering and, although there are coil springs up front, the rear suspension is a transverse leaf spring. This is probably the precursor to the Skodas that your parents still joke about,…

HELLO £54,340 OTR/£55,050 as tested/£504pcm WHY IT’S HERE Is the new Supra a better daily than a Porsche Cayman? DRIVER Rowan Horncastle EVERYONE BOW AND SAY KONNICHIWA TO OUR LATEST TG GARAGE recruit. Or should that be Guten Tag? It can only be the new Supra. A car consumed by a maelstrom of scrutiny because of its dual citizenship. And one of the main reasons we want to run one long-term. In case you didn’t know, the new A90 Supra shares platform, running gear, engine, gearbox and large chunks of the interior with the BMW Z4. Collaboration between companies isn’t anything new, especially for Toyota – which came out the better for the GT86/Subaru BRZ project and went threesies with Peugeot and Citroen for the Aygo/108/C1 – but this one…

GOODBYE £40,995 OTR/£50,555 as tested/£465pcm WHY IT’S HERE A 3-Series estate is one of motoring’s ultimate yardsticks DRIVER Andy Franklin I’M SAD TO SAY THE 320D IS GOING THIS MONTH, AND I’M EVEN sadder because my final three months or so with the car were ultimately cut short and ruined by COVID-19. Why? Because it stopped me from driving it. As I lovingly gazed out the window at it in lockdown, I was itching to get back out there. My weekly highlight of driving to the shops just wasn’t enough. At one point, I even considered asking the whole street if they needed their shopping done. Sadly, it wasn’t to be. So, as soon as lockdown was lifted and we started shooting again, I grabbed my chance. I headed out…

REPORT 2 £22,815 OTR/£23,595 as tested/£285pcm WHY IT’S HERE Does an EV have to be pricey to be good? DRIVER Tom Harrison MANUFACTURERS MEASURE THE EFFICIENCY OF THEIR CARS USING something called the Worldwide Harmonised Light Vehicle Test Procedure (WLTP). For petrol and diesel cars this gives you fuel consumption and CO2 while for an EV it gives you range and energy efficiency. WLTP is miles more accurate than the old NEDC test, but it still isn’t perfect. Some cars are better than others, but best practice is usually to take the manufacturer’s claimed range and subtract maybe 15 per cent, thereby giving you the kind of distance you can expect to cover between charges. Though obviously range still varies massively depending on how fast you drive and the weather.…

GOODBYE £58,335 OTR/£74,755 as tested/£613pcm WHY IT’S HERE Is this the thinking family’s Bentley Bentayga? DRIVER Adam Waddell READ PRETTY MUCH ANY REVIEW OF THE VW TOUAREG – INCLUDING some of mine – and you’ll learn that it shares its underpinnings with the Bentley Bentayga, Lamborghini Urus, Porsche Cayenne and Audi Q7. However, if you think its understated looks mean you get less of a vehicle, you’d be wrong. Everyone who steps into the VW is pleasantly surprised by the quality in the interior. It uses top-notch materials and is well laid out – and of course everyone is blown away by the huge infotainment screen which blends seamlessly into the driver’s instrument panel to give the impression of one huge piece of glass. The 3.0 V6 TDI engine is…

Ten years after he memorably introduced five new Lotuses to the world in one greedy hit, Dany Bahar has slimmed down his ambitions. No longer the CEO of Norfolk’s premier carriage maker, he’s now based in Modena, Italy – the boss of his own company, Ares, an atelier building its reputation on bespoke one-offs and its Legends Reborn series (modern supercars reclothed in garb inspired by icons of the past). See his Panther ProgettoUno homage to the De Tomaso Pantera, it’s quite the thing. We caught up with Dany to discuss his latest project, the audacious piece of supercar design your eyes are currently scanning in disbelief. Called the Ares S Project, it’s a limited run supercar that doesn’t look to the past for ideas; it’s an object all of…

Ah, we see that you passed the bank balance background check to gain access to this story. Only Rolls doesn’t want that image for this second-gen Ghost. It says the styling reflects a ‘post-opulent’ philosophy that ‘rejects superficial expressions of wealth’. Yep, this is what Rolls considers minimalist. There are 20 LEDs to light up that glorious grille though, plus a new illuminated fascia on the dashboard. It’s 30mm wider than the previous generation thanks to its new aluminium platform – the same one from the Phantom and the Cullinan. Minimalist, you say? The Ghost now gains AWD and all-wheel steering, as well as new ‘Planar’ suspension that incorporates an upper wishbone damper unit. There’s more tech to make things very comfortable too, including the ‘Flagbearer’ system that scans the…

THE GOOD Alleluia alleluia alleluia.Carruba Jaw dropping.Hazy leftie In the end, no matter what the numbers represent, Maserati has always been the looker and I would take it over the BMW, Merc-AMG or Audi.D.Darstardly Quite a ballsy move!Dante71 Good.Janos Jurko Maserati should be commended for this. A Ferrari V8 is never a bad thing.John Macklin THE BAD It’s nice and all, but I guess that lack of AWD will severely hinder its sales potential. There is a reason that both AMG and BMW switched to AWD in this segment.desf They should’ve done this a long time ago.A.Smith The Giulia Quadrofoglio you buy new with no regret, while this will be a great secondhand buy in 2–3 years’ time with under 25k on the clock for under 40k.Andrie THE UGLY When…

Sigh. Yet another two-seat, mid-engined supercar that snatches 62mph from rest in under three seconds and tops the 200mph mark. Butterfly doors, all-carbon construction, an eight-speed dual-clutch paddleshift, rear-wheel drive and clever electronics. It will be exclusive, yet bespoke. Track ready, yet a comforting daily driver. Simple, but complex. The script is getting old, and you’d think in a world increasingly turned on by efficiency and covert consumption, another addition to the supercar ranks would slip quietly into the long night. But this one is made by Maserati. Maserati. Suddenly, we’re listening. The reason that ears are pricked is mainly because Maserati is still an effortlessly cool brand. If you couldn’t work a Merak or Khamsin into your retro fantasies, then at least there’d be a place for a blocky…

USEFUL PHRASES 1 “Can you help? My Lamborghini has broken down.” “Aiuto, la mia Lamborghini è esplosa!” Eye-oot-oh, lah mee-ya Lam-bor-geen-y eh ess-plose-ah! 2 “Could you point me to the nearest pizzeria?” “Sto morendo di fame, dove posso farmi una pizza?” Stoh more-end-doh dee far-may, doh-vay poss-oh far-mee oon-a pits-ah? 3 “There must be some problem with the speedo, officer.” “Stavo provando un record di velocità. Ce l’ho fatta?” Stah-voh pro-van-doh oon ray-kord dee vell-oh-cheeta. Chey loh fat-ta? 4 “Oh dear, what happened there?” “Ma che cazzo fai?” Mah kay cats-oh fye? HELPFUL HAND GESTURES The PINCH Gather the fingertips pointing upwards. Relax your hand and wave it gently backwards and forwards – it’s all in the wrist. The pinch is used to add emphasis to a question. “Che cosa?”…

IMOLA LENGTH: 3.60 miles CORNERS: 11 MOST MEMORABLE MOMENT: Tragically, nothing else that has happened at Imola can overshadow the fact that Ayrton Senna died here in 1994. SCARIEST CORNER: Tamburello, obviously. The corner that claimed Senna. Before him Berger, Piquet and Patrese all had major shunts there. The corner has been reprofiled but remains a challenge. QUICK FACT: Renamed Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari after Il Commendatore’s death in 1988. CAN I HAVE A GO?: Yep. Have a look here: autodromoimola.it. MONZA LENGTH: 3.05 miles CORNERS: 21 MOST MEMORABLE MOMENT: The 1960 Grand Prix, the final win for a front-engined F1 car. And of course the car at the front was a Ferrari, the 246 F1. SCARIEST CORNER: Parabolica, until the gravel trap on the outside was replaced with…

ENZO FERRARI WAS A BORN SALE SMAN, knew how to spin a yarn, and loved playing up to the showbiz and monied elite that were knocking down the Maranello door by the end of the Fifties. True, he wasn’t always wholly complimentary about them, and the road car enterprise was a lucrative means to an end. That end being motor racing. Take your pick from a list of extraordinary competition Ferraris during that decade: the 750 Monza, 290 MM, and 250 TR alone would be enough to dine out on forever after, though there were countless more where they came from. But the truth is that Ferrari’s GT cars are the foundations upon which the House of Enzo was built, a series of stunning front-engined V12s, almost exclusively bodied by Pinin…

GOODBYE £69,995 OTR/£78,490 as tested/£785pcm WHY IT’S HERE Can this new breed of Jaguar tackle the dominance of Tesla? DRIVER Paul Horrell TO SAY FAREWELL, I WANTED A TRIP TO REMIND MYSELF WHY I LOVE having the I-Pace. Which is summed up in ‘Good Stuff’ below right. But also, 2020 is supposed to be the year EVs take off, lifted by tax changes. Has there been any easing of the reason I’ve occasionally loathed having the I-Pace: Britain’s insanely inconvenient and catastrophically unreliable roadtrip rapid-charge network? Final reason for the trip, I had a home-charge point installed on my family’s farm in Cornwall, powered by our solar array. I wanted to test it. There are lots of street-side overnight charging points in London. I plug in and set the timer…

GOODBYE £28,875 OTR/£29,425 as tested/£353pcm WHY IT’S HERE What’s it like to live with a SkyActiv engine? DRIVER Sam Philip DESPITE THE INEXORABLE RISE OF EVS, DESPITE THE EXPONENTIAL improvement in battery tech, it’ll still be a long time before an electric car is the best solution for every driver in the world, all the time. Which is why we dearly, dearly wanted Mazda’s compression ignition SkyActive X engine to live up to its billing. That billing, specifically, being ‘a petrol engine with the economy of a diesel’. So is SkyActive X a game changer for petrol? After living with it for six months, nestled within the nose of a top-spec CX-30, the verdict is: nearly, not quite. In over 5,000 miles of driving, we averaged a jot below 40mpg:…

REPORT 5 £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 HAVE YOU READ THE DRIVES GROUP TEST ON P40? IF NOT, THAT MIGHT be a good place to start this month. I had both RS6s at home for a bit and it was fascinating. The grey car was vastly higher spec than my Launch Edition car, but the only things I’d really have liked were the Alcantara steering wheel and keyless locking. Oh, and the carbon brakes. And the DRC suspension. That’s about £15,000 of options right there. Ouch Yeah, I’d have swapped. A few days later, with the grey car gone, I was off to Wales, travelling up separately from my family, with just bike and paddleboard for…

When the Model T Ford was introduced in 1908, there were several different colours, including green and bright red. But as production rates cranked up and prices came down, Henry Ford famously decided to make black the only choice. The message was clear: being picky is for the rich man, your average Joe will take what he’s given. The same thing went for most watches, until recently. Back in the days of the pocket watch, the man in the street barely got a look-in, let alone a choice. In the 18th and 19th century it was standard practice to commission a bespoke pocket watch, perhaps adorning the case with your family crest, or a biblical engraving. Because watches were built largely by hand in relatively small numbers, individualising them was…

We all know the formula for a great Fast & Furious movie. Desirable cars, daring heists and Vin Diesel saying the word ‘family’ at frequencies so low they can only be detected by seismologists. On paper, then, Fast & Furious Crossroads looks like another classic instalment. Spinning an entirely original yarn and introducing brand new lead characters, you’re invited to join Dom, Letty and Roman as they attempt to take down the Tadakhul, a near-mythical band of highway robbers turned techno-terrorists. The problem is, the game constantly feels on the verge of shaking itself apart. Crossroads is ambitious, but the technology just doesn’t seem up to the challenge. It is positively riddled with glitches, ropey graphics and frustratingly woolly objectives in missions. After about four hours, you’ll have wrapped up…

Alfa Romeo Giulia A starter button on the dashboard? Zzzz. Somehow, it’s more interesting – more Italian – to have it on the steering wheel. Audi does that in the R8 V10. Lots of Ferraris do the same. But the Alfa Romeo Giulia brings a slice of that exotic action to a family saloon. Mini Cooper A clever idea to keep the Mini’s toggle switch traditions: turn the engine start-stop button into the biggest toggle switch of all. Somehow this red tongue protruding from the Cooper’s dashboard is just more inviting than a standard starter button. Aston Martin DB11 Some cars have starter buttons made from plastic. A few of them use cool-to-the-touch metal. But Aston Martin uses glass, and it looks and feels darn expensive. This replaced the irritating…

If you put a grunty great V8 at one end of a car, and an equally gargantuan boot at the other, what have you got? No, not a superestate. At least not straightaway. Because before that what you’ve actually got is A PROBLEM. Encapsulated in those two elements is the ultimate automotive dilemma – which comes first, practicality or performance? A chasm lurks across that wheelbase between roaring motor at one end and cavernous boot at the other. I don’t think there’s a type of car with a clearer – or broader – separation of duties than a superestate. A hot hatch? No, because we’re prepared to suffer a slight comfort and refinement shortfall. A fast SUV? Pull the other one. Name me one that’s actually as good to drive…

ALFA ROMEO GIULIA QV £67,195 FOR Subtly brilliant engine and chassis, gorgeous to behold AGAINST No option for 4WD or estate versions Why waste effort trying to paint a more captivating Mona Lisa, or giving Usain Bolt tips for quicker finishing? Alfa hasn’t restyled the Giulia and has left dynamics well alone. Good. Instead, the effort has gone into the places where it lagged. It’s now got the option of a £1,500 pack with level 2 assistance on motorways and jams, and blind spot assist. And the infotainment is competitive. The screen’s better, it’s touch-sensitive and it’s connected. PH PEUGEOT e-2008 GT-LINE £32,915 (after £3,000 govt grant) FOR Future-y styling. Good range and decent drive AGAINST Driving position, bit pricy, touchscreen/infotainment The e-2008 shares much with the e-208, but the…

So much is new, and yet it’s so familiar. You won’t find any component in the new 500 that was in the old one. The car is bigger and uses a new interior, chassis, body and platform. So, most significantly, is the propulsion. It’s electric only. There’s no combustion version. With all this change, they could have made the car any shape they darned well pleased. And they considered a complete design reinvention, according to Klaus Busse, the European design chief for the Fiat Group. All the Group’s studios around the world, including China and America, had a crack at it. And yet in the end they settled on familiarity: a shape designed in Turin, a retromodernised iteration of a 1957 shape. Which was also of course designed in Turin.…

RETRO SUPERCARS What was the greatest fast car era of them all? The Sixties, age of the Miura, E-type and GT40? The… quite-recenties, when the McLaren P1, Porsche 918 and LaFerrari ‘Holy Trinity’ duked it out for your millions? Strong suggestions, but TopGear’s vote goes to the late Eighties and early Nineties, when a gaggle of iconic supercars redefined automotive possibility by smashing past 200mph, and looking utterly awesome while doing so. We’re talking Ferrari F40, we’re talking Lamborghini Diablo, we’re talking Jaguar XJ220. We’re talking ‘really long and somewhat heated conversations with the BBC insurance department’. To get near any one of these cars is a pinch yourself moment, to get all three together is, erm, a punch yourself firmly on the nose moment. Look, the boys even donned…

“I DON’T HAVE A YOUTUBE CHANNEL, NOR DO I ASK PEOPLE WHAT CAR I SHOULD BUY NEXT” There’s a shout from across the road: “What exactly is it you do?” It’s my neighbour; I can’t tell you their name as we’ve never actually spoken aside from the odd passing Britishspec wave and raised eyebrows combo. I try to explain, before I’m met with the question of ownership. I’m inclined to both answer and avoid for fear of being reported to the local Neighbourhood Watch for furnishing Rothwell with Columbian booger sugar. It’s a much warmer greeting than neighbour two. He’s spent several years issuing death threats and barely cohesive ramblings on Facebook. In fact, any neighbour who makes a noise louder than a coughing badger has been featured. All without…

To release one earth shatteringly brilliant arcade racing game is impressive enough, but to produce two in as many years starts to look a bit like showing off. Just one year after Daytona USA was released, decimating pocket money supplies everywhere, Sega Rally beckoned us back into the Megabowl with its iconic realworld rally cars, mixed surface stages and pliant, drifty handling. Settle into the hard plastic bucket seat and you’re presented with a difficult choice between the brilliantly nippy short wheelbase Lancia Delta Integrale or the more powerful but unwieldy Toyota Celica GT-Four, both adorned in their legendary WRC liveries. You’d have less trouble picking a favourite child. Championship mode is a mad dash across three varied stages, as you claw your way up the rankings, sawing away at…

HELLO £34,720 as tested/£38,445 after grant/£409pcm WHY IT’S HERE BMW’s brilliant but forgotten EV now thinks it’s a hot hatch DRIVER Paul Horrell A TOPGEAR.COM PAGE NEEDED TO KNOW MY FANTASY THREE-CAR garage. It’s an i3 for most things, a Panamera 4 Sport Turismo for road trips, and a 1955 Jaguar D-type for pure driving. By sheer coincidence, I now have one out of three. But my first two journeys would have been better in the Panamera. Into the i3 we squeezed three bikes (two hung on a rack) and three people’s camping gear. An advanced game of 3D Tetris. But the camp was well within the i3S’s e-range so charging wasn’t a problem. The following week the same three went 250 miles from London to Cornwall. This time, with…

HELLO £29,160 OTR/£29,170 as tested/£299pcm WHY IT’S HERE It’s cool, but can it cope with family life? DRIVER Jack Rix DAYS INTO HONDA E ‘OWNERSHIP’ AND ALREADY I’VE BEEN THWARTED by a flat battery. But probably not the one you’re imagining. Approaching one morning with the key in my pocket I wait for it to sense my arrival and the handles to fire out into my outstretched palm. Nothing. Nada. Turns out it’s the 12V battery that’s let me down, not the 35.5kWh lithium-ion one that’s been roundly criticised for being under-endowed. I learn from the engineer, as he bolts in a new battery (every e comes with free AA roadside assistance for three years), that if you hit the power button without stepping on the brake, a small red…

IT HAD TO BE DONE WHO: ESTHER NEVE, BRAND MANAGING EDITOR Wind the clock back to 2006 and the launch of the 20th anniversary Saab Cabriolet. It’s winter and I’m in the Dolomites – the sun is blazing down, the thermometer is reading-5°C… and I’m coasting along with the roof defiantly down. Every person I see waves enthusiastically, lorry drivers on the motorway blare their horns in admiration, respect or maybe bewilderment. Very cool. But very cold. PLEASANT POLIZIA WHO: STEPHEN DOBIE, DEPUTY EDITOR, TG.COM The cliché is that Italian police see a nice car and gesticulate for its driver to speed up, not slow down. Something I’d always believed to be hogwash until I was driving an Alfa 8C Spider toward the Stelvio Pass early in the morning (tough…