Innholdsfortegnelse for Awards 2020 i BBC Top Gear Magazine

There are easier ways of getting across how highly we rate the new Defender than turning it into an XXL gold bar, but none would look nearly as good on the cover of TopGear. It was an interesting phone call, asking Land Rover if it minded if we wrapped its baby up like a burrito, or worse, like one of those city-dwelling supercars whose sole purpose is hanging around the back of Harrods, revving their knackers off. Sign-off went all the way up to Gerry McGovern – designer of the new Defender, a man notoriously difficult to please and one fully aware of the time and effort spent by the colour and trim department to perfect a restrained, premium palette. Fortunately, Gerry agrees with us that when you’ve pulled off…

A. LANGE & SÖHNE ODYSSEUS When a descendant of the original company founder relaunched A. Lange & Söhne in the early Nineties, it was a great day for German watchmaking. No more Soviet-style watches, Glashütte was back in the fine watchmaking business. The Odysseus is new for 2020 but builds on several Lange themes, such as the separate-digit large date at three o’clock, balanced by the day of the week at nine o’clock. The 40.5mm case is white gold, as are the hands, which are filled with luminous material. With black rubber strap and water resistant to 120m. With automatic, in-house movement boasting 50-hour power reserve. From £35,100; alange-soehne.com GLASHÜTTE ORIGINAL SEAQ You can buy cheap watches from eBay with Glashütte on the dial, but those are rudimentary Eastern Bloc…

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£18,000 THE MOST CURSORY GLANCE AT THE SPEC SHEET propels the Smart Fortwo into our Must Try Harder slot. These days it comes only with electric power. It seats just two. It can get a mere 60-odd real miles before needing almost an hour of recharging. And it costs as much as a decent petrol supermini. Or, more damningly, a Seat Mii Electric. Such a short range? OK, it’s 75 miles WLTP, but out on the open road you’d be down to 60. And since rapid chargers are so far apart in the countryside you’d stop well before. But you’d want to stop, because the Smart is hopeless at speed. All that said, Smart evangelists can legitimately argue another position: to judge the Smart in that light is like judging…

2020. Hardly a belter of a year, eh? Back in the early summer, Germany seemed to be the only country doing anything right. Where was France? And come to think if it, where is France now? It’s only been a late run from the Far East that has saved 2020 from being a total shocker. That’s right: hot hatches. Where have they all been? For months the only news story was the Mini GP, a car with all the dash, vim and vigour of a Chris Whitty press conference. But now look – there must be as many new ones as there are claimed vaccines. Two months ago, we wanted affordable heroes at Speed Week and the Mini GP and MkVIII Golf GTI were the only two we could rustle up.…

Rolls-Royce’s Ghost is powered by a 6.75-litre twin-turbo V12 that makes 627lb ft of torque from just 1,600rpm. That amount of twist from such a modest crank speed is one of the things that makes the Ghost so special. Cast your eye across the instrument display; there’s no rev counter, because a Rolls-Royce divorces itself from the conventional methodology of forward motion. Instead, you get a ‘power reserve’ gauge, and at a 70mph cruise you will have almost 100 per cent at your disposal. It’s an old Rolls trope, but it doesn’t stop it from being a good one. Yet here we are on a Devon farmyard with a piece of machinery that makes the Ghost look more like a 2CV. This is Thor, a 1954 Scammell Pioneer tank recovery…

Emerging from the gloom in just a pair of pyjama bottoms, the owner of a luxuriant coppery chest rug crunches across the gravel before gruffly enquiring, “Just what the f**k do you think you’re doing?” Photographer Greg hastens adjustments to his camera mounting, illuminated in the torchlight from the topless gentleman’s iPhone. This guy is positively bristling, and it’s apparently not with enthusiasm for the rare and coveted supercar I’ve just inadvertently driven straight through his beauty sleep. He notes the Ferrari’s numberplate, and trains his camera on my abashed mug as Greg retreats, offering sincere apologies. “This is a private f**king residence,” he seethes. My dashboard says it’s five degrees, I’ve got a coat on and the heater maxed but this bare-footed, semi-naked Viking isn’t even shivering. Clearly he’s…

£: TENS £: HUNDREDS £:THOUSANDS £: MILLIONS…

£: TENS SKIDPAN TRAINING Best fun you can have in your own car? Absolutely. You’ll find skidpans all over, but why not team fun with charity and sign up for a Mission Motorsport course at Thruxton? It’ll cost you £40, but no tyre damage whatsoever. £: HUNDREDS DIY ADVENTURE Everyone knows the North Coast 500 now, but are you familiar with the North East 250? Shorter route, more accessible area, but the Cairngorms are still home to some truly epic roads and scenery. Plan your 2021 adventure. £: THOUSANDS ICE DRIVING IN SWEDEN Head to where Santa skids. Why not tell the family you’re off to see him, then put them in the passenger seat of a rally ‘sleigh’. Plenty of options, but our favourite is Below Zero which has…

This is a serious car, for serious driving. We know this because no other production car has ever hammered around the Nordschleife faster than the AMG GT Black Series. Have you watched the lap? Undramatic, isn’t it? Did you notice how early Maro Engel got back on the throttle, how direct and confident his steering inputs were, how faithfully the car seemed to respond? And how the conditions (practically dark, still noticeably damp) were a lot less than ideal? This is a consummate performer on the track. A road car that looks, acts and feels more like a GT3 racer than any other. Personally I’d like the steering to have more weight just to remind you of how hard the front end is having to work, and the brake pedal…

no longer that car. It has evolved. Sure, there are commercial variants, but you feel like they’re going to be used as work vans by companies with the word ‘artisan’ in the strapline, and even with plug-in hybrid variants, a Defender is never going to be in the vanguard of an eco-revolution. But this is a car that confounds its detractors, satisfies in all the right ways. There’s just one problem: if Land Rover has itself already framed the Defender as the toughest and most extreme, how are we here at TopGear, pioneers of the extravagantly pointless exercise, ever going to turn that particular volume right up to 11? The answer comes via the fine chaps at Baldwin Crane Services and some heavy duty strops. Because we’re going to show…

1948 TUCKER 48 Doesn’t the Tucker 48’s central cyclops eye look ridiculously cool? Useful too – it turns with the front wheels to light up corners 1968 DODGE CHARGER Second-gen Charger used a vacuum-operated cover for its headlights. Looks like an angry whale shark when the cover is down 1977 PORSCHE 928 Porsche’s V8-engined grand tourer is a lovely thing and those bug-eye headlights are iconic. Arguably the best popups we’ve ever seen… 1989 ALFA ROMEO SZ Has there ever been more of a Marmite car than the SZ? We adore it. The square headlights are a delightfully Eighties confection 1991 CIZETA V16T We repeat, pop-up headlights are the greatest – so why settle for two when you can have four like the Cizeta V16T does?…

SUBARU VIVIO T-TOP (1994 Price now £6,999 Harris says What we have here is a targa two-seater smaller than a Fiesta with an engine of just 658cc. Yet, like the Nineties Subarus I usually extol the virtues of, it also has big spotlights and a bonnet scoop. Joyously odd. DETOMASO CHARADE GTI (1997) Price now £8,950 Harris says The stock Daihatsu Charade GTI has a good rep: a revvy 1.6-litre produces 104bhp and has a mere 835kg to shift. This one, though, is an obscenely rare special that wears the badges of DeTomaso. No idea why. HONDA CITY TURBO II (1986) Price now £14,999 Harris says A Turbo II recently featured on these very pages. Cute wedgy design, game little turbo and optional 50cc scooter that slots in the boot.…

Stephen Dobie When ‘my’ i30N left the TG Garage for the last time, my colleagues impishly played a heartbreak playlist on Spotify. But I really was heartbroken. It’s like Hyundai’s engineers had a photo of me on their desk as they imagined the target customer of their first hot hatch. Its 271bhp made it quick, but not pointlessly so. Grip levels were perfectly matched too; handfuls of silly oversteer if you wanted it, but plenty of security when you just needed to get home. Firm suspension, riotous thirst for fuel and its divisive baby blue paint? Just the extra bits of effort the most satisfying performance cars ask of their driver. A Civic Type R remained the hot hatch class swot, but the i30N was the slightly mischievous kid we…

REPORT 4 VOLVO XC40 PHEV A lot of complicated stuff going on under the surface here - electric, petrol, regen. The XC40 juggles admirably, leaving you largely oblivious. But Just occasionally, the brake pedal serves up the mildest wobble of unevenness. It's marginal stuff, and certainly not enough to truly dent the XC40's overall sheen of solid professionalism. But hey, nice to have something to complain about, right? SP REPORT 2 AUDI E-TRON SPORTBACK Peace: one thing this car does very well. While we like our EVs to have some kind of character and sound signature that links with progress, the a-Iron's total lack of it and the acoustic glazed side windows (£595) make It a truly peaceful place to travel. You progress silently on a raised perch totally isolated…

WHAT: LAND ROVER DEFENDER WHERE: CORBY, UK Fun fact – our shiny cover Defender needed 76 pairs of gold lamé hotpants, all recovered from the TG lost property bin WHAT: SNACK TIME WHERE: STAMFORD, UK A Ferrari petrol budget means a McDonald’s food budget. Fortunately that means dinner at Ottolenghi next time we’ve got a Dacia Sandero WHO: STEPHEN DOBIE WHERE: SHEFFORD, UK Disco ball, Seventies tache – Stephen is a revolving bed away from the full Boogie Nights, but the face fuzz is for a good cause WHO: MARK RICCIONI WHERE: CORBY, UK Busted. If we’ve learned one thing in lockdown, it’s that it’s much easier to shoot a group test when all the cars are tiny. You can’t even tell the difference WHO: ANDY FRANKLIN WHERE: DUNSFOLD, UK…

Garmin is calling this new satnav-looking thing “the ultimate training tool” for track driving. Sounds interesting, right? The 7.0-inch touchscreen displays the optimal racing line, while audio tips are given in real time. Wonder if you can still get Arnie or Homer Simpson voices like on Garmins of old… The Catalyst also tracks your lap time and shows if you are ahead of your previous attempt, and will predict your best possible time. Postsession you can review your data and get suggestions for improvements. It’s like having a pro driver in the passenger seat, just minus the white knuckles. Buy.garmin.com; £899.99…

You will now probably be aware that the weird world of motoring influ-journalism has a new doyen – the Toyota GR Yaris. A car people like me simply adore, but in the past, cars like it have been routinely ignored by the buying public. History is littered with cars lauded by professional car testers which sold like hamburgers at a veggie convention – and for once I don’t think the Yaris will suffer that fate, but there are some lessons to be learned from the past. The first is that just because a car company goes to great lengths and expense to make something special, doesn’t automatically mean people – even proper geeks like me – will automatically celebrate it. The launch of the original Clio V6 serves as a…

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Forget about the Bugs Bunny face of the new BMW M3 for a minute. What’s got us really chomping at the bit is what it’s going to be like to drive. And it should be worth waiting for – not just because you can’t look at the front of the car from behind the steering wheel, but also because the G80 generation of Munich’s iconic sports car throws a lot more into the mix. Specifically, questions. Lots and lots of questions. What’s the new twin-turbo 3.0-litre in-line six engine that’s been robbed and modded from the X3M/X4M like? Is it really any relation to the M4 GT3 car? Or are the German engineers talking utter poppycock? Can a ‘real’ M3 have four-wheel drive? Will the new auto box be soggier…

My Car of the Year is the XJ220 – a car I dreamt about when I was a kid, and one I finally got to drive this summer. I remember in the late Eighties, when I was about 12, the car coming out and seeing pictures of it, and everyone talking about this Jaguar that was half a million pounds. At that time, I didn’t even know a car could be that much money. Before we filmed it, they brought it to Alton Towers while we were filming the electric cars, so I got the chance to drive it in the car park, which wasn’t such a good idea. In a new car, you put your foot down, do whatever you want and it does it all for you. This…

Volkswagen is painfully aware of the cost of being on the wrong side of history. And not just from its Nazi-era founding. Since the diesel emissions scandal broke in 2015, it has spent billions in fines, compensation and recalls. The ID.3 is the first representative of a staggeringly ambitious attempt to do the right thing. By 2022 the VW Group will have invested £27 billion (gulp) on the ID.3 and related cars on what’s called the MEB platform and the factories to build it. Across the Group’s brands, there will be dozens of distinct models on the MEB system, in multiple body styles, right across any normal person’s price range. Within four years, well over a million MEB vehicles will be made annually, or as many as Peugeot’s 2019 total output.…

Who would have thought 2020 would see us honouring a front-wheel-drive, plug-in hybrid Ferrari? Time was, if you wanted to save the planet you had the option of a beige Prius or cycling. Of course, some cynics might question how committed you are to the environment when you’re behind the wheel of one of Maranello’s finest – for most SF90 buyers, carbon offsetting has something to do with active aero. But what the eco world needs is more poster cars to make zero emissions truly desirable, and not limited-run exotica, proper series production cars. No one wants to unwrap the Nissan Leaf 2021 calendar on Christmas Day, but the SF90 is a PHEV with looks that turn heads in town even if the engine noise won’t. And yet, despite the…

Leading a race is one thing, so is winning a Formula One driver’s title. But there are few figures in any sport who become a leader off the track, a truly influential voice. Statistically, Lewis Hamilton already sits at the very top of motor racing greatness, but during 2020 he has really found his voice. We caught up with him just before the Turkish GP where he secured his seventh F1 title. CHRIS HARRIS: You’re now the most winningest driver in F1 history – congratulations. What do you think the 16-year-old Lewis would say to you now? LEWIS HAMILTON: Jeez. I don’t remember myself at 16. I think he just wouldn’t believe that this happened. He wouldn’t believe where I am. CH: Do you have one eye on the history…

“IT TAKES THE P1800’S DRIVING DELICACY AND ADDS MUSCLE IN ALL THE RIGHT PLACES” If you’re one of the 10-or-so lucky sods each year who will take delivery of a £380,000 Volvo P1800 Cyan, may I suggest dropping some of your loose change on an original P1800 from the Sixties, too. Only then will you appreciate the lengths Cyan Racing has gone to in order to kiss the very peaks of restomod perfection. While the old-timer is all sorts of wonderful – four and a half metres of sweeps, swishes and swoops perched atop moon disc hub caps – Cyan’s reimagination is better. It takes the P1800’s driving delicacy and adds muscle in all the right places, tweaks the overall proportions to suit (the wheels are moved forward, giving it…

Charlie Turner Given the level of detail that went into the design and actuation of the e-tron’s dual charging flaps, which open with a beautifully judged slick movement, it’s surprising that the same care wasn’t spent on the storage of the cables themselves. Mounted under the bonnet masquerading as an engine cover is a flimsy plastic cable coffin. The lightweight catch and plastic hinges of this feel like they are either the result of severe budget cuts, or the charging flap team had got so carried away with the surprise and delight of the charging points that cable storage was something of an afterthought. It feels strangely at odds with the rest of the quality of the vehicle.…

Movember moustaches Team TG takes on the ‘looks’ of 2020. The spiv, the tally-ho pilot, even the Dick Strawbridge. Raising money for a good cause that’s very close to our hearts Borat Subsequent Moviefilm, Amazon Prime Very late to the party, but this follow up to Borat’s first outing is a cringe fest, on the good scale. Features the best conversation via fax you will ever see TopGear magazine fix You can download the latest edition and back issues direct to your phone or tablet from the App Store. Because when life gives you lemons… settle in and read TG Sausage Party, Netflix Very, very late to the party. Lewd, rude and full of food – this animated film is the only place to find a feuding sausage and douche.…

THE GOOD ALL I HAVE TO SAY IS THAT AZNOM IS MONZA SPELLED BACKWARDS HLamborghini Love it! So bad it’s good Pedro Blank At least everyone will know you’ve arrived FluffyTeeth Looks better than the new M3 Me Looks like a poshed-up Ssangyong Tivoli Paul Smith THE BAD Possibly the ugliest car to come out of Italy since the Pininfarinadesigned Hyundai Matrix! Edgar Carberius I’m laughing so hard I can hardly type Gasser Mac It looks like someone was asked to do a police profile sketch of a Rolls-Royce Dhaval Panchal LOOKS LIKE A WARDROBE WITH A CHEESE GRATER STUCK ON IT Michael Briggs THE UGLY ANYONE GOT A BRILLO PAD FOR MY EYES? Richard Hepburn Looks like a two-weekold carcass of a stranded whale Robert Krempus The best reason…

BOWLER-ED OVER Bowler – builder of superb Land Rover-based off-road racers since the mid-Eighties – has unveiled a 567bhp Defender 110 that’ll do the Dakar Rally and the school run. Proper. BUCKING QUICK BRONCO Stick to what you know best – that seems to be John Hennessey’s motto. Everyone give a warm welcome, then, to Hennessey’s 750bhp VelociRaptor V8 Bronco. Yours for $225,000. PLASTIC SURGERY After it was mocked by literally all of the internet, and even questioned by our own fine writers, the BMW M4’s face has been fixed by German tuner Prior Design. Great success! BUDDY UP Crackers Japanese coachbuilder Mitsuoka has grafted the looks of an old Yank tank onto the hybrid Toyota RAV4, because why wouldn’t you? Chrome is king here.…

“USE MAX REGEN BRAKING TO GET MAX EFFICIENCY” EVs show their efficiency advantage over petrol or diesel cars when speed is rising and falling. Here’s why: every time you touch the brakes on your ICE car, you’re heating up the brake discs, using the kinetic energy of the car, which came originally from the fuel as it accelerated. Whereas in an EV, when you lift offff the accelerator and feel it slowing you down, you’re switching the motor into a generator and feeding the kinetic energy back into the battery as electrical energy. You can re-use it later. So it’s no surprise that many people think the most efficient way to drive an electric car is to switch the regenerative braking to its maximum setting. But actually it’s better not…

I consider myself an open-minded, welcoming citizen of the world. But I am also a proud Brit, and as a true patriot I must speak out against this invasion of our small, crowded isle. Today I stand before you and say: the whole traffic cone situation has got right out of hand. Next time you’re in one of those endless 50mph ‘roadworks’ zones that blight our motorways, take a second to count the cones. Look at them, the tiny orange tyrants in their serried ranks, lining both sides of the carriageway, often two abreast, for mile after mile after mile. Thousands – tens of thousands? – of the joyless, pointy little autocrats, delighting in the tedium they inflict. Impenetrable, aloof, answerable to no one. Traffic cones are everywhere, and they’re…

I know a Porsche 911 Turbo S isn’t exactly an everyman choice, given it costs the best part of £200,000 with some options, but the paradox of the 911 gets more and more interesting as the car gets older. A car whose physics are fundamentally what you don’t want, that turns out to be exactly what you do. The engine’s in the back, so it should just rotate and spin off, but that rear engine gives it natural traction. And with all the electronics there to assist, Porsche has made a car that drives so purely and so easily, and still has all that space inside that you wouldn’t expect. I think it’s a fantastic motor car I really do, a bit big for me now on the road, but…

Aston Martin has had what could be charitably described as a ‘difficult’ couple of years, having only narrowly avoided its eighth bankruptcy thanks to a rescue deal led by billionaire businessman Lawrence Stroll. Now, with Stroll and a new CEO at its head (former AMG boss Tobias Moers), plus Mercedes offering up its next-gen technology in return for a 20 per cent stake, Aston has finally got the breathing room it needs to settle down and concentrate on making some serious coin from its first ever SUV. Welcome to the DBX. And if Aston is to keep the lights on for the next few years, it needs to sell well. Really well. Developed when the going was good(ish) and now tasked with returning Aston to profit, every DBX that rolls…

Sure, the infrastructure has some catching up to do, but there’s no two ways about it: the way things are going with EVs, in 10 years’ time, everyone will be in one. This year I’ve been lucky enough to drive some amazing stuff for TopGear, including the Tesla Model 3, which I loved. But there’s only one that changes the game completely when it comes to electric cars. Everything about it, the size of it, the performance, the handling, the looks you get on the road and its all-round capabilities. It’s just an absolutely mind-blowing, amazing car to drive. And that car is Mr Nippy. When you get in it and start driving, given how much it weighs with two massive Tesla batteries underneath, it’s surprisingly quick – so long…

The petrolhead world collectively gasped. “You can’t do that!” Ford brought the right name back, just on the wrong car. We all associated ‘Puma’ with a revvy Yamaha tuned engine, one of the sweetest manual gearchanges ever, and a telly ad starring Steve McQueen. Not an SUV-wannabe that’d arrived 10 years after Nissan had carved out the niche it was designed to fill. But think what you like about the looks – it never stopped the Juke, did it? – because Ford absolutely nailed the Puma’s second coming. As sweetly poised to drive as a Fiesta carrying lockdown weight but with an ingenious boot to ensure it was genuinely practical. A corner of the market filled with superficially designed products suddenly had one with proper engineering depth. And now there’s…

Bravo Lewis Hamilton, seven-time world champion and all-round nice bloke. TopGear salutes you ANGELA CULLEN Lewis Hamilton hails his New Zealand-born physio, PA and one-woman support bubble as “one of the greatest things that’s happened to me in my life”. Cullen is responsible for Hamilton’s schedule, physical fitness and moral support, with the seven-time champ calling her “the single hardest working woman I get to be around”. THE BRITISH MOTORING INDUSTRY Auto factories rallied to support the NHS even as sales tanked during lockdown. JLR loaned the Red Cross 160 cars, McLaren produced over 13,000 ventilators to treat COVID-19 patients, while Merc’s F1 engine facility teamed up with UCL to design and produce more efficient breathing aids. Cometh the hour, cometh the hands. PIERRE GASLY How does a 24-year-old F1…

1 FLIGHT During filming for James Bond’s No Time To Die, the Defender completed a 30-metre-long flight, plus landing and driving away. And yes, the car used for the stunt was the seventh ever made: VIN ‘007’ 2 SWIM With an ‘official’ wading depth of 900mm, New Defender can handle the wet. But with the optional official snorkel, we’ve seen them essentially scuba diving through rivers and lakes. Perfect for that moist shortcut 3 TOW As with other large LR products, the Defender can manage 3,500kg towing – more than enough for most. But in terms of sheer pulling power, it’s been seen dragging 32-tonne artics out of sand drifts in Namibia for fun 4 KERB The Defender is a ‘category 4b’ vehicle – which means it’s tougher than a…

It's all very well resurrecting old Volvo sports cars, but perhaps the world could do with something more along the lines of the forgotten LCP 2000, revealed by Volvo at a Stockholm environmental seminar in 1983. The brief for the 'Light Component Project' was simple but challenging - at least two passengers, maximum weight of 700kg, fuel consumption above 70mpg and make it look as ugly as possible. That last one might be made up, but they would've knocked it out the park. No, the LCP 2000 wasn't about aesthetics or a new paradigm of driver engagement - that's easy peasy. The engineers were given a blank sheet to discover a ruthless new level of efficiency. To give them credit, they almost met the brief. The Light Component Project certainly…

REPORT 3 £50,635/£58,990/£570 WHY IT’S HERE To prove LRs are best when they’re more ‘utility’ than ‘sport’ DRIVER Tom Ford YOU’LL SEE THE DISCO DEFENDING its honour on p38 against the Merc GLB, and it acquitted itself well. The Sport has a calming USP that derives from its off-roadability. Strange to say it, but the fact it is so capable off-road means it’s less focused on being pseudo-sporty, and that’s a welcome thing. Every time I get into it after a long day and fire up the excellent Meridian stereo (a £630 option), journeys just seem a little less stressful. It’s been a busy month for it. We went and traced some lineage by tracking down an original Freelander, chased a vintage Aston and did some light off-roading when I…

HELLO £26,230/£30,655/£tbc WHY IT’S HERE Can Skoda still do practicality at an attractive price? DRIVERs Adam Waddell A FEW YEARS AGO I RAN A SKODA Octavia vRS estate and loved it. It looked good, had more than enough performance, handled well and was a practical family car. Running that also gave me a benchmark for the all-new Octavia which arrived in September. Ours is the SE L First Edition, which was the rangetopping model until Skoda launched the vRS version in November. It comes with LED headlights, 10in satnav display, cruise control, leather steering wheel and microsuede upholstery. Our test car has options totalling £4,425: the significant items being 18in alloys (£340), head-up display (£595), metallic paint (£595), full matrix LED headlights (£1,575) and a ‘virtual pedal’ which allows you…

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