Innholdsfortegnelse for March 2021 i BBC Top Gear Magazine

Here at TopGear, we consider ourselves eagle-eyed observers of Britain’s roads, able to spot, say, a pre-spoiler MkI Audi TT at a thousand paces. Yet, weirdly, no one at TopGear can ever recall having seen a Nissan Pulsar in the wild. This seems statistically improbable, as there are apparently 21,000 Pulsars on British roads today. But still, to the best of our collective recollection, no, nada, nothing, not a sausage. Of course, it is quite possible we all pass many Nissan Pulsars (Pulsum?) on a daily basis, but entirely fail to clock them. Because that was the problem with the Pulsar, which went on sale in 2014 to great fanfare (OK, medium fanfare) before being quietly withdrawn from the UK market four years later. It was beyond bland. Boring. Duller…

Toyota launched a new fuel cell Mirai recently and it’s just so much better than the old one. Yet in Britain it will remain just as irrelevant. Hydrogen costs almost as much per mile as petrol, and is to be found in only about a dozen filling stations. But in some countries the fuel is cheap and generated renewably and there are lots of pumps. There, the Mirai makes both environmental and financial sense. Toyota has managed to drive the price down to match pure-electric cars. Fuel cells have been the future for much of the past. A decade ago futurologists said electric cars wouldn’t be able to do long range, so they’d be good for commuter cars only. We figured quick-refuelling FC cars would dominate for long journeys. Then…

A Christmas Eve unveiling wasn’t the only odd thing about the McLaren Sabre’s reveal – the covers were whipped off not at the Woking HQ, but by McLaren Beverly Hills on the shiny floor of a Californian dealership. Looking like a more voluptuous take on the Senna, the Elva is a US-only special, of which just 15 highly personalised examples are being built. It’s produced by McLaren’s MSO division, rather than being pumped out from the ‘regular’ Ultimate Series line that’s borne the Speedtail and Elva. You’re looking at the most powerful non-hybrid McLaren production car yet. Homologating the car specifically for US federal standards has allowed for ‘ideas and innovations’ not usually permitted by more general, global homologation rules. Its twin-turbo V8 produces 824bhp and 590lb ft, enough for…

Toyota hopes when it sells you a Supra that you don’t twig how much BMW there is underneath. But we car nutters know. Because engines and chassis and operating system are integral to the soul of a car. So, to a degree, is where it’s made. Isn’t it? Is a Supra in a dealer in Osaka a local product? No. All the world’s Supras are assembled in Graz, Austria, by a company called Magna. You will correctly guess that the same plant also makes the BMW Z4. In the past it has contract-built various other BMWs and Minis. Certain Mercedes too. These days that same factory also makes the Jaguar I-Pace. Is the Jaguar any the less British for that fact? Does an Austrian VIN plate further erode the Supra’s…

“A CHILLY WET DAY BRINGS ITS CHASSIS MISCHIEVOUSLY TO LIFE” £45,995 FOR It’s 100kg lighter, and it really feels it AGAINST Some character’s gone with the two cylinders Rarely has a car stirred up so much debate. The return of the Supra badge whipped up insatiable excitement, before its BMW drivetrain tore a fault line in the forums. And this new entry version isn’t going to win around the doubters. Gone is the Munich-sourced 3.0-litre straight-six, replaced by a Munich-sourced 2.0-litre four-cylinder to really play fast and loose with the Supra’s heritage. It’s good for 0–62mph in 5.2secs and a 155mph top speed, the former a second down on the 3.0. But it’s about more than raw numbers. As well as offering a seven grand saving, it’s 100kg lighter (at…

“MIURA,” PEOPLE WILL SCREAM AT THE NEXT SENTENCE, but here goes anyway… It was the Countach that properly established Lamborghini as the world’s number one purveyor of supercar otherworldliness. Yes yes, the Miura was technically revolutionary (mid-engined) and intriguing (transversally disposed V12), and most of all heart-stoppingly beautiful. But that beauty is both profound and accessible because it’s a synthesis of other beautiful things: the surfacing and graphical tropes of the prettiest front-engined stuff of its era, such as the Ferrari GTO or Alfa TZ2, and the proportions of a Sixties mid-engined racer. The Countach though. The Countach was – and remains – something else. No part of its coachwork is ordinary. The bonnet and windscreen share a single flat plane. Another principal plane is twisted: starting ‘upright’ with the side…

Ah, 1983. The year that Michael Jackson invented the moonwalk and Richard Noble set a new land speed record in the delightful Thrust 2. You could be forgiven for not remembering that this was also the year Renault unveiled its Gabbiano concept at the Geneva motor show. The concept was penned by the gifted fellows over at Italdesign in Turin, led by legend-in-his-own-pencil-case Giorgietto Giugaro. Now, we’re not saying that the chaps at Italdesign were slacking by this point, but it must be remembered that during the Seventies they had designed the Volkswagen Golf, Passat and Scirocco, Audi 80, Alfa Romeo Alfasud, Lancia Delta and Hyundai Pony. You would understand if they were telexing it in. The car’s party piece was its full-length ‘seagull’ doors (we’re suddenly glad that the…

SO THAT’S WHAT 24 YEARS OF PROGRESS LOOKS LIKE? Yup. If you stretch the smallest of the Land Rover range back into the glorious mists of the late Nineties, the Freelander L314 is what you get. Originally called the Pathfinder project and codenamed CB40 – after Canley Building 40 where the concept was developed – the Freelander was Land Rover going modern: a monocoque instead of chunky ladder chassis, attainable, smaller and less off-road focused. It did well, with well over half a million sold. WHAT’S THE TIMELINE BETWEEN THAT AND THE RED ONE? Well, the 1997 Freelander originally came in three- or five-door and also a ‘softback’ convertible, as well as a commercial van variant. That model continued – with some tweaks – until 2006, when it was replaced…

01 1959 Morris Mini-Minor One of the most recognisable and influential cars of all time, as significant culturally as, erm, engineering-ally. The earliest Minis, called either the Morris Mini-Minor or Austin Seven (Mini wasn’t a brand until ‘69), were powered by an 848cc A-series engine making just 34bhp. 02 1961 Morris Mini Cooper John Cooper’s F1 cars won the F1 World Championship in 1959 and ‘60. He was good mates with Mr Mini, Alec Issigonis. And lo, the Mini Cooper was born, a more powerful, better handling Mini designed to go racing. Which it did, with much success… 03 Paddy Hopkirk’s 1964 Mini Cooper S The further upgraded Mini Cooper S landed in 1963, and almost immediately won its class at the Monte Carlo Rally. In ‘64 Hopkirk famously drove a Mini to…

A Porsche Taycan too sporty for you? An RS7 too petrol-y? Well, the new Audi e-tron GT is right up your street. This isn’t the first pure-electric Audi of course, that title goes to its ever-growing line-up of e-tron SUVs, but the first based on the J1 platform shared with TopGear’s 2019 Car of the Year, the Taycan. Let’s get the salient numbers out the way first. There will be two flavours of e-tron GT initially – e-tron GT quattro and RS e-tron GT. That’s right, this is also the first electric Audi to wear the RS badge. No pressure. Both have a motor at either end for fourwheel drive, both have the same two-speed gearbox as the Taycan on the rear axle to elevate efficiency at higher speeds and…

Big news, space fans! There’s a new six-wheeled, one-tonne exploratory rover the size of a Mini Cooper parked on Mars. Perseverance is the largest, most advanced rover NASA has ever sent to another world, and getting it to land on the Martian planet was no mean feat. Seriously, if the thought of parallel parking into a tight space gives you sweaty palms, you’ve got to give props to the parking job NASA just pulled off. Perseverance left Earth seven months ago and has since travelled 293 million miles to Elon Musk’s future home. It punctured the Martian atmosphere at a pretty brisk 12,000mph, and then began its approach to touchdown on the dusty red surface. The spacecraft’s self-guided descent included using a heatshield to slow it down to a still…

Two-tone, or not two-tone? If the watches on these pages don’t look quite right to you, then the Big Book Of How Stuff Must Be Done is on your side. The biggest style rule of all is don’t mix metals. Gold next to silver or steel is a big no-no. Well, somebody ought to tell these watchmaking people. The golden rules have been forgotten, and there are two-tone watches by the tonne. It was not always like this – bi-coloured watches have come and gone before, rather like two-tone cars. Back in the Fifties, cars like the first-gen Corvette and the Austin Healey 3000 made two-colour paintjobs super cool, but the concept faded during the second half of the century until the modern Mini ushered in a do-as-you-bleedin’-like era where…

At first glance, Dash Dash World looks like just another game that’s been copying Mario Kart’s homework. The difference here is that it’s played in virtual reality, either on PC or Oculus Quest, meaning that you’re actually sitting in the kart, steering with one hand and hurling power ups with the other. It’s surprisingly challenging simultaneously holding a drift arc and strafing the leading pack with a handheld minigun. Races take place on the requisite sweeping, swooping tracks, which take on dizzying new scale in virtual reality, though mercifully there are some motion sickness comfort settings. Dash Dash World’s bigger problem is that its vacant, doll-like avatars and bland circuit scenery mean it’s severely lacking in character in comparison with Mario and his chums. Still, you can’t physically grab an…

01 First constructor champion: Vanwall VW5 Despite the first official race taking place in 1946, there wasn’t actually a constructors’ title until 1958. That went to British marque Vanwall thanks to three wins each by Stirling Moss and Tony Brooks, though Moss lost the drivers’ crown to Mike Hawthorn by a single point. 02 First race winner: Alfa Romeo 158 There’s a lot of argument over when exactly F1 officially started. There were pre-war Formula One cars, but the FIA only introduced an official championship for drivers in 1950, when Alfa Romeo’s 158 won all six rounds. And you thought Mercedes was boringly dominant… 03 First winning mid-engine car: Cooper T43 It wasn’t actually until 1958 that the diminutive Cooper T43 became the first F1 car with an engine behind the cockpit to reach the chequered…

Electric crossovers. Not excitement central but about to become very relevant indeed. So you’re looking to spend around £350 per month, but you need room for four full-size humans and a decent sized boot. The truth is that EVs remain pricey, which brings us to the three contenders you see here: staging posts on the mass market invasion. Park any lingering badge snobbery, embrace the crossover concept and things get quite interesting. Kia’s cuboid Soul has been around since 2008, a hit with hipsters in America, and a key component in the brand’s thoughtfully executed escape from the bargain bin over here. More recently, the pure-electric Soul has outsold its ICE siblings to the extent that this all-new car is now only available as an EV in Europe. It uses…

HONDA CIVIC TYPER GT £36,420 FOR Mesmeric handling and steering, huge boot, gearbox AGAINST Looks. Also sounds a bit dull, more costly to run VOLKSWAGEN GOLF GTI CLUBSPORT £37,215 FOR Notably keener and better than a regular GTI AGAINST Not as memorable as the Civic, touchscreen interior Clubsport. Good name for a car. If I were Volkswagen I’d have at least written it somewhere on it. Not big, just subtle, a little reassurance for those that know. There are clues if you know what you’re looking for: a new front bumper that’s more gap than tooth so as to get extra air to the larger intercooler, a larger rear wing, some low-key graphics, altered tailpipes. But I want the badge. And, loathe though I am to admit it, bigger wheels.…

£70,690 (£75,490 Performance Battery Plus) FOR Cheapest Taycan is suitably fast. Spend savings on options AGAINST Very little, unless you suffer from Tesla speed envy Interesting car, this: the baby Taycan. It’s the only flavour of Porsche’s electric fastback with no extra letters or words after its name – no ‘4S’ or ‘Turbo’ topper. At £70k, it’s £13,000 cheaper than the 4S, which has 4WD and more power. It makes do with only one motor – the 4S’s rear motor, in fact – driving the rear wheels. Officially, Porsche rates the car good for 321bhp, but it ‘overboosts’ to 402bhp when you flatten the throttle. Porsche reckons Taycan buyers add 10-15 per cent onto the base price in extra garnish, tech, and features. At the top of the list for…

THIS IS NEW. NOT AS IN NEW – IMPROVED, BUT NEW AS IN NEW. The first MP4-12C was 25,000 McLarens ago, and every model since has basically been new-improved, or new-cut-price. They run different versions of the same V8 engine with more or less power and sometimes hybrid boost, the same seven-speed transmission, basically the same suspension, different versions of the same composite tub (well, except the three-seat Speedtail). The Artura chucks away all that hardware, while, you’ve got to hope, embodying the knowledge gained in a decade of ceaseless optimisation. Every single one of the systems I listed in that first paragraph has been swapped out for something entirely fresh. New as in new. It’s a plug-in hybrid. Which is why it sits here alongside the P1. The Artura’s…

AN OFF-ROAD HIGHLAND FLING Is the new Land Rover Defender the ultimate off-roader on sale today? To settle this important debate once and for all, Paddy, Chris and Freddie headed to the wild Scottish Highlands with a new Defender 90, and two of its closest rivals: the Mercedes-AMG G63, and the Ariel Nomad. The latter of which is, let’s be honest, a) not really a Defender rival in the mind of anyone save Flintoff, and b) utterly inappropriate for a winter expedition across the coldest corner of Britain. Obviously, deciding which of these fine contenders was the ultimate off-roader would require some serious, objective testing. Less obviously, these serious, objective tests included high-speed clay pigeon shooting, and racing to deliver a massive lightbulb to the UK’s most remote lighthouse. Because…

Who’s Mini, and when did it start making cars? Like many of the world’s biggest car brands these days, Mini was once just a model name. In the late Fifties, the Suez Crisis had caused a worldwide fuel shortage and small car sales were booming. In response, boss of the British Motor Corporation Leonard Lord ordered Alec Issigonis to design something small and affordable without compromising on interior space. Issigonis and his team pushed all four wheels to the far corners of their new design, before fitting a transversely mounted engine and gearbox to drive the front wheels. Oh, and the looks weren’t bad either. The result was a revelation and remained in production with only minor tweaks until 2000. BMW acquired the Rover Group in 1994 and kept the…

Hyundais are cars we admire but don’t necessarily desire. Until now. The Ioniq 5 is the first to use the brand’s new Electric-Global Modular Platform, so it’s hugely significant. It also references the Seventies Pony, the hatch (designed by Giugiaro) that first gave the brand traction outside South Korea. Not sure how many really remember it, but somehow that little nostalgia kick really works. The result is a sharply surfaced example of the perfect post-modern BEV. Hyundai has thrown everything and then a bit more at it. Choose between a single-motor rear-drive version or all-wheel-drive dual-motor one, with a 58kWh or 72.6kWh battery. There’s a multi-link rear suspension too, promising genuine handling smarts. The Ioniq 5 uses 800V battery tech so it can rapid charge from 10 to 80 per…

I was into cars a little bit as a kid. My dad went through a period of thinking he was the boy in Essex, at which point he had a few Porsches and a couple of Ferraris. My mum loved a Capri. She actually had a Tickford Capri that was built by Aston Martin. It was a blinding car, really rare. I was never obsessed with cars, but like anyone when they pass their test at 17, I wanted the best possible car. The first one for me was a white Ford Escort LX. I put a set of alloys on it and when I look back now it makes me cringe so badly. About a year after that I went and bought a blue Escort XR3i. A proper Essex…

1 ITS ENGINE IS FROM A RACECAR Its 4.0-litre flat-six engine steps across from the 911 Cup racer almost unchanged. With 503bhp, it’s a mere 10bhp up on the previous GT3, while 0–62mph in 3.4secs and a 199mph top speed make it marginally quicker than the car it replaces in a straight line. 2 IT’S REALLY FAST AROUND THE ’RING The 992 GT3’s 6:59.927 Nürburgring lap time is not only 13 seconds quicker than the 991, but six seconds quicker than the more senior last-gen GT3 RS. Not to mention knocking on the door of the Porsche 918 Spyder’s lap time. This is hypercar pace, basically, but with an unhypercar price, starting at £123,100 in the UK. 3 YOU CAN HAVE MANUAL OR PDK As before, it’s RWD, gets four-wheel steering and a…

£34,970 (after gov’t grant) FOR Fresh looks, neat handling, lots of trim choices, refinement AGAINST Dodgy ride and squishy brakes, plasticky cabin This’ll become a familiar face on Britain’s streets: the new face of Vauxhall. Literally. The new Mokka wears the ‘Vizor’ front end and sharply creased flanks that we can expect all over Vauxhall’s new range of Peugeot-ified cars. On the evidence of the new Mokka, the superb styling and inherited underpinnings are going to be quite the revolution for the griffin badge. This new Mokka manages to look fresh and modern without seeming overdone, and proves to the likes of BMW, Audi and even Ford that you don’t need to plonk a huge, fake grille onto the front of a car to make it look assertive. What’s more,…

£30,395 (after gov't grant) FOR Unmistakable looks, great comfort AGAINST No quick version. But it wouldn’t work anyway Two decades after hatches and SUVs interbred to make crossovers, the mutation of car morphologies gives us hatch-crossover mashups. Three parts hatch, one part SUV. Hatchovers? Some fail: Subaru XV anyone, or Focus Active? Will Kia’s new entrant suXCeed? Yet Audi shifts shedloads of Q2s and Toyota its C-HRs by telling us they’re crossovers. Into these muddy waters wades the new C4, its only wellies being raised ground clearance and plastic skirting boards. It’s not a totally daft idea. A raised body allows for long-travel suspension and thin big-diameter tyres – great for comfort. The roof’s lower than a crossover, and the tail is teardropped, easing the air resistance. The overall effect…

JAGUAR XF P300 R-DYNAMIC HSE £44,760 FOR Vastly improved infotainment, quality AGAINST Engine lacks low-speed refinement Jag’s forgotten saloon staple seeks to arrest sales decline with major makeover. Only 4cyl engines now, the 2.0-litre petrol making 296bhp in the P300, but 201bhp MHEV diesel’s a better bet. Ride and handling remain impressive, but the main event is the new Pivi Pro infotainment with fast, simple to use 11.4in touchscreen. Major progress on interior quality, with much improved attention to detail. It’s cheaper to buy, too. JB AUDI E-TRON S £86,285 FOR Tesla-embarrassing build quality, oh-so refined AGAINST Badly inefficient, heavy for a five-seat crossover The sort of people who buy £90,000 Audi sports 4x4s don’t habitually put on thermal underwear, leave the car in Eco mode, or cower in the…

I HADN’T EXPECTED THE PANIC TO SET IN QUITE THIS SOON. It’s 11am and two of us are running around Dunsfold trying to track down jerrycans. It’s the sort of place you’d expect to find toppling stacks of the things, an old RAF base now full of MoT testing centres, classic car and motorsport specialists, aviation and transport companies. The whole place is a tribute to petrol. And yet our search throws up just one jerrycan. It’ll have to do. I scurry off to the fuel station, where I buy every petrol can on the shelves and have them rummaging around in the store room for more. I trundle gingerly back to base with 45 litres of high octane petrol sloshing around in the back of our long-term Honda e.…

We lost the trees a few miles and about a thousand metres ago, the tough, battle weary grass losing its quiet war with the terrain not long after. Now it’s just lichen and rocks, the top of this mountain a bare tooth in the jaw of the world, biting into the clouds. Those clouds are dragged low, wreathing the view in soft crowns of fluff, blurring the edges of the landscape. This far up there are no birds, and the shy marmots we saw earlier – podgy little mountaineering beavers that they are – don’t bother with these elevations, mainly because there’s nothing to eat but gravel, and you can’t survive winter on the fat of pretty vistas. It’s quiet. And it remains so as I crawl the car up…

“IF WE CAN’T MAKE IT TO DIE GRÜNE HÖLLE, WE’LL FASHION OUR VERY OWN ANSWER HERE” Blind brows, rollercoaster dips, vicious off-camber kinks sprinkled in four seasons’ worth of weather and the constant spectre of dawdling traffic spoiling a perfectly hooked-up lap. Patches of slippery shade lurk opposite wooded thickets, where the feeble sun hasn’t penetrated the filthy slush. This morning’s rain drip-drops from branches overhead, greasing the surface long after the shower has ended. The new Golf R momentarily skates over the frozen splodge before resuming its heat-seeking missile obedience, but we’re closing in on traffic. This could cost us time, but the train of slowcoaches check their mirrors, note the blaze of LEDs coming in hot, and move over. Danke. We’re on for one heck of a sector.…

Where Vantage used to be a suffix, it’s now a model line. And beside the four seater with the plush headrests, this newer, 503bhp iteration can’t help but feel more lithe and agile, not least for its lack of rear seats and its less useful boot. It’s flighty and aggressive where the V600 is languid until riled. Yet it also exhibits the same muscle car vibe – especially if you’ve experienced a recent 911 or AMG – and weight and width feel just as evident here as in the car's forefather, even if the newer Vantage’s steering reactions and cleverer electronics inspire several layers of extra confidence. It still feels like a clumsy corner exit could overcome the lot, especially in manual trim with a gearbox that’s even more brusque…

“THERE’S NO ALARM OR IMMOBILISER. IN FACT, THERE’S NO ACTUAL KEY” There are many things you don’t expect to find in a racecar. Cup holders seem fairly obvious, aircon also a tad excessive. As for a radio? Only if it’s being used to shout obscenities at your engineer. Moaning about the (lack of) driver comforts is a bit like buying a house next to the sea and wondering why your gates are rusty. There’s a simple solution to both of these issues; buy something else. Ferrari never intended the 360 Modena Challenge to go on the road. Which is absolutely fine up until you put one on the road and then realise it’s missing some fundamental basics every road car should have. There’s no alarm or immobiliser; in fact, there’s…

Nowadays the Mille Miglia road race is essentially a driving holiday for investment bankers and the odd celebrity chef. Back in the race’s Fifties and Sixties heyday, though, it was a breakneck lap of Italy on public roads, cutting through rolling countryside and blasting through provincial towns frightening the locals. It’s exactly that lunacy that the 1994 game 1000 Miglia: Great 1000 Miles Rally sought to recreate, albeit crunched down into an isometric arcade racer. The game’s toybox selection of 10 cars was ripped straight from decades of the race’s history, including the iconic Stirling Moss 722 Mercedes 300 SLR, and each was blessed with a remarkably throaty engine note and the ability to shoot a five foot sheet of flame from the exhaust. Your grand tour started with you…