Innholdsfortegnelse for March 2023 i BBC Top Gear Magazine

Editor @jack_rix editor@bbctopgearmagazine.com Getting some face time with any one of these industry giants is a huge opportunity, hard earned. Getting John Hennessey, Gordon Murray, Mate Rimac and Christian von Koenigsegg together at the same time, in the same place… yeah, good luck with that one, Jack! And yet, through dogged determination, the juicy carrot/potential deterrent of a night out with us at the TopGear.com awards and some sizable planet alignment, there we were, on the top floor of a pub next to TG HQ. Me, squeezed into my wedding suit, fumbling in the golden tombola of topics, perched opposite four of the world’s most influential men in shaping what the high performance car did, does and will do in the future. It was quite the scoop. We wanted to…

You could see where Lotus was coming from. Its featherweight, bare-bones Elise was famously great for whanging down a B-road, but terrible for whanging across a continent. So why not transform the Elise into a bit of a grand tourer? As it turned out, plenty of good reasons why not. Trying to GT-ify an Elise proved rather like… trying to transform a whippet into an Arabian stallion. Can’t be done, at least not without violating several important laws of ethics and nature. Not that Lotus didn’t give it a good shot, ditching the Elise’s nat-asp Toyota engine in favour of a Vauxhall-sourced turbo unit, treating it to a leatherier interior, raising the roofline, and improving NVH levels from the Elise’s baseline of ‘zero NVH’. Problem was, what Lotus ended up…

Chances are you’ll have heard the annoying little ditty made by someone’s Ring doorbell phone app in the office recently. If you have, you’ll know this notification is usually followed by a shouting match about where should be considered a ‘safe place’ for a parcel delivery. But Ring’s video doorbells do offer an extra layer of security for your home, and the Amazon- owned company is now branching out into cars. The aptly titled Ring Car Cam will act as both a standard dashcam when you’re on the move and a motion-activated CCTV camera when your car is parked. Time to catch those crims in the act then. Or perhaps you’ll just catch your neighbour putting the bins out. Still, can’t be too safe… ring.com; $249.99…

1 YOU SPIN ME RIGHT ROUND BABY, ETC Mazda’s rotary engine is back in action in the to charge up a comparatively small 17.8kWh catchily named new MX-30 e-Skyactiv R-EV. Don’t get too excited though – it’s been popped in a new range-extender version of the MX-30 crossover battery and isn’t connected to the wheels. 2 BYE BYE RANGE ANXIETY The fully electric version of the CX-30 has been heavily criticised for its poor real-world range of around 100 miles (WLTP is 124 miles) that makes it impractical for venturing beyond the city. The 73bhp motor and 50-litre fuel tank will net you a total range of over 400 miles to complement the battery’s 53-mile capacity. 3 IT’S QUICKER THAN THE PURE EV The 168bhp e-motor’s job is to always…

It’s been a while since any manufacturer in the globe-straddling SUV market segment used phrases like “nononsense”, “stripped back”, and “workhorse” in the same sentence. But Ineos is crystal clear about the Grenadier’s purpose. It’s an old school off-roader for people who run farms or drive across – and spend nights camped out on – African plains. No doubt plenty of them will end up parked outside Daylesford Organic in the Cotswolds, but that’s not the Grenadier’s natural habitat. Ineos? You might have heard of it. One of the world’s largest chemical companies, with a growing presence in the energy sector, it’s also a massive mover and shaker in global sport. It owns a third of the Mercedes-AMG Formula One team, runs the Grenadiers cycling team, and is bankrolling Sir…

£36,500 FOR City friendly but countryside capable AGAINST You can’t get a bigger battery or 4WD The Avenger needs presence, because it’s small – smaller than any Jeep since the original Willys. So it’s a blocky looking thing. But it’s blessedly free of pointless aggression. At least in all respects beside the name; like too many SUVs, it sounds like some shoot ’em up computer game. We won’t mention a Seventies Hillman. The design progressively riffs on current and past Jeep cues. Its lamps and painted sheetmetal are inset from the plastic all round the perimeter, so those cheap plastic parts have a sacrificial role against gentle scrapes, in both green lane and bus lane. By the same token, short overhangs and decent ground clearance mean strong off-road creds but…

£310,500 FOR Sublime steering and chassis, friendlier road manners AGAINST Vast cost, the 720S exists and is marvellous The 765LT came out over two years ago now, and when we first drove it we weren’t entirely convinced by it. Sure, it was ultra-fast and had the wonderful communication skills McLarens have built their reputation on. But it was also a little spiky in its manners. A bit too hectic. And that was in warm summer conditions. Now we’ve driven it in winter. Surely that’s not going to improve matters? But somehow, it’s different. Better different. On winter tyres it felt friendlier and less snatchy than it had on Pirelli’s hardcore Trofeo tyres. Still had wonderful steering and chassis feel, but felt less frenetic. So I spoke to McLaren, convinced some…

Gordon arrives first, a little early, catches us off guard. Not that he cares, he’s casual and confident, happy to strike up a chat with whoever’s nearest – hands in pockets, loose-fitting blazer over colourful untucked shirt. His punctuality makes sense, the other three have a combined 6,761 miles of travel to get here, Surrey based Gordon has 28. Mr Hennessey barrels in next – big smiles, even bigger handshakes, thick Texas charm. He and Gordon gravitate towards each other, I flap about trying to find them both a glass of sparkling water – bit too early for a cocktail. Things are going well. Two of our four star guests have arrived, brawling between rival factions of the performance car elite has yet to materialise, and despite Masterchef final levels…

“I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT I’M GOING TO DO WITH THIS Z31, OTHER THAN USE IT AS SOFT PLAY FOR MY DAUGHTER” I have a theory that my border collie is powered by an Eighties Atari games console. And not in a way which requires forceps and an emergency vet; but rather he appears to have no memory or save function. Because despite going out every morning for the past 11 years, at 6:45am a master reset is performed wiping all his previous memory. And, while rebooting, woof.exe is then executed continually until we finally leave the house. Putting him in the car and driving somewhere new doesn’t fix the error either. However, the rumble of my E63 at 2,100rpm does at least cause him to lay down for a…

REPORT 6 £60,645/£71,689/£749 WHY IT’S HERE Does the concept of a lightweight dissolve on contact with Real Life? DRIVER Ollie Marriage IT’S ALWAYS FUN TO UNPICK little stories with cars. This one concerns the £552 Focal hi-fi. Speaker cones (the part that vibrates to make the noise) are normally made of plastic, paper, aluminium or manmade Aramid fibres (often used in body armour). A few years ago Focal started using flax. Flax is made from the stalks of linseed (treated another way it’s what we know as linen). There are several advantages with this, some environmental, some technical: rigidity and damping. Both are crucial to accurate sound reproduction as you need to minimise unwanted vibrations. Flax excels in this. Yes, Focal sandwiches it with skinny layers of fibreglass, but the result…

REPORT 3 £32,995 OTR/£33,820 as tested/£410 pcm WHY IT’S HERE Maybe the best family hatch – just as everyone stops buying hatches DRIVER Vijay Pattni THE HONDA CIVIC eHEV IS ANNOYING. AROUND 90 MILES INTO A 250-mile journey up to the Lake District, it begins to rain. Barring the odd maniac who uses the grubby weather as an excuse to deploy more of their excessively powered car’s excessive power (yes, don’t say it, we know), the rest of the motorway instinctively slows down. Grubby’s the right word. It’s the sort of rain that smears rather than runs, and we slow increasingly in the Honda because the wipers are having a hard time clearing the sludge from the windscreen. It gets harder to see. Fortuitously, a service station beckons, so we…

REPORT 3 £129,750 OTR/£150,050 as tested/£3,272pcm WHY IT’S HERE Can the most powerful M car be a proper luxury car? DRIVER Rowan Horncastle EVER SINCE THE M8 COMPETITION ARRIVED IN THE TGG THREE MONTHS ago, everyone who has driven it has struggled to work out if it’s more of a performance car or luxury car because it’s trying to do both. At the same time. And three months in… we still can’t work out which one it’s better at. One major factor that sways the pendulum firmly to the sportier end of the spectrum is the ride. Yes, the M8 has adaptive air suspension and electronically controlled dampers as standard, but don’t let that fool you into thinking it’s as soft and cosseting as a lazily filled lilo. Even in…

01 Land Rover Series I What else could kick off this list? The very first Land Rover arrived in 1948 as a utilitarian 4x4 for postwar Britain. In production for 10 years, the Series I originally used the 1.6-litre 50bhp petrol engine and gearbox from a Rover P3 and the roof was an optional extra. 02 Centre Steer Before the first production Land Rover came the Centre Steer. This was Maurice Wilks’ first prototype as he developed his idea for a Willys-style agricultural workhorse. The centrally mounted wheel was inspired by the humble farmyard tractor. 03 Land Rover Defender Works V8 Despite having already announced the end of classic Defender production, Land Rover returned to its icon in 2018, celebrating the car’s 70th birthday by fitting 150 examples with a…

269,120 Land Rover’s spiritual home is in Solihull, West Midlands, birthplace of Jasper Carrott and Richard Hammond. The firm still builds the Range Rover, RR Sport and Velar at its original factory location, while the Discovery Sport and Evoque are put together at Halewood in Merseyside at a Ford-owned facility. Those last two are also manufactured at plants in Brazil, India and China. The Discovery and new Defender are made at a plant in Slovakia that opened in 2018. Land Rover sold 269,120 cars in 2022, down a whopping 19.6 per cent on the previous year and well below the firm’s 2016 high of 435,000 sales. The Defender was the only model to increase its year-on-year sales, overtaking the Evoque as most popular model.…

Like a British television show, the original Land Rover could only manage three series before it bowed out gracefully to be replaced by a reboot with fresher switchgear that would polarise the hardcore fans. You know, the same people who confuse poor build quality with character. The new Defender might make people even more furious, but it’s the logical extrusion of the car’s story that started post-WW2 in extreme utility and has gradually added comfort and convenience to cater for the softer demands of modern buyers. There’s no desire to drive a car that’s been to war, but if it can get you to the shops when it snows then that’s marvellous. The new 90 and 110 models of Land Rover – so called because of the length of their wheelbases…

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Lightweight and strong, titanium has been used for everything from armour plating and alloy wheels, to replacement hips and Russian subs. But for more than a century after its discovery by a Cornish vicar, the metal was little more than a name on the periodic table with no real practical use. And its use in the watch industry has always been rare… until now. Landed gent, clergyman and amateur chemist William Gregor first extracted titanium in 1791, while analysing black sand taken from the beach near his family estate in Cornwall. The metal was initially called gregorite after the good vicar, but a man in Germany discovered it independently a short while later, calling it titanium after the Greeks’ mythological Titans, and the name stuck. Titanium did not quite live…

MYTH BUSTER “PLUG WARS ARE OVER” Yeah I know charging away from home is still absurdly hard, because too many charging networks insist on their their own payment cards or apps. But at least we have settled on a single connector for Europe: the CCS, which fits plugs that work for both AC (overnight) and DC (rapid) charging. Even Tesla uses it here, and Nissan is moving that way too. So that’s settled. Not in the US though. There is CCS there, but Tesla has something different. Recently Tesla renamed its proprietary connector the North American Charging Standard (NACS). Tesla claims that by opening its patent it’s generously moving to common ground. But other makers already have CCS. Huh? As background, you might be interested to know that the recent US…

£85,300 FOR Improved range sorts our main gripe with the old version AGAINST Mega pricey if you go crazy on the configurator Audi called its first EV the e-tron because it sounds all futuristic and spacy, but then it called all its electric cars e-trons and to avoid confusion the e-tron has been given a titchy little facelift and been renamed the Q8 e-tron. Which, wait, is already the name of an existing, different, combustion powered model. Oh well. Audi says the illogic will come out in the wash. The exterior has been mildly jazzed up with some fancy grille and bumper options, the interior mostly looks the same and there’s been some token effort at weight saving. An Audi engineer waved a stick of celery in the e-tron’s general…

£32,175 FOR An individual choice, stylish but also plush and roomy AGAINST The PHEV obliges you to change how you drive There’s a lot that the 408 isnÕt. It’s not your normal upright crossover, even though you sit slightly high. It’s not an estate, despite its long wheelbase and big boot. It’s not quite a fastback, yet the hatch tapers down elegantly. Peugeot already makes one of each of those – the 3008, 308 SW and 508 – so there’d be little point in replicating them. So maybe the 408 is pointless. Or maybe, as Pug hopes, you’ll just like it because you like it. It’s the design, see. And boy there is a whole lot of design going on here: plastic cladding, creases, vents, dips and bumps and flicks…

I fully expected to encounter a selection of snakes, scorpions and flubber-lipped camels in Errachidia – a dusty outcrop where sand meets lush oasis, sandwiched between the Atlas Mountains and the Algerian border. What I wasn’t expecting was bumping into a two-time world rally champion called Walter, a man who is quite open about Morocco being his least favourite driving destination. “Rallying here in Morocco, in the dunes, it’s Russian roulette. I didn’t like it. I want a smooth road where the fastest man wins, not the luckiest one,” Mr Röhrl tells me over a thimble of mint tea. “Me, going fast here? You must be crazy.” He’s got a point; the landscape Porsche has parachuted us into is fairly… unforgiving. We’re staying in a bivouac-style camp at the foot…

HOONICORN You’ll remember it as the carbon-bodied Mustang that gave Matt LeBlanc a smoky taxi ride around London. In fact, this 845bhp version was just taster of things to come, with a V2 arriving later that Block called “the most frightening thing I’ve even driven.” Yeah, a pair of turbos, methanol injection and 1,400bhp will do that. HOONITRON Block joined Audi with the brand on something of an electric kick, with the Hoonitron featuring a twin-motor AWD set-up and a sound eerily reminiscent of the Tamiya cars we had as kids. And probably the same instant-on acceleration. It was proof that how wheels are spun means much less than the fact that wheels are spinning. GYMKHANA THREE FIESTA If you’re not as old as us, there’s a fair chance that…

TWO 911s WITH BIG WINGS AND STICKERS. THAT’S PROGRESS? Don’t judge a car by its decal package. Admittedly, the 2010 997.2 Generation GT3 RS possesses a 3.8-litre flat-six with 444bhp that revs to 8,500rpm while the 2022 equivalent, the 992 GT3 RS, has a 4.0-litre nat-asp flat-six revving to 9,000rpm and produces 518bhp. The newer car is also nearly 100kg heavier. So, not much progress you’d think. But you’d be wrong. In the 12-year gap between these two, Porsche has managed to carve 44secs out of its ’Ring time. POINT TAKEN. BUT HOW’S IT GOT SO MUCH FASTER? Well, they both stick steadfastly to Porsche’s GT division’s rulebook of using motorsport as the guiding light for hardcore road cars; with RSes being harder and faster versions of the already hard…

HELLO £49,520 OTR/£53,270 as tested/£649pcm WHY IT’S HERE Can Mazda join the large/luxe SUV party? DRIVER Andy Franklin SO HERE IS MAZDA’S FIRST PLUG-IN HYBRID. AN ODD SENTENCE TO write in 2023 given how popular electrification is across the car industry. Is the Japanese carmaker dragging its heels or just waiting to get it right? There’s one area where there’s no messing around, and that’s targeting BMW. The CX-60 clearly has its eye on taking some of the market away from the BMW X3. If it was based just on looks alone, Mazda would be winning. I hope the driving experience lives up to the same level. Under the bonnet there’s a four-pot naturally aspirated 2.5-litre engine, 173bhp e-motor and a 17.8kWh battery that give a combined power output of…

HELLO £28,710 OTR/£29,310 as tested/£409 pcm WHY IT’S HERE Does the sharp-suited new Astra prove you don’t need that SUV? DRIVER Sam Philip REALISED SOMETHING THE OTHER DAY. IN TWO DECADES OF DRIVING and owning cars of varying decrepitude/sensibleness, I’ve never genuinely considered purchasing a Vauxhall. Maybe it’s me rather than the cars, but I’ve never found Vauxhalls have nailed the sensible-yet-interesting conundrum with the same regularity as, say, Ford. But with Ford apparently scarpering out of the regular hatchback segment as fast as its spangly new crossovers will carry it, that leaves a neat space for Vauxhall – with its recently rediscovered sense of style – to fill. And on the face of it, the new Astra looks just the ticket. For starters, it is a proper, trad hatchback:…

GO TO TOPGEAR.COM FOR EXTENDED TG GARAGE REPORTS, AND TO EXPLORE THE ARCHIVE HELLO £59,545 OTR/£65,521 as tested/£665pcm WHY IT’S HERE Is this the SUV antidote you never knew you needed? DRIVER Peter Rawlins THE VW MULTIVAN’S ARRIVAL TO THE TOPGEAR GARAGE COULDN’T have been better timed for me, the day before I was due to head to Cornwall for a Christmas getaway – mum, brothers, partners, dog and all our luggage in tow. Hardly the gentlest of introductions, then. Despite its name, the Multivan is actually not a van, instead sharing the same platform as its VW car counterparts. Ours is the plug-in hybrid and mates a 1.4-litre petrol engine with 114bhp e-motor and 13kWh battery, for a combined total of 215bhp and up to 31 miles of e-range.…

GO TO TOPGEAR.COM FOR EXTENDED TG GARAGE REPORTS, AND TO EXPLORE THE ARCHIVE GOODBYE £46,100 OTR/£50,415 as tested/£686 pcm WHY IT’S HERE Can a luxury French car cut it against its established rivals? DRIVER Esther Neve TALKING TO STRANGERS IN SUPERMARKET CAR PARKS HAS BECOME pretty standard for me since I began working at TG. [Oo-er! ed] New motors attract car people as surely as moths are drawn to a flame. My most recent encounter was with a father and son interested in whether the DS would be a good replacement for the dad’s company Mercedes. They both loved the way the DS looked, the uniqueness of the offering and the fact the 9 remains pleasingly rare. They were in no doubt at all that the DS was more than…

The Land Rover brand has moved itself inexorably upmarket in recent years to try and lift itself above the fray, but you can get yourself into one for less than you might think. The Evoque range starts at £34,010 for the base model, which comes with LED headlights, a 10in infotainment touchscreen, heated front seats and smartphone integration. Likewise, the cheapest Discovery Sport is a mere £400 more than that. The fancy pants new Range Rover is the most expensive car the company sells, with the SV model starting at £171,575. For that you get a bespoke bodykit, 22in wheels, posh seats, air suspension and 13.1in rear seat entertainment screens to keep whoever is in the back amused. If you’re still not happy, Land Rover’s Special Vehicle Operations division will…

The only reasonable answer here is the Range Stormer concept, which was shown at the 2004 Detroit motor show. It previewed the Range Rover Sport, which launched a year later, but also heralded the beginning of Land Rover’s expansion into new territory. The rakish three-door SUV was powered by a 370bhp V8 and designed to tackle the Porsche Cayenne. There was no doubt it would make production in some guise, nor that it would fundamentally give Land Rover a new, more dynamic avenue of attack. The finished article didn’t have three doors and it wasn’t quite as sporty, but the marker had been set.…

CITY CARS These small cars are perfect for urban life, but the trade-off is a much lower range 1. HONDA e PRICE: £36,920–£38,120 RANGE: Up to 136 miles This TG favourite has retro styling and a brilliant interior, but it’s a smidge expensive and the range isn’t great. Somehow we can’t help but love it… 2. FIAT 500 PRICE: £30,645–£36,645 RANGE: Up to 199 miles The latest version of the 500 offers sharper looks, good value and decent range – and a parcel shelf full of soft toys shouldn’t hurt the battery too much. 3. CITROEN AMI PRICE: £7,695–£8,695 RANGE: 47 miles Say hello to your little French friend. The pared back Ami is the perfect car for the city streets, as long as you don’t have ambitions to go…

EVERYONE IS TALKING ABOUT DEE NEUE KLASSE BMW’s i Vision Dee concept previews a fully digital future, but takes inspiration from the past “ONCE INSIDE, THE i VISION DEE GOES FULL ON MATRIX” BMW has resurrected an old name for its new electric car. And this isn’t it. This isn’t BMW’s new, um, “Neue Klasse” – a reference describing its game-changing saloons from the Sixties that morphed into what we now know as the 5-Series – but the second in a triplet of concepts exploring various aspects of what the neue Neue Klasse will represent. Where 2021’s BMW i Vision Circular concept explored notions of sustainability, this new BMW i Vision Dee concept instead goes far deeper, to the very future of the car itself. At least according to BMW.…

No factory Corvette has ever been this fast. Or this electrified. Marking 70 years of one of the world’s most famous car names comes a bit of a shock: the all-wheel-drive hybrid Chevrolet Corvette E-Ray. Yes, it’s a play on Stingray, but there are no games to be had here, just pure pace and traction. There’s the familiar naturally aspirated 6.2-litre small block V8 onboard, mounted in the middle which was already a first for a Vette. That sends 495bhp to the rear wheels alone. There’s an eight-speed dual clutch box at work here too. Then comes the electricity, in the form of a 160bhp electric motor sitting on the front axle powered by a 1.9kWh battery mounted in between the seats. Altogether, this electrified Corvette – the first ever…

Need for Speed: Unbound Need for Speed: Unbound has to boast the series’ most baffling subtitle yet. What exactly has been Unbound here? The rulebook, in the process of tearing it up? It doesn’t seem so because, for the most part, this is the familiar Need For Speed formula on your PC, PS5 or Xbox. The only real change is the new stylised visuals, hastily scribbled speed lines and tyre smoke which look not unlike the drawings in the back of our Year 9 maths exercise book. Ironically, given the title of the series, Need for Speed: Unbound is not for people in a hurry. Progress can feel painfully slow, though the racing and police chases remain powerfully compelling. What the game’s not interested in is a gritty portrayal of…

THIS MONTH: FERRARI 296 GTB STORAGE KING You might not expect it, but the 296 GTB also has a big front trunk that makes it quite practical. You can fit two full size duffle bags in there whereas in the SF90 you’ll struggle to get a single backpack in. FLAIR STYLE The rather imposing stripe down the car is part of the £25,000+ Assetto Fiorano package which also adds some extra aero bits, lots of carbon fibre, fancy Multimatic dampers and a polycarbonate engine cover. That’s a whole lot of cash, though. Hybrid supercars are happening, people. For decades we have been used to large engines and lightweight cars, but we are now entering an era of smaller displacement petrol burners that are supplemented by a little battery and an…

£200,000 (est) FOR Digital drift assist and faster gearshifts mean best V10 R8 yet AGAINST Could it have been even sharper? Whatever replaces the R8 as Audi Sport’s speed merchant flagship will, like the car opposite, wear an e-tron badge, with a heap of battery cells and electricity beneath. A mere 16 years after the original V8 R8 became Audi’s first mid-engined road car, you’re now looking at the last one. No, you can’t buy it. Each of the 333 examples has been sold. The limited edition R8 GT isn’t really an ‘aero’ car. Audi says that the sticky up bits together with the extended splitter and taller diffuser generate 300kg of downforce. Sounds like loads, until you delve into the small print and discover that impressive aero load is…

£147,475 FOR Precision, practicality and ability make SL55 huge fun AGAINST Porsche 911 still just edges it, interior not 10/10 There’s been a lot going on in the Haus of SL, and this isn’t a gentle aesthetic renovation so much as a complete foundation-up rebuild: the all-new aluminium platform shares elements with the upcoming AMG GT replacement – four-wheel drive and rear-steer, back seats (hello Porsche 911), and a lighter fabric roof to name but a few. The range consists of SL63, SL55 (both V8s with AWD) and a lower powered, RWD SL43 V6 which is yet to be sampled. In the 55’s case, that means a familiar 4.0 twin-turbo V8 with 469bhp and 516lb ft of torque – respectable, if not desperately impressive for a sports car costing just…

VAUXHALL ASTRA HYBRID GS LINE £37,285 FOR Stylish looks, sensible infotainment set-up AGAINST The PHEV isn’t really the best version to go for I’ve realised I’d recommend the Astra over the current VW Golf to anyone looking for a family hatch and frankly I’m shook. It’s not perfect – the ride’s a bit fussy with the PHEV’s 12.4kWh of battery, and it’s not a swish interior despite Vauxhall’s best efforts. But it all works quite well. Apart from the voice assistant, that’s fairly useless. Usual caveat – only go for the PHEV if you can charge at home, those 42 miles of claimed range run out quickly. SB SKODA KODIAQ SPORTLINE £40,910 FOR Sensible family transport for seven (as long as two are small) AGAINST It’s starting to lag behind…

ROOF TENT It’s £4,400 for the privilege of sleeping on top of your car. Hot water bottle and teddy not included ROOF RACK Yours for £4,679… doesn’t include water canisters and holders (£171 each), sand boards (£233), spade and holder (£262) or a carbon roof (£2,517) WHEELS One wheel design – silver as standard, can be painted white or ‘silky’ black for an extra £5,475. Don’t let us sway you, but white for the win COLOURS Black, white or silver metallic at no extra cost. Shade Green/Shark Blue/Ice Grey all £1,919 extra, or go the whole hog with ‘Roughroads’ paintjob for £18,434, or one of three retro wraps (below) – £4,209 for the Martini one, £2,946 for the others…

Just lovely isn’t it? Winter sun caressing Snowdonia hillsides, a soft relief of highlights easing into shadow. Veils of mist in the valleys. Higher up, a crunchy dusting of snow, the foliage wearing a cutting iridescence of hoar frost. In short a perfect day to set off up a footpath, clear the mind and lift the spirits. Not so great for trying to tease out the dynamic differences between five brilliant cars whose abundant power meets slippy roads through the inadequate mediation of wide summer tyres. So for this morning we’ll enjoy the scenery and let the photography happen. The proper driving is for this afternoon and tomorrow, at lower altitudes. I can barely wait to squeeze open the throttles. Reports of the hot hatch’s death have been exaggerated. The…

It’s quite funny to look back at concept cars from, say, the Fifties and snigger at the sort of advanced tech they were hawking. “Nuclear-powered family cars,” you guffaw. “Not a chance!” And yet even as recently as 2005 the clean diesel engine was the ghost of Christmas future. It’s easy to forget that until Volkswagen spiked the punch the low-emission party was fuelled by the stuff from the black pump. Parsimonious diesels were all the rage at the time in the Volkswagen Group – Audi had its futuristic A2 hatch and Volkswagen itself had popped the Lupo 3L diesel city car on sale in Germany, so called because of its incredibly impressive three litres per 100km fuel consumption (94mpg). But neither of these was particularly sexy, so it was…

Careening into arcades in 1993, Ridge Racer had everything: brightly coloured 3D polygons, silky smooth motion and at least one bona fide ridge on which to race. Usually found parked cheek by jowl with Sega’s Daytona USA machine, these two spectacular racing games vied for your precious pocket money throughout the Nineties. Of the two, Ridge Racer was arguably the more shallow experience, with a more simplistic handling model and, at least in this first incarnation, no multiplayer. If you were a 10-year-old who could barely reach the pedals in the arcade cabinet though, this meant it was far easier to pick up and play. A mere stab of the brake pedal and yank of the wheel would initiate an enormous, tyre-torturing slide. The only bigger drift is continental drift.…

GO TO TOPGEAR.COM FOR EXTENDED TG GARAGE REPORTS, AND TO EXPLORE THE ARCHIVE GOODBYE £18,745 OTR/£19,640 as tested/£313 pcm WHY IT’S HERE Can the cheapest MPV cut the TopGear mustard? DRIVER Sam Philip SEVEN MONTHS INTO JOGGER CUSTODIANSHIP, AND I’VE BARELY discussed the way it drives. Because it’s anonymously dull and acceptable, right? In fact, no. To drive, the Jogger is actually rather better than that. Might seem an insane thing to say about a seven-seat boxy MPV, but it’s bordering on… fun? Genuinely. Despite its small-shipping-container dimensions, when the Jogger’s presented with a decent stretch of road, and an absence of bilious children in the back seat, it squirrels along with surprising enthusiasm, at least by people carrier standards. It’s just another thing I’ll miss about the big brown…

My first proper range test, that cold night of the England-France World Cup game, was 140 miles, or 2.7mpkWh. That was a mixed route of urban, motorway and country lanes. Now the weather’s back to 6–8°C, I’m getting about 180 miles, even on a regular trip that’s nearly three-quarters open motorway. Renault’s engineers predict that’ll improve by at least another 20 miles in warmer temps. PH REPORT 2 CUPRA BORN The Born still has a little way to go before it gets the TG seal of approval as a sporty hatchback EV. There’s a lot to like (as explained in further detail on topgear.com), and it’s 10 times more satisfying than the VW ID.3, but it needs some more depth to the experience. Interestingly, the Renault Megane E-Tech feels more…

GO TO TOPGEAR.COM FOR EXTENDED TG GARAGE REPORTS, AND TO EXPLORE THE ARCHIVE REPORT 2 £45,750 OTR/£48,085 as tested/£761pcm WHY IT’S HERE Is this electrified crossover as good as a bespoke EV from Polestar? DRIVER Jack Rix WHEN IT CAME TO DIVVYING UP THE M8 AND XC40 FOR CHRISTMAS it was inevitable that papa here was going to end up with the sensible, beige Volvo, while Rowan – being young and child-free – was destined to zing about in the Beemer. And I’m OK with that; for haulage of family and sacks of presents, plus round trips to my parents and the in-laws it was just as a Volvo should be – rock solid, quietly capable and every journey, except for two screaming over-sugared children, was stress free. This could…

GO TO TOPGEAR.COM FOR MORE MIND-BLOWING MANUFACTURER GUIDES What is Land Rover and when did it start making cars? Soon after WW2, two brothers who worked at Rover identified the need for a rugged vehicle for agricultural use. Luckily they were in a position to make this happen, since Maurice Wilks was chief designer at the firm and his brother Spencer was managing director. Influenced by the Willys jeep, they built a prototype in 1947 (which itself used Willys underpinnings) at Maurice’s farm on Anglesey in North Wales, and launched the first Land Rover in 1948. Those first cars came in any colour you wanted, as long it was a fetching army surplus green. Land Rover was purely a model name for the next 30 years, and it wasn’t until…

Speed is not really a key attribute. But then in 2015 along came the Range Rover Sport SVR, powered by a supercharged 5.0-litre V8 with 542bhp (recently enhanced to develop 567bhp). It’s capable of 174mph and makes a sound that can be heard across entire mountainsides. Particularly those around the Nürburgring, where the car lapped in 8mins 14secs. That model is no longer on sale, though, so the fastest Land Rover currently is the new Range Rover Sport Autobiography PHEV, which does 0–62mph in 5.4secs and on to 150mph. There’s another way of looking at speed though – competition. Rallying’s toughest event is the Paris-Dakar race, which first ran back in 1979. And what was the car that won it? That’s right, a Range Rover. Having said that, we’ll ignore…