Innholdsfortegnelse for May 2023 i BBC Top Gear Magazine

Why is one new watch worth more than another? Two main reasons: materials and craftsmanship. The first is easy. Fancy things like diamonds and gold have been highly valued for thousands of years, long before formal currency existed. Craftsmanship is harder to quantify, and this has fuelled a trend by watchmakers to develop their own in-house movements. A mechanical movement made in your own factory is the best way to get the kudos that separates “proper” watch companies from imitators and wannabees. But it isn’t easy. A similar problem is faced by any small volume car company that wants to make its own engine. It takes a lot of time and money to develop, and you’re normally better off buying a proven one in from someone with the resources to…

£n/a FOR Scaled-up e-tech suits HGV a treat in terms of driving ease AGAINST It’s a prototype. Usual infrastructure worries In many ways EV trucks make a lot of sense. Smaller urban-based lorries are usually on multi-drop known routes and return to a hub – useful for charging schedules and civil air quality. Plus they’re quieter and don’t cough out particulate death while idling. Haulage operations obviously do big distances, but with strict working time directives (a 45-minute break every four hours, by Euro law) and harsh penalties for tachograph infringements, most truckers know where they’re going to be, and when. Handy with EVs. But that inevitably leads to the usual problem: infrastructure. Truck makers have been looking at electric trucks for years – but longer range wagons need megawatt…

£56,045 FOR Best available powertrain, boot and passenger space AGAINST Too many interior own goals to list here We’re into generation three of BMW’s smallest crossover now, but this is the first time that you’ve been able to order one with an electric powertrain – top marks for anyone able to tell it apart on looks, mind. Your only electric option is a dual-motor set-up that mates a 309bhp electric motor to a 64.7kWh battery for up to 270 miles of range. And it’s easy as you like to drive too, steering precisely enough if a little lightly for our liking. BMW claims 0–62mph in a handy 5.7secs – in Boost mode at least, activated via the left steering wheel paddle, which temporarily maxes power output. The ride itself is…

SKODA OCTAVIA vRS £33,945 FOR Few cars this fun offer this much practicality AGAINST Less exciting than rivals, touchscreen heavy interior Skoda introduced a plug-in hybrid variant to its fourth generation Octavia vRS back in 2021, but at time of writing your current options consist of either a 197bhp diesel or a 242bhp petrol – no bother, you still want the latter. It remains as crisp to drive as ever. Not full-blooded hot hatch thrills, but a very complete package with the ability to swallow kids and golf clubs with ease – and put a smile on your face at weekends. PR GENESIS GV70 ELECTRIFIED £64,405 FOR Bold looks, fantastic interior, ownership proposition AGAINST No single motor variant makes it a little pricey While the combustion engined GV70 has been…

The Hummer EV is a ridiculous motor vehicle. It weighs 4,110kg, which is the same as nine Caterham 170Rs and means, if you could buy one in the UK, you’d need an HGV licence to drive it. This $110k Edition 1 model has three motors – two at the back, one at the front – producing a total of 986bhp and 1,200lb ft of torque, enough for a 0–62mph sprint in three seconds flat. That’s basically as quick as a Ferrari 296 GTB, despite having the aerodynamics of a shopping centre. It has a claimed range of 329 miles, which is impressive, but only because it has a 205kWh battery – the same as six Honda es. It drains the planet’s resources like a sugar-crazed toddler slurping on a milkshake,…

Now go and watch the video on topgear.com “CITROEN HAS FORM GOING RADICAL THEN WATERING DOWN THE INNOVATION” Concept cars are usually static models so fragile they’ll collapse in a heap if you blink too hard in their general direction. They’re revealed, toured around a few posh parties, and end up decaying in a shipping container around the back of the factory. Exactly what purpose does a blue sky thinking flight of fantasy serve in a world of supply shortages and budget scything? Citroen’s latest ‘wouldn’t it be great if’ looks like a moon buggy that the rocket dropped from orbit, but the thinking is deeply down to earth. It tackles the major elephant in the room questions for electric cars, and manufacturing overall. The windscreen is flat because that…

VW ID.BUZZ CARGO Price: From £40,360 (exc VAT and PiVG) Engine: Single e-motor, 201bhp, 229lb ft Transmission: 1spd, RWD Performance: 0–62mph in 10.2secs, 90mph Battery: 77kWh Range (WLTP): 256 miles Cargo volume: 3,900 litres Max load length: 2,208mm Tow: 1,000kg FORD e-TRANSIT LEADER Price: From £48,045 (exc VAT and PiVG) Engine: Single e-motor, 182bhp, 317lb ft Transmission: 1spd, RWD Performance: 0–62mph in n/a secs, n/a mph Battery: 68kWh Range (WLTP): 196 miles Cargo volume: 11,000 litres Max load length: 3,533mm Tow: 1,000kg Seems a bit of a mismatch here. On the one hand, you have the Ford e-Transit. A name so familiar it’s become embedded in the national psyche. As affectionately regarded as a family Labrador, billions of miles driven in a myriad of shapes and sizes, as aerodynamic as…

Cat meet pigeons. VW is preparing to launch a sub-£22k electric car in 2025, and this is the concept that proves it. We’re told the ID.2all previews a “new Volkswagen design strategy” that design boss Andreas Mindt says “is based on the three pillars of stability, likeability and excitement”. Strong and stable seems to be the messaging then, and that usually works out alright. Underneath the conservative styling is the VW Group’s evolved MEB Entry platform, and unlike all of the current MEB platformed cars, the ID.2all is front-wheel drive. Yep, the concept is powered by a 223bhp electric motor mounted on the front axle that should allow for a 0–62mph sprint of under 7.0 seconds. Worth noting here that Cupra’s upcoming UrbanRebel sits on the same platform and claims…

Kia has shown us the first images of its upcoming flagship electric SUV it’s calling the EV9 – and it’s not a car, but a statement. It’s the company’s first seven seater SUV, designed to offer “a fresh EV perspective in the family SUV sector”, at least according to Kia design boss Karim Habib. A fresh, very big perspective, if that much wasn’t already obvious. The blocky, polygonal form apparently lends itself to “exceptional aerodynamic effciency”, according to Kia, complete with pronounced wheelarches and lots of clean, straight ‘fuselage’-style lines. Kia tells us the interior offers plenty of space for up to seven people: up front, there’s a floating panoramic dash formed of a pair of 12.3-inch and one 5.0-inch display stretching from the steering wheel right to the middle.…

Available as a free update to GT7 for owners of the very much not free £530 PlayStation VR2, the new virtual reality functionality for the planet’s planet’s prettiest racer is enormously impressive. If you’ve you've ever wanted to press your nose up to the dials of a priceless supercar without getting forcibly thrown out of the dealership, now’s now’s your chance. It’s It’s difficult to adequately describe the transformative feeling of presence VR affords, but suffice to say its addition to the already excellent GT7 in combination with one of the most technically advanced VR headsets on the market is the stuff of sci-fi sci-Ii fantasy. It’s It’s also a genuinely viable way to play long-term. Unlike GT Sport’s Sport’s more limited VR experience, you can strap the headset on…

01 Lane keep assist On paper, this is a a literal lifesaver. Except when the road edges are poorly marked.Or the weather is iffy. Or there’s there’s a cyclist or horse to overtake and the steering is insisting on dragging you back into them. These days it also usually defaults to ‘on’whenever you start a car… 02 Pop-out doorhandles As seen on Teslas, Aston Martins, Range Rovers and even the likes of the Porsche 992 and Mercedes-AMG SL, designers love pop-out handles. People in the real world hate them as they get frozen in on cold days, or try to bite your fingers off when they retract without warning. 03 Bad touchscreens Touchscreens are here to stay, but as anyone who’s driven a recent VW, Seat, Skoda, Sl<oda, McLaren, Honda, Mercedes, Peugeot, Citroen…

Year: 2018 or thereabouts. Location: BMW’s M division bunker. A cavalcade of 7-Series conveys the board of directors to the front door. “Good news, gentleman,” they tell the assembled faithful. “Off the back of M turning 50 years last year, we think it’s high time you did a bespoke M car.” A shockwave of excitement zaps around the room. M hasn’t done an M-only model since the 1978 M1 supercar. While Audi RS and AMG have been making merry with their own supercar platforms, M’s been tuning repmobiles. “We believe this is the right time for a plug-in hybrid M car…” continues the boss. Faces fall at the expected weight penalty, but Günther from powertrains is grinning at Hans from chassis dynamics. Instant response. Anti-lag boost. Torque vectoring. Low centre…

£38,990 FOR Refined cabin with enough space, lots of kit, decent steering AGAINST Boot small, soggy brakes, no big battery option Another Chinese electric car you’ve never heard of, from the biggest electric car company you’ve never heard of. I summarise BYD’s activity in the profile of founder Wang Chuanfu on p91, but for now let’s just say up there with Tesla for vastness. BYD stands for Build Your Dreams. To English ears it sounds like a motivational slogan printed in a dreamy font on a tea towel, not in half inch chrome letters across the tailgate of a car. The Atto 3 is a pretty straightforward small to medium electric crossover. Think Kia Niro EV. BYD’s design boss is Wolfgang Egger, who did the Alfa 8C Competizione, then went…

JUST £1 AN ISSUE Try 5 issues for just £5 with this trial offer to BBC TopGear magazine and test drive the greatest motoring magazine on the planet! GREAT REASONS TO SUBSCRIBE Get your first 5 issues for just £5 then pay £21.50 every six issues, saving 40% on the usual shop price Money-back guarantee – you can cancel at any time Unique and collectable covers – only seen by our subscribers The greatest motoring magazine on the planet delivered direct to your door SUBSCRIBING IS EASY SIMPLY CALL OR GO ONLINE buysubscriptions.com/TGP523 03330 162 130 Quote code TGP523** *This offer is open to UK delivery addresses only and is subject to availability. Offer end 25May 2023. You will pay£5 for your first 5 issues, then£21.50every six issues– still saving40%…

“ It’s a 7-Series, regardless of drivetrain,” BMW says. This may be true, but for the first time in its 46-year history, its luxury limo is the undisputed class leader. That’s largely down to the fact in i7 guise, it’s fully electric. As is increasingly the fashion, it was designed from the inside out, so the i7 is extraordinarily comfortable. The seats are incredible, the materials are imaginative, the atmosphere unique. The Curved Display user interface is crisply executed and the rear-seat cinema is a hell of a party trick. Yes, it’s heavy, but the dual motor xDrive60 makes 536bhp which is more than enough, and ride and handling are exemplary. BMW claims a fully charged range of 388 miles. The only disruptive element is the i7’s exterior design, but even…

DRIVER BRIEFING TEAM POLESTAR Paul Horrell, Rowan Horncastle TACTICS: crunch the numbers, follow a strict strategy and bore everyone else into submission with talk of charging speeds POLESTAR 2 STANDARD RANGE SINGLE MOTOR Price: £44,950 Engine: 1 e-motor, RWD, 268bhp, 361lb ft Performance: 6.2secs, 127mph Battery: 69kWh, 321 miles Weight: 2,013kg TEAM CUPRA Tom Ford, Vijay Pattni TACTICS: reform the band, put on a show and raise enough money to keep the orphanage open. No wait, that’s the plot of The Blues Brothers CUPRA BORN V2 77KWH E-BOOST Price: £41,975 Engine: 1 e-motor, RWD, 227bhp, 229lb ft Performance: 7.0secs, 99mph Battery: 77kWh, 343 miles Weight: 1,950kg TEAM SKODA Ollie Marriage, Cat Dow TACTICS: maintain a high average speed and look forward to a hearty breakfast of bacon and eggs in…

Jeeps have tended to be a bit rough edged. For the wild ones, the rock ape Wranglers and badass V8 SUVs, that’s probably been OK. But not for the smaller ones that you rent on holiday in California and then contemplate for your next car when you get home and go to the showroom and conclude, well, naah. The Avenger isn’t like that. It’s a well-rounded product. But it retains enough Jeepness to stave off boredom. Designed with the requisite chunkiness, it’s neatly finessed but without any hint of aggression. Which is good because an aggressive SUV this small would be even sillier than an aggressive big SUV. Overcompensation and all that. It’s smaller than the related Stellantis crossovers, with curtailed overhangs for off-road smarts, but also for city manoeuvrability. Bijou…

“THERE’S NO FORESIGHT TO MY GARAGE, JUST AN IMPULSE TO BUY ANYTHING INTERESTING” Last week I received a message on Instagram which read “Are you a photographer or a car collector?” and while I have quite a thick skin – both physically and mentally – it triggered me. The legitimacy of Vicky_Z9913’s profile is up for debate. There are many CashApp mentions, a bio stating ‘entrepreneur’ and a duplicate account named Lena_LS63 tagged in each post. Red flags aside, it did make me question what on earth am I doing with the cars I currently own. I don’t really like the term collector, not when referring to cars. And that could be down to the culture surrounding this behaviour in recent years, with some individuals using it as a means…

Let’s get this out of the way at the start: yes, Skidmarks is an intentional reference to the well-known laundry calamity that befalls careless wipers. Literally the only reason we’re allowing that word to grace these pages in a 20pt font is that it’s also one of the best multiplayer racing games ever made. Debuting on the Amiga home computer, the Skidmarks series takes its cue from Super Off-Road, with an isometric perspective and the platonic ideal of slip-slidy arcade handling. The title of the game is at least somewhat earned by the fact that every time you pitched your pintsized motor into a corner, it left a big 11 behind it, either in rubber or churned up mud. By the end, the circuit looked like a Jackson Pollock painting.…

To celebrate the 60th birthday of Britain’s most famous spy (in film anyway, in books he’s been around longer), Leica has announced that it’ll it'll sell just 1,962 examples of this brilliantly nerdy D-Lux 7 special edition. Launched at the not so glamorously named ‘Photographs from the James Bond Archive’ Archive' exhibition in London, the Leica D-Lux 7 007 Edition features fancy trim, 007 logos, a lens cap with the classic gun barrel opening sequence design and a leather case in the style of a shoulder holster – - just to make it that bit more difficult to get through airport security. Whether the next on-screen Bond will be swapping their Walther PPK for a compact camera remains to be seen. store.leica-camera.com/uk; €1,750…

1 IT’S TRULY EUROPEAN The Explorer won’t be sold in the US and uses the same MEB platform that carries the VW Group’s electric ambitions. That means the Explorer shares batteries, motors and general underpinnings with the likes of the VW ID.3, Cupra Born, Audi Q4, ID.Buzz, Skoda Enyaq… and other cars too forgettable to mention. 2 ITS SPECS ARE… ON PAR The entry level version has a 55kWh battery good for a claimed 218-mile range, and develops 168bhp. You can upgrade to a bigger 82kWh battery with 335 miles of range and this also bumps you to 282bhp. Topping the range is a fire-spitting V8 Explorer RS. Only joking. It’s a dual-motor version with range down to 305 miles, and power up to 335bhp. 3 THERE’S AN EXCITING NEW…

“ WHAT IT LACKS IS A PERSONALITY ALL OF ITS OWN, WHICH THE OLD M2 HAD IN SPADEFULS” £65,855 FOR A hugely complete package, slightly better looking than an M4 AGAINST Growing up has robbed the M2 of its pugnacious character So the most expensive, most powerful M car suffers a deserved mauling for being rubbish. But you only have to observe the glint in a browbeaten BMW engineer’s eye when he’s asked about the car at the opposite end of the range to see where their enthusiasm really lies. And the new M2 is more important than just a sequel to the bestselling M car of all time (60,000 sales later). This is also the end of an era. Welcome to the last ever pure petrol M car. Everything…

£62,600 FOR The yoke steering is an interesting tech development AGAINST Otherwise a rather generic, expensive crossover You’d be forgiven for thinking the new RZ is just another generic electric SUV, and if we’re honest, you’d be mostly correct. It’s Lexus’ first purpose-built EV – the UX300e only had its innards stuffed with batteries later in life – but built on the same eTNGA platform as both the Toyota bZ4X and Subaru Solterra. That means a 71.4kWh battery at its heart, but where the bZ4X can be had with either two-or four-wheel drive, Lexus has followed Subaru in going AWD only. As a result, you get a 201bhp motor on the front axle and a 108bhp motor on the rear for a combined 309bhp. The 0–62mph sprint takes just 5.3secs…

£200,600 FOR An entertaining flourish to the Conti GT V8’s sportier side AGAINST No extra power. The W12 Speed is more fun yet By 2030, all Bentleys will be electric. But the car you’re looking at contains no electric motors. The Continental GT S is more old school than that, and perhaps we should see it as a bit of a ‘last blast’ before electrification starts dripping into the Conti range. It claims to be a sportier iteration with no more power – extra assertiveness instead comes from detail tweaks and additions. There’s a standard fit sports exhaust “to amplify the crossplane V8 beat”. Shiny chrome trim is replaced by black. New 22in wheels sit in front of red calipers. Badges cover the wings, dashboard and seats. Though even without…

Now go and watch the video on topgear.com On reflection, it may have been an error. Lamborghini is widely credited with inventing the supercar, in the beguiling form of 1966’s Miura. An hour after completing a deep dive of its all-new 2023 ancestor, the Revuelto, I’m somewhere on the plains of Emilia-Romagna, behind the wheel of a Miura SV, V12 singing, throttle blipping, living the dream despite the omnipresent threat of wayward locals hellbent on nerfing me into a ditch. The Miura has a rep for being a gnarly drive, but this one is an absolute peach: delicate, responsive, and as deliriously analogue as cars get. The Revuelto is the latest in a bloodline that swirls all the way back to this masterpiece. Lamborghini will celebrate its 60th anniversary this…

These days, it’s rare to find something you haven’t seen before on social media. But when we saw the first mobile phone footage of Ken Block squealing his S1 e-tron quattro ‘Hoonitron’ backwards down the neon lit Las Vegas strip in an insane rear entry tyre-demolishing four-wheeled drift, our brains quickly needed readjusting. Over 15 years, Ken steadily ratcheted up his Gymkhana series – constantly innovating with swelling ambition and wilder stunts. But joining up with Audi allowed him to experiment with something new; electric drivetrains. His creation was suitably extreme – a bespoke skid machine harnessing an 800V architecture, two electric motors, AWD and 671bhp, all wrapped up in a modern take on the original, iconic Pikes Peak Sport Quattro S1. This drivetrain opened up new doors and refreshing possibilities…

“AS IT PILES ON THE YEARS AND MILES, A PRIUS REFUSES TO DIE” At the end of 1997, Toyota launched the Prius in Japan. Nobody here cared. Its weird ‘hybrid’ powertrain was complicated and would probably go wrong. Its performance was tepid; its small-wheeled three-box bodyshell timid. Meanwhile VW had launched the Golf MkIV, marrying a high quality cabin with the famously effcient 1.9 TDI engine. If you wanted an economical smallish car, the VW was the go-to. A quarter century on, hybrids vastly outsell diesels here, helped of course by VW’s villainous own goal. The Prius had the last laugh. The early Prius had such a weak electric motor that if you put the air-conditioning on, the engine never cut out. But it proved the system was fundamentally reliable.…

HAVE I STUMBLED ACROSS AN OVERLANDING ADVENTURE? Sort of. The Porsche Cayenne recently celebrated its 20th birthday and a gathering at a track day would have been plain silly, however much chassis technology has gathered under its bodywork in the years since. A minor adventure through the County Durham countryside feels much more appropriate. IS THIS A BIRTHDAY WE SHOULD BE CELEBRATING? In isolation the Cayenne, old or new, is a likeable and deeply impressive car. But does its oft-quoted status as ‘the saviour of Porsche sports cars’ – thanks to its fat profit margins – justify the swathes of imitators now filling our cities? It’s a debate that might never solve itself, especially now even Ferrari and potentially McLaren have done an about turn on the matter. BETTER TO…

GO TO TOPGEAR.COM FOR EXTENDED TG GARAGE REPORTS, AND TO EXPLORE THE ARCHIVE Alpine A110S GOODBYE £60,645 OTR/£71,689 as tested/£749 pcm WHY IT’S HERE Does the concept of a lightweight dissolve on contact with Real Life? DRIVER Ollie Marriage I’D BEEN WANTING TO RUN AN ALPINE A110 SINCE I FIRST DROVE ONE five years ago. I love clever, lightweight cars, and this remains the best example of the virtuous circle of engineering on sale today. Weight influences every aspect of this car and every interaction with it. Almost entirely for the good. So let’s start with the bad. It gets buffeted by strong crosswinds and that can be unnerving. It’s not as efficient as I expected. I anticipated 37mpg, but the reality was more like 32. The cabin isn’t special enough.…

GO TO TOPGEAR.COM FOR MORE MIND-BLOWING MANUFACTURER GUIDES What is Hyundai and when did it start making cars? The Hyundai Engineering and Construction Company was founded by Chung Ju-yung in 1947, two years after the liberation of Korea from Japanese control. It rapidly became one of the more powerful chaebol (family run conglomerates), making steel, ships and roads. It wasn’t until 1967 that Hyundai Motor Company was formed, with a unique capacity to control its own supply chains at all levels. Despite that, Hyundai actually just built Ford Cortinas under licence until 1982, and didn’t reveal a car of its own creation until 1974. The Pony was styled by Italian design maestro Giorgetto Giugiaro and exported around the world. No Hyundais offcially made it to the UK until 1982 or the…