Innholdsfortegnelse for November 2023 i BBC Top Gear Magazine

@jack_rix editor@bbctopgearmagazine.com His name is Thommie and I’m staring at his belly for the second time in as many days. Yesterday he was stretched across a table like a go-go dancer, shirt lifted to reveal his prize torso, for a group photo none of us will forget in a hurry. Today he’s swapping T-shirts with Ollie Marriage in a dark car park outside Gotland’s premier waffe house (both pictures can be obtained for a fair price, DM me). He’s a warm, funny chap with a waxed moustache who used to work for Lamborghini and Koenigsegg, but now lives part-time in a caravan at the Gotlandring and is The Man That Gets Things Done. Like angle grinding padlocks of the garages so we can get our cars out because the keys…

1 IT GETS A NEW FACE AND MORE RANGE The styling has been overhauled with sharper lines making for a less frog-like appearance, with sleeker headlights and brake lights. That’s all in the name of improved aero, and together with optimised wheels and tyres, Tesla claims the Long Range AWD will now do 391 miles on a single charge, up from 374 previously. 2 BUILD QUALITY SHOULD BE BETTER Tesla reckons its use of aluminium and textiles will bring “elevated levels of execution”, an admission that build quality (a common bugbear) has needed attention. And so inside we get a reconfigured centre console built from nicer stuff, and a touchscreen measuring 15.4 inches as before, but with a thinner bezel meaning there’s more space to play with. 3 IT SHOULD…

Lamborghini has often felt like the last dinosaur, roaring forlornly in the face of electric’s meteoric impact. No more. The Revuelto is a revolutionary Raging Bull. The replacement for the Aventador, Lamborghini’s biggest beast, is now a plug-in hybrid. It features three electric motors, there is no reverse gear, that’s done electrically. There’s no clumsiness either – the handling is far more sophisticated, so too the electrical integration. The gearbox no longer thrashes your head back and forth like a metaller in a mosh pit. There’s more space in the cabin and – hallelujah – the seats are no longer as pious as a church pew, but instead embrace and coddle. The technical make-up is nothing particularly new. With an e-motor for each front wheel, plus another between engine and…

£210,313 FOR Looks gorgeous, performance, powertrain is magnificent AGAINST HMI is still glitchy, it’s expensive Ferrari hasn’t made a front-engined Spider since the 365 GTS/4 – Daytona – in 1969. That’s one of the sharpest looking cars in the entire canon, so a Roma convertible has big handmade loafers to fill. Not to mention a formidable set of rivals: Aston Martin, Bentley, Mercedes-AMG and Porsche are all players in this heady sector. What’s new on the Spider? Well, the Portofino is no longer available and as it exits so does the folding hard-top roof. Fickle fashion, eh? The Roma Spider features a classic canvas roof with five layers for improved refinement and a special weave for visual enhancement. The sills are new, there are reinforced structural elements at the rear,…

£270,000 FOR Quicker, smoother and more reliable than a standard Classic AGAINST Seriously pricey. Interior plastics need replacing It’s hard not to drive a Range Rover Classic with a smile on your face, and that smile gets a little bit wider when you realise that it’s unlikely to break down. You see, this Inverted take on the two-door Classic starts with a complete back to bare metal restoration before the gearbox, fuel tank and lots of other oily bits are ripped out and replaced with a 450bhp Tesla Model S electric powertrain. Inverted reckons this reborn Range Rover will now hit 60mph from a standstill in just 5.0 seconds, but set off in the normal drive mode and it doesn’t initially feel all that rapid. In this prototype there’s a…

SPEED WEEK SPONSORED BY LAMBORGHINI HURACÁN STERRATO Price: £232,820 Engine: 5.2-litre V10, 602bhp, 413lb ft, AWD Performance: 0–62mph in 3.4secs, 160mph Weight: 1,600kg (est) WHAT IS IT? One of 1,499 dirt-hungry arrivedercis to the Huracán – and incredibly, the ‘baby’ Lambo’s sixth appearance on a TopGear Speed Week. WHY IS IT HERE? Because the rough road makeover should play to its strengths: more theatre, less seriousness. ECO CREDENTIALS? Erm… well the 5.2-litre nat-asp V10 shuts down a whole cylinder bank when it’s cruising to boost fuel economy. FORMULAE GENBETA Price: £1.3 million Engine: Two e-motors, 536bhp, n/a lb ft, AWD Performance: 0–62mph in <2.8secs, 200mph Weight: 760kg WHAT IS IT? A one-off test-bed for future Formula E tech, built to break the indoor land speed record. WHY IS IT HERE? Because…

SPEED WEEK SPONSORED BY…

SPEED WEEK SPONSORED BY “THE GT3 RS IS AN ILLUSTRATION OF WHAT AIR CAN DO. HOW POWERFUL AND DENSE THIS INVISIBLE FORCE IS” You can’t see air move. Pity really. It’s doing a lot of work around here. Some of it good, some more… alarming. The wind turbine at the top of the Gotlandring’s jump churns in the breeze as I watch Wookie hurl the 911 Dakar up the blind ramp. Hitting the lip at 92mph, the raised nose catches the wind and the damn thing pulls the mother of all wheelies. I gulp. I’m sitting at the bottom in the GT3 RS, knowing I’ve got to follow him and that this, the wildest, most track focused road-going 911 there’s ever been, will be able to take so much more…

SPEED WEEK SPONSORED BY The sense of wrongness is what gets you. You’re peering down the barrel of a honeycomb themed Lamborghini Huracán interior, or across the fetish crisp arcs of a set of Porsche 911 dials, and beyond is, basically, a path made for goats. Wild goats with satanic eyes. There are sullen holes and bitter little ditches, tree stumps and various types of rock, all considering a menu of potential damage from chipped paint to a dislocated axle. Said path isn’t quite wide enough for either car, so there’s a wilful ignorance to the susurration of branches on the flanks that speaks of the necessity of machine polishing in the near future, and there are more than one or two crunching sounds that sound ominously expensive. And yet…

“THE LURE OF A GANGSTER BENZ HAS BEEN STRONG FOR A LONG, LONG TIME” “Mark, I am sorry for the parts taking a long time. There have been some transport issues, but I promise they will be delivered soon.” Vitaly’s honesty and upfront approach is very admirable compared with many Mercedes specialists out there. Especially when you consider his business, @AMG_Parts_UA, is based in Ukraine’s capital city Kyiv. A place which (understandably) has a few more things to worry about than sending a man in England old AMG parts overnight. They’re absolutely worth the wait, however. Because Vitaly isn’t just selling any old tat; he’s sourcing and supplying the rarest pre-merger AMG goodies along with other classic Benz upgrades from Brabus, Zender and many more. And given production ended on…

Before Microsoft became a household name in gaming with its Xbox consoles, the megacorp turned out the odd PC game to give computer users something to do in between staring vacantly at Excel spreadsheets. Every so often we’d even get a racing game in among the more ponderous pleasures of flight sims, golf games and Minesweeper. Midtown Madness did something few racers were doing at the time: binned off linear circuits in favour of an open city, in this case Chicago, rush hour traffic and a sprinkling of checkpoints. In order to avoid getting hauled up by trades descriptions, the madness of the title was delivered by the fact that, in certain modes, checkpoints could be crossed in any order. This meant cars ended up haring past each other in…

GOODBYE £59,545 OTR/£65,521 as tested/£665 pcm WHY IT’S HERE  Is this the SUV antidote you never knew you needed? DRIVER Peter Rawlins SO THERE WE HAVE IT. AFTER NINE MONTHS WITH A VW MULTIVAN in our lives it’s finally time to say goodbye. Not for the first time, of course – three months ago we waved off our original two-tone eHybrid version, welcoming this 2.0-litre TSI ‘Long’ edition in its place. As chance would have it, I was first custodian of the former, taking it on a family holiday to Cornwall, and final custodian of the latter, this time taking it to Devon, so I’ve had plenty of opportunity to get to know VW’s fun bus. Let me not keep you in suspense. I’m a huge fan. I love these things.…

REPORT 3 £14,795/£15,445/£213 WHY IT’S HERE It’s no longer the UK’s cheapest new car, but is it still a TG hero? DRIVER Greg Potts LAST MONTH I WAS REVELLING in the Sandero’s sense of fun. This month I’ve been reining it in on an economy drive. This was initiated by the discovery of the Sandero’s ‘Driving Eco’ tab in the touchscreen. It gives standard trip data and the like, but it also has an ‘Eco Scoring’ tab that rates your driving out of 100 and gives you a score out of five stars for acceleration, gear changes and anticipation. The challenge was set. Without knowing this clandestine assessment was going on in the background, I’d managed an eco score of 66/100. Not great. But that still translated to a very decent…

HELLO £34,825 OTR/£36,625 as tested/£458 pcm WHY IT’S HERE Is a hatch-coupe-crossover a mashup too far? DRIVER Paul Horrell IT CAME WITH DELIVERY MILEAGE, AND ITS VERY FIRST JOURNEY WAS to carry a proper load: four people, and enough camping gear to fill the boot to the back window and wedge between the people in the back. After four days operating by the rules of festival hygiene and festival toilets, the 408’s new car smell was obliterated. Anyway, we proved it’s a roomy car. Not as vast in the boot as a 508 wagon, but still not bad back there, and genuinely leggy in the rear seats. I’d noted a slightly hard ride when I first reviewed the 408, but that was somewhat smoothed by the extra load it was bearing…

GOODBYE £31,995 OTR/£32,790 as tested/£398 pcm WHY IT’S HERE Is Chinese domination of the small EV scene inevitable? We find out DRIVER Greg Potts IT’S BACK! AFTER LEAVING US FOUR MONTHS AGO, THE FUNKY CAT HAS finally returned from its trip to the vets. It’s undergone some cosmetic surgery in that time too after it was cruelly kicked while parked in London. Ora has been curiously quiet about ‘our’ car’s whereabouts during its time away. We’d begun to think it had gone off to live on a countryside farm… Anyway, it has now returned looking as fresh as ever, but sadly this reunion will be fleeting. We’ve only briefly been reunited so that we can say a proper goodbye. Plus, I’ve already moved on to what is perhaps its total…

You used to be able to get a Dacia Sandero (last gen, not the posher current one) for a headline grabbing £7,995, the cheapest car on sale in the UK. It had unpainted bumpers, steel wheels and no radio but it was an option. That not many people took up, funnily enough. Then Dacia decided it wanted to make some money from selling it, so now the entry model’s considerably pricier at £13,795, though still a bargain. It paints the bumpers on that one, and it comes with aircon, cruise control and electric front windows. Hopefully you’re sitting down (it would be exhausting to still be standing this far into TG mag), but the most expensive Dacia is a whopping £24,445. That’s for the 4x4 diesel Duster SUV in Extreme…

Dacia didn’t go in for concepts much back when it was communist, but French ownership has injected a certain something into the styling department. The Duster SUV was previewed in 2009 with a concept of the same name – the end car had little to do with the curvy lines of the teaser, but it was evidence of a brand on the up. We particularly enjoyed 2022’s Manifesto concept – a windowless buggy with no hope of production, but it previewed Dacia’s lifestyle shift, with a chunky design and extensive use of recycled plastic inside. Dacia calls the new material ‘Starkle’, and it’ll feature from the new 2024 Duster onwards.…

READY TO MAKE THE SWITCH? WE SEPARATE WHAT’S HOT FROM WHAT’S NOT CITY CARS These small cars are perfect for urban life, but the trade-off is a much lower range 1. HONDA e PRICE: £37,395 RANGE: Up to 136 miles This TG favourite has retro styling and a brilliant interior, but it’s very expensive and the range isn’t great. Somehow we can’t help but love it though… 2. FIAT 500 PRICE: £28,195–£37,195 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…

WHAT: RICCI’S PAJERO WHERE: THIRSK, UK Proof that off-roaders are ballooning. Grenadier and Defender make Ricci’s first-gen Pajero look like a kei car. Actually fits in a parking space, too WHAT: PERSONAL HELICOPTER WHERE: MUNICH MESSE, GERMANY We love a bit of future mobility and this personal electric helicopter was a particular treat. Soon we can all feel like a prime minister for a day… WHO: CAT DOW WHERE: THE NOOK, UK Do you know how we know that this isn’t really Stig at the Great North Run the other week? Because he’s more than six metres from a car and that never happens WHAT: SPEED WEEK PLAN WHERE: STAMFORD, UK This is what happens when you leave the art team alone with a piece of paper and some crayons.…

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What was peak niche? This is a question FOTC likes to ask, mostly because it sounds like FOTC is adopting a strong foreign accent while asking about al fresco dining. And a strong contender for the peak niche crown was 2009’s 5-Series Gran Turismo, a car looking to exploit a gap in the market only visible through an electron microscope. BMW claimed the GT catered to the buyer wanting something more spacious than a regular 5-Series saloon. Problem was, BMW already offered precisely that in the shape of the 5-Series Touring, one of the most excellent estate cars of its generation. Ah, said BMW, but the GT caters to the buyer who wants something taller and also very slightly less sporty than a 5-Series Touring. Problem was, BMW already offered…

A smoothly sweeping seconds hand is often used by a budding watch fancier as an indicator of quality. If you are close enough to tell the time, you can see whether the hand ticks once per second, or glides around majestically. But who made this the horological tyre kick of choice and does it have any merit? Aesthetically the one-second tick is not ideal because the hand generally fails to meet up exactly with the markers on the dial. Some people might not care too much about this, but for those of a perfectionist leaning it can be quite annoying to see a precision instrument failing to hit its mark every single second, forever. But mainly the tick tells you that the watch is probably battery powered. In the early…

Is it sacrilege to repower a petrol classic car to electric? Mostly not. Obviously if it has an especially wonderful petrol engine, then don’t do it. I’m suspicious of converted Jags that began life with an XK or Porsches that had a flat six. It’s also a dumb idea to heart transplant rare or historically significant cars. Originality matters there, for sure. Otherwise, have at it. As a wise friend, no fan of classics, once said to me, “The only point of old cars is to make new ones look good.” The engines in most of them are heavy and rough. They won’t start from cold. They often won’t start when they’re hot either because you’ve flooded the carburettor. They cough and splutter and you don’t know if it’s the…

£50,000 (est) FOR Relaxed cruising, the Dolby Atmos audio set-up AGAINST Cheap trim, what are those B-pillars doing there? Combine C-Class trimmings with E-Class dimensions and, presto, the new CLE-Class is born. It’s a soft-edged two-door meant to compete with the Audi A5 and BMW 4-Series, replacing the C-Class and E-Class coupes. The engines are familiar and you’ve definitely seen these interior bits before. It’s just two cars becoming one. Like the Spice Girls song. Inside it’s nearly identical to the C-Class. Not necessarily a bad thing – both have seats that’ll coddle your bum and hug your love handles, and the dash inlays look good. Just don’t touch the trim. The glossy panels creak and easily pick up dust and smudges, and you’ll find lots of cheap plastic below…

LEXUS RZ PREMIUM PLUS PACK £68,500 FOR Some cool tech inside you’ll want to show off to passengers AGAINST A swing and a miss – some nice touches, dull overall Lexus has spent its entire existence trying to be alternative while at the same time hovering awkwardly near the cool kids – and creating cars like the RZ. It’s the firm’s first bespoke EV, has some cool tech (like the infrared heating up front to warm you), crazy styling inside and out, but the ride was a bit terrible on this version with its 20in alloys, the whole experience a bit meh. With so many strong rivals, the RZ can’t afford to be mediocre. SB FORD RANGER WILDTRACK £43,850 (exc VAT) FOR Improved cabin quality and space, still as capable as…

SPEED WEEK SPONSORED BY We had a plan. Transport all the cars using electric trucks. It’s becoming more feasible these days and a great way of cutting our carbon emissions. Scania stepped up, offering us its prototype electric tractor units to pull car transporter trailers. Stig was lined up to drive. Clearly couldn’t wait to get started. But it turns out trucks aren’t as simple as towing a trailer behind your car. Car transporters need complicated, bespoke connectors and systems to manage the trailers – they’re entirely integrated. Which meant we were unable to use not only the electric truck, but also Scania’s new plug-in hybrid truck. Instead transport specialist MenaKlars stepped in with its Scania trucks that are able to run on both diesel and HVO (hydrotreated vegetable oil).…

SPEED WEEK SPONSORED BY How is Formula E not the biggest sport on the face of the planet? By now it ought to have amassed the wealth and global audience to make LIV golf, Saudi Pro League footie and Formula One look about as powerful as a village lawn bowls club. Next season will be Formula E’s 10th. The recipe ticks every box a manufacturer, driver, broadcaster and spectator could ask for. Carmakers like the afterglow of competition pedigree, but only if it gels with their electrified ambitions. Drivers (publicly) want broadly comparable cars that let their talent – not wind tunnel wizardry – propel them to the top. Viewers want close racing, overtaking and the potential for carbon fibre to go flying every so often. And if that’s guaranteed,…

SPEED WEEK SPONSORED BY “THE M2 REALLY DOES FEEL LIKE A YOUNGER PUP STEPPING OUT OF THE M3” Don’t you think it’s interesting that we didn’t load a single Audi or Mercedes into our Scania-shaped toy boxes? We politely asked for an AMG One but Merc said no. What about the F1 tech-inspired hybrid C63? Merc said… no. How about Audi’s offer of a facelifted RS6/7? Well, they didn’t quite cut the mustard. Meaning we had to have a verbal punch-up in the office to see whether we should bring BMW’s new M3 Touring or its pugnacious sibling, the M2 Comp. We couldn’t decide – so here we are with both barrels of Bimmer. That’s no bad thing as there’s more common DNA in this pairing than in M cars of…

SPEED WEEK SPONSORED BY Better stick that music from the Hovis ad on because I’m about to sound like an old fart. There was a time, not very long ago, when a hot hatch was a hot hatch. You knew what you were getting, a lightly souped up shopping trolley with just enough performance to encourage yobbish behaviour, but at a price that dangled it in front of anyone who saw cars as more than a conveyance from A to B. Accessibility, practicality, lobability – those were the pillars of this once great genre that’s in danger of disappearing altogether. A month before I joined the team at TG in 2015 there was a ‘B-road Heroes’ issue that pitched the UK’s 28 best hot hatches against each other on a…

The thing with concepts is they’re supposed to point to the future – all very optimistic at the time, but what if the company doesn’t have a future? Rather looks like everyone’s wasted their time then, doesn’t it? And in the case of Saab, if some of its later models had been a bit more like this 2001 concept things might have looked a little rosier. The 9-X was unveiled at the Frankfurt show in September 2001 – it broke the mould, or at least that’s what the press release said. Which is bad, because how can you build a second car if you don’t have a mould? The mood board in the design studio apparently consisted only of Smart Roadsters, but the 9-X was described by its creators as…

COR, THE CAYMAN’S COME A LONG WAY… Indeed – these two share a basic bodyshell, doors and a bootlid. The 981-gen Cayman (the better looking MkII version of Porsche’s mid-engined sports car) was first revealed in late 2012, and over a decade on it’s still on sale – in facelifted, rebranded ‘718’ form. It’s had turbocharged engine transplants, and been evolved into the spectacularly raw GT4 RS. How’s that for longevity? THE EARLY CAR CERTAINLY LOOKS A BIT MEEK NEXT TO THE RS Would we say ‘meek’? Why not ‘perfect’ or ‘surefire appreciating future classic’? I only ask as this particular 2013 Cayman 2.7 is, um, mine, bought in the summer of 2022 because a nat-asp flat six and a manual gearbox is more entertaining than a house deposit. And…

REPORT 4 £48,380 OTR/£50,030 as tested/£629 pcm WHY IT’S HERE Can Mazda join the large/luxe SUV party? DRIVER Andy Franklin TO SOUTHERN FRANCE, A 14-HOUR TRIP FROM LINCOLNSHIRE TO Cahors in the Lot region covering almost 800 miles. Proper road test miles. Eye burning stuff. Thankfully European roadtrips are made more pleasurable by the far superior roads. The Mazda swallows what seems to be an endless amount of kit, helped by the generous boot and Thule roof box from the accessories catalogue. We manage to bring two paddleboards, a fridge, enough clothes for five and even space for booze (and some foie gras) on the way back. The usual hold up at ferry check-in allowed me to play with the settings and swap the dashboard to kph. Sadly no adjustable lights…

REPORT 3 £54,075 OTR/£63,795 as tested/£773 pcm WHY IT’S HERE Can an electric BMW look, feel and drive… like a BMW? DRIVER Jack Rix WHEN A CAR OBSESSED FRIEND OF MY WIFE, WHO I’D LITERALLY just met at a party, invited me to a private track day at Goodwood, I thought it was probably the beer talking and I’d hear no more. But a month or so later, true to his word, Ollie Bowen came through with an offer to join him and his friends for a day of smashing about on the Goodwood track… in whatever I could get my hands on. Bingo. A Huracán STO was due to be on loan across those dates so I informed Ollie – owner of a Guards Red (997) 911 GT2 RS, among…

REPORT 4 RANGE ROVER Which has the greater EV range, the Range Rover P440e or an electric mountain bike? Here are the stats. Battery: 31.8kWh plays 0.72kWh. Power: 105kW plays 0.6kW. Weight with driver/rider: 96kg plays 3,072kg (bit more than Land Rover’s official 2,810kg figure). End result? 54 miles of EV driving in the SUV, 57 from the bike. Which also needs pedalling. OM REPORT 7 SKODA ENYAQ vRS There’s plenty to like about EV motoring – EV recharging, not so much. No driveway here, and fast-ish charging in the UK stands at around 70p per kWh. Drive the Enyaq with a modicum of caution, you’ll get around 3.5mpkWh. Which means, using public charging, you’re paying 20p per mile. That doesn’t make financial sense for a lot of people. SP…

The Romanian government started Dacia back in 1966 under the watchful eye of communist dictator Nicolae Ceauşescu. It was called UAP (Uzină de Autoturisme Piteşti, or Pitesti car factory) at first, even if the southern Romanian city didn’t have a car factory until 1968. The first Dacias were knock-offs, this time of Renaults, but the plagiarism isn’t as simple as it first sounds. Dacia put its requirements out to tender and Renault won the bid, offering up its 12 model it was developing. Because it wasn’t ready, Dacia got the Renault 8 first, badged it the 1100 and had it on sale in 1968. The 12 became the Dacia 1300 in 1969 and the Romanians even launched their version a week before Renault. Despite seven facelifts of the 1100 during its…

The fastest Dacia currently on sale is the TCe 150 two-wheel drive Duster, which pumps out a prodigious 148bhp and scorches from zero to 62mph in a dizzying 9.7 seconds. You’d think maybe the new hybrid version of the Jogger would be able to overtake the Duster away from the lights, but sadly that car is 0.3secs slower to 62mph. Of course when it comes to top speed the Jogger romps away from the sporty Duster, with a vmax of 111mph that trounces the Duster’s 108mph. Over 24 hours you could be a whole 72 miles further on in the Jogger. Usually at this point we can make reference to a smoking hot racecar that the manufacturer has entered at some point into Le Mans – no such luck here.…

This is the new Lotus Emeya, and it is 17mph slower than the last saloon car to wear four doors and a Lotus badge. That infamous Nineties troublemaker – because not enough has been written about it – was a Vauxhall breathed on by Norfolk’s specialists deemed too fast for public roads. TopGear estimates there’ll be 100 per cent less parliamentary debate and newspaper campaigns to get this car off the public highway, such is the 21st century motoring landscape. You’ll likely have some internal debate over the Emeya’s silhouette and visual language, though. And how that debate materialises rather depends upon your feelings about the Eletre SUV, from which this new Emeya clearly takes its aesthetic. The twin headlight treatment sits atop a similarly fang-like front, sweeping back over…

You read that correctly: the GTI badge has a future in the electric age after all, and the Volkswagen ID.GTI concept is the car that proves it. Huzzah! Based on the ID.2all concept that was revealed back in March, the ID.GTI is the hot hatch version that head of design Andreas Mindt (who drew up the MkVII Golf) has quietly had in mind all along. And as you can see from the pictures above, various GTI hallmarks have been retained: the red grille surround (though the ‘grille’ is mostly closed), the towing eyes, flared wheelarches, the head turning 20in alloys that pay tribute to the original, the tartan seats… it’s all there. Even the golf ball of all things lives on. Sort of, repurposed as a rotary dial. If you’re…

From the developers of mobile game New Star Soccer, early access PC game New Star GP turns its attention away from expensively haircutted millionaire footballers and instead towards expensively haircutted millionaire F1 drivers. Looking a lot like classic SEGA arcade game Virtua Racer, the graphical simplicity belies a surprisingly involving downforce handling model and pleasing depth to the career mode. This is not necessarily the sort of game where you’d expect to be managing tyre strategy or hiring and firing staff, but New Star GP covers even these elements of the sport in a breezy fashion. The game features cars inspired by F1 machinery right back to the Eighties and the circuits capture the unique atmosphere, if not the exact layout, of iconic Grand Prix venues. New Star GP is…

01 Bentley’s rotating Toblerone screen It costs almost £5,000 to spec the ‘Bentley rotating display’, a sort of giant Toblerone in your dash with veneer on one side, three dials on another and a touchscreen set into the final face. Crewe says it has 40 moving parts and tolerances of less than 0.5mm… 70 per cent of customers spec it. 02 Aston Martin DB12 mirrors Folding mirrors aren’t amazing. But the way the DB12’s pirouette up onto their ends when folded is just a needlessly balletic piece of practical theatre. And remember, those are probably Mercedes motors, so they might work this time next year. 03 Genesis GV60 gear selector How do you know your silent Korean EV is ‘on’? Because the jellyfish-cum-disco ball in the centre console flips over 180° to reveal…

This is the world beating EV hypercar – the Rimac Nevera. It’s fully electric, has over 20 straight line acceleration world records and currently holds the electric production car record at the Nürburgring. Only 150 will ever be built with each one costing roughly £2.4m. It has 1,888bhp from its quad motor powertrain and features a huge rear wing plus active aero. It is fully wild. It’s funny though – at the other end of the spectrum the Nevera has an eco mode that softens throttle response, loosens up the suspension and gets you up to 300 miles on a charge. It has a 120kWh battery and will charge at speeds of up to 500kW when the actual chargers catch up. It’s kind of like the ultimate GT car in…

A new and bigger generation of Mini hatch arrives, impelling me to vent my periodic rant about the harm being done by the endless physical growth of cars. It’s not just the Mini. And it’s not just me. I’ve got actual backup from Which? and the British Parking Association. Yeah, you came here for laughs, didn’t you. Which? has just noted that very many cars are too long for a standard parking bay. Which is 4.8m. For context, a Focus is 4.4m, a BMW 3-Series 4.7, so you’ve not much literal room to manoeuvre if they’re end to end meter spaces. If the spaces are side to side, as in a car park, a whole lot of cars are so wide you might not be able to open the doors…

£53,995 FOR Can be cheeky fun, plug-in version can tow up to 1,500kg AGAINST No seven seat option available here Six generations of CR-V, who’d have thought. They grow up so fast. When the first version launched in 1995 it was the tip of the new wave of crossovers and now we’re awash with them. It’s changed with the times, of course – we all have. The CR-V isn’t the only one looking a little thicker round the middle but it’s still a bestseller. The exciting thing about this one is the arrival of Honda’s first PHEV onto the European market. The problem with them has always been that you get a few miles out of the battery, but once your miserable slug of range has run out you’re left…

ABOUT 60 PER CENT OF the world’s rubber goes into tyres. In the past it was harvested by badly paid small farmers. Supply is tight, so indigenous people have now had their land grabbed as vast monocultural plantations wipe out forests, destroying diverse ecosystems. Once this was exposed, from 2016 onwards Michelin, Conti, Bridgestone and Pirelli joined the GPNSR initiative that aims to reverse some of these ills. So far, says Global Witness, it has failed to empower the locals and still looks like greenwash. Concern is rising about microparticle matter shed when tyres wear. The tyre industry says it largely sits harmlessly in the soil. But mankind has a strong record of underestimating the effect of our emissions. Disposal of old tyres provides a ray of hope in the gloom.…

THE NUMBERS ARE always bigger with trucks. The Scania 45 R/S 450 has a 624kWh battery pack. With only seven tonnes of load onboard the 15-tonne truck, the range indicator was showing nearly 500 miles. Even at its gross weight of 64 tonnes it can still do 150 miles. Then charge at 375kW on one of Gotlandring’s record-breaking 600kW chargers. But that’s not what’s most remarkable about it. Even compared to the R360 PHEV the silence and smoothness of this tri-motor, 600bhp Scania is remarkable. It’s silky to drive, more isolating and comfortable than any Rolls-Royce. Three levels of air suspension, that’s what you need. The chassis is suspended on the wheels, the cab is suspended on the chassis, and the seats are suspended in the cab. The level of isolation…

GEN1 2014–2018 Power: 270bhp Top speed: 140mph Well, they had to start somewhere. But the MkIs looked rather awkward, weren’t very quick and needed to tap out for a sub halfway through each race. GEN2 2018–2022 Power: 335bhp Top speed: 174mph Second-gen car could actually complete a race single-handedly, and crucially gained some much needed identity in the looks department along with more poke. GEN3 2022– Power: 469bhp Top speed: 200mph Slab sided at the front, X-Wing at the back, current FE car now has proper oomph and generates 40 per cent of its race power from regen braking.…

SPEED WEEK SPONSORED BY “IT’S GOING TO BE A FINAL THREE. PLUS ONE,” says editor Jack, giving me the kind of side eye usually reserved for someone reaching for a bottle during a bar fight. “So… four?” “No. It’s a final three, but we’ve decided that the 5 N needs recognition, a highly commended sort of thing.” “I haven’t voted yet.” “No. Because you’d pick the wrong things.” So goes what stands for democracy in the TopGear household, a verdict delivered just as I spill 98 RON sustainable petrol all over my boots and down the side of a gloriously filthy Porsche GT3 RS. Turns out a jury-rigged electric fuel pump doesn’t have an automatic cutoff, and the fuel gauge has a bit of real time lag. But it’s not…

FORD KA (2003) Price now: £889 Harris says: If there’s a cheaper way into four-wheeled endurance racing we’re yet to find it. The EnduroKA championship has been running on the UK’s best circuits since 2019 and includes five, six and 12-hour races. BMW 320i (1999) Price now: £1,789 Harris says: Wanting to build your own track day car? Stripping out this 2.2-litre straight-six engined E46 saloon would be a great place to start. Manual and rear-wheel drive – the perfect combo. RENAULTSPORT CLIO 197 (2007) Price now: £4,990 Harris says: If you’re looking for a little more lift-off oversteer, a FWD fast Clio should do the trick. Plus, this one has the added bonus of being an F1 Team special edition. Those stickers are easily worth an extra 20bhp. Honest Harris'…

HELLO £48,495 OTR/£53,345 as tested/£534 pcm WHY IT’S HERE Does Alfa’s late arrival deserve a place at the small SUV party? DRIVER Esther Neve FOR REASONS BEYOND ME, IT IS OFTEN SAID THAT GREEN CARS ARE unlucky. Genuinely no idea where the idea comes from, but this stunning Alfa Romeo Tonale in an attractive emerald shade of Montreal Green is definitely the car to disprove such ludicrous nonsense. Costing just shy of 50 grand on the road, the Alfa Romeo Tonale Veloce 1.3 280 PHEV AT EAWD (read plug-in hybrid, auto gearbox, all-wheel drive) you see here is £53,345 with options. These comprise the £450 Alfa Winter Pack (this includes heated steering wheel, heated washer nozzle and heated front seats), the £2,150 Leather and Harman Kardon Pack (including leather seats, ventilated…

REPORT 3 £62,995/£66,607/£680 WHY IT’S HERE Is the ownership experience as bright and sunny as the car itself? DRIVER Ollie Marriage IT’S 19 DECEMBER. THE PHONE rings. It’s Marshall van centre: “Er, I’m not quite sure how to tell you this, but… your Buzz is going to be here next week.” It turns out that a few transporter loads of right-hand-drive Buzzes have snuck through much earlier than expected, and mine is one of them. So on 28 December we trot excitedly off to Reading and come home with our new Buzz. Quite the Christmas present. It’s not entirely plain sailing. I’ve failed to spot that 1st Edition Buzzes don’t have electric sliding side doors or an electric tailgate. How did I miss that? It’s not that I mind doing the…

HELLO £46,525 OTR/£50,615 as tested/£774 pcm WHY IT’S HERE To find out what impact the TT has had on Audi DRIVERS Vijay Pattni WHILE IT’S A CHEERY ‘HELLO’ TO THE TOPGEAR FLEET’S NEWEST member, philosophically it’s actually a ‘goodbye’. Following 25 years of service – a trailblazing chorus of applause which slowly, over time, diminished into an interested ‘huh, nice’ – Audi’s venerable TT Coupe has reached the end of its natural life. No more TT. This is it. And lo, meet the Audi TT Final Edition, in ever confusing ‘45 TFSI’ guise. That means a 2.0-litre 4cyl turbo petrol, with 242bhp and 273lb ft of torque. Obviously! Decent totals when you factor in quattro and a 7spd DCT. Decently quick too: 0–62mph takes 5.1secs, and it’ll run to 155mph. If…

01 Dacia Sandero Good news! The Dacia Sandero arrived on UK shores in its second generation and immediately became the most affordable new car on the market. Prices have crept up since then, but the Sandero is still the cheap and cheerful option for basic motoring. 02 Dacia Duster If you want to combine the Sandero’s basic motoring with a surprising amount of off-road ability and crossover desirability (no really), there’s nothing better than the Duster. The latest one can be had with petrol, diesel or bi-fuel petrol/LPG. As honest as cars come. 03 Dacia Logan N24 The Ollis Garage Racing Logan was a fan favourite at the Nürburgring 24 Hours as soon as it made its debut in the 2021 event. In 2022 it finished in 88th place, but in 2023 it…

What’s the most Dacia car in the back catalogue? Well, the venerable 1300 is the back catalogue – sure, the Renault-backed range has been around for a couple of decades now, but in car industry terms it’s all still very young, just about cracking into the second and third generations of models. Now, the 1300, that car was the very definition of a stalwart. We know that Dacia didn’t design the original version and that the first iteration of the car was assembled from kits shipped over from France. But the Romanians were actually fairly pragmatic with their outsourcing of the car design. Dacia might have started as a vanity project to show off the country’s industrial might to the world (and it certainly managed that, even if it wasn’t quite…