BBC Top Gear Magazine December 2023

There’s a thing here at TopGear – if you’re lucky enough to be the first to drive something new and exciting, you will be bombarded by text messages from the team, demanding a one-line review. Ollie’s hot take on the T.50 will live long in the memory: “Hey dude. It’s the best thing I’ve ever driven. It’s exactly the hypercar we’ve been saying we need all along. Smaller. More intense. Focused on experience not outright speed.” I freely admit that I’m the first to get caught up in the pantomime of a new hyper-thing with a telephone book power figure, TikTok friendly party tricks and styling by Marvel, but deep down it’s obvious that the T.50’s philosophy is what really moves us, and creates a legacy that lasts beyond a…

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In technical parlance, the new Porsche 911 GT3 R rennsport improves on a number of its donor car’s key metrics, including aerodynamics and the power emitted from its 4.2-litre flat-six combustion engine. In layman’s parlance, this thing is off the scale. Porsche describes the new car as “probably the hottest track tool Porsche has ever made available as a collectors’ item”. Of course it’s a collector’s item. An £820k plaything for 77 of Porsche’s very luckiest – and track savvy – customers. What they get for their money isn’t just raw numbers, though we’ll come to those in a tick, but also history. The rennsport’s apparently a ‘logical’ successor to the GT2 RS-based 935 from a few years back, and uses the already potent 911 GT3 R customer racecar as…

Corinne Bailey Rae, Black Rainbows We fell off our chairs when we heard the single ‘New York Transit Queen’. Not because it’s great (it is), but because it was from Corinne. Nothing like her 2006 debut, her fourth album delivers a mix of Little Dragon-esque electro, punk, jazz and grunge. We think we’re in love Juice, BBC iPlayer Mawaan Rizwan, creator and star of this surreal comedy is hilarious – catch up on iPlayer TopGear magazine fix You can download the latest edition and back issues direct to your phone or tablet from the App Store. Because when life gives you lemons… settle in and read TG Visible Vehicle Repairs, Daniel Eatock London-based artist Daniel has dropped a new iteration of his ongoing work capturing vehicles that have been fixed…

When it comes to ‘not serving up steaming clangers’, Ford hasn’t dropped the ball too often this century (at least compared with, say, Peugeot, who spent a large chunk of the Noughties seemingly unable to pick up the ball in the first place). Which was why the EcoSport – introduced to Britain in 2014 – came as such an unpleasant surprise. An inoffensive compact crossover based on the Fiesta, there didn’t seem much that could go catastrophically wrong. Much went catastrophically wrong. The driving dynamics… weren’t. The suspension… didn’t. Mechanical refinement… wasn’t. So what happened? Much contemporary analysis centred on the EcoSport’s Brazilian origins (though the first UK bound cars were actually built in India, it began life a Brazilian built product for the South American market). The inference being,…

Kia is really going hard at this electrification game. It’s held the first Kia EV day and launched a new production model, the creatively named Kia EV5. Now it’s also showcased two shiny new concept cars, the EV3 and EV4. Kia says it’s keen to broaden the appeal of electric cars for drivers with lower budgets, which is good news given the EV9 arrives with a not so insignificant £64k price. Targeting greater affordability with a starting price below £30k, Kia tells us the EV3 takes on the benefits of the flagship EV9 model in a compact SUV form, plus that there will be the same configurable versatility in the cabin of the EV3 that it promised in the EV5, ie a camping table and lounge-like swivelling reclining seats in…