Innholdsfortegnelse for September 2024 i BBC Top Gear Magazine

@jack_rix @rixjack jack.rix@bbctopgearmagazine.com Where do you stand on the Red Bull RB17? Since its Goodwood debut there appears to be two distinct camps forming: those who start vibrating at the mere mention of it, and those who shrug their shoulders and couldn’t care less. “Yeah, but making a track only hypercar is easy,” they’ll say. Clearly, if you’re a big F1 fan and Newey disciple, it’s a wonderfully tantalising prospect – the greatest F1 engineer ever channelling his mind into something totally new, ostensibly a billionaire’s track toy, but also an engineering exercise in not just raw speed, but entertainment. Newey talks about the generous two-seater cabin that compromises the aero package a bit, but is important so you can share the terror fun with a friend or your other…

CLEARLY AN ARIEL NOMAD, BUT CLEARLY different. The furrowed brow, the broader bonnet, the beadlock wheels: say hello to Nomad 2. Same recipe as the original, but created from all-new ingredients. The only components carried over from the 2015 original are the steering wheel, pedal box and fuel cap. The chassis is 65 per cent stiffer, the suspension has 50 per cent more travel. Aerodynamic elements have been integrated. And most surprisingly, this one isn’t powered by Honda. After over 20 years of being powered by Honda motors, Nomad 2 doesn’t use the Civic Type R’s 2.0 turbo, but Ford’s 2.3-litre turbo as fitted to the Focus ST. In the standard version that will develop 260bhp and 270lb ft. An uprated version will have three separate maps, the top one…

NEOSPRINT £20, PC/Xbox/PlayStation/Switch There are plenty of retro inspired games out there, but it’s rare that you get one that’s a direct sequel to an ancient, nearly forgotten title. Believe it or not, NeoSprint is a follow-up to 1986’s Super Sprint and for gamers of a certain, venerable age the sight of a game plastered in classic Atari logos will provoke a twinge of something that’s either nostalgia or the onset of chronic sciatica. The game is just as simplistic as the 1980s version. It’s a top-down racer with pleasing handling, but there’s not much variety beyond your first few races, not least because, difficulty-wise, the Al will roll over for you like an eager puppy. If you can convince a group of more capable mates to gather around the…

CHIMRA: a fearsome fire breathing monster that’s part lion, part serpent and part, er, goat, according to those crazy ancient Greeks. Not sure how one of the least terrifying creatures on the planet made the cut, but from where I’m sitting the comparison is a good one. The Jesko’s whipcrack V8 is clearly the flame spitting big cat, the ingenious simulated manual gearbox has to be the cunning serpent and, let’s face it, I’m the goat… and not in a Ronaldo kind of way, more a weak link at the centre of a Frankenstein-style hypercar mashup. The Chimera (I’ll save you the Google, it’s spelled differently from the TVR Chimaera) is “like performing a heart transplant from one animal to another, but putting it in a different place”, Christian von…

IF you were to pick a road on which to have a go in a classic Porsche 911 Turbo, it wouldn’t be this one. Time has chewed hard on this landscape, leaving the edges of the B6278 ragged and cracked, cambers drooping, tumerous bumps the rule rather than the exception. It looks like the tarmac had a tantrum and left itself exhausted – any lack of suspension will get found out within metres. And let’s face it, old 911 Turbos are bitey, famously unforgiving of inattention or a skills gap. It’s enough to give you palpitations. And that’s not all. Although it seems appropriate that we’re in a Californian car in Holliwood – the misplaced consonant equates to the North Pennines in the UK rather than America – it means…

VW PARTS, 2013 It’s not just new cars that manufacturers need to advertise, some (like VW) want to remind you to fit genuine parts… after all, if you don’t, and use cheap alternatives instead, it can count against your warranty. Rude. But how do you make car parts interesting? Well, VW is a master when it comes to advertising and always has a creative idea that makes you think. Like this one. Striking, confident and intriguing – it forces you to read the copy to find out more.…

ASTON MARTIN DBS II £130,000 (when new) HERO Evergreen design, glorious V12 noise, easy to learn and adapt to ZERO Will a DB9 that’s turned up to 11 ever be used for that purpose? Doubtful BACK IN 2009 TEENAGE ME WAS SAT ON the living room floor watching Jeremy Clarkson on the Romanian roadtrip referring to the Aston DBS Volante as “one of the two or three best cars in the world”. This is a man I’d seen consistently ripping cars to shreds, and yet here he was showering one with praise. I had to know why. Fast forward 15 years, I find myself staring at an 8,000-mile concourse winning hard-top example with the £3k see-through fob in my hand. The lightweight seats are snug but firm. And much softer…

£68,810 OTR/£87,040 as tested/£820 pcm WHY IT’S HERE: To discover what role the EQ range actually fulfils for Mercedes DRIVER: OLLIE MARRIAGE THE EQE HAS DEPARTED AND I’M not going to miss it. I came to admire the engineering but never warmed to the car. Let’s start with the stuff it does well. It’s handsome inside, well made, has good materials and is logical to use. Even the central screen. The Burmester hi-fi is wonderful. I can’t think of a quieter, calmer car at speed. On a smooth motorway, it is superb, the long wheelbase and heavy weight lending it wonderful gliding manners. This made it a very good cruiser – or would have done if the seats were softer, enveloped and cosseted you. Instead you sat on them a bit…

£62,995 OTR/£66,607 as tested/£680 pcm WHY IT’S HERE… Is the ownership experience as bright and sunny as the car itself? DRIVER: Ollie kew “ I think by accident, they’ve built the current sweet spot” AND THERE IT WENT. SIX MONTHS in the baby M car, and no sooner had BMW prised it from my grasp, it became the old, obsolete M car. Sort of. The M2’s been ‘facelifted’, no visual changes, another 20bhp, and for the time being at least, a manual gearbox remains. Ours didn’t have it, and I stand by that decision. The M2 – and all M cars – are tuned to work with paddles, and they work better with paddles. The M2 was a fantastic, memorable companion because it made a terrible first impression. When I first…

I have always avoided giving cars human names. Partly because it’s a terrible way to get overly attached to something, but mostly because they are ultimately just lumps of metal. And while some can now drive themselves, or even create music based on your driving, not even Elon has managed to make one fully sentient… yet. Yet after 20 years of motoring and God knows how many questionable car purchases, I’ve finally broken this rule with one car – my BMW E24 M635CSi. Or as it shall now be known, Lord Voldemort. And not through a love of Harry Potter; last time I checked, Hogwarts wasn’t a division of BMW M even though some of the recent M Performance parts can only be explained with the use of dark magic.…

£76,140 OTR/£79,481 as tested/£1,141 pcm WHY IT’S HERE: Does a utilitarian off-roader work as a lifestyle vehicle? DRIVER: OLLIE MARRIAGE “ It looks like it could batter its way through anything” TEST ONE: IS IT POSSIBLE TO LOSE an Ineos Grenadier in long grass? It’s 2,050mm tall, so that’s a bit of an ask. Test two might be trying to fit a 2m lofty off-roader into a multi-storey, and you could argue that would be a much more valid experiment, but you’d also be missing the point of what the Grenadier is about. This is a car for real jungles rather than urban ones. Unfortunately we’re a bit short on the former round where I live, which means I’m going to have to get inventive with what I do with it.…

1 FIAT PANDA PRICE: £14,775–£17,775 It’s been on sale since 2011, but the endlessly upgraded Panda represents modern city car perfection that can’t be topped. It’s light, fun, cheap to run and feels surprisingly roomy once you’re inside. You’d hate to be its electric replacement… Aimed at: anyone who’ll still buy one OR YOU COULD HAVE ONE OF THESE… 2 KIA PICANTO PRICE: £15,595–£19,145 Fizzy, frugal and fun to drive, the tiny Picanto even got a welcome style injection when it was facelifted in 2023. Surprisingly generous kit levels, too Aimed at: canny pensioners, new drivers 3 HYUNDAI i10 PRICE: £16,030–£18,630 This tiny hatchback feels very grown up from behind the wheel, and the i10 is an eminently sensible city car choice with a strong spec. Great on holiday, too…

1 HONDA CIVIC TYPE R PRICE: £50,050 Forget the slightly traditional setup of our 2022 Car of the Year, Honda’s Type R follows the original hot hatch template fairly slavishly but it has kept it feeling brilliant fresh. The electric ones have a lot of work to do if they want to compete Aimed at: purists OR YOU COULD HAVE ONE OF THESE… 2 TOYOTA GR YARIS PRICE: £44,250-£60,000 The best Toyota ever? It really could be. This first version was a hoot to drive – fun at all speeds in all weathers. Updated one gets more bhp and an auto Aimed at: cognoscenti 3 HYUNDAI IONIQ 5 N PRICE: £65,000 The hot hatch for the computer games generations is rammed full of gimmicks, but is still able to back…

1 LR DEFENDER PRICE: £54,810–£120,065 The classic Defender was one of those cars that everyone had a strong opinion about, but no one was really buying. A tough job, then, renewing an icon for a modern age. The latest Defender isn’t a mere upgrade, it’s a fresh take on the four-by-format Aimed at: school run mums OR YOU COULD HAVE ONE OF THESE… 2 TOYOTA LAND CRUISER PRICE: £74,995–£79,995 It’s not as attractive as the Defender if you live in, say, Wimbledon, but the retro latest Land Cruiser has all the necessary off-road credentials if you don’t Aimed at: peacekeepers 3 MERCEDES-BENZ G-CLASS PRICE: £136,690–£203,595 The looks of the G-Wagen are the same as they’ve ever been, but that masks the progress that’s been made under the skin. The new…

1 GMA T.50 PRICE: £2.8 MILLION Gordon Murray had already done it all with the McLaren F1 back in the 1990s, but you always sensed he had a bit more to prove. And here’s the result, the car that shows lightning doesn’t just strike twice, it’ll do it exactly where Gordon tells it to. “The last great analogue supercar” was what Gordon Murray promised – and he’s delivered it with relentless attention to detail and a dedication to the end prize. With the electric era almost upon us, we’ll probably never see the likes of this pure, undiluted V12-powered monster ever again. It’s not just the sum of Murray’s knowhow and experience distilled into a ruthless hypercar, you can get something out of it without being an F1 driver, it’s…

1 ASTON MARTIN DB12 PRICE: £185,000 How long has it been since an Aston was the best in its class? The DB12 has improved its appeal on all fronts – it drives more like a sports car, but it eats up miles like a proper tourer. Crucially it’s just that bit more desirable than the competition too Aimed at: secret agents OR YOU COULD HAVE ONE OF THESE… 2 BENTLEY CONTINENTAL GT PRICE: £152,820–£257,700 If you had to drive really far there’s probably no car you’d rather be in than the Continental GT. Except maybe a chauffeur driven Phantom of course Aimed at: pipe smokers 3 PORSCHE 911 TURBO PRICE: £159,100 The 911 range is like one of those Italian gelaterias with hundreds of flavours – seems excessive, but we…

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NEWEY ON RB17 Jason Barlow interviews Adrian Newey about his two seat, Fl inspired, track only hypercar. Which is “accessible and adaptable”… and also five million of your finest British pounds. Worth every penny, we say MG EX181 MG wanted something slipperier than a basket of oiled eels, so it created the EX181. Named after an equally smooth concept from 1959 driven by Stirling Moss, the modern interpretation has a drag coefficient of just 0.181 for aero perfection DACIA DUSTER Look! A car we can all actually imagine owning! Crazy times! And it is good. Good enough to take on the Moroccan desert and win. Good enough to go toe to toe with the Sandrider Dakar car? P1 DRIFT CAR Mad Mike (FYI, a highly appropriate nickname) has finished his…

In these strange days of global political disorder, social media misinformation and the relentless rise of kombucha (who knew water could rot?), it might feel as though everything that can get worse, is getting worse. But when such dark thoughts cloud your mind, remember this: yes, humanity may be doomed, but at least we live in a world where Porsche no longer offers its PDK gearbox with terrible rocker steering wheel buttons. Things can only get better, at least when it comes to double-clutch gearbox actuation methods. In 2008, Porsche offered for the first time its race proven, lightning shifting PDK gearbox in a road car (specifically the 997.2-gen 911). This was good. Less good was how the driver was forced to operate it: a pair of push me pull…

SURELY YOU’VE SEEN THAT ICONIC photo of Dutch racing driver Jan Lammers? It’s an action shot capturing an incongruous Volvo 850 Estate racing car in BTCC trim, two wheels suspended above a bit of kerbing, with Lammers at the wheel coaxing it in for a landing. A flying brick, to be sure. The real reason Volvo picked its family hauler, and not its saloon, to shoulder the marque’s return to the tarmac may be lost to history, but the legend has endured. When it came time to pick up the cars from the factory for conversion, only estates were available. It was only later that it was determined the long roofline gave them a slight downforce advantage. It’s no secret Volvo, particularly in its most bricklike form, holds a unique…

JAGUAR LEAPER Possibly the most famous of all the bonnet ornaments (on our side of the Atlantic at least), the Jaguar Leaper was initially designed by Frederick Gordon Crosby after Sir William Lyons took offence to a particular aftermarket ornament on an SS Jaguar Saloon. BUGATTI DANCING ELEPHANT Ettore Bugatti’s younger brother Rembrandt was a talented sculptor with a passion for animals. He was just 17 when he debuted his first sculpture at an exhibition in Milan, and in 1904 he created the dancing elephant. WILLS SAINTE CLAIRE GREY GOOSE In the early 1900s, Childe Harold Wills was an engineer and metallurgist for Henry Ford. He also designed the original blue oval logo. Then, when he left Ford, he started his own company, Wills Sainte Claire. PACKARD GODDESS OF SPEED…

Don’t call it an SUV.” That’s what was said. On the press launch for the Ferrari Purosangue the generic ‘SUV’ descriptor was a dirty word. But right before our eyes was a large, 5dr, 4WD vehicle with a raised ride height. The Purosangue also has a 6.5-litre V12, which is cool. Some really trick semi-active suspension, too. However, it’s designed to do SUV things in terms of practicality, it looks like a crossover or SUV and it’s just about the same size as a Lambo Urus. If it walks and quacks like a duck… My take on the Purosangue was simple. It drives, at times, with spectacular agility and balance. It sounds fantastically expensive when the V12 is extended and it’s a pretty cool place to be. However, Ferrari’s new…

The RB17 is the fabled creature that has occupied Adrian Newey’s thoughts since 2020, but whose origins lie much further back. Way back. Neither a road car nor a competition machine, it’s a track only hypercar that marshals almost everything Newey has learned in his 40+ year career, a maximal motor car conceived without constraint, other than self-imposed ones. It’s powered by a Red Bull spec, Cosworth made 1,000bhp 4.5-litre V10 that can rev to 15,000rpm, in a car with an overall target weight of 875kg. And it has an e-motor. First impressions? It looks big and surprisingly long, a spaceship of a thing. It’s mesmerising in detail and execution, and there’s a clear visual through line to a contemporary F1 car. Imagine a cockpit on a recent Red Bull…

ON PAPER, WE WANT OUR CARS TO BE AS AERODYNAMIC AS POSSIBLE. We want to move about quickly, using no money-sapping energy. We don’t want to be disturbed by wind noise either. So why don’t conspicuously slippery cars tend to sell? Ask Hyundai how the swoopy Ioniq 6 is doing versus the blocky Ioniq 5. Mercedes has already admitted fixing wheels to a herd of elephant seals has not lured its traditional customers into the EQ family, so the next set of electric Benzes will go back to having a bonnet, a roofline and a boot instead of the body composition of a garden slug. There are exceptions, but for every Toyota Prius or Citroen DS success story, there’s a Honda Insight, a Chrysler Airflow, an Audi A2. The trick…

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The best ideas are often the simplest ideas. In 2021, to celebrate issue 350 of the mag and on the eve of the COVID delayed Olympics, we decided to hold our own summer games, just quite unlike any summer games you’d ever seen before. We split into four teams and set about scouring what we could buy (and modify) for the princely sum of £350 each. Team GB sorted itself a black cab, Germany arrived in an Audi A6, Japan acquired a Mazda MX-5, and America, somewhat questionably, a Ford Ka, on account of ‘AmeriKa’ apparently legitimising it. Games day was in a small ex-quarry in Lincolnshire, with the ‘events’ consisting of a 100-metre sprint, archery, weightlifting, rhythmic gymnastics and climbing. Chairing the day was a professional strongman and powersports…

We had our first go in the new Mercedes-AMG C63 in December 2022. It’s taken until mid-summer ’24 to meet it again, and the resulting information vacuum has been gleefully filled by the internet, awash with rumours that Mercedes is panicking. That not a single person in Germany has strolled into a Merc dealership and asked to buy the new 2.0-litre hybrid C63. The Chinese market cannot reconcile how the 4cyl C63 is superior to the cheaper 6cyl C43. Someone confidently asserted it’s being quietly euthanised, while engineers desperately lube thump great V8s with Lurpak and attempt to shoehorn them beneath the C63’s twin domed bonnet. We’re assured none of these things are true. The internet is officially wrong, nothing to see here. Apparently the C63 just needed some software…

£87,195 OTR/£94,245 as tested/£897 pcm WHY IT’S HERE: In a German-dominated world of über SUVs, why go for the upstart Italian? DRIVER: CHARLIE ROSE HAVING RECENTLY WELCOMED A tiny human to the world, it was about time our family of three ventured out of the London suburbs to embark on a jaunt to the Kentish countryside. With a gloriously sunny afternoon setting the scene, I was keen to test the Stelvio Quadrifoglio’s family credentials. Space-wise, the Stelvio offers decent room for adult passengers. Easy when you’re travelling with a baby, you might think. But alas, not after fitting a bulky Isofix baby seat. The front seat must be positioned quite far forward to accommodate the baby seat, meaning front legroom is reduced significantly. After enjoying a seafood lunch and a leisurely…

£88,100 OTR/£113,484 as tested/£1,982 pcm WHY IT’S HERE: Is Porsche’s big SUV still a game changer 20 years on? DRIVER: Rowan Horncastle THE PORSCHE HAS BEEN ON ANOTHER trip to Scotland – it’s now trudged up north of the wall and back a few times. And I think this journey, as well as blasting around Scotland’s undulating, broken, and inconsistent roads, may be where the Cayenne is most happy. Now, I’ve discussed the Porsche’s surprisingly grown up ride before, but the damping and compliance (especially regards its secondary ride and ability to absorb bigger hits) is incredibly satisfying as it offers both comfort and control. And this – I might add – is with conventional air suspension with adaptive dampers, not Porsche’s new adaptive, active voodoo system that’s on the new…

REPORT 7 NISSAN X-TRAIL Just because the X-Trail isn’t large enough to fit a family of five’s belongings for a roadtrip doesn’t mean you’ve bought the wrong car, nor does it give you an excuse to buy an even LARGER SUV! Instead, get a roofbox. It’s the best solution to save you thousands… At REPORT 5 JAGUAR F-T YPE That’s it. Jaguar has announced that production of the F-Type has ended. RIP. Jag is still committed to becoming “an all-electric luxury brand by 2025”, and yet we’re now told that the next EV (a four-door GT) won’t even be revealed until next year. Hope the l-Pace is ready to do some heavy lifting. qp REPORT 4 VW ID.3 This second ID.3 has £955 adaptive dampers. They slightly smooth the urban…

1 MINI COOPER PRICE: £23,150–£38,000 It must be difficult updating a car that’s so cemented in its retro looks, but the new Mini takes the car on in all the right ways. Inside, the not-so-mini hatchback gets a delightful digital makeover focused on a big round digital display Aimed at: young urban professionals/estate agents OR YOU COULD HAVE ONE OF THESE… 2 RENAULT CLIO PRICE: £17,995–£24,295 The hybrid version works out a bit expensive, but the Clio is as solid a buy as it ever was – a proven package with a bit of French flair Aimed at: Nicole, papa, toute la famille 3 SKODA FABIA PRICE: £19,730–£25,630 No electric whizzery here, just a great all-rounder with a solid 1.0-litre 3cyl petrol engine and some nifty interior touches (like the…

1 VOLVO EX30 PRICE: £33,044-£43,500 Volvo’s small electric SUV is stylish, full of Scandi cool and delightfully simple to live with. Space is admittedly tight in the back, but the interior quality makes up for it. It’s almost incidental that it’s powered by electricity Aimed at: stylish families OR YOU COULD HAVE ONE OF THESE… 2 DACIA DUSTER PRICE: £17,295–£23,695 If you’re going to go back to basics then you need to nail those essentials, which the Duster has managed effortlessly into its second generation Aimed at: bargain hunters 3 FORD PUMA PRICE: £25,800–£33,050 The UK’s official bestseller has taken on the torch of the Fiesta as a thoroughly decent little car with solid appeal across the board Aimed at: everyone 4 SMART 1 PRICE: £31,950–£43,450 Ignore the company history…

1 PORSCHE 911 PRICE: £97,000–£128,000 The definitive sports car, despite its inherent layout flaws, because it’s been ruthlessly honed millimetre by millimetre over the past 70 years by people who really know what they’re doing. Newly facelifted 992.2 version even has a hybrid option Aimed at: heavyweights OR YOU COULD HAVE ONE OF THESE… 2 ALPINE A110 PRICE: £54,490 This stripped down French number has managed to take up the baton for feathery, beautifully handling sports cars since Lotus gave up trying Aimed at: lightweights 3 TOYOTA GR86 PRICE: £32,495 The back to basics sports car is destined to be a future classic, and it’s one of the best cars that Toyota’s made (but it’s no GR Yaris) Aimed at: purists 4 PORSCHE 718 CAYMAN 4.0 PRICE: £75,300 Sure, it’s…

Modern cars are a pain to deal with, but back in motoring’s early days it was infinitely worse. Driving was a skilled feat of low speed, high energy multitasking. Just getting the car going was a mammoth operation, as exemplified by a prize exhibit at the British Motor Museum in Gaydon. Curator Cat Boxall keeps an eye on the dependable yellow 1901 Wolseley 10hp tonneau. “It’s a steady car rather than a fast car. It likes to run in second and third and doesn’t like stopping and starting. We use it pretty much every year on the London to Brighton Veteran Car Run. Every year I’ve done it, it’s made it,” she says. Her notes for the lucky drivers run to several pages, but for us she’s distilled it down.…

“My wife and I wanted to race at Le Mans. But looking at all the cars in period, we could never afford a historic Aston or Jaguar racecar. My other half found out that Cadillac raced in 1950, and I’ve always liked American cars. So I decided I wanted to build the Le Monstre.” And the rest is handbuilt, fire breathing history. Derek Drinkwater (and his boss/wife Pat) wasn’t going to settle for being priced out of the elitist world of classic motorsport. So he built his own. And not over the course of years either. Derek set himself the challenge of using authentic tools and techniques to recreate Cadillac’s bizarre streamliner in the space of just five months. And the self-taught mechanic succeeded, using a projector to beam a…

1. USA Chevy delivers Corvette with odd seats We get it. Mistakes sometimes happen. But there are some mistakes that beggar belief. Like this one. Rick Conti, Corvette enthusiast, salesperson and YouTuber posted this scarcely believable mixup, showing off a customer’s C8 that had been delivered with a Jet Black driver’s seat… and mismatching Sky Cool Gray passenger’s seat. Just how? 2. Greece Koenigsegg tells all Jesko owners not to drive after fire Koenigsegg Jesko owners were recently left in limbo after one of the hypercars burst into flames during a rally in Greece. The Swedish firm emailed all 28 Jesko owners asking them not to drive while it was investigated, with the issue traced to a hydraulic fluid leak. Poor souls, having to take the Ferrari to work instead……

FAIR ODDS THAT ANYONE OVER 40, UPON SEEING FORD’S NEW interpretation of the Capri, will spend five minutes simply saying “That’s not a Capri though, is it?” And despite the Ford marketing department’s tenuous proclamations that this new Capri is what the Capri would have been and that the legend is back, there’s precious little in common between a long bonneted, two door coupe that always seemed to smell strongly of four star petrol… and a five seat, tall riding, five door semi SUV. New Capri also happens to be pure electric. Suspension of disbelief is necessary, and the reality of spending many millions of pounds establishing a new nameplate taken into account. Ford’s just using what it’s got – see Puma for details. Still, there are some hints of…

What is it? The RSi had a 1.8-litre 4cyl and only weighed 955kg, so it was decidedly nippy, with handling to match. It’s basically a junior Williams. Ish. Why are we interested? If a ’93 Williams is peak vintage Clio, the RSi is the undiscovered country pre the Clio 16v. Think what a Pug 205 XSi was to a GTi. Are there… versions? The Williams was a not-so-limited edition, but the RSi was overshadowed by the Clio 16v, so there’s more choice here. Costs? The RSi wasn’t as collectible as a Williams, so there are actually far fewer of them on the road. You can get one that works for a couple of grand.…

THE GENERAL SAFETY REGULATION Part II (GSR2) now applies to all new cars sold in the EU, and by extension Britain. It mandates intelligent speed assist, lane keeping assist and automated braking. Some campaigners say that making lane and speed systems turnoffable (sorry, is that a word?) amounts to a hole in the regulations written by carmakers with too much lobbying power who want to sell fast cars to dangerous drivers. That might be partially true, but it’s still a myth to say safe drivers don’t also need to turn them off. On a B-road coming to a left hand bend you want to move onto the centre markings, both to smooth your line and improve your sightline. Approaching a right hander you want, for the same reasons, to cling to…

Q: DO GTA’S DEVELOPERS STILL LOVE CARS? One thing that will become apparent is that, in addition to being an irredeemable video game nerd, I’m also a complete motorsport tragic. Not just F1, but rally, oval racing and most of all, my own personal petrolhead peccadillo, endurance racing. There’s nothing I enjoy more than watching 23 and a half hours of a 24 hour endurance race, and the only reason that figure isn’t higher is that it isn’t socially acceptable for an adult to wear a nappy. That’s why I attended what I consider to be the toughest endurance race in the world: the Nürburgring 24 Hours. Le Mans is plenty challenging, of course, but the German interpretation of the concept takes place on a combined Nurburging circuit, including the…

“It looked different on Google Maps,” says photographer Olgun as yet another fist sized rock rings along the Mach-E’s underbody protection like a broken bell. “Yes. Yes, it did.” I reply through clenched teeth, thinking very much that my assumption that all OHV (off-highway vehicle) trails in the US were pretty much just flat, ungraded dirt roads might have been a bit … optimistic. And that a Mustang Mach-E Rally is not, apparently, a Unimog. “Don’t drive over the pointy ones,” announces Olgun, using the voice of a man who fears being stranded. Possibly not unreasonably, and I can’t tell whether he’s being sarcastic. But he’s right. We’ve been not driving over ‘the pointy ones’ for a couple of hours, and the trail is not getting easier. We have averaged…

ARCADE, 1986 Hugely influential in the driving genre, Atari’s Super Sprint set the bar for top-down perspective racing games in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Its now iconic arcade cabinet was a monster too, allowing three players to compete in F1-style open wheel racers. Unlike modern force feedback controllers, the machine’s three steering wheels spun with little resistance, making it feel less like you were piloting a formula car at the limit and more like you were opening a bulkhead door on a submarine. Regardless, it was accurate enough that with a deft touch you could weave your miniature racer around even the trickiest of tracks. And they got pretty tricky. Not content with mere combinations of corners and straights, Super Sprint introduced crossovers, jumps, shortcuts and timed gates…

CITROEN e-C3 £21,990 THE FOURTH GEN C3 ARRIVES with an electric only powertrain for the first time and an impressively low price, particularly up against the like of the Corsa Electric (£27k) and e-208 (£28.5k). It gets SUV-like styling, a comfort focused approach and a usable real world range, and while it doesn’t offer much in the way of driving thrills, it’s a quirky little thing that your kids will love. PR AUDI Q6 e-TRON £68,975 YEP, IT’S AUDI’S PORSCHE Macan. And hence our first go on VW’s shiny new PPE skateboard. Audi’s done good with it: big acceleration, sweet brake feel, imperious refinement. The real test in Pothole Capital of the World remains though. And man is it dull. Not boring dull, but lacking personality. Explains why the HUD flags up…

£102,540/£117,385/£1,474 WHY IT’S HERE: The Range Rover casts a big shadow. Can the Sport step out of it? DRIVER: BEN PULMAN WHERE TO FIND OWNERS FOR A report about their experiences with Land Rovers and Range Rovers? Enter a current Range Rover Evoque (belonging to my brother- and sister-in-law) and a Land Rover Defender (belonging to my wife-to-be). The former is soon coming to the end of its five-year lease and being replaced by a Range Rover Velar, while the latter is newly purchased and replaced a first-gen Evoque. All the stuff that makes the Range Sport an appealing daily driver (like the exterior and interior design) is respectively liked by them on their cars. Moreover, all the stuff that jars for me (average stereo, average chassis dynamics) just isn’t on…

£34,800 OTR/£35,610 as tested/£280 pcm WHY IT’S HERE: Is there still a place for the MX-5 in 2024 Britain? DRIVER: esther neve LET’S TALK SPECIFICATION. THE MX-5 YOU SEE IN the photo above is a top of the range Homura. What it actually means in real terms is all the kit you can ever imagine needing. Which includes useful things like a reversing camera, a premium Bose sound system, blind spot monitoring, Recaro seats, DSC with track mode, smart keyless entry, parking sensors, an asymmetrical LSD, and sports suspension featuring Bilstein dampers. I am a very unlikely candidate for a track day, so like many MX-5 owners, I will not experience the diff working hard. However, if you are a track day kind of person, Mazda’s engineers have worked night and…

£89.99 KÄRCHER K 2 TG maths will insist you needthe biggest model in the range. But Karcher’s pressure washers are like Teslas: you’re getting better value with a less powerful entry level option. The K 2 takes years off patios and it’s weeny enough for easy stowage. Just watch out for brittle hose connecting attachments. OK £1,099 THULE EPOS Itís a lot of money, but it is the best bike rackyou’ll ever use. There are built in locks and pop-up arms that extend to grip frames. It tilts, folds for storage, copes with 75kg and has wheels for easy rolling. Everything has been thought of. Never been able to say that about a bike rack before. DM £ N/A AMG SOAP It has been a busy few years for AMG as it…

WHAT IS IT? A McLaren racecar carbon tub clothed in P1 GTR panels with the full drift car treatment. Consider us well and truly intrigued WRITER: ollie kew The 1,000bhp P1 drift car is finished (on the outside) and doesn’t it look sensational? MADMAC IS FINISHED! WELL, IT looks that way on the outside. As you’d expect with a bespoke, one-off drift hypercar, the testing phase didn’t exactly run smoothly. As in, ‘the 1,000bhp engine is so powerful it’s twisting the chassis subframe’ not smoothly. Given the car will soon be spending most of its time enveloped in a thick cloud of tyre smoke, it’s worthwhile taking your time to appreciate the details now. MadMac is obviously a P1… and yet somehow so much more extrovert. It’s a P1 that’s…

1 HONDA CIVIC PRICE: £35,005–£39,805 The strange thing about the Honda Civic is how wildly it veers from one generation to the next – you get a crazy one, then a sensible one, a crazy one… This current version is the sensible one, but that’s not a bad thing – it might be conservative on the outside, but the interior is simply put together and to a high standard. You won’t mind long family journeys, and you know that it’ll all last for miles and miles. There’s a strangely complex hybrid setup under the bonnet, but you needn’t worry about all that, because the upshot is that the car drives and handles well enough, but won’t cost you the earth in petrol bills. See, sometimes it does pay to be…

1 RANGE ROVER PRICE: £104,025–£192,000 Arguably the original lifestyle SUV, the Range Rover has evolved massively since the 1970 original, developing into a luxury beast. The latest one hasn’t just nailed the brief, it has set the benchmark for everyone else to follow Aimed at: cash buyers OR YOU COULD HAVE ONE OF THESE… 2 FERRARI PUROSANGUE PRICE: £313,360 Ferrari says this definitely isn’t an SUV, but ironically with its sporty credentials it’s probably the most SUV out of all the SUVs that have ever been made Aimed at: posers 3 ROLLS-ROYCE CULLINAN PRICE: £298,800–£342,600 Even Rolls-Royce had to follow the money and make an SUV. Fortunately you can’t see what it looks like from the back seat – that’s the place to enjoy it Aimed at: old money 4…

1 McLAREN 750S PRICE: £244,760 Launched in 2023 as a successor to the 720S, McLaren really stepped it up with this car – it’s better to drive than its predecessor, but crucially it’s also better to sit in and easier to operate. It even comes with Apple CarPlay… Aimed at: rich Shanghai drivers OR YOU COULD HAVE ONE OF THESE… 2 FERRARI 296 GTB PRICE: £241,550 People got nervous when they heard this Ferrari supercar would be a V6 hybrid… they needn’t have worried, it all serves to make it a better drive Aimed at: self-made business people 3 LAMBORGHINI REVUELTO PRICE: £446,742 There’s hybrid tech in there, but there’s also a socking V12 in what could very well be the best Lamborghini since the iconic 1960s Miura Aimed at:…

1 SKODA SUPERB ESTATE PRICE: £36,165–£47,400 This car has always had to be good with a name like that, but it’s hard to think of any other family estate out there that does a better job for the money. Its recent refresh has poshed the Superb up even more – and some of the buttons are back too Aimed at: posh families OR YOU COULD HAVE ONE OF THESE… 2 VOLKSWAGEN ID.BUZZ PRICE: £59,035–£63,835 Not just another retro face – in many ways this is an innovative bit of family transport. And not everyone can pull off yellow like the ID.Buzz can, either Aimed at: lifestyle families 3 BMW i5 TOURING PRICE: £69,945–£99,995 You wait ages for an electric family estate and then a brilliant one comes along all at…