BBC Top Gear Magazine January 2025

@jack_rix @rixjack jack.rix@bbctopgearmagazine.com Winter is coming, as Jethro Snow puts it on page 60. He’s not talking about getting his big coat out, but the permafrost that seems to be setting into the car industry. EVs going unsold, sports cars and hot hatches fading into obscurity, hybrid assistance adding weight to just about everything. It all depends on whether you’re a glass half full or empty kind of a person really, because out of the gloom comes shards of sunlight. And if anything can find those shards and help them shine even brighter, it’s the annual TopGear Awards – helping you to avoid buying sh*tters for over 30 years. Yes, hybrid tech is being applied with abandon to performance cars these days, but manufacturers also know if they don’t celebrate…

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To give you an idea of the sort of man Nigel Stoate is, when we ask him to pull the star of this story – his amphibious GMC-manufactured ‘DUKW’ landing craft – out of his garage, he has to fire up the 9cyl, 400bhp radial engine of his Sherman tank to move it out of the way first. “My wife won’t like the mess the tracks make of the lawn,” he grimaces. Luckily for Mrs Stoate, Nigel occasionally takes his pride and joy a little further afield than the back garden. Back in June 2024, he sailed his DUKW (military code for 1942 design utility all-wheel-drive tandem axle) to Normandy. It disembarked the Royal Marines mothership and waded ashore to the mournful sound of bagpipes at 07:25 sharp – the…

MEET THE NEW BOSS… SAME AS the old boss. Sort of. Porsche has re-energised its already very energetic 911 GT3, and to cut a mediumly long story short, the answer’s “yes, yes you do”. Because it’ll still likely be a benchmark performance car. For this 2024 edition – marking the GT3’s 25th anniversary – you’ll be able to choose from either the GT3, or cooler GT3 Touring (right) from the start. One is the more correct choice of course, but both come with that familiar 4.0-litre 6cyl nat-asp boxer engine. Only the cylinder heads have been revised, while the GT3 RS donates its cams to its baby brother for “even more dynamic performance in the upper engine speed range”. The oil coolers and throttle valves have also been ‘optimised’. Power…

TOM FORD TG’S ASSOCIATE EDITOR RECKONS THE NEW 911 IS A TRIED AND TESTED RECIPE You want boring magic? You have it here. Not that the GT3 is in any way boring, but to get a 500bhp naturally aspirated petrol engine through the new emissions regs is nothing short of Gandalf-level tuning wizardry. Which means we get to enjoy a manual or PDK GT3 in secret service (Touring) or carnival (Track) spec for another few years. The gains might feel marginal, but when you realise that the fist of regulation is closing fast on these cars, a GT3 that’s better than the last one is, frankly, amazing. And Porsche has delivered exactly what we've all been asking for. It’s the same recipe, but when it tastes this good, you don't…

1. Mexico Subaru rolls off truck… and nearly off a cliff If you were ever in doubt about the importance of strapping a car down on a flatbed truck… watch this. A video shared on social media shows a Subaru WRX rolling off the back of one while up a mountain road in Mexico, only coming to a stop while teetering precariously off a cliff. And breathe. 2. Morocco Chirons collide in expensive accident on grand tour Two Bugatti Chiron owners were left shamefaced after colliding while trying to overtake a truck on Bugatti’s 2024 Grand Tour in Morocco. The duo, one in a Super Sport and one in a Pur Sport, came to blows trying to overtake, with the truck overturning as it was forced off the road. Gonna…