Innholdsfortegnelse for June 2025 i BBC Top Gear Magazine

Sucker car, fan car, cheat code, call it what you like, but the McMurtry Spéirling has fundamentally shifted our understanding of aerodynamics, performance cars in general and how quickly something on four wheels can get around a racetrack without coming unstuck. TopGear’s relationship with McMurtry goes way back to Speed Week 2021 at Dunsfold, when we had the Spéirling along, but only for a static shoot. To be honest, it was little more than a lofty idea at that stage, a theoretical disruptor. Clearly it had the right financial backing and some incredibly smart people working on it, but did we think it would come to fruition? We did not. Fast forward a year to the Goodwood Festival of Speed, and a little shoe shaped car breaks the 23-year-old hillclimb…

NO ONE, AFTER DRIVING FERRARI’S 818bhp 296 GTB hybrid, comes away saying, “What that needs is a bit less weight and a bit more power.” Not a single person. Except, it seems, Ferrari engineers. Because the new Ferrari 296 Speciale has dropped 60kg and increased horsepower to 880bhp. OK, so they’re relatively modest increases on what was an already very powerful ‘baby’ Ferrari, but probably more pertinent is the fact that Ferrari is talking about the Speciale being more fun – and intense – to drive. The horsepower uplift is largely inconsequential for a turbocharged hybrid, 37bhp soothed from the engine via different boost strategies for the turbos – inspired by the 296 Challenge car’s mapping – and a whole host of forged pistons and titanium crankshafts. The electric motor…

CAR HI-FI SPEAKERS ARE HEAVY, bulky and wasteful of power. Packaging the speakers in the doors or dash is a headache. So is getting rid of the heat they generate. Now imagine a speaker that isn’t a cone, but a simple ultralight thin film. Instead of that heavy cone with its attached magnet vibrating back and forth, the whole film vibrates under electrostatic force that changes at the frequency of the music. Electrostatic speakers have been a cult among hi-fi boffins for decades, because of their natural uncoloured sound. But they are new in cars. High end ESL headphone maker Warwick Acoustics has been at the R&D phase for car systems for years, and says it will be offered in a production car this year. One of the breakthroughs is shrinking…

Many wise, knowledgeable car enthusiasts will sagely inform you the third gen ‘fox body’ Mustang is anything but a fail. They will inform you that, in the near half century since its launch, it has proven itself an ultimate tuner car: cheap to buy, easy to work on, straightforward to boost to big horsepower. The fox body Mustang, they will tell you, is a legend. Epic Fail is here to tell you that these people are wrong. Yes, the Gen 3 Mustang has indeed proven itself a fine platform for modification, but that’s just proof of how badly Ford ballsed it up first time round. No one’s ever felt the need to modify the Mona Lisa. OK, some third gen Mustangs weren’t entirely awful. But some really were. Case in…

Lotus Evija THE EVIJA IS A BOLD STEP FOR LOTUS. A futuristic EV hypercar that pushes aero to the extreme. Without the soul of a combustion engine, designers and engineers have to find ways to give a car character and personality. With the Evija and its masterfully sculpted body surfaces and dramatic Venturi tunnels that carve through the rear bumpers, it is clear Lotus is aiming to create a vehicle that is not only visually striking, but highly effcient. Despite the minimalist front end appearance, there are a few clever passive aerodynamic features on display that channel air over the windshield as well as out behind the front wheels, creating downforce while also cooling. You can follow the airflow around the side of the vehicle into the cavernous side intakes,…

As I write this, the sun is shining and the temperature has picked up. It’s finally spring and my optimism is rising. It helps that there seems to be good news every single day at the moment. (Not in the wider world, which is a disaster, but in our little automotive enclave.) After several years of oppressive doom and gloom for car enthusiasts it appears that the oft touted winter of our passion has been rolled back, the heavy frost is thawing and maybe, just maybe it’s spring for us, too. Do I feel bad that EV sales are failing to ignite as anticipated, causing manufacturers all sorts of problems? I do not. Am I happy to see the likes of Porsche reinvesting in ICE technology and trying to adapt…

A beautiful day in Wales and a Lotus. What could be simpler? Perfect tarmac, jaw dropping scenery and a pure, lightweight, throwback sports car. Apply a few cliches about adding lightness, the genius of Colin Chapman and a liberal sprinkling of ‘ride handling balance’ fairy dust and you have the formula that’s been on the rinse and repeat cycle in car magazines since the 1960s. Did I mention steering feel yet? Don’t worry. It’s coming. But first, let’s throw out everything we know of how this tale goes. Today is truly a new day. The Lotus in question isn’t a sports car. The Evija is truly hyper. Fiendishly complex, hysterically powerful, mind meltingly expensive and (sadly for Lotus), likely to be as exclusive as ground unicorn horn. The price of…

LENGTH OF STUART HIGHWAY: 1,920 MILES TOTAL MILES DRIVEN: 1,960 CHARGING STOPS: 9 TIME SPENT CHARGING: 13HRS 20 MINS DEAD KANGAROOS SPOTTED: 237 COMBINED ACCOMMODATION STAR RATING: 1.5…

Is this the best looking seven seater you can buy right now? Rave all you like about the Range Rover or new Volvo XC90 or Volkswagen ID.Buzz, but it’s up there. Confident, striking, unapologetic… if not entirely original. Tell us that’s not a MkII Espace from the back. We are of course gushing over the Hyundai Santa Fe, and not the gopping red Routemaster we’ve dumped next to it. Hmm, that sounds harsher than it’s meant to. Mazda’s one of those that’s set itself ground rules for what its cars should look like, a doctrine laid down by the elegant Vision Coupe that wowed Tokyo some years ago. Applied to something much taller, the swooping lines and creased furrows of that concept don’t rock the boat here. But in this…

BMW M5 £111,405 OTR/£131,950 as tested/£1,587 pcm WHY IT’S HERE: Furiously complex, huge and heavy – is the M5 headed in the right direction? DRIVER: OLLIE MARRIAGE GO ON, GUESS WHICH ONE’S bigger. The red one. No, the other red one etc. Although the car is close and the house is further away, I reckon you can see which way this one’s going. The Guinness-recognised ‘Smallest House in Great Britain’ measures 3.05m deep by 1.82m wide which, expressed in property terms, gives it a square footage of 59.7. The BMW M5: 108.4. Even if you turned the two-room-plus-staircase property into a bungalow it would still shade less acreage than the M5. It’s too big. We all know that cars grow, that the Polo now is as big as the Golf three…

What is it? Pre-Tesla Model S, this was the cool, suave green car for the Californian elites. Drawn by Henrik Fisker, the Karma was a long, low range extender four door stuffed with recycled fibres and good for Golf GTI performance with Prius shaming fuel economy. Did they actually build any? A total of 2,450 Karmas were actually manufactured, making it one of the most tangible vapourware cars of the millennium. But it was beset by production delays, and then when 300 were flooded while waiting to be shipped during Hurricane Sandy and 16 caught fire, the backers pulled out and Fisker shut up shop. Where are they now? Henrik’s had another car company go bust since. The Karma was reborn as the ‘Revero’, while ex-GM boss Bob Lutz thought…

What is it? OK, so the Every1 previews a small, effcient German EV, but the A2 was ahead of the game in all ways when it came to German effciency 25 years ago. Why are we interested? Because the 1.4 petrol A2 was an aluminium genius that is ULEZ compliant (not the diesel), and it was well packaged and effcient. So… it’s the same but not? We’ve lost sight of the basics; A2s came in at under a tonne, could hit 98mpg, and looked cool. And that’s in 2000. Which one should I buy? Late 1.4s hit ULEZ compliance, and are available between £800–£4k. Not fast, but more interesting than most.…

There’s more than one way to cut a super fast electric saloon. There are two. You can follow Porsche’s Taycan template, sling it low, build it lean and athletic. Or you can do a Tesla (so far as anyone wants to ‘do a Tesla’ right now), build it comfy, but keep the motors massive so it still does zero to vanishing point in nothing flat. Now there’s a third way, which we can call the Lotus position. A four door that promises things we are used to from Norfolk (crisp dynamics, proper pace and performance), but also things we really aren’t (top notch build quality and luxury that extends further than optional carpets). So, has Lotus built a car to outstrip the Taycan and claim the title of Best EV…

Dateline Morocco, sometime in the mid 1990s. A white Renault 4 is ascending the 2,200m Tizi n’Tichka pass over the Atlas, gateway to the Sahara. I’m taking liberties with the primitive engine and brakes, using short straights between the hairpins for sneaky overtakes of all the other white Renault 4s. “It’s like being on a car launch,” says my passenger, who knows the things we young and stupid road testers got up to when let loose in a fleet of identical new cars. But these aren’t new. They’re bashed up renters. For many years, the white Renault 4 was the standard issue cheap hire car in Marrakech. For decades that original R4, launched in 1961, did faithful service on many other thankless tasks in French-influenced parts of the world. It…

If you’re looking at this PlayStation-exclusive arena-based vehicular combat game and wondering why the title above doesn’t have the words ‘Twisted’ and ‘Metal’ in there, then you’ve got a good eye. After a messy contract dispute with Sony, Twisted Metal developer Singletrac left to create this spiritual sequel. And the spirit in question appears to have been an unlicensed blend of moonshine, gunpowder and gasoline. Set in a post-apocalyptic 2012, Rogue Trip turned a series of US locations into warzones as you tore around the place unloading a barrage of explosives at your opponents. Predictably, it played a lot like Twisted Metal, only with tighter, less drifty handling which made it easier to draw a bead on a rival car. As you’d expect, there was a colourful collection of heavily…

TOYOTA HILUX 48V HYBRID £40,437 (exc VAT) WELL, HYBRID IN THE MILDEST possible sense: Toyota’s fitted a piddly battery for enhanced stop/start and better mpg. Claims it’s smoother too, but you’ll barely notice. What will turn your head is Multi-Terrain Select, with modes for sand, mud, rock, dirt and deep snow. It gives the Hilux a bigger toolkit to go with that LSD and low range box. Soon to be seen on a farm track near you. JH BYD SEALION 7 EXCELLENCE £58,990 BYD DID SOMETHING UNUSUAL with the Seal – a slinky saloon with the vibe of a supermarket own brand Taycan. The Sealion is not at all unusual. It’s a biggish crossover. The cabin’s fine, nicely finished with some good detailing and lots of rear room. Cornering and stability…

In a very rare turn of events, I’ve spent this month doing something quite sensible: I’ve decided to look after one of the cars I already own. A few years ago I bought a 991 GT3 RS. Within three months I took great pride in doubling its mileage and using it for every journey possible, be that the school run or taking the dog to the vet, which does require popping out the fire extinguisher first. There was also once where my daughter left her coat in the footwell after going to the park. This in itself wasn’t an issue, however the several snails she’d picked up and placed in her pockets later would be. This only came to light the following day when several trails were spotted across the…

OPERATION RALLYE RENAISSANCE WHAT IS IT? This Peugeot 106 – as seen on Series 26 of the telly show – has been to Nepal and back, but now we’re trying to restore it to its former glory WRITER: TOM FORD YOU MAY REMEMBER A certain TG special that involved Freddie, Paddy and Chris bimbling with intent from Kathmandu in Nepal to Lo Manthang on the Tibetan plateau, wrapped in a locally assembled Hulas Mustang, a Renault 4 and a Peugeot 106. Interesting enough, but there was one thing that stood out: Paddy’s car was none other than a 106 Rallye – an S2 to be exact – a car that really should be battering around a B-road, rather than being beaten up off it. We’re talking about a car that…

“There’s bespoke and there’s bespoke… and there’s complete one-off bespoke, which is where we fit in.” Chloe Dowsett is demonstrating how she provides Rolls-Royce’s clients with the most bespoke interior detailing service since someone ushered Michelangelo into the Sistine Chapel and asked “Reckon you can make this gaff look mint?” In minutes she turns a chalk outline into the most vivid 2D kingfisher we’ve ever seen, so lifelike that it might leap off its leather canvas and flitter around the room. Chloe works in the interior trim centre in a super secret studio deep within Rolls’ Goodwood HQ, off limits to prying eyes and, er, TopGear photographers. To understand how she wound up there, we need to rewind. Born into a creative family, Chloe spent her childhood painting, drawing and…

WRECKFEST 2 £20, PC Another month, another ‘early access’ game. This time it’s the sequel to the obscenely entertaining Wreckfest, which, as the title suggests, was not about putting together a clean lap’s worth of perfectly clipped apexes. Wreckfest 2, is relatively slight in its early access guise, only a handful of tracks and cars, but the hilarious core ingredients are present and correct. The signature wallowy off road handling is just as bewitching as it always was and the level of graphical detail is astonishing, with tracks strewn with destructible objects and every car featuring an authentic rusty patina. This is the prettiest ugly game you’ll ever see. There’s not much here at the moment, but Wreckfest 2 currently only costs 20 notes and that’s about as much as…

ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTY YEARS AGO, the luxuriously bearded explorer John McDouall Stuart needed three attempts to complete the first northerly expedition across Australia. About five minutes into his successful mission, he was kicked in the head and lightly trampled by a startled horse. Being the hardest known form of human – a Victorian Scotsman – Stuart refused to go to hospital and was instead stretchered for almost a third of the 2,000 mile odyssey. I am not the hardest known form of human. I am a part-avocado, ‘ask YouTube how to erect shelves’ millennial. This attempt to retrace Stuart’s steps in an electric hatchback at the first time of asking is also likely to be a headache. The road I’ll use is named in McDouall’s honour: the Stuart Highway. It…

VW Golf GTI mkV (2008) £6,000 (£20,671 when new) HERO Wilful engine, intuitive design, driving dynamics ZERO Economy isn’t great, ride quite firm, feels dated now THE ORIGIN STORY OF THE HOT HATCH IS cloudy, but VW cut through the murk back in 1975. Has any car ever defined its class better than the MkI Golf GTI? Fifty years on, we’re still copying the same template: front drive, useful cabin, lumpy engine, cool without trying too hard. Odd then, that VW lost its way after only a couple of goes. The MkIII was podgy, plain and underpowered. The MkIV was worse. But then, in 2005, came the MkV. It was TG’s Car of the Year, it identified the essence of what made the MkI and MkII great, and nailed the…

CUPRA TAVASCAN £60,835 OTR/£61,815 as tested/£813 pcm WHY IT’S HERE: Does a surfeit of sportiness compromise an otherwise perfectly good EV? DRIVER: PAUL HORRELL THREE AND A HALF YEARS AGO I took delivery of a £40k Cupra and the TG.com comments section was full of, “A 40 grand Cupra? Are you mad?” Still, it was rather wonderful. And now I’m in a £60k Cupra. Quick recap: it’s one of the many related mid-sized EVs in the VW Group: the ID.4 and 5, the Audi Q4 e-tron and Sportback, the Skoda Enyaq and its Coupe. Indeed the Ford Explorer and Capri too. So that’s nine. The Cupra has the lairiest design, especially in its cabin, at least within the strict lairiness limits of family crossovers. Of all those nine cars, the…

VOLKSWAGEN ID.7 £51,550 OTR/£52,030 as tested/£478 pcm WHY IT’S HERE: To discover if VW has actually mastered electrification DRIVER: JASON BARLOW AFTER A BUMPY FEW YEARS, HERE’S a VW that remembers what VW is actually good at. It’s well made, inside and out, all its major contols are expertly calibrated, and there’s a superior sense of wellbeing that’s reassuring in a world gone nuts. The ID.7 is designed to be a supremely comfortable, long range electric saloon. Yet it’s also surprisingly agile and entertaining. Its propensity for flat cornering, the fluent ride and impressive body control belie its sizeable mass. Not that I went chasing that many corners, to be honest. As ever in an EV, efficiency becomes more relevant, and we averaged 3.7 miles per kWh. That would increase…

Dear TopGear, I am a 53-year-old man with a bit of disposable income whose children describe him variously as a “total embarrassment” and “tragic waste of oxygen”. What car can I buy that will impress them enough they’ll respect me? Dave, Berkshire Our commiserations, Dave, children can be so ungrateful, but you’ve come to the right place. Buy any of these three cars and those youngsters will realise that you’re actually a pretty swell guy. Our cars say so much about us, don’t they? Whether it’s a modified BMW, primordial 200,000 mile Kia Carens or a pink Fiat 500 with eyelashes on it – that’s not the shortlist, Dave, don’t go for any of those. We’d probably avoid any sort of convertible too. It might be unfair considering we’re only…