Innholdsfortegnelse for January 2019 i TopGear Malaysia

Happy New Year folks! January is here. And in typical TopGear fashion, we’re kicking off 2019 with our annual TG Awards. Basically, our first foot forward will be to take one step back to appreciate some of the best cars to have surfaced over the past 12 months. If you’ve had to have a long, hard look at the cover before purchasing this magazine, then there’s probably few surprises left in store. Cars like the McLaren Senna and Ferrari 488 Pista are hard to leave out in a compilation of 2018’s finest. And it’s not surprising to see some existing winners such as the Alpine A110 (TG’s Performance Car of the Year) and Volvo XC40 (European & Japan Car of the Year) in the mix as well. But don’t leave…

This is the new Welsh-built Aston Martin DBX. We can say that with certainty, because Aston has confirmed DBX is indeed the name it’s christening its first SUV with. No Vulcan/Valkyrie/Vantage alliteration here. It’s DBX. And it’s alive. Here we see the new five-door SUV – a stark contrast to the sleek two-door coupe DBX concept from 2016 – hard at work testing on the Sweet Lamb rally stage in Wales. And when we say hard at work, we obviously mean ‘pratting around sideways’. That’s Matt Becker, Gaydon’s chief engineer at the wheel. Working hard. And the work will be continuing all over the world, says Aston Martin. “Though simulation is an essential part of the DBX’s early development phase, this first prototype drive in Wales signifies the start of…

Swiss watchmaking stalwarts Mido introduced three new offerings recently at a swanky evening of cocktails in Kuala Lumpur - the Ocean Star Diver 600 twins (all steel and black DLC) and Multifort Chronometer. All three were presented by Tipanat Lenbury, the Country Manager of the Swatch Group Malaysia, Heng Wei Hun, the Brand Manager of Mido Malaysia and local silver screen star JC Chee. Here’s a closer look at all three new offerings that harness Mido’s next generation Calibre 80 movement: The Ocean Star Diver 600 twins are new into the Ocean Star line and pack plenty of features that make them the perfect companions for avid deep sea explorers. At the heart of things is Mido’s purported next generation Calibre 80 automatic movement, boasting a COSC-certified chronometer with a…

As the tale goes, the Girard-Perregaux Laureato was born under the finest auspices. Designed by a Milanese architect in the 1970s, it immediately established itself as an object of art, history and form, a watchmaking icon. The spirit of this creation is intact and continues to progress in the latest generation of Laureato, launched in 2016 and further enriched this very latest form dubbed the Girard-Perregaux Laureato Perpetual Calendar. To tackle the masterful complication represented by the perpetual calendar, Girard-Perregaux has designed a Laureato that is all about subtle positional shifts arranged in a dynamic equilibrium. Driven by a purpose-built automatic movement, and unique in its kind, the Laureato Perpetual Calendar combines intensity of style with the pleasure of daily wear. Simple to read and easy to adjust, it is…

It has been a good year for bad news. I can’t remember 12 months when our annual review of ‘car world’ found the cheery stories so outnumbered by the depressing. Well, not since the global financial catastrophe of a decade ago. That’s not to say we haven’t been chuffed at a squadron of fabulous new cars. This issue is full of them. Of course, any great car this year is the result of work done in years past, but all the same, this is the year their arrival made us very happy. We’ve enjoyed being teased too, by carmakers whipping up a froth over machines still untouchable. Bugatti showed the Divo to potential buyers when it was just a full-size styling model and a set of clever engineer’s what-if calculations.…

Intercontinental Missile of the year A simple car, the DBS Superleggera. Might seem funny to say that about a £225,000 car lavished with leather and luxury, but allow me to explain. Its purpose is clear – it’s a super GT, a car dedicated to the art of going a long way and feeling special while doing it. Of being effortless, while making you aware of its abilities. Now, it can only do this if every component is pulling in the same direction. And pulling hard. Which the engine most certainly is. Ignore the 715bhp headline – it’s the 899Nm of torque that matters most. Over 136Nm more than a BMW M5, it defines the way the DBS drives. Fourth gear is good, you just vary the flex of your foot…

Is this just what cars were like in the Eighties? I’ve no idea, mostly because I wasn’t there, but I refuse to believe brakes were this ineffective. I mean, how did anyone make it through the decade intact? The XR2 must have brakes of some form hidden behind those pepper-pot wheels, I reason. That’s what I’m hoping, anyway, as I all but push the middle pedal through the flimsy bulkhead trying to avoid an Uber driver who’s decided, quite unreasonably, to effectively do an emergency stop in the middle lane of the A13. Disaster avoided and Uber chap duly chastised, time to focus on the car, and begin our potted history of fast Fiestas. This isn’t a MkI XR2. Ford doesn’t have one of those squirrelled away in its Heritage…

Gasoline horsepower is going well, the way of the horse. While we aren’t going to yank engine blocks to the outhouse and shoot them in the upper valvetrain just yet, in future gasoline engined cars might be like thoroughbred horses. Things to admire and enjoy, and to be let out for short walks, but be mindful of the spoor they leave reminding you why they’re no longer the main thing. By our reckoning that day is at least a decade or two away, but it’s coming nonetheless, which is why Porsche has us here at Sepang circuit in the dark, at its E-Performance Nights event, to show us how it’s fully prepared for the dawn of the electric age. Heart of the Matter Porsche’s aim is to let us have…

Honda Malaysia’s ‘Joy of Buying’ contest concluded last month and saw seven grand prize winners bag a brand new Honda City each. Held from September to October 2018, the contest was Honda Malaysia’s way of celebrating Honda’s 70th anniversary, and what better way than to offer its most successful model as the grand prize. As of November 2018, the Honda City is the company’s best-selling model, with 30,200 units sold for a share of 32 percent of Honda Malaysia’s total sales. Participants who missed out on the grand prize also had 17 Sony Blu-Ray Home Cinema Systems and official Honda merchandise to compete for. In total, 301 winners out of 4,800 submissions were awarded. “This contest takes lead from our tagline, and seeks to find the most creative answer on…

Citroen DS is no more. DS Automobiles is now a standalone luxury brand under the PSA Group. And the revitalised French marque now has a place it can call home in Malaysia. Tucked in a quaint corner of Petaling Jaya where the Naza Automall is located is the first DS Store in South East Asia, which is operated by Naza Euro Motors. The launch of the 3,230sqft 3S centre was officiated by Yves Bonnefont, CEO of DS Automobiles, himself in the company of Datuk Samson Anand George, Group CEO of Naza Corporation Holdings’ Automotive Group. Among the facility’s highlights are a dedicated customer lounge, VR zone and car exhibition area capable of housing three cars at any given time. At the launch, the display area was occupied by the DS7…

In Italian, ‘Multistrada’ means ‘many roads’. Aptly, that was what Ducati’s Multistrada model was initially conceived to tackle, thus becoming one of the Bologna-based twowheeled institution’s most capable offerings it has ever made. However, with the flagship Multistrada 1260 – and its more rugged, off-road ready Enduro twin – being somewhat daunting in size and price for some, the need for a smaller, lighter and more affordable version was born. In a nutshell, that’s really what the Multistrada 950 is. We recently got the chance to sample this ‘baby’ Italian dual-purpose on a two-day jaunt up to Cameron Highlands hosted by Ducati Malaysia. By the end of the Press ride, the silly grin hiding underneath our helmet was pretty evident. There’s really much to love with this pint-sized yet pretty…

McLaren’s meteoric rise over the past six years is well known. The MP4-12C heralded the arrival of McLaren Automotive, and while the superlative F1 and oddball Merc SLR sit on the family tree, this was a new dawn. A range of cars, made in numbers, to take on the old guard. Things didn’t start superbly. Reaction to the MP4-12C (renamed 12C partway through its life) was a tad lukewarm, with a bunch of people expecting the second coming of the F1 left unsated by a car that appeared to prioritise comfort and usability over prickling your neck hairs. But now that cars like the P1, 675LT and 720S have properly established McLaren in the supercar arena, and guaranteed it’s here for a long time to come, those early cars are…

What: John Wycherley Where: Calvert Studios, UK John decides to put right the chronic shortage of pictures of studio lights in the magazine Who: Thoriq Azmi Where: Cameron Highlands, Perak Our resident biker professing his love for the Ducati Multistrada 950 on camera. We’ll have the video up on Facebook soon Who: Mark Riccioni Where: Abingdon, UK Latest in our series: Large Man in Small Place, it’s Mark in the back of a Singer Who: Mark Riccioni Where: Seiderzell, Germany Well, the website did describe the hotel as ‘boutique’ with great views What: Jack Rix Where: Seiderzell, Germany When you come across a place like this in the dark woods, it starts feeling a bit Blair Witch… Who: Lambo & goats Where: Madesimo, Italy What’s the difference between a goat…

Although I’m a Mercedes man, I grew up near Zuffenhausen, so Porsche was a presence in my life from early on. My father was always a sports car fan, and took me to Hockenheim for my first GP in 1977. Niki Lauda won that race. My first proper race was a club sport event at Zolder in 1990, in my father’s 911 Carrera 3.2. I remember how nervous I felt, because I’d never done anything like that before. But I just rolled up my sleeves and got on with it. I finished fourth. My first car was a BMW 320i cabrio. I was lucky to get such a cool car for an 18th birthday present. As soon as I could, I drove to the Nordschleife, and I did my first…

WE SAY: WHAT’S THE BEST WAY TO CRACK OPEN A NEW NICHE? IN MERCEDESAMG’S OPINION, IT’S SIMPLE: APPLY BRUTE FORCE Mercedes’ model range is still expanding with a near-viral rapidity. And now, someone has spied another distant but vacant niche – presumably using something akin to the Hubble telescope – and the result is the AMG GT four-door coupe. Welcome to the family supercar. It’s only the third model developed entirely by AMG (following the SLS and GT), but the sharky nose, bonnet ‘powerdomes’ and, in the parlance of exterior designer Vitalis Enns, ‘fantastic ass’, give the GT four-door a sharper street presence than the Porsche Panamera or BMW M5. Just don’t be fooled by that disingenuous name: the GT four-door uses the MRA platform that underpins the C-, E-,…

WE SAY: QUELLE SURPRISE! THE FRENCH DECIDE TO DO IT THEIR OWN WAY… ou’ve got two choices when arriving late. One, slip in and try to go unnoticed. I imagine the Skoda Karoq turning up at the crossovers’ choir concert. It’s just like the rest and whispers, “What, me? Yep, been here ages.” Second option: style it out. That’s the C5 Aircross: “Of course I’m late – I’ve been rehearsing my solo.” Its design, inside and out, rejects the orthodoxy that mainstream crossovers should prostrate themselves before the altar of sportiness. Instead, its shape articulates an inner comfort and a cheery practicality. It’s not just a pose, either. While the Aircross is based on a familiar PSA Group platform (see 3008 and Grandland for details), Citroen deploys some interesting engineering…

WE SAY: MIDDLE MANAGERS! YOUR NEW CARS HAVE ARRIVED. SO WHAT’S IT GOING TO BE? AUDI OR BMW? Few cars are as closely matched as the BMW 5-Series and the new Audi A6. The former has been around a bit already, which means Audi will have bought scores of them to tear down, study in microscopic detail, then throw away. Just to make sure its car is better than, or at least as good as, its Munich equivalent. So the new A6 should be hands-down better. Only it’s not. Allow us to explain… Audi’s new A6 shares a platform with the A8 and A7. That makes it bigger than the car it replaces by 7mm in length, 12mm in width and 2mm in height. And while there’s undoubtedly a lot…

WE SAY: VAUXHALL IS TARGETING YOUNGER CUSTOMERS WITH ITS NEW WARM HATCH, BUT MISSES THE MARK Are these two close rivals? Vauxhall hopes so: the Corsa VXR is no more, and this new lookalike GSi is aimed at winning younger, more fuel- and insurance-conscious buyers from the likes of the Ford Fiesta ST-line and Suzuki’s new Swift Sport. Meanwhile, the SSS has grown up too. It’s now a turbo for the first time, with easy-going torque, and it’s festooned with kit. Radar cruise control, lane-keep assist and Apple CarPlay/nav are all standard. Which wins on costs? Despite costing £1k more at base, Vauxhall insists it’ll have the cheapest finance deals in the class, and resistant depreciation. Problem is, the 18in wheels of this test car, the Recaro seats and even…

The new Master Ultra Thin Moon Enamel from Jaeger-LeCoultre proudly expresses its character in a pure and refined watchmaking style. Its elegance comes down to the assertive character of its hand-guilloché blue enamel dial. Enameling, this age-old expertise, was reinstated by Jaeger-LeCoultre at the Manufacture in 1996. Executed completely by hand by a few artisans trained at the Manufacture, enameling requires extreme concentration and infinite patience, not forgetting an incomparable level of meticulous attention. Applied in the making of the Master Ultra Thin Moon Enamel, the process sees this timepiece bring to light the geometric motifs and the relief effect characteristic of guillochage in a deep captivating blue hue. As a result, this traditional decorative technique looks more fashionable than ever on this timepiece. Besides that, the Master Ultra Thin…

After decades of us telling you Hyundais have less personality than call-centre hold music, the South Koreans have pulled it off. Hyundai now boasts an arsenal of cars to make established conglomerates jealous. The mega-hyped i30N, launchpad of the entire ‘N’ operation, is rightly the poster child, thanks to the ex-BMW M Division brains who’ve morphed the worthy i30 into a more polished hot hatch than dab hands Renault managed with the new RS Megane, while keeping it as liveable as the evergreen Golf GTI. But the rise of Hyundai isn’t merely due to seducing petrol-headed folk with rorty hatchbacks. We tasted Hyundai’s audacious ambitions when it launched the Ioniq, a teardrop eco-hatch that’s smoother to drive than the iconic Prius, on account of having a proper mechanical gearbox, not…

‘Sensible SUV of the Year’ sounds like damning with faint praise really, doesn’t it? Mainly because ‘sensible’ isn’t a word people associate with being particularly cool. Sturdy shoes are ‘sensible’. An anorak is ‘sensible’. Having a pension, chewing thoroughly and avoiding fatty foods is sensible. But doughnuts are delicious, especially when eaten messily in two massive bites. If people’s first reaction to my new car was “That looks sensible,” I’d think they were having a pop. And yet, this is really down to how you define the word. Is the XC40 sensible because it’s arguably the best-looking of the small SUV crop (Jag E-Pace, Merc GLA, BMW X2 et al), with its stylish angles and funky glass? Is it sensible because there’s liberal use of two-tone paintjobs in the configurator…

It was as if Levi’s had given up on denim. In 2018, Ford announced that it would eventually stop selling any saloons and hatchbacks in America. Survivors will be the Mustang, crossovers, SUVs and trucks. Because those are what Ford can sell right now. This from the company that put the world on wheels with the Model T. A bad year for cars, then. Bad news for Ford fans in Britain too. If its brilliant hot Fiestas and Focuses won’t be replaced in the US, will it be worth Ford’s while to engineer them so well if it’s only for over here? Oh, and no more Mondeo, because its US twin, the Fusion, is soon extinct. The Ford repmobile – once a motorway totem, now a dodo. When will the…

Object of Desine of the year Describing sound in all its mellifluous detail with a keyboard is, by its very nature, a fool’s errand. Oh, car journalists will try. We’ll crack open our well-worn box of buzzwords – zing, burble, gargle, wail… occasionally a buttery thunder – and cobble something together as best we can, but really it’s a poor approximation of the actual waves pinging off your ear drums. Perhaps the best way to characterise the pummelling my cochlea is currently receiving is through the medium of emotions. Over the course of the past six seconds we’ve peeled off a slip road onto the A34 near Wantage and the noise has induced fear, mild pain and full-body euphoria… in that order. “And that’s threequarter throttle at 5,000 revs,” shouts…

There is a quality found in a hot hatchback that no other car possesses. You could give Ferrari a billion euro and 10 years to develop a supercar designed to deliver the purest driving experience known to mankind (actually, hang onto that, it’s rather a good idea), but it still wouldn’t match the one thing a warmed-over shopping car can offer. But I don’t know what it’s called. I know, this isn’t a sensible admission from someone who is supposed to describe cars through the medium of words for a living, but I don’t have it pinned down. Let me put it like this. If you’re a certain age – let’s say an age that still allows you to look at Peugeots and remember something exciting rather than a bit shit…

Goodyear Malaysia celebrated Goodyear’s 120th anniversary by launching its latest mid-range tyre, the Assurance TripleMax 2. It picks off where the old Assurance TripleMax left off, and also replaces the outgoing Goodyear Eagle NCT5 by offering the best balance between safety and performance. The Assurance TripleMax 2 incorporates HydroTred technology and improved asymmetric tread pattern and better sidewall to deliver better handling, wet braking, comfort and resistance than the old tyre. As of November 2018, the Goodyear Assurance TripleMax 2 is available for purchasing and fitting at nearly 200 Goodyear Autocare outlets throughout the nation. Sizes range from 15 to 17 inches in wheel diameter, making it ideal for most B- and C-segment cars in the market today. “Goodyear has always been at the forefront of technological innovation and we…

MV Agusta hasn’t had much luck in Malaysia. The brand has changed hands multiple times over the years, with the last of which having folded recently after running out of funds. This, of course, has left many current MV Agusta owners in a limbo in terms of after-sales and warranty care for their prized machines. All that changed late last year following the announcement made jointly by the Goh Brothers Motorcycle (GBMC) and MV Agusta Motor SpA. If you haven’t heard of GBMC, this is the very same firm behind the recent revival of Aprilia, Harley-Davidson and Moto Guzzi. Now, the firm can add the title of ‘Official After-sales Provider’ for MV Agusta in Malaysia as well. “We are working closely with GBMC to sustain and build the confidence of…

Gerry McGovern, Land Rover’s chief creative officer, introduces the new Evoque punchily. “The acid test is this. Does the new car make the old car look old? Not different, but old.” He’s right that it isn’t conceptually different: the bloodline from 2008 LRX concept to 2011 first-gen Evoque to this new one could hardly be clearer. But given that the old one served Land Rover mightily well, is it a noble aim to make it look like yesterday’s chip-paper? Isn’t that an insult to his own back catalogue, and a slight on the existing owners? McGovern seldom displays the symptoms of low self-esteem, but his reply to my question is uncharacteristically hesitant: “I guess… I could have phrased that differently.” Then he’s back on track. “I might be wrong, but…

Welcome, everyone, to the inevitable: the new BMW 8-Series Convertible: a twin-turbo, convertible V8 BMW that’s over 100kg heavier and twotenths slower to 62mph than its equivalent twinturbo, coupe V8 BMW – a car where we’ve come away impressed by its ability but unsure of its specialness. Can a folding top tip the balance? It’s a folding-cloth roof said to offer superb sound insulation and one that “pulls taut over the interior when closed”. Well, you’d hope so. In any case, said roof can be opened or closed in 15 seconds, at speeds of up to 50kph. There’s a wind deflector and the option of neck warmers; like Mercedes-Benz’s ‘air scarf’, this handy feature blows warm out through vents in the front-seat head restraints onto your neck. Winter is upon…

WE SAY: IS THIS A MASSIVELY EXPENSIVE 4-SERIES OR A BARGAIN RIVAL TO A BENTLEY CONTINENTAL GT? Maybe I got out of bed the wrong side, but I’m driving along in this glamorous new £100,000 BMW, and I’m thinking Vauxhall Cascada. See, among reasonably priced four-seat convertibles, the Cascada was quite a fine-looking thing, and good at its job. But it was a sales stinker. People associated Vauxhall with the learner’s Corsa, and instead paid a little more to get into a BMW 2-Series cabrio. Now the 8-Series. If the target buyers associate BMW with the rep’s 320d, they’ll pay a little more and get a Bentley Continental instead. People always feel inclined – and not just with cars – to prefer the cheapest thing from an expensive range over…

WE SAY: WATCH OUT, MODEL X AND I-PACE, THERE’S A LONG-RANGE EV SUV AFTER YOUR SLICE OF THE PIE What’s the point? An electric game-changer. It’s a real-world 402-kilometre (300 WLTP) electric crossover that’s half the price of the similarly rangey Teslas and Jaguar. Good for a journey? Yup. It can use DC chargers up to 100kW to replenish its 64kWh battery to 80 percent in under an hour, or 75mins with the present network of 50kW posts. So a 644-kilometre trip, with one stop for when range drops to say 40 kilometres, is perfectly feasible. If that’s seldom your itinerary, or you have another car in the household, there’s also a 39kWh (or 312-km WLTP) version for £3,125 less. Small, though? Yup, it’s no Model X. Rear foot-space is…

WE SAY: WANT TO GIVE YOUR 911 A BIT MORE BITE? HERE’S HOW Spotted the dropped ride height, did you? Think you need to get out more. This Porsche 911 Carrera T has been dropped 20mm at the front and 10mm at the rear as part of a package of upgrades designed to make it the best road-going 911 available – i.e. this side of a hardcore GT3. It’s been done by Litchfield, a UK tuning firm that has impressed us before with upgrades to cars as diverse as the Audi RS6 and Subaru BRZ. The Carrera T is already a lightweight, driverfocused version of the standard 911 with no more power (365bhp), but 20kg lighter with reduced sound deadening, fabric door pulls, no rear seats, plus a sports exhaust…

WE SAY: THIS COULD BE THE STYLISH STARTER BIKE EVERY NEWBIE RIDER DESIRES For those who can recall our feature test ride of the Honda CB1000R a few issues ago, you’d already know how much we love Honda’s ‘Neo Sports Café’ design approach. There’s something about merging old and new lines together that made it work. But if you thought this retrofuturistic charm only worked for the flagship litre-class streetfighter, think again. Even in this wee entry-level 250cc form, dubbed as the CB250R, the Japanese big wing marque’s new style language simply works here too as we discovered first hand after testing it for about a week or so recently. Park the CB250R and CB1000R side-by-side and, apart from the obvious size difference, the resemblance between them are stark. What…

In accordance with the traditional Chinese calendar’s Year of the Pig, Chopard has chosen to mark the occasion with a befitting new L.U.C XP Urushi timepiece. The dial of this new zodiac watch is entirely hand-crafted, exuding pride of place to Asian culture using the traditional Japanese lacquer technique known as Urushi. The scene represents a golden pig (a symbol of abundance) with a protruding stomach (a sign of joviality) appearing against a multicoloured forest background. The varnish used in this ancestral art of lacquering comes from the sap of the Urushi tree, which grows in both Japan and China. Its resin is harvested once a year in extremely small quantities, taking another three to five years before it is ready to be treated and thus become a highly resistant,…

Introduced as the world’s first Japanese diving watch back in 1965, it’s safe to say that the Seiko Prospex’s status as an icon is sealed. Of course, like many modern day icons of art and style, it’s never wrong for it to be ‘re-imagined’. For that, Seiko opted to collaborate with famed Japanese street fashion department store called Baycrew’s Group in creating the Prospex Street Series trio. This series echoes the design of one of Seiko’s iconinc Prospex – the world’s first diver’s watch with a titanium case – and merge it with modern street style Available in three special colours, the Prospex Street Series employs a reinforced case, lightweight yet robust, making it perfectly matched for daily or town uses. Underneath lies Seiko’s own proprietary V157 solar movement, which…

When the apocalypse comes and rains fire on these unholy lands, only five things are scientifically capable of survival. The first four are common knowledge: cockroaches, tinned Spam, MotoGP riders and that dried Weetabix residue when you leave your bowl out overnight. The other is the new Mercedes-AMG G63 – an impenetrable fortress of a car, just as capable of outrunning a nuclear blast as it is sitting tight, absorbing the impact then continuing its business, trundling nonchalantly across the debris. The Suzuki Jimny, judging by its three-star NCAP slap on the wrist, wouldn’t fare quite so well in the initial fireball, which is a shame because it would flourish in the aftermath. It might give away 476bhp to the G63, but the Jimny is a tiny, wilful, mountain goat…

As we creep towards the 50th anniversary of The Italian Job, it’s a truism that parts of this beautiful but ultimately unknowable country are indivisible from the Quincy Jones soundtrack. Let’s ignore for now that it doesn’t end well for the man in the orange Lamborghini Miura in the film’s opening sequence. The Aventador SVJ pulses with Miura DNA, not least in its 6.5-litre V12, the noise of which is reason enough to make it a 2018 TopGear award-winner, although this is also the most powerful V12 Lamborghini has ever made. The Boss (Charlie Turner, not Bruce Springsteen) selflessly volunteered to collect the SVJ from Sant’Agata, and many miles and hours later following a rendezvous near Turin, he’s sitting alongside me rifling through his iPhone for ‘On Days Like These’.…

These dock cranes have stood guard over Prince’s Wharf since 1951. Bristol’s cobbled wharves and warehouses are full of such relics. Huge clanking pieces of industrial engineering litter the docksides: embedded railway tracks pound off into the distance, there are boilers the size of barns, chains that could surely hold the Earth’s crust together (even the bolshier bits), swing bridges, engines, wheels and gears. And rust. You could happily kickstart the Industrial Revolution if not for the rust. How much iron and steel has been poured into this place? It’s a city built of box-section girders and foot-wide rivets. A city that’s transitioned, still fully in touch with the past, and able to celebrate it despite having left it far behind. Standing here now, I can imagine the noise, the…

The Jaguar I-Pace gallops silently down the outside lane of the M5. Its seat is lightly toasting my back. My generic fruit-based device is charging under the armrest. The cause of my anxiety at this precise moment is not range. It’s the contents of a metal case over my shoulder that’s moistening my palms quicker than the heated steering wheel. TopGear is, and I don’t think I’m overstating this, on a mission to save the world. By the time you finish reading this sentence, there will be 15 more humans in the world than when you started it. Roughly, two people die per second, and five are born in the same instant. About 130 million humans join the race every year, as 55 million depart it, and by 2024, there’ll…

“The most impressive car I’ve ever driven in competition.” As statement’s go, it’s a bold one. When you learn it was uttered about a car that was cobbled together in under nine months and came from the mouth of a man whose more usual daily driver over the past few years has been a Porsche 919 Hybrid LMP1 car, you sit up and take notice. Yep, Romain Dumas, a man who won Le Mans twice driving the Porsche, said those words about this, the VW ID R Pikes Peak. Why? What makes it so special? The answer to that begins with the event it competed in. The Pikes Peak hillclimb in Colorado is not like most racing events. Most racing events are governed around the need to keep the racing…

Sports car manufacturers are often treacherously accused of blasphemy when they dip their hands into the pot of gold that is the mass market. On that basis, the past decade has been a tricky one for Maserati. The only two-door sports car left in its line-up is the Gran Turismo, a product which has been on the upper shelf for nearly 12 years. To put things into perspective, the Porsche 911 has gone through four full model changes since the Italian GT was launched in 2007. Within the same period, Maserati stayed busy and expanded its portfolio with two sedans and an SUV. The Quattroporte was forgivable given its historical lineage and the fact that it remains one of the meanest looking limousines of all time. But to repackage the…

Auto Bavaria has renovated its MINI showroom located on the third floor of Auto Bavaria Kuala Lumpur along Jalan Tun Razak. Naturally, the company organised a launch event to celebrate the occasion which was attended by customers and top executives from BMW Group Malaysia. Speaking at the official opening ceremony, Harald Hoelzl, managing director, BMW Group Malaysia said, “As a fast growing premium automotive brand in Malaysia, MINI has been growing from strength to strength, charting strong double digit growth year on year for over a decade now. The brand contributes over 1000 vehicles to the portfolio of the BMW Group in the country and key to this effort are our premium partners such as Auto Bavaria who play an important role as our key touch point to our customers…