Innholdsfortegnelse for September 2019 i TopGear Malaysia

Did you know that, in the first 10 years of a new car’s life, its driver’s seat will be sat upon 25,000 times? I do, because that’s what I was ordered to do in the Cheery Bong II this week. Did you know that, in the first 10 years of a new car’s life, its driver’s seat will be sat upon 25,000 times? I do, because that’s what I was ordered to do in the Cheery Bong II this week. You might imagine – as I did when I took this job – that the life of an automotive tester is all ‘skidding supercars around the Nürburgring’ and ‘being seduced by uninhibited ladies’. But there’s far more to it than that. Before it goes on sale, a new car’s every…

Tall as today’s Continental GT but longer than a Mulsanne and spacious as a Flying Spur, Bentley’s 100th birthday present to itself is just massive. Its doors – which scissor upwards like an old Lambo Diablo’s – are basically as long as a Smart ForTwo. Yet it seats only four. Or sometimes just two, depending on how you configure the clever bionic seats. Inside is glorious opulence, featuring the world’s finest materials. Such as 5,000-year-old oak dredged-up after millennia spent in the ground, and ‘leather’ made from grape pulp left over from fine wine-making. A glimpse of how the Bentley GT of 2035 might look, the EXP 100 GT is electric (obviously – with a predicted range of around 692km), autonomous (naturally – though you can drive it yourself, and…

“I CAN’T BUY AN ELECTRIC CAR, I’VE GOT NO IDEA HOW OR WHERE TO CHARGE IT” Don’t panic, there are three things you’ll need: the right socket, the right handshake and the right payment system. Most cars now use something called a type 2 connector for the AC recharging, and you’ll probably carry one in the boot. For DC charging it’s more tricky. European cars use the CCS system (basically a type 2 with a pair of extra pins). But the Nissan Leaf and a couple of others use a plug called CHAdeMo. Tesla has its own system – its DC superchargers have a plug that looks looks like a type 2, but isn’t compatible with other cars. Confused? While AC charging is controlled by the car (it just pulls…

For the third year in a row, Montblanc helmed the role of official timing partner for the annual Goodwood Festival of Speed – one of the motorsport world’s biggest annual show. Fitting of the occasion, Montblanc seized the opportunity and debuted its new TimeWalker Manufacture Chronograph Limited Edition 1500 timepiece. With this special, it continues to encapsulate the marque’s Minerva heritage, technology, masculine energy, winning performance, and the style of the glory days of racing. The timepiece is crafted within a 43-mm “distressed” steel case, creating a special finish that’s achieved by treating the stainlesssteel case with a black-coating before manually washing and brushing it. The result sees each timepiece brandishing its very own patina and unique appearance. On top of that, the Montblanc TimeWalker Manufacture Chronograph Limited Edition 1500’s…

Can there be a more stereotypical use-case than this? Dropping my child off at primary school, I pass both a C-HR and a T-Cross. No DS 3 Crossbacks yet, but parked over there is a Fiat 500X, across the road a Jeep Renegade, and outside the school gate an unmatched pair of Jukes. Actually, my kid walks to school (this is London and most of her classmates do too), but you get the picture. These things are becoming default small-family town cars. They’ve a bit more space than a supermini, but they’re slightly smaller than a Focus or Golf when you need to park them. If not for off-roading, their drivers clearly think they’re OK for up-kerbing. Plus, it’s a style thing: they don’t look like a driving-school hatchback. Trouble…

RM188,888 one e-motor 148 bhp 1spd auto 7.9 secs 311 km 0 g/km FOR Silent and peppy as an EV should be. Style and practicality are nice bonuses AGAINST Low-tech infotainment and single USB port contradicts its futuristic image Range anxiety still exists in 2019. It’s something we quickly realised when we first picked up the new Nissan Leaf, only to realise that the car was only juiced 98 percent of the way up. Why wasn’t it 100? Did the walkable distance from the charging station at the Edaran Tan Chong Motor (ETCM) headquarters to the parking lot really use up two hundredths of the 40kWH lithium-ion battery? Or did it all just vanish the moment the air-conditioning kicked in as we pushed the car’s start button? The Leaf’s advertised…

£139,000 2.0 4cyl hybrid 600 bhp 8spd auto n/a secs n/a l/100km n/a g/km FOR An interesting and rather beguiling take on a luxury GT AGAINST LHD-only, £139,000, sensitive brakes This is Polestar’s first car, and it seems Volvo’s future-tech/luxury offshoot is keen to do things differently. It’s a super GT – that much is obvious. Given its price (£139,000), power (600bhp), weight (2,350kg) and exclusivity (only 1,500 will be sold globally, across only nine countries), you might be thinking Conti GT or S-Class Coupe as rivals. But then you dig a bit further. And grow more puzzled. No air suspension nor adaptive dampers, but instead manually adjustable dampers with twiddly knobs on top? Carbon body panels, brakes by Akebono (the same people who did the McLaren P1’s stoppers), a…

RANGE ROVER VELAR SVAD £86,685 FOR It’s a lovely object to look at and be in… AGAINST …but occasionally frustrating to interact with 5.0 V8 542 bhp 4.3 secs 11.8 l/100km 270 g/km A swifter Velar, but not a harder one. JLR’s SVO department is tasked with enhancing the characteristics of the regular cars, not just making them sportier. So the Velar SVAD is both faster and more luxurious. A s’charged V8 has been inserted, but it’s less of a loudmouth here than in the SVR cars. The handling rises to the challenge – it rides better than standard. The luxury upgrades are harder to spot and less successful. OM MERCEDES-BENZ GLS 400d £74,075 FOR Massively practical, refined, comfy, clever, quiet AGAINST As the ‘S-Class of SUVs’, it should be…

How far have electric cars have come in the past decade? No need to answer that – simply refer to the Mini Electric. Both of them. The first, you may recall, arrived in 2008 – a test bed rather than a production car, born into a time when your EV options were a G-Wiz or a well used Sinclair C5. Mini built 500 and leased them to human guinea pigs in the US – the beginning of a data and opinion harvest that would inform the launch of the BMW i family five years later and every electrified BMW since. Fast-forward 11 years and you might expect performance and range to have grown handsomely, but I’m staring at the spec sheet for the new 2019 Mini Electric, and you’d be…

The veins in my eyes are throbbing. A sheen of stress sweat shines on my forehead, and I can feel my heartbeat in my temples. Midtown Manhattan in rush hour is – without exception – the worst place to drive a car I’ve ever experienced. An apocalypse in time and motion. Every other street contains roadworks or diversions; two lanes scythe into one across junctions in a way that seems like a sadistic gladiatorial experiment. Potholes gape. Drain covers sit proud of their flush moorings by three inches, offering up razored steel edges to vulnerable alloy, and drivers abandon their humanity as soon as they step into vehicles. If you don’t know your way – which I don’t – and get caught up in one of the block-shaped diversion eddies,…

As its bread-and-butter product, Proton would not be anywhere without its venerable Saga. When time came to give this critical rakyat-friendly offering a mid-life makeover, Proton had to tread carefully indeed. Refreshing the Saga whilst also adding value to it wasn’t easy, more so after factoring in how big a fight its nearest rival, the Perodua Bezza, puts up. Nevertheless, after having a go at it on an overnight press drive from Shah Alam to Ipoh and back, Proton seems to have struck the right chords to make the Saga great again. On the surface, Proton’s design team has given the Saga a light touch-up. Notable changes here lie in the redesigned front bumper and grille, newly added LED DRLs, sporty new rear bumper and trims, as well as the…

If we invited you to a magical world where the BMW M8 and i8 were mashed together, you’d surely come along with us. Imagine the i8’s planet-saving disposition, and its exotic looks, construction and layout. And the M8’s thundering performance. Meet the Vision M Next. It was unveiled strictly as a concept car, but someone who knows told TopGear something like it will go on sale as a standalone M car in a few years. “It won’t be exactly like this. But remember how the Vision EfficientDynamics turned into the i8.” It’s a mid-engined wedge, futuristic as you like. But at the same time it’s slyly looking in its rearview: we’re seeing the 1978 M1 and, come to that, the 1972 Turbo concept, as well as the i8. When it’s…

This is the new Porsche Cayman GT4. Of course, it’s now got ‘718’ in its name, because when Porsche facelifted its mid-engined two-seater and dropped in a four-cylinder turbo engine, it added the ‘718’ bit to pay homage to a classic four-pot Porsche of ye olden days. But fear not. The turbo engine has been banished from the GT4. This thing’s packing a 4.0-litre, 8,000rpm, 414bhp flat-six. That ought to make a jolly nice noise. Power is up 35bhp from the last GT4, which never really wanted for poke. We loved it. Won our 2016 Sports Car of the Year Award, in fact. But we’ll take the extra horses. Torque matches the old 3.8-litre version’s 420Nm. And it’s actually no quicker: the GT4 does 0-100kph in 4.4sec. Just like before.…

The age of the 400bhp+ hot hatch is upon us, people. Welcome to the new Mercedes-AMG A45 S. All 415bhp of it. And if you’d prefer a sleeker look, the CLA 45 AMG has returned too. Pick your poison. The standard A45 now develops 382bhp, but for the first time, there’s an ‘S’ model, complete with bigger tailpipes, a Focus RSstyle Drift mode for the 4WD system and a power boost. With 415bhp, it’s good for 0–100kph in 3.9secs and 280kph. Drift mode doesn’t mean deactivating the front driveshafts, as per the E63 AMG. No, it’s done by clever clutch packs integrated into the rear diff which can overspeed the rear wheels. Remember when 4WD was for safe, sensible cars? Yeah? Well, now it’s for yobbos. There is so much…

Dutch company Lightyear thinks there’s another way to charge your electric car. This is the ‘One’ and CEO Lex Hoefsloot says it’s the world’s first long-range solar car, albeit one still in the prototype stage. The addition of solar cells all over the bonnet and roof means it only needs a small battery to achieve 724 km of range – 48 to 64 km from the panels on a summer’s day. Will it work here? You won’t be left stranded if the clouds come out. There’s also a standard charging system. Now for the scary bit. Hoefsloot said that Lightyear has already sold 100 build slots at a cost of… wait for it, £107,000 each.…

Zenith’s new and groundbreaking Def y Inventor can trace its roots back to both the Def y El Primero 21 chronograph and Def y Lab timepieces from 2017. Notably, the lat ter was built a s an ‘archetype’ regulated by a revolutionar y oscillator developed in-house and issued in a 10-piece limited edition. Today, said ‘specimen’ moves beyond laboratory stage to become the Def y Inventor. Beating at the hear t of the watch is the Calibre 9100 movement, which boasts a high frequency of 129’600 VpH (18 Hz). In contrast, the movement beats 4.5 times higher than most common automatic movements. This higher frequency is said to greatly improve the timekeeping accuracy whilst also reducing the number of components used. In fact, the single-piece Zenith Oscillator developed and patented…

LOOK AT THE DIFFERENCE IN GRILLE SIZE! Sure, but that’s the lazy comparison to jump to. It’s what lies behind those grilles that matters. The 1998, BMW Z3-based M Roadster on the right possesses a 3.2-litre straight-six with 321bhp. Its 2019 equivalent, the Z4 M40i, utilises a 3.0-litre straight-six turbo with 335bhp. Not much progress, you might ponder, but that’s rather the point; as the Z4’s rivals flock to tax-evading 4cyl engines, it’s stuck steadfastly to the M Division rulebook. Sometimes more is more. THE Z4’S NOT A PROPER M CAR THOUGH, RIGHT? Right. Yet it comfortably possesses the most tricolour badges here, with one on each brake pad to accompany the Ms across the wheels, kick plates, wings, dials… But then perhaps it justifies them, being nearly a second…

From RM2.8mil 5.2 V12 twin-turbo 715 bhp 8spd auto 4.0 secs 9.9 l/100km 230 g/km FOR The looks, the speed and the sound, it ticks all the boxes a supercar should AGAINST Binary throttle response with explosive bursts of power may alarm inexperienced drivers Performance car manufacturers dabble with lightweight versions of existing products all the time. Aston Martin’s idea of one is a 1,845kg British warship spearheaded by a 5.2-litre V12 strapped with a couple of turbochargers for good measure. And it’s called the DBS Superleggera – no prizes for guessing what the Italian portion of the name means. The ‘super light’ label could have been vindicated had Aston Martin given its flagship GT the specific output to match. But the likes of Ferrari and Lamborghini are drawing more…

from £14,500 (approx) 1.3 4cyl turbo 128 bhp 7spd auto 9.0 secs 5.2 l/100km 119 g/km FOR Engaging, upmarket interior with big-car optional gadgets. If you spec it correctly AGAINST Not a huge revolution in terms of styling, not the most exciting car to drive If it sounds simple, it’s probably less simple than it sounds. So when the corporate communication that said ‘Do the same, but… y’know… better’ came through to the development team of the new Renault Clio, the significance of the job probably didn’t register. The trouble is that this new MkV version of Renault’s small hatch (v1.0 hit the streets in 1990), is following on not from waning sales, but a car that has stayed solidly popular – Europe’s best-selling B-segment supermini since 2013, no less.…

“PRESS THE START BUTTON AND YOU GET EVEN LESS SENSATION THAN IN A V8 OR W12” £130,500 3.0 V6 hybrid 443 bhp 8spd auto 5.5 secs 10.0 est l/100km 90 est g/km FOR The first truly silent Bentley. Hybrid integration is well done, it’ll appeal to a new audience AGAINST V6 is coarse when roused, regeneration and range are both limited Bentley turns 100 this month, which makes it just about old enough to have had a crack at an electric car a century ago. But no, this is the first. And, Bentley claims, the world’s first luxury hybrid. What about Lexus, Porsche and others, you’re wondering? Premium brands apparently, not luxury. The tech that underpins it is similar to other premium hybrids in the VW Group. There’s a single…

RM28,755 399cc 2cyl 48 bhp 6spd MT 38 Nm 14 litres 168 kg (kerb) FOR Style, performance, spec and price AGAINST Small side mirrors Seasoned readers would know by now that we’ve already taken Kawasaki’s brand new Z250 ABS for a brief spin not long ago. Light, nimble and, now better equipped with ABS, it’s poised to sate the needs of any avid newbie rider with a B2 license. For the discerning newbie and intermediate riders with B-full licenses though, the news got better as Kawasaki also debuted a Z400 model alongside said quarter-litre offering. Having spent an entire weekend in its hot seat, there’s indeed much to savour. Replacing the previous Z300 that, essentially, was a stroked-up Z250, Kawasaki took on a different approach when developing this new Z400.…

I should have known to bring a toolkit. If I had a screwdriver, I could have removed the Elise’s gearlever gaiter and realigned the plastic cover plate, enabling me to find reverse. If I had a set of spanners, I could have released the tension in the TVR’s manual door-release cable, allowing the mechanism to re-engage. But I didn’t, so the Lotus needed a push back, and I had to drive the TVR with a ratchet strap across my lap. Welcome to British sports-car ownership, where occasionally there are issues. But look: everyone talks about old Porsche 911s as a paragon of reliability, while earnestly enquiring if the engine’s IMS bearing has been done. In both instances, I knew I could have done something about it, if I’d been a…

CIAO, CORTINA – THIS IS FOR YOUR EYES ONLY WHO: OLLIE MARRIAGE, MOTORING EDITOR A chance phone call with a chap from Lotus in late 2015: “Keep it under your hat, but we’re launching Lotus Exclusive next year – we’re going to be able to tailor cars to people’s tastes.” “Brilliant, can you build us a Bond car, then?” “Um…” OK, the actual conversation was more strung out than that, but the result was fantastic – an Exige painted in the same red as Roger Moore’s Esprit, with similar gold detailing and a bespoke ski rack. My unimaginative plan was to drive to Cortina d’Ampezzo and follow in Bond’s For Your Eyes Only footsteps. It went an absolute treat. We visited the locations, drove on the roads, stayed in the…

CEO, Lotus 1 Why do you think you can do an electric hypercar? McLaren, Aston and Ferrari say they can’t, yet. The Type 130 is real. Lotus is back, in terms of technology, and focused on the future. We’re working with Williams Advanced Engineering. We will make it very enjoyable, make sure people can drive it on the track without anxiety. It’s also practical and not too raw. 2 It’s 25 years since I drove an Elise prototype. How come you haven’t managed to replace it? Icons are hard to replace. In 2021 we’ll launch a new sports car [Evora replacement], with an aluminium structure, combustion engines and a wider range of power and prices. Absolutely a Lotus in dynamics but easier to use. No one can have a reason…

THE GOOD Would love to see a Puma RS. Give the body some little tweaks and it would look better than the current focus RS. Robert Ormsby LOOKS FINE FOR ME. NOTHING STRIKING BUT NOT UGLY EITHER. LaDeX Is way better looking than the Nissan Juke and miles ahead of the piss weak Ecosport. I hope it comes to Australia. Ben Pommerel THE BAD Thanks, I hate it! MEATYTHINGS Looks like a Ka that ate all the pies. Michael Rochester I don’t mind the looks at all, but why use the name Puma? It’s a new car, give it a new name. Will Anderson THE UGLY Why is it screaming? Did it look in a mirror and see what it has become? matt90 I flushed better looking ones down the…

Casio is expanding its Pro Trek Smart series of smartwatches this month with the release of its new and even more featureladen WSD-F20 offering. The new WSD-F21HR offers a new heart rate monitor together with the wearable map technology, thus enabling wearers to continually check their physical condition, or navigate unfamiliar routes. Running and Trail Running menus have been added to the Activity app, which displays measurement data in real time. Users can optimise the data displayed by choosing three types of information such as heart rate, pace, and distance to display on the watch. With the ability to set between four screen choices, user can easily switch between them and inspect the desired information while engaging in activity as well. New here too is the Heart Rate watch face.…

There was a time not too long ago, when the roads of Kuala Lumpur were literally overrun with Volkswagens. From Polos to Sharans, the reintroduction of the VW brand on Malaysian shores after a near 50-year absence was greeted with manic enthusiasm by everyone, from Beetle fans to soccer moms alike. There was little not to like about it. Here was a trusted German brand, peddling relatively affordable continental cars to Malaysians who have long believed that European cars were out of their grasps. Where the cheapest cars from fellow Teutonic bedfellows started well beyond RM200k, VW was offering cars for as little as RM80k. Even their most expensive model barely breached the RM300k mark. And these cars were anything but bare-boned. Almost every variant came with proper equipment levels…

“IT’S RAPID ENOUGH TO RUN WITH 488s AND HURACÁNS” £247,000 5.2 TT V12 715 bhp 8spd auto 3.6 secs 14.0 l/100km 295 g/km FOR Looks fab, sounds naughty, goes like stink, looks after your hairdo AGAINST Fiddly dashboard. Dare we say it, a smidge too much power for its own good… Unless someone drives their Valkyrie under a really, really low bridge, the new Aston DBS Volante will remain for some time Aston Martin’s ultimate open-top car. It’s the only way to get an al fresco Aston V12 experience – the DB11 Volante is AMG V8 only. And what a V12. 5.2 litres, two turbos, 715bhp and 900Nm of torque with a power band to make a diesel weep into its ULEZ receipt. Sometimes, it’s too much. Mostly, the DBS…

RM160,059 2.0 4cyl nat-asp 162 bhp 6spd auto n/a secs 6.2 l/100km n/a g/km FOR Sleek looks, posh ambience, decent levels of tech, and sweet to drive AGAINST Price, price and price. Also, rear cabin is a tad bid cramped for some “You’re kidding?” That was the response our editor Daryl Loy got after telling us that both a BMW 3 Series and Mercedes-Benz A Class were offered up for comparison against the brand new fourth-gen Mazda3 during a recent press event in Sepang. Even after considering the fact that both the Beemer and Merc were from their last respective generations, that’s quite a bold statement from the seemingly left-field Japanese brand. If anything, it only got us even more curious about the new Mazda3. Our curiosity was finally answered…

The name. Before we get to the looks of Lotus’s first hypercar, the power of Lotus’s first hypercar, or why indeed Lotus thinks it can blindside Bugatti & Co., let’s deal with the name. What fourwheeled unobtanium would dare show its angular face in Casino Square or a climate-controlled Abu Dhabi garage without a Countdown wordjumble branded on its backside? You’ve deciphered Huayra, Rimac, and Koenigsegg. Now, limber up your jowls and stretch your lips around this: Evija. No, not “Ee-vee, yahh”, like some Made In Chelsea mannequin guffawing over a Nissan Leaf. It’s “Evv-eye-ah.” Could have sworn she was one of the minor Stark children from Game of Thrones, but apparently it means ‘the first in existence’. Roughly, it translates from Hebrew as ‘living, to breathe’. And it begins…

THE WATER TEMPERATURE IS WHAT I’M MOST CONCERNED ABOUT. Turns out that’s wrong. What I ought to be worrying about is fuel expansion and vaporisation. But there’s not a needle for that, so I watch the rising water gauge like a hawk, ignorant of the fact that petrol is pumping out through the filler cap at roughly the rate it normally goes in. We take a lot for granted these days, but 37 years ago, when the Escort XR3i was new, driving up to the summit of an Alpine pass was to be approached with trepidation. I forget that. It’s 35ºC at the base of the Col du Galibier today, the Escort makes it to within 200 vertical metres of the 2,642m summit before the misfiring begins and I stutter…

The Mercedes C-Class tells a story of extremes; the heights of its plot separated by a stampede of 322 horses, all thoroughbreds of a fine, German pedigree. Late last year, Mercedes-Benz Malaysia (MBM) introduced a facelift for the passenger grade W205, f lexing its jolly green muscles along the way by introducing a new 1.5-litre engine for the C200 Avantgarde. But the real hulk only joined the fray a few months later; its grand entrance in the Sepang International Circuit peppered with trails of smoke and awe no less. That’s the kind of treatment an additional 322bhp buys you. Much of the three-pointed star’s latest efforts have been focused on electrification. But there’s no taking away the theatrics of AMG’s C63 and the tyre-shredding legacy each new iteration brings with…

Recall season’s back Nissan and Toyota issue recalls for 53,000 cars combined → If you think the whole Takata airbag inflator recall episode is over, you’re hugely mistaken. Local Nissan distributor, Edaran Tan Chong Motor, has issued another recall for nearly 12,000 cars for the same reason recently. Similarly, UMW Toyota Motor (UMWT) is trying to reach out to 41,000 owners of cars affected by the same problem. Like ETCM, UMWT is offering to replace potentially defective airbag inflators free of charge. Affected vehicles are as follows: • Nissan Navara (manufactured from January 2015 to November 2015)• Nissan Grand Livina (Jan 2015 – Mar 2015)• Nissan Livina X-Gear (Jan 2015–Mar 2015)• Toyota Vios (May 2003 – Aug 2007, Sep 2007 – Jul 2013)• Toytoa Corolla Altis (Jul 2001 – Jul…