TopGearDec2022 magzus.org

DECEMBER 2022

Toyota G R86 The econom y’s on the s kids, and so are we

) H S I ( P A E CH

. . . d e b d n a d o o f , l e u f r o f 0 0 3 £ ! , p s i r r a t c d k a o 0 r 3 Four sub-£ TopGear affordable fun It’s the

Time machine

Some call the C63 Sealander GMT the most beautiful ‘GMT-explorer’ on the market. We couldn’t possibly comment. But what we can say is thanks to its fine-tuned Sellita SW330-2 movement, you can tell the time in two places at once – by lining up the fourth ‘GMT’ hand with one of 24 time zones on the outer bezel. So even if you’re stuck on the M6 in the pouring rain, your wrist can be sipping cocktails in Manhattan Do your research.

GET YOUR FIX

There’s more than one way to consume the world’s best car content

Ed i t o r @jack_rix editor@bbctopgearmagazine.com

MAGAZINE Order a copy at MagsDirect.co.uk SUBSCRIPTION OFFER buysubscriptions.com/TGSP3M

I

am a sucker for the upsell, c’mon, we all are. Finding the thing you actually need is just the starting point... there begins the endless but-for-only-£XX-more-you-could-have spiral. An iPhone 14? Fine choice, sir, but for only £100 more you can double the internal memory, and for £200 extra you can add a telephoto lens and a 120Hz screen. I have a vague idea what these things mean, am certain I don’t need them, but then the FOMO kicks in and I’m on the hook, smiling as my wallet is turned inside out. The nicer looking restaurant across the street, the next bottle of wine down on the list, renting a film in UHD instead of HD... they see me coming, I see them seeing me coming, and still I shell out.

The car industry knows this and is a triple-dan black belt at extracting more coinage than you had any intention on spending. The art of making a car appear well equipped, but leaving ‘essentials’ on the options list – the gentlest mugging you’ll ever experience.

But it needn’t be this way, happiness doesn’t lie at the end of a weighty invoice, is it possible to be careful with our money and still have the time of our lives?

Let’s bloody well hope so, because as the cost of living crisis curls its icy fingers around our cash flow, and the economy hits the skids harder than Chris Harris in a Sainsbury’s car park, spending smarter is no longer a strategy, it’s a necessity. Fortunately, TopGear is here to help in these dark times in the only way we know how – with sound financial planning advice and a TopGear ISA for every reader! No wait, that was plan B. In a bid to demonstrate thrift is a gift, we went with an unforgettable Welsh roadtrip in four cheapish (sub-£30k) cars and a draconian food, fuel and lodgings budget of £300 for three days and two nights, plus the threat of sleeping in a tent should you overspend. I can smell the trench foot from here.

Yes it rained heavily, no the Caterham’s roof isn’t strictly weatherproof, maybe living off scrumped apples for three days isn’t the wisest move nutritionally but with Wook’s vape pen as a beacon of hope in the gloom (and a vital heat source), Team Penny Pincher made it through and learned a valuable lesson. Mostly, if you’re going to embark on a budget roadtrip in Wales, bring your waterproofs and don’t forget your packed lunch.

Enjoy the issue,

“HAPPINESS DOESN’T LIE AT THE END OF A WEIGHTY INVOICE”

@topgear facebook.com/topgear @BBC_TopGear

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Ì ÓÌÊÛÙÐÊ ÛÙÈÝÌÓ ÈÊÙÖÚÚ ÌÜÙÖ×Ì Ê ÈÙÉÖÕ±ÕÌÜÛÙÈÓ There should be no borders when it comes to electric travel. That’s why IONITY operates charging stations along European motorways that are open to electric vehicles of any brand. With several charging points at each location. With ultra-fast charging stations that recharge your vehicle’s batteries for the next stretch of your journey in the shortest time possible. And with electricity generated exclusively from renewable energy sources.

So, you are not only travelling emission-free: the journey really is carbon-neutral.

Find out more here: weareonit.biz

ÜÓÛÙȱÍÈÚÛ CHARGING

NEARLY 2,000 CHARGING POINTS IN 24 COUNTRIES

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ÌÕÈÉÓÐÕÎ ÌÓÌÊÛÙÐÊ ÛÙÈÝÌÓ ÍÖÙ ÌÝÌÙàÖÕÌ WE ARE ON IT.

CONTENTS ISSUE 366 / DECEMBER 2022

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# N E W C A R S

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# G A D G E T S

# G A M I N G

E V E R Y ONE ’ S TA L K ING A B OU T

THE TELLY BOYS ARE BACK! Chris, Freddie and Paddy return to our screens... and as usual, it doesn’t always go quite to plan WORDS SAM PHILIP

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The umpire had made his decision. Harris was plumb LBW, and had to go

I

t’s that time of year when the clock on your dashboard’s an hour out of whack, which must mean a new series of TopGear is here! Yes, Chris, Freddie and Paddy are back for their seventh series, which means they’ve officially outlasted The Sopranos, and they’re closing in fast on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Big league stuff.

In this jam-packed, marmalade upholstered new series, you’ll find French waxworks, Italian taxi ranks, Thai pickups, German sausages, Croatian hypercars and, of course, a triple-helping of premium British beef. Here’s what’s on the menu...

SCHNELL, SCHNELLER, AM SCHNELLSTEN! When we talk about supercars, it’s always about the big numbers. Horsepower, top speed, price. And don’t get us wrong, while we’re all about those numbers being as big as possible – well, the first two, anyhow – shouldn’t supercars be less about the stats, more about the way they make you feel?

So here’s the question. Which supercar out there gives the lucky beggar behind the wheel, the best time? Does bigger really equal better? To find out, Chris, Freddie and Paddy each selected an offering from a different corner on the ol’ supercar spectrum, and headed to Germany for a spot of research.

Paddy went big, with the £3m Pagani Huayra BC Roadster. Freddie went... still pretty big, with the tech heavy new Ferrari 296 GTB. And for Chris’s supercar, he chose the Porsche Cayman GT4 RS, which isn’t actually a supercar at all, but let’s not get hung up on such minor technicalities.

Just the trio, then, for a night time

The ‘absolutely, absolutely sure you left the handbrake on?’ test reached its tense final stages

charge down a derestricted section of autobahn, and a final ascent of Austria’s jaw-dropping Grossglockner Pass. Tough, day, office, etc.

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The boys’ Stone Temple Pilots tribute act was, at the very least, impressively literal

THAI FIGHTERS

truck racing, the intricacies of Bangkok’s

Which nation is the most pickup

tuning scene and the gravity assisted,

obsessed of them all? If you’re thinking

remarkably painful motorsport of

that it’s the US of A, you’re the US of Wrong.

Formula Hmong.

Because the pickuppiest country of them

Such an adventure would clearly

all is... Thailand! Per capita, Thais buy

require pickups fit for the job. Which is

more of them than in any other country.

why Freddie Flintoff selected a raised, toughened Toyota Hilux. And why

Keen to delve a little deeper into Thailand’s flatbed obsession, the

Paddy McGuinness took the dependable

presenters headed on a roadtrip of

local favourite, the Isuzu D-Max. And

discovery from the country’s coast to

possibly not why Chris Harris found

its jungly, mountainous interior. An

a local workshop to perform some

adventure that would see our brave

light modifications to the roof of

heroes grappling with the world of pickup

an old BMW E30...

Unclear who had accidentally put the cars through a boil wash, the mood remained frosty

LIBERTY, EQUALITY, ELECTRICITY

But how to decide the best of the

You could have the Citroen Ami, spiritual successor to the 2CV and almost

bunch? We’re guessing, some sort of

If you want a tiny, battery powered

impossible to tell its rear from its front.

weighted matrix, incorporating price,

pod-thing to transport you to spots

You could have the Carver Electric, the

performance, range, footprint, etc? All of

that regular city cars simply can’t reach

Dutch oddball bringing a whole new

which sounded a bit boring, so the team

(and let’s be honest, who doesn’t, apart

meaning to the phrase ‘lean and green’.

decided to settle the debate with a

from people who live in the country, or

Or you could have the City Transformer,

treasure hunt around Paris. The treasure in

people with more than one other person

which transforms from ‘narrow city car’ to

question being ‘mildly creepy waxworks’

to transport?), you’re spoiled for choice

‘slightly less narrow’ city car at the push

and the hunting weapon of choice being

right now.

of a button.

‘coloured berets’. Vive la différence!

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The new series is on BBC One, every Sunday at 8pm.

Be there! Or watch it on iPlayer! Or both

PLUS ALL THIS TOO...

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COFFEE BREAK

FA I L O F T H E C E N T U R Y # 7 6

What we’re watching/ listening/doing, while we should be working

If it was a good idea, someone else would’ve done it already

Cult Crochet Search for them on Insta and their Etsy shop – awesome creations including TG office favs from Toast of London and of Mr Alan Partridge. Back of the knit

A

s boardroom-wall-motivational-poster slogans go, FOTC will admit this doesn’t have quite the go-get-’em-tiger zing, of, say, “if you can dream it, you can do it”, or “life begins at the end of your comfort zone”. But sometimes a bit of self-doubt, no bad thing. Take, for example, the case of the C6W, the six-wheeled supercar from Italian firm Covini Engineering.

Because, yes, a car with an extra axle up front has its hypothetical merits: more grip, more braking force, less chance of a massive tank-slapper in the event of a front tyre blowout, 50 per cent more sick rimz to show off to your mates in the Halfords car park.

But before spending many years, and presumably many millions, developing it, perhaps Covini should’ve considered...

Ferrari? And Lamborghini? Porsche? Pagani? Koenigsegg?

Jaguar? None of them ever concluded six wheels were better than four. Maybe that’s an indication that... they’re not?

Developing a supercar from scratch is tough enough, without the added complication of engineering an extra set of frontal apparatus, and the added added complication of then convincing punters they want to buy something that looks like the result of a terrible photocopying error. It’s OK to leave some ideas in the boardroom brainstorm.

Road Safety Week, 14–20 November Raising awareness of key issues like safe speed, safe roads and safe vehicles in the UK. Don’t use roads?

It’s also Odd Sock day on 14/11

TopGear magazine fix You can download the latest edition and back issues direct to your phone or tablet from the App Store. Because when life gives you lemons... settle in and read TG

FIFA World Cup 2022 in Qatar, 22 Nov

TopGear TV, BBC iPlayer Don’t forget that ALL of TopGear telly is ready and waiting on iPlayer

I M AG E : M A N U FAC T U R E R

It’s cold and rainy (presumably). So that means World Cup fever is about to hit the nation (presumably). The end of this month sees the later than usual tournament kick off and one of the home nations bringing the cup home (presumably)

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CAR NE W S

BLOCK PARTY The new BMW M2 is a 454bhp, rear-drive coupe with Lego bumpers

Y O U C A N ’ T B U Y TA S T E

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he new BMW M2 ticks off quite a few of M Division’s traditional performance car boxes. There’s a straight-six engine up front. There’s the option of a manual gearbox in the middle.

And it’s rear-wheel drive.

And perhaps in the biggest box-filling exercise yet, it appears to have sprinted off with the idea of a boxy silhouette first employed by the E30 M3; arguably the spiritual successor to this second-gen M2.

So a warm welcome to the car you’ve probably already formed an opinion about.

On that, BMW calls it a “powerful design that conveys its segment leading power”.

Well, at least the grilles are in proportion.

Indeed, it’s 90bhp more powerful than the very first iteration of one of the great performance BMWs of modern times, with a massive 454bhp and 406lb ft of torque from a version of the M3’s twin-turbo

3.0-litre. Straight-sixes being a BMW speciality, this one gets a rigid crankcase, friction optimised cylinder bores, a lightweight forged crankshaft, and a 3D-printed cylinder head.

Those 454 horses are sent to the rear wheels for a 0–62mph time of 4.1secs with the auto box, or 4.3 secs with the manual.

BMW claims it’ll shoot from 0–124mph in 14.3secs and top out at 155mph, or 177mph with the M Driver’s Pack.

And what about the price? It’ll launch in the UK in May 2023, starting from £61,495 before options. Vijay Pattni

CAR CONTROL.. WITH CATIE #9 LIFT-OFF OVERSTEER

Extreme E driver, TV presenter and British rallying star Catie Munnings shares some driving wisdom

IT’S NOT EASY

START SLOW

Sliding a front-wheel-drive car is an art that takes a lot of learning.

I began rallying in FWD so it was a big part of my steep learning curve and not something I often got right in the beginning. This technique is as it sounds, lifting off the power to create oversteer.

Like most driving it’s all about weight transfer and timing. To be competitive on any surface the tyres have to be just on the limit of lateral grip and any driver input mid-corner has an impact.

As always, best to practice on a wide area and start slowly. Try maintaining a constant throttle around a long curve and then take your foot off the gas. If you have enough weight on the outside wheels this will make the fronts slow, shifting the weight forward and unweighting the rears which, depending on speed, will keep going and try to overtake the front. Keep the steering pointed the way you want to go and you’ve just created some nice rotation.

CRANK IT UP

NARROW MARGINS

Things will get way more dramatic the faster you go and I promise it can easily end in tears! The big thing to remember is that going back on the power once the back end starts to drift will pull you out of the slide. The front literally drags the rears forward and stops the back end spinning. If you feel yourself over-rotating, this is your get out of jail free card, not hitting the brakes, which will throw more weight over the front and cause you to spin.

This is all quite fun at lower speeds, or when the road surface is wet, but I’d recommend an awful lot of practice before trying to slide the car like this on narrow roads. It will only work when you are right on the limit of your rubber and one small mistake will send the car in totally the opposite direction... and probably into the nearest ditch. Keep your practice to tracks or controlled areas, build it up gradually and stay smooth whatever the speed.

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Y

WAT C HE S

STARS AND STRIPES Everyone knows stripes are worth a few extra bhp... or $$$ in the watch industry

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ou might expect a watch column within the pages of a car magazine to try to lure you in by saying how a mechanical watch is a piece of finely tuned machinery that is basically like wearing a sports car on your wrist. But there is no need this month, as the watches are making the point themselves with their very own go-faster stripes.

Presumably this is another attempt to bring some glamour to watches by associating them with cars – watches, after all, just tick away quietly and don’t do a great deal. If you tried to make a TG-style show about watches, without any burnt rubber or whitened knuckles, it would just be people sitting around talking about wristwear. It might appeal to a certain audience, but the viewing figures wouldn’t exactly set TV execs’ hearts racing.

But let’s give credit where it is due. Watches existed long before cars – and even got their stripes first. There is a popular decoration on fancy watches called Côtes de Genéve – Geneva stripes – invented in the late 19th century, when watchmakers began scratching intricate patterns onto the flat surfaces of watch movements.

The process was easy to automate and a cost-effective way to add some sparkle. It also served a practical purpose, as striping gave the metal a rough surface to pick up any rogue dust and stop it getting into the moving parts. The practice spread through Switzerland and over the border to Germany’s watchmaking hub, where the Germans showed their approval by changing the name to Glashütter Streifenschliff – Glashütte stripes.

This all happened more than half a century before the 1951 Briggs Cunningham C-2R Le Mans car kicked off the motoring phenomenon of go-faster stripes that was then picked up by BMW 3.0 CSLs and Dodge Vipers before trickling down to the retro-chic Mini.

Did the watch invent the go-faster stripe? That may be a stretch, because Geneva stripes are subtly engraved into the metal, rather than bright boy racer colours. But no matter who got there first, watches are playing the long game. The petrol car is headed for its last hurrah, while watches are enjoying a renaissance that shows no signs of letting up. So in a few years when your car is electric, you will still be able to buy a watch powered by a good old-fashioned mechanical movement. If the only place you can have a sports car is on your wrist, you may as well order one with some stripes. Richard Holt

UNDER £700

CHRISTOPHER WARD C60 TRIDENT PRO 300 British outfit offers a lot of bang for your buck by only selling through its website. Automatic movement in 42mm stainless steel case, water resistant to 300m.

Textile strap is made from recycled marine plastic. £695; christopherward.com

UNDER £1,500

RADO DIASTAR ORIGINAL Rado calls itself the Master of Materials for its scratch resistant crystal and high-tech ceramics. Diastar’s bezel is made of a ceramic-metal alloy. Automatic movement with 80-hour power reserve. Water resistant to 100m. £1,320; rado.com

BLOW THE BUDGE T TAG HEUER CARRERA X PORSCHE RS 2.7 Porsche has used the name Carrera since the introduction of the lightweight ‘ducktail’ 911 Carrera RS 2.7 in 1972. TAG Heuer has been using the name even longer, bringing out the

UNDER £ 1K

Carrera chronograph in 1963 after new boss Jack Heuer was inspired by stories of the Carrera Panamericana, the Mexican road race that took place in the early Fifties. TAG Heuer celebrated the 50th birthday of one of Porsche’s most sought

FARER LEVEN AQUA COMPRESSOR

after models with a limited edition watch, complete with

Named after HMS Leven, a 19th century Royal Navy ship

ducktail decals. Automatic chronograph movement in

that sailed to map the east coast of Africa. Automatic

42mm steel case. Water resistant to 100m. With fabric

movement in 41mm lightweight marine grade titanium

strap and steel bracelet. Limited to 500 pieces.

case. Water resistant to 300m. Quick release natural

From £6,100; tagheuer.com

rubber strap. £995; farer.com

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THE KNOWLEDGE Need-to-know nuggets of automotive news

GAME OF THE MONTH

SWEETNESS AND LIGHT Alpine’s created a racier lightweight A110 coupe. The A110 R still produces the same 300bhp from its 1.8 litres, but weighs 34kg less than the A110 S, thanks to loads of carbon fibre. It does 0–62mph in 3.9secs and has a 177mph top speed

FRENCH KISS Citroen’s turned the ‘keep it simple, stupid’ mantra into a car with its Oli EV concept. Everything’s designed to be as light and as uncomplicated as possible. Citroen claims 248 miles from the 40kWh battery

FLAB FOUR

GE AR

The revived Renault 4 EV hasn’t even launched and there’s an SUV version

DRAGONFLY HYPERSCOOTER

already – the 4ever Trophy shows a rugged off-road-style treatment of the upcoming retro electric car. Are you as excited as we are?

CROWN JOULES Maserati’s latest GranTurismo gets the firm’s Nettuno 3.0 twin-turbo V6 in two versions – Modena produces 483bhp, Trofeo manages 542bhp.

Or there’s an electric option with 92.5kWh battery and 751bhp

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TOPGEAR TOP 9

I M AG E S: M A N U FAC T U R E R , D E TA N Y

STUPID ENGINES IN SENSIBLE CARS 01

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CAR NE W S

5 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE..

POLESTAR 3

A handful of facts on Polestar’s tech-packed new electric SUV

IT LOOKS... GOOD Polestar prides itself on its Scandinavian design, and the Polestar 3 features signatures that incorporate new-found technological muscle like the ‘dual-blade’ headlights and a so-called ‘SmartZone’ area below the front aero wing, which is packed with forward-facing sensors.

IT’LL BE A FAMILY FRIENDLY SUV We’re assured that despite super saloon performance, there’s still space for five, a 32-litre frunk, 484 litres in the back with the rear seats up, or 1,411 litres folded flat.

Its 2.9m wheelbase is the same as a Volvo XC90’s, though this car is heavier at around 2.5 tonnes and sits over 2m wide.

IT’S WATCHING YOU...

Sensors buried inside the cockpit are able to detect “sub-millimetre movements” in order to protect against accidentally leaving your kids or indeed your pets inside. And should the driver somehow find themselves distracted, Polestar’s third model can trigger warning messages or even perform an emergency stop.

IT HAS M3 LEVELS OF POWER

BUT IT WON’T BE CHEAP

Yep, option the Performance Pack and you get

In the UK, prices start from £79,900, plus an extra

510bhp. That’s nicely up from the standard car’s

£5,600 for the Performance Pack. First year Polestar

482bhp. Both versions feature a dual-motor set-up

3 customers get the Pilot and Plus Packs thrown in,

for AWD and rear- biased performance, meaning

while later in 2023 there’ll be an optional Pilot Pack

0–62mph takes 4.7secs in the PP car (range of 360

with lidar that’ll include yet more sensors for

miles), or 5.0secs in the regular car (380-mile range).

environmental mapping/autonomous driving.

WO R D S: V I JAY PAT T N I

New barge Polestar has an almost 10ft wheelbase

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TOPGEAR’S GUIDE TO THE FUTURE OF EVERYTHING H MYT ER T BUS

“WE MUST ARGUE TO PROGRESS”

more suitable for more people than many people think. But to be clear I am definitely not saying they’re for everyone.

So why the hostility?

If I turn up in a two-seat car, people don’t harrumph, “I have five kids so two-seaters are a thoroughly bad idea.”

Caravan owners don’t get riled up by the simple existence of superminis, it’s just that they buy for themselves something more capable of towing. When I review a petrol car with a 350-mile fuel tank, I

don’t get comments saying “My diesel goes 800 miles, so all petrol cars are obviously a conspiracy against ordinary motorists.”

Some cars suit some people and some suit others. Same with electric cars. They aren’t right for everyone. Yet. If you have nowhere to charge, or you frequently have to drive 400 miles without any stops at all, or need a sub-£6,000 secondhand car, that rules you out of an EV. But they’re good for many other folk, so let’s not get upset about it, eh? Paul Horrell

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NOW

LATER

WHO KNOWS?

RECORD BREAKER

DREAMING BIG

THE BOAT THAT ROCKED

Meet GreenTeam’s electric pocket rocket – capable of 0–62mph in just 1.461 seconds. Blink and you’ll miss it

This is the Apollo G2J, an engineering prototype that gives us a hint of a future EV performance car. Watch this space

The Tesla Cybertruck will be able to “serve briefly as a boat”, said Elon in a recent tweet. You first, we say

DECEMBER 2022 ›

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I M AG E S: G E T T Y, M A N U FAC T U R E R

E V U P D AT E

S AY Y E S T O

Fuel economy and CO2 results for the All-New MG4 EV MPG (l/100km): Not applicable. CO2 emissions: 0 g/km Electric range^: 281 to 360 miles.

The All-New MG4 EV Trophy Long Range MPG (l/100km): Not applicable. CO2 emissions: 0 g/km Electric range^: 270 miles to 358 miles.

mg.co.uk

These figures were obtained after the battery had been fully charged. The All-New MG4 EV is a battery electric vehicle requiring mains electricity for charging. There is a new test for CO2 and electric range figures. The electric range shown was achieved using the new test procedure. Figures shown are for comparability purposes. Only compare CO2 and electric range figures with other cars tested to the same technical procedures. ^The All-New MG4 EV SE Long Range with the 64kWh battery from a single charge on the WLTP combined cycle: Combined Range 281 miles (450 km): City Range: 360 miles (579 km); Combined Driving Efficiency: 3.8 miles/kWh (16.0 kWh/I00km). These figures may not reflect real-life driving results, which will depend upon a number of factors, including the starting charge of the battery, accessories fitted (post-registration), variations in weather, driving styles and vehicle load. *Price applies to the All-New MG4 EV SE. †Up to 80,000 miles. T/C’s apply. Model shown: The All-New MG4 EV Trophy Long Range with Volcano Orange Premium Paint £32,190 on the road.

The All-New MG4 EV fully electric hatchback. From £25,995* Up to 281 miles^ on a single charge, innovative technology, an ultra-thin battery that maximises head and leg room and complete peace-of-mind with our 7 year warranty†.

Say YES to the electric car that’s within reach.

F1 treated us to a true spectacle last year – but this season has seen the sport go backwards, says Chris

I L LU S T R AT I O N : PAU L RY D I N G

It should all be looking rosy at Formula One HQ right now, but this long-time fan thinks the sport has got itself into a bit of a bind, and it may struggle to see a way out of it. The sport has done a Dorian Gray, only in this case, the devil is Netflix. Everyone involved in any commercial area of F1 cannot quite believe the shot in the arm Drive to Survive has given the sport. Just when it was struggling to reach more people and crucially, a younger audience, the whole soap opera ended up being a hit and suddenly an Austrian man saying “Vanker” was more popular than Lewis Hamilton. As an old fart, I was glad because it looked like F1 had a future. But I was also worried, because that new audience wouldn’t be as forgiving as the longstanding saddos of yesteryear.

The 2021 championship was probably the best in a generation – a script written by the television gods – upstart precocious youngster with massive talent against multiple world champion.

This was the perfect way to reward all those new eyeballs for tuning in to F1. Formula One was serving a masterclass in entertainment – Max and Lewis were at each other weekly, Toto and Christian added a dash of homoerotic handbags and we all loved it. Then came Abu Dhabi and F1 pulled out a revolver and aimed it directly at its own head. Whether or not you liked the

“FORMULA ONE WAS SERVING A MASTERCLASS IN ENTERTAINMENT”

outcome, none of us can deny that it damaged the sport. If I was new to watching F1, I think I’d have thought, “This is a fix, they’ve mugged me off, I’m not watching this again”.

The timing was catastrophic because a change in regulations means Red Bull has done such a good job with its 2022 car that Max has presided over a championship that lost its spice in early summer. And all those who piled in on the Netflix wave must be wondering what’s going on. People think he gets it wrong and he’s still bitter about last year, but Lewis was right to say he felt sorry for the fans because this year has been a very poor shadow of 2021.

The other problem is the FIA. For those who don’t know, the sport’s governing body is a separate entity to the sport itself, and if the sport is in a pickle, the FIA is all over the place. It increasingly lost control of matters last year, culminating in the Abu Dhabi shambles, and now, like a referee spooked early in a game, seems to only make bad decisions. We’ve had delayed starts and lost potentially nail-biting finishes because the men at race control call it wrong. And that makes the spectacle less sticky. It’s a numbers game, and even if Silverstone is selling out in 20 minutes, the shine will wear off quickly.

Of course I’ll try to watch the remaining races this year, but Max’s dominance has killed the intrigue. And again, imagining I was new to the sport, why would I carry on watching? It’s a complicated situation and the relationship between the Netflix show and the actual races is finely balanced. Drive to Survive exploded because it was more entertaining than the sport it chronicled. Then the sport became more entertaining than the documentary, which lured newer, younger viewers. But if the roles are reversed again, F1 may never entice them back again.

Need more of the TopGear telly show in your life?

All episodes are now free to stream on BBC iPlayer

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TGTV’s Sam Philip has been surfing the world wide web and it seems to be angrier than ever

I L LU S T R AT I O N : PAU L RY D I N G

ManicCarGuy83 is angry. I am browsing a popular internet car forum, trying to verify a piece of obscure trivia about the Ferrari Daytona SP3, but have become waylaid by the musings of ManicCarGuy83. Who, I regret to inform you, is not a fan.

Over several dozen vitriolic posts, ManicCarGuy83 has accused Ferrari designers of various offences including (and I lightly paraphrase in the name of politeness): betraying Italy; treating their customers like cretins, and defecating forcefully and repeatedly on the grave of Enzo himself. He’s a charmer.

Such vitriol might, I guess, be justified if ManicCarGuy83 had, say, put down a deposit on an SP3 Daytona, sight unseen, then been disappointed by what rocked up on his driveway. But, judging from his posts, he doesn’t appear to own a Daytona, or any other Ferrari. I wouldn’t be totally confident he’s old enough to own a driving licence. The design of the SP3, so far as I can tell, has literally no more impact on ManicCarGuy83’s day-today life than does former England goalkeeper David Seaman’s choice of breakfast cereal. (Weetabix.) But here he is, driven to a mad, seething rage by its glass-to-bodywork ratio.

On the one hand, it’s a free country. As Voltaire nearly said, “I may disapprove of your badly punctuated, ill-informed forum

“IT’S NEVER ENOUGH TO SIMPLY SAY ‘I DISAPPROVE OF THAT NEW CAR’S LOOKS’...”

s**tposting, but I defend to the death your right to post it.”

But on the other hand... can we all be a little less angry?

Because it’s not just ManicCarGuy83. Every corner of the motoring web is rammed to the gunnels with rage, brimming with furious, disappointed people being furious and disappointed about everything. No question, there’s plenty in the world of cars to get justifiably worked up about about. You could, for example, legitimately question whether an 800bhp, £1.7m supercar is entirely appropriate in the current global climate. (The answer, incidentally, is ‘yes’, but at least it’d be a valid debate.) Sustainability, safety, social acceptability of cars: these are all valid, ripe topics for a proper ding-dong.

But internet car rage is rarely focused on sustainability, or safety, or social acceptability. It’s always about the way a new car looks. And if you disapprove of a new car’s looks, it’s never enough to simply say, “I disapprove of that new car’s looks.” You must decry it as an insult to the very dignity of cars themselves.

Angry people of the internet! You’re not required to police the design of new cars! We’ve already got a neat mechanism for that! It’s called ‘the market’. If a car company serves up a steaming guano-pile of a design, no one will buy it. Or, if they do, it’s because they’ve decided they’re OK with the design, because looks are subjective! Dial down the rage, that’s what I’m saying. There’s enough to be angry and sad about in the world right now, without getting apoplectic over the rear end of a silly red supercar.

Sam Philip is the TopGear telly script editor, and a TG mag and website regular for 15 years. Once wrote a Vauxhall Corsa joke that Paddy McGuinness described as “not totally crap” Need more of the TopGear telly show in your life?

All episodes are now free to stream on BBC iPlayer

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Cars are much like people, says Paul Horrell – in their old age we can learn to love them again

I L LU S T R AT I O N : PAU L RY D I N G

If you stick around for a long time, people get fed up with you.

But hang in there and eventually they begin to love you again. I give you Paul McCartney’s headlining at Glastonbury and Abba’s sold out avatar gigs, or the remarkable rehabilitation of ELO. All have lived through eras of tragic uncoolness. But now people love to see them retread the old stuff. Cars, if they stay in production long enough, can follow that U-shaped curve of affection.

By the time it was 20 years old in the late Seventies, the original Mini was widely derided. It had to face up against the first wave of superminis, the Fiat 127 and MkI editions of the Renault 5 and Polo and Fiesta. In that role it was a disaster, a tired, cramped and irrelevant old stager. Then came the Metro to do the job of BL’s mainstream small hatch, and the Mini could step aside into a new role. It effectively retired, no longer having to work for a living. Towards the end of its life it became a cheeky old entertainer, a national treasure.

The Lotus Elise departed last year, to much mourning. It had been around 25 years. In its youth we loved its gorgeous steering, brilliant handling, happy ride and vivid engine. By late-middle life it had lost some of the allure, as people reckoned it was a patchy machine, doubtful in quality and limited in relevance, left behind

“THE AVENTADOR STARTED TO LOOK LIKE A RHINOCEROS BEFUDDLED BY OLD AGE”

in the cult of more poooooower. But at the end everyone treasured it as an unmatched way to connect a driver to the road. It hadn’t changed – I drove the last one straight after the first and the main difference was how much rattlier the old one was.

What about the Lamborghini Aventador? During its life it did get better in some details, but its character remained a constant.

There was a point as rivals gained cleverer transmissions and suspensions and electrified powertrains that the Aventador started to look like a rhinoceros increasingly befuddled by old age.

Then it became unique and something to treasure in an age when there were no more multi-cylinder naturally aspirated supercars.

Now it’s gone and people are blotting the tears from their eyes.

And the Land Rover. The coil-sprung 90 and 110 were launched in the early Eighties. Their permanent four-wheel drive and fancy springs made them modern for that era. But by the late Nineties everyone in their right mind who had a serious use for a cross country vehicle that could carry and tow had got themselves a Japanese pickup. If they wanted to shift people they had a Shogun. The Land Rover (by then called Defender, a name I loathe) was charismatic but old, uncomfortable, costly and unreliable. But once the people who chose their vehicles rationally had moved on, the way was clear for the Defender to be adopted by those who wanted an irrational vehicle for leisure. The age, discomfort, cost and unreliability were ‘character’.

These four cars weren’t notably better in their dotage than in their unloved mid-life. They didn’t change. The world around them did. Their qualities became unique, and they ascended the second half of their U-curve.

TG ’s eco-conscious megabrain, Paul Horrell, is one of the world’s most respected and experienced car writers. Has attended every significant car launch since the Model T

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RENAULT MEGANE E-TECH TECHNO

VOLKSWAGEN ID.3 LIFE PRO PERFORMANE

MG 4 SE LONG RANGE

£35,995 / £39,445

£36,990 / £39,910

£25,995 / £28,495

The big test: electric hatches Looking to go electric? There’s never been such choice on offer, especially if you’re in the market for a family hatchback WORDS PAUL HORRELL

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PHOTOGRAPHY JONNY FLEETWOOD

T

he very existence of this test is another sign electric cars are at maturity. Until now, it wasn’t really possible to assemble a three-car electric comparison among what you might call heartland hatchbacks. Not in the old Focus vs Golf vs 308 fashion. There just weren’t enough EV hatches around, so you’d end up with one in the group that was too big or small, or had a mismatch in battery size or power. But today, we’ve got three cars all very close in size and spec and absolutely matched in purpose.

Except for one thing. Price. The MG is £11k less than the other two. Lease them on a typical three-year deal – three months down, 8,000 miles a year – and it’s about £450 a month for the MG and £600 for the others. It’s not hard to imagine someone who had their eyes on an ID.3 a few months ago will now be looking at the MG, just because that difference in finance can begin to offset the amount by which their mortgage has gone skyward. They might have qualms about buying a car from a Chinese state-owned company, but they’ll silently

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“ALL THESE THREE ARE BUILT ON ALL-NEW SPECIALIST ELECTRIC PLATFORMS, RATHER

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04 1 1. MG and VW have shovel noses and obvious aero work, yelling “Look at me I’m electric!” Renault just looks handsome 2. Megane has 20-inch wheels, although with comparatively narrow 215-section tyres to cut drag 3. Plenty of aero work with the MG’s tail 4. VW breaks up the post with stickers.

They’ll peel off, one by one

mouth the words ‘cost of living crisis’. Although if people who can afford new cars think they’re in a crisis, they might like to try being people who can’t afford new cars.

Anyway, the hardware. Is the Renault better than the same price big-selling VW? And is the MG’s cost saving detectable in the actual car, or is it just a reflection of the economic and social systems of its country of origin?

All these three are built on all-new specialist electric platforms, rather than the ghosts of combustion past. So they have long wheelbases and short overhangs. The VW and especially the MG seem to have been styled with the intention of advertising their new age propulsion. See their abbreviated shovel noses and gaunt flanks.

The Renault’s more voluptuous shape is surely more crowd pleasing and it looks more expensive than the others. Its flat bonnet and black arches give it the crossover look that fashion mandates, but that’s a well crafted illusion. Its roof is actually the same height as the MG’s. The VW is tallest, if only just.

From inside, the Renault’s high waistline and shallow glass make the front seat seem cosy, even if actually it’s as roomy as the VW and MG which are glassy and so feel airier. In the back all have the same issue: their floors are a little high because of the battery beneath, so rear passengers’ feet can’t squeeze beneath the front seats, making legroom tight. A remedy exists, though. The people in front just need to raise their seats a bit. That’s fine, because you won’t need a low-slung touring car driving position until you’re driving solo. The Renault’s boot isn’t as long front-to-back as the MG’s and VW’s but it’s deeper because they have a motor beneath.

So it’s basically evens for accommodation.

But the cabin styles diverge widely. The VW’s aims for progressive interior styling. It’s got graphically simple interfaces and a notable lack of clutter. The driving position is good too. But the transition from CAD rendering to production actuality has been a failure. Materials are hard and cheap feeling, a world away from what we used to expect from VW in the analogue era.

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VOLKSWAGEN ID.3

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05

03 06

RENAULT MEGANE E-TECH

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MG 4

01

05

04 02

03 06

And the digital bits, VW’s displays and touch switches, are a well documented facepalm, boiling your blood when you try to operate them in a hurry on the move.

The pared back driver display is a philosophical choice by VW. It’s implying you don’t need to fret because everything’s being taken care of in the background. It doesn’t habitually inform you of consumption or battery charge. Those things are buried in menus and even then info is pretty scant. It’s perhaps a reasonable line of thinking: most people probably don’t want to be bombarded with technical information and configuration options.

The Renault has far nicer trim material, plusher seats, stitched cloth on the dashboard and doors, and a sharper touchscreen. It feels by far the most expensive interior here. It’s also miles easier to operate, thanks to a load of hardware switches for things that aren’t necessarily the most important functions of operating a car, but are the ones you tend to need in a hurry. The steering wheel buttons have a more satisfying action too.

The MG, as per the VW, has swept away most buttons. And again, that sparseness, set into a lot of straight lines and hard trim, can make you feel like you’re driving one of those fancy subdivided lunchboxes. Its seats look sporty but are a bit

hollow backed. The screen system by default shows you more than the Volkswagen, but some of the sub-menus are overloaded.

The MG also places a big trip computer ahead of you, and a section of screen that graphically maps all the surrounding traffic. Unfortunately it often gets that wrong, misidentifying lampposts and pushchairs as motorcyclists.

Turns out the MG’s standard ‘Pilot’ advanced driver assist functions are indeed ambitious in scope but clunky in operation, grabbing at the steering with the smoothness of a ham-fisted learner. I’m sure it works well enough on China’s new open highways. Over here, not so much. The VW doesn’t have such a full assistance package and like the MG it grabs brutally at the wheel when it thinks you’re apexing too close to the white line in a curve. The Renault’s systems are comprehensive and state-of-the-art capable.

The Renault is slightly the most powerful.

Its 220bhp – versus 204 for the others – gives it a small acceleration advantage. But the VW is very slightly the torquier, with the MG trailing a little.

So the VW can use its torque and rear-drive traction to scoot off the line a little faster, at 7.3secs 0–62mph, then the Renault and finally the MG at 7.9. Not much difference really.

The MG also slightly trimmed its power output after a few miles of being pasted down

“THE RENAULT FEELS

BY FAR THE MOST EXPENSIVE INTERIOR HERE”

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Specifications

1 2 3

RENAULT MEGANE E-TECH

MG 4

VOLKSWAGEN ID.3

POWERTRAIN

Front e-motor

Rear e-motor

Rear e-motor

TOTAL POWER

220bhp

204bhp

204bhp

VERDICT

ACCELERATION

TOTAL TORQUE

7.4secs

0–62

7.9secs

0–62

7.3secs

0–62

221lb ft

184lb ft

229lb ft

280 miles / 220 miles

281 miles / 230 miles

262 miles / 200 miles

CLAIMED RANGE / TEST FIGURE

TOP SPEED

100

100

99

1,686kg

1,685kg

1,813kg

60kWh

61.7kWh

58kWh

440 litres

363 litres

385 litres

1,332 litres (seats down)

1,177 litres (seats down)

1,267 litres (seats down)

mph

mph

mph

WEIGHT

BATTERY SIZE

BOOT CAPACITY

8 SCORE

10

8

10

6

10

a twisty road. That’s a hard circumstance for the battery, electronics and motor because it’s alternately pulling lots of power in both the drive and regenerate directions. Even so, thermal warnings like that seldom happen in EVs outside of hot weather track conditions.

The Renault’s driven front wheels do sometimes chirp for traction, but its TC isn’t intrusive. The steering is very quick and slightly light, and so are the brakes, so you’ll probably drive jerkily until you’ve calibrated your hands and feet. That done, it feels right on your side, changing speed and direction more in response to your thoughts than your physical inputs.

Indeed it could do with being a bit more tactile: the steering is numb of feedback. The overall chassis set-up is brilliantly composed, serving up terrific damping and control on quickly taken difficult surfaces. The ride is taut but never harsh and noise from tyres, suspension and rushing air is well hushed.

The ID.3 is a soft blanket of reassurance.

Its steering is progressive and solidly weighted, the brakes easy to modulate. Tip it into a corner with ambition and it just shrugs, working gamely to follow the course you’ve steered.

If it’s a tight bend or a wet surface you might get the beginnings of oversteer but then the traction control cuts the power like a guillotine,

so you won’t try that sort of thing again.

The ID.3 has the softest ride here, but loose damping can make you uneasy on a B-road.

The MG is as firm as the Renault, but doesn’t have that level of damping sophistication and its tyres make more noise. It feels more like a crossover, on account of stern anti-roll bars, so on a bumpy straight road it rocks side to side.

Still, this is a car that wants to have a laugh. Lift off on the way into a corner and it’ll jink the back out. Shove the accelerator on the way out and it’s the same. For a meek electric hatch, this combination of tail happy cornering balance and liberal ESP is eyebrow-raising for a keen driver and possibly a little hair-raising for a novice.

Under the VW is a 58kWh battery. The Renault is 60kWh and the MG 61.7. Result is similar WLTP range, at 262, 280 and 281 miles.

This makes the Renault look the most efficient, but in our mixed use the MG had the advantage.

Call it 200 miles (VW), 220 (Renault) and 230 (MG). On long winter trips the Renault and MG have the advantage of heat pumps to make the cabin heating more efficient, but it’s a £1,020 extra on the VW. Mind you the VW and Renault have seat and steering wheel heating, an even more energy efficient way of feeling snug in winter. Those are only on the next-up trim level of MG, although that’s still only £31,495.

All take about 35–40 minutes for 10–80 per cent on a 150kW charger. Usefully, the Renault can use public three-phase AC at 22kW as well as the usual 7.4kW single-phase for home charging.

The others are single-phase only on AC, so they max out at 7.4kW. Still that’s no more than nine hours for a full charge.

Time to wrap up. We really want to like the Volkswagen. It’s refined and its dynamics are nicely relaxed, a reflection of the way most people drive in these efficiency obsessed, camera surveilled days – whether propelled by petroleum or electrons. One good facelift to improve the cabin trim and HMI would transform the thing. But for the moment there’s too much unfinished business in this car.

The MG has a good and efficient platform, and its dynamics have a bit of a sense of humour. But it does have a few rough edges in the cabin and a want of refinement on the move. So, yeah, there’s physical cost saving here; it’s not just about the wages of the people who build it.

The Renault is the best looking, has by far the nicest cabin, the best OS, and a properly sophisticated way of going down the road. It comes across as a much more expensive car than the MG. And of course it is. But tellingly it comes across as more expensive than the VW. And it isn’t. So it wins.

“THE ID.3 HAS THE SOFTEST RIDE, BUT LOOSE DAMPING CAN MAKE

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10 MERCEDES-BENZ E Q S S U V 4 5 0 4 M AT I C

Star tech £130,000 (est) 108kWh battery

355 bhp

1spd 4WD

6.0 secs

130 mph

378 miles

FOR Supremely refined, has a high-tech interior AGAINST Heavy, numb driving dynamics, expensive

T

he EQS SUV is the first full-size off-roader based on Merc’s pure electric ‘EVA2’ architecture. It’s a vast, 5.1m long seven-seater and weighs almost 2.8 tonnes. The UK is in line for two models: the 450 4Matic, which averages 2.5–3.1mpkWh for a claimed range of 378 miles, and has the equivalent of 355bhp and 590lb ft of torque, and the 580 4Matic whose 536bhp output and 632lb ft sees overall efficiency drop just a fraction. On our test, we saw closer to 2.5.

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The 4Matic cars are all-wheel drive and dual motor; these are permanently excited synchronous ones, and the batteries and software are developed by Mercedes in-house.

The battery’s total useable capacity is a substantial 108.4kWh, and it’s packaged under the floor in a bespoke crash protection zone.

The EQS SUV is a highly aerodynamic, if rather inoffensive looking thing, whose shutlines and joints have been cleverly minimised. The 580 is rapid, the 450 less so, though both handle well if you push. But why would you? Refinement and mindfulness are paramount here and Mercedes has gone to enormous lengths to quell NVH. The 4Matic set-up allows for continuously variable torque distribution, while the suspension uses a four-link set-up at the front and multi-link rear, with Airmatic air springs and variable damping control as standard.

In addition to Eco, Comfort, Sport and Individual driving modes, the SUV adds an off-road function. The brakes, traction control

and what Mercedes calls “downhill speed regulation” are all in play here, and it’s surprisingly effective. Brake feel and regen, as on the EQS and EQE, are irritatingly inconsistent.

The EQS SUV is Mercedes’ manifesto for high-tech, and the optional (£7,995) Hyperscreen steals the show. There are actually three screens: a main instrument panel, a huge central display, and a third one for the passenger, who can watch a film without disturbing the driver. The guiding philosophy is called ‘zero layer’, the system’s machine learning adapting to the driver’s behaviour so that it can proactively display the right functions at the right time. AI helps the navigation system plan the optimum route ahead, monitoring all the key variables. You can forget about range anxiety.

The EQS SUV is a lavishly appointed, hyper-connected 21st century transport module, so seamless that the actual business of driving feels like a distraction. Jason Barlow

9

10 BMW 3-SERIES M340i xDRI VE

Three spirit £54,805 CO2

P 3.0 6cyl

369 bhp

8spd auto

4.4 secs

36.2 mpg

177 g/km

FOR They’ve kept all the good stuff, still great fun to drive AGAINST When did a 3-Series get so expensive?

I

t’d be a sad day if BMW screwed up the 3-Series. Delightfully, that day is still yet to come. This mid-life refresh for the G20-gen car drips in lots more digitalisation and touchscreen reliance but without messing the whole thing up.

A chat with the 3-Series dynamics team reveals a moment of wonderful frankness.

They realised the car was already leading its class for handling and left well alone. It takes

a brave engineer to admit their meddling on a project would be wholly unnecessary. And so this car drives as brilliantly as it always did.

The steering is about as good as a mainstream electrically powered system can hope to be and there’s still a lovely sense of humour imbued in the chassis. Go for one of the more powerful versions, loosen the ESC, and the fun that’s always been at the heart of the 3-Series bubbles right to the surface.

The 3-Series continues to offer a diverse engine range – have a plug-in hybrid if you want, but it’s not essential. The 6cyl M340i remains the epitome of the modern sports saloon while a 320d Touring will slip into your life with consummate ease. Long story short, there’s no bad way to buy a BMW 3-Series.

The M340i is a blinder, though. It’s got 48V mild hybrid boost for an extra layer of politeness in town, plus xDrive 4WD as standard. It revs to 7,000rpm and sounds gorgeous, while an electronically controlled centre differential is programmed to chuck the rear tyres all the power they can handle. And quite a bit more for luck, provided the brain sees you’re up with the steering correction. It lets you play the fool, but then protects you from your foolishness. It’s a belting all-rounder.

The interior is nice and roomy – no change on pre-facelift – and the materials are all up to muster. BMW’s new generation will bring in vegan leather alternatives, but the 3-Series isn’t ready for that kind of transformation just yet.

An eight-speed auto box is standard across the range and now uses a small toggle switch rather than an oddly shaped knob. This makes it more laborious to notch the transmission into manual mode, but for most everyday driving, that’ll never be an issue. The short spell of DIY control gifted when you pull on a paddle will be enough for most users.

The M340i performs (and is priced) like M3s of old. It’ll be enormously gratifying as a daily partner if you can stomach its £55k tag; fuel economy in the mid-30s should be achievable to counter the purchase or leasing price. Upgrading to a Touring adds around £1,400. Who needs an SUV? Stephen Dobie

TO P G E A R . C O M

› DECEMBER 2022

043

10

10

W

FERRARI 296 GTS

Spidey sense £278,893 2.9T V6

819 bhp

8spd auto

2.9 secs

D

CO2

36.2 mpg

153 g/km

FOR Engine, handling, looks, performance AGAINST Expensive, good luck getting one

044 D E C E M B E R 2 0 2 2 › T O P G E A R . C O M

hen is an open top Ferrari a GTS and when is it a Spider? Back in the day, a GTS was effectively a ‘targa’, ie it had a removable panel rather than a fully folding roof, as debuted on 1977’s 308 GTS (remember the opening credits of US telly classic Magnum PI?).

On the Nineties F355, you could have a GTB, a GTS or a Spider. Since 2011’s 458 Italia Spider, open Ferraris have had a retractable aluminium roof, ingeniously packaged conduits for high-speed hedonism without structural integrity wobbles. That’s the deal with the 296 GTS, the first road-going Ferrari, erm, Spider to use a six-cylinder engine. If you discount the Dino GTS, which was never badged as a Ferrari. Or in fact a Spider, because it only had a detachable roof panel. Crikey.

The 296 GTS is a lissom addition to the canon. Designed in parallel with the GTB, says chief design officer Flavio Manzoni, both versions nod to the otherwise incomparable mid-Sixties 250 LM endurance racer. Check out the visor cockpit, rear buttresses and engine bay and the lineage is clear. The last two have been reworked on the GTS, and there’s more of a step between the roof and the ‘aero bridge’ that runs the width of the car. The roof splits into two sections that fold over the front of the engine, preserving the same

heat dissipation characteristics as the GTB. The GTS gains a viewing window on the engine cover so you can gaze at the exotic plumbing beneath. The roof folds away behind the seats in 14secs, at driving speeds up to 28mph. Packaging the roof was no more difficult than before, despite the extra hybrid gubbins, but cooling it all was trickier, Ferrari says. Like the GTB, this is a highly aerodynamic car, Centro Stile and the boffins working in apparent harmony.

The GTS weighs 70kg more than the GTB, so 1,540kg dry. Virtually all of that extra heft is in the roof, but 5kg is down to some extra carbon fibre reinforcement in the underbody. The sills and A- and B-pillars have strengthened joints, and Ferrari claims that the 296 GTS is 50 per cent stiffer than the F8 Tributo Spider. Performance is exceptional: 62mph arrives in 2.9 seconds, 124mph in 7.3, and its top speed is 205mph (even with the roof down).

Such is the bandwidth of a contemporary Ferrari that the GTS weaves magic even at low speeds, its supple suspension erasing cruddy road surfaces. E-mode is good for 15 miles at up to 83mph, and promotes a very non-Ferrari mindfulness. But the ICE is king here. The 2.9-litre V6 turbo sits in a 120° ‘hot’ vee, so it’s low and wide to optimise the centre of gravity, and produces 654bhp on its own. It’s hooked up to an

“IT SOUNDS FABULOUS, SWEETER THAN A V12, LESS BASSY THAN THE V8”

eight-speed dual-clutch gearbox and electronic differential, integrated with a rear-mounted electric motor that produces an additional 165bhp.

In ‘qualifying’ mode, the 296 GTB can thus call upon a total of 819bhp, engine and e-motor blending seamlessly via an additional clutch that sits between the two power sources, decoupling them when the car is running in pure e-mode.

A high voltage 7.5kWh battery feeds the e-motor. Ferrari uses a device called TMA – transition manager actuator – to oversee and optimise the flow of energy between electric and ICE, with proprietary software keeping it all smooth and instant.

And it sounds fabulous, sweeter than a V12, less bassy than the V8. A symmetrical cylinder firing order and equal length tuned exhaust manifolds and an 8,500rpm red line mean that this Ferrari sounds like a Ferrari should: sonorous low down and rising to an operatic crescendo as the revs rise. It feels naturally aspirated, lag free, irresistible.

Unlike the all-wheel-drive SF90, the 296 GTS is rear-drive only, but there’s grip, traction and texture to the way it steers, handles and stops. It’s more playful than its hybrid big brother, easier to dial into, and more communicative. Ferrari’s 6w-CDS – for six-way chassis dynamic sensor – gathers and

crunches data acquired from steering, throttle, gearbox, braking and sound to blend the whole driving experience. Another new device is the ABS evo, which works in parallel with the traction control system and the 6w-CDS to sharpen handling and braking yet further. And Ferrari’s ever-evolving ‘side slip control’ is a drift mode by any other name, although the 296 GTS is notably easy to drive swiftly in the wet.

Aside from the inevitable cost and scarcity, there are few problem areas here.

We’re even getting the hang of Ferrari’s quixotic interior HMI. The folding roof merely heightens the sensations generated by an already sensational car. Jason Barlow TO P G E A R . C O M

› DECEMBER 2022

045

6

10 SMART #1 PREMIUM

Hashtag blessed £n/a 66kWh battery

264 bhp

1spd RWD

6.7 secs

112 mph

273 miles

FOR Plenty quick enough, practical and posh interior AGAINST Infotainment system is messy and confusing

R

ight, let’s clear up that name before we go any further. This is the Smart #1. And yes, you do have to say “Hashtag One” in full like someone who has just discovered ‘The Internet’. It’s not “Number One” and neither is it just “One”.

This is the first new car that Smart has launched in its current form, with the company reborn in 2020 as a 50/50 joint venture between Mercedes and the ever expanding Chinese firm Geely. Size-wise

046 D E C E M B E R 2 0 2 2 › T O P G E A R . C O M

it’s similar to a Mini Countryman, but underneath it’s based on one of Geely’s pre-existing, dedicated EV platforms.

There will be two trim levels, called Pro+ and Premium. Both get a 264bhp motor that drives the rear wheels with 253lb ft of torque.

However, despite the identical performance stats, the more expensive Premium gets a different motor and inverter to eke out 273 miles of range. The Pro+ makes do with 260.

The single motor provides more than enough shove, with instantly available torque making it feel particularly sprightly. The suspension is on the soft side but the wheels are pushed right out to the corners of the car with minimal overhang, so it does turn in fairly sharply. Just don’t expect much feel through the brake pedal or steering.

On the inside almost everything is controlled using the 12.8-inch infotainment screen, which apparently uses chips and processors from the world of gaming. The dispay is full of excess information and

confusing graphics, but at least it’s responsive and there are climate control shortcuts.

There’s no Android Auto or Apple CarPlay yet, though Smart says it will be available soon.

Oh, and we need to talk about the AI fox.

It’s supposed to be a virtual travel companion, but at the moment it essentially seems to be able to set the satnav and open windows via voice commands. Most of the time it just sits in the corner of the screen doing keepy-uppy with a beach ball. Strange.

A fairly confusing first attempt from the new Smart, then. The #1 could be a decent family EV thanks to its blobby but practical shape and strong Geely underpinnings. It’s not the most attractive offering in the segment and it might be tricky to convince buyers that Smart is now making mainstream five-seat crossovers rather than just quirky electric city cars, but the hope will be that the premium interior sways some, particularly if Smart can get prices down to the ambitious £35k target.

Hashtag one #to #watch. Greg Potts

LIKE NOWHERE ELSE Imagine yourself drifting at 125 MPH in total control… … behind the wheel of the latest supercars with up to 670hp, … round risk-free F1 circuits reproduced full-scale on a frozen lake, … under the northern lights of Swedish Lapland.

Yes, you can !

MUST TRY HARDER AUDI RS4 COMPETITION

£84,660 P 2.9T V6

444 bhp

8spd auto

3.9 secs

29.1 mpg

CO2

7

220 g/km

AUDI HAS INDEED TRIED HARDER WITH THE RS4. The ageing superwagon has no more power, but it’s been treated to lower, manually adjustable suspension, ceramic brakes, swifter gearchanges and lighter wheels. The result is an RS4 that’s sacrificed a good portion of its freakishly compliant road manners (depending on your chosen

10

A L FA R O M E O TONALE VELOCE

Verve & Veloce

setting, of course) but gained a tauter response and downright amusing agility.

The new BMW M3 Touring and hybrid C63

£42,495

estate won’t have it all their own way then?

Actually, Audi has elected to bring just 75 ‘Comps’ to the UK – 65 are sold at the time of writing despite the £85k price. So please,

P 1.5T 4cyl

158 bhp

7spd DCT

8.8 secs

44.8 mpg

CO2

130 g/km

Audi: get on with adding the goodies – and a similar sense of humour – to the next (hybrid) RS4 earlier on, and then make a few more of them. A handsome, well built, performance family estate should be all things to all people, not an unobtanium unicorn that’s

FOR Handles with uncommon keenness for its class AGAINST The powertrain could be better calibrated

rarer than a LaFerrari. And bizarrely in the UK, only being sold in boring black.

One more thing: literally the best bit of the RS4 Comps we drove was the bucket seats. At last, Audi fits a fast car with chairs offering a proper sense of occasion... apart from in the UK. For us it’s any colour you like so long as it’s black, and normal (aka utterly nondescript) seats. We can’t understand why. Did the Home Office refuse them a visa? Ollie Kew

7

10

048 D E C E M B E R 2 0 2 2 › T O P G E A R . C O M

W

elcome to a different kind of Alfa Romeo. One that puts rationality a little further up its priority list with a surprisingly logical interior and bags of room. It’s at risk of Buckaroo-ing under the weight of all its styling influences – see the ghost of the Alfa SZ in its front lights, or the window line of the 8C supercar in its glasshouse? Yet it carries them off well, not least because more than half of its colour palette is blues, reds and greens rather than a swathe of grey.

The UK range is all hybrid and the car kicks off Alfa’s planned electric onslaught.

A 271bhp plug-in version is set to arrive in 2023 and might mop up most sales thanks to an alluring BiK rate. But for now we’ve driven the base 158bhp Tonale, which uses a 1.5-litre turbocharged petrol engine linked to a 48V mild hybrid system and front-wheel drive, albeit with the small 20bhp electric motor attached to the standard seven-speed

DCT gearbox rather than the alternator.

That means – unlike other, even milder hybrids – it can be parked and manoeuvred through low-speed traffic without any interference from the engine.

But there are a few clues – right from the off – that this is a crossover that’s been set up to feel sporty rather than blend into the murmur and hubbub of life. The first thing that you’ll notice is just how light, ultra direct and plain flighty its steering feels. The fix, oddly enough, is to turn the DNA dial up to its topmost Dynamic mode to inject more weight into it. The flightiness remains, but you’ve more confidence in turns and during low speed manoeuvres. You also get a much keener powertrain map – the car hanging on to low gears for a touch too long with little use of EV mode – to go with it.

The ride is on the acceptable side of firm while the interior nails ergonomics in a way that Alfas never used to. Its modestly proportioned touchscreen and physical climate controls actually give it an edge over many of its rivals, in fact, while the designers haven’t forgotten to sprinkle some contrived but characterful motifs around the place.

So while it’s a different kind of Alfa Romeo, it’s yet another that comes with a small fistful of flaws. But there’s enough verve coursing through the rest of it that I don’t think you’ll mind too much. Stephen Dobie

The overrun Small but perfectly formed reviews. The best of the rest from this month’s drives

6

C ATERHAM SUPER SE V EN 2000

7

10

After a short hiatus, Caterham

Peugeot has jiggled the trims and

PEUGEOT e-2008 ALLURE PREMIUM +

has reintroduced a heritage range in the form of the Super

released a bit of extra range in its ’22 spec e-2008. This e-208 on stilts

Seven 600 and 2000. This is the

£39,990

10

doesn’t add a lot for the 5k uplift

£35,300

latter, which uses a 2.0-litre

on the hatchback aside from a bit

engine and shares most of its

of headroom and 120 litres in the

FOR Classic Caterham looks with

underpinnings with the Seven

FOR Quite stylish, handles

boot. Peugeot’s tiny steering

modern Caterham ability

360. With flared front wings and

decently, easy to use

wheel makes most sense here,

AGAINST Huge price tag for

Smiths gauges, the retro look is

AGAINST Performance slightly

but it still depends on your seating

such a teeny thing

certainly successful. It’s hard to be

dull, not as roomy as you’d think

position. It’s not as perky as other

CO2

P 180 bhp

2.0 4cyl

4.8 secs

n/a mpg

n/a g/km

disappointed with any Caterham

EVs, but will now get almost 200

driving experience, although this

miles on a charge. Looks stylish,

one is slightly too soft and torquey for our liking. Pricey too. GP

7

134 bhp

9.0 secs

93 mph

212 miles

biggest global seller? SUVs, eh.

First one was so good Mercedes

CITROEN C5 X SHINE PL US PURE TECH 180

seems to have done something.

a decent first electric car. SB

10

This is... well, what is it? Not sure anyone at Citroen could decide. It’s sort of an estate-y saloon with SUV

said it was hard to improve, but it

£62,210

interior is impressive – it’d make

8

10

Would you believe this is Merc’s

MERCEDES-BENZ GLC 300E AMG L INE

50kWh battery

design cues in there. It’s half limo,

£34,660

half family car. Yikes. Lovely and

Sharper looks, fancier interior, etc.

comfortable, though, we like that.

FOR Solid interior, finally a

Real excitement is with the new

FOR Nails Citroen’s comfort brief,

Smooth ride, decent handling –

PHEV with decent range

PHEV version – it has a solid 31kWh

nice alternative to usual suspects

just don’t try and drive it too fast.

AGAINST To be honest, we’d

battery good for up to 80 miles

AGAINST Massive in the metal,

There’s a plug-in version for

still prefer a nice C-Class estate

and even comes with the option

design a bit of a mish-mash

company drivers, but this

of CCS fast charging – a plug-in P 2.0T 4cyl + e-motor

308 bhp

6.7 secs

353 mpg

CO2

12 g/km

mid-range 1.6-litre petrol is best.

game changer. Whole range gets latest swanky version of Merc’s MBUX infotainment too. SB

P 1.6T 4cyl

178 bhp

8.8 secs

38.3 mpg

CO2

148 g/km

TO P G E A R . C O M

Not particularly economical, but if you buy a big Citroen you’ve clearly got money to burn. SB

› DECEMBER 2022

049

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MONEY SAVING TIP #1 Road kill, when corr ectly cooked, is s nutritious urprisingly . Just to hose it remember off first!

Sub-£30k cars, a £300 spending cap for for food, bed and fuel – roadtrips needn’t cost the world... as we set out to prove WORDS OLLIE MARRIAGE

PHOTOGRAPHY MARK RICCIONI

TO P G E A R . C O M

› DECEMBER 2022

053

TOYOTA GR86

ON THE FIRST NIGHT IT COSTS TO ME SLEEP IN A TENT. Curse the thirst of the Toyota GR86. Actually curse myself – if I had been able to resist the £2 lunchtime cake I reckon it would be Tom Ford here in the pop-up tent, and me in the cosy caravan.

I’ve only got myself to blame. The Toyota GR86 is that rarest of things – a good value sports car. There’s so few of them around now. The easy thing would have been to cast a net out, pull in all cheap fun cars costing less than £30,000 and see which one is best. But oh no, that wasn’t enough. I wanted to find out not only if these affordable cars are fun, but also if you could have fun affordably. So we’re on a budget roadtrip: three days for less than £300 each including fuel for the car, ourselves, a place to lay our heads, some side trips and a share of the running costs.

We’re each championing a car. But that would ordinarily mean we couldn’t swap around. Not ideal on a group test. So we’re permitting that, and if you’ve thought this through like I have, you’ll have realised it means we can attempt to scupper each other. Cane someone else’s car and watch the economy plummet. We’ll all be doing it so it’ll even out.

The plan is a lap of Wales, but right now we’re at Kidlington Sainsbury’s on the outskirts of Oxford. It’s been chosen because it has the cheapest petrol in the area: 156.9 pence per litre for the

The results ar economy run to e in for the North Wales...

054 D E C E M B E R 2 0 2 2 › T O P G E A R . C O M

The Mazda is the second most frugal

regular unleaded they all consume. I’ve got off to a bad start because I’ve forgotten the packed lunch which would’ve allowed me to cunningly dodge lunch cost. Greg Potts turns up in the Caterham 170R with a bag of scrumped apples, then makes the rookie error of sharing them round. He could have lived on those for the three days if he’d been serious about things. But given he’s in the Caterham, his necessary calorie consumption should offset any fuel savings his car might earn him.

The 170R claims 58.4mpg, by far and away the most efficient of our four. Given that it weighs 440kg and is powered by a teeny 660cc turbo triple, the rest of us are hoping the short gearing and flapping doors conspire to ruin fuel economy. We’ll soon find out.

The aim from here is to drive 140-odd miles to Oswestry abiding by all speed limits, to see what economy they’re capable of. From that point on, it’s a swap shop free for all.

The cash countdown starts rolling once we’re filled up, so we’re frantically clicking pumps until fuel is spilling out. Tom offers to carry Greg’s bag in his Hyundai i20N, then gets wise to the potential weight penalty when Nick Stafford and I step forward with ours. It’s not only the practical choice, but also compelling value on paper – a hot hatch clearly doesn’t attract

But it’s the Caterham that uses the least fuel

86 is the GR ... and hirstiest the t

MONEY SAVING TIP #2 Who need s twin-ply bog roll?

Separate and it’ll g o twice as far!

No one wants to sub Ollie his entry fee for the museum. Need someone to watch the Caterham anyway

MONEY SAVING TIP #3 Save time in the mor ning and ££ at the hairdr esser by shaving all your h air off. Win w in!

Llangollen Motor Museum : the best museum you never knew existed

056 D E C E M B E R 2 0 2 2 › T O P G E A R . C O M

TOYOTA GR86

on this would “Experts reck .99 at auction. fetch up to £9 ” Incredible find

Real treasure trove in here, just watch out for the cobwebs

the same price premium as a coupe or roadster. Speaking of which, it’s worth pointing out a cheaper Mazda MX-5 is available, but the quest for sportiness demanded the 2.0 instead of the 1.5.

Natural aspiration. Something the Mazda has in common with the Toyota. More interesting engine for the GR86 – a 2.4-litre flat four that sits like a pancake in the engine bay, thrums contentedly but not especially invitingly and plays second fiddle to road roar for large parts of the M40. Aside from this surface sensitivity, it’s a more refined and grown up machine than the GT86 it replaces.

Suspension and wind noise is well suppressed, it chomps miles easily, and it is stable and undistracted in a way that none of the others can match.

We get split up by Birmingham’s morning rush hour, some deciding coming off the motorways to try and minimise mileage is the best plan. At Oswestry, Tom and I display our cunning.

While Caterham and MX-5 dive into a fuel station on the main A5, Tom and I ferret out a Texaco a couple of miles off track where the petrol is six pence per litre cheaper. And then it’s not. In the 10 minute gap between my arrival and his, I watch the price flick from 155.9 to 159.9. For the 15.30 litres the GR86 takes, filling at Shell would only have cost 91 pence more. Later calculation reveals my four-mile detour likely cost 68 pence in fuel.

But the undisputed hero of the economy drive is the 170R – 56.2mpg, where the Toyota managed 41.4. Still, for the Japanese coupe that’s a massive improvement on the paltry 32.1 claimed mpg. This is clearly not a motor that performs well in official tests – and that extracts a financial penalty. The first year’s CO2 -based tax cost is a huge £1,420, almost £1,000 more than any rival.

That’s the last time we’ll talk fuel economy, promise. From now on a sense of trepidation will accompany each wincing visit to a fuel pump as we ascertain what monetary harm we’ve done to each other’s cars. Time for a change of scene. A roadtrip needs to involve more than just driving. Llangollen Motor Museum.

The best £5 we spend on the whole trip. Wall to wall bric-a-brac, curiosities and ephemera. The extensive collection of foot pumps speaks of a collecting habit that got well out of hand, but be glad – the most interesting stuff isn’t the cars, but the contents of the cabinets. We spend a mystifyingly content hour stumbling around before driving the few miles to the Horseshoe Pass.

Doubly gutted I forgot my packed lunch now. Chips with everything is our main takeaway from the Ponderosa Café at the crest of the pass. Not that we do – takeaway, that is – portion size would surely overburden the Caterham’s DeDion rear axle.

In terms of lbs per £ it’s good value, but afterwards we need to blow the lethargy away. Easily done as we link Ruthin, Denbigh, Pentrefoelas and Ffestiniog on corking, quiet roads. In the minus column: rain, wind and thick mist. It’ll be a continuing theme for the next 36 hours.

“THE UNDISPUTED HERO OF THE ECONOMY DRIVE IS THE 170R”

TO P G E A R . C O M

› DECEMBER 2022

057

TOYOTA GR86

I’m in the MX-5, roof firmly up and feeling almost as cramped as the Caterham. The seats are nearly as flat as the engine, and considerably flatter than the cornering attitude. The problem with the MX-5 is that it’s sporty by association. We assume it’s a driver’s car because it’s rear-drive, manual, small and light (over 200kg less than the Toyota), but we’re wrong. This is top-line, top-down, superficial driving satisfaction and the GR86 shows it up ruthlessly. The Mazda’s body surfs on its chassis, it rolls and lurches, and nothing quite works with the diligence and precision you hope. Apart from the gearbox, which rivals the Caterham in the snickety shift stakes. If the engine wasn’t so criminally characterless, the drivetrain could be the MX-5’s salvation.

There’s potential for greatness, but Mazda understands the customer reality, so chooses to keep costs down by not developing it further. In a similar vein, our cost-saving sees us failing to develop a plan beyond ‘go to a beach’. It’s free to drive on Black Rock Sands, and in summer I bet it’s lovely. But the waves are menacing and close, so we settle for a cheeky donut or two and drive to our overnight accommodation. A static caravan. It’s cost us £129 but there’s a catch. It only has three bedrooms. So the deal is that whoever has spent the most today sleeps in bedroom four – the pop up tent I’d tucked away in the Toyota’s boot.

I already know this doesn’t bode well for me. And as we tally costs (fuel, food, museum, the quick stop to dry out at Llyn Brenig visitor centre that cost us £3 each for parking in the middle of nowhere), so it proves. I’m in for a cold, blustery October night. With the deal done, we retire to a curry house, where the others rub my nose in it by eating enough to have put them in the tent instead of me.

The next morning it’s pouring down. Over breakfast (cereal and milk bought from the caravan site shop) I decide that while I’m in minimalist mode I might as well man up and drive the Caterham. Dressed like I’ve just winched down from a helicopter to an oil rig, I am Wales-proof. A stop in Porthmadog buys us supermarket food and fuel, but it’s also a reminder that when you’re not moving in it, the Caterham is entirely against you – the harness wrestle, the flapping doors, the endless poppers.

On the go, it’s magic. I think there’s a strong argument for this being the very best road-going Caterham there is. The jeopardy

058 D E C E M B E R 2 0 2 2 › T O P G E A R . C O M

is lower. It still sounds great, all turbo chirrup, whistle and pop, it’s tiny, effortless around corners, brimming with dexterity and enthusiasm. OK, the post-puddle steam hisses are concerning and I’m glad it’s not going to be me driving it where we’re headed...

The chief instruction from the Bala and District Motorsport Club is to clear the sheep off the the Ranges Motorsport Centre before we start clattering around. It’s cost us £100 to rent for the day – £25 each. We set about shifting tyres around to mark out an autotest course. We’ll use the bottom end of the rally stage, adding in a couple of pinch points, then into a slalom, handbrake turn around the end and reverse into a parking bay to finish.

Loser buys the winner lunch.

Toyota up first, completes it professionally and smoothly in 54.4secs. Nick’s competitive instinct hasn’t kick-started this morning, so the Mazda sets a 73.2secs bogey time that the Caterham, despite rattling audibly over the broken concrete and running clean over a tyre (that we later discover is marking an open manhole), beats by 10 seconds. A wheelspin start signals Tom’s departure in the i20N, and he’s using the diff of our only front-driver to great effect. But then he fluffs up the handbrake turn to line up for the reverse park, stalls, and hurtles from possible first to almost last, encouraged all the way by our jeering.

We do some more laps for the cameras, where we learn that the Hyundai really does feel like it has rally roots, the Toyota’s suspension control and damping is exceptional, and the Mazda feels so wayward I almost don’t have the heart to ask Nick for the £8.50 lunch contribution. He tosses me a cupcake and we’re back on our way.

Only Greg ‘mistakenly’ parked the Caterham arse to the weather and horizontal rain has blown in under the half roof.

The footwells are swimming. For the first few miles it laps at my heels as we head south, destination Tenby. The plan had been for another couple of interludes. Many tumbledown Welsh castles (run by Cadw) are free to visit, and the countryside is beautiful, but time has ticked and these roads don’t get you far, fast.

We’ve let the satnav lead this leg, and the results have been interesting. Roads we’ve never been on, quiet, and we tread lightly through them in our whirring, purring convoy. Progress is slow, but we all agree we a) wouldn’t have been any faster in anything

“WHOEVER HAS SPENT THE MOST TODAY SLEEPS IN BEDROOM FOUR – THE POP UP TENT”

MONEY SAVING TIP #4 Tell your family you ’re away for Xmas, lay low, then buy your in the Jan presents uary sale!

Seems the guys somehow managed to find their way onto the Mad Max: Tyre Road set

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TOYOTA CENTURY GR86

MONEY SAVING TIP #5 This place makes the TopGear test track look like Yas Marina

Save on yo u pretendin r water bill by g you left something in the chan ging room and showering at your leisure cen tre!

Caterham 170R: an absolute hoot in the sun, less so in wet Wales

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more exotic (and would’ve probably upset people far more) and b) would have had less fun. This second is crucial. Together the power of these four cars is roughly equivalent to one McLaren Artura (you could pretty much buy all of them twice over for the same price). An Artura would feel stifled on these roads – on any road, in fact. These don’t. This is their natural environment, they understand and work with this geography of hedgerows, junctions, fields and hills in a way modern supercars just can’t.

Supercars need space and tracks to perform, but these four are designed for tarmac terrain that is free to access. They fit, their pace and performance is commensurate, they have manual gears, are more intimate and accessible, you can drive with gusto without excessively troubling speed limits.

The weather is finally improving, so I reluctantly yield the Caterham’s tiny steering wheel for the thick-wristed i20N. It’s here at the expense of Ford’s Fiesta ST. Swings and roundabouts.

The Fiesta has the perkier chassis, but the i20N is a more complete all-rounder. It’s a feisty little thing that tugs hard through corners and is eager for speed. Perhaps a little rough around the edges compared with the GR86. It’s fractionally clumsier on the road, you sit too high, suffer some jiggle and bounce. Mostly willingly, it must be said. This is a car with the

for an dressed , or a m o T d n Greg a ather warning m Amber we rive in a Caterha Sunday d

“THE COMBINED POWER IS ROUGLY EQUIVALENT TO ONE McLAREN ARTURA”

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ability to pull you into its orbit. But I’m coming to realise just how well rounded the GR86 is. It has a languid sportiness that’s very engaging. The balance is fabulous, the way it uses both axles so communicatively, is so wieldy, deft and fluid. It feels easily 100kg lighter than the i20N even though it’s actually heavier.

We drive into Tenby. We’ve missed sunset, but the light is glorious, inky purples fading into twilight, moon bright in the sky, twinkling off the sea. Fish and chips it is. For most of us.

Tom has been feeling ill all day and heads for bed. So he says.

We have a sneaking suspicion he’s eating elsewhere and claiming not to, to dodge the cost. We’d resolved to eat on the front, but warm accommodation beckons. The fastest we drive in three days is getting to the Manorbier Youth Hostel while the chips are still hot. Mushy pea side for me, curry sauce and gravy for others.

We’ve got the place to ourselves, so the attendant is kind enough to let us use separate rooms, even though we’ve paid to share. There’s relief all round. Its location is, we can only assume, stunning. We hear waves pounding the shoreline, but we arrive in the dark, leave in the dark.

We do our final fill-up the next morning in Carmarthen. The 470-odd miles have cost £118.32 in the Toyota, just £71.63 for the Caterham. Budget-wise our final activity doesn’t count. Llandow racetrack is the cheapest in the country to rent, but half a day is

still a budget-busting £600. We need it as a place to shoot the cover, but with that done, we still have an hour or two spare.

The GR86 is a star here, drifts delicately and precisely, has just the right amount of power. Even as an R, this is the one Caterham that feels underdone for track use. Revel in it on road, it’s magic there. The Hyundai’s turbo torque and eager nature serve it well – it’s a value-packed buzz to drive. The Mazda may fall short for satisfaction, but for simple roadster pleasures what else is there?

These cars – light, small, eager, fun, are on borrowed time.

There’s no next generation pressing at their heels to replace them.

We should I suppose, be grateful that the GR86 has come along.

But why so late, Toyota? And why so few? Just 450 cars this year when it should’ve been here six years ago as a thorough GT86 refresh. It’s the car it always should have been, but seems a throwback, old before it’s even arrived.

Lunchtime at Llandow, we head to the café for jacket spuds and start totalising. It was never really in doubt. If you want a cheap, fun car to really keeps costs down, you need a threecylinder Caterham. The tyres each cost £45, you’ll do 45mpg everywhere and have a ball. But it won’t, can’t be your one and only. The Hyundai has its moments, but if you want the best car here, then that’s the Toyota GR86. Now go and have affordable fun by having fun affordably.

“THESE CARS; LIGHT, SMALL, EAGER, FUN, ARE ON BORROWED TIME”

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Wales: land of water... from the sky and the rivers and the Caterham’s footwell

This must the 170R’s have been the one t ime doo were facinr-mounted mirrors g the right way

d fun an simple odes s e o d GR86 ple drive m sim

Easy with the sideways action please, there’s no budget left for new tyres

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NOW GO DO IT YOURSELF BORING BUDGETS MAKE FOR BETTER ROADTRIPS One of the biggest costs of any roadtrip will always be sleeping and eating. And the idea is that you do both to a level with which you’re comfortable. You can eat meal deals and fast food for every meal, and you can camp in fields or sleep in the car – the absolute cheapest options – but it isn’t much fun. So...

Look for cheap last-minute deals on accommodation. B&Bs, youth hostels, caravans – some of them are actually lovely, so think outside the box.

Be prepared to share. The number one way to cut costs is simply to share rooms and space. It can be fun, honest.

Time it; hitting a roadtrip out of season means big savings on small hotels and hostels, so don’t go in peak holiday time.

Plus there’s less traffic.

Think outside the immediate area.

Heading to a town? Think about hotels further out – they’re often cheaper and you’ll be driving anyway.

Eat a proper breakfast and make some sandwiches – you can picnic at a beauty spot and save cash for a social meal out in the evening.

Boring stuff can make the difference between having fun and having to deal with irritating things – basic prep is key.

1. First up, take your time getting there.

Burning fuel on the motorway is pointless and often you don’t get there much quicker anyway. Hit Eco mode and relax... and avoid paying motorway fuel prices.

2. Resist the urge to fill the car with tonnes of kit for no reason. The best roadtrips are light-footed and every bit of mpg counts.

3. Make sure that the car is as ready as it can be. Do some basic maintenance (sorting your tyres can make a difference to economy and driving dynamics), fill up that washer bottle, get the tracking done, renew that recovery membership.

4. Same goes for carrying a basic toolkit – you’d be surprised how useful it can be.

Our basics usually include a small socket set, gaffer tape, torches, wire, zip ties and some fixings, as well as a multitool.

The best thing you can do on a roadtrip is plan out a realistic budget and stick to it.

Chip a few quid off the accommodation and you’ll know that there’s money available for a day out or nicer dinner.

It’s also worth plotting a roadtrip with hard points – want to drive a particular scenic route? Plot a day to be able to take your time. Finishing with a trackday? Make sure you’re not rocking up late and missing things. This will also help when figuring out where to stay.

The other thing to remember is to have some fun with it. Visit that tiny, odd little museum, take in a car show, go to that viewpoint, take time to do stuff you wouldn’t do if you were commuting. You’ll make better memories and have stories to tell, and it won’t cost the earth. Get up early to catch a sunrise, just for the hell of it. Even driving through a big city late at night can be a special experience. Views are free, and they tend to be the places that you don’t pass by on the way to somewhere else, so take time to find the road less travelled. Just remember to make the most of everything.

This statemen t endorsed by is fully TopGear

TOYOTA GR86

G IN R O B Y L L A E R E H T BUT IMPORTANT BIT

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KOENIGSEGG CC850

th 0 5 a s d l st i e u r b g an g c e .. . u s d o g i e y n rs e lf, a o e f K s l on to him be ha v n t o t tia n s e i g r s n re ot goi Ch p n y e Wh bir thda d it’s n re u s s a WO

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Looks like a ‘normal’ manual gearbox but is actually made from pure genius and magic

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KOENIGSEGG CC850

TG: And the name?

CvK: The first car we ever produced and delivered to a customer in 2002

Me wandering around Koenigsegg HQ in Angelholm is how Augustus Gloop must have felt waddling into that chocolate factory. It’s difficult to process that such a cave of wonders really exists, or whether my plane came down somewhere over the North Sea and I am, in fact, strolling around my own personal heaven. Smiley Swedish people whistle and wave as they hand polish the most exquisite carbon components, abuse a V8 on the dyno, or stitch the Koenigsegg crest into a slab of thick, expensive looking leather. Regeras to the left of me, Jeskos to the right, here I am stuck in the middle of a hypercar fever dream trying to remain vaguely professional.

Here comes Willy Wonka, a hard hat balanced on his dome, high-vis vest hung around his broad shoulders and a giant hand outstretched to greet me. Drills fizz, pipes clank, forklift trucks zigzag back and forth – we’re in the new wing of Christian von Koenigsegg’s Neverland, acres of polished concrete, steel pillars and glass that will eventually house a new production line for the Gemera (CvK’s typically low-key take on a practical four-seater – an electrically enhanced 2.0 three-cylinder engine (nicknamed tiny friendly giant, but known in some corners of the factory as tiny b*****d), 1,700bhp, £1.6m), but that’s not what we’re here to see.

At The Quail, an event during Monterey Car Week back in August, Koenigsegg caught us off guard when it revealed a retro-homage to its first ever production car, the CC8S, delivered to customers 20 years ago. This new £3.3m CC850 has the same sparse design, but is bigger, sits on shared underpinnings with its latest hypercar, the Jesko, and by some considerable wizardry turns the nine-speed auto into a ‘simulated’ six-speed manual. I too donned a yellow hat and orange vest for a tour of the deeply fascinating CC850 from the only man who knows every nut and bolt intimately...

TopGear: Christian, we need to stop buying our clothes in the same place.

Christian von Koenigsegg: Ha, unfortunately it’s still a building site and Sweden is pretty strict on rules, so we can’t just roam around here freely until they hand over the keys to the new factory.

TG: Give us the elevator pitch on the CC850.

CvK: This is a homage to our beginnings. It’s very naked, simplistic, the original idea of a Scandinavian supercar. We felt it was a good opportunity to imprint the origins of Koenigsegg one more time, but take it into the future with modern technology and improved ergonomics... and the response has been staggering.

was a CC8S – competition coupe, eight-cylinder, supercharged – it took the Guinness World Record for the most powerful homologated production car in the world with 655bhp. Now that’s bread and butter.

We said, let’s celebrate that car and make 50 of them and as there’s no supercharger in this one, there’s a twin-turbo V8, we’ll call it the CC850.

I also turned 50 this year, so it made sense. However, the interest was enormous, which annoyed some loyal Koenigsegg customers. Within two days we came up with a twist – 50 for my 50th birthday and then another 20 for 20 years of production, so we’re actually building 70 of them. And still there was a long queue of people who couldn’t get in.

TG: It’s a bigger car than the CC8S – longer wheelbase, a bit taller, bigger wheels – and with Jesko underpinnings, but the surfaces and proportions are quite similar. Did that cause any aero problems? The CC8S was famously light on downforce, just ask The Stig...

CvK: Here we have a proper front splitter, we let air out from the front arches at a lower point, we have vents in the bonnet that wrap around the luggage space, so we can still fit the roof in. We have a top mounted fully active rear wing, which we pioneered on the Regera, we have a much bigger diffuser and loads more tweaks and details everywhere.

TG: Is the engine the exact same 5.1-litre twin-turbo V8 as the Jesko?

CvK: It’s got slightly smaller turbos so a little less boost, a little bit less inertia, but better responses... not that the Jesko has any noticeable lag, but with a manual you don’t want any of it. You want to have it feeling like a normally aspirated car. As a result it’s got less power than the Jesko, it’s one megawatt, 1,366bhp running on E85, and the kerbweight is roughly the same number so it’s a one to one power-to-weight ratio. On normal petrol, it’s a little over 1,200bhp.

TG: It feels like more of a street car than the Jesko, was that the aim?

CvK: It’s got this active suspension in ride height, bump and rebound, so when you set it up for track, it’s still pretty firm, but then you can have a really comfortable ride on the road. I think the Jesko Attack’s suspension is three times stiffer with all that downforce. But the CC850 is still a lot of fun on track and of course with less aggressive tyres and more body movement it’s very driftable, there’s no ragged edge to it, it’s just very, very friendly.

TG: Please tell me you’re keeping one of these for yourself...

CvK: Well, this is mine. It’s the first show car, it’s the first one we built, it will need to be upgraded through the development programme. But this is the one I’m going to keep.

TG: As birthday presents go, it beats socks. Let’s take a seat inside it shall we and talk about this analogue twist on your Light Speed Transmission...

CvK: This is the gearbox we introduced on the Jesko, so it’s our complete retake on a rapid paddleshift box, where we managed to remove a load of components by compounding gears. It’s like a derailleur mechanism on a bike, where you take one gear times another and get a total. So really it’s three times three gears creating nine ratios, instead of having nine actual gears. That means it’s the weight and size of a six-speed gearbox.

TG: Go on, my head hasn’t exploded quite yet.

CvK: You have seven clutches, one for each gearset and one more for reverse, but that means we don’t need a clutch on the engine. And when we don’t

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KOENIGSEGG CC850

Now go and watch the video on topgear.com

“THIS IS A HOMAGE TO OUR BEGINNINGS. IT’S THE ORIGINAL IDEA OF A SCANDINAVIAN SUPERCAR”

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Happy birthday to me, happy birthday to me, happy birthday dear Christian...

FIRST DRAFT: CC8S Here’s the CC850’s muse, the source code for all Koenigseggs that followed. Hard to believe that 20 years ago a supercharged, Ford 4.7-litre V8 with 655bhp was true hypercar territory, the top speed of 231mph was almost unheard of and the price of £367k was fairly laughable for a Swedish start-up.

Nothing funny about the way it kicked like a mule in the mid-range and without the invisible hand of downforce, was very lively at the limit. Just ask Stig, who span off during a power lap in the CCX (an upgrade to the CC8S) and ended up ingesting most of a tyre wall with the front bumper.

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have a clutch on the engine, we don’t need a flywheel on the engine, so we get the fastest revving engine or rpm buildup ever seen on any production car.

TG: How do you come up with this stuff? Did the idea start as “how do I get rid of the flywheel?”

CvK: It started with “how do we get more gears with less components and less weight?” No flywheel was a bit of an experiment. We started simulating, the engine was fine from a harmonics perspective and the drivability was super exciting because the throttle response is just electric. We actually have to use software to ‘catch it’ electronically to make sure it doesn’t go too wild.

TG: It sounds very angry. Back to the gearbox then, how do you go about turning it into... is it fair to say, a simulated manual?

CvK: Well, it’s not unfair, but a lot goes into it to make it act like a directly connected clutch and shifter. For example, when you’re driving, you can’t just put the gears in without dipping the clutch, there is a detent. Or if you’re coming from too high a gear, it won’t allow you to push in until there is a closer rev match. When you’re in gear, you can only pull it out without the clutch if you are not under load, and if you push the clutch really fast, there is more resistance just as you would have with hydraulic lines.

So, yes, it’s augmented, but it’s augmented in a way that all the aspects of manual gearbox are considered. Think of a throttle, normally in old cars they

had a wire or a cable but for the last 20 years it’s been electronic. And the clutch pedal normally has a mechanical rod or on modern cars, a hydraulic line. The same thing that’s happened with a throttle, we’ve done with a clutch. You can stall it, you can slip it, there is no difference in sensation.

The other benefit is we can have varying gear ratios depending on what mode you’re in – we have six manual slots, but nine ratio options – so for example in track mode, first gear is a taller gear than on road so you don’t cook your clutch driving out of the pits. And when you’re on the highway or in traffic, you slot the lever over here and you have a nine-speed auto.

TG: Is there a safety net built in to stop anyone unaccustomed to driving ‘stick’ destroying the gearbox completely?

CvK: All our cars are OTA upgradable, so we’re starting out with this very analogue non-intervention manual system. But we could, over time, introduce a ‘beginner’ manual mode where if you go wrong, we smooth it out, or we can rev blip on downshifts. We can just add features over the air.

TG: Is it actually working already?

CvK: It’s around 80 per cent complete. We’re still doing some tweaks, some sensor improvements. We’re already driving around with it, it’s already fun, but we’re not going to deliver these cars for another year or so, so we have time to perfect it.

“CUSTOMERS TEND TO GO WILD ON SPECIFICATION WHICH SLOWS THINGS DOWN”

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KOENIGSEGG CC850

TG: This new factory then, how many cars can it churn out a year?

CvK: This is mainly the Gemera production plant, which is the highest

volume car we have ever taken on. This facility is capable of producing one car a day, but it won’t be a car a day for some years. There’s bringing the supplier network up to speed, we have to make all the carbon fibre parts, customers tend to go wild on specification which slows things down, but we’ll get there. I think around 100 cars in the first year is possible.

TG: And you’re used to building 30 to 40 a year...

CvK: Correct. It’s like a normal car company doing 100,000 cars suddenly cranking it up to 300,000. With us everything is handmade and bespoke so that’s the challenge. We’re also filling this building with a specification lounge, a museum, an events space and a new design studio.

TG: So 28 years ago you started this company, 20 years ago you produced the CC8S, now this is all yours. Did you ever think you would take it this far?

CvK: Of course I couldn’t foresee exactly this, but I never limited my thinking to what it could be. I knew I was going up against giants. I knew it wasn’t going to be easy. I thought I’ll build one car, hopefully someone likes that. I’ll build another one, hopefully someone likes that, and who knows where that will go. That was the plan then and now. I’ll just keep on going and see where it takes me.

KOENIGSEGG CC850 Price: £3.3m Engine: 5065cc twin-turbo V8, 1,366bhp, 1,020lb ft Transmission: 9spd auto + 6spd manual, RWD Performance: 0–62mph in <3.0secs, 249+mph Weight: 1,385kg

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The new GT3 RS’s ultimate weapon is something you can’t see – the air around it. Allow Chris Harris to demonstrate WORDS CHRIS HARRIS PHOTOGRAPHY MARK RICCIONI

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The supporting press info for the new 992 generation GT3 RS contains many memorable words and statistics. It is possibly the most extreme road car the company has ever made, including all the expensive supercars, but there is one piece of information that is quietly glossed over. To become the fastest track-oriented 911 of all time, this car had to become the slowest modern GT3. A ‘normal’ GT3 will hit 198mph, but the RS stops at 184mph, because it has so much drag and a shorter final drive. I can’t think of another car whose speed is so obviously curtailed by a rear wing.

A Honda Civic Type R isn’t much slower.

Silverstone was the launch venue for this outrageous looking machine. The thinking was clear – few other circuits have as many high speed corners on which to demonstrate downforce, but the weather isn’t always helpful. As Porsche racing legend Jörg Bergmeister and project boss Andreas Preuninger, both of whom I know reasonably well, looked wearily at the sky, I offered some British cheer. “Morning chaps – why did you choose Silverstone at the end of September?! It’s always pissing down!” They grinned, demonstrated a high degree of competence in the British vernacular and sauntered off to get coffee.

Sopping wet in the pitlane were several new RSes. Porsche first released pictures of this thing a few months ago, so we already knew the wing was absurdly big, but some of the details you need to appreciate up close. I thought it looked a bit silly when I first saw it. The Signal Yellow number I’m due to drive makes me reconsider that. Where the suspicion lurked the car might have had a cartoonish ‘aftermarket’ look about it, the result is quite different.

It’s cohesive, appears factory original and there’s enough frontal bulging to add balance to the mayhem out back.

You already know the spec of this car – it soldiers on with the 4.0 flat-six of the standard GT3, this time with power up to 518bhp courtesy of a few camshaft modifications. It’s an engine that is very closely related to the second-gen 991 GT3 motor from 2016, so it was clear that to make a statement,

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PORSCHE 911 GT3 RS

“THERE’S ENOUGH FRONTAL BULGING TO ADD BALANCE TO THE MAYHEM OUT BACK” TO P G E A R . C O M

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We shall entitle this photograph ‘not trying nearly hard enough’

“I’VE NEVER DRIVEN ON A

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PORSCHE 911 GT3 RS “Who do I need to give my deposit to, is it the smartly dressed German fellow?”

CIRCUIT WITH LESS GRIP”

As the track dried, Chris’ excuses for being sideways everywhere were wearing thin

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Fun fact: this is the first production Porsche to have a wing taller than the roof

PORSCHE 911 GT3 RS Price: £178,500 (+£25,739 for Weissach Pack with carbon roll cage) Engine: 3996cc nat-asp flat-six, 518bhp, 343lb ft Transmission: 7spd PDK, RWD Performance: 0–62mph in 3.2secs, 184mph Economy: 21.1mpg, 305g/km CO2 Weight: 1,450kg

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PORSCHE LOTUS 911 GT3 EMIRA RS

Porsche needed to find another area in which to improve performance. The RS has been the company’s track machine for years, so the thinking naturally turned to lap times. And for that, the only way was downforce. Well, it could have tried to reduce the weight to nothing and given us zero downforce, but that would have been silly.

And so began development of a 911 much, much more extreme than anything previously badged RS. The front cooling pack has gone from three to one central radiator so the front wing vents can manage air more effectively. That means no frunk, which immediately makes the car far less practical than its predecessor. The huge cutaways on the trailing edge of the wings are part of this air management package and the side intakes at the rear don’t feed the engine, they accelerate air through the rear arches. There are active flaps under the front of the car to ensure that a rear wing that can produce 860kg of downforce at 177mph isn’t tempted to pull the world’s fastest wheelie. That monster swan neck mounted biplane scaffold plank has a movable surface that can stall in the DRS style, but even then at 186mph the drag is more than the motor can push through.

Now, like me, you probably assumed that Porsche would leave it at the crazy aero. But no, it then went and added dampers you can adjust for bump and rebound from the steering wheel.

A differential that can also be tweaked for drive and coast, and traction control that is also adjustable. This is perhaps the most comprehensive package of changes we’ve seen on a road-legal track machine. It means that the humble 911 shape now has more downforce than many of the company’s racing cars.

And on Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2s, on a wet day at Silverstone where it seems like there’s been a circuit-long diesel spill, you can feel just about none of this. We don’t have much time in the car, and I’m nibbling around trying not to slide the thing at every corner. I can at least play with the dampers, which is pretty cool. The difference between full hard and full soft is noticeable, but there isn’t the same range of adjustment you’d find on a fully adjustable race shock. But whatever I do with the dampers, the car either can’t get the power down, or it pushes from mid-corner to exit. I’ve never driven on a circuit with less grip.

It’s a frustrating exercise, but once my five lap splash is done and there’s time to reflect, it does help me define what this car is about. Because I’ve just used it in a situation where it had zero chance to demonstrate what it can do beyond other 911s, and then it just became a slightly silly looking Porsche. A Turbo S would have been miles quicker.

This is a car for people who really want to head to the track – anyone who intends to do mostly road miles and a few track days should have a standard GT3, or maybe a Touring.

The rain eventually stops and the track begins to dry.

The rear Michelins can begin to make that chemical reaction work, the front of the car stays on line then,

as the tyre temp rises more (the gauge is now on the dash, alongside pressures), there’s a chance to attack Maggots and Becketts – that amazing high-speed sequence copied by so many modern circuit designs.

It’s a brutal demonstration of what Porsche has achieved with this car. The first thing to note is the stability under braking – it’s just superb. You can smash the middle pedal from 130mph and fire the car straight over the kerbs, it really doesn’t feel much slower than the last GT3 racecar I drove here. Down one gear after the right you can hold fourth gear and feel the aero working – the dash registers about 2.4g here. That’s an awful lot from something that isn’t a dedicated racing car and isn’t on slick tyres.

The steering is good, the bucket seat shell is good, the gear changes are good (even better in this car with the Weissach magnet clickers on the paddles) and the car just wants to corner faster. To get that slingshot run down the Hangar Straight I dip down to third and there’s a nasty little lump that always tips a car into some understeer, but the RS doesn’t just feel like a racecar through there, it feels better than most. It’s all a bit mind scrambling. Even on a drying track it does a 2:14 lap, which is nuts. I think my best on low fuel and fresh slicks in a GT3 racer is just under two minutes.

This thing really isn’t so far off that pace.

If this is what you want to do with your fast 911, then it’s a no-brainer over the standard GT3. I’d speculate that the RS is 4.0secs quicker over a single lap of Silverstone, using the same tyre. That’s night and day.

There is just one problem though, and I can’t quite believe I’m saying this about a machine with 518bhp and capable of 0–125mph in 10.6secs... it needs more engine. This motor is a piece of art now, a legend in its own lifetime, but it’s also 200bhp back from the competition and Porsche needs a new solution, which surely must mean turbocharging at some point in the near future. In the Touring, this is the correct engine because no one needs more than 500bhp on the road.

It feels about right in the small winged car too – but with this much downforce, I wanted something closer to 991 GT2 RS clout down the Wellington Straight.

How many will actually find their way onto a track?

I don’t know. These things have become tradable commodities, but the scouts suggest that premiums will be running at an all-time high for what I think is the most compromised 911 for road use since the 964 RS. With one exception – Preuninger noted during a detailed explanation about how the radiator nostrils guide hot air down the sides of the car to keep the air used for the engine intake as cool as possible that, “With the windows down in the winter, you get some warm air coming into the cabin – it’s actually very pleasant.” So there you have it. The finest track-focused 911 of all time, all sold out, but handy on cold days when you want the windows dropped. I’ll have mine in yellow please.

“I ASSUMED THAT PORSCHE WOULD LEAVE IT AT THE CRAZY AERO”

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Fuji Speedway, the Peugeot 9X8 Hypercar, and us getting in the way. It’s official, endurance racing is back on the map WORDS TOM FORD PHOTOGRAPHY MARK RICCIONI

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PEUGEOT 9X8

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Jean-Marc Finot, boss of Stellantis Motorsport, is the coolest character here

Over to one side, a mascot clad head to toe in primary coloured nylon staggers into a barrier and dislodges their own oversized head, obviously overcome by 40°C heat and humidity that makes the air breathe like warm cotton wool. Mechanics clad in various teambased and sponsor uniforms stride about doing Important Car Things, while a portly man follows them around pushing a plush three-foot-high doll in a pram. Grown women dressed in weirdly abbreviated school gym outfits totter around on ankle-crippling five-inch heels as GT cars spit and fuss at idle, and overhead, a platoon of military types rappel from a hovering helicopter just over the start/finish straight. Just as we pass, a man with a T-shirt cannon accidentally shoots a spectator in the face with a balled-up garment, but seeing as the victim is in the 40th row of grandstand seating, it’s probably not fatal.

Among all this, blissfully calm and broadcasting a comforting aura of favourite uncle, is Jean-Marc Finot, big boss of Stellantis Motorsport. He is, by my estimation and limited experience, one of the nicest men in motor racing. So far, he’s been patient with my enthusiastic but naive questioning, understanding about the vagaries

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of trying to do a filmed interview on a busy pitwalk, and has politely failed to mention the fact that I’m sweating so aggressively that my head is starting to look like a massive pink sultana.

“You don’t work in motorsport unless you have passion. It’s a dream since being a kid. And if you have that passion, you’ll never work a day in your life,” he says smiling and tapping his chest to indicate his heart, and weirdly unbothered by the heat. “But of course this is also a technical laboratory for new technologies that you might see on future cars.” Which seems a bit of a stretch, to be honest. Because at this point, we pass by the reason he’s here, the Peugeot pit garage, and catch a glimpse of what it contains. The Peugeot 9X8 Le Mans hypercar. And it looks utterly bloody brilliant.

It does not, however, look much like a 308 or an e-Rifter. Yes, it looks like a Peugeot, the claw-slash lights are a dead giveaway, but the lean, predatory stylings of the racecar don’t lend themselves to the necessity of getting a pram in the back. After all, even a competitive 9X8 hypercar is unlikely to associate enough with a 508 to make true the old adage of “win on Sunday, sell on Monday”. But there’s method to this madness. Yes, motorsport is the crucible in which new technologies are born and older ones refined. There are explicit links between race and road, from efficiency in energy recovery for hybrid systems to working out what goes bang after being battered in the war of endurance racing. Apparently, the energy management algorithm for the 508 PSE is directly related to that in the 9X8, believe it or not. But more than that, motorsport brings prestige and the mood of confidence, the idea that a company that can engineer a car to cope in such extreme conditions can also manage to build a car for the School Run GP. It’s a PR exercise with teeth.

Which is kind of why we’re here. To see about the new WEC format of Le Mans hypercars (and the closely related Le Mans Daytona hybrids), through the lens of the grid’s – so far – most interesting vehicle, the Peugeot 9X8. To see if this stuff is worth your attention. And ‘here’ is definitely the place to be: Japan.

Coiled invitingly in the shadow of Mount Fuji is the eponymously titled Fuji International Speedway, currently a hive of the

PEUGEOT 9X8

Wookie hoped these fans were here to see him, but he’s yet to break Japan

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So well trained that he’s got a four-hour sleep down to 12.6 seconds

This hand car wash is a bit aggressive, only stopped for a pint of milk

PEUGEOT 9X8

Eight hands are better than one when it comes to childcare

aforementioned bizarre activity as teams furiously prepare for the imminent start of the 6 Hours of Fuji WEC race. GT cars flare with revs as they warm, the various Ferrari 488s’ raw voices overlaid by the chainsaw rasp of racing Porsche 911s. Those mascots strut and pose, then quietly retreat to the pit garages to die away from the cameras. It’s a circus, but an entertaining one. Unfortunately, things have not been going well in my immediate vicinity. Muddled by jet lag, 40°C heat and humidity, I’ve already managed to get in the way of a mechanic in pit garage eight, stumbled over an important and apparently very dangerous cable festooned with hazard symbols and bumped into a precarious stack of slicks, causing everyone in the garage to roll their eyes hard enough to cause temporary blindness.

Everyone knows their job, slots into spaces, prepares with the kind of graceful military precision that doesn’t allow for a random human

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bumbling around in the background. But the fact that I have very little natural grace and even less situational awareness is not a surprise. What is a surprise is just how good the 9X8 looks in its natural habitat.

Of course, interesting Peugeots have had their glory years. From 205 GTis to T16s – both 205 and 405 – to 905Bs and WRC cars. Even Pikes Peak had its cinematic Climb Dance 405 moment at the hands of Ari Vatanen. In fact, Peugeots have hit pretty much every niche, from endurance racing to rallying to Dakar. But lately? Not so much.

Until the 9X8.

In the metal and composite, the 9X8 is stunning. Smaller than you imagine, with that little bubble cockpit shrouded in bodywork that seems constructed entirely of function. In a world of fake vents and marginally useful aerodynamic additions on road cars, the 9X8 is a

PEUGEOT 9X8

Blink and you’ll miss it, though in endurance racing there’s always another shot

Now go and watch the video on topgear.com

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Like man like machine, the 9X8 needs tucking in overnight too

Olivier Jansonnie – technical director of the WEC team.

Also makes a lovely omelette

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PEUGEOT 9X8

banshee wail of utility. In many ways it it defined by absence; the cutaways, the slashes, the voids and the fact that there’s no huge wing at the back, the necessary downforce instead convinced into being by careful design of both top surface and belly, lateral stability provided by a dorsal fin that would do a Great White proud. It might be packed with technology, but there’s no getting away from the fact that, with those claw-cut lights at either end, this is one good looking racing car. And better than that, it looks fast.

And quite obviously unique. In a world of top-tier endurance racers that look like identical siblings, this is something of a revolution. And so to the subject at hand: Le Mans hypercars.

To spoil the end a little, a series that might well be the saviour of endurance racing. Or at least the shot in the arm to reinvigorate it for a whole new generation of fans. A bluffer’s guide then, to explain why the 9X8 looks like it does. Basically, the outgoing LMP1 class was getting more than a little Byzantine in structure, and the costs involved were somewhere in the region of the GDP of a small to medium sized country, putting off manufacturer entries and all but killing off privateers. A situation which led to the LMP1 class feeling a bit... thinly populated.

The problem with LMP1, apart from the massive cost, is that the regulations dictated the way everything looked. To get the downforce needed to be competitive, the wings needed to be just so.

Cars needed to hit specific parameters, or they’d ultimately be pretty back markers. You ended up with what were – to the untrained and casual eye, at least – photocopied versions of largely the same car with different liveries. And that doesn’t give much intellectual or emotional traction for fans. Fast yes, but not entertaining.

Enter LMh (and LMdh), with a whole new gameplan. Less downforce, allowing for more freedom of design and hence the 9X8’s wingless profile. A proprietary chassis from one of four sanctioned manufacturers – keeping costs down – and a set of regulations that means there’s more freedom to express. The drivetrain, for example, is generally (but not exclusively) a hybrid system. A rear-mounted ICE engine allied to a 200kW (270bhp) front-mounted electric motor.

As long as peak output doesn’t crest 671bhp or thereabouts, the hybrid system can be deployed as necessary, so you can boost the ICE, use the front motor to power the front axle (and have all-wheel drive), or just run the ICE on its own. The same Michelin tyres.

And then there’s the cost cap, which makes an LMh car some 75 per cent more cost effective to run than LMP1, which opens up both manufacturer entries and privateers. Which makes for good racing.

But the best bit? While the regulations state a flat slate for power output and some complex BoP (balance of power) regulations to try and keep racing close, the choice of ICE engine is completely up to the entrants, of which there are many. Turbo or naturally aspirated, V6, V8 or – likely only technically – V10 or 12, the choice is open. So you have Peugeot (9X8) and Toyota (GR010) – and likely Ferrari – with turbocharged V6s, Scuderia Glickenhaus (SCG 007), Lamborghini and Porsche (963) with bi-turbo V8s and some cars running without the complexity of hybrid at all. But it doesn’t stop there. There are entries from Acura (Honda’s luxury/performance arm), Alpine, BMW M, Cadillac, and Vanwall (with no hybrid system), with more to come, not including privateers. What that means is that you’re looking at a class that suddenly has some of the character of the GT class. Recognisable cars from a generous gamut of specific manufacturers, cars that sound, look and act differently.

Cars that rely on set-up and driver skill more than budget. Cars that will make endurance racing exciting.

Exciting it is. With only three teams running in this precursor to the full start of LMh in 2023, you can tell them instantly. Faster than the GT cars (though not as fast as the old LMP1s) they still have to slice ’n’ dice with the slower production cars, weaving and faking themselves around the usual Ferraris and Porsches, adding to the drama. The 9X8 is actually a level above that, instantly recognisable, both in terms of sound and vision. For every one of the six hours, the Peugeot 9X8 drew the eye and the ear, spearing around the hilly circuit like a particularly handsome missile. You can’t help thinking that this is what endurance racing should be about – the cut and thrust of close racing, allied to strategy and reliability with super cool looking cars. High octane, four-dimensional chess at 200mph.

It is, even at this early point, more enthralling than the WEC stuff I lost interest in a while back. During the race, the Peugeots do perfectly well, seeing as this is more serious test session than any kind of championship contention. The team obviously wanted more – the will to win is in their DNA – but taking on the Toyotas at their home circuit with a much newer car is a big ask.

But despite the obvious newness here, the 9X8 shines like a beacon for the series. In today’s world, it’s all about engagement.

How to grab someone’s attention and keep it, preventing them from wandering off into any one of the multiverse’s other channels of entertainment. It’s too easy to be distracted by something shinier, brighter, more vital. And that’s what Le Mans hypercars is about.

It’s bringing back the team you can identify, and root for. Peugeot is being brave, and unique, and has returned to motorsport with a car that makes everyone take notice – a stance that might well rub off on a couple of PSE-branded road cars. So no, it’s not surprising that manufacturers are excited about Le Mans hypercars, and yes, it’s a series that is well worth your attention. But of most surprise is that the coolest car on the grid so far, is... a Peugeot.

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ROLLS-ROYCE SPECTRE

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The Rolls-Royce Spectre has been over 120 years in the making. There’s no badge better suited to electric power, but has it got the timing just right?

WORDS PAUL HORRELL PHOTOGRAPHY MARK FAGELSON

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There can hardly be a more suitable drive for a Rolls-Royce than electric motors. CS Rolls himself said it in 1900: “The electric car is perfectly noiseless and clean. There is no smell or vibration.” Although, presciently, he did add that he had infrastructure concerns. After 120 years of trying, no petrol Rolls-Royce has a powertrain as smooth or silent or responsive as that of a 2011 Nissan Leaf. Or perhaps more relevant, a 2015 Tesla Model X – a powerful, heavy car that goes a long way and charges fast.

But this is changing: in a year’s time, this rather fabulous all-electric Spectre will land with its first customers. So TopGear asks Rolls-Royce boss Torsten Müller-Ötvös the obvious question: what kept you? His reply is emphatic. “The customers always said: it has to be a Rolls-Royce first, electric second.”

Rolls-Royce knows those customers intimately. After all, even though their numbers keep growing, there still aren’t that many of them around.

Müller-Ötvös has been asking them for a decade what they think about EVs. “In comparison between where the clients were then and now, it has changed massively. On average they own seven cars and many already own an electric car. The feedback on electric propulsion in general is very positive.” So the Spectre doesn’t have to introduce them to the idea of a charge cable instead of a hose of explosive liquid.

Rolls-Royce even made a demo project in 2011, a converted Phantom called 102EX. I still remember driving it. It was a Rolls-Royce squared: silent, smooth, wafty. “This fits perfectly with what the brand stands for. We are not defined by engine noise or loud exhaust.” But the 102EX’s range was as short as its charging time was long. “Ten years ago it wasn’t

ROLLS-ROYCE SPECTRE

Now go and watch the video on topgear.com

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Self-levelling wheel badges – a fastidious photographer’s dream

“THE SPECTRE’S PLANES ARE JUST SO, AND THE EFFECT IS OF A CAR OF MONOLITHIC STRENGTH”

Not just the engine that’s gone electric, the speedo’s now a screen too. Gasp

ROLLS-ROYCE SPECTRE

that the clients weren’t prepared to go for it. The technology wasn’t at the right level – battery, propulsion, even more important the software.

It now is, in a quality that allows us to build a Rolls-Royce. There is no compromise. It allows a bigger car, space, sufficient range, and the right charging. And modern software making it easy to use and interactive.

Also, I was not in for the compromise of converting a combustion car.”

Much to our delight, the first electric Rolls-Royce is a coupe. “The Spectre is as important for us as the Silver Ghost.” Since the 40/50HP Ghost came out in 1906, he presumably doesn’t say this lightly. “This is the beginning of a new era for Rolls-Royce and it needs a celebration.

A fastback coupe is an emotional car.” Its job is effectively to replace the spectacular Phantom Coupe, absent from the range since 2016.

The Spectre is absolutely a full-size Rolls-Royce. I mean, really big.

Those wheels are 23 inches in diameter, a size that can make a Range Rover look like a Golf. It will do 320 miles (WLTP) on a charge. Of course drag matters, and BMW’s expertise via endless CFD and tunnel hours have got it down to a Cd of 0.25. Great work chaps, but look at the size of it. It’s still going to take a lot of pushing through the air.

Then there’s the 2,975kg unladen mass to think of. Even so, the Spectre claims 0–62mph in 4.5 seconds. That’s what motors front and back totalling 585bhp and 664lb ft can do for you.

But most of all, it’s a fabulously decadent thing.

As well as acting like a Rolls-Royce, the Spectre has to look like one.

It’s certainly got the face, that Greek temple grille and Spirit of Ecstasy mascot. Except not quite the usual ones. The grille is the widest ever on a Rolls-Royce. But it’s largely impervious to air, because there’s no V12 to cool, and the priority is reducing turbulent drag. Its vanes are downlit at night for extra rolling theatre. Meanwhile, sitting at its apex is a new interpretation of the image of Eleanor Thornton, leaning more forward into the breeze. Either side are split headlights, last seen on the Phantom Coupe. Their upper blades are permanently lit, and below them the main headlights loom out of an enigmatic smoky darkness.

The body’s surfaces are utterly confident. Look around at all the cars that have such relatively flat surfaces and few feature lines. You realise it’s really difficult to do – they mostly look weak and fragile. But the Spectre’s planes are just so, and the effect is of a car of monolithic strength. The very few lines that do exist are knife sharp, but because of the surface strength it looks like a solid block of carved metal, rather than mere bent sheet. The chrome decor has the same effect, like hewn and polished mass. Those door handles could have come off a bank vault.

Go ahead, pull the handle. As per Rolls practice, the doors are rear hinged, so you just walk in and out. As with the outside, the interior is

Sad times. Think of all the Nectar points you’ll miss from filling that 100-litre fuel tank

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“EVERY ROLLSROYCE SINCE THE GOODWOOD ERA BEGAN HAS WORN THIS CONFIDENT SIMPLICITY”

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really Rollsy. But better. No one else does it like this. Every Rolls-Royce since the Goodwood era began in 2003 has worn this confident simplicity, a kind of furniture that owes little to conventional automotive vernacular. Owners will recognise the tactile physical climate controls and iDrive controller. For the first time the instruments are rendered on a screen, albeit still mercifully simulating analogue dials. But they’re configurable in colour to match the fabrics and leathers the buyer has commissioned.

Pretty wild decor in this photo car, eh? The seats have what Rolls is calling a lapel, a dart of upholstery that gives another option for contrast detailing. The doors can be had with either the ‘Starlight’ feature, the – count ’em – 4,796 little bright dots. Or you can go for vast panels of wood. A companion starlit panel covers the passenger side dashboard too.

It’s a full four-seater. “Not a 2+2,” Müller-Ötvös stresses. Space is a luxury, and you might want to bring friends. But this is a coupe and likely it won’t be chauffeur driven. So how will owners use it?

With those average seven cars in the garage this isn’t a commuter car for them. They drive it for the occasional trip, entertainment, a night

ELECTRIC ROLLS

COLUMBIA 1898 Charles Rolls had a Barmsworths Columbia Electric Carriage when he was a student.

Liked the car, but had range anxiety

102EX 2011 For this experimental one-off they replaced the V12 with a bay full of batteries. But it didn’t go far and took nine hours to charge

103EX 2016 This was a proper mad futuristic concept: a travel cocoon that was “fully autonomous”.

Meaning it couldn’t go anywhere

out, or just ‘going for a spin’. I once drove a Phantom Coupe down to the far end of France in a day. I can think of no better car for the job, but still, it meant an in no way luxurious early start and too many petrol station snacks. An actual Rolls-Royce owner wouldn’t do that.

They’d stop at the Hôtel Château de Posh on the way, and of course they’d find an electric charger there. They have a charger at home, and one at work. And so on. Which means the Spectre’s range, some 320 miles of WLTP, is surely going to be more than enough. “Owners don’t drive in one go from London to Edinburgh. Our cars were never about range.” A V12 Rolls-Royce won’t go as far as 320 miles, “and nobody ever asked us for a bigger petrol tank”.

The battery uses BMW’s latest cell type, but the pack is uniquely shaped to fit the Spectre’s floor. The motors too come from BMW, the EESM type that use no rare earth metals and are efficient at high speeds. The Spectre’s structure is a version of the unique-toGoodwood aluminium architecture. Pure-electric propulsion was part of the brief when they conceived that, before they first launched it in the Phantom. The Spectre uses air springs, resonators to quell wheel vibrations, adaptive dampers, variable roll stiffness and

four-wheel steering. But it’s not the hardware they’re most proud of, it’s the algorithms that control it all, and until we try it out we can’t know how well that has all been calibrated.

The price of all this is “between the Cullinan and Phantom” which means a third of a million pounds – going from there on a skyward trajectory of commissioned options.

So I ask Müller-Ötvös about the profit. He says he can now make an electric car for the same cost as a V12 car. Right there is another significant reason they didn’t do it earlier, as he points out it’s bad business to sell someone an EV that makes less money than the V12 it’s substituting for. So I suspect the timing of the Spectre’s arrival isn’t just about the technology becoming available. I have more faith in the engineers at BMW and Rolls-Royce: they could surely have done it before. They just didn’t need to. As the boss points out, Rolls-Royce has been selling more and more petrol cars every year. “There was no need to rush.”

Now the time has come. Buyers want an electric car, and it’ll make money. Most of all, it’s doable to Rolls-Royce’s standards. Indeed, by the look of it, possibly even better than that.

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WORDS OLLIE MARRIAGE

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PHOTOGRAPHY JONNY FLEETWOOD

BRUDER EXP-6

Want to chase the sunset on the longest day of the year? You’ll need a 4x4, somewhere to sleep and a strong plan B

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June 21, 2022. The longest day of the year. Sunnier, more illuminated times. And you join me at the stunning curve of Kylesku Bridge in northwest Scotland. It’s very early, grey and lightly blustery, with dampness drifting through the air. The smells are heathery and fresh, the sounds are seabirds. I deliberately parked last night so I’d wake up with a view over the mighty sea lochs and when I did it was utterly captivating. To lift a blind and see such majesty doesn’t half make you question your priorities in life. There’s no one else here. I wasn’t aware of a car passing in the night, and none will pass for another half an hour while I walk around nursing a hot cup of tea.

I hate caravans. They’re so dull and ordinary. There they go holding up traffic, dawdling about, being ugly, being tedious, being beige, driving me mad. And then there’s the Bruder EXP-6. God I want one.

Fickle me. But I’m not alone, am I? It’s Australian (but of course), designed for outback endurance by a firm with a background in military equipment. You’re not surprised are you? It has cabin pressurisation, up to 650mm of ground clearance, 600W of solar panels, 33-inch tyres, is mostly bulletproof and thanks to eight shock absorbers and four three-tonne support airbags, can be dropped off a cliff and emerge unscathed. The same does not apply to the contents.

Land Rover probably claims as much for the Defender, but if I had to be the contents in one of them and dropped from a great height, it would be the one with a king-size double bed. The mattress is a doozy.

Far above and beyond the very mortal abilities of a regular caravan, it is a Scotland-proof survival wagon. So what’s it doing here? Well, I have a plan: to watch sunset on the longest day of the year, from the place on the British mainland where it sets last. That’s Cape Wrath, the extreme northwest corner of Scotland. The name is derived not from the furious seas hereabouts, but a translation from the Old Norse for ‘turning point’. Tonight the sun won’t plonk into the sea until 10.33pm.

And not so much plonk, as kiss the horizon and slip elegantly into the embrace of the North Atlantic. But there are two main looming issues: it’s a military bombardment range and there’s no road there.

The former we’ve sorted. Permissions have been sought and granted. The latter is more troublesome. There is a road across the range to the cape, it’s 12 miles long, but connected to nothing. At the northwest end, the Cape Wrath lighthouse, at the southeast terminus, water. Now the road is borderline irrelevant – Defender and Bruder would make a good fist of getting across 12 miles of peat bog and heather, but the mile-wide Kyle of Durness, no matter the Bruder’s float characteristics (yes, it does), is more troublesome. There’s a ferry to get the cagoule enthusiasts across, but since it’s a dinghy with a piddling outboard, it would be like a duck piggybacking a hippo.

For such occasions as these, a local man has a transport pontoon.

But he’s currently being knocked sideways by COVID-19. Love the army though – there’s always plan B. So at oh-nine-thirty hours this morning I have to meet the training centre range commander on the slipway at Keoldale.

That’s only 35 miles away, so let me tell you about the 650 miles I’ve already done getting up here. Towing isn’t that painful – in fact 60mph can feel distressingly fast when the 2.3-tonne trailer weighs more than the tractor and starts to throw its weight around – but the Defender is a good tractor. My word this entry level D250 (our own long-termer) has some torque, 420lb ft at a mere 1,250rpm means it pulls gutsily, maintains speed easily, and over 1,450 miles returns 18.4mpg. And for once we have a Land Rover trip computer that’s not telling huge porkies. Life onboard is a balm of CarPlay, resting elbows and relaxation. Only the slight seesaw motion, caused by the EXP-6’s 165kg nose weight levering against the 90’s short wheelbase, disturbs the peace.

Meanwhile all is well onboard Darth’s camper. I know this because it comes with a Garmin wifi tablet so you can run everything

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As bridges go this one isn’t bad. Lovely one in Wick if you like stone arches

Talk about roughing it – no room for the piccalilli in the wicker hamper

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from the car. Water levels, heating, lighting, solar charge, battery status, onboard cameras; I can even manually control the ride height either side and lean it into corners.

Its effect on other road users is dazzling. I don’t think I’ve ever driven anything that’s caused such a stir, that’s pulled cashiers out onto forecourts, had children tugging sleeves, people asking me to “hang about for five while I go get me wife/mates/kids”, and gasted the flabber of every caravanist. Movie references pour in: Mad Max, Jurassic Park, Star Wars, Armageddon, Batman. People ask if the awnings are missile tubes, and are so slack-jawed they accept it when I tell them they’re right.

In my mirrors the awnings look like lances, so I pretend I’m jousting with oncoming traffic. Everyone gives way. I wasn’t joking about the bulletproof thing. Atop the steel ladder frame chassis sits a monocoque sealed box made of 30mm thick polyurethane sandwich panels. It’ll stop light munitions apparently, although I didn’t bother asking what that actually meant. Arguably more relevant is the fact it’s designed to cope with a temperature range from -20°C to 50°C and carries its water tanks inboard so they don’t freeze.

The outside is scratchy and tough, designed to scrape past branches without marking, but open up the full width rear cover and you reveal a softer core. A full width double bed with plush mattress up the far end, a sofa that converts into bunks, a wetroom with shower and bog, plus cooking facilities and a washing machine.

The tank has a glamping heart. Further Australiana includes a serving hatch for indoor/outdoor kitchen vibes, plus a second pullout kitchen in a drawer. And no, that’s not the wrong way round.

So at Kylesku I make breakfast for photographer Jonny and videographer James – bacon fried in a saucepan since the hob’s induction technology is beyond my frying pan. As it rains we down mugs of tea and realise we’ve been spoiled for any other shoot we’ll ever do.

Wireless Garmin pad allows you to control trailer on the move from the car

Land Rover roof-rack can support 132kg. Or an Ollie and a bit Air suspension with up to 75mm of height adjustment

“ITS EFFECT ON OTHER ROAD USERS IS DAZZLING” The drive up to Keoldale is casually spectacular. The landscape exudes permanence, as if time ticks more slowly while we flit through. It’s hard, hard scenery, the vegetation stunted, the rock ancient and weary, the water dark, still and deep. The men we meet at Keoldale were clearly bred for this area. Small on talk, big on grip strength, the kind that usually have black strips painted across their eyes. They have bad news, delivered so implacably I know better than to ask questions. Their landing craft is out of action. The pontoon floats, but the boat that pushes it doesn’t.

And that’s that. We’re not going to Cape Wrath. The range commander, the only one with a hint of softness in his jowls, apologises. We’re standing around, dejected, unsure what to do next, kicking our heels with the military boys while they wait in the drizzle for a ride across. I occasionally catch one of them sneaking a curious glance at the rig, so decide a demo is in order.

Because of the shallow angle of the A-arm at the front (the two chassis members running back from the tow hitch), plus the 90’s short wheelbase, the Bruder is amazingly manoeuvrable in tight spots. You can have it at more than 90° to the car. So in not much space at all,

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90°and counting.

And that’s just the slipway down angle

BRUDER EXP-6

LAND ROVER DEFENDER 2,228kg 4,323mm 1,996mm 1,971mm 291mm 900mm £51,295/£74,146

BRUDER EXP-6 Weight Length Width Height Max clearance Wading depth Price/as tested

2,320kg 6,730mm 1,920mm 2,350mm 650mm Floats £115,500/£127,700

Massive lump of chain. Just in case the towbar gives way

Defender can tow up to 3,500kg

600W solar panels up here, feeding charge to an uprated 800Ah onboard battery

Cabin pressurisation system like an aeroplane, to stop outback dust getting in

Yes, that appears to be quite a lot of suspension.

Twin dampers per wheel

Ladder a £768 option. Solidly built but a pain to unlatch

Flip down side tables. Excellent tinnie landing pads

Indoor/outdoor kitchen. Mostly outdoor for us, since it was too windy for the midges

Pull out drawer with extra fridge and optional BBQ. Obviously

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BRUDER EXP-6

Hatch is neat, but it’s quite easy to get mistaken for a hipster meat-free burger van

Now go and watch the video on topgear.com

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With the cost of living these days, we’re tempted to sell up and head off-grid too

Come World War 3, the guys in the camper will be wishing they had a Bruder. Mark our words

“THE DRIVE UP TO KEOLDALE IS CASUALLY SPECTACTULAR”

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BRUDER EXP-6

I reverse it down the slipway. About half way through I realise a) it’s bloody steep, and b) likely to be very slippery. But I have provided some entertainment, and as reward we are thrown a lifeline.

“Are you in touch with the major?” I am. “Tell him we can’t help today, but suggest you use the range station at Faraid Head.” I will.

I don’t know where that is, but it sounds good. I make the call.

Turns out Faraid Head is where the military looks through binoculars from, when stuff is being chucked around out on the Cape. It’s ideal. Sunset there is just a single minute earlier. Just one issue, “You’ll need permission from the landowner to drive across the beach to get there.” But I know that beach, I once very rashly drove a McMerc SLR on it. That’ll be a breeze...

And we’ve got time to kill. So we cruise back south to shoot the rig on roads. I’m not calling it a caravan. Technical trailer, survival wagon, outback rig, I’ll take anything, just not caravan. There are people up here with caravans though. And motorhomes. This is the North Coast 500. I expected wall-to-wall sports cars whipping

through the Highlands, but the reality is that snails pulling their homes with them dominate, then bikes, then cars.

We’re being noticed, though. Each time we pull over someone will say “I saw you yesterday”, “I heard you were in the area” or “I saw you parked in Lochinver”. In this, the remotest, emptiest area of the British mainland, it turns out we’re all funnelling down the same paths. It feels oddly communal. We find a quarry and I do sandwiches for everyone, crank up some tunes on the stereo.

I find signal and call the owner of Balnakeil beach, explain the situation. Not a breeze, more a chill gust directed at me. They’ve had problems there – too many walkers and wild campers littering the SSSI. It was fine a few years ago, but no... Balnakeil then, is a microcosm of what’s happening across this area of Scotland, of the double-edged sword that is the NC500. In terms of visitor numbers it’s been a huge success, but it’s transient – people are just travelling through, not stopping, so little money is finding its way into local communities. Yet it’s they who are suffering the extra traffic, the

“I UNHOOK THE BRUDER AND CAN PRACTICALLY SENSE THE DEFENDER SHRUG ITS SHOULDERS WITH RELIEF”

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damage to roads and beaches, the environmental impact. I feel partially responsible, because in the wake of the story I did with that McMerc SLR a dozen years ago, I played a small part in setting the NC500 up.

We come to an agreement. We can have access for the car, but not the trailer. And I’ll write about the issues. I unhook the Bruder, can practically sense the Defender shrug its shoulders with relief, and ease out across the white-gold beach. Quite glad I’m not towing seven metres of gnarly ’van across soft sand, if I’m honest. Darndest thing at the far end of the beach though – the tarmac reappears, laid mysteriously among sand dunes. It winds on for a mile or two, climbing past cliffs and grassy hillsides until we arrive at the compound. The gates are padlocked. Lights are on in the tower, but no one’s answering our knock.

So I turn round and set up camp in the dunes. Not for the night, just to watch the sun set. We’d brought what we could with us, but the 90’s limited load bay meant that was camera kit plus a campfire,

chair and some logs. It’s a useful, capable, desirable machine for the modern age, but it’s not a genuine workhorse. The Bruder has a clearer mission statement. It’s built as a survival pod for the harshest environments on earth, which means it’s utter overkill everywhere else. That’s what gives it authenticity, something the new Defender doesn’t have. But don’t they make a lovely couple?

The whole rig, Defender and EXP-6 together, comes in at supercar money, about £200,000.

Of course we don’t get a sunset. The cloud never for a moment parts to reveal a flirtatious glimpse of hot orange sunlight. Beside me the fire crackles, the light dims and James, Jonny and I toast marshmallows and each other with an alcohol free beer. The mission was right, the aim was slightly off. It’s still light when I reattach the trailer and creep stealthily down to camp overlooking the Kyle of Durness. Once again I park ready for the dawn view. This time it’s a blaze of light and sun in an orange sky. Too late, time has moved on.

The nights are drawing in.

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THE BATMAN BATMOBILE™ #42127

McLaren Formula 1™ Race Car #42141 BMW M 1000 RR #42130

All-Terrain Vehicle #42139

EXPLORE MORE OF THE RANGE 6($5&+ /(*2 &20ǖ7(&+1,& McLaren Formula 1™ race car manufactured under license from McLaren Racing Limited. McLaren is a trademark of McLaren Racing Limited. THE BATMAN and all related characters and elements © & ™ DC Comics and Warner Bros.

Entertainment Inc. WB SHIELD: © & ™ WBEI (s22). BMW trademarks used are licensed by BMW AG.

HEADLINER

DOUBLE DECKER What better way to celebrate Lamborghini’s V12 engine than a blast in Ferruccio’s very own dual V12-powered boat?

WORDS GREG POTTS PHOTOGRAPHY DENNIS NOTEN

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“THE ENGINE IN THE AVENTADOR LP780-4 ULTIMAE IS NOTHING SHORT OF A MASTERPIECE”

To quote the great Albus Dumbledore: “Where once there was before the naturally aspirated Lamborghini V12 engine, there will now be after.” At least we think that’s what he said – nobody really paid any attention to the Fantastic Beasts Harry Potter spinoff series did they? Could have got away with anything in that script.

Anyway, yes, Lamborghini has now built its last road-going car powered by a non-hybrid V12. A statement that would have been almost unthinkable just a decade or so ago, such has been the importance of 12 cylinders in the history of the company.

You see, back in the early Sixties when Ferruccio Lamborghini first decided to branch out from tractors to build truly great grand tourers and bedroom wall supercars he tasked one Giotto Bizzarrini to design an affordable, road-going engine that would best the

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watered-down V12 racers being put together by Enzo Ferrari. Rumour has it that Lamborghini also offered Bizzarrini a bonus for every additional horsepower he could extract over the equivalent Ferrari engine.

The result was a high-revving, dry sumped 3.5-litre V12 with downdraft Weber carburettors – essentially a racing engine. History tells us that Lamborghini wasn’t happy. Bizzarrini refused to change his engine design, so Ferruccio refused to pay him (until a court order forced him to). The engine was subsequently detuned and simplified by another engineer – Gian Paolo Dallara – and remarkably it was that exact V12 that served in every big Lambo from the 1964 350 GT right up until the last of the Murciélagos in 2010. Almost half a century of service. And yes, it means that technically Lamborghini as a manufacturer has only built two different road car V12s in its history, with the second generation developed from scratch for the Aventador.

Lambo’s final non-hybrid V12 will soon be resigned to the museum. Sob

“No one will notice if I pinch a couple of these, will they?” It’s your company Ferruccio, knock yourself out

More on that later though, because once Dallara had adapted Bizzarrini’s design it was bored out to 4.0 litres for the later 350 GTs and the following 400 GT. Then, in 1968, Ferruccio gave the engine one hell of a blessing...

Doing rather well for himself, the Perugian ordered a Riva Aquarama – a glorious, handbuilt mahogany motorboat that was the darling of the original jet setters. However, Lamborghini wanted more power than the standard V8 engines could produce, and so it was that two of his 4.0-litre V12s found their way into the back of a boat.

With each engine making 350bhp, Ferruccio’s Aquarama was the fastest ever built, with a top speed of over 50 knots (around 60mph). How apt.

Lamborghini kept his unique toy for 20 years – using it to break water skiing speed records and to generally look supremely cool like only older Italians can. He eventually sold it to close friend Angelo Merli, although quite how close we’re not sure, because Merli decided that the 350 GT engines were

too unreliable and tragically returned the one-off back to its standard specification.

Thankfully there are those out there who care little for reliability, and when hull number 278 was found under a tarp in 2010, the new owner decided that it should be brought back to its former glory – V12s and all.

So, that’s how we find ourselves on the shores of Lake Iseo, piloting the Riva Lamborghini as wood meets water for the first time in a long while. And what better way to celebrate the end of the unassisted Lambo V12 than by bringing along the last of the breed to meet its forefather.

The engine in the Aventador LP780-4 Ultimae is nothing short of a masterpiece. When the Aventador first arrived in 2011 it sported an all-new V12 codenamed L539, and although the previous Bizzarrini V12 had also grown to 6.5-litres by the time of its replacement, this new unit was more powerful, produced more torque and yet still weighed in 18kg lighter.

Still not a turbo in sight either. Heaven.

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“BOATS DON’T REALLY DO STEERING FEEL LIKE CARS”

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Dashes don’t come more spectacular / White leather seats look the part too / All-essential Riva flag features on the bow / These should come with a warning sign

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In the Ultimae it makes even more power than in the bewinged SVJ – 769bhp to be precise – and for a bit of extra theatre Lamborghini prints the firing order on top of a sea of carbon fibre and gold paint. Not that it’s lacking in drama, of course. Put the Aventador into Corsa mode, switch the ESC off, foot on the brake and a little message saying “Thrust Mode Possible” appears.

Build up the revs, release your left foot from the brake and in 2.8 seconds you’re doing 62mph and wondering how far you might have to reverse down the road in order to reconvene with your internal organs.

If the second generation Lambo V12 is a bit of a banshee, then the old 350 GT engines in the boat are probably best described as brown bears. Without the Aquarama’s cushioned sundeck muffling the noise, the V12s – each with six twin Weber carbs on top – emit a deep, mechanical burble as they rev to 4,500rpm.

Given that the gloriously restored Riva is worth an unimaginable amount of money and its new owner is watching closely over the head of a cigar, I decide it’s best that someone with a little more captain’s experience steers us out of the busy Bellini Nautica boatyard. Giuseppe Pievani flicks a perfectly polished lever behind the steering wheel into drive, before edging the two hand-controlled throttles (one for each V12, of course) into their most minimal of settings.

There really is nothing quite like the art deco interior of a Riva. Ferruccio’s is now a shoes-off environment with reclined, rattan-backed white leather seats, and everything is so spick and span you need sunglasses to read the myriad dials in the midday sun.

Out in the relative safety of the lake, Pievani hands over control and I use a little more of the 700bhp on offer. I’ve lost all sense of direction, and in trying to navigate I learn that boats don’t really do steering feel like cars – even when compared with a 1,550kg (dry) Aventador that’s wearing tyres wider than the Suez Canal. In fact, the Ultimae might just be the most engaging of all the Aventadors on a twisty road thanks to its super stiff carbon tub, pushrod suspension and Lamborghini’s fancy dynamic steering system.

In the Aquarama you can’t help but relax, taking in the sights while breathing in the smell of Sixties V12s.

Unfortunately – and perhaps predictably – reliability does cut short our time on the water, with a fuel pump issue meaning we have to head back to base. Once there we’re told that all of the set-up was done a week previously by Lambo’s legendary test driver Valentino Balboni – not that we’re blaming him here, of course.

Still, even our short experience of this gloriously Lamborghini piece of history has given us an even greater appreciation of the firm’s venerable firstgeneration V12, and the 100-mile motorway free drive back to Lambo HQ in Sant’Agata Bolognese just reaffirms how masterful the free-breathing second generation is too. Let’s just hope the hybrid future doesn’t dampen any of the V12’s spirit.

Sure, he’s got a fancy boat, but does he know how to fold down a seat?

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TOP F I VE

PERSONAL MOBILITY SOLUTIONS

SINCLAIR C5 Sir Clive Sinclair’s pedalassisted 15mph tricycle was supposed to revolutionise the way we navigated city centres. It wasn’t to be

PEEL P50

CONCEPTS THAT TIME FORGOT

The three-wheeled microcar from the Sixties was brought back with a new production run in 2010. All city dwellers should drive one, we say

AUDI QUATTRO SPYDER, 1991 HONDA MOTOCOMPO How do make the perfect city combo? Build a teeny twostroke folding scooter that fits neatly into the boot of your supermini, of course

RALEIGH CHOPPER

SPACEHOPPER Just imagine if we all commuted to work on original Sixties spacehoppers. How much happier would we be?

Plus we’d have thighs of steel

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I M AG E S: A L L S TA R

Here’s a mobility solution that actually did catch on. We just wish it was acceptable for us to still carve about on a Chopper during adulthood

en... k o r b s thing’ ge Viper y r e v Dod t 28 E Repor rom Mark’s f Apart

“IF YOU WANT TO DIMINISH A MAN’S PRIDE, PUTTING A GT3 ON A LOW-LOADER IS RIGHT UP THERE”

R

ule one of Silly Car Club isn’t that you don’t talk about Silly Car Club; I’ve got a page to fill in TG after all. Instead, it’s that you own at least one ‘sensible’ car to keep you mobile when everything else inevitably breaks.

And this instalment of Ricci’s Garage is brought to you by the letters AA and RAC. For BBC impartiality reasons, there are many other good breakdown services out there – all of which I look forward to experiencing in the not too distant future when something is actually working again.

Now I know this is a very First World problem; there’s an energy crisis going on, mortgage rates are terrifying and being able to run one car is a privilege... let alone many.

So, these comments are presented without sympathy. They are self-inflicted and merely an insight to anyone wondering whether owning multiple ‘interesting’ cars is a good idea.

For the Ferrari 360 racecar, its foam-laden fuel tanks still haven’t turned up. Which means it hasn’t actually moved in 2022, and with the weather now very British it’ll stay that way until 2023. Over in camp Brabus W126, its bulletproof engine must’ve been hit with a sniper round because that now needs an entirely new one fitting.

But these are silly old cars. That’s what they do. I thought that, until I took my 991 GT3 to Dunsfold where it then lost all power.

And not even on track, but driving to the TGTV offices. If you want to diminish a man’s pride

immediately, having a GT3 put on a low-loader while the TGTV crew watches is right up there.

Still, good way to keep mileage off it. Especially as it now appears a new engine is needed.

Some 48 hours later, my partner’s Land Rover Discovery remembered it was a JLR product and also lost all power, this time in the middle of Coventry. I can only assume it had PTSD from being so close to the motherland.

Thankfully, Land Rover Northampton handled it similarly to Liz Truss’s first week in government. Somehow adding hundreds of pounds onto the bill and announcing it’d be ready in a few minutes before (two hours later) letting slip that a tech may have got it absolutely caked in turd and the whole thing needed valeting inside and out. Ideally without one of the staff telling the customer.

And then we get to the GT-R, the gift that truly keeps on giving. Prior to its big refresh – which can I say is so hilariously in-depth it

Look, what do you expect with the state of our roads these days?

requires an entire update all of its own next month – the only thing which didn’t need overhauling was its 2.8-litre, 844bhp engine.

But with the engine out the car, it seemed silly not to do the head gasket for peace of mind.

When Steve at SR Autobodies says to call him you know things aren’t ideal. And in the case of the GT-R’s engine, that resulted in two scored bores and cracks all around the water jackets with some metal weld thrown around an oil drain for good measure.

In non-anorak mode, that means it’s time for engine rebuild number four. And this seemingly possessed car has wiped far more off my income than Kwasi Kwarteng could ever dream of. So, in a proper post-Brexit fashion, I’ve decided to avoid giving my cash to a UK engine builder and instead invest in one much further afield. Nitto Performance in Australia to be precise, builder of the fastest Skylines in the world.

Because ironically, it’s cheaper in the long run to have a good engine built halfway around the world and shipped over than risk another UK-built failure. Which is quite a fitting metaphor all things considered. So, if you need me, I’ll be getting slightly damp in a Dodge Viper because somehow that’s the only working car I’ve got currently, and it doesn’t even have a roof. Mark Riccioni Internationally renowned photographer Mark has been working with TG for many, many years. When not taking photos he’s buying inappropriate cars.

Here he shares his addiction with the world

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PROGRESS REPORT

(2022)

MINI ELECTRIC vs MINI COOPER

(2000)

The much-loved Mini has come a long way – does the electric variant deserve the Cooper badge?

THESE TWO LOOK LIKE LITTLE BUNDLES OF FUN

and a top speed of 92mph. The new electric variant gets a single

Who doesn’t love a Mini? You surely know the story by now – in

motor on the front axle with 181bhp and 199lb ft of torque, 0–62mph

the late Fifties, the Suez oil crisis had sent fuel prices soaring, so

takes 7.3 secs and vmax is a modest 93mph. It’s almost doubled in

Leonard Lord, boss of the British Motor Corporation, challenged

weight, mind, weighing in at 1,365kg – that’s largely due to the

an engineer by the name of Alec Issigonis to design something

32.6kWh battery, enough for up to 145 miles of range.

small, efficient and affordable. Issigonis pushed all four wheels to the far corners and fitted a space-saving transversely mounted

WHAT’S THE OLD-TIMER LIKE TO DRIVE?

engine, and over the next 41 years an incredible 5,387,862 were

Clambering inside – not the easiest of tasks given my 6ft 2in frame

produced, making the Mini a true British motoring success story.

– brings back plenty of memories; both my auntie and brother owned identical generation Minis. Who doesn’t know someone

WHERE DO THESE ONES FIT IN THE FAMILY TREE?

who’s had a Mini at some point in their life? On the move the heavy

To the right we have #306 of the final 500 ‘original’ Minis to roll off

steering, cramped driving position and firm ride all contribute to

the production line, complete with John Cooper-signed certificate

the go-kart like feel, and while the 4cyl engine isn’t particularly

and a unique plaque mounted in the glovebox compartment

gutsy, such is the sensory overload it feels like you’re going much

reading “This Mini is one of the last 500 built to the original Sir

faster than you actually are. You can’t help but grin.

the Nineties, the ‘new’ model was launched in early 2000, with

HAS THE NEW ONE LOST THE ORIGINAL’S CHARM?

the third and current generation revealed in 2013, and the

It feels more grown up, but on the right road, in the right conditions,

electric variant, as pictured on the left, introduced in 2020.

it hasn’t lost any of its fun factor: agile, surefooted, and nippier than

HOW DO THEY DIFFER IN PERFORMANCE?

low centre of gravity means it remains just as much fun to chuck

The MkVII Mini got a 1,275cc A-Series engine producing 62bhp

around. It may not assault the senses in quite the same way as the

and 70lb ft of torque paired with a four-speed manual gearbox.

old version, but electric propulsion feels like it suits the newcomer.

It weighs in at just 696kg and is capable of 0–60mph in 12.2secs

For laughs a minute, however, the MkVII Mini wins every time.

you might expect. The driving position is much improved, while its

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WO R D S: P E T E R R AW L I N S P H OTO G R A P H Y: J O N N Y F L E E T WO O D W I T H T H A N KS TO M I K E A XO N FO R T H E LOA N O F H I S M I N I CO O P E R S P O RT 5 0 0

Alec Issigonis design”. Following BMW’s acquisition of Mini in

TRACK DAY TOYS

M A ZD A M X-5 (1996)

LESS THAN £2K

R EM EM B ER IN G

RETRO GAMING TH E C LA S S IC S

#4 4

CRAZY TAXI ARCADE/DREAMCAST, 1999 C AT ERH A M SE V EN (2000)

LESS THAN £15K

For a certain generation of gamers, the opening strains of ‘All I Want’ by punk band The Offspring are inextricably linked to the image of a bright yellow taxi launching clear over a San Francisco-style trolley car. Sega’s open world arcade racing game was a chaotic, colourful breath of fresh air when it arrived in the late Nineties, binning off closed circuits for an entire 3D city full of traffic.

Your task was simple: screech to a halt in front of a potential passenger and then deliver them to their destination as quickly and stylishly as possible. In a neat and probably highly profitable piece of early gaming product placement, many of those destinations were real-life stores and eateries, including Levi Jeans, Tower Records and Pizza Hut. Though, frankly, if you’re blowing a load of cash on a taxi ride just to get a KFC, you probably want to look at

A R IEL AT OM 3 300 (2010)

your spending priorities.

LESS THAN £4 0 K

The original game only had a single location, but the San Francisco-inspired West Coast City was riddled with shortcuts and, with tight time limits and demanding passengers, you’d be looking for every opportunity to shave a few seconds off your route. Often the quickest way to your destination was diving off the road and heading directly across some vast expanse of grass, almost like you were actively investigating whether there’s an Uber star rating lower than zero.

If you were really chasing a high score, though, extra cash could be drummed up in tips by performing risky stunts like drifts, jumps and near misses with other vehicles. All sorts of thing that, in real life, would have your passenger clawing at the door handle and shrieking in a register that startles every dog in a five-mile radius. Hey, there’s a reason it’s not called Sensible Taxi... Mike Channell

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R L E V TA O I N! C G S DI IO I D R IT OU ED

ENJOY THE CONTENT YOU LOVE ON YOUR MOBILE OR TABLET WITH THE DIGITAL EDITION OF BBC TOPGEAR MAGAZINE!

A L S O

AVA I L A B L E

ON

TO PG EAR ’ S LO N G -TE R M CARS . TESTE D & VE R I FI E D

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GO TO

TOPGEAR.COM FOR EXTENDED TG GARAGE REPORTS, AND TO EXPLORE THE ARCHIVE

Alpine A110S

Bentley Bentayga

REPORT 3

REPORT 4

£60,645 OTR/£71,689 as tested/£749pcm

£157,800 OTR/£198,790 as tested/£1700pcm

WH Y I T ’S HERE

WH Y I T ’S HERE

Does the concept of a lightweight dissolve on contact with Real Life?

Does downsizing and plugging in a big, luxurious SUV actually work?

DRI VER

DRI VER

Ollie Marriage

Rowan Horncastle

THE SMALLEST, LIGHTEST CAR IN TG ’S CAR PARK, AND THE BIGGEST,

roads, but busier than I expected, which did allow me to prove what an effective overtaker the Alpine is. And polite, too. It’s not in the roaring, stomping mould, it just slips past stuff lightly and easily.

RH: But there must have been something that irked you about your little Alpine on the way up?

OM: There is one notable drawback: no cupholder. I had to put my coffee in the storage bin between the seats, but when I braked it tipped over.

RH: I didn’t know you could get a coffee with a Happy Meal?

OM: It was a flat white! Suitable beverage for the A110S. Yours is the equivalent of a particularly heavy port. And speaking of port, it’s been years since I’ve been on a ferry. And I’ve never been to Dublin.

RH: No time for sightseeing, we’re heading to Mondello Park, 45 minutes outside the city. Follow me, try to keep up.

OM: Not going to be an issue now is it. And Charlie’s not going to thank you if your cornering vigour results in busted lenses. It’s not like I’m going to tuck myself under your bumper anyway. The less I have to look at the Bentayga’s butt the better.

RH: Come on, it’s not that ugly anymore post midlife facelift. Right, we’re here but I’m worried hanging camera gear off your lightweight

heaviest. It wasn’t a deliberate choice, but it quickly became inevitable.

We’re off to Mondello Park in Ireland to film James Deane’s smoke machi... mad drift car. That means we need something small, nimble and fast as a camera platform to chase his 870bhp BMW around and something big enough to haul all that camera kit there and back. The plan is an early Sunday drive up through Wales to rendezvous at Irish Ferries’ Holyhead terminal to board Ulysses and sail to Dublin.

OM: How was your drive up? I bet you motorwayed it all the way.

RH: You’re not wrong, including that business class motorway, the M6 toll road. I had to use five of the Bentayga’s 25-ish electrical miles collecting Charlie from the office and I’d used all the electrical juice by the time we’d breached London, so I’ll be spending the next four days lugging heavy electrical components around and watching my average fuel economy plummet – it’s standing at 27.1mpg right now. That’ll do my green credentials some good. Now, if there’s one thing I’m sure of, you didn’t take the motorway, did you?

OM: The Alpine actually cruises pretty well, but no, I left the multilaners at Birmingham and drew a straight line to Holyhead. Wonderful

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is going to fundamentally ruin the delicate weight distribution and mean yours can’t complete a lap without crashing.

OM: We’ll see about that. My S wears the £640 Michelin Cup 2 tyres and Stig’s already proved its capabilities. Plus Mondello is tighter than Dunsfold and I reckon it really excels around the tight stuff.

RH: Off you pop then – go chase that lanky drift god in his mad M3.

OM: This is hilarious. I worried the A110S would be monstered by James Deane, but the turbo is responsive, and its size and agility means I can position it easily, altering trajectory while receiving broadsides from HMS Drift behind me.

RH: Right, while James is changing tyres (again), I want a go... in the Bentley. Just because. Time for Sport mode. I never normally use it – doesn’t fit the car’s ethos – but I’ll make an exception here. But this engine... the single turbo V6 sounds wheezy at the best of times, now it’s weak, strained and downright unpleasant. Weirdly the brakes are easier to modulate and happier on track than on the road, because

ALPINE A110S SPEC 1798cc 4cyl turbo, RWD, 296bhp, 250lb ft 42.2mpg, 153g/km CO2

BENTLEY BENTAYGA SPEC

GOOD STUFF

Deft on track, great on country roads, brilliant overtaker. Also a very adaptable camera platform.

MILEAGE: 7,692 OUR MPG: 31.9

GOOD STUFF

2995cc turbocharged V6, AWD, 443bhp, 516lb ft 86.0mpg, 79g/km CO2

Bentley’s well-known luxurious touches and cabin ambience make long drives a pleasure.

0–62mph in 5.5secs, 158mph

0–62mph in 4.2secs, 155mph 1,198kg

they don’t have to umm and ahh about how much regen to deliver.

But I’m not really enjoying this so I’ll just invent new racing lines – across the chicanes and taking the apex from the wrong side.

OM: Quite enjoyed that actually, but I did feel like a nautical tender bobbing along in your wake. Let’s load up and head home. I’ve got race kit in the front boot, overnight bag in the back, everything else on the passenger seat.

RH: That’s a joke isn’t it? The packaging is hopeless. The Bentley isn’t exactly ideal given you can’t move the rear seats, but we can still just throw everything in. I do have an issue though: it’s not memorable. It somehow doesn’t feel as luxurious as a Conti GT or Flying Spur. Still, I’m off to pummel the motorways home. Fancy a race back? I’ve heard it’s chucking it down in England and you’re on track day rubber.

OM: Can’t be arsed. This is very much horses for courses, and mine’s a thoroughbred, yours is a Clydesdale. You plod along, I’ll send you pics from the middle of Wales.

BAD STUFF

Firm motorway ride, very small inside, no cupholder, not as efficient as expected.

BAD STUFF

2,626kg

MILEAGE: 4,010 OUR MPG: 23.5

A long drive and minimal EV range means you often lug heavy empty batteries around.

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VOLKSWAGEN ID.4

JAGUAR E-PACE

REPORT 7

HELLO

£46,035/£49,400/£659

£47,290/£53,730/£734

WH Y I T ’S HERE

WH Y I T ’S HERE

It’s the bedrock of Volkswagen’s all-electric future push

It’s the stepping stone to Jaguar’s all-electric future

DRI VER

DRI VER

Paul Horrell

Peter Rawlins

VW CONTINUES TO COVER ITSELF

AS WE WAVE GOODBYE TO THE FULL

in disgrace with shoddy software and connectivity.

Actually things started well with the ID.4: it was easy to connect the car to its remote phone app, called WeConnect ID. But the app can’t check if it’s locked or the windows are open, which you’ve been able to do for years with other cars.

It’s also super-cumbersome to send a destination remotely to the car. Last time, I had been driving for a quarter of an hour before the destination, which I’d sent from home the previous day, actually popped up in the car’s satnav.

I went to the website (called MyVolkswagen, not WeConnect) to get updated maps. You can download them, but not direct to the car. Instead you have to download a file to your computer, extract it and put that onto a USB, and physically take it to the car.

How quaint. But it warns you that this needs a PC and I don’t have one of those, only a Mac, so I’ll have to use last year’s maps. Or use Apple CarPlay, which actually works.

fat F-Pace, we also say hello to the smaller, trendier E-Pace. Not, I hasten to add, to be confused with the all-electric I-Pace, as I had to reiterate on more than one occasion during my time with it.

But that’s not to say that the E-Pace can’t be had with a helpful dose of electricity, courtesy of a facelift back in 2020 which introduced a new platform – one capable of accommodating batteries and electric motors.

This meant mild hybrid tech plus a plug-in hybrid, namely the P300e, as we have here. It pairs a 1.5-litre three-cylinder petrol engine with a 107bhp electric motor and a 15kWh battery under the boot floor for a total 305bhp, with an electric range of up to 39 miles.

But it’s also meant more weight (it’s 40kg heavier than the F-Pace SVR) that it struggles to disguise – plus reduced interior space. Still, we like the new 11.4in Pivi Pro infotainment system, a huge improvement on Jag’s efforts in times gone by. Stay tuned.

GOODBYE £32,260 OTR/£36,035 as tested/£443pcm

WH Y I T ’S HERE Does Honda’s eco-champ stand out from the crossover crowd?

DRI VER Charlie Rose

ADMISSION: I’M COMPLETELY INDIFFERENT WHEN IT

comes to crossovers. I’m a firm enthusiast of the humble hatchback, the ultimate mix of practicality and usability.

But has the HR-V swayed my mind these past five months?

It’s the commute where it has felt most at home. I must admit the higher ride height improves visibility and makes London’s countless speed bumps that bit easier to tackle.

We also have the Advance Style grade on our HR-V, the highest available. That gets you plenty of tech and creature comforts to soothe your mood when you’re not effing and blinding at fellow Londoners. However, it does come at a cost, with our car landing at, wait for it... £37k.

That’s rather punchy when compared with similarly specced hybrid crossovers like the Nissan Juke costing around £31k or the Toyota C-HR at £35k. Both of which have more bootspace than the HR-V’s meagre 335 litres.

The main appeal is the eHEV system. You see, I live on a second floor flat with on-street parking and the rollout of public chargers has been excruciatingly slow in my area.

Just one lamppost charge point supplies the entire road.

This makes owning an EV near impossible for me, and I would struggle to utilise the benefits of a plug-in hybrid, at least until more chargers are installed. This is where something as economical as the HR-V makes perfect sense.

SPECIFICATION

SPECIFICATION

Electric motor, 77kWh battery, RWD, 201bhp

1498cc, 4cyl turbo + e-motor, AWD, 129bhp, 187lb ft

3.9 miles per kWh, 317 miles

52.0mpg, 122g/km CO2

0–62mph in 8.5secs, 99mph

0–62mph in 10.7secs, 106mph

2,045kg

1,380kg

MILEAGE: 10,470 OUR MPKWH: 3.3

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MILEAGE: 10,582 OUR MPG: 58.0

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SPECIFICATION

GOOD STUFF

The class leading fuel economy was very impressive.

1498cc, 3cyl turbo + e-motor, AWD, 305bhp, 398lb ft 141.0mpg, 44g/km CO2 0–62mph in 6.5secs, 134mph

BAD STUFF

It’s still quite hard to justify over the competition.

2,098kg

MILEAGE: 8,324 OUR MPG: 45.9

Jaguar F-Pace SVR GOODBYE £79,090 OTR/£83,060 as tested/£942pcm

WH Y I T ’S HERE Does a V8 super-SUV still have a legitimate role to play?

DRI VER Ollie Kew

THIS MIGHT SOUND STRANGE COMING FROM A BRIT – BECAUSE THE

internet often seems convinced that all Brits always favour British cars lest we be locked in the Tower of London – but I’ve never really ‘got’ Jaguar.

Jaguar, to me, has always been in the same group of ye olde great car brands as Maserati, Alfa Romeo and Cadillac. I know that it’s been around for ages. I’ve seen the gorgeous classic cars, but I’ve never been convinced by the products. They’re simply not cars that would tempt me away from a BMW, or a Porsche, or even a well set up Ford. The exception that proved the rule is the I-Pace, which is fabulous.

Which is a longwinded way of saying that I was not expecting to like the F-Pace SVR. Yes, the facelift brought the car the interior it really ought to have had five years ago, and a supercharged V8 can be a pretty seductive – if environmentally tone deaf – device.

But knock me down with a feather duster, I was seriously impressed by the SVR. Its ride is too jostly, and Jaguar’s never quite got the best out of this eight-speed ZF gearbox, but otherwise, this might just be the best Jag I’ve ever driven. Hugely fast point to point, with a laugh-out-loud soundtrack, good steering, confident brakes, and a feeling of cohesion that performance SUVs usually lack, being super-saloon engines dropped into obese insecurity chariots.

Would I buy one, with my own money? Probably not, because I think of performance SUVs like I think of Christmas cracker jokes: briefly amusing in context then immediately worthless landfill. But I did like the SVR for longer than usual. If it didn’t have such a head-tossing, unsettled ride – if it rode like a Jaguar, in other words – then it really would be magnificent.

So, at last I ‘get’ a Jaguar, and could vouch for a Jaguar above and beyond German rivals. An SVR over the risible BMW X3 M? Any day.

SPECIFICATION 4999cc supercharged V8, AWD, 542bhp, 516lb ft 23.1mpg, 275g/km CO2 0–62mph in 3.8secs, 178mph 2,058kg

MILEAGE: 12,110 OUR MPG: 23.1

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GOOD STUFF

Best new Jaguar I’ve ever driven.

If only the F-Pace (and XE, and XF) had had this interior from day one.

BAD STUFF

A complete anachronism in 2022. How exactly does Jaguar transition from this to a Porscheusurping EV boutique?

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WHAT ELSE WE’RE RUNNING REPORT 6

SKODA FABIA

REPORT 6

BMW iX

REPORT 9

LAND ROVER DEFENDER

REPORT 5

AUDI Q4 E-TRON

REPORT 4

DACIA JOGGER

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DS 9 REPORT 4 £46,100/£50,415/£686

WH Y I T ’S HERE Can a luxury French car cut it against its established rivals?

DRI VER Esther Neve

MY DEFAULT POSITION IS THAT

I am in the wrong. So, when the DS 9 refused to charge the first 10 or so times I plugged it in, I presumed it was something I was doing that was causing the issue.

However, after a chat with Greg and Sam, I began to consider a radical idea – it might not be me. Andy (keeper of the e-Berlingo) had left it in the Garage so Greg offered to try the Citroen charging cable on the DS. To cut a long story short: success! Turns out that the charging cable was faulty.

I contacted DS to ask for the best course of action. “Go to dealer and get them to check it,” was the reply. Which sounds great, but my nearest dealer is at the minimum 40-odd miles away, and traffic-wise it’s probably quicker for me to get to the one 100 miles away. We agreed that I would post the faulty cable back and they would send me a replacement.

Great solution. But a lesson well learnt in terms of buying a car and not having a dealership within easy reach. Food for thought.

WHAT WERE THEY THINKING? This month: VW’s over-theair infotainment system updates Paul Horrell Volkswagen boasts of over-the-air updates for the ID.4’s main system software. The latest will apparently give me better range, faster charging, improved driver assistance, a quickeracting infotainment screen, clearer menus, a more comprehensive instrument display. And doubtless a thicker, fuller head of hair.

But cars in the UK can’t yet get the update even though it was announced in Germany in March.

Actually cars this age have to go to a dealer and get a new 12V battery first. Possibly because the OTA update takes eight hours, during which you can’t actually drive the car.

Citroen e-Berlingo REPORT 5 £31,995 OTR/£33,870 as tested/£519pcm

WH Y I T ’S HERE Can a van with windows triumph as an EV?

DRI VER Andy Franklin

THE E-BERLINGO MIGHT NOT BE THE BEST LOOKING CAR IN THE WORLD,

while as a vehicle it’s ultimately limited by its range, but what it is, is impressively practical. On the one hand that’s great, but on the other a bit pointless – it’s the perfect car to go on long journeys and holidays with the family but can’t. OK it can, if you want to add hours on to your journey.

Think I’m being picky? Try doing it with three kids and come back to me. Which for me negates the object of this car. That said, it does charge quite quickly. If I’m running low and I need a top-up I know a couple of hours on the home charger will give me enough to keep me going locally.

So what it really is, is an über practical short runabout family car. Which for some people probably makes a lot of sense. Myself included. With a family of three kids that’s a lot of stuff to lug about every day for school and various sporting activities.

It’s also huge inside, and there are some very clever design storage solutions, like the plane-style roof lockers. The only downside is I often find cars become storage boxes in my household, and the larger it is the worse it is. Why do we all have so much stuff? I can see this car will make a brilliant commercial van. Essentially great for local couriers or trade personnel.

So what better a vehicle to use to go pick up some logs? With the back seats down there’s 3,000 litres of space, in which I managed to load a tub of logs with absolute ease and room for probably another tub. What a versatile thing. Even better was having the sliding doors, not only are they great for kids when you are in a parking bay, they make the opening wider than usual so it helped me pack the car easier and more evenly.

This thing has many different uses, I just wish it could go further.

SPECIFICATION

SPECIFICATION

1598cc, 4cyl turbo + e-motor, FWD, 222bhp, 266lb ft

Electric motor, 50kWh battery, FWD, 136bhp

176.0mpg, 35g/km CO2

3.6 miles per kWh, 182 miles

0–62mph in 8.3secs, 149mph

0–62mph in 9.0secs, 84mph

1,839kg

1,664kg

MILEAGE: 8,200 OUR MPG: 45.3

MILEAGE: 3,556 OUR MPKWH: 3.3

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GOOD STUFF

Hugely versatile – whether it’s for ferrying the kids to school or moving larger objects.

BAD STUFF

It’s ultimately held back by its lack of range.

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Mercedes-Benz EQA GOODBYE £44,450 OTR/£54,085 as tested/£894pcm

WH Y I T ’S HERE In the face of bespoke electric cars, can an electric GLA stand up?

DRI VER Tom Ford

THREE MONTHS? THAT WENT QUICKLY. AND I’VE MANAGED TO STICK

some 6,000+miles on the EQA in that time, with a mixture of home and public charging, and more of the latter than most EQAs are likely to see, I reckon. This thing has seen more than its fair share of random Zap-Map/ PlugShare/EQ Route rapid top-ups than I’ve had overly milky coffees.

The problem is, it felt kind of... comfortingly beige. I don’t hate it, but I don’t love it, either. The problem here is that the EQA is defined far too much by being fine. Solid enough. It looks fine. The range is fine. The efficiency is low, sometimes fine. The space is... fine. The quality is good, as is the charging capability. As a points car, it scores solidly in the middle.

The general lack of genuinely unpleasant things to complain about is matched by a genial day to day compatibility, so it all sounds a bit nitpicky. It didn’t really suit my usage, and I think it should make more from that decently sized battery and could do with being 10k (or more) less money, but if someone bought one, I’d be forced to think ‘fair enough’.

After many hours of pondering, I’ve come to the conclusion that the EQA, for all its dependable charm, isn’t a bespoke electric car, and doesn’t – can’t – embrace the genre as fully as a vehicle that’s designed around batteries instead of the recipient of them. So it’s not as space efficient as it could be. It doesn’t eke out the last kWh from that battery, suffers from

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a small but important lack of surprise and delight for a car that isn’t cheap enough to get away with the shortcomings. The EQA is just a bit too safe to make it truly desirable as anything other than a second car to a Merc-happy household. But the one thing it does make you think is that if you combine Merc’s general approach with some new platform designs – ground-up electric – then the next generation of electric Mercedes will be properly on point. The EQA is fine – but it’s not going to change the world.

SPECIFICATION Electric motor, 66.5kWh battery, FWD, 188bhp 3.96 miles per kWh, 263 miles

GOOD STUFF

The EQA is a decent electric jack of all trades hatch.

0–62mph in 8.9secs, 99mph 2,040kg

MILEAGE: 10,456 OUR MPKWH: 3.4

BAD STUFF

Sadly it’s a pricey master of none.

BECAUSE KNOWLEDGE IS POWER

BEGINNER’S GUIDE TO JEEP From greatest hits to lowest moments, everything you ever wanted to know... and a fair bit you didn’t W O R D S S A M B U R N E T T, C R A I G J A M I E S O N , G R E G P O T T S

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TOPGEAR.COM FOR MORE MIND-BLOWING MANUFACTURER GUIDES

What’s Jeep and when did it start making cars?

Jeep is a strange company in that its product existed long before the company did – in June 1940 the US government put out a request for bids from 135 different carmakers to come up with a lightweight 4WD reconaissance vehicle.

The Bantam Car Company came up with a feasible proposal, but the army didn’t think it would be able to cope with mass production.

And so Ford and Willys-Overland were handed

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the blueprints and Willys asked to come up with a better engine. And so the Willys MB and Ford GPW became WW2 icons, running as recon vehicles, ambulances, fire engines and even being fitted with train wheels.

Willys tried to trademark the Jeep brand name in 1943, but was slapped down by the courts in favour of Bantam and was told off for claims it created or designed the jeep.

The firm did however produce the first CJbranded (civilian jeep) models in 1945 and trademarked the Jeep name in 1946.

A range of 4x4 models followed after the war, with the Wagoneer inventing the luxury SUV in 1962. Willys struggled, though, and was bought up by AMC in 1970, which was taken over by Chrysler in 1987. In 2009 it became part of Fiat and since 2021 has been a Stellantis brand. Phew.

I M AG E S: M A N U FAC T U R E R

GO TO

EXHAUST

Jeep’s greatest hits

01

02

03

04

05

06

07

08

09

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FACTOID

What’s the cheapest car that Jeep builds... and what’s the most expensive?

Jeep certainly isn’t the car company to come to if you’re after a low-cost bargain – with its range consisting exclusively of SUVs and a brand that focuses heavily on its off-roading prowess, you know these things aren’t going to come cheap.

The Renegade is your entry into Jeep life, with the Upland spec and its 1.5-litre mild hybrid petrol setting you back £31,640. You get LED lights front and rear and gloss black 17in alloy wheels. Fancy.

If you want to go straight to the top of the Jeep price chart then the new PHEV Grand Cherokee is the car to go for, starting from £82,900 in top spec Summit Reserve trim. That model gets you a 19-speaker music system, swanky leather interior, 21in wheels and even a 10in touchscreen set-up for the front passenger. Or at least we should say that it will be the model to go for, because Jeep is currently taking orders for delivery in early 2023.

No one actually knows where the Jeep name came from. Some say it’s a slurring of the Ford GPW’s name (an internal code that doesn’t stand for general purpose, incidentally), others say that it came from Popeye’s magical four-dimensional dog, Eugene the Jeep, popular in the Thirties. Various 4WD military vehicles were called ‘jeeps’ during WW2, not just the Willys design...

What is Jeep’s fastest car?

Jeep has never really gone in for racing, for some reason, so there are no ancient F1 efforts we can dig out of the archives that did 300mph.

The previous generation of Grand Cherokee did come with an absolutely bonkers

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Trackhawk version, mind.

That car, produced between 2018 and 2021, came with a 6.2-litre supercharged hemi V8 (from the Dodge Challenge Hellcat) rammed into the engine bay that produced a ridiculous 707bhp

and 645lb ft torque. The 0–62mph run was mercilessly dispatched in 3.7 seconds on the way to a physics bending 180mph top speed.

The Trackhawk actually went on sale in the UK in 2018 with an extremely

limited release of 20 cars costing £89,999 each, but given the new version of the car comes in regulationfriendly PHEV guise only, it’s not likely we’ll see a Trackhawk version over here again for a long while.

EXHAUST

NOTABLE PEOPLE

John Willys Successful engineer was also first US ambassador to Poland from 1930–1932

1,276,000 Jeep builds its off-roading SUVs at 10 plants around the world, including the Wrangler and Gladiator models at its Toledo, Ohio headquarters where Willys-Overland started production of the Civilian Jeep model in 1945. Other US factories are in Illinois and Michigan, while overseas locations include Fiat factories in Melfi, Italy; Tychy Poland; Goiana, Brazil; and Guangzhou, China. The company sold nearly 1.3 million cars in 2021, up a fairly weak four per cent on the previous year. Interestingly, Jeep is the strongest brand for Stellantis, ahead of Fiat and Peugeot with SUV sales still strong in Europe and the Americas.

Karl Probst Freelance designer was hired by the Bantam Car Co to pen the firm’s jeep proposal

Ronald Reagan Film legend probably drove jeeps in WW2 – was a famous owner as president in Eighties

What’s the best concept that Jeep has made?

Carlos Tavares Cutthroat Stellantis boss needs to make Europe love Jeep again... in EV form

Christian Meunier French bloke in charge of Jeep. Sacré bleu. Has strong automotive pedigree, mind

One of the things we particularly like about Jeep is its healthy awareness of its own heritage, and its willingness to create some truly insane concept cars. Both of these ideas come together each year at the Jeep Easter Safari in Moab, Utah. Our unequivocal favourite concept is the Wagoneer Roadtrip from 2018. Essentially a

heavily worked over 1965 Wagoneer with modern underpinnings, it had a fully working extended Wrangler chassis with a 5.7-litre V8 borrowed from a Dodge Ram pickup.

We sent Tom Ford to Moab to drive the concept, and despite his obvious enthusiasm it still isn’t in production. What gives, Jeep?

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What was Jeep’s best moment?

What was Jeep’s worst moment?

Between 1912 and 1918, Willys (the precursor company to Jeep) was the second largest carmaker in the US after Ford. No mean feat, even at this early stage of the automotive industry. But company founder John Willys was an engineer, not a businessman, and the firm teetered on the brink of bankruptcy for much of its existence.

Still, the firm’s engineering foundations came to the fore when the US Army asked Willys to put the Bantam Car Co’s new 4x4 into production, and the Willys MB would become synonymous with the American war effort. Picture GIs pulled up in some grassy European vista with cigarettes drooping from the corners of their mouths.

That moment in 1940 was the dawn of a new era for Willys – the company never went back to producing its old cars, but built itself afresh as Jeep, trading on the heritage of that impressive WW2 effort.

For a company that was briefly tainted by the bad smell of the Dieselgate scandal this remains an easy choice to make – the Commander.

The car was launched in the UK in 2006 with a choice of 3.0-litre V6 turbodiesel or a 5.7-litre V8 petrol – you will of course be surprised to hear that neither was particularly economical. Reviewers praised the sevenseats-as-standard and off-roading ability, but the handling and looks were heavily criticised. Ultimately the Commander felt a little... pointless, with little to recommend over the opposition.

Still, its biggest non-fan was the boss of the company that made it. The then-CEO of Chrysler (he took over the top job in the years leading up to the merger of Fiat and Chrysler), Sergio Marchionne, said of the car: “That vehicle was unfit for human consumption. We sold some. But I don’t know why people bought them.” Ouch.

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EXHAUST

LOGO EVOLUTION 19 41 Takes a village to raise a car – original jeep was a wartime team effort

19 4 5 Willys goes rogue in ’45 – name in commas ’cos it doesn’t have the rights yet

What was Jeep’s biggest surprise?

For some, it might be spinning an entire car company, ethos and mythos off a simple war-time conveyance. Even better, a conveyance that was designed by someone else.

For others, it could be the sheer number of companies who’ve owned Jeep since its inception in the Forties – first Willys, then Kaiser, AMC (with a bit of Renault input), then Chrysler in three different guises (Chrysler, Daimler-Chrysler, then Fiat-Chrysler), before settling in under the vast agglomeration that is Stellantis.

Or, of course, it could be that time when Chrysler president Bob Lutz launched the new Jeep Grand Cherokee at the 1992 Detroit Motor Show by driving the car into the venue through a huge plate glass window. The next year the company revealed its Dodge Ram pickup by dropping it from the ceiling onto the stage. It’s just how they rolled back then.

1963 Finally, a badge that looks it belongs to a real car company...

19 7 0 Oh. Seventies update looks like a bland county council logo

1987 Chrysler Pentastar looking like some sort of tasty pastry product

1993 It’s just Jeep but in an outdoorsy green.

Probs cost millions

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EXHAUST

What’s the most Jeep car in the back catalogue?

Jeep Wrangler YJ / 1986–1995 If you weren’t what would be described as a hardcore Jeep enthusiast, then you could be forgiven for thinking that the Wrangler has just always been around. In fact, the doughty offroader was a mere twinkle in Jeep’s eye until it was introduced in 1986 as a replacement for the CJ model that was on sale for over 40 years and was directly linked to the iconic WW2 car.

The Wrangler was a big upgrade on the original Civilian Jeep when it came out in 1986. Well, we say a big upgrade – it had square headlights. It still came with a ladder chassis, live rigid axles on leaf springs and canvas doors, but it was definitely more comfortable and easier to drive on normal day-to-day roads.

Further creature comforts were added during

Signs of ageing

WORDS SAM BURNETT

PHOTOGRAPHY MANUFAC TURER

The roof on the Wrangler can crack with age if the car has been left out in the sun or debris has built up. Hard-tops available

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its years on sale, and the new Wrangler became genuinely desirable as a daily runner.

It was also the very definition of a car designed by committee, however – developed under the company ownership of AMC, launched under the control of Renault and brought on sale while the Chrysler Pentastar logo sat at the top of the corporate letterhead.

It wasn’t universally popular – those angular headlights up front weren’t for everyone. In fact, T-shirts reading “Real Jeeps don’t have square headlights” were apparently popular at Jeep meets in the late Eighties. And while the car was available in the USA from 1986, the new Wrangler YJ didn’t really appear in the UK until midway through its run in 1991.

Mod squad Tough to find an unmodified Wrangler, but the fixtures are a good sign of how loved the car has been

The TJ Wrangler arrived in the UK with a choice of two wildly inappropriate engines – the 117bhp 2.5-litre four-cylinder petrol was the sensible option, while the 4.0-litre straight six and its 174bhp was for the brave. It got the car to 60mph in 8.8 seconds – borderline hot hatch territory in the early Nineties. It just didn’t have the same approach to corners as your spicy little Peugeot 205 GTI. What made the Wrangler so appealing to off-road fans was not merely the fact that it was so capable on the rough stuff, but also how much you could have with messing around upgrading the various bits and pieces. But if you really like your Wranglers then you’ll know that 2003 was the magical turning point for the Wrangler

– this was when the fabled Rubicon badge was introduced on the Wrangler TJ, dialling the car’s off-road ability up a significant notch thanks to improved suspension, steeper climbing angles and even greater ground clearance.

Yes, an original Defender would have had the YJ for breakfast, but the Jeep has an exotic quality and rarity that immediately gifts it points over the 4x4 from Birmingham. Plus there remain plenty of aftermarket garages and parts companies who will help you level the field a little. Or rather help you to get your Jeep through a distinctly unlevel field. And like the Defender the Wrangler has a number of significant shortcomings... which its owners don’t seem to care about at all.

Creaking joints Check steering for excessive play (a little bit is just normal Wrangler handling), could mean ball joints have worn out

Next month: Rolls-Royce

CITY CARS

These small cars are perfect for urban life, but the trade-off is a much lower range

SUPERMINIS

You drive mostly around town, with occasional need for longer distances? Try these for size

FAMILY HATCHBACKS

A good electric family hatch needs decent range without compromising interior space

1. HONDA e

1. PEUGEO T e-208

1 . R E N A U LT M E G A N E E -T E C H

PRICE: £34,420–£37,520 RANGE: Up to 136 miles

PRICE: £30,195–£34,345 RANGE: Up to 232 miles

PRICE: £35,995–£39,995 RANGE: Up to 292 miles

This TG favourite has retro styling and a brilliant interior, but it’s a smidge expensive and the range

The e-208 is competent and stylish, but ultimately you’ll fall into one of two camps: outraged about the

isn’t great. Somehow we can’t help but love it...

tiny steering wheel or you don’t understand the fuss.

Renault hopes to bring a bit of va va voom (French for increased car sales) to its electric line-up with this larger electric Megane. Early signs are promising.

2 . F I AT 5 0 0

2. MINI ELECTRIC

2. HYUNDAI IONIQ 5

PRICE: £23,835–33,835 RANGE: Up to 199 miles

PRICE: £29,500–£33,610 RANGE: Up to 145 miles

PRICE: £37,600–£46,090 RANGE: Up to 298 miles

The latest version of the 500 offers sharper looks,

The electric version of the home-grown favourite

Hyundai’s newest addition is much bigger than it

good value and decent range – and a parcel shelf full of soft toys shouldn’t hurt the battery too much.

squeezes the BMW i3’s powertrain into a familiar package. Range not massive, but the car’s still fun.

looks in pics, but comes with solid range, loads of space and a host of life-enhancing touches inside.

3. V W e-UP

3 . R E N A U LT Z O E

3. MG4

PRICE: From £24,085 RANGE: 159 miles

PRICE: From £31,995 RANGE: Up to 245 miles

PRICE: £25,995–£31,495 RANGE: Up to 281 miles

It’s always been one of the finest city cars out there, but you’ve got to be sure you could cope with all of

They grow up so fast, don’t they? The Zoe’s not long turned eight, but a recent refresh has given the car

Oh, MG – what’s this delightful looking new electric hatch? The company’s previous EVs have been very

the Yorkshire-accented jokes that plague the e-Up.

a boost. The entry model is a touch underpowered.

sensible buys, now we know that it means business.

4. SMART EQ FORT WO

4 . VA U X H A L L C O R S A E L E C T R I C

4 . P O L E S TA R 2

PRICE: £22,225–£25,795 RANGE: 80 miles

PRICE: £29,305–£31,910 RANGE: Up to 209 miles

PRICE: £40,900–£45,900 RANGE: Up to 336 miles

Yes, range is terrible, but as city cars go the Fortwo remains a brilliant package that works well within the

A Peugeot e-208 in a Vauxhall suit – now the EV’s gone fully mainstream. The one to buy if you don’t

Undercover Volvo offers Scandinavian attention to detail paired with a level of build quality that would

confines of the city. Just don’t go further than that...

want anyone to notice you’ve taken the plunge.

shame a number of much more expensive cars.

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COMPACT SUVS

Small, but perfectly formed. These cars are a perfect second motor or teeny family wagon

FAMILY CARS

Slightly larger electric cars that are designed to cope with everything you can throw at them

PREMIUM SUVS

Go big or go home, we say. Wafting along in style is perfect for an electric powertrain

1. KI A NIRO

1 . S K O D A E N YA Q

1. BMW iX

PRICE: £36,245–£42,645 RANGE: Up to 285 miles

PRICE: £40,915–£47,820 RANGE: Up to 336 miles

PRICE: £77,305–£116,905 RANGE: Up to 380 miles

The old Niro was already a decent buy, but the new version improves everywhere and is alright to look

As usual, Skoda offers a down-to-earth and slightly cheaper alternative to whatever Volkswagen is

A lovely cabin and it’s not too bad to drive – which is great, because inside the BMW iX is one of the few

at too. Great family entry point into electric motoring.

pumping out. To great effect, as it turns out...

places where you don’t have to look at the outside.

2. PEUGEOT e-2008

2 . V O L K S WA G E N I D . B U Z Z

2 . J A G U A R I- P A C E

PRICE: £33,700–£38,850 RANGE: Up to 206 miles

PRICE: From £57,115 RANGE: Up to 250 miles

PRICE: £65,620–£76,920 RANGE: Up to 286 miles

Wait, when did Peugeots become so desirable

Our electric car of the year comes with an imposing heritage, but it’s a solid family wagon that shows off a different side to Volkswagen’s electric platform.

The I-Pace is the electric vehicle you’ll want to

again? The e-2008 is surprisingly fun to drive and offers a chic interior with lots of nifty touches.

3. HYUNDAI KONA ELEC TRIC

3. TESLA MODEL Y

3 . A U D I E -T R O N

PRICE: £30,450–£37,900 RANGE: Up to 300 miles

PRICE: £57,990–£67,990 RANGE: Up to 331 miles

PRICE: £62,785–£95,685 RANGE: Up to 252 miles

The Kona is highly specced, offers a solid slug of range and looks pretty sharp too. Good value,

Audi’s effort is the safest premium bet if you’re worried about switching, but overall it’s a fairly

good range and good looking. What’s not to like?

A Model 3 with more headroom and a seven-seat option. Latest Tesla gets usual blend of innovative disruption and occasionally iffy build quality.

4 . V O LV O X C 4 0 R E C H A R G E

4 . F O R D M U S TA N G M A C H - E

4. BMW iX3

PRICE: £45,750–£60,300 RANGE: Up to 264 miles

PRICE: £47,530–£68,030 RANGE: Up to 379 miles

PRICE: £62,865–£65,865 RANGE: Up to 282 miles

‘Normal’ XC40 is a peach, and electric version adds Polestar 2 powertrain to great effect. Expensive, but

The Mach-E isn’t really a Mustang at all, or a men’s razor, but it looks pretty good. It’s definitely a Ford

Slightly stealthier than some of BMW’s more aesthetically challenging EVs, this car is essentially

you won’t have to explain to everyone what it is.

though, so relentless competence is guaranteed.

an electric translation of the bestselling X3 SUV.

show off to your neighbours. If they’ll listen to you.

Decent range, solid performance and great looks.

conventional EV, just with cameras for mirrors.

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PERFORMANCE EVs

For when money’s no object and the sky’s the limit on car performance

SPECIAL MENTIONS

The EVs that have caught our eye, for all the right reasons. Who said they aren’t cool?

“I’VE BOUGHT ONE! WHAT NOW?” You have a home charge

1. RIMAC NE VERA

B E S T F O R G E T T I N G G E L AT O

PRICE: £1.7m RANGE: 340 miles

The latest version of the Maserati GranTurismo comes

Brain-scrambling performance from the Croatian entry, and £1.7m might be a lot, but it’s a bargain next

in two flavours – large petrol, or tasty electric. Go for the latter and it’s by far the most stylish way to rock up to an Italian ice cream place and get a scoop or two.

to the Pininfarina Battista that nicked its underpinnings.

point. Don’t you? Well, get one. There’s a grant, so it’ll cost you less than £500. If you don’t have a driveway, to get an overnight or allday recharge check zapmap.com for posts near home or work that give between 5kW and 7kW. Always make sure that you know in advance the

2. P ORSCHE TAY C A N SP OR T T UR I SMO

BEST FOR SEARCHING

PRICE: £73,650–£140,080 RANGE: Up to 306 miles

The Renault Megane E-Tech comes with an onboard Google Assistant, which is like having a PA in the front to answer any question you might have. Like when

The Sport Turismo version of the Taycan takes nothing away in terms of the car’s impressive performance, adds sleek rear that looks great.

do the shops close or how far away is the sun?

supplier for the post you want to use, and register on its app or get its dedicated RFID card.

Rapid (DC) chargers, at a slightly higher price, are best used for long trips, like you’d stop for fuel.

They take roughly as long as filling with petrol and having a full English.

3. TESLA MODEL 3 PERFORMANCE

BEST FOR DELIVERING THINGS

PRICE: £61,490 RANGE: 352 miles

Ford’s Transit has long been the king of vans, but the

Ignore all of the Tesla hype and what you’re left with is a solid car with impressive performance. Tesla’s

crown started to fall as the Blue Oval slipped behind rivals in going electric. Thankfully the new e-Transit and its 68kWh battery have righted that wrong.

charge network means it isn’t just for early adopters.

In winter, keep plugged in until you drive away, as pre-warming the battery and cabin increases range.

When possible, choose heated/cooled seats over cabin heating and aircon.

Try to drop your motorway speed by 10mph: it’ll hugely increase range, getting you there far more quickly if it

4. BMW i4 M50

BEST FOR SCARING CHILDREN

PRICE: £63,905 RANGE: 315 miles

Ariel’s new Hipercar is magnificent, with outrageous

In case you were worried that BMW’s M division was going to drop the ball in our glorious new electric

performance belting out of its 1,200bhp of e-motors.

But that front end styling is surely nightmare fuel for young children, especially on a dark and stormy night

future, along comes a brilliant i4 to calm our fears.

avoids a recharging stop.

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BAFFLED BY ELECTRIC CAR JARGON? YOUR GUIDE TO DECODING THE FUTURE IS HERE EV

plug. Fast or level 2 refers

accurate than the old NEDC

Supercapacitor

Let’s start with a simple one.

Volts, amps and watts

to the wall mounted AC

standard, but still optimistic.

Supercapacitors can charge

EV means electric vehicle, as

We’re going to go full science

charging boxes you can

opposed to one powered by

teacher on you and use an

install in your house or office,

petrol, diesel, used chip oil,

analogy. Imagine a river: the

which go up to 7.4kW on

Shorthand for ‘regenerative

Chanel No 5 or magic.

volts are how fast the river

normal 240V single phase

braking’. Electric motors work

tolerate more charge and

flows, the amps are how

AC, or 22kW on industrial

by using electricity and

discharge cycles, but they’re

much water is flowing, and

three phase. Rapid or level 3

magnets to spin a shaft. So,

still not as energy dense as

People in the car industry like

the watts are how easily it’ll

is the high-power, DC supply,

if you were to spin it manually,

batteries, so you’re unlikely

to use this one. It stands for

carry you downstream.

this is the sort you’ll find at

say, by coasting, you will then

to see them as direct battery

motorway services and

generate electricity, because

replacements. More likely

dedicated charging areas.

generators are basically

to supplement a petrol

motors operating the

engine’s performance.

opposite way.

See Lamborghini Sián.

BEV

battery electric vehicle, as opposed to, say, an FCEV

kW

and discharge more quickly

Regen

than regular batteries – good for bursts of speed – and can

(fuel cell electric vehicle)

Logical, metric countries use

that’s powered by hydrogen.

kilowatt to measure power

We just call them EVs.

from petrol and diesel

CHAdeMO is not the result

engines. For the rest of us a

of a cat walking across a

kilowatt is 1,000 watts, and is

keyboard. It’s basically the

How far you’ll get in your car

The congestion charge

The internal combustion

the most common measure

fast charging standard

from the amount of energy

zone that covers central

engine. Confusingly, ICE

of power in an EV. A kilowatt

Japan came up with.

you put into it. So, it’s been

London. From 7am to 6pm

can also stand for in-car

is equal to about 1.34bhp.

Competing standards

fuel from a tank for most of

on weekdays, or 12pm-6pm

include CCS and Tesla

your life, now it’s a battery.

at weekends and on bank

ICE

entertainment (ie the stereo, touchscreen and so on).

kWh Stands for kilowatt hours and

PHE V Plug-in hybrid electric

CHAdeMO

Superchargers, which all look reaaaaally similar.

can cut two ways – how much power you’ve used (which

Range

CCS

CCZ

holidays it’ll cost you £15 to

Range anxiety

drive in this zone. But, with

The fear of being very far

a zero emission car you can

from home, on a dark and

fill out a form and pay a one-

cold night, without enough

off £10 for an exemption that lasts a year.

vehicle, or a hybrid with a

a utilities bill does), or how

The DC charger you’ll most

bigger battery that you can

much capacity there is in a

likely use across the UK and

power to make it to a

plug in to charge, giving you

battery. For instance, a Tesla

Europe. Works in everything

charging station. In the

a short, say 20-mile, electric-

Model S has 100kWh of

from a Tesla to a VW.

short term, the solution is

ULEZ

more rapid charge stations,

The CCZ is there to ease

in the long term, better

traffic; London’s Ultra Low

only range. Amazing tax-

capacity, of which you’ll

dodging mpg figures in the

be able to use about 90,

Supercharging

official tests, not so amazing

because fully depleting

If it looks like a CCS charger

energy density and more

Emissons Zone is to ease

in real life... unless you plug in

a battery is a great way

and works like a CCS charger,

efficient cars should ease

pollution. The ULEZ is in effect

to ruin it forever.

it could very well be a Tesla

our furrowed brows.

every hour of every day, and

every night and use the car

Supercharger. But you can’t

exclusively for short trips.

AC and DC MHE V

use it unless you’re in a Tesla.

AC stands for alternating

mpkWh

will rain down with great

Li-ion

vengeance and furious

A contraction of lithium-ion,

application of a £12.50

which refers to the chemical

charge if you drive into

The mild hybrid EV, or MHEV,

current, and DC stands for

the very bottom rung of the

Batman comics... er, wait...

Not content with the unholy

make-up of a typical battery

the zone in a petrol car

electrified vehicle ladder. A

direct current. AC’s better for

union of litres of petrol and

pack. The 12V brick used to

that doesn’t meet Euro 4

small electric motor assists

long-distance transmission,

pints of milk, the UK’s uneasy

start your petrol powered car

standards or a diesel car

the engine, but doesn’t have

because it can easily be

blend of metric and Rees-

is a lead-acid battery, but

that doesn’t meet Euro 6

lithium-ion is now the global

standards. The good news

norm for powering new EVs.

is that full EVs are exempt.

enough gumption to push the

transformed (to higher

Mogg leaves us measuring

car on its own. MHEVs usually

voltage, lower current,

EV economy in miles per

manage a fuel saving of

so fewer heat losses).

kilowatt hour. So, if you have

about 10 per cent compared

Transforming DC power

50 usable kWh, and run at

is a faff but, because DC

4.0mpkWh, you’ll do 200 miles

Solid-state battery

Fuel cell electric vehicles, like

charging stations can be as

before you’re stranded.

The next big step in battery

the Toyota Mirai. Separating

tech – holds more energy

hydrogen and oxygen takes

than an equivalent-sized

a lot of energy, but reuniting

li-ion battery, or the same

them in just the right way

with a pure petrol car.

RE X Refers to range extenders,

big as they need to be, they can employ high-voltage

W LT P

FCEV

or small internal combustion

power, giant transformers

Stands for Worldwide

engines used as generators

and rectifiers and get huge

Harmonised Light Vehicle

amount of energy but in

releases energy. You can

to recharge EV batteries on

power – up to 350kW.

Test Procedure. A way to test

a smaller and lighter pack.

burn hydrogen, but in a

new cars to see how much

They’re easier to cool, too,

hydrogen fuel cell you

which means you can charge

generate electricity to drive

the move. The engine can be converting fuel to electricity,

Slow, fas t and rapid charging

fuel, or energy, they use, how much greenhouse gas they

them quicker before they get

an electric motor. It’s also

which is fed to the motors

Slow or level 1 charging is

expel, and how far they get

too hot. At least five years

easier to move H2 over long

that supply the motive force.

when you use a regular wall

on one tank/charge. More

until any come to market.

distances than electricity.

run at its most efficient rpm,

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WHAT: QUICK COFFEE WHERE: SILVERSTONE, UK No single thing out of line on the Porsche 911 GT3 RS launch. Even the coffee was adhering to the corporate rulebook

WH0: CHARLIE ROSE WHERE: LONDON, UK Charlie’s already found his bow tie for next month’s TopGear awards, but it looks like we’re going to have to bring him in through the loading bay

WHO: MARK RICCIONI WHERE: OYAMA, JAPAN No desk? No problem. Mark’s can-do attitude is just one of the many plus points on his crammed CV

WHAT: CATERHAM SEVEN WHERE: LLANDOW, WALES TopGear top tip: if you’re taking a roofless car on a shoot in Wales, make sure you also have some cloths to dry the driver’s seat

WH0: KATIE POTTS WHERE: DOCKLANDS, UK We told Katie to watch out for the flash on the power lines, but she managed to hit an aeroplane with it instead. Bit of a disaster

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BEHIND THE SCENES

MAKING IT HAPPEN H OW TO C O N TACT U S SUBSCRIP T ION ENQUIRIES A ND BACK ISSUES: 03330 162 130

EDI T ORI A L ENQUIRIES: 020 7150 5558

T V ENQUIRIES:

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TopGear, dsb.net, PO Box 3320,

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