Issue 310 July 2018
Welcome
066
Jaguar I-Pace
“We will see more change in the next five years than
we’ve seen in the last 50.” This statement by GM CEO
Mary Barra has become the mantra for the current
[sorry] pace of change of the automotive industry.
While there have been milestone moments, for the
most part, the journey of the automobile has been
one of steady evolution, not revolution. But the rise of the EVs has turned
the industry on its head, and this new car landscape is incredibly complex
to navigate and often creates more questions than answers.
Questions like... where’s all the electricity going to come from? What
happens when the batteries need recycling? Will internal combustion
engines be banned, and what happens to all the classics? What happens if
I run out of charge? Is it really a brilliant idea to be beholden to a generation
of cars whose batteries require raw materials located in the most volatile
areas of the world? What happens to petrol stations and pasty sales?
When the UK doesn’t have superfast broadband as standard, are we really
capable of delivering an EV charging infrastructure fit for purpose? What
happens when the EV tax breaks end? Should I just buy a diesel?
The good news is that we’re here to help... welcome to TopGear’s
Guide to the Future, or more accurately (but we couldn’t fit it on the cover)
Charlie Turner E D I T O R - I N - C H I E F
@TopGearEditor / editor@bbctopgearmagazine.com
TopGear’s Guide to the Future of the Car as Far as We Can Currently
Understand It. Because It’s All a Bit Fluid at the Moment.
Into this new and uncertain marketplace, Jaguar is launching the
I-Pace – its first all-electric vehicle. To answer some of the BIG questions,
we took the electrified Jag on a week-long bootcamp which included
driving it from London to Lands End on a single charge, taking it off-road,
doing the schoolrun, and racing it against a dragster (obviously). Our
test starts on page 66.
Fresh from hypermiling in the I-Pace, Paul Horrell answers some of the
biggest questions around the rise of EVs on page 98. Elsewhere we get
exclusive access to Lamborghini’s vision of the future of hypercars, the
Terzo Millennio, we examine an all-new approach to car ownership with
Lynk&Co and we drive the physical manifestation of a virtual racer in the
form of the Audi e-tron Vision GT concept.
While it’s fair to say that the pace of change in our industry is unlike
anything we’ve seen before – on current [apologies] evidence, it looks like
Barra may have underplayed it – this issue proves that the future will be no
less exciting, vibrant or challenging than the past, and the team at TopGear
will be here, helping you navigate the road ahead.
Enjoy the issue,
TO P G E A R . C O M › J U LY 2 01 8 005
 Contents
Harris
“The aero packages are
clearly reaching the peak
of some silly phase before
the engineers are all sent
to the naughty step” 023

Reid
“There’s a reason Porsche
has the Cayenne. And
it’s no coincidence
Rolls-Royce now has
the Cullinan” 025

082 the ten

009 Bollinger B1
014 Audi Q8
018 Porsche 911 GT3 R
066 Jaguar I-Pace 020 UberAir
This car is pivotal to Jaguar’s future.
So, will it stand up to the vicious drill Intake
sergeants of TopGear’s bootcamp?
032 Life in cars
082 Tesla Model 3 033 Top 9
Jack Rix takes Elon Musk’s newest 034 TG gadgets
brainchild to the streets of New York. 035 Insider report
Makes the traffic jams even worse...
037 TG watches

092 Lynk&Co Drives

Ever thought your car was like a mobile
phone? After reading about this
040 Aston Martin Vantage vs
Chinese car company, you will...

112
McLaren 570GT vs AMG GT R
vs Porsche 911 GTS
098 EV Q&A
046 Volkswagen Touareg
What exactly happens when the
battery runs out? And other essential 048 BMW M3 CS
050 Aston DB11 AMR
electric vehicle questions answered

102 Terzo Millennio

014 102 055 Volvo V60
059 Audi A6
Thank God for Lamborghini, which 060 Lotus Exige Sport 410
comes up with completely off-the- 062 Bentley Continental GT vs
wall numbers like this... Mercedes-Benz S63 Coupe

112 Max Verstappen Garage

Rounding up this issue’s futuristic
theme, will this wunderkind be king 123 What we’re running at TG:
of the Formula One podium? goodbye Cayman, hello Arteon

TO P G E A R . C O M › J U LY 2 01 8 007
THINGS WE’VE LEARNT THIS MONTH

TO P G E A R . C O M › J U LY 2 01 8 009
Bollinger is
bringing old-school
utility to the future
The antidote to endless cut-and-paste SUVs? An aerophobic electric truck
that would put a Land Rover to shame off-road. Time to break out the Bolli...
obart, NY is just the sort of place
H
you could do with an all-electric, no-
compromise off-roader. Something
to navigate the gnarly, snow-covered
hills in, enough juice to reach Manhattan – 150 miles
south – to blow off some steam, and no pulsating
V8 to disrupt the peace. No coincidence this is
the home of Bollinger Motors, maker of the B1, the
world’s most rugged, aerophobic, all-electric SUV.
SUT, to be precise. Robert Bollinger, the boss,
likes to call it a Sports Utility Truck. I’m standing
in front of the first and only prototype in existence,
jacked up in the small workshop where it was built,
010 J U L Y 2 0 1 8 › TO P G E A R . C O M
and there’s definitely a military chunkiness to it.
Next door, through the glass partition, is an office
occupied by Robert and three of his trusted
engineers. And a dog. It’s a boutique company.
Boutique, but with big dreams.
“We just crossed 16,000 reservations online.
We had the debut on a Thursday, then the truck
was brought back up on Friday, within three days
we had 4,000. It was crazy,” Bollinger explains.
OK, that’s a few clicks behind the Tesla Model 3,
and technically these are expressions of interest
rather than money-down deposits, but not bad for
a company with a single prototype to its name.
And not bad for a man with no experience of the
car industry, other than a lifelong passion and a pot
of money, from selling his share of the John
Masters Organics hair care business in 2009.
After toying with the idea of a sports car, the
vision of a brick-like off-roader came to him while
tooling around his farm in a UTV. “The idea was
how could you combine all the best of off-road
with the best of utility into one tool. It’s not about
luxury; it’s about usefulness and crazy capabilities.
“Basically we want to do everything better
than Jeep. I bought a Jeep Wrangler Rubicon to
benchmark it against, and that was $58k. But guys

take what is already a decent machine, and go crazy
with aftermarket stuff. The idea is that this has all
these capabilities, and more, as standard.”
Despite this prototype being a two-door, a
stretched four-door version will come first with a
120kWh lithium-ion battery and a 200-mile range.
The two-door’s wheelbase is just 267cm, and at a
mere 381cm long it’s almost 120cm shorter than a
Discovery, an indication of just how square the B1’s
stance is – perfect for stability on tricky terrain.
Bollinger quotes approach and departure angles
of 56º and 53º respectively, with a breakover angle
of 33º and 39cm of ground clearance thanks to
portal axles. Because it rides on fully adjustable,
self-levelling, four-wheel independent, hydro-
pneumatic suspension with ‘disconnectable’ anti-
roll bars, it can be adjusted by ±13cm on demand.
Weight balance is a perfect 50/50, the power
steering is hydraulic and it’ll tow three tonnes.
Being electric is a massive plus too, says
Bollinger. “Electric is great for trucks, even better
than sedans. The instant torque means when you’re
rock crawling and off-road, you don’t have to gun it
to get the full power right away.”
The B1 has twin electric motors. One each for
the front and rear axles, for permanent AWD. It
Robert Bollinger.
Go on, guess his
favourite colour
Nothing to see in here.
No really, it’s sparse,
that’s the point...
makes 360bhp and 472lb ft, which means this 2.3-
tonne SUV with the aerodynamics of a council
estate does 0–60mph in 4.5 seconds and 127mph.
The styling is not a tip of the hat to blocky
Defenders and G-Wagens, but driven by necessity.
“The reason for the flat panels is that we could
bend and make them ourselves. You don’t have to
wait for a mould to be made that takes 10 months
and $2 million.” And there’s real detail up-close,
like the chunky nose badge, milled from a single
piece of metal, that twists to open the grille, or the
removable roof and side panels for enjoying the
weather, or using your B1 like a pickup if you prefer.
TO P G E A R . C O M › J U LY 2 01 8 011
 Inside, it’s basic but riddled with thoughtful touches.
Things like the battery meter masquerading as an analogue
fuel gauge, and the drilled, rotating air vents that line the
top of the dash. A through-loading flap lets you use the
space under the bonnet – so the full length of the car –
while 72 sheets of eight-by-four plywood fit in the back.
That’s a lot of laminated timber.
The B1 is built to last, says Bollinger. “We have an
aluminium body and aluminium chassis to help with
both weight and corrosion, so the idea is you buy one
and have it for the rest of your life. If 10 years down
the road the battery technology takes a leap, you’ll
have an option to upgrade.”
Prices still to be What you’re buying into is one man’s dream. A
confirmed... Levitation
dream to produce something that’s forward-thinking but
mode optional
unflinchingly useful. Something designed by the need for
simplicity, but visually fascinating. And although that dream
isn’t yet fully realised, it’s inching closer. The plan from here
is to build a pair of four-door prototypes, before moving the
entire company to Detroit, closer to the suppliers, with a
target of building 1,000 a year, including right-hand drive.
Despite pressing, cajoling and low-level trickery, I
couldn’t get Bollinger to reveal a price for the finished
car, despite production starting in 2019. Our guess would
be something approaching $100,000, so not cheap, but
Bollinger let slip that Schwarzenegger – famously a
Hummer lover – has put his name down on the list.
If it’s good enough for the Terminator… JACK RIX

“72 sheets of eight-

by-four plywood
fit in the back”

012 J U LY 2 01 8 › TO P G E A R . C O M
 A range-topping ‘Performance’ dual-motor
Tesla Model 3 ypassing the traditional press

wants to fight B release and champagne-soaked

the BMW M3
Elon announces all-wheel-
drive performance versions of
the 3. Commences trash talk
reveal party, Tesla boss Elon Musk
took to Twitter, not to wind up
the internet for a change, but to tweet specs
for new all-wheel-drive, dual-motor versions
of the Model 3. The fast ones.
The standard all-wheel-drive option, he says,
adds $5,000 to the price of a regular Model 3
(it’s $44,000 for the regular long-range version).
It manages the same 310 miles of range and
140mph top speed of a long-range Model 3,
but drops the 0–60mph time from 5.1 to 4.5
seconds. The standard car (that’s the $35,000
entry-level one) with its 220-mile range, does
it in 5.6 seconds.
version Musk claims has “better handling” than
a BMW M3, will “beat anything in its class on
track” and has the “second-best driving feel
of any car in the world (apart from Model S).”
We shall see... what we do know is it will do
0–60mph in 3.5 seconds, and 155mph, but still
manage 310 miles on a full charge.
It will cost around $78,000 (£58,700 in a
direct conversion to pounds, £120 less than the
M3), but Musk says that includes all options
except Autopilot. Deliveries should start in July
in the US. In the UK? Lord knows. RHD cars of
any description are yet to come off the production
line, so it’ll be a wait before we can put those
M3-slaying claims to the test. VIJAY PATTNI

Aston Martin will launch

a Lagonda SUV in 2021
All-electric, all-luxury SUV will be... bold

Aston Martin’s ultra-luxury,
Rolls-Royce-baiting offshoot,
Lagonda, has confirmed it’ll
unveil an all-electric battery-
powered SUV by 2021... and
given us this teaser sketch to
enjoy. The design will be an
evolution of the Lagonda Vision
concept we gawped over at the
2018 Geneva motor show. The
last time the Lagonda name
appeared on an SUV concept,
in 2009, the car was powered by
a 6.0-litre V12 and looked like the
lovechild of a whale shark and
a Rolls-Royce Phantom. Already
this looks like a commendable
improvement. RH

TO P G E A R . C O M › J U LY 2 01 8 013

Audi Q8 joins the
coupe/SUV party
Another minuscule niche has been filled. Alderley Edge
ladies who lunch, ready your black credit cards
t was only a matter of time
I
before Audi decided it wanted a
piece of the fantastically pointless
coupe-slash-SUV pie and, like
BMW and Mercedes-Benz before it, resolved
to give us a car that would combine the best
(or worst) bits of coupe and SUV. Traditionally,
these things aren’t, as their manufacturers
would claim, the best of both worlds. Not in
our experience, anyway. They’re not as elegant
or good to drive as a conventional saloon or
coupe, or as useful and good off-road as a
proper SUV, yet somehow command higher
RRPs than either of them. Because that is
apparently what the people want.
But, with any luck, the Q8 – a car that,
you guessed it, “combines the elegance of a
four-door luxury coupe and the convenient
versatility of an SUV” – might change things.
Like its competitors, the Q8 is based on the
same platform as one of its maker’s conventional
family SUVs. This time around, that’d be the
Q7 – only the Q8 is 66mm shorter (it only
has five seats, to the Q7’s erm… seven) and
27mm wider, giving it an appropriately bullish
stance that’s only amplified by the colossal
“singleframe” grille that dominates its front end.
The Q8’s rear end doesn’t look as steeply
raked as its competitors’, nor even that of
the concept that previewed it, giving a more
conventional (and less insulting) profile than
we’re used to... or, indeed, were expecting. The
consequence is 605 litres of bootspace with the
rear seats erected, or 1,755 with them folded
flat. That’s broadly on-par with the X6 and
GLE but, predictably, quite a long way behind
the cavernous Q7.
But nobody who buys these things really
gives a toss about practicality. Or they’d buy
something, you know, genuinely practical.
014 J U L Y 2 0 1 8 › TO P G E A R . C O M
Orange juiced.
Tangerine dream.
Insert citrus joke here
Engines are more important. And from launch
the only one you’ll be able to get in the Q8 is a
3.0-litre V6 diesel – badged 50 TDI – making
282bhp and 443lb ft. Rear-biased quattro
all-wheel drive and an eight-speed automatic
gearbox are both standard – equating to
0–62mph in 6.2 seconds and a top speed of
144mph – as is a mild-hybrid system that
uses a lithium-ion battery and belt alternator
starter to give engine-off coasting between 34
and 99mph and economy gains.
A less powerful 45 TDI and a 3.0-litre petrol
55 TFSI will follow. And as the Q8 is the “top
SUV of the brand”, we’d expect some S- and
possibly RS-badged stuff in the not-too-distant
future. Adaptively damped steel springs
are standard-fit, but you can upgrade to air
suspension and, ultimately, four-wheel steering
for a comically tight turning circle. A gamut of
active safety tech is available too.
As for tech you can see and play with –
the Q8 shares an interior with all
the big, new Audis. So you get two
touchscreens – one of 10.1 and
the other of 8.6 inches – and
the tried-and-tested 12.3-inch
Virtual Cockpit instrument
cluster. The top touchscreen
does infotainment and
navigation, while the bottom
one takes care of the air-
conditioning and, when you’re
entering a destination into the nav,
turns into a big keyboard/trackpad.
Sales start in Europe at the end
of July, so we won’t have to wait long
to find out whether Audi has succeeded
in making something fundamentally
unappealing even halfway desirable.
If anyone can… TOM HARRISON
 And to change it into a
van you simply lower
the seats thusly

Many screens. Not

pictured: greasy
fingerprints

TO P G E A R . C O M › J U LY 2 01 8 015
 Subtle, understated,
a sleeper... this is
none of those things

BMW can’t stop his is the new BMW M5 M5’s eight-speed automatic gearbox and

fiddling with T Competition. It’s a bit more

its M cars
More power for the M5,
more stickers, wings and
carbon for the M2
powerful, a touch stiffer and a
bit more assertively styled than
the standard M5. A car not known for lacking
power, stiffness or assertion…
Its 4.4-litre twin-turbo V8 is up 24bhp, taking
it to 616bhp. Which is more than the Merc-AMG
E63S. While torque is unchanged – at 553lb ft –
it’s available over a slightly wider rev range,
slicing the 0–62mph by 0.1sec, to 3.3secs.
The Competition sits 7mm lower with 10 per
cent stiffer suspension, while the front wheels are
more heavily cambered and the engine mounts
are more rigid. You also get a louder M Sport
exhaust system, but the fundamental stuff – the
four-wheel-drive system, with switchable
rear-drive mode – remain unchanged.
Prices are yet to be announced, but with
the regular M5 costing £89,645, expect
this one to edge much closer to £100,000.
Pretty subtle, then, all told, unlike a raft of
performance parts now available for the M2
Competition. These include upgraded
suspension and brakes, lighter 19in forged
alloys, a carbon-fibre bonnet that, for the
first time on the M2, introduces the swollen
central section so beloved of M cars, carbon-
fibre everything and a lighter and louder
performance exhaust. Oh, and stickers – don’t
forget the go-faster stickers. VIJAY PATTNI

Honda’s Civic Type R

has an identity crisis
One-off pickup conversion for TG’s fave hot hatch

You’re not seeing things. This
really is a Honda Civic Type R
pickup truck. It’s called the
Project P, and it’s the work of
some presumably very bored
fellows from the Product
Engineering department at
Honda’s factory in Swindon.
They took a pre-production
Type R, surplus to requirements,
then removed basically
everything aft of the B-pillar.
The rear doors, seats and
half the roof. The rear wing
survives, and we’re promised is
in fact “movable to allow direct
and unfettered access to the
rear of the truck”. Nifty. TH

016 J U L Y 2 0 1 8 › TO P G E A R . C O M
 Wonder if Ferrari would build
you a 488 that looked just like a
McLaren 720S? Too meta?

A 488 GTB has

mated with an F40
Ferrari’s latest one-off infuses a 488 with the
spirit of its turbocharged grandfather

elcome to the latest one-off from Maranello, for from the wing being 10 times too small and the cover

W when a normal Ferrari is far too affordable. The

SP38 – which uses the chassis and running gear
from a 488 GTB – was built for “one of Ferrari’s
most dedicated customers” who has a “deep passion for
racing”. And very deep pockets.
Revealed at the Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este car show
on the shores of Lake Como, the SP38’s “general direction”
was inspired by another twin-turbocharged Ferrari, the
F40 – whose influence, Ferrari says, can be seen in the rear
wing, engine cover, four roundel rear lights and gorgeous
five-spoke alloy wheels. The former “creates a suggestive
frame surrounding the tail volume”, while the slatted engine
cover is a clamshell-type arrangement in carbon fibre. Apart
being opaque, not clear Perspex, and the lack of triple
exhausts, it’s a dead-ringer...
The slimline front bumper, meanwhile, harks back to the
308 GTB, and we’re promised the “strongly tapered nose”
and “muscular wheelarches” give the SP38 “potency and
agility”. Overall, we’re fans.
We don’t know whether the new bodywork has had any
effect on performance. But seeing as a regular 488 does
0–62mph in three seconds flat and runs on to 205mph thanks
to its 3.9-litre, twin-turbo, 661bhp V8 and seven-speed DCT,
the SP38 ought not to be slow... or cheap.
As always with Ferrari’s one-off creations, the subject of
money is too crass to be discussed. TOM HARRISON

OTHER FEZZA ONE-OFFS

SP12EC P4/5 F12 F12 SP P540 SUPERFAST 458 MM

TRS AMERICA APERTA SPECIALE

TO P G E A R . C O M › J U LY 2 01 8 017
 GT3 RS too soft?
Step this way...
Take one 911 GT3 RS and remove the need to make it drivable
on the road. This is the circuit-destroying result

Good news, if you’re of the deluded belief that the
new 513bhp, 6m 56.4secs ’Ring-lapping Porsche
GT3 RS isn’t track-focused enough. It comes in the
shape of the GT3 R: a track-only, stripped-out
racing 911 based on the new road-going RS but
sandwiched between the 911 Cup and RSR racers.
That means more aero, less weight, more power.
The GT3 R is built on an aluminium-steel chassis,
but the roof, front hood and fairing, wheelarches,
doors, side and tail sections as well as the rear
lid and interior trim are made of featherweight
CF composite. And anything that’s normally glass
has been swapped out for plastic. The GT3 RS’s
4.0-litre flat-six is wound up to 542bhp and
connected to a very serious sequential 6spd ’box
with electronic shift actuator for lightning changes.
Like the road car, there are the now-supersized
slashes in the wheelarches, while a more defined
diffuser and a bonnet with a giant crater in it
suck the R to the floor. Other racy mods include
a fixed-position seat, added carbon-fibre
Kevlar side-impact panels and, for the first time
in a GT3-spec 911, air-con. Oh, the luxury. 
Prices start at £404k plus taxes, so if you’re
a track-day enthusiast and sick of wringing out
an old Citroen Saxo, it’s time to buy a lottery ticket,
and book a trip to Spa. ROWAN HORNCASTLE

01 8 J U L Y 2 0 1 8 › TO P G E A R . C O M

Woah! BMW goes supersize with the X7
First drive in BMW’s apartment on wheels reveals a fondness for carpet
his is the BMW X7, BMW’s
T biggest, most luxurious SUV. It’s
a decent chunk bigger than an X5,
a touch bigger than a Range Rover
(though not quite as massive as a Merc GLS),
and can seat up to seven people in leathery,
technological comfort.
TopGear was invited to do some final
shakedown driving before its proper launch later
this year, so the car is still in full camouflage,
and the interior was covered in carpet, hence
the Tron graphics and lack of interior shots.
The chunky exterior dimensions certainly
pay dividends on the inside. All three rows get
plenty of space, although the boot is small when
the third row is up – no surprise. There are three
sunroofs, so it doesn’t feel claustrophobic, and
you can get in and out of the third row easily
enough, thanks to a neat flip for the middle row.
There’s a split tailgate with a small lower section
which supports up to 150kg, so a useful shelf for
sitting on, and all the seats can be raised and
lowered electrically via switches in the boot – fold
them all flat and it’ll take on a Transit for volume.
There’s 7-Series levels of tech present, though
we had to dig a little, because as mentioned, BMW
had covered the dash, door cards, centre console
– in fact everything – with carpet. The engineers
even went so far as to put a stuck-on fake ‘starter
button’ on the dash, which caused some confusion
when I wanted to, y’know, start the car.
The UK will get 3.0-litre bi-turbo straight-
sixes in either petrol or diesel initially, followed
by bigger versions of both fuel types. We drove
12 engineers and 62 bottles
of Tipp-Ex was all it took to
get the camouflage just right
the X7 35d (the 3.0 diesel), the X7 40i (the
3.0-litre petrol) and the X7 50i with a 4.4-litre
bi-turbo V8 petrol. All get the excellent eight-
speed auto ’box. There’ll be hybrid versions later.
There are standard air springs with some
decent movement (80+mm from top to bottom,
depending on what you’re doing), and a
mechanical locking differential with electric
clutches as an option, that helps in both on-
and off-road situations.
Initial impressions are good. The air springs
manage a decent middle ground between 7-Series
ride comfort and body control, and I actually
really quite liked the active steering system. It all
works: this is a very big car that feels smaller and
lighter than it is.
All of the engines are more than powerful
enough, the 40i feeling and sounding like plenty,
and getting close to the bigger V8 petrol in terms
of performance. The diesel is probably the sweet
spot, mind, especially as you don’t really need an
SUV with sports-car acceleration figures, because
all it tends to do is make your passengers throw
up over the rear entertainment screens. And yes,
it will manage more off-road than anyone will
ever actually use.
The X7 is going to be well up there with stuff
like the Range Rover and forthcoming Audi Q8.
Yes, it’s heavily aimed at the North American
and Chinese markets, but its driving dynamics
will please European tastes, too. The big question
is what it will actually look like when the final
production version is revealed in a few months.
Big, probably. TOM FORD
TO P G E A R . C O M › J U LY 2 01 8 019

Uber wants your next taxi to be a pilotless helicopter
Design proposals for UberAir Skyports are a slightly terrifying vision of our future cities
ber likes to disrupt the status quo.
U The ride-sharing app has become
modern shorthand for a minicab,
and among the most prominent
standard-bearers for the gig economy. Yet, in
the face of gigantic financial losses, various
personnel departures, dubious ethics and a
so-far disastrous foray into driverless taxis
featuring a pedestrian fatality while testing in
Arizona in March 2018, the company continues
to forge ahead with its vision of reinventing
urban travel. Its latest idea is UberAir, the
“world’s first urban aviation rideshare network”.
That’s right, Uber reckons the next step in
getting you to the movies or home from a hen
night is to have one of its driverless cars drop
you off at a Skyport and let one of its four-
seater, five-rotor electric aircraft take over for the
traffic-clogged sections. We’re told to expect the
first prototypes to commence testing as early as
020 J U LY 2 01 8 › TO P G E A R . C O M
2020, and though a human will pilot the first
flights, the endgame is focused on making the
aircraft fully autonomous. You tap UberAir
on your smartphone, and from that action to the
moment you exit the aircraft at your destination
Skyport, the only humans you’ll have interacted
with will be your fellow passengers, who’ll
hopefully not recline their seatbacks or bring
bulky hand luggage for the ride.
Obviously, these drone-copters will need
somewhere to absorb riders and land, so Uber’s
unveiled six prototype designs for the Skyports.
Broadly, they all feature landing decks that look
like conventional helipads, aloft platforms that
save urban space by raising them above ground
level. The most visually arresting is Humphreys
& Partners’ proposal, which takes its organic
inspiration from natural beehives.
Uber says its shortlist was selected for the
“high degree of realism and technical feasibility”
In the glorious future, buildings
will look like they’re falling apart
even when they’re brand new
shown, which is a tad rich when the vehicles
themselves – apparently being co-developed
with NASA – don’t yet exist beyond computer
renders, and the driverless cars to take you to
the proposed Skyports are currently off the road
while the Arizona accident is being investigated.
Nevertheless, Uber is confident it could start
operating UberAir by 2023, with a full service
in place for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
Why LA? The start-up says it needs three
cities on board as guinea pigs for the testing
phase. LA is first in line, with Uber purporting
that a current 80-minute journey on land would
PHOTO: HUMPHREYS & PARTNERS
take 30mins by air. Dallas is also on board, but
Uber is still seeking a third city to partner with.
Still no word on the cleaning fee if things get
a bit vomity in the back of an UberAir, but this is
an incredible vision of future mobility. Whether
it’ll be a reality in our lifetime is an entirely
different matter. OLLIE KEW
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 “The aero packages are clearly
reaching the peak of some silly
phase before the engineers are
all sent to the naughty step”

Is this a good or a bad season of Formula One,
so far? I have no idea at the moment because, like
most other fans of the sport, I’ve been reduced to
the role of the two old men on The Muppet Show
whose opinions vary from one extreme to the
other. The moment things come alive, I cheer
and tell the poor sod next to me: “This is the
best year for, um, years!” One lap later, during
some processional non-overtaking period, I’m
immediately spouting shite about Gilles Villeneuve and DFVs
and tearfully rueing the old days. The armchair F1 fan really
is a schizophrenic lard-arse.
In the most part, F1 has refound its mojo in 2018. There
are now six drivers who can realistically win each race, and
a healthy midfield ready to pounce if matters turn feral.
But for me it’s the cars that are making the spectacle. Yes,
they’re stupidly expensive and complicated, but they are
now the fastest machines in the history of the sport, and
the technologies they deploy accurately reflect the stuff
we will be buying over the next decade. Hybridity is the
next step, not full electric.
A 2018 Formula One car has around 1,000bhp. A thousand
horsepower. I’ll say that again – A THOUSAND! And it weighs
less than 750kg, which, in the history of single-seaters, is
naffing heavy, but it still leaves a set of numbers that are more
NASA than car racing. The aero packages are clearly reaching
the peak of some silly phase before the engineers are all sent to
the naughty step and told to start again. The front wings and
their blooms all look like they belong in some greenhouse at
Kew Gardens. And the tyres are now vast, sticky
Pirellis that allow drivers to push like crazy.
All of this crystallised for me in the strangest way
– at Barcelona, normally a track I find about as
interesting as peat. I’ve driven a fast road car
around there a few times, but Lewis’s pole
position on-board doesn’t even look like the same
circuit. I thought for a minute they’d rebuilt the
place, but no, it turns out that a 2018 F1 car
smashes its way through corners and munches
straights so effectively it actually makes the
geography of a place look different. A bit like
Superman counter-spinning the Earth to reverse
time, but using MGU-K rather than superpowers.
And this is over one solitary lap. What really gets me is
how these gladiators manage to race wheel-to-wheel, buried,
as they are, down inside the car. Zero visibility, 1,000bhp, vast
downforce and 18 other nutters bent on grabbing that space
you’d already allocated for your line into each corner.
I find it mesmerising because I once had a go in a Formula
One car. It was cold and damp and many other things that help
when making excuses, but the one memory that lingers is going
backwards and my brain still just registering that there might
be a problem. It all happens so quickly. I know we acclimatise to
these things – but I will always be in awe of every driver on the
grid. Don’t allow yourself to chuckle at a Grosjean mistake or a
Stroll shunt – just keeping the thing on the circuit makes them
worthy of medals, in my book.
This year, we have the very best drivers, man-handling truly
monstrous machines on some of the very greatest circuits. The
technology of the sport reflects the cars we are driving now,
and the manufacturers are using the sport to improve their
understanding of the next generation of motor cars. I’m sure
that Formula E will continue to improve, but, right now, if it’s
a choice between Danny Ric and Verstappen knocking
chunks out of each other in a 2,000bhp duel or some
wheeshing milk float mooching around a city centre,
I’m voting for the old school. Formula One has
never looked better.

TO P G E A R . C O M › J U LY 2 01 8 023
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 “There’s a reason Porsche
has the Cayenne. And it’s
no coincidence Rolls-Royce
now has the Cullinan”

The rise of the sports utility vehicle is complete.
Once derided the world over for their propensity to
guzzle gas and fall over at the first sign of a corner,
SUVs are now flavour of the decade. They’re
everywhere – every high street and housing estate
is littered with them and their smaller cousins,
the crossover. They’re so ubiquitous that it’s now
impossible to visit a supermarket or drop your kids
off at school without a six-year-old violently opening
the sharp-edged door of an Evoque into your paintwork.
I’m OK with that. Not the chipped paintwork thing – that sucks
– but I’m OK with SUVs. I think they’re cool. If this season’s fashion
is the SUV, or the SUV-shaped crossover, then so be it. Why wallow
in the past? Let’s enjoy the current designs and allow ourselves to
dream of what may eventually take their place.
Many of you will question my sanity. But I’m not the only one
willing to let the evolution of cars play out according to consumer
demand. Ford North America has vowed it will cease production of
all cars except the Mustang and one version of the Focus gussied up
to look like some form of crossover. The sedans, hatchbacks and
station wagons on which the company built its name will go the way
of the dodo, and it surely won’t be long before others follow suit.
Just look at Jaguar. It’s spent nearly two decades perfecting the
saloon formula, honing the XE, XF and XJ to near-as-damn-it best
in class status... and the result? Tumbleweed. The minute Jaguar
makes an SUV, however, its fortunes change dramatically, with
F-Paces deservedly flying out of showrooms.
Jaguar’s next two SUVs, the E-Pace and I-Pace, will sell well too,
turning it into an SUV company that also makes the odd F-Type.
The same applies to most other manufacturers. There’s a reason
Porsche has the Cayenne. It’s no
coincidence Rolls-Royce now has
the Cullinan. That’s why for every Ford Fiesta there’s
a Ford Fiesta Active, a Mercedes GLA for every
A-Class, and a Panda Cross for every Panda.
Manufacturers are cashing in, sure. But these cars
wouldn’t exist if the people didn’t demand them, and
I’ve begun to rationalise the shift towards SUVs as
a good thing. Their popularity has proved how far
engineering and technology has evolved, with most
delivering excellent fuel economy and good driving
dynamics. I’m driving a Bentley Bentayga V8 at the time of writing
this and, yes, it might have the dimensions of a barn, but it’s actually
brilliant – more so than any Bentley saloon I’ve ever driven.
I’m keen to see how manufacturers differentiate their crossover
offerings. Ford has pledged that after eliminating sedans, it will
create new vehicles that combine elements from cars and SUVs in
original ways. Bring it on. Given the choice between that concept
or clinging on for yet another Mondeo, I know what I’d rather see.
Of course, there will always be those who disagree with SUVs
and crossovers, and that’s fine. They can take solace in the fact
that all things will eventually come to an end, including SUVs.
Ten, maybe 15 years down the line, people will be bored with
the things, and saloons and hatchbacks may have a renaissance.
Maybe, when our roads have ground to a standstill, we’ll need to
invent new modes of wheeled transport that look nothing like what
we see today. Imagine a road network full of autonomous Renault
Twizy-looking scooters. Or maybe wood-panelled station wagons.
Hell, maybe things go full circle and Ford Model T-inspired designs
become dominant once again? Stranger things have happened.
I’m cool with it. Give the people what they want. There’s no
point denigrating one style of vehicle just because you prefer the
shape of another. What a boring world this would be if every car
on the road was the shape of a Vauxhall Insignia or VW Passat.

TO P G E A R . C O M › J U LY 2 01 8 025
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#17: Hugo Spowers,
“We are called to be architects
of the future, not its victims” –
Buckminster Fuller.
There never was a more
mischievous optimist than US
inventor and architect Buckminster
Fuller, and I share his belief that the
future is something we can design
rather than suffer. I would like to see a transport ecosystem that
affords people the independence and fun without costing the
earth. Sustainable cars are possible, but we won’t get there with
a near-term focus on gradually reducing environmental impact.
Less unsustainable is still not sustainable.
Forecasting is how we tend to do things, but it’s like following
your headlights at night; you can stay on the road, and you’re
going roughly in the right direction, but you really don’t know
where you’ll end up. You need to buy a map, define a destination
and then plot a route; this is backcasting, and the longer the
journey, the more adrift the fellow following his headlights will
be. If we want sustainable cars, elimination of environmental
impact has to be our goal and a thoughtful strategy our route.
I M AG E : I N N OVAT E /A DA M GA SS O N
“You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To
change something, build a new model that makes the existing
model obsolete.” Buckminster Fuller, again.
Offering customers a highly desirable proposition around
clean cars, and increased profitability, are both prerequisites for
addressing our automotive obesity crisis. Streamlining access to
cars that are fun to drive, without a price premium, is critical.
It does cost more to make cars more efficient, and
customers always discount future cost savings,
“The most significant
change we need to see is
not technical; we need to
make efficiency profitable”
Founder of Riversimple
so this reduces margins that are already tight. And the industry
invented built-in obsolescence – if you sell cars, you make more
money by selling more cars. If we want to increase efficiency and
conserve resources, this combination is unfortunate; I don’t
believe that we can ever have sustainable outcomes if we reward
industry for the opposite of what we are trying to achieve.
Arguably, the most significant change we need to see is not
technical; we need to make efficiency profitable. At Riversimple,
we are focusing not only on a highly efficient hydrogen powertrain
and lightweight vehicle design but also on a business model that
justifies it, encouraging both energy and resource efficiency.
We will be offering our cars as an all-inclusive service, including
fuel and insurance. The longer the cars last, the more reliable,
the more efficient they are, the more materials we can recover
at end of life, the stronger our business.
In the UK, the Automotive Council’s Roadmap plots a route
incrementally from where we are now, forecast from the
industry’s comfort zone; it may be called a map but it is really
just a case of headlights on full beam in the fog. We were really
excited when the banning of the sale of ICE cars by 2040 was
announced, but there are already signs of ‘get out of jail’ cards,
with consultation continuing on the actual wording of the ban;
a hybrid with a 50-mile electric range is not much of a stretch.
Autonomous vehicles present a fork in the road. Down one fork
are the nose-to-tail commuters who want tele-transporting to
their destination. Down the other fork are people who choose
independence and personal autonomy over the loss of it. Which is
the dead end? Autonomy allows for more densely packed traffic
but is the solution to our congestion problem zero-occupancy
journeys and more cars? Where’s that map again?
TO P G E A R . C O M › J U LY 2 01 8 027
 ack in the Eighties, you couldn’t move there was Knight Rider, featuring a car that could it – they perform a similarly mesmerising ‘dance’ of their

B for TV shows about all-American

crimeighters, battling ‘bad guys’
with the help of technologically
advanced transport. Remember
Airwolf, a supersonic helicopter
with stealth capabilities? Or Street Hawk, that guy
on a 300mph all-terrain, attack motorbike? And then
talk. Petrolheads will primarily remember that show
for its bonnet-mounted, anamorphic equaliser.
Not ringing any bells? he bar of red lights that
scanned left and right, and was just unbelievably cool.
hirty-ive years on, the new Audi A7 can pull a similar
trick. At the rear, it has 292 light bulbs stretching the
full width of the car and – when you lock or unlock
own. It is magniicent to watch (especially at night), and
something we don’t believe you could ever get bored of.
But there’s more to this new Audi. Some of
the ictional tech from those Eighties shows was
pure fantasy but some of it is anything but far-
fetched today. Audi’s new A7 Sportback may not be
pyroclastically laminated to withstand 400ºC, for
 WATCH
THE VIDEO AT
topgear.com/brightideas

example, but, let’s be honest, it doesn’t need to be.
It is loaded with some seriously state-of-the-
art kit, though. Like dash-mounted, interactive
touch screens, a series of external cameras to help
show what’s around you, an emergency braking
system, and myriad driver safety systems.
hen there’s the technology that even
Hollywood producers never dreamt up: this
latest Audi can also be specced with dynamic
all-wheel steering and adaptive air suspension.
But you know what? As impressive as all of these
innovations are, guess what pushes our buttons
the most? Yup. It’s those lights. And you can take
a look for yourself, because Audi has made a video
to show off just how impressive this car really is.
Watch it now at: topgear.com/brightideas.
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Intake
EDITED BY JACK RIX

Faces. Retro. Entertainment. Car Culture. Every month

PIC OF THE MONTH

LA COOL J
Monozukuri. Not a Studio Ghibli movie, but a Japanese word that, quite literally, means the ‘making of things’.
A theme that LA’s Petersen Automotive Museum intends to explore via the medium of the Japanese car and its
influence in the States. In an exhibition titled ‘The Roots of Monozukuri: Creative Spirit in Japanese Automaking’,
the museum has corralled a host of cars that best embody key tenets of Japanese design philosophy. A second
display called ‘Fine Tuning’ focuses specifically on LA’s fascination with Japanese cars, and the customisation
of them. Things like this 1974 Mazda RX3 fitted with a 400bhp triple-rotor 20B engine. You’re welcome.

TO P G E A R . C O M › J U LY 2 01 8 0 31
 M
y family has a transport business, so I grew up
around trucks and the truck yard. I had a motorbike
for the field at a very young age and went karting at
11. Even before that, I remember sitting on my dad’s
lap at kart races – he’d do the pedals and I’d do the steering.
I turned 17 at the end of March and I passed my driving test
the first week of April, but I didn’t have my own car until I
was almost 18. We had a Mercedes 508D karting van: it had
bunk beds in the back of it and karts in the very back.
When I eventually got a car, it was a Renault 5 Turbo –
oh, I was big time – but I’d been driving a van for a year, so I
deserved to step up. I was racing in Formula Ford and won
both the championships, so it was a treat. I had a great time
in that car; the seats reclined all the way back, which was
handy as a teenage boy. It doubled up as somewhere you
could, erm, well, you know what I mean...
Then I moved to England to drive for Paul Stewart
Racing, Jackie’s son’s team, so I borrowed my mum’s BMW
318i. I was meant to have it for a week, but managed to eke it
out for three or four months. I didn’t actually buy a car for a
while because I had a Ford contract with Jackie and had an
RS2000 on rotation, then a Scorpio with the most godawful
body kit on it. Then, briefly, an Escort Cosworth with the big
rear wing – that was proper boy racer. That got stolen outside
The Point in Milton Keynes when I was in the cinema.
When I became a test driver at Williams, I went to a
Renault Laguna automatic, just as a means to get to the track
and back, really. Then I actually paid for my first car. I was
23 and bought a 1971 Mercedes 280 SL, the same age as
me, which I still have today. Our son will inherit the 280
when he’s old enough to drive, on the basis that under no
circumstances can he sell it on.
Then I didn’t buy anything for a while. I was at McLaren
so I had a run of Mercedes including a C63 AMG wagon. My
wife is an Aston fan, so a few years back I bought her a DB9
convertible, which she still has. We also have a 1984 G-Class
280 short wheelbase with no roof on it. It looks amazing.
It was white when I bought it, but I had Mercedes respray it
in gunmetal silver and move the seats back, so it’s a proper
five-seat restaurant car for the South of France. I keep it in
Monaco where there’s a whole bunch of Brabus and AMG
G-Wagens, but nothing looks as stripped and as cool.
I’m not like Jenson, who’s quite a buyer and seller of cars,
but I have on order the Aston Valkyrie and the Mercedes
Project One, both of which should come through in 2019 or
2020. The reason I can afford Adrian Newey’s Valkyrie is I
was lucky enough to drive racing cars he designed, so it’s a
tip of my hat to him. Project One: I’m still a Mercedes guy,
and it’s such a unique proposition, I don’t think anyone will
do something like it ever again. But the car I drive more than
any is my little Smart Convertible – every ex GP driver in
touch with their racing spirit should have one of those.

03 2 J U L Y 2 0 1 8 › TO P G E A R . C O M
 TOPGEAR TOP 9

ECO CAR
FALSE STARTS

FISKER VOLKSWAGEN RIVA

KARMA GOLF ECOMATIC G-WIZ

DC’S CARS

SMART GM OLDSMOBILE
FORTWO CDi EV-1 DIESEL

Renault 5 Turbo

Ford Escort Cosworth

Renault Laguna

HONDA DETROIT AUDI

Mercedes 280 SL FCX CLARITY ELECTRIC A2
I M AG E S : R M AU C T I O N S
P O R T R A I T: I A N D E R RY

Aston Martin Valkyrie

TO P G E A R . C O M › J U LY 2 01 8 0 33
 GADGETS

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 Overheard on the internet,
so it must be true...

Felipe Massa has

confirmed a three-
year contract to
race in Formula E
from next season. In
related news he’s also
attempting a world
record for the most
retirement parties
held by any human
ever. Except Elton John
INSIDER REPORT #7
Having crammed 666bhp
into an F-Type to create
the Lister Thunder, Lister is
now trumpeting its tuned CALIBURNUS :
THE DEMISE
F-Pace as “the world’s
fastest SUV”. See, Lambo?
You needn’t have bothered

T
he dream is over. Caliburnus’s brave bid
A Belgian Opel Astra has
dodged a hefty speeding to build Wales’s – and indeed the entire
fine after a faulty automated world’s – first 300mph car has bravely
camera recorded him
fallen at the final hurdle. Yes, after
travelling at 432mph (696kph)
in a 50kph zone constructing a holistic customer experience
centre, printing two thousand branded polo
shirts, and installing a state-of-the-art coffee
Alfa Romeo is planning machine with chocolate sprinkles function,
a 641bhp Giulia-based only the very last piece of the puzzle evaded
coupe to nuke the BMW us. Actually building a 300mph car. Or indeed
any car at all.
M4, assisted by a hybrid-
Turns out it’s deceptively difficult, and
boost motor and inspired surprisingly expensive, to engineer a car
by energy-harvesting F1 from scratch. Especially when you refuse to
tech. High-performance compromise on performance criteria, nor having
Alfa electrics. What it upholstered in the hides of baby Javan rhinos.
Well, sorry for having ‘standards’, the World
could possibly...
Wildlife Fund!
But we didn’t half give all the big boys a
Diesel Porsches might scare. Only last week I had a message from
not be dead after all. the official Bugatti Twitter account, asking me
An engineer told TG that to – and I quote – “Stop tweeting defamatory
customer demand for messages about our chief executive and his
“posh horsebox towing” Weimaraner”. Hide behind your corporate jargon
I M AG E S :G E T T Y
When the dust has settled, I imagine many
people will stop me in the street to ask what
advice I’d offer to anyone wanting to start
their own supercar company. To which, after
a long draw on my cheroot and a wistful gaze
at the setting sun, I shall offer them these four
pearls of wisdom.
One: never take no for an answer. Even if the
question you’ve asked is, “Well, what if I asked
you to blow into the bag first, officer?”
Two: fake it until you make it. And, when
it becomes increasingly apparent that “making
it” is financially and indeed physically
impossible, keep faking it until the bailiffs
actually turn up at your door.
Three: as Oscar Wilde said, what seem to us
bitter trials are often blessings in disguise. For
example, if it weren’t for the precarious financial
situation of Caliburnus, I’d never have learned I
was so good at hiding behind items of furniture
when the bailiffs turn up at the door.
Four: it is better to have tried, and
failed, than never to have tried at all. Sadly
the Caliburnus shareholders and HMRC both

means there might be all you want, Bugatti. I know we had you worried. violently disagree, which is why I’m changing
a TD V6 destined for When they hear Caliburnus is out of the picture, my name to Giselle Cochinelle and relocating
the latest Cayenne I imagine the sighs of relief will be audible in to Sumatra with immediate effect. Selamat
the Molsheim corridors. tinggal, suckers!

TO P G E A R . C O M › J U LY 2 01 8 0 35

Across America in the Focus ST. No interstates allowed
Issue 232 – this month in 2012
C
oast to coast, LA to NY,
2 5 TH A N N I V E R S A R Y 3,300 miles all in, five days
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was the imbecilic challenge we set
ourselves in the new Ford Focus
ST. Turns out, America is bigger
than we thought.
turn to p64 for
First things first, the car was
more details
immense. “We feared Ford might
have lost its chassis magic with the
MkIII Focus, but I’m delighted to
report it’s still there. This car is
touched by genius,” said Sam Philip,
HISTORY BOYS
PLAN B
although he was suffering from
“Guantanamo Bay-grade sleep
deprivation” at the time.
It all started so well, cruising
through the deserts in the West, a
flying visit to the newly paved Pikes
Peak, a race with a train along Route
66, an encounter with the Mega
Canyon. And then there was Kansas,
a storm of biblical proportions
and the kind of “flat, featureless
landscape” that sapped our will to
live... still there was 1,700 miles to go.
Illinois, Indiana, Ohio,
Pennsylvania: “I know we crossed
This year, the
world’s greatest car
magazine celebrates
its 25th anniversary
them but they’re a grey blur,”
reported an increasingly grey Sam.
Turns out the scenery wasn’t the
only repetitive element: “We ate a lot
of jerky. I discovered an exclusively
jerky-based diet does dreadful
things to your insides.”
Suddenly, JFK airport and the
torture was over. “Ten minutes
to spare. I got a bit teary.”
Sam’s advice if you fancy it
yourself? “Give yourself more than
five days, watch out for cops, avoid
the jerky and do anything – anything
– you can to avoid Kansas.”
WATCHES OF THE MONTH

TO P G E A R . C O M › J U LY 2 01 8 0 37
Taken on a Canon EOS 1D X
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ome cars are so good-
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Whatever the light level, make sure when
you position the car that the light flows
naturally down its surfaces and angles.
In terms of perspective, shooting from
low down adds an extra element of drama,
whereas a shot from higher up gives a more
detailed view of the car. In reality though,
there is no hard and fast rule to identify
the best angles, but a good starting point
is the approach angle – the angle you
walk towards the car at – as most cars are
designed to appeal from head height.
Equally important for the overall
look is location. Ask yourself: Does the
environment and theme make sense with
the car you’re shooting? It makes sense to
show a sports car on a racing track, less so
on a mountain top, the natural environment
for a 4x4. Sometimes it’s even more effective
to capture the car as an incidental addition
to the environment, going as wide as you
can to convey the majesty of the location and
the light. And remember, surroundings are
EXPLORE THE RANGE AT CANON.CO.UK/DSLR
your frame. If you’re shooting on the public
road or at a closed track, you’ll always find
road markings on the tarmac and various
other lines and objects that you can use to
frame the car. Landscape features – like
a straight road framed by tall trees – can
totally transform a shot.
When it comes to the subject of your
photography, keep an eye out for any
interesting details, such as screens, buttons
and metallic flourishes, as they make great
close ups. The edge of a door or a window
will also provide a useful natural frame for
the subject. With a macro lens you can make
some pretty interesting and abstract images
from everyday elements and details.
Canon’s camera range is decked with
great features to make it all happen. Most
Canon DSLRs, such as the EOS 77D, have
a dedicated autofocus button on the back
of the camera to take over focusing duties,
leaving the top shutter button for taking the
actual picture. TV mode works brilliantly for
panning – select a shutter speed of 1/125th
of a second to begin with (use auto ISO too,
if this helps), and change to your camera’s
maximum frame rate. Put your autofocus
into AI Servo setting, as this will lock onto
a target and automatically re-focus the lens
as the target moves. Remember to smoothly
rotate your hips for the perfect pan!
Whatever your level of photography, the
combination of a few industry hacks and
Canon's DSLR range will have you shooting
like a pro in no time.
EDITED BY OLLIE MARRIAGE
 Group
therapy
Aston Martin Vantage
£120,900
WE SAY: GT OR SPORTS CAR?
WHATEVER, IT FACES SOME
VERY STIFF COMPETITION...
T
aken in isolation, the new
Aston Martin Vantage is a
terrific car. But no car operates
in isolation. They compete.
On power, price, philosophy,
bootspace, brand, looks, layout – you name
it. Because, being capitalists at heart, we’ve
learned that competition improves the breed.
Bottom line? The Vantage is competing for
your money. Aston Martin wants you to invest
in it, over and above all the other cars you could
put your £120,000 into. And there’s a lot of
them about, as £120k is now the sports car/
supercar bridging point: Audi R8, Mercedes-
AMG GT, various Porsche 911s, McLaren 540C,
BMW i8, Jaguar F-Type SVR, Lotus Evora
GT430 – they’re all there or thereabouts.
Price would be the conventional way, the
capitalist way, to sort this out, but it wouldn’t
have told us enough about the Vantage. Instead
we wanted to use rivals to frame it, to give us
the best picture of what this car is, what it does
TO P G E A R . C O M › J U LY 2 01 8 041
 July I 2018

Red and yellow and

pink and green and hang
on we forgot the pink

Just another
uneventful, low-speed
corner in the GT R

04 2 J U L Y 2 0 1 8 › TO P G E A R . C O M
 “Every touch of the
throttle triggers an
overreaction from the V8”
and how it does it. So the most natural rival (the
Jaguar F-Type SVR) gets left out. No matter. The
Aston would have had it for breakfast.
The Aston is front-engined, rear-drive and
features an AMG-sourced twin-turbo V8, just like
the AMG GT R. OK, a GT C (30bhp and £15,000
down, less track-hungry) would have been a
closer match, but let’s see how far Aston has
pushed the aggression and excitement. The
Vantage is aiming to team sense of occasion
with a measure of practicality and British
craftsmanship, so step forward McLaren’s
570GT. And lastly it wants to be a bang-on daily
driver, which brings it into contact with the
Porsche 911. Here it’s the C4 GTS, the car Aston
admits it’s benchmarked the Vantage against.
These cars don’t line up on power or price –
the 444bhp, £100,781 Porsche (the least powerful
and cheapest) has 133bhp less than the Merc-
AMG, and costs £56,219 less than the McLaren,
but as a group of cars to test the mettle of the
new Aston Martin, it’s about as solid a defence
as you could wish for.
A long motorway haul is as good an
introduction as any. West Wales is the
destination; 200 miles of motorway the first
test. None cruises silently, a reminder that these
are sports cars, not GTs. Tyre noise is the most
significant intrusion in all of them but, once
you’re used to that, it’s the Merc that continues
to demand the most of you. Wearing the fattest
tyres here, it is the most distracted by camber
and rut, the intimidation factor ramped up by
the letterbox view out over the cricket pitch-
length bonnet and the V8’s rumble and roar.
The Aston is more relaxing – you sit noticeably
higher and more centrally in the car’s wheelbase,
behind a shorter bonnet, but it doesn’t neutralise
small suspension movements as ably as the
Porsche. Even with the adjustable damper thumb
P H OTO G R A P H Y: M A R K R I CC I O N I
switch left unpressed, there’s a little vertical jiggle
in the ride. The 911, easy to see out of, easy to get
on with, basically a lower-slung VW Golf (it does
look a bit mainstream inside), hums through
miles. The McLaren makes more fuss, but it
controls its movements beautifully. Shame the
standard seats are a little firm in places. Best
long-haul chairs belong to the Porsche, but none
are poor. The 570 GT has also managed to get to
the far end of the motorway having averaged
30mpg, joining the Aston (31mpg) and Porsche
(34mpg) on the healthy side of the divide.
From here on, we’re not going to worry about
economy, because roads like this aren’t conducive
to hypermiling. I’m still in the McLaren and
loving how special it feels. Upward swinging
doors and heels-dragging-on-tarmac seating
position, the road experienced through a deep
windscreen with a low scuttle. This not only
creates a sense of speed, but a sense of supercar-
ness that none of the others can match.
And as for the way it tackles roads… it’s light
(McLaren and Porsche both weigh significantly
less than Aston and AMG), you sit a long way
forward, out where the front wheels are turning.
That creates an immediacy and connection
before you even turn the small, shapely, firm-
rimmed steering wheel. And when you do, you
find it’s an accurate reflection of the way the 570
GT drives. This one wears the £4,900 Sport pack
with stiffer springs and it dances with the road.
The word that keeps coming to me is ‘intimacy’
– it flows and glides, treading lightly, narrow
225-section front tyres scudding over potholes
that the Merc stomps through.
The Merc is a stomper. Initially you feel
detached because the front end is so far ahead,
but then you realise that, unlike the McLaren,
it’s much more important to stay on top of what
the rear end is doing. So there you are, sat where
the axle squats, in exactly the right place to
experience just how close the connection is
between right foot and rear axle. Every touch of
the throttle triggers an overreaction from the
V8 that instantaneously manifests itself as an
exhaust snarl, rear axle wriggle and leap forward.
It’s exuberant and amusing, but behind that
there’s a steely-eyed focus, too.
That front end is remarkable, not only for
its grip, but the trust you quickly have in it.
The steering doesn’t have the McLaren’s clarity
and feedback, but the quick rack is sharp and
accurate, eager to turn. Given where you sit,
you’d have thought there would be a delay
between front-end turn-in and rear-end power-
out, but the balance at that midpoint of the
TO P G E A R . C O M › J U LY 2 01 8 0 43
July I 2018

corner when it’s all loaded up and you’re from a point somewhere slightly to the west of
neutral on the throttle is great. It’s a your left hip. It drives how it looks: short and
boisterous, addictive charger. wide. Width means there’s grip to lean on (and
And it makes the Aston feel rather tame. the Vantage isn’t afraid to lean a little), while
This was to be expected. The GT R makes the brief wheelbase heightens the sense of
everything else feel tame. But beyond that, immediacy and is well-matched by the quick
the Aston only really comes to life when you steering rack (just try to ignore the weird
go quite hard in it. Trundle about and you square steering wheel).
get the sense you’re not quite scratching It comes across as energetic. But it needs
the surface of it – it’s not as satisfying to to hunker down into the tarmac a bit more –
just drive as its rivals. The Porsche’s fluidity, you want it to get down and dirty, but you
the McLaren’s clarity, the AMG’s pomp and sit a fraction high and the suspension is a
aggression: all have clear, strong personalities. little aloof. This is what the 911 does so well.
The Aston isn’t laid bare in the same way – it It’s a small car and wraps around you, and has
takes more unearthing. a real hunger for driving. There’s a bit more
The harder you go, the better it gets. The movement in the dampers than the others,
problem – if you could call it one – is that the and if you were being super-critical it gets
Aston is so composed that it doesn’t appear slightly hazy around the limits of grip and
to be working hard. It gets itself down a road the gearing is too long, but as a piece of gritty,
without much apparent effort. tough, rewarding machinery – something with
It’s firmly sprung and accurate in a way ability way beyond its familiar looks and four
no Aston has been, ever, and while it doesn’t seats – it’s a superb car.
have the snap and bite of the AMG, its natural And because it doesn’t weigh much, the
balance is better, the Vantage seeming to pivot power deficit is no issue. It’s a fast, effective car,

SPECIFICATION ASTON MARTIN VANTAGE PORSCHE 911 C4 GTS MCLAREN 570GT MERCEDES-AMG GT R
Price/as tested £120,900/£141,915 £100,781/£120,924 £157,000/£186,040 £143,245/£153,960
Engine 3982cc, V8 twin-turbo 2981cc, flat-six twin-turbo 3799cc, V8 twin-turbo 3982cc, V8 twin-turbo
BHP 503bhp @ 6000rpm 444bhp @ 6500rpm 562bhp @ 7500rpm 577bhp @ 6250rpm
Torque 504lb ft @ 2000–5000rpm 405lb ft @ 2150–5000rpm 443lb ft @ 5000–6500rpm 516lb ft @ 1900–5500rpm
Transmission 8spd auto, RWD 7spd PDK auto, 4WD 7spd twin clutch, RWD 7spd twin clutch, RWD
0–62mph 3.5secs 3.6secs 3.4secs 3.6secs
Top speed 198mph 195mph 191mph 204mph
Kerbweight 1650kg approx 1515kg 1486kg 1630kg
Power to weight 304bhp/tonne approx 293bhp/tonne 378bhp/tonne 354bhp/tonne
CO2 230g/km 192g/km 249g/km 259g/km
Economy 27.4mpg
8 33.2mpg
9 26.6mpg
9 24.8mpg
9
 the 911. Be lovely if it were naturally aspirated,
911 is a beacon of of course, as there is a bit of turbo lag, but
understatement in a
sea of shouty sports cars
there’s more lag in the McLaren, whose engine
has a plainer note than the guttural 911’s (at
least until it hardens towards the top end, but
by then all you can think about is the scorching
acceleration, which nothing here can match).
For real aural entertainment, it has to be
the feral AMG, a whipcrack V8 that sounds like
it’s towing its own thunderstorm. The Aston’s
noise all comes from in front – only when you
stick it in Track mode and lift off do you get any
contribution from the exhaust. It’s a gentler
application of the twin-turbo engine, and Aston
has done a good job of making it feel and
behave in a way that suits the car. The gearbox
could – should – be snappier, especially on
downchanges; the others are all more eager.
A quick word on cabins. The Porsche is
the benchmark for habitability, ergonomics,
usability. The Merc matches it for quality, kit
and infotainment, but the high centre console
wedges you in. It’s intimidating. The McLaren
is more open, but isn’t underpinned by the
“You have to go digging
to get the best from
the Vantage”
same depth of quality as the Germans. And
that rear shelf is more for show than storage.
The Aston feels cramped inside – not just for
space, but layout. It’s like all the dash features
have been gathered in the middle of its face,
so it appears to be gurning back at you. It’s
ergonomically confused, and struggles to
justify the asking price.
As I said at the beginning, the plan here
was to frame the Vantage against cars that
reflect on it in different ways. That it’s not
as aggressive as the GT R, or as intimate
and tactile as the 570 GT might be mildly
disappointing, but it isn’t surprising – they’re
more expensive, specialised cars with a
narrower focus. Against the 911? It doesn’t
have the Porsche’s bandwidth. You have to go
digging to get the best from the Vantage, and
even then it doesn’t quite connect to the road
as solidly nor saunter through the daily tasks as
easily. Instead it treads the boundary between
sharp sports car and good-natured GT without
coming down on one side or the other. I suspect
that’s what Aston buyers want. OLLIE MARRIAGE
TO P G E A R . C O M › J U LY 2 01 8 0 45
 July I 2018

Going off
off-road
Volkswagen Touareg
£50,000 approx.

WE SAY: VW DITCHES OFF-ROAD CAPABILITY FOR A

TECH MAKEOVER TO BRING THE FIGHT TO ITS RIVALS

hen the Touareg was launched,
VW was bombarding us with
W potty torque figures. Now it’s
tech. For its MkIII, the flagship
has sacrificed its off-roadiness to
become more of a premium, hi-tech SUV. Using
the same MLB Evo architecture as the Cayenne,
Q7, Bentayga and Urus, the car has increased in
size but dropped 106kg thanks to aluminium
suspension, plus a body that’s largely aluminium
too. Being 44mm wider, 77mm longer and lower
than the MkII, it’s a bit easier on the eye. The
somewhat dumpy looks have been sharpened
up with more powerful, svelte lines.
But it’s inside where the engineers have
gone to town. It’s one of the biggest cabin
overhauls from VW in decades, repositioning
the Touareg entirely and bringing it bang in-line
two enormous screens stitched together to look
like one big one. But you’ll forgive them, as the
whole thing looks fantastic and is easy to use.
There’s also a tech artillery to back it up.
Hardware like Night Vision to detect humans
and animals in darkness via a thermal-imaging
camera; Roadwork Lane Assist, to steer, brake
and accelerate for you up to 37mph; 4WS to
make it feel nimbler than it actually is; active-
roll stabilisation, to magically reduce body roll
and hide the porky 1,995 kg kerbweight.
For now, we’ll have to make do with a pair of
SPECIFICATION
2967cc, V6 diesel,
V6 diesels: 228bhp or 282bhp. Soon, we’ll see a AWD, 282bhp, 443lb ft
335bhp V6 petrol and a 415bhp 4.0-litre V8 TD. 40.9mpg, 182g/km CO2
The Chinese (its biggest market) have the option 0–62mph in 6.1secs, 148mph
of a 362bhp plug-in hybrid version – although
1995kg
it’s inconceivable it won’t be offered in Europe.
Shame, then, the variable steering rack is gloopy VERDICT: The

8
and even ahead of its fiercest competitors. Some and overly light leading to a lack of feel. And Volkswagen is just as
interior materials feel like they’ve suffered in you can no longer spec a rear locking diff. But, good as rivals, with a
high-tech interior plus
quality to help finance the “fully digitised fully loaded, it’s a proper tech powerhouse and a
Innovision Cockpit”, or as you and I would call it, flagship VW can be proud of. ROWAN HORNCASTLE
engines for all situations.
10

Mercedes-Benz S560
£103,715
Engine 3982cc, V8 twin-turbo, RWD, 469bhp, 516lb ft
Performance 0–62mph in 4.6secs, 155mph,
34.0mpg, 188g/km CO2 Weight 2075kg
Few cars make you feel as warm and gooey inside
as the Merc S-Class coupe. And since the facelift it’s
got warmer and gooier still, thanks to a new 4.0-litre
the same tech that got added to the big S-Class
last year (more active safety, cleverer adaptive
cruise) and a toothy Panamerica grille for the
AMGs, there’s nothing else to separate the ‘new’
Coupe from the car it replaces. But we’re not
complaining. This is a car that’s every bit as
capable a GT as a Bentley Conti or Aston DB11.
Sure, it’s not quite as special or satisfying to drive
down a twisty lane, and it’s not hand-built by

9 V8, which in this S560 is as smooth and refined an

engine as you’ll find pretty much anywhere. Besides
Midlanders, but as a device, the embodiment
of 2dr Mercedes-ness, it takes some beating. TH

04 6 J U LY 2 01 8 › TO P G E A R . C O M
 July I 2018

Another update for the BMW M3? It’s much firmer and less yielding than the Alfa;
Q & A It’s a whole new version. This is the BMW M3 CS, while you can slacken off the CS’s suspension
resplendent in matte blue and signalling the to help it breathe over bumpy B-roads, it feels
return of a name last used for perhaps the best at its most natural with all the Sport Plus modes

Even more E46 M3 of all. Whereas the old CS was a more

habitable version of the road-racer M3 CSL, the
selected and the stability control loosened a bit.
It’s a wilder ride for it, but there’s something very

betterer
new one is the hardest-cored M3 you can buy addictive about just how aggressive you can
new. While a regular M3 starts below £60,000, make the M3 feel. It sounds mighty as you home
a CS will set you back over £86k. You can put in on the red line, too.
some of that down to its limited run; of a 1,200- But it’s 86 grand...
BMW M3 CS
car total, just 100 will come to the UK. It is, and for something that’s barely lighter
£86,425 What’s different, then? or more powerful than the next M3 down.
There’s a lot of carbon-reinforced plastic to help Which remains the far more rational choice. But
cut some weight. The bonnet, roof, front splitter if history teaches us anything, limited editions
WE SAY: THE M DIVISION and rear diffuser are all made of the stuff, though like this are not to be sniffed at, and the price
RESPONDS TO THE ALFA the CS’s 1,585kg total is a mere 10kg lighter than a premium could repay itself in years to come.
ROMEO GIULIA QV stock M3, a figure not helped by the paddleshift And barring a surprise, M3 CRT-like special,
auto being your only gearbox option. Perhaps this is likely to be the toughest current-gen M3
more importantly, it’s around 150kg slimmer than we’ll see. STEPHEN DOBIE
a Mercedes-AMG C63S, its chief foe.
There’s more power though, surely?
Its uprated 454bhp 3.0-litre turbo straight-six has
30bhp over a standard M3, though only 10bhp
more than the M3 Competition Package, and it
remains significantly down on the 503bhp
produced by both the C63S and the Alfa Romeo
Giulia Quadrifoglio (its other big rival). BMW claims
the M3 CS is good for 0–62mph in 3.9secs and a
174mph top speed, mind.
How does it drive?
The chassis set-up, by BMW’s own admission,
is very similar to the M3 Competition Package’s. SPECIFICATION
Which, for this car’s additional £25,000, might 2979cc, 6cyl twin-turbo,
seem a bit cheeky. But the overall impression, like RWD, 454bhp, 443lb ft
last year’s M4 CS, is simply of razor sharpness. 33.2mpg, 198g/km CO2

0–62mph in 3.9secs, 174mph

1585kg

VERDICT: This is the

8
current M3 at its very
sharpest, but its
aggression comes at
a fair old price.
10

04 8 J U LY 2 01 8 › TO P G E A R . C O M
 July I 2018

TG’ S O N E
M I N UTE E XPE RT

GOT 60 SECONDS SPARE?

READ THESE

7
Porsche Cayenne e-Hybrid
Unlike Volvo and The Cayenne’s

Corner shop
BMW, Porsche freakish cornering
has shunned 4cyl ability is blunted by
power for its hybrid the 130kg battery.
SUV. New Cayenne But it’s very quiet
Aston Martin DB11 AMR
gets turbo V6 and and comfortable.
£174,995 a 134bhp Why buy a
e-motor. Cayenne S...

Focused on ...when this is

WE SAY: WANT YOUR V12 DB11 TO ENJOY speed more £1k cheaper?
than economy. We got 38.7mpg
TWISTY BITS? YOU’LL NEED TO PAY...
0.9sec quicker over a day’s driving
0–62mph than the and a full 2hr
he DB11 AMR sounds like an the exhaust has more voice, the transmission old car. Its modes recharge. Reckon
mirror the 918 on 15 miles of
upgraded, more sporting version, more snap, the front anti-roll bar 0.5mm more
T right? Actually it replaces the width and forged wheels save 3.5kg per corner.
Spyder’s. e-range. Tax? £95.

standard V12. Why? That’s the The AMR drives keenly, with a sense of
Engine: 2995cc V6, 134bhp e-motor, 456bhp, 516lb ft
$64,000 question. Well, the £174,995 question. athleticism and more connection between front Performance: 0–62mph in 5.0secs, 157mph,
Here’s our best guess. The original DB11 didn’t and back ends. No sway on turn-in, and much 83.1mpg, 79g/km CO2 Weight: 2295kg Price: £67,128
drive as crisply as it should have done. It was fine better mid-corner precision, plus more ability to
if you were just cruising about, but when you leant use the power on the way out. It’s a big car, but
on it, the DB11 kept on leaning. The rear axle
was chiefly to blame – too much squidge and roll
gets itself down the road very effectively. Probably
no faster than the alarmingly capable (and 400kg
8
meant not enough precision on turn-in, and heavy heavier) Continental GT, but more engagingly.
rearward weight transfer on exit. Aston needed There’s more precision to the steering, more
to improve it, but not alarm existing owners, so control to the suspension and a new-found
moved the new car away from the old by making appetite for corners. It’s as dynamically capable
it more sporting, altering the cosmetics, giving it as the V8, which got most of these mods from
a new badge and more power. And £17,500 extra. the word go, but has 127bhp more to help
The twin-turbo V12 now develops 630bhp overcome the extra 100kg it carries around. Mercedes-AMG GLC 63S
(30bhp up). You don’t notice that. What you It has lost a little of its long-leggedness in the Merc’s fastest AWD but no Drift
do notice is what’s been done to the chassis. The process. You’re more aware of the exhaust, of how SUV has arrived in mode. But that’s
rear subframe is now more rigidly attached to the the car is riding the road, so it occupies you more. Britain, its sights OK. Switch the
extruded, bonded-aluminium chassis, the dampers Still, an Aston should have more edge than a set firmly on the ESP off and it will
have been revalved to be around 10 per cent stiffer, Bentley, and this one now does. OLLIE MARRIAGE Porsche Macan still do silly things.
and Alfa Stelvio QV. Talent/space/
It’s the same laws allowing,
money... that is.
SPECIFICATION
5204cc, twin-turbo V12, ...but it has Not as
RWD, 630bhp, 516lb ft one massive pointy as
24.8mpg, 265g/km CO2 advantage: the Alfa, and
0–62mph in 3.7secs, 208mph the engine. The doesn’t ride
I M AG E S : M A N U FAC T U R E R

same V8 as the quite as well

1870kg E63 and C63. as the Macan.
A tremendously But brawnier
VERDICT: The car the exciting thing. than both.

8
DB11 V12 should have
been from the start.
More sporting, but not Engine 3982cc, twin-turbo V8, 503bhp, 516lb ft
necessarily a better GT.
10 Performance 0–62mph in 3.8secs, 174mph,
26.4mpg, 244g/km CO2 Weight 2010kg Price £76,070

05 0 J U LY 2 01 8 › TO P G E A R . C O M
NEWLY HATCHED
Not only is the New
Renault Mégane R.S.
hat really strikes you when first driving the New Renault
Mégane R.S isn’t necessarily its performance, remarkable
though it might be, but the level of comfort. A stylish
sport seat (complete with embroidered R.S. headrest,
immediately one of the naturellement) offers a snug fit with side support around the
UK’s fastest and best hips, waist and shoulders, while the steering wheel’s adjustable ‘reach and
rake’ helps you achieve optimal driving position.
looking sporty hatchbacks, A nifty optional extra for an even more expert-looking seat is the grey
but its interior is a Alcantara upholstery with red stitching. Your driving position is further
complemented by the easy-to-reach gear shift paddles, manufactured from
standard-bearer for the aluminium (de rigeur in many modern-day competition cars) for both
latest in-car tech trends reliability and feel.
At the cutting edge
At the central display is Renault’s high-end R-LINK 2 multimedia
system with an optional 8.7-inch TFT screen. Th is is where the fun
really begins, as a touch of the R.S. Drive button brings up MULTI-
SENSE, which offers a choice of five driving modes. Comfort,
Neutral, Sport and Race remain, while an exciting fi fth option,
‘Perso’, has also been added.
The fi rst four allow a number of key parameters – engine response
(via the pedal mapping), steering fi rmness and gear shift speeds – to
be adapted by the driver. And to suit the preferences of every type of
driver, Perso now allows more adjustments to those settings or the
option to de-activate them altogether for a truly personalised drive.
The R-LINK 2 tablet also boasts an all-encompassing palette of
driving aids that assure, alert and assist. Significant among these
technologies are active emergency braking system (AEBS), over-
speed prevention (OSP) and hands-free parking. A new optional
function of Mégane R.S is the R.S. Monitor Expert system, which
captures data – including G-forces, braking input and acceleration
– that can be synced to video record to devices such as phones or
cameras and then shared on social media.
See the light
Where the R.S. arguably shines brightest are the small lighting
touches throughout. Ambient lighting around the centre console
and within the door panels can also be selected in a number of
colours via Perso mode. Adding to that personal touch, the graphics
and layout, information and colour can be configured on a funky
new dash display that uses a TFT screen.
On the exterior, its mesmeric looks are enhanced by Renault
Sport’s powerful multi-reflector R.S. Vision lighting system. LED
lighting with the dipped and main beam is added to by the C-shape
cluster in the lower front bumper, which frames the car’s F1-style
blade. In a chequered flag pattern, this cluster combines cornering,
fog and secondary main beam lights all in one to provide increased
levels of both vision and safety for the driver in all conditions. Not
only that, but it looks pretty damn swish.
FIND OUT MORE AT
RENAULTSPORT.CO.UK/CARS/NEW-MEGANE-R-S/OVERVIEW
July I 2018
een watching some lovely old
Safe as B
Volvo-estate promo films. In
faded-Ektachrome colours, a
houses safari-jacketed Swedish dad
takes the extended family for
a lakeside picnic in the PV444 Duett, American
team-moms do the school run in 240s, and of
Volvo V60 D4 Inscription Pro
course gundog-owning hearties and tweed-
£40,860 capped antique dealers fill their 760s. But the
previous V60 wasn’t like that. It was a cute
Focus-based ‘lifestyle wagon’. Chances of it
WE SAY: VOLVO STICKS swallowing a chest of drawers or a retriever: zero.
RESOLUTELY TO ITS Well, the new V60 is a proper Volvo estate.
USPs. AND WHY NOT? It’s 10cm longer in the wheelbase than before.
At 4.8m long, it shades the Merc C-Class and
Audi A4 estates. That means oceans more
rear-seat and boot room. Prices start at £31,550.
Volvo estate: let’s talk boot first. It’s as
versatile as you’d hope. Hooks and lashing
points lie around the edge, and more storage
hides under the floor. An optional pack adds a
flip-up divider, stretchy net, powered folding
releases, and a mains socket. But there’s
nowhere to store the boot-cover blind when
you’re not using it. Duh.
Having shifted to Volvo’s big-car SPA
platform, the V60 is a much more sophisticated
car now. If you’re a spotter, the creases
emphasising the arches have more of a sweep to
them than in the V90.
For the inside, the designers’ Scandi chill pill
still hasn’t worn off. It’s all soft materials and
colours in their characteristic furniture style.
And they still do terrific front seats. The stereo
menu runs from good through great (Harman
Kardon) to epic (Bowers & Wilkins).
The dash is, as always from these people,
dominated by a big high-resolution screen. All
versions have traffic-aware satnav. But the screen
is called on to do slightly too many things. Menu
logic is pretty intuitive, but it’s over-hierarchical.
From the home screen it takes five finger jabs just
to adjust the stereo’s treble. CarPlay and Android
Auto are optional. Climate-control is also
integrated into the screen, so even adjusting
air distribution or temperature has you setting
off into the menus.
Still, if the screen distracts you, the car will do
its best to stop you crashing by deploying its vast
range of active safety interventions. Volvo’s
standard City Safety doesn’t just detect vehicles,
people and cyclists. Its sensors are now calibrated
to react to large animals (since few of our cities
have roaming moose, know that it also works
beyond town limits). And, in a first, it’ll also do
the very quick calculations needed to recognise
TO P G E A R . C O M › J U LY 2 01 8 055

the rapid closing speeds of a head-on collision
and apply useful braking to soften, although not
avoid, a ghastly crash.
It’s all 2.0-litre, 4cyl engines. For the UK we
get two diesels (D3 and D4) and a 250bhp T5
petrol, all with FWD only. Air suspension is an
option, but the cars we tested have the standard
springs, with the £750 adaptive damping.
You’re not supposed to drive the V60 like
your hair’s on fire. Not that it complains if you
do – it’s actually very well composed when you
press on. It contains its body roll well, there’s
little understeer and the steering lets you place
it with accuracy. But it doesn’t goad you on.
There’s little of the engagement and interaction
you’d get from a 3-Series or even a C-Class. It’s
about the sort of predictable stability that all
Volvos wear like an iron shield of invincibility.
You probably want to avoid the 150bhp
D3 tune. Even the 180bhp D4 struggles on
A-road overtakes. But it’s quiet – quieter than
in the 90-series cars – and has a nice broad
powerband. The eight-speed auto, optional
in the diesels, is slow-witted and ham-fisted.
“You’re not supposed
to drive the V60 like
your hair’s on fire”
05 6 J U LY 2 01 8 › TO P G E A R . C O M
July I 2018
I took control myself. For that there’s a
plus-minus gate on the lever, but no paddles
except in the R-Design version.
Relax. the V60’s ride is decently supple
and quiet, if perhaps not quite a match for a
C-Class’s unflustered consistency. It’s the best
yet of these SPA Volvos because new engine
mounts (to be rolled out to the bigger cars)
control engine-shake over high-frequency
corrugations more deftly.
On the motorway, you can (if you opt for it)
be assisted by radar cruise and the steer-helping
– but definitely hands-on – ‘Pilot Assist’ feature.
It holds lanes more smoothly and tenaciously
than when it was launched on the XC90. It’s
trying to help you. Very Volvo. PAUL HORRELL
V60 SPECIFICATION
1969cc, 4cyl twin-turbo,
FWD, 190bhp, 295lb ft
60.1mpg, 125g/km CO2
0–62mph in 7.9secs, 137mph
1730kg
VERDICT: Lovely interior:
8
roomy, useful, comfy –
and ridiculously safe. But
maybe you want a car that
isn’t quite so relaxing.
10
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MARVELLOUS
July I 2018

Sensible
he BMW 5-Series, Mercedes-Benz more aloof than a 5-Series. Agile, thanks to the
E-Class and Volvo S90 are all four-wheel steering, but not as involving as a
T tremendously good cars. The BMW 5-Series or Jag XF. Not to worry. It’s superb on

shoes for the way it drives, the Merc for

its refinement and the Volvo for its serenity and
Scandi-charm. If you’re in middle management
the motorway, where the silence of its cabin and
refinement of its engines is most obvious. Rides
well, too – at least on the optional air suspension
Audi A6 55 TFSI and want A Good Car, you are not without and adaptively damped steel springs we sampled.
£48,000 est options. So the new Audi A6 can’t just be good Better than the A7, which suffers when you equip
– it has to be really good, and in pretty much it with the 21in alloys its aesthetic deserves.
every conceivable way, just to compete. There really is very little in it, between this,
And it very nearly is. Nowadays it’s based the BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Volvo. Drivers
WE SAY: MIDDLE
on the same platform as the new A7 and A8, will want to stick with the BMW. But for the
MANAGEMENT IS
so it’s physically a bit bigger than the car it rest of you, this is an option well worth thinking
SPOILT FOR CHOICE... replaces (by 7mm in length, 12mm in width about. TOM HARRISON
and 2mm in height). But the main thing is
that it gets pretty much all their tech. So the
brilliantly tactile interior is dominated by the
twin-touchscreen MMI Touch infotainment
system, and the driving experience by some
39 driver assistance systems, all-wheel steering
(where specified) and a mild hybrid system
that allows engine-off coasting at up to 99mph,
whichever engine you choose.
Brits get three to start off with, all with
quattro AWD. Two 3.0-litre V6s – a petrol and
a diesel – and a new 2.0-litre, 4cyl diesel that
rivals Merc’s for silence and smoothness. Of SPECIFICATION
the other two, the petrol is the better choice – 2995cc, V6 turbo, AWD
335bhp, 369lb ft
it gets a cleverer gearbox (a 7spd DCT to the 42.2mpg, 151g/km CO2
diesel’s 8spd auto), is quieter, more refined
0–62mph in 5.1secs, 155mph
and feels lighter on its feet.
Not that we’d ever call the A6 especially 1835kg
sporty. For all Audi’s claims its new car is the
VERDICT: Quiet and
most dynamic in its class, the A6 still feels

8
comfortable, with a techy
interior that screams A8,
but others remain more
fun to drive.
10

TO P G E A R . C O M › J U LY 2 01 8 059

Middle of
the road
Lotus Exige Sport 410
£85,600
WE SAY: JUST LIKE RESTAURANT WINE,
GO FOR THE MIDDLE OF THE LIST...
he Exige range has got a bit
bamboozling over the last few years.
T But allow us to make it very simple
for you; the new 410 is the one you
want. It’s the last iteration of the MkIII Exige
before we get a new one in 2020. Until then, the
mid-engined lightweight will be divisible into
three specs of hardcoreness; 350, 410 and 430.
The new middling £85k Sport 410 bridges
both the performance and £40k price gap between
the other two. The formula is classic Exige; a
diddy bonded aluminium chassis with a 410bhp
Toyota-sourced supercharged V6. At 1,054kg, it’s
the lightest V6 Exige ever and more of a softened
off 430 (less downforce, less power, no traction
control) than juiced up 350.
It’s also quick. Not having to push much
mechanical lard around is good for a 3.4secs
0–62mph time, 180mph top speed and, with
all those juicy carbon aero goodies, 150kg
of downforce. Something you can also now
enjoy with the roof off.
06 0 J U LY 2 01 8 › TO P G E A R . C O M
OK, there’s no power steering – so parking
is a pain. But you won’t care as soon as you’re
rolling, as it’s so organic and pure. The grip is
tremendous. As is the engine. It summons a
sort of earthy torque but reacts like something
naturally aspirated, with zero lag and a properly
urgent throttle.
But how the 410 flows down a road on its
clever and expensive three-way Nitron dampers,
soaking up and communicating the bumpy braille
of British B-roads through the seat and steering
wheel – while never being deflected so you’re
toe-punted into the local scenery – can only
be described as voodoo. It inspires confidence,
allowing you to devour each gear from the
sublime and beautiful open-gate six-speeder.
At £85k, it is expensive. And a pain to get
in and out of. But Lotus has created something
with tremendous ability. The 410 is a rarity
in the fact it’s a car that’s as happy on the track
as it is on the road. And that is something to be
celebrated. ROWAN HORNCASTLE
SPECIFICATION
3456cc V6 s’charged,
RWD, 410bhp, 310lb ft
26.6mpg, 240g/km CO2
0–62mph in 3.4secs, 180mph
1054kg
VERDICT: If you’re into
8
light sports cars, there’s
really not much that can
better it for the price.
Especially sans roof.
10
July I 2018
SO, WHAT
E L S E I S N E W?
5
Volvo S90 T8 Twin Engine
What should I know?
It’s Sweden’s super-slick yet heavy
(2004kg) ‘twin-engined’ take on the
German exec saloon. But don’t think
there are two engines in there, it’s the
same petrol-electric hybrid from the
XC90 – all 407bhp and 472lb ft of it.
Should I care?
The S90 is still brilliant for going in the
opposite direction of its German rivals,
and it’s got a cracking cabin. But
the hybrid drivetrain leads to soggy
handling and a negligible mpg benefit
over a diesel. And it costs £57,705. RH
6
Fiat 500S Twinair
What should I know?
It’s merely a trim level that puts a little
emphasis on sportiness. But not so far
as to tread on the Abarth’s toes. Zero
to 62mph takes 10.0secs and you’re
looking at £15,150 before options.
Should I care?
Not at all. The 500 is the same car it’s
been since it arrived back in 2007.
Dynamically flawed, but able to offset
that by being cheeky. They’re best
when they’re at their simplest. OM
8
Alpina B5
What should I know?
A BMW M5 with a twist. The 4.4-litre V8
here is shared with the non-UK M550i,
but fitted with new twin-scroll turbos for
600bhp and 590lb ft (9bhp and 37lb ft
more than the M5). It costs £89,000.
Should I care?
Massively. Alpina specialises in creating
versions of hot BMWs that are equally
fast, but more relaxing to drive. Speed
without the aggression. The B5 rides
very well indeed, is quiet and although
not as exciting as the M5, you can have
it as a £91,000 estate. Happy days. OM
 # W A T C H B E Y O N D

BR 03-94 R.S.18 · Bell & Ross UK: +44(0) 2076 291 558 · Boutique: Units 48-49 Burlington Arcade - W1J 0QJ - London · e-boutique: www.bellross.com
 July I 2018

Q U I CK T WI N TEST

Bentley Continental GT vs Mercedes S63 Coupe

WE SAY: TWO NEW, MIGHTY GRAND TOURERS. BUT WHICH SUITS HIGH-ROLLERS BEST?

The replacement for the 13-year-old Conti GT. About time. Same principles A midlife facelift for Merc’s flagship coupe. Tweaked nose outside, minor
What am I as before, but now 80kg lighter, 48V electrics with active anti-roll, cutting- rejig inside and a downsized V8 – now four litres instead of 5.5, yet more
looking at?
edge tech and, as buyers demanded, a greater focus on performance. potent. Doesn’t have the E63’s clever switchable 4WD – it’s RWD only.

Yes. But no more effortlessly than the last one. In extending the Conti’s Emphatically. The engine provides massive muscle and a great rumble,

Does it crush repertoire in a more dynamic direction, Bentley has merely maintained the yet it’ll cruise more frugally than the Conti (26mpg plays 23). Wind noise is
continents? status quo for long-distance cruising. It is astonishingly stable and secure, low considering that there are no B-pillars, and though it doesn’t smother
more steady on the road than its rival, if no quieter or more smooth-riding. the road surface quite as well, it’s more deft at riding on poor surfaces.

The interior’s craftsmanship and design makes the Merc’s feel bare and In isolation it is, but after the Bentley it feels a big step downmarket. The
It had better cheap, helping justify the £30k price uplift. The rotating screen may be materials are less tactile, the sheen of luxury is diminished and the seats,
be luxurious optional, the back seats only modestly sized, but as an interior to set the for all their functionality, don’t deliver quite as much comfort. Still, there’s
tone for the whole car and make you feel good, this is very hard to beat. a little more room for four of you and the 400-litre boot is 42 litres larger.

The changes have given the Conti a more assertive character. It resists Up to a point; it’s longer than the Bentley and feels it. Its 255 front tyres are
Does it handle roll and understeer, body control is taut and the power delivery is almost also less grippy, and being RWD it can’t get its power down as cleanly.
well, too?
unsuitably sudden until you get used to it. Then you can’t help but admire it. Drive it hard out of corners and the t/c light will be flashing vigorously.

Bentley Continental GT
£159,100 (£208,060 as tested)
9 10
Mercedes-AMG S63 Coupe
£127,515 (£155,960 as tested)
8 10

WO R DS: O L L I E M A R R I AG E /P H OTOS: R OWA N H O R N C A S T L E

VERDICT: Still sophisticated and VERDICT: Meet the hooligan. Loud,

5950cc, twin-turbo W12, 3982cc, twin-turbo V8,
mature. Now sportier and faster, too. proud yet mellow when necessary.
4WD, 626bhp, 664lb ft RWD, 604bhp, 663lb ft
1405mm

1422mm

23.2mpg, 278g/km CO2 31.7mpg, 203g/km CO2

0–62mph in 3.7secs, 207mph 0–62mph in 4.2secs, 155mph

2244kg 2065kg
4850mm 5051mm

06 2 J U LY 2 01 8 › TO P G E A R . C O M
 M A G A Z I N E

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EDITED BY OLLIE MARRIAGE
040 JUNE 201 8 ›
I
lived in a little house in a working class area of
Dublin, and a fella down the road showed up
one day in a Jensen Interceptor. I remember
looking at it: a Saturn V rocket may as well just
have landed on the road.
My first car was a Triumph 1300. My father was
going to scrap it but I reckoned I could fix it up, so
he gave it to me. The suspension was shot, and the
front wheels were pointing towards each other. I
came home one day to discover that my dad had
scrapped it – quite rightly, looking back on it – but
neglected to tell me. He’d squashed a dream so I
decided not to talk to him… for an entire year. He
was a tough man, a Dublin docker, and the olive
branch came a year later when he got another car
and said, “Do you want to park it, son?”
I was an apprentice electrician, and I drove
vans around Dublin. But I was into motorbikes,
and I bought a Suzuki 250 ER. Another object of
desire at the time was a Yamaha RD350 – it could
strip paint off a wall with the noise it made. Guys
034 JUNE 201 8 ›
Great reasons to subscribe
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w Lamborghini is 60 per cent
Every net
car tha
matters,
rated or
slated
CONTENTS
BMW i8 Roadster
p44
Mercedes-AMG G63
p46
Bentley Continental GT
p54
Yaris GRMN vs 208 GTi
p60
McLaren Senna
p62
MY LIFE
IN CARS
Liam
Cunningham
He landed in Game of Thrones via
Dublin and the African bush, but cars
and bikes have been a constant for
this Irish actor and F1 fanatic
like Kenny Roberts and Barry Sheene were
gladiators, and we’d watch, slack-jawed, the riders
doing the Isle of Man TT. It’s an extraordinary part
of the culture in Ireland, that and rally driving. I’m
currently working on getting a Ducati Multistrada.
Memory can play tricks on you. Remember
the Renault Fuego? At least they were having a
go, they were doing something different. It wasn’t
a Morris Marina. That said, I had a really early,
brown Austin Metro. It was all my socio-economic
bracket allowed at the time, but driving a car you
actually own is a beautiful thing. You’ve got a horse
under you, it’s a primal thing, a rite of passage.
I moved to Africa in 1984, and drove various
Land Rover Defenders –all over the bush in
Zimbabwe. The bosses pinched the Toyota Land
Cruisers! I looked after bore holes for wells, and
fixed high voltage power lines. Punctures were a
regular occurrence and you’d be lying on your back
in the pitch dark, and lighting fires to try to keep
the animals at bay while you changed a tyre. No
buysubscriptions.com/TGP718
03330 162 130 and quote TGP718
Lines are open 8.00am – 6.00pm weekdays
and 9.00am – 1.00pm Saturdays for orders only†
he reason people buy a Let’s begin with the noise. Put any notions
Excess
of the Urus sounding like its mid-engined
“T design,” Stefano Domenicali,
Lamborghini’s CEO tells us
brethren to bed right away, because where the
Huracán barks and shrieks, the Urus woofles
all areas over a pasta dinner. I don’t
doubt him – if you want shock and awe, nothing
does the trick like a Lambo. But here we are in
and rumbles. It’s not an unpleasant sound, an
ominous thunder building to harder-edged
blare as you approach the limiter – it’s just a
the midst of an industry-wide SUV frenzy, and shame its siblings sound so damn good. There
Lamborghini Urus the goalposts have shifted. are cracks and pops on downshifts, a flare of
£164,950 There’s passion and flair in the Urus, the
world’s first self-proclaimed super-SUV and
revs on start up… you’ll get noticed – just don’t
expect hairs to stand on end.
Lambo’s first off-roader since the tank-like But, my word, is it fast. Yes, we’re all sad that
WE SAY: LAMBORGHINI: 1, LM002, but its task isn’t just to surprise and Lamborghini hasn’t plumbed in its psychopathic
PHYSICS: 0. PERFECT WHEN delight – it needs to double sales figures from V10 or operatic V12, but they will live on in the
YOU’RE REALLY RUNNING 3,500 cars a year to 7,000 and build a foundation replacements for the Aventador and Huracán,
from which future supercars can flourish. By we’re told, albeit with hybrid assistance. And
CREEPERS
LATE ON THE SCHOOLRUN
definition it’s a car born from intensive market let’s get some perspective here: a 4.0-litre
research, not a flamboyant sketch on the back twin-turbo V8 producing 641bhp and 627lb ft
of a napkin. Its basic chassis and technology of torque (from just 2,250rpm) is an able
JEEPERS
To conquer the USA’s supersized
is shared with the Q7, Cayenne and Bentayga, substitute. What it lacks in revs (the red line
scenery, you’ll need something
but to succeed we need real Lamborghini DNA. is 6,800rpm), it makes up for with rib-crushing
every bit as rugged...
P H OTO G R A P H Y: M A R K R I CC I O N I
WO R D S : TO M FO R D /
JEEP WRANGLER
› JUNE 201 8 041 112 JUNE 201 8 › › JUNE 201 8 113
ROLLS CULLINAN
TOPGEAR TOP 9
COOLEST
INSTRUMENT DISPLAYS H I G H S O C I E T Y
CITROEN LAMBORGHINI ASTON MARTIN
CX REVENTÓN LAGONDA
LIAM’S CARS
FIAT AUDI LEXUS
500 VIRTUAL COCKPIT LFA
mobile phones back then, either. You could
disappear very easily out there, it was so vast. We
also had these thrown-together Nissans with wire
mesh fashioned over the side-exit exhaust. You
could tell who’d driven one because they had the
waffle scars griddled on their legs.
I moved on to Citroens. I know, I know… self-
flagellation. I had, and still have, a thing for the
DS. I owned a ZX while I was at the RSC. When
my children came along, I couldn’t afford a car
and a bike, and I ended up with a Volvo V70. Not
the biker’s friend. But it’s a great car. And I have
a VW Golf. It’s bulletproof, has the DSG ’box.
I’ve driven the Aventador, a 488 GTB, and the
GTC4Lusso. When you get into the realm of Italian
supercars, it’s a different conversation entirely. It’s
TESLA
MODEL 3
TVR
CERBERA
BUGATTI
VEYRON It had to happen, didn’t it? Rolls has decided
the difference between my paintings and Picasso’s.
There’s a 550 Maranello out there with my name
that the SUV is now worthy of its attention.
on it. I want to go in with a bowling bag full of Prepare yourself for the Cullinan... WO R D S : JA SO N BA R LOW / P H OTO G R A P H Y: A L E X H OW E
cash, and say, “I’ll take it.” Enzo Ferrari started
with 12 cylinders and that’s what I need in my life.
› JUNE 201 8 03 5 08 4 JUNE 201 8 › › JUNE 201 8 085
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066 J U L Y 2 0 1 8 › TO P G E A R . C O M
 JAGUAR I-PACE

The I-Pace could change everything.

We put it through a five-point workout
to see if it’s ready for the real world
WO R DS: JAC K R I X , O L L I E M A R R I AG E ,O L L I E K E W, PAU L H O R R E L L /
PH OTO G R A PH Y: R OWA N H O R N C A S T L E

TO P G E A R . C O M › J U LY 2 01 8 067
JAGUAR I-PACE

WILL _ I_WANT_
TO_TAKE _THE _
LONG_WAY_
HOME?
 ar chat. It’s right up there with
football banter for immediate
alienation of anyone who doesn’t
know a double-clutch from a 4-3-3.

C But something is occurring. I’ve

spent two days with the I-Pace
and everyone – and I do mean
everyone – has a question or five,
strident opinions on the charging
infrastructure and, judging by the battered Micra they’re driving,
no previous interest in combustion-engined cars. Frankly, it’s
exhausting, but also a fascinating social shift – the electric car
hasn’t yet become personal transport for the masses, but it is
mobilising their minds.
In a world obsessed with food Deliverooed to your doorstep,
cheap taxis at your fingertips and the world’s music library in your
earbuds – convenience above all else – the electric car is a chewy
one. The environmental benefits are obvious – you can see them
not spewing out of the tailpipe… but owning, charging and
planning your life around one is a chore we could all do without.
One step forward, two steps back. Hence the hullabaloo.
Which is why it’s easy to forget that the I-Pace is still just a new
car: four tyres, a steering wheel, some seats surrounded by glass
and aluminium. Later, we’ll help you decide whether your life lends
itself to EV ownership, and if the I-Pace can handle the sorts of
things diesel SUVs take in their stride, but if anyone’s going to be
persuaded to cough up at least £58,500 (or £80,860 for the top-
spec-with-options car here), it still needs to go, stop, steer and
turn heads with panache.
It looks good, doesn’t it? Those are 20in wheels – standard
on our HSE model and blacked out to merge with the rubber – they
are probably the Instagram/ride quality sweet spot. But it’s the
proportions that steal the show: the snub nose that brings the
front wheels forward with it and the high, squared-off rear end
set the template, while the rear spoiler, vented bonnet and flush
handles provide the detail. Its beauty doesn’t slap you like a
botoxed Alfa, but eventually its bravery hooks you in.
 JAGUAR I-PACE

Boot twice the size of a

VW Golf. Price tag three
times the size of a VW Golf

“The slick, flat

power delivery is
totally addictive”
Enjoying the acceleration?
Or just a massive Botox
overdose? We’ll never know
“OK, you’re George, I’m Dragon.”
“I want to be Dragon.” “You’re
a Beetle. You’re George”

Speed isn’t an issue, then, but individuality is, because,

Like a hungry diner, degrees of brain-curdling acceleration aside, all EVs feel
the I-Pace enjoys
a little roll
worryingly similar to drive. Strip away vibrations from the
engine, a ’box to interact with, intake and exhaust noise, turbo
rush or a rampant top end, and you’re left with something more
homogenous than in the past. So, there’s a new challenge afoot.
How do you differentiate your electric car when they all blend
into one? Jaguar has done it by pitching it as the first credible
Tesla rival, beating the Germans to market and challenging
convention with a radical design… others will find new ways.
Don’t get me wrong – I’m a fan of the I-Pace way. The slick,
flat power delivery is totally addictive: you’re never caught
in the wrong gear, never off-boost, always in the meat of it
whether waiting at the lights or hovering at 70. In many
ways, it feels too easy. Too easy to zap past a dawdling tractor
without pre-selecting the right gear, too easy to pick the
precise point in a corner you need the beans without allowing
Different story inside, because the interior isn’t nearly time for the turbo to spool, too easy to drive like a loon. If
as future-obsessed as a Tesla’s. You still have several acres of you thought modern performance cars with their sticky tyres
screen, split over three displays, but also physical buttons. and smooth gearboxes flattered the inept, you haven’t seen
Fancy that. A floating centre console jazzes things up, as does anything yet – this is the age of plug and play.
an inexplicable slab of old-school wood veneer in an otherwise Given the I-Pace weighs 2.1 tonnes, corners carry
cool oasis of red leather and brushed metal. Particular mention significant potential for understeer and general sloppiness,
for the Recaro seats: the driving position is spot-on and the but not so. A centre of gravity 130mm lower than the F-Pace
comfort levels higher than their skeletal backrest suggests. and the highest torsional stiffness of any Jaguar is a good place
Switch it on, and the screens do a dance but no noise. A to start, plus our test car had the optional self-levelling air
baffled delivery driver asks me how to turn the engine on. suspension (£1,100) with adaptive damping (£800). We can’t
Sigh. Some hours later, I’m following our long-term Audi RS4 vouch for the standard set-up yet, but the sensation here is
on the A360 towards Salisbury. As I stare at its Nardo Grey enough body roll to let you feel the weight transfer, but no
rump, it strikes me that both are fast family wagons, both cost more, allowing you to carve through corners with grip and
around £70k, both have near-identical boot space and both do confidence. The brakes are a blend of regeneration and
0–60mph in something starting with a four. mechanical friction, so you can forgive a mushy feeling at
Rowan reads my mind and gives it the full Schumacher the top of the pedal travel, before they really start to bite.
away from the next roundabout. The rear squats an inch as There are two ways to drive the I-Pace, then: like your
he rips through the gears, parping on upshifts. I extend my pants are on fire in Dynamic mode with more weight to the
right foot and leap forward, instantly attaching myself to steering and snap to the throttle, which is fine so long as you
the Audi’s bumper, which is where I stay, silently know a charger is nearby and you have several
and without fuss, until licence preservation kicks hours to spare; or like a saint in Comfort or
in. Blimey, 0–60mph in 4.5 suggested the I-Pace JAGUAR I-PACE EV400 HSE Eco mode, when you’ve got miles to cover and
would be quick, but RS4 quick? Price: £74,445 OTR/ don’t mind the remaining range burning itself
This is the standard car: no SVR fettling, £80,680 as tested into your retinas until your eyes begin to
no race-bred claims and, really, there’s no need Engine: Dual electric motors, sweat. More on that in a bit.
for a family car to go any faster. When it comes 90kWh lithium-ion battery, So whether mingling with the good people
to EVs, acceleration is cheap – how quickly you 394bhp, 513lb ft of Salisbury or flashing silently past diesel-
Transmission: 1spd, 4WD
choose to deplete your battery is down to your gargling tanks on the plain, the I-Pace
Performance: 0–60mph
ankle. Take Tesla: the slowest car they make is in 4.5secs, 124mph
succeeds. Test one complete – it’s rapid,
a $35k saloon capable of 0–60mph in 5.6 secs Range: 298 miles desirable, handles its mass and works as
– enough to keep a Civic Type R honest. Weight: 2133kg a car. But there are stiffer tests to come… JR

TO P G E A R . C O M › J U LY 2 01 8 071
 once lost a BMW X5 in Bucklebury
ford. OK, it’s not that deep. But it
was deep enough for the X5 to ingest

I water through the intake, and that

didn’t end well. When we arrive in the
I-Pace there’s a huge flatbed recovery
truck 100 metres up the lane, on its
back a 7.5-tonne truck with water dripping from it. Some
horses wade through. One of the riders reckons she’s helped
tow a dozen cars out of here in the last 10 years. We try to
work out if one of them was me.
Electricity and water are not happy bedfellows, but if
electric cars were vulnerable to ionised water they wouldn’t
be catching on so fast, would they? Even a Californian Tesla
driver must have encountered a puddle before. This is just

CAN_ IT_
TopGear taking it to the next level. Still, it’s with a certain
sense of trepidation that I nose the I-Pace down the ramp
into 18-inch-deep water – I remember how the shark was
offed at the end of Jaws 2. I watch the screen as water

LIFESTYLE?
bubbles up over the front camera and with a gulp I
tentatively head for the far shore…
Eight passes later, it’s a rather different matter: the
I-Pace bellyflops in, water fountains up. The car splashes
about like a toddler in a paddling pool and then goes off
for a run around the garden. Figuratively speaking. The
I-Pace certainly isn’t scared of water. Sure, I raised the
suspension up to off-road height, but the 4WD system
hasn’t lost traction, and aside from an undertray coming
loose – revealing a thick orange cable that would have
been totally immersed in water – the I-Pace has shrugged
off bathtime with ease.
I’ve really done this the wrong way round. Usually you
get dirty first and then head off to clean up. My next stop is

I-Pace carries every

accessory for the
acute midlife crisis

0 72 J U L Y 2 0 1 8 › TO P G E A R . C O M
 JAGUAR I-PACE

“The car splashes

about like a toddler
in a paddling pool”

TO P G E A R . C O M › J U LY 2 01 8 073
 JAGUAR I-PACE
the Wayfarer’s Way, an ancient byway. Let’s do a few miles
along it. It’s mostly rutted track where cars are permitted,
but in places it deteriorates. The I-Pace isn’t an off-roader,
but it has a low grip mode and AdSR. I’m not sure Adaptive
Surface Response, which adjusts motor and brake settings
depending on surface and conditions, was ever expected to
handle actual off-road.
We get to a section where the grass is door-deep and
the chalk beneath slippery. The traction control skitters
and clicks in the background, the motors whine a little,
but momentum is maintained. Clearance and approach/
departure angles are good, as there’s no chunky internal
combustion engine lengthening the nose and no vulnerable
exhaust underneath. We already know electric car packaging
(heavy batteries low down and in the middle, lighter motors
on each axle) is good for on-road dynamics, but now it
looks like it works off-road, too. There’s even some axle
articulation. Some. A cross-axle section is too much to
tackle, and we back out.
Still, the I-Pace has done well. Silent progress means
ramblers have less to complain about, and the ride is
supple, rounding the edges off pot-holes. Slight niggle: when
crawling over obstacles – or even just reversing up a driveway
– you sometimes have to give the throttle an extra prod,
so progress can be a bit jerky (switching Creep mode on
might have helped). But fair play, I-Pace, you have off-
roaded and survived.
0 74 J U L Y 2 0 1 8 › TO P G E A R . C O M
Exposed orange power cable,
several feet of water. Yeah, that’s
definitely going to end just fine
“There’s even
some axle
articulation.
Some”
It’s hard to know, I suspect on purpose, where the I-Pace
fits into a conventional model hierarchy. It looks slightly like
a hatchback, but, inside, the 656-litre boot is twice the size of
a Golf’s and, outside, it’s well over 400mm longer. The driving
position is surprisingly commanding and when you step out,
your foot goes down further than you expect (unless you’ve
set the suspension to lower automatically). It’ll also handle
four adults with ease. It’s a well-packaged, spacious car, and
that means it lends itself to an Active Lifestyle.
I have one of those. Mainly because I never grew out of
loving toys. So on goes the inflatable Handirack, and skis and
paddleboard are strapped on. The Saris bike rack fits a treat on
the tailgate, the straps feeding up under the rear spoiler. I drive
to the top of a hill where pretty much the only hobby I don’t
currently have, paragliding, is taking place. Mostly the people
poke fun that I’m in a place with no snow or water, but no one
says the Jaguar looks odd. Because it doesn’t. It looks right.
Adventure sports tend to be quite environmentally aware.
Often they’re done by people wanting to make a point about
the landscape, environment, how we’re treating the planet
and so on. Which is odd when much of what they’re up to
seems to be about removing themselves from the environment
in the most graphic way possible. Anyway, they’ll doubtless
have arrived in an ancient fume-churning VW Transporter
van. How much better to roll up in something that treads
more lightly on the surroundings? A peace that the I-Pace
is doing little to interrupt. OM
 DO_THE _
KIDS _DIG_ IT?
It would take three months
to remove the smell of
Lynx Africa from the I-Pace
t’s not so quiet now. I’m not sure
how many boys are orbiting the
I I-Pace because they won’t stand still
long enough to be counted. One is
plugging a charge lead into another’s ear, while
another lounges in the minuscule front load bay.
“Hey,” comes a cry from inside, “you can play
noughts and crosses on the ceiling.”
Within five minutes the locusts have
swarmed, discovered every nook and cranny,
been to the very depths of the infotainment menu
“Excuse me, sir. Are
you SURE you’re old
enough to drive?”
system, and even discovered how to manually
adjust the fan speed, which I’d singularly failed to
do. You want a car destruction tested? This beats
the Nürburgring, hands down.
This is the generation for whom electric cars
will soon be the norm. These boys know cars, yet
not one of them mentions the fact that Jaguars
used to have loud V8s or that one was called the
E-type. A Jag crossover, I ask them, is that OK?
Bemusement. It’s the most natural thing in the
world when there are no preconceptions. At this
I-Pace’s front parking
sensor seemed a low-
tech solution
age, they just accept the future. It’s tech that gets
them buzzing, just like it did when we were young.
They love the touchscreen panels, the height-
adjustable suspension: “It can change between
an off-roader and a normal car,” one comments.
Able to seat three across the boot aperture, they
think it’s big enough to cope with sports kit and
musical instruments, but worry that the dog
won’t be able to see out. I ask them how much
they think it might cost. “About 75 thousand” is
the reply. One of them knows too much. OM
TO P G E A R . C O M › J U LY 2 01 8 075
 JAGUAR I-PACE

Car with no conventional

engine takes on car with
ALL THE CONVENTIONAL ENGINE

CAN_ IT_ WIN_

OVER_ THE_
PETROLHEADS?
 ven if an EV makes sense financially
and practically, can it win hearts as
well as minds? That’s why the I-Pace
E finds itself glued to Santa Pod’s Pro
Peak Performance start line. How do
folks with metaphorical petrol in their
veins and literal ethanol up their
nostrils take to a battery-powered imposter?
Cagily. I join the queue alongside a Mustang with headers
sprouting through the bonnet like a mechanical tribute to
that scene from Alien. Picking my way down the line is
mainly a hazard perception test, because no one who works
on a machine that’ll give your kidneys tinnitus expects a car
they can’t hear approaching.
A Mexican wave of amused frowns follows until I arrive
next to Simon Gough’s Racepak Camaro. Its driver looms
over, pokes his baseball cap through the open window, and
delivers his verdict. “These are f**king brilliant for drag
racing, I f**king love innovation.” “But do you reckon
electric cars are the future – in drag racing?” A gurgling,
burly laugh. “Hah! I f**king hope not, mate.”
Early days. Ice broken, more interested parties surround
the Jag. They’re taken with its stubby looks, and impressed
at its long-wheelbase packaging, but to a man, everyone’s
disappointed when I reel off the spec – ‘only’ 400bhp and
0–60mph in 4.5 seconds. They’d hoped for under 2.0secs
“like the Teslas they have here sometimes.” Small wonder
popping ‘Tesla drag race’ into YouTube’s search bar yields
over 617,000 results – twice ‘Dodge Hellcat drag race’.
We file towards the start line. Lots of attention now. The
consensus is that EVs have a big future in drag racing, “but
only for juniors”. They’re quick, quiet, cheaper to maintain
and way safer if your offspring has an off. But for seniors?
They’re married to their fire-breathing engines – for sport.
Plenty are interested in an easy-going EV for everyday
mooching – and towing their prized racecars. In the ultimate
cauldron of no-replacement-for-displacement, battery cars
are finding friends. Time to do the tech justice.
But Santa Pod ain’t going quietly into that good night,
and my volunteer opponent is fan-favourite ‘Fast’ Freddy
Fagerstrom, in his 1966 Chevy C10. His supercharger alone
swallows 600bhp, but that’s OK when the 8.5-litre V8
develops 2,000bhp overall. Freddy, now 58, has been racing
this truck since he was 15. It runs six-second quarters and
1/8th-mile burnouts. Mind games engage. “I’ve got 4WD,” I
remind the Swede. “I think V8 is still the future,” he shrugs.
Dynamic mode, t/c disabled, aircon off… the Jag runs a
respectable 12.8 at 106.5mph, impressing the locals. Freddy
screamed under the gantry at 220mph in a wall of noise ‘n’
vapour five seconds earlier, to whoops from the crowd, after
pebbledashing the Jag’s face with rubber marbles. We’re
beaten, but not unwelcome here. Best of three? OK
TO P G E A R . C O M › J U LY 2 01 8 077
JAGUAR I-PACE

HOW_ FAR_
CAN _ IT_
ACTUALLY_
GO?
 miles

Paul regretted fitting

that ‘tailgating lorry’

miles rear window blind

Bringing a whole new Cornwall! It’s all downhill

meaning to the phrase
‘left foot braking’
from here! Apart from
the uphill bits! miles

Rowan and Paul drink

in the delicious fresh
air of a truckers’ layby

47mph. Scientifically
proven to be the best
speed to die of boredom

miles

*WORLDWIDE HARMONISED LIGHT VEHICLE TEST PROCEDURE, OF COURSE

he silence is ominous. I’ve just told a senior never be anywhere near the old and discredited NEDC
I-Pace engineer what I’m about to do with test. The new WLTP is supposed to be more realistic and

T his car. I was hoping for encouraging noises

and handy hints. Instead, dead air. Then,
at length, “The WLTP is just a lab test,
you know…” and a series of mumbled
qualifications and excuses-in-advance about how real driving
can use far more energy. His heavy implication is that to set
out on a real trip the same length as the quoted range is a fool’s
errand that’ll inevitably leave me stranded.
Which pops my balloon good and proper. London to
Land’s End on a charge – how great would that have been?
The WLTP* range of the I-Pace is 298 miles. That journey is
291 miles. We’ve known for years your actual results would
attainable. Er, but not, says my Jaguar man, that attainable.
Well sod the lot of ’em. TopGear is going anyway.
The Jaguar has slept overnight with an electrical umbilical
to the wall. I’ve never been more steely in my determination.
I adjust the electric seats and mirrors before unplugging. Then
hand Rowan, the poor photographer who’s always assigned my
endurance trips, a USB power pack so he won’t feed his phone
from the car’s sockets. Those things would be a fraction of a
fraction of a per cent, but everything counts today.
Out through west London, the accelerator is a glass knife,
the brake the pedal of last resort. I play loose with ambers and
freewheel too brazenly into roundabouts. Sorry, people. Onto

TO P G E A R . C O M › J U LY 2 01 8 079
the M3, I don’t so much gain speed as accrete it. I learned
from Jag’s man that the most efficient speed is 45mph.
I donate myself some speedo error and settle on 47 max.
It’s now getting busy, but not busy enough for commuters
to slow. Where the M25 joins the M3, all M3 traffic is
funnelled by new hatchings into the outside lane. I have
a stream of impatient German premium up my chuff.
Meanwhile two lanes of nose-to-tail trucks are undertaking
me. They are not inclined to give quarter. But neither, today,
am I. Sorry again.
Soon the day’s temperature soars. Without aircon – and
with windows shut for aero – the cabin roasts. Heat is moist.
Heat is prickly. Heat is fetid. But heat makes batteries yield
more, so heat is good. I’m gazing at the power meter, trying
to keep it hanging steady – it’s not just speed but speed
fluctuations that suck energy. The I-Pace has such urgency
in its motors that it’s near-impossible to keep things super-
smooth. I find a solution in jamming my left foot under the
accelerator, counterpressed by my right foot on top of it.
The adaptive cruise control is off. Radar uses power.
Normally you can’t turn the actual transceiver off; it’s on
standby for auto emergency braking. But it’s on the fritz
today, and I am glad. And then the passive speed limiter
switch comes to life, so I set that to 47 and begin to let the
road distract my eyes from the instruments.
And on. And on. If you want to travel fast, you’ll find busy
roads. There’s always a car or lorry in front. Travel slowly
and the roads are empty. The frustration is all behind you.
See! Look at the faces in the rear-view!
Now, the I-Pace’s spec shows a 90kWh battery, but the car
never allows itself all that, for the sake of the cells’ health. So
for 291 miles, my average consumption has to be less than
that total available 84.7kWh divided by that target distance,
equals 0.291kWh per mile or (29.1kWh per 100 miles in
trip-computer units). So far our consumption has been too
damn high, and the available range readout has lagged
behind the satnav’s destination distance. And yet, passing
Honiton, Exeter, Okehampton… Tantalisingly, those
numerical gaps slowly close.
Crossing the Cornish border, we look set for victory.
Consumption is on target, and distance-to-go equals range
at 76 miles. A layby. I ease to a stop and we fling open the
doors of this rancid pressure-cooker. For five joyous minutes
we swim in the Cornish air like a crystal lake.

“To ridiculous in-car

jubilation, we hit the
end of Britain with 11%”

But on restarting, the dash lights up news. Range has
crashed to 25 miles. All other numbers, including battery
percentage, are unchanged. Sweat turns to full-on hot flush.
Which number do we believe? We proceed with renewed
caution as Rowan scours phone-apps for chargers.
We climb to the heart of Bodmin Moor at Temple Tor. My
family has been back and forth here for generations. In the
War, my grandfather was sent out by the Ministry to tell
farmers across Cornwall what to grow where, to best extract
food from every precious acre. My parents too endlessly
crossed the county, and every road improvement saved time.
As Dad neared his end last summer, my sister was visiting
one day. He fancied a trip out. Where? Could he see the
brand-new dual carriageway at Temple Tor, please? That was
the last time he left the house. See, roads and cars bring
people closer. If future cars are connected and electric and
near-autonomous, as this Jag is, well, I’m still all for them.
But not like this: eyeing the feeble range, we struggle to
a charger on an industrial estate. EV drivers get righteously
indignant at normal cars thoughtlessly blocking these
lifelines. Yet here’s a Leaf, straddling two charger bays, so
although I can drive into the remaining space, I can’t get out
JAGUAR I-PACE
of the car. Rowan plugs in, then tracks down the owner to
release me. We trudge off to find food. The nearest pub’s
Thai veggie burger’s taste, texture and colour resembles a
puck of compressed-wood renewable fuel. Appropriate to
our green mission but no reward for five hours in a slow-
moving greenhouse and the dank scent of failure.
Phoning Jaguar again reveals the range-calculation
software is beta. Trust the charge percentage, they say.
So, onward. More new bypasses. By Penzance an hour later,
we’ve recalibrated the goal: to do it using one total battery’s
worth. We’d added 10 per cent at that charge, so if we retain
10 at the finish, it’s a win.
We smell the sea, bathed in flaring Atlantic sunlight.
To ridiculous in-car jubilation, we hit the end of Britain
with 11 per cent. That means 99 per cent actually used.
We have attained the rated range. But only by crawling
along, denied heating, A/C, stereo, HUD, lane-assist, wipers,
headlights. Real-driving range is below 200 miles, I reckon.
This gap is not the fault of the I-Pace. It’s the fault of a new
test that may be more realistic than the old, but still isn’t
realistic enough. Which perversely makes today even more of
a TG triumph. Malodorous as we are, you may hug us. PH
TO P G E A R . C O M › J U LY 2 01 8 081
 3_THAT’S

082 J U L Y 2 0 1 8 › TO P G E A R . C O M
 TESLA MODEL 3

THE _ MAGIC

NUMBER Once teething

issues are dealt
with, Tesla is hell-
bent on putting a
Model 3 on all our
driveways. Can a
car really change
the world?
WO R DS: JAC K R I X /
PH OTO G R A PH Y: J E R E M Y C L I F F

TO P G E A R . C O M › J U LY 2 01 8 083
 TESLA MODEL 3
A zombie
shuffles
in our
direction,
his glazed, lifeless eyes fixed on a glowing screen clamped to a
plastic stick. Overhead, a man fires off rounds from his Canon,
points hysterically and hops on the spot like a sugar-drunk four-
year-old. Stage right, a queue forms outside a glass temple marked
with the sacred T. In front of me, an average-looking saloon car.
“A system of religious veneration and devotion directed towards
a particular figure or object” – that’s how the Oxford Dictionary
defines a cult. A fair assessment, I’d say, of what Tesla and its all-
seeing eye, Elon Musk, have become. It’s certainly not a car company
as we know it. Car companies don’t burn through hundreds of
millions of dollars every month, consistently miss production targets,
keep shareholders at bay with a vague prognosis of turning a profit
later this year… and still find themselves the darling of the industry.
Car-company bosses don’t take conference calls with Wall Street
analysts then send stock value tumbling by calling their questions
‘stupid’ and ‘boring’, make April fools’ jokes about the company going
bankrupt or tweet about Catherine the Great shagging a horse. But
then again, car companies don’t take 325,000 paid deposits for a car
084 J U L Y 2 0 1 8 › TO P G E A R . C O M
within a week. Jaguar tried a similar trick with the I-Pace... and has
kept the numbers firmly under wraps. Read into that what you will.
There’s a reason why Tesla doesn’t operate by the rules. Because it
doesn’t give a monkey’s about the rules. Musk’s mission isn’t to turn a
juicy profit – although that’s a necessary by-product – it’s to electrify
the world, to turn us all onto the idea that electric cars can be fast
and sexy and practical, too. If everything was to come crashing
around his ears next quarter – a not-inconceivable possibility – then
with attractive, long-range EVs from established manufacturers
about to flood in from every angle, it would still be mission complete.
But there’s no sign of any towel throwing. Not yet. To recap, the
Model 3 is a foot-shorter, half-price (or thereabouts) complement to
the Model S and Model X; there are well over 500,000 deposits down;
it’s the lynchpin of Musk’s mission to rid our roads of fossil fuels,
and it’s also the thing giving him a significant pain in the arse as his
company tries to ramp up production to 5,000 cars a week in the
short term, building towards churning out 500,000 Model 3s a year.
Currently the production number hovers at close to 3,000 a week.
 Its mission? To change the world,
one neatly executed parallel
parking manoeuvre at a time

TO P G E A R . C O M › J U LY 2 01 8 085
 TESLA MODEL 3
Jot this down,
it’s going to get
complicated...
THIS ISN’T A CAR YOU FULLY UNDERSTAND
in the first five minutes. Like a new
smartphone, you need to commit
some time to learning the screen, the
shortcuts, locating the settings you might
need and engraining them on your brain.
The quarter closest to the driver is
dedicated to information and controls
you might need while driving, like a
visual representation of your autopilot
situation and shortcuts to the trip
computer, charge status, etc. The rest is
dominated by a map or whatever you
want to overlay, such as your radio or
music streaming, climate control settings
and phone status. Alternatively, you can
dive into the settings menu (best to do
this when stationary) and have fun
adjusting the direction of the vents,
or the wheel for reach and rake with
the scroll wheels by your thumbs, or
tweaking your steering weight, or…
honestly, the list goes on.
Once that’s done, you can have fun
exploring Tesla’s ‘easter eggs’ – modes
that are there for no reason other than to
make you and your passengers laugh
and prove Elon isn’t just an evil genius
determined to colonise the solar system.
Modes like the, er, Mars button that turns
the map into the surface of the Red
Planet, or the Santa setting, which turns
your car into a sleigh, the road into a
rainbow and other road users into
reindeer. You will either find this fun
or excruciatingly annoying.
086 J U L Y 2 0 1 8 › TO P G E A R . C O M
Back to the kerb outside the Tesla dealership in Manhattan’s
Meatpacking District. We have seven hours with the Model 3 and
I’m wasting it waving a key card in the general direction of the
B-pillar and waiting for the wing mirrors to unfurl. Bingo. Push and
pivot the handle with your thumb, yank it and you’re presented with
an interior that makes a padded cell seem disorderly. The dash is
nothing but a slab of wood across the entire cabin (less appealing
plastic on the base models), a full-width air vent and a 15-inch
touchscreen, landscape-orientated, rather than the larger portrait
screen in the S. Turn the 3 on by waving the key card somewhere
near the cupholders, pull the Merc-sourced column shifter down,
right pedal to move, left pedal to stop, steering wheel to turn. Easy.
We won’t patronise you with another recap on the cornerstones
of the EV driving experience; instead, let’s focus on the difference
between driving a Model 3 and the Model S... beginning with speed.
Even in base-spec 75D trim, the Model S covers 0–62mph in
4.4 seconds, while the P100D does it in a gut-warping 2.7 seconds.
With the Model 3 you have a choice of two versions at launch – the
$35,000 standard car (0–62mph in 5.6 seconds, 130mph top speed,
220-mile range) and a $44,000 long-range model (0–62mph in 5.1
seconds, 140mph, 310-mile range).
Here’s what you get as standard on the Tesco Basics $35,000
model: 18-inch alloys, 15-inch screen, on-board wifi, satnav, 60/40
split folding rear seats, LED headlights and tail-lights and a
reversing camera. Not bad, but you’ll have to be a staunch penny-
pincher to resist the allure of a $5,000 premium bundle that adds
electrically adjustable, heated seats all-round, wood trim, an
“ For now, there’s no
Ludicrous mode,
but who cares?”
upgraded stereo, tinted sunroof and folding wing mirrors. Space in
the back seats is fine for anyone up to six foot, a bit cramped beyond
that, but it’s worth it for the endless view out through the full-length
sunroof that wraps right around and behind your head.
We drove the long-range – the only model Tesla is currently
building before rolling out the lower-spec car, and faster, dual-
motor versions, later in 2018. For now, there is no adjustable air
suspension, no four-wheel drive and no Ludicrous mode, but
who cares? As we turn our back on the skyscrapers, glide onto the
Hudson Parkway and point towards Bear Mountain, 50 miles north,
the Model 3 never feels anything less than enthusiastically fast. The
rush of acceleration is more 340i than M3, but because it’s perfectly
linear, no gearchanges are required and you’re never caught
off-boost, it feels more lively than a 340i, more of the time.
Rear-wheel-drive it may be, but there will be no skids here. In
fact, the only manual adjustment to the traction control you can
make is a slip start – designed to get you creeping from a standstill
on low-friction surfaces. Beyond that, you can choose three weights
for the steering (we tried all three in the first five minutes, then left
it in the middle setting for the rest of the day)... and that’s your lot.
Model 3 pounds the
streets of New York. Looks
so normal, no one notices

TO P G E A R . C O M › J U LY 2 01 8 087
“On quick, sweeping
corners, you can hustle it
at quite hilarious speeds”

Tesla waits patiently

as its triple macchiato
is lovingly prepared
 TESLA MODEL 3

Unsurprisingly, the steering doesn’t offer the last word in corner. Not ideal. The graphic for setting your maximum speed
feedback but, like so many modern racks, it counters with a on the cruise is also on the small side, tucked away in the corner
quick ratio and zero slack, so the whole car feels tight, alert of the screen – why not use the scroll wheels on the steering
and moves as a solid unit. Add to this the fact the battery pack wheel? An over-the-air update will sort that soon, says Tesla.
is in the floorpan, which gives the 3 an unusually low centre of A word on range: we spent the day crawling around
gravity, and there’s (whisper it) actual fun to be had here. Manhattan, cruising on the freeway to Bear Mountain, having
The Model S has long been criticised for having a vomit- some fun once there, then heading back into the city. A total
inducing turn of speed in a straight line, but lacking any real of 140 miles of very mixed driving, and there was still 100
emotion. The 3 moves things on. Push it too hard and physics miles in the ‘tank’. At no point did the range sweats kick in.
will take over, but it’s a whole league nimbler than the Model Without getting too carried away... it works.
S. On quick, sweeping corners, keep your inputs smooth, So, after spending a day in its company, do I want one?
your foot away from the brake and you can hustle it at quite Does it have the desirability to drag not just tree-humping
hilarious speeds. Alternatively, simply enjoy its 0–30mph environmentalists out of their petrol- or diesel-fuelled cars,
point-and-squirt potential around town. but the wider public too? The answer is an emphatic yes, and
The ride is firmer than in a Model S, but rarely crashy – and that’s because beyond the hype is a truly well-engineered car.
this is on the crumbling, weather-beaten tarmac in and around The way it drives is genuinely satisfying, more so than the
Manhattan. Chances are it’ll cope well in the UK, too. The Model S despite being several yards slower, which elevates it
sensation is firmness, but well-damped firmness, much like from an appliance to something worth investigating for the
the sporty German saloons it’s looking to eradicate. likes of you and me. There’s a refreshingly simplicity to the
So, the Autopilot system – a $5k option, $8k if you want proposition and a ripple of excitement wherever it goes.
to prepare the car with all the sensors and But it’s not perfect. Tesla’s production
cameras it’ll need for advanced autonomous woes are well documented, reports of shoddy
functions down the line. Wait for a small, build quality are hard to ignore (our test car
grey steering wheel to appear on the top left was perfectly well screwed together), the
hand corner of the screen. One tap down on TESLA MODEL 3 (LONG RANGE) 18-months-plus waiting list is daunting, the
the gear selector activates the active-cruise Price: $44,000 OTR/ Autopilot function is a work in progress, and,
control, a second tap lets the car steer for $57,000 as tested while slick, the decision to put everything
you between a set of defined white lines. Engine: Single electric motor, on one touchscreen is just as distracting as
On the right road, it works fine and lets 70kWh lithium-ion battery checking your phone. We admit, coverage of
you go hands-free for much longer than a Transmission: single- Tesla can get a bit frenzied, but credit where
speed, RWD
BMW or Audi does before bonging. However, it’s due, the Model 3 is an electric car you’ll
Performance: 0–60mph
apply too much pressure to the steering in 5.1secs, 155mph want to own and can probably afford. Here’s
wheel with your finger and it’ll deactivate Range: 310 miles to Musk clawing his way out of production
the auto-steering function, possibly mid Weight: 1610kg hell. If he does, it’s mission complete.

Jack takes a break to check

Twitter. Yep, the Tesla fanboys
are still angry about stuff

TO P G E A R . C O M › J U LY 2 01 8 089
 SPEED
Normally I’d reach for the
numbers and settle this in
the first sentence, but the
Jag EV400’s 0.6sec 0–60mph
advantage doesn’t tell
half the story. It’s a more
expensive car, for starters,
so you’d expect it to be
faster. It’s got four-wheel
drive, too; rear-wheel drive
for the Long Range 3. You’ll
also notice that Professor
Musk has just announced a
four-wheel-drive, dual-
motor performance version

DESIGN of the 3 for later this year

Nice easy one to start... Jag’s I-Pace has been
conceived from the outset to be a design
statement, to challenge the establishment with
proportions that reflect the fact that this is
something new, for all of us. Inspiration came
from the C-X75 hypercar that never was, says Ian
Callum. Hmmm, bit of a stretch that one, but it’s
still a hugely confident piece of design. Get it
jacked up on its air suspension in off-road mode
and it gets all a bit Jetsons. Brilliant. When all’s
said and done, it’ll be this, not the F-Type, that
Callum’s remembered for.
And then there’s the Tesla, inspiration from
a bar of soap. But can you blame them? The
mission is to slip under the radar and onto the
driveways of millions of homes around the world
– anything too controversial would have been
prohibitively expensive or needlessly divisive.
Which is why the Jag walks it and gets off to a
dream start. Britain 1, USA 0. Come on the lads.
that’ll be a better cost match
for the £70k I-Pace... and
smash 0–60mph in 3.5
seconds. Want speed? You
can have speed. Currently,
the I-Pace is faster, but both
leap down the road in a way
that is unlike even the most
lag-free of combustion
engines. So it’s not just
about the straight-line speed
(in fact, that starts to tail off
quite a bit beyond 70mph)
it’s the accessibility of it.
You needn’t know how to
operate a gearbox, where
in the rev band your turbo
comes on boost or the VTEC
kicks in, you simply boot it
and giggle like a child. Close,
but second blood to the Jag,
until the hot 3 arrives.
INFOTAINMENT
Remember the first time you had a play with an iPhone? It’s that
same sense of wonder when you sit in a Model 3... and stare blankly
at the screen, wondering where the buttons have gone. Operating
a Model 3 effectively is not the work of a moment, and the entirely
centralised interface with its endless sub-menus and hidden Easter
eggs can be highly distracting (seriously, how can this be legal when
sending a text isn’t?), but it does work... and looks slick. And with
only a handful of physical buttons, Tesla can reconfigure, over the
air, at any time, what function lives where. Clever stuff.
The Jag counter-punches with three separate screens and actual
physical buttons where you want them. It’s refreshingly similar to
‘normal’ cars, with just the right amount of future. Problem is, JLR’s
latest infotainment tends to over-promise and under-deliver – the
interface isn’t as intuitive as the Tesla – so half the time you’ll end
up using the satnav on your phone. Model 3 takes it by a pixel.

I-PACE MODEL 3 I-PACE MODEL 3 I-PACE MODEL 3

THE_ELECTRICITY_BILL
090 J U L Y 2 0 1 8 › TO P G E A R . C O M
 COSTS
Were the Model 3 to lose
this one, Musk might as
well book a rocket for one
to Mars, because its entire
remit is to bring the price of
an electric car within reach
of us all. UK prices are yet to
be confirmed, because UK
cars are yet to be built, but
a starting point of $35,000
translates to £26,264; that’s
less than the most pov-spec
318i. The I-Pace begins at
£58,995 after the £4,500
Goverment grant. Needless

BRAND to say, these are both very

much starting points; you
will want the longer-range
Two brands converging on the same point, but battery and autopilot on the
arriving from different worlds. One, a Silicon Model 3, and bigger wheels
Valley start-up younger than several jars of
chutney in my larder, driven by a humanitarian
mission to rid our roads of fossil fuels and
SPACE and decent seats on the
Jag... and and and. At final
calculations, our test cars
making the rules up as it goes along. The other The I-Pace carries a 125mm height advantage over the 3, but cost $57,000 (£42,773) and
steeped in a century of history, still trying to perhaps surprisingly, it’s the Tesla that’s 8mm longer and 35mm £80,860 all in.
unshackle itself from an olde-worlde image and wider. Even so, there’s only one proper family car here... The Then there’s running
needing to flog traditional saloons and SUVs in Model 3 scores points for its 85-litre frunk (there’s only space for them. Slap on the wrists
huge numbers while simultaneously sprinkling a 27-litre cubby in the Jag’s foreshortened snout), but loses many for Tesla because using
the whole company in the I-Pace’s green glow. more for the fact that it’s not a hatchback like the Model S or superchargers is no longer
It’s working, but not there yet. Model X. You open a traditional notchback lid to reveal a 340-litre free for Model 3 owners, but
When Tesla opened order books for the Model boot, but you can put the back seats down, something the internet the holiday had to end some
3, it took 325,000 deposits in the first 24 hours. points out creates the perfect square footage for a double blow-up time. There are cheaper EVs,
Jag tried to pull a similar trick with the I-Pace, mattress – Musk’s gift to the dogging community. Jag is especially but none with the tech geek
but is yet to show us the numbers. One of these fond of the line that the I-Pace offers Porsche Cayenne interior appeal and performance of
companies advertises; the other doesn’t feel the space for a Macan-sized footprint. All you need to know is that the 3. A last-gasp equaliser
need to. A valiant effort from the swashbuckling it’s a genuinely spacious SUV with roughly the same bootspace then... 3:3. Fair result, and,
I M AG E : G E T T Y

Brit, but Tesla isn’t just a car company, it’s a cult. (577/1453-litres) as a 3-Series Touring. Chalk it up, 3:2 to the Jag. just like that, EV buyers are
Good luck competing with that. Only the British could find a way to let it slip from here... spoilt for choice.

I-PACE MODEL 3 I-PACE MODEL 3 I-PACE MODEL 3

OK, so we didn’t drive them back to back... but using the

magic of memory, here are the scores on the doors
WO R DS: JAC K R I X

TO P G E A R . C O M › J U LY 2 01 8 091
 The future of car ownership is here, and
it’s subscription-based. TopGear uncovers
the automotive equivalent of Netflix
WO R DS: TO M FO R D / PH OTO G R A PH Y: M A N U FAC T U R E R & J O E W I N DS O R-W I L L I A M S

09 2 J U L Y 2 0 1 8 › TO P G E A R . C O M
LYNK&CO

I SS U E
01
“We are not selling
cars. We are providing
personal mobility.”
So says Lynk&Co senior vice president Alain Visser, exuding vast warmth
and confidence. “With these subscription models, it’s more like your mobile
phone contract or Spotify than a traditional lease, much more flexible. There
are services like it, but not quite the same…”
We’re sat in Visser’s office in Gothenburg, Sweden, looking out over a
frozen harbour at the glass and steel of a new business park, and pondering a
new way of looking at car ownership. Or non-ownership. Because Lynk&Co is
anything but traditional, even though its cars are based upon current Volvo
bones. The office is buzzing, slightly chaotic, filled with dangerous amounts of
fizzing young people with glowy skin as yet untarnished by disappointment.
Pretty much the antithesis of the usual big automotive mothership. But that’s
exactly the point: Lynk&Co is aiming at a new kind of consumer, targeted at
people who don’t necessarily like cars. The workforce reflects that, culled from
a wide variety of industries, throwing around the kind of on-trend phrases and
fashionable trousers that make me wince. It’s all very much how I imagine
Google head office might be, or some Silicon Valley high-tech ideas incubator.
But Visser is the kind of man it’s hard to remain unmoved by. He’s the right
side of evangelical, willing to admit that even he doesn’t understand some of
the motivations. Which is why he employs people who do.
A little background is probably in order. Lynk&Co was launched as a new
entity by Zhejiang Geely Holding, the owner of Volvo, in 2015, promising a
“global connected and shareable mobility brand” rather than a car company.
It promises to do away with dealers – offering boutique urban stores in town
centres (like Tesla), lose the idea of options lists, instead offering a
streamlined series of single-price collections, and provide the kind of
connectivity that will make anyone under 25 lose their wifi range anxiety. On
17 November last year, its pre-sales event in China for the first XC40-based
small SUV, the 01, sold out in 137 seconds. Six thousand vehicles in two
minutes, seventeen seconds, making it the fastest-selling car in the world. This
year, it announced the 02, a lower, smaller crossover – still on the same Volvo
CMA platform (Compact Modular Architecture) – confirmed production at
Volvo’s facility in Ghent, Belgium from 2019, and rolled out plans for a series of
094 J U L Y 2 0 1 8 › TO P G E A R . C O M
THE
02 03
those city-centre offline showing-off shops in Amsterdam, Barcelona, Berlin,
Brussels and London. It has also announced a homewear and fashion range
in conjunction with emerging-designer shopping site Tictail called the City
Dweller Series, as well as a similar operation with Chinese designer JINNNN
that will produce a “series of cross-industry products following the megacity
design philosophy”. What that means is anyone’s guess, though this is a
multi-headed hydra of a strategy, and Lynk&Co has started to put down roots
and prepare for invasion. As a new brand, it is not, as they say, messing about.
The hardware is familiar, and good. As mentioned, all of Lynk’s products
will be based on the same architectures as current Volvo stock, produced on
the same lines and to the same standards, of both safety and quality. A hugely
reassuring starting point. The European cars will be focused on hybrid-only
powerplants – the Chinese market preferring a gasoline engine – with
three-cylinder versions (analogous to the XC40 T3 spec cars) coming next,
followed by full EVs. Indeed, Visser says “There will be no diesel, no manual
and no ICE Lynk&Co derivatives in Europe. When we commence production
in 2019, and sales starting from 2020, our range will be all about new energy.”
First impressions of the 01 indicate they are, as you might expect, perfectly
good to drive and exist in, without being overly sporty or satisfying to drive,
with styling that’s handsome and conservative rather than striking. But it’s the
rest of the offering that really makes you wonder where this is aimed, because
it probably isn’t at the kind of people who read TopGear.
Of course, you can buy outright, and just take advantage of the no-hidden-
extras pricing and subsequent service. But the subscription ownership is the
first big deal, and it’s linked to the streamlining of the whole consumption
process associated with a Lynk. You buy into a sub, with the opportunity to opt
out with a month’s notice – unlike most mobile phone contracts, which tie you
in for a year, or more. Cars can be swapped for different versions (think SUV
for summer holidays, something a little smaller for usual commuting), and
Lynk plans a whole raft of models to cover every eventuality. There are no
dealers – you simply order online from that restricted number of collections
which consist of Clear, Louder, Inter and Hyper for the 01 at the moment
 LYNK&CO

02 is based on
the Volvo XC40.
Could be worse

TO P G E A R . C O M › J U LY 2 01 8 095
 “Pride of ownership
takes a back seat
to usefulness”
The Future: “Shall we get a
cab home?” “Nah, let’s just
use our Lynk&co subscription”
– which cuts the cost of manufacture as well as the money-sapping dealer
process. Cars are delivered to your home or work (this goes for servicing, too),
keeping the process convenient. The limited optioning also means that the
company can carry centralised stock, so waiting times should be negated –
no more lists. Servicing and lifetime warranties are included.
And there’s more. Each car has the kind of connectivity that will plaster
a grin on those next-gen consumers. From personalised services to an open
API (Application Programming Interface) called Co:Lab, a dedicated app store
and the car’s own cloud service and wifi hotspot, the vehicles will customise
themselves according to your downloads. With digital keys coded to your
mobile phone, cars can be shared with family members (or neighbours,
if you want), or even rented out in the same way as Airbnb. Delivery
services could be sent one-time, boot-only opening codes, allowing
Amazon or a food delivery service to drop your order into the
boot of your car at work (Volvo has just announced the
AmazonKey on XC40 models via Volvo OnCall), and eventually,
when autonomy manages to jump its own hurdles, the car could be
sent home during office hours, to be used by others. In the same way as
a streamed song or a Boris bike, you no longer own the hardware, but
decide more precisely how you want to consume it, with the digital aspects
allowing each car to become your “own” as soon as it links to your mobile.
The car, then, becomes secondary to the convenience. Pride of ownership
takes a back seat to usefulness, replaces the emotional satisfaction with
utility. But is that really a bad thing? A petrolhead could subscribe to a
Lynk-style service for commuting needs, and keep that special car for high
days and holidays. With the cost savings from the lack of dealerships, the
monthly price of a base subscription is likely to be similar to a full-on home
multimedia package – far short of a traditional hire-purchase or lease deal.
The kind of thing that would appeal to people who are shying away from
096 J U L Y 2 0 1 8 › TO P G E A R . C O M
personal car ownership and looking to Lyft and Uber. With new-car
registrations falling, car companies need to do something to keep people
buying – or rather consuming – cars.
But it’s also wise to note that none of this is, in fact, new. The concentration
on connectivity – in all its forms – is central to any manufacturer’s pitch these
days, and Lynk&Co will definitely not be the only manufacturer with its
corporate finger on the pulse. Similarly, subscription services exist all over the
place, though mostly being trialled in the US, from single-marque systems like
Volvo’s own Care programme, to Porsche’s Passport scheme, to similar
versions in the shape of Mercedes Flexperience or BMW’s Access.
Typically, these services offer app-based access to a raft of different
cars, with a concierge service that handles delivery and collection.
Then there are the multi-marque versions – too many to list here
– where you simply book the kind of car you want, when you
want, if at all. And while some of them simply seem to act like
a fancy flat-fee lease with a few extras thrown in and no huge
deposit, it proves that the automotive landscape is changing. Or
at least the big automotive brands seem to think it is.
What is new is that the Lynk&Co brand has been conceived from
the outset to take advantage of all of the options, to provide a starting
point for the whole gamut of technology, unhindered by a powerful and
strident dealer network understandably looking at the sector with panic on
its collective face. It offers the kind of free and easy, come and go ownership
models that appeal to commitment-phobic Millennials and eventually
Generation Z – stuff that they’ve grown up with. After all, recent studies have
shown Millennials (those in the 22–37 age range in 2018), would rather give
up their car than their smartphone. Which means that Lynk&Co might have
hit the ground running at the perfect time. The future of car ownership? This
just might be it. Even if you don’t actually own anything at all.

Bland meets nondescript...
THIS IS THE FIRST TIME ANYONE HAS
officially driven a Lynk&Co 01 outside of
China, or indeed on a public road, and
it’s in Sweden, with the weather looking
decidedly noir. There’s a depthless
nothing of cloud wrapped around the
horizon, the temperature is moderate-
to-cold, and I’m stood on a beach next
to a pier wondering what to make of it.
It’s not actively ugly, but it does appear
to have influences from across the
board – in fact, cover up the badges
and you’d be hard-pressed to decide
where on earth it came from.
There are some nice details, but
overall it’s a little... generic – a small,
five-seat SUV with a front end that looks
like a cross between a Ferrari 599 and
Chevy Camaro, one stacked on top of
the other. Those top lights, by the way,
aren’t the main headlights – they sit in
the horizontal bar in the midsection. The
proportions are mini-Cayenne, the rear
lights another broad horizontal graphic,
featuring strange, interesting little
segmented features. Inside, it’s comfy,
dominated by a huge central screen
and otherwise inoffensive, with decent
quality and plenty of kit, even though
this car is an early import from the
Chinese launch operation.
Suffice to say, it hasn’t got the same
clean, crisp vibe of its sister car, the
Volvo XC40, missing the Scandinavian
visual twang – inside and outside – that
might suit the situation better. Still, it
drives nicely enough, humming along
A- and B-roads. Its 188bhp, 2.0-litre
petrol and 7spd auto are a bit coarse
under its admittedly limited accelerative
urge, pitched somewhere on the firmer
side of the Volvo median. It’s not a
sports car, and it’s not particularly
satisfying to drive, which makes you feel
like it might have been better pitched
at the soothing side of things.
The steering is light but ever-so-
slightly vague, and the same could also
be said of the other control surfaces,
handling and general demeanour –
LYNK&CO
it’s a car that treads a line somewhere
in the back of the mind, trying not to
capture your attention with anything in
particular. Which, I guess, is the point.
The much prettier 02 has already
been previewed, and a saloon is
coming, though neither will be
particularly sporty. But again, this isn’t
the point; the Lynk&Co cars are, for the
moment, simply carriers of technology
and experience – the expansive
flatscreen telly through which you
enjoy other forms of entertainment.
Welcome to the glorious future
of driving. Grey, overtall and
broadly forgettable
TO P G E A R . C O M › J U LY 2 01 8 097
WHAT_
HAPPENS _
IF_ MY_CAR_
RUNS _OUT_ *
OF_ BATTERY?
SIX CRUCIAL EV QUESTIONS ANSWERED
W E L L , S E V E N I F YO U CO U N T T H I S O N E . . . FO R T H AT A N SW E R T U R N TO PAG E 78

WO R DS: PAU L H O R R E L L

098 J U L Y 2 0 1 8 › TO P G E A R . C O M
TO P G E A R . C O M › J U LY 2 01 8 099
 NEVER_
MIND_THE_
ADVERTISED_
RANGE,_HOW_
WILL_MY_CAR_ FAR_WILL_I_
BATTERY_ REALLY_BE_
EVENTUALLY_
BRICK_ITSELF_ ABLE_TO_GO? HOW_
LIKE_A_PHONE_
QUOTED EV RANGE HAS BEEN BASED
on the same unrealistic EU test as petrol
and diesel cars. The advertised range on the
FAST_
CAN_I_
new, more honest WLTP test will be less, but

BATTERY_ you’ll have a better chance of achieving it.

Long journeys using fast chargers make
it worse. Say you have a “200-mile” (WLTP)

ALWAYS_DOES?
AIN’T. GONNA. HAPPEN. TRUST US.
Nissan has made 300,000 Leafs, and some are
now in their eighth year. The number globally
that have had battery failure is… three.
Degradation too is a vastly overstated
problem. A few Leaf taxis in Japan have
dropped to sub-80 per cent capacity, after
spending years being rapid-charged three
times a day (brutal) and doing more than
100,000 miles. Batteries degrade with the
number of discharge cycles, especially
deep-discharge. Future cars, with longer
range, will be less prone, as their charging
frequency will inevitably fall.
The market is realising they’re reliable.
Two years ago a friend of mine bought a
three-year-old Leaf. He paid £9,000. Today,
three-year-old Leafs of the same mileage
and spec are £12k.
Also, there’s a growing demand for used
car batteries for renewable-energy storage.
Those packs don’t need tip-top energy density:
it’s OK if they have, say, 70 per cent of their
original capacity.
So at the end of the car’s life, the battery
isn’t a hard-to-recycle liability. It’s an asset.
EV. You start at home, with the battery
at 100 per cent. Driving on a motorway,
at 160 miles there’s a rapid-charge station.
The next one is 30 miles ahead, and who’d
risk that? You stop.
This charging is only rapid up to about
80 per cent, and after that the battery tops
off more gently. OK, take it to 80 per cent,
or 160 miles’ range. Set off again, and again
feel compelled to stop when the indicator
says 40 miles. In that leg you’ve covered
only 120 miles between charges of your
“200-mile” EV.
CHARGE?
ROUGHLY, DIVIDE THE USABLE BATTERY
capacity by the charger power, plus about
10 per cent for charger inefficiencies. Using
a household socket is desperate. It’s 3kW or
less, so more than 13 hours for a new Leaf;
30 hours for the (84.7kWh usable, 90kWh
gross) I-Pace.
A home wallbox is about 7kW, and too
many public charge points are the same – too
slow for big-battery cars. Some AC points do
22kW or even 43kW fast charging, although
many cars can’t accept that power and
throttle the intake. Check the car’s spec.
DC ‘rapid’ charging bypasses the car’s
on-board charger rectifier, but after 80 per
cent the rate tails off. Motorway outlets
are 50kW, giving the new Leaf 80 per cent
charge in 40 minutes.
From next year, there will be some
150kW DC sites, and 350kW with Porsche’s
‘Turbocharging’, taking a flat Mission E to
80 per cent in 15min. Tesla’s Supercharging
is 120kW DC, for 0–80 in about 30mins.

10 0 J U L Y 2 0 1 8 › TO P G E A R . C O M

WILL_I_BE_
ABLE_TO_FIND_A_
STATION_THAT_
HAS_MY_PLUG_
ON_IT_AND_THAT_
ACCEPTS_MY_
PAYMENT_
SCHEME?
FIRST, YOU NEED THE RIGHT CHARGE
lead and plug. For slow and ‘fast’ AC
charging, your cable will have a plug for your
car’s socket at one end (Type 1 or Type 2,
according to the car). The other end of your
cable is best to be Type 2, as that’s most
public chargers.
For rapid DC, there are three kinds.
Nissan has a thing called CHAdeMo. Most
other cars, if they accept DC, have an extra
two prongs on the Type 2 plug, called
Combined Charging System or CCS. Tesla
uses a Type 2 plug for Superchargers, but the
electronics are incompatible with the others.
You can’t just turn up at a charge post
and pay. Oh no. There are several different
national networks, plus local schemes. You
usually need to be a member, signed up in
advance, or download the relevant app, sign
up and top-up your account for pay as you go
charging. This takes careful planning and is
currently a total arse.
It’s being sorted, but only gradually.
WHAT_
HAPPENS_
IN_A_FEW_
YEARS_
WHEN_THE_
TAX_BREAKS_
FINISH?
FIRST, THE £4,500 SUBSIDY FOR BUYING
an EV will go. Maybe quite soon. Fair enough,
as the car companies are finding ways to build
and sell EVs more cheaply.
But running them is a different matter
altogether. Taking duty and VAT into account,
the tax on petrol and diesel is about 170 per
cent, raising a staggering £30 billion a year
for the Exchequer (schools, the NHS and the
army). Electricity carries no duty, and VAT
of just five per cent. Clearly, then, when
EVs take hold, there’s going to be a serious
revenue hole. It would be political suicide
to shift the burden to non-motoring taxes.
It’s likely to be added to the electricity
price, but only the electricity for the vehicle.
After all, EVs are highly connected. It would
be pretty simple for them to report their
energy use to your supplier, which would
collect higher-rate tax on that electricity, while
taxing the electricity for the rest of your
home use at the normal rate.
WHEN’S_
THIS_ALL_
GOING_TO_
ACTUALLY_
TAKE_
HOLD?
THE TRADITIONAL MANUFACTURERS
expect about a quarter of new cars sold will
be electric within six years. Merc says 30
per cent of its sales will be EV by 2025; so
does the VW Group. VW (just the brand)
expects to do a million EVs a year by then.
There will be plenty of choice. The VW
Group is talking of 30 no-engine models by
2025. They’re modular, with economy of
scale bringing down prices.
We’ll need a robust widespread charging
infrastructure, including maybe chargers on
lamp-posts so people in towns who have to
park on the street can still charge overnight.
The Government has said no more
new combustion cars sold by 2040, but
full hybrids will still be allowed. Anyway,
think of what’s happened in the past decade:
the only EV on sale here as 2008 began
was the G-Wiz. We can’t begin to imagine
the possibilities in the next 22 years before
that deadline.
TO P G E A R . C O M › J U LY 2 01 8 101
DO NOT PANIC! The future might be
looking increasingly electric, but
Lambos will still be Lambos

WO R DS: C H A R L I E T U R N E R / PH OTO G R A PH Y: P H I L I P P R U P P R EC H T
TO P G E A R . C O M › J U LY 2 01 8 103
 n an automotive landscape littered
with radical concept cars and
vapourware that’ll never see the light
of day, it would be easy to dismiss the

I Lamborghini Terzo Millennio as an

irrelevant flight of fancy. The fact that
the specification includes a yet-to-be-
invented supercapacitor, energy
storage in the carbon fibre through
the use of nanotechnology, self-healing bodywork and propulsion
by in-wheel motors doesn’t help make it feel any more realistic. But
dig below the headlines and there’s method in the madness.
Lamborghini has a problem. The future, whichever way you look
at it, is going to be electrified, and, for a supercar manufacturer
whose heritage lies in vocal V12s, there’s work to do to preserve
the brand for the next generation. While the arrival of the Urus
has helped give the V10 and V12 a stay of execution (it’s been
confirmed that both will live on in hybrid form in the Huracán and
Aventador replacements), the future vision for Lamborghini needs
to be defined for the brand to remain relevant in an EV world.
Seeking this definition, TG headed to Lambo HQ for exclusive
access to the Terzo Millennio and the team who commissioned it.
While the project is being driven out of Lamborghini’s home in
Sant’Agata, the team has enlisted the help of some people with
seriously large foreheads to help think beyond the current
understanding of automotive performance. Rather than take
centre stage at a motor show, the car was revealed at MIT
(Massachusetts Institute of Technology) on 6 November 2017,
and the relationship with MIT’s department of oversized crania
is at the core of some of the more radical thinking.
We head deep into the bowels of Centro Stile, Lamborghini’s
Area 51. The first thing that strikes me as I approach the Terzo is
its proportions. The super-aggressive cab-forward stance, which
tapers towards the rear, has a pugnaciousness that would give a
Ford GT an inferiority complex. Then it’s the height, or lack of it,
that intrigues. Clearly, the ridiculous track-focused ride height and
arch-cramming tyres help the Terzo’s stance, but it looks barely
possible to fit two full-sized people in there.
As you continue to circle it, trying to absorb those hypercar
design staples – flying buttresses, the tapered keel, a clever use
of negative space – you notice there’s also some familiarity in
certain areas that make it a realistic vision of a future generation
of Lamborghini. If a key part of the brief was to create a car to
occupy the bedroom walls of hypercar fans, as the Countach and
Aventador did before, then it’s job done. You’ll find evidence
of this on Mitja Borkert’s (Lambo’s head of design) Instagram
account: in images of it being deposited outside a local Bologna
school and being mobbed by enthusiastic seven-year-olds.
“I brought the car back here and asked if we could do a lap
around Sant’Agata. I wanted to photograph it in front of cool

10 4 J U L Y 2 0 1 8 › TO P G E A R . C O M
 TERZO MILLENNIO

“It has a pugnaciousness

that would give a Ford GT
an inferiority complex”

TO P G E A R . C O M › J U LY 2 01 8 105
“This car’s role is
about more than
shock and awe”

LAMBO WITCHCRAFT
1 SELF-HEALING BODYWORK
Leave your Terzo Millennio in
supermarket car parks without
fear. Any dings will magically heal

2 PANELS ARE BATTERY SYSTEM

No need for heavy battery packs,
ingenious bodywork allows
panels to store charge

3 VIRTUAL ASSISTANT
Computerised systems hold your
hand on circuits and make you
a bona fide driving god

4 ADJUSTABLE PLANES
How do you get your Lambo to
sound less droney than a Prius?
Turn it into a musical instrument

5 SUPERCAPACITOR
Able to hold up to 100 times
more power than a ‘normal’
battery. Now you’re talking

6 IN-WHEEL MOTORS
Lambo’s trademark 4WD,
but with infinite torque-
vectoring capability

places,” says Borkert. “One of the most enjoyable moments
ever in my career was when we brought it out in front of the
school. All the kids were freaking out… it was super.”
But this car’s role is about more than shock and awe, it’s a
statement of intent to be a tech leader. Given we’re about to
deep dive into nanotechnology and I failed my physics GCSE,
we need an articulate guide. Fortunately, Lamborghini chief
technical officer Maurizio Reggiani is on hand.
“The project started from a discussion about
electrification in Lamborghini, if Lamborghini could have
an electric car. The specification was clear: we needed to
be able to reach 300kph, but also complete three laps of
the Nordschleife. That means that you need not only a
peak of power, but also an extensive range of high power.
Why three laps? Because if you really made three hot laps
of the Nordschleife, you’d need to replace the tyres anyway,”
he says with a smile.
TERZO MILLENNIO
“We started to look at what’s available on the market
in terms of batteries, in terms of single cells, in terms of
electric engines… and we discovered there was nothing
able to fulfil our wishes.
“So we started to discuss internally, if we had a project
starting from scratch, a totally clean sheet of paper, was
it possible to have a huge quantity of batteries without
penalising the weight or packaging of the car? To restart our
way of thinking, we decided to head back to the laboratory,
because in the laboratory you are not contaminated by the
normal development process.”
Current trends see a new EV hypercar arriving every few
months that promises to propel its millionaire occupant
from 0–60mph faster than the internet eye candy of the
previous creation. Look into the spec, and they’re all based
around the same basic “skateboard” layout, a development
of the technology as we understand it today, deployed in
TO P G E A R . C O M › J U LY 2 01 8 107
“The ideas challenge conventional
thinking so dramatically it’s easy
to deride them as pure fiction”

Terzo’s bodywork will

create sound. This bit
plays ‘Barbie Girl’ by Aqua

“Doorhandles? Doorhandles?
Of course we remembered
to fit doorhan – damn”
 TERZO MILLENNIO
everything from the Tesla Model 3 to the Aspark Owl.
Technology that Reggiani describes as “evolutionary, not
revolutionary”. The Terzo is designed to leapfrog the current
thinking in all aspects. So, with no traditional battery pack,
how and where do you store the energy?
The somewhat technically challenging answer is to use the
bodywork. By working with MIT, Lamborghini is exploring ways
of using nanotechnology to thread millions of copper anodes and
cathodes into the carbon weave, turning every body panel into
part of the battery system. The three-year project with MIT is
focused on developing this radical new technology. According to
Reggiani, MIT has already tested it successfully, so the task over
the remaining 18 months of the deal is to deliver a solution to put
it into production. “The laboratory at MIT already proved it can
work on a small scale,” Reggiani claims. “The big job now is in
what way we can industrialise it. In research, you have to be
flexible, to change the scope of the goal. It’s research and
innovation, not development.”
While it sounds fanciful, if MIT can deliver it, the technology
would be transformational. And the wizardry doesn’t stop
there. The panels will also have self-healing properties –
an idea in development in the aerospace industry, where
a combination of nanotechnology and polymer chemistry
actively repairs any small structural damage.
Harnessing the body-panel energy and delivering the
target performance will require another huge leap forward
in technology. Again, Reggiani’s team is working with MIT to
develop a supercapacitor fit for purpose. The main advantages
of supercapacitors compared with standard batteries is their
ability to store up to 100 times more energy, their capacity to
accept and deliver charge much faster and to tolerate many
more charge and discharge cycles. In short, they’re lighter,
more energy-dense and would meet the criteria set out for
the Terzo Millennio’s three-lap max-attack assault on the
’Ring. But use of the technology at this scale is in its infancy
in the automotive world, something Reggiani is keen to solve.
“We have this guy that has a brain 10 times bigger than my
brain. He’s looking into what exists today in the market and has
discovered something exceptional. To give an impression, what
we have found with MIT is an element that is able to deliver
4.5V, this means you can have three times more peak energy
[than current options] that you can use in every condition,”
says Reggiani with a glint in his eye. “I’m confident that this
will be possible by the end of this project.”
If you’re tackling battery technology and weight distribution
issues with nanotechnology circuitry, current drivetrain
technology must look positively arcane. The Terzo team’s
solution was to allow each of the wheels to be driven by an
in-wheel motor, allowing for individual torque-vectoring and
fly-by-wire steering, braking and acceleration. And there’s an
autonomy play too... but with a unique Lamborghini flavour.
Reggiani: “You buy a Lamborghini for yourself. I cannot
imagine somebody that buys a Lamborghini leaves a computer
to drive the car. What we want to do in a car like this is to
create a kind of human or virtual interface that is able to
talk with you, to give to you feedback about what you can
achieve with the car, how far you are from best performance,
and what you need to do in order to improve – a kind of
autonomous supporter. This is our idea of autonomous driving.”
So while others are concentrating on autonomy to get you
home from the pub after a night out, Lambo’s virtual assistant
will be able to overlay your pitiful efforts around a track with
the absolutely optimal lap, then dial up the correct level of
assistance to help you find your inner driving god.
While this future-gazing technology pushes every element
of our current understanding, possibly the biggest challenge
for any current supercar manufacturer grappling with the EV
future is how to deliver a soundtrack worthy of the brand with
precisely zero cylinders and no exhaust. The Terzo Millennio
tackles this head-on. Not content with working on finessing the
shaping of the e-motor’s drive gears to deliver a soundtrack (à la
I-Pace), the team is currently in the process of signing another
soon-to-be announced deal to examine how to harness the
airflow across the bodywork, using the form of the Terzo like
a musical instrument. To heighten the sound and optimise the
aerodynamics, the two air-separator planes on the side of the
fuselage move subject to requirements.
As with most of the Terzo Millennio, the ideas challenge
our conventional thinking so dramatically that it’s easy to
deride them as pure fiction. But every giant leap in automotive
technology has come from radical thinking. Until relatively
recently the thought of using a woven fabric of carbon fibre
to create bodywork, let alone the whole chassis of a car,
was fanciful; now it’s ubiquitous in the hypercar space. As
Reggiani says, “I think the credibility of Lamborghini is to
look forward, not to look backward.” The Terzo Millennio
looks a very long way down the road and, by doing so, by
challenging every aspect of current EV thinking, Lamborghini
is providing a fascinating insight into the future extremes of
EV performance. If Lambo can deliver it, the future of the
supercar is in safe hands.
Terzo features clever use of
negative space. Or ‘big ol’
holes’, as the rest of us say TO P G E A R . C O M › J U LY 2 01 8 109
 1 TORQUE 2 CHARGING

KEY

Tesla Roadster

Rimac C_Two

TOP_TRUMPS
Two almost-real EV
hypercars clash in 10 WEIGHT 9 BATTERY

a war of numbers
we have no way n/a kg
Batteries are heavy though
200kWh
of verifying. Fight!
WO R DS: TO M H A R R I S O N /
I L LU S T R AT I O N : S E A N R O DW E L L 1,950kg 120kWh
 4 INTERIORS

3 BRAKES

n/a but presumably

it will have some

390mm Minimal, with a

carbon-ceramic chopped Knight
Rider-style steering
wheels and big
central screen. Roof
panel lifts out, can
be stored in boot

No key – facial
recognition is
enough to unlock/
start the car, which
can also read your
mood. Stowage in the
back for two helmets

6 RANGE
620 miles*
403 miles (NEDC)

7 0–60 mph
Rimac’s claimed
0–100mph time is

1.9secs a tenth slower

than the Tesla’s.
One front,
two rear

1.85secs 4.2 plays 4.3…

*on the industry-standard MUSK CYCLE

5 MOTORS

8 POWER

“The new Tesla

Roadster will be
the fastest car ever
made, period. And
this is the base
model.” Musk, at
the car’s reveal Two on
each axle

TO P G E A R . C O M › J U LY 2 01 8 111
 Does Verstappen have the mixture of genetic advantage
and raw ability to own F1’s future podium?
WO R DS: JA S O N BA R LOW / P O RT R A I TS: DA R R E N H E AT H & V L A D I M I R RYS

11 2 J U L Y 2 0 1 8 › TO P G E A R . C O M
 THE

I SS U E
 THE

I SS U E

Max’s dad refused to buy

him a new pair of jeans until
he tidied his bedroom

11 4 J U L Y 2 0 1 8 › TO P G E A R . C O M

In Malcolm Gladwell’s
2008 book Outliers:
The Story of Success,
the author attempts
to decode high
achievement.
How much is down to natural aptitude versus opportunity repeatedly knocking?
He cites two prime examples: The Beatles and Bill Gates, both of whom surfed
to gargantuan success off the back of a unique confluence of possibilities. But
they also racked up 10,000 hours of hard graft. Nobody is born a genius.
You might want to add Max Verstappen to the list. He remains the
youngest driver in history to start a grand prix, and also the youngest to win
one. When Red Bull promoted him from Toro Rosso to the A-team in 2016,
just four races into the season, what looked like a calculated leap of faith
was immediately repaid by that debut win.
There were two more victories, in Malaysia and Mexico in 2017, but it
was Verstappen’s drive through the field from 14th to third place in the 2016
Brazilian GP that had even the most phlegmatic observers falling over their
superlatives. In biblically awful conditions, he was conjuring grip where none
seemed to exist. If Senna and Schumacher are Formula One’s greatest
outliers, this was surely Verstappen’s application to join the club.
Of late, though, he’s looked less celestial. Verstappen weathered his Red
Bull’s unreliability last year, but compounded a luckless streak with some
dodgy moves of his own. F1’s future boy suddenly looked vulnerable. TopGear
is meeting Verstappen four hours before qualifying for the Azerbaijan GP; the
next day, he and team-mate Daniel Ricciardo will commit the cardinal sin of
crashing into each other. This lap 40 contretemps was precipitated by a snarky,
wheel-banging race-long battle, and left both drivers looking uncharacteristically
diminished. Now F1’s best driver pairing are really digging deep.
Rewind. Max, it turns out, matches his on-track confidence with an easy-
going manner some way short of the blunt self-possession you might expect.
He’s still only 20, already into his fourth F1 season, but is less guarded than
Lewis, more genuine than Vettel, infinitely more engaged than Räikkönen,
and easier to read than Alonso. To name but four. He and Ricciardo have
been on a sponsor ‘activation’ in Lada Nivas, in Gobustan National Park.
Verstappen still actually enjoys this stuff. “There were a few moments where
they couldn’t see what we were doing, and we were flat-out,” he remembers.
“I had Daniel right beside me, and we were drifting the cars. Sometimes
when you go back to basics – it’s really fun. It’s old-school shifting, and I
grew up basically only driving automatics, but it was good fun.”
Are you saying you don’t know how to drive a manual?
“I do, I do. I just don’t really do it very often. So the first 10 metres I’m
thinking, ‘Oh, I do still remember how to do it…’ Then it comes back to me.”
The son of ex-F1 driver Jos Verstappen and Belgian karting star Sophie
Kumpen, Max was never going to become an accountant. He was just four
MAX VERSTAPPEN
when he first sat in a kart, began competing when
he was seven. “My dad had a karting team. My
friend, still one of my best friends now, was three
when he started. I saw him on the track, and said,
‘I want to do that.’ My dad was still in F1 at the
time, so I asked him. He said, ‘Wait until you’re
six.’ I started crying and didn’t stop for days and
days, until my mum called him and said, ‘I think
we need to buy him a kart now.’”
The precocity was quickly rewarded.
“I definitely got the genes, and the karting
went well,” Verstappen says with masterful
understatement. “But that’s no guarantee because
we’ve seen many karting talents drop away, or guys
who weren’t that good in karts excel in cars. It’s
tricky. But I always had the right guidance. My dad
was hard on me; I had to help clean and maintain
the karts – it wasn’t a playground, you know? He
knew what it took to become an F1 driver, so I think
he was preparing me for that from a very young age,
even if I didn’t like it much in the beginning.”
No pain, no gain. Verstappen’s gifts saw him
win 68 out of 70 kart races he took part in, regularly
trouncing older kids.”My dad kept telling me, ‘You
know there will be a moment where somebody will
beat you.’ And I always thought, ‘How will that feel?’
There was a race where I came second, when I went
off the track and came back… it didn’t feel nice, I can
tell you. But it had to happen.”
Inevitable it may have been, a regular
occurrence it was not. Max was a prodigy. School?
“Boring,” he says.
But surely he missed out on things… a normal
childhood interrupted. “No. No. [firmly] For me,
what I loved was being at the track. Being at school
meant being trapped. It’s a big risk to step out of
education, of course, but luckily it worked out.”
I ask Jos Verstappen how he would have
reacted if his son had suddenly lost interest and
gone down the pub. The former Benetton and
Arrows F1 driver, and a man not renowned for his
infinite patience, almost snorts with derision.
Max was rendered
speechless by Jason’s
shadow puppet medley
TO P G E A R . C O M › J U LY 2 01 8 115
 MAX VERSTAPPEN
“I would have been disappointed. But he was in love with motor racing,
so I never really had to think about it.” From running his own kart team, Jos
soon realised what he had on his hands and turned his attentions exclusively
to his son. For any ambitious parent – or indeed child – it’s proof that the
path to outlier-dom is tough; everything else is left simmering on a distant
back burner. “I was only interested in motor racing. I didn’t really care about
the rest,” Verstappen Snr says. “I was always racing with him – my social life
was basically not there. I was his mechanic, van driver, engine tuner, seven
days a week. It was more like a job, 8am until 10pm, I was hardly at home. I
think I made more sacrifices, preparing everything.”
So while Max might still be young, the pressure of F1 is of little consequence.
Genetic predisposition is one thing, but the self-belief comes from some other
place. “I just jump in the car and go as fast as I can. The mental thing, it comes
naturally. I don’t need to think about which state of mind I need to be in when I
get into the car. As soon as you get your helmet on, you get into a different zone.”
Ross Brawn always credited Michael Schumacher with an amazing ability
to race with a big chunk of mental capacity in reserve. “That depends on the
situation you’re in,” Max says quickly. “If you’re in a car that’s a second faster
than the others, you can play ping pong on the back straight. When you have that
margin compared to the others, you can drive at 90 per cent and still be faster. If
your car is a bit slower than the best one, you have to work harder to get close.”
I wonder if he’s drawing on some extra mental strength right now, given
his current dip in fortunes. Isn’t this when we all find out what he’s really
made of, himself included? He shuts that one down instantly.
“I wouldn’t call it a dip. If it’s a dip, you’re just slow. Every year so far I’ve
been improving in terms of pace. Looking at every race I’ve been very quick,
just a bit unlucky with the result or the outcome of an incident. Of course,
you learn from those things, and I always try to find the positive. We’ve been
quick. That’s the most important aspect. The other thing is an easy fix.”
Has anyone asked him just to… back off a bit?
“I definitely don’t need to be a hero in every move, but that’s also not
my intention. Some of what’s happened, like in China for example, will make
me a better driver. The thing is, I knew how to do it last year, I knew how
to do it the year before… at the moment it’s just not working out for me. It
doesn’t mean I need to change.”
Mention that stellar drive in Brazil, and his reply is bracingly honest. “It
was good, but luck was also involved. It was 50/50. I look like a hero now, but
there could have been a shunt, and people would have said, ‘What a waste.’
Now, so far this year, I’m on the other 50 per cent. This year just hasn’t worked
for me, like the move on Lewis in Bahrain. That could have been, ‘What a hero,
I overtook Lewis Hamilton.’ In China, I made a miscalculation. There are
things that are on the fine edge between being brilliant or… loser. It can be like
that in racing. You have these keyboard warriors criticising you, and it’s fine
5 OTHER FUTURE F1 STARS
Charles Leclerc Lando Norris George Russell
Reigning F2 McLaren’s test and This Norfolk-born F2
champion, his pace reserve driver, his frontrunner is part of
in the Alfa Romeo- path to F1 has a Merc-AMG’s young
Sauber suggests a Lewis-esque feel to driver programme,
promotion to Ferrari it – he’s the youngest and is also Force
could be on for 2019 ever karting champ India’s test driver
11 6 JOUCLTYO 2B 0E1R8 2› T0O 1P 7G E ›A TRO. CP OG ME A R . C O M
– everybody has an opinion. [calmly] At the end of
the day, it doesn’t make me sleep less.”
For his part, Jos is even more resolute than
his son. “I like Max’s style – he’s a fighter. For me,
he doesn’t need to change. Lately, it’s a bit more
difficult. But he’s very cool about it. ‘This is how
I am, this is how I race.’ He’s right. And I think
the luck will turn.”
Max insists he’s generally “quite calm, relaxed”.
So he wouldn’t have responded the way Vettel did
in last year’s race in Baku [he smacked wheels with
Lewis Hamilton]? “Those things can just happen
very quickly. That’s a four-time world champion.
You suddenly lose it, driving on the limit, in heated
moments, as a person it can be on/off sometimes.
I don’t think it’s a bad temper – it’s a desire to win.
He was very motivated to win, and he thought
Lewis had brake-tested him and destroyed his race.”
We talk about his Aston Martin DB11 (“It has
orange stitching on the seats and orange brake
calipers”), and the Porsche 911 GT3 RS he also
owns, not a car your average 20-year old has access
to (“The insurance bill is not nice,” he admits). His
eyes still widen when I ask him to describe how
an F1 car feels. “In a fast corner, you think at first,
‘No, this isn’t possible.’ It’s fascinating how the car
sticks to the track. Even when you go down in fuel
by 30kg, the difference on turn-in is incredible.”
The glimmer of the karting kid is suddenly
visible. The talent, though, is transcendent. Jos
Verstappen, taskmaster, mentor and father,
remembers watching in the Red Bull garage,
in Interlagos, in 2016.
“I had seen it before, in a kart. But to do it
in an F1 car, in very difficult circumstances…
I was wondering why other drivers didn’t try
other lines. But it’s a gift to know where to go,
to look for the grip, having the feeling. When we
were karting, if it started to rain, everyone else
was packing up, but I put the rain tyres on. We
walked on the track, and he learned so much. He’s
confident, in himself, in the car, with his braking.
Taken altogether, he’s very special.”
Giuliano Alesi Jack Aitken
Son of former Ferrari This London-born
driver Jean, Alesi British-Korean was
is a Ferrari Driver recently announced
Academy graduate as third and reserve
(like Leclerc) and driver for Renault’s
making waves in GP3 F1 squad
 THE

I SS U E

Four reasons why

Formula E isn’t as
boring as you think
WO R DS: TO M H A R R I S O N

1 Next year’s batteries can store almost twice as much

THE NEW CARS LOOK FABULOUS

energy as this year’s, so drivers will be able to power

through an entire race without having to stop midway
to swap cars. But racing without pitstops is tedious, so
FE’s bosses are busy thinking up ways to keep them, even
though super durable Michelin tyres and those batteries
mean they won’t be strictly necessary. Power is up to
around 335bhp in qualifying trim, giving a 174mph top
speed and 0–62mph in 2.8secs.

2 Audi, Jaguar, and DS already compete in FE, while

THERE ARE SOME BIG NAMES COMING IN

Mercedes, BMW, Porsche and Nissan have all joined

up for 2019. Whether it’s the comparatively low cost
of competing in this series versus other forms of
international motorsport or the potential for marketing
and developing their commercially available EV tech,
having so many big names lining up to enter can only
be a good thing for the spectators and sport alike.

3 You’ve heard of Felipe Massa. He’s signed a three-

THE DRIVERS HAVE BIG NAMES, TOO

year contract with the Venturi FE team, and in doing

so has become the latest in a long line of quite serious
drivers to eschew internal combustion. Nick Heidfeld,
André Lotterer, Lucas di Grassi, Nico Prost, Séb Buemi,
Neel Jani and Kamui Kobayashi have all competed in
FE. Good drivers equals good racing. In theory.

4 Quite literally, in some cases. Whereas F1 tends

IT’S ON YOUR DOORSTEP

towards sprawling, extra-urban circuits that require

a concerted effort to get to, FE sets up shop in the
very centre of major cities. They’ve raced in London,
Hong Kong, Paris, Berlin, Rome and New York among
others, bringing motorsport to a newer, supposedly
younger audience. The kind of people who don’t
see Fan Boost as an affront to the concept of fair
and proper competition.
AUDI E-TRON VGT
 Your eyes do not deceive
you – the computer game
racer has come to life...
WO R D S : O L L I E M A R R I AG E /
P H OTO G R A P H Y: R OWA N H O R N C A S T L E

THE

I SS U E

around, but it’s a one-off. It’ll accompany the Formula E circus
around the world and then it’ll be off to gather dust somewhere.
But in the land of pixels and fast-twitch thumbs, the Audi
e-tron Vision Gran Turismo has a much richer life. One where
it can be bought for a million credits and raced against all the
other virtually engineered cars from the likes of Bugatti, Hyundai,
Mercedes, Infiniti, Subaru et al, competing on amazing tracks in
outlandish scenescapes.
We’ve seen these VGT cars before. The difference is that
this is the first real-world Vision Gran Turismo car that shares
an exact mechanical package with the car in the game. It’s
all-electric, three motors (one on the front axle, two on the rear),
each developing 272bhp for a combined 815bhp. Steel space-frame
chassis, hefty battery packs, 1,450kg kerbweight. It’s padded out
with various motorsport bits (DTM ceramic brakes and steering
wheel, fat 305-width slick tyres) that lend it an air of credibility,
while the batteries and motors are from, well, Koch won’t say: “All
I can tell you is that they’re from our development programme,
not our Formula E car.” I doubt the VGT will have a secondary
life as a future tech test bed, but it does at least talk to Audi’s
electric plans for the future (the e-tron lands this summer)
with tech that links the actual world with the virtual.
12 0 J U L Y 2 0 1 8 › TO P G E A R . C O M
Anyway, a power-to-weight ratio of 562bhp/
tonne puts this in the McLaren 720S league, and
Audi claims a 0–62mph time of 2.5secs. Neuberg
test track near Ingolstadt suits it well – lots of slow corners
for the e-motors to deliver instant shove out of, which they do
with a smooth, pin-you-back surge. But as we’ve found with
other such electric cars, after the initial punch of pace, the
acceleration starts to tail off.
That’s fine, because any more acceleration could have been
troubling. The ceramic brakes need real heat to work properly,
and on more than one occasion in the first few laps, I’m glad
that those fat slicks have good bite into corners that I’ve
arrived at faster than intended. The front end may bite well,
but there’s not a great deal of tactility or feedback. It’s all a
bit one-dimensional – again, it’s a one-off, so I doubt Audi
has poured that much resource into it.
Unlike the virtual car. The man driving the e-tron before me
was Kazunori Yamauchi. Yes, him, Mr Gran Turismo, “We’ve
never had an EV with a single front motor and twin motors at
the back in the game before” he says. “So we had to adapt and
engineer our systems and, with 1,000 parameters to code, that
took about a year of work. And I have a feeling this isn’t the end
of the e-tron – it might evolve further.”
But only in the game. Where, it turns out, Audi hasn’t turned
its back on the internal combustion engine. There’s also a hybrid
Audi VGT, featuring a 3.4-litre V6 and twin e-motors for a
maximum power of 1,274bhp. More powerful. Needless to say
that’s the one Luke had a go in. He was still right about the way
it drives, though.
 AUDI E-TRON VGT
Spec your e-tron with ‘pallid
flesh’ steering wheel for that
sinister interior vibe!

Mr Grand Turismo. Or
Kazunori Yamauchi
to his friends
All-new TVR Griffith: the rebirth of a legend More aero than a plane – the 789bhp McLaren Senna
Aston Martin Vantage deep in the mountains of Morocco 911 GT3 vs R8 RWS in Snowdonia
Drag racing in the Dodge Demon Building a Bugatti Chiron

Also available for digital download

 EDITED BY OLLIE KEW

TopGear’s long-term cars. Tested & verified

130Hennessey
Mustang

125 Skoda Karoq 127 VW Arteon 128 Porsche 718 132 Nissan GT-R
The Yeti’s replacement is in our garage As is a very swish Volkswagen But it’s back to Stuttgart with the Cayman And goodbye to the beast from the East
TO P G E A R . C O M › J U LY 2 01 8 123
July I 2018
You can’t
hurry love
Hello
BMW M5
£89,645 OTR/£101,900 as tested
OLLIE MARRIAGE
wo weeks after the M5 arrived
T I took it to the Lake District.
This was an important
moment. Up until that point
I’d spent a lot of time in it, but it had all
been on motorways. To South Wales, down
to Exmoor to help out on last issue’s Fiesta
ST test, up to Liverpool to catch a flight to
the Isle of Man. One and a half thousand
miles calmly done, but not much evidence
of personality, no real justification for the
hefty £89,645 price tag (£101,900 with
options, making this a six-figure super-
saloon), no real idea of what happens when
you uncork 600bhp of 4WD M5.
What had happened? Why was the M5
not straining at the leash? Because it’s not
124 J U L Y 2 0 1 8 › TO P G E A R . C O M
an extrovert, this new M5. That’s the
Merc-AMG E63. In this one you have to
want it to play before it’ll wake up. So all
I’d been aware of for two weeks was that
the ride was a bit busy to be genuinely
effortless and the Pirelli P Zeros kick up a
little more noise than a 530d, but I wasn’t
complaining because I had massage seats
and soft-close doors.
This had made me a bit confused.
Why save a kilo with a carbon roof, only
to throw every heavy, techy, luxury toy at
it? Answer: because BMW needed the M5
to look somehow different to a regular
5-Series and it wasn’t prepared to go to
the expense of altering the bodywork.
They did on the M3 I ran a few years back,
and that looked utterly terrific, had proper
stance. New M5, not so much. BMW
knows it’s a gentleman’s express, hence
the toy count. And the unobtrusiveness.
And that’s how I’d been using it. But
then, late one starry night, M5 and I came
across the A592 Kirkstone Pass. I pressed
the so-far-unpressed cherry red M1 button
on the steering wheel (Sport dampers,
Sport Plus engine, Comfort steering) and
had a drive on this tiny, twisty road. And
it was a revelation. The engine packs such
a massive, instant punch, the 8spd auto
gearbox is remarkably snappy and, above
all, the body control is rock solid, fabulous.
Until that point I’d seen the M5 as a
destroyer of autobahns; now I see it’s so
much more than that. Before it arrived,
I’d been concerned because I wasn’t that
excited about it. Ridiculous, I know, but
I saw it as too big, too heavy, just another
autobahn barge. Now the next few months
are looking considerably brighter.
SPECIFICATION
4395cc, V8 twin-turbo, RWD,
M1 button is passport
591bhp, 553lb ft
to instant driving 26.9mpg, 241g/km CO2
satisfaction. Good
0–62mph in 3.4secs, 155mph
1855kg
TESTER’S NOTES One good drive and
the M5 comes alive. Next month: more
good drives must happen.
MILEAGE: 4107 OUR MPG: 21.9

Put a
’Ring on it
Report 2
Hyundai i30N
£42,897/£52,435
STEPHEN DOBIE
ars developed for the
“C Nürburgring don’t
work on the road.”
Words probably all too
familiar, but they’re nonsense. This
month I’ve driven the i30N, whose
N stands for Nürburgring, back-to-
back with the Toyota Yaris GRMN,
whose N stands for… well, the same.
In short, these are the two most
boisterous hot hatches currently on
sale. Yes, they ride firmly, but they
still soak up the worst of our roads
more than well enough.
Their best facet, though, is that
they’re huge fun to drive. While
honed on the circuit they’re named
after, neither was developed to set
a lap record there. Thus their limits
are genuinely approachable, and
they’re able to thrill whether you’re
negotiating Mini Karussell or a mini
roundabout. Myth busted.
SPECIFICATION
1998cc, 4cyl turbo,
FWD, 271bhp, 279lb ft
39.8mpg, 163g/km CO2
0–62mph in 6.1secs, 155mph
1429kg
TESTER’S NOTES The i30N has digital
and analogue speedos. Their readouts
differ by about five per cent. Oops.
MILEAGE: 3102 OUR MPG: 28.6
Time to Karoq
Hello
Skoda Karoq
£28,415/£29,270 as tested
OWEN NORRIS
he Yeti is dead! Long live
T the Karoq. We loved the Yeti
at TG Towers. I remember
the original concept; I loved
the Tonka-toy looks and bug-eyed front
end. It screamed utility.
So we welcome the Karoq with cautious
optimism. Has it retained the soul of its
predecessor? First impressions say not –
it looks a VW Group copy-and-paste job –
but maybe it’ll surprise me once I know it.
Our car is a top-of-the-range Edition
spec, which comes packed with stuff. The
choice features for me are the 19in Crater
alloys that look so much better than any
other wheels available, smart green metallic
paint, a huge 9.2in touchscreen, chrome
roof rails, electric boot, LED adaptive
headlights and a panoramic sunroof.
Options we’ve gone for include the
family pack (£120), which includes rear
heat-insulated glass to stop the kids
overheating, a double-sided boot mat and
rubbish bin. The other option of note is
a front passenger seat ISOFIX (£35).
Essential? I’ll report back what’s worth
having later, but the one thing my kids liked
more than any other were the fold-out tables
on the seat-backs. Easily pleased, my two.
We’ve got the peppy 1.5-litre petrol
with DSG powering us along, and on my
first drive I noted that the relationship
19in alloys come with
between throttle input and ’box is
the Edition spec. inconsistent, so sometimes we lurch away
Nearly fill the arches with a nod of the head. Not ideal. Let’s see
if that loosens up with some miles.
I need to find out what a Karoq is now.
Sounds like a Moroccan footballer to me.
SPECIFICATION
1498cc, 4cyl turbo,
FWD, 148bhp, 184lb ft
50.4mpg, 127g/km CO2
0–62mph in 8.6secs, 126mph
1475kg
TESTER’S NOTES We loved the Yeti
so we’ll love the Karoq, right? Let’s
find out with a thorough TG test.
MILEAGE: 2580 OUR MPG: 35.6
TO P G E A R . C O M › J U LY 2 01 8 125
July I 2018

Feeling
deflated
Ready Report 2
Citroen C3 Aircross
to deploy £18,845 OTR/£21,975

Report 4 ESTHER NEVE

Mercedes E350d AT
£58,880 OTR/£61,260 as tested
ne hundred and ten

TOM FORD O pounds. Yup... another

car, another puncture.
And £110 is the
replacement cost, but that’s because
I replaced like with like. There are
hings are picking up pace Mercedes catalogue used on base models. many cheaper options, so you could

T with the Mercedes E-Class

All-Terrain (Project E-AT)
Painted black, they look chunky and
useful, though polarising in design.
be looking at as little as £55 per
corner, which is good news if, like
in readiness for a little On the custom roofrack are mounted me, you seem to pick up punctures
adventure, so I should probably bring you four large PIAA LED 180mm spots, like other people pick up morning
up to speed. First, we’re going on a bear arranged in an homage to the Red Sow newspapers. Or Penguins.
hunt (with cameras, not rifles) on the AMG SEL 300 6.8, while two rectangular In other, non-puncture related,
Eastern Estonian /Russian border fairly LED floods support the front illumination news, the C3 Aircross has seen its
soon. This involves a large ancient forest and a series of worklights are dotted fuel consumption figures improve
and many muddy tracks, though not around the circumference. Also mounted to 39.8mpg. This is probably thanks
hardcore off-roading, hence the BF on the roof is a pair of 20-litre jerry cans, to my commute including many
Goodrich All-Terrains and pair of spares various tools (pickaxe, mattock, etc), a more motorway miles and fewer
– one on the roof and one in the back. ladder and jack. Inside the dropped boot stop-start trips across London.
Larger sidewalls necessitated a smaller floor is a motorhome leisure battery and Hopefully, the economy will even
wheel, though no less than 18 inch, thanks split-charge system (designed to enable out again and improve further –
to the AT’s large brakes, so I went with a silent camera charging), as well as an it’d be good to see if we can get a
little-known aero wheel from a German on-board compressor, power inverters and bit nearer the stated mpg.
Meant for a mission, small espresso maker. And yes, there is a
inspired by the Red
Sow. Be amazed...
minibar. I’ll reveal where in due course,
SPECIFICATION but for now, I need to go and stop the
tyres rubbing…
SPECIFICATION
2987cc, V6 turbodiesel, 1199cc,3cyl turbo petrol,
AWD, 258bhp, 457lb ft FWD, 128bhp, 151lb ft
41.5mpg, 179g/km CO2 53.3mpg, 119g/km CO2

0–62mph in 6.2secs, 155mph 0–62mph in 10.4secs, 124mph

I M AG E S :JA M E S A R B U C K L E

2010kg 1188kg

TESTER’S NOTES Bespoke roof rack TESTER’S NOTES Puncture sorted

looks properly cool and fits with my – quick and easy thanks to online
adventuremobile plans. ordering. Let’s hope this is the last.

MILEAGE: 5540 OUR MPG: 31.5 MILEAGE: 2100 OUR MPG: 39.8

12 6 J U L Y 2 0 1 8 › TO P G E A R . C O M
Art nouveau
Hello
Volkswagen Arteon
£40,305 OTR/£47,810 as tested
JASON BARLOW
he Golf is the universal
T answer to about 90 per cent
of all motoring questions,
yet as a brand Volkswagen
wilfully fails to get the blood pumping.
(Unless you are an American corporate
lawyer, but we’ll leave the ongoing
rumble of Dieselgate to one side for now.)
The Arteon is the result of VW’s Grail-like
quest for soul. We know that the sum of
its parts is pretty damn good – it’s a
Volkswagen – but can the Arteon be
greater than that? A perfect candidate
for the TG Garage treatment, then.
Let’s start with its design. VW is so keen
to distance it from the Passat CC – a car I
always thought really well proportioned –
that it gets a new name. But it is the CC’s
new identity that underlines fresh flagship
aspirations. The Arteon has VW’s new face,
a look that stops short of Lexus’s wildly
overcooked ‘spindle grille’ but still manages
to dodge tedious pedestrian-protection-
dictated homogeneity. I reckon they’ve
landed on something truly distinctive. The
bonnet is a big clamshell number, and the
wheelarches take a satisfying bite out of it.
There’s a rising swage line, a nicely
abbreviated fastback, and if the Arteon
concludes less imaginatively than it begins,
overall it’s a very solid job.
Happily, we got to spec the car, and
although we don’t always end up ticking
every box, allowed ourselves to be nudged
in the direction of the range-topping
2.0-litre BiTDI 4Motion, in R-Line trim.
Turmeric Yellow is the colour Volkswagen’s
designers favour, and it’s also the least
conservative. So we went for black (better
for resale, unsurprisingly). I wish we’d been
braver: at least we’d have avoided what
one wag described, rather unkindly, as the
Uber Premium look. The 19in Montevideo
alloys are standard, as are the Nappa
leather seats, with ‘carbon optic’ side
bolsters. The Dynaudio ‘Confidence’
soundpack is a £1,010 option.
It’s a big car (4.8m long), with a huge
rear compartment uncompromised by the
sloping roofline (no doubt with an eye on
the Chinese market, where rear space
denotes premium). This undermines its
enthusiasm for what old people used to
Maybe there is a
call ‘press-on’ driving, but it has no end
place for the diesel of grip. Great economy, too: the computer
car after all... regularly shows 50mpg-plus despite its
weight. Diesel, y’see.
SPECIFICATION
1968cc, 4cyl turbo, AWD,
237bhp, 368lb ft
47.9mpg, 152g/km CO2
0–62mph in 6.5secs, 152mph
1828kg
TESTER’S NOTES VW tilts for
premium glory with elongated
fastback, TG goes looking for its soul.
MILEAGE: 2340 OUR MPG: 46.7
TO P G E A R . C O M › J U LY 2 01 8 127
July I 2018

Cayman Tom Harrison: What’s our Cayman

doing there? Have you gate-crashed some
sort of historic race meeting?

Go Stephen Dobie: A little bit. As a final

hurrah before the 718 left, I thought I’d
prove that four-cylinder Porsches are
Goodbye neither new nor anything to worry
Porsche 718 Cayman about. The 924 GTP and 356 racers you
£42,897 OTR/ see here both use four-cylinder engines,
£52,435 as tested yet still get an invite to the Goodwood
Members’ Meeting. Therefore any
STEPHEN DOBIE complaints about our Cayman being
& TOM HARRISON a flat-four are lazy or irrelevant. It’s a Porsche, seemed like a far more constructive
TH: Um, thank you. But my issue isn’t reader, but not comparison. Downsized turbo engines
as we know it...
that our Cayman is a flat-four. It’s that have made it to every performance car
it used to be a flat-six, and TopGear outside of top-end Italian exotica, so we
lore dictates that more is always better. just have to learn to love them. And, hey,
Porsche giveth and Porsche taketh away. 924s like the one below raced at Le Mans.
SD: Well, yes. Parking the 718 alongside If four cylinders was enough for them…
the last-gen Cayman would have teed up TH: I’ve learnt to tolerate it, but having
a foregone conclusion, which is why this experienced the old flat-six Cayman,

1 28 J U L Y 2 0 1 8 › TO P G E A R . C O M
 I don’t think I’ll ever be able to love
this one. Performance isn’t the issue –
it’s plenty fast enough – but its whole
character feels forced, a bit cynical.
SD: It’s disappointing the 718 is not more
economical, I’ll admit. It’s averaged
around 30mpg, and past experience
suggests the old flat-six would have
still done high 20s. Porsche presumably
downsized to lower its emissions, but it’s
PHOTOGRAPHY: GARY HAWKINS & MARK RICCIONI
little greener or cheaper to run in real
life. Which is a shame, because the rest
of the car is so ridiculously easy to live
with. Superb interior, loads of bootspace.
TH: It’s a much more efficient piece of
design than a Jag F-Type. The one thing
that’s really irked me, mind, is road noise.
At 70mph there’s so much tyre roar you
have to turn the stereo right the way up,
just so you can hear what you’re playing.
A shame, because the ride quality and
driving position make it a comfortable
thing to do distance in. We haven’t had
any other issues though, right?
SD: Nope. The dashboard developed
a slight rattle towards the end, but
that’s it. You could probably fix the
tyre noise (and save £1,767) by binning
the optional 20in wheels of our car and
Standard seats
sticking with the standard 18s or adding
less pricey 19s. It wouldn’t have such
comfier and lower
than optional buckets amazing stance, mind.
TH: It looks fantastic, doesn’t it?
The spec is great, but I think I’d add
cruise control and the Sport Chrono
pack, because I’m a tart and quite like
the stopwatch. But otherwise it’s spot-
on, even if it is a base Cayman.
SD: I prefer the base 2.0-litre to the 2.5
in the Cayman S and GTS. It sounds and
feels more natural, and 300bhp is a good
amount for a British B-road. You should
definitely stick with the standard manual
gearbox, as it’s superb, and until the
Alpine A110’s arrival there wasn’t a more
fun or involving chassis for £50k, either.
As an ownership experience, still nothing
comes close to a Cayman for this money.
Yes, even with a four-cylinder engine.
SPECIFICATION
1988cc, flat-four turbo,
RWD, 296bhp, 280lb ft
38.2mpg, 168g/km CO2
0–62mph in 5.1secs, 171mph
1410kg
TESTER’S NOTES The flat-four isn’t
as soulful. But that doesn’t stop the
Cayman being fantastic to live with.
MILEAGE: 13,119 OUR MPG: 30.5
TO P G E A R . C O M › J U LY 2 01 8 129
July I 2018
Shock and awe
Hello
Ford Mustang
$64,740
ROWAN HORNCASTLE
een viewers of TopGear
K TV may recognise our latest
TopGear Garage recruit. It’s
the same Ford Mustang that
Matt opted for last series to take part in
a triple-header across the States in order
to celebrate the sheer wonder that is the
V8 engine. And now, somehow, it’s in our
garage in west London. Magic.
This isn’t any Mustang, though. It’s
a Mustang GT350 R. But not just any
Ford Mustang GT350 R. Oh no. A Ford
Mustang GT350 R tuned by a man
called John Hennessey, that tune being
approximately 850bhp. Which we’ll
have to deal with in the wet. In the
UK. On semi-slick tyres. Yee-haw!
13 0 J U L Y 2 0 1 8 › TO P G E A R . C O M
Now, you’re probably aware that
the Mustang is now on sale as a right
hooker in the UK for the first time
in history. But you can’t get this one
in the UK. Being a GT350 R, it’s
Shelby’s America-only hardcore
track-focused road racer.
It’s got a unique flat-plane crank
5.2-litre V8 codenamed Voodoo. Yes,
Voodoo. How cool is that? Stock, it
churns out 526bhp and 429lb ft of
torque as it rips around to an ear-
Eight hundred and fifty
shredding 8,250rpm. Compared with
the milder GT350, the back seats,
boot carpet, side glass, spare wheel
and most soundproofing have been
ditched, shaving a total of 59kg. Plus,
there are special carbon-fibre wheels,
saving over 7kg per corner. That’s
all unsprung mass, too, which does
wonders for ride and handling, but
it’s a pricey fix if carbon meets kerb.
A £3,000-a-corner kinda pricey. But
the front rims are coated in the same
ceramic plasma arc spray as the Space
Shuttle’s engine turbine blades, which
is military-grade Top Trumps ammo.
But think of this Mustang as triple-
distilled, as having been to Shelby after
Ford, it’s then been to a corrugated
shed in Texas to be massaged by John
Hennessey. Now an ‘HPE850’ GT350 R,
there’s a new 2.9-litre supercharger,
upgraded fuel injectors, a carbon-fibre
induction kit, a light engine remap and
a handful of other tweaks to take it to
858bhp and 673lb ft. Which is a lot.
And did we mention it’s also one of the
angriest and loudest cars on the planet?
No? Well, more on that next month.
eight horses shod in
semi-slicks. Giddy-up
SPECIFICATION
5163cc, V8 s’charged,
RWD, 858bhp, 673lb ft
32.1mpg, 200g/km CO2
0–60mph in 3.3secs, n/a mph
1655kg
TESTER’S NOTES Our new exchange
student is loud, brash and quite the
handful. Can it work on our roads?
MILEAGE: 9193 OUR MPG: 16.8
Report 4
Honda Civic Type R
Browse the online Type R forums
and its squealing, shrieking brakes
occupy most complaint threads.
TG’s car’s Brembo stoppers yodel in
damp or cold weather or in traffic.
Honda says it’s a side effect of the
pad compound. So why don’t our
M5’s or Mustang’s brakes have the
same issue? Or any fast car I’ve
driven since the old Type R? OK
Report 3
Jaguar F-Pace
The Jaguar’s boot is supposed to
power-open if you approach with
the key in your pocket and wave
your foot under the back bumper.
It’s an increasingly common feature.
Basically, it means that you stand
there doing some ungainly
Dad-dance hokey-cokey at
the roadside. It’s idiotic, and a
preposterous decadence. PH
Report 6
Vauxhall Insignia
20in diamond-cut wheels on low-
profile tyres. Look ace, but easy
to kerb. Also, more complex to
repair than a standard alloy
which is why justwheelrepair.co.uk
had to leave the Insignia on jacks
while they took the wheels away
to repair. That said, £75 + VAT per
wheel is a fair price to pay for a
pristine motor. AW
Ioniq order
Hello
Hyundai Ioniq
£29,295 OTR/£29,860 as tested
SAM PHILIP
am most excited about testing
I a plug-in hybrid, as I have
nowhere to plug it in. Hear me
out. Like, I suspect, a whole lot
of people for whom electric power should
make sense, I don’t have a driveway. But
in every other regard, a plug-in fits the bill:
beneath 100mpg. Must
I do a stack of urban commuting, perfect
be giving it the beans...
for electric, but need something that’ll get
down to Cornwall without hours of breaks
for recharging, so a pure EV is off the table
for now. So does a plug-in make sense if
you’re limited to charging up at work, or
from public charge points? Time to find out.
The Ioniq employs a 60bhp e-motor fed
from an 8.9kW battery recharged from the
mains, with a 109bhp petrol engine as
back-up. It’s good for an all-electric range
of around 30 miles, enough to cover all the
urban and suburban bits of my commute,
which is where it’s really useful.
While the Ioniq isn’t a sporty drive
by any means, I’m greatly enjoying the
sensation of whoosh-zooming silently
through town on battery power alone,
without the range anxiety of a true EV.
And greatly enjoying reading ‘100mpg’ on
Oh dear, slipping the dash. And yes, I know measuring petrol
economy in a petrol-electric car is basically
a meaningless figure, and I could get
infinite economy by leaving it in all-electric
mode and never going further than 30 miles
between charges, but I don’t care. Still feels
nice. As does only having to brim the Ioniq
with petrol once every few weeks.
Honestly, I’m not sure anyone’s ever
been quite so excited to adopt a Korean
hybrid. Looking forward to this one.
SPECIFICATION
1580cc, 4cyl petrol + electric,
FWD, 139bhp, 195lb ft
256.0mpg, 26g/km CO2
0–62mph in 10.6secs, 110mph
1495kg
TESTER’S NOTES OK, so I’m getting
less than half the Ioniq’s ‘official’
256mpg, but I’m still feeling smug.
MILEAGE: 1660 OUR MPG: 101.2
TO P G E A R . C O M › J U LY 2 01 8 1 31
July I 2018
Totally
hen speaking to the GT-R’s
W head honcho, Hiroshi
Tamura, he told me that
piste a GT-R had two distinct
natures. Or, more specifically, colours.
The first part of its name GT is known as
Goodbye the ‘blue zone’ (comfort), while R is the
Nissan GT-R ‘red zone’ (performance).
£83,875 OTR/ His predecessor – the GT-R’s father,
£85,650 as tested Mizuno – chased the red zone. Tamura
has boosted the blue with better ride
ROWAN HORNCASTLE comfort thanks to new suspension
settings, a more refined gearbox and a
plusher, leatherier interior. There’s now
so much more squidge, Tamura believes
it’s the most blue GT-R ever.
To test this, I thought a leggy winter
Colour-coordinated
roadtrip was in order. So I spoke to
SeaSucker, who supplied a stupidly
sturdy suction cup ski rack into which
I fed some skis, then filled the deeply
capacious boot before lassoing a 1,500-
mile loop around the Alps in Google Maps
132 J U L Y 2 0 1 8 › TO P G E A R . C O M
that incorporated some of the best skiing
in France, Italy and Switzerland.
A near-on 600bhp supercar should not
be the transport of choice when Europe
was facing one of its worst weeks of
weather in history. But that Beast from
the East was nothing when I had the
original Beast from the East on my side.
Once the paranoia of two bright
orange skis jettisoning off the roof and
down the motorway had subsided, I
posted the GT-R into the Eurotunnel and
made it to France. Now, on a cruise like
this (especially when you’re driving in a
snow globe), I did what no GT-R driver
ever does – knocked the driver control
switches down, putting the transmission
skis: TG is serious in Save mode and suspension in Comfort.
about its style... Save is designed for slippery or snowy
conditions, giving you gears lower down
the revs, numbed throttle response and
calmer boost delivery. Comfort slackens
off the dampers, which have been backed

off by 6.3 per cent front and 2.8 at the rear
for the latest GT-R.
But it’s still thirsty. Which is expensive
when it baulks at anything less than 100
octane fuel. Even with my hypermiler hat
on I could never get it above 21mpg. And
that figure plummeted when I started
hammering around the Maurienne Valley.
The GT-R afforded me the ultimate
freedom of mobility – allowing me to
just follow the snow and resort hop. Even
with temperatures down at -15ºC, it just
cracked on and gave the same exciting
and forthright driving dynamics. It would
PHOTOGRAPHY: ROWAN HORNCASTLE
carve through the mountains sounding
like an industrial hoover but moving like
it’d been shot out of a snow cannon.
In Italy and Switzerland, it dumped it
down. But where the locals in their 4x4s
were struggling for grip, the GT-R with
just a set of winters, intelligent 4WD and
great balance (front-mounted V6 and a
rear transaxle) ploughed on.
So, is the GT-R the ultimate winter
weapon? No. It’s the ultimate weapon,
full stop. Even 10 years on, it’s still as
good as it was. Actually, better. And could
probably go on for five more. Well, at least
until everything goes electric. Which the
GT-R will eventually have to succumb
to, too. But until then, long live Godzilla!
It’s easy to see why people get hooked.
SPECIFICATION
3799cc, V6 twin-turbo, AWD,
562bhp, 469lb ft
23.9mpg, 275g/km CO2
0–62mph in 2.8secs, 196mph
1752kg
TESTER’S NOTES Amazingly, after 10
years it’s still a benchmark. But where
will it go from here? We’ll have to see.
MILEAGE: 11,234 OUR MPG: 20.1
TO P G E A R . C O M
Wheel
deal
Report 2
Audi RS4
£72,175/£77,145
JACK RIX
r Charles Turner, leader
M of this parish, dislikes
the RS4’s 20-inch rims,
thinks they’re “too
blingy,” prefers the 968 Clubsport
‘Cup’ wheels on the RS2. Fair play on
the RS2 (and an excellent excuse to
borrow one – for comparison
purposes, of course) but too blingy?
Sorry, boss, you’re mad. Yes, it’s a
snug fit under those arches, but their
purpose isn’t merely aesthetic, each
is milled from a single billet of
aluminium. This not only gives you
something to bore your friends with
in the pub, it also saves 2kg per
corner compared with forged
equivalents. That’s an 8kg total
saving, for the mathematically
impaired. Looking forward to
seeing if such slim improvements
can save the RS4 from its 1,715kg
mass... if I still have a job, that is.
SPECIFICATION
2894cc, V6 twin-turbo,
4WD, 444bhp, 443lb ft
32.1mpg, 200g/km CO2
0–62mph in 4.1secs, 155mph
1715kg
TESTER’S NOTES Any criticism
of the RS4’s looks will be met with
aggression. Now for some driving...
MILEAGE: 4089 OUR MPG: 23.8
› J U LY 2 01 8 1 33
Going electric…?
The team behind TopGear mag tells it how it is

BEST RANGE

miles
[ ]

OW N I N G
N E W LI N G O

B E S T 0 – 6 2 M PH

[ ]

“Chademo is incompatible with CCS

chargers... yep, you need a whole new CH E A P E S T LE A S E
vehicular vocabulary for EVs”

[ ]

0 10

ELECTRIC GROUP TEST

UK’s best and brightest plug-in
cars, head to head

1 2 HOW IT

BAC-BMW
WORKS

Data
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Every car on sale in the UK today listed and rated

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Every car on sale in the UK
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SUPERMINIS
Pocket-sized, but so much more than a shopping car

WHAT WE SAY Mild styling changes hide an exhaustively reworked car.

LOW D OW N
And guess what? The Fiesta is still the best in this class

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 TA ILOR ED F I NA NCE
FOR STUN N I NG CA RS

Call one of our experts now for a competitive quote on

020 3813 7019 or visit jbrcapital.com
Finance and terms subject to status. Advances between £25,000 and £10m.
 he most sought-after of modern
supercars, its unicorn qualities are
T no doubt debated by an exceptionally
fortunate coterie of owners, Ralph
Lauren, Nick Mason and Jay Leno among them.
Overseen by Gordon Murray, and powered by a
6.1-litre, 627bhp V12 created by BMW’s engine
genius Paul Rosche, the F1’s position at the top
table seems assured.
But it wasn’t always this way. It failed as a
commercial proposition. Too few buyers were
prepared to stump up the £540,000 it cost new in
1994. Maybe the rampant single-mindedness of its
RACING
design philosophy simply put others off. How silly
do they look now… You’ll hear different figures
bandied around, but only 64 road cars were made,
and another 28 GTR race versions, several of
which were converted back to road-legal spec.
LEGENDS
So although going racing was not initially part
of McLaren’s plan, in 1995 that’s what it decided to
do. Rather successfully, too: for the first time since
Ferrari’s victory in 1949, a maker won the Le Mans
24 Hours at its first attempt.
When it decided to supply privateer teams with
McLaren F1 GTR F1s for the BPR GT1 endurance championship, a
tilt at the world’s most famous endurance race was
WO R DS: JA SO N BA R LOW clearly on the cards. This wasn’t a full-blown
148 J U LY 2 01 8 › TO P G E A R . C O M
factory effort – but leading the five-car charge was
the Kokusai Kaihatsu Racing team, which used
McLaren’s development chassis.
It was run by well-known McLaren figures Paul
Lanzante and Jeff Hazell, while car no.59 was race
engineered by Graham Humphrys. He recalls a
less-than-perfect build-up to Le Mans when F1
renegade JJ Lehto damaged the suspension after
he monstered the kerbs; worse still, the car needed
a last-gasp engine swap, while Lehto’s teammates
detected a gearbox problem.
In the event, all five of the F1 GTRs would
suffer transmission glitches, a frailty that that
year’s wet race thankfully didn’t fully expose.
This particular win set a number of precedents:
not only had McLaren conquered Le Mans on its
first attempt, it was also the first win at La Sarthe
for a Finnish and Japanese driver. McLaren also
remains the only maker to have won Le Mans, the
Monaco GP, and the Indy 500, the Holy Trinity
of motorsport. Nor was it simply down to good
fortune: F1 GTRs also finished third, fourth, fifth
and 13th. Up to 1998, the car continued to be
I M AG E : A L A M Y
competitive, finishing second and third in 1997,
fourth in 1998. 1997’s Longtail evolutions are
arguably the best-remembered versions of all.
The F1 was still racing a decade after its debut.
 ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE PAGE
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M26 ARC £850 M28 CAT £I500 2573 DG £I300 M29 EMM £850 T9 GEF £I400 I999 HR £2600 SI60 JEN £850 J666 KEN £950 N2I LES £I500 M28 MAS £850 58I6 NC £I900 RAZ 575 £850 N23 SJB £850 57 URY £2700
ARK IIY £I900 CAT 55Y £2500 DIL 679 £950 66 EO £4800 GEF 385 £I900 4444 HS £3500 V400 JEN £II00 VO07 KES £950 M32I LES £I700 P28 MAT £950 7II ND £2I00 9000 RC £3900 P5 SLK £I300 MI3 VAL £850
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 Making it
happen Charlie Turner
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

DEP U T Y EDI T OR Jack Rix B R A N D M A N A G I N G E D I T O R Esther Neve

MO T ORING EDI T OR Oliver Marriage
ASSOCIAT E EDI T OR Tom Ford
BEHIND THE SCENES THIS MONTH CONSULTA N T EDI T OR Paul Horrell
EDI T OR AT L A RGE Jason Barlow
ROA D T ES T EDI T OR Ollie Kew
S TA F F W RI T ER Tom Harrison
EDI T ORIA L ASSIS TA N T Becky Wells
H E A D O F C O M M E R C I A L C O N T E N T Chris Mooney
E D I T O R , T O P G E A R . C O M Vijay Pattni
D E P U T Y E D I T O R , T O P G E A R . C O M Stephen Dobie
D I G I TA L E D I T O R AT L A R G E Rowan Horncastle
S O C I A L M E D I A T E A M Simon Bond & Sarah Lawson
S U B - E D I T O R Tom Cobbe
D ATA S U B - E D I T O R Craig Jamieson

Creative team

CRE AT I V E DIREC T OR Andy Franklin D I G I TA L A R T D I R E C T O R Owen Norris

A R T EDI T OR Elliott Webb S E N I O R D E S I G N E R Peter Barnes
R E P R O G R A P H I C S E X E C U T I V E Chris Rowles

Contributing editors
Who: Jack Rix Who: Ollie Kew and Fast Freddy
Where: Woking, UK Where: Santa Pod, UK Pat Devereux, Chris Harris, Eddie Jordan

Sometimes there’s no option but to “You see? I whooped your arse Sam Philip, Rory Reid
channel your inner Brian Johnson: in the race because I have
“I’m on the highway to hell” 2,000bhp and balls of steel”
Contributing photographers

Webb Bland, Lee Brimble, Mark Fagelson, Rowan Horncastle,

Alex Howe, Jamie Lipman, Mark Riccioni, John Wycherley

A D V ER T ISING DIREC T OR Jason Elson R E G I O N A L B U S I N E S S D E V E L O P M E N T M A N A G E R Jemma Rossiter

HE A D OF PA R T NERSHIP S Phil Holland C L A S S I F I E D S A L E S E X E C U T I V E Hugo Gilligan
G R O U P T R A D I N G H E A D Dan Hellens I N S E R T S E X E C U T I V E James Law-Smith
SENIOR X- MEDIA S A L ES E X ECU T I V ES Liam Kennedy, D I G I TA L S A L E S P L A N N E R Isabel Burman
Kit Brough

DIREC T OR OF IN T ERN AT ION A L L ICENSING A ND S Y NDIC AT ION Tim Hudson

IN T ERN AT ION A L PA R T NERS M A N A GER Anna Brown
What: Model 3 roof Who: Paul Horrell
Where: New York, USA Where: Bodmin, UK S Y NDIC AT ION M A N AGER Richard Bentley
Water-resistant coating on Nothing says lunch-on-
the Tesla’s roof creates little the-go like a couple of GROUP P RODUC T ION M A N AGER Jo Beattie A D S E R V I C E S C O O R D I N AT O R S Tony Dixon, James Webb
pearls of aqueous beauty knickerbocker glories P RODUC T ION & REP RO DIREC T OR Koli Pickersgill I N S E R T S E R V I C E S C O O R D I N AT O R Sabeena Atchia
CIRCUL AT ION M A N AGER Gareth Viggers P R O D U C T I O N & A D S E R V I C E S D I R E C T O R Sharon Thompson

M A RK E T ING M A N A GER Tom Townsend-Smith F I N A N C E D I R E C T O R Stephen Lavin

M A RK E T ING E X ECU T I V E Amy Donovan S E N I O R M A N A G E M E N T A C C O U N TA N T Len Bright
SUBS M A RK E T ING M A N A GER Natalie London M A N A G E M E N T A C C O U N TA N T Davina Swampillai

P UBL ISHING DIREC T OR Simon Carrington G R O U P P U B L I S H I N G D I R E C T O R Alfie Lewis

C E O , I M M E D I AT E M E D I A C O . LT D Tom Bureau

M A N A GING DIREC T OR , T OP GE A R Adam Waddell

Printed by Wyndeham Group in the UK

Who: Ollie Marriage and kids
Where: Woolhampton, UK
Special prize to anyone who
can find a kid in this picture
who’s actually listening
Who: man and dog
Where: Salisbury, UK
This canine experiment from BBC WORLDWIDE, UK PUBLISHING
Porton Down has hypnotised its DIREC T OR OF EDI T ORI A L GO V ERN A NCE Nicholas Brett DIREC T OR OF CONSUMER P RODUC T S A ND P UBL ISHING
P UBL ISHING DIREC T OR UK Chris Kerwin Andrew Moultrie
‘master’ into doing the dogwork
UK P UBL ISHING COORDIN AT OR Eva Abramik

EDI T ORIA L A DV ISORY BOA RD MEMBERS Steve Goodman, Alex Renton, Katie Taylor, Tony Wheeler

UK.PUBLISHING@BBC.COM / WWW.BBCWORLDWIDE.COM/UK--ANZ/UKPUBLISHING.ASPX
© Immediate Media Company London Limited 2016

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