Brand new Top Gear Magazine – out now

The brand new issue of Top Gear Magazine is out now, and to introduce it, a word from Editor-in-Chief, Charlie Turner:

Wings make cars better, no question. Ok, so that statement might have something to do with spending my formative years staring at a poster of a bewinged version of Gandini's Countach, but the fact remains that most of us are conditioned to react when a manufacturer applies an ironing board to the back of its supercar. The wing on the back of that Eighties 500S made it slower. This is also a fact, but one that I'm completely happy to ignore.

Fitting, then, that the headline act of this month's celebration of Things with Wings is the Lamborghini Gallardo LP570-4 Super Trofeo Stradale. Officially the world's longest name for a car, but also sporting Lambo's biggest wing since that Countach.

It gets better: in his column this month, Jeremy hankers after a Rolls-Royce Phantom. Ignoring his pleas for comfort, we strap him into a pair of monster coupes from BMW and Mercedes. Several sets of tyres later, the C63 AMG Black Series and BMW M3 GTS stand looking sheepish as the weather turns and Jeremy's conclusions are drawn.

But why have one wing when you can have 25? Audi, BMW and Mercedes are all set to battle it out in the 2012 DTM season; the rules are new, and so are the cars. We get exclusive access to these extreme creations before it gets ugly at the first corner at Hockenheim on April 29.

And, if that isn't enough action for you, we send Ollie Marriage out to Dubai. In a Nissan Juke. Good thing this one's a bit of a Frankenstein - it's the 478bhp Juke-R. Also with wings.

A final flourish comes in the shape of the mental HPP Superbird, a modern re-creation of the iconic Seventies Plymouth. We head to the mean streets of Motorcity for a world-exclusive drive of the biggest wing in the world.

Wings: often a one-way street to amateur aero disaster, but, get it right, and they really can make you fly... Enjoy the issue.