50
News
Everything you need to know about cars this week: 14 Oct 2018
Lots of Speed Week excellence in this week's news roundup
Speed Week '18 Team Italy: Ferrari 488 Pista and Lambo Urus
"Welcome to Top Gear’s Speed Week 2018. The 14 best performance cars in the world will tackle a mildly terrifying Seventies-spec F1 circuit, for several days. There will be ‘enthusiastic driving’, there will be a well-stocked tyre truck close to hand and there will be industrial quantities of home-made sandwiches. But first we need to get there: this is the story of Team Italy…"
Advertisement - Page continues belowToyota reckons hybrids are better than full electric cars
"Which is the saintlier drive – full-battery or hybrid? Amid a Paris Motor Show where pure-electric vehicles had by far the biggest share of voice, one engineer was making the case for hybrid."
You can now play classic arcade games in your Tesla
"Tesla has made an announcement. About cars. Version 9 of its over-the-air software was installed in Teslas across the States, and the most important news (we think) is that it allows you to play classic video games."
Advertisement - Page continues belowMazda MX-5 1.5 review: basic roadster’s UK test
"The engine’s an eager delight, rasping with purpose to 6,000rpm then really getting its skates on for the last charge beyond 7,000rpm, with a harder edged timbre to match. As always, the gearshift is a slick, magnetic-feeling peach of an action. Hmm. Can you have a magnetic peach?"
Bentley asked students to ‘predict British luxury in 2050’
"Bentley is the latest car company to ask up-and-coming design students to imagine what its future products might look like. As per usual, when millennials handy with a pencil and computer graphics program start experimenting with car design, the results are… outlandish. Some are barely even cars."
Speed Week '18 Team GB: Aston, Mclaren, Lotus and Ford
"Welcome to Top Gear’s Speed Week. The 14 best performance cars in the world will descend upon a mildly terrifying Seventies-spec F1 circuit, for several days. There will be ‘enthusiastic driving’, there will be a well-stocked tyre truck close to hand and there will be industrial quantities of home-made sandwiches. But first we need to get there: this is the story of Team GB…"
Morgan prepares for its 110th birthday with splendid specials
"The company says the 110 Anniversary versions will come fitted with a ‘race-inspired’ front valance, rear exit sports exhaust and leather bonnet strap. The paintwork palette includes a selection of colours chosen by Morgan Design – some because they’re the most popular with owners and some because they’re the personal favourites of the Morgan design team."
Advertisement - Page continues belowThe Rolls-Royce Cullinan might go hybrid, get more power
"It might be joined by a smaller SUV within the next few years, and a hybrid Cullinan is definitely on the cards. As absurd as it might sound, the Cullinan could actually do with a bit more than the 563bhp its 6.75-litre biturbo V12 delivers, and sources indicate that extra power is on the way. Describing a Rolls’ power output as ‘adequate’ isn’t quite as funny as it used to be."
Vauxhall to cut Viva and Adam city cars in 2019
"Vauxhall has confirmed that its Adam and Viva city cars will not be replaced at the end of their ‘life cycles’, and instead will be cut from the range in 2019."
Advertisement - Page continues belowThis is Formula E's new Santiago street circuit
"This has to be one of the most bizarre racetrack layouts of recent years. After a short loop out of the pit straight, the circuit is dominated by one giant constant-radius turn only broken by a mini-roundabout of a hairpin halfway along. It’s as though the organisers watched Le Mans, observed the Mulsanne Straight with its speed-arresting chicanes and tried to apply the same idea to an actual capital city."
Speed Week '18 Team France: Bugatti and Alpine
"Welcome to Top Gear’s Speed Week. The 14 best performance cars in the world will descend upon a mildly terrifying Seventies-spec F1 circuit, for several days. There will be ‘enthusiastic driving’, there will be a well-stocked tyre truck close to hand and there will be industrial quantities of home-made sandwiches. But first we need to get there: this is the story of Team France…"
W Series is a new, women-only race series
"Say a big hello to W Series, an all-new single-seater race series just for women. Whether the W stands for ‘women’ or ‘woke’ we’re not quite sure, but it’s designed to lead us to a point where there’s a far greater gender balance in motorsport."
The Bollinger B2 is an electric pick-up 4x4 from Detroit
"Hopefully you’re familiar with Bollinger Motors by now. If not, consider the originally New York-based, now Detroit start-up as the ones with the initiative in the utilitarian 4x4 business right now. While Land Rover dilly-dallies on replacing the Defender, Bollinger is forging ahead with plans for its own terrain-conquering, cargo-swallowing truck – purely powered by electricity."
You can now order one of 300 UK-bound Toyota Supras
"Once those 300 places have been allocated, interested parties will be put onto a waiting list. And we suspect there might be a few interested parties, especially considering a) how long it’s taken Toyota to release a new Supra, and b) the fact that it promises to be quite a good thing."
Eight things you need to know: the new Porsche 911
"There’s now piezo injection, an all-new intake system, an exhaust with a particulate filter, re-positioned intercooling, revised turbo housings, and more. It’s all gathered around much the same 3.0-litre turbocharged flat-six block, which was introduced with the second-generation 991 that this car replaces."
The next Porsche 911 is ready to go hybrid
"Porsche has confirmed that it’s new, ‘992’ generation 911 has been built with the potential for hybrid drivetrains in the future. Ahead of the car’s launch at the Los Angeles Motor Show in November, Porsche 911 boss August Achleitner said: 'It’s prepared for hybrid power in the future, but not the next few years, we are waiting for the batteries to improve.'"
We get very sideways in Audi's new e-Tron EV
"Audi’s first proper EV is a conspicuously inconspicuous – the company didn’t want to scare away its existing customers with something too futuristic – SUV that will cost about £70K when it reaches the UK next year."
Speed Week '18 Team Germany: Porsche, BMW and Mercedes
"Welcome to Top Gear’s Speed Week. The 14 best performance cars in the world will descend upon a mildly terrifying Seventies-spec F1 circuit, for several days. There will be ‘enthusiastic driving’, there will be a well-stocked tyre truck close to hand and there will be industrial quantities of home-made sandwiches. But first we need to get there: this is the story of Team Germany…"
The Mitsuoka ‘Rock Star’ is a Mazda MX-5 in Corvette fancy dress
"The Rock Star is based on the current ‘ND’-gen Mazda MX-5 Miata. A car we at Top Gear like very much, even in basic 1.5-litre guise. But if it looks a tad cutesy for you, the Rock Star sorts that with a healthy dollop of good ol’ Americana."
Government grant for plug-in hybrids scrapped
"Bad news, PHEV-shoppers. The government has changed its Plug-In Car Grant (PICG) so that it only benefits buyers of cars that can travel at least 70-miles on electric power. As no PHEV currently on sale in Britain meets this standard – most can travel only around 30-miles – the grant effectively now only benefits buyers of pure-electric cars. Boooo."
Aston Martin is racing in the DTM!
"Well, this is unexpected. Team R-Motorsport has announced it is going to represent Aston Martin on the DTM grid. Yep, Aston Martin. In the Deutsche touring car series."
Speed Week '18: TG's guide to Circuit de Charade
"It used to play host to F1 in the late Sixties and early Seventies, and still has that period feel. There’s an aura about it. And provided you lack the imagination to see what would happen if you had an off absolutely anywhere here, it is mesmerisingly good to drive. We’ve been here before, back in 2013, when the last Ford Fiesta ST was new and did rather well. A repeat perhaps?"
Trending this week
- Car Review
