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Everything you need to know about cars this week: 1 Nov '20
Bugatti shows us its new track car, and we drive the Ferrari 812 GTS
Lewis Hamilton has broken F1's all-time win record
"Lewis Hamilton has become Formula 1’s most successful driver - in terms of race wins - of all time, after victory at the Portuguese Grand Prix gave him win number 92."
Advertisement - Page continues belowSpeed Week 2020: you need an Alpine A110 in your life
"I’d buy one if I had the money. If you do, and the lifestyle to accommodate a tiny two-seater with not much boot, then you should. Because who knows what the motoring landscape might look like in a few years."
Polestar 1 vs BMW M8 Gran Coupe
"I’d understand if you bought the BMW, but alongside the Polestar it feels ever so slightly last-gen, less socially acceptable with its big V8. The Polestar isn’t the most relaxed GT, but it’s intriguing and inescapably cool in ways the BMW just isn’t."
Advertisement - Page continues belowWhat’s it like to drive Bentley’s Pikes Peak record holder?
"Rhys Millen is three inches taller than me. This much is crystal clear once I’ve swung open the sponsor-emblazed door of ‘his’ Bentley Continental GT, folding my limbs clumsily through the gap in its roll cage, dropped a little too harshly into its (fixed!) racing seat and pulled the six-point harness tight. I can’t quite push the brake pedal all the way down. And the seat doesn’t adjust…"
Speed Week 2020: your complete guide to the BMW M2 CS
"Thanks to a 444bhp twin-turbo 3.0-litre straight-six from the ‘old’ BMW M4, the M2 CS finally steps out of its big brother’s shadow in the numbers stakes. However, it doesn’t develop any more torque than the M2 Competition, but 406lb ft is plenty in a short-wheelbase coupe like this, with more than a penchant for going sideways at will."
Review: Smart Fortwo
"The Fortwo is like a hypercar: great in its chosen environment, and pretty rubbish elsewhere"
The Brabus Rocket 900 is a 205mph AMG GT 4dr
"Running out of fresh and exciting ways to scare the kids? You’ll be wanting the new Brabus Rocket 900. As you can see, the Rocket is based on Merc’s AMG GT 4dr – so it’s essentially a practical luxury saloon – but then again, this is Brabus we’re talking about here."
Advertisement - Page continues belowVideo: drifting the all-electric 1,400bhp Ford Mach-E
A 1,400bhp thoroughbred EV with seven electric motors, 1,000kg of downforce and a taste for drifting? That’s our kind of SUV. Let Top Gear magazine’s Jack Rix be your guide around this incredible feat of engineering, before we strap ourselves behind the wheel and shred some tyres.
Speed Week 2020: VW Golf GTI vs Mini GP
"Tent obliterated by one of Anglesey’s ‘unsettled spells’ and all clothing soaked except the threads on my back, I cruise back to the deploy-in-case-of-emergency hotel room. Soothed by the glow of the Golf’s ambient lighting, cushioned by its sympathetic damping, enjoying the odd corner the road throws at me, but very much driving at seven-tenths. The GTI sweet spot."
Advertisement - Page continues belowHas Prior Design already fixed the BMW M4’s face?
"Just last week, we asked whether it was possible to improve the face of the new BMW M3 and M4 simply by selecting the right spec in the newly available configurator. The answer from you lot was a resounding no, but luckily Prior Design is here to help."
Land Rover Discovery Sport and RR Evoque PHEV review
"When the new generation of Evoque and Discovery Sport were announced, we were told they needed a new platform to make space for batteries. Batteries that weren’t available at the start. Well now here we are: plug-in hybrid versions, so you can get a posh SUV on the company and pay little tax. And, if you actually do plug it in, terrific fuel economy too."
Will the electric 500 stop Fiat paying Tesla CO2 credits?
"It’s reported that Fiat has been kindly helping Tesla pay for its new factories, its Cybertruck, and whatever else Elon Musk just dreamt up while you were reading that."
Check out this Ford Bronco Wildland Fire Rig
"Meet the Ford Bronco Wildland Fire Rig. Developed in collaboration with Filson, manufacturer of outdoor gear, Ford is donating two of the go anywhere models, equipped with firefighting equipment, to support wildland firefighters and the National Forest Foundation."
Mercedes has taken a bigger stake in Aston Martin
"The plan calls for Aston to use Mercedes’ engine and hybrid technology and electric systems, as it now does, up to 2027. But it will also gain access to full-electric vehicle tech. Rather than cash payments (Aston doesn’t have much cash these days) Mercedes-Benz will get a gradually increasing ownership in Aston Martin Lagonda, up to a 20 per cent maxium."
Land Rover Defender 90 review: the Defender to have?
"Being short in the wheelbase, the 90 is even more insanely handy in the rough than the 110 – it can wriggle its way out of tighter spots, and is less likely to ground its belly."
10 things you didn’t know about the Ariel Nomad R
"The regular Nomad (although there’s nothing actually regular about any Nomad) is powered by Honda’s 2.4-litre K24 engine. The R isn’t. Instead its motor is altogether more intense, the same Honda supercharged K20Z3 used by the older Atom 3.5R."
Review: Volkswagen Tiguan (2020)
"A proper all-rounder with a spec for everyone. As long as you want an SUV, of course"
Meet the mad Donkervoort JD70 R track-day special
"It’s no faster in a straight line than the normal JD70 – with 0-62mph possible in 2.7 seconds, and 0-124mph taking just 7.7 seconds – but the company claims it is now capable of generating 2.25 lateral G."
Could this car have saved Rover?
"This is the Rover Tourer Concept Vehicle, revealed at the Geneva motor show in 2002. We can’t overstate the excitement of this moment – after all, there hadn’t actually been a concept car with a Rover badge on the front of it since the 1986 CCV (Coupe Concept Vehicle), revealed at that year’s Turin motor show. It was a new dawn for Rover… or at least the promise of a dawn that might come if the cash could be scraped together."
Hennessey is building a 750bhp Ford Bronco
"Like the new Ford Bronco? Like big V8s? Then one suspects you will rather like this. Hennessey Performance Engineering has announced its intention to modify Ford’s reborn off-roader by furnishing it with a big V8. Fittingly, the car is called the ‘VelociRaptor V8 Bronco’."
The Bugatti Bolide is a mind-blowing 1,824bhp track car
"It’s a question we’ve all figuratively asked but never thought we’d get answered: what would happen if Bugatti made an extreme track-only, lightweight hypercar? Wonder no more. This is the Bugatti Bolide – Molsheim’s 1,842bhp, 1,240kg downforcetastic love letter to bleeding-edge engineering and organ-bruising lap times."
SSC responds to 331mph video accusations
"The issues concern the video which has three separate camera angles, most pertinently a 360 degree view on the left, and a view down the road on the right. The video was presented to Top Gear as footage taken from the single 331mph run. Those who have questioned the video have mostly analysed and found issues with the road view, using distance markers and elapsed time to calculate speed. They’ve also queried the Tuatara’s gearing. We put these concerns to Jerod Shelby, CEO of SSC."
This is the 705bhp Ares S1 Project Spyder
"Yep, it’s a roofless speedster in the same vein as the McLaren Elva, the Ferrari Monza and the Aston Martin V12, um… Speedster. There are definite Porsche/Pagani/Koenigsegg/Bugatti cues in there, but we reckon that carbon fibre bodywork comes together to create a real thing of beauty."
BMW M340d Touring xDrive review: secretly the best car BMW makes?
"This new BMW M340d might be a curious collector’s item in decades to come. One of the last hurrahs for a meaty diesel engine in a sensible car, before the idea gets swept away in the electrification tsunami. "
Ford Fiesta Ecoboost Hybrid review: the best small car money can buy
"There are two flavours of power output: the chicken korma 123bhp model, and a slightly warmer chicken korma 154bhp version. And instead of the usual oh-yeah-right million-miles-per-gallon claims, Ford says that at best, this zap of electroboost might give you a five per cent economy improvement."
Review: Ferrari 812 GTS
"You might be looking at the end of an era. In the shark nose of the Ferrari 812 GTS is a 6.5-litre V12 engine, free of turbos and able to rev to almost 9,000rpm as a result. It’s already a certified all-time great from its starring role in the regular 812 Superfast, if ‘regular’ is ever relevant terminology with cars such as these. It’s mesmeric in its noise and delivery as well as being a work of art to look at."
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