16
List
Everything you need to know about cars this week: 15 Sept '19
Land Rover finally reveals the new Defender, and we start warming up for the TG24
This is the new Ferrari F8 Spider
"What the Ferrari F8 Tributo does, rather cleverly, is fuse the feral 711bhp twin-turbo V8 engine of the Ferrari 488 Pista with an updated version of the 488 GTB’s more comfortable chassis. And now, you can combine those ingredients with a whole load more headroom."
Advertisement - Page continues belowThe Bugatti Chiron Super Sport 300+ is a production 300mph car
"As you can imagine, it’s not a million miles away from the record car. It shares the same sleeker, more aero-efficient streamliner bodywork. The same 8.0-litre, quad-turbo W16 unit – still nicknamed Thor – delivering 1,578bhp. And the same longer ratio gearbox to achieve that mind-scrambling velocity of 300mph. Three hundred! We still can’t quite believe we’re saying that."
Bentley is rebuilding 12 new-old 1929 Blowers
"Over the next two years, the Crewe-based marque is going to build 12 re-creations of Sir Tim Birkin’s 4 ½ litre “Blower”. And no, they haven’t said how much each is going to cost. When you consider the significance of the car, and how much work Bentley is going to, it’s safe to say each is going to be a healthy seven figure sum."
Advertisement - Page continues belowThe Ferrari 812 GTS will restyle your terrible hair with 789bhp
"Ferrari couldn’t resist. It’s watched the likes of the Aston Martin DBS, Lamborghini Aventador and Bentley Continetal GT running away with the ‘ultra-quick, mega-pricey suntanmobile’ market and decided enough is enough. The 812 Superfast has lost its top. This, at long, long last, is the Ferrari 812 GTS."
Stand back! This Brabus G-Class has a 888bhp V12
"To create this behemoth, Brabus took a Mercedes S600 and removed its 523 bhp 6.0-litre V12. Said engine was stripped and rebuilt using better, stronger components (including bigger turbos) and bored out to 6.3-litres. Now making some 888bhp and 1,106lb ft (but limited to 885lb ft in the car), it was inserted into the front of a new G-Wagen - a space, presumably, never designed to accommodate an engine bigger than the G63’s 4.0-litre V8."
Everything you need to know about the Volkswagen ID.3
"This isn’t a toe in the water like the stopgap e-Golf and e-Up, it’s the first model on a new, bespoke MEB electric car platform (that will sprout 27 EVs across four brands) and a full-blown assault on world domination. The plan is to sell hundreds of thousands of ID.3s every year – a lynchpin in the VW Group’s ambitions to sell two to three million electric cars a year by 2025. For reference, the group sold just over 10m cars globally in 2018, so that’s quite a slice. This isn’t a drill – Wolfsburg is all in."
Video: is the Volkswagen ID.3 the people's EV?
"Could this really be as big a deal as the Beetle and Golf? Well, let Top Gear magazine’s Jack Rix show you around VW’s all-new, all-electric hatchback."
Advertisement - Page continues belowThe new Audi RS7 is just as quick but not as cool as the RS6
"Super-saloons? Audi doesn’t do super-saloons. No simple ‘sedan’ rivals to the likes of the BMW M5 and Mercedes-AMG E63 for Audi. It does four-door coupes instead. And this is the new one: the Audi RS7 Sportback."
Hyundai's made a seventies wedge electric car
"Imagine a list of all the current trends in concept cars. Electric powertrain. Autonomous capability. Retro styling. An interior that’s also a ‘living space’. Crossover ride height. Hyundai’s not messing around, ticking every single one off with just the one car, this 45 concept."
Advertisement - Page continues belowThis is the new Land Rover Defender
"It’s been like the build-up to a royal wedding. Anticipation is at fever pitch and everyone has their own opinion what it should be like. Yet on one thing we can agree: the somewhat entitled assumption that no other nation could do this quite like the British do. Well, the moment has arrived. The new Defender. How is it for you?"
Video: drink in all the details of Land Rover's new Defender
"The original Defender was great, but by the end it was also terrible. This new Defender has to walk a difficult line. It must be an object of desire to the prosperous public. But it also needs genuine utility so the farmers-to-peacekeepers market will show a renewed interest. Can it?"
The Mercedes EQS is a fully electric S-Class from the future
"Welcome to the Mercedes-Benz EQS. Essentially, the fully electric S-Class of the future. Don’t believe us? Mercedes calls it “a trailblazer for the entire Mercedes-Benz EQ family,” meaning it does for Merc’s electric range what the S-Class has traditionally done for, well, almost the whole car industry. This is where all the tech is going to filter down from."
The BMW Concept 4 is a drivers’ grille with extra BMW
"We get that BMW’s new concept grille wears a lot of history – 328 coupe, 3.0 CSI – but does it have to wear all the history?"
Alpina’s 455bhp B3 Touring is the M3 wagon BMW won't make
"Said oomph comes from BMW’s latest 3.0-litre twin-turbo straight-six engine. In the X3 M and in the next M3, it can develop up to 503bhp, but Alpina’s chosen to peg that back to 455bhp, and instead concentrate on torque. Whereas the M Division version of the engine is all done at 443lb ft, the Alpina B3 churns out 516lb ft."
Say hello to the Audi AI:TRAIL
"The 4.15 metre long, 2.15 metre wide concept has 34cm of ground clearance and can ford rivers half a metre deep. The 22in wheels (shod with 850mm tyres) each get their own electric motor, giving precisely-controlled all-wheel drive and 430bhp/738lb ft of torque. On-road it should be able to travel between 250 and 300 miles between charges, while the additional power needed for hardcore off-roading means in such situations, range is limited to 155 miles."
Ferrari says it will fight to save the V12 from extinction
"Many expected the 812 to be the last of the breed, with stricter regulations forcing the Italians to switch to smaller, turbocharged engines. Now, that may still happen of course, but the man in charge of technological development at Ferrari, Michael Leiters, has told TG that the company is doing all it can to continue the V12 lineage."
Defender on the Moon: new issue of TG mag out now!
"Yep, TG has put the new Defender on the Moon. Want the full story? You’ll have to pick up the latest issue of Top Gear magazine, which conveniently is out now."
Commence the street party, the BMW M3’s staying manual
"The world is a troubling, vexing place to live at the moment. So take solace in a glimmer of hope from BMW, who’s confirmed the next-generation M3 and M4 will retain a manual gearbox as standard. Phew."
The Mercedes-AMG One won’t compete at Le Mans
"The Mercedes-AMG One is nearly here, after a bout of delays that almost seem inevitable when you’re trying to squeeze a Formula 1 engine through regular road car regulations. But while it’ll arrive in the first quarter of 2021, just in time for the new hypercar class at Le Mans, don’t expect to see it actually compete there."
Lego Technic’s new Land Rover has low-range gears and all the cuteness
"Apparently there was some sort of new Land Rover revealed this week. Anyway, here’s the news you’ve actually been waiting for – you can now have your very own miniature version of the new Defender in Lego."
Video: TG's top 3 supercars from the Frankfurt Motor Show
"Lamborghini’s new hybrid supercar, BMW’s next-generation M supercar and Audi’s supercar… killer. Ladies and gentlemen, the very fastest and most exciting stuff from the 2019 Frankfurt Motor Show."
Welcome to TG24: a battle for the best driver's car of 2019
"We usually call this Performance Car of the Year – PCOTY for short. On other occasions it’s been Speed Week. But this year it’s TG24 and the format is slightly different. When we sit down to start planning this each year we try to imagine what the ultimate track day of this year’s greatest driver’s cars would look like, what it would include. This year we stripped the track day concept back so far we ended up asking ourselves, ‘Day? Why only day? What about night?’. And 10 seconds after that we were planning Le Mans."
An electric Volkswagen R will be here in five years
"'We should be able to deliver something meaningful in under five years. We’ve initiated some plans for cars in between – there are some great R models going forward – but we are really thinking about what do we do with them. If you are on the way to zero emissions, but you then unload some cars into the world with even more horsepower, you need to give a response of what you’re going to do afterwards. But clearly the future of R is electric and it’s Jost Capito’s job to find solutions for that.'"
BMW has confirmed a standalone M Division sports car
"Good news! BMW’s M Division is working on a standalone model. Potentially less good news! It won’t be a full-strength hypercar halo like Mercedes-AMG’s One, and it might even be electric."
Gallery: the runners and riders of TG24
"Top Gear's performance car special is a 24hr sprint. Here are the contenders."
Video: TG's top five EVs from Frankfurt
"Jack Rix guides you through the hottest electric cars - from Hyundai, Mercedes, Mini, Porsche and Volkswagen - at the 2019 Frankfurt Motor Show. "
Electric Mercedes-AMGs could sound like Podracers
"Mercedes-AMGs are going hybrid. Of course they are, you might say, especially given the AMG One hypercar is just around the corner, letting loose a Formula 1-derived petrol electric powertrain on actual public roads."
Review: Land Rover Discovery Sport
"An SUV that rightfully ignores sportiness and focuses on comfort, flexibility and downright classiness."
