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Everything you need to know about cars this week: 26 Jul '20
A new-old Aston Vanquish, plus drives of a Lotus, a little Honda EV and much more
Honda e review: first UK test
"It’s not the most practical small electric car, or the one with the longest range, but it is the best built and most desirable. And it makes you happy when you drive it. And that’s the best bit of it all."
Advertisement - Page continues belowReview: Mercedes-AMG CLA45
"The outlandish performance remains, but there's way more finesse than its predecessor"
Why BMW isn’t going all-electric just yet
"While many other manufacturers race to develop and perfect EV-only platforms, BMW is taking an altogether different approach. For the foreseeable all its platforms will be able to accept all types of powertrain – from full-electric, via plug-in hybrid to ICE."
Advertisement - Page continues belowThis is our first look at a modified Ferrari Roma
"Ever since its reveal in November last year, the Ferrari Roma has been dividing opinions in comments sections all over the Internet. Sadly, we haven’t had the chance to drive Maranello’s new grand tourer yet, but that hasn’t stopped German tuner Wheelsandmore from already offering an upgrade package."
A German off-road specialist is building a 992-generation Safari 911
"Delta says that a young entrepreneur from southern Germany came to them with his brand-new Carrera 4S and stated that he’d like to drive it from his home in Ulm, right the way down to Dakar, Senegal. This man sounds like fun."
The Jeep Renegade now comes as a hybrid
"We’ve long had a soft spot for the Jeep Renegade. It’s one of the few small SUV things with some genuine character, its cute, kinda retro stylings (inside and out) helping us overlook some rough edges and a lack of tech compared to some of its many, many rivals. But that shortfall may just have been picked up by this, the Renegade 4xe. It’s a plug-in hybrid and it’s here to drag Jeep more obviously into the future."
Skoda’s trainees have built a Scala Speedster
"The students welded the rear doors, chopped the roof off (and, thankfully, reinforced the chassis) and fashioned a double-bubble cover to fill the space behind the racy Sparco front (and now only) seats. Oh, and fitted Need For Speed-style underbody LED lighting. Inside there’s a chuffing massive stereo – because teenagers – and a pair of e-scooters hidden in the boot."
Advertisement - Page continues belowMercedes-AMG GLA45 S 4Matic+ review
"The grip’s colossal, front and back, and I didn’t manage to breach it. Winding up the modes takes you through ‘advanced’ to ‘pro’ to ‘master’ which would probably get a wriggle on if it’s wet or you’re in a track chicane. But all I got was lots of grip, progressive if slightly dead steering, and good balance. A little body roll is the main feedback. It’s enjoyable, if in a rather stern way."
Lotus Evora GT410 review: a return to plushness
"The ride is sublime and, thanks to more amiable tyres, the steering is lighter too. Both cars use a nicely traditional hydraulic setup and it’s exquisite in both – making even Porsche’s witchcraft electric steering suddenly seem a bit vague (it’s not) – but it’s the stock GT410’s wheel that’ll most deftly move around in your hands."
Advertisement - Page continues belowFord has built a 1,400bhp Mustang Mach-E
"Apparently, all of those aero addendums and that giant rear wing contribute to more than 1,000kg of downforce at 160mph. The plan is for the Mach-E 1400 to be a test bed for future technologies too, so the bonnet is made from organic composite fibres whilst the rest of the body is carbon fibre."
The Murray T.50’s V12 can rev to a mad 12,100rpm
"It’s relatively little in capacity – inspired by the Ferrari 250 GTO’s 3.3-litre V12, the T.50’s Cosworth-developed engine displaces just 3.9 litres. It’ll develop 663bhp at 11,100rpm, and rev to 12,100rpm, making it the highest-revving road car engine ever. Gordon Murray’s own LCC Rocket was the previous record-holder at 11,500rpm."
This is a new, special edition Lamborghini Aventador SVJ
"Are car designers running out of things to be inspired by? Case in point, Lamborghini’s latest special edition – the Aventador SVJ Xago edition. If we gave you a thousand guesses, you wouldn’t even get close to identifying what the inspiration was for this thing."
This is already the 10,000th Lamborghini Urus
"News has rarely seemed as inevitable. The 10,000th Lamborghini Urus has rolled off the Sant’Agata production line, a mere two years after sales begun."
Concepts that time forgot: the Toyota Setsuna
"This is the Toyota Setsuna, a concept car built specially for the 2016 Milan design week. It’s made of wood and looks slightly like a boat, but the fancy design types with expensive glasses must surely have lapped it up."
The Mini Countryman Works now has the GP’s 302bhp engine
"Prices start at £36,000, up around three grand on before, and hefty money for a Mini – given how easily you’ll add to that with options, adaptive damping among them – though small-fry in the world of the performance SUV, with perhaps its closest rival, the Cupra Ateca, costing exactly the same."
This is the final version of the ‘new’ Aston Martin Vanquish 25
"Just nine months after we first bore witness to the former Jaguar, Aston and Ford designer’s new project from his new company, comes this very red and very striking production version. Only 25 will be built, at a price starting from £550,000 each, or £450k if you BYOV (Bring Your Own Vanquish)."
Look! The 1,887bhp Rimac C_Two hypercar will DRIFT
"This just in: the Rimac C_Two electric hypercar will drift. We have proof, via an adorable little video the Croatian EV company just posted."
JLR has made a touchscreen you don’t actually touch
"The idea is for the system to know what you’re aiming for as soon as you start moving your hand towards the screen. It uses a gesture tracker with vision- and radio frequency-based sensors 'to combine contextual information such as user profile, interface design and environmental conditions with data available from other sensors, such as an eye-gaze tracker, to infer the user’s intent in real time'."
Behold: the $185k Twisted NAS-E, an electric Defender
"Officially called the NAS-E – or NAS-E Plus if you want a more powerful version – Twisted has reimagined the North American-spec soft-top Land Rover Defender 90, by binning all the dirty oily bits (of which old Defenders have many) and replacing them with electricity."
Seven reasons why you need this Heuliez Intruder Concept
"Welcome, Internet, to the Heuliez Intruder Concept. Fantastic isn’t it? It’s your lucky day too, because this thing is currently for sale at Hertfordshire-based dealership DK Engineering. Here follows seven reasons why you absolutely must buy it."
Ian Callum would be “happy” to do a new Nissan R390
"Speaking on the launch of his latest project – a £550,000 ‘reimagined’ Mk1 Aston Martin Vanquish – the storied designer is quite clear about not revisiting his past. Except when TG.com childishly ignores this and asks him about a doing a reimagined Nissan R390; a new take on that million-dollar Le Mans-spec unicorn he designed."
Mercedes-AMG GLE 53 review: a seven-seat, mild-hybrid AMG
"The hybrid stuff is undeniably well integrated, but its 30mpg claims hardly transforms this particular AMG into something much greener than its previous interation. This is surely a status car, because if it wasn’t, you’d just buy a cheaper, more economical seven-seater with regular badges instead. Or an XC90."
Top Gear’s Top 9: best cars with literal names edition
"It can, as a result, scorch from 0-62mph in 2.9 seconds, and top out beyond 211mph. Super fast? As our American cousins are apparently fond of saying in all the films: you do the math(s)."
This E30 BMW M3 just sold for $250,000. Wait, WHAT?
"A US-based online auctioneer has just sold an original, road-going BMW E30 M3 for a quarter of a million dollars. Insert your own expletives here please while we attempt to fathom what on earth has just happened."
Alpina B5 BiTurbo Touring tested: the perfect 202mph family car?
"It’s a Very Fast Estate Car. But there is a reason you’d want the Alpina B5 BiTurbo Touring instead of other Very Fast Estate Cars, like the Audi RS6 Avant and Mercedes-AMG E63."
Goodbye to Top Gear's Ford Focus ST
"Yes, the Focus ST has departed. And given my colleagues haven’t seen it since March and it left having literally gathered dust, it might seem like a bit of a forgotten hot hatch. The current Focus ST has struggled to capture the imagination, while Renault is grabbing headlines with a £72k carbon-ceramic’d special, and Mini is dabbling with aerodynamic fancy dress."
BMW reveals rare, £115k X7 ‘Dark Shadow Edition' SUV
"Dark Shadow, then. Not a Lord of the Rings villain, but instead a name that represents the brand new colour being debuted on this X7. Which is ‘Frozen Arctic Grey’. Or ‘Do Not Mess With Me Earthling’, probably."
Will coronavirus make us more courteous drivers?
"If COVID-19 has taught us anything, it’s to be nicer. Let’s hope that translates to driving too."
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