Everything you need to know about cars this week: 30 June '19

"Longer and wider than ever, the 'S-Class of SUVs' (Merc’s words) is quite possibly one of the biggest cars on sale in Britain. So long you can almost fit a whole Fiat 500 just in its wheelbase, not to mention the contents of several C-Class Estates in its interior."

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"As the 1969 classic ‘The Italian Job’ turns 50 years old, TG.com caught up with David Salamone, the man who piloted the red Mini in that iconic chase scene…"

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"Mini has told us its new GP hot hatch – due out in 2020 – will be front-wheel drive and offered with a paddleshift gearbox only. And yes, it’ll keep the wild bodywork…"

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"From episode 2 of Top Gear TV series 27: the new Tesla Model 3 takes on its biggest rivals in a drag race. Enter the Mercedes-AMG C63 S, Alfa Giulia Quadrifoglio and the BMW M3"

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"Welcome to one of the most powerful diesel cars on sale in Europe – the Audi SQ8, a supposedly more stylish, five-seat version of one of our favourite performance SUVs."

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"If we invited you to a magical world where the BMW M8 and i8 were mashed together, you’d surely come along with us. Imagine the i8’s planet-saving disposition, and its exotic looks, construction and layout. And the M8’s thundering performance."

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"The headlight shape feels familiar from Pumas of yore, but little else is, and there’s certainly a lot of styling squeezed onto a small car. Beauty is entirely in the eye of the beholder, so tell us how you feel below. The former Puma owners in our office – and there are several – aren’t yet sold on its reincarnation…"

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"You may recall, almost three years ago, BMW showed us the Motorrad Vision Next 100 – a concept bike celebrating the marque’s centenary, and one that refused to topple over regardless of how incompetent its rider was. Well, the Motorrad dream factory has once again whirred into life and produced this – the Vision DC Roadster, a study on how an all-electric BMW bike could retain the barrel-chested look of its petrol-powered, boxer-engined siblings."

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"The V8 may have plenty in common with the motor fitted to the Porsche Panamera Turbo, but the work done at Crewe to make it feel like a proper Bentley powerplant has been very successful. This is a motor with big lungs and a deep voice. It rumbles and thrums meatily at low revs and when you lift off there’s just the right amount of distant exhaust thunder. It’s not as effortless overall as the W12, but this is an engine you can enjoy using – you never feel short-changed. It’s different, not worse."

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"Vauxhall/Opel made us wait to see the new internal combustion-engined Corsa, but surprise surprise – it looks almost identical to the electric version. This is no bad thing however, because it turns out that the new Corsa is a handsome car, no matter what’s hiding under the bonnet."

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"EVs are great, but the way we produce our electricity isn’t always the most environmentally friendly. Plus, you still need to pay a fair bit to charge your car at a roadside supercharger. So, the hunt for an alternative energy source remains a big business. Many have attempted hydrogen, with varying degrees of success, but Dutch company Lightyear thinks there’s another way."

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"French motorways aren’t enormously scary places, unless a) there’s a stray dog running across the carriageway and you have to stop quite quickly (true story), or b) if you’re in a Ferrari 812 Superfast and it’s raining very heavily indeed."

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"In the battle of The Big Obnoxious Grilles, this is the BMW X7’s chief enemy: the new Audi Q7. Just look at that octo-mesh on the front. They should have called it the Hannibal."

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"Kia says that it’s an ‘urban crossover utility vehicle’ that sits between the standard five-door Ceed hatch and the much larger Sportage SUV – although surely that’s where both the hybrid and all-electric Niro comes in too…"

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"Neither revolutionary in style nor the most exciting to drive, but a very mature car."

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"Welcome to BMW’s ‘Power BEV’ development car – a 5 Series quite unlike any other. Because rather than a conventional internal-combustion engine, it has no fewer than three of the company’s next-gen electric drive units (EDU) and a whopping great battery. Oh yes."

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"Jamie Chadwick’s stock is on a stratospheric rise. The 21-year-old has won two of the three races in the inaugural W Series championship so far – finishing second in the other at Zolder – and just last weekend she took a class victory at the Nürburgring 24 Hours with Aston Martin."

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"It is the most powerful mid-engined, V8 Ferrari ever built, and – to use boxing parlance because it feels like the correct analogy – carries its power very late into the fight. By which we mean, it never stops trying to rip your face off. Any rpm, any speed, the Pista simply wants to scrap. Or powerslide. Sometimes it wants to do both at the same time and that’s only lightly alarming."

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"The Audi R8 won its fifth Nürburgring 24-hour race in eight years last weekend. Quite the record, then, but when will it all lead to a properly hardcore road car?"

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"If you’re a die hard F1 nut or complete newcomer to these games and want to see this year’s cars doing some proper racing, F1 2019 remains a very good driving game. Think of it as a Mercedes victory, then: excellent but in a deeply predictable way…"

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"Official: the nine most artistic ways to blow exhaust gas out the back of your car."

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"According to Paddy McGuinness, the perfect secondhand family car is not a spacious Volvo 840 estate, or a hardy Land Rover Discovery. No, the perfect second-hand family car is… an old hearse."

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