Home//BBC Top Gear Magazine/February 2024/In This Issue
BBC Top Gear Magazine|February 2024WELCOME@jack_rix editor@bbctopgearmagazine.com Due to some spicy festive deadlines, I’m actually writing this two weeks before Christmas in a fog of late nights and turkey lunches. The ideal moment, then, to reflect on what’s been a year of change. Change for us in the TopGear family as we adjust to the TV show being rested for the foreseeable, but also in the auto industry as a whole. Has there ever been a more exciting time to cover cars? I can’t think of one, but then again my brain is clogged with cranberry sauce. The themes are broadly what we’ve been witnessing for a while, but in 2023 somebody, somewhere pinned it because shifts are happening at an unprecedented rate. We know the Chinese are coming to steal everyone else’s lunch, but…2 min
BBC Top Gear Magazine|February 2024COFFEE BREAKRacefor Glory: Audi vs Lancia, streams from 5 January, Lionsgate+ The battle between Lancia and Audi in 1983 gets the Hollywood treatment. The film stars Riccardo Scamarcio as Lancia team principal Cesare Fiorio and Daniel Brühl as Audi team boss Roland Gumpert. The trailer promises “a true David vs Goliath story” but will this niche ode to Group B hit the A list? Australian Open 2024 Tired of the cold? Want to watch elite athletes in sun soaked and heat stroked temperatures down under from the comfort of your lounge at midnight? Tah-dah! Follow on BBC Sport TopGear magazine fix You can download the latest edition and back issues direct to your phone or tablet from the App Store. Because when life gives you lemons… settle in and read TG…1 min
BBC Top Gear Magazine|February 2024PLAY LISTKEN’S LAST DANCE Ken Block’s final Electrikhana video has been posthumously released, so stop what you’re doing immediately and spend 10 minutes watching Block drift around Mexico City. A reminder that nobody does it better. LAND GRAB This is the new Toyota Land Cruiser. You already know we think it looks the business, having won Design of the Year in the recent TopGear Awards, but what about the rest? Join us for a full deep dive to find out. FILTHY ANIMAL Tarmac’s a thing of the past, provided you’re in this thing. This is what happens when Singer and Tuthill team up to create the ultimate off-road 911. Watch all five TG2: Cars and Stripes eps for free, now! CYBERTRUCK EXAMINED Only three people got to drive the new Cybertruck…1 min
BBC Top Gear Magazine|February 2024ADIDAS X CRAZYFAST BUGATTI FOOTBALL BOOTSNot content with building rare hypercars, Bugatti has now teamed up with Adidas to create some rare football boots based on the standard Adidas X Crazyfast boots. Cue Ferrari frantically looking for a new name for its 812 Superfast successor. Bugatti says they are “engineered for speed” with a carbon inlay and Adidas’s ‘Speedframe’ solethat’s lightweight but rigid to allow for rapid acceleration. You’ll be able to outrun a Chiron in these things – most of those barely scrape 18mph on Park Lane in London. Bugatti says these boots will “remain rare and sought after by devoted collectors for years to come”. Just 99 pairs are available via auction. collect.adidas.com/bugatti…1 min
BBC Top Gear Magazine|February 20245 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE… SMART #31 IT’S A ‘SPORTS UTILITY COUPE’ Carmakers are always trying to shove their cars into lifestyle niches. We’re not sure which lifestyle the new Smart #3 is aimed at, but it’s a small electric SUV with a swoopy roof. Smart is owned 50:50 by Mercedes and Geely, so through the magic of modern carmaking, the #3 is based on the same bits as the new Volvo EX30. 2 THE YOUNG PEOPLE WILL LOVE IT At least that’s what Smart is hoping. Every #3 comes with a 12.3-inch infotainment screen as standard, which includes Apple CarPlay and Android Auto and all the over the air updates that you can shake a stick at. Plus the fancier specs come with a 13-speaker Beats sound system as invented by the world’s favourite physician…2 min
BBC Top Gear Magazine|February 2024FUTURE PROOFOn this page in 2009 I wrote a column about not going back. I was thinking about the moon, as it was the 40th anniversary of Apollo 11. The dozen people to have walked on its surface had exhibited bravery and steely minded commitment far beyond the compass of almost any other mortals. They themselves were by far the most reliable and well proven element of the entire 2,800-tonne rocket they’d strapped themselves into. And they were departing to a hostile black vacuum almost a quarter of a million miles beyond the possibility of rescue. Their only real time connection was a low-bandwidth radio signal carrying voices on a bed of interference, and snowstormy black and white video. For the whole planet Earth watching heart in mouth below them, it…3 min
BBC Top Gear Magazine|February 2024Quick smart£243,500 FOR Even more spectacular to drive, less annoying to live with AGAINST Noise is a little drab, deja vu looks No one had a problem with how fast the McLaren 720S went. No one complained about its handling. And yet, McLaren’s added more power (and shorter gearing) to its replacement: the 750S. So it’s even more urgent in a straight line. The suspension’s been fiddled with: the components themselves are now lighter and the furiously clever software linking each damper has been recoded to be as comfy as a 720S when you’re commuting and almost as wild as a 765LT when you’re not. The result is a car that verges on genius. No other supercar combines such an uncanny level of comfort and user friendliness with such frightening performance…2 min
BBC Top Gear Magazine|February 2024MUST TRY HARDER£32,045 THE RENAULT ARKANA IS FINE. NOT GREAT, not dreadful, just blissfully at ease with its own unnoteworthiness. Given the fun Kuga, popular Qashqai, comfy C4 and sporty Formentor all exist, that’s pretty lame. Renault either hasn’t noticed or doesn’t care, because the facelift makes no effort to close up to the pack. In comes a fresh face (literally) with a new grille, LED signature headlights and that swirly new logo on the snout. At the back, revised brake lights and more discreet exhaust tips. Please try to contain your excitement. Inside? Barely any different, though the trims have been overhauled: more standard kit, apparently, and a new range topper that coats everything in Alpine logos and blue stitching. The turbo petrol has been lost too, so the (slower) 1.6…1 min
BBC Top Gear Magazine|February 2024Enjoy FIVE ISSUES FOR £5GREAT REASONS TO SUBSCRIBE Get your first 5 issues for £5 then pay £23.50 every 6 issues, saving 35% on the usual shop price The greatest motoring magazine on the planet delivered direct to your door Unique and collectable covers – only seen by our subscribers Get your copy before it hits the shops and never miss an issue! SUBSCRIBING IS EASY. SIMPLY GO ONLINE, CALL OR SCAN buysubscriptions.com/TGP224 03330 162 130**and quote TGP224 *This offer is subject to availability via direct debit only, and valid for UK delivery addresses only. This offer closes 7 February 2024. You will pay £5 for the first 5 issues and continue to pay £23.50 every 6 issues - saving 35% on the usual shop price. All savings are calculated as a percentage of…1 min
BBC Top Gear Magazine|February 2024THE XX FILESMichael Schumacher is The Stig (…right?) The FXX’s Dunsfold power lap was only the second mostremarkable thing about the first episode of series 13. Stig’s time – 1:10.7secs – put the FXX over six seconds ahead of the second placed car at the time, the Gumpert Apollo, but that’s not what anyone remembers. Because this was The One Where Stig Took His Helmet Off. And revealed himself to be none other than Michael Schumacher. The seven time world champion – pictured here reclining in the luxurious surroundings of the TG TV production office – had a strong personal connection with the FXX. He was involved in its development and was also the recipient of the 30th and last FXX, given to him as a thankyou for helping return the Scuderia…3 min
BBC Top Gear Magazine|February 2024NEED FOR SWEDETraditionally it’s trolls that lurk under bridges – or possibly Japanese oni in this case, seeing as we’re approaching an underpass on the outskirts of Tokyo. It’s certainly not a usual hangout for super cool Japanese young people. But when subcultures form, they tend to stick to the fringes of society, and this one is no different. The body language and capillary action of the cars is the same as any other car meet though – people drawn together in loose groups, pointing at bits of car, laughing and joking, standing back to admire, leaning in to inspect. Except that the cars themselves aren’t the usual highly modified or expensive representatives of the traditional scenes. In fact, they’re remarkably unremarkable. But that’s the thing here – in a society driven…8 min
BBC Top Gear Magazine|February 2024Enjoy FIVE ISSUES FOR £5SUBSCRIBING IS EASY. SIMPLY GO ONLINE, CALL OR SCAN buysubscriptions.com/TGSP224 03330 162 130 and quote TGSP224** *This offer is subject to availability via direct debit only, and valid for UK delivery addresses only. This offer closes 7 February 2024. You will pay £5 for the first 5 issues and continue to pay £23.50 every 6 issues - saving 35% on the usual shop price. All savings are calculated as a percentage of the full shop price. Should the magazine ordered change in frequency; we will honour the number of issues and not the term of the subscription. We reserve the right to reject or cancel subscriptions at any point if the customer has previously cancelled their subscription during the trial period for that magazine or any other magazine in the…1 min
BBC Top Gear Magazine|February 2024WE’RE BUILDING A CUSTOM ROYAL ENFIELDPracticality. Not something you normally associate with a bike, but something we’re striving for with our build. What’s the point of building a custom if you can’t use it? So we’ve collaborated with Fastec Racing (CNC and engineering guru) and Malle London (the best-spirited luggage company on Earth) to give our Conti GT an adventurous edge Fastec’s Danny Starmer has spent his life in CAD. He’s a whizz, so is creating a bespoke luggage rack for two Malle panniers and a top duffel – allowing us to carry plenty of pants Unlike some plasticky bike boxes, the waxed canvas panniers look beautiful and perform. They attach quickly and have been tested to destruction across the world Having spent a day with Danny prototyping parts, he’s now feeding a billet of…1 min
BBC Top Gear Magazine|February 2024L322 RANGE ROVER ALTERNATIVESVOLVO XC90 (2004) Price now: £1,995 Harris says: Can’t bear to take the plunge on a potentially ruinous Rangie? This costs less than the average UK resident spends on holidays in a year. A week on a beach or a seven-seat Swedish SUV? Know which we’d have. PORSCHE CAYENNE S (2006) Price now: £3,900 Harris says:Looking for something a little more road-biased than a Range Rover? First-gen Cayennes are now worryingly cheap. Heck, this is a 4.5-litre V8-engined S for less than £4k. Just beware if anything goes wrong. CADILLAC ESCALADE (2007) Price now: £15,995 Harris says: Is an L322 just a little bit too small? Enter the Cadillac Escalade. You too could look like prime Rooney or just about any other Noughties Premier League footballer by buying this disgracefully…1 min
BBC Top Gear Magazine|February 2024WHAT ELSE WE’RE RUNNINGREPORT 6 VOLKSWAGEN ID.BUZZ Small issues for me this month. I can’t open the tailgate if I attach a tow bar bike rack, and it’s not strong enough to have a tailgate mounted rack fitted. Meanwhile the 60:40 split bench is less versatile and imaginative than any MPV. OM REPORT 4 ALFA ROMEO TONALE Seems the Tonale is still a rare sight on UK roads… I’ve been asked if it’s a Stelvio more times than I care to say. Which makes me wonder how common both Alfa SUVs are – to my eyes they are very different propositions, but not, it seems, to others. EN REPORT 2 JEEP AVENGER Yes, that’s an identical Avenger parked next to me, proving what I already suspected – Jeep has nailed the ‘desirability’ brief.…1 min
BBC Top Gear Magazine|February 2024Dacia SanderoGOODBYE £14,795 OTR/£15,445 as tested/£213 pcm WHY IT’S HERE It’s no longer the UK’s cheapest new car, but is it still a TG hero? DRIVERS Greg Potts THE DACIA SANDERO IS LEAVING THE TG GARAGE. IT’S HARD TObelieve it’s been with us for six months already, and that probably says a little about how competently it can cope with pretty much any situation, plus a little about how forgettable it is. The latter shouldn’t really be an insult, though. The Sandero may be a little bland but there’s a very good reason for its simplicity. Firstly, it keeps the cost down. This may no longer be Britain’s cheapest car at the time of writing (the Kia Picanto pips it by just over £100), but it is absolutely still one of…2 min
BBC Top Gear Magazine|February 2024Lexus RX 450hHELLO £67,100 OTR/£81,600 as tested/£524 pcm WHY IT’S HERE Has Lexus squandered its lead in the posh hybrid SUV race? DRIVER Jason Barlow INSIDE MY HEAD: LEXUS IS THE LUXURY OUTLIER THAT’S PERMA-skirting the arena occupied by the big players – Audi, BMW, Mercedes, Land/Range Rover. In reality: the first generation RX dates back to 1999, thus pre-empting the Noughties SUV boom. A pioneer. It was certainly the first to introduce hybrid tech to the sector, upscaling parent company Toyota’s farsighted eco adventures with the original Prius. Flagship of a now heavily expanded range, the RX is into its fifth regeneration. Aside from the LFA and IS-F V8 saloon, Lexus has rarely fanned the flames of driving desire. But having recently just scored my first speeding conviction in 18 years,…2 min
BBC Top Gear Magazine|February 2024BMW i4GOODBYE £54,075 OTR/£63,795 as tested/£773 pcm WHY IT’S HERE Can an electric BMW look, feel and drive… like a BMW? DRIVER Ben Pulman THERE’S A BARRAGE OF QUESTIONS TOfire at the BMW i4. “Why isn’t the range as good as a Tesla Model 3?” “Why isn’t it as innovative as the BMW i3 and i8 from a decade ago?” “Why does it have the silly Big Face Grille?” But let’s take a breath. We could dismiss almost every electric car if it were judged only on range, and while those early is (that’s i, plural – blame Apple) were clever carbon things, they weren’t a sales success. As for the third question… I don’t think anyone outside BMW knows why it persists with such a facial cul-de-sac. But the i4…2 min
BBC Top Gear Magazine|February 2024Chevrolet’s greatest hits01Chevrolet Bel Air Built from 1949 to 1981 over five iterations, the bulbous original encapsulated the Fifties and the car grew fins then chrome over the decades. The second version was a perfect fit for Chevy’s small block V8, which is still on the go. 02Chevrolet Impala Introduced in 1958 as a plush coupe version of the Bel Air, the Impala then spawned a whole range. The SS (Super Sport) arrived in 1960 with what would become Chevy’s go faster badge. Recent 10th gen was more of a rental car special. 03Chevrolet El Camino The third generation of this car-based pickup in 1968 was a classic late Sixties/early Seventies. The SS version came with a 6.5-litre V8 engine producing a bonkers 325bhp, and more powerful versions came after. Later models…2 min
BBC Top Gear Magazine|February 2024NOTABLE PEOPLELouis Chevrolet Left his name but little else. Last job was as a mechanic in a Chevy plant William C Durant Cutthroat businesman invented the multi-brand carmaker. C stands for Crapo Sean Connery The 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air in Dr No is technically the first car Bond drives in the movies Rick Mears No relation to Ray – he took Chevy’s first Indy 500 win in 1988, and did it again in 1991 Mary Barra Arguably the most powerful woman in the car business. Has run General Motors since 2014…1 min
BBC Top Gear Magazine|February 2024What was Chevrolet’s best moment?The firm had already been going for 50 years, but its global image was cemented in the Sixties and Seventies as it set the muscle car tone with its Corvette and Camaro models. Iconic bits of Americana that also helped build the country’s immense soft power during the period. NASCAR might be a touch earthy for snooty European tastes, but Chevrolet is the most successful manufacturer to be involved in the series, with 39 manufacturers’ titles since NASCAR started in February 1948. Maybe 2007 blockbuster movie Transformers could be seen as the company’s best moment in recent years – yellow Autobot Bumblebee might not have remained as a scummy Seventies Camaro (he morphed into the spiffing new model in a neat bit of presumably paid marketing), or indeed a Chevrolet…1 min
BBC Top Gear Magazine|February 2024LOGO EVOLUTION1911 This is almost illegible, isn’t it? Louis clearly didn’t have an eye for branding. That’s a lot of letters to fit on a grille… 1913 The bowtie appears early on. Some say it was Durant’s tribute to Chevrolet’s home country of Switzerland… 1940 Y’know, because of the cross. Some think it was nicked from a coal advert. No one really knows. Looks alright 1943 Not sure what has happened here, this one looks rubbish. Sort it out Chevrolet 2002 Blah, blah, blah, gold version appears 91 years in after some dabbling with colours…1 min
BBC Top Gear Magazine|February 2024EV HOTLISTCITY CARS These small cars are perfect for urban life, but the trade-off is a much lower range 1. HONDA e PRICE: £37,395 RANGE: Up to 136 miles This TG favourite has retro styling and a brilliant interior, but it’s very expensive and the range isn’t great. Somehow we can’t help but love it though… 2. FIAT 500 PRICE: £28,195–£37,195 RANGE: Up to 199 miles The latest version of the 500 offers sharper looks, good value and decent range – and a parcel shelf full of soft toys shouldn’t hurt the battery too much. 3. CITROEN AMI PRICE: £7,695–£8,695 RANGE: 47 miles Say hello to your little French friend. The pared back Ami is the perfect car for the city streets, as long as you don’t have ambitions to go…6 min
BBC Top Gear Magazine|February 2024“I’VE BOUGHT ONE! WHAT NOW?”You have a home charge point. Don’t you? Well, get one. There’s a grant, so it’ll cost you less than £500. If you don’t have a driveway, to get an overnight or all-day recharge check zapmap.com for posts near home or work that give between 5kW and 7kW. Always make sure that you know in advance the supplier for the post you want to use, and register on its app or get its dedicated RFID card. Rapid (DC) chargers, at a slightly higher price, are best used for long trips, like you’d stop for fuel. They take roughly as long as filling with petrol and having a full English. In winter, keep plugged in until you drive away, as pre-warming the battery and cabin increases range. When possible, choose heated/cooled…1 min
BBC Top Gear Magazine|February 2024EV GLOSSARYEV Let’s start with a simple one. EV means electric vehicle, as opposed to one powered by petrol, diesel, used chip oil, Chanel No 5 or magic. BEV People in the car industry like to use this one. It stands for battery electric vehicle, as opposed to, say, an FCEV (fuel cell electric vehicle) that’s powered by hydrogen. We just call them EVs. ICE The internal combustion engine. Confusingly, ICE can also stand for in-car entertainment (ie the stereo, touchscreen and so on). PHEV Plug-in hybrid electric vehicle, or a hybrid with a bigger battery that you can plug in to charge, giving you a short, say 20-mile, electric-only range. Amazing tax-dodging mpg figures in the official tests, not so amazing in real life… unless you plug in every night…6 min
BBC Top Gear Magazine|February 2024MAKING IT HAPPENWHAT: CAR HIRE DEPOT WHERE: NEW YORK, USA Typical car rental place – you come for the Ford Mustang on the wall, leave with the leggy 150,000-mile Buick Encore (or similar) WHO: ROWAN HORNCASTLE WHERE: NEW YORK, USA Rowan was surprised a few seconds after this by some angry locals shouting things like “down on the ground” and “put your hands behind your head” WHAT: MEMORABILIA WHERE: MODENA, ITALY Lucky that Stig’s head can regrow once it’s been removed, but at least it’s in good company among some of the recent Ferrari F1 greats. And a toy boat WHAT: ENZO’S DESK WHERE: MODENA, ITALY This is where all that vintage Ferrari magic happened. You can still open the middle drawer and see Enzo’s extensive stash of glacier mints WHAT: BREAKFAST…1 min
BBC Top Gear Magazine|February 2024GET YOUR FIXMAGAZINE Order a copy at MagsDirect.co.uk SUBSCRIPTION OFFER buysubscriptions.com/TGSP3M DOWNLOAD TheTopGear app from your App Store WEBSITE Visit topgear.comfor your rolling hit of news, reviews, entertainment and advice YOUTUBE Subscribe to the TopGearYouTube channel to watch the best car videos on the planet PODCAST Visit topgear.com to download the TopGear podcast @topgear facebook.com/topgear @BBC_TopGear…1 min
BBC Top Gear Magazine|February 2024MASERATI GHIBLIDon’t be a hostage to fortune. Just because you’re delighted your new spaniel puppy has mastered a) sitting on command, b) walking to heel, and c) not lavishly defecating into your high-tops, probably best not to rock up on national radio declaring she’ll be the first canine chess grandmaster, and also a shoo-in for the 2028 Nobel Prize in Physics. Underpromise, overdeliver, that’s what we’re saying. Advice sadly not heeded by Maserati at the launch of the Ghibli in 2013, where the ever optimistic Italians announced this would be the car to boost their UK sales by literally ONE THOUSAND PER CENT. Yep, tenfold. In 2012, Maser shifted a paltry 300 cars in the UK, but promised that by 2016, that figure would leap to 3,000, the coquettish Ghibli luring…1 min
BBC Top Gear Magazine|February 2024HIDE AND SEEKSerious-minded people like to think they know how the world works. Logic is the key to understanding, as some philosopher probably once said. But the world is not a logical place. These camouflage watches illustrate the point. Watches themselves defy logic. On the face of it they are about telling time, but if you’re late, a wristwatch is never to blame. In a similar way, cars defy logic too. A car provides a useful function, sure, but is that why you are reading this magazine? You could probably get by with Uber and a bus pass, but instead you want metallic paint, alloy wheels and a GT sport pack. For most people, a car is not a logical purchase, it’s emotional – you want a car that makes you do…3 min
BBC Top Gear Magazine|February 2024THE KNOWLEDGECYBER SECURITY This could be Tesla tweaker Unplugged Performance’s vision of a US donut shop car park in 2030 – its dystopian Cybertruck police car has RoboCop vibes, but the cherry top treatment remains a render for now URBAN PLANNING Toyota’s Urban SUV concept is a preview of the electric crossover the Japanese firm is launching in 2024. That’s all we know so far, apart from there will be two battery options and FWD or AWD. And it’s got the Volvo EX30 squarely in its sights SWISS MISS A Peugeot dealership in Switzerland is offering lucky customers a £22k ‘Rallye’ tribute version of the 208. It’s entirely cosmetic, but we’re already sold on its white 16in steel wheels. Won’t be coming to the UK though… SKYE’S THE LIMIT Ex-Jag design…1 min
BBC Top Gear Magazine|February 2024“HEAVY EVs CAUSE BAD AIR QUALITY”There’s been a lot of noise lately that EVs, because they’re heavier than ICE cars, wear out their brakes and tyres faster. And tyre and brake pad particulates are like exhaust particulates – very bad for health. But in cities, where the people are breathing the air and where they’re closer to the traffic, vehicles move slowly and hardly wear their tyres. So tyre particulate emissions matter less than on faster roads – at least from the point of view of lung health. And brakes? EVs hardly use their brakes, because most of the slowing down is done by the motor, in regeneration. So, in places where the biggest number of people are breathing the biggest amount of poisoned air, EVs definitely help. In short they remove from the equation…1 min
BBC Top Gear Magazine|February 2024The big test: electric execsThere was a time not so long ago when BMW really pushed boundaries, failed spectacularly to play it safe, embraced innovation hard enough to make bones creak. But back then it wasn’t an exercise to see who could make the ugliest front end – the i3 was so far ahead of the game it had packed up and gone home before others caught up. The i8 was a hybrid sports car so experimental it had customers searching for an appropriate safe word. But things have changed. Where the new BMW 5-Series now has an electric version – the i5 – this G60 shares aplatform with internally combusted brethren, which invites inevitable compromise. Meanwhile, Mercedes-Benz has produced a bespoke architecture that intends to make best use of electric motivation – the…6 min
BBC Top Gear Magazine|February 2024Born again£160,000 (approx) FOR New found smoothness and practicality, composed road manners, thumping V8 AGAINST Lost a little character in the process, fiddly menus and screen graphics, cost You remember the AMG GT. Super long bonnet, cabin parked on the back axle behind growling V8, fairly frenetic approach to life. Yeah, that one. Well, the badge is back but the car has changed. No longer a supercar, now a super GT. There are two seats in the back and a bigger boot. Customer demand apparently. I ask one of the AMG execs if owners were threatening to go off and buy Porsche 911s. There’s a rueful non-denial. So it’s returned as a Germanic alternative to the Aston Martin DB12 and Ferrari Roma. Or a Porsche 911 Turbo of course. Think it’s…4 min
BBC Top Gear Magazine|February 2024Scale model£39,990 FOR Interior quality finally catching up with the tech AGAINST Steering wheel buttons, self-driving, the image Can you separate the art from the artist? Elon’s abrasive antics have taken the shine off a Tesla, but somewhere in there there’s a car company crying to be taken seriously. This new facelifted 3 does look good though – sharper, more assertive and resolved. It’s improved inside, too, with a sense that the quality of materials and overall design is finally catching up with the tech. You will still have to drive the car yourself though, sorry about that. The 3 comes with Autopilot cruise control as standard, but you can spend £3,400 for the ‘Enhanced’ version and £6,800 on ‘Full Self-Driving Capability’. The latter isn’t actually available, it’s more a hope…2 min
BBC Top Gear Magazine|February 2024JOY OF XX“TURNS OUT SIMPLE, BINARY, SHOVE-IN-THE-BACK G-FORCE IS NO SUBSTITUTE FOR PURITY AND HEDONISTIC CHARISMA” When I first drove the SF90 back in the weird summer of 2020, and in the hills not far from here, what blew me away was how fast it got itself out of corners. Inside, I felt like a tennis ball: roundabout, thwack, tight bend, thwack, open curve, thwack, hairpin, thwack. It was a physical bombardment and I was in the firing line. And now Ferrari has built a faster SF90. More aero. More grip. But how it gets itself out of corners remains the most remarkable thing. At least dynamically speaking. But put dynamics to one side and there’s something even more remarkable: that the car exists at all. My God there must have been…8 min
BBC Top Gear Magazine|February 2024EVERY BODY HERTZIt occurs to me, as I sign a scrap of paper, swipe my credit card and hold out a palm in a slightly scabby rental booth on Staten Island, that this probably constitutes world record levels of irresponsibility. Short of free guns with every Happy Meal or spiking the punch at a school disco, this is the situation statistically most likely to end in disaster. For just a few hundred dollars, Hertz will hand over the keys to a Shelby tuned Mustang, with more power than a Ferrari 812 Superfast, to any old Billy that walks through the door. Today, that Billy is me. I grasp the keys and make a bolt for it before the lady behind the desk realises she’s made some horrible clerical error. You know the…8 min
BBC Top Gear Magazine|February 2024SPIN CITY“THE CARS HIT THE TRACK AT 2.30AM ON FRIDAY, LENDING VEGAS A LE MANS VIBE” “IT’S A CITY THAT TURNS EVERY THING YOU KNOW INSIDE OUT” “FORMULA ONE’S LONG AWAITED RETURN TO SIN CITY HAS SUSPENDED REALITY” Two things happen on day four in Vegas. I see actual daylight for the first time since arriving, Ubering out of the city on a mission but cowering in the back seat like one of the vampires in What We Do in the Shadows. Later, I bump into an old friend in a food outlet in The Venetian that sits cheek by jowl beside the casino floor. He’s just landed from Chicago, and we’ve both decided that at this point in time only a burger and fries will do. It’s a food-based scramble…10 min
BBC Top Gear Magazine|February 2024FOR RICHER, FOR PORSCHESometimes, carefully curated preconception can turn out to be narrow-minded prejudice wrapped in a slightly less offensive winter jacket. An easy trope for a gathering of Californian Porsche enthusiasts had me imagining a lot of middle-aged white guys with crayon grey 911s, possibly all with toothy, too-white veneers. Polos, cargo shorts and New Balance trainers for that smart/casual vibe, a Porsche cap that flags weekend allegiance, ready for posh-people’s BugJam. And yet, turning up to Porsche’s Rennsport Reunion VII in Monterey, I’m about 85 per cent wrong. There are still plenty of too-perfect teeth on offer, but this celebration of 75 years of Porsche’s existence is anything but the middle of the road, luxury brand show-off that I half expected. The first five minutes will have you slack-jawed. This is…6 min
BBC Top Gear Magazine|February 2024RICCI’S GARAGE“WHAT’S THE POINT IN OWNING A FERRARI RACECAR WHICH LIVES ITS LIFE ON THE ROAD?” For nearly four years I’ve owned a road legal Ferrari 360 Challenge racecar, and for nearly three of those it’s been completely off any road. This is because of many reasons, the main being that racecars really don’t enjoy being used outside of racing. The ride is dreadful, the noise deafening and its turning circle on par with a vessel that reads ‘Maersk’ down the side. All quite entertaining in short bursts. Less so on a daily commute. But the biggest single issue is down to its maintenance. When I bought it from Japan in 2020, it came with very limited history. And given its intended use, you have to assume that nothing has been…3 min
BBC Top Gear Magazine|February 2024POWER DRIFTREMEMBERINGRETRO GAMING THE CLASSICS While legendary Sega developer Yu Suzuki is best known for Out Run and Daytona USA, in between those he created the lesser known Power Drift. Utilising what was known as ‘super scaler’ technology, Power Drift constructed its elevated, rollercoaster tracks entirely out of two dimensional sprites but then blasted them at your eyeballs so rapidly that they resembled a solid, three-dimensional structure. On the initial menu screen, you select not just your preferred circuit, but also one of 12 different drivers who is then craned directly into their car, which is a service that would be extremely welcome after a substantial pub lunch, now that we think about it. Once you hit the track, the handling was just as slidy as the title of the game…1 min
BBC Top Gear Magazine|February 2024Honda ZR-VHELLO £42,895 OTR/£43,545 as tested/£439 pcm WHY IT’S HERE Three months with a ZR-V: can we figure out what it’s actually for? DRIVER Greg Potts BACK IN THE GOOD OLD DAYS WHEN HATCHBACKS RULED UK ROADSand the ‘crossover’ category only included strange creations like the Renault Scenic RX4, TopGear magazine would have brought you long-term reviews on every single permutation of the Honda Civic’s multiple specs and powertrains so you could decide which engine, gearbox and interior trim was right for you. These days, Honda only sells the standard Civic with a single hybrid powertrain and we already ran one of those (and very much liked it) earlier this year. Of course, there is the 2.0-litre turbocharged 324bhp Type R now, but we’d have to sell a job lot of…2 min
BBC Top Gear Magazine|February 2024Mazda CX-60GOODBYE £48,380 OTR/£50,030 as tested/£629 pcm WHY IT’S HERE Can Mazda join the large/luxe SUV party? DRIVER Andy Franklin AFTER 12 MONTHS OF LIVING WITH THE BIGGEST, MOST EXPENSIVE,most ambitiously positioned Mazda yet, it’s time to say sayonara. We started out with a petrol 2.5-litre plug-in hybrid petrol, and replaced it with this old school diesel. That was a good call, as the hybrid version never felt quite sorted. The gearbox, hybrid motor and engine often busied themselves with marital breakdowns resulting in some embarrassingly jerky driving. Even jerkier when you factored in the bouncy, unsettled ride. The diesel is a better effort. The 3.0-litre straight-six has a smooth but raspy tone when floored. It’s quick, yet returns impressive mpg, and has lots of torque which came in handy when…3 min
BBC Top Gear Magazine|February 2024WHAT ELSE WE’RE RUNNINGREPORT 3 TOYOTA bZ4X Instead of 20in smooth trainers, the bZ4X now has a set of BF Goodrich Trail Terrains (235/60/R18). They are ‘severe snow rated’, have decent sipes and toughened up sidewalls to deal with some gravel/off-road use, and are generally a bit tougher. TF REPORT 4 AUDI TT FINAL EDITION The TT’s Alcantara/leather seats are fantastic. They strike a good balance by offering a deep, thickly padded, expensively cushioned feel, while hugging your hips just enough to better enjoy its handling smarts. More on that next month… VP REPORT 4 PEUGEOT 408 I’ve grumbled before about the messy operation of this engine and automatic combo, fitted to dozens of cars across the Peugeot, Citroen, DS, Vauxhall ranges. In a city, which is where most of my trips begin…1 min
BBC Top Gear Magazine|February 2024GENESIS GV70REPORT 3 £45,635/£57,995/£686 WHY IT’S HERE Can Hyundai’s posher offshoot stand out on the saturated SUV scene? DRIVER Charlie Rose OH DEAR, HERE I AM WONDERINGwhy we’re not seeing more Genesis like our GV70 on UK roads, only to find out that Genesis Motor UK has kicked the bucket. Genesis will cease to be an independent company in early 2024, at least on British soil. OK, that sounds more dramatic than it actually is. It will be merging its operations with its overlords at Hyundai UK, and there should be no impact on current or future Genesis owners. In fact, next year will see Genesis partner with several dealerships to establish a franchised dealer network throughout the UK. One could speculate that ploughing money into new company operations may not…1 min
BBC Top Gear Magazine|February 2024What’s the cheapest car that Chevrolet builds… and what’s the most expensive?Chevrolet’s US range consists of 13 SUVs, four pickups, a saloon and a sports car, which gives you an idea of the car market over there. The Trax SUV is the cheapest, starting at $20,400 (£16,200) in LS spec. It comes with a 1.2-litre petrol, 6spd auto, 8in interior touchscreen with smartphone integration, keyless entry and 17in steel wheels. At the other end of the scale is the Corvette Z06, the performance version of the Corvette, which is advertised from $112,700 (£89,500) but maxes out at $134,245 before options for the convertible version in 3LZ trim. That car has a 5.5-litre V8 petrol and 8spd auto transmission, 8in interior touchscreen, keyless entry and heated seats. Among other things, obviously. The UK only gets the entry level Corvette Stingray, starting at…1 min
BBC Top Gear Magazine|February 20241,518,048When it comes to building its cars, Chevrolet benefits from being part of the General Motors family of carmakers, with various plants making cars in Brazil, Canada, Mexico and Japan and 10 or so locations in the USA. These benefits extend to sharing underbits with cars from Cadillac, GMC and Buick. Even the Vauxhall Insignia and Chevrolet Malibu shared a base until the Vauxhall was canned in 2022. Which also happens to be the last year we have full sales figures for – Chevrolet shifted a smidge over 1.5 million vehicles in 2022, an increase of 5.6 per cent on the previous year. The company’s bestselling model is the Silverado pickup, which accounts for over a third of its total sales, 523,000 of them shifted during the year.…1 min
BBC Top Gear Magazine|February 2024What was Chevrolet’s worst moment?Could Chevrolet’s worst moment have been the complicity of its C10 pickup truck in the unfortunate multiple demise of weather forecasting groundhog Punxsutawney Phil in Bill Murray flick Groundhog Day? Maybe execs were pleased with the traction of its vehicle in the film’s icy conditions. That would ignore Chevrolet’s output in the Seventies and Eighties, which was largely dire as the firm embraced a heady combination of front-wheel drive, indifferent design and boat-like handling. Chevy even imported a set of small Suzuki and Isuzus in the Eighties after the oil crisis, rebadging them to go up against the Honda Civic and Toyota Corolla. More recently, the carmaker was forced to pull ads in the US in 2019 that quoted surveys that found the firm to be the most reliable brand…1 min
BBC Top Gear Magazine|February 2024What’s the most Chevrolet car in the back catalogue?If you ask someone to think of the quintessential American sports car, there’s a good chance that the Corvette will be on the tip of their tongue. Maybe after the Mustang or Dodge Viper, perhaps the Ford Thunderbird or Shelby Cobra. But certainly above the 1912 Stutz Bearcat. The Corvette story is of gradual evolution from a lazy Fifties runabout to a European-rivalling sports car with fearsome performance and dare we say it some top notch handling. It has grown over eight generations since it was first introduced in 1953 as a ‘dream car’ concept at the Waldorf Astoria hotel in New York. The fibreglass body was an exotic touch, but the 3.9-litre inline six engine was deemed to be a little underpowered at 150bhp, especiallygiven that it was matched…3 min
BBC Top Gear Magazine|February 2024FEATHER DUSTERNow go and watch the video on topgear.com Although we’re big fans of the Dacia Duster here at TopGear, there’s a slight feeling of unease surrounding this all-new third generation. Why? Well, it looks a bit… too good, bluntly. A bit plush. A little too much equipment and swagger for what is supposed to be a cheap, no nonsense, working hero. But before we do the usual and jump headlong to conclusions, it’s probably worth a little delve into what we’re looking at. For a start, this is a properly new Duster. There’ll be three engines on offer, as well as front-wheel-drive and all-wheel-drive options. Already, we raise our collective eyebrow. But bear with us. There’s the Hybrid 140, which comprises a 1.6-litre, 94bhp petrol engine with a 49bhp electric…3 min
BBC Top Gear Magazine|February 2024INTERNAL BOLIDE-INGBugatti has unveiled the finalised interior for its track only Bolide hypercar, due later this year. It says the all new, lightweight monocoque is “stronger and stiffer” than the Chiron’s and promotes a racier, reclined seating position so you can live out your Le Mans fantasies with your ankles somewhere north of your ear lobes. Interestingly, not one single part in the car you see here has been carried over from the Chiron, everything has been crafted exclusively for the Bolide, with the outer ‘X’ theme continued inside – note the Farfalle steering wheel (complete with buttons to engage the Bolide’s various driving settings, including launch control and traction control) which is removeable, allowing you to turn the Bolide’s interior into a lounge of sorts. And if you’re wondering why…1 min
BBC Top Gear Magazine|February 2024Super Woden GP 2A tribute to classic isometric arcade racers like World Rally and Mille Miglia, bizarrely titled PC game Super Woden GP 2 takes that straightforward gameplay and marries it to a more expansive career mode – the one from Gran Turismo specifically. To say Super Woden 2 borrows from ‘GT Mode’ is like saying the Great Train Robbers ‘borrowed’ £2.6 million. It works beautifully though, and exposes the straightforward brilliance of buying cars, tuning them up and flitting between races. While some of the early machinery feels sluggish, once you climb the ladder to the more potent vehicles you’ll be throwing them into corners with gleeful abandon. A game that costs a shade over a tenner shouldn’t be this much fun. Apparently, Super Woden GP 2 is mostly the work of…1 min
BBC Top Gear Magazine|February 2024THE MIDDLE LANEFor much of my childhood, my dad was just a pair of legs. To clarify, he had a torso, and arms, and a head – still does, for that matter – but for much of the Eighties and Nineties, they were hidden beneath a Ford Sierra or Orion, or a beige Volvo estate. A pair of oil-stained jeans, surrounded by a scatter of tools and half-drunk mugs of tea. My dad wasn’t a mechanic. He had a day job, but when he wasn’t doing his day job, he was mending cars. Not a hobby as such, more penny pinching. He suffered a morbid aversion to paying someone else to do something he could do himself, even if doing it himself involved a fortnight of research into the intricacies of Citroen…3 min
BBC Top Gear Magazine|February 2024Square dance£50,000 (approx) FOR Stylish if you don’t mind getting noticed. Road biased. Great cabin. Good value AGAINST Less of a full-on 4x4 than it looks Are you seeing what we’re seeing? A 2004 Discovery, that masterpiece of sheer-sided Geoff Upex design and unstoppable off-road adventurism? Yeah, there’s some of that here, a body shaped with minimalist style ethos but maximalist space efficiency. The Hyundai Santa Fe is a family SUV, about as big as you could possibly want for British streets and car parks. It’s got seven seats with cargo space beyond that, and it’s a solid tow car. But actually it’s a slightly different proposition from an old Land Rover. It’s only optionally 4WD, and doesn’t have a low ratio transmission or diff locks. For most people it’s better…4 min
BBC Top Gear Magazine|February 2024Scenic route£43,000 (approx) FOR Good to drive and ride in. Handsome. Long range AGAINST Doesn’t have the versatility of early Scenics You can see why they wanted to revive the name. The Renault Scenic was a massive hit with car buying families in the Nineties. But that was that and this is this. It’s a longish wheelbase long range electric family car. The original Scenic is history and so are its one box profile, and three individual folding and sliding rear seats. Fair enough – people gradually stopped buying those MPVs, and unused seat mechanisms just add weight and cost. These days the sales are in crossovers and so doubtless Renault wouldn’t mind if you mistook this for one. Actually it’s less than 20mm taller than an ID.3. Renault has another…2 min
BBC Top Gear Magazine|February 2024The overrunMERCEDES-BENZ CLA 250e SHOOTING BRAKE £45,360 FORIt’s a decent car if you accidentally end up buying one AGAINST Interior fiddliness, smaller inside than it first looks The A-Class facelift trickles onward – we’re not entirely sure what the point of the CLA Shooting Brake is, but it’s nice once you’re inside it. Look past the modish styling and it’s a decent enough A-Class estate. We’d happily do without the steering wheel touch controls, but this mid-spec AMG Line Executive PHEV makes for a decent motorway cruiser. The plug-in option now makes better sense with around 40 miles real world from its 16kWh battery. SB VOLVO XC40 B4 FWD ULTIMATE £45,520 FOR Still very stylish, some nice practical touches inside AGAINST Big gap between petrol and electric options Volvo’s entry SUV…2 min
BBC Top Gear Magazine|February 2024RATEDXX. Not so much a range of cars as perhaps the most exclusive automotive club there’s ever been. Membership: about 116. Cars, that is – probably considerably fewer people given many will own more than one. You, me and 99.999999 per cent of car nuts are not members of this club. And if you’re anything like me, you’re not sure that you want to be either. The problem is that Ferrari can often come across as arrogant and aloof, it often doesn’t feel like a company that cares about you and me. It’s a global luxury brand, it’s for the wealthy, we see the branding, the merch and the stores and it leaves us cold. Where, you wonder, is the passion you’ve heard all about? The stuff that makes the…9 min
BBC Top Gear Magazine|February 2024V FOR VICTORY!Caterham CEO Bob Laishley seems pathologically wary of the usual political gibberish, a man whose media training amounts to saying – after he’s told you a juicy secret – “that should probably be off the record”. I like Bob a lot. He’s a straight talker and a terrible liar. But even he might have a bit of a job convincing diehard Caterham fans that an electric mini-supercar might well be the future of the brand. Although given the Project V, it might not be as hard as it sounds. Mainly because the Project V – ‘V’ standing for voltage or velocity – is a pretty car in the metal, with a wasp waist and three bubble profile, strong shoulders and a simple rear end. There’s a distinct lack of 21-inch…10 min
BBC Top Gear Magazine|February 2024YEAR OF THE RAT?IT’S SWELTERING ON THE PAFURI LANDING STRIP.In the distance, an African fish eagle calls while a kudu munches on a dry tuft of bush grass. Almost in biting distance, a bask of crocodiles lie in the late morning sun, menacingly half submerged. All is as it should be in the Kruger National Park until the buzz of a Cessna Grand Caravan closes in on the rough and rutted gravel strip. The plane touches down in a cloud of orange dust and rattles its way over to a line of shiny new Ineos Grenadiers. The engine cuts, the door flips down and a familiar looking, streaky 6’4” figure emerges. Familiar, that is, if you have even a passing interest in business, football, Formula One, sailing, cycling or cars. “Ah, you’ve brought…10 min
BBC Top Gear Magazine|February 2024BMW X5 LE MANS, 1999It’s an expensive business, motorsport – executive boards demand results and brands have to justify spending vast amounts on paying short Europeans to drive in circles. The dream is to demonstrate a sort of trickledown effect, for dealers to point at a lardy SUV and claim a rich racing heritage. Something like the X5, perhaps. A risky move for BMW when the urbane pseudo off-roader came out. This was the company’s first SUV, and while Mercedes and Lexus had beaten it to the punch, BMW’s reputation as the maker of ultimate driving machines was at stake. Not to mention that it had decided it was going to build this German-badged monster in a new factory in South Carolina. Yikes. In entirely unrelated developments, come 1999 BMW found itself committed to…2 min
BBC Top Gear Magazine|February 2024(1984) PORSCHE 953 vs PORSCHE 911 DAKAR (2023)AH, ROTHMANS VS ROUGHROADS. THAT SHOWS PROGRESS DOESN’T IT? Cigarette branding might be heavily frowned upon now, but you can’t argue they knew how to do a good motorsport livery 40 years ago. The 953 arrived at the height of Porsche’s association with Rothmans, and looked as good on the Dakar contender as it had on the 956 Le Mans car. But enough about the way it looks. As far as 4WD Porsches go, this is their genesis. The first ever. Before the Cayenne was so much as a twinkle. As much as a competition car, it was a rolling test bed, paving the way for the 959 in 1985. WAS IT SUCCESSFUL? Too right it was. Porsche entered three in the 7,000-mile Paris-Dakar in 1984 and this very car,…2 min
BBC Top Gear Magazine|February 2024Range Rover LWBGOODBYE £137,435 OTR/£144,175 as tested/£1,650 pcm WHY IT’S HERE Is the world’s most luxurious SUV actually the world’s best luxury car full stop? DRIVER Ollie Marriage THIS IS THE LIFE. BACK SEAT. MASSAGE ENGAGED. TILTED BACKand stretched out. I might get the laptop out in a bit. Might. Right now I feel a nap coming on. Must be the mysterious smoothness of my professional chauffeur, Colin Hitchco*ck. No relation, apparently. The other side of the double glazing and electric window blinds Gloucestershire is currently slipping silently by. Next comes… well, I don’t mind really. Colin knows where he’s going. My eyelids really are quite heavy. Over the past six months I’ve driven 15,000 miles in this LWB Rangey, and until recently I’d not done a single mile in the back.…6 min
BBC Top Gear Magazine|February 2024VW AMAROKREPORT 2 £55,440/£57,231/£599 WHY IT’S HERE Does a posh double-cab pickup make the ultimate family SUV? DRIVER Sam Philip I DON’T MIND A DENTED PICKUP.But, in the case of TG’s Amarok, I wasn’t necessarily planning on those dents arriving quite so soon, or quite so… dentily. Yep, the big lad got shunted. The crashficionados among you will doubtless recognise the indentation in the rear of the Amarok as the work of a MkVII VW Golf. Driving in the middle lane of the M4, I slowed for the traffic ahead, while the Golf directly behind me… didn’t. Turns out a large slab of blue metal is tough to miss in every sense. It was a hefty bump that, as you can see, made a small mess of the rear of the…1 min
BBC Top Gear Magazine|February 2024WHAT WERE THEY THINKING?Ollie Marriage The Buzz is a quality product. The light wood dash is gorgeous, the faux-leather steering wheel and armrests are soft and tactile, the fabrics and metalwork are great, the seats blend comfort and support in exactly the right way. But then you start to interact with things. The undamped glovebox flops down on cheap plastic hinges. You’d only opened it to try and stop things sliding around the unlined innards. The bottom of the centre console houses the cupholders. They flop out clumsily as well and look Duplo-basic. And don’t get me started on the rear tray tables. Better not to have them at all if that’s the best you can do, VW. Feels like they’re going to break every time you go to push them back down.…1 min
BBC Top Gear Magazine|February 2024Toyota GR86GOODBYE £29,995 OTR/£30,960 as tested/£295pcm WHY IT’S HERE Drifting’s great, but is Toyota’s RWD hero also a great daily? DRIVER Ollie Kew GEEKS KNOW THAT ‘GR’, TOYOTA’S GO-FASTER DIVISION, STANDSfor ‘Gazoo Racing’. I think it should’ve been called ‘Mojo’, because that’s what the GR Supra, GR Yaris and GR86 have really existed to do: turn Toyota from Uber-making dishwasher-in-chief to a car brand that a new generation of car nuts will fantasise over. According to the likes of us at TG it’s largely job done, but what about if you’re an owner? If you’ve spent money buying, maintaining and modifying your very own? To find out, I arranged a little get-together with some GR fanatics at Harlow Japanese Autos, Britain’s premier Japanese car specialist. Our own Mark Riccioni has a…4 min
BBC Top Gear Magazine|February 2024What’s Chevrolet and when did it start making cars?Chevrolet was started on 3 November 1911 by Swiss engineer Louis Chevrolet along with disgruntled General Motors founder William C Durant, who’d recently been ousted. The first car in 1912 was the Classic Six, with a price equivalent to £54k today. It didn’t even have windows. Durant and Chevrolet clashed, the former with a vision for a ‘people’s car’ that could be sold cheaply. Louis quit the companyin 1913, leaving just the name behind. Financial shenanigans saw Durant leveraging his Chevy stock to take GM back over in 1916 and Chevrolet merged into it in 1919. Its HQ had been in New York, but shifted to Detroit in 1921. Sales topped 125,000 in 1917, which was also the year Chevrolet introduced its first V8. The 10 millionth car was sold…1 min
BBC Top Gear Magazine|February 2024What is Chevrolet’s fastest car?The Corvette Z06 is the clear speed queen in the Chevrolet lineup, with a whopping 195mph vmax. You’d need to find a long enough road, of course – we can think of one in Colorado that might work. It’s not the fastest ever Corvette, that honour goes to the final iteration of the previous generation (C7). That car was badged the ZR1 and only 300 of them were made back in 2019 as that version took its final bow. It featured a 755bhp 6.2-litre V8 with a massive supercharger and a windtunnel developed aero package that took it to a 215mph top speed. A ZR1 model of the current C8 Corvette is coming in 2025 with two turbos bolted on to the car’s 5.5-litre V8 engine. And of course following…1 min
BBC Top Gear Magazine|February 2024What’s the best concept that Chevrolet ever made?Chevrolet’s had some fun concepts – often a bit flighty, but usually thinly disguised production cars. The CERV (Chevrolet Engineering Research Vehicle) models are our favourites. Come the third one in 1990 it offered an exciting glimpse of the next Corvette. Cars were starting to move past the angular wedges of theSeventies and Eighties into something a bit more fluid and high-tech. CERV III had the kitchen sink thrown at it to show what exotic lightweight materials and the latest computer tech could do – 0–60mph in 3.9secs and a top speed of 225mph – but of course it all got ditched for the production C5 Corvette in 1997.…1 min
BBC Top Gear Magazine|February 2024What was Chevrolet’s biggest surprise?Chevrolet got involved with Daewoo, the automotive offshoot of a major Korean chaebol (family owned conglomerate) that sold mega cheap small cars. Hits included the Matiz and Lanos. It went bankrupt in 1999 and some of the wreckage was snapped up by General Motors in 2002 for an impressive $1.2bn. Some of the Daewoos were then rebadged as Chevrolets and sold in Europe, with a few choice elements of the GM range thrown in. The firm’s annual sales of 200,000 across Europe by 2011 was respectable, but came at the cost of trashing an esteemed US brand (dinky Koreans sitting alongside the likes of the Camaro in dealerships) and squashing sales for Vauxhall and Opel, also trying to compete on price and volume. The whole thing didn’t seem very well…1 min
