Tag: topgear.com

Back in May 2007, Volkswagen delivered a small missive notably devoid of bombast and theatrics that carried news of a car filled with both of those things. “A unique design study.” It was a three-door Golf GTI married to a “bespoke mid-mounted bi-turbo W12 650PS engine channelling drive to the rear wheels”. And now, that…

It’s a Chinese car from a maker that likes to describe itself as “a tech company that also makes cars”. In the west we go big for Chinese goods, some of them high-tech. But we’re not so good at their brand names. The company’s name is Xiaopeng at home after its founder, but it has…

It’s impossible to carve a list like this without the most loveable weirdo of them all. The Avantime launched to a conservative early Noughties market with a bluster befitting a brand willing to try anything. Renault was squeezing V6 engines into the middle of Clios and installing the ‘boot shute’ on the back of the…

Well, this might just be the best thing you see on the internet today. A fellow Top Gear enthusiast called Nard Verbong has designed and built the entire TG TV studio… out of Lego pieces. All 5,362 of them. Sir, we salute you. Because the attention to detail is incredible. Jeremy, James, Richard and The…

“As a pure driver, I enjoy driving flat out. At the moment, you cannot drive like that,” grumbled Max Verstappen after his first outing in the new generation of F1 cars. “That’s just not Formula One.” Verstappen’s comments raise an important question. Not ‘is he ever not grumpy about something?’ but a bigger one: so…

You’ll have noticed the lack of rear window, of course, and while that improves headroom and comfort for any passengers sat in the back, it also has aero benefits too. In single motor guise you get a range of up to 385 miles from the 94kWh (useable) battery, or with the extra motor you’re looking…

You may be thinking, with nigh-on 15k miles on the clock, that the Bigster would be due for a change of fluids pretty soon – but the handy app says it’s due a service as soon as it lands back with Dacia next month, consisting of an ‘A’ service and cabin filter replacement. Somewhat confusingly,…

In another of its rather wacky marketing ideas for an energy drink, Red Bull just helped pilot Dario Costa become the first person to land a plane on a moving train before taking off again. And yet, there is apparently a motoring link here, because we’re told that in preparation for the stunt Costa trained…

Formula One’s turbo era reached its pinnacle in 1986, with ridiculously boosty, fire-spitting cars producing well over 1,000bhp in qualifying trim. And yet, somehow, they still managed to look absolutely fantastic. Anyone from contemporary F1 listening to this? Perhaps the pick of the bunch visually in the ‘86 season was the John Player Special-liveried Lotus…

Die Another Day, 2002  Brosnan’s final outing as Bond finally got 007 back into Astons. Promptly ruined by absurd invisi-car gadget. 2 Fast 2 Furious, 2003  Well, nothing screams gritty street racing like a stickered-up purple front-wheel-drive Mitsubishi Targa-top. Casino Royale, 2006  Thanks to naff Ford product placement in Bond flicks, Daniel Craig’s debut was…