Tag: topgear.com

I don’t really like car shows. Don’t worry, this isn’t about to turn into another rant about cars parked on golf courses for us all to revere and worship. I just want to put it out there before I admit that I recently crossed the Atlantic Ocean to go to a car show. A small…

We’re sure you’re well accustomed to seeing loads of JDM oddities and wildly modified Nissan Skylines parked up at Daikoku PA by now. Heck, even Lewis Hamilton was there last week with a Ferrari F40 and a natty pair of sunglasses. Not a bad company car. Anyway, how about something slightly different from Japan for…

Storm chasers chase storms. But does anyone pursue clear skies? A substantially less dramatic proposition, no question, but that’s where we find ourselves right now. This is in the interests of non-murky imagery for your enjoyment, but also because dry weather is obviously helpful when it comes to this, our first proper road test of…

An electric crossover from Kia, a company that’s plumping out a remarkably coherent and comprehensive line-up of those things, right up to the vast EV9. The EV2 is the smallest of them. At least at the time of its launch. From the front seats it doesn’t actually seem that small at all, and they just…

Four words sum it up and it’s something that we’ve been tantalisingly short of: small versatile cheap EV. It’s a revival of the Renault Twingo name, which was previously a Smart-based rear-engined car, and previously previously a fairly conventional FWD little mini. Previously previously previously it was a small, versatile, cheap petrol car that was…

Aston’s first mid-engined supercar. Sort of. The Valkyrie exists in a higher realm and only 275 were built across coupé, Spider and AMR Pro variants (with another 10 Valkyrie LM being delivered in 2026). The Valhalla is more usable, a proper step into the mid-engined supercar arena for Aston Martin. It’s also a real in-house…

A pure electric Cayenne with a 113kWh (108 usable) battery, 360-399 miles of official range and a maximum of 1,140bhp and over 1,100lb ft of torque in Turbo guise. Porsche’s most powerful production roadcar ever. Some punchy numbers, huh? A motor on each axle gives AWD, next-gen traction control and stability control the ability to…

One of China’s elder statesmen. So to speak. Unlike so many of these insurgent brands that were apparently set up five minutes ago and already sell cars in the millions, Changan has been in the manufacturing game for 45 years. Its first effort was a van in the 1980s, before it moved onto cars in…

Borrowing the successful formula of Cruis’n USA, but abandoning the questionable apostrophe placement, California Speed made the Golden State your playground and tossed you the keys to a selection of cars that would almost certainly no longer pass Californian emissions laws. Developed by Atari Games, this take on the digital roadtrip was far less well…

In today’s episode of Cool Old Car Get Shiny New Engine, we find a glorious old Mercedes 280SE restored and rebigulated to the tune of a 5.4-litre modern AMG V8. It’s an American reimagining, administered by the folks over at Retro Designs in North Carolina. So, on the outside, it’s classic Mercedes W111, which means…