Tag: topgear.com

It’s easy to see the appeal of leasing a brand-new car. Whether it’s a Corsa or Qashqai, Juke or Jaecoo, laying down a modest deposit then circa £200 a month on something shiny and warrantied is clearly a low-risk way to potter about your business. The catch is you must hand it back at the…

We’ll confess to a limited understanding of the multiverse. As far as we can tell, it’s the scientific theory that at key points of inflection, universes split off and run in parallel timelines, each one with a different actor playing Spider-Man. Pretty sure that’s it. If the theory turns out to be true, there’s almost…

Bugatti’s official story is that the seed of the Veyron was planted in 1997. VW Group boss Ferdinand Piëch and his powertrain chief Karl-Heinz Neumann were on a Japanese train brewing up engine ideas. Piëch sketched ideas for an 18-cylinder. Yes, 18 not 16. We’ll come back to that. Yet in 1999 Piëch himself told…

Batteries are bulky and heavy and no one wants that. Worse, a lot of that excess stems not from the actual cells that store the electricity, but from structures designed to house and cool them. EVs use individual cells, wired in series to reach the approx 400V or even 800V that the drive systems use.…

Top Gear: We heard that many years ago you had sketched a ‘Veyron facelift’ that never came to be. Is that true? Tell us the story. Frank Heyl: Yes, there was an inbetween stage. We were working on the [Veyron] Super Sport with 1,200hp, this is now 2008, 2009. But the engineering team had another…

What is it? That is essentially a Unimog U4023. Except it isn’t, because it’s been subject to the tender ministrations of Daimler/Mercedes-Benz Special Trucks Division, in collaboration with a company called Hellgeth Engineering. That particular Avengers team-up has produced the ‘most luxurious and powerful Unimog’ ever made, although strictly it’s still a prototype. What you’re…

BMW tuner AC Schnitzer has announced it will soon stop tuning BMWs. Which means a story that began way back in 1987 with a modified E32 7 Series will end in 2026. The company says rising costs in designing, developing and building aftermarket parts have created “competitive disadvantages”. It cites in particular the “extremely long…

“The 3 Series,” says Adrian van Hooydonk, “is the essence of BMW. It’s about driving, sportiness and elegance, combined in a relatively compact format. The 5 Series is geared more towards autobahn driving. The 7 Series looks like you could go fast but don’t really need to. The 3 Series is about agility and precision.…

Renowned photographer Mark has been working with Top Gear for many, many years. When not taking photos he’s buying inappropriate cars. Here he shares his addiction with the world. A few months back I shared an unusually sensible plan of tidying up my Pajero Evolution with the goal of selling it to help finish the…

Frank Stephenson is a car designer with more hits than the Beatles, including the Escort RS Cossie, first BMW Mini, Maser MC12, numerous Ferraris and the McLaren P1. These days he runs his own consultancy – Frank Stephenson Design. Here he shares his views on the Lamborghini Temerario. The Temerario arrived carrying a difficult design…