BBC Top Gear Magazine January 2022

@jack_rix editor@bbctopgearmagazine.com There is a spectacular phenomenon that happens but twice a year in TopGear land – once on day one of Speed Week in late summer, and again during our Awards shoot in the run-up to Christmas. For the purposes of this column I shall call it spreadsheet vs reality (SVR), and it goes a little something like this. Planning for both these major occasions in the TG calendar starts many months in advance. In a rare fit of organisational brilliance, we set up a shared online spreadsheet and start pulling together a list of potential contenders (Speed Week) or winners (Awards). These lists are long, then hacked back, then the subject of several shouty meetings until we come to an agreement that each car deserves its spot and there are no…

Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos… John Hennessey? Could America’s favourite purveyor of hyper horsepower be about to take the great leap into space? Nah, of course not, just a small step into the outer reaches of his imagination. Meet the Deep Space, an all-electric six-wheel-drive hyper GT with a diamond seating layout. Because as John Hennessey told me, “I wanted to do it before someone else beat me to it.” Er, right John. With 50 per cent more grip it’s a take on how to improve acceleration when four rubber contact patches just won’t do. “I’ve been building some of the world’s fastest accelerating vehicles for decades, yet they have always been performance limited by mechanical grip. Six-wheeled electric propulsion is the solution.” There is more to the Deep Space than g-force, but this…

As a car company, it’s important to give your customers what they’re asking for. Just possibly not everything they’re asking for, all in the one car. See, in the early Noughties, Chevrolet doubtless had many customers requesting a) folding hard-top convertibles, b) pickup trucks, and c) retro hot rods. Problem is, they definitely weren’t requesting all those things atop the same four wheels. This apparent inability to understand the Oxford comma sadly resulted in Chevrolet unleashing the SSR (stood for Super Sport Roadster, was none of these things) on a frankly bemused public in late 2003. Revealed in a pyrotechnic Michael Bay promotional video (but of course), it was the ultimate automotive turducken: a retractable metal roof, sitting on a Fifties-styled ute, sitting on an SUV platform. Blending these disparate elements into a…

The conclusion of the Formula One championship The 2021 season has been a corker. Will Lewis make it eight? Will Max get his first? Will Brundle get kettled by ‘insert name of celebrity here’s’ body guards? Will Haas score a point? Let’s hope that the final races take the championship down to the wire… Red Notice, Netflix Dwayne Johnson, Ryan Reynolds, Gal Gadot… get the fire going and put your feet up TopGear Eddie Kidd tribute If you haven’t seen it already, head over to iPlayer and watch it now. And remember to keep an eye out for the Christmas specialA Winter Wonderland, Hyde Park Have you even celebrated Christmas without a trip to the festive bonanza that is Winter Wonderland? Returning after last year’s COVID-enforced absence, it’ll convert even the biggest Scrooge TopGear TV, BBC iPlayer Don’t forget…

Retro EV reinventions seem to be the order of the day. But it’s easy for Renault to pop the 5 back into life when the original was so iconic. Hyundai electrifying some old shapes as concepts, on the other hand, is a more curious prospect. A company whose big headline is how vastly improved its products are surely has a harder time revisiting its history. Yet here we are, months after an electric Pony, showing you a converted Grandeur. Those of you who know the moniker will likely know it from flamboyantly depreciating faux-luxe four-doors from the early- to mid-Noughties. Surely next to none of you will remember the original Grandeur – an Eighties saloon that was essentially a Mitsubishi Debonair in costume. And yet Hyundai’s confidently led us into the least…

LN: Getting some practice in at Top Golf with mates. I wish you could see how far this shot went. Bryson DeChambeau has nothing on me… except 100 yards or so. DR: Being part of Ellen’s show was awesome, although I was definitely nervous. It’s so cool to see how F1 has grown in the US, bring on Miami 2022! LN: Really cool to see Palmeiras play in São Paulo before the Brazil GP. They won 4-0, and I’m number 4, that’s definitely not a coincidence. DR: I always love being Stateside, but it’s even better with a good group of mates and a bit of live music. I’ll probably leave the guitar to the pros next time though. LN: Throwback to Silverstone with Paddy, Freddie and Chris at the British GP. Not sure…