BBC Top Gear Magazine

Editor @jack_rix editor@bbctopgearmagazine.com Getting some face time with any one of these industry giants is a huge opportunity, hard earned. Getting John Hennessey, Gordon Murray, Mate Rimac and Christian von Koenigsegg together at the same time, in the same place… yeah, good luck with that one, Jack! And yet, through dogged determination, the juicy carrot/potential deterrent of a night out with us at the TopGear.com awards and some sizable planet alignment, there we were, on the top floor of a pub next to TG HQ. Me, squeezed into my wedding suit, fumbling in the golden tombola of topics, perched opposite four of the world’s most influential men in shaping what the high performance car did, does and will do in the future. It was quite the scoop. We wanted to subvert the usual interview…

EVERYONE IS TALKING ABOUT DEE NEUE KLASSE BMW’s i Vision Dee concept previews a fully digital future, but takes inspiration from the past “ONCE INSIDE, THE i VISION DEE GOES FULL ON MATRIX” BMW has resurrected an old name for its new electric car. And this isn’t it. This isn’t BMW’s new, um, “Neue Klasse” – a reference describing its game-changing saloons from the Sixties that morphed into what we now know as the 5-Series – but the second in a triplet of concepts exploring various aspects of what the neue Neue Klasse will represent. Where 2021’s BMW i Vision Circular concept explored notions of sustainability, this new BMW i Vision Dee concept instead goes far deeper, to the very future of the car itself. At least according to BMW. “Whoever excels at integrating the…

You could see where Lotus was coming from. Its featherweight, bare-bones Elise was famously great for whanging down a B-road, but terrible for whanging across a continent. So why not transform the Elise into a bit of a grand tourer? As it turned out, plenty of good reasons why not. Trying to GT-ify an Elise proved rather like… trying to transform a whippet into an Arabian stallion. Can’t be done, at least not without violating several important laws of ethics and nature. Not that Lotus didn’t give it a good shot, ditching the Elise’s nat-asp Toyota engine in favour of a Vauxhall-sourced turbo unit, treating it to a leatherier interior, raising the roofline, and improving NVH levels from the Elise’s baseline of ‘zero NVH’. Problem was, what Lotus ended up with wasn’t an…

What we’re watching/listening/doing, while we should be working The Great Pottery Throw Down, Channel 4 Throw that clay, drip that slip, fire that pot with the pinched lil lip. Teary eyed joy that pottery has returned for another series – ceramic brakes will not, I repeat, not feature TWIST museum, London Mind-altering immersive rooms at the home of illusions in Oxford Circus. This isn’t estate agent patter for a studio apartment in London, it’s actually an incredibly fun half day out 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 TGY Super Bowl LVII, 12 February Not a fan of Roman numerals? Then this is the 57th Superbowl to you. Want to stay up and…

No factory Corvette has ever been this fast. Or this electrified. Marking 70 years of one of the world’s most famous car names comes a bit of a shock: the all-wheel-drive hybrid Chevrolet Corvette E-Ray. Yes, it’s a play on Stingray, but there are no games to be had here, just pure pace and traction. There’s the familiar naturally aspirated 6.2-litre small block V8 onboard, mounted in the middle which was already a first for a Vette. That sends 495bhp to the rear wheels alone. There’s an eight-speed dual clutch box at work here too. Then comes the electricity, in the form of a 160bhp electric motor sitting on the front axle powered by a 1.9kWh battery mounted in between the seats. Altogether, this electrified Corvette – the first ever Vette to…

Extreme E driver, TV presenter and British rallying star Catie Munnings shares some driving wisdom WIPEOUT Full wet or drying? Damp? Somewhere in between? Slicks or wets? Driving in wet conditions is always a lottery, but there are basics that could save your skin. Before you even think about setting off to get in the flow behind the wheel, make sure the windscreen wipers are on! This mistake lost me a race last year, although it wasn’t raining, there was a lot of standing water – one mud puddle was all it took to put me at the back of the semi-final heat. GENTLY DOES IT Straighten corners as much as possible – the more you lean on the tyres the more risk you take, so think about driving lines and gentle steering inputs.…