Brand new Top Gear magazine: out now!

And it’s over to Top Gear magazine’s Editor-in-Chief Charlie Turner for a few words on this month’s spanking new issue – out now!
 
Few things arrive in our industry under a greater weight of expectation than an all-new Ferrari. Any fresh product from the stable of the prancing horse will invariably cause a stampede on a motor-show stand, and the interweb to flare brightly... then immediately crash.  
 
Pity, then, the poor designer responsible for delivering the dream, because the world will have an opinion. And after months of finessing every detail, battling with engineers and aerodynamicists and wilting under the relentless scrutiny of the Ferrari board, there will come a point at which he must take a deep breath, pull back the covers and offer his soul to the world’s critical eye.
 
At the Geneva show this year, Ferrari knew it had a hit with the F12 Berlinetta. As I walked around the car with Design Director Flavio Manzoni, the man responsible for absorbing all the pressure and passing on the glory, it was obvious he had delivered.  
 
“Every Ferrari has to be a beautiful sculpture. We suffered to deliver this, but we suffered with pleasure,” says Manzoni, a man whose suffering has clearly been lessened by the appreciative reaction of his critical audience. Ferrari is in rare form right now, with a model line-up unrivalled in its history. So don’t miss our exclusive up-close-and-personal shoot of the new F12.
 
At the other end of the hall – and the other end of the ideological spectrum – stands the Bentley SUV concept. Applying distinctive Bentley styling to something with a road footprint in excess of a Range Rover was always going to be a challenge, but you can’t argue with the business case. Like it or loathe it, a Bentley SUV will likely become the vehicle of choice for the billionaire elite, and if that makes the future of Bentley a little brighter, then who are we to criticise? Make up your own mind.
 
Rumour has it we’ll see Lambo’s interpretation of taller transport in the next few months, but, until then, the king of the jaw-dropping concept was never going to be upstaged by its Bentley cousin.
 
Enter the stunning £1.75-million Aventador J. Conceived, created, homologated and sold in just six weeks to an owner who must rank amongst the luckiest people on the planet, the J showcases carbon technology that will see the light of day on future Lambos and is very much a TG kind of car. And if Lamborghini can do this in six weeks, who knows what they’ll deliver with an SUV that it has spent months developing?
 
Enjoy the issue.

Like the sound of all that? Before you head down to your nearest newsagent, have a look behind-the-scenes on this month’s mag as we set off to hit 220mph in the ballistic Pagani Huayra...