20
List
Everything you need to know about cars this week: 10 Nov '19
All the news from SEMA in this week's round-up
Lewis Hamilton is a six-time F1 world champion
"Starting from fifth after an uncharacteristic qualifying performance the day before, he faced an uphill battle to even consider winning this race – Bottas was on pole. Vettel and Leclerc were ahead. It seemed improbable."
Advertisement - Page continues belowThe Lister SUV-E is a lighter, faster Jaguar I-Pace
"Lister’s getting busy. Not content with turning F-Types into possibly the loudest objects in all of history, they’re now working on something that sits at the opposite end of the volume knob. Lister’s gone electric."
This is the new, 1069bhp/tonne Honda Fireblade
"In order to keep pace in its class – one which BMW is widely considered leader of with its S 1000 RR – it’s taken heavy influence from Honda’s MotoGP race bike. The one Spaniard Marc Marquez simply can’t stop winning championships upon."
Advertisement - Page continues belowThe Ascension R is the hardest cored Tesla Model 3 yet
"It’s a Model 3 – you’ve likely heard of it – breathed upon by Unplugged Performance – a company with its roots in the wild Japanese tuning scene and genuine Fast and Furious credibility – to make it much more of a trackday warrior."
Behold, the Ford Bronco R race prototype
"It’s called the Bronco R race prototype, though it’s more than an off-road monster Ford Performance intends on sending into the very heart of one of the world’s most gruelling races later this month. It is a development mule that’ll prove the upcoming 2020 Ford Bronco’s engine and chassis are for real."
Renault Megane Trophy R review: does it work on the road?
"Yep, it’s the Renault Megane RS Trophy R, the third instalment of ‘Ring-beating Renaults that can’t take your kids in the back. This one has a bigger hurdle than its mere two seats, too: a £72,000 price tag if you’ve gone for this big-dog version with carbon wheels and ceramic brakes."
Of course Aston Martin's made a £95k bike
"An Aston Martin bike. Bet you didn’t see that coming. Yep, just when you thought Aston – maker of traditional GTs, SUVs and soon electric saloons and mid-engined hypercars – had diversified enough, it’s gone completely leftfield."
Advertisement - Page continues belowShelby has already tuned the Mustang GT500
"Back in the Sixties Shelby sold a version of the Cobra called the ‘Dragonsnake’, which was squarely aimed at drag racers. The new Dragon Snake, based on the 2020 Shelby GT500 we drove just last week, is therefore all about going very quickly in a straight line."
You ain’t ready for the Dartz Prombron Black Stallion
"Dartz is back. Well, Latvia’s foremost purveyor of military-spec SUVs never really went away. Instead, it was working on this: the Prombron Black Stallion."
Advertisement - Page continues belowChevy's E-10 Concept is "the future of hot-rodding"
"The E-10 Concept (see what they did there…) has two 60kWh batteries from the Bolt EV. These are mounted in the bed under a solid tonneau cover, and supply power to a pair of plug-and-play ‘eCrate’ motors that live in the engine bay."
The Hennessey Resurrection is a 1,200bhp Chevy Camaro
"It wouldn’t be SEMA without John Hennessey, would it? The Texan tuner’s latest creation is making its debut at this year’s show in Las Vegas. Its name? The Hennessey Resurrection. God almighty (literally)."
Say hello to the 1525bhp SpeedKore Dodge Charger
"As if the Shelby Dragon Snake and Hennessey Resurrection weren’t enough, this year’s SEMA show has just given us something even more outrageous. Meet the Speedkore Dodge Charger – an all-wheel drive, four-door saloon with a twin-turbocharged, 6.2-litre V8 engine making 1,525bhp at the crank."
The 444bhp BMW M2 CS is here to bring balance to the Force
"Friends, the BMW M2 CS is here; a 444bhp track-honed road car that aims to send this generation of 2 Series Coupe off into the stars with a big, fat powerslide. Oh sure, BMW trumpets its “class leading” handling and precision. But mostly: powerful straight-six, manual gearbox, rear-wheel-drive."
Here, have a sit inside the £158k Aston Martin DBX SUV
"Come in, make yourselves comfortable. Kick back, and ruminate on all of life’s mysteries in the interior of the upcoming Aston Martin DBX. After all, it will cost £158,000 - just under £20k more than an equivalent Bentley Bentayga V8, but around £100k less than a Rolls-Royce Cullinan."
New issue of TG mag out now: Porsche Taycan vs Tesla Model S
"Welcome to the battle for EV supremacy. In this month’s issue of Top Gear magazine - which comes with a free 42-page watches supplement - we take the fastest Tesla Model S (until Elon gets the tri-motor Plaid setup working) on a road trip to meet its new German rival."
Toyota’s gone Supra mad at SEMA
"It had to happen. The Toyota Supra makes a long-awaited, much-hyped comeback, and with immediacy it was accepted by the tuning fraternity and immediately given much more power and significantly more wing than standard."
This electric Ford Mustang has 900bhp and all the volts
"Under the bonnet is a a Phi-Power dual-core electric motor and dual power inverters, which draw power from an 800-volt Webasto battery system that discharges a mega-watt of electrical energy."
The Audi RS Q8 is the fastest SUV around the Nürburgring
"Another day, another Nürburgring record. This time for fastest SUV – Audi has beaten the Mercedes-AMG GLC 63’s time of 7:54.40 by some 12 seconds with the new RS Q8. Its time of 7:42.253 makes the 600-odd bhp SUV some three seconds faster than the Renault Megane Trophy-R. Ooof."
The rear-wheel drive Audi R8 is BACK
"Now called the R8 V10 RWD, it’s available as either a Coupe or Spyder and uses the same 533bhp V10 as the old RWS and non-Plus all-wheel drive R8. It takes the Coupe 3.7 seconds to reach 62mph, and the Spyder 3.8 seconds."
The Smart ForTwo is apparently the most beautiful car of the decade
"A car-buying site – whose name has unfortunately just slipped our mind, as does tend to happen in these situations – believes it has mathematical proof that Smart’s bug-eyed city runabout is the most beautiful car of this decade."
Ringbrothers' SEMA builds are just excellent
"Ringbrothers tend not to do things by halves. Just look at their latest two creations, on display this week at the SEMA show in Las Vegas."
This Rolls-Royce Black Badge Cullinan gets more power
"'You don’t know the power of the dark side,' said Lord Vader to Luke Skywalker once upon a time. If only Luke had known that the Rolls-Royce Cullinan gained 29bhp and 37lb ft of torque when leaving the Rebel Forces and becoming the Sith-inspired Black Badge edition, he’d have had a great comeback for his old man."
Holy heck, DTM just unveiled a 1,000bhp electric touring car
"What, then, in the sweet name of the lord were they drinking the day they created this? It has no definitive name, but it is a concept of what DTM might look like in the future. A 1,000bhp, 200mph future. And it is bonkers."
A closer look at the one-off Polestar built in 30 days
"The Polestar 1 is a wonderfully Swedish super GT. But what happens if this refreshingly attractive hybrid coupe goes on a student exchange to the USA, develops psychotic tendencies, an S&M wardrobe and got into MMA? Well, something like this. Probably."
Jaguar I-Pace — long-term review
"To make a case for itself we’ve gone for the middle-of-the-road SE spec (£69,995 OTR, reduced to £66,495 with the government Plug in Car Grant of £3,500) and then liberally covered it with options, including adaptive dynamics (£800), air suspension (£1,100), fixed panoramic sunroof (£960) and the eye-wateringly expensive 14-way heated and cooled adjustable seats (£3,040). In all, it’s landed for a Tesla Model S-rivalling £78,940."
Gallery: all the mad Toyota Supras from SEMA
"SEMA wasn’t so much a modified car show this year, more of a giant Supra festival with some other cars vying for attention."
McLaren GT review: is it a proper ‘GT’ car?
"It’s handsome and well proportioned, in isolation another very good McLaren, but the overall impression is that McLaren knows there’s a market for this type of car among its audience, but the 570GT wasn’t quite pulling them in. Let’s hope this one does."
