Everything you need to know about cars this week: 5 Aug '18

"The GT86 is a fantastic little coupe. Light on its feet, eager to change direction, it also rides beautifully and has delicious brakes. The off-beat flat-four engine is sweet and best of all, it’s joyfully well balanced when you turn off the stability control and have a bit of fun."

Read the full review here

"The Milan Red brings a new design idea to the world of hypercars too. Rather than being shaped by a brutal chase for downforce, like the McLaren Senna and Ford GT, or by the sheer artistic madness favoured by Pagani or Apollo, Milan Automotive wanted a hypercar inspired by Austrian falconry. Which explains that beaky nose. Yikes. Takes some eye-digestion, doesn’t it?"

Read the full story here

"I’ve spent two days with the I-Pace and everyone – and I do mean everyone – has a question or five, strident opinions on the charging infrastructure and, judging by the battered Micra they’re driving, no previous interest in combustion-engined cars. Frankly, it’s exhausting, but also a fascinating social shift – the electric car hasn’t yet become personal transport for the masses, but it is mobilising their minds."

Read the full story here

"Two years ago Seat didn’t even make an SUV. When it arrives in showrooms early next year the Tarraco will be its third – a big brother to the Arona and Ateca and a not-so-distant cousin of the Skoda Kodiaq. There’ll be a five-seater version and a seven-seater with a third row of furniture, so it’s a proper family taxi."

Read the full story here

"So, when you last left us chipping away at the kit-building mountain that is the 3,599-piece Lego Technic Bugatti Chiron, we didn’t have much that looked like a car. There was a suspension assembly, some wheel hubs and a rather cleverly packaged differential in the middle, but it could just as easily been the early stages of a Lego lorry. Or the Batmobile. It wasn’t very hypercar-ish."

Read the full story here

"Electricity and water are not happy bedfellows, but if electric cars were vulnerable to ionised water they wouldn’t be catching on so fast, would they? Even a Californian Tesla driver must have encountered a puddle before. This is just Top Gear taking it to the next level. Still, it’s with a certain sense of trepidation that I nose the I-Pace down the ramp into 18-inch-deep water – I remember how the shark was offed at the end of Jaws 2. I watch the screen as water bubbles up over the front camera and with a gulp I tentatively head for the far shore…"

Read the full story here

Take a closer look at Lamborghini’s 760bhp, naturally-aspirated king of the Nürburgring: the wild new Aventador SVJ, here

"When Mercedes officially launched the SLS AMG Black Series back in 2013, it cost £230,000 – a hefty £60,000 more than the standard SLS AMG. And thanks to the crazy world of supercar auctions and rare car values, that mark-up is starting to look like a bit of a bargain.

"Case in point: this nearly-new SLS AMG Black Series is up for auction at Pebble Beach with Gooding & Company, guided with an estimated price of $450,000 – $550,000. That’s a top-end estimate of £420,000 – quite the increase in five short years."

Read the full story here

"This is the generation for whom electric cars will soon be the norm. These boys know cars, yet not one of them mentions the fact that Jaguars used to have loud V8s or that one was called the E-Type. A Jag crossover, I ask them, is that OK? Bemusement. It’s the most natural thing in the world when there are no preconceptions. At this age, they just accept the future. It’s tech that gets them buzzing, just like it did when we were young."

Read the full story here

"‘Thunder’ was brilliant not only because it sounds, well, brilliant, but because it followed Lister’s last road car – the Storm – rather neatly. LFT-666 sounds far more like the product code for one of its valve caps, and it’s hard not to feel a weeny bit disappointed at the name change."

Read the full story here

"The ultimate Aston Martin. At least until the Valkyrie rocks up. And even when it does, this is the car that epitomises Aston’s brand values better than any other. Massively potent twin turbo V12 up front, rear-drive, 2+2 layout inside. How potent? 715bhp. Aston refers to it as a ‘brute in a suit’. Yes, really."

Read the full review here

"Hennessey Performance – the team behind the Venom and incoming F5 hypercar – has built its 10,000th vehicle. Behold, a very highly tuned Ford Mustang.

“'This is one of the most beautiful Mustangs we’ve ever built,' explains company boss John, 'and it has the power and performance to match its gorgeous looks.' Ah yes, power."

Read the full story here

"See, electric cars have been taking the mickey a bit when it comes to drag races. Particularly since Tesla went Ludicrous, the trope of taking a battery-powered saloon to a drag strip and annihilating a fuel-swigging supercar has become a well-worn internet furrow. Today could be payback. The Jaguar I-Pace is by no means the quickest EV on sale, and petrolheads smell blood."

Read the full story here

"It’s the Porsche 911, perhaps the world’s most famous sports car. It’s certainly one of the best-selling: production has surpassed one million. The Mazda MX-5 has done that too, but then it’s a cheaper, more attainable car. And Porsche reckons around three quarters of those million 911s are still in good nick and being driven."

Read the full review here

"London to Land’s End on a charge – how great would that have been? The WLTP range (Worldwide harmonised Light-vehicle Test Procedure) of the I-Pace is 298 miles. That journey is 291 miles. We’ve known for years your actual results would never be anywhere near the old and discredited NEDC test. The new WLTP is supposed to be more realistic and attainable. Er, but not, says my Jaguar man, that attainable.

"Well sod the lot of ’em. Top Gear is going anyway."

Read the full story here