Innholdsfortegnelse for March 2020 i TopGear Malaysia

Editor editor@topgear-malaysia.com The internet has entered the season of Malaysian politics again. The past decade has ignited a nation’s passion once stifled by the dial-up era. As a result, gone are the days when ministers truly lived large, getting from one five-star hotel to another in decked-out limousines without the pressure of public scrutiny through 101 social media platforms weighing on their necks. It’s a time we were hoping to recreate – to experience ourselves, even if only for a couple of days – when we embarked on a luxurious retreat to Penang in the BMW 740Le, Lexus LS500 and Mercedes-Benz S560e (page 62). Today’s decision makers would get hung out to dry on the internet by our keyboard warriors if they indulged like we did and ran eight pages…

Normally in an Aston Martin, off-road equals end of the road. But not now. This is the DBX, and it’s just getting started. There are six driving modes and five ride heights to choose from, 95mm of total suspension rise and fall. But it’s early in Oman and I haven’t woken up, so I don’t feel the DBX lift 15mm when I engage Terrain mode. Not sure I needed it anyway. The DBX is assured as it gains altitude – no sudden lurch or crash, firmer than a Range Rover, but traction is good, it clambers calmly. This is not the finished article. You knew that by the litter of sponsor decals, more a distraction than a disguise. But with a low roof, 22s and short, plunging bonnet, it’s surprising…

You certainly can’t accuse Porsche of not listening. Nor being afraid of a public U-turn. A decade after switching its horrid PDK button shifters for normal paddles, it’s put six-cylinder power back in the Boxster and Cayman. If you’ve read anything on the internet in recent years, you’ll have seen at least some diatribe angled at the 718 Boxster and 718 Cayman. Specifically, at their switch to rumbly four-cylinder turbo engines, which have proved barely more economical than the glorious naturally aspirated flat-sixes they turfed out of Porsche’s mid-engined sports cars. So we arrive at this, the new 718 GTS, which gains the 4.0-litre flat-six engine that’s appeared in the recent Cayman GT4 and 718 Spyder. They were motorsport specials from the same department as the GT3 and GT2 RS,…

UNBELIEVABLE TEKKERS NAWA RACER CONCEPT SHOULD I CARE? If our future’s electric, this could be a big deal – a Sixtiesinspired electric motorcycle that uses a hybrid battery, which mixes conventional lithium-ion cells with ultracapacitors. The ‘fuel tank’ contains the ‘NAWACap’ ultracapacitors, while the 9kWh lithium-ion battery is where you’d expect to find the engine. The whole thing weighs 150kg. SHOULD I BE SCARED? Come now, we mustn’t fear progress. NAWA says its carbon-based ultracapacitors mean faster charging, better energy regen (up to 80 per cent better), more performance and range, a longer-lasting battery and less weight. SHOULD I TELL MY FRIENDS? Yes, you’re a trendsetter. The hub-less rim e-motor produces 100bhp, giving 0-100kph in three seconds and a vmax of over 160kph. Range? Over 145km out of town or…

When it debuted in 1957, the original Calibre 321 was the first movement ever used in Omega’s now legendary Speedmaster timepiece line. It went on to power a variety of models donned by NASA astronauts, most famous of which being the Speedmaster ST 105.012 – the first watch worn on the moon on 21 July 1969 Now, the Calibre 321 gets reborn in line with its original specifications thanks to the extensive research and reconstruction in Omega’s dedicated workshop. Said movement is now tasked with powering Omega’s latest Speedmaster Moonwatch 321 Platinum offering. As the name suggests, the chronograph features a 42-mm brushed and polished case crafted from a special platinum alloy with the use of gold. The case design is inspired by the asymmetrical fourth-generation Speedmaster case with twisted…

OUR CHOICE OF THIS MONTH ’ STOP-SPEC STUFF How do you improve one of the most technical, frustrating and difficult-to-play boardgames ever? Why, you design a special edition in collaboration with the most technical, frustrating and difficult-to-master racetrack in the world. Instead of London streets, 22 of the track’s famous corners make up the property spaces, with Brünnchen and the Karussell the most prestigious. Instead of houses and hotels, you can build grandstands or stadiums on your hard-earned corners, and the start/finish line, pit lane and the tourist and Breidscheid entrances replace the railway stations. The only issue? Everything – including the Team Meeting and Pit Stop cards – is in German. So, why not have a family argument and improve your languages at the same time? nuerburgring-shop.de; Approx-RM205.36…

ALPINE A110S £56,810 FOR Wonderful communicator, and downright fast, too AGAINST Price increase over standard A110, cabin space PORSCHE CAYMAN T £51,145 FOR The best everyday Cayman, lovely to operate AGAINST Flat-four engine remains the weak link This is the Alpine A110S. All the ‘S’s: sharper, stiffer, swifter, stoppier. An extra 40bhp from the 1.8-litre turbo engine, wider torque band, active sports exhaust, high performance brakes as standard, 10mm wider tyres front and rear, new springs, stiffened anti-roll bars, 4mm suspension drop, recalibrated ESP. All the fun of the fair. And now the Cayman T. I tried to think up a load of ‘T’s, but failed dismally because, really, it’s another load of ‘S’s. The sportiest sections of the options list added to a base-model Cayman. 20mm lower suspension, bigger…

From RM200,960 FOR Unique, six-seat layout makes for a splendid cabin – middle row is the place to be AGAINST Small infotainment screen with poor camera resolution hampers the premium package “It’s basically a CX-5 stretched to fit an extra row of seats.” That was my automated reply to everyone who asked me about the Mazda CX-8; something you’d expect to have more in common with the retired CX-7 and flagship CX-9 given its name. The CX-30 already taught us that Mazda doesn’t play by the rules when it comes to numbers. The CX-8’s lesson was a bit more punitive: it taught me I was wrong. For starters, it isn’t your average SUV that will seat seven. And I don’t mean that rhetorically; three out of the CX-8’s four variations…

First class flight reviews are a thing on the internet. There’s something about the needless opulence that stimulates the same, shameless part of our psyche that obsesses over the lifestyles of the rich and famous. They gives us a false impression of how everyone with money gets around. False because there are no first class seats that transform into hotel beds flying from Kuala Lumpur to Penang, not commercially anyway. It’s easy to forget that life’s greatest luxuries are often found at ground level when you’re entranced by one high-flying travel vlog after another. You’re often much closer to the glitz and glamour than you think. We let that thought sink in with a tinge of guilt as we signalled countless lane-hogging Myvis on the North South Expressway (NSE) to…

R32 SKYLINE This is first car Smokey modified after leaving/getting fired from Trust. Also first to wear the trademark gold paint. Still drives it today R33 SKYLINE An Aqua-Line king, hitting over 322kph. It’s properly trick, having 1,000bhp and running multiple ECUs GT-300 SUPRA Very similar to the car used on the A1M run, but instead of Nissan’s RB engine, it has a stroked Toyota four-cylinder, rather than the standard 2JZ V12 SUPRA Featuring Japan’s only domestic V12, Smokey dropped it into a Supra and twin-turbo’d it. Smokey – reluctantly – put it up for auction R35 GT-R Japan’s fastest street car ever made, having done 377kph in just 20.54secs. Ultimate aim is to break 400kph. Or 249mph…

At a glance, it’s difficult for anyone to differentiate the new-for-2020 Proton X70 Premium 2WD pictured here from other X70s we’ve seen prior. Look closely and you’ll see that it now sports Proton’s new logo up front and on its wheel centre caps. That aside, we’ll note that this X70 isn’t a China-built CBU unit that we’re all acquainted with either. Instead, this X70 – and all X70s after it – proudly rolled off Proton’s own Tanjung Malim production hub, thus making it a local or CKD offering now. There’s more to the X70’s localisation efforts besides aesthetics, and we start with the 1.8-litre four-cylinder turbo heart. It’s been fettled with to deliver five per cent more twist, and it gets paired with a new seven-speed dualclutch (DCT) automatic box…

Mark Riccioni “Who’d have thought a man who chain smokes Marlboro and kills tyres faster than Greta Thunberg updates her Twitter bio, could coin a nickname like Smokey” Andy Franklin “Standing around in a freezing hangar for two days is not glamourous. Luckily, I had the talent of John Wycherley to deliver on my impossible demands” Daryl Loy “Instead of taking another swipe at BMW’s oversized grille, we genuinely wanted to see where the 7 ranked among its rivals, in a special way. It didn’t disappoint”…

There was a Lamborghini for sale at an auction. It was supposed fetch around £200,000, but failed to reach its reserve. This, ordinarily, is not news. When the Lambo in question looks like the one on this page, however, it is very much news. This is a 1968 Lamborghini Espada, but one which no longer looks quite like the car that left the factory. Turned into a rat rod by French tuning house Danton Art Kustoms in 2018 – to celebrate the Espada’s 50th birthday – it demonstrates a slight departure from the standard car’s languid, classy approach to grand touring. Just to be clear, this car will not grand tour. When a car’s spec sheet prioritises the phrase “8.2 feet wide”, you know you’re dealing with something out of…

Car manufacturers are always building new prototypes, mainly cars, but this is the first time we’ve heard of a prototype city. Toyota (obviously) is planning to build a 175-acre city at the base of Mount Fuji. Construction of Woven City, which is being designed by the same company behind 2 World Trade Center in New York, Lego House in Denmark, and Google’s Mountain View and London headquarters, among others, will begin in 2021. But what, exactly, is the point? Toyota says Woven City will be a “living laboratory” populated by more than 2,000 people, many of whom will be scientists, engineers and researchers, who will use it to “test and develop technologies such as autonomy, robotics, personal mobility, smart-home tech and artificial intelligence in a real-world environment”. Just imagine the…

01 Audi RS6 Avant Defies design logic, the new RS6. It’s brash, it’s ultra-aggressive, it’s festooned with slashes and lines, and the grille is straight from Audi’s XXL wardrobe. And yet – while you’d struggle to brand the 592bhp bruiser ‘elegant’, it’s a fabulous-looking, stance-tastic bit of kit. 02 Ford F-150 Raptor FORD. TopGear fun fact: that actually stands for Fiendishly Oversized Radiator Douchebag. Somehow, on a Yank-spec truck, having size-100 typeface and a massive tunnel bang in the face of your 4x4 just works. 03 Jaguar XJ Series I The original XJ Jag is a classically current ‘three-box’ saloon design. Four circle headlights, and another rectangle between them. It could’ve been designed by a child with only a ruler and some coins to trace a pen around, and yet it’s a masterpiece…

While most people at the age of 57 have probably given up the party life for good, legendary DJ Carl Cox has evidently chosen not to hang up his headphones just yet. Having blazed a name for himself over the decades to become a ‘Techno God’ of sorts, time is definitely on Cox’s side still. On that note, Swiss luxury timepiece purveyors Zenith recently honoured the Brit-born electronic dance music stalwart through the release of the Defy 21 Carl Cox limited edition. This special sees Zenith turn up the tempo with a special execution of its futuristic 1/100th of a second chronograph, boasting a carbon fibre bezel and glow-in-the-dark strap stitching. For a very personal touch by Carl Cox, the open dial keeps the beat pumping with a rotating disk…

And the winner is: the Ford Fiesta! Thanks for playing, good night everybody! That’s what the charts say. In 2019, the Fiesta was once again Britain’s favourite car. This version’s into its third year on sale, but Ford still shifted 77,883 of them. However, cast your eye a little wider and consider Europe together, as is unfashionable these days, then the Fiesta gets properly walloped by the Renault Clio. It’s Europe’s best-selling car – eight years, on the bounce. The Clio is a phenomenon, beating the mighty Fiesta down into fourth place on the continent. The Opel Corsa – still stubbornly a Vauxhall on these pleasant pastures, thank-you-very-much – only just scrapes into Europe’s top 10. The onslaught of crossovers has booted it out of the bestseller list over here.…

£23,625 FOR Engine, chassis, room, clever ideas. A good effort AGAINST Ford needs it, but do we? We’ll just take a Focus This could go either way. On one hand, it’s a small crossover based on the Fiesta, so it ought to be fun to drive in a way few crossovers are. But on the other, the EcoSport is also a small crossover based on the Fiesta, and that’s pretty rubbish. In fact, across the piece, Ford’s crossovers are pretty spotty. Anyone remember seeing an Edge on British roads? Or a Ka+ Active? Deserved flops, the pair of them, moribund long before they actually pegged it last year. Spoiler alert: it went the right way. The Puma is at heart a taller, longer Fiesta, and that’s pretty much how it…

From RM181,770 FOR Punchiest thing in segment with a posh cabin and loads of tech AGAINST Not the most versatile cabin in class, thirsty and pricey too This was perhaps one of those questions that nobody asked: does the Mazda CX-5 need more power? Well, much to everyone’s surprise, Mazda Malaysia answered that clearly when it included the new 2.5T High variant pictured into the repackaged CX-5 line-up not too long ago. We sampled it just before prices were announced late last year and more recently over a weekend and, unsurprisingly, the results were rather interesting to say the least. For us, our main gripe with the CX-5 over anything else lies in its cabin’s seemingly cramped real estate and less versatility over the class-leading Honda CR-V. Nevertheless, this was…

£33,995 FOR Great visibility, proper ride comfort, safety systems AGAINST Miniscule hybrid range, disappointing interior In the past, TG has been a big fan of the Subaru Forester. Previous versions were honest, able and reliable – favouring substance and actual off-road ability when so many others simply sought style points. Like many of its rivals, though, the Forester has gone hybrid. The vitals are as follows: a 2.0 4cyl Boxer engine combines with a small lithium-ion battery and an electric motor to produce 164bhp and 262Nm ft of torque. There’s also permanent 4WD, a CVT gearbox and minor exterior changes from the previous generation. Underneath, the e-Boxer is based on Subaru’s new Global Platform, which means body strength is increased by 40 per cent and rear legroom by 30mm. These…

FAST MATHS THE THEORY OF NEW OR USED Ever looked at the list price of a new car and thought: “There’s an awful lot you could buy for that money”? After all, when you’re looking at something exotic and extreme like a Bugatti Chiron – list price somewhere gently north of £2.5 million – you’d probably be considering a nice house or four, several above-decent cars and holidays for life. And having some sort of hobby job instead of working properly. But because Chiron ownership isn’t something that’s achievable on minimum wage, we have a favourite game in the TopGear office: what three-car garage for the price of ‘X’? And you can make the mental maths translate to pretty much anything, in any price bracket, simply because new cars cost…

Tranquil, don’t you think? The Traction Avant parked up on the Quai de Javel. And it is. It’s late on a still, calm night. The frenzied honk-and- shrug of Paris is only distantly heard. This site is where the first Traction Avant was built and, before that, 100 years ago, the first Citroen. Today it’s Parc André Citroën, the giant greenhouses both a physical and symbolic outline of the factory that once stood on this spot. A bistro around the corner bears his name, a Metro station too. A good place to reflect. But getting here? Tranquil was not the word. Paris cuts the Traction Avant some slack. Respects the rheumy yellow eyes, the graunching joints and hiccuping progress. There’s no synchromesh for first gear, and the three-speed manual’s lever…

10th-Generation duo Honda launches new Accord and Civic facelift in Malaysia Honda Malaysia has launched the 10th-generation Honda Accord here at long last. It arrives packing a sole 1.5-litre VTEC Turbo engine which replaces both 2.0-litre and 2.4-litre options offered previously altogether. It shared the stage with its revitalised younger brother, the facelifted 10th-generation Civic, which is primed to continue its dominance in the local C-segment bolstered by new looks and features. New from the ground up, the 2020 Accord is 12mm wider and 34mm longer than a predecessor, with a wheelbase that has grown by 55mm. This gives rear occupants 48mm more legroom and an increase of 120 litres of volume in the boot (up to 570 litres total). Despite these dimensional gains, new chassis materials contribute to an…

A QUICK DRIVE, STRAIGHT INTO THE ROUGH WHO: OLLIE MARRIAGE, MOTORING EDITOR I had one once. Just a small catch: my Golf GTI had a boot. A Jetta GTI. Cheaper to buy and insure than a MkII Golf, it was the fastest car I’d ever owned. Which I did for two months. On the way home from a party, four mates in the car, catastrophic understeer, mighty oak… Soft undergrowth prevented that interface by six inches. The next day I put it up on ramps to clear the greenery (and avoid awkward parental questioning), only to discover catastrophic, MOT-unsalvageable rust. THERE’S JUST NO PLEASING SOME PEOPLE WHO: ANDY FRANKLIN, CREATIVE DIRECTOR I bought a MkIII Volkswagen Golf 16v once. Impressive in a straight line and the build quality was extremely…

WHAT: LAMBO SVJ INTERIOR WHERE: COMO, ITALY It’s a simple choice: we either take the photographer, or the photographer’s kit. There’s not room for both WHO: JOHN TAN WHERE: PULAU TIKUS, PENANG TGM’s photo and video expert working his magic at the wet market after a spot of must-have char kway teow WHO: OLLIE MARRIAGE WHERE: BICESTER, UK Not that it’s cold on our studio shoots, but Marriage only has his laptop on for the warmth its faulty battery is providing WHO: SMOKEY NAGATA WHERE: CHIBA, JAPAN Photographer Mark fights hard through the cigarette smog not to get a soft-focus shot WHO: DAVID STUTTARD WHERE: LOS ANGELES, USA Zero Labs Director of Industrial Design gracefully exits the Bronco after a bout of Tom Ford’s flamboyant driving WHO: ERIC THE FRENCHMAN…

Great art requires no context. Thus, when Mika Hakkinen posted the below photo to his Instagram account late last year, it was captioned, simply: ‘When I go golfing it is like this.” This is irrefutably true. Nonetheless, it’s an image that raises a number of questions. Most pertinently: is there a Formula One car parked in the middle of a golf course? It’s a combination that, traditionally, screams ‘promotional event’. But there are no promotional event accoutrements to be seen here: no flags, no hoardings, just a double F1 world champ, sitting on a McLaren. The chaps in the background appear gloriously unaware there’s anything unusual going on behind them. Maybe there isn’t. Maybe this is how Mika spends every weekend. Can we therefore assume that Mika is… planning on…

1 You lied to us and poisoned our children with your old diesel cars. Why should we believe you when you say the new Golf diesel is clean? Sure we did. Well, not me, but the company. And many senior people from the company are in prison now. 2 So you can see why governments might not believe you this time? The new system has ‘twin dosing’ of SCR. This has two SCR catalytic converters at different points in the exhaust to reduce nitrogen oxide emissions by up to 80 per cent. Governments can put our cars in their own test chambers. 3 That’s what happened before. But you had a defeat device so they looked OK in the test chambers. Yes, OK, in any chamber. But now we have…

THE GOOD WHATEVER IT IS, IT’LL HAVE A GOOD MUSIC SYSTEM, HOPEFULLY WITH A BUTTON FOR “MEGABASS” Viznu Won’t happen - just a one-off concept designed to convince actual car manufacturers to partner up and get some sweet Sony tech into their cars. Nice-looking concept though, definitely prefer it to a Tesla Model S Dave That would be a dope car to screw around in GTS and DriveClub Rodolfo Ramos Coming to a Gran Turismo near you agoodmancharliebrown SONY SHOULD JOIN THE ELECTRIC CAR MARKET. WE NEED TECH COMPANIES TO MAKE VEHICLES SanosukeSigara THE BAD But does it have IBIS Tiago Santos And a Slog format when you want to record your driving Evelyn Pashov Mate, this car is just being used to sell Sony sensor tech Raine Heartily THE…

Already established for creating specialised time kits for the world’s toughest special operators, California-based watchmaker Luminox took things a step further recently by partnering up with world-renowned adventurer and survivalist Bear Grylls. A former special operator of the famed British SAS regiment himself, Grylls is best known for his post-military career as a television presenter and author with a knack for adventure and survival, the latter in the planet’s toughest wilderness. That said, his latest partnership with Luminox was perhaps warranted to say the least. Through this tie up, Luminox has readied special versions of three of its core models that celebrate Grylls’s exploits. Each of the aptly named Luminox X Bear Grylls series specials also bears his personal seal of approval too. In fact, the Brit had a hand…

Thrilling news for avid local Casio G-Shock fans and collectors alike as camouflage print versions of two of the brand’s iconic offerings – the GMW-B5000TCM-1 and the MTG-B1000DCM-1A – have made landfall. Starting with the B5000TCM-1, the new camo print scheme now dons its renowned lightweight titanium case assembly and case bands. Notably, the latter is the result of onerous and laborious work. Each case band was set by hand for the laser processing to create the camouflage pattern. Said effort warranted a dedicated production line specially put in place, and the results speak for themselves. Furthermore, the surface of the metal gets finished with a diamond like carbon (DLC) coating, thus protecting it, as well as the distinctive laser-engraved camouflage pattern, against scratches and other damages. Moreover, the timepiece’s…

South Korean smartphone giant Samsung’s latest flagship device, the Galaxy S20 series, makes landfall locally this month. Aptly, there’s plenty to look forward to. Three variations available include a base Galaxy S20, a slightly larger and up-specced Galaxy S20+, as well as a sizably big and fully loaded Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G. Both the Galaxy S20 and S20+ comes with 8GB of RAM, while the range-topping S20 Ultra 5G gets 12GB of RAM instead. All three models can have their storage expanded by up to 128GB via a microSD card and hybrid SIM slot. Furthermore, the Malaysian-flavoured Galaxy S20 trio comes with a 7nm octa-core Exynos 990 chipset instead of a Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 unit. Tasked to produce immersive visuals in the Galaxy S20, S20+ and S20 Ultra 5G is…

THESE LOOK PRETTY HARDCORE Hot hatches don’t get much hotter or more hardcore than these two. And, to all intents and purposes, the RenaultSport Megane R26.R is the watermark for stripped-out, race-ready shopping trolleys – one that will now probably never be bettered. WHY DO YOU SAY THAT? The R26.R engineers were told they weren’t allowed to squeeze more power or torque from the 227bhp, 2.0-litre turbo, so they went down the next best route to make a car fast: lightness. Everything that could be stripped out was. Any part that didn’t contribute to performance was thrown in the bin – 123kg of the stuff. That means no rear seats, no radio, no sound insulation and only one airbag. Then expensive exotic materials were used to add more lightness: Plexiglas…

From RM1,712,888 FOR Stellar soundtrack, race-derived goodies and speed, and the theatre of it all AGAINST Slightly too track-focused for the street perhaps? “IT costs how much?!” exclaimed a slightly annoyed passenger after struggling to get comfy in the un-reclineable Alcantara-covered carbon fibre bucket seat that greeted her. Clearly, this was not the ideal ride for a Valentine’s evening she had initially pictured. What didn’t help was the thunderstorm that hit the Klang Valley that same evening. Never mind the post-work traffic crawl, the rain-drenched streets saw the car in question’s Dynamic Select switch left in Slippery mode for quite a while; the conditions weren’t great for race-derived tyres and ceramic brakes. It wasn’t until much later that evening that the chance came to finally flick that switch again, this…

Boot Drain plug at the bottom of wet boot section. Great for takeaways. Mustang Mach-E’s frunk has the same thing Info Switchable gauge shows hybrid boost or recuperation. Otherwise you wouldn’t know: just feels like a normal if bigger engine Graphics Nothing to do, sadly, with the old Puma coupe. Peugeot’s lawyers might have something to say about this graphic Handbrake A real handbrake, which narrows the size of cupholders to normal drinking vessels, not US-spec buckets…

“THE ENGINE GIVES FANTASTICALLY INAPPROPRIATE PACE AND NOISE” £51,115 FOR Great engine, noise, grip and cross-country pace AGAINST Harsh ride on cars without DCC, grabby ceramic brakes, expensive Small performance SUVs are, as we know, very much in vogue right now. But the RS Q3 is the OG, having first gone on sale way back in 2013. There was nothing quite like it back then, and there still isn’t today. Mainly because of its engine. Like virtually all other small, hot SUVs, the RS Q3 uses the same engine as the hatchback it’s derived from. Usually this is a 2.0-litre, turbocharged four-cylinder petrol making something like 300bhp. Indeed, were Audi to do an SQ3, it would no doubt have the 2.0-litre engine from the S3 and Golf R. But this…

DACIA LOGAN MCV £8,495 FOR As useful as cars get below £20,000 AGAINST But as enjoyable? Lord no It’s the cheapest estate car you can buy new. You’ll pay £1,500 more for one of these than an identically specced Sandero. It works out at around £100 a month for a car with bootspace similar to a Mondeo Estate’s. It’s achingly slow, even when empty, the plastics are crap… this is the zenith of ‘car as white good’. It’ll make a lot of people’s lives immeasurably less stressful, but probably not more joyful. But we do love its honesty. SD FORD MUSTANG CS800 £99,950 FOR Give your pony some claws! Which just sounds wrong… AGAINST Watch the spend. A £100,000 Mustang is possible Yes, it’s a UK-tuned Ford Mustang. With a…

Wouldn’t blame you if it took a while to turn the page just then. That front three-quarter angle on the new Toyota GR Yaris, now finally erased of tedious camouflage wrap, is sensational. Almost as naughty as the rear three-quarter. That guilty giddiness you’re experiencing is something you’ve never felt before – the desire to own a Yaris. Thing is, there’s something more fundamental to this car than just being a new hot hatch, or the most aggressively planted stance-a-licious supermini of 2020. It says something optimistic about the car industry in general, and Toyota in particular. There’s still potential for us all to get blindsided by a blank-cheque project. There’s still a value – and a future – for pukka motorsport homologation specials. And, just maybe, there’s more to…

AT AROUND 4AM ON NOVEMBER 4, 1998, KAZUHIKO ‘SMOKEY’ NAGATA PULLED OFF THE HARD SHOULDER INTO LANE TWO OF THE A1(M) AND CAME TO A STOP. With rain falling and the mercury hovering just above freezing, he pinned the throttle, dropped the clutch and performed a monstrous burnout in the middle of the road. With the Midlands suitably sluiced in tyre smoke, he gunned his heavily modified, 1,003bhp, Japanese-registered, gold-painted Toyota Supra with one aim in mind: hitting 322kph. Due to some complications (the engine running lean on one run, the car wanting to jettison its bonnet at 190-odd on another), he had a few attempts, but ultimately fell short of the double ton – clocking 312kph. Still a bonkers number, and more than enough to unofficially claim the dubious…