Innholdsfortegnelse for November 2018 i TopGear Malaysia

Vietnam might not be internationally renowned for its automotive industry, but that is all about to change. New manufacturer VinFast is developing its own fleet of world-class vehicles to be completed at its state-of-the art factory in northern Vietnam, one of the country’s largest ever industrial projects. Cars are due to roll out to the Vietnamese market in 2019, but beyond that, VinFast’s outlook is very much a global one, it has set about recruiting a dream team of industry specialists from all over the world and is working with world-leading European design, engineering and production technology partners. Spearheading the company’s launch, an SUV and a sedan – both developed by premier Italian design house Pininfarina – were given their public debut at this year’s Paris Motor Show. Consider what…

We managed to bag a drive in the new BMW 3-Series before it was properly unveiled to the public last month. At a glance, it’s fairly obvious this is a new BMW saloon car, albeit wider and longer than the car it replaces. Even so, BMW’s claiming weight savings of around 55kg. The key gain is the track width, which has grown by 30mm, the centre of gravity also lowering by 10mm. The goal here, clearly, is for BMW to reassert its bestselling model as the driver’s choice among the junior exec gang. Its new CLAR (Cluster Architecture rear-drive platform) is 50 per cent stiffer than that of the outgoing car. BMW has also invested heavily in some trick dampers with hydraulic bump stops, too, for even the lowliest models.…

Marc Newson is a man in command of an astounding aesthetic vision. Projects include the bottle for Hennessy’s XO, the packaging for a Louis Vuitton fragrance, Nike’s VaporMax, and the beautiful Atmos 568 timepiece for Jaeger-LeCoultre. On this the mechanism appears to be floating in air, encased in Baccarat crystal. Newson has suspended time itself. Now he’s done a book on Ferrari. It’s a collaboration with Taschen. This is no ordinary publication, particularly if you fork out for the Newson-designed Art Edition; produced in a limited run of 250 examples, each costs €25k. “Benedikt [Taschen] wanted to do a book on Enzo Ferrari, in the same vein as the one Taschen produced on Muhammad Ali,” Newson explains. “It coincided with Ferrari’s 70th anniversary, so it became broader in scope. I…

“There was a lot of silence,” explains Lego’s senior art director Allan Jensen. “It was quite funny, I’ve never seen them like that.” No surprise, really, considering the brick-shaped gauntlet thrown into the Lego Technic engineers’ briefing room back in June 2017: build a Lego Bugatti Chiron. A full-size Lego Chiron. And make it move. It was only after project manager Lukás Horák and his team stopped laughing they realised this was no joke. Then silence. “These projects always start with laughing, and then the problems come.” So here we are: just over a year of problems, 13,500 man hours and more than one million Technic bricks later, we’re staring at the most astonishing Lego project ever created. A full-size, 1.5-tonne ode to Bugatti’s mind-bending Chiron. Though, of course, the…

This was never going to be a normal day, but it starts innocuously enough. A nervous TopGear journalist standing around on a wind-swept airfield, waiting while men cleverer than us fiddle with and prime a priceless concept car – one that just happens to be a full-blown, 460bhp triple-rotor, LMP2 racer underneath. Stig appears from nowhere, as he generally likes to do, and goes first, ripping around the airfield sending up a huge rooster tail of dust in his wake. Bill Thomas is next and spends the following hour firing the car up and down the tarmac under the watchful eye of the Furai support team, works driver Mark Ticehurst and the local fire crew. Job done, Bill retires to write his words, while photographer Lee Brimble snaps another few…

£40,130 Engine 1950cc, 4cyl TD, RWD, 194bhp, 400Nm Performance 0–100kph in 7.0secs, 240kph, 4.6L/100km, 121g/km CO2 Weight 1650kg Meet the facelifted C-Class Coupe. It looks good, aping the design tropes of its big brothers, the E-Class and S-Class, drives well and, in C220d guise as driven here, is reasonable value – costing from £40k. It’s super-classy with loads of room in the back seats, despite that lovely coupe sweeping roofline, and it has a certain air of luxury. To drive, it’s comfortable and easy-going, effortless and relaxing. Which is all very nice. But if you’re interested in exciting or fun, this is not for you. There is, however, also a proper AMG C63. Which can be easy-going and effortless and relaxing and the other things we mentioned. But it can…

Swiss-based historic British watchmakers Graham welcomes three new additions into its ever-expanding and signature Chronofighter Vintage series. This latest “reveal” consists of three versions of a timepiece with a plot inspired by 1940s aviation history. All three proudly combine the iconic design, characterised by its signature trigger, with vintage colours. with these, makers Graham are touting them as the distinguished timepieces that fly the flag for mindful masculinity. The inspiration of yesteryear military pilots is the heart and soul of the Graham Chronofighter Vintage. Positioned prominently on the left of the 44 mm case is the series’s signature thumb-actuated trigger that whisks the imaginations of contemporary tough guys to an era and space where leather flying jackets and analogue cockpits ruled the skies. Chronograph activation has never felt this way…

OUR CHOICE OF THIS MONTH’S TOP-SPEC STUFF The world’s leading action cam maker GoPro has taken the bar to new heights with its brand new Hero7 series. As with its previous edition, the new Hero7 comes in three choices starting with the basic Hero7 White, the mid-spec Hero7 Silver and the flagship Hero7 Black. Of course, the one most sought after is the flagship Hero7 Black, and it sees GoPro going to greater lengths at making this the only action camera any adrenaline junkie needs. Two new standout features headline the bill for the Black, those being HyperSmooth and TimeWarp Video. with HyperSmooth, the Hero7 Black now boasts the best in-camera video stabilization ever featured in a camera. Say goodbye to the shaky, unstable footages forever as HyperSmooth lets users…

A £160,000-plus Lamborghini with a 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 and 641bhp. Carbon-ceramic brakes, 23in alloy wheels, an Anima selector to flick between Strada, Sport and Corsa modes, four-wheel steering and active stability control, optional Pirelli Corsas for track work. Launch control, obviously. And a towbar.I beg your pardon? Yup, leaf through the specifications of the Lamborghini Urus and you will discover, as a quirk of its shared heritage, it can come equipped with the fixings to tow an Elddis Buccaneer. Or a trailer filled with grass clippings set for the local recycling centre, a situation likely to atomise the rearguard on first application of decent throttle, like a hot-air balloon basket strapped to the bottom of Falcon Heavy. In fact, pretty much any mundane use of an Urus towball feels a…

LAMBORGHINI HURACÁN PERFORMANTE Price £207,925 Engine 5204cc, V10, 630bhp, 600Nm Transmission 7spd dual-clutch, AWD Performance 0–100kph in 3.1secs, 323kph Economy 15L/100km, 348g/km CO2 Weight 1507kg (dry) LAMBORGHINI URUS Price £165,000 Engine 3933cc, V8 twin-turbo, 641bhp, 850Nm Transmission 8spd automatic, AWD Performance 0–100kph in 3.6secs, 306kph Economy 12.7L/100km, 290g/km CO2 Weight 2200kg “It seems supercar bloggers spend their time in Monte Carlo, rather than Trowell Services” Good for my fellow TG-ists, having such a load of fun with their on-track Top Trumping. But I’d actually have won by roughly 100bhp, enough to bruise their egos so brutally that I’d have felt bad. So I’m off to do something more real with the Lamborghinis. A racing dinghy is technically a mode of transport, but no one uses it for that. A glider…

The Barone Fortress in Croatia overlooks the historic city of Sibenik where some scenes from HBO’s hit TV series, Game of Thrones, were filmed. It’s a stunning view few visitors will ever forget. Yet, despite being a massive fan of the show, I returned with little recollection of the surroundings. My only memory from the top of the hill was of the following words: “Mercedes is such a beautiful name. Why would you want to change it?” This was the answer I got after asking a Mercedes-Benz engineer if owners of the brand new A-Class were allowed to rename their car. This was in reference to MBUX, Stuttgart’s latest interactive infotainment system which immediately comes to your aid upon making out the line “Hey, Mercedes.” Short for Mercedes-Benz User Experience,…

128 Mercedes A-Class If you search long enough for the WiFi password at my favourite Mexican joint in Bandar Sunway, you’ll find a sign reminding you to ‘talk to each other’. Socialising in person is slowly becoming a thing of the past now that we’re often transfixed on social media instead. Couple this trend with the latest in the automotive industry and we could be looking at a future where people spend more time talking to their cars than they do with their loved ones. We’ve spent much of the past month dissecting two talking cars occupying two drastically different segments. The first one up is the highly-anticipated Proton X70 (page 66), which is essentially a Geely Boyue underneath its tiger-badged skin. More than just a crowd pleaser in an…

Aston has announced a run of 25 brand-new DB5s, modelled after one of the world’s most famous movie cars: the Goldfinger DB5. Just like the DB4 GT Continuation models we saw at the end of 2016, Aston is building 25 brand-new Aston Martin DB5s, built as “authentic reproductions” of the exact car that Connery, Brosnan and Craig all drove in various screen outings. By authentic, Aston mean things like revolving numberplates “and more”. We suspect the ejector seats and oil spray won’t make the cut, though we live in hope.…

Reading this magazine from front to back, are you? Good. You’ll have already spotted this year’s Pebble Beach car-luxe-festival has lit the touchpaper on a series of all-electric super-concepts from Audi, Infiniti and Pininfarina. Unbowed, Mercedes has been busy with its own entry. The EQ Silver Arrow plunders real heritage (not Infiniti’s wish-we-were-there wistfulness) and applies an electrified spin to the record-breaking Benz single-seaters of the Thirties. Imagine, if you will, this design study as a fantasy future for Formula E. Oof. Yes please. Now dismiss that mouth-watering notion. Sorry. This is merely the design department getting demob-happy over the summer holidays, but it does include some design traits we’ll see in the upcoming Tesla-fighting EQ electric offshoot imminent from the Mercedes mothership. Blue detailing, wraparound lights and rose-gold wheel spokes,…

Malaysian Rovelo tyres distributor STC Tyre Mart Sdn Bhd recently treated its dealers to yet another one of the firm’s many famed incentive trips on Oct 5 to Oct 9. This outing once again saw the firm hosting invited dealers in the picturesque coastal city of Da Nang, Vietnam. Leading the 22 Rovelo dealer representatives were STC Tyre Mart Sdn Bhd’s sales manager Ang Beng Loo and sales representative Jackie Ong. As in previous STC Tyre Mart’s incentive trips to this part of Vietnam, the specially arranged programme was packed with plenty of exciting features in this Vietnamese coastal city’s rich culture and history. This was evidently clear right from the start with the Day 1 programme which featured a tour of the famed Da Nang Pink Church first. Also…

Mazda6 2.0 RM165,215.60 WE SAY: MAZDA HAS LIGHTLY REFRESHED ITS ENTRY-LEVEL 6 SALOON with ADDED REFINEMENT AND SOME NEW FEATURES, BUT IS IT ANY BETTER THAN ITS PEERS? KIt’s no secret that we at TG – and perhaps a lot of other journos – love the Mazda6. For a D-segment sedan, it ticked all the right boxes by being adequately posh, well equipped and matched with both good looks and dynamic performance. Of course, staying ahead of the competition isn’t easy. That is why Mazda keeps updating this model over the years and bringing us to this most recent facelift for 2018. Having spent an entire weekend piloting it recently, it seems Mazda has done justice to this D-segment fighter. On the surface, it’s going to take a trained eye…

Renault Captur RM98,999 without SST WE SAY: FRENCH COMPACT GETS A NEW SET OF CLOTHES BUT IS THERE SUBSTANCE TO THE STYLE? The hunger for crossovers is real. It’s increasingly common to see carmakers having more crossovers than other genres on sale. And then there’s Renault, a company once synonymous with its track-ready RenaultSport models that is now consigned to selling nothing but crossovers. with the Fluence and Clio phased out of the Malaysian market while the wait for the fourth-generation Megane (GT and RS variants) continues, local Renault distributor TC Euro Cars (TCEC) only has the Captur and Koleos listed in its passenger car catalogue. It’s a lean line-up that won’t compel any RS265 owner dropping in for a scheduled service to purchase a new Renault. But those who…

Sailing the 29er dinghy or creating its wristwatch counterpart, the new 29er Tag/Datum from German horology house Mühle-Glashütte is all about achieving the perfect balance. with its design, the 29er Tag/Datum achieves a harmonious balance between the watch’s date and weekday displays. In similar fashion to its 29er Big sibling, the date display of the 29er Tag/Datum was placed in the three o’clock position, directly opposite the watch’s practical weekday display in the nine o’clock position. This arrangement enables the displays to perfectly highlight the straightforward character that defines Mühle’s range of 29er models. Another design decision focused on the colours of this new Mühle watch, which is taking to the water with a special palette thanks to its metallic sand-coloured flange. This attractive shade grants the 29er Tag/Datum harmony…

“The brief was to design a car totally different from the Chiron, but make it recognisable, instantly, as a Bugatti” It takes a special type of mind to stroll in on your first day, poke around the quickest production car in the world, and decide item one is to make it a quantum leap faster. But on 1 January 2018, that’s precisely what Stephan Winkelmann, the new president of Bugatti, did. Eight months later, the Divo is the result – a car that takes its ingredients from the same allotment as the Chiron, but cooks them up into something with a bit more kick. Rule one of Divo: do not try to rationalise it – your head will explode and you’ll ruin the carpet. At €5m a pop, it’s twice…

Grawling down an unassuming suburban residential street of timber-clad gable-front houses in Sleepy Hollow, upstate New York, the overly demanding, shrill voice of the satnav pipes up. “You have arrived,” the lady in the dashboard barks. Surely not? The only giveaway that Mrs Waze is in fact correct is a small plaque on the side of an old beverage warehouse that’s been whitewashed into allusiveness. From it, Lady Liberty’s torch burns on a marble background with three letters below: SCG. A knock on the door summons the venerable leader of Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus – Jim Glickenhaus – who politely gestures me in. My pupils take time to adjust to the vast darkened room, but when they do, I quickly realise I have very much arrived. All available space is draped…

It’s been a while since I found myself in the hot-seat of something that looked this cool. I’m talking about the new-for-2018 Honda CB1000R. Having spent close to a week riding it, Honda’s new streetfighter has left quite an impression to say the least. For a start, there’s plenty to love with the way this streetfighter looks. Some of you may remember this bike being presented as the ‘Neo Sports Café’ concept during the 2017 Tokyo Motor Show late last year. Comparing that to this ‘finished’ product, it’s surprising to see just how little it has changed from said concept state. Ask anyone at Honda what its so-called ‘Neo Sports Café’ design motif meant and you’ll probably be bombarded with marketing fluff. Basically, it marries classic motorcycle lines seamlessly with…

911 GT3 RS now on sale RM2.23mil Porsche packs the carmaker’s most powerful naturally-aspirated engine to date It has been less than a year since Sime Darby Auto Performance (SDAP) launched the 911 GT3. Now, the edgier, faster, lighter RS version is also now officially available. This hardcore version of the already-intense 911 GT3 is – in Porsche’s own words – closer to the made-for-racing 911 RSR or 911 Cup than a road car. Just like any race car, the exterior is just as noteworthy as the engine: the wheel arch vents function to reduce overpressure in the wheel arch, wider front lip and side skirts to increase the RS’ underbody surface area, and wider rear wing all contribute to the improved aero. Now, the car makes 144kg of downforce…

Who: Elliott Webb Where: Trowell services, UK Elliott tries to stop the Lambos being papped. Photographer points out he’s just doing his job Who: Team TG Malaysia Chinese Where: Genting Highlands, Pahang The Honda CB1000R clearly was a cooler subject to shoot than the poor little Volvo XC40 Who: Tom Harrison Where: Dunsfold, UK One runway light, mid-mend. Turns out that Tom Harrison is a dab hand at do it yourself Who: Tom Ford Where: Tokyo, Japan Wookie, moth-like, is mesmerised by the bright lights of Tokyo Who: Team TG Where: Dunsfold, UK How many people does it take to load a motorcycle trailer? Many, minus Marriage and Harrison Who: pilot and co-pilot Where: mid-air, Mongolia Security is considerably lighter here than on the Heathrow/Amsterdam route Who: a man Where:…

The journey from concept to production isn’t always an easy one, and our immediate hunch is that the BMW Z4’s was particularly fraught. From a clean, simple and sophisticated show car, this is the third-gen Z4 you’ll actually be able to buy. Does it look a bit like an old Merc SLK in its proportions, or is that just us? Either way, this First Edition – a Z4 M40i – gets a 335bhp 3.0-litre straight-six turbo, driving the rear wheels via a paddleshift gearbox and an M Sport differential. The Z4’s not always been especially adept at handling, but giving this MkIII version a better go at taking down the Porsche Boxster is 50:50 weight distribution – the driver and passenger placed right in the middle – and some electronically…

Jaguar Project 8 £149,995 BMW M3 CS £86,385 WE SAY: HARDEST-CORE JAG TAKES ON HARDEST-CORE BMW. PREPARE FOR LIFT-OFF How hardcore is the Jaguar Project 8? This is the boast, of course: the fastest saloon around the ’Ring, benchmarked against a Porsche 911 GT3, the most powerful Jag ever. Carbon-ceramic this, track-pack that, downforced, rollcaged and harnessed; £150k of 1-of-300 uniqueness. How hardcore? We’ll answer that, but it leads on to a more relevant question: why? Why would you want a sports car shaped like a saloon? Why not, y’know, just have a sports car? For the time being let’s cut Jaguar some slack – most super-saloons these days are akin to sports cars, so if Jag has taken it one step beyond an M3 CS, we’re in compelling territory. Famously, BMW…

VOLKSWAGEN GOLF GTI RM246,490 WE SAY: IT MAY BE POSITIONED BETWEEN THE TSI AND THE R, BUT THE MK7.5 GOLF GTI DOESN’T SUFFER FROM MIDDLE CHILD SYNDROME The most affordable Volkswagen Golf you can buy brand new in Malaysia today is the Golf TSI R Line we reviewed last month. It takes a trained eye to tell one apart from the Golf R, Wolfsburg’s flagship performance hatch from which the sporty R Line components are derived. The aesthetic gap between both ends of the Golf’s spectrum has tightened so much that the Golf GTI sandwiched between them remains the sole variant with a unique character of its own, visually at least. Volkswagen’s GTI signatures have always been pleasing to the eye to begin with. The red accents in the brake calipers,…

Maserati Levante £58,315 WE SAY: MASERATI’S SUV GETS A MAKEOVER AND EMERGES AS A PROPER CONTENDER Remember this? Hasn’t exactly set the world on fire in the UK, has it? The Maserati Levante is now two years old, and just emerging from a light preen. Nothing fundamental, the Levante is still based on the Ghibli/QP platform, but gains new bumpers, trims and a new engine. That’s a 350bhp version of the 3.0 twin-turbo V6 that’s already available in the Levante S with 430bhp. That continues, as does another 3.0 twin-turbo, this time a diesel with 275bhp. That’s the starting point for Maserati SUV ownership, costing £58,315, while the flagship S weighs in at £72,525. The models Maserati needs are the twin-turbo V8s, the 550bhp GTS and 590bhp Trofeo. No promises. Maser…

BMW i8 Roadster £124,730 WE SAY: AS A DRIVING TOOL, SUBLIME AND STILL DECADES AHEAD. AS A ONE-CAR PROPOSITION, LESS SO There are, admittedly, several drawbacks to the new i8 Roadster next to the Coupe. At £124,735, it’ll cost you £12,000 more, it’s 60kg heavier, two tenths slower 0–100kph and the back seats are replaced with somewhere to store your roof, while the boot is barely big enough for a couple of rucksacks. However, if you’re buying an i8 to save cash, go drag racing or transport more than two humans, you’re probably doing it wrong. Even four years affter it launched, the i8 remains spectacularly different to anything else out there. A junior supercar, stuffed with tech that isn’t consumed with the pursuit of power figures or cooking its…

WE SAY: EVEN AT £24K, A TOP-SPEC FIESTA ST3 IS A MATCH FOR A HEARTLAND HOT MINI A Fiesta that costs Mini money? That’s a £24k Fiesta, and such wedge will also buy you a Mini Cooper S with a smattering of tech options. Both can be had for £250 a month, in fact. Save £700 on the Mini by choosing the mildly less odious three-door model. Kitted-out ST3s ask £21,495 in return for goodies like rear parking sensors and a back-up camera, a heated steering wheel, rain-sensing wipers and more. Add £850 for the Performance Pack. This blue? An extra £745… Which is the hotter hatch? This (barely) facelifted Mini’s 2.0-litre turbo four-pot sticks at 189bhp. It’s the polar opposite to the Ford’s keen, zingy motor, though, lethargic to…

“THIS IS CRAZY, THIS IS CRAZY. AND OVER HERE TOO! THIS IS CRAZY, THIS IS REALLY CRAZY” It’s 9am in the Gobi desert and the sun is getting its boots on, ready for another hard day of grinding its heel into the punished earth of southern Mongolia. We’ve been out here an hour already and, until now, found nothing. Well, that’s not true. Personally I’ve found quite a lot. Quite a lot of nothing as it turns out. For the record, dinosaur fossils are not root casts, striated stones or, on one occasion, ready-scavenged cattle bones. And then suddenly, there they are, scattered all over the surface. Clay-red, knuckle-sized Ankylosaurus bones. “A whole herd of them,” I’m told in an almost reverential whisper, about this club-tailed dinosaur that lived 80…

ON TUESDAY 25 AUGUST 2015, A COMPANY WITH AN AWKWARD NAME YOU’VE NEVER HEARD OF WON A CONTRACT TO BUILD THE MOST IMPORTANT CAR OF THE 21ST CENTURY. On Wednesday 26 August, a Brit the company had never heard of asked if he could have a go in it. Despite them being a bit busy, two days later I had an email back from Oshkosh Defence, the Wisconsin truckmaker that’d scored the $6.75 billion gig. “We’re expecting some appeals against the decision, so we’ll call you.” I’m paraphrasing, but only a bit. Fast-forward almost three years, and Lockheed-Martin’s legal challenge has been dropped, and the US Marine Corps has received its first batch of Oshkosh Joint Light Tactical Vehicles. Eight roll out of the factory near the west coast of…

CAREER STATISTICS 2018 - present MotoGP World Championship Manufacturer Yamaha 2011 - 2017 Moto2 World Championship Manufacturers Moriwaki, FTR, Kalex We’re talking about 24-year-old Hafizh Syahrin who’s fighting for the right to be called MotoGP’s ‘Rookie of the Year’. The Selangor-born speedster has silenced his critics. Unlike the four other rookies joining the grid this year, Hafizh’s spot in the premier MotoGP class almost didn’t happen. With the Japanese Grand Prix wrapped up, the 2018 MotoGP class’s title chase concluded early yet again as Honda’s golden boy Marc Marquez claimed his record-breaking fifth premier class title. But, with three races remaining, there’s another title chase going on down the field, and there’s a Malaysian involved. Call it a ‘lucky break’ if you like when Sophomore German rider Jonas Folger announced…

Like you, we at TG relish every chance we get to drive a car on track, especially if it involves a go-fast hot-hatch like the recently refreshed VW Golf GTI. That, plus the excitement of taking our first laps around the Sepang International Circuit (SIC) at night, led to our participation in the Volkswagen Trackday 2018 event in September. The event saw Volkswagen Passenger Cars Malaysia (VPCM) host journalists, invited guests and VW Club Malaysia members to experience the performance of its current models including the recently refreshed Golf hatchback range – hot GTI and even hotter R models. It wasn’t until the pre-drive safety briefing that we realised we were only going to drive just half the 5.5km-long track, and that we only had three laps per session. Yes,…