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THE HOT LIST 2023 Welcome to the Hot List – a collection of all the new cars and things that matter in the coming year... and a few that don’t. All the knowledge you need for a successful 2023 ILLUSTRATION PETE LLOYD T O P G E A R . C O M › F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 3 053

APQLUAiCEET What better way to enjoy the BMW i7’s built in cinema, than watching a scary movie in the middle of nowhere... in the dead of night WORDS JASON BARLOW PHOTOGRAPHY GREG PAJO 054 F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 3 › T O P G E A R . C O M

BMW i7 T O P G E A R . C O M › F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 3 055

Horror films aren’t for everyone... Jason was on his own for this one Chances of there being a body in that boot? We didn’t stick around to find out 056 F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 3 › T O P G E A R . C O M

BMW i7 BMW to escape here from LA, drinking cocktails beside his piano-shaped i7 pool – we figured it was a chance to scare ourselves senseless with a midnight showing of something stupid in the middle of the It’s all in the imagination. Well, sometimes. Having desert. Hell, we can even watch it in 32:9 cinemascope. just given a list of movies to the man from BMW who’s in charge of the new 7-Series’ Theatre Screen, I suspect he’s Are we trivialising this important new car? Perhaps. This is the wondering whether to get on with downloading them or have seventh generation of BMW’s range-topper, a model which debuted me sectioned. “What would be really great,” I blabber, “is that bit in 1977 offering greater dynamism than Mercedes’ patriarchal where Leatherface is brandishing the chainsaw above his head. S-Class, and more modernism than Jaguar’s fusty gin and cigars XJ. Then there’s the scene in No Country for Old Men where Javier Close to two million have since been sold, and there have been Bardem’s psychotic hitman terrorises the gas station attendant innovations aplenty. Remember, it was 2001’s fourth-gen car that with a coin toss... ‘You need to call it, I can’t call it for you, it ushered in the Bangle design era and premiered the overwrought wouldn’t be fair...’” but prescient iDrive. Yet it’s still the S-Class that’s preserved the It’s odd, don’t you think, that for all the intergalactic firepower edge as the putative ‘best car in the world’, which must be irksome summoned up by BMW’s all-new 7-Series techno starship, that a in Bavaria. This explains why BMW has chucked everything into screen that folds out of the roof is apparently its most TikTok-able the new car in an effort to finally, definitively topple the old foe. feature. Cars have had TVs in them since the Seventies, and I remember driving a 750i in 1995 that had one integrated into the The rules have changed, mind you. There are petrol, diesel dash. Yet somehow that or a headrest monitor just won’t cut it and hybrid versions of the new 7-Series but the pure electric i7 anymore, so Munich has served up a 31.3in set-up slim enough to now provides the centre of gravity. BMW is reorienting the hide in the roof lining, but sufficiently clever to have an 8K luxury car experience around onboard well-being, a delirious touchscreen display with built-in Amazon Fire TV. It’s beautifully digital experience via its new OS8 software, and world-class engineered, yours for £10,500 as part of the Executive Pack. sustainability. Whither the ultimate driving machine? We’ll see. Of course, you’ll also need the Bowers & Wilkins surround sound, preferably the version with 36 speakers and 1,965W of While the movies download, I manage to secure 20 minutes output and exciters in the seat backrests. It’s all activated via 5.5in with BMW CEO Oliver Zipse. It’s nearly truncated to two when touchscreen remotes in the door panels which also trigger the a mischievous enquiry about BMW perhaps buying McLaren automated rear shades. It’s quite the entertainment hub, not so brings the shutters slamming down. Moving swiftly on... to the less much a drive-in cinema, more of an actual driving one. As we’re contentious matter of the company’s design language. Needless testing the new Seven in Palm Springs – Sinatra and the boys used to say, there are those who think the new 7-Series is further proof BMW hasn’t just lost its marbles, it has thrown them deliberately one by one into a giant bonfire. Let me tell you, being confronted by a car park full of new Sevens is a real kill or cure moment. In white, with all the shiny bits in gloss black, or fully ‘murdered out’ in an expensive matte finish, the i7 looks defiantly different and wholly modern. The M Sport Package Pro helps, pumping things up with 21in alloys and bigger brakes. The upper lights become the focal point at night, and that vast grille can be illuminated, too. There’s also the option of Swarovski ‘iconic glow’ crystal glass, though this might be a bit much unless your surname is Kardashian. Oddly enough, it’s not the split level headlights and brick outhouse front end that’s most bothersome, but the surprisingly generic rear. This is ironic given the rumpus 2001’s E65 iteration caused back in the day. It’s slippery, though, with a drag coefficient of just 0.24. Aero efficiency is an important asset in the EV world. Anyway, here’s what Mr Zipse said (once he’d calmed down). “There is no such thing as a future oriented design without controversy. We want to spark discussion about what we’re doing. I want controversy. If we don’t have it, then you already know it’s too easy. Out of the controversy you get engagement. Digitalise it, electrify it, make it a bit bigger. That’s the answer.” This will forever be a subjective area. Here’s my hot take: BMWs may be a long way from beautiful, but they’re highly distinctive. T O P G E A R . C O M › F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 3 057

BMW i7 Is it just us, or does the steering wheel look like a creepy clown mouth? Our route into the desert involves some unexpectedly stabilisation system that also suppresses body vibrations. In fact, entertaining roads. It’s not all arrow straight round here, no sir. the whole car has remarkable acoustic properties, down to clever Although you might imagine this would punish a big EV, it’s a mountings on the front axle and on the motors. Together with the revelation. The new car is underpinned by a steel and aluminium inherent silence of its electric powertrain, the i7 might have flexible vehicle architecture engineered from the outset to pilfered one of Rolls’s key attributes. It redefines refinement. accommodate three different drive types. There’s enhanced body rigidity and a wider front and rear track, so it feels planted. And yet it still seriously hustles, only waving the white flag Powerful, too. The xDrive60 has a combined 536bhp from two at the far and frankly idiotic end of its dynamic envelope. Also electric motors, and 549lb ft of torque overall. The lithium-ion included is BMW’s ‘near-actuator’ traction control system which battery pack provides 101.7kWh of usable energy, and with a cell means that corrective inputs are now 10 times faster than usual. height of just 110mm it sits comfortably under the floor. Time was when I would have sought out the traction off button on every BMW, even a 7-Series, but that’s a heroically pointless BMW claims between 3.1 and 3.3mpkWh, and a range of up activity now that also requires sub-menu delvage. That said, to 388 miles. It has also worked hard to keep the best and worse BMW will sell you an armoured version of this car, so a reverse case range scenarios closer together. Finally, someone has J-turn at the very least must be on the cards. That I’d like to try. figured out no one likes the randomness that mars so many EV range calculations. Charge at home at 7.4kW and you’ll get 62 As night falls, we are led to our desert location by local law miles back in around 2.5 hours. On a 195kW rapid charger, BMW enforcement officer, Sheriff Michael Myers. Horror fans will claims the i7 will go from 10 to 80 per cent in 34 minutes. immediately recognise this as the name of the serial killer in the Halloween franchise, a coincidence that does little for my Chucking your 5.1m long electric super limo into a corner isn’t state of mind, especially when it turns out that Halloween is one really top of the list of priorities in 2023, but it’s still a BMW and of the films that has been downloaded to the Theatre Screen. old habits die hard. However, there are plenty of new ones, too. An active rear axle is an option that brings with it rear steering This self-inflicted nerve-jangling paranoia is in stark – up to 3.5°, which helps low speed manoeuvring and sharpens contrast to the i7’s interior which has got to be the most mindful cornering inputs at higher speeds. The i7 also has the further currently available. The curved display we know from the iX, option of Executive Drive Pro, which is basically a 48V anti-roll and it’s being rolled out across the range. This is core to BMW’s push to digitalisation, and combines a 12.3in instrument display 058 F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 3 › T O P G E A R . C O M

“BMWS MAY BE A LONG WAY FROM BEAUTIFUL, BUT THEY’RE HIGHLY DISTINCTIVE” BMW i7 Price: £108,305 Engine: 101.7kWh battery, 536bhp, 549lb ft Transmission: 1spd auto, AWD Performance: 0–62mph in 4.7secs Top speed: 149mph Range: 388 miles T O P G E A R . C O M › F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 3 059

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BMW i7 “MY SELF-INFLICTED NERVE- JANGLING PARANOIA IS IN STARK CONTRAST TO THE i7’S INTERIOR” T O P G E A R . C O M › F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 3 061

BMW i7 THINGS TO DO IN 2023 “THE BMW i7 IS A MILESTONE CAR FOR Get the passport out, here’s five ELECTRIFICATION” unmissable dates for your diary behind the wheel with a longer 14.9in main infotainment glass touchscreen. It’s STELVIO PASS OPEN DAY easy to use – even subsuming the climate control within it isn’t the ergonomic 1 JUNE (ISH) disaster I’d feared. It also means that the four-zone system’s air vents are almost imperceptible. Nice. It takes six weeks to open the Stelvio and the exact open date changes each Beneath the central screen is the ‘Interaction Bar’, new on the 7-Series, which has a year, but imagine being the first one up crystalline surface and backlighting, and stretches pretty much the width of the cabin. Activate the hazard lights and the whole thing pulses red; it also takes its colour cues ISLE OF MAN TT from whichever of the My Modes you’ve gone for. Red for Sport, green for Expressive, 6 – 10 JUNE etc. These also alter the sound signature, as codeveloped with Hollywood movie soundtrack maestro, Hans Zimmer, mostly variations on an escalating sci-fi pulse. Prefer two wheels? Then there’s nothing better than the TT, with four I wonder if he’s watched one of his films yet in the back of an i7. He ought to. days of racing that’ll blow your mind Order the Executive Pack and you’ll get perhaps the most comfortable seat ever fitted in a car: the front passenger seat slides and tilts as far forward as it’ll go, 24 HOURS OF LE MANS leaving the rear occupant free to recline to 42.5° – a record in this class – and 10 – 11 JUNE there’s no gap in the calf support area, either. Unfortunately, with the screen lowered, the driver’s rear view is comprehensively blocked. It’s an uncharacteristic This year’s world’s most famous 24hr own goal, because BMW hasn’t fitted a rearview camera mirror (like Land Rover’s race is set to be the best in ages, with ClearSight one) to circumvent the problem. Ferrari and Porsche back at the top This isn’t an issue right now. So well has the i7 become a hermetically sealed luxury capsule you’d simply never know that we’re sitting in a desert scrubland MONGOL RALLY miles from anywhere. Just me and... a rampaging maniac on a giant screen. 16 JULY – 9 SEPTEMBER Roadtrips in the US always take on a cinematic feel – every lone shack or creepy Want an adventure? The Mongol Rally is a old house is home to some nefarious activity – but this is ridiculous. Psychologists 10,000 mile trip in something with an engine reckon we enjoy horror movies because it provides a safe mechanism to mentally rehearse how we’d deal with age-old primal fears. Like being eaten by a predator, under 1.2 litres that cost buttons to buy for example. Sensation seekers also enjoy the adrenalin rush that follows fear. All I can feel is my blood pressure rise. I might stick on Paddington 2 instead. BATHURST 1,000 5 – 8 OCTOBER The screen itself is possibly a bit too close to the rear seat occupant, and critics think it gimmicky. But there’s no doubt it’s meticulously engineered and Like Le Mans, the Bathurst 1,000 will brilliantly resolved. Luxury cars are increasingly about amplifying the overall look very different in 2023 with the experience, as much as anything else. The i7 isn’t just a great EV, it’s a milestone introduction of the new Gen3 supercars car for electrification and for BMW. The ultimate driving machine? It’s even better than the real thing. 062 F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 3 › T O P G E A R . C O M

THE HOT LIST 2023 Anything else from BMW? Yes, finally, an M3 TOURING . Powered by the same S58 3.0-litre 503bhp turbo straight-six as the current M3 and M4, it’ll cost £80,550. The fast estate to end them all. BMW M2 than the M4’s and steering, diff and stability control all have bespoke calibration here. As well as the familiar WHAT IS IT? eight-speed auto, the UK also gets the M2 with a six-speed manual box. Less efficient and slower, Just the M car we’ve really been waiting for. BMW but somehow more... ultimate. says it’s the successor to the 2002 Turbo, but there’s also strong 1-Series M Coupe energy here. It’s about PUB AMMO creating something the right size to be truly useful, while amplifying the attributes that make the Alpine The M4’s engine is dialled back a bit to produce 454bhp A110 and Porsche 718 Cayman go-to cars. and 406lb ft, but the M2 has a sharper front end and a slightly softer rear, so it should be even more agile WHAT’S THE BIG TALKING POINT? and playful than its far-from-sleepy siblings. There are three driving modes, Road, Sport and Track, and It’s M Division’s last pure combustion car. A sad it’s rear-drive only. There’s also more space inside but moment, but what a way to bow out. The M guys cherry who cares? On sale in May, priced from £61,495. JB picked some of the M3/M4 hardware – the 3.0-litre straight six turbo, active locking rear diff, gearboxes and more – but the M2’s wheelbase is 110mm shorter T O P G E A R . C O M › F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 3 063

GUESS Will the second coming of a BMW legend be everything it’s cracked up to be? There are some issues... WHO’S WORDSTOMFORD BACK BMW 3.0 CSL On one hand, the new BMW 3.0 CSL is everything that TopGear stands for. Power. Driving. Heritage. Wings. Stripes. The glorious lack of apology on which a brand is built. The focused concept reaching – albeit limited – production. On the other... there are issues. The ingredients are absolutely there, sweating potential: a 552bhp/406lb ft variant of the 3.0-litre straight six turbo – the most powerful iteration yet – and mentions of things we don’t quite understand the practical applications of, but sound quite racy. A rigid crankcase. A forged, lightweight crankshaft and 3D-printed cylinder head core. Titanium backbox (worth a 4.3kg 064 F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 3 › T O P G E A R . C O M

BMW 3.0 CSL saving alone) and aluminium bracing in the bay. Ooh, we nod OK, so it’s a bit lighter than stock, but ditching the back seats knowingly, excellent. The cooling system and oil supply systems and adding back breaking carbon buckets will always save you a are for high performance and “designed for extremely dynamic few kilos. And just because you have integrated compartments driving situations”, which sounds promising, and BMW says the for your colour-matched helmets doesn’t a racecar make. Yes, motor will rev to... 7,200rpm. Which, um... isn’t actually that high. BMW may have taken 200 hours optimising the car’s airflow and dedicated 30 specially trained M technicians to build it, and But still, a six-speed manual with, er, “performance matched there may be a strictly limited 50 car build slot, but it just feels a ratios” and a special retro-Seventies white gearknob we hear you bit like the concept smashed headlong into a wall of production cry! Just to wonder what “performance matched” actually means. reality and set off all the airbags directly into the bodywork. And while it’s great that BMW has placed CFRP and carbon body styling on pretty much all of it, did anyone stop to wonder whether And yet, with that roof spoiler and stacked rear wing, 100 per it should? To be brutally honest, it looks a bit chubby. And if you cent locking diff and manual box, plus a sprinkling of M Power take a look at the original Hommage R concept, the relationship magic, you get the feeling that BMW might be able to transform between the window line and the tops of the tyres has grown by this unpopular opinion with the driving. And it doesn’t stop us about 200mm, making it look like it ate all the performance pies. really, really wanting to have a go... T O P G E A R . C O M › F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 3 065

FORD MUSTANG WHAT IS IT? The seventh-gen Mustang was revealed at the 2022 Detroit show, with sharp creases and lines where the curves used to be. It’s probably gone keto, or something. This is only the second model to make it to the UK, since the car officially went on sale back in 2015. WHAT’S THE BIG TALKING POINT? A Dark Horse version (pictured) with an appetite for race tracks, that gets a 500bhp version of the Coyote 5.0 V8, trick suspension and a bespoke six-speed manual. PUB AMMO Ford says that the Mustang is the most liked vehicle on Facebook. But that’s only since Thomas the Tank Engine was booted off for sharing conspiracy memes. SB ROLLS-ROYCE WHAT IS IT? SPECTRE This will be the first production electric Rolls-Royce when it arrives in Q4 2023. WHAT’S THE BIG TALKING POINT? Its 320 miles of WLTP range. Rolls tried a Phantom EV concept in 2011, but it only went 120 miles because battery tech was pitiful back then. The Spectre will be a whisker under 3,000kg, with 577bhp and a price of £300k. PUB AMMO The car’s 23in wheels will be the biggest fitted to a Rolls since the Silver Ghost 100 years ago. SB 066 F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 3 › T O P G E A R . C O M

LOTUS EMIRA MASERATI PROJECT24 WHAT IS IT? WHAT IS IT? It’s Lotus’s last ever combustion engined car and now the only sports car you can buy from Hethel. RIP It’s a Maserati MC20 that you can’t use on the public Elise, Exige, Evora etc. The Emira is set to enter road. Yep, under that aggressive, bewinged carbon another dimension this year, with the option of a bodywork is Maserati’s latest V6-engined supercar, smaller, lighter 4cyl engine mounted midships. but with the wick turned up to such a great extent that it no longer complies with the laws of the WHAT’S THE BIG TALKING POINT? highway. This is the sort of silliness we like. The Emira has only been available with Toyota’s WHAT’S THE BIG TALKING POINT? ageing 3.5-litre s/c V6, but the 4cyl will be AMG’s extremely angry 2.0-litre turbo with an 8spd DCT. The 3.0 Nettuno V6 is now dry-sumped and fitted with a new set of turbos to increase power from PUB AMMO 621bhp in the road car to 730bhp in the 24. And for the proper racecar feel, that power is sent to the rear When the Emira was unveiled we were told the wheels through a six-speed sequential box and an 4cyl would be a 360bhp hardcore track option... GP LSD, with a target weight of less than 1,250kg. PUB AMMO Just 62 examples of the Project24 will be built, with Maserati preparing to deploy its Fuoriserie customisation programme in order to ensure that every single car has a completely bespoke spec. GP Anything else from Lotus? The Eletre will be a slightly more sensible arrival. They’ll be busy at Hethel in 2023, with customer Prices for Lotus’s first SUV start at just under £90k deliveries of its latest cars set to begin. We first and a 112kWh battery will supposedly offer “at saw the Evija back in 2019, and four years later least” 300 miles of range. Oh, and for those the bonkers 1,972bhp, 4WD electric hypercar will wanting even more neck-snapping acceleration, finally get to scare the crap out of those who there’ll be an R version with 900bhp and 727lb ft shelled out £2.4m for the pleasure. of torque. Lotus needs this to be a big seller... GP T O P G E A R . C O M › F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 3 067

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HYUNDAI IONIQ 6 *KOREA HIGHLIGHTS To understand the rise of Hyundai, you need to explore where it comes from... in two of its polar opposite new products WORDS OLLIE MARRIAGE PHOTOGRAPHY JONNY FLEETWOOD T O P G E A R . C O M › F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 3 069

HYUNDAI IONIQ 6 Midnight on a boat in the East China Sea. Or is it the Sea of Japan? Or the Yellow Sea? It’s very strategically placed, is Jeju. That’s our destination, an island an overnight ferry ride off the bottom of South Korea. So far the port experience has gone a long way to convincing me that Dover... you know what I’m going to say here, don’t you? That Korea’s industriousness and organisation has found slick new ways of loading cars and directing people, so the whole experience whisks past so fast you barely get a whiff of fish in the nostrils. Er, no. I park up at the terminal in Mokpo and am instructed to unload any bags I want to take onboard. Then I’m told to drive the car onto the ferry, jinking it past reversing lorries, down ramps, past pillars before reversing it into place. I then stand there like a lemon wondering what happens next, while oilskin-clad crew chain it to the deck. I interpret the international language of gestures to mean “walk off the way you drove on”, and dodge the loading melee of trucks, forklifts and containers all the way back to the terminal. I then pick up my bags, join the check-in queue and finally walk up the gangplank feeling slightly bewildered. Not exactly slick. Lunch, on the other hand, had been. Octopus tentacles. I’d asked our guides to take us somewhere local. We ended up on plastic patio chairs selecting food from a fish tank. The table butchery nearly caused a stomach backfire. This is the side of Korea we know less about. We see and hear about the neon vibrancy of the place, the sheer can-do, make it happen energy. The TVs, phones, gadgets, the Samsungs and LGs, the rise and rise and rise of Hyundai and Kia. None of that is false, it’s just that – as we know all too well – economies don’t move at the same pace everywhere. We talk about levelling up the north of England. The Koreans want to disseminate Seoul’s success southwards. As much as it is an island, Jeju is a project. Back in 2012, Korea’s central government announced a plan to make the island carbon free 070 F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 3 › T O P G E A R . C O M

HYUNDAI IONIQ 6 Well, it makes a change from the meal deal options in Tesco From square and chunky to sleek and slippery in just one parking space T O P G E A R . C O M › F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 3 071

by 2030, with all energy coming from renewables. It was an achievable “SEOUL IS spearhead: Jeju is to Korea what Hawaii is to the US. It’s for recreation. LIKE DRIVING Shaped like a suppository and about 45 miles from end to end, there’s no heavy industry on this volcanic island. Less energy demand, lower THOUGH A emissions already. Solar panels have been fitted to many homes, 120 SCOOBY DOO wind turbines installed in the sea around it, there are added incentives LOOP OF THICK to buy EVs here (it has the highest percentage in the whole country URBAN SPRAWL” now) and as many chargers as there are cars. No, you didn’t read that wrong. This jolly holiday island is the perfect place to drive electric. So is Seoul. I was last here seven years ago, the whole city blanketed then by smog that was blamed on emissions from China drifting across the Yellow Sea. Things seem to have changed: today the views over this megacity from the 556-metre summit of the Signiel Tower are crystal clear, it’s not clouds I’m looking down on, but buildings that sit like a cloud layer, steep hillsides appearing to poke up through the billowing urban sprawl. It’s a reminder of how mountainous this country is. Downstairs a Hyundai Ioniq 6 is cramming in a few final electrons ready for the 300-mile drive to Mokpo. Seoul is in-at-the-deep-end driving. The pavement-less back streets are tight and littered with a detritus of scooters, cardboard, scaffolding and draping cables that contrasts heavily with the primped and preened main avenues. Out there it’s the multilane traffic that’ll get you. And carry on getting you. Fifty miles. That’s how far it is before I’m aware of being in the countryside. There are 10 million people in Seoul, 25m in the greater metropolitan area. It’s like driving through a Scooby Doo backdrop, a constantly repeating loop of thick urban sprawl. The Ioniq 6 sees it off with panache. The light cabin is instantly calming, the control responses are measured, the satnav bong and whisper is delivered just so. I want the full experience, so leave it talking Korean, and tune in to local radio to experience K-pop in its natural environment. It might be based on the same underpinnings as the Ioniq 5, same 77kWh battery and twin motor 321bhp set-up, but it’s more sophisticated. The suspension damping and insulation is more akin to a Mercedes EQS, and like that (the only car that has a better drag factor than the 6’s 0.21Cd), it slips easily through the air. Turn brake regen off and it’ll coast for miles. Good for range. So there’s no need to recharge when I break for motorway snacks. This is the intention of course. The Ioniq 6 can travel 25 miles further per charge than the 5 simply due to aerodynamics. Restrain yourself to a 225bhp single motor on smaller 18s and max range rises from 320 miles to 382. In theory I can drive the whole way to Mokpo on a single charge, but I can’t recharge on the ferry, so I’ve looked out a lunch spot. It’s close to somewhere I’ve been before, the Saemangeum Seawall. If you like gigantic engineering projects, look it up, it’ll blow your mind. Korea isn’t an intimidating or even particularly alien country to drive through. Many road signs are in English, the influences are more westernised than in China or Japan, the society is open and friendly and, well, contactless payments make things easy, don’t they? And so the day continues, gently dusting distance, miles slipping past as easily as octopus slips down (once past the gag reflex) at Seonyudo, an island that is – was – several miles offshore until the seawall joined it up. The EV charger there recognises a British credit card more readily than most UK chargers do, and proceeds to hose in power at 200kW. The new meeting the old. Despite the connection – both electric into 072 F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 3 › T O P G E A R . C O M

HYUNDAI IONIQ 6 All of the BTS albums downloaded and the open road. What a treat T O P G E A R . C O M › F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 3 073

Oh, the disappointment when there’s no chip shop or arcade at the seaside the car and seawall to the mainland – Seonyudo feels like a place “THE 6 IS CAPABLE trying to make sense of itself, a rural fishing backwater that’s now a AND EFFECTIVE, haven for Insta-selfies. It’s a stunning spot, a broad beach looking out on a dolloped chain of forested islands. We make the most of the MOVES THE GAME ON opportunity, bag shots until sunset then drive to Mokpo. SUBSTANTIALLY FROM When the sun rises I’m driving up Jeju’s most dominant feature THE VAGUE 5” – Hallasan. A dormant volcano and, at 1,950 metres, the tallest mountain in South Korea. Above 800 metres it’s designated national park and there’s barely a soul here, just a sinuous road threading through lava colours as autumn runs down the flanks of the mountain. The Ioniq 6 is neater and more composed around corners than I expected, it manages roll well and the torque vectoring seems keen to prove it knows what it’s about. It’s capable and effective, moves the game on substantially from the vague 5. 074 F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 3 › T O P G E A R . C O M

HYUNDAI IONIQ 6 You’ve really made it when you have someone driving behind with your bed Outrageous exterior styling, but more traditional inside thankfully Make youself comfortable Ollie, we’ll just stand out here in the cold and do all the work... A surprise lurks at the visitor centre. As befits a country with to power all its onboard systems. It’s got a chunky battery to do that, 70 per cent of its land area covered in mountains, Koreans are very but really wants to be plugged in... and the Ioniq 6 supports V2L outdoorsy. Hiking is a national obsession, even in the wackier parts discharging. Vehicle to Load. So the plan is a spot of wild camping, of Seoul technical fabrics and walking boots dominate, while down with the Ioniq 6 helping to keep the lights up and the diesel guilt down. here on Jeju, it’s all about the camping. Until recently Hyundai – despite, including Kia, having an 80 per cent market share – hadn’t The van driving experience is obviously different. After two days of tapped into this, but now it’s turned the Staria people mover into silent wafting, having to wait for a coil light and deal with vibrations a VW California-rivalling Camper. Just way more futuristic. Look and noise seems strange. The driving position is less upright and at it! What a cracking piece of design, a lesson in how to give a box vanlike than a Veedub, the low window line is exposing, the auto personality and charm when you don’t have any heritage to call on. gearbox slurs about lazily, it’s top heavy and tilty around corners and at each and every one there’s a rattle of cutlery and concerning But before we get too carried away, this futuristic wagon hides sliding noises from the camping kit. a dirty secret. Quite literally: it’s powered by diesel. Looks like it should have an ID.Buzz-style EV powertrain, actually sports a 2.2-litre I make my way south west, the Ioniq 6 tagging along behind. It’s fume belcher. However there’s another angle here. It needs electricity aerodynamically astute, that car, but a successful piece of design? No, not in the same league as the Ioniq 5. The lines gather awkwardly at T O P G E A R . C O M › F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 3 075

Ah, the Elton John Museum – Ollie’s up for a game of where Ollie now works six days Red Light, Green Light if a week doing ‘Rocket Man’ someone explains the rules Imagine telling someone from the Nineties that this is what Hyundais look like now... 076 F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 3 › T O P G E A R . C O M

the back, the headlights are pinched. It’s better from a distance, but HYUNDAI IONIQ 6 overall the Staria is the more confident, exuberant piece of design. What’s got two thumbs Hallasan’s hillsides give way to fertile farmland, mostly groves of and just got its wallet citrus fruits, the fields often enclosed by black dry stone walls. Good and keys nicked? use for volcanic rocks. But economically speaking agriculture plays second fiddle to tourism. We’ve driven here, but Seoul to Jeju is the Takes about three weeks world’s busiest flight route, with up to 230 flights a day. Not a typo. to drive home from here... Korea is prosperous, Seoul is chaotic, so this is the pressure release At least it’ll save on hotels for some 15 million visitors a year. That has bought the pollution problems the government is trying to address. T O P G E A R . C O M › F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 3 077 The west coast isn’t as blissful as I hoped. It’s rocky and barren – the good beaches are on the north and south, but the sun sets on this, the China-facing, tradewind-receiving side. Wild camping used to be a big thing here, but over-camping means many spots have been blocked off. But it’s November. I park up and prepare the van. The hook-up to the Ioniq 6 is easy, current flows in to help raise the roof, fold the back seats, make tea, charge phones, run mood lighting and pump tunes. It’s a well thought through conversion, deceptively big and well packaged. The colours are belting that evening, the wind turbines churn and hum, running electric power from the car feels good. But I get cold and the cool camper has another dirty secret: the heating is by diesel, too. It’s not the only energy issue. Jeju itself is lagging well behind plan. Only 25 per cent of energy is from renewables at the moment, and although the island has the highest proportion of EVs in Korea, that’s still only six per cent market penetration when the 2022 target was 23 per cent. The electric switchover isn’t going according to plan. Yet. The UK is proportionally further down the EV adoption road, buying 191,000 EVs last year to Korea’s 90,000. Be wary of betting against Korea. Things get done here. They see an issue and fix it. Immediately. Partly this comes from the national experience: I’ve written about this before, but Korea is a minnow, caught in the pincers of Japan and China, and used throughout history as their political football. Korea was occupied, considered part of Japan in fact, from 1910 to 1945. When it emerged from that, and the Korean war that divided this country at the 38th parallel, it had the USA standing firmly in its corner. And it came out swinging. There’s a confidence, a certain chutzpah, to Korea’s growth and development. You see it in Hyundai, in the energy switch – and in the tourism. Keen to encourage holidaymakers to do more than lie on beaches or hike Hallasan, tax breaks and incentives were put in place to encourage the building of museums. And, get this, all you needed to qualify was a collection of at least 100 objects, a room, a thermostat and a burglar alarm. Many are upstanding and honourable. Some are gloriously silly. So the following day I set out on a tour. Starting with such family friendly favourites as Chocolate Land, the Teddy Bear Museum and inevitable Hello Kitty Island, before moving on to some more rare groove stuff. The Seashell Museum is five times the size you think it could be given the subject matter, the Museum of Citrus smells wonderful and is an unexpected delight, the Toy Museum looks like someone’s dumped a Blue Peter cereal packet artwork in a layby, Jeju Figure Museum is clearly a hobby that got entirely out of hand and since when was the Automobiles and Piano combo a thing? The Maze Museum we can’t find, Pororo and Tayo mean nothing to me, Osulluc Tea Museum is teeming, while the Sex and Health Museum

HYUNDAI IONIQ 6 “KOREA’S ATTITUDE is empty. Given the state of the sculptures in the otherwise HAS ALLOWED lovely gardens around it, it’s only family friendly in the biological sense. Reader, I blushed. HYUNDAI TO MAKE BOLD MOVES AND My favourite was Greek Mythology. A couple of warehouses in the middle of nowhere, crammed with statues, pillars and a REMARKABLE looming question. Why? The museum incentives have now been PROGRESS” removed. But look at how eagerly they were adopted. That’s the attitude here. It’s the attitude that has allowed Hyundai to make such bold moves and achieve its remarkable progress. The Ioniq 6 gives it a convincing long range executive that equals or betters Tesla’s Model 3, while the Staria (now available in Europe) could, alongside the ID.Buzz, help herald an MPV comeback. What of Jeju itself? Not everything has gone according to plan, but that’s kind of the point. Jeju is Korea’s test centre – see if things work here, then roll them out elsewhere. Hyundai now has plans to make it a centre for hydrogen adoption. They haven’t levelled up electricity yet, and already they’re looking beyond. 078 F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 3 › T O P G E A R . C O M

Let’s just hope there’s SILVER SCREEN enough left in the battery to get home tomorrow... Five movies we’re looking forward to seeing in 2023 FAST X MAY Sure, it’s probably nine and a half movies too many, but the pacy franchise is an easy watch BARBIE JULY Maserati did a pink Grecale specially for Margot Robbie’s Barbie to drive, would be rude not to go and see it MISSION IMPOSSIBLE: DEAD RECKONING PART ONE JULY Latest Tom Cruise offering will hands down guarantee thrilling car chases GRAN TURISMO AUGUST This rags-to-riches tale sounds quite fun, even if Ginger Spice has somehow managed to bag a starring role ENZO FERRARI Q4 Adam Driver stars as Enzo Ferrari – he worked hard on his House of Gucci accent, nice for him to use again

THE HOT LIST 2023 HYUNDAI IONIQ 5 N that is available on the market today: Kia’s EV6 GT. That uses twin motors that develop a combined WHAT IS IT? 577bhp and 545lb ft. Decidedly un-hot hatchy The first electric step for Hyundai’s N performance numbers. The Kia is intended as a rapid tourer, but offshoot. So far it’s all been about hot hatches, with it’s safe to assume that the Hyundai will be more the i20N and i30N leading the charge. Next year it’ll dynamic. Although how dynamic when it must be about, er, hot hatches. Hyundai will reveal an N weigh around 2.2 tonnes remains to be seen. version of the Ioniq 5 EV. It won’t tread on the toes of the existing N line-up (we can safely assume it’s not PUB AMMO going to be a featherweight), but instead with 4WD It ought to kick hot hatch acceleration into a new and a likely £60,000 price tag, it’ll clash heads with the realm. We predict 0–62mph in under 3.5secs and likes of the Audi RS3 and Mercedes-AMG A45. 100mph in around eight. Porsche 911 levels of pace. WHAT’S THE BIG TALKING POINT? The definition of a hot hatch is going to have to be Power. Because we can already guess what its stretched to include the 5 N in the first place. OM mechanical make-up will be thanks to another car RENDER: ANDREI AVARVARII 080 F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 3 › T O P G E A R . C O M

MERC-AMG C63 S E PERF MERCEDES-AMG C63 S E-PERFORMANCE WILD HYBRID A complex name for a very complex car. AMG’s core sports saloon matures from a V8 hot rod to 4cyl hybrid tech overload. Is less really more? WORDS STEPHEN DOBIE T O P G E A R . C O M › F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 3 081

This is a car that’s going In short, as you exit particular strategies. It also leads to a pretty lively to take some wrapping corners, the digital dials will flash a big back end; oversteer has always been our heads around. Gone yellow ‘BOOST’ so you know it’s time to easily won in a C63, and nothing is the V8, taking with it fully flex your right foot, activating the changes here. It’s just corrected far both a simple link to the kickdown switch beneath the pedal for sooner with the front axle helping rear axle and the ‘eloquent muscle car’ full power and torque. Over the rest of pull you straight. vibe of C63s of old. What takes their the circuit you press the throttle as far The old C63 always rode firmly, place is writ large in a new suffix – as it’ll go without kicking down, to save and we endured it for the magic that this is the Mercedes-AMG C63 S the e-power for where it’s implemented lay beyond. There’s a broader range of E-Performance, and it’s a hybrid. best. But is it actually fun? options from this new car’s adaptive An uprated version of the AMG C63s of old were instant, irresistible damping system – with components A45’s 2.0-litre turbo engine claims to be charmers. In a nutshell, this one isn’t. descended from the AMG GT Black the world’s most powerful production There’s simply too much going on for Series, and thus the GT3 paddock – but four-cylinder – with 469bhp – and pairs this car to slap a grin straight on your more undulating roads reveal its softest with an electric motor for peak outputs face. Which isn’t to say it’s dull. Far Comfort setting is languid, while Sport of 671bhp and 752lb ft. Supercar from it. With nearly 700bhp this is still punts you right back to the old car’s numbers. But there’s a figure that undoubtedly a quick car that shuffles level of stiffness. doesn’t belong in that realm: the saloon along with a real effervescence, not least There’s plenty that sparkles too. The and estate C63 come in at 2,165 and because finer-tuned bums will sense the nine-speed paddleshift auto is snappy 2,190kg respectively. Their predecessors power shifting dynamically around the and its short ratios bring some real brio weigh around half a tonne less. wheels as it does so. That goes hand in to Manual mode. The four-cylinder That’s because AMG hasn’t just hand with the extra incisiveness of the engine sounds plain at low revs but added a motor and batteries, but a rear-wheel steer, which is a constant really sharpens in timbre the harder you whole heap of new tech. The C63 is presence in tighter turns. work it. You’re best turning the more now four-wheel drive only (though But while that all does an admirable dynamic sound mode off, though, as it with a RWD drift mode) while all- job of chamfering off the edges of the brings an amusing but distracting wheel steering is standard. Usually the C63’s bulk in the middle of corners, warble to electric-only driving. preserve of much bigger cars, it’s new there’s no escaping it under hard The C63 practically begs you to to this class and helps nip away at the braking. For all AMG’s talk of clever engage with its different drive modes sensation of mass in low-speed corners. track apps and boost strategies, this to get the best out of it. Its various While making its own contribution to isn’t truly the car to buy if you’re screens and toggle switches are that mass, of course. looking to improve your sector times distracting to begin with but you’ll So, the tech itself. Mercedes has at the local track evening. The brake work with it, and the almost endlessly leaned in hard on the C63’s link to both pedal is hardly brimming with feel adjustable dials and head-up display are its AMG One hypercar and Formula One anyway – you can thank four levels of very legible indeed. You can have a pair programme at large. To describe the regen for that – but it goes even softer of classic ‘analogue’ instruments if you various states of how its powertrain after a handful of hard stops. really wish, while at the opposite end of operates would fill this issue, but On track, this never truly feels a the spectrum is an energy flow diagram, needless to say there’s Electric mode – 671bhp car, its extra mass over the with data as nerdy as the current rpm of for eight miles of EV range, enough to current M3 immediately soaking up the electrically powered turbocharger get you quietly away from home in the the extra power. But it’s still a swift (as much as 150,000rpm, fact fans). mornings – among the eight modes old thing on the road, particularly when Rather like the AMG One, this feels available. Then there are four ESP you accelerate out of villages and into as much a rolling scientific experiment settings and four levels of brake regen... national speed limit, the instant hit of as it does a sports saloon. Especially Once the engine’s kicked in, power torque from the 202bhp/236lb ft e-motor when its battery so notably shrinks the shifts between the axles depending on giving a notable shove in the back when boot capacity. Some of its ‘F1 for the grip and driver gusto, with a maximum you’re not worrying about lap time road’ vibe is also a touch contrived. But of 50 per cent going up front while criticising its almost gratuitous the full whack can go to the rear link to motorsport would mean tyres. This is what the car favours “THE C63 having to criticise Land Rover for in quiet cruising, for optimum stuffing even its plushest cars full efficiency, as well as when you’ve PRACTICALLY of terrain response systems. prodded your way into Drift mode, I liked the car the more miles for optimum yobbery. BEGS YOU TO I covered in it, as the complexity F1 know-how is imbued ENGAGE WITH ITS of its powertrain – and how best to use it – was slowly soaked up throughout the car – in how the DRIVE MODES” |by the sponge of my mere human battery quickly gives and receives brain. Perhaps, over the course power, in its complex cooling of a typical lease deal, the new system, in how the electrically C63 would really cast a spell on powered turbo contributes regen to the system and in the “boost its driver. It just hasn’t happened strategy” you can select on track. for me yet. 082 F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 3 › T O P G E A R . C O M

THE NOT LIST Five of the most pointless cars arriving in 2023 MERC-AMG SMART #1 BRABUS C63 S E PERF The new electro-crossover from Engine: 2.0T 4cyl hybrid, the stylish city car brand takes 671bhp, 752lb ft pointlessness to thrilling new levels Transmission: 9spd auto, AWD BMW X8 Performance: Munich’s quest to release enough 0–62mph in 3.4secs brashly styled models to offend every Top speed: 174mph person on the planet continues Weight: 2,111kg ASTON MARTIN DBX COUPE Sure, there’s a small market for grotesque coupe-styled SUVs, but hasn’t Aston missed the boat? GMC HUMMER EV This 4-tonne, 205kWh batteried pickup doesn’t capture the zeitgeist so much as run over it and slip into reverse TOYOTA PRIUS The new PHEV version of the minicab classic actually looks great, we’re just annoyed it’s not coming to the UK

THE HOT LIST 2023 SUPERPOWER LIKELY TO BE DRIVEN BY PUB AMMO Pretty much everything, given it’s Moustachioed connoisseurs of The only bit of the T.50 heavier than basically a McLaren F1 with 30 years low-mass perfection wearing necessary is the gearknob. Gordon of better R&D and plusher budget. Hawaiian shirts. And 99 other very picked the weightier one as it Lightness, noise, aero – the lot lucky people improves the feel of the gearshift GMA T.50 Weirdly for a car company that hasn’t actually delivered any cars yet, the GMA T.50 feels slightly like the old model. Not because it’s been delayed or entangled in legalese, but because of the pace of GMA’s expansion. Since the tri-seat fan-assisted V12 dream machine was revealed with a sketch in 2019, the good professor has disclosed a track-only ‘Niki Lauda’ variant and the elegant two-seat T.33. Spyder and hardcore versions of that car are allegedly also inbound. Plus ground has been broken on a new British factory, with its own test track. So the T.50 might seem like ancient history, but when the first of the 100 eventual owners get their 12,000rpm, sub-tonne love letter to zero compromise in the spring, it could be the rest of the supercar industry that looks a bit last week. OK 4.0V12 653 N/A 2.36m 987 228 100 ENGINE POWER (BHP) 0–60MPH (SECS) PRICE (£) WEIGHT (KG) LUGGAGE SPACE PRODUCTION (LITRES) RUN GORDON +25 COULDN’T T.50Ses CARE LESS 084 F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 3 › T O P G E A R . C O M

SUPERPOWER LIKELY TO BE DRIVEN BY PUB AMMO Being able to make several Nobody. Are you insane? It’s so loud inside, owners years, millions of pounds and What if exposure to fresh will be given ear-defender more than one Aston Martin air compromised the headsets and an intercom to CEO disappear auction value? speak to their passenger ASTON MARTIN VALKYRIE We saw the first model in 2016 – two years after Adrian Newey began work on his road car project. Then a finalised exterior design and an interior. The V12 hybrid powertrain stats were nailed down in March 2019. But the first Valkyrie customer cars weren’t delivered until late 2021 – apparently in a beta state without the active aerodynamics and suspension operational. In the meantime, Aston Martin and Red Bull are no longer F1 partners – they’re rivals, albeit at opposite ends of the grid. Newey’s brain is being flexed on his RB17 track-only hypercar. Aston has seen off another CEO, and revealed an open top version of its road-going F1 car to maximise profits. Safe to say, it’s not easy building the world’s most extreme road car. This year we’ll finally find out if Aston’s time, money and effort was worth the wait. OK 6.5V12 1,160 2.6 2.5m 1,100 0 150 ENGINE POWER (BHP) 0–60MPH (SECS) PRICE (£) WEIGHT (KG) LUGGAGE SPACE PRODUCTION (LITRES) RUN WHO NEEDS +25 AMR PRACTICALITY PROs AND 85 AN Y WAY ? SPIDERS T O P G E A R . C O M › F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 3 085

LR DEFENDER 130 086 F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 3 › T O P G E A R . C O M LAND ROVER DEFENDER 130 GOLOOOOOONG! A new member of the Defender clan arrives this year, and it has room for you and seven friends WORDS GREG POTTS PHOTOGRAPHY ALEX TAPLEY





Adults can sit in the second This rather stretched-looking vehicle is the Land Rover Defender 130. Now, a 110 row, or chop their legs off with an extra chunk of bodywork plonked on the back and extra seating is not and sit back here! something that would usually have TopGear salivating, but if you’ve ordered one then it’s quite likely you’re desperate for delivery and won’t be seeing it until well into 2023. JLR currently has fewer chips than a kebab shop at closing time, with production delays that would make the builders of La Sagrada Família wince. The 130 is the fourth model in the Defender range – the others being the 90, the 110 and the commercial-spec Hard Top. Most closely related to the 110, there’s an extra 340mm of body added to the 130 behind the rear wheels and seating for eight inside. There isn’t quite the range of powertrains that you’ll find in the smaller Defenders, with two mild-hybrid petrols or a mild-hybrid diesel in the form of the six-cylinder D300. No V8s or plug-in hybrids here. Inside you get an 11.4-inch touchscreen and two seats up front. So far, so normal... In the middle row you get less legroom than in a 110, but there is space for three passengers and the seats fold forward to allow access into the rearmost row. That final row also has three seats, and Land Rover insists that three adults could fit back there. We’re not so sure. Granted our test dummy was six feet tall, though. And then there’s the boot. With all the seats in place there’s 389 litres of space in which you’d fit a small load of shopping. But hang on, because how often will you be taking seven others to the shops? Fold the rearmost row flat and you get 1,232 litres of space, and if you fold the middle row too then there’s a cavernous 2,291 litres. We’ve had a quick go in a D300 and – surprise – it feels much like a 110 with its pleasant manners, strong body control and light steering. The air suspension is perhaps a little firmer to cope with the extra weight, but you’d be nitpicking to notice. With twin turbos, 296bhp and 479lb ft of torque the 3.0-litre diesel easily shifts the big 2.7-tonne 130, while the eight-speed auto gearbox is as smooth as ever. Off-road, all you need to remember is that the extra row of seats is hanging out the back, so your departure angle is compromised compared to a 110. Unlikely to be too much of an issue in the Waitrose car park or on a fully loaded school run. SCRIMP & SAVE Five money saving tips to give you more petrol money WALK The easiest way to save money on driving is not to do any GO TO THE NEAREST PETROL STATION UK drivers waste almost £347 every year trying to save 1.6p a litre DON’T CRASH Crashing is a leading cause of having to spend money on your car KEEP YOUR OLD CAR Buying a new car is also a leading cause of spending money READ TOPGEAR Looking at our pictures is a pleasant alternative to going anywhere T O P G E A R . C O M › F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 3 087

CAMERA LIGHTS 088 F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 3 › T O P G E A R . C O M

PAGANI UTOPIA The new Pagani Utopia is a staunchly analogue V12 hypercar. Only fitting then, that we shoot it with a camera that feels the same way REFRACTION WORDS PAUL HORRELL PHOTOGRAPHY TOM SALT T O P G E A R . C O M › F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 3 089

PAGANI promoting his version of this 170-year-old apparatus via social media UTOPIA – oh the irony. His engineer’s inclinations led him away from the traditional hardwood frames into titanium and aluminium alloys, Six photos. That’s Tom Salt’s output today. Six near-silent and even carbon fibre. It makes them more rigid, obviously a vital precision clicks of the shutter in this outlandish camera’s lens. characteristic with precision optics. He also wanted to make every Between each shot is a complex set of actions to lightproof the gigantic component, every bracket and arm and control knob, a thing of eight-by-10-inch negative, and swap its film holder for a fresh one. beauty in itself. His little factory is in a hillside village just south Every photo takes more than an hour of inch-fussy manoeuvring of of Modena. I must have passed it, oblivious, dozens of times when car and camera, meticulous composition, focus and light metering. road-testing Ferraris, Lamborghinis... and Paganis. Every shadow and reflection has to be managed, any superfluous piece of litter and distraction has to be physically cleansed from the scene. Although younger, Alessandro shares much in common with No digital retouching is allowed. Horacio Pagani. Technocrat, artist, materials expert, entrepreneur, There are electric SUVs that accelerate as fast as a Pagani Utopia. maker of functional objects imbued with beauty to the core. He was No fuss. But they don’t have the charisma of a 6.0-litre V12 or the introduced to Horacio a few years ago by a supplier of metal parts involvement of a manual transmission. Analogue isn’t dead. Not yet, to both firms. The idea brewed up to do a Pagani version of the not ever. And just as streaming never quite replaced vinyl and the Gibellini camera. So was born the GP810HP. pdf never quite replaced calligraphy, digital photography hasn’t quite replaced film. Not just a rebadge job, mind. Pagani’s designers made changes to The reason should be obvious on these pages. Put in the hard many of the moving parts, and added their own flourishes, including yards and the results from a large-format film camera can be a big control knob tipped with their four-tailpipe motif. The camera spectacular. Even with the muffling effect of magazine printing, comes with a leather bound carbon-fibre tripod and matching cases. they show mesmerising detail and a gorgeously luminous tonal Again, all very Pagani. The price is pretty Pagani too: £70,000. quality. You could jump into these prints like a pool. (Although Gibellini’s 3D printed cameras for education start at But that’s just the start. The optics of large-format cameras let less than a grand.) About half the limited run has been reserved the photographer control the depth of focus: Ansel Adams and for Pagani car buyers. I’m told most of those actually have some Group f/64 closed the lens right down like a pinhole camera to get intention of using it, and some idea how to. This isn’t a trophy everything sharp, whereas flinging open the aperture will lift the piece for the corner of the sitting room. Or at least, not just that. subject sharply out of cloud-soft surroundings. The vertical and lateral movements of the bellows-mounted lens allow perspective It’s an assembly of gorgeous parts, mostly milled from solid metals control to prevent keystoning, the tapering effect looking up into strong, light arms like birds’ rib cages, and fluted controls and at buildings. Of course our phone cams have digital keystone locking knobs. It operates with exquisite precision. Which all adds to correction and a bogus ‘portrait mode’ that (mostly) recognises a the satisfaction of using it, but the real distinction is the process itself. face and blurs the background. But they’re so not the same. Besides, In a view camera the lens casts its image on a removable ground-glass the tilt function of the lens means the photographer can twist the screen acting as a proxy for the film while you compose and focus. It’s pane of focus, keeping sharpness through an object that diagonally not a very bright image, so you kill the ambient light by ducking under recedes into the distance. It all bestows immense artistic freedom. a lightproof cloth. Under there, you’re on your own. Is it too fanciful to Alessandro Gibellini trained as a civil engineer, but one day compare that to being alone in a car on an empty road? his dad gave him a film camera, and he was hooked. He began to experiment with larger film formats, and soon built a view camera, Except it’s slow. You’re working with an upside-down image on the glass. Tiny movements of the lens have a multiplied effect. You need a magnifying loupe to check focus. Move one aspect of the composition and everything else morphs too. Then you have to run around the scene with a light meter. Tom says it’s both physical and philosophical. He’s the man for this job. In the Nineties he spent three years as assistant to James Hedrich of preeminent Chicago architectural photography firm 090 F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 3 › T O P G E A R . C O M

It might be a £70k camera, but THE HOT LIST 2023 it’s still one of the cheaper ways to get into Pagani ownership Tom Salt polishing his lens before getting the correct You could use it for holiday snaps, but then you’d have side of the camera... no room left for actual clothes Where’d all that water come from? Best get a roofer out ASAP, Horacio Paganis are used to being in the spotlight, just not quite like this T O P G E A R . C O M › F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 3 091

Just out of frame – a photographer propping his eyes open with matchsticks 092 F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 3 › T O P G E A R . C O M

PAGANI UTOPIA Hedrich-Blessing, favoured image makers to Frank Lloyd Wright, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Buckminster Fuller, Eero Saarinen and other modernist giants. He’d lug 17 flight cases of cameras and lights all over the US, spending evenings in hotel bathrooms, the doors taped up to lightproof them so he could load the film into its holders. Tom came back to Britain and started photographing cars. He and I first worked together as the century turned, him shooting and For its era it was almost preposterously powerful, its intimidation me driving. We first came to this factory in May 2002 to test a then- boosted by its otherworldly looks, and yet driving it turned out to be new Zonda S. That day Tom shot with a Hasselblad, a miracle of charming and friendly as well as searingly exciting. If the Utopia convenience beside a bellows camera, but ridiculously cumbersome captures that, it’ll be another triumph. Its bespoke 852bhp twin-turbo compared with the digital hardware and techniques that have since V12 from AMG and his own carbo-titanium structure help keep taken over his photography, as almost everyone else’s. Digital kerbweight under 1,400kg, so it’s in with every chance. is simply faster on the ground. “Today’s shoot just made me The Utopia’s ‘unfiltered’ experience means no four-wheel drive, realise how much leeway we now have,” he says. “It’s a completely no four-wheel steering, no active roll control. It has the option of different approach to get it right in camera versus patch it together a manual transmission and 70 per cent of buyers go that way. Most afterwards. Analogue is way more honest and more of a craft.” significantly, it has no hybrid drive. Pagani tells me that AMG offered As the shoot in the warehouse labours onward, I’m back in the main him, instead of the V12, a V8 with a plug-in hybrid system and factory with Horacio Pagani, maker of pinnacle analogue supercars. four-wheel drive. “It was 1,000 horsepower, and it would have been The Utopia follows the Pagani philosophy that every part, even the easier to homologate worldwide. But it would have added 350 to 400kg. hidden ones, must be beautiful, first because that gives pleasure in Our customers want a V12 and no hybrid.” So they get it. itself but also because they For the Utopia, Pagani often find it also improves “THE UTOPIA has developed about 40 their function. Except that new types of carbon-fibre Horacio, in his softly spoken composites, with different way, always insists it isn’t his FOLLOWS THE PAGANI properties for their particular philosophy at all, but refers task throughout the car. They you to Leonardo da Vinci’s PHILOSOPHY THAT don’t need to be dressed or dictum: “Art and science are trimmed, saving even more disciplines that must walk EVERY PART MUST weight. That’s obvious in the together hand in hand.” cabin. The shift gate and After a morning of staring BE BEAUTIFUL” linkage for the seven-speed at the thing from all angles, manual transmission is a I don’t need telling that the skeletal work of art. The Utopia is indeed a machine steering wheel begins life of extraordinary aesthetics. as a 30kg aluminium block, Even if you find its form machined to a 2.5kg solid language a little over-ornate item that won’t flex or vibrate. – although less so than the Huayra I’d say – it’s still impossible to not The dials have the look of chronographs. There is no central touch be overawed by its cohesion. Every tiny part harmonises. Nothing screen. Horacio thinks they’re a distraction (can’t disagree), and here is commonplace or borrowed. Look under the vast rear clamshell. they date fast. He wants the car to be timeless. Between the sculpted components it’s also obsessively tidy. Not a tube Which is why he also wanted a relatively clean and organic or wire interrupts the composition. This was Horacio’s manifesto from exterior, free of spoilers and wings. Airflow through the car was a the start, with the Zonda, and it continued with the Huayra. focus of extensive CFD and tunnel testing. In the Huayra, Pagani That and the megalithic V12. Plug-in hybrid drive has become introduced movable flaps on the nose and tail. These lift and drop, to almost the norm among hypercars. Horacio’s personal 918 lurks affect downforce and drag. The left and right sides are independent, under a dustsheet next to where Tom is shooting – and yet... “I’m producing variable lateral aerodynamic force for corners, and not a pro driver, but I have driven lots of other supercars. Once a car countering roll. It was the first car in the world to have that is more than 1,500kg the electronics make it a filtered experience. capability. For the Utopia, the moving aero surfaces appear only It’s artificial. Our cars aren’t for the week, for taking your child to at the back. They make up the upper section of the Pagani signature school. They’re for the weekend. Our customers want a car that isn’t oval shape that loops around the exhaust pipes with the tail-lights complicated, they want one that is close to you and has a connection at its pointed ends, so they’re more effective as air can pass under as with you. That was what made the Zonda magical.” Oh yes. That well as over them. With the Huayra’s flaps, air could pass only over. springtime experience back in 2002 remains engraved on my mind. Instead of moving surfaces at the nose, the front suspension rises and falls, changing the body’s angle of attack to balance up the aero forces. This all demands super complex electronic control, developed in-house by Horacio’s young and empowered team. The Utopia’s 6.0-litre twin-turbo engine is increasingly unlike any other. AMG no longer sells a car with a V12, and the one used by Maybach obviously needs to be a wholly different animal. Pagani’s revs to 6,700rpm and makes a bewildering 811lb ft of torque. The T O P G E A R . C O M › F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 3 093

PAGANI UTOPIA transmission is transversally mounted, so its weight is further forward than a longitudinal unit. That helps handling. Even so, disable the ESP in your analogue hypercar and you can no doubt spin off. So it is with analogue photography. You’re denied the ESP-like comfort of immediately checking every shot on the screen. After a day’s shooting, Tom and Alessandro process the film. Disaster. We have a spin. Every sheet of film turns out uniformly black – it’s negative remember, so this is previous exposure to light. It’s not like the light leak in a camera or processing tank, which produces streaks from an edge. We wrack our brains. Most likely someone in the setting up or transport opened the lightproof film package, not realising what was in there. Whatever. Waste of a day. So it’s an all-night repeat of the shoot, using borrowed lights instead of the warehouse window daylight. And through it all the magic of film comes good. Under the direct electric light, the extraordinary detail resolution of large format makes the car’s carbon fibre zing, enlivening its curves yet more. Tom had shot backups with his digital Nikon, later fessing up to a notion of printing them with fake film borders. Then the night shot negatives emerged from their processing chemicals and it was clear that wouldn’t have washed. “There is a real quality to the 8x10 that’s hard to replicate. I think it’s mostly in the focus but also something about the formality.” Today’s bitter experience has only entrenched what progress means. “For work, under pressure, I wouldn’t go back,” says Tom. “There’s no time for it any longer. Digital offers so much flexibility.” Even so, “Given time shooting a subject of my own choosing, I’d still go analogue. I do miss it. The ground glass experience is unmatched.” Guess that’s exactly what Horacio is saying about his weekend hypercars. “THE UTOPIA’S 6.0-LITRE TWIN- TURBO ENGINE IS INCREASINGLY UNLIKE ANY OTHER” The engineering is a thing of great beauty. Almost looks too good to drive 094 F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 3 › T O P G E A R . C O M

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OK, you noticed: this exhibition car shows two wheel options – ultra-light spoked on the right side, and an aero set with carbon-fibre shrouds on the left Photographed with Rodenstock Apo-Sironar 300mm f/5.6 lens at f/16 (this page) and f/5.6 (opposite) on Ilford HP5 film developed in Tetenal chemistry 096 F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 3 › T O P G E A R . C O M

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THE HOT LIST 2023 POLESTAR 3 RENAULT 5 WHAT IS IT? WHAT IS IT? Polestar’s biggest effort yet; a giant, five-seat, pure The production version of Renault’s super cool, electric SUV with a 111kWh battery and a possible retro-ish pure electric supermini, as rendered above. 379 miles of WLTP range. Initial cars are all dual It’ll be attainable, too, sporting a 134bhp front motor, with 483bhp/620lb ft, or a Performance mounted motor, a target price of around £20k and Pack option with 510bhp/671lb ft. And gold bits. a proposed range of nearly 250 miles on a charge. WHAT’S THE BIG TALKING POINT? WHAT’S THE BIG TALKING POINT? It’s quick, big and full of tech, with the typical The ‘Renault 5’ is a hell of a badge to bring back – Polestar low fuss/eco conscious interior. And it it’s a cult icon. But the styling of the nouvelle 5 looks good; Polestar is on a roll. concept shown in 2021 has been a hit... so it’s on. PUB AMMO PUB AMMO The headlights and wing blades on the front and back There’ll be a larger EV crossover too that pays homage are inspired by the Precept concept. Not a bad thing. TF to the Renault 4. TF Anything else from Polestar? Anything else from Renault? The 3 is based on the same platform How does an ALPINE R5 sound? Quiet, sure, as the new flagship VOLVO EX90, so but also... enticing. Think larger 215bhp motor you’ve got options if you want a more from the Megane E-Tech, lowered suspension, sensible scandi-style SUV. Here’s swollen bodywork and lashings of blue paint. hoping the 3 will come in at less than We’ll see a concept first in early 2023, followed the Volvo’s £100k asking price, but by the real thing a year later. match or better the EX90’s 360-mile range and 4.9secs 0–62mph time. RENDER: ANDREI AVARVARII 098 F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 3 › T O P G E A R . C O M