Top Gear South Africa

First the manufacturers raise the proverbial bar by tweaking last year’s performance benchmarks, then at TopGear we raise our own game. Last year’s Speed Week becomes TG24 Hours – the reason will become very clear in a few pages. Big and better ideas lead to busier schedules and ultimately higher sensory content to absorb. Weeks have since passed and I still can’t believe we pulled it off. The rules haven’t changed; particularly when it comes to reaching the overall the winner. Only one. Our festival of fast isn’t bogged down by categories, although we do pair them up in the beginning purely for bite-size logistics. The racecars (ID.R, 935 and i20 WRC) are the exceptions, invited to melt our former perspectives of speed and physics but regarded as extreme outliers…

WHO: TOM HARRISON WHERE: TG24, PORTUGAL Thanks for the wheels, Tom. Where’s the rest of the car? Something you need to tell us? WHO: OLLIE MARRIAGE WHERE: TG24, PORTUGAL Another 40-something TopGear staffer cheating death. #donotdothisathome WHO: ANDY FRANKLIN WHERE: TG24, PORTUGAL Yes, reader, this is a 41-year-old man speeding on an electric scooter. #donotdothisathome WHAT: BMW 530 MLE WHERE: ROSSLYN, PRETORIA Status report: 100,000 X3s and one hand-built 530 MLE WHO: RICHARD PARDON WHERE: TG24, PORTUGAL Team TopGear... typically ‘hard at work’. Do not believe them when they tell you they have a hard life WHAT: RANGE ROVER VELAR SVAD WHERE: ROVOS RAIL, PTA Range Rover vs Train. This isn’t on the Terrain Response Menu topgearmagazineSA @topgearmagSA @topgearmagsa…

Ferrari couldn’t resist. It’s watched the likes of the Aston Martin DBS, Lamborghini Aventador and Bentley Continental GT running away with the ‘ultra-quick, mega-pricey suntanmobile’ market and decided enough is enough. The 812 Superfast has lost its top. This, at long, long last, is the open-top Ferrari 812 GTS. Big buttresses, aren’t they? The humped rear deck hides a folding hard-top roof that whirrs electrically away in 14 seconds at up to 45kph, exposing the 812 GTS’s two occupants to the unholy fury of one of Ferrari’s finest-ever engines. It’s a naturally aspirated, 6.5-litre V12, which can wake the dead from three countries away and then outrun the zombie hordes with a 588kW, 718Nm punch. It’s a monster. Ferrari has traditionally let its open-top p V8 cars do the heavy…

Over the centuries, all creative industries have seen a battle between the artists and the financiers. And so it is with North Korean budget superminis. Back at Rong Un Motors’s Pyongyang HQ sit the money men, pinching every won*, especially when it comes to signing off the necessary living expenses** of their test drivers. But out here, in the Nevada desert, stands a man with a grand dream. That man is me, and his dream is to make the Cheery Bong II the best-handling North Korean supermini bar none. All that stands between this dream and reality is the limit of my own imagination, and in a much more real and threatening sense, the Rong Un Motors management. Sure, some may see test drivers as nothing more than walking crash…

Joker The origin story of the Joker. Joaquin Phoenix plays Arthur Fleck (Joker) in a standalone new film that is villainous, dark & Oscar-worthy FIA Rallycross Last year’s event at Killarney was motortainment at its best. Now those steroid-swollen hatches are back for the final, 09-10 November BEATstrumentals This playlist by Apple Music is mesmerising. 5hrs 40mins of chilled hip hop beats is precisely the same amount of time Ollie Kew talks about tread shuffle...Yawwwn Kyalami 9hr It’s back, it’s back! Kyalami’s biggest international event since its major upgrade. Our South African teams and drivers need your support, 21-23 November Ford vs Ferrari The story of Ferrari’s public snub to Ford’s offer and the bitter on-track rivalry born out of revenge…

This is the Mercedes-Benz EQS. Essentially, the fully electric S-Class of the future. Don’t believe us? Mercedes calls it “a trailblazer for the entire Mercedes-Benz EQ family,” meaning it does for Merc’s electric range what the S-Class has traditionally done for, well, almost the whole car industry. Given Jaguar’s making the next XJ electric, it’s also further proof that the luxury car market as a whole is going silent. And possibly self-driven. But while the EQS comes equipped with Level 3 autonomy, we’re assured it’ll still be a satisfying thing to drive. This isn’t Ludicrous Mode quick, but it’s ample. Peaks of 350kW and 760Nm are spread across both axles for torque-vectored AWD, and allow 0–100kph in 4.5secs. Mercedes claims a WLTP-tested range of over 640 kilometres and says the…