BBC Top Gear Magazine

@jack_rix @rixjack jack.rix@bbctopgearmagazine.com Want a quick temperature check on what the (car) people really want? May I direct you to view counts on the TopGear YouTube channel? Exhibit A: an exclusive walkaround of Audi's gorgeous electric TT/R8 replacement, the Concept C, stalled on 224k views in three months. Exhibit B: an exclusive deep dive into this month's cover star, the also gorgeous V8 Toyota GR GT. As I write – 2.9m views in eight days. This is hardly conclusive science, but it's impossible to ignore. Question is, which cocktail of attributes made the GR GT the right car at the right time for both the world's car enthusiasts and those on the car curious fringes? Well, EV desirability is at an all time low. Not demand, that's creeping up, but…

TopGear's reach is measured in the multimillions, but in reality ours is a close knit world populated by some big personalities. Few were bigger or more important to TG than Quentin Willson, who died on 8 November 2025, aged 68. He had been suffering from lung cancer. Before paying tribute to him, a personal note. Jack Rix and I were in Maranello for a preview of the Ferrari Elettrica in early October, part of a media delegation that included Quentin. I hadn't seen him in a while so it was an unexpected pleasure to find myself sitting opposite him for dinner on the first night. Like so many of us, I'd watched him religiously on TopGear during the 1990s, an era in which he helped refashion a rather fusty consumer…

WELL, THIS WAS RATHER UNEXPECTED. Genesis – the luxury arm of Hyundai that so far has mostly focused on squishy saloons and chromed SUVs – is set to launch its very own supercar. And it'll be powered by a twin turbo V8 engine! The official release says that the Magma GT Concept you see here will be “the halo model guiding Genesis' long term performance strategy, including future GT racing ambitions”. However, design boss Donckerwolke later told TG that his intentions are to take Genesis into the realm of customer GT3 racing. Where you need a car. One that has to compete against Ferrari 296s and McLaren Arturas, so it has to be homologated with at least 200 units. And the journey to homologation starts with a concept, which we…

Genesis's Magma GT supercar concept is the shock this monochrome EV age desperately needs. While everyone else hums about the future, Luc Donckerwolke decided to upstage the GV60 Magma launch by rolling out a blazing orange projectile with a proper V8. It roared onto the stage and left in a cloud of tyre smoke. Unlike some, this isn't vapourware destined for a cupboard - it's the opening move in a bona fide motorsport plan. GT3 requires homologation, which means 200 cars - showing Genesis is clearly not playing dressup. With its twin turbo V8, scissor doors and swollen arches, this is a proper thing. A supercar from Hyundai. Who'd have thought that? “It roared onto the stage and left in a cloud of smoke” I'll admit that the swoopy Magma…

IT'S NO BIGGER THAN A REGULAR HATCHBACK. IT OFFERS seating for up to six people. You can sleep in it. Watch movies in it. And the driver gets to sit in the middle! Just like a McLaren F1 and GMA T.50! Welcome to Citroen going Full Citroen, in the delightfully funky form of this new Elo concept. It is said to wrap up the French carmaker's DNA into an electric “bubble of energy” that simultaneously breathes fresh, orange life into one of TG's favourite art forms: the MPV. Citroen hasn't divulged much about the powertrain but then it is a concept. But there's plenty of info on the design elements. Like that central driving position which can be swivelled around to chat to your passengers, but most importantly it's just…

BATTERIES ARE BULKY AND HEAVY and no one wants that. Worse, a lot of that excess stems not from the actual cells that store the electricity, but from structures designed to house and cool them. EVs use individual cells, wired in series to reach the approx 400V or even 800V that the drive systems use. Standard procedure is to package a number of cells, maybe two dozen, into a structure called a module. This is basically a metal box, incorporating wiring between the cells, and cooling channels. Multiple modules are fixed inside a bigger, stronger box. The battery pack. This sounds safe. The cells are mounted in three layers of box. If one group of cells fails, only that module needs replacing not the whole pack. But it's also wasteful.…