topCar June 2016

718 signals the return of the four-cylinder Porsche. More power, better economy, but no sweet music EVERYTHING IS cool when you’re part of a team. Yes, I’ve stolen the theme song from the Lego Movie but for good reason. Putting together a premium automotive magazine like TopCar is a bit like building a car out of Lego each month. We start out by drawing up plans for our shiny new plastic fantastic then set about building the frame. Someone clicks the wheels into place. Someone else slaps together the drivetrain and another member of the team constructs the body panels. The blue-tinted windscreen is lowered in, as are the seats. Invariably some parts won’t fit, others will arrive too late and those will be held over for next month’s Lego…

‘Range is very important. It means you can go where you want, when you want. Having a car is about freedom’ IN THE SEVEN days after Tesla unveiled its 3 Series-sized electric saloon, the Model 3, the company took 325000 orders. To put that into context, sales of the Nissan Leaf, the world’s best-selling electric car, totalled 201000 units in its five full years on sale. Even more astonishing, those initial Model 3 orders trump the 245000 electric cars sold globally in 2015. It’s clear this electric car has captured the imagination like no other. Why did more than a quarter of a million people instantaneously stump up $1000 to get their name on the waiting list? What’s so special about it? First and foremost, the range: Tesla claims the…

SAFETY ‘The Model 3 is going to be an incredibly safe car,’ vows Elon Musk. ‘It will have a five-star rating in every safety category’ PERFORMANCE The 345km electric range is a baseline, 0-100kph in 6.0sec a ceiling. ‘And versions will be much faster,’ the CEO pledges SPACE ‘The Model 3 will seat five adults comfortably’ – aided by no engine to package. Class-leading cargo space claimed too PRICE, DELIVERIES $35000 in the US. ‘I’m confident deliveries will be next year,’ giggles Musk, referencing the two-year delay that hit Model X…

THE BENTLEY ‘ART CAR’ will be auctioned by Bonhams at the 2016 Goodwood Festival of Speed on 24 June to raise money for the Care2Save Charitable Trust, which cares for terminally ill patients around the world. Crewe’s skilled paint and finish experts brought Blake’s vision to life, including the striking heart motif on the yellow bonnet, designed to reflect the compassionate work of the hospices the charity supports. Other highlights of the unique Bentley, which is inspired by traditional art collage more than Fab Four album sleeves, include: British racing green lower body, fuchsia pink-coloured radiator, smoked exterior brightwork, a black hood with darker sub-tone, multi-coloured leather trim in cabin and Sir Peter Blake signature on all four headrests. Sounds like one of the more unusual commissions tasked to Bentley’s…

DESPITE LITTLE OF his work existing beyond two dimensions, ‘visual futurist’ Syd Mead has inspired countless professional car designers. He’s worked on vehicle, city and character designs for cult films such as Blade Runner and Tron (both 1982) and more recently Elysium (2013) and Tomorrowland (2015), product design for Sony and Phillips – including an electric car concept as far back as 1973 for the latter – plus aircraft, ship and hotel interiors and pretty much anything else you (or he) can imagine. Which is why car designers love him. Ferrari design boss Flavio Manzoni calls him a ‘visionary mind’ while ex-BMW Group design chief Chris Bangle dubs him ‘the Oscar Wilde of designers: when you think you have a new idea, you find he’s drawn it all before –…

Tell us about your first car... ‘It was a ’44 Ford roadster. My brother tracked it down; he’s an intuitive mechanic. We bought it and used the hell out of it.’ Which achievement makes you most proud? ‘It would be the three Boeing 747 designs for heads of state, including the King of Saudi Arabia and the Emir of Oman because they had such critical design parameters. The third one was for the Sultan of Brunei but the Swiss screwed that up.’ What’s the best thing you’ve done in a car? ‘We’ve done “grid circle” tours. In a Mk7 Lincoln. We took off from Pasadena, went north to Cheyenne, Wyoming, turned right and ended up at Bismarck, North Dakota, then turned right again at Omaha and took another right back…