TG on ice: the full video

Yesterday, we treated you to a deliciously smooth, slow motion video of TG magazine's ice-based extravaganza, for which we took a select group of supercars, hot-hatches and, erm, a Nissan Juke with tracks to a frozen Swedish lake for a spot of light drifting and the best reindeer stew south of Lapland.

Well, now you've seen the slow-mo, it only seems fair we show you the proper video, complete with much noise from many cylinders and yet more snow.

And once you've had a watch, find out how the contenders fared on the ice using the links below:

TG on ice: Lamborghini Huracan vs Bentley Continental GT3-R
TG on ice: Nissan GT-R vs Jaguar F-Type 4WD vs Porsche 911 Turbo
TG on ice: Audi RS3 vs Mercedes GLA 45 vs Subaru Impreza WRX STi
TG on ice: BAC Mono vs Nissan Juke Nismo RSnow vs TG's Hyundai i10 rally car
TG on ice: BMW i8 from the UK to Sweden

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First drive: Mini John Cooper Works

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Ah the Mini Cooper John Cooper Works. How very Cooper.

Not so much. It's actually the Mini John Cooper Works. Still a big name for a small car though. Even if it's the most powerful production Mini ever.

How powerful?

The engine is from BMW's new 2-litre family, like in the current Cooper S. Previous Minis never went beyond 1.6, so it has a good start. For the JCW its turbo and pistons are special, there's a larger intercooler, and better water cooling too. The exhaust system is fatter and less restrictive through most of its length. This is no simple chip job. Net result is 231bhp and 236lb ft in a car of just 1205kg.

What do those numbers mean?

It's a terrific engine. First and lasting impression comes from the noise, a keen baritone that goads you when you're accelerating but dies away at a cruise. You're not bothered by lag, but the red-line is a disappointingly low 6500rpm - not that you'll see that on the idiotically tiny rev-counter. That's why you need the exhaust noise, so your ears can gauge the rpm. Even so, you'll probably be shifting up early because the mid-rev torque is so generous.

Gimme more numbers.

OK, it makes 0-62 in just 6.3 seconds, Mini says. With the optional six-speed auto, which I tested, shifts are faster and there's launch control, so that comes down to an impressive 6.1 seconds. The autobox also cuts a barely credible 22g/km from the CO2 figure, dropping it from 155 in the manual to 133. In fuel economy that means 42.2mpg for the manual and 49.6 for the auto. Real world it's hard to believe the gap would be so great.

What about stopping it?

Ah yes, there are vast new brakes, with special venting ducts in the car's front face. They feel terrific: very strong, progressive and of course resistant to fade even on a track, where I did a few happy laps.

And the chassis?

Not vastly different from the Cooper S, apart from the brakes. The spring and damper rates are as per the Cooper S's sports chassis option. And that means firm. Especially if you specify the wheel upgrade from 17 to 18 inches, which comes with the Chilli pack. Thus equipped, I'd go for the adaptive damper option, a conspicuous bargain at £240.

Put those dampers in sport and you've got an overly-bumpy road machine, but in the normal mode they soften the edges and allow you to tackle a lumpy road with some commitment. Sport mode is for smooth roads and tracks, really. Anyway, as road car it's very chuckable and agile.

Despite that strong engine, it finds pretty good traction, without much torque steer. Maybe it could use a bit more initial sharpness in the steering, though you'd probably have to pay for that with extra kickback. Basically, corners are just a hoot. The DSC system lets it slither about quite a bit before intervening, and this really is a car that's prone to squirrelling and nudging its rear end outward, like a Fiesta ST. And all the time you know just what's going on.

How do I recognise the JCW?

The front and rear bumper/apron units are entirely new. The front one has big intakes which incidentally leave no room for fog lamps, but there's ample compensation in the form of standard LED headlights as well as the daylight running rings. The back lower apron it looks like a diffuser around the twin central pipes, though there are no claims that it works as one. The sill covers and roof spoiler are bespoke too. Inside there are superbly supportive suede-effect seats and as you'd expect a whole lot of red splashes and JCW badgery.

Money?

It starts at £23,050. That's steep for a car this small, but considering the performance, fun and depth of engineering it's not scarily greedy, and you just know the buyers will make merry with the options: two levels of navigation, head-up display, driver aids, higher-fi, trim and paint. It's a special little thing but we wouldn't lavish so much more on it.

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First drive: 2015 Skoda Superb

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What's this, then?

It's Skoda's new Rolls-Royce rival, the third-generation Superb.

Rolls-Royce rival?

Indeed. See, apart from the Phantom and Ghost, the new Superb is - to our knowledge - the only car to secrete not one, but two umbrellas within its doors. It is, quite simply, the most rainproof car you can buy for the cash. If you and a passenger want to stay dry on the walk from driveway to front door, it's this or a Roller.

Helpful. So does the Superb resemble a Rolls in any other way?

Size. Though admittedly not quite of Phantom LWB dimensions, the Superb is vaster than ever before: 3cm longer and 5cm wider than its really-not-very-small predecessor, with more space inside too.

It's customary in reviews of big cars to note there's ‘room for one six-footer behind another', but in the Superb you could likely squeeze another in the rear-seat footwell for good measure. It's truly cavernous inside, a cabin in which you could lose a small child for several weeks.

The boot is commensurately vast, too, measuring 1,760 litres with the seats folded. And that's just the hatch version: the Superb estate arrives in a couple of months to cater to those needing to ferry a family of African elephants on a regular basis.

Larger it may be, but the Superb is lighter than its predecessor too. Employing the VW Group's MQB underpinnings, it has shed some 75kg.

So it's big. Anything else?

Big, and stuffed to the rafters with many technologies. Skoda has thrown the full suite of VW Group goodies at the new Superb, offering everything from a tailgate that opens with the waggle of a shoe, through lane- and park-assist to adaptive damping and an on-board telly.

Of course you won't get such lavishness as standard on the base models, but it's there if you want to splash out.

Tell me of engines.

All very sensible, for the most part. Diesels start with a 118bhp 1.6 TDI, and rise to a 187bhp iteration of VW's familiar 2.0-litre turbodiesel. Even that fruitiest diesel officially returns 61mpg and 119g/km of CO2, propelling the Superb to the upper echelons of the little-used road-tax-band-to-wheelbase ratio.

Petrols won't make much of an appearance in the UK, but nonetheless there are plenty available. There's a 1.4-litre TSI making 123bhp, or a 148bhp version of the same engine equipped with cylinder shut-down, effectively becoming a two-cylinder under light loads.

Need more power? There's a 217bhp 2.0-litre turbo petrol, capable of getting from 0-62mph in about seven seconds. Incongruously, but rather pleasingly, you can even have your Superb with four-wheel drive, and the 276bhp 2.0 TSI from the top-spec Seat Leon Cupra. Obviously we had to try this one.

And how was it?

Rather cheery, in a future-resale-disaster sort of fashion. For such a grand barge, the range-topping Superb hustles along at quite the rate, that hot-hatch engine a better match for the big Skoda than you might expect.

Though it's hardly a feelsome sports-beast, it'll get round corners without trouble, only belying its sheer length in the fastest, knottiest bends. The six-speed DSG generally does its job immaculately, but occasionally gets into a spot of bother on downshifts.

Even so. If, say, you're looking for an all-weather, family-ferrying alternative to the Audi RS6 on half the budget, this could just fit the bill.

But no one will buy that one, will they?

No.

So how are the Superbs people will actually buy?

Equally nice, and rather less resale-disaster-tastic. Though it can't quite match the (admittedly rather pricier) Mercedes S-Class for unruffled, whispery progress, the Superb does a fair impression of a top-drawer German limo, wafting along serenely and generally making a decent fist of keeping the outside world at bay.

Get too enthusiastic and you'll discover plenty of tyre squeal and not much in the way of feedback, but that's not really what the Superb's about. It's about spiriting away many miles with minimal stress, especially with the (optional) adaptive damping left in its softest mode.

On that note, we'd advise steering clear of the biggest alloy options, as we suspect big-wheeled Superbs could tend towards the clunky on bad British roads.

How much does it cost?

A surprisingly reasonable amount of money for such a lot of car. Despite its dimensional swelling, the new Superb is, spec-for-spec, a fraction cheaper than the outgoing car, with prices starting at £18,640 for the basest petrol, and rising to over £34,000 for the all-the-trimmings 4WD version.

Option wisely, and - short of a panel van - there's not much out there that offers such sheer volume for your cash. That the Superb looks tidy, goes nicely and offers plenty of tech only sweetens the deal. And just think how much you'll save on annual umbrella expenditure...

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First drive: Vauxhall's prototype Astra

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Messy wrapper. What's inside?

You know perfectly well because you've clicked on the title of the page. But see this thing on the road and you might not guess it's the new Astra. It's smaller than the current one and better proportioned. We'll see actual images of it on June 10.

Did you say smaller?

Custom and practice across the car industry is for each generation of any given model to grow. But the current Astra went too far, and is longer and heavier than the class norm. Vauxhall and Opel are taking an axe to it.

Weight down, too?

Yes. The new car is 49mm shorter than before, but only 23mm shorter in the wheelbase. And it's lower. But they managed to find more cabin room. It's more than class-competitive in the back seat. All versions are at least 120kg less. Actually if you go for the top-spec diesel auto you'll save a whopping 200kg, because they've replaced a heavy 2.0 biturbo diesel with a lighter 1.6.

How does it feel?

I drove a couple of prototypes, heavily disguised on the outside and over the dashboard. But the engineers said they perform to spec, and I was driving on roads I know well in Bedfordshire. Vauxhall also brought along a current Astra (not a bad car at all) for comparison.

Right from the off, the weight loss transforms the car. There's an all-new 1.4 turbo engine replacing the current 1.4T. At 145bhp, it makes 5bhp more than the old one. But it feels like 25 extra, because the car squirts ahead with notable conviction at all parts of the rev dial. It's a quiet and refined engine too if a not especially tuneful one. While no firm figures are available yet, apply that minimum 120kg weight loss to the old 1.4 and we're now looking at a 1240kg car, around 85kg skinnier than an equivalent Focus.

Surely the Astra now seems light and tinny, though?

Light, certainly. In no time at all you notice the newfound eagerness into tight corners, and if you push hard you find an impressive resistance to understeer. The steering is progressive and manages a bit of feel. It's well planted, not showing the lightweight wobbliness of, say, a Citroen C4 Cactus.

The ride is taut and has a fairly high natural frequency but it softens things off well enough and has enough travel to do a good job over big bad bumps. Much like a Focus really. The tyres and suspension are quiet too. Wind noise is also low, which is a surprise given the amount of extra cladding the car is wearing today. Bodes well for the production machine.

How did they do it?

This Astra's platform is basically all new. It's made predominately of advanced steel, helping weight and strength. And smallness helps cut weight too. But there's more. They examined many details of the package to make sure there was enough room inside while paring away the kilos. It's all about fitness for purpose. For instance, under the bonnet they made no provision for that bulky 2.0 biturbo diesel, nor for the 'HiPer' strut suspension used on the VXR (the current three-door VXR isn't that old, and lives on).

They didn't have to put in reinforcing girders and strong chassis parts for the Zafira, because the Zafira replacement will instead be on a Peugeot platform. And there's no bracing for a cabrio version, because there'll be no new Cascada on this platform either. Nor a crossover.

So the max wheel size is down, and many of the chassis parts lighter, including the brakes which are smaller - on this light car they feel perfectly adequate to me. The rear seat has a simple folding action. The base of the windscreen pillar moves backward, saving the complexity of a window ahead of the door, and actually improving visibility.

The range?

Just two bodies will be offered, the hatch and the estate. The engine range is modern. Elderly power units have been a problem with the current Astra. The new one will have nothing more than two years old under the bonnet.

There'll be the brilliant little 1.0 three-cylinder from the Corsa with 95bhp, the related 1.4 tested here, and 1.6 petrols up to 200bhp. All diesels are from a new family of 1.6s. I tried one of those in another prototype, a 136bhp job, and it really is very civilised too.

Any new gewgaws?

Adaptive intelligent LED headlights are on the options list, a brilliant (pun intended) piece of kit that's unique in this class. And Vauxhall will be rolling out its OnStar connected concierge service across all models.

I used to drive an Astra...

You're not alone. This is the seventh generation, and Vauxhall calculates that a quarter of today's British drivers have owned one or had one as a company car. The first generation (also sold in the UK as an Opel Kadett, fact fans) was more than competitive against rivals like the - gag - Allegro and Escort.

But by the time of the second and third it was a pretty shoddy drive versus the improved competition. It clawed its way back to average and then pretty good, but maybe this is the one that finally tackles the Focus and Golf head-on. We'll need more miles, and a good look at the styling and interior quality before were anywhere near a judgment on that. But early signs are positive.

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It's the new 563bhp Merc G-Wagen

Anorak on? Good, because the new Mercedes G-Wagen is here and you're really going to need it to suss out the changes. Though you might want to pop some sunglasses on, too.

On the outside, barely a mite has been altered on the venerable G, save for some rather eye-catching new colour schemes, as you'll see by scrolling through the pictures above. Those who find the regular G just a little demure can sleep easy now that lime green lies on the options list.

The AMG models - both the V8-powered G63 AMG and V12-propelled G65 AMG - get a new special issue, the Edition 463, which gains the two-tone interior you see above.

There are swathes of Nappa leather and some fripperies on the outside, including black protective strips (for all that off-roading you won't be doing) and some 21-inch alloy wheels (for the posing you will be doing).

Both AMGs get the one thing their antiquated dynamics really weren't screaming out for, and that's more power. With 563bhp, the G63 is up 26bhp and can now complete 0-62mph in a terrifying sounding 5.4 seconds.

The G65, on the other hand, has been hiked by 18bhp, taking its total output to 621bhp and slicing 0.1sec from its little brother's accelerative dash.

Happily, suspension setups have been tweaked for better on-road body control, while the overworked ESP system has been sharpened up too. Whether a longer-life bulb has been fitted to the stability control light in the instrument cluster is unconfirmed.

At the ‘normal' end of the G range, the G350 diesel has also enjoyed a power boost, while the G500 petrol has a new engine: a 4-litre twin-turbo V8 related to the one you'll find in the AMG GT sports car, no less.

We may mock, but there's something gloriously ridiculous about the G-Wagen, especially when it comes with a hand-built AMG engine to create many-cylindered thunder in. You can order your new, Stabilo-highlighter inspired G from the middle of 2015.

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Will this Ferrari Testarossa fetch £330,000?

Got three-hundred-and-something grand burning a hole in your jeans pocket, and a desire for a very yellow slice of the early Nineties on your driveway?

Then good news, because this 1994 Ferrari F512 M is going under the hammer at Silverstone Auction's May Sale, where it's expected to fetch between £280,000 and £330,000.

A lot of cash, but it's something of a museum piece. The 512M was the final version of the Testarossa, Ferrari's mid-engined, 12-cylinder bruiser built from 1984 to 1996.

Introduced at the Paris Motor Show in 1994, this F512M employed a 5.0-litre flat 12 engine producing 446bhp - a pretty meaty output by the standards of the day. It would, according to the official figures, get from 0-62mph in 4.7 seconds, with a top speed of 196mph.

Just 501 of these M-spec 512s were built, before production ceased and Ferrari inexplicably forgot about building mid-engined 12-cylinder supercars. The 512M cost around £140,000 new in 1994, which, accounting for inflation, works out around £230,000 in modern money.

We're told this particular example was sold to a German customer in 1994. From there, it was snapped up by an owner in Japan, with whom it has resided since. The 512M has covered just 11,000 miles in its 21-year life.

OK, it may not be such a classical, timeless Ferrari as that 250 GT SWB California we showed you last week, but the 512M is every bit as much a period piece - not to mention a whole lot cheaper. And yellower.

A snip at £330,000, or would you save your (completely non-hypothetical cash) for a modern 458 Special, with enough change left over for, ooh, a Porsche Cayman GT4?

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DB10 vs C-X75: it’s the Bond car chase

Excited for the new James Bond flick, Spectre? There's absolutely no chance you won't be once you've watched this video.

We've known about 007's Aston Martin DB10 - crafted specifically for him, before you ring up Aston wanting one yourself - for a while. And we've also learned that other key characters will be driving a bunch of Jaguar Land Rover specials, most notably a lurid orange incarnation of the kiboshed C-X75 supercar.

Well here's the evidence that confirms our suspicions that the Jag will be piloted by Bond's nemesis, Mr Hinx. The video above reveals behind-the-scenes stuff from the film's headline car chase, Hinx in pursuit of Bond, as the two British supercars slither around on the historic streets of Rome.

And when we say ‘slither', we really mean it. Both are powerful cars with drive from the rear axles, clearly, but the ease of their balletic sliding betwixt parked cars and through historical archways suggests that a) making eight bespoke Aston Martins only left enough in the budget for part-worn tyres or b) the tarmac and cobbles of Rome were lathered in Olivio from the tables of local restaurants to enable more cinematic slip angles.

Either way, we're not overly fussed: this promises to be one of the better car chases of recent years. Over to director Sam Mendes: "It's a cat and mouse game through the night time streets of Rome, at great speed, between two of the fastest cars in the world."

Could it immediately nominate itself for best car chase ever? We're exceedingly eager for Spectre's November release to find out. We like our popcorn sweet and salted.

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