welcome to Top Gear's massive
performance Car of the Year test 2019
this year coming to you from the
Portimao racetrack in Portugal for the
first time we're going to be running
night and day making this the inaugural
24 hours of Top Gear sir we did there
anyway before we get to the important
business of melting some tires I thought
you might want to meet the contenders
we've got 15 incredible cars this year a
proper motley crew and we start with
this one
this is Aston at its very best the DBS
Superleggera
Villante XS all area so so beautiful
this car under their 5.2 liter v12 twin
turbo 715 horsepower this car through
211 miles an hour with the roof down
that's right
moving on to something a little bit more
every day we love the 310 the Fiesta ST
in fact it's our reigning car of the
year 2018 and this is its bigger brother
the Focus ST now this has always lived a
bit in the shadow of the Focus RS but
this one is a bit more serious 276
horsepower detuned version of the old
Focus RS is 2.3 liter ecoboost should be
plenty of power too and give this
haunted chassis a workout could be a
dark horse that one Oh what do we have
down here this is getting a bit serious
a bit quickly isn't it look the Mercedes
AMG GT r pro now if the word pro sounds
a bit nerdy that's because it is this is
basically a two hundred grand
track-focused version of mercedes
track-focused
supercar 25 kilograms lighter it's got
adjustable coil over suspension more
Aero no more power and apparently seven
seconds quicker than the GTR around the
Nurburgring more importantly though it
looks seven times meaner than anything
else here moving on now this now this is
very special indeed the Porsche 935 what
is it well a single seater non
homologated race car is the headline but
really this
is based on a 911 gt2 RS clubsport and
on top of that is draped this incredible
retro arrow DUP carbon Kevlar bodywork
it's just a thing of utter beauty the
cynic in me wants to say yeah it's just
a gt2 RS draped in some fancy clothes
but actually I'm told I haven't driven
it yet this is a lot more hardcore a lot
more focus on that look slick tires this
is a serious serious track only race car
moving round here the Mercedes AMG a 45
s now to call this thing a hot hatch
isn't quite right really hyper hatch is
more fitting because AMG have managed to
squeeze 415 horsepower from a 2 liter
turbo so it'll do nought to 60 in under
4 seconds
167 miles an hour this thing it is very
very fast indeed
and they've included something called a
drift mode bit like the old Focus RS so
it doesn't disengage the front drive
shafts it just sends a load of talk to
the back axle and overwhelms the outside
rear wheel so you can get a bit of
oversteer with the safety net of 4-wheel
Drive pulling you straight that's the
theory at least and you're probably
thinking hang on a minute what is it two
and a half ton 2-liter diesel pickup
truck doing it a performance card test
well yeah I get where you're coming from
but this is the Ranger Raptor basically
what Ford have done is taken the f-150
Raptor which is massive and only sold in
America and make him more Europeanized
version with the diesel engine but it's
still got all the good bits so Fox race
Fox shocks under there Fox Racing
suspension it's got a baja mode which is
what you want to select when you want to
do a bit of brain out off-roading and as
luck would have it we do have an
off-road course here so we should be
having some fun in this on the track not
quite sure what's gonna happen I'll give
it a wide berth of ours you coming down
here alright we'll go over here in the
middle the Ariel Atom now you're gonna
have to take my word for it but this is
an all-new Ariel Atom and the key is
back here because it's still got Honda
engine but this one is a 2-liter turbo
from the latest Civic type-r
it's got up to 320 horsepower masses and
masses of power this thing and because
they had to redesign the whole rear end
of this car they thought why not let's
go through the whole thing and make the
whole lot of it new it is slightly
heavier it's slightly more grown-up but
it's not really that grown-up is it it's
still a scaffolding pole on wheels it's
got a better power-to-weight ratio than
a Bugatti Veyron still a mental thing
speaking of mental now let's forget for
a moment that this cost one hundred and
fifty thousand pounds
further out your mind let's focus
instead on the fact that this is a near
600 horsepower 200 mile an hour
four-wheel drive Jaguar saloon the
project eight of course I'm slightly
disappointed that this is a touring spec
they've just released that which is
basically delete the rear wing for seats
they're only making 15 of them so much
cool a bit you know what it's not a bad
life we'll make do with this one you
better come and get a good look at this
because this is the Honda I twenty coupe
a WRC the actual WRC car 380 horsepower
from a 1.6 turbo and utter psychopath of
a car this thing was running around the
track earlier and it's pretty much the
loudest car I've ever heard in my entire
life
[Applause]
[Music]
[Applause]
we got it set up gravel spec here so
it's ready to monster the off-road
course we've got here at Portimao but
also it's absolutely hilarious around
the track four-wheel drifting everywhere
an honor and a pleasure to have this in
attendance what do we have here the
Tesla Model 3 performance the darling of
the Eevee world of course massively
quick in a straight line
we know it's pretty damn quick around
the track as well but the question is is
that performance repeatable and if you
put it in track mode will it actually
drift questions whatever you do jack
don't mention the BMWs therefore I'm not
going to mention it I promise because
this is not a BMW it's the new Toyota
Supra 335 horsepower in line six engine
rear-wheel drive two seats the return of
a legend and I suspect the chariot of
choice for aspiring Drifters now you
have can have to do a 180 for this one
this is the McLaren 720's Spyder
essentially yes as 720's coupe a without
a roof it is 49 kilograms heavier than
the coupe a it's sent windier than the
coupe a but listen the coupe a had pace
an agility to spare so this thing
without a roof should be even more of an
event
speaking of events this is quite
possibly the most hardcore hardcore
hatch there has ever been the new
Renault Megane RS trophy are basically
very very fast around the Nurburgring
the front will drive that record holder
and very very uncomfortable everywhere
else and there's something that I think
we need to whisper about this car
it cost seventy two thousand pounds hmm
hot hatch but check it out carbon wheels
carbon ceramic brakes no back seats
Spacely a bargain ladies and gentlemen
we are in the presence of greatness this
is the VW IDR the record holder at Pikes
Peak the fastest car ever up the
Goodwood Hill Climb and the second
fastest car ever around the Nurburgring
but there not too shabby time of just
over six minutes this thing what is it
670 horsepower so so much torque but it
only weighs 1100 kilos that's pretty
much a Renault Alpine give or take a
large sandwich it's just utter violence
every time you stamp on the throttle and
I can't actually believe that we
convinced them to bring it along this
car is the torchbearer
for the electric revolution and last but
not least we have the Porsche Cayman 718
GT 4 we're going to ignore those numbers
718 because for us that represents the
four-cylinder engine that we don't like
very much but this is the GT for the new
GT 4 and the question with this car is
can Porsche improve on perfection we
love the last model so so much it is our
kind of car if I'm honest 4 liter
naturally aspirated flat 6 414
horsepower 8,000 rpm manual gearbox
suits you sir have to say an early
contender for the title so that's it
those are the cars of Peco t 2019 how on
earth we're going to pick a podium from
all that lot I'm not sure but that's the
beauty of tests on this scale isn't it
leave your preconceptions at the door
just go out and drive the things and the
cream will rise to the top but what a
set of cars
you