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Top Gear has an Extra Gear problem | Episode Review

When the BBC announced Extra Gear, I was excited. As an avid fan of show's like The Talking Dead – companion show to AMC's hit The Walking Dead – a behind-the-scenes look at my favorite motoring show sounded promising. But with the fifth episodes of each show, I'm worried that Top Gear is suffering to keep Extra Gear interesting. We'll start with Chris Evans, inarguably the most heavily criticized member of the new Top Gear team. Evans is progressively less shouty and more comfortable filming while driving in each episode – the fifth is no different. He's almost likable in the Zenos E10 video, like a ginger James May, and he delivers accurate and eloquent driving impressions. The review is entertaining, until Extra Gear shows the producers cut a huge element – an old-versus-new sprint around the Race of Champions circuit at the Olympic Stadium in London. Former Formula 1 ace David Coulthard would drive a Caterham 360, while current F1 pro Daniel Riccardo rocked the Zenos. If the entire premise of Evans review is that the Zenos E10 is the newest of the new for British super-lightweight track toys, why did the producers decide to leave a race against the segment's standard bearer for Extra Gear? It's a baffling move, cutting a segment of the film that reinforces Evans' excitement over the Zenos. Rory Reid's Jaguar F-Type SVR piece is excellent. Fifty five years to the day after Jaguar test driver Norman Dewis raced to the Geneva Motor Show in a second E-Type for display, Reid would attempt the same feat in an SVR. If he failed, Jaguar wouldn't have a car to display. Dewis made the 750-mile trip with 13 hours of notice, and Reid would need to do the same. It's a brilliant, simple premise that reminded me of Jeremy Clarkson's so-called "Race against God" in a Jaguar XJ, way back in season 16. The history of the challenge and Dewis' gravelly commentary add gravitas. But the entire film goes by so fast. It's longer than Evans' Zenos video or Harris' BMW M2 film, but at less than ten minutes, Reid and the SVR deserved more screen time. Extra Gear poured salt in that particular wound with a great segment featuring Norman Dewis that deserved to be in the main show. Reid takes the famed test driver for a spin around the Dunsfold track, then, instead of the comedian of the week, the hosts interview Dewis on Extra Gear's couch.

2021 Jaguar F-Pace hides big interior and powertrain changes under familiar sheetmetal

Jaguar's first-ever crossover is getting a major update. The 2021 Jaguar F-Pace, while looking not much different on the outside, is hiding an all-new interior as well as new engines. The changes to the exterior are quite mild, rather like those of the F-Type. Headlights and taillights are more slender, with the tails losing their little rounded sections altogether. The grille and diffuser areas of the bumpers have been slightly changed, and the main grille gets different inserts on all trims. The fender vents now get the "Leaper," the cat logo, embedded in them. Under the hood are two types of engines. There's the familiar turbocharged 2.0-liter four-cylinder at the base of the range with 246 horsepower and 269 pound-feet of torque. Above that are two versions of the new inline-six-cylinder engine, both of which use a regular turbocharger and an electric supercharger. The less-potent version makes 335 horsepower and 354 pound-feet of torque, while the high-output version makes 395 horsepower and 406 pound-feet of torque. Each engine also gets a belt-driven starter-generator powered by the same 48-volt electrical system that drives the electric supercharger. All engines are coupled to an eight-speed ZF automatic transmission and rear-biased all-wheel-drive system. The interior gets the most immediately noticeable changes. The curvy, rounded dash of the outgoing model is replaced with a more crisp design with better-integrated air vents and large sections of contrasting leather and other accents such as metal or wood trim. An available 11.4-inch infotainment screen dominates the center stack, and it runs the new Pivi Pro infotainment system launched on the Land Rover Defender and the Jaguar I-Pace. This infotainment system can support pairing two phones at once and can receive over-the-air updates. The instrument cluster is available as a 12.3-inch screen that can be configured to show an array of different information including navigation info. The old shifter dial is replaced with a small leather and metal shift lever. Jaguar is also including more features as standard in the F-Pace. Among them are heated seats, a Meridian sound system, keyless entry, blind-spot monitoring and a surround-view camera. Active noise cancellation is also standard and a first on a Jaguar. Pricing and the on-sale date for the new F-Pace have not yet been announced. Related Video:

Jaguar Land Rover may build factory in Saudi Arabia

The Middle East is one of the fastest-growing markets for Land Rover, so it makes sense that the automaker is looking to set up shop in the region. According to Automotive News, Jaguar Land Rover is in talks with the people of Saudi Arabia to build a factory in the country at an expected initial cost of $1.2 billion. Still in the early stage of talks, the proposed facility could start up by 2017 using locally sourced materials such as steel and aluminum.
Such an arrangement could be beneficial for both entities as Saudi Arabia looks to diversify its oil-reliant economy and Land Rover could get local production capacity of around 50,000 units. The report also says that the agreement talks about the possibility for Jaguar models to be built at the same plant further down the road.
This won't be the first vehicle produced in Saudi Arabia - that honor goes to the KSU Gazal-1 - but it will be the first from a major global automaker.