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Top Gear names BMW i8 Car of the Year, Corvette, Ferrari, Mercedes also win big

The lads at Top Gear have released their listing of the finest cars of the past year, handing the ultimate honor to BMW's revolutionary i8 plug-in-hybrid supercar. "The i8 is a milestone in the annals of automotive history and a glorious statement for an exciting and positive future. The i8 delivers - and then some," the British mag wrote. The i8, though, was far from the only hybridized car to take victories. James May and Richard Hammond both highlighted hybrids as their personal cars of the year, with May saluting the Ferrari LaFerrari and the Hamster, unsurprisingly, heaping praise on the Porsche 918 Spyder. Jeremy Clarkson, meanwhile, opted to shock many by selecting not only an American car as his best of 2014, but giving the honor to of all things, a Corvette. Clarkson wasn't the only person to honor the USA's iconic sports car, with the new, 650-horsepower Z06 variant being named TG's Muscle Car of the Year. Other big winners include Mercedes-Benz, which TG honored for S-Class Coupe (Luxury Car of the Year), the new AMG GT (Sports Car of the Year) and the not-for-US C-Class Estate (Family Car of the Year). The 458 Italia Speciale A snagged a second win for Ferrari. The best of the rest include the Citroen C4 Cactus, Renault Twingo, Volkswagen Golf R, Lamborghini Huracan and Audi TT. Take a look below for the celebratory press blast from BMW. The BMW i8 wins Top Gear Car of the Year The BMW i8 has been named as Top Gear magazine's global Car of the Year 2014. The plug-in hybrid performance vehicle beat off some stiff competition from a host of other premium and luxury manufacturers to win the overall award. The editorial team of Top Gear commended the BMW i8 for its breadth of abilities. Its 1.5-litre three-cylinder turbocharged petrol engine combined with an electric motor gives searing acceleration and driver enjoyment but all wrapped in a package that takes BMW's EfficientDynamics philosophy to the extreme courtesy of CO2 emissions less than 49g/km and a 135mpg combined cycle figure. Charlie Turner, Editor in Chief at Top Gear magazine, said: "The BMW is a milestone in the annals of automotive history and a glorious statement for an exciting and positive future. The i8 delivers – and then some. It's the kind of car we should celebrate, a beautiful vision of the future, delivered now.

2015 Lamborghini Huracan LP 610-4 Review

For seven years, Lamborghini sold the Gallardo alongside the Audi R8. And despite sharing more with the Audi than most Italians would like to admit, the Gallardo was a true Lamborghini. Meanwhile the Audi R8 was every bit the stoic German. How did the Gallardo do it? Emotional distance. As cliche as it sounds, the Lamborghini felt more temperamental, although not always in a good way. That fiery disposition made it salacious at mere idle and a baying brute at the limit. The Gallardo's successor, the Huracan, incredibly is even closer to the R8 under the skin, but is galaxies apart from the Audi in terms of impression and intent. The R8 already has a reputation as an everyday supercar, faster than a speeding bullet, able to carry small groceries in a single trunk. With the Huracan, we wanted to find out if it offers the same benefits without dampening that scalding Italian attitude. That difference from old to new starts with subtlety: the Huracan's "dynamic wedge" shape doesn't boast; there isn't a single clingy component demanding your attention. The package fits together so well that you can't just look at one thing, you have to look at everything. There are details atop details, from the Y-shaped LED daytime lamps to the side glass that tucks into the body like an alien canopy. The designers worked to build in enough downforce that the Huracan wouldn't need active or moving aerodynamic devices. So whereas the Gallardo Superleggera looked good with a wing, putting such spoilage on a non-competition Huracan should incur one of those NHTSA-sized, $14,000-a-day fines. There are some hitches to just getting in and driving. There's no reflexive ease to the start and transmission procedures. We always need to remind ourselves of the steps to the dance and "Oh, that's right, pull this for Reverse." Lamborghini changed the shape of the Audi buttons lining the waterfall console, but it looks too close to the A4. The Italians also carried over that funky two-step process of pushing a button and turning a knob to control fan speed. The Huracan ditches Audi's stalks on the steering column by placing buttons on the wheel. The result is fiddly, but okay. It's a fine office, though. The cabin trim feels like eight different shades of Black Hole, and you sit so close to the ground that Lamborghini should offer a bucket-and-pulley system on the options list. The seats are firm and supportive where they need to be, and comfortable everywhere.

2016 Lamborghini Huracan LP 610-4 Spyder First Drive

Convertibles get a bad rap when it comes to performance cars. Once, a lack of a roof meant extra performance. Now it means added weight and loss of structural rigidity. This stigma even applies to supercars, maybe more so. In the case of Lamborghini, the Huracan LP 610-4 Spyder is the "lifestyle" version. Which is silly, but doesn't diminish the appeal. Essentially, the Spyder is a Huracan with a fabric roof. Same 602-horsepower V10 inches behind the cabin, same hybrid aluminum-and-carbon-fiber construction, and same all-wheel-drive (though updated across the line for 2016). The performance compromise is a mere one mile per hour drop in top speed, and two-tenths of a second slower claimed 0-62 mph time of 3.4 seconds. (We suspect this is generously slow, to protect the egos of coupe owners). All told, the Spyder adds about 220 pounds in curb weight versus the coupe (Italian "dry" weight numbers are notoriously optimistic, so take the 3,650-pound Spyder claim with a grain of salt). The aerodynamic management on the Spyder is so good that the 201-mph top speed is valid with both the top up and retracted. In detail, the conversion in making the Huracan convertible is extensive. The roof itself is three layers of fabric, with a middle rubberized ply to cut down on interior noise. The design brief was to maintain the Huracan's hexagons-gone-wild theme with the top up and down. Spend 17 seconds waiting for the fully automatic top to lower, and the shape retains the coupe's motif. Part of the top's electronic ballet is a pair of flaps that extend out to preserve the shape of the B-pillar. Those flaps also feature narrow slits that smooth the wind along the side of the car, reducing turbulence near the driver's and passenger's ears. Additional side deflectors keep more wind away from your head. And with the top down the rear window's maximum height is restricted to prevent it from catching air. The aerodynamic management on the Spyder is so good that the 201-mph top speed is valid with both the top up and retracted. Suck on that, coupe aficionados. The Huracan's performance is so ridiculous that few can explore the margin between the two bodystyles. In any case, we didn't get much chance to stretch the Huracan's legs on our press drive in Miami, due a torrential downpour and the fact that South Florida is a terrible place for driving. Maybe that's where the "lifestyle" portion comes in, because Miami is a fantastic town for flaunting wealth.