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5 days ago | 
topgear.com.ph | Cat Dow |Anton Andres
This is a hybrid, but not as you know it. Say hi to the Hopper, an electric-assisted pedal trike with its own cover and headlights—and it’s just gone into series production. Car, meet bike.
The 2.1m long covered pedelec (pedal-electric) is the creation of Hamburg-based start-up Hopper Mobility. A meter wide with its mirrors folded out, its e-bike-style credentials mean legit bike path use, while the Renault Twizy-esque cover keeps most of the rain out of your face. It doesn’t come cheap, mind.
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6 days ago | 
topgear.com.ph | Vijay Pattni |Anton Andres
One of Hollywood’s biggest and most successful producers has confirmed a Days of Thunder sequel is in the works.
Speaking to Entertainment Tonight’s Nischelle Turner at the premiere of F1: The Movie, Jerry Bruckheimer lifted the lid on “the next one”, noting how the movie’s original star – Tom Cruise – will help, um, steer the film.
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6 days ago | 
topgear.com.ph | Cat Dow |Anton Andres
Honda has been busy testing a new Type R. Where the 'R' is a rocket, that is. The carmaker’s R&D subsidiary successfully executed Japan’s first take-off and landing of a reusable rocket at its research base in Hokkaido.
The rocket, aka 'reusable launch vehicle' (RLV), measures over six meters long, 85cm wide and weighs 900 kilos, and on this jolly little expedition, reached an altitude of almost 300 metres with liquid fuel propulsion.
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1 week ago | 
topgear.com.ph | Vijay Pattni |Anton Andres
A new special edition of the all-conquering Land Rover Defender better equipped to tackle the hellscape of, er, roads roads. And maybe the odd mountain. Meet the 110 Trophy Edition.
It’s a new trim that allows you to conquer the long lines into parking buildings, rutted highways and byways and maybe even the odd puddle and perhaps a mountain via knobbly tires and either yellow or green paint.
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1 week ago | 
topgear.com.ph | Vijay Pattni |Anton Andres
Amazingly, more than two million Audi Q3s roam the world’s roads, which means it’s an important car for the Four Rings Of Power. Welcome to the new one.
Audi’s third generation of its best-selling small SUV now incorporates the whole puffed-out-cheeks, suspicious-side-eye and massive 'singlegrame' grille of its updated siblings and looks a helluva lot more… ‘purposeful’, as a result. Even if that purpose is just going to the supermarket.
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1 week ago | 
topgear.com.ph | Vijay Pattni |Anton Andres
Another crossover. Of course.
Be not so quick to judgment, for this is one of the original mainstream electric cars, now reimagined for a wider, more tech-savvy, and electro-literate audience.
I’d forgotten about the Nissan Leaf.
PHOTO BY TopGear.com
Indeed, when Nissan first launched its game-changing electric hatchback in 2010, it looked embarrassed to be there—mostly because it was 2010 and electric cars were upstairs having a debate while combustion engines were downstairs necking shots.
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1 week ago | 
topgear.com.ph | Dinzo Tabamo |Anton Andres
Nissan is currently facing headwinds at the moment. It’s restructuring and trying to transform itself into a leaner organization, with the goal of becoming profitable in the near future. Naturally, questions abound about its current financial health, the product roadmap, and what it means for Nissan Philippines. Recently we were able to meet Masao Tsutsumi, the new president of Nissan PH, at a media dinner, and he shed light on the status of one of the top brands in the Philippine market.
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1 week ago | 
topgear.com.ph | Mike Channell |Anton Andres
Believe it or not, it’s been just over a decade since the previous Mario Kart game in the series, Mario Kart 8, was originally released in its non-Deluxe form on the ill-fated Wii U console. If you want some perspective on how long ago that was, back then there were only six Star Wars movies. Mario Kart World has been a long time coming, and what’s more it bears the responsibility of being the only proper Nintendo launch title for the firm’s impressive new Switch 2 console. No pressure then.
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2 weeks ago | 
topgear.com.ph | Cat Dow |Anton Andres
Xpeng has taken the old adage ‘go big or go home’ literally, and teamed up with Huawei to create a mega head-up display (HUD) that covers the whole windshield. The AR-HUD uses augmented reality to give navigation directions, alert drivers to safety issues, and minimize reaction times, blind spots, and, er, distracted driving.
The 87-inch display—yep, 87 inches across—shows the speed limit, the speed of the car, the navigation directions, and the time it’ll take to get to wherever you’re going.
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2 weeks ago | 
topgear.com.ph | Paul Horrell |Anton Andres
In-wheel motors are on the verge of real applications. That’s a terrible pun: The Verge motorcycle has one. It looks dramatic, with no central hub or axle. Verge is part of Donut Lab, a Finnish builder of motors in the shape of donuts.
The idea is wonderfully simple. A normal motor’s rotor, aka the spinning bit, is inside, with its output shaft emerging from the center. The stator—the coil windings that don’t turn—is fixed to the outer casing.
