The Classic Car Show is no Top Gear, but that doesn't stop me liking it

TOP GEAR is back on form. It seems that no matter how much the tabloids knock its presenters for offending everyone from here to Argentina, the show keeps gorging itself on spinach and coming back even stronger.

Even though it’s been years since it’s done a properly down-to-Earth, sensible set of wheels you really can’t fault it for entertaining motoring telly. I laughed like a drain when Richard Hammond’s ambulance used a pressurised gas cannon to fire a patient through the window of a makeshift hospital, and the race across St Petersburg between a Renault Twizy, a bike, a hovercraft and a Stig was genuinely exciting stuff.

But Top Gear keeping on the edge of your sofa in an occasionally offensively entertaining way is nothing new. All anyone has wanted to ask me this week is what I think of The Classic Car Show.

Chances are – if the petrolhead consensus I’ve been following is anything to go by – you’ll have reached one of two conclusions having watched the opening episode. Either you’ll have been switched off entirely by its unashamedly upmarket, glossy take on the world of old cars and vowed never to watch it again. Or you’ve already committed to watching all 13 episodes because a) it’s motoring telly and you’d rather watch it than Emmerdale, and more importantly b) because it has its moments of brilliance. I’m in the latter camp.

There have been things about The Classic Car Show that made my mind melt slightly – there will, for instance, be a special place reserved at the back of my mind alongside Katie Hopkins and failed 2006 rom-com You, Me and Dupree for the vapid awfulness of the piece which asked Tinie Tempah for his opinion on the Mercedes-Benz 300SL Gullwing. Quentin Willson, however, tackled the Mustang’s 50th anniversary with genuine clout and authority, and the pieces on the £5000 classic cars – TR7, XJ-S and so on – have been packed with warmth and nostalgia.

In fact, I actually admire The Classic Car Show for daring to do something different. Unless you want Top Gear or a show about two blokes buying an old car, restoring it and flogging it on – and after the success of Wheeler Dealers, they’re ten a penny – there hasn’t really been much for people into cars to choose from.

Regular readers will know I've pleaded with TV’s powers that be for a proper, magazine-format show about cars which is filled with fun and facts in roughly equal measure – the sort of thing Top Gear and Driven used to do when they had to make reviewing the Vauxhall Vectra look interesting. This isn't it, but I like it because it's a fresh take on a subject car nuts love.

The Classic Car Show isn't perfect, but it’s won a slot in my Thursday evenings.

Why the Hyundai Genesis is like Sheffield

BARCELONA’S balmy sunshine, the majestic landscapes of the Scottish Highlands and the fine food of just about anywhere in Northern Italy are all front-runners in the contest to win over my carefully-earned cash.

As summer getaway options go they couldn’t be more different if I tried, but they do all share one thing in common. I’d rather enjoy a fortnight in any of these places then spend my summer holiday in Sheffield.

It’s not that there’s anything wrong with Sheffield – it’s a fine city that has made many fine contributions to the world, from steel and coal to The Human League and actors notorious for getting killed in every movie role they land. Sheffield is great for all sorts of reasons, but it’s just not somewhere where I’d go looking for a memorable holiday getaway.

Equally, if I got given £47,995 to spend on a luxury car I wouldn’t blow it on a Hyundai. Yet that’s exactly how much the Genesis, the manufacturer’s largest offering ever in the UK, is going to cost.

Let’s get one thing clear; Hyundai makes some great cars. It’s gone from being the makers of the Pony to one of the UK car market’s real success stories, with accomplished players like the i30 family hatchback helping to eat into an increasingly healthy share of the market. It’s a success story, however, founded on value for money. Hyundai is all about price, not prestige.

That’s why offering an executive express with a 3.8 litre V6 driving the rear wheels is either incredibly brave or monumentally misguided. Why, when you can have a BMW or a Mercedes or a Jaguar or an Audi or even – whisper it softly – a Lexus for the same sort of money, would you want to spend nearly fifty grand on a Hyundai?

Countless other car makers have tried – and failed – to crack this nut. Remember the Peugeot 607? Or the Vauxhall Omega, Ford Scorpio, Renault Vel Satis, Honda Legend and Rover 800, for that matter? They were all mass market attempts to break into the luxury motoring stratosphere, and all were defeated by people who want the pub brag factor of a three-pointed star or a leaping cat instead. We Brits are the worst for it – it’s not for nothing the nation that gave the world Keeping Up Appearances and Absolutely Fabulous is the single biggest Audi TT market on the planet.

I would love it if the Hyundai Genesis were so mind-blowingly brilliant it pulled off a Rocky-style underdog victory and gave the German luxury establishment a bloody nose, but I suspect we snobbish Brits will dismiss it simply because it’s an Aldi car with Audi pretentions.

Are you going on holiday to Sheffield this year? I rest my case.

The new Ford Focus RS might not win any beauty contests, but I still want one

FORD’S new Focus RS will use a four-wheel-drive system to deliver its power more effectively – exactly the same trick the legendary Escort RS Cosworth did back in the early 1990s.

The third generation of the family-sized hot hatch will use a turbcharged 2.3 litre version of the company’s EcoBoost engine to churn out 320bhp, and should be available towards the end of the year. The shape might not win as many beauty awards as its more conventional-looking predecessor, but it's designed with one thing in mind; to keep the engine, closely related to the one also being used in the new Ford Mustang, as cool as possible during hard driving.

It’s the 30^th Ford to wear the company’s RS badge, following in the footsteps of the Sierra RS Cosworth and the Escort RS2000. Just like these classic fast Fords, the new Focus RS has an instant want-one factor.

Volkswagen launches its diesel hot hatch... as an estate

VOLKSWAGEN’S Golf GTD – essentially a diesel-powered version of the GTI hot hatchback – is being sold as an estate for the first time.

Yes, on the face of it it's not exactly the raciest of prospects - a diesel estate car - but it does combine two ideas I've already expressed an admiration for; the idea of a diesel-hauled Golf GTI, and the performance load-lugger. It looks great too, so hopefully it'll be as much fun to drive as its eco-mentalist moniker suggests.

Prices have yet to be announced, but expect it to be slightly more than the £25,285 the smaller Golf GTD hatchback costs.

It’ll be available to order from April, with the first cars arriving here in June.

Jeep launches its fastest Grand Cherokee yet

JEEP has turned up the wick on its biggest off-roader by introducing a performance model.

The SRT Red Vapor version of the Grand Cherokee uses a 6.4 litre V8 to get to 60mph in five seconds, before going on to a top speed of 160mph.

The 461bhp 4x4 is available to order now, and will set you back £64,995. Find out more by going to www.jeep.co.uk.

Why the Audi A5 was born for the outside lane

HERE’S one to discuss next time you’re at the pub. What is the coolest car from Audi’s current range?

Last time I delved into this particular discussion, the nominations for this year’s Coolest Audi Award were the RS5, largely for being a modern-day equivalent of Gene Hunt’s Quattro, the R8 because you can pretend it’s a Lamborghini in a boring suit, and the S1 because it’s a beltingly quick hot hatch.

In fact, I’ve long maintained the only Audi even vaguelywithin sniffing distance of being cool is the A7. Not the hugely powerful, range-topping RS7 version either. Just the basic A7 in its purest form, because it’s the only big Audi which doesn’t have the baggage of being a tailgater’sfavoured set of wheels.

That’s probably why I’ve found driving the A7’s baby brother – the A5 Sportback – over the past few days such an eye-opener. If you’re in the market for a sleek, family-friendly express for between £25-35k it’s well worth a look, because it’s pleasingly proportioned, roomier than you’d expect a coupe-esque five-door to be, and built with the sort of attention to detail that’d give the scientists at CERN sleepless nights.

Yet its trump card – and one it shares with all the A3s and A4s I’ve driven over the past few years – is also why I suspect I’m forever encountering A5 drivers thundering past me on the motorway at improbable speeds. It is, put simply, a piece of cake to drive at very high speeds.

At 70mph in sixth, the 2.0 litre turbodiesel engine in the one I’d borrowed wasn’t even nudging 2000rpm – in other words, it was barely breaking into a sweat. It’s not even fast in a particularly sporty way that eggs you on to go faster; the Audi is so composed at this sort of speed it shrugs it off. 

The temptation is settle into the A5’s natural groove – the sort of three figure speeds you’ll see perfectly standard Audis doing every day on German autobahns. The reason why you see so many cars with four rings on the front doing upwards of 85mph is because doing so requires absolutely no effort whatsoever from the driver, who’s only really there to dial in the occasional steering input to stop it hitting the central reservation.

The A5 is a superbly talented bit of kit, but I prefer my executive expresses to be a bit more involving. That’ll be the Jaguar XF, then.

Subaru Outback ready for April launch

PRICES for Subaru’s new Outback off-road estate car will start at £27,995 when it goes on sale on 1 April.

It’ll be available with two trim levels a choice of two of the company’s flat four ‘boxer’ engines – a 2.0 litre turbodiesel engine, and a 2.5 litre petrol powerplant. 

For more information about the new Outback go online to www.subaru.co.uk