It might not have four-zone climate control, adaptive LED headlights or a suite of level three autonomy functions, but the Ariel Nomad was worthy of a five-star verdict nonetheless. You see, a five-star rating doesn’t necessarily indicate a perfect car. No vehicle that cheerfully slings mud in its occupants faces, as the Nomad does, could ever be described as perfect.
Instead, what a five-star score signifies is a car that is so roundly accomplished at the task it was designed for that we could find no good reason to mark it down. It’s called fitness for purpose. The Nomad is built to be a joy machine, pure and simple. Those chunky off-road tyres and the long travel suspension hint at muddy fields and rocky forest tracks – no mistake, the Nomad is in its element on the rough stuff – but Ariel’s second model is actually every bit as fun to drive on the road, or even a race track.
Ariel Nomad – 24/6/15
As we wrote in our road test, ‘plenty of our testers would pick a Nomad to play with on a circuit before they’d consider a dozen high-profile sports cars and supercars’. It’s still such a sought after car that you’ll have to search high and low to find a used example for sale today, but they do occasionally appear from around £50,000.
Aston Martin DBS Superleggera – 21/11/18
This car is a big, powerful, elegant, front-engined, 12-cylinder, blood-and-thunder GT. It’s also such a stunning one to behold, and so stellar to drive in its singularly enriching and enticing, occasion-cherishing long-distance mould, that it sets a new standard for its maker.
Aston Martin DBS Superleggera – 21/11/18
Power comes from a 5.2-litre V12, an engine derived from the V12 that first arrived in the Vanquish back in 2001. This is an outstanding super-GT representing the British car maker at its absolute best, and can today be bought from around £110,000.
Bentley Bentayga Diesel – 5/4/17
The concept of a diesel engine in a Bentley might seem strange, especially today. But we reckoned that placing an Audi 4.0-litre V8 diesel engine pinched from the Audi SQ7 was a masterstroke. Suddenly you had all the luxury of a Bentley, decent off-road capabilities, the practicality of an SUV, complete with the ability to drive a potential 700 miles on a single tank.