Top Gear Tonight: Kia Cee'd, Hot Hatch Astra Focus Megane Test, Mastretta & Lewis Hamilton

Series 19 episode 4 of Top Gear tonight with hot hatch test – Astra VXR, Focus ST, Megane 265 – Kia Cee’d, Mexican Mastretta and Lewis Hamilton is SIARPC.

We’re now more than half way through the new series of Top Gear, with episode 4 on tonight. And its choice of cars this week is almost mainstream.

There’s a new version of the current Top Gear Reasonably Priced Car on sale – the Kia Cee’d – and Jeremy does what he consider a thorough test of Kia’s latest Cee’d including a game of ‘Car Rugby’ with Jeremy captaining one team and James May the other. Look out for the conversions and the Stig as referee in a Police car.

There’s also a hot hatch shoot-out this week, with Jeremy, James and Richard taking to the Top Gear test track with the Ford Focus ST, the Renault Megane RenaultSport Cup 265 and the Vauxhall Astra VXR. We can probably count the Astra VXR out as a probable winner, but which out of the Focus ST (Jeremy loves a fast Ford) and Megane 265 (the fastest front wheel drive production car round the Nurburgring) will come out on top?

Richard has been to Mexico to test the Mastretta MXT – as penance for his ‘Mexican’ comments a couple of years ago. The Mastretta only has 250 horses, but it’s light and nimble and can scoot to 60mph in 4.5 seconds, so it should be a fun outing. And, just as a side note, after Top Gear ‘insulted’ the Mexicans, sales of the Mastretta shot up as the world found out Mexico actually made a proper car.

Finally, the Star in a Reasonably Priced Car this week is not a celeb – well, it is, but he’s a proper F1 driver – with Lewis Hamilton taking time out from settling in at Mercedes to take the old Reasonably Priced Car round Dunsfold to see if he can beat his previous (wet) time and usurp Sebastian Vettel from the top of the F1 drivers’ leaderboard.

Top Gear Series 19 Episode 4 airs tonight at 8pm on BBC2.