Currently reading: Autocar's Christmas quiz 2022
The Autocar team have been busy compiling a list of 45 motoring-themed Christmas quiz questions

Christmas lunch is over, so gather the family round for endless hours of fun with Autocar’s festive automotive brain teasers. 

If you want to see how many you got right, or if you simply want to cheat, the answers can be found after each round of ten questions.

Questions

1. Pirelli sponsors which football team’s stadium in the Midlands?

2. Which Autocar correspondent wrote the book about the Ford Cortina 1600Es that were given to members of England’s 1970 World Cup squad?

3. Which Autocar journalist appeared on The Chase earlier this year?

4. Who was the first Formula 1 world champion to die of natural causes?

5. Which team was running Stirling Moss when he secured the first victory for a Lotus F1 car?

6. In which country is the new Honda Civic Type R going to be manufactured?

Honda civic type r 01 front tacking 1

7. The McLaren Artura plug-in hybrid supercar matched the 0-100mph acceleration benchmark of which one of its legendary forebears in its road test earlier this year?

8. Which car maker spent most of the past decade sponsoring Manchester United’s shirts, despite the fact it stopped selling cars in Europe in 2015?

9. How much is the ‘Tailgate Event Suite with leather cushions’ on the new Range Rover?

10. Which two cars are currently the only purely bespoke M models?

 

Answers

1. Burton Albion

2. James Ruppert 

3. Felix Page 

Advertisement

Read our review

Car review

We may not be getting a new Fiesta ever again, but Ford's icon lives on as a cheap, fun used buy

Back to top

4. Denny Hulme, who had a heart attack while racing at the Bathurst 1000 in 1992 

5. Rob Walker Racing Team 

6. Japan 

7. McLaren F1, at 6.3sec 

Mclaren f1 1 0 0

8. Chevrolet 

9. £1000 

10. The M1 and the XM

 

Questions 

11. Why did the ‘Ferrarina’ of 1959 initially wear a machine gun rather than a prancing horse?

12. Which UK-bound Chinese company offers a karaoke system and real guitar strings in its EVs?

13. Boris Johnson makes model buses in his spare time, but which mid-engined Japanese motoring legend from the 1990s was often seen on the ex-PM’s drive way during interviews?

14. Which hatchback was named the 1980 Car of the Year?

15. Which two Ferraris did detective Sonny Crockett famously drive in the iconic 1980s TV Show Miami Vice?

Back to top

16. The Bugatti W16 Mistral isn’t the first car to be named after this famous wind. Which other manufacturer produced a Mistral?

17. Which does Swedish car maker Koenigsegg put ghost badges on its cars?

Koenigsegg badge

18. How many Ford Mustangs were sold on the car’s first day in the showroom in 1964?

19. Shouting the name of which retired roadster might get you some dirty looks in France?

20. Mazda now sells its own version of the Toyota Yaris as the 2 Hybrid, but it has form in the rebadging game. Take the emblem off the 1996 Mazda 121 and what do you get?

 

Answers

11. Enzo Ferrari was trying to convince arms firm Beretta to manufacture it for him 

12. BYD (in the Han and the Atto 3)

13. Mk1 Toyota Previa 

14. Lancia Delta

Lancia delta hf integrale front three quarter static

Back to top

15. A replica Daytona Spider then a real Testarossa 

16. Maserati 

17. It’s based on an old airfield, formerly used by a fighter squadron whose insignia was this ghost 

18. 22,000 

19. Toyota MR2 

20. Mk4 Ford Fiesta

 

Questions

21. BMW reached a ‘gentlemen’s agreement’ with which French manufacturer over the use of a dormant moniker for its new plug-in hybrid super-SUV?

22. According to Toyota, how many minutes did it take for the GR86 to sell out in the UK?

Toyota gr86 front three quarter tracking

23. The new Noble M500 practises the traditional art of putting the light clusters from a more prosaic car to good use. With which car does it share its tail-lights?

24. What’s the fastest speed ever recorded by a Formula 1 car at an official event?

25. Name the tune from the opening credits to the legendary 2001 racing game Gran Turismo 3.

Back to top

26. Which executive saloon, owned by the disillusioned protagonist of The Clash’s 1977 song Janie Jones, simply will not run without fuel? 

27. How much downforce does the current Porsche 911 GT3 RS make in its highest- downforce settings when travelling at 177mph? 

Porsche 911 gt3 rs front

28. Which famous motor race celebrates its centenary next year?

29. Which car launched this year is the first ever to be supplied with an NFT (that’s a non-fungible token, boomer), said to help its residual value? 

30. Giotto Bizzarrini is perhaps most famous for creating an enduring V12 engine for which Italian brand?

 

Answers

21. Citroën (for the XM) 

22. 90 

23. Citroën C4 Spacetourer (facelift) 

24. 372.6kph (231.5mph) 

25. Just a Day by Feeder

26. Ford Cortina 

Back to top

27. 860kg 

28. Le Mans 24 Hours 

29. Alfa Romeo Tonale 

30. Lamborghini

 

Questions 

31. Name the size, make and model of the front tyres on the new Morgan Super 3. 

32. And what is so unusual about the Morgan Super 3’s rear tyre (other than the blindingly obvious)?

01 Morgan super 3 rt 2022 lead front 0

33. Why are the ‘electrically excited’ drive motors of the Nissan Ariya different to most conventional AC electric motors?

34. The ‘cos’ in both Marcos and Cosworth is short for which surname? (They were brothers.)

35. Outside the UK, the Lotus Carlton was called what?

36. MG Rover (and later BMW) set up a joint venture with Chrysler to build engines for the first generation of the new Mini. What was it called and where were they built? 

37. The Porsche 944 used a large-capacity four- cylinder engine, ranging in size from 2.5 to 3.0 litres. To make it run smoothly, Porsche had to licence balance shaft technology from which other car maker? 

Back to top

38. What do the Jaguar I-Pace, Mercedes G-Class, BMW Z4 and Chrysler 300C have in common?

1 Mercedes benz g class 2019 rt hero front 0

39. What was the Ford Fiesta tipped to be called before a last-minute change from bosses? 

40. Lewis Hamilton shows no signs of wanting to retire at 37, but who is the oldest F1 race winner? 

41. Which car company owns both French brand Peugeot and Italian manufacturer Fiat? 

 

Answers

31. Avon Speedmaster MkIII, 130/90 R20 

32. It’s an all-season one 

33. They don’t need embedded permanent magnets 

34. Costin (Frank and Mike) 

35. Lotus Omega 

36. Tritec Motors, in Brazil 

37. Mitsubishi 

38. They are or were assembled by Magna Steyr in Graz, Austria

39. Bobcat 

Back to top

40. Luigi Fagioli, aged 53 years and 22 days 

41. Stellantis 

 

Questions 

42. Who holds the world record for driving an ice cream van the fastest? 

Ice cream van

43. When was the UK’s first speeding ticket issued? 

44. Which British-built electric ‘fan car’ shattered the Goodwood hillclimb record in June? An extra point for putting the accent in the right place. 

45. BMW M division this year launched its latest CSL-badged car, costing £126,805. To the nearest £100, how much did its last one – the ‘E46’ M3 CSL – cost when it went on sale in 2004? 

 

Answers

42. Paddy McGuinness (the Top Gear presenter hit 80.04mph at Elvington airfield in Yorkshire on 26 October 2020) 

43. 1896 (to Walter Arnold, who was caught by police riding a bicycle at 8mph in Paddock Wood when the speed limit was 2mph in cities and 4mph in the country) 

44. McMurtry Spéirling 

45. £58,400

Join the debate

Comments
3
Add a comment…
Thomad02343 19 April 2023

I just can answer 1/4 of the questions.

pteffey 4 March 2023

This set of questions is so interesting that I can only answer 1/3 of the questions.

cambuster 10 January 2023

Unfortunately, the answer to No 39 is incorrect. Initially the planned vehicle was referred to as "the Deutschlander" as much as it was accepted that a more usable name, which needed to start with B, like B car. In October 1972 to the project code name "Bobcat" was chosen. In 1974 Marketing led the search for a permanent name, and from a pile of suggestions shortlisted 13, then 5, which had to be chosen by November 1974 Henry Ford, who had made name picking his personal business, was given three names from which to choose - Bravo, Fiesta, or Amigo. He knew that to use Fiesta required permission from GM, so he called GM Chairman Tom Murphy who said "it's yours", and told his Head of International Operations, Phil Caldwell that the new car is called Fiesta.