Cars

“Know your enemy, know his sword.”

The hypercar era of the World Endurance Championship is getting closer by the day. With road cars — albeit incredibly fast, exclusive, and expensive ones — coming in as the top class of competition, the series and its showpiece race will return to the feel of its glory days.

Car manufacturers spend a veritable fortune making sure that their seats are as comfortable and supportive as possible. After all, you’re going to spend hundreds of thousands of miles — and thousands of hours — sitting in it.

Ferrari has revealed a pair of stunning convertible variants of its F8 Tributo and 812 Superfast. The new F8 Spider and 812 GTS were unveiled at an exclusive event in Maranello on the eve of the Frankfurt Motor Show.

With Frankfurt in full swing, BMW used its local show to unveil this, the Concept 4. It previews the German marque’s next midsize coupe, and if that front end is a sign of things to come, the next 4 Series should be all smiles for the camera.

The 2019 Frankfurt Motor Show is officially in full swing. Amongst the relentless push for electric cars, Audi Sport has shown that high performance is still in demand.

We all like to mark big achievements, and car manufacturers are no different. Bugatti is already making a celebratory model for its 110th anniversary, in the shape of the Chiron Sport 110 Ans and Centodieci versions, but it has something else to shout about this year too.

As I rolled through the front gates at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, a legendary racetrack just outside the small town of Lexington, I could already hear bellowing exhaust notes, whining superchargers and a dash of cheering from the crowd.

Here it is. After months of teasing, and years since the Mission E previewed it, the production Porsche Taycan has bowed. The four-door sedan will be the Stuttgart manufacturer’s first full EV.

Lamborghini is getting a jump on the usual Frankfurt Motor Show madness by unveiling this, the limited-production Lamborghini Sián. Not only is it the marque’s most powerful model ever, it’s also the first electrified product out of Sant’Agata.

Bugatti has become the first car manufacturer to build a 300mph road car from the factory. Like the Veyron before it, the Chiron has become the first standard, road-legal car to smash clean through what was previously thought an impossible landmark figure.

We’re all guilty of saying it, or something like it. “I know this road so well I could drive it blindfolded”.

Audi has good news for fans of stupendously fast load-luggers: for the first time in the model’s history, the upcoming RS6 Avant is making the trip across the Atlantic.

UPDATE (08.21.19): Toyota UK has released a series of tweets in regards to the (now-deleted) original “illegal street racing” comment:

If we were to start telling you how big esports is, we’d be preaching to the choir. Almost everyone is getting on-board with the message these days, right up to the governing body of motorsports itself, the Federation International de l’Automobile (FIA).

It’s one of the great pre-war classic cars and, thanks to recognition in California, it may be immortalized in a future version of Gran Turismo. This year’s Gran Turismo Trophy winner at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance is the 1931 Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 Corto Spider Zagato.

If you happen to be an evil megalomaniac with a serious automotive passion, there’s some good news for you at Pebble Beach this weekend.

Born-again luxury performance brand Bugatti is planning to take something very special to Monterey Car Week this year. It wowed the crowds at the same event last year with its Divo, which it said heralded a return to Bugatti’s coach-building traditions.

Formula One confirms Mexico City will continue to be the home of the Mexican Grand Prix until the end of 2022.

When it comes to icons of world motoring, there’s not much equal to the Mini. Arguably the progenitor of the transverse-engined, front-wheel drive hatchback shape that dominates Europe’s roads to this day, the first Mini rolled off the British Motor Corporation (BMC) production line in Oxford in 1959.