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The new Ford Fiesta ST is put to the test on Britain's B-roads and the A8-copycat Audi A6 cruises, via the inevitable Autobahn, onto the roads. I also managed to miss out on last week's TWiC. Sorry. Ford Fiesta ST As four-wheeled machines, Fiesta STs tend to prefer being on three (see cornering shot for evidence). This is one of the many reasons (as part of its infectious childishness) that petrolheads adore it, and also one of the many reasons that the new one has particularly huge shoes to fill. And, with only three cylinders and a more complicated (we like simple things) mode setup, it is looking like it has some rather small feet to fill said huge shoes. ST prefers three wheels, not four. I.C: Autocar So can you cock the rear wheel? Of course you can. It was actually on the agenda from the drawing board, because Ford knows its customer base extremely well. What about shifting without the clutch? Surprise surprise, that was also on the priority list, but sadly, it...

All 789bhp of the McLaren Senna prototype is unleashed at Silverstone, Bentley's new Continental GT wafts onto the streets, and BMW's silent i8 Roadster is driven for the first time. Mercedes-Benz's huge G63 AMG also rocks up. Finally, Brabham finally unveils the £1.2m BT62. Mira Orange Senna flies around Silverstone. Image credit: Autocar McLaren Senna prototype Anyone remember the P1? Of course you do. 903bhp pedalled 1375kg of hybrid V8 madness around, and 640kg of air was happy to help out with sticking the whole thing to the track. Well this time, you've got no batteries, no electric motors, and no 'form over function' thinking here. McLaren accepts that this isn't the nicest thing to look at, but anyway, the 720S is one of the best looking cars of the decade, and that's £550k less, and not sold out. Anyway, here you have 789bhp, 590lb-ft of torque and 800kg of downforce. Dry weight? A bag-of-crisps-like 1198kg. That's courtesy of a f...

Porsche's 911 GT3 RS is tested and Mercedes gets a new engine for the E-Class and a new rival for the S-Class: the Polestar 1. Porsche 911 GT3 RS review: can the perennial irritatingly good sports car hold its own on track? Annoyingly, it can. 513bhp and a screaming 4.0l naturally-aspirated flat-six tends to do that. The headline figures are the redline of the engine and the extraordinary power squeezed from a relatively small engine. That's 20bhp more than the standard car and the same 9,000rpm limiter, but a new, GT2 RS-derived aerodynamics package and a substantial £143,000 pricetag. So is it worth it? Lizard Green is a bold colour choice. Picture credits: Evo The 991.2 911 GT3 RS has lapped the Nürburgring already , in a scorching 6:56.4, thanks to all the new aero gubbins and the extra power. That is faster than the 875bhp 918 Spyder, and is also known as progress. "It climbs through the 7 gears with a lively fervour, the engine scaling the stairway t...

Brabham Automotive has risen from the deep, Porsche records a scorching laptime at the Nürburgring, and two new hatchbacks are driven: the Suzuki Swift Sport and the Mercedes-Benz A-Class. That rear wing contributes to a huge 1200kg of downforce Brabham BT62 Brabham is one of those names that make a Formula 1 fan spontaneously combust with excitement. Their mix of innovation, cheeky rule-bending and records to their name sets the knees of any petrolhead trembling. Founded by Sir Jack Brabham, he managed to make himself the first driver to win a championship in a car bearing his own name. Their most famous car was the BT04, using a fan to physically suck the car towards the track. They're back. They're back with this, the BT62, and the headline figures, much like the Dallara Stradale  are of high downforce and a tiny dry weight. 972kg is all that keeps the car on the ground at standstill, but at 155mph, an extra 1200kg is happy to help. 1200kg. That is the highest downf...

The new Aston-Martin Vantage hits the streets, and Ford takes the wraps off its new Focus. Chevrolet's Camaro gets a mid-life uglification. New Aston Martin Vantage  Aston Martins are a bit like Subway sandwiches. They don't tend to be spot on the first time you try, but with time and careful honing, they grow on you and the final result is fantastic. And, with no 'Comfort' mode and a lazy automatic gearbox, the new Vantage seems like it will follow suit. However, things aren't quite as they seem with this one. Although Astons are typically luxurious and genteel GT cars, the Vantage was launched in a decidedly un-luxurious and un-genteel shade of lime green (the car on the right in the first photo). It also ditches any rubber damping on the mounts for the engine and gearbox, and so, despite resting on a modified DB11 platform, is far more like a sports car in principle. Take the engine, for example. 503bhp and 505lb-ft is exactly the same as the Merc-AMG C6...

2018's new Le Mans Prototype contenders arrive and manufacturers announce hybrid next generation performance cars. The WEC is my favourite racing series. My special favourite is the 24hrs of Le Mans, due to the last-minute rivalries and overtakes, reliability troubles, madly brave drivers, the spaceships in the LMP1 and LMP2 classes, and the fact that it stays exciting through the whole 24(!) hours. Well, the LMP1 racers have just dropped, and it turns out that, although Audi ended an 18-year career as the most successful team ever and Porsche turned its back on two consecutive wins to both enter the electric Formula E series, the tragic tale of Toyota leading LM two years ago and breaking down on the final lap will live on. Toyota is sticking in the game for yet another year. Toyota's contender is once again called the TSO50, and is once again powered by a 2.4l twin-turbocharged V6, with the obligatory flywheel, battery or supercapacitor boost, with Toyota opting f...

All the best from the New York Auto Show 2018. The NY show this year was, despite the Koenigsegg Regera poster car, not festooned with hypercars and track specials. The focus was more on practicality, with two pairs of classic rivals fighting it out for the sales advantage, if we're being brutally honest. Jaguar and Maserati both unveiled performance versions of their first SUVs, while Mercedes-AMG and Audi went into classic super-saloon warfare. The RS5 has been timed at 3.2s to 62, proper supercar pace. The Audi RS5 Sportback is a 4-door version of the dull Coupé version, and so is just as powerful, nearly as quick and slightly heavier, at 1840kg. That means 444bhp, 443lb ft of torque, 0-62mph in 4.1s claimed. You can read the whole story on it by clicking  on these words. These two are classic saloon rivals, representing sensible vs stupid. The Mercedes C63 has been given a mid-life facelift, and by clicking on the link, you can learn the 503bhp monster's whole s...

The Audi RS5 Sportback and the facelifted Mercedes-AMG C63 are both revealed at the New York Auto Show. Jaguar unveils the F-Pace SVR. The Audi RS5 Coupé hasn't been given a lot of love by journalists, and has been criticised far and wide for being dull and aloof. Audi's answer to this is the new Sportback version, with four doors, a first for the RS5 (although a regular S5 bodystyle) and normal RS innards. That means a 2.9l biturbo V6, also found in some Porsche models, producing 444bhp and 443lb ft of torque, and rocketing the 1840kg (slightly more than usual) RS5 Sportback to 62mph in just 3.9s, which is two tenths tardier than the Coupé (although TopGear has timed that car at a ludicrous 3.2s), and on to an electronically capped top speed of 155mph, or if you tick certain boxes, 174mph. Pricing starts at around 63 grand. We've got high hopes for this one if they can sort the chassis. Naturally, however, in the German holy trinity of £60k super-saloons, it isn...

The F1 season kicks off, Dallara launches the Stradale and the new Ford Mustang is driven. VW unveils the new Tiguan. F1 season F1 2018, after many complaints of the cars sounding rubbish, the new 'halo' device (protection for drivers, shown below) looking hideous, the whole thing being a one-horse race... Basically a lot of abuse and groaning from the loyal fanbase negated Liberty Media's attempts to make people excited for the coming season. That isn't to mention Formula E's stunning looking Gen 5 car, polar-bear friendly propulsion and wheel-to-wheel races. However, it has started off nonetheless with the Melbourne GP this year, and, annoyingly for all the keyboard warriors of the world, the Halo doesn't look all that bad on the cars. Speaking of looking, from Williams' recent onboard video, visibility does seem to be an issue. The central support arm blocks the driver's view on straights, which might make seeing - which, surprisingly, is quit...

If you aren't yet versed in car terminology, or the current state of the automotive world, then this is a post to get you up to speed. I'll start with a bit of a glossary, so for the beginners, these words should make a bit more sense now. -bhp: An acronym standing for 'brake horsepower'. This has the effect of making an engine sustain an input under more and more stress. Most sports cars have over 340bhp, most supercars over 550, and most hypercars over 750. -Torque (measured in lb ft): This is the amount of force an engine creates to push the car forward. Most cars have similar torque figures to power figures, but diesel cars and hybrids often push well above their weight. (Figuratively speaking, as most of them are very heavy) -Kerbweight: The weight of a car with no fuel, fluids or driver in it. Quite literally, the sum of a car's parts. A normal car weighs around 1600kg, an SUV about 2 tonnes and a supercar about 1300. We all secretly wish that cars weighed...

Geneva Motor Show report and the death of the Audi R8. The Geneva International Motor Show doesn’t need a whole lot of introduction. It is the pinnacle of jaws hitting the floor. Not exactly surprisingly, Geneva last year did nothing short of amazing everyone, with new supercars being the main name of the game. The gleaming machines littered the halls, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that 2018’s GIMS had, despite the weight-reducing efforts of the show cars, a LOT to live up to. Luckily, however, the high rolling cars managed to roll even higher, with the first two days being a frenzy of track-focused hyper and supercars, as you shall see.  As a recap, last year gave us the McLaren 720S, Ferrari 812 Superfast (nope, still sounds weird), Lamborghini Huracán Performante, and much more in the way of start-up electric cars. This is a report on this year’s contenders, so sit back, relax, and enjoy the article. The first thing to come racing onto the showstands was, after a...