More than a (gull)wing and a prayer

They make up just six percent of Mercedes car sales in the United States—but nothing preserves and proliferates the top-shelf, seductive image of a Benz like a sports car. This is a point that's been driven home to me in a wide array of circumstances this year: Mercedes sports cars are still rock stars. I'll admit, I've often been a skeptic.

Porsche 918 Spyder hits the Nurburgring (video)

The Porsche 918 Spyder – Porsche’s hybrid replacement for the Carrera GT – has been caught on video at the Nurburgring. Incredibly, it’s more that two years since Porsche took the wraps of the 918 Spyder at the 2010 Geneva Motor Show, yet we’re still more than a year away from actually seeing production cars. But Porsche are putting their time to good use. Porsche has made a few cosmetic tweaks already from the original 918 Concept, but they’ve also let it be known that the 918 Spyder will get a 550bhp 4.6 litre V8 to go with its electric motors on the front wheels  (one less motor than originally envisaged – there was going to be one one the back axle too), which will make the 918 Spyder a FWD Porsche when in EV mode.

Hyundai ix35: Prices and specs revealed en France

The Hyundai ix35 - the French get prices and specs before the UK We’ve been expecting Hyundai in the UK to release prices and specs for the new Hyundai ix35 for a few weeks now. We had a fair bit of information on the UK Hyundai ix35 back in September at Frankfurt, but for whatever reason we haven’t had price and model detail. So as Hyundai in Europe have got their act together and sent out details of what’s on offer in the ix35 range – and for how much – we thought that you might like a glimpse of what we’re likely to get.