Hellwig Mini Truck Helper Spring 1515 on 2040-parts.com

Modified Mercedes turned to gold

GERMAN tuning firms are known for occasionally crossing the barriers of taste, but this latest offering from Carlsson appears to have gone into new territory. Called the CS50 Versailles – after the Palace of Versailles that King Louis XIV turned into a opulent chateau – it’s based on the latest generation Mercedes-Benz S-Class, which is hardly a car short on luxury. But that hasn’t stopped Carlsson turning it into an automotive homage to gold.

Nissan X-Trail stars at the 2013 Frankfurt Motor Show

Nissan has revealed its much-needed new X-Trail here at the 2013 Frankfurt Motor Show – a genuinely global car that will now be sold in 190 countries around the world from 2014. The new Nissan X-Trail has evolved to become more of a crossover model than the traditional 4x4-look old version: Nissan reckons it is the ‘ultimate all-weather highly capable modern family vehicle’.

McLaren Automotive First Anniversary: 1,000 McLaren MP4-12C sold and counting

McLaren Automotive is a year old and is celebrating selling over 1,000 McLaren MP4-12Cs in the first twelve months. It’s actually a bit more than  three years since Ron Dennis announced the formation of McLaren Automotive, which had a live launch on Cars UK on 18th March 2010. But McLaren don’t seem to acknowledge that date as the start of McLaren Automotive but instead prefer the date the first MP4-12C was sold – exactly one year ago today on June 21st 2011.