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Historic first Porsche P1 electric vehicle goes on display

In what at first glance appears to be a blatant attempt to upset McLaren’s SEO – that’s Search Engine Optimisation – a Porsche P1 model has been announced. But this is no fearsome new 1,000hp rival to McLaren’s P1 hypercar (after all, Porsche already has one of those). Rather, the Porsche P1 actually dates from 1898, and produces just 3hp.

Mercedes launch new 9G-Tronic gearbox on E350 BlueTec

New Mercedes E350 BlueTec (pictured) gets 9-speed 9G-TRONIC auto It’s not exactly a million years ago that automatic gearboxes offered poorer performance and economy than manual gearboxes, and came as standard with just three gears. But now, automatic gearboxes are so good they can  change quicker than any driver and, with the proliferation of eight-speed auto ‘boxes, offer improved economy and performance too. The next logical step is even more ratios in an auto ‘box, and Land Rover has already revealed they’ll be fitting the Evoque with a 9-speed ZF ‘box from 2014, and the new Jeep Grand Cherokee gets a nine-speed auto ‘box too.

Punchy diesel bound for Mini Cooper

By Phil McNamara Motor Industry 07 November 2006 09:00 Mini is planning the first ever diesel Cooper – and the common-rail unit will have almost 50 percent more power than the outgoing Toyota engine. The Mini Cooper diesel will run the 1.6-litre HDi four, which features in Peugeot-Citroen and Ford cars. Peak power is 110bhp, with 180lb ft of torque on tap.