Porsche 959 prototype to cross the block at Barrett-Jackson

When Professor Helmuth Bott arrived at the fledgling Porsche sports-car company in 1952, he was in his late 20s. The young engineer's first assignment was setting up a gearbox test stand for the company's new all-syncromesh Type 519 transaxle. Thirty-one years later, he gave the go-ahead for the development of a car that was to be the ultimate bleeding edge of what Porsche knew about building a rear-engined sports car.

Mini Clubvan (2012) first official pictures

Mini's relentless push to retro-ify all our lives has brought about the seventh model in its range: the new 2012 Mini Clubvan. Essentially a van-spec version of the curious Clubman small estate, it's aimed at small businesses and fans of outdoor hobbies with cumbersome, expensive equipment, says Mini. It's a production version of the concept seen at the 2012 Geneva motor show.

BMW ActiveHybrid X6 introduced

BMW has released details and images of the BMW ActiveHybrid X6 BMW claim the X6 ActiveHybrid as the most powerful Hybrid car in production, with its total power output of 480 horses and 575lb/ft of torque. That’s a bit better than a Prius! All this power comes from the BMW 4.4 litre twin-turbo lump, coupled to a pair of electric motors that deliver 91bhp and 86bhp respectively.