Behind The Scenes: Hot Wheels Design Studio [w/Video]

Hot Wheels' vice president of design Felix Holst has spent some time chatting to Cool Hunting about the brand's design philosophy at its Design Studio at Mattel's headquarters in El Segundo, California, in a new video. According to Holst Hot Wheels has evolved from being focused on muscle cars and V8 engines to being all about technology as a reflection of the new generation they're designing for.  He explains the benefits of designing over 240 vehicles a year that aren't limited by rules and regulations, saying in a studio that's driven by pushing the boundaries, it's a question of just how wild they can get.  The video really captures not only the men's passion for their jobs but the fun they have doing it. Small wonder Holst says he'd never go back to car design, and reveals the studio is packed with qualified car designers who chose Hot Wheels over conventional jobs in the industry.  We also hear from Hot Wheels Car Maker's designer Julian Payne, who explains how the new Car Maker – which gives you the chance to mold your own custom Hot Wheels at home – works.

Porsche 918 Spyder to get 875bhp to take on McLaren P1 & LaFerrari

The Porche 918 Spyder – Porsche’s hybrid supercar – is to get a power boost and go on a diet to better compete with the McLaren P1 and LaFerrari. But the duo of hybrid supercars at Geneva will become a trio at the Frankfurt Motor Show in September when the Porsche 918 Spyder gets revealed in final production form before heading for a select group of customers in 2014. It does seem to have taken Porsche quite a while to get the 918 Spyder in production-ready guise  but it seems they may have been waiting to see what McLaren and Ferrari had up their collective sleeves before settling on a production specification for the 918 Spyder.

Range Rover Sport RS caught on video at Nurburgring

Range Rover Sport RS caught on video at Nurburgring The new Range Rover Sport is only just starting to fin its way on toi the road after its debut at the Geneva Motor Show in March, but Land Rover are already planning a more potent version – the Range Rover Sport RS. The ‘RRSRS’ is Land Rover’s answer to cars like the Porsche Cayenne Turbo S and comes equipped with the same supercharged V8 as the new XJR, XFR-S and XKR-S, offering around 542bhp, which should give the already very able Range Rover Sport proper supercar performance – something in the region of 4.5 seconds 0-60mph seems likely. Despite the Range Rover Sport RS blatting round the Nurburgring with a fair degree of swirly camouflage, you can already see it’s getting a new front bumper with bigger intakes and a redesign to the back bumper too.