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Caterham Sevens reimagined as classic F1 cars

You could never really call the Caterham Seven modern – its look has remained fundamentally unchanged since the original Lotus Seven (the car Caterham would eventually buy the rights to build) launched back in 1957. Today, the engine is still in the front, those delightfully exposed front wheels still float over bumps and the frog-eyed headlights serve as a reminder of years gone by. And now the modern Seven has been taken right back to the period where it was first conceived, with these Grand Prix-style racers from Zolland Design.

Hyundai developing new test centre at Nurburgring

Hyundai has revealed they are building a new test centre at the Nurburgring to help develop driving dynamics for their European cars. We already know that Hyundai are going to make 2012 a brand building exercise, with much effort going in to raising the experience and profile of the Hyundai of today. Part of that is entering WRC rallying with the i20 for the sprinkle of performance dust it will cover Hyundai’s product range with and, hopefully, point towards a serious intent to develop more extreme versions of their performance models.

German new car sales drop 11 per cent – pre-reg accounts for 33.5 per cent

New car sales in Germany dropped by 11 per cent in September with pre-reg cars accounting for over a third of all sales. That drop of 11 per cent in Germany is despite deep discount offers – an average of 12.2 per cent in September – with even the previously invincible Mercedes and VW having to offer discounts of up to €3k, despite which VW’s sales fell by 20 per cent in Germany and Mercedes by 12 per cent. What’s perhaps most interesting about the decline in car sales in Germany is the number of pre-reg cars sold (pre reg cars are cars registered by dealers to hit sales targets and then sold at a discount of up to 25 per cent).