Vintage Cal-marine Exhaust Manifold on 2040-parts.com

Volkswagen XL1

This, remarkably, is the production version of the Volkswagen XL1, the most fuel-efficient production car in the world, a car we'll see in Geneva in a little over a week. Barely changed from the concept version shown at the Qatar motor show two years ago, the production XL1 is the first production result of VW's 1-liter project – to design a car that uses less than 1l/100km (282.5mpg imperial) – that started with the lozenge-shaped, tandem-seat 2003 1L and the later L1 of 2009. The XL1 actually beats that by sipping just 0.9 liters with CO2 emissions of 21g/km.

The Toyota FT-1 sure does look like the Bertone Mantide

We really liked the Toyota FT-1, which caught us off guard in the best possible way when it emerged at the Detroit auto show. In fact, we liked Toyota's “spiritual pace car” enough to call it the most fun new thing on the floor -- and we're hoping the automaker's execs take notice. Reader Dennis Liu certainly noticed the car, which seemed rather familiar to him: He feels that, coincidentally or not, it looks a lot like the Bertone Mantide.

McLaren P1: Paris 2012

The McLaren P1 – spiritual successor to the iconic McLaren F1 – has been publicly revealed at the 2012 Paris Motor Show. Still, we do have more details on the P1 concept that McLaren say will turn in to a production car in 2013 before it finds its way in to the garages of wealthy McLaren customers in 2014. The McLaren P1 is designed to be “…the best driver’s car in the world on road and track” according to McLaren, which is setting the bar a bit higher than high, and the concept P1 at Paris is – at least in terms of what we can see – 95 per cent of what the production model will be.