Mason Gibbons

Have you ever wanted to own a race car with actual racing provenance? Today is your lucky day. Well, really every day is your lucky day if you can afford to buy this McLaren F1 GTR. That's because it's a multi-million-dollar, race-prepped F1 that's been used in battle, now ready for road-legal driving duty. And it's offered for sale in England by...

Every media outlet in the world covered Volkswagen's tangled web of lies and deceit as "Dieselgate" opened up and spewed the truth nearly three years ago. Its consequences are ongoing today, and VW's future trajectory has been changed forever. But, how exactly did VW's "defeat device" work? Jason Fenske, host of Engineering Explained, breaks it...

The McLaren Senna is a harbinger of things to come, at least as far as its name goes. Unlike previous McLarens, the Senna discarded with alphanumerics in favor of honoring F1 driver Aryton Senna. Autocar reported Tuesday that McLaren CEO Mike Flewitt prefers actual names for the sports car firm's top cars. The strategy is already in motion with...

A coupé Abarth 124 isn’t happening, but the 124 gets a carbonfibre removable hard-top and exclusive parts Abarth has revealed the 124 GT ahead of its official unveiling at the Geneva motor show next week.  The GT gets a removable hard-top roof, made of carbonfibre and weighing 16kg, is lined on the inside, although has to be stored separately when not in use, unlike the Mazda MX-5 RF ’s folding hard-top.  The hard-top roof adds rigidity to the car’s chassis, although Abarth hasn’t specified by how much. The roof’s carbon fibre construction is a market first, though. It’s equipped with de-misters in the rear window, insulation and soundproofing, though.  It also gets exclusive parts like lightweight OZ alloys, which shave 3kg off the standard Abarth 124 's kerb weight, and tweaked styling. The standard 124 weighs 1060kg, so the GT weighs 1073kg Performance is unchanged - the same 1.4-litre turbocharged engine gives 168bhp and 184lb ft of torque, equating to uncha...

Formula One testing is underway ahead of the upcoming 2018 season. One of the biggest changes for this year's cars is how teams and drivers respond to that new batch of bodywork sitting in front of the cockpit. Last year, the FIA decided that a halo would be used to protect drivers from debris and now we're finally able to see what that means for...

Aston Martin is prepping for a big 2018. The automaker is still smiling from turning a profit for the first time since 2010. Fresh new machines will help do that, and to share those machines with the world, Aston Martin will have an expanded presence at the 2018 Geneva Motor Show. "Geneva is a highlight of the industry calendar...It’s always...

Ferrari says there was "no point" in trying to do any running on the snow and rain-affected third day of Formula 1 testing at Barcelona

It's always interesting to hear different points of view from outside the sport on what's good and bad in the world of Formula 1

McLaren's Fernando Alonso was the only driver to post a time during the third day of Formula 1 testing at Barcelona, which was affected by snow and heavy rain

Self-driving cars, once strictly the domain of science fiction, are already being commercialized. And the commercial opportunities extend far beyond the transport of people, as long-haul cargo, your latest Amazon purchase, or even a humble pizza will most likely in the not too distant future be shuttled around by automated means. Yes, even pizza...

The sudden death of "Fast and Furious" star Paul Walker left automotive enthusiasts and movie fans shocked five years ago. On Wednesday, Paramount Network announced it's working on a documentary looking at the star's rise to fame and unexpected death. Set to debut in summer 2018, the documentary will be directed and co-produced by Derik Murray and...

Audi's A6, while always handsome, has tended to lack a bit of personality looks-wise. That all changes with the latest generation, which arrives for the 2019 model year. It has a wide, powerful stance that really ups the aggression, and dynamic performance should be up too thanks to a lighter and stiffer platform. Italdesign founder Giogietto...

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff believes rival Renault will make the biggest step of any Formula 1 team in 2018

BMW will reveal a new concept for its upcoming M8 at the Geneva motor show Hot 8 Series model will come in two-door coupé and convertible forms, as well as in four-door Gran Coupé guise BMW  will reveal a concept version of its M8 performance car with a four-door Gran Coupé body at the Geneva motor show . The concept, partially shown in a new shadowy picture, will preview the look and styling of the M division's 600bhp range-topper in its most practical guise. Along with those new back doors, it will have a longer roofline to offer increased rear head room. The BMW Concept M8 Gran Coupé, as it is expected to be called, foreshadows a production version that's due out next year. The four-door version of the M8 will sit alongside the coupé and convertible models at the top of the new 8 Series range, which will appear on public roads in November. BMW 8 Series: official development car pictures released Although it has yet to be officially revealed...

This is the new Honda Jazz 1.5 i-VTEC Sport Honda's spacious supermini gets a Sport badge – but don't expect much in the way of added dynamism Here’s an oxymoron if ever there was one: a Sport badge on a Honda Jazz. Yet, that moment has arrived as part of a series of revisions to your nan’s favourite supermini with the space of a mini-MPV.The Sport badge refers more to exterior tweaks than dynamic ones (think the usual sporty bodykit and alloy treatment), but there’s a mild whiff of sport about the new 1.5-litre engine and its 128bhp and 114lb ft.Those figures are no hot hatch – and not even warm hatch – but the experience of our first drive on UK roads shows they at least provide something other than pure visual trickery to justify that Sport badge. 

At least one of the 500 individuals awarded a build slot for the McLaren Senna supercar has opted to have most of it's beautiful carbon fiber left exposed, and McLaren will treat us with the unveiling of the completed car at next week's 2018 Geneva International Motor Show. It's one of five themes the MSO personalization department is offering to...

Honda Civic Type R These are our favourite hot hatches currently on sale. But who will claim the top spot? When it comes to the balance of performance, cost and practicality, no other type of vehicle does it better than the hot hatch. The idea of taking a regular family hatchback and turning it into a performance car has proved hugely popular, especially in the UK.  Volkswagen took ownership of the concept with the Mk1 Golf GTI of 1976  and, today, most manufacturers have one of these fundamentally enjoyable cars in their line-up. From mega-power German luxo-hatches to newcomers from Hyundai , the segment has never offered so much choice. Creating some semblance of order, here are our top 10 picks. 1. H onda Civic Type R The best hot front-driver of the moment is worth the financial stretch – this is a seriously involving effort from Honda , giving you grip when you need it and adjustability when you want it. That combination yields sensational agility...

Germany's top court has given the green light to the cities of Stuttgart and Duesseldorf to ban older, more polluting diesel cars from entering areas worst affected by pollution. The ruling was made Tuesday by the Federal Administrative Court in Leipzig in response to appeals from some German states against bans imposed by local courts in...

Valtteri Bottas says he will not "waste my energy" on playing mind games with Mercedes Formula 1 team-mate Lewis Hamilton in 2018

McLaren has revealed its Geneva motor show-bound Senna hypercar, customised by the McLaren Special Operations division Yellow and green details take inspiration from Ayrton Senna’s helmet livery, dominated by carbonfibre. Blistering performance of the 789bhp hypercar remains the same McLaren has revealed its Geneva motor show-bound Senna hypercar customised by the  McLaren Special Operations (MSO) division. The show car features bare carbonfibre bodywork, with flashes of yellow and green across the exterior and interior paying tribute to the car’s namesake, Ayrton Senna – Senna’s racing helmet was finished in yellow, green and black. No performance upgrades have been applied to the 789bhp, 590lb ft hypercar by MSO .  The Carbon Theme pack is one of five available from MSO for the Senna and adds seven-spoke carbonfibre and aluminium wheels that weigh 10% less than the standard wheels and are now available across all Sennas. The wheels also h...

After staying well away from the digital space during the Bernie Ecclestone era, Formula 1 is now fully embracing it by launching an ad-free, feature-rich online streaming service. The sport's commercial side, owned by America's Liberty Media since 2016, announced on Tuesday the upcoming launch of F1 TV. It's due to go live close to the start of...

Skoda's first electrified car will be a PHEV version of the Superb Czech firm's electrification plan to kick off with Superb PHEV in 2019 – but the firm believes combustion engines can be just as clean Skoda’s head of powertrains wants the European Union to broaden the scope of emission regulations to take into account CO2 created in the production of energy. The EU currently sets car firms CO2 targets based on a fleet average output, measured at the exhaust. With the emissions targets set to tighten substantially in the coming years – and with heavy penalties for firms that don’t meet them – manufacturers are being led to develop full electric vehicles, which produce no CO2 at the tail pipe. Skoda to showcase natural gas hybrid in Vision X concept Skoda’s electrification strategy, part of a wider target by the Volkswagen Group, will start in 2019 with the introduction of a Superb PHEV in 2019, featuring a 1.4-litre 154bhp petrol engine and an 114bhp electric motor integ...

Sergey Sirotkin and Lance Stroll will have two race engineers each for the 2018 Formula 1 season as part of an operational staffing reshuffle at Williams

The current Leon (pictured) has been on sale since 2012 Due in summer 2019, the fourth-generation Leon will also get a plug-in powertrain Seat is developing its next Leon with an industry-leading infotainment system and striking new design to boost its appeal in an increasingly competitive C-segment. Due in summer 2019, the fourth-generation Leon is also expected to gain a crossover variant and introduce plug-in hybrid technology. “It has fantastic design, fantastic technology and fantastic user interface,” S eat research and development boss, Matthias Rabe, told Autocar at the Mobile World Congress tech show in Barcelona. 296bhp Cupra Ateca revealed as first car from Seat performance brand The new car will be one of the first within the VW Group  to feature a new infotainment system with the ability to update maps, apps and functionality over-the-air, much like your smartphone. While the technology will be used across VW, Seat is as the forefront within the group in deve...

Citroen has dropped the Picasso name from its line-up Firm says C4 Spacetourer and Grand C4 Spacetourer monikers are more closely aligned with its largest people carrier Citroën has dropped the Picasso name from its C4 MPV models in favour of Spacetourer in an effort to align them more closely with its largest people carrier. A spokesman told Autocar that the newly named C4 Spacetourer and Grand C4 Spacetourer models would now have “a better synergy” with the brand’s larger  Spacetourer MPV, which can seat up to nine passengers. The Picasso name, which has been used on the C4 five and seven-seat MPVs since their birth in 2006, was said to have created an unwanted “break between the mid and large-sized MPVs”. Citroën said the clearer alignment would better illustrate the trio of Spacetourer models’ close relationship. They’re all built on the EMP2 platform. Sales of the C4 MPV models have remained strong despite a downturn in the segment’s demand. Citroën sold ...

Aston Martin's financial turnaround is complete as the company on Tuesday announced its first annual pre-tax profit since 2010 and is poised to grow substantially in the coming years. The British sports car marque's profit for 2017 came in at $121 million, overturning a loss of $226 million reported the previous year. This was on the back of...

Germany's highest court has granted city councils the right to ban diesel vehicles from their centres. We look at what this means for the car industry Two and half years since  Dieselgate first broke, car makers are finally facing serious trouble. Germany’s highest administrative court has paved the way for state and municipal governments to introduce bans on diesel vehicles without the need for permission from the central government. What is so surprising is that, when any ban is put in place, it will immediately drive Euro 5 diesel-engined cars off city roads, followed by Euro 6 vehicles in September 2019. The ruling states that vehicles can be banned from certain areas once the engine pollution regulation is six years old. The Euro 5 rating was launched in 2010. Environmental pressure groups have been pressing both Düsseldorf and Stuttgart to take more drastic measures to clean up their air . These two cities - like more than 70 others in Germany - re...

Formula 1's first test has revealed a number of innovations not obvious on carefully-manipulated launch images, including an aggressive rear suspension design on the McLaren-Renault MCL33

Meet the new Kona Electric, a pint-sized electric crossover SUV from Hyundai that promises up to 292 miles of range on a single charge. That figure is for the Kona Electric's long-range option, which comes with a 64-kilowatt-hour lithium-ion battery and 201-horsepower electric motor. The base Kona Electric comes with a 39.2-kwh battery good for a...

Efforts by some Formula 1 teams to reschedule Wednesday's snow-hit Barcelona test day appear unlikely to succeed

Haas team boss Gunther Steiner says the "brutal" logistical demands of Formula 1 pre-season testing would have made going to Bahrain impractical for smaller teams

Honda set the front-wheel-drive lap record at the Nürburgring last year 2009 F1 champ will be among line-up of racers for Honda’s 2018 ‘Time Attack’ challenge Jenson Button will be one of four racing drivers tasked with breaking lap records at iconic European circuits in the latest Honda Civic Type R . 2009 Formula 1 champion and current NSX Super GT driver Button (pictured, below) joins a line-up featuring Honda World Touring Car Cup drivers Tiago Monteiro and Esteban Guerrieri, as well as fellow NSX Super GT racer Bertrand Baguette. The racers will split the drive of the FK8-generation hot hatch across a list of circuits, which include tracks where the car’s predecessor, the FK2, currently holds the front-wheel-drive lap record: Silverstone, Spa-Francorchamps and Estoril. The FK8, which will be revealed at the Geneva motor show next week, will attempt to set new benchmarks at these tracks while also heading to more circuits with the ambition of laying down further front-...

We’ve seen the US-spec CR-V; now take a look at the UK-spec car. There’s a hybrid on the way too The new Honda CR-V has been revealed in European specification , with the option of seven seats and a hybrid variant marking a departure from the current car.  On the outside, the CR-V gets a new look, with the family face of other Honda models, but the same traditional SUV shape.  Under the bonnet is either a 1.5-litre turbocharged VTEC petrol engine, available with either a manual or CVT gearbox, or a 2.0-litre i-VTEC petrol engine with two electric motors - one for propulsion and one electric generator motor - that was previewed by a prototype version at last year’s Frankfurt motor show. The gearbox on the hybrid is a new single fixed-gear ratio transmission, which Honda claims ensures smoother torque delivery. A system called i-MMD (Intelligent Multi-Mode Drive) manages the powertrain, so drivers don’t have to switch between the three drive modes - EV Drive ,...

Audi wanted to make the new A6 look the sportiest in its class Audi designer Philipp Romers told Autocar that the new A6 has been given its own character We spoke to the exterior designer of the new A6 , Philippe Romers, on what he was trying to achieve with the model, the importance of looking different to other Audis and how design has contributed to Audi's ambitions to make the A6 more sporty than before.  What was your goal in designing the A6 ? “It is the third car with Audi’s new design language after the A8 and A7 . We have been criticised in the past for not differentiating our cars’ designs enough. Now, we give every car its own character. Our aim was to make the most sporty car in the segment.” 2018 Audi A6 revealed  How have you achieved that differentiation? “It has more muscular looks and a lower shoulder line than its siblings. The shoulder line leads towards the wheel, accentuating quattro [Audi’s four-wheel drive system], which is different to the A8. ...

The start of day three of 2018 Formula 1 testing has been delayed as snow blanketed Barcelona

The Skoda Vision X will be shown at Geneva Skoda's CNG hybrid electric powertrain, which has already been tested in a Karoq, showcases a way to effectively bring four-wheel drive to smaller vehicles Skoda will use the Vision X SUV concept that it will display at the upcoming  Geneva motor show to showcase a compressed natural gas (CNG) hybrid electric powertrain. The Vision X is a compact crossover that previews a similar-sized production model due to arrive next year. Based on the same version of the Volkswagen Group MQB platform as the Seat Arona and Volkswagen T-Roc , the new production model will be the third in Skoda’s SUV line, underneath the Karoq and Kodiaq . 2018 Geneva motor show preview The Geneva concept’s innovative powertrain is designed to bring focus to the way increasingly tightening regulations on CO2 emissions in the European Union are set . At the moment, CO2 emissions of a car are determined purely by its exhaust out...

Giogietto Giugiaro and his son Fabrizio have revealed the latest vehicle penned inside the walls of their recently established design studio GFG Style: the Sibylla concept. GFG revealed the concept vehicle, an electric sedan, on Tuesday ahead of its debut on March 6 at the 2018 Geneva International Motor Show. The electric sedan features a smart...

The latest edition of The Autosport Podcast cuts through the cold of Barcelona to decipher the stories behind the times at the Barcelona Formula 1 test

Audi wanted to make the new A6 look the sportiest in its class Audi designer Philipp Romers told Autocar that the new A6 has been given its own character We spoke to the exterior designer of the new A6 , Philippe Romers, on what he was trying to achieve with the model, the importance of looking different to other Audis and how design has contributed to Audi's ambitions to make the A6 more sporty than before.  What was your goal in designing the A6 ? “It is the third car with Audi’s new design language after the A8 and A7 . We have been criticised in the past for not differentiating our cars’ designs enough. Now, we give every car its own character. Our aim was to make the most sporty car in the segment.” 2018 Audi A6 revealed  How have you achieved that differentiation? “It has more muscular looks and a lower shoulder line than its siblings. The shoulder line leads towards the wheel, accentuating quattro [Audi’s four-wheel drive system], which is different to the A8. ...