Mason Gibbons

How we think the upcoming Mercedes-Benz SL will look Eighth generation of the legendary convertible will return to its sporting roots, sharing a new platform with the next AMG GT Mercedes-Benz is preparing to revive its iconic SL as a lighter, faster and far more engaging model featuring engineering input from the German manufacturer’s AMG performance car division. Autocar can confirm that the eighth-generation model will receive a traditional fabric hood in place of the folding hard-top arrangement that has been used for the past two incarnations of the SL. It is scheduled to reach UK showrooms in 2020 based on an all-new platform, key elements of which are set to be shared by a planned successor model to the AMG GT . The new aluminium-intensive platform, known internally as the MSA (modular sports architecture) structure, has been conceived to provide both the new SL and future GT with largely common underpinnings in an attempt to increase the economies of scale and overall pr...

Everything that’s good about the Seat Ateca, with added performance and a bit of extra polish, even in prototype form Right, let’s be clear about this. The SUV you see here is the Cupra Ateca and not, you must understand, the Seat Ateca Cupra. That might sound like a minor spot of nomenclature, but understanding the difference between Cupra as a Seat performance badge and Cupra as a Seat sub-brand is key to understanding the aims of this definitely-not-a-Seat Ateca.While Cupra-badged Seat models were all about performance, the Cupra sub-brand has a slightly different brief, mixing performance with ‘uniqueness and sophistication’. The idea is that Cupra-branded models will appeal to a slightly more affluent audience, willing to pay higher margins.That’s why the first Cupra model is an Ateca and not, say, a Cupra Ibiza. Seat believes there are bigger margins to be had making a high performance family SUV than a hot hatch. And Seat also believes there’s a fairly sizeable gap in the marke...

Turkington clinched his third title at Brands Hatch BMW racer secures crown despite difficult outing at Kent track, while Cammish and Sutton end season with race wins BMW driver Colin Turkington secured his third British Touring Car Championship title in the 2018 season finale at Brands Hatch - despite failing to score points in two of the three races. Dan Cammish and Ash Sutton also left the Kent track celebrating: Honda Civic Type R racer Cammish scored his first two career BTCC wins, while 2017 champ Sutton claimed his sixth victory of the season in the final race. Northern Irish racer Turkington entered the season finale 34 points clear of title rival Tom Ingram , and extended his advantage with a 12th place finish in the opener, when both drivers were hampered by success ballast. Ingram could only muster 14th in his Toyota Avensis . Inside the 2018 Honda Civic Type R BTCC racer Meanwhile, Cammish became the 17th different winner of the season, after battling past pole-si...

Toto Wolff took responsibility for Mercedes pitting Lewis Hamilton later than planned in the Russian GP that exposed him to Sebastian Vettel, as he had distracted chief strategist James Vowles

Renault driver Carlos Sainz blamed Williams driver Sergey Sirotkin for the clash that ended his hopes of a good result in Formula 1's Russian Grand Prix

Formula 1 championship leader Lewis Hamilton says he never asked for, and never wanted, the use of team orders in the Russian Grand Prix to help him win the race

Sebastian Vettel has defended Mercedes' tactics in the Russian Grand Prix, calling the rival Formula 1 team's decision to move Valtteri Bottas aside for Lewis Hamilton a "no-brainer"

Pierre Gasly says a piece of debris got past the halo on his Formula 1 car and hit his visor on the opening lap of the Russian Grand Prix

Red Bull's Max Verstappen abandoned the chance of a late-race surge on new tyres in Formula 1's Russian Grand Prix to save his engine for the remainder of 2018

Esteban Ocon believes Force India needs to review its approach to Formula 1's Russian Grand Prix, after a decision to swap its cars around failed to gain it any places

Toto Wolff says Mercedes faced a scenario that it had not predicted ahead of Formula 1's Russian Grand Prix as he explained the reasons behind its team orders swap

Lewis Hamilton admitted that his Russian Grand Prix win felt far from "spectacular" after being gifted victory through team orders issued by his Mercedes Formula 1 team

Lewis Hamilton extended his Formula 1 title advantage over Sebastian Vettel with victory in the Russian Grand Prix after Mercedes ordered Valtteri Bottas to move aside

If someone gifted you a car, would you drive it? I assume you would. Especially if that car happens to be an 840-horsepower Dodge Challenger SRT Demon. Michael Andretti has access to all sorts of cars, so when he's given a Demon he doesn't need to drive it. That's why his car is heading to auction with just 13 miles on its odometer. This yellow...

Fernando Alonso says rallying will not play a part in his post-Formula 1 career because he accepts "I don't have the talent to do that"

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff admits he would not enjoy watching Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton race each other in Formula 1's Russian Grand Prix

The Lotus headquarters will soon undergo a transformation. The company has submitted plans for a new customer experience center, heritage center and museum. Lotus' Friday announcement comes as the company celebrates 70 years since founder Colin Chapman built his first car, and the Hethel, England headquarters plan comes as the latest investment in...

Honda's latest Formula 1 upgrade has moved it ahead of Renault in the engine pecking order, according to Toro Rosso team boss Franz Tost

Elon Musk has settled charges of fraud brought against him Company founder will remain as CEO of electric car firm, with new “independent chairman” appointed Tesla founder Elon Musk will step down from his role as chairman of the firm and pay a $20 million (£15.3 million) penalty as part of a settlement with the American Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) over a charge of securities fraud. Musk will remain as CEO of the firm, which will also pay a penalty of $20 million. The SEC had charged Musk with fraud in response to his tweet in August suggesting he could take Tesla private at $240 a share , a substantial premium at the time, and had secured funding to do so. The SEC claimed that Musk knew the funding was not secured. The tweet caused Tesla’s stock price to jump and, according to the SEC, “led to significant market disruption.” The SEC also said that Tesla had not put any procedures in place to determine that Musk’s tweets about the company were accurate or complete. ...

Christian Horner believes Daniil Kvyat had not dealt with his demotion from Red Bull to Toro Rosso when he was dropped from its Formula line-up in 2017

Tesla and its CEO Elon Musk settled a lawsuit with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Saturday that will result in a $40 million fine and a new chairman of Tesla's board of directors. The lawsuit was filed after Musk claimed "funding secured" in tweet as he floated the idea of taking the automaker private on Aug. 7. DON'T MISS: DOJ wants to...

Jag’s keen handling makes it difficult to drive conservatively We find out whether how far an electric car can travel on a full charge is really dictated by driving style, with the help of a brace of new Jaguar EVs It’s hard to hold back. Here you are, driving a car with 395bhp and 513lb ft, but you need to drive it in a not-in-a-hurry kind of way. That isn’t because this is an electric car with a range minimal enough to send you into fretful anxiety within half an hour of getting in it, but because we’re conducting an experiment. Not a strictly empirical experiment, but one intended to find out how far you can go in an I-Pace if you drive it in a reasonable, speed-limit-observing manner, and how far you can go in one if, say, you’re cutting it a bit fine for a meeting. Some real-world driving, then, and we have two I-Paces for the purpose. Both are ready to set out from Autocar’s satellite HQ in Feltham, Middlesex. Both have been on charge overnight, both are indoors and enjoyin...

Corsa can’t keep a low profile in that colour Hillclimbing was once a stern test of a vehicle, but for new cars such as the Vauxhall Corsa GSi it is a breeze, as we discover on a drive to three hills with history The Vauxhall Corsa GSi drags itself up Star and Garter Hill in south-west London without breaking sweat. With 162lb ft to call on, you can approach the bottom of the incline in fourth gear, apply a brief stab of throttle, shift into fifth and the car will merrily ascend to the top of the hill 325 yards further along. Well, of course it will. You will not be at all surprised to learn that a modern hatchback has no trouble whatsoever scaling a moderate slope on the fringes of Richmond Park. But had Charles Stewart Rolls been present to witness this confidently yellow hatchback scamper up Star and Garter Hill as though it was no hill at all, he would have been astonished. For it was Rolls – several years before he started an engineering firm with business partner Henry Roy...

Fernando Alonso believes the Russian Grand Prix's Formula 2 support race was "the most fun part of the day" for fans after Formula 1 qualifying featured "nonsense" and "boring" segments

Renault boss Cyril Abiteboul has defended the team's "awkward" tactical decision to sit out Q2 to claim 11th and 12th places on the grid for Formula 1's Russian Grand Prix

Max Verstappen has been punished for a yellow flag infringement during Russian Grand Prix Formula 1 qualifying, increasing his grid penalty for the weekend

Fernando Alonso says McLaren's smart tactic in first practice for the Russian Grand Prix was the "biggest gain" of the weekend for him

Mercedes Formula 1 boss Toto Wolff says Valtteri Bottas's pole position means it will now be "difficult" to impose team orders in the Russian Grand Prix

Sebastian Vettel says it is wrong that the Sochi circuit has been partially resurfaced in a way that means the first three Formula 1 grid slots are positioned on newer asphalt

Lewis Hamilton says he had been "slacking" in the Sochi Autodrom's second sector during Formula 1's Russian Grand Prix qualifying, which contributed to his error in the decisive final lap

Valtteri Bottas claimed his first Formula 1 pole position in almost three months in qualifying for the Russian Grand Prix, leading a Mercedes lockout of the front row

Chevrolet has shown off a group of four 2019 Silverado 1500 concepts it plans on bringing to the 2018 SEMA show next month. Each of them houses a plethora of Chevrolet Performance accessories, which makes each truck more of a mannequin than a "concept." The first truck, the 2019 Silverado High Country, actually made its debut at the Texas State...

Red Bull motorsport boss Helmut Marko says that he learned of Daniel Ricciardo's decision to join Renault when Daniil Kvyat called him about it

Toyota's Burnaston plant makes around 150,000 cars per year Japanese firm warns failure to reach a deal for leaving EU could have major impact on its Burnaston plant A no-deal Brexit could potentially stop production at Toyota’s plant near Derby for “months”, the manufacturer has warned. The Japanese firm’s Burnaston factory currently makes the Auris and Avensis models, and produces around 150,000 cars per year – the bulk of which are exported to the European Union. Toyota has recently invested £250million in Burnaston ahead of production of the new Corolla starting there later this year. It is also hiring 400 staff, to join the 2500 who currently work there. The firm relies heavily on a ‘just in time’ production method, using components imported from elsewhere in the EU. The plant’s boss, Marvin Cooke, told the BBC that a failure to reach an agreement over Britain’s withdrawal from the EU could have a major impact. Brexit: what it means for the UK car industry “My vie...

Red Bull motorsport boss Helmut Marko admits that Pascal Wehrlein is on a "long list" of candidates for the second Toro Rosso seat in the 2019 Formula 1 season

Lewis Hamilton exerted his dominance over the field with the fastest time for the final Formula 1 practice session for this weekend's Russian Grand Prix

Honda has reverted to its previous specification of Formula 1 engine despite a positive response to the upgrade in Russian Grand Prix practice

Force India's new owners plan to build a new factory for the team, either by more than tripling the size of its current site, or by moving to a new location

The Renault Formula 1 team will use a new floor over the rest of the Russian Grand Prix weekend, marking the last of its planned major car updates this season

Max Verstappen claims Renault would "already be world champions" if Formula 1 boss Cyril Abiteboul was not "moaning about me all the time"

Daniil Kvyat's return to the Toro Rosso Formula 1 team for the 2019 season has been confirmed

Lamborghini's Aventador has evolved significantly since it arrived on the market at the start of the decade. This week we managed to drive the newest SVJ variant, which is the fastest car in production right now. Naturally, we took it straight to a racetrack. Another car we drove was the 2019 Mercedes-AMG 4-Door Coupe, which we found to be the new...

Welcome to the world of the one-off special We meet the obsessives who have put blood, sweat and tears – not to mention thousands of pounds – into their mad, rad one-off track-day specials In garages, workshops and sheds right across the UK, tinkerers and would-be mechanics get their fingers dirty. Most undertake straightforward vehicle maintenance, while others restore bodywork or make running-gear modifications. A small number, however, squirrel themselves away for weeks at a time and only emerge once they’ve built something truly staggering. It might be a lightweight track car with two motorcycle engines, or a diesel supermini that’s faster than a modern super-saloon . Welcome to the world of the one-off special – a world where people tend not to ask why but why not? Seat Rosa drag car: “You start off in second gear, engage the launch control system to hold the engine revs, then try to get the clutch release just right,” says Paul Lynas. “As soon as you let go of the clutch, ...

Chilton was 17 when he made his BTCC debut, then the youngest driver yet to race in the series... BTCC stalwart Tom Chilton knows the job of being a racing driver involves more than just doing the business on track. We join him at Rockingham British Touring Car Championship races are short, intense affairs, around 30 minutes of bumper bashing and battling. Still, even with three of them in a day, such short races might not seem much of an endurance challenge for a driver. Yet the reality is somewhat different. Those three races are packed into around six hours. Add in the attention, scrutiny and pressure that come with being part of Britain’s biggest motorsport championship and race day becomes a non-stop, pressure-filled marathon for the drivers, with little time to rest. Tom Chilton knows that well . The 33-year-old has been racing in top-line touring cars since making his BTCC debut back in 2002. Ten years later, in 2012, he switched to the World Touring Car Championship. L...