Everything you need to know about cars this week: 7 Feb '21

"It’s the same turbocharged engine used in everything from BMW 1 Series and Mini hot hatches to the Morgan Plus Four, here producing 255bhp and 295lb ft and driving the rear wheels through the sole option of an eight-speed paddleshifting auto. It’s good for 0-62mph in 5.2secs and a 155mph top speed."

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"The Isdera Commendatore 112i you see in the images above is a 211mph, 400bhp+ V12-engined supercar from the 1990s. It is absolutely fantastic and is heading up for auction soon at the RM Sotheby’s Paris sale. Oh, and it’s a genuine one-off."

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"The car you’re looking at here is the Willys M38A1, not quite the original Willys that you’ll have seen bouncing around in World War Two documentaries, but not far off. The M38A1 (let’s just call it a Jeep from now on) was built from 1952 to 1971 by Willys and saw extensive service with the US military in Korea and Vietnam. It also got sold to quite a few friendly foreign nations, which is the version you see here."

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"These three race trucks have been built to take on the unlimited class at the upcoming King of the Hammers off-road race in California, meaning they’ll need to tackle both high-speed desert racing and low-speed rock crawling. They’ll be driven by Vaughn Gittin Jr, two-time King of the Hammers winner Loren Healy and three-time winner Jason Scherer. No pressure then."

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"BMW’s design boss Domagoj Dukec is acutely aware of the noise surrounding the company’s creations. 'I’m reading social media and press, and I can see that some people are wondering where BMW is heading, but I can assure you that we have a clear vision about where we’re going. We all love the brand.'"

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"Both cars are rear-wheel drive only and, get this, come as standard with a six-speed MANUAL transmission with rev-matching and ‘No-Lift Shift’ – meaning you don’t have to lift-off the gas pedal when you’re accelerating hard through the gears."

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"It’s the only flavour of Porsche’s electric fastback with no extra letters or words after its name – no ‘4S’ or ‘Turbo’ topper. This is as basic as the Taycan’s going to get, assuming there’s not a secret prototype with plastic bumpers and wind-down windows hiding in Stuttgart."

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"The Anniversario is a special edition of the Battista, an electric luxury hyper GT, with which Pininfarina celebrates its 90th anniversary. Only five Battista Anniversarios will be built – sorry, individually hand-built - at Pininfarina’s factory in Turin. So if you want one, and you’ve got €2.6 million, don’t ponder the pros and cons too long because there are only three left."

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"Jag's major refresh of its best-selling SUV breathes new life into the interior. Still good to drive, too"

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"That’s it, folks. Toyota has sold its last GT86 in the UK. With almost 7,500 sales to its name, the Top Gear award-winning rear-wheel drive, skinny-tyred coupe has finally bitten the big one after nine years on the market."

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"Because it doesn’t directly replace anything, it’s easiest to understand its size and price by asking DS what cars are rivals to the 4. DS people reply it’s hatches including the Audi A3, plus the lower-slung crossovers like the Lexus UX, BMW X2 and Mercedes GLA."

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"Ford has confirmed it’s releasing a Raptor R in 2022. Rumours suggest it may have the Shelby GT500’s 760bhp supercharged V8 and even more hardcore running gear. The inevitable toss-up between it and the 702bhp RAM TRX 1500 is bound to be… quite the spectacle."

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"An electric-only top speed of 84mph is impressive, but blatting down the outside lane of a motorway on volts alone feels a bit wasteful. That’s going to dramatically stall your chances of getting near the claimed 46-mile zero-emissions range. "

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"We’re one step closer, people. The future promised by noted authorities on the matter – luminaries such as The Jetsons and Back to the Future II – is drawing closer. This is your first look at a vertical-take-off-and-landing racing… thing."

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"A cracking piece of design and good enough at all the everyday stuff. At last, Vauxhall has a properly sorted crossover"

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"Only 100 of these cars were built (with only 40 right-hand drive) featuring a front-mounted, AMG supercharged 5.5-litre V8 driving the rear wheels with a not-inconsequential 574bhp. Not only that, but around 590lb ft was available (this was 2004, don’t forget), meaning that this big ‘Benz could crack four seconds to 62mph (3.9, to be precise) and hit a limited top speed of 199mph. It cost €236,000 back in the day, and sold out immediately. It was not, it has to be said, for the faint-hearted."

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"While the speed was impressive, the fact that the record was achieved by the owner of the first Tuatara spiked our interest. We caught up with entrepreneur, philanthropist and world’s fastest healthcare professional Dr Larry Caplin to talk about all things speed."

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"They’ve got pretty much the space to match a Focus-sized hatch, but they’re about 20cm shorter so they’re a better fit for towns and car parks. So much for logic. Mostly of course people choose them for what they’re not: a normal rep’s hatch. Though surely they’re now so commonplace that the reps must also be driving them? Anyway, reps are human too."

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"Could such a storied carmaker pillage its own back catalogue for a new production model, then, much like Renault’s new enterprise with the reborn 5? It’s a question BMW asks itself regularly, apparently."

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"A fine, good looking practical estate. Just don't buy it for the thrills"

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