Ten Things We Learned This Week

MB says goodbye to its V8 gullwing with a ‘Final Edition’ this month.

We’re not quite sure why the SLS has died so soon, but it can’t be running costs. According to CAP data, the SLS costs a piffling £3.32 per mile*, which is £2.28 less than a London taxi – a black cab’s cheapest average mileage rate is £5.60.

A Top Gear Top Tip, then: if you’re a seasonal visitor from the Gulf states wishing to demonstrate the girth of your wallet, be seen in the back of a LTI TX1 next summer.  

[*based on 36 month/36,000 mile period. Price includes fuel, insurance, servicing, VED, and assumes driver won’t smear it up a dry-stone wall] 

Belgium’s favourite action hero demonstrates the accuracy of Volvo’s ‘Dynamic Steering’ tech in an eye-watering new advert. We’re told there’s no CGI trickery at play here. Not bad for a 53-year-old. Not bad for a lorry.

All 375 units of Woking’s million quid, 903bhp hypercar are sold out ahead of schedule, and it’s Top Gear’s fault.

“A combination of the first feedback from customers and Top Gear’s review has seen us cross the line a little sooner than we had planned,” a McLaren spokesman told Top Gear.

If you were saving up for a P1 for Christmas, sorry. Best console yourself by heading to our world exclusive review of Britain’s greatest hypercar and discovering exactly what you missed out on…

Italian man drives his VW Golf to Munich’s massive beer festival. Gets drunk. Can’t remember where he parked. FOR FIVE WEEKS.

The 40-year-old, known only as ‘Andreas O’, hung posters around the city and offered a 200 Euro reward to anyone who could reunite him with his car. But it wasn’t until a Munich paper launched an appeal on his behalf that the Golf was located.

“I didn’t come to drink,” Andreas said. “I came for the rides.”

“We get this sort of thing all the time,” said Munich police spokesman Christoph Reichenbach.

SOURCE: The Local 

5. KEN BLOCK HASN’T FORGOTTEN HOW TO DO THE WHOLE ‘DRIFTING’ THING

James May’s favourite hoonmeister this week released Gymkhana 6, the latest in his epic series of sideways, smoky silliness. And he told Top Gear he’s already working on the seventh…

It might represent the very best of British, but such is the appetite for the Flying Spur that Bentley has been forced to temporarily move production of its four-door luxobarge to VW’s Dresden factory in a bid to meet global demand.

“The new Flying Spur shows a significant increase in volume,” a Bentley spokesman told Top Gear. “We have therefore decided to assemble a limited number of Flying Spurs – around 100 – in November and December in Dresden.”

Bentley says the Dresden plant will work only on final assembly of the cars, with their interiors and powertrain work remaining in Crewe.

Read Top Gear’s review of the new Flying Spur

You thought modern-F1-cars-wearing-old-F1-paintjobs was good? Check out what happened when DeviantArt whizz Bill Clave decided to do the same thing to planes…

Facelifted version of Toyota’s posh little hybrid gets Lexus’s new spindle grille and, erm, that’s about all they’re telling us. The revised CT200h will be officially shown at China’s prestigious Guangzhou Motor Show next week. You’d still have the BMW 1-Series or Merc A45 AMG instead, wouldn't you?

Germany’s Nurburgring has been in financial peril for years, with the state government putting the iconic track up for sale earlier this year.

New reports in the German media this week suggest the ADAC – the country's biggest automobile club, and one of the largest in the world – could be the new owners of James May’s most hated circuit.

The club, it is reported, has submitted an offer to purchase the Nurburgring, an offer expected to cover both the Nordschleife and Grand Prix track but not the much-maligned amusement arcade.

Which is Good News, we think. Here’s hoping the ADAC will allow the Ring to dole out punishment like this for many years to come…

McLaren have ditched Perez and brought in rookie Kevin Magnussen. Massa’s off to Williams. Kovaleinen’s standing in for Kimi for the last two races of the season. Here’s our round-up of a frantic week of seat-shuffling in F1…