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Morgan has revealed what its next ultra-limited coachbuilt commissions will be. Meet the Midsummer Coupé, a hardtop version of the 50-off Pininfarina-penned Midsummer speedster of 2024, of which just nine very special exclusive builds are to be constructed, not including this ‘car 0’ ‘artist’s proof’ demonstrator.

Yes, a solid non-removable roof makes this the first fixed-roof Morgan in over a decade, since the discontinuation of the Aero Coupe in 2015. The result is an almost art-deco coupe; a Morgan crossed with a Bugatti Atlantique, central spine and all. The Midsummer Coupé required significant structural development with a rethink of how it puts its cars together, to best serve this new form factor. 

The Midsummer Coupé uses a modified version of Morgan’s existing CXV platform, with the hand-formed roof incorporated into the aluminium panels Morgan already marries to an ash wood frame for its Supersport.

It now features billet-machined aluminium A-pillars, while the glass roof plays a structural role and is bonded in. In fact, the whole glasshouse is new, with a new windscreen including bonded-in glass, new doors and obviously coupe windows, with the old door’s detachable side screens now swapped out for more traditional drop-down sections. All in, Morgan claims the Midsummer Coupé is only 2.5kg heavier than the Supersport with its fixed roof in place.

Read the full story - https://www.evo.co.uk/morgan/supersport/208799/morgans-midsummer-coupe-is-its-first-fixed-roof-hardtop-since-the-aero

Whether or not Mercedes-AMG would return to V8s has been up for debate since it embarked on hybrid four-cylinder power with its unpopular 63 models, but now we know it will. We also happen to know that it will officially make its way into the squat, aggressive two-door CLE 63 coupe we see in these spy shots. Rumours indicate a launch date towards the end of the year, but until then, here's everything we know.

The trademark trapezoidal exhaust tips of previous 63s are present and correct, as is a subtle boot spoiler and the Panamericana grille at the front flanked by a pair of aggressive intakes. This latest mule is also wearing the same deep-dished multi-spoke wheels seen on the CLE 53, now sitting neatly into the arches thanks to what appears to be a lower ride height. The body itself doesn’t look to have gained any width over the wider-than-standard CLE 53, but the front and rear bumpers have both seen substantial upgrades to increase the aggression and cooling capabilities, which is a very handy thing indeed...

Mercedes has confirmed that this model will adopt the same M177 Evo V8 first seen in the S-class, and more recently in the GLE and GLS 63. This is a new take on AMG's previous 4-litre twin-turbocharged V8, now utilising a flat-plane crankshaft solution that has the ability to produce a sound near-identical to the iconic, lumpy cross-plane AMG V8 we all love, without the use of speakers. Given it produces 604bhp in the GLE and GLS 63 SUVs, we'd expect to see a similar figure here to put it ahead of BMW's alternative in terms of output.

The new CLE model line was created to consolidate two-door C-class and two-door E-class models into one range to rival the BMW 4-series and Audi A5, with the range to be topped by the CLE 63 spotted here. Much of the CLE’s styling and interior closely channels the C-class too. Slim LED head and tail lights feature, plus a high-tech interior with Mercedes's latest MBUX interfaces and a multitude of driver modes and settings.

Read the full story - https://www.evo.co.uk/mercedes/cle/204546/mercedes-amg-cle-63-spied-the-v8-amg-coupe-is-officially-making-a-return

'An acquaintance of mine has a collection that includes one of just about every car McLaren has made, and of all of them, the HS is among his absolute favourites.’ I’m standing with James Banks, formerly head of Bespoke Cars at McLaren Special Operations (MSO), and we’re surveying one of the most exclusive projects the division ever worked on – and, by more than one account, one of the best cars ever to wear a McLaren badge, despite few people knowing it even exists.

Should an MSO HS ever pass you in traffic, you certainly wouldn’t miss it, but you probably wouldn’t realise you’d seen anything out of the ordinary; perhaps a well-specified 650S or maybe a 675LT whose owner ticked the box for the carbon pack. There’s little on a quick glance to suggest it’s one of only 25 cars, each built on the same line as the P1 hypercar rather than the standard Super Series production line, and each a little different, tailored to the tastes of 25 hand-picked MSO clients. Never publicised, never wafted under the noses of the press, a real ‘in the know’ kind of car.

The HS (it stands for High Sport) shows a different side to MSO than the one you’re probably familiar with. Search the internet for MSO commissions and you’ll mostly be presented with strikingly coloured versions of McLaren’s mainline cars, or one-off builds like the 12C-based X-1. The HS demonstrates MSO’s capacity for tackling engineering challenges as well as visual ones; many of the parts were designed, tested and manufactured solely for this car, with quality levels equal to or better than those on mainstream McLarens.

While the aim with the HS was to build something spectacular, it was also a necessity. McLaren Automotive has had its fair share of tumult in its relatively short history, much of it a natural side-effect of being a small-volume manufacturer that designs, engineers and builds almost everything in-house. As Banks relates, in 2015 things were going pretty well: ‘We launched the new car business in 2010, and did a pretty damn good job. There was the odd bump in the road, but starting from literally zero – no dealer network, no electrical architecture, no chassis, no nothing – we’d created the 12C, the P1 and the 650S.’

But with those cars making their way to customers and plans for further expansion, the company was rapidly outgrowing its dedicated production system, dubbed MAXIM, inherited from the Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren and the F1 before it. There was a plan in place for this, thanks to technology partner SAP, but whereas a larger car maker might be able to migrate systems little by little, with multiple model lines to take up the slack, the transition at McLaren meant completely shutting down production for several weeks. As Banks puts it, ‘No cars, no output, no cashflow – for a company where cars spend six to seven weeks on the line and parts are ordered months in advance, the transition was a real threat to survival.’

The company turned to MSO, essentially with the task of creating something to fill that gap. And, as it happened, the timing was just about perfect for something truly special. The MSO team already had an idea rattling around for a special project, combining some elements of the then-new 650S GT3 car with the road car. Not only that, but there were P1 owners knocking on the door asking for a P1 without the hybrid elements, signalling demand for a lighter, more focused and more tactile model.

And while a stripped-down P1 wasn’t possible, a more specialised version of the 650S certainly was. The 675LT was just around the corner, itself inheriting lessons learned from the P1, but as designer Esteban Palazzo explains, a few of his ideas for the LT turned out to be a little too much for then-CEO Mike Flewitt. ‘The briefing for the 675LT was a track car for the road, so we created a proposal. We unveiled it to Mike Flewitt, and he essentially went, “What the hell is this?” because it was too much!

‘It’s quite common that when the idea of doing a new car arrives in the studio, the studio tends to be overly ambitious. The beauty of MSO is that you could green-light these more ambitious ideas, such as combining a GT3 car and a road car. On every project you generate an archive of ideas, dozens of proposals, and at some point this becomes the DNA of the next vehicle. With the HS, that meant incorporating the dive planes, the louvres, the roof scoop, the high-mounted wing…’

Read the story - https://www.evo.co.uk/mclaren/675lt/208804/mclaren-mso-hs-the-secret-205mph-special-born-to-save-the-brand

The Boxster is well and truly back in action. Since returning from the bodyshop, it’s racked up an awful lot of miles, ferrying me to tests, photoshoots, airports and a few racetrack visits: Goodwood for Members’ Meeting, Castle Combe for a trackday, and Brands Hatch – to visit the Boxster’s racing cousins in the Porsche Sprint Challenge Great Britain.

Supporting the British Touring Car Championship, the Sprint Challenge is a one-make series for GT4-spec 718 Cayman Clubsports, organised by Porsche Motorsport GB. This means the race cars have plenty of shared DNA with our road-going Boxster, the Cayman’s roofless twin.

‘The race car and road car are virtually identical structurally, the main difference being the roll-cage,’ explains front-running driver Tom Bradshaw of the Toro Verde GT team. ‘The lap-time advantage comes from bigger brakes, racing dampers, slick tyres and more power: the engine is the 4-litre, 500bhp flat-six from the 911 GT3 Cup car. The gearbox is the road car’s PDK transmission, with a different final drive.’

That’s a handy 100bhp or so advantage over the similarly sized flat-six in our Boxster, although it still looks the part rubbing silver shoulders with the cambered slicks of the race cars lining up in the assembly area. The racers are based on the body-in-white from the 718 Cayman GT4 RS rather than the regular 718, for its unique vents and airbox relocated to the interior. The Sprint Challenge has two classes, one for the GT4 RS race car, and one for the older 3.8-litre, 420bhp non-RS car. Drivers in both classes are further divided into Pro and Am categories, according to their experience.

‘The car’s set up to be a lot more aggressive than the road car but it’s still very forgiving, and there are driver aids including race-spec ABS,’ Bradshaw adds. Porsche Motorsport insiders suggest the top drivers tend to drive without the traction control and stability control engaged, whereas new drivers to the championship might lean on them as they learn the car and the circuits. Overall championship leader going into Brands Hatch was Clean Racing’s Toby Trice, who also endorses the car’s user-friendly nature: ‘It’s an easy car to drive fast straight away; although the geometry’s a lot more racy than the road car, someone who’s come from trackday driving could be quick straight away.’ (In fact, there is one driver on the grid, Alister Weston, who is completely new to car racing.) Trice joined the Challenge two years ago: ‘I began in rental karting; I started because I found it good for my mental health, then found myself getting quicker and quicker, and moved into Ginetta racing before entering the Porsche Sprint Challenge in 2022.’ Trice led the championship last year before a serious crash curtailed his season. ‘It’s a testament to the car’s safety that I wasn’t badly injured,’ he says. ‘It didn’t impact the roll-cage greatly; the front crumple zone absorbed a lot of the energy.’ How big an impact was it? 53 g. The same as Romain Grosjean’s accident in Bahrain in 2020. But without the fire thankfully.

Read the full story - https://www.evo.co.uk/porsche/718-boxster-gts/208287/how-a-terrifying-53g-crash-proved-just-how-impressive-this-entry

Genesis revealed the X Convertible concept back in 2022 as the final model in a series that spawned coupe and shooting brake relatives. Genesis had no plans to put them into production, but the surprise reveal of this G90-based convertible at the 2026 Le Mans 24 Hours suggests they might have more legs than we first thought.

Unlike the concept it’s based on, this is not an electric car. Genesis won’t confirm exactly what lies under the bonnet but says it’s likely to utilise a 3.5-litre twin-turbocharged V6. What we can all hope, though, is that any potential production model would instead adopt a take on the V8 in its brand new GMR-001 hypercar…

This car has been launched among a slew of other hugely popular concepts under its ‘Magma’ branding, following not long behind the mid-engined V8 Magma GT supercar, its GT3 alternative, and a Shooting Brake too. Given its debut in the Le Mans 24 Hours with a V8-powered hypercar, it seems this is a brand well and truly set on combustion-powered performance going forward. 

In terms of design, the car has adopted a much more aggressive, stout aesthetic more in-line with Aston Martin and Bentley rivals. This comes courtesy of concave, forged motorsport-style wheels and much more muscular front arches with integrated vents aft of the wheels. The front bumper is revised too, with the grille shape more confident and angular than before, paired to a significantly enlarged lower air intake now there's more to cool than a battery.

Read the story - https://www.evo.co.uk/genesis/205429/genesis-is-making-bentley-nervous-with-this-unexpected-convertible-gt

The days of the rumbling V8-engined Dodge Charger came to an end with the launch of the latest iteration a couple of years ago, with it opting for battery and six-cylinder power only. It features a brand new platform though, a revamped design and a supercar-beating power output in top-spec form. Over two years since its reveal, order books for Europe have now opened as the marque celebrates its 60th anniversary, with pricing starting from €66,000 (c£60k).

The flagship model is the all-electric Charger Daytona Scat Pack, with a 400V electrical architecture, a 100.5kW battery pack and an electric motor on each axle for a 590bhp output – combined with an 80bhp ‘PowerShot’ boost for 15sec, this figure jumps to 670bhp. Power is transferred to all four wheels for a 3.3sec 0-62mph time, with the 1/4-mile sprint covered in 11.5sec. Alongside the Daytona Scat Pack, Dodge will offer a Daytona r/T version with 496bhp and more range than the flagship. The r/T is expected to offer up to 317 miles on a charge, with the Scat Pack covering just 260. Thankfully, both can accept 350kW fast charging to quickly replenish the battery.

The Charger is also available with petrol power, but there's no V8 here. Instead, what Dodge is calling the 'SIXPACK' model utilises a 3-litre twin-turbocharged straight-six, sending 542bhp to all four wheels in Scat Pack-form – as in models like the G80 BMW M3, drive to the rear only is available on demand. The result is a 3.9sec 0-60mph time, almost half a second slower than the G80 M3. The ordinary r/T SIXPACK straight-six Charger makes do with 414bhp for a 4.6sec 0-60mph time.

Read the full story - https://www.evo.co.uk/dodge/206577/the-new-dodge-charger-is-finally-coming-to-europe-to-rival-the-bmw-m3

This gleaming green Escort Mk1 RS is a reinterpretation of the 1960s original, engineered and manufactured to 2026 standards. Just don’t call it a restomod. Its creators, Boreham Motorworks, describe it as a ‘continumod’. Officially licensed by the Ford Motor Company, each from-scratch new-build RS will have a continuation Escort chassis number, but only 150 will be sold. The price? £295,000 a piece, and each and every one has already been accounted for.

It might be built to the dimensions of a ’60s race-spec Escort RS, but it will possess a far more rigid structure, be produced to the standards and tolerances of a modern-day mainstream manufacturer, and be homologated for small-series production. That differentiates the Boreham Escort from cars such as the (excellent) MST Mk1 driven in evo 319, which is a different take on the concept in that it’s officially not a Ford Escort but a brand-new car built from brand-new parts, with each car individually approved for road legality.

What makes this car really special is its engine. Customers will have a choice of two: a 182bhp, 8500rpm fuel-injected 1.8-litre version of the original twin-cam four-cylinder matched to a four-speed straight-cut gearbox, or the extra-cost option of the new 2.1-litre ‘Boreham TEN-K’, a 325bhp four capable of revving to, you guessed it, 10,000rpm…

Read the full story - https://www.evo.co.uk/ford/ford-escort/207442/the-ford-escort-rs-returns-with-10000rpm-but-itll-cost-you

Toyota has no interest in giving up on the performance car, in fact it plans to double down on its strategy to push its Gazoo Racing division to design and develop even more models from the GR Yaris through to the GR GT supercar. And next off the line will be a new mid-engined sub £50,000 sports car that, as rumoured, could be the new MR2. Or it could be the return of the Celica or the GR Yaris could continue as a Renault Clio V6 type hyper-hatch…

Rumours of a return of the MR2 have been doing the rounds since late 2024 and were almost confirmed when Toyota presented a mid-engined GR Yaris test mule in January 2025 at the Tokyo Auto Salon. Since then, GR has continued to develop the concept including entering it in the Fuji 24 Hour race this month where it qualified 26th, with company chairman Akio Toyoda at the wheel.

Powered by the company’s new G20E 2-litre turbo-charged engine revealed November 2025, a development of the 1.6-litre three-cylinder motor fitted to the current GR Yaris and Corolla models, the GR Yaris M competed in the ST-Q Exhibition class alongside the company’s hydrogen powered GR Corolla. Power outputs for GR’s next generation four-cylinder engine are expected to be in the region of 400bhp, up from the current Corolla’s 300bhp. 

As with both GR hot hatches, the new mid-engined production car is expected to be all-wheel drive, but what isn’t known is what body style it will adopt. With both GR86 and Supra production all but over, GR has space for a coupe in its line-up, and with the positioning of the engine in the GR Yaris M prototype all suggestions have led to the return of the MR2. 

Read the full story - https://www.evo.co.uk/toyota/gr-yaris/207520/this-mid-engined-toyota-gr-yaris-mule-could-be-a-preview-of-the-next-mr2

Welcome to the fastest Audi road car in history – and not just by our usual parameters. evo was there to witness the covers being pulled from the brand-new Nuvolari supercar just 405 days after an ‘outstanding idea’ was first raised with CEO Gernot Döllner. 

He quickly commissioned a joint design, engineering and aerodynamics team and the finished car – this is no mere concept – has just been shown to the public ahead of the Monaco Grand Prix. You didn’t expect Audi to produce an ultra-high-performance hybrid and not link it to its shiny new Formula 1 programme, did you?

Just don’t call it a reborn R8, even if it too shares fundamental components with a contemporary Lamborghini, in this case the Temerario. Limited to 499 units and priced from £500,000, the Nuvolari treads uncharted ground for Ingolstadt and sits much further apart from its Italian cousin than either of the mid-engined sports cars that preceded it.

Its rapid development is an example of the ‘think faster, act bolder’ mentality that Audi wants to blanket across its entire operation as its famed ‘Vorsprung durch Technik’ philosophy returns to help fend off swelling Chinese competition. Calling upon decades of performance car expertise and applying the name of a legendary Auto Union racing driver to the resulting product is certainly one way to assert your heritage.

Read the full story - https://www.evo.co.uk/audi/208801/the-audi-nuvolari-is-a-987bhp-carbon-bodied-ps500k-supercar

The Polestar 5 has finally arrived as the Swedish brand’s flagship Porsche-rivalling four-door GT, after a five-year gestation. In that time, expensive electric cars of this kind have suffered a fall from grace where market and customer sentiments are concerned. One has to wonder if, like the new Mercedes-AMG GT 4 Door and Jaguar Type 01, it isn’t late to the party Porsche’s Taycan started. We travelled to Barcelona to take on a leg of Polestar’s Grand Tour launch programme, from Gothenburg to the Sahara, to find out if it’s any good.

With the 5, Polestar is saying strong volumes are a ‘would-be-nice’ outcome and is managing expectations. Much like its spiritual predecessor, the Polestar 1 coupe, a car with which it shares its halo billing, the Polestar 5 is a distillation of the brand’s core values and the fullest expression of its engineering and design might.

If the market it’s wading into has aged like milk over the last half-decade, the 5’s design is still minty fresh, as if sent back from a more optimistic future. It’s long, low, sharply sculpted and its bespoke bonded aluminium architecture allows an almost supercar-like front wheel-arch-wing ratio. 

Read our verdict - https://www.evo.co.uk/reviews/208784/polestar-5-review-cheaper-and-faster-than-a-porsche-taycan-but-not-quite-as-sharp

A ‘next-generation sports car’ is what Ferrari calls the Luce, developed in-line with its ambitions not to replace combustion power, but to expand its offerings to include all powertrain types from pure internal combustion, plug-in hybrid and all-electric, capturing a new set of customers in the process. Late last year Ferrari actually scaled back its electrification plans, with a new aim to have just 20 per cent of its sales come from pure electric models by 2030. V12s aren’t going anywhere.

The Luce is strictly electric, though, the first car sold by Ferrari with five seats and follows the Purosangue in being the only the second to be offered with four doors. It’s a complete departure from anything Italy’s iconic marque 79 years as manufacturer of road cars, most notably in terms of its exterior design (more on that to come), but in its approach to powertrain, chassis and interior technology too. According to Ferrari this is both the most usable and comfortable model it has produced, only it also happens to have more power than a LaFerrari.

The official number is 1036bhp, derived from electrified axles each featuring two fixed-ratio synchronous permanent magnet motors. This not only makes the car all-wheel drive, but also allows for torque vectoring capabilities far beyond those of an EV with a single motor on each axle. The motor tech is derived from that seen on Ferrari’s existing plug-in hybrid cars, utilising trick F1-derived Halbach array rotors to extract the most power from the least weight.

The 0-62mph sprint is quoted at 2.5sec, just two tenths behind the new plug-in-hybrid 849 Testarossa. Top speed is not quite as impressive at 193mph, putting it 12mph behind the 849 but a match for the pure-combustion Purosangue. Ferrari CEO Benedetto Vigna made it very clear that this is not a car built for YouTube drag races, though: it’s actually included a feature that makes it slower than it might be otherwise.

‘Torque Shift Engagement’ is designed to boost driver involvement and eliminate the ‘unsettling’ feeling of continuous acceleration associated with fast EVs. Using tactile, machined-aluminium paddles, the driver can select five levels of power: 40, 60, 80, 90 and 100 per cent when in ‘Perfo’ mode. The left-hand paddle provides a ‘downshift effect’ under deceleration (a maximum of 0.33G, similar to second gear in a 12 Cilindri) increasing ‘engine’ braking; in automatic mode, it doesn’t free-roll, but instead defaults to 0.05G of deceleration which is equivalent to eighth gear in a Purosangue. This differs to the virtual gearbox seen in Hyundai N products as it doesn’t limit speed by ‘gear’ with a false rev limiter but instead limits torque, segmenting the maximum power available in each given mode into five chunks. You can reach top speed in ‘first gear’ but it would just take you a long time to get there.

Read the full story - https://www.evo.co.uk/ferrari/luce/206888/ferrari-luce-unveiled-as-bold-1035bhp-four-door-with-the-worlds-most-unusual

There’s something genuinely refreshing about the Rocketeer MX‑5. First and foremost, it has a modest brilliance. Much like its creator, in fact. The Rocketeer name may be dripping in evocative NASA-spec connotations, but Bruce Southey prefers to think of it as a neat way of describing ‘men in sheds’ and the great things they create when left alone to indulge their ideas.

The unreconstructed nature of Hampshire-based Rocketeer’s workshops might be anathema to the ultra-glossy Insta-fabulous image portrayed by most restomod brands, but there’s nothing better than seeing a small group of highly skilled people doing great things. Especially when the cars they are creating aren’t reserved for ultra-high-net-worth collectors.

Southey began by converting the original ‘NA’ MX‑5, founding Rocketeer back in 2013, having worked on a V6 MX‑5 as a passion project for years before it became a business. Naturally enough he then turned his attention to the second-generation ‘NB’. It’s this car we’ve come to drive, though we’ll be back in the summer to try Rocketeer’s first third-gen ‘NC’ build, which is currently in late-stage development. 

The NB demo is surprisingly muted looks-wise, but given the donor car was a super-low-mileage, completely original car in mint condition, it made sense to build a car focused solely on the hardware changes for which Rocketeer is renowned.

Read the full story - https://www.evo.co.uk/mazda/mx-5/208758/rocketeer-mx-5-the-340bhp-v6-sports-car-you-never-knew-you-needed

It all began as an April Fool’s joke in 2025, but BMW soon realised that there was some very real demand for its BMW M3 Touring GT racer. As a result, it quickly made it a reality and threw it in at the deep end with the 2026 Nürburgring 24 Hours. Challenging conditions and a 161-car grid made it far from an easy race, but nevertheless, the estate car placed fifth overall with Jens Klingmann, Ugo de Wilde, Connor De Phillippi and Neil Verhagen at the wheel.

Speaking with BMW M CEO Franciscus van Meel about its performance during the race weekend he said: ‘Right from the start we saw that we didn't have the pace to actually win the fight for the overall win, so our target was to stay in the game and make no mistakes, and if you have no technical problems, no accidents, then look where you can go… If someone would've told me yesterday that out of [our] four cars we would have three within the top ten, and the Touring would be in P5, I would've said okay… I'll take this.' Talk about understatement.

The concept of such a car has been around since the production model made its debut in 2022, but even that came about through suggestions from the community. Van Meel acknowledged the huge value of this feedback following the success of the Touring GT: 'What we've learned is (that) if the community strongly suggests to do something, you should really consider doing it. In the past that's also how we came up with the M3 [Touring] in the first place, because there were so many people saying: “why don't you make an M3 Touring?” That's how we made the series production car.’ BMW skipped an April Fool’s joke entirely in 2026 given its focus on the M3 Touring GT, but Van Meel added: 'We're now of course at the end of the season and we'll start to look at next year with something else we can do.’ Le Mans Garage 56 BMW M5 saloon, anyone?

Development of the M3 Touring GT began in summer 2025, spanning a total of just eight months from start to finish. The highly successful BMW M4 GT3 Evo serves as its basis and with 80 race victories around the world under its belt, including last year’s N24 and the 24 Hours of Dubai, it’s certainly a strong platform to build upon. The Touring shares that car’s vast 2040mm width and P58 race version of M Division’s 3-litre twin-turbo straight-six, good for 582bhp without restriction. 

Despite GT3 underpinnings, its experimental nature limits this car to the SPX category, making it virtually impossible to use anywhere else in an official capacity. Van Meel said: 'The plan was just to use it for this race, and afterwards sell it to someone who is very interested in buying it. We're still thinking what the future might be with the Touring, but we don't have any fixed plans.’ 

Who precisely will end up with the car is undisclosed, but what we do know is that their school runs will soon take much less time than they used to…

Read the full story - https://www.evo.co.uk/bmw/m3/208582/the-bmw-m3-touring-gt-racer-is-a-nurburgring-star-and-now-theyre-selling-it

Mercedes-AMG’s V8-powered GT 4-door was a bit of an oddball model when it was launched in 2018, never quite living up to the desirability of its long-standing rivals. Now it’s off sale AMG has already launched its replacement, the AMG GT 4-door, and while it shares the same name there is very little else between them. Not least because this new GT 4-door has a 1153bhp electric powertrain in place of a twin-turbo V8. 

Mercedes-AMG boss Michael Scheibe says we will see a ‘complete overhaul’ of the AMG lineup over the next 12 months, and the new AMG 4-door GT signals the beginning of that transition. Scheibe confirms that the brand will now refocus its attention on combustion models going forward to bring more six and eight cylinder engines back to the range, but this particular model will remain exclusively electric-only. 

Gone is the 4-litre hot-vee V8 of the original AMG GT 4-door, and in comes a total of three cutting-edge axial flux motors courtesy of Oxford-based Yasa. These will be available in GT55 and GT63 models at the car’s launch, with both featuring the same hardware under their skin, with power and torque outputs restricted by the ECU software. The GT55 produces a maximum of 805bhp with GT63 bumping this number to a ludicrous 1153bhp, more than the £2.5m Project One hypercar.

These numbers are all well and good, but what Mercedes-AMG says makes this car special is its ability to maintain a high level of performance after continuous use. The axial flux motors are part of the solution, as they employ a unique construction which allows for improved thermal management and much smaller dimensions – their class-leading energy density, around 70 per cent smaller and lighter than an equivalent of the same power, almost makes them a motor equivalent to solid state battery tech. We’ve seen this motor tech employed in plug-in hybrids from Ferrari and Lamborghini, but this is the first time it has been applied in a pure-EV.

Read the full story - https://www.evo.co.uk/mercedes/amg-gt/207847/the-new-mercedes-amg-gt-4-door-is-a-1153bhp-answer-to-the-porsche-taycan

Lotus has confirmed the next generation Emira will ditch its Toyota 3.5-litre V6 and Mercedes-AMG 2-litre turbocharged four-cylinder engines for the new 3-litre twin-turbo revealed by Horse Powertrain last month. Scheduled for 2027, the new Lotus Emira models form part of Lotus’s Focus 2030 strategy revealed on the eve of the Financial Times Future Car Summit by CEO Qingfeng Feng. 

Launched in 2021 the Emira was initially fitted with Toyota’s ageing naturally aspirated six-cylinder engine and a six-speed manual transmission. This was followed years later by the AMG sourced four-cylinder engine found in the A35 and A45 hot hatches. The switch to one powertrain will result in a significant power boost for Lotus’s two-seater coupe, with the new V6 from Horse rated at 536bhp and 516lb ft, more than 130bhp increase over both existing engines and as much as 206lb ft of torque. 

Horse’s new W30 engine will also be available as a hybrid with either an integrated crank motor capable of generating 402bhp or an external 602bhp motor can also be added. Drive is unconfirmed, but expect a double-clutch transmission regardless.

Before the new V6 Emira arrives Lotus will complete production of the existing model with a series of specials, starting with what Lotus claims will be the most powerful and lightest Emira to date, which will be announced in a couple of weeks. 

Read the full story - https://www.evo.co.uk/lotus/emira/207436/lotus-axes-emira-ev-for-new-536bhp-petrol-engine

Having probed the small sports saloon market with the 190E Cosworth in 1984, Mercedes since failed to put a dent in the BMW M3 with a run of fast but lazier alternatives from its AMG division. But everything changed in 2008, when Mercedes threw more engine at the problem to not so much dent but pummel its long-standing rival. It's a little more nuanced than that, of course, but the W204 C63 is largely defined by its spectacular M156 6.2-litre V8. 

Did AMG design this engine knowing it had to fit in the C-class shell, or did the Mercedes engineering team design the W204 C-class so that the M156 V8 would fit? Either way, fitting your smallest saloon (which could be ordered with a 1.6-litre in-line four) with the biggest engine you’ve built since the 1970s is a ballsy move. 

John Barker put Senior Staff Writer Sam Jenkins's C63 Estate through its paces in issue 346's V8s group test: 'Stick the fob in the dash, give it a twist and the outsize V8 fires with an appropriately heavyweight beat, the needle steadying at just 600rpm, but it’s no lazy lump; the tacho is redlined at 7200rpm. Jiggle the lever down the stepped gate to D, squeeze the throttle and the Merc moves off gently enough, but as soon as you get the chance to give the throttle a decent prod, it’s off like a Santa Pod hot rod with a hearty V8 roar to match. Should you be following the Merc when it’s floored, the thunderous blare from the quad tailpipes drowns out the engine of whatever you’re driving.' 

To put W204 into perspective, it took two generations of M3 to better the C63's 451bhp output, and even then, you could argue that no super saloon/estate before or since emanates with the same unhinged hot-rod persona. The motor is explosive, with a full-throated bellow and instinctive responses that could only come from a big-capacity naturally aspirated unit. Thankfully, the rest of the car can just about keep up, and the engine sets the tone for what is otherwise a deeply exciting package. Compared with modern equivalents, the W204 has an honest, analogue feel, with clarity to its hydraulically-assisted steering and a surprisingly approachable balance. With so much grunt going through the rear tyres it requires a certain degree of restraint, but the C63's instant, linear delivery means that the throttle you put in requires as much opposite lock as you're expecting, no more, no less.

John Barker added: 'On paper, the AMG C63 is an absurd car. In reality it’s an absurd car too, because it’s barely believable that a rear-drive car with 480bhp is so approachable, capable and exploitable. And fun; you can rumble around short-shifting or confidently pick up the pace on a demanding road, enjoying the feedback and poise of the chassis, or you can turn off stability control and balance it on opposite lock with the ease of an MX-5.'

Read the full story - https://www.evo.co.uk/mercedes/c63/20717/mercedes-c63-amg-w204-2008-2014-absurd-in-the-best-possible-way

Lotus is bringing the Esprit back as a 986bhp, V8-engined hybrid supercar, built in Europe and going on sale in 2028. Confirmed as part of the company’s Focus 2030 strategy presented by CEO of Lotus Group Qingfeng Feng, the new Esprit will join the new X-Hybrid Eletre and Emeya models, a more focussed and hardcore Emira and the all-electric Eivijia. Focus 2030 will also see Lotus Cars and the publicly listed  Lotus Technology become a single entity. 

The new Esprit, codenamed Type 135 until now, hasn’t had the easiest of gestation periods. For a start, its Type number was initially applied to the all-electric replacement for the Toyota and Mercedes-AMG powered Emira sports car. Due to launch in 2025 for circa £75,000 it was meant to be offered with a range of electric powertrains ranging from 470bhp to more than 800bhp with a dual motor set-up. 

In 2024 Lotus also showed the Theory 1 concept car, a 986bhp all electric hypercar. Principally a design study to present a future ethos that car lends a lot of its styling  to the new Esprit, specifically around the rear of the car including the diffuser. 

While Lotus has yet to confirm many essential details around the return of its iconic supercar, it has committed that the new fifth generation Esprit will be built in Europe. In the last 12 months work has been carried out at the company’s Hethel facility to create a flexible production hub, and the company still operates the Lotus Tech Innovation Centre in Frankfurt, Germany. 

A carbon fibre monocoque tub is expected to feature at the new Esprit’s core, with extruded aluminium subframes to hang the suspension from. All very McLaren.  

There is the small issue of where Lotus plans to get the V8-hybrid engine from, but parent company Geely Holdings Group might have the solution for that. Horse Powertrain was announced as a joint venture between Renault and Geely in 2022 to design and produce internal combustion engines and hybrid-powertrains for the brand’s range of vehicles. Having already announced a new 536bhp twin-turbocharged V6 last month, which has the capability to be mated to either a 402bhp or 603bhp electric motor, the solution could already be in place for Lotus. Even more so because Horse’s new V6 is modular and therefore could be turned into a V8. Don’t, unfortunately, expect a manual gearbox.

It’s safe to say that the new Esprit will share much of the original’s core DNA in terms of its mid-engined layout, class leading Lotus dynamics and distinctive wedge-shaped design. What it’s unlikely to offer is the Lotus affordability. Where the first four generations of Esprit not only out-paced their rivals on the road for ride and handling, and power to weight, they also out-punched many on price, too, undercutting key rivals from Aston Martin, Honda, Ferrari and Porsche. 

However, with a V6-engined Emira Jim Clark costing from £115,000 and the i4-engined models starting from £79,500 the new Esprit will wear a heavy price expected to be closer to that of a Ferrari 296 GTS, McLaren Artura and Lamborghini Temerario, which means a £200,000 Lotus. Or perhaps higher still if they decide to go for the V8-engined hybrid 849 Testarossa. 

Read the full story - https://www.evo.co.uk/lotus/esprit/208739/the-lotus-esprit-is-officially-making-a-return-and-it-has-a-v8

In the aftermath of the Second World War, the British countryside was littered with redundant airfields, surplus to requirements in peacetime but ripe to be used for racing and developing cars. You can see the echoes of it even today. JLR’s R&D base in Warwickshire is built on an old wartime airfield, as is Lotus HQ in Hethel. Every year the British GP takes place on the site of RAF Silverstone. Having dozens of runways and taxiways upon which to hare around in cars helped to cement Britain’s motorsport expertise while giving it bountiful proving grounds on which to nurture a vast number of small sports car makers. The Wells Vertige is born from that tradition. But it’s also a tradition haunted by the ghosts of those who gave it a shot and disappeared just as quickly as they appeared. Or as quickly as their borrowed, mass-produced engines would allow. Remember Parradine or Delfino? No, no one does.

Some defunct British sports cars, however, linger a little longer in the memory. Ascari, for example, was subject to an excellent retrospective on its KZ1 in evo 301. Or how about the Strathcarron SC-5A, announced in 1998 with various promising details including a 1200cc four-cylinder Triumph bike motor, a lightweight structure designed by Reynard and involving aluminium, Kevlar and carbonfibre, a target weight of just 550kg and the involvement of ex-Lotus engineering brain Colin Spooner and Isuzu Vehicross designer Simon Cox? As is often the case with small British sports cars, the SC-5A garnered plenty of attention, but a yawning gap between initial review and start of production saw the spotlight swivel onto something else. It didn’t help that, after driving a production-spec car for evo 033, John Barker confessed to being ‘confused and disappointed’ by the frustratingly uncoordinated dynamics. Just to completely torpedo its chances, SVA regs changed to make it harder for the bike engine to meet road car rules and, despite plans for a cheaper version with glassfibre panels and a Rover K-series, the SC-5A sank after just six had been made. Strathcarron itself, however, was a consultant to the automotive industry long before its own-brand car came along and survives to this day in the same business.

Caparo is another company that existed long before an ill-fated venture into car making, in this case as a multinational conglomerate best known for steel making. In 2006 Caparo bought Freestream, a tiny Surrey-based company founded by two former McLaren Cars engineers and adopted the project it had been working on since 2004, announcing it as the Caparo T1. The on-paper claims sounded nuts, even in an era when everyone was obsessed with the Top Trumps-winning Bugatti Veyron; a 2.4-litre V8 making around 450bhp but pushing less than 500kg for a power-to-weight ratio close to 1000bhp-per-ton and lots of hyperbole about an ‘F1 car for the road’, triggered by the car’s circuit-racer-meets-jet-fighter design. The newly named Caparo Vehicle Technologies claimed it would be making 25 a year for £150,000 a pop…

The next time the T1 was in the headlines was for a less positive reason when a test car caught fire during filming for Fifth Gear, leaving presenter Jason Plato with burns to his hands, face and neck. No wonder Henry Catchpole was required to wear flameproof overalls and a helmet when he drove the T1 on the road for evo 123 in 2008.

By now the car’s official weight had swollen to 672kg but power had also increased, to 610bhp at a heady 10,500rpm from a 3.5-litre naturally aspirated V8, giving a tidy 921bhp per ton. Unsurprisingly, Catchpole found it ‘bonkers quick’, but unfortunately power and weight were not the only things to have grown; the price had also put on a few pounds and was now well over £200,000 including taxes, which probably contributed to the T1’s lack of success. Officially, Caparo Vehicle Technologies didn’t close down until most of the Caparo group collapsed in 2015, but by 2011 it was already game over when the company admitted it had sold just 11 T1s and production had been halted to allow the car to go through a new ‘development period’, including plans for a more extreme track version, from which it never emerged.

The Connaught Type-D never scorched a touring car champion nor generated any breathless coverage comparing it to an F1 car, but it also failed to reach the point where anybody could buy one. On paper this little coupe, first announced in 2004, seemed intriguing, not least for its 2-litre narrow-angle V10 allied to a far-sighted hybrid system. Reviving the name of a British racing team from the 1950s didn’t hurt when it came to getting some initial attention either. After that, however, the Type-D became one of those British sports cars that was perennially just around the corner and, despite claims of 20-plus deposits from customers drawn in by the talk of 300bhp, and a very pure chassis of double wishbones all round with no PAS or anti-roll bars, customer cars were still nothing more than a collection of bits and a first batch of V10 engine blocks when the money finally ran out.

Relative to this, the FBS Census was a glorious success, what with three prototypes and five production cars entering the world before the company collapsed in 2003. The Census was formulated in the late ’90s by two former Rover Group engineers, Robin Hall (now behind the Wells Vertige) and Andrew Barber, initially as the FBS-1. Barber later admitted that FBS stood for something ‘quite rude’, but when it became the name of the company the official story said it was an abbreviation of ‘Future British Sportscar’.

Hall and Barber came up with an appealingly simple and compact two-seater with a 168bhp 2.5-litre Ford V6 driving the rear wheels and held a contest among Coventry University car design students to style its body. Unfortunately, a desire to avoid making something retro and predictable drove the FBS founders to pick a design by Italian student Giovanni Doglioli that certainly couldn’t be called predictable. Unfortunately, what it also couldn’t be called was attractive, and this might explain why sales were not brisk when the car went on sale in late 2001. Its launch price of 26 grand also landed it in the middle of the six-cylinder BMW Z3s, and they looked like oil paintings by comparison.

The Census reportedly drove very well but this wasn’t enough, and within two years FBS was making a last-ditch plea for an investor willing to chuck in half a million quid before officially going pop in September 2003. As a final ignominy, before it went bust FBS had realised it could draw more attention to the car with product placement and made a deal with the producers of an upcoming movie. The lag between shooting and release being as it is, FBS was already a memory when, in October 2004, not one but two Censuses made their big screen debut in a film called Fat Slags.

Much funnier than that terrible Viz spin-off movie was the Keating Bolt, revealed in 2013 with a visibly gimcrack show car and a claim that it would crack 340mph and sprint to 60 in two seconds flat thanks to a supercharged GM LS7 V8 producing a claimed 2500bhp. Whether anyone would want to do that sort of speed in this car was one thing. Whether they’d want to pay the asking price of £750,000 was another, especially once they saw the show car’s orange-peel paintwork and what appeared to be generic Ford interior door handles with the bit you pull crudely reworked into the shape of a lightning bolt.

Anthony Keating, company founder and managing director of a diesel generator business, talked a good game at the car’s reveal, proudly telling the Manchester Evening News that he was about to visit locations in the Middle East looking for a place at which his new car could smash the road car speed record. This wasn’t Keating’s first rodeo either, since in 2009 his previous model, the TKR, had hit a claimed 260.1mph at Salt Lake Flats in California, theoretically a record but unverified since the car hadn’t completed a second run in the opposite direction.

Did this really happen? Who knows. Did Keating lend a car to a blind bank manager in 2010 so that he could attempt a new sightless speed record of over 192mph at Pendine Sands only for Tony Keating himself to crash the car on that same beach before the record could be attempted? According to BBC News online, yes, that really happened. Did Keating later come up with a new model called the Berus, which seemed to be little more than a rendering until a prototype was seen losing control and smacking a kerb in the car park of Bolton University? Also yes, according to the Daily Mail, which has some (badly shot) video footage of this incident.

Did Tony Keating tell the Manchester Evening News in 2013 that he’d sold six cars so far, none in the UK, later fetching up in the US in 2018 making bold claims about building a 230mph coupe called the Viperia Berus before doing nothing of the sort and putting Keating Supercars into voluntary liquidation in 2021? Yes to all of those things. Despite the occasional hubris, the truth of the Keating saga seems to have been a simple tale of low sales and financial disaster. In fact, as we’ve seen many times, a classic British sports car story. Now, does anyone know what’s going on with TVR?

Read the story - https://www.evo.co.uk/news/208735/the-british-f1-car-for-the-road-that-caught-fire-and-promptly-vanished

The headlines are 831bhp, 1084lb ft and a very substantial 2305kg. Aside from the AMG One – remember that? – it’s the most powerful AMG product ever made. Do we care? Well, why not? We are well beyond the realms of sanity with these sorts of cars, so why not embrace the madness and submit to the ridiculousness of it all?

Besides, it’s hard not to marvel at the sheer force of will AMG employed to create this monstrous saloon car. I have no idea about the ‘why’ but the ‘how’ is something to behold. In simple terms, this is a GT63 S augmented for even greater performance. It retains the fabulous 4-litre twin-turbocharged V8 engine, producing 630bhp and 664lb ft, but supplements it with an electric motor that forms part of a kind of super-transaxle, comprising motor, two-speed gearbox and e-differential. This layout allows a 50:50 weight distribution, which is better than the slightly front-heavy pure-ICE GT63 S.

The e-motor can add 201bhp and helps deliver that tarmac-wrinkling torque figure. It acts directly on the rear axle but the 4Matic+ four-wheel-drive system allows the power to be distributed to the front wheels, too. A 6.1kWh battery pack sits above the rear axle and features direct cooling for its 560 cells. The battery, which weighs 89kg, is said to be derived from F1 learnings and AMG claims a high power density plus exceptionally fast charge and discharge rates. 

The E Performance has an electric-only range of around eight miles at speeds of up to 81mph. However, as you may have guessed, that’s hardly the point. Unlike some recent plug-in hybrid V8s, it doesn’t provide much in the way of improved fuel economy, either, with 25mpg the absolute best we could extract from it on our test. There’s no dedicated ‘battery charge’ mode to quickly give the battery a boost, either, but drive in sport mode or above and it will slowly regenerate. 

It’s tempting to jump in, dial everything up to 11 and feel the force. Who doesn’t want to experience AMG’s gloriously characterful V8 fed with a shot of electric nitrous? Yet, I attempt restraint. There’s so much to try to appreciate here and to decode in order to get the best from this complicated machine. Does the EV mode seem useable? Can the engine and nine-speed gearbox combine seamlessly with the new rear drive unit?

First impressions are familiar if you’ve driven an E63 or GT63 in the past. Those same rock-hard yet supportive seats, the same sense of a big, wide car that’s at once intimidating due to its scale but reassuring due to the obvious stability and control. The rich, deep V8 noise is comforting, although there’s definitely a little sci-fi whoosh swimming around the tight, evocative, heavy-metal soundtrack. The most pleasing thing of all is that the GT63 feels special and exciting even at low speeds. This is a nut that EVs – never mind whether they possess 1000bhp – have yet to crack. Something about the beat and connection with a barrel-chested petrol-powered engine is going to take some weaning from. This mighty car has character in abundance.

Utilising twin-chamber air springs and electronically adjustable dampers, AMG Ride Control+ provides good ride quality but the old problems of air springs – a kind of brittle, shuddering feel over high-frequency bumps – remain. I actually prefer the feel of the car in its stiffer Sport and Sport+ settings, and unlike some cars of this kind, the drive modes make a noticeable and immediate difference to ride. Things are a little busier in these modes but there’s greater consistency.

Beside the drive mode dial on the right hand side of the wheel, another one controls two functions simultaneously, from suspension to ESC, sound to gearbox mode. It sounds hellishly confusing but works pretty well. There are more layers to come thanks to AMG Dynamics, effectively an overarching strategy for ESP, e-diff, rear steer and 4WD that runs through Basic, Advanced, Pro and Master programmes. It’s tied to the driver modes, thankfully, so you don’t really have to mess around with it too much. 

The combined effect of all this hardware and software is simply huge performance, incredible grip levels even in slippery conditions, a great deal of driver confidence and, for the most part, an intuitive, cohesive dynamic character. The GT63 S E Performance really is quite shockingly fast and yet the chassis rarely scrabbles for traction or shows any signs of the weight pushing the car into understeer or tipping it into oversteer. Just point, shoot and hold on. And enjoy the crackling soundtrack that has a really nice bonus of turbo chirrups, flutters and at low speeds a sound not dissimilar to straight-cut gears from the electric drive system – just try to ignore the mildly offensive synthetic ‘crack’ sound on each upshift.

For the most part the integration of the e-motor is very well executed. It really does feel like an 8-litre V8 that happens to rev past 7000rpm rather than an engine being supported with lumps of electric power. Find a road where you can stay flat through multiple gears, though, and there’s a noticeable step down in output between the ratios, almost as if boost is falling off in the process. The power is relentless either way, but this disruption feels a little old fashioned next to the refined Ultra Performance Hybrid V8 powertrain seen in Bentley, Audi and Lamborghini models. The transmission is quick enough on the way up, but downshifts can occasionally come with much less conviction than you expect, resulting in mistakenly stacked downshift requests and clumsy corner entries.

The brakes don’t quite match the performance of the powertrain, though. There’s plenty of power, of course, but the pedal feel is quite inconsistent and unusually grabby at cold temperatures, unlike most modern ceramic brakes. One moment there’s really strong top-of-the-pedal bite, the next it goes long and soft. The threshold between regen and friction braking is all too apparent. It’s the first chink in the GT63’s armour, the first time you’re aware of the mass beneath you. 

Once the big saloon is loaded into a corner it really is superbly balanced, and despite its huge mass, steering response is direct and inspires great confidence – you do lack that fine feedback you might get in something with less weight to handle, but rear-steer and aggressive geometry give a front end with keenness you might not expect. One byproduct of this is some of the worst low speed, full-lock crabbing I’ve come across, which serves as a nice reminder of just how capable this car is, even if you’re just trying to wedge it into a space at Tescos.

The dynamic limitation instead comes on bumpy, undulating roads, where the suspension starts to unravel and vertical movements run away from the control of the dampers, especially in the slackened comfort mode. At times even in Sport+ mode the body floats as the wheels crash and clatter beneath and the reality of accelerating, turning and stopping 2305kg comes into sharp focus. 

So, the GT63 S E Performance is remarkable… right until the point it isn’t. Suddenly the polish evaporates and the car feels clumsy. It’s certainly a sharper and more noticeable deterioration than you’d find in the much lighter (but still 2-ton) GT63 S, which makes do without the hybrid system but gets on pretty well with just 630bhp. Should you really push the E Performance hard and exceed the limits of rear grip, the transition into oversteer is fast and pretty scary at times, too. Best to dial everything back and enjoy the security and drama of the car at a slightly lower, but still supersonic, pace. 

Overall, though, the sense of mass is inescapable. There’s just a shade more inertia to everything the car does, and even the way it will continue to accelerate for a split-second as you come off the throttle can be eerie and create a bit of a runaway-train sensation. Compared with a standard GT63 S what you gain in pure brute force you lose in subtlety and precision. Set against our favourite supersaloon, the sublime BMW M5 CS, the Mercedes feels hundreds of kilos heavier – which it is – and nothing like as organic and free-breathing dynamically. More like a ballistic luxury car than a true supersaloon.  

I can see the case for that formula and the Mercedes does feel a quality item. Yet the persistent road noise from huge 315-section rear tyres and wind noise that sometimes buffets as though a window is cracked open undermines the luxury brief. Ultimately, the GT63 S E Performance is an impressive but slightly confused car and loses more than it gains with the hybrid application. The technology is deeply impressive but despite tricks like using the e-motor to help with ESC tuning to prevent the sharp cutting of power to the wheels, the real benefit is pure straight-line capability. We’d argue it had enough of that already.

The GT63 S E Performance is not a small car by any measure, but it’s a reverse tardis. The cabin is cosseting to put it lightly, but while the tall, button-festooned centre console adds to the theatre, it contributes to a space that’s not as practical as you might expect. Rear-seat passengers get bucket seats which add the support you need in such a capable car, but they mean a fifth passenger is off the cards. The lack of practicality continues elsewhere, as the fitment of that 6.1kWh battery pack takes a good portion of depth from the boot that you get in the pure-combustion model. 

A high bonnet and beltline make you feel like you’re in something special, and while thankfully Mercedes-AMG allows you to sit nice and low in this car, you can’t see an awful lot out of it if you do. There’s very good wheel adjustment, though, which is not a given in 2026, and the customisable rotary drive mode dials on the steering wheel give you some of the easiest access to such a vast array of drive modes I’ve seen.

The infotainment display and overall interface is slightly dated, and for good reason, as it’s a generation behind more recent Mercedes-Benz products. It’s all functional though and this car has all of the niceties regardless. You’ll find well integrated Apple CarPlay, massaging, heated and cooled seats, and matte carbonfibre trim ensuring you never forget that you’re in something special.

Even with the upgraded Burmester sound system, the speakers are surprisingly disappointing, but one factor that won’t be helping matters is the road noise. Those huge 315-section rear tyres pump a constant roar into the cabin and while the unusual whirring and clunking from the powertrain is fascinating at first, it becomes a little tiresome when all you want to do is cover a couple of hundred miles in comfort.

Read the full story - https://www.evo.co.uk/mercedes/amg-gt/205813/mercedes-amg-gt63-four-door-s-e-performance-2023-2026-review-family-saloon

The Aston Martin Vanquish is one of the very best super-GTs currently on-sale, and received a five star evo rating as a result. A rival to Ferrari’s 12 Cilindri there’s little we would change were the team at Gaydon considering some mid-life updates, but Aston Martin clearly doesn’t feel the same way and is currently testing on the Nürburgring evaluating potential new upgrades for the V12-engined coupe.

The visual changes to the car are minimal, with a more pronounced front splitter and a gurney flap featuring on the rear of this car easily identifiable. More curiously, there are also six exhaust pipes…

This test mule has the same quad-exit exhaust setup as the standard car nestled in the lower portion of the diffuser, but there’s something unusual happening between the taillights. In place of the standard car’s gloss black bodywork, the mule adopts a mesh finish revealing the use of an additional two exhaust pipes behind.

Both the Valkyrie and Valhalla feature centralised exhaust exits, with the Valhalla utilising a twin exit exhaust similar to the layout spotted on this Vanquish. A spokesperson for the company said: “Aston Martin is continuously testing and developing its models and components, this car is testing a proposed new exhaust system inspired by the Valhalla.” There was no indication or confirmation from Aston Martin that the system will make it to production. Last month a Vantage S was also spotted at the Nürburgring sporting the same exhaust set-up. 

The standard Aston Martin Vanquish starts from a punchy £334,000 and sits at the top of the model range ahead of the DB12, including the new S model, and the Vantage and Vantage S. 

Read the story - https://www.evo.co.uk/aston-martin/vanquish/208724/the-aston-martin-vanquish-is-testing-with-a-six-pipe-exhaust