CAR ADVICE

McLaren has confirmed Ron Dennis will sell his stake in the supercar maker and racing team operator, and will leave the company he’s been involved with for 37 years. As part of his departure, a new company, the McLaren Group, will be formed to hold both McLaren Automotive, the supercar maker, and McLaren Technology Group, which owns the racing team. Bahrain’s sovereign wealth fund, Bahrain Mumtalakat Holding Company, and the TAG Group will remain as McLaren’s majority shareholders. According to Autocar , Dennis will receive around 275 million pounds ($465 million) for his 25 per cent share in McLaren Technology Group, and his 11 per cent stake in McLaren Automotive. The transaction will reportedly close within “the next days or months”. Above: Ron Dennis. Dennis took charge of the struggling McLaren race team in 1980. Under his guidance, the team won 158 Grand Prix races, and 17 Formula One world championships. The team also featured a cavalcade of renowned drivers, includin...

It was a sunny, unseasonably warm day in winter. The sky was blue, the birds were singing, and the road underneath was disappearing under the lengthy bonnet of the car. I saw some horses in the paddocks alongside this lonely stretch of tarmac on the other side of the Blue Mountains in New South Wales, and thought to myself: “I’ve never been kicked by a horse.” Then I planted my right foot, and got what I can only assume to be a fair idea of what it might be like to cop a horseshoe to the hairies. I was driving the 2017 Ferrari GTC4 Lusso , which grasped the horizon and gripped it, throwing me – and the car – at it at an eye-watering pace. This mega-engined four-seater is the brand’s most practical offering, a hatchback for all intents and purposes, and with all-wheel-drive for some extra sensibility. But, really, sensible? A Ferrari , sensible? Don’t be silly. This is a $578,000, V12-powered hunchback with a heck of a temper, a car that does nothing by half measures. Four-wheel s...

The rev needle is pushing 7000rpm as I grip the titanium gear-knob and slam it down into fourth. The speedo needle creeps over 150km/h, while the engine again raises a raucous racket as the end of the straight approaches. I’m in the 2018 Honda Civic Type R at Lausitzring in Germany, and I’m learning pretty rapidly that this car is a handful. The all-new, 10th-generation hot-hatch stays true to its Honda Civic Type R forebears with front-drive underpinnings, foregoing the all-wheel-drive many of its direct rivals are endowed with. We’re talking Ford Focus RS , Volkswagen Golf R , and perhaps even in the competitor set could be the Mercedes-AMG A45 , because this Civic is built in Europe. Well, it’s built in the UK, which is still part of Europe… for now. But, I digress. The shift light on the dash flashes at me, and fourth gear becomes fifth as I cross the start/finish line, approaching 200km/h before pushing hard on the firm brake pedal and continuing out for the next lap. The b...

Dating back to 1927, Italy’s Mille Miglia is one of the most iconic and historic road races on the planet. First run in the same year as the debut race on Germany’s infamous Nurburgring Nordschleife , the Mille Miglia, or ‘Thousand Miles’, starts and finishes in Brescia in northern Italy. Despite the immense automotive passion of Brescians – six automobile manufacturers were founded in Brescia – the original ‘race’ was ceased in 1957, after two fatal crashes and more than 50 reported deaths. Several iterations of the race took place between 1958 and 1977, before the Mille Miglia returned in 1982 as a reliability and regularity endurance road rally event for historic automobiles. While always taking in approximately 1000 miles (a little over 1600km) of Italian public roads between Brescia and Rome, the Mille Miglia route isn’t always the same, and this year, CarAdvice was lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time. Taking place between May 18 and 21, the 35th editi...

Porsche has chosen the 2017 Goodwood Festival of Speed for the public unveiling of the most powerful street-legal 911 of all time. Powered by a 3.8-litre twin-turbo flat-six engine delivering a staggering 515kW of power and 750Nm of torque, the new 911 GT2 RS will accelerate from 0-100km/h in 2.8 seconds, on its way to a top speed of 340km/h. The 3.8-litre flat-six trumps the 3.6-litre unit of its predecessor by 59kW and 50Nm. Weighing in at just 1470kg – with a full tank of fuel – the lightweight two-seater is, in the GT2 tradition, rear-wheel drive only. The increase in performance over the 911 Turbo S engine, on which the GT2 RS engine is based, is mainly thanks to larger turbochargers. A new additional cooling system delivers the best performance possible under peak loads, and at very high intake temperatures, sprays the charge-air cooler with water. Despite the ballistic performance and power on offer, the 911 GT2 RS uses only 11.8L/100km on the combined cycle. The...

That’s right! Never mind the 161-piece Speed Champions series LEGO McLaren 720S announced in August – that’s child’s play. McLaren is bringing a 1:1 scale LEGO-fied version of its latest supercar to this week’s  2017 Goodwood Festival of Speed , and it’s comprised of more than 280,000 LEGO bricks. What’s even cooler, McLaren isn’t just rocking up to Goodwood with a finished full-size LEGO   McLaren 720S . Instead, it’ll be getting festival goers to help finish the epic build. How epic? McLaren says a team of six people working for over 2000 hours have already put more than 267,300 LEGO bricks onto a steel base frame, and that’s just been getting the car ready for its arrival to the iconic UK Festival of Speed. Pushing the total number of LEGO bricks to beyond 280,000, a further 12,700-plus bricks are expected to be added by Goodwood attendees, with the 1:1 LEGO 720S due to be fully completed by the final day of the festival. Interestingly, the Woking-based sup...

The facelifted  2018 Maserati GranCabrio and GranTurismo twins have been fully unveiled this week for the  Goodwood Festival of Speed , giving us a proper look at the exterior and interior revisions for the Italian company’s four-seater sports car. Following the GranTurismo’s debut in New York earlier in the week – albeit with no official images of the interior or the rear end – its drop-top GranCabrio sibling has also been revealed, along with the first images of the vehicle’s revised interior. As previously reported, the headlining change is the addition of a new 8.4-inch touchscreen central infotainment system with both Apple CarPlay and Android Auto smartphone mirroring functions, along with a redesigned centre console with fewer buttons. Above: MY18  (top), MY17  (bottom) Like the coupe, the GranCabrio comes in both Sport and MC trims, while the new lower air ducts on the convertible reduces aerodynamic drag from 0.35 to 0.33 – the GranTurismo’s figu...

It’s fair to assume the 2017 Mercedes-Benz E-Class Cabriolet won’t be on a great many readers’ shopping lists. That’s not because it’s bad or unappealing – it’s neither – but because of choice’s spoils. There’s currently a choice of four drop-tops wearing a tri-star badge: this categorically large E-Class  the altogether smaller C s and SLC s and the plus-sized SL flagship. And that’s not counting the GT and GT C Roadster  from skunkworks AMG. There hasn’t always been such choice in the quarter of a century between this brand-spanking ‘E Cab’ and its pioneering ancestor, the 300CE 24 launched back in 1992. Numerous factors, from the global economic climate to swings in buyer tastes, has cast grey clouds over the fair-weather, open-top luxury motoring segment in periods since, and with a murkiness which Stuttgart freely now admits where there seemed “no future for the cabriolet”. Today, the sheer choice in Benz soft-top convertibles and hard-top roadsters suggests w...

Holden Motorsport has undertaken its first test of the turbo V6 engine it will race in the Supercars series from 2019. The new powerplant, sourced from the forthcoming and fully imported Opel Insignia that will replace the Holden Commodore in Australian showrooms from next year, was transplanted into the Red Bull Holden Racing Team ‘Sandman’ test mule for its initial shakedown at Norwell Motorplex on the Gold Coast this week. It’s a significant step for the Supercars championship which has, since 1993, raced exclusively naturally aspirated 5.0-litre V8s. However, with the changing tide in the automotive industry, the series will switch to what it is calling Gen2 regulations which allows for any configuration of powerplant, including turbocharged, to be raced. The Red Bull Holden Racing Team reportedly completed 256km of running with star drivers Jamie Whincup, Craig Lowndes and Steven Richards behind the wheel. Team Principal Roland Dane said afterwards: “We are very happy wi...

Welcome to the  CarAdvice.com News Desk , a regular video wrap of the latest happenings in the automotive world and Australia’s new-car market. Keeping you in the loop, Tegan Lawson presents a weekly video from the  CarAdvice Garage ,   with everything you need to know about the week in news and reviews. What happened in the week ending June 30, 2017? Catch our video above, and links to the full stories below. THE WEEK IN NEWS The 2017 Volkswagen Golf Mk 7.5 will launch in Australia next week with even sharper pricing than expected. MORE: Volkswagen Golf 7.5 launching with sharpened prices The Ford Ranger has received a minor update with no changes to the current pricing. MORE: Ford Ranger scores minor feature updates – on sale now The 2018 BMW X3 has been officially revealed. The new generation X3 is a little larger than its predecessor. MORE: 2018 BMW X3 revealed The 2017 Subaru XV has launched in Australia and Subaru is hoping to sell around...

The all-new 2018 Honda Civic Type R hatchback will go toe-to-toe with big name speedsters in the small car segment when it arrives in October, priced from $50,990 plus on-road costs. The new-generation Honda Civic Type R model packs in a 2.0-litre four-cylinder turbo engine with a massive 228kW of power and 400Nm of torque, and while the rest of the the Civic hatch range may come only with a CVT automatic, this bad boy is only available with a six-speed manual and front-wheel drive. Hallelujah, right? The comprehensively equipped Civic Type R model is highly specified, with big ticket items such as adaptive dampers, 20-inch wheels, Brembo brakes and the Honda Sensing safety suite of active intervention tech all standard. The fifth-generation model is only available in one trim, at that $50,990 price point, putting it bang on the cash against rivals like the Ford Focus RS (also manual-only, but with all-wheel-drive: $50,990), while undercutting the updated Volkswagen Golf R ...

On the panel this week is Mandy Turner , Mike Costello and James Wong . We bring you a special sports-car-heavy news fest this week, which includes the stunning Ferrari 812 Superfast premiering in Australia , Jaguar’s fastest road car – the XE SV Project 8 – has been revealed , the Maserati GranTurismo has had a facelift , and the Aston Martin DB11 now gets the option of a twin-turbo V8 engine . Moving to more affordable cars, the Volkswagen Golf ‘7.5’ now has sharpened prices , and the BMW X3 has been revealed . James reviews the Mazda CX-3 and gives an update on our long-term Mazda 2. Matt Campbell is in Germany for the launch of the Honda Civic Type R . With a CarAdvice prize pack up for grabs, another hint is revealed for pick the exhaust. We talk Cars 3 with Tegan Lawson, and we do a catch up with the Highway 1 to Hell team to see if they broke the record of the quickest drive around Australia. We finish up this episode on a very special, very loud note, as Matt take...

It’s official, 40km/h zones are keeping us safe and reducing the number of incidents on the road – according to the New South Wales (NSW) government . According to a new study, the NSW Centre for Road Safety has found a 33 per cent reduction in crashes causing serious between 2005 and 2015, in areas where 40km/h zones have been introduced. Research shows the number of people killed in permanent 40km/h speed limit locations, the number of people killed went from 12 in 2005 to just one in 2015. Additionally, the number of people seriously injured in these ones dropped from 269 in 2005 to 203 in 2015. Melinda Pavey, minister for roads, maritime and freight, said that 40km/h speed zones are an important part of the state’s road safety strategy in the future. “We are now looking to expand the rollout of these reduced speed zones around the state,” she said. “The Centre for Road Safety will work with Roads and Maritime Services, focusing on locations with high pedestrian act...

The all-electric BMW 3 Series sedan will reportedly be unveiled at this year’s Frankfurt motor show in September. Sources have told Handelsblatt the 3 Series EV will make its debut in September, partially as a spoiler for the Tesla Model 3 , which goes into production later this year. It’s not clear when BMW’s electric sedan will go on sale, but an earlier report suggested electric versions of mainstream BMW models wouldn’t begin appearing in showrooms until 2019, although these models may now begin appearing earlier than that. Above and below: BMW 330e plug-in hybrid. In separate but related news, Nicolas Peter, BMW’s chief financial officer, confirmed to Reuters and others the Bavarian car maker will continue to spend heavily on electric vehicle development. Aggressive CO2 targets from the EU, and EV and hybrid incentives in China are spurring BMW, as well as other manufacturers, to invest heavily in electrified drivetrains. Over the next three years, the company plans...