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Skoda Yeti facelift for 2013 Frankfurt Motor Show

Skoda will debut a facelifted Yeti compact SUV at the 2013 Frankfurt Motor Show. This doesn’t exactly sound like major news, but it does represent potentially dangerous ground for the Czech brand: the Yeti is one the best-loved cars on sale in the UK –　so the task of refreshing it can’t have been an easy one. Nonetheless, Skoda has not only chosen to give the Yeti a makeover, it will also offer the car in two distinct variants for the first time – one aimed at urban drivers and the other at more adventurous types.

Volkswagen Golf R 400 Concept with 395bhp heading for Beijing

The VW Golf R 400 can hit 62mph in 3.9 seconds Volkswagen usually reserve their extreme concepts for the Worthersee Show, but they’re heading to next week’s Beijing Motor Show with a very extreme Golf R. The VW Golf R 400 Concept takes the regular Golf R – perhaps the most ‘grown-up’ hot hatch you can buy – and not only adds more power but extreme styling too. That means the 2.0 litre turbo 4-cylinder engine in the Golf R being crankes up to deliver 395bhp (400PS) which cuts the 0-62mph time by a full second over the production Golf R with the DSG ‘box to a supercar-bashing 3.9 seconds.

McLaren P1 gets an Arctic shakedown (+video)

So McLaren are busy throwing the worst conditions they can at the P1 to make sure it can perform even in the harshest of conditions and be the best driver’s car in the world – even when there’s several feet of ice under its wheels. McLaren has had several XP prototypes of the P1 running round the world’s harshest climates – hot and cold – and have delivered a video of the P1 prototype playing on the ice in the north of Sweden – inside the Arctic Circle – to keep interest in the P1 bubbling along ahead of its dynamic debut in the UK at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in July. Despite its enormous power – 903bhp from a combination of its turbo 3.8 litre V8 and electric motor – the P1 does look composed and capable, even with sub-zero temperatures and a surface that has zero grip.