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50 Years of the BMW 'Neue Klasse'

In a year that sees the celebration of the ever-seductive Jaguar E-Type and the characterful Renault 4, it would be easy to overlook other cars also reaching their half-century, especially a mundane three-box saloon. However, the BMW 1500 isn't any less significant. When launched at the 1961 Frankfurt International Motor Show, intrigued and inquisitive visitors were forced to wait 30 minutes just to catch a glimpse of the car.

Maybach 57S Coupe arrives

The Maybach 57S Coupe by Xenatec Regular readers will know that we gave due warning back in March that Maybach was going to be allowed to wither on the vine rather than get new models, apart from a run-out Maybach Coupe based on the Maybach 57S and ‘produced’ by German firm Xenatec. Mercedes refuted our story about the Maybach badge being allowed to die again soon after the story ran (although there were rumblings at Paris last week that Mercedes has lost patience with Maybach. We’ll see), but what we did get was an official announcement that there will indeed be 100 Maybach 57S Coupes built by Xantech and that they will costs a rather large €675,000.

Corvette C7 makes its debut in Gran Turismo 5

An unusual one, this: from today, gamers playing Gran Turismo 5 will be able to test drive the new Corvette C7 - two months before it's revealed to the world at the 2013 Detroit auto show. The makers of GT5 on PlayStation have modelled a camouflaged 'Vette C7 with Chevrolet's approval. We can't remember a manufacturer letting the public 'loose' in a prototype quite so far ahead of a car's launch before.