Puegeot win at Le Mans – Audi third

Peugeot drivers celebrate their 1-2 at Le Mans The winning Peugeot (#9) was driven by Alexander Wurz, David Brabham and Marc Gene, whilst second place was taken by Sébastien Bourdais, Franck Montagny and Stéphane Sarrazinin in car #8, just one lap behind, and five laps in front of Audi’s #1 car driven by Allan McNish, Rinaldo Capello and Tom Kristensen. In fact, the Audi car #1 (the other Audi entries had fallen by the wayside) finished just one lap ahead of Lola Aston Martin’s #007 car. The usual racing excuses were out in full, with Audi claiming that the cancellation of the traditional testing day this year meant they were unable to set up the R15 TDI properly in time for the race (Peugeot seemed to manage to get the 908s ready!).

Google continues autonomous car tests [w/video]

Google is leading the charge towards the production of a fully autonomous car, releasing a video earlier this week of the car being tested on a programmed route. Steve Mahan, who is 95 per cent blind, successfully tested the car with Google engineers and a member of the local police close at hand should something go awry. Google kitted out a Toyota Prius with its software, taking the shape of a spinning cylinder on the car's roof, which senses traffic or activity close to the car and automatically adapts to its situation.

Ford S-Max is Car of the Year

By Phil McNamara Motor Industry 14 November 2006 08:54 Ford's S-Max MPV has been crowned European Car of the Year, by a panel of journalists. Is it a victory for originality, or yet another duff decision from Europe's motoring journalists? The shortlist for the award comprised: • Citroen C4 Picasso • Fiat Grande Punto • Ford S-Max• Honda Civic• Peugeot 207 • Skoda Roomster • Vauxhall Corsa • Volvo C30 The panel of 58 writers selected those eight contenders for the 41 cars eligible for the award.