First Sight: Mercedes-AMG GT

“If I was to buy any sports car that wasn't a Mercedes, it'd be a Porsche 911,” says Mercedes' head of design, Gorden Wagener. “But when you see the two cars together, we think ours has the edge.” He's talking about the new Mercedes-AMG GT, a front-mid engined, two-seater sports car that's unashamedly aimed at higher-end 911s, and we've come to see it at Mercedes' Sindelfingen studio.  The GT replaces the larger SLS, and is seen by Wagener as the best example yet of his 'sensual purity' design philosophy: “The SLS is very much [he gestures] line, line with a surface in between. With the GT we started with the surface and worked to refine and reduce the number of lines.” Elements of the SLS's platform have been carried over, so the GT measures the same 1,939mm wide.

Top Gear in Icelandic Volcano

Top Gear tackle a live Volcano in a Toyota in Iceland Top Gear is off air at the moment – if you don’t count the endless repeats on BBC2, BBC3 and Dave – and that usually means that the boys are off somewhere exotic. And so they are – this time to an active volcano in Iceland. It looks as if the boys have take the same Toyota they used in the trip to the North Pole – with May and Clarkson in the Toyota and Hamster on a sled – and done a modification or three to suit the heat instead of the cold.

Interior Motives China Conference 2013 – Day One

This year's Interior Motives China Conference got off to a great start yesterday in its new home at the Hilton Hongqiao in Shanghai. The theme of this year's event is 'Technology and Tradition; Old meets new in modern-day China.' Interior Motives is the print magazine from Car Design News, which focuses on the design development of vehicle interiors. The sixth running of the annual conference has seen a large shift in the Chinese market since the first.