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Autoweek in review: What you may have missed

At the start of the week, our own Dutch Mandel offered his take on the best and worst of the automotive Super Bowl XLVI commercials. Check out his column here, and see the Super Bowl commercials for yourself at shopautoweek.com. One of the more popular Super Bowl ads came courtesy of Chevrolet and the indie band OK Go.

McLaren 12C Can-Am & Historic McLaren Can-Ams at 2013 Goodwood FoS

It seems it was, because by November McLaren revealed the 12C Can Am was going in to limited production – just 30 units at £375,000 each – for deep-pocketed Americans to go track day racing with a 12C that weighs in at 1200kg, gets a few extra horses and 30 per cent more downforce compared to the road going 12C. So with a new track car and a 50th anniversary to celebrate in 2013, McLaren has decided it’s a good idea to take the 12C Can-Am off to play on the Goodwood hillcimb this summer at the 2013 Festival of Speed and, for added interest, take along a selection of models from their heritage collection – the ultimate McLaren racers of the 1960s and 70s – for our delight. McLaren has also given us a teaser video of the M8D Can-Am Racer (below) as a taster of what visitors to this year’s FoS can look forward too, yet another reason to get yourself down to Sussex in July.

Vauxhall Ampera price cut by £3,500

The Vauxhall Ampera (pictured) drops in price by £3500 Although we still feel the range-extender is the right way for car makers to go to get the car buying public to accept EVs, the range-extender Vauxhall Ampera has not exactly been a runaway success. Despite Vauxhall offering potential Ampera buyers the option of trying it for 30 days and handing it back if they don’t like it, the Ampera has failed miserably to sell in any sort of volume. So, with new competition on the way from the range-extender BMW i3, Vauxhall are taking drastic action to try and tempt buyers in to the Ampera and are slashing prices by £3,500.