The Porsche P1 is lighter, greener and more exclusive than McLaren's new hypercar

Long before the legendary Porsche 911 -- before, even, the Porsche 356 -- Ferdinand Porsche was tinkering with alternative powertrains and designing road-worthy vehicles. Though it wasn't the first vehicle to bear his name, the “Egger-Lohner electric vehicle, C.2 Phaeton model” was the earliest result of his efforts. Perhaps getting the jump on the modern alpha-numeric craze/plague, it was shortened to a simple “P1.” The P1 (we'll refer to it as the Porsche P1 from here on out to avoid confusion) made its first appearance in Vienna on June 26, 1898, and it didn't last long in the public eye: Before Porsche decided to pull it out and put it on display, it had reportedly been sitting in a warehouse, untouched, since 1902.

Concept Car of the Week: Alfa Romeo Navajo (1976)

In 1976, the space shuttle Enterprise was unveiled, Concorde made its first commercial flight and the Cray supercomputer went into service. These events represent a time when ideas transitioned from science fiction to reality. While significant progress was being demonstrated elsewhere, the motoring world gave us the first Ford Fiesta.

Top Gear Tonight: Renaultsport Clio 200, Peugeot 208 GTI, Ford Fiesta ST & New Reasonably priced car

Richard Hammond tests the Renaultsport Clio 200 (pictured), Peugeot 208 GTi and Ford Fiesta ST in tonight’s Top Gear It’s been a while since Top Gear filled our Sunday evenings, but it’s back tonight – Series 20, Episode 1 – at 8pm on BBC 2. The usual mayhem and madness (and silliness) will ensue. but the series needs to be set up first, because there’s a new reasonably priced car.