Beechcraft Airborne Gyro on 2040-parts.com

Seat Leon Cupra 280 breaks Nürburgring lap record (2014)

By Ollie Kew Motor Industry 05 March 2014 11:00 You’re looking at the fastest front-wheel drive car ever to lap the Nürburgring Nordschleife: the Seat Leon Cupra 280. A paddleshift DSG-equipped three-door example has lapped the 12-mile lap in 7min 58.44sec – smashing the previous record of 8min 7.97sec, held by the Renaultsport Megane Trophy. It's a slap in Honda's face too: the Japanese maker wanted its new Civic Type-R to be the first sub-8min hatch.

Zonda Cinque Roadster revealed

Pagani has released the final Zonda - the Zonda Cinque Roadster We already know how rigid the Zonda is from the Zonda F Roadster, so Pagani haven’t had to add half a ton of iron girders to the Cinque to compensate for chopping the top off. So you will still have a car that can deliver 0-62mph in 3.4 seconds from its 678bhp V12 Mercedes-sourced engine, and on up to almost 220mph. Just like the Coupe Cinque, only five Cinque Roadsters will be built (Cinque – Five – gettit?!) and each will set back their lucky owner €1.1 million + tax.

Royal College of Art's Class of 2013 launches real-time projects blog

The Royal College of Art's Vehicle Design Class of 2013 has launched a new blog that will allow the public to follow their projects and studio work from ideas to exhibition for the first time in the course's 40-year history. The blog, which is updated daily, allows people to follow the process of the 18 MA students' final projects and college work in real-time and give them a ‘behind the scenes' look at their progress. RCA student Ewan Gallimore, speaking on behalf of the class, tells Car Design News, "So much of the work and process is unseen and by regularly updating this blog we give the chance for people to follow and interact with the run up to our show.