Corvette Front Spoiler, Left, 1997-2004 on 2040-parts.com

Volkswagen XL1 priced at £98,515 - 30 coming to UK

By Nikolai Attard Motor Industry 30 June 2014 15:16 Volkswagen has announced the price for the energy-efficient XL1, which has now gone on sale in the UK. Only 200 VW XL1s will be built, with up to 30 making their way to deep-pocketed early adopters in the UK. The XL1 was on show at last weekend’s 2014 Goodwood Festival of Speed where it silently whirred up the hill in front of 50,000 spectators on Sunday.

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.

Nissan scales back on auto shows

Nissan said on Friday that it will not participate in some of the major auto shows in its new business year starting April 1, Reuters is reporting. The reason: to save money. This means no Nissan display at the show in Frankfurt in September and probably another absence in Detroit in January 2010.