Renault buys Caterham out of the joint Alpine sports car venture

Renault buys Caterham out of the joint Alpine sports car venture It’s more than eighteen months since Renault and Caterham joined forces to create a new breed of sports cars around the Alpine brand. Renault say the arrangement is a mutual one and officially brings to an end the joint venture, and that the business will be renamed Société des Automobiles Alpine this month, although Renault aren’t excluding further ventures with Caterham in the future. The split means that the Alpine project will now be a purely Renault one, and Renault are planning to get their Alpine to market by 2016.

Porsche 918 Spyder gets Martini Racing livery

The Porsche 918 Spyder hybrid supercar has been revealed in traditional Martini Racing livery, an option available to buyers. The Porsche 918 Spyder has been cropping up lately with a black and white version of the iconic Martini Racing livery as 918 Spyder Prototypes strut their stuff on Europe’s roads. But now Porsche has gone the whole hog and struck a deal with Martini to revive the Martini Racing livery used by Porsche in the 1970s for its new hybrid supercar, and buyers of the 918 Spyder will be able to option their new car up with Martini logos.

'Dracula' rides through Transylvania

A BRITISH man dressed as Dracula has just completed a bizarre road trip through historical Transylvania, riding a classic Ural motorbike fitted with a coffin as a sidecar. Nick Cunningham, 47, has just completed the ghoulishly good three-day journey along some of Europe’s best roads and scenery. And as if Dracula wasn’t enough for the locals to cope with, Nick’s companion for the trip, six-foot-four Nick Jackson, was dressed as Frankenstein’s Monster.