Porsche 911 GT3 R Hybrid (2011) first official pictures

Porsche has released details of its updated 911 GT3 R Hybrid – the 2010 original nearly won last year's Nurburgring 24hr race before (ironically) it retired with petrol engine failure.  The 2011 Porsche 911 GT3 R Hybrid – the lowdown Before this report disappears in a chorus of ‘it looks the same as last year’s one’, let's outline where Porsche’s engineers have been busy. At the unfashionable end of the car remains a 4.0-litre flat-six engine producing approximately 470bhp. Up front are twin electric motors, now producing 75kW of power each (up from 60kW) and combined these give the GT3 R Hybrid a 197bhp electric boost, which can be programmed to activate automatically via the throttle pedal, or manually selected during overtaking. F1-derived hybrid tech for the 911 GT3 R Hybrid Power for the two electric motors doesn't come from batteries, but flywheel accumulator technology from Williams Hybrid Power, an offshoot of the Williams Formula 1 team. The flywheel, encased in a carbonfibre safety cell in the space where the passenger seat would be, spins at up to 40,000rpm and acts as a mechanical energy store for the electric motors. Regenerative braking feeds energy back into the flywheel system – no surprises there, as the technology is derived from Williams' exeprience with Kinetic Energy Recovery Systems (KERS) in F1.

Peugeot 208 (2012) first official pictures

This new Peugeot 208 will replace the 207 in 2012. These first official photos of the 208, issued today, reveal a compact supermini which aims to put Peugeot back on the mini map. The 208 will be sold as a three- or five-door - for now - although we'd expect a variety of spin-offs will follow, most likely including a 208 CC folding hard-top and an SW estate.

Mini JCW convertible (2009): first official pictures

By Ben Whitworth First Official Pictures 10 February 2009 12:07 The new UK-built John Cooper Works Convertible will take centre stage on the Mini stand at the Geneva motorshow in February. Priced at a hefty £23,470 and on sale at the end of March, the convertible features the same chassis and powertrain tweaks as the JCW tintop. You’re right – that kind of money can get you into some pretty amazing metal these days, as you’ll see in the latest issue of CAR.