Kolpin 21500 Rhino Grip on 2040-parts.com

Pace cadets: At AMG academy, students take their finals with their right feet

Mercedes-Benz USA launched the AMG Challenge in 2002, a program touted as "a chance to experience the thrill of driving the newest Mercedes AMGs on some of America's best racetracks." This year, MBUSA abandoned the Challenge in favor of the AMG Driving Academy, a multistage driver-development program pioneered by AMG in Europe. The difference? According to Greg Clark, AMG manager, "the Challenge was more about the cars, while the Academy is more about the driver." Having participated in both the Challenge and now the Academy, we'd say that difference is subtle, at least as it applies to the one-day program.

Mitsubishi i MiEV Electric car launches in Japan

Mitsubishi i MiEV electric car launched in Japan at around £20,000 Until now, electric cars have been very much an oddity. The laughable G-Whiz and the Tesla Roadster are interesting in their own way, but unless you want to look like Noddy’s best friend (G-Whiz) or are happy to have a second-rate Lotus Elise at three times the price (Tesla), there wasn’t much to appeal to the normal car buyer. But it’s changing.

Lamborghini Urus SUV confirmed to arrive in 2017

The Urus will be VW Group’s lightest and quickest SUV – expected to best even the Porsche Cayenne Turbo – and will be built on VW’s new large SUV platform – the same platform that will underpin the Bentley Falcon SUV, Audi Q7 (and Audi Q9) and Porsche Cayenne – and will use a forged carbon composite structure from the central tunnel to the rear suspension to save weight. Power for the Urus is expected to come from the twin-turbo V8 we’ve already seen in the Bentley Continental GT and Audis, producing something in the region of 600bhp and perhaps even more if Lamborghini add a hybrid option to throw some electric assistance at the V8′s 600 horses. It seems likely the Urus concept will remain largely unchanged for production, although we could see some toning down of its more extreme elements, as Lamborghini look to add 3,000 sales a year to their annual total when the Urus hits showrooms.