Aston Martin unveils 2009 Le Mans challenger: first official pictures

By Ben Pulman First Official Pictures 27 January 2009 09:50 Those plucky Brits. This is Aston Martin’s new petrol-powered LMP1 Le Mans contender, designed to take on the diesel might of Peugeot's 908 and Audi's new R15. Aston is aiming for the overall win at the legendary 24-hour race on 13-14 June 2009, 50 years after Carroll Shelby and Roy Salvadori drove a DBR1 to victory. Aston’s new LMP1 car is based on the Lola-developed 2008 Charouz Racing Aston Martin that came ninth at Le Mans in 2008. For '09 the car has been further tweaked with help from Lola, Michelin, Koni and BBS.

Honda Civic Tourer 1.6 i-DTEC wins MPG Marathon

The winners of the MPG Marathon in the Honda Civic Tourer 1.6 i-DTEC Last year Honda took the CR-V 1.6i-DTEC out MPG Marathon playing, and managed to return an impressive 78mpg in a car the official figures say should do 63mpg, disproving (to a point) that cars just can’t achieve official economy figures in the real world. This time it’s the turn of the new Honda Civic Tourer with the latest 1.6 i-DTEC ‘Earth Dreams’ engine to go out and eke every possible inch of tarmac from every single drop of petrol. In the hands of Honda R&D engineers Fergal McGrath, James Warren, Tony Shiggins and Julian Warren, the Civic Tourer drove a total of 330 miles and managed to do 97.2mpg – an impressive 31.8 per cent more than the official average.

Gordon Murray T25

Gordon Murray Design has unveiled the T25 prototype, a car that the company's founder, Gordon Murray, has long talked about as the vehicle that will revolutionize the automotive industry. At just 2400mm long, 1300mm wide and 1600mm high, the T25 occupies a greatly reduced footprint in comparison to a Smart ForTwo or Toyota iQ. The T25 seats three, with a central driver flanked by two rearward passengers, in a formation reminiscent of Murray's most famous work to date – the McLaren F1.