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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.

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.

Hyundai i30 hits a million

Hyundai has revealed it has now built more than a million i30s with European sales accounting for 500,000 of those sales. Get over the latent badge snoberry and the Hyundai i30 is a family car that can be considered a real alternative to the leading cars in its sector – the VW Golf and Ford Focus – with a good combination of style, equipment, decent driving dynamics and cost. Set aside that badge snobbery and any buyer looking for a family car should really have these three – the i30, Golf and Focus - on their top three list; the rest is down to a subjective judgement.