Festival of the Unexceptional: the bad cars we love

Ever been to a classic car show and noticed how many old MGBs and sports cars of yesteryear have turned up, driven by their proud owners, but wondered what happened to all the more mainstream stuff? There are twice as many Ferrari 308 GTBs on the roads in the UK than Austin Allegros, because the everyday cars of the past fail MOTs, get chucked away and replaced with shiny new hatchbacks. Fortunately, there is a select group of people in the UK who care for the mundane stuff of yesterday and, because of this, a new event for “unexceptional” cars will be taking place this summer.

LA Motor Show: Porsche launches 192mph Panamera Turbo S

THE SCINTILLATING Panamera Turbo S has been launched at twin events at the Tokyo and Los Angeles motor shows. The new flagship at the top of the firm’s grand tourer line-up packs a 562bhp punch from a twin-turbocharged V8 engine mounted at the front, with drive transmitted to all four wheels via a sophisticated drive system that can shift torque to whichever wheels can best use it. Displaying true supercar pace, the Turbo S can catapult to 62mph in just 3.8 seconds on the way to a top speed of 192mph.

Project Car Hell, Genuine Muscle Cars Edition: AMC Rebel Machine or Mercury Cyclone Spoiler II?

Once again, the hinges of the Hell Garage gates -- lubricated with the purest Unobtainium-239 -- creak open and bring us to another installment of Project Car Hell. Last week, we offered two options for your eternal torment, a straight-8 Packard and a straight-8 Buick, and we just love those classic Detroit cars! So much so, in fact, that we're going to stick with Detroit (well, Detroit and Kenosha, if you want to split hairs) and fast-forward the calendar a couple of decades to the Golden Age of Muscle Cars.