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McLaren Automotive First Anniversary: 1,000 McLaren MP4-12C sold and counting

McLaren Automotive is a year old and is celebrating selling over 1,000 McLaren MP4-12Cs in the first twelve months. It’s actually a bit more than  three years since Ron Dennis announced the formation of McLaren Automotive, which had a live launch on Cars UK on 18th March 2010. But McLaren don’t seem to acknowledge that date as the start of McLaren Automotive but instead prefer the date the first MP4-12C was sold – exactly one year ago today on June 21st 2011.

Ford Focus RS500 (2010) first official pictures

This is the new Ford Focus RS500, a special limited edition version of the Blue Oval’s mad Focus RS hot hatch with 15% more power. For a start there’s that extra power. Thanks to a larger air-to-air intercooler, a bigger air filter and a wider diameter exhaust downpipe (plus a new ECU to take advantage of the mechanical changes) peak power is up from 301bhp to 345lb ft at 6000rpm, while torque climbs from 325lb ft to 339lb ft. The result is a 5.6sec 0-62mph time (down three-tenths) while the top speed climbs two notches to 165mph.

Nissan revives Datsun for emerging markets

Nissan revives Datsun - but not for cars like the 280ZX Nissan has confirmed that it is bringing the Datsun brand back for affordable cars in emerging markets. It’s thirty years since Nissan gave up being Datsun and embraced the Nissan name for its worldwide offerings. But now it’s back to the future with the Datsun brand being revived for affordable cars in emerging markets.