Sports cars

Audi is hoping more power is the key to unlocking more sales for its e-tron GT electric sports sedan.

Porsche is adding some filling to its 911 line-up.

For the lucky few that will own it, the Aston Martin Vanquish is the ultimate expression of luxury. But is it a good car? It may be big, bold and powerful, but the flagship of the range offers a lot more than just a thundering V12 engine. We review the British machine that drives like an iron fist wrapped in a velvet glove.

Ooft, Ferrari has done it again. The Prancing Horse has taken the covers off its new Amalfi coupe, which replaces the Roma in its line-up.

The hardest, fastest M4 that has ever been has arrived in the shape of the M4 CS, which sheds weight, increases power and activates just about every performance add-on you can think of. In less happy news, it also ups the price significantly. So is the BMW M4 CS the best pound-for-pound performance car around? We put it to the test to find out.

You hear the term all the time, but what is a muscle car? To be honest, there’s no hard and fast definition. Just as a coupe can be either a two-door or four-door car depending on your point of view, different enthusiasts will describe the muscle car concept differently, and there’s a range of debatable points on offer.

Mazda is emptying the decks.The Japanese brand has one of the most exciting new car portfolios in the works with a wide range of models such as a new CX-20 SUV, a hybrid CX-5, several electric cars and a rotary-powered sports car.These complement its new premium SUV line-up, which has launched in the past two years, and ranges from CX-60 up to CX-90.Mazda is a small carmaker by global standards but its new product pipeline is sure to help fight off the ascendence of new Chinese brands.One of the most exciting new models is the production version of the Iconic SP show car from the 2023 Tokyo motor show.Mazda Chief Technical Officer, Ryuichi Umeshita, in an interview with US outlet Motor Trend revealed the Iconic SP won’t replace the MX-5 as previously thought but will bolster the brand's sports car range.“You can expect Iconic SP will be a good successor for RX-7,” Mazda Chief Technical Officer Ryuichi Umeshita tells MotorTrend.Umeshita told Motor Trend the new sports car wouldn’t cannibalise MX-5 sales, but would complement it. Toyota has found success with a similar two-pronged sports car team with the GR86 and Supra.There is a strong chance the new sports car could be called the RX-9. The brand has held the trademark in Australia for decades and its rotary powerplant makes it worthy of the RX name.Iconic SP Concept was registered with the Japan Patent Office earlier this year.That registration confirmed some eye-popping features such as retractable pop-up headlights and twin-rotary EV power.Unlike previous RX models, the new version won’t use the rotary engine to drive the wheels but it will be used as a range-extender hybrid. In this set-up it is used purely as a generator to top up a battery that feeds electric motors.This gives it petrol-car practicality with electric-car grunt and performance.The patent confirmed the car’s overall styling would remain close to the Iconic SP concept with its Coke Bottle design, as will the slimline window runner mounted side mirrors.

‘I’ve never had a customer tell us they want less choice.’

Sound has never been a hotter topic in the world of cars than it has been in the past decade. From the introduction of hybrid and electric vehicles to even the more muted soundtrack of modern F1 cars, the noise cars make has become a major talking point.

If you’re a man - particularly a married one with kids and decades between you and your single days - hearing “bachelor pad” might be ever so slightly bittersweet, but there’s also every chance those words make you remember a time in your life when you were so footloose and fancy free you were basically Kevin Bacon.