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The Ariel Atom 4RR has beaten the Porsche 911 GT2 RS's lap record at Anglesey Circuit in Wales, setting a 1:27.77 to the Manthey-kitted Porsche's 1:29.35, nearly two seconds quicker. Remarkably, it did it in full road trim on road-legal Yokohama tyres. The Atom uses a 2.0-litre turbo Honda Civic Type R engine tuned to 525 hp and weighs just 668 kg, and at 208,000 pounds it undercut the fettled Porsche significantly. Ariel test driver Phil Keen set the time.

Marc van der Straten, the Belgian entrepreneur who founded the Marc VDS racing team, has died aged 78, passing away peacefully at his home in Switzerland on 5 July 2026. Based in Gosselies, Belgium, his team won the 2011 FIA GT1 World Championship and the 2015 24 Hours of Spa in cars, then took three Moto2 world titles with Tito Rabat, Franco Morbidelli and Alex Marquez after moving into bike racing. He leaves an immense motorsport legacy.

Rolls-Royce has revealed the Phantom Regatta, a one-of-one bespoke Phantom Extended debuting at the 2026 Goodwood Festival of Speed. Inspired by the racing yachts of England's south coast, it wears a hand-laid Regatta Blue over English White two-tone that mimics a yacht's waterline, with a Navy Blue and Grace White cabin, yacht-deck wood veneers, picnic tables needing 120 hours each, a hand-painted Gallery artwork and a Starlight Headliner of 1,307 stars arranged in Isle of Wight tidal patterns.

Electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles cut global oil demand by 2.3 million barrels a day in 2025, according to BloombergNEF. Passenger cars, however, only accounted for 741,000 of those barrels. The larger share, 1.1 million barrels, came from electric scooters, mopeds and three-wheelers, mostly across Asia, which means the story most European EV buyers tell themselves about their own impact is not quite the one the numbers support.

The manual gearbox is worth keeping, and not out of nostalgia. It remains the one mechanical link between a driver's intent and the car's behaviour that neither automation nor electrification has replaced, and that is reason enough to defend it. Automatics have already won on speed, efficiency and safety, but none of that was ever the whole argument for driving in the first place.

Some sports cars get a grand send-off. This one is slipping away almost unnoticed. Our AutoNext Car of the Week is a 2022 BMW Z4 sDrive20i M Sport, finished in black over anthracite and available at VDJ-Automotive in Grobbendonk with just 42,081 km from one owner. BMW has ended the Z4 with no successor announced, which makes this rear-wheel-drive roadster one of the last of its kind.

Nissan has reportedly held talks with China's Chery about building cars at its Sunderland plant in the UK, according to the Financial Times. The two are said to have signed a non-binding memorandum to study producing Omoda and Jaecoo brand vehicles there. With the plant running at around 50 percent capacity and employing about 6,000 workers, sharing it could spread fixed costs without necessarily cutting jobs. Sources caution a deal may not happen, and Nissan has talked to others too.

Stellantis has reshuffled its European leadership from 1 July 2026. Santo Ficili now serves as CEO of Maserati on top of his existing Alfa Romeo role, putting both Italian premium brands under one leader. Luca Napolitano takes charge of Stellantis &You Sales and Services, and both report to Emanuele Cappellano, COO for Enlarged Europe. The changes follow the departure of Jean-Philippe Imparato, who leaves Stellantis after 36 years.

Callum Design has followed up its reimagined Jaguar XJ220 with a track-focused GT1 version in vivid yellow, complete with a big front splitter, canards, side skirts and a huge rear wing. The road concept wears Spa Silver, the original's launch colour, with modern LED lights replacing the flip-up units. Crucially, Callum says it could build these on real XJ220s, but it needs an existing owner willing to donate their car. It remains a design study, with a fuller reveal expected around October.