News

McLaren’s return to top-tier endurance racing is starting to look very serious. Just days after revealing the name and test livery of its new MCL-HY Hypercar, McLaren Racing has confirmed Laurens Vanthoor as the second driver for its 2027 FIA World Endurance Championship programme. He joins Mikkel Jensen, who recently completed the car’s first track running at Varano’s Autodromo Riccardo Paletti in Italy.

Volkswagen has confirmed that the Golf GTI Edition 50 is now the fastest front-wheel-drive production car around the Nürburgring Nordschleife. With racing driver and Volkswagen test and development driver Benjamin Leuchter behind the wheel, the anniversary model completed the full 20.832-kilometre lap in 7:44.523 minutes. That makes it faster than the previous front-wheel-drive production benchmark and also faster than any previous Volkswagen production model on the Nordschleife.

Switzerland has just changed one of the most unusual rules in motorsport. After 71 years, the country is lifting its ban on circuit racing, a restriction introduced after the 1955 Le Mans disaster, the deadliest tragedy in motorsport history. From 1 July 2026, closed-circuit racing will once again be legally possible in Switzerland. But that does not mean a Swiss Grand Prix is suddenly around the corner.

What does a Formula 1 driver buy when modern supercars start feeling a little too normal? In Fernando Alonso’s case, the answer appears to be a Pagani Zonda Roadster Diamante Verde. Not just any Zonda. Not just another limited-edition hypercar. A true factory one-off, built to 760 specification, finished in green-tinted exposed carbon fibre and powered by one of the greatest naturally aspirated V12 engines ever fitted to a road car.

Stellantis and Leapmotor are preparing to take their partnership to the next level. It is a clear sign of where the European EV market is heading: lower costs, faster development, Chinese battery-electric technology, European production and a much stronger focus on affordability. Stellantis already became Leapmotor’s largest shareholder in 2023 with an approximately 21% stake, while the two companies created Leapmotor International, a joint venture controlled 51% by Stellantis and 49% by Leapmotor.

Maserati has been spotted testing camouflaged prototypes of the Grecale, GranTurismo and GranCabrio near its historic plant on Viale Ciro Menotti in Modena. That alone would normally sound like a standard facelift story. A little camouflage, a few revised bumpers, some new lighting details and maybe a refreshed infotainment system. But for Maserati, this moment matters more than that.

In March, more than 500,000 plug-in vehicles were registered across Europe, including around 349,000 fully electric cars. Battery-electric vehicles reached a record 22% market share, while plug-in hybrids added another 10%. Add conventional hybrids to the picture, and around 70% of all new cars registered in Europe had some form of electrification.

For the first time, Porsche is introducing a Manthey Kit for an electric sports car, and the result is already proven where it matters most: the Nürburgring-Nordschleife. With Porsche development driver Lars Kern behind the wheel, the Taycan Turbo GT with Weissach Package and Manthey Kit lapped the 20.832 km Nordschleife in 6:55.533 minutes, setting a new record for electric executive cars.

In 2000, BMW built a one-off M3 Touring prototype and invited automotive journalists to Munich to drive it. The idea was serious enough to evaluate, but not serious enough to make it into production. So the E46 M3 remained a coupé and convertible. And for more than two decades, the M3 Touring became one of BMW’s greatest “what if?” stories. Now, Petroyle is changing that.