Your friendly neighborhood BMW just wrapped itself in Spider-Man

Ferrari has revealed the 296 GT Modificata, a track-only special built in very limited numbers for its Club Competizioni GT customer programme. Based on the 296 GT3 Evo but freed from any racing rulebook, its V6 makes 730 hp, 130 more than the GT3 racer, and Ferrari says it laps Fiorano three seconds faster. It even has two seats, so owners can take a coach or a passenger along.

Lexus put an updated LS on sale in Japan on 10 September 2026, priced from ¥14.14 million to ¥18.05 million and offered only as the 359 hp LS500h hybrid. The 422 hp twin-turbo LS500 and the entry-grade are gone, so the cheapest LS now costs ¥3.03 million more. The shell gains a reinforced centre tunnel and resin-damped braces. Europe lost the LS on 1 October 2025; the United States gets 250 final Heritage Edition cars.

Ugo Ugochukwu won the 2026 FIA Formula 3 title at the Madring on 13 September with Campos Racing, 159 points to Freddie Slater's 145, after entering the final round 15 points behind. McLaren had signed the American at 13 and released him in November 2025 after a winless, 16th-place season. Slater is the first driver in Audi's F1 programme. The title is worth 30 super licence points and is Campos' first drivers' crown.

Toyota is recalling 8,521 electric C-HRs in the United States because a battery ECU programming error can let regenerative braking overcharge a nearly full pack and shut down the drive system. The cars were built between 6 February and 10 July 2026 at Takaoka, the plant that also builds Europe's C-HR+, and Toyota says not all of them were sold in America. The fix is a dealer software update, with owner letters due on 18 October.

Ford's Transit City, a 56 kWh electric van built by Jiangling Motors in Nanchang, went into production on 31 August and the first batch of around 1,000 is bound for Europe, priced from €35,990 net in Germany and A$50,000 in Australia. Ford exported 184,000 vehicles from China in 2025 while Changan Ford sold 99,400 there, and Jim Farley pledged deeper Jiangling ties days before Washington's letter objecting to Ford's Chinese partnerships.

China exported 7.153 million vehicles between January and August 2026, up 66.7 percent and already past the 7.1 million it shipped in all of 2025, according to CAAM. August alone saw 1.01 million exports while domestic sales fell 24.2 percent and petrol car sales at home nearly halved. Chery leads passenger car exports with 1.32 million, ahead of BYD, which is reported to have ordered ten more 9,200-car ships for delivery between 2027 and 2029.

Tesla has set 1 October 2026 for the Roadster reveal, with invitations to early reservation holders for an event in Waco, Texas. It is the fifth date given this year after 1 April, late April, "a month or so" and August. Musk said in November 2025 that production follows 12 to 18 months after the demo, Europe still takes €43,000 reservations, and the 2017 claim of 1.9 seconds to 60 mph is already slower than the Rimac Nevera R.

Chery registered 29,000 cars under its own badge in its first year in Britain, and its three UK brands took nearly 8 percent of the market in July. Four new or updated SUVs follow in 2027, led by the 476 hp Tiggo X, all retuned at a new Millbrook R&D centre because, in its UK boss's words, buyers want the German feeling. Germany itself gets the Chery badge in the first half of 2027.

At the New Economy Forum in Madrid, in the week of the Spanish Grand Prix, FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem said Formula 1 does not need a twelfth team, it needs 'the' team, and it has to come from China. He confirmed meetings with BYD and Geely, told BYD to come back with a serious offer, and ruled out bending the engine rules towards electrification. BYD said in July there is no project.

At the third Tutto Bene Hillclimb on Mottarone on 9 September, Maserati showed the 1958 Eldorado livery on a one-off GT2 race car and a limited GT2 Stradale edition, beside the original 420/M/58 from the Panini collection. The single-seater was Europe's first sponsored racer, funded by Eldorado ice cream. It raced twice, finished seventh once, failed to qualify at Indianapolis, and Maserati still has not said how many road cars get the paint or what it costs.

La Cinquecento, a new studio in West Berkshire founded by photographer Max Kindersley, has turned his family's barn-stored 1973 Fiat 500 into the 500 Scattante, revealed at the Tutto Bene Hillclimb on Mottarone on 9 September. It keeps the rear-engined layout with an 802 cc Fiat 126-derived twin, wears a BorromeodeSilva body and targets about 650 kg against the original's 499 kg, at a price Auto Express puts near £150,000.

ADAC Nordrhein, organiser of the Nürburgring 24 Hours, has postponed its ADAC 24h Nürburgring Series from 2027 to 2028 after four rounds of DMSB conciliation with NLS organiser VLN ended without agreement. The ILN team association had threatened to boycott the new series with more than 70 cars. The NLS has published a 2027 calendar of eight races on seven weekends, without the 24h Qualifiers, for the year the series turns 50 and the circuit 100.

Kruse Auctions hammered the one-off 1953 Cadillac Elegante at $1,275,000 in Auburn, Indiana on 5 September, $1.4 million with the buyer's premium and the highest price ever paid for a Cadillac at auction. Albrecht Goertz refined its shape before Max Hoffman sent him to BMW for the 507, and Carrozzeria Motto in Turin spent 30 months forming the gold-plated aluminium body. The previous Cadillac record was $940,000.

Red Bull confirmed on 9 September that Robin Räikkönen, 11, joins its junior programme from 2027 after a Swiss Micro Max title and a fifth place at the Rotax Grand Finals. In 2000 Red Bull wanted Enrique Bernoldi in the Sauber seat that Peter Sauber gave Kimi, and sold its stake in protest. The FIA's age rules mean Robin cannot reach Formula 1 before 2033.

Verne and Pony.ai started fully driverless test rides with invited passengers in Zagreb on 10 September, on a 22 km route between Verne's headquarters and the airport, booked through Uber. The cars are Arcfox Alpha T5s running Pony.ai's software, remotely monitored by Verne. The Croatian company's own EU-funded pod, 60 prototypes built, has not carried a passenger, and its €179.5 million grant project closed on 31 August with an audit pending.

Tesla Europe published the European Semi's figures on 11 September: up to 550 km at 40 tonnes, Megacharging at up to 800 kW and a curb weight of 9,100 kg, with deliveries from 2027. That weight and a consumption of 1 kWh per km point to the 548 kWh Standard Range truck sold in the US for $260,000, not the 822 kWh Long Range that does 805 km. Tesla shows the truck in Hannover from 15 September without a European price.

Fabrizio Giugiaro and Lapo Elkann revealed the Top. L and Top. J at the Salone Auto Torino on 11 September: an open two-seat speedster in matte aquamarine and a four-seater with back-to-back seats in the blue and green of Gianni Agnelli's Ferrari 166 MM. EU rules cap a light quadricycle at two seats, so the four-seater is a show car, not a Fiat you can register.

Zeekr has priced the 9X for Europe: €119,500 in Germany and France, €121,000 in Belgium and €123,000 in the Netherlands, one Ultra AWD trim with six seats, 897 hp and a 55.1 kWh battery, deliveries from December. The same Ultra trim lists at 485,900 yuan in China, about €62,500. As a range-extender hybrid it pays 10% import duty, not the 28.8% Geely's electric cars face.

On 9 September, the European Commission proposed a Public Procurement Act that lets public buyers exclude Chinese bidders and reject strategic bids with under 50% European content. Stéphane Séjourné tied it to Deutsche Bahn's 200 BYD buses, 6% of an order MAN dominated. Yutong, which ships every bus from China, led Europe's e-bus market in the first half of 2026 with 1,636 registrations.

The Madring, a 5.4 km, 22-corner circuit around Madrid's IFEMA halls, hosts the Spanish Grand Prix on 13 September under a deal to 2035. It was designed with no manhole covers, but it also has no service roads, so recovery vehicles may use the track itself. Formula 3's August test produced 19 red flags, and Friday's Formula 2 practice stopped for a burning car at Turn 19.

The 1951 Cadillac Series 62 Convertible that carried King Baudouin through his Joyous Entries in 1952 and 1953 goes under the hammer at the Zoute Concours Auction by Broad Arrow on 9 October, without reserve and estimated at €40,000 to €70,000. Registered to the Liste Civile, it was bought by the present family in 1976 for 2,500 Belgian francs, about 62 euros, and has covered under 55,000 km.

Volkswagen has costed Future Plan 2030 at 16 billion euros, according to internal documents seen by Der Spiegel and confirmed to Reuters: 10 billion for up to 60,000 job cuts by 2030, one billion each for Emden and Zwickau, two billion each for Hannover and Neckarsulm, recovered through saved wages by early 2037. Labour representatives say the real bill is about double, and Audi Brussels shows why.

D'Ieteren Automotive, the Belgian importer of the Volkswagen Group brands, has announced a 2026-2030 transformation plan that could cost up to 344 of about 2,945 jobs and close some sites. It cites a market a quarter below 2019, electrification and the mandatory mobility budget from 2027. Half-year results published six days later showed automotive sales down 10.8 percent and the margin halved to 2.1 percent.

YouTuber Mat Armstrong bought a non-running, one-off Oakley Design Bugatti Veyron from a Dubai showroom and got it driving with roughly £40, about €46, of parts: in-tank fuel hoses, an ignition switch, a resistor and a pair of bonnet gas struts from a Volkswagen Tiguan. Dealer Tom Hartley valued the 1,200 hp car at £1.5 million. Armstrong says he is keeping it for now.

Mercedes has launched the GLE L in China, a 3,115 mm wheelbase version built by BBAC in Beijing instead of being imported from Tuscaloosa. It comes as a 258 hp GLE 350 L and a 381 hp GLE 450 L, with Level 2++ assistance from Momenta and a Doubao-based voice assistant. Europe does not get it.