News

McLaren has replaced its wordmark with lettering adapted from the sign above Les and Ruth McLaren's Remuera service station, where their son Bruce restored his first Austin 7. The McL 6GT is the first car to wear it. The Speedmark is separated and demoted, Papaya moves towards the racing team, and McLaren Automotive adopts a dark Midnight palette, days after L'IMAD's £500 million plan.

Fernando Alonso is reportedly weighing retirement from Formula 1 at the end of 2026 to join the World Endurance Championship in 2027, where he would race Aston Martin's Valkyrie hypercar. It would return the 45-year-old to a series he already conquered with Toyota, winning the title and the 24 Hours of Le Mans twice, and reunite him with a manufacturer whose F1 team is fighting near the bottom of the grid.

Rolls-Royce has started the global test programme for Project Nightingale, the 100-car electric roadster it revealed in April. Prototypes will cover 350 collective weeks from southern France to the Arctic Circle and the Arabian Peninsula, run to 250 km/h and open the sideways Piano Boot 15,000 times. Deliveries start in 2028, the year the Spectre was once meant to be 70 percent of the brand's sales.

Ceer has revealed the Exobot sedan and SUV, the first cars from Saudi Arabia's PIF and Foxconn joint venture. Top versions claim more than 1,100 hp and 0-100 km/h in 2.1 seconds, with a Rimac rear drive, Hyundai Transys front motors and a BMW technology licence. Production starts in January 2027 and deliveries in March, two years after the date set at the brand's launch.

Delage Automobiles has a new shareholder in Antoine Arnault, who invests through Marbeuf Capital alongside the Pinault family and Xavier Niel. The €2 million D12 hypercar has reached three customers since December 2025, with about six firm orders against a run of 30. The Nürburgring record attempt planned for 2020, then 2023, then spring 2025, still has no date.

Hyundai has shown the finished fifth-generation Tucson in Korea: 4,700 mm long on a 2,785 mm wheelbase, a 245 hp 1.6 turbo hybrid, a 193 hp petrol with an eight-speed automatic, and Pleos Connect with the Gleo AI assistant. Korean sales start in October, global markets follow in the fourth quarter. Hyundai's home sales are down 15% this year, and the Tucson is the car meant to fix that.

Tesla is recalling the Model 3 Premium across the EU and the Gulf because its far-side airbag logic can push a front occupant's shoulder past the 3.0 kN limit of the UN R135 pole test. The Netherlands alone counts 10,787 cars, Saudi Arabia 182, and the fix is a software update that needs no workshop.

Porsche has delivered its one millionth new car in mainland China, a 911 GT3 Touring handed over in Shanghai on 13 September, 25 years after the brand's first Beijing dealership. The milestone comes as China deliveries fall for a fifth year: 41,938 in 2025 and 14,501 in the first half of 2026, fewer than Germany, while the dealer network shrinks to about 80 outlets.

Toyota Gazoo Racing has revealed that its GR GT3 customer racer, built for IMSA competition, shares more than 80 percent of its components with the road-going GR GT supercar. The figure dwarfs the roughly 25 percent the outgoing Lexus RC F GT3 shared with its own road car. Toyota says the race car's needs shaped the road car's design, and testing continues at the Nürburgring ahead of a 2027 arrival.