1957 Pontiac Starchief Battery/temp Gauge on 2040-parts.com

The Porsche P1 is lighter, greener and more exclusive than McLaren's new hypercar

Long before the legendary Porsche 911 -- before, even, the Porsche 356 -- Ferdinand Porsche was tinkering with alternative powertrains and designing road-worthy vehicles. Though it wasn't the first vehicle to bear his name, the “Egger-Lohner electric vehicle, C.2 Phaeton model” was the earliest result of his efforts. Perhaps getting the jump on the modern alpha-numeric craze/plague, it was shortened to a simple “P1.” The P1 (we'll refer to it as the Porsche P1 from here on out to avoid confusion) made its first appearance in Vienna on June 26, 1898, and it didn't last long in the public eye: Before Porsche decided to pull it out and put it on display, it had reportedly been sitting in a warehouse, untouched, since 1902.

Supercar owners hire runway to find top speed

“What’s the point of owning a supercar,” some might say. “You’ll never be able to reach its full performance potential on the road.” And while that’s true, there is an alternative to risking your driving licence if you buy a car like the new McLaren 650S or Lamborghini Huracan. Essentially, someone hires a private runway, and invites a load of supercar owners to drive as fast as they can before running out of tarmac.

Lotus Evora – first customer car delivered

The keys are handed over for the first Lotus Evora customer car But it would appear that Lotus have little to worry about. Evoras are now running down the production line and will be up to full production levels by November. Lotus has an order book that fills the next five months already, and they’ve taken on 150 extra workers to cope with demand.