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Chris Harris pits Aston GT12 vs 911 GT3 RS vs McLaren 650S

The Geneva Motor Show is never lacking in exciting performance machinery. And this year was no exception. Our eyes, like those of Chris Harris, were drawn by two hardcore, track-focused versions of existing sports cars. Both wore the name GT3, and now Harris has brought them together for a supercar shootout. And he's thrown one more in for good measure. Those natural rivals are the Aston Martin Vantage GT12 and Porsche 911 GT3 RS, the latter manufacturer having pressed the former to drop the GT3 name to which it claims exclusive domain. There's a great deal that separates them, of course: one's got a V12 up front, the other a flat-six way in the back. But what binds them together is a common approach of taking an existing model, stripping it down, and tightening everything up to make it more of a weapon than a grand tourer. What that means in the Aston's case is a rather high price tag, much higher than that of the Porsche. But scarce demand and speculation on the open market have left British customers, at least, paying as much for the GT3 RS as for the limited-edition Aston. And that takes both into proper supercar territory. So to show what else that kind of money can get you, Monkey has brought along a McLaren. Not the similarly track-focused 675LT, but the standard 650S... Spider, no less, and with worn hard rubber. So which one performs best on the road? Which clocks the fastest lap time on the track? And which gets Harris' vote? You'll have to watch the video for yourself to find out, but it's well worth the 25 minutes of your lunch break. News Source: Chris Harris on Cars via YouTube Aston Martin McLaren Porsche Videos porsche 911 gt3 chris harris mclaren 650s

The UK votes for Brexit and it will impact automakers

It's the first morning after the United Kingdom voted for what's become known as Brexit – that is, to leave the European Union and its tariff-free internal market. Now begins a two-year process in which the UK will have to negotiate with the rest of the EU trading bloc, which is its largest export market, about many things. One of them may be tariffs, and that could severely impact any automaker that builds cars in the UK. This doesn't just mean companies that you think of as British, like Mini and Jaguar. Both of those automakers are owned by foreign companies, incidentally. Mini and Rolls-Royce are owned by BMW, Jaguar and Land Rover by Tata Motors of India, and Bentley by the VW Group. Many other automakers produce cars in the UK for sale within that country and also export to the EU. Tariffs could damage the profits of each of these companies, and perhaps cause them to shift manufacturing out of the UK, significantly damaging the country's resurgent manufacturing industry. Autonews Europe dug up some interesting numbers on that last point. Nissan, the country's second-largest auto producer, builds 475k or so cars in the UK but the vast majority are sent abroad. Toyota built 190k cars last year in Britain, of which 75 percent went to the EU and just 10 percent were sold in the country. Investors are skittish at the news. The value of the pound sterling has plummeted by 8 percent as of this writing, at one point yesterday reaching levels not seen since 1985. Shares at Tata Motors, which counts Jaguar and Land Rover as bright jewels in its portfolio, were off by nearly 12 percent according to Autonews Europe. So what happens next? No one's terribly sure, although the feeling seems to be that the jilted EU will impost tariffs of up to 10 percent on UK exports. It's likely that the UK will reciprocate, and thus it'll be more expensive to buy a European-made car in the UK. Both situations will likely negatively affect the country, as both production of new cars and sales to UK consumers will both fall. Evercore Automotive Research figures the combined damage will be roughly $9b in lost profits to automakers, and an as-of-yet unquantified impact on auto production jobs. Perhaps the EU's leaders in Brussels will be in a better mood in two years, and the process won't devolve into a trade war. In the immediate wake of the Brexit vote, though, the mood is grim, the EU leadership is angry, and investors are spooked.

The inside story on why McLaren will make an F1 successor

While official details are still few and far between, Flewitt confirmed the BP23 will be the fastest, most powerful car McLaren has ever built. McLaren's car-building division is keeping busy these days. It introduced the brand-new 720S during the Geneva Motor Show and its research and development department is currently working on no less than nine vehicle programs. Company CEO Mike Flewitt reiterated one of them is a long-awaited (and oft-rumored) supercar with three seats. Codenamed BP23 internally, the model will join McLaren's Ultimate Series lineup as an homage to the emblematic F1, the brand's very first road-going model. Flewitt explained the project started out as a one-off model commissioned by a collector and designed by McLaren Special Operations (MSO), a skunkworks team in charge of turning money-no-object customers' wildest dreams into road-going realities. It's difficult to keep a secret in the auto industry, especially when it comes to high-end cars, so news of a modern-day three-seater quickly spread outside of the company's headquarters in Woking, England. McLaren soon received an order for a second, identical car, and MSO agreed to build it. The orders kept pouring in. Production was bumped to 12 examples, up again to 46 to meet considerable demand, and finally capped at 106. The number was chosen because precisely 106 examples of the BMW-powered F1 were built from 1992 to 1998. View 6 Photos While official details are still few and far between, Flewitt confirmed the BP23 will be the fastest, most powerful car McLaren has ever built. It won't feature aggressive-looking spoilers, splitters, and big wings; instead, it will boast a fluid, streamlined design fine-tuned to achieve the lowest possible drag. All 106 examples will be coupes, and a convertible model has been categorically ruled out. The only technical information currently available is that power will come from a V8-electric hybrid drivetrain. However, Flewitt noted the BP23 is not being developed with racing in mind, so McLaren won't offer a track-oriented, GTR-badged version of the car like it did with the F1 and, later, the P1. Expect a luxurious, well-appointed cabin in which the driver sits front and center, and two passengers travel in individual back seats. The extensive use of carbon fiber will keep weight in check. The BP23 – a name that most likely won't be retained on the final model – is scheduled to enter production in 2019.