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Watch the McLaren Speedtail in motion

We were all pretty excited to see the reveal of the McLaren Speedtail last week, looking like something the Silver Surfer rode in on. But now, on YouTube, tucked away amid the jumble of videos of talking heads offering commentary on the still images of the hypercar, is one little snippet of video of the Speedtail actually moving under its own power. It's moving very slowly, being driven out the doors of the also-futuristic McLaren Technology Centre HQ in Woking, England, by senior designer Alex Alexiev, who apparently supplied the video to the McLaren dealership in Newport Beach, Calif. You can hear the engine at high idle. You can see Alexiev in the center seat, the front aero wheel covers remaining stationary, and the taper of that long, long tail as the car heads off into the English countryside. There's not much more to it than that. But the chance to see the Speedtail in motion for the first time, even if it's a 250 mph car going just 2 mph, whets the appetite for seeing a whole lot more. McLaren Speedtail View 17 Photos Related Video: This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. Design/Style McLaren Coupe Performance Supercars Videos McLaren Speedtail

VW CEO Winterkorn happy with rebounding Seat, Skoda

Martin Winterkorn is a happy man: Volkswagen is putting up big numbers in North America, its latest field of dreams, Audi, is breaking records every month, there are exciting cars in the pipeline - from Bugatti down to the XL1, Porsche's digestion continues, and now Skoda and especially Seat are turning in no-questions performance.
It seems Skoda has been on the ups for years, making the most of keen pricing and modern redesigns of the chassis and tech it gets handed down from big brothers VW and Audi. Winterkorn predicts the Czech brand will just about double its 2010 sales by 2018, going from 762,000 to 1.5 million.
Seat, on the other hand, wasn't just on the hotseat a year-and-a-half ago, phrases like "uncertain future" - code for "possible demise" - were rumbling in the background. A new CEO was brought in, new money and new models were thrown against the wall, and the efforts have stuck. The Spanish brand has hit three strong chords with Winterkorn, with increased sales, strong performance in China and anticipated models due. If this keeps up there won't be much left for him to do but, a la Alexander the Great, break down and cry with no worlds left to conquer.

McLaren will race the new 720S GT3 in Abu Dhabi

Mark your calendars, endurance racing fans: McLaren says the new 720S GT3 will finally be shown at the Bahrain GP Festival. The Gulf 12 Hours endurance race, held two weeks later, will then be the GT3's maiden competitive event. McLaren also released some new photo material of the new, track-focused 720S GT3 version. One 720S GT3 will be entered in the Gulf 12 Hours race by the works team; McLaren will mainly use the acquired data to prepare for the 2019 season. The car has already been tested for thousands of miles around European circuits, the manufacturer says. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. McLaren Automotive states the 720S GT3 is the first car its in-house motorsport department has developed, designed and built. Earlier, it was said that the race car shares less than 10 percent of its parts with the road-going 720S: the body is extensively reworked for racing duty, and while the engine is based on the standard car's four-liter, twin turbo V8 unit, it has been extensively rebuilt, and it's now coupled to a six-speed sequential transmission instead of the seven-speed dual-clutch transmission offered to regular customers. The GT3 will also be sold to privateer teams, and McLaren disclosed the price in August as $564,000 – handily double the price of a $280,000 regular-issue 720S. Related Video: This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings.