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Seat announces five-door Mii city car

We knew at its unveiling in Frankfurt that the debut of the production version of the Volkswagen Up! was only the beginning, what with all the concept versions Volkswagen showcased over the years. But that was only the tip of the proverbial iceberg. VW isn't the only brand in the group that will offer the little city car, and its sister marques are eager to follow suit.
So after Volkswagen debuted the Up!, Skoda unveiled the Citigo and Seat showcased the Mii - all versions of the same vehicle, but with slightly modified sheetmetal and different nameplates. But those were only the three-door versions. Now that Volkswagen has confirmed the five-door Up! and Skoda the five-door Citigo, Seat is taking its turn with the five-door Mii.
The similarities between the Mii, Citigo and Up are, of course, greater than the differences. But at the end of the day, the variety gives European buyers a greater range of choices when buying their new city car, even if similar exercises on this side of the Atlantic - Plymouth, Mercury, Pontiac, Oldsmobile...we're looking at you - have long since disappeared.

McLaren 650S Sprint is ready to hit the track running in Monterey

McLaren isn't exactly the most plebeian brand to begin with, so it makes sense for the company to take advantage of the lavish parties and wealthy folks descending on California for the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance. In addition to the insane P1 GTR, McLaren is showing off the track-focused 650S Sprint here in Monterey. This new 650S it takes the place of the 12C Sprint in the brand's lineup, and should be the fastest 650S short of the GT3 racer. The thing is, the Sprint isn't technically a homologated racer, but it makes a great toy to show off at track days. For the Sprint, the 3.8-liter twin-turbo V8 stays put, but McLaren optimizes the 650S' body for more downforce and better engine cooling. It also packs all sorts of track goodies like a competition fuel tank, larger radiator, racing-tuned suspension and 19-inch center-lock wheels. It also has all of the safety necessities for a day of doing laps like a roll cage, fire suppression and racing buckets. Of course, you might have known about all of that already, since the British brand revealed the Sprint just a few days ago, but you can check it live our gallery from Monterey.

McLaren considering return to Le Mans

It doesn't usually matter what number an automaker puts on the side when it reveals a new racecar, but when McLaren introduced its new 650S GT3 at the Goodwood Festival of Speed this past weekend, it wore the number 59. It was the same number which the McLaren F1 GTR wore when it took the checkered flag at Le Mans in 1995, and now word has it that the British outfit could be plotting a return. The new 650S racer was designed to meet the GT3 regulations used in second-tier sportscar racing series around the world, like the Blancpain Endurance Series and the Pirelli World Challenge. Top-tier series like the FIA World Endurance Championship and United SportsCar Championship, however, use their own GTE regulations (adapted from the previous GT2 regulations). Discussions over converging the two sets of rules (like DTM and Super GT have since) had commenced when McLaren GT was developing the previous 12C GT3, but those discussions ultimately fell apart, keeping the two categories separate... and in separate series. Autosport reports, however, that in redesigning the 650S GT3, McLaren's GT racing division kept that disparity in mind so that the GT3 could be set up as well in GTE spec, enabling it to compete at the 24 Hours of Le Mans and associated series like the WEC, United SportsCar Championship, European Le Mans Series and Asian Le Mans Series. We're waiting on word from McLaren as to the verasity of the report, but even if a 650S GTE would stand little chance of overtaking the faster LMPs like the F1 GTR did nearly 20 years ago, it would still be interesting to see McLaren (whether as a works entry or through customer teams) competing at Le Mans again. Featured Gallery McLaren 650S GT3 View 16 Photos News Source: Autosport Motorsports McLaren fia wec mclaren 650s mclaren 650s gt3