When is a Mercury Capri not a Mercury Capri? When it is dressed up as a Ford Mustang, or a Ford Thunderbird, or even an Oldsmobile Toronado. This is the fascinating story of a silhouette racer created during the mid-1980s by three of the greatest engineers in American sports car racing, Jack Roush, Bob Riley and Gary Pratt. Built around a bespoke tubular chassis, it was campaigned as a Mercury in Trans-Am and a Ford in IMSA GTO. Sometimes the cars switched identities, or 'redressed' from one week to the next. Although at first glance not the most sophisticated machines ever created both the Ford Roush Mustang and the Mercury Roush Capri were hugely successful, winning numerous races and championships. Fittingly, one of the cars we feature was raced as a Mustang in 2013 and when we saw it again in 2014, it had been restored to its original Capri configuration.
Following a new run of continuation Knobbly Jaguars, Lister yesterday announced the imminent launch of an all-new Hypercar. Expected to be priced at around GBP 2 million, the new Koenigsegg and Pagani rival will be powered by a supercharged V12 engine good for 1,000 bhp. Only two renderings have been released but we will keep a close eye on this project as it develops.
Ahead of the launch at next month's Los Angeles Auto Show, BMW have released full details of the latest generation X5 M and X6 M. Like the Roush Mustang and Capri featured above, these two machines were separated at birth and the differences between them are minimal. Most importantly both 'off-roaders' are powered by the TwinPower V8, which in this application is good for a staggering 575 hp.

Celebrating the racing success of the R8 around the world, Audi will introduce the limited production R8 Competition at the upcoming Los Angeles Auto Show. The fastest ever R8 road car, it is powered by a 570 hp version of the familiar V10 engine. Just 60 examples of the R8 Competition will be built and these will be available exclusively to American customers.
Although introduced back in 1999, the Ariel Atom has been continuously developed. The most recent incarnation is the Atom 3.5, which was introduced in 2013. It comes with a stronger chassis and a more potent version of the Honda-sourced engine, which is good for 310 bhp in supercharged form. This year, the range was further expanded with the track-oriented Atom 3.5R, which we captured at the Goodwood Festival of Speed back in June. It packs a 350 bhp version of the Civic Type R engine and features a wild bodykit complete with a front and rear wing. Thanks to its stunning power to weight ratio, it can accelerate to 60 mph in just over 2.5 seconds.
Another new British sports car making its debut at Goodwood this year was the Arash AF8. Powered by a 560 bhp V8 engine, this is the fourth sports car developed by the talented Arash Farboud in just over a decade. As we speak the AF8 is being readied for production. The very first car created by British engineer was the Farboud GT. He reportedly created this 620 bhp mid-engined supercar because Porsche would not sell him one of the road going versions of the 1998 Le Mans winning 911 GT1.

McLaren is one of the most successful Formula 1 team in the sport's rich history. Although the Bruce McLaren founded team had competed in F1 from the second half of the 1960s, it was the M23 Cosworth introduced in 1973 that really got things going. Its Gordon Cuppock design was actually based on McLaren's Indy 500 winning M16, sharing the same overall wedge shape. Originally raced by Denny Hulme and Peter Revson during its debut season, it was driven to the World Championship by Emerson Fittipaldi in 1974. Virtually unaltered, with the exception of a revised airbox to meet the latest regulations, the M23 continued its winning ways into the 1976 season in the hands of James Hunt, who would become that year's World Champion. As the imminent replacement was slow (to arrive), the M23 soldiered into the 1977 season. With a career spanning nearly five years and winning two World Championships, the McLaren M23 remains as one of the all-time great F1 cars.
To mark the 40th anniversary of Emerson Fittipaldi winning the first World Championship for McLaren, we have taken a detailed look at the M23s he, and later James Hunt used to great effect. Our spectacular 144-shot gallery now includes images of nine different examples, each of which has a detailed chassis history. Fittipaldi himself is seen behind the wheel of two of the cars, including the chassis he drove to two victories in 1974, which is once again owned by McLaren.

Already one of the most exclusive manufacturers, Bugatti stunned the world at the 1935 Paris Auto Salon with two Type 57s clothed not in aluminium but in an exotic magnesium alloy called electron. Very difficult to shape and notoriously volatile, the lightweight electron bodies were not put in production and neither car survived. The most famous of the pair is the Aerolithe Coupe, which was the inspiration for the Atlantic launched a year. Equally impressive, however, was the Type 57 S Torpedo Competition. Destined to race at Le Mans, it featured a svelte cycle-fender body styled by Jean Bugatti. Ultimately, the electron-bodied Torpedo was never raced as the 1936 Le Mans was cancelled and an even more efficient 'Tank' version of the Type 57 was introduced by Bugatti. Set aside and later disassembled, the Torpedo Competition was thought to be forever lost. That was until Jim Hull resurrected the car using many original components that could very well have been used on the actual car. The full story can be found in our detailed article, illustrated by a 25-shot gallery.
Another striking Bugatti we came across this year was the Bugatti Type 55 Roadster currently on display in the Revs and Institute in Naples, Florida. Having had just four owners from new, it is hugely original and was one of the prize winners at the inaugural Chantilly Arts & Elegance.
Also mechanically highly original is this Bugatti Type 50 Million Guiet Coupe, which was brought to Pebble Beach by the Mullin Automotive Museum. We had seen the car before, but it had since benefited from a cosmetic restoration to the exterior and interior.

At various events, we have been treated to the sights and sounds of four fabulous Ligiers this year. Amazingly, each of these distinct machines is owned by the same French collector. The earliest of these, is the sole surviving Ligier JS1. Originally powered by an FVC Cosworth engine and later modified to accept a more docile Capri RS 2600 V6, this purpose built racer competed at Le Mans and in the Tour de France during the 1970 season. Only very rarely seen in public today, we captured it at the Le Mans Classic where, the JS1 sadly only completed a handful of laps in qualifying.
For 1971, Ligier introduced the all-new JS3, powered by a Cosworth DFV Formula 1 engine. While it showed great form, it only managed to win once and was abandoned at the end of the year. The unique JS3 also raced at this year's Le Mans Classic, while we also saw it in action at Dijon and Paul Ricard.
Altogether more successful was the Ligier JS2, which in its ultimate form also boasted a Cosworth DFV engine. One of just two surviving cars, the car seen in action this year won the Tour de France outright in 1974 while still fitted with a Maserati engine and in 1975 placed second overall at Le Mans.
Ligier then switched to Formula 1 and in 1979 came remarkably close to winning the World Championship with the hugely efficient JS11 Cosworth. Designed by Gerard Ducarouge, it dominated the opening half of the season. Our updated article now includes two of the four examples produced.
Meanwhile, McLaren have released new pictures of the upcoming P1 GTR. These include action photography and a look inside the highly anticipated track-day special. For good measure, we have also added a brief video about the P1 GTR program.

One of the big celebrations this year was the 60th anniversary of the Jaguar D-Type. Using a sophisticated monocoque chassis and very slippery lines, the six-cylinder engined machine would go on to win Le Mans three years running, between 1955 and 1957. Today, we have taken a closer look at the original Works D-Type as built and raced during the type's first year. These differed in detail to the cars raced from 1955 onwards, which were also sold to privateers. Five were built, three of which were raced at Le Mans with a second overall as the best result. Our detailed article features a general history of the type and the specifics of each of the five examples produced by Jaguar in 1954. All of them are also included in our spectacular 115-shot gallery.
At this weekend's DTM season finale, Audi introduced the new TT cup. Based on the TTS production car, the latest Audi racer will compete in the one-make 'Audi Sport TT Cup', which will serve as a support event for the DTM from 2015 onwards. Compared to the road going TT, the TT cup is considerably lighter and also features a special push-to-pass function that adds a further 30 hp to the 310 hp already available from the familiar TFSI four-cylinder engine.

After a difficult couple of seasons, Williams has bounced back to its form of old this year with consistent strong result. This has prompted us to take a look at two earlier cars produced by the British team that actually clinched the World Championship. The most recent is the FW18 Renault as used by Damon Hill and Jacques Villeneuve during the 1996 season. Designed by Adrian Newey, the car won an impressive 12 races out of 16 starts and the drivers placed first and second in the championship with Hill eventually grabbing the title. Over the years we have captured three of the six examples produced in our 42-shot gallery, including the car in which Hill won the title, scoring four victories. He was reunited with the car at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in 2014 and 2009. We have also added a pair of videos showing Hill and more recently Valteri Bottas behind the wheel of FW18-04.
Just over a decade earlier, in 1982, Williams did not dominate the championship but instead Keijo Rosberg won the title with the FW08 Cosworth by very consistent finishes. He famously scored only one victory in what was a difficult season for the sport. We have added four different chassis to our 57-shot gallery, which includes the very car Rosberg used to win the Swiss Grand Prix.
Later that same year, Williams also created a six-wheel version of the World Championship winning machine known as the FW08B. It featured four rear wheels, which allowed for ever longer ground-effect tunnels. It was blisteringly quick in testing but never raced as for 1983, six-wheel F1 cars were banned.
An innovative machine that did make it to the track was the STP-liveried Lotus 56, which was powered by a Pratt & Whitney turbine engine. Also equipped with four-wheel drive, it was the fastest car in qualifying for the 1968 Indy 500. Sadly a crash and two turbine failures put all three examples out of the race. Today we have added pictures of the recently restored example, originally raced by Graham Hill, to our 51-shot gallery.

The culmination of a decade-long partnership between Toyota and Dan Gurney's All American Racers (AAR), the Toyota Eagle GTP Mk III has gone into history as one of the most successful sports racers ever produced. Introduced towards the end of the 1991 season, it featured a new carbon-fibre composite monocoque chassis and hugely sophisticated aerodynamics that provided spectacular levels of downforce. In the hands of Juan Manuel Fangio II, it was virtually unstoppable. The four-cylinder engined machine won 17 races in a row and a total of 21, including the Sebring 12 Hours twice and Daytona 24 Hours. Perhaps even more impressive is that the lap records set during this period, including on the Daytona International Speedway, still stand to this day. For the full story on this fantastic machine, we have compiled a detailed history of the car and the six chassis produced by AAR. Our 43-shot gallery features each of the five surviving examples.
An earlier product of the Toyota and AAR collaboration was the Toyota Celica Turbo GTO campaigned during the mid-1980s. Built around a spaceframe chassis, the silhouette racer proved hugely successful as well, clinching the 1987 driver's and manufacturer's championship in IMSA's highly competitive GTO class. We have today expanded our gallery to include action photos of the privately owned example, which recently raced at the Monterey Motorsports Reunion alongside the GTP car.

One of Formula 1's great partnerships, McLaren and Honda, will start its second act in 2015. The previous collaboration ran between 1988 and 1993, resulting in four driver's and constructor's titles. The final championship winning season was in 1991 when the team fielded the MP4/6, powered by an all-new Honda V12 engine and raced by Ayrton Senna and Gerhard Berger. Although, it was not quite as dominant as its predecessors, the MP4/6 did get the job done. In recent years we caught up with one of the 11 examples built and captured every detail in this 20-shot gallery.
At the official celebration of 60 years of Ferrari in North America this weekend, the Italian manufacturer launched the limited production F60America. Based on the F12berlinetta, the new Roadster is a tribute to some of Ferrari's most legendary models, like the 275 GTB/4 NART Spyder we featured some weeks ago. Ferrari will produce only 10 examples of the F60America and all have been spoken for.
After an overly ambitious and ultimately unsuccessful Formula 1 car for 1979, British team Arrows fielded the altogether more conservative A3 Cosworth. Raced by Riccardo Patrese and Jochen Mass, it was competitive early in its life but gradually lost the edge. Due to a limited budget, the A3 was also raced in 1981. Our new 27-shot gallery features three different examples pictured in action on both sides of the Atlantic.

During the early 1990s, Nissan had an extensive motorsports program in the United States, supporting both a GTP team running a bespoke prototype and a GTO effort fielding a 300ZX Turbo inspired silhouette racer. Built by Clayton Cunningham Racing, the 300ZX IMSA was effectively a purpose-built racing car. While the production car's silhouette was retained, the only interchangeable parts used were the taillights. It was powered by a twin-turbo V6, which was good for as much as 750 bhp. Following several difficult seasons, the 300ZX IMSA became hugely successful. The best year was 1994 when the Nissan won Sebring and Daytona outright and finished fifth overall and first in class at Le Mans. Reunited with original driver Steve Millen, we captured the 1994 Sebring and Le Mans winning example at this year's Monterey Motorsports Reunion.
Another high performance Nissan making waves this month is the Pulsar Nismo Concept, which was launched in Paris last week. While no actual specifications were released, the show car offers a first glimpse of what will be a brand new hot hatch from the Japanese manufacturer.
Porsche have released the 911 Carrera GTS, which fills the 'void' in the 911 line-up between the Carrera S and the hard-core GT3. Powered by a 423 bhp version of the Porsche flat-six, the GTS will be available as a Coupe or a Cabriolet, while four-wheel drive versions of both body-styles will also be available.

This weekend, the unique Circuit Paul Ricard in the South of France hosted the fifth annual Dix Mille Tours. The event serves as the season finale of the events staged by Peter Auto. Accordingly, the 2014 Dix Mille Tours featured familiar grids like Classic Endurance Racing, Trofeo Nastro Rosso and Sixties' Endurance, complemented by the historic Group C championship. Among the many spectacular machines out on track included numerous Cobras, a pair of Ferrari 512s and the ever impressive Sauber-Mercedes C11. The sights and sounds were enjoyed by over 10,000 spectators, who were treated to the last bits of summer with the rain predicted for Sunday afternoon fortunately holding off.
Our reporters ventured south to capture the 2014 Dix Mille Tours in full detail. The result is a concise report, illustrated by a class-by-class, 260-shot gallery.

For Formula 1, this was a particularly sad weekend with the life-threatening crash of Jules Bianchi in the Japanese Grand Prix and the fatal motorcycle accident of former Grand Prix racer Andrea de Cesaris. Much better than his reputation suggests, the Italian's Formula 1 career spanned the better part of fourteen seasons, racing for the likes of Alfa Romeo, McLaren, Jordan and Sauber. To pay tribute to De Cesaris, we have today highlighted the very first Grand Prix car he raced; the Alfa Romeo 179. Introduced in late in 1979, this V12-engined machine was campaigned by the Italian manufacturer well into the 1982 season. Success was limited as Alfa Romeo never quite managed to grasp the intricacies of the ground effect aerodynamics. De Cesaris debuted with one of the featured examples late in 1980 during the Canadian Grand Prix. His race lasted only eight laps after the V12 engine in his Alfa Romeo failed. He nevertheless impressed and was signed by McLaren for the 1981 season.
We saw the ex-De Cesaris and ex-Giacomelli Alfa Romeo 179 in action at the recent Historic Grand Prix Zandvoort and have captured every angle in this 33-shot gallery.

Italian supercar manufacturer Lamborghini opened a new chapter in the company's rich history with the launch of the plugin hybrid Asterion LPI 910-4. Described as a technology demonstrator, it is built around a carbon fibre monocoque chassis and features the V10 from the recently introduced Huracan. This is assisted by three electric motors; two mounted in the front wheels and a third mounted alongside the conventional petrol engine. The combined output is around 900 bhp. When needed the 'Hyper Cruiser' has a pure electric range of 50 km. Asterion is the proper name of the mythical minotaur, which is part man, part bull. The abbreviation LPI is short for Longitudinale Posteriore (longitudinal rear) Ibride, which is Italian for hybrid. What is perhaps most remarkable about the highly anticipated Asterion LPI 910-4 is the great restraint exercised by the Lamborghini engineers and designers not to go overboard in an attempt to eclipse the similarly powered Porsche 918 Spyder, Ferrari LaFerrari and McLaren P1. While only a concept car, Lamborghini has stated that they created the car in a way that it could be produced in larger numbers ...

On the eve of the Paris Motor Show, Volkswagen has offered a first glimpse of what is to come with the release of the XL Sport show car. The spectacular machine combines the lightweight XL1 chassis with a 200 hp Ducati V-Twin. Thanks to the great performance characteristics of the desmodromic engine and the slippery exterior design, the XL Sport is capable of a top speed of 270 km/h. According to Volkswagen this is the highest ever for a 200 hp road car.
Sister company Audi showcased their new TT Sportback Concept at the same preview evening. The first four-door TT, it is powered by a 400 hp version of the familiar turbocharged, direct-injected four-cylinder engine. It will not come as a surprise that a production version closely resembling the TT Sportback Concept will follow in the coming months.
Another four-door definitely entering production is the lavish Lagonda Super Saloon, which is specifically targeted at the Middle East. Although no further details have been released, Aston Martin Lagonda ltd. was kind enough to give us some additional images of the first Lagonda in decades.
Infiniti have also published additional images of their Q80 Inspiration show car. They also released technical details, which include a new, downsized 3-litre, twin-turbo V6 as part of a sophisticated hybrid system. The Q80 also boasts a nine-speed automatic gearbox.