Motoring News
Today, 06 September 2016Autocar confidential: Mercedes-AMG, Bugatti, Aston Martin, Nissan
Our reporters empty their notebooks to round up this week's gossip from across the automotive industry
Hamilton wants in on Mercedes supercar development
Lewis Hamilton has said he wants to work with Mercedes-AMG on a future version of the GT sports car and joked about calling it the GT LH Edition. “I’ve already told [head of AMG] Tobias [Moers], ‘You’ve got the world champion and all of this F1 tech. Let’s make this work’,” he said.
Read more: Lewis Hamilton on danger, V12s and the Mercedes-AMG GT R, Mercedes-AMG GT R revealed
No special edition Chirons - for now
Sales of the standard Bugatti Chiron are limited to 500 cars, but an insider has said the level of demand from people who laid down expressions of interest in the £1.9 million car prior to seeing it mean that the firm won’t rush to launch special editions. “One-off colour schemes and other special editions proved very popular with the Veyron, but we are not at that stage yet,” said the insider. “People are eager to buy this car and the volume of sales will keep the factory busy for a long time. We don’t need to look too far ahead.”
Read more: 2016 Bugatti Chiron, Why we should celebrate the new Bu
read moreLand Rover Discovery partially revealed in teaser image
The 2017 Land Rover Discovery has been revealed in a teaser image released by Land Rover; styling draws heavily from the Range Rover
The Land Rover Discovery has been partially revealed ahead of its official debut just before the Paris motor show, at the end of this month.
Land Rover’s teaser image of the Discovery reveals the full front-end styling of the car, which in true Discovery form, features high ground clearance, an imposing front grille and Range Rover-like styling.
The full front-end styling of the car can be seen in the teaser, which marks a considerable departure from more boxy previous generations of Discovery.
Previous spy images of the Discovery testing before its launch suggested that it could maintain the car’s signature asymmetric boot lid, with the registration plate positioned over to one side of the car’s rear-end.
We suspect that a 2.0-litre Ingenium diesel engine will make it into the production car as a pre-production prototype was spotted testing fitted with one, but as is usual with teaser images, Land Rover left little information with the picture, and details are sparse ahead of the car’s first official appearance at the end of the month.
What we do know, however, is that the new Discovery will use the Range Rover’s aluminium monocoque, so it will be considerably lighter than its 2622kg predecessor; it will also be tech-heavy when it’s launched.
We also know that the Discovery will be the first car in Land Rover’s line
read moreNew 2017 Land Rover Discovery revealed
Sensible investments threaten the upgrade budget - time for some man maths!
read more2017 BMW 530d xDrive review
All-new BMW 5 Series shows a broader set of abilities than before on our early prototype drive across demanding Welsh roads
Underneath the light disguise of the BMW prototype you see here lies the seventh-generation 5 Series saloon – a car described as being new from the ground up and, as it has been since its inception way back in 1972, one that's crucial to the company's continued drive for greater volumes, profit and success. The production version of the new 5 Series, codenamed G30, isn’t planned to be unveiled until October. However, we’ve now driven a trio of prototypes over some challenging roads in Wales – the very same network of coarse-chip blacktop that the head of BMW’s chassis development, Jos van As, and his team have been using recently to fine-tune the handling attributes of the new executive saloon, which will come up against some stiff competition in the form of the Audi A6, Jaguar XF and Mercedes-Benz E-Class when it goes on sale in the UK early next year.Although BMW is holding back on many of the details of the new 5 Series until closer to its launch, it has provided us with an insight into its advanced new chassis, which is not only a brand new development but also comes with a new set-up aimed at providing the car with a broader range of attributes than ever before. “At one end of the scale, we’ve succeeded in making it more responsive and increased its agility," says van As, "while at the other end, it now provides greater comfort and refinement.”In terms of dimensions, the 5 Series has grown, if only slightly. The increases in length, width and height are incremental and mostly aimed at increasing rear seat accommodation. As
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