News: McLaren's P1 supercar hits the test track

It was almost exactly 20 years ago that we car enthusiasts were getting all girlishly excited about the prospect of McLaren's first ever road car, the original F1. That went on to be the fastest car in the world, and to win Le Mans at its first attempt. So just imagine how excited we are at the prospect of this, the P1, McLaren's successor to the F1...

Just 500 of this amazing looking car will be built, and while its engine is structurally similar to the 3.8-litre V8 turbo that's in the existing MP4-12-C supercar, not only will the P1 get a power boost, it will also get a hybrid KERS setup that will boost power again for overtaking bursts. Quite what you'd need an overtaking burst to get past in one of these remains unexplained. A Veyron perhaps?

Anyway, expect power to be at least 750-800bhp, and with all the active aerodynamics and computer controlled suspension that you'd expect from McLaren. And judging from the still-camouflaged styling (why, when they showed the car un-disguised at the Paris Motor Show last year?) it will look remarkably like being violated by a Le Mans racer when it does overtake you, boost or no boost.

Enjoy the photos and check out the video too. It spits fire...

News: Is this Ferrari's new 900bhp engine?

 We know that Ferrari is currently hard at work on F70, areplacement for the blistering Enzo hypercar, and in fact we've already seen its all-carbon chassis, at the Paris Motor Show. But now, here is the first image of its 900bhp hybrid engine...

It's a bit blurry, but Dutch website Autoblog.nl is pretty sure that this is the first image of Ferrari's new wonder engine nestling in its carbon-fibre cradle. The large grey box, with the orange wires, sitting at the back between the exhausts, is the KERS unit which, F1-style, harvests electric power from braking and various other systems and allows the driver to thumb a button for extra overtaking oomph, or for a short trickle on pure, zero-emissions electric power.

Quite why you'd need extra overtaking oomph from a 7.3-litre V12 in a carbon-chassis supercar that will probably weigh about as much as a Fiesta is a bit beyond us though...