Honda continues tiny EV development, Chevrolet confirms Spark EV for L.A. and BMW goes retro to celebrate nine decades of motorcycles — all in today’s First Shift…

Honda Micro Commuter Prototype unveiled Current battery physics won’t allow a pure-electric full-size pickup. At least one that could be driven out of your laneway without needing a recharge.  But small — I mean really small — vehicles like this Honda Micro Commuter Prototype, may have a shot at becoming usable electric vehicles in the future. Smaller than a Smart ForTwo, Honda’s Micro Commuter Prototype is a follow-up to a concept first seen at last year’s Tokyo Motor Show. Seating is 1+1, tandem style. With a top speed of 80 kilometres per hour and a 96 km driving range, Honda is testing prototypes “in various uses including supporting everyday short-distance transportation for families with small children and for senior citizens, home delivery services, commuting and car sharing.”

Biante Touring Car Masters

The Biante Touring Car Masters has quickly become the most popular support act at the V8 Supercar Series. Race fans can’t get enough of the action that sees some of the biggest names in Australian motorsport history battling it out on the track.

With a range of iconic pre-1974 muscle cars on display this action-packed series is a hit with generations of spectators. From Falcon GTs to Holden Monaros, Toranas and nimble Porsche 911s, some of the most iconic muscle cars get to show off at every race.

The Masters series gives some of Australia’s most successful V8 Supercar drivers a chance to show they can still give it everything they’ve got on track. Racing legends like seven time Bathurst winner Jim Richards, John Bowe and Glen Seaton mix with other racing enthusiasts to keep the crowd on the edge of their seats.

Long time racing enthusiasts with a passion for motorsport can also get involved in this exciting series. Eddie Abelnica, self-proclaimed rev-head and owner of Melbourne’s Cheapest Cars, is one of the lucky drivers who gets to mix with the legends of motorsport at every race.

The challenging Hidden Valley Racetrack in Darwin was the scene of the latest battle. With a huge crowd in attendance at one of the favourite events of the season there was some fierce competition across two days of racing.The heat caused chaos with a number of entrants spending plenty of time in pit lane. Abelnica was powering through the field in his XB Falcon in a tough race before engine dramas unfortunately caused him to end the weekend early.

It was a couple of days of action that started and ended well but with plenty of drama in between. Andrew Miedecke enjoyed a hugely successful event with two race wins in his Camaro to give the Championship title a red hot go.

Porsche 911 Turbo

£107,956 - £118,183

Massively fast, massively competent and massively makes you look like someone who was just a bit too scared to buy a GT3. The answer? Buy a GT3.

For the majority of us, the quickest 911 in the world thanks to its brilliant four-wheel drive system. Lacks of a bit of dynamic Porsche purity, though…

Comfort

Surprisingly calm and placid for something that’ll keep pace with a GT2. The dampers absorb all but the worst road ruts, and there’s almost no kickback from the steering.

Handling

By objective standards, the Turbo is simply superb – good steering, progressive brakes, predictable manners even when you’re really chucking the back end out. But, alongside the awesome GT3, it just feels a fraction disconnected. We’re being picky, mind.

erformance

How does 3.9 seconds to 60mph and a top speed just shy of 200mph sound to you? The only way you’ll go quicker in a Porsche is in the GT2, and even then you’ll need testicles of titanium. The Turbo is a far more manageable beast.

Rolls-Royce Drophead

£322,068

Can you carry this off? Winning the Lottery isn’t enough – you need a freakish level of assured unflappability to pilot what is basically a yacht, complete with decking.

The Rolls-Royce Phantom Drophead Coupe is a unique way to travel, perhaps more like a beautifully built water craft than a car.

Rolls-Royce Ghost

£193,875

This is supposed to be a smaller, sportier, more usable Rolls, but the only way this Ghost qualifies as ‘small' is in comparison to the ermine and aluminium freight train that is the Phantom

It's the Ghost's sense of self - the utter confidence of character that allows it to use BMW bits and still produce undeniably a Rolls - that makes it such a success.

Rolls-Royce Phantom Coupe

£303,268

A Rolls-Royce with sporting pretentions? Dash and blast it, what the bally Moses do those cads think they're doing? If it wasn't so dashed fantastic I'd take my stick to them.

The most exclusive, awe-inspiring coupe ever? The Phantom Coupe is right up there

Comfort

Masses of the stuff. Even though this is the so-called performance car of the Rolls-Royce range, it’s still more comfortable than your own personal cloud. If you’re looking to splash out – and hell, you’re buying a Phantom Coupe, so you’d better be – go for the optional ‘Starlight’ headlining: 1600 lovely little twinkling lights on the ceiling. Ahhh.

Handling

The Rolls Coupe handles. Really, it does. We understand why you’re sceptical – it is slightly longer and wider than Dorset after all – but the steering and ride have been firmed up and there’s even a ‘sport’ button. A sport button! In a Rolls! We’d actually be angry if it wasn’t so damn good.

Practicality

Practical in the way that having a personal, highly-paid assassin is practical.

KTM X-Bow

The X-Bow is a stripped-back, essentials-only sports car for the driving purist - the exact approach you'd expect a motorbike manufacturer to take with a four-wheeled project.

Focussed carbon-heavy track car with a turbo’d 2.0-litres of Audi reliability and superlative looks (and pricetag). Maybe a little soft, but that can be sorted relatively easily by adjusting the suspension. Or you could wait for the hotter versions rumoured to surface soon.

Comfort

The X-Bow is a surprise for something that looks like it should be starring in the ‘Transformers' movies - you can actually go some distance in it without crippling yourself. Obviously there's no weather protection, so you've got to be a little careful with exposed body parts (ie/ your face), but properly kitted up this is an easy car to drive, if not for a long way

Cool

A bit try-hard, maybe, but you'll stop traffic. 

Handling

This is where the KTM gets a little devisive. Loris Binnochi (he of Pagani fame) sorted the chassis and it's a peach - but it isn't the most committed thing you'll ever drive. It drops into safe understeer pretty early. Fun for the beginner, but not quite matching the super-extreme looks. Luckily, there are more hardcore X-Bows in the pipeline - they should add some spice to a great base version. 

Running costs

The ‘base' car is around £50k, the full carbon twice the price. Pretty good on fuel, ludicrous on insurance. This is a toy - your wallet will be forced to treat it like one

Ariel Atom

Cars don't get much more hardcore than this. You need to have a biker's attitude to dressing for driving, but the reward is superb.

One of the purest driving experiences you can get. And you’re exposure to the elements just completes the thrill. OK, so your eyes may fall out, but this is worth it.

Ferrari 599

£201,500 - £206,615

Two of you sit in leather-sculpted splendour immediately behind a divine V12 engine. All things considered, this may be the greatest all-round Ferrari ever made.

No-one can quite believe how good the 599 is. Staggeringly fast but remarkably easy to drive. It’s pretty much as fast as an Enzo too, which just shows what a difference a couple of years can make.

BMW Z4

£28,535 - £43,970

Z4 irritates the purists by getting a folding hard-top. Engineers around the world are currently burning effigies of whoever thought that was a good idea, while the fashionistas are burning incense.

Still not as great as a Porsche Boxster, but getting closer with every generation. New folding hard-top gives it the predictabilly slightly fat arse, but otherwise it looks as good as any other hard-top.

Rare McLaren F1 sells for £3.5m+

Don your finest Jezza voice, because this is the most expensive ‘modern supercar’… in the world

It might be quite a few million quid off the sale price of Sir Stirling Moss's old Ferrari 250 GTO, but this McLaren F1 is still ruddy expensive.

It's just sold for over £3.5 million pounds, making it the most expensive ‘modern supercar' ever sold.

BMW 6 Series Convertible

£60,150 - £90,460

A rather sensible successor to the outgoing 6-Series, and better for it. Bit dull, though.

KTM X-Bow RR round the Nurburgring

Watch it do the Nordschleife in 7:25.72. That’s faster than a Zonda…

Remember Jeremy struggling to explain why the KTM X-Bow's pushrod suspension was so good? This little video should help him out - it's GT4 champ Christopher Haase making it round the Nürburgring Nordschleife in just 7:25.72. That's only .02 seconds slower than a Ferrari Enzo...

As you'd expect, he's in an X-BOW RR - the all-new track day special with 355bhp and 350lb ft, weighing in at just 820kg. And the very same car we took racing a few months back.

So, what would you lot take round the ‘Ring if you wanted to beat 7:25.72?

Pagani Zonda

This is no case of ‘more money than sense’. No, you’ll need both money and sense to acquire this quite magnificent, sculpted, hi-tech yet classical, super-machine.
you pay for what you get. Eighty grand over £300,000 gets you a 7.3-litre 12-cylinder, rear-drive super coupe that’s over-endowed with kit and thrills…

Mercedes-Benz SLS overall verdict

A finely judged super GT from Mercedes and AMG. A thumping great 6.2-litre V8 and gullwing doors equals maximum joy.

Comfort

Sure, the ride might be a little stiff, but more than anything, the SLS comes across as a GT car; the clutch is good enough to totter around town in, and if you're not massively committed on the throttle, you can keep the V8's burble just the right side of head turning.

Cool

Very. You get the impression the SLS doesn't take itself too seriously, and at the end of the day, it's still a big Benz.

Handling

The steering is good but not truly great, and the sensation of peering out over acres of bonnet doesn't helop to make the SLS shrink around you, but get into a loping rhythm, and the SLS can cover ground very quickly indeed. It's a joy. In fact, it feels very much like a V8 muscle car, all slithery goodness and apolcalyptic soundtrack, and it's all the better for that.

Running costs

21.4mpg (if you're lucky) and emissions of 308g/km of CO2, so yeah, it'll be expensive. But look at it. And listen to it. 

Lamborghini Aventador overall verdict

Lamborghini knows how to make a supercar super. Imposing swagger, sledgehammer speed and lots and lots of noise.

Comfort

It's wide. Really wide. And it feels really wide too, meaning that you - the chubby lump of organic matter sitting between the seat and steering wheel - never feel really comfortable along say, the kind of narrow backroad you should be having a blast on. Plus, the ride is quite firm, but in a sophisticated sort of way, and strangely, makes sense as a big GT car. Nicely settled on motorways.

Performance

You're kidding, right? It's got a 6.5-litre V12 that produces 700bhp, does 0-62mph in less than three seconds and will top out at 217mph. The acceleration, needless to say, is apocalyptic. 

Cool

It's a proper piece of street theatre this, and thus, not one for shrinking violets

Quality

Under Audi's stewardship, Lamborghini can build cars that don't fall to pieces at the first sight of a corner. Or traffic queue.

HandlingThree suspension modes - Strada, Sport and Corsa - turn the Aventador from lazy (as lazy as a Lambo gets) trundler into full-on track monster. The steering is positive and accurate and the body control fabulous. 

Practicality

You're kidding, right? There's a distinct lack of storage compartments, and the boot is enough to swallow a small bag. Who cares - transporting stuff is overrated.

Running costs

10mpg, big insurance, big road tax bills, big servicing, and of course, that access price. Again, who cares - this is a big, V12-engined Lamborghini. Thank the universe it exists

Lamborghini Aventador Roadster

Ferrari 458 overall verdict

Ferrari 458 overall verdict 

Currently the best small mid-engined supercar in the business.

FERRARI  FF      

We’ve got to hand it to them. Clever Ferrari for making a car that seems to meet so many incompatible objectives.

Comfort

The DBS rides well for a car with so much potential, but like a teenage boy you never forget that it has one thing on its mind, just this time it's speed not the, er, other thing. The engine is loud, but that's the point. Watch out for cambers and uneven roads; the DBS would prefer a racetrack if given the 

Performance

The bare stats show that the DBS has just 60 more bhp than the DB9 at 510, so it's not actually that powerful, but 0-62mph in just over four seconds and 190mph is enough. The rumours that this is just a DB9 in a new suit are unfounded though; this is much more like the old hardcore Vanquish S in terms of experience.

If the DB9 is cool, then the DBS is super-chilled. Forget the slightly odorous James Bond connection - that's for teenage boys - and revel in a fine, fast Aston that makes the hair stand to attention on the back of your neck.

In essence a tighter, harder, faster DB9, but in spirit much closer to the fantastically hairy-chested thrills of the old Vanquish S. Makes a Ferrari look naff. Exquisite.  

We've always disliked the word "snapshot." A picture isn't an instant in time. It's the tail end of a lot of talent and preparation, a good measure of luck, and a little bit of magic. It can raise pulses and change minds. It even can turn some awkward-looking rides from the real world into mythic, gorgeous machines.

CARS  REVIEW