Articles by Karla Pincott

Similar to Mercedes-Benz's AMG and Nissan's Nismo arms, the N department is named for Hyundai's Namyang R&D centre near Seoul, but could also draw on the connection with their newly-opened Nurburgring testing facility in Germany. The N plan was revealed in tandem with the announcement of Hyundai's World Rally Championship team for next year -- which includes Aussie driver Chris Atkinson -- and the unveiling of N logos on their i20 WRC car. However there's no indication that the i20 will be the first car -- or even among the cars -- to get the N treatment. The rear-wheel drive Genesis coupe with the 3.3-litre twin turbo engine in development and the Veloster are both logical targets. But there's also potential in the i30, which is the big seller in Europe. Any N versions launched overseas would be popular if they hit the market here, Hyundai Australia spokesman Bill Thomas says.  "Australia is a big performance car market with coupes and especially hot hatches," he says. Thomas says there's no word yet on which models will bear the N badge, but says the local brand will be keeping a keen eye on the possibilities for right-hand drive versions. "With both Australia and the UK being keen on performance cars (and also both right-hand drive), we hope we'll see the cars in right-hand drive. We'll have to see what happens." Performance fans will also be keeping an eye on the N division, with particular focus on determining if it will produce true sports cars or -- as some other brands have -- slightly warmed versions with dress-up cosmetic touches. This reporter is on Twitter: @KarlaPincott  

General Motors has announced their current global product development head Mary Barra, 51, will take the CEO's chair in January, making her the first female to serve as CEO for a global car giant -- and causing a major reshuffle in the top offices at GM. Akerson was planning to leave later in 2014, but will now step down as CEO and chairman on January 15 as his wife has been diagnosed with cancer. His role as chair of the GM board will be filled by Theodore (Tim) Solso, a board member since 2012. Former Holden boss and current GM executive vice president and president of North America, Mark Reuss, will replace Barra as executive vice president of product development. Another former Holden chief, Alan Batey, will move from the boss's chair of global Chevrolet and US sales to fill Reuss' current vice-president role. Barra started at GM as an 18-year-old student in 1980, and went on to her first job as a plant engineer at the Pontiac factory where her father had long worked as a diemaker. Barra, 51, has been in charge of product development and quality of all GM cars and trucks for 22 months, fostering collaboration and wringing costs out of the supply chain. GM enrolled her in a development program, during which she earned an MBA scholarship and became the executive assistant to then-CEO Jack Smith, following which she has taken on roles mainly related to GM's engineering operations, with a stint also heading up human resources before becoming the head of product and then global vehicle development in 2011. The announcement of her promotion to CEO came a day after the US government sold its remaining global financial crisis 'bail-out' stake in GM, with headlines that the jokes about it being 'Government Motors' no longer applied. This reporter is on Twitter: @KarlaPincott

After splitting their house into separate line-ups for the sedans and two-doors, BMW is getting ready to reveal the new M3 sedan and the M4 coupe

A Porsche 911 owner has crashed his car into a deep lake in China's Jinan region, but managed to get out of the car relatively unscathed. He had reportedly crashed through the guardrail and speared into the water, although the initial cause of the accident isn't known.The driver was able to climb onto the bonnet of the 911, which was hooked by emergency services and eventually pulled back onto dry land, but after the accident damage and subsequent bath it's unlikely to be repairable.This reporter is on Twitter: @KarlaPincott 

BMW has long been the flag-waver for the 'sheer driving pleasure' of rear-wheel drive cars, with a former Australian boss even once dismissing Audi as a rival because it didn't have a rear-drive platf

While Ford has revealed the new Mustang coupe and convertible we'll see here in 2015, they've been holding back a few details for the car's official showcase at Detroit motor show. However, yesterday reports started to surface about Ford hinting at a 'secret feature' in the Mustang. Today we have confirmation via Motor Authority that the secret technology is an electronic system to help the driver perform a perfect, smokescreen-creating burnout. The report doesn't have details of how the technology works, but suggests that it could either put a line-lock on the front brakes while disabling traction control. And there's no indication of whether this would be a standard feature, or an option -- and perhaps only offered on the V8 models. But you can bet there will be some grumbling if a burnout feature arrives on the cars headed for Australian showrooms. Much of the complaint will be from anti-hoon crusaders who will see the function as encouraging hooniganism. And the rest of it will likely be from purists, who prefer to execute their burnouts while relying solely on their own skills. There's more new technology on the way with the Mustang, and you can get all the lastest news at our dedicated Mustang mini-site.   This reporter is on Twitter: @KarlaPincott      

With the 40th and final LFA supercar having been built and delivered, Lexus needs a new performance hero -- and this teaser could be showing us the first glimpse of it.

Ford is still keeping back some details of the new Mustang that will arrive in Australia in 2015, but this new video at least gives an idea of what it might sound like.The one you're hearing rev is the 5.0-litre V8, which we're told develops more than 313kW of power at 6500rpm, and 529Nm of torque at 4250rpm -- mated to the choice of a six-speed manual or six-speed automatic driving the rear wheels. It's estimated to go on sale for around $55,000, and we're yet to be told the weight, fuel economy and 0-100km/h time.Also on the way is the 2.3-litre turbocharged four-cylinder version, which is tipped to go on sale at around $45,000, and offer outputs of 227kW of power at 5500rpm and 407Nm of torque between 2500-4500rpm. Like the V8, there is still some information coming to fill in the blanks.In the meantime, check out our dedicated Ford Mustang hub for more details, background and some great -- and fun -- features from the world of the pony car. Watch the desktop version of the new Mustang revving video here. This reporter is on Twitter: @KarlaPincott  

McLaren have let their hybrid P1 stretch its legs on a fast lap of the Nurburgring. Not fast enough, it seems, to have beaten the 6:57 record set by the Porsche 918 Spyder. But McLaren are claiming to have done the circuit in under 7 minutes -- they're just not giving us the details on how much under. And that suggests they've still got an eye on the Porsche's record (as does the LaFerrari). What McLaren does give us instead is a salute to the Nurburgring itself, with a video that asks -- and then answers -- the question of why it's so important to keep tackling what's acknowledged as the world's most difficult track, known as the Green Hell. Helming the P1 for the 20.8km lap is McLaren test driver Chris Goodwin, who in an accompanying statement talks us through some of the challenges of what he describes as a "rollercoaster from hell" on which he made a gear change on average every six seconds. "The acceleration from the Aremberg right hander down the Fuchsröhre is absolutely amazing. I have only experienced acceleration like this before in a Formula 1 car," Goodwin says. "This downhill snaking section of the track is taken flat, using DRS, shifting gear all the way down to the base of the valley, and the compression that follows applies the maximum vertical g-forces to the car. The forces really load the tyres, chassis and wing, but it is taken with only a slight lift of the throttle. "The numerous jumps that make the Nordschleife famous are an even bigger challenge than normal with the massive speeds we approach them. Flugplatz and Pflanzgarten are both taken at very high speed... "Through Bergwerk (the corner at which Niki Lauda had his infamous accident in the 1976 German GP), you have to turn in late in order to carry as much speed as you can onto the following straight without running wide. That is a quick section, and one that feels fantastic when you get it just right. "Stability is just as important as ultimate grip, and some of the bumpiest sections of the track are also the fastest. The relentless climb towards the Karussell is dealt with in a few spectacular moments ... at the top of the hill is one of the fastest corners on the lap, with a approach speed around 300km/h, The track is really bumpy here, but the corner is dispatched with a light dab of the brakes in fifth gear. "Cornering forces peak as the McLaren P1 drops onto the banked concrete surface at the Karussell, and swings round more than 180 degrees -- with the driver subjected to lateral g-forces of 3.9g -- before the final stages and sprint to the finish." They didn't have Goodwin add his commentary to the soundtrack, possibly because they didn't want to have anything interfere with the glorious noise as the P1 lets rip from its 673kW/978Nm combination of a 3.8-litre twin turbo V8 and an electric motor -- a marriage McLaren claims gets the car to 100km/h in just 2.8 seconds, 200km/h in 6.8 seconds and 300km/h in 16.5 seconds. But the official Nurburgring time, we'll still have to wait for. Watch the McLaren P1 hypercar going for a quick spin around the Nurburgring on our desktop site. This reporter is on Twitter: @KarlaPincott  

Just when we thought every car in Russia had a dashcam, we've come across one that doesn't -- but should. Faced with a raging river in Siberia, an area big on wild nature but low on infrastructure, this intrepid group uses a zipline to get their car to the other side.It's unfortunate they didn't have a dashcam running so we could get a driver's seat view -- and also that the footage has a water droplet all the way -- but you still get a good idea of the extreme crossing.We don't know if anybody was in the car while it crossed, and the video ends before we're able to work out exactly how they get it down on the other side, since it seems to hover several metres away from what looks like a ramp... or perhaps the remains of a bridge long gone.But no matter what the answers to those remaining questions are, this is quite a feat -- even for the insane Russian driving standards we've come to know and love go 'what the ...'Watch the car ziplining across a raging river video on our desktop site.This reporter is on Twitter: @KarlaPincott