Luxury

XPeng's headline-grabbing P7 performance luxury sedan hits the market overseas with a crazy price-tag.

The latest creation from BYD’s luxury brand Yangwang has some stats that defy logic.

Five-cylinder fury is still kicking as Audi has just launched a new update for its fire-breathing RS3 hot hatch and sedan. Does it still slay the Mercedes-AMG A45 S?

Audi has revealed the new-generation version of its Q3 Sportback ‘coupe’ SUV ahead of its Australian arrival in early 2026.

There is a new king of electric cars.Mercedes-Benz’s Concept AMG GT XX prototype has demolished no less than 25 world records.Mercedes-Benz said the prototype electric car concept “obliterated” the 24 hour driving record by more than 1500km after travelling 5479km in a single day.It didn’t stop there, but kept the good times rolling for seven days, 13 hours, 24 minutes and 07 seconds to travel the equivalent of the earth’s circumference at the equator or 40,075kmIt effectively travelled around the world in less than eight days and demolished the 25 records at various markers along the way.The Concept AMG GT XX averaged about 5300km a day with an average speed of 300km/h.Drivers had to stop to recharge the car, which Mercedes-Benz said achieved max charging speeds of about 850kW.That’s an astonishing charging speed that puts it amongst the fastest charging cars on the planet. Only BYD has speedy replenishing EVs that can absorb about 1000kW or 1MW.Currently the fastest charging vehicles on sale in Australia can take on 350kW of juice, but chargers capable of delivering that speed are far and few between. The record breaking test wasn’t completed on public roads, but at the high speed test track in Nardo, Italy.Nardo’s test track is a high speed ring at about 12km long and has been a regular spot for ultra-fast speed tests for carmakers.Mercedes-Benz used a team of 17 drivers — including its Formula One driver George Russell — to achieve the multiple world record setting test.The test acted as a torture test to Merc’s new 'AMG.EA' EV platform, pushing the motors and charging infrastructure to the limit repeatedly for almost eight days. The Mercedes-Benz Concept AMG GT XX gives a preview of the brand’s new flagship performance model and will be the most powerful AMG yet.This puts it on a collision course with new Chinese rivals such as the Denza Z9 and Xiaomi SU7.It uses three electric motors — which are coolly called axial-flux motors — to make a whopping 1000kW-plus. Mercedes claims these motors are about three times as powerful as conventional electric motors.Its 114kWh battery can accept up to 850kW of charge. The battery chemistry is NCMA (Nickel-Cobalt-Manganese-Aluminium), which is an evolution of the high-capacity NMC batteries found in many long-legged EVs.

Maybe it was the 2006 release of Al Gore’s documentary An Inconvenient Truth, the high-profile unveiling of the game-changing Tesla Model S in 2012 or the cumulative effect of a growing mass of climate data pointing to a grim future for the planet.

For more than 60 years, the Porsche 911 has built a reputation as the ultimate in everyday sports car driving. We grab a 'base' model Carrera to find out if the 992.2 generation still lives up to the hype.

Massive discounts on Mercedes electric cars

In the early 1960s when Ferruccio Lamborghini was warming up for a punch on with Enzo Ferrari over the price of a clutch replacement for his 250 GT the already successful businessman famously took the bull by the horns and decided to make his own sports car.

I’m okay with picking pattern progressions, but begin to fall short when the pressure of upper level IQ testing starts to bring me undone. That said, even I could detect the clear sequence of super performance carmakers following one another into the world of the 4.0-litre, twin-turbo V8.A slew of British, German and Italian brands using the same performance vs consumption vs emissions equation to propel their exotic machines towards the horizon at warp speed with maximum efficiency.So, why did white-coated boffins from all points of the automotive globe come up with the same engine configuration, capacity and induction answer?Well, at the recent global launch of the Lamborghini Temerario (a 4.0L twin-turbo V8 hybrid) we asked Lambo’s Chief Technical Officer (and drift king) Dr. Rouven Mohr exactly that.He confirmed the broadly accepted answer that an individual cylinder volume of 500cc is the magic number.That’s right, the capacity that took the ‘Wollongong Whiz’ Wayne Gardner and ‘The Master of going Faster’ Mick Doohan to 500cc World Motorcycle Championship glory is the Goldilocks zone for an individual engine cylinder. And that’s because a cylinder of that size, ideally undersquare (with a stroke length exceeding its bore diameter), optimises the combustion process thanks to a relatively small internal surface to volume ratio (as the piston nears top dead centre) which helps improve fuel efficiency while producing optimum power and minimising C02 and NOx emissions.So, 500 times eight equals 4000, which, with the benefit of forced induction pushes the golden ratio to its maximum.And Lamborghini should know because the all-new (L411) unit it developed for the Temerario produces 588kW on its own, before a trio of electric motors tips in another 89kW for a total output of 677kW (920hp).Two turbos producing 2.5 bar located in the engine’s ‘hot vee’ optimise packaging and thermal management; titanium conrods reduce rotating mass; a flat plane crank delivers an even firing order and super hard finger followers in the valvetrain allow more aggressive cam profiles. The result? A 10,000rpm rev ceiling, which is… nuts.Other brands within the Volkswagen Group portfolio are on the same train, like Audi’s SQ7 and SQ8 with Bentley and Porsche directly sharing engine tech.And what about Mercedes-AMG with the GT63 and SL63 or McLaren just about matching Lambo for specific power output with its 750S rocketship?But hands up those who remember JLR’s ‘Ingenium’ modular engine family. Three-, four- and six-cylinder units built around 500cc cylinders. BMW Group with its triple, four- and six-cylinder engines, along with many others have also struck on the 500cc formula. But maybe Lamborghini President and CEO Stephan Winkelmann has the most compelling reason for joining the club.While acknowledging the capacity of the cylinder premise - “Six cylinder is usually three litres, eight is four and 12 is six” - he lets slip that the 4.0L thing “is also a matter of taxation in a lot of countries”. So, follow engine efficiency or follow the money, the 4.0-litre, twin-turbo V8 answer is the same.