Built in 1985 to the then current Group C and GTP regulations, the Veskanda Chevrolet still holds several lap records Down Under and is commonly acknowledged as the fastest sports racer to come out of Australia. The car was commissioned by Bernard van Elsen and constructed by K&A Engineering and accordingly the name is short for Van Elsen Special KandA. In the hands of local hero John Bowe, the Chevrolet-engined machine dominated sports car racing in Australia from halfway through 1985 well into 1987, winning every round of the country's most important championship in 1986. The Veskanda also made a single World Championship appearance, when a race was held at Sandown Park in 1988. Faced with formidable opponents, Bowe did very well to qualify and finish eighth, only to later be disqualified for exceeding the fuel allowance. Fully restored, the car came to Europe for the first time last year and competed in the Historic Group C Championship. It is seen in our 18-shot gallery at Le Mans and Paul Ricard. The one-off Veskanda will be out again this weekend during the Spa Classic. We will be there as well and you can expect full coverage from this very busy weekend early next week.
The weekend is packed with major events, which include the Indy 500 and the Monaco Grand Prix. The latter inspired us to give the 1983 Monaco-winning Williams FW08C Cosworth a closer look. As coincidence would have it, the car was driven at the time by reigning World Champion Keijo Rosberg, the father of current F1-ace Nico Rosberg, who dominated today's free practice sessions with his Mercedes-Benz W02. The FW08C holds the distinction of scoring the last pole position with a Cosworth DFV engine and it was also used by the late Ayrton Senna for his very first F1 outing. Our 18-shot gallery features both the Monaco-winning and the ex-Senna chassis.

This coming weekend, the annual Concorso d'Eleganza will once again be held on the fabulous grounds of the Grand Hotel Villa d'Este. Among the stars expected during this year's event are an Aston Martin DB4 GT Zagato, a Bugatti Type 57 SC Atlantic Coupe and the Lamborghini 350 GTV. As always, a full report will follow shortly after the weekend.
To get you in the right mood, we have today taken a closer look at two cars that starred at Villa d'Este last year and certainly embodies La Dolce Vita. Best known of the pair is the Maserati 5000 GT Allemano Coupe. The last Maserati 'fit for a king', the 5000 GT combined the production 3500 GT chassis with the race-bred V8 engine out of the magnificent 450 S. Of the 34 examples built, Allemano clothed 18 5000 GTs. In addition to the Allemano Coupe seen at Villa d'Este, two additional chassis are also highlighted in our 22-shot gallery.
Launched at the 1963 Turin Motor Show, this one-off Lancia Flaminia was also shown at Villa d'Este in 2012. Using a standard Flaminia chassis, it boasts a Tom Tjaarda styled body. Pininfarina eventually sold the car to North America where it remained until it was acquired by the current owner; a noted Italian collector of one-offs.
Other stars of the 2012 Concorso included the Alfa Romeo 6C 1750 Gran Sport Figoni Coupe, a Lamborghini Miura P400 SV/J and an OSCA 1600 SP.

At this weekend's Nurburgring 24 Hours, Aston Martin revealed the CC100 Speedster, which has been built to celebrate the company's centenary. The venue was well chosen as the striking machine, also nicknamed the DBR100, was inspired by the Aston Martin DBR1, which scored three Nurburgring 1000 km wins in a row. Underneath the Speedster's carbon-fibre composite body-panels sits Aston Martin's latest 'AM11' V12 complete with paddle-operated six-speed gearbox. The top speed of the spectacular Aston Martin CC100 Speedster is limited to 290 km/h and the lightweight machine can sprint to 100 km/h in just over 4 seconds. Although there are no production plans, we are sure a sufficient offer will convince Aston Martin to build another one.
Responding to the high performance models recently launched by Audi and AMG-Mercedes, BMW have reworked the twin turbo V8 found in the range-topping M-models, resulting in a power increase of 15 hp. This revised engine will be available with the M5 Competition Package and the M6 Competition Package. Although the changes look good on paper, the added horses will only shave around 0.1 second off the 0-100 km/h time. The introduction of the Competition Package coincides with further updates to the 5-Series range, which include styling changes, new colour options and enhancements to the interior and lighting.

Yesterday, Honda announced its return to Formula 1 in 2015 as McLaren's engine supplier. Between 1988 and 1992, the McLaren/Honda partnership resulted in four driver's titles, so not surprisingly the expectations will be very high. Most successful of all Honda-powered McLarens was the MP4/4 raced during the 1988 season by Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost. Together they won a staggering 15 out of a possible 16 races. One of these all-conquering machines was recently restored by McLaren and driven during the 2009 Goodwood Festival of Speed by Bruno Senna. We used that opportunity to capture every detail as it can be seen in this 18-shot gallery.
Already some years in the making, Porsche have released further and amended details about the upcoming 918 Spyder supercar. Among the changes is a significant boost of the performance of the internal combustion engine and the electric motors. This has lifted the combined power output to close to 900 bhp. In addition to the additional information, Porsche also released more images of the sophisticated hybrid supercar.
During a spectacular launch at the Airbus factory in Hamburg, Mercedes-Benz took the wraps off the latest generation S-Class. Known internally as the W222, it replaced the W221 generation, which was introduced back in 2005. As can be expected, the new S-Class is more luxurious, more technologically advanced and more efficient as the outgoing model. Topping the range during the market introduction will be the S 500, which boasts a 449 bhp, twin-turbo V8.

From the mid-1970s, Ferrari focused the company's racing efforts on Formula 1 and with considerable success. This did leave the loyal privateer racers looking for alternatives. Not content with settling with anything but a Ferrari, some of these privateers requested Padova-based Ferrari dealer Michelotto to create a 308 GTB-based rally car. Although it did take some time to get the 308 GTB Group 4 right, the car turned out to be remarkably successful. In fact it remains the only Ferrari to have ever finished in the top three of a World Rally Championship round. Ferrari also took note of the efforts of the small shop and cemented a relationship with Michelotto that lasts to this day with cars ranging from the F40 to the current 458 Italia GT2 as the indirect and direct result. Over the years we captured four 308 GTB Group 4s in action during events like the Tour Auto. They can be seen from every angle in this lovely 24-shot gallery.
This morning, HSV's all-new 'Gen-F' range broke cover. One of the range topping models is this ClubSport R8 SV. It is powered by a 456 bhp version of GM's LS3 V8, which is currently the most potent available in the Gen-F range. The car comes with a choice of a manual or automatic six-speed gearbox and a raft of high-tech electronic goodies as standard.
Following a link-up with Zagato last year, BMW have now partnered with Pininfarina to bring a one-off show car to next week's Concorso d'Eleganza Villa d'Este. Known as the Gran Lusso Coupe, it is powered by a V12 engine. For now that is the only concrete information and the three images released today also do not draw a complete picture just yet.

This week, Lamborghini celebrated the company's 50th anniversary with a rally through the north of Italy. The event culminated with the launch of the spectacular Lamborghini Egoista in Sant'Agata Bolognese. This 600 bhp V10 engined machine was created by the Volkswagen Group's head of design Walter de Silva as a homage to the Italian manufacturer. The unusual show car features a single seater layout with a centrally mounted cockpit. In De Silva's own words: "It represents hedonism taken to the extreme, it is a car without compromises, in a word: egoista (selfish)." One of the clear inspirations was the Apache helicopter resulting in many subtle and some more obvious cues like the canopy and the turbine like exhaust. The Egoista is Lamborghini's gift for Lamborghini and will not be sold.
The launch of the striking Egoista prompted us to look back at some classic Lamborghini prototypes. It all started 50 years ago with the Franco Scaglione penned 350 GTV. Using the same underpinnings was the 3500 GTZ of which two were built and only one remains today. Later in the decade, Bertone produced this fantastic Marzal, which provided a preview of the upcoming Espada production car. Long before Lamborghini settled on the Gallardo as the spiritual replacement of the Jalpa, several very different prototypes were built in the late 1980s and through the 1990s. Among them is the P140 of 1989; the first V10-engined Lamborghini. Using the same engine was the Cala penned created by Giugiaro/Italdesign, which remains as one of the most beautiful Lamborghinis and was also a participant of the 50th anniversary rally with Fabrizio Giugiaro behind the wheel.

In motorsport, Peugeot is today best known for their rallying and endurance racing victories but over a century ago they were among the leading Grand Prix manufacturers. Although they did not quite invent it, Peugeot were the first to successfully race engines with twin overhead camshafts and four valves per cylinder, which is still very much the standard for high performance engines to this day. Among these pioneering machines was the Peugeot L45 built specifically for the 1914 French Grand Prix. Due to problems with the Peugeot's inferior tyres, the final race before the Great War was won by arch-rivals Mercedes with this 18/100 Grand Prix. Like most Grand Prix cars of the day, the Peugeots were shipped to the United States where racing continued through 1916. Using one of the sophisticated Peugeots, Dario Resta won the 1916 Indy 500. Our feature car was one of the French Grand Prix racers and some believe it to be Resta's actual Indy winning machine. It was raced at Indy as late as 1949, and has been owned by the same family for over six decades. We captured it in full detail at the 2011 Goodwood Festival of Speed where it formed part of the Indy 500 Centenary celebrations.
A Peugeot due to race in the United States this year is the equally impressive 208 T16 Pikes Peak of which even more details and images have been released this week. Among them are some baffling performance figures like a 0-100 km/h time of just 1.8 seconds and a top speed of 240 km/h. All this is made possible by a 875 bhp, 3.2 litre V6 engine, equipped with twin turbochargers. We will continue to follow Sebastien Loeb's efforts and are also looking forward to seeing the 208 T16 Pikes Peak in its final livery.
Also boasting a twin-turbo V6 is the Volkswagen Design Vision GTI, launched at the GTI Treffen earlier this week. The German manufacturer have now also released more information and these detailed images of this very high performance Golf.