This week the Las Vegas Convention Center hosts the annual SEMA Show. Organized by the Specialty Equipment Market Association, this massive show for aftermarket and motorsport products is open only to the media and industry. Worldwide media coverage has made it one the most anticipated shows.
One of 2007's biggest highlights is the Jay Leno commissioned Corvette C6RS. Powered by an E85 fueled 8.2 litre V8, this road legal machine is inspired by the Le Mans winning Corvette C6.R and built by the same people. With 600 bhp on tap and a Pratt & Miller modified chassis, it should provide supercar performance. Another striking General Motors product is the Pontiac Solstice SD-290. Its roadster body harks back at 1950s and 1960s racing cars. Also having its roof chopped is the Scion Dalek xD, which comes complete with a wooden rear deck and a champagne cooler.
Many of the other cars on display do not sport modifications this extensive as they serve as demonstration models for the various aftermarket products available. These included the Cadillac CTS Sport, Heico C30 T5 and Honda Accord HS-F.

One of the most unusual and exciting cars released in the last few years was the Ferrari FXX. At the launch of the track-day special, Ferrari announced that the cars would also serve as test bed and that they would be updated with lessons learned from these tests. What Ferrari meant with that, has now become clear with the introduction of the FXX Evoluzione. It is not a brand new car, but in fact a package to upgrade the existing cars and most interestingly includes changes to the engine that boost power to 860 bhp at 9500 rpm.
Bonham's upcoming London Olympia sale will be headlined by the oldest Rolls-Royce still in existence, which will be offered to the public for the first time since 1904. The tiny two cylinder engined 10hp Barker Two Seater incorporates all the qualities that have made Rolls-Royce such a highly regarded manufacturer and was well ahead of its time. Bonham's expect bids to exceed one million pounds and we think by quite a bit.
In the 1950s, England reestablished itself as a leading racing car manufacturer, highlighted by Jaguar's success at Le Mans. In their wake several specialized companies saw the light of the day with Lister as one of the more successful. The company founded by Brian Lister built some of the finest sportscars of the decade, powered by either a Jaguar six cylinder engine or a Corvette V8. One of these is the Lister Costin Chevrolet, which today sports a 475 bhp engine. An even more successful racing car manufacturer was Lotus, who conquered racing with nimble and lightweight racers. In 1962, they broke new ground in F1 by introducing the monocoque with the Lotus 25. That same year, they offered the Lotus 24 to customers. It remains as one of the rare dedicated customer F1 cars. Recently there has also been a boom in new manufacturers and last month the most recent was added to the list; Embassy Racing. They intend to compete in the Le Mans Series with their Peter Elleray designed WF01.

Early this morning the doors opened to the press of the highly anticipated Tokyo Motor Show. With a large number of concept and production car introductions, the Japanese show has really stepped up this year. Definitely the most talked about of these new machines is the Nissan GT-R; the replacement of the Skyline R34 GT-R. That car has long since gained a cult status, so the expectations for the new one were exceptionally high. It looks like Nissan has not disappointed with the GT-R, which comes standard with a 473 bhp V6 and an advanced twin-clutch gearbox. What has been retained is all the electronic trickery that made the previous model such a potent a machine. The best news is that the very competitively priced machine will be available with left hand drive as well, so the established sportscar manufacturers have a new and very serious competitor the world over.
In Tokyo the concept cars are usually very strongly represented and in 2007 the German manufacturers have pulled a few rabbits out of their hat. Audi has the Metroproject Quattro on their stand, which serves both as a styling exercise for the upcoming A1 and as a vehicle to showcase the company's latest hybrid drivetrain. Volkswagen expanded the line of new compact cars first shown at Frankfurt last month with "up!" concept. In the Japanese capital, they will have the slightly larger Space up! on display.
In recent years, Mazda has impressed with their bold concept cars and at Tokyo they unveiled yet another striking machine. Dubbed the Taiki, it might form the basis for a new RX-7 as it comes equipped with a next generation RENESIS engine and a seven speed gearbox. Keep an eye on these pages as more Tokyo news will be added as it unfolds.

This weekend was the grand finale for several major racing series, with the dramatic Formula 1 championship decider being the most publicized. The Belgian track of Zolder, best known for Gilles Villeneuve's fatal crash 25 years ago, hosted the final round of the FIA GT Championship. As with F1, both driver's championships were up for the taking, but here there were still nine drivers in GT1 and six in GT2 with title hopes. Needless to say this was the most exciting decider in the championship that sees some of the finest sports and supercars dice it out on the track. In GT1 the title contenders were in Maserati MC12s, Aston Martin DBR9s and a Corvette C6.R and in GT2 it was the classic show down between Porsche and Ferrari. The two-hour race would dash a lot of hopes and make a handful of drivers very happy, or 'appy as they would pronounce it.
We visited the FIA GT for the very first time and were impressed with the level of competition and preparation. It was also our first encounter with the MC12 on track, which will culminate in a detailed feature of the Maserati in the near future. Our experiences of the cold, but sunny October weekend have been captured in a full report and an exclusive slide show with a mouthwatering array of fire belching, flying and sliding GT racers.

One of the great battles at Le Mans was between Ferrari and Ford in the mid 1960s. The Italians had been dominating the 24 Hour race for many seasons until Ford eventually managed to beat them with the big block engined and England built GT40 MkII in 1966. The following year Ferrari upped the ante considerably with the exquisite 330 P4. Ford had spent the good part of 1966 testing a completely American built version of the GT40 with a highly advanced honeycomb aluminum monocoque chassis. Simply dubbed the Mk IV, it dominated the race, beating the Ferraris by five laps. Immediately after the race, it was announced that the rules for 1968 would be drastically changed, leaving all these glorious racers obsolete. No completely American built car has won the race since, but that might change soon as Corvette is expected to field a potential winner in the near future.
To commemorate the victorious machine, Ford had all four Le Mans racers dressed up as the winner for show duty. This together with the fact that the ACO wrongly assigned chassis J-6 as the winner has let to a lot of confusion. In our in-depth article, we take a look at both the actual winner and the mistaken winner, and also explain how J-6's owner identified his car as not being the winner and rewrote history. Enjoy!

One of the most impressive new endurance racers this season has been the Zytek 07S/2, which set three poles and took one class victory in five Le Mans Series races. It was also heading for a historic class win at Le Mans, until a driver error put an end to their very strong run. It's generally accepted that the LMP2 class in the ALMS is much stronger than in Europe and that was put the test when Zytek brought the 07S/2 over to Petit Le Mans last week. The Zytek once again impressed and scored a third in class, behind the much better funded Porsche RS Spyders. Today we look back at the 07S/2's opening season with a staggering 36-shot gallery. There are still two races left this season, so things can only get better for the beautiful Le Mans prototype.
This week the Australian International Motor Show opened its doors in Sydney and we tracked down three of the most exciting releases. Volkswagen spiced up the diesel engined Touareg even further with the introduction of the 345 bhp and more importantly 850 Nm Touareg R50. Mazda has made it a tradition to take a production model and extensively modify it for the Sydney show. This year they displayed the 3 MPS Extreme, with revised suspension and engine. Ford's tuning department FPV not only showed the new Cobra, but also took the wraps off the F6 R Typhoon.
Rounding up this week's update, we would like to look at two completely different racing cars. First up is the Volvo C30 Super 2000, which is set to debut in next year's Swedish touring car championship and is powered by an E85 engine. The other is the not so well known, but very interesting AC Cobra 'Willment' Coupe. This unique coupe was inspired by Shelby's successful Daytona Coupes and was raced very competitively in Europe and Africa.

Later this month, the Tokyo Motor Show will welcome tens of thousands of interested media and public. They will be treated to a wide array of production and concept cars. Needless to say the Japanese take centre stage at their local show. All eyes will of course be on the much anticipated Nissan GT-R, but we are confident that the many concept cars will also fascinate the crowd. More than at any other show, Tokyo attracts the slightly wilder and more futuristic concepts.
Toyota is clearly on a quest to find new shapes and sizes for the car of the future, which is clearly demonstrated by the 1/X, Hi-CT and RiN concepts. Honda follows suit with the very funky Puyo Concept. They also continue with their hints of a pending CRX return, this time with the CR-Z Concept, which sounds and looks like a modern interpretation of the 1980s icon. Another seemingly production ready concept is the Lexus LF-Xh, which fully incorporates the high-end company's latest and much acclaimed design direction. Unusually big for a Japanese four seater is the RD/BX Concept, which is a somewhat odd cross-over of a MPV, SUV and convertible.
After a teaser shot last week, Subaru has now released clearer pictures of the new Impreza WRX-STi.

Hot on the heels of the M3 Coupe, BMW have announced the M3 Sedan. With it, the German manufacturer has revived the four-door M3, which was first introduced thirteen years earlier, but was not part of the previous M3 range. The specs are virtually identical, making the M3 Sedan a very interesting option as a family car. Right before the start of this weekend's Bathurst 1000, Ford debuted the FPV GT Cobra. Only 400 of this limited edition, 405 bhp Falcons will be produced.
For the bi-annual Tokyo Motorshow the Japanese manufacturers always pull out all the stops by producing some fantastic concept cars. The uncrowned king of concepts, Mazda, continues to make an impression as they will take the wraps off this stunning Taiki. Not quite as beautiful, but equally interesting is this Nissan Pivo 2, which incorporates many highly advanced features.
Last week we looked at a very successful Mercedes Benz Grand Prix racer and this week it's time to highlight another. Taking nine wins out of twelve appearances, the W196 stands as one of the most successful Formula 1 cars ever constructed. Incorporating a spaceframe chassis, desmodromic valve operation and direct fuel injection, it literally was years ahead of the rest. Argentinian legend Juan Manuel Fangio single handedly scored eight of those wins and clinched back-to-back championships.
We would like to conclude this week's update with a look at two Pebble Beach entrants. Shown in 2007 was this Bugatti Type 57 S Atalante; possibly the only Bugatti ever to 'escape' the Schlumpf collection. During the 'Alfa year' in 2005, one of the highlights was this 6C 3000 CM, equipped with a Zagato body. It was originally raced in a variety of events, including ice-races in Sweden.

One of the absolute greatest eras of Grand Prix racing was the 1930s when the Italians and Germans went head to head and built some of the finest machinery. Today we take a look at two of the most successful racers of that time.
Helped in no small part by the unusual maximum weight regulations Mercedes-Benz built the 592 bhp W125, which remained the most powerful GP car for decades after. It was not all about the engine either as the 'Silver Arrow' sported fully independent suspension and brought the long forgotten DeDion rear axle back into the limelight. What really gave these 1930s racers their bad reputation for being impossible to drive were the dreadful tires the drivers had to make do with. Rudolf Caracciola was the cream of the crop that season taking four wins in the W125 and clinching the championship. After just one season the magnificent racer was obsolete as more sensible regulations were imposed for 1938. Fortunately several examples have survived and the featured example is in full running order; still capable of scaring the lucky few that get to drive it.
Impressed with the fine machinery racing in Europe, the organizers of the Indy 500 conformed themselves to the new 1938 regulations, hoping to attract a more international field. In the end only one European car crossed the Atlantic, but it promptly won the 500 race in 1939. It was the Maserati 8CFT, which had shown good speed, but could not match the durability and reliability of the much better funded German cars. At Indy it was right at home and took another win. The winning machine also came close to becoming the only car to win the legendary race three times. It is hard to imagine, but another 8CTF also took back to back victories in the Pikes Peak race. The featured machine was raced on both sides of the Atlantic and looks absolutely superb.

Although the Maserati brothers will of course always be remembered for founding Maserati, their most successful creation did not bear their name. Developed after the three surviving brothers left Maserati, the OSCA MT4 dominated the sub 1500 cc class for many years. It did not only take numerous class wins, the superb racer also beat much larger engined competitors. The biggest success came in 1954 when Stirling Moss drove an MT4 to the top of the rostrum in the Sebring 12 Hours, against cars with engines two, three and even four times the displacement. The featured MT4 sports its fantastic 1954 Carrera Panamericana livery and was also the first sports car raced by the Rodriguez brothers.
Recognized as one of the finest designs ever, the Ferrari 250 GT SWB had a little known big brother. It combined the Pinin Farina penned lines with the long wheelbase chassis and was known as the 250 GT Interim Berlinetta. Like the other 250 GT versions, this 1959 Ferrari dominated the three-litre GT class and scored a win in the Tour de France. Another highly successful series of cars were the 1930s ERA voiturette cars. Of the seventeen cars constructed all but one won at least one contemporary race. Today we take a closer look at R11B, which took six wins in period and has since been very successfully raced in historic events.
Several years in the making and previously known as the Farboud, the production version of the Farbio GTS has finally been presented. The two-seater coupe combines a light weight with a powerful engine and looks like great fun to drive. BMW continues to expand its successful 1-series range by adding a Cabriolet. It's a proper convertible with a cloth roof. Subaru is building up anticipation for the Tokyo Motorshow by releasing a teaser picture of the upcoming Impreza WRX STi. Unlike its popular predecessors, it has a hatchback bodystyle.