The first Formula 1 race of 2012 is 6 weeks away and this season’s challengers are finally being revealed. We’ve had unveilings from Lotus, Force India, McLaren and Ferrari and the British team aside, the 2012 cars won’t be winning any beauty pageants.

Three of the new cars have a rather ugly nose design with a lower section and a ‘step’ up to the main bodywork area, which compared to some of the sleek designs from a couple of years ago are definitely function over form. Lotus’s technical director James Allison explains the new regulation that has its roots in driver safety:

“Up at the front of the car, there is a very obvious change, there is a distinctive slope to the nose. The reason for this is for years you will gradually notice that the height of the nose has been coming up and up,” Allison said during Sunday’s online launch.

“The reason for that is that there is more downforce if you raise the bodywork at the front of the car.

“But the problem with that high nose is that eventually the nose can get to a height that if there were to be a T-bone crash the tip of the nose could be so high that it exceeds the height of the cockpit of the other car and clearly that’s a very poor situation as you don’t want the driver’s head having a nose slamming into it from the side.

“And so for this year we agreed that the tips of the noses all had to be lowered by a considerable amount. But the rule itself doesn’t require the front of the car to be lower, it only requires the tip of the nose to be lowered.”

So that is why the Lotus, Force India and Ferrari all look so ugly. Of course it doesn’t explain how McLaren managed to get around the regulations without doing the ‘step’ and still producing a beautiful car. Red Bull’s Dr Helmut Marko promised that the RB2012 won’t be an ugly duckling – “Our car is not as ugly as the Ferrari, but it’s also not like the McLaren, which doesn’t have a kink in the nose at all. Ours is just a bit smaller and more elegant (than the Ferrari solution),” the Austrian commented. Well, we have the images and all we can say is that the RB8 is just as ugly as the Ferrari. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but McLaren aside these are all plain ugly race cars to us.

In other 2012 season news, we see the return of 2007 World Champion Kimi Raikkonen in the new sole Lotus team competing, and it would appear that Adrian Sutil has lost his race seat at Force India for this year. He has been replaced by Nico Hulkenberg, but this apparently has nothing to do with the fact that Sutil has recently been found guilty of assaulting a Team Lotus employee.

We will bring you all the 2012 F1 season news as it breaks.

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Toyota has officially unveiled the TS030 HYBRID race car.

Set to compete in the LMP1 class, the TS030 was created by Toyota Motorsport GmbH and features a carbon fibre chassis and bodywork housing a naturally-aspirated 3.4-litre V8 engine which is backed up by a hybrid system with capacitor storage dubbed Toyota Hybrid System – Racing.

Little is known about THS-R, but the company is evaluating a front motor system produced by Aisin AW as well as a rear motor system developed by DENSO. Regardless, regulations limit the hybrid system to recovering a maximum of 500kJ between braking zones whilst restricting deployment to only two wheels.

As far as the looks go, it’s standard LMP1 fare, with an enclosed cockpit large integrated rear wing and a low aerodynamic body. We think it looks great, but these types of car always do.

Besides releasing specifications, Toyota announced two cars will compete in Le Mans. The first model will be driven by Alex Wurz, Nicolas Lapierre and Kazuki Nakajima. The other team is currently being assembled, but should be confirmed shortly.

In the meantime, Toyota will continue to test the car leading up to its racing debut at the Six Hours of Spa-Francorchamps on May 5th.

We’re just glad that it will have a petrol engine which can make a proper racing car noise. With the popularity of diesel power in the marketplace there was a worry that Audi and Peugeot’s choice of diesel power for their Le Mans racers would rub off on others but it looks like that won’ t be the case. Hybrid or not, this Toyota racer is still a V8…

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Imagine if you will, that you’re a very wealthy businessman with a nice stable of supercars that you enjoy at the weekend. But the car you use most, day to day is your new Ferrari FF.

Unfortunately your wealthy friends at the Golf Club who believe everything they read in the eco-papers about how cars are the root of all evil constantly berate you about how your FF pollutes the earth much more than their Hybrid Lexus. There’s only one way to shut them up – get a power upgrade.

Not the most logical of routes, but one that also happens to work in this instance, thanks to Norwegian tuning company Customized.no. For the comparatively small fee of $1500 they will convert your FF to run on E85 Bio-Ethanol fuel. What this does is transform your 651 bhp V12 powered all-wheel drive Ferrari super car into a bona fide 875 bhp hyper car all with the emissions of a diesel powered Volkswagen Polo Bluemotion. E85 is a much more renewable source of fuel, and has a higher calorific content enabling the car to produce more power, all with considerably less harmful emissions.

The standard Ferrari FF puts out what is actually a low amount of CO2 for a 651 bhp car at 360 g/km but with the E85 conversion this drops to under 100 g/km.

Downsides? Well it’s highly likely that this engine work will invalidate your warranty so you’ll have an 875 bhp, £220,000 Ferrari with no warranty. But that’s the price you pay for trying to save the planet…

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If you’re one of the people who enter our Supercar Competition, you probably sit there every month waiting for the phone call from Will Hindmarch to tell you that you’ve won.

Well if you did, what exactly would happen? Obviously initially there would be lots of excitement, shouting, drink with bubbles in it and a little more shouting, but after that you have some choices to make. Let’s say you win this January’s competition with a Category 2 ticket. That gives you the choice of an Audi R8 V8, Nissan GT-R (+£10k), Aston V8 Vantage, Range Rover Vogue (+£10k), Maserati Granturismo S, Jaguar XJ SuperSport or the new kid on the block – the new Porsche 911 Carrera S.

The reviews have been incredible, it’s the newest car, has 400bhp, looks to die for and handling to better most cars out there. If it were me, I’d pick the Porsche, so I (virtually) did.

After a bit of chatting with BOTB, some paperwork and an agonising wait, you get the phone call from the Porsche dealer to tell you that your Porsche has arrived. Yes, YOUR Porsche. YOUR £90,000 Porsche is sitting at the dealership, ready for you to collect for free. Nothing except the money you spent on your ticket. You even get your first year’s insurance paid for.

So I arrive at the Porsche dealership like an excited schoolboy. I know the 911 isn’t really mine but it doesn’t make it any less exciting. I’m greeted by the receptionist and led to a very fancy waiting area and given a very tasty coffee from a Porsche Design branded coffee machine while I take in the assorted exotica around me. My attention should be drawn to the three Cayman R’s and the 911 GT3 RS near me, but out of the corner of my eye I can see a car covered by a Porsche car cover.

Some paperwork is signed, then the salesman casually hands me the gorgeous shapely key for my new 911 Carrera S, and it’s mine. We walk over to the car and he starts to pull the sheet back, revealing the nose of the car you’ve only read about in magazines. Further it peels back, exposing the bodywork, flowing over the lines of the car until it’s finally revealed in all its glory.

Nothing prepares you for the drama and excitement of seeing your own car revealed in such a manner, it genuinely takes your breath away. The salesman gets in and manoeuvres the car out of the showroom (wouldn’t want to scratch it with 12 miles on the clock!) and then there it is in the car park.

My 911, sitting there gleaming in the, well, freezing cold raining British winter, but it matters not one bit. Open the door, take in the smell of new leather covering every surface, the exquisite design and then slide down into the seat. Take in the controls, set the mirrors. Shut the door.

Slide the key in the ignition, foot on the brake, turn the key and that 3.8 litre flat six erupts into life with a blare of revs. Nothing ahead but you, your 911 and the open road…

There are more images of the pickup in our Gallery:

And for anyone who wants to see the 911, it’s currently on display in Gatwick Airport. Why not enter the Competition while you’re there…

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Porsche has today revealed images and details of the all-new 2013 Boxster. The model wasn’t due to be revealed until nearer the Geneva Motor Show in March, but after some grainy press shots were leaked onto the web yesterday Porsche decided to move the reveal forward.

Of course, the new Boxster was caught undisguised back in October, but Porsche never confirmed the validity of those shots. What we get now though, is a look at the all-new Boxster and Boxster S in all their glory.

And what glory it is – the biggest change in the history of the Boxster line, the new model is the first to really break away from the mini-911 styling of the older generations with a styling theme all of its own. Thinner headlights are reminiscent of the 918 Spyder Supercar, with individual pods for the lights within. The nose has a more aggressive, angled down poise about it, with the curves over the front wings dipping before rising up again over powerful rear haunches. At the side there’s a new, much more prominent air intake for the mid-mounted engine which is recessed into the doors, much like the Carrera GT Supercar. At the rear there is the familiar central exhaust outlet and a new integrated spoiler which rises as speed with a styling line that runs through the rear lights, again giving hints of the 918 Spyder.

Porsche have certainly gone much more exotic and sporty with the looks of the new Boxster, which can only be a good thing in our eyes. The new look is very pretty, won’t alienate current owners and will win over a lot of new fans who thought the current model wasn’t distinctive enough. For the interior, the new model gets the same look as the new 991 and Panamera models with a raised centre console, placing all the major controls close at hand. It’s a more upmarket look for the Boxster and one that will certainly win over new customers.

The proportions are helped by an increased wheelbase and shorter overhangs, while the windscreen base has been moved forward. The electric hood has been redesigned as well and now dispenses with the need for a hood compartment lid over the stored hood by using a rigid front section panel which then sits on top, hiding the rest when stowed. A very elegant solution and one of the ways that Porsche has managed to trim substantial amounts of weight out of the new Boxster. There aren’t confirmed weights yet, but rumours suggest the new models are up to 75 kg lighter than the previous generation.

Engine wise, the Boxster now returns to the older size of 2.7 litres. This is a new unit based on the 3.4 litre flat six cylinder motor, the efficiency of which is further enhanced by the direct fuel injection, electrical system recuperation, thermal management and start/stop function.

The 2.7 produces 265 bhp (up 10bhp) and the 3.4 engine in the Boxster S gets 315 bhp. Combined with the lower weight the performance is improved too, the Boxster sprints from 0 to 60 mph in 5.4 seconds, the Boxster S in 4.7 seconds. And just to sweeten the deal a little more, economy and emissions are also improved over the old model.

Both the Boxster and Boxster S come with a six-speed manual gearbox as standard, with the seven-speed PDK (Porsche Doppelkupplungsgetriebe) dual clutch gearbox optional. To enhance driving dynamics yet further, Porsche offers the Sport Chrono Package as an optional extra for the Boxster, featuring dynamic transmission mounts for the first time. Also new in the Boxster is Porsche Torque Vectoring (PTV) with a mechanical rear axle differential lock.

We can’t wait to see how the new model drives and we’ll be certain to let you in on it when we do…

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Busy. A word that conjures up images of a London Tube station on a Friday evening, or your local supermarket on Xmas eve. That’s how I had perceived it as well, until yesterday.

For yesterday I attended the 2012 Delhi Auto Expo, along with seemingly everyone else in the known universe. I’m not sure if it was bad planning, a bad layout or simply the number of people (I suspect a combination of all three) but I have never encountered such a crowded venue in my life. Truly incredible.

There are about 18 Halls in the Pragati Maidan venue in the centre of Delhi where the Expo is held and it covers every aspect of the automotive spectrum. Cars, motorbikes, trucks, accessories, parts, training – anything to do with cars was there. You don’t get a showing from most of the high end manufacturers like at other shows, but the bread-and-butter car makers were all there, with huge stands from Mercedes, Mahindra, Tata (with Jaguar-Land Rover), BMW and Ford. There were a couple of notable premieres at the show, though the big reveals are usually left for the Detroit Motor Show which is starting this week.

Ford showed off the EcoSport for the first time, a new compact SUV. In the metal it’s a very good looking car, maybe a little too high at the front but it’s certainly distinctive, especially in the bright orange hue of the show car. The reaction to the EcoSport was overwhelmingly positive in Delhi as well – they require a car which is small, nimble, practical yet offers a good view of the road which the little Ford SUV manages to combine in one great looking package.

The other notable reveal, and one we covered last week, was the DC Design Avanti. After seeing the real thing, I can confirm that from the front it is a very good looking car – very low and certainly quite stylish and sporty. But when you get to the rear it all seems to go wrong. The back end slopes down from the middle of the car, a little like the Mercedes CLS, but in the Avanti the design just doesn’t work. From the rear it looks good too, there just isn’t enough about the side profile to rescue it unfortunately – the whole side looks far too long and drawn out.

Jaguar Land Rover put on a big stand; mainly due to their Tata ownership, but it was a good chance to show off the C-X75 Supercar concept and the C-X16 coupe which we reported on earlier in the year. There was also the debut of the Defender DC100 concepts in a new red colour – seeing them for the first time in the metal I just really want them to make it like the concept – it looks rugged, utilitarian yet stylish and even sporty. Though it may not be able to replace the Defender directly, I think there is definitely a place in the line-up for the DC100.

Other notable firsts to be seen in India were the new BMW M5, Chevrolet Camaro Convertible, the launch of the Mini brand and the new VW Beetle.

It was certainly a different motor show experience, but one I was glad to get the chance to go to. Though the reveals are somewhat overshadowed by the Detroit Show, of which we’ll have coverage over the coming few days. For now check out all the images of the interesting, ugly and startlingly normal in our Gallery:

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Xmas day was alive in Delhi to the sound of 10,000bhp screaming around a race track.

You may not think that India is the most obvious place to have a nice car, let alone a Supercar, but like every country there are petrolheads in India – and there are petrolheads with LOTS of money.

Based in Chandigarh near New Delhi, the Cannonball Club is a collection of such enthusiasts who get together for drives and meetings to admire each other’s cars. But when the Buddh International Circuit opened last year for the Formula 1 Grand Prix, it gave the club a new and exciting opportunity – a track day.

The club members own some fantastic machinery from Italy, Germany and Japan, and they have the very latest cars too – in the club currently there’s a Lamborghini Aventador, a Mercedes SLS AMG and a Ferrari 458 amongst many others.

The track day at BIC (in association with RaceTech) saw a massive turnout, with drivers being able to push their incredible machines to the limit on the track which F1 drivers said was the best new track in years. The roads in and around Delhi are awful, which when combined with the heavy traffic and erratic driving styles means that owners of these cars rarely get to use their performance or handling. But as they now have a world class racing circuit on their doorstep we can expect many more track days like this to take place, and we’ll be there to watch (and try to grab a passenger lap or two!).

Images courtesy of Cannonball Club

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Audi has officially unveiled the A1 Quattro.

Available exclusively in Glacier White metallic, the special edition aims to be the wildest hot hatch available today. Currently the A1 range tops out with the 180 bhp 1.4 litre TFSi which puts it below the power of the established competition such as the 197 bhp Renault Clio 197, 202 bhp Vauxhall Corsa Nurburgring and the 208 bhp Mini JCW.

But instead of competing with those cars head on, Audi has decided to create the ultimate hot hatch with the 252 bhp Quattro. The engine from the S3 is transplanted into the A1’s nose in a transverse installation, which impresses not just with the headline horsepower rating, but also with the 258 lb/ft of torque. This power is sent through a six-speed manual transmission which sends power to a Haldex all-wheel drive system. This enables the car to accelerate from 0-62 mph in 5.7 seconds and hit a top speed of 152 mph.

The A1 Quattro certainly sets itself apart from the rest of the A1 range with some serious styling changes. There is a massive front bumper containing huge air intakes and front splitter, all of which are very close to the ground. There are improved brakes hidden behind retro Ronal-style 18” alloy wheels and at the rear there is a new spoiler and twin 100mm tail pipes.

The cabin is a luxuriously affair with Silk Nappa leather sport seats, gloss black trim and stainless steel pedals. Other highlights include a flat-bottom steering wheel, an aluminium gear knob and a revised instrument cluster. There’s also LED ambient lighting, MMI navigation-plus and a Bose audio system.

The A1 Quattro will be launched in the second half of 2012 and production will be limited to 333 units. Speculation has it that this is not meant to be launched instead of the rumoured RS1, rather it is a way of testing the water to see if one would be bought by consumers.

Pricing has not been released but expect a price tag of over £30,000. Sadly due to the extra development costs the A1 Quattro wil be left hand drive only.

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Hennessey Performance sent out their Xmas press release today which started, “Who Needs Reindeer When You Have an 800 HP Twin Turbo Sleigh?”

With that in mind, Hennessey has released this sole image of their 2013 Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT8 packing a HPE800 Twin Turbo engine package. It consists of the factory 6.4-litre HEMI V8 with an increased displacement to 7.0-litres in addition to a rather sizeable twin turbo system.

In standard specification the Grand Cherokee SRT8 outputs 465 bhp and 465 lb/ft of torque which is good for a 0-60 mph time of 4.8 seconds. However, Hennessey’s HPE800 equipped Grand Cherokee SRT8 produces a staggering 805 bhp and 823 lb/ft of torque. The HPE800 strangles the 0-60 mph sprint in 3.1 seconds and can destroy the 1/4 mile in 10.9 seconds @ 130 mph.

Additional modifications include an upgraded transmission system and torque converter upgrade, 15.1 inch Brembo brakes front and rear, a lowered sport suspension system, lighter 20” alloy wheels, a carbon fibre front splitter and a custom leather interior with Alcantara steering wheel.

“We’ve built a dozens of 600-800 bhp Jeep SRT8s over the past five years, so we have an existing client base who will want to upgrade the new Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT8 to an even higher level”, said company founder and president, John Hennessey. “This vehicle is designed for the performance minded driver who lives in Aspen or Moscow and wants to be the fastest in all weather conditions.”

HPE will only build 24 vehicles with pricing starting at $235,000 which is quite a substantial price increase over the standard car’s $55,000 price tag. But then you do get performance to shame most sports cars…

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After some very grainy images of the new Mercedes-Benz SL leaked onto the web on Monday we knew it wouldn’t be long before clearer images surfaced. And true to form, last night a whole gamut of them appeared along with some technical data. Now there will be some who say that a sneaky insider revealed the images, but the cynics here at BOTB News believe that these will have come from Merc themselves.

Well, however they came to be, they certainly give us a clear look at the new SL. The front end first seen on the SLS Supercar makes another appearance after gracing the front of the new CLS and SLK models. The CLS is arguably the most successful application after the SLS, as it really didn’t sit well with the SLK’s diminutive proportions. The large grille and oversized headlamps overwhelmed the shape and made the SLK look very nose-heavy.

Here on the new SL, the large grille is much better proportioned within the larger body, though the headlamps do still seem a little on the large side. The rest of the body shows more improvements though – deep sculpting down the flanks add drama to the shape, and the rear takes the lamp design from the CLS and apply it to the newly curved rear. Side-on is definitely the worst aspect though, with the nose having a very large overhang which gives the appearance of a shorter wheelbase than is actually the case.

Overall it’s a very successful shape in our eyes, and will certainly go down well with the conservative well-heeled over-40’s that are the key demographic for the SL. Interior-wise, the new SL gets a very SLS-like cockpit; in fact you would be hard pressed to tell the two apart were it not for the (slightly tacky) ‘SL’ on the gearlever. Mercedes have also taken advantage of the aluminium structure and incorporated two bass speakers in the 17 litre recess ahead of the footwells, which should ensure a clear and crisp performance from the stereo.

The SL has always majored on technology and the new model doesn’t disappoint. Model for model, the new car is around 100 kg lighter than the previous SL, thanks to extensive use of aluminium and magnesium in the body and chassis, despite being larger in every dimension. There is also the standard folding metal roof, but now available with the ‘Magic Sky Control’ panoramic roof option which switches from opaque to clear at the flick of a switch. Another first for the SL is the ‘Magic Vision Control’ system which has the screenwash/water exiting along the length of the windscreen wiper blade to ensure the driver’s view is never obstructed. Interesting tech, and certainly a ‘why didn’t they think of that earlier’ moment.

Engine-wise, the SL will initially be available with a 3.5 litre V6 producing 306 bhp in the SL350 and a 4.7 litre twin turbo V8 producing around 430 bhp in the SL500. Later in the product life there will be the inevitable SL63 AMG model with around 550 bhp for performance fans. Most interesting though is the expected 3.0 litre twin turbo diesel engine variant, which promises 300 bhp performance combined with 50 mpg economy. This will be the only true rival for the BMW 640d.

Prices in Germany have already been set at €93,500 for the SL350, with the SL500 coming in at €117,00.

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