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  A regular   Ford Mustang   is a relaxed, amiable, gently burbling companion, even in 5.0-litre V8 form. This CS800, from British importer and tuner Sutton Bespoke, takes such a regular Mustang and introduces the noise and aggression of a slasher movie to it. We’ve driven Sutton’s Mustangs before, but this one builds on the latest-generation Mustang that was recently facelifted. You can pick and choose from the bits you like and, cleverly, Sutton even offers a configurator to make life as easy as when choosing any other new car. Our test car had a lot of options fitted to it. The most important is a large Whipple supercharger that's mounted high in the engine’s vee and necessitates a taller bonnet; combined with throttle bodies and high flow injectors, the headline number is ‘up to 825hp’, which we’ll call a round 800bhp for these purposes to match the CS800 name. A few here and there won’t matter. There is a full active exhaust with Bluetooth control...

    Sutton Bespoke, the aftermarket division of premium car dealer Clive Sutton, is hoping to attract high-end private hire operators with a luxury take on the LEVC TX. Called the Sutton VIP Class LEVC, the model is based on the Coventry-built range-extender electric taxi that has been plying city streets since 2017. However, its functional cabin has been completely overhauled. The hard-wearing plastic trim has been replaced with an extensive use of Sandalwood leather and Alcantara throughout. Rubber floormats have been junked in favour of thick-pile carpet, while hand-crafted wood veneers adorn the doors. A number of other tech upgrades are included. The stereo has been upgraded, a TV tuner with Apple TV has been installed and there's even the option of a fitted Sony PlayStation 4 games console. Rearmost passengers also receive a new centre armrest hiding a fridge mounted behind the seats. A retractable screen separates the driver and passenger compartment for ...

  Compared to the monumental gamble Lexus took back in 2004 when it launched its revolutionary Lexus RX 400h – the first car in both the luxury and SUV sectors to feature a hybrid powertrain – you could almost accuse the brand of playing it safe with the all-new UX 300e. That’s because it’s simply the latest of a handful of similar-sized models designed to capitalise on the rising popularity of both SUVs and electrification. In the past couple of years alone, we’ve seen the launch of various electric crossovers such as the brilliant Kia e-Niro, Hyundai Kona Electric, Peugeot e-2008 and DS 3 Crossback E-Tense. However, with a list price starting at £43,900 and rising to £53,500 if you specify the range-topping (£9600) Takumi pack, you could argue that Lexus’s first all-electric vehicle is a more natural rival to the Tesla Model 3 and Polestar 2. It’s certainly how Lexus would like us to view “the only all-electric cros...

  Both versions are powered by a variation of the electrified 3.0-litre V6 that powers the Q7 60 TFSI e, with the 335bhp petrol motor assisted by an electric motor integrated into the eight-speed automatic gearbox.  In the 55 TFSIe, available from £73,860, the system produces a combined 376bhp and 443lb ft, while the Competition 60 TFSIe bumps the price up to £85,750 for boosts of 80bhp and 73lb ft. The 55 TFSIe is capable of accelerating from 0-62mph in 5.8sec and the more potent model in 5.4sec. Both top out at an electronically limited 149mph. In both forms, the Q8 plug-in hybrid can travel a WLTP-certified 28 miles on electric power alone and achieve between 97 and 100mpg on the WLTP combined cycle while emitting between 65 and 66g/km of CO2.  Two driving modes are available: EV, which leaves the petrol V6 engine dormant, and Hybrid, which automatically switches between the electric and combustion motors as appropriate. The Q8's MMI infotainme...

   In the '70s, street rods experienced a revival in popularity after being knocked out of the spotlight during the muscle car era. That revival came with a change. The prominent rod builders of the late 20th century were not building early roadsters and coupes in the traditional styles of earlier years but rather in a modern style characterized by high-tech chassis with independent front and rear suspensions, extensive use of hand built components (with an abundance of billet aluminum), reshaped bodies, and the elimination of emblems and trim. The result was a super-clean, streamlined style that almost instantly became known as "smooth." Of all the designers and builders associated with the "smooth" style, some of the most famous are  Boyd Coddington ,  Lil' John Buttera ,  Chip Foose , and Larry Erickson. Of all the owners, probably the most successful was Fred Warren, owner of the AeroCoupe, Smoothster, and Shockwave, among others. No other car owner in t...

   What are the uninitiated to make of the   updated 2022 Hyundai Kona   in   new N Line trim ? The subcompact SUV's distinctive exterior is kind of cute,   kind of funky   and chunky, but not necessarily everyone's cup of tea. As an N Line offering, it's supposed to be sportier, and its size and fifth door have led some to consider the Kona to be something of a compact/subcompact hatchback instead of a small crossover SUV. The 2022 Kona N Line features the range's more powerful 1.6-liter turbocharged four-cylinder engine linked to a seven-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission, and our test vehicle has all-wheel drive. As for the N Line designation, that's a reference to the brand's "N" vehicles, like  the Veloster N ,  the Elantra N , and, yes,  the  Kona N , with N Line being a sort of stepping stone between the regular versions and the frenetic, high-performance full-N models. Those include the Elantra N Line, Sonata N Line, a...

   There's a well-worn chestnut in the automotive world that it's better for a given car to be a chef's knife than a multitool, to transcend in one specific discipline rather than be OK in several areas. An expert beats out a dilettante. Whether or not this particular sentiment holds water is rarely if ever up for debate; that's why it's a chestnut. Most car people just seem to accept it a priori. It's dogma. As for me, sure, I love a distinct, clear-cut tool like a Caterham 7. It has one purpose: to go fast. Everything else like comfort, practicality, safety, and your skin be damned. That said, I also love the Rivian R1T, a truck with more superpowers—835 hp, 3.1-second 0-60 time, luxury cabin, off-road chops to conquer Moab, built-in stove!—than a giant squid. Now that's all been said, meet  the Mercedes-AMG GT Black Series , a car built for one reason and one reason only: to set the production car lap record on the Nürburgring Nordschleife. Guess what: Th...

  Battery-electric vehicles (BEVs) accounted for 6% of the global automotive market at the end of 2021, up from 3.1% just 12 months earlier. The latest vehicle sales data from industry analyst Jato Dynamics reveals a meteoric surge in popularity for BEVs, driven chiefly by an uptick in demand in China, which accounted for roughly half of all worldwide BEV sales last year. Jato  also pointed to an increase in Europe and said that BEVs "began to gain traction" in North America last year, but noted that "other markets in the world continued to lag behind". Overall, some 4.2 million BEVs were sold worldwide last year, up from 2.01 million in 2021 and 1.4 million in pandemic-blighted 2020. The increase in BEV sales was in contrast to a wider industry downturn – as a result of the  semiconductor crisis  throttling production for most vehicle manufacturers – and a decline in demand for traditional petrol and diesel cars. Jato, which  will publish its full findings late...

   Have you ever wondered how we produce some of the fantastic photography that accompanies  MotorTrend 's written words? In short, automotive photographers will put their bodies on the line and shove themselves into and out of just about any opening in order to get the best possible shot. If we're lucky, we use a vehicle with a cushy ride and a hatch to hang out of as we shoot car-to-car—those pretty, in-motion action shots you see all over  MT  stories. Most of the time, our bodies end up sticking halfway out the side window, feet hooked to any willing crevice, core muscles clenched and arms taut. (Yes, we use harnesses.) We can use nearly any vehicle to capture those bread-and-butter  car-to-car photos , but there are usually plenty of compromises to be made. That's why the  MT  photo team was so eager to give the Arcimoto Cameo prototype— an Arcimoto FUV  made more camera- and photographer-friendly with an open-air rear-facing seat—a go i...

  The story of this car, and especially of the company that made it, could hardly fit more neatly into the decade just ended. Back in 2010,   McLaren Automobiles   was reconstituted from the “dormant” McLaren Cars that had produced the seminal F1 in 1992 and then gone very quiet, apart from a brief flurry with   Mercedes-Benz  around the good but flawed   SLR . Company doyen Ron Dennis got serious about a road car arm, McLaren Automotive, at the start of the decade, hiring the much-experienced engineer and car-nut Antony Sheriff to create a carbon-tub supercar and get it on the road. Sheriff’s McLaren MP4-12C, the first ever Super Series car, is my choice here. Dennis talked from the beginning in interviews about about producing a range of cars – and look at the range that has emerged in ten years! There is upwards of a dozen models, depending how you count. Nowadays McLarens are classified in four classes: Sports series, Super series, Ultimate se...