2019 Mclaren 570 on 2040-cars

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Is Fernando Alonso preparing to sit out 2016?

Things have not been going well for Fernando Alonso since moving to McLaren. In fact they've been going so poorly that the Spanish driver may end up sitting out next season if things don't improve. At least those are the rumors presently occupying the Formula One paddock. The notion was first raised by McLaren chief Ron Dennis. When asked by reporters about Alonso's near-term future with the team, Dennis said, "I have an open mind to anything, and some of the ideas have involved those sorts of considerations, yes, sabbatical years etcetera." Though far from confirmed, the basic idea would be to see how next year's car performs in pre-season testing, and if it's not up to spec, Alonso could end up sitting out a season while McLaren and Honda get their partnership up to speed, so to speak. Alonso appeared to be puzzled by the prospect his boss raised, but couldn't rule it out, either. It would be a rather unprecedented move, but could end up avoiding some frustrations as the Anglo-Japanese teething process works itself out with time. Alonso has been a constant on the grid since 2003, missing only two grands prix in thirteen seasons: the 2005 United States Grand Prix at Indianapolis when all the Michelin-equipped teams sat out the race in protest, and the Australian Grand Prix at the beginning of this year, when Alonso was still recovering from a crash in pre-season testing. Out of 254 grands prix contested to date, Fernando has landed on the podium 97 times, including 32 wins and two world championships. This season, however, he's only finished in the points once, with his fifth-place finish in Hungary. Of the eighteen races he contested this year, his car failed to get him to the finish line altogether at seven. His seventeenth place in the final standings for the season are the worst he's done since his debut in 2001 with Minardi (the team now known as Toro Rosso). News Source: Autosport (1), (2), (3)Image Credit: Clive Mason/Getty Hirings/Firings/Layoffs Motorsports Honda McLaren F1 mclaren-honda

Seat announces five-door Mii city car

We knew at its unveiling in Frankfurt that the debut of the production version of the Volkswagen Up! was only the beginning, what with all the concept versions Volkswagen showcased over the years. But that was only the tip of the proverbial iceberg. VW isn't the only brand in the group that will offer the little city car, and its sister marques are eager to follow suit.
So after Volkswagen debuted the Up!, Skoda unveiled the Citigo and Seat showcased the Mii - all versions of the same vehicle, but with slightly modified sheetmetal and different nameplates. But those were only the three-door versions. Now that Volkswagen has confirmed the five-door Up! and Skoda the five-door Citigo, Seat is taking its turn with the five-door Mii.
The similarities between the Mii, Citigo and Up are, of course, greater than the differences. But at the end of the day, the variety gives European buyers a greater range of choices when buying their new city car, even if similar exercises on this side of the Atlantic - Plymouth, Mercury, Pontiac, Oldsmobile...we're looking at you - have long since disappeared.

2018 McLaren 570S Spider First Drive | A sweet breeze

The McLaren 570S Spider is madness. Not the car itself, which is a cogent convertible design based on the already handsome coupe. What is crazy is that a 562-horsepower machine that hammers to 62 mph in 3.2 seconds is only considered a sort-of, kind-of supercar. The Spider will be McLaren's volume model in its lowest-priced, lowest-tier Sports Series designation. As such, it is the company's starter supercar. Should you have $208,800 in your Venmo account, you won't give up anything except that fixed roof. There's no perceivable performance demerit when it comes to this retractable hardtop, as it was developed alongside the regular 570S from the onset. The 0-to-60 time is a non-discernable one-tenth of a second slower, and it still gets to a 204-mph top speed when the roof is up. If you insist on a top-velocity hurtle with wind bathing the cabin, it would only limit you by 8 mph. So, yes, madness. It gains only 101 pounds, bringing it to 2,895. One assumes that the real-world difference is negligible. To find out, we flew to Barcelona, enjoying a full day scuttling over gloriously curvy roads in an otherwise remarkably unpopulated part of the world. I recently spent a week with the regular 570S, so my ass was as calibrated as one could hope. Would there be any failings of the Spider over the coupe? Our test car was outfitted in a new hue, a deep Vega blue, with a dark finish on the roof and body accents. The Spider retains the same roofline as the hardtop and it is instantly recognizable as a variation. McLaren has finally settled into its own design language, with highly identifiable rear tail lamps and those unique 3D "tendon" doors first seen on the 570S coupe and which have now migrated to the 720S. It's an architectural-leaning language that translates beautifully into a roadster. With the top down, the Spider gets more attention than the coupe, and perhaps even more than the 720S, which I tested recently in Rome. Perhaps people simply feel drop-tops are especially exotic. Around the summer bustle of Barcelona, kids jumped up and down and attractive women on scooters gave us the thumbs up. There's worse places to be noticed. The top goes down in a snappy 19 seconds at speeds of up to 25 mph. We charged away from the nude beaches near the port and headed northwest, toward the elevations of the Castelltallat mountain range.