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Fernando Alonso will drive for McLaren in F1, Toyota at Le Mans, WEC

Fernando Alonso will drive for Toyota in this year's Le Mans 24-hour race and the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC), his McLaren Formula One team said on Tuesday. The Spanish double F1 world champion has been considering taking part in endurance events as he bids to emulate Graham Hill, the late Briton who won the Formula One world title, Indianapolis 500 and Le Mans in the 1960s. "I've never been shy about my aim of winning motorsport's Triple Crown — the Monaco Grand Prix, the Indy 500 and the 24 Hours of Le Mans. We tried for Indy last year, came close, but just missed out," Alonso said in a statement. "This year, I have the chance thanks to McLaren to race for the win at Le Mans. It is a big challenge — much can go wrong — but I am ready, prepared and looking forward to the fight." Following his appearance in the 24 Hours of Daytona last week, a deal has been reached with Toyota for the 36-year-old Alonso to take part in as many WEC rounds as possible. McLaren and Alonso have agreed, however, that Formula 1 remains their shared priority and he will miss the Japanese leg of the WEC season on Oct. 21 due to it clashing with the U.S. Formula One Grand Prix. Reporting by Hardik VyasRelated Video:

Poor headlights cause 40 cars to miss IIHS Top Safety Pick rating

Over the past few months, we've noticed a number of cars and SUVs that have come incredibly close to earning one of the IIHS's highest accolades, the Top Safety Pick rating. They have great crash test scores and solid automatic emergency braking and forward collision warning systems. What trips them up is headlights. That got us wondering, how many vehicles are there that are coming up short because they don't have headlights that meet the organization's criteria for an "Acceptable" or "Good" rating. This is a revision made after 2017, a year in which headlights weren't factored in for this specific award. This is also why why some vehicles, such as the Ford F-150, might have had the award last year, but have lost it for this year. We reached out to someone at IIHS to find out. He responded with the following car models. Depending on how you count, a whopping 40 models crash well enough to receive the rating, but don't get it because their headlights are either "Poor" or "Marginal." We say depending on how you count because the IIHS actual counts truck body styles differently, and the Infiniti Q70 is a special case. Apparently the version of the Q70 that has good headlights doesn't have adequate forward collision prevention technology. And the one that has good forward collision tech doesn't have good enough headlights. We've provided the entire list of vehicles below in alphabetical order. Interestingly, it seems the Volkswagen Group is having the most difficulty providing good headlights with its otherwise safe cars. It had the most models on the list at 9 split between Audi and Volkswagen. GM is next in line with 7 models. It is worth noting again that though these vehicles have subpar headlights and don't quite earn Top Safety Pick awards, that doesn't mean they're unsafe. They all score well enough in crash testing and forward collision prevention that they would get the coveted award if the lights were better.

Gazoo heads to the N"urburgring with Lexus LFA Code X

You'd be forgiven for thinking just because the Lexus LFA has ended its production run (it's been over a year now) that Toyota would have ceased its development. You'd be forgiven, but Gazoo Racing is here to tell you you'd still be wrong.
One of Toyota's many works racing teams, Gazoo is returning to the 24-hour endurance race at the Nürburgring this year with a trio of entries. One is based on the Toyota GT86 (which we know as the Scion FR-S), and one is essentially the same LFA that it's entered in years past. But the third vehicle is dubbed Code X.
It's also based on the LFA, but its 4.8-liter V10 engine has been bored out to 5.3 liters, raising its output to untold levels. It's got a full carbon-fiber chassis and a range of other enhancements that Gazoo isn't telling us about just yet, but they should turn the LFA Code X from a road-going supercar beyond a racecar and into a rolling research lab. Considering that Gazoo has been racing at the 'Ring since 2007 and fielding versions of the LFA there since 2008, it'll be interesting to see how the Code X version fares.