The car is amazing, the design completely bonkers and the execution will be undoubtedly superb.

Stand by for the next epic car to rumble out of the FibraFoil workshop.

Phil

It's fair to say that we are all big and I mean BIG fans of the baby "Macca" here at Crank&Piston HQ. Ever since it popped it's head over the gossip parapet and into the main stream, we have been dreaming long and hard about what it's going to take to get our grubby mitts on one.

From the outset the guys at McLaren Central have been talking about offering a number of different vehicles and derivatives of the "pretty on the eye" McLaren 12C and even though they initially discussed selling 1000 units in year one of production to make it a viable business project, they have already collected a monumental amount more than that in forward orders, A success this car will be!

Now the good news for nerds like us. McLaren will be launching a new model every year for the next half a decade! Wonderful news I think you will agree. So....I'll take the GT3 spec road version please Mr Bank Manager, dripping in carbon with a dirty splitter and rear wing.

Phil

Land Rover Middle East have recently been running a very cute viral campaign on Facebook in conjunction with Virgin Megastores and the local importer across Dubai.

The basic premise was that you popped into Virgin, had your picture taken inside a scaled up Toy box with the Land Rover LR2 placed inside and then posted said image on Facebook. Then based of the comments that you and your picture recieved you had the opportunity to win a weekend with the car in question. A superb idea I think you will agree!

However they have had a bit of a problem. They have now lost the Land Rover LR2 and it's down to you to help them find it.

To help the guys at Land Rover HQ find the car you need to hop onto Facebook, add Toymaster as a friend and follow the clues...

Autocross has come and gone in the UAE over the years but now it's back again it seems and with a new twist; there's intentional loss of traction involved for the first time. It's not quite drifting, not quite traditional autocross, not quite gymkhana. What it is is something new a bit unique and definitely quite interesting.

The promo vid is here enough to pique one's curiosity for sure. With about three events under their belt so far and more interest from participants than they can handle, let's hope SSK racing sticks around for a good long while to fill that massive vacuum that's been sucking at the grassroots area of the local motorsports scene for far too long.

http://www.sskracing.net/

It’s summer right now in the Middle East and while racetracks around the rest of the world are packed with action we are deep in the hibernation of the off season.

Beneath the calm surface there’s a serious high stakes poker game underway though and make no mistake – this is one serious game we’re talking here. Serious as in there are egos, reputations and many tens (and often hundreds) of thousands of dirhams on the table, with and each player deadly serious about one thing and one thing only – winning.

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Yes BMW M-Power have gone down the path they said they never would (Turbo) and yes they have built not one but two big, slightly overweight SUV's with the M-Power badge affixed. However they now have the chance to redeem themselves 100% with the advent of the spiritual successor to the greatest BMW that was ever created.

The 1-Series fettled by M. Will it really be as good as the legend they call the E30 M3? We think it will and we are excited about seeing in the MIddle East,

Phil

I think I'm happy to admit this - I'm an Apple hussy. Not only am I, but the rest of the growing team here at Ranch Crank&Piston are too. We have iMacs, Macbook Pro's, pods, touches, phones etc etc. So you can imagine that when we stumbled across this mental Brabus Barge, busting from the seams with Mac technology we fell in love for a moment.

Brabus have done their usual and taken the almost complete Mercedes S-Class, stuffed a twin turbo 6.3 liter V12 from a Maybach, improved the suspension, wheels, tires and the usual super subtle yet very aggressive exterior treatment. Topped off with an interior in the usual superb quality. Typical Brabus I think you will agree?!

However this particular car is called the Brabus iBusiness. Not your typical Bahn brusier then as this one is stuffed with a Mac Mini in the boot connected to a 15.4 inch fold-down screen in the headliner and a pair of smaller screens in the headrests; a 64-gig iPod Touch that can hold more than 830 hours of music that plays through the stereo or separate noise reducing headphones. On top of all of that there are a pair of iPads allowing the back seat passengers to control the entire multimedia system, along with temperature, radio tuning, etc. through the car’s stock computer system. And by no means least a latest generation iPhone is thrown in for good measure.

So as you and your guest/business partner are loosing yourself in the back with all the tech and probably one or two too many screens, your driver is up front sampling 995 lb-ft of twist under his right foot and ensuring that all of the 750 horsepower is delivered in the most serene way plausible.

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Well the summer vacations have come to an end and the Middle Eastern heavy metal will mostly all have returned to their respective countries. I would hazard a guess that the wealthy central London residents that have been bombarded over the last few months will be more than happy with the tranquility that has descended on their streets, yet apprehensive about what next year brings.

So as a parting fair well to the awesomeness of Supercars on their travels, we give you this stunning shot of the stand out car this year. The Big, Bad, Pink, Lamborghini Murcielago LP-670 SV straight from the streets of Doha, Qatar.

Phil

[Murphy Photography]

It's been a weekend full of motorsport action at the Nurburgring. Alongside following the exploits of the Lotus Sport Middle East boys in a pair of 2-Elevens and keeping an eye on Ollie Hancock as he pilots the Evora GT4 in its inaurgual race we've also been watching round 6 of the GT1s.

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The Ferrari 458 Italia is certainly one of the hottest supercars on the block - though some have been a little hotter than others if the reports of a dozen or so 458s catching fire recently are to be believed.

We spotted this camo-ed up 458 on the way into the Nurburgring this morning. It might not be to everyone's tastes but it certainly stood out from the crowd and made the 430 parked next to it look a bit ordinary.

There's no shortage of fast and horny machinery out on track during this weekend's festival of fast at the Nurburgring in the beautiful - but blooming wet and windy at times - Eiffel mountains. With everything from Formula 3s, the ADAC GT Masters and of course the full 24-strong grid of fire-spitting GT1 monsters, it's a veritable feast of horsepower, wings and sticky rubber.

However, there's one car that''s making its debut out on the tarmac in the GT4 European Cup - the Lotus Evora Cup / GT4.

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One last little interruption before we head back to Phil's amazing coverage from the 'Ring...if only because this is just too insane not to post up.

A VR6 Lupo would be insane. But how about a Lupo with TWO VR6 motors in it?

Hit the jump to see the rear engine.

Haven't seen much new FUEL mag goodness from Luke Ray lately so I went out looking for my Rat Rod fix and here it is. This one's full of tasty ingredients: the oh-so-low street stance, the period-correct wire wheels, the triple carbed Ford Flathead V8 with straight headers and one insanely chopped Model T body. Even the typography in the graphic work is just oh-so-right.

Love or hate the Rat thing, you'd have to be crazy to deny that this thing is so absolutely dripping with attitude and substance that you've not secretly fantasizing about cruising down some boulevard in it right now, with that Flathead staccato reverberating around your skull.

'The dream is to come out here, have a go and be somewhere near the front...'

Those were the words of Julian Griffin a few minutes before him and Big Fred set out to qualify for the first GT4 race of the weekend.

How did they do? Well, in qualifying 1 Julian finished 2nd in class, with Fred just behind. And in the second session, the Lotus Sport Middle East boys came through with P1 and P2 in class.

Nicely done boys! And as an added bonus, it looks like the sun might be coming out to play this afternoon.

Well, it's been a super long day! My feet hurt, I'm soaked through, yet the cars and the track have been superb as always. With changeable weather that only the Eiffel region and the Nurburgring can dish up, we have seen drizzle, sun, lightening and thunder, topped off with the most torrential rain I have seen in the past couple of years. So bad in fact that the GT1 session has just been stopped.

So as team Crank&Piston leave the track for the day to head back to the hotel to dry off and grab some grub, I leave you with the most bonkers GT1 car of the lot. The big, bad, angry Lambo!

Phil

The Dakar has long been the true test of man and machine. Most famously ran between the cities of Paris in France and Dakar on the African Continent, the event has been an attraction on the motorsport calendar for a number of years. Sadly over the past couple of years the event has had to run in South America of all places (guns, shooting...sad stuff like that) and even though the race has been thousands of miles away from the original path it has continued to keep its brand identity by using the Dakar name.

This particular clip charts the course of the 2010 Dakar rally during its 31st running as the 362 teams made up of 176 motorcycles and all-terrain vehicles, 134 cars, and 52 trucks course weaved from Buenos Aires in Argentina to Chile and back.

As you will see, it is a stunning portrayal of the passion and effort required to complete this gruelling event.

Phil

Welcome to a rather wet and blustery Nurburgring where the CRANK&PISTON crew is holed up this weekend as we follow the plights of the NFS/Lotus Sport Middle East boys. Fred and Julian are taking to the track in a pair of Lotus 2-Elevens in the German round of the European GT4s prior to the car’s arrival in the Middle East for the 2010/2011 UAE GT Championship.

We’ll be bringing you plenty of on and off-track action over the weekend and beyond, but here’s a taster to get you started.

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The Midlife refresh! To be honest this is always going to be a toughie even for a company like Nissan and a product like the GTR.

You see, the GTR is the leading car in the Nissan line up...the halo product as such. Not only that, it is one that has been so comprehensively re-packaged from its last incarnation that it may as well be a whole new car.

Now most manufactures who have a car like GTR either run the lifecycle, interspersed with Special Editions etc and then refresh the whole car or they take a different route. The buff and shine route...Now this is the route Nissan is heading down, so for the 2012 model year, the GTR is going to get itself a revised front end complete with new (and sure to be controversial) LED driving lights frenched into new canards at either corner of the front bumper, lowering the car's coefficient of drag from 0.272 to 0.268. Hmmm, just what you need in the Ultimate supercar destroying machine.

There's also a new rear diffuser that adds 10 percent more downforce at the business end and a set of forged wheels from Rays. There are reportedly two new colors for both the wheels – Hyper Blue Black and Hyper Titanium – and for the car – Aurora Flare Blue Pearl and Nebula Opal Black.

Look out for the first imports to hit the market at the back end of the year/early 2011 and we will give you a heads-up when we hear the arrival date across the Middle East region.

[autoblog.com, GTRblog.com]

Has something gone wrong? The underground Epics that Ken Block and his team are usually known for have been replaced with an almost MTV styled music video with a very heavy lean towards being an advert?

Where is the subtlety of awareness by association? The best bit about the whole video? The wicked looking Ford Fiesta.

No bad thing for Ford, but what has gone on inside the Block Machine? Admittedly this is Part1 in the franchise, however it is looking very much like commercialism has taken over again...

Bring back the freestyle wonders that captivated the world. Please!

Phil

The twists and turns of the Hungaroring test cars and drivers to the absolute limit. With a high level of down force, exceptionally low grip and high track temperatures, the 1,000Km of Hungaroring have been very demanding on drivers, teams and cars.

Nobody could hold a candle to Strakka Racing's Danny Watts on Sunday morning’s qualifying in Hungary, and the British team’s overall victory made history with the very first overall victory for a LMP2 car in the Le Mans Series.

Jonny Kane, Nick Leventis and Danny Watts have been pretty invincible as the Strakka Racing HPD ran without the slightest technical problems over the entire distance and scored its second victory in LMP2 and first overall in the 2010 season today.

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