Jeremy C Bass

McLaren’s MP4-12C is out and the company is pleased by a worldwide order book of 1700-plus units. It’s a remarkable car in many ways, not least for being the first tilt at genuine populism from the only brand that matches or exceeds Ferrari for Formula One-derived brand cachet. That’s not to say they’re pitching it against the Toyotas and the like. But where the company’s last own-branded effort, the F1, brought pure race-car values to the road – right down to the ever-controversial ground-effect aerodynamics – the 12C serves up the broadest of dynamic spectra, at the mere touch of a couple of buttons. It’s designed as genuinely well-rounded personal transport, able to negotiate the peak hour bumper-to-bumper as well as it might the Laguna Seca corkscrew.  Read More

What's it like to drive a hydrogen powered car? It depends on which one. In the case of BMW's Hydrogen 7, essentially a 760i with its 6.0 liter V12 tweaked to burn hydrogen instead of petrol, one might suspect it's pretty much like the donor vehicle. In the case of Mercedes-Benz's B Class-based F Cell, powered by electricity from a lithium-ion battery pack fed by an on-board fuel cell, you might think different.  Read More

Having crossed Europe and North America, the Mercedes-Benz F-Cell roadshow is now in Australia where the green-painted B-Class F-CELL cars are making the long trek from Sydney to Perth. Surrounding the small fleet is an entourage of more than a dozen vehicles including SUVs, Sprinter vans set up as mobile workshops and refuel stations and a semi-trailer laden with striking red full-length cylinders of hydrogen.  Read More

The aircraft with one of the world's most recognizable silhouettes turned 40 a couple of years ago. That's getting long in the tooth even in an industry whose products use the grandpa's axe principle like no other – as in, it's had six new heads and four new handles, but grandpa still loves that axe. But is Boeing's 747 looking towards the pasture? Not on Boeing's life. The company just this week announced the successful maiden flight of the 747-8 Intercontinental, the passenger version of a plane that takes the grandpa's axe principle to new extremes. Over more than three decades, the 747 evolved from the original 100 series through 200, 300 and 400 series, integrating technological upgrades and spawning new variants along the way. NASA even uses one, the SR, to piggyback space shuttles into the air.  Read More

It only takes a glance at Lamborghini's Aventador to know it's a Lambo. In fact, it inherits from the long-toothed Murcielago the mantle of top-bull in Italian marque's lineup. And with it, beneath the latest interpretation of Lambo's hallmark body origami – yes, the scissor doors remain – comes the technical shiz it needs to fill such a spot. Engine, transmission, suspension, bodywork – it's completely clean-sheet new. All up, they conspire to put the Aventador at the pointy end of the performance spectrum – the first anything-like-mainstream car to kiss 100 km/h in less than three seconds (we're not counting its step-sibling, the Bugatti Veyron, in its class).  Read More