Car News

Donkervoort has revealed an impressive 70th birthday present for its founder, Joop Donkervoort, in the form of a sub-700kg supercar killer. The D8 GTO-JD70 is powered by a 2.5-litre five-cylinder Audi Sport engine, 'optimised' by the boffins at Donkervoort to make 415hp (309kW) and 520Nm. There's a side exhaust system, which should free up plenty of angry five-cylinder noise as well.

The Jaguar Vision Gran Turismo virtual hypercar is said to be powered by three electric motors generating a total of 750kW of power, and 1200Nm of torque. Jaguar says the car weighs around 1400 kilograms, and is capable (in theory at least) of completing the 0-100km/h dash in under two seconds.

The automotive news wheel is always turning. If you’re not constantly checking CarAdvice – which you should be doing, by the way – it can be easy for some headlines to slip through the cracks. To make sure you haven’t missed anything important, we’ve gathered what we reckon are the hottest news stories from this week, right here. Check them out, and let us know what caught your eye.

A wrongful death suit alleges the driver of a Tesla Model S died because emergency responders were unable to open his Tesla’s flush door handles. According to US industry journal Automotive News and news agency Bloomberg, Omar Awan, a 48-year-old anaesthesiologist, died of smoke inhalation when a fire broke out in his 2016 Tesla Model S, after he lost control of the vehicle and crashed into a tree. The crash occurred in February of this year in Davie, Florida.

Toyota Australia’s (TMCA) hybrid rollout continues at pace, with one-in-five vehicles it sells here next year expected to be petrol-electric. That’s equivalent to 40,000 cars. Moreover, the company’s local arm — which sells about double the number of cars as its closest competitors Mazda and Hyundai — says it continues to lobby government to formulate more stringent regulations on CO2 output across industry.