Car News

Ford of Europe has confirmed it will be revealing a "new performance vehicle" at the Gamescom convention in Cologne, Germany, which commences on August 21. Not much else has been officially confirmed about the new model, though the Blue Oval says the vehicle is "for drivers and gamers", that "promises to bring the fun back to on- and off-road driving".

Maserati has confirmed the **breathes** Quattroporte GTS Gransport Nerissimo Edition for Australia, priced from a cool $371,990 before on-road costs. The Nerissimo Edition – or 'very black' edition – is a dark-themed special featuring numerous blacked-out styling treatments and various carbon-fibre components.

Mercedes-Benz has added the 2008-11 C-Class and 2009-13 R-Class to the ever-growing list of cars on the Takata airbag recalls list. UPDATE, 13/8/18: This recall has been expanded to include C-Class models through to the 2011 model year, increasing the number of affected vehicles to 24,478 units. An updated VIN list can be viewed here. In the C-Class, the driver and passenger airbags are included, while only passenger-side airbags are impacted in the R-Class.

Brabus has revealed its latest take on the Smart ForTwo, in the form of the limited-edition 125R. Although power still comes from a three-cylinder turbocharged petrol engine, the boffins at Brabus have bumped outputs from 66kW and 135Nm to 93kW and 200Nm. The bump comes from a modified air intake, a new intercooler, and a recalibrated ECU. With a triple exhaust running a valved sports setup, it should sound pretty good.

The new-generation Volkswagen Touareg has already been on sale in the UK for a while, and the company's British division has announced an additional engine variant this week. Starting at £48,995 ($85,397), the new 231PS (170kW) 3.0 TDI V6 turbo-diesel is essentially a lower-output version of the 281PS (206kW) oiler that has been available since launch in the UK.