If you lined up all the petrolheads in the world, and asked them that if they could have any car in the world, what would it be, at least 50% of them would reply “McLaren F1″. Built in the early ’90s, it was the supercar to end all supercars. The technology used to build it was at least 10 years ahead of time. There was only one front seat, located centrally, to give the driver perfect peripheral vision whilst driving. And two seats in the back so you could terrify your friends or family. The engine was the heart of it. Despite the early ’90s technology, the engine produced so much power that the engine bay was lined with solid gold, as gold is the best reflector of heat. No car before or since has been able to match the F1, let alone beat it. However, because of this it was far too expensive. £1,000,000 a pop. And if you want one now, it’ll cost you at least double that as so few were made, so many were wrecked by people with more money than brains, and it’s fame and reputation precedes it.

This is why this is such a landmark moment. The first all new McLaren. Forget the SLR; that was literally a Mercedes SL65 tuned up by McLaren. This new car is theirs and theirs alone, built from ground up by McLaren themselves. The McLaren MP4 12C.

Firstly just to get it out of the way, no, it’s not quite as fast as the F1 was (but close enough!). However it is just as groundbreaking. McLaren has explained that this car is the first of many from their new retail-focused company and they wanted it to symbolise what the new McLaren company stands for: performance and technology. And boy does it have those in spades. Let’s start with the technology.

The chassis is the heart of the car. McLaren has said that the technology to build it simply didn’t exist, even in this day an age. So they spent years creating it. It’s the only car in the world to incorporate the ’survival shell’ used in Formula 1 cars. Before now it wasn’t possible as the cockpit in a road car is too big for a survival shell to work (which works using the same physics that prevent an egg from being crushed lengthways). But McLaren has bridged that problem, creating an entire spaceframe chassis made from just a single piece of carbon fibre, for maximum strength. It’s designed so the bodywork will crumple around the cabin in a crash, without intruding past the shell and causing significant injury to the occupants. This is a lot of geek speak and you’re very bored, I know, but it’s a world’s first, and could well be implemented into other high performance sports cars in the future.

The groundbreaking technology doesn’t stop there either. This is the ‘greenest’ car ever made. No really, i’m serious. Not only does it produce the least CO2 emissions of any supercar, but it also produces less CO2/km per horsepower of any car on the market at all. Yep, that means that Hybrid-engined Toyota Prius you’ve been smugly driving is a planet-killing Range Rover compared to this. Greenpeace activists everywhere are lost for words. Although I should point out that the statistic is the lowest CO2/km per horsepower. And this car has just over 600bhp. But shhh!

The car is also styled following function in all aspects. The bodywork is extremely aerodynamically efficient. So efficient in fact that it doesn’t even have any door handles, as that spoils the efficiency. To get in and out, you slide your hand under a touch-sensitive panel on the door (look at the first picture and you’ll see where I mean). And to stop people stealing your car, the panel will only activate if your wireless keycard is in range (so if you lose it, you’re stuffed), so thieves can’t break in. The wingmirrors are almost like antennae to give optimum aerodynamic efficiency. Most of the back bumper is one big radiator grille to allow the engine (mounted in the middle of the car for - you guessed it - efficiency) to get rid of hot air, whilst two huge intake gills flank the sides of the car elegantly, sucking in cool air into the engine as you drive along.

The interior is not what you’d expect. You were expecting lots of colour and vibrance and “look at me!” stuff, weren’t you? No. That’s just not McLaren’s style. It’s attractive enough and very stylish, but in the cleanest and most professional way possible. Not sure about the signature red tick on the steering wheel though. Someone might mistake the car for a giant Nike trainer.

And lastly, performance? Well the engine defies belief. It’s much smaller than you’d expect - a 3.8L twin-turbo V8. But it produces 600bhp and a meaty 443lb/ft of torque. But what makes this car so fast is that nearly all of the total power is available from just 2,000rpm, rather than 5 or 6 thousand like most supercars, making it alarmingly fast. The speed is also helped by the car’s weight (or rather, lack of it). It’ll weigh just under 1,400kg. To give you an idea, a Peugeot 206 GTi weighs just under 1,100kg.

The actual performance figures aren’t out yet, but they’ve coyly hinted at 0-60mph in around 3 seconds and a top speed of 200mph+. I doubt the official figures will stray too far from that either. It’s a McLaren after all.

Best bit? Price. It’s not going to be a million quid like the F1. Far from it. Just £150,000. The same as a bog-standard Ferrari F430. And if this price tag stays, Ferrari will have a lot to worry about. They don’t have a single car under £200,000 that is anywhere near as good as this.

We’ve been waiting at least two years for this one ever since it’s concept design. It’s Peugeot’s attempt at putting themselves back on the map and if looks are anything to go by, this may well do the trick. The Peugeot RCZ.

Peugeot has a bit of a sob story to tell. Years ago Peugeots were respected, and their 205 GTi was the car that started it off, being one of the best (and first) ‘Hot Hatchbacks’ in the world, and even today you’ll find them mentioned in “top 10 best handling cars” on numerous sites on the internet. Then we had years of dreariness. The 206 was their next ‘good car’ (I should know - I had one!) and was so good that it was used in the World Rally Championships for many, many years. And actually, when it came to handling, nearly all of Peugeot’s hatchbacks were very good cars to drive, but that wasn’t enough to generate sales as people were still put off by the whole ‘cheapness’ of the brand. Nothing felt special, everything felt budget.

Peugeot realised that the only way to improve the brand’s reputation was to aim more up-market, but still be cheaper than the upmarket brands. Thus began the designing of the RCZ. Everything about it is batting way above Peugeot’s range. Even the performance, which is the one thing Peugeot’s normally very good at. So, to prove it, here’s a checklist of all the different aspects of any good car.

Looks? Well just look at it. And it’s not just aesthetics either. Everything is built from high quality materials. High quality leather interior. High quality bodywork. And look at those wheels. When have you ever seen anything like those on any factory-spec Peugeot? Shame it’s still got Peugeot’s mouthy front grille though. Looks like a botox injection gone horribly wrong.

Performance? Well no prizes for guessing the engines. A 1.6L turbo petrol engine for now, and a 2.0L turbo diesel on it’s way, as per usual. The petrol engine will produce 200bhp, giving a 0-60 time of 7.6 seconds. However, the front suspension is double-wishbone, which in layman’s terms is the same suspension setup you get on a Ferrari 360. So 60mph in 7 or 8 seconds may not be as quick as you thought, but at least it’ll do 60mph everywhere.

Fuel Economy? Yep. That torquey petrol engine’s party trick is that it’ll produce 200bhp and decent performance, but also return 39mpg. That’s a LOT for a performance car. Better still, if you’re not really after the performance and you opt for the diesel engine, that’ll use fuel at over 50 miles per gallon. Again, impressive stuff.

Interior? Well as said it’s all high quality leather interior. Or so we’re told. The concept designs showed a fantastic interior though. Let’s hope it stays. However, Peugeot have confirmed the rear seats will actually fold up, giving a very large boot. So it may be a two-door sports coupe, but with this you can have your cake and eat it.

No word on price yet, but expect it to be priced like a Peugeot. Their current lineup of cars range between £8000 to £15,000, so expect this to start around £18,000. Although given Peugeot have announced that they’ll be producing this car “in small numbers”, so it’s likely to be a bit more than that.

The RCZ will go on sale in the UK in spring next year.

It’s a glorious summer. Record temperatures, months of blue skies, England thrashing the Aussies at cricket, and inevitably in the UK - swarms of drop-top convertibles.

Britain buys more convertibles than France, Spain and Italy COMBINED, and the vast majority of convertible sales are done during the summer. So Italy’s latest offering couldn’t come at a better time - The Maserati GranCabrio.

Headline figures? Basically it’s a Maserati GT with a soft top roof. That means it gets the same 4.7L V8 with the same 433bhp. However, it’ll also come with far more charm than the GT. Rumours of supermodels in the back seats being sold as optional extras are entirely unfounded.

The car will be quick - 0-60mph in 5.5 seconds, top speed around 180mph. Which is all pointless really, because this isn’t some drop-top supercar trying to rival the Ferrari Scuderia convertible, or a Murcielago LP640. Which is just as well, because despite having a delicately exquisite soft top roof, the car still needs structural reinforcements, so it weighs the best part of two tonnes. This is for the middle-aged sugar daddy that goes to a West End Theatre with two trophy girlfriends at either side. A boulevard cruiser. Something that’ll rarely exceed 30mph.

Which begs the question: Why give it a racy, Italian V8? Alfa Romeo had the right idea with their 8C Competizione. Not particularly brilliant to drive, but an absolutely gorgeous thing to behold.

Prices are expected to start around £90,000. Or if you wait about 5 years you’ll find one on Autotrader for at least half that, given you can get second hand Maserati GTs for £15,000 now.

The government has announced today that it will pay you £2000 to scrap your car in exchange for a brand new one, providing your car is 10 years old or older. Yay - that must mean we’ll see more new cars on the road and this will boost everybody’s standard of living, right? Well er, no. There’s a major problem with this.

First of all it’s clear that not one person involved with the planning and design of this scheme knew a single thing about the motoring world in the UK. The government see this as a really attractive and brilliant thing for us unwashed public because we’d love nothing better than a brand new car and have the government essentially pay us to buy one. It also appears that we can buy newer, better cars that won’t cost us very much money.

But anyone who has ever bought a second hand car and really looked hard for one will know this is actually quite a clever farce.

Let me put it to you this way - i’ve been browsing car markets for a while now and i’m currently looking at a low mileage, perfect condition convertible C4 Corvette for £6000. Meanwhile Mr Alistair Darling is waving a £2000 incentive in front of me, so I have the option of spending £6k plus the extra £2k on a new car, meaning I have a budget of £8k to spend on a new car. All very nice.

But what new cars can you get for £8k? Well you’re looking at Peugeots. And the good Peugeots cost more than £8k. Nissan Micra is another option. Ford Ka maybe? And then there are cheapo electric boxes such as… shiver… the G-Wiz. And that really is getting desperate.

So basically Peugeot, Nissan Micra, or Ford Ka. It’s either one of those, or flick the V’s to Mr Darling and buy a Corvette instead. Now you see my point.

Of course the silver lining in all this is that small, economical, base-model hatchbacks are getting quite cheap now. Even the basic of the base-models for the new Alfa Romeo MiTo is a fraction under £9k, and Alfa Romeos are really nice cars in terms of quality, style and design. So if you’re interested in a cheap, economical runabout you’ll be jumping at this new idea.

I think it’ll split the country down the middle in terms of the car industry. Petrolheads like me will keep our older cars and buy them at bargain prices and own them brimming with pride. Those who don’t care much for cars will love this new initiative and Mr Darling will be seen as a hero.

Well, at least it’ll get rid of the Nissan Sunnys and Ford Orions.

Hi, and welcome to Driven Magazine UK!

All the introductory blurb can be found in the About page. What you’re reading is a blog entry. These blogs will serve as the sort of ‘Notes from the editor’ that you get in most printed magazines.

But on this occassion, I can’t really avoid talking about this magazine - what it’s about, what our aims are, etc. To summarise, we aim to convey a plethora of information about various things from news and reviews (such as Lambo’s ‘Estoque’ plans or Aston’s new million-quid supercar) to recommendations on second-hand buys and information about national car-related events (like the MPH show that the three unholy presenters of Top Gear are performing at), and we aim to deliver all this through a medium of banter, light humour and bad jokes. Just as if we were meeting up down the pub or something, only without having to baby that one person who always throws up, or being bottled for accidentally spilling someone’s drink.

As mentioned in the About page, this site will be changing radically and rapidly, so check back frequently to see what else we’ve done to defile this perfectly good webspace.

-Ash Horne