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Datsun Go boldly goes downmarket

The Datsun Go (pictured) has been revealed in India We’ve know since March that Nissan was adding an extra brand name to its portfolio – to add to Nissan and Infiniti – by reaching back in its history to bring the Datsun brand back to life, and we got the first image of what we now know is the Datsun Go at the start of July. Having spent a fortune eradicating Datsun from the minds of buyers and replacing it with Nissan, Nissan are now working to make car buyers in emerging markets fall for the new Datsun Go in the way the UK  did for the first Datsun Sunny in the 1970s. So we get the Datsun Go which is, to all intents and purposes, a Nissan Micra with all the fripperies removed and pitched – initially at least – at the budget end of the car market in India where it will go up against cars like the Hyundai i10 and cost under £5,000 which, entirely coincidentally, is the starting price for the i10.

Mercedes start the tease for the 2014 S63 AMG

Mercedes are teasing the arrival of the new S63 AMG (pictured) The 2014 Mercedes S Class has already made its debut, at least in ‘standard’ guise, but there’s a lot more to come. There’s the S-Class Coupe – which will replace the current CL – and there’s the new S-Class Pullman – which will replace the Maybach. But the next instalment for the new S-Class will be the performance S63 AMG, which we’re expecting to arrive at Frankfurt in a couple of months, and ahead of that Mercedes is starting to tease its arrival.

Ford Focus ST & Fiesta ST get official power upgrades

Ford Focus ST & Fiesta ST (pictured) get Mountune power upgrades There’a a big after-market for tuning cars to deliver more power without wrecking economy or reliability, so it makes sense for car makers to get in on the act if they can. So Ford have teamed up again with Mountune (just as they did a few years ago to offer you 345bhp in your Focus RS) to offer performance upgrades for both the latest Focus ST and the Fiesta ST. The tuning package for the Focus ST boosts power to 271bhp – up from the stock power of 246bhp – and the 0-62mph time drops to under 6 seconds, half a second quicker than the normally tuned car.

Ford to slash price of Focus Electric by $4,000 for 2014

Ford will be reducing the price of its Ford Focus electric by $4,000 for the 2014 model year, InsideEVs.com is reporting. The 10 percent price cut will lower the starting MSRP from $39,995 (including a $795 destination charge) down to $35,995. This move by Ford is seen as an attempt to keep the electric car competitive since its release back in 2011.

One Lap of the Web: World's strangest Edsel Pacer, racing Corvettes and 10 automotive missteps

We spend a lot of time on the Internet -- pretty much whenever we're not driving, writing about or working on cars. Since there's more out there than we'd ever be able to cover, here's our daily digest of car stuff on the Web you may not otherwise have heard about. -- The Edsel didn't win many style awards as a passenger car, but how do you feel about it as a piece of heavy construction equipment?

Crashing the Pixar Motorama car show

The animated film studio Pixar sits behind newly aged brick walls on a sprawling campus in the East Bay that looks and seems a little like Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory, especially since you can't get inside. But we've been inside, and it is a pretty wonderful place. On July 12 Pixar's Jay Ward, guardian of the "Cars" franchise and all the wheeled wonders that entails, organized the latest Pixar Motorama, the greatest car show you'll never see.

Volkswagen Taigun poised for production

Update: We've added a video of the VW Taigun in action. Check it out below. Volkswagen has moved a step closer to joining the small-SUV ranks -- it will produce its compact Taigun, VW sources told Autoweek.

Citroen DS3 Cabrio Racing IS going in to production

The Citroen DS3 Cabrio Racing (pictured) is going in to ;imited production Last week Citroen revealed a cabrio version of the DS3 Racing – innovatively named the Citroen DS3 Cabrio Racing – which was a DS3 Racing with the top chopped off and lots of special design cues. The Cabrio Racing had its first outing this weekend at Goodwood – and is heading for a more public reveal at Frankfurt in September – even though Citroen are calling the Cabrio Racing a Concept. But it seems the Cabrio Racing is more than just a concept and is heading for limited production after Citroen confirmed as much to Auto Express over the weekend.

Datsun Go (2014)

Datsun has unveiled its new Go ahead of its release in India early next year. Designed at Nissan's global Design Center in Atsugi, Japan, the Go is the first model to be produced since Datsun's revival as a low-cost brand. The five-door hatchback is expected to be "a category up" in its price range of below INR 400,000 (around $6,700).

Skoda Rapid Spaceback (2013) at Frankfurt motor show

This is the new Skoda Rapid Spaceback that’s basically an estate version of the Rapid hatchback that was launched in the UK last year. Skoda wants its miniature Audi A3 Sportback-lookalike to appeal to young buyers and trendy youthful families when the car goes on sale this October, and it shouldn’t cost much more than the regular Rapid, which starts at £12,905. Skoda Rapid Spaceback – more space you-know-where, then?

Skoda Rapid SpaceBack arrives ahead of a Frankfurt debut

The Skoda Rapid Spaceback (pictured) is a new Rapid Hatch You’d expect something called SpaceBack to be a more commodious version of a standard car. But in the case of the new Skoda Rapid Spaceback, it’s not. In fact, the SpaceBack is a more conventional hatchback version of the Rapid Saloon Skoda revealed last year which wasn’t actually a saloon at all but a ‘liftback’.

Toyota GT86 TRD Griffon makes its debut at Goodwood (video)

The Toyota GT86 TRD Griffon 9Pictured) made its debut at Goodwood this weekend We’re still waiting for Toyota to make a more powerful version of the GT86 (and Subaru the BRZ), but we are starting to get more focused versions. We’ve already seen the GT86 TRD – developed by Toyota Racing development – as a road car limited edition, and last month we learnt that Toyota were going to debut a track version – the GT86 TRD Griffon – and that it would arrive at Goodwood. Now the Griffon has arrived looking immensely purposeful with its wings and diffuser and carbon fibre for the roof, doors, bonnet and boot and some severe fettling of the oily stuff with upgraded brakes, new alloys, mechanical limited slip diff and stiffer suspension.

Datsun Go (2013) Datsun’s revival begins with new city car

Ready, get set – Datsun’s resurrection is go. The Datsun Go is the first new car to wear the classic Japanese badge in 27 years, and will be built and sold in India as an easy-access budget runaround. The car is slightly longer, wider and lower than a European-spec Nissan Micra, comes in one five-door bodystyle, and will go on sale on 15 July 2013.

Ford Fiesta sells 4 million in UK & Fiesta history in pictures

The 4 millionth Ford Fiesta sold in the UK (pictured) has arrived with it owner It’s 37 years since Ford launched the first Fiesta, and in that time it’s been the best-selling small car for 27 of those 37 years and the best-selling car in the UK overall since 2009. In that time Ford has managed to sell 4 million Fiestas in the UK, with the four millionth Fiesta – a Fiesta Zetec in Candy Blue with the excellent 1.0 litre EcoBoost engine – presented to its owner, Michelle Wardale, by her local Ford dealers in the North East today. Ford Fiesta production started in the days when Dagenham was a big builder of Ford cars, and the first 3 million Fiestas (bound not just for the UK) rolling out of Dagenham between 1976 and 2002.

Datsun's Koji Nagano on the design inspiration of the new Go [w/Video]

Nissan has re-launched Datsun as a low-cost brand in New Dehli, India, and will introduce its future car, the Go, in early 2014 before exporting it to Indonesia, Russia and South Africa. Koji Nagano, Datsun's executive design director, describes the design inspiration for the new Datsun Go in a short video. Nagano explains how important it was that the team understand the brand's history and what it used to symbolize before focusing on how they could meet customer's expectations in each country.

Hennessey tunes C7 Corvette Stingray

Hennessey Performance and its gang of Texas tuners are planning upgrades for the 2014 Chevrolet Stingray Corvette before the car even hits the market. We're sure Corvette engineers working on the next ZR1 are taking notice, presumably with a chip on their collective shoulders. In October, the Hennessey HPE700 Corvette is expected to debut packing a claimed 700 hp, with help from an Eaton TVS R2300 supercharger.

Fangio’s 1954 Mercedes W196R F1 car sells for £19.6 million (video)

Fangio’s 1954 Mercedes W196R F1 (pictured) sells for £19 million The Goodwood Festival of Speed is all about cars and performance, but it’s not just cars on the ground and on the hillclimb. Goodwood is a Mecca for wealthy petrolheads as well as those who can only lust after the finest motoring metal – classic and current – so it’s a sensible place to run an auction for high-end cars. And you can’t get much more ‘high-emd- – at least in terms of value – than Juan Manuel Fangio’s 1954 Mercedes W196R Formula One car which went under the hammer yesterday at Bonham’s Goodwood auction, and reached a world record auction price of £19,601,500 (including premium – £17.5m before).

Top Gear Tonight: McLaren 12C, Ferrari 458, Audi R8 V10 Convertibles & Benedict Cumberbatch SIARPC

McLaren 12C Spider, Ferrari 458 Spider & Audi R8 V10 Spyder (pictured) on Top Gear in Spain This weekend may be petrolhead heaven at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, but FoS visitors can have an extra fix of high octane fuel when they get home tonight with episode 3 of series 20 of Top Gear. Tonight, it’s a Top Gear road trip, and this time they’re quite close to home – Spain. It seems the mission is to help Spain’s struggling economy by taking a trio of the very best convertible supercars to the Iberian Peninsula – the McLaren 12C Spider (not the MP4-12C any more), the Ferrari 458 Spyder and the Audi R8 V10 Spyder.

Jenson Button drives the McLaren P1 up the Goodwood hillclimb (video) UPDATED

Jenson Button drives the McLaren P1 (pictured at Goodwood) up the hillclimb Update: We’ve added an extra video of the McLaren P1 going up the hillclimb that shows more of the actual run (below) It’s all Goodwood FoS this weekend – hardly surprising – and now we have video of the McLaren P1 in action up the hillclimb. McLaren roped in their F1 star, Jenson Button, to get behind the wheel of the P1 for its debut on the Goodwood hillclimb, but we get more of the Jenson talking head than we do of the P1 in action. Still, Jenson’s an affable and entertaining chap, and we learn that his daily driver is currently a company car – the McLaren 12C Spider – which he keeps in his garage in Monaco.

Mercedes at 2013 Goodwood Festival of Speed – includes SLS AMG Black Series debut

The Mercedes SLS AMG Black Series (pictured) debuts at 2013 Goodwood FoS In case you hadn’t noticed, it’s the Goodwood Festival of Speed this weekend and car makers are out in force with their fastest supercars and classics. Mercedes always offer a decent show at Goodwood and this year is no different, with the UK dynamic debut for the Mercedes SLS AMG Black Series, which will be strutting its stuff all weekend up the hillclimb. At the other end of the performance range, the Mercedes A45 AMG is also in action showing the crowds just what 360bhp in a compact hatch can do with its runs up the hillclimb.

Watch the Jaguar Project 7 F-Type go up the Goodwood hillcimb

Jaguar Project 7 F-Type (pictured) tackles the Goodwood FoS hillclimb One of the surprises of the 2013 Goodwood Festival of Speed has been the debut of the Jaguar Project 7 car, an F-Type with the more bountiful 542bhp supercharged V8 and styling stolen from the D-Type. Jaguar are saying Project 7 isn’t heading for production, but we’re pretty sure most of what’s underneath it – principally the 542bhp version of the supercahrged V8 – is in a production F-Type R. Perhaps surprisingly, fitting the 542bhp vresion of the V8 doesn’t seem to have done a lot for the F-Type’s sprint times, with 62mph coming up in 4.1 seconds, just 0.1 seconds quicker than the 495bhp engine in the standard Jaguar F-Type V8.

Bentley Continental GT3: Official details (video)

The Bentley Continental GT3 (pictured) is at Goodwood this weekend We actually had the reveal of the Bentley Continental GT3 at the Paris Motor Show last year, but at the time details and specifications were a bit thin on the ground, and Bentley were calling it a ‘Concept’. But now, with the Continental GT3 strutting its stuff at the Goodwood Festival of Speed and ready to play, Bentley has seen fit to tell us how much power the GT3 has, and how much weight it’s shed. Remarkably, the Continental GT3′s weight is a substantial 100kg less than the road-going GT, weighing it at an almost lightweight 1300kg.

Interior Motives Design Awards 2013 judges decide shortlist

The shortlist of potential winners in the 2013 Interior Motives Design Awards has been announced, and can be viewed here. This year's competition saw a record number of entries submitted: some 198 projects from 28 schools spread across 19 different countries. From this pool of contenders, each of our distinguished jury panel was asked to nominate their top three in each of the eight categories in contention.

One Lap of the Web: Kyle Busch takes to the streets, a new Mazdaspeed3 and the Crazy Cart

We spend a lot of time on the Internet -- pretty much whenever we're not driving, writing about or working on cars. Since there's more out there than we'd ever be able to cover, here's our daily digest of car stuff on the Web you may not otherwise have heard about. -- When you let a NASCAR driver take his souped-up track car on local streets, you can be sure that what will happen is nothing short of incredible.

Opel offers glimpse at futuristic Monza concept car

Opel is about to show us a glimpse of its future with the Monza concept car, which will be revealed at the Frankfurt Motor Show later this fall. The Monza, a nameplate we haven't seen for a while, will preview Opels of the near future, showcasing technology and design rather than being a production-ready car. But some of the styling will surely trickle down to the company's road cars.

Caterham to unveil 620 R at Goodwood Festival of Speed

Caterham has launched a new version of the Seven dubbed the 620 R, and it will be shown to the public for the first time this weekend at the Goodwood Festival of Speed. This new Seven uses a 2.0-liter supercharged Ford Duratec engine producing a reported 310 hp. The 620 will make the 0-60 sprint in less than 2.8 seconds and streak all the way up to a top speed of 155 mph.

Hyundai increasing European production to 500,000 a year

Hyundai are upping production in Europe to 500,000 per annum There’s an awful lot of sense in car makers designing and building cars for the markets they serve locally, and it’s a route Hyundai has followed in Europe, where the majority of their sales are of European built models, not imports. With Hyundai sales still growing despite the European car market meltdown, Hyundai are increasing capacity in Europe to keep up with demand with further investment in their plant in Ízmit, Turkey. Originally, the Ízmit plant produced just 60,000 cars a year, but in 2007 that was increased to 125,000 and now it is being increased to 200,000 so the new i10 can be built there as well as the latest i20.

Suzuki Swift gets a tweak for 2013

Suzuki Swift (pictured) gets a tweak for 2013 Suzuki has had a couple of bites at PR for the updated Swift already this week, with news that the Swift can now be had with a 4WD option and that the Swift Sport can be ordered with five doors. So even though it seems a bit back to front to trumpet two new versions of the Swift before revealing the overall tweaks to the range, it’s probably got Suzuki three times the coverage they’d have got if they’d just announced the 2013 tweaks included the 5-door Sport and 4WD option. Who can blame them?

Concept Car of the Week: Bertone Alfa Romeo Carabo

It might sound unbelievable today, but despite its racing pedigree and a voluptuous body designed by Franco Scaglione, Alfa Romeo was struggling to sell the outstanding 33 Stradale. Its heavy price tag was far above that of a Lamborghini Miura and also 120hp less powerful. By 1969, production was discontinued and only 18 examples had been made.

Jaguar C-X75 heading up the hillcimb at Goodwood Festival of Speed

The Jaguar C-X75, pictured at Goodwood ahead of its Supercar run Jaguar are pulling out all the stops for this year’s Goodwood Festival of Speed with not only their latest performance cars but the debut of the Jaguar Project 7, an F-Type R with the DNA of a D-Type. But they’ve topped all that by deciding that their canned supercar project – the Jaguar C-X75 – deserves a proper outing in public. Jaguar only have five development versions of the C-X75, but they’ve taken one to Goodwood – although it’s not on display – and are wheeling it out over the weekend to take part in the Michelin Supecar run up the hill.