Steve Davies

With just over a week to go until it's unveiling at the Frankfurt motor show, Jaguar has released another image - this time of the soon-to-be-revealed C-X16 sports car hiding under the covers during filming in the Graian Italian Alps.

As teasers go, it's distinctly underwhelming, but it got me thinking about the location of the film shoot and what this tells us about Jaguar's new 911 rival.

Last month Eterniti Motors launched itself via a new landing page, announcing that its first car 'Hemera' would be shown at the forthcoming Frankfurt motor show.

We got in touch with Mark Carbery from Eterniti, who explained that the company is completely independent of any OEM and funded by an international group of investors and a team of people assembled with experience ranging from luxury and high performance vehicles to motorsport.

Later on this afternoon you'll be able to answer the question, "Am I as quick as an F1 driver?", as thousands of gamers compete on Gran Turismo 5 (GT5) against ex-F1 driver David Coulthard, who will be driving a 6.2-litre V8 Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG around a real track.

If there has ever been a brand which has more comprehensively turned its core values upside-down, then I can't think of a better example than Lotus. That's not to say that it's the wrong decision, merely that the transformation is so acute that you'd forgiven for thinking you'd just walked onto the set of the Twilight Zone.

If you have access to the National Geographic channel - available on Sky Channels (526, 543-HD) and Virgin Media (230, 232-HD) - then tune in this Sunday 4 September, 2011 at 9.00pm (UK time) for a veritable smörgåsbord of design and engineering excellence.

We are hearing that the Lexus LFA Nürburgring Package Edition has improved upon the 7:22.85 lap time of the Nürburgring Nordschleife set back in June, recording a 7:14 in the hands of Gazoo Racing driver Akira Iida.

It's motor show time, so Lotus have given us another riddle to solve - 3 new cars, 2 new options AND 1 special limited edition. Thankfully they've given us part of the answer, but they're keeping 2 of the new models a secret until they're revealed on 13 September in Frankfurt.

The W16 engine fitted to the Bugatti Veyron produces 1,250 newton metres of torque and a little over 1,000 bhp. It's the fastest production car in the world and most people accept it's unlikely ever to be beaten either in terms of those headline power figures or straight-line performance - after all, we live in a period of austerity and environmental consciousness, where a car's CO2 emissions now lead our new vocabulary for desirability.