Steve Davies

Lexus will unveil a new concept vehicle at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit on January 9, 2012, joining Honda who this morning confirmed its NSX Concept will premiere at the same event.

In these more frugal times, even a brand like Bentley needs to steer away from conspicuous levels of consumption that used to be the watchword for high-performance luxury car makers. Statements such as "If you have to ask, you probably can't afford it", have been replaced by "..it has quite a modest carbon footprint".

If you're in the market for a prestigious, elegant, 4-door BMW then you've now got three models to choose from - 5 Series, 7 Series and the 4-door 6 Series Gran Coupe. With the 7 Series positioned more as a limousine, the new 6 Series Gran Coupe will be a welcome addition for the user-chooser executive.

Yesterday, Lotus Renault GP confirmed Romain Grosjean as its 2nd driver for 2012 alongside Kimi Raikkonen, displacing the team's 2011 drivers Bruno Senna and Vitaly Petrov.

In a statement shortly after, team boss Eric Boullier confirmed Petrov's contract had been terminated and that he would not be in line for the team's test and reserve driver role (presumably linked to his recent outbursts against the team).

This week we've been celebrating the Top 20 Global Social Video Ads of 2011 with Unruly Media, and while Volkswagen's The Force has been the phenomenon of the year, there is another which vies for the crown and which has not benefitted from the full-on promotional boost of the NFL Super Bowl.

The 10th and final video in the Nissan Juke-R build series broke cover today, and predictably it's the best one yet. Juke-R hits the track at the MIRA proving ground and we get to see what a 480bhp family crossover looks like on the move.

It seems ironic that a car which already laps the Nürburgring in 7 mins 21 seconds, could need a 'Track Pack' to make it more suited to the task. But that's precisely what Nissan are offering its GT-R customers with this new track-focused edition of its 2012 model.

Although wintry conditions had yet to settle in the French Alps, the track at Val Thorens featured a satisfactory layer of ice which allowed Alain Prost, Evens Stievenart and Nicolas Prost to give Dacia Lodgy Glace its maiden run on the type of surface for which it was designed.