Steve Davies

The announcement from Honda says, "Repsol Honda MotoGP riders Dani Pedrosa, Andrea Dovizioso and Casey Stoner have shown their support for the new sporty Honda CR-Z by displaying the logo on their racing leathers", however you can just imagine the conversation between Honda's PR rep and ex-MotoGP world champion Casey Stoner.

Last night spy photographer Palbay contacted us to share a series of images of BMW's 1 Series M Coupe at the BMW Performance Center Skidpad in South Carolina. The water adds a nice effect to the shots, and serves to underline just how much fun the driving school instructors were having at the time.

"Race on Sunday, Sell on Monday" is the philosophy which underpinned the most iconic sporting marques such as Ferrari, Porsche and Lotus and it still applies today, with Aston Martin, who successfully completed the gruelling 39th ADAC Nürburgring 24 Hour race last month and has now announced a road-going version of the V12 Zagato race car.

In just a few weeks time BMW will be offering a handful of enthusiasts the chance to drive the new F10 M5, the test will take place during the first half of August at an undisclosed location, but in order to stand any chance of being selected you must first be a registered user in the m-power.com Closed Room.

Images of Mercedes' forthcoming C63 AMG Black Series have been leaked by the French edition of evo magazine, after a private test at Le Castellet in the South of France.

Fiat's Punto Evo has just been given a further boost with the option of the Abarth tuning brand’s esseesse conversion. The performance kit, which increases the 1.4-litre turbocharged engine’s power to 180bhp and adds other technical and cosmetic equipment, can be specified when a customer orders their car, or can be undertaken later – as long as it’s within 12 months or 12,500 miles and carried out by an Abarth appointed dealership.

During the next few days I will be evaluating Michelin's high-performance Pilot tyre range fitted to a variety of cars, with the aim of understanding the incremental benefit gained from each performance level and the differences in their behavior. The tyres under test will be the Pilot Sport 2, Pilot Super Sport, Pilot Sport Cup+ and Pilot slicks.

Ferrari’s brand new flagship V12 four-seater, the FF, was driven by James Martin, celebrity chef and presenter of BBC's 'Saturday Kitchen', at the famous Goodwood hillclimb course today.