The holidays are here, which means it’s time to decorate your house with lights, tinsel, and Santa Claus. Some people take the Clark Griswold approach and go all-out for the celebration. But even at the most extreme levels of Christmas cheer, we’ve never seen anyone include an authentic McLaren Formula One car as part of the decorations.

If you’re curious about how you get ahold of a McLaren F1 car to display in your front yard, it helps to be a significant investor in the company. The house in question reportedly belongs to Jeff Moorad, who is an owner and CEO of the Arizona Diamondbacks baseball team. He’s also part of an investment group that owns at least 15 percent of McLaren Racing.

 

A comment on Reddit adds more evidence to this car belonging at least in part to Moorad. According to user sokzk: “I spoke with the woman who lives here, and she told me it’s the 2017 car with the current livery. Her husband is ‘on the board’ for McLaren. She also told me it’s getting moved to LA in January.”

The F1 car is part of the decorations in front of his house on Balboa Island in Newport Beach, California. Many people in this area go to extraordinary lengths to light up their homes for the holidays. 

The TikTok video below shows the car’s delivery process, including a crane lifting it into the yard.

 

The video below lets us see the car in the daylight from various angles. There’s even a blow-up Santa in the cockpit. It’s not every day you see a real Formula One car sitting in someone’s yard, much less see one being used as a prop for a holiday display. We’re not complaining, though. If we had the cash, we’d probably do the same thing. 

1.8 seconds – that’s the official record time for a pit stop in Formula 1. McLaren’s mechanics achieved that record with Lando Norris’ car during the 2023 Qatar Grand Prix in October. Red Bull Racing has now decided to have a go at the fastest tire change but in slightly different conditions. They did it in pitch black.

Despite having to work in darkness, RBR’s mechanics were only about one second slower. Sure, a second can be the difference between winning or losing a race, but it’s still an impressive performance. Swapping out those center-lock wheels on Max Verstappen’s RB23 in a whopping 2.84 seconds without seeing anything is nothing short of amazing.

RBR’s mechanics were first asked to perform the pitstop while the light was on but the visors on their helmets were blacked out. Following several tries, their best time recorded was 4.93 seconds. The lights were then turned off and only the two jackmen and the driver were allowed to use night vision goggles. After several attempts, they managed to shave more than two seconds off the time while the light was still on.

You’ll be seeing those Pirelli medium tires in the years to come. In October 2023, the Italian company inked a deal with the FIA to remain the sole tire supplier until 2027. The contract also includes an option to extend the arrangement for the 2028 season. In addition, Pirelli is going to supply the rubber in Formula 2 and Formula 3 during those seasons.

F1 fans will recall a pitstop used to mean more than just changing tires. Mechanics also had to refuel the car but that was banned after the end of the 2009 season. Why was it outlawed? FIA’s thinking was that it posed safety concerns for the drivers. Costs were also a factor since shipping heavy fueling equipment from one race to another meant higher freight charges.

Next year you won’t see the Alfa Romeo brand on the Formula 1 grid. The automaker returned to the sport for the 2018 season, but its partnership with Sauber ended last month after the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

The team will instead resurrect its Sauber name for the 2024 season, officially calling itself the Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber, after signing a sponsorship deal with the streaming platform Kick.com. The car will be called the Kick Sauber C44. The Sauber name might not stick around for long as the team will become the new factory Audi endeavor for the 2026 season.

Audi’s arrival on the grid will coincide with substantial changes planned for F1’s engine and chassis regulations. Sauber will continue to use Ferrari engines until 2026, when Audi arrives with its own power unit. The German automaker’s new CEO, Gernot Dollner, recently reaffirmed the company’s commitment to join F1 in two years.

Sauber first entered F1 in 1993, operating under its own name until 2006 when it became BMW Sauber. The pair split in 2009, but the team competed under the name for the 2010 season. In 2011, it dropped BMW, competing with the Sauber name until partnering with Alfa Romeo in 2018, running under the name Alfa Romeo Sauber. In 2019 it dropped the Sauber name altogether, becoming Alfa Romeo Racing.

While Alfa Romeo won’t return to the grid next year, its drivers, Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu, will. Every team is entering the new season with the same driver lineup. Bottas ended the 2023 season in 15th with 10 points, while Zhou finished with 6 points in 18th place. Alfa came in 9th in the Constructors’ Championship ahead of last-place Hass.

The Eighties were a magical time. The Rubik’s Cube was new. The Titanic was discovered. And Formula 1 cars used turbocharged engines that could make over 1,300 horsepower in qualifying trim. The Eighties were also the golden age of stage rally, when big-power Group B cars dominated tree-lined back roads throughout Europe.

This television broadcast from the era published to YouTube by the Passats de Canto channel gives us a first-hand look at what Group B racing was like, circa 1986. Taken straight from the sidelines of the 1986 Rallye Monte Carlo, we’re treated to iconic cars like Audi’s Quattro, Peugeot’s 206 T16, Lancia’s 037 and Delta S4, and many more as they carve through the snowy mountain roads of southern France. 

In addition to all of the on-road action from the cars, we get to see Italian-language interviews with drivers, mechanics, and team principals. We also watch teams work on cars and prep for fuel and tire stops. It’s a fascinating look at how stage rally operated when it was just as popular as Formula 1. 

This event would be the last Rallye Monte Carlo for Group B. Numerous spectator and driver deaths throughout the series’ history would come to a head at the Tour de Corse rally later that season, when driver Henri Toivonen and co-driver Sergio Cresto were killed after their Delta S4 left the road. Just hours after the crash, FISA president Jean-Marie Balestre banned Group B cars from competition for 1987, marking the end of rally’s most epic era. 

Toyota has turned the new Prius into a race car. Following the introduction of a one-off sporty GRMN version back in June, the company has introduced a new full-on racer that just competed in the Thailand 10-Hour Endurance Race.

This Prius looks like a proper racing machine. The competition-spec Toyota wears a larger front splitter, canards on the corners of the nose, and a tall rear wing. It now rides on 10-spoke wheels, with slotted brake rotors are visible behind. The ride height also appears to be a lot lower than stock.

Toyota isn’t providing specifics about the Prius race car’s powertrain just yet. The revised engine runs on carbon-neutral fuel and makes more power than the road car, according to Car Watch Impress. There’s reportedly a higher-capacity battery for the hybrid system and modifications to the cooling system, too.

The Prius race car finished 11th place overall out of 63 starters and 6th in class in the Thai endurance event, 21 laps behind the winning vehicle. There’s no information available yet on whether Toyota intends to take this machine into competition again, or if this event was a one-off test.

This Prius will be among several Toyota race cars on display at next year’s Tokyo Auto Salon, which will run from January 13 through 15. The brand’s machines from the World Rally Championship, World Endurance Championship, Super GT, and more series will be there, too.

Toyota previously raced the Prius in Japan’s Super GT series for several years, but those cars only had limited ties to the road-legal version. The various iterations used 3.4-liter and 5.4-liter V8 engines and had different hybrid systems, including one with a supercapacitor. While we doubt this one has eight cylinders, we’re still glad it exists. 

The Hyper Force may be Nissan’s big star at the 2023 Japan Mobility Show in Tokyo since it could preview the next GT-R, but this chubby minivan is also worthy of our attention. Much like the electric supercar concept is possibly a window into the future of a product model, this lifted family hauler with all-terrain tires could provide an early look at the next-generation Delica. The D:X is portrayed as a six-seater for outdoorsy people looking for an adventure.

The 2+2+2 concept combines the attributes of an off-roader such as the raised suspension and all-wheel drive with minivan traits like the sliding doors and nearly flat roof to maximize space inside. It has much shorter overhangs than the real Delica (no, not the recently launched kei car version) and chunky body cladding around the wheel arches and bumpers.

With front and rear skid plates along with side steps, the D:X has been envisioned as a crossover-ized minivan with pillarless side entry.  The copper-painted concept has T-shaped lights front and rear along with a roof box for extra storage. Outward visibility for the driver is stellar thanks to a front camera sending footage to a massive dashboard-mounted screen that gives the illusion of an expanded windscreen. In addition, there are small displays embedded into the A-pillars to serve as digital rearview mirrors.

The cabin is modular in the sense that it has what Mitsubishi refers to as panoramic seats. Wrapped in tan leather, these seats not only slide fore and aft, but the front ones also rotate 180 degrees. There’s a pair of Yamaha speakers mounted in each headrest, while the body has been toughened with rear pillars made from reinforced rib-bone frame with a circular framework structure.

The D:X concept has been conceived as a plug-in hybrid, although additional details are not provided. The fact it’s AWD isn’t really a surprise since even the Delica Mini kei car sends power to all four wheels. The fullsize Delica has had AWD for decades, and that’s unlikely to change for the sixth generation. A new model is long overdue seeing as how the current vehicle has been around since 2007, with a facelift launched in 2019.

It is probably safe to say that Lexus is not exactly at the forefront of the automotive industry’s electrification. Sure, the Japanese brand currently has some of the best available hybrid models on the market, but it is lagging behind most of the legacy automakers on the BEV scene. The somewhat conservative EV approach followed by Toyota and Lexus is now history though, as the two brands are accelerating the adoption of electric vehicles with tens of new models planned for release later this decade. One of those cars will be some sort of a large hatchback from Lexus, previewed by the LF-ZC concept that makes its debut at the Japan Mobility Show.

Lexus Future Zero-emission Catalyst – this is the full and rather confusing name this study has but that’s surely not the most interesting part here. Design-wise, it is a little difficult to describe what type of vehicle it is but we’d rather call it a sedan than a hatchback or even a crossover. Actually, liftback probably suits it better, especially considering the fact that Lexus told our colleagues at InsideEVs that the production version of this concept will take the shape of a hatchback. It will be roughly the same size as the current IS but it is not known at the moment whether it will replace the sedan or the two will coexist peacefully.

The interior of the LF-ZC continues the futuristic theme of the exterior with a cabin that has a yoke instead of a steering wheel and a giant screen that sits in front of the passenger. The driver has a much smaller instrument cluster behind the yoke. Those are backed up by the latest developments in the AI sector from Lexus, as well as a next-generation voice recognition system.

The two systems provide route and mode recommendations that align with the driver’s preferences by considering their daily activity patterns and mood, the automaker says. The company also puts emphasis on the so-called Bamboo CMF concept, which in translation is an approach to using sustainable materials throughout the cabin.

If you are still reading this article, we know you are here for the tech details. Unfortunately, Lexus doesn’t provide information regarding the battery size and type, as well as specs about the electric powertrain. The firm, however, says the concept uses “next-generation prismatic high-performance batteries,” which should provide about twice the range of “conventional” battery electric vehicles that are currently on sale.

We don’t know what a conventional EV means for Lexus but that is a rather promising statement. The targeted Cd value of below 0.2 should probably help a lot, too. We will have to wait until 2026 when the production version will arrive to find out whether those promises will be fulfilled. Until then, we are glad that Lexus is finally looking more seriously into the future of electric mobility. 

Lexus has two important concepts at this year’s Japan Mobility Show. The LF-ZC looks more production-ready and previews a battery-powered liftback that is supposed to go on sale in 2026. The vehicle you see here – the LF-ZL – is a different thing though, as it foretells the brand’s flagship EV product that will go “beyond just the car.”

Lexus is keeping most (if not all) technical specifications in secret. The company only says the concept will ride on a next-generation EV architecture and from the LF-ZC concept we know this new platform will position the front occupants in a low, forward position space. The underpinnings also combine a fully flat floor with a panoramic roof for both overhead spaciousness and a lower drag coefficient. 

Another big novelty will be the Arene OS, which is Lexus’ latest software tech with over-the-air updates and advanced AI features. The firm will also put a focus on the quietness inside the cabin. With a length of 5,300 mm (208 inches), there is plenty of room for the passengers and their luggage.

One particularly interesting detail regarding the production version of this vehicle – and all other electric products from Lexus – is that it will feature a new modular structure. It splits the vehicle into three main parts – front, center, and rear, and each one of them is produced through gigacasting. If this sounds familiar to you, this is a very similar approach to what Tesla is doing. Lexus says casting provides more freedom of form and the structure generally has increased rigidity. We’ll just add that this is a generally less complex and cheaper method of producing electric vehicles.

Lexus also highlights the extensive use of artificial intelligence. In the LF-ZL, AI is implemented to help improve the connection between occupants and their surroundings. For example, when the driver points to an object of interest during the journey, the car provides additional information regarding this location with voice guidance. This is possible thanks to the car’s onboard sensors, which work in conjunction with digital data from the surroundings.

Check out Motor1.com’s Rambling About Cars podcast for more on the LF-ZL and other debuts from the Japan Mobility Show, available below on YouTube.

There’s a lot to love about the Mazda Iconic SP Concept. It’s gorgeous inside and out with perfect proportions, it has a two-rotor engine, and it’s a signal of how the sports car can survive and thrive in an all-electric future. Thing is, it has one design element that stands out above all else: pop-up headlights.

If you’re like me, you didn’t notice that the concept had pop-up headlights when it first appeared last night. The focus was on the innovative powertrain and the stunning design, not on how the road ahead is illuminated. Some of you are probably freaking out, delighted that the headlights have their own little home to emerge from at night. Others probably don’t care and think that pop-up headlights are bad and should be gone forever. To you, hater, I say that you’re wrong.

See, pop-up headlights are a gift from a bygone time, when car designers didn’t have to worry about pedestrian impact standards and could instead conceal headlights during the day to let them take center stage at night. As a former NA Miata owner, one of the true delights of that car was seeing another Miata and quickly popping the headlights up, a friendly gesture recognized throughout the little roadster community as the defacto way to say “hi, I like your Miata, pal!”

That subtle detail on this concept does recall the Miata, sure, but it also recalls the car that it might actually succeed, the FD RX-7. I still maintain that the FD RX-7, even with those very Nineties headlights, could pass for a brand-new car if it debuted today. The way Mazda has utilized those lights here seems like a modernization of the FD design, a signal that perhaps, finally, after nearly a decade of constant rumors declaring the return of the RX-7, it may not be far off.

This is also the sort of retro design we want to see. It’s a distinctly modern car with a small detail that tugs at the hearts of car geeks everywhere. Just imagine if this catches on. Maybe pop-ups will reappear across sports and supercars everywhere. That’s the future I want to live in. Don’t you?

Not to be confused with the Nissan Navara that was rebadged as the ill-fated Mercedes X-Class, the Renault Niagara is a conceptual small truck with an interesting drivetrain. It takes the shape of a double cab pickup with a hybrid setup consisting of a mild-hybrid gasoline engine driving the front wheels and an electric motor powering the rear axle. When the two work together, the ute has four-wheel drive for go-anywhere capabilities.

The French brand points out that the Niagara “can handle half of your everyday drives in full-electric mode,” which means it can be operated as a rear-wheel-drive electric truck after shutting off the ICE. The battery pack isn’t mentioned, but since the pickup appears to be petite and the electric juice lasts for only half a day, the pack must be small.

According to our colleagues from Motor1.com Brazil, the Renault Niagara is 193 inches long, which makes it shorter than the Hyundai Santa Cruz and Ford Maverick. It’s based on the CMF-B platform, so it has a unibody construction like the two compact trucks we just mentioned. It has generous suspension travel and chunky all-terrain tires, with no fewer than three spares – one on the roof and two in the cargo bed.

Don’t expect to see this badged as a Nissan in the United States anytime soon since Renault mentions the Niagara foreshadows an affordable pickup truck for Latin America. In typical concept fashion, it looks a bit over the top, but a closer-to-production variant is going to be unveiled in the first half of 2024. The actual truck is scheduled to go on sale before 2027. It’s likely going to be a follow-up to the Oroch, a small and cheap pickup with Dacia origins.