Britain’s 4WD brand has told English car magazine Autocar that an SVX badge is being considered to “amplify” its off-roading capabilities.

SVX vehicles would be developed by the same Special Vehicle Operations division set up by the Jaguar-Land Rover group for its fastest models, which wear the SVR badge, like the Range Rover Sport SVR.

The Discovery has always offered extensive off-road capability, so special features would be focused around advanced technology that make all-terrain driving easier.

The 2014 Discovery Vision concept that previewed styling and technical pointers for the fifth-generation ‘Disco’ included laser headlights that can extend the field of vision at night by 300 metres, laser terrain scanning that uses infra-red foglamps to provide detailed topographical information to the driver, and most cleverly a Transparent Bonnet system.

The latter feature employs a camera under the Discovery’s grille to relay video of the terrain being covered to the head-up display (HUD). This imagery is projected onto the HUD to allow the driver to ‘see through’ the bonnet for a greater understanding of the surface and potential obstacles.

The new Land Rover Discovery is expected to be unveiled towards the end of 2016 before going on sale in Australia sometime in 2017. It will shed substantial weight compared with the outgoing model.

Click here to read the full review on the current generation Land Rover Discovery range.

It seems weird to celebrate news we can go fast as we want at the Nurburgring Nordschleife.

However that’s exactly what racers and punters will do following confirmation the track will lift speed limits instated last year in response to a fatal racing incident.

Last March a Nissan GT-R Nismo GT3 left the track airborne to land on and kill a spectator. In response a speed limit of 200km/h was set on approach to the famous Flugplatz crest, while a 250km/h limit was placed on the Dottinger Hohe straight, Antoniusbuche and Schwedenkreuz until measures were taken to shore up the safety of these areas.

During winter extra fencing was added, spectator zones were reviewed, and sections of the track repaved. The 500m of track surface around Flugplatz and Quiddlebacher Hohe were particularly focused on.

“With these safety measures[…] we have created the prerequisites for an exciting racing season that will hopefully see no accidents, and we are glad that the speed limits are finally a thing of the past,” said Manfred Strack, head of the Nürburgring’s event management, in a press release.

The changes now open the track to full-throttle racing just in time for the first VLN race due to take place on April 2, while also allowing manufacturers chasing lap records to return again.

Koenigsegg was famously denied the opportunity to stamp its mark on the Nordschleife last year by the limits just as it was readying its One:1 hypercar.

Now, it’s open season on the throttle, and that’s certainly something to celebrate.

An American deputy sheriff in California, performing a seemingly routine traffic stop, managed to pull over a woman who happened to be his own wife – and she gave him the surprise of his life.

The couple have an argument about why she was driving in a carpool lane – apparently by herself in the car – while she insists “I’m not in violation [of any road rules] at all.” Carpool lanes are supposed to be for two or more people. She insists that she isn’t actually alone in the car – even though she is clearly the only one there.

Eventually she pulls out a photo and well – see the rest for yourself. The whole thing was recorded on a dash cam.

Posted by Orange County Sheriff’s Department, CA on Monday, 28 March 2016

They then posted it on his work’s social media pages:

‘You’ll never guess what happens when an OCSD deputy pulls over his wife for a carpool violation… #surprise #ocsdca’

Do you think it’s real or are these two acting?

Promotion available at participating stores from March 31 to May 4, 2016

Promotion available at participating stores from March 31 to May 4, 2016

The innovation is in the size of Hitachi’s newly developed sensor – just 5mm square – small enough to integrate with a car’s smart key, and able to lock the ignition of a vehicle if an excessive alcohol level is found, all within three seconds.

It’s smart stuff, and could play a big part in the prevention of drink-driving. Current alcohol interlock systems can only be used from inside a vehicle. This new device works anywhere and Honda says this key difference will take away the temptation of driving when drunk.

The company claims its device is tamper proof, and that it can detect not only the alcohol level, but also whether or not the gas going into the unit has been exhaled from a person.

Last year Honda dealerships in the United Kingdom gave away personal breathalysers during the Christmas holiday season. Honda has said this piece of hardware is the latest step towards its vision of a collision-free society and a solution to drink-driving.

The two Japanese firms would like to make the technology available for sale, meaning other manufacturers may also integrate it into vehicles. At this stage there is no news on when that may happen.

The slowest-selling model from fast-car maker Porsche, the Porsche Panamera, will appear in second-generation guise at September’s 2016 Paris motor show – with a long-rumoured Shooting Brake spin-off variant set to join it in 2017.

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Company insiders have confirmed the news to industry journal Automotive News Europe, while also revealing that prototypes of the wagon-style Shooting Brake were currently undergoing testing.

Porsche first teased the possibility of a second Panamera variant with the Sport Turismo concept study (pictured) in 2012 – a design that was widely considered a more elegant-looking vehicle than the sedan version.

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The next Panamera will sit on the Volkswagen Group’s Modular Standard Platform that is focused on front engine, rear-wheel-drive vehicles and will also underpin models from other sister brands, such as the Bentley Continental.

A greater use of aluminium will reduce the new Panamera’s weight, and help improve fuel economy for the range of V6 and V8 petrol and diesel engines. A hybrid model will again feature in the mix, replacing the current E-Hybrid that uses just 3.1 litres of fuel per 100km.

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The Porsche Panamera was first launched in 2009 to give the manufacturer of the world-famous 911 sports car a four-door rival to luxury four-doors including the Maserati Quattroporte and Jaguar XJ.

Porsche Australia sold 56 Panameras in 2015, making it the lowest-selling model in the brand’s local line-up. That number compares favourably with some rivals, though, including the aforementioned Quattroporte (59) and Aston Martin Rapide (16).

In a bid to escape the extreme heat of the Middle East, wealthy car collectors from the region are flying to London and taking their toys with them.

Over the weekend, an anonymous billionaire from Saudi Arabia displayed his flotilla of golden luxury cars outside the five-star Mandarin Oriental Hotel near Hyde Park, before taking them for a drive through Kensington.

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But this wasn’t just any convoy of supercars. The group of noise-makers included a Mercedes-Benz G63 six-wheel off-roader, a Bentley Flying Spur, a Lamborghini Aventador SV, and a Rolls-Royce, all said to be worth around AU$2.4-million.

This is a whole new level of rich. Fleet of supercars – rich. Fleet of gold chrome-wrapped supercars – really rich. Fleet of gold chrome-wrapped supercars flown from Saudi Arabia to London – really, really, really rich.

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Unfortunately for the drivers, after complaints from local residents during last year’s season, the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea introduced a Public Space Protection Order in Knightsbridge which prevents the drivers from revving their engines, rapidly accelerating, racing, performing stunts, causing obstructions, sounding horns, or leaving the engine of a stationary car running. Fines are in place for anyone breaching the order.

Then again, if you can afford to fly to London with your gold supercars, a thousand dollar fine probably isn’t going to do you much harm.

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Looking for more? We have you covered with the top 10 most expensive cars.

In stark contrast to the performance cars racing around the track, the earthmovers trudged on slowly, chewing up the pastures and roads leading to Oran Park Raceway.

Adding insult to injury, the housing mob had set up shop in the corporate suites above pit lane, and they were filled with frothing families plotting out their white-picketed dream.

One could not help but feel an affinity with those crazy conservationists picketing the last few trees in the rainforest. Okay, so our cause was far from green; burning copious fossil fuels in furious final laps before Oran Park Raceway became ‘Oran Park Town’. But we were still witnessing the death of an endangered habitat.

Oran Park and Amaroo are obvious victims of our increasing population, what with the land – in reasonable proximity to Sydney – being more valuable as a housing estate than as a racetrack. But as the housing market heaves under the weight of demand, is the next victim of urban expansion the car itself?

With no end in sight to the population increase and influx, we currently need twice as many houses. But it isn’t possible to build twice as many roads.

Throwing up countless units amid our existing infrastructure has been an insidious issue for some time now. While it may have helped alleviate the city’s housing and rental shortages – and the top-knotted/bearded hipster crowd prefer to use either pedal or bi-pedal power to get about town anyway – there will always be people with cars, so they continue to congest streets that were built for half their number.

And besides, cars will always fill the hole left by commuters shifting to any new and alternate public transport systems. It even has a funky catchphrase these days: “induced demand”.

Anyone who has driven – crawled – through peak-hour traffic in multi-lane US superhighways knows that no matter how many lanes you build, gridlock is inevitable. Make streets bigger and more people will flood onto them; shrink them and drivers will use other routes or other methods.

Some of the world’s major cities are now reclaiming their major freeways, resolved to the fact that they simply aren’t working, and turning them into something ‘greener’ – literally. Seoul, Madrid, and major US cities including San Francisco, Portland, Boston, Dallas and Milwaukee are decommissioning the eight-lane eyesores and overpasses and turning them into green corridors with markets, community projects and art installations.

Some are even getting turned into landscaped multifunctional thoroughfares for pedestrians, bikes, and some motorcycles and cars. The actual roadways are either sent underground or redirected altogether – and no city seems to be the worse for it traffic-wise, if you believe the reports. But it seems like spin to me – a pretty Band-Aid on a still-bleeding wound.

Our major cities need a proper fix for our infrastructure that includes all modes of transport, not just a reactive solution to today’s woes. It needs a proactive, sustainable roadscape looking decades into the future.

If something doesn’t give soon, there will be nowhere to race a car and even fewer places left to actually drive one, particularly if you want to get out of second gear. I for one want to hang on to my wheels and don’t want to have to move out to old racetrack graveyards to do so.

We’re a greedy lot, us car enthusiasts. Holden has dug into its bag of goodies and installed the 6.2-litre LS3 engine in its final VF II Commodore, however for many V8 fans 304kW and 570Nm won’t be nearly enough.

Walkinshaw Performance knows this, which is why it has created the W547 package to give power junkies the hit they crave. How big a hit? Well, as the name suggests, there’s 547kW, backed up by an impressive 880Nm.

It’s a package very similar to the 550kW/980Nm Walkinshaw Racing Edition we drove in late 2014, comprising a WP230 supercharger with water-to-air intercooler, cold air intake, high flow injectors, aluminium coil covers, self-contained oil system, custom hoses and a heavy duty drive belt system.

At $25,990 supplied and fitted, this is not a cheap upgrade, however Walkinshaw will honour the balance of new car warranty on all its parts, as well as any factory parts affected by the upgrades (ie, the driveline).

Our test of the Walkinshaw W547 couldn’t have been more poorly timed. Day one was a 42-degrees Melbourne scorcher, while the heavens opened on the second. Tough conditions for a big-power Commodore, but its behaviour in the heat was impeccable, with no stutters, hiccups or cooling issues whatsoever.

On wider, stickier rubber, traction is impressive, though easily broken, especially on a slippery surface. That said, while care must be taken as the car can (and will) wheelspin in third or fourth gear, it’s relatively easy to control thanks to the Commo chassis remaining untouched – this isn’t some stiff, harsh-riding road-racer.

Add the power and brake upgrades to a regular automatic SS sedan and you’re nudging $80K, which interestingly is almost identical to what HSV charges for the new Clubsport LSA. Our pick? Well, the W547 is faster, sounds better and, being based on the Holden SS, is the more playful handler, too.

Now, about that colour scheme.

4 out of 5 stars

Specs Engine: 6162cc V8, OHV, 16v, s/c Power: 547kW @ 6500rpm Torque: 880Nm @ 4000rpm Weight: 1850kg (est) 0-100km/h: 4.1sec (est) Price: $25,990 (plus donor car) Like: Ferocious power with warranty-backed piece of mind Dislike: Thankfully, colour scheme is extra; occasional gearshift stumble