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That scene has just repeated among the vine-ribbed hills around Alba, Asti and Cuneo in Italy, the Italdesign Zerouno gathering clusters of cyclists, smartphone-wielding truckers and gawping hikers as it bounds between villages. The Zerouno is the latest supercar born out of the Italdesign studios in Moncalieri on the edge of Turin, one of literally dozens of extreme sports cars to have emerged from this temple of creation over the past 50 years. What’s different about the Zerouno, apart from it being extreme enough of construction, speed and price to be classified as a hypercar, is the nature of its industrial-sized mission. All five of these €1.5 million machines (yes, you read that right, and that’s without taxes) are already sold, as are two of the final five of the targa-roofed Zerouno Duertas. That mission is to be a high-speed calling card for Italdesign, whose remit has changed. You may recall that this achievement-rich Italian vehicle design and engineering business, founded in 1968 by designer Giorgetto Giugiaro and engineer Aldo Mantovani, was in 2010 bought by the Volkswagen Group, thus ending its independence while also ensuring that it benefited from a regular supply of work.

Voters in the French Pacific territory of New Caledonia have rejected a bid for independence. Final results showed that 56.4% chose to remain part of France while 43.6% voted to leave - a tighter result than some polls had predicted. Turnout was about 81%. The vote was promised by a 1988 deal that put an end to a violent campaign for independence. President Emmanuel Macron said it showed "confidence in the French republic". "I have to tell you how proud I am that we have finally passed this historic step together," he added. New Caledonia has large deposits of nickel, a vital component in manufacturing electronics, and is seen by France as a strategic political and economic asset in the region.

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sometimes, certain things catch on not because they are insuperably better than anything else but because they just seem to make a little more sense. Hence the rise of the V8 engine – a baby bear’s porridge of an engine configuration if ever there were one. For on paper, at least, there is nothing that readily explains why the V8 was so spectacularly po[CENSORED]r that it effectively came to power an entire continent. There is no black magic here, no killer consequence to arranging two pairs of four conrods on a crankshaft, usually (but not always) at a 90-degree angle to each other. The truth is somewhat simpler. Which is that when the V8 really started to catch on in America in the 1930s, it was because that was the cylinder count that provided what customers wanted in terms of power and smoothness without those things they did not, such as needless complexity, expense and inconvenient external dimensions. And it was on such a prosaic basis that what I would contend was the world’s favourite engine configuration was born.OUR VERDICT The Ford Mustang is available in the UK in right-hand drive for the first time, but does the rest of this American muscle car fit the UK car scene? Of course, we don’t think about V8s that way at all. When we think about V8s, we think about one thing above all others: that noise. We all know it when we hear it. There are actually some quite august treatises published in erudite engineering journals that seek to explain exactly what it is about that burble that we find so appealing. They talk about pulses, tones and phases, irregular firing intervals and so on. There doesn’t seem to be much they can agree on, though. The only common thread apparently linking them all is that, ultimately, no one really seems to know. Or maybe I just don’t know how to read and interpret such lofty literature, and maybe I don’t need to: I have absolutely no idea why the sausages I buy from my local butcher taste better than sausages I buy anywhere else. I just know they do, and that, surely, is enough. It certainly was earlier today as I was threading my way across rural Wales in the newly revised Ford Mustang, its 444bhp 5.0-litre V8 thrumbling away happily to itself. There is very little I don’t love about this car, but what strikes you most is how the entire car is configured as a support system to that engine. Other cars aren’t like this: drive an Alpine A110 and you’ll realise within yards that its engine exists as a tool, an enabler you use to make the most of its exquisite chassis. The Mustang is the reverse because, although Ford offers a four-cylinder engine for those poor souls who merely want the image of driving a Mustang, it realised from the day the pony car was invented in 1964 that the V8 has been the key to its character. To drive one without a V8 is to defeat its point as completely as drinking alcohol-free beer or decaffeinated coffee. And now the V8 is dying. You may look at all those V8-powered Audis, Bentleys, BMWs, Ferraris, Jaguars, Land Rovers, Maseratis, McLarens, Mercedes and Porsches and wonder what I think I’m talking about. And I guess what I mean when I say the V8 is dying, I mean the V8 in its natural and naturally aspirated state. Fitted to cars on sale in the UK, Ford has this one, Lexus has another, Maserati has a third – but only while its ancient Gran Turismo remains in production – and, of course, Chevrolet still uses V8s in the Corvette and Camaro. But that’s it. Time was when every single manufacturer named above (save McLaren, which didn’t exist) had normally aspirated V8s in volume production. They’ve all gone in the interest of the lower on-paper emissions, higher specific outputs and instant-gratification torque curves that turbocharged motors provide. By comparison, that noise is not much of a priority to most, any more than is the samurai-sword-sharp throttle response. You can have the power, torque and noise with supercharging, of course, and Jaguar Land Rover does, but not for very much longer. Although we may not know why the V8 sounds so mellifluous to our ears, we know exactly what was done to it to make it that way. Just as Percy Spencer never intended to invent the microwave oven when he walked past a magnetron with a bar of chocolate in his pocket and had to change his strides, so those who first started designing cross-plane crankshafts for V8s did so for reasons that had nothing to do with creating that noise. The truth is that V8s didn’t always sound that way, and some still don’t. Racing and ultra-high-performance V8s, such as those used by Ferrari and McLaren, have the same simple crankshaft layout as the very first V8s, conceived before World War I. The problem with their so-called flat-plane configuration is you get double the secondary vibration of a four-cylinder engine, because that’s essentially what they are: two four-cylinder engines sharing the same crankshaft. And in America between the wars, as engines grew bigger to provide the power required to do the enormous distances at reasonable speeds, so the problem just got worse. But by spacing the firing intervals at 90 degrees rather than 180 degrees and creating a crankshaft shaped like a cross when looked at end-on, these issues all go away or, more accurately, are reduced to a point where they are no longer problematic. So why aren’t race engines designed this way? Because left unattended, a cross-plane V8 would rock itself right out of the engine bay and across the road at the first decent blip of the throttle. Happily, this tendency can be addressed by the use of counterbalance weights, but, weights being weights, they are heavy and add to an engine’s inertia. Which is why cross-plane V8s weigh more, are less willing to rev and generate less power than flat-plane V8s. But they do sound gorgeous… Few more than this one. You see, a decent V8 is not just a sound: it is a constantly changing variation on a much-loved theme. The Mustang sounds one way when you blip the throttle to equalise the revs on a downchange and another when you do the same, but parked at the traffic lights, just because you can. It makes one glorious noise at 5000rpm with your foot hard down, quite another as it passes back through 5000rpm on the overrun and a third if you just hold it there, as you might when balancing the throttle mid-corner. There’s something else, too, about the unadorned V8: it has a simple honesty to it, a blue-collar kind of class that’s not just charming but also effective. When Ford met Ferrari at Le Mans in 1966, the Scuderia brought its gorgeous P3 with its jewel-like light-alloy V12 engine with four overhead camshafts, six twin-choke carburettors and twin ignition. Ford? All it had was an old cast-iron pushrod V8 fed by a single Holley carb. But while the Ferrari engine was a svelte 4.0-litre motor, Ford waded into battle with 7.0 litres. And that was the kind of advantage all the cylinders, camshafts and carburettors in the world was never going to overcome. Ford came first, second and third, while all the factory Ferraris broke trying to keep up. Never did that American adage ‘There ain’t no replacement for displacement’ ring truer. But they didn’t have turbochargers in 1966, and today turbos have proven a very effective replacement for the normally aspirated V8. Some turbo V8s – and I’m talking those with cross-plane cranks – are immensely effective and sound pretty wonderful, none more so than those made by Mercedes, and while these are objectively way better engines than they would have been without forced induction, you don’t need long in the Mustang to be reminded of what has been lost, too. I expect that in 10 years, the only normally aspirated V8s left in production will exist for novelty value, if at all. And we’ll be walking down the street, hear that far-off thunder as some old crock with a bent eight breathing at atmospheric pressure rumbles past and we’ll mourn something else that has been lost from the joy of motoring in the interest of ‘progress’. For now, though, it’s all very well to read and write about proper V8s, but there’s nothing to compare with having one at your command. So if you’ll forgive me, and while I still can, I’m going to stop scribbling, fire up the ’Stang and go for one last blast.

Holllywood actor Alec Baldwin has been charged with assault and harassment after allegedly punching a man in the face during a row over a parking space. The 30 Rock sitcom star was taken into custody shortly before 2pm local time (6pm GMT) on Friday after the dispute outside his home in Manhattan's Greenwich Village. He was released two hours later. New York police detective Sophia Mason said the 60-year-old actor "assaulted someone for a parking spot that they were both going for". The star claimed he had a family member holding the spot for him as he tried to park his Cadillac Escalade when a man driving a Saab pulled up and took it, according to police. Officers said the men were arguing and pushed each other before Baldwin allegedly turned more violent.

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Called the eCOPO Camaro, it has been developed in-house by General Motors (GM) in conjunction with US-based drag team Hancock and Lane Racing. The COPO name, standing for Central Office Production Order, comes from a special order-only Camaro of 1969 and was reintroduced in 2012. The eCOPO is powered by GM's first 800V battery pack, allowing for more efficient power transfer to the electric motor, which comprises two BorgWarner assemblies generating 700bhp and 600lb ft of torque. With the new performance-focused battery technology in the eCOPO producing twice the voltage of its production Bolt and Volt EVs, Chevrolet hopes to achieve a quarter-mile time of less than 9.0sec. The addition of the battery packs has necessitated extensive modifications to the Camaro’s standard drag racing safety equipment. As well as extending the car’s internal roll cage and sealing the battery packs off from the interior, Chevrolet has installed a battery management system producing live output and temperature readings. OUR VERDICT Chevrolet Camaro Chevrolet Camaro The Chevrolet Camaro comes to the UK with a proper muscle-car naturally aspirated 6.2-litre V8 engine, can it prove more compelling than the Ford Mustang? Find an Autocar car review Driven this week Renault Captur Iconic TCe 90 2018 UK first drive - hero front 1 NOVEMBER 2018 FIRST DRIVE Renault Captur Iconic TCe 90 2018 UK review Captur line-up gets simplified ahead of next year's new model, and to... Nissan Leaf 2nd generation (2018) long-term review hero front 1 NOVEMBER 2018 FIRST DRIVE Nissan Leaf long-term review The first Leaf was an EV pioneer. Can the new one make as big an impact? We... Citroen C3 Aircross Flair Puretech 130 long-term review - hero front 1 NOVEMBER 2018 FIRST DRIVE Citroen C3 Aircross long-term review Is Citroen's high-riding supermini good to live with and to look at? We’... Chevrolet states that the car’s electric motor is mated directly to standard GM parts. The eCOPO’s automatic gearbox and solid rear axle are unchanged from those used in the regular Camaro. GM's director of performance, parts and motorsport, Russ O’Blenes, states that this “points to a future that could include electric crate motors for racing”. GM has given no indication of how far away electric crate motors may be, nor whether they could replace the company’s existing parts offerings in the future.

Le rendez-vous cacaoté de la Porte de Versailles (Paris XVe) est de retour pour sa 24e édition, du 31 octobre au 4 novembre. Zoom sur les animations et les stands à ne pas manquer. Pour sa 24e édition parisienne, le Salon du chocolat déménage dans le hall 4 de la Porte de Versailles, sur un plateau de plain-pied de 20.000 m2. 500 participants (dont 200 chefs), issus de 60 pays, seront sur place pour rencontrer les quelque 130.000 visiteurs attendus sur 5 jours. Voici nos conseils pour profiter de cette grand messe sucrée. L'incontournable défilé Véritable star du salon, le défilé de robes en chocolat a lieu tous les jours à 17h. Portées par des personnalités le soir de l'inauguration (mardi 30 octobre), les 20 tenues spectaculaires sont réalisées par des binômes chocolatiers et couturiers. Sont notamment attendus cette année, les créations de Yann Couvreur & Richard Orlinski, Stéphane Bonnat & Angélique Godey, Pralus & la Maison Devernois ou encore Jeffrey Cagnes (Stöhrer) & Jean-Paul Benielli.

Romania is set to debate legalising same-sex civil unions — just weeks after a referendum that tried to bury the idea of gay marriage. Petre Florin Manole, an MP for the ruling PSD party, said he and 42 other colleagues submitted a draft legislation on Wednesday. If approved, the law would legalise civil partnerships for hetrosexual and same-sex couples but stop unions of the latter group adopting children. Vlad Viski, president of Romanian LGBTI organisation MozaiQ, said his group supports the legislation. “Romania is about to take over the presidency of the Council of the EU, so legalising civil partnerships before May 2019 would send a strong signal that Romania is to remain on its strong commitment to European values,” he told Euronews. “We believe it is up to political parties to understand the signal sent by Romanians to them during the referendum to change the constitution. “We hoping that politicians will understand that it is their responsibility to legalise civil unions, especially after two decisions by the Constitutional Court of Romania, which says gay couples fall under the notion of a family and need some form of legal recognition.” A referendum in October asked Romanians if they wanted to change the definition of family in the constitution. It would have recognised marriage as being specifically between a man and woman, instead of the existing gender-neutral definition of “a union of spouses”. Campaigners behind the vote wanted to stop the European wave of gay marriage legalisation from reaching the country. But the referendum failed after not enough people turned out to vote. Religiously-conservative Romania currently bans both marriage and civil unions for same-sex couples and does not recognise those performed abroad. Earlier this year, Romania was forced by a European Court of Justice ruling to grant residency rights to gay spouses married in other EU states. Previous attempts to legalise civil unions did not make it out of parliament’s legal commissions. Romania decriminalised homosexuality in 2001, decades later than neighbouring countries. It ranks 25th out of 28 EU states based on legislation, hate speech and discrimination toward LGBT people, according to an annual study by ILGA-Europe, an umbrella organisation advocating equality.

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Stop vote : Im the winner V1 : 01 vote V2 : 01 vote V3 : 6 votes V4 : 7 votes

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Kia's midsized sedan packs a lot of substance and value. It drives nicely, with a firm yet absorbent ride and responsive, secure handling. The 2.4-liter four-cylinder is pleasant and returned 28 mpg overall in our tests; the uplevel 2.0-liter turbo-four packs more punch. A 1.6-liter four-cylinder mated to a seven-speed dual-clutch transmission is also available. Both hybrid and plug-in hybrid versions are available. The EX trim features comfortable leather seats, automatic climate control, a roomy rear seat, and heating for the seats and steering wheel. The controls are very intuitive to use, but the low-mounted dash vents tend to blow more air on your hands. Forward-collision warning, automatic emergency braking, blind-spot warning, and rear cross-traffic warning are standard.