Hot Honda is a record breaker

The new Honda Civic Type R has broken the Nurburgring Norschleife front-wheeldrive lap record with a time of seven minutes and 43.8 seconds.

Honda will feel that the title has returned to its rightful owner after the Volkswagen Golf GTI Clubsport S had taken the crown from the previousgeneration Civic Type R in May last year.

However, a development version of the updated model, which will go on sale later this year, lapped the Nurburgring’s iconic 13-mile track about three seconds faster than the VW, Honda has announced.

The Japanese manufacturer claims that the time was set during the final stages of testing and that the car was “technically representative of production specification”.

Under the bonnet was the same 2.0-litre petrol engine that’ll be found in the production car, making 10bhp more than it did in the old version at 316bhp.

Aside from a little more power, other changes over the previous Civic Type R include improved torsional stiffness, new multi-link rear suspension and better aerodynamics for highspeed stability. It’s also 16kg lighter.

Waiting in traffic could be a thing of the past thanks to a new flying car.

Developed by Aeromobil, the latest incarnation of the Flying Car builds on the prototype unveiled two and a half years ago.

Offering “an unparalleled choice of transport on the road or in the air”, the Flying Car is the first commercially available vehicle built by the company, with pre-orders available this year.

Designed to overcome large traffic jams, the flying car combines the usability of a sports car with the goanywhere appeal of a light aircraft.

The new vehicle was revealed for the first time at Top Marques Monaco on April 20.

The entire vehicle has been designed to comply with all existing regulations for both road and air transport, and has been created by an international team of more than 60 engineers.

Pre-orders are due to open this year.