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Racing fans in the UK have been clamoring for the British Grand Prix to move from Silverstone into London proper for years, and that's almost what they'll get in June 2015 when the nascent Formula E series will race around their streets. It'll essentially amount to a full-scale Scalextric track, but though Renault will power all the cars (for the first season at least), the French automaker – which has been betting big on electric vehicles – isn't waiting around that long.

In the video below, Renault claims to have set up an actual full-scale Scalextric track around the streets of the British capital, modified a pair of Zoe electric city cars and airlifted a couple of supposed contest winners by helicopter to control the cars remotely. Is the footage real? That's doubtful. But does that make it any less fun to watch? Have a look, and then cast your vote right here.

Having already driven and reviewed the 2014 Acura RLX this year, colleagues Steven Ewing and Jeffrey Ross poured several thousand words into apprising it, then someone took the safety off the Comments and flipped them to "Fully Automatic" because those two reviews and four brief posts were hit by more than 1,200 of your deeply felt sentiments.

People care about Acura.

Roughly half of those comments were in reply to news of this car, the 2014 RLX Sport Hybrid SH-AWD, a sedan that intends to show that Acura cares, too. Underneath a skin almost imperceptibly different from the standard RLX, the one that has given us P-AWS (Precision All-Wheel Steer), is a Super Handling All-Wheel Drive (SH-AWD) system that replaces the mechanical components it relies on in the TL and MDX with computerized sophistication and three electric motors. Top that off with more power, and the aim is to provide a machine that does a better job of getting Acura a starting spot in the premium luxury game than the erstwhile and now all-but-forgotten RL that the RLX replaces.

In February 2013, Ewing wrote of the RLX, "It's a vastly improved vehicle that, in a vacuum, is excellent." After a day of twisty bits outside of San Francisco, we have no problem breaking the vacuum seal, getting the RLX Sport Hybrid out in the environment and still declaring it excellent. Problem is, we just can't see how it's excellent enough to beat the competition at the price (still unknown) Acura will want for it.

It's that time in the life of the Ford Focus to get a little work done - a nip-tuck here, some Botox there. Yes, Ford is testing a facelifted version of its global C-segment entry, which first hit markets in Europe and North America in May 2011.

Like the touchup on the Fiesta, expect Ford's gaping grille to make its first appearance on the Focus. Our spy photographers point out that this is likely to be a more comprehensive makeover than previous spy shots suggested, based on the additional camouflage seen here on the front and rear ends of this five-door model. New head and taillights are also likely in order, as are changes to the front and rear fascia.

The interior was also snapped and features a cleaner design with a larger central display. Other than that, it looks like some buttons have been changed, making us think most of the Focus' updates are limited to the exterior.

While what we're seeing here is likely a European variant of Ford's global Focus, it's very likely that styling changes made across the pond will find their way onto US-spec cars. There's no word on just when we'll be seeing the revised Focus, although we'd wager it will be sometime before the end of 2014.

The big ol' game of musical chairs that is the Formula One off season plays on as two solid drivers switch between midfield teams. First up is Sergio Perez, who moves to Force India for next season and onward. The young Mexican has been on the grid for three seasons, driving for the first two with Sauber before moving to McLaren last year. He's since been replaced at the Woking outfit by newcomer Kevin Magnussen.

Perez will be driving at Force India alongside Nico Hulkenberg, and takes the place of Adrian Sutil, who in turn is moving to Sauber (where he's all but certain to partner with newcomer Sergey Sirotkin). A far more experienced driver than any of the other drivers named here, Sutil has been on the grid since 2007 with the same team since it was known as Spyker – but in six seasons has failed to score a single podium finish. Perez, meanwhile, landed on the steps three times (all in his second season at Sauber).

We're still waiting on word as to what Sutil's former wingman Paul di Resta (who was also released by Force India) will do next season. The Mercedes protégé is tipped to potentially return next season to DTM, the German touring car series that he dominated in 2010. Following these announcements (which you can read below), the only teams with seats still open are Caterham and Marussia.

Good news is on the horizon for global automakers as a confluence of factors could lead the number of cars sold globally to surge from the current estimate of 82 million for 2013 to over 100 million by 2018, according to a recent report from The Detroit Free Press. What's interesting, though, is that it won't be the US market leading the surge.

US sales are expected to hit 15.5 million units this year, and will continue to rise through 2018, although the pace of the increase will gradually slow down. Around the globe, though, sales are expected to increase as much as 22 percent in the next four years. It's this increase in demand that will force automakers to deliver an additional 21 million units.

The Free Press report cites a number of sources at IHS Automotive, which is predicting Europe to rebound. "We are going to finally see economic growth in Europe," according to IHS economist Charles Chesbrough. "Europe is probably at the very end of their unemployment losses," he said.

It isn't Europe that will truly bring the numbers, though. Naturally, China's name has been thrown around, along with Brazil, Thailand and Chile. "In every major economy in the world we are expecting economic growth," Chesbrough said.

It's this push that is expected to most benefit American production, as IHS Automotive's Mike Jackson predicts an increase in US automotive exports by two million vehicles by 2020, provided suppliers are able to adapt to the rapid increase in global demand. "That is certainly one of these questions that remains," Jackson told The Detroit Free Press. "There hasn't been a tremendous amount of investment within the supply base."

With Super Bowl XLVIII less than two months away, we're sure to hear plenty of news about automakers and their various plans for in-game commercials. Audi has announced that it will return for its seventh year of Super Bowl advertising, but few details were provided about the spot other than the fact that it will focus on the all-new 2015 A3.

The 60-second ad will air during the third quarter of the game, and while Audi did not say how much it is spending on the spot, Ad Age says that a 30-second commercial will average around $4 million for next year's Big Game. Last year, Audi's choose-your-own-adventure "Prom" commercial was the second favorite video in our unofficial poll of readers, but the competition should heat up even more this year with General Motors returning to Super Bowl advertising after taking a year off and Jaguar preparing its first-ever Super Bowl ad to introduce the F-Type Coupe.

We've seen big recalls and we've seen small ones. Some involve millions of vehicles, and some – like the Infiniti Q50 recall on which we reported just the other day – involve just a couple dozen. But this has to be the smallest recall we've seen yet.

"Due to a production process error" in the BMW X3, states the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in the notice below, "the tear seam on the instrument panel was not manufactured correctly." Big friggin' whoop, you say? Well, NHTSA points out that it could hinder the deployment of the airbag and send fractures flying everywhere.

The problem was discovered in a select few examples of the 2013 BMW X3 – both xDrive 28i and 35i models – manufactured in the later part of February this year. And by "select few," we literally mean a few – as in three. Three examples are being recalled. If you happen to be one of those three owners, expect to hear from your local dealership.

Thinking about buying a Toyota Prius but can't figure if the initial purchase cost will be offset in the long run enough to make it a smart buy? Then you're probably reading these words on AutoblogGreen and not on Autoblog. But beyond that, Consumer Reports has some good news for you.

For the second year in a row, CR has named the Prius the best value on the market. The analysis is based on overall ownership cost over the course of a five-year period, with the Toyota hybrid emerging at the top at 47 cents per mile. The worst? The Nissan Armada, which will cost you $1.20 per mile.

Of course, few buyers looking at a Prius would also be considering an Armada, but the test results are broken down into ten categories, which you can view below. And Japanese cars dominated nearly all of them, with domestic and German vehicles landing last in most categories. Alongside the Prius, the Subaru Legacy, Toyota Avalon Hybrid, Lexus ES 300h, Mazda MX-5, Mazda5, Subaru Forester, Nissan Murano, BMW X1 and Honda Ridgeline all topped their respective categories. Read the full report below.

We knew that once Hennessey Performance got its hands on the seventh-generation Chevrolet Corvette Stingray, big things were going to happen. A 200.6-mile-per-hour run on a closed section of Texas' brand-new State Highway 99, was just a shade bigger than what we were expecting. The run was also a test of the new toll road - which Hennessey founder John Hennessey called "perfectly smooth" - and the RFID toll system, which was still able to tag the Corvette at 200 miles per hour (toll dodgers beware). The blistering run was, naturally, caught on video, which we've included at the bottom of the page.

The car you see here is fitted with what Hennessey calls the HPE600 package, and includes long-tube headers, ported cylinder heads, high-flow catalytic converters, and an HPE camshaft and engine tune. There's also a 100-shot of nitrous oxide available from a Nitrous Express kit, just for that little extra bit of punch. The result is 700 horsepower, up from the standard Stingray's 460 ponies.

If you're still scoping out that list of modifications and are wondering why the word "supercharger" doesn't appear, then take solace in the fact that Hennessey will deliver a blown Stingray, which it claims can crack 200 without the laughing gas. Called the HPE700, it adds a TVS2300 supercharger and new induction system to the list of goodies found on the HPE600, and will cost $22,500.

We have the entire video of the run down below, along with photos and videos of the epic run.

This is a Series 1 Jaguar E-Type Coupe. Enzo Ferrari, Il Commendatore himself, called it "the most beautiful car ever made." It can count among its owners Steve McQueen, Brigitte Bardot and a number of other celebrities from the 1960s. It remains one of the prettiest and coolest cars ever.

While we don't normally prescribe to modifying classics like the E-Type, cars that are used for vintage racing, like this particular example, are certainly the exception. It's owned by Jason Len and is the subject of the latest video from the team at Petrolicious.

Len's 1964 E-Type has been fashioned to look like one of the rare Lightweight E-Types from 1963 and 1964. The aluminum-bodied E-Types, of which only a dozen were built, were all intended exclusively for racing, much like Len's heavily modified example. While it retains the 3.8-liter straight-six, its engine, transmission, suspension, brakes and body have been extensively tweaked and fettled to allow this classic Jag to compete with a field of V8s.

Hop below for the latest from Petrolicious, and feast your eyes on a seriously pretty car.

During the recent unveiling of the 2015 Ford Mustang, we saw the car in both V6 and GT form, but we'll have to wait a little bit longer to see the successor to the Shelby GT500. In the meantime, though, it looks like SVTPerformance.com has confirmed reports that this high-performance model will bring the Shelby GT350 name back to Ford.

According to the forum post, a user found the Shelby GT350 name on a Ford promo website listing its 2015 lineup. The Shelby GT350 name was first used on a Mustang back in 1965, and most recently it has been a model created for customers as a post-title purchase by Shelby American. As for that car, Shelby confirmed earlier in the year that its GT350 would be phased out at the end of this month.

The million-dollar question for Mustang and Shelby enthusiasts is when we'll see next factory Shelby GT350. Last we heard it was planned for a debut at the New York Auto Show. We've included our previous spy shots of this hi-po, sixth-gen Mustang, and we've also captured it on spy video showing off its exhaust note.

I've always thought that California has the worst drivers - plenty of trips through Los Angeles during rush hour led to that belief - but statistically speaking, in 2012 (and 2011) Lousiana actually ranked at the top for having the worst drivers, according to a study by Car Insurance Comparison. California is a bit lower down the list, at number 19.

The study examines five categories of bad driving (fatalities rate per 100 million vehicle miles traveled; failure to obey traffic signals and seat belts; drunk driving; tickets; careless driving) in all 50 states and the District of Columbia and then ranks each based on the number of offenses in relation to population. The higher the percentage of offenses, the worse the state ranks. For example, Montana, with 205 drunk driving offenses, has the worst rate of drunk driving - 0.43 percent of the state's population has been caught in the act. Texas recorded 3,398 drunk driving incidents, the most of any state, but that number represents 0.38 percent of the population.

With that in mind, here are the ten states with the worst drivers:

1) Louisiana, 2) South Carolina, 3) Mississippi, 4) Texas, 5) Alabama, 6) Florida, 7) Missouri (tie), 7) North Carolina (tie), 9) Montana, 10) North Dakota

Be sure to head over to Car Insurance Comparison for the full study, and see where your state ranks.

Mazda has set an ambitious goal of selling 400,000 units by the end of the 2015 Japanese fiscal year in March 2016, and to do that, it's going to need to take some aggressive action. That means that underperforming members of its 637-showroom strong dealer network are about to get the axe.

The purge won't just be limited to dealers that aren't performing, though. Mazda will seek to consolidate poorly located dealers and build new showrooms in better locations. It still isn't clear how many dealers are being targeted or at what point Mazda would end its cull.

This consolidation of dealers is all part of a one-two punch for the Japanese brand, that will also see increased marketing efforts in 35 key areas. Of those markets, Mazda is placing a special emphasis on New York and LA, although there's not much mention of what other regions are being looked at.

The shuffling of dealers is being called "aggressive" by Akira Marumoto, Mazda's North American executive vice president. "I believe we can achieve our goal. Our initiatives are bearing fruit," Marumoto told Automotive News at last month's Tokyo Motor Show.

As we mentioned in a previous story, Mazda's 400,000-unit goal is going to be done largely on the back of the Mazda3, which is still being rolled out.

One of the biggest knocks against the last Ford Mustang was its solid-rear axle. Not one to actively court criticism, Ford dutifully swapped out the old-fashioned rear end for something a bit more modern in the redesigned 2015 Mustang, adding an independent rear suspension across the board.

While an IRS Mustang is great news for those that value handling and ride comfort, there's one big group that it's bad news for - drag racers. See, a solid-rear axle is a big deal for drag racers, because not only is it more durable and cheaper, but it's better for the hard launches that can make or break a race.

To satiate this vocal demographic, Ford will sell a body-in-white version of the Stang, complete with a nine-inch rear axle, that will debut at the 2014 Performance Racing Industry show. The news came from gas2.org, which cited an unnamed employee of Ford Racing at this year's PRI show.

Mustang Daily and Gas2, meanwhile, point out that the debut of a body-in-white car with a nine-inch Ford rear end makes the availability of a bolt-in axle conversion kit from Ford Racing a likely possibility. While this is all good news for Ford enthusiasts that want to run the quarter, nothing has been confirmed by Ford, aside from the off-hand comments of an unnamed employee, so take this with a grain of salt until we hear something certain.