McLaren recently celebrated the opening of its new production centre in Woking, England where even British Prime Minister David Cameron was invited to take a tour. The state-of-the-art production facility is the first step in McLaren Automotive’s goal of producing several models of vehicles in the coming years.

And with the Prime Minister’s visit, McLaren also took the time to announce its next project will be the MP4-27, but did not go into any details as to whether it’ll be a successor to the legendary McLaren F1 road car, or if it’ll be the company’s next race car. They did hint that they were nine months into the development program and have already sorted 18,918 individual components from more than 3,000 different work orders and signed off on more than 5,500 technical drawings.

McLaren Automotive’s immediate goals are to roll out 35 global dealerships by the end of 2012, preparing customers’ GT3 race cars for 2012 competition, and working on the design of a range of game-changing high-performance production cars that will bring McLaren Automotive’s annual vehicle production to 4,500 by 2014.

Check out two videos of the new production centre after the break.

GALLERY: McLaren Production Centre

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We were blessed to see the new Porsche 911 Carrera and Carrera S released at the LA Auto Show, and the 911 Cabrio will be introduced at the upcoming Detroit Motor Show next January. Porsche has decided to release pricing ahead of its debut for the Netherlands market, which gives us a general idea of what to expect.

It’s worth mentioning that the Dutch pay hefty taxes on their vehicles – a regular 19-percent tax and an additional luxury tax called BPM. So with that in mind, reports are coming in that the 991 Cabriolet Carrera will start at an astonishing $176,970 based on today’s conversion rates. The seven-speed PDK is listed for $177,440 while the convertible Carrera S starts at $203,300.

Removing the BPM tax from the equation, the Cabriolet should start at around $137,935 in Germany. We’re going to assume North American prices will be less but the Europeans will clearly be paying a premium to enjoy an open-top 911.

[Source: GT Spirit]

Rumors have been swirling for quite some time now that Laura Soave, arguably the person responsible for bringing Fiat back into the U.S. market, would be replaced as the head of the Fiat brand in North America. Well the news is official now, with a press release being sent out moments ago confirming Soave’s exit and Timothy Kuniskis taking her place.

It’s startling how much can happen in just a year, where at the 2010 LA Auto Show, Soave was proudly on stage presenting the Fiat 500 for all of us to see. Now a year later, she’s not even with the company anymore amidst rumors of improper professional relationships, slow sales and marketing disaster (J.Lo as spokesperson, anyone?). Her replacement, Timothy Kuniskis, has been recently serving as Director for both the Chrysler Brand and Fiat Brand Product Marketing. At least now he has the Fiat 500 Abarth to bolster sales.

Porsche is tearing down a former Ford Taurus plant near Atlanta, Georgia and rebuilding its new headquarters in its place.

Setting up shop in Hapeville, Georgia, the new Porsche HQ is set to be completed in about two years time and will occupy the same spot where Ford their Taurus sedan (along with the Mercury Sable) until 2006. The plant was torn down in 2008, and Porsche bought and cleared the site to make way for its new headquarters.

Designing the new building is architectural firm HOK (you may be familiar with its past projects such as Yankee Stadium and the National Air and Space Museum). As you can see in the rendering above, the courtyard is shaped like the Porsche shield – not too shabby! The complex will be completed by 2013 and will be home to numerous Porsche operations, including the Porsche Experience Center.

Facebook is more than just checking to see what your friends are up to. Automakers, such as Lexus, are using the social media platform to giveaway some pretty cool prizes to fans.

Not too long ago, Lexus held a Facebook contest that gave three lucky fans the chance to win a driving experience in the Lexus LFA supercar at the Silverstone Grand Prix circuit. They got the whole racing experience – they were briefed, taken out with an experienced instructor, got a chance to lap the track on their own and then were taken out for a spin with a professional driver. And they finished off the experience with a spot of tea – not a bad way to spend the day.

The entire event was captured on video, so although we couldn’t be there in person, we can share in the excitement of the day. You can check out the video after the jump. And if you’re on Facebook, don’t forget to like us.

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Over the past 60-years, Volkswagen has produced delivery vehicles, which have been used around the world for various purposes, from delivering mail to emergency services.

Gathering all the knowledge they have learned in this field, Volkswagen has now come up with a new concept van which they think will be the future of delivery mobility.

It’s called eT! and it’s a fully electric van, which uses electric wheel hub motors to power it along. A zero-emissions delivery vehicle will certainly go a long way in cutting down on pollution in city centers.

The eT! can be operated semi-autonomously in certain situations also. With their “Follow Me” feature, the van can follow the delivery person as they go door to door. It even has a “Come To Me” command feature which will have the car come to its driver.

The eT! can even be driven via using a joystick controller on the passenger side of the vehicle. This way, the delivery driver can drive the vehicle without having to walk around every time to get to the driver’s seat.

Details on the next generation Mercedes-Benz SL have been announced, and the biggest Mercedes droptop is going on a serious diet.

Since the outgoing model weighs 4,233 lbs., Mercedes-Benz is looking to have the SL return to its Sport Leicht roots, German for Sport Light. The next SL will undergo a redesign involving extensive use of aluminum, new bonding techniques and “bionic” elements inspired by structures found in nature. With that in mind, the next SL will lose almost 300 lbs and attain torsional rigidity improvements of more than 20%.

Mercedes-Benz will introduce new features including a windshield wiper system known as Magic Vision Control. While it sounds like a gizmo found in a sci-fi show from the 80′s, it’s actually a sophisticated sensor that measures ambient temperatures, traveling speeds, and even the season of the year in order to calculate the optimal amount of washer fluid to spray onto the windshield. What’s more, two sound systems will be offered for the SL – a Harman Kardon 600-watt Logic7 surround sound system and and a top-of-the-line 940-watt Bang & Olufsen system will also be available. More details will be revealed when the SL is closer to its 2013 production.

GALLERY: Mercedes SL Concept

[Source: eGMCarTech]

There are tuner shops, and then there are tuner manufacturers. What’s the difference? While a Tuner shop will bolt on spoilers and body kits, and some good tuner shops can even enhance your engines performance; a tuner manufacturer takes a bare shell and makes the entire car themselves to meet their customer’s requirements.

That is exactly what Ruf does. For 34 years, Alois Ruf has been working on Porsches. His process is so thorough, Porsche sends him bare shells of their cars, and everything is then put in place by Ruf technicians. Each car is thus tailor made for its new owner.

While most of Ruf’s creations look like slightly modded versions of the Stuttgart original, in 2007 they unveiled a car that took the tuning game on a whole new level. It was called the CTR3 and it was built using a chassis that had bits of the 911 married to some Cayman structure, wrapped in a Kevlar-carbon composite body-shell. The end result looked like a car Porsche enthusiasts could only dream about, until now.

It’s not all about looks either. Under the rear clamshell you’ll find a 3.8-liter, flat-six engine with two turbo-chargers. Twin-turbo Porsche motors are not that uncommon, but ones that produce 750-hp and 708 lb/ft of torque certainly are. All this power is fed to only the rear wheels via a six-speed sequential gearbox. Launch it correctly and you’ll cover the sprint from 0-60 mph in just 3.2 seconds, and onto a top speed of 236 mph. That makes the CTR3 a lot faster than the Carrera GT, the fastest production car Porsche ever made.

If all this sounds irresistible to you (if you’re reading about cars on the internet, it should), you’d be happy to learn that a CTR3 is currently being offered for sale in California by R3 Motorsports. Since their advert was missing some information, we called the owner of the company; Ryan Negry, for some more information on this rare beast. According to Negry, this 2010 example has covered just 300-miles and that it can be yours for just $540,000.

[Source: duPont Registry]

10. 2012 Toyota Camry Hybrid LE: 43/39 MPG

The Top 10 Most Fuel Efficient cars have been named for 2012 by the Environmental Protection Agency. The EPA (those guys that come up with the official ratings for cars) has compiled the list, which is dominated by Japanese automakers. Those remaining two are domestic vehicles, although with one being a commercial van, it almost should count. On the list are electric and hybrid vehicles only, with no diesels or pure gasoline engines.

In 10th spot is the first of three Toyota models and the first of four if you count the larger Toyota company and Lexus. The Toyota Camry Hybrid LE is officially rated at 43 mpg city and 39 mpg highway. With a combined rating of 41-mpg, it’s the only true mid-size sedan to achieve an average of 40-mpg or better. And these numbers don’t come at the expense of performance either, with 200-hp on tap. Of note, XLE models, which have more content and are heavier, are rated at 40 mpg city and 38 mpg highway.

Read AutoGuide’s 2012 Toyota Camry Review here