Summarize

We have taken a week off at the News Desk, mainly because the previous week was so slow, but the past few days have made up for that for sure. And if anything, it seems that one thousand horsepower (or 745 kW) is the order of the day right now.

Mercedes AMG has for instance been teasing it’s thousand-horse 2.5 second 0-100 350km/h F1 derived 1.6-litre V6 ERS hybrid One, which is getting closer to production reality. Not to be outdone, Toyota is also clearly pressing on with its thousand horsepower 2.4-litre turbo V6 powered GR Super Sport Le Mans racer for the road…

The company recently applied for several patents on its LMP1-derived Mercedes-AMG One, Glickenhaus SCG 007 and Aston Martin Valkyrie rival. Set for release as a street car alongside its duties as a new WEC Hypercar racer, the future of sportscar racing could just become better than it seems with the likes of Ferrari also sniffing around...

And who remembers Delage? The famous French carmaker with a proud grand prix history imploded in 1953, but now nearly 70 years later, it's back with this new 1000-plus horsepower 7.6 litre V12 and electric hybrid tandem supercar…

All of which makes Ferrari’s 800-horse (that’s just) 600kW 720Nm 6.5 liter V12 812 GTO seem a tad mute. They say the next Goat caught testing in the picture will be good for 2.9 seconds 0-100km/h and closing on 350km/h, for early 2022.

Next up in the big pony stakes for the week is a bakkie. Yip, Ram last week unleashed its mad 1500 TRX. It has 702 horsepower.

Maserati is in the final test phase of the most powerful car yet — the 600 horse (that’s 465kW, by the way) MC20 will be powered by the company's bespoke new  730Nm Nettuno 3-litre biturbo V6and that image  is the best look we have had of it so far.

Other spy info we can share is that Rolls Royce's about to be launches next generation Ghost scooped caught ion the picture in secret arctic circle cold testing, will get all-wheel drive and and all-wheel steering...

Its BMW's next M3 secrets are becoming clearer as the disguise gradually falls off the test mules and the latest images once again reveal the 4-series nose on the 4-door rocket ship set for launch soon in either 360kW 600Nm 6-speed manual rear-wheel drive or 380kW (500 horses) in automatic with the M5's de-selectable all-wheel drive in Competition get-up…

While we're on M3, remember idea of the long anticipated M3 Touring we teased you with last month? Well BMW has now confirmed that car will finally actually become a 'dream come true'. And talking dreams come true, last weekend's Styrian Moto Grand Prix winner Miguel de Oliveira walked away with a pre-production M4 Competition as his prize for winning the race!

Making the same power as the new M3 and M4 Competitions, Land Rover is meanwhile preparing a Defender like never before. The forthcoming SVO tweaked 380kW 700Nm V8 Landy has been testing on the Nürburgring rather than in the Namib and they say it will retain its off-road ability, but this one's Terrain Response 2 system has been expanded to include a track mode. 

JLR has meanwhile confirmed that it will continue production of that 500hp V8 in-house, after it ends over at Ford.…

Staying with absurd 4x4s, if you dig the Isuzu D-Max Arctic, you'll probably love the Iceland bakkie tuner's latest get-up on that new-look Ford F150 with the fat wheels.

Seems the Soviets are getting serious about cars, if those grey patent office renderings of Putin's SUV are anything to go by. They depict Russian carmaker Aurus' new 450kW 880Nm 4.4-litre biturbo V8 Komendant luxury SUV, which joins the startup brand's Senate sedan and convertible soon.

There have also been a few international reveals over the past fortnight and keeping in the mud to start with, no, the red Jeep in the picture is not 'the real thing', it's the all-new Mahindra Thar that's likely to be in SA soon, too in the choice of an advanced 110 kW 320 Nm 2-litre direct-injection turbo petrol and the trusty and capable 95kW 320Nm 2.2-litre four-pot turbodiesel with six-speed automatic or manual ‘boxes. 

Other international newcomers include Audi's hot new 230kW 400Nm S3 hatchback and saloon, both good for 4.8 seconds 0-100 sprint and 250km/h and set for SA soon, while Kia has nipped and tucked the Stinger too. Novelties include a better quality interior, new colours, materials and improved infotainment tech, but there are no plans to bring it here at this point.

Local launches included Mercedes-Benz’ more powerful new 176kW 500Nm V 300 d luxury minibus flagship good for 0 to 100 km/h in 7.9 seconds and 220 km/h. The newcomer also gets Merc's latest 9-speed automatic and Dynamic Select ride control and costs between R1.4 and R1.6 million for the full cream version that's pretty well specced to the moon…

And last but not least, Ford has joined the special edition bakkie bunfight with the new Ranger Thunder, which gets "sportier exterior and interior styling elements, along with practical additions to the load box," while several other Ranger models have also benefited from a few detail upgrades.

All of the above news was published as it happened on  our Auto & Sport Facebook Group - it's the place to be if you dig cars and racing - why not click here and join us there right now!