The Audi R8, fresh off its Le Mans 24 hour safety car debut, will now take on the same role in the DTM Race Series (Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters) and the slick R8 will make a second debut serving as a racing taxi as well.

If I was ever late to catch a flight, seeing this taxi pulling up in front of the Compound would be a welcome site. But in reality, this Corvette Z06 isn't a taxicab all. It's actually one of the 120 cars participating in the 10th Annual Gumball 3000 Rally.

Gottlieb Daimler fulfilled the dream of his life. He installed his epoch-making invention – the lightweight, high-speed petrol engine and universal source of power for all types of means of transport on land, on water and in the air – into a carriage in 1886. However, hardly anybody took notice of these modest beginnings of general, individual mobility. Much the same happened the same year to Karl Benz in Mannheim with his patent motor car.