Care to hazard a guess at what the most-attended sporting event in Irish history might be? An All-Ireland final, surely? Maybe a major World Cup qualifier?

Nope, in fact it was the Gordon Bennett Cup Grand Prix of 1903. Even now, 116 years on, this epochal car race drew the largest sporting crowd in Irish history, with an estimated 150,000 people turning out for the event, some of them seeing a car for the very first time.

This year, as is tradition, some of the most spectacular classic, vintage and veteran cars in Ireland will take part…

As MINI celebrates its 60th anniversary this year, the BMW-owned brand is preparing for its biggest shake-up since the second-generation Mini was first introduced in 2000. An all-electric MINI, the first full production battery electric model in the brand's history since 1959, is on the way. We'll see it in full, and find out its technical specs, in June, while production starts this November. The first customer cars should start landing here in March 2020, or thereabouts.

There's a significant Irish connection to the development of the MINI E, as the electric model will be known. Dundalk native James Redmond's…

If you're someone who gets a car with their job and are currently looking at the list of available models on your scheme, do me a favour - take a Sharpie (other felt-tip markers are available) and draw a thick, black line through any model that's not an electric car. Well done; you've just saved yourself a packet.

Quite apart from what David Attenborough or Extinction Rebellion might tell you, the fact is that, right now is the best time yet to make sure that your next company car is electric. Indeed, given that eventually government-backed incentives for electric car…

Big, seven-seat SUVs are becoming a hot new trend, as they provide a stylish way for mums and dads to transport around large broods of children with a modicum of style - and no small hint of safety. So while they offer much in the way of space, practicality and configurability, making them an attractive proposition in the sanctitude of a glitzy car showroom, it's the mental 'safety net' of having a vehicle that will thoroughly protect all its occupants in the event of an accident out on the public road that's a key driver in seven-seat SUV sales.

Which…

Hybrids have become quite the thing, haven't they? In the wake of the diesel scandal of a few years ago, and with electric cars still only now becoming attractive to some motorists, hybrids are filling the gap rather nicely. It helps that, in the past few years, the hybrid tech on offer has really matured, delivering genuinely impressive real-world performance and economy, which wasn't always the case before.

Even given that maturity, Honda has decided to do things a little differently with its new CR-V Hybrid. The Japanese giant has committed to offering electric…

It's hard not to wander around aimlessly, agog and borderline stupefied, when you're within the hallowed sanctum of the Porsche Museum in Germany. Located in Zuffenhausen, a small satellite town to the north of Stuttgart and the place that has played home to Porsche production since the very start of this company in 1948, the museum opened ten years ago. It serves not only as a showcase for the sports car company's revered back catalogue, but also as a way of keeping the old Porsches in fine fettle; it's known informally as the 'rolling display', because - despite its 5,600…