Apex Weekly — KW 32 / 2026

777 HP. 200 Units. McLaren's V8 Finale.

McLaren closes the 720S/750S/765LT chapter with the 788HS: 788 PS, 800 Nm and 1,265 kg dry — 623 PS per tonne. 0-100 km/h in 2.8 seconds, 330 km/h top speed. Just 100 coupes and 100 spiders, priced around $750,000.

The 788HS is the last hurrah for McLaren's pure-combustion supercar series and only the third car ever to wear the High Sport badge, after the 2012 MP4-12C HS and 2016 MSO HS. The M840T 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 gains ultra-low-inertia twin-scroll turbos and forged aluminium pistons, sending 777 hp to the rear wheels alone. A new aero package brings an S-duct hood, a large fixed rear wing and an F1-derived diffuser; downforce is up 10 percent over the 765LT. Senna-derived carbon-ceramic brakes hide behind forged centre-lock wheels, a first for the series. All 200 cars are finished by McLaren Special Operations.

For Alpine-pass drivers this is the end of an analog era: 623 PS per tonne, rear drive and no hybrid weight make the 788HS the purest McLaren left to order.

Read the original at Motor1 →

777 HP. 200 Units. McLaren's V8 Finale. — Source · Motor1

RESTOMOD4 AugustSource · Carscoops№ 02

765 HP. Manual. Evo II Reborn In Italy.

New Italian outfit Vespera Automobili unveiled the Iride Evo 5, a carbon-bodied Mercedes 190E Evo II restomod: 765 hp and 910 Nm from a turbocharged 3.0-litre M103 straight-six. 1,450 kg, 0-100 in 3.4 seconds, 300 km/h — through a six-speed manual.

Vespera rebuilt the DTM-era W201 Evolution II around a widened carbon-fibre body, adding 10 cm per side with box fender flares, a deep splitter and a towering rear wing. The original Mercedes M103 six was bored to 3.0 litres and fitted with forged internals and a large single turbo. The debut car wears Alfa Romeo Montreal Green over gold OZ Racing rally wheels and was developed with input from MotoGP legend Loris Capirossi. Each car is hand-built to order; pricing is expected at or above the rival HWA EVO, which starts around $770,000 with 493 hp. That makes Vespera's take the most powerful 190E Evo II revival yet.

The 190E Evo II has exploded in collector value, and two rival restomod programs are now fighting over it. Vespera's pitch is pure: more power than the HWA, three pedals, 1,450 kg.

Read the original at Carscoops →

EVENT4 AugustSource · Ecurie des Lions№ 03

2.6 KM. 217 M Up. Les Paccots.

The 43rd Course de Côte Châtel-Saint-Denis - Les Paccots runs 19-20 September 2026 in the Fribourg Pre-Alps. 2,580 metres of closed mountain road, 217 metres of climb, 8.4 percent average gradient — a round of the Swiss Hillclimb Championship.

Organised by the Ecurie des Lions since the 1960s, Les Paccots is one of Switzerland's most traditional hillclimbs, fought out on the road from Châtel-Saint-Denis up to the Les Paccots ski station above Lake Geneva. The 2.58-kilometre sprint packs 217 metres of elevation into an 8.41 percent average gradient, and the field spans historic racers to modern championship machinery. The event counts toward the Swiss Mountain Championship as the season heads into its autumn finale. Spectators line the guardrails within metres of the action — the kind of access big-circuit racing lost decades ago.

One hour from Geneva and Bern, this is the closest most of us get to period-correct mountain racing: real cars, real gradients, free-standing Alpine scenery.

Read the original at Ecurie des Lions →

2.6 KM. 217 M Up. Les Paccots. — Source · Ecurie des Lions

AUCTION4 AugustSource · RM Sotheby's№ 04

Bugatti's Wicked One. $6M Atalante.

RM Sotheby's offers a 1937 Bugatti Type 57SC Atalante at Monterey on 13 August, estimate $4.5-6M. Just 42 Type 57S chassis were built, only 17 wore Jean Bugatti's Atalante coupe body — and chassis 57551 is 1 of 4 with the lowered headlights of the Paris show car.

The 57S was Bugatti's lowered, competition-bred chassis: 3.3-litre straight-eight, dry sump, magneto ignition — a genuine supercar of 1937 that won Le Mans and the French Grand Prix. Chassis 57551 was delivered new to Strasbourg mill owner Jean Levy, hidden on a Dordogne farm through WWII, then owned by painter Andre Derain, Harrah's Automobile Collection and Genentech co-founder Herbert Boyer. Harrah's added the supercharger for full 57SC spec and took Best of Show at Pebble Beach in 1976; after a second restoration it won Most Elegant Closed Car there in 2014. It now leaves the Jim Patterson Collection after 25 years.

Prewar Bugattis with double Pebble Beach honors and unbroken provenance almost never trade publicly — this is the reference-grade 57S Atalante against which the market will reprice the model.

Read the original at RM Sotheby's →

NEW MODEL5 AugustSource · Carscoops№ 05

1,000 HP. 2,000 KG Downforce. Fan Car.

McMurtry confirms the production Speirling PURE for its public debut at The Quail on August 14. The twin-fan electric track car makes 1,000 bhp, hits 60 mph in 1.55 seconds and generates 2,000 kg of downforce standing still. 100 cars, GBP 995,000 each.

The production PURE shares 95 percent new components with the record prototype: a 100 kWh battery, new Helix motors, upgraded gearbox and a more durable fan system at roughly 1,350 kg. Two fans and a sealing skirt suck the car onto the road, so full grip is available from zero mph and cornering loads reach 3g - the Chaparral 2J fan-car idea reborn as a customer product. The prototype already holds the outright EV lap record at Laguna Seca (1:18.413, set at half power), the Goodwood hillclimb record and famously drove upside down in 2025. Deliveries start later this year; McMurtry says a driver plus one friend can run it, no race team needed. Track running at Laguna Seca follows on August 15.

For drivers this is the wildest counterpoint to wing-dependent track specials: race-car grip from a standstill, sized like a Sixties F1 car.

Read the original at Carscoops →

1,000 HP. 2,000 KG Downforce. Fan Car. — Source · Carscoops

HYPERCAR5 AugustSource · Hennessey№ 06

9,000 RPM. Gated Manual. 71 Cars.

Hennessey reveals the Blackbird: a $2.5 million touring machine limited to 71 units. An all-new Ilmor-developed 6.2-litre naturally aspirated V8 targets 800-850 hp past 9,000 rpm, paired only with a 6-speed gated manual and rear-wheel drive. Targets: 0-60 in 2.5 seconds, 220 mph, under 1,360 kg dry.

Announced August 3 and debuting at The Quail on August 14, the Blackbird is Hennessey's third original car after Venom GT and Venom F5, with over two thirds of the run already allocated. The name honors the Lockheed SR-71: vertical rear stabilizers deploy at 71 mph and pivot 71 degrees. The cabin is deliberately analog - zero screens, a physical ignition key, exposed shift linkage and a dash-mounted whiskey compass; CarPlay lives on your phone in a holster. Built on a bespoke carbon tub in Sealy, Texas, with gullwing doors and a front trunk for two carry-ons, it is engineered to cover 800-mile days. Customer production is targeted for 2029-2030 as Venom F5 output winds down.

While the industry hybridizes, Texas builds the anti-hypercar: the most powerful naturally aspirated road-car V8 ever, three pedals, no pixels.

Read the original at Hennessey →

EVENT5 AugustSource · gurnigelrennen.ch№ 07

Gurnigel. 314 M Up. Since 1910.

The 55th Bergrennen Gurnigel runs September 12-13 on Bern's home mountain - Europe's oldest hillclimb, first held in 1910. Over 200 cars attack 3.7 km from Duerrbach toward Gurnigelbad: 314 metres of climbing at up to 12.6 percent, in front of 10,000-15,000 spectators.

The first race up the Gurnigel ran on August 21, 1910 over about 7 km; since 1968 the event has used today's 3,734-metre course. It is the penultimate round of the Swiss hillclimb championship. Robin Faustini won in 2025 for the second year running in a LobArt prototype, while record holder Marcel Steiner remains the crowd favourite. The field spans historic touring cars to open-wheel prototypes, and spectators can book race-taxi rides in a BMW M2 or Porsche, walk the paddock or go VIP. Tickets via gurnigelrennen.ch.

One of the last places in Switzerland where you can stand metres from competition cars at full send on a real mountain road.

Read the original at gurnigelrennen.ch →

Gurnigel. 314 M Up. Since 1910. — Source · gurnigelrennen.ch

AUCTION5 AugustSource · Sports Car Digest№ 08

The Teardrop. Le Mans 1939. $8M.

The only competition-built Talbot-Lago Teardrop in existence heads to RM Sotheby's Monterey, August 13-15, estimated at $7-8 million. Chassis 90117 is one of just 11 New York-style Teardrop coupes by Figoni et Falaschi - and the sole example that raced, holding 9th at Le Mans 1939 before retiring after 88 laps.

Commissioned by French racer Philippe Regnier de Massa on the short competition chassis with the 4.0-litre straight-six and Wilson pre-selector gearbox, 90117 got a lower, longer body, long-range tank, bucket seat, a 250 km/h speedometer - and a heart-shaped sunroof. After the war it vanished behind the Iron Curtain near Berlin and was only rediscovered after German reunification, then restored over six years from 1996. Under collector Oscar Davis it won awards at Villa d'Este 2010 and the Louis Vuitton Classic 2011, and sold for $7,265,000 at Monterey in 2022. Figoni's Teardrop design, unveiled at the 1937 Paris Motor Show, is considered the pinnacle of French Art Deco coachbuilding.

Pre-war French curves with a real Le Mans story - the kind of car that wins Best of Show, not just auctions.

Read the original at Sports Car Digest →

HYPERCAR6 AugustSource · Jalopnik№ 09

Bugatti Destrier. 1,600 PS. One-Off.

Bugatti pulled the covers off the Destrier at Monterey Car Week: a one-off hypercar on the Bolide's carbon monocoque, packing the 1,600 PS quad-turbo 8.0-litre W16. It stands just 1.00 m tall, lower than a GT40. One car only, already sold, around $5 million.

The Destrier is the third one-off under Bugatti's Programme Solitaire, after the Brouillard and the FKP Hommage. Unlike those road-car-based specials it uses the Bolide track car's Dallara-developed carbon monocoque, stripped of the wing and aero package so the shape works as sculpture rather than downforce. Design chief Frank Heyl draws a line to the Type 57 chassis that spawned both the Le Mans-winning 57G and the 57SC Atlantic. It runs 20-inch front and 21-inch rear wheels, a multi-layer Sapphire Celeste paint, and a leather and nubuck cabin with copper-yarn 3D-knitted textile. Public debut at The Quail and the Pebble Beach Concours, delivery in a year or two.

The W16 is on its way out, replaced by the Tourbillon's V16 hybrid. This is the engine's last outrageous send-off, built for the lawn rather than the lap time.

Read the original at Jalopnik →

Bugatti Destrier. 1,600 PS. One-Off. — Source · Jalopnik

TUNER6 AugustSource · Brabus№ 10

1,000 HP V12. Brabus Goes Solo.

Brabus revealed the Bodo, its first ground-up supercar after 49 years as a tuner. A hand-built 5.2-litre biturbo V12 makes 1,000 hp and 1,200 Nm, good for 0-100 in 3.0 seconds and 360 km/h. 77 cars, from roughly EUR 1.2 million, half already sold.

The Bodo is a 2+2 Gran Turismo bodied entirely in exposed carbon fibre on an Aston Martin Vanquish chassis, whose twin-turbo V12 Brabus re-engineers for about 20 percent more power than the donor car. Peak torque arrives between 2,900 and 5,000 rpm and runs through an eight-speed automatic to the rear axle via an electronically controlled limited-slip diff. Production is capped at 77 units, a nod to the company's 1977 founding, with annual output of only 10 to 15 cars. The name honours late founder Bodo Buschmann, who left an unfinished large-coupe project when he died eight years ago. His son Constantin now runs the company.

A tuner of Mercedes, Rolls-Royce and Porsche for five decades has just become a manufacturer. That is a bigger jump than the spec sheet suggests.

Read the original at Brabus →

EVENT6 AugustSource · Engadin Tourismus№ 11

Bernina. 5.7 KM. Sept 11-13.

The Bernina Gran Turismo returns to the Bernina Pass on 11-13 September 2026, running the 5.7 km closed-road course from La Rosa up to Ospizio Bernina. Over 50 corners, around 450 metres of climb, roughly 70 historic race and sports cars entered.

The event revives the St. Moritz Automobile Week hillclimbs of 1929 and 1930 and has run in its modern form since 2015 under founder Kurt Engelhorn. 2025 marked the tenth revival anniversary with 51 cars. Entrants compete in two formats: Regularity for precision timing and Competition for outright pace. Last year's field included a 1934 Bugatti Type 59 Sports, a 1961 Ferrari 250 GT SWB SEFAC and a 1971 Porsche 908/10/03, plus the Bugatti Bolide's first ever public-road run with Le Mans winner Andy Wallace. The pass road closes for three days and spectators line the climb.

One of the last historic hillclimbs still run on a genuine high-alpine pass. Pre-war and post-war icons on the exact tarmac we drive in the Engadin.

Read the original at Engadin Tourismus →

Bernina. 5.7 KM. Sept 11-13. — Source · Engadin Tourismus

AUCTION6 AugustSource · Gooding & Christie's№ 12

First Ferrari P Car. $20M.

Gooding & Christie's offers 1963 Ferrari 250 P chassis 0810 at Pebble Beach on 15 August, estimated at $15-20 million. It is the original mid-engine V12 prototype that started Ferrari's entire P-series bloodline.

Chassis 0810 debuted at Monza in March 1963, finished second overall at the 12 Hours of Sebring and third overall at Le Mans that June, driven by works men Mairesse, Bandini, Vaccarella, Parkes and Maglioli. Released to Luigi Chinetti's N.A.R.T. for 1964, it won the Canadian GP at Mosport with Pedro Rodriguez and took two class wins at Bahamas Speed Week. It has been in the same collection since 1988, documented by Ferrari historian Marcel Massini, and still carries its original Tipo 128 LM 63 engine and 564/D transaxle. Every mid-engine V12 Ferrari since, from the 275 P to the 330 P4, 512 S and 333 SP, traces back to this car.

It headlines the Gooding & Christie's Pebble Beach sale on 14-15 August, the most watched auction weekend of the collector year.

Read the original at Gooding & Christie's →