The Exiles Motorcycle Club, based in Abu Dhabi, will be doing its bit to help the community today, having organised a charity event known as The Toy Ride. Toys will be delivered by motorcycle to the Sheikh Khalifa Medical Centre in the capital, where they will be distributed to young patients. If you want to take part, the ride is scheduled to start at 10am today, from the Mugg & Bean at Etihad Plaza. The procession of bikes will travel to Ghantoot to meet with other clubs from Dubai, then the entire motorcade will set off at 11.30am on a ride to SKMC, where the bikers should arrive for 2pm.
Full day of racing at the Autodrome
There is more racing today at the Dubai Autodrome, with the last day of the Dubai Motorsport Festival getting underway at 9am. The NGK Racing Series (including GT cars, touring cars and Clio Cup), Formula Gulf 1000 single-seaters, Radical Winter Cup, UAE Sportbikes and the Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Middle East will all take their turns around the 5.39km venue. Admission is, of course, free.
Porsche confirms return to Le Mans
The most successful marque to ever race at the 24 Hours of Le Mans will be returning to the event next year.
Porsche, which last contested the top prototype LMP1 class as a factory project at the race in 1998 - and won it outright - will be reviving its team for a go in LMP1 again at the event in 2014. Next year, it will field two 911 RSR GTE cars with Manthey Racing.
The German carmaker took its first overall win at Le Mans in 1970 in a 917 driven by Hans Hermann and Richard Attwood. In its history there, Porsche has taken 16 victories, the most by any carmaker.
Nissan and Fiat in spat over electric models
Nissan and Fiat have recently been involved in an unlikely war of words over the designs of each other's electric cars. At the LA Auto Show, Fiat's newly appointed brand chief, Olivier François, asked a rhetorical question in front of journalists: "Isn't ugliness the worst kind of pollution?" as he was extolling the virtues of Fiat's 500e. Taking this as a slight against the Leaf, Nissan's marketing boss, Simon Sproule, hit back in an interview with Automotive News, saying: "Let's face it, Fiat has not shied away from controversial styling themselves … Many would describe many of their products as visual pollution." We eagerly await the next round - Fiat, over to you.
Hyundai on all time high in the USA
Proof that it's on something of a roll at the moment, Hyundai has just posted record-beating sales figures for the US this year, eclipsing 2011's best-ever total of 645,691 sales. Hyundai's numbers were up an impressive eight per cent for the month of November and it has broken monthly records in every month so far this year except for June and October.
Chevrolet Volt clocks up 100m-mile feat
Chevrolet's Volt has only been on sale for two years but its maker is claiming that owners of the model have driven a collective 100 million all-electric miles (160 million km) in that time. Chevy says that Volt owners are travelling under electric power more than 65 per cent of the time, which has saved around 20 million litres of petrol.
