A favorite genre of many auto fiends is the “sleeper” - a car that looks like grandma’s Mercury but goes like stink. In this day and age of flashy, showy performance - with all the standard body kits, huge spoilers and obnoxious red badging automakers seem to believe belong on performance cars, the sleeper is a dying breed.

Lexus\342\200\231 first luxury hybrid sedan, the GS450h, made its motor racing debut in Japan\342\200\231s only 24-hour race on 15 July. The high-performance hybrid shone at the Tokachi International Speedway in Hokkaido, outperforming many of its traditional petrol rivals.

Toyota continues to expand its hybrid offerings, with the new Lexus GS450h, with about 33 mpg. It shows up in the US sometime in April.