No, I am not talking 261 horsepower. Are you feeling threatened your ignorance is about to be exposed? Kane will put you out of pain instantly, and advise that the latest VW XLI concept car achieves 261 miles per gallon, with a little help from a diesel electric generator and some sturdy batteries. All good, as long as you are in no hurry. No worries if you are in a rush though. Just prod the throttle, and a 0.6 litre 2-cylinder diesel will make some sort of difference. Carbon fibre, aluminium and magnesium come at a cost, although VW has given no indication of the price yet. It must have been expensive to build. The engineers had to omit the rear view mirrors and install real time video cameras instead. You win some, you lose some, I guess. The concept car is also a little noisy, owing to the zero sound-deadening qualities of carbon-fibre reinforced polymer. To an extent, the lowest-ever drag coefficient recorded for a “production” car offsets this. Whether VW will manufacture more than the required 50 stealth cars is another matter. The interior softens the teutonic efficiency just a tad, although romance is still not on the cards. The puritans have gone as far as to offset the two carbon fibre seats slightly, to eliminate the possibility of shoulders touching. Notwithstanding this, the pseudo leather steering wheel, analogue dials, climate control and radio scanner do manage to create the impression that this is indeed a motor car. Would I buy one if I had the money? Probably not: I am too impatient to drive slowly. Besides, what am I going to tell the police, when they stop me and ask “Where are your mirrors, mate? What you have there is against the law, and I am going to have to give you a warning … “ Take care, Kane