A round-up of today's other stories in brief...
Audi’s €10m Frankfurt show stopper
AUDI WILL SPEND more than €10 million on its stand for this autumn’s Frankfurt motor show. Aiming to steal some of the limelight for German rivals BMW and Mercedes, the Audi showcase will include an indoor test track. The biannual Frankfurt International Motor Show, Europes biggest, runs from September 15th to September 25th.
At the last event BMW took over an entire show hall to build a first-floor banked track on which new models were driven around in view of the visitors below. Similarly, Mercedes takes its own multistorey hall at the event.
Ireland sixth in European road safety
IRELAND HAS BEEN ranked sixth in a new European road-safety league table, in recognition of the progress it has made in cutting deaths and serious injuries on our roads.
The European Transport Safety Council said the country had made remarkable progress and reduced annual deaths from 411 in 2001 to 212 last year, a fall of 48 per cent.
As of yesterday, 81 people had been killed on Irish roads this year, 16 fewer than at the same point in 2010. Of those killed, half were drivers and almost a quarter were pedestrians.
The council said road deaths in Ireland had fallen 11 per cent between 2009 and 2010, prompting the country ranking to be raised to sixth out of 27 EU member states for road safety, with 47 deaths per million of population.
The best-performing country is Sweden, with 28 deaths per million, followed by the UK, Malta, the Netherland and Germany.
Noel Brett, chief executive of the Road Safety Authority, said that despite recent improvements there was a big gap between Ireland and the safest countries.
Brett said Irish motorists needed to slow down, stop using their mobiles while driving and wear high-visibility clothing when walking or cycling.
€110,000 of BMW muscle
IN CASE ANYONE missed the myriad of leaks, BMW has released any missing data you might need on the next-generation M5. Featuring a 4.4-litre V8, the car will put out 560bhp at 6,000rpm and a mammoth 680Nm of torque.
That is a 10 per cent increase in output and a 30 per cent increase in torque over the previous model. It needs just 4.4 seconds to go from 0 to 100km/h, and will reach 200km/h in just seconds.
Top speed will be limited to 250km/h, but this can extend to 305km/h with the M Drivers Package. There are no details on pricing, but the car will go on sale in November for about €110,000.