The winner of the honour this year is 25 year-old Marlene Speck from Starnberg, a pretty lakeside town near Munich. "I'm incredibly pleased, and it's unbelievable that I'm going to represent the drink that has such a special place in my heart and is so closely linked to my home," said Speck just after her coronation in Munich on Monday. This specific honour may only date back to 2009, but beer and tradition are pretty much synonymous in Bavaria. Speck brews her own beer at home, and dazzled Read more [...]

What's it like?: In isolation, the open-top D4 feels not one bit slower than the D3 saloon. The turbodiesel picks up not much beyond 1000rpm and then huge reserves of torque kick in; this is one of those cars where you can think you’re accelerating hard and then find you’ve got another 20% of throttle pedal travel remaining. The Alpina version of the ZF eight-speed transmission is slick, too, with rapid, smooth shifts and quick responses if you switch to the buttons mounted at the back of the Read more [...]