Records

​Back in January, we brought news from Crosley Radio that a rather special turntable was being made to celebrate Record Store Day. More details on the RSD3 mini turntable have now emerged ahead of release on Saturday April 13 in participating independent record stores throughout the US.​

Music lovers in the Soviet Union during the 1950s had to sneak X-ray plates on their turntables if they wanted to listen to tunes from prohibited international musicians. Now a project has etched tracks by modern artists onto X-rays of skulls, skeletons and joints and put them up for auction.

Supersense has revived and refined an art project by Gebhard Sengmüller and Martin Diamant which sees users put a vinyl record on a turntable that results in sound and video appearing on a TV. Inbetween the two sits a VinylVideo Converter.

After a superb performance in qualifying, we thought the battery-powered Volkswagen had a good chance at beating the electric record at Pikes Peak. Turns out Romain Dumas and the VW team had their sights set even higher.

No matter how well you care for your collection, records can be insatiable magnets for surface dust and groove-filling micro particles. A retro-cool machine called the Degritter uses ultrasound to get into the grooves and rejuvenate treasured vinyl.​

Austrian company Rebeat is looking to fundamentally change the way vinyl records are mastered, promising to bring what it calls “HD vinyl”, with longer playing times and better sound quality, to stores sometime in 2019.

Indianapolis-based Romanus Records is shaking up boring vinyl with records that contains gun powder and razor blades or shifting sand. The latest envelope-pushing idea from the label is an album that rocks its own light show.

Just weeks after Bugatti set a new 0-400-0 km/h world record in the Chiron, Koenigsegg has smashed it with the Agera RS. The plucky (or mad) Swedes shaved almost five seconds from the record, and did it without the considerable might of the VW Group for backing.

The Alfa Romeo renaissance started with the Giulia, but given how popular mid-size SUVs are at the moment the new Stelvio is arguably more commercially important for the brand. The Stelvio has proven its performance chops with a new Nurburgring Nordschleife SUV lap record.

The GT2 RS is the fastest Porsche 911 ever. It's the alpha in a family full of predators, a reminder of what Weissach can do. As well as topping the pile at Porsche, the car has scaled the skyscraper of supercars chasing glory in Germany with a new production lap record at the Nurburgring.

Subaru has taken to the Nurburgring Nordschleife in a modded WRX STI, toppling the lap record for four-door sedans with the WRX STI Type RA NBR Special – and becoming the first four-door to dip below seven minutes in the process.​

The 986 hp McLaren P1 LM became the world's fastest production car around the Nürburgring Nordschleife last month. The extraordinary time is a significant automotive landmark for McLaren, the Lanzante team that executed the mission, and the the car that was used. Here's why.