Rowan Atkinson's McLaren F1 is for sale

This is a car that's famous for many reasons. It's a McLaren F1 for starters, the original hypercar, famous for its three seats, 240mph-plus speed and its fastidious design and development.

It's owned by the man who plays Mr Bean, too, a character associated with a rather downtrodden Mini. And who could forget the time his Stiggyness had a go (above) when we needed something with enough firepower to give the Bugatti Veyron a fright?

All great reasons for fame, but sadly infamy gets people talking more, and Rowan's unfortunate accident a few years ago - which led to a £910,000 repair bill - is likely to be the reason most are familiar with a purple McLaren F1.

Still, fix it he did, and now Rowan is parting with his beloved F1. There's no word on a price yet, but something eight figures long is plausible. Really.

Red Bull's trophy thieves were caught on camera

Here is the moment thieves smashed through the front door of Red Bull's factory in Milton Keynes late last year.

The crime, which happened on 6 December 2014, resulted in the theft of 60 trophies housed in a glass cabinet in the reception area of Red Bull Racing's factory.

This CCTV footage shows the thieves reversing into the reception using what looks like an old Subaru Outback, and then making off with the trophies.

A few days after the theft, police recovered 20 of the trophies from a lake near Sandhurst after being notified by a member of the public.

At the time, Red Bull team principal Christian Horner said: "Beyond the aggressive nature of this break-in, we are perplexed why anyone would take these trophies.

"The value to the team is of course extraordinarily high due to the sheer hard work and effort that went into winning each and every one. But their intrinsic value is low; they would be of little benefit to those outside of the team and, in addition to that, many of the trophies on display were replicas."

Sebastien Loeb is back

World Rallying's winningest driver has returned to the sport. He retired from full-time WRC action in 2012 with a faintly scary nine titles to his name, and he's back in 2015 to compete his home rally, the Monte-Carlo, which takes place this weekend. And which he happens to have won seven times previously...

And he's not lost his magic touch. The 40-year-old has shown all the young whipper-snappers what's what so far, finishing the first stage on Thrusday night a full 22 seconds ahead of second-placed Ott Tanak.

What odds on an eighth win at Monte?

Ford won't be making any nutcase hot hatches

Unless they'll make shedloads of money, that is. By 2020 the Ford Performance brand will have 12 models to its name, including the wonderful new GT supercar (above), but each one has to justify its business case. And there'll be no loss-leaders sold to pump up brand values, like you'll find elsewhere in the performance car world.

So said Tyrone Johnson, Vehicle Engineering Manager at Ford Performance, when TG spoke to him at the Focus ST launch this week. "Everything we sell has to have a business case", he said, "we're competing with other projects within Ford for investment, so there needs to be a return".

This has stymied the prospect of a Fiesta RS in the past, but Johnson wouldn't confirm either way whether it will this time. He did tell us the performance targets and requisite hardware are all sorted, though...

There's a reason why normal people don't twerk in their cars...

...particularly if it's moving and door is open. And this is it. We shouldn't have to say "don't try this at home", and we're really, really hoping that you weren't considering it beforehand anyway. You're cleverer than that aren't you, dear reader?

Wheelie bins can get parking tickets

Well, they're a box on four wheels and this one was 'parked' on double yellow lines. There's a certain logic to it. And it's barely smaller than a Peel P50, which would get a ticket if stationary in the same location.

But still. The Carmarthen traffic warden is being investigated for his light-hearted stickering of the waste holder, the packet itself being empty.

Faultlessly playing the baddies in a whimsical story otherwise brightening up our frequently harrowing news websites, his superiors have completely mislaid their sense of humour.

So says Carmarthenshire council's traffic and safety manager John McEvoy: "Although this was meant as a humorous incident, we take this kind of thing very seriously and have launched a formal investigation into the conduct of this officer."

£62,000 is a lot for a 'Freelander'

Land Rover has launched its Discovery Sport configurator this week, giving us the distraction of one of our favourite games: 'How Expensively Can You Spec A Relatively Sensible Car With Silly Options?'. It probably needs a catchier name.

Anyhow, we managed to spec one up to a grand total of £62,232, pictured above. That's an options haul of £19,237 on top of a seemingly already stuffed-to-the-gunwales Discovery Sport HSE Luxury Automatic.

Yep, that's over £62k for what's effectively the new Freelander. With a four-cylinder diesel engine. Highlights include 'Phoenix Orange' paint (something we genuinely would spec to stand out from the inevitable sea of grey and black Disco Sports) and some Union Jack valve caps (we'd give those a swerve, though).

UK car production is in a rather spiffing state

We may jest, but those luxuriously specced Land Rovers have helped the UK car industry hit a seven-year production high. 2014 saw over 1.5million cars made in Great Britain. That's one every 20 seconds.

Nissan's Sunderland factory takes top honours, with 500,238 Leafs, Notes, Jukes and Qashqais rolling out into the north east air. Next up was Jaguar Land Rover, its combined production not far behind, with 449,507 units being pumped collectively out of its Halewood, Solihull and Castle Bromwich factories.

Mini, Toyota, Honda and Vauxhall make up the other chunky numbers, and let's not forget the smaller, more bespoke production from Rolls-Royce, Morgan, Caterham among many, many others.

Toyota is the world's biggest carmaker

Despite VW shifting ten million cars for the first time, Toyota remained above it for worldwide sales in 2014. It also made its first trip past the big 10m, but nipped ahead of the VW Group's huge empire with the help of sales from its Daihatsu and Hino subsidiaries.

Solace for the Germans comes in Toyota's estimate that it will see a one per cent sales decrease in 2015 - one per cent being rather important when you're dealing with numbers this ginormous.

With yet more niche-busting due from Audi, VW and Skoda this year, it looks like Toyota could be ousted come next January.

Ed Sheeran has driven for the first time...

...and the clumps of grass hanging from the wheelarches suggest he didn't immediately take to it. Our poor Reasonably Priced Car appears to have suffered already at the hands of Series 22's first guest.

Where do you think young Ed will feature on the leader board?