Fiat 1100 1957-69 Autobook on 2040-parts.com

Win tickets to Rockingham's Mini 50th bash

By Ben Pulman Competitions 20 March 2009 09:30 The Mini will be 50 this year, and to celebrate Rockingham race circuit will hold a fantastic weekend of celebrations. On 18 and 19 April 2009, the Northamptonshire circuit will host the UK’s longest running single-make formula, the Mini Se7en Championship, as well as the modified 1300 Mini Miglia Championship and the Mini Cooper Challenge. Also on the cards is the Dunlop Sport Maxx Cup, along with race action from TVRs, Westfields, Radicals and more.

Smart car inventor Nicolas Hayek dies

Nicolas Hayek, the engineer and industrialist who founded the Swiss watch company Swatch and brought the world the Smart car, died on June 28 of heart failure at his office in Switzerland. He was 82. Hayek saved the Swiss watch industry from lower-priced Asian competition in the early 1980s by offering colorful, inexpensive Swatch timepieces that he backed with equally colorful marketing.

BMW reveals ferocious new M3 and M4

IF YOU’RE no fan of Top Gear-style wheel-spinning, tyre-smoking oversteer, then it’s probably best to look away now, because BMW has unveiled the new M3 and M4. Essentially the same car underneath, the main differences come in the number of doors and the suspension settings, with the M3 built as a four-door, slightly more forgiving saloon and the M4 as a harder-edged two-door coupe. But both will go very sideways, if that’s the sort of thing that revs your engine, thanks to a shared 425bhp six-cylinder engine that sends all that juicy power to the rear wheels.