03 Yamaha Big Bear 400 Front Rack on 2040-parts.com

New Skoda Octavia vRS hatch & estate revealed

The 2013 Skoda Octavia vRS has been revealed (vRS hatch pictured) The Skoda Octavia vRS – the latest version of Skoda’s quick and appealing take on the VW Golf GTI – has been unveiled ahead of its debut at the Goodwood FoS in July, and it looks a cracker. Available as either a hatchback or estate – and as a diesel or a petrol – the Octavia vRS manages to repackage the Golf GTI and Golf GTD in to one Skoda, offering good performance (the vRS is a bit slower than the GTI to 62mph at 6.8 seconds but has a 2mph higher top speed), good looks and the promise of prices starting not much above £20k. The petrol vRS gets the Golf GTI’s 217bhp 2.0 litre TSI and the diesel vRS the 181bhp 2.0 litre TFI from the Golf GTD, both with a 6-speed manual gearbox as standard and a six-speed DSG as option, sports suspension, XDS differential, quicker steering and multi-link rear suspension.

College Exhibition: Royal College of Art Show 2005

For the 18th year Pilkington Automotive sponsored the RCA's Vehicle Design Awards. Leslie Lau won the Best Design Interpretation Award for his Emotive-HYDRO:GEN electric vehicle design, a futuristic look at the automobile which retains the spirit of driving passion. Aimed at the single urbanite and powered by a hydrogen fuel cell, the vehicle also seeks to address issues of recyclability through the use of recycled pulp, most commonly found in egg boxes, in the exterior body panels.

Vote: Guess this car review, episode 3

Last week, we brought you a few mystery car reviews and asked you to guess which vehicle was being reviewed. The response was great, and we want to say congrats to @jasoncashatt, @ericvanderiet, @timothyhowes1 and @ljpancakepantry who all guessed correctly. The three reviews were of the Lexus LS430, Jeep Liberty Renegade and the venerable PT Cruiser, all from 2005.