06 Audi A3 Passenger Sun Visor/shade 1126978 on 2040-parts.com

Money flows at Monterey Auctions

Buyers of classic vehicles have dug deep into their pockets at auctions on the Monterey Peninsula, easily topping the sales totals from last year with one auction still remaining. More than $203 million has been spent on 704 vehicles, for an average sale price of $288,360. In 2011, the auction houses set a record for total sales during Pebble Beach week at $197,732,538 having been spent on 881 vehicles for an average sale price of $224,441.

New Jaguar XJ – the Marketing

Elle Macpherson and Jay Leno - the very start of marketing for the new Jaguar XJ Marketing One thing you will see if you do any amount of air travel is the complete takeover by Jaguar of T5 at Heathrow. Huge billboards, touch-screen adverts, in-flight magazines – arrivals and departures all – will be barraged with the new Jaguar XJ for a whole month. And it’s a clever – and cost-effective – move by Jaguar.

Alfa Romeo 4C Spider revealed: Geneva Motor Show

The Alfa Romeo 4C Spider (pictured) revealed in Geneva The Alfa Romeo 4C is the epitome of a modern ‘supercar’, with ultra light weight (for a production car) allowing the 4C to produce very good performance from its modest 17500cc engine. So producing an Spider convertible immediately raises the weight issue in a more dramatic way when the car’s abilities are so dependent on it low weight, but it seems the Alfa Romeo 4C Spider – previewed as a production car with a concept at Geneva today – has managed to keep the wight penalties of the convertible 4C down to a minimum. Thanks to a canvas roof and carbon fibre rollover bars, the weight penalty for the Spider is only about 60kg (around a 7 per cent gain) which shouldn’t hurt performance too much.