07 Nissan Versa Automatic Transmission W/o Cvt 306026 on 2040-parts.com

McLaren 650S Sprint revealed – debuts at Pebble Beach

The McLaren 650S Sprint arrives to hit the track The arrival of the McLaren 650S in February (and the end of the 12C, unless it’s being replaced by the McLaren 625C) meant, in all probability, that the various hardcore versions of the 12C would be replicated for the 650S. We’ve already has the new McLaren 650S GT3 at Goodwood this year, and now we get the car that fills the gap between the 650S and GT3 version for McLaren owners to take to the track – the McLaren 650S Sprint. The 650S Sprint – which we assume replaces the 12C Sprint – keeps the 650S’s 641bhp V8 but adds a hefty dose of track specific updates to make the Sprint more focused and with sharper responses.

Bridgestone’s ‘We’ve been everywhere’ Road Trip prize giving

Bridgestone’s ‘I’ve been everywhere’ Road Trip Flogging tyres isn’t the easiest job in the world; we all need them – at intervals far too regular than we’d like – but buyers tend to fall in to two camps – those who know a brand and ask for it by name, and those that have put on their car whatever the man at Kwik Fit is pushing this week. So ‘Brand Awareness’ is the name of the game (a game that can backfire – just ask Pirelli what’s going on in F1) and the more potential buyers a tyre brand can lodge its name in the brain of, the better. Which is why Bridgestone are running their We’ve been everywhere interactive campaign which very cleverly plots the escape of one man from office drudgery and showcases his journey out in to the proper world, all to a soundtrack of Johnny Cash’s ‘I’ve been everywhere’.

Fiat 500 gets Stop-Start

Flavour of the month, stop-start, and here’s another to add to the list. The Fiat 500 gets Start&Stop (I’ve lost count of the different monikers) as an option on the 1.2 Lounge, using Bosch technology to beef up the system to make it reliable. The Stop/Start also gets another Fiat moniker – Blue&Me – which gives the driver EcoDrive to aid emissions and adds hands-free phone and an entertainment system.