1953 Ford V8 Transmission on 2040-parts.com

Concept Car of the Week: Volkswagen Microbus (2001)

The turn of the millennium seemed to induce a feeling of nostalgia among car manufacturers and with it a plethora of heritage/retro designs, including the new Mini, new Ford Mustang and Nissan Z. Following the runaway success of its New Beetle, which probably started the trend, VW asked itself whether it could enjoy the same success with a modern interpretation of the legendary T1 Microbus. Designed at the surf-central design studio in Simi Valley, California, the Microbus Concept took ample inspiration from its distant ancestor, but was modernized in every way.

Monaco Grand Prix: It’s a Mercedes front row

Nico Rosberg & Lewis Hamilton pictured after making it a Mercedes front row in Monaco Two weeks ago in Spain, Nico Rosberg pipped team mate Lewis Hamilton to pole position, and he’s pulled the same trick on the streets of Monaco today to ensure the second Mercedes front row in succession and his own third pole position in a row. Behind the Mercedes it’s a Red Bull second row, with Sebastian Vettel taking third place and Mark Webber fourth, with the third row made up of the Lotus of Kimi Raikkonen and the Ferrari of Fernando Alonso. McLaren managed to take seventh (Perez) and ninth (Button) with Sutil’s Force India in eighth and Vergne’s Torro Rosso in tenth.

Bentley Hybrid Concept is a Mulsanne, but it’ll arrive in the new Bentley SUV

The Bentley Hybrid Concept (pictured) will debut in Beijing There’s been lots of talk of a Bentley Hybrid for a number of years now, and in 2011 Wolfgang Dürheimer confirmed that hybrid was in Bentley’s plans and that it would be a plug-in. Fast forward three years and we get the Bentley Hybrid Concept, Bentley’s first crack at a plug-in hybrid powertrain all wrapped up in the Mulsanne. But it won’t be the Mulsanne that sees a production version of the hybrid powertrain but, as expected, the new Bentley SUV.