1954-55 Chevrolet Exhaust Valves on 2040-parts.com

The best bits of Monterey Car Week 2014: a Pebble Beach photo gallery

CAR’s Ben Oliver is just back from the races, auctions and shows of Monterey Car Week, culminating in the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance. Here’s his completely unrepresentative photo-diary: as you’ll see, he got most excited by the oddball Concours de LeMons… The standard of restoration required to exhibit at the Concours de LeMons is a little lower than at the other Monterey Car Week events. This is the kind of thing you see parked on the street during Monterey Car Week: the Blastolene Brothers Dream Rod, with its 2000bhp, 41-litre Packard tank engine.

Chevrolet Cruze lands in the UK

GM is having its problems, as we’ve chronicled almost endlessly, but they are pushing ahead with the launch of their Focus-sized offering, the Chevrolet Cruse, around the world. So far it has been launched in the Far East and Australia, and now we’re getting it in the UK from the summer. But oddly, it’s not going to arrive in the US until next year.

The Name Game: Why the next Buick will be called the Verano

Verano means “summer” in Spanish, though it could easily be a type of coffee or even a brand of crystal. But the idea behind the latest Buick was to snare an upscale, forward-sounding name to lure to new customers. Buick could have gone with an alpha-numeric designation, or even dipped into its heritage for a storied moniker from the past.