1955-1956 55 56 Chevy Heater Air Inlet Diverter "flapper" Box Deluxe on 2040-parts.com

AUCTION GOES BANANAS FOR CLASSIC VW

A VINTAGE 1950s Volkswagen Beetle owned by a pensioner will go under the hammer at an auction later this month. The classic car, which has picked up a number of awards, is expected to fetch around £9,000 when it appears alongside a selection of rare art and antiques in the McTear's Collectables sale in Glasgow on September 29. The 1953 Beetle, which is a 1200 Deluxe model, has been in the hands of 72-year-old Willie Black since 1966, the same year that VW gave it the Best Beetle in Britain accolade.

Official: Aston Martin gets its hands on Mercedes AMG engines & Electronic Architecture

Aston Martin & AMG confirm they’re getting in bed together Back in December we reported that Aston Martin had new investment from Investindustrial and wondered if that would mean – thanks to an existing relationship between Investindustrial and AMG – if we’d see Aston Martin finally getting access to AMG’s engines and platforms. By May, things had moved on and it was clear that Aston Martin and AMG were in talks for Aston Martin to get access to their engines for the next generation of AML’s cars. Now those talks have borne fruit and AMG and AML have signed a letter of intent for Aston Martin to “access significant Mercedes-AMG GmbH and Mercedes-Benz Cars’ resources, allowing the development of bespoke V8 powertrains and the use of certain components of electric/electronic (e/e) architecture.” Interestingly, there’s no talk of V12 engines – which could mean Aston Martin are going to move from the current Ford V12 for the DB9 and Vanquish to a powerful V8 from AMG – and nor is there talk of sharing platforms.

Exclusive: 2012 Bentley Continental GTC spied – with new V8

First photo of a V8 Bentley Continental We had the launch of the new Bentley Continental GT – the 2011 car – back in September at the Paris Motor Show, but we’re still waiting for what will now be the 2012 Bentley Continental GTC – the drop-top Conti. We had a photo of the new GTC – complete with a slightly odd two-tone paint job – drop in last week, and we’d planned to run the story today – it’s a good filler for a Sunday. But it’s turned in to a bit more than that.