1959 El Caminotail Gate License Plate Mount. on 2040-parts.com

Honda back in F1 as engine supplier to McLaren from 2015

We reported that Honda were looking likely to be heading back in to F1 as engine supplier to McLaren nearly two years ago, and this morning Honda has confirmed they have formed a joint project with McLaren to supply engines and energy recovery systems to McLaren from 2015 in a joint project with the McLaren team becoming McLaren Honda. The new F1 partnership revives a very successful period for McLaren when it last used Honda engines and Prost and Senna dominated F1 with Honda powered McLarens, and fits in nicely with Honda’s return to making supercars with the new Honda NSX. Formula One engines will drop to a 1.6 litre V6 in 2015 – with a turbo – and it will be very easy for parallels to be drawn with the V6 hybrid plant Honda are using on the new NSX, which is going to do its credibility no harm whatsoever.

Bid to cut car insurance premiums

THE COMPETITION WATCHDOG is proposing to impose a cap on replacement vehicle costs following motor accidents as part of a clampdown to help cut premiums for all drivers in the £11 billion private motor insurance market. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said the cap on charges passed to the insurer of the driver who is at-fault in an accident for the cost of providing a replacement vehicle to the non-fault driver, would "more closely reflect the costs incurred and remove significant inefficiencies". The watchdog has previously found that the "complex chain" of claim costs following an accident collectively inflates premiums by as much as £200 million a year.

Bugatti sell their 400th Veyron – just 50 left to go. But what next for Bugatti?

The 400th Veyron – a Grand Sport Vitesse Jean-Pierre Wimille Special Edition Bugatti may have come to rely on ‘Special Edition’ Veyrons to keep making sales, but they’re now getting close to the end of their production run. The Veyron – which debuted in 2005 – is limited to a total of 300 coupes and 150 Roadsters, and all the coupes are long gone with just the Roadsters left to finish their run, and only 50 of are those left to sell. Not surprisingly, the 400th Veyron to be sold – the latest Veyron Grand Sport Vitesse Jean-Pierre Wimille Special Edition – went to a client in the Middle East at a hefty €2.14 million which, at a rates of around one a week sold for the last eight years, means the Veyron will be consigned to the Bugatti history book by the end of 2014.