1966 Full Size Chevy (impala /bel Air) Front Chrome Bumper Guards on 2040-parts.com

Ian Callum meets graffiti artist Mr Kaves and his one-off Jag [w/video]

A backstreet garage in Brooklyn, New York, is home to the company that preps Jaguars and Land Rovers for films and TV product placement. Hidden in the rear is a full-sized Thomas the Tank Engine, the presence of which no one can explain. Nearer the front is an XKR, delivered a couple of days ago for a unique paint job.

Ellesmere Port's bid to build Ampera hits snags

By Rob Golding Motor Industry 09 October 2009 15:02 Prime minister Gordon Brown’s personal crusade to get Vauxhall's version of the Chevrolet Volt petrol-electric plug-in hybrid – the Ampera – built in Britain's Ellesmere Port factory in 2012 is a dream delayed, CAR can disclose today.News that the UK Astra plant is the best in Europe, that the Astra's Delta platform will underpin the Ampera, and that Volt will be on US sale from 2010 had been taken to mean that Vauxhall would be churning out the cars in the north west within three years.But the prospect of an electric car industry growing up around the run-down Merseyside manufacturing site is not imminent, CAR has learned.'No Ampera to be built in Europe before 2015'Vauxhall insiders have made it clear that the car to be known as the Vauxhall/Opel Ampera in Europe will be an import from the US for at least five years. One senior planner told us: 'The US will be the sole source of Amperas until at least 2015.'Bob Lutz, GM's former product supremo who recently came out of retirement as a PR, said that the low value of the dollar made the US an ideal site for the manufacturing of export cars. And with forecast sticker prices of the range-extender electric car standing at a scary £35,000+, every price saving is vital to its marketability.The European market also needs time to get its electricity recharge infrastructure in place before it is worth making cars onshore in volume, GM high-ups point out.

Fiat 500 Cabrio hits the US

The Fiat 500 Cabrio hits the US for Spring Actually, we’re not completely convinced that the Fiat 500 cabrio (that’s Fiat 500 Convertible for those of us on the old continent who prefer real words)  has hit the US. Because although Fiat has told us the 500 Cabrio hits the US ‘Just in time for spring’, it doesn’t say when US customers will start to get cars. Which may be a bit nit-picking, but there doesn’t seem much point saying it’s hitting in time for Spring when Spring’s a third done and there’s still no date.