1969 Firebird Bucket Seat Chrome Headrest Escutcheon Pair (2) Show Quality on 2040-parts.com

MINI Coupe: It’s official

MINI Coupe - now undisguised It’s been an odd debut – the MINI Coupe. We had the ‘Concept’ version of MINI’s two-seat sporty job back at the Frankfurt Motor Show in 2009. That was followed by a short period where MINI were claiming the Coupe (and its topless twin, the MINI Roadster) were just concepts to see what the public thought.

Smart car inventor Nicolas Hayek dies

Nicolas Hayek, the engineer and industrialist who founded the Swiss watch company Swatch and brought the world the Smart car, died on June 28 of heart failure at his office in Switzerland. He was 82. Hayek saved the Swiss watch industry from lower-priced Asian competition in the early 1980s by offering colorful, inexpensive Swatch timepieces that he backed with equally colorful marketing.

First new Saab rolls off the production line

A NEW SAAB car has rolled off the Swedish production line for the first time in two and a half years. National Electric Vehicle Sweden, the Hong Kong-based company that bought Saab out of bankruptcy in September last year, presented its new 9-3 Aero at the factory in Trollhattan. The company, also called NEVS, aims to make electric cars under the Saab brand, but said it will also provide petrol cars until "electric cars fully meet customer demands." The first 200 cars will be delivered in spring costing 279,000 kronor (£26,000) each.