1973-1980 Volvo 240 242 244 245 142 144 145 140 4 Cylinder Tachometer Oem Tach on 2040-parts.com

One Lap of the Web: Panteras, Battlebirds and Patrick Dempsey's entrepreneurial brilliance

We spend a lot of time on the Internet -- pretty much whenever we're not driving, writing about or working on cars. Since there's more out there than we'd ever be able to cover, here's our daily digest of car stuff on the Web you may not otherwise have heard about. -- Sure, later versions of the De Tomaso Pantera looked a bit outrageous with their wide fenders and Countach-like spoilers.

New Maserati Ghibli could get 4.0 litre V8 Diesel

The V8 diesel is not exactly the most common engine on offer, but it is an engine Ford makes and is probably best known as the engine of choice in the new Range Rover and the new 2014 Range Rover Sport (finally). We’ve also been championing its credentials as a perfect V8 diesel engine for Jaguar’s XJ, but Jaguar don’t seem to be listening. But it’s not just Land Rover who’ve got a big V8 diesel in an appealing road car, Porsche also has the new Cayenne diesel S complete with a V8 diesel with oodles of torque, the promise of great headline economy when you’re poodling and a 0-62mph in just 5.7 seconds.

Merc to revive straight six, plus 4cyl and smaller V8s

Mercedes has just signed off a new engine family which will see most full-sized Mercs in future run four-cylinders, downsized V8s and… straight sixes. A friendly Mercedes engineer recently met CAR to disclose the engine plans for future models, including the surprise disclosure that Merc plans to switch to straight sixes, like its rivals over in Munich.  It's fair to say I almost choked on my breakfast croissant when I found out the details of the next MB engine generation which has just been signed off for release in 2015. Mercedes' future four-cylinder engines Again, there will be a family of new low-cost fours, and the big-bore V8s will be replaced by a series of downsized turbocharged 4.0-litre units.