1979 Corvette 350 Small Block Runs And Drives Great on 2040-parts.com

Driven: Volkswagen Passat CC GT

Elegant and refined. Forty years ago these two words would not have been used to describe the Beetles bought in droves by the counterculture in the US; a symbol of the hippy movement and the definitive people's car, designed at a time when Germany sought to put people in motion. With the Passat CC, however, Volkswagen is indeed making a sharp move away from the ‘volks wagen', and these two words rolled off the tongues of those who saw the car in all three countries we drove through on our winter holiday.

BMW M3 Matte Edition: China only

BMW M3 Matte Edition - China's second limited edition M3 in a year It’s less than a year since China got it’s last BMW M3 special – the BMW M3 Tiger Edition – so we’re guessing it sold rather well as BMW has launched another limited edition M3 just for the Chinese market – the BMW M3 Matte Edition. It isn’t going to be horribly difficult to work out that the defining feature of the M3 Matte Edition is its paint job. It’s Matt Black.

Designer Paul Smith launches exhibition

DESIGN GURU Sir Paul Smith has given a glimpse into his world with a re-creation of his office forming part of a new exhibition dedicated to his work. The fashion star takes centre-stage at the Design Museum in London for the next four months with items from his vast archive on display. Sir Paul was at the launch today, posing alongside colourful life-size cardboard cut-outs and showing off sketches, designs and other paraphernalia from his lengthy career as one of Britain's best-known creative forces.