1982 Ford Truck Right Hand Headlight Door, Bezel on 2040-parts.com

Caterham creator Graham Nearn dies

Britain has lost another of the champions of its specialist sports-car industry, Graham Nearn, who died on Oct. 24 at age 76. Originally a Lotus dealer, Nearn built a highly successful sports-car business around the lightweight two-seat Lotus Seven, which he bought from Lotus founder Colin Chapman in 1973.

BMW Alpina D3 BiTurbo – a great diesel

The BMW Alpina D3 BiTurbo - a brilliant, quick and economical everyday drive Alpina has turned out some stunning versions of the BMW range over the years (and some not so stunning – their 8 Series springs to mind) and they fill a gap that is either not profitable in small volume for BMW or, in some cases, a hole that BMW hasn’t plugged. And this one is a good hole to fill with the BMW Alpina D3 Bi-Turbo, a 3 Series diesel with the heart of a hot hatch. Alpina has taken the engine out of the 1 Series 123d and given it a boost to 240bhp, in the process dropping the 0-60 time to a very creditable 6.9 seconds But it’s not the sprint that count,  but the way this peppy diesel unit delivers it.

Autoweek in review: What you may have missed

On Monday we woke to a recall involving the Ford Fusion and the Escape SUV for a problem with its 1.6-liter engine that could cause a fire. More than 80,000 vehicles were affected, and more bad news was to come. Auction house RM touted its car list for its January Arizona event, including some Italian and American racing history.