1992 Pontiac Sunbird Parts & Illustration Catalog (unopened) on 2040-parts.com

One Lap of the Web: Packards -- Ask the man who knows way too much about one

-- For some light Wednesday reading, here's more information than you ever wanted to know about Packard. It includes the horrible neoclassics that plagued the 1970s, and the 1995 revival of the Packard name that attempted to stick a shortened rendition of the famous Packard grille in front of a 440-hp V12, all wrapped in a shape that looked like a melted Twix, as shown above. Our august associate editor Graham Kozak owns a Packard, so he could have filled us in on the details.

Vauxhall Ampera Hybrid – No range anxiety

The Vauxhall Ampera goes on a 350 mile run We’ve been moaning quite a bit about the claims being made by car makers for their electric cars. We understand that a big drawback for buyers is ‘Range Anxiety’, a completely understandable concern when you can’t exactly pull over and top up your electric. So we asked Secretary of State Philip Hammond to look at legislation on range claims by electric car makers so buyers can make a judgement on the facts, not the fiction.

Volkswagen demonstrates self-driving car

Flying cars might still be on the drawing board, but automakers are making progress toward futuristic advances in driving. The latest example from Volkswagen is a car that can essentially drive itself. Volkswagen presented its Temporary Auto Pilot (TAP) system this week at the European Union research project HAVEit (Highly Automated Vehicles for Intelligent Transport).