1998-1999 Yamaha R1 Passenger Seat on 2040-parts.com

Essex boost for car loving home buyers

An Essex council is to make garages and drives bigger on new homes For most of the last decade the UK Government has waged a war on the motorist. Endless speed cameras, which are in reality just tax-raising  machines and have little to do with road safety; never-ending fuel tax rises; congestion charging; spiralling parking charges; road-charging schemes and the only coppers you see have a speed gun so non-speeding untaxed and uninsured drivers never get caught -  pushing up costs for the rest of us. But one of the most stupid, head-in-the-sand policies was the idea that new houses should encourage people to forsake their cars by making garages too small and off-street parking almost non-existent.

One Lap of the Web: falling rocks, falling prices, and a Ford Frontenac?

-- If this isn't the automotive video of the week, then we don't know what is. A car in Taiwan just barely avoids being crushed by a gigantic boulder, whose water and mud bow wave shoves the car a few feet before the boulder even lands anywhere near the car. Watch the top of the hill at the very start of the video.

Phones topple tailgating as most hated driving habit

THERE’S a new ‘hate’ at the top of drivers’ lists, after a study from Kwik Fit showed that using a phone at the wheel has overtaken the long-standing bad habit of tailgating. Talking or texting while driving is hated by 47% of drivers, according to the research; comfortably ahead of tailgating on 42%. It’s the first time that following too closely has been knocked off its seriously irritating perch in years.