1998-2003 Mercedes Benz Ml320 Radio Antenna Signal Amp Amplifier Control Module on 2040-parts.com

Ian Callum on Jaguar

Ian Callum never grew up a rich boy, but his friends did. His father worked as a lawyer in Dumfries, a market town of 43,000 in the lower corner of Scotland, where the Solway Firth narrows to a point. When you travel, Callum reminisced, you forget how beautiful it is.

New Kia Magentis / Kia Optima (2011) revealed

Kia will reveal the 2011 Magentis/Optima at the New York Motor Show in April Hot on the heels of the sketches we saw of the 2011 Kia Magentis just before the Geneva Motor Show, we now get a photo of Kia’s take on the Hyundai i40 (well, a CGI anyway). Which does seem a long lead time. We know that Kia intend to show the Magentis/Optima at the New York Motor Show next month, but we’re not expecting to see the Magentis in showrooms until 2011.

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.