2006 Acura Tsx Nav Disc Drive on 2040-parts.com

Volvo V60 Plug-in Hybrid: Production underway

The world’s first production plug-in diesel hybrid – the Volvo V60 Plug-in Hybrid – has gone in to production ahead of customer deliveries. Volvo are producing just 1,000 2013 V60 plug-ins, but are aiming to up production to between 4-6,000 a year from the 2014 model year and, despite the problems of integrating the V60′s complicated electric stuff in to a production car, the V60 plug-in is rolling down the same production line as the regular V60, V70, S80 and XC90. That complicated stuff includes two different powertrains and a battery pack – enough for up to 32 miles as an EV only – and a total of 300 additional parts compared to a regular ICE V60.

Spyker stretches the C8 Laviolette to make the Spyker C8 Aileron

But those problems faded last year when Spyker got solid investment from a Russian banker. Which means Spyker can once more push forward after a period of struggle, although what impact the crisis engulfing the car market in general will have is anybody’s guess. Spyker C8 Aileron - a stretched C8 Laviolette We had half expected the story at Geneva for Spyker to be the reveal of the Spyker SUV – the Spyker D12 Peking-Paris – in something close to production ready state.

Mercedes SLS David Coulthard Golf Ball catch – now on video

The recent golf ball catching Guinness world record set by David Coulthard and Jake Shepherd finally turns up on video. In another of those ‘We didn’t know there was a world record for that’ stories, we reported earlier this month that a new Guinness World Record had been set for the furthest golf shot caught in a car. A Mercedes SLS AMG driven by David Coulthard had managed to catch a golf ball driven down the runway at Dunsfold by professional golfer Jake Shepherd.