87-92 Cadillac Allante Console Leather Shift Knob Oem Shifter Handle on 2040-parts.com

More drivers opt for speed awareness course

Drivers caught speeding are now more likely to take a driver education course than accept points on their licence, according to the latest government statistics. 953,428 motorists took a speed awareness course last year – a hefty increase over the 500,000 that took part in 2010. New so-called ‘stealth’ speed cameras: don’t panic “Black box” drivers hit by speeding fines from insurers This is partly down to the rise in speeding fines from £60 to £100 – taking a speeding awareness course usually costs around £85 (depending on the area), which means it’s now less rather than more than the cost of a fine.

Now even Audi slows production

We’ve written endlessly about the slow down in car production worldwide. All the top end manufacturers have made savage cuts in jobs and production. But there seemed to be one company bucking the trend – Audi.

2012 Ford Focus ST gets 297bhp

Those clever chaps at SuperChips have given the 2012 Ford Focus ST a bit of an ECU tweak to deliver 297bhp and an extra 85lb/ft of torque. When we reported last week that WTC outfit Arena had in roped Ford’s tuner of choice, Mountune, to give the new Ford Focus a makeover, we were a tad disappointed to discover that they were tweaking the rather journeyman Focus Zetec S. That meant the Zetec S got 200bhp – a handy jump – but we bemoaned the fact that they hadn’t fiddled with the Focus ST to give us a car to fill the void left by the absence of a Focus RS in the current iteration of the Focus.