Acdelco Oe Service 213-1529 Oxygen Sensor-heated Oxygen Sensor (position 3) on 2040-parts.com

First ever LA Car Design Night – registration now open

For those who have attended one of our Car Design Nights at various auto shows around the world, you'll know they're a great place to catch up with fellow designers, make new contacts and unwind with an informal drink away from the show floor. This year we're excited to announce the launch of our first event in the US, to coincide with the Los Angeles Auto Show on the evening of 20 November at Elevate Lounge on Wilshire Blvd from 7PM. Head to the events page to register now and we hope to see you there.

Ford Cortina: 50 years ago today…

Ford are celebrating 50 years since the first Ford Cortina was launched and changed the car landscape forever. The Ford Cortina went on to sell an impressive 4.3 million during its twenty year life, eventually turning in to the Ford Sierra and then in to the Ford family car of today – the 2013 Ford Mondeo (which, interestingly, can be had with the 1.0 litre EcoBoost engine – smaller even than the 1200cc of that first Cortina). That first Cortina was the start of Ford’s dominance of the UK car market, leading to an unbroken run of 35 years as the best selling car brand with most of the Cortinas, almost 3 million of them, built at Dagenham – in the days Ford actually built cars here.

Skoda Octavia vRS breaks 200 mph at Bonneville

Skoda Octavia vRS breaks 200mph at the Bonneville Salt Flats You can tell just how far Skoda has come from its days as makers of mobile skips when they can justify going out to play at the Bonneville Salt Flats with a Skoda Octavia vRS, just for the glow the outing will cast on its range. But they haven’t just gone to play, they’ve also achieved the quite remarkable feat of taking a modestly modified Octavia vRS to 202.15mph, which is going to do no harm whatsoever in drawing attention to the very appealing vRS cars in the Skoda range. To drag an extra 50mph plus out of Octavia vRS did necessitate a tweak or three, but nothing overly dramatic.