Saab increase pay for Board members as Swedish Debt Office circles

Saab Meltdown gets closer It never rains, but it pours. And for Saab and Victor Muller it has been a year or more of almost unbroken storms, punctuated with just the odd ray of financial sunshine as Victor Muller combs the planet for investors to stake a claim in his chocolate teapot company. There has been no production at Saab of any consequence since April; many suppliers still remain unpaid despite substantial injections of cash from Chinese buyers; wages have not been paid and now, just to rub salt in the wound, it’s been revealed that board members received pay rises of up to 650 per cent in 2010.

Ford FF1 road-legal single-seater at 2013 Goodwood FoS. Heading for production?

The Ford FF1 – a single-seat, road-legal track car powered by Ford’ 1.0 litre EcoBoost engine – will get a public debut at the 2013 Goodwood Festival of Speed. Ford built the FF1 as a showcase for the abilities of its little 1.0 litre, 3-cylinder EcoBoost engine, and it’s more than proved the point that modern 3-cylinder engines with small displacements and a bit of forced induction can be very appealing. In standard trim the FF1 produces 123 horses, but suitably tweaked to deliver a more fulsome 202 horses the FF1 took on the Nurburgring and managed to turn in a time of just 7:22 – quicker than a Zonda F, Enzo Ferrari, Nissan GT-R and 911 GT2 RS.

Kia Provo upsets Northern Ireland

The Kia Provo Concept for a funky urban car has run in to trouble in Northern Ireland as its name evokes the Troubles. Looking like a Kia take on the Juke – although we think Kia see it more as a take on the MINi Countryman / MINI Paceman – it looks like a perfect direction for Kia to take with a ready market for butch little cars for blatting round town growing all the time. But you can’t please all the people all the time, and Kia has run in to trouble with the Provo already, as Unionist MPs in Northern Ireland have taken exception to the name.