Arias Pistons 12.5:1 Compression 82mm Bore Honda B-series on 2040-parts.com

Hyundai beefs up its WRC team

Hyundai revealed last year that they’re preparing to take on the World Rally Championship (WRC) from 2014 when a rally car based on the i20 will take to the world rally stage to cast some sport fairy dust on Hyundai’s showroom cars. At that time we had little information about the team, but in January we learnt that Hyundai had appointed Michel Nandan to head up their WRC efforts, a good move as Nandon was the technical director for the Peugeot WRC team until 2005, so he knows his stuff. Now we learn that Hyundai is beefing up its WRC team as it prepares for a full season of WRC in 2014.

Caterham Supersport R extends Caterham 7 range

Caterham has added the Supersport R to its range of ’7′ models with a 2.0 litre Duratec Ford engine delivering 180bhp. In the meantime, Caterham’s core road car business is the old Lotus 7 range of Caterhams, so it makes sense to keep that more appealing and relevant until new cars start to arrive, so we get the Caterham Supersport R as an addition to the range to slot in between the Supersport and the Superlight models. The Supersport R gets a Ford Duratec 2.0 litre engine which produces 180bhp, which doesn’t sound a huge amount, but when you consider the Supersport R weighs in at just 535kg it starts to look plenty.

New Alfa Romeo MiTo & Giulietta Quadrifoglio Verde price & spec – costs from £20,210 & £28,120

The new Alfa Romeo Giulietta Quadrifoglio Verde (pictured) costs from £28,120 Alfa Romeo doesn’t have a huge amount to play with at the moment with its range in flux and plans to boost sales with new models. But although range-topping cars are not big sellers, they are good to shine a performance glow on the brand, which is why the Alfa Giulietta Quadrifoglio Verde and MiTo Quadrifoglio Verde (that’s the MiTo and Giulietta Cloverleaf to you an me) arrived at the Geneva Motor Show in March. Now both are about to go on sale in the UK, so we get prices and specs.