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

Try a prestige car from Europcar before you buy. Or you could just go to a dealer.

You can hire a BMW 5-Series (pictured) from Europcar before you buy It’s always good to have a promotion to get punters through the door, but the latest PR promo from Hertz does seem to have a very visible flaw in its logic. According to Europcar – the leading car hire company in Europe, don’t you know – the best route for trying out a new prestige car before you buy is to give them a call and book a day or three in the cars of your choice. Europcar say you can have anything from a 4×4 to a luxury saloon and performance cars, with the suggestion you can pit a Mercedes SLK against an Audi TTS or check out the differences between a new E-Class or new 5-Series.

New Mercedes E-Class Cabriolet and Estate delayed

The new Mercedes E-Class Cabriolet - now put back until Spring 2010 Mercedes has done a pretty good job on updating the E-Class, and its been receiving good comments all round. But Mercedes has lost the momentum a bit with the revelation that the E-Class Coupe is actually based on a C-Class chassis. Not that that alone is reason for complaint, but there was a big hoo-haa around the nomenclature for the E-Class Coupe (should it have been the CLK?) so it was a bit disingenuous of Mercedes to reveal the Coupe’s roots after its reveal.

Denise McCluggage remembers Carroll Shelby

I've told the stories before, but now, with the last of the lads on the seawall gone, I'll tell them again. The stories are about Carroll Shelby. The seawall was in a painting I bought in Modena, Italy, home of Ferrari, in the late 1950s.