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

Biker attempts to beat London marathon record... in traffic

AS BRITISH favourite Mo Farah prepares to challenge the British record at the London Marathon this weekend, an enterprising biker has decided to try it himself – in the thick of London traffic. On closed roads a man vs machine race would be a bit one-sided, but with the average speed of a fast marathon runner being 12.43mph and the average speed of a motorbike in London traffic being 12.5mph, the result turned out not to be so clear-cut – the biker missing out on the record by a full five minutes. Using the same BMW F800GS Adventure as is loaned to the marathon organisers, Michael Mann of online community Bike Social followed the route as closely as possible, albeit with a few extra loops where the runners will take advantage of closed one-way streets.

Range Rover (2011): first pictures, new V8

Land Rover might only have revised the Range Rover last summer, but there’s now a new version, complete with a bigger and better 4.4-litre TDV8, plus it's available as a limited-run Autobiography Black special edition to celebrate the car’s 40th birthday. For a start the engine has grown from 3.6 to 4.4-litres, but still retains the twin sequential turbochargers. That means 309bhp (up from 267bhp), while the torque figures climbs from 472lb ft to 516lb ft.

Concept Car of the Week: Bizzarrini Manta (1968)

In the latter half of 1965, Giotto Bizzarrini began working on a racing car designed to compete with the Ford GT40, Ferrari 250P and the Porsche 906. The result was the P538, his most sophisticated car to date. The first two examples built were fitted with Lamborghini V12 engines and sold to American buyers to compete in SCCA races, while the third used a highly modified 5.4-liter V8 from the Chevrolet Corvette.