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

Richard Hammond’s Nova heads to Beaulieu

Ever thought car museums were lacking abused Vauxhall Novas? No, us neither – but Richard Hammond’s Nova SRi from Top Gear’s recent retro hot hatch challenge is heading to the National Motor Museum at Beaulieu. It joins the likes of the Hovervan from the last series, as well as the indestructible Toyota Hilux in the World of Top Gear.

Wide-ranging, weird and wonderful John Scotti Collection to cross block in Auburn

The John Scotti Collection is, we'd like to think, exactly the sort of assemblage of cars we would put together were we a mechanic who earned his fortune building a group of successful Montreal-based car dealerships. To be sure, the collection of roughly 450 cars represents Scotti's tastes, which seem to tend toward the muscular. But the man, who sells everything from Mitsubishis to Lamborghinis, did an admirable job branching out from the standbys that seem to fill the ranks of every large collection, finding room for both the commonplace and the strange.

Old is new again: Will a floor-hinged throttle pedal be in your future?

If you think that every little nut, bolt, switch, gear or widget in your new car wasn't scrutinized by a team of highly educated, overworked car geeks (read: engineers), think again. A couple of recent conversations with automotive engineers confirmed that virtually nothing that goes into a car today is taken for granted. During the recent Pebble Beach weekend, I had the pleasure of spending time with an engineer for Jaguar, and the subject turned to materials used for various switches in the cabin.