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

BMW X5 (F15)

This is the new, third generation BMW X5, the biggest-selling SUV in its segment with over 1.3 million sold since the first was launched in 1999. While the previous versions have sat more in the high-riding wagon space (BMW prefers to call them Sports Activity Vehicles), this latest F15 model appears to have shifted closer to a more traditional SUV, appearing taller and less ‘squat', certainly than the car it replaces. This is partly due to the DLO, which dips down behind the A-pillar, creating a deep window.

Vauxhall Corsa VXR Nurburgring Edition revealed

Vauxhall Corsa VXR Nurburgring Edition - more horses Vauxhall has decided it’s time to turn up the wick on the Corsa VXR, so they’ve had a fiddle and a tweak and managed to coax 202bhp out of its 1.6-litre 4-pot turbo. That’s an extra 13bhp. It’s not just the power that’s been increased, so has the twist; the Vauxhall Corsa VXR Nurburgring Edition gets an extra 11lb/ft of torque to take it up to 207lb/ft.

Driven: Volkswagen Passat CC GT

Elegant and refined. Forty years ago these two words would not have been used to describe the Beetles bought in droves by the counterculture in the US; a symbol of the hippy movement and the definitive people's car, designed at a time when Germany sought to put people in motion. With the Passat CC, however, Volkswagen is indeed making a sharp move away from the ‘volks wagen', and these two words rolled off the tongues of those who saw the car in all three countries we drove through on our winter holiday.