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

Shelby 1000 Mustang: A completely bonkers dose of American Muscle Car

Shelby 1000 Mustang Shelby has taken the Ford Mustang GT500 and given it up to 1085bhp to create the Shelby 1000. But it’ll cost you the best part of £150k. Fifty years ago Caroll Shelby changed UK motorways forever by teaming up with AC to produce the AC Cobra which, it is said, was responsible for Barbara Castle introducing the 70mph speed limits on motorways after AC used the new M1 to test the AC Cobra at speeds of up to 180mph.

Audi A3 Sportback e-tron price and specs – costs £34,950

Audi A3 Sportback e-tron (pictured) costs £34,950 If governments are going to base car taxation on Co2 emissions, then car makers are going to build cars that ‘game’ the official tests. A perfect example of which is the new Audi A3 Sportback e-tron plug-in hybrid. It’s expensive at £34,950 (although the government bribe for plug-ins does drop the price you pay to £29,950), but thanks to its ‘up to 31 miles’ range on battery power only it comes complete with official economy of 176.6 mpg and emissions of 37g/km.

Nissan GT-R 2011/2012 tweaks leak out

The Nissan GT-R 2011 (2012 MY) Nissan don’t seem to be able to stop tweaking, nipping and tucking the Nissan GT-R, so it comes as no surprise to see that there are more changes planned for the 2012 MY (for which read 2011 everywhere bar the USA). We’re expecting those to surface around the same time this year – November – as the 2010 Nissan GT-R updates did last year GTR Blog are reporting the changes well ahead of anything official, but they look as if they’ve got some solid information so it’s worth repeating for the many GT-R nuts out there. Having nipped and tucked endlessly, it looks like Nissan are going to continue the trend for next year’s GT-R.