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

The last ‘Real’ Bentleys leave the factory

Bentley Brooklands - The last of the 'Real' Bentleys Volkswagen’s takeover of Bentley has, certainly in sales and production terms, been a big success. Until the recent economic mire hit, the sales of Bentleys were at a previously unimagined level. In fact it got to the point where Bentleys no longer seemed ‘Special’, so ubiquitous had the sight of a Bentley Continental become on our roads.

Classic vs. Modern: Scion FR-S/Subaru BRZ vs. Datsun 280Z

My interest in cars remains stuck in the early 1970s--when I was spending most of my time trying to retrieve the copies of AutoWeek that had been confiscated by my second grade teacher, Mrs. Wilks. While my iPod may be full of downloads from the likes of Dirty Pretty Things, The Kooks and Grizzly Bear (and very little from Led Zeppelin, the Stones or Pink Floyd), my garage contains nothing built after 1991.

Vauxhall VXR8 & SMART for-two CDI take MPG Marathon honours

Vauxhall VXR8 & SMART for-two CDI take MPG Marathon honours On the face of it, it’s reasonable to expect a car as small as the SMART for-two CDI to be capable of astonishing economy if driven in a certain way. And the ALD Automotive / Shell FuelSave MPG Marathon, run last week near Cirencester, proved exactly that, with a SMART driven by Mick Linford and co-driver Ella Flynn managing to use less than four gallons of diesel to cover the 370 mile route. That means the SMART fortwo CDI averaged 99.24mpg on the route on real roads, an improvement of 16 per cent on the official combined figure of 85.6.