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

Geely’s Rolls Royce clone gets de-cloned

The Geely GE Facelift - no longer a RR Clone It’s amazing how much things have moved on in the last twelve months. A year ago we reported that China’s Geely had become the latest Chinese car maker to produce a complete rip-off clone of a Western car, in this case a clone of the Rolls Royce Phantom. The Geely ‘Phantom’ even sported a  single seat  ’Throne’ in the back so the owner could feel really important in his Chinese version of  a Western plutocrat’s carriage.

RenaultSport Clio 200: Paris 2012

Renault has unveiled the Clio RenaultSport 200 at the Paris Motor Show with a 1.6 litre turbo engine delivering 200bhp. The latest version of the Clio RS forgoes its naturally aspirated 2.0 litre engine for a turbo 1.6 litre delivering the same 200bhp but more torque – up more than 10 per cent. What dropping the 1.6 turbo has done to the Clio is make it more economical – Renault say it is 25 per cent more fuel efficient and, obviously, emissions drop comparably.

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.