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

Mitsubishi Lancer Sportback: New five-door model is priced

The five-door Mitsubishi Lancer Sportback rolls into showrooms with a base price of just less than $20,000. Stepping up to the high-performance Ralliart version pushes the price to near $28,000. Mitsubishi announced prices for the new Lancers on Thursday.

Maserati GranCabrio Sport arrives

Maserati GranCabrio Sport arrives in the UK Actually, the Maserati GranCabrio Sport arrived a few months back at the Geneva Motor Show, but it’s now washed up on our shores – just too late to enjoy the miserable summer with the rest of us by the time the first UK customer cars actually arrive in October. The main news, apart from the GranCabrio actually being for sale in the UK, is that the price is perhaps not quite as high as we’d expected. When Maserati revealed the GranCabrio Sport at Geneva we did speculate it would end up being north of £100k.

Call for reform over road repair funding

FUNDING patterns mean most road maintenance is being carried out in "less-efficient, cold and wet" times, a report from a Government spending watchdog has said. The current pattern of funding, combined with the need to spend money within the financial year, means that most maintenance work goes on between September and March, said the report from the National Audit Office (NAO). It went on: "Although this is less disruptive for road users, it is less efficient than carrying out the work at other times of year because materials can be more difficult to handle in cold and wet conditions, and daylight hours are shorter." The report went on: "As a result of the additional funding for emergency repairs, which is made available at the end of the financial year, almost all highways authorities need extra capacity from the market at the same time, which makes it less likely that they will get value for money." The NAO report said there was a "lack of predictability" over road spending adding that historically, local highway authorities spent more revenue on maintenance, but were now carrying out fewer routine activities such as clearing gullies which are essential to preventing water seeping into roads' sub-structure.