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

Grab a ‘VAT Free’ Skoda Octavia

In yet another ‘Sign of the times’ Skoda has announced that they are now offering ‘VAT Free Octavias’ until the end of the year. No, this is not a tie-up between Alistair Darling and VW, it’s just Skoda’s way of offering a headline price decrease of a bit over 13% (less expensive to Skoda than last week for the same headline, to be fair, and there is a new model due in January!). Grab a VAT free Skoda Octavia I’m pretty sure that there will be a raft of these ‘VAT Free’ offers floating around on everything from cars to washing machines, capitalising on the fact the VAT is in the headlines.

M-way closures 'all year round'

SOME MAJOR MOTORWAYS did not operate at full capacity on any day last year, according to figures obtained under a Freedom of Information Act request. There were some lane closures on all 365 days of 2013 on the M1, M4, M5, M6 and M25 as well as on the M60 in north west England and on the M54 in Shropshire and Staffordshire. There were 358 days of lane closures on the M62 in northern England, 357 on the M40 which runs west from London to South Wales and 355 on the M27 in Hampshire.

Saleen S351 Mustang being prepped

After a tumultuous and sometimes litigious couple of years (which included Steve Saleen the man suing Saleen the company for calling itself Saleen!), Saleen the man, the car and the company with the man again in the driver's seat are back, still in Southern California and still in the bustling Inland Empire burg of Corona to which they all ensconced a few years ago. So what's new? First up is a Saleen 351 Mustang, which was announced at the LA auto show last week.