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

Peugeot 208 R2 – it’s a rally prepared 208

Peugeot 208 R2 - a rally prepared 208 The new Peugeot 208 is about to hit showrooms so Peugeot are delivering a bit of sporty fairy dust with the rally prepared Peugeot 208 R2. As we say every time we run a story on the new Peugeot 208 – there’s a lot riding on it for Peugeot. The world has fallen out of love with mainstream cars and has become polarised, with ‘Premium’ and ‘Budget’ selling at the expense of a squeezed middle.

VW Beetle GSR: Price from £24,900

The Beetle GSR is a homage to the Yellow-Black Racer Beetle from the 1970s (GSR stands for Gelb Schwarzer Renner – which means Yellow-Black Racer) which featured a similar paint job, boosted power (a whole 49bhp) and was also limited to 3,500 units. But the 2013 version of the Beetle GSR does at least offer much more get up and go than the 1970s GSR managed. That means the GSR comes with VW’s 2.0 litre turbo with 207bhp which is enough to get the yellow Bug to 62mph in 7.3 seconds on its way top 142mph, and is the same power output all Beetles with the 2.0 litre TSI will get from May 1st (up from 197bhp).

Fiat demonstrates (for us prudes) how to sell cars, the Italian way

Italians are nothing if not imbued with salaciousness. At the Los Angeles Auto Show last week, Fiat leapt upon this fact with a seemingly undiscovered gusto, like a high-school kid who just had his first beer and is—as we speak—rushing to his friends to tell them all about it. You can watch the thing here in its entirety.