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

Hennessey Venom GT hits new, unofficial, speed record (video)

The Hennessey Venom GT (pictured) hist 270.49mph on a NASA runway Top speed records for production cars is starting to seem pretty irrelevant as there’s almost nowhere an owner can ever hope to hit those record speeds. And the performance of cars like the new McLaren P1 – where  performance and handling are much more the focus than outright top speed – has added the the irrelevance. But that doesn’t stop some car makers aiming for the bragging rights of the world’s fastest production car, and John Hennessey and his Hennessey Venom GT are back with another claim on the title.

Yeti leads Skoda growth spurt

By Tim Pollard Motor Industry 19 September 2008 14:47 Skoda is secretly planning to double its range of cars in three years. Today the Czech manufacturer has a four-strong range: Fabia supermini, Octavia family car, Superb saloon and roomy Roomster. But by 2011 it’ll have a tiny Smart-like city car, a new small four-door, the Yeti junior off-roader and a seven-seater MPV.

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.