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

The Porsche P1 is lighter, greener and more exclusive than McLaren's new hypercar

Long before the legendary Porsche 911 -- before, even, the Porsche 356 -- Ferdinand Porsche was tinkering with alternative powertrains and designing road-worthy vehicles. Though it wasn't the first vehicle to bear his name, the “Egger-Lohner electric vehicle, C.2 Phaeton model” was the earliest result of his efforts. Perhaps getting the jump on the modern alpha-numeric craze/plague, it was shortened to a simple “P1.” The P1 (we'll refer to it as the Porsche P1 from here on out to avoid confusion) made its first appearance in Vienna on June 26, 1898, and it didn't last long in the public eye: Before Porsche decided to pull it out and put it on display, it had reportedly been sitting in a warehouse, untouched, since 1902.

Vauxhall – Ellesmere Port jobs safe

Vauxhall's Ellesmere Port Plant will have no job losses It looks like the bulk of the savings that GM need to make in Vauxhall/Opel are going to fall outside the UK, with the news that there will be no job cuts at the Astra-making Ellesmere Port plant and around 340 job losses at Luton. Which is about as good as the news was ever likely to be for Vauxhall workers in the UK. Whatever the outcome of the GM/Magna deal it always seemed likely that Ellesmere Port would be relatively unscathed.

Cost of garage labour falling

THE AVERAGE labour rate at both franchised and non-franchised garages has fallen compared to 2012, according to new figures. An annual survey of 12,000 cases conducted on behalf of Warranty Direct has concluded that the average labour rate in 2013 is £74.70, a fall of 9.84% from £82.86 in 2012. Less encouraging is the overall trend of rising labour rates, with the average having increased by 33% over the last ten years.