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

World’s oldest unrestored Austin Mini fetches £40k

1959 Austin Mini Seven went for £40k The oldest unrestored Mini in the world was expected to fetch £12-15k in auction last week. It actually went for £40,250. Just a couple of weeks ago we reported that the oldest unrestored Mini in the world was going under the hammer at the Bonhams sale at the RAF Museum in Hendon, expected to fetch as much as £15k.

Driven: BMW i8

When BMW unveiled the Vision EfficientDynamics concept at the 2009 Frankfurt motor show, we wrote: "for our money, it's the first time a major carmaker has really attempted to communicate ‘green' technology in an aesthetic sense." Fast-forward five years and we've swapped the show halls of the IAA for a beauty spot on the north-west coast of Scotland. And, while the car's name has changed to i8, our sentiment towards this genre- and era-defining car remains. Admittedly the production car's design execution hasn't received the universal praise of its concept forebears, but, on a remote outpost of the British Isles, a Protonic Blue i8 couldn't look more exotic.

McLaren P1 back at the Nurburgring in attack mode

The McLaren P1 is back at the Nurburgring looking to set a new record It was brave of Ron Dennis to declare – before the McLaren P1 was anywhere close to finished – that the it would be able to lap the Nurburgring in under 7 minutes. He was obviously very confident his new baby was up to the task but, just like McLaren’s current Formula One car, the P1 seems to be just a bit off the pace. Last month we reported that it seemed the best the McLaren P1 could do at the Nurburgring was a 7:04s – a time McLaren didn’t make official – so we knew McLaren would be back with their laptops and engineers as soon as they’d figured a way to trim those last few seconds.