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

The craziest cars from the Frankfurt Motor Show

Frankfurt 2013 offered an automotive smorgasbord of technology, from out-there concepts like Vauxhall’s ‘condor-winged’ Monza to down to Earth next-gen production vehicles like Volkswagen’s e-Up! and e-Golf all-electric hatchback pairing. In the middle stood our next 10 cars.

Lifeboat resuces two swamped cars

A LIFEBOAT CREW rescued two cars which were swamped by the sea within 90 minutes of each other as the highest tides of the year caught drivers out. At least one of the vehicles which were wrecked by the submerging North Sea had been used to try to pull a boat out of the water, the RNLI said. A crew from Redcar, near Middlesbrough, responded to the first call-out at 3.20pm on Wednesday after coastguards received a number of 999 calls saying two people were on the roof of a vehicle on the town's beach as the waters came in.

Best Western Hotels rolling out EV charging points in the UK

We’re electric car sceptics – or at least sceptical about their ability to replace the ICE car as our principal form of personal transport – although EVs do have their place as runarounds in urban areas, where their limited range isn’t really a factor. But taking your EV off for a weekend jaunt does pose logistical problems when the average range is probably no more than 80 miles, and something worth making the effort for a weekend away is almost always going to be further away than that. But a bit of smart marketing by Best Western Hotels – a group of 270 or so independently run hotels round the UK – means EV drivers will soon be able to plot their weekend away on the basis of Best Western Hotels en route, with Best Western planning on fitting EV charging points in their car parks, with half their hotels having free charging points by September.