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

New Skoda Octavia Scout price and spec – costs from £25,315

New Skoda Octavia Scout costs from £25,315 The new Skoda Octavia Scout arrived at the Geneva Motor Show in the Spring, bringing an ‘Allroad’ version of the latest Skoda Octavia Combi (Estate) to the market. As with all estate cars with offroad pretensions, the Octavia Scout comes with a more butch set of bumpers and a more purposeful nose, black cladding for the door sills and wheel arches, a new set of alloys, a raised ride height and a few tweaks for the interior so it all looks more than capable of taking on a muddy boot sale car park. The Scout comes with a choice of two 2.0 litre TDI engines at launch, with a lower powered, 148bhp with a six-speed manual and a more powerful, 182bhp version, getting a six-speed DSG gearbox, both of which return official economy of 55.4mpg (although, oddly, the lower-powered gets emissions of 129g/km and the more powerful 134g/km).

Plug-In 2013 conference plugs along

Every now and then, the electric car industry comes together in a sort of Woodstock-of-the-Watt-Hour to take stock of itself and to exchange ideas, sign contracts and maybe have a beer. The most recent parliament of the plug-in was last week in San Diego at an annual industry event known as Plug-In 2013, although obviously they change the year in the title as necessary. Why keep gathering?

Peugeot RC hybrid concept

Peugeot is poised to reveal the latest in its ‘RC' range of concept cars at the Paris Motor Show in October. Continuing on from the RC Spade and RC Diamond concept cars unveiled at the 2002 Geneva Motor Show, the as yet unnamed concept also follows on from the 908 RC V12 diesel concept of 2006. Designed by a team led by Peugeot head of design Jérôme Gallix, the four door, four seat sedan is claimed to be an accessible and versatile eco-efficient GT coupé.