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

Lotus prices Exige S Roadster from £52,900

Lotus has announced its new Exige S Roadster will be priced from £52,900 – exactly the same as the hard-top Exige S. It’s also slightly lighter than the fixed-head Exige, and matches its blistering acceleration times.  That £52,900 tag makes the 345bhp Exige S Roadster £7500 pricier than a (pre-options list) Porsche Boxster S manual, though the 1328kg Porsche makes do with only 315bhp.

German new car sales drop 11 per cent – pre-reg accounts for 33.5 per cent

New car sales in Germany dropped by 11 per cent in September with pre-reg cars accounting for over a third of all sales. That drop of 11 per cent in Germany is despite deep discount offers – an average of 12.2 per cent in September – with even the previously invincible Mercedes and VW having to offer discounts of up to €3k, despite which VW’s sales fell by 20 per cent in Germany and Mercedes by 12 per cent. What’s perhaps most interesting about the decline in car sales in Germany is the number of pre-reg cars sold (pre reg cars are cars registered by dealers to hit sales targets and then sold at a discount of up to 25 per cent).

2013 Skoda Superb Facelift: Price from £18,555

When Skoda sent us the first details on the new Superb they did say it would go on sale in June, but that’s now slipped to mid-July, but in advance of that revised date Skoda has now decided how much they want you to cough up for their take on the VW Passat. Starting point for the new Superb is £18,555 for the 1.4-litre TSI 125PS S hatch, with prices rising to the range-topping Laurin & Klement Estate at £32,455, but there’s plenty of engine and trim versions in between to fit your budget. There’s a total of six engine options on offer – 1.4 TSI, 1.8 TSI, 3.6 V6 are the petrols and a choice of 1.6 TDI and 2.0 TDI with 140PS or 170PS for the diesels – with trim choices of S, SE, Elegance and Laurin & Klement with a couple of Eco ‘GreenLine’ models in the mix too.