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

Vauxhall Astra GTC gets new 1.6 litre ‘Whisper’ diesel – price from £22,260

The Vauxhall Astra GTC gets the new 1.6 litre CDTi Just like all major motor manufacturers, Vauxhall are busy improving their engine range with new, more efficient and more powerful lumps. One of Vauxhall’s major engine projects has been to get the old 1.7 litre CDTi out of its cars and replace it with their new ‘Whisper’ 1.6 litre CDTi. The first Vauxhall to get the new 1.6 CDTi was the Zafira Tourer in early 2013, and the latest is the Astra GTC.

Penalty points separate good girls and bad boys

MORE THAN 30,000 male drivers aged 17-20 have anything up to six penalty points on their driving licences. There is also a wide gulf between offending rates for young men and young women, with women drivers aged 20 or under only recording 9,758 instances of attracting three to six points. As many as 1,210 17-year-old males have accrued up to six points, with 358 currently having the maximum permissible six.

Is the Jaguar XFR-S on the way?

Is the Jaguar XFR-S on the way (2012 XFR pictured) New reports suggest that the Jaguar XFR-S – a more powerful XFR with the output of the XKR-S – is close to production. Last summer we reported that a Jaguar XFR-S was being planned (actually, we also said a Jaguar XJR-S was in the planning too) in order to take the fight back to the Germans, with the latest iterations of the BMW M5 and Mercedes E63 AMG now offering more power than the XFR can muster. The idea of a more powerful XFR wasn’t just wild speculation (or an educated guess as to what Jaguar needed to do to keep in touch with German rivals) but was also based on Adrian Hallmark’s comments that it would be nice to take the power upgrades on the XKR-S and extend them to the XF.