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

Hands-free car phones 'should be banned'

THE USE hands-free mobile phones while driving should be banned. This is the view of road safety charity Brake that says four in ten drivers (38%) admit to using hands-free phones in the car despite research that shows talking on a hands-free system is just as dangerous as using a hand-held mobile phone. Drivers who use a mobile phone while driving are four times more likely to be involved in a collision that causes serious or fatal injuries.

Fiat 500 Abarth (2008): first official pictures

By Tim Pollard First Official Pictures 20 February 2008 10:00 Watch out Mini, the Fiat 500 – CAR’s car of the year 2007 – is getting the high-performance treatment. The Abarth version unveiled today is pitched as a new interpretation of the Sixties road racer, but can they make a bigger, heavier hatch as exciting as that?The 500 Abarth 2008-style uses the Fiat group’s 16-valve 1.4-litre Fire engine breathing with the assistance of an IHI variable-geometry turbocharger to deliver a warm 135bhp at 5500rpm. So this car won’t challenge the upper echelons of hot-hatchdom that now have to pump out closer to 200bhp to be in contention.

Maserati Kubang SUV hits the road in new video

Maserati Kubang SUV Video There was a time when we expected everyone from Ferrari to Lamborghini and Bentley to Rolls Royce to cobble together a luxury SUV to tempt buyers. That fad went away for a while, but now its back and we have the first SUV in a generation from a maker of Italian exotica – the Maserati Kubang SUV – and this video of the Kubang on the road. Interestingly, although the Kubang is supposedly the start of this video, it only turns up in the final third, with the first two thirds dedicated to showcasing Maserati’s performance pedigree – past and present.