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

Video: Jaguar's Julian Thomson on the importance of design values

Jaguar's Head of Advanced Design, Julian Thomson, appeared at this month's PSFK Conference in London giving a talk on design values. Thomson's talk, ‘Concepting Dreams, Making Reality Happen', dealt with questions of creating a design story as well as how Jaguar uses the value of its heritage while keeping things original and new. Thomson – the man behind the 2010 C-X75 and the recently revealed F-Type – said, "You can't get a good design story if you don't look at your heritage, where you came from, where your values came from." He went on to discuss the ‘sad years of Jaguar', from around 1968 to 2004 where Jaguar was too timid to develop and "essentially made the same-looking car." He put this down to a reluctance on Jaguar's part to move too far away from its successful models and, quite interestingly, because "not only did we start doing market research, we started asking Americans what they wanted." Watch the full video on the left.

Rod's rare Lamborghini up for sale

A RARE LAMBORGHINI once owned by Rod Stewart is being sold - for nearly £1 million. The singer bought the two-door Lamborghini Miura P400S brand new in 1971, when it did 0-60 mph in 6.7 seconds with a top speed of 171mph - the fastest road car of its kind in the world at the time. The pristine four-litre blue sports car with silver trim has recently undergone a £100,000 restoration and is being sold on AutoTrader for £899,999.

Concept Car of the Week: Mercedes F200 Imagination (1996)

The F200 Imagination was designed at Mercedes' Advanced Design studio in Tokyo, in response to the question 'does the car of the future still have a steering wheel and foot-operated controls?' Take a look at the car's interior and the answer was fairly emphatic, as the steering wheel and pedals were replaced by joysticks, called Sidesticks, that operated the throttle, brakes and steering by wire. There were two sticks to choose from, one on the left of the cabin and one in the center console. However, both had the same function – push forward to accelerate, left or right to turn, and back to brake – so either of the front passengers could control the car.