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

Bentley gives Continental GT Speed even more power

The Bentley Continental GT Speed has never been accused of being a slouch when it came to power, bluntly incorporating the word Speed in its name, but it seems the company's engineers believe there is still room for improvement. And so for 2015 the Bentley Continental GT Speed and Bentley Continental GT Speed Convertible will receive a slight bump up in power, and will now offer 626-hp and 607 lb-ft of torque. That's up from 616-hp and 590 lb-ft of torque in the 2014 versions of this 6.0-liter W12 beast.

WRC Mini Concept (2010) first official pictures

While the Mini Countryman might be destined for suburban mumsville, BMW has confirmed the new model will also terrorise the countryside in the form of the WRC Mini from 2011, with IRC champ Kris Meeke at the wheel. Officially launched at the 2010 Paris motor show in concept guise, the WRC Mini will be engineered and run by motorsport doyen Dave Richards and his Prodrive outfit, although customer packages will be available too, allowing independents to compete in the car. Not so much – this is no time for misty-eyed Paddy Hopkirk odes.

Driven: Volkswagen Passat CC GT

Elegant and refined. Forty years ago these two words would not have been used to describe the Beetles bought in droves by the counterculture in the US; a symbol of the hippy movement and the definitive people's car, designed at a time when Germany sought to put people in motion. With the Passat CC, however, Volkswagen is indeed making a sharp move away from the ‘volks wagen', and these two words rolled off the tongues of those who saw the car in all three countries we drove through on our winter holiday.