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

Book Review: Car Guys vs Bean Counters

Designers are the surprise heroes of a new book by former General Motors vice chairman Robert Lutz, called Car Guys vs. Bean Counters: The Battle for the Soul of American Business. "The real car guys are in design," Lutz told me during his recent book tour.

Ferrari 599 Hybrid – it’s a very ‘Green’ Ferrari

The very green Ferrari 599 Hybrid at Geneva To a die-hard petrol head, Ferrari lover or frankly anyone with a proper sense of right and wrong, the idea of a ‘Green’ Ferrari is anathema. Fortunately, although I suppose you could consider the Ferrari 599 Hybrid ‘Green’ in the sense that it will probably produce less CO2 (which is, of course, the single most important thing for  Ferrari), the performance of this 599 Hybrid  is going to be its forte, and the real green bit on this particular 599 Hybrid is the hideous paint job. We’ve known for a while that Ferrari were working on a Hybrid, and we recently revealed it would be a hybrid version of the Ferrari 599.

Vauxhall VXR8 Tourer revealed: Price from £49,500

Vauxhall has revealed the Estate version of the VXR8 – the Vauxhall VXR8 Tourer – which offers oodles of room and 425bhp. That sort of power in an estate car certainly offers a different experience to regular load-luggers with 0-62mph coming up in a slightly silly 4.9 seconds. But, despite looking a bit past its prime even though it’s a new model, the VXR8 Tourer gets a reasonably sophisticated setup with McPherson Strut with progressive coils at the front and a multi-link setup at the back, launch control and a limited slip diff, all conspiring to try and put the VXR8 Tourer’s 425bhp power down through the rear wheels.