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

1961 Jaguar E-Type ‘Barn Find’ sells for £110k

Rarity is all in the classic car world, which is one of the reasons why the early, pre-Fiat Ferraris command huge prices (there were only 33 Series 1 Ferrari 250 GTOs built and you would now have to pay north of $40 million for one) and why the E-Type – glorious and desirable though it is – commands a fraction of that. In fact, you can pick up a very decent E-Type in good condition for as little as £50k, and even E-Types that have been fully restored and with low mileage don’t often break the £100k barrier. So why has this tatty 1961 flat-floor E-Type sold for £119,020 at Bonhams auction at the RAF Museum in Hendon?

Lotus Evora 414E Range Extender EV moves forward

The Lotus Evora 414E – a Lotus Engineering range extender hybrid project – is still moving ahead with dynamic and durability testing now underway. On the surface the Evora 414E looked like every other Evora, but under the skin sat the first version of a Lotus range-extender platform with a pair of electric motors and a small, 3-cylinder range-extender engine promising impressive performance and economy. Despite the reveal of the 414E at Geneva in 2010, there’s not been a huge amount of news on Lotus pushing forward with the project, or at least not until we got the Infiniti Emerg-E Concept at Geneva this year that turned out to be underpinned by the Evora 414E platform.

VW Beetle GSR: Price from £24,900

The Beetle GSR is a homage to the Yellow-Black Racer Beetle from the 1970s (GSR stands for Gelb Schwarzer Renner – which means Yellow-Black Racer) which featured a similar paint job, boosted power (a whole 49bhp) and was also limited to 3,500 units. But the 2013 version of the Beetle GSR does at least offer much more get up and go than the 1970s GSR managed. That means the GSR comes with VW’s 2.0 litre turbo with 207bhp which is enough to get the yellow Bug to 62mph in 7.3 seconds on its way top 142mph, and is the same power output all Beetles with the 2.0 litre TSI will get from May 1st (up from 197bhp).