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

Wannabe racers invited to test their mettle

THE AMAZING scenes at the Bahrain Grand Prix have left an unfamiliar warm glow surrounding the pinnacle of motorsport, but at grass roots level would-be racers are being invited to show their potential. The Lets Race 2 Reality scheme, open for entries until the end of the month, will reward the best new racing driver in the country with an incredible Formula 3 race experience. The winner will receive a day’s testing in a Carlin Formula 3 car, complete with a dedicated team of mechanics, data engineer and race engineer.

Seat Leon Cupra R (2009) first official pictures

By Gareth Evans First Official Pictures 20 August 2009 10:59 Seat has unveiled its most powerful production car ever, the new Leon Cupra R, with an S3- and Scirocco R-matching 261bhp.   Performance figures for the front-wheel drive hot hatch look good: 62mph is dispatched in 6.1 seconds, the top speed is 155mph, and yet the Cupra R returns 34.9mpg. Thank the high-tech 2.0 turbo engine from the Volkswagen group, which in this incarnation makes 261hp. Helping get all that power through the front wheels is XDS, the same system you'll find on the Golf GTI that effectively mimics a limited slip differential through the use of electronic wizardry.

German new car sales drop 11 per cent – pre-reg accounts for 33.5 per cent

New car sales in Germany dropped by 11 per cent in September with pre-reg cars accounting for over a third of all sales. That drop of 11 per cent in Germany is despite deep discount offers – an average of 12.2 per cent in September – with even the previously invincible Mercedes and VW having to offer discounts of up to €3k, despite which VW’s sales fell by 20 per cent in Germany and Mercedes by 12 per cent. What’s perhaps most interesting about the decline in car sales in Germany is the number of pre-reg cars sold (pre reg cars are cars registered by dealers to hit sales targets and then sold at a discount of up to 25 per cent).