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

Luxury cars still in demand

DEMAND remains strong for upper executive, sports and luxury cars says British Car Auctions (BCA), as buyers continue to support the company’s programme of Top Car and Executive sales. In the first half of the year, BCA sold 8,356 cars valued in excess of £20,000, worth a combined £231.4 million. Across the board BCA has averaged 102.57% of CAP Clean for cars sold for £20,000 or more in 2012.

Aston Martin adds a V8 Vantage S

Slotted between Aston Martin's vaunted V8 Vantage and the venerable V12 variant comes a tweener model that promises to be anything but vague: Aston is adding the S variant, with more power and an upgraded transmission. The Vantage S draws power from the 4.7-liter V8 making 430 hp, 10 hp more than in the base Vantage. The S also adds 15 lb-ft of torque, boosting total twist to 361 lb-ft.

VW Taigun Compact SUV heading for production

It was a good-looking and appealing effort from VW to tap in to the very compact SUV market, with a real family look (a Tiguan on a boil wash), peppy little 3-cylinder 1.0 litre engine delivering 108bhp and a 0-62mph of 9.2 seconds (with 60mpg economy) and enough room to carry stuff and people thanks to an extra 50mm in the wheelbase compared to the Up! Now it looks like the Taigun is heading for production after VW’s Chief designer, Klaus Bishoff, told Autoexpress that he deeply believed the Taigun would be heading for VW showrooms very soon, and could be sold in the UK and Europe as well as in emerging markets. So you can add the Taigun to the list of VW’s SUV offerings, and with new versions of the Tiguan and Touareg (perhaps based on the CrossBlue Concept) and a Polo based SUV on the way too, it looks like VW are covering all the bases.