Atk 2ca4 Cylinder Head-engine Cylinder Head on 2040-parts.com

Shake-up at Tesla; a dozen UK orders

By Tim Pollard Motor Industry 16 October 2008 11:22 Electric car start-up Tesla is restructuring its US operation and laying off around 100 staff, as the credit crunch continues to make life difficult for car companies big and small. It’s now on its fourth CEO in 12 months, as founder Elon Musk takes over from Ze’ev Drori. In an announcement on the chief exec’s blog, Tesla Motors said it would be ‘cash-flow positive’ within six to nine months – but only by increasing production and cutting operating costs.

BMW launches new 5-series (2009 teaser

It's begun - BMW has started the PR roll-out for the new 5-series. First up there's both a teaser video and a single image of the Five, before the new car is unveiled on 23 November 2009. There's one solitary image, and the video is typically brief, but BMW claims it's enough to give us a glimpse of 'the sporting and elegant design of the new BMW 5-series, using the kinetic sculpture from the BMW Museum to create the silhouette'.

Churchill’s Land Rover sells for £129,000

A Land Rover presented to Sir Winston Churchill on his 80th birthday has sold at auction for £129,000. Sir Winston Spencer Churchill, probably the greatest Prime Minister the UK has ever had, was 80 in 1954, prompting Rover to present the great man with a custom Land Rover so he could be chauffeured round his Chartwell Estate. The Series 1 Land Rover came complete with an extra wide passenger seat, big, padded centre armrest and leather grab handle and had the registration UKE 80 which may (or may not) have referred to Churchill’s age and ‘United Kingdom Empire.