Blog on 2040Parts

Pulsar Bursts Onto Family Hatch Scene

IT’S GOING to get ugly in the fiercely competitive family hatchback market soon, as Nissan has decided to rejoin the fray with its newly launched Pulsar model. Clearly aiming at the likes of Volkswagen’s Golf and Ford’s Focus, Nissan bosses are already talking up their new challenger ahead of the car’s autumn debut. Styled to complement the popular Qashqai, the Pulsar promises to major on quality, refinement and cabin space plus boast a raft of hi-tech kit to make the ownership experience safer and more enjoyable.

2014 Mercedes-Benz C-Class Estate: 10 things to know

Mercedes-Benz has revealed full details of the new 2014 C-Class Estate. Based on the latest C-Class saloon, this fourth-generation wagon is packed with technology to make it better, cleaner, safer and more fun to drive. Which means it’s also poised to really give the Audi A4 Avant and BMW 3 Series Touring a run for their money.

Two million drivers risk insurance fraud

MORE THAN 2 million drivers in the UK could be at risk of committing insurance fraud by claiming they are the main driver on a policy when someone else uses the car. As many as 6% of the UK’s drivers are risking invalidating their insurance by letting someone else drive the car for most of the time despite claiming they are the principal driver. Known as ‘fronting’, this kind of insurance fraud is common among parents helping their children to get cheaper car insurance.

SEAT Ibiza Cupster Concept Heading for Worthersee

The SEAT Ibiza Cupster Concept (pictured) is heading for Worthersee Some cars that head for the Worthersee Show look like they could be heading for production, but the SEAT Ibiza Cupster Concept isn’t really one of them. SEAT has built the Cupster Concept as a celebration of thirty years of the Ibiza range and it comes without a roof but with a steeply raked windscreen and wraparound glass, big buttresses where the back seats would usually be (there are no back seats) and a boot mounted spoiler. SEAT are promising more details before Worthersee, but it seems reasonable to assume that the Cupster has the regular Ibiza Cupra under its skin complete with the 178bhp 1.4 litre TSI engine.

Toyota tests chips that improve hybrid efficiency by 10 percent

Toyota announced on Tuesday that it has developed a new semiconductor, claiming it can boost fuel efficiency in hybrid cars by an impressive 10 percent. The semiconductors manage the flow of electricity through the power-control unit that connects the battery to an electric or hybrid car's motor and generator. The newly developed semiconductors are said to consume only a tenth of the energy of today's chips, while allowing the power-control unit to be 80 percent smaller.

Disabled motorsport marshal sets new mobility scooter record

A DISABLED motorsport marshal who lost a leg in a terrible accident at the 2000 Goodwood Festival of Speed has set a new world record – on a mobility scooter with punctured tyres. Steve Tarrant, who made a determined recovery and continues to marshal at national and international levels, returned to a dedicated course at Goodwood for the gruelling record attempt in aid of a cancer charity. His effort, after 24 hours and stops only for battery changes on his TGA Breeze S4 GT mobility scooter, he smashed the previous record of 170.63 miles by almost 20, clocking up 190.2 miles.

Cadillac Escalade drivers shouldn't have passengers up front

It seems like every day General Motors is adding to its already extensive list of recalls. This makes 2014 a tough year for the automaker, bringing the total number of safety recalls up to 29. Today's recall is for the Buick Enclave, Chevrolet Traverse, GMC Acadia full-size crossovers from 2009-2014 and Saturn Outlooks from 2009-2010.

F1 racer marks countdown to Race Week London

FORMULA 1 racer Charles Pic has made an appearance in London with a Lotus Formula 1 car, ahead of London’s first ever ‘Race Week’ festival. The Frenchman posed for photos close to Tower Bridge, where he was joined by a ‘London Royal Guard’ and a small boy, who was only too happy to stand in the Lotus for his own picture. On July 3 motorsport fans will be able to enjoy a huge slice of F1 action in central London, as Race Week arrives just a day before the start of the practice sessions at Silverstone’s British Grand Prix.

Honda Gives You Wings

YOU might be more familiar with its cars and motorcycles, but did you know that Honda also made planes? If boat engines and quad bikes weren’t enough to keep the Japanese firm occupied, it recently embarked on a project to manufacture high-end business jets. With a base in America and more than a decade of research under its belt plus a small fleet of development aircraft, the company has announced that its first customer specification model is almost ready to fly.

Volvo Group plans wirelessly charged bus line

There's one bit of futuristic transportation technology that seems to get trotted out almost as often as autonomous cars, electric cars and flying cars: Inductive, or wireless, charging for city buses. It's not as sexy or as memorable as the perpetually out-of-reach commuter-grade Harrier jet, but it uses proven technology (GM's EV-1 uses inductive charging, as do electric toothbrushes) to save or eliminate fuel and to reduce emissions. And unlike the flying car, induction-charged buses are hardly fantasy: They've been used in European cities for over a decade, South Korea started testing a fleet last year and Utah got in on the act recently.

Nissan e-NV200 electric van gets a headline starting price of £13,393

The Nissan e-NV200 electric van (pictured) – the start of an EV revolution for commercial vehicles? We’ve always been reluctant to see the electric car as a proper replacement for an ICE car, but an electric van for commercial deliveries in a reasonably confined area is a different animal altogether. So the arrival of the Nissan e-NV200 electric van is a big deal and could revolutionise how deliveries are made in our towns and cities, usefully shifting not just CO2, but NoX and particulates off to where the electricity is generated and making much less noise too.

The Manx makes it!

After 1,300 miles, 96 hours, two engines, three transmissions, a busted exhaust, a bent shifter, a stuck throttle, countless bottles of water, much swearing and the looming threat of heat exhaustion, Bruce Meyers and the Meyers Manx Race Team buggy drove through the finish line at the town square of San Jose Del Cabo and completed the damn 2014 NORRA Mexican 1000 once and for all. Finally -- for Meyers' and the number 1964 buggy's first time -- they had successfully navigated the Baja Peninsula and finished under their own power. The poor Meyers Manx Dual Sport was looking worse for the wear when it streamed into town at 5:30 p.m.

Street View not good enough for Google's self-driver

If anyone can bring the self-driving car to market, it's Google. Not only does the company have the necessary funds for such an undertaking, it has the necessary data -- at least one would think. In a Wired article on Tuesday, Google said that even though it has mapped much of the world with Google Street View, those maps won't help its self-driving car.

Order your Mazda Miata 25th Anniversary Edition today

Are you tired of driving around in a boring old Miata? Are you tired of going through another day with a car that doesn't celebrate 25 years of the most popular roadster ever built? Do you just want that extra collectibility in your tiny sports car?

Mercedes AMG GT teased on video

The new Mercedes AMG GT gets teased on video. Mercedes effective replacement for the SLS – the Mercedes AMG GT – is due to be revealed at the Paris Motor Show later this year, but Mercedes has already started the slow reveal of the AMG GT with photos of the interior last month. Pitched a bit further down the supercar ladder than the SLS, the AMG Gt is aiming to take on cars like the Porsche 911 and deliver a car that Mercedes hope will be the benchmark in its class.

Drivers waste £1.9 billion on insurance

A TOTAL of £1.9 billion is being wasted by drivers in the UK who automatically renew their car insurance without shopping around for the best deal. A study has found 2.4 million drivers in the UK don’t bother to compare quotes to get the best deal when their car insurance comes up for renewal. The research by Moneysupermarket.com found 8.6 million drivers in Britain could be better off by up to £220 per year each if they moved to a new insurer.

Nissan Leaf recall could force replacement of entire car

Nissan is recalling a total of 211 examples of the the Leaf pure-electric car supplied to the U.S., and another 65 Leafs sold in Canada for a problem involving missing spot welds in the motor compartment. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) says that the front structural member assemblies in these cars could be missing welds in several crucial places, to the left and right of the electric motor. As a result, the affected Leafs might not perform well in a crash.

Caterham Sevens reimagined as classic F1 cars

You could never really call the Caterham Seven modern – its look has remained fundamentally unchanged since the original Lotus Seven (the car Caterham would eventually buy the rights to build) launched back in 1957. Today, the engine is still in the front, those delightfully exposed front wheels still float over bumps and the frog-eyed headlights serve as a reminder of years gone by. And now the modern Seven has been taken right back to the period where it was first conceived, with these Grand Prix-style racers from Zolland Design.

Enzo Ferrari biopic back on track

Fans of Enzo Ferrari and the company he founded could finally get the film they have wanted: A film company is getting closer to putting the long-delayed biopic into production, Variety reports. LA-based Cecchi Gori Pictures is said to be in talks with a well-known American director to helm the film, based on a script by Troy Kennedy Martin and David Rayfield. The script and the film project have been in gestation for years, but the project had been plagued by delays.

Clean cars make us happy

A CLEAN CAR makes us feel happier and three out of four drivers say a spotless car makes them feel better about themselves. In a survey by car wash specialists IMO, 74% of drivers reported a shiny car was a quick way to make themselves happier, while only a minority said they would ‘rather boil their head’ than get their car washed. Young drivers are the most likely to improve their mood with a car wash, with 85% saying a shiny car gives them a boost.

One Lap of the Web: Ferrari goulash and Abarth gnocchi

-- South Korea's automotive legacy may not be as rich as, say, Czechoslovakia's, but don't tell collector Baek Joong-gil that. Not to his face, anyway. He might be behind the wheel of one of his five hundred cars, which includes such rarities as the Kia T-600 (Kia's first car, built under license from Mazda in 1963); the Cadillac Fleetwood of former president Park Chung-hee; and Korea's oldest fire truck.

Rural motorists pay price at pumps

RURAL MOTORISTS are beginning to feel petrol price pressure at the pumps again, according to the AA. Average UK petrol prices went back above 130p a litre at the end of April and continue to hover around that level. But the AA said that a war in which supermarkets have pitted vouchers against rock-bottom pump prices means the cheapest petrol in many big towns and cities is at year-lows of just under 126p.

Persuaders Aston Martin sells for more than £500,000

ROGER MOORE'S signature Aston Martin from hit 1970s action adventure show The Persuaders! has been sold at auction for a world record £533,000. The 1970 Bahama Yellow DBS, which Moore's playboy character Lord Brett Sinclair drove on his adventures around Europe, was snapped up at Bonhams annual auction at the Aston Martin Works.

Cyclists 'revel in car-free streets'

THOUSANDS of cyclists have enjoyed the chance to ride on car-free streets during a series of bike rides around the country. The Space for Cycling Big Ride saw people of all ages take to their bikes in London, Birmingham, Bristol, Leeds, Manchester, Newcastle and Sheffield. Organisers estimated 5,000 cyclists took part in the event in the capital, where 30 guided rides took place under bright sunshine.

The ‘Persuaders’ Aston Martin DBS fetches £533,500 at Bonhams auction

The Persuaders Aston Martin DBS sold at Bonhams Aston Martin Works sale As we reported back in March, the Aston Martin DBS driven by Roger Moore in the 1970s TV Series The Persuaders – where Moore played Lord Brett Sinclair and Tony Curtis Danny Wilde – was up for sale this weekend at the Bonhams Aston Martin works sales Newport Pagnell. The first time this iconic TV car had been offered for sale in 40 years – although without its iconic ‘BS 1′ number plate – the DBS fetched an impressive £533,500 (including buyers premium and taxes) – a world record price. Compared to the huge prices reached by James Bond Aston Martins, the price paid for the Persuaders DBS was small, but in terms of the price paid for a ‘TV’ car it was huge.

Blue badge fraud prosecutions up

BLUE BADGE FRAUD prosecutions have doubled in three years, with professional people such as lawyers and architects among the offenders. Unscrupulous fraudsters have been caught using a dead relative's pass or leaving a disabled parent stuck at home in order to park for free to go shopping or travel to work, said the Local Government Association (LGA) . There were 686 successful council prosecutions in 2013 - up from 330 in 2010 as councils cracked down on offenders.

Koenigsegg Agera One:1 heading for UK debut at Goodwood Festival of Speed

The Koenigsegg Agera One:1 is heading for Goodwood It was back in 2012 that we exclusively revealed the first official details of the Koenigsegg One:1, the most extreme car Koenigsegg has produced. Since then, Christian von Koenigsegg and his team have not only built the Agera One:1, but they managed to sell them all first at a price that makes grown men weep and officially revealed it back in February. Since then, Koenigsegg have been busy showing off the One:1 in a series of videos and giving the One:1 its first public outing at the Geneva Motor Show in March.

New Nissan 'Golf rival' teaser shot revealed

AFTER a long absence from the compact family hatchback market, Nissan has released a teaser shot of the car that it hopes will 'putt' the Volkswagen Golf in its place. The new car will be called the Pulsar, and comes eight years after the final UK-bound Almera hatchback was sold. Nissan will be hoping that the dour reputation of that car will be left long behind, and on the basis of its latest models like the new Qashqai, things are looking good.

Formula E Spark-Renault electric race cars arrive with the teams at Donnington

The 10 Formula E cars arrive at Donnington No one knows if the Formula E experiment – an ‘F1′ Grand Prix series for electric racing cars – will garner the same sort of interest as its ICE counterpart, but with the first Formula E race scheduled for Beijing in September we’ll soon find out. Ahead of that debut race, Renault and Spark Technologies has delivered the teams their cars – all the same Spark Renault SRT_01E – to the Formula E base at Donnington. After a series of tests at a variety of circuits earlier this year, the Spark Renault SRT_01E passed all its final systems and architecture tests, which has allowed this first batch of the final series cars to be delivered for the teams to practice ahead of the race.

Formula E Electric Racers Move Closer To The Starting Grid

WITH the FIA Formula E Championship building up to the new competition’s first race in Beijing, China, on 13 September 2014, the first batch of electric Spark-Renault racing cars have now been delivered to the competing teams. The handover took place at the series’ new premises at the well-known Donington race track. Alain Prost, co-director of the French team E-Dams, and also an ambassador for Renault, was at the circuit for this landmark delivery.