Blog on 2040Parts

2015 Corvette Stingray Z06 will debut at Detroit auto show

Happy with your 2014 Corvette Stingray? Well, good for you -- and enjoy the buzz while it lasts. True to Vette tradition, the release of one model means that a bigger, badder version is just around the corner.

Lorinser debuts 2014 Mercedes-Benz S-class

Brabus and AMG aren't the only tuning houses fielding their own versions of Mercedes-Benz cars, and during this week's Essen Motor Show German tuning house Lorinser unveiled their version of the new W222 Mercedes-Benz S-class. Lorinser has been tuning Mercedes-Benz automobiles since 1976 (and they've been selling them for more than 80 years), though their tuned cars not often seen on our shores. But Lorinser's upgrades to the S-class cars of the last 20 years have been well received in Europe.

2014 Honda Civic goes on sale today

The 2014 Honda Civic is now on sale. The LX coupe starts at $18,980 including destination while the top trim, an EX sedan with navigation, comes in at $25,030. A continuously variable gearbox is the only automatic transmission option this year, though a five-speed manual is available.

The man Porsche must fear in aftermath of fatal Paul Walker crash

Raise your hand: Who thinks there won't be a lawsuit over the Porsche Carrera GT crash that killed “Fast and the Furious” actor Paul Walker, and his friend, business associate and driver Roger Rodas? Nobody? Thought so.

Race2Recovery gets set for second Dakar Rally

Race2Recovery, a rally-raid team filled mostly with disabled veterans, is headed to its second Dakar Rally in two years. The team took its two Defender-based Wildcat rally trucks, one T4 competition truck, one T5 support truck and two Land Rover Discovery (LR4 in the U.S.) support vehicles to the Le Havre port in France for scrutineering. Then they joined 650 other competitors in loading the ships bound for South America.

High Fuel Costs Forcing Drivers Off Road

THE latest AA/Populus survey released to coincide with the Government’s Autumn Statement tells us something we probably already know: high fuel prices are continuing to force drivers to use their cars less. As part of its poll of 21,587 AA members, the organisation found that 45% are cutting down on car usage and 28% are slashing family or personal budgets to compensate. Semi or unskilled workers and pensioners are cutting back most on motoring, with 53% using their cars less.

Volkswagen debuts special edition Touareg X

The Volkswagen Touareg has been with us for ten years -- hard to believe -- and in that time Volkswagen has sold more than 121,000 examples of the SUV in the U.S. alone. And for the 2014 model year Volkswagen will be releasing a special edition of the Touareg, first ever for the nameplate, dubbed the Touareg X.

Audi Confirms New Q1 Mini SUV To Be Produced From 2016

GERMAN premium car maker Audi has announced plans to launch a new, small SUV in 2016 called the Q1. Slotting in below the firm’s existing Q3 model, its hoped the Q1 will help make a significant contribution to the company’s ongoing growth and will strengthen its international competitiveness as it expands into new markets and more countries. As an illustration of the company’s desire to expand, by 2020 its product range will have grown from the current 49 models to more than 60, and will reach total unit sales of more than two million cars each year.

2014 Performance Car Show Ready For Action

BRITAIN’S Best Driver’s Cars will take to the Live Action Arena at the Performance Car Show, running alongside Autosport International at Birmingham’s NEC from 9-12 January. Led by supercars such as the 468bhp Porsche 911 GT3 and the Aston Martin V12 Vantage S, ten cars will parade through the 5,000-seat Live Action Arena. Also assembling in the arena will be the Mercedes-Benz A 45 AMG, featuring the most powerful four-cylinder engine in production, as well as the Toyota GT86, Jaguar F-Type S, Porsche Cayman S and Ford Fiesta ST Mountune.

Your chance to shape CAR Online – and win £500

By the CAR Online team 04 December 2013 12:50 Fancy winning £500? We’re looking for your views on what the CAR website should offer – and we’ll pay a cash prize to one lucky respondent. Completing the online survey is easy: it doesn’t take long to tell us how you use our site and what you like – or don’t like – about it.

Government Highlights 'Snowball Effect' Of Drink-Driving

MILLIONS of people could lose their jobs if they were unable to drive to, or at, work through being caught drinking and driving. That’s the message behind a new Government drink-driving campaign in advance of the festive season. Keen to highlight the "snowball effect" of getting a drink-drive conviction, the campaign is hoping to register with individuals who need to be mobile for their profession, such as professional driving jobs, teachers, care workers and jobs in banks and finance.

Nissan Helps World's Strongest Man Set New World Record

THE WORLD'S strongest man, Zydrunas Savickas, set a new Guinness world record for the Most Cars Pulled By One Man when he towed 12 Nissan Notes weighing a total 12,941kg. Savickas, five-times World Strongest Man champion and widely regarded as the one of the greatest strongmen of all time, only had one attempt to set the new record. Wearing a specialised pulling harness and rope arrangement he pulled the 12 Notes over five metres, accomplishing the feat in 32.9 seconds.

Saleen announces new electric supercar

Californian tuner and sometimes supercar-builder Saleen has confirmed it is working on an all-new electric car, with plans to debut the new model in 2015. Perhaps best known for the 248mph Saleen S7 Twin Turbo, which went out of production in 2009, the firm specialises in providing performance upgrades for modern American muscle cars, including the Ford Mustang and Chevrolet Camaro. On Bing: see pictures of the Saleen S7 Find out how much used muscle car costs on Auto Trader However, Saleen is keen to get into the bespoke supercar game again, and is claiming in a newly released statement that its forthcoming electric vehicle will be ‘unlike anything currently in the market place.’ Exactly what this would entail is unclear at this stage, but the Saleen is saying ‘Throw out your pre-conceived notions and expectations.

New Ford Mustang revealed for 2015: in pictures

Ford chairman Bill Ford has unveiled the new Ford Mustang at the firm’s Go Further technology workshop in Barcelona. MSN Cars is here reporting live from the event, and far from the unveiling of an irrelevant American muscle car, the new Mustang is actually rather pertinent. That’s because when it goes on sale in 2015, it’ll officially be coming to the UK in right-hand drive guise for the first time, baring some very European engineering features.

Voxan Wattman is world's most powerful electric motorcycle

It would be fair to say that we're a little bit in love with the Voxan Wattman electric motorbike. There's just something wonderfully cutting-edge about the design, and that's before you start peering beneath its chiselled skin. If we were looking for a motorcycle to make an escape silently across the border and into Switzerland, this is surely the bike to do it on.

Toyota revamps Yaris line-up for 2014

Toyota has revamped its Yaris line-up and announced that the 1.4-litre diesel now has lower emissions – meaning it gets free road tax. The Yaris will now also come in a choice of four new trim levels: Active, Icon, Icon Plus and Trend. The Active and Icon replace the T2 and Tr, while Trend becomes the new top-of-the-range model.

Lamborghini Veneno Roadster world debut: in pictures

Lamborghini. Once a bonkers manufacturer set up by an Italian tractor company boss, it’s now owned by Volkswagen. But if you think that means things might start to get a little stale, you need to take a look at this – the £2.7 million Lamborghini Veneno, which has just had its public debut.

Toll road plans 'to be scrapped'

CONTROVERSIAL plans to create the UK's first toll road for a decade are to be dropped, it was reported. Improvements to the A14 will instead be paid for by the Government, the Financial Times said. The proposed toll is part of a scheme to widen and improve a heavily congested 25-mile stretch in East Anglia which carries traffic from the port of Felixstowe to the Midlands.

Brabus unveils 850-hp grocery getter

It wouldn't be the Essen Motor Show without German tuning house Brabus introducing its own versions of one or two of Mercedes-Benz cars, with borderline-unbelievable power figures. And this year the Bottrop-based outfit didn't disappoint, rolling out the Brabus 850 6.0 Biturbo based on the 2014 E63 AMG station wagon. For starters, Brabus has increased the V8 engine's displacement from 5,461cc to 5,912cc, installing custom-made forged pistons and a precision balanced billet crankshaft, and replacing the stock turbos with ones of their own design featuring larger compressor units.

Autoweek looks at Ford Mustangs that never were

When a car has been around for nearly 50 years, like the Ford Mustang, it is bound to go through many generational styling changes. In most cases, it will also be the subject of several design studies and concepts that never make it to the auto show stage. With the 2015 Ford Mustang just days away, we though it would be a good time to look back on some of those concepts that most of the world never got to see.

AC Schnitzer shows off polizei-spec ACS4 2.8i Coupe

The Essen Motor Show is underway. Essen is Europe's version of SEMA, with hundreds of tuning companies showing their wares. And for this year's event, BMW tuner AC Schnitzer has rolled out its version of the 2014 4-series, dubbed the ACS4 2.8i Coupe, in polizei spec, no less.

Do Winter Tyres REALLY work? Oh, yes, say Volvo (+ video)

Volvo prove how effective Winter Tyres are in the Snowdome For some reason, the debate on fitting winter tyres in the UK continues to be a debate, even when those who’ve actually used a car fitted with winter tyres swear by them (an argument not helped by previous government advice). So Volvo – safety conscious as ever – decided to prove the point by taking the very good Volvo V40 off to the Snowdome indoor ski slope in Tamworth to see exactly what difference a set of winter tyres makes to the grip available in a regular, FWD, family Volvo. And the results should make every car owner go out and fit winter tyres.

Jaguar F-Type Coupe UK debut on Sunday

The Jaguar F-Type Coupe (pictured) makes its UK debut on Sunday The star of the Los Angeles Auto Show – and now the star car in Jaguar’s lineup – was the very appealing Jaguar F-Type Coupe. And now the UK is about to get – a very limited – public viewing of Jaguar’s new |F-Type Coupe. This coming Sunday – the 8th December – sees the Jaguar Academy of Sport Annual Awards at the Royal Opera House in London and, apart from the Sports Stars, the star of the night will be the new Jaguar F-Type Coupe.

Paul Walker crash site known for street racers

STREET RACERS are known to use the California neighbourhood where Fast & Furious star Paul Walker died in a car crash. Walker and his friend and fellow fast-car enthusiast Roger Rodas died on Saturday when the 2005 Porsche Carrera GT they were travelling in smashed into a lamppost and a tree. The two had taken what was expected to be a brief drive away from a charity event at Mr Rodas' custom car shop in the Southern California community of Valencia, about 30 miles north west of Los Angeles.

Essen Motor Show 2013: in pictures

After the corporate seriousness and Germanic efficiency of the Frankfurt Motor Show, the Essen Motor Show is an altogether more relaxed affair. Albeit one delivered with the same level of German efficiency. It's the perfect show for the run-up to Christmas, with wild concepts and weird creations from the custom and tuning industry.

More on Alfa Romeo's rear-drive strategy

The revised Alfa Romeo plan that Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne is expected to announce next April focuses on a new, still unnamed rear-wheel- and all-wheel-drive architecture. A key aim of the new plan is to boost Alfa's global presence. "With our current segment coverage and our geographical footprint, we compete in about 5 percent of the global market," Alfa's European boss, Louis-Carl Vignon, said in an interview.

£1,000 reward to shop drink drivers

CASH REWARDS of up to £1,000 are being offered to Christmas and New Year revellers who report drink-drivers to the police. Derbyshire Constabulary and West Midlands Police are promoting the rewards to help catch drivers who are over the alcohol limit or under the influence of drugs. Running until New Year's Day, the scheme will see posters placed in pubs and clubs urging drinkers to report those flouting the law to the Crimestoppers hotline.

Mercedes-Benz hits 100,000 UK sales for first time

FOR THE first time in its history Mercedes-Benz UK has sold more than 100,000 cars in a year. The milestone car, an A 180 CDI Sport bought at Mercedes-Benz of Bristol, now belongs to Jamie Leigh Arndell, who works as Transport Manager at Bristol and Avon Group. “It was a lovely surprise to pick up my new car and be told I was the company’s 100,000th customer [this year],” she said at the handover of the car.

New gadget immobilises cars with electronic pulse

Mitsubishi It might sound futuristic, but British technology company E2V has developed a prototype gadget capable of remotely stopping a car using a burst of electromagnetic radiation. Although it does appear to be a piece of equipment from the ‘James Bond bad guy’ locker, this technology really does work and could be used by police forces in the future. On Bing: see pictures of speeding carsHow motoring convictions affect your car insurance So bank robbers beware – even speeders, too.

Urbee 3D-printed car: the greenest car in the world?

Not to be confused with a 1963 Volkswagen Beetle with a similar sounding name, Urbee stands for URBan Electric vehicle with Ethanol as back-up. You can see why they settled on Urbee now, can't you? The Urbee is also the world’s first 3D-printed car, and the plan is to drive it from San Francisco to New York - a distance of 2,905 miles - in less than 44 hours.