Bob Stay Fitting Monel on 2040-parts.com

Mandelson to announce help for car makers

Lord Mandelson is the man charged with finding ways to fund UK Car purchases (yes, he of the dodgy mortgage debacle – at least he should know a few tricks!) as the credit crunch has dried up funding, leading to an unprecedented drop in new car sales in the UK. Mandelson is due to make a statement in the Lords just after 3pm today, outlining the help the government is going to offer to ailing car makers. Central to this package is expected to be a funding channel directly from the Bank of England to inject liquidity in to the car financing sector.

CAR interviews BMW design chief Adrian van Hooydonk (2009)

By Guy Bird Motor Industry 03 November 2009 09:22 CAR: Chris Bangle once told a great story about sending BMW designers to study with an origami master to gain influence. Judging by the Vision EfficientDynamics concept it looks like you were on that trip? Adrian van Hooydonk: I didn’t go along but in the recent past our designers have experimented with a lot of things – folded metal, folded paper, even plywood – and on this concept car maybe all of that came to fruition.

Mini Paceman John Cooper Works (2013): first pictures

Here we have the answer to the question: 'what would a high-riding Mini coupe-cum-SUV four-seater hot hatch look like?' Granted, it's not a question many have asked, but that hasn't stopped Mini bringing us the Paceman John Cooper Works: all 215bhp of it. Is this the fastest Mini Paceman yet? As you'd expect, the JCW Paceman sits atop the range, thanks to its 215bhp 1.6-litre turbocharged engine.