Cadillac Cts-v 09 Stock Airbox on 2040-parts.com

Mullin Museum 'opens,' still no public date

The Mullin Automotive Museum in Oxnard, Calif., "opened" Thursday night with a gala Art Deco affair that did splendid justice to the beautiful cars, photos and furniture inside. Models dressed in period costume with period 'dos draped themselves over what are arguably the world's most beautiful Bugattis, Delages, Delahayes, Talbot-Lagos, Voisins and Hispano-Suizas. Similarly clad guests strolled about the perfect period decor, perfect right down to the Art Deco pillars holding up the ecologically friendly roof.

New Vauxhall Astra Roadster preview

Rendering of the Vauxhall Astra Roadster With the new Vauxhall Astra starting to be pushed by Vauxhall ahead of its official launch at Frankfurt in September, thoughts are now turning to what derivatives of the new Astra are to come. Vauxhall are already committed to the three door hatchback and the estate as the follow up after the launch, but an obvious contender is an open-topped Astra. And if these renderings are to be believed it will be a bit of a show-stopper.

VW Taigun: It’s an Up! SUV

Volkswagen has revealed the VW Taigun at the Sao Paulo Motor Show in Brazil, a very compact SUV based on the VW Up! The Taigun is 3859mm long and 1728mm wide, making it a chunk smaller than the next VW SUV up (the Tiguan) and smaller even than Nissan’s Juke, but it gets an extra 50mm in the wheelbase compared to the Up so interior room looks decent. Vw say the Taigun is purposely designed to look just like a mini-me Tiguan or Touareg (and sound like one too) with its very similar styling, high ride height, skid plates and roof rails with an interior that offers room for four and enough spce for 280 litre of stuff in the boot (a plentiful 987 litres with the back seats folded).