Carquest Brand Sls 476535 02045 Seal Brand New! on 2040-parts.com

Ferrari 458 Italia Revealed

The first pictures of the new Ferrari 458 Italia These are the first pictures of Ferrari’s 458 Italia, released this morning ahead of the official reveal at the Frankfurt Motor Show in September. Clearly showing influences from the Enzo and the Mille Chille Concept car, the F430 replacement will undoubtedly go upmarket in terms of price to differentiate it from Ferrari’s entry-level car, the Ferrari California. Featuring a new, 4.5 litre V8 (hence the name – 458) , Ferrari claim the new engine has the highest specific output of any normally aspirated road-car engine, which is a hard claim to dispute as it produces 127bhp per litre.  It produces 562bhp at 9000 rpm, making it the highest revving Ferrari engine to date.

Jaguar XJ Diesel – The Swansong plaudit

The Jaguar XJ 2.7 Diesel has won the 'Greenest Luxury Car' Award And although one of the strengths of Jaguar has been its heritage it has, to a degree, also become its Achilles Heel. The first Jaguar XJs were a triumph when they were launched in 1968, and put Jaguar leaps and bounds ahead of the German competition, in the same way Jaguar had taken the world by storm with the E-Type a few years before. But things started to fall apart for Jaguar in the ’70s with the fiasco that was British Leyland, and by trying to emulate Porsche by making each iteration of the XJ an evolution of the original all they managed to do was cement in the public mindset the failings of the XJ.

Gordon Murray Design T27 crash tested

The original Smart car probably did more than its fair share to persuade us that small cars needn't necessarily be unsafe. But now Gordon Murray is on the same mission: to persuade us that his titchy T27 city car is as safe as houses too. Gordon Murray Design has just issued its first crash test results, showing a T27 electric car after a crash test at the UK's MIRA industry research lab.  The crash test in question was the European-standard 40% offset deformable barrier front high-speed impact.