Chilton's Motor/age Professional Automotive Service Manual 1979, 1973-1979 #6742 on 2040-parts.com

BMW M3 coupe gets stripped down to go club racing

BMW's M division is back in the business of building specialty street-legal race cars with a new lightweight version of the M3 called the GTS. The lightweight coupe, set to go on sale in early 2010 at a yet-undisclosed price, was conceived as a limited-edition model primarily for club-based racing in much the same way that Porsche builds the 911 GT3 Clubsport. But in a clear effort to link its track-based activities with the production-car side of its business, BMW's M division is offering the new car with a homologation package that will allow customers to register the M3 GTS for street use.

Lotus Esprit James Bond car up for auction

The Lotus Esprit Submarine (pictured) from the James Bond 007 film is up for auction James Bond and cars go together like bacon and eggs and, with the exception of the 007 Aston Martin DB5, the Lotus Esprit ‘Submarine’ car from the Spy Who Loved Me is probably the most iconic Bond car to have hit the big screen. Piloted in the film by Roger Moore – with Mrs Ringo Starr, Barbara Bach, at his side – the underwater version of the Esprit, one of six used in the film, was affectionately know to the crew as ‘Wet Nellie’ and actually piloted for the underwater scenes by former SEAL Don Griffin, who worked as a test pilot for the creators of the Esprit Submarine - Perry Oceanographic. After filming ended it was sent of to a storage unit in Long Island, ten years rent was paid upfront but, when the 10 year rent period ended, no one stepped forward to claim the contents at they were sold off for a song to a local couple.

Skoda Fabia GreenLine does 127mpg in the hands of Gerhard Plattner

Hyper-miler Gerhard Plattner with the 127mpg Skoda Fabia GreenLine That rings a bell, we thought. A guy called Gerhard Plattner doing mega-miles in a Skoda. And then we remembered that two years ago the same guy managed to average 100mpg on  a trip in a SEAT Ibiza ECOMOTIVE between Barcelona to Germany.