Crusader R080088 , Water Pump Bracket on 2040-parts.com

Beaulieu Sets Its Sights On A World Record Attempt

IT MIGHT be best known for its collection of weird, wonderful and historically significant cars, but the National Motor Museum at Beaulieu is now reaching out to anyone with an interest in toy cars. As part of its bid to break the current world record for the longest line of toy cars, Beaulieu is asking for donations in order to topple the current record of 9,795, set in Guatemala last December. The attempt will be held in the grounds of the attraction with a continuous line, one kilometre long, of at least 10,000 cars placed end to end, starting and finishing inside the museum.

Watch the sad, final moments of a crusher-bound heap

Automotive wrecking yards are good places to reflect on the real-world values of heavily depreciated vehicles versus global current scrap-metal prices, and to see which cars have suddenly had the fix-it-versus-total-it line moved by insurance companies (the early-21st-century Subaru Legacy Outback, for example, appeared in large numbers in high-turnover wrecking yards just during the last year, as fairly minor collision damage on these cars is no longer worth fixing). You'll see the things that a car's last owner does in a desperate attempt to sell (or at least live with) an increasingly decrepit heap (as we learned in "Repo Man," you really will find a Little Tree in every car). During a recent trip to a San Jose, Calif., yard, I encountered this sad yet strangely compelling scene.

KTM's four-wheeled future

By Ben Purvis Motor Industry 25 February 2008 11:26 KTM's X-Bow track day car is just the start of a five-model line-up that will include Dakar and Le Mans endurance racers. Stefan Pierer, the youthful-looking 51 year-old CEO of KTM, has revealed to CAR how he intends to turn his company into the Austrian equivalent of Lotus. The unveiling of the production version of the Audi-engined, carbon-monocoque X-Bow at the Geneva Motor Show on March 4 2008 is exactly one year on from the first showing of the prototype.