Denso 953-3026 Fuel Pump & Strainer-fuel Pump Module Assembly on 2040-parts.com

Design Services: Car Menu launched

Within almost every automotive design department throughout the world, their comes a time when a junior designer is dispatched to find a picture of some new model's tail lamp, the side view of a particular class leading competitor or examples of several new cars' colour and trim packages. Whilst looking at the competition is not necessarily a healthy way of finding ideas, it is often essential to demonstrate what is feasible, check in-house proposals are not too derivative, or show how advanced a design theme is relative to the same type of cars on the market. But even if the particular aspect of a car can be found, press packs and magazines typically show cars in the flattering light of an exotic location or being drifted around a corner on opposite lock; rarely are these images particularly useful.

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.

Goodwood FoS: Peugeot EX1 concept

It's not very often that I'm up at six o'clock on a Saturday morning. Yet here I am, threading through the narrow lanes of West Sussex, trying to meet a ridiculously early call time with Peugeot at the Goodwood Festival of Speed. Couple this with the adrenalin coursing through my veins – brought on by the excitement of finally getting a ride up the drive in front of Goodwood's house, home each year to the Festival of Speed – and there's no need for any coffee to wake me up this morning.