Dorman 923-252 High Mount Brake Light on 2040-parts.com

Car-buying confidence hits new high

THE NUMBER of people who believe they will buy a new car in the next three years has jumped to 71%, according to the latest AA Car Purchase Index; up from 55% last year. Of the 19,786 survey respondents who said they were going to buy a new car, 42% said they would choose a petrol engine, with 38% saying definitely diesel. A further 13% don’t know what fuel type they will opt for, but 7% will choose some kind of hybrid and 1% will go fully electric – a total of exactly 100 respondents.

VW Group planning 10-speed DSG, new powerful diesel engine & more plug-in hybrids

The end of the internal combustion engine is nigh, they say, as the world tries to clean up its environmental act and works towards a goal of electric motors to power our personal transport. But car makers are fighting that belief by extracting more power for less fuel from ICE engines, and there’s still a very long way to go before the ICE engine is consigned to the history books. Volkswagen has already reduced the fuel consumption of both their diesel and petrol engines by 30 per cent since 2000 and plan a further reduction of 15 per cent by 2020.

Pagani Zonda Revolucion (2013) first pictures of ultimate 790bhp Zonda

Is the new Pagani Zonda Revolucion the Nurburgring lap-record holder in waiting? The Zonda Revolucion (Revolution in Spanish) is a fettled version of the track-only Zonda R, boasting more power and F1-derived brake and aerodynamic know-how. It should easily be able to eclipse the Zonda R's record-breaking 6min 47sec Nürburgring lap time, but you’ll need fast money, too. Available to order now, the five Revolucions being produced will set you back an eye-watering €2.2m (£1.8m) each – plus taxes – and you still can't drive it on the road… For £1.8million, the Pagani Zonda Revolucion had better be packing some serious punch… Worry not: the mid-mounted 6.0-litre AMG V12 (normally aspirated still, rather than twin-turbocharged like the new Pagani Huayra in CAR's video review below) develops 789bhp – a 50bhp increase on the 2009 Zonda R's output.