Dorman C95967 Brake Cable-cable - Parking Brake on 2040-parts.com

The thinking man’s M3: Alpina D3 Bi-Turbo is world’s fastest diesel production car

German tuning firm Alpina has been tweaking BMWs since it started back in 1965 – in fact, it helped BMW develop the legendary 3.0 CSL, so it seems it knows its onions. However, its latest effort is something a little different. Not quite a conventional performance car, the 2013 Alpina D3 Bi-Turbo is actually the world’s fastest diesel production car, according to the firm.

Ford Fiesta ST Concept arrives

Ford Fiesta ST Concept Just as we expected, Ford has revealed a properly hot Fiesta to take on the new wave of superminis – like the Polo GTI – and is offering up the Fiesta ST with a 1.6 litre EcoBoost lump which will deliver 178bhp. This is Ford cashing-in on its Fiesta WRC programme to price a proper little hot Fiesta, and in the process turning its back on the misjudged decision to play down performance Fords in our eco-obsessed world. Good.

Porsche Panamera Hybrid: Geneva Reveal

The Porsche Panamera Hybrid (click for bigger image) We’ve got to say, the news that the Porsche Panamera Hybrid (strictly speaking, the Porsche Panamera S Hybrid) is going to debut at the Geneva Motor Show in a couple of weeks time isn’t exactly a shock. After all, Porsche has made no secret of its plans to stick Hybrid gubbins in the Panamera; CO2 targets, and all that guff. But Porsche seems to think it is a surprise (unless they really have a surprise and are planning on revealing another Porsche hybrid altogether much sooner than we expected) as the press release we got in from Porsche has the enigmatic little tease of a headline – ‘Porsche: Hybrid world premiere’.