Driver's Lower Kick Panel, Jeep Grand Cherokee 93-95 Zj (grey) Kicker on 2040-parts.com

Jaguar Land Rover in talks to buy Aston Martin

Talks have taken place between Tata – owners of Jaguar Land Rover – and the Kuwait Investment Dar – owners of Aston Martin. We reported a year ago that Aston Martin needed a big car maker behind it to have any chance of survival, and just last week the world caught up with that story as it was revealed the Kuwait Investment Dar – majority shareholder in Aston Martin – was seeking a buyer for Aston Martin. We said a year ago that Jaguar Land Rover was the best fit as a buyer for Aston Martin, but we doubted JLR would want to go back to being the poor relation to AML – as it was in the days of Ford’ ownership of the brands – where a Jag was a poor man’s Aston.

BMW 1-series M Coupe (2011) MotoGP safety car

BMW's M Division has unleashed a track version of its upcoming 1-series M Coupe, which made its debut as the 2011 MotoGP safety car at the season-opening MotoGP race in Qatar on 20 March. BMW 1-series M Coupe MotoGP safety car – the lowdown Visually there have been some changes over the roadgoing 1M, which is due to go on sale in April 2011. The new louvred bonnet is made from carbon fibre, there’s an additional front splitter fitted to the bumper, plus polycarbonate side and rear windows, and an adjustable rear wing. There’s a light bar on the roof for official signaling duties and the package is wrapped in a suitably-loud M colour scheme Inside there's a partially stripped-out interior with a bolt-in roll cage replacing the rear seats, a pair of lightweight Recaro racing buckets up front with six-point harnesses, and a fire extinguisher.

Scions at SEMA

On Tuesday, Scion unveiled the cars it will show on its stand at SEMA and, while we appreciate the efforts of the tC tuners in the Scion Tuner Challenge, we gotta admit the FR-S entries and another stretch limo xB really caught our editorial eye. Coolest car of the night was a tie between the Ken Gushi GReddy FR-S and the Bulletproof Automotive FR-S. We couldn't decide which we liked better.