Five 5 Solid Original 53 Chevy Grill Teeth Rat Rod on 2040-parts.com

Essex boost for car loving home buyers

An Essex council is to make garages and drives bigger on new homes For most of the last decade the UK Government has waged a war on the motorist. Endless speed cameras, which are in reality just tax-raising  machines and have little to do with road safety; never-ending fuel tax rises; congestion charging; spiralling parking charges; road-charging schemes and the only coppers you see have a speed gun so non-speeding untaxed and uninsured drivers never get caught -  pushing up costs for the rest of us. But one of the most stupid, head-in-the-sand policies was the idea that new houses should encourage people to forsake their cars by making garages too small and off-street parking almost non-existent.

We Preview the Grand National Roadster Show

Every year at the Grand National Roadster Show you'll find one guy who gripes about all the multi-million-dollar cars entered in the show's premier competition category, the dozen open-topped two-seaters competing for the prestigious title of America's Most Beautiful Roadster. Well somebody find that guy and bring him by because this year there's only one – count it, one - Chip Foose-designed, Troy Trepanier-built entry. The rest are built by regular guys just like you and me.

Driven: BMW X3

The BMW X3 had the premium CUV market to itself when launched in 2004. Skip forward to the launch of the second generation and not only does the new version have a whole host of competitors for company, it also has to fit around its X1, X5 and X6 siblings. We took the 2011 BMW X3 (known internally as F25) to the Austrian Tyrol and spoke to its exterior designer, Erik Goplen, to find out if it still has the segment covered.