Ford 2.0l 2.5l Automatic Flywheel Flexplate Focus Ecosport Escape Oem 1s7z6375c on 2040-parts.com

Electric cars must get noisier, ICE cars must get quieter

Electric cars will have to make a noise to protect pedestrians It’s four years since the Lotus solution for making electric cars noisy raised its head, since when the US has had a go at the Pedestrian Safety Enhancement Act in 2010 to do the same thing, the Japanese are playing too, and Toyota revealed the Prius Vehicle Notification System, and now the EU has decided its time to act to make EVs emit ‘noise’. Despite the most appealing part of an EV being that it makes our cities quieter, legislators worry about the blind, partially sighted and distracted pedestrian (think earphones and a Smartphone) being mowed down by a stalking electric car and feel the need to act. So the European Parliament has decided that by 2019 new models of electric vehicle will have to make a noise in cities, and that by 2021 all new hybrids and electrics must be noisy too.

BMW Z4M? Sorry, it’s the Z4 M-Sport

BMW are testing a Z4 with an M-Sport package round the Nurburgring I suppose that at least this way you can have a Z4 that looks the part- with bigger wheels and bumpers and maybe even a suspension tweak or three – without having to bother with the big price ticket or the not inconsiderable running costs. To be fair, the Z4 sDrive35i is not particularly slow. It will manage to get to 60 mph in around 5.0 seconds; handles well and looks so much better than the Z3 did.

Vauxhall VXR8 Tourer (2013) first official pictures

This is Vauxhall's most powerful estate car ever: the VXR8 Tourer. Based on the Australian market's outgoing HSV Commodore R8 Tourer, the VXR8 uses a previous-gen Chevrolet Corvette V8 engine to lug along the biggest loadspace in its class. Is this the ultimate sub-£50k family car?