Biker attempts to beat London marathon record... in traffic

AS BRITISH favourite Mo Farah prepares to challenge the British record at the London Marathon this weekend, an enterprising biker has decided to try it himself – in the thick of London traffic. On closed roads a man vs machine race would be a bit one-sided, but with the average speed of a fast marathon runner being 12.43mph and the average speed of a motorbike in London traffic being 12.5mph, the result turned out not to be so clear-cut – the biker missing out on the record by a full five minutes. Using the same BMW F800GS Adventure as is loaned to the marathon organisers, Michael Mann of online community Bike Social followed the route as closely as possible, albeit with a few extra loops where the runners will take advantage of closed one-way streets.

Mazda teams with Toyota, not Ford, for upcoming hybrid

Mazda Motor Corp. on Monday took another step toward independent product development, agreeing to lease hybrid drivetrain technology from Toyota Motor Corp. instead of longtime U.S.

New car registrations at five-year high September 2013

New car registrations at five-year high September 2013 Despite the UK economy being in the doldrums for much of the past five years, new car registrations have recovered well ahead of the curve and still seem to be unstoppable. September saw new car registrations hit 403,136 – the highest figure for five and a half years – and the first time since 2008 new car registrations have broken the 400k barrier. We’ve covered the reasons before – pre-reg cars, dealer discounts and even PPI payouts – but car registrations are certainly continuing to give buoyancy to a recovery that’s still fragile.