Heavy Duty Muffler Clamp E49 on 2040-parts.com

Skoda Octavia (2013): first official pictures

This is the new 2013 Skoda Octavia. For its third generation, the Octavia gets its cleanest, most efficient engines yet and the full gamut of tech upgrades available on the new Mk7 Golf - all wrapped up in a more sober, Czech-style package. The new Octavia is also lighter than the old car and, with the arrival of the mid-sized Rapid, has grown from family hatch proportions to fight the Ford Mondeo and Vauxhall Insignia.

New Aston Martin Vanquish Volante arrives – costs £200k

The New Aston Martin Vanquish Volante (pictured) costs £200k It’s almost exactly a year since the Aston Martin Vanquish arrived as a replacement for the DBS, and now we get it’s convertible sibling – the new Aston Martin Vanquish Volante. Aston are claiming the new Vanquish Volante is the stiffest Aston convertible ever and have also managed to keep the usual weight increase for a soft top down to just 9kg by giving the Volante a full carbon fibre body. The result of that is the Volante manages to produce exactly the same performance figures as the Vanquish Coupe – 0-62mph in 4.1 seconds and 183mph – from its 565php, 6.0 litre V12 and shouldn’t, we hope, shake and shimmy in the way many Aston convertibles do in the process.

Solar car built by Cambridge University crashes

The annual World Solar Challenge is taking place right now. 38 teams from all round the globe are racing 3,000km (1,864 miles) across Australia using energy from the sun alone. Unfortunately, the planned entry from the UK’s very own Cambridge University isn’t amongst them – because five days before the start the above happened.