Longacre 61070 Coil-over Spring Rubber on 2040-parts.com

Vauxhall Ampera Price revealed

The Vauxhall Ampera costs £28,995 - even after the taxpayer chips in £5k Sensibly, Vauxhall has chosen to reveal the price of the range-extender Vauxhall Ampera on the day it was included on the list of cars eligible for the £5,000 taxpayer subsidy for plug-in cars. Vauxhall will be getting £33,995 for every Ampera they shift, although the buyer will pay £28,995 thanks to the taxpayer subsidy. Which, whether you pick the subsidised price or the actual price, is an awful lot of money.

Eco cars named and shamed

By Tim Pollard Motoring Issues 26 September 2007 10:19 A new report today exposes the real green cars - and there's not a hybrid in sight in the top 10, according to researchers at Cardiff University. Conventionally engined superminis dominate the top ranks. The scientists gave half their score based on each cars' emissions of CO2, NOx and other pollutants; the other half of the score was calculated from vehicles' construction, energy costs, recyclability and size.

New MINI JCW GP laps Nurburgring in 8:23 (video)

We have video of the fastest MINI ever – the MINI John Cooper Works GP II – lapping the Nurburgring in 8:23. We revealed back in April that a new version of the MINI JCW GP was on the way, and MINI got round to confirming that in May when the new MINI John Cooper Works GP was officially revealed. At the time, MINI told us that the new MINI GP could hustle round the Nurburgring a full 19 seconds quicker than the old MINI GP making the new hot MINI the fastest MINI ever made (well, the fastest MINI ever made by BMW, anyway).