Mercruiser 496 8.1 Ltr. Motor on 2040-parts.com

Who's Where: Martin Smith to retire, succeeded by Joel Piaskowski as Ford Europe head of design

Martin Smith, head of Ford of Europe design for the last 10 years, will retire at the end of this year, before which he will work on a project to study the future direction of the company's global design direction. He will be replaced by current head of strategic concepts group, Joel Piaskowski on 1 July. Smith (64) first joined Ford back in 2004, leaving General Motors as director of design for Opel/Vauxhall.

Toyota Prius Plug-in price & options: Costs £32,895

Toyota Prius Plug-in - arrives in July & costs £33k The Toyota Prius Plug-in finally arrives in July 2012 and will cost £32,895 in a single spec plus a range of options. Toyota has been promising the Prius Plug-in would arrive in Toyota UK showrooms for quite some time and it looks like they’ve managed to pin that down to July. Probably.

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).