Mercruiser Alpha One Outdrive (1:98) on 2040-parts.com

One Lap of the Web: Moby Dick, mass transit failures, and the return of the Ford Rotunda

-- The Porsche 935/78 race car, perhaps better known as Moby Dick, looks a bit like a typical 911 that someone heated up until it was pliable and then slowly, carefully stretched until its nose and tail were elongated past the point of absurdity. And then someone else came along and stuck a giant wing on the back. But it is a real car, and Speedhunters has proof in the form of a photo essay.

Vectra wins US Car of the Year

By Phil McNamara Motor Industry 08 January 2007 02:05 It's enough to make Jeremy Clarkson's hair curl – even more. A US version of the Vauxhall Vectra – the Saturn Aura – has won North American Car of the Year. The car derided by TV presenter Clarkson won the award, following a vote by 49 enlightened motoring hacks.

New Skoda Octavia Scout price and spec – costs from £25,315

New Skoda Octavia Scout costs from £25,315 The new Skoda Octavia Scout arrived at the Geneva Motor Show in the Spring, bringing an ‘Allroad’ version of the latest Skoda Octavia Combi (Estate) to the market. As with all estate cars with offroad pretensions, the Octavia Scout comes with a more butch set of bumpers and a more purposeful nose, black cladding for the door sills and wheel arches, a new set of alloys, a raised ride height and a few tweaks for the interior so it all looks more than capable of taking on a muddy boot sale car park. The Scout comes with a choice of two 2.0 litre TDI engines at launch, with a lower powered, 148bhp with a six-speed manual and a more powerful, 182bhp version, getting a six-speed DSG gearbox, both of which return official economy of 55.4mpg (although, oddly, the lower-powered gets emissions of 129g/km and the more powerful 134g/km).