Mercury Engine Parts, # 17-95372 , Shear Pin on 2040-parts.com

Porsche 959 prototype to cross the block at Barrett-Jackson

When Professor Helmuth Bott arrived at the fledgling Porsche sports-car company in 1952, he was in his late 20s. The young engineer's first assignment was setting up a gearbox test stand for the company's new all-syncromesh Type 519 transaxle. Thirty-one years later, he gave the go-ahead for the development of a car that was to be the ultimate bleeding edge of what Porsche knew about building a rear-engined sports car.

One Lap of the Web: Relentless auction consumerism and a chat with Pete Brock

-- Bonham's is hosting "Les Grandes Marques du Monde au Grand Palais," happening right now in Paris. Sounds fancy. And as with almost every Bonham's auction, there is some fancy machinery: our friends at Bring a Trailer point out an almost surreal variety of cars, from a Mazda 323 GTX Group N rally car to a cute lil' Saab 92B De Luxe.

Fireworks man cleared over M5 crash

A FIREWORKS CONTRACTOR in charge of a display held on the night of a massive motorway crash in which seven people died and 51 were injured has been cleared of breaching health and safety laws. A judge directed a jury at Bristol Crown Court to find Geoffrey Counsell, 51, not guilty of a single charge of failing to ensure the safety of others contrary to the Health and Safety at Work Act. The charge alleged that Mr Counsell, of Ashill in Somerset, failed to ensure he operated the firework display so as to ensure, as far as was reasonably practicable, that others who might be affected were not exposed to risks to their health and safety.