Model A Ford Engine Mount on 2040-parts.com

Good news for British car factories

NEW FIGURES have revealed that UK-based car production raced ahead in April, resulting in the biggest monthly rise since July 2012. A total of 133,437 cars were made in the UK last month – a 21.3% increase on the April 2013 figure, the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) said. The excellent April figures took the year-so-far total to 538,240 – a 6.9% rise on the figure for January-April 2013.

Design boss plans Hyundai's next big splash

Every two weeks, Christopher Chapman makes the rounds at Hyundai's Irvine, Calif., design center to see what his team has in the "corner stack." The "stack" is a pile of index card-sized sketches on the corner of every designer's desk. For Chapman, Hyundai's U.S. design boss, it's a way to encourage his designers to keep ideas flowing.

Volkswagen CC R-Line announced for the UK

The Volkswagen CC R-Line (pictured) now on sale in the UK Earlier this year, Volkswagen decided they’d drop the price of the VW CC just a bit, so with an eye to a tick-box many UK buyers will like they’ve added the VW CC R-Line to the UK options to get some higher price sales in. Effectively an add-on option for the CC GT – which comes with a pretty decent spec anyway – the CC R-Line will get the usual subtle R-Line adornments to add a bit more butch to the appealing four-door coupe. That includes an R-Line grill with fog lights, new R-Line bumper, bigger sills, LED running lights, R-Line logos, 18″ Mallory Alloys and R-Line steering wheel, all of which adds a perfectly reasonable £650 to the price of the GT CC.