Mustang 77628 Cover Tourpak Vint 14flt on 2040-parts.com

Porsche 911 Sport Classic introduced

Porsche has announced a Limited Edition Porsche 911 that will launch at Frankfurt - The Porsche 911 Sport Classic Porsche has plundered its history to build in to the 911 Sport Classic styling cues from the past. The Sport Classic gets a ‘Duck-Tail’ rear spoiler (thank you, 1973 Carrera RS 2.7) and ‘Fuchs-Style’ alloys (ditto – at least in terms of chronology).  You can also throw in to the mix a double-bubble roof (Carrera GT et al) and black surrounds to the headlights, which is evocative of the 1970s Porsche racers. So having thrown every design cue that fits from its history, what else does the 911 SC get?

MINI Countryman Cooper & Paceman Cooper get ALL4 4WD

The MINI Countryman Cooper (pictured) & Paceman Cooper get ALL4 4WD We always find it astonishing that car makers ‘ration’ the availability of four wheel drive platforms in their cars, usually citing a ‘lack of demand’. But that lack of demand is usually predicated on the lack of supply, and increasing the supply of 4WD cars would see more sold, especially after a series of harsh winters where many motorists struggled to keep their cars in a straight line. So the decision by BMW to extend the availability of their ALL4 4WD setup to a wider range of MINIs is welcome, with the petrol Countryman Cooper and Paceman Cooper now getting the ALL4 option too.

Crunch watch Dec 08: the auto industry in crisis

By Tim Pollard and Simon Stiel Motor Industry 31 December 2008 14:05 Wednesday 31 December 2008• GMAC, GM's finance arm, said it would immediately revise its criteria for providing loans, after the US government bail-out of the General's credit arm. It will now supply credit for anyone with a score of 621 or more on the Fico scale, the scale used to assess Amercian customers' creditworthiness (Financial Times)• The news means that 80% of US consumers would now qualify for a loan from GMAC – which should improve sales in the depressed US market (Detroit News)• Chrysler is being lambasted for taking out full-page adverts in the American national press thanking the nation for supporting its auto industry. But critics point out this is a fresh waste of bail-out resources, as pages in the Wall Street Journal – one of the titles in which the ad ran – reportedly cost up to $264,000.