New Maretron Vdr100 Vessel Data Recorder Vdr100-00 on 2040-parts.com

McLaren F1 – The perfect safe haven in troubled times

The McLaren F1 (along with its ‘Super’ brother, the LM) is considered by many to be the ultimate road car. Light, fast and enormously desirable, the F1 has been a stunning success story. Initially conceived in the late ’80s, and coming to fruition with the launch of the first road car in 1995, just 65 road-going F1s where made between 1995 and 1998, with 5 further LMs (6 if you count the prototype, which is still owned by McLaren and promised to Lewis Hamilton if he pulls of the double World Championship by winning in 2009).

Vauxhall Mokka, Astra VXR, Insignia BiTurbo & RAD-e concept at Geneva 2012

Vauxhall's line-up for the 2012 Geneva Motor Show Vauxhall will be debuting the new Vauxhall Mokka compact MPV, the Astra GTC-based Astra VXR, Rad-e concept and Insignia BiTurbo at Geneva 2012. It’s interesting to get the heads-up on new models ahead of their actual public debut, but that can take away the impact for new cars. Which is just what Vauxhall’s stand at Geneva will suffer.

Volvo V60 Plug-in Hybrid: Production underway

The world’s first production plug-in diesel hybrid – the Volvo V60 Plug-in Hybrid – has gone in to production ahead of customer deliveries. Volvo are producing just 1,000 2013 V60 plug-ins, but are aiming to up production to between 4-6,000 a year from the 2014 model year and, despite the problems of integrating the V60′s complicated electric stuff in to a production car, the V60 plug-in is rolling down the same production line as the regular V60, V70, S80 and XC90. That complicated stuff includes two different powertrains and a battery pack – enough for up to 32 miles as an EV only – and a total of 300 additional parts compared to a regular ICE V60.