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Car giant starts recruitment phase

CAR GIANT Jaguar Land Rover has started recruiting for the first phase of 1,700 new jobs to support production of new vehicles. The company said 500 production staff will be taken on as part of expansion plans at its factory in Solihull, West Midlands. The carmaker is investing £1.5 billion in the UK and plans to increase its workforce at Solihull to almost 8,000.

May bids to build Mecanno motorbike

TOP GEAR star James May must be getting Meccano for Christmas because he is using the classic toy to build a motorbike and sidecar to race the Isle of Man TT circuit for a new show. The episode of his Toy Stories series, called The Motorcycle Diaries, sees May get to grips with a construction kit to try to build a vehicle capable of carrying him and co-star Oz Clarke around the 37-mile course. In previous episodes James May and his team have built a giant slot-car racing track, a full size Airfix replica of a Spitfire and a giant toy glider.

Volkswagen to buy 42 percent of Porsche, full merger planned

Volkswagen will buy 42 percent of Porsche's sports-car business en route to a full merger by the end of 2011, the companies announced Thursday. VW will pay $4.7 billion for its initial stake in Porsche. It positions the new company to have 10 brands and global sales of 6.4 million, and Volkswagen CEO Martin Winterkorn is likely to lead the entity.