New Power Non Heated Passengers Side View Door Mirror on 2040-parts.com

Gordon Murray Design T27 crash tested

The original Smart car probably did more than its fair share to persuade us that small cars needn't necessarily be unsafe. But now Gordon Murray is on the same mission: to persuade us that his titchy T27 city car is as safe as houses too. Gordon Murray Design has just issued its first crash test results, showing a T27 electric car after a crash test at the UK's MIRA industry research lab.  The crash test in question was the European-standard 40% offset deformable barrier front high-speed impact.

Vuhl 05 is a Mexican Ariel Atom – costs from £66,000

The Vuhl 05 (pictured), track-focused road car, has been revealed The Vuhl 05 – which has been teased recently – was unveiled this afternoon in London as Mexico’s answer to the Ariel Atom. The Vuhl 05 uses a bonded monocoque with honeycomb panels and aluminium covered on plastic panels to keep weight down to just 695kg. That means that even though the Vuhl 05 has only 285bhp available from its mid-mounted 2.0 litre turbo Ford EcoBoost engine, it can still get to 62mph in 3.7 seconds thanks to a power to weight ratio of 400bhp per tonne.

Tomorrow's world: Ford's downsized 1.0-litre Ecoboost

Direct injection petrol and diesel, hybridisation, downsizing, turbocharging, twin-charging the list of efficiency-boosting, fuel saving features being offered in new cars is becoming so long, buying a new one is like revising for exams. Is there room for another? Apparently so, but since there’s no official name for it yet we’ll call it ‘super-downsizing’ or in other words, using a very small engine in a not so small car.