Nissan Altima Sedan Grille 07-08 on 2040-parts.com

Honda Civic Tourer 1.6 i-DTEC wins MPG Marathon

The winners of the MPG Marathon in the Honda Civic Tourer 1.6 i-DTEC Last year Honda took the CR-V 1.6i-DTEC out MPG Marathon playing, and managed to return an impressive 78mpg in a car the official figures say should do 63mpg, disproving (to a point) that cars just can’t achieve official economy figures in the real world. This time it’s the turn of the new Honda Civic Tourer with the latest 1.6 i-DTEC ‘Earth Dreams’ engine to go out and eke every possible inch of tarmac from every single drop of petrol. In the hands of Honda R&D engineers Fergal McGrath, James Warren, Tony Shiggins and Julian Warren, the Civic Tourer drove a total of 330 miles and managed to do 97.2mpg – an impressive 31.8 per cent more than the official average.

Ford F-150 SVT Raptor gets turned into 'The Beast'

Looks like we've got ourselves a good ol' fashioned truck horsepower war brewing. Hot on the heels of the debut of the Chevrolet Silverado-based Reaper by Lingelfelter and the Callaway-tuned Chevrolet Silverado, German tuner Geiger has brought out their version of the Ford F-150 SVT Raptor dubbed "The Beast." Apparently, the company felt that the standard Raptor just didn't produce enough power, but their take on the already mental truck is slightly different from Hennessey's approach. Geiger has added a 2.9-liter supercharger to the 6.2-liter V8, bringing the horsepower output up from 411-hp to 572-hp.

One Lap of the Web: Auto pics, a pretty Ferrari and rallies

Who can forget the wild days of Group B? Lancia's wild 037 was the last rear-wheel-drive monster to win a championship in the WRC, doing so in 1983. Our friends at Automobiliac have a great video of a bunch of 037s doing their thing at a historic rally.