Organic Brake Pad John Deere Liquifire 440 Snowfire Spitfire 340 Sportfire on 2040-parts.com

Four in 10 'driving damaged cars'

MORE THAN four in 10 UK motorists admit they are getting behind the wheel of vehicles that are damaged, according to shocking new research from Kwik Fit. From chipped windscreens to balding tyres, the 43% figure equates to more than 16 million cars on UK roads with potentially dangerous faults or damages. Damaged body work is the most common vehicle issue, as cited by over half (56%) of all motorists who admitted to driving damaged cars.

MINI celebrates 100 years of car production in Oxford

MINI will be celebrating a century of car production in Oxford on 28th March 2013, 100 years since the first Bullnose Morris Oxford was produced. It’s 100 years since the first Bullnose Morris Oxford rolled out on 28th March 1903, since when 11,655,000 cars have been built – with as many as 28,000 people employed in its heyday – and even Tiger Moth planes and Iron Lungs built alongside 80,000 repairs to Spitfires and Hurricanes during WWII. What is now MINI’s Plant Oxford was founded by William Morris – and Morris Motors kept control until 1952 – and has been owned and run by BMC, then British Motor Holdings (when Jaguar arrived), British Leyland (when Leyland Trucks, Triumph and Rover joined), nationalisation in the 1970s saw a variety of names, Rover Group arrived in 1986 and was subsequently privatised and sold in 1994 to BMW.

Project Car Hell: BMW-powered Opel Olympia vs. Aston-equipped Singer Nine

Editor's note: When you can't fit your newly acquired basket-case Jeep FC150 in the garage because you have an Autocar Sussita and a 1928 Studebaker President chassis buried beneath crates of Subaru 360 parts, you're in Project Car Hell. Our friend Murilee Martin is here to oil up the gates to Automotive Hades, bringing the series back with a couple of you'd-hafta-be-outta-your-mind hypothetical engine-swap projects. And be sure to check back for fresh installments of Project Car Hell every week.