Pirelli P Zero 355/25 R21 (107y) Xl on 2040-parts.com

Design Contest: Stile Italiano Giovani 2004

One of the sad things about being editor of a motoring magazine is turning down all the enthusiastic young job applicants who know exactly how to test Ferraris against Lamborghinis, using Porsches as benchmarks...exactly the kind of people I don't need. I imagine it might be the same with judging a design competition. There will be masses of young people who love drawing cars submitting their sketches - and there it all ends.

Aston Martin Vanquish Carbon Edition – costs £200,000

The Aston Martin Vanquish Carbon Edition in Carbon White It’s only a month since the 2015 Aston Martin Vanquish (and Vanquish Volante) were revealed with a series of updates that manage to turn the Vanquish in to a much more appealing car. That new appeal is mainly down to AML finally ditching their ancient six-speed auto ‘box and replacing it with a new 8-Speed ZF ‘box – which cleverly sits inside the old housing – increasing performance, drivability and economy in one fell swoop. The Vanquish now gets to 62mph in a very respectable 3.8 seconds and can top 200mph, despite which official economy improves to 31mpg (more like 16mpg in the real world).

Lotus gets Ferrari Designer

Ferrari Designer Donato Coco joins Lotus as Director of Design As we’ve reported umpteen times this year, Lotus are getting things very right. They’re selling the new Lotus Evora hand over fist and have plans in place to a convertible Evora and of course the new Lotus Esprit. Part of the long-term plan at Lotus is to bring the Hethel boys back to the top of the heap in the way Lotus were in the glory days of Colin Chapman.