Porsche 944/924/951 Defrost Switch 477 959 623 Genuine on 2040-parts.com

2014 European Car of the Year shortlist announced

Established in 1964, the European Car of the Year award was set up to celebrate a “single, decisive winner” each year among all new cars in Europe. So, now running into its fiftieth year, the shortlist for the landmark half-century award for the European Car of the Year 2014 has been announced. The seven runners and riders boast among them an interesting and varied mix of bodystyles, shapes, sizes and even powertrains.

Hey Craig Jackson, how did the auction go?

Plenty of people were surprised this week that the original Batmobile sold for $4.6 million* at Barrett-Jackson. And few were more surprised than Craig Jackson, the ringleader behind the mega-million-dollar auction in Scottsdale. The last time we spoke to him, he had estimated the original Batmobile to be worth somewhere around $2 million (later $3-4 million, as he now said).

One Lap of the Web: A Bentley reborn, goldRush shenanigans and squirrel-dodging in a BMW

We spend a lot of time on the Internet -- pretty much whenever we're not driving, writing about or working on cars. Since there's more out there than we'd ever be able to cover, here's our daily digest of car stuff on the Web you may not otherwise have heard about. -- At first glance, this 1953 Bentley R-Type Special Roadster looks like a typical old-school British drop-top.