Ritchie B-51 Compass on 2040-parts.com

General Motors and Ford load up on small cars for bigger profits

Ford has no qualms about charging nearly $23,000 for a fully loaded 2011 Fiesta, which is smaller than the Focus. The Fiesta sedan, which goes on sale this summer, starts at $13,995, including shipping. The Fiesta, with a 1.6-liter four-cylinder engine and a six-speed transmission, gets 40 mpg on the highway.

Megane Renaultsport 265 Trophy grabs Nurburgring Record

Megane Renaultsport 265 Trophy and the Nurburgring crew First we get the news that Renault has pushed out a limited edition Megane Renaulsport – the Megane Renaulsport 265 Trophy with a slightly tweaked and titivated version of the Megane Renaultsport 250 – and now we get the follow-up publicity with the claim of a new Nurburgring record for the brisk Megane. This isn’t a record that’s quite as daft as some of the records that are claimed for the Nurburgring (there almost seems to be a specific category of ‘Record’ time to fit every car maker’s needs), but it does seem a bit obscure. It’s the Nurburgring record for the fastest production front wheel drive car.

Lamborghini Gallardo LP 550-2 Valentino Balboni: It’s official

The Lamborghini Gallardo LP 550-2 Valentino Balboni has been released in honour of Lamborghini Test Driver Valentino Balboni Our report on Monday on the leaked pictures of the latest Lamborghini – The Lamborghini Gallardo LP550-2 – was right in pretty much every way, but what we didn’t know was that Lamborghini had bestowed the ultimate accolade on their Veteran Test Driver by naming the new car in his honour. So this is officially the Lamborghini Gallardo LP 550-2 Valentino Balboni. So now the world, not just Lamborghini aficionados, know exactly who Valentino Balboni is.