Scott Drake Convertible Top Hydraulic Cylinder Ford Each on 2040-parts.com

2012 European Car of the Year shortlist announced

The shortlist for the 2012 European Car of the Year award has been announced today. There were 35 cars on the original list, but the first round of voting from the 59 jury members (including CAR Magazine’s editor Phil McNamara, and our European correspondent Georg Kacher) has whittled the list down to just seven. They are… • Citroen DS5• Fiat Panda• Focus Focus• Opel (Vauxhall) Ampera/Chevrolet Volt• Range Rover Evoque• Toyota Yaris• Volkswagen Up There will now be a second round of test drives, before the European Car of the Year jurors submit their scores and a winner is announced live at the Geneva motor show on 5 March 2012.

Iconic James Bond Helicopter To Headline Goodwood Aviation Festival

THE helicopter made famous in the 1964 James Bond Film ‘Goldfinger' will take centre stage at the Freddie March Spirit of Aviation exhibition at the Goodwood Revival on September 12. Officially known as the Hiller UH-12E4, this is the very aircraft in which Galore, played by actress Honor Blackman, flew Goldfinger's atomic bomb to Fort Knox for the film's finale. It was also used by Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton in Oscar-winning film, ‘The VIPs', the previous year.

Study: Hybrids safer in accidents, more dangerous to pedestrians

In the first analysis of its kind, the Highway Loss Data Institute found that drivers of hybrid vehicles are, on average, 25 percent less likely to be injured in a crash than drivers of conventional vehicles. Matt Moore, the data institute's vice president and author of the study, said weight was a big factor in its analysis. “Hybrids on average are 10 percent heavier than their standard counterparts,” Moore said in a statement on Thursday.