Sparco® Racing Steering Wheel - Flash 5 (black/silver) on 2040-parts.com

Mercury dies off, Lincoln to benefit

Ford's brand portfolio is set to get smaller by the end of the year. Following the sale of Aston Martin, Land Rover, Jaguar and most recently Volvo (to Chinese automaker Geely), the Blue Oval has now announced the demise of its 'middle of the range' Mercury brand, with production of the last vehicles set to cease at the end of 2010. In a statement released to media, Ford announced that the shuttering of the 71-year old Mercury brand was in the interest of focusing on Lincoln, the automaker's only remaining premium brand.

Australian Grand Prix (2014): RESULT

The 2014 Australian Grand Prix gets underway It’s all new cars for the first Grand Prix of the 2014 F1 season in Melbourne, but the expectation was that Mercedes would dominate, with Lewis Hamilton sitting on pole and Nico Rosberg sitting third, separated by Red Bull’s new boy, Daniel Ricciardo. In fact, because of engine problems, Hamilton was sidelined from the start and down to fourth by the first corner, with Rosberg making the most of his team mate’s woes and storming through to take the lead, a lead he kept until the end for a dominant win in Melbourne. Behind Hamilton, home boy Daniel Ricciardo in the Red Bull managed to make the 2014 Red Bull car look immensely promising to take second place, a welcome boost for the troubled Red Bull team, even if world champion Sebastian Vettel suffered the same fate as Hamilton, retiring with engine problems.

CAR test drive survey: win £500!

By Ollie Kew (photography by Richard Pardon) Motor Industry 13 March 2014 14:00 If you’re after a new car, do you head straight for the online configurator, your local dealership, or online drive verdicts like CAR’s reviews section? We want to hear your views: click the link below to complete our short survey and you’ll be entered into a prize draw to win £500! With so much information online, and brands like BMW ambitiously purporting to offer a test drive experience via a smartphone and tablet app, the humble demonstrator test drive is in jeopardy of looking a little ‘last week’.