Super Modified Spindles Wide 5 Hub Straight Axle Sprint Car on 2040-parts.com

Winners announced in Factory Five design competition

Earlier this year, we brought you news of an open-sourced design competition from American kit car manufacturer, Factory Five. The brief called for a compact, two-seat roadster that shared a drivetrain with the Subaru Impreza. The car would feature a bespoke space-frame chassis, but the mechanicals would be lifted from the Impreza to allow the car to sell for under $15,000.

Lotus to invest £500 million to build Esprit, Eterne, Elite & Elan. 1900 new jobs

The new Lotus Esprit Dany Bahar – Lotus boss – revealed plans at last year’s Paris Motor Show to turn Lotus in to an East Anglian Aston Martin. Those plans included one car we knew about – the new Lotus Esprit – and a number we didn’t – the Lotus Eterne, Lotus Elite, Lotus Elan and a new Lotus Elite. But the plans seemed to be nothing more than a wish list, and although it was intimated that Lotus owners Proton were going to provide a war chest of £770 million to fund the development, that later appeared to be an intent to provide Lotus with funds to develop a new range of cars, rather than an actual commitment.

Watch world's longest car jump record attempt

French rally driver and professional skier Guerlain Chicherit's attempt to beat Tanner Foust's Guinness World Record for the longest car jump ended badly on Tuesday, March 18. Chicherit was attempting to jump a specially prepared Mini Countryman 360 feet from ramp to ramp before a crowd of onlookers at Tignes ski resort in France, in an bid to beat Foust's 322 foot car jump record which has stood since 2011. It appeared that Chicherit was off to a good start with plenty of momentum, even though the surface may have been a bit uneven for an ideal departure ramp.