Toyota Prius Hybrid Battery on 2040-parts.com

Renault Megane Renaultsport 275 Trophy – heading For Goodwood FoS 2014

Megane Renaultsport 275 Trophy (pictured) aiming for a Nurburgring record Renault teased the Megane Renaultsport 275 Trophy on social media last month, but now it’s arrived – and it’s going to have a busy summer. Apart from a  debut at the 2014 Goodwood Festival of Speed next month, Renault are planning to take the 275 Trophy to the Nurburgring to try and grab back the lap record for a production front wheel drive car from the SEAT Leon Cupra 280. With that in mind, Renault has given the 2.0 litre Turbo in the Megane Renaultsport 275 Trophy a bit of a tweak to yield 271bhp hoping that will be enough to beat the current 7:58.4s record.

Fiat 500C Convertible – launched in the UK today

The new Fiat 500C Convertible launches in UK showrooms today And if you want a fun, economical and stylish little convertible to zip round the city in this summer, it would be hard to find a better option than the 500C. True, its ‘cutesey’ style is not to everyone’s taste, but it’s hard to argue against the car when it costs just £11k (for the Pop version) and is quite likely to hang on to a good chunk of its value for the next year or two. But retro-looking as it may be, the 500C is very much a modern car.

Ducati-powered Volkswagen XL1 in the works, may be called XLR

Volkswagen is pushing ahead with plans to boost the performance of its two-seat XL1 with a highly strung two-cylinder gas engine sourced from the Ducati 1199 Panigale superbike, high-ranking insiders at the German car maker have confirmed. Speaking on the sidelines of the unveiling of the new e-Golf in Wolfsburg, Germany this week, Volkswagen's head of R & D Hans-Jakob Neusser revealed development of the Ducati-engined XL1 is well underway. “Yes, we are working on it internally.