Vetter Cargo Container / Backrest on 2040-parts.com

Kubrick's Jaguar memories: XJ12s and more

Once upon a time there was a small boy, about seven years old, who had taken an interest in cars at a rather early stage, mainly thanks to his old man, who was (and, thankfully, still is) a car enthusiast and, back in those days, a staunch supporter of a certain Southern German marque. This naturally meant that the small boy would sometimes be a bit annoyed by his father's occasionally overbearing passion, but at the same time usually knit his eyebrows himself whenever he came across something sporting four wheels but no blue & white propeller (which, he believed, was the way things were supposed to be). So the foundations had been laid to turn this very young chap into a proper petrolhead one day, but his interest remained relatively casual and moderate until that one fateful evening.

Mini John Cooper Works GP (2012) full specs and stats

A cynical marketing exercise, or Mini getting back to its pocket rocket best? Say what you like about the new (deep breath) Mini John Cooper Works GP, but there's no arguing with its raw specification. With slightly more power (up to 215bhp from 208bhp in the standard JCW), it's the fastest Mini yet.

BMW X6

BMW rolled the dice with the original X6, but soon realized its problem would be lack of production capacity at its plant in Spartanburg, SC than a lack of customers - over 250,000 X6s have found homes since it arrived in 2008. It comes as no surprise that a second-generation model has now arrived, but as much as the first was revolutionary, establishing an entirely new SUV sub-genre, the new X6 appears much more evolutionary. At 4,909mm long, 1,989mm wide and 1,702mm tall, the new car grows by just 34mm in length, 4mm in width and 12mm in height.