Vintage 13" Long Bumper Jack Handle, Tire Iron on 2040-parts.com

AutoRama: Hot-rodding, chrome and speed return

Chop, drop and roll--that's the unofficial motto at AutoRama, the 57th-annual festival of hot rods and custom cars in Detroit. Chop--as in slice the roof off your speedster with some unnatural surgery to the A- and C-pillars. Drop--as in drop the biggest motor you can find under the hood.

Jaguar & me: high-maintenance love

In a fit of madness a few years ago, and seeking solace from impending divorce at the time, I purchased a gorgeous blue Series III XJ6, with wonderful dark blue leather upholstery, that was at the time about five years old. Just 40,000 miles on the clock. I then drove the hell out of it for three years to 100,000 miles and it never let me down once – on the road that is.

Opel / Vauxhall Mocha almost revealed as Buick Encore

Three quarters of the Bucik Encore - the American Mocha The European Opel / Vauxhall Mocha – a Corsa based SUV – has been almost revealed in the US with a tease for the Buick Encore. Just before Christmas we reported on a new Corsa-based SUV on the way from Vauxhall and Opel which looks like it’s going to be the Opel Mocha (and, we assume, the Vauxhall Mocha too). But in this new ‘One World’ for cars, where North America actually gets the sort of cars they would once have derided as too small to consider, the Mocha is also going on sale in the US.