Merlot Metallic Urethane Basecoat Clear Coat Kit Featuring Paintforcars Starfire on 2040-parts.com

Mini and Mini Clubman John Cooper Works (2008): first official pictures

By Mark Nichol First Official Pictures 24 February 2008 00:01 Just take it in for a moment. That’s the Mini John Cooper Works you’re staring at, all 208bhp of it. Mini will unveil this steroidal version of the already beefy Cooper S at Geneva 2008 before opening the books in July, so get saving.  The Mini JCW extracts an extra 33bhp over the standard Cooper S by dumping the regular turbocharger and strapping on a bigger, twin-scroll unit.

Peugeot RC hybrid concept

Peugeot is poised to reveal the latest in its ‘RC' range of concept cars at the Paris Motor Show in October. Continuing on from the RC Spade and RC Diamond concept cars unveiled at the 2002 Geneva Motor Show, the as yet unnamed concept also follows on from the 908 RC V12 diesel concept of 2006. Designed by a team led by Peugeot head of design Jérôme Gallix, the four door, four seat sedan is claimed to be an accessible and versatile eco-efficient GT coupé.

Tomorrow's world: Ford's downsized 1.0-litre Ecoboost

Direct injection petrol and diesel, hybridisation, downsizing, turbocharging, twin-charging the list of efficiency-boosting, fuel saving features being offered in new cars is becoming so long, buying a new one is like revising for exams. Is there room for another? Apparently so, but since there’s no official name for it yet we’ll call it ‘super-downsizing’ or in other words, using a very small engine in a not so small car.