Onan 305-0489 Voltage Regulator Chassis Mount on 2040-parts.com

Local authorities cashing in with CCTV fines

Councils are turning to CCTV cameras and spy cars to raise £312m in revenue, that’s according to Traffic Spies, a report published by civil liberties group, Big Brother Watch. Using a series of freedom of information requests, the group has discovered that many councils are continuing to use CCTV to hand out fines, despite the government’s Surveillance Camera Code of Practice, which highlights the need to use CCTV for traffic offences “sparingly”. Council parking ’spy car’ gets speeding ticket Cameras to catch illegal parking on the school run Yet despite this, the number of CCTV cars in operation has increased by 87% since 2009.

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.

Renault Clio Expression Eco: A perfect commuter car

Renault Clio Expression Eco - makes any electric car seem profligate We hear so much about how electric cars make the perfect commuter car. They can manage to do a fifty or sixty mile round trip a day, don’t need a tax disc and – for those going in to London every day – there’s no congestion charge to pay. There’s also the negligible cost of electricity to charge the car (for now, at least) and the zero emissions at the point of use.