Walt Arfons: 1916-2013

No one seemed to know why the two brothers stopped talking, but their resulting rivalry led to some of the fastest cars ever built, two of which went more than 600 mph. Walt Arfons battled his half-brother Art on the Bonneville Salt Flats and at dragstrips across the country, but the pair rarely spoke over the course of one of the longest and most intense motorsport rivalries ever. Walt and Art started out working together, building a three-wheeled dragster in their native rural Ohio in 1952.

Peugeot Quartz Concept is a 494bhp Hybrid SUV – debuts at Paris Motor Show

The Peugeot Quartz Concept is a 494bhp Hybrid SUV - The Peugeot Quartz Concept is a concept from Peugeot heading for the Paris Motor Show next month, and it uses a hybrid setup to offer the potential of huge performance from a pair of electric motors and the 270 PS 1.6 litre petrol engine from the RCZ R. Before you get too excited, it seems unlikely the QuartZ Concept is heading for production with its very concept-y look with scissor doors, pop-out steps for access and no B-Pillar, but it does show what could be done if Peugeot is brave enough and it does show the performance potential of the hybrid platform. The hybrid platform consists of the 1.6 litre THP 270 engine from the RCZ R – good for 266bhp – and an electric motor on each axle.

UK car manufacturing hits six-year high in 2013

UK car manufacturing hits six-year high in 2013 The car market in Europe may have been a painful place in 2013, but that hasn’t stopped UK car manufacturing continuing to grow, with 2013 delivering a total of 1,509,762 cars – the highest total since 2007 and up 3.1 per cent on 2012. That impressive total is made up from a wide variety of car manufacturers, from the volume producers like Jaguar Land Rover, Nissan, Toyota and MINI to smaller sales volume from supercar makers Aston Martin. In fact the rate of growth and investment is so strong – moire than £2.5 billion in investment announcements in 2013 – that the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) are reporting that analysts believe the UK’s car manufacturing could break all-time records in the next four years.