1937 - 1948 Pontiac Harmonic Balancer on 2040-parts.com

UK Car Sales down 272,000 in 2008

Well, we knew the car industry was in trouble, and that in the last quarter of 2008 car sales fell off a cliff. But it has now been confirmed that overall sales for the UK in 2008 fell by 272,212 units, or 11.3%. December figures alone showed a drop of 21.2% year on year.

New Subaru WRX revealed: Los Angeles Auto Show

New Subaru WRX revealed in LA The new Subaru WRX – the one that may or may not come to the UK – has been revealed today at the Los Angeles Auto Show. The WRX gets a new structure – and a four door saloon shape only – with a stiffer chassis, new electronic power steering and a new engine. The new engine in the WRX is a tweaked and fettled version of the 2.0 litre boxer engine from the Subaru Forseter, but in the WRX it gets 268bhp and 258lb/ft of torque, channelled through Subaru’s Symmetrical All-Wheel Drive system to all four wheels, and enough to hit 60mph in 5.4 seconds The new WRX gets a choice of a manual ‘box with permanent 4WD whilst the WRX with the optional CVT box comes with a transfer clutch to move torque between axles.

Lotus chief exec Dany Bahar suspended: what's next?

Group Lotus chief Dany Bahar has been suspended while complaints about his conduct are carried out by parent company DRB Hicom. Weekend newspapers reported that the dispute was over expenses for building work carried out on one of Bahar's homes. Bahar was suspended on Friday and the new owners stressed that Lotus Cars continued to run in his absence.