1961 61 Ford Thunderbird Dash Clock on 2040-parts.com

Spyker confirms new Saab 9-3 coming in 2012

Spyker, Saab’s new supercar-building owner, has outlined its plans for the brand – which include a new 9-3 range – ahead of an extraordinary general meeting on 12 February where it hopes its shareholders will ratify its purchase of the ailing Swedish car company. If it gets the green light, Spyker and Saab will be renamed as Saab Spyker Automobiles NV – though each company will operate separately – and Saab will be positioned as 'an independent performance-oriented niche car company with an industry-leading environmental strategy'.  Up first is the new 9-5 – which will be launched this summer – followed by an Estate version and an Audi Allroad-aping 9-5X. The new Cadillac SRX-based 9-4X SUV will arrive in early 2011, and Spyker is plotting the new 9-3 a year later.

Earthquake auction Ferrari 599 XX Evo handed to Google’s Benjamin Sloss

The Ferrari 599 XX Evo auctioned by Ferrari to raise funds for the earthquake in the Emilia Romagna region has been handed to Benjamin Sloss of Google. Back in May, following the earthquake in the Emilia Romagna region of Italy, Ferrari ran an auction to raise funds to help victims of the earthquake’ Amongst the items put up for auction by Ferrari were an F60 nose-cone and an F2008 engine, but the star lot was a brand new Ferrari 599 XX Evo, Ferrari’s track-day only testbed for all things Maranello. The winner of the 599 XX Evo turns out to be a deep-pocketed Google VP – Benjamin Sloss – who forked out €1.4 million for his new plaything (which was almost a bargain price) and, as part of the auction offering, he was rewarded for his generosity with a presentation of his new Ferrari at last weekend’s Italian Grand Prix at Monza.

UK new car registrations beat 2012 total – a month early

New car registrations rose by 7% last month, the best performance in almost a decade – and a rise that has seen the total registrations for 2012 already beaten with a month still to go. 159,581 new cars were registered last month, taking the year to date total up to 2,111,819. This easily tops the 2,044,609 new cars registered in 2012.