1988-90 Jaguar Xj-40 Rear Brake Caliper Nos Girling on 2040-parts.com

One lap of the Web: The birth of the supercar, an #EpicFail and Ferrari 250 GT eye candy

We spend a lot of time on the Internet -- pretty much whenever we're not driving, writing about or working on cars. Since there's more out there than we'd ever be able to cover, here's our daily digest of car stuff on the Web you may not otherwise have heard about. -- The 1970s: An era of hippies, disco, space exploration and, most notably to us, the supercar.

2015 Audi TT drops its top – TT & TTS Roadster for Paris debut

The Audi TTS Roadster (pictured) debuts at Paris 2014 It’s only six months since the new Audi TT arrived at the Geneva Motor Show, but now Audi is ready to show its drop-top version with a debut of the Audi TT Roadster scheduled for the Paris Motor Show next week. As you’d expect, to all intents and purposes, the TT (and TT S) Roadster are pretty much the same as the TT Coupe, with the top chopped off and replaced by a retractable fabric roof – a roof that opens and closes in just 10 seconds – and a bump in price of around £2,000. That means the Audi TT Roadster with the 2.0 litre TFSI engine with 182bhp, manual ‘box and Sport trim will come in at a bit under £32,000 and the 306bhp TTS Roadster at a bit under £38,000.

Vauxhall & Opel could merge with Peugeot Citroen.

GM Europe (Opel and Vauxhall) could extend their deal with PSA (Peugeot Citroen) with a Joint Venture or merger. When GM Europe and PSA announced they were forming an alliance earlier this year, we asked if this was an admission that the mainstream car market in Europe had changed forever, and an alliance between Opel, Vauxhall, Peugeot and Citroen was the only way to keep the brands viable. But we did also question what use a projected annual saving of €2 billion by sharing suppliers and co-developing platforms would be to PSA and GM considering their woeful losses.