One Lap of the Web: Packards -- Ask the man who knows way too much about one

-- For some light Wednesday reading, here's more information than you ever wanted to know about Packard. It includes the horrible neoclassics that plagued the 1970s, and the 1995 revival of the Packard name that attempted to stick a shortened rendition of the famous Packard grille in front of a 440-hp V12, all wrapped in a shape that looked like a melted Twix, as shown above. Our august associate editor Graham Kozak owns a Packard, so he could have filled us in on the details.

Jaguar XF gets a few tweaks for 2014 MY

The Jaguar XF gets a new engine and tweaks for 2014 In many ways the Jaguar XF is Jaguar’s most complete car, and significant updates since it launched in 2008 have kept it fresh and appealing. But the tweaks Jaguar has wrought for 2014 are relatively minor as the XF gets towards the end of its current cycle, the most significant of which is an upgrade to the 2.2 litre diesel engine. The 2.2 litre ECO2 engine is a replacement for the 161bhp entry-level diesel in the 2013 XF and gets revised cooling and bigger EGR valves which have conspired to improve official economy, and therefore reduce emissions (to 128g/km) handily putting the 2.2 XF in to a lower BIK band (down from 21 to 19 per cent).

KTM X-Bow – the heavyweight dealer arrives

Dick Lovett has been appointed as a dealer for the KTM X-Bow And the profile of the X-Bow keeps growing with the effusive comments from those who’ve driven it and the decent marketing the car is enjoying through sensible stuff like the KTM X-Bow Drive Orange days at Brands Hatch and Silverstone. But that 1,000 car a year production may have to be revised again after it has been announced that Dick Lovett – a high-end supercar dealer – has just been appointed KTM X-Bow dealer for South Wales and South West England. We who read (and write) about cars every day tend to assume that anyone looking for a supercar or high-end sports car is completely au fait with what the market has to offer.