Gm Original Lighter/skylark on 2040-parts.com

Official: Aston Martin Cygnet axed – fewer than 150 sold

Sir Stirling Moss was one of fewer than 150 Aston Martin Cygnet buyers Last month we reported that Aston Martin appeared to have axed their take on a supermini – the Aston Martin Cygnet – after just a couple of years. Now that news seems to be official after Reuters spoke to an Aston Martin source who also said the Cygnet sold so poorly that fewer than 150 were sold. That must make the Cygnet one of the poorest performing cars in any company’s sales history, especially as that fewer than 150 total was supposed to be 4,000 a year.

Audi R8 GT (2010): first news of lightweight R8

Audi has shown the new R8 GT – a limited-edition model to sit atop the R8 supercar family. The GT is 100kg lighter, thanks to some body parts made from carbonfibre and its V10 engine is tuned up to Gallardo-nibbling spec. With 552bhp and 398lb ft, the R8 GT will be considerably faster than the standard R8 5.2 FSI V10.

Ford Cortina: 50 years ago today…

Ford are celebrating 50 years since the first Ford Cortina was launched and changed the car landscape forever. The Ford Cortina went on to sell an impressive 4.3 million during its twenty year life, eventually turning in to the Ford Sierra and then in to the Ford family car of today – the 2013 Ford Mondeo (which, interestingly, can be had with the 1.0 litre EcoBoost engine – smaller even than the 1200cc of that first Cortina). That first Cortina was the start of Ford’s dominance of the UK car market, leading to an unbroken run of 35 years as the best selling car brand with most of the Cortinas, almost 3 million of them, built at Dagenham – in the days Ford actually built cars here.