03 Ford F150 Wiper Arm on 2040-parts.com

One Lap of the Web: 'Blower' Bentleys, Abarth history and a Checker taxi-camper

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. -- When it comes to high-dollar collector cars, provenance is everything.

UK car manufacturing hits six-year high in 2013

UK car manufacturing hits six-year high in 2013 The car market in Europe may have been a painful place in 2013, but that hasn’t stopped UK car manufacturing continuing to grow, with 2013 delivering a total of 1,509,762 cars – the highest total since 2007 and up 3.1 per cent on 2012. That impressive total is made up from a wide variety of car manufacturers, from the volume producers like Jaguar Land Rover, Nissan, Toyota and MINI to smaller sales volume from supercar makers Aston Martin. In fact the rate of growth and investment is so strong – moire than £2.5 billion in investment announcements in 2013 – that the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) are reporting that analysts believe the UK’s car manufacturing could break all-time records in the next four years.

Jaguar readying SUV for Frankfurt motor show

While the next new Jaguar model slated for dealerships is a BMW 3-series fighter rumored to be called the XS, Autoweek sources have confirmed the company will also be showing an SUV at the Frankfurt motor show in September. Likely to be named XQ or Q-type, the Jaguar SUV is expected to ride on a version of the XS platform (itself a variation on the aluminum XJ architecture) rather than share a platform with a Land Rover product. Slated for 2016 production, the new Jaguar XQ SUV will share some powertrain technology with Land Rover, specifically the Ford I-4 engines from the Evoque.