144pc Large Cotter Pin Kit on 2040-parts.com

What we drive: 1969 Triumph TR6

Updated March 2013: Go straight to the update here. Wisdom borne of experience: If you are contemplating the purchase of a British car and the vital parts of that car are in more than, say, two cardboard boxes, your purchase is suspect. Obviously there are exceptions: The D-type Jaguar comes to mind.

Lutz's Cadillac puts on a better show than Lutz

"Hi, I'm Bob Lutz, and this is the Cadillac CTS-V Drive Challenge." General Motors Co.'s marketing chief dons his monogrammed helmet and puts Cadillac's 550-horsepower sedan through some warm-up laps at Monticello Motor Club, a members-only track. In what might have passed as a dismissible moment of Lutz braggadocio, "Maximum" Bob has challenged anyone with a four-door sedan to beat his 2010 CTS-V. Though not a showman by trade, Lutz is bankable for amusing, bald-faced assessments of his employer, his critics and the auto industry at large.

Tomorrow's world: Ford's downsized 1.0-litre Ecoboost

Direct injection petrol and diesel, hybridisation, downsizing, turbocharging, twin-charging the list of efficiency-boosting, fuel saving features being offered in new cars is becoming so long, buying a new one is like revising for exams. Is there room for another? Apparently so, but since there’s no official name for it yet we’ll call it ‘super-downsizing’ or in other words, using a very small engine in a not so small car.