Acdelco 10362946 Rear Brake Cable on 2040-parts.com

Geely’s Rolls Royce clone gets de-cloned

The Geely GE Facelift - no longer a RR Clone It’s amazing how much things have moved on in the last twelve months. A year ago we reported that China’s Geely had become the latest Chinese car maker to produce a complete rip-off clone of a Western car, in this case a clone of the Rolls Royce Phantom. The Geely ‘Phantom’ even sported a  single seat  ’Throne’ in the back so the owner could feel really important in his Chinese version of  a Western plutocrat’s carriage.

New Jaguar XJR UK debut next week

The New Jaguar XJR (pictured) gets its UK debut at Moto Expo 2013 Lovers of powerful XJs were delighted discover that a new Jaguar XJR, which debuted at the New York Auto Show in April, will finally give them a properly sporty XJ, rather than the somewhat compromised SuperSport version of the current XJ with the 5.0 litre Supercharged engine. Jaguar has kept faith with the history of the XJR by giving the new model a subtle ‘Sporty’ makeover with only gentle go-faster bits – like ‘R’ badges, new alloys, quad tailpipes, small boot spoiler, front splitter and a subtle body kit – so the new XJR looks purposeful, rather than looking like its been dipped in a Halfords bargain bucket. The real changes come under the skin, with the new XJR getting the 542bhp version of the 5.0 litre supercharged engine, tweaked dampers and spring rates, refined active diff and DSC and new shift patterns for the 8-speed auto box.

Automakers scrap diesel plans

Mainstream carmakers have put the brakes on nine diesel-powered vehicles that had been scheduled for 2010. Honda, Chrysler, Ford, General Motors, Nissan and Toyota have halted diesel programs because of spiraling costs and other problems. Financial problems halted the programs at some companies.