Chevrolet Small Block 4 Bbl Intake Manifold (used) on 2040-parts.com

Skoda drives along Popular memory lane

A EUROPEAN car enthusiast is recreating a remarkable British journey first completed 90 years ago by a famous Czech writer, and is driving a 77-year-old Skoda Popular. The milestone car, Skoda's first to sell in big numbers across Europe, is well into a three-week journey around the UK in the hands of car nut Zdeněk Vacek, starting and finishing at the Czech Embassy in London and visiting many of the cities featured in famous Czech writer Karel Čapek's 1924 tome Letters from England. The Popular itself can celebrate its 80th birthday at the same time, having first appeared to widespread acclaim in 1934.

Toyota Prius Plug-in Hybrid – details

The Toyota Prius Plug-in Hybrid will show at Frankfurt The principle difference between the standard Prius and this new plug-in version is – you’ll never guess – that it adds the ability to charge the Prius’ batteries through a domestic outlet. The Prius can be fully recharged in around 1.5 hours, and the new lithium-ion battery pack – which replaces the old nickel-metal hydride pack in the regular Prius – is more compact and of higher output. Toyota claim that the plug-in Prius can cover round 12.5 miles on a full charge in pure ‘Electric Mode’, which is around double that of the normal Prius.

New Jaguar XE OFFICIALLY launched – price from £27,000

The new Jaguar XE arrives After months of teasing, years of planning and huge sums of money spent, it’s here – the new Jaguar XE. Looking like a slightly smaller version of the XF, with an upright nose, longish bonnet, coupe-like profile and stubby tail, the XE is clearly a Jaguar – and a fairly conservative one at that – which is probably sensible when  entering such a competitive sector as the ‘Premium’ compact saloon market. But the new XE isn’t just a punt for a few sales in a new sector for Jaguar, but a car that could take Jaguar from an interesting maker of relatively low volume cars to a global ‘Premium’ car maker; nose to nose in a very competitive sector with, principally, Audi and the A4, BMW and the 3 Series and Mercedes and the C-Class.