Crane Valve Spring 180830-16 on 2040-parts.com

BAC Mono: Fancy a Drive?

RS Academy grabs the first two BAC Monos Last month we reported on a new single-seat road car that offers more thrills than a garage full of hypercars for less than the cost of an M5 – the BAC Mono. The brothers Briggs - Briggs Automotive Company – have created the beautifully built, finished and specified Mono as the world’s only single-seat production car (well, the only one that’s actually made it in to production, anyway). Weighing no more than Kylie after a heavy diet, the Mono can scoot to 60mph in just 2.8 seconds before running out of steam somewhere around 170mph.

General Motors' small Cadillac will take aim at the BMW 3-series

The new Cadillac model that General Motors announced today will be aimed at the smaller models produced by BMW, Mercedes-Benz and other luxury brands. The rear-drive Cadillac is expected to be called the ATS and to arrive in showrooms in 2012 or early 2013, according to industry sources. “We will have a car positioned below the CTS in our lineup to compete with the BMW 3 Series and Mercedes-Benz C class.,” said Nick Twork, a Cadillac spokesman, during a telephone interview.

Tesla pays off its government loans

Tesla paid off the last of its $465 million government loans May 22, nine years ahead of schedule, thus outperforming most U.S. college graduates and the vast majority of American homeowners. Tesla used funds from a stock offering to finish the loan with a whopping bank transfer of $451.8 million Wednesday, pointing out that it was “…the only American car company to have fully repaid the government.” Apparently no one at Tesla was even born when Lee Iacocca paid off Chrysler's $1.2-billion government bailout ahead of schedule back in 1983.