Honda 58130-zv5-000za on 2040-parts.com

Jaguar hybrid cars due in 2013-14

Jaguar will launch its own hybrid vehicles soon after Land Rover, CAR can confirm. Parent company Jaguar Land Rover is developing battery-assisted hybrid versions for both brands but its strategy puts part-electric Land Rovers first on the launchpad in 2013.Hybrid Jaguars – set to include the XJ and XF, but eventually every model – are therefore likely to be on the market by 2013-2014, using a similar eight-speed ZF hybrid transmission to petrol-electric BMWs.The staggered roll-out of battery Jags and Land Rovers makes sense: heavy 4x4s have come in the firing line from green protestors who label them Chelsea Tractors. Hybrid Land Rovers will trim emissions and – in plug-in hybrid mode – enable even big bulky Range Rovers to drive in zero-emissions mode into central urban areas emitting nothing more unsaintly than an electric whir.So which Jaguars will go hybrid first?It's likely that the largest models such as the XJ will receive the hybrid power packs first; large cars reap the greater benefit and can more easily swallow the additional cost, put at around £10,000 in today's money.JLR's Midlands engineering bases in Whitley and Gaydon now employ 100 engineers in the expanding hybrid powertrain business unit launched 18 months ago.

CAR Most Wanted of 2014: Alfa Romeo Giulia

By Georg Kacher First Official Pictures 20 December 2013 13:00 Strictly, the Alfa Romeo Giulia won’t go on sale in the UK until 2015, but given it was first slated for a 2012-dated (!) launch, we’ll allow it inclusion here. What’s the hold up? The first culprit was the all-important styling.

Hand-built Porsche 'Frankfurt Flyer' special up for sale on eBay

This piece of organic-looking, handcrafted aluminium is called the ‘Frankfurt Flyer’ – a bespoke creation by American engineer Chris Runge. It’s rather special too, as the original Flyer racing car is the forebear to one of the most famous Porsche models ever, the 550 Spyder. This is one man’s painstaking recreation of one of the finest post-war sports cars to ever see the light of day, and it could be yours for $60,000 – around £36,500.