King Kma 24 Marker Beacon Receiver on 2040-parts.com

Festival of the Unexceptional: the bad cars we love

Ever been to a classic car show and noticed how many old MGBs and sports cars of yesteryear have turned up, driven by their proud owners, but wondered what happened to all the more mainstream stuff? There are twice as many Ferrari 308 GTBs on the roads in the UK than Austin Allegros, because the everyday cars of the past fail MOTs, get chucked away and replaced with shiny new hatchbacks. Fortunately, there is a select group of people in the UK who care for the mundane stuff of yesterday and, because of this, a new event for “unexceptional” cars will be taking place this summer.

Rumormill: Aston Martin Cygnet could get V12

A few years ago, if you would have asked us about 500-hp city cars, we would have said, “Awesome, but never going to happen.” We were proven wrong with last year's Nissan Juke-R and we may be proven wrong again with a V12-powered Aston Martin Cygnet. That's right, Autocar reports that Aston is studying the feasibility of taking the Toyota iQ-based Cygnet and shoehorning the V12 from its Vantage and DB9 models. Aston says it could fit the V12 in the tiny car's engine bay without major modifications.

Bus service cuts 'at critical level'

CUTS TO bus services are now reaching "critical levels", according to a report by the Campaign for Better Transport (CBT). As many as 47% of local authorities in England and Wales have reduced their support for buses for 2013, while the 2014/15 financial year is likely to be a difficult one for bus services, said CBT. Three councils have stopped supporting services and others might follow, warned the CBT, whose report is entitled Buses In Crisis and is based on responses to Freedom of Information Act requests made to all local transport authorities regarding supported buses.