Mr. Gasket 1204c Collector/header Muffler Gaskets on 2040-parts.com

Video: Jaguar's Julian Thomson on the importance of design values

Jaguar's Head of Advanced Design, Julian Thomson, appeared at this month's PSFK Conference in London giving a talk on design values. Thomson's talk, ‘Concepting Dreams, Making Reality Happen', dealt with questions of creating a design story as well as how Jaguar uses the value of its heritage while keeping things original and new. Thomson – the man behind the 2010 C-X75 and the recently revealed F-Type – said, "You can't get a good design story if you don't look at your heritage, where you came from, where your values came from." He went on to discuss the ‘sad years of Jaguar', from around 1968 to 2004 where Jaguar was too timid to develop and "essentially made the same-looking car." He put this down to a reluctance on Jaguar's part to move too far away from its successful models and, quite interestingly, because "not only did we start doing market research, we started asking Americans what they wanted." Watch the full video on the left.

Victor Muller sells Spyker sports cars to CPP

Supercar maker Spyker is to be sold. Coventry-based coachbuilder CPP has announced a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to buy Spyker Cars from Spyker Cars N.V, the holding company which owns Spyker and Saab. No. Saab remains under the ownership of Dutch company Spyker Cars N.V. This sale is of Spyker, the manufacturer of flamboyantly detailed mid-engined supercars. CPP has been supplying chassis and body panels for Spyker since the brand was relaunched in 2000, and completed an agreement to handle full manufacturing of the current range in 2009 – the production of Spyker cars moved from the Netherlands to Coventry in 2010.   The MOU, valued at €32m, will mean that CPP Global Holdings Ltd will become manufacturer and owner of Spyker – €15m will be paid straight away, with the remaining €17m paid over a six year 'earn-out' period.

Mercedes Concept A: Coming to a shopping centre near you

Mercedes Concept A is off on a Shopping Centre Tour We did think there was a chance that the new 2012 / 2013 Mercedes A Class could make an appearance at the Frankfurt Motor Show, but instead Mercedes concentrated on the new B-Class. And with the next European Motor Show not arriving until Geneva in the Spring, Mercedes has decided it will be a good idea to take the Concept A – the Concept version of the new A-Class – on a tour of UK shopping centres to introduce their new baby to the people who might buy it. So over the course of the next month Mercedes will be trotting off to a shopping centre in each major part of the UK (don’t tell the Welsh – or the Northern Irish), with a visit to Braehead in Glasgow, Arndale in Manchester, Bullring in Birmingham and Westfield in London.