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Citroen Celebrates 80 Years Of The Traction Avant

FRENCH car maker Citroen is celebrating 80 years of its iconic Traction Avant in 2014 with a series of events dedicated to the famous model. Launched in April 1934, the new model – originally christened 7A - revolutionised the automotive world with its low centre of gravity, all steel monocoque body, light weight and radical aerodynamics. As a result, the front-wheel-drive Traction Avant boasted standard-setting characteristics for handling and road holding.

Mazda RX-8 gets an update – in Japan

Mazda has updated the RX-8 in Japan with new colours and extra equipment [ad#ad-1] Well, it does make sense to update your cars in your home market first, so the updates to the Mazda RX-8 for the Japanese market announced today are almost certain to come to UK cars before long. Just like the updates Mazda made to the MX-5 in Japan were followed by updates to the Mazda MX-5 UK spec car shortly after. Despite the fact that the Mazda RX-8 is not the best-selling car in the world, it does have an awful lot going for it.

BMW Alpina D3 BiTurbo – a great diesel

The BMW Alpina D3 BiTurbo - a brilliant, quick and economical everyday drive Alpina has turned out some stunning versions of the BMW range over the years (and some not so stunning – their 8 Series springs to mind) and they fill a gap that is either not profitable in small volume for BMW or, in some cases, a hole that BMW hasn’t plugged. And this one is a good hole to fill with the BMW Alpina D3 Bi-Turbo, a 3 Series diesel with the heart of a hot hatch. Alpina has taken the engine out of the 1 Series 123d and given it a boost to 240bhp, in the process dropping the 0-60 time to a very creditable 6.9 seconds But it’s not the sprint that count,  but the way this peppy diesel unit delivers it.