Pertronix Ignitor Conversion Kit 1163a on 2040-parts.com

Bonhams' Greenwich auction will show Italian rarities

The biggest star of Bonhams' seventh annual Greenwich auction will be the 1975 Lamborghini Countach LP400 Periscopica shown above, a pristine early example of the legendary wedge with a single owner and less than 10,500 miles -- its roof carried a groove cut into the sheetmetal that allowed light to hit the rearview mirror, providing a still-laughable semblance of rearward visibility. Of course, the door is always preferable. Just 158 LP400 Countachs were ever produced, before the firm moved on in 1978 to the outrageously styled LP400S.

Mechanics qualifications gained using Haynes manuals

MOST MEN enjoy a good Haynes car manual, whether they really understand it or not, but a group of youngsters has used the workshop guides to achieve their first qualifications in car mechanics. The first wave of the Haynes Mechanix scheme has seen a mixed gender youth club group, aged 15-25 and from Islington in London, use Haynes manuals along with guidance from experienced mentors to fix real problems on a real car. The donor Volkswagen, known as Percy the Polo, was a theoretical MOT fail and needed replacement spark plugs, a brake fluid replacement and much more, to give the aspiring tinkerers a broad spectrum of challenges.

Telematics box aids attempted murderer conviction

A ‘BLACK BOX’ telematics device fitted to a hire car has played a significant role in the conviction of an attempted murderer. The device had been previously installed into a car hired by Daniel Paita, 32; a car he was driving on the day he carried out an attack on a man in Glasgow. Paita had claimed he was nowhere near the area, but anti-motoring fraud experts at Asset Protection Unit Ltd (APU) were able to ascertain the car’s true whereabouts via a tracking device within the telematics unit.