Wilton 34014 40oz Bash Ball Pein Hammer 16" Handle on 2040-parts.com

Transmissions gone wild!

If you've been car shopping recently, or just paying attention to Autoweek car reviews, you've noticed that the six-speed automatic -- de rigueur as recently as a year ago -- suddenly has ratio envy. The new hotness? Eight- and nine-speed automatic transmissions.

Bridgestone Potenza S001 – standard on 458 Italia & Rapide +video

The Bridgestone Potenza S001 - as fitted to the Ferrari 458 Italia I think it must be a petrol-head thing, but we love tyres. Anything from a cross-ply to the latest high-performance job is a source of fascination. Our tyre fixation this last few months has been winter tryes, and we’ve told anyone who’d listen not to rush out and buy a 4×4 when the snow hit but to invest in a decent set of winter tyres.

Renault Megane Renaultsport 275 Trophy – heading For Goodwood FoS 2014

Megane Renaultsport 275 Trophy (pictured) aiming for a Nurburgring record Renault teased the Megane Renaultsport 275 Trophy on social media last month, but now it’s arrived – and it’s going to have a busy summer. Apart from a  debut at the 2014 Goodwood Festival of Speed next month, Renault are planning to take the 275 Trophy to the Nurburgring to try and grab back the lap record for a production front wheel drive car from the SEAT Leon Cupra 280. With that in mind, Renault has given the 2.0 litre Turbo in the Megane Renaultsport 275 Trophy a bit of a tweak to yield 271bhp hoping that will be enough to beat the current 7:58.4s record.