Ram Black Express goes Darth Vader

Ram introduced the Ram Black Express on Thursday. The locomotive-sounding name denotes the black on black styling, Hemi engine and a low starting price of $28,050. The Black Express gets an all-black exterior, including the hexagon grille, fascias, bumpers and wheels.

New Skoda Octavia Scout price and spec – costs from £25,315

New Skoda Octavia Scout costs from £25,315 The new Skoda Octavia Scout arrived at the Geneva Motor Show in the Spring, bringing an ‘Allroad’ version of the latest Skoda Octavia Combi (Estate) to the market. As with all estate cars with offroad pretensions, the Octavia Scout comes with a more butch set of bumpers and a more purposeful nose, black cladding for the door sills and wheel arches, a new set of alloys, a raised ride height and a few tweaks for the interior so it all looks more than capable of taking on a muddy boot sale car park. The Scout comes with a choice of two 2.0 litre TDI engines at launch, with a lower powered, 148bhp with a six-speed manual and a more powerful, 182bhp version, getting a six-speed DSG gearbox, both of which return official economy of 55.4mpg (although, oddly, the lower-powered gets emissions of 129g/km and the more powerful 134g/km).

One Lap of the Web: 1970, rollin' in sight

-- Come with me to a time when people raced Datsun 120Ys and when Rinspeed ruled the world. A simpler time, when going fast was the only entry in the racing rulebook. A ridiculous time, when the world was presented with a Simca Maxi Turbo and didn't think much about it.