Vintage Nos Van 8" Round Porthole/opera Window Set/pair Glass Nib J445 on 2040-parts.com

2013 Ford Kuga goes in to production

The new (2013) Ford Kuga crossover – which debuted at Geneva in the Spring – has now gone in to production in Spain ahead of first customer car deliveries. Ford has announced it’s finally started to churn out the new Kuga at its plant in Valencia, and that the Kuga will be heading to Ford’s UK showrooms to get customer cars out in the new year. Despite starting production of the new Kuga, Ford still hasn’t come up with prices for its compact crossover, but says they will be available before the end of the year. On offer in the new Kuga is a range of new technology including the kick-to-open tailgate, Active Park Assist, Blind Spot Monitoring Torque Vectoring Control, SYNC and the first use of Ford’s EcoBoost engines in the Kuga (although no sign yet that the 1.0 litre EcoBoost will be added to the Kuga).

VW Design Vision GTI gets 500bhp: Worthersee

The Design Vision GTI is built to show what a Golf built for racing would look like – and perhaps point to future evolutions of VW’s most successful car – and is built on the same MQB platform as the regular GTI. It’s a bit shorter (15mm) than a regular Golf, a chunk wider (71mm) and a lot lower (57mm) which conspires to make the Design Vision GTI much more aggressive looking than its mainstream sibling. Power comes from a 3.0 litre V6 with two turbos – good for 500bhp and 413lb/ft of torque – which is driven to all four wheels through a DSG ‘box and can scoot to 62mph in a supercar-like 3.9 seconds on its way to 186mph.

Tour de France improve cycle safety

THE TOUR DE FRANCE, which starts in Yorkshire for the 2014 race, has helped increase cycle safety awareness by 90%. Cyclists report car drivers are being more patient and giving them more space on the road in the build-up to the biggest cycling race in the world. A survey by ColinAppleyard.com found 90% of drivers say they are more of cyclist because of Le Tour, while 73% of drivers said they are now more careful around cyclists.The arrival of the Tour de France has also made 10% of drivers consider buying a bike.