Rare car buried under a Gloucestershire shed wins an award

A rare two-seater car found buried under a cowshed in Gloucestershire has won a Best Vintage Car award.All the parts of the 1928 MG MK IV Sports car were found in 1999 on a farm "carefully dismantled" and laid in the ground under two inches of concrete.

Fred Body, from Cheddar in Somerset, has spent over a year painstakingly rebuilding the early MG.

He said: "It's weird really - most of it was there and most of it was as sound as a pound."

According to the Early MG Society, only 135 examples of this model were made in 1928 and this car is the sole survivor in the country that displays the correct coachwork.

"When it was found it was completely taken apart, laid out flat and covered in gravel and one or two inches of concrete," said Mr Body, a car enthusiast who bought the parts when the owner put them up for sale.

Wartime secret

"I think what must have happened was the war was coming and someone thought 'they're not taking my car for scrap'.

"They carefully took it apart and buried it thinking they would come back and put it together again."

All the major parts of the car were found preserved under the concrete base of a cowshed

It was only when the shed was pulled down and the floor dug up that the car was discovered with all its identification including Guarantee plate and original number plates.

"Some of the original leather from the seats and paint work was there so we could colour match it as near as possible," said Mr Body.

"But some of the aluminium had corroded where I think the concrete had cracked and urine from the cow house had got in.

"And all the instruments were missing - they probably adorned someone's fireplace - so they were the most difficult to find."

At the end of April the resurrected car won the Best Vintage Car award at the Bristol Classic Car Show.

A spokesman for the Early MG Society said: "There is no history on this car until 1999 when it was miraculously 'discovered'.

"It is now one of the few genuine MGs that has come to light in the last 25 years - it's been a real "from the ground up" restoration."

Some astonishingly brave people went in to tackle the blaze at the Williams garage in Barcelona head on

Some astonishingly brave people went in to tackle the blaze at the Williams garage in Barcelona head on, in an environment that could have ignited fuel drums or gas canisters, while others helped injured people out of harms way.

This shocking drama unfolded outside my mobile office at European races, called RT3: Race Truck 3.

When fans see the F1 paddock on TV they can see all the team trucks backed up to the garages and it's these trucks that house many of the critical functions of the teams — offices, storage and workbenches.

In Barcelona RT3 was parked with its rear doors facing the exit of our garage composites and consumables area.

This was adjacent to the Williams F1 Team and partly separated inside the garage from the team affectionately known as Willys by a wall, wire mesh and plastic sheeting.

DANGER ZONE ... Fire spreads at the back of the Williams garage

I was in my office in RT3 around one hour after the race had finished and Pastor Maldonado had recorded the first win for Sir Frank Williams' team in eight years, working on our post-race report while listening on the radio to the final day of the Premier League football season back in the UK.

Outside RT3 there was the usual paddock hubbub, more noisy than normal as Williams team members celebrated as they were packing up their garage.

Suddenly, above the normal background sounds, I started hearing raised voices barking orders and a couple of screams.

I stuck my head out of my office door, looking straight back at the entrance to the Williams garage and saw thick clouds of black smoke pouring out, and people from different teams all directing fire extinguishers and fire hoses on to the fire that was raging inside the Willys garage.

FAMILY MATTERS ... All the F1 teams worked together to tackle the blaze

Looking to the right I saw a number of my team-mates sprinting out of the entrance of the composites and consumables area of our garage, and more heading towards the same entrance with fire extinguishers.

Within seconds the air was engulfed in acrid black smoke. Visibility was limited and people from a number of teams started emerging from the garages covered in dust, smoke and the powder that had been directed at the fire in the garage.

It quickly became clear that the fire had started in an area of the Williams garage adjacent to our composites area and the flames had immediately ripped through the plastic sheeting separating our two garages and spread throughout an area where perhaps 40 of our guys were packing up.

AFTERMATH ... The wreck of Bruno Senna's car can be seen inside the Williams garage

They all made it out of the garage safely. One of our truckies was carried out by two team mates, suffering from smoke inhalation, and another team member emerged from the smoke clutching a very swollen hand.

Both were immediately taken to hospital.

Within minutes of it starting the fire was out. Unseen by me, the rescue efforts on our side of the garage were being mirrored in the pitlane and the blaze was being tackled from both sides by team members from every team up and down the pitlane, as well as local circuit staff and members of the media who had been recording the post-race celebrations in the Williams garage.

For a number of those who helped out this was not their first F1 fire. But for me, this was the first time I have been so close to something so potentially life threatening and I am humbled by the way the men and women of my sport responded.

F1 provides thrills and spills but it is a dangerous environment. Seeing how the paddock acted as one shows me how lucky I am to work with real heroes.

Poland's Arrinera supercar hits the road with 650 HP, $160K list price

There are a handful of countries where you'd expect most any supercar to come from. Italy, Germany, England... and even these United States have produced their fare share, and there've been a handful from Japan. Even France and Sweden have produced some notables. But Poland?

Hardly the first country that would come to mind, but the folks behind Arrinera Automotive aim to fix that. We first reported last year on the supercar the Polish outfit has been developing, and now they've released a whole slew of details – including specifications and pricing.

The as-yet unnamed vehicle (aside from the Arrinera marque, anyway) is powered by a 6.2-liter V8 that's been supercharged up to 650 metric horsepower (641 by our measures) and 605 pound-feet of torque, driving through a Graziano gearbox for a 3.2-second sprint to 100 kilometers per hour (62 miles per hour) and a claimed 340 km/h (211 mph) top end.

Lee Noble – the talented engineer behind supercars marketed under the Ultima, Ascari, Rossion, Fenix andNoble names – has set up the suspension, with 380-millimeter brakes providing the stopping power up front and 350-millimeter discs in the back. The 1300-kilogram (2866-pound) package is made up of a high-strength steel frame with bodywork that's carbon-intensive and similar in appearance to a Lamborghini, but that's no bad thing.

Production is slated to begin later this year, with pricing starting at £100,000 (about $160,000 at current exchange rates). Scope it out in the extensive and fresh gallery of high-resolution images above.

Porsche Boxster, Boxster S launched

Porsche has launched its next-generation Boxster roadster, boasting reduced weight and a longer wheel base for improved performance. The next-generation release of the Boxster open-top roadster boasts a 35kg weight reduction, 60mm longer wheelbase, widened track on both the front and rear axles, and larger wheels and tyres. Combined with a new flat-six engine, the Boxster S is able to lap the Nürburgring-Nordschleife track in 7:58 minutes, twelve seconds faster than the outgoing model. The revised design shows clear inspiration from the 550 Spyder and 718 RS, while also combining features of more modern Porsche models including the Carrera GT and the upcoming 918 Spyder. A fully electric hood opens on an interior with increased space over the outgoing model while the Carrera GT-inspired centre console boasts improved ergonomics. The new flat-six engines feature direct petrol injection, with the mid-mounted power unit in the Boxster delivering 265hp from a 2.7-litre displacement - 10hp more than the 2.9-litre engine it replaces. A 3.4-litre engine available in the Boxster S boasts 315hp, an improvement of 5hp on the outgoing model. Both models include a manual six-speed gearbox, with a seven-speed dual-clutch Porsche Doppelkupplungsgetriebe (PDK) transmission available as an option. Using the PDK transmission and Sport Chrono Package option, the 2.7-litre Boxster sprints to 62mph from a standing start in just 5.5 seconds, while the larger-engined Boxster S hits the same speed in just 4.8 seconds. The Boxster also boasts fuel economy of 36.7mpg with carbon dioxide emissions of 180g per kilometre driven, with the Boxster S hitting 35.3mpg on the combined cycle with 188g/km carbon dioxide emissions. The Boxster boasts Alcantara interior, 18in alloy wheels, automatic stop/start and sports mode, remote control hood operation, audio CD player with 7in colour touch-screen control, a universal audio interface with MP3 connectivity and a three-year warranty. The Boxster S build on that spec with 19in alloy wheels, partial leather interior and bi-xenon headlights in addition to the more powerful engine. The Boxster starts at £37,589 on the road, with the Boxster S costing £45,384.

eBay Find of the Day: Neil Armstrong's '67 Corvette

But what if we told you that Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon, the hero of the NASA Apollo program, and by all accounts a genuine good guy, was the first owner of the car? How much would that make it worth? Better hope your guess has six digits in it, because bidding on eBay Motors for this derelict but potentially highly collectible car has already shot past $120,000 – and has yet to meet the seller's reserve price.

Before readying the checkbook, however, we might suggest actually reading the seller's ALL CAPS description. It's a wonderful tale that starts with the car being provided by Rathman Chevrolet, the famed dealership that leased Corvettes to astronauts for $1 per year. A NASA employee allegedly bought the car after Armstrong turned it in and the seller claims he's hounded that NASA employee for 30 years trying to buy the Corvette, but it was only two months ago that he claimed his prize. There's a whole lot more to the story, including buying a carburetor in Texas and wanting to turn the car into a National Corvette Restorers Society "Survivor."

The bottom line, however, is that the seller is now trying to flip the Chevrolet, without much in the way of evidence that the car belonged to Armstrong, at least that's presented in the eBay Motors auction. Perhaps we're just being skeptical, but before spending over $100,000 on a car for which the majority of the purchase price is for its provenance, we'd like to see more in the way of authentication than one Protect-O-Plate photo. Since Neil Armstrong is still alive, we hope that whoever winds up restoring this Corvette does a more thorough job of vetting and presenting its history.