Auckland's Enzo

The owner's identity is secret but the car will go on show across the country. The only Ferrari Enzo to be allocated to the New Zealand market - from a total production run of 399 - will go on show in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch this month. The car will be in Auckland at the Continental Car Services Italian Car Centre, 21 Great South Rd, Newmarket, on Saturday August 9 from 9am to 4pm. It moves to Rick Armstrong Motors in Christchurch on the 12th, then to CCS Wellington on the 16th. The Enzo is thought to be the most exclusive and expensive road car ever sold in New Zealand. Its 6-litre V12 pumps out 492kW at 7800rpm and revs to 8200rpm.

Turning back the rotary clock

Potential buyers of Mazda's new RX-8 sports car can brush up on their rotary history and check on the price of accessories through a new website at RX-8.

The RX Evolution page gives comprehensive details on all rotary-powered vehicles produced by Mazda, starting with the Cosmo Sport/Mazda 110S right through to the RX-8. The car goes on sale in September at $61,995 for manual and automatic models. Mazda's new Renesis rotary engine is 30 per cent lighter than the previous 13B rotary, and although a 1.3-litre at rest, it's the equivalent of a 2.6-litre when in motion.

Skoda: on your marque

After a slow start, Skoda is finally expanding out of Auckland. The Czech brand - now part of the Volkswagen Group - was launched by European Motor Distributors (which also handles VW, Audi and Porsche) in March with just two Auckland-based dealerships. Sales have totalled 60 in the five months since. Now Skoda is in Hamilton and Christchurch, at Garry Keith Motors and Hollands Motors respectively.

Duck goes wandering

Almost 70 years after its creation, an original Citroen 2CV prototype is leaving France for the first time - but only across the channel to Britain, where it will be the centrepiece of a Design Museum display on the life of Citroen's flamboyant Italian former head of design, Flaminio Bertoni.

Head of design for three decades, Bertoni started by designing the revolutionary Traction Avant. He modelled the car out of plasticine in a single night, and the result was the first ever mass-produced front-wheel-drive car with an aerodynamic, all-in-one steel monocoque body shell - at a time when most other cars had a separate chassis and wooden bodywork.

Bertoni's brief for the 2CV was to produce a low-cost car capable of carrying four people as well as 50kg of potatoes across rough terrain. Featuring just one headlamp and seats hung hammock-style from the roof, 250 prototypes were made before the war. Only one of these was believed to have survived until recently, when three more were discovered. Bertoni's DS19, nicknamed Goddess, was a media sensation when it was unveiled at the 1955 Paris Motor Show, with Citroen taking 12,000 orders on the first day. It boasted numerous technical innovations such as hydro-pneumatic self-levelling suspension.

We are the world

Motorist Catherine Donkers got a ticket in Portage County, Ohio, for not having her baby strapped in a car seat - she was breastfeeding the baby while she drove. Rather than pay the $160 fine, Donkers' husband Brad Barnhill demanded a trial with himself as the defendant. Why? Because his church, the First Christian Fellowship for Eternal Sovereignty, teaches that the husband must take responsibility for his wife's public actions. Barnhill reportedly said that at his next court appearance, he would make a citizen's arrest of the prosecutor.