In Westwood's tracks

In 1925, Baptist missionary Neville Westwood drove his 1923 Citroen 5CV around Australia, the first person to do so. Last Sunday, Tom and Lois Newsome left Perth in a bid to re-enact Westwood's epic journey in an identical 5CV they restored. They have nicknamed it "Citroen Matilda" and expect to complete the 17,000km trip in eight weeks, half the time it took Westwood. The Citroen 5CV has a 856cc engine that develops 8kW (11bhp) and a top speed of 60km/h. Westwood's original 5CV belongs to a private Australian collector and was considered too valuable to use.

Go slow at roadworks

British road safety authorities, concerned that drivers are travelling too fast through roadworks, have hired former grand-prix champion Sir Jackie Stewart to front an awareness campaign. Statistics show 11 British road workers died after being hit by cars between October last year and February this year. The television advertisement shows a motorist skidding to a halt, before running back in horror to a roadworker he has knocked down and killed. Stewart says: "Speed kills, there's no doubt about it, and it's common sense to have speed limits where there are roadworks." He then draws a parallel with Formula One: "We race to win, which means to drive as fast as possible. But we have a stringently enforced speed limit in our pit lane. Why? Because there are people working nearby."

Germans opt for Lexus

The Lexus IS200 has been voted top car in the first customer satisfaction survey of Germany's car owners by market research firm J.D. Power. The 132-car survey found that Germans believe the Lexus is better than their own home-grown prestige makes and gave the entry-level model a top score of 86 per cent. Lexus is the luxury arm of Toyota. Toyota cars came top in a further five of the six other categories, making an almost clean sweep for the Japanese carmaker in the heart of the European motor industry's homeland.

Safety awards to Volvo

Volvo's four-wheel-drive XC90 - due in New Zealand next year - has won two design-and-safety awards in Britain and a best-vehicle award in America. The design-and-safety gongs were presented to Volvo at the British motor show. The judges ruled on the "way Volvo has combined its traditional values of function and safety in an effective and well-designed SUV format ... with overall attention to safety design and especially for advances in roll-over protection, with Boron steel roof structure and an advanced airbag control system that sustains protection levels during an extended roll-over accident".

Top marks for school

Australian journalist and TV presenter Jim Murcott established a driving school in Melbourne more than 30 years ago. For the past 10 years, special end-of-year courses have been offered to help Australian drivers of all ages to prepare for busy holiday roads. Last year 1500 drivers did the pre-Christmas one-dayers. A similar number is expected this year. The school always had a reputation for excellence. It obviously still does. Jim died 15 months ago, in his 50s. His family held the funeral service in his backyard. Strangers he had taught to drive turned up, too.

Pop up for a snack

Wanted: an adaptor to plug a pop-up toaster into a car's cigarette lighter. Why? So families on the road can enjoy the latest in portable snacks, called Toastabag, a sealed, re-useable Teflon product. Put a cheese sandwich, say, into Toastabag, pop it into the toaster - and a minute or so later up it pops, crisp, intact, no squishy bits. Just take the sandwich out of the bag and pop in another one. But wait, there's more, said the demonstrator at the British motor show the other day. The bags last up to 18 months and are easily wiped clean after use.

We are the world

* In Bastrop, Texas, a 43-year-old drunk who ignored his drinking buddies' pleas not to drive had the tyres of his pick-up truck shot out by one of them before he got into the vehicle. He got angry, started a fight - and was accidentally shot to death, reports the Austin American-Statesman.