In brief, April 2008

* Afzal Kahn of Kahn Design has bought the ‘F1’ licence plate for £440,625, beating the previous record amount of £331,000 when Bonhams auctioned ‘M1’ in July 2006.

* A new facility in the USA claims to be the first commercial wind tunnel to offer F1-level facilities to private race teams. Windshear is an independent outfit offering a high-speed rolling road capable of taking full-scale cars. It can test vehicles at wind speeds of up to 180mph. Situated near Charlotte, North Carolina, the tunnel can run 24 hours a day.

* The bronze bust of Graham Hill which was stolen from the BRDC Clubhouse in 1999 has been found and returned. There was an official presentation to Damon Hill by Detective Inspector Tricia Kirk, who tracked the artefact down in Bolton on January 24.

* The event that started life as the Paris-Dakar Rally will move to South America next year. The new-look Dakar, scheduled for January 3-18, will start in Chile, follow a 6000-mile loop and finish in the Argentinian capital of Buenos Aires.

* The new Chinese owners of MG are set to put their weight behind the RML sports car squad. Nanjing Automotive is on the verge of funding a deal to develop a new version of the Advanced Engine Research (AER) turbo for RML’s Lola-based LMP2 contender, which will be rehomologated as an MG EX265.

* Jari-Matti Latvala became the youngest winner of a World Championship rally in Sweden. The 22-year-old Ford driver beat the previous record set by the late Henri Toivonen by two years.

* Derek Bell’s attempt to sign off his career at the Daytona 24 Hours was thwarted by early car failure. The RVO Motorsports Riley-Pontiac retired with brake failure. Read more on this at www.motorsportmagazine.co.uk

* Can-Am Challenger by Peter Bryant, reviewed in the February issue, is published by David Bull Publishing, not as stated.