#05 Gasser Straight Axle Plans Hot Rod Street Rod Blueprints Nostalgia Drag Race on 2040-parts.com

BMW X3 xDrive35d & xDrive20i revealed: UK gets X3 xDrive35d

2012 BMW X3 Update: UK specs and prices added at the bottom – thanks BMW UK. The new BMW X3 is turning in to something of a star for BMW, as we discovered when we recently reviewed the latest X3, but the reveal of the 2012 BMW X3 X3 xDrive35d for the UK should make the X3 even more appealing. BMW has actually revealed two new X3s for 2012, but the UK won’t be getting the X3 xDrive20i because BMW UK has decreed that X3s in the UK are going to be diesel only.

First Sight: Mercedes-Benz SL

The new high-tech, low weight Mercedes SL roadster receives its official global unveil next week in Detroit but Car Design News got an early peek of the final production car and had a chat with its designers at Mercedes' US advanced design studio in Carlsbad, California back in November. "We want to get back to clean, long-lasting design," director of Mercedes global advanced design and SL project leader, Steffen Kohl told CDN at the exclusive preview of the sixth-generation model. "So the new SL is long, sleek and still full of tension in the feature lines but less wedgy." In a short presentation Kohl felt all SLs became successfully iconic in their times because they followed two key rules – ‘sensuality' and ‘cleanness' – but alluded that the first rule may have been lost in more recent eras.

Ford begins building 1.0 Ecoboost, a microsized 3cyl

Ford chief exec Alan Mulally was in Essex today to launch the first 1.0-litre Ecoboost engine, which was developed by powertrain engineers at Dunton and Dagenham. The new 999cc triple will be built at Cologne in a new ￡110m production line – and will first be seen in the new Ford Focus in 2012. How powerful is Ford's new 1.0 Ecoboost?