01-03 Toyota Highlander Radiator Support Core 02 Assembly Steel New Unit on 2040-parts.com

Ellesmere Port's bid to build Ampera hits snags

By Rob Golding Motor Industry 09 October 2009 15:02 Prime minister Gordon Brown’s personal crusade to get Vauxhall's version of the Chevrolet Volt petrol-electric plug-in hybrid – the Ampera – built in Britain's Ellesmere Port factory in 2012 is a dream delayed, CAR can disclose today.News that the UK Astra plant is the best in Europe, that the Astra's Delta platform will underpin the Ampera, and that Volt will be on US sale from 2010 had been taken to mean that Vauxhall would be churning out the cars in the north west within three years.But the prospect of an electric car industry growing up around the run-down Merseyside manufacturing site is not imminent, CAR has learned.'No Ampera to be built in Europe before 2015'Vauxhall insiders have made it clear that the car to be known as the Vauxhall/Opel Ampera in Europe will be an import from the US for at least five years. One senior planner told us: 'The US will be the sole source of Amperas until at least 2015.'Bob Lutz, GM's former product supremo who recently came out of retirement as a PR, said that the low value of the dollar made the US an ideal site for the manufacturing of export cars. And with forecast sticker prices of the range-extender electric car standing at a scary £35,000+, every price saving is vital to its marketability.The European market also needs time to get its electricity recharge infrastructure in place before it is worth making cars onshore in volume, GM high-ups point out.

Bene! Meet the SRT Viper GTS Sons of Italy edition

It seems automakers will badge-engineer anything to create special editions that do little for the benefit of the brand or for society. That's not the case for this uniquely swathed SRT Viper GTS whose color and its reason for being are truly noteworthy. This bellissima beast was created to benefit the Sons of Italy Foundation, a cause near the heart of parent company Fiat.

RCA students open Clerkenwell Week Design with Jaguar-inspired artwork

Two Royal College of Art students have designed a Jaguar-inspired sculpture to celebrate the opening of Clerkenwell Design Week in London. Ewan Gallimore and Claire Miller developed their idea alongside Jaguar's Advanced Design team in Whitley, Coventry, by using technologies applied in the creation of Jaguar production and concept cars. The two were the successful team from a selection of nine groups who submitted entries after Jaguar's challenge to the RCA's Vehicle Design and Textile Design departments.