04 Toyota Rav4 Power Brake Booster on 2040-parts.com

Chinese Grand Prix qualifying: Hamilton takes pole for Mercedes

Lewis Hamilton has grabbed his first pole position for Mercedes for tomorrow’s Chinese Grand Prix, with team mate Nico Rosberg in fourth putting second place Kimi Raikkonen in the Lotus and third place Fernando Alonso in the Ferrari in a Mercedes sandwich. Felipe Massa takes fifth in the second Ferrari and Grosjean sixth in the second Lotus with the Toro Rosso of Ricciardo in seventh, but it’s behind that the things get more interesting, especially in a race context. Behind the leading seven are Jenson Button in the McLaren and Sebastian Vettel in the Red Bull, but both are on different strategies to the rest of the leaders and will start tomorrow’s race on the medium tyres they used for final qualifying instead of the soft tyres.

Audi SQ5 Exclusive – for when an SQ5 just isn’t enough

Audi are debuting a limited edition of their new SQ5 – the SQ5 Exclusive – at Paris 2012 before a limited production run of 50 cars. The new Audi SQ5 – a diesel RS Q5 in all but name – bowed in at Le Mans in June featuring the 3.0 litre twin turbo diesel V6 with 479lb/ft of torque, 309bhp and a very un-SUV 0-62mph of 5.1 seconds. As the range-topping Q5 you would think that would be enough for Audi, but it seems they think there’s a market for an even more exclusive Audi SQ5 so they’re producing a limited edition model that’ll cost an extra £30k – the Audi SQ5 Exclusive.

Watch Tesla Model S testing new titanium armor

In a missive signed by Elon Musk himself, Tesla announced it would be adding titanium plates and aluminum deflectors to all new Model S sedans and offering free retrofits for the 20,000 or so existing EVs. The company earlier offered an over-the-air software update to raise the ground clearance of the Model S so the car would be more likely to clear dangerous road debris. The actions were in response to well-publicized fires in the electric luxury sedans.