06-11 Impala 3.5l/3.9l Converter - Direct Fit on 2040-parts.com

Official: Mercedes SLS AMG Black Series

The new Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG Black Series has been revealed ahead of going on sale in the Summer of 2013. The SLS Black Series gets the usual mix for a Mercedes Black Series model – more power and less weight – and uses the same 6.2 litre V8 as the regular SLS but with the wick turned up to 622 horses from the regular, but hardly wanting, 583 thanks to a new air intake, cams, boost tweaks and better cooling. The oily tweaks for more power – and some weight shedding (70kg) – means the SLS Black can get to 62mph in 3.6 seconds – 0.2 seconds quicker than the regular SLS – and top out at 196mph (due to the extra downforce).

Holden will sell cars in Australia beyond 2017

When we heard about Holden's plans to shutter its Australian plants after 2017, we didn't know quite what to think. The General Motors subsidiary was cagey when it came to details, claiming that the brand would remain a presence in Australia -- even maintaining its design office there. Oddly, we couldn't get anyone to say, in black-and-white terms, what vehicles would be sold there under the Holden name after its plants close.

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.