1.5" Drop Sport Suspension Lowering Spring 07-11 Honda Element Sc Utility Red on 2040-parts.com

Who's Where: Frank Stephenson appointed Director of Design for Alfa Romeo

Frank Stephenson began his new position as Director of Design at Alfa Romeo today, CDN can reveal. Stephenson left his role as Head of the Fiat, Lancia and Commercial Vehicle Styling Center last month and is now effectively filling a role that has been unoccupied since Wolfgang Egger left to become head of Audi's Style Center. Since Lorenzo Ramaciotti has been recently appointed to a newly created position as Cheif of Design at Fiat, Stephenson's previous position is now vacant.

Mini Beachcomber Concept at Detroit motor show 2010

This funky beach-biased concept car has just appeared at the 2010 Detroit Auto Show in January. Called the Mini Beachcomber Concept, this flight-of-fancy Moke-inspired show car gives us our first glimpse of how Mini's production-spec 4x4 crossover will look at launch - we'll see the real car at the Geneva motor show in March 2010 ahead of an autumn UK launch. This four-seater, four-wheel-drive machine has been designed without doors or a conventional roof, so that its occupants are not cut off from the outside world.

Mercedes-Benz CL gets a facelift for 2011

Three years after its introduction, Mercedes-Benz has given the CL a mid-cycle facelift, providing the big two-door with lightly altered bumpers--those up front with new LED daytime running lamps, reshaped headlamps, a more contoured hood, larger exterior mirrors with integrated indicators and revised tail-lamp lenses, among other detailed visual changes. More significant than the styling tweaks, however, are the changes underneath the hood, with the arrival of a new twin-turbocharged 4.6-liter V8 direct-injection gasoline engine--the first of Mercedes-Benz's advanced MoVe powerplants that aim to bring efficiency gains to its lineup. With 429 hp and 516 lb-ft of torque, the new engine delivers 47 hp and 125 lb-ft more than the naturally aspirated 5.5-liter V8 it replaces in the four-year-old CL500--enough to lower the luxury coupe's 0-to-62-mph time by 0.5 second to 4.9 seconds.