1961 Fiat Spider & "600" Advertisement, Vintage Ad on 2040-parts.com

One Lap of the Web: The Talented Mr. Honda, electric airplanes and Viper-powered Jensens

We spend a lot of time on the Internet -- pretty much whenever we're not driving, writing about or working on cars. Since there's more out there than we'd ever be able to cover, here's our daily digest of car stuff on the Web you may not otherwise have heard about. -- A blog post at Hemmings called our attention to this fascinating profile of Soichiro Honda, which was originally printed in the June 16, 1963 edition of the British newspaper The Observer.

BMW Project i – Isetta revived?

Does the Isetta video from the BMW Museum give a clue to BMW's 'Sub Brand' for its Project i City Cars? It now seems that this is getting closer to reality, as BMW has let it be known that the range of small city cars they are working on as part of the ‘BMW Project i’ will be launched as a ‘Sub Brand’. But what does that mean?

Ford C-Max Energi and C-Max Hybrid (2011)

Ford has unveiled two new hybrid vehicles at the 2011 Detroit motor show, the plug-in hybrid C-Max Energi, and the C-Max Hybrid. Both are based on the five-seat Ford C-Max, and the pair go on sale in North America in 2012, while European sales follow in 2013. Both the Ford C-Max Hybrid and Ford C-Max Energi use an Atkinson-cycle (like the Prius) 2.0-litre petrol engine and lithium-ion batteries.