1969 Firebird Steering Colum Dash Cover on 2040-parts.com

Toyota Hybrid-R Concept – a Yaris with 400bhp – teased for Frankfurt

The Toyota Hybrid-R Concept (pictured) is a 400bhp Yaris Hybrid heading for Frankfurt We’ve always believed that the best use for hybrid powertrains is to get extra performance without the penalty of increased fuel consumption. Toyota, on the other hand, have primarily used their impressive – if complicated and expensive – hybrid powertrains to yield improved economy and emissions from more prosaic cars like the Prius, Yaris and Auris. But now it looks like Toyota are ready to show us what hybrid technology can offer in the way of performance too, with a tease for what Toyota are calling the Hybrid-R Concept, which appears to be a Yaris with more than 400bhp on tap.

Honda readies its jet airplane -- for real this time

Honda would like to remind you that while journalists have spent the last few years fretting whether the Big H has "lost its way," the company has quietly launched, shelved, resurrected, and all but waited out its plan to dominate the business-jet skies, which we are to assume are less friendly than United's. The HA-420 HondaJet has been kicking around for more than 10 years now, but the very first production-ready plane just rolled off the assembly line in Greensboro, N.C., this week -- and, Honda promises, the $4.5 million business jet should be delivered in the second quarter of next year. Honda began taking orders for the jet in 2006, but the long recession squashed the market for private jets.

Kia Track'ster concept car (2012) first official photos

Kia will show the new Track'ster at the 2012 Chicago motor show. It's a concept car designed to show what a harder, faster Kia Soul hatch could be like. Scant information is available at present, but Kia has confirmed the Track'ster was designed by Kia's Californian studio, led by Tom Kearns - and today it issued a new photograph of the Track'ster, after last week's design sketch.