1980s-1990s Mercruiser R/mr/alpha 1/ Trim-tilt Cylinders-rams on 2040-parts.com

SEAT hints at new Nurburgring lap record

Repeated references to the Nurburgring during the press conference at the launch of the new SEAT Leon Cupra strongly suggest that the 280hp hot hatch has broken the front-wheel drive lap record. SEAT is waiting until the 2014 Geneva Motor Show before saying any more, but has already hinted that its new Leon Cupra is significantly faster than the current Renaultsport Megane record holder. On Bing: see pictures of the new SEAT Leon Cupra at the Nurburgring SEAT Leon Cupra and Cupra 280 review (2014 onwards) To set a new front-wheel drive production car record on the Nordschleife, the SEAT Leon Cupra would have to lap the 13-mile circuit – actually a public toll road that now plays a vital part in new car development – in less than 8 minutes and 7.97 seconds.

Design boss plans Hyundai's next big splash

Every two weeks, Christopher Chapman makes the rounds at Hyundai's Irvine, Calif., design center to see what his team has in the "corner stack." The "stack" is a pile of index card-sized sketches on the corner of every designer's desk. For Chapman, Hyundai's U.S. design boss, it's a way to encourage his designers to keep ideas flowing.

Lotus Evora 414E Range Extender EV moves forward

The Lotus Evora 414E – a Lotus Engineering range extender hybrid project – is still moving ahead with dynamic and durability testing now underway. On the surface the Evora 414E looked like every other Evora, but under the skin sat the first version of a Lotus range-extender platform with a pair of electric motors and a small, 3-cylinder range-extender engine promising impressive performance and economy. Despite the reveal of the 414E at Geneva in 2010, there’s not been a huge amount of news on Lotus pushing forward with the project, or at least not until we got the Infiniti Emerg-E Concept at Geneva this year that turned out to be underpinned by the Evora 414E platform.