1984 Honda Goldwing Gl1200 Left Pocket Compartment 64246-m69a-7700 on 2040-parts.com

Alfa Romeo MiTo range gets a revamp for 2011

Alfa Romeo MiTo 2011 Range gets a tweak or three The proper Alfa nutters aren’t overly fond of the MiTo. They don’t see it as a real Alfa, perhaps because it doesn’t break down every five minutes and it’s front wheel drive. We’re slightly on the side of the FWD thing but in a small, mass market car FWD it’s the layout of choice.

Opel Ampera preview

Opel has released a teaser sketch of its new five-door extended-range electric car ahead of its public debut at the Geneva Auto Show in March. Based on the Voltec powertrain and chassis architecture of Chevrolet's Volt, the Ampera promises to surpass that car in terms of style by some margin. The body appears to be nearly identical between the A- and C-pillars, but the deformed horseshoe-shaped headlamp design and two-bar grille come straight from the 2007 Flextreme concept, as do the car's tree-branch alloy wheels.

Jaguar Land Rover leads UK universities to develop virtual simulation tech

Jaguar Land Rover is to lead four UK universities in a £10m ($15.5m) government scheme to develop virtual simulation technologies and processes to help improve and accelerate the car design process. The carmaker will be leading project teams from the universities of Cambridge, Loughborough, Leeds and Warwick in the Program for Simulation Innovation (PSI), developed to improve the potential of the UK virtual simulation industry. It is hoped that through its results design quality and capability can be improved through the simulation of sights, sounds and smells.