2008 Yamaha Raptor 350 Cylinder With Piston on 2040-parts.com

Formula E Spark-Renault electric race cars arrive with the teams at Donnington

The 10 Formula E cars arrive at Donnington No one knows if the Formula E experiment – an ‘F1′ Grand Prix series for electric racing cars – will garner the same sort of interest as its ICE counterpart, but with the first Formula E race scheduled for Beijing in September we’ll soon find out. Ahead of that debut race, Renault and Spark Technologies has delivered the teams their cars – all the same Spark Renault SRT_01E – to the Formula E base at Donnington. After a series of tests at a variety of circuits earlier this year, the Spark Renault SRT_01E passed all its final systems and architecture tests, which has allowed this first batch of the final series cars to be delivered for the teams to practice ahead of the race.

More tech details of Rolls-Royce RR4’s V12

By Tim Pollard Motor Industry 23 March 2009 16:23 Rolls-Royce today confirmed a handful of new details for the ‘baby’ Rolls, codenamed RR4 and previewed in the 200EX concept car at the 2009 Geneva motor show. The RR4 will be powered by a unique Rolls 6.6-litre turbocharged V12, producing ‘upwards of 500bhp’, the company disclosed. Drive is sent through an eight-speed ZF automatic gearbox.

Ford Fiesta eWheelDrive gets wheel hub electric motors

The Ford Fiesta eWheelDrive – a driveable research vehicle built by Ford and German specialists Schaeffler – may be a regular supermini in size, but it points towards a potential future EV which is much more compact and very manoeuvrable. Ford has taken a regular Fiesta and dumped its powertrain, replacing it with a battery bank where the engine would be and fitted a pair of in-hub electric motors on the rear wheels. But the plan is to build new cars with the batteries under the floor which frees up the space under the bonnet which can then be all but removed to create a very compact urban car that still has space for four.