Accel 31034 Vacuum Advance-adjustable Vacuum Advance on 2040-parts.com

BMW 640d xDrive announced

On Thursday, Greg Kable waxed effusively about the new BMW M550d xDrive coupe, suggesting that it was the ultimate 5-series for everyday use. On Friday, Munich announced that the 5's two-door sibling will receive an AWD diesel variant: the 640d xDrive. While not quite as high-zoot as the 5-series' top oil burner, the 640d's 3.0-liter, twin-turbo straight-six cranks out a respectable 465 lb-ft of almighty torque between 1,500 rpm and 2,500 rpm, plus 313 hp at 4,400 rpm—numbers that, according to BMW, will carry the 6-series to 60 mph in 5.2 seconds.

New Lotus Elite: Top-Down +video

New Lotus Elite (2014) Top Down I think we’ve just about got over the surprise of a New Lotus Elite dropping from a clear blue sky in the week before the Paris Motor Show. What we still haven’t completely got our heads around is the plethora of models subsequently revealed at the show itself. Yes, we were expecting the new Lotus Esprit – even if we reckoned we might have got that wrong after the New Elite showed up – but we hadn’t reckoned on the new Elan, the new Eterne and the new Elise as well (never mind a City Car concept).

I Draw Cars: The sketchbook that puts drawings into perspective

I Draw Cars is a project set up by Adam Hubers and Matt Marrocco – both CCS graduates – to encourage designers young and old to pick up their pens and practice that most basic yet powerful tool in their kit: sketching. Their new book features over 100 pages of perspective underlays – from basic views right up to complex three-point – to use as templates with which to practice. Each underlay is printed in non-photo blue, meaning it won't be picked up by a scanner should you choose to drop it into Photoshop.