Arias Pistons 12.5:1 Compression 82mm Bore Honda B-series on 2040-parts.com

Audi does Vegas

Rupert Stadler, chairman of Audi AG, became only the third car company executive to deliver a keynote address at the Consumer Electronics Show, and he did it--as all the best Toastmasters do--by starting with a joke. “When I received the invitation to speak here this year, I thought: why don't I bring a nice example of an electronic device made by Audi,” said the chair. “Ladies and gentlemen, meet the Audi E-tron Spyder concept car.

McLaren 12C Spider Neiman Marcus Edition. Christmas is coming.

This year’s special Christmas car from Neiman Marcus is a special edition of the McLaren 12C Spider with lunch with Ron Dennis thrown in. Last year Neiman Marcus offered the Ferrari FF but this year it’s the turn of the Brits again (the Neiman Marcus Christmas car was the Jaguar XJ in 2009) with the new McLaren 12C Spider, the convertible version of the MP4-12C (which, it appears, McLaren now want us to call just the 12C). The Neiman Marcus 12C Spider is a bog standard car (not that there’s much ‘bog standard’ about 616bhp and a 0-62mph of just 3.1 seconds) in Volcano Red, but it does come with the prerequisite of a Neiman Marcus car by offering something money can’t easily buy (although it self evidently can) – dinner with Ron.

Aston Martin, AMG ink technical partnership deal

It's hard to remember that the VH-platform Aston Martins were pretty mind-bending when they came out. Since the sports-luxury marque was cut loose from Ford's stewardship six years ago, the British manufacturer has seemed a bit adrift, largely playing with variations on a theme, save for the rather radical One-77. It is, of course, a very pretty theme, but the basic design language begun with the DB9 is now a decade old.