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

Concorso Italiano car show at Monterey Historics week 2013: in pictures

Every year as part of the Monterey Historics week there’s an Italian car gathering that’s grown to the point where it’s an international – unmissable – event. For 2013 the venue was the Laguna Seca Golf Ranch, just next to the race circuit – and what an incredible line up of cars there was. Alongside the predictable was the completely unpredictable.

Volvo testing new safety features

Volvo outlined three new technologies that it says will help make the Volvos of the future a good deal safer: autonomous driving, “Intersection Support” and animal detection. Volvo says it's tailoring technologies to the way people drive, by which it means poorly. The company claims that “surveys from three different research institutes in the United States reveal that modern drivers spend 25 to 30 percent of their time behind the wheel doing other things, such as focusing on mobile communication.” Volvo's new technologies are said take this into account and “provide the driver with the right support at all times.” By using a camera and radar, future Volvos will be able to follow the car in front while driving in slow traffic using an autonomous-driving function.

Audi R8 GT Spyder (2011) sketches

This is the car to render the Lamborghini Gallardo Performante pointless – it’s the Audi R8 GT Spyder, a drop-top version of the lighter, faster R8 GT coupe. Previewed in these design sketches from Audi, the R8 GT Spyder is expected to be revealed in full at the 2011 Frankfurt motor show in September. So this Audi R8 GT Spyder is a R8 GT without a roof? Essentially, yes.