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

McLaren gives MP4-12C power and gadget upgrade

McLaren has announced a surprise package of upgrades which will be offered to existing owners of its MP4-12C supercar, free of charge. Owners will benefit from more power, a tunable engine noise and fewer foibles - yes, the tricky swipe-to-enter door handles are banished for good. So what exactly has changed on the McLaren MP4-12C for 2013?

VW Polo R-Line Style & more equipment across Polo range

Volkswagen has introduced the VW Polo R-Line Style – price from £11,740 – in the UK and added more equipment across the Polo range for 2013. We though that VW had done the R-Line thing with the launch of the Polo R-Line this time last year, but it seems the bean counters at Volkswagen have worked out there’s room for a Polo R-Line ‘Light’ in the range, so we now get the VW Polo R-Line Style. That’s because VW decided that, unlike most of the VW range where the R-Line is an add-on pack for any model, the Polo R-Line only comes with the 1.2 litre 105PS engine – albeit in 3-door or 5-door guise – so you can’t have a more butch-looking R-Line with ‘lesser’ Polos.

Project Car Hell, Rock-and-Stick-Simple Off-Road Trucks Edition: Land Rover or Scout?

Last week, the Hell Garage Demons went back 100 years for a couple of challenging centenarian projects, and the temperature of the Automotive Lake of Fire—conveniently located between the junkyard that always closes five minutes before you show up and the parts store whose counter guys have never heard of your make of car—accordingly rose another few hundred degrees. This week, we've decided to go with the kind of vehicles you'll want when society collapses and "rugged individualists" will need to drive many miles down a road of skulls and broken whiskey bottles to barter rat pelts for handy Clovis points. That's right, simple off-road trucks with few moving parts and a heritage of simplicity—none of this complicated computerized crap, modern alloys and independent suspension (at either end) here, just a steel box with enough running gear to make it move.