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

New Mercedes A45 AMG has 105 years of 4WD on its side

With the new Mercedes A45 AMG on the horizon – complete with 4WD – Mercedes chart the history of all wheel drive on their vehicles. We tend to think of 4WD road cars as a modern innovation, and certainly very few 4WD road cars hit the road in a mainstream way much before the 1980s (the Jensen FF was hardly mainstream before someone points out that was in the 1960s). But the history of 4WD goes back, certainly in the case of Mercedes, a surprising 105 years when Daimler built the Dernburg-Wagen, a 4WD vehicle that not only got all-wheel drive but all wheel steering too.

Tour of quake zone shows Akio Toyoda 'the depth of destruction'

Toyota Motor Corp. President Akio Toyoda toured Japan's earthquake disaster zone, including the damaged assembly plant opened there in January, as the world's largest automaker struggles to get a grip on the supplier crisis and resume production. Toyoda's trip on Sunday and Monday took him to Miyagi prefecture, near the epicenter of the killer March 11 quake and an area being positioned by Toyota as its domestic center for small car production.

New pictures: Audi A2 concept

Audi is set to give its A2 concept a public debut alongside its Urban concept at this year's Frankfurt motor show in the manufacturer's latest exploration of electric mobility. The A2 concept study revolves around the concept of space, with the vehicle having been developed with plenty of room for four people even with the car being 3800mm long, 1690mm wide and 1490mm high. The car is very much designed to impress aesthetically as well as improving the company's green credentials.