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

Jaguar Land Rover reports record sales and profits for 2012/2013

Jaguar Land Rover – record sales, revenue and profits Tata must be thanking their lucky stars they took a punt on Jaguar Land Rover 5 years ago when the rest of the car world thought they were a bit of a lost dog, because it’s now JLR that are the shining star in the Tata group, with Tata motor sales languishing in troubled waters. JLR has reported record figures for the 2012/2013 year, with vehicle sales hitting 374,636 (up 22 per cent), revenue up at £15.8 billion (up 17 per cent) and pre-tax profits at £1.675 billion (up 11 per cent) on the back of continuing success for all models – and especially the Evoque – and the launch of more new models to offer great promise for even better figures in 2013/2014. This models have included the new Range Rover, the Jaguar XF Sportbrake, new 4WD versions of the XJ and XF (although not for the UK) and new engine options too.

Merc to revive straight six, plus 4cyl and smaller V8s

Mercedes has just signed off a new engine family which will see most full-sized Mercs in future run four-cylinders, downsized V8s and… straight sixes. A friendly Mercedes engineer recently met CAR to disclose the engine plans for future models, including the surprise disclosure that Merc plans to switch to straight sixes, like its rivals over in Munich.  It's fair to say I almost choked on my breakfast croissant when I found out the details of the next MB engine generation which has just been signed off for release in 2015. Mercedes' future four-cylinder engines Again, there will be a family of new low-cost fours, and the big-bore V8s will be replaced by a series of downsized turbocharged 4.0-litre units.

Mercedes-Benz prototypes spotted

Modern technology makes it harder for automakers to hide their upcoming products from prying eyes. Take, for example, these images sent to us from Autoweek subscriber Jonathan Peters while he was in Utah. Peters speculates that what he saw was a gathering of a varied Mercedes-Benz cars being tested, along with cars from other carmakers for comparisons.