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

To thwart speculators, Lexus will lease, not sell, 500 LFAs

Lexus has a plan to head off speculators when its limited-edition LFA sports car goes on sale in January 2011. The company will offer only two-year leases for the $375,000 two-seater, said Brian Smith, vice president of sales and dealer development for Lexus division. Lexus will hang on to the vehicle's title.

Jaguar Land Rover Special Operations division launches

Cars like the Jaguar F-Type Project 7 (pictured) will come from JLR’s Special Operations If the creation of the Jaguar Land Rover Special Operations division to create bespoke, heritage, ultra luxury and high performance Jaguar, Land Rover and Range Rover cars doesn’t shout how positive JLR are about the future, nothing will. Jaguar call it “meeting the increasing expectations of today’s most discerning and enthusiastic car customers“, but what they really mean is that JLR have now got so much back on their game with cars like the new Jaguar F-Type, new Range Rover and new Range Rover Sport that they now have buyers with deep enough pockets to pay for just about anything, so that’s what JLR are going to do with the Special Operations division; give them anything they want – at a price That will mean car like the Jaguar Project 7 F-Type we saw at Goodwood last year being possible, ultra-luxury versions of the Range Rover and even the creation of heritage cars like the new Lightweight E-Types could become a regular occurrence. With a team of engineers and and designers led by Paul Newsome, recently recruited from Williams Advance Engineering, the plan is to create halo vehicles for both the Jaguar and Land Rover brands, and a team of 150 at a new Technical Centre near Gaydon will have a customer commissioning suite for bespoke and premium personalisation.

Maybe Not So Absurd

The big luxury utes are coming, and I've been thinking about them quite a bit lately. In particular, I speak of the Bentley EXP 9 F, the Lamborghini Urus and the Maserati Kubang. At first glance they seem illogical; they're all imposing and, each in its own way, over the top.