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

2012 Mercedes A-Class AMG to get 350bhp & 4WD

Mercedes Concept-A gets unveiled in Shanghai It’s rather hard to imagine the current Mercedes A-Class coming with 350bhp running through its front wheels. It may have managed to pass the Elk test to make it safe, but 350bhp would be enough to tear the steering wheel from your hands and roll you over in a brisk bend. But this isn’t the current A-Class we’re talking about, but the 2012 Mercedes A-Class based on the very fine-looking Mercedes Concept-A we reported a couple of weeks ago, and which bowed in at Shanghai this week.

Kia Track'ster (2012) first official pictures

After all the pre-launch teasing, Kia today slid the covers off the new Track'ster at the 2012 Chicago auto show. It's a slammed, hot hatch vision of what the Kia Soul could become, were the Koreans brave enough to battle it out among the VW Golf GTIs and forthcoming Polo R pocket rockets. Conceived at Kia's Californian design studio, the Track'ster is designed as a road and track car.

Local Motors 'Design Our Car' competition opens

Local Motors has opened its first-ever ‘Design Our Car' competition, which encourages collaboration within the manufacturing community. The open-source automaker is providing two of its Rally Fighter cars, one of which will be built at the company's micro-factory in Arizona while the other will be built live in the Emerging Technology Center at September's International Manufacturing Technology Show (IMTS) in Chicago. Ideas from the design and engineering community are being sought to help design and select a skin for the Rally Fighter that will be built by the Local Motors team this spring.