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

Bedford Autodrome to get Ariel Atoms for 2012

Corporate track-days at the Bedford Autodrome will get lairier in 2012 - Somerset-based Ariel has announced it’ll supply ten cars for the PalmerSport track-day events next year. Stopping short of the unhinged Atom V8, the PalmerSport-spec cars get the normally aspirated 245bhp Civic Type-R engine, and some key changes to set it aside from the Joe-Public Atom. The Palmer-spec car will get a Sadev paddle-shift sequential gearbox, which swaps ratios in 60 milliseconds, whilst some choice chassis mods optimise the Atom for its full-time track-toy brief.

New Small Jaguar – Not before 2016

New Small Jaguar - but not before a new XF We’ve discussed the replacement for the Jaguar X-Type – dubbed the New Small Jaguar – almost endlessly over the last year or two. Which with both the Jaguar XF and the Jaguar XJ replacing cars that were good but really didn’t sell, and turning them in to contenders for the top-spot in their sectors, a replacement for the X-Type is of huge interest. We had thought – in fact Jaguar had thought – that the plan  to replace the X-Type was a high priority.

Gorden Wagener on how Mercedes is "moving from a traditional luxury brand to a modern luxury brand"

Mercedes' 'home' design studio in Sindelfingen, Germany is housed in an expansive 30,000-square meter building designed by Renzo Piano. The lobby is unassuming, but we're soon through into what Mercedes' grandly calls 'the Vision Room.' It's here that strategic meetings are held with the firm's board, and where we meet Gorden Wagener, Mercedes' head of design since 2008. It's in the Vision Room that Wagener convinced the Mercedes board of the merits of his overarching design philosophy: 'sensual purity'.