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

German new car sales drop 11 per cent – pre-reg accounts for 33.5 per cent

New car sales in Germany dropped by 11 per cent in September with pre-reg cars accounting for over a third of all sales. That drop of 11 per cent in Germany is despite deep discount offers – an average of 12.2 per cent in September – with even the previously invincible Mercedes and VW having to offer discounts of up to €3k, despite which VW’s sales fell by 20 per cent in Germany and Mercedes by 12 per cent. What’s perhaps most interesting about the decline in car sales in Germany is the number of pre-reg cars sold (pre reg cars are cars registered by dealers to hit sales targets and then sold at a discount of up to 25 per cent).

New Lotus Elise S Cup R track car

Seems everyone is building non-road legal track day cars right now, and Lotus most definitely wants a piece of that action. Its latest effort is the startling bright and bewinged Elise S Cup R, pictured above. Based on the 1.8-litre supercharged Elise S road car, Lotus has done a lot more than simply lose the number plate here.

Frankfurt 2011: 2012 Subaru XV gets unveiled

2012 Subaru XV arrives on the Frankfurt stage We did moan – which we have been known to, from time to time – about the tease for the launch of the 2012 Subaru XV at Frankfurt. We moaned because we couldn’t see the point. We couldn’t see the point in Subaru teasing the XV with art photos, particularly when those photos showed a production XV which looked exactly like the concept XV.