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

Seeing and being seen are keys to winter-driving safety

It's that time of the year when we here at AutoWeek feel duty-bound to give you a primer on winter-driving safety. We are compelled to tell you to steer in the direction of the skid, to stock emergency supplies in your trunk, to make sure your car is shod with the proper rubber to get you through the season. But winter brings more than snow, ice and cold.

Porsche 911 cabriolet: First official photographs

Porsche has developed an innovative fabric and composite-plastic folding roof for the 911 cabriolet as part of a push to give it a cleaner appearance, improved aerodynamic efficiency and greater levels of refinement than its strong-selling predecessor. Pictured here officially for the first time ahead of its world premiere in January at the Detroit auto show, the new open-top 911 is planned to go on sale in North America in 2012 in Carrera cabriolet and Carrera S models. Eschewing the traditional multilayered fabric structure of the 997 series 911 cabriolet, the next model (991 series) adopts a specially developed lightweight roof that uses two fabric-skinned composite plastic panels for the upper and rear part of the structure, giving it a more uniform shape together with a tauter fit that is claimed to make it more resistant than before to buffeting at high speeds.

First look: 2014 BMW M3 and M4

The BMW M3 is back, faster and more powerful than ever before -- but only as a four-door sedan. For its iconic 3-series-based performance model, BMW will dispense with a 26-year tradition of high-revving naturally aspirated engines in lieu of turbocharged six-cylinder power. Revealed here in production-car guise for the first time, the new 425-hp M3 sedan will be joined at the outset by its sister model, the M4 -- a mechanically identical but stylistically sleeker two-door coupe previewed in lightly veiled concept-car form at the Pebble Beach concours in California last August.