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

Last 2013 MINI leaves the production line to make way for the new 2014 MINI

The last 2013 MINI rolls off MINI’s production line It’s only ten days since the all new 2014 MINI was revealed, but already production of the current MINI – launched in 2006 – has ended at MINI’s production plant in Oxford. It’s hard to believe, but the current generation of the MIN I has sold over 1 million around the globe in the seven years since it launched, and the BMW MINI – since its re-birth in 2001 – has shifted a grand total of 1,863,289 MINI hatches and 2.4 million MINIs have been built in Oxford since 2001. When the current, 2nd generation BMW MINI, was launched in 2006, it brought with it new turbocharged engines and suspension tweaks to make sure the then ‘new’ MINI continued to offer all the things that make MINI special, but in a more grow-up way.

Audi RS7 to lap Hockenheim – DRIVERLESS

Audi are taking an RS7 round Hockenheim completely autonomously Every car maker – from Mercedes to Volvo and Ford – is working hard to make autonomous driving a reality, and it looks like we’re just a few years away from seeing cars being driven by computers, with the driver relegated to passenger in many daily driving tasks. Now it’s Audi’s turn to demonstrate the progress they’re making with autonomous technology by taking an RS7 round the Grand Prix track at Hockenheim without a driver having control. It’s arguable that taking a driverless car round a track – even at race speed – is far less of a technological task than having a car running driverless through a cityscape with all its variables, but it’s an impressive demonstration nonetheless.

AutoWeek Design Forum: Audi studies details

Some say the devil is in the details, but the details are where Audi sets itself apart from the luxury field. Achim Badstuebner, Audi's head of exterior design, says the maker of sports and luxury cars is always focusing on small things--such as door handles, the C-pillars and its familiar five-spoke wheels--for design demeanor. "It should have the same power as that Audi DNA," he said on Thursday at the AutoWeek Design Forum.