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

Welsh rugby star swaps the ruck for a truck

WALES international rugby star Scott Williams swapped his studs for driving shoes this week as the 2014 British Truck Racing Championship came to Pembrey Circuit. The Scarlets centre was given professional tuition before taking the wheel of the 1,200bhp 5.5-tonne tractor unit himself – and nearly ending up in the crash barriers. Despite his little off, Scott impressed his tutors and even did well enough to warrant a potential future in racing.

Ellesmere Port's bid to build Ampera hits snags

By Rob Golding Motor Industry 09 October 2009 15:02 Prime minister Gordon Brown’s personal crusade to get Vauxhall's version of the Chevrolet Volt petrol-electric plug-in hybrid – the Ampera – built in Britain's Ellesmere Port factory in 2012 is a dream delayed, CAR can disclose today.News that the UK Astra plant is the best in Europe, that the Astra's Delta platform will underpin the Ampera, and that Volt will be on US sale from 2010 had been taken to mean that Vauxhall would be churning out the cars in the north west within three years.But the prospect of an electric car industry growing up around the run-down Merseyside manufacturing site is not imminent, CAR has learned.'No Ampera to be built in Europe before 2015'Vauxhall insiders have made it clear that the car to be known as the Vauxhall/Opel Ampera in Europe will be an import from the US for at least five years. One senior planner told us: 'The US will be the sole source of Amperas until at least 2015.'Bob Lutz, GM's former product supremo who recently came out of retirement as a PR, said that the low value of the dollar made the US an ideal site for the manufacturing of export cars. And with forecast sticker prices of the range-extender electric car standing at a scary £35,000+, every price saving is vital to its marketability.The European market also needs time to get its electricity recharge infrastructure in place before it is worth making cars onshore in volume, GM high-ups point out.

Volkswagen Passat (2011): the American one

Volkswagen has unveiled the US version of the Passat at the 2011 Detroit auto show. VW’s European customers won’t be able to buy it, but will be interested in the price: despite being longer and wider than the car offered in Europe it will start from just £13,000 before taxes for a 168bhp five-cylinder petrol. The nearest petrol Passat costs £19,529 in the UK.