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

Early cars, fashion on display at the Petersen

Automotivated, a new exhibit at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles, traces the evolution of clothes worn in cars--from the bulky circus-tent stuff people had to wear to keep from freezing to death in the jangly, open-topped conveyances of 100 years ago, up to the height of the European Concours in the 1920s and '30s, when what you and your date wore was just as important to winning best of show as the styling of your Delahaye/Delage/Talbot Lago. “In the earliest days of the automobile, you were sitting on the car, you weren't sitting in it,” said Leslie Kendall, curator at the Petersen. So the first section of the exhibit shows people (mannequins dressed as people) in heavy, practical overcoats, scarves and goggles.

Teen-created PSAs combat distracted driving

Two widely held assumptions about 21st-century American teenagers is that they're too busy with their smartphones to have any interest in cars and that any who manage to find their way behind the wheel are too distracted to drive safely anyway. These generalizations are broad, unfair and perhaps even counterproductive -- yet they're reinforced every time distracted driving leads to a preventable tragedy. That's why we were glad to see young drivers take action by creating a series of anti-distracted-driving public safety announcements for the Teens Drive Smart Video Contest.

Honda fires new F1 engine for first time

EVEN BEFORE the 2013 Formula 1 season has ended preparations and development are already well under way for next year, especially so because of a radical change to the rules. From 2014 all cars will be powered by small 1.6-litre turbocharged V6 engines, signalling the end of the current 2.4-litre non-turbocharged V8 engines, bringing them closer in basic layout - if not output - to normal road car engines. For Honda 2015 is a return to the sport in partnership with McLaren, and the Japanese firm's engines will power the 2015 McLaren challenger.