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

Porsche Macan out playing in the desert ahead of an L.A. debut (video)

Porsche Macan (pictured) out playing in the desert ahead of an L.A. debut With Porche’s baby Cayenne – the new Porsche Macan – due to make its public debut in production guise at the Los Angeles Auto Show next month, Porsche has been busy building up interest in what should be their biggest seller in the years to come. There’s already a microsite for the Porsche Macan where Porsche has been busy teasing those who are interested with snippets of information and disguised photos, but now we get the Macan out frolicking on the sandy desert dunes in Dubai, the sort of video you’ll see from any car maker with a vehicle to show off that has off-road pretensions.

Tesla Model S Performance is the quickest electric car…in the world

A Tesla Model S Performance has set a world record as the fastest production electric car with a 1/4 mile run of just 12.371 seconds. Yes, we still believe – certainly with the current and prospective battery technology – that the only real use an electric car has is as a small urban runaround or a local deliver vehicle. But that doesn’t stop us being impressed by the Tesla Model S.

Volvo V40 Cross Country arrives

Volvo has revealed the 2013 V40 Cross Country, a new variant on the new V40, offering a more rugged option for the V40 range. We thought it was going to be the Volvo XC40 – denoting an SUV come crossover version of the new V40 – but Volvo has decided that their more rugged version of the V40 will take the Cross Country name - first used on the V70 in 1997 – and so we get the new Volvo V40 Cross Country. Following on from the new V40 R-Design, revealed last week, Volvo now offers a V40 they say is for ‘those who want a sense of adventure in their everyday life‘ – in other words, this is a slightly more rufty-tufty V40.