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

E3: Defending the Earth, one zombie at a time

If drooling space-alien mutants hell-bent on creating a pleasure planet of intergalactic zombie love muffins ever come to Earth to steal our women, know that an entire generation of 18-to-24-year-old male gamers stands ready to defend us. So rest assured. We know this because we just spent most of a day at the opening of the Electronic Entertainment Expo, or E3 as it's known to those who stand ready with the chainsaws, bazookas and various industrial-strength bug zappers that will be needed should the inevitable happen.

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.

GMC Terrain

Making its public debut at the New York Auto Show, the Terrain is a compact SUV-crossover which fits in below the Acadia in the GMC model line-up. Featuring an overall length more than a foot shorter than the Acadia, the Terrain is laden with technology and boasts a multitude of functional storage compartments within its well-resolved exterior design. Read more about the new Terrain in our 2009 New York Auto Show Highlights.