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

Audi Urban Future Awards

Audi has challenged six international architects to present their vision for a future urban landscape that will explore the interplay between mobility, architecture and the city. The winner of the Audi Urban Future Awards will receive a €100,000 prize to be presented at the Venice Biennale in August. Phase one has been completed, with the contestants presenting their hypothesis for the city of the future at the Royal Institute of British Architects in London in May.

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.

Toyota previews FT-Bh concept [w/video]

Toyota has released the first images along with a video for its new FT-Bh concept car, set to be unveiled at the Geneva motor show. The FT-Bh – Future Toyota B-segment hybrid – previews a production-destined car designed to maximize fuel efficiency and built using economically-viable construction methods and technologies. The five principal factors that the Toyota's designers have focused on are reducing the car's weight (just 800kg), increasing its aerodynamic performance as well as its powertrain efficiency via thermal energy management and electricity saving qualities.