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

Concept Car of the Week: Nissan ARC-X (1987)

In the mid to late 1980s Japan's car industry was booming and with it its confidence. No longer satisfied with producing brilliantly engineered but worthy cars, Japanese manufacturers had ambitions of taking on the Europeans in the luxury market. Nissan made its intentions clear at the 1987 Tokyo motor show with the ARC-X concept.

Video: Chris Bangle delivers “Empowerment: Design without Designers” talk at Creative Mornings/London

Chris Bangle – the undisputed front man of car design – needs little introduction, so the prospect of the former BMW Design Director and now founder of Chris Bangle Associates giving a talk in our home town of London was too good to pass up. His presentation (which you can watch in full in the video to the left) touched on his time at BMW, but was more focused on the idea of empowering others to create: "design without you in the middle", as Bangle says. From the story of the co-creation of the staircase in his Italian studio to the idea of encouraging people to think about their culture when designing, his philosophies transcend disciplines.

2014 Chevrolet Spark EV rated at 119 mpg

General Motors says its Chevrolet Spark EV will get the equivalent of 119 mpg in combined city and highway driving, the best efficiency of any U.S. car sold to retail buyers. The 2014 Spark EV, which will be launched this summer in California and Oregon, will have an EPA-rated range of 82 miles when fully charged, GM said in a statement.