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

Porsche 911 GT3 R Hybrid (2011) first official pictures

Porsche has released details of its updated 911 GT3 R Hybrid – the 2010 original nearly won last year's Nurburgring 24hr race before (ironically) it retired with petrol engine failure.  The 2011 Porsche 911 GT3 R Hybrid – the lowdown Before this report disappears in a chorus of ‘it looks the same as last year’s one’, let's outline where Porsche’s engineers have been busy. At the unfashionable end of the car remains a 4.0-litre flat-six engine producing approximately 470bhp. Up front are twin electric motors, now producing 75kW of power each (up from 60kW) and combined these give the GT3 R Hybrid a 197bhp electric boost, which can be programmed to activate automatically via the throttle pedal, or manually selected during overtaking. F1-derived hybrid tech for the 911 GT3 R Hybrid Power for the two electric motors doesn't come from batteries, but flywheel accumulator technology from Williams Hybrid Power, an offshoot of the Williams Formula 1 team. The flywheel, encased in a carbonfibre safety cell in the space where the passenger seat would be, spins at up to 40,000rpm and acts as a mechanical energy store for the electric motors. Regenerative braking feeds energy back into the flywheel system – no surprises there, as the technology is derived from Williams' exeprience with Kinetic Energy Recovery Systems (KERS) in F1.

Drivers 'still prefer printed maps'

MOST motorists still prefer printed maps when planning car journeys, according to an AA/Populus survey. Older drivers are the least happy with sat-nav, with only 9% of over-65s ditching printed maps altogether. Overall, 63% of the 23,824 drivers polled have used a printed map in the last six months, while 60% have used an in-car sat nav.

Aston Martin V8 Vantage S launches

The Aston Martin V8 Vantage S - available as Coupe or Roadster The Aston Martin V8 Vantage S has launched with an extra 10bhp over the regular V8. Just 10bhp more than the regular V8 doesn’t sound a lot, but there is more than just a smidge of extra power to the V8 Vantage S. The extra 10bhp the V8 Vantage S gets is tweaked from the regular Aston Martin V8 Vantage, but there’s also an extra 15lb/ft of torque.