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

Vauxhall Astra GTC gets new 1.6 litre ‘Whisper’ diesel – price from £22,260

The Vauxhall Astra GTC gets the new 1.6 litre CDTi Just like all major motor manufacturers, Vauxhall are busy improving their engine range with new, more efficient and more powerful lumps. One of Vauxhall’s major engine projects has been to get the old 1.7 litre CDTi out of its cars and replace it with their new ‘Whisper’ 1.6 litre CDTi. The first Vauxhall to get the new 1.6 CDTi was the Zafira Tourer in early 2013, and the latest is the Astra GTC.

Mazda to make 1,000 more copies of final RX-8

Wankel wankers, rejoice: The Mazda rotary engine has received a short stay of execution. Mazda is building 1,000 more RX-8 Spirit R models, and then the car is gone forever. Well, maybe not forever.

Umea Olme Spyder project

While Swedish automaker Saab was going through tumultuous times and Geely was in the process of buying Volvo from Ford, first year MA students in Transportation Design at Sweden's Umea Institute of Design were busy creating a one-off roadster for an independent car maker: the Olme Spyder. Created in collaboration with Ove Bengtsson, an engineer with a personal passion for building his own vehicles, the students were asked to design their own interpretation of a progressive and innovative roadster, developing the concept from a sketch into a full-scale model. Based on an Opel Agila donor car, the concept's 650kg steel monocoque chassis was created by Bengtsson himself to accommodate a mid-mounted engine.