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

Road drainage problems increasing

ROAD DRAINAGE during the mid-summer heatwave was no better than in the early-year floods, according to 40% of drivers. A further 9% said drainage in June was even worse than during the winter downpours, the AA/Populus survey of more than 18,000 AA members showed. Most dissatisfaction with the state of the roads in mid-summer was shown by drivers in Yorkshire and Humberside, with 46% of them reckoning drainage was no better than during the winter.

125th Anniversary of the Automobile: Karl Benz and Gottlieb Daimler put the world on wheels

The world will mark the 125th anniversary of the invention of the automobile on Jan. 29. Karl Benz filed a patent for a three-wheeled vehicle driven by a gasoline engine in Mannheim, Germany, on that day in 1886, the same year Gottlieb Daimler completed his motorized carriage in Cannstatt, Germany.

Volvo V60 Plug-in Hybrid: Production underway

The world’s first production plug-in diesel hybrid – the Volvo V60 Plug-in Hybrid – has gone in to production ahead of customer deliveries. Volvo are producing just 1,000 2013 V60 plug-ins, but are aiming to up production to between 4-6,000 a year from the 2014 model year and, despite the problems of integrating the V60′s complicated electric stuff in to a production car, the V60 plug-in is rolling down the same production line as the regular V60, V70, S80 and XC90. That complicated stuff includes two different powertrains and a battery pack – enough for up to 32 miles as an EV only – and a total of 300 additional parts compared to a regular ICE V60.