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

First Sight: Mercedes-Benz SL

The new high-tech, low weight Mercedes SL roadster receives its official global unveil next week in Detroit but Car Design News got an early peek of the final production car and had a chat with its designers at Mercedes' US advanced design studio in Carlsbad, California back in November. "We want to get back to clean, long-lasting design," director of Mercedes global advanced design and SL project leader, Steffen Kohl told CDN at the exclusive preview of the sixth-generation model. "So the new SL is long, sleek and still full of tension in the feature lines but less wedgy." In a short presentation Kohl felt all SLs became successfully iconic in their times because they followed two key rules – ‘sensuality' and ‘cleanness' – but alluded that the first rule may have been lost in more recent eras.

Ford Focus goes SEMA mad

A total of seven Ford Focus at the 2011 SEMA Show There’s nothing American petrolheads (perhaps we should say gearheads) like more than tarting up a car. Which explains why the relatively sensible Ford Focus is being pimped to within an inch of its life for this year’s SEMA show. The SEMA Motor Show is a trade-only gathering – despite which it gets around 50k visitors – which the organisers call the “premier automotive specialty products trade event – in the world.” It attracts trade visitors from across the globe to see parts, tools and components and the ‘SEMA’ special cars brought along by car makers and car modifiers.

Audi Q3: Production starts in Spain

Audi Q3 - production has started in Spain The Audi Q3 is the latest niche-filler from Audi, another soft-roader to mop up the seemingly endless queue of buyers wanting something high-riding and rufty-tufty. And if that high-riding something that’s a little rufty-tufty just happens to have a decent badge attached and comes complete with plenty of grown-up toys, so much the better. Which is why Audi has high expectations of its new Q3, with the SEAT plant in Martorell, Spain gearing up to churn out as many as 100,000 Q3s a year.