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

Aston Martin, AMG ink technical partnership deal

It's hard to remember that the VH-platform Aston Martins were pretty mind-bending when they came out. Since the sports-luxury marque was cut loose from Ford's stewardship six years ago, the British manufacturer has seemed a bit adrift, largely playing with variations on a theme, save for the rather radical One-77. It is, of course, a very pretty theme, but the basic design language begun with the DB9 is now a decade old.

Film Friday: 'Head On' pits a 1938 Chevy against a mighty locomotive

The train is, in many ways, the enemy of the automobile. We're not even getting philosophical about personal transportation versus mass transit or diving into disputes over whether to fund interstates or railways: Trains are simply bigger and heavier than even the bulkiest of cars, and they're quite happy to turn any vehicle that happens to be parked on their tracks into scrap-metal pancakes without slowing down. It's physics, people.

Big Three Truck Premieres

Once just a local agricultural fair, the State Fair of Texas, Dallas, has now become the launch platform of choice for automobile manufacturers to present new trucks. Texas is an immense market for pickup trucks and this year, the Detroit Three were there, along with Toyota, to present world premieres. And for the auto executives that make the trip down, the Texas Fair is surely the easiest assignment they will get each year: people in Texas like full size trucks and buy them as personal vehicles not because they need their capacity but rather because "it's Texas here, y'know".