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

Race2Recovery starts new Dakar challenge

A TEAM of disabled ex-soldiers has arrived in South America to take on this year’s Dakar rally, known as the toughest motoring challenge on the planet. Race2Recovery, the team of severely injured servicemen and civilian volunteers, is taking a second shot at the Dakar after last year becoming the first all-disabled team in history to complete it. This year the 5,600-mile course travels through Argentina and Chile, crossing the Andes mountain range and the Atacama Desert, where temperatures are expected to top 40 degrees Celsius.

2012 BMW X1 Facelift at New York Show

2012 BMW X1 Facelift The still quite new BMW X1 is getting a minor facelift for 2012 and will debut at the New York Auto Show. It’s really only a couple of years since the debut of the BMW X1, but BMW are already giving it a tweak and a titivate in a 2012 facelift designed, it would seem, to make the compact SUV seem a bit more upmarket; more in line with the rest of the BMW range. Revealed ahead of a debut at the New York Auto Show this month – after which it goes on sale in the US from $31.5k – the latest version of the X1 gets a new front bumper and grill with silver bars, deeper recessed fogs and silver detailing in the lower bumper to give the nose of the X1 more identity and make it a but more urban-warrior trendy.

Concept Car of the Week: Citroën C-Airdream

In the 1990s and early 2000s one of the most charismatic, brave and forward-thinking car makers, Citroën, had been reduced to the maker of budget, mainstream Euro boxes such as the Saxo and Xsara. The company hinted at its intentions to break free from its mundane existence as the maker of line-of-least-resistance rental cars with its Lignage concept in 1999 that harked back to its past large sedans, especially the CX. But it was at the 2002 Paris motor show that Citroën put a stake in the ground with its fabulously avantgarde Citroën C-Airdream concept.