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

'Smartest' UK drivers revealed

DRIVERS aged 50-65 from the Midlands have been judged to be Britain’s 'smartest' – displaying the most fuel efficient and safe driving behaviours – while people aged 18-30 from Wales and the South West are more like driving dunces, new research claims. Youngsters in the north of England are the nation’s smartest young drivers, but overall older drivers reign supreme on the road. The Shell FuelSave Smarter Driving research ranked young (aged 18-30) and older motorists (aged 50-65) on their ‘smart’ and ‘not-smart’ driving behaviours towards fuel efficiency and safety – everything from smooth driving to wearing appropriate footwear behind the wheel.

2011 BMW 5-series: Bavaria's midsize sedan takes cues from bigger 7-series brother

BMW's appetite for controversial design may have waned since the heights of former design boss Chris Bangle's oft-derided flame surfacing stratagem. But it shows no sign of fading completely, as we see in the first official photographs of the new sixth-generation 5-series, which goes on sale in North America by mid-2010. Codenamed F10, BMW's midsize sedan is restyled and reengineered in a bid to keep it ahead of key rivals such as the recently renewed Mercedes-Benz E-class and the Audi A6.

Zaha Hadid Z-car concept

Zaha Hadid is an Iraq-born and London-based architect, who became the first female recipient of the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 2004. Her ambitious buildings have earned her much acclaim, and having designed the latest BMW factory, Hadid has now turned her sights on cars with the unveiling of the Z-car concept. Not to be confused with the similarly titled Nissan/Datsun, Hadid?s Z-car is a small plastic-bodied monocoque with a prominent lifting door.