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

Toyota GT86 & Subaru BRZ getting Cosworth Performance upgrades (video)

Cosworth promise power upgrades for the FA 20 engine Ever since the Toyota GT86 and Subaru BRZ arrived as ‘affordable’ sports cars with a focus on the dynamics rather than outright power, there’s been endless claims and rumours that more power is on the way. As far back as 2011, Subaru in the US confirmed that a turbo version of the BRZ’s 2.0 litre FA20 Boxer engine was under development although, to be fair, they didn’t say it was actually heading for the BRZ. And just last year, Subaru teased what we thought could be a more powerful BRZ STI, but that turned out to be a BRZ tS with go faster bits but no more actual power.

Audi A6 allroad 3.0 TDI is the five millionth Audi with quattro 4WD

The first Audi qauttro hit the headlines in 1980 and now – 33 years later – Audi has produced its five millionth car with AWD – an A6 Allroad. It’s thirty years since Audi became the first mainstream car maker to offer a four wheel drive road car when the Audi quattro hit the road, offering a (certainly for then) fulsome 200PS with the added reassurance of four wheel drive for added grip. True, others had flirted with 4WD road cars before Audi made it mainstream, such as Jensen with the FF in the 1960s, but Audi’s bold move was a real first for a mainstream maker, even if the Audi quattro was not exactly an entry-level model.

Nissan Qashqai: UK 2011 changes

The Nissan Qashqai n-tec 2011 with its posh new alloys We reported last week on the changes revealed for the 2011 Nissan Qashqai in Japan (the Nissan Dualis), and speculated that some of these, and perhaps others, would spill over to the Nissan Qashqai in the UK and Europe. So it was no huge surprise to get an email from Nissan this morning detailing changes to the Qashqai for 2011 in the UK. Stop/Start turns up as an option for the first time on the 1.6 litre petrol Qashqais (for £200) which, if you can get in to the habit of sticking the car in neutral and foot off the clutch every time you grind to a halt in traffic, can yield decent fuel savings.