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

D-day for General Motors: GM files for bankruptcy

By Tim Pollard Motor Industry 02 June 2009 06:57 General Motors today faces the humiliation of collapsing into bankruptcy. It marks the 1 June deadline imposed by US president Barack Obama for the General to sort out its business – or seek protection from creditors in the bankruptcy courts. As we’re all too painfully aware, GM has been unable to perform miracles, triggering one of the greatest industrial collapses seen in American corporate history.

Nissan's senior manager color and design strategy Francois Farion on the importance of objects in keeping focus [w/Video]

Nissan's Francois Farion, senior manager, color and design strategy, features in a new video giving an insight into how important objects are to designers when communicating, defining and maintaining their design intentions. A lot of time and energy goes into designing a car and so, Farion says, it's vital that designers keep their focus throughout the process. He believes objects are the key to creating coherent designs.

BMW Megacity Vehicle (MCV)

BMW's Project i – an internal codename for a possible sub-brand dedicated to green urban driving – has been in the works for some time. The Vision EfficientDynamics concept, unveiled at the 2009 Frankfurt Show, showcased some of the lightweight technological advances and design thinking behind the forthcoming zero-emission cars. Recently the firm held a Project i event, where it released teaser sketches of the first vehicle to result from the project, the Megacity Vehicle (MCV) – a four-seater electric car with a rear-mounted engine and rear wheel drive.