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

One Lap of the Web: The Talented Mr. Honda, electric airplanes and Viper-powered Jensens

We spend a lot of time on the Internet -- pretty much whenever we're not driving, writing about or working on cars. Since there's more out there than we'd ever be able to cover, here's our daily digest of car stuff on the Web you may not otherwise have heard about. -- A blog post at Hemmings called our attention to this fascinating profile of Soichiro Honda, which was originally printed in the June 16, 1963 edition of the British newspaper The Observer.

Driven: BMW 6 Series convertible

Every large BMW coupe – from the E9 3.0 CS, through the shark-nosed E24 6 Series, Claus Luthe's beautiful E31 8 Series, right up to the outgoing, Bangle-era E63 6er – has had an exoticism beyond every other car in the brand's range. We drove the latest from the most southern point of Europe back to our London office to find out if it too is a truly Grand Tourer. Stepping off the 'plane in Gibraltar, greeted by a Deep Sea Blue 650i with Ivory White leather, 19-inch rims and Shadow Line exterior trim under the early summer Mediterranean sun, it's clear that the right colorway and a more appropriate setting certainly help the F12's cause after our disappointment with the car at its debut in Detroit earlier in the year.

Fiat Panda

Fiat is poised to reveal an all-new Panda, the third generation of the successful city car that has been a mainstay in the company's lineup or the last 31 years. The new Panda is an evolutionary design that Fiat claims has ‘reached full maturity'. By drawing inspiration from the most up-to-date trends, the design team has softened the overall look of the car, which measures in a 3650mm in length, 1640mm wide and 1550mm high.