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

Lexus Hybrid sales top half a million

Lexus has revealed that they’ve sold more than 500,000 hybrid cars, with the Rx 450h the top seller and the CT 200h catching fast. Unsurprisingly, as it was the first Lexus hybrid to be introduced in 2005, the biggest seller - accounting for half of all Lexus hybrid sales to date (259,000) – has been the RX 400h / RX 450h, but the CT 200h, which was only introduced in 2011, is catching up fast with sales to date of 122,000 to date. During the last seven years Lexus hybrid sales have risen from 26,000 to 113,000 a year and 25 per cent of those Lexus hybrid sales now happen in Europe, even though we don’t get cars like the HS 250h (56,000 sales) and the ES 300h (8,000 sales).

Citroen Cactus Concept heading for Frankfurt Motor Show

Citroen Cactus Concept tease It may be the teasing season for car makers as we head for the Frankfurt Motor Show, but Citroen are giving very little away in their tease for a new concept – the Citroen Cactus Concept. The Cactus Concept – a name used before by Citroen in 2007 for the C-Cactus Hybrid – shows what looks to be a compact car with some of the design features at the front we’ve seen on the new C4 Picasso. But with what looks to be chunky plastic cladding round the extremities of the Cactus, we’re guessing Citroen see the Cactus as some sort of small urban warrior, complete with bumpers that bounce back after supermarket trolley collisions with reference in the video to an ‘Air Bump’.

CAR interviews Mazda design chief Ikuo Maeda (2010)

By Tim Pollard Motor Industry 02 September 2010 13:30 CAR has been out to Italy to see the world premier of the new Mazda Shinari concept car. It's the car that ushers in chief designer Ikuo Maeda's new Kodo design mantra, a sharper, faster stylistic treatment that will take over from Laurens van den Acker's Nagare vision. Maeda is the first Japanese design boss for a generation – it seems that Mazda has looked within after a series of European creative brains who each stayed for five years or less, arguably not long enough to see through any substantial aesthetic change.