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

New Mercedes A45 AMG has 105 years of 4WD on its side

With the new Mercedes A45 AMG on the horizon – complete with 4WD – Mercedes chart the history of all wheel drive on their vehicles. We tend to think of 4WD road cars as a modern innovation, and certainly very few 4WD road cars hit the road in a mainstream way much before the 1980s (the Jensen FF was hardly mainstream before someone points out that was in the 1960s). But the history of 4WD goes back, certainly in the case of Mercedes, a surprising 105 years when Daimler built the Dernburg-Wagen, a 4WD vehicle that not only got all-wheel drive but all wheel steering too.

Dodge debuts new emblem

With Ram and Dodge going their separate ways, the Ram brand is keeping the distinctive ram's horns logo that adorned Dodge vehicles. That left the Dodge brand to search for a new symbol as it tries to reinvent itself as a sporty, youth-oriented brand -- without pickups. So Dodge CEO Ralph Gilles adopted the twin red slashes of Chrysler Group's performance cars, seen on SRTs and R/T models.

Concept Car of the Week: Peugeot Proxima (1986)

Presented at the 1986 Paris Motor Show, the Proxima concept was the ultimate vision of '80s futurism, both in terms of its design and engineering. To assert its blue-sky vision, Peugeot named its creation after Proxima Centauri, the closest star to the sun. The exterior design was directed by Gérard Welter, and featured a long wheelbase, mid-mounted engine and very small overhangs, putting the accent on power and performance.