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

Michelin Challenge Design competition celebrates 10 years

Michelin has released a short video documenting the last ten years of the Challenge Design competition. With excepts from jury members Freeman Thomas, Director of Advanced Design at Ford; Victor Nacif, VP of Design at Nissan Design Europe; Geza Loczi, Director of Design at Volvo Monitoring Concept Center; Dave Marek, Advanced Design Director for Honda North America; Steward Reed, Chair of Transportation Design at ACCD; Frank Saucedo, Design Director of GM's Advanced Design Studio in California and Chris Chapman of BMW Designworks USA, the video outlines some of the 2700 entries Michelin has received since the competition's inception in 2002. That year, the MCD display at the NAIAS in Detroit featured cars from European design houses.

Mercury dies off, Lincoln to benefit

Ford's brand portfolio is set to get smaller by the end of the year. Following the sale of Aston Martin, Land Rover, Jaguar and most recently Volvo (to Chinese automaker Geely), the Blue Oval has now announced the demise of its 'middle of the range' Mercury brand, with production of the last vehicles set to cease at the end of 2010. In a statement released to media, Ford announced that the shuttering of the 71-year old Mercury brand was in the interest of focusing on Lincoln, the automaker's only remaining premium brand.

One Lap of the Web: Lambrecht cars, drifting red Italian cars, and lost east German cars

-- The Lambrecht Chevrolet sale is this weekend, and VanDerBrink auction house has posted some more walkaround videos of the lots. Check out this video which highlights some of the trucks and sedans, most of them with delivery mileage. -- Here's an interesting car that sold on eBay last week and attracted quite a bit of attention on Bringatrailer.com: a 1975 Peugeot 604 that was brought into the U.S.