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

Studio Focus: SAIC European Design Centre

SAIC European Design Centre Brands MG and Roewe Established 2010 (in current guise) Location Longbridge, UK Staff 35 Studio leader Martin Uhlarik SAIC's presence in Europe is limited at best through its MG brand, but if its sales are almost exclusively concentrated in its home Chinese market currently, MG's design roots are firmly planted in its spiritual British soil. All current Morris Garages cars – the MG6, 3 and 5 (in chronological order) as well as the CS concept shown at the Shanghai motor show in April – are products of SAIC's European Design Centre in Longbridge, near Birmingham in the English midlands, albeit finalized in Shanghai. The studio was opened in 2010 after a £5million investment in SAIC's UK Technical Centre but such are the ambitions of the company that it has already received a further £1.5million investment to almost double its size.

Schreyer: Cross GT is a sign of things to come

Peter Schreyer, Kia's president and global design boss, makes no bones about it--the Cross GT is a harbinger of future style for the Korean company's large crossovers. "You'll certainly see things showing up," he told me at the Chicago auto show, where the concept was revealed. It's a large ute, measuring 192.8 inches, which is 8.4 inches longer than the Sorento.

2012 Ford Focus

Ford revealed the all-new third generation Focus at the Detroit auto show last week. The C-segment vehicle is the latest evolution of the Ford kinetic design form language that has been developed by the team at the company's Merkenich design center near Cologne in Germany, under the leadership of executive design director Martin Smith. With a more dynamic form language bringing the vehicle in line with its smaller (Fiesta) and larger (Mondeo) siblings, the new Focus has been engineered to meet all customer and legislative requirements of the major worldwide markets.