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

KTM's four-wheeled future

By Ben Purvis Motor Industry 25 February 2008 11:26 KTM's X-Bow track day car is just the start of a five-model line-up that will include Dakar and Le Mans endurance racers. Stefan Pierer, the youthful-looking 51 year-old CEO of KTM, has revealed to CAR how he intends to turn his company into the Austrian equivalent of Lotus. The unveiling of the production version of the Audi-engined, carbon-monocoque X-Bow at the Geneva Motor Show on March 4 2008 is exactly one year on from the first showing of the prototype.

New 2013 Nissan Note gets more appealing

The new Nissan Note has turned in to a Ford Fiesta basher as Nissan turn the Note from a boring little MPV in to a convincing small hatch. We did think the Invitation would be watered down to produce a slightly titivated new Note for production, but much of the style has found its way through in to the new Note – which we first saw in the JDM Nissan Note last summer – and the Note now looks set to take on proper compact hatches like the Ford Fiesta. The nose of the new Note is now more convincing – with new headlights and grill – and the doors get a great big feature crease that looks like a giant smoothing iron has stamped its mark, although Nissan say it’s a ‘Squash Line’  whose ‘angles were inspired by the flight of a fast moving squash ball travelling around a court’.

Has the McLaren P1 lapped the Nurburgring in a record 6 minutes 47 seconds?

Has the McLaren P1 lapped the Nurburgring in a record 6 minutes 47 seconds? We knew McLaren were back at the Nurburgring with the P1 in an attempt to make good on Ron Dennis’s promise that the P1 would lap the ‘Ring in under 7 minutes. It appears McLaren has already tried to set a sub-7 minute time with the P1 but could only manage 7:04s so, with the firts P1s now in customer hands – and full performance specs revealed – the final piece of the jigsaw (apart form a Top Gear lap record) is to set a great time at the Nurburgring.