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

Ellesmere Port's bid to build Ampera hits snags

By Rob Golding Motor Industry 09 October 2009 15:02 Prime minister Gordon Brown’s personal crusade to get Vauxhall's version of the Chevrolet Volt petrol-electric plug-in hybrid – the Ampera – built in Britain's Ellesmere Port factory in 2012 is a dream delayed, CAR can disclose today.News that the UK Astra plant is the best in Europe, that the Astra's Delta platform will underpin the Ampera, and that Volt will be on US sale from 2010 had been taken to mean that Vauxhall would be churning out the cars in the north west within three years.But the prospect of an electric car industry growing up around the run-down Merseyside manufacturing site is not imminent, CAR has learned.'No Ampera to be built in Europe before 2015'Vauxhall insiders have made it clear that the car to be known as the Vauxhall/Opel Ampera in Europe will be an import from the US for at least five years. One senior planner told us: 'The US will be the sole source of Amperas until at least 2015.'Bob Lutz, GM's former product supremo who recently came out of retirement as a PR, said that the low value of the dollar made the US an ideal site for the manufacturing of export cars. And with forecast sticker prices of the range-extender electric car standing at a scary £35,000+, every price saving is vital to its marketability.The European market also needs time to get its electricity recharge infrastructure in place before it is worth making cars onshore in volume, GM high-ups point out.

Lamborghini Estoque: the interior photos

By Chris Chilton (photos by Radovan Varicak) First Official Pictures 14 October 2008 09:33 These are our first pictures inside the Lamborghini Estoque's cabin – and they show what drivers might expect in the cabin of a Lambo saloon in three years’ time if this Paris motor show concept gets the green light. Swathed in cream leather, the Estoque’s interior is dominated by a huge transmission tunnel that divides the cockpit into four individual zones, each with its own bucket seat. There’s a razor-sharp, angular theme at work in the cabin: even the column stalks are hexagonal.

Tesla Model S Alpha – the Video

Tesla Model S Alpha It would seem that Tesla is still very much a Silicon Valley Company at heart, rather than a car maker. Can you imagine any other car company revealing an ‘Alpha’ car? That’s Alpha in the sense of ‘Not quite Beta’, rather than ‘Alpha – I’m the best’.