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

Megane Renaultsport 265 Trophy grabs Nurburgring Record

Megane Renaultsport 265 Trophy and the Nurburgring crew First we get the news that Renault has pushed out a limited edition Megane Renaulsport – the Megane Renaulsport 265 Trophy with a slightly tweaked and titivated version of the Megane Renaultsport 250 – and now we get the follow-up publicity with the claim of a new Nurburgring record for the brisk Megane. This isn’t a record that’s quite as daft as some of the records that are claimed for the Nurburgring (there almost seems to be a specific category of ‘Record’ time to fit every car maker’s needs), but it does seem a bit obscure. It’s the Nurburgring record for the fastest production front wheel drive car.

UK new car registrations up again in July

New car registrations in the UK have risen for the fifth month running, with a total of 143,884 new cars registered in July 2012. The UK is continuing to buck the European trend with new car registrations up by 9.3 per cent in July (2102) to 143,884 according to new figures released by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT). That figure is the largest sales volume of 2012 and is the fifth month in a row that new car registrations have risen, despite economic woes and the Eurozone crisis, and brings registrations in 2012 to 1,201,564 so far, leading the SMMT to increase their prediction for 2012 sales upwards to 1.97 million.

GM closes UK Advanced Design Studio

CDN has learnt that General Motors is closing its UK Advanced Design Studio as part of its ongoing restructuring program. Clay Dean, GM's executive director of advanced global design and Cadillac's brand director, arrived at the studio on 4 August to announce the closure to staff. The UK studio, which opened in 1999, was predominantly involved in the creation of Cadillac concept cars and was originally planned to be a short-term confidential operation as the smallest of GM's design studios.