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

BMW M3 and M4 on track, on video ahead of Detroit debut

The new BMW M3 and M4 on track at the Nurburgring The next instalment for the new BMW 3 and 4 Series is the arrival of the new range-topping, benchmark-setting BMW m3 and M4 at Detroit in January. Ahead of that, BMW has already given us plenty of the specs for both the 2014 M3 and M4. They include the arrival of a new 3.0 litre turbo engine for the M3 and M4 offering 424bhp and 369lb/ft of torque – more than the old 4.0 litre petrol could muster – attached to a manual gearbox as standard with a tweaked seven-speed dual-clutch auto as an option.

SoCal Speed shop wins AMBR award as hod-rodding returns to its roots

In a competition that "took hot-rodding back to its SoCal roots," the SoCal Speed Shop--the entity founded by original hot-rod hero Alex Xydias and now helmed by Pete Chapouris--finally won the AMBR. That's AMBR, as in, America's Most Beautiful Roadster, the most sought-after title in all of hot-rodding and the crowning glory of the Grand National Roadster Show. There is that competition at the Detroit Autorama that hands out the Ridler Award, but that is open to all manner of kustom kars.

Why we won't be running CDNLive coverage from the Beijing motor show

Over the last couple of years we've grown our CDNLive motor show coverage from the world's most important motor shows, in an effort to bring you closer to all the new cars and news as well as highlighting some of the things you might miss. It's one of our the key content streams that we feel sets us apart from the deluge of auto show coverage. However as you can imagine it also takes a huge amount of time and effort, not to mention a good internet connection.