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

Car of the Year shortlist revealed

Shortlist for Car of the Year 2009 is announced today By Tim Pollard Motor Industry 02 October 2008 00:27 The European Car of the Year shortlist is announced today – and it looks like being a close-run battle this year. Take a look at the contenders below and have your say who should win by clicking 'Add your comment' at the foot of the story: Alfa Romeo MitoCitroen C5Ford FiestaOpel/Vauxhall InsigniaRenault MeganeSkoda SuperbVW GolfThat means that numerous contenders have fallen by the wayside; BMW's new 7-series, the Ford Kuga, Jaguar XF and VW Scirocco were deemed unworthy by the jury of top-flight journos from around Europe.And this year, CAR has its jury place back – editor Phil McNamara is now one of the UK's handful of judges for Car of the Year.

Peter Stevens and Julian Thomson lead a discussion on the past, present and future of car design

As part of its sponsorship of London's Clerkenwell Design Week, Jaguar and the Royal College of Art brought together three generations of the design school to discuss the past, present and possible future of car design. Held in a suitably grimy warehouse in east London – with the sculpture by RCA students Ewan Gallimore and Claire Mille's we showed you earlier this week sat outside – Professor Dale Harrow, dean of the School of Design and head of its Vehicle Design program introduced Professor Peter Stevens, Julian Thomson, Jaguar's advanced design director and Alexandra Palmowski project designer advanced colour and material at Jaguar took the audience through their careers. Charismatic as ever, Peter Stevens kicked off proceedings that moved chronologically through the decades by explaining how he first became interested in "the art if car design, allied to the science of how they work" through his artistic parents and uncle – journalist and motoring adventurer – Denis Jenkinson during the 1950s and 60s.

BMW i8 plug-in hybrid supercar is more economical than BMW thought

The BMW i8 does 134.5mpg on the official cycle. The production version of BMW’s plug-in hybrid supercar – the i8 – finally arrived at the Frankfurt Motor Show last year offering almost proper supercar price – £100k – along with an almost supercar 0-62mph of 4.4 seconds. What the i8 also offers is ridiculous economy figures thanks to its plug-in hybrid power (and thanks to the daft way official economy figures are calculated) and now, as the i8 gets ready to go in to full production, BMW has revealed that the official economy figures have just got dafter.