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

Kia preparing a range of sporting models

Kia is quietly readying a string of sportier models to pep up its humdrum image, CAR has learned. The burgeoning sports car plan is likely to sire everything from hot hatches to standalone sports cars. On our trip to Korea this week, sources at Kia HQ confirmed a range of performance models, designed to mix some excitement into a brand that now commands respect from mainstream buyers after its crawl upmarket to the volume market alongside Europe's mass-market brands.

Jaguar XF: 2.2 Diesel XF embarks on U.S. road trip

Jaguar XF: 2.2 Diesel - off to show the US how frugal it is We did wonder why Jaguar chose to launch the new XF 2.2 Diesel at the New York Motor Show in the Spring. After all, Americans aren’t exactly the biggest lovers of oil-burning engines. But it looks like Jaguar are planning to change their minds about the virtues of running a diesel-engined luxury car.

Early cars, fashion on display at the Petersen

Automotivated, a new exhibit at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles, traces the evolution of clothes worn in cars--from the bulky circus-tent stuff people had to wear to keep from freezing to death in the jangly, open-topped conveyances of 100 years ago, up to the height of the European Concours in the 1920s and '30s, when what you and your date wore was just as important to winning best of show as the styling of your Delahaye/Delage/Talbot Lago. “In the earliest days of the automobile, you were sitting on the car, you weren't sitting in it,” said Leslie Kendall, curator at the Petersen. So the first section of the exhibit shows people (mannequins dressed as people) in heavy, practical overcoats, scarves and goggles.