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

Crunch watch Mar 09: the auto industry in crisis

By Ben Pulman and Tim Pollard Motor Industry 31 March 2009 13:48 Tuesday 31 March 2009• Porsche said that its earnings before tax rose to €7.3 billion in the six months to the end of January – including a €6.8bn windfall from its VW share options (Financial Times)• Fritz Henderson, GM's president and chief operating officer, will step up to replace Rick Wagoner, who was ousted on Sunday as CEO of General Motors (Financial Times)• President Obama is essentially CEO-in-chief of GM – despite not owning a single cent of stock, says Detroit News commentator (Detroit News)• German chancellor Angela Merkel gives assurances that any would-be investors in GM's European arm will be given state support. Opel is asking for €3.3 billion in aid – and up to 25,000 jobs in Germany depend on it, with up to 300,000 jobs across Europe including Saab and Vauxhall (BBC News)Monday 30 March 2009• General Motors' chief executive Rick Wagoner has been ordered to resign by US president Barack Obama with immediate effect. It's part of Obama's administration's critique of GM and Chrysler's turnaround plans – he's understood to be unhappy with the plans submitted (BBC News)• New GM non-executive chairman Kent Kresa has admitted that at the company's next general meeting it will have 'a majority of new directors' (General Motors)• Chrysler will receive US government aid for the next 30 days, but the Obama administration has said that if the company cannot secure a tie-up with the Fiat Group within that time period it will not receive any more money from the taxpayers and could go into liquidation.

Professional designers create US icons of tomorrow on CCS' Cultural Immersion Workshop

This year's College of Creative Studies' Cultural Immersion Workshop saw 10 design professionals from Asia – seven of which had never been Stateside before – tour the Midwest on a cultural exploration mission as they sought to provide a fresh perspective on American car culture... in just 27 days. This trip provided the foundation for the innovative concepts that were unveiled at the college on 16 August.

Mercedes SLS AMG E-Cell – First prototype

The subtly painted Mercedes SLS AMG E-Cell Prototype We called it the Mercedes SLS AMG eDrive when we first talked about an electric SLS Gullwing last year. Although to be fair that’s what Mercedes called it when they gave us some info and confirmed they were working on creating an electric version of the SLS. But it now appears to have become the Mercedes SLS AMG E-Cell Prototype.