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

Jury selects South Korean team as winners of Michelin Challenge Design 2015

Michelin has today announced the top 15 projects in its global 2015 Michelin Challenge Design competition. The Volkswagen Viento project by the South Korean team of Youngjai Jun and Gunyoung Yoon was judged to be the best, and awarded first place by a jury of the world's top automotive designers. The French trio of Aurelien Deleuze, Pierre-Hugues Vallin and Robinson Mancaux we given the runners-up spot with their project, Silent Interactive Climber, while Cristian Polanco of Guatemala came third with his work, the Bugatti Liriom.

Ssangyong relaunches brand with Giugiaro-designed Korando

Korean brand Ssangyong is back from the dead. After looking odds-on favorite to become another automotive casualty of the global recession after Chinese owner SAIC put it into receivership in early 2009, the 4x4 specialist has found a new owner in 2010 – signing a memorandum of understanding with Indian company Mahindra & Mahindra in August – and has just re-launched its brand with a new car designed by Giugiaro. The fourth-generation Korando mid-sized crossover – prefaced by the C200 concept shown at the April 2009 Seoul motorshow – is due on sale in January 2011 pending the expected completion of the Mahindra deal in November this year.

Toyota condemns the Electric Car

Electric cars - like the Reva NXG - are not a viable mass-market option. Toyota’s head of R&D in Europe – Masato Katsumata – said in a speech that the electric vehicle won’t be a mass-market phenomenon, and that the future – at least in the coming decades – will be petrol engine hybrids. “We don’t see any short-term breakthrough in battery technology” he said.