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

1980s supercars

By Tim Pollard and Ben Oliver 10 July 2008 16:01 Supercars in the Eighties The Italians continued to innovate in the ’80s, but they also came under pressure like never before from a series of supercar wannabes. The Germans fettled the humble 911 Turbo into the race-spec 959, which showed how computers could sport brains as well as brawn. Meanwhile Honda showed the NSX, which became the first contender from the Orient.

The Bentley Art Project

Designers at Bentley have collaborated to create one-off works of art to benefit the Christie, a specialist cancer center in Manchester, UK. The collection, which features a vast array of sculptures, paintings, digital art and photography created in many different media, will be auctioned off at an exclusive event at Bonhams in London on December 1. The unique pieces, created by created by Bentley's head of design, Dirk van Braeckel; head of interior design Robin Page; chief designer Raul Pires and 20 other designers, digital designers and clay modelers, draw on the skills and techniques utilized in their roles and their enthusiasm for art.

Ellesmere Port's bid to build Ampera hits snags

By Rob Golding Motor Industry 09 October 2009 15:02 Prime minister Gordon Brown’s personal crusade to get Vauxhall's version of the Chevrolet Volt petrol-electric plug-in hybrid – the Ampera – built in Britain's Ellesmere Port factory in 2012 is a dream delayed, CAR can disclose today.News that the UK Astra plant is the best in Europe, that the Astra's Delta platform will underpin the Ampera, and that Volt will be on US sale from 2010 had been taken to mean that Vauxhall would be churning out the cars in the north west within three years.But the prospect of an electric car industry growing up around the run-down Merseyside manufacturing site is not imminent, CAR has learned.'No Ampera to be built in Europe before 2015'Vauxhall insiders have made it clear that the car to be known as the Vauxhall/Opel Ampera in Europe will be an import from the US for at least five years. One senior planner told us: 'The US will be the sole source of Amperas until at least 2015.'Bob Lutz, GM's former product supremo who recently came out of retirement as a PR, said that the low value of the dollar made the US an ideal site for the manufacturing of export cars. And with forecast sticker prices of the range-extender electric car standing at a scary £35,000+, every price saving is vital to its marketability.The European market also needs time to get its electricity recharge infrastructure in place before it is worth making cars onshore in volume, GM high-ups point out.