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

Mercedes and McLaren – the end of the road

The last SLR Stirling Moss ends the McLaren Mercedes relationship Times they are a changin’ for Mercedes & McLaren. The very last Mercedes McLaren SLR – The McLaren SLR Stirling Moss – has now rolled out of production at McLaren in Woking and both Mercedes and McLaren are going their seperate ways. McLaren is working to bring the new McLaren MP4-12C to market by 2011 as a replacement for the SLR, and Mercedes has already launched their replacement – the Mercedes SLS AMG Gulllwing – although it will be a few more months before cars hit the road.

MINI Speedster back on the cards

Mini Speedster from 2001 - looks set to form the basis of a new MINI Speedster Based on the MINI platform, the Speedster version was talked about as long ago as 2001, but never made it to production on the first MINI platform. But perhaps having now covered just about every variant they can think of, BMW has decided that now is the time to revive the car and get it in to production. Small Roadsters, in the vein of the old British open-topped 2 seater ( and its modern ‘Homage’ version – the MX-5) will, I’m sure, see something of a renaissance in the next few years as people start to turn away from big, profligate cars, but still seek some fun motoring.

Aston Martin LOST £24.6 million in 2012

The Aston Martin Vanquish (pictured) launch in 2012 contributed to AML’s losses We reported just the other day that Aston Martin had axed the Cygnet after woeful sales, and it’s not just the Cygnet that hasn’t been selling well. In fact, Aston Martin sales in 2012 – 67,500 units – was still 42,500 down on its pre-recession sales levels of 110,000 cars in 2007 and that lead to yet another loss. Aston Martin has posted pre-tax losses for 2012 of £24,6 million on sales of £461.2 million for 2012, a worsening position over 2011 which saw losses of £21.2 million.