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

F1 goes all arty with oil: Lewis Hamilton portrait

By Peter Adams Motoring Issues 08 June 2009 14:00 It’s not often that the motoring world slickly merges with art, but Mobil 1 has made it happen. US artist David Macaluso has painted a portrait of Lewis Hamilton using oil not from a tube of paint, but from the sump of Hamilton’s F1 car. The oil was taken from Vodafone McLaren Mercedes’ 2008 F1 car – the vehicle that took Hamilton to the world championship last year.

Porsche Panameras with 300-hp V6 to arrive in the United States in June

The six-cylinder siblings of the V8 Porsche Panamera will hit U.S. shores in June, packing 300 hp and starting at $75,375 for the rear-wheel-drive model. The all-wheel-drive version, called the Panamera 4, starts at $79,875, including destination charges.

Peugeot puts RCZ designer on Twitter

Like many automakers, Peugeot is now making conspicuous use of social media platforms as a component in its new car launch campaigns and in order to manage customer relations online. For its new RCZ coupe, Peugeot in the UK has been running a social media campaign under the strap line "It chooses you", with associated Twitter and Facebook accounts – which culminated with a member of the public winning an RCZ last week. For auto designers, there was little interest in the campaign up until last week, when Peugeot put RCZ designer Boris Reinmöller behind a computer terminal and opened him up to a public Q+A session through its Twitter account.