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

Mini Rocketman concept (2011) at 2011 Geneva motor show

The new Mini Rocketman is manna from heaven for critics who bemoan the new BMW Mini’s growth spurt from bijou city car to bloated supersized mini. The Rocketman, Mini’s 2011 Geneva motor show debutant, is a blueprint for a new kind of smaller Mini – and it’s within an inch or two of Alec Issignois’s 1959 original. Don’t dismiss the Mini Rocketman as pie-in-the-sky concept.

Hyundai Suicide ‘Advert’ causes a rumpus

It’s not easy advertising your wares and finding the right balance between mainstream and innovative to capture attention, as Hyundai has found out to their cost with an ‘advert’ for the hydrogen powered ix35 FCEV which, rather distastefully, depicts a man trying to commit suicide by running a hose from the tailpipe to the cabin before realising he can’t achieve his aim as the FCEV’s only emissions are water. It’s a proper cock-up from Hyundai – usually so sure-footed with their PR – but, despite Hyundai US putting the blame at the door of Hyundai UK, there’s more to this suicide ‘advert’ than meets the eye. It seems the suicide video was put together by Innocean – a European Ad Agency owned by Hyundai’s Chairman Chung Mong-koo and his daughter, and responsible for much of Hyundai’s marketing output – and was a clumsy attempt to gauge reaction to the somewhat macabre take on the benefits of an FCEV.

Nizam of Hyderabad’s 1912 Rolls Royce Siver Ghost Throne Car has done just 356 miles

The newly restored 1912 Silver Ghost Throne car One of the first Rolls Royce in India – the Nizam of Hyderabad’s 1912 Rolls Royce Silver Ghost Throne car – has been restored to its original glory. In 1911 the 6th Nizam of Hyderabad – Mehboob Ali Khan - ordered a Rolls Royce Silver Ghost, and had it sent off to Bakers of Edinburgh to create a very special body, fit for Nizam (think Maharajah, the generic term for Indian Royalty). The brief was to create a body that would be a throne on wheels, and Bakers duly obliged creating a Silver Ghost with rich yellow paintwork, a silver domed roof, gold mountings and fittings and an interior trimmed with silk and brocade.