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

Who's Where: Pierre Leclercq is Great Wall's VP and design director

Pierre Leclercq has been appointed vice president and head of design at Great Wall Motors. Splitting his time between the company's studio in Baoding, China, and a Shanghai-based satellite studio, he reports directly to chairman Wei Jianjun. In his role he‘s responsible for the design of the brand globally and leads a team of 130 designers in Baoding as well as 25 in the Shanghai studio.

Vauxhall Astra (2009): the first sketches

By Tim Pollard First Official Pictures 08 September 2008 09:00 Vauxhall has just issued these first official sketches of the new Astra ahead of its launch in 2009 at next year's Frankfurt motor show. Although heavily silhouetted, we can make out an evolution of today's mid-sized hatchback. This sketch is of the coupe-style three-door Astra, but there will again be a more upright five-door and indeed a whole suite of other Astras to fit every pocket.

Land Rover hits new sales record as UK car manufacturing rises

Land Rover sales hit a new record as UK car manufacturing rises Land Rover has had its best ever sales month in February as sales at JLR hit 32,257, and the UK car industry saw a 23.5 per cent rise in production. Last week we reported on the doom and gloom in car manufacturing and sales in Europe with sales of mainstream cars falling away and troubled economies – like Italy and France – recording drops of 20 per cent in sales during February. Fortunately, the same isn’t happening in the UK.