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

Audi develops new A2; plans for U.S. unclear

Audi is developing a reincarnation of the A2 small car that will slot between the A3 and the A1 minicar introduced in Geneva last week. "There's clearly room for another product and another concept between the A3 and A1," Audi CEO Rupert Stadler said on the sidelines of the Geneva auto show. Michael Dick, Audi's board member for technology, said in an interview that the company's push to add electric variants will play a role with the next-generation A2 "in the near future." The German media have reported that the A2 is expected by 2014.

Phone use penalty 'could double'

THE PENALTY for using a mobile phone while driving could be doubled under proposals being examined by the Government as part of a safety drive, Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin said. Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe has called for offenders to be handed six points on their licence rather than the present three, meaning a ban from getting behind the wheel if caught twice in three years. Mr McLoughlin said it was an "interesting suggestion" that he was considering in an effort to end the "appalling" number of people killed and seriously injured in accidents where a phone was being used in the hand.

BMW Concept Active Tourer Outdoor arrives. It carries bicycles.

BMW Concept Active Tourer Outdoor (pictured) carries bicycles We’ve already had a preview of BMW’s ‘Green’ take on the new FWD 1-Series with the Concept Active Tourer ahead of the Paris Motor Show last year, and now we get the ‘butch’ take on the same theme – the BMW Concept Active Tourer Outdoor. But unlike most car makers, who make their pseudo off-road saloons ready for the great outdoors with raised ride height and bolt-on plastic cladding, all BMW seem to have done is fit the Tourer Outdoor with a bicycle carrying system. But unlike most bicycle carrying systems that bolt the bikes to the back of the car, BMW’s system puts the bikes under cover in the back on built in, retractable carriers.