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

Ford teams up with Heinz for tomato car parts

Ford and Getty Images Forget carbonfibre, the new must-have material on your vehicle will soon be tomato fibre – or so Ford and food manufacturer Heinz are hoping. The American carmaker and the food giant have teamed up to "explore the use of tomato fibre to develop a sustainable bio-plastic material for vehicles," bringing environmentally friendly motoring to a whole new level. Ford and Heinz tomato car parts: how will they work?

Mark Vaughn: We’ll always have Vegas

There were a few bare spots on the floor of the Consumer Electronics Show this year, spots that in previous years had been jammed sardine-like with myriad Taiwanese makers of Hello Kitty knockoff cell phone cozies and electronic barking dogs, but the show this year was nonetheless pretty well attended. Besides, for those working their way upstream through the aisles like so many digitally trained trout, the empty spots left by exhibitors that pulled out were like refreshing mountain meadows or little piazzas in crowded Italian cities. Show management stocked the open spots with cushy couches, too, on which many a jet-lagged showgoer snoozed.

Lotus won’t be sold – Bahar suspended over expenses

Lotus owners Proton have said that Lotus is not up for sale and reports say Lotus CEO Dany Bahar has been suspended over his expenses. There’s been a lot of show and not much real go since Dany Bahar took over at Lotus. Grandiose plans launch a whole range of supercars from a small niche manufacturer in the flatlands of Norfolk was always a strange call, and the sort of bills loss-making Lotus seems to be meeting make, on the face of it, little commercial sense.